The Birth Story

Yes, it only took me 2 months to do this, but here is the highly anticipated (or highly dreaded) birth story. Don't worry, it is safe.

The short version:

2:03 am: Had my first contraction
5:15 am: Arrived at the hospital... put in an observation room
6:30 am: Dilated to a 5
7:30 am: finally got admitted into my room
8:30 am: epidural in, and finally feeling good
8:45 am: Dilated to a 10
10:19 am: Hudson was born!

8 hours and 16 minutes total for my first baby. I have to say I was pretty impressed with how the labor and delivery went. Hudson was a rockstar through the whole thing!

Now for the long version.

My due date was May 22, 2012. But everyone knows that first time mothers rarely deliver on their actual due date.

May 21st came, and I just knew that I was going to be late. There was no way I was even close to going into labor despite the fact that I was dilated to a 3 at my 38 week appointment. Things were at a stand still.

It was a strange feeling. My whole pregnancy, I was high risk for going into pre-term labor. I was so grateful when I hit week 37, because I knew I had made it to term. But, I felt like I would, or rather, should go into labor early because my whole pregnancy was spent worrying about going into preterm labor. By May 21st, I felt like I was 3 weeks late.

But nothing happened, and the next day was my due date. So, I went to bed. I prepared myself, and knew that I would probably be super late and they would have to induce me.

But, luck was on my side. I woke up at 2:03 in the morning to go to the bathroom. It was officially my due date. As I was headed back to bed, I felt something I hadn't felt yet: a painful contraction. This was new to me. I didn't think much of it, and laid back down. About 10 minutes later, I got another painful contraction. I started to think that something might be happening, so I got out of bed and went out to the couch. For the next hour, I counted my contractions. They were about 8-10 minutes apart, and over a minute long. Each one was getting a little more painful/uncomfortable. At 3:15ish, I woke up Kyle and told him what was happening. And, just in case, I decided to get in the shower and shave the ol' legs... you know that is a must. While I was in the shower, I had 4 contractions really close together. I knew it was time to at least call Labor and Delivery to see if I should come in. By this point, my contractions were about 4-6 minutes apart.

When I was on the phone with the Labor and Delivery Nurse, she told me to wait it out a little bit longer before I should go to the hospital. But, then as we were talking, I had 2 back to back contractions. So, she changed her mind and told me to come in now. It was about 4:15 am. I was so grateful for those 2 back to back contractions!

Kyle and I got everything packed up and ready, and headed to the hospital. We got there a little after 5:00 am. I was put into an observation room to make sure I was actually going into labor. As luck would have it, Labor and Delivery at Kaiser was super busy that morning, and we got there during a shift change. So, the doc didn't come in to check me until 6:30. By this time, I was having super bad contractions that were super close together. Luckily, I was dilated to a 5, so the admitted me. But, because they were so busy, I had to wait for a room. Finally, by 7:30 I was taken to my room. I told them I needed the epidural ASAP. By 8:00, the anesthesiologist came in and gave me the sweet nectar. By 8:30, I was feeling good.

As I was talking to the nurse, she began to tell me what to prepare for. I asked her how I was supposed to feel when things were ready because I couldn't really tell what was happening due to the epidural. She told me that I would have more pressure in the back side, and I would be able to feel it. As she was explaining this to me, I told her, "I am already feeling a lot of pressure in my backside." She didn't think much of it, and told me the doc would come in within the next 1 1/2 hours to check me. After all, I was only dilated to a 5 just 2 hours before. Then, I said back to her, "I don't think you understand. I am feeling a ton of pressure in the backside. I think I need to be checked now!"

So the nurse personally checked me. To her surprise, she said, "Wow, you are already to a 10!" I was so glad that I was persistent and made her check me. At this point it was about 8:45ish.

The nurse still had to prep the room before I could start pushing. So she said to us, "While we get the room ready, you and Kyle need to start preparing yourself for what's about to happen." I was so glad she told us this. While they set up the room, Kyle and I were able to just talk and had a really good moment before all the craziness set in. That was, and will always be, a precious moment for the both of us.

At around 9:15, all the fun stuff started. Right before Hudson was out, I was waiting for a contraction. I asked the doc if I had to wait for a contraction in order to push. So she gave me the go ahead to push when I wanted. I looked at my amazing nurse and said, "Let's do this thing!" Everyone had a good giggle...

...And then, Hudson was here! It was 10:19 am, our baby boy was finally here! Those first 5 seconds seemed like an eternity as we waited for the sound of his first breath and precious cry. But, when he did, it was the sweetest sound (and not to mention a huge relief).

When the doctors laid him on my chest, it was the sweetest, most spiritual moment I have had yet to date. We finally had our baby. Our family had finally grown. We were finally parents to the sweetest baby in the entire world. We had been blessed immensely to finally hold our baby boy in our arms! It was such a tender moment for me and Kyle.

It was Love!!!

True Love!!!

PS...The very first thing Hudson did before they laid him on my belly: He peed right in the doctor's face. It was pretty cute, and funny, all at the same time.

Introducing...

Meet our son: 

Hudson Reese Sager

Born May 22, 2012 at 10:19 am

7 pounds 5 oz

21 inches tall

We just love him!!!

My Pregnancy

Since I have become pregnant, the blog has become very low on my list of things to do. But, since our baby is about to arrive, I thought I better catch up on a few things. Most importantly, I wanted to document the main events in this pregnancy.

But first, a picture of my baby bump:

38 weeks

PS... all the pics of my baby bump are from my phone, so don't judge the quality...

First Trimester:
The first trimester was a little crazy. I was on bed rest for a few weeks after IVF because of a certain surgery that I had to have. Then I was back to work. After about 2 weeks back at work, and a trip to the ER for what my doctor thought was a pulmonary embolism, it turned out I had a pretty large blood hemorrhage under my placenta. So, I was back on bed rest for another month. I sometimes look at it as a blessing in disguise because I felt so nauseous. I don't know how I would have been able to work and smell all the hair products/chemicals while being that sick. So, in that sense, I am glad I was on bed rest. But, I did get pretty bored, so my Mom flew out to take care of me and teach me how to crochet. That helped out a lot... I just love my Mom!

Once I was off bed rest, I still had to take it super easy, only being able to stand for a few hours a day. I ended up quitting my job and decided to just enjoy this pregnancy, because I had no idea when I could resume completely normal activities. As I look back, I am so glad I did. I have been able to enjoy being pregnant, and get a lot of stuff done that I wanted to get done. I have still been cutting hair on the side, which has kept me quite busy as well.

Second Trimester:
During my second trimester, I was still super nauseous... all the way up to my 3rd trimester. Since the 2nd trimester is supposed to be the time that you feel great during pregnancy, all I wanted to do was to eat a good meal (you all know how much I love food), slurp down a fatty milkshake, and crave weird foods. But it was all I could do to force a saltine cracker down my throat.

Despite all the nausea, I started to feel our baby moving. It made everything completely worth it. I had a human growing inside of me, and that is such a wonderful miracle. I wouldn't change a thing. I would take the nausea any day to be able to feel our baby move. And the first time Kyle felt him move, it made it even that much more real and exciting.

21 weeks... still pale from the nausea.

I went to go visit my family in Wyoming for a week. It was so good to see all of my sisters! They even surprised me with a baby shower. I have the best family in the world.

Sager All Star Cake, because Baby Sager is going to be an All Star!

Sisters, Mom, Aunts, and Cousin at the shower.

Then, Kyle and I went to Boise to visit his family and it was so great to see them. I hadn't seen some of them in a very long time, so it was wonderful to have a mini family reunion!

The entire Sager Clan at a huge trampoline place...I just watched :)

23 weeks. 

Kyle and I in front of a bouncy house - brings back great memories of how we met.

Third Trimester:
At week 28, I finally started to feel better. I still had a few nauseous days mixed in, but for the most part, I felt much better. I resorted to eating cheeseburgers. For some reason, those just always make me feel better. Especially In-n-Out! I have eaten there more than I care to even share with Kyle.  (Kyle just read this and said "Whaaaat?"

 30 weeks

In March, my Mom and Mother-in-law came out to California and threw me an amazing baby shower. First of all, it was so fun to have both moms here at the same time. Kyle and I both loved it. Second, they sure know how to throw a party. It was Rock Star themed, since Baby Sager is also going to be our little Rock Star!

Grandma Stevens, me, and Grandma Sager

Fruit Pizza and the Rock Star Diaper Cake in the background.

Rock Star Cup Cakes, made by the one and only Sariah! She is amazing!

The entire spread. Thank goodness my nausea went away so I could eat all this!!!

After the shower, I had entered panic mode and Kyle became my rock. I felt like I had so much to do, and I would have little freak out moments. But Kyle would always calm me down and keep me in check (he is still doing this). We finally feel like we are ready. The nursery is set up, the car seat is installed, and we are ready to meet our son!

My mom mostly made the crib skirt with a little of my help, and I made the sheets and blanket.

36 weeks

Today, I am officially 38 weeks pregnant. Our baby boy is as strong as ever. In fact, I wonder how big he is going to be when he comes into this world. I feel like he will be a big baby (because of what I can see and feel on my pregnant belly), but we shall see. We are just so excited for him to get here.

38 weeks

In case you haven't heard:

We are having a:

BOY!!!

This picture was taken at 19 weeks.

Current Stats:

Age: 22 1/2 weeks

Due: May 22, 2012

We are SO THRILLED to be having a boy. Kyle can't wait to throw a football around with our little guy and start building the Sager team.

Christmas and New Years

For Christmas, Kyle's parents came out to visit. Kyle's mom is a California native, so she was absolutely loving the sun-shiny weather. When they got into town, we started the festivities off with a delicious dinner at Buca Di Beppo.

Our Christmas Eve dinner was non-traditional; Dutch-oven brisket, twice-baked potatoes, and the works. Our kitchen is too small to accommodate 4 people, so we moved the table into the living room (the joy of California renting). It was a cozy dinner, that's for sure.

Christmas morning, Santa delivered. We were too excited to take a lot of pictures, but here are the few we did take. I had to document getting the iPhone...finally!!! My old brick of a phone served me well for many years...it felt like carrying around Zack Morris' old cell phone.

My parents may have underestimated Kyle's size, but he tried to fit into it anyway. It fit his left calf, but looked great! It's our little babe's first Boise State Tee.

We had a wonderful, relaxing Christmas, and didn't do much. We just enjoyed the wonderful company of Kyle's parents.

For New Years Eve, our plan was to go to bed early and skip the whole midnight scene. But, at about 11:00 am, some of our friends called and asked if we wanted to get together. So, we threw together a last minute party to bring in the new year.

Sariah, Brett, Kyle, Mel, Ryan, and Shannon:

We made breakfast at midnight. Biscuits and gravy, scrambled eggs, and a whole lot of treats. Yum. We love this tradition! We have done it twice, and we will keep the tradition alive.

We also played some crazy, silly, games that got us all in the mood and kept our eyes open until midnight. It was a party to remember, especially being thrown together last minute.

*Thanks to Shannon for the pics.

December 2011

We had some good times in December. Lots of Christmas parties and get togethers with friends. But, we rarely took any pictures. Here are some of the events that we did take pictures:

For our Ward Christmas party, there was a theme of "Ugly/Festive Christmas Sweaters." First of all, we thought this was pretty funny. In fact, when they announced it in church, I looked around the room and noticed about 4 older ladies wearing the "Festive" sweaters that I would have rocked in an Ugly Sweater Contest. I thought it was very classy to throw the "festive" in, as to not offend anyone in the ward.

Naturally, Kyle and I decided go all out for this. We love making fools of ourselves...any of you know that. We decided on Festive Ugly. Introducing our very own glue and stick holiday cheer sweaters...

Tassels and nasty mustache included:

We walked into the church with pride, wearing our homemade cheer. In our old ward (LSW), we had many friends who would rock some fantastic ugly sweaters. So we were excited to see who would rock the ugly in our newer ward. To our dismay, ugly sweaters in our new ward meant cute, modern, normal sweaters. There was only one person wearing a rudolph sweater in which the nose lit up. He was the M.C. I really think that our ward folk looked at us like we were crazy. But, we laughed and wore our homemade cheer with pride - still a little disappointed that we were the only ones wearing the "Ugly/Festive Sweaters." Oh well. We have fun.

We also took a trip out to Half Moon Bay to celebrate my birthday. We (maybe I) love HMB. It is beautiful, the drive is gorgeous, it is much cleaner than Santa Cruz, and there is some AWESOME food. We love Sam's Chowder House - some of the best Clam Chowder around. We had a beautiful lunch overlooking the beach. Afterwards, we headed over to The Ritz to enjoy the views.

They were having a Gingerbread House Contest. Here were some of our faves.

This one looked like a true house. But it was all made of Gingerbread. I hope this one won.

It was a perfect day - and a great way to celebrate my birthday.

One last thing. For my birthday, I told Kyle that I was a little tired of my birthday presents being mingled in with Christmas. For as long as I can remember, my presents would be wrapped in Christmas wrapping. I know... horrible to be complaining about a gift that someone gives me. But, I did it anyway, and he took it to heart. When he brought out my gift, he brought it in this wrapping paper:

It was a Cuisinart Food Processor, by the way, and I was so excited. But the wrapping made it that much better!!!

Thanksgiving Weekend

It is December 19th, and I am just now posting about Thanksgiving. Yes, I know it is a little late, but life has been crazy busy with all the shopping, baking, parties, and so forth, all while trying to deal with some pretty nasty pregnancy sickness. Blogging has been one of the last things on my mind. So without further a due, here it is:

Thanksgiving weekend was a huge success. First, we went over to the Jensen's house for the big Feast. We go way back with these guys. Adam worked with Kyle at BYU, and now they work together at ValleyCrest. Wendy was my boss in Provo at her IT company. We were so excited when they decided to move out to CA a few months ago. We did our Sager family tradition of going around the table and telling what we are thankful for. This year, Kyle and I definitely had a ton to be thankful for!

Here is our craptastic picture around the table. It's a must, even though it is always the most awkward picture.
As you can see, there were only 4 of us, plus a babe. But, we did not let that get in the way. We still feasted like kings - which meant more leftover turkey sandwiches for all!

On the menu:

Made by the Sagers: Turkey, Stuffing, Candied Yams, Frosted Cauliflower, Homemade Cranberry Sauce, and a non-traditional Pumpkin Cake

Made by the Jensens: Mashed Potatoes, Fruit Salad, Homemade Rolls, and a Homemade Apple Pie.

The turkey was, hands-down, the best turkey we have ever had. It was so juicy, delicious, and cooked to a golden perfection. There was not a single dry piece of meat.

The secret: CHEESECLOTH! I made the turkey as usual, stuffing the cavity with aromatics, and stuffed the skin with an herbed butter. Then, I took a pot of melted herbed butter, and soaked the cheesecloth in it. I laid the cheesecloth over the turkey and baked to perfection. If you want details, let me know. I will never cook a turkey any other way. The cheesecloth is the way to go!

If you are not a stuffing lover, than I can convert you. I promise. My family has converted many people to loving stuffing after this one. Please don't mention "StoveTop" around me. I may say something rude. This stuffing is a bacon, sausage, sage stuffing that is to die for. It is a Stevens family tradition, thanks to my Dad!

In the back of this picture, you can see the candied yams. This is a Sager family tradition, thanks to Kyle's Grandma Lambert. Kyle made them himself! It is seriously like eating a candy bar. You can also see my homemade Cranberry Sauce, which has a hint of orange and cinnamon. This is my Grandma O's recipe, and it is a favorite in the Stevens' household.

Instead of Pumpkin Pie, I decided to make a Pumpkin Bundt Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting. I did this only because I made a pumkin pie the week before. You can see it peeking out of the back of the picture. And Wendy's Apple pie was beautiful. She makes amazing crusts!

As you can see, we do not mess around when it comes to food. Even though there were only 4 people for dinner, it did not stop us from eating delicious quality food.

That weekend, we decided to head up to Temple Hill in Oakland for the Lighting of Temple Hill. First up was the concert before the lighting. It was "breathtaking." That's all I will say. Here are Sariah, Brett, Kyle, and I taking a lovely picture right before the concert.

The lights on Temple Hill were beautiful. Before lighting, they said they were going to be reading a scripture when they turned on the lights. We listened, and listened, and we could never hear the scripture. I turned around for one second, and boom, they turned on the lights when I wasn't looking. I was a little sad. But the lights were beautiful. The palms matched the temple with the gold on the top, which was really neat.

It was a great way to set off the Christmas Season after a great Thanksgiving weekend!

Sarcastic Street Signs

By Kyle

I'm not sure when street signs became too boring to catch the public's attention. I started noticing sign after sign attempting a sarcastic or clever message somehow trying to guilt drivers into compliance with residential traffic laws.

I don't know what's sadder....that residents went through the trouble of conceptualizing these signs and getting them passed through local municipalities or that I took the time over several weeks to take pictures of each one.

The above picture should be prefaced by saying this sign is not located on a freeway.

One would think that they would illustrate a car running with a briefcase to work. The fine is for driving too fast...right?

Now, I've never seen a child on the road with the above sign as it's located just outside of a retirement community....maybe the message is idealistic. I apologize to those who may have lobbied for clever signs like this in their neighborhood...I just think it's funny.