Kristin and Nick: 2012

a couple of years ago someone in my family (probably Nick or Kim...their both so smart and creative) figured out how to make the perfect snowflake...EVERY TIME!

I love this trick because my snowflakes always came out looking like a preschooler made them. But with this trick no matter what cuts I make, it looks amazing every time.

Materials needed
scissors
paper
scrap bucket
baby...optional

first, if your paper is 9 1/2 X 11" like mine fold one side over and cut off extra to make a square

fold again

and again

This is the point where most people stop folding and start cutting

But this is where the most important part of the perfect snowflake happens. one more fold!

instead of bringing corners together, fold the side over with one corner popping out. like this:

Now cut that corner off!

Now you have the perfect snowflake template

why does this little trick make the PERFECT snowflake? Because instead of the snowflake coming out square shaped with 4 corners (which would have happened if you stopped before the secret fold) it comes out with 6 corners which is the "typical" snowflake shape

the best part about this secret is that no matter what cuts you make in it, it comes out looking great because the basic snowflake shape is already there!

Now go make some snowflakes and hang them in your window!

for those of you interested in the birth story

it's a little bit lengthy, but i wanted to make sure i got it all down for my own personal records

enjoy!

I, like most pregnant women I imagine, always envisioned how and when I would go into labor. For the most part I imagined myself feeling mild contractions, getting progressively worse throughout the day, and then finally telling Nick when the pain was bad enough and the contractions were close enough that we needed to go to the hospital.

Right? Isn’t that what happens with most people? The stories I have heard from friends who have had babies are slightly different variations of this idea, so I thought that’s how I would be. But I was wrong!

Tuesday November 6^th was Election Day. I had a good day at work, stopped by the polls around 6pm to cast my vote and came home. Everything was normal. I had a good night’s rest and only got up once in the middle of the night to pee! Score!

I woke up LATE (lame) for work Wednesday November 7^th and when I went to pee, I felt the tiniest little *GUSH*. Well, I had had this happen before and they told me it was just pee and totally normal so I didn’t think anything of it. I took a quick shower and grabbed breakfast. Before I left I felt another little *GUSH* which had me thinking “hmmmm” but still not too worried and then I even had a contraction.

Before this contraction I had never felt one before, not even any Braxton hick contractions…so I really didn’t know what a contraction was supposed to feel like. Everyone kept telling me that it would feel like bad period cramping, so that’s what I looked for.

In this moment I had a serious problem on my hands. Is this a contraction? Am I going into labor? Is it false labor? If I don’t leave right now for work I’m going to be REALLY late. Do I chance driving all the way out to San Tan Valley if I’m really in labor? I didn’t want to bail on my employers if I wasn’t truly going into labor and “cry wolf”.

I determined that I felt ok. I woke up Nick saying “My water might have broken…I might be having contractions…but I’m going to be late for work. Stay by your phone so I can keep you posted”

10 minutes down the road and I still felt fine. 15 minutes down the road I started having more contractions that were becoming more and more painful. I thought, “I should start timing these” and I kept driving. 20 minutes down the road I felt another *gush* and at this point I was pretty sure my water had broken. Contractions were coming every 5 minutes and were lasting about 1 minute. I finally decided to pull into a QT in Queen Creek and call someone. At this point the pain was UNBELIEVABLE!

Nick wasn’t answering his phone and the only person I could get a hold of was my dad. He told me to stay at the QT and have Nick drive out to queen creek to get me. I thought “there is no way I’m going to sit here and wait 40-50 minutes while Nick gets dressed and gets out here and then another 30 minutes to the hospital” I couldn’t get a hold of Nick anyway.

I called my work and told them what was going on and then called my mother-in-law so she could go wake up my husband to meet me at the hospital and I started to drive back towards mesa. At this point my contractions were painful, but I could still drive. My plan was that if they got too bad I could always park my car on the side of the road and call an ambulance if necessary.

I was still timing my contractions and now 25 minutes away from the hospital they were 2 minutes apart, lasting 1 minute. I started to panic a little bit knowing how close that was. My mom finally called me back and said she was going to call my Dr and meet me at the hospital.

I got myself to the hospital, but now I was frustrated with the idea that I had to park my car and walk myself up to the hospital. I saw a parking space not too far from the entrance and thought it was a distance I could handle. I got out my car and my water just poured out of me. It really does feel like you peed your pants, lol.

I hobbled my way to the front entrance where I told the nice ladies that my water had broken. They hurried me into a wheelchair and wheeled me into a tiny check in room. The lady was asking me all sorts of annoying questions. I wanted to say, “um, can you speed this up a little? I’m kind of in the most severe of pains at the moment!”

They got me into a triage room and asked me to change into a robe. Still more water was just flowing and flowing out, I could hardly move from pain. They checked my cervix and I was 100% effaced and 4 cm. Then they started asking me the same annoying questions as the lady before.

I was definitely begging for my epidural at this point. I have so much respect for women who choose to go through labor without an epidural because that pain was too excruciating for me to bear. They finally wheeled me into the room to get my epidural and the nurse anesthetist did AMAZING! I felt it go in, but not painful at all. It also might have had to do with the fact that I was already in so much pain…

Once the epidural hit, I was golden. I could still move my legs and feel lots of pressure, but the racking contraction pains were gone and it was amazing. I was checked again and now I was at 9 ½ cm dilated. The nurse seemed surprised that I had progressed so quickly and told me we were going to start pushing.

I started pushing at 11:20am and at 12:40pm our baby boy was born. Very fast, I know! My mom was in labor for 32 hours with me and then she had to have a c section anyway, so I feel very lucky everything went so smoothly for me.

It was such an amazing feeling to go through all of the pain, the pushing, and the work and have a child in my arms at the end of it. Babies are such a miracle and I still can’t get over the fact that I have created life and that I have been entrusted with one of our Heavenly Father’s spirit children.

We love our baby boy, and even though this first week home was…hard, it has been so worth it. Being a mother is the best thing in the world