Memorial Day Weekend

WOWZERS!!! I can't believe it has been so long since I posted last.  I know I keep trying to do better, but life...

So, this past weekend was Memorial day weekend.  It was a little crazy.  Friday night we sold "Hulk Smash," which was a bittersweet moment for Brian and the kids.  Saturday, we shopped for a car for almost 10 hours, and didn't buy a single thing.  The kids really did quite well, but they were going crazy!  Bri and I were super grateful when Grandma Debby and Grandpa Steve volunteered to stay with the kids while we shopped for a couple more hours.  

Sunday, we went to church and just recovered from spending the whole day looking for cars.  Monday is when the fun began.  We found the car to buy that morning, thanks to Neeners and Grandpa Garry for helping with the kiddos.  We ended up buying another Honda, but the CR-V this time.  We are very happy with our new car.

After, we thought we would try it out and go for a hike up Big Cottonwood Canyon.  We had a great little adventure with the family hiking around Silver Lake.

Rock Wall Climbing

Brian and I, have talked in the past that we want to try rock wall climbing with the kids.  Neither of us have ever done it, so we thought we might try it out as a family.  We did just that on President's Day.  The kids immediately loved it.  They had some much fun trying to the climb the walls and they couldn't wait for Bri and I to belay them.  Bri and I learned how to belay and everyone tried climbing.  I have to say that it makes me a little nervous and I have a hard time climbing to high.  I get really hot, and my palms sweat and it just freak out.  But I had a great time just like Colin, Audra and Brian did.  I look forward to going at it again in the future.

Traveling the World

Back in November, Bri came home from work and stated that he wanted to do more with our kids.  (Oh, dear! Was my thought.)  He said he wanted to teach them something two nights a week and he wasn't sure what or how, that was my job! (Great! More stress!)  Well, after a few days he stated he wanted to teach the kids about the different countries in the world one night a week and then work on writing another night of the week.  I told him he was going to have to share the burden of teaching.  One week I would teach the country info and that week he would teach the writing, with the next week flipping the responsibilities.
So, off on this adventure we started.  I told him I would teach the first country and I thought it should be the USA, so they have a basic knowledge.  Then I issued the kids "passports."  And we bought a nice big map of the world.  The kids really got excited about this.  Bri and I decided we would try to make food that was like the food in each country and teach the kids some neat facts.  Sometimes, if we are on top of the game we even plan an activity.  I have to say we actually have had a lot of fun with this.  The kids love the learning and ask "where are we going?"
So, this past week went went to Saudi Arabia.  I had a hard time coming up with an activity, but I wanted the kids to understand how important the Muslim religion is in the country.  So, I had each family member put similar head wear on, so that when the kids see people in the USA with this head wear they will accept them.   (PLEASE, do not take this as mockery or unkind, I am trying to teach my kiddos acceptance.)

Over all, this idea Bri had has been fabulous.  When the kids see or hear things that we have learned about they get excited.  One day, the hope is we will really be able to travel the world together.

Life is Messy

As a mom, there are times the kids ask to do something, and I immediately say "no."  This reason is one that is simple, because I know whatever they want to do is going to be messy.  "Mom, can we paint?"  "Mom, can we cut?" (This one usually turns into confetti sized paper all over.)  And instead of letting them, I say no because I don't want the mess.  Well, last week Audra started asking if she could paint my toenails.  Well, I said no about 3 times over a span of a few days.  Well, she asked again (that little girl is persistent), this time I said "yes."  Knowing it was going to be messy.  So, she picked out 2 colors for me to pick from.  I picked and she got to work.  She painted and tried her best.  My toes ended up having a lot of purple paint on them, but that is ok, because I learned a BIG lesson.  Sometimes, life is messy but we need to make messes for fun, for learning, for life.  So, while I am not saying I will always say yes.  I am saying I am hoping to do better to let the kids make messes.
 

Elyse's Newborn Pictures

As we have done with the other kids, here are the newborn pictures of Elyse.  We just got them back from the photographer.

The Next 6 Days...

After Elyse was born, we were told that she was a little on the light side and so they would need to check her blood sugar to make sure she didn't have any problems.  Elyse and I were taken up to my room and life with a newborn preceded as expected.  The nurse came in to take Elyse to the nursery, so they could perform the newborn assessment and test her blood sugar.  Shortly after this, Grandpa Garry brought our kids up to see the new baby.  Brian went to the nursery and got Elyse, he found out her blood sugar was as low as it could be and still pass, 45.  They informed him that they would check it again later.  The kids were in heaven, Colin was only bummed for a minute when he found out it was a girl, after that he didn't want to give her up so Audra could hold her.  My kids stayed for a little while and then Brian took them home so I could rest, since I had been up all night.
After resting for a bit it was time to test her sugar and it came back in the low fifties.  I felt like life was perfect!  My family was complete and I had a beautiful new baby girl.  At this point, some friends and family came to the hospital to meet Elyse and visit.  By this time we were in early evening and it was time to test Ely's blood sugar again, this time she didn't pass.  So the nurses told me we needed to nurse her again, I did so and it was still low.  At this point, they said we needed to give her a little formula, so we did while she nursed.  I was still just so pleased with everything.  At this point, the nurse came in a said it was time to test again.  I told her that I was going to take a shower and then I would pick Elyse up from the nursery.  When I got out of the shower, the nursery nurse was in my room.  She told me that Elyse was now in the critical range and that Elyse was being taken downstairs to the Newborn Intensive Care Unit (NICU).  I was told that I could not go down with her that I had to wait an hour and then I could go down.  I asked if I could be with Elyse until they take her down and they said yes.  Just as I was walking to the nursery, they were wheeling my daughter away.  I gave her a kiss and told her that I loved her.  I then walked back to my room in tears.  I called Brian and told him what was going on it was just after 9 PM.
After, an hour passed the Nurse Practitioner (PRN) called me and told me that most babies this small just need help for 2-3 days and then she would be out of the NICU and could go home.  I was then told I could go to the NICU.  When I got there they were still working on getting blood and getting her situated.  I sat in a wheel chair, dazed.  I wondered how this could be happening, she is a full term baby and I had a healthy pregnancy.  The nurse told me that they were giving her Dextrose 10.2ml/hr through her IV and that she probably wouldn't be hungry and that I should sleep.  I told her that I wanted to hold my daughter for a little bit and then I would go back to my room to sleep.  She promised she would call me when Elyse woke up so I could feed her.  After feeding Elyse, they told me that they expected the doctor to round about 11 AM, if I wanted to be there for that I would need back.
Brian came back to the hospital and we went down to see Elyse, at this point they had found out she had jaundice and had her under bili-lights.  We couldn't hold her, just sit next to her and touch the one foot without a needle in it.  This was super hard on all of us.  The kids couldn't understand why mom and Ely weren't coming home.  Brian and I couldn't figure out what went wrong with our baby.  The doctors then told us that Elyse could be in the NICU any where from 2-7 days.  The earliest discharge day at that point was probably Monday.  At this point I was bawling, Brian took me back to my room and told me to sleep.
The next few days were a blur.  My life was pretty much feed Elyse, go back to my room and pump, eat and try and sleep for an hour or so because we were on a strict 3 hour feed schedule.  They started to wean her but when she had a bad number the dextrose was bummed back up.  Her heels looked like hamburger from being poked every 3 hours.  At some point they gave her a bili-blanket so we could at least hold her.  Monday came and went, without her blood sugar stabilizing.  They decided to check for hormonal issues at this point.  However, during all this heartache, the maternity ward receptionist was making bows and hats, so I bought the little owl hat for $5, and it made a rough day better.  Tuesday arrived and they lowered her Dextrose to 1ml/hr and the hormonal tests came back negative.  She had a good day and it looked like we would be going home very soon.  Wednesday at 2:30 AM Elyse was taken off the Dextrose.  I was so excited, she now had to maintain 24 hours of good blood sugars then she could go home.  We were told that a discharge on Thursday looked very good.  Well, late in the afternoon on Wednesday she had a low blood sugar and we were told earliest discharge was going to be Friday now.  They decided that Elyse needed more calories so they were going to add Nutramigen to my pumped breast milk and she would have to have a bottle every other feed.  When Brian got to the hospital that day, I started crying and couldn't stop.  He told me that it was time to come home.  I could come back and be with Elyse all day tomorrow if I wanted but he wanted me to come home and sleep.  So, that evening I made the hardest decision I ever had to and I kissed my baby and left the hospital.  I slept most the night only waking once to pump.  I got up early and was at the hospital for her early morning feeding Thursday.  I found out at this point that Elyse had great numbers all night.  Brian and I tried to be back for the rounds at 11 AM, but we missed them.  However, the PRN was still in Elyse's room.  She told us that they had still had great numbers and that if she had 2 more good numbers she could go home that night.  Well, Elyse rocked the last 2 numbers and they finally discharged her on Thursday evening, with the understanding that she had to be feed every 3 hours and with a fortified bottle every other feed.  Aside for her being born, it was the best news of the year.  I was thrilled that we finally got to bring her home.  Except it was just me that brought her home, as Bri was with our older kids.  I also just brought her home in PJ's because I didn't want to jinx going home by bringing in an outfit. Needless to say, this was not the week I had envisioned for our family, but Miss Elyse is now healthy and home, I couldn't ask for better news.  I have to say that the staff did an great job and without them it would have been an awful experience.
These are some of the pictures taken in the NICU over the 6 day stay:

A Birth Story

I awoke at 11:50 Thursday night to contractions, this was not a new thing in fact it had happened several times.  I decided to take a shower to see if I could relax and get them to go away if they were false labor.  Well, after the shower I was still contracting so I went downstairs to sit on my birth ball.  At this point, I decided I had better start timing the contractions to see where we were, because I really didn't want to birth a baby on the side of the road.  When the contractions were about 5 minutes apart I went upstairs and told Bri, "I think I am in labor."  I told him I was going to lay down to see if I could sleep through them for a bit.  Well, that didn't last long because I could not relax enough to sleep.  Brian, got up and started to finish packing my bag with my tooth brush and things you can't pack until last minute.

I got up to go to the bathroom.  While I was on the toilet I had a MAJOR contraction and told Brian he better call Garry.  (Garry was coming to stay with our 2 big kids.)  At this point it was 2 in the morning, and I was wondering if I would be able to get off the toilet.  I did indeed make it off the toilet and I got some clothes on and got ready to go to the hospital in between the contractions.  Garry arrived and we head for the hospital about 2:30 in the morning.  I was admitted to Labor and Delivery.  The nurse put the monitoring system on, but it was not reading my contractions.  I begged her not to send me home.  She assured me that I was in fact having contractions, but the machine was not picking them up.  At this point she checked me I was 4 cm and 70% effaced.  By now the contractions were very strong and I was having a hard time finding my happy place (remember I wanted to go unmedicated).  After, having a hard time breathing through some contractions, the nurse was concerned I was going to hyperventilate, I begged for an epidural.  I decided it was better to enjoy the birth experience then prove a point.  

The anesthesiologist came in and was slow getting my epidural.  It was hard to hold the position and go through the contractions.  I yelled at one point "just give me the drugs, it hurts."  The anesthesiologist then told me that the contractions were coming hard and fast.  By the time this was over it was getting close to 4 AM.  Dr. Brown, my OB, was on-call.  She came in to say hi and break my water.  But as she was getting ready to do so, she said "there is nothing to break, I feel hair."  So we are not sure exactly when my water broke, but it did naturally at some point.  She also told me I was about 7 cm and 100% effaced.  I asked Dr. Brown how long she was at the hospital and she said until 7 AM.  But she then assured me that we would have a baby before then.  

As I labored, I did so much more comfortably.  As we got close to 5 AM I kept telling the nurse that there was a spot that really hurt.  It was up by my ribs.  She told me to hit my medication button for another dose to help.  I hit it and waited, but the discomfort didn't change.  The nurse said "I know we just checked you but some times pain in other areas means it's baby time."  She checked and sure enough I was 10 cm.  She went and got Dr. Brown and at 5 AM, it was show time.  I pushed about 3 times, and out came the baby.  

Brian announced for all in the room "It's a girl!"  Elyse Marie Hansen was born September 20, 2013 at 5:07 AM.  She weighed 6 pounds 7 ounces and was 19.5 inches long.  She had a head of hair so all my heartburn paid off!

Just Because

This picture was taken at Jen and Josh's wedding on September 1, 2013.  My mom asked Garry to take a photo because it would be the last time I was all dressed up this pregnant.  Bri then posed all on his own accord with me.  It has become one of my most favorite photo of the two of us.  So, I thought I would put it on the blog just because of that reason.  

Antelope Stampede

This past Saturday, Brian found out that the Antelope Stampede, on Antelope Island was taking place (aka the Hot Air Balloon and Kite Festival).  We thought it would be fun to take the kids up and participate in the activities since it has been so long since we had been.  It was such a great time the kids had so much fun.  They played on the inflatables, they got their faces painted, they made kites, ran around and got VERY dirty.  We also watched the professional kite fliers and BMXers for a little bit.  Our treat for the day was a very yummy snow cone.  The one bummer for the day was that the hot air balloons couldn't take off, it was too windy.  But that just means we will have to try again another year.

On the way off the island we were lucky enough to see this beautiful sunset.  Somehow, these pictures just don't do it justice.

Just a Few Photos

Here are just some random photos that make me smile:

Colin's second day of school, waiting for the bus to take him.

Today, college football season opener.  Any questions about who we cheer for???

Last weekend at Jungle Jim's.  I just love Lynnie's, happy to be the passenger look.

Last week, 35 weeks pregnant and NO pre-eclampsia!!!  Into the final count down.