And Three Becomes Four

We are now officially a family of four! We can't believe it, but are thrilled to announce that Juliana Brooks Giddens made her speedy (and early) appearance into the world on Monday, September 10th at 6:31 am. She weighed 8 pounds even and measured 18 inches long.The entire birth story is one for the record books of course. I began having contractions around 8:30 Sunday evening. Also around this time, I began to have some stomachaches from the spaghetti I had eaten earlier in the day. Around 11 pm the contractions began to get more intense and more regular. We left for the hospital around 2 am, but not before I had the chance to throw up about five times. Lovely, just lovely. So not only was I feeling labor pains, but I was also dealing with stomach and now, nausea pains.

Once we arrived at the hospital, the nurse hooked me up to check out my vitals, as well as the baby's. She discovered almost immediately that Juliana's heart rate was in the 180's and 190's. A normal baby heart rate is between 120 and 160. A high heart rate usually indicates some sort of fetal distress, which is never good. They continued to monitor me and told me that I really needed to go ahead and get an epidural (strike one for my labor goals) in case things went south quickly. If I didn't get the epidural, and then needed an emergency C-section, they would have to put me completely under with general anesthesia (no thank you!). After a few hours of no progression (I was only dilated to a 4) and Juliana's heart rate still running incredibly high, the doctor delivered the bad news: I would need another C-section (stike two and three for all my labor goals). They were really concerned about the baby and worried that with her heart rate being this high now, that the trauma of labor and delivery would make things even worse.

The surgery went fine and recovery has been a MILLION times better than with Everett. Thank goodness for modern medicine and competent doctors! And now, what you've all been waiting for: PICTURES!!!

Just cleaned up

Just barely clothed

Everett's first time in the hospital

He had a blast and didn't seem to mind that he hadn't seen his sister yet.

And now just general Giddens Family cuteness:

Oh, and the winners from the last post are:

Date: Heidi

Weight: Shanna

Time: Emily

Congrats to you three and you'll be receiving your prizes in the mail shortly.

Let the Guessing Game Begin!

Alright folks, the time has come to see which one of you is the best guesser. That's right, I'm conducting my very own (VERY scientific, of course) poll to see who guesses correctly the time, date and weight of Miss Juliana's birth. Here are a few facts to help you in your choices:

1) Everett was born on his due date - I was exactly 40 weeks pregnant.

2) I am now 37 weeks pregnant.

3) At my doctor's appt. yesterday I measured 3 centimeters dilated and 70% effaced.

4) I personally feel like there's no way I'm going to my due date (Sept. 24th).

5) Since I'm trying for a VBAC, I will not be induced. They also won't let me go more than a week past my due date. (If it gets to that point, I'll have to have another C-section).

Can't wait to see who wins! Yes, there WILL be a prize.

The Ritzy Ritz and Other Relatively Exciting Stuff

Whew! Will and I just returned from an overnight stay at The Ritz-Carlton Lodge at Reynolds Plantation. We went as part of a company meeting/getaway for Will's work. As two who have never stayed in super nice hotels before, it was quite the experience. It was AWESOME and we're excited to return, hopefully soon. The rooms were spacious, the bed was super comfortable and the bathroom was huge. The service was impeccable, the staff friendly, and don't even get me started on the food - YUMMY!! We had an amazing sit-down dinner last night that was so good - spinach and ricotta ravioli, seared beef, chicken, veggies, potato cake and dessert - creme brulee with a berry compote. I was in food heaven! All in all, it was a lovely little trip and I'm so thankful to my mom and Paula for watching our little man so Will could attend his meetings and I could simply relax. I know we won't have another opportunity like this for awhile, what with Juliana's entrance into the world rapidly approaching and such, so it was a wonderful 24+ hours.

And to cap off my relaxing day, I'm proud to say that I finished my very first Sudoku puzzle! I've been wanting to try my hand at these puzzles for quite sometime, but I've simply been too intimidated to try (I know, silly, right?). I'm not good with numbers and logical-type problems are not exactly my forte these days. But with time to kill and pen in hand, I gave it a go and here's my proof:

As you can see, it was not a flawless attempt, but I was using pen and I was so thrilled with my success that I gave myself a check mark when I finished. Yippee!!!

In other news, I finally got my hair cut. I've been planning to for awhile since for the past couple of months I've felt rather dowdy and too mommy-ish. I told my stylist that I didn't care how short she went (I figure hair always grows back), and this is what I ended up with (this is me with the haircut and me at 36 weeks):

And for a close-up:

I'm pretty happy with it and Will likes it too. He was shocked at how short it was! I've had it this short before (for those of you who remember Freshman year of college), but that was quite awhile ago. As a side note, it took her an hour to cut it and during that time THREE different people came by to sweep up the hair. Each time the sweeper commented, "Wow, that's a lot of hair on the floor!" Yes, it's true, I have a lot of very thick hair.

As for Everett, he is awesome! He's at a really fun stage where he is just oozing with personality. He knows that when he's in trouble he has to go sit on the fireplace until we tell him he can get up. His vocabulary is increasing everyday (In sacrament meeting on Sunday he dropped something on the floor. Once he picked it up, he showed it to Will and excitedly exclaimed, "I got! I got!"). He still fighting through some tantrums, but overall, we're just so happy with how well he's doing and how much he's learning. Here are some recent shots of the little man:

With his cousins, Max and Marissa

And here, for whatever reason, absolutely LOVING the fact that my mom made him look like Little Red Riding Hood:

Happy News!

Tired of thinking and dealing with our accident situation, I decided to post something a little lighter. Is anyone else as excited as we are about the new season of "The Office"? For a quick recap to get you revved up for SEPTEMBER 27th (one month and counting), check out the following video:

Favorite lines:

"There's a new sheriff here in these offices. And his name is me."

"Alright, then it's a date."

And of course:

"Who was that?"

"Nobody. You and I are done."

"WHAT?!?"

1999 Toyota 4Runner: RIP

We went to see our car at the wreck yard yesterday. We were pretty surprised at the amount of damage our car sustained. Here it is in all its glory, what's left anyway. We are really grateful that we weren't more seriously hurt. Good bye ol' girl, we're gonna miss ya.





Adios, amigo!!

At The Very Least, We're Interesting...

Ahhh, the lives of Will and Natalie Giddens. Rest assured there is NEVER a dull moment. And I truly mean that. It seems that our life together will always be filled with extraordinary events, amazing tales and things that only seem to happen to "one in a million."

Our latest tale involves a rather intense car accident. Yep, you read correctly. The disabled Will, the pregnant me and the toddler Everett. Yahoo, right?! Yesterday afternoon we were on our way to visit family and were driving down the road minding our own business. We were headed through a busy intersection and had a green light when a car coming from the opposite direction suddenly decided to turn left. Right in front of us. And then hesitate completely and stop. Right in front of us. I screamed. Will yelled. Everett cried. Airbags were deployed. Glass broke. Cars crumpled. And I think we even hit a yield sign.

Will jumped out of the car to come around and check on me and Everett. He figured out pretty quickly that his left ankle/foot was probably broken. Yes, this is one of his two feet that had already been broken once before (in the mountain climbing accident). I was in serious pain as the airbag had hit me right in the tummy. Thank heavens for amniotic fluid! Everett was fine, just scared and fussy. The only injury he sustained was a pretty nasty carseat strap burn on the left side of his neck. 911 was called, two ambulances showed up, one fire truck and at least two police cars. It was a pretty serious scene, but thank goodness no one was seriously hurt. I had to be put on a stretcher, complete with a neckbrace, and put into an ambulance. Will and I were the only two who had to go to the hospital. They monitored me for about four hours, determined that Juliana and me were fine and that Will had definitely broken his left ankle. We went home tired, sore and grateful that we were safe. (No, this is not me on the stretcher. Or Will or anyone else from the accident.)

Today has been ok. MUCH more sore today than yesterday. Have any of you ever bruised your sternum? Man, it hurts! Of my two times in the hospital (to deliver Everett and yesterday), I have learned that there's definitely a reason they call the mid-section of the body "the core". I never realized how connected the sternum is to every day tasks. Add that to the fact that I'm 34 weeks pregnant and I'm practically helpless. I've begun to bruise on my arm, leg and right across the mid-section of my stomach. Will is doing his best to hobble around on crutches. And Everett has bounced back like a champ.

I'm sure we'll have more details as the week progresses. Our car will most likely be declared totaled, Will will most likely have to have surgery on his ankle and we will both most likely be stressed this week. But, as not to leave a "woe is us" feeling to this entry, let me list the things we are grateful for:

1) Airbags

2) My dad. He spent the morning fixing the 4Runner, which had been out of commission all week. If he hadn't fixed it when he did, we would have been driving our '94 Jeep, which has no airbags.

3) Paula and Logan for coming quickly and taking care of Everett.

4) Super nice EMTs who were professional and quick.

5) Nice ER nurses and doctors.

6) Parents who came to the hospital to check on us.

7) A sturdy carseat that did its job.

8) Priesthood blessings

9) Pain medication

10) Prayers and concern of so many friends and family.

11) Auto and health insurance

12) Juliana being just fine. She's still kicking her little heart out. Yea!

13) The gospel. Because even though things might seem bad, we know Heavenly Father is mindful of us and our trials and that all will be well.

Eight Random Things About Me

I've been tagged by my cute friend, Clairissa (who also happens to be a FAB photographer. For those of you in the Atlanta area, I strongly encourage you to check out her work!) to list eight random things about myself. This has been a tad more difficult than I thought it would be, especially since I don't want to repeat anything from my 100 Things list. But, I'm never one to back down from a challenge, so here we go:

1) I am a HUGE, closet early 90's Jon Secada fan. I wouldn't be surprised if most of you have never heard of him. He's Latin (Cuban American) and most of his older stuff can be found on your local easy listening station. My favorites include: "Just Another Day," "Angel," "I'm Free," and "Do You Believe in Us?"

If in the car, and all alone (or with Everett), and a Jon Secada song comes on, I will turn the volume up WAAAY loud and sing along to every word. Once, I even tried to win tickets to his concert by calling in to a radio station. That's the one and only time I've ever tried to win anything off the radio. Yeah, I didn't win.

2) I love love. Anything that's even remotely romantic, especially in movies or literature, and I love it. Sometimes, when I have time to kill, I'll put in my favorite movies and fast forward to the romantic parts. I'll end up watching 10 minutes of a 3 hour movie and still walk away completely satisfied. When I'm reading, if I come across a particularly romantic moment, I'll re-read that part two or three times before moving on. And then I'll pick up the book a few days later just to re-read that specific part. And even more weird, if I'm having trouble falling asleep, sometimes I'll imagine my favorite parts of romantic movies and replay in my mind the best parts. It's scary how much of the dialogue I actually have memorized.

3) I love getting pedicures. I think it's so relaxing and wonderful. Plus, those gals really paint my toes a million and one times better than I ever could. This is not to say that I've had a ton of pedicures in my day, but it is the one splurge I keep telling Will I'd like to indulge in when we have money. I don't care to get my nails done or my hair highlighted, but a pedicure once a month would be absolute heaven!

4) Sometimes I can be anal-retentive about grammar, spelling, captialization and puncuation. I blame this on the fact that I was an editor for a few years. Among my particular pet peeves are mispellings of any of the following words: definitely (it's not defiantely or any other way with an A), their, there or they're, your or yours and any unnecessary apostrophe s's. As in lot's, go's or sometime's. I also cringe when I hear people say "Supposively" or "Anyways". It doesn't bother me enough that I would dare correct someone, but it just hurts my eyes and/or ears.

5) I used to LOVE to watch "The Price is Right". I remember watching it before pre-school. And I thought bidding one dollar was the coolest thing ever and used to yell at the contestants, "One dollar! One dollar!". In my four-year-old mind, whenever someone bid one dollar, they always seemed to win. I couldn't figure out why everyone didn't always bid one dollar. It took me years (yes, years) to understand what bidding one dollar meant. But even now, I always root for the person who bids one dollar.

6) I never, ever, ever pick up a penny off the ground unless it's heads up. I couldn't tell you why I'm so superstitious about this, but I am.

7) I love even numbers. To the point that I either want four kids or six. My anniversary is 02/06/04. When I hang pictures on the way, I want the entire "arrangment" to be symmetrical. When I'm eating candy like Skittles, Starbursts or M&M's, I divide up the colors and then eat the excess ones until I have the same number of each color/flavor. I then eat one from each section so that each group is equal. I always enjoy being an even numbered age rather than an odd one (One of the reasons I'm looking forward to turning 28 this year). I like months will 30 days better than months with 31. Weird, I know.

8) I had the hugest crush on Dean Cain from "Superman: The Adventures of Lois and Clark" when I was in 7th and 8th grade. I remember watching episodes with my best friend, Rachel. We would go ga-ga anytime Dean Cain was on the screen (which was a lot). A friend of mine who was a few years older than I was actually got to meet him and get a picture with him and I remember being soooo incredibly jealous. The show got old after awhile though and the only stuff I've seen Dean Cain in since is as host of"Ripley's Believe It Or Not" and a couple of cheesy Lifetime movies. What a waste!

Ok, so that really was difficult! I now tag: Jessica, Heidi, Emily, Paula, Lachelle, Shanna, Jeanine and Mindy.

(I'm not going to leave you guys a message on your individual blogs. I have faith that you'll all check this sometime in the next few days!)

The Rules

-Players start with eight random facts/habits about themselves.

-People who are tagged write their own blog post about their eight things and include these rules.

-At the end of your blog, you need to choose eight people to get tagged and list their names. Don’t forget to leave them a comment telling them they’re tagged and they should read your blog.

The Little Man

For all you Harry Potter fans out there, I LOVED, LOVED, LOVED the final installment. Man, did it answer quite a few questions! I didn't say much (to Will or outloud) while I was reading it because I was on pins and needles the whole time, hoping that my favorite characters didn't die. I thought it was a great ending and I'm getting excited thinking about starting the series over from book 1. I'd seriously (or siriusly, ha, ha) like to discuss any plot points with anyone. Just leave a comment and let the analysis begin!

This past week went well. Everett and I ventured to the pool a couple of times. Boy, oh boy, does that little man enjoy the water and the pool! I've neglected to take a picture of him in the pool, but will hopefully snag one sometime this week.

In the meantime, here's a little bit of what Everett's been up to: making mean faces and trying to talk on the phone. I swear I'm not on the phone that much, but Everett's taken to pretending that everything is a phone! Here he is just moments after he stealthily (is that a word?) stole a cookie that had blue writing all over it.

And here's the little man desperately trying to figure out how to use Grandma's cell phone.

I love this last picture when he decided one phone just wasn't enough.

When did my little child become such a little man? I'm excited to have Juliana and see Everett fulfill his role as big brother.

So, other than going to the pool, playing outside and reading Harry Potter, it really hasn't been a very eventful week. I mostly just posted because I was tired of the other post. Oh, and for those that care, my new facewash really seems to be working! Yippee for small blessings!

A General Update

The move went well and we are now pretty settled into my parents' house. We had lots of help from our old ward and our new one, so the entire thing was over and done with by 12:30 Saturday afternoon. Although this is our fifth move since we've been married, this is the first with a baby and all that goes along with a little one. We just have a lot of stuff, so we've decided that the next time we move, we're hiring professionals! (Much to the relief our our families, I'm sure).

The pre-move packing job. Not bad for three women and a toddler!

In Everett news, he just turned 20 months last week. He is pretty funny most of the time, but totally entrenched in "The Terrible Twos". He can go from super happy and smiling to on the floor throwing a tantrum in literally two seconds. According to all my books, he's "asserting his independence" and "testing boundaries". Great, just great!He's really enjoying this stay at the Casa de Kilgore for several reasons.

1) He LOVES to play with the family dog, Bailey. I'm pretty sure Bailey doesn't return Everett's affections, but Everett can chase that poor dog around for hours, squealing the entire time.

2) He LOVES to play outside. My parents have a good-sized front and back yard and Everett has quickly learned the word, "outside". I think he'd stay out there all day, except that his other true love is inside.

3) Everett has now moved on (or backwards, however you want to look at it) to his new favorite movie, "Shrek". He usually watches it, in small spurts, a couple of times a day. He particularly enjoys simply standing in front of the TV, leaving his Elmo chair quite alone.

4) There's simply so much more for him to mess up. Things neither I, nor my parents, would have ever thought he'd touch, he touches. He loves going up and down the stairs and running all over the downstairs. I'm glad he has more room to burn off some of his energy.

In Will news, he is working hard! He has reached some new highs professionally and things are starting to fall into place. I know I've said this before on here, but he really loves what he does. And I get the added benefit of feeling smarter about all things financial. One of the perks of this job is that we get to take a little overnighter at the end of August. Of course, I'll be about 37 weeks pregnant by then, so I hope Juliana doesn't come early and spoil my day at the spa!

This is his headshot he had taken for work. Thanks to Eric and Janet for your help!

As for me, I'm now 30 weeks pregnant. I had an appointment last week where I found out that 1) I don't have gestational diabetes and 2) My iron is low. Both of which came as absolutely no surprise. When I was pregnant with Everett the nurse called me, concerned about how low my iron count was. "I can't believe you can even get out of bed in the morning, " was her comment. As a remedy, they had me add two slow-release iron pills to my daily routine of one prenatal pill. For a normal person, I'm sure that would've made their iron count increase, but not me. I seriously wonder if I'm iron immune or something ridiculous. So, here I am, one pregnancy and almost two years later, back on the same "iron building" routine. I'll let you know if it's more successful the second time around.

To those of you who have seen me pregnant, one thing is clear: I'm not a tiny pregnant woman. Tiny is not a word to describe me period, least of all while pregnant. And so it should come as no surprise to me that words like "huge", "pop", and "enormous" have been used to describe my current condition. I understand people think they're being cute/funny, but folks, I still have 10 weeks to go. And no, telling me, "You know, I was always huge with my babies too", is not a compliment, nor does it make me feel one iota better. I don't think I'll ever understand other people's propensity to remark about weight and size to pregnant women. At a time when hormones are raging and sensitivity is at an all-time high, comments about weight and "how many do you have in there?" and "you're never going to make it to September" somehow seem slightly inappropriate. Anyone else agree?Me, in all my 30-week hugeness. Yes, I know I'm huge and no I really haven't gained that much weight (18 pounds). Keep in mind Everett was over 9 pounds and 21 inches long. My theory is he really stretched out the living space in there and that Juliana is reaping all the spatial benefits. My other theory is Juliana's going to be one big gal!

Also on the topic of pregnancy (wow, I'm really on a roll today), my skin does some wild and crazy things when I'm pregnant. No, I do not get the "pregnant glow". Mine is more of what you could call the "pregnant facial explosion". I get the worst case of acne while pregnant. It really stinks and according to Will, it's "not that bad". But of course, it seems worse to me, since I have to look at myself in the mirror. Taking Heidi's advice, I tried the no-name brand of Pro-Active.I got it at Target and have used it for about three or four months now. While it helped initally, it dried out my face in certain places and I still had acne problems. So this past weekend, I picked up something new. Neutrogena's Advance Solutions Complete Acne Therapy System. I'll keep you posted on how it's working for me. Has anyone else tried it?

And lastly, I've been on a reading kick lately and since everyone and their mom has raved about "Twilight" and since I have a lovely, kind, dear, wonderful friend who sent me a copy, I took to reading it. While I can easily admit that it's a good read and that Meyer really draws you in, I wasn't the biggest fan. That being said, I immediately checked out "New Moon" from the local library and read it just as quickly as "Twilight", but still, wasn't a huge fan. I think it's the whole vampire thing (not really my style) or maybe the fact that Bella is only 17/18 and seems too young to me to really know true love, love-worth-dying-for kind of love. I don't know. Just curious as to what you guys like or dislike about the series.

Lessons Learned From Harry Potter

Well, to be more accurate, lessons learned from going to the 11:59 pm viewing of Harry Potter on the opening day:

1) We're not as young as we once were. A midnight showing and going to bed at 3 am make for a very tired Mom and Dad.



2) Some Harry Potter fans are freaks. We saw folks in full out Gryffindor Quidditch costumes, lots of wizard hats, a gal with a "Weasley is our King" t-shirt and loads of girls in the Hogwarts' school uniforms, minus the capes.



3) Harry Potter really does appeal to everyone. We saw every race and just about every age of people there. Lots and lots of adults. Some alone, some with kids.


The review? AWESOME! We really loved it. Definitely go and see it - you will not be disappointed!!

*And many thanks to Will who helped me keep my "Opening Day/Night Viewing of Harry Potter movies" streak alive and well. I was content to see it sometime soon, but he insisted we keep the streak going.