Baby's First Christmas

Christmas at the Mangums

Little miss Claus

Loving her present

My sister-in-law took some pictures of Kelsey for us and these are my favorites

Smiley girl

Kelsey's first sporting event- OSU basketball game. I was amazed she didn't cry, especially when they played the loud banging gong sound.

A little light reading

Grandma Mangum's bday

Sporting a Tennessee onesie, since Grandpa got a new job there.

Zonked out on Dad

Guess who is 2 months old already?! This little girl

And I just can't get enough of her. She is so smiley, but every time I try to capture it with the camera she seems to stop. She is sleeping almost 7 hrs. a night, so I'm feeling great. I've actually loved being back to work the past few weeks, because I have awesome students right now, and I just get so excited to come home and see my baby girl afterwards. We are looking forward to Christmas break and to having Ross home with us for a couple of weeks. Here are some recent pictures:

This is what happens when I work and Ross dresses our child- OSU jersey and skinny jeans. We got together with cousins for the big football game.

Family picnic- since we had such incredible weather in November

An update with some pictures of Kelsey. I can't believe it's been almost 4 weeks! Hangin' out

Prayer time

Kelsey's Halloween costume

Ross, mine, and Nicole's pumpkins

Kelsey's 2 week b-day

The Dr. Ross was rotating with went to a conference in China and brought us back this kimono. It is a bit revealing, but hilariously adorable

Welcome Baby Kelsey! One week ago baby Kelsey joined our family. I wanted to write about it before details leave my mind. So, here is the birth story. After a long wait of prayers, fasting, and not so patiently waiting, we found out that we'd be having a little baby. About a year ago, my doctor finally diagnosed me with PCOS, and referred me to a doctor to try some fertility treatments. This Dr. Turner is pretty popular around these parts (as I discovered that she wasn't taking new patients unless I wanted to wait about 4 months to get in). One day in the temple I had a feeling that I should go home and call her office to see if there had been any cancelations and if they could get me in. The front desk woman on the phone told me that this never happens, but that they had had a cancelation and could get me in that week. Most doctors require you to go through several expensive tests before trying fertility treatments in order to rule out all problems. Dr. Turner was awesome and just got us going right away. After just two treatments we were thrilled to find out that I was pregnant. I am so grateful that everything worked out the way it did. My pregnancy was pretty ideal. I know I am so lucky for that. I didn't have morning sickness, or most of the discomforts that people complain about. In fact, I was able to work up until the very end. I taught a lab Wed. night and went into labor Thurs. morning. The day of birth: Last Thursday I went in to see Dr. Turner, and was three days past my due date. I told her that I had noticed a decrease in fetal movement, so she called the hospital and told us that they had one bed available if I wanted to go get induced that day. It was kind of overwhelming to realize that this was finally going to happen. We went straight over to the hospital where the broke my water and started me on oxytocin. Anyone who knows me knows that I have a phobia of needles, and I just about fainted when they put in my I.V. Ironically, later I did just fine when I got the epidural (the thing I was so nervous for). The Anesthesiology resident did it, and missed three times. I could feel her hitting my vertebrae, and somehow wasn't even bothered by it. To the girls who go natural, more power to you I guess, but I think that epidurals are God's gift to His modern day daughters. It was magical and made the whole 12 hr. process bearable. At about 9 that night I went into active labor, and had to push for about and hour and 15 min. I had no idea how exhausting that would be. I had a fever of 102 degrees and had horrible chills, which didn't help. I was so nervous that Dr. Turner wouldn't make it on time and kept asking the nurse when she planned on calling her, because she lives 20 min. from the hospital. Apparently they have this whole system down to an art though, because she called the doctor and she got there about three min. before the baby came out. That was the craziest/coolest thing to see her pull out and hold up my tiny little girl. Even though I've felt her moving in me for the last several months, it was surreal to see this little human. She was 7lbs 15oz., which was pretty big considering they had originally predicted she'd be a tiny 5 pounder due to my hypothyroidism. She is so great. This week has been tiring and full of adjustments and changes, but it is so fun to just sit and stare at this little girl for hours on end. She is such a good baby, and only cries when she is hungry. (We'll hope things stay this way). I love watching how smitten Ross is by her. We blessed her on Sunday at the Mangum's house so that my parents could be there, and he gave her such a nice blessing. I am so grateful for all the help of my parents, family and friends over these last few days. I can't wait to watch baby Kelsey grow up. Wrapping up what turned out to be a novel of an entry: I know that I am so lucky to have this baby in my life, and couldn't have asked for a more incredibly supportive husband, who is just perfect for me. I am so grateful for the way that things have played out in my life, and that even when things didn't work out according to the timeline I thought I wanted, Heavenly Father led me to bigger and better things that I wouldn't have otherwise experienced. Waiting for Kelsey as long as we did allowed me to go to grad school and become qualified for a job that makes me feel so fulfilled and that I love so much, and to be with Ross, my best friend in the world. I hope that going through fertility issues has allowed me to be more sensitive to others in the same situation.

Feb 2012

It's been a while, so I actually have some things to update. At the end of last summer we got to go to SLC for my brother's wedding. Since the photographer was hogging the bride, I was only able to get a picture of other family members. Right when we got home we went to the Outer Banks in NC to hang out at the beach all week with Ross' family. We had a blast. Fall was a pretty busy time as I was studying hard for my Master's Exam, to determine whether or not I would graduate. I consisted of 2 days of 4 hours of writing essays on anything my professors wanted to ask about. Two weeks later was a two hour oral exam where three professors rapidly fired questions at me about Neuro, Histo, Embryo, and Gross Anatomy. It was intense, but was such a relief to have over. In December my parents came to visit Columbus for my graduation. It was so fun to finally have some visitors here. I felt bad they came at the worst season of the year instead of during the beautiful fall. A couple of weeks after we got to go visit AZ for Christmas. It was so fun to see family and several high school friends. Right now Ross is still loving Med School, and I am loving teaching at the Community College and doing some private tutoring for the OSU Dental students. I am so grateful that we live here, where I was able to go to grad school in one of the very few places that even has an Anatomy program, and am now doing exactly what I want to be doing.
Over the last few weeks we have gotten to do a lot of fun stuff. The school is always having these great free events for students, so we saw Stomp last week, and saw Demetri Martin do stand up (which was surprisingly clean and really funny). We also saw Nick Offerman from Parks and Rec (our favorite show)but he started saying some stupid stuff that kind of mocked Christians. It was neat to see several people get up and leave at the same time. We don't have much coming up, other than Ross finishing out the year and taking boards, so knowing me, you'll hear from me in about 6 months or so :)

For Valentine's we went to see the Blue Man Group- it was awesome

We got a new car to replace the CRV that was totaled by a drunk driver

An OSU Hockey game with Brutus the Buckeye

Graduation

OH-IO!

My last first day of school

The Beach

Jase's wedding In SLC