Mary Jade Ostler!

We went into the hospital on Halloween Night at about 7:30 PM because we suspected that Sara's water broke and had been leaking since about 3:30 PM but she didn't want to miss the Halloween festivities. :) She labored very diligently, and waited until she got to about 5 cm until she asked for an epidural. They gave her an epidural, and she continued to dilate slowly throughout the night. The epidural wore off and she labored without it for about six hours, and she stayed around a 9 the whole time. She was a 9 for so long, and the baby's head dropped to zero station, but she continued to be at a 9. Dr. Jackson checked where she was at and her cervix was swollen, so although it was dilated to a 9 it felt like an 8. Then it got even more swollen, and for some reason the baby was stuck and wouldn't drop down anymore, and Sara wouldn't dilate anymore. She was in labor for over 24 hours, but Dr. Jackson said there hadn't been any progress for a long time, and recommended a Cesarean section. After a blessing and some tears, we decided to proceed. They got ready to operate and they delivered the beautiful Mary Jade Ostler at 8:08 PM on November 1st 2008. She weighed 7 lbs, 3 oz and was 19 inches long. She is completely healthy with all her fingers and toes and everything where it should be. She was a little bruised up from all the labor and had a slight cone head, but it went down quickly. The surgery went well, and about an hour later, Sara was wheeled back to her room and she got to hold her baby and feed her. Mary and Sara are both doing very good, and Mary recently got a bath from her Daddy (me!). I hope you like these pictures we took so far of the baby and us.

Love,

Andrew and Sara

Sara laboring in bed



Dr. Jackson preparing for the C-section



In the operating room, Sara on oxygen and Andrew in a mask



Surgeons discussing before operation with Dad in the forefront

A freshly born Mary Jade being cleaned up



Mary Jade Ostler a few minutes old



Mommy holding Mary with her sweet eyes open



Daddy kissing Mary's head



Mommy kissing her baby Mary



Mommy and baby who looks pretty in pink



Mary Jade Ostler, our sweetheart!

Slideshow of photos from the last few days
Music: Angel Lullaby
Made with love on November 3rd 2008

Preparing for baby

Andrew and I have been busy the last few months. Since we last blogged, I've been to California twice. Once to drop off the birds at a rehibilitation center in Long Beach, and another time to begin preperations for our new addition. Our little girl will be born in the next few weeks, and preparing for her arrival while stressful at times has been fun. Last month we went to California to my friend Lisa's wedding, and also so my amazing cousin Cindy could throw us an awesome baby shower. Belive me if she wasn't already an outstanding nurse, she could be an organized party planner and have her own business. The pictures will prove it. We were even able to use most of the decor for a beautiful second shower that my talented mother in law threw for us when we got home. In between the two showers my gifted father in law wallpapered the nursery in one night, and my husband (the love of my life, and precious pig) built our new daughter her crib. We want to take this time to thank all of the people who have been so generous in helping us get ready for our baby. Especially our parents on both sides. They have helped us turn our little run down house into a place we can call home. We love you and hope we can be as good of parents to our sweet Mary Jade, as you all were to us.

Hugs (Gemmers) is always happy to see Mommy and his new Daddy when we come home for a visit. Nelson even seems to like Andrew, but no one seems to love him more than Vel, or as he is now known by Andrew ROAST.

These are all the party decorations and food that Cindy got for us. Everyone loved it. I'm still surprised that I didn't see real storks wandering around Uncles house.

Saying goodbye for me is always the hardest part. I don't know why I didn't do more pictures with the rest of my family, and so now I'm kinda of bummed. Andrew tried on my maternity clothes to see if he could make himself feel just a bit of what I feel. Who wouldn't have to get a black mail picture of that. I love you honey!

After returning home it was time to begin decorating the nursery. Generously donated wallpaper from Uncle Brad was hung by my genius father in law. The pictures show a somewhat step by step process.

Next it was time to build the crib. An eight hour task with several parts and difficult to impossible to follow instructions. You more just need common sense sometimes. Which blessedly for me my sweet husband has. In addition he has the patience of Job. Didn't it turn out better than great though. It just needs a baby now.

After the crib was put together, we went the following day to our other baby shower. Much of our family and friends came a long distance to wish us well and shower our beautiful new baby to be with love and gifts. It's a good thing they did, or they would have missed the best food ever. My mother in law soon to be "GRAM" slaved in the kitchen for days before the party. It was such a beautiful day, and was also the first snow of our winter season. Yes, I know it's still fall. Do you think that the first snow on our day could be considered good luck? I do!

Feed The Birds

OH SO HUNGRY!

FIVE BABY BARN SWALLOWS

GRIFFIN, BUCKBEAK, RAIN, PHOENIX, AND CELESTE OSTLER
(PLEASE DON'T ASK WHAT ORDER THEY ARE IN)

Today Andrew and I celebrated our five month anniversary as a married couple. It was a great day. He called me from work, and told me that one of the guys he works with knocked a nest down thinking there were no birds in it. This was two days ago, and the Mom and Dad bird, although around seem to have lost interest. They gave up feeding them and I guess don't know what to do. I knew these birds wouldn't make it with out help and a miracle. There were five barn swallows, and Andrew and I were afraid they were going to die. You can see this video at the bottom of the page which was taken this morning, and then know that in the hours since then they all have only improved. They sleep, but tweet when they are hungry. I called my Mom for advice. Since Eubie our brewers blackbird lived to be 13. He was a bird that our pet cat Camphor brought home to us. I bought "cheep" dog food and mixed it with a tiny bit of water per Mom's instructions. I thought for sure they were goners because they just weren't opening up their beaks, unless I forced them. I also noticed they were shivering, so they went down my top and rested in my cleavage on the drive home. That's when they started chirping. I got them into a laundry basket and kept them in, yes it's true one of my softest and oldest bras. It was warm from the dryer. I put a lamp over them and now they are five of the happiest birds. I don't let them get too warm. Now they eat and poop constantly. I can only thank Heavenly Father for this miracle, because I prayed for these baby birds at lunch. I prayed that I would know what to do, and that if it was His will, that they would live. I know we are not out of the woods yet, but I really think they are going to be okay. They just needed a little TLC. This is going to take patience, hard work, persistence, and love. I know I can do it, because my own Mom was amzing at it. I watched her do it. I can't wait for the day when I can take them back to the Manti Temple grounds and release them back with all their other brother and sisters. I really hope they make it. We'll keep you updated on their progress.

Pool Party!

Ephraim, Utah has reached some record highs. I'm told this is because of all the negative temperatures in our bitter, cold winter. I'm a little more than half way through this pregnancy, and living in a house with no air conditioning. However, I'm here to tell you I'm glad we moved into a house. Our apartment would have been way worse. We were on the second floor and heat rises. Besides making home improvements along the way will be all part of the fun. Especially since we just met with our landlord and she loved that we had done so much thus far, she gave us permission to do almost whatever we wanted. That being said, and going back to the heat we decided that a pool was a must. Mom and Dad chipped in from California and so off to Walmart I went. Several nice people helped me load the beast into the car. Andrew and I hosed the majority of the rocks off our patio, and laid down a tarp. The next steps were installing and filling the pool. The side of the box said ready for water in just ten minutes. I assure you even if you are a professional that is a vicious lie. It was a lot of hard work, but we both knew it would be well worth it. A few of the neighborhood kids had jealously pooling in their eyes, and for that I felt a bit of sadness. As we began setting it up, the neighbors cats came to watch, and give their approval while resting in our shade. Soon it was time to fill it with water. A task which wasn't easy because of the extreme water pressure running through our tiny hose. Luckily we had patio chairs and plenty of OFF insect repellent. This doesn't seem to help me any. We looked it up and soon discovered mosquitoes like pregnant women twice as much. However, the cold water feels great on our bites. Our neighbor has the exact same pool only bigger, and she said she noticed no difference in her water bill. This was great news to us, and made me relax more as we pumped almost 1,700 gallons of H2O into our pool. She also bought a tarp and covered her pool because it's so hot her water temperature got to be 92 degrees. We only had the tarp on ours one day and it was already swimmable. We bought a raft, and a yellow jacket catcher since we noticed they seem to be building a hive near our pool. Finally ready we got in and enjoyed many hours of our new luxurious pool. We couldn't be happier and we know we'll get many years of happiness. Please enjoy our pictures and videos below. Happy Fourth of July to all. Andrew and I will spend a quiet day at home. There is a brilliant firework show not far from our house, but we decided to stay here, barbecue, swim, and set a few of our own fireworks off in the street by our house. Adding our pool will only make this a great day! If you're feeling hot and want to come take a dip, please come and stay anytime.

Spreading out the pool and beginning to remove wrinkles

Simba watches as an uninterested party, and cools off in the shade



Andrew shows me his pool hose



Inflating the top ring




Fillin' her up with water the old fashioned way




There arose such a ladder and as usual Sara has a full bladder!




Standing in the beautiful cool pool water the next day
Sara says "Ah, my squito bites feel better already."



Just half a Taft trying out the new raft




Come on in, the water's fine! "Mmmm my wife made this look a lot easier."




Whoops, try again! :(




Sara and her two babies floating comfortably in the water