Ryan finally posts!

Hello everybody in blog world. I thought I would do the posting this time because, although her belly is considerably smaller, Kara now has one less hand with which to do things. I am glad I can do the heavy lifting for her ... like blogging!

Our first wedding anniversary was such a great time to reflect on how far we have come, plan for the future, and, most importantly, get a sweet gift. Kara's parents got a SUPER cool GPS unit for us. The Garmin Oregon 400t. Be careful not to drool on your computer. I hear that our previous GPS was actually used by cavemen to track dinosaurs.

We went to Kincaid Park to take our first family pictures. We plan on taking a family picture every year on our anniversary. I love my family so much!

Kara and I went to watch Harry Potter and The Half-blood Prince on the night of our anniversary. It was our favorite movie of the series.

We are loving the experience of watching our little boy grow. He has nearly doubled in size. He follows people around with his eyes and smiles when he likes something. Kara's family is just loving their time with Sammy, too.

After my salmon fishing experience on Bird Creek yesterday, I can say that I am now a fishing fan. Both of my parents love to fish. I hope they are jealous that I got to fish Alaskan Salmon!

We look forward to a new year with many exciting developments in each of our lives. Thank you for following our blog!

I want my baby back... ribs

With barbecue sauce!

Sammy's 1 month "birthday" fast approaches. I cannot believe how much he's changed in the past 4 weeks. Wow! Our little man is growing up so fast! I never thought I'd be the cheesy person saying that, but here I am!

Our 1 year anniversary is on Friday. The gift for each other for 1 year is traditionally paper, so we gave each other tickets to see Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince. Cassi said it was pretty good. We're also going to take family pictures with Sam. I hope they turn out well! My parents are going to take the pictures for us.

My genetic counseling rotation is going well. I've had some challenging cases, and I'm glad because I think my usual tendency would have been to just let Audrey do them with me observing. I'm pleased with myself for stepping up to the plate, so to speak. Speaking of stepping up to the plate, I am so bummed that the American League won the Midsummer Classic! Brad Hawpe was totally robbed of a home run, I was so angrified! We'll get 'em in the Fall Classic... aka World Series.

Ryan is playing some shoot 'em up video game on the Playstation. Sammy is asleep on his lap. What is it with boys and violent video games?

We have an album of Sammy pictures on Facebook that you can check out by clicking here. As I've said before, posting multiple pictures on the blog is a pain in the neck, so to see more pictures, check the Facebook album. You do not need to have a Facebook account- just click the link and save it to your bookmarks or whatever. But here's one picture just because I can't resist!

Not cute? What! The grumpy disco dancer is adorable!

Our Baby Story

Our little Sammy is finally here! He is almost 6 days old, and finally sleeps enough after a feeding that his mommy can get stuff done! (like updating the family blog)

Sam didn't feel like coming out on his own, so I was induced on June 18th. Let me tell you, an induction is no fun. Avoid it if you can! I got the first pill around 11:30 am. After the pill, they don't check on you for 4 hours. Mom, Ryan, and I played cards and watched the Rockies game on TV.

At the start, I was feeling pretty good. About 2 hours into the pill, I started having contractions. When they checked on me, I was dilated to 3cm, so they started the Pitocin. I decided to get an epidural at that point- I couldn't imagine going 7 more centimeters and then having to push if it already hurt that badly. The epidural made the pain manageable, but you can still tell I'm tired a few hours later.

A little after 8pm our doctor told me that I could start pushing. Oh man. That sucked like nothing else. We tried a lot of different positions, but for some reason the whole time the backs of my legs were tingling and it was so uncomfortable. Yuck. And then the last round of pushing came, and Sammy slipped into the world! Wow! He got whisked away by the pediatrics team right away, which was hard for me because I wanted to hold him right away. When I finally did, it was like magic. My little kicky-wicky, in the flesh!

Samuel Grayson Reynolds, born at 10:04pm on Thursday June 18, 2009. He weighed 7 pounds 7 ounces, and is 19.5 inches long. We love him so much!

It has been quite an adjustment for us. We're trying to get the hang of breastfeeding and not sleeping for more than 3 hours at a time. Our little Sammy is totally worth it. We call him "The Grump", "Grumpkins", and sometimes "Grumplestiltskins" because he scrunches up his face like he's glaring when he eats. SO CUTE! I wanted to put up a picture of the grump face, but my camera isn't cooperating right now. Stay tuned, Sam Fans.

Having my mom here to help us was amazing. We had a blast spending time with her, and really appreciated all her help. It was nice to have an experienced person around every time we freaked out about something (like not pooping, or pooping too much...). Thank you for being here, Mom!

Here's a picture of the (very) proud daddy with his little boy:

Still no Sammy

Aside from the lack of baby (grr...) this has been a good week. My mom is in town now, awaiting the arrival of the baby with us. She's being a good sport about hanging out in our tiny apartment while we wait. It has been raining a lot here in Utah, so we haven't been able to do as much walking as we would like. Yesterday we went geocaching. Ryan found both caches, good job honey!

Today I went to the Kura Door spa to have a special pregnancy massage. I really want Sammy to come soon, so we have more time together before I start my clinical rotation. I've heard a couple people swear by getting a special massage that hits certain pressure points, so I decided to try it out. It was really enjoyable, even if it doesn't help Sammy to get motivated to come out. My masseur really hit the pressure points at my ankles, hands and collarbones hard- I had to keep telling myself "contractions will hurt worse!!" to get through. Afterwards, though, it felt awesome. After the massage we went to the Farmers' Market in Pioneer Park. It was really cool, even though it rained on us a little. Mom bought Sammy a stuffed piggy that Ryan has named Snort. I think I may have to sneak it away from Ryan, he's very attached to Snort! Hopefully I will have some pictures soon of Sammy and Snort! For now, here's a picture of me, sad to still be pregnant.

Ward Photo Booth

Our ward had a Hollywood dance last night.  I can't exactly dance at the moment, but we stopped by to help out with babysitting.  One of the girls in our ward is a photographer, and she had a neat set up for people at the dance.  Here are our pictures!

Pregnant Brain Strikes Again!

I completely forgot to let the world know that Ryan passed his Praxis exam, and is now qualified to teach English in the state of Utah.  Congratulations, honey!  I'm proud of you.

Impatient

I had most of this week to myself, just hanging around the house, making a half hearted attempt to do research and work on homework.  Meh.  The Rockies are winning again, which makes me happy.  I like to watch their games in the evening while working on the quilt I'm making for Sammy.  I finished it a couple nights ago, woohoo!Many, many thanks to Lindsay Caldwell for guiding me along through my foray into quilting.  It was fun, and I may even have the confidence to do it again for the next baby!

We had another appointment with our baby doctor yesterday.  Here's hoping we don't have any more!  I am determined that this baby will not be born late.  Things are still looking good.  I told my doctor that I wanted to punch out the next person who says something like "The baby is due next week?  But he hasn't dropped yet!" and he laughed at me.  I think that means I have his permission to smack anyone who says that.  So watch out.  

Ryan drew this on our chalkboard in anticipation of Sammy's arrival.

I had the craziest experience grocery shopping this week.  When I got to Smith's, it was very dim inside.  A worker told me that an accident had knocked out power in the area, and they were on the emergency generators.  It was fun to shop in the half-lit store.  I was almost done when suddenly the lights went completely out.  I was in the back of the store, and it was pitch-black.  Scary!  Someone yelled out that everyone needed to come to the front of the store.  I left my cart and slowly walked up to the front.  One checkstand still had power.  Everyone was leaving, and I thought "Dang it, I want my groceries!"  So I went back to retrieve my cart.  Good thing I did, because I had left all my reusable bags in the cart (stupid pregnant brain!).  I was able to check out before the last checkstand lost power, and got home with my groceries safely.  It was awesome.  I hope the grocery store didn't lose all their perishables.  That would be sad.

Last night we went out to dinner with Rena, my mentor in the genetic counseling program.  We tried out the Rocky Mountain Pizza Co.  I had an excellent calzone.  The days of just going out to eat without serious planning are coming to an end... that will be so weird.  Not being able to do things spontaneously is going to be very different for us.  

Things I Am Excited to Do Again After the Baby is Born:

Run

Play sports (Ryan is going to teach me how to bat like Todd Helton)

Sleep on my back

Go more than an hour without peeing

Ride a bike

Walk up stairs without wanting to die

Eat whatever I feel like

Not be dependent on medicine to keep from vomiting

Wear my favorite shirt (the yellow one that says Reading is for Awesome People)

Squeeze through tight spaces

Roll over

Put on socks without it taking 2 minutes

Here's what I hope is the last belly picture on the blog.