preview of Eliza's newborn pics

so our good friend Meredith took pics of Eliza when she was a week old. Here are some of the ones she posted on her blog....

Don't I have such an adorable baby??

Eliza over the past 3 weeks

Eliza at 1 week

5lbs 8 oz 18.5"

2 weeks

6lbs 2 oz 19.75"

yes, I look tired:)

watching football with daddy

who can resist that face??

3 weeks

Isn't she just adorable? yes, we think so. She is still too small for her newborn sized clothes but is growing well!

Not a baby post!!

As much as I adore little Eliza and as much as I know you all do too...this is going to be a post about me. Tyler and I make it a habit to set a bunch of goals each year on our anniversary--relationship, physical, spiritual, academic, etc. This year, since I knew I'd have more at home time on my hands with no work or school, I made the goal to read all the classic books that I hadn't read already.
The hardest part about this goal is that there are multiple opinions about which books make the "classics" list. I decided to go with the one from the Provo Library since that is where I will get most of the books:) I was surprised that I hadn't read more of them, partly I guess because I'm not counting it read if I only read portions of it in school or if I can't remember it well enough. I decided I would return and report somewhere about my readings, and maybe encourage others of you to do the same because there is so much to learn from these books about society and history and the nature of people.
Without further ado, here are the few ones I have read from the list:

The Canterbury Tales Geoffrey Chaucer--detested
Macbeth William Shakespeare--liked
Little Women Louisa May Alcott--didn't like
Emma Jane Austen  --LOVED of course...this is one of my all time faves
Pride and Prejudice Jane Austen--Loved also of course
Jane Eyre Charlotte Bronte--loved
Wuthering Heights Emily Bronte--loved
The Count of Monte Cristo Alexandre Dumas--Loved
The Great Gatsby F Scott Fitzgerald--hated
The Scarlet Letter Nathaniel Hawthorne--loved
To Kill a Mockingbird Harper Lee--okay
The Scarlet Pimpernel Baroness E Orczy--LOVED, another of my all time faves
Uncle Tom's Cabin Harriet Beecher Stowe--Hated

Books on my list to read next:
Anna Karenina Leo Tolstoy
The Invisible Man  H.G. Wells
Lord of the Flies William Golding
Les Miserables Victor Hugo

Have any of you read those books? What other books for pleasure do you read? I'm almost finished with a fantastic fantasy series I will report on soon:)

Thank Heaven for Little Girls

10 things I miss about being pregnant.....HA
1. not being able to bend over
2. weighing 160lbs
3. peeing my pants when I sneeze or cough or laugh a little too hard
4. being sooo hot no matter what temperature
5. getting winded after going up a flight of stairs
6. waddling
7. not wearing my wedding ring
8. not fitting into any of my clothes
9. contractions
10. heartburn

10 things I didn't expect from giving birth
1. contractions before labor
2. contractions during labor
3. contractions after labor
4. no exercising for 6 weeks
5. seeing my little girl smile
6. being excessively exhausted but not caring because she is so worth it
7. engorgement
8. not wearing my pre-pregnancy shirts :(
9. a mini-me
10. the immediate bond I felt with this angel child

I had to include those last two photos of me as a little baby so you can see how she takes after her mommy:)

Eliza is here!

A lot of people are having babies--I'm sure you have read plenty of birth stories and they are all kind of the same...if they aren't yours, they aren't that interesting:) However, I know there are some of you that would want to know our story, so I'll make it concise and leave out all the gory parts...haha, just kidding, about leaving out the gory parts...

I was induced August 31 at noon at Timpanogos Hospital and had Eliza at 5:59pm. It was an easy labor, after the epidural, and an easy delivery (out she came after 3 pushes!) That's what you get when you have a 5lb 9oz baby with a tiny head! I had an abruption of my placenta (it started coming separated from the uterine wall) and they figured that's why she stopped growing, which is why I was induced.

The next day she was sounding really congested, so the nurses tried to suction her nose but wouldn't you know those little blue bulb syringes are too big to stick in her nose! She started to aspirate and they had a scare until they used a preemie catheter to stick in her nose and suction with a syringe the fluid out. Tyler was with her watching and I was nervous because my biggest fear about her being so little was how she would breathe. Thankfully they pumped a lot of fluid out of her stomach and she hasn't had congestion problems since.

So now, on to the good stuff...pictures:)

Here I am as we are walking out the door to the hospital last Tuesday. Inductions are nice because you have time to do your hair:)

Our happy little family

Eliza can't even fit in Newborn sized clothes! Here I've prepared and tried to be ready and I have no clothes that fit her! Little sleepers are the funniest because her legs end up together in one leg and her arms right up under her chin and not in the sleeves. The torsos swallow her up! Thank goodness she has some hair bows though...