A Baby Story: Braden

I've spent a lot of time this summer doing research... aka watching the TLC show "A Baby Story"... trying to prep myself for what labor would be like. So here's my "Baby Story" for those who are interested.

My pregnancy was really normal the whole way through. Braden was extremely active all the time, almost annoyingly so! Watching my belly do the wave was one of our favorite Sunday afternoon pastimes. As my due date started to get closer I started having pretty regular contractions, some of which were a little painful, and I thought for sure I'd have him before my due date came. My doctor only fueled my fire by telling me that I was making amazing progress for a first time mom and that the baby could really come any day. My Mom and Annie flew in on August 1st to help out with the baby and I was sure that he'd be here before too long. As soon as my mom got here we tried every trick for inducing labor that we could find. Rachel gave me foot and shoulder massages, I ate spicy food (which wasn't much fun since I already had constant heartburn) and we took long walks every evening. A couple of times, my contractions would get down to 7-8 minutes apart and I was sure I'd be heading for the hospital that night, but then they would randomly stop coming. My due date passed and my doctor suggested we wait a week and then think about inducing labor. I'd heard horror stories about inducing labor in first time moms and was terrified that the induction wouldn't work fast enough and I'd have to get a C section. So we kept walking, trying to encourage this baby to come quickly! Unfortunately, he wasn't interested in leaving the comfort of my womb on his own, so we scheduled a time to come in and be induced a week after my due date. 

We were called in to start the induction process on wednesday night, the 8th of August. After getting checked in, the doctors started me on Cervidil doses around 9:30 pm. When I started on the medicine, I was 1 1/2 cm dilated and only 60% effaced, so I had a long way to go. The plan was to give me doses of cervidil every three hours until the next morning when they would start me on the pitocin. So, I settled in for the long haul, Rachel, Brad and Amber came to the hospital to hang out for a little while and we watched the Olympics on TV. Three hours later at 12:30 the nurse came to check me and I was 2 cm and still only 60%. My contractions were made me just uncomfortable enough that I couldn't really sleep, so Taylor slept while I laid there and waited. Towards the end of my second dose of Cervidil (around 2:30 or 3) my contractions started getting a lot stronger and closer together. The nurse came to check me around 4 and I was still 2 cm but 70% effaced. She offered to give me pain medication to take the edge off of the contractions before I got my epidural, but I didn't feel like I was in enough pain to warrant medication quite yet. Around 5am my contractions started coming a lot faster and were much more intense. I decided it was time to stop trying to be tough and take something for the pain. The nurse came and gave me Fentanol and it helped a lot! I was actually able to doze off for about an hour at that point which was really nice. The only problem was that IV drugs wear off as quickly as they start to work so around 6am I woke up with crazy strong contractions that were coming right on top of each other, giving me no break in between. At this point I made Taylor wake up and help me through it because I was in a lot of pain. I buzzed my nurse and asked for my epidural, but it took about an hour for me to finally get it. During that hour I was in quite a bit of pain and the pain was so bad it was making me nauseous. Finally, after a lot of pain and a couple rounds of vomiting I finally got my epidural. Once the medicine started to kick in I was in heaven! It was such a relief to not be able to feel the contractions any more and I was able to sleep for another hour. The nurse checked me and I was now 4 cm and 90% effaced. I woke up around 7 and she checked me again and I had jumped from 4 cm to 7cm in a little over an hour! At that point she told me there was no need to give me the pitocin, my body had figured out what it was supposed to do and was moving full steam ahead. They broke my water around 8am and noticed that the fluid wasn't quite clear so they were a little worried about Braden inhaling meconium, but thanks to my Baby Story research I knew that this was fairly common, especially in over-due babies and I knew what the procedure was for treating babies with this problem. (Who ever said that watching TV was a waste of time?!) By 9:30 I was fully dialated and effaced and the doctors just wanted to wait a little while to let my contractions move Braden farther into the birth canal before I started pushing. By this time my epidural was starting to wear off, but my nurse advised against pushing the button that would give me more drugs because it would make pushing easier if I could feel my contractions a little bit. By 10:45 I was ready to push. The epidural had worn off quite a bit and during the first 15 minutes of pushing I was in quite a bit of pain, which lead to another round of vomiting (apparently that is my body's way of trying to cope with intense pain...). Let me tell you, contracting, vomiting and pushing are not a very fun combination, but after pushing my magic pain-killing button, the pain subsided just enough to stop the vomiting and concentrate on pushing. I only had to push for 50 minutes and at 11:34 my baby boy was born! He weighed in at 7lb 15 oz and 21 cm long. Unfortunately, because of the meconium, I wasn't able to see him right away. As soon as he was born the doctor cut the cord and they took him over to the warmer to observe his breathing. 

Braden right after birth. Even though I didn't get to see him right away, Taylor was able to go over and be with him, they even let him hold his hand while the doctors worked on him.

Finally, after about 15 minutes of observation (he was having a little trouble breathing) I got to see and hold my boy for the first time. I can't describe what it felt like to see his little face and to know that he'd finally arrived. 

Our first family picture

I only got to hold him for a couple of minutes before the doctors needed to take him to the NICU to help stabilize his breathing. It was hard to see him go, but I was so grateful for modern technology and good doctors that were able to help out my little guy.

Braden ended up needing to stay in the NICU for a couple of hours, but finally they brought him to my room and I got to really be with him for the first time. A lucky by-product of him coming a week late was that my entire immediate family was in town for Rachel's graduation from BYU. Braden was lucky enough to meet all of my siblings on the same day he was born. I guess the kid has already figured out how to make an entrance ;)

Braden with all his Longhurst aunts and uncles

Amber had also brought her youngest, Max with her to the graduation. Braden is the first cousin for Amber's kids and him and Max are exactly 5 months apart. You can tell by this picture that they are going to get along great. :) I'm sure these two have many crazy adventures in their future!

Braden giving Max the one-eyed glare...

I think my favorite part in all of this has been watching Taylor love our little guy. He has always been a great husband but to watch him love being a father just melts my heart.

My two boys

We are so glad that Braden is finally here. He is a great baby and is usually content to sit around and observe everything going on around him. He also is a great sleeper and sleeps for 4-5 hour shifts during the night. I still can't believe he's finally here and that he's ours to keep. I can't wait to watch him grow and learn and I am so grateful that I have the opportunity to be his mom.

One week old. Poor guy has very little choice of whether or not he will like sports :) 

Happy Father's Day!

It was a lot different celebrating Father's day this year, knowing that Taylor and I are actually going to be parents in just over a month. When I get a little nervous about the prospect of Taylor and I being responsible for raising a little boy I remember how lucky we are to have had such great examples of amazing fathers in our lives. Both of our Dads have given us such a great example to follow. They are both outstanding examples of love, selfless service and sacrifice. So when in doubt, I know we can look to them for an example of how to move forward. 

While pregnancy hasn't been the funnest thing I've ever done, I've enjoyed sharing this experience with Taylor. It's so fun to see his excitement when he feels our little guy moving and to watch as he is trying to wrap his head around being a father. Ever since I met Taylor I knew that he would be a great father. He is so good with children and they all seem to love him! I'm so grateful for the great men in my life, especially for Taylor. He is a great husband and I know he will make an amazing father.

Look at him! What a man! Of course I didn't manage to get a picture  of his struggle to chop the wood right before this... it looked slightly less manly ;)

He's cute AND smart! Here's hoping our son gets his father's brains!!

 As for me, the pregnancy continues marching on. I have about 6 weeks left and I am ready for baby to be here!! It's been getting hotter here in Utah and that has made life a little less comfortable, but luckily I'm still sleeping great at night. The hardest part for me has been having to accept my physical limitations and slow down just a little. I still work out but I can't run because it hurts my hips so I'm relegated to walking and using the elliptical. I'm still coaching volleyball but I can't play with the girls as much either. I'm looking forward to being able to get back to everything after the baby so life can get back to a little more normal activity level.

Camping while 7 1/2 months pregnant? yup! A little uncomfortable, but still fun

Here's the long awaited pregnancy picture. This picture is a direct result of Amber's begging.

Updates...

I know I've been terrible about keeping this blog up to date. I was recently told that others can only know what's going on in my life by reading both of my sisters' blogs, which I quickly realized is true! So I'm attempting to bring every one up to speed from the last couple of months. Here are some of the highlights.


1. I got to go to California to visit my sister for spring break. I was originally supposed to go with my family to Guatemala, but I got uninvited when they found out I was pregnant (talk about discrimination!) so my parents felt bad and offered to fly me to see my sister instead. I wasn't all that upset because that meant I got to hang out with my sister, Ethan and Kate as well as meet my new nephew, Max.

I got some great practice taking care of one-month old max. As you can tell, I'm going to be a great mom :)

The kiddos, we had a blast hanging out together.

While I was there Amber and I got the chance to go shopping, cook together and we even planted two gardens! I loved getting to hangout with the bruesekes, and was sad to have to leave. It seems like every time I see the kids they have doubled in size!

2. I got hired as the JV volleyball coach at Timpanogos for next year. So that means that next year I'll be coaching volleyball, basketball and rugby. Due to the fact that I'll also be taking care of a newborn, I've decided that I won't be teaching next year. I'm sad that I won't be teaching, but I'm excited to have so many opportunities to coach. Coaching is supposed to be even harder to get into than teaching but I've been lucky to have gotten two coaching jobs without having to officially apply for either of them! 

3. My best friend got married. My best friend, Janelle, who I met freshman year in the dorms got married about a month ago in the Salt Lake temple. It was amazing to get to see her on her big day, she and her husband Robbie looked so happy. I am just so happy that she was able to find someone who appreciates her for the amazing woman she is!

4. We moved. We found a great apartment down the hall from Rachel and Brad and downstairs from our good friends the Blackwelders. So now we have the best of all worlds, we have friends nearby, we have a washer/dryer AND a dishwasher for the first time in our marriage. Plus we have an extra bedroom for baby boy Remington when he decides to make his appearance. We couldn't have moved so easily and quickly if it wasn't for great friends, especially the rugby girls. I had 8 rugby girls that came and helped me clean the old house from top to bottom in about 2 1/2 hours! 

Like I said, they took cleaning from top to bottom VERY seriously!

5. Pregnancy Update: I'm officially 31 weeks along and feeling VERY pregnant. I swear I get bigger every day! So far everything has gone smoothly. Little man is extremely active, which almost every doctor we've seen since his ultrasound has commented on. I guess he didn't have much of a chance of being calm with two hyper-active parents.... I'm still on track for August 2nd as the due date, and it can't come soon enough! The only complaint I have lately is upper back pain. It usually hits me the worst in the afternoons and evenings so I spend a lot of time stretching, using a heat pack and a foam roller to try and stay comfortable. I'm still sleeping fine, so that helps a lot. We still haven't decided on a name, but right now Braden Taylor is probably our top pick (although Taylor still insists on calling him baby Bennett...). 

I'm sure I missed a bunch of stuff, but hey, something is better than nothing. I hope to be better about posting now that school is over, but no promises. :)

Graduation

I know I've been really lame about writing on the blog, but life has been crazy! The only reason I'm finally doing a post today is because we are in the middle of getting ready to move and I don't really feel like packing right now.... But I've been meaning to put up pictures from Taylor's graduation last week. We had a great weekend with both of our parents in town for the big event. Taylor received his degree in mechanical engineering, which is an impressive feat! It was funny sitting in the graduation ceremony listening to the announcer read the titles of the doctoral dissertations and having no clue what they were talking about! I swear these engineers just make up complex-sounding words just to make themselves sound smarter. (Although I guess us scientists have been accused of that as well...) But here are some of the pictures we took:

Taylor and I. I thought this would be a popular picture to post because it shows how large my pregnant belly is getting... Which I've been a loser about posting pictures of.

Rachel, Brad, Taylor and I. We are excited to be moving just down the hall from these two this weekend!

Taylor in front of the engineering building, also known as the most socially awkward building on campus :)

Taylor with his parents

Unfortunately Taylor didn't have much time to celebrate being done with his undergrad. He graduated on Friday and started his masters program at BYU on Tuesday. He will spend the next three years working on a double masters in Engineering and Business. Yeah, I married a smarty pants :)

State Champs!

4A State Basketball Champions!

So I know this post is a little late, but I did give fair warning when I started this blog that I couldn't promise I'd be good keeping it up to date, so I don't even feel bad.

I was lucky enough to have the opportunity to help coach an amazing basketball team at Timpanogos the past couple of months. I was the head JV coach and the assistant coach for the varsity. The two teams practiced together every day so I got to know all the girls really well. From the very beginning I knew this was a special group of kids. I felt like from the beginning of the season we had just the right mixture of young, up and coming talent and solid senior leadership. The girls also got along really well (quite a feat for any group of high school girls that spend 12-15 hours together every week) and I loved being around them.

We played well all season, only losing a few games here and there, but I never really felt like we totally lived up to our full potential. We almost never had any blow-out games, even when we were playing teams that we should have dominated which is always frustrating to see as a coach. All season long, we'd show flashes of brilliance, but those flashes never lasted long enough to put teams away. We ended our season placing 2nd in regionals, which allowed us to advance to the state tournament.

We entered the tournament un-ranked, and as far as I know, our girls were the only people in the state that were predicting that we'd have a shot at getting to the title game. Our first game was against Woods Cross. That game was a nail-biter all the way to the bitter end. Both teams struggled scoring, mostly due to the crazy pressure defenses both teams played all game. Here's a link to an article about that game if you're interested.

The next game was against Bonneville, who came in to the tournament ranked number 2 in the state. Once again both teams struggled scoring, but my girls never gave up and pulled ahead in the end to win 31-25. Here's that article. The funny thing about that win was that I had no clue that our game was considered an upset until I saw the newspaper articles that had been written about our game. In my eyes, my team was the favorite coming in to every game.

Our semi-final game was against Skyline, a team that we had beat in the pre-season, when they were without their main scorer. This game was very different from the others, we finally started knocking down our shots and took much better care of the ball. We also were very balanced offensively and had three players score in double figures. We ended up winning 55-49. Here's yet another article.

Finally on Feb 25th we had made it to the state championship game. The girls seemed confident and took it all in stride, but I was an emotional wreck! The final was made even better by the fact that we were playing against a team from our own region, who we had both beaten and lost to in regular season. The game was back and forth until right before half, we were up by 4 with about 15 seconds left. Our senior point guard brought the ball down the court, crossed it over, stepped back and drained a 3 pointer at the buzzer from a good 2 feet behind the arc. Not to mention she was being double teamed at the time... Taking a 7 point lead at half was huge for our confidence coming out in the second half. Both teams struggled with foul trouble on some of the best players, but our team was able to adjust and 2 of my JV girls stepped it up big time in the final to help compensate for some of our starters having to sit. One of the biggest plays of the game was made when our sophomore small forward stepped up and took a hard charge from the opposing team's best player and leading scorer, fouling her out of the game. Once she was out, the other team struggled finding their offense and we were able to pull away. We ended up winning 62-47, which was one of the biggest differentials we had all year. Here's the article about the final

A couple of my JV girls after the final

Our parents did a great job decorating our team bus, and then making the necessary adjustments after we won :)

Overall it was a great year and an amazing end to an amazing season. I also can't believe how lucky I am. As a player, I never came close to a state championship, but in my first year as a coach my team wins. The best part about all of this is that we are still a really young team and will have a lot of our best players returning next year. I'll keep you all posted next year as we attempt a Back-2-Back state championship run!

Thank U!

I mentioned in an earlier post at how well Taylor did on both his GMAT and GRE scores. Well ever since he sent those score to the University of Utah, they've been desperate to have him come to their school. As a result, Taylor was invited as one of 8 people to come to the U last weekend as part of their recruitment weekend. Luckily, he was allowed to bring one guest and he decided to bring me along. :) The whole weekend was wonderful.

We started off on Thursday night by going to dinner at the Cheesecake Factory in Murray. We had a gift card to the restaurant from Christmas time as a result of winning the highly controversial Remington family gingerbread house contest and the Cheesecake Factory in Murray is the closest one. We had a delicious dinner and then drove the rest of the way to Salt Lake. The U put us up in a Marriott right on campus and paid for everything while we were there. I had to teach on Friday so I headed back down to Orem while Taylor went to meetings all day where they presented their programs and gave them a taste of what life was like as a student at the U. I made it back up to Salt Lake that night just in time to join him at a nice dinner

at a mexican restaurant (also fully covered by the U).

Saturday morning we woke up early, ate our free Marriott breakfast buffet (it normally costs 13$ a person!) and headed up to the Canyons resort in Park City. The U paid for us to rent skis, get a lift ticket and even paid for our lunch at the resort! The day was beautiful, maybe one of the best days of skiing I've ever had. The resort had had new snow that week so there was nice powder, it was sunny and clear and it wasn't overly crowded (It helps that the Canyons resort is HUGE!) We skied all day and then headed back to our hotel to get cleaned up.

The beautiful view from the top of the mountain

This is Taylor in his natural state on the mountain :)

We went out to dinner that night with my best friend Janelle, who I don't get to see as often since she moved to Salt Lake. We stayed our last night in the hotel and then came home Sunday morning in time for church. It was a great weekend and a fun little retreat for us. I guess these are just some of the perks I get for marrying a brilliant man like Taylor!

Dream Jobs

Every kid gets asked from the time they can talk what they want to be when they grow up. Usually, their answer to this question doesn't become real until somewhere around their sophomore or junior year in college. I however, was lucky enough to figure out what I wanted to do with my life much earlier. All of my life, I can only remember having two answers to this question when adults would ask me. Before 4th grade I remember telling people that I wanted to work at McDonalds. This desire stemmed from two things: number one, as a kid, I just wasn't all that aware of what jobs were out there and the only people I saw at work were the ones who gave me my McNuggets when we would go to McDonalds. Number two, those people at McDonald's were responsible for bringing me and millions of other kids their Happy Meals, who could ever want a more noble job than making millions of children happy? I'm sure this dream scared my Mom out of her mind, but she never downplayed my dream, only smiled and nodded when she heard my response. Then in 4th grade, my answer changed. That year I decided that I wanted to be a teacher. I don't really remember why this desire hit me so hard, maybe it had to do with the hours of "School" that my siblings and I would play at home, but I remember thinking that there was no other job I'd rather do. Fast forward to 9th grade, when I was in my first Biology class at Skyview Junior High. I had the crazyiest, quirkiest, smartest biology teacher I have ever met: Mr. McCarty. The guy was insane. He wore 5 different shirts (one for every day of the week), wore the same grey zip-up sweatshirt every day, and smiled like a goof ball for the whole class period every day. I loved him. His class was fascinating to me. I remember how much I loved going to that class, how I loved the millions of dissections we got to do (I now wonder how he had enough money to allow us to do 10+ dissections in one year), and most of all, I loved listening to his lectures where he would almost explode with excitement as he explained the basics of biology. From that year on, my decision was made. I was going to be a biology teacher, and I was going to be just like Mr. McCarty.

Right around this time I was also realizing how important sports were becoming in my life. I was playing basketball, volleyball and softball and loving every minute. I was always a little different from the rest of my peers though, I loved not only playing sports, but also learning about strategy. I watched my coaches very closely throughout the years and kept track of what separated the ones I would have done anything for from the ones who I felt were unfair and demeaning. By the end of high school I had a complete picture of what my dream job would look like some day. I would teach High School Biology and coach at the same high school I taught at.

Fast forward another 9 years and I am currently employed as a high school biology teacher and I am the JV girls basketball coach at the same school. I also have the opportunity to be the assistant coach for the BYU women's rugby team. Not too many people can say that they have their dream job, the one that they have said they wanted since they were a kid. I count myself lucky to have been able to have the opportunities given to me to be able to work towards my dream. Even better yet, I have my dream job and it is still my dream! I love getting to work with "my kids" and teaching them not only about biology but how to be good people and how to better their lives. I love getting up and going to work and making a fool of myself in front of my students in an attempt to get them to care about mitosis or ecology or genetics. At this point in my life, there's nothing else I'd rather do than what I'm doing right now. I'm living the dream! ;)

2 Great Years

On December 19th, Taylor and I celebrated our 2 year anniversary. It's been an amazing 2 years, with not too many dull moments. :) Back when Taylor and I were dating I remember thinking, I know that if I marry Taylor at least I'll never be bored. Two years later, that realization has come back to me again and again, mostly in good ways. :) In order to celebrate our anniversary, we went up to Heber City up Provo Canyon. Our first stop was Soldier Hollow where we went inner-tubi
ng. As you can see from the pictures, there wasn't much snow in the area, in fact, the only snow around was collected into the runs that we took on our tubes. It was a lot of fun to get to ride the runs and even better that they had a motorized tow rope to pull us back up to the top.

After tubing we checked into our hotel, got ready and went out to dinner. We had planned to go to a place that I had found online with really good reviews, but turns out that place didn't exist anymore. Instead, we ended up at a chinese place and the food was delicious. Taylor got

one of the funniest fortunes I've ever seen, it said "To be sure of hitting the target, shoot first and call whatever you hit the target." Classic. Overall, we had a great Anniversary and it was great to get to spend some time away with Taylor. I'm still so amazed that I was the one lucky enough to end up with him and I look forward to the rest of eternity together. No matter what happens in the future, at least I know one thing... I'll never be bored!