Dominic Preston Smith

I started having contractions at 3 AM on March 1st, I woke Spencer up at 3:30 to tell him what was going on. The contractions were about 6-8 minutes apart and not too painful, but they started coming every 5 minutes apart soon after. We got up, got dressed, fed the dogs, and Spencer ate some breakfast ( I didn't feel up to it). By 5 AM I had been having contractions 5 minutes apart for about an hour and they were getting really painful so we headed up to the hospital. By the time we got to the hospital the contractions were 3 minutes apart. I got checked in and attached to the monitors. Unfortunately I was only dilated half a centimeter ( which I had been at for about 3 weeks), so I was started on cytotec and pitocin. I was having really painful contractions by this point and the IV medications weren't cutting it. I ended up getting an epidural at 10 AM. I thought I would be free of pain at this point, that was not the case. I was still in a lot of pain for the duration of my labor, I'm not sure why the epidural didn't really work for me. Because I was in so much pain, the nurse anesthetist upped my dose on the epidural, it didn't relieve my pain though and it just made my whole body go numb. So throughout the day they were going up and down on the epidural and eventually turned it off because I was so numb and was having a tough time breathing. I was finally dilated to a 10 around 4:30 PM, but I didn't start pushing til my midwife got there around 6 PM. This hour and a half period was one of the most painful all day. Dominic finally arrived at 6:51 PM. He weighed 7 pounds 7 ounces and was 19 inches long. He was much bigger than I thought he would be! My midwife guessed he would be in the 6-7 pound range.

Spencer and I couldn't be more excited about him being here! We are loving every minute with him, he doesn't cry too much and is a good sleeper.We still can't believe that we are parents though!

Here we are in the hospital when I was in labor

Holding Dominic right after he was born

Spencer holding Dominic for the first time. Proud daddy!

First family photo

Getting ready to go home from the hospital

Nursery

We have FINALLY finished our nursery, just 6 days before our due date! It is whale and boat themed and we love it! The room took quite a bit of work to get it looking this good, but it was totally worth it! We now feel ready to have a baby! We have everything put together and we got new carpet all throughout the house, so we don't have to worry about Dominic crawling on nasty carpet. :)

How cute is this crib?!

We have everything stocked-diapers (mostly cloth diapers with some disposable), wipes, diaper rash cream, burp cloths, blankets, you name it! (In case you're wondering, that bucket is for dirty cloth diapers)

Getting Closer!

On January 22nd, my stepmom and mother in law threw me a great baby shower! There were fun games, some delicious food, and adorable decorations! I really appreciate all of the gifts that everyone got for little Dominic, we have pretty much everything we need now...except the baby!

This was my favorite decoration from the party, the Dominic letters! They will definitely be in the nursery.

Me and my dear friend Rachael and her 2 kiddos came to the shower (don't mind my chubby face:( )

This is me, my sister Hillery (who is also pregnant, she's 5 weeks behind me with a boy) and my niece Andrina

Me and Jamie

Poor Spencer has been SOOO busy with work lately and I have been feeling a little neglected. So he surprised me by sending this Cookie Bouquet to me at home! It's adorable, I love it! And the cookies were delicious too! Thanks honey! <3

We have also been working on the nursery lately, it's all done now except we still need new carpet. Which is such a pain, because we can't really put anything in the room or organize anything until we get carpet. So we have baby stuff scattered all over the house! lol I will post pictures when it's all done!

I still can't believe that my due date is in 20 days!!! It's hard to imagine that I am going to have a baby and that is what I feel moving and kicking me all the time. I was talking to Spencer about it just last night, we can't even begin to imagine what life will be like once he is here. Our lives are going to be SO different, but we can't wait for it. I have been trying to get us prepared to stay home for a few weeks and have tried to keep the house clean and stocked with food. I have made and froze a few meals, including a casserole, soup, cookies, and bread. So hopefully we don't have to get carry-out food from local restaurants too often.

Well that's about it for now, hopefully my next post will be announcing the birth of our baby boy! :)

Maternity pictures

Spencer and I got maternity pictures taken a few weeks ago. Here are my favorites from the shoot!

34 Weeks

According to babycenter.com my baby is the size of a cantaloupe, I feel like he's the size of a basketball! I look and feel huge!

I am 33 weeks and 6 days in this picture.

2010

Spencer and I had quite the exciting year! Spencer turned 25 in April and I turned 24 in June. The year started out with me in my last semester of nursing school. I had a busy last semester, but it ended (finally!) in early May. We had a great time at my graduation, the nursing ceremony lasted a little over an hour and then we went to dinner at Squatters with some family and friends. After graduation, I took the NCLEX (nursing licensure exam) on June 16th and I passed! I finally became a Registered Nurse! It was definitely one of my proudest moments. :) It took a while for me to find a job as a nurse though. I started out as a flu shot nurse, I gave flu shots in local grocery stores. This lasted for about a month and a half until I got a job at South Davis Community Hospital. It's a tough job and not where I thought I would start my nursing career, but I am getting a lot of experience so I am grateful to be working there.

I am also proud to say that Spencer has been working at Marketstar for over 5 years now! There aren't many people our age that can say they have been working in their chosen career for 5 years when they are only 25. Go Spencer! <3

Here we are at my graduation.

On June 26, 2010, we officially became Mr and Mrs Smith!! We got married at 2 PM at the Union Station in Ogden. It was the perfect day, I wouldn't change anything about it! I am SO happy to be married to the love of my life!

The morning after our wedding we left for our honeymoon. We went to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico for a week. We had a great time! It was so much fun to be in another country with just the two of us. We stayed in an all-inclusive resort, went on a tequilla tour, went into town a few times, went to the local zoo and held baby tigers and lions, ate at a few local restaurants and enjoyed eachothers company on the beach.

Here is a picture of us in Puerto Vallarta

In early October, we went to California with Spencer's family. We stayed with their cousins in Santa Rosa and went on a few wine tasting tours, went to the coast and saw some whales and ate at some tasty restaurants. It wasn't very warm, but it was a lot of fun and a nice weekend getaway.

In August, the Smiths and the Jones headed down to Las Vegas for the weekend. The real reason we went there was so that Lindsay and I could see Lady GaGa in Concert!! The concert was amazing! I am so glad that we went. Walking around Las Vegas was fun too, but REALLY hot! We did some shopping, saw some of the shows and ate at the Cheesecake Factory.

Waiting for the show to start in our matching Lady GaGa shirts!!

Now for the BIG announcement of 2010...Spencer and I announced that we are having a baby BOY in February! We are going to name him Dominic and we are so excited to meet him in less than 2 months!

32 weeks and 3 days

That pretty much sums up 2010 for Spencer and I, it was a GREAT year. I am sure that 2011 will be even better once our little Dominic is here :)

Christmas

We had a great Christmas this year. It started with our annual Friend Christmas party at Lindsay and Tyler's house. We had dinner, watched Elf and made gingerbread houses. We had a great time! Then we had a Christmas party with each of our families. I had to work on Christmas day this year so our day was a little rushed. We had to visit with everyone that we could by 2 PM so that I could get to work on time. Work actually wasn't that bad, it was just a normal day at work. Although, I was a little disappointed that there wasn't any dinner or dessert provided for the staff. I thought that the administration would show some sort of appreciation for the staff for working on Christmas! That was pretty lame. I'm not sure why, but I didn't end up taking any pictures this year. The only pictures were of Presley's cute Mrs. Claus outfit! She looked adorable :)

One thing that bummed me out is that when I was looking through pictures that other people took of me over the holiday, I noticed that my face is getting wider!! Ugh. I knew it would happen when I got into the third trimester, but I hadn't noticed it until I saw pictures of myself. I'm also bummed that my belly button has become an outie, which I'm super self conscious about, and people keep pointing it out! Who does that? I'm not sure why, but that was one pregnancy thing that I was dreading. lol I hate that you can see my belly button through all of my clothes, even my scrubs! Also, my stomach is getting so big that I can't wear certain scrubs anymore. I never thought that would happen. Hopefully I don't have to buy new ones :(

Pregnancy update:

I am now 31 weeks and 6 days pregnant, I have about 56 days or 8 weeks to go! It freaks me out to see Valentines decorations at the store because that means my baby will be here soon! I can't believe it! The discomforts of pregnancy have definitely set in, my ribs hurt sooo bad!! I wish they would just separate already! I have a hard time bending down, getting up from a sitting or laying position, I have to pee a lot, I get frequent heartburn, I get the occassional painful kick and I hate that I can't find comfortable pants. Maternity pants don't fit me, so I'm pretty much stuck wearing prepregnancy jeans with a rubber band. And yes, I do feel like I'm getting to the complainy stage of pregnancy. lol  

Even though I complain about all the discomforts of pregnancy, I am still super excited to meet my little Dominic. There are times I wish that he would just come already, but I really don't want him to be too early and have to stay in the NICU for any amount of time. So I try to not be selfish and think like that. But if he wants to come around 37-38 weeks, that would be ok with me ;)

Here is the most recent pic of my belly, I'm 30 weeks and 3 days in this picture.