I've been a bit busy.........but finally have good news to share!

Some force in the cosmos must have read my blog...

HE'S OUT!!!!

and they freed us from the hospital at 11:30 Saturday night!!!!

Dallin John Morris
has arrived and we couldn't be happier!!!!


Born: August 15th, 11:09 p.m.
that's only 51 minutes before my predicted exit date of Aug. 16!

Weight/Height: a pleasant 8 lbs., 4 oz. and 18.5 in. long.


Justin wants to hold him every second of the day...
Anna just can't believe we got to bring him home!!!

Stay tuned for the complete version of this beautiful story....
once I get more of this in:

For The Quote Book...

"Either I'm peeing myself and I can't stop, or my water broke," said Julie!

Baby oh baby!!!!! I'm so excited!!! I'm pretty sure I'm in labor....Expect some cute baby pictures soon!

Brace yourself....

...or just skip this post all together if you are not interested in hearing the ramblings of a very pregnant woman...
There's not a whole lot happening around here other than growing a baby, becoming VERY familiar with the waiting room in the Dr's. office and making sure my kids stay alive. Not much action going on...just lots of thinking. I'm just wondering when I'm going to start the action part!

Some things I've been thinking about lately:

When I will get to take my next nap....
Fatigue is my only pregnancy complaint, so I really shouldn't complain, but it will be nice to have energy once again! Another thing to consider... if I don't get my sleep, you never know what could happen.

My increasingly dirty house....
I'm just wondering when I'm going to actually act on those nesting instincts that are barely starting to come?!?! If it doesn't happen SOON....I'm going to have to shell out the money and hire someone to clean my house!!! Does anyone have a referral for a good cleaning lady ???

Watermelon, glorious watermelon...
I am obsessed with watermelon. I can't eat enough of the stuff! It takes very little effort to prepare....which is probably a very good reason it is so appealing to me. I did actually cut a massive slice off of this for breakfast and then proceeded to mutilate it while "grazing" for much of the morning. Bye the way, I LOVE watermelon right now!

My birth location choice....
Since I've had one mediocre hospital birth experience with Justin at Valley Hospital (not a place I'd recommend if you want to have a natural birth, but it was possible) and a Fabulous home birth with Anna (quite an amazing experience,) I have mixed feelings about giving birth in the hospital this time. I am confident in my ability to give birth and know It will be just fine at home or in the hospital, but think I might miss the intimacy and comfort of home, which I loved. So why am I in the hospital this time? Sad but true, I'm a girl with an eye for a bargain! I was planning on doing a home birth with April Kermani, a well recommend midwife here, until I found out that a hospital birth would only cost me $100 compared to the $3000 for a home birth.....and I met Dr. Steven Harter, who is more open and accepting of woman's choice in birth than any OB/GYN I have ever met. Last week when he approved my Birth Plan with flying colors, it gave me comfort. I've heard that Summerlin is the most accepting of mothers who want to give birth naturally and know I can have a good experience anywhere. I've felt for months that it's an ok choice to make, but still will miss the home birth experience.

i wrote this letter to Kaye Bullock, my midwife for Anna's birth. 

 July 11, 2008 at 10:25pm

I'm a great pregnant lady. Feel great! fatigue is all I have to deal with. I am 90 % sure it will be Dr Harter at Summerlin catching. . w/my insurance that's $100 bucks + marci thomas' doubla fees....April k. costs....$3000 I really like her.though . It stinks that money plays a part.
I have really liked everything he says. Not your average Doctor at all. If he really is true to what he says, he will be great..All I want is to have my way and he seems like he'll agree to any reasonable request. :) I feel well prepared and can have a great birth anywhere...the best is at home, but with a supportive doctor the hospital will do fine. I'll just have to get there on time...one of my concerns. At least I know it will probably go fast.

I still could do homebirth if something didn't feel right...but right now, everything feels peachy.

Whether or not I'll get to use this much...

Anna's birth was so fast that I wonder if I'll actually have enough time to utilize the birth tub I've rented. If I do get to birth in the tub it will be my first water birth. Water birth never actually appealed to me until now, even though I find water extremely relaxing and wonderful so I'm excited to try something new. I like the idea of breaking up standard hospital procedures and am glad that I have a Dr. that will let me use it! When I was speaking with the hospital, they said that Dr. Harter is one of the only ones who even does hospital water birth. I'm very interested to see how it goes, especially compared to my other two births.

When I'm actually going to pack...

So, this isn't actually my bag...it just resembles mine due to the fact that it is EMPTY! I wonder how soon normal people start to pack for the trip to the hospital.

When I will be able to take a nap....

O.k., I did mention this already, I just think about it A LOT!

How sweet my husband is....
For doing this to my sink while I was having a fun night out of the house. OK, OK, my sink wasn't shining like this one, but it had NO dishes in it! I wish I could still say that now....

What the actually size of baby is....
When a well meaning observer comments "Wow, you are huge" or "you look like you are going to pop", it isn't music to my ears to say the least. When my Dr. measured me at 41 weeks today, I didn't like the sound of that either. The ultrasound said yesterday this baby is 95th percentile in weight...Yikes! Who really knows! They told me the day before Justin was induced that he was over 10 lbs and he came out 7.7lbs. I wonder if there is any hope left that Baby will slide out like Anna did at a perfect 7.1 lbs?!? Chubby babies sure are cute though!

And now, the one topic this 37 weeks pregnant lady can't seem to get off her mind....
WHEN MY BABY IS COMING OUT!!!!
It's not that I want the baby out now, I just would like to be informed of WHEN!
I say due date, shmue date....Since I never had a period my due date was only predicted by ultrasound when I was 13 weeks along for Aug. 31. They say that the date is give or take 7 days. So my due date really should be Aug 24 through September 7th. Sigh....Consider the unpredictability of a more accurate due date calculated by the last menstrual period since babies are rarely born on a due date, then add 7 days either way?!? I say, why bother with the date at all! I'm usually a pretty patient person, but the total uncertainty is consuming so much brain power that it is hard to think of anything else! I vote for giving birth August 16th since there is a full moon, if any force in the cosmos cares!

So maybe you'll know some of the answers to my dying questions...
When will my baby be born??
Why is my Dr. going out of town right before my "due date??"
How much sleep is too much?
When am I supposed to get the whole nesting feeling?
Who should I hire to help me clean my dirty house?
Could I put off packing my hospital bag another week?
Has anyone had their baby on the night of a full moon?
Have ultrasound predictions been accurate for you?
Is cankles (calves + ankles ) a real word...because it sure is a real condition!?!?

Juicy.

I was just thinking how strange it is that I like grapefruit. At no other time in my life have I enjoyed eating the stuff. Now, I have one every day and have found great joy in scooping out the juicy flesh and eating it section by section with my beloved grapefruit spoon. It's my current favorite food ritual. Yes, some pregnick people are strange.

Anna's extensive birth story.

Hooray!
Anna Leigh Morris is here!
She arrived on Sunday, September 17, 2006 at 9:45am.
She weighed 7lbs.1oz.

It's been 16 days and oh how the time flies...or you just don't realize where it all went. She's been such a joy! She's bound to be, considering how her birth went. I couldn't have planned it better myself. I did plan some of it but the part I wasn't in control of went wonderfully. I had a great pregnancy and it ended with a wonderful birth experience. To my delight it all started at 3 a.m. that morning. When you are 39 weeks pregnant and you wake to the thought... "Why am I peeing?" you can only assume one thing. You bag of waters is broken. That's how it began. I always hoped I would know when it was "time," and I did.
First off, I woke up Patrick and told him my water had broken. I immediately called my doula, Arla Leins and my midwife Kaye Bullock and told them that my bag of waters had broken but that I wasn't sure if I was in labor. I was so excited and out of it since I was just sleeping that I could barely formulate a complete sentence. I was just so excited for something to start. At that time I thought was having contractions but I wasn't quite sure. For the next 2.5 hours I proceeded to clean and finish tying up the loose ends around the house I had stopped doing that morning before going to bed at 12:30 a.m. Shortly after I decided that I was actually in labor....there just wasn't much to it.
Things I did during early labor: Got dressed up with make-up and all so I could have my picture taken since I hadn't gotten one of my pregnant belly in 2 weeks. I got all of the supplies set up for the midwife and finished gathering the final supplies we needed. I got out the cameras. I ate an avacado and a tomato for some energy. I tossed out the rotting flowers in the vases around the house. Patrick got the pool blown up and helped get things ready. Since Patrick was ready to get some sleep I had him take some pictures of me at 4:10 to show my pregnant belly. He went back to sleep at 4:30. As a final preparation I lit every candle I could find....I realized after that the sun was just coming up but enjoyed them anyways. I called Arla, my Doula at 5:15.

By the time 5:30 a.m. came I finally felt prepared enough and decided to follow the doula's advice and get some rest. That was impossible. I was still too excited and my contractions wouldn't allow me to fall asleep. The next best thing to sleep was the hypnobirthing CD I had listened to the last month of my pregnancy. I never took hypnobirthing classes but I read the entire book and agreed with their philosophy that birth is normal, natural, and doesn't have to be a traumatic painful experience. The CD also had birthing affirmations on it that you repeat to teach your mind and body to have a good birth. When the 45 minute cd ended, it was time to find a different position other than side lying. Up until about 6:30 the contractions were mild and very manageable. About the same time Justin then Patrick woke up to help get him some breakfast. I packed Justin's bag and got church clothes for him so my mom could watch him and bring him to church.

When I went into the kitchen at 7:00 Patrick announced that he was going to make pancakes. Pancakes?!? It was at that time that I told Patrick that I needed him and that we could make pancakes another day. There were no pancakes made that morning! He was a bit disappointed to not get pancakes but from that point on he was at my side. We called my mom and she picked up Justin and took him to her house. For the next hour I sat in the bath tub while Patrick used the shower head to pound my body and back with the warm, soothing water. I loved that so much but for some reason I decided to get out! It felt so good that I wanted to save it for later when I really needed it! What a weird idea of mine! I called Arla again to tell her I had stronger contractions which Arla helped me count. They were 4 minutes apart. I sat on the toilet a lot and also began wandering around the house to find the perfect position. I just couldn't decide what to do next...I mostly sat on the toilet.


At 8:30 I felt I ran out of options so I decided to call Arla and have her come over to help me out. She got to my house at 9:00, got settled in and got right to work...fulfilling my request for a bowl of strawberries. Arla gave me the idea to hang over the birth ball on my bed, which was especially comfortable.


I did that from 9:05-9:20 when I felt that I needed to go poo. I crouched over the toilet and tried to go....but I couldn't poo, since that feeling was really Anna, ready to come! I was in the bathroom until 9:25 when my body started heaving, which reminds me of the heaving my body does when I'm throwing up. My body heaving was the only clue for Arla that it was time for Anna to be born. With urgency she recommended that we move to the bed!

Within a few minutes I was laying on the bed on my side thanks to Arla, especially since giving birth over the toilet wasn't the plan! Arla called Kaye at 9:28, but couldn't get ahold of her since she was in the middle of Sacrament Meeting at church. When I had called Kaye at 3 a.m. I had only mentioned that my bag of waters had broken...not that I was in labor, since I didn't know I was! Arla then called another doula, Margie Dacko for a bit of coaching on what to do since she had never delivered a baby before! I remember listening to their conversation about the eminent birth but and was so shocked that it was time for Anna to come out. Right before it was time to give birth I remember Arla speaking frankly to me that it was time for me to have a baby because it still hadn't registered to me. I had no clue that it would be so easy compared to Justin's birth. I had waited too long to call Kaye because I expected so much more pain and a much longer labor. There was no screaming, I just kept saying, uh oh, uh oh! It still hadn't registered to me yet, even minutes before she was born but the show still went on!


At 9:45 am...just after 3.5 hours of active labor I delivered Anna laying on my side, one leg over the birth ball. The pushing was uncontrollable and powerful. I wouldn't even say that I pushed her out. I didn't have a choice in the matter. Anna was really just expelled from my body like a little baby rocket. Luckily, Arla was kneeling with her left leg out to the side. That's what stopped Anna from flying off the bed! It was so amazingly fast that once Anna was in my arms, I was still shocked! After it was over I said, "I did not expect it to happen like that at all." It went way better than I had ever expected!

Arla Leins, my doula...a.k.a. "baby catcher"



Shortly after, my mom brought Justin back to meet Anna. Boy, was he excited!

Kaye Bulloch, my midwife

Kay did come around 11:00 after getting out of sacrament meeting and getting the message. She did all of the post birth work and stitched me up. We spent a while relaying the wonderful events of the morning that she had missed! Note to self...keep those attending my births better informed so I can actually use the services I've paid for! And one more thing.....get it all on video! My only big regret is that everything went so fast that we didn't get pictures of the actual birth and had no video footage taken until after Anna was born. The experience was so amazing to me...I just wish I had it all on tape! What a wonderful little miracle and fantastic birth experience!