Palmer Tay Harrison

We are so happy to welcome beautiful Palmer Tay Harrison into our family. She was born on Monday, July 11, 2011 at 5:55 p.m. She was 6 pounds 10 ounces and 20 inches long. She was and is absolutely perfect!
July 11 was my due date and I had an appointment with Dr. Black that morning. We knew there was a possibility I could be induced that day, but didn't want to get our hopes up too much in case it didn't end up happening. I'd been having contractions for a couple of weeks, but they were irregular and varied in strength. I'd begun dilating a couple of weeks prior also, so we knew my body was getting good and ready to bring her into the world finally. We were so ready to have our baby and had tried all kinds of methods to try to get her here for the week before my due date. It wasn't meant to be I guess.
Dr. Black checked me and I was almost four centimeters dilated and 90% effaced. I'd had contractions all during the night but they hadn't become regular. He asked what we wanted to happen and I told him we would like to have a baby that day if he felt ok with it. He said he felt great about it because my body had progressed as far as it had at that point. Yeah yeah yeah!
So they got me all settled into my room and got me hooked up to the Pitocin. They started at a low dose and my contractions became regular and stronger almost immediately. Around that time it started to become a little more real that we were actually going to have our baby in a few hours. We could not have been more excited!
The next time they checked me I had only progressed to 4.5 centimeters dilated, but at least it was progress.
Taylor's parents had hopped in their car and headed down from Salt Lake as soon as Taylor called to tell them she was coming that day. It was so nice of them and we were glad they were able to be there when the baby was born. They stayed for a couple of days and were super sad to say goodbye to little Palmer when it was time for them to go home.
A few hours later the anesthesiologist came in to get my epidural going. At that point my contractions weren't too bad yet, but they like to get the epidural in early so they don't miss the window if things start progressing too quickly. The anesthesiologist was awesome! He explained every single thing he was doing and made sure I was comfortable and relaxed. It was not even close to the nightmare that I was fearing; it was painless and quick. My right side went numb immediately and he said to kind of tilt my body so that the medicine would flow to my left side hopefully. As the time passed I continued to be able to feel my left side. The contractions got stronger and stronger and way close together. I could feel them really well on my left side. After a couple of hours of that the anesthesiologist came back and explained that he would try to re-adjust the catheter to see if we could get my left side numb. He did warn me that sometimes there will be a nerve block around a nerve or group of nerves that just keeps the medicine out. I was praying that would not be the case for me. He jimmied it around in my back and then had me lay on my left side again. Pretty quickly I started to feel my left side go numb and I was so very happy about that. As soon as the anesthesiologist was content that all was well with the epidural the nurse wanted to check my progress. She checked and was surprised to find that it was time to start pushing! Right then Dr. Black came in to see how things were going so he checked and confirmed that it was time to get the party started. He left to change into scrubs and the nurses busily got everything in place for the delivery. I just couldn't believe that I was so close to finally meeting my little girl. I was a little nervous because I had no idea how long I would have to push, but mostly I was just so excited and ready! My mom and Taylor were in the delivery room and after pushing through eight-ish contractions little Palmer made her debut! Before I was able to see her I heard her little cough and then the cutest cry in the world. I was already in love. They cleaned her off a bit and Taylor handed her to me. I have never seen anything so perfect in my life! I can't put into words the way I felt at that moment, but any parent can understand exactly how Taylor and I were feeling.
We were able to bring Palmer home on Tuesday evening. Her aunts, grandparents and cousins absolutely love her (I'm sure her uncles do too, but they just don't show it in the same way). My mom has been SO helpful. She is amazing and Palmer, Taylor and I will be forever grateful for her help this week. Palmer has been a GREAT baby! She sleeps well (so far), she nurses great and she is just so sweet! I can't get enough of her and I am just so grateful that she gets to be a part of our family. I'm not sure why Heavenly Father would trust us with this perfect little soul but I have a new resolve to be a better person and to teach little Palmer all of the things she'll need to know to live a great life. Somehow my love for her grows every day, which I wouldn't have thought possible when I first held her in my arms.
I had the best doctor and nurses and wouldn't have changed a thing about Palmer's arrival. My recovery has been awesome and I have felt great since we left the hospital. This experience has been amazing and I am so excited to introduce Palmer to the world and the world to Palmer.

40 weeks! This picture was taken Sunday evening, the day before Palmer was born.


First family picture...don't mind my hair.


First of many naps the two of us will take together. This was a couple of hours after Palmer was born. She is so sweet!



Car ride home - how exciting!

What's been going down...

So I've been a serious blog slacker the last couple of months. It's not because of nothing to blog about, but rather because we've been so busy that I'm just now making myself sit down and get it all onto the blog.

I mentioned in my last post that we were moving into my grandma's cute little house. We've been here for a couple of months now and it's been great. The space is nice and while it was kind of weird to be living here for the first little while, now we're used to it and I kinda just love that I get this time in the house where my grandma lived for so long. I have planted a garden that doesn't come close to rivaling her gardens but I feel proud that my plants are growing and not dying...yet. I should have taken a picture for this post. I'll include a picture when it gets a little closer to producing all the yummy veggies we're expecting to get this summer. On the note of my grandma, she would have been 95 years old two days ago; I thought of her a lot that day and am just so grateful that I got to learn from her great example as long as I did. Hopefully she left some of her essence in this house so it will help me to learn to be the kind of mom and person that she was. I haven't yet taken a picture of the cute little house, but maybe I'll get around to that by my next post (probably not).

While I was in SLC for one of my baby showers (which I will talk about in a minute) there was an event called "Strut Your Mutt" happening. Kacey and Joe had participated in it last year with their dog Peter. It's basically just a fundraiser for homeless/neglected pets. You pay a registration fee and then show up at a park on the day of the event with your dog and you take a one-mile walk around the park with about ten million other dogs. Kacey, Joe, Elmer, Peter and I participated in the event this year. Elmer is such a little wimp - he was pretty scared of all the dogs, but he slowly calmed down and by the end I think he enjoyed our little adventure. Kacey had bought t-shirts for the dogs and they looked so dang cute in their shirts. Elmer needed a serious haircut so his shirt was nice and tight and he had what resembled a lion mane with all of his fur busting out of his neckline on the shirt. Seriously cute!


Seriously those are some cute dogs, even if they wouldn't look at the camera long enough to get a frontal shot.


Cute Caneparis


I know that I love this dog a little too much, but seriously he is the best dog ever!

A few years ago our current bishop and his wife opened up an ice cream shop in Blanding in a cute building that used the be a bank. It was called "Old Bank Creamery" and everyone in town loved it. They opened during the summer months and then closed down for the rest of the year. Well they haven't opened for the last few summers and somehow this year Taylor and Bishop Lyman got to talking about opening it up again. Bishop didn't necessarily want to deal with all the hassles of opening it and running it but he wanted it open and knew that the people of Blanding would love it. Taylor decided that it would be an ideal project for us to take on. I will be honest, I wasn't the biggest fan of the idea of running a business at this very busy time in our lives but I told him it was his call. Well he and Bishop talked a lot and decided to go ahead with opening it up. We opened the shop a little over a week ago and it has been going really well. I'm still not 100% excited about the timing, but I am glad that Taylor is getting some experience in the business world, which is what he wants to do in life. And I'm glad that the people of Blanding can get their ice cream fix for the next few months. It has been A LOT of work and sometimes I feel like I can only think/talk about the ice cream shop and all the little things we need to do to keep it running well. Taylor still works full-time at the bank so that leaves me to deal with the day-to-day issues...I'm not sure what is going to happen when the baby comes. I just really hope that by then our employees will be pretty self-sufficient. I will tell you this...the ice cream is GOOD! I have been eating a lot of ice cream every day and I think the baby likes it too :)


Here's the cute building where we run the ice cream shop. Seriously a way cool building.

Now onto baby updates! This pregnancy has FLOWN by and for the most part I have absolutely loved it! I feel really lucky to have had a breezy and fun pregnancy. I will be 38 weeks tomorrow! She could come any day now...or she could wait three more weeks. I am so dang excited to meet her. I just want her here. Now. I won't go into details about my measurements at my doctor's appointment a few days ago, but things are starting to happen and I really hope that she's getting very close to ready to come meet us. I know I should be more nervous than I am, but in my naivety I am really just excited! We have had three showers thrown for us and they have all been awesome! It started in May with an open house shower thrown by Taylor's mom and sisters. It was so much fun and so nice to see a lot of his family that we don't get to see often since we live far away. We got some awesome stuff and it was a great way to start out shower season. Next up was a shower thrown by Noelle and Kacey for all my up north family and friends. Noelle went all out and seriously put so much time and effort into personalizing everything and making the whole thing so super cute. Kacey hosted it at her house and also put a lot of effort into making it a perfect day for me. Marilyn and her girls helped too and I was glad she ended up being able to come at the last minute. I loved seeing so many people that I love and just like the first shower we got some cute and very useful stuff. Last but not least was a shower thrown by my mom, Kristi and Heather. Marilyn is in town so she was lucky enough to help with and attend yet another shower for me. She definitely gets extra points for that! This one took place yesterday and it was just as fun and awesome for me as the first two. Heather hosted at her house and she had everything looking so dang cute and girly and fun. The food was DELICIOUS and again we got some great presents. Let's just say this little girl is already very loved and very spoiled.


32 weeks pregnant.


36 weeks - not a big difference between 32 and 36 but I could feel and see a difference. Depending when this baby decides to come I may or may not get around to getting one last bump picture.


She's already hooked up very well with the clothes. She also has a dresser full of clothes. It's going to be like playing dress up with a little doll but even better! We have been given so many cute cute clothes from all our family and friends. Girls are so fun to shop for!


Here's the glider rocker chair thing with ottoman that Taylor and Jeremy assembled for me this week. It is very comfortable and hopefully it will make middle of the night feedings a little nicer. Oh and that's cute Taylor and Elmer taking a Sunday afternoon nap on the bed that's in the baby's room.


Here's her crib just waiting for her to do a LOT of sleeping through the night right from day one :)


Lots of awesome baby essentials!


Baby gear! I am so excited to use all this stuff! Thanks to everyone who gave us such great gifts and to those who helped us with the assembly of all the goods.



Cute books and more great baby essentials. Now all we need is the baby!

I have been feeling great. I have the usual discomforts of late pregnancy, but I think mine is not nearly as bad as lots of ladies have to deal with. The baby moves around a lot and it is my favorite thing in the world to feel her movements. I love watching my belly when she is really active. She does get up in my ribs sometimes and at times it feels like she is literally trying to tear my muscles/ligaments/tendons to shreds. That can get pretty painful, but aside from a few days in a row a couple of weeks ago she keeps it to a bearable minimum. I think she has just run out of space and doesn't know what to do with herself in her cramped little area right now. Hopefully she finds her way out very soon. It has started to get pretty hot outside but the hot temperatures really haven't bothered me too much and I feel really lucky and grateful for that. I don't sleep well at all because of discomfort and having to pee a million times a night, but somehow I continue to feel ok during the day and I'm able to get all the stuff done that I need to do each day. Ideally I would take afternoon naps, but that doesn't ever end up working its way into my day. I guess I'm just getting prepared for the sleepless nights/days that are coming my way. I'm assuming that my next post will come after little Palmer's birth so stay tuned for that! Yeah yeah yeah!

Have you ever seen a cuter little chair? Heather gave us this sweet little pink and white checkered chair with Palmer's name embroidered on it - I love it!

On the Move

The meaning of the title of this post is two-fold: First off we're in the process of moving and secondly, the baby is moving SO much these days!

My sweet sweet grandma died a couple of months ago and left her cute little house empty. My dad and uncles asked us if we would like to live there to kind of take care of the place for now. It's a win-win situation because they don't have to stress about keeping up the yard/house etc. and we get some nice little space to start raising our sweet baby in a couple of months. I'm not going to lie, even though I'm excited for the space and I know we will really be grateful when the baby comes, I am sad to be leaving the apartment at my parents' house. I have absolutely loved living here. I guess I'll probably survive being two blocks south. We should be in the house by this weekend. I'll take a picture of the house and add it to this post soon. Thank goodness for kind family that takes pity on us...otherwise we'd probably be homeless right now.

Update on our townhouse - the value seems to keep dropping so we won't be able to sell this spring/summer like we were hoping. That's the bad news. The good news is that we found a new renter who will move in next month and he will be paying us more than our current renters. That will be nice to get a little extra each month. The whole process of finding him and getting him signed was so smooth and quick and we are SOOO grateful for that.

Now on to the fun stuff - the baby! I LOVE this little girl! She is so much fun and I am getting so anxious to meet her. She moves around like crazy and as you'll see by my big big belly she is getting BIG. Well at least I'm getting big and I sure hope I can blame a lot of it on her :) My belly has had a major growth spurt in the last month and not even Nicole can say my bump isn't legit now. I am still feeling really good and loving every phase of this pregnancy. Since my last post I started on some new heartburn meds and my acid reflux is SOOOO much better now. I have felt a million times better. Prilosec is my new best friend. I can't believe we will be welcoming this baby in less than three months. I really hope we'll be ready for her!

24 weeks



28 weeks (Seriously check out the growth between 24 and 28 weeks!)


Now that is some major growth! I've started feeling some contractions in the last couple of weeks. They haven't been painful at all, but it's making me realize how close to the end I'm getting. I'm sure that when I get bigger and more uncomfortable it will feel like this pregnancy is never going to end, but like I've said before, so far it is flying by and I feel like two and a half months is no time at all.

Continuing with the fun stuff, my parents gave the entire family a trip to Disneyland for Christmas last year. We just had the trip last week and it was so so so much fun. We had a total of 29 of us, plus the three fetuses (feti?). We spent time at the beach (cold cold cold and windy) and a couple of fun and tiring days at Disneyland and California Adventure. The weather for the park days was soooo nice. It actually got a little too warm for comfort, but in my opinion warmth is much better than cold. When we were younger and we would go on family vacations my parents would get us all matching shirts so of course we had to have matching shirts for this trip! We worked together to come up with some SWEET design ideas and ordered some nice BRIGHT shirts; then we went to work. We were pleased with the final outcome. The shirts were as cheesy as could be and some of the in-laws were not too pleased to have to wear them, but most of us thought they were awesome. The kids loved them of course and that's the most important part. I don't have a picture of the whole family in their shirts, but I'm sure my mom's blog will have a post soon with a pic of the whole family. I wasn't able to ride a lot of the rides of course, due to the bambino, but since there were two other pregos (Noelle & Kera) and a bunch of little kids, we were able to stick together and find fun kid rides while the others went on the crazy rides. Thanks Mom & Dad for the awesome trip! Here's just a few pics of the FUN weekend:

Now that is a legitimate baby bump...

Ok, so of course I'll get to baby stuff in a minute but just to prove that I can talk about other things I'm going to tell a little about other things that have been happening in our life.

Last week we headed to St. George for our second annual Parade of Homes/Presidents' Day weekend with Jeremy, Kristi, Nicole and Osiris (and McKenzie this year of course). The weather was less than ideal - cold, raining, wind blowing and even snowing, but we still had a good time. I am proud to say that J & K and Taylor and I went to ALL 26 parade homes, plus one extra open house. J & K always go to all of the houses, but in my first POH experience last year I probably made it to less than half. This year I wouldn't commit to going to all of the houses until we had only three houses left to tour. N & O couldn't be expected to drag Kenz to all of the houses so they were allowed to go home for nap time when it was necessary. A lot of the houses were pretty regular, but there were a few really cool ones and it just made Taylor and me want to build our own house even more than we already did. Will someone PLEASE buy or burn down our townhouse already?!?! Geez! We also shopped (I spent a lot more money than I should have but it was oh so enjoyable) and ate WAY too much food; Dr. Black will definitely not be able to get after me for not gaining any weight at my next appointment. We stayed at Bryce and Cathy's awesome house and, as usual, it was lovely. I took my camera with very good intentions to document the weekend, but I was a slacker and never took the camera out of its case. We love this little St. George tradition and hope that it's able to continue for a long time!

Elmer turned one while we were in SG. I don't think he felt too bad that we missed his first birthday, but we did bring him a couple of toys and some treats. He is HUGE! I hope that he's done growing, but every time I think that he's done he has a little growth spurt and becomes a little more monstrous than before. He is the cutest and sweetest dog in the world...seriously.

Joshy got home from his mission in France earlier this month. He's still good ole Josh, teasing the kids and saying his little Joshisms. It was so much fun at the airport waiting for him to show up. Almost every one of my parents' posterity was there; we were missing just a few. So it was a big crowd with some very cute (and a little impatient) kids. It was all worth it when we saw him coming down the escalator. It's been fun having Joshy Squashy home and even if he puts racing stripes on his new Mustang we'll still love him!

I am absolutely LOVING working from home. It's a whole new world and it's one that I am very happy to be a part of.

Ok, now on to the baby! The last couple of weeks have been very eventful in womb-land. The most exciting news is that we had an ultrasound last Wednesday and found out we're having a beautiful baby girl! Ok, so the ultrasound tech didn't confirm that she'll be beautiful but I could tell in the pictures that she's going to be perfect. It is so much fun to finally know the gender! Time to get serious about names. Also, right after my last post I started feeling her move in my belly. At first I questioned if it could really be her because it started as legitimate kicks, not just weak little flutters like I'd been told it would probably feel like in the beginning. She's a strong one! The kicks and twists and turns continued to get more frequent and more and more strong until I became sure it was her. My stomach is pretty active/upset most of the time ever since I got home from my mission so maybe I missed the little stuff because it just felt normal to me... Sometimes the kicks are so strong that I'm certain that Taylor should be able to feel them. He tried to feel a couple of times with no success but two nights ago she was kicking hard in the same spot over and over so I had him put his hand there. Sure enough he felt a hard little kick! It was sooo cool and we were so pleasantly surprised that he was able to feel her so early on. It's my favorite thing in the world when I feel her move around...even when she decides it would be funny to press on my bladder for a few moments. Taylor thinks she's funny. I am so excited to see him with his baby girl. I am 100% positive she will have him completely wrapped around her tiny finger the second she is born.
We're more than halfway through the pregnancy now and I still feel like it is flying by. Overall I have been feeling a little better, but I still don't usually feel great. I think most, if not all, of my stomach issues stem from my acid reflux. It is constant and it is awful! It is getting progressively worse and I'm hoping to get some stronger meds when I go to my appointment in a couple of days. Acid reflux/heartburn is a miserable curse that I am trying to bear patiently.
I still stay away from chocolate and I've pretty much come to accept that I probably won't be able to stand it for the rest of the pregnancy. I really hope I learn to like, nay love, it again after the baby comes though. I don't sleep well at night. This is due to two lovely pregnancy symptoms - the constant need to pee and my achy sore stiff hips! My upper legs and tailbone area just hurt all the time, but especially at night when I just wanna sleep. People say to get as much sleep as possible now because after the baby comes I won't sleep anymore, but I think my body just wants to make sure I'm ready for what's to come so it's not letting me get a whole lot of sleep right now.


21 Weeks

I don't intend to post bump pictures every two weeks but since I wanted to do a post today and since my belly has grown exponentially in the last two weeks I figured it should be documented. I think I'm getting to the point now where people would probably assume I'm pregnant, even without knowing for sure, instead of it looking like I just ate way too much for lunch. I'm still able to wear my normal clothes, but they're not the most comfortable, so I'll probably be transitioning away from them and into some more comfortable maternity wear in the days to come. Our little girl continues to grow big and strong and we can't wait to meet her in a few months :)

The Bump

Ok, this is for Tyrel. I hadn't really decided if I was going to take bump pictures to document this pregnancy, but I've read a few times that I will regret it if I don't (I don't really know if that's true, but better safe than sorry I guess). Then Tyrel asked for a bump pic so I decided I'd better just do it.

19 Weeks


I'm 19 weeks along now and I feel like every week of this pregnancy goes faster and faster. I may not feel like that once I'm huge and uncomfortable, but for right now I'm just enjoying the experience. For the most part I've been feeling decent. I haven't been vomiting the last couple of weeks, although there has been a few times when I've come real close. I have gained a couple of pounds so that is good. We will FINALLY find out the gender a week from tomorrow. I feel like my stomach has started to grow noticeably bigger every day. I can still wear my regular pre-pregnancy clothes, but sometimes they feel a little too tight for comfort. I'm entering the awkward phase where I'm going to have to use safety pins and hair elastics to expand the waist of my pants/skirts until I'm really big enough for maternity clothes. I haven't felt the baby move yet, but I'm expecting it any day and I'm super excited for that!
We are so dang excited to meet this little baby in five months! I know our lives will never be the same and I just hope we're ready to give the baby everything he/she needs.

Moving right along

Well I'm 17 weeks along now. I had a doctor's appointment today and everything is going according to schedule. I got to hear the baby's fast little heartbeat again and see him/her in another ultrasound. He/she was not showing us anything to give any indication of whether we should start buying pink or blue, but it was still so fun to see the little cutie! I guess we'll have to be patient for three more weeks.
I have been feeling better than I did in the first trimester, but I've still had my pregnancy issues. The constant nausea is gone, but I still get sick plenty. My doctor's goal for me by my next appointment is to have gained any weight at all. So far I haven't been able to eat enough/keep enough food down for that to happen. Normally it would be a good problem for a girl to not be able to gain weight, but I know it's important to gain weight during pregnancy so I've been trying to figure out how to do that. I don't have much of an appetite most of the time. For about a week and a half I thought I was past the vomiting and I was even having some cravings and really enjoying food again. For some reason that didn't last and I'm back to food mostly not sounding good and not sitting well in my tummy. I have to eat pretty regularly or I get real sick, so I eat small amounts all throughout the day.
I have pretty constant heartburn/reflux but for the most part it can be kept under control with Tums and an uncomfortable wedge pillow (thanks Nicole - it really has helped)! The discomfort of sleeping with the wedge is better than the discomfort of not sleeping due to reflux.
I've pretty much focused on the negative, but honestly this pregnancy is flying by and I really feel like it hasn't been too bad at all! I am loving this experience. Taylor and I are getting so excited to meet our little baby Spike in a few months. I have now been working solely from home for a week and it is going so great. I feel so lucky that I will be able to stay home with the baby when the time comes. Any guesses about the gender?

Every woman with child should live in Blanding...

Some of you might think this is a bold claim, but wait until you hear my reasoning: I am just over 15 weeks along and I have had THREE ultrasounds! That's right, best doctor ever! He told us at our first appointment that he really likes to do a lot of ultrasounds so we should just plan on that - I say FINE BY ME! I have only had two appointments, but I had an extra ultrasound to double check the measurements of the baby last week. Also, I'd be willing to bet a lot of money that my appointments are costing A LOT less than all you pregnant city girls' appointments. I'm just saying... Ultrasounds. Are. Awesome.