Maren

At almost 11 months, Maren is such a JOY! I can’t believe she was born almost a year ago. She is such a happy and pleasant baby especially when she has eaten and slept (she takes after her mom when it comes to hunger grumpiness). She is about 18 lbs but just seems to be such a petite thing especially compared to her friends and cousins who are of similar age. She has two bottom teeth which she got right before she turned 9 months but she still hasn’t gotten any more. We are hoping that more come soon. I am advancing her diet probably a little too quickly but she is managing very well with those gums.

Maren started showing interest in crawling around 7 months and then started to get a hang of it in her 8th month. She quickly started standing soon thereafter so we thought she’d be walking rather quickly but she has been content with taking her time. She has started taking steps and has taken around 8 or so in a row. We sometimes try to encourage her but she typically won’t do it when we want her to. In fact when we try to make her stand up and get her balance so we can get her to take steps, she will completely lean on us and not let go unless she has a really good distraction in front of her. She just walks when she wants too which is random. I often will walk into a room and there she is taking some steps. There is no rhyme or reason, at least to me.

Maren started rejecting baby foods earlier than I had expected. Because of that I started with table foods much earlier than I had planned to. I love that we can give her most anything we eat. She is not too picky but she has her moments. Many times while we are trying to feed her, she will turn her head defiantly. If we wait a few seconds more, she’ll come back and eat the bite. She typically eats regular oatmeal for breakfast (she loves it), sometimes with fruit but then usually eats whatever we are eating for other meals/snacks. I still breastfeed her morning and night and will sometimes give her an additional bottle of formula when she is cranky and food isn’t cutting it. However, she drinks water out of a sippy cup for meals. I’m looking forward to cow’s milk and will probably break down and do it sooner than 12 months (since she already eats other milk products with no problems).

Maren has started showing quite a bit of independence. The feeding story above as well as walking when she wants to are some examples. It is hard for me to let go and let her do things herself sometimes but I’m working on it and it makes us all much happier.

Her personality is really starting to shine. The last month especially I have really started to love her progress and development and have a lot of fun with her. She loves to play chase with James and will crawl after him all around the house. You can also get some pretty awesome laughs out of her as she is very ticklish. She has started the “drop and pick-up” game and loves to do it with balls, her pacifier, and her sippy cup when she’s in her high chair. She is pretty good to entertain herself for awhile but likes to be in the same room as others. When James and Ember are playing with blocks, trains, etc., she likes to be right there with them (which is a struggle for James when she wants THE tower James is working on, for example). She has also started liking peek-a-boo more and it is fun to play that with her as well. She also loves to sit on my lap and play the piano. She will even crawl over and play it while standing right next to it though it isn’t as fun. She is also learning to love the outdoors as much as her brother which is great. She will get right in the dirt/grass/ leaves. Unfortunately, she is also attracted to rocks which typically end up in her mouth. It’s a good thing we aren’t afraid to get dirty! She loves toilets unfortunately especially after she has flushed them! We are reminded of the time when bathroom doors must remain closed at all times!

She is pretty good to let most anybody hold her but most prefers her mom especially when she is tired. The last few months she has become more of a snuggler which I love! She loves her brother and nobody can make her laugh quite like he can. She will let him wrestle with her to a degree which is quite impressive to me. She can take quite a bit of roughness. She doesn’t like being thrown up high in the air like James did as a baby but she does like it when it isn’t too high. She loves to dance when we freeze dance and especially likes to twirl. When it comes to sleeping, she is great and almost always sleeps through the night and has since about 6 months when we did sleep training. She prefers to go to sleep on her own and preferably in her own bed rather than be rocked.

She doesn’t say any words yet but does babble quite a bit. I have started signing with her and she has started doing “all done” even though it isn’t in the right context but it’s a start. She also loves to clap her hands and does a certain voice when we say “yay!”.

Stories:
-One afternoon both Maren and James had woken up from naps around the same time. James had gotten out of his crib and was playing with Maren while she was in her pack and play. It was fun to hear the squeals of laughter from both of them.
-I had put Maren in her high chair with some food and then ran to the bathroom. Right before I turned the corner back into the kitchen I heard a thump. She had wiggled out and fallen and hit her head (although I didn’t see the fall or hit). 10 minutes or so later she vomited everything she had eaten that morning. I started to panic a little bit and grabbed a pen light to check pupils. They reacted fine and she acted fine as well. She was able to eat breakfast and keep it down and then played just as normal. She also got a good goose egg out of it. It sure had me nervous. Needless to say, she is always strapped into her high chair now.
-We have a little walker toy we borrowed from a cousin. It goes forward fine but is kind of hard to turn. She gets so frustrated when she hits an obstacle and can’t move it. I just bought another walker toy at a yard sale for 25cents which is much better and she is starting to catch on quickly that she can move it on her own.
-We have a little push bike that is a hand-me-down from Pierce. Just this past week we put her on it and she loved it! She especially enjoyed riding on it with James. They both think it is pretty fun.

We sure love our girl!
Crawling around while putting the Christmas tree up.

James

As I haven't journaled hardly at all recently, I thought I ought to do some catch up. I started by writing down some things about James:

At 2 years and 7 months, James is an energetic boy. He loves tractors, fire engines, ambulances, police cars, and trucks and will usually be the first one to notice them while driving. He especially likes to see them when they have their lights on or when they are working. When playing with cars/vehicles/etc. he loves to make noises that go along with them. He also loves to dig in the dirt and use his dump truck to carry the dirt elsewhere.

James is very active. He loves to jump or “bounce” especially on the bed or couch. He likes to jump from high places and likes people to watch him as he accomplishes this task (as well as many other tasks). He likes to run fast as well as do somersaults and other climbing/tumbling. On the bed he enjoys doing “bums” and “divebombs” as have been named by his dad. He loves to freeze dance and has a “freeze position” that he gets into after the music has stopped. He likes to play the letter game (identifying letters on the boggle game), play memory (which mainly consists of finding matches vs. turning them over and remembering), build forts (which means mom or dad build it and James destroys it after playing in it for a few minutes), and wrestle (especially with dad). He usually likes to be tickled and wants to do it “aden” and “aden” (again).

Some FHE games we have played recently which he wants to do all the time are “Go and get the plates” where we hide the ‘plates’ (a piece of candy) and he has to go and get them. We also play “Let your light so shine”. It is hide and seek with a flashlight and the finders tell the hiders to let their light shine when they need help finding them.

He can identify numbers 1-9 but confuses 10, 11, and 12. He can count to 10 but lately has been skipping from 2 to 7 and drops 3-6. If you make him go slowly, he can do it correctly. He can also identify most of his uppercase letters. He has started singing more and his typical repertoire include ABC’s, Eensy Weensy Spider, I am a Child of God, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, Book of Mormon Stories, Snowman (as well as the baby song), and Give Said the Little Stream.

He likes to snuggle and will even give hugs and kisses without being asked. He loves cereal and would eat it all day if you would let him. He loves to work outside along side his dad and wants to do what he is doing as well as use the tool he is using.
We love James’ facial expressions. One of our favorites, besides his outright smile is his “trying not to smile” face. He is a little bit of a weirdo but he doesn’t have much choice in that matter when he’s got us for parents! He likes to be covered with blankets before he goes to bed and loves to chew on the corners of his 2 favorite blankets.

He is showing a little more independence but still lets us do things for him. When he gets in trouble or isn’t happy and we make him go to his room, he soon stops crying and says “I’m happy now”. He loves to please and likes to tell us “I did it mom/dad!”

He has been good and bad moments with sharing these days. Sometimes he is great and will share lots of things with Ember Florie (a girl I watch) and Maren. Then other times, I can’t get him to share a thing. Now that Maren is getting older and getting into things, she will frequently grab toys that James wants to be playing with and James will grab them away from her. We are working on trading as well as finding other toys that Maren would like to play with.

Some fun stories:
The past week he has been waking up about 5am and coming into bed with me (phil has already left for the hospital). I have let him come to bed with me as long as he doesn’t make much noise and lies still (even though this rarely happens). When he comes in and I don’t move, he will come up on the bed, lay is head on top of mine and say “Hi mom”. Sometimes while lying “still” he will break out in a whispered song. One morning when he came in, I asked him “What are you doing up so early?” He answered very excitedly, “Eat cereal!” (we had not had cereal for a few days and I had bought some the day before and told him he had to wait until the morning).
Maren has started taking a few steps which gets Phil and I excited. We keep trying to get her to take more and are really encouraging to her. James has wanted to “take steps” too so he will stand a few feet away from us and pretend to be struggling to take steps and then makes it to us and we follow it with praises. He loves it.

Loving his sister (November 2011)
Riding Grandma and Grandpa's motorcycle with Dad (November 2011)

Sick kids

I have had some poor sick kids this past week! Both Maren and James broke out with a fever last week but seemed generally okay otherwise (both were happy and playful). When I went in for Maren's 6 month check up a few days later, the doctor informed me that she had a double ear infection. I felt like an idiot. She had shown me no signs of an ear infection. James then developed a yucky cough and became quite lethargic just wanting to be held all the time. I finally broke down and took him in to the doctor for a check up on day 5 with his fever and the doctor just thought it was viral. Maren just developed the cough but has been acting great. So it is just waiting it out. James has improved immensely the past couple days but still needs some extra loving. I have savored the time that I have been able to snuggle with James. It isn't too often that he just wants me to hold him for no reason and for a long period of time. However, I'm definitely ready for him to be his energetic self! I sure hope this cough clears up soon! Sickness sure helps you appreciate healthy bodies, doesn't it?

On another note, this weekend my friend Megan got married! It was a beautiful ceremony and fun to be a part of the festivities. This is a picture of Amanda, Megan and I with Amanda and I holding my passed out children. They were wasted because of sickness! Congrats to the newly weds!

Fathers and Sons

Last weekend it was our ward's father's and son's campout. Phil decided to go a week before. I appreciated him taking time out to spend with James. He has been studying nonstop for his first set of boards next month. It has been a worse schedule than when he was actually in class! But a week before the campout Phil informed me that he was going to go which surprised me. It would take out a whole day of studying. He then told me that he didn't want to ever be "too busy" to do things like this. Quite impressive to me.

They had a good time and James loved to be outside to play in the dirt, with sticks, etc. Phil also took 2 boys from our ward so they kept James entertained on the drive to and from the campout. Phil decided to sleep in the car with James while the 2 boys slept in our tent. They didn't get to bed until at least 10pm and then James was up at 5am. So needless to say, James was one tired boy when he got home...his dad was also! I guess Phil decided to just sleep in the same sleeping bag half way through the night so it wasn't the most restful sleep!

I was a little lonely on Friday night but Saturday was able to do some major cleaning. It is amazing what you can get done when you don't have a toddler at your side or needing your attention!

That night we went to a East Valley Mormon Choir Orchestra (EVMCO) concert to see our family participate (Steve, Louise, Shay, and Derek). The concert featured Collin Raye

and was absolutely amazing. It had patriotic songs (some of my favorite) and the evening was a wonderful. My awesome sister put up with grumpy and tired James as well as Maren while we were gone and luckily James crashed for her at an early bedtime. It was a great weekend!

Updating the undocumented

Here are a few happenings that I never got around to documenting.

One of our friends came over for Valentine's day and we decided to do some fingerpainting for the dads. James and his friend Rachel had the time of their lives. It was funny to watch James figure out what he was supposed to do. As you can see, most of the paint just ended up on him. The picture on top was the running around game post painting.

Just getting into things. I love to watch him explore and figure things out...even if that means picking up a mess afterwards (at least most of the time).

James' first introduction to the wii. He loved watching. After watching baseball he started to act like he was batting and throwing. In this particular picture, it shows how much his dad enjoyed it as well. Talk about focus!

In January, we started having problems with our Malibu...well, more problems. The mechanic couldn't figure out what was going on except by pulling the engine apart. We finally decided we had had it with car problems and started looking for another. What to look for became the question. We wanted to get a car that would last us at least through residency which could be as long as 8 years down the road. And at that point, we didn't know where our family would be so we decided to upgrade in size. It took a lot humility but we decided on a Toyota Sienna minivan. Phil and I are neither minivan people but we can now say that we LOVE it. It is a 2006 and we got it from a family in Gilbert who took great care of it. It is so nice to finally have a reliable car.

James loves to "work". Whatever you are doing, he wants to do too (especially with his dad). In fact, this is how Phil watches James. He just goes outside to work on a project and James wants to be in on the action. Many times, James will watch what you are doing (for example, digging) and then come and want your shovel so he can do it. Phil will generally give him his tool and then find something else he can use or get another tool to work on something else. What a great helper! He is helping his dad dig out a big concrete mass out of the ground.

There have are some mornings when Phil will get up work on things and I will continue to try to catch some sleep. He will sometimes take Maren out of the room so I can get some really restful sleep. One morning when I came out, this was what I found.

I tried to take a quick shower and when I came out, this is what I found. We purposely don't have the toilet paper on our roller but keep it on the counter top so James doesn't play with it. Unfortunately, it wasn't far enough up. I think he was pretty proud of himself. I tried to get him to pose for the picture so I could get the decorations plus him. This was the best I could do.

Cousin John was born on April 1st, 17 days after Maren. It is fun to have them so close. John is 4 days old in the above picture and the bottom picture is on Mother's day when he was blessed.

Easter

Although Easter wasn't too eventful, we still had fun watching James experience it. We talked with James the morning about the true meaning of Easter and then later in the day we had dinner with my family and an egg hunt for James. He caught on quickly that you get the eggs and put them in your basket to be opened later instead of opening each one as you find it...although he took a few pit stops to get some candy. I'm sure we had more fun watching him than he did finding them...well, he may beg to differ. As soon as he collected all of them, he sat down and one by one, opened them up to gobble up the goods inside.

And he's off!

There is one this way!

Look dad!

"I needed to make sure there really were some goods in this one!"

The final loot

Not the most flattering picture but, I wanted at least one with both kids and they had had it. At least I just took one with both, right?

Maren's Birth Story

I finally finished it! It only took me about 6 weeks but it is done. Just a disclaimer, I do include details (it isn't that bad) but if any sort of details turn you off, just don't read it. It is also super long. I thought about editing a short version but I'm just glad I finished the long version and I'm too lazy to shorten it. So there you have it!

On Thursday, March 10th, I had an appointment with my OB (Dr. Kevin Lythgoe) for my 39 week progress. I had absolutely nothing going on. In our visit prior to checking me, he had mentioned about stripping my membranes. After my cervix check he mentioned how closed I was still. I was a little disappointed. I had really thought I would have made some progress as it seemed like the week before I had felt more movement in that area. Weeks previously I was having constant Braxton hicks and was even experiencing some random painful cramping but nothing too exciting.
On Sunday afternoon, March 13th, about 3:30pm I started to have a few painful cramps. We were headed out to Gilbert for dinner with family so I ran to the bathroom and lost my mucous plug. Even though that may not mean a whole lot, it meant that my cervix had to be softening up a bit or possibly even dilating so it got me a little excited. The rest of the evening I continued to have quite regular contractions but nothing too painful. By the time we got home around 8pm, they had picked up a little bit in intensity and were pretty regular, on average 8-10 minutes apart. I had the thought that something was going to happen that night. We made calls to family so they were prepared just in case we needed to call them in the middle of the night. Well, the night came and went. I had consistent contractions throughout the night but they weren’t necessarily regular. I would have some that were about 12 minutes apart and then right after some that were 3 minutes apart. I tried to sleep the best I could but they were strong enough that they’d wake me up if I did doze off. I did different things to try to endure them. I laid in the bathtub for about an hour hoping that would help relieve some of the pressure but that didn’t help much (why are standard size bathtubs not big enough to fit an adult lying down?...let alone a pregnant woman). Phil slept during the night which I’m glad he did. When he would wake up during the night, he’d ask how I was doing and then roll back over and go back to sleep. He needed the rest! In the morning when he woke up, it was a lot easier for me to bear the pains. I’m not sure why that is. Just having him there aware of what was going on and what I was feeling helped me out.
I tried to convince Phil that he should go to school and that I’d just let him know when I was ready to go to the hospital. He refused and it all worked out as I started to have contractions less than 5 minutes apart by about 7am on the 14th. We decided it would be best to go to the hospital. We called Sarah, my sister’s roommate to come watch James and my mom to meet us at the house so we could travel to the hospital together (she was coming to the delivery as well). After we checked in, I was taken back into OB triage and put on the fetal monitoring. My nurse then checked me. This was the moment that I was so nervous for! Would I be dilated? You’d think that someone who had been laboring all night would be disappointed being told that they were only dilated to a 2 ½ and about 40% effaced, but I was ecstatic! Both Phil and I even got a little emotional…I know, it may seem a little silly but we were on our way to having a vaginal delivery. The nurse even said when she checked me, “Oh, there is plenty of room in there for a head to fit through!” So that was encouraging as well. As excited as we were, a 2 ½ wasn’t good enough to buy us a ticket of admission so my nurse had me walk around the floor halls for an hour to which I progressed to about a 3 and was admitted by 11am. In my room I mainly used a rocking chair at first and enjoyed visiting with Phil and my mom. I started using some breathing techniques by this point to deal with the pain…mainly slow breathing in and out (which seemed to be my most used strategy during the majority of labor) which really helped. They placed an IV and took my blood to check my platelet count which I believe came back as 95 (which really surprised me since it was much higher than normal for me). It would totally depend upon the anesthesiologist’s comfort level of whether I’d be able to get an epidural though. They were able to hep-lock me so I wasn’t attached to an IV pole which was super nice.
My doctor came in around noonish and mentioned breaking my water to move things along. I wasn’t absolutely thrilled about the idea. However, I was really exhausted and the thoughts of being done sooner were very appealing to me. He said he would come back later and we’d discuss it then. Somewhere between 2-3pm, a resident came in and asked again about breaking my water. We decided to go ahead with it. Before she broke it, I had progressed to a 4, about 60% effaced, and baby was stationed at 0. It wasn’t overly encouraging but at least I had made progress and baby was doing wonderfully.
I didn’t notice an immediate change in my contractions. They were just about as painful as they were before. In fact, I’m not really even sure when they got to the “really painful” stage. They just did. After my water was broken, my nurse brought in a birthing ball for me to use and roll around on to encourage my pelvis to open a little more and for the baby to drop. She also mentioned that I could get in the shower to deal with the contractions if I so desired. I decided to start with the birthing ball and then later move on to the shower. While on the birthing ball, Phil helped me as much as he could. He would massage my back and hands/arms with lotion. There were times he would start to massage and for some reason, it didn’t feel good anymore so I’d gently pull his hand away. He tried getting me music to listen to which lasted only so long. By that point I was pretty wasted and the contractions were really getting to me. I had been quite positive throughout labor but as they started to get more intense and be intense for the whole contraction, I really got discouraged. I would tell myself, “I can’t do this. Yes, I can. No I can’t, but I can’t tell Phil because he’ll just tell me I can” etc. etc. My biggest problem was I was SO TIRED. I just wanted to sleep. In fact towards the end as I sat on the birthing ball and had my arms and head on my raised bed, I think I dozed off a little until the next nasty contraction hit. A little before 5pm (I think, as time just blurred together), I finally told Phil that I was really struggling and wasn’t sure if I could do it any longer. He gently asked me if I wanted to get an epidural (assuming I could depending upon my platelet count and the anesthesiologist) and I said yes. He then left the room to consult my nurse. When he returned, he said that my nurse would call the anesthesiologist to just come and talk with me. At this point, I was so tired I just wanted to lie down for a little bit to “rest”. I had been on the birthing ball for several hours and needed a break. I was lying on the bed for a few minutes or so when I had the urge to push. I didn’t want to say anything because I was afraid it was a false alarm and that I was getting my hopes up. I just tried to resist pushing (which is so stinkin’ hard to do…I finally understand). When I got the same urge the next contraction I told Phil and my mom who immediately went to tell the nurse (I don’t remember which one. I do remember seeing a look of surprise and a little concern when I told them though). The nurse came and checked me and I was almost a 9. She called the doctor and he said he’d be there in 10 minutes. Phil later told me he was nervous that if I wasn’t dilated very far, I would be super discouraged. He got emotional again at this point.
I had wanted to squat during delivery so my nurse set up the squat bar for me and I sat up in bed holding on to the bar. I said to my nurse, “I’m guessing you don’t want me to push?” at which she said yes. I then began to use some major breathing to stop from pushing. My doctor arrived, had me lie back so he could check me and moved the last little lip of my cervix from off the baby’s head. Since I was already in that position, I just decided to finish delivery that way instead of squatting up (something I slightly regret). They set up a mirror for me so I could see as baby emerged and within 4-5 contractions, baby’s head came out. When the rest of her was delivered, they immediately placed her on my tummy (one of my wishes) and began the delivery of the placenta (at which I still don’t remember when that happened). I loved that I got to hold her as long as I wanted. I had asked the nurse after I had her for awhile if they needed to take her. She told me only when I was ready which I greatly appreciated. Maren’s apgars were 8/9 and she looked great overall. She immediately defecated several times on me as well as urinated (what a welcome present!).
At this point, I thought I would be overcome with joy and emotion (aka: crying) but I wasn’t at all (my mom and phil took care of that detail for me!). In fact, I’m a little embarrassed to say that I was mostly relieved that it was “over” and surprised at how much pain I was still experiencing due to after pains (they had pitocin running as soon as she was delivered) and having to be sewn up. I had an interesting tear. My doctor said it was about a second degree laceration but instead of being a nice clean tear in one direction, it “exploded” (and yes, that was my doctor’s exact word). It took them a long time to get it all sewn and I was experiencing the shakes rather badly. There were a few times where I would feel them put in the stitch where the local anesthetic hadn’t reached which was rather unpleasant.
After the doctor finished, I tried to breastfeed Maren on one side and she did great. I didn’t do the other because she defecated again on me and we decided a shower would just be easier to get cleaned up (don’t you love that as soon as you “clean up” you are just as bloody as before?) Before moving to the postpartum floor, we got some good bonding time and I was able to eat some food (which was glorious…and not clear liquids might I add…real delicious fruit and yogurt).
Overall, it was a great experience. It was really hard. I think I’m safe to say that it was the hardest thing I’ve ever done. A few people have asked, since I have experienced both a cesarean section and vaginal birth, which was better? A c-section was easier (I didn’t progress that far and thus didn’t experience much really hard labor, transition, or pushing). Recovery is a different story to be saved for another day. But there is something empowering in doing something you really want to do that is really hard. Right after delivery, I thought I was crazy for wanting to do a natural birth and swore I’d never do it again if I could help it but time has passed, my memory is fading, and it doesn’t seem so bad now. I’m so grateful I was able to accomplish a VBAC and so grateful for a patient doctor who allowed me to try and succeed. I’m especially grateful Maren did so beautifully during delivery. She had absolutely no problems during labor and delivery. We love our baby girl!

One last belly picture the night before Maren was born

Our awesome medical team

Sweet McRae loving his new cousin

Little brother loving his sister