Baby Dallas

My due date was September 5th and we were planning to be out of our rental by Sept 15th so I was a little anxious for the baby to come early.  I had an appointment on Monday after we got back from the cruise and I hadn't progressed at all since my appointment the day before the cruise.  That made me feel even more happy that I had chosen to go on the cruise:) but I was a little bummed that it wasn't looking like I was going to have the baby early.  A couple days later though at dinner with Grandma and Auntie I was having regular contractions for about two hours.  Meanwhile we were still packing slowly and trying to get ready to move to who knows where.  At that point we were planning to head to Lehi and Garrett was going to work for his Dad as general counsel for his development company.  We were still trying to nail down housing though and nothing seemed to be working out.  So my amazing friend Erin called me right when we got back in town and planned a baby shower for me on Thursday night.

You have to know Erin to understand that anything she does or touches turns out amazing.  Seriously.  My mom met her when she came out to help us move and after a couple days she asked, "Is there anything Erin can't do?" So in true Erin fashion she came up with this adorable theme "Ready to POP".  So she took all these maternity pics of me and my huge belly the day before and had a popcorn bar and it was so cute!

It was so wonderful to visit with so many of my friends and to celebrate this little man coming into the world.  Especially since I knew we would be moving so quickly after he was born.  Knowing that we had a ton to do to pack and move by the 15th, I joked with everyone that now I just needed to have this baby the next day and then everything would be perfect.  I had a doctors appointment scheduled for the next morning at 10 and I was planning to have them strip my membranes to get things going.

The next morning started out as usual.  The kids all wandered into our bed at different times and I just kept sleeping until there were too many people to ignore.  As I rolled over I felt something snap inside me up by my belly button.  I was kind of panicked at first because when my water broke with Beckett it felt much lower.  I ran to the bathroom and sure enough my water had broken.  I knew not to rush to the hospital like we did with Beckett because they just made me walk around for hours before anything really happened and I prefer to labor at home anyway.  So since we were totally unprepared, I started packing my hospital bag and going through the baby clothes.  Garrett started figuring out a place for the kids to go.  I was walking up and down the stairs and all over the house at first, but pretty soon I was having some serious contractions and it was time to get going.  I could tell from the contractions that this boy was posterior because I was having serious back labor just like I did with Rylynn.  Boo!  So we dropped off the kids at Erin's house and I teased her that it was the lime chili popcorn that sent me into labor:)  When we checked in at the hospital they could tell I was pretty far along and admitted me right away.  When they checked me I was already at 4cm so they took my blood right away so that we could get things started with an epidural.  Unfortunately somehow my blood sample got lost in the hospital and the nurse had to track it down for over an hour.  By then I was having some really hard contractions so she gave me some drugs through my IV.  I can't remember the name of them but they were seriously strong.  I felt like the room was spinning so I just closed my eyes and kind of dozed through the contractions until they found my blood and we got the green light for the epidural.  Shortly after that the nurse checked and I was already at 6cm.  I always ask for the lightest epidural possible but this time I could tell something was wrong because I could pretty much feel everything on my right side.  I just dealt with it for awhile until it started really killing and I started panicking because they had started a tiny bit of pitocin when they did the epidural and I was worried that I was having a uterine rupture.  I know that was me just being a worrier but pitocin does increase the chance of rupture in VBACs and I didn't have any with Beckett so I was nervous.  The anesthesiologist came in and they upped the dose but that just made my left side more numb and I could still feel everything on the right side.  So he decided to add some extra drugs to the epidural line and that seemed to fix it.  Luckily right after that the baby turned so he was no longer posterior!  Really quickly after that I could tell I was complete and I needed to push.  I told the nurse to check and sure enough I was at 10cm.  I told her that I only push a couple of times and that the doctor better hurry.  Garrett and I were a little panicked when she said that she still needed to call him and that he was still at the office.  She told me I couldn't sit up and not really to even move because she was worried he would come out.  The doctor ran over and got in his gown and got Garrett all suited up so he could catch the baby.  Then I pushed six times and Garrett caught him.  I didn't tear or anything.  It was the easiest and fastest labor/birth for me and it was kind of crazy how well it went.  Honestly, Garrett and I kept looking at each other like that was too easy.  

As soon as he came out the nurses all kept commenting on how big he was even though he looked tiny to me.  I could not believe it when they weighed him and said he was 9 pounds 8 oz!  That was way bigger than any of my other babies. 

Dallas Reddick Hall was here safe and sound and we were so happy to meet him!  He was born at 5:12pm.  The labor was only 9 hours from the time my water broke which was a record for me.  Beckett had been my shortest birth and that was 12 hours so 9 hours seemed so fast to me.

Garrett went to pick up the kids and they were so excited to come meet their new baby brother! 

Carter was so sweet with Dallas and so excited to hold him.

Rylynn couldn't get enough of Dallas and was so sad she had to leave him.  The kids were pretty starving by the time they came to visit so they couldn't stay long.  Since my Mom wasn't going to be flying for two more days, Garrett had to leave with the kids.    

So it was just me and Dallas that first night.  We was a champion nurser and even slept for six straight hours!  I think it was because he was so big but I was so thankful since I knew how much stress waited back home for me.  I was also very happy he slept so long since the hospital had no nursery due to budget cuts!  Seriously?  I had never heard of that.  It was actually fine though and I was happy to get to snuggle with my new baby all night long.

Here he is all ready to go home the next morning.  Since I didn't tear and he was so big we were pretty anxious to get home so we basically just waited around all morning while we got cleared by the pediatrician and had all the final tests.

I loved being able to just sit and hold and little perfect baby again.  Dallas and Beckett are the farthest apart of any of our kids so it felt like it had been so long since I had held a newborn and heard their tiny little squeaks.  

The kids showed up around 5 to pick us up.  Rylynn could not wait to get her little hands on her baby brother again!

Beckett was so sweet with him too and seemed more interested in him this time.

Carter was very excited to hold him again too.

He looked so teeny in his car seat all ready to go.  I was very happy to discover that he was a binky baby too!  Beckett had had horrible reflux for the first year and wouldn't ever take a binky so I was really worried Dallas might be the same way.  I listened to him swallow very carefully the first couple days to make sure he didn't have reflux and he didn't so that was a huge relief!  Back home it was a bit crazy and I was pretty anxious for my mom to come the next evening but I was glad to be home with all the people I loved.  And just like that we became a family of six!!

Cruise part 3 Victoria

Our final port stop was in Victoria British Columbia.  It was such a beautiful day and the city was amazing.  I have always wanted to visit Victoria because I have heard that it is a lot like Europe and I LOVE Europe.  It did not disappoint!

Some of the bunch chose to go to Butchart Gardens but I wanted to see Victoria and the gardens were pretty pricey so Garrett, Jordan, Matt, my Dad, and I all walked around Victoria for the day.  This was the pier and the harbor was so beautiful.

Normally I would not be taking pictures of me let alone posting pictures of me nine months pregnant, but we had to document the cruise, so too bad for me.

This is the oldest hotel in Victoria.  Tea at the Empress hotel is famous and we walked through the tea rooms to see what all the fuss was about but it was like $50.00 a person for tea so we passed.  The hotel was really beautiful inside and the gardens surrounding it were amazing.

I loved the grounds at the Empress.  The flowers were all so beautiful!

The blue and purple hydrangeas were my favorite, but they had really pretty roses and all sorts of other ones that I don't know the names of:)

I loved this little bench in the rose garden.

We went to eat right along the pier at a little restaurant where we had amazing clam chowder and fish and chips.  Our waiter was a high school boy who was asking us all about the election since he has dual citizenship.  I was happy to hear that he was pretty informed about the issues and seemed to be pretty interested in knowing more about the candidates before he voted.  It was kind of funny though since there are few topics my Dad enjoys discussing more than politics, and actually all of us our quite interested in politics so I think the boy got more than he bargained for:)

These cool bushes were just right in the center of town.  This trumpet player was awesome and he kept telling me how lucky my baby was going to be.  I think it was because I gave him a dollar:)  I have to admit, we did a ton of walking around Victoria and by the end I was really feeling pregnant!  I had several contractions and my feet got really swollen.  I was feeling pretty relieved that I only had to make it one more day and then I would be in Seattle and would be okay if the baby decided to come.

We took a tour through the State legislature building on our way to lunch.  It was a pretty building and it was pretty cool to see the big room where their congress meets.  This is a picture of the dome ceiling right in the center of the building.  It was very european and the congress room reminded me a lot of the one in London but much smaller.  It was kind of weird to see pictures everywhere of the Queen of England and I have to admit I didn't know before then that they even had anything to do with her.  So I  learned that she has no influence over them or their government but that she is sort of a figure head for them.  She's even on their money.  Anyway, we finished off the day with some delicious gelato on our way back to the boat.  Oh and I can't forget to mention that we bought some Lion bars and other delicious european chocolate candy bars!  I missed my London cadbury chocolate soo much so it was so good to enjoy it once again!

The next morning we arrived in Seattle and said our goodbyes to my wonderful family.  It was such a fun and amazing trip and I wouldn't have missed it for anything.  I'm so glad I snuck on board 9 months pregnant!  None of it would have happened though if it weren't for my wonderful mother in law and sister in law who watched our kids for us.  We drove back home and were so excited to see our kids after a whole week.  They had had a great time with Grandma and Auntie and Lauren too.  A couple days later we went downtown to eat dinner with them at the Spaghetti Factory and the whole time we were there I had contractions pretty regularly.  I was a little worried but then on the way home they finally stopped. Little did I know, our little man would be making his appearance a couple days later and exactly one week to the day that we arrived back in Seattle!  More details to come...

Cruise Part 2 Tracey Arm

The next day we were at sea but we travelled through the Tracey Arm Fjord all morning.  It was amazing!  We went up on the top deck first thing in the morning to see the glacier and got to watch as the captain maneuvered the ship around all the little glaciers floating in the water.  I have to admit it made me a little nervous and I had flashes of "Titanic" in the back of my mind, but he did a great job and we survived:)

These are both pictures of the glacier.  You can kind of see in these pictures(I have a crappy camera) but the color of the glacier was amazing.  It honestly looked like it was glowing or something.

There were tons of these tiny glaciers floating in the water.  Most of them were pretty small but some of them were pretty good sized.  That's why I got a little nervous!

It was pretty amazing actually to see the captain steer the boat back and forth to avoid every little ice burg.  

You can kind of see from these two pics the color of the water.  Again it looked like it was almost glowing.  They said the color comes from the sediment of the rocks of the mountains which are actually granite.  It was the coolest color water I have ever seen.  It wasn't clear like the bahamas but it was the same aqua kind of color.  It was cloudy though, almost milky looking.

This was a pretty good sized glacier and I thought this picture was cool because you can kind of see how far down under the water it goes.

It was a misty cold morning which made it all look so much more magical.  I love the mist in the mountains.  It reminds me of Lord of the Rings.  I know I'm a nerd.  It's my husband's fault:)

Ben and Garrett are huge dorks and while we were passing this huge waterfall they kept on talking about how they wanted to open up an excursion here where you slide down the waterfall into the freezing glacier water and that they would build a hot tub off to the side so you can warm up afterwards.  That is, if you survive, which is highly unlikely.

After we got out of the Fjord we sailed along these Alaskan and Canadian mountains the rest of the day.  We saw tons of Orca Whales that day which is what is in this picture if you look closely.  At one point we past an island that the captain said had more bears per sq mile than people.  We never actually saw one though.

This picture was taken through the window of our beloved conference room B.  As I mentioned earlier, we are huge dorks and love to talk and play games all day long.  So instead of going to all the planned activities everyday, we would sneak into this conference room, which you are supposed to reserve and pay for, and hang out all day.  It became a huge joke because we never reserved or paid for it but we used it everyday.  It was our meeting spot after dinner too where we would have FHE, book discussions, and other stimulating conversations!  Anytime people poked their heads in, we would just look at them like, "can we help you?" and then they would leave.  It was awesome.  The best thing about it was that it had huge porthole windows and it was on the third deck so it was really close to the water and had awesome views.

The Cruise!! part one

This is the story of one of the craziest, if not THE craziest thing I have ever done.  Back in December my parents announced to the family that they would be going on an 18 month mission for our church the following fall and so in celebration of that and my Dad's 60th birthday they paid for all the adults to go on a cruise to Alaska together!  I didn't know at the time that I was pregnant but I had an idea that I might be.  I mentioned this to my parents for planning purposes but at that point I had no concrete evidence so they went ahead and locked in the date.  So it turns out that I was pregnant and my due date was Sept 5th and the cruise was August 17-24.  That's right, my baby was due 12 days after we got home:) I completely planned on going since I have never had any of my babies more than one day before my due date but as we looked more into the policy I realized I wasn't supposed to go past 24 weeks of pregnancy.  BOO!!  So I was not going to go.  As the months past and it got closer and every one was more and more excited I was so bugged that I was going to miss out on all the fun.  So my Mom and I were chatting one day and we came up with a brilliant plan to sneak on the cruise.  The first concern though was to make sure it was medically safe for me to go.  So my mom called a friend of hers who has been and OB/GYN for several years and explained the situation.  She said there was absolutely no risk of anything going wrong with the pregnancy as a result of going on a cruise, whoever, she did say that going anywhere that close to your due date is slightly insane and that there was a risk that I would go into labor on the boat.  So after I knew that nothing bad would happen to my baby as a result of being on a cruise I decided to go for it!  My mom went out and bought a 42 DDD bra from good will and sewed pillows into the boob spots and then got me a giant moo moo to go over the bra.  Our thinking was that if the boobs stuck out as far as my belly then you wouldn't be able to tell that I was pregnant; I would just look really fat.  

So here I am in all my giant bra moo moo glory!!  BTW if any of you ever use this picture for blackmail purposes I will kill you:)  So I talked to several of my friends who had cruised recently to ask if they were asked about pregnancy at check in because I really didn't want to have to lie point blank to anyone.  They all assured me that they were not asked that and then talking to another friend I learned that as long as they allow you on board and then find out you are pregnant they can't kick you off.  All of this being said, I was pretty freaked out while we were standing in line waiting to check in but it all worked out and no one asked me anything about pregnancy so I didn't even have to lie!!

We were at sea for Friday and Saturday and ate tons of yummy food, played games, went to a few of the shows and mostly just did what Monsons do best, talked.  All day!  It was so much fun and although I really missed my kids, it was amazing to be able to have as much uninterrupted adult conversation as I wanted to.  

The first port stop was in Juneau on Sunday.  We all sort of wanted to do different things in Juneau so we split off for the day.  Garrett and Ben were very excited to go fishing so after we got them off and on their way, Molly and I wandered around Juneau exploring the cute shops.

We stuck together since we are the two preggos (she was only 20 weeks so she was actually allowed on board:) and we were both coming down with a cold.  It was really fun though and we got to see the Medenhall glacier from afar.  We were sad to find out at dinner that we could have gone with the others to "hike" to the glacier.  For obvious reasons we weren't feeling like we should do the 7 mile hike but as it turned out they were driven right up to the trail and the trail up to the glacier was totally flat and we could have easily walked it.  Oh well.  At least we got to see some really pretty pictures of it.  My mom and Abby and Matt went on a dog mushing excursion.  That looked really cool too.  Everyone got to do fun things and it was just cool to be in Alaska!

 The next port stop was the next day in Skagway.  This is us at the port in the morning.  We all went on an excursion together on the yukon and white pass railway.  It started out with a bus ride all the way up the pass into Canada.  The views were amazing.

We stopped for lunch at this little lodge and ate Bison chili.  It was really yummy and the view was beautiful.  There was a cool suspension bridge going across a huge river right behind the restaurant.

After lunch we boarded the train and took that back through the mountains down to Skagway.  The train is built right into the mountains so it is a little scary at some points since you are looking straight down into valleys way below the train track.

 This was one of the picture stops along the drive with the whole gang!  Don't mind my nine month preggo fat self:)

This was a shot from the train

Right before we drove into Canada we made a stop to see these crazy rock statue things.  They are called anuk shuks.  Our awesome bus driver/tour guide told us he would give a prize to whatever group or person could build the tallest anuk shuk.  So naturally being Monsons and therefore highly competetive, we took up the challenge!

Here was the building crew.  The rest of us gathered rocks to help.  After much effort and strategic planning we came out victorious!  

We had amazing weather!  It was sunny and beautiful which was really awesome since we were told that a lot of the time it is too cloudy to see all the waterfalls and mountains along the bus ride.

How awesome is this train conductor?  Garrett had to get a picture with him:)

That's the train tracks going across the falls!

It was really kind of crazy thinking about all the thousands of men that hiked this trail with a ton of supplies strapped to horses backs all in the pursuit of gold.  Unfortunately most of them never found any.  

 Seriously the views along the drive and the train were amazing!  

 Our tour guide was a student at BYU Idaho and he was really cool. 

 He told us that the horses that were used for the gold miners were usually old and sick to begin with and then after loading them so full of supplies, most of them ended up dying.  They also had to travel through something like 14 feet of snow in the winter.  It sounded like a pretty miserable journey.

 I was happy to get to ride on the comfortable bus and train to view the beautiful scenery myself.  I don't think I would have lasted long back then:)

After the excursion was over we got to walk around Skagway and shop.  It was really small so it didn't take too long.  One of the facts we learned on the bus was that there are no doctors in Skagway and that when women there are pregnant they make them fly to Juneau 2 months before they have their babies in case there are any complications since there are no hospitals there either.  I have to admit it made me a little nervous to hear that in my "current condition":)  We headed back to the boat and set sail for Tracey Arm Fjord the next day and of course had lots more yummy food!