Wednesday, May 19, 2010

Kaylynn’s and Marriner’s Big Weekend

On May 15th Kaylynn was baptized! What an awesome experience that was for our family. We had my parents there and lots of friends. I was so happy for her and her choice to be baptized! Then on May 16th Marriner had his blessing. It was a great week for our family. Our 5th child was born and blessed and our first child was baptized.

So the night before the big day Cameron and I wanted to take Kaylynn out and spend sometime just the three of us. She wanted to go bowling so we did.

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The Fab Five

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Marriner’s Blessing was the next day but unfortunately I forgot to take pictures! But add a tie to this shirt and a smile to his face and that’s basically what he looked like on his blessing day.

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Kaylynn played the opening song at her baptism. She played a duet with her piano teacher they played. Teach me to walk in the Light. This is Kaylynn playing her part.

School Spring Concert

 

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Family Life

I have kind of done a horrible job of taking pictures this time around.  I realized after I got home from the hospital that we don’t have any pictures of me or Cameron holding Marriner in the hospital.  So sad…hopefully I’ll get better.

 

                         Cameron at 8:00 p.m.                              

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Cameron at 8:10 p.m.

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Kaylynn’s Art.

This piece of art was on display at a local Mexican restaurant. 

 

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Softball and T-ball

Kaylynn has been playing her first year of fast pitch softball.  I was a little nervous because she is the only 2nd grader playing but it’s been just fine.  She likes it a lot but I think she wishes there was another 2nd grader on her team or a least someone she knows.  The only thing I don’t like about it is that we have to travel to other towns to play other teams.  Yuck!

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Paytyn’s TEE -Ball

This is Paytyn’s second year of TEE-Ball and she is doing great and loves it.

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Tuesday, May 18, 2010

Marriner's Birth or...Room 17 dun dun dun

This is it the story of Marriners birth. It's really long and full of "graphic" details so feel free not to read it. And I didn't take the time to edit it either.

WAITING
So I want to get this recorded before I start to forget the details. I really wanted to have Marriner on Mothers Day and so at my 38ish week appointment I asked the Dr. if that would be okay. He said yes he was on call that weekend and he would have the nurses set it up for me. (I have been induced with all of my babies). At my 39ish week appointment I saw a different Dr. who told me it would have to wait till Monday that they (the hospital) really didn't like people coming in on the weekend. I was kind of irritated. I know it doesn't sound like that big of a deal one day different but sometimes when your pregnant little things turn into big deals. So I'm irritated that it has to be Monday but I TRY to move past it and wait for my parents to arrive that weekend. They arrive on Saturday afternoon and we just enjoy catching up with each other by staying up really, late talking. I think we finally get in bed around 1:00 a.m. I haven't slept well in weeks by this point so it really doesn't matter to me. I woke up around 5:00 a.m wishing contractions to start or my water to break or something to happen. It is my due date after all and I just think it's rude that I have never went into labor before my date or even on it. I know it's just a approximate date but seriously isn't 40 weeks enough?? So as I'm laying in bed trying to will by body into labor and the phone rings. I pick it up and notice it's the hospitals phone number. I only know this because the day before they had called to go over pre-registration with me. So I get very excited and then ecstatic when the nurse tells me that they had me booked for Sunday and for Monday and she was wondering which day I wanted. I quickly composed myself and said that "I would love to come in now!" So I woke-up Cameron and told him we were headed into the hospital.
ROOM 17?!
So we got to the hospital and checked in and within 30 minutes a nurse comes to get us. Now this is the 3rd baby I've delivered at this hospital and I recognize a lot of the nurses. So the nurse we get is one I really like and find very hilarious so I'm thinking this is going to be a great day. As we're walking she says we'll be in room 17... Now I'm thinking room 17?! That's the scene of the most painful moment of my life. I had Tanner in room 17 and it's a GREAT story but I'll spare you the details now I'll just say Tanner was born VERY FAST and 100% natural and Cameron might have been in a headlock. So I'm thinking ummm hope things go better for me in room 17. And I'm also thinking it's kind of cool that both of my sons will take their first breaths in the same room.

GETTING STARTED
So when you're induced they can do a few things depending on how dilated you are and how thinned out our cervix is. I have only been induced one way with the Dr. breaking my water and then giving me and I.V. of pitocin. This has worked swimmingly with all 4 previous births and only takes about 1-3 hours from the time they get me hooked up and my water broken. So I'm expecting much of the same this time around. The doctor isn't around that early in the morning at the hospital so the nurse gets me all ready and we wait for a really long time for doctor to get there and when he does there is an emergency that he has to take care of first. So we finally see him around 10:30ish. The first thing the doctor does is check me and says that I'm only at a 1 and only about 50% effaced. BUT that's not the worst of it he also says he doesn't feel a head! WHAT!!! He only can feel hands so he wheels in a ultrasound machine to take a look at what's going on. Luckily the head is there but he still has his hands coming first. So the doctor says we have only two options with a mal-presentation like this. (The doctor wanted to give me some other drug I haven't had before because it helps to thin the cervix out as well as helping with dilation but he can't because of the baby's presentation) So my first option is to start pitocin and see what happens and the second option is to go home and try again a different day. Obviously I chose the pitocin. I'm thinking of course I'll do the pitocin that is what I've done with the other kids and it worked great so let's do it again. So the doctor leaves and the nurse tires to get me hooked up to the I.V. after mutilating my left hand and arm they get one started in my right. ( I forgot to mention that the nurse also has a student nurse with her it's the student nurse that mutilates my left hand.) So within minutes the contractions start and within an hour I'm dilated to a 4! I'm thinking YES this is going to great I should have this baby by lunch time easily. The contractions are hurting a bit not much really but I like to stand when I'm in labor and I know if I get an epidural I can't get up so I'm walking around the room when my water breaks but not very much has leaked out so I call the nurse and tell her my water broke and she sends in the student who has no idea if it broke or not so she takes a strip to test and see if it's amniotic fluid and it's positive for amniotic fluid. But the nurse still isn't convinced because it wasn't very much and I'm not really leaking still. I'm thinking what else could it be? So she wants to check me and see what's going on and when I sit on the bed there is a huge gush of water. I'm thinking see I told you my water broke but I didn't say that. So now I know for sure that the baby is going to be born today he has too because my water broke. Usually when my water breaks that's when things really get going. But not this day this is going to be a long horrid day. My water breaks and my labor STOPS. So over the course of the next couple of hours they try to get me into labor. The keep bumping up the pitocin every hour and nothing. So finally they think if I get an epidural it will relax me and help me to contract and dilate. So I'm fine with that I was pretty sure I wasn't going natural this time anyway. I don't love epidurals though and I haven't had great experiences with them. But I'm willing to try anything by this point to get labor going and this baby out of me. Unfortunately this is when things just start to not be fun. I don't know why my body doesn't like epidurals but it doesn't. When they get it in it doesn't work on all of the pain I can still feel all of the lower contractions and other area. Plus I just start feeling badly. I feel like my body is starting to revolt against all of the things they are doing to it. My blood pressure is dropping really low, low enough that I'm setting off the alarms in the room it's 80 something /40 something. The nurse comes in and she's like "sorry about that I'll just set the alarm lower so it won't go off." WHAT!? Like it won't go off until I pass out? What do you mean you'll just change it, am I going to be okay because I don't feel that great. I want to rip everything off of me and just leave. Only of course I can't my waters broken and I have finally started to dilate It's hard to explain but from this point until the baby actually is born I just feel yucky and really nervous, not a great combination.
ACTIVE LABOR
So finally I'm having enough contractions to have a baby they just need to be a bit stronger so the bump the pitocin up again. With all of the other kids I only had to have 8 whatevers of pitocin per hour to have a baby this time I'd make it all the way to 16. And then a lovely thing happens just as I'm starting active hard labor my epidural pump stops working! Seriously there is nothing quite like going from not really feeling anything to feeling active hard labor. I'm not very happy at this point because the worst part of having a baby (for me) is the end it's not the contractions (not a big fan of those either) but it's the birthing of big babies it HURTS!! (especially the tearing part) and this is when my epidural decides to stop working just in time for me to experience this loveliness? Not a lot I can do about it now but they do call in the anaesthesiologist and he gives me a booster and switches the pump. Unfortunately this is about a minute before I can tell it's time to push. So the nurses try to find my doctor but they can't so they bring in someone else because I'm kind of a one pusher every things over with kind of person. (NORMALLY) So I'm trying really hard not to push when my doctor runs in. The nurse at this point has turned off the pitocin and I'm "set up" to push when seriously nothing no more contractions? We're all just waiting... it's kind of funny looking back on it but at the time I wasn't very amused. Finally the doctors like "maybe we should turn the pitocin back on." I'm thinking WHAT IN THE WORLD IS WRONG WITH ME!!! Our baby is crowning and my body is still in denial about the whole thing. But within a few minutes I can start pushing so I push once and expect it to be over and it's NOT so I try again nope not this time either WHAT!! I know this sounds lame but seriously it HURTS and I'm expecting it to be over by now later I find out what the problem was. Marriners head was 14 1/2 inches the average newborns head is like 13 inches. So in the end it takes about 5 min. to push him out. WARNING VERY GRAPHIC DETAIL READ AT YOUR OWN RISK And this is why. When the doctor is sewing up my 2nd degree rip he just casually mentions that my CERVIX was caught on the babies head and it came down with his head so if I feel anything bulging or hanging down when I go to the bathroom to "not to worry it's just my cervix." Again WHAT!? I have never heard of such a thing. Is it going to go back? What in the world do I do about this? Apparently nothing.
OUR NEW BABY
So right after birth the doctor places my new beautiful son on my stomach and he is really, really purple so purple that they thought he had a cord wrapped around his neck but he didn't so I only got to hold him for about 20 seconds before they whisked him away to get him pinked up. Which he did immediately after they got him to the warmer and suctioned out nicely. When I first saw him I thought that he looked small and I was really surprised because I was expecting another big baby. When she put him on the scale and it said 9lbs 5 oz I was really surprised. He doesn't' look that big but then she measured his gigantic head and I figure that must be where all the weight is. He is such a beautiful boy. I'm so glad that he made it here safe and is a part of our family. He is a great nurser it's actually by far the best nursing experience I've had. He sleeps pretty well some nights and pretty horrid other nights. Man we love that boy!
MY RECOVERY
So after Marriner was born I had no energy like I couldn't hold him or myself up it was a really weird experience. I felt pretty horrible. The nurse said it was probably the combination of trying to get the epidural fix and having all the adrenaline in my body from childbirth. I don't know what it was but I didn't like it. It lasted for about 4 hours. At about 10:30 pm they were able to move me to my recovery room. At this point I'm thinking I might have to spend two days in the hospital but by the next morning I'm feeling great and this is the 2nd best recovery I've had after a baby and no baby blues this time either. So yeah! It's been a great 10 days and other then being a little tired things are going well. But if we decide to have another baby someday (We have no idea if we're done or not we have always said 5 or 6 so who knows) I really hope it's not in room 17!!

Wednesday, May 12, 2010

He’s Here!!

I don’t have time to write all the detail now but here is just a quick look at

Marriner James Southam

Born Sunday, May 9th @ 6:25 pm.  9 lbs 5 oz and almost 22 inches long. He has brown eyes and black hair. I’ll post all the details and more pictures as soon as I can. 

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