Cody Joseph Hegreness is Born

On October 22, 2015, Cody Joseph Hegreness was born. But maybe I should back up.
Cody was technically due sometime between the 10th and the 12th. But he was super cozy in there, and had no plans to leave as far as we could tell. Seriously. I was dilated to 1cm and still had a thick cervix for an entire month. I had about 3 Braxton-Hicks contractions a day, and was pretty much entirely too comfortable. Being 41 weeks pregnant felt very much like being 37 weeks pregnant. Except everyone was going out of their minds. :-)
Paul's family has a history of delivering early, so they were like "What on earth is taking so long?" My mom was here to help me and got here on the 10th and was running out of things to clean. Work kept asking me when my last day was. And really.....how long was he really planning on staying there? My doctor really didn't want me to go past 42 weeks, as meconium and stillbirth risk goes up quite a bit after that. My last appointment was Monday the 19th, and there we decided on Thursday the 22nd as our induction date, and she promised to start with cytotec and a cervical balloon so I could try to be as unmedicated as possible. She also promised to not break my water until it was clear I was progressing and basically made me feel as comfortable as possible with getting induced. Except that I was still really nervous about it.
Then she stripped my membranes, which is a VERY HARD THING TO DO AT ONE CENTIMETER. Paul and my mom were kind of traumatized. It hurt, but I was still more impressed than anything. She was committed!
And then nothing really happened until 11pm Tuesday night. And the contractions started to hurt just a little bit more and become a little more regular. Also, I had a little bleeding that made me think this is it. I did sleep most of the night, so I'm not sure how the contractions were then. When I woke up, they were still mild enough that Paul went to work- I told him he was ok to go, even though he moved up his inspection from 1 o'clock to 8am. And it's lucky he did. Around noon, my mom and I went on a walk around the neighborhood. About 3 times my contractions were strong enough that I had to stop walking and kind of squat down. We decided to go to the hospital.
So Paul got home and we got already to go. We got there around 2 o'clock. On the way there I had only 2 light contractions and I was like "Oh great, what if this is nothing and they send me home?"
Well, we checked in and they were already expecting me (the schedule was off and they thought I was getting induced that morning anyway). They were expecting to start inducing me; I was expecting nothing so it took awhile to get that straightened out. Luckily, as soon as I got settled in they checked my cervix and I was 3-4 cm dilated and 80% effaced. Yay! This counted as labor so all they did was put in an IV (hep lock/no fluids) and let me walk around. I also ate a popsicle. The last thing I ate was at 11 am; I was pretty worried about not eating food, but I thought they would let me since I was so early. Turns out, they were ok with popsicles, but that was about it.
So my mom and Paul took turns walking me around the floor of the hospital off and on for a few hours. That was actually really nice. It was kind of funny to stop and suddenly hurt so bad in front of everyone, but it was nice to be out of the room. That lasted for a couple hours. I even walked around the floor with my stress balls from Amazon. :-) They were a little helpful but not really too much. Around this time, I threw up for the first time, and got told I was done eating then. I would throw up twice more before I delivered. I had brought my yoga video but that seemed crazy at the time. I think I thought things were going to go faster than they did; I wonder now if it would have helped. I had to be monitored for 15 minutes out of every hour, and Cody was such a good baby. He literally never moved off the monitor once, even as I moved around. The monitor itself slid off him once, but he was super cooperative. I sat in the tub for a little bit and that was nice. I did have some bleeding during all these contractions, but that made us realize my cervix was actually dilating. I was at 5cm at about 5 o'clock. Sometime after that it started to get really intense; I actually don't remember much between 5 and 8. I did ask for a shot of IV pain medicine, which they gave me. It was called Fentanyl, and really it didn't help at all with the pain, but it did make me kind of high and exhausted. I wanted to sleep so bad, but I couldn't lay down or sleep during the contractions because they hurt too bad. 8 to 11:30 were my hardest hours. The pain started to get excruciating and I was hanging off of Paul or my mom and kind of dancing back and forth on my feet during each contraction. The contractions were coming 2 minutes apart and it really seemed like it would never end. Sometimes I felt like I could do it for one hour, but not two, and when it ended up being 3 I was just losing it. There were times when I was just shaking, which would have made me nervous, but another friend who had just delivered had the same thing happen to her, so I was less worried. The two things that helped the most, besides being held up for my contractions were my mom saying during pretty much every contraction, "breathe, catch your breath, you're so brave, you're so tough, you can do this" and Paul wiping my face and neck and back with a cold handkerchief in between each one. Both my mom and Paul said the room was cold but I was literally sweating with each contraction. Brea got there around this time and came in and out a few times during that time. Mary Alice was also there off and on. Finally at 11:15, we had Dr. Martin come check me. I was 9cm dilated and 95% effaced. And my water still hadn't broken. So she broke it. It was a pretty mellow stream of fluid; she said most of it was behind the baby. And then she left the room for me to finish up. Three crazy contractions later where I basically starting squatting for each one, I felt ready to push. She came back in, and yes, I was. They set up the bed to start delivery. I pushed exactly twice (through 2 contractions) when his heart rate dropped to 90. She told me I had to push with everything I had and that they baby had to come out now. It is a crazy feeling to have your body want to push and your mind telling you not to because you know that logically a baby should not be coming out of you! But I did push so hard. He came close, but did not come out, so she got out the vacuum, and on the next contraction with the next 2 pushes he was born, at 12:06 am. Turns out the cord was wrapped twice around his neck, which is why his heart rate dropped. It was good that she hadn't broken my water earlier, or he might not have done so well during the rest of labor. Cody was 7lb 5 oz, bigger than anyone had expected, but oh my gosh still so tiny. He was alert right away and nursed a little bit. I was still super shaky, and then Dr. Martin told me I had a retained placenta. I asked her at what point we start to worry about that. She said 30 minutes. It had been 25. Eventually the placenta came out, but she still had to reach inside me 4 times to basically scrape out my uterus and get. It was very uncomfortable, but still not as bad as some of those last contractions. Finally, at 1am, everything was cleaned and put back together, Paul's family came in to see him. They were so excited. Ralph could not believe how little he was. It was so great to have them there. Brea had been in the room for the delivery and took awesome pictures, which was priceless and so great. Eventually, they loaded us up and took us to the postpartum floor. I was shaking so bad, but as soon as they put Cody in my arms, I stopped. Our nurse when we got there was Jill Champion, who was a CNA I used to work with at Osborn hospital. She is my Facebook friend, and was so excited to see us. Cody had a good night. He slept a little in his bassinet, and then his temperature was a little cold (97 degrees) so they had him lay on my chest where we both fell asleep. It was so crazy to feel his tiny little body and know that he was mine forever. Paul was so sweet and slept near me on the chair. We were both exhausted and fell right asleep. And that it the story of how Cody was born.

Paul Gets Baptized!

Paul got baptized on Sept 6th, 2014. He was actually baptized Christian 10 years prior, so he calls this really a renewal of his faith. It was a great experience no matter what. 
Paul took the discussions with the missionaries in Utah at his friend Brandon's house. He and Brandon had been friends since like fourth grade in Washington, so it was all pretty crazy how things ended up. I basically had nothing to do with any of it, which was good because, as Paul said, it left it all between him and God. Plus, the Howell family is amazing, and being with them was awesome in itself.
Paul's parents are so sweet and are so supportive and flew up for the occasion. Just so happens, I was flying up, too. So my introduction to the parents occurred totally on my own. At the airport gate. Before our joint flight where they managed to seat my right between the two of them!! Luckily, we all hit it off just fine. Paul's dad Ralph slept the whole flight and MaryAlice and I just talked and talked. It was actually wonderful.
When we got there, his parents went to their hotel and I went to Paul's RV.
The baptism was the next morning. I wrote my talk while I was there (sometimes I can space things!)- I gave the Holy Ghost talk, Stephanie Howell gave the baptism talk. Brandon baptized Paul, and my dad confirmed him the next day.
Quite a few of my relatives drove down from Idaho, and a few of my high school friends even came to see us!
It was such an amazing experience and so wonderful to be surrounded by so much love and uspport
Paul's parents even went to church with us the whole 3 hours the next day, which I thought was amazing.
So....basically, it all was great. My parents even said "maybe his parents and us should take a trip without you guys sometime." I think it's safe to say we all got along. :-)

yes, we already knew

Olympic Triathlon!! TriRock Austin!

A week later, I was in Austin, prepared to run the longest triathlon of my life. For five years, I said I would do an Olympic triathlon, and this kind of felt like "now or never."
An Olympic is a 1500m swim, a 25 mile bike ride, and a 6.2 mile run.
The swimming part scared me the most, even though to be honest, I'm not good on the bike part at all.
Anyways, I got there a couple days early and was able to spend a few great days with Byron and his family. We went grocery shopping, ate at a couple great restaurants, and went to church together.
Sunday afternoon, I dropped off my bike. There were so many, I was seriously so scared. But oh well! I'm scared before every race.
I ended up finishing in 4 hrs and 30 seconds. My goal was 4 hours, but I realized later 4 hours is kind of a crappy triathlon time. 3hr and 30 min is much more respectable :). To be fair, it was SO HOT and SO HUMID and I had to walk half of the run because I was approaching heat exhaustion.

The swim was the best of my life. It was exactly 40 minutes, and they had us start 2 at a time and marked off every 100meters. Both of those things changed everything for me and made me so calm. The bike was hard, but the view of the capital was gorgeous, and that was so fun.
Byron was such a great supporter, and gave me a 5 gallon bucket the night before, some sunglasses, and made sure I had everything ready to go the night before. He even called Paul during the race to keep him updated.

Later on, we all went to Rudy's for bar-b-que dinner and I had my first deliciou Round Rock donuts.
It was an amazing trip, and was so awesome to have that all under my belt! Yay!

The boys and me 5 years ago and this year

DONE!!!

Jessica & Christin Take Seattle

At the end of August, Jessica and I went to Seattle! I hadn't been back in ten years, and we were so excited to go.
We stayed at the Hotel Max in a tiny little room that was actually so modern and cute. It was a great location, even though we walked SO MUCH. I think we racked up like 33 miles w
hile we were there.
Our first day there, we went to Pike's Place and bought the most amazing doughnut peaches. They were so so yummy. The guy who sold them to us was having such a bad day, and I will never forget that. He had just gone through a break-up and was so honest about how much it sucked. We almost bought him flowers!!

After that, we went and rode the ferris wheel and got ice cream. I was so excited about all of it that I didn't notice I had ice cream dripping all the way down my shirt while we were walking. Oh well. The ferris wheel is new since either of us were there last, and it was so calm and nice to just chill and take pictures with such an awesome view.
Then we went to Ivar's for Fish and Chips. Paul had made us a little list of things we should do while we were in Seattle, and this was on the top of the list. Also included on the list was feeding the seagulls a french fry. Jessica does not like birds. I was more nervous than I thought I would be. But we both did it, and it was so funny. And yes, the fish and chips were amazing. 

For dinner, we went to a cool vegan place called "Sutra" that I had seen on TripAdvisor. The place was kind of crazy. We all sat at long tables with everyone else and it was TIGHT quarters. But. The people we sat with were so fun and the food was incredible. There was a fancy non-alcoholic drink to go with each course. And the chef said a prayer to thank the earth and the growers for all the ingredients and then told us where each thing came from. It was so much fun. On the way home, Jessica had the idea that we should take uber, which was awesome. Our driver picked us up in like 2 minutes and told us all about Eritrea, the country in Africa where he was from. It was so nice.

Friday morning I woke up and decided to go for a run. On the treadmill in the fitness room. After about 1 minute I realized just how horrible of an idea that was. I told Jessica I was going outside and took off. I ran 5 beautiful miles through people and parks along the water and it was just amazing. Probably the best run of my life. And definitely the most beautiful. My nano even said it was the fastest, but I think the altitude threw it off a little....
For lunch we stopped at Pamela's Fine Foods across the street where I had the most amazing sandwich ever. It was just turkey, mayo, sunflower seeds, and havarti, but it was so good! Unfortunately, they are also closed on weekends, so it was my only sandwich from there. (Jessica had gone there earlier and had breakfast while I was running.)
Our big adventure for the day was to go to Husky Stadium and rent canoes and go exploring a little sanctuary there. What made this adventure more fun is that Jessica cannot swim, and was actually quite nervous about this whole thing. And, she was totally up for it. To the point that she even lied point-blank to the rental girl and told her she could swim before we signed the waiver. And she was a great rower as we rowed through the boat traffic at one point that including some very large tugboat looking watercraft.
We ended up having an awesome time and saw some beautiful water lillies and even had a little picnic with our vending machine snacks. AND we also saw a guy sitting totally naked on a dock on our way back. He might have been on drugs, but I have to admit, I was a little jealous of his lack of inhibitions :)

 Later on, we went shopping and had amazing caramels at Fran's, enjoyed a snowball cupcake from Trophy, and went to a too-fancy restaurant where I had exactly 1 scallop for which I paid $20. They were very nice, but we won't be going back.

Also, I had a "messy bun" that day (my hair, people)- that I haven't been able to replicate since, but it made me feel so stylish. :-)
To top of the night, I accidentally asked a guy in the elevator what his room number was instead of what floor he was on so I could push the button for him. We all laughed pretty hard at that.
Good times.
Saturday we went to Bainbridge island. It was very quaint. And had fun bookstores and shops and amazing ice cream. I had coconut ice cream and cantaloupe sorbet and it was straight up heaven. Jessica and I bought little tiny glass bowls for rings that were so cute.
Sunday we visited Olympic Sculpture park, ate some more fish & chips, and headed home. It was a fabulous trip!!!

The Camp Verde, Meet the Brother Trip

Three weeks later, Paul came to see me! It was one of those trips where I was like, "Am I crazy? Do I really like him this much?" This whole long distance thing was getting to me, and we really needed to see each other again.

Someone from work was passing through town and dropped Paul off at my house at 2am on Thursday. I was so excited to see him! And hated to go to work the next day!

After work on Friday, we went out to eat at the Hyatt restaurant that rotates as you eat. Our view was kind of blocked by some other tall buildings, but the food was awesome. It was also really fun to realize that we both loved seafood and all the same things on the menu, so sharing everything was awesome. We got calamari for an appetizer, then I got sea bass and he got scallops. We both actually liked the other person's better, so we switched halfway through. And then had creme brulee. mmmmmm. 

 The next day we had his brother and sister-in-law over for breakfast and swimming. I chopped kale with his brother Jon and made sausages and we all just talked and talked. Sometime during breakfast, Paul dropped the info to his brother that we were getting married January 16th. To be honest, I don't know what day or what time or when exactly we had decided that. It just all kind of happened so fast. His brother was shocked, but happy. It was so fun to tell him.

Then we all went swimming in the pool with his niece and nephew Delaney and Brandon, and then they headed home.

After that, we got ready again and went to Camp Verde to meet his friends there, esp. KayLynn, who he had known since she was 17 months old. We went to a little auction first, then out to eat at Babe's Bar-b-que, where we told KayLynn. She was really happy for us and told him she really liked me (whew!)Then we drove to Cottonwood blaring country songs. We picked up KayLynn's boyfriend and went and got Hawaiian ice cream at a little place there that was SO DELICIOUS!

 Then we went to the park and went swinging on the best swings ever. Paul found a little glow worm on the ground that is somewhere in that picture of sand below. KayLynn got bit by a spider and couldn't bend her finger and said it was going numb so we ended up going to the ER where they essentially did nothing and said she was fine so we went home. 
The next morning we got up at 5:30 to go to the train park with Brandon and Jon. Brandon rides these cute little trains and it was so fun to see him put everything together and then take us on rides.

After that, we went to church together and then Paul went home. It was such a busy little trip, but such a good one. :-)

He Meets The Parents!!

The next week Paul met my parents. That would be 1 week ago from now.
Seriously I think I counted down every single day of the 20 days I went without seeing him, and it was terrible. (I mean, it was so exciting.)
Anyways, I couldn't take any more time off of work. (If you've been reading this, it might actually sound like I never go to work...mostly I've just taken a lot of Fridays off.) So I booked a flight at 8pm on Friday after work and the return flight for Sunday at 8pm.
I got to the airport early on Friday, and then there was a dust storm. A dust storm that delayed my flight for 5 hours. So while my boyfriend slept (kind of) in his truck in the Cell Phone Lot, I considered trying to sleep in the terminal as they teased us telling us hour by hour a plane was coming when it actually was not. I got in at 4am. We got to his place at 4:30. We had to meet his friends for breakfast at 8am (oh, Paul's taking the missionary discussions. And he's having them at these friends' house, so I really wanted to meet them.) Breakfast was great, and then we packed up and headed to Idaho for the family reunion. Probably 60 people came up to Paul and hugged him and said hello. I was actually a little embarrassed, but he took it like a champ and was so cool and laid back about it. We played bean bag toss and sumo wrestling and it was just so great.
At home, we ate dad's ribs and just talked. Paul crashed on the couch while I talked to Candice and Adam.
The next morning, church wasn't until 1, so there was more talking and chilling. Apparently I slept in, because my mom woke me up by saying, "Hey, your boyfriend's been awake for 2 hours, you should probably get up." The kids were getting a little restless before church, so without saying a word, Paul got up, got a soccer ball out of his truck and me and him and all the kids kicked it around the yard for like an hour. It was so nice and so fun. The kids were so cute and excited.
We walked to church later on, and Perri held his hand and told him she loved him and sat on his lap at church and we both just loved it. (Plus, he looked all sexy in his shirt and tie and that was fun for me.)
We left after sacrament meeting, went home and changed, and headed out. The ride home took longer than we thought, so my yoga pants and blow dryer are still in Utah, but this flight was NOT delayed, and I made it home by nine. 48 hours well-spent.
p.s. And to prove that it was insane, we have zero pictures of the whole trip. But it's pretty awesome for me to realize I went two days without checking Facebook at all. And that we were just....present.

Candice Comes to Visit!

Let me tell you how many times Candice has come to see me in the past all by herself: 0
Let me tell you how many vacations Candice has taken alone in the last 10 years: 0
Let me tell you awesome it was that Candice came to see me 2 weeks ago all by herself on a scale of 1 to 10: 10!
So Candice and I had planned a few months ago that she would come see me. She had never seen my house, and I hadn't seen my family since January, so....we booked a flight.
And we had so much fun.

White Chocolate Grill

We met up at the airport on Thursday night with Brea and Brad and all went out to dinner at White Chocolate Grill, where everyone's food was great except mine. Do not order mushroom crepes. That mushroom gravy tastes straight out of the can. bleech.
Anyways, it was nice to be with everyone. All the siblings hadn't hung out in quite awhile (1999?).

After Zumba

The next day was Zumba/spa day. We drove around forever trying to find a good Zumba class that wouldn't charge us $15 each to drop in and we found an awesome class at Fitness One. The instructor was awesome, and everyone said we did a great job (I thought so!).
Then we showered and headed to d'lish for lunch. I love this place so much and I think I've taken every one of my friends who have visited to it. I had the California club, Candice had the chicken pannini, and was in heaven.
Then- to the Valley Ho Spa where we had booked massages. I didn't realize this was Candice's first massage, and it's probably not the place to start as now every other massage will probably be somewhat of a letdown. The massages were amazing. When I came in the lounge afterwards, Candice was like, "That was amazing. I will no longer be coming to the house from the airplane. From now on , it is straight to the ValleyHo for me." Afterwards, we just laid by the pool and drank virgin pina coladas and enjoyed the fact that we had absolutely nothing else we had to do.
Then we stopped at Home Depot and picked up some planters for the seedlings Candice had brought me all the way from Idaho in the hopes that with a good start, I might be able to keep something alive.
That night was sushi at Pure Sushi and, well, it was awesome as always. Although, I think we didn't like the fire dragon roll so we'll skip that next time. :)
Saturday morning we met Brad and Brea at Snooze, which was incredibly delicious, and I danced with this adorable 8 month old (?) in her high chair next to us. SO CUTE!! While we waited, we went to a second hand shop called My Sister's Closet, where I found great shoes, a skirt, and a dress. Win. Win. Afterwards, we stopped at Nordstrom Rack where Candice found her birthday present from me and we found Paul and great shirt and tie.
Afterwards, we planted plants and installed the water filter behind my fridge. Saturday night Candice made amazing chicken sausage fettuccine for Brad and Brea and me. Then we watched Clueless and I fell asleep, but tried to make Candice think that I didn't by quoting the last 5 minutes of the show :-)
We went to the first hour of church on Sunday, and then ran her to the airport. I would have cried, but I was seeing her next week, so, well, we didn't. Such an awesome girls' weekend!

Sometimes Candice and I don't look much alike.
And then sometimes we do. 

Candice kind of looks Asian here, but most of all she looks very happy. 

Brad does not have a goofy eye except in this picture.