Some Pics of the New Kid

I haven't loaded any pictures from my camera since Nathan was 6 days old, so I've been waiting to blog until I got around to doing that. Then I decided to just post what I have on the computer already, and I found 10 I wanted to share anyway. Good thing I didn't wait any longer! I'll find time to get more on here one of these days, but hey, I have a newborn to care for!

3/16, 2 days old. This is about all we saw of Nathan's eyes for the first several days of his life. And even that much was rare! It's a lot of work when your face is that chubby!

3/17, 3 days old. Getting loves from the new big sister!

3/18, 4 days old. Looking pretty yellow in the natural light from the window. Probably because he was pretty jaundiced. Poor little guy got his bilirubin checked NINE times before we weren't worried anymore. In Utah the kids got put on lights at lower levels than Nathan reached, but here apparently they hospitalize rather than just send lights to the home. So rather than do that, we just kept checking. Every day. It was fun.

Also 4 days old, also very yellow. Not aware that he is having a photo shoot.

Having good dreams while Mommy takes a ton of pictures. So nice that I can just snap away without wasting film. That's going to be one of those "old people" things, isn't it? "I remember when you could only take one picture and hope it turned out, and then you have to wait to see it." It's especially nice with newborns, because sometimes the pictures turn out scary ugly!

I did more playing around later that night. I actually put the baby on the kitchen table so he could have the kitchen lights on him. Clearly that made for a weird coloring, but I still like the picture of my sweet naked baby!

3/20, 6 days old. Grandma was about to leave. Believe me, this picture does NOT show how the children felt about that! Ryan and Katy especially get really sad when being separated from Grandma. :-(

Our first picture of all 6 of us. Awwww.

Hugs from the Ryan.

And last, still 6 days old, the cute sleepy guy.

So yeah, maybe I'll get around to getting more pictures on the computer sometime soon. And maybe I'll get some laundry or dishes done. It's amazing how little time I have left over for such things these days! Does anybody want to come hold a sweet 1 month old so I can do my chores?

Meeting the Sibs

Nathan was born at a pretty convenient time to meet his siblings right away. The boys get home from school around 4, then bedtimes start around 8. Nathan made his grand appearance at 5:33, so his brothers and sister were able to meet him about an hour and a half later!
Look how happy they were!

Getting their first look at the new one! And no, I was not aware that my entire back was hanging out. Perhaps we should photoshop the hospital gown to be a bit more covering... Hey, just be glad I'm sitting down!

Nothing like a newborn to make the other kids look huge in comparison! When did my little Katy get so grown up?!?

Snuggles from the eldest.

Then Ryan's turn to love on the babe.

We have now experienced a 20 month age gap, a 34.5 month age gap, and a 45 month age gap between a new baby and their next older sibling. And thus far (knock on wood!) we haven't really had a problem with any of them. The 20 month was hard because the big brother still needed so much physical attention (diaper changes, food prepared for a toddler, etc.). Other than that, we've been really blessed to not have jealousy issues or anything (again, knock on wood!). David, Ryan, and Katy have all been really excited for their new brother, and at 1 week post birth they're still very happy to have him around! I've been worried that they will be bothered by all the time I spend on him, but apparently they're pretty used to me sitting/laying around due to nausea/exhaustion/bedrest/back pain/more exhaustion/etc., so it isn't that much different to them than the past 9 months. I forsee lots of jealousy when Nathan starts playing with Katy's toys, but that's still many months away. For now, the sibling adjustment has been smooth and happy!

Birth!

It's the moment you've all been waiting for - the story of our latest addition!

After being on bedrest for 25 days, my body refused to go into labor. Not only that, my water wouldn't break (which it has all 3 other times), and an induction attempt failed! I kept thinking it was close/starting, but 20 days after bedrest ended I was still pregnant. We scheduled an elective induction for 39 weeks (the earliest doctors will do an elective induction), and crossed our fingers that this induction would work!

We got to the hospital a little after 8:00 pm the night before 39 weeks so we could start the "miso" (Misoprostol, a cervical ripening pill). They had to monitor me for a while to make sure I met the criteria for miso - basically, not very dilated and not having very many contractions. Both applied to me, and around 10:00 (things sure take a while in hospitals...) we got that started. The order was to repeat miso doses every 3 hours until I no longer qualified, then switch to pitocin. I'd had a dose of miso at my failed induction, and it definitely worked to give me contractions, so I was hopeful it would work again!

Well, I took a nap, read some, watched tv some...no contractions. Finally around 1:00, right before my 2nd dose of miso, I had a contraction! Yay! Then a few minutes later I had another! The nurse said "Let's hurry and give you your next dose before you don't qualify anymore!" She did, and the contractions kept going.

We watched The Blind Side (the hospital had some cool movie channels), then went to sleep. I had very regular, very wimpy contractions for the rest of the night. So at 4:00 am, I definitely didn't qualify for another dose of miso. I did not qualify for pitocin either, though. I was having too many contractions. They just weren't doing anything - I was still around a 1 and pretty thick. We were starting to think we'd be sent home again with the baby still cozy in my belly.

Well, at some point later in the morning I was able to start pitocin. We continued to watch tv and doze off and on. The contractions started to get a little worse, and when they checked me around 11:00 am I was finally dilated to a 3! Yay! We started to think we might finally have this baby!

Around 1:00 pm (12 hours since my first contraction), Dr. David stopped by. He gave me the go ahead to get an epidural. I was a little nervous that it would stop my labor (which seemed so fragile to me after trying so hard to get it started), but he said we'd just turn up the pitocin as needed. In the time between ordering the epidural and getting the epidural, the contractions started to get a lot more painful, so I was very glad it was already coming!

I just have to say here that I love epidurals. There are plenty of things in life that I can at least kind of see why people make different choices than I do. This is NOT one of them! To go from in a lot of pain to really comfortable is just wonderful. It makes the rest of labor so much more pleasant. I don't see anything about doing it natural that makes it worth it. It just seems stupid.

At 3:00 pm I was checked again, and I'd made it to a 4. Interestingly, my water still hadn't broken (again, every single other labor has started with my water breaking), so Dr. David came back and broke it for me. I've always been pretty fast from 4 to 10, so we knew the end was in sight!

Dan and I both dozed off for a little while then (thank you, epidural!). Shortly after 5:00 pm I woke up feeling nauseous and a little weird down there, so I had the nurse check me. I was a 7. Within about 10 minutes or so I was feeling some definite pressure with contractions, so I asked to be checked again, and I was complete! I texted my mom that it was "go time!" at 5:21 according to my phone.

Dr. David & the nurse busied themselves getting ready, while I threw up a couple times, as is my history. Then it was pushing time! I pushed through about 4 or 5 contractions, and the baby was born at 5:33 pm! Somehow my epidural didn't totally numb me for that, and it was really, really painful! Dr. David kept saying things to the effect of "Wow, this baby is NOT helping you at all!" His little head came out cute and round...a little coning would have been appreciated!

Baby's first picture, fresh from my tummy. :-)

He grabbed my finger right away

SO HAPPY to be done being pregnant! Oh yeah, and happy to have a sweet baby boy (name undetermined at that point) to snuggle.

When Baby came out, everyone's first response was to the effect of "He's huge!" I'd been saying that he was going to be my biggest baby, for multiple reasons: bedrest increases baby size, I was farther along than I'd been with everyone but David, and I'd gained 44 lbs this time around (35 with David and high 20s with Ryan & Katy), surely it wasn't all my fault! I was guessing he'd be a low nine pounder. Wrong! This BIG little baby was 10 lb 4 oz! Holy cow! No wonder I'd been so uncomfortable!

When Dan & I were first expecting our first baby, my 2 favorite names were Nathan and Kathryn. Dan vetoed Nathan at that point, and Kathryn didn't get used thanks to that baby being a boy. When we were expecting baby #2, those were still my favorite names, and Dan went along with Nathan until near the end when we changed to Ryan. When we were expecting baby #3 the names were John (the first half of that pregnancy was the football season John Beck did amazing things, so we really liked that name) and Kathryn, and we finally got to use Kathryn. Well, this time we started out with the names being William (probably calling him Liam) or Ellie (possibly short for something). As soon as we found out it was a boy, I changed my mind and read through lots and lots of baby names. I went back to Nathan as my first choice. We asked the kids their opinions, and they all wanted Nathan (I want to say that Ryan came up with it on his own, but I must have mentioned it at some point, maybe even just that it was almost his name). Dan didn't love it, but was okay with it. A few nights before this baby was born, I started questioning if I wanted to use Nathan after all. I considered going with William (still Dan's first choice), and also kind of considered using James (yes, after Jimmer Fredette, who Dan has a huge man crush on). Then the baby was born, and I still hadn't decided that I loved anything else. So since I've loved the name Nathan for a long time (at least 9 years, since that's when we were first pregnant with David), we decided to go with that.

Nathan Daniel Morrill

Born March 14th, 2011 at 5:33 pm

10 lb 4 oz, 21 1/2 inches long

the pendulum has swung...

Well, after being on bedrest for almost a month, it seems the baby has taken the hint to stay put. I've been back on my feet for 2 weeks now, and he seems very content to stay where he is!

We had a false alarm at 36 weeks 5 days (Saturday 2/26), with contractions getting stronger & closer together...which went away at the hospital when they had me drink lots of water. On bedrest I'd been drinking lots of water because it was there and I was just sitting/lying there. So once I was up, not only was I not drinking as much water because I was busy with other things, I was needing more water thanks to finally being able to vacuum and other physically demanding activities. Oops.

The next Tuesday morning (3/1) at my appointment I told my doctor that I thought I might be leaking amniotic fluid. Since I HAVE had a slow leak with 2 of the other 3 (with Katy being a BIG leak instead), I've been overly worried about that. He checked, got the alkaline pH test (which means yes!), but no ferning pattern (which means no, and is more accurate than the pH test). So that meant most likely I hadn't, but he wanted me back in on Friday to check again.

Meanwhile I was having lots of contractions every evening. Then Thursday I had contractions all day long. I noticed them start at story time at 9:35ish, and they continued at roughly 5 min intervals until I went to bed at midnight. I took a nap, I drank lots of water, I went for a walk...nothing made them get any better or worse. Ugh.

So then I went in on Friday (3/4), and when we checked for amniotic fluid it was the same results - alkaline pH, but he didn't see any ferning. At this point, though, taking all things into account, he decided there was a good chance that my water HAD broken, and I had possibly been walking around with ruptured membranes for a couple days. The thing is, there's risk either way - if it hadn't broken, it's too early to induce without medical reason and the baby could be not ready, but if it had, there's a big risk of infection. So he decided to go ahead and say "Yes, her water has broken, we need to do an induction."

I was so excited! Katy & I went home and met Dan there, I got last minute things packed (like my glasses, that I obviously can't just leave in the bag), I ate a little lunch since I wouldn't be eating for many hours, arranged for the kids to be taken care of (assuming at that point that Dan would be able to pick them up around bedtime, or at least only a couple hours later), and headed in to have this baby!

We got to the hospital around 1:00...and got to wait a while before anything started. Then finally they got an IV in and did a round of penicillin (thanks to the possibility that I'd broken my water days earlier), but still no pitocin. We finally got started on pitocin around 3:00, but were still feeling hopeful that the baby would be born that day.

Then...nothing. And more nothing. They kept turning up the pitocin, and eventually I started having some pretty painful contractions. But I didn't dilate at all. I was still at a 1. Boo. So at midnight (after NINE hours on pitocin) they turned it off to give my uterus a break, and planned on resuming in the morning.

Around 4:30 am my nurse came in and inserted a pill to help make my cervix more favorable. That's supposed to be done 3 hours before pitocin, so at that point the plan was the turn the pitocin back on around 7:30.

So at 7:30ish my new nurse came in, woke me up, and told me she was going to do an amnisure test, which is a 99% accurate in telling if your water has broken. According to her, even the ferning test is only 60% (which I find hard to believe it's THAT low). We knew there was a possibility that my water hadn't really broken, but had been acting certain to avoid the drama of "she probably has, but maybe not, but at this point we think it's better to induce than wait around for an infection to kick in, especially since she's almost 38 weeks, the fetal age is probably about 5 days ahead of that even, and she's measuring large." In hindsight, I wonder if I could've avoided having that test done, but I was too groggy and startled to argue. So she did the test, and it was negative. My water hadn't broken after all.

Now, I wonder if this would have been handled differently in Utah. I'd been in the hospital for 19 hours, been on pitocin for 9 of those, and was really anxious to get this baby out. Add in the complications of childcare (all 3 of my little ones had been at my visiting teacher's house for 16 hours rather than the expected 7 or 8), the cost of being admitted to the hospital a separate time...I wonder if a more family centered and less hippy liberal society would've just let me continue with the plan to start pitocin again. Maybe not, but in my annoyance with the whole situation I think it's possible.

So they decided to not resume pitocin. At that point I was having regular, painful contractions as a result of the pill (I have GOT to find out the name for it, I keep hearing it and forgetting immediately!), so they had us stay until those started spacing out and being less painful. We were finally discharged shortly after noon, just shy of 24 hours after being admitted.

Now THAT was disappointing/discouraging/frustrating! I had no idea that pitocin could fail to work, and even if I had, I sure wouldn't have thought it would happen to me! The end of pregnancy always seems to take forever, and knowing that pitocin couldn't even get me to have this baby is certainly not helping! It's hard to have the motivation to go for a walk or something when pitocin didn't do the trick.

So now I'm huge, hormonal, and cranky. My super strong pregnancy fingernails all broke off. And today at my check up I found out that the baby was back up high (apparently he'd dropped at the hospital), and I un-dilated back to a 1.5 (I'd been up to a 2.5 before we left). Once again, if we hadn't already been planning on being done after this one, we certainly are now! But hey, my other pregnancies have all been way easier, but produced fairly high maintenance babies. So maybe this baby will be super easy to make up for all the trouble he's caused prenatally! Please? It's only fair!

Some Thoughts on Bedrest, Part II

So, I went to the doctor, only to find out that I've gained another 4 lbs (making NINE in the last 2 weeks), which puts me over the 25-35 lbs recommended weight gain for the first time ever AND at the highest weight of my life, despite starting out lighter. And my uterus, which had been measuring right on with the 1 cm per week, jumped from 34 cm at 34 weeks to 37 cm at 35 weeks, and now to 39 cm at 36 weeks! So I'm as heavy & as big (making me as uncomfortable) as I should ever get...but not likely to deliver soon. The doctor actually said "I don't think you'll be having a baby this week." Waaaahhhhh!

It seems like everyone I talk to has a story about someone being on bedrest, then not having the baby for a while afterwards. Is there a sensitive period for pre-term labor or something? Like maybe I would've had the baby at 33 weeks if not for bedrest, but making it to 36 weeks means I'm stuck pregnant for another month? Or is this evidence that my bedrest was unnecessary? I know, I know, hindsight is 20-20, and it's FAR better to be overly cautious than have a 7+ week premie baby with major problems. But the whole experience has made me feel like the baby's going to come any day now, so I'm getting impatient already!

So, back to my thoughts on bedrest.

One of the other big challenges with bedrest was getting the errands run. I have a notebook where I wrote down everything I thought of that needed to be done, remembered, etc. I sorted the errands (mostly shopping) into things that could wait vs. things Dan had to do for me (then when my mom came I got to give her some of my things that could wait!). Any other time he's had to take care of me & the household, it's been just for a couple days max. So I think he was surprised by how necessary (see Honey, it isn't all "fun" shopping!) & exhausting errands are! He had to go grocery shopping several times - sometimes just for a few essentials like bread & milk, other times he had a much longer list. I sent him to the library a few times (thank goodness for being able to put things on hold from home!). He took Ryan to a doctor appointment, and the boys to the school library night. And there was some other shopping that couldn't wait, like paper plates.

For the most part Dan did very, very well! After his first trip I learned to organize my list so he wouldn't be walking back and forth across the store. And I felt the need to tell him what a good price was on the things we needed that weren't on sale, like cereal (low double digits per ounce), whether or not he appreciated it. There were only a couple issues, like getting the wrong kind of hot dogs which cost $4.49 a package instead of the ones on sale for $1.99 with a coupon to make them $0.99 (same brand even, just wrong variety). But I've made mistakes like that from time to time too...I'm overly sad about it when I do it, too! Also, I would not have gotten that large of plastic cups or paper bowls, they have lead to a lot of wasted food & drink by the little ones! And I just avoided having him buy things that we could survive without until I could go (like toilet paper - we were running low, but not out quite yet). Then my mom came and went on a big stocking up trip to Costco for us, which Dan appreciate far more than he usually would!

One of the things we did that was a really good thing for us was going whatever-the-opposite-of-green-is (brown?), and using disposable plates, bowls, cups, and silverware whenever possible. Practically eliminating dirty dishes sure helped keep the kitchen clean! Yes, I said in my last post that 3 different people did some dishes for us (and that didn't count my mom, so 4 people!)...we're just really that bad at dishes I guess!

One of the interesting things to see was how motivation waned in the 3.5 weeks I was on bedrest. At the beginning I was super on top of the kids picking up every single thing that belonged to them or that they got out (which is easier to do when you're lying on the couch than distracted doing something else!). And I really wanted to help, so I did whatever I felt like I could, like folding laundry (which is something I usually really struggle with). And Dan was SUPER amazing at doing the housework. Seriously, our house has never been as consistently clean as it was from a couple days in to about a week later, and stayed really good most of the following week or two. My dear sweet husband was even rather smug about how much better of a job he was doing than I usually do (love ya Honey!)! Then it slowly started to go back to usual. The kids did NOT develop the habit of picking up after themselves like I had hoped. I stopped searching so hard for ways to help. And Dan seems to have discovered how hard it is to keep up the motivation to do the same chores over and over again when they're just going to get undone in a few minutes and the computer is so enticing. So while I would've been nice to have a spotless house that entire time, I feel rather validated that he got to experience that aspect of homemakership (apparently not a word, but it should be)!

One more quick thing, then I should go attack the dishes (some of which have been soaking for a couple days :-\ ). One other thing I learned was how many productive things I could be doing on bedrest. It was rather disappointing, because it took away my feeling of "having" to relax. I found that I could do some mending by hand, I could call the insurance company to try and sort out stupid issues (nope, wasn't successful yet), write thank you notes (I have a LOT to do!), etc. That realization made it so I was procrastinating rather than just enjoying bedrest. Blah. I think that was about the point I stopped doing much help.

So, that was my bedrest experience. As I said several times (and thought very frequently!), it was much better in theory than in reality. :-P I'm glad to be done and back up on my feet. It was definitely not an experience I have any desire to relive.

Some Thoughts on Bedrest, Part I

Yesterday, February 21st, 36 weeks along

I've been thinking that I really should write down some thoughts about my bedrest experience. Now that I'm back up, I'd better do it before I either forget or have a baby to keep me busy!

So, some things about bedrest are obviously awesome. I read a few books, watched 3 seasons of Psych (one of the few shows that is interesting to me without being inappropriate for my 3 year old companion), and played some Super Mario Bros on the Wii. We had dinner brought in MWF, with 10 total meals that I didn't have to make or worry about (or pay for, for that matter)! I even had several different people come over and help clean my house while I relaxed (attempted to, at least) on the couch. When you first think of bedrest, these are the wonderful things that initially occur to you.

A weekend of bedrest would be really great. Or maybe part time bedrest - do chores & errands in the morning, be on bedrest the rest of the day. But full time bedrest for 3.5 weeks was much less awesome than one might expect.

I've never been a great housekeeper. Over the years I've gotten better at keeping the living room clean...but don't look past that one room! I had 3 different ward members do some dishes when they were over for various other reasons, and I kind of felt bad that they assumed the mess was due to my bedrest! The truth is, it is pretty common for there to be dishes in my sink, piles of laundry waiting to be folded and/or put away, etc.

The irony of the bedrest situation was that then, when I was supposed to do far less than usual, I wanted to do WAY MORE! I've decided that there are 4 main reasons for that:

1. First of all, I noticed it a lot more while laying on the couch. I don't know where my days usually disappear to (something I hope to be more aware of PBR - post bedrest), but I certainly don't spend much time just sitting there looking at the mess! So even though I had several things to entertain myself with on the couch, I was definitely way more aware of the mess in that part of the house!
2. Also, I wanted the house clean because of all the people that kept coming over! Most of the people that brought us dinner came in to put it on the table and chat with me for a few minutes. Even though they obviously knew that I wasn't supposed to be cleaning (and probably would've felt bad if I'd gotten up and cleaned while they were making me dinner!), it was still hard to let people, several of whom I don't know very well, see the messiness. Add to that people coming just to visit or something, and we had someone in our house at least 4 or 5 times a week, when it's often not at all or only once.
3. I think there was some "I want to do it just because I'm not supposed to." Having it feel rebellious to hurry and clean off the table was a lot more exciting than usual! Maybe we should find a way to incorporate that into regular life..."No, Rachel, DON'T vacuum!"
4. And on top of all that, it's nesting time for this pregnant lady. Sometimes I had a really hard time relaxing (sleeping at night was particularly difficult) because I couldn't stop thinking about organizing the playroom or some similar project. Something about being close to having a baby makes your brain go crazy and notice all sorts of messes that usually don't phase you. So the whole not being allowed to clean would've been hard enough without that nesting instinct, but with it, it was even more frustrating!

I have my weekly checkup in 13 minutes, so I'd better run. Rather than save this for later and end up with a superpost, I'll just post what I have now, and (hopefully) do another one (or two) later!

Katy's Lesson

About a year or two ago, our kids started to really like having Family Home Evening. We've been really consistent about having it since then (prior to that we probably hit about 50% on average, often going in cycles of several weeks having, several weeks forgetting).

We've discovered recently, also, that the kids, or Katy at least, care(s) a lot about following the usual order of things. A few weeks ago I tried to get by with skipping the conducting, opening song, prayer, kids singing individual songs, and lessons, and just have us play together on the Wii and have a treat. This did not count as Family Home Evening to them/her.

So, I'd had this little chart (yes, it's just a piece of baseboard with nails partway nailed in) partly done for a while, but I hadn't decided exactly how to do the little "icons." I had it in my head that I had to find cute graphics online and mod podge them on or something. Then a week or so ago I just grabbed my paint pens and free handed what you see above. Nothing spectacular, but it works!

Wow, I'm rambling. Day 5 of being stuck at home, and apparently I'm already losing my mind. 20 days to go...oh dear!

So I finally had this chart and all the name things done for last night's FHE. Ryan remembered that he had lead the music last week, so it was his turn for the opening prayer (yes, they've been moved along since last night...by whom, I don't know, I just noticed that when I took the picture!). So I conducted from my perch on the couch, David led us in singing a new song they're learning in primary (I've got to find it online, none of them know the tune very well and neither Dan or I know it), and Ryan said the opening prayer. Then the kids each took 2 turns singing a song to us.

Then it was time for the lesson. We often use a wonderful FHE binder that Great-Grandma Smith made for us a few years ago, and we also occasionally have the kids just pick a picture from the Life of Christ or Gospel Art Kit and tell us about it. But since I was stuck on the couch, and we were running low on time, I just told Katy it was her turn to give the lesson, and waited to see what she did. I don't know what I expected - probably "I don't know what to do!" or something. I certainly did NOT expect what happened!

Sweet, adorable, 3 1/2 year old Katy stood up at the front of the room and said "Don't fight." After a brief moment of surprise, Dan & I asked her some questions like "Why aren't we supposed to fight?" She elaborated nicely, and the boys added to the discussion...and it was the best lesson ever, in about 1 minute or less!

This morning while getting their breakfast, the boys started bugging each other (surprise!) a bit. Sweet little Katy piped up "Remember my lesson!"...and they actually stopped! A little while later, after Katy finished eating and was snuggling with me on the couch, she started bothering David. So I said "Don't forget your lesson!"...and once again, it worked! She stopped immediately!

Now, I have no illusions that all fighting will stop or anything. But it seems that for now, at least, Katy's simple lesson to not fight has actually made a difference! Go, Katy!