Blessing Day

On September 1st, 2013, Max had his baby blessing in church.  It was such a special day!  Johnny gave a very sweet blessing for Max and we had so much love and support from family and friends.  Here's the little stud in his white tux (courtesy of Aunt Emily).

We were lucky to have so many people come for the blessing.  Emily and Laura were staying with us for several days and my parents flew out just for the weekend so they could be here for Max's big day.  Nate and Claire drove up from Arizona to be here for the weekend, too, so we had a lot of family from out of town.  We're so thankful for the efforts they all made to be here.

Now I'm just going to do a picture overload because we got some goodies that day.

Max has the 4 best grandparents in the world.

Owen likes Max?

It was basically a party and we had a great time.  Johnny and I feel so incredibly blessed to have Max in our family.  He is the best baby in the world (no bias) and he makes us happy every single day.  Thanks to everyone who was a part of our special day for Max!

Mom, Dad, and Mister Max

Time to blog is harder to come by these days, so while Max is taking an afternoon nap I thought I'd start writing a little bit about his birth.  Max Urban Allred came into our world on July 26, 2013 at 11:17 pm, weighing in at a whopping (for me) 8 pounds 4 ounces and measuring 20 inches long.  Johnny and I cannot believe how much this baby boy has changed our lives for the better in the one month he's been here.

I'm not going to lie, getting Max to this earth was pretty much a nightmare that I did not think I would live through.  I'm not exaggerating here.  I can't count the number of times I screamed (louder than I even knew I was capable of screaming) "I'm gonna die!!!!!" during the last part of labor.  But we'll get to that later.

On Thursday the 25th, I went in to my doctor for my 39 week appointment.  With my due date just one week away, my belly stretched to capacity, and every ultrasound indicating that my baby was easily an 8 pounder, I was more than ready to start labor and hold my son in my arms instead of in my belly.  I was dilated to a two and having consistent contractions for well over a week, but even after my doctor examined me, we just thought we'd have to play the waiting game a little longer.  I begrudgingly set my next appointment for August 1st, my official due date, and went on home.  

Before I got pregnant, I used to think it was funny that pregnant women got so impatient to deliver their babies before their due date even came along.  I thought it was silly that a woman could have a major meltdown if she went even just one day past her due date.  I thought, what's one more day when you've already gone nine months?  I thought wrong.  Here I was an entire week before my due date, having a full on meltdown because I was not sure I could make it one more day carrying my big ol' belly around, not sleeping at night, going to the bathroom every 10 minutes, and having those darn contractions with seemingly no progression taking place.  Luckily for me and for anyone around me, I didn't have to make it one more day because things started happening that night.

That evening, my contractions were coming so close together and getting more painful but we figured we should wait to go to the hospital until I was clearly in labor.  I thought that time came at 4:00 the next morning so we grabbed our bags and got ready to go, but then the pain subsided and we fell back asleep.  When we woke up again at 8:00 I felt so sick and decided we needed to go right then.  We got to the hospital around 9:00 and waited to be admitted.

My mom was scheduled to fly out to Utah on August 3rd because originally, I was convinced I'd go over my due date and because it is very difficult to schedule flights based on unscheduled birth.  I really wanted her there for my labor and she really wanted to be there, too.  On the 25th, she was in Denver with my dad for work.  When she found out that I thought my baby was coming sooner than expected, she changed her flight so she could leave Denver a day early and fly straight to Salt Lake.  She made it to Utah around 9 am on the 26th, when David picked her up and brought her straight to the hospital to meet us.

The nurse checked me and I was still dilated to a two with very regular contractions.  Unfortunately, the hospital was so busy that day with women having babies that they were turning away scheduled inductions.  They told me they absolutely could not admit me unless I was in active labor, meaning that I had to progress further than a two.  The nurse told me to walk around the hallways for 45 minutes and that she would check me again after that.  If I had progressed, they would let me stay and move me into a labor and delivery room.  Mom, Johnny, and I walked and walked and hoped for good news.  I had hardly dilated any more when the nurse checked me again, but my contractions were coming closer together so they took pity on me and admitted me at noon.

My doctor came in and broke my water, the nurse started an IV, and things got real.  I finally started to dilate and I didn't even need any pitocin because my contractions were so close together already.  At this point the contractions were definitely painful so they gave me some pain medicine through my IV.  It made me feel awesome.  When I was dilated to a 4 or so, they gave me an epidural.  After that, I felt relaxed and ready to do this.  At 7 pm, I had dilated to a 7 and that's when things went downhill.  I could tell that my epidural was wearing off and suddenly the contractions were very intense.  I had a pump to control the flow of the epidural medicine, so I pushed it as often as I could.  It would help for maybe ten minutes and then wear off.  The pain was so intense that the anesthesiologist had to come back and give me another dose of medicine.  This helped for about 20 minutes but then it wore off, too.  The nurses told me there was nothing else they could do to help with the pain so I just had to deal with it.  At 9:00 I was dilated to a 9 and so ready to push the baby out.  It felt like forever getting to a 10.  The nurse kept checking me but I just could not dilate all the way.  She finally told me to start pushing through the contractions.  I pushed for over an hour before Max finally made it out.  The contractions were so close together that I couldn't rest between them and I thought I would die from exhaustion.  I wasn't getting relief from the epidural or any pain medicines, and my baby's head did not want to come out.  The nurses got the vacuum ready to pull Max out and there were whispers of having to do a C-section.  When a C-section was brought up, I freaked out because I had already been in labor for 11 hours and I did not want to end it with a C-section.  At this point, the nurses left us in the room alone without saying anything to us.  I didn't know what to do but my mom told me to just keep pushing because that was the only way to get through the contractions.  When the nurse came back in, Max must have been crowning because she told me to stop pushing.  She made me so nervous like she wouldn't know what to do if he came out.  She said to wait for my doctor, which is really hard to do.  My doctor finally made it to the hospital ready to catch my baby.  I felt like he was going to fall out and hit the floor.  I was yelling at everyone and begging the doctor to please hurry and catch my son!

With a few more pushes, Max was here.  I was out of it and felt completely unaware of everything going on around me.  Johnny and Mom were ecstatic to see Max, and I felt like I was going to die.  But when they finally put him in my arms, I fell in love.  I could not believe that he was my baby and that he was in my arms and out of my body.  I thought he was the cutest baby I'd ever seen (I still think that) and that it was a miracle that we made it through labor and delivery.

My first time holding him.  He was so alert when he was born and he just quietly stared right at us with his eyes wide open.

My cute boys.

Nanny helped us make it through this difficult day.

My doctor and Max.

It was a very difficult day but it all worked out perfectly.  Max and I were healthy and he was finally here!

Max didn't get a name until the next day because we wanted to make sure it felt right before we made it official.  During labor, Johnny made a joke that the baby was pushing me to the max so that's what we should name him.  Early on in the pregnancy we thought of the name Max just long enough to decide it was cute and then never consider it again.  We had a list of our top three baby names going into the hospital (Max was not on it) and we figured we'd leave with one of them as our son's name.  After we saw our little guy we thought Max just fit him and so it stuck.  Johnny's great grandpa's name was J. Urban Allred, so that's where the middle name came from.

Margo, Daren, and Scott were in the waiting room when Max was born so they came in as soon as we were cleaned up.

We also had some family visit the next day.

We left the hospital on Sunday afternoon and came home to a clean house, fresh flowers on our table, and a refrigerator full of food that my mom bought us.  We are so lucky to have had Mom and David here to help us out during my recovery.  We also had a lot of visitors on Sunday but unfortunately we didn't get pictures of everyone.

We are so thankful that everything turned out so well and that we have tons of love and support as we try to figure out this new parenting thing.  Stay tuned for lots more cute pictures of baby Max!

Family Pictures

We have had all of Johnny's family together for a couple of weeks this month and it's been so much fun!  Nate and Claire moved back to the States from Australia and we have loved spending time with them before they move to Arizona again.  Since we had everyone together we decided to take some family pictures and I think they turned out pretty nice.

The whole group after Alana's baptism (even though this will be outdated any day now with our new baby on the way)

The originals

Look at all these cute Allred cousins our son will have to play with!

Johnny and me at 37 weeks pregnant

Who knows how many new people will be in the picture next time around!  This family is growing pretty quickly.

Allred Clan Campout

This year we had a great Fourth of July celebration up in the mountains.  Johnny and I joined his family camping from Wednesday to Saturday which, besides Girl's Camp, is the longest camping trip I've ever been on.  It's hands down the longest camping trip I've ever been on at 36 weeks pregnant.  We went to Tony Grove up Logan Canyon and it was absolutely beautiful! We went there last year, too, but Johnny and I couldn't actually spend the night because I had work the next morning.

Margo is basically a champion at cooking while camping and I'm pretty sure we ate better there with her open fire cooking than we do at home with my cooking.  We had so much delicious food!  Johnny did some fishing, I took daily naps in the trailer, and we played lots of fun games and went for lovely walks around the lake.  My favorite thing was escaping the 105 degree heat of Layton and trading it in for 60  and 70 degree temps.  I didn't even want to come back to civilization! 

Johnny doing his bottle trick where he hits it with his hand and the bottom breaks off.

On the Fourth we drove down the canyon into Logan to meet up with Amy and Chaz.  We made s'mores at their house and then went to a great firework show in Hyrum.  We had to get some traditional Independence Day celebrating in our vacation.  

Saturday came too soon and we had to go back home.  Thanks Margo and Daren for having us on the campout!  They put so much work into these trips and make it so fun for all of us.  Hopefully next summer we can go back to Tony Grove and bring our baby boy!

Swimming, Shows, and Sushi

Last week, Johnny and I got back from a week and a half vacation to Arkansas and Branson with my family.  We had so much fun and we're so grateful we had the opportunity to spend time with the Drakes because it doesn't happen often enough.

Our first day there we spent at Emily's house because it was my parents' 31st anniversary and they went out to celebrate.  This day was super fun because Tanner was in love with my belly!  He kept telling me funny things like "you have to take your baby out of your belly before you sit down on him," and "put your baby there (on the side of the road) and I'll give you two more babies for your belly."  He's such a weird kid!  He also kept pretending to operate on my belly and saying he was "taking out the pieces" for me.  One time he stared at my belly button and said he wanted to open it.  I told him he couldn't open it and that we had to wait for the baby to come when he was ready.  After thinking very seriously for about a minute, he screams "scissors!" and runs into the kitchen to retrieve them.  He was pretty convinced that he could use some scissors to get my baby out - scary!  We had to have a pretty serious conversation at that point.  Tanner meant well; he was just excited to meet his new cousin:)

We also played in Emily's pool that night.  So much fun with Tanner and Bailey!

Emily, Mom, and Laura threw me a baby shower while we were out there.  They did a great job and everything looked so cute!  It was fun to see some of the women I've known since I was a little girl and to feel their love and support as Johnny and I start our family.  The theme of the shower was mustache bash and Emily did a great job on the decorations!

I sure do love my mom and sisters.  We missed Julieta but she was in Mexico visiting her family so I guess that's forgivable.

One night in Mountain Home, my parents took Johnny and I to visit my grandma and grandpa's grave.  I hadn't been there since Grams' funeral so it was definitely time.  I miss my grandparents a lot and I wish they could be here to meet my baby boy.  They would have loved him and he would have been one lucky little guy to have his great-grandparents around.

I also got to see one of my very best friends during this trip.  Terra was busy with work but we were able to meet up with her during her lunch break.  She's such a sweetheart and I'm so glad she made time to see us!

We had one last hurrah before we left Mountain Home for Branson.  My mom treated me to a pedicure!  It was nice to relax and have some girl time with my mom. It's nice to be pampered every once in a while.

Branson week was awesome this year.  I wish David could have been there (he's still in Korea) and Chris and Joseph could have been there more (they still had to work some), but those of us who were there had a blast!  

Johnny and I saw several shows this time around, which we don't usually do.  We saw Amazing Pets with the rest of the gang.  The kids (and my mom) loved watching the animals do insane tricks.  My favorite was watching a dog ride a bike across the stage because it just looked so unnatural and hilarious.

Bailey was excited to see the "goggies"

We also saw "Six" and "It", both of which are performed by LDS families in my home stake.  Mom and Dad went with us to Six and Laura went with us to It.  Laura actually got us the tickets for It because her friend from the stake is one of the performers in it.  Six was cool because it's a show of six brothers who do lots of songs but never use any instruments or music.  The way they use their voices totally makes it sound like there is music but it's all them!  It's pretty cool.  The show, It, is done by the Hughes family and they had over 50 family members on stage as part of the show.  Apparently they are the largest performing family in the world.  They did a great job and I loved seeing how the whole family is involved.

We also saw "Man of Steel" in the IMAX theater.  It was Johnny's first time seeing something in the IMAX so we were very excited about it.  We thought the movie was good and it's always fun to see it on the extra big screen. 

Mom and Johnny are both obsessed with theater popcorn so they had to sit next to each other to share.  Of course we needed more treats so we went to Andy's for some delicious frozen custard afterward.

We spent some time in downtown Branson at Dick's 5 and 10, a cute ice cream parlor, and the Branson Landing.  We came away from the 5 and 10 store with a few treasures including a super cute board book for the baby.

One of the best parts of Branson week is relaxing by the pool and getting a nice tan.  This year we also rented a boat and took it out on Table Rock Lake, so that was really fun.

Checking out the fish at the marina.

Obviously we're just having a boat dance party.  Tanner's got some moves.

In my family we currently have four kids ages 3 and under.  By the end of this year, it'll be five kids 4 and under, so we definitely have our work cut out for us.  I love love love my nieces and nephews but things get crazy with all those little kids running around.  I think I'll add to the chaos in about five weeks just to keep things interesting.  Johnny and I loved getting to spend time with our Arkansas niece and nephews.  They grow up way too fast! 

These two had a very special bond.  It seriously melted my heart to watch Johnny interact with the kids!

The kids always wanted to hide in this secret little spot with Uncle Johnny.

Bailey has a little angel face!

Clark stuck this pose without any coercion.  He's a character.

It was fun to celebrate Father's Day in the condo this year.  My dad is the best dad in the world and I'm so lucky to have him in my life.  He does so much for his family and he is such a support for me even now that I'm kind of a grown-up.  Johnny also got to be honored this year as a father and I cannot wait to see how great he is in that role.  I have so much confidence in him and I'm insanely grateful that I married him and now he is the father of my son.

I made Johnny a banana cream pie and Dad a coconut cream pie for their gifts this year.

Before Johnny and I flew out on Friday, we all went out for a delicious sushi lunch in Branson.  It was the perfect way to end our vacation.

Joseph and Julieta's sushi was on fire.

I was so proud of Johnny for finishing his sushi roll.  He's usually not a fan but he devoured this one:)

My cute parents are to thank for this awesome family time.

Of course the trip went by way too fast, but that's what happens when you're having fun.  I can't wait to see my mom, Emily, and Laura in August when they all come out to meet my baby boy!  Family is the best ever.