Nearing the end

For a music major, senior recital means college school days are coming to an end!!! My senior recital went well. I am so grateful to everyone who was able to come and support. The recital hall was full. Wowee! Thank you!!!

Cyrus bounced around to the Childhood Fables for Grownups, aka: the animal songs, and spent much of the evening being entertained by Grandma Case and Mamaw on the stairs. Thank heaven for video recording, so they can watch the rest of the show another time.


The recital was a lot of work and I am happy to have it under my belt! Other highlights of the evening included songs from a multi-lingual repoirtoire as required by Boise State's vocal studeo: "Vergebliches Standchen" by Johannes Brahms, "Les Berceaux" by Gabriel Faure, "Se tu della mia morte" by Alessandro Scarlatti, and fabulous music shared by Mike Smith.

The day you were born Cyrus

The Story of Cyrus' Birthday
July 27, 2006

We watched my blood pressure elevate for the last three months of my pregnancy, and then one week before Cyrus' was due, the doctor ORDERED Cyrus to be born. So that's
exactly what happened.

Lex gave me a blessing and drove me to St. Luke's Hospital in Boise for my induction scheduled at 7AM on Thursday, July 27th, 2006. I was feeling mostly excited and also nervous about how painful labor was going to be because I planned to have
my baby naturally.

At the hospital I was induced just after 7AM and my OBGYN, Dr. Lowder, broke my water around 8:30AM. Despite my original birthing plan to deliver without pain meds, my water being broke combined with the Pitocin medicine made labor go from mildly uncomfortable to "umm... maybe that epidural doesn't really sound so bad after all" in no time flat. I waited out the pain for as long as I could stand it and then I told the nurse I would like an epidural. Lex and my mom were the two best people to have there with me during that experience.

After the epidural was in and working its magic, I relaxed and even had a little nap. My body followed its natural course in preparing to deliver and after a few hours of waiting, then five or six pushes in the concluding half hour...



Cyrus Lex Case was born at 2:25PM on July 27, 2006.
He weighed 7 pounds 2 ounces, was 20 inches long,
with a head circumference of 13 1/4 inches.



Ten fingers, ten toes, and a healthy set of lungs are the first things parents think about when their baby is born. We were blessed with that and much more. Cyrus is a beautiful, perfect baby with a beautiful, perfect spirit to match.





Dear Cyrus,

I remember the first time I held you. The nurse placed you in my arms, and holding your little perfect body felt so natural, like I had been holding you my whole life. It was my first real understanding of what heaven must feel like. I was filled with an overwhelming love for you. From that moment until the end of eternity I will always be happy with you as my son.
Love,
Mom

Getting ready for a big change...

When Lex and I decided we wanted to have a baby just 6 months after we were married, it soon became apparent that Heavenly Father's plan for us was different than what we had in mind. A year later, in December of 2005, we found out I was going to have a baby! Since it had taken a year for me to get pregnant, we were SO surprised, a little nervous and really really excited!


Pregnancy seemed like smooth sailing for me compared to all the horror stories I had heard. I NEVER threw up... and that's all I really need to say, right? The baby was healthy throughout the entire pregnancy, I worked and completed my junior year of college, and I had ALL my family close to help and support me.


Lots of fun projects, my version of what some might call "nesting", proceeded the arrival of our new bundle. Painting the nursery was probably the most fun for me. I fell in love with a very blue idea for the nursery, and ran with it.



With the house cleaned and organized, nursery prepared, baby supplies stocked up, bags packed, 30 extra pounds loaded on, and scheduled induction date for the next morning, I was ready for the baby to be here! Lex took this picture of me the night before I was to be induced.