Best Day Ever

March 16th, 2014

4:00am…I thought I Pee'd my pants. My thought at the moment, 'oh goody, not only am I uncomfortable but I have now lost my bladder control.'

6:30am…'Dang I Pee'd my pants, again. This is some cruel joke…maybe I should go in to the hospital just to be sure! Nah, I'll wait."

8:00am…Still feel like I have no bladder control, text my mother-in-law(L&D Nurse) she says it's probably a good idea to go in and see if it was my water. At this point I am still in disbelief. I think I was expecting to have a puddle underneath me and immediate contractions.

9:30am…Checked into triage.

9:45am…Confirmed that it WAS my water!!

10:30am…Admitted to L&D and started pitocin. Called my mom and dad, at which point they immediately got in the car and started the drive from Sacramento to Boise.

3:00 pm…Labor pains are pretty severe, get an epydural…only works on my left side….WTF?!

7:30pm…Mom and Dad make it to hospital!!

10:45pm…Good news I am dilated to a 10…lets start pushing! The nurses told me it would probably take a few hours. 1st contraction….I push. They nurse says "OK we need to stop pushing, the doctor is not here and the baby is coming now!"

11:10pm…Doctor is here, I push and that was it! I will never forget the doctor handing Kinsley to me, I immediately started talking to her and the crazy part was that from the minute she was born she kept looking at me (or at least trying to). She was more perfect than I could ever imagine. Justin and I were overwhelmed by how amazing the experience of bringing our baby into the world. We were surrounded by his mom and mine, my sister and my DAD…who video-taped the entire thing (which still makes me laugh!)

Our families had a bet on the date she would be born and her birth weight. We each wagered a whopping $5. Dad took it home guessing both correct! 8lb 6oz on March 16th.

We should know better than to bet against him!

Are we there yet?

I feel like a little kid on the family road trip that seems to be taking F-O-R-E-V-E-R (Sandlot voice)!!! My weekly checkups remind me of asking mom and dad, "are we there yet?" Instead of Mom saying "1 more hour" my Dr is saying, "this is the home stretch, tonight could be the night…". The difference here being "tonight, could be the night" is really this mythical period of time, every night I've gone to bed wondering if it will be tonight? And every morning I wake up thinking, I could become a Mom today…. And then throughout the day and night I have light contractions, some worse than other…looking at my phone to see if I can time them, count the time between them…but then they always stop. I find myself hoping to feel the sensation of peeing my pants. Wait, I am actually hoping to feel like I've pee'd my pants??!? So many things are wrong with that sentence but if it means this stuffed pepper feeling will subside, I'll take it!!!

I have been walking 2-4 miles a day, sometimes actually hiking! Bouncing on an exercise ball, non-stop. Pumping myself…it's weird, I still feel weird doing it, but my doctor suggested it to me. Had my membranes stripped which, BTW, was just plain painful for like 3 days and did NOTHING. I am eating anything spicy I can get my hands on…. UGH!!! On a positive note; the weather has been spectacular!

SE BOISE GREENBELT

BRITTANY AND KAYO UP TABLEROCK 'SELFIE"- BOISE, ID

The anticipation is killing me!! My bags are packed, nursery is ready, I've watched practically every single cheesy young adult TV show on Netflix, house stays clean, meals are prepped and quite frankly I am not sure I have anything else to organize in my house.

What will our baby girl look like? Will she be tall? Will she have red hair? Brown hair? Blond hair? Will she have the correct number of finger and toes? What color will her eyes be? Will she look like Justin or me? What will her laugh sound like? Will she be a cryer? A sleeper? How will the dogs feel with her here? Will she have a kind heart?

It would appear God has her birthdate all planned out for her, and despite my best attempt to bring her out NOW, I recognize I have about ZERO control over this actual scenario. So in the mean time I will stick to talking to her, saying "Kinsley, come-out come-out wherever you are!" and pleading with God to bring her TODAY!

39 weeks, already lost my bet on her birthdate (I said 3.12.14), not sleeping, feel like a combo of a stuffed pepper and a cow.

39 WEEKS AND 1 DAY PREGNANT…
STILL STUFFING MYSELF INTO NON MATERNITY CLOTHES

The Ginger, The Giant and The Cute Little Peanut

They say time-flies when you're having fun...I suppose the same is true when you are planning a wedding and preparing for the arrival of a baby!!! I can't believe it has been almost a month since the wedding... which was more incredible than I imagined.

The countdown is on to Baby Parrish, with less than 14 weeks to go SHE is growing like a weed, making me super hungry, tired and sore! Denise (Justin's mom who is a nurse in labor and delivery) let's us sneak-peaks at our baby girl from time to time so last weekend we went in for an ultrasound. Her feet and legs look freakishly long (which is not a surprise). Supposedly she is about 14" long and weighs about 1 2/3 lb. We could see her making suckling movements with her mouth, and feel her kick…a lot. Also, I am pretty certain she has been getting hiccups which feels sort of like a miniature River Dance in my belly.

We are so excited to welcome this little girl to our "new" family…life is good!

My Girls

I have never known joy as I do at this point in my life. God has a way of bringing you to and through experience and showing ways he is working.

My friends are no exception. Regardless of how long I've known them, these woman are a blessing beyond measure.

Introducing my beautiful bridesmaids:

Maid-of-honor

Name: Brittany Hewitt

How we met: two cool peeps had me and then made another.






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Name(s): Karli (left) and Kelci (right) Parrish

How we met: I met this guy, he had sisters I got to inherit and call them my own.





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Name: Anya Pavlovic

How we met: two awkward junior highers bonded over "photo shoots", Britney Spears, spanish classes and each other.




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Name: Molly Caserta

How we met: started training with a cool brazilian dude, he introduced me to this spitfire.






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Name: Erin Flynn

How we met: inherited this selfless, incredible person when I started dating Justin.






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Name: Katie Garcin

How we met: I was injured a lot and she fixed me a lot...and then we became secret friends.


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Name: Erica Swenda

How we met: this little panda nugget came along with Justin's bestie. I lucked out!!






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Name: Rachael Wilson

How we met: even more awkward high schoolers attempting to play a game we call volleyball....closest resemblance I can think of is awkward baby deers.





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Name: Allison Sletager

How we met: freshman year in college, haunted dorm rooms, new experiences, surgeries and boys.

A Packer Koozie....game, set, match

One hot summer day in August of 2012 my girlfriends invited me for a day on the lake (Lucky Peak Reservoir in Boise, ID). We spent the day boating, surfing, eating and drinking. This (really cute) guy was totally showing off wake boarding, doing backflips and what I would come to learn as "typical Justin stuff". He got back on the boat and grabbed my beer, shouting "whose koozie is this?!"Apparently this guy was from Wisconsin and an avid Packer fan...after I told him it was mine, which he didn't believe, he started flirting shamelessly with me. I thought this guy was way-too-weird, cocky, stubborn and totally not my type.

Justin asked me on a date for later that week. At some point during the date he described himself as an onion, apparently I had to peel back the layers to learn who the real Justin was. I am so glad I did because that weird, cocky, stubborn man ended up being the funniest, kindest, hard-working, talented and loving person I had ever met. After that date we hardly spent any days apart.

A year to the date we met Justin proposed...on the same boat, with the same friends (and a few additions). I can't wait for many more years with my best friend.