Boston's Birth story

My life is changed forever. There are so many feelings and emotions to share, and I hope I can remember and cherish these times. Boston is almost 6 weeks old, and he is already growing so fast! It is truly life-changing to become a parent to a sweet spirit of our Heavenly Father. I have been blessed so much along the way on this journey to becoming a parent, and I know I will be guided as I do my best to raise our boy in the right way. It has been a challenge and an adventure since Boston has joined our family. He was born on his due date - November 5 - and he weighed 7lbs 4oz and was 20 inches long and has 10 fingers and 10 toes (whew!). He was delivered by the same doctor who delivered two of my sisters, and Chandler and I fell in love with him the moment he was born.

Here is the story of his birth:

At my appointment at 39 weeks it didn't look like Boston was going to come any time soon and it was discouraging. I was also worried because Chandler was going out of town the week before Boston's due date for a fly-out interview in Irvine, CA. I knew the baby wouldn't come then, but he also had a fly-out interview scheduled the week after in San Antonio, Texas. I was worried about Chandler being gone when our boy was born. I asked about being induced so Chandler could be there, but the doctors worried about me being induced early with my first baby so they had me wait a few days before scheduling anything. So my mom flew out on Halloween because we were hoping to have our baby soon. We spent a lot of time walking around and shopping the next day to get ready and to set things into motion. It was so great to spend time with my mom - she helped me prepare so much by getting me some things I needed and offering encouragement. We set an induction date for Monday, but we hoped that Boston would come on his own over the weekend.

On Saturday I started having pre-labor pains and we were getting so excited! The pains lasted for several hours, and Chandler and I even walked around Walmart at 2am since I couldn't sleep well with the pain. It was a fun jaunt, but eventually I felt tired and it seemed like everything had mostly subsided - bummer! This is probably the only time in my life I have wished for that kind of pain :)

Monday we started me on an IV of pitocin to finally induce labor (one day before Boston's due date), and realized I was already having contractions on my own. I didn't even realize. After a few hours on the Pitocin, it was clear that my body was reacting quickly and it was contracting too much and too often to give our baby a break. He kept going into distress when the contractions would start speeding up when they upped the Pitocin. The nurse said she had never seen someone react so quickly to the medicine, so we had to take it slow...

It made for a long night and hardly any progress. After about 8 hours of slow labor I was only at about 2 1/2 cm. Chandler didn't leave the room and he kept encouraging me and coming over to hold my hand. We decided that it would be hard for me to keep my energy up, so we turned off the pitocin and Chandler and I stayed at the hospital for the night. My mom brought us dinner and then went back to our place to sleep and come back in the morning. It was fun - like one last date before we had our baby. We watched Skyfall on the hospital tv movie channel and went to bed. I kept having contractions on my own, but not any serious labor. I was so tired. Thankfully I had great nurses and they were encouraging and easy to talk to.

The next day we started back up at 5am. They kept it slow, and we knew it would be a long day. At 8am Dr. Parker came and broke my water. Things started kicking up a notch slowly after that and I started to really be in pain with the contractions. I don't know how many hours I tried to endure, but some time in the afternoon I decided to get an epidural. I never wanted one, I wanted to do it all naturally, but after laboring for so long Chandler helped me decide that I didn't need to be a hero and I was running out of energy. The important thing was to get our baby here safely.

The epidural helped a lot and I was able to relax and get some rest. We were making good progress, but it was still taking a while. Thankfully the only real pains I was having were hunger pains from not eating the whole day!

I think around 7 pm I was at 6 or 7cm (it is hard to remember the timing of everything since I was exhausted and in a fog). Things were really starting to progress and I was getting really uncomfortable. Our boy was getting distressed off and on so the nurses would come in and put me on my side and give me oxygen. Chandler would just come over and hold my hand and encourage me and keep me smiling. He thought it was fun to see me in an oxygen mask, and I didn't mind - it made breathing easier :) (who cares what they look like while they are having a baby?) :)

At 9pm I was ready to push. I told the nurse and she said that Dr. Parker was at another hospital delivering another baby (he had been going back and forth all day) and I would have to wait about an hour to start pushing. I started crying because I was so exhausted and I didn't want to wait any longer but I told her I would wait because I didn't want to start pushing and then have to stop to wait. The Dr. got there around 10pm and I pushed for 40 mins. Chandler was at my side telling me I was doing great. I just kept my eyes closed and kept focusing on his voice. Part way through pushing I heard him say excitedly that he could see dark hair! That got me excited and gave me more energy.

Our boy, Boston Chandler Egbert, was born at 10:42pm. He was Dr. Parker's 7,778th baby that he had delivered. My mom was in the room and took some pictures of Boston's first moments. The moment I first saw him he was so beautiful. I could see Chandler's features in him right away. I loved hearing his cry and seeing his dark hair and quivering lips. I cried tears of joy and relief. I was finally a mom!  Chandler never let go of me the whole time, and he even cut the cord - which he thought he would never do. Then he went over to see Boston while they wiped him down and I could see how proud and happy he was to be a dad. He was so amazed that Boston was opening his eyes and trying to look around but the light was too blinding. Then I got to hold Boston against my chest and he opened his eyes and looked at me. It was one of the best moments of my life. His eyes were a navy blue color - open wide and looking at his new world.

with Grandma Mulliner :)

The next day was so great spending time together as a family. Chandler really didn't want to leave the next day to go to Texas, but we decided it would be best if he did. My mom came to the hospital that afternoon so she could be with me while Chandler was gone. Chandler held Boston and kissed him and talked to him and sung to him and I was so glad he was there - Chandler was already an amazing dad. We got to have a celebratory dinner at the hospital. They provided dinner for Chandler and I and gave us little bottles of sparkling cider and plastic goblets. It was fun! He left that night to go sleep at home before his early morning flight. It was so hard to see him go and I know it was really hard for him to leave us there at the hospital. Thankfully he wasn't gone long - and we all got to be at home together just a day later.

Going home!

Boston is such a beautiful boy, and I can see him changing and growing up so fast. He loves listening to daddy sing Christmas songs. He is starting to really smile at us. He has also gained about 3lbs. I love watching him sleep - there is just something so special about his spirit. I love watching Chandler as a dad too - I can see the love he has for Boston every day.

And now just a few pictures from Boston's first few weeks:

I found him asleep like this :)

One month old on daddy's birthday!

I love both of my boys with all my heart.

38 weeks down, 2 (give or take) to go!

And for your viewing pleasure... here I am at 38 weeks! Getting really anxious to meet our baby boy!

disregard the fact that I look like a midget from this angle ;)

yay for brushing my teeth!

RMAIR

Last week I had the opportunity to go to part of the RMAIR Conference (Rocky Mountain Association of Institutional Research) at the University of Utah. It sounds kind of nerdy but I loved the opportunity! You can now call me a nerd :). With my job as a research assistant at UVU I have had so many great experiences and this was one of them. Me, my fellow research assistant Elin, and our boss Luanne got to do a presentation at one of the sessions on how we run our research call center at UVU and how it has helped the university. Though there weren't very many people at our specific session, it was a wonderful opportunity to present at a conference with colleges from all over the west. We also got to attend other conferences about different aspects of higher ed, and Institutional Research specifically. I find so many aspects of Institutional Research very interesting, and I have definitely learned that when we have evidence and clear facts it is easier to create positive change. I have seen that many times at UVU with the information that we gather. It was cool to see what other universities are doing too.

Sadly, I am leaving my job when our little boy gets here, but I have loved the last couple of years being a part of the Institutional Research team at UVU and being a supervisor in the call center. The last year has been an especially good time and I have learned a lot and value the relationships that I have been able to build.

random things I love about Chandler

I started this post almost a year ago now, and I have been adding to it over time. Here's a shout out to my man! I gave him a list of some of these as part of his birthday gift last year, and the list could go on forever. These are some random things I love about Chandler:

how he bangs his head while listening to Blink182.

how creative he is with telling stories, made up on the spot

how particular he is about packing his lunch in the cooler, everything has to fit just right 

how he is not rushed or tense about time (though we are late to things sometimes) ;)

how he bites his tongue when he is thinking about something or gets excited about something, and how he claps his hands over his arms when he gets excited

that he loves the drums

breaking out into singing random songs - early in the morning

random subconscious late-night cuddles
 
with/without glasses :)

how protective he is of his laptop... and kindle... and phone. :) he loves his gadgets! (glad he protects them,  they are expensive!

how he loves to try new things, no reservations, just the attitude of why not?

how he played multiple games of scrabble so he could beat me - and he did! (not many people have done that ;)

when he wears his hats 

teaching me to be openminded about things :)

not picky with what he eats, and that he craves ice cream often

that he loves exploring around Best Buy

that he loves planning vacations and finding the best deals, maybe we will actually go someday!

that every night he asks me to pray with him, with the cutest innocent boy face.

that he wears the bracelet from his Grammy and Grandad without ever taking it off, reminding him to serve others

his love for licorice (I am never at a loss when wanting to surprise him - I always know what to get!) :) and that we always check the "licorice inflation" prices when we go the store.

his love for Raisin Bran

how good he is with kids

that he will watch chick movies with me, and likes some of them!

that he texts me to say he misses me, that he loves me, that he just wants to spend his time with me, or that he is on his way home (my personal favorite:)

that he gives me a quick kiss in the morning when he gets up before me

that he thinks about his mission often, and periodically looks it up on Google Earth

that he wants to travel the world with me!

how he talks to our little boy in my belly and tries to teach him things already - he is excited to be a daddy :)

a blessed life

These days I am constantly anxious for what is coming next, but I can't help but be excited right now too! Our little boy is still growing big and strong (4 1/2 weeks to go!), Chandler is thriving in the exposure and experience he is getting through his program, and I have great friends who have showered me and our baby with wonderful gifts! What more could a girl ask for?

At the Ernst and Young dinner

Chandler says "tis the season for recruiting", and boy it is! He has gone to a lot of events and fairs and interviews for potential internships (his most recent pride and joy is an interview for an internship with Microsoft - wahoo!). And I have been invited to a few things with him as well. Last Thursday evening we got to go to a dinner hosted by Ernst and Young in the barn at Thanksgiving Point. It was so fun and fancy! When we walked in they gave each girl a rose, and each guy a leather-man. We had our assigned table with our names labeling our seats and wonderful desserts, drinks, and salads on the tables. When things got started they brought out a wonderful meal of steak, salmon, asparagus, and mashed potatoes. It was so good! (And I liked the break from cooking :). The whole event was to get to know the recruiters and interviewers before everyone interviewed the following day for different positions. It was good to listen to the different experiences people have had working with Ernst and Young.  At the end of the event they welcomed us to take any flowers home in addition to our rose, and Chandler went up on the stage to put together a pretty bouquet since I told him I liked the arrangement they had. :) He is awesome. And Chandler's interview went well! I hope we can narrow down what we want to do this summer - there are so many opportunities.

Also, this past Saturday afternoon my wonderful friend and fellow teacher Corinne hosted a baby shower for me in her beautiful home. She made amazing food (banana bread, pumpkin coconut bread, fruit salad, juice...). It was all so good. And she had such cute decorations - including a diaper cake! (I have secretly always wanted a diaper cake :). I regret that I didn't take any pictures at the shower with those who came (it's more important to just enjoy the moment, right?;), but I did get a picture of all the gifts when I got home. I had such a good time visiting with good friends and feel so blessed with the gifts they gave me. I am feeling more and more prepared to be a mommy (come on little man!). That time visiting with women and mothers whom I admire so much was really just what I needed. 

The bouquet Chandler put together (please ignore the clutter)

 

Adorable diaper cake!

Thank you for the gifts! And for all the things we have been given so far too :)

35 1/2 weeks! (one of my students said wearing that shirt I looked like a ninja turtle but with the shell on the front - haha!)

33 and a half weeks!

This past Tuesday we hit 33 weeks! Only 6 1/2 weeks before we get to meet our baby boy. We are so excited! To celebrate getting bigger and stronger, our boy has been keeping me up at night most nights with his stretching and kicking - making me tired a lot. He seems to love to party! But I love his strong kicks - it makes me feel like I am getting to know some of his personality. He loves to kick and stretch and as soon as daddy puts his hands on my belly, our boy likes to tease him and stop kicking most of the time. The doctor says he is in the perfect position with his head down already - that so far a good delivery is in the cards. It is really comforting to know that things are going well - and it's fun to know where his head, bum, and feet are when he moves around :). Chandler and I are getting anxious to meet our boy, but we realize this time will probably go by quickly. I hope so. Things are getting pretty awkward and uncomfortable.

In the meantime there is school to go to, and recruiting events, and work and baby showers. We really are so blessed to be so busy with the things we want to do. I LOVE teaching my young dancers, and working as a supervisor in the Survey Research Center at UVU has taught me a lot of good things. Chandler is enjoying his school work, and we keep re-realizing in amazement that he is a grad student - he will be done with his Bachelors and Masters degree in 2 school years! I am glad Chandler has found something that he really enjoys studying. He likes so many aspects of studying Information Systems that it is becoming hard to narrow down career options - a good problem to have I think. I am sure we will be able to narrow it down with time. But until then it is fun looking at all of our options.

We got released from our calling in the nursery at church. It has been a challenge, but a good experience to be in there. I have really learned to love those kids - when before I had a hard time being around little kids at all. I have learned a bit more patience too. It has been a blessing in disguise. But, as soon as you get the hang of a calling you get released right? Well, we are getting released because me and my big belly are having a hard time keeping up with the energetic kids in nursery :). It will be nice to get to know more people by name in different settings in the ward. Right now we know most people as "so-and-so's mom or dad".  So we have a new adventure ahead of us.

We feel really blessed to find ourselves in the position we are. Life doesn't get much better than this!

33 1/2 weeks

Alaska part two!

Here are some pictures from the second half of our trip! The first group of pictures are from our excursion in Skagway, Alaska. The whole family rode in buses through Skagway and into the Yukon territory with a few stops along the way. Our bus driver was hilarious! She was a native Alaskan full of fun stories and adventures she had experienced. The scenery was gorgeous - some of the greatest views I have seen in my life. And according to our bus driver/guide, it is really rare to have sunny days like this. But we heard that so much on this trip that it was hard to believe that sunny days were rare - we only had one day that was overcast!

On our way to the Alaska/Canada border

The Alaska/Canada border! (Well, they don't technically share a border since the pass gets so snowy in the winter. We drove through a few miles of no-man's land before we actually passed into Canada.

Lake Tutshi - the water was SO still and there was a perfect mirror image in the reflection. It was amazing to see - and no picture can do it justice.

Emerald Lake. It is a beautiful emerald green and because of the combination of minerals in the water there aren't any plants or animals living in the lake.

We went to Carcross (or Caribou Crossing) in the Yukon Territory of Canada and we went to a place where they train sled dogs for the Iditarod race. These dogs were incredible! They would get so excited when a sled was about to go out and then calm right down as soon as the sled left. We also got to pet some of the younger puppies. Very fun!

There were a lot of cool buildings in the tiny town of Skagway. This building's entire facade was made from sticks.

Back on the ship! Just a few things we got to see/do on our dear old ship Star Princess:

Ice Sculptures! They carved these from a solid block in about fifteen minutes. It was cool to watch.

Instead of going to the Tracy Arm Fjord (there was too much ship traffic) our captain took us past this glacier - the Daws Glacier. It was a miracle that we were there when we were. The glacier had some huge caving (pieces falling off into the water) as well as shooters (huge pieces of ice breaking off from the bottom and floating to the surface). The naturalist on board said he had never seen anything like it. Chandler and I missed the main event but it woke us up from our nap. We looked out the window and saw all of the chunks of ice in the water. It was a sight to see!

More of the Daws Glacier

We saw these guys perform a couple of times. They did amazing stunts that required a lot of strength!

Formal Night! It was fun to dress up and have a fancy dinner (even though the fancy dinner part was an every-day occurrence). :)

In front of the staircase in the Piazza

Family meeting - we got to listen to the wise words of Grammy and Grandad and learn from their experiences.

Just exploring the ship!

At the Lumberjack show

The next pictures are from our time in Ketchikan, Alaska! Chandler and I went to the Lumberjack Show.Then we explored the city!

We took a walk down the boardwalk in Ketchikan. It is such a unique place.

It wouldn't be Alaska without lots of bald eagles! It was amazing to see one up close. They are big birds!

A cute old lady saw me taking a picture of Chandler and offered to take one of both of us.

Our last port was in Victoria, Canada - a beautiful island. If we didn't have to walk so much I would have loved to see more of it. And again, the weather was perfect!

My first time leaving the USA! (Well, I guess we could count going into the Yukon my first time). :)

Walking through Victoria, we saw a bunch of sweet classic cars. I took a picture of this one for my dad. :)

Lots of pretty buildings in Victoria

Cool government building

We walked through some neighborhoods on our way back to the ship and saw lots of interesting homes.

What an experience to remember! We are so grateful we got to go.

Alaska! Part One

 About 4 weeks ago Chandler and I were blessed to be able to go on a week-long Alaskan cruise with Chandler's family - my first cruise experience. Chandler's grandparents on his mom's side put the whole thing together, and in total there were 67 of us in our group! It was truly a memorable experience - and I am so grateful we got to go (I was almost too pregnant to be able to go since the cruise line doesn't allow pregnant women after a certain point). It was a great trip with lots of amazing moments.

There are a few things I want to write about, but pictures can capture much more than I can explain. So, here goes for the longest post yet (if you can believe it), but thankfully for you this post is long simply because of the amount of pictures - not because of my usual long-winded-ness.

A few things I want to mention before the picture frenzy:

I was surprised at the amount of daylight in Alaska. It messed us up the first few days because we left our curtains open so we could catch all the views from our stateroom. After our first night on the ship we woke up to a beautifully sunny day - but it was only 4am! It also didn't get dark until around 10:30 pm. Not much night time to say the least.

The views in Alaska/Canada are to die for. I have never seen so much majestic beauty in nature before. And we were blessed with incredible weather the entire trip so that we could really enjoy each place we visited.

The food was amazing - and it was so much fun to be able to rotate tables almost every night and visit with different members of the family. It is a miracle that there were so many of us there. It was fun to be served at each meal (every pregnant woman's dream). :) Every one of our servers had accents from all over the world.

The culture on a cruise is interesting. The best way to describe it is it is a party all the time! There was so much wonderful service everywhere you turned (can you say cookies and milk? That's right - we were just playing a game and a gentleman came by to offer us cookies and milk! Or 24 hour cafe? Yep - all the pistachio pudding Chandler could want at any time of day), and there were so many fine things on board (expensive jewelry shops, wine tastings (we didn't taste), an art gallery, constant live music, etc.). We were always checking our "Princess Patter" for the next entertainment or we were simply walking around exploring. I didn't use my phone for a whole week - it was glorious. But even though it was really relaxing, we were also walking around a ton and doing a lot so my feet and ankles swelled up. Every moment was completely worth it though.

One of the greatest things was to really feel our little boy kick on this trip! I don't know whether it was all the food or what but our little guy loved cruising! So do we :) He kicked a lot, and Chandler finally got to feel it too. It was really fun to share this experience with so much family - and it makes us really excited to do things with our kids in the future.

Pictures Part One:

We flew on Delta early in the morning July 13, 2013.

Our view from the plane as we flew into Seattle, WA

Driving through Seattle to our port

My first real look at our ship - the Star Princess!

Our stateroom - in a great location on the ship, and right by Chandler's immediate family.

Eating lunch before we departed from Seattle

Safety training!

Family meeting in the Skywalkers Lounge at the back of the ship - this is where we had all of our family meetings.

Tom Franek! He was our favorite entertainer on board - he played piano, sang, and danced around/on the piano. He was so talented and funny!

We ordered breakfast in bed one morning :)

Our first excursion - in Juneau, AK - the whole family went whale watching. We saw a bunch of humpback whales! This was the first whale we saw immediately after we stopped the boat.

Whale watching!

It's hard to see, but there are three whale-tails sticking up in the distance. Very cool.

Mendenhall Glacier in Juneau, AK. One of the many wonderful beauties in nature that we got to see.

Juneau, AK

Chandler and I took a late-night stroll around the ship to explore on one of our first nights on board. It was so peaceful and the air was so still and calm. It was so relaxing and beautiful. I loved our ship!

Yummy food! It was always presented so well - and it all looked so good we only remembered to take a few food pictures.

Our Stateroom - it was so nice to have a place to relax every once in a while.

The Piazza - this was the center of the ship and we were so close to all of it. There were a bunch of shops and always live entertainment on this part of the ship.

A better view of Juneau

Mendenhall Glacier

One of the ship decks

The walkway up to the Skywalkers Lounge

Our first day on board with Seattle in the background.

 Stay tuned for more pictures from our adventures in Skagway (and Yukon territory/Caribou Crossing) and Ketchikan, Alaska, formal night, and Victoria, Canada!