Nixon's Birth Story

It's been a while. But for lack of a better place to write this, I am going to record Nixon's birth story here. First of all, Nixon made me wait until his due date to meet him. Because Macy was 6 days early, I had assumed Nixon would also be early...my mistake. The end of this pregnancy was so hard! At least he came on his due date and not after. It was a Thursday. I went to work that day and around noon started having some contractions. They were far apart and not very painful. I kept telling myself nothing was going to happen to try and manage my expectations. I got home around 4 I think. The contractions kept coming, and getting stronger, so I called Jacob and told him he should probably be on his way home, but I wasn't sure yet if it would happen that day. Jacob came home, and I called my sister and asked if she could come over, but again telling her I wasn't really sure what was going on. Becca came to the door, and I was like, well, I'm not sure what's going on, but I still having contractions, so it might happen today...Then my water broke at home (I wasn't sure at the time though that it was my water that broke) and it came with a very painful contraction, and I was like, we should probably go to the hospital and maybe this time I'll get an epidural. So we get in the car and drive to the hospital. All the while Jacob has been timing my contractions, and on the drive they got further apart; 9 minutes between two of them. So in the car we waited for a second, and we said, maybe it's too soon (I'm very afraid of being turned away from the hospital for getting there too early). After another contraction in the car we decided to go in. We waited in the hall for our room (2 more contractions). We got to the room, I changed into a gown and the nurse checked me. All of a sudden she ran out of the room. Next thing I know I need to push, so I do a quick push and Nixon comes out, and a nurse runs into the room to catch him. Right before I pushed, I told Jacob, "I think he's coming!" Jacob tells me he thought, not quite yet, sweetie (as in you wish this was going to be over so soon, poor thing.) And then Nixon was just here! It was incredible. I cannot believe it happened so fast. The nurse told me later she checked me in on her computer at 6:44 and he was born at 6:48. As you can see from the story, there was a lot of denial going on for me, which seemed to work for me. When I started having painful contractions, I thought, there is no way I can do this again (like, be in labor for about the 14 hours I was with Macy). So thankfully he came quickly and without any problems! Next time though I guess I should go to the hospital sooner. Although part of me thinks it was mostly just a waste of money, cause...they didn't really do anything cause we were there for like 4 minutes. My recovery has been one billion times easier because I didn't need stitches, so I didn't need any narcotics, and I just wasn't as tired from labor being so short.
Nixon has been a very good baby. He eats and sleeps pretty well. He does have this high pitched squeal he uses to let you know he's serious about whatever he needs. We are so glad he is part of our family!

Macy Head Banging to Salt n Pepa

Blessing Day

Macy was blessed in church yesterday. We are so grateful for all our family who came to see her! 

So...I'm biased obviously, but is she not the most adorable thing ever?!?

Macy J

It's about time I recorded the birth of Macy on this blog. Let's start on Friday, October 12th. I was really hoping I would have her soon, even though I wasn't due until the 21st. I was really ready to be done being pregnant. I throughly reviewed my caseload with my coworker taking my place at work, assuring her that I would be back Monday, but "just in case" I filled her in on my patients. That weekend my in-laws were in town so we hung out with them on Saturday and we went to Ikea and bought a couch. I was feeling pretty tired and took a nice nap on Saturday. Saturday I realized I didn't have any pictures of my belly, so I took one. (Just in time!)

It's really nice to not be pregnant anymore...

Sunday I woke up and was grumpy and feeling huge. Some friends invited us over for a pumpkin coconut curry for dinner, which was yummy. (Thanks Kyle and Shanel!) After we got back from dinner, about 8 pm, I started having very faint contractions, which I wasn't sure were contractions at first. They started getting a little stronger and I took a shower and we started timing them. We joked it was the curry that started my labor. We were comfy on our new couch and timing until about 2 a.m., when my contractions were about 5 minutes apart. Some of them had been very painful, and I thought for the first time, "Why am I doing this without drugs? I believe in modern medicine. I am a crazy person!" Jacob was extremely helpful and talked me through the pain and was my rock through this whole process. So, at 2 a.m., we called the hospital cause we thought it might be time to go in. They gave us the bad news that they wanted me to be at that point for about a couple hours before coming in.  I was pretty bummed. The contractions got further apart then, until eventually at around 6 a.m., they were 5, then 3, then 2 minutes apart and we realized we had better go to the hospital. My bag was mostly packed, but Monday I had planned to finish it. (Don't procrastinate!)

So we arrived at the hospital and I was dilated to an 8! I was so excited. They checked things out and took me right over to the delivery room. The midwife who was on call was Jen. It's funny because I had met her once before and she kind of rubbed me the wrong way, so I had been hoping I wouldn't get her, but she ended up being perfect and was awesome to have there. They had me try pretty much every position, including standing, on the birthing stool, and in bed. I didn't want an IV, and they let me drink water and apple juice during the labor. Sometime in there my water broke. Near this time I thought for the second time, why am I doing this naturally? I had to push for a long, long, time, and then, at 10:44 a.m. she was born! Jacob was planning on catching her, but the midwife said she came out so fast there wasn't even time to bring him over to catch her. She also said I would be an excellent candidate for home delivery next time if I wanted to, because things went so smoothly. I thought, "next time?? How does anyone do this more than once?" haha.


Looking back on everything, I am glad I had an unmedicated delivery. There are a lot of benefits for the baby and for the mother. (If you want to know more you should watch The Business of Being Born or read the Bradley Method book.)

Just after birth and getting cleaned up

I love her expressions! 

It has been very sweet to see my parents become grandparents for the first time and see them fight over who will hold her. They time each other to make sure they get in equal holding time. Being a mom is pretty incredible. Macy is a very sweet and good baby and she doesn't cry a lot. We love her so much!

Our first family photo on Halloween.

Catching Up

Ok, people of the internet. It has been way too long. My apologies if you have been anxiously awaiting the next Parry Family post. :)

The #1 reason for our distraction?

Baby Girl Parry, arriving around Oct 21st. Her name will most likely be Macy. Everything is looking good and we are taking hypno birthing and reading the Bradley Method birthing book.

We painted her room....

And finished the rest of our basement! We are very excited for her to come. Also since our last posting, I survived girl's camp and have been keeping busy with Young Women stuff. Jacob got a new job (yay!) doing SEO at an agency called 97th Floor in Lehi. So I work in Bountiful and he works in Lehi, but at least we live in the middle.

Also, Becca got married :) and moved to California :(

She and her sweetie Brigham singing at their wedding dinner. They love to sing and sound great together. 

Here is my attractive husband at their sealing. 

That same weekend, Jacob's brother Michael returned home from his mission! We made a trip to Henderson to hear his homecoming talk, which was really good. The only picture I took that weekend was of this guy- 

-who said two funny things that weekend. 1. When he found out our baby would be Macy, he said, "Baby Macy?? Gross. I am going to call your baby Candace." haha! 2. Also, as we were leaving he said "Drive safe and obey Heavenly Father." Great advice from Jack.

Last weekend my awesome sisters-in-law threw me a baby shower, which I loved!

Becca was able to come back for it too! Macy got a ton of books, clothes, and other cool things. 

While these have definitely been a stressful past few months, they have been fun and busy and made me realize how blessed I am!

Family, Fame and Future Presidents?

Last weekend we went here-

That's the strip out there

To see this little one-

Addilyn

 Get blessed in church.

She was adorable in her little blessing outfit!

And I also somehow got convinced to go to a Mitt Romney rally

I didn't take a t-shirt, but Jacob told me to get one so he could wear one at all times- night and day, that way one could be in the wash while he is wearing the other.

 Jacob shook Mitt's hand, and got interviewed by a Korean news channel

"Patriotism waits for no man" Jacob Parry 

Between setting up our house and our callings (YW President and Elder's Quorum 1st Counselor) we are staying pretty busy. We are glad for time to see our new nephew-

The cuddly Remy

And for time to snuggle with our kitties :)

A December to Remember

Last month we closed on our new house and I totaled my car. In the same day! I left work early, excited to meet Jacob at the closing. I was looking up directions on my phone while on the freeway and next thing I know my car is looking like this:

I am an idiot, of course, for looking at my phone while on the freeway. Amazingly, no one got hurt. So, friends, please don't use your phones while you drive. I work at a place where everyday I see people with serious injuries as the result of accidents, so I of all people should have no excuse for this. 

In this picture you can see the white truck in the background that I drifted into. I'm lucky I didn't end up completely under the truck. He ended up facing the wrong way in traffic after I hit him. No real harm to the truck, and we were the only two vehicles involved. 

Eventually I made it to the signing, and this little beauty became ours: 

She needs some work, but we are really happy with her!

Having a house is awesome. I know it's going to be a headache at times, but we are so ready to be done with renting. More pictures of the house to come. Thanks to Pinterest for helping me spend hours and hours deciding how to decorate. 

After all the above mentioned excitement, we enjoyed a quiet Christmas with my family in Provo. 

Here's to a very memorable, and very expensive, December.