Tis the season to be...sleeping

Christmas will be a little different this year; it will be my first Christmas away from my original "home" and my first Christmas in my "married" home with a daughter.  I'm trying to focus on the positive:  it's my first Christmas as a mommy!  So I'm involving Morgan in lots of fun holiday traditions.

On Monday Nate and I took her to pick out our first real Christmas tree.  It was SOOOO cold so she was all bundled up in her cute little snow suit!

Apparently all of the excitement put her right to sleep.

The next holiday tradition this week was to decorate the tree.  This took several days, not because of the size of the tree, but because of stopping to take care of the little one.  But finally, today it is finished!

Our tree is not fancy, but I love it.  Just a good-old-fashioned-kid-friendly tree!

See how excited Morgan is for our finished tree!

Since living in Utah another tradition is to go to the Festival of Trees.  My good friend Melanie introduced me to this festival, so I invited her and her girls to go today.  The trees are amazingly beautiful, and a lot of the trees have sad stories that accompany them.  Today we chose not to read those stories!  Our outing was all about being festive and getting in the Christmas spirit.  Can you guess what Morgan did?

Really?  Can she be sleeping? 

Morgan's first sleep in the stroller

Morgan and Nate are my "once upon a time"

I love Melanie and her cuties!  I'm so glad we got to spend the day together, and I saw some walls other than those in my living room.

Merry "sleepy" Christmas - apparently the camera is not around at 4 a.m. 

Disclaimer:  Morgan does stay awake sometimes.  You know, like at 4 a.m.  And other various times during the day, but cameras are not appropriate during some of those times.  :-)  And we only leave the house during nap time.

Morgan and Me

Morgan has officially passed her one month old mark!  What a long month, yet how time flies. 

Those who know me well, know I don't like being in pictures.  So it seems that I have lots of pictures of Morgan with everyone else, but not many with me.  I'd like to be known in her life as more than just the milk-woman, so this afternoon while just hanging out around the house on a cold fall day, I asked Nate to take some casual pictures of us.  And I love them because I love being a mom, and this is what it looks like!

Can you tell we just love this little lady?

We were sad this past week to say see-you-later to Granny and Papa.  I don't know how I would have gotten through that first month without them.  We miss you guys and can't wait to see you again!  We love you!

New pictures

Just adding some new pictures.

The happy extended family

So glad that Granny and Papa have been here to share this wonderful time with us.  And that Granny will get up with us in the middle of the night.  I sure will miss her company when they leave tomorrow night.  :-(

The new mommy is always tired.  I love cuddle time!

Having fun with Grandma Andrea's camera and the cute blessing dress

I love this smile!

This is definitely one of my favorite pictures of her so far!

No hair loss yet!

Emotional, exhausting, entertaining

I cannot believe that little Morgan is almost 4 weeks old!  How did this happen? Oh yeah, with lots of long nights and days combined altogether.  She is making a lot of progress.  Morgan tries so hard to hold her head up during tummy time.  She loves to talk and play and sing.  One of her favorites is Head Shoulders Knees and Toes with her daddy.  It's so cute! 

We went in for a weight check on Friday and she had gained a whole pound!  She now weighs 7 lbs 13 oz and no longer fits in her newborn size clothes.  This makes me sad and happy.  Bittersweet is the appropriate word I think.  It's fun to see her grow and learn though.  She actually doesn't scream during every bath now or when she's getting changed.  And I no longer have to set my alarm clock to wake her up to eat, she is my alarm clock now!

On Sunday, November 7th, Nate gave Morgan her father's blessing.  The opening song in sacrament meeting was Count Your Blessings, so I started crying immediately.  It was beautiful to see my daughter's father, grandfathers, and some uncles and friends stand together and use their Melchizedek priesthood to bless her.  I felt so blessed and in that moment knew that my decision to move to Utah was worth it!  It's hard to be away from family and friends in North Carolina, but I am so blessed to have a daughter who was born in the covenant and to have a husband who can bless his children! 

Overall, having a child is an emotional, exhausting, and entertaining experience!

Hanging out with her granny and papa!

My sleeping beauty!

Plus one is here

Finally, I am taking the time to update my blog and let everyone hear about our sweet little Morgan.  Who knew that one tiny little girl could take so much of my time?!

On October 19th I woke up at 1 a.m. feeling very uncomfortable.  At 2:45 I had my first contraction, though I didn't even trust that it was really starting.  I let Nate sleep in and handled my first contractions downstairs with Mama and Boog.  For those who don't know, Boog is my crazy dog, and when I had a contraction, he would sit next to me and let me pet him.  How cute is he!

At 8:00 that morning Nate and I headed over to the hospital.  I was so worried that they would send me home, but when they checked me I was 3.5cm.  Yea, progress at last.  Contractions continued pretty consistently and I was handling them well.  Around 1 p.m. the doctor checked me again and I was at 6 cm, so it was time to break my water.  I was nervous for this part, but it didn't hurt at all.  However, the contractions after that were crazy!  I had to lay flat on my back so they could monitor the baby's heart rate better.  It was dropping sometimes during contractions.  So when the contraction started I couldn't move around or do anything to help me through it, and they were coming about every 2 minutes.  Finally, I was able to sit up and move again, but my whole body was tensed up and my thoughts of having a non-medicated childbirth were drifting away fast.  After about an hour and fifteen minutes I asked the nurse for the epidural.  They actually had to do it twice, but oh, such relief!

Well, the afternoon went by quickly after that (and almost painlessly!).  When the doctor came in again we were hoping I had made it to an 8, and to our surprise, I was a 10 and ready to push.  I started pushing at about 5:30, and almost 3 hours later, I watched little Morgan's head come into the world.  That's right, I had a mirror and watched her birth!

I know everyone says your life changes in an instant, but you really have to experience it to understand that concept.  There are no words to explain the spiritual life-changing experience of bringing a new spirit into the world and giving that spirit a body.  I feel so blessed and loved by my Heavenly Father that He would allow me to help with that process, that He has entrusted me with this beautiful little spirit daughter of His.

Morgan Elizabeth Powell, October 19th at 8:19 pm

6 lbs 14 oz; 18.5 inches long



Please keep our angel in your prayers.   She failed her hearing screening in her right ear at the hospital so we had to take her to an audiologist this past week, where she failed again!  Hopefully, she just has fluid in there, but we have to take her to test it again this week.  I'll keep you updated.

due dates

So October 15th came and went and no contractions, no baby yet.  Now we're at 40 weeks and 1 day.  The good news is I feel pretty good, just anxious.  Well, we'll have a baby by October 22nd at least, that's my induction date.  But let's pray that I don't reach that!

39 weeks plus

It is amazing to look at my pregnancy countdown and see 5 days left!  I actually feel pretty good these days, now that the back pain is gone, heart burn is dying down, and nausea is almost non-existent.  So I think yesterday I became mentally ready to have this baby.  Most of the time I've just felt scared!  And I think considering how low she is now, she's ready to be here!  Good luck to her, putting up with Nate and I for life, not to mention our extended families!  I definitely get uncomfortable though.  Tonight as I was trying to do some exercises, it felt very awkward to do leg lifts and I basically had to lift my leg to the side instead!  Haha

I do NOT like to be in pictures, so the fact that I'm about to post pictures of myself looking like a beached whale, really means I love family and friends who are far away and want to see me looking WAY pregnant.

Here goes.

Boog is usually very close to me these days, my little guardian!

Jars don't belong on toes

Recently my wonderful friend Kristina and I were able to go get much needed pedicures.  Not that my feet were that awful, even though I can't reach them anymore, but mostly, I just needed to relax!  A week and a half later my toe nails still looked pretty cute.  Here's a picture of a mostly-still-decent pedicure.

Add to this picture one person who is generally clumsy and accident prone, add the fact that she's 39 weeks pregnant, and give her a jar of peanut butter.

= OUCH!  Let me just say, when your toe is bleeding all over the kitchen floor, and you can no longer comfortably reach that toe, it's a really good thing that mama is in the next room!

Short update

38 weeks today!  1 cm dilated, 80% effaced, so some progress at least.  And she's moved enough to not be killing my sciatic nerve anymore (knock on wood!).  The doctor said today that he thinks 10 days early is perfect, let's cross our fingers. 

The almost completed nursery

It's "almost" completed because the wall still looks a little empty.  We plan to put up the baby's name above the crib, but we haven't completely decided on a name yet, so it will have to wait for the arrival of our sweet baby!

I love the classic style crib Nate and I picked out.  We decided it was the right size for the small bedrooms in our house.  The colors of the bedding are so sweet and soft, it just makes me want to see a real baby in there!

I got this changing table at a yard sale for $20!  Nate painted it so it would match the trim in the room.  My cute sister-in-law let me borrow some baby stuff that she doesn't need right now, so we have a wipe-warmer!  Who knew you ever needed such a thing?  (It's still up for debate.)

I love this part of the room.  I painted the shelf to match the changing table and now I can hang her cute clothes on it when it's time to get dressed.

Nate and I feel like this is the best deal of all!  We found this glider for sale on KSL.  It is almost brand new, and we paid about 1/3 of the price or less that it costs at Babies 'R' Us!  So comfortable, it reclines and you can lock it in the reclined position.  I wonder how many nights I'll just fall asleep there!  Oh, and by the way, the pink pillows on the window seat were my first sewing project with my mother-in-law!  So proud!

This is the shelf above the window.  The overall theme of the room is a garden.

Sorry for the glare.  This is our sweet baby's Birth Day present, a tradition I want to have for all of our kids.

"Every day holds the possibility of a miracle."  Feeling this baby squirm inside my belly is definitely a miracle!  For many years I thought it would never happen, and I had to make some hard choices, like leaving my family 2000+ miles away, to make it work, but I am so grateful for the opportunity I have to carry this child and hopefully, bring her safely into the world!