Jayden rolls over!

So we were at Brittany & Adam's house during General Conference last week, and Jayden was having some tummy time when she rolled over! We all laughed and said it was an accident and it probably won't happen again. Then she did it like 8 times last night! She's only 7 weeks old! Isn't that a little early? I think she just has a really big belly and a really heavy head...but nonetheless, she can still rollover! I finally got her on camera doing this morning...

Jayden's First Giggle!

I've already posted this video everywhere possible, so it's about time I post it on here. Maybe it's because I'm her mom, and maybe that means I'm a little bit bias, but I think this is the most amazing moment ever!

One morning when Jayden was only 2 weeks old, I was watching her make funny faces and smiles in her sleep after she finished nursing. She's quite animated while she sleeps. The way she smiles and moves her eyes makes you feel like you're dreaming with her! Well, somehow I was lucky enough to catch this giggle on camera. :) enjoy!

The beauty of a routine.

I've found that there are a lot of things in life that no one can possibly prepare you for. Like getting married. Someone can tell you all about it, but you just don't know till it happens, till you're living the married life. Having a baby is the same way. You have absolutely no idea what you're getting yourself into. There is no way to fully comprehend beforehand how amazing, scary, confusing, and joyful being a parent is.

I love her so much. I wish there was another way to say that; a way that means more. She is everything I've ever cared about. It's like everything I've ever wanted for myself no longer matters and I want her to have it instead.

This is a simple story about how we gained a little confidence in parenting. We are SO blessed that Jayden was born beautiful and healthy, but ya know what? Babies are hard to take care of sometimes!

The past 7 weeks have been the most wonderful, hardest weeks of my life. I know a lot of mom's can't wait to leave the hospital, but I was completely scared to leave. Recovering from a c-section takes quite a toll on your body. Three days after the surgery part of my legs were still numb and I could barely walk. The idea of being completely responsible for my little one while still having to take care of myself seemed like too much. So we waited till the last second, and then took our trip home late one night.

Precious little Jayden had her nights & days mixed up. :) I thought I would at least get a little sleep, but that's not what Jayden had in mind! Her first night home she cried all night, and I stayed up with her from 10pm to 10am. Poor girl. :( Things slowly got better. The next night she was awake from 10pm to 10am again, but she wasn't crying the whole time! The next night I think she slept 3 hours, and so on. Now, all this probably wouldn't be so bad now, but when you're full of all those pregnancy hormones, and you're crying all the time no matter what...you start to feel like you're world is falling apart. It was so hard. Having said that, it was also so amazing to finally have our healthy little girl. We are so blessed!

It only took about 2 weeks for Jayden to learn to sleep at night. She wouldn't go to bed before 2am, but once she was asleep she would sleep as long as I let her! SO wonderful! The only thing our poor little girl had to deal with was gas. She had gas, and she had it bad. She wasn't a good burper, and would suffer the consequences later. She would be in the middle of a peaceful sleep, but wake up with a sudden scream of pain. It was so horrible! To see your little girl suffer like that is unbearable. There is nothing worse than seeing her in pain. She wanted to sleep so bad (and so did I!) but couldn't because of the pain. Once we got a burp out, she would fall fast asleep, just to wake up soon with more gas.

We tried many things to help Jayden get through her days and nights, and finally found an answer. I full heartedly believe that giving your baby a routine helps her know what to expect throughout her day. We started by waking her up and getting ready around the same time everyday. She would eat about every 2 1/2 to 3 hours, and would cycle through a feed, then wake-time, then sleeping routine. I used a lot of ideas and based Jayden's day on what I've read from a book called Babywise. (Keyword: based. I definitely didn't follow it exactly. It's a little extreme, but the basic ideas in the book are genius.)

It took a while to help her establish what time to do things, but after a few weeks our lives were so different. The gas problem almost completely disappeared and she started to go to sleep every night at 9 or 10pm! There's even more. She became the happiest baby I've ever seen! She is never fussy (unless she misses a nap, but that's my fault!). She is SO happy! She wakes up cooing and smiling every time!

One great thing I've learned is how to put your baby to sleep. We wrap her, love her, cuddle for a bit, and put her to bed awake. She easily puts herself to sleep for every nap, and every night. This took a little practice, but it was so worth it! We were able to accomplish this without making her "cry it out". If she cried, we would pat her and rub her, and sometimes pick her up and burp her. It took a good week, but now bed time is wonderful and consistent.

It's gotten to the point where she's just so dang easy to take care of, it just doesn't seem real. I'm SO proud of my little girl. :)

Brianne and Tyson.

Today does not feel as horrible as I know it will feel later.

In the spring of 2007 Ryan and I were engaged and enjoying a wonderful trip to California with some friends. One day while at Disneyland, I received a weird phone call from a stranger.

"Um hello...? Is this Lindsay Gwynn? yeah um my name is Brianne and I hope this isn't weird but I'm living in your apartment now and I went through your stuff to find your number so I can tell you that Liberty Square says their going to throw all of your stuff away unless you move out. Thought you should know. Bye!"

Wow. I hate that girl. Well I guess not really, but the news she delivered sucked.

So we went back to Provo, got everything cleared up with Liberty Square, and began Spring semester at BYU. Ryan and I both took jobs as Pizza Hut delivery drivers (they were the only people that would hire us for the 1 month we could work before the wedding!) and we were completely overwhelmed with spending every second with each other. It was a wonderful and busy time in our lives, but the Lord saw fit to bless us with one more thing.

My roommates were addicting. Some of the weirdest, funniest, most caring people I've ever met. There was this psycho mexican named Brianne who dated a lot, and this crazy pale white girl named Whitnee who cooked a lot and constantly watched basketball. They were almost opposites of each other, but exactly the same. We were all instantly close, and hanging out with friends soon turned into Ryan and a bunch of girls.

Brianne, Whitnee, Ryan, and Lindsay

Beth, Katie, Lindsay, Ryan, Brianne, and Whitnee

Luckily Brianne soon married Tyson and we were all complete! (that sounds weird...but I don't know how else to say it.)

Brianne and Tyson

Camping

At the Tillamook Factory near the Oregon Coast

Brianne and Tyson have meant so much to us for the past 4 years. It's SO hard to find a couple that you feel so beyond comfortable with! We can talk about everything, and we know everyone's flaws but we deeply care about one another. They are incredible friends, and incredible people. They are our best friends.

Today was the first day of real life. We aren't in college anymore, we're moving this summer to Dallas, and our friends are gone. Brianne and Tyson moved away to California. We won't live next to them anymore, and we won't have the wonderful countless nights of doing nothing. We have to grow up now. boooo.

But I do want to say that we are SO grateful to be blessed with such amazing friends! We love you Brianne, Tyson, and Braylen!

funny hair & funny faces :)

So Jayden's favorite part everyday is waking up and getting dressed! Unlike a lot of babies, she thoroughly enjoys her diaper change and changing her clothes. She's always full of smiles and energy and just seems so excited to be awake! Her hair always sticks up all over the place from sleeping, and she just looks so dang cute. She kicks, hums, makes funny faces, and loves spending this time with mommy.

So one morning we had a wonderful surprise. Jayden finally lost her umbilical cord and we can stop taking those dang sponge baths that she's not a fan of!

So excited to take a real bath! :)

Welcoming Jayden :)

I’m pretty sure that we are the luckiest people in the world.

February 18^th, 2001:

Ryan and I received a much anticipated phone call at 6:35 am to be at the American Fork Hospital at 8 am. It was exactly 1 week past my due date and I was going to be induced.

Right before we left to the hospital!

WARNING. This is a summary of labor and delivery. If you don't want to know, then don't read it. :)

Around 8:30 I already had tons of monitors and cords hanging all over me. My nurse Pamela hooked me up to some pitocin in order to induce contractions. She then left the room with a “let me know when you want the epidural.” I told her it would be a while. Wrong.

Labor started immediately with way more force and pain than I thought. In 10 minutes I was going through the kind of pain that I thought was more like the end of labor! At 9 am my contractions were insanely intense and about 2 minutes apart. I also enjoyed the wonderful labor side effect of uncontrollable shaking. You know when it’s cold and your jaw shivers? It was like that all over my body. I’d feel it in my thighs first, and then my body would go crazy while Ryan and the nurse held me down.

Yay for epidurals! But seriously. It completely changed the entire birthing experience. At first I could only think about the pain, and after the epidural I was able to sincerely enjoy the experience of welcoming our daughter into this world.

Post-epidural :)

So they checked me after the epidural and I had progressed from 2 1/2 cm to 3 1/2 cm in an hour. And then everything passed by very quickly...around noon I was already at 8 cm (I'm so grateful I didn't have to feel that!). At some points they had to take me off the pitocin because Jayden wasn't a big fan of the contractions. Her heart beat would drop quite a bit every time I contracted, so we played a game of taking me on and off pitocin. Despite the slight delay, I progressed very, very quickly. The nurses were pretty astonished that my labor had progressed so much, and before we knew it, I was pushing! I remember telling my nurse, "Wow! This is great! I wouldn't even mind being in labor a little longer..." gah! Just had to go and jinx myself!

My doctor let me know before hand that he wasn't sure the baby's head would fit through my hips. I didn't really believe him. I mean, I'm not really a small person, ya know? And her head actually wasn't that big...so how could she not fit? So I pushed, and pushed. and pushed. There were points were I made a lot of progress, and we thought it was going to happen. My doctor kept coming back and offering a cesarean section, but still giving me the option to push. The idea of a c-section was just not an option for me. I was not going to accept that.

At 4 hours of pushing I was starting to loose faith. My body ached, oh it ached so badly. Epidurals can only do so much. I was going to have to give up on a vaginal delivery because my body just couldn't do it anymore. It was utterly depressing. I completely broke down and asked for my mom. After bawling, I finally gave in. I remember at this moment one of the nurses was trying to make me feel better and she said, "at least your not a woman in Africa. Women and their babies die in the bush because they don't have an option to have a c-section." Really nurse? Do you really want to talk about babies and women dying right now when I feel this way? Dumb.

So they completely took me off the epidural in order to transport me to the operating room. Oh my. The contractions hit full force, and they wheeled me away tears and all. I remember hoping that I wouldn't see any of my family while they were transporting me because I was such a mess! They struggled to give me the spinal, and I remember begging them to hurry. My body eventually went very, very numb. I started to worry because my arms and chest started to go numb. I told them I couldn't breathe, and they said that was a normal feeling. They strapped my arms down, and I felt like a constrained mental patient. The whole time I just had to keep focusing on the fact that we're about to have a baby...be happy, we're about to have a baby...

We heard the beautiful sound of Jayden's cry very quickly! Ryan left my side and it felt like FOREVER till he came back! I yelled for him to get back over here! He ran over to me with the biggest smile I've ever seen saying, "Lindsay she's beautiful! She really is!" They brought her over to me, but all I could really see were her beautiful full lips. Then before I knew it, she and Ryan were gone and I was left on the table to be sewn up. My doctor asked me how I was doing and all I could think of was, "I feel like you're taking FOREVER!" All the nurses laughed and he reminded me that he could hurry, but he is sewing my body back together. But seriously, it never occurred to me after watching so many episodes of "A Baby Story" that it took so long to finish up the c-section. geez! All I wanted was to see my baby!

It took forever, but we were finally brought together as a family. :) What a wonderful, wonderful day!

Jayden Natalee Walton

8 lbs. 10 oz. 20 inches February 18th 7:43pm

Still very swollen!

Bringing her home!

HUGE baby.

Yeah yeah yeah.....so we haven't had a baby yet. Today I walked into sacrament meeting and immediately saw tons of women starring at me with large eyes and then turing to their husbands with a "I can't believe she hasn't had the baby yet!" Yes. Thank you everyone for the reminder. I don't really want to talk about it, but we can go over a few things. Today is Sunday February 13th, and Jayden was originally due on February 3rd, later changed to February 11th (two days ago).

We had a sonogram on Thursday and the doc told us that she's healthy and great, and already 8 lbs. 12 oz.! Just what we thought. HUGE baby. And she's only getting bigger...We are set to be induced this Friday, February 18th. Gah. I better not make it! This little girl is going CRAZY inside of me like she's dying to get out. So just get out! geez.

Here's a little look at the ultrasound. We had a wonderful technician who surprised us with a 3D sonogram! The only problem is that she's already so far down in my pelvis and her face is so close to the uterus wall that there isn't much fluid in front of her face (the fluid is what makes her face visible on the 3D sonogram). So she looks pretty funny (you can't see her eyes or nose very well), and may be making a funny face, but she has beautiful full lips and cute chubby cheeks! :)

Pregnancy is a wonderful, weird, but very uncomfortable thing but now it's just out of hand. It's really hard to describe how I feel right now. It just feels unnatural to be this large and weak. Walking is hard. Sleeping is hard. Breathing is almost impossible. I hope most women in the world don't have to go through this over-due thing. Yeah 37, 38, & 39 weeks were hard, but the way I feel now is unexplainable. It's beyond exhausting.

Still...we can't wait to meet our little girl :)