Merry Christmas!

It's hard to believe that Christmas has come and gone. So much goes into one day, and then it's over and done with. Of course, the ten days before were a bit of a blur with our new little one...

We had a wonderful Christmas, and we even braved the storm to visit the Nelson home for a little while. It was great to see everyone, and we came home for Stacie's family to visit us. Cindee flew in from California, and it was great to see her, too.

Here are a few more pictures to share. Happy holidays everyone!

More fun from the hospital

We're still here in the hospital...we had hoped to go home yesterday (Friday), but Stacie's blood pressure stayed high while they monkeyed around with her medication, so we got to spend another night here. Today we expect to be able to go home, and we're excited to have our little family together again. Our parents have been so wonderful to help us, and to let Lexie spend the night with them so that I could stay here with Stacie. Thanks to everyone for their love and support!

Thursday was my birthday, and I can honestly say that it was the most unique birthday that I have ever experienced. Sitting with our newborn son was the very best present that I could hope for; eating a McRib while I was in the hospital with our newborn son was a little slice of heaven!

We have some more pictures to show; hopefully the next round of photos will be of us taking care of JJ in our house!

Baby boy is here!

We are proud to present our newest addition to the family: Jaden Joshua Nelson, born on December 16th, at 8:32 p.m. He weighed 7 lbs, 6 oz. at birth and was 20 inches in length.



Everything went extremely well. The first picture in the slide show was of Stacie sitting in the OR, getting ready for her epidural, when the anesthesiologist was called away for an emergency, so we had to trudge back to the room and wait a little bit longer. But he was worth the wait; he came out crying, and has been a docile little boy ever since. We haven't had to deal with the immediate concerns that we had with Lexie so far, and we both feel incredibly blessed to have our healthy little one with us.

Lexie came to see us last night and would hardly let anyone else hold him. She is VERY excited to be a big sister! Thanks for all of the thoughts and prayers from everyone. We are so lucky to have all of your support.

More to come...

Pregnancy Rollercoaster

What a couple of days! Stacie posted last night about the interesting day that we had, and today was no different. She monitored her blood pressure closely all morning, and found high numbers on par with yesterday's. After several consistent high readings, we decided to call the doctor and ask what to do. Just before noon they called us and told us to come to the Labor and Delivery floor to be monitored.

We made our way to the hospital, no thanks to the blizzard that essentially turned I-15 into a parking lot, and got admitted. By the time she got checked in and situated, her blood pressure was back to normal (of course!), and they decided to just monitor things for a while. She wasn't dilating, and everything looked fine, so we were just about 15 minutes away from getting her discharge papers. At this point, we hadn't eaten all day and were discussing various food options when the blood pressure monitor beeped, noting a high reading. Oh boy. The next several readings were equally high, and the nurse told us that we were going to have to stay around for a while longer. Our visions of chicken fingers vanished into the afternoon and we settled in for some more waiting.

Before long, the resident came in an told us that due to the elevated blood pressure readings, along with some consistent contractions, they were now going to proceed with the c-section! It's been such an up and down day, and while our plans have been altered slightly, we are now a "go for baby". It's about 5:30 right now, and the surgery is scheduled for 7:30, so we have a few hours to wait until it all happens.

Here's a picture of Stacie laying in her bed, getting her arms warmed up so that they can put in an IV:



We'll post again later!

Pregnancy Update

Today I had my final doctors appointment scheduled in the AM hours. As usual one of the first things they always do is take my blood pressure. Today, it was a little high, even for me - 155/105. They asked me to leave a urine sample so they could test for protein in the urine and then took my blood pressure again, this time it had raised/dropped to 177/85. My dystolic number had dropped but the systolic increased. Josh and I were discussing what questions I wanted to make sure and ask the doctor when he came in and it was all thrown off when he came in and announced that quite possibly they would take the baby today to avoid preeclampsia - YIKES!!! He asked if I brought my bag just in case, to which I replied "NO". I had no thoughts that it might need to happen today. He sent me down the hall for a Non-stress Test and to have my blood pressure monitored. Fortunately for me my blood pressure decreased dramatically during my "resting" period. Most of the results were in the 139/79 arena, much better. Thanks to my body cooperating I was able to go home without having the baby today.

The good news was that my doctor canceled the Amnio scheduled for Thursday and decided definitely to perform the C-section on Friday as he is still unsure that I'll last until Friday. He told me I should stop working and stay off my feet as much as possible . . . bed rest, yuck! I was very excited to hear that I wouldn't have to have the amnio on Thursday and that we could for sure count on the baby arriving Friday morning. We're praying that the Lord will bless me and the baby to last throughout the week and to bless the baby to be ready for delivery as scheduled. I've been resting today, my blood pressure has been a little high but doable. So for now, I'm just taking it easy. A little bit of a scare to start off the week!

Hadley Christmas Party

Saturday we celebrated the Holidays at our annual Hadley Christmas Party. Due to the baby's arrival we celebrated early this year (thanks all). We had alot of fun doing a Breakfast/Brunch this year. We had TONS of food and then headed downstairs for our annual "Foosball Tournament". It was decided to break the competition into groups this year: Men, Women, and Jr's (kids). Josh won the Mens round (as he does every year), Dawnie was victorious for the Womens, and all the kids won a prize for competing. Grammie takes care of the kids!



A great time was had by all that attended. Even the weather couldn't stop the Hadleys from celebrating the Holidays.

Lexie meets the Man In Red

So, we finally got over to the mall yesterday so that Lexie could have a quick chat with Santa. She was VERY excited to see him, and had no problem telling him exactly what she'd like for Christmas (shocking, I know). I told Santa that we were working on the "good girl" part so that he could come to our house on Christmas Eve. It IS a work in progress, but she's trying!



Check out Santa's belt buckle! I didn't know he was a pimp in the off season.

We're in single digits tomorrow in the baby countdown. I just bought a gallon of milk whose expiration date is after his birth date. It's hard to believe that it's finally here!

Lexie's Clogging Performance

Lexie has been going to clogging class for several months now, and last Friday was her first performance. It was at the Kearns Skating Complex where the speed skating was held during the Olympics. And while it was a little bit chaotic (there was a huge winter carnival going on, and they had trouble getting the correct song to play), Lexie did a great job. Here's a short video:


Lexie Nelson: Feet of fire from Josh on Vimeo.

Christmas is almost here! Hope we're ready...Christmas effectively comes on December 19th when the new baby is here, so we have to be ready a little bit earlier than normal. Happy holidays, everyone!