Monty Bryant Stevens

On December 8th, I woke up several times early in the morning with severe back pain, and lots of cramping. I finally took a Tylenol because I figured it was just pregnancy pains and not labor because I wasn't having a lot of contractions up front. In the morning I was still feeling the pain and decided to text my mom to see if what I was experiencing was normal..... her reply, "no that's not normal, that's labor." I was kind of in denial because I still had 3 weeks to go. I called the hospital to talk to the nurses and they said it didn't sound like labor, but I can always come in just in case. After about 2 hours of just in case preparations around the house, I decided that we'd better go in because it couldn't hurt. So J.D. got ready, we didn't rush at all, and left Dawson with my brother. I didn't even take my hospital bag because I figured we'd be coming home, but I wanted to go in anyways just because if anything, we'd get some answers of what was really going on.

On the way to the hospital I just kept looking around and kept feeling so much peace inside. It's the most peace I had felt the entire pregnancy. I was okay if they would send me home, and I felt good about deciding to go in and get some answers. As I looked around I said to J.D., "It would be such a beautiful day to have a baby. There is snow everywhere (something I prayed for when the day came for the baby to come), the sun was shining, traffic was slow and calm, and the sky was clear. It was the most beautiful Sunday.

They monitored me, checked me- still a 3, but 70% effaced, and then monitored some more. I started timing when I'd feel back pain because apparently those were contractions in my back. The monitor was barely picking them up, but it was still catching them. They were every 2-3 minutes and hurt. Then through inspiration, I know, Dr. Rees just decided to come see who was at the hospital. He didn't have any reason, but I know it was for me. I kept praying for answers during the time of being monitored, and here was the doctor. He talked with us and decided he'd check me. I was to a 4+ and 80% effaced after being monitored for only an hour! So between him and I, we decided to monitor for 1 more hour after getting a morphine shot for the pain and to see what happens. Well my contractions increased, but I didn't have any more progress.

The nurse was going to call the doctor and I just said before she left, "I'd really like to stay even though I know I'm 3 weeks early, and didn't progress within that hour, I just felt like Monty really needed to come." I just want the doctor to know how I feel and make a decision with that information and not just by what the monitors say. I also just explained that I really felt that way and it wasn't because of having a still birth last year, I really wanted to make sure Monty would be developed enough and I felt like he was." The nurse left, called the doctor, and I prayed to know if what I was feeling was right. 10 minutes later the nurse came in bearing good news... they were going to keep me and we were going to have a baby! 

I felt so good inside and J.D. felt like it was right as well. They started me on pitocin, and I was given an epidural since I was already passed the marker to getting one. The anesthesiologist was so amazing! He did such a good job. The nurses were so sweet and kind to both J.D. and I. J.D. left to go get the things I needed, shower, and talk to Dawson so he knew what was going on. I stayed calm, and focused through my contractions. Even with an epidural, I could still feel the contractions working. 

When J.D. got back, we calmly waited, and all of the sudden I felt Andee with us. I mentioned it to J.D. and it was so neat to know she was there with us. It made it more perfect. I started to feel sick and just in the nick of time I told the nurse I was going to throw up. I did, and she said, "That's a sign you are to a 5." I had never heard that before, but sure enough I was there. I told her that from this point on, it goes pretty quick especially if my water is broken. 

She called the doctor who said she was going to come right then to break my water, but didn't show up for 2 more hours. It was a different doctor, Dr. Bennet. She was a doctor J.D. had actually met at one of my appointments and we really liked her a lot. She brought us a lot of peace of mind with what had happened with Andee. She explained so much to us. At 10, she rolled in and right when she broke my water I was to a 6. I kept feeling pressure the next 40 minutes, and all of the sudden it changed. I kept telling the nurse that I felt like something was different. So she went to check me, and just immediately said, "Oh! we have a baby coming!" She grabbed the doctor and they all came in chatting. 

Me "I think he's coming out."

Dr. Bennet looks slightly and says, "No.... he's okay."

Me "Are you sure, because I feel a lot of pressure."

Dr. Bennet turns around and another nurse looks over at me and says, "OH!!! he's coming!"

Me "I'm not pushing I promise!" However I was having a good contraction which did the job for me.

Dr. Bennet was able to put on 1 glove, and covered her other hand with her sleeve just in time to catch Monty! I didn't push once! He came all on his own! That's a new record for me, I pushed 3 times with Dawson, twice with Andee, and none with Monty. :-) 

Dr. Bennet: "Well, that is the first time I've delivered a baby with only 1 glove. I've delivered with no gloves and both gloves, but never with just one." 

And then her and I fist bumped for it being a first, and going so well! lol! She was the perfect doctor to deliver Monty. J.D. and I got really emotional hearing his first cry. It was a feeling that we will never forget and never be more grateful for.

Monty Bryant Stevens (named after J.D.'s dad 'Bryant') was born at 10:57pm, 20 inches long, and weighing 7 lbs 11 oz! He weighed 2 ounces more than Dawson and was 2 weeks earlier than Dawson. Both were 20 inches long, so Andee has them beat being 21 inches long 4 weeks early. 

J.D. held him and took him over into the shadows where the light wasn't so bright and Monty opened his eyes for the first time. J.D. said he looked right at him and J.D. felt like Monty knew who he was. 

We didn't get any pics of him right away because J.D. was videoing and accidentally got 'parts' of me in the video....so it got deleted. lol! He didn't even realize and almost sent it out to people. Thank goodness he didn't! 
Here is Monty's first bath! He has sandy blonde hair and it was curly when he came out!

He is so handsome! He loved his bath and screamed when they took him out of it. 

 My mom, brother Choc, and Dawson headed down to the hospital to see him. Dawson was SO excited and didn't want to let him go. He just kept saying how proud he was of me getting him here, and he was excited to bring him home.

We got into our postpartum room about 2 pm, and we were so exhausted. Through the night I got up several times and around 5 am a nurse came in to let us know Monty was singing and it sounded like he had a heart murmur. They were going to watch him and talk to the pediatrician in the morning. The pediatrician said the heart murmur was so small if there was one, but it sounded more like he had pneumonia, or an infection in his lungs. It's very common, and nothing life threatening since they caught it so fast. They admitted him into the NICU to treat the infection with an antibiotic that would take 5 days to finish. J.D. and I felt like everything would be okay, but we had to figure out what to do with Dawson, how to nurse, bills, work, and etc. 

After Monty being admitted to the NICU, we found out that had he stayed in the womb longer, the pneumonia would have gotten worse and would have take longer to treat. After pondering learning that information, J.D. and I both were so glad that we spoke up and told the doctor that we really felt like he should come out and we wanted to stay. 

I'm so grateful for my mother. She is truly the most amazing mother and we don't know what we'd do without her. She took care of Dawson every day while J.D. went to work, and I spent the day in the NICU with Monty. I fed him during the day, and pumped at night. Dawson couldn't come into the NICU, and only 4 people besides J.D. and I could go in. J.D.'s parents got to stop by on their way to Iowa. Lynette, J.D.'s sister had her baby 10 hours after Monty was born! So J.D.'s parents were headed out to go help her with the baby since my mom was able to be here for us. 

When J.D.'s mom held him, Monty looked right into her eyes. She said that it felt like 'he was looking into your soul when he looked at you so deeply.' That is definitely one thing Monty does, he looks right into your eyes and he will stare for minutes. It truly is amazing!

Now the singing that he continues to do....well it really is singing, literally. For the nurses in the nursery and in the NICU it's a sign of something wrong with breathing in the lungs. Monty may have had an infection in his lungs, but the respiratory therapists said that his singing was happening too often and for longer than normal for it to be related wholly on the infection. The respiratory therapist said it wasn't normal for him to sing like that, but it wasn't like it was a bad thing. He'd never ever seen a baby do such a thing.

When you hum or sing to Monty, he will sing with you. We took a video of it, but it's not uploading. It's so neat and I can only think of how that was one of the only ways I could get him to move in the womb was to hum, "You are my Sunshine."

I tried to spend as much time with him as I could so he would know me, and recognize me. By the 3rd day I was starting to get really emotional. I wanted to be with Dawson, I wanted to be with Monty, my mom was doing so much for us, and I couldn't bring a baby home yet. So that night, J.D. came into the NICU and we gave Monty a bath to help us cope with not being able to be with him at home.

He's not a friend of the flash on my phone...

Here is Monty dressed up after his bath. It was so fun to finally dress him up. The thing on his head is where they put the IV. He originally had it in his hand, but it started to not flush good, so they changed it to his head. It seems like a mean place to put it, but it was so wonderful. He wasn't smacking his IV in his face, and it was completely out of the way while nursing. Monty seemed happier with it there.We also spent a lot of time face timing with Dawson so he could see Monty. Dawson would just say over and over again "He's SO CUTE!"

The next day he did so well eating for me. It was something he had to establish to be able to leave the NICU, and he definitely loved nursing.

On Friday, they tested his billiruben, and it was 15. So they hit it with 2 lights on Monty so I could hopefully take him home the next day. He was so stressed when I got there that morning. I held his hand the entire day and sang to him to calm him down. J.D. finally came in because I was struggling trying to keep him calm. Both Monty and I needed J.D. and I'm so grateful he has a job where he could spend the day with us. They let me nurse him, but then we could only hold him for 30 minutes and we had to put him back under the lights. When J.D. got there, he wrapped the blanket around Monty and the billi blanket.... finally Monty started to calm down. All he needed was that time with J.D. and feeling secure. He actually slept for a bit! By 9:30, he was content as he could be without clothes or being swaddled. J.D. and I watched the movies required by the hospital in order to leave. We wanted to get as much done as possible in order to take him home the next day. 

Here's Monty with his sunglasses under the lights.

The next morning his levels were at 11! So.... we were allowed to take him home. He did have to pass 90 minutes in the car seat by keeping his oxygen levels up and respiratory down. He passed! He also passed the hearing test.

Then we dressed him in his scrubs finally!! We took out the IV, and took off all the cords monitoring him.

And we made it home! J.D. and I cried most of the way home because of the reality of finally bringing home a baby. When we walked in the door J.D. asked Dawson what we should do first... Dawson said, "I think we should hold him." So we did. Dawson had to wear masks and a bandana because he got a cold the day before. Dawson was more than willing to wear the masks and use hand sanitizers. In fact, we've never had to remind him.

My mom was sooo excited he got to come home! She noticed a huge difference in how much more calm he was being at home than in the NICU.

And of course, I'm the happiest mother ever. I can't get enough of this little guy.

Since I'm the best milk making machine in the state of Utah, I have had to pump and feed Monty through a bottle because he can't latch on.... and hasn't been able to for a couple of days. Dawson loves this and loves to feed him. He is such a good kid and is the best big brother. We are so proud of Dawson.

Another perk of having Monty home.... we get to dress him up!

We are loving having a baby at home. We had forgotten how much work they are, but we are figuring it out. I'm so beyond grateful for all of our family and friends who prayed for us and let us know they were there for us if we needed anything. We can't thank my mom enough for everything she did for us. We had a fridge full of food, clean clothes, a clean house, and Dawson got so much attention he didn't even notice we weren't home all day. She made it so I could be with Monty when he needed us, and I didn't have to worry about Dawson. We can't wait for everyone to meet him and enjoy him in their lives as well.

Monty is doing well. He is still a little jaundice which is where winter weather doesn't help. He wakes up about every 3 hours to eat. He is a grunter....he grunts and grunts and grunts about everything. He doesn't even cry really, he just grunts louder if he's mad. He smiles a lot. He loves it when we sing or hum songs to him. He hates his diaper changed. Dawson loves to hold him and walk around which scares me, but I try to trust him and let him feel a part of taking care of him. Monty likes to sleep on his tummy more than his back. He holds his binkie whenever he's sucking on it. He LOVES to take a bath and hates to be taken out of the bath or shower. As of today, he still has his little cord in his belly button. He is only 1 ounce less than his birth weight (which he lost almost 8 ounces after being born). He is the sweetest baby and it feels so good to have him here.

The rest of us are doing great and I'm recovering pretty quick. I think it'd be quicker with more sleep, but that will have to wait. I hate to complain when I'm so happy to have Monty here safe and sound. I did swell up pretty bad in the hospital, and we are now pretty sure I was retaining water gradually throughout the pregnancy because all of the sudden my legs have a figure again. lol! I'm so glad they are back to normal. J.D. is definitely so happy and proud. He is able to work up here on a couple projects which he is enjoying coming home every night instead of having to work in Fillmore and being away for several days. He is such a good dad and plays with Dawson the minute he gets home. Dawson can't wait for dad to get home every night. I'm so grateful for J.D. and all he does to make sure we are happy and secure. This morning he even told me to plan on giving Monty to him every morning after the last feeding about 5 or 6 so I can sleep. Such a lucky wife I am.

Thanksgiving to Christmas Time

The same day we went to the Utes game, I had a doctor's appointment. I was 2 days shy of 36 weeks, but they did a 36 week appointment anyways. I was dialated to a 3 and 60% effaced. I wasn't super suprised because of all the contractions I'd been having, and I told J.D. I felt like I was dialated. The doctor was Dr. Rees and he said I should stay home for Thanksgiving, not shop, be a bed rest, unless I didn't care if I went into labor and had different doctors deliver the baby. Well, we didn't really care and I didn't feel like Monty would be coming that week. I did feel like he'd be coming in the next 2 weeks though. 

So we headed to Holden for Thanksgiving, and St. George for Black Friday shopping. We had such a wonderful time in Holden, but it was too short. I wish we could have stayed longer, but black friday was starting at 6 pm this year! So I drove about 90 mph to get to Walmart on time. We made it with 15 minutes to spare. We got everything we were looking to get, and  my mom joined in this year. She was in her glory with all the prices. :-) 

We made it to Home Depot this year just in time to finally get our Christmas Tree! We have tried 3 years in a row... and this year J.D. was 15th in line, we walked in, I grabbed a cart, J.D. darted for the tree, and by the time I got to him all the trees were gone. Apparently there were only 15 in the pile! We barely fit everything in our car, and we made it home.

This isn't the best pic, but we love our tree! It changes from colored lights, to white lights, to blinking lights either way.

I then had to bust out the sewing because I needed to make Andee and Monty stockings. We had one for Andee last year, but I never got around to finishing it. So here is Andee's finished!

We our loving having a fireplace because now Santa can really come down the chimney! Dawson sits by it, with his Christmas jammies, and thinks about how Santa will be coming soon!

Then on December 7th, we decided we'd better go to our ward party, especially since Santa was going to be there and we didn't know where else we would get to see him. Thank goodness we did because Monty came the next day. Dawson tells us every year how 'that isn't the real Santa, and it's just a helper...' This time he was on cloud 9. He told us, that this guy was the REAL Santa and the real Mrs. Claus. It was so neat to see Mrs. C because J.D. and I have never seen her before. It was the best ward party!

During the dinner I was getting really uncomfortable and kept having to stand. We then went to Target to exchange the baby swing because the first one we got (from my mom and Jori) didn't have a cord. It was battery operated, and we really didn't want to have to keep buying batteries. It worked perfect to exchange the swing that night because we got one that we love even more than the first. 

We got home and enjoyed the fire while I kept having tons of strong contractions. I finally just left and went to bed because I was so uncomfortable...

Go Utes!

The night before thanksgiving, my brother got us tickets to the Utes game! We were pretty excited because we needed a night out, Dawson loves the Utes (he knows best like his mom), and the Utes were 6-0 already into the season. Yes they did win, and yes we had an awesome time! 

Dawson and his Utes sign. He kept dancing hoping with all his heart to get on the big TV....but we didn't get on the screen. Probably because J.D. and Choc wouldn't dance with us.

Me and my little man with our Utes sign!

And...... by the end of the game, he was out! He missed the last 2 minutes. However he woke up when it was time to go and helped stock his pockets with the Utes free candy at the end of the game.

A huge thank you to my brother Choc. We had such a great time and it was very much needed.

Aunt Nadine

J.D.'s Aunt Nadine passed away on Andee's birthday, November 7th. She had a funeral 2 days later. aunt Nadine meant so much to J.D. and I. Her and her husband, Dale, helped us so much when we lost Andee M'lee because they too lost a little girl 69 years ago. She never got to see her baby girl because back then, they took the baby away because they thought it was better for the mothers to not have any further attachment. They thought it helped with coping....little did they know back then. Society has come a long way and I'm grateful for the time we got with Andee. When they told us she died, all we could think of is her meeting her little girl. The funeral was so neat because they put the casket on the wagon and went to the grave sight. All of her children rode on the wagon too. The coffin was hand made by one of her sons as well. it was beautiful.

We will miss her, but we are so happy that she finally gets to see her little girl, Nancy.

Andee's 1st Birthday

I can't believe it's been 1 year since we lost our little girl. It feels like it was just yesterday. It was a pretty hard day and J.D. nor I slept the night leading into her birthday. All the memories rushed back in and I was throwing up the whole morning. 

Dawson told us that Andee wanted a cake and we could pretend to get her presents. We also decided to take balloons to the cemetery. When I told Dawson about the balloons he was so excited! He said, "Mom! I can draw a picture for Andee on the balloon and then Heavenly Father will catch it and give it to her!" 

It brought tears to our eyes, but I would like to believe that that's what would happen. 

Before heading up to the cemetery, I took a picture of the sun setting on this beautiful November 7th day.

Everyone had a balloon and those that didn't get to draw on the balloon whispered their messages to Andee.

 And here they go on their way to Heaven!

 Right after, my mom and Jori with her kids came up. We saved balloons for them so they could tell Andee Happy Birthday too. It was so special for everyone and meant so much to J.D. and I.

 Here's Mckynlee and Jori letting go of their balloons

Mckynlee is pretty close with Andee. You ask her, "Where's Andee?" and she will grin and point up. It's the most amazing thing. She has done that on her own since she could understand words. 

That night we went swimming at the hotel and blew out Andee's candles. Dawson and Carson had so much fun blowing out the candle together and then swimming. I loved watching how excited they were for the cake. 

The day was also filled with so much love and support from friends and family. We had friends calling and texting letting us know they remembered Andee M'lee. It really gets us choked up to know and feel love from so many people. It meant the world to us to know how many people remembered her. Thank you to everyone and we know Andee misses all of you.

The Name is Official

For a long time we have debated on a name for this little guy coming in December. Finally we felt really good about one in particular. We felt it was what we were supposed to name him, and will fit who he is. The name is Monty Bryant. He is named after his Grandpa Stevens, which is so honorable we felt. With how Monty has been in the womb so far, we really feel like his personality kind of reflects his Grandpa Stevens as well- pretty calm most of the time and is his own person. 

So we ordered the scrubs! 

 We also got the CUTEST set up from my sister Amy and her hubby Rick. This was their baby gift to us, and wanted to get it to us asap so we could be ready for Monty.

WE LOVE IT! Dawson loves that he gets to share his room with Monty too! Dawson recently got the bunk beds that J.D. had as a child. He is committed to the top bunk, and I have found J.D. snuggled up there with him almost every night as Dawson goes to sleep. Dawson already says that the bottom bunk is for Monty when he is old enough, but it's okay for him to use Dawson's crib for now. Dawson is still trying to convince us to move the cradle in there as well so him, Monty, and Andee are in the same bedroom. (the cradle for Andee, the crib for Monty, and bunk for Dawson). We feel almost ready for him to come home, just a few more things. Only 4 more weeks until he comes! We have scheduled to be induced on the 20th of December, but I won't doubt if he comes sooner.

Update on the pregnancy: Everytime I've gone to the doctor I have noticed my blood pressure being so high, especially for me. 1 week ago it was a little too high, so I had to do a 24 urine test. They were testing the protein in the urine to see if I had preecampsia. They would like the protein count between 0-150, and mine was 290. SO, if it gets above 350 they will take the baby. For now before they test again, I'm on moderate bed rest for the moderate preecampsia. I can honestly say that my anxiety of losing Monty is definitely contributing to my high blood pressure. I can't help but feel so much pressure of making sure he's moving, because if I don't...maybe we will lose him and it will be too late. So I'm constantly doing kick counts. 

I do go in for weekly monitoring and ultrasounds to check the baby, and so far so good. One week he wasn't moving so much and so we had to stay for extra monitoring, but after another 20 minutes he picked up his movements and we were okay. 

J.D. is doing okay, but both of us don't sleep much. This month celebrating Andee's 1st birthday has brought back a lot of memories and emotions that are hard to handle. It's made us both so nervous for Monty and we still just don't have a huge excitement, we just want to bring him home. We are so grateful for the gospel and our knowledge, otherwise I don't think we could be handling everything so okay.

Family Pictures

I know we are going to be adding another baby to the family in December, but I always am so grateful for doing family pictures while pregnant with Andee. It was her life, and I will always have them. So, I wanted to do family pictures while pregnant with Monty, just in case that's all we get. 

We decided to get Andee a little cowgirl hat to represent her in our family pictures. 

Dawson, J.D., and Andee

 This one has a little weird lighting because the sun was reflecting off of the water, but I feel that it's magical in ways. Me and all 3 kids. Dawson was telling Monty about the ducks in the pond.

I love this family picture. We got a little close up redone on it and it turned out so stinking cute! Dawson is just being him, not wanting to take anymore stinkin pictures. So he sat himself down. It ended up being the best family picture of the day.

 We really liked this one because Dawson is being such a goofball. It was SO hard to get pics of all of us together and him smiling.

Originally I had wanted to drive to the same place we took pics last year with Andee. It didn't turn out because the time change just makes things too dark on the east side of Cedar Mountain by the afternoon. In the end, I actually was grateful we chose to do pictures in St. George. We had better lighting, it was warmer, we didn't rush and had a lot more time to get more pics, and it was different place for Monty. It was pretty emotional for J.D. and I to think of going up on the mountain, I don't think we could have held it together for pictures. Also, this is the pregnancy with Monty, not Andee. So we need to do something special for him. 

We are so grateful for Sari and Baylor taking our pictures. Hopefully we have some new ones in the winter with Monty here.

The Week of Halloween

The entire week of Halloween was truly eventful, busy, filled with miles on the car, and tons of fun! 

It started with a date with Dawson. 

Every year I look forward to my Tucanos free meal birthday card. J.D. was out of town and wouldn't be home the rest of the month... and so I took Dawson (plus he's under 6, so he was free too). 

 

 It just so happened to be a Halloween festival in the streets of the Riverwoods that night. So we watched entertainment, trick or treated to all the stores, and danced.

 The next day was Taylee's birthday party! Dawson and Kyson were fortunate enough to be the only boys with this huge group of girls! 

 It was a costume party, so Dawson dressed up as Iron man! 

They danced, watched Charlie Brown's halloween, played in the leafs, caught candy from the candy launcher, had cupcakes, and opened presents. Dawson had so much fun!

We then had our ward halloween party! We couldn't wear masks, so Dawson wore the Jedi costume that Molly and Lucas let him borrow. At the party they had a small spook alley. Dawson went through, and was laughing at the end. 

 The next day we headed to Brian Head! It was my birthday and J.D. wasn't going to work, but when our friend called us asking to clean carpets that day, J.D. asked if we could get a deal on a room because it was my birthday. We not only got a king suite, but we a meal compensated, and a massage compensated! It was a great birthday! I only had to help J.D. clean for a few hours, so Dawson swam and had a blast with my niece Sari and her boyfriend. 

This is the swimming pool rock waterfall!

 Here's Dawson pretending to be a shark!

 The next day we rushed back to Holden to spend Halloween there. We always stop and see Grandma Marjy (who's 98). Jessi was Dorothy, and Jetta was a clown. We love trick or treating at Grandma's because she always has the BEST candy to give out and is so happy to see us.

 They had a trunk or treat this year instead of a carnival. Here's Tilden and Dawson loading up!

 The next morning we headed to Kanab. My sister Amy needed work done on the house and we'd planned the weekend down with my family anyways. Luckily Layne had a football game! We got to wear our matching Cowboys hoodies! 

Dawson and Jessi enjoying their dinner, of course Dawson is a goof about pictures. lol!

 The next morning we headed to St. George for a Shelley Family Day. The girls did the cutest Thanksgiving craft while the boys went to Fiesta Fun. Dawson LOVED driving the go carts! 

Jori, Carson, and Mckynlee all came down from Montana (we were sad Danny couldn't get off work.) We celebrated Carson's birthday at the park that afternoon. Mckynlee wouldn't go to anyone, but DAWSON! She loved and loved and loved on him the entire time we were there.

 Carson is SO into sports (mainly football), so he had a football cake and had to wear his Steelers jersey.

 Dawson and Carson may not always agree, but they are becoming the best of buds. They copy each other and it can get kinda gross when it involves showing your food. lol!

 Carson seriously broke the pinyata with his first hit. It's amazing how strong this kid is.

 The next day we did family pictures, but that's on a different post because they turned out so amazing.