November 10--One Day Old

Things were pretty lonely at the hospital without Scott, but I was glad he was able to get some rest. My day started at 7:30 with a feeding, then a check by my doctor, then a visit from the pediatrician who checked Owen. Because of his blood sugar issues, we'd have to wait another day to get his circumcision done. Finally around noon, he passed his last blood sugar test (barely), and we were given the ok to finally do his bath. But, I had to wait a few more hours till Scott came back. But, then finally Owen got his bath!









After Owen's bath, they dressed him up for us in his little outfit we'd brought from home. He looked so handsome! And look at all that shiny blond hair!





We had some more visitors this day--Marc and Kenna, Scott's parents, and our kids (again). And we just enjoyed another day with our baby boy in the quiet of the hospital (without all the chaos we knew would await us at home).


We let Owen sleep in the nursery again, and let the nurse bring him in for feedings. This was one feeding, where I let Scott do the burping.



And that brings us to a new day (and a new post). Sorry to drag this out for so long, but this is our family journal, and I don't want to forget anything (and I'm finding that free time is a rarity now, so I have to do this piece by piece when I find the time).

November 9, 2010--Part 2

After the kids left, we waited in our delivery room for a couple hours before a room opened up on the 8th floor. Finally we got moved upstairs to our recovery room. There were two things that really surprised me about our new baby. His size--I was not expecting him to be that big.

...and his hair! Our kids are usually so bald when they are born.

I already mentioned that because he was so big, his blood sugar was low. The number has to be above 50, and his wasn't. We had to give him a bottle shortly after he was born to try and get his number up, and we started in on a long series of blood sugar tests. He had to pass three hourly tests, then 3 more tests every three hours. If he didn't pass any of them, he had to start the process over. Each test required a new heel poke and a reading with an instant test. If the number was low, they collected enough blood to send to the lab for a more accurate reading. His poor heels were a complete mess of cuts and blood before the whole process was done. He had to start the process over once in the middle of it. We finally finished up the next day around noon. He was on his final three hour test, and his number came back 49--which meant we'd have to start all over. But luckily, the lab came back as 56, so he passed and didn't have to have any more heel pokes. Through the whole process, though, we had to give him countless bottles trying to make sure his blood sugar stayed up high enough. And, until he passed all his blood sugar tests, we couldn't give him a bath. Babies cry so much during their first bath, which expends a lot of energy (sugar), and since he didn't have any to spare, we had to wait. I was so in love with his hair, and couldn't wait to see it washed, but we had to wait clear till the next day to see it all clean.

So, that first day we just hung out with our baby, did lots of bottles, and lots of blood sugar tests, and tried to decide what his name should be.



We had a few visitors that evening. Scott's parents came to see us, and the Relief Society presidency came to visit. The kids also came to visit again that evening. By this time we were pretty sure his name should be Owen, and we asked the kids what they thought. They all loved the name and started calling him that.


After the kids left to go home, I breathed a sigh of relief. It was great to have them all there, but it was very exhausting. 6 kids! What have I gotten myself into?

After the kids left, we had some quiet time before we settled down for the night. We let Owen go to the nursery so we could get some sleep, and they brought him in every 2 hours for feedings (nursing, then topping off with a bottle). The nurse that took care of him was so nice, and every time she'd bring him in, she'd tell me how she and Owen had been spending their time together.

And then....the stomach flu hit. Not me (thankfully), but Scott. He was up in the bathroom most of the night. I felt so sorry for him. He got up the next morning, still feeling sick, and headed home at 7:45 so he could take the kids to "Donuts with Dad" at their school. After the event, he walked the kids to their classrooms and let them show their teachers and friends a picture of Owen on his cell phone. Then he headed home and crashed. I didn't see him back at the hospital till 2 that afternoon. But, now we are on to a new day....so time for a new post.

November 9, 2010--Part 1

I woke up Tuesday morning at 4:30 and showered and got ready to go to the hospital. Thankfully, we didn't get any phone calls that morning telling us there wasn't room, so at 5:30, Scott and I hopped in the truck and headed downtown to the hospital.

Before heading up to Labor and Delivery, we stopped inside the front door of the hospital for the traditional "going to have a baby" picture (I have a picture of me in front of this water feature with every baby).

We checked it at triage, and before long we met our nurse and were taken to our room. Because they were still pretty full, we were in the "spare wing" of labor and delivery. Our nurse's name was Hope and she was absolutely wonderful through the whole process. By 7, I was resting comfortably in my bed with an IV hooked up to me. My doctor came by around 7:15. He said he was really surprised to see my name on the board. They were still so busy, that he expected them to have postponed me again. But he said he'd told them they had to call, that he wasn't going to. But, they didn't call, and we did make it into a room, so I was very happy. My doctor checked me--I was at a 3 1/2! Then he broke my water, and the pitocin was turned on. He suggested my nurse order the epidural soon, because he knew things would progress very fast. Then he was off, and we were left to wait for the contractions to start. The epidural showed up about 20 minutes later. My nurse turned off the pitocin while I got my epidural so we wouldn't have to worry about contractions during it. Then we got a call that the regular wing of labor and delivery had cleared out, so they unplugged everything and rolled my bed through the hallway down to a room in the regular wing. Once we got settled into our new room, my nurse turned the pitocin back on, because my contractions had begun to really space out. That was probably around 8:30.

Once the pitocin was turned back on, the contractions started back up. Slowly they began to get uncomfortable. My nurse reminded me that I'd paid too much money for the epidural to still be feeling pain, so we called the anesthetist back to put more medicine into the epidural. During that time, my nurse had checked me, and I was only at a 4. She also told me she was pretty sure my baby wasn't quite lined up (he was sitting with his head over my left hip and his feet up in my right rib cage). With every contraction, I would have a little "bump" of a contraction at the end, which was an indicator that he wasn't lined up. I could feel quite a bit of pain with him pushing down with each contraction--which my nurse said was because his head was pushing into bone instead of straight down like he was supposed to. The anesthetist came back and gave me more medicine, but I still was feeling pain in the lower part of my stomach (and it was getting worse and worse). He tried to adjust where the epidural was, but I was still feeling pain. He said that I'd developed what they call a "window"--a bunch of nerves that they can't reach with an epidural, no matter what they do.

By this point the pain was bad. I knew I was going through transition. The anesthetist decided to pull the epidural and just do an interthecal (spinal block). I'd had that with Nate, and knew it would work fast. So, they sat me up to put another needle into my back, and the whole time I was sitting there, I told them it was time for this baby to be born. Everything was happening really fast. I got the spinal block (which is just a one time shot into the back), and they laid me down and immediately had my doctor in. We'd talked to my doctor about letting Scott assist with the delivery, and he'd agreed. Doctor Lowder came in and told Scott to get suited up immediately. Scott got his scrubs on, and was trying to get the gloves on. Doctor Lowder told the nurses to help him with the gloves because the baby was coming out and I wasn't even pushing. Scott got the gloves and stepped into position. Doctor Lowder coached him on where to put his hands (on either side of the head on the ears) and how to turn his head (nose up), and before I knew it, Scott was placing our baby boy on my stomach. It seriously happened SO FAST! They ordered the spinal block at 10:02 and he was born at 10:13. During the pushing, I had become really light headed, and was afraid I was going to pass out (they hurried and put oxygen on me), and even once it was all over, I was still pretty light headed, but I was so happy to finally have my little boy to hold.



One thing I love about my doctor is how calm he is--always. It's very reassuring. So, while everything seemed to go flawlessly, I was still aware of the nurses comments that clued me in on the fact that the delivery wasn't without a few problems. First, the cord was wrapped around his neck, and he came out quite purple. But it didn't take long for him to start to pink back up. Also, I remember the nurse asking for help because I was bleeding quite a bit (which probably contributed to my light-headedness). And the biggest worry for me was the fact that my cervix tried to come out after the delivery. I remember my nurse commenting that I might need to have repair work done when it was all over with. But, the bleeding got under control, and after an hour or so, my cervix had pulled back up, and everything was fine. It's just a good reminder of how many things can go wrong with childbirth, and how completely blessed we are that we've done this 6 times and had everything go so well each time.

After cutting the cord, it was time for him to be placed on the scale. 9 pounds 2 ounces! He was a big boy!

Next it was time for him to be examined by a nurse from the nursery. One of the things they check for is blood sugar levels, and because he was so big, his was a little low. I'll talk more about this later--it turned out to be the biggest worry of all for the next day.





Before things had started to get serious, we had called my parents and given them the ok to bring the kids down. They arrived about a half an hour after he was born, which gave Scott and me a little quiet time with our baby first.




The kids were so excited to see their little brother. Of course, they wanted to know what his name was... and so did we. But we weren't quite ready to decide. So, he was just baby brother for their first visit.

The Waiting Game

The last time I wrote, I had a week left of being pregnant. During that week, Josh and Sara both lost another tooth.


The week went rather smoothly until we hit Saturday. At around 5 am, I awoke to Josh standing next to my bed crying that he was feeling sick. I told him to head to my bathroom. He almost made it, but not quite. He threw up on the rug in front of my toilet. Scott and I got up, got everything cleaned up, and got Josh settled with a bucket and a stack of towels in our chair in our room. He continued to throw up every hour or so until around 2 that afternoon. Scott and I had planned a babysitter so we could go out to lunch together that day. Josh was feeling so-so when it was time for us to leave, so we sent him upstairs with his bucket, pillow, blanket and a movie and told him to stay up there away from the babysitter (we didn't want him to get her sick). By the time we got home an hour later, he was feeling pretty good.

That evening we headed over to Scott's parent's house to help cut down three trees. Josh was feeling great by then and had so much fun helping with the project. We cut all the trees up into firewood and brought them home to use next summer in our fire pit. By then, though, Savannah wasn't feeling really great. She layed on the tool box in the back of Scott's truck the whole time just watching. The other kids watched for a minute, but decided the chain saw was too noisy, so they headed inside to play with the toys and Grandma Jo.

By Sunday, we decided that it wasn't a good idea to send the kids to church with Josh just getting over being sick and Savannah just starting. So, Scott stayed home with the kids while I went to the last hour of church (I was too uncomfortable to sit for three hours, so I just went to Relief Society). We all went to bed that night expecting to get up the next morning and go have a baby.

But then...

At 1:30 am Savannah came downstairs to say that she had thrown up--on the rug in front of the toilet upstairs. So, we got up and got that cleaned up and got her settled in our chair. It's where we always put the kids when they get sick--that way they are close to our bathroom and close to us.

At 3:00 am Aaron came downstairs to say that he was feeling sick (he hadn't thrown up yet). So, we moved Savannah (who had continued to throw up in her bowl every hour) out to the couch in the living room and put Aaron in our chair with a bowl.

At 5:30 am I got up and showered and got ready to go to the hospital. I was scheduled to be induced at 7, which meant we had to leave our house at 6:30. But at 6, the hospital called to say they'd had a busy night and didn't have any open rooms for me, and to wait and call at 9 to see if they had room. I told the nurse that it was probably a good thing that I was delayed, because I currently had 2 kids sick. Josh's sickness had been so short lived, I figured a few more hours would go a long way with getting Aaron and Savannah feeling better.

Shortly after I got off the phone, I heard Josh and Nate coming down the stairs. Josh announced, "Nate's throwing up!". Once again, we sprung to action. I went upstairs and gathered the bedding in Nate's bed (luckily, there wasn't any on the carpet, just in his bed) and Scott got Nate in the tub. Once he was cleaned up, he got to come to bed with us. Around that time Aaron decided to go ahead and throw up also. So, we had 3 kids throwing up when my doctor called at 8. He said he'd heard I had sick kids, and asked what I wanted to do. He said we could delay the induction to another day, or we could go ahead with it and get me out of the sick environment before I caught it. I opted for the latter. He said it was still pretty busy, but he'd do his best to get me in.

At 9 I called in to the hospital and was told to call again in an hour. Meanwhile, we kept Scott's dad informed of the delay. He was going to come stay with the kids for us while we had the baby (my parents couldn't come till that night). So, he waited by his phone for the call to come while we waited by our phone for the call to come.

At 10 I called and was told to again call back in an hour.

At 11 I called and was told to just wait until they called me.

By noon all three kids were feeling better and the throwing up had stopped. So then the waiting and impatience really started to get intense. Every time the phone rang, I'd rush to the phone and wait for the caller ID to show up to see if it was the hospital. Finally at 3 in the afternoon, my doctor called again and said it wasn't looking good. But, he said he was on call all night, so as soon as a room opened up, I'd be able to come in to be induced.

At 4 I called the nurse again because I hadn't heard from her since 11. She said all the rooms were still full. At 5 my doctor called again. He said he'd rescheduled me for 6 am the next morning and upgraded me from "elective induction" to "medical induction" so I'd have less of a chance of getting postponed again. He said he'd still bring me in in the middle of the night if a spot opened up, but to just plan on 6 the next day.

So our day was spent just waiting and waiting. I had kept the kids out of school that day because we thought we'd be having a baby. Scott had taken off work because we thought we'd be having a baby. Scott's dad, who had also put his day on hold for us all day, ended up coming in the evening and brought dinner for us. And then my parents got there later in the evening. And we all went to bed that night hoping that the next day would really be the day that we'd meet our little baby boy.

255 plus 1

In my almost 12 years of marriage, I have spent 255 weeks being pregnant (the equivalent of almost 5 years). Today I begin my 256th and final week of pregnancy. This morning my doctor's office called to confirm that I am scheduled to be induced next Monday (November 8th) at 7:00 am. It's kind of bittersweet. I'm so miserable, that I can't wait for it to all be over. But at the same time, I'm really quite sad that this is the last time I'll feel a baby moving inside me. The kids are bursting with excitement as we count down this last week. They can't wait to meet their little brother. I can't wait, either. I'm so anxious to meet this little guy. I'm hoping he's healthy. And I'm going to cherish every little kick and poke this week as he and I get our last week alone together.

Halloween

Saturday we braved the crowds and headed downtown to Boo at the Zoo. Since we are members, admission was free. It was literally a zoo with people everywhere. Other than the fact that it was crazy busy, it was really quite fun. The zoo workers dressed up in costume and handed out candy to the kids. Nate and Aaron LOVED getting to give the characters hugs.







After the zoo, we stopped in at Grandpa Mike's office to say hi. His office is just a block or two from the zoo, so we parked there and walked over to the zoo (since all the parking was full at the zoo). The kids enjoyed showing off their costumes to Grandpa. After our visit there, we headed over to the capital building. The governor and first lady were handing out goodies on the front steps of the capital.



After patiently waiting in line, the kids got their picture with the governor.

Then we took the kids inside the capital building to show them around.

When we got home, all the kids were already pretty hyper from eating candy non-stop on the car ride home. Nate really needed a nap, but couldn't find a quiet place where the other kids would leave him alone. He finally fell asleep 10 minutes before it was time to go to the ward's trunk or treat. So, Scott took the older 4 kids there and I stayed home with Nate while he napped. Savannah was kind enough to take Nate's basket with her and get him candy. After they all got home, they spread out on the living room floor and went to town eating their candy.

Sunday evening the kids donned their costumes again and set out for trick or treating in our neighborhood. Scott stayed home and handed out candy and let me take the kids trick or treating since I'd had to miss it the night before. The kids came home with tons of candy. Nate thinks this is the best holiday ever--everyone tells you how cute you are, then gives you candy!