4 Months

I can’t believe my baby is already 4 months old. I have been amazed how fast she is growing and developing. It kind of makes me sad. I am trying to savor every minute I get with her. She is sleeping so well at night but as of late her naps are sometimes a fight. Here’s a list of things she is doing.

She can roll over from her belly to her back and back to belly.

So smiley and giggly(when she wants to be).

She loves the big bath.

She’s grabbing her toys and anything else that’s infront of her

Talking to us all the time these days. We love it.

She has become a little sassy. I don’t have any idea where she got that from. haha

She loves sucking her thumb. Sometimes she accidently chokes herself.

She likes to mimic what we do with our tongues and mouth.

She loves food and if you take her bottle out of her mouth she freaks, sometimes she turns purple. She has done this since she was a few weeks old.

She wants to sit up so bad. Sometimes she looks like she is doing crunches bc she’s trying to sit up.She is not loving the car seat these days.

She’s doing so well on her tummy and actually doesn’t fight tummy time anymore. She’s getting very strong.

She loves sitting in the Bumbo.

When I was putting her to bed tonight, I was thinking about the day she was born. That day seems like it was forever ago, even though it really wasn’t. It was such an amazing experience and I sometimes can’t believe I physically carried and gave birth to her. She was so worth the wait and she will never know how much we wanted her. Well atleast not until she has her own children. Here’s some pictures of our little Sophie.

Sophie Giggling

Its been a while…..

Well Its me Jessica.. John has done a pretty good job updating our blog every now and then. Last time I personally posted was Feb. 11, 2009.. In that post we had just celebrated our 2ndyear anniversary. We had Johns PA applications still to fill out and send off. Also I had mentioned how we were hoping for a baby for the upcoming year. Well, here we are living in Vegas. John is in PA school and I am at home with our sweet baby girl Sophie. She turned 6 weeks old yesterday! Which is the reason I wanted to start blogging again. I am kind of sad I didn't document anything while I was pregnant.

Pregnancy had its ups and downs but I am so grateful after almost 3 years of "trying"… I became pregnant! I was pretty shocked when I woke up that morning and the test was positive. I literally was shaking. I had been on clomid for three months to help me ovulate and after the 3rd month of no success I had to take a break. I emotionally couldn't be on that medicine and have another month of disappointment. So I didn't make an appointment with my doctor for another round of clomid. I remember just getting down on my knees and praying... I recall saying “I cant do this anymore. I am just going to be happy with what You have given me and bless us with a baby when we are ready". Well of course when I finally got off the medicine and put it in the Lord’s hands, we got pregnant!

I was so excited the day I found out I was pregnant. I wanted to tell everyone but because of my miscarriage 3 years ago I was very hesitant. I was so scared that I would miscarry again that I didn't tell people until I was 15 weeks pregnant. I didn't tell my clients until I was about 20 weeks pregnant and by that point it was already obvious.

During our first pregnancy we had an ultra sound and found out that our baby was no longer alive. So when we had our 8 week ultra sound for our next pregnancy and I saw our baby's heart beating I just couldn't believe it! By that time morning sickness had started and stayed until I was about 20 weeks. I lost 8 pounds from being so sick but I definitely made up for it during the last 20 weeks.

So now on to the last part of my pregnancy. At this point John and I were living at my parents. We had all our belongings in storage and we were commuting back and forth to Provo and Orem for work. John would be starting PA school July 6th and orientation would be on July 1st and 2nd. I was due July 23rd.. The plan was I would stay in Utah and John would move to Vegas with the help of his amazing parents and then drive or fly back to Utah when I was in labor. Most people looked at us like we were crazy when we told them our plan but I just had a feeling everything would work out. Also I wasn't about to find a new doctor. I loved my group of doctors! Plus our insurance would still be covering us since John had PTO (Paid Time Off) that he would be using for the month of July.

So John left June 29th with his parents, all of our belongings and both of our cars. They also had his parents truck which was full plus a trailer attached. Seriously they looked like the Clampets driving down the highway. At that point I was 37 weeks pregnant and feeling better than I had throughout my entire pregnancy (I know I am weird ). At my 36 week appointment he checked me and I was 60% effaced and 1 and 1/2cm dilated.. I was pretty excited hearing this and my doctor seemed impressed. He told me due to our situation with John starting school that he thought it would be good to start stripping my membranes at the following appointment, a week away. I went to my 37 week appointment and they stripped my membranes (Holy freak that hurt!). I had progressed even more that week to 2 cm and 70 % effaced.

John came home on the 2nd of July to work his last two shifts at the hospital. Poor guy went to orientation on the 2nd and when that was over drove to Utah with his parents and had to work the next morning at 5! So on the 3rd of July my family had tickets to the stadium of fire to see Carrie Underwood! My mom had been nervous from the day she bought those tickets. She didn't want me going into labor while we were at the stadium of fire. Which didn't happen. Carrie Underwood was awesome, along with the fire works! But Sophie didn't like the fireworks. They were so loud I know she heard them in my belly. I had never felt her move as much as I did while watching the firework show!

We went home that night completely exhausted from walking around all day. Plus, I stayed up way too late with my family the night before. John and I skipped church the next day to catch up on some very needed sleep. At this point I had been losing my mucus plug for a few days now but I didn't think anything would be happening for a few weeks. I was a little disappointed that I still had 3 weeks left. So that Sunday I was feeling a little different. I can’t really explain it. I kind of felt sick and just knew something was off. I remember thinking to myself ‘maybe today is the day’. John had to get to bed early that night since he had work at 5 in the morning. His last shift in the ER :(. I climbed into bed that night at 11 and dozed off for maybe 20 minutes and couldn't go back to sleep. So what do I do? I go upstairs and munch on some food and watch Mr. Holland’s Opus…haha! I was watching the movie and needed to go to the bathroom for the millionth time. After going to the restroom I stood up and felt a little gush. I thought ‘did I just pee my pants or was that my water breaking a little?’ So I stood there and waited, then a little more fluid came. Then I went and changed and it kept happening. I didn't want to wake John up unless I was sure my water broke. So I woke up my mom and told her what happened. I then called my doctor and he said “it sounds like your water broke.” I was so excited and shocked!!! I woke John up and we headed off to the hospital.

At this point it’s 1 in the morning. I go in and the nurse tests the fluid and sure enough my water had broke. So they started me on pitocin and I decided to get my epidural right away. I was pretty scared of it but it wasn’t bad at all. I tried to go to bed after that but yeah right! I couldn’t sleep at all. Finally around 5am I dozed off a little, but at six was woken up by my new nurse, who by the way I loved! She checked me and I was a 4. I hadn't really been feeling any pain. Then I started feeling lots of pressure and she checked me again and I was a 6! Then things started to move fast. I was a 9 in no time and feeling lots of pain and pressure! I thought if the whole idea behind an epidural is that you DON’T feel anything. The anesthesiologist came and gave me more anesthesia and then I felt good; 30 minutes later I was a ten. Everyone was at the hospital. My mom, my sisters, grandma, my in-laws and Kelton. They came in and quickly said hi because it was time for me to start pushing. I let all my sisters and mom stay in and watch. I started pushing around 11:30 and pushed for 2 hours before they called the doctor!! I was in so much pain the entire delivery! By that point I was telling the nurse and everyone to just knock me out. I was dead serious too haha!

Finally the doctor arrived and he found out the baby was posterior which is why she wasn't coming out so easily. With the help of the forceps and an episiotomy (ouch) she was here!!! She came out not crying due to the cord being wrapped around her neck but like 30 seconds later she gave out a nice cry. I felt like I could finally relax once she was crying and I just cried. Minutes later I finally got to hold my sweet baby. She has so much hair and weighed 6 pounds 3 ounces and was 18 and a half inches long. I didn't get to hold her long since she wasn't breathing very well. They took her to the NICU for a few hours and she had to be on nasal c-pap. It just helped her lungs expand and then she was fine.

Labor was the most amazingly painful and exhausting experience ever! Luckily I have already forgotten how bad it was. I was so grateful to have John with me the entire time. Since Sophie was born July 5 John decided to miss his first day of school on the 6th to be with us. I stayed in Utah for two weeks and John was able to fly down on the weekends. It was really hard to be without him but now we are here together living in Vegas. I am trying not to think about how much I miss Utah, my friends and our families. We have had many visitors but I will save that for another post.

3 years and then some…

Jess and I recently had our third anniversary and I wanted to capture a few moments we enjoyed in SLC. We took this opportunity to go back to The Inn on the Hill, where we spent our first night as a married couple.  It was fun to revisit some memories. 

We first grabbed some lunch from the Joseph Smith Memorial Building Cafe. Jessica loves the sandwiches there. I snuck a few shots of the SLC Temple while finishing up in the cafe.

  Then we got checked into the suite. Here is Jessica on one of the comfiest beds I’ve ever slept on, notice the inklings of a baby bump. Lil’ Sophie’s a growin’.

Here are a few shots from the Inn. The bathroom was huge and had an awesome jetted tub. And for some reason I really liked the painting above the fire place.

And here is the front of the Inn. You can see the SLC Temple and the Capitol Building is easy to see from behind the Inn.

   My favorite part about staying here was that it felt like our own little place, rather than staying at the Grand America or another overly popular place. I guess if I want it to stay our “own” I shouldn’t be sharing this.

It was a fun weekend that we didn’t want to end, so much so, that we actually booked another hotel for one more night before heading home to Utah Valley. I know Jessica was bummed we didn’t do our tradition of going to eat at The Roof but we enjoyed some of our other favorites like, The Pie, and a new favorite, Eggs in the City. Thanks for showing us Cara.

Jess I have now known you for five-plus years and been married to you for three of those five, and I have only just begun to understand the depth of my love for you! You are the best and my favorite thing about my day… everyday! I love you.

Our Little Miracle!

Jess and I have had a busy past six months and it’s official we are PREGNANT!!! It’s really exciting and we know it’s not an it, it’s a little girl! The first GIRL in the Holbrook clan.This first ultrasound was done at 8 weeks and 2 days for our sake. Since we had previously miscarried. It helped settle our nerves about this little one. She had a strong and fast heart beat at 160 bpm. 

This next ultrasound was taken at 20 weeks, but we snuck a few more in between. I guess that’s just one of the many benefits of working in the ER. Anytime Jessica would feel anxious we would go get a quick look at our little one. Below is a video of the baby with hiccups! We were also attempting to guess the sex of the baby. It’s not a simple thing at 16 weeks. I spoke with some of my ultrasound tech friends from work and they got us in for a quick look. They were 85% percent sure that it was a girl; they were RIGHT! I guess if there’s only a 50/50 percent chance of getting it wrong so it could have been luck. Before the 20 week verification of the sex we had already bought two 3 packs of little girl bodysuits. Cara got us another cute 3 pack bodysuit collection. She is going to be a spoiled little girl.

We have been trying to find a name that we can both agree upon. We were quick to find a boy name or two that we liked. But as for a girl we were in trouble. Then for some reason we both jumped on board the Sophie train. We like Sophie Marie Holbrook! Sophie is short for Sophia; which is Greek and stands for wisdom. We like the shortened form Sophie; this spelling is  the  German/ French derivative of Sophia. And that works perfect for me because of my German heritage and my love for the German/Austrian culture. I have heard from numerous people that Sophie is an extremely popular name right now. But all I have to say about that is look at her parent’s names; John and Jessica. Popular names much?

I actually have a friend at work that while she was telling me all of there possible baby names she said, “I don’t want to name my kids some  overly popular name like Joe, Jake or John…. uh, I mean…. John is a great name! Uhh…”. It’s ok Annalee, I hate your name! Just kidding. But you know you tend to put your foot in your mouth at least once daily, so I was ready for it. I later cried myself to sleep. LOL!