Monday, December 31, 2012

Merry Christmas

We had ourselves a merry little Christmas.  Since we just had Vivi, we decided to stay home this year and not travel to Utah.  Dan's family came to visit and it was wonderful to have them in town for the holidays.

Vivian is a complete source of joy in my life.  I forgot how much I love newborns.  She really is the easiest baby.  She sleeps all the time, and when she's awake she's happy and content.  Love her to pieces.




Max was so fun this year for Christmas.  He loved unwrapping his presents and was really excited about all his new toys.  He mostly got cars this year, which was perfect because cars are his favorite toys. We had a huge snow storm here on Christmas night and Max calls the snow "snowmens."  It's adorable.  Because of the snow storm, our power went out for 4 days.  NOT a fun experience and I hope we never have to go through that again!








Monday, December 24, 2012

Update

It's been awhile since I updated.  Sometimes I think about giving up on this silly blog due to lack of time, but I love going back and reading past posts, so for now, I will keep the blog alive.  It's a good way to document our lives.

The past couple of months have been crazy!  Having 2 kids has been wonderful, and a little challenging.  We have had a few growing pains since Vivi joined our family, but over all it hasn't been that big of an adjustment.  Going from no kids to 1 kid was a lot harder for me than going from 1 to 2 kids.  I am so much more relaxed and confident this time around.  Vivian is a dream baby.  She has slept 5-6 hour stretches at night since the day we brought her home from the hospital.  When she's awake, she is almost always calm and content.  She is the complete opposite of Max when he was a newborn.  Max cried A LOT and hardly ever slept day or night.  This time has been a breeze!

Max is cuter and sweeter than ever. He's extremely active and runs around all day long. He loves his cars and has to be holding one in each hand at all times.  He is still very affectionate and gives hugs and kisses freely all day long.  He is a typical 2 year old and throws temper tantrums and says "no" a lot, but over all, he's a very good little boy.  We always tell ourselves that we need to document some of the  cute things Max says on a regular basis. I'm sure that most kids have a few sayings that their parents love, but we have a handful that really crack us up. He doesn't really know the difference between "big" and "heavy," so whenever things are "big" he calls them "hebby." The moon is "hebby," the trucks are "hebby." He loves sleeping. How many kids actually ask to go to bed or take a nap?! He always asks us to "get paci and blank" (his pacifier and blanket) so he can go to bed. He learned to spell his name this week, we were so proud of him. He has little bath letters that he put together to spell "Max."

We love both our angel babies!  Life is great and we have never been happier.  Merry Christmas!

Max on Thanksgiving

Max on his 2nd birthday

The boy must have two cars all the time!


Viv at 7 weeks old


 First smile caught on camera!


Beautiful baby girl- 2 weeks old.  I am so glad to have one of each!








Friday, November 9, 2012

Baby Vivian's Story





This is Dan. I've decided to document our little Vivian's birth story, mostly because I think Lindsey was so delirious with pain and suffering during the whole thing that I don't think she can remember it properly. Also, because I was so traumatized by the whole experience it is engrained in my memory like writing on a stone wall. So anyways, here it goes...

Thursday, November 1st was an exhausting morning for both of us. Lindsey and I both spent the night before chasing Max up and down the Arkansas hills as he went door-to-door trick-or-treating for Halloween. Additionally, I was on night call at the hospital, so essentially, I worked overnight without any sleep until 7 AM. After coming home from the hospital that morning, Lindsey told me that she had been having more contractions early that morning, but that they were irregular and not too painful. No big deal, I thought, as she had been having these now for 2 months and they typically would go away after a few hours. Both of us weren’t thinking it was the real deal. Lindsey wasn’t due for another week and a half, so we thought it was just Braxton Hicks. We decided I would  try and get some sleep, and that she could wake me up in a few hours if they hadn’t resolved. Well, wake me up she did…around noon, telling me that the contractions were getting a little more regular.

We spoke for a bit and decided we should probably start making preparations to go into the hospital just in case things progressed. But we goofed around for another couple hours, gathering Max’s clothes for the babysitter and just kinda hangin' out. Finally, around 2:30, contractions were getting a little more intense and we knew it was time to head to the hospital. We dropped Max off at a sitter. Every stop and bump on the road would make Lindsey’s contractions worse and she was constantly saying, “Slow down! Go over that bump slowly!” I basically had to park the car on the side of the road every time she had a contraction. On the way to the hospital, Lindsey wanted to stop and get some food since she knew she wouldn’t be able to eat once she checked in to labor and delivery. We stopped at Wendy’s and she hooked herself up with a burger, fries, and frosty. We continued on to the hospital, Lindsey was contracting and chowing down on a hamburger. By the time we pulled into the UAMS hospital lot, her contractions were hurting so badly she couldn’t finish her food. 



We checked ourselves into the Labor and Delivery triage around 3:00 p.m. (This was our 3rd time here, and at that point we were pretty much accustomed to getting stuck in a room and just waiting around until they told us it wasn’t time yet.) Anyways, in triage we sat around while Lindsey was strapped up to the tocometer and heart rate monitor. Things were looking fine. Lindsey was having a few contractions on the monitor, but they were not very regular or frequent, and didn’t appear to be very strong.


We sat around there for about an hour and finally one of the resident doctors came in. Assessing the whole situation visually, she didn’t seem too impressed. She told us that they were completely full that day, no beds, and that it might be better for us to just go home and wait things out for a while and come back if things changed. But when the doctor checked her cervix, she was at 6 cm, and 75% effaced. “You guys aren’t going anywhere, baby is coming today,” she said.



She told us to hang out for a while and wait until a room became available. Apparently all the anesthesiologists were in the OR and they would come see Lindsey about an epidural when they had time. When a room finally became available, they walked us from triage to the delivery room (yes, Lindsey was still walking at this point).



As soon as we got to our room, the proverbial crap hit the proverbial fan. We were placed in the delivery room around 4:00 p.m. Before even getting into bed, Lindsey decided she needed to go to the restroom. I helped her into the bathroom and left her alone. By now, contractions were extremely intense and she was hunched over in pain. I started freaking out. I thought she was dying right there in the bathroom. As she gripped the bathroom handrail and tried to contain her pain, I could tell that things were getting serious. She moaned and groaned and held her abdomen as she walked towards the delivery bed. I told her to get into the bed. She tried. But as she got to the side of the bed, she stopped, hunched over, hands grasping the side of the bed and said, “this baby is coming right now!” I really started to freak. There was no one in the room at this point besides the nurse and I. I was sure not going to be delivering this baby. I pictured Linds squeezing this kid out onto the floor. Panic gripped me. I kindly prodded her to get into bed. She said she was in too much pain and that she couldn’t move. Umm, no, I thought. I considered just picking her up and throwing her into bed, but figured Lindsey would not appreciate this. I finally got her to get into bed in-between contractions. Relief.

Just as Lindsey got into the bed the doctor finally came into our room. Lindsey was in a lot of pain and ready to push the baby out, but the Doc told Lindsey to just hold on until she got gowned up. Lindsey got positioned and I could see baby’s head. Freaking again. I grabbed a leg, the nurse grabbed the other. Finally the rest of the team found their way to our room (chief resident, pediatrics team, etc.). Obviously, at this point there would be no anesthesia, Linds didn’t even have an IV yet. After two pushes, baby’s head was almost completely out, but appeared to be a little stuck. I really thought something was wrong at this point. I actually did think Lindsey might die based on how much pain she was in. She told me there was no way she could do it, and I believed her. She kept yelling, “get this baby out.” I felt like I was in some Sci-Fi alien film. I encouraged her and told her she could do it (although secretly I didn’t know if she could). Then after some manipulation by the Doc and one more push, baby was out at 4:18 p.m. Everything was looking great. Baby was healthy and crying. Apgars 9 and 9. I think from the time we left triage and got into our room until baby finally came out, it was probably not more than 15 minutes. It was nuts.








In the end, we spent 2 nights in the hospital. Lindsey was, understandably, in a decent amount of pain and pretty worn out. We stressed out the entire 2 days about choosing a name. We had so many mixed feelings. We almost flipped a coin between Lilian and Vivian. I was really close to just going with Lilian (everyone seemed to love it) but we just felt like Vivian fit our little girl better. So Vivian it was. Beautiful little girl, amazingly strong and wonderful wife…things were good. Came home after 2 nights and that was that.

In conclusion, I just got to give a shout out to Lindsey being so completely awesome. I’m pretty sure I’ve never had to go through anything like that before, and hope I never will. Thanks for our darling little Vivi, babe!







 

Sunday, October 28, 2012

October Activities

Since Halloween is one of my favorite holidays, we have packed this month full of fun activities.  It has also helped to make this last month of pregnancy fly by, sort of. Why does the last month of pregnancy always feel like the longest month of your life?  Last weekend we went to the Boo at the Zoo and the pumpkin patch.  This weekend we went to the ward trunk-or-treat activity.

Max at the Boo at the Zoo

There was a dance floor with music for the kids to run around on.  It was Max's favorite part of the Boo at the Zoo.  He danced his heart out for hours.

He was enthralled with the strobe light on the ceiling.


Max at the pumpkin patch.







Ward trunk-or-treat activity.  Dan and Max were doctors....

..... and I was their patient.  Don't mind my sexy swollen self at 38 weeks pregnant.

After Halloween on Wednesday, this baby girl is more than welcome to make her big debut!  We had better agree on a name soon, because ready or not, she will be here next month.

Friday, October 12, 2012

Happy October

Yeah it's October!  Fall is one of my favorite seasons because with fall brings cooler weather, Halloween, Thanksgiving, and then Christmas is right around the corner.  I love celebrating holidays! Halloween decorations are up at our house.  Every time I see them it makes me smile.  We can't wait to take Max trick-or-treating this year.


Max  will be two next month, and this is honestly one of my very favorite stages.  He is almost always happy and chatters away most the day.  He is obsessed with planets, and knows all of them by name.  A big part of our day consists of drawing planets with crayons and talking about them.  He also loves watching YouTube videos about planets.  Since being on bedrest, I hate to admit how much we watch videos during the day.  He won't watch cartoon planet shows, he wants to watch educational videos about them. He has really learned a lot from these videos and surprises me when he says things like, "Jupiter's the big one", and "Mars is red. " A couple weeks ago, we got 5 different sized pumpkins to decorate with, and Max has named them all planet names.  The two large pumpkins are Jupiter and Neptune, and the smaller ones are Mars, Earth, and Venus (or sometimes Mercury.)  These planet named pumpkins are the first thing he asks for when he wakes up from a nap or in the morning.  It cracks me up!

About three weeks ago, Max learned all of his colors.  He went from calling most colors "blue", to one day getting every color right every time.  He loves to be chased and tickled, especially by daddy, and is always requesting that we, "Get tosies" (which means tickle his feet).  Every night before he goes to bed he wants to go outside and say, "Night night moon."  Dan takes him outside and they walk around looking for the moon to tell it goodnight.

Max is such a great sleeper.  That boy seriously loves his sleep.  When 11:30-12 in the afternoon comes around he asks to go, "Night night" and practically puts himself to bed.  He never puts up a fuss when it's bedtime.  I feel very lucky we don't have to battle going to bed.  However, we do have to battle getting him to eat.  He is a very picky eater and won't eat much most days. His favorite food is yogurt and he would eat it for every meal if we let him.  He asks for, "Peach yoyo" all the time, (peach yogurt.) I get very frustrated trying to think of what to make him for meals because most the time he won't eat anything I give him.  I am hoping this is just a stage that he will grow out of soon.









This pregnancy has definitely taken its toll on my body.  Thank goodness I am almost 36 weeks and almost done.  It's not been as smooth as my pregnancy with Max.  I had a subchorionic hemorrhage that has caused some pre-term labor issues.  At 31 weeks I lost my mucous plug/had my bloody show, had lots of unexplained bleeding, a couple trips to the ER, was dilated to a 2 and 75% effaced, and the baby's head was engaged.  My doctor thought I wouldn't make it to 34-35 weeks.  After many prayers, bedrest, the amazing support and help from friends, here I am miraculously still pregnant and bigger than ever.  Max now refers to me as "Big Mama".  This is completely unprompted.  Awesome.

Dan is extremely busy with his job, and I am wondering what made us crazy enough to have a newborn in his first year of residency.  Despite a few challenges, life is great and we can not wait to meet our baby girl soon.