Follow me on this journey!

So I am an AWFUL blogger, we all know that.... especially since I haven't blogged since...LAST YEAR! I am so sorry. I just don't have a bunch of time and I don't know, it's hard to commit to. So I decided that I am going to try and blog about my journey on becoming a midwife. That means that this will hopefully be a blog that is update more than once a year, since to get my bachelors in midwifery, it will take me six years! So on with the story.

I am enrolled and starting tomorrow in the Midwifery College of Utah. Yaho

o! Now your question may be "WHY?" I have gotten that reaction a lot. I think I know why I get that reaction... When you hear the word midwife you think

Am I right? Well that's certainly what I use to think. I just thought, old woman, crooked nose, a bunch of towels, maybe a little bowl of water. Scary huh? So when I was pregnant with Penelope, it took me by surprise when Rob suggested I talk to a woman in our ward who has had 2 children naturally with a midwife, just to consider that option. I was REALLY skeptical, extremely so. I agreed to see her, just to be polite to my crazy husband, and what happened next through me for a curve ball!

I went and saw Sis Tribe (woman in ward) and she was so aw

esome! She is this hip young mom, crafty, and so nice. We clicked right away. She was very sensitive to my concerns about midwifery but also honest. She suggested I read a book, "Your Best Birth" by Ricky Lake & Abby Epstein. She explained that it was really informative about have a baby by midwife and by doctor/hospital. She explained that having a natural birth was not for everyone, but for those who do go natural experience something life changing in a way others can't. Intrigued I decided to get the book from the library and read.

I think I finished that book in a couple of days (I was still working full-time and exhausted all the time) but I could not believe what I was reading. It was informative and made me change my outlook of not just midwifery, but birth forever. It talked about how high our c-section rate was (and how there was NO reason for it to be that high), how our mortality rate in our country was one of the highest IN THE WORLD! Some 3rd world countries are doing

better than us! How could this be possible, we have some of the best medical advances in the world, and we can't keep a mother and a baby alive? Come to find out after a year and a half of study, just because we have medical advances, it does not mean that we can possibly do better at birth than the woman body can. Which then puts you into awe of how wonderful Heavenly Father is in his design. He made the woman's body a complete perfection in conceiving, carrying, and then delivering a baby. There are always special circumstances of course that may call for need of medical attention, and that does need to be acknowledged. But the majority of women can have a baby naturally without any medical intervention and survive... not only that, but heal so much faster then others who decided to have a epidural, then pitocin, and a c-section.

In "Ina May's Guide to Childbirth" she said, "if men had a uterus, that would be the organ they would brag about." HAHAHAHA this made me laugh because even a

s women we don't brag about our uterus! But it is truly an amazing organ. It starts as the size of a pear, it then holds EVERYTHING that you need to grow a child until it is the size of a watermelon. It then contracts and helps your child to enter the world, then it sheds all the extras and shrinks back into the size of a pear, like nothing ever happened! Wow!

So if you can't already tell, I am a tad interested in this sort of thing...

But why would this then lead me to midwifery? Well I think that every woman has the ability to have their baby any way they want, and I want to help with that. I want to be that calming voice, the one of reassurance that a woman can rely on to

help bring their precious baby into the world. I think that pregnancy and birth are two of the most amazing and beautiful things that can happen in this life and I want to be a part of that. I want to help women meet their full potential and be comfortable and know that it can happen and it doesn't have to be painful (like you would think in the movies).

So I am going to be starting a awesome journey tomorrow, and I will try to keep this updated when I have cool updates, or I learn something new. Who knows, maybe I'll convert you to midwifery also ;)

(Just FYI, we are moving to Portland, OR in 2 weeks...AHHH!! but that should only mean a couple of crazy days, hopefully)

2 Months Later

Here we are 2 months later and it is amazing all the changes that have happened in our lives! It is absolutely amazing how much time babies take up in your day! So let's get into the story of how it all happened.

June 3rd: Her due date. So I was having a hard day just because I didn't like the fact that it was Penelope's due date and she seemed to be enjoying herself up in my belly. I was tired and uncomfortable. So when my sweet husband came home he promised to take me on a walk after dinner. So we went for a walk and started to talk. He told me how our lives were going to change forever and that it will never be just the two of us ever. So how even though we are anxious for this little one to come, we should relish the time we have to do whatever we want because we still could. It was a really cute talk and we walked for a good 2 miles and sat on our front porch for about an hour just talking. It was so wonderful, needless to say, I went to bed a lot happier then when I woke up in the morning.

June 4th: It was 6:20 AM and I woke up to go to the bathroom, any pregnant woman knows that she make SEVERAL trips a night, but this night I hadn't gone all night so I was bursting. I walked to the bathroom and after I pulled my pants up I "peed" again, a LOT... now that wasn't right... I just emptied my bladder... Then it dawned on me! My water just broke! Now my poor husband, it has always been early in the morning that he has found out anything important... like 6 AM when I was too anxious anymore to wait to take the pregnancy test and woke him up with the news... this was no exception. I walked back into our bedroom with a big smile on my face and gently woke up my husband with the news. He immediately jumped out of bed, asked if I was okay and proceeded to scramble things together. I had to laugh because we had everything already put together in a bag for this very reason, so he decided to jump in the shower and I decided to go and make some breakfast. As I did, I called my mom and dad, and all the siblings just so they were in the loop. After a nice breakfast Rob and I went to American Fork Hospital. Because my water had broke I had to go to the hospital right away because of a little thing called Strep B, which I had, that could possibly give Penny pneumonia on her way out if I didn't get the antibiotics I needed. So we showed up to AFH at 9 AM, mom was waiting out in the parking lot and we went to check in. They took me to a room to check that my water had really broken, because a sudden gush of water wasn't enough right? Well funny thing is, the little test strip that changes colors when it is your amniotic fluid wasn't changing colors, even after 3 strips! The nurse said that I might have just had mucus come out...yeah right. I told her no, that was silly because well I'm still leaking, every time I move. She decided to then leave the room and come back to see how much I "pooled". She came back after 5 mins and was amazed how much liquid there was. (see, I wasn't kidding when I said my water broke).

So I got sent to the Labor and Delivery ward and got a nice big room.

So now we waited...and waited...and waited. Did I say that I walked a new path in the floors of that hospital, since I wasn't in labor yet and didn't have contractions, I walked...and walked...and walked. Well the nurse told me that I had to deliver within 24 hrs or the baby would be at risk of infection (big sack of baloney) but hospital rules are rules. What made me angry is that she kept checking me every 30 mins and would then proceed to ask if I wanted Pitocin yet. NO! I wanted to do this natural and I was super annoyed with her and she was annoyed with me. She kept saying how extremely full they were and how I hadn't dilated past 1 1/2 yet. I wasn't in Labor silly! So the hours went by and eventually the evil nurse made me cry and made my husband extremely upset. She just started to get snotty about me not dilating and how it had been her whole shift with no change. So finally at 7 PM that night I gave in and got Pitocin. My doctor had been in and said that if I don't deliver within 24 hrs it would be a C-Section delivery. That scarred me more then anything. So I got it.

Now I was getting bugged about getting an epidural... well the contractions weren't too bad yet so I postponed it thinking I would be strong enough without it. Well for those of you who don't know, Pitocin is said to make contractions 70% worse then they normally are, because it is forcing your body to contract. By 9 I was having contractions about every 30 seconds and wasn't dilating. I was in tears because I was so exhausted from the attack of contractions that by 10 PM Rob went and got the anesthesiologist. Rob told me that he was the one making the decision of getting the epidural because he could not see me in that kind of pain anymore. I am so glad he did because I was so exhausted and in so much pain I just wanted to sleep, not to mention, I had been walking all day. By 10:30 the epidural had kicked in, and what a blessing!

I was smiling and laughing again! So I went to sleep, and slept and slept. The nurses came and checked me regularly and by 11:30 I was at 4 cm and then by 1 AM I was 9 CM and by 1:30 AM I was 10 cm and could start practice pushing. They called Dr. Young and I started to push! 40 mins later at 2:15 AM our beautiful little Penelope was born.

Weighing 6.15 lbs and 19 1/2" long. Because she had come out so fast, she wasn't able to get all the fluid out of her lungs and so they took her away pretty quick after letting her lay on me and cuddle with me. I sent Rob to be with her because I didn't want to be alone without one of us, and that way one of us knows what is going on.

After 1 1/2 hours I was really anxious, I really needed my baby and I hadn't seen her back yet. So they rolled me down to the nursery and let me see her, Rob was there by her side. I kissed her and was rolled up to our room, which was not in the maternity ward, because they were so full. We got put into the pediatrics unit and had the smallest room imaginable. After 2 hours they finally brought her up to me and I was able to feed her. Let me just tell you how amazing it is to hold a brand new baby in your arms and have just this overwhelming feeling of love wash over you. I get the chills just thinking about it!

So that's Penelope's story of entering the world. Now it has been 2 months, of happiness, stress, laughter and tears, and I couldn't be happier. It is amazing how much changes and how much you learn. I was so worried about her not eating enough and then about how she would cry sometimes to the point of making her voice hoarse. It has been just a wonderful blessing to have such a sweet spirit in our home to bring smiles to our faces everyday. Rob has been such a wonderful support, husband and dad.

Penny went to the doctor's today for her 2 month check up and now weighs 11.5 lbs and is 23" long! She is in the 70% range for babies her age hahahaha! She is SO tall!

We LOVE you Penelope Gabrielle Torres!!!

The Final Week

The final week has come... really the final day, technically only one day left in 3 hours. Wow how time has flown! This picture of me kissing my cute husband was just taken minutes ago. As you can see, we are both extremely excited! And who wouldn't be?? I have heard that children are some of the greatest blessings in a family, so bring on the blessings!!! :)

Amazing thing that happened to me today was that I had this amazing energy that I haven't had for so long that I was kind of taken back. I swear I could have run a marathon and not have been winded. Signs of things to come? I hope so :) So I was at work and I just couldn't sit still, I needed to get out of there, so what did I do? Well I finished up the project that I was working on and left. I went home and hung out with my wonderful friend next door. We had girl talk, went to Old Navy and to Ross, then before we knew it, it was 5:30! I had all the intentions of the world to go walking but well, it was raining. So that just didn't happen, unless you count Old Navy and Ross. ;)

This has really been an amazing journey, with the emotional roller coasters, the weight gain, and the mental blockage. But really it has been incredible. I know that I have lost some brain cells through the months, like calling a handful of M&M's banana's and drawing a blank on my husband's name when I kissed him goodbye one morning (don't worry, no other names came to mind when this happened). But I have learned so much about my body and my wonderful husband. I guess you never really realize how much your spouse loves you until you have him tying your shoe laces and propping you with pillows right before you go to bed. It is quite amazing what he would do for me just to make sure I'm as comfortable as possible, even dealing with me having horrible pregnancy gas. It's just such a wonderful feeling to be so completely loved by your eternal companion.

So onto more updates....

So just to update a little... THIS beautiful picture of Rob and Grace were taken a couple of weeks ago at family dinner. As you can see Grace has Rob wrapped around her little finger, isn't he adorable?? He's some sort of gypsie person I think. Anyways, it was just too cute to to not take a picture.

This is one LUCKY girl!! May 1st I had a baby shower, thrown by my wonderful sisters and wow did I have such a great turn out! We got so many things that we needed and wanted it was truly a fabulous shower. It was so wonderful to see all my loved ones there too!

This picture was taken at the end of April because Rob's parents wanted a picture of me... but not just any picture. They wanted it to be of me pregnant, in a dress, and with curly hair. So after a couple of Sundays of forgetting to do it until we would talk to his family that night, we finally remembered. So this is just after church on a gorgeous spring day!

Are there even words to describe how awesomely horrible these glasses are?? We were at the mall and walking through Nordstrom to get back to our car when Rob saw these pairs of glasses and just HAD to try them on! They cost about $25!!! Yeah right Nordstrom.

An update? Really??

Okay so I know it's been a while...let us just say it's been a busy year and well this blogging stuff makes me frustrated because it always seems to mess up or delete what I was writing, so really I have attempted to update but really the site hates me. So I am trying this again :)

Let's see, let's begin with... I'm pregnant, well most of you already know that, considering that you are family or friends and are friends with me on facebook. So I'm 27 weeks, 28 on Friday, and thus begins my 3rd and final trimester...dun dun dunnnn But really I'm excited and just only a little nervous. Last night was the first night (of many more to come) that I could hardly sleep because Penelope (baby) was kicking my ribs so much, even after I would change positions she would start right back up again. Maybe she's just letting me know that she's going to be a night person and she's just letting me know early so I can prepare hehe. Penny's room is almost done, we have a crib (with no mattress) but who can blame mom when there is bargain shopping to be had? We decided to get those plastic storage drawers to go in the closet instead of a dresser, since there really isn't room anyways. We still need a changing table, we want a bookcase, and a glider...come on KSL! We also need to get a car seat and stroller, so grateful for the in-laws, they offered to pay for those :) I bought our first Costco box of size 2 diapers because my neighbors convinced me to get prepared early and then when she actually comes we won't have to worry about all of the added expenses all at once. I never completely realized how much it takes to have a baby in this world, there are so many things we have or want to get!

So I'm in school, STILL going to LDS Business College, I really only have 6 credits left to graduate, but it's a slow process. Rob is entering the last stages of school. Once I have Penny (who is due June 3rd) he will only have 2 semesters left, yahoo!!! So after my 12 weeks of maternity leave I will go back to work so that he can get done, but only 2 semesters... there is a light at the end of this tunnel :) He has been thinking of becoming a Nuclear Engineer, building airplanes is no longer exciting enough for him haha, I just smile and nod because as far as I know airplanes are grown on a farm by little airplane seeds haha. But he is super smart and I love seeing him so excited about school and what he is learning, even though I hardly understand half of it. Go Rob!

We went to Mexico this year for Christmas and New Year's to be with family. It was so much fun! I found out though that goat doesn't really sit well in my stomach and after 3 days of tacos I was on a diet of just veggies because they were the only thing that didn't make me sick. So besides being super tired and only eating veggies, we had a blast! We visited a lot of the city (Guadalajara) again and hung out with family. We miss them terribly but it was nice to come home.

I think that is basically it, I will upload a picture of me pregnant a little later, my camera is upstairs and I'm tired still from last night. Good night :)

Long Beach!

This is my husband, aren't you jealous??? hahaha, well here I am, updating after FOREVER of not updating. Sorry! So last weekend, 3/19-3/22, Rob was able to go to Long Beach, CA (I joined friday night) for a National Aeronautics and Astronautics Conference. He is a member of AIAA (The American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics). He originally signed up through BYU and then got to go to this pretty cool convention, all expenses paid, with wife invitation :) So he headed up with 7 others from his school in a big van on Thursday morning at 6. Poor guy, haha. Then went to some conventions that had some really big words and long explenations, that if you are interested you can ask him because I can't remember at all... But he thought it was pretty cool. I was able to join him by Flying JetBlue (Thanks Mom!) and got in Friday night about 8:30. We stayed at the Marriott right next to the airport, really really nice place btw.

So Saturday came and we decided we wanted to go out and do something. After about an hour of trying to figure out wat ot do, we got on the bus and headed to Long Beach Downtown. We were just hoping we got on the right bus haha.

As you can see, we made it okay :) We found this really cute little strip mall (behind Rob) and that led us to the Aquarium and Queen Mary.

You can see in inbetween us in the distance, apparently Queen Mary gave it to us because she wanted a NEW vacation ship, apparently this one wasn't big enough or goo enough!!!!

SO then we went to the Aquarium, we decided that we needed to go somewhere and spend some money... ouch... but well it's pretty cool :)

We got to touch GIANT Stingray, see the sharks, the jelly fish, and the playful seals. It was fun, Rob was a little disapionted because he thought it was Sea World, but I broke the news to him and then he understood why he couldn't find REALLY big fish.

Over all it was a really fun, almost free, mini vacation :) We drove back in that aweful van on Sunday and arrived about 7:30pm... I am proud to say that compared to who Rob went with, Rob is like a Jock hahaha, those guys were beyond the nerd scale! I mean one of them wears goggles when he bike rides through campus so that he doesn't get stuff in his eyes hahaha, sorry but that was really funny to me :)

Papers!

So today is the day that I sent Rob's immigration papers!!!!! YAY!!!! Now we just wait. But it's so great to know that we have officially started the process and will hopefully be hearing from the USCIS office soon :) Everyone please pray for us to get this done quickly!
I was sick yesterday with the stomach flu from 5 in the morning to 3 in the afternoon, so naturally I didn't go to work. Yeah well when I got there EVERYONE was joking that I was pregnant!!! NO... If you hear these rumors, they are just rumors, one of our kids in Primary was sick, so the little darling passed it to me... I love those kids haha, jk I really do. Today I am feeling awesome and am NOT pregnant... Don't think though that it didn't cross our minds for a couple of scarry moments. :)
Anyways, Rob is going to the AeroSpace Conference in Long Beach, CA this weekend and hopefully if flights allow it, I'll be able to join him and maybe visit Natalie, Brian, and their beautiful babies :)
Happy St. Patrick's Day!

It's about time haha

I know, it's about time! it's been a whole month! but it sure has been a busy one, and yes I have pictures :) so totally worth the wait!

This may look like a regular
piece of garlic but it's not, it has a plant
growing out of it :) We don't even have to water it.
Easiest plant on the earth haha

So this is a picture of the Peter Brienholt concert we went to at BYU, this guy is hilarious! It was so much fun! It's was nice to get out of the apartment and really do something in a town that there is nothing to do.

This is Rob and I working on Rob's airplane for his ME Mechanical Engineering class, it's pretty sweet, the things you see are the wings :)

This is us at the Y on the mountain :) We took

this hike on the 21st for the need of doing

something fun and none lazy

So that's what's been going on in a nut shell, and now it is time to say goodnight :)