What the Heck?

No picture post today but just had to write this down so I don't forget about it. Lizzie had her first tummy time on Saturday night after the other kids went to bed. She took it for a little bit and then decided to flip herself onto her back. At 5 weeks old! Then she did the same thing last night while we were playing a family game.

Mommy Time

Gabbie had a really hard time with me in the hospital. She and Kyle had a few good talks after she broke down in tears. He decided to bring her up to the hospital Sunday after church so we could have some alone time.

She got her big sister present from Lizzie and loved it!

Silly girl. Those shoes are for your doll not the horse.

Taking over the bed and watching a movie while Mommy practiced her deep breathing.

Exhausted and ready for sleep but not ready to leave Mommy.

Thankfully I came home the day after. I don't know how she would have handled it if I was in the hospital much longer.

Meeting Family

Once I was out of recovery, everyone came up to the hospital to see me and meet Lizzie.

The kids were a little sad that I was in the bed but seemed to do okay. They really wanted to go see their sister so they were pretty sad that wasn't allowed.

Noah with his best bud, my sisters boyfriend, as they waited to see Mom and Lizzie.

Our cousin Brayden waiting so patiently.

These pictures are how I first got to meet my baby. After those first few minutes looking at her after surgery and then not seeing her at all, these pictures were such a gift. Thank you Taylor and Mom for taking them for me.

Unexpected Gift

A lot of you already know how difficult and different this pregnancy was for our family. The issues with antibodies seemed to take care of itself only to be replaced by other issues.

We went in for a routine fetal growth ultrasound around 30 weeks. Our baby girl was still breech and her measurements were pushing our due date back later in the month of January.

When I went in for my next appointment, my doctor was very honest with me and informed me that Lizzie had the cord wrapped around her neck and wasn't growing. The fluid around her was also decreasing each time I had an ultrasound. We decided to give her a few more weeks and do another ultrasound. When I hit 37 weeks, we did a final ultrasound on Friday afternoon, December 16. Our doctor said based on the results of that we would either have her by the latest on Monday or Tuesday or earliest on Friday if the results were terrible. The due date was later still and my fluid levels had gone down again. My doctor called us Saturday morning around 6:40am while we were at Bountiful Baskets and said he wanted to do a c-section that day and get her out of me.

We found a sitter for Gabbie and Noah until my parents, who were driving down to spend the week with us, arrived and headed off to the hospital for a c-section.

Getting his awesome shoes on before we headed into the operating room.

Kyle got to sit outside while I went in to prep. I can honestly say that I spent that whole time praying that everything would be okay. I had never had any kind of surgery and I was freaking out a little bit when I walked in the room and saw it all laid out for surgery. They administered the spinal and then asked me to try to move my legs and see if I could. I couldn't help but laugh to myself as I tried to move them and couldn't. It was either that or cry. The surgery part went very quickly. My doctor came in and said he was going to start then all the sudden I hear Lizzie crying.

Elizabeth Anne Christensen was born at 11:15 am on Saturday, December 17, 2011. She weighed 5 pounds 12 ounces and was 18 inches long.

Kyle said she literally looked like a blueberry when she came out. I'm grateful I didn't have to see all of that. She was put on oxygen and they took her over to the NICU because she was struggling to breathe.

I did get to see her before she left and we took a few pictures.

She was admitted to NICU shortly after birth while I was wheeled to recovery. As the drugs started to wear off, I started to itch like crazy. Kyle laughed at me because I asked him to help me itch parts of my body I couldn't reach while laying down. I was pretty mad at him at the time because he didn't help me. Apparently during my surgery, I lost some blood and ended up anemic so the first time I got up out of bed to use the bathroom post surgery, I blacked out on the toilet. Embarrassing memory. I was told as soon as I could get up and walk around I would be able to go to the NICU and see Lizzie. So I tried again a bit later in the day to sit up in a chair. I made it a bit longer but started to get dizzy and black out again so I got sent back to bed. I think the hardest part for me of recovering was not being able to see my baby. I got to see her for the few minutes after surgery and then didn't see her again until Monday. Not my favorite experience. I was released on Monday but we had to leave our little girl at the hospital for a day. More on that to come. I had some issues with uncontrollable shaking and pain in the first few days after I got home which we think was because of the meds I was taking.

I'm so grateful that things went as smoothly as they did. I know I was imagining the worst and am grateful for a worthy husband who could give me a blessing in the hospital when I was struggling the most. We are so blessed to have our sweet little girl in our family. Thank you to everyone for all your love and support during these past 9 months of pregnancy.

Sticker Fun

What would Gabs and Noah do with stickers?

They would share one with each person around and then put the rest all over their shirts. The entire pack. Crazy kiddos.

Never a dull moment with these two. They keep us on our toes and laughing all the time.

A trip to the zoo? I think so!

We knew we had to go on one final trip to the zoo before baby Lizzie was to be born. So we forgot about doing Saturday jobs and headed down to the zoo instead.

They love this tube. We would spend 20 minutes there if I would let them.

While everyone else was watching the elephants do tricks, Gabs wanted to get her picture standing on this elephant.

Three of my most favorite people!

I love when these two play together. They are so cute and get along very well, most of the time. Ha, who am I kidding. They fight all the time but get over it quickly.

Big bear hugs!

Apparently walking around the zoo was too much for Kyle.

Now they are hiding inside so the rain can't get them.

'I can't see.'
'Here Bubs let me point it in the right direction.'
'No Mom! I do it all self.'

Noah and I split off from Kyle and Gabs to go ride a turtle.

Then we found them again so we could ride swans together...

And peep out from a tunnel to find Mommy.

Birthday Girl

This girlie turned 4 in the beginning of December.

Thanks to our Cooley cousins for this dress. She loved wearing it on her special birthday.

This is what her pictures look like nine times out of ten now...

Silly picture with Daddy and Noah.

For her birthday dinner she decided she wanted homemade pizza. She helped Daddy make the dough and everything.

Opening presents...

Another ice cream cake just a couple of weeks after Tayyer's birthday. Can we say cake overload?

We love you Gabba Dabba.

Things we love about Gabbie:

• her active imagination
• her love of helping
• her desire to improve on things she struggles with
• how much she loves her two kid siblings
• her crazy knock, knock jokes

And so much more!!

A surprise for the birthday girl.

Back in November, we got this phone call from our Bishop's wife telling me she had four tickets to Disney on Ice and they couldn't go so did we want them.

This was one of those tender mercies from Heavenly Father because Kyle and I had been talking about how we wanted to take them to it but we just couldn't justify spending money on tickets.

We piled in the car and told the kids we were going to a surprise for Gabbie's birthday. They each got to get a kids meal, which was a special treat for them. The whole way Gabs kept asking where we were going. Once we got to the Reliant Center downtown, she and Noah asked if we were going to see horses and pigs (the last time they were at the Reliant Center was for the rodeo back in March and they still remembered it). We quickly told them no but it was something even better.

We snapped a few pictures while we waited for the show to start.

Then Mickey and the gang skated out on the ice. Noah was ecstatic. I had the camera ready to go because I knew he wanted to see Mickey more than anything else.

And here's his face...he was so excited.

We got to see Ariel from Little Mermaid, Simba from Lion King, Tinker Bell from Peter Pan and Lilo from Lilo and Stitch.

This is what it is like trying to get a picture of the family. No joke. It's nigh on impossible for everyone to be smiling and looking at the camera at the same time.

Handsome guy.

She was so excited but super tired so she stuck close to us the entire time.

Noah kept saying he didn't want to see the big crocodile and mean mommy that I am, I had to get a picture of his face when it came out...

He is so fun. I love this little guy.

All the fun characters! Thank you so much for giving us tickets. It was a great birthday present for Gabbie.