Saturday, January 12, 2013

Hannah's Baby Blessing

With so many of our friends and family in town for Joshua's baptism, we decided to go a head and have Hannah's baby blessing the same weekend. Hannah was blessed during Sacrament Meeting at church on Sunday, December 9th. It was wonderful to have so many family and friends there for this very special day for our family. She was given a beautiful blessing by Bryan, a blessing that confirmed to me what I already knew: this little girl we have waited so long for is very special!  I am so grateful I get to be her mom, that I get to love her and teach her.  What a wonderful blessing!  I have to admit that I am grateful for the time spent waiting and longing for this sweet girl.  As painful as the last three years often were, I have a different outlook on being a mother than I would have without the last three years.  Being a mom is what I was meant to be, I feel that more deeply than I even did before, and I certainly cherish the experience more than I did in the past.  That thought makes me feel a bit guilty, but then I realized that I really wouldn't have known how to cherish theses moments so fully had I not wanted them so badly.  The waiting has truly been a blessing to me, and I think to our whole family.  I'm almost certain we couldn't love a baby more!


At Grace's request, Hannah wore the same white dress that Grace wore when she was blessed.  At first I thought I wanted each girl to have their own dress, but I am glad Grace wanted Hannah to wear her dress, especially since I made it. The plaid baby blanket below was mine when I was a baby, and I have pictures of me on my blessing day with the same blanket.  Kind of special. :)

We love our Baby Girl!

Joshua's Special Day!

On December 8th, 2012, Joshua turned eight years old! (Can it really be true?!)
It was a very special birthday because that afternoon he was baptized a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  He was so excited for this day! He and Bryan had been meeting about once a week for several weeks before his baptism and Bryan had been teaching him basic lessons about the gospel and what it means to be baptized, so Joshua had been looking forward to this special event for quite a while. We were blessed to be able to have many family and friends there to support Joshua; it was wonderful.  We had a whole group of visitors from Utah and Idaho: Grandma and Grandpa Guymon, Grandma and Grandpa Henke, Great-Grandma Larsen, Aunt Maren and Uncle Spencer, Aunt Paige, Aunt Katie and his cousin Anthony all made the long trek down for this special weekend!  



It was so sweet to watch Joshua be baptized.  He came out of the water with a huge smile on his face, he was so excited!  Grace was really excited for him, too. As soon as Joshua was baptized Grace turned to me and with a huge smile on her face she said, "He did it!" I couldn't help but be grateful for all the time and effort we put into helping him prepare for this important event, reading the Book of Mormon and having the lessons with him.  I know he realized how important this day was, and he wanted to be baptized because he knew why he should be baptized.


Congratulations on your baptism, Joshua, we love you!!

Wednesday, January 9, 2013

The first few days

Here are a few of my favorite pictures from the first couple of days after we brought Hannah home from the hospital.  










We are all crazy about this baby girl...just thought I'd throw that out there in case you couldn't tell!!

Newborn Pictures

Okay, I will be honest and admit that one of the things I was really excited for with having a new baby was getting to take newborn pictures.  It wasn't the only thing I was excited for, of course, but it was definitely one thing on the list!  I even bought a couple of props, made headbands, etc., so I was all prepared. It was so much fun I think we will have another photo shoot soon!  These were taken on Nov. 27th when she was six days old. I have a lot more to edit, but here are a couple favorites.




Hannah Margaret Guymon

Well, I am finally here to report on this sweet baby girl and her big arrival! I'm almost two months late and I'm typing one-handed, but I'm here. :)

Hannah Margaret Guymon was born Wednesday, November 21st at 8:25 am.  I had been slowly going into labor since Tuesday morning, with the contractions gradually getting more frequent throughout the day.   This was my first time going into labor on my own and I just assumed these contractions would go away like they always had before.  It was late afternoon before my mom was able to convince me that I was really in labor!  Then I started feeling a little panicky...I may have had two children previously, but I still didn't know what on earth I was doing!

I was laying on the couch while everyone else was eating dinner and I started having visions of my water breaking while I was still over an hour from the hospital.  My contractions were coming 8-10 minutes apart, so I decided that was enough and told Bryan I wanted to go to Amarillo, just in case, even if we just stayed in a hotel.  Joshua just took it all in stride, but poor Grace started bawling. I guess the idea of mom suddenly rushing off to the hospital was too much for her.  She acted like I was never coming back and even gave me her noodle necklace to take with me. :)  It was really hard to leave her when she was so distraught, but I knew she would be fine once we left, and she was.  Grandma Henke took good care of her.

We drove to Amarillo and got there around 8:30 pm.  I called my doctors office as they had instructed me.  I got the doctor on call and she basically laughed at me for coming in so early, but told me I could go ahead and go up to labor and delivery to be checked anyway.  We did all that and the labor and delivery nurses told me to walk for the next two hours.  That was fun....ugh. :)  Bryan and I walked the same loop on the third floor about a million times, it seemed. I was so glad he was there, that would have been a nightmare by myself.  He kept me laughing when I just wanted to lay down and cry...or sleep.  That was exhausting! The whole time we walked I had contractions every 3-4 minutes.  When I was finished it was a little after 11:00 pm and the nurses said they had talked to my doctor and he had said to admit me to the hospital...yay!

The nurses came in and hooked me up to an IV and all the monitors.  During this process my contractions slowed down a bit so they were only coming every six or seven minutes.  The nurses said I could just rest through the night and then my doctor would put me on pitocin in the morning.  I didn't know what they were talking about...I was in labor and I knew it and I was going to have a labor without pitocin, dang it! They finally had me all settled and left the room around 1:00 am.  They had literally just walked out the door when my water broke....HA!  Bryan went out and brought the nurses back and they called for the anesthesiologist.  He got there about 45 minutes later and soon I had an epidural, which was lovely. :)

So then everyone was ready and waiting, thinking I was going to have our baby girl anytime.  Unfortunately I got stuck at a six for a long time...like four or five hours.  Those hours are a bit of a blur of nurses in and out of the room sand me falling a sleep a little here and there. We kept loosing Hannah's heart rate on the monitors, and every 20 or so minutes her heart rate would drop pretty low in reaction to the contractions.  This happened when I was having Joshua, too, because he had the umbilical cord wrapped around his neck, so I wondered if that was what was happening with Hannah as well.  It turns out that was the case, but she was also face up instead of face down.  Those two things combined kept her from dropping for a long time.  Finally around 6:00 am I was progressing again and by a few minutes after 8:00 it was time to start pushing! 

Pushing was scary for me. Hannah wasn't reacting very well to the whole birthing experience, which was understandable considering her position.  Her heart rate would drop really low when I would push, and there were a couple of times right at the end that I swear it just stopped all together.  I was so exhausted I didn't know how I was going to find the energy to have a baby.  As much as I hated hearing her heart rate do that, it scared me so bad that it gave me the determination to just get this baby born.  I was really grateful for our doctor, he handled the situation so calmly, which I really appreciated and needed.  I always felt like he knew exactly what he was doing and I could trust him to do what was best for our baby.  Hannah was pretty purple when she was born, but he got the cord off her right away and before we knew it she was a beautiful, normal, pink color.  In a matter of minutes she was absolutely perfect, looking just like our other babies had. It was such a relief to see her, alive and well.  There was a part of me that just couldn't really believe I was going to have a healthy baby girl until I saw her for myself.  It was amazing!

Now for the pictures!


Hannah is our biggest baby, weighing in at 8 lbs. 2oz. and measuring 20 3/4 inches long. She has a good amount of dark hair...more hair than Grace had but not as much as our crazy haired baby Joshua.  Her face was a bit bruised from being face up, but it cleared up really quick.  Like our other babies, she has long fingers and toes and chubby cheeks!

This next picture is my favorite.  When they finally handed her to me she was still wide awake.  She just stared at me and we totally had this connecting moment.  It was like she was taking me in, figuring out who I was.  I know that is what I was doing with her.  I just looked at her and thought, "so you are the one I have been waiting for for so long." She is such a peaceful baby and I could feel that as we stared at each other. I also felt that she has a very wise spirit. It was amazing to be able to just look into her eyes that soon and for so long.  She was actually wide awake for the first couple of hours after her birth. She was silent as could be, but wide awake, staring at us and everything around her.  What I wouldn't give to know what she was thinking about during those first hours, so fresh from Heaven!




It was so fun to watch Joshua and Grace meet her for the first time!  They were instantly in love with her and still are!  Joshua noticed her peaceful nature right away, too, commenting that Hannah was a very "gentle" baby.



Our first family picture as a family of five! :)


Grandma meeting Hannah for the first time.  We decided she looks a lot like Joshua, although I think she has a bit of a Grace look in her, too. So I guess she is a pretty good mix!




And that is the story of our sweet, miraculous, peaceful little Hannah.  We are even more in love today than we were seven weeks ago.  What a blessing it is to have her in our lives, a blessing that I thank my Heavenly Father for each and every day.  I am grateful to have these sweet memories that I will treasure forever!