We are in love

 All together as a family! Ben had a great time with the kids while I stayed in the hospital. He took Sadie to her soccer game and even took them to opening day at Lagoon with Grandpa Gerald.

 This amazing dad has taken over night shift while he is off work for the week. Last night he was up for 5 hours straight. Lets hope we get her scheduled switched around before dad goes back to work.

 Sadie is loving her little sister. This lucky girl got to be in the room when mommy had her baby sister. We talked a lot about birth and how special it is. She decided she wanted to be a part of this special event and she stood at the head of my bed with her dad when her little sister entered the world.

 This little boy loves little girls and there is no exception with his baby sister. He loves her so much he has a hard time containing himself. Whenever he sees her he gets a big grin on his face and then tries to show his love by hitting and pulling on her.

 Spencer cannot keep his hands and lips off of his little sister! He is constantly asking to hold her and give her "huggies". The other day he came home and ran straight to her room looking for her. After not finding her there he frantically ran through the house looking for her. Luckily I had her safely strapped to me in a carrier. I hope she survives all the lovins Spencer has to give to her. 

 Grandma Mae has been such a help and support. She loves this sweet baby girl and it shows! Thanks mom for all you do and for loving my sweet little family. 

 Ready to go home!

One proud Great Grandpa. A few months ago Grandpa's sweet wife passed away. We are very close to Grandma and Grandpa and we know that Grandma took good care of Sierra before she came here. Sierra's middle name Jean is after her Great Grandma Donnell Jean Jeppsen.

Sierra Jean Jeppsen

Sierra Jean Jeppsen

March 27, 2015 

6:13am

4 lbs 14 oz

17 inches long

With all the odds against us things couldn't have gone better. After the specialist said it was time to induce me due to her growth we prepared for the worse. Because she was breech and had growth restriction we knew there was a good possibility of having a c-section and she could be put in the NICU due to her size and development. We arrived at the hospital and Dr. Housel recommended getting an epidural before trying to turn her. For the first time Ben stayed with me in the room and was very supportive when I got the epidural. This was a miracle because Ben does not handle needles well. After the epidural the doctor came in and within minutes he had her turned just by maneuvering his hands and encouraging her to turn. This meant there would be no c-section!

Now it was just a waiting game. Things progressed slowly at first and I labored all night long. Finally in the morning around 6:00 things started to progress quickly. They contacted the doctor to come break my water and said that once my water was broken we would have a baby here. Dr. Housel arrived and checked me and in the process my water broke. He then told me to push. I was having a hard time figuring out when to push because I couldn't feel anything due to the epidural. I pushed once and he said there she is. I then asked if I could see her and he said she isn't out I need you to push. I then asked if I was having a contraction and he said "yes push, never mind" and then he put my sweet baby girl on me.   
I was overwhelmed with emotion when I heard her cry knowing that she was alive. Although she is small she is perfectly healthy and doing well. I am so grateful for all of the little miracles we received. 
I know that my Heavenly Father knows and loves me and because of this He blesses my family daily through miracles like this.

Ready for delivery!

This pregnancy has been nothing less than a roller coaster. At 28 weeks my doctor became concerned with the babies growth and the fact she was breech. She was measuring small and not showing much growth, because of this I started visiting a specialist and getting monitored. Sawyer had IUGR (growth restriction) and because of this there was good reason for me to be concerned that we may have another special needs child. I battled with this idea and roll played in my mind all of the unknown possibilities. This made me very stressed and overwhelmed. I finally decided to ask Ben for a priesthood blessing. It was a very simple blessing, but it gave me strength and I knew I just needed to leave it in my Heavenly Fathers hands and things would be okay. At times it was hard not to doubt, but I tried my best to have faith. As I went to my 37 week specialist appointment I had high hopes that things would look good. We had already made an appointment for the following week to have the doctor do a external cephalic version (turn the baby for a vaginal delivery). Unfortunately my 37 week specialist appointment did not go as planned. The specialist was concerned with the growth and decided it would be best to induce me that same day.

Belly Painting lady bug

Got the belly painted just in time. My sister Michelle has painted my belly for everyone of my pregnancies. It is a little different, but we have fun with it.

Spencer 1st day of Preschool

This kid doesn't hold still. He just started district preschool due to his speech delay and is showing tons of progress with his speech. He enjoys preschool and loves all of his new friends and teachers. Everyday before he leaves he has to give his teachers "huggies".

Sadie Spotlight and more

 I am so proud of this girl. She got the spotlight at her school for empathy and caring. She always shows others she cares and she has empathy for others.

Finally a snowman! Sadie made these snowmen all by herself and Spencer destroyed them all by himself.

It's Great to be 3

 I have always thought that 3 is much harder then 2 and this kid is proving it to be true.

 Spencer loves lotion and took advantage of me leaving a bottle of lotion in his bedroom during nap time. I thought he was taking a nap before church, but he decided otherwise. Needless to say we did not make it to church on time and he was one unhappy kid when he got caught.

  

This kid loves laundry! Everywhere we go he will find the laundry room. He takes all of his clean clothes out of his drawer and puts them in the dirty laundry to make more laundry. This is his idea of helping fold laundry.

He also loves grandma's kitty. He pretends to be a cat by eating his food off of the floor. At this point I have given up on stopping him.

Sawyer's Communication

Sawyer has grown leaps and bounds over the past few months with his communication. One day we were getting ready to leave the house and he was anxious to leave. I decided he needed to learn to wait so I just ignored him. He finally settled for a minute to communicate what he wanted. In the top portion is what he said. "I'm telling you something", "places", "in the car", "store". I was so proud of him for using his words. He knew what he wanted and he was able to communicate it. 

The other day he said "put on covers" and me and Carli couldn't figure out what he was saying until we looked at his progress report that said he mastered putting the blanket on the doll. It took us a few minutes to figure out how he even got to "put on covers". He said "more to say", "I'm telling you something", "activities", "doll", "bed", "put on covers". We have never modeled this before. He figured out on his own how to tell us he learned how to put the blanket on the doll. 

One last thing. Ben was home and had been playing with Sawyer. Sawyer used his talker to say "envelope", and "stamp". After Ben realized he had an envelope with a stamp on it in his pocket. He is generalizing so much with his communication and finding things on his own that we have never modeled. 

It is so exciting to see him progress! I never imagined we would be where we are at today 2 years ago. 

Sawyer's EEG and Sleep Study

It was nerve racking going into this considering last time we did this at home it was a nightmare and Sawyer pulled everything off. This time was much different. We did it at Primary Children's Hospital. I just explained to him what was going to happen and he didn't even cry while they put all the electrodes on. He did use his talker to say "leave me alone" and "don't touch" several times.

Things went well and when he finally fell asleep he slept through the night.We are still waiting on the results as of now.

More Do's

I really should have a blog dedicated to the do's, but I don't need to add any more stress to my life. So here are a few more.

 Didn't turn out like the heart I was expecting, but it still was a fun do.