aria grace wright: a birth story

Well, this is really more for me than for you, but if you're interested, here is Aria Grace's birth story.

First of all, my pregnancy with Aria did not technically have complications, but it wasn't fun. I had HORRIBLE morning sickness for more than 20 weeks and lost ten pounds in my first trimester. After that, I had a few good weeks, and then I started having contractions at 31 weeks. They were determined to be prodromal labor, and while they weren't real labor, they weren't Braxton-Hicks contractions either. They were exhausting and unpleasant and carried on for a full 8 weeks. By the time I went into labor at 39 weeks, I had pretty unpleasant back pain, my feet were killing me, and I had super fun acid reflux. My stomach also bothered me my entire pregnancy. Once I regained the 10 pounds I'd lost in the first trimester, I stopped gaining and delivered Aria at within 2 pounds of my pre-pregnancy weight. I was also getting really down emotionally the last few weeks. In short, it wasn't a fun pregnancy, but Aria was healthy and active the whole time.

Because my contractions started so early, we assumed Aria would arrive early. By Monday July 11th (I was exactly 39 weeks), we started considering for the first time that maybe she would actually be late! We went to bed at around 10 that night. At 10:40, my water broke. I wasn't that excited about it. I was tired and wanted to sleep, not have a baby right then. I wasn't having stronger contractions than usual, so I decided I should just go back to bed. After I had changed my pants twice, I realized that it was a lot of fluid and that I probably needed to go to the hospital. I woke Jesse up at 11 and told him we needed to go. I prefaced it by saying they may very well send me home since I wasn't having intense contractions, and we went to the hospital not sure what was going to happen.

By the time we got checked in to the hospital, it was about midnight. The nurse came in and confirmed my water had broken. She then said, "Well, once your water breaks, a clock starts ticking. At 18 hours later, your baby's risk of infection starts to go up. By 24 hours, it's a significantly increased risk and we would start discussing a C-section." I have Group B Strep, and so my baby was at an even higher risk for infection. Jesse and I realized at this point that we would definitely not be going home. I was very, very nervous and apprehensive about this whole situation. I had not planned on having a baby and I was already really tired. The nurse told us to get some sleep (which is a joke, since a blood pressure cuff woke me up every 30 minutes by taking my blood pressure, then beeping loudly until a nurse turned it off) after hooking me up to a bunch of machines, including an IV of penicillin for the group B strep. It burned like my arm was on fire the entire time the IV was going, and had to be re-administered every 4 hours, so that was fun.

Hours later, I had not progressed and my contractions were not where they needed to be. They decided to induce labor with Pitocin, which the nurse warned me was "definitely more uncomfortable than regular labor." The pitocin did indeed give me very intense contractions that became very very close together. They were terribly painful within a few hours, and still I had not dilated. Once I was in tears and there was only a minute or two between contractions, I asked for an epidural. At this point, we'd been at the hospital for 12 hours. Hearing that I wasn't dilated past a 2 even after hours of painful contractions sapped what emotional strength I had left. By the time I got the epidural, I was sobbing and Jesse was miserable. Thankfully, the epidural worked and I started feeling a lot better. Unfortunately, Aria did not do very well with the Pitocin-induced contractions. Her vital signs kept dropping and so they kept having to turn off the Pitocin. I got even more monitors and even more IVs. Ten more miserable hours passed where I couldn't sleep because nurses came in every 15-30 minutes to have me change positions so that Aria would perk back up again. I wasn't allowed to eat anything but jello and of course I was starving, and basically we weren't having a great time. I also still wasn't really dilating. At 22 hours of labor, I was still only at 5 cm. I started to worry that even after all this, I was going to have to have an emergency C-section.

Finally, Aria started tolerating the Pitocin for a couple of hours at once. When I asked the doctor to check me at midnight on the 13th (more than a full day after we'd arrived at the hospital), she said, "Yep, there's a head. Let's have a baby!" I was really, really worried that I wouldn't be able to do it. I literally hadn't slept since Sunday night, and it was now Wednesday. I had also not eaten since Monday evening. I had no physical or emotional strength left, and I didn't know how I was going to do this thing. The nurse assured me that my "mama adrenaline" would kick in and that I would be OK. I started pushing, and it was going pretty well. They said I was doing a good job, there was some time between contractions where we discussed cats, etc. Then a little while into pushing, a beeping went off behind me. The nurse turned to the doctor and said apprehensively, "That's...the epidural. Should I get another dose?" The doctor said not to worry about it. No one said anything to me. I was hoping that meant the epidural wouldn't wear off for a while anyways, so I wouldn't need it. Sadly, I was sorely mistaken. The epidural wore off quickly, and I got to do the actual delivery completely unmedicated. It took a long time, over an hour and a half of pushing. Jesse stayed by my side and was absolutely awesomely supportive and positive and loving. At one point, I asked the doctor if she couldn't just pull her out. She laughed and said, "Not by her hair, no!" But poor Aria was struggling, and I was on oxygen, very sweaty, and in tears. Finally, she was out! She didn't cry at first, and I panicked, but the doctor assured me she was just stunned. When they laid her on my chest, all blue and bruised and covered in goop, I was just completely overwhelmed and relieved. Jesse was in love immediately, which was impressive because she really looked kind of like a gross alien.

Thankfully, even after a really horrendously long and difficult labor and delivery experience, neither Aria or I experienced any ill effects. I actually have recovered super quickly and easily and am feeling pretty much normal at a week postpartum (I can also wear all my regular clothes--sorry everyone). That came as a surprise to me, but not as much of a surprise as how much we love Aria. I knew I would love her--I already loved her--but sometimes when I look at her, it feels like my heart is going to absolutely explode. She's the most precious, perfect miracle I've ever seen.

country living: pros and cons

Sorry it has been so long. We've been busy! Here's what's been going down the last however many months.

• I have been working as a paraeducator (latin for "pretend teacher", which is pretty much the best possible description for the job. You're a teacher, but not a real licensed one, essentially. Also, you have to make copies and don't get any prep time.) in a kindergarten class. I LOVED it even though it was super hard and exhausting. Kindergarteners are the sweetest, hyperest, most terrible, most loving things ever. I loved teaching them. I came home with so many notes and "I love yous" and gifts (including a talking Elmo that was clearly the child's toy) and things they made for me.
• Jesse has been teaching World History, Geography, and U S History at La Grande High School and he liked it too. He says he felt positively about it, even though he came home really angry sometimes because teenagers are irresponsible. I feel like he should have known that going in, because all teenagers are irresponsible, but somehow he forgot to have low expectations. Overall though, he really liked it.
• We generally love the ward*. It's tiny (probably a hundred people regularly attend), and sometimes it gets so stuck in tradition that we have to sort of shake people to get them to do things a different [better] way. But I love that we know almost everyone, and people are very nice.
• We both have callings: Jesse is the President of the Young Men's and I am second counselor in the Young Women's presidency. These callings are very time and labor intensive, but I love being in the youth. I think it's a teeny bit cruel that after being around teenage boys all day, Jesse is now in charge of the teenage boys, but you can't hide your talents from God, apparently. We have a very small youth program--I have 11 young women and only 1 Laurel currently. But it's fun and I am very glad to have the opportunity to work with the girls, who I love with all my heart.

So that's pretty much what we've been up to! The school year is over now, hallelujah. Except, that I'm doing summer school for the special ed kids. We start on Monday. I was told on Friday that I have two little first-graders who can't read, write, or count. So basically, exactly what I'm used to working with. I'm excited about it, I think it'll be a great summer job because it is only four days a week, 8-12. And I only have to work with the 2 boys--the kids are going to summer school because they need individual help, so none of us have more than 3 kids. Unfortunately, it won't make a ton of money, but it's more money than no money. 

Jesse will be teaching 3 classes each of World History and US History next year, which he's excited about. I will be doing something a little different next year. Instead of having my one (well, it was 2 because 2 sessions of kindergarten, but you know what I mean) class, I will be teaching math and reading intervention groups (sounds like drug intervention, but just means extra help in those areas for kids that are struggling) next year at Greenwood Elementary. I'm a little sad because man, I loved my kids. But it's full-time with benefits, and next year they were hoping to have all the paraeducators be half-time in the kindergarten classes to save money. So overall, I am happy and excited for a new challenge.

Here are some other fun facts about life in [very] small town in rural Oregon.

Pros:

• It does not rain all the time, that's the other Oregon that you're thinking of. It does rain quite a bit in the spring, but not all day every day or anything. As a result, it's crazy green and crazy beautiful right now.
• The whole 17 acres of land right up against the mountains with 3 creeks running through it is AMAZING. We definitely would never be able to afford this anywhere else, so it's pretty cool.
• We have a garden plot that is actually growing things! I'm so excited about this.
• If you want to go see a waterfall or get to the top of a mountain or cut down your own Christmas tree, you can drive a 4 wheeler five minutes up the road and be in a national forest. 
• We have great jobs here that we were not able to get elsewhere.
• There is never any traffic.
• We have never heard our neighbors (our previous apartment featured a shared bedroom wall, and we could hear our neighbor snoring. Lovely.)
• Many other national parks are within 2 hours from here, and some of the most beautiful places I've seen.

Cons:

• Occasionally, you'll wake up on a Sunday morning to a bull moo-ing really loudly outside your window. You'll think this is pretty normal, because a farmer is paying you to have his cows on your land. But then you'll remember he didn't bring any bulls, and have to chase some random bull out of your front yard at 7 am on a Sunday before he knocks over your car or something.
• I do miss shopping, Trader Joe's, and all the restaurants we had close at hand. When we occasionally did city things, like go to concerts and stuff, that was really fun. But we almost never did that stuff anyway, and we still can, we just have to drive further. We still have at least 20 restaurants in La Grande, I just want even more restaurants. And the lack of shopping helps us save money, since we don't really need that stuff anyways.
• I miss Costco.
• I miss seeing my family so often.
• Our house could really use air conditioning and central heating.
• Those are really the only cons. I'm making this one up to seem fair.

Overall, we are so happy here. It is manifested to me so often and so clearly that this is where I am supposed to be and what I am supposed to be doing. I would never have found out that what I love and am good at is working with little kids if we hadn't come here. 

And having the summer sort of off for the first time is so exciting! We will have so much time together and get to do so many fun things (family, we're coming to visit ;)

Thanks for making it through this super long post. You deserve an award. 

COVE: the long-awaited post of ages

Hey! How've you been? We've been excellent, and far too busy to tell you about it. But I'm here now, because Jesse is hunting and I don't want to clean the kitchen. Sorry. I mean, I'm here now, because I love you and deeply care about your well-being and I know that is dependent upon this blog. Was that better?

So, since I last posted, we moved to Cove, Oregon, and changed pretty much literally everything in our lives. New jobs, new house, new ward, new state, new cat. It was a little crazy actually. I was kind of worried because we moved to a place where we knew absolutely no one, and also because the whole thing happened SO FAST and there wasn't time to think or decide really. It was just, Jesse got a job in Idaho and Eastern Oregon, and we picked here because...well, because it's Oregon vs Idaho, can you blame us?

So, Jesse has been teaching history at La Grande High School, and I have been a paraeducator in Willow Elementary. I am essentially an assistant teacher in a kindergarten class (well, 2 classes because they do half-day kindergarten). And the kids are SO cute and I love it, even though it is 100% exhausting, 100% of the time. Also, my legs hurt from sitting criss-cross-applesauce multiple times per day. 

I think Jesse likes his job. He claims he does, but he has general rage towards the not-completing-of-assignments, which is something teenagers do. So there's that. 

We also have a house now. Jesse's parents own it and the 17 acres of land it is on. Whenever I tell people this, they instantly assume it is a very nice house and that we are living rent-free. If so, you clearly have never met the Wrights (who I love very much). Let me disabuse you of this notion: it is a small, 100-year-old farmhouse that Jesse's parents intended to tear down, and we pay the same rent as the renters before us. There is electricity 90% of the time, internet 80% of the time, and cell phone service 70% of the time. There are also an absurd amount of flies lying dead in all of my windowsills as we speak. There is not a dishwasher, heat or air conditioning (we have a wood and a propane stove), or a garbage disposal, and we have an airplane-size bathroom. But still, it's a house, and because Jesse's parents are probably going to tear it down, we can do whatever we want to it. Including: paint! Which was VERY GOOD, because the previous color scheme includes the following:

• rusty peach-colored walls mixed with weird muddy tan ceilings
• maroon and gray faux-wood paneling with matching maroon trim
• weird dogs painted on the ceiling upstairs (I am not even joking)
• wallpaper applied so badly that the bedroom looks like that house in Sia's Chandelier music video 

So, we rescued the peach-and-mud kitchen and living room immediately. This is the AMAZING result. My before pictures are somewhere, but not here, so one day I'll show you a before-and-after photo. For now, though, here is the AFTER!

 Jesse's parents bought this place for the land it is on, which is amazing. Here are some photos taken in our backyard a few weeks ago.

I'm SUPER proud of that red door. And this is the front of the house.

 We also live pretty far out in the country (Cove has about 500 people in it) and very near the mountains. On Tuesday we took a 4-wheeler ride up the nearest one to the peak. It was amazing, but there was also 6 inches of snow and it was colder than I had ever anticipated. Basically, it felt like we climbed Everest and we are very, very cold in these photos. But totally worth it. Overall, we are loving this new adventure and chapter in our lives, though I do miss having my family so close by.

And finally, here's our kitten, Midget. She's about 4 months old now, and that face is super dangerous. It means that over the next ten to thirty minutes, she is going to slowly go into a crouch and lift her butt higher and higher into the air, until she suddenly runs headfirst straight into your shin. Then, she will be momentarily dazed, and then try to run away while arching her back as high as possible, which I affectionately refer to as butt-running, because it's like her butt is trying to propel the rest of her body forward.

 And with that, I bid you adieu! Said Midget is crying because she got on top of the water heater and can't get down.

big news!!

I'm so sorry I haven't posted for...oh wait, it's only been like two months. It feels like ages because so much has happened! Let me tell you about it.

You all already know this, but Jesse got a job! In La Grande, Oregon. He will be teaching Geography and US History to 10th and 11th graders and hopefully coaching basketball. We are very excited! La Grande was one of our top choices of places to live because we will only be an hour and a half from Jesse's family's beloved cabin in the woods, which is up in the Blue Mountains. Let me clarify that this is not a resort cabin. This is a real cabin, without electricity or plumbing or anything. It's basically camping, but you can have a roof and a real bed. It is Jesse's favorite place in the world, and La Grande is about the closest human habitation to it.

La Grande is also not absolutely tiny. You all think it is, because it has 13,000 people in it, but I assure you it is much larger than our other options. They have a Walmart, so I'm set.

Also, La Grande happens to be about 15-20 minutes from Cove, where Jesse's parents purchased property they intend to retire on in 3-4 years. There is a little house on the property, and we get to live in it! No, we don't get to live in it for free, because Jesse's parents are financially responsible and want to, you know, pay their mortgage. But still, it'll be our own little house! And we will have 20 acres or so of a backyard, which is more than I ever dreamed at this stage of life. I'll add some pictures I stole from Google Earth of the house later (as soon as I can figure out how to do that from the iPad).

We are super duper excited, though sad to be moving away from my family. But it's only an 8-hour drive, which is easily do-able, like, all the time. Right, family? Right?

I'm going to get a job...somewhere...and my master's at some point, and so is Jesse. And that's about as far as we have planned. But hurray!!

2 years!!

So...tomorrow Jesse and I will have done this:

2 years ago! It feels like forever and also no time at all. But it's still going pretty well, in case you were wondering.

To celebrate our anniversary, we went up to the Homestead Resort in Midway. It was GORGEOUS and we had really awesome weather while we were there. I had been kind of worried because it decided to be winter again earlier this week, but by Friday it had changed its mind and chosen to be summer after all, so we had a great time swimming, hiking, and riding the Heber Creeper for the first time.

It was a really, really great trip. Even though we just left after work on Friday and came back on Sunday, it felt like an awesome little mini-vacation full of good food and good times. I really love this guy, like, a lot. Spending 24/7 together is kind of our favorite thing. And did I mention it was BEAUTIFUL? The Homestead did not have amazing customer service, but it had absolutely gorgeous grounds. Also, a huge pool and 3 hot tubs. Do I even have to say we visited all three hot tubs and the pool 3 times during our stay? We like water. We also ate at Tarahumara, which is not overrated despite being very difficult to spell/pronounce. And we got gelato at Spin Cafe, what could be better than that? We don't take pictures of food (it's a political view we have) so you'll just have to trust us on the fact that we ate a lot of very good food and I am maybe overly obsessive when it comes to researching restaurants on Yelp. But it paid off.

Well, I just wanted to update you on this very, very important thing. We don't have any other news except that Jesse still hasn't gotten a teaching job, despite many RIDICULOUSLY LONG AND INVOLVED job applications (seriously, I didn't know you still had to write essays for jobs, I thought that was just college applications). So could someone please get him a job? I'll make you cookies if you do. Also, I can guarantee he is a real good teacher, with better English skills than I use to write this blog.

Love,

Isabelle

confessions...

So, one of the reasons I like reading other peoples' blogs is that the things they think make me feel less alone. Like, hey, I'm not the only one that thinks/does that! I especially love my friends' baby/pregnancy stories, because for some reason I'm pretty afraid of actually HAVING a baby, and the fact that they did it and survived makes me feel like I might be okay.

Anyways. So I thought I would give back and confess some weird stuff about me. There isn't much new in our lives, just desperately trying to find Jesse a job for next year (his current school is unable to hire their interns). So, without further ado, here are my confessions...

1. I'm really afraid of driving. I just don't understand how that little white line keeps people from hitting each other on a daily basis. For this reason, I cannot drive stick either...to my husband's eternal chagrin. 
2. I have a HUGE guilt problem. My brain guilt trips me about literally everything. When I go to sleep, my mind plays this really fun game of, "Let's relive all the stupid/embarrassing/bad things you did today! Look at all the people you probably hurt and/or secretly hate you." It's a problem. 
3. I have never really felt beautiful, even though in theory I am conventionally attractive.  What you look like on the outside has little to do with what you feel on the inside. 
4. Today I accidentally elbowed my uncle in the head trying to escape an imaginary spider. 
5. Cooking is MY FAVORITE. I want to have all the kitchen gadgets, all of them. I don't always want to make dinner, but baking is basically my favorite hobby. I am so glad the doctors decided I'm not allergic to gluten after all. 

That's all for today. Just know that whatever your weird things are, I guarantee you are not alone. 

small miracles

So, you all know I'm bad at blogging, but there are a few things I did actually want to share today. Lucky you.

First of all, news. We don't have much of it. Christmas was great in Oregon, I'll show you some pictures here:

Us at the very sad BYU-Oregon game. Keep in mind we'd been awake for about 20 straight hours at this point, and normally we're a lot more attractive than this. 

We take a picture at this cove every year, and yet I still don't know what it's called.

This is a waterfall at Silver Falls. We snuck away from a Stayton basketball tournament to see some water falling off of rocks. 

We have a hard time taking pictures of ourselves and also waterfalls. There's a waterfall coming out of my shoulder, though, if you look carefully.

We had an awesome New Year's party with my family, of which I took zero pictures, so you'll just have to take my word for its awesomeness. Coming back from our break (a paid break! we're like, real adults now) has been really pretty good. Except that I got in a car accident, and that's really what I'm posting about. I'm sure you've already heard the story, but on the off chance you haven't, here's the story:

Basically, I was driving to work when it started snowing. Really, really hard, with lots of wind. My car has done admirably well this winter, so I was actually feeling good about my drive and was almost to work when I tried to merge into the exit lane off the freeway. My car started to slide a little bit as I tried to slow down, and the next thing I knew, there was this BANG! BANG! of two almost simultaneous impacts on my car, and my car was spinning like a top. It suddenly stopped spinning after the second bang, but I had been spun into the middle of the right three lanes, and my car was facing the wrong direction for freeway traffic. I was obviously panicking, because I was still inside the car and therefore had no idea how bad the damage was yet, but I did know my car was still running. I was afraid to drive, though, because I obviously needed to either turn my car completely around on a provenly slippery surface, or reverse into oncoming traffic on the aforementioned slippery road of death. Neither option seemed good, but neither did sitting in the middle of oncoming traffic and not moving on the Highway of Doom.

So I just sort of sat there in my car and for some reason repeatedly tried to call my insurance company's Roadside Assistance people, who know me by name because of how many times I've locked my keys in my car/left the lights on and killed the battery/etc. I have no idea what Roadside Assistance was going to do, but I was on a road and I needed assistance and it's hard to be a blonde. But anyways, my phone kept dropping the call and I was basically paralyzed with fear and the betrayal of my otherwise faithful car.

That's when the small miracles began to happen. A very nice man in a small sedan stopped in front of me with his hazards on, risking being rear-ended to try to protect me from oncoming traffic. I appreciated this protection, but I still had no idea what to do, so I just continued to be paralyzed, which it turns out I am AWESOME at and I maybe should be a mime. Minutes later, a semi truck driver used his semi for good and blocked several lanes of traffic (of which I was in the middle), got out of his truck, and began directing traffic. Keep in mind, this is before 8am on a weekday and I'm certain that the truck driver and Sedan Man were being late to work to try to help me. I still hadn't moved though, when Sedan Man drove up closer to me and very politely asked me if my car was dead. "No," I said, "I just have no idea how to get out of this situation." Sedan Man patted my shoulder, and said, "That's okay. Just reverse. I'll guide you, and that guy with the semi will stop traffic so you can get on the off ramp and off the freeway." I mumbled something unintelligible, thanked the man, and was able to reverse and get off the freeway and to work completely safely. My car is badly dented in several places, and my blinker was smashed to bits, but the damage was minimal for a two-car impact situation. It was a small miracle.

But more importantly, I wish I could thank Sedan Man and Semi Truck Driver. I have no idea who they are, and I'm sure they didn't know each other, but they came to my aid almost immediately after the accident. It wasn't even because I'm blonde, because I was inside my car and it was snowing pretty hard, so I'm sure they couldn't even have seen me. Nevertheless, they came instantly to my aid, risking damage to their own cars and certainly being late to work.  Sedan Man and Semi Truck Driver may well have saved my life, and I don't even know their names. I wish I could thank them. But all I can  do is thank God for sending kind strangers to help me when I was entirely helpless.

And thank my husband, for his righteous anger at the hit-and-run folks of I-15, the police who never even called me back, and the blender, who was refusing to blend the smoothie he was making for me.