A Fun Outing to the Desert

I've decided the best way to pass the time in the next week is to stay busy...at least as busy as my body will let me be. :) On Saturday night, we headed out to the desert near our house for a bonfire with a bunch of family. We had a blast! The weather was perfect and we had great food. It was a very fun way to pass the time while we wait for the baby! :)


My aunt Kathy and I had a great time catching up


Our view with dinner :)


Thanks to Dad and Brandon for a yummy dinner!


They brought me a lounge so I could be comfortable out in the desert...I can't get over how big I look in my pictures now!


We are so blessed to have such great family around that we love to hang out with!

Baseball!!

Baseball season has begun! We are a little late going to our first game this year, simply because we didn't really want to commit to anything way ahead of time in case Rylie came early. But Brandon was given tickets for last night, so we decided to finally go. I love baseball games and I love the D-backs! It was so fun to be back at the field this year (and they won, which is always a plus)!

I am however, paying for going to the game today...my body is exhausted! I guess that's what happens when you are nine months pregnant and doing a ton of walking and acting like you do every year at the games. It was pretty funny to watch people's faces at the game as you walk by...because I know that I look like I could pop at any second! :) Well, anyways, it was a fun date night for us before baby (which, by the way, is in a maximum of 11 days...not that I'm counting or anything!).


38 weeks pregnant!

Another reason we can't wait to meet her...

With everything that was going on in the hospital the other day when we were trying to turn Rylie, I forgot about something that happened until this morning. Right after the doctor let go of her head and she moved back into the postion that she started in, she started sucking her thumb! The ultrasound tech pulled the monitor around and told me to look, that my baby girl was trying to comfort herself. I loved seeing that, but it made Brandon and I want to meet her even more...let us comfort her and make her feel loved and protected! We can not wait to meet her!

The Turning Experience

So today was the day to try and turn Rylie manually. We arrived at the hospital bright and early this morning and I was taken to labor and delivery triage. They hooked me up to the heart beat moniters and did all of the pre tests, like blood pressure, and gave me an IV as a just in case something went wrong and I had to have an emergency C-section. After about an hour, the doctor and the ultrasound machine showed up and we started.

Now, my doctor had told me that it would feel like she was bruising all of my stomach muscles with her hands, and then other people had told me that it wasn't all that painful...so I was expecting pain, but didn't really know how much or how little. And to be perfectly honest, it was pretty painful. They tried for about 25 minutes, and she refused to flip.

She started off with her head on the top of the left side of my stomach, so they started by trying to flip her to the left and she wouldn't budge at all. Then they tried to go to the right. Whenever the doctor would stop for a second to give me a break, she would keep her hand on Rylie's head. We got to the top right side of my stomach and she wouldn't move anymore. As soon as the doctor let go of her head, she moved right back to the left side where she started. Apparently she likes that spot in my stomach!

Rylie and my heartbeats were montitered for the next hour just to make sure that both of us recovered from the procedure ok, and then we were sent home where I spent the rest of the day sleeping and relaxing. I am a little sore and will probably be bruised, but all in all, I feel pretty good. It was really good to hear that Rylie did better than alot of babies do throughout the morning...guess we have a very strong and stubborn little girl on our hands! :)

So now we have 3 scenarios--One is that she might still turn on her own and I will go into labor naturally and deliver. Two is that we will schedule a C-section at 39 weeks (only 2 weeks away!) or three is that I will go into labor sometime in the next 2 weeks with her still breech and need to go have an emergency C-section. And Brandon and I are ok with all 3 scenarios...not that they are all ideal, but however God wants this pregnancy to finish will happen, and that is the best scenario for us.

We are very grateful for all of the prayers and thoughtful text messages and phone calls. We are blessed to be surrounded by people who care so much for us and our little girl. So thank you for making us feel so loved and cared for.


I think Brandon thought I was a little crazy for wanting a picture after the whole thing took place, but this is part of Rylie's birth story and I want to have photos to document it all for her to see one day! :)

Frank Breech

Frank Breech...not exactly the term that we wanted to hear at our 36 week Dr.'s appointment yesterday, but it is what it is. Rylie has not turned head down, in fact she now has her feet up by her head, so she is basically butt down. Not the ideal postition for delivery to say the least. She is in a pike position in my stomach (guess those gym and cheer genes are stronger than I thought :) ).

So what does that mean? We basically were given 2 options-they can try to manually turn her, or we schedule a C-section. Now, if you know me at all, you know that I am not someone that is opposed to C-sections...if that's what I need for our baby to be healthy, then by all means, give me a C-section. I trust my doctors and there knowledge on the topic, and who am I to doubt their advice.

That being said, we still feel like we should give the manually turning a shot. Apparently, it does not feel good (my doctor told me that I will feel like she is bruising all of the muscles in my stomach with her hands) and there is not a great chance that it will even work, being that I am a first time mom. And then, even if it does work, there is a chance that she could still flip back to being breech by the time that I actually go into labor. But I want to know that we tried...that's just how Brandon and I are I guess. So Friday morning I will be at the hospital while the doctors attempt to get Rylie to turn...pray for us if you think about it.

Leaving the doctor's office yesterday, I wasn't really in that great of mood. My pregnancy really had been by the book up until that moment (so really, I shouldn't be complaining at all). All of the sudden, our little girl is in the very small (don't remember the exact number, but it's something like 5% of all babies) percentage that stay breech past 36 weeks. Definitely not ideal. My mom called me later to share something with me that really changed my perspective on the whole situation.

She said she was challenged by a devotional about feeling grateful. She also did not feel very grateful at this point. Then she realized that she was extremely grateful for something--technology! If this had been like 75 years ago, the chances of Rylie, or myself for that matter, surviving this type of birth would be unheard of. So thank you Lord, for the people who developed the technology to not only see that Rylie is breech, but also to do something about it. And if it still doesn't work, there is even more technology available (aka a C-section) that can deliver our baby healthy and perfect!

Brandon and I are prepared for whatever happens tomorrow, and I will deal with the pain. There is an end in sight, and it involves holding our beautiful little girl who I can not wait to meet! :)


So she was not in an ideal postition to see her face, so we really didn't get any good ultrasound shots of her...but they did let us know that she has a full head of hair! :)

Cowgirl Up!

My family gave me a baby shower this past weekend, and boy did they outdo themselves! It was adorable! The theme was cowgirl to match Rylie's nursery and there were so many adorable details. There were little western outfits all over clotheslines in the backyard, there were cowboy boot gingerbread cookies as favors and even little western water bottle labels. They even served lunch on china! I felt very loved and blessed by my family and friends and got many items to help complete Rylie's room.






This will go over her crib. I found it online, but didn't want to pay the price they were asking for and so kind of forgot about it. My mom and dad saw it and decided that they could make it...and they did! It turned out better then the one that I had seen!






This is a blanket that my Grandma Esther made for Rylie. It is made in the same pattern as the one that she made for me when I was a baby (that is the red and blue one on the bottom of the picture).




Almost all of Rylie's Grandmas and Great Grandmas...just missing one that lives in California.


My wonderful hostesses for the shower.

Maternity Photo Shoot

Brandon and I are very blessed to have such gifted photographers in our family, and they outdid themselves with our maternity photo shoot. We were all in California for a Disneyland trip so we decided to take our photos at the beautiful Laguna Beach. There is the amazing hotel (The Montage) that is up on some cliffs in Laguna and the grounds surrounding it are unbelievable! We fought the tide a little bit, but were blessed with a beautiful sunset to cap off the photos.

If you are ever looking for a photographer, definitely check out www.radiantphotographyaz.com. Not only are they great photographers, but they donate a portion of their earnings to different non-profits throughout the year. They are also just really fun people to be around, so I promise that your shoot will be a blast! They do weddings, familys, seniors, babies and maybe anything else that you can come up with!

Sorry there is alot of photos here...I couldn't decide which ones were my favorite. If you want to see the rest of the pictures from the shoot, visit
http://radiant-photography.smugmug.com/Juarez-Family/Maternity-session/11699121_9vMt4#825521413_wKCPy.

Easter

We had such a great and relaxing Easter this year. Brandon started our morning off by making a big (and yummy) breakfast for us. Next, we headed to church with my family at Grace, the church that I grew up at and where Brandon currently teaches. After church, we went to my aunt Kathy's house for lunch and egg hunting. Brandon decided that this was the last year that he won't have to do something with the egg hunt, so he wasn't going to participate...until my cousin Tatum got ahold of him! Pretty soon he was helping her hide eggs and finding better hiding spots so the rest of the adults wouldn't find them! Just another thing that gets us more excited to have our own little one to celebrate holidays with!


Our new cousin,Cayden. He had the cutest little Easter outfit on!


My mom with her two sisters...not hard to tell that they are related!








Brandon with his egg hiding buddy, Tatum


The whole family group that went to church.