Grace June

They say that every pregnancy and delivery are different. But my first two pregnancies and deliveries were almost identical, and this 3rd pregnancy was by far my worst. I don't know if it was because she was a girl instead of a boy or what, but I didn't like it one bit.

Both of the boys were born at 37 weeks (Bentley 37 weeks 2 days and Lincoln 37 weeks exactly) because my blood pressure spiked and they induced me. So with Grace, at my 24 week appointment when the doctor said my blood pressure was starting to climb and he wanted to start seeing me weekly and we'd be doing non-stress tests that often I kind of panicked. That was 16 weeks of appointments and tests and chances where that I'd end up on bed rest or something. Luckily, it went back down and stayed down and I never had to have a non-stress test ran. Which was really good, except that I'd sort of planned on having another 37 week baby and I was starting to worry that this one would go to 41 weeks. My worst pregnancy was going to be my longest!

At my appointment on Monday I was 37 weeks 3 days, so it was the longest I'd ever been pregnant, my blood pressure read high and the doctor said I could have the baby that day.

I came home, changed the sheets on our guest bed, grabbed my bag and met Chod and Tameka at the hospital just before noon. (Tameka skipped work to take care of our boys.)

While the nurses were getting everything ready I told them about the last 2 deliveries and how my boys didn't handle contractions very well. It turns out, neither did Gracie June.

The doctor's plan was to get the baby delivered as quickly as possible. And they did. One time the nurse asked what my pain level was at and I said a 2. The next time she walked in the room I met her with, "These are coming fast and hard, can I get an epidural?" She thought I was kidding until she looked at the monitor.

Her delivery was pretty much like the other two--only much faster. She didn't like the contractions and so the nurses tried all the tricks. One nurse even gave me a foot massage in hopes that my blood pressure would come down.

At 6:22 our Grace June was born. She weighed 6 lbs 15 oz and was 18.5 inches long.

Of course, she was the cutest baby in the nursery.

We hadn't settled on a name, Grace June had always been in the running, but we kept looking for something that might knock it out. Even in the delivery room Chod was reading baby names to me. For some reason he really liked the Disney princesses. When it came time to fill out the birth certificate we held a family vote. Hot Wheels got 1 vote and the other 3 all went to Grace June. Bentley really wanted Hot Wheels until the very end, but he seems to have accepted Grace June.

Such a big car seat for such a little thing! We think she is pretty much perfect and she has two adoring big brothers.

Who's Who?

Can you tell which Stephens baby is which?

When they handed me Grace in the delivery room all I could say was, "Wow! You look just like your brothers!"

And then there was a point in the hospital that Chod asked that we quit taking pictures of her until there was a bow in her hair cause she looked so much like her brothers.


And it was really weird when I put her in pink pajamas to come home in, because she looked so much like one of the boys wearing pink. I don't know if it is the noses and cheeks, or the shape of their little heads, but there's definitely a family resemblance.

Did you get all 3 right? If so, good job cause even Chod didn't!

Instagram Dump

1. Lilacs from the neighbors
2. Baby quilts are finished. Just waiting on baby.
3. Love boys in jammies
4. How not to become the favorite, by Lincoln. Grandma weighs a billion pounds.
5. Rootbeer Float for scoring a goal.
6. Planters
7. Popcorn + Smoothies. It's tradition.
8. Mother's Day Bouquet
9. She's here and still doesn't have a name.

Bear Lake Tornado

It's an annual thing for the Sunrise kindergarteners to write and perform an opera. Bentley's class worked all year on The Bear Lake Tornado. A CD was sent home months ago with the music on it and Lincoln has insisted we listen to it on repeat--so the whole family has the opera memorized. It's a really neat thing the teachers do, as the kids write the opera and a volunteer puts it to music, and the kids even paint the scenery. Definitely not something that is required of the teachers, but a really neat thing they let the kids experience.

 

 Bentley was really excited to be a parrot...until he saw the costume. He came home one day and said it looked like a chicken, not a parrot. I thought he was being a little dramatic until I saw it. And well, it is a chicken. He was really down on the chicken costume, as I'm pretty sure he had other ideas of what the parrot costumes would look like. He even told Chod he was going to sing "We are the flying chickens.." instead of "We are the flying parrots.." But he didn't.