Paige Dawn Hallberg is finally here! She joined our family Wednesday morning, February 6th, at 4:51 am. 7#14oz. 19" - a blonde little cutie!
*Better pictures are yet to come! And forgive me for the long entry...it's more for my own memory!*

I just wanted to let everyone know how grateful I am for all of the support and (sob!) sympathy given before the blessed day of her arrival! The weeks leading up to her delivery were a bit dramatic with all of our trips to the hospital, only to be sent home without her in our arms. I kept going into false labor...It seems my body needs a little jump start every time I get to birth a child!!
I copied this journal entry from my handwritten journal:
"I wanted to write down a few of the happenings before our little Paige was born, before they become hazy! We’re sitting in the recovery room at Saint Marks, waiting on the doctor to come and send us home with you!! It all started getting crazy about a month ago on Saturday night, Jan. 12th. I was having pretty regular contractions. A gush of fluid in the bathroom made me a bit panicky at midnight – we were still 6 weeks from your due date. I wasn’t really certain if my water really had broken – so I spent most of the night awake, cleaning the house, getting things ready, etc. just in case. When morning finally came, I was still having contractions, but we went ahead and got ready, and went to church. During sacrament meeting, my contractions were coming just about every 8-10 minutes apart, and I was starting to get really shaky and was just feeling “off”. So, we left the kids with Sister Thompson in the ward, and headed straight to Labor and Delivery. We got checked in, and had the monitors hooked up for about an hour when the contractions fizzled out completely. The staff was pretty relieved, saying it was still too early – my amniotic sac probably was leaking, but had healed over, and the contractions stopped as a result. So, we went home! The rest of the week was full of more contractions, sometimes regular, sometimes not – so we waited. Again, Saturday night the following week, my contractions were really strong, and 7-10 minutes apart. I went to the bathroom, and yet another gush of fluid – this time I had a nitrazine strip to check for amniotic fluid – which turned bright blue – meaning amniotic fluid. So, we called Annie, and had her come down from Logan. We stayed home from church, and when Annie finally arrived, my contractions hadn’t really stayed consistent. We decided to wait a bit until they got stronger – but labor and delivery wanted us to come in by noon. So at 11:30 we went in to the hospital to get checked. I was dilated to a 3, 70% effaced, and the contractions were coming pretty regularly. They checked for amniotic fluid, and got nothing. So they had the doctor come in and check with a “fern” test – which came back negative too. He said the baby must have kicked my bladder – making it seem like the water sac had broken.(I felt like I was going crazy! Like I wouldn't know if I WET MYSELF!!!) At any rate, we were back home by two – sending Annie home.
Very frustrated at this point, I decided that we were not going back until it was the REAL thing – and that I would just have to live through all of the painful contractions up until that point, and there were many! The weekend before you were born, we went in to labor and delivery because the contractions were unbearable and close together again. Yet again, they fizzled out an hour after getting settled, and we were sent home, again! I had an appointment with the Doctor on Tuesday, the 5th, and had decided that nothing would come of it, and that I was destined to be pregnant forever. Poor Joel had to take the brunt of my grumpiness, which he did willingly, knowing how miserable I was! The day of the appointment, I couldn’t find anyone to watch the other kids, so we brought along the whole crew, Dad too. It was a busy day in the office, and they had double booked all of their appointments, so we had to wait quite a while to even get in to the office. By the time I got into the exam room, we had been there over an hour, and I could hear the kids through the wall driving their dad, and the other patrons, crazy! When the doctor finally examined me, I was dilated to 4 ½, 80% effaced. He asked about L&D, and quickly apologized to me, saying that had he been in town, he certainly would have delivered the baby earlier that weekend. After a few more questions about all of the contractions, he then told me he felt awful for me because I had been in full labor for over 2 days (!!!), and that he was sending me straight to L&D to get things going. I started crying and made him give me a hug because I was so relieved to hear that! We set an appointment to go at 5pm, and raced home to feed the kids, pack some bags, and drop off the kids at Stacy Otto's house until Aunt Annie could make it to Murray. We called family to let them know, and then headed off for the hospital.
When we got to labor and delivery, all of the nurses congratulated us on finally getting to stay (insert exhasperated gasp here!), and we got settled into our room. They started an IV, and then told us that because I had tested positive for group b strep, I needed to have two rounds of antibiotics before they could re-break my am niotic sac. That meant that we had to wait for four hours – with nothing going on, except painful contractions for me! We watched TV, played cards, rested, and pretty much got really antsy waiting! At 9, Doctor Watts was supposed to come break the amniotic sac, but was unable to because of another patient, so we waited some more. Finally, at 10:15, one of the midwives from his office was sent to do the job. We were finally underway! Right around that time, grandma and grandpa Thueson called to say that they were in Tremonton, and should be there shortly. We were so surprised –we didn’t know that they were coming before Thursday, and that Grandpa Gail was coming as well. Within a short amount of time, the contractions got really strong, but they were ineffective. So they gave me Pitocin. Soon after they gave it to me, my parents arrived, at around 1am, and everything kind of snowballed from there. The contractions came on top of each other so quickly that I felt like I had no time to breathe in between them. It was unbearable. Through tears I begged Joel to get me the epidural. I remember looking over at my Dad and he looked like he wanted to scream for me - I quickly had to remind myself that he hadn't seen me like this ever. :) It finally became too much for him as they gave me the epidural - he laid down on the floor facing the wall, and tried to go to sleep. The nurses and Joel thought he was crazy for staying in the room - it made for a few laughs when snoring started coming from the corner! The pitocin did it's job, and within about 2 hours, I was ready to push. The epidural had taken the edge off, but didn't seem to be helping, so Joel and I kept hitting the button to give me more of the drug! (I payed for it later!) At 4:51 am Paige was born. It never gets any less amazing! We were so overjoyed to finally have her in our arms. What a beautiful blessing she is! 7pounds, 14 ounces, 19 inches long. Grandpa 'woke-up' just as Mom had been cleaned up and Paige had been given back after her Apgar testing. Just then we discovered that she had a cleft chin. We were taken straight up to recovery, and the next couple of days were busy spent getting to know her wants and needs. The first night, the doctors thought they heard a heart murmer, so she was kept in the nursery for observation on a heart monitor. Mom was a bit crazy to have her in her arms again the next morning, so we had to go sit with her in the nursery while she was monitored. All turned out to be okay, and we went home with our healthy little girl on the 8th. YAY!!!"

At any rate, she's here, and she's adorable. She even lets her Mom sleep for 3 hour stretches at night - let's hope it stays that way! Everyone keeps asking how the kids are adjusting to having a fourth, and the answer is that for the most part, they absolutely love it. Our schedules are completely out of whack, which makes for some cranky kids come the end of the day, but they really can't get enough of Paige. I even caught Ellie licking Paige's head today. I'm still not sure why! I guess the term "so cute I could just eat you" was what she had in mind. Our first day home from the hospital, Sydney was completely mad at Mom for deserting her, but thrilled to have "beebypeege" in our home. She would get right up in the baby's face and screech "Hi!", and then proceed to poke her in the eye, or something else along those lines. Unfortunately, her emotions get the best of her every once in a while, and she keeps having total meltdowns. I hate to say it, but I kind of enjoy those moments because I get to take her in my arms, cuddle her, and let her know that she is still Mommy's little girl. It's hardest on her, but I think she's getting used to the idea. Today all she wanted to do was rock the baby in her chair. At any rate, we're all adjusting to the changes, and enjoying our little bundle of love!

Aunt Annie and my parents deserve huge thanks for dropping everything to come and help out with the kids. THANKS! I think the kids were looking forward to seeing relatives almost as much as they wanted to meet their new sister. Living so far away from family seems to take its toll on them. It was great having them here, because they get really hungry for visits from grandpa and grandma, aunts and uncles, cousins, etc. We're looking forward to having Grandpa Jim come visit this weekend. If only Paige were more aware of all the bustle just for her!