The Roberts blog: May 2009

So I forgot to post a couple of events that we've participated in this year. I want to make sure we get it all down because this has become a sort of journal for me. The first activity was the family outing to Brian Regan on February 26th. Scott and I are huge fans of Brian Regan. He makes us laugh sooo much. He is clean and his humor just fits our. We introduced him to our family by making them watch You tube clips of him and they got the Brian Regan bug. In the months of Jan. and Feb. are all my sisters birthdays (mine included) along with Scott's and my brother-in-laws. My mom decided to get tickets to the Brian Regan show that was coming to Logan for all of our birthday gifts. It was a great gift with dinner at the Coppermill beforehand. Due to my pregnancy and weak bladder, I would literally pee my pants when I laughed. Well worth it though. Here are some pictures of my family at dinner and at the show. Thanks mom for an evening of laughter. The best medicine of all.

In April, my family participated in events associated with the SLC marathon. Angela came up with this idea as my dad was fighting cancer. We decided to raise $5000 for cancer research in my dad's name and run in various races. Friends, family, coworkers, buisnesses, and more donated to help raise over $6000 in a three month period. A huge thanks to all who contributed to this event. We made sort of a family vacation of it with my mom and a couple of my sisters staying overnight in SLC. Angela and her friend Max ran the marathon. Her friends Jenn and Jenny ran the 1/2 marathon. Megan, Trent (her husband), Eric (Angela's husband), Kimberly, Scott, my niece Breanna, friends of Angela's, and megan's sister-in-law ran the 5K with my 10yr. old niece beating everyone. The rest of the grandkids along with parents, me, and my mom walked the 1 mile. My mom wasn't able to stand let alone walk 5 years ago due to her MS. This was a pretty big deal for her and although she was behind all the little kids and the oldest participant in the race, she was awesome. She trained for this walk by walking up a huge hill to our churchhouse and walking around the churchhouse. We were so proud of her and couldn't contain the tears from our eyes as she crossed the finish line. I know my dad would have been immensely impressed with her hard work and dedication. After that was a trip to Chuck-E-Cheese for a kids celebration and to celebrate my niece's birthday. What fun times.

Part of the gang

Our awesome shirts

Mom getting ready

My mom about to cross the finish line

Paige at Chuck-E-Cheese on her favorite ride, the merry go round

Scott and I preparing for another addition to our family

Me in labor with only a sucker to tide me through

We are so excited to introduce the newest member of our family. Ashley Halia Roberts came into the world on Mother's Day (May 10th) at 9:16pm weighing 6lbs 6oz with a length of 20inches. (Halia in Hawaiian means in loving memory after my dad.) After taking some good advice from Megan on how to progress natural induction, I woke up Sunday morning with some minor contractions. It was about 7am and I told Scott to plan on having a baby that day. The contractions weren't close together or very intense so I knew we had a long day ahead of us. We showered and bathed Paige and then we waited. We finalized our arrangements on where Paige was going and made sure she and I were all packed up. By about 1pm, there was more intensity in my contractions but they were still twenty minutes apart. So we decided to put Paige down for a nap. The house at this point was completely clean due to trying to pass the time and still it was a waiting game so we once again took Megan's advice and that jumped the contractions up to every 8 minutes with great intensity. The funny thing is that my sisters have the 1-4pm church and Megan was my mom's ride down so we were communicating and updating via text messages in church. Due to the great planning, we also had to cancel our big mother's day dinner. By about 4:30, we woke up Paige and decided to take her up to Scott's parents and then we would head over to the hospital to be evaluated. My contractions were still very irregular but such high intensity that I couldn't talk through them. When we arrived at the hospital, it was during shift change so they put me in a room and hooked up all the monitors. Then we waited through a few more contractions and the monitor wasn't picking them up. I was so worried they'd send me home and make me endure the contractions at home. Apparently the nurse could hear me breathing through them and the monitor just wasn't registering them. She checked me and I was dilated to a 4+. She left a message with my doctor and after a half hour, another doctor gave the okay to admit me. Yeah! I made it past the big hurdle. The nurse then said I could have the epidural after they ran a whole liter of fluid into me. Fortunately that went quickly and when the anesthesiologist walked into the room at 7:30, I told him I loved him and was more than happy to see him. At this point my mom and sister had arrived to help keep company. I'm not a big fan of getting the epidural. They hurt but Scott was right by my side holding my hand and helping me through the pain. He was so good to keep giving me kisses and encourage me. I was in heaven once the epidural kicked in. I could feel the pressure of everything but couldn't feel any pain. It was wonderful. My doctor got there at around 9pm (she had been in church in slc and had missed the closing hymn). She said that we were ready to have the baby and that I was at a 9 and fully effaced. At this point she broke my water and they set everything up to go to work. I was really itchy from the epidural and shaking something fierce so I was ready to get over that part of it. My mom was by my head and Scott was helping me push by holding my legs. After about 5 pushes, she came. I am lucky to have such little babies that pop right out. I could feel her coming through but no pain. Pure heaven. We were so excited to see her red hair. She was so close in resemblence to Paige, it was fun to see the comparisons. After they cleaned her up, we were able to hold her. What a special moment. Then Paige came up to the hospital. We were a little nervous about how she would react but she was so excited and fascinated by this new baby. She kept saying she was cute and touching her so very delicately. Scott took Ashley down to the nursery to her bath, my mom and sister went home, and Candace (our great friends who took Paige for a couple days) took Paige home. I was alone in the room and felt such a tremendous sense of joy and contentment. This little baby had been with our Savior moments before. She had had the opportunity to meet her big brother Keiki, and her grandpa Armstrong. Now she was my gift on that beautiful mother's day. After they wheeled me to my new room, I was so tuckered out that I couldn't keep my eyes open. I had enough time to wolf down a turkey sandwich and say goodnight to Ashley before they wheeled her down the hall to the nursery for the night (of course with feeding time interruptions) before I conked out. The delivery was quick, painless, and beautiful. My thanks to the wonderful nurses and of course Dr. Rosemary Lesser for making the experience of childbirth wonderful.
Dad cutting the cord