Come What May and Love It

I love reading birth stories. And I love being able to look back at my birth stories to remember the little details. Here are my past birth stories: Mitch's Birth Story Nate's Birth Story Every birth is so unique, but having a baby in the middle of a pandemic is completely different. With that- on to my 3rd birth story... Lily Girl- We were so excited to have you join our family. We were excited to have little pink socks and little dresses in our home. But let me tell you- your pregnancy was the absolute hardest for me compared to the boys. Let me start at the beginning... We found out we were pregnant in January. We were so excited. The week that I found out that I was pregnant, I started experiencing severe cramps on one side. I was so worried for a ectopic pregnancy or another miscarriage. I called the doctor and was asked to come in for some blood tests. I went in and found out my numbers were on the lower normal end. They sent me in for a ultrasound to rule out an ectopic

I am so grateful that I wrote down Mitch's Birth Story. I wanted to make sure I took a moment to write down Nate's birth story too- especially since it was SO DIFFERENT than Mitch. (Click Here to Read  Mitch's Birth Story ) I am going to be 100% honest. I told myself that the goal for baby #2 was to go unmedicated. However, in my head I meant that my goal was to go to 6 cm before getting an epidural. I honestly didn't think I could do it naturally. But by some accident or miracle, I gave birth naturally to Nate Gariet Odell. Here is his story... To Nate- We were all every excited for you to join our family. I had a miscarriage before getting pregnant with you, and so we felt so lucky and blessed to have a baby coming to our family. Your due date was June 13th, but Granny really wanted you to come on her birthday (the 11th). I wanted you to come sooner than that, but I kept telling myself that I would be pregnant until the 20th (when the doctor would induc

I want to put into perspective a moment from my life into terms that you might be able to relate with more… You are walking with your two-year old in the park. As you are walking, you see right in front of you a gun on the ground. What are your immediate thoughts and feelings? Are you worried about the safety of your child? The gun might not be loaded. Why not just let them play with it or even just touch it? OF COURSE YOU WOULDN’T THINK THAT! Any parent’s first reaction would be of fear and worry. You would think what if your child had been alone for that moment and found the gun by themselves. What if they had picked it up? What if they would have killed themselves accidentally? This is exactly how I felt when I walked through the park one day and saw a peanut shell on the ground. I was so grateful that I was holding Mitch’s hand in that moment. I am so grateful that I could just walk away with him. But still- those feelings and thoughts were there. What if in that one

TRIGGER WARNING & TMI WARNING On Wednesday, July 26th, Gariet and I found out that we were going to be adding another baby to our family. We were happy, nervous, scared, and excited all at the same time. We told both of our moms. We started making plans for April 2018. We looked into buying a bigger car. I had scheduled my doctor appointments for September. Life was fitting in how we had planned. On Tuesday, August 8th, I started spotting brown discharge. I was nervous, but Gariet, my mom, and the doctor's office told me that it was normal at this stage and not to worry. I still googled a lot and most of the stories I read had good outcomes. This was normal. Baby would be okay. As the days progressed, the spotting changed from brown to pink. I called the doctor's office every day and they still told me it was normal and not to worry until it was red. I stayed off my feet (as much as possible with a 1.5 year old). I tried to relax. On Thursday night, I started seeing

I started studying the scriptures from the beginning about a week ago. I did this because I have been feeling a little empty in my own testimony lately. Everything that has happened in the last couple months (my grandfather’s death, friends leaving the church, etc.) left me with a lot of questions. It left me with a lot of doubts. I am horrible at studying the scriptures every day, so I decided that this was something that I really needed to do. I needed to take on Moroni’s challenge once again for myself and make sure that my testimony is where it needs to be to be able to teach my son correct principles. How can I teach him if I am feeling doubts myself? Long story short…I started reading The Book of Mormon from the beginning. I have been using “Scripture Study for Latter-Day Saint Families” by Dennis H. Leavitt and Richard O. Christensen to help guide my study and make it more meaningful than just reading. As I have started, I noticed some interesting things about Lamen a