Rory's Newborns

I wanted to have a post to go with these pictures, but lets be real, I am too tired. And I have no time for that. So without a post here's the pictures of our pretty girl (and the rest of us):

Busy Work

Things are busy around here. Each day from very early to very late I am very occupied tending to babies and a husband, cleaning house, making meals, kissing boo boos, being a milk maid, being a wife and failing a little bit at doing laundry. Being a mom is hard work, and also very lonely at times. The stress is sometimes overwhelming, especially with a very scheduled 1 year old (therapies Monday-Thursday) and an infant that literally can survive on 5 hours of sleep and be awake the rest of the time. Its weird. Taking both of them out together, is quite the production. It requires careful time management and planning. You should see me pull up to Jax's speech therapy…I get out of the car, strap a baby to my chest, put another in the stroller, put all of Jax's supplies for the session in the stroller, get bottles and sippy cups, grab my purse, walk up to the door, forgot I didn't lock the car, walk back and lock the car, go back to the door, attempt to open the VERY heavy door and push a stroller through at the same time. Most of the time people watch me, sometimes they laugh, rarely they help. Last week my faith in humanity was restored a little bit when a mom of 3 young sons instructed her oldest who was about 8 years old to hold the door for me because that is what you do for people. Her sons are going to be great men some day.

When things get stressful, and I start to feel lonely (because I haven't seen other adults and haven't even had a real conversation with my husband because our babies don't ever sleep so we are never alone) the heartache and pain of missing my boy starts to creep in again. A few days ago my heart was feeling particularly heavy. And then I saw this:

Isn't she beautiful? Babies are hard work. They need a lot of attention and they are constantly taking without giving back. But when I look at her face, I see heaven. I feel a spirit so fresh from our Heavenly Father and I can't help but feel anything but thankful. I think she still remembers her big brother. She won't soon, but right now I think she still does. I catch her looking at Jax sometimes like she has known him for much longer than 2 months. She pretty much only smiles for him, like she knows he is hilarious(because really, he is). And after that smile, a little later in the day, this happened:

Yep, he is stuck…See, hilarious. These babies that are such hard work, that make me have to think about when the last time I showered was, that take take take all day long, are really the best thing ever. I have never loved anyone like I love them. And they make me so happy. 

no make up, no shower, huge bags under my tired eyes, but still happy. :)

Rory's Story

WARNING: Yep, its another birth story. Don't read if you don't want to. But definitely skip to the end for the pictures. :)

I wasn't feeling quite as stressed this time around as I was last time. I knew it was possible for things to work out fine. I knew that not all birth stories have sad endings. We did make plans to have another induction though based off my past history, still better safe than sorry. We scheduled it for exactly 39 weeks (Thursday, November 20th), my mom booked her plane ticket to come in 2 days before that so she could watch Jax while we were at the hospital, and I made a list of all the things to get done before that day.

On November 17th I woke up around 1am feeling a bit (a lot) crampy. I drank a lot of water and laid on my side hoping it would go away because I was so tired. That didn't help, in fact they were getting worse. So I took a warm bath. That didn't help either. But that could also be because our tub is SUPER shallow and didn't really cover much of my stomach which was where the pain was. Around 5am I called the hospital to ask their opinion because my contractions were now about 8 minutes apart and getting super strong. They told me to wait until they were 2 minutes apart to come in. So I laid back down hoping it would get better because 2 minutes seemed really far away and these things were no joke! Well they didn't get any better so I got up and decided to pack my bag (David was asleep this entire time and was oblivious to the fact that any of it was going on, but I figured one of us should get some sleep). David finally woke up around 7 and started trying to figure out of this was the real thing or not. When I stopped talking mid sentence, closed my eyes in pain and started breathing deeply because another contraction hit he figured he better call work (school) and tell them he wouldn't be there. I felt really bad because it was his first day of school and I didn't want him to miss anything, but his leadership seemed fine with it. The next thing on my list was to figure out what to do with Jax. We had carefully planned for my mom to be with him. He hasn't ever really had a babysitter other than family members for longer than a couple hours because of his health issues and I wasn't sure there was anywhere that he would be able to go for an undetermined amount of time. Luckily we have an amazing church family and a friend from our previous ward who lives close to the hospital volunteered to keep him for the day. She was truly an angel and I felt really comfortable leaving Jax with her. She made the day so much easier on me and I am so thankful for that.

Anyway, around 9:30 I called the hospital again. Contractions were only 6 minutes apart, but they were very strong so I asked if I could just come in. They said sure, so I told them I would be there in about an hour or so because I still needed to drop my son off. We finally made it to the hospital around 11:15. They put me in a triage room to determine if I could be admitted or not. David said even if they tell us I am not quite far enough he was going to tell them we are staying anyway because we already had to go through the trouble to find someone to watch Jax and he called in to school so no matter what we were having a baby. Luckily the answer was yes. Once we got settled into our room the anesthesiologist came to talk to me and had me sign all the forms. Then the nurse suggested I walk around for awhile to get things moving a little faster. So we got up and walked. We noticed as we did laps that we were the only ones in labor and delivery which was pretty interesting. Usually the hospital is full. After about 45 minutes of walking I decided I had had enough and wanted to get some sleep since I had been up since 1am. So we called back the anesthesiologist. Now, I am not new to epidurals. This was my third one, but this guy must have been nervous or something because he had the hardest time placing it. Finally he got it right, gave me the initial bolus bump that they give to make sure it is placed right and said he would check on me in 20 minutes to give it time to work.

20 minutes later he came back and I told him it wasn't really working. He said it probably just needs more time. I told him that the other 2 times I needed the bolus administered twice for the epidural to start working. He told me I don't and that I just need more time. Around this same time the nurse hooked up the pitocin because it was now around 3:45 and I had no change despite the fact that my contractions were now 4 minutes apart. The pitocin made the contractions 1-2 minutes apart and the epidural still wasn't working and I was so tired from being up all night I was just sobbing to David most of the time about how all I wanted was a nap. I bet he loved that. The pain was getting MUCH worse so the nurse turned off the pitocin and went to track down the anesthesiologist (who had actually gone home and a new one had come on shift) because she agreed that I needed some rest. The anesthesiologist decided that she was going to re-place the epidural catheter instead of just adding another bolus. The anesthesiologist left to get her cart and the doctor came in with the resident (who had so far been the one handling everything) to say that they would start the pitocin when the epidural was fixed because I had not progressed much since I got there. I asked her if she wouldn't mind checking because with my last two babies when contractions felt like this, it usually meant I was VERY close. The resident tried to object by telling the doctor that she had just checked me 30 minutes before and didn't want to do it again but the doctor made her do it anyway. And to her surprise, we were ready to go. So the whole replacing of the epidural thing got scraped and it was decided I would just get another bolus instead (which is what I wanted in the first place). So I got that while the doctors got everything set up to have a baby. Thankfully the bolus worked and after much less push time than with Jax, Rory was finally born at 5:24 pm. (By the way, my contractions were about 4 minutes apart-for some reason they never get to 2 minutes apart on their own. They were about 4 minutes apart with all of my babies when it was time to push. Good thing I didn't wait until they were 2 minutes apart because I would have had a baby in the car).

About an hour later David left to get Jax from our friend's house to bring him back to the hospital to meet his sister real quick and hug me before they both went home for the night. I really missed having David there with me all night, but since my mom wasn't here yet to watch Jax, David taking him home was the best thing for him. I really missed Jax too. It was the first night I had ever been away from him. But luckily things went well so I only had to stay in the hospital one night. Now that we have settled into life with two babies at home, I wouldn't have it any other way. My days are VERY busy, but they are worth it. xoxo

Newborn photos will be coming soon :)