Disney On Ice

Nevaeh's Preschool had a family field trip to Disney on Ice yesterday so we had a fun filled Mommy-Daughter Day! My mother and I took all three girls to the Sports Arena to see my 4th, Nevaeh's 3rd and Trinity's 2nd Disney On Ice show. The theme this year was "Celebration." The first number was "Birthday" a full cast performance highlighting Alice & Wonderland and Fantasia. Other celebrations included "Summer Vacation" featuring Lilo & Stitch. "Halloween" featuring Nightmare before Christmas, "Christmas" featuring Toy Story. A running story included Minnie's Dream of becoming a princess in which all the Disney Princesses and Prince's were featured including the new Princess & the Frog movie.


I had so much fun watching my girls reaction to everything going on. Selah was captivated by the lights and music, Nevaeh & Trinity recognized all the characters and shouted their names out as they danced across the stage.

It's days like these I wish I could just freeze time. I count myself truly blessed to have such an amazing mother and three beautiful girls.

Safari Run

I am training for the Safari Park Half Marathon and will soon be signing up for the Biggest Winner Competition as an effort to get fit and healthy this new year. I am trying to set goals for myself to keep me motivated and on track. No crash diets just a healthier lifestyle. I started training 2 weeks ago, starting with (3) 3mile runs a week. My 3 mile will be my base run for a while but next week I am going to start adding another 1.5 miles each week until I can comfortably run 13.1 miles~! YIKES! I am super excited that I am challenging myself to do this run.

My Little Miss

I cannot believe how fast my baby girl is growing! She is a little over 2 months old now and has transitioned from newborn to infant. She was "well developed" at birth so she pretty much skipped the newborn stage:) Little Miss ( my newest nickname for Selah) loves tummy time, being held, listening to music, watching late night movies with daddy, taking showers, watching her big sisters and has a smile that will melt your heart. That is when she smiles, she always has a pensive look on her face:) She is starting to scoot on her tummy, likes to babble and loves to cuddle. I am enjoying every moment of being a Mommy of Three! Many said the third is the toughest, God blessed me with a really "chill" third baby and I feel blessed. Only thing I am having a harder time with is my time management. I've found I need an extra hour of "getting ready" time, I can't just leave the house anymore ( have to make sure the diaper bag is loaded and ready at all times),loading and unloading the car is a 15 minute process...you get the picture:)
I'll get a new schedule down eventually.
I sure do love my Little Miss!

Photography 2011

In 2010 I started playing around with photography and fell in love with it. Did a few family and maternity sessions, even a wedding. My goal for 2011 is to build portfolio and dive deeper into my new passion of capturing memories. Being that I am still learning I am offering a 1 hour photo session, complete with a disk of all images taken and 20 edited photos for $100. You would be responsible for the prints. This offer is good for the first 10 sessions booked in 2011!

Goals

I've been cleared by the doctor to start working out again, and if watching the Biggest Loser has taught me anything it is to set goals for yourself to keep you motivated. So my sister and I are signing up to run a half marathon in March. I'm not planning on racing and chances are I will be slowly jogging and probably walking, my goal is just to finish.

So I'm going to start out my workout routine slow, listen to my body and get healthy. I have been using the "I'm pregnant" or "I'm nursing" excuse to eat what I want when I want and that's going to change. I've been doing a lot of research about working out while nursing and have found multiple sources that say the milk supply isn't affected by exercise but is affected by diet. So I plan to make my calorie intake higher while eating healthier foods that way me and baby are happy and healthy.

I know it sounds funny but I feel more lethargic not working out. Exercise gives me an energy boost and a little time to myself with no kiddos:) I will eventually get this baby weight off, no pills, no crash diets, just slow and steady from eating healthy and exercise.

Hoping to loose 50lbs by next Christmas

Knotts & Pirate Adventure

Last Christmas my inlaws blessed all of the Kids and Grand kids with season passes to Knotts Berry Farm. With our passes expiring in a couple of weeks we decided to get one more trip in.


Ricky, Karissa, Gavin, Kennedy, Ava, Peyton, Jessica, Bob, Linda, Jason, Nevaeh, Trinity, Selah and myself made up the group:)

We couldn't have asked for a more perfect day. The weather was amazing, the park was empty and there were virtually no lines, all of the kids were in good moods and were incredibly well behaved ( even Selah.)


We started in Camp Snoopy giving the kiddos a chance to ride a bunch of rides, then us adults snuck in a couple big rides. We enjoyed lunch together at Jonny Rockets, hit a few more rides, did some shopping then we left.



I found an incredible deal online for the Pirate Adventure Dinner Show, which was right down the street, so we shuttled the family over.

Doors opened at 530pm, we enjoyed some appetizers, drinks, did some shopping and watched the pre-show. At 7pm the adventure was ready to begin!

You walk into a stadium of 5 different color sections, in the center of the stadium is a giant pirate ship stage surrounded by a water moat. The show was amazing, funny, exciting and they really got the audience involved. My nieces and nephews were chosen to be part of the show. My sister in law and myself were chosen to participate in one of three challenges.


The food was yummy ( we were already pretty stuffed from the appetizers) and I couldn't have asked for better company.

We had a great time, I hope it is something my girls will remember for years to come.

Birth Story for Selah

Birth Story isn't all that exciting but here it is for those interested.

I was admitted at Zion Hospital Monday November 1st at 11:30 am to have my water broken. After getting paperwork finished, monitors set and IV hooked up my doctor ( Dr. Stuckey) came in at 12:30pm and broke my water. Then the "waiting game" began. Hour after hour went by and nothing happened, no contrations, no dilating, nothing. Dr. Stuckey wanted to see labor begin within 4-6 hours and by 6pm we still had no progress in the labor department.

Dr. Stuckey went off shift and I was under the care of Dr. Mesch. Dr. Stuckey explained my wishes of a VBAC being extremely important to me and the two devised a new plan of action. I would be administered half the normal dosage of Pitocin under internal monitoring, if labor still hadn't begun before the morning then csection was our only option left.

6:30pm Pitocin was added to my IV and Jason and I prayed for labor. Lesson being- Be careful what you pray for:) 7pm my first contraction hit and it hit HARD! Threw me into the fetal position. It lasted about a minute and a half and then next one came nearly 3 minutes later. Then another, and another, I went from nothing to INTENSE labor in a matter of minutes. This lasted about an hour before Jason and I decided an epidural was needed so we called in the anetheisiologist. It took him about a half an hur to get there and another half an hour to administer the epidural. Meanwhile the contractiona are hitting harder and are closer to 2 minutes apart.

9:15pm I was a happy camper. Epidural was in full effect and I had no more pain! Contrations at this point were 1.5 to 2 minutes apart, I was a little over 3cm and 75% effaced. Around midnight I was starting to feel a lot of pain on my right side. The epirdural wasn't working up to par. My doctor came in, repositioned me in hopes that more of the medication would fall on my right, it helped a little but I still had to breathe through the contrations. She checked me again-no progress.

2am rolled around, contractions were only a minute apart and I was still super uncomfortable on my right side so I asked the nurse if I could be checked ( I wanted to give my Mom enough time to make it for the birth.) She said the Dr. was in surgery, an hour later same excuse. 4:30am rolled around so I called my nurse in again because of the pain on my right hand side and because of pressure I was feeling. She said she would go ahead and just check me.

Turns out I was 100% effaced, 10cm and Selahs head was visible! Jason, who was in a dead sleep, jumped out of the chair to see. We all started freaking out a bit. " CALL MOM!" I yelled. The nurse was quickly prepping me for delivery and instructed me to give her one big push. So I did and she said I was definately ready. The doctor came in and got right to business. ( Meanwhile my Mom & sisters were frantically on their way to the hospital) I pushed for nearly 20 minutes and Selah Desirae Winters entered the world at 5:05am.

For those of you who are familiar with my past experiences in birth I was the last person to hold either of my daughters because of the csections. That wasn't the case this time. They put Selah right on my chest, goop and all. They cleaned her off, cut the cord and administered most of the tests right there on me! It was a dream come true. My family arrived about 30 minutes later, bummed they missed the birth but excited to see Miss Selah. They had to wait to hold her though because she was still on Mommy "Skin-to-Skin" time:)

With the exception of the partial episiotomy and 3rd degree tear I recieved in the birthing process I was very happy with the overall experience. I got to be the first person to hold my baby girl and she successfully started nursing right away!

Selah Desirae Winters
Born November 2nd 2010 @ 5:05 am
9lbs 1oz 21 inches