IZAAK EDWIN CAMPBELL

When I was pregnant, Kayden and I went back and forth on baby names. We couldnt decide on Ethan or Khayl.. but then one day I thought of Izaak. We both liked it but it wasnt until I couldnt sleep one night (which happened a lot during the pregnancy), that I sat up really thinking about my baby and a name that would suit him. When I finally got my thoughts in order I woke Kayden up and told him the following:

"I have such good feelings about our son. I feel like Heavenly Father has really preserved his spirit until this time in the world when he can truly live up to every expectation the Father has for him and be an elite Son of God. And that's why I want his first name to be Izaak.

"I think we should name his middle name Edwin cause, well first we already told my dad we would, but that way my dad will have a little name sake.. but not only my dad, but me too, cause my dad and I are so much alike. So his middle name will be Edwin but it will REALLY mean Strickland, haha... ya following me? (kayden barely utters "yea" at this point..) And so by naming him Edwin, we'll be blessing him with the characteristics my dad and I share- like a strong will, a sound mind, a charming personality, and well the list goes on really... haha

"THEN obviously his last name will be Campbell BUT that will give him all of the Campbell attributes and a name to live up to- like faith and a desire to be like his dad and serve a mission and to serve God continually, to live close to the spirit, and stuff.."

At this point, Kayden fell back asleep, but when he woke up I recapped and his argument for khayl was NOTHING compared to my thesis of a name... of course I probably jinxed myself, and Izaak could very well turn into a burley naked-woman-drawing tatoo artist or something but... that's his choice.

I just cant deny the feelings I had and still have about my son: I know that he -like all of us- is a child of God, with a special spirit, and endless potential. And I hope that I can be the mom that he needs and as he gets older, help him realize who he is and help him to be able to live with God again someday.

PS- and why didnt I tell anyone the name we had thought of? Because I didnt want to hear "EWw i HAte that nAME!" or "...ohh.. thats.. an ...interesting name", etc. PLUS i wanted to make sure that when I saw him, it felt right, soo.. hope that answers some questions.

Baby Izaak

I feel like blogging, but I feel like I cant blog until I blog about Izaak.. I havent been able to write about the labor, because once I finally had him (the labor inducing salad didnt work btw) we didnt have the internet AND THEN we didnt have a computer (but now we do! THANK YOU ROTH FAMILY!!) So feel free to continue reading if you havent gotten sick of this story already..

I was scheduled to be induced on Saturday May 23 at 12am, however my water broke two hours prior. Kayden and I were laying in bed, trying to take a nap to calm our nerves before a busy night at the hospital but I heard a pop inside and freaked out. The water didnt gush out immediately until i relaxed! HaHa i sat there on the toilet texting every body that my water broke!

So Kayden gave me a blessing, we packed our stuff and headed for... SONIC! LOL i knew they weren't going to let me eat or drink, so we had to get a quick fix. By the time we got there (btw it was not on the way nor was it near our apartment) I was starting to have contractions; by the time we were actually getting on the 215 heading for the 95, I started really feeling them. By this point, I felt like my water had broken atleast three more times- there was soo much fluid! We began timing them as we were passing Sunset and by the time we got to the hospital they were every two minutes apart.

I told the nurses I was in labor & my water had broken and I guess maybe because I wasnt screaming or crying or lying on the floor they didnt really believe that my contractions were every two minutes UNTIL they did an exam and saw I was dialated to a 6! The contractions werent bad, they were just SO annoying OMG! Everytime i got comfortable, the next one hit! So.. I got the epidural! HAha! And i'm so glad i did! I remember looking at the charts and watching my contractions just plateau and not feeling a thing (thank you Dr. Trnygh).

My labor progressed a centimeter every hour and at about 2am they started giving me petocin because Izaak's head was still really high. By 4am the nurses ran in freaking out because heart rate had dropped, so they put me on oxygen and turned me on my side. I felt so bad when they were turning me because I couldnt even lift my leg up- these two little 'pino ladies had to turn my 205lb-self over, haha... Once his heart rate was good, they then told me i was fully dialated & 100% effaced, but then they just left the room! I asked my mom "...oookkkaaayy.. so when do we push?" At about 4:25am I couldnt resist the urge and asked my mom to call the nurse so I could atleast an idea of when we could start pushing so I could focus on that, but the nurse came in and let me start pushing right away.

I pushed for about twenty minutes when kayden and my mom told me they could see Izaak's hair.. of course i had to feel down there (haha sick i know..). Then both nurses told me to stop pushing if i wanted my doctor to be able to deliver the baby. I guess he was not expecting labor to progress so quickly and was still in route to the hospital. So -please dont imagine this- i sat there for 20 more minutes with Izaak crowning (haha seriously thinking he was gonna plop out any minute) waiting for Dr. Paul. At 5am he finally got there and i pushed what seemed like just a handful of times. AGAIN- THANK GOODNESS for the epidural! bahaha, i got a little taste of what the pain felt like (i remember reading the description as "a burning explosion" in a mommy book and thats exactly what i thought) and then Dr. Paul gave my an epiosiotomy (sp.ck?). You should have seen the look on kayden's face when he did that!! HAHA! He only cut about 3/4 of an inch and then we welcomed Izaak into the world :)

He was 9lbs 21in long. Dr. Paul immediately said "yep, he's as big as i thought he would be". AND GOOD THING TOO, cause for how HUGE i was, if he was only like 6lbs I woulda sent him home with somebody else! just kidding, but once i got home from the hospital and weighed myself I had lost 25lbs just from delivery and fluid.. lots and lots of fluid.. Since then i've lost another 15lbs, and have -oh, about 20 more to go! :p

Two weeks after izaak was born, my friend Amy (who was my YW leader growing up) came over and took some stellar pictures of my munchkin! I'll be forever grateful for her talent!

By his one month appointment, Izaak was 12.4lbs and 23inches long. Now he is one day short of three months, 15.4lbs and 24inches long! I've got to get some new pictures up but he is THE most amazing baby ever! Not to mention the cutest!

(..and, yes, i am a little biased!)

LaBoR INDUCING SaLaD

Yesterday, Bec sent Kayden a recipe that supposedly induces labor. I've heard about it before, I guess a cafe in California calls it the Maternity Salad because the pregnant woment who eat it go in to labor pretty quickly after. Therefore, I was ordered by Kayden to make this salad TODAY- he even called and reminded me!! LOL

It consists of:

1. European Salad Mix- the more sprouts and weeds the better


2. Gorgonzola Cheese- I got it at Smith's: "Aged to 90 days to perfection" probably the WORST part about the salad... unless your a bleu cheese type fan...


3. Blasamic Vinegarette- this I heard is the KEY to inducing labor


4. Walnuts- I dont like nuts very much, but I put LOTS in.. its really helping with the choking the cheese down...


5. Arugla- a leafy green added for taste


6. Watercress- I couldnt find this at the store so my salad is watercress-less

I wish I could take a picture of my salad right now to show you how "delicious" it looks. I've resorted to plugging my nose with each bite (I'm telling you, its the cheese).

After finishing the salad, I will have tried everything but jumping on a trampoline. Oh and tonight's dinner is going to be very spicy.. HaHa, so if labor is indeed started tonight, I guess I wouldn't really be able to tell you what exactly did it...

Reasons Why Kayden Is The BEST HUBBY:

So I know this is a kind of a random blog BUT it was a really rough morning for us. I had really bad indigestion that woke me up at 3:30am and would not subside with any medicine. So when I woke up, Kayden woke up and then we just hung out together talking about the week that we're going to have and cuddling. Before we knew it, he was running late for work and begging me to let him call his boss to say that I was going in to labor and needed a week off.. to which I hesitantly said no BUT I hate it when he has to leave!! So in light of me missing my husband, enjoy the rest of the blog (PS Sorry I only have wedding and engagement pictures of us.. we really need to invest in a camera lol):

REASONS WHY KAYDEN IS DAA BEEESSSSSSTTT:

1. He's so creative & gets so excited about his ideas!!

-So I know some of you tried to read my Easter post, but the text in it got all kinds of CRAZY so I had to delete the post and didn't have time to republish it. BUT basically kayden had the best idea. We went to walmart the day AFTER Easter for FHE and split up for about twenty minutes. when we got back home, we unveiled our 50%-75%off homemeade baskets to each other. ....He included sunscreen, a new bath loofa, some of my favorite candies, and tums (a pregnant girl's best friend) just to name a few. In his basket, I put a tape measure, a level, some Powerbars, UNO, and some other dorky stuff. But he made Easter SO exciting for me and helped us establish our first holiday tradition.

2. He honestly pays attention to me.

-I was just telling him last night that I'm so glad I married him, especially in comparison to some of the other guys I dated. I remember thinking on more than one occasion, with more than one guy, "Didn't I already tell you this?" or "How could you forget that about me?" With Kayden, he knew how to get to my house after driving there ONE TIME!! For the first time EVER, I met a man who was actively interested in me.. lol he even looked me up on facebook before our first official date and memorized my birthday so that I would believe him when he "guessed" it.. nerd.. lol

3. He loves me... ALL of me..

-So I've gained a good 60lbs with this pregnancy. (Yeah I know, I'm crying just typing this) and I have stretch marks, almost all over me.. My face and nose are swollen and I sweat so bad that I constantly stink from my head to my feet.... I wont even start on my abnormal hair growth and skin discoloration.... My hormones are CRAZY (thats another blog in itself!), I get upset and cry all the time, I'm constantly tired and becoming such a boring home-body, and if it were not for the pregnancy "nesting stage" our apartment would be filthy because I'm pretty much a slob..Yet Kayden still finds me attractive. He loves to kiss me and tells me he loves me all the time; his new nick name for me is "Teautiful Preganent". He even made up a little song/jingle with my nickname that he sang on on my voicemail.

I love my husband so much. The doctor asked us yesterday how the pregnancy is effecting our newlywed relationship and if I was ready to kick him out. I said, "Are you kidding me?! I'll never find anyone else who puts up with me [so well and lovingly]!" I love spending all of my time with him and I always get so upset on Sunday nights because I get so spoiled sharing all my weekend time with him and know I have to give it up in the morning when we part ways for work. He's honestly my best friend, and I cant wait to be a family!!

Baby's Room!

I'm so excited!

Kayden & I finished putting together our baby crib and dresser/armoire last night..

Not only is this such an achievement, BUT it forced us to clean out all the crap in our spare bedroom!

We got a KiLLeR deal from Sears so I thought I'd post the pic for some free advertisment to them as a thank-you.

We're BLOGging!!

Now that we're settling into the married life quite nicely, I figure it's time to set up our blog!

..And hopefully it will encourage me to take more pictures. We're so bad at that!


ALSO i've been such a Debbie Downer since i've been pregnant, so hopefully blogging will allow me to share my happy thoughts a little more!