More Cute Photos!

Ann took these photos today and they turned out pretty well.  She's a cutie!

In the Williams Family, this is known as the "donut" face.

 One of her first smiles!

 I'm ready for my close-up, Mr. DeMille!

First Bath!

These are photos from her first bath--self explanatory.  She's so cute even when screaming!

The latest...

Thanks to everyone who has called or visited or texted or emailed or posted their well wishes! (This is Ann writing now.) It has been so much fun for us to get to know this little babe! We are both doing well (me and the girly girl). And for all those wanting to know if we have decided on a name yet, unfortunately we haven't. We will though! :)

Our little Hatchling is here!

Ann usually does the blog, but she's got her hands busy with our gorgeous little girl, so I'll be taking over for a little while. We got up early this morning to make it to St. Mark's Hospital by 6am to get checked in. We met all of the staff and did all the necessary paperwork and before we knew it, it was 7:30--time to roll! Ann was given a spinal (similar to an epidural) and almost immediately her legs went numb. She was pleasant through the whole operation and only got nauseated once.

They started the incision at 8:05 and our little babe was out of the womb at 8:10 (on 8/10), coming out bum first and all blue. She quickly pinked up, with APGAR scores of 8 and 9. The whole operation was done by 8:30--pretty slick. Before we knew it, Ann and I were back in our room with our bundle of joy!

Name: ???? (we're still figuring that one out)

Weight: 7 lb 9 oz

Length: 19 in

Birthday & Time: 8:10am on 8/10/11

My fancy 1-size-fits-none paper jumpsuit.  I'm keeping it to change my oil in the future.

All ready for the anesthesiologist!

Here she's just a few minutes old. She's got quite the set of lungs-- she's going to be a singer! I think she looks a lot like her daddy here ... what a babe!

All clean and ready to see mommy.

Ann's baby time while we waited for her to get sown back up.  It was quick-- the whole surgery only took 25 minutes!

The happy new family!

Surrogate Anniversary

Today is August 6, 2011. There is nothing special about this date for me and Bryndon, but we decided to make today our surrogate anniversary since most likely next Friday the 12th (our real anniversary), I will be in the hospital recovering after a C-section. Here's the quick version of the story:

We realized that our baby was in the breech position (head up) a while back, and hoped that she would turn on her own in the following weeks. That didn't happen. So then we scheduled what is called a "version" at the hospital, where my doctor tried to manually turn her with his hands on my belly. That was an extremely painful experience, and was unfortunately unsuccessful. It seems that our little girl is kind of stuck down low (her bum is) in my pelvis, so that made it impossible to force her to turn. After the doctor pronounced this and I had a good bawl session, we started planning for a Cesarean section.

We even decided to try the method of acupuncture to get her to move and turn the correct way, which might possibly still work, but we've also scheduled the C-section for this coming Wednesday, August 10th. My cute sisters-in-law have both had C-sections and have gotten me pumped up with all the positive aspects of having a planned C-section as opposed to going through a long a painful labor and delivery. There are pros and cons to both, and the C-section wasn't our first choice, but we are also grateful that we live in a time and place where that is a very safe method of delivering a child. I'm open to however we can get this girl here safe and sound. It won't be the end of the world, thankfully! :) 

So that was my long explanation about why we celebrated our anniversary tonight. I wanted to share some pictures as well. First, I love the fact that for much of my pregnancy, 2 sisters-in-law on my family's side have been pregnant (Elisabeth and Kari) and 2 other sisters-in-law from Bryndon's side (Jessica and Beth) have been as well! Here's a fun prego picture of the 3 of us on Bryndon's side with our bellies... 

Now here's one of me tonight at 39 weeks
(possibly my last prego pic!):

And here's a taste of our evening... We went to The Roof restaurant at the Joseph Smith Memorial Building, and it was AMAZING!!! The last time I ate there was 5 years ago (almost exactly) with Bryndon when we went on our last date together before I left on my mission. I forgot how amazing the food and desserts are! Yes, it is very expensive, but definitely worth it for every 5 years (or less) and on very special occasions!

After eating all the food we could possibly handle at The Roof, we went to Red Butte Gardens at the University of Utah and saw the beautiful flowers, herbs, trees and views of the valley from there. And yes, the photo below will show that Bryndon actually asked them if they had a wheelchair he could take me around in, and we actually did that! I was so embarrassed that I was letting him push me around in that when I was perfectly capable of walking (albeit extremely slowly). But it ended up being a really good idea because we got to zoom around the entire Garden without Bryndon having to wait for me all the time. It has gotten hard to even walk very much because I start having contractions whenever I over-do it.  And the other thing was that while we were at The Roof, I started having some painful contractions while just sitting there, so we definitely didn't want me to force myself into labor, especially with this breech baby. Anyway, I swallowed my pride and after a little while actually enjoyed myself, directing my driver around the beautiful Garden.

Here is a cool one of some cacti:

Bryndon was cute and got excited about feeding the ducks at this little pond.

Everything was so vibrant with greens and other bright colors.
I guess I should show a picture of some flowers:

And last of all, we must have our crazy face pictures.
This was one of the less ugly ones, if you can believe it. :)

Happy Surrogate Anniversary, Babe!!! 

I love Bryndon SOOOO much. He is the best.
And I can't wait to see him as a daddy within a week!!! 

AAAAAAAHHHH!!!

Like a basketball game...

Yesterday my coworker asked me if waiting for this baby to come feels like waiting for Christmas. I honestly had to say no because to me it feels more like anticipating a basketball game! I remember experiencing that countless times as I grew up with Jr. Jazz and especially before a school game. It's an exciting feeling to be sure, but those butterflies make me feel more anxious and nervous than anything else. 

I can't believe it, but I'm due in 3 weeks from today! Time has flown by. Everyone who heard that I was due in mid-August told me that it would be the longest summer of my life-- that it would be awful and hot and painfully slow. I must say that it hasn't been that way at all. It has gone very quickly and really hasn't been too hard. I have air conditioning at home, in my car and at work. I feel very spoiled to live in such luxury, especially compared to what others have gone through. I know that every woman's pregnancy is different, but thankfully, mine has been fine. Yes, I'm uncomfortable and not sleeping super well at night, but it's still bearable. I also think this summer (and year) has flown by because it's our first baby, so we feel like there is so much to prepare for and we don't want to rush anything. Maybe future pregnancies will be harder to get through at the end, but for now I'm just so grateful to be pregnant and to soon be the mother of a beautiful baby girl!!!

Here is the latest picture of me at 36 weeks (about a week ago), next to our cute crib (KSL special) in our recently painted baby room!

Madsen Family Reunion

This reunion happened a while back (as you'll see from the pictures), but I just recently got these photos and wanted to share some fun ones of me, Bryndon and the in-state members of my family.

One of my favorites of us.

My cute parents.

Me and my beautiful sisters.

Bryndon's favorite.

Family!

Jump! I'm amazed at how high my mom got in the air and at how much Emily looks like a rag doll that was tossed by an unseen hand... and amazed at how much my fake jump really looked fake!