As I fed this sweet little boy in the early morning hours, I was feeling exhausted and worn down from a challenging week with Lyla and week 4 of getting no more than 2-3 hours of sleep at a time. I started reading my friend's blog and discovered her recent experience of carrying a little boy to 41 weeks and then realizing he had stopped moving. Something had gone wrong and she had to go through all of the pains of labor only to hold her lifeless little boy. I cried as I imagined how this must feel, and I haven't been able to stop crying since then. Holding my sweet little Trevor and feeling so much love for him makes me wonder how it's possible for someone to get through such a challenging situation. My heart breaks for women who have had miscarriages or lost children later in life. I feel extremely grateful that at least at this point, I have not been given this trial in life- I'm not sure that I would be able to recover and move on from that. I know so many strong women who have experienced this trial and they are such great examples to me of faith and perseverance. I'm so grateful for the Atonement of our Savior which can help us get through these devastating experiences.


Two of my all time favorite quotes are:



"No pain that we suffer, no trial that we experience is wasted. It ministers to our education, to the development of such qualities as patience, faith, fortitude and humility. All that we suffer and all that we endure, especially when we endure it patiently, builds up our characters, purifies our hearts, expands our souls, and makes us more tender and charitable, more worthy to be called the children of God...and it is through sorrow and suffering, toil and tribulation, that we gain the education that we came here to acquire and which will make us more like our Father & Mother in Heaven." ---Orson Whitney

"Adversity can increase faith or instead can cause the troubling roots of bitterness to spring up in one's life, and we cannot be both faith-filled and stressfree. Therefore, how can you and I really expect to glide naively through life, as if to say, "Lord, give me experience, but not grief, not sorrow, not pain, not opposition, not betrayal, and certainly not to be forsaken. Keep from me, Lord, all those experiences which made thee what thou art! Then let me come and dwell with thee and fully share thy joy." ---Neal A. Maxwell


I know that we are given trials for a reason. I'm trying each day to become more like my Father & Mother in heaven, and I know that this requires experiencing many hard things in life in order to gain the experience that they have. I'm so grateful that we have been given the tools to get through these hard times- especially the knowledge that we can always turn to our Savior for the comfort and understanding that we need because he truly understands all that we feel. Today I am feeling so grateful for the miracle of life, and for my precious little family. I know that the little trials that seem so hard to me are really insignificant because I really have been blessed with all I could ever want. I have moments when I feel tired of being a mom and want a little break, or when my sweet little toddler frustrates me so much that I want to scream, but today I've been reminded that I need to love every second that I get to spend with them. I'm so lucky to be their mom!!

Two weeks old

I can't believe my little angel boy is already two weeks old! He's definitely been more awake during the last week so the nights have been a little harder, but he still sleeps for much of the day and night so I can't complain! He had his two week check-up yesterday and his stats are:
Weight: 7 lbs 9 oz (25%),  Height: 20 1/4 inches (50%)
Trevor is growing well and is a healthy little baby! I just love to snuggle with him and watch his sweet face. Lyla has a hard time with the large amount of time that I have to spend feeding him, but other than that she is so sweet to him and loves to hug, kiss, burp, and dress him.
He's in his cute little fall outfit that we are borrowing from his cousin Jackson:

Grandma Rumsey sent some fun gifts like a soccer ball that Lyla quickly claimed, some cute shoes, an adidas sweat suit, and the most darling blanket ever! It has cute monkeys on it and must have been so much work!

The first week

Here are some pictures of the first week of Trevor's life. He is such a little angel- he sleeps all day and all night- I actually have to wake him up at night to feed him which is such a nice change from Lyla as a baby! Lyla has had a hard adjustment and I'm pretty sure i wouldn't have survived this week without my mom being here helping. She has been amazing- cooking dinner, filling the freezer, playing with Lyla, and just talking me through the hard moments. I'm scared to have her leave tomorrow but luckily Paul will be able to take a few half days next week which will help a lot!
Daddy holding Trevor in the hospital:



I had to document one of the few times Trevor has cried:

He's already a BYU fan!

I had to throw in some cute pictures of Lyla to remind me of the angel she can be...and give me hope that she will return to her normal sweet self soon!

My mom gave Lyla this darling Halloween shirt and headband:

Life is good and i'm so grateful for my little family!

Trevor's birth details...

I have to say that if all of my deliveries could be guaranteed to go as smoothly as this one did I would probably consider having 12 kids or so, but I know that it will probably not be so smooth and fast again!

Each week for the last four weeks I've been one centimeter further along so on my last appointment on Thursday I was already dilated to a 5 and 70% effaced. My doctor had been planning to strip my membranes on Thursday which I was pretty sure would bring on labor because my body felt so ready, but when I showed up she refused to do it because she was leaving town for the weekend and didn't want me going into labor when she was gone (we sure showed her! :) I was pretty disappointed because I had finally mentally prepared myself to probably have a baby in the next day or so and because I wanted to give my body a chance to go into labor naturally instead of being induced which was scheduled for Monday. Plus, an induction would mean that Paul would have to take a full day off of work and I wanted him to have the 2 vacation days that we can spare to help me at home after my mom leaves.

I became determined to do anything in my power to encourage Baby Trevor to join us- I walked a lot, went up and down stairs, did squats, washed the car, swept the garage, planted trees, cleaned a lot, and chased Lyla around. Who knows if any of that really helped but I woke up early Saturday morning and knew things were going to progress. I woke up at 12:30 feeling something going on but was able to keep sleeping until 1:30 when the contractions started. I kept trying to rest until 2:45 when I took a shower. Paul woke up and we started getting things together. The contractions were 3-6 minutes apart and lasting for about 40 seconds. They weren’t too strong yet so I kept cleaning and straightening- delaying out departure for the hospital cuz I was getting nervous! We finally called our sweet neighbor who got there around 3:30 and we headed right out. We arrived at the hospital around 3:45 and I was dilated to a 6 and 100% effaced. I was wanting to try to avoid an epidural at least as long as I could since I had already progressed so far. The contractions were getting stronger and I decided a hot bath sounded nice and it really helped so much with the pain! I got out after 10 minutes because the doctor stopped by after seeing another patient. He wanted to break my water and I was already a 7 by then which gave me hope! After he broke my water, I had to stay hooked to the monitors for about 15 minutes and then went back to the tub which was appreciated since the contractions were really strong and hard to get through. Paul was such a great support and kept giving me pep talks and helping me find helpful thoughts to focus on. After less than 5 minutes, I suddenly felt the awful need to push and started freaking out. Paul and the nurse quickly got me back to the bed and started getting everything ready. The pushing feeling was not my favorite- it was so intense and painful. The doctor was quickly suiting up along with Paul who got to catch the baby. After about 10 very challenging minutes of pushing and screaming, Trevor was born at 5:10 and was completely healthy. I was exhausted but so relieved that it had gone fast. He weighed 7 lbs 1 ounce and was 20 inches long.

I was especially grateful that I didn't have an epidural after the delivery because I was able to move around and shower and didn't feel groggy. I'm not sure that I would be able to do it again if I knew the labor would take longer, but I'm glad it worked out this time. It was a nice day of relaxing and it’s been so fun to see Lyla interacting with Trevor. She already loves him and is so sweet to him! Paul is staying at home with her so it’s a little lonely here at times, but it's been nice to rest as much as possible.

The Stork stopped by our place with a package!!