Lucy and Jefrie..first playdate:)

So cute and cuddly!!! They are 3 months apart shy of 3 days. Jefrie-January 22/ Lucy April 19



They kept trying to hold each other's hands...or so that is what we are saying;) I think our little blondies are soooo adorable! They are best friends...we arranged it, like an arranged marriage...they will find out later:)


Holding hands again, and look, they are pretty much the same length and 3 months apart...I wonder where Lucy got her height from...I am only 5'6 1/2" and Evan is 6'0" crazy! Lucy is 5 weeks and Jefrie is about 4 months or so.


Amy came over and hung out. We went on a walk to the park, and it was nice to get out and have a little exercise. THANKS AMY!! I can't wait until I am up and going again and not worrying about if I will make it to the park without over doing it...haha. I have my 6-week check next week. I hope I get cleared for swimming so I can take Lucy.

Getting her nails cut for the first time....

Lucy didn't even know it, but Evan was smooth and quick. For the first time in 5 weeks, Evan cut her nails while she was napping. We were too scared about clipping before, and had only been using a nail file, but it was definitely time for her nails to get clipped, she kept scratching her face. Yay for good husbands, and good babies too!

cute pictures

4 weeks old

I can't believe that Lucy is 4 weeks old already! She is definitely changing everyday. My mom(Grandma Liz) returned home last Thursday, and while we were ready to try this parenting thing on our own, we definitely miss Grandma Liz and all the wonderful things she did for us. Lucy misses her cuddles...she told me:)

We are learning about what a baby is and does. Lucy has pretty much been sleeping and eating, and now she is trying to stay awake more during the day. She is learning to burp better, but for a while we had to give her medicine at each feeding to insure that she would burp. The last couple of days it has been extremely hot in our home, and Lucy has been overheated, and has thrown up her formula a couple times from it...not fun! We are trying to keep her room cooler, or keep her in the coolest parts of the house so this doesn't happen again, it is pretty scary to see her get so sick, throw up, and get so limp and sweaty and have heat rash. :( She was on a 3-4 hour sleep and eating schedule, and last night she slept for 5 hours at a time...it was wonderful! We went to bed at 9:30 and didn't get up until 2:30 and then 6:00:):)

Lucy likes to cuddle with mom and dad sometimes in bed:)


She also likes sitting in her chair and listen to mommy talk.




Evan is finishing up his last week of teaching school and then he is off for the summer. Baseball, walks, zoo, park, pool, family, etc. YaY!!!! We are going to have lots of fun this summer, and will even begin the househunting fun:)

My beautiful roses

Evan came home today and surprised me with a beautiful rose plant. Yay for summer time and planting beautiful things!

3 weeks old:) and my first Mother's day

My mom, Lucy and me:)
Me, Lucy, my mom, Tina(my sister) and her little Nathan 2 months and 1 day older than Lucy

Well, if you can believe it, Lucy is 3 weeks old, and will be a month on Sunday! She is such a doll. She hardly ever cries, unless she wants a new diaper and a bottle, even then it isn't bad. Lucy is a great cuddler and is already growing out of her cute little clothes! She also has incredible hair:) We don't know if it is strawberry blonde or ust blonde..depends on the light, and it is turning more blonde by the day.. She gets little curly cues in her hair and her eyelashes are LONG and CURLY...so cute! Evan is off for the summer May 26, and then our adventures will begin...we are even going to try to buy a house this summer or by Thanksgiving...YAY for new chapters in our lives. My mom goes home tomorrow. We will miss her tons, but it will be good for us to learn to do all of this parenting stuff on our own;) I am sure my dad is excited to see my mom again, we kept her a long time...THANKS DAD!


Our first Family photo out of the hospital. Don't you love our tired eyes;)

cute daddy...random pictures...update

Evan is the cutest daddy!!! Look at these cute pictures!!! Also, an update...

I am doing better. I have two more days of antibiotics through my picc line. My mom will be here for 5 more days, and I hope I feel better when she leaves. I am feeling a little better and doing more each day. I still can't hold Lucy for very long or do much of anything, and my energy level is nowhere where it should be, but I am able to feed and burp her. She is a great cuddler. I went into Target with Evan to buy more bottles and baby stuff, and after about 15 minutes I thought I was going to pass out. So I think it will still be a while to work into going out in public, picking Lucy up in her car chair, etc...one day at a time right?:) I can't wait to have all of my energy and physical everything back. YAY!

I am grateful for my mom and Evan. They have both been very great at helping and pretty much doing everything during this really hard time for me! YAY them! Lucy will be 3 weeks tomorrow, it will be my first Mother's Day, Lucy had a great visit this week, and is doing really well per the doctor's visit. I think being a mom is great, and I hope to get the hang of it better each week:) My mom and Evan are great taking Lucy in the night...and yes I help...but they do most of it for now, I am sure that will soon change:)

my cabbage patch baby

I told my mom Lucy reminds me of a cabbage patch doll, so she sent me this picture of me when I was little....too think my hair used to be this straight...crazy!

My Roller Coaster Ride...life isn't always what you plan

So when you think of going to Elitches, riding the roller coaster sounds fun, and something that you would like to do a couple times. Well, I have had the craziest Roller Coaster of my life! I had so many ideas of how things in my life would unfold, and let's just say, I am in the Lord's hands, not in my own hands....

I went in on April 18th to have a baby, and had a c-section after 1 1/2 hours of pushing. Evan and I got a beautiful baby girl, Lucy, 9lbs 3 oz. Not sure what she weighs now, but her two week appt is this week, she is almost 3 weeks old now:)

After I was discharged and we brought baby Lucy home Wednesday, I got really sick and was readmitted to the hospital Friday, just two days after she was brought home. Evan and I then spent until Tuesday the following week in the hospital and were told that I had an infection in my uterus, and that my liver was enlarged, and other metabolic things were a off. I was glad to go home Tuesday.

Wednesday I was SUPER sick again but was soooo emotional and sad, I didn't want to go back to the hospital, and tried to hold out one more day. So yes, Thursday I had gotten worse, and returned to the hospital, only this time it took the ER from 5pm to 3am to admitt me...it was a LONG night. I had more tests run on me than I took all through my entire life of testing in school!

Cat Scans, leg ultrasounds, liver ultrasounds, blood work, chest x-rays, heart thinga ma jiggers, etc! I can't even name or count all the tests I went through. The phlobotomist was scared of me and my veins and said I was the hardest person to draw blood from, and he saw cases like me once a year...YIKES!

So, after lots of prayer on our part and many of your prayers, the doctors finally found that I had an infection behind my uterus(like an abscess) and needed to treat it. And since I had a doctor from almost every department working on me, they all had a plan for how I should be worked on. It came down to having a very potent antibiotic try to reach the infection, instead of doing surgery, and a liver biopsy. (my liver is 3-4 times the size it should be)

So After spending 6 more days in the hospital, I came home this past Tuesday with a picc line in my arm, and a nurse comes over everyday in the afternoon to administer the antibiotic to me so that I can be home, and not in the hospital. This will continue until Monday of next week.

I love being home. It has been really hard to be away from my baby and my mother. I am VERY grateful to Evan for sticking by my side and staying in the hospital with me on their ever so comfy beds, and making sure that I was taken care of properly. I am soooo grateful to my mother for extending her plane ticket over and over to accomodate this special circumstance. I am grateful to the Lord for helping me through this ordeal. I know that the Lord has a plan for me, and I am definitely learning from my experiences. I can't believe that it is May already...time really disappeared from me.

In 6 weeks I will go back and have my liver retested, and for the rest of my life i will have to deal with the metabolic disorder that I have.... My body isn't perfect, but Heavenly Father is definitely blessing me through my challenges.

And to answer any questions, Yes, I will have more children if the Lord will bless me with them. I know I had a really hard time getting pregnant, and then all of this complication that happened. But this is a rare thing, and it will soon be a sign of the past. I might even be able to breast feed the next baby...we shall see.

I love my new family. I love seeing Evan with Lucy. My mom is the perfect definition of what a mother should be. I hope I can come close to being like her one day.

I am grateful for prayer and priesthood blessings. I am grateful to all of you for comfort and support and your prayers. I am happy that I am feeling so much better, but still have a long road in front of me for recovery!

Life is a roller coaster, and you don't always know what turns and changes in the coarse will happen. But, we should all stay fastened and know that the Lord will not allow us to end the ride on a bad note. He wants us to come home safely to Him!

Yay to better days and feeling better!

Love to you all!
Hilary

Lucy Elise Biddulph...more pictures to come

Dear Friends,

We are proud to announce the birth of our daughter Lucy Elise Biddulph, born Sunday April 19, 2009, 21 inches long, 9 pounds 3 ounces! She has a full head of hair, not sure if it is blonde, blonde with little red highlights, or strawberry blonde. Her eyelashes are long and very white blonde along with her eyebrows. We think she is such a doll, especially Hilary who thinks she looks like a cabbage patch doll.




We left the house with a foot and a half of snow at 6 a.m. Saturday the 18th and arrived at the hospital for our 7:30 induction appointment. At 9:00 they started Hilary on Petocin to start her into labor. She was 4 cm and 80% effaced to start the day! At 1:00 p.m. she was still 4 cm and 80% and received an epidural, and by 3:15 they broke her water to speed things along. It was really an uncomfortable experience for her, and because of back spasms, we continually had to up the dose of the epidural. We had a great team of nurses, and by 5:00 p.m. our doctor got on shift - Dr. Gardner from our church ward! She was then at 6 cm and 95% effaced by 5:00 when Dr. Gardner checked us out. 2 hours later they checked her, she was 8 cm and 100%! By 8:30 she was ready to go at 10 cm, more than 100%, and she started pushing! Almost 3 1/2 to 4 hours later, after midnight, the doctors concluded that the baby was refusing to come out! There was a total pushing time of about 1 and a half hours total. Dr. Gardner even tried to put her head in the right position, but stubborn Lucy flinched and drenched him in amniotic fluid! It was really funny and everyone was laughing! Unfortunately after all the pushing, it wasn't possible to have a vaginal birth because Lucy would pull herself back up after every push! Dr. Gardner decided that it would be best for mother and baby to have a C-Section. They said that she did a great job pushing, but it was to the point that it wasn't safe because the blood pressure of mom and baby were not at a safe level anymore. So, at 1:11 a.m. Sunday morning the procedure began, and I helped comfort Hilary through muscle spasms because she couldn't have medicine to ease her back pain through the procedure. I was able to see the whole procedure from my point of view...it was amazing! Just 8 minutes later at 1:19 a.m. Lucy was born! Hilary said I was laughing hysterically out of joy and almost teary at the same time! The neat thing about the operation was that after the procedure was out, they showed me all of Hilary's organs, which was very interesting and special to see! We took some pictures, and I was able to be the first to hold her while Hilary recovered until 5 a.m. when we finally got to our room to sleep! Hilary actually didn't get to hold her until 9 a.m. Sunday morning, and she is recovering very well, but is still in some pain!

Needless to say, we are exhausted and excited to share our story with you! Thanks for all your love and support!

- Evan



P.S. We will be in the hospital until Wednesday unless they think we should go home Tuesday. Thank you for your fasting, prayers, and good thoughts throughout this entire pregnancy! We really consider this little girl to be our little miracle! We can't wait for you all to meet her! She started showing signs of Jaundice, and has spent the entire night under the special lights, and Hilary is getting looked at again because of more pain throughout her torso. Please pray for them to heal faster. Hilary is looking forward to her mom's help for 10 days and so am I:) I get to take off 6 days of work, so hopefully though all of this, we can all have some sleep and learn more about helping our little baby. She is beautiful!!!

An exciting update...

So I had a rough week with the hives and swelling, and was put on steroids and benadryl. I was still so bad Sunday and asked my doctor what I could do. He suggested taking Aveeno baths, and it was a nice temporary relief. Wednesday I took the last steroid pill and still had itching. I went to bed really nauseas and woke up at 2:30am feeling like someone took a hammer to my hands and every knuckle. My knees and ankles were in poor shape, and I had charlie horses in my leg muscles. I called in to Kaiser worried that I was having another reaction, and they said I should be fine until I saw Dr. Gardner at my appointment that day. So Evan came home from school and took me to my appoinment. It turns out that because of everything I have been going through, it is a good idea to get induced, so after getting checked and finding out that I am about 80% effaced and 4 cm dilated, I got the go ahead to get induced. I will go in Saturday morning at 7:30 and get put on petocin to start labor. I am very grateful this pregnancy is coming to an end. It has been pretty rough off and on, and I am looking forward to holding my baby. Let's just hope the snow doesn't make it too difficult to get to the hospital, rumor has it that we could have 1-2 feet snow by Saturday afternoon. Please pray for our safety:)

Thanks for all of your support! We will post pictures as soon as we have them.

CHEERS!
Hilary

My trip to the Triage of Labor and Delivery EARLY Friday Morning

So I had false labor on Monday, and the next day I started feeling really swollen and a little itchy, I figured I was going in Thursday I would talk to the doctor about it then. So Wednesday it got a little worse and then Thursday morning I was really itchy and the doctor thought that I had eaten too much salt for dinner the night or two before causing swelling and itching. I have been losing about a pound a day, and my blood pressure was perfect, so she didn't see a problem other than me just swelling up. She told me to put hydrocortizone on my hands to help with the itching. I went home and it started getting really bad really fast. By 6 or 7 I told Evan that something was wrong and I started itching all over my body, I called my mom for advice and tried to down as much water as I could to flush out the swelling. Well, we ended up calling my friend and asking for advice, since she works with pregnant women, and her husband came over to help Evan give me a blessing around 10:00pm. It was a good blessing and I felt comforted, and felt that I needed to call the nurse, but wanted to chug more water first. So by the time I called around 11:00, the nurse told me that I needed to take benedryl and soak in baking soda water.
before swelling and then after swelling up around 11pm(not even half of what it became)



After finding the benedryl and soaking and crying lots because my hands, face, legs, feet and back of my head were all now swollen, itchy, burning, covered in hives and welts, I tried going to sleep just after midnight. I told Evan that I might need to wake him up in the middle of the night to help me or drive me to the ER. I woke up around 1:30 and hurt so much and my hands were now doubled in size and I couldn't even bend my fingers, they had to stay straight because of how swollen they were. I was in tears, and Evan was getting everything ready to take us to the hospital. We got to the hospital around 2am, and they hooked us up to the monitors and started working on what the problem was.



They thought that I had eaten something to cause this reaction, but nothing new was introduced into my diet. They said I didn't overeat on salt, that wouldn't have caused this much of a reaction. My blood pressure was perfect again, and everything was getting ruled out for a different cause. I was in SOOO much pain..I could hardly move, and I itched and burned soooo much. They made little ice packs for me to hold onto to try to calm my hands down. After getting a urine sample and blood work drawn up, I had to wait for those results and for the attending doctor to finish a c-section before she could come help us. Meanwhile the monitors showed the baby was perfect and happy inside of me:)..(doesn't she know she needs to come out already!!!!)

We didn't get a picture at my worst point, but my fingers looked something like these that I found on the internet....
(not my hands)

So, Evan watched sports center and tried staying awake for me, and I kept trying to get comfortable while drifting in and out of sleep. The entire time I was hooked up to monitors and Evan kept trying to videotape our baby moving...she moved SOOO much, and we finally got a good video of her towards the end. (Everytime we tried getting her on video this pregnancy, she would be camera shy) They had great ice for me to chomp on...I have been craving ice this entire pregnancy!!! (I love Sonic ice)

Finally around 7am, they were allowed to give me benedryl and send me home with a week supply of steroids. I was still swollen, I can't hold things very well because of the pressure and burning and itchy feelings, so Evan is doing TONS for me.

We got discharged at 7:30 and went home. We went through the drive thru pharmacy at RiteAid to get more bendryl and finally made it home. Evan showered and went off to work. Poor guy, no sleep and had to work still. I slept all day, the Benedryl really knocks you out! Evan came home and crashed as well. He said that a lady at work swelled up right before delivering, so maybe this is a good sign???

I was totally bummed out because I was going to have breakfast with the Mia Maids, and I couldn't function, so they switched it to a different house. While I was working on this blog, they all stopped by with a card...so sweet!!!!! I love my Mia Maid girls! I hope this baby comes soon so that I can do more activities with them.

I am feeling a little better, just extrememly itchy and still have hives all over and some swelling. I wish It could all go away right now, but I guess I am having the trial now, and will be blessed with a baby afterwards...

So now, we are nearing the 38 week mark..we shall see:)

False Alarm

Saturday and Sunday were really crummy days for me physically, and I had spotting Sunday, so I was told to come in today to get checked out, and after getting checked and being dilated another cm, they put me on the stress test monitor, and concluded that they thought I was in early labor. So they sent me home walk around and told me to return in 3 hours and get checked again. Evan left work early just in case it was hospital time. He was very cute and happy!!

I was hurting sooo much and could barely walk. Evan gave me a blessing and it helped calm me down and bring me peace. We went in but then found out that labor either stopped or slowed down, so I was told to go home and rest a lot and monitor contractions. After a long 4 hour nap, I woke up a little sore, but feeling better.

Thanks to all of you for your support...she will come soon, I hope!!! for now I will be patient..and enjoy my week 37:) I will post a couple pictures. the one with the green shirt is from last Friday and the others are from today...

my update....

So no baby yet, I think she just likes being in me too much:) No sign of going early, but good sign that I am effacing. We went to the doctor today, and she is measuring beautifully and all my vitals are awesome!!! I guess I just need to be patient and not hope for an early baby. Today I actually felt really good and got lots of chores done. I still hurt and my muscles are sore, but that is still a good thing for me anyway, especially since I have been in tears and the worst pain ever for aobut 4 days now:) I guess I will update next week when I am full term:) YAY!