Birth Story

Jayda Beth Pedersen
7 lbs 15 oz, 20"  August 15, 2014

 Here I am on my due date.  40 weeks pregnant and still no sign of our baby girl coming!

We decided to head to our local pool when I was 40 weeks 4 days.  Wasn't feeling like she was making her way at all.  So I decided to start swimming.  Ended up swimming 20+ laps because I was ready to get this baby girl here! At this point I was just dying to meet her.  After swimming we went home around 4ish and I had showered and gotten ready.  After that we were just relaxing around the house with my niece Cleo and sister-in-law Cortnee when I started feeling contractions every 4-5 minutes.  I had been feeling contractions here and there for weeks now, but started freaking out a bit when they were happening so often.  My doctor told me only to go to the hospital if my water breaks OR if I'm feeling contractions every 4-5 minutes for two hours. 

Well, sure enough two hours came around so we decided maybe I really was finally in labor.  We grabbed our hospital bags and headed out around 6:45 pm(ish).  At this point contractions were not painful at all so I was worried the hospital would be sending me home.  We arrive at McKay-Dee hospital and head up to labor and delivery.  Is this the day she finally comes!?  The nurses take me into a little room to check to see where I am and how far along I really am.  First off, the intermountain hospitals have a policy that I must be dilated to a 3 to be admitted.  The nurse checked me and said I was only at a 2.5.  Gosh dang it... do I really need to go home!?  She ended up calling my doctor anyway to let him know what was happening.  My doctor said to let me walk around the labor & delivery floor for an hour to see if anything changes.  So you're telling me there's a chance!? :) After an hour of walking around in circles the nurse checked me again.  Of course, I am still at a 2.5 so she says she's really sorry, but after monitoring heart rates of me and baby (a must after walking around for an hour I guess) we would have to head home.  BUT as she started monitoring our heart rates, Jayda's heart rate was pretty high so she called my doctor again and he said to start an IV to hydrate and try to calm her down.  I had the IV going for about 30-40 minutes and during that time contractions started getting stronger and more painful.  Once the IV was finished the nurse said she normally doesn't check after, but since my contractions were getting stronger she would try one last time.   Sure enough I was dilated to a 3 and fully effaced!  YAY!!  I get to stay!  After some time of her finding me a room to move me to for delivery, we stood up to move and as soon as I stood up a part of my water broke.  By this time it is about midnight and I'm finally in the delivery room.  I then had the anesthesiologist come in to give me my epidural.  He was a sweet Indian man and the nurse told me before he came in that he was a man of very little words.  His vocabulary consisted of ouch, poke, cramp and pinch.  Luckily I had some AWESOME delivery nurses and she talked me through the whole thing.  Epidural was NOTHING.  I was so surprised.  That was one of the things I was fearing most, but I barely felt it because I told Kjarom I would be squeezing his hand so hard I would be focusing on that rather than the needle.  Sure enough I barely even felt it.  Then it was all smooth sailing.

Here we are soon after the epidural.  We are ready to meet our baby girl!!  The doctor on call came in after to check to see where I was.  I was dilated to a 4 so I was moving along!  He then broke the rest of my water to get things moving along.  Outside there was a ton of rain, lightning and thunder.  About two hours in around 1:45 the POWER GOES OUT.  Here I am giving birth for the first time and the power goes out?  This was not about to keep me calm.  Luckily the generators kicked on and all the important machines were running again.  We got a few minutes of rest after enjoying some popsicles and ice.  At 2:30 am my nurse came back in to check on me and she said I was already dilated to a 10!  She said this baby is ready to come.  She ran out to call my doctor to get him over.  The doctor on call came in to double check and sure enough he, too said I was at 10 cm.  he was surprised that I was a first time mom and it had only been 2 hours and I went from being a 4 to a 10.  Now I was told just to completely relax and we were going to try to keep her in for as long as possible because I was on some antibiotics that needed to be going through me for about 4 hours.  We didn't make it quite to 4 am.  I did 8 practice pushes with my nurse and when my doctor got there I only pushed 3 more times and he told me just to relax and my contractions pushed her out on their own.  I didn't have to do anything else and shortly after here she was at 3:52 am.  Everything went so smoothly it made me think right away that I could do this again -- easily and soon!  But not too soon... we will wait for a little while and enjoy our little angel while we can :)

Sweet baby Jayda weighed in at 7 lbs 15 oz!

Here I am holding her skin-to-skin for the first time!  I can't even begin to explain the instant love I felt.  It was such an emotional moment.  I couldn't believe she was finally here after all this time.

Daddy holding her in the delivery room for the first time!

Here we are later on that afternoon.  Our very first family picture!  We are so in love with this baby girl.  We could not stop staring at her.

 Grandpa and Grandma Murray came up to visit their newest granddaughter.

At McKay-Dee they have a photographer that comes to each room to do complimentary photo shoots in the hospital and we can purchase prints if we'd like.  Sure enough we loved them so we had to get them!  Here are a few of our favorites.  It was kind of funny because she was completely asleep, but as soon as the camera came out she opened her eyes.

Here she is ready to head home!  These clothes are 0-3 and drowning her!  With me being born at 9 lbs 15 oz I did NOT think I needed any newborn clothing.  Boy was I wrong.  She is still in newborn clothes at 2 weeks old.
We love this little girl and are so excited to have her as a part of our family.  We feel like the luckiest parents around.  She is absolutely perfect!!

My Apparently Not-So-Normal Pregnancy

Well I am coming up on 33 weeks this Sunday and can't believe we only have 7 more until we get to meet our sweet baby girl.  It almost still doesn't feel real.  Yes, I've got the bump and yes, I am feeling kicks and jabs all day and all night, but the fact that I am going to have my own baby girl is just incredible.  The human body is absolutely amazing.  I can't help but wonder how there are people out there that don't believe in God when a miracle like this can happen.

Our summer is absolutely nuts and the fact that it is still going according to our plans (knock on wood) is fantastic.  Kjarom is doing his summer legal internship here in Dallas up through the end of July.  I am currently here with him and keeping him company, but the plan is NOT to deliver the baby here.  Kjarom and I  both head to the airport on July 3.  I'm heading back to Salt Lake for the rest of the summer while Kjarom heads out that weekend for his sisters wedding.  Didn't want to risk taking any longer flights and long drives being as far along as I am.  Luckily Kjarom will have the chance to travel (again) the following weekend to come see me in SLC and then he will only have two more weeks in Dallas until he gets to come to SLC and stay till the baby comes.  There is a lot more to this story and plans after she comes, but I'll spare you the details.  Lets just say poor Kjarom will be doing a TON of traveling especially by car ... by the time this summer is over he will have spent close to 70 hours in the car for road trips.  That number is going to kill him when he reads this haha.

ANYWAY ... on to the topic of my post.  I feel as if I have had a VERY abnormal pregnancy.  Not because I've had anything go wrong or that something isn't right with our baby, but quite the opposite.  I have had absolutely NO problems (again, knock on wood).

I mean I've had ZERO:
- morning sickness
- cravings
- swelling in ankles/hands (thankfully still get to wear my ring)
- bleeding or sore gums (maybe because I'm a dental hygienist and know proper techniques?)
- heartburn
- varicose veins
- forgetfulness

I feel the same as I did when I wasn't pregnant aside from the growing belly.  Kjarom and I laugh when we see people posting about pregnancy brain and cravings.  Maybe it is a real thing and I'm sure this pregnancy of mine just isn't normal.  But I feel like "cravings" are just a woman's way of giving them an excuse to make their husband go out to buy them the burger and fries they apparently NEED.  I'm sorry if it is a real thing, but I just haven't experienced it so I can't help but laugh.  I've not once felt the NEED to have something specific.  Yeah, I've been hungry so I go to the kitchen and grab a snack we already have.  Needless to say I am VERY grateful to not have any of these symptoms especially the nausea.  I am so sorry to those that have been so sick you can't move :(

On to some photo updates since my last post.

Baby Girl at 31 Weeks
(I feel like I could just reach out and grab her!  I need to kiss those chunky cheeks!)

Baby foot at 27 Weeks

19 Weeks - am I really preggo?!

22 Weeks - Starting to pop!

27 Weeks - There she is!

30 Weeks - Definitely Pregnant!

OH and how could I forget to document on the blog this wonderful video of my family (or more so my moms) reaction to finding out we were expecting:

CLICK HERE

Like I said, I am almost 33 weeks so there will be an updated picture coming soon.  :)

Baby Pedersen is on his or her way! (15 weeks)

Kjarom and I are beyond excited for this little sweetheart to join our family.  We both have SO much love to give!  We have already shared this photo below on Facebook, but we need to document this on our blog so we've got an easy way to go back to it.  We are happy to have another huge Cougar fan join us ... and Stanford fan whenever they aren't playing BYU. :)  If you really know us, you know that we are probably some of the BIGGEST BYU fans so it shouldn't come as a surprise that the way we announce this is with our first baby purchase/gift (it came from my mom) -- BYU booties! 

And here I am at 15 weeks!  I still don't feel like I am looking pregnant yet.  I'm sure it will come in the next couple weeks.  At all of my doctor appointments I have seen different nurses/docs doing my ultrasound.  Each time they comment on how energetic our little one is.  He or she love to show off for us.  I wonder where they get it.... (a'hem not me).  We get to go in and see our little one again next week and then in three more weeks we will be having the full anatomy ultrasound.  

Kjarom has been so cute.  He is so incredibly excited to have a son or daughter.  He will be such a loving, fun father!

Now I know I'm not very formal when it comes to my writing.  Sorry!  But this is my simple way of journaling the whole experience and keeping the rest of you up to date.  Maybe with the new one on the way I will actually be better about updating this.  Now our life is much more exciting!

Love you all and thank you for all your love and support!

October Pedersen Update

Although it has been hard being away from our families and starting a new life where we had absolutely no one, we have really grown to love where we are.  There are thousands of people that wish they could be in our shoes so we are incredibly grateful to be here.  Kjarom has worked so hard and deserves every bit of this.

Kjarom has really gotten into the grind of school and has a pretty regular schedule now.  He is at school M-Th till about 8 and Fridays a little earlier.  He is very dedicated and much better about all this work than I could ever be.  Right after classes he goes to the library to study until dinner time.  He is trying as much as he can to leave school work at school so he can spend the evenings with me and give me all of his attention.  I'm not sure if this will be able to continue all three years, but he is definitely doing his best to remember family.

People are always asking me how Kjarom is handling the stress of law school and I have to say I've got a pretty incredible husband.  He is very good about holding things in and while I am 100% sure he is stressed about all the work he has to do, he doesn't use it to bring anyone else around him down.  Like I said, he has been doing a great job of leaving school at school.  It's a quality I really admire about him.

As for me, I have taken my California Law and Ethics examination and passed with flying colors! :)  My license should be in the mail within the next couple weeks and then it is time to start cleaning teeth again!  In the mean time I have been working at baby gap.  They seriously have the cutest little clothes in the world.  I love it there.  Plus the discount I get at Gap, Banana Republic and Old Navy is probably a little too good.

We have been to every single Stanford football game and we love that we won't ever have to stand in snow during a game here.  The weather has been absolutely beautiful.  With highs of about 80, it really doesn't get any better.  We have been going to a couple of Volleyball and Soccer games as well because for each event we go to, we earn what is called loyalty points.  Those with the most loyalty points have a better chance of getting in to both the Oregon and Cal football games this year.  I know what you're thinking... Cal?  They're awful.  But they're the big rivals here I guess.  Much like the BYU - Utah rivalry.  Speaking of...  we are clearly Utah's lucky charm.  Maybe Kjarom will transfer to Oregon and Utah will beat them too.  Ugh.  Kill me.

Anyway, all in all we love where we are.  We are still kind of in shock that we are at Stanford.  I'm so proud of Kjarom for working so hard.  I really admire his work ethic and dedication.  You can do anything with hard work and Kjarom is living proof of that.  I love him!

We want visitors!  Let us know if you're ever in the San Francisco area. We would love to see you! :)

Arriving at our new home!

Each post I seem to put on our blog starts off with me being disappointed about how awful I am at blogging.  Well, hopefully I really mean it this time that I'm going to start trying to keep this thing up to date.  With us now being far away from both of our families this will be a great way to keep both sides up to speed. 

The past couple weeks have kind of been a whirl wind.  It's still crazy to believe that we are where we are.  

As most of you are aware, Kjarom will be starting Law School at Stanford on Friday.  I am so incredibly proud of him.  He has worked so hard to get where he is.  While it will be a long and stressful three years, it will be an adventure that I wouldn't want to be taking anywhere else.  We had quite a few options to choose from including BYU, New York University, Notre Dame, Duke, Michigan, Cornell and many more... but none of those were Stanford.  Kjarom was really doing his research on each of the schools he was truly interested in. I don't have any doubt in my mind that Kjarom would have succeeded and gone above and beyond at any of these schools, but with his research and many prayers, we knew that Stanford was where we were supposed to go.

This was the collage we posted to Facebook when we made our decision.

We had originally planned on renting a U-haul to take out to Palo Alto, but thanks to my loving mom and brother Kurtis we were able to cancel those plans.  They took the Tahoe and when I say you couldn't have fit anything else in there, you really couldn't.  My poor mom and Kurtis felt suffocated with all our things starting to poor into the front seats.  Kjarom and I both had plenty of room with each of us driving our own car.  I'm so grateful that they were able to help us!  It sure would have been rough without them.  

The drive from Salt Lake to Palo Alto is a little long so we decided to stay a night in Reno and finish the drive the following day.  On our way into the bay area we made a little pit stop at the Oakland Temple.  I had been there before when my oldest brother Eric got married, but I really didn't take in or appreciate how gorgeous this temple is.  There are Palm trees all around and it sits up on a hill overlooking all of Oakland and San Francisco.  It is absolutely beautiful.

After the temple we drove south to Palo Alto and stayed in a hotel for a couple nights before we moved into our apartment.  Kjarom, Kurtis and I made another trip into San Francisco to go to Ghirdelli Square, Fisherman's Warf and to see a Giants game.  

Row 9 on the 1st base side line.  Pretty sweet seats!  But we did have to pay attention the WHOLE time since we were in prime foul ball area.

We then moved all of our things into our new apartment.  It is definitely a change from what we are used to.  No AC, dishwasher, washer/dryer, gas stove and the list could go on.  But we knew that no matter where we went from our last place it would be a down grade.  It is kind of hard to think about what we could get in Utah with how much we're paying in rent here.  BUT in all honesty, this is part of our little adventure in California.  Come what may and LOVE IT!  We're on the 6th floor so we've got a gorgeous view.  My next post will show you our cute little place.  :)  I am very pleased that I will still have room to do insanity!  I was worried there wasn't going to be near enough room.

Well, as you can guess -- Kjarom will be incredibly busy his first year of school.  His future is pretty much based on the first year grades so he will be in the library a ton.  As for me I have sent in my application for a Hygiene license and am waiting to hear back about when I can take California's Law and Ethics exam.  Then hopefully it won't take too long to receive my license so I can start doing what I love again!

I'll continue to update this for you family that care!  Also... let me know if you blog or if I have the wrong link off to the right.  I need to be better about following everyone else as well!  Love you and and just remember -- WE LOVE VISITORS!!! :)

The Current Sitch.

And by sitch I mean situation. :) ... That's for those people like my mom who wouldn't know what that meant. LOVE YOU MOM! Life is going fairly well for us right now. Here's a little update on what the two of us have been up to lately.

ME:
I've just been bumped up to full time and am now working at Silverwolf Dental in Riverton 5 days a week (Tues-Sat). It's a little exhausting and not fun to think about waking up at 5 am on a Saturday. I can't say I've ever done it before... Unless it was when I was in high school and we were going back to Japan and had jetlag, which doesn't really count. Work is going pretty good so far and let me tell you nothing can beat NOT being in school and finally making good money. Have I splurged yet?? I wish I could say yes to that, but right now Kjarom and I are saving up to pay for Law School (see his update below). I think I'll splurge on Monday and get my hair done. I deserve to at least do that right?? :) SO, come visit me at work! My doctor does absolutely flawless work. I really am lucky to be where I am especially in this economy. I was so stressed when I graduated because it seemed like no one wanted to hire someone without experience. I'm lucky that someone gave me an opportunity to get that experience.

KJAROM:

My sweet sweet husband is such a hard worker. That is one thing I admire most about him. He has been so busy with school, work and with his internship... and he has now started an LSAT class that he takes 3 times a week. I can't believe it's almost time for him to take this bad boy! His plan is to take it either in June or October and then apply to law schools in the fall. I am so proud of him and all of his hard work. I know it's going to pay off someday soon. :) He is my rock and I love this man with everything in me. Please keep him in your prayers as he begins this new chapter in his life.

Well, I wish I could say I'll post again soon, but let's be honest, that probably won't happen. Our lives probably won't be changing much in the next few months. BUT if something does happen, I'll be blogging. Love you all! :)

As Time Goes On...

I'M BACK! :)

I'm really disappointed at how awful I have been about keeping this blog up-to-date. It's almost been 6 months, which I see as somewhat of a good thing comparing it to my last post. That means Kurtis is almost 1/4 done with his mission! I am so proud of him and all the hard work he has been putting into this time of his life. Although he may be away from his family, he is helping other families to be together for eternity and that is pretty incredible if you ask me.

Typical mission picture in Japan... Kurtis with Mt. Fuji in the back!

We got to talk to the amazing Elder Murray himself and that made Christmas just that much better. I love him!

Something else has happened since I've last posted. See in the last post how I'm wearing the ugliest scrubs anyone could ever make? Well, good news ... those are gone FOREVER! I am DONE with Dental Hygiene school and couldn't be happier. It was a long road full of stress, tears and I'll admit it... a few laughs. A HUGE thank you to those of you who came in to be a patient for me even when it was last minute. I could not have made it through without you. The biggest thank you needs to go out to my parents and my sweet husband. They're the ones that ALWAYS knew what was going on, how stressed I was ... they dealt with the tears when patients decide to cancel last minute ... they were there through it all. Thank you for your prayers, for your comforting words and just for being you. I love you!

I NEVER thought the day would come. Diploma, tassel and THE Golden Scaler.
What is the golden scaler you ask? Best Clinician in the class :)
(That means you'll want to follow me wherever I go so I'm the one to clean your teeth!)

Again, a huge thank you to everyone who was there for me when I needed you and even those of you who just dealt with all my begging on facebook for patients. It's over now! Now you can come see me in a real dental office because I've passed ALL my board exams with flying colors and I head out to the Department of Licensing on Monday to turn in all my papers so I can receive my license and start working. WAHOO!!