The Royal Wedding

I take a moment from the usual posts on this blog to talk about what Lizzie and I saw quite early this morning as she was nursing.  Yes at 4 a.m. we were awake and looking at the live stream (horrible stopping all the time btw due to buffering) of THE Royal Wedding.  What a dream!!!  I have to say I am unabashedly a fan!  It was lovely.  Just pure loveliness.  The stuff that only Disney and England could pull off so well.

Yes I was in tears as they entered into Westminster Abbey (btw Paul and I were there last year!  So glad he convinced me to go inside).  And then they sang "Come thou Great Jehovah."  Amazing!!  Wow.  Sorry I should write in better sentences.  And of course Kate was such a lovely bride.  Her dress was so incredibly tasteful.  Reminded me of something Grace Kelley would have worn, or did she?  I feel like I've seen her in something similar.  There was beautiful lace all around it.  So demure.  I hear that the lace was hand-stitched and the people who sewed it washed their hands every half and hour to keep the integrity of the dress intact.

John Rutter composed a lovely new song for the event and well, you can always watch the clips on YouTube.  That's what Paul and I spent the morning doing.  And I think the thing that took my breath (and Kate's) away the most was when she and her prince charming walked into the balcony of Buckingham Palace and you could read her lips that she said "wow!"  Then it panned out to the crowd and it was packed.  It went on for miles.  You can't tell me that any woman who hasn't ever dreamed of being a princess didn't just love the whole thing.  It was just lovely and I think the world of Kate. 

 Look at that lovely train!!  And what a gutsy move to have her bridesmaid/sister also wear white.  Fabulous idea.

 The go the prince and princess (or I guess Duke and Duchess (confused)). 

Well, what a lovely morning.  Dear Lizzie, in this world of crazy women like Lady Gaga and whomever else is popular once you are a teenager, you have my full permission to follow the demure and ladylike example of this lovely Kate.  She seems just so, well, lovely and like a shining star for England.  Well, there's my drooling blog of the day.

How is Lizzie, you ask?  Great!  She is sleeping through the night more and I have her on me on a sling while I write this blog.  I figure she'll only be  newborn once and as great as a royal wedding is, there is nothing lovelier than just rocking and holding her.  Such a sweetheart.

Baby Lizzie is 1 Month Old!!

Hurray!  This post dedicated to the cutie who is now one-month old.  How cute is she???  She is enjoying a bit of tummy time on the boppy here.  I can't believe a month has passed.  Paul and I live for her smiles.  Happy one month birthday, Baby Lizzie.  We love youuuuuuuu!

Four weeks old!!

Can you believe our tiny little sweet Lizzie is now 4 weeks old???  Yesiree.  I am writing this post as she nuzzles in a little baby sling on me.  I love it.  Things are going a lot better.  Since I am pretty anal I have been working on figuring out a schedule with her and I think it's slowly coming together.  I also think she knows night and day now.  I still am going on 3 hours but somehow it's gelling.  She is starting to coo and make the cutest sounds and I swear I saw her smile at me yesterday!!

I waffle back and forth between putting her to bed awake and just holding her and rocking her and loving on  her.  They say you can't spoil a newborn enough and I tend to agree.  Especially one as cute as Lizzie cakes.  Here she is sleeping in her sling. 

 Here she is wearing an outfit I wore when I was a mere babe.  It was super tight on her though!!  Maybe for our next babe.

 In our spare time Paul and I made Pretzels.  They were sooo yummy!  I must say Paco is a great chef and he is always willing to experiment which I am sometimes scared of so it's a good balance between us in the kitchen. 

 I love this pic of her! 

 Paul and I were laughing to hard when we took this pic cause Paul said "she looks awful here" and darn it she kind of does but she was so cute in my lap. 

 I feel all contemplative-y here I guess. Lol.

 Happy mama. 

 Paul just woke up and she had tummy time on his chest.  Love it!

  
Well not much else to say but I am just astounded and how quickly the days do pass.  Soon she'll be 4. : )  : (  Frownsmile. 

Daddy's Little Beefcake

So we took sweet Lizzie to the doc on Wednesday, April 13 and she now weights 10.11 ounces!!!  Can you believe it???  At 21 days old, she is in the 97th percentile for her age group!!  Amazing, huh?  Here she is in all her glory, or cuteness.  What a cute little cupcake huh?  Lacey made this cupcake hat for her for my baby shower.  Cute!!

 I love this one above.  She makes the cutest little fists and movements.  Look at those rolls!  I swear she has more today.  I'm so glad she's a big baby.  She also 21 inches long which is in the 80th percentile for her age range.  Amazing!! 

So last night, we left her for the first time alone with Grandma McAllister.  Oh man, I was worried to leave our little 3-week old there but of course she did great.  We went to the West Ridge Academy gala and I wrote an article about it for the Deseret News.   It was a great gala.  Alex Boye performed and we got to sit next to Bishop Burton who is an amazing person and very kind.  He was a lot more soft spoken than I imagined for some reason and had a real light about him. 

It was great to go on a date with Paul but I have to admit Lizzie was on my mind most of the time and I missed her.  Also, I was incredibly sleepy.  I told Paul these 6 weeks are turning into one loooong day because I never really sleep more than 3 hour at a time.  Twilight Zone a bit.  Haha.  I'm sure I'll look back at it and laugh but for now we are one sleepy couple.  Paul is wonderful to help me out and I have been reading this book The Baby Whisperer which says to put your baby to sleep awake.  Sounds great, in theory.  Hahaha.  Well, no time to waste.  Must get back to sleeping while Lizzie sleeps.  Buh bye!

Baby Lizzie

Some pics I'd like to remember

 Taken after her first bath at the hospital.

 Her going home outfit.

 Grandpa Maschmeyer holding our baby.  I'll treasure this one forever. 

 Mami Vicki feeding sweet Lizzie

 She has the cutest little poses!!

 Her first outing - to the doctor's.

 Her little lipsa re the cutest.

 I love this pic!!

 She loves going for rides in the carseat!

 With grandma McAllister.

 She looks so tiny on her daddy!!

Labor Day

So I woke up on Wednesday, March 23 at 7:45 and distinctly knew my water had broken.  Egads!!  So I told Paul and we had a 9:30 a.m. doc's appointment anyway so first my parents came over and Paul and my dad gave me a blessing and then we headed over to the doc and sure enough.  My water broke.  I was so nervous that morning and excited that I only ate a couple of strawberries.  Little did I know I wouldn't be eating anything else that day. 

Dr. Nielsen was pretty surprised that my water broke on the day off but sent me off to labor and delivery to get things started.  I was so nervous!  Here I am checking into labor and delivery with my parents and Paul.

I made sure to look okay for the big event. : )

At noon they gave me pitocin and my contractions started coming.  I tried to brave them out at first because I hear labor can totally stop for a while once the epidural is in.  By 5 p.m. though I was sooo ready for the epidural.  The unsmilingest anesthesiologist ever came in and asked me if I was sure I wanted it and I said oh yes!  Then he had me curve into a ball and dear Paul held my hand.  I honestly could not have done it without him.  He was so calm the whole time and treated things like a science experiment that it made me not be afraid.  The epidural was great.  Here are some pics during the day.

 Suffering through a contraction before I chose the right - epidural!! 

 Dear hubby holding my hand through the whole thing. 

 Paul and my dear mother really helped through the whole process. 

Well, no need to go into any more details here but after about an hour of pushing our sweet baby Elisabeth Nelda McAllister was born at 9:45 p.m. at St Mark's Hospital at 9.1 pounds and 20 inches at an apgar score of 8 and 9.  Go Lizzie! : )  I was somewhat aware that the doctor was fixing me up but there was no pain because I was just in tears watching our new baby girl.  I still can't believe what a miracle it was! 

 I was very anxious for her to eat up her nutritious colostrum - which she did, yay!

 Proud poppa!!

 Right when she was born.  She has her daddy's hands.  She looks like a cute little elf in that hat, huh?

After this, they wheeled me up to my room and then Paul and the nurse went to give her a bath.  She came back looking like this.

 Adorable!  Huh?  So then we had her sleep in our room that night until she started crying and we were both so puzzled.  I'm sure Paul and I will continue to laugh about it for a long time but we asked the nurse in great puzzlement "Why is she crying and how do we make her stop?"  Bless the nurse for not laughing.  She told us to pat her on the back and just gently rock her.  It worked but then she cried again and we decided to have her sleep in the nursery that night after such a long day.  I will always advice my friends to do this.  I don't think it makes you a bad mom cause you can get really stressed out it you put too much on yourself and then you may not produce enough milk or be a happy mommy for your baby.  Speaking of baby, I am now leaving cyberspace to hang out with sweet Lizzie instead of spending too much time here.  Time with Lizzie is never ever wasted and I just listened to such a great talk by Elder Scott talking about playing with your kids and family always over any other stuff.  I completely agree.  Next blog will be more about the baby with new pics.