Tuesday, March 26, 2013

Baby Mason Kyle Tanner

Many of you don't know, but we have a new little member in our home! These past few days have been kind of hectic! Our lives changed so drastically but the whole experience has been amazing and perfect! Kyle and I wouldn't change anything about how we first met Mason or the journey that lead us to meeting him. Baby Mason was born on Friday, March 22nd in the Park City hospital. I thought that I would sit down while he's sleeping and quickly write his birth story, so here it is! ENJOY!

Birth Story:

On Friday, March 22nd I woke up to what I thought was cramps at 7:45 a.m. They were stronger than cramps and I had never had a contraction before, but they definitely had to be contractions because they hurt so badly! They were consistently coming every 10-15 minutes. At first it felt like a menstrual cramp, but each time a contraction happened they got stronger and more painful. By noon the pain was getting so bad that we decided to head to the hospital and see if I was deep enough into labor that we could be admitted. With this being my first pregnancy, we thought that the chance of being sent home was higher than the chance of being admitted to the hospital, especially because my due date was a few days away and most babies go past their due dates, so we didn’t really have our hopes high when we got to the hospital. When we arrived I was dilated to a 2 almost a 3 and I was 90% effaced. The nurse told us that I had to be dilated to at least a 4 in order to be in active labor where they could start an IV and put an epidural in. They gave us an option to walk around for an hour and see if anything changes or to head home and come back later. So we decided to walk. I walked up and down 3 flights of stairs for an hour. After an hour we headed back into our room to get checked again, and were praying that I had dilated enough to be admitted because I couldn’t take the pain much longer. To our surprise I had dilated to a 4 and I was completely effaced! Both Kyle and I were excited but in shock at the same time because it finally hit us that we were not leaving this hospital without the baby in our arms! Oh dear!!

Things from that moment on went really quickly. I got hooked up to an IV around 2 p.m. and they were pumping my body full of fluids. Each time I had a contraction; it hurt so bad it was almost unbearable so by 3 p.m. they were able to give me an epidural. I was very nervous to get the epidural because of what people have told me and how painful they are when the needle is going in and stuff. But I figured that nothing could be worse than the contraction pains and to be honest the epidural didn’t hurt that bad. By about 4 p.m. my doctor, Dr. Falk, came in to break my water. As she was breaking my water she asked me if we knew for sure that the baby’s head was down or not. We told her that we were almost positive that his head was down. She left the room and came back with an ultrasound machine and told me that she wanted to make sure that his head was down. After about 2 seconds of her looking at the ultrasound she told us that she had bad news. The baby had flipped last minute and now he was bum down and we had no other choice but to have a C-section because my water was already broken and he wouldn’t be able to flip. That was one of the hardest things I have ever been told! I had no choice, I couldn’t even try to deliver normal… that was hard but it was best for the baby so we went with it! She told us that we are going to be seeing this baby sooner than we thought, “like within the next 30 minutes” is what she said. We were shocked! 3 hours ago we were praying that I would be dilated enough to be at least admitted and now we are preparing for a C-section and eventually meet our little man. I got numbed up to my throat from the epidural medication and Kyle was putting on a white, what looked like a marshmallow, suit and cap for his head…. HERE WE GO!! Kyle waited in the hospital room until I was situated in the operating room and then they brought him in by my side. I was very very nervous and it was very comforting having Kyle by my side. There was a lot going on around us. There were nurses and doctors everywhere! I remember having my whole body shaking uncontrollably, not only because that’s a side-effect of the medication, but also because the room was cold. I didn’t realize they had even started the surgery until Dr. Falk said that he’s almost out! And then we heard it….. His little innocent cry.

The nurse brought him around the curtain so that we could see him for the first time. He was absolutely perfect!! He was born on March 22nd at 5:52 p.m., weighed 7 pounds 8 ounces and was 21 inches long. The first question I asked Kyle was, “Does he have hair?” which to our surprise he did have a little. They cleaned him up and gave him to Kyle while they were finishing up with the surgery. We then were brought to our hospital room to recover and start our new little family together. We stayed at the hospital from Friday to Monday and took advantage of all the help we could get from the nurses. Welcome to the world Mason Tanner! We have waited our entire lives to meet you! We love you so much!


Getting ready to have a C-section

Kyle's Marshmallow Suit

First Family Photo

Dad holding Mason

Mason Kyle Tanner


These are the flowers my parents brought to the hospital
These are the flowers that Brittin made for me!

Sweet little thing!


At home sleeping in his bassinet 

Friday, March 8, 2013

17 days and counting!


It's been a while since my last posting, so I decided to write a post on my pregnancy, it coming to an end and about to start something amazing, so I’ve heard! I cannot believe how quickly this pregnancy has gone by. I remember very vividly the night that I took a pregnancy test, looked at the results, shook my head because there is no way I could be pregnant (or so I thought), took another pregnancy test,  shook my head in disbelief and took another one, and then screamed to Kyle that we are pregnant. I actually am still in disbelief that there is a little human being inside of me right now. It’s kind of like thinking about the Gospel and those three common questions “Where did we come from?” “Why are we here?” and “Where do we go after this life?” the more you think of it and the harder you try to understand exactly how we got here and exactly where we are going after, the more your brain hurts. Every single time I feel our little boy kick me or roll around I can’t help but think that he is literally a miracle in the making! (I hope that makes as much sense in your head as it does in mine). My pregnancy has been an amazing experience. I have heard so many horror stories about what could go wrong while being pregnant and I feared that I would experience something like that. But no, from the moment we found out we were pregnant to the present moment (almost 38 weeks) there have been no complications which is also another miracle and something that I am very grateful for!

The beginning of my pregnancy was kind of on the harder side because I was sick for about 4 weeks, but honestly looking back on it, it doesn’t seem like 4 weeks it seems like maybe 4 days. Once I was over the morning sickness part of pregnancy, most days I forgot that I was even pregnant. To be honest, I was still in denial of even being pregnant up until our 20 week ultrasound because I wasn’t gaining any weight and I didn’t have a little baby bump. So it was hard for me to think that I was pregnant because everything was normal. I have heard from many pregnant women their weird cravings and stuff, but I think the weirdest thing I “craved” would be crunchy fruits and vegetables, but it was only for 2-3 weeks maybe and I didn’t necessarily crave them. If it was in front of me, I’d eat it, but I wouldn’t go out of my way to get something crunchy. After our 20 week ultrasound I slowly started gaining weight and eventually I got a baby bump. (see pic below)



Can I be honest? If I’m a little too honest and you get offended, then you are more than welcome to just exit out of my blog J but here’s my thoughts on weight. My entire life I have been fortunate enough to never have weight issues or problems (thanks to my mother and father) so I never really could connect with those girls or women who didn’t fit into a “socially acceptable size.” We see ads all over the place from TV commercials to Billboards to magazines that show what women should look like, what “being beautiful is,”  and how to get that kind of body. Honestly we are brainwashing our kids (and even ourselves) to not love their bodies and how God created them until they get that “perfect” body that was spray painted on that billboard. Ever since I got pregnant and started gaining weight, I have been able to look in the mirror every day and see myself, for the first time in my life, with curves. At first it was hard because that’s not “pretty” right? And yes yes yes I know, I am pregnant but I have put that aside a few times and looked at myself as if I wasn’t pregnant. I honestly envy those women who have curves. I would like to speak to the person who came up with the idea that skinny, boney woman are more socially acceptable then curvy women. I have absolutely loved seeing my body with curves. It makes me feel more like a woman should look like! I wish that our world wasn’t so screwed up and we could see those ads that were shown back in the 40’s that showed “real women”, curvy bodies and bodies that weren’t perfectly sculpted. Well so what I’m getting at is that I want to tell all of you woman who have possibly had weight issues, or height issues, or any issue… you are beautiful just the way you are! It’s definitely easier said than done to “love yourself the way you are” because we are surrounded by pictures of women who are so perfect that we would do anything to look like them, whether that be starve ourselves or work ourselves to death at the gym. I think that having curves has made me look healthier, happier, and surprisingly more comfortable with my body and how I look. Okay, okay I’m done… I’m stepping down off my soapbox but I just wanted to throw that out there and my feelings on that subject.

Ok back to pregnancy… so ya it’s been great! Right now we are 37 weeks and 4 days along. I constantly have either feet, knees or a butt under my ribs… did I mention constantly? It’s an awesome feeling though. I know that our little man is gaining weight and he’s preparing to enter into this dysfunctional world. I have been having those fake contractions (braxton-hicks?) for about 2 months now. At first I was only getting them about 4-5 times a day and now I get at least one every hour.

Every single night, right before I fall asleep, he gets the hiccups. It’s cute in an annoying way. I love feeling his little hiccups but they last FOREVER! It’s like a twitch that doesn’t stop. But it’s cute. Being a very anxious person, you’d think that I would be having anxiety attacks just thinking about the labor process and what’s going to happen, but I feel like I have been very fortunate to get an AMAZING doctor who has calmed those nerves! Her name is Dr. Falk; she works at the new hospital over in Park City. If it weren’t for her, I feel like this baby might already be born because of stress. Right after we found out that we were pregnant, I had heard about this Dr. Falk lady and how good she was, and so that’s why we went with her. It’s been amazing to hear how many people go to her once they start talking to me and asking who my doctor is and stuff.

Well that’s pretty much an overview of my feelings and such in the past 8 months. Kyle and I are so excited to meet and hold our little man here in the next few weeks. We feel like we are prepared, but I don’t know if you can ever be 100% prepared. Wish us luck!!