I was going to write a Family Newsletter about the year to go out with our Christmas Cards but with our hectic lives recently we were late getting out our Christmas Cards, let alone trying to get a letter done to go along with it. So I figured I would blog about our year instead of mailing out one.
The 2011 Year started out as it always has for Joey and I, we were in Mexico with Charity Anywhere doing service for the poor and celebrating the New Year with the ward down there. (We are sad that we won't be celebrating New Years in Mexico this year but our new addition is definitely worth giving up the tradition for the year). Emily graduated from USU with her bachelors degree in Family Consumer and Human Development in December and Joey finished up his degree in Business Entrepreneurship in May. Emily tried to stay busy in the Spring searching for a job but had no luck which was fine because on March 23rd we found out that we were pregnant. Luckily Emily's pregnancy was very easy. She was hardly sick compared to other pregnant women we have associated with. Our main focus this year was on the pregnancy and welcoming a new baby into our lives and family.
In May, Joey and Emily were both able to walk at Graduation. It was pretty cool because Emily was able to walk with Joey so that we didn't have to spend the whole day at Graduation. Emily figured that she probably knew more of the professors and the Dean for the Jon M Huntsman School of Business than she would have if she would have walked in the Education Graduation. After graduation we packed up and moved to Bear Lake to work for Chuck and Ginger (Joey's brother and sister-in-law) at Bear Lake Cabin Rentals. Also this was the first time that Emily and Joey have lived somewhere without sharing the house. We moved back into the trailer that we lived in the summer that we were first married. A big thank you to Brent and Randi Hirschi for the place to stay. Joey spent the summer doing maintenance for the cabins, coming up with marketing options for the renters, and building/promoting the brand image. He created this package booklet for renters to book their next stay along with other benefits and activities to do during their stay. Emily stayed busy doing laundry and cleaning some of the smaller rental properties.
In October the trailer was sold and we had to move. Luckily, Joey started working for his cousin Brian who owns Boat/Seadoo/ATV/Snowmobile rentals in Bear Lake. Brian has the "Fun House" for his employee housing and since he doesn't house employees during the winter we were able to move in. Joey is now working on Website and Online Reservation projects for Bear Lake Cabin Rentals and Brian's rentals. He has also done some other website design projects for other people in Bear Lake.
This summer Joey decided that he needed to do something adventurous since we hadn't really had time and with Emily being pregnant it was a little hard to do any rock climbing or caving. Joey and his friend Ryan decided to Kayak across Bear Lake from the North Shore to Rendezvous Beach. On Oct 19th they decided that the weather was good enough and it was past the boating season so they wouldn't have to worry about other watercraft on the water. They had a lot of fun!
Our due date was November 9th as the day came closer we both realized that we were going to be welcoming a baby to our family and that it was really happening. November 9th came and went without any sign of him coming soon. We had a date set up for an induction if he didn't come (Nov. 17th). Many family members really wanted him to come on 11/11/11 but he decided that he didn't want to come until the next day. Theophilus Kwame Stocking entered our life on November 12th 2011. After a few days in the NICU we were able to go home and begin our life as a three person family. We have really enjoyed having Theo in our family and he teaches us something new everyday.
We have had a wonderful time since his birth with our families celebrating Thanksgiving and Christmas. In our next post we will post some pictures of Theo's first Christmas!
We wish you all a wonderful holiday season and a Happy New Year! We hope that 2012 will bring everyone happiness and adventures!
Monday, December 26, 2011
Sunday, November 20, 2011
Theophilus Kwame Stocking is 1 Week Old
I can't believe it has been a week since this wonderful little boy has been out of my belly and in my life. It definitely feels like a shorter amount of time due to him being in the NICU for a few days before we were able to bring him home.
Some things we have observed this week:
~Theo has found his thumb on a few occasions and been caught sucking on it. Hopefully this doesn't mean he is already going to be a thumb sucker! hehe
~During tummy time Theo kicks his legs and moves his arms as if he is trying to crawl, it makes him look like he is such a big boy.
~The last two nights Theo has slept a good majority of the night. We are very grateful for this because the first few nights home we didn't get very much sleep. He woke up at 2:00, 5:00, and 9:00 definitely more sleep than the first few nights were it seemed he was awake every hour. I think he had his days and nights mixed up especially since the night nurses at the NICU are the young nurses who really loved to play with the babies. They would get so excited to be able to do the 3:30 night feeding and be able to hold him!
~We can't use the Newborn Diapers with the umbilical cord cutout otherwise he leaks out of his diaper. Luckily we have some Newborn Diapers without the cutout! He hasn't peed on us yet (he did pee on himself the other day though). Also he has pooped on both Joey and I although I think it was worse when he pooped on Joey in the NICU! Even after being pooped on Joey is doing a wonderful job at diaper duty.
~He loves cuddling and especially skin to skin time.
Some things we have observed this week:
~Theo has found his thumb on a few occasions and been caught sucking on it. Hopefully this doesn't mean he is already going to be a thumb sucker! hehe
~During tummy time Theo kicks his legs and moves his arms as if he is trying to crawl, it makes him look like he is such a big boy.
~The last two nights Theo has slept a good majority of the night. We are very grateful for this because the first few nights home we didn't get very much sleep. He woke up at 2:00, 5:00, and 9:00 definitely more sleep than the first few nights were it seemed he was awake every hour. I think he had his days and nights mixed up especially since the night nurses at the NICU are the young nurses who really loved to play with the babies. They would get so excited to be able to do the 3:30 night feeding and be able to hold him!
~We can't use the Newborn Diapers with the umbilical cord cutout otherwise he leaks out of his diaper. Luckily we have some Newborn Diapers without the cutout! He hasn't peed on us yet (he did pee on himself the other day though). Also he has pooped on both Joey and I although I think it was worse when he pooped on Joey in the NICU! Even after being pooped on Joey is doing a wonderful job at diaper duty.
~He loves cuddling and especially skin to skin time.
Friday, November 18, 2011
Labor/Delivery and my Baby
First off I am going to including many details in this post so if you don't want to know the details of my labor and delivery you may want to skip reading this post! I am really bad at writing in my journal so our blog has become my journal.
Our baby was due on November 9th, 2011 but both Joey and I felt that he would be later than his due date. Everyone is Joey's family wanted us to have him on November 11, 2011 (11/11/11) this would have been pretty cool because he is the 11th grandchild on both sides. Well the 9th rolled around and we were staying in Logan at my parent's house so that we wouldn't have to drive through the canyon while I was in labor, a choice I am very glad that we made! While in Logan my mom and sister made sure that I was walking around and doing lots of things. My sister, Tricia came to Logan with her three boys from Arizona to be here for me. We spent our time shopping, playing with her boys, and just waiting for my boy to come. My mom had me raking leaves and sent Joey and me on a walk. I thought it was funny, everyone wanted him here, as did I, but on his own time. I was just beginning to reach a little bit of an uncomfortable stage but overall I didn't feel 9 months pregnant. Many times I felt like I still had a month before I would have a beautiful baby boy in my life.
We went to bed the night of the 11th with many people "mad" at us for not having our baby on the 11th. Joey and I had felt that I would most likely make it till my induction date (Nov. 17) and labor would have to be induced. At 3:33am I felt like I was going to pee my pants so I stood up out of bed and right before I could open the door to our bedroom my water broke. I stopped where I was and turned to Joey and said his name, which he quickly sat up "what? What is going on?" I told him that my water had broke, it was pretty funny because I was staying somewhat calm and Joey being woken rapidly couldn't remember what we were supposed to do. We had to hurry and pack our bags (which we hadn't really done because both of us thought we still had a couple of days) go outside in the drizzling rain (which later turned into a nice big snow storm). We arrived at the hospital and they did an initial check, I was still at 1 cm dilated but effaced to 100%, also he had dropped to a 0 Station. At my last doctor's visit I was 1 cm dilated, 70% effaced, and he was high at a -2 station. Seeing that I wasn't that far along the nurse told me that I should go for a walk. Walking around was funny because there aren't that many hallways to walk down so you walk down a hall turn around and then walk down another hall.
My doctor had the night/day off so instead of having Dr Blackett we had Dr Kirkman. He is an amazing doctor and has delivered one of my nieces so I wasn't too worried about not having my doctor there. While we were walking the halls Dr Kirkman came up to us introduced himself and then we started talking about my options at this point. After your water breaks they like to have the delivery occur within 24 hours, because I was not progressed very far and this was my first pregnancy/labor he advised that if nothing happens in the next little while it would be a good idea to receive Pitocin to help induce me. We decided to keep walking around the halls and see how far I was at the next check. At this point in time the nurse and doctor were trying to nicely talk us into getting the Pit but not pressuring us into it. The reason for this is that almost every (if not all) of the women that were in labor at that time were wanting to go natural. For them this meant no Pit, no Epidural, etc. I had told the nurse that we were hoping that we didn't have to get an epidural but that it wasn't set in stone. These other women had many different techniques they were trying to go natural, one of which we doing Hypnobirthing, and another girl that we passed a few times walking in the hall had been in labor since 7pm the night before but she did not want to receive the Pit. Anyways after walking the halls and having only progressed to 3 cm dilated we decided to start the Pit at 10:30am. (7 hours since my water broke although it felt like it had only been 2 or 3). After I received the Pit I started to feel contractions (which at this point I hadn't really felt any at any point in my pregnancy or labor). At first they were very bearable and Joey and I were able to massage and breathe through the pain. My sister Tricia came to visit and we played Carcassonne one of our favorite games. This helped distract me for some time but as time passed my contractions moved to my back. Back labor became very painful and by 2:30pm I was still only dilated to 4 cm. I decided (felt prompted) that if I kept trying to breathe through the contractions for who knows how many hours that by the time I made it to delivery I would be out of energy and delivery would be very difficult. I say that I felt prompted because I had really had my mind set on delivering without an epidural and I knew that I was doing good focusing and breathing through the contractions but just felt like the best choice would be to receive an epidural. Even the nurse and the anesthesiologist said that I was doing a wonderful job breathing through the contractions ( I think the nurse thought I was as set on going natural as the other women in Labor and Delivery). Usually if someone had said that I was doing a good job working through them I would have stuck with it but I just felt that the right choice would be to get an epidural. At 2:30pm I received the epidural and was given the chance to lay down and rest. (To me the hours were flying by so even though it had been twelve hours at this point it felt like we had been there for 4 tops, also because it felt like time was flying by I can't remember a lot of what occurred that day other than walking the halls, breathing through contractions, and playing games with Tricia and Joey. At about 3:30/4:00pm Joey decided to run to my parent's house to get some food, as he wasn't too excited about eating another hospital sandwich. While he was gone the nurse came in and did another check at 4:30pm. I was dilated to 10 cm (fully dilated). Right after she got done checking me Joey walked in. The nurse and I both laughed and she was like "tell him the good news." "Perfect timing Joey, I am dilated to a 10" Joey started to glow, you could tell that he was nervous for delivery to actually occur but was so excited to become a father.
When you receive an epidural, especially with your first child the Logan hospital has you wait an hour before you start pushing. I can't remember what they called it but it is something like rest and drop. It is a time for the mother to rest and get energy to push while the baby starts to drop on his own. At 5:35 pm I started pushing with the contractions. The nurse helped show Joey when I should push so he was the one that did the counting and told me when to push and breath. At about 5:50 we saw the first little part of the babies head for the first time. It was amazing (we had a mirror at the end of the bed, which other girls that had been in our Prenatal Class thought was so weird but I thought it was amazing to be able to see my baby, it made pushing more worthwhile when you could see what each push was doing). Each time I would push I could see his head more and more. The doctor showed up at the perfect time. His head was crowning and I was able to reach down and touch my little baby for the first time, this as well helped me to continue pushing.
An hour after I started pushing our baby boy was born at 6:35pm! They were able to put him straight onto my belly and I was able to hold him while Joey cut his umbilical cord! After a minute the nurse took him away and started to give him oxygen, I was slightly confused because his color looked good (I guess he had started to turn a little blue-ish, but I was distracted by the thoughts that I had just had a baby). The nurses were good at staying calm although their was some chaos going on because another women was ready to start pushing but the doctor was still finishing up with me and they had asked for someone from respiratory to come help but he was needed in another room. The nurses said that we were a lower priority case and let the respiratory person go to the other room. The doctor was talking to me and I think trying to distract me from what was going on with our baby. After this they weighed him he was 8lbs 11oz and 20 1/2 inches long. He received APGAR scores of 7 and 9 which are really high, very few babies ever receive a perfect score of 10. These high scores made me even more confused at why they were taking him to the NICU. At this point all we knew is that he needed a CPAP for breathing, also at the end of delivery I had gotten a fever but it was too late to be put on antibiotics so they would need to do that for our little boy in the NICU.
After he was carted off to the NICU the nurse brought me some food to help me regain some strength, we went down to the NICU to see our little boy in a heating bed, with oxygen and a lot of wires. It is so sad to see something so little have so many wires (I know 8 lbs 11 oz is not little). At this point they had taken an X-Ray and found that there was air outside of his lungs, the pediatrician on call had called down to Mckay-Dee Hospital to get a second opinion. They both believed that he had Pneumothorax (meaning air in chest cavity) which is the less worrisome of the two things it could be. Both the doctors said that it would be best to just treat him for the infection from my fever and see how things looked later.
We had to leave him at this point to get checked into our Mother/Baby room. Finally at 11:30pm we were able to go back down to the NICU. When we walked in the room we noticed that he was no longer on oxygen! They said that he had only been on it for about an hour or two before he was able to breathe the oxygen in the room. Because he was off of the oxygen we were able to have skin to skin time. I was unable to breast feed him at this time because of the antibiotics and the IV. The IV was provided him the nutrients that he needed at this point so we were sent upstairs to start pumping my breast milk so by the time that he was able to breast feed they would be producing. I was able to breast feed him for the first time the next morning at 9:00 am. We did what was called SNS (supplemental nursing system), this is done by allowing the baby to latch to the breast as if he was nursing to help stimulate the milk to come in but because he would need more nutrients we used a syringe and a tube going into the mouth beside the nipple to give him the colostrum that I had pumped the night before. At about 3:00pm that afternoon we had to start doing SNS with formula because I was not pumping enough colostrum. At this point I was getting slightly discouraged (one of my greatest fears while I was pregnant is that I wouldn't be able to breast feed. As a human development major I am very pro-breast feeding and I knew that I would feel like a failure if I was unable to provide for my child). I was lucky enough to have some amazing nurses to help me feel better and let me know that it is normal to only get a few drops of colostrum the first few times that you pump. This really did make me feel a lot better. The nurses in the NICU were always amazing, they were so good at making us feel self-reliant and that they were just there for support and to help us. A few of the nurses told us that we were their favorite mom and dad in the NICU because we were able to do so much on our own without their help. The nurses told us that they felt like they were neglecting us but that we were doing everything so well on our own that they didn't really need to be there. Because of these nurses I felt blessed to have had our little boy in the NICU. Although it wasn't an ideal situation I believe that we received so much added attention and support that we left the hospital feeling like we really could do this and be great parents.
So Joey and I had not picked out a name for our little boy yet. We had thrown around some ideas but nothing was really standing out to us. My favorite that I have had picked out for a long time was Theophilus (nickname Theo, this was my Great Grandfather's name), Joey's favorite was John which he had liked because we would be naming him after John Jones, our friend's brother whom passed away in Nutty Putty Caves. (Joey was there the night that John became stuck and really made a connection with him that really made an impact in our lives). Some other names included Spencer (Joey's middle name), Stephen (after our "Dad" in Ghana), and Jake. We slowly dropped names that we didn't really like as much as others and when it was down to John and Theophilus we decided that any baby/person could look like a John (ex. John Doe) but that we both really like Theophilus and thought that he looked like a Theo. Then it came to the middle name. We had been planning on using the Ghanian day of the week name and because he was born on Saturday his name would be Kwame which just so happened to be one of our favorites. At the same time we were throwing around the idea of using Spencer as a middle name so that him and Joey would have that connection. We finally decided that Kwame would be his name! It was funny to see how many weird looks we received when we said it and how many nurses we had asking how to pronounce his name and what it meant but overall everyone really liked the name once we explained it.
Back to being in the NICU, on Sunday they had done another X-ray and found that he not only had Pneumothorax (remember how I said this was the lesser of two things it could be?) well he also had the worse of those two things, Pneumomediastinum which means air around the heart. This can be very bad because the air puts pressure on the heart so that it has a hard time pumping. Luckily the doctor still felt that both the Pneumothorax and the Pneumomediastinum were going to be able to work themselves out. Normally if it is bad they will have to go in with a needle and remove/release the air. At this point we were told that the air had most likely escaped from a hole in the lungs which had healed itself right after birth. They had been confused at how this had happened at birth because he hadn't been resuscitated which could be a cause for the air in outside the lungs if it had been pushed in but this had not occurred.
I felt bad for my nurses up on the Mother/Baby floor because I was never there when they needed to take my vitals and to give me my medicine. They would leave us hints that they needed to come check on me by leaving the blood pressure monitor outside our door. We spent most of our time down in the NICU feeding and bonding with our little guy. We only went upstairs to get food, get some rest, and when the nurses in the NICU were changing shifts because they discuss each patient with the new shift and for privacy they ask that only staff be in the NICU at this time. On Sunday and Monday we had a lot of visitors to come see Theo but because he was in the NICU most of them had to see him through the glass window. It was fun to show him off! Monday night our 48 hours were running up and we were released from the hospital but Theo was still in NICU and everyone at this point was telling us that he would be discharged the next day so we were very hopeful. Since my parent's live just up the hill from the hospital we decided to spend the night at their house instead of doing the hotel stay at the hospital. We stayed at the hospital until around 1am Tuesday morning to finish his feeding and then we went to my parent's house for the night. We had no idea what time he would be discharged so we packed snacks for all day and also made sure we had clothes to bring him home in and his car seat ready. We both were sure it wouldn't be until later Tuesday night that he would be released. We arrived back at the hospital at 6:00 that morning, did his first feeding, the tech came in to take an Xray (Oh yeah also at this point he was no longer on the IV which made it a whole lot easier to feed and hold him although he still had monitors hooked to him his IV was always more in the way). Then we hungout for a little bit then his doctor came in said that the X-Rays didn't look perfect but they looked pretty good and over time the air will escape on its own and that we were pretty much good to go. From the time we got the news that he would be coming home that morning to the time we actually walked out the door seemed like it was forever. They had to make sure that we had gone through all the education, do a car seat test/check, pack up all the things that we would need (we got a ton of things to take home with us from the NICU) finally at 11:30am we were able to take our Theophilus home with us! It was so nice to have him off of all the monitors and wire-free. It made holding him and cuddling him so much easier!
Since we have been home we have completely got him off the SNS. Also he had his first check-up two days later on Thursday and he looks really good and his color is amazing! I love leaving the appointments or every time that we had been away from the NICU and came back and were given good news. It seemed like every time they got test results back he was doing better and better. He is definitely a fighter and my little champ. While he was in the NICU all the nurses that would come in would be so surprised at how big he was, because they normally don't see big babies in the NICU.
Things I want to remember about him from the Hospital:
~One of his favorite things while he was in the heating bed was to just lounge out like he was laying out on a beach enjoying the rays! This was one of the first things we noticed when we first went into the NICU after he was delivered. It was adorable.
~The nurses were so surprised at how easily he latched on for breast feeding. He was definitely a natural.
~He loved skin-to-skin time or just cuddling and so did we. We knew that we needed to get back up to our room on the Mother/Baby floor but it was so hard to leave when you were holding him. The world just seemed perfect to have such an adorable little boy cuddling up close against you. I had told Joey about this one day when he wanted to go back upstairs to rest and then the next day when he was holding him he turned to me and told me that he understood what I meant now. It was just too hard to put him back in his bed and say goodbye.
If you made it through this post I am surprised and thank you for caring so much about our experience! Sorry it was so long but as I said in the beginning this is my journal entry and I don't want to forget anything.
Our baby was due on November 9th, 2011 but both Joey and I felt that he would be later than his due date. Everyone is Joey's family wanted us to have him on November 11, 2011 (11/11/11) this would have been pretty cool because he is the 11th grandchild on both sides. Well the 9th rolled around and we were staying in Logan at my parent's house so that we wouldn't have to drive through the canyon while I was in labor, a choice I am very glad that we made! While in Logan my mom and sister made sure that I was walking around and doing lots of things. My sister, Tricia came to Logan with her three boys from Arizona to be here for me. We spent our time shopping, playing with her boys, and just waiting for my boy to come. My mom had me raking leaves and sent Joey and me on a walk. I thought it was funny, everyone wanted him here, as did I, but on his own time. I was just beginning to reach a little bit of an uncomfortable stage but overall I didn't feel 9 months pregnant. Many times I felt like I still had a month before I would have a beautiful baby boy in my life.
We went to bed the night of the 11th with many people "mad" at us for not having our baby on the 11th. Joey and I had felt that I would most likely make it till my induction date (Nov. 17) and labor would have to be induced. At 3:33am I felt like I was going to pee my pants so I stood up out of bed and right before I could open the door to our bedroom my water broke. I stopped where I was and turned to Joey and said his name, which he quickly sat up "what? What is going on?" I told him that my water had broke, it was pretty funny because I was staying somewhat calm and Joey being woken rapidly couldn't remember what we were supposed to do. We had to hurry and pack our bags (which we hadn't really done because both of us thought we still had a couple of days) go outside in the drizzling rain (which later turned into a nice big snow storm). We arrived at the hospital and they did an initial check, I was still at 1 cm dilated but effaced to 100%, also he had dropped to a 0 Station. At my last doctor's visit I was 1 cm dilated, 70% effaced, and he was high at a -2 station. Seeing that I wasn't that far along the nurse told me that I should go for a walk. Walking around was funny because there aren't that many hallways to walk down so you walk down a hall turn around and then walk down another hall.
My doctor had the night/day off so instead of having Dr Blackett we had Dr Kirkman. He is an amazing doctor and has delivered one of my nieces so I wasn't too worried about not having my doctor there. While we were walking the halls Dr Kirkman came up to us introduced himself and then we started talking about my options at this point. After your water breaks they like to have the delivery occur within 24 hours, because I was not progressed very far and this was my first pregnancy/labor he advised that if nothing happens in the next little while it would be a good idea to receive Pitocin to help induce me. We decided to keep walking around the halls and see how far I was at the next check. At this point in time the nurse and doctor were trying to nicely talk us into getting the Pit but not pressuring us into it. The reason for this is that almost every (if not all) of the women that were in labor at that time were wanting to go natural. For them this meant no Pit, no Epidural, etc. I had told the nurse that we were hoping that we didn't have to get an epidural but that it wasn't set in stone. These other women had many different techniques they were trying to go natural, one of which we doing Hypnobirthing, and another girl that we passed a few times walking in the hall had been in labor since 7pm the night before but she did not want to receive the Pit. Anyways after walking the halls and having only progressed to 3 cm dilated we decided to start the Pit at 10:30am. (7 hours since my water broke although it felt like it had only been 2 or 3). After I received the Pit I started to feel contractions (which at this point I hadn't really felt any at any point in my pregnancy or labor). At first they were very bearable and Joey and I were able to massage and breathe through the pain. My sister Tricia came to visit and we played Carcassonne one of our favorite games. This helped distract me for some time but as time passed my contractions moved to my back. Back labor became very painful and by 2:30pm I was still only dilated to 4 cm. I decided (felt prompted) that if I kept trying to breathe through the contractions for who knows how many hours that by the time I made it to delivery I would be out of energy and delivery would be very difficult. I say that I felt prompted because I had really had my mind set on delivering without an epidural and I knew that I was doing good focusing and breathing through the contractions but just felt like the best choice would be to receive an epidural. Even the nurse and the anesthesiologist said that I was doing a wonderful job breathing through the contractions ( I think the nurse thought I was as set on going natural as the other women in Labor and Delivery). Usually if someone had said that I was doing a good job working through them I would have stuck with it but I just felt that the right choice would be to get an epidural. At 2:30pm I received the epidural and was given the chance to lay down and rest. (To me the hours were flying by so even though it had been twelve hours at this point it felt like we had been there for 4 tops, also because it felt like time was flying by I can't remember a lot of what occurred that day other than walking the halls, breathing through contractions, and playing games with Tricia and Joey. At about 3:30/4:00pm Joey decided to run to my parent's house to get some food, as he wasn't too excited about eating another hospital sandwich. While he was gone the nurse came in and did another check at 4:30pm. I was dilated to 10 cm (fully dilated). Right after she got done checking me Joey walked in. The nurse and I both laughed and she was like "tell him the good news." "Perfect timing Joey, I am dilated to a 10" Joey started to glow, you could tell that he was nervous for delivery to actually occur but was so excited to become a father.
When you receive an epidural, especially with your first child the Logan hospital has you wait an hour before you start pushing. I can't remember what they called it but it is something like rest and drop. It is a time for the mother to rest and get energy to push while the baby starts to drop on his own. At 5:35 pm I started pushing with the contractions. The nurse helped show Joey when I should push so he was the one that did the counting and told me when to push and breath. At about 5:50 we saw the first little part of the babies head for the first time. It was amazing (we had a mirror at the end of the bed, which other girls that had been in our Prenatal Class thought was so weird but I thought it was amazing to be able to see my baby, it made pushing more worthwhile when you could see what each push was doing). Each time I would push I could see his head more and more. The doctor showed up at the perfect time. His head was crowning and I was able to reach down and touch my little baby for the first time, this as well helped me to continue pushing.
An hour after I started pushing our baby boy was born at 6:35pm! They were able to put him straight onto my belly and I was able to hold him while Joey cut his umbilical cord! After a minute the nurse took him away and started to give him oxygen, I was slightly confused because his color looked good (I guess he had started to turn a little blue-ish, but I was distracted by the thoughts that I had just had a baby). The nurses were good at staying calm although their was some chaos going on because another women was ready to start pushing but the doctor was still finishing up with me and they had asked for someone from respiratory to come help but he was needed in another room. The nurses said that we were a lower priority case and let the respiratory person go to the other room. The doctor was talking to me and I think trying to distract me from what was going on with our baby. After this they weighed him he was 8lbs 11oz and 20 1/2 inches long. He received APGAR scores of 7 and 9 which are really high, very few babies ever receive a perfect score of 10. These high scores made me even more confused at why they were taking him to the NICU. At this point all we knew is that he needed a CPAP for breathing, also at the end of delivery I had gotten a fever but it was too late to be put on antibiotics so they would need to do that for our little boy in the NICU.
After he was carted off to the NICU the nurse brought me some food to help me regain some strength, we went down to the NICU to see our little boy in a heating bed, with oxygen and a lot of wires. It is so sad to see something so little have so many wires (I know 8 lbs 11 oz is not little). At this point they had taken an X-Ray and found that there was air outside of his lungs, the pediatrician on call had called down to Mckay-Dee Hospital to get a second opinion. They both believed that he had Pneumothorax (meaning air in chest cavity) which is the less worrisome of the two things it could be. Both the doctors said that it would be best to just treat him for the infection from my fever and see how things looked later.
We had to leave him at this point to get checked into our Mother/Baby room. Finally at 11:30pm we were able to go back down to the NICU. When we walked in the room we noticed that he was no longer on oxygen! They said that he had only been on it for about an hour or two before he was able to breathe the oxygen in the room. Because he was off of the oxygen we were able to have skin to skin time. I was unable to breast feed him at this time because of the antibiotics and the IV. The IV was provided him the nutrients that he needed at this point so we were sent upstairs to start pumping my breast milk so by the time that he was able to breast feed they would be producing. I was able to breast feed him for the first time the next morning at 9:00 am. We did what was called SNS (supplemental nursing system), this is done by allowing the baby to latch to the breast as if he was nursing to help stimulate the milk to come in but because he would need more nutrients we used a syringe and a tube going into the mouth beside the nipple to give him the colostrum that I had pumped the night before. At about 3:00pm that afternoon we had to start doing SNS with formula because I was not pumping enough colostrum. At this point I was getting slightly discouraged (one of my greatest fears while I was pregnant is that I wouldn't be able to breast feed. As a human development major I am very pro-breast feeding and I knew that I would feel like a failure if I was unable to provide for my child). I was lucky enough to have some amazing nurses to help me feel better and let me know that it is normal to only get a few drops of colostrum the first few times that you pump. This really did make me feel a lot better. The nurses in the NICU were always amazing, they were so good at making us feel self-reliant and that they were just there for support and to help us. A few of the nurses told us that we were their favorite mom and dad in the NICU because we were able to do so much on our own without their help. The nurses told us that they felt like they were neglecting us but that we were doing everything so well on our own that they didn't really need to be there. Because of these nurses I felt blessed to have had our little boy in the NICU. Although it wasn't an ideal situation I believe that we received so much added attention and support that we left the hospital feeling like we really could do this and be great parents.
So Joey and I had not picked out a name for our little boy yet. We had thrown around some ideas but nothing was really standing out to us. My favorite that I have had picked out for a long time was Theophilus (nickname Theo, this was my Great Grandfather's name), Joey's favorite was John which he had liked because we would be naming him after John Jones, our friend's brother whom passed away in Nutty Putty Caves. (Joey was there the night that John became stuck and really made a connection with him that really made an impact in our lives). Some other names included Spencer (Joey's middle name), Stephen (after our "Dad" in Ghana), and Jake. We slowly dropped names that we didn't really like as much as others and when it was down to John and Theophilus we decided that any baby/person could look like a John (ex. John Doe) but that we both really like Theophilus and thought that he looked like a Theo. Then it came to the middle name. We had been planning on using the Ghanian day of the week name and because he was born on Saturday his name would be Kwame which just so happened to be one of our favorites. At the same time we were throwing around the idea of using Spencer as a middle name so that him and Joey would have that connection. We finally decided that Kwame would be his name! It was funny to see how many weird looks we received when we said it and how many nurses we had asking how to pronounce his name and what it meant but overall everyone really liked the name once we explained it.
Back to being in the NICU, on Sunday they had done another X-ray and found that he not only had Pneumothorax (remember how I said this was the lesser of two things it could be?) well he also had the worse of those two things, Pneumomediastinum which means air around the heart. This can be very bad because the air puts pressure on the heart so that it has a hard time pumping. Luckily the doctor still felt that both the Pneumothorax and the Pneumomediastinum were going to be able to work themselves out. Normally if it is bad they will have to go in with a needle and remove/release the air. At this point we were told that the air had most likely escaped from a hole in the lungs which had healed itself right after birth. They had been confused at how this had happened at birth because he hadn't been resuscitated which could be a cause for the air in outside the lungs if it had been pushed in but this had not occurred.
I felt bad for my nurses up on the Mother/Baby floor because I was never there when they needed to take my vitals and to give me my medicine. They would leave us hints that they needed to come check on me by leaving the blood pressure monitor outside our door. We spent most of our time down in the NICU feeding and bonding with our little guy. We only went upstairs to get food, get some rest, and when the nurses in the NICU were changing shifts because they discuss each patient with the new shift and for privacy they ask that only staff be in the NICU at this time. On Sunday and Monday we had a lot of visitors to come see Theo but because he was in the NICU most of them had to see him through the glass window. It was fun to show him off! Monday night our 48 hours were running up and we were released from the hospital but Theo was still in NICU and everyone at this point was telling us that he would be discharged the next day so we were very hopeful. Since my parent's live just up the hill from the hospital we decided to spend the night at their house instead of doing the hotel stay at the hospital. We stayed at the hospital until around 1am Tuesday morning to finish his feeding and then we went to my parent's house for the night. We had no idea what time he would be discharged so we packed snacks for all day and also made sure we had clothes to bring him home in and his car seat ready. We both were sure it wouldn't be until later Tuesday night that he would be released. We arrived back at the hospital at 6:00 that morning, did his first feeding, the tech came in to take an Xray (Oh yeah also at this point he was no longer on the IV which made it a whole lot easier to feed and hold him although he still had monitors hooked to him his IV was always more in the way). Then we hungout for a little bit then his doctor came in said that the X-Rays didn't look perfect but they looked pretty good and over time the air will escape on its own and that we were pretty much good to go. From the time we got the news that he would be coming home that morning to the time we actually walked out the door seemed like it was forever. They had to make sure that we had gone through all the education, do a car seat test/check, pack up all the things that we would need (we got a ton of things to take home with us from the NICU) finally at 11:30am we were able to take our Theophilus home with us! It was so nice to have him off of all the monitors and wire-free. It made holding him and cuddling him so much easier!
Since we have been home we have completely got him off the SNS. Also he had his first check-up two days later on Thursday and he looks really good and his color is amazing! I love leaving the appointments or every time that we had been away from the NICU and came back and were given good news. It seemed like every time they got test results back he was doing better and better. He is definitely a fighter and my little champ. While he was in the NICU all the nurses that would come in would be so surprised at how big he was, because they normally don't see big babies in the NICU.
Things I want to remember about him from the Hospital:
~One of his favorite things while he was in the heating bed was to just lounge out like he was laying out on a beach enjoying the rays! This was one of the first things we noticed when we first went into the NICU after he was delivered. It was adorable.
~The nurses were so surprised at how easily he latched on for breast feeding. He was definitely a natural.
~He loved skin-to-skin time or just cuddling and so did we. We knew that we needed to get back up to our room on the Mother/Baby floor but it was so hard to leave when you were holding him. The world just seemed perfect to have such an adorable little boy cuddling up close against you. I had told Joey about this one day when he wanted to go back upstairs to rest and then the next day when he was holding him he turned to me and told me that he understood what I meant now. It was just too hard to put him back in his bed and say goodbye.
If you made it through this post I am surprised and thank you for caring so much about our experience! Sorry it was so long but as I said in the beginning this is my journal entry and I don't want to forget anything.
Wednesday, November 16, 2011
Theo Update #5
Theo is home. He was discharged yesterday at 11:30am. We are staying at Emily's parents until Thursday because he has a checkup appointment then. All is well.
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| First night out of the hospital. Did very well. |
Monday, November 14, 2011
Theo Update #4
Baby update #4
So we had the nurse write down the big fancy name of the thing about the air in his chest. He had a case of pneumothorax. He also had a case of pneumomediastinum. Essentially at some point in the first few minutes of birth, there was a hole (or holes) in his lung that allowed air to escape into his chest cavity. The air gets trapped there and makes it difficult for the lungs to fill up and so he can't breathe very well. This leads to low oxygen absorption and such. However, within an hour of his birth he was breathing room air just fine and didn't need extra oxygen. This means the holes must have sealed and the air bubbles in his chest must be getting smaller.
So we had the nurse write down the big fancy name of the thing about the air in his chest. He had a case of pneumothorax. He also had a case of pneumomediastinum. Essentially at some point in the first few minutes of birth, there was a hole (or holes) in his lung that allowed air to escape into his chest cavity. The air gets trapped there and makes it difficult for the lungs to fill up and so he can't breathe very well. This leads to low oxygen absorption and such. However, within an hour of his birth he was breathing room air just fine and didn't need extra oxygen. This means the holes must have sealed and the air bubbles in his chest must be getting smaller.
Baby Update #3
Baby Update #3: Theo is doing well. His infection is clearing up and they still feel confident the air will work itself out of the wall of his lungs. Emily is being discharged tonight and Theo will likely be discharged tomorrow if his chest x-ray looks good...he'll probably get that tomorrow morning. We may stay in Logan for a day or two before heading back to Bear Lake. Thanks for all the well wishes everyone.
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| He loved his tanning bed (aka warming lamp). He'd just stretch out and soak up the rays. |
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| Mulletron: I wish I could have gotten a better picture of his mullet, but you can kind of see it here. Love it! |
Sunday, November 13, 2011
What's in a name? Lots of stuff.
Our beautiful baby boy has a name: Theophilus Kwame Stocking
Theophilus is a name Emily has always wanted (and I love it too). It is unique and we like that.
Kwame is a Ghanian name. It means Saturday born (male). While we were in Ghana we learned of this naming tradition and loved it...so we hoped he was born on a day with one of the names we liked...some of them are little hard to say, but this one isn't too bad.
It is fun to hear people's reactions to the name. Everyone keeps asking us to spell it. It is fun.
We will call him "Theo" most of the time.
Theophilus is a name Emily has always wanted (and I love it too). It is unique and we like that.
Kwame is a Ghanian name. It means Saturday born (male). While we were in Ghana we learned of this naming tradition and loved it...so we hoped he was born on a day with one of the names we liked...some of them are little hard to say, but this one isn't too bad.
It is fun to hear people's reactions to the name. Everyone keeps asking us to spell it. It is fun.
We will call him "Theo" most of the time.
Baby Stocking is here!
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| 6 seconds after birth. Isn't his mom good looking? |
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| Babies used to all look the same to me when they were born...not now. |
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| We like this pic. We wonder how many times in our lifetime we will look at it. |
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| Helping him breathe a little better |
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| Official weigh-in. (8 lbs, 11 oz.) |
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| In NICU getting skin to skin time (at midnight). |
Monday, October 24, 2011
About a month ago my friend Ryan reminded me that he had kayaked across Bear Lake last year and told me it was a lot of fun. So then he said he wanted to kayak the length of this year. This sounded adventurous to me, since I'd never really done any kayaking, so I told him I'd do it with him. We decided to do it about 5 times but the weather would get bad the day before or one of us would be busy. Finally this week we just decided we were going to do it. I was a little worried the day before because it looked like it was going to be cold. We had planned to start at 8am originally (it would have been 28 degrees!) We drove up to the North Shore about 11am, and by 11:30am we were paddling away from the boat launch area. (Thank you Emily for dropping us off.)
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| It was sooo nice when we were starting. We had picked the perfect day. |
The lake was really glassy most of the day. I am sure that made it a lot easier. After about 2 hours my shoulders really started to ache, but Ryan told me that if you push through it you'll get numb, and luckily he was right. We only had two problems the whole day. Problem #1 - There was no way to go to the bathroom. Problem #2 - My battery in my phone was dying and it was sending out a live feed of our GPS location and also recording the time and distance. So we made pit stop into Ideal Beach where Emily, Ginger, Zailey, Zenick & Zaxton met us to give us a battery charging pack and we used the bathroom. Then it was just 2 more hours to Rendezvous Beach. We finished just in time. It was getting dark, cold, and the lake was getting rough.
Anyway, that was my fun adventure for the summer. Below is a time lapse of the first 2 hours or so (the battery died on the camera too...when you decide to do things last minute you miss details like charging cameras.)
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| We were excited to be done. Compare this pic with the beginning pic. The weather had changed a bunch. |
Friday, October 14, 2011
One more Month and Halloween Party
You read the title correctly, one more month till we will be holding our little boy in our arms. I can't believe how fast this pregnancy has gone. Although it feels like it was forever ago that we took the pregnancy test and found out that we were pregnant, I definitely don't feel big enough to only have a month left. I have felt very lucky at how easy this pregnancy has been for me. The biggest annoyance that I have had is nightly heartburn but with my new friends Zantac and Tums I am doing pretty good at dealing with that. Other than that nothing has been that bad. I just got back from my 36 Week doctors appointment and the doctor said that we are pretty close to being on schedule so to plan on delivering very close to my due date: Nov 9th!
Since last Halloween Chuck has been talking about being the Teletubbies for Halloween. When we moved up here and decided that we were going to be in Garden City for Halloween, Chuck was very excited because we would have four people to be all four of the Teletubbies. Every Halloween a group of their friends have this big couple's Halloween party with games, food, and a walk-off. Prizes are given for winning games and the walk-off. Chuck and Ginger really wanted to win the walk-off so we went all out. Bought Teletubbie costumes, made a video, learned a dance, and even added accessories to make it the best walk-off yet! It was a lot of fun to see everyone's costumes and little skits. It was nice to get out and meet some new people and get to know others better. (Yes Halloween isn't for a couple more weeks but due to hunting season they had it really early)
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| The Whole Group from the Party |
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| Our Dance |
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| The Teletubbies! |
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| One of the games was who could kick the highest: It came down to Bro. Pugmire and Joey |
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| Joey won!!! I took third place, everyone was amazed a pregnant women could kick so high, so was I! |
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| 36 Weeks |
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| Joey working at Ideal Beach Resort doing Boat and Sea Doo Rentals |
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| 30 Weeks Along |
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| Another 36 Weeks pictures |
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| Moving into our new home and reopening all of our wedding presents! |
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| Bear Lake Calder Raspberries |
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| We were able to pick our own raspberries they were delicious! |
Monday, September 19, 2011
End of Summer and Adventures with Friends
I keep waiting to post a blog because I want to add pictures but now I forget all the details I want to add so I am going to go without pictures in this one.
A couple of weeks ago our friends Emilie and Garrett Wheeler came to Bear Lake to spend their Saturday with us. (Hint Hint We love when our friends come to visit us in Bear Lake, we will definitely make it worth the trip for you!!) Anyways they showed up a little later in the day than they had originally planned but it ended up being just fine because we just crammed everything into the time that we had. We went for a bike ride on the Bike Path through downtown Garden City, the trail ends at the Marina so we rode our bikes to the end of the Marina it was such a beautiful view of the Lake and all the boats! We rode back to town and got some Raspberry Shakes! We went to Blue Water and took out some Kayaks and tried to snorkel, it was a little windy so the waves made it a little murky but Joey loves to snorkel anyways! We also took out a boat and went tubing. It was so funny to watch, Joey's jaw hurt him the next day from laughing so much! Emilie's Blog about the Adventure
So last week Joey and his friend Ryan were going to Kayak across Bear Lake (North to South) but Ryan ended up hurting his hand and wrist so they decided to put that idea on pause for now. Ryan and his new bride Emily came up anyways to hangout with us (Yes we have a lot of Emily/Emilie friends!). We went snorkeling with them, they went over to the Ideal Beach Marina where there a bunch of baby fish. Then they went camping in our front yard.
Then just this weekend Tanner and Amber came up to spend the weekend with us. Being pregnant I have to sit out on a bunch of the adventures but it is still fun to have friends around and to hear the stories when they get back. Friday night we ended up just hanging out and playing games and we also stayed at one of the cabins. Saturday morning the adventures began (along with a little bit of bad luck). Joey, Tanner, and Amber went mountain biking down a trail called Bridgerland. Near the bottom of the path there are a bunch of hills that they decided to play on. Well Tanner went down one of these hills and hit a bump that ended up launching him a little further than expected, which led to him flipping his bike and leaving him in pain and with a lot of scrapes. To make the bike trip even more unlucky, Amber lost her phone somewhere along the trail. These experiences weren't going to stop them from playing still, so we headed over to Blue Water and took out some canoes. We took our Gavin with us (Joey's cousin's little boy) He was so funny but made the adventure more fun, he wanted to see fish and touch all the bouys. After canoeing we decided that we should go check the trail for Amber's phone so we took Brent's Rhino up to the trail to see if we could find it. The back luck came back and we got two flat tires on the Rhino and Joey had to walk back/get a ride to get the truck and trailer to pick up the Rhino. The boys ended up spending some time trying to get the tires back on and filled up with air. We were unable to find the phone. The fun still continued we had dinner and then they went and got in the hot tub. Sunday after church we ended up playing some more games. We miss having friends around to play games with regularly.
That is it for our Friend Adventures!
UPDATE ON US:
With summer being over there isn't much/any work for us to do for the Cabin Rentals so Joey started working for his cousin Brian at his boat rentals. For about two weeks Joey was working on location renting the machines and then after those two weeks he has been working to clean all the machines and get them winterized. Brian has also offered Joey a job for the winter to work renting Snowmobiles. We are very grateful for Brian's kindness. Not only has he offered Joey a job but he has allowed us to stay in the Fun House. The Fun House is used as employee housing during the summer, we are very grateful to have a place to live. We were living in Brent's Trailer but they sold it and the new owners were only able to rent it to us for an extra month. While Joey has been working I have been moving us in to the Fun House. It is a really nice place and will fit us and our baby perfectly! Last week we went to our first Prenatal Class, I can't believe it is getting so close that we are preparing for Labor and Delivery now. I am currently 32 and 1/2 weeks along. The end of pregnancy is getting so close it is pretty crazy.
Well that is it for now. Hopefully I can post up some pictures of our adventures and my ever growing belly!
A couple of weeks ago our friends Emilie and Garrett Wheeler came to Bear Lake to spend their Saturday with us. (Hint Hint We love when our friends come to visit us in Bear Lake, we will definitely make it worth the trip for you!!) Anyways they showed up a little later in the day than they had originally planned but it ended up being just fine because we just crammed everything into the time that we had. We went for a bike ride on the Bike Path through downtown Garden City, the trail ends at the Marina so we rode our bikes to the end of the Marina it was such a beautiful view of the Lake and all the boats! We rode back to town and got some Raspberry Shakes! We went to Blue Water and took out some Kayaks and tried to snorkel, it was a little windy so the waves made it a little murky but Joey loves to snorkel anyways! We also took out a boat and went tubing. It was so funny to watch, Joey's jaw hurt him the next day from laughing so much! Emilie's Blog about the Adventure
So last week Joey and his friend Ryan were going to Kayak across Bear Lake (North to South) but Ryan ended up hurting his hand and wrist so they decided to put that idea on pause for now. Ryan and his new bride Emily came up anyways to hangout with us (Yes we have a lot of Emily/Emilie friends!). We went snorkeling with them, they went over to the Ideal Beach Marina where there a bunch of baby fish. Then they went camping in our front yard.
Then just this weekend Tanner and Amber came up to spend the weekend with us. Being pregnant I have to sit out on a bunch of the adventures but it is still fun to have friends around and to hear the stories when they get back. Friday night we ended up just hanging out and playing games and we also stayed at one of the cabins. Saturday morning the adventures began (along with a little bit of bad luck). Joey, Tanner, and Amber went mountain biking down a trail called Bridgerland. Near the bottom of the path there are a bunch of hills that they decided to play on. Well Tanner went down one of these hills and hit a bump that ended up launching him a little further than expected, which led to him flipping his bike and leaving him in pain and with a lot of scrapes. To make the bike trip even more unlucky, Amber lost her phone somewhere along the trail. These experiences weren't going to stop them from playing still, so we headed over to Blue Water and took out some canoes. We took our Gavin with us (Joey's cousin's little boy) He was so funny but made the adventure more fun, he wanted to see fish and touch all the bouys. After canoeing we decided that we should go check the trail for Amber's phone so we took Brent's Rhino up to the trail to see if we could find it. The back luck came back and we got two flat tires on the Rhino and Joey had to walk back/get a ride to get the truck and trailer to pick up the Rhino. The boys ended up spending some time trying to get the tires back on and filled up with air. We were unable to find the phone. The fun still continued we had dinner and then they went and got in the hot tub. Sunday after church we ended up playing some more games. We miss having friends around to play games with regularly.
That is it for our Friend Adventures!
UPDATE ON US:
With summer being over there isn't much/any work for us to do for the Cabin Rentals so Joey started working for his cousin Brian at his boat rentals. For about two weeks Joey was working on location renting the machines and then after those two weeks he has been working to clean all the machines and get them winterized. Brian has also offered Joey a job for the winter to work renting Snowmobiles. We are very grateful for Brian's kindness. Not only has he offered Joey a job but he has allowed us to stay in the Fun House. The Fun House is used as employee housing during the summer, we are very grateful to have a place to live. We were living in Brent's Trailer but they sold it and the new owners were only able to rent it to us for an extra month. While Joey has been working I have been moving us in to the Fun House. It is a really nice place and will fit us and our baby perfectly! Last week we went to our first Prenatal Class, I can't believe it is getting so close that we are preparing for Labor and Delivery now. I am currently 32 and 1/2 weeks along. The end of pregnancy is getting so close it is pretty crazy.
Well that is it for now. Hopefully I can post up some pictures of our adventures and my ever growing belly!
Monday, August 22, 2011
Jacobsen Baby Blessings and Get Together
This past weekend we were able to spend some time with the Jacobsen Family. My Brother and Sister-in-law, Brent and Jenni had a Baby Boy, Caleb born on June 15th and then my Sister and Brother-in-law, Tricia and Dustin had a Baby Boy, Devin on July 30th. They ended up having a combined Baby Blessing at my parent's house. This worked out very well because Brent and Jenni live in Provo and Tricia and Dustin live in Arizona. We got together for the blessings and then had some time to spend together.
Brent and Jenni were staying in a hotel and invited us all to go swimming at the pool. Joey and I had not planned on swimming so we didn't bring our swimsuits with us but Joey was able to find a really nice one for cheap at the store and I wasn't able to find one so I was just going to hangout on the side of the pool. We had been there for about ten minutes when my oldest nephew, Dylon decided he wanted to jump in the pool, thinking this look like a lot of fun my other nephew, Ethan decided he wanted to jump in too. Joey says that it looked like Ethan had decided that he didn't want to jump to the middle of the pool as it would be better to be close to the edge to catch himself. Well he jumped a little too close to the edge and ended up cutting his chin.
We spent the rest of the time at the pool trying to calm him down and take care of the cut, luckily both of his parents are doctors (Mom is a physical therapist and Dad is a Physician Assistant). After trying to bandage the cut and realizing that the cut was too big to go without the needed supplies they had to take him into the hospital to get 4 stitches. While he was at the hospital I got some bonding time with my other nephew Ryan whom I haven't had much time with since they live in Arizona. I can't believe how big he is now, he is walking and talking.
Anyways, on Sunday after church we had a family BBQ and just spent time together. It was nice to spend time with everyone, catch up on our lives, and getting to hold the adorable new babies. It was so much fun to just watch my nieces and nephews run around and play with each other. After the BBQ the girls had planned a surprise Baby Shower for me since this would be the only time almost all of our family would be together (we missed Andy and Jessica who weren't able to make it up). Jenni had put together a fun Memory Matching game where if you got a match of a Baby/Labor/Pregnancy term with the name of a Candy you got that kind of Candy. It was very clever and funny. Then they all gave me wonderful gifts, I can't wait to use them when the baby comes. They definitely spoiled me! I feel so loved and blessed to have such an amazing family! (Thank you for the wonderful surprise and gifts- Jenni, Rebe, Leah, Tricia and Mom!)
I also realized that Joey has a lot of random pictures from this summer so please enjoy! We spend a lot of time with Joey's brother Chuck and his wife Ginger and their three children, Zailey, Zenick and Zaxton.
Brent and Jenni were staying in a hotel and invited us all to go swimming at the pool. Joey and I had not planned on swimming so we didn't bring our swimsuits with us but Joey was able to find a really nice one for cheap at the store and I wasn't able to find one so I was just going to hangout on the side of the pool. We had been there for about ten minutes when my oldest nephew, Dylon decided he wanted to jump in the pool, thinking this look like a lot of fun my other nephew, Ethan decided he wanted to jump in too. Joey says that it looked like Ethan had decided that he didn't want to jump to the middle of the pool as it would be better to be close to the edge to catch himself. Well he jumped a little too close to the edge and ended up cutting his chin.
We spent the rest of the time at the pool trying to calm him down and take care of the cut, luckily both of his parents are doctors (Mom is a physical therapist and Dad is a Physician Assistant). After trying to bandage the cut and realizing that the cut was too big to go without the needed supplies they had to take him into the hospital to get 4 stitches. While he was at the hospital I got some bonding time with my other nephew Ryan whom I haven't had much time with since they live in Arizona. I can't believe how big he is now, he is walking and talking.
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| Joey and Ryan bonding |
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| Everyone having fun in the pool |
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| Like Uncle Like Nephew |
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| More swimming fun |
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| The gash in the chin |
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| Dad trying to perform surgery but sadly the gash was too big for the supplies he was able to have access to. |
Anyways, on Sunday after church we had a family BBQ and just spent time together. It was nice to spend time with everyone, catch up on our lives, and getting to hold the adorable new babies. It was so much fun to just watch my nieces and nephews run around and play with each other. After the BBQ the girls had planned a surprise Baby Shower for me since this would be the only time almost all of our family would be together (we missed Andy and Jessica who weren't able to make it up). Jenni had put together a fun Memory Matching game where if you got a match of a Baby/Labor/Pregnancy term with the name of a Candy you got that kind of Candy. It was very clever and funny. Then they all gave me wonderful gifts, I can't wait to use them when the baby comes. They definitely spoiled me! I feel so loved and blessed to have such an amazing family! (Thank you for the wonderful surprise and gifts- Jenni, Rebe, Leah, Tricia and Mom!)
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| While the girl's had the Baby Shower the children and the boys had a water balloon fight. |
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| Jens and Kayci deciding if they wanted to play in the water |
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| The pool |
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| They are so adorable! |
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| Dylon loved throwing the water balloons |
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| Ethan really liked it too! |
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| Lilli was having fun too |
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| The girls watching the children and boys play before the Surprise Baby Shower |
I also realized that Joey has a lot of random pictures from this summer so please enjoy! We spend a lot of time with Joey's brother Chuck and his wife Ginger and their three children, Zailey, Zenick and Zaxton.
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| Zailey and Zenick playing in the Laundry at the Office |
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| Riding Zenick's Handlebars, it is a lot easier to ride Joey's bike's handlebars |
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| Zailey the Dinosaur |
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| Zaxton loves getting rides in the Dump Truck |
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| Lightning McQueen in the Raspberry Day Parade |
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| Tow Mater in the Parade |
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| Zailey was in the Miss Raspberry Princess Pageant so she rode in the Parade, the theme was Fairies |
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| Zaxton loves to hide in the cupboards at the office |
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| Zaxton was using the piles of paper as an easier way to stand up and walk. He is still working on both. |
Tuesday, August 16, 2011
Update on our Summer and the Baby
We have been staying really busy the last couple of months with the summer business. Things are starting to calm down. Although we have been busy we have found some time to have some fun. My brother Cory and sister-in-law Rebeca rode in the Bear Lake Monster Century Bike Ride, we drove up to Minnetonka Cave to see them after their climb.
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| Rebe and Cory after their climb |
We were able to take a couple days off of work and make it to the lake. We had some friends come up and we spent the morning up at Bloomington Lake, they all had fun and used the rope swing (which right now is a really nice waterski rope) then after that we headed over to Blue Water and took out some Sea Doos. It was nice to get out to the lake and enjoy it. Especially after most of our customers mention that we must love it here and must always be out on the lake.
We also were able to go the opening night of Harry Potter 7 part 2, we went to a pre-showing which is way nice because we don't have to wait up till midnight for the movie to start. To prepare ourselves to go see it we had a movie marathon and watched all the other movies over the previous two weeks. For the Harry Potter 7 part 1 we went to our friend's house who had an amazing party with lots of Harry Potter themed Snacks. It was amazing all the work she put into it.
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| Some of the awesome party treats |
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| Chuck Poppleton adding the finishing touches to the Party Treats |
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| 26 Weeks Pregnant |
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