Monkey Number 3

Sorry, I have no pictures of her yet. But rest assured she is cute. There are some on my dad's blog.

Ella is doing well. The home health nurse said she has already gained 3 ounces, which is great for somebody her size. She certainly produces enough diapers to convince us that she is eating well. We wanted to do cloth diapers for her, but so far it has been quiet an adventure. We have not yet had a cloth diaper not leak on us, which is producing a tremendous amount of laundry. I am sure it is user error or a sizing problem. I'd really like to stick with it. Half of my motivation is my wallet, and the other half is the environment. The wallet is definitely the larger half though. And cloth diapers are much cuter. They have fun prints and nice colors. And they make her butt look 3 times bigger.

As for labor, this was my most exciting labor yet. Instead of starting out with contractions for a long time like the other two, it started with a cough. I coughed and I thought I peed my pants. But then it seemed like a little too much. So I woke Jeff up, read through the pregnancy book's description of water breaking, and still wasn't sure. But then I started to bleed a little, so I knew I needed to go in either way. All the way to the hospital I kept thinking about how embarrassed I would be if it really was just stress on my bladder. Turned out there was no need, I really had broken my water. So then came the horrible realization that I didn't get to go home - I had to have the baby in 12 hours or so.

I had stayed up late working on homework, and had just finished it before that fateful cough around midnight, so I was exhausted. And we had eaten a large late lunch, so I hadn't had any dinner and I was starving. I lay in the hospital bed and tried to get some rest. And I talked the nurse into bringing me some soda crackers and juice. The juice gave me heartburn. I was beginning to see that this labor might be even more unpleasant than the last...hmmm. Not a good sign.

I tried to catch some rest between contractions for hours, because they weren't very close together. We had my mom and Rachel, who were suppose to be labor coaches for me, stay home until things picked up. At about five in the morning I remember feeling like I just wanted to get up and do something. I was bored to tears, but I kept worrying about being tired. I told myself that I would just lay still for another half hour, and then I could get up. I never really got to get up again.

The nurse came in to fiddle with the monitors. She said that there had been some low heart rates registering, and that she thought because I had turned over that it might be picking up my heart rate instead. I told her I really needed to go to the bathroom. Alright, she said, just a minute to check things. I tried to relax. It was over an hour before I got to use the bathroom, and I was nearly frantic I had to go so bad. In the meantime, I knew something was horribly wrong when the nurse said "Here, I just need you to put this on for a minute," sliding an oxygen mask over my face. Jeff knew something was wrong too. He called my mom for her to come.

The doctor had been in and out since the nurse started really messing with the monitor. Finally he announced, in a voice that would have put me to sleep were I back in a math class, that there had been some "decells". The moral of the story was that the baby's heart rate was dropping precipitously during contractions, probably because the umbilical cord was getting squeezed somehow. Not good. Was I going to have to have a cesarean?

"I'd like to do a blah blah blah," the doctor announced. Apparently he was going to put a tube up into the uterus to add fluid to the amniotic sack in the hopes that it would relieve pressure on the umbilical cord. Since my water had broken, the decrease in fluids might be the cause of the problem. Oh, and while he was down there they were going to attach a monitor to the baby. No more getting up. You have got to be kidding me with how badly I had to go to the bathroom. I had been drinking water all night before this happened.

The extra water put an end to the decelerations in heart rate, so they let me continue to labor in bed. However my contractions were still far apart, and I was able to chat in between. After over an hour he came in and checked me a second time. My contractions were finally starting to really hurt. He announced that they were "ineffective" and that he wanted to start me on pitocin. If he had been standing any closer, and if I wasn't in the middle of a contraction, he might have gotten smacked. It's never a good thing to tell a woman in incredible pain that it has been useless. I guess being "stuck" at 8 cm is a crime when your baby has shown signs of distress. "No!" was all I managed to say. The doctor and nurse both looked a little stunned, but the doctor said he would come back and check in a half hour. He respectfully stayed away until I was ready to push, probably because they can see the results of the monitoring from the hallway.

I felt pretty peeved about being stuck in bed, feeling that this was the reason I wasn't progressing. Feeling that my only options were to do something or have pitocin, I got up on my knees in bed and leaned on the front of the bed while it was raised. I didn't want to ask permission because I didn't want to be told no. While they had told me I had to stay in bed, they hadn't specified laying down, so I decided to capitalize on the gap between what they had said and what I am sure they meant. Pretty soon the pain had tripled, but I was willing to do just about anything to be put on medication. I made it, and when I felt like I couldn't stand it anymore I announced to Jeff and my mom that "the baby can't come out this way". I laid back down and the doctor came in. He got yelled at for trying to check me, but in the end he said I was ready to push. I can't see how it was more painful than I remember with the other kids...I remember the head being the only hard part with them. Ella had shoulders to match her head. While I had done a good job keeping relatively calm until the end, I through in a good deal of yelling during pushing. I joked later that I realized that I was making it look too easy for Rachel, so I decided to scream some. She still says she might have kids someday. :>

My kids so far have been 6'7, 7'8, and now 8'7. So I guess it is logical after all that the pushing hurts more each time. At this rate (bigger by a pound each time), I am not sure I'd like to have anymore. We'll see.

So I was very blessed. Because of a great doctor and a lot of work on my part, I did not get wheeled into the OR. Looking back, I realized that is probably what the oxygen mask was in preparation for. But I made it. Now we are at home, trying to rest up (ha ha ha). I apparently pulled a stomach muscle lifting the older kids, so I have been having to be very careful. Ella is keeping us busy with almost constant diaper changes, three in the past half hour alone! And Ariana and Cyrus are getting used to their new baby sister. (Cyrus is not so sure about her - he doesn't dislike he, but he has certainly sensed a change in quality of life coinciding with her arrival that he is none too happy about!)

I hope to take some nice pictures of her soon, but it will have to wait until I am a little less tired. In the meantime, I can tell you she looks an awful lot like the little baby on the side of the Pampers' wipes box. Very cute. :)

Last Call for Name Suggestions

With only a week to go, I realized we have not heard any suggestions for names from anyone this time around. That's kind of surprising, so I thought I would go ahead and ask for some, just for fun. Please leave some suggestions as a comment to this post.

We are expecting a little girl, so what do you think a good name is? Serious and silly suggestions accepted! (but you should probably specify somehow which one it is, or I might mistake it for the other). You can suggest a single name or a first and middle pair, but keep in mind that our last name makes it hard not to form a bad word with the initials. :> Also, if you know what the meaning of a name is, that would be nice to add - Jeff loves names that mean nice things.

We are just waiting, for the time being. Wish me luck!

Let the Adventures Begin!

Really, I fell off the Blog-wagon. But, if you haven't heard, we will be moving to Germany in a few months. I figured I could share my adventures with you all. I just didn't expect them to start before we even left!

My Grandparents are letting us stay in their house until we leave. They are in Florida right now. And my parents, who live next door, are putting up with our multi-daily visits. It's one way to get 7 months worth of visiting into 2 months. :>

However, we were not here two days before the Princess started throwing up. We knew a bug was going around, but she had also fallen out of the stroller earlier that day, so we decided to take her to be checked. Turned out she was just sick, no head injury, but it was pretty scary for a while.

As for why she fell out of her stroller - we were out looking for our cat, who apparently does not appreciate relocation. Especially to a house that she is not allowed to come inside of. So she went missing for a while. She has now figured out where we are, where her food will be (and at what time, so that we are not feeding all the neighborhood cats and raccoons), and she is starting to come to grips with the fact that she can't come in. She will come to the door and cry, we put her in her crate, she cries, we let her back out. She is not a very happy camper! I can only think it will confuse her even more when we take her to Germany and she suddenly has to stay in all the time instead. Poor cat!

One upside to our new home is that I can finally go for walks. The ground here is much more level, and I am able to push both kids in the stroller around the block. So I try to go on at least two walks a day, and sometimes I make the princess walk, other times she rides. Once I made the mistake of letting her switch places with her brother when I had the stroller set up as a single. She got tired and we were almost home, and I figured he could walk the rest of the way. Now it's like magic. Every time we reach that particular part of the sidewalk, she always asks! I have not let her do it again, but it will take a long time before she abandons the idea. If I want him to practice walking we will just all walk a short distance. We all have to build up endurance, because in Germany we will have to walk everywhere. And I hope to push or carry as little weight as possible! I plan on the princess walking, I hope the little boy will be reliable enough to be out and about, and that will leave me with the new baby, who I privately hope will be a lightweight like her siblings. Okay, so I am a weakling.

We have been at our new home for about a week now, and things seem to be getting better as we adjust. I still can't figure out my Grandmother's scheme of organization in the kitchen, so I have simplified my goals to just not breaking anything before we leave. And I finally maneuvered around the kitchen long enough to produce a dinner the other night! With Jeff gone late most nights, I don't have much motivation to make anything that others might call a dinner. The kids and I eat whatever, just so that they wont be too hungry to go to bed. Mmmm, nutrition at it's best. And with all our food in boxes from the move, even that is difficult. But we are settling in.

I do have to say a big thanks to all the ladies who helped me move when I could barely get out of bed. The RS in my ward was amazing. They helped me pack everything up when it seemed impossible. (no props to the guys though, not a one showed up to help Jeff actually move). And we are really grateful to my grandparents too, or at least I am. Without being able to sign a lease, we needed to move, and as much as I like spending a couple of hours at my mother-in-law's house (especially if it means no cooking), I don't think I could have stayed two months and kept my sanity. So here we are. Waiting. Waiting for Germany. Waiting for baby. Waiting for school to be over. But today as the sun was out, I decided it's not such a bad fate. Today seems to be the perfect day.

David is Crawling!

We have been waiting and waiting for our little comado to finally get his legs under him and going one after the other, so I was relieved to catch him crawling across the floor today multiple times. He was always just so fast at pulling himself with his arms that he didn't really have any incentive to switch. I was starting to worry he might miss this milestone, but we found just the thing to encourage him last week... I took him outside to play in the grass, and I guess the ground was still wet. He got up on his hands and feet and just cried. Every time he tried to set himself down in the grass to scoot over to me to be picked up he would have wet prickly grass touch him. After a few seconds he started working his way across the grass completely up on his hands and feet, and loudly complaining all the way. When he got a few feet I picked him up as a reward. It seems to have gotten the idea across to him, and I am so excited. I'm also a little worried though, because watching him once impressed upon me just how FAST he is going to be in a few more days. Then nothing will be safe!

Sorry for the long time without updates. My kids would take every moment of every day if they could get away with it, and then somehow my school work has to be squeezed in. That doesn't leave a lot of time for perusing the net or any other calm activity. What all was missed in that amount of time? David has 4 teeth now, Ari can serve up a platter of sass along with the best, and Jeff just got his grades for spring back. David's hobby is crying when Mommy walks away. Ariana's hobbies include taking off her diaper, undressing baby brother, and biting unsuspecting victims. Jeff's new hobby is surfing netflix for movies to try and talk me into watching (I don't like movies much). I have no hobbies, only school... Deutsch sprecke ich jetzt auch, aber nicht sehr gut. I am still studying to pass that last German test. And I took 2nd overall in the farm game simulation for my agricultural management class (super exciting!). Finals are this coming week, and then I plan on taking a break until fall. We can't wait for summer.