my sneaky make up artist

Looks like I need to get some new mascara...

My little make up artist wanted to be sneaky so she went by the front door where I wouldn't see her. She makes me smile.

Our little Michael

Our little Michael Eric Pfeil was born Monday, July 25 at 12:28pm! He weighed 7lbs 14oz and 19 inches long. Let me start from the beginning of the day. We had to be in the hospital by 10am and the c-section was scheduled at 12noon. We dropped Noelle off at my parent's house. It was completely different than last time and it made all the difference. Things were very relaxed and there was no worry. I even got to walk down to the operating room without a wheelchair or being already on the bed. My blood pressure was great too. We got in the operating room and they were prepping everything. The only thing that I was honestly dreading was getting the spinal block. And for good reason. It was horrible. I won't even go into detail about it except that I'm surprised I didn't squeeze Michael and the nurse's hand off when the guy was giving it to me. And I was just in tears. Other than that the procedure went great. The doctor pulled little Michael out and he started to cry. I couldn't help but start crying myself. It was such an awesome thing to experience and I really felt the spirit close. After the procedure I was able to hold my baby and they put us into a room. Which I might add was quite spacious and very comfortable. We got to come home the following Thursday. We had the option of staying until Friday but I did not want to stay, at all. I would rather deal with my emotions at home than at a hospital. The nurses were really great but by Thursday they weren't doing anything for me that I couldn't do myself and plus the bed was getting really uncomfortable. My stay at this hospital was much better than at the last one. Everyone there completely helped me with everything I needed and it was just an overall better experience. A big contributing factor to that was probably because everything went so well and I didn't have a baby in the nicu.

It feels so nice to be home. Just being with my family and experiencing everything together just helps so much. Cuddling with my little guy is so wonderful and I can't believe that I love someone so much, again. I'm so grateful to my Heavenly Father for answering our prayers. For bringing us a little baby that's so healthy. And for my wonderful husband and sweet children.

Noelle is doing good, all things considered. She's really been cute with baby Michael and wants to hold him all the time and takes pictures with him. She is a little jealous and is definitely doing some things to test our patience, more than she ever has but she's a good big sister. I'll ask her to help me get something for baby Michael or help me put something away and lately the answer has been "No" or "no mom, I don't want to." We're giving her a little bit of time before we are too hard on her. It's been an up and down week. She is still such a sweetheart and we love her. She has been so good while I have just been trying to rest and heal.

Little Michael is doing good. The nights have been rough but that's not a surprise. Things have gotten better since we've been home. The name thing might get confusing for some people. So for a while I'm going to be referring to our new baby as "little Michael." My family still hasn't decided what they are going to call him. But to me I just look at him and he's my little Michael :). I love cuddling with him and just love him so much. He is a very good sleeper right now. I don't know how long that will last. I usually have to wake him up to eat. I, however, am not getting that much sleep but that's okay. We're so happy that he is here and that we get to be home enjoying time as a family.

Michael started a new job on Monday. He really likes it so far. It's pretty physical so he's been coming home pretty tired. But even with that he's been great and so helpful with everything. Our house is pretty much a mess and Noelle will say sometimes "It's a mess" or "what a mess." She's right but right now I don't care and some things just need to be put on hold.

Enjoy some pictures!

This is a rare photo. I don't have any pictures of me being pregnant. So here ya go. I was getting pretty big.

Holding my baby michael right after the c-section was over

He looks pretty big in this one

He has my toes

LOVE this one

first family photo of four

kissing brother

He sometimes will get this grip on his pacifier and just hold it there

Going home!

Noelle is always asking to hold her brother

actually awake. Don't you love the girly bouncer? We got this for a gift when Noelle was born.

aww so cute. My kids in yellow :)

Full Term and Camping Attempt #3

Well I made it full term! I'm so grateful and feeling very relieved. Every doctor's appointment has been great. I always want to say to the nurse and doctor afterward "Are you sure everything is okay?" or "Are you sure you're doing my blood pressure correctly?" Everything is scheduled for this coming Monday and I'm getting pretty anxious and excited. Wow, do we still have a lot to do though, mostly just cleaning. With me being very pregnant and Michael's different schedule, not as much has been getting done as I would like but oh well.

We attempted to go camping for a night recently. It's the annual Clayson camp that's happens every year for a week. We were originally going to go up just during the day but we actually went up the first day and stayed over night. We used our little tent. Thank goodness my family volunteered to take Noelle in their tent trailer because our tent barely fit me and Michael. It barely fit one queen size mattress and we couldn't stand up in it. Michael slept pretty good but I had a horrible night. I maybe got 3 hours of sleep. Noelle was having a hard time with my family as well (to say the least). I could hear her crying every time she would wake up. Baby Michael was moving a ton and I was just plain uncomfortable and in pain, did I mention I have been an emotional roller coaster lately? All of this combined made for a very bad, tear filled night. Noelle has not done well camping at all. The first year we went she had her helmet on. Second year she was getting over some asthma and doing nebulizer treatments. This year she had a cold. I'm really hoping that these were the reasons why she hasn't done well at nighttime. We love camping and plan on going whenever we can so hopefully she'll grow into it.

Our computer has been pretty pathetic lately so I feel like I haven't been posting as much. I'm sure the next post will be of our new little guy. Wish me luck!

I've made it

I'm 36 weeks. And my energy is pretty much gone. I won't be going to 40 weeks, so for all of you that have gone that far (or further, especially in the summer) I admire you, but I'm not going to be taking that same route. And originally I kind of felt bad about that. But not any more. At the beginning of the pregnancy (and actually up until very recently) I was really wanting to do a vbac and I thought that would be how it would happen, no problem. But as I've been talking to my doctor, reading and watching things about it and praying a lot we've decided that it actually isn't the best way to go. My doctor said she would be with me the whole way if that's the way we wanted to go but she also said to go with "our gut" on what we feel would be the best for both me and the baby. Here are some things that we have considered:

1)Last time I had an emergency csection and my blood pressure sky rocketed out of control and that was the only option. We were both in danger and I could have had a stroke or seizure at any time. My blood pressure has been good this time around but there is always a chance that it could rise especially under the stress of labor. And because technically I have hypertension. I don't want that to happen because if it did we would have to do another emergency csection and I'd like to avoid the "emergency" part this time around.

2)They won't induce someone who has had a csection. The contractions would come on too strong and that could tear my previous incision and could cause a whole other set of emergency problems. My mom was induced for all 5 of her children and if that's at all how I am then I would rather not go that far if I don't have to. Plus it's not even an option.

3)I just want a healthy baby. He's growing and doing great and we feel that this is just the better option in keeping him as healthy as possible.

I have felt a peace about this decision and it won't escape my mind that this is what Heavenly Father wants us to do. Those feelings have never failed me and so more than any other reason I'm going with that and trusting in Heavenly Father.

My due date has actually changed a couple of times. Sometimes he's measuring bigger, sometimes he is measuring right on track. But he's still coming on July 25th. He'll be full term and I'm so so grateful about that. The good thing about being a little high risk is that since 31 weeks I've been going to the doctor every week which means I have also been getting an ultra-sound every week. I love that part. It also means I've been getting a non-stress test every week. Which hasn't been so fun. I just have to stay in a chair hooked up to a heart rate and contraction monitor and push a button every time I feel him move. It sounds kind of fun at first and then after you're there for more than a half hour it just gets tiring and hot. The appointments end up being at least two hours and it's just long. I think I only have two more to go to. But my doctor has been wonderful and SO on top of things. Baby Michael was estimated to weigh around 6 1/2 lbs last ultra sound. He's still moving and twisting a ton. I just feel so grateful that I've made it and am ready to have this little guy here.

Noelle's Personal Photo Album

Here are some of Noelle's pictures that she has taken with our camera. She understands what to push to take a picture she just hasn't gotten the whole aim thing down. So for your viewing pleasure :):

This one was taken with a little help from me

Just for fun and other info

We've been very busy this week. It was kind of nice at first until today hit and we just got worn out. I didn't mention that Michael started a new job last week which has made his days a little more exhausting than normal. It's not a lot but it is something and we are very grateful for that. He's training for it right now and so he works the night shift. It's been different and a little bit of an adjustment for all of us, but so far it's been a good experience. Other than that not much has been going on. We're getting ready for our little boy to come. It's less than 4 weeks away and I have so much to do. I really want to get it done, in fact all I talk about these days with Michael is baby this and baby that. I just don't have very much energy right now and can't move around very fast. So we're just taking it one day at a time and I'm learning to not stress over what I can't control. Hopefully all that needs to get done will get done by the time he is here.

Monday we went to Liberty park. This is the greatest park. I didn't really know how cool it was until I went last year with my sister-in-law Nina and Noelle. There is a little splash pad but Noelle is very hesitant to just run through water squirting up from the ground for some reason. Michael ran through some of it while holding her and she did not like that at all. Some of her hesitation may have come from there being so many big kids around. I don't mean just 4 and 5 year olds, I mean 12 and 13 year olds. Anyway, she just wanted to play on the regular park. Which again is pretty big and very fun. They also have this mini replica of some different canyons here in Utah. They fill it with clean chlorine water and you can just walk around in it and get wet. Noelle LOVED this. She just wanted to walk everywhere and loved the fountains. The park also has tons of places to sit down and have a picnic, some amusement park rides and a place to buy food and drinks and a duck pond. The heat really wore on Noelle and she was so tired by the end of our little outing (so was I). It's free and that's something that we were really happy about.

The next several pictures are from the canyon replica area. It's so cool and fun.

Up in the "bigger canyons"

just wading in the pool

Some of it seemed a bit steep and slippery for her but she wasn't at all hesitant and didn't slip once.

loved the fountains

My handsome, good sport of a husband. He pretty much walked around with her the whole time. I was kind of afraid that I might slip and fall being my clumsy, pregnant self.

Noelle doesn't really like when I vacuum. So when I do we put her chair on the couch and she just sits and watches. And sometimes afterward she'll clap for me and says "yay mommy, you did it!" :) (probably because I don't do it as often as I should)

Noelle has quite the glare. Sometimes we'll do this to each other and just laugh

A Very Hungry Caterpillar

Noelle has really been enjoying books lately and we found her reading this one all by herself. This was the second time reading it so we didn't get as much but it's still super cute :). She's got a great memory, not at all like mom, but just like dad.