Done At the Hospital

Odds and ends from the last two days in the hospital:

I finally got to eat "real" food the next day after Sam was born. I was so sick of 7-Up and Jello!

Connor loved playing with the bed controls. He's so curious, he has to know how things work. Emma was just a monkey, and it was hilarious to watch them be glued to the tv in the room. Mom, who's Mom?

Emma was very cranky and upset whenever she visited at the hospital. If she could talk very well, I'd bet she'd say, "I miss you! When are you coming home. I'm so mad that you are not there!" P.S. - That's marker on her face.

Blizzard conditions the day Sam was born. And that led to...

My Mom has this tradition of picking out teddy bears to represent each one of her grandchildren. While browsing the selection at the hospital gift shop, she found this bear with nice frosty blue and white fur, just perfectly representing the frosty day Sam was born. Emma is really into stuffed animals these days, and she loved to hold the Sam Frosty bear.

Emma was enchanted with her new baby brother Sam...

...or maybe just his bink. She's been a notorious binky thief ever since we brought Sam home.

Zen and I got to have the traditional couple's dinner served up by the staff of the hospital cafeteria. Dani and Mom stayed home with Connor and Emma, so it was like a real date.

The day we left the hospital, Thursday. You'd never know it was blizzarding two days before. That's spring snow in Wyoming. On the left is the o.b. wing, where Sam was born and I recovered, and on the right is the main entrance.

All packed up and ready to go. The whole hospital had undergone a renovation recently, and the o.b. wing was new and spiffy. It was a lovely room to stay in. Some people hate staying in the hospital, but I love it, because I get a break from having to take care of things, and people are there to help me and get me what I need.

We had the hardest time picking out a middle name for Sam. We were just having no vibes whatsoever, be it family names or any other source. The last bit of paperwork to finish filling out before we left the hospital was the info for the birth certificate. Zen wrote some names on the dry erase board in my room, just names he, Dani, and I liked.

It took forever, but we finally narrowed it down to Samuel Zachary Allred.

Dani dressed Sam in his going-home outfit. Isn't she so beautiful? You get a glimpse of what she will look like when she's a woman. I catch myself looking at her, or she catches me looking at her, at random moments, and this is what I'm doing - imagining her as a woman, and the happy feelings it gives me. Dani often says, "You're doing it again!"

These are the three receiving blankets I sewed for Sam, with burp rags. Before and during the sewing, Emma took such a liking to the froggy fabric, that I wound up finding some more froggy fabric, but with a pink background, at Wal-Mart and made a pink froggy blanket just for her. It's because her favorite movie right now is the Princess Frog.

Dani helped to sew them. We worked on them while we listened to General Conference the weekend before Sam was born.

Baby Sam all packed up and ready to go. It was stressful getting out of there, because I invited the older kids to come and be with us when we took Sammy out of the hospital and took him home, but there were all these little details to take care of, like picking the middle name, and admittedly, I made it worse by trying to take just one more picture, and shooting a little video of the hospital room before I left. Zen and Gil were waiting out in the car with Emma, who was freaked out, and crying in her car seat.

It was good to be home and for everyone to have Mommy back, and there wasn't a medical reason to stay, but I have to say, a part of me wished I could stay alone at the hospital one more day, or maybe a week?

Photo Shoot a la Susie

Featuring the wonderful work of Sue, photographer extraordinaire, and her able assistant, Grammie!

It was a lucky thing that the weather was so bad Tuesday, closing down the interstate, that Sue stayed the night Tuesday, and so had time Wednesday morning for these wonderful pictures! There were so many to choose from, it was hard to narrow them down, so I picked a bunch!

Day One Part Two

Sue did a great job with the first baby post, but the thing with having a super-duper professional photographer present for the birth of a child, is that there are a TON of cute pictures to choose from, nearly 600! I feel like papering the walls of the house with Susie's great photos! I can't resist throwing in another post of pics.

I'm starting off with a few pics, from my camera, taken the night before the delivery.


I experimented the week before with pizza, and came up with a yummy recipe for spinach mushroom pizza. So, I served up a pizza treat for my Mom and sister Sue the night before baby Sam's delivery.

Zen and the kids all turned off our media, and we had some family together time with Mom and Sue, and played Apples to Apples. Connor and Emma got into the action, in their own way.


It was blizzarding like crazy the morning of the birth, bitter cold wind blowing snow all across the road. I'm glad we live in town, instead of miles away from the hospital. We got into the hospital around 6am, got checked in, and the nurses started prepping me for the c-section.

My ginormo self, and I guess I look good in this pic. But, I was feeling nostalgic this past week about this pregnancy being the last one, and tried to enjoy all the wiggling from Sam despite the discomforts of moving around like a penguin.

The upside - I won't have to do this again, at least not for having babies.


"It's cold out here, and people keep messing with me!"


First snuggles

Sweet baby feet.

First yummies.

Meet The Family!






Gil had to share his MP3 music with Sam.

Connor and Emma went nuts exploring the room, and their favorite game was playing peekaboo in the coat closet.



That was our first day! We're so glad Sam is here, and I want to treasure every minute with him!

The Caboose Has Arrived!

Aunt Susie, guest blogging:

It's been an eventful day at the Memorial Hospital of Sweetwater County in Rock Springs, WY.  We arrived at the hospital just before 6:00am.

This is the last time you'll see Becky like this:

Yep, the tubes are tied and Baby Samuel is the caboose.

Since Becky knew this would be her last baby, she invited me to accompany her in the operating room for her C-Section so I could photograph the birth. It was awesome!

Especially my outfit:

After having done this whole C-Section thing twice before, Becky was totally relaxed and joking with the anesthesiologist as her surgery got underway.

Samuel (no middle name yet) Allred was born just a couple of minutes later at 7:39am.

He has a healthy set of lungs and did plenty of squalking while they cleaned him up.

Samuel has really long fingers and toes and is all ready for his first nail clipping.





Becky got to say a brief hello before the nurses took Samuel to the nursery to get weighed and measured while the docs sewed Becky up.





Happy to be in the warmer:



I was allowed to accompany Samuel to the nursery even though the rules say only the parents can go in. The nurse let me hang out and take lots of pictures even after Zen came in to meet Samuel. I got a kick out of him taking a cell phone pic to send to Gil and Dani.



Grammie stood outside the big nursery window taking lots of her own pictures and video.





Sam was quite alert after all of his initial tests. He weighed 8 pounds 4 ounces and measured 20 1/2 inches long.





Meeting Grammie:



After about an hour and a half Becky finally got to hold her sweet baby boy.









The proud Daddy making the "baby news" phone calls.



Becky and Sam are both doing well, resting off their birthing hangover. I'm sure Becky will have more pictures to post over the next few days.

Congrats, Becky and Zen, and thank you for letting me share in your final birth experience! Love you!