Lucy's Blessing Day

I am really going to try and get back into this blogging thing, but I'm making no promises! :) Sorry I've been so MIA lately!

We blessed Lucy with her brand new cousin, Clyde (born 20 days after her, yet he is WAY bigger) on Saturday, May 31 in West Richland, WA. It was a beautiful day and there was so much family in attendance! When we pulled into the church parking lot, it looked like an entire ward was there. We felt so blessed to have so many people there supporting her big day. Here are the pictures from the day!

This was just about everyone who came to the blessing for me and Dallin. This isn't including Andrea's family that came to listen to Clyde's blessing as well! Like I said, it could have been a small ward.

Grandma and Grandpa Calaway with their two newest grand babies! (#5 and #6)

Grandma and Grandpa Henry with their newest grandbaby (#19!)

Great Grandma and Great Grandpa Kent holding their newest great grandchildren. Fun fact: Grandma Kent's name is Eva Lucille, so I got a picture of my Lucy with her great grandma who shares her name!

Great Grandma Calaway. I just think she looks radiant in this picture. I love it!

Another fun fact: My brother Marcus and his wife, Ashley were taking pictures (well, we thought they were, they were actually taking video!) the same time as me with their camera and Marcus said, "on the count of three, everyone say, 'Ashley's pregnant!'" So everyone yelled it and then it dawned on us that they were making an announcement! We are beyond excited for them (this is their first!) and I wish I had the video, because then you could hear all the screaming and my annoyingly high pitched voice as I realized they were actually announcing that Ashley is indeed pregnant, ha! Such a fun announcement!

Our sweet Lucy in her blessing outfit

Our little family of 5. Still hard to believe that I am the momma to 3, but my goodness, I sure love them to pieces!

Lucy Calaway: A Birth Story

Our sweet little Lucy made her grand debut on March 24, 2014 at 7:14 pm. But her birth story is slightly complicated, so I'm going to rewind to my 20 week ultrasound and go from there. Sorry for the long post, but I want to document all this for her sake, as well as mine!

Our 20 week ultrasound was fairly uneventful. Heart, lungs, spine, everything looked normal! She was moving and kicking and her heart rate was great! The only thing that looked a little weird was this piece of tissue that kept popping up on the screen. The ultrasound tech kept calling it "synechiae" (sin-ick-ee-eh). The piece of tissue was on the right side of my uterus and was connected to the placenta and ran vertical to the bottom of my uterus. They said it could possibly cause Lucy to be on the smaller side, but other than that, there weren't any other obvious concerns. That being said, they scheduled me for another ultrasound at 28 weeks to check it out.

At 28 weeks I went in again and this time they thought they could detect blood vessels running through it. This did cause some concern, as they didn't want it to rupture and cause bleeding inside the uterus and harm Lucy. They told me to come back in at 34 weeks and we would do yet another ultrasound to make sure Lucy was growing on par and that there were no other problems. At 34 weeks, I went in for my ultrasound and everything looked fine! It was kind of "same ol, same ol" for which I was grateful.

Just a few days after I had my 34 week ultrasound, I was then contacted by a specialist up in San Francisco and asked to do yet ANOTHER ultrasound. (in case you're counting, this would be my 4th ultrasound for the pregnancy!) My doctor ordered it, but had said absolutely nothing about it to me! I started getting nervous that maybe there was something seriously wrong with my baby and that they were keeping me out of the loop, especially since this new specialist I was asked to see specialized in genetic disorders. When I went in, however, I found out that it was just another ultrasound and that my doctor had apparently wanted another opinion about the synechiae. The doctor in San Francisco told me she wasn't concerned about the tissue at all, but what she was concerned with was my amniotic fluid level. I was measuring on the low side of normal, so they told me I needed to start going to the hospital twice a week and get monitored to make sure Lucy was kicking enough and that her heart rate was good. They also wanted to measure my amniotic fluid levels. If I started measuring 5 cm or below, they would induce me, as anything lower than that poses a risk to the baby.

So, my bi-weekly visits to the Mills-Peninsula hospital began at 35 weeks. Every time I went in, everything looked great. Lucy was kicking, her heart rate was excellent, and my fluid levels were totally normal. I made it to 38 weeks and had a check up with my OB who checked me and saw that I was dilated to a 3 and 50% effaced. At 38 weeks with Declan I had been dilated to a 5 and almost fully effaced, so I figured I was going full term with this little lady. I pretty much have low intensity labor for about a month before I deliver, and then once the hard contractions start, I move fast. She also told me that I was measuring a little small (37 weeks instead of 38 weeks) but she wasn't concerned.

39 weeks (Monday, March 24) rolled around and I had my non-stress test at the hospital. My mom had just flown in from Washington on Saturday, so I decided to leave the kids with her and have Dallin come with me to the hospital. For some reason, I felt like maybe I would be admitted that day, for whatever reason. The Thursday before, at my last non-stress test, my amniotic fluid had measured totally normal and I hadn't had any significant contractions, so I didn't have anything to base it on, other than gut instinct.

Once again, everything was looking good. Lucy was movin and shakin, her heart rate was excellent and all that was left was the ultrasound to measure my fluid levels. As they started measuring, the first two sections put me at 5.3 cm of amniotic fluid. They still had two sections to look at, so I figured I was good to go. I was definitely not good to go though. The nurse looked in the other two sections and could find no sign whatsoever of any more fluid. She told me she was going to call my doctor and see if they wanted to admit me immediately to the hospital to start an induction. My doctor wasn't in the office, so she talked to the on call doctor and she told me to go home, drink lots of water and take it easy until she could contact my primary doctor and consult. After being home for 15 minutes, they called me and told me they wanted to induce me immediately, so Dallin and I turned right back around and headed to the hospital.

I was admitted to the hospital at 11:45 am on March 24, 2014. My doctor came in around 3:00 pm and broke my water. Because my levels were so low, there was almost nothing there. After about 45 minutes of sitting there and no significant contractions, my nurses came in and started me on pitocin. They gradually increased the pitocin levels and by 5:30 pm I was starting to feel hard contractions. I ordered my epidural and then suddenly I had contractions that were absolutely ROCKING my world (not in a good way!) I had never felt contractions like this with either Claire or Declan and my body started going into shock. I was shaking and hyperventilating and my poor anesthesiologist might have gotten a few short remarks from me to, "just give me the dang epidural, I know the risks!" He was so fast and I didn't feel a thing when he put in the needle. That could have been because I was in so much pain from the contractions though. By this time, it was about 6:30 and the doctor who was on call for my office had left. She was only scheduled to be in the hospital until 6:00, but my primary doctor told me she wanted to hang around and deliver Lucy, if I progressed fast enough. She REALLY wanted to see that synechiae, ha!

I had to fight the urge to push so badly while they were placing the epidural and after, but the epidural finally kicked in and I was only feeling pressure, no pain at that point. It was awesome. My doctor walked in between 7:05-7:10 pm and told me when I felt the urge to push again, that I could now push. I was so happy! I pushed once and Lucy's head was out, I pushed again and the rest of her came out! She was born at 7:14 pm. It took her a few seconds to breath because she had so much fluid in her nose and mouth, but she finally let out a little holler and all was well after that. It took my doctor about 15-20 minutes to deliver my placenta (funny how that took longer than the delivery of my child, ha!) and when it came it, it was pretty crazy! I'll attach a picture, but beware, it's kind of nasty looking. My theory is that the synechiae was the barrier between twins and that one baby never fully developed. There was the piece of tissue and then it had a growth on the end. I am grateful I only have one baby here, because having twins only 15 months after having Declan would have been even more crazy than just having my little Lucy. That being said, we are so grateful she was/is totally normal, everything is functioning as it should and that she was not affected by the tissue.

We are totally in love with our sweet Lucy and she is adored by her big sister. Declan is pretty indifferent, but does have his moments when he tries to hit her (we watch him VERY closely whenever he is near her!) It feels like she has been here forever and once again, Dallin is wrapped around the sweet little finger of yet another daughter. She hardly ever cries and can be consoled very easily, is a pretty good sleeper and makes the cutest little puppy dog noises. I think she is just about perfect, as does anyone else who comes in contact with her. We are feeling so blessed to have our little Lucy here safe and sound and I am so grateful for the amazing nurses and doctors who helped in her safe arrival.

Her stats- 
6 lbs 3 oz (the exact same weight as Claire!)
19 inches long

And now for some pictures! She really is the cutest little thing!

Caught a smile right off the bat!

Fresh from Heaven

Dallin's co-workers sent us these amazing flowers as soon as they found out I was being induced. This picture does not do them justice! 

Claire meeting Lucy for the first time! I'd say it was love at first sight.

Our sweet Lucy

Muslin Quilt Tutorial

 Alright, I apologize that its taken so long, but here it is! The tutorial on making the muslin quilt! I also apologize for the mediocre photos. Some were taken with my iPhone and some were taken with my big girl camera, but in HORRIBLE lighting, so just pretend all these pictures are really pretty, k? Thanks! :)

This is seriously the EASIEST quilt you could ever make. It's all straight lines and you can make the binding as easy or as difficult as you want it to be.

Materials Needed (for a quilt that measures approx 3 ft by 4 ft):

-1.25 yards white muslin (I get the 44 in width and it is usually $2.99/yd at Joann)
-1.5 yards fabric for the back side of the quilt. You can use cotton for a very thin quilt, or flannel, minky, fleece, etc for a heavier quilt.
-.25 yards of 6-8 coordinating fabrics

Optional- if you want another fabric for the binding. 
-.5 yards coordinating fabric

Cut your 6-8  1/4 yard fabrics into 2.5 in squares. (If you want to do larger or smaller squares, you certainly can! I've done 3.5 in squares before and the most recent quilt I made actually had 5 in squares. I like them all!) Once you have them cut, lay your fabric for the back side of your quilt right side facing down. Lay your muslin on top of your backing and trim it so that you have about 3-4 inches of the back fabric extra around all sides. (Refer to picture below) Once that is laid out and cut, you can start laying your squares down in the desired pattern. I honestly never make a real pattern, I just try to make sure that similar colors or patterns are not always next to each other. If you want though, you can make a pattern. I've seen both done and I think they both look great!

All the squares are laid out, but not yet pinned down.

Once you have all your squares laid out, make sure they are lined up pretty straight looking from both directions. I always try and get them straight, but sometimes they just don't end up that way. It's not the end of the world, you just have to adjust your lines as you sew.

Next, start pinning the squares. I usually do 2 pins per square, one on top and one on bottom and that's plenty, especially if it is just a 2.5 in square. Make sure you are pinning the squares to both the muslin and the backing. You want it all attached. Once they are all pinned, you can start sewing! I start on one end and work toward the middle. Sew on one side of the square, removing the pins as you go. If you are doing a larger square, like a 5 in square, you might want to keep the pins in to help keep everything in place. I start sewing at the top where the muslin meets the backing and then go to the bottom, where the muslin once again meets the backing.

All the squares are pinned, and as you can see, the squares on the right are already sewn down both sides. Just work your way right to left!

Once you have sewn one side of the square, move over to the other side and sew that down, continuing until you have sewn all the squares on two sides.

All the squares are now sewn on two sides.

After they are sewn on the two sides, turn the quilt and sew the other two sides down. This does take quite a bit of thread, so be sure to have lots of thread on hand! I usually have to refill my bobbin with thread at least once, sometimes twice, while I am doing this. Once all the squares are sewn on all 4 sides, it's time to start on the binding.

All 4 sides are now sewn down! (Don't mind the imperfections!) :)

Now, I am no expert on binding, so if you feel like you have a better way to do it, by all means, do it your way! :) This is the easiest way I have found to do it, personally. The binding I do for my quilts just uses the backing material as the binding. If you feel so inclined, get another coordinating fabric for the binding and do it that way. If that is the case, you want your muslin and your back fabric to be about the same size, instead of having the extra 3-4 inches of your backing fabric.

So, for the binding, what I do is fold down my backing fabric about 1.5 inches and I iron it down.

Then, I fold it down again 1.5-2 inches and iron that down.

I do this on all 4 sides and then start sewing again.

I sew as close to the edge of where the binding and the muslin meet as I can and sew from one end to the other.

I do this on all four sides until all the binding is sewn down. Now, this is optional, but on each corner, there is a part of the fabric that is exposed and not sewn down on the outer edge and you can sew that down or leave it open. I usually just sew it down for added security and because I think it looks nicer. Now you are almost done!

Throw your quilt into the wash and dry it. I usually just throw mine in with a load of whites or sometimes I will just wash it on its own. If you are nervous about colors bleeding, throw in a color catcher sheet and wash on cold. I've never had colors bleed, so it usually gets washed on a warm cycle. When you take it out of the dryer, you will notice the edges of your squares are fraying. That is what is supposed to happen, so don't worry! Your muslin will also look a little wrinkled as well. In my opinion, those things are part of the charm of the quilt.

Now you are all done! Enjoy your sweet new quilt!

If you have any questions, just ask in the comments section, email me or Facebook message me!

LDS Youth Theme 2014

My sister, who is the Young Women's president in her ward, asked me to make a printable that she could hand out to all the youth (young men included!) with the entire scripture that is this years theme. We both looked on Pinterest and there were none that had the entire scripture, so here is my rendition. If you belong to the Young Mens or Young Womens organization in the LDS church, then here you go! Hope you enjoy them! They are 5x7 in size. Right click on picture, save image and then print at your favorite print shop!

 

For personal use only. Do not sell or claim as your own work. 

Motherhood is hard.

I feel like I have been in a rut lately. A big, fat rut that is trying its darndest to make sure I stay there. We've all been sick off and on for the past 4-5 months and it has taken its toll physically as well as emotionally. I'm exhausted every day. I swear my energy just never totally came back after the first trimester with this one (probably due to the sickness that has been hanging over our home like a thick fog!) And each day, I find myself struggling with this whole motherhood thing.

I've said it before on this blog before and I'll say it again right now- being a mother has ALWAYS been the end goal for me. A career never held any appeal whatsoever for me. It was always becoming a mother that tickled my fancy. That being said, it's been really hard lately. My days are consumed with coaxing my 3 year old to let herself go poop (yes, she holds it in as long as she possibly can for reasons unknown to us) trying to force yet another meal down her throat so that she doesn't get any skinnier (I wish I had that problem) trying to communicate to my 1 year old not to scream at the top of his lungs when his food isn't in front of him INSTANTLY, keeping him away from the trash can, as it is his favorite place to find new "toys" and keeping the peace between the two. This is basically my day, all day. There is the occasional book reading, coloring book session, puzzle putting together or outing to the park, but really, my days are consumed by these two little humans, and I. am. exhausted.

I knew being a mother was going to mean having hard moments, but I didn't know it would be like this. I didn't realize the monotony of a day and the overwhelming frustration I would feel with my children and myself (especially myself). I didn't realize my life would be centered around things like bowel movements and teething and nutrition, or lack thereof.

And so, the other morning, I had myself an awesomely huge pity party. I looked at the mound of dishes in front of me that I had let accumulate for way too long and I just cried. I cried tears of frustration and anger and sadness and loneliness. I felt totally and utterly alone. And as I let all those hot tears course down my cheeks, I plead to my Heavenly Father for comfort. I've read the scripture in Matthew about letting the Savior take our burdens away and carrying them for us, but I just didn't know how it was accomplished. Was it really so simple as to say, "take this away from me, it's too hard for me to carry"? Could I really just let it all go and share that load with my Savior? I decided to have a little faith and test it out. I prayed for all my inadequacies as a mother, all my frustrations, all my grievances, all my worries to be taken away.

I cried a little longer, wiped my eyes, tackled that pile of dishes and something miraculous happened. I felt light. I felt happy. I felt peace. It really was as easy as asking for my burdens to be taken away. How that works, I can't tell you. All I can say is that it does work. My testimony of prayer was strengthened that day. My testimony of my Heavenly Father and Savior being so aware of me was strengthened that day.

It's still hard to be a mother some days. I still have moments of frustration and guilt. But I know now with a certainty, that I can always turn to my Savior and ask that he helps me out in bearing my burdens, and he'll do just that. He'll give me the strength I need and I will be able to continue forward with peace and hope and joy.

And that makes this motherhood thing a whole lot easier.

One of my all time favorite pictures of my two greatest blessing. January 2013

Valentine's Prints

I know it has kind of been forever since I last posted on here, but it seems I am never able to find a time to blog! I have a feeling once #3 gets here, you will see even less of me, but I will try to be better! This blog of mine has been a journal of sorts and I love to look back and see what was written and what memories I captured. So here's to being better at blogging/journaling in 2014!

I posted a picture on my instagram a few days ago of some Valentine's Day prints I had made up and have had a few requests to make them available, so here they are! I hope you enjoy them. I had so much fun making them. All I ask is that you do not sell them or claim them as your own work. Also, if you feel the urge, pin them or share them via social media! Just link back to my blog. Thank you, kindly! :)

To download, simply right click, save the file to your computer and then print them out at your favorite place! (I usually go through Costco for all my prints and make sure that "auto-correct" is NOT selected.) These are both 8x10's.

The Real Reason

I have found myself getting a little distracted this season, much like in years past. I get caught up in the hustle and bustle of gift buying and the magic of Santa Clause, Christmas parties and treats, decorating, etc. None of these are bad things, but they are not the true reason for this season. With little ones, I am realizing just how much I have been focusing on the commercial side of Christmas, however. And I don't like it.

This morning, I started humming the tune of one of my favorite Christmas songs and was hit particularly hard when I got to the last verse of the song.

"Truly He taught us to love one another
His law is love and His gospel is peace.
Chains shall he break, for the slave is our brother
And in His name all oppression shall cease.
Sweet hymns of joy in grateful chorus raise we,
Let all within us praise His holy name"

I couldn't even finish humming the song because I got so emotional thinking of these powerful words (thanks in part to those awesome pregnancy hormones!) Of all the gifts we could be given this Christmas, the greatest gift we could have ever asked for has already been given to us. Christ came to earth for the express purpose of saving our souls and giving to us what no one else could possibly give us, eternal life. All he asks in return is that we love and serve Him and others. A small request in comparison to what has been given to us.

So I'm going to try to be better at serving and loving others this season and throughout the new year. I guess you could say this is me being proactive and making a New Years resolution, or just wanting to change my commercialized view of this beautiful season, or perhaps express a little more gratitude to my Father in Heaven for sending his Son to this earth for us.

I'm wishing everyone profound love and joy this season and hope we can all remember to serve and love a little more now and throughout the remainder of the year.

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