Sliding shower door shattered

Today I was giving Henry a bath and he was having fun throwing his toys and splashing like he always does. He stood up threw a little plastic toy in the lower corner of the tub and the glass shower door shattered. Henry fell backwards on to all the glass that has shattered. I screamed and pulled him out of the tub. He was covered in glass shrapnel. I set him down and saw blood all over his feet and under his arm. Edward ran upstairs after he heard me screaming. We picked poor little Henry screaming and cover with tiny pieces of glass and took him to the bathroom. Edward put pressure on the one foot that was bleeding and it seemed to be a lot. We were both really worried about all the little pieces of glass on him and his foot and called 911.

Ambulance came and the parametic help clean him up and look at his foot. They told us it was a pretty deep cut but probably wouldn't need stitches. Thankfully he just has some scraps and cut on his body and only one major cut. After he was cleaned up wrapped up we snuggled with him and had fruit snacks. Adventures in bathing at the Nicholes house.

Autumn's Birth Story

I started having contraction around 1:00 in the morning on March 11th. I seriously thought this might be it... but it had happened at least every other day since 38 weeks. So I decided to try and sleep in between contractions to see what happened.  Around 5:00 my contractions were still 8-6 minutes apart. I text my Doula Rebecca and told her what was going on so I didn't wake her up. She then replied 40 minutes later and said start getting arrangements for Henry and get things together because it most likely was time. I sent a text to my friend Katee (she was also about to have a baby herself) she replied and would show up around 9:00 to get him. I woke up Edward around 7:00 and we started getting Henry ready to go.

9:00 My Doula Rebecca and friend showed up around the same time. Rebecca then suggested that we go for a walk. The weather was beautiful. We walked around the I was having contractions 5-4 minutes apart. It was time to go.

9:30 We went to McDonald's to get breakfast. While in the drive through I had a couple more contractions walking outside the car waiting for food. We had our food and were on our way to the hospital. Edward said Rebecca had told her that if I was comfortable in the car it was not time to go to the hospital. I then go another contractions and said "Pull over now. I need to get out of the car." Guess we better get to the hospital.

9:45 Arrived at the hospital but I really wanted to just walk around the hospital and enjoy the outdoors. So we walked to the cafeteria and through the halls of the hospital. Along the way still having contractions 7-4 minutes apart. In between contractions we all would talk, joke and just have a nice time. I would get contractions mid sentence and walk over to a wall spread my arms while I stroked the wall and made and low cooing noise. The texture of the wall helped me focus on relaxing and letting my body go limp. Nurses and heath care professionals would come up to me and ask if I was okay. My husband would then say "She's fine. Just having a contraction." Pretty sure they thought we were crazy.

11:00 Walking around outside and I felt like I might want to go up to labor and delivery. We went to the 5th floor and I then decided I wanted to go outside again. We then went down the elevator again and walked around and bought some chocolate.

11:45 Okay I was finally ready to go into labor and Delivery. On our way up the elevator we got in with about 4 other women having a conversation. I was definitely going into transition because I could not stand the sound of there voice. I covered my ears and curled up next to Edward during the contractions I was having.

12:00 We were in our room. They gave me a ugly hospital gown the wear and hooked me up to the contraction and heart beat monitor. Then the nurses started asking me a lot of questions and checked cervix 6cm! Yay! Better then I thought.

12:30 Someone came in wanting to put a IV in my arm. I was not happy about that. My wonderful husband then told the nurses. "She doesn't need an IV she will be okay. She doesn't want that. Thanks for understanding." Then a guy with needles came in and said "I need your arm so I can check your blood." Edward then told him we would not be doing that and he was very confused and acted like he had never had anyone refuse blood work. He said "Well we need to check her blood." Edward told him you can come back later and we might do it later. (We didn't get blood drawn when they kept coming back.) While all this was going on lots of people were coming in and out of the room 2 different nurses asking me questions, taking vitals ect. I was very stressed out and could not focus on my contractions. Autumns heart beat was dropping and I looked at both Edward and my doula and started crying. I had a feeling that the hospital would be stressful but at this point I was in a panic. I knew if I didn't get time to relax and be left alone it would be a while before I had the baby. Not to mention the fact that her heart rate was off they would want me to sit in that hospital forever!

12:45 My wonderful husband then told everyone to leave the room till I wanted people back. They left and I was able to eat food without them knowing and relax a bit.

1:00 The nurses came back in finished all the questions and at that point let me off the monitor. Hallelujah! They let me walk around but said I couldn't eat or drink water..... (because that will help if your thirsty and starving) I was pretty upset about that but I drank and ate anyways when they left. So now things were better they only came in one other miserable time and made me do 20 minutes of heart monitoring in the bed. That was torture!

2:00 Water was still not broken! Yay! Made contractions easier to deal with. When I had Henry my water broke early on and I labored for over 24 hours after my water had broken. At this pint I was at 8cm and they let me stat in the tub with the nice jets push on my back helped me relax. So at this point I am not sure what came over me but I was super lovey with everyone even in my contractions. I would just look at anyone stroke them and tell them I loved them or something strange like that. Basically I was high off of my own drugs that my body was producing while I was in labor. I never got to that happy place with Henry's labor just the "I want to kill everyone and I hate this so much part." Never though you could be so happy, relaxed and in love with everyone durring labor but it definitely is possible.

3:40 Still laboring and starting to get to the point where I want to be done. My doula said I was looking like I might want to see if I was ready. I felt like pushing but was not going to get my hopes up. (When I had Henry  I was almost at a 10 but was not allowed to push because he could have gotten stuck and had to resist the natural urge to push for 4 hours. Not pleasant.) The nurse checked me and said yup you are ready to push! What? Really? I was so ready to push.

3:45 All the nurses came in and everything was set up and ready in a few minutes. My doctor was busy with a emergency but I had Doctor Estrada. She came in and had read in my birth plant that I basically didn't want to be told what to do or have my water broken. She sat down and said " You know what to do when you feel a contraction push." 4 pushes in and I felt a big rip yeah I had a 3rd degree tear you can look it up I will spare you the gory details. The most painful feeling in the world! I never ever had pain like that when I had Henry. I was so scared to push again and she asked if I wanted anything to numb me. I said you and she pulled up a syringe about the length of my fore arm and "numbed" me up. Definitely didn't help. Second to last push my water broke all over the doctor and the nurse below me.

4:00 Last push! They told me she was out I reached down and pulled her up to me. I was crying and so happy she was her! I was so in love already. I was so relived to be mostly out of pain and have her in my arms.  Edward with smitten with her from the start he followed her everywhere after that while I was being fixed up. So happy to have had another successful and wonderful natural birth. I definitely loved the after birth hospital experience with food and all the help. Thankful for Heavenly Father for helping me and sending me comfort when I needed it. Natural birth is the best! I may not have anything else to compare it to but I feel so lucky to have been able to experience it twice! It's amazing what kind of pain the body can over come. That is all for now just happy to have my little family and thankful for the many blessings that I have.

(In the pictures you will see that she was pretty badly bruised and purple. She improved in about a week but she definitely had a rough time coming out. Poor girl.)

Henry's birth story.

On September 12 around 6:00pm I was having more severe cramping and contraction all 8-7 minutes apart. As the  be night went on around 9:00 they started to get more and more painful. We called the Midwife and she told us to come in I was still only about 1cm  dilated. So we went home to try and get some sleep.

10:30: I was really tired and trying to sleep in between contractions. The key word their is trying I could not sleep between them. I was still not convinced I was in labor even tho I could not really talk through my contractions.  

11:30: I was laying on the bed and felt alot of pressure then what felt like a water balloon popping inside of me I stood up a waddled to the bath room. Yup my water broke. So we called again and she asked if I wanted to come in now or labor a bit at home. I decided to stay at home for a while but after my water broke it was really taking it toll on me so off we went at around 1:00 at night. It was only a 15 min drive to the birthing center but oh my gosh I hated every minute of it. So not comfortable laboring in a car. 

1:00: I was now fully effaced and 3cm dilated. I then figured out how to get through a contraction without crying and making high pitch almost screaming noises. 

2:00am-11:00am: I was having contractions ever 5 minutes and slowly making progress. I got in a warm tub held on to Edward, hunched over a yoga ball, swayed my hips and body back and forth while I walked. One thing that helped me through was opening and closing my hands as I said in a very quite voice "I can do this. I can do this." over and over or making low moaning sounds with Edward. My husband was so helpful every time a contraction came he would say "relax your body" and I would remember not to tighten up my body. through this whole time I was munching on crackers, drinking water, drinking a fruit smoothie that the Midwife made me and trying to keep up my strength. Meanwhile they would check Henry's heart every couple hours and it was spot on perfect every time.

11:30: am: I was so close to 10cm just a little lip of my cervix needed to be pulled back. At this point his head was pushing so hard on me and I really wanted to push but I needed to wait till my cervix was ready. At this point I was so tired and starting to loose it. I had to blow air out to keep from pushing. For the next three hours I was in a lot of pain and very upset. I started growling and screaming a couple time and balling my eyes out. I was between a rock and a hard place I thought I would never give birth to him. 

2:00pm: I was finally ready to push I was laying on my side and had both legs pulled up as far as I could pull them. Contraction after contraction came and I was really feeling the pain but some how I still pushed and tried to block the pain. In between contractions I would sprawl my legs out and nurses and midwife would touch me and relax me. They put warm wet cloths down below and would pull down and tell me to push. At the beginning I just wanted to scream during my pushing but it doesn't really help. My midwife said "Don't scream up there scram out you vagina" haha. Then the last couple contractions came and she said "Get angry push that baby out." Finally I saw his head full of dark hair. I couldn't believe I was doing it. Then a final push and he was out at 2:44pm. They set him on my chest and I was still in shock. Edward looked at me with tears in his eyes and said "That's our son Kelsey. I love you so much." They checked Henry's vitals while he was on me and then we started recovering.

I am so thankful for being able to have such a sweet baby boy and I am so thankful I was able to have a natural birth that I wanted. It was truly amazing and I know that heavenly father was there to help me and gave me the strength to give birth safely.

The Linn Family visits Kansas!

We have been in Kansas since June 1st! I am in love with this place, still miss Texas and friends but having moved to such a great area with lots to do makes it a bit easier. The first week was just unpacking and getting familiar with the area around us. We have a Whole Foods a mile from our apartment! AHH! I love that place I spend far to much time there sampling cheese and finding all kinds of fun new healthy foods to try out. A week after we moved my family came up to visit for the weekend Erik is going on a mission to Reno, Nevada and we all went to the brand new Kansas city temple together. It is a beautiful temple about 30 min from us in Independence, Missouri area. Afterward we had lunch and went to Liberty Jail where one of the Prophets our church Joseph Smith was imprisoned for 6 months while his wife, children and other many other Latter-Day Saints were driven out of Missouri. It was an amazing experience I highly recommend visiting if you find yourself in the area if your LDS or not, very interesting history. It is so awesome being around so much of the early history of our church and what the early members of the church had to go through to restore the gospel of Jesus Christ. It has really built my testimony of Joseph Smith that he really is a prophet of our Heavenly Father.

Erik, Ross and Mom at the Kansas City Temple

Erik's first time going to the temple! 

The whole family at the temple! 

After visiting Liberty Jail we went another 50 miles north to another church site "The Valley of Adam-ondi-Ahman". This is where Joseph Smith recived revaluation that this was the place Adam his family lived and blessed this land after being thrown out of the garden of Eden. We also believe that Jesus Christ will return here prior to the second coming.  For even more amazing information about "Adam-ondi-Ahman" visit this link. http://www.ldschurchtemples.com/adamondiahman/ This place is so beautiful! It is actually a mission in our church. They have 8 missionary couples that will live on the property to keep 3,000 acres beautiful and well kept. We all had a really fun and amazing experience while my family was here so glad they could come visit. 

23 weeks!

23 weeks now! I feel so much better! I feel half normal now. I only throw up every couple weeks and only feel sick every once in a while. We also found out baby Nicholes is a BOY his name is Henry James Nicholes! I am so excited! I love feeling him kick and move around it is totally crazy growing a baby inside of you. When we got the ultra sound I was surprised to see him moving and actually had the for of a human. I saw his little toes, fingers and his profile. I love him so much and I have not even seen him yet.

Another development in the Nicholes home is we move to Kansas City, MO in less the 2 weeks! It is bitter sweet because we have all new opportunities for work, super nice place to live, school and to meet new people but, we are leaving lots of friends and family behind. We are going to miss Texas so much but I don't think it will hit me till we have been in Kansas for a while. That is about all I have to report, just packing and saying goodbye to everyone. I can't wait for another adventure with Edward.

15 weeks!

I am now 15 weeks and will be 16 weeks on 2 days. So far I have still not seen the light at the end of the morning sickness tunnel. First day of my 2nd trimester I had a little throwing up-fit. I think the reason things have been so awful this week was I was all go last week with not alot of sleep. We were trying to find a apartment in Kansas City. I felt sick that entire ride but had so much fun with Edward! Did I mention I have best husband ever! We have so much fun together the whole ride up and the whole ride back we just talked and talked and talked.(Warning: Gross Prego Talk) He has been so helpful this pregnancy I know he hears all of my complaining, mons and knows all my symptoms. He is always there to get me a puck bucket, help me clean up puck and always rub my feet and back when things start to get really bad. So he has just been so sweet to me. Other then that I am having to get up and pee every 2 hours a night and still really tired. My gums bleed when I brush and are swollen and I always have something in my mouth to keep from feeling really sick. I have no passion for food I don't really like anything I eat plenty but I am full after just a couple its of food. I can't wait to enjoy food again .On the bright side I have had plenty of sleep this week so lets hope that helps things.

I know the last paragraph was full of symptoms and yucky stuff but I honestly love being pregnant.  I am so excited to hold our sweet little baby. I can't wait to find out the gender so that he or she can have a name instead of baby or it. I have a little bump now and gained 5lbs yay! I was a little underweight so it has been hard to put on some pounds. I think it's really funny how I imagined pregnancy before I was pregnant. I figured if you are super healthy and fit, symptoms will be mild. I saw myself eating all kinds of veggies (I hate veggies now) and doing a really well with going to school full time, still doing well in ballet, not getting tired always cooking and cleaning and doing the regular things I do and just being a super awesome pregnant girl. Wow I was so wrong. Sometimes my biggest accomplishment of the day is doing the dishes. I keep telling myself things are going to get better and I won't feel so sick all the time. Who knows if anything will get better but I know the baby and I are healthy despite feeling awful.

Soon to be a family of 3!

We are pregnant! We could not be more excited after a awesome 1 year of marriage to! Aside from all the symptoms I have, at times I still can't believe that we will have another member in our family. The due date is September 9th 2012. (Year of the Dragon baby) So we found out New Years Eve. I just had a feeling that I was pregnant and sure enough 3 test later all positive. After we found out we went out to Chili's and had a little mini celebration before we went and danced till the New Year with friends. I was just our little secret for a while till we told close friends and family.

I also didn't have to many symptoms till about my 6th week. Which as also when school started. It all started with being able to smell everything! I have never smelt so many strong smells in my life. Also, eggs smell like really smelly dog food.... not sure what that's about. Along with the bloodhound nose I have comes with the urge to throw up about 80% of the time and throwing up fits. Who ever called it "Morning" sickness lied! But on the upside I am super happy! I cry for no reason but I and just so super happy and excited to be a parent with my best friend! I have grown so much since meeting, dating and now married for a year. I love Edward more and more everyday. Did I also mention how helpful he has been while I have been pregnant? I thought he was amazing before but wow he is always there to give me a hug and snuggle with me and help clean up puck out of the carpet when it sneaks up on me. (Sorry lots of puke talk) I LOVE HIM! So amazing!

So on January 25th was the first doctors appointment since we found out we where pregnant. I actually did not faint while giving 4 veils of blood! (I always faint!) Anyways so we had our first ultrasound, it was amazing! This tiny little baby had a heartbeat we could see! Then we heard the heartbeat and I so overwhelmed with how beautiful that sweet little heat beat sounded! Yeah I am dying to know this sweet spirit we have been blessed to have.