Meet Halli

Once again, all pictures are backwards. I'll start from the beginning this time.

Friends from my Relay for Life team- Rashelle, Marie, and Debbie! (the real reason Halli decided to come 10 days early!)

Such a proud sister!

The Big Protector (brother).
Meeting for the first time!

The Proud Daddy and his beautiful daughter!


Halli's first night.

Halli right after her first bath

(Cauley "evaluating me")

(Me, showing one last look at my HUGE pregnant belly!)


Well, like life, nothing with the end of this pregnancy happened the way it was "supposed to." I was actually scheduled to be induced on Sunday, April 25th at 3:00 p.m., but questioned whether or not my "date" would stick. (The hospital I was delivering at has been so overloaded with babies lately that no inductions were taking place when they were supposed to.) So, knowing this, I headed down to join my teammates and have a great time walking in the Queen Creek Relay for Life on Friday afternoon. We were all laughing so hard because the lady who was in charge was VERY concerned for me and the baby and pointed out where there were nurses stationed, where the firemen and ambulance were stationed, and where to find a cart to get me some place quickly if needed. I didn't know until later that she had told the firemen there to keep an eye on me. (They seriously were watching my every move all night long! It kinda gave me a complex!) I walked with a few friends for a while, but had some pretty hard contractions that were anything but regular so I took it easy, eating the fruit bouquet I won in a raffle that night from Edible Arrangements, walking around "shopping" at different booths, and chatting with awesome friends. I seriously LOVE being a part of Relay for Life! My walking time was from 10:00 p.m.-11:00 p.m. and by then I knew I had overdone it, so Debbie and I walked really slow. By 11, I could barely move any longer so I packed up my chair and went home.



I woke up at 3:02 a.m. to go to the bathroom and had another hard contraction. Before I was able to climb back into bed, another one. I laid down, another, and so on. I woke up Cauley so he could time them (I couldn't see the clock) and within a few more, we knew we needed to call someone to come stay with the kids. We got to the hospital around 4 where we spent some time walking around the L&D floor, trying to make some progress (I was only at a 2 & 60%, but my contractions were every 2-3 minutes or less still.) After a long walk, and me being exhausted, we were reevaluated and admitted to the hospital. Time to have this baby! I was immediately started on antibiotics because of an allergy. It took forever to get to L&D because all the computer systems were down (and stayed down even after we left the hospital on Monday!)


Things were not going as fast as I'd have liked. My body didn't want to be done being pregnant, and the Dr. and nurses didn't want to hurry me along either. (The antibiotics I had to have had to come with 2 doses every 6 hours apart.) I was frustrated, but what can you do? I tried holding out on the epidural for as long as I could, but by 3 in the afternoon my body couldn't take any more. I was EXHAUSTED!! I got my epidural, which was a wonderful experience this time, unlike with Tyli! FINALLY, around 6 p.m. I had had all my antibiotics and the Dr. told me he would break my water. Once that happened, I went from a 3-5 in half an hour, and then was ready to push in another 45 minutes. I pushed for about 30 minutes before the Dr. told me I had to stop because she was stuck, and probably wouldn't move without help. I wanted to cry, but opted for help with suction. A few contractions later, out came my beautiful baby girl- quietly looking around at her new world. I was worried she wasn't crying, as was everyone else in the room, but she was just content to give us a quiet squawk every few seconds when prodded. She is seriously my quietest baby by far! We all spent another 2 hours in L&D before being shown to our new room.

We were really blessed to get a great location for our recovery room. It was totally out of the way from all the others and had no neighbors- just a supply closet! It was so quiet and nice that we all got pretty good rest. On Sunday we had a few visitors, 3 of my friends from Relay for life (top picture) and my kids who were brought by my in-laws. It was fun sharing our new sweet moments with good friends and family! Monday Morning came and I begged to get to go home- which we did, just at about noon! Aunt LaRee came right as we were being discharged, and it is always fun to see her. Then we came home where we are all happy to be, getting to know our new beautiful family member- Halli D Clark!

Halli D Clark
Saturday, April 24, 2010
8:20 p.m.
7 lbs 10.4 oz
21 inches long

*The D in her name stands for 3 important women in her life; her great grandma, Dora Turley (Cauley's grandma), Halli's grandmother, Debi Ruth (my mom), and my Aunt, Dorothy Ruth.

A little bit of this and that- with a few pictures this time.

I have been doing lots lately to prepare for this little girl to get here and I thought I would add it here for journaling purposes. For those who haven't checked it out lately, Cauley finally did update his blog (it's under my family list on the left hand side under "our other blog").

First off, my baby shower; thrown by these two beautiful ladies, my sister-in-laws, Stephanie and Jennifer.

Here is the dessert table from my shower. The funniest part was I let Tyli come and her first thing she spotted was the diaper cake that's in the background. She said, "Mom, look at that pretty cake!" I asked if she knew what it was made of and she just looked at me like "crazy lady, it's a cake!" So I said "It's made of diapers." "OOOOH GROSS!" she yelled. I laughed so hard!
Here is the other food that was served. Doesn't everything look so yummy? (It was, too. I think I ate WAY too much!)
Here is just one picture from the Clark family's Father and Sons outing the same weekend as my shower. All the guys met at Grandma Greer's house (Brad's mom's) and camped out in her backyard. It was perfect for them! (They had a fire and slept in tents- what more do you need to camp out?) For more details about this, go read Cauley's blog.

Cauley's latest around-the-house project has been working on our backyard. This is a total "before" picture. He has since extended the patio to the far end of the air conditioning units and as far out as the dirt goes clear across. It looks so nice! He also got the jungle weeds (we've had lots of rain!) outta there and cleaned up the yard. It really looks so much better- come and see!
(See the pavers hiding behind the slide?)

You know you're about ready to have a baby when everyone in the ward, including some men, keep asking "How much longer?" Seriously! (I'm HUGE!) *For those who want a belly shot, check out Cauley's blog cause I refuse to post that for journaling purposes! I just had another ultrasound on Tuesday because my belly is what my doctor calls "all baby- not even room for an ounce of fat". (Of course he's wrong, but it sounds good, eh?) Anyways, since there is no give to my belly, he wasn't able to tell how she is laying. He thought she was head down, but couldn't figure anything else out so he just wanted to make sure. She is indeed head down, bum straight up, but instead of facing my back or front, she is sideways, mostly with her feet and knees toward the head. (I was told that's why she sticks out so much- it's her hips and shoulders poking out at everyone.) I have almost gained a full 20 pounds now, so she should be a healthy weight like the others. I am just getting tired of going to stores and having those nosy people say, "Oh wow. You have a baby in your belly!" I was a little insulted the other day when I went down the ice cream isle (not even for ice cream, just cutting down the isle for milk) and a guy who was on that isle looked at me and busted up laughing. "Need a snack?" he said. Oh well. I just hope she gets here soon! I did finish my preschool year out with a graduation last week. Now that it's done, I'm grateful for a little more flexible free time. I am also getting ready to participate in the Queen Creek Relay for Life for the American Cancer Society again. It's next weekend and I plan on walking until this baby falls out!

Cauley has also been very busy helping me get ready for this baby around the house, school, and track. He has been working so hard and I appreciate all that he does. It's hard, having him leave really early (around 5:30 a.m.) and not ever getting home before 6:30 p.m., usually after 10 on meet nights, and then having him busy still with school or track stuff until late at night. Even his weekends are taken. Can you believe he had the nerve to ask me to prom for this Saturday. (He has to chaperon and we usually do that together as a date.) I think I'd be the laughing stock of the world, showing up literally ready to pop!

Well, you are somewhat updated for now. This summer has LOTS going on, including a baby being born, a few family weddings (which we are SO excited for!!!), baby blessing, my parents may come down for a visit (first time in 3 1/2 years!), and other fun adventures. I'll try and do better at posting- unless everyone is right about #4 being a LOT harder to get used to.