Happy Birth Anniversary!

Today Sydney and Wes share a birth anniversary. Sydney is exactly 1 week old and Wes is exactly 18 months old. Pretty fun! I took a couple of pictures to commemorate the day. As you can imagine, it was pretty difficult to do, but Wes was a good big brother until he was "all done!"

This was the best shot of them both looking at the camera.

Wes wasn't sure what to think about all this...

Sydney had just a little bit of yellow tint when we came home (jaundice) so we stuck her in the sun to get a little extra vitamin D. She loved it and would fall asleep every time.

Here she is soaking up the sun. Can't really blame her for enjoying the warmth!

PS: It's been in the 70's this week! It did rain yesterday, but we've had great weather - especially for October. Sorry for those in Utah and Idaho who have had snow! Yuck!

As Promised!

Below are a bunch of pictures from the last couple days. We're adjusting well here so far - of course it helps that my mom is here! Wes is slowly getting it figured out, but is really more interested in the balloons around the house. I'll write my birth story at the bottom if you're interested in reading it. If not, the gist is my water broke about 2:45pm, we got to the hospital around 6:00pm, and Sydney was born at 7:05pm. Quite quick and unexpected for me!

Wes' last "only child" picture with Mom.

Shortly after the big event!

We done good! (Not to be confused with a terrorist fist pound.)




Little feet getting inked up.



The prints.

Here are our two children, Sydney Lyn and Wesley Brian, meeting for the first time at the hospital.

Wes watching a show at the hospital in his "seat" with a balloon and a cell phone. Pretty great life.

Sleeping Sydney Lyn.

She's half awake here. Mamma loves you!



Proud pappa getting ready to take his little lady home.

In the car seat ready to go home!

Sydney meeting her Grandma Swensen.

My handsome little man.

Sydney with the cute sock monkey Grandma Swensen brought her. It's almost as big as she is!

Cuddled up and sleeping soundly.

Awake with Grandma.

And on with (long) the story...

Well, let's just start by saying it's a good thing I'm an advocate of natural childbirth since neither of my children have given me too much choice in the matter! Wes' birth was pretty quick - 11 and a half hours - so I knew this one would likely be quicker, but I didn't think it would end up at 4 and a half hours. But let me start at the beginning...

Around 12:45pm I dropped Wes off at my friend Jonelle's so she could watch him while I went to my doctor's (midwife) appointment. When I went to the appointment, I schedule my induction for a week from Friday and really hoped it wouldn't come to that. She checked me and said I was dilated to a 3 and, even though she didn't want to jinx me, she was confident I would go before the induction, but even if I didn't, they could probably break my water and I might just go. That was comforting.

So I drove over to Jonelle's to pick up Wes and he was napping so I chatted with her for about a half hour. When he woke up, I walked up the stairs, got him out of the pack and play, walked into the hall and my water burst (that's right, burst, not broke). So I sort of started freaking out since I was kind of in shock at how random and unexpected that was. I told her I'd go home and get things figure out and then probably bring Wes back in a little while.

Luckily, Brian had happened to come home after classes on Thursday instead of staying on campus so he was actually there when I got home. We got all of our stuff in the car and ate a little bit and got Wes some food ready. All this time I was having contractions that were every couple minutes and lasting 30 to 45 seconds, but they weren't super intense yet.

So we dropped Wes off at Jonelle's and decided to drop by the Dairy Queen near our house. We grabbed Blizzards (even though I wasn't sure that was an awesome labor meal) and then I realized I didn't have my cell phone. So we left the car there and walked, making a loop back to our house and then back to Jonelle's to get my phone (it's not super far or anything). At this point, my contractions were getting a little more intense, but not crazy or anything. When we got back to the car Brian asked me if I wanted to go somewhere else and walk, but I just kind of felt like we should get to the hospital. I felt like it'd be fine to labor there for a while if it came to that.

We left for the hospital around 5:30pm and were joking on the way that if I had the baby before midnight we could go home on Friday instead of Saturday. As I said, we were joking because we didn't really think that would happen. After we got there, it took a bit of time to get checked in at triage and then get situated in the triage room. I was having contractions that I was not wanting to talk through, but I was still feeling okay. The nurse came in and monitored Sydney and me for about 10 minutes or so. Then the the midwife came in and checked me and I was dilated to a 5. They decided to go ahead and get me to my room.

The nurse walked us - quite a distance - from triage to our room. I stopped for each contraction. As we walked, the nurse was talking to me, but I got more and more bugged that she was talking to me. By the time we got to the room I was feeling pretty weak (shakey) and like I was going to throw up with each contraction. I got into the bed and the nurse left Brian and me to go talk to the midwife to see if there were any more instructions.

Brian was trying to be so nice and help distract me, but by this time I was totally done talking. My contractions were really starting to get hard. At some point the nurse (thankfully) came back in because I had 3 or 4 really tough contractions - where you have no idea how you're going to get through it - and then I started to feel like the baby was coming.

So I started to feel like I had to push and the nurse told me not to because the midwife wasn't there and they had to get the delivery table in there. Ummm...hello...have you ever been told not to push a baby out? Not fun. That baby's coming whether I push her out or not! So I did everything I could not to push - crossing my legs and all - and kept asking over and over again if I could push yet. Basically, I had to not push through 2 contractions and then when I was finally able to push through the 3rd contraction - breathing when the midwife told me to - she came out!

After that I was pretty much in complete shock that it was already over. I kept saying, "I'm so glad that's over." But honestly it was so crazy. The after part wasn't fun either though. Because it went so fast, apparently my uterus was in shock so I was having bleeding issues. The midwife was pushing on my uterus and checking things out - super not fun when you don't have drugs. Then they had to give me a shot of Pitocin and something else in my leg to help the bleeding.

It all felt extra crazy because the staff was all changing shifts at 7:00pm and since I delivered at 7:05pm, I had two of everyone in the room: 2 midwives, 2 delivery nurses, and 2 pediatric nurses. Then there was Brian and me and then my doula showed up shortly after. Unfortunately my doula missed everything because I had Brian call her too late because I had no idea it would go so fast. Anyway, it was all pretty crazy!

Sydney checked out great and healthy. I actually felt better and stronger after this delivery then I did after Wes. We stayed in the hospital for 24 hours and were able to leave on Friday after all. It worked out great because my mom flew in Friday afternoon and Brian was able to pick her up from the airport.

Now we're at home getting the hang of feedings and sleeping. I decided I'll spoil her for the first week of life but then after that it's time to get serious! :)