The longest 37 hours of my life

I can honestly say that Monday - Wednesday afternoon were the scariest hours/days of my life. I now understand how it feels to watch someone you love work so hard and there is nothing that I can do to help.

We knew that this might happen from our visit to the hospital last Friday (08/28/2010). The day began like every other day as I went to work and Taylor got ready for her Doctors appointment. As I was at work I received a text message from Taylor informing me that she was heading to the hospital for a non-stress test. I left work to find her checked into a room in the labor and delivery floor of the hospital. She quickly updated me on how Doctor Grover was concerned that she might have preeclampsia. Little did we know that she did have preeclamsia and that it was severe.

After a full 24-hour urine collection, many blood tests Doctor Grover prescribed strict bed rest for Taylor. Which we strictly followed for one day, because Doctor Grover told us that she would like another non-stress test on Monday (08/30/2010). Well Monday came and I went to work and Taylor tried to relax so that her blood pressure would be lower than it had been previously.

Lets just say that I received a text from Taylor at 3:30pm informing me that she is again at the hospital waiting in one of the Triage rooms, for another room to open up. As we moved into another room and started another 24-hour urine collection, we were told that we would again be spending the night.

7 hours later Doctor Grover informed us that the blood pressure is not reducing and that she will be inducing Taylor, this started the longest 37 hours of my life. Since Taylor was only 35 weeks pregnant she had to be put on Pitocin to help her body to start preparing for labor. They also had to put her on another drug to prevent the side effects of the Pitocin. Lets just say that her body did not like this at all. It took her 30 hours to progress from being 1cm dilated to 4cm dilated. Doctor Grover came in and told Taylor that when she came back if Taylor was not to 5cm dilated that they (the doctors) who have to preform a C-section.

Well when Doctor Grover came back in to the room Taylor progressed from being 4cm dilated to 7 cm dilated, this was definitely a miracle and Doctor Grover was convinced that she would get to be 10cm dilated. Well she did, but as she would contract Skylar's heart beat would drop. At first it would only drop from 120 beats per minute to 90 beats per minute. Then it dropped to below 50 beats per minute. Causing the Doctor's to roll Taylor into the operating room.

Doctor Grover respecting Taylor's request to have the c-section to be the last result decided to have Taylor push a couple of times to see if she could give birth vaginally. After 3 contractions and 9 attempts at pushing they put her asleep and started the c-section.

The next 30 minutes flew by as I watched them pull Skylar from the womb and bring him into the room I was in to clean him off and give him his apgar score. As I watched him being cleaned off I could not stop thinking of the miracle I just witnessed. I witnessed a Doctor listen to her patient until she felt prompted to started surgery. I witnessed another life come from the DNA of my wife and my DNA. And I witnessed nurses work miracles as they took him for not breathing, to Skylar breathing without any assistance.

The past 5 days have been my longest, but they have definitely been the most rewarding. You will never know the feeling of holding your child for the first time until you do it. And you will cherish it for the rest of your life. Or at least I will, and I will continue to reflect on the miracles that brought him here. I will forever be grateful to my Heavenly Father, and for all the work he continually preforms for my wife and sons well being. I would never forget the feeling that I had when I picked him up and listen to his heart beat. Becoming a parent has been one of the best experience of my life.

Accepting the Invitation

I briefly forgot how much I love reading the writing of Nephi. The reason why I briefly forgot is because I am now in Alma with my personal scripture study, and I have not had a reason to go back to the books of Nephi until yesterday.

For those of you who do not know, Sierra my cousin is taking the lessons from the missionaries and has set a date to be baptized. This is very exciting because Sierra has been very outgoing in wanting to learn more about the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. Sierra is being taught by Elder Cook and his companions, which she is enjoying a lot because the can use Facebook. When I first heard that the missionaries were using Facebook I thought that maybe they were breaking the rules a little bit. Then I stumbled onto an article that informed me that the missionaries in the Rochester New York mission were allowed to use Facebook for missionary work.

I asked Sierra if it helped having the missionaries on Facebook, and her answer was an outstanding yes! She said that it is so much easier to talk to them in private then having to worry about her Grandma, and mom hear her questions and become inquisition on why she is learning more about the L.D.S. faith. Sierra also said that it helped a lot with planning the next appointments at our Grandparent's house because then no one she did not want to know yet would over hear the conversation.

Anyway since the Elder that is teaching my cousin has Facebook I thought that I should befriend him so I can also talk to him and be available if he had any questions or concerns about Sierra. Well lets just say that Elder Cook was thrilled to be my new friend and also invited me to join his group discussion about the Book of Mormon on Facebook. And this ladies and gentlemen is how I stumbled upon reading Nephi's words again.

Elder Cook wanted everyone to read 2 Nephi chapter 26. This is one of my most favorite chapters in 2 Nephi as it shows the unlimited invitations that the Savior gives to us to follow him. I realized that my cousin Sierra was accepting those invitation to follow the Savior, and that she was striving to become a better person/daughter of God. An Epiphany happened as I read this and understood that I needed to follow my cousin's example and follow the Savior to the best of my ability.

This was a great testimony builder for me as I am learning even more now that the Lord knows what is best for all of his children. I have also learned that the Lord does nothing for his children unless it is for their benefit.

My Testimony of the Book of Mormon

Today we had a great lesson in Elders quorum. The lesson was on Elder Holland's talk from the past general conference in October of 2009 titled "Safety for the Soul". The instructor had us read a couple of quotes and then read Elder Holland's testimony. When we were finished reading his testimony I looked at the clock and saw that we still had 25 minutes left.

I then started thinking about what we were going to do for the next 25 minutes, and then my question was answered. The teacher bore his own testimony about the Book of Mormon and then turned the time over to us to be able to bear our testimonies.

As I took the time to think about the Book of Mormon I thought of how much it had blessed my life. From being raised in a family who read the Book of Mormon together, to now having an extended family who is focused on living its principles. As I pondered, I had an overwhelming feeling of gratitude for the blessings that this one book had brought upon me from living it teachings.

I then thought about the peace that I feel in my heart when I read from it at night with Taylor and when I read it by myself. I also thought about the desire I have to be a better husband, priesthood holder, and son of Heavenly Father when I read the Book of Mormon. It has truly blessed my life.

I am so grateful for the examples I have around me of those living its teachings, and who have taught me by example of how I should live and govern my life. I love the Book of Mormon and everything that it teaches and I hope that I can continually progress to be the my best for Heavenly Father, and for my family.

As I concluded pondering about the Book of Mormon I again found my testimony of it. I then realized of how I knew the Book of Mormon was true. There was no voice, no vision, or any other modern miracle, except that I felt the Spirit whisper to my soul and every other fiber of my body that it is true.

Like Elder Holland I was not there when Christ visited the people of Nephi, nor was I at the trail of Abinadi but I know the Book of Mormon is true, and I know that it came from God. I know that "the Book of Mormon will bring men closer to God than any other book." I know that it is given to us today to learn of the things that are most important for us to be able to return to live with Heavenly Father and I am so grateful for this knowledge. I cannot express my level of gratefulness but it is my prayer that I will be able to reflect the examples of those faithful family members and others that I have had in my life. That like them I may also be a faithful child of our Father in Heaven.

The fun experience with Conjunctivitis

Who ever thought that "pink eye" could be such a irritating bacteria. To fill all of you in, I came down with conjunctivitis or "pink eye" about three weeks ago in my left eye. With a nice long visit to B.Y.U.'s health clinic I received the medication that I need to fight this dreaded bacteria.
All went well as I religiously used the eye drops to make sure that the irritation left, and it did go away in about three days use of the medication. Thinking I was out and clear I stopped using the medication until today!
I woke up this morning to get ready to go to work and while I was putting my right contact in it felt as if something was between the contact and my eye. Thinking that my eye would flush it out I left. the drive to work was not fun at all either because the light bothered me and I had blurred vision even with my contacts. Knowing the signs and having just gone through with having "pink eye" I knew that it was back.
Moving a little farther ahead I made it to work and was beginning to start taking phone calls, when my manager started to ask me to do something. He then noticed my right eye and asked about it. I then went ahead and informed him of the trouble that I was having with my right eye. My manager then went ahead and let me go home for the day. Which I thought would be a great blessing until I had to deal with light, blurred vision, and school work and this began my second battle with conjunctivitis.

The Notebook Recognition lie

For the past couple of nights I have been prayerfully asking Heavenly Father in which ways I can improve my studying for exams. This has lead to a lot of thought the past couple of days on how I can improve. As I was sitting in my humanities classroom about 15 minutes before the class started I was thinking about ways that I can improve my studying. The normal ideas came into my mind, flash cards, reading over lecture notes, meeting with T.A.s, and lecture review sheets. I then tried to think of new ideas that I can improve my studying habits and "break the mold" of traditional studying habits. Then my Professor walked into the classroom.

Just like every class we start out with a review. Instead of jumping right into the review my Professor wanted to bring up an important point when it comes to preparing for the next exam. Her first subject on the matter of studying was "The Notebook Recognition Lie". "The notebook Recognition Lie" is where you do not truly know the material but you can recall where it is in your notes. You notebook could look like this...

but as long as you know where it is on the page you will be able to recall it. This she reminded us is not knowing the martial but just memorizing where it is in our notebooks. When I heard this it reminded me of how I can do this with my scripture, and how I can do it with all my notes and text books, and how she is right that it is not truly knowing the material but knowing how to find it within my notes.

Then came her main point of just using repetition to remember what is taught and the principles that need to be applied. I thought of my mission and how President Ellsworth would always say "Don't fix something if it is not broken!". And there was my answer to the prayer that I have been asking for the past week. "Don't fix something if it is not broken!".

I now understand that learning is nothing more then repetition and applying the things taught into everyday situations. Will it take a lot of repeating, hopefully with only understanding the principle and not applying it. I am grateful thought for how the Lord understands me and is willing to answer my prays to let me know how to become a better son in every aspect of my life.

Choose-This-Day

Choose-This-Day

Some Day I Will...

As I was thinking about what I should post this week, I received the thought that I should skip this week and just post something next week. I then decided to visit the Church's web site and see what was new on there. i did not get very far until something caught my eye and I started to watch the videos that they have posted.
One of the videos caught me off guard about its message and made me think about what I am doing to progress in the gospel. The video is titled "Choose this day" By President Erying, (The video is posted underneath this blog entry). As I watched the video I was pondering about what I am doing to choose to serve the Lord this day. I began to think about the goals that I set after my mission and where I was in accomplishing them. I also thought the same thing concerning my life goals and the goals that Taylor and I have set together. I then came to the conclusion that I need to do as President Erying was teaching and choose this day to accomplish those things that I have committed to.
This experience has lead to a great sense of gratitude for living Prophets. I am so grateful for those men called of God to lead us and help us to know what we should do to return to live with our Father again with our eternal families. I now know that I need to continually be choosing today to serve Heavenly Father and his children. I am grateful for this opportunity and the blessings that it will bring. I am also grateful for the wonderful examples that are around me. Heavenly Father has truly blessed me in many ways and it is time that I showed some gratitude back.

Does Life Ever Slow Down?

I can not begin to tell you the changes that have happened to our family is the last 3 weeks. From the holidays being over nothing has slowed down but things have become more chaotic. These changes that I have referred to are the same ones my wife wrote about in her blog.
Yes it is true that I am now a financial clerk with the ward, and that Taylor is the primary president. Which means that I now get to stay an hour to an hour and a half after church is finished to ensure my membership. I am ensuring my membership by not stealing any money from those sacred funds, because Bishop Meredith informed me that I have a calling that I can become excommunicated from and go to jail. What a nice thought, it also kinda gave me a little nightmare when I found out about it. YIKES!
Anyway things are moving and this semester is going by really fast. I am currently taking Anatomy, and learning from human cadavers. I must admit it was weird seeing one for the first time, but after becoming immune to the smell of formaldehyde I did not have any problems.
Ok quick story. In Anatomy we have a cadaver who was a convict. I personally thought it was great that he would donate his body so that we could learn off of it, and I thought it showed a great sense of repaying society. Anyway compared to the other cadavers his muscles are huge! It was funny hearing the T.A.'s tell us about how every other cadaver that they have seen have not even come close to the size that this man is. That brought me to the conclusion that if I am going to donate my body to science I want to have the biggest muscles of anyone in that school where I am being examined. That way everyone will always remember me and I will be infamous even though it is only my body that is left.
Well that should do it for now as were are gearing up for another week of classes and quizzes. Hope everything is going well for everyone else. Just remember who you are, and your potential.