Thursday, December 29, 2011

MY BABY!!

(Warning, this post is very long because I don't want to forget the details. If you want to skip straight to the pictures, they are at the end.)

Well, it was a very bumpy ride getting this little angel here. We waited to find out who this little person would be, and Owen, Lizzie, Tori and I were all pretty sure that this baby would be Charlotte Kay Peterson...but Daddy thought it was a boy, and he was right! The only problem was that we had NO idea what to name a boy. After months of searching, we had a list of names. Daddy liked Ian, Miles, and Wyatt (in that order), and Mommy liked Jonah, Isaac, and Wyatt (in no particular order). So, here's how it went down...
My due date was December 24, Christmas Eve. I hoped all through the pregnancy that this baby would come safely, and well before the due date. Since my experience with babies never once included counting contractions, I wasn't really concerned about that part. As I told people a thousand times, "My body doesn't know how to contract without pitosin." My only hope was to have my water break. I also had a hospital date on December 19 to be induced. I went to my appointment on Friday, December 2, and was only at a 2. Bummer. At least that would leave time for my sister to take some maternity photos the following Saturday. That didn't happen, but before my sweet nephew Liam was born we took a few of the prego bellies together. (Keep in mind that I still had six weeks to go at this point!)




At 2:30 AM on December 6 I woke up to horrible pain in my lower abdomen that radiated down into my thighs. Well, those obviously weren't contractions, because nobody had ever said a single thing about having contractions in your legs. I ignored them and tried to go back to sleep. No such luck. I was up for hours with these annoying (and totally inconsistent) pains, until my kids started waking up. At that point I went about my day as normal. Got all three kids ready for school, taught two preschool classes, and when kids got home from school we started homework, piano practice, etc. Somewhere in the middle of the day I called my midwife and asked her what the pains were...apparently they were contractions! Unfortunately for me, they had almost stopped by then. There had only been a few during my afternoon class.

As I sat working on the preschoolers' gifts to their parents I started to realize that the contractions were really getting bad, and I started timing them. They were still 7-10 minutes apart, so nothing to get excited about.

I got up and started making dinner. The contractions went crazy almost the minute I stood up. I tried to prepare food, but quickly gave up and opted for a meal of leftovers. I couldn't even handle that, and my precious seven year old offered to take over. She started to reheat food for each of her siblings. Every 5 minutes or so Tor would come to hold my left hand and Liz would run in to hold my right as I tried to breath through the contractions.

Tom called and asked if he ought to come home from the work event he was at. I told him that there was nothing to get excited about and not to worry about it. After all, my body doesn't know how to contract...right?

Finally I laid down in bed in an attempt to see if these contractions were really going somewhere. They slowed down right away. I waited 20 minutes for a contraction, then 15, then 7. Still slower than before. Hmmm now what? Off to presidency meeting I went. After all, being in the primary there are a million things to get done in December. I counted contractions all through the meeting, but we were looking at 8 minutes apart, so nothing to worry about yet.
When I got home from my meeting at around 10:00 I was annoyed. I had been having contractions for hours but didn't really feel like it was doing anything, and I didn't know what I was supposed to do if it was.

Finally we went to bed, but the contractions got worse. Now is it time to call the hospital? I had no idea. At around midnight I called the midwife again. The conversation went something like this:

"Jane, I am so sorry to call you so late, but I am having some pretty intense contractions."
"How far apart are they?"
"About 2-4 minutes."
"Well, do you want to deliver this baby in your living room?"
"No."
"Well, then I suggest you get to the hospital."

I called my mom to come and sit with my other kids over night while I went to the hospital. When we finally got to the hospital and checked in it was around 1 AM on December 7. Before they asked my name or told me their names, the three nurses racing around my room asked if I wanted an epidural. YES PLEASE!! My midwife came in to check me.

"Please don't send me home, Jane!!!"
"Jenn, you aren't going home. You are at an 8 1/2 almost a 9!"

HOLY CRAP!

The anesthesiologist raced in, they got me an IV, and they put a blood pressure cuff around it to get my fluids in. (I did this without an epidural the last time, and it was rough. This time I was gonna do everything in my power to get the drugs!) The epidural test dose was in and that was all I was gonna get. Three contractions worth of pushing later I looked down to see my beautiful, miraculous baby boy! (OK, so there are some details left out there, including the explosion that soaked Daddy when my water finally broke, but this is still a public blog.)





I DESPERATELY wanted a picture where I looked pretty right after the baby was born, but apparently when you have a baby on short notice, in the middle of the night, that doesn't happen. I still look happy, right?


My little man was 6 lb 15 oz when he was born, but only 6 lb 4 oz at his check three days later. He couldn't figure out how to suck, so he lost tons of weight. He is doing so much better now, thankfully!
Now onto the two difficult tasks--breaking the news to the kids that the baby was not a sister, but a brother, and finding a name for this little prince.

For several hours we fretted over what his name should be. The only name we both liked was Wyatt, but we didn't feel like that was the right name. Finally we realized that since he was our miracle, the baby that we weren't sure would ever exist, he needed to be named Isaac. Just like the Isaac in the Bible that was a miracle and a gift to his parents, this little guy was a gift and a miracle. His middle name, Allen, was easier than I expected. He was born on Pearl Harbor day, and his great grandpa Allen, who had passed away only a matter of weeks before he was born, was a veteran of WW II. We couldn't think of a better way to remember him.

Breaking the news to the siblings was much easier than anticipated. They were so happy to meet their brother that they barely even noticed that it wasn't the sister they were expecting. I love the expressions on their faces in this picture. They were so happy to meet him!!

PreChristmas


This year getting ready for Christmas was a little different, since we knew that we would have a special delivery sometime during this festive season. I tried to be ready by starting our baking and decorating early, but our surprise guest was supposed to arrive on December 24 (yup, Christmas Eve). Some of our preparations included baking cookies
and setting up the decorations. Fortunately for me, and unfortunately for the kids (and the neighbors/friends that would have received some goodies) our delivery came early and preparations came to a screeching halt.

(HOLY COW I WAS HUGE!!!)

Another part of our Christmas preparation was Tori's second Christmas recital! I get so nervous whenever she performs. Unfortunately, she was nervous this year too. I could tell before she started. While I was curling her hair she asked what would happen if she messed up. Sure enough, she psyched herself out and found herself in tears on the piano bench. I was so proud of her when she got back up later in the recital and played her songs perfectly!

Field Trip/Fall Happenings




Even though the doctor wouldn't totally clear me for full activity, I got to go with Tori on her field trip. I was so happy to go and finally keep the promise I made to hear nearly a year ago! I had to trade with Daddy half way through the field trip so that he could do the walking through the SUPER COOL dinosaur exhibit, but I got to ride on the bus and go to the 3-D dinosaur movie with my girl and her second grade friends! So sad that I forgot to take more pictures, but here we are all loaded on the bus and ready to go!

Liz was picked to be the "Top Banana" for her kindergarten class. That means that she got to spend the week with "Bongo" the monkey and do lots of fun things with him.
At the end of the week she gets to bring in her poster and talk about herself. She also got to bring in a snack and a favorite book to read to the class. It was fun to see her on display since she is not generally the one that jumps into the spotlight!


I got to go to Time Out For Women for the first time this year! I was so happy to go and to be with such great friends! It was a truly fun and uplifting experience. I hope I get to go every time they come to Colorado! Thanks Jill, Anna, Angie and Vanessa for making if fabulous!


They said no outside food, but honestly, who is gonna try to take a REALLY pregnant lady's frosty?
Fall also means chaos if you happen to be serving with the children of our church's congregation. We work all year to present an uplifting and fabulous program for the congregation. This was the last practice we had with all the kids at church before the final presentation. I was so proud to be part of the program, and so amazed by the spirit that these sweet angels brought to that meeting! (There are about 70 kids crammed into that room...it was HOT!)



Ok, so this wasn't really in late fall, but it was essential that I share these clips. TOO HILARIOUS! Thanks Shane, Trav, and Allie for the motivation. Without Shane's example she never would have let Dad do this!

Finally Winter!


Although I was thrilled to have a nice late fall and keep the snow away for a few extra weeks, my kids were desperate to use their snow gear! They finally got their wish. A snow day right after fall break! Lots of time playing in the snow,




warming up with "tea parties" (ours were actually cocoa parties),

and making rice krispie snowmen. Some of them looked more like snowmen than others, but they were all delicious!

Happy Halloween!


Preparing for Halloween is always half stress, half fun. This night was the fun part. Just ignore the incredibly fat lady in the pictures!







The boys made a jack-o-lantern,



and the girls used a pattern, 'cause Mom is way less creative and artistic than Dad! (It was supposed to be a cat and a skeleton, if you couldn't tell.)

Halloween night was fun for the kids too! In addition to school Halloween parties, (ok, so Owen's wasn't actually ON Halloween, but ya know)

(Remember the parade, and getting to show off your costume?)




the kids got to go to the tri-ward trick or treat with our church!




Owen couldn't decide if he wanted to be Spider Man or Batman, so he was both. Total coincidence that he and his cousin coordinated at the trunk or treat!

After that we headed to the "Halloween House" on our street that is all decked out for the Holiday and draws quite a crowd. While we left the dads to wait in line there, we went up and down the street trick or treating. All in all they had a BLAST, and got TONS of candy! You gotta love it when you have to empty out trick or treat buckets so that the kids can continue trick or
treating...

Oh, and Tom and I went to a Halloween party too. The costumes were way better in my head than they turned out in reality, but Tom looked pretty good. For those of you that haven't seen the movie, we are "Juno" and "Paulie Bleaker."

Fabulous Fall Fun!

In an effort to catch up, I am going to do brief posts with lots of pictures...deal with it!
We had a faulous "Indian Summer" this year. The kids were raking leaves in their shorts, and riding bikes well into December! It was glorious! Being really big pregnant can make a cranky mom, but thankfully the outside time greatly reduced my stress level.




Thanks to Daddy for being outside with them so much!