The Day that Changed Everything

     He was born on a chilly September afternoon in Des Moines, Iowa and he was absolutely perfect in every way. Everyone has a birth story, but his was extra special. You see, he was dreamed of, even prayed for, years before his birth. I knew I was missing something in life. When he was born, a place in my heart was filled that no one else could fill. He is beyond special to me – and his name is Emmett James. 

Let’s rewind six days before Emmett was born. It was my due date and my belly was as round as a basketball. As I waddled back and forth across the living room, I thought to myself, “When are you ever going to come out and meet us, little boy?” Emmett must have wanted to teach me to have more patience, because he did not come that day. Or the next day...or the next day...or the next day. 

Me on my due date. It came and went...

It was five days after my due date, a Saturday, and of course all I could think about was when this baby was going to make his arrival. My parents had planned to be with me after I had the baby, but since he was late, they arrived that night. My parents came all the way from California and they were ready to meet their newest grandson.

“Hi Mom! Hi Dad!” I said as I tried my best to embrace them with my protruding belly.

My dad replied, “Hi Stace! So where is this baby? He better make his debut before we go back home!” We joked about how I was learning patience by waiting for him, but I was actually getting pretty worried he was just stuck inside of me forever.

My husband, Nate, and I spent the rest of the day with my parents, and we even went on a steady walk to try and get things moving. I did not feel any differently by the end of the night. With a sigh, I said good night to my parents and headed to bed. It was 11 pm and as I lay in bed, I felt it. My very first contraction. Ouch! It was unlike anything I had felt before. It lasted for about one minute.

“Nate, I think I just had a real contraction!” I said excitedly as my husband entered our bedroom.

“Are you sure?” Nate replied. He was a little skeptical it was ever going to happen himself.

“I’m pretty sure. It was about ten minutes ago, so let’s see if – Ahhh!” I shouted through gritted teeth. Sure enough, it was another contraction. The pain was not something that I ever wanted to feel again, but it meant that I would get to meet my son very soon.

The contractions persisted throughout the night. I continued to feel that horrible pain, but I knew I couldn’t go to the hospital until my contractions were closer together. They soon began to get stronger, and more painful. When they got to be about four minutes apart, Nate and I went on a walk outside. It was about 4 am at this point. It was still dark outside and quiet enough that I could hear the wind blowing softly through the trees. Even though I was in a lot of pain, I felt a sense of peace that everything was going to be ok.

My contractions got closer, about two to three minutes apart. My husband and I grabbed our hospital bags, gave my parents a hug, and were on our way to the hospital.  When we arrived, we nervously walked to the third floor where labor and delivery was located. As we waited to be admitted, I noticed that my contractions had slowed down and weren’t as strong.

“Oh no,” I thought to myself, “they better not send me home!” All I could think was that somehow my mind was playing tricks on me and that I wasn’t actually in labor. Surely I hadn’t made this all up. I was in real pain! I had been up ALL night! This baby better be coming TODAY!

The nurse began monitoring my contractions and noticed they weren’t as frequent. She said that this was normal and that we would wait and see what happened. I began to worry because I did not want to be sent home. We waited, and we waited, but finally my contractions began to speed up. Soon, I was in excruciating pain. People always talk about how painful having a baby is, and let me tell you, they are correct! I was in so much pain that I asked for an epidural (pain medication) as soon as I could get it.

After I received the epidural, I was feeling much better. I was able to rest in bed and enjoy a few minutes alone with my husband.

“Can you believe this is actually happening?” my husband asked me.

“I know, pretty soon we will be a family of three,” I replied. “Our lives will never be the same.”

I looked at Nate and was so thankful to have him with me at my side. I knew he was a great husband, and I couldn’t wait to see him as a father.

My nurse came back into my room and checked to see how things were moving along. “Well my dear,” she said, “it looks like it’s time to push! Let’s get ready!”

My heart was about to beat out of my chest as I heard these words. Was I ready for what was about to happen? Would I really be able to go through with this? Just then Nate grabbed my hand and looked at me with a huge smile. I took a deep breath and smiled back at him. “Let’s meet our son,” I said.

I had been pushing for about thirty minutes when I heard the most beautiful sound in the world, the cry of my new baby boy. Tears streamed down my face as he was placed on my chest. In that moment, all I could see was him. Everything and everyone else in the room were a blur. It was just us in the room, and I began to feel an intense love that I had never felt before. He was worth the wait; he was the most amazing thing I had ever laid my eyes on.

The doctors took him away to clean him up, and my husband went with him. Nate soon brought our baby back in his arms and I knew in that moment that I was the luckiest girl in the world. I was still in a lot of pain, but I knew this was the best day of my life so far.

As I held my baby again, I took notice about every little thing about him. He had ten perfect fingers, and ten perfect toes. Two of his toes were even crooked like his Daddy’s. He had reddish blonde hair that was soft to the touch. His blue eyes remained open for hours as he took in this new world he had entered. He had been through a lot this day too, and I was so grateful that we were both healthy and happy.

As the nurses and doctor congratulated us, a nurse asked, “What’s his name?”

I looked at her and smiled and replied, “His name is Emmett James Marsden”.

Our lives were indeed changed forever that day. Looking back I don’t think I understood how hard raising a baby would be. I didn’t realize how many sleepless nights I would have, how many dirty diapers I would change, or how many times I would be spit up on. What I did realize that day, though, was how immensely I loved my little Emmett. And how I always would. 

Hello! It's been a while since I've done an update. Life in Iowa is still treating us well! Nate has successfully finished one month of PA school, hurray! 23 more months to go. :) We were prepared for life to get very busy for him and for me not to see him very much. He has a very busy schedule, and I am lucky if I see him for more than an hour or two each day. But because he has been so diligent in his studies, he has done AWESOME on all of his tests and he is learning so much. What can I say, Nate is GREAT. I am so lucky to have such a hard working yet loving husband, and I am very grateful for all that he does.

As for me, I have stayed busy being a nanny for a sweet baby boy. He is 4 months and I don't think he could be any cuter. He is a great baby who only cries when he is hungry or tired. I'm getting a lot of practice in for the future, except for the sleep deprived nights I hear all about from this little guy's momma...I don't think I'm quite prepared for that part yet. That's the nice thing about being a nanny, you get to hand them over at night. :)

I just celebrated my birthday, I am now 24! My birthday was on a Sunday so Nate and I celebrated mostly on Saturday. We went and saw The Fault in Our Stars, which was really depressing but really good. I cried of course, and as I looked over at Nate I saw him holding back tears as well. He will deny this though haha. We then went out to dinner to a Mongolian grill buffet. It was really good! Here is a picture of me pretending like I am eating with chopsticks, even though I have no idea how people actually eat with these.

And here is Nate really using the chopsticks to eat, and he is eating ever so gracefully.

After that we did a little shopping. On Sunday, my actual birthday, Nate was sweet and made me breakfast. We then went to church and taught a Primary class. We had a relaxing day and Nate cooked some hamburgers while I baked a cake. We realized that we did not need to make a whole cake for the two of us. That was a bad idea! But it was good.

We've also been able to help the missionaries here in Des Moines. They asked us to pick up one of their investigators, who is a 10 year old boy. We took him to church a few times, and this past Saturday he got baptized. Nate and I spoke at his baptism, and then on Sunday Nate confirmed him a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It was an awesome experience! It has been great to help the missionaries every once in a while. It has strengthened my testimony and has made me realize that I don't have to do great things to do missionary work. Even small things make a difference.

Anyway, life is good for us and we have been so blessed!

Growing Up

Nate starts the PA program on Monday, which means our "vacation" is up. We've had about three weeks to do pretty much whatever we wanted, when we wanted, and we were able to do it all with each other. Now that he is starting, he will be in his classes from 8-5. And that is just class alone, you still have to add in the hours of homework and studying. So pretty much, we aren't going to see each other very much. Luckily I will be working long hour days as a nanny so I will keep busy too...just not as busy.

We were talking about how this is the last time when he will have a break, meaning that after he is done with school he will always be working, minus time off, vacations, etc. I guess it's time to grow up! We are excited to finally be moving on with life and become closer to what he wants to do. 

Nate had orientation this past week and met all of his classmates. Des Moines University is awesome for a lot of reasons, but one really good reason is because they gave Nate a brand new laptop! Pretty cool. He got his badge to get into the school...doesn't he look professional? (Notice the beard - his way of rebelling against BYU-I)

I am a nanny for a 3 month old little baby boy, who is just the cutest thing ever! I've been trying to improve my quilting skills so I decided to practice by making this little guy a little quilt. I haven't finished quite yet, I still have to put the binding on around the edges. But other than that it is done. Definitely beginner status, but I was pretty proud of myself! 

Like I said, this isn't all the way completed so don't judge too harshly! 

Here are a few other random pictures we've taken. Didn't I mention I'm horrible at taking pictures? We've done a lot more exciting things like sailing on this fun little lake and doing fun things with friends. But of course I don't have any pictures to prove it...oh well. 

 Bought this shirt in honor of my Dad who loves Pink Floyd...and not to mention it was on sale. 

Nate with another catfish during one of our many fishing outings. (I actually reeled this one in...he was a fighter) 

Well anyway, that is it for now. Hopefully I will find time and motivation to update the blog often. Until then, wish us (mostly Nate) luck!

When we first got to Des Moines we had about three weeks before Nate started school, so we have had some time to do some fun things and explore a bit.

We have a really awesome capitol building! We decided to walk around inside and see what it was like inside since the outside is so cool looking with the gold domed roof. Inside was very cool and very pretty.

We have also done a lot of fishing since we got here. So far we have caught catfish (which are really scary looking) and we caught one blue gill.

Des Moines is a big city compared to Gridley and Rexburg where we come from. So it is fun to explore all the different things to do here, and to have an actual mall we can go to that is not too far away. And not just one, but three! We went to our very first horse race last night and we almost wished we would have bet because we were right almost every time about which horse would win each race! Nate starts school soon, so we are enjoying all this before things get crazy and chaotic and we won't have very much time to spend with one another. So far, life in Iowa is great! :) 

I always told myself I would never have my own blog because I didn't know what I would really write about. I'm not one to take 100 pictures wherever we go, and I really am not very good at documenting things that are going on in our lives. But, I figured that we just made a major life decision by moving to Iowa and we will be doing a lot of new and exciting things. Well that is what we are hoping for anyway! Nate and I both love Des Moines so far. It is absolutely beautiful right now, it is so green with so many trees! Our journey to get here took a little over 20 hours total, and I'll admit it was not the funnest. We ended up renting a Budget truck and decided to tow our car on a trailer behind it. Here is a picture right as we left Idaho. 

That day we drove a little bit in Idaho and all the way across Wyoming. Let me tell you, I've made a lot of boring drives through Nevada, but I would take that any day over driving through Wyoming. The only exciting part about this part of the drive was passing this herd of sheep on the side of the road. 

Our hotel that we were staying in that night was in Ogallala, Nebraska and right before we reached Nebraska a HUGE lightning storm hit us. There was lightning for over two hours and hail the size of marbles. It was really scary, especially driving in that big truck. We were afraid our car would have dents in it, but luckily it was just fine. I wish I could have gotten better pictures of the lightning, but this was all I got. I was more focused on the fact that we were trying to stay alive! 

The next day was another day full of driving. We drove the rest of the way through Nebraska which was full of corn fields. When we finally made it to Iowa, we noticed that it started to get prettier and that there were a lot of rolling hills. When we made it to Des Moines, we were so excited! Not only because we were done driving, but because it was so pretty. We loved all the green hills and all the trees. 

We got to our apartment and started to unload all of our stuff. Nate has a friend that he went to high school with that lives in the complex next to us, and he was so nice and got about 5 other people to help us move all of our stuff into our apartment. What we thought was going to take a long time ended up being quick and painless. That is the nice thing about being Mormon, you have an instant support group wherever you go. We were so grateful for that, and we are so glad to be starting this new chapter in our lives in Des Moines!