Saturday, December 29, 2012

One Week Old and Lots of Snow

(After his first bath at home)

Kyle is now a week old and is doing good as far as I can tell. He is eating, sleeping, and pooping like new born babies are supposed to. I have felt really confident in my ability to take care of this little guy because I have done all of this new baby stuff once before with Danny. The problem is I don't just have a new born baby I also have a toddler. I'm not really sure what Danny thinks about Kyle- yesterday and this morning he was wanting to hold him and give him hugs and kisses, but he has also been freaking out over random things. I don't know if the tantrums are jealousy, age, sleep, or illness related or a combination of any of those but it is not fun having your previously good natured child throwing a fit. Oh well, I guess this is just a learning opportunity for us right now. Hopefully we can figure out how to keep both kids happy most of the time. I am so glad that Jon is between semesters right now and has been here to help out with the boys. It is much easier managing things when there are two of us, especially since I'm supposed to be letting myself heal and so I have been trying not to pick Danny up. Jon took Danny up to Draper today to play with his cousins while he helps his dad with some work, so I decided to organize our family photos on the hard drive while Kyle is napping. I'll put up some pictures of Danny playing in the snow with Jon and my brother Michael and a few more of Kyle from that same day.

(Danny sporting a new hat and mittens from Matt and Julia)

(Danny had fun throwing the snow balls that Jon made for him)


(Danny's favorite part of playing in the snow was helping uncle Mikey and Dad shovel)






There are some pictures and my random thoughts on having two kids. Kyle is waking up so that's all for now. 

Diapers Used: 52

Thursday, December 27, 2012

For unto us a child is born

WARNING: I AM GOING TO TALK ABOUT HOW I HAD A BABY. (I will try not to be too graphic, but I make no guarantees)

I will start with my 38 week appointment on Thursday the 20th- I was a 2 at my appointment and had my doctor strip my membranes because I was feeling done with being pregnant and if that got things going I was ok with that. We also scheduled me to be induced for the 28th because I wanted to have the baby this year. After my appointment I went back to work and didn't really think that the membrane stripping had done much until later that night when I had some contractions that woke me up. I went to work on Friday and just felt crummy. I started having contractions probably around 10 am but they were kind of random and not too bad. In the afternoon they started getting more regular and I was having contractions every 10 minutes and by the time I left work at 5:00 I was having contractions maybe every 5 to 7 minutes. When I got home Jon and I started making plans; If we were going to have a baby we needed to have someone watch Danny. My parents had gone up to the cabin for the weekend, and no one was planning on staying at the house that we could have watch Danny if we went to the hospital in the middle of the night. We asked Jon's mom if she would watch Danny and she gladly accepted and came down to pick him up. While she was on her way down I was pacing around the house having contractions about every 4 minutes. I was fine between contractions, but during them I didn't think Karen could get here fast enough. She got here, we made the child swap, and we decided to go to the hospital and see where things were at.

(Before we went to the hospital while Karen was on her way to pick up Danny)

We stopped at Taco Bell on our way to the hospital so Jon could get some food because he wasn't hungry when I had dinner right after getting home from work. I ate a churro which was pretty good and will come in to play later on. I was fully prepared to be sent home from the hospital, but I was more curious to see if I had dilated since my appointment and if these contractions were doing anything. I got all checked in and they hooked me up to the monitors and checked my cervix which was a 3+, so that was progress since the day before. I waited while I was being monitored and there is something about laying in the hospital bed being monitored that makes my contractions slow down and ease up. Needless to say when they checked me at the end of the hour there was no change so they gave me a shot of morphine in the hip which burned like crazy and sent me home at around 10:00.

We drove home and I was feeling super loopy and dizzy from the shot so Jon helped me inside and I flopped on our bed still in my jeans and boots. Jon took off my boots and I slept for a while until I woke up having contractions, feeling super nauseated, and shaking. I got up and threw up and thanks to the churro it wasn't as bad as it could have been. I got back in bed and started timing my contractions which were about every three minutes but for some reason I just wanted to stay in bed. Somewhere during this time I told Jon that I thought we should go back to the hospital again, and he asked how frequent my contractions were and said something about not wanting to be sent home again. I got up to throw up again and then came back and laid down as Jon got up and started getting dressed. He put on my boots and helped me up to the car and we drove back to the hospital at around 2:00 in the morning.

We had to stop walking half way across the parking lot because I was having a bad contraction and some security guys outside the hospital saw us and grabbed me a wheelchair. (As I am writing this down I am remembering random things like that we had brought one of those huge BYU ice cream bucket things for a barf bucket, so I bet we looked pretty awesome to the security guys and one of them even commented on the size of it) We got back up to labor and delivery and the nurse who had monitored me before was still there and she was my nurse again. When she checked me I was at a 5 and she said they would be keeping me this time. She wasted no time getting the anesthesiologist in there with the epidural because I was shaking, throwing up, and probably pretty distressed looking. After I got the epidural I was hoping to sleep more, but I had a hard time falling asleep because I was shaking so bad. I was pretty happy because even though I had the epidural I could still roll over on my own and I could move my legs which was my main issue with the epidural when I had Danny.

I wasn't really looking at the clock, but I'm guessing it was around 4:30 I started having this pain in my back on the left side. So I pushed my epidural button to give me some more drugs, but nothing happened. I kept trying to push it to give me some relief and it wasn't doing anything. I let the nurse know I was hurting and she said the anesthesiologist was in the OR with an emergency and she would have him come in when they were done in there. So I was writhing around on the hospital bed and was now not just having an aching pain in my back but I was having pain that was spreading around to the front and getting worse every time I had a contraction. To put it simply I was miserable; at one point Jon tried to distract me with a video on his phone but I hardly even remember that. The nurse was telling me that she was surprised my water hadn't broken because I was an 8 and that once the doctor broke my water I would probably have the baby pretty quick.

I'm guessing it was at about 6:00 because I got a new nurse and the doctor came in and they checked me and my water had broken and he felt that the baby was on his back and he said that was probably why I was having so much pain in my back. They got things set up for me to push and I had one contraction and the doctor turned the baby and told me to push. The good thing about being able to feel this was I could push and know that I was actually doing something. I got his head out with that first push and then when I had another contraction I pushed the rest of him out.

(I decided to put the picture where I look slightly happier rather than the one Jon took where I still look miserable and in a lot of pain)


(His poor little face was super puffy and kind of bruised at first)

Kyle was born at 6:21 am on December 22nd. He weighed 6 pounds 15 ounces and was 19 inches long. I was very relieved to have him out. I'm not sure what was up with the epidural not really doing much but after Kyle was born and I was down in mother/baby I was happy that I could walk to the bathroom no problem.



We had our 2 days in the hospital and then came home in the early morning on Christmas Eve. It was an interesting Christmas Eve and Christmas because we didn't really do any of the family get together things that we traditionally do because we didn't want to take our newborn out to get exposed to bunches of people with bunches of germs.



Christmas morning I got things set up because I had been up feeding Kyle and was expecting to have a magical moment with Danny when he woke up. Sadly this dream did not come true because when I heard Danny making noise in his crib I went into his room and my nose knew that there was a problem. Danny had been sick and had diarrhea for a while and when I went in his room I smelled it before he said "tub" and I turned on the light and saw the mess. Jon took Kyle up to my parents and I started filling up the bath and wiping down Danny as Jon cleaned up the crib. Merry Christmas! Not exactly the start to the day we wanted, but once cleaned up Danny was very excited about his presents and I think he had fun. All of my siblings except Ryan spent the night at my parents house Christmas Eve, so Danny was able to play with his cousins and that was great for him and great for us because he loved it and we didn't have to entertain him.

Ok I need to stop writing because Kyle is asleep and I want to maximize on my night time sleep. I will try to write another post and add more pictures soon. Maybe tomorrow if I am feeling ambitious because I took some pictures today that I want to post.

I do want to say though that our families have been amazing at helping watch Danny and taking care of us all while we were at the hospital and since then. Thanks so much! Jon and I are very lucky to have both our families close and willing to help.