Olivia Ellen Barton

Our baby girl made her grand "surprise" entrance into the world on Monday, October 3rd at 2:51 pm after 9 LONG hours of labor.  Since Trevor and Landon's labor times were only 4 and 5 hours, I was in the mindset that this one would go fast.  This is the first time I have had Group B Strep so I decided it would be best to be induced so that I could get on the antibiotics long enough based on previous labor times.  Well, looks like I could have waited a little bit longer and maybe dilated a bit more on my own...and maybe she would have come on her own on October 6th since it snowed that day :)  I was only dilated to a 2* when we got there and with previous ones, I was much further along once I got to the hospital.  (*Not-so-funny side note:  The nurse said I was a 3 when we first got there.  The doctor broke my water 2 1/2 hours later and said I was a 2...yeah, not cool!)  Seven+ hours after starting the pitocin, I was still only a 4+ (I guess not quite enough to call it a 5).  The contractions were already intense but nothing was showing for it.  I got an epidural around noon, knowing this process was going to be longer than I wanted to work through.  I was pretty discouraged already since the couple that came in to be induced at the same time as us had their baby in 3 hours.  Nothing like hearing a baby cry in the next room, knowing you are only at a 2. 

My blood pressure dropped really low and the nurse came in to check on me.  She said "Woah, you are ready to have this baby!"  I had gone from a 5 to a 10 in a little over an hour.  The doctor was called and shortly after I had a sweet baby girl in my arms.  At first I was pretty disappointed that this wasn't my plan of the "perfect labor."  I didn't really want to be induced and I didn't want an epidural, but at the end of the day when you have that perfect baby in your arms, I decided it doesn't really matter.

The doctor asked how we wanted it announced what gender the baby was right after birth.  She wanted to make sure that since we had waited to find out girl/boy that it didn't end up being anticlimactic.  She held her up as soon as she came out and I was SO excited to see that she was a GIRL!!  I wish we would have gotten a picture of the doctor holding her up but the camera hadn't made it's way out of the bag yet :)

They did the bath in my recovery room at the foot of my bed, which was fun to see since they usually do all that stuff (bath, footprints, etc.) in the nursery with the dad.



When I was contemplating having another baby (trust me, it took awhile for me to decide I was ready, but once I knew, I knew), I had this feeling that we would have a girl and I wanted to name her Olivia. I can't remember if it was really a dream or just a thought, but I remember thinking I would have a girl. All throughout the pregnancy people would ask if I knew if it was a boy or a girl since we didn't find out at the ultrasound. I guess I was afraid to say "it's a girl" because I really had this feeling I might be wrong! I needed to prepare myself that there was a possibility it might be a boy. I was SO relieved when she was born!

About her name...
When discussing name possibilities, Ashlee and Brynlee definitely had their opinions about names. They really wanted to name her Ellie. I really wanted to name her Olivia. What about Rob's opinion, you ask? He didn't really have any strong opinions either way for a girl. When the girls mentioned the name Ellie, I thought about Rob's Grandma Jones, whose first name is Ellen. I went back and forth between Olivia Ellen and Ellen Olivia, but decided if we went with the latter, I wouldn't ever be able to call her Olivia. But...if we went with Olivia Ellen, she could have the nickname "Ellie"...because after all, nicknames can be whatever you want, right?? Whatever.  Just agree with me.

Sunday night we were talking with the kids about the baby and how she would be born the next day. Of course, the conversation went to names. Brynlee said "If you name her Olivia, I will never forgive you." Wow. That's a pretty powerful statement. I was really worried she never would. When they came to see her in the hospital, they asked "so what is her name?" I asked Brynlee if it would be alright if we named her Olivia and assured her that she could call her Ellie. She agreed and so Olivia it is. And guess who is the one who calls her Olivia (or Livi)....yep, Brynlee. That stinker.

Olivia was in the nursery when the kids got there. We asked them if they wanted to see the baby now (still not saying he or she since they didn't know yet) or wait until the baby came back into the room. They asked if they would be able to tell just by looking at the baby. I was about to say "well, she has a bow in her hair" but I caught myself. Luckily Rob saved me and said that there was a card in the baby bed that you would be able to tell from.  Brynlee was the only one who wanted to go to the nursery.


You can see from the picture that Brynlee was still acting a little "weird?"  She didn't want to be in any pictures.  This was before I had asked her about the name so you can see why I was a little hesitant to bring it up again.

They were all so happy to see she was a girl! They all wanted a baby sister so there were smiles all around. Don't worry, had she been a boy, they all assured me they would be okay with that as well :)


All Trevor could say was "she's so cute!"

Happy, proud biggest sister...

I love this picture.  I think Brynlee was just taking her all in...

Big brother of a little sister.  Landon asked if she came out with a bow on her head.


Trevor seems SO big to me now.  He kept asking if we could take her home.

Coming home at last.  We had to stay a little longer because of the Group B strep.  I was glad to finally get out of that hospital room!

We're home!!

Three days old...

Celebrating the 80s

Our kids' elementary school is celebrating 50 years this week. Among other things, they are dressing up each day according to a decade of the school's history. Monday was peace signs and tie dye. School picture day happened to coincide with 70s day. Today is 80s day.

The high pony tails are a little hard to see, and you can tell the kids were trying their best to follow my direction of turning to the side yet still look at the camera. The nice camera is coming home from the hospital in a few minutes with mom and baby (post coming soon), so the pic isn't great. I didn't notice until later that you can't see Lando's Transformer's shirt. Mom being gone was enough for me to push his hairstyle a little further than I might have otherwise (zoom in to see the steps).


More pictures that were taken after school...

Labor Day 2011

When Rob and I were talking about what we could do on Labor Day, we thought about making the Wind Cave hike a Labor Day tradition.  But then reality of me being very pregnant set in.  We decided on the Logan River trail, going from Second Dam to Spring Hollow.  From the hiking trail maps we could find, it looked to be about a mile or two one way.  It is a mostly flat trail so we figured the Labor Day leisurely walk wouldn't actually put me into labor.

We invited Ashlee's friend, Rachel, and her mom, Teresa, to join us.  It was a beautiful day, slightly overcast but not chilly.  We packed a lunch and headed to the trail.  At one point in the trail, there was fork with a sign that said "Bridger Overlook:  Spring Hollow Jct .8 miles (yes, that is a "point" 8)"  We figured that meant if we followed that trail, we would eventually hook back up to the trail at Spring Hollow in just under a mile.  Well, that wasn't what it meant because after going mostly up a slight but constant incline, we met up with some people heading down and they said it doesn't ever go back down to Spring Hollow.  Well, we decided to hike up just a little further to see if we could find a good spot to stop and eat lunch.

This is me asking Rob, "Am I in that picture?"  Yes, yes you are...

After lunch we went just a little further to an opening (and found another hill that everyone but me went up...not sure I would have made it up or down!) 

In this picture of Landon,  you can see the road going through the canyon in the right-hand corner.  The trail we originally were going to take followed pretty closely to the road (at least elevation-wise) so you can see we had quite the uphill journey.

You can see why I didn't make the trip up this hill.  I am down in the right hand corner of the picture and it was pretty much straight up from there...

I think Ashlee and Brynlee are trying to make it look like they are holding up the mountain in these next two pics??

After exploring a little bit more, we headed back down the mountain. When we got to Second Dam, our expected 1 hour walk had turned into a 3 hour hike. It was great but I was definitely feeling it! The kids wanted to come back to Second Dam for dinner, so we went home (so nice living 5 minutes away!) and got some things ready to roast hot dogs and marshmallows. It was a fun Labor Day enjoying the beautiful surroundings in Cache Valley.

Hi-Lo Dance Camp

Brynlee and two of her friends participated in the Hi-Lo Dance Camp. Ashlee didn't participate this year because ballet was on the same nights. After two evenings of dance clinics, they performed at halftime at a Logan High football game on Friday, September 2nd.

If you can't find her in the video, don't worry.  Rob couldn't find her when recording it so she's not in alot of it  :)  At the very end, she is the one on the left that runs to the middle doing a "Charlie's Angels" pose.

First Day of School 2011

Wow, where did summer go?  The kids started school yesterday.  They all came home happy with their teachers and happy to be back at school with friends.  I think this is going to be a great school year!

Ashlee started 5th grade...her LAST year in elementary school.  Oh man, growing up way too fast!

Brynlee is in 3rd grade...

I love these two girls!

Trevor wanted to be in a picture too!

Landon goes ALL day now in 1st grade.  Probably harder for me than him!

All the kiddos.  When the kids all got their backpacks on, Trevor went looking for his froggy backpack that Aunt Cheryl made him.

A few of the PTA board members painted some photo op scenes for the first day of school.  They were so cute!  I only got a picture of one with Trevor and some friends in it while we were hanging around after school started doing PTA stuff.  There was also one with a girl with a stack of books balancing on her head, an Eskimo with two huskies (their mascot is a husky), 3 astronaunts, and a few others.

When we were leaving the school Trevor said, "Wait, where are Ashlee and Brynlee and Landon?"  Poor kid!  Luckily he'll start going to the 3 year old class at the USU Child Lab in a couple of weeks and won't be so lonely.  I'll have about a month of being by myself Tuesday through Friday in the mornings before this baby comes.

Back to School Girls Night

Ashlee wanted to have some friends over for a movie night last Friday before school started this week.  It was a fun little girls night.  Landon was banished to his room (originally he was watching "Megamind" but didn't really like it and kept bugging the girls...such a little brother!)  Brynlee was there for the first part, but then was invited to a friend's house for a late-night  movie as well.  We ate pizza for dinner and then did facials.

Cleansing...

Shiny masks...

I did pedicures while the masks dried.  Some had very ticklish feet!

They also enjoyed dipping brownie balls in chocolate...

Peeling off the masks...

The recipe for the brownie balls is from here.  Some rolled them in toffee bits or coconut.

Pretty toes...

Then they watched "Gnomeo and Juliet".  Cute movie.

Pillow fight!

I love this one.  Trevor didn't want to be left out of the fun...

Definitely Not Afraid of Heights

Brynlee loves to climb trees.  There are two pine trees that are right by our driveway but in our neighbors yard that she would climb everyday.  She started just climbing to the first few branches and over the next few months, kept going higher and higher, eventually making it nearly to the top.  YIKES!

Our neighbors mentioned one time that they were thinking about cutting them down since the grass doesn't grow very well under them.  I think Brynlee almost started to cry when she heard the news.  Luckily for her, they haven't yet.
 
One day she came in and told us that one of the trees had a bunch of branches that were splitting and breaking away from the trunk.  Don't worry, she didn't do it.  We think it was from a really bad wind storm we had just had.

You couldn't tell standing on the ground below so Rob got up on the roof to see what she was talking about...and of course, Brynlee climbed up the tree. 

Rob has been talking to the kids about taking them to Lagoon. We are probably the only parents within 2 hours of Lagoon that haven't taken their kids there.  The last time we went I think Ashlee was about 6 months old and Rob's dad had free passes from his advertising business.  Brynlee really wants to go...Ashlee not so much.  Everytime we drive past Lagoon on our way to Salt Lake, Brynlee talks about how she wants to go on Wicked.  Some day...

Guess Who Got Her Ears Pierced...Take Two

Remember this?

Yesterday as we were passing by the jewelry counter at Walmart, Ashlee said, "I think I want to get my ears pierced now."  Um, like, right now?

We were in kind of a hurry, getting school supplies and needing to run some other errands, plus I didn't have my camera (you have to document these types of events with pictures, you know) so I asked if we should wait until tomorrow...which would be today. 

She was so nervous the whole day, but kept saying she couldn't wait until the next day.  I'm glad she did it...more for the fact that it taught her that she can do things that she thinks will be scary, hard, etc.  She is definitely not my daring, do anything child (total opposite of Brynlee...that's a post to come).

Before (just a little nervous)...

Gettin' it done...

It only hurt a tiny bit...

About 15 minutes later, she said she couldn't even tell they were in there.  I told her now she doesn't have to keep thinking "I wonder when I'll get my ears pierced..."