Jane's First Week

Here are pictures from our first week with baby Jane.

Justin took these in the hospital soon after Jane was born. She was less than an hour old! She weighed 7 lb. 12 oz and was 20 3/4" long.

 Me holding Jane up in our postpartum room 

 Justin with Jane on Saturday morning

 Jane's first bath, given by our nurse Heidi

 Jane in her hospital bassinet

 The kids and my family came to meet Jane on Saturday

 The hospital had a "sibling birthday party" where the kids got to have cupcakes to celebrate becoming a big brother or sister.

 Jane in her carseat on Sunday, ready for her first ride.

 These pictures were taken at home during Jane's first week. 

Emme is already dressing her sister up

Benjy is so sweet with Jane. He wants to hold her and kiss her all the time.

Eli had his baptism interview with the Bishop to get ready for his baptism on February 4.

Justin took the week off and was home to help with Jane, Emme, and drop off/pick up the boys from school. We had meals brought in from friends at church and parents in Eli's school class. His teacher sent around a signup for two weeks worth of meals, which was such a blessing. We had a really wonderful week of spending time with Jane and adjusting to life with a newborn.

Jane's Birth Story

Our sweet baby Jane Amelia was born on Friday, January 13th at 11:01 p.m. I was in the hospital for 13 hours, about 3-4 of which was actual labor. Here's how it all happened:

Jane was due on January 6, 2017. I became pregnant with Jane while I had an IUD in place, so I had not been expecting to get pregnant and therefore had not been keeping track of my cycle. I had to just make my best guess as to when my last monthly period was. However, the ultrasounds I had throughout the pregnancy all corroborated her due date within a few days, so we felt confident that January 6 was an accurate due date. Starting after Christmas, Justin and I began hoping I would go into labor. He had the week after Christmas off, and we were hoping that I would go into labor earlier with her than I had with the others because she’s my fourth. However, Justin’s week off came and went, and the following week as well. 

A couple days before my due date, on Wednesday, January 4, I had a doctor’s appointment. The midwife checked my cervix, and I was at a 1 and 50% effaced. She also stripped my membranes, which was supposed to help me go into labor. I had some good contractions in the couple days following that appointment, but then they seemed to just stop. I also started rapid walking Wednesday night, and continued to walk at least once a day for the following week. I had an appointment scheduled for Thursday, January 12, but I was hoping that I would go into labor before then. On Tuesday, January 10 (which was Eli’s birthday), I was feeling really frustrated with the on-again-off-again contractions and I called the midwives’ office to talk about getting an induction. I told them my concerns about getting too far past my due date, and they agreed it seemed like a very reasonable course of action. We scheduled the induction for Friday, January 13, one week after my due date. The midwife told me, however, to keep my Thursday appointment so that they could strip my membranes again and hopefully get me to go into labor.

On Thursday, Justin came to my appointment with me. The midwife checked my cervix again, and I was still at a 1 and 50% effaced. I was discouraged by that, because of all the contractions I had been having. She stripped my membranes again, and we talked about the induction. I had begun feeling scared about being induced and wondered whether it would be best to just wait and hope I went into labor on my own. The midwife said that they would need to do some tests before she could let me go beyond 41 weeks to make sure the baby was OK. So I had an ultrasound and non-stress test done. The non-stress test showed the baby’s heart rate and everything looked fine with that. The ultrasound checked the level of my amniotic fluid, and it turned out that my fluid level was low. I felt better about being induced after that, because it was for the baby’s well-being and not just to satisfy my impatience. That evening I didn’t go walking but I was still hoping to go into labor naturally, especially after having my membranes stripped.

I didn’t feel any strong contractions that evening. Friday morning, after dropping the boys off at school and leaving Emme at home with my mom, Justin and I headed to the hospital for my 10 a.m. appointment. We checked in at labor and delivery and were shown to our labor room. My nurse, Jane, came in shortly thereafter and got an IV in and checked the baby’s heartbeat. Then the midwife, Pam, came in and talked about options. She said that it would be better to get my cervix ready first before jumping in to the pitocin, because if my cervix wasn’t ready there would be a greater likelihood of labor not progressing. The options were cytotec, a medication, or a balloon which would put pressure on the cervix to dilate. We decided to start with the balloon, so for a couple hours I had that in. Justin and I went to the cafeteria, wandered around the room, looked at baby name books, and watched Jim Gaffigan on Netflix. After a couple hours, Pam came back in and tugged on the balloon. She had to give it some firm tugs but it came out. We decided to start Pitocin after that since my cervix was at least somewhat more dilated. Right after she left, I noticed some dripping and felt like my water had broken. Jane tested the fluid and confirmed it was amniotic fluid. We decided to wait for a bit on the Pitocin in hopes that I would go into labor spontaneously. After an hour of waiting, I still wasn’t really having any contractions, and it was about 4 p.m. I didn’t want to be up all night having a baby, so I told Jane I was ready to start Pitocin. They started it at the lowest concentration and increased it every half hour. For the first couple hours, I wasn’t feeling too much pain with the contractions. We watched Family Feud on the room TV and Justin got dinner from the cafeteria.

 Progressively, the contractions got closer and stronger, and we were watching Fixer Upper when they got to be pretty hard to work through. I was on an exercise ball sitting at the side of my bed, bouncing in between contractions and rolling side to side through them. I decided I wanted to try nitrous oxide, which is the anesthetic gas they use at the dentist’s office but is available in much lower dosage for labor. I had talked to the midwives about it at prenatal appointments and expressed interest in trying it for pain relief if needed. The nitrous machine was in use by someone else, however, but after about forty minutes they were able to get it to my room. By then I was in really agonizing pain. The pitocin was up to 12 units/min and the contractions were really gripping. I tried the nitrous for probably about 30 minutes, but I didn’t feel like it did anything for my pain. I was in agonizing pain at that point, so I asked the nurse to check me (Jane had gone home and my night nurse was Jen). She said I was still about a 5 and 70% effaced. At that point, I could not imagine going all the way from a 5 to a 10 without any kind of pain relief, so I asked for an epidural. The contractions were so hard with the Pitocin, and Justin told me later I just looked defeated, which is certainly how I felt. It took about 10 minutes to get the anesthesiologist in but he popped the epidural in and then it took about 10 minutes for it to take full effect. I could still feel the contractions, but they were not excruciating, and I was finally able to relax a bit. It was nearly 11 p.m. and I was so exhausted.

 I was going to try and rest for a little bit, but the midwife, Jules, (Pam had also gone home at shift change) wanted to check my progress before I settled down. She was shocked to find that I was completely dilated and the baby’s head was visible. It had only been maybe 30-40 minutes since I was at a 5. I put my legs in the stirrups and got ready to push. I pushed once and the baby’s head moved down. I waited for another contraction, and when it came, I gave a strong push and the baby’s head crowned. Another little push and our sweet baby was born. Justin got to announce the gender to us, and I was surprised and thrilled (even in my exhaustion) when he said we had a little girl! Jules handed baby girl to me and I got to hold her skin to skin and bask in the joy of having completed the arduous task of bringing her into the world. After ten or fifteen minutes, they clamped the cord and Justin got to cut it. Sweet baby girl (who did not have a name yet) stayed with me for awhile before they took her to be weighed and get her newborn medicines (erythromycin eye ointment, vitamin K shot, hep B shot). She was able to successfully latch during that time and was very alert. She didn’t cry much at all and was pretty content.

While I was holding baby skin to skin, Jules delivered the placenta and inspected it. It was intact, and she did not see the IUD anywhere in it. The midwives had been thinking it might just deliver with the placenta, but there was no sign of it. She then had to feel for it in my uterus. After looking for awhile, she found it way at the top (fundus) of my uterus, and it was embedded. She told me later she was so glad that I had the epidural, because her pulling the IUD out would have had me climbing the wall in pain.

After an hour or so, Jen helped me up to the bathroom with the use of a Sara Steady. I still had partial feeling in my legs and was able to move my left leg pretty well, but my right leg was kind of heavy. After I used the bathroom, they put me in a wheelchair and I got to hold sweet baby Jane while we went upstairs to our room in mom/baby. Our nurse, Libba, got us settled. After she was through, all three of us collapsed in exhaustion for a few hours’ rest before it was time to nurse baby girl again. The next day, we decided on her name, Jane Amelia. We debated about several names, including Grace, Caitlin, and Lenore, but in the end both of us liked Jane best. Amelia is a family name on both sides and has always been a favorite of mine. 

Eli's Birthday, Baby Update

I wanted to write a quick post because today *might* be a big day. I have a doctor's appointment this morning and the midwife is going to strip my membranes to hopefully get me to go into labor. If that doesn't work, I have an appointment tomorrow morning to go in for induction. That was my choice-- at 41 weeks, I feel like the baby should be ready and I don't want to risk going to 42 weeks and having trouble pushing it out.

Eli had his birthday on Tuesday. With all the expectations of having a baby this week, I hadn't planned much in the way of a celebration, but we tried to still make it special for him. I surprised him by meeting him at his school for lunch with Chick-fil-A. Then that afternoon, Justin picked Eli up from school and took him on a birthday date to do indoor glow-in-the-dark miniature golf and they got some food. 

That evening, my mom, grandparents, and Lene came over and had cupcakes with us and Eli opened a few presents. He really, really wants to do a party with his friends so we are going to do that at the end of the month at a gymnastics center.

Besides that, this week has felt very long just waiting for baby. I have been walking pretty much every night for the past week and a half at places with lots of halls (Costco, Super Target, the mall) and trying everything I know of to help labor start, but to no avail. I wasn't blogging at the time I had Emmeline, but I'm sure I felt the same way then, because she was a week late. I'm excited though to have a plan and see what today brings.

*UPDATE* 10:19 p.m. 

I had my doctor's appointment this morning and had an emotional visit with the midwife. I was very scared about getting induced and expressed doubts about whether it would be the best thing to do. The midwife recommended getting an ultrasound and non-stress test done before letting me go past 41 weeks to make sure that everything with the baby was fine. I did the non-stress test, and the baby's heartbeat and movement were great. The ultrasound though showed low fluid levels and calcification in the placenta, which indicates the placenta is getting old and tired out. As the ultrasound technician put it, the placenta looked "well done." That gave me the reassurance I needed that inducing labor was the best thing to do and was a matter of doing what would be healthiest and not just what was convenient or satisfied my impatience. So my mom is coming to watch Emme in the morning and Justin and I are heading in to the hospital for my 10 o'clock appointment. I would be lying if I said I wasn't apprehensive but I definitely have a level of peace that I did not have before my appointment this morning. I don't know how it will go but I can only have faith and hope for a smooth birth. At the end of it, we get to meet our sweet baby! We have waited so long and I can't believe it is finally time to meet our little boy or girl. 

First Week of January

I have spent the past week doing everything I know of to induce labor. I've been on plenty of long walks, with some of them bringing on some pretty hard contractions (which stopped as soon as I ceased moving). I have still not had the baby, and I am going to take a day of rest today from worrying about it. I will do like Bob Wiley and "take a vacation from my problems."

On Monday, Justin had another day off because of the observed New Year's holiday. We have spent a lot of time playing with toys and games the kids got for Christmas. We got games Ker-Plunk, Qwirkle, Blokus (with squares, not the triangle version we already have), and Rubik's Race. The only game we haven't played yet is Qwixx dice game. The Magna-Tiles that Benjy got from Santa have been a big hit with the whole family. 

On Tuesday, we went over to Cyndi's house for a playdate. They got a new cat recently, a Maine Coon kitten. The Maine coon is apparently the "dog of the cat world," because it gets much larger than normal cats and it is very social and good with kids. They got that breed because they wanted it to be good with Joey, who has autism. It is still a kitten, but it is about half the size of a regular adult cat. It is SOOO cute. If Eli weren't allergic to cats, it would make me want to get one of these.

 That afternoon, we met up with Eli's friends Solly and Cache at Sky Zone, a new trampoline center. The kids had fun getting their wiggles out.

 They had a great foam pit in the littler kids area with huge foam blocks. Benjy loved jumping into the pit and hiding under the foam. Later, he helped some other kids built a foam fort.

On Wednesday, I had a doctor's appointment and they said that I was dilated to a 1 and 50% effaced. The midwife stripped my membranes, and that got some contractions going for a while. It snowed hard Wednesday evening and through the night, so I was kind of hoping to not have the baby then. Justin worked from home Wednesday and Thursday because of all the snow. On Thursday morning I braved the roads and took the kids to McDonald's for a playdate with the Millers. It was good to get out of the house after being so cooped up. Thursday was also my due date-- January 6. The weather was still lousy so I was kind of glad the baby did not come then.

Friday Emme woke up with a swollen face. It looked like she had the mumps because her chin and neck were so puffy, especially on the right side. I took her in to the doctor and they tested her for strep, which was negative. They said she might have mono, but the only way to test for that was to do a blood test, or I could just keep a close eye on her. She has been sick on and off for the last few weeks, and they said she could have swollen lymph nodes that could progress to abscesses. I am definitely going to keep a close eye on her and make sure she doesn't start to develop fever, redness, and tenderness over the site. 

Friday night we went to the mall and I did a bunch of laps. I was getting some really good contractions going, and they lasted a little while after I got home. When I went to bed however, the contractions stopped.

Saturday my dad flew in for the day to celebrate Eli's birthday with us. We picked him up from the bus station and went to Target so he could get Eli a present and I did more laps. Then we went to Benihana for lunch with the rest of my family, except for Carlos, who was working. 

That night we went to the mall AGAIN and I walked some more, but not as long because my feet started to hurt. In all my walkings I noticed a shoe store with a good sale and Justin and I both got a nice pair of shoes. If I couldn't get a baby out of the experience, shoes are the next best thing. OK now I am officially caught up on this blog for the first time in months. If that is what was holding things back, let the floodgates of labor open! Oh wait, I am not worrying about that today. 

End of December

The week after Christmas, Justin took his week of floating holiday. We spent the week hanging out, doing some projects around the house, and hoping the baby would be born. The baby did not come that week, but we had another addition to the family... a new sectional! There is a bit of a back story to the sectional. We had been looking for several months for a sectional with a sleeper, and Justin had been checking Craigslist pretty frequently with no luck. Finally, one day, a sleeper sectional popped up and he jumped on the opportunity. The picture looked pretty good, and the specs described it as "light green" and in very good condition. There was already an offer on the sectional, so Justin offered higher than asking and got a friend to drive him down to Golden in his truck to load and bring back the sectional. When we got it in the house, we both had a terrible shock: the couch was not at all in the good condition it had been described, and it was an ugly beige color and not green at all. The upholstery was furry from what was clearly heavy use and it wasn't even very comfortable to sit on. We decided it had to go. So Justin re-listed it on Craigslist (with an accurate description of its condition) and spent hours with the hair clippers shaving the fuzz off that couch. Finally, a couple days before New Year's, we sold it. As soon as the buyers had hauled it off, we hopped in the car and went to American Furniture. The kids had a lot of fun browsing the furniture with us and testing out many of the pieces.

We ended up purchasing a dark brown sleeper sectional that is a-MAZ-ingly comfortable. We picked out a rug to tie in the different colors in our basement and now it feels like nothing else ever belonged in that space.

On New Year's Eve, I decided it was time for me to start doing my part to induce labor. We drove up to Boulder and hiked up the Chautauqua trails. It did not have the desired effect of bringing on labor pains, but we had a lovely time as a family in the beautiful outdoors. Eli took his metal detector he got for Christmas and tried to find treasures along the trail. He did not find much, but eventually uncovered a piece of rusty metal a few inches under the ground.

I worked the 6-10 shift that night at Covenant Village. When I got home, Justin and I drank sparkling cider and rang in the New Year. We won't be getting that tax break from having a baby born in 2016, but we're looking forward to welcoming our newest addition any day now.

Christmas

The week before Christmas, the kids had school up through Wednesday. The kids were so excited for Christmas that it was hard to go to school, but I was glad to have some extra time to get things ready. Their class parties were Wednesday, and Emme and I bounced between classrooms helping out. We spent more time in Benjy's class because his party was more involved. Eli's party was watching the "Polar Express" and having snacks and hot chocolate. Benjy's class had snacks, a craft, and they were supposed to play several games, but we ran out of time for the games. Benjy's teacher held onto the game boards I made for Jingle Bell Toss and the kids are going to play when they get back from break.

On Christmas Eve morning, we had our last ward choir practice of the year. With the support of the choir, I opted to have practice Saturday morning instead of before church on Christmas Day. After the Christmas program, we are taking a couple months off from choir since I'm having our baby and everyone could use a little vacation. :) That evening, we went to my grandparents' for our traditional Christmas Eve celebration. We seem to have mostly the same menu items every year, with a little bit of variation: shrimp cocktail, cold cut sandwiches on rolls, Swedish or sweet and sour meatballs, stuffed baked mushrooms, assorted salads, Linzertorte, and Buche de Noel. My grandpa read the Christmas story from Luke, and the kids opened a few presents. The kids opened their pajamas from us and were delightfully surprised, even though they get that same gift every year. ;)

Christmas morning began a little earlier than it has in past years. Emmeline has been having trouble sleeping for the past several weeks, and she woke up at 3:30 crying and inconsolable. I don't know if she is having night terrors or what, but it's really been rough with her lately. There's not a lot we can do to comfort her and stop the crying. So... we tried to get her back to sleep but she ended up waking the boys, who remembered it was Christmas morning and wouldn't go back to sleep. Around 4:30 or so Justin and I gave up and the kids got to open their stockings and presents.

Eli's Santa gifts were a circuit set, Toy Story character set, and a Nerf bow and arrow.

 Benjy got Magna Tiles, a Kylo Ren light saber, and a Nerf bow and arrow set from Santa.

 Emme got a dollhouse, some Disney princess dolls, and a stuffed deer from Santa.

After Santa gifts were opened, the kids opened lots of great presents from family members. They spent the rest of our morning before church playing with their gifts.

Our church Christmas program was really nice, with both musical numbers and some short talks. The choir sounded the best they ever have and I was really proud of them. :) I have come to enjoy my calling as choir director much more than I ever thought I would, and it was so rewarding to hear the beautiful music and feel the spirit the choir brought to our Christmas meeting. 

That afternoon, we had dinner with Jessi and Eric Miller and their girls, and after that I went in to work a partial shift. It was sweet to see the residents on Christmas and hear about their day spent with family or visitors. We had a wonderful Christmas this year and had many opportunities to reflect on how truly blessed we are because of our Savior. 

Emme's birthday, December Happenings

Now that Christmas is over I am finally sitting down to catch up on blogging. This month has been so crazy... I spent a lot of evenings this month making and buying gifts, wrapping presents, planning class parties, and completing a scholarship application.  I don't know why I thought I would have extra time to blog! I need to hurry up before the baby is born... 

We got some more snow, and Benjy finally was able to make his snowman.

 Eli and Benjy both made miniature snowmen that they kept in the freezer for awhile. They named them "Olaf" and "Smelloff."

On Monday, December 5, the boys had the day off so we met up with some friends from Eli's class at Jump City. We had the place to ourselves!

Thursday evening, Benjy and Eli had their school orchestra concert. Benjy had his Twinkle graduation for the beginning orchestra students back in November, but this was a combined orchestra concert. I had to leave early to make it to my concert, but Justin said the boys did a great job. On Thursday, Friday, and Saturday of that week, I had concerts with the Colorado Mormon Chorale. We played with the Lakewood Symphony and Rocky Mountain Ringers on Thursday and Friday, which was really a treat. Justin came to our concert on Friday and we got to have a little date night. 

On Friday morning I got together with Amor and Roseanne down at Roseanne's new home in north Parker. The only picture I got was of this Indian cheese we used in the lunch we made at her house... Roseanne has an Indian neighbor who gave her some recipes, and we tried one out. I wanted to remember what kind of cheese she used in case I ever want to do a "paneer" recipe.

On Saturday, Justin and I went to tour the hospital wing where I will be delivering. I'm having the baby at Lutheran, which is where I worked for 2 1/2 years. Since there was *potential* for complication with the retained IUD, we decided it would be easier to deliver at a hospital, rather than take our chances at the birth center and risk having to be transferred to the hospital for the IUD removal. I am a little sad about not having the same birth experience that I had with the other three, but overall I think it will be better to be at the hospital this time. It will be interesting to see how this experience compares with my other birth experiences.

On December 15, we celebrated Emme's 3rd birthday. That evening, some of my family came over and we had cake and presents. I can't believe this baby girl is already 3. I still remember so vividly bringing her home as a newborn. When the kids are little, the days are long but the years are so short!

Emme got some fun clothes from Mima, Grammy and Grampy, and great-Grandma and Grandpa. She had to try on everything right after she got it! She also got a puppy purse from us that she had seen at JCPenney and just had to have. Papa John gave her some fun clip-dress princesses, and Anna and Elsa got pulled from the box early to decorate her cake.

Emme's birthday was right in the middle of everyone getting sick. Benjy got sick first and had to miss a few days of school that week. I was okay through Emme's birthday, but that weekend I got sick. I was scheduled to work all night on Friday but the charge nurse sent me home around 10. I spend much of Saturday in bed, and so did poor Eli who was also feeling sick by that point. Justin was our rock as he was the only one of us in full health. It snowed a bunch on Friday night, so Saturday was kind of a sick day/snow day and we canceled all of our plans and just rested up. On Friday though, Justin had his work Christmas "white elephant" party at Maggiano's. For the gift exchange, he took a bag of Ghirardelli chocolates inside of this prank box. He wrapped the box and had the delight of watching someone open their Earwax Candle kit. Some other funny gifts were an autographed, framed picture of one of his coworkers (re-gifted from last year), and a photo pillow of another coworker.

The next week, we made some gingerbread cookies and delivered them to neighbors.

Some other random photos:

Eli brought this paper describing himself home from school. It was fun to see what his favorite things are and how he defines himself to others.

Kids stole my phone and caught me folding laundry 

Emme sang an adorable rendition of "We Wish You A Merry Christmas" after getting out of the bath:

 Benjy's sequence drawing from school. He drew what happened first, next, and last. I really liked how the detail changed from the first to last drawings:

 The boy jumping off the diving board has dry hair,

 but the boy in the water has wet hair. I love how he showed that in this picture!

 This is Eli's Christmas list. He asked for some special Pokemon cards (Mega Blastoise EX, Mega Charizard EX, Mega Stealix EX), Toy Story characters (especially Zurg), a pyramid Rubik's cube, and bubble gum. Benjy asked for a remote control BB8, Angry Birds gummies, and some Pokemon cards.

Taken by Emme in her carseat. Another installment in my Kid Photographer collection.