INTRODUCING......

Clara Nelson

Born: Friday, July 19, 2013, 3:35 pm

This sweet baby is our little girl Clara.  She was born in Rock Springs, WY on Friday, July 19.  We think that she is absolutely beautiful and feel so blessed to have her finally here.  People keep asking me her birth story so I decided to blog it. I'll also include lots of pictures of our precious girl.

On our way home!

I guess the story starts on Sunday, July 14.  In the week leading up to Sunday I had been having contractions more than I had been so on Sunday when I was sitting in church and the contractions started to hurt my back I decided to pay closer attention.  I timed them all through church and they were pretty consistent.  After church Brandon and I decided to go for a walk to see if they would stop if we did something else.  We were almost home from the walk and I could hardly breathe.  When we got home I called the Dr. and he told me to go in.  So we got everything ready and headed for Rock Springs.  They checked me in when we got there and said that I was dilated to a 3.  They decided to keep me for two hours to see if I would progress any further.  I didn't.  So much to our dismay we went home to wait.

Showing off her hair!

The false alarm made the rest of the week incredibly long because we kept expecting something to happen and nothing did.  Thursday night Brandon and I were playing on the computer and I had a contraction that hurt my back so bad that I just laid on the floor.  So I started timing them again, we went for another walk and then watched TV.  About ten that night I still couldn't decide if they were real or not so I called my Mom and cried and she and Brandon told me to call the Dr.  Finally at 11:00 I did and he said you can go in or stay home and wait.  I decided to stay home because I couldn't handle another false alarm.  We went to bed at 11:30.  

First time being held by Daddy.

At midnight I woke up with back pain so bad that it was making me nauseous.  I got up and walked around and promptly woke up Brandon and said that it was time.  We were out the door by 12:15 and checked into the hospital by 1:00.  By this point the pain was tolerable but only just.  By two I had the epidural.  (BEST THING EVER!)  Then we just waited... and waited... and waited.  At 10:30 am the Dr. came in and broke my water.  By this point I was dilated to a six, where I stayed until about 1:30 pm when they came in and gave me a small dose of pitocin.  Then we started doing something.  The Dr. came in a little before 3:00 and Clara was here by 3:35.  Brandon was amazing throughout the entire thing and took great care of me.  We went home Saturday afternoon and have been enjoying life since!

More pictures to come soon!!

Martin's Cove!

This one time we went to Martin's Cove!  I had never been there before so it was really cool for me.  We went to Independence Rock and then off to Martin's Cove.  Warning: I look like a large lemon drop.

 There it is! Independence Rock.

 This not so little guy scared me to death.  No it's not a rattler but just as terrifying when you come around the bend and there he is.  I made Brandon take the picture.

On top of the rock people have carved their names into the rock.  It was so cool because even though some of them are super old they are really clear.  Something we noticed was how awesome their handwriting was for being carved into rock.

On top of the rock! You could see forever off the top of it.

Camille, Brandon and I decided to go down the side of the rock instead of the back, "easier" way.  This is us at the bottom of the rock.  Yup, definitely climbed down that at 7 months pregnant!

After Independence Rock we went to Martin's Cove.  We walked from the visitor's center to the Cove, around the Cove and back to the visitor's center.  A total of 5 miles.  Brandon made me ride in the handcart on the way back, which was probably a good thing because I was pretty tired.

 Feeling pretty good when we started!

 I think that Split Rock was supposed to be behind us, hence our 'splitting'.

 Deer! We also saw a lot of antelope.

 These statues are in tribute to the men that carried the pioneers across the Sweetwater River.

And finally the baby bunny that we saw on our way back from the statues.  So cute!! Brandon took this picture too.

All in all it was a lot of fun!  

Picture Update!!

I'm trying to get updated on all our recent doings before this baby comes... which will be the next week or two. AH!! We're super excited and we know that our lives will be changing so we had to get in a few adventures before she comes.

Memorial Day Weekend

For Memorial Day weekend we went to my Mom's for Amber's bridal shower.

Filling out a questionnaire about Amber and Marc

Opening presents.  She had lots of help!

And who can resist this face?

On Sunday we went to the cemetery to put flowers on the graves. 

Ashlynn at her Great-grandparents' graves.  AKA my grandparents.

At my Grandpa Dunn's headstone and my Uncle David's.  Mostly we're just really cool.

My Daddy's headstone.  It's so pretty!

On Monday we went to Jerold and Joni's for a BBQ and skimboarding!

Brandon and I didn't actually participating in the skimboarding but Ashlynn and Camden did!

Amber's Wedding!

On June 14th Amber married Marc in the Brigham City Temple!

I had to put the picture of Derek up because I'm pretty sure Jason is super proud of it. :)

We're not really ready for this picture but you can kind of see my belly :)

This has turned out to be a lot more pictures than I thought it would be so I will post pictures of our adventure to Martin's Cove later this week... hopefully :)