One of the Best Days Ever!

Alisha says: Wednesday, November 4th started out almost like any other day. We woke up with the intent on getting out on a bike ride but it was raining so we opted instead to go for a walk. I have been able to stay active and was still riding my road bike 20-25 miles almost daily. After getting Dave off to work I did some yoga, got ready for the day, did some work, took a small nap and then decided to go to the temple for a session. I had been wanting to go at least one more time before the baby arrived. On my way home I stopped at the grocery store and then arrived back home around 4:30 pm. Dave was staying late at work because he was going to dinner with a job candidate so I was just watching some television when around 5:30 pm I felt a pop and suddenly felt like I had peed my pants. I knew right away that my water had broken but didn't panic, in fact I thought that I might just hang out at home for the night and see if labor started. I even had a OB appointment the next morning so I thought I might just wait and go to my appointment. I called Dave and told him but said that he  should still take the candidate out to dinner and then come home. I called my mom and then Christine who immediately told me that I needed to go to the hospital so I then called the nurse line through our insurance to see if I should go in or if I could wait awhile but the nurse said that I needed to go in so I then called Dave back and had him come on home. I wasn't due until December 3, which was another four weeks away and I seriously thought I was going to go past my due date so I was a little unprepared, like I hadn't packed a hospital bag, picked out a pediatrician, ordered all of the baby things I had put on my amazon wish list, etc, etc, but ready or not we were going to have a baby!

One last belly picture, we are headed to the hospital

Getting admitted at the hospital, still smiling

We arrived at the hospital around 7:30 pm and they checked to make sure that my water had broken and then admitted me. I got settled into my labor and delivery room, got my IV and a round of antibiotics (I hadn't yet been tested for strep b so they treated me for it just in case) and then we went walking the halls of the hospital trying to get this labor moving along. I had started having contractions about an hour after my water broke and they slowly got stronger and stronger. After about a dozen laps around the maternity department I decided to try and get some rest in my room but that really wasn't happening. Around 2:00 am they checked me and although I was having strong, regular contractions I wasn't progressing much. At this time I was tired and I really thought I wasn't going to have the baby until the next afternoon and there was talk of starting me on pitocin which scared me so it was at this time that I requested an epidural. The epidural felt different than I had expected. I was still able to move my legs and feel pressure when I was contracting which I liked. It did make me itch though. I didn't sleep but was able to rest a little bit as labor continued through the night. Starting at 6:00 am things started moving along. At 7:00 am all of the lights were still off and Dave was still sleeping when they checked me and said I was getting close and would probably be pushing around 8:00 am, around this time my body started shaking. Both of our moms were planning on being there for the birth so Dave called them but shortly after 7:15 am I was complete and after only three sets of about four pushes Skye Adele Welsh was born at 7:30 am on Thursday, November 5, 2015.

Dr. Beck placed her on my chest where Dave and I got our first good look at her. She was so precious and I feel in love immediately. She weighed 5 pounds 10 ounces and was 18.2 inches long. I tried to feed her some which was not very successful and then they checked her glucose levels which turned out to be really low so they took her to the NICU to monitor her. Unfortunately she had to stay there for most of the day which was hard on me because all I wanted to do was hold her. We went and visited her and finally in the evening we got to taker her back to my room.

We stayed all day Friday and were told that we could go home on Saturday. They had taken Skye to the nursery during Friday night to do a car seat test where because she was premature she had to sit in her car seat for 90 min while they monitored her breathing. While they had her they tested her bilirubin levels for jaundice which turned out to be high so they put her under the blue lights in the NICU until Saturday night when they said they would test her again and if her bilirubin level was low enough then we could take her home. She barley passed but the nurse felt that she could benefit from one more night in the NICU with monitored feedings so we stayed one more night (which by now I felt like I had been at the hospital forever and really wanted to go home). Sunday morning they tested her levels one more time and said that it looked good and we could go home. YAY! So we checked out of the hospital and took Skye on her first car ride. I can't believe that she is here and how much I love her. It has been so fun to watch Dave fall in love with her also. He has always been a little nervous around babies but he can't get enough of her. It was a great delivery experience.

 Spending the day at the baby spa getting treated for jaundice

 Meeting her great grandparents, Ivan and Venice

 One of our favorite nurses getting her ready to go home

 Welcome to your home baby Skye!

 Snuggles from grandma Debbie

Snuggles from grandpa Wayne

Fall Vacation - Washington DC (again)

Alisha says: For our final day of vacation we decided to walk around the National Mall some more and see some of the things we missed earlier. Highlights of the day included:

Martin Luther King Jr Monument

Holocaust Museum - Very well done albeit somber museum

Natural History Museum - We enjoyed the exhibit on the history of humans

Art Museum 

Botanical Gardens

United States Capitol Visitor Center

Supreme Court Building - This building felt very fancy, everything was made out of marble.

Library of Congress - A very cool dome and lots of ceiling decoration

I was pretty wore out after miles of walking and standing so we got an uber from the Library of Congress to the Tidal Basin where we had planned to rent a paddle boat for an hour but when we got there they had already closed for the day even though they should have still been open according to the hours posted. So instead we had a little rest and just enjoyed the view before making the trek back to our favorite restaurant from the trip, Beefstake, for a yummy veggie dinner. 

Martin Luther King Jr.

Natural History Museum

National Botanical Gardens

United States Capitol - Lots of construction on the dome

United States Capitol Visitor Center

Supreme Court Building

Fall Vacation - Philly

Dave says: On Day 7 it was time to leave NYC and head back towards DC. In between was Philly and I wanted to get out for a bit of an adventure rather than just driving all day. We stopped to the west of Philly for lunch and rented bikes which we rode along a paved river path that took us right into the heart of Philly. I had just visited a year early for a work conference and had heard about this route from a friend. Alisha decided that she wanted to be like Rocky and ran up and down the steps of the Art Museum. We rode down the grand boulevard and took the sights in before looping around and heading back. 

We left Philly around 4:30 but it was already too late. We dodged most traffic on the rest of the trip (even in NYC) with careful route selection and timing but in Philly it was not to be and we got a taste of East Coast rush hour trying to make it south down to DC. I took us on a different route that was supposed to be more scenic and went closer to the water on smaller roads although it was mostly dark by the time we got to the good stuff. Alisha ate crab cakes at a restaurant in Annapolis and eventually we made it back to DC.

Fall Vacation - New York

Dave says: On the afternoon of Day 5 we made it down to New York City. I had never been and had mixed feelings about going to perhaps the most urban and crowded area in the USA. We stayed a ways outside of Manhattan at a Super 8 in the Bronx where we could easily hop on a subway and a half hour later be in the middle of the action. We were the only white people in the area but it was fine and many of the nice people on the subway would offer their seat to Alisha when they saw that she was pregnant.

After checking in around mid-afternoon, we rode the subway to Times Square and hopped on a double decker bus for a city tour. Even though there is a ton of traffic, this is a great way to see NYC because you are up above the streets, the crowds, and the other cars and all you have to do is sit back and look around while your friendly guide tells you about all the stuff you are seeing.

At the recommendation of our guide, we had dinner at a restaurant called Ellen's Stardust Diner near Broadway featuring musical performances by aspiring Broadway actors that were pretty good. After that, we hopped on a different night bus tour that went out across one of the bridges to provide excellent views of the city and the Brooklyn Bridge at night.

Day 6

We took the subway down to One World Trade Center where we saw the impressively tall new building as well as the two memorials for the old buildings. The footprints of the buildings are still there with the names of those who died around the edges and a waterfall flowing down the sides and into an abyss in the middle. Somehow 9/11 doesn't feel that long ago.

We walked down past Wall Street and to the pier where we jumped on a boat tour that was a part of our bus sightseeing package. It was a gorgeous day and a very pleasant hour on the water with great views of the Statue of Liberty and the city from the water.

We then walked clear from one side of Manhattan to another on a seemingly endless urban escapade. Along the way we took occasional stops (once to hear a street bluegrass band that was really good and once for some gelatto) and saw lots of sights. By the time we made it to Central Park our legs were pretty tired. I was continually impressed at how tough Alisha was given that I am not pregnant and yet was perhaps more tired than she was.

In the evening, it was nice to sit down and have a chance to enjoy a Broadway play. Tickets can be super expensive and we actually debated about whether to attend. I'm very glad we did as the performance of Wicked was amazing and at a whole different level than the sort of theater that I'm used to seeing. If we had stayed more nights, I would have forked out the cash to see many more plays as this turned out to be one of the highlights of the trip (despite the fact that we are relatively uncultured in terms of artsy stuff). After the play, we spent a few minutes in Times Square just to take everything in. There's so much light popping out of everywhere that it is quite a place to be at night. On the whole, I thought that I might not like NYC too much but in reality I had a great time. Two days in the middle of the mayhem was enough for me and I wouldn't want to live there but nevertheless there was so much to see that I'm glad that we added this stop to our trip.

Fall Vacation - Connecticut

Alisha says: After wearing ourselves out walking and riding all around D.C. day 4 was basically a travel day where we started driving north in search of great fall colors. Once we got into Connecticut we started seeing some amazing colors. We drove on many small roads through cute small towns. We stopped at Macedonia Brook State Park and hiked up Cobble Mountain through the trees to a good view of the surrounding hills. We continued north checking out cute covered bridges and Kent Falls State Park almost to the Massachusetts state line where we spent the night in a nice bed and breakfast.

The next morning we explored Haystack Mountain State Park. This was probably the most scenic stop of our whole trip. There was a small pond surrounded by trees of all different colors and the water was so still that all of the trees were reflected in the water. Also, we were the only people there so it was really peaceful. At the end of the road is a short hike to a lookout tower that also had really great views of the surrounding hills covered in spectacular fall colors. We then drove to the coast so I could dip my toes in the Atlantic Ocean before continuing on to our next stop, New York City.

Macedonia Brook State Park

Haystack Mountain State Park

32.5 Weeks Pregnant

Fall Vacation - Washington D.C.

Dave says: We decided that it was the right time for one last big adventure before the baby arrives. Rather than our usual biking/hiking trips around the West, we decided it would be a good time to head back to the East Coast and see some of the sights. Our timing was perfect as we enjoyed great fall weather with a lot of sunshine and pleasant temperatures. The only bad weather that we experienced was on the flight to Washington DC as a storm cause the airport to be shut down and we were rerouted to land at a different airport and then waited for a few hours for the storm to clear before we could fly in. It was a long travel day but we were excited to arrive and woke up bright and early the next morning to start seeing the sights. We had not previously used Uber as a means of transportation but on this trip we found it to be a very effective way to get from our hotel to the sights and back with drivers who were readily available and more friendly than taxi drivers. 

 

We started on the National Mall at the Lincoln Memorial. There's a nice view and corridor to look down with the reflecting pool and Washington Monument in the background followed by another open space with the Capitol building at the end. The White House is also nearby and we walked past various war memorials, gardens, and other smaller historical sights on our way around the White House and through the related visitor's center.

After the White House it was time to start checking out the Smithsonian Museums. They are all free and are some of the best museums that you will find anywhere. We started in the Museum of American History and then made it to the Air and Space Museum which is cool because they have huge planes and rockets hanging from the ceiling and mounted everywhere. Alisha wore her GPS watch and was recording 10 to 15 miles of walking on some of the big days of our trip like this one. By the evening, we were in need of a rest break and watched a one hour film in the Smithsonian's IMax theater on space travel. 

Throughout the day, parts of the mall were quite crowded as it was the 20th anniversary of the Million Man March and there was a huge gathering on the mall by the Capitol. We avoided the crowds throughout most of the day until the event ended and there were people everywhere. We ate dinner at an Indian restaurant called Grand Trunk with some of the craziest decor we've seen anywhere. Finally, we finished off the day with a night time visit to the Jefferson Memorial.

Day 3

After a huge day 2 on our feet, we knew that we needed to mix things up a bit and so we rented bikes and headed into the countryside on a big bike path loop. We rode past crazy old graveyards, along narrow winding paths following a river, down a railroad grade, and finally back along the grand Potomac River and back into the heart of the city.

We left the bikes behind for the afternoon so that we could see this famous WWII memorial as well as Arlington Cemetery with it's endless rows of white tombstones. There were some notable points of interest here such as JFK's grave and the tomb of the unknown soldier. By the time we walked from Arlington across the Potomac bridge and back to the mall the sun was setting and we were getting tired. We found a delicious and healthy veggie restaurant with the somewhat ironic name of Beefsteak (although it is after this type of tomato) where we found some of the best food of the whole trip. Then it was back to the hotel to chart out the next part of the adventure.

Spontaneous Fun!

Alisha says: We woke up early Saturday morning and set out for what we thought was going to be a hike on a trail near Saquaro Lake, but when we got there the trail was closed for maintenance. So we adapted and still ended up having a really fun morning. We first found a four wheel drive trail near where we were going to hike and drove our subaro through some sandy washes and around through the desert to a little hidden cove/beach. We then made our way back to the marina where we rented a little fishing boat and went trolling around for a little bit. It was fun to get out on the water and I was tempted to jump in but ended up staying in the boat, maybe next time.

In the afternoon we got some baby practice in when Christine asked us to watch 6 day old newborn Jonathan during the afternoon session of conference. It was fun to hold and snuggle him and I am glad that our baby will have a cousin that is so close in age. I can't believe that in less than nine weeks and we will have our own little one. I still feel like I have a lot to do to get ready.