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| One Month Old! Sporting Daddy's chicken legs. |
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| Two Months Old! |
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| Three Months Old! |
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| Four Months Old! I love my feet! |
Tuesday, March 6, 2012
Monthly Pictures 1-4
Gavin has grown so much in the past... almost five months! We all love
him so much and are so grateful to have his sweet spirit as a part of
our family.
Oh Goodness!
I was planning on updating the blog today... I realized there are so many things I haven't blogged about I am so behind it's almost overwhelming. It might take me forever to catch up but I'm determined to do it!
Wednesday, January 4, 2012
Birth Story (Part 2)
After Gavin was born he had a hard time getting enough oxygen and they did a bunch of tests and x-rayed his lungs. I was still sort of out of it when they wheeled me downstairs to our room. The nurses and doctors updated me a few times telling me that hopefully they would be able to bring him to me in a couple of hours. Well those couple of hours turned into a few hours and it felt like an eternity.
They ended up putting him on an antibiotic and in the NICU. Those hours were so hard. It was so hard knowing I hadn't really seen my son yet. Chris held him up to me after he was born before they took him downstairs but I was so out of it by that point that I couldn't really register anything. I remember at one point when one of the nurses was talking to me about Gavin telling me if they hadn't brought him to me by nine that night that they would take me in to see him and I just cried. I knew he was getting the care he needed but I just wanted to be with him.
At about nine thirty or so they wheeled me in (still in the bed) to see Gavin. It's so hard to see your little baby hooked up to so many monitors with an IV in his little foot. He was so beautiful and I was so grateful to be with him. The next time I saw him was a few hours later when they called me to come in to feed him. I was still attached to everything at this point and it was hard to get around. I remember them calling on the phone saying he's ready to eat and I could hear him cry. That was all I needed to get out of that bed. It hurt and it was hard to get up (a lot of help was required from Chris) but it was so worth it knowing I would get to see my beautiful baby.
Those precious hours we spent in the NICU were wonderful. I would feed Gavin and then Chris would burp him so we would both get a chance to hold him. I think the fact that I had to get up to see him was motivation for me to get up and I think it helped me recover quickly. I remember one of my nurses told me that the best way to recover from a c-section is to act like it didn't happen. I had been so scared to get up and feel the pain from everything in the beginning but having to get up to see Gavin helped me so much.
We were blessed to have Gavin when we did. Had he been born much later in the year and we wouldn't have been able to take anyone in the NICU with us to see him. We were blessed to be able to take two people in at a time to see him. They didn't necessarily get to hold him but I was so proud to show him off. After 48 hours in the NICU Gavin was able to come be with us. What a wonderful gift. Chris and his brothers and his dad helped give Gavin a blessing. I am so appreciative that I have a worth priesthood holder in my home and that can take care of our family. We had to rely on the Lord so much in the first few weeks of Gavin's life. It definitely strengthened our testimonies.
After Gavin came out of the NICU he had to go under a biliblanket because his bilirubin levels were high. They had him on the blanket for a while and were going to check his levels and possibly send us home with a biliblanket. Well when they checked the levels they had gone up even though he was on the blanket. We decided to have him stay a little longer under the lights. It was hard to watch him under the lights because they had to cover his eyes. Gavin has always been a very alert baby and did not like having his eyes covered. He would be fine but any time the door would shut or there was a loud noise he would turn his head toward the noise and lose it because he couldn't see what was happening. Being under the lights helped his levels so much that we didn't even have to go home on a blanket. We only had to go back to the hospital and have him checked once. It was wonderful.
The day that we went home Grandma Debbie and Aunt Amanda picked up Brooklyn so that she could come spend the first two weeks at home with baby Gavin. Our nurse was running a little late in coming to check us out so she gave us all three of the diaper bags that the hospital offers. All of our nurses were so nice and friendly and helpful. I am so grateful for all the wonderful people that took care of me and my baby during our stay in the hospital.
They ended up putting him on an antibiotic and in the NICU. Those hours were so hard. It was so hard knowing I hadn't really seen my son yet. Chris held him up to me after he was born before they took him downstairs but I was so out of it by that point that I couldn't really register anything. I remember at one point when one of the nurses was talking to me about Gavin telling me if they hadn't brought him to me by nine that night that they would take me in to see him and I just cried. I knew he was getting the care he needed but I just wanted to be with him.
At about nine thirty or so they wheeled me in (still in the bed) to see Gavin. It's so hard to see your little baby hooked up to so many monitors with an IV in his little foot. He was so beautiful and I was so grateful to be with him. The next time I saw him was a few hours later when they called me to come in to feed him. I was still attached to everything at this point and it was hard to get around. I remember them calling on the phone saying he's ready to eat and I could hear him cry. That was all I needed to get out of that bed. It hurt and it was hard to get up (a lot of help was required from Chris) but it was so worth it knowing I would get to see my beautiful baby.
Those precious hours we spent in the NICU were wonderful. I would feed Gavin and then Chris would burp him so we would both get a chance to hold him. I think the fact that I had to get up to see him was motivation for me to get up and I think it helped me recover quickly. I remember one of my nurses told me that the best way to recover from a c-section is to act like it didn't happen. I had been so scared to get up and feel the pain from everything in the beginning but having to get up to see Gavin helped me so much.
We were blessed to have Gavin when we did. Had he been born much later in the year and we wouldn't have been able to take anyone in the NICU with us to see him. We were blessed to be able to take two people in at a time to see him. They didn't necessarily get to hold him but I was so proud to show him off. After 48 hours in the NICU Gavin was able to come be with us. What a wonderful gift. Chris and his brothers and his dad helped give Gavin a blessing. I am so appreciative that I have a worth priesthood holder in my home and that can take care of our family. We had to rely on the Lord so much in the first few weeks of Gavin's life. It definitely strengthened our testimonies.
After Gavin came out of the NICU he had to go under a biliblanket because his bilirubin levels were high. They had him on the blanket for a while and were going to check his levels and possibly send us home with a biliblanket. Well when they checked the levels they had gone up even though he was on the blanket. We decided to have him stay a little longer under the lights. It was hard to watch him under the lights because they had to cover his eyes. Gavin has always been a very alert baby and did not like having his eyes covered. He would be fine but any time the door would shut or there was a loud noise he would turn his head toward the noise and lose it because he couldn't see what was happening. Being under the lights helped his levels so much that we didn't even have to go home on a blanket. We only had to go back to the hospital and have him checked once. It was wonderful.
The day that we went home Grandma Debbie and Aunt Amanda picked up Brooklyn so that she could come spend the first two weeks at home with baby Gavin. Our nurse was running a little late in coming to check us out so she gave us all three of the diaper bags that the hospital offers. All of our nurses were so nice and friendly and helpful. I am so grateful for all the wonderful people that took care of me and my baby during our stay in the hospital.
Tuesday, January 3, 2012
Back to Work
Well today is my first day back to work. I loved the time I had at home with my little man and hope to be home with him again soon. I haven't posted much in the last few months... it's much more fun to spend my time with Gavin then it is to spend time on the computer.
Gavin is being taken care of by family which is wonderful. Being gone from him, it's comforting knowing he's with people that love him. I'm not gonna lie it's been a really hard day and I just held him and cried for quite a while before I left this morning.
Anyway... I'll probably update my blog more often and I can catch up on all the wonderful things that have been going on with our family. Which reminds me I need to change the name of our blog... any name suggestions are more than welcome :)
Gavin is being taken care of by family which is wonderful. Being gone from him, it's comforting knowing he's with people that love him. I'm not gonna lie it's been a really hard day and I just held him and cried for quite a while before I left this morning.
Anyway... I'll probably update my blog more often and I can catch up on all the wonderful things that have been going on with our family. Which reminds me I need to change the name of our blog... any name suggestions are more than welcome :)
Wednesday, November 9, 2011
Birth Story (Part 1)
Thursday night October 6th I started having contractions and they seemed to be about every half an hour but they weren't to regular and then ended up being even less frequent after a while. When we went to bed I was still convinced I was going to end up having to be induced Monday. Friday morning I woke up at 5:30 with contractions every fifteen minutes. I wasn't sure if it was the real deal or not and was paranoid I would end up going to the hospital and it wouldn't really be time and we would be sent home. I also wasn't sure if I should call into work or not but after the contractions started getting a little bit closer together I decided I should probably call and let someone know I wouldn't be able to make it in.
When I call my manager told me good luck and it sounded like I was going to have a baby. I still wasn't sure it was the real deal and was thinking I was going to look really dumb if it really wasn't labor. I had been told a few times that most first time mothers often have false alarms and Chris seemed pretty sure I would have at least one false alarm.
We waited for a while and my contractions were getting worse we decided to get ready and then head to the hospital. By the time we left for the hospital my contractions were between three and five minutes apart. They were pretty painful. We got in the car and headed to the hospital. On the way to the hospital at one point I had gone about eight minutes without a contraction and both Chris and I were thinking it was just a false alarm and we would be sent home. Right before we got to the hospital I had another horrible contraction I think we were both relieved that the contractions hadn't stopped. We got to labor and delivery around 8am and I told the nurse I thought I was in labor they had me go into a room and get into a hospital gown and said they would be in shortly to check me.
When the nurse came in and checked me I was at 6cm and 90% and I think a 0 station. I was so surprised and proud of myself that I made it to a 6 before we got to the hospital. They told me that the anesthesiologist was in with a c-section and they would get him in to give me an epidural as soon as he was done. The doctor came in and broke my water. That was an interesting feeling when he broke my water and I was very glad my water didn't break somewhere that someone would have had to clean it up... that would have been a mess. I ended up only having to wait about an hour before the anesthesiologist came in. I was so glad I didn't have to wait any longer I was in so much pain when I had the contractions that I was shaking from the pain. I was so amazed that the epidural hardly even hurt at all; getting the IV hurt worse then the epidural. Once the epidural was working I was a happy camper. Seriously the epidural was the greatest thing ever.
After the epidural was in place I was able to focus on other things then the pain. The baby wasn't responding well to the contractions they had put me on some pitocin to get my contractions a little more regular and the baby didn't like that at all. The nurse figured out that the baby responded better to the contractions better when I was on my right side so I pretty much stayed on my right side the whole time. After a while I was starting to feel pain in my left side and when I mentioned this to the doctor and the nurse they told me the epidural is effected by gravity and that's why my right side was more numb then my left.
They had to put monitors on the inside because the monitors on the outside weren't reading my contractions or the baby's heart rate. We watched the baby's heart rate on the monitor and at one point the baby's heart rate went down to 60 which was really low and I called the nurse to come in. She talked to the doctor and he wanted her to have me push and see if they could get him to come out.At this point we kicked everyone out of the room. She had me push once and by this time the epidural was really starting to not work anymore. Dr Watabe finally came in and had me push again. He wasn't sure if the baby was facing the right way and so he stuck his hand in and was trying to turn the baby around, that was so painful. He decided to try using the forceps to get the baby out and they actually slipped off the baby's head. The baby's heart rate wasn't coming up and Dr Watabe decided he needed to hurry and get the baby out.
By this point I was in so much pain I really didn't know much of what was going on. I remember them quickly wheeling me down the hall but I could have been naked and I wouldn't have even known because of all the pain. They gave Chris an outfit to put on so he could be in the room for the c-section. I didn't see him for a while and I was worried he was going to miss it. The anesthesiologist came in and gave me some more medicine for the c-section. I heard them counting and as soon as they were done the doctor started cutting. Generally with the medicine for a c-section they have to wait for 10 minutes for it to work but they only waited for 5 minutes. I felt them cut and I remember the anesthesiologist telling me I might feel a little pressure and I told him I was feeling a lot more than pressure. The baby's head was a little big and one of the nurses had to get on top of me and help push him out. She mentioned later that her feet weren't even on the ground cause she was using all her weight to push. After they got him out I heard him cry and I felt so grateful he had made it.
After I heard the baby cry it still felt like they were trying to get the baby out of my stomach there was lots of pushing and pulling and who knows what going on down there. Chris mentioned that he saw my insides on my chest... lucky him haha.
The medicine finally kicked in and I was very out of it. I remember Chris bringing the baby to me putting him by my head but after they left I had no idea what he looked like. Chris then left and went down to the nursery with the baby while the doctors finished sewing me up. I remember laying there listening to the doctors talking about how their patients get mad when they have an appointment but have to wait because they're over delivering a baby at the hospital. I started to think about how I didn't know how big the baby was or how long or even what time it was. I finally interrupted and asked how much the baby weighed. They told me he was 8lbs 1oz. I was so surprised he wasn't bigger (the ultrasound tech had scared me at my last ultrasound). The doctors then talked to me and I told them how they should just make sure not to deliver those patients babies if they are in an appointment with another patient.
After the doctors finished up with me the nurses were moving me back to the other bed and I didn't realize just how paralyzed I was by this point until I saw that my leg was bent and couldn't feel it. They told me that this was the crappy part about c-sections that I had to stay up in labor and delivery for a few hours to recover and wouldn't get to see the baby for a while.
Being in recovery crazy and after being super hot for the previous nine months it was strange being super cold. I just remember being so cold and shaking uncontrollably. My family stayed in the room with me while I recovered and I received occasional update texts from Chris who was downstairs with the baby.
When I call my manager told me good luck and it sounded like I was going to have a baby. I still wasn't sure it was the real deal and was thinking I was going to look really dumb if it really wasn't labor. I had been told a few times that most first time mothers often have false alarms and Chris seemed pretty sure I would have at least one false alarm.
We waited for a while and my contractions were getting worse we decided to get ready and then head to the hospital. By the time we left for the hospital my contractions were between three and five minutes apart. They were pretty painful. We got in the car and headed to the hospital. On the way to the hospital at one point I had gone about eight minutes without a contraction and both Chris and I were thinking it was just a false alarm and we would be sent home. Right before we got to the hospital I had another horrible contraction I think we were both relieved that the contractions hadn't stopped. We got to labor and delivery around 8am and I told the nurse I thought I was in labor they had me go into a room and get into a hospital gown and said they would be in shortly to check me.
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| On our way out the door for the hospital. |
When the nurse came in and checked me I was at 6cm and 90% and I think a 0 station. I was so surprised and proud of myself that I made it to a 6 before we got to the hospital. They told me that the anesthesiologist was in with a c-section and they would get him in to give me an epidural as soon as he was done. The doctor came in and broke my water. That was an interesting feeling when he broke my water and I was very glad my water didn't break somewhere that someone would have had to clean it up... that would have been a mess. I ended up only having to wait about an hour before the anesthesiologist came in. I was so glad I didn't have to wait any longer I was in so much pain when I had the contractions that I was shaking from the pain. I was so amazed that the epidural hardly even hurt at all; getting the IV hurt worse then the epidural. Once the epidural was working I was a happy camper. Seriously the epidural was the greatest thing ever.
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| Ready to have a baby :) |
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| Chris's scared face. |
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| On Oxygen to try to help the baby. |
By this point I was in so much pain I really didn't know much of what was going on. I remember them quickly wheeling me down the hall but I could have been naked and I wouldn't have even known because of all the pain. They gave Chris an outfit to put on so he could be in the room for the c-section. I didn't see him for a while and I was worried he was going to miss it. The anesthesiologist came in and gave me some more medicine for the c-section. I heard them counting and as soon as they were done the doctor started cutting. Generally with the medicine for a c-section they have to wait for 10 minutes for it to work but they only waited for 5 minutes. I felt them cut and I remember the anesthesiologist telling me I might feel a little pressure and I told him I was feeling a lot more than pressure. The baby's head was a little big and one of the nurses had to get on top of me and help push him out. She mentioned later that her feet weren't even on the ground cause she was using all her weight to push. After they got him out I heard him cry and I felt so grateful he had made it. 
After I heard the baby cry it still felt like they were trying to get the baby out of my stomach there was lots of pushing and pulling and who knows what going on down there. Chris mentioned that he saw my insides on my chest... lucky him haha.
The medicine finally kicked in and I was very out of it. I remember Chris bringing the baby to me putting him by my head but after they left I had no idea what he looked like. Chris then left and went down to the nursery with the baby while the doctors finished sewing me up. I remember laying there listening to the doctors talking about how their patients get mad when they have an appointment but have to wait because they're over delivering a baby at the hospital. I started to think about how I didn't know how big the baby was or how long or even what time it was. I finally interrupted and asked how much the baby weighed. They told me he was 8lbs 1oz. I was so surprised he wasn't bigger (the ultrasound tech had scared me at my last ultrasound). The doctors then talked to me and I told them how they should just make sure not to deliver those patients babies if they are in an appointment with another patient.
After the doctors finished up with me the nurses were moving me back to the other bed and I didn't realize just how paralyzed I was by this point until I saw that my leg was bent and couldn't feel it. They told me that this was the crappy part about c-sections that I had to stay up in labor and delivery for a few hours to recover and wouldn't get to see the baby for a while.
Being in recovery crazy and after being super hot for the previous nine months it was strange being super cold. I just remember being so cold and shaking uncontrollably. My family stayed in the room with me while I recovered and I received occasional update texts from Chris who was downstairs with the baby.
Baby and Family Pictures
Two weeks after we Gavin was born we had some newborn/family pictures taken. Kate Peterson (elizabethkatephotography.com) took the pictures and she did a wonderful job. Here are just a few of those pictures.
Wednesday, September 21, 2011
Quick Update
I have a few things that I need to blog about. We took a trip to Wyoming a couple weeks ago. Amy and my Mom threw a baby shower for me (I got some awesome things). I really will blog about all of this and put pictures up... even though I hate pictures of myself right now.
Anyway I just had to post about my doctor appointment yesterday.
My friend Paige was due on Friday and she still hasn't had her baby so I was asking the doctor about how long over he would let me go. He said that with how I've progressed he highly doubts I'll go over but the closer I get to my due date the more we would talk about that. The nurse said the most he would let anyone go over is a week. I really hope that isn't a concern for me.
After talking to the doctor and he listened to the heart beat and that was all good. He checked for dilation and I'm still 80% effaced (I've been there for 3 weeks) 2 1/2 cm dilated. I forgot to ask what station until I'd already left the doctors office last week I was at a -2 station. I've basically gained a half of a centimeter every week which seems to be nice progress. The doctor said if he were to take a guess he would say the baby will come in around a week and a half. I'm so excited I could hardly sleep last night. I really hope he's right :)
Anyway I just had to post about my doctor appointment yesterday.
My friend Paige was due on Friday and she still hasn't had her baby so I was asking the doctor about how long over he would let me go. He said that with how I've progressed he highly doubts I'll go over but the closer I get to my due date the more we would talk about that. The nurse said the most he would let anyone go over is a week. I really hope that isn't a concern for me.
After talking to the doctor and he listened to the heart beat and that was all good. He checked for dilation and I'm still 80% effaced (I've been there for 3 weeks) 2 1/2 cm dilated. I forgot to ask what station until I'd already left the doctors office last week I was at a -2 station. I've basically gained a half of a centimeter every week which seems to be nice progress. The doctor said if he were to take a guess he would say the baby will come in around a week and a half. I'm so excited I could hardly sleep last night. I really hope he's right :)
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