Welcome Ashley Halia Roberts!

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

Mom holding Ashley

Dad holding Ashley

Our new family


Beautiful redhead

Grandma Armstrong

Grandma and Grandpa Roberts

Scott feeding me during nursing

Going home from the hospital in the gigantic carseat

Paige loves her little sister