Baby 365 Project: Day 4

Day 4: Allie loves holding Mr. Zane - so here they are together again.  Allie's been picking out clothes for her brother to wear every day.

Baby 365 Project: Day 3

It's been 4 days since this little guy was born!  He is changing so fast and every day he looks a little older.  Kaden Zane was born last Wednesday, December 22 at 1:03 p.m.  He weighed 8 lbs 11 oz. and 20.5 inches long.  More birth pictures to follow, I couldn't resist posting these ones, these were taken on Christmas Day, after Allie dressed him up in his little elf outfit that his Grandma Lorraine and his big sisters and brother picked out for him.  He looks so funny!!!

Baby 365 Project: Day 2

Time to go home!  After a much-needed two-day stay at the Banner Gateway, we checked out early on Christmas Eve.  After all the paperwork was complete, the birth certificate turned in, and the bags packed we were discharged and were on our way home at noon.  Kaden was 8 lbs 3 oz today.

Day 1 - Night at the Nursery

Baby slept in the nursery so I could get some sleep without worrying about him. Unfortunately for me my arms wouldn't let me - they were the worst pain I have ever had the last two months.  Found out that even a dose of Percocet on top of Ibuprofen didn't do much for the pain.  It finally started going away around 6 a.m. which was when the nurse brought him back in for me to nurse.  Kevin came back early today and brought the hand brace for me to wear.  I was so sleepy the whole day!  Good thing we stayed another day at the hospital.  I would have been a basket case at home.

Baby 365: Kaden Zane's Birth - Day 0

 I slept pretty good the night before I went in the hospital to be induced.  3 hours straight - my left arm and leg both fell asleep so they really hurt when I got up, not to mention the swelling from them falling asleep, but 3 hours was good.  I called the hospital around 6:30 and they confirmed they were on schedule for me to come in.  Kevin and I hurried out the door, Maddie was still asleep when we left - which was a good thing or she would have probably freaked out about us leaving.  Allie woke up extra early that day because she wanted to curl my hair!  She did a great job - that girl is talented.  She babysat until her grandma came by a little later.

Me and my basketball belly right before I donned the beautiful hospital gown.

In labor

Meanwhile, I finally got in the labor/delivery room at 8 a.m.  My nurse Carolyn did a great job with setting up everything and getting me hooked up to all the monitors and "wires" -:).  I was a 5 when she checked me, so the epidural came in next around 10 a.m. The baby was posterior and needed to turn so he was face down.  The epidural was great - the anesthesiologist, Anna Pivec was so good she did it all in 3 minutes with hardly a peep from me.  By 10:30, it was in full force and I had progressed to a 7.  I decided to post my delivery progress on facebook - it was fun to read all the comments posted back by my fb friends.  At 11 a.m. Dr Beck came in to turn the baby - he had turned sideways but needed a little help.

Dr Beck came in again at 12 noon and broke my water.  At 12:45 he was back to check on me and before I even realized it, he was in his delivery "gear".  Anyway it went too fast!  After 4 pushes (at 1:03 p.m.), the baby was out and I got to hold him right away!  It was the best feeling in the world to finally see our little guy and what a relief to know he was healthy (I worried so much the last couple of weeks!) and so cute.  Kevin and I decided he looked a lot like Maddie.

 Kaden Zane's first official photo (taken by his Dad)

Thumb sucker!

Now we can say we have "BOYS".

Allie was so excited and so happy to get to hold her little brother.  She has been waiting for this day forever!

The kids watching their baby brother get a bath

Kevin's mom hurried over with the kids, so they got to watch the baby get a bath and all. He weighed 8 lbs 11 oz and 20.5 inches long.  Apgar score was a 9.9, head measured 14.8 cm.  So the ultrasound the week before was pretty close to being accurate.  On December 13th, Dr Beck estimated (from the ultrasound) that the baby was 7 lbs 14 oz.  Had I not been induced this day, he would have been well over 9 lbs! Yikes.

Well anyway, back to the birth scene...Allie was beside herself, she wanted to hold that little brother of hers right away.  Collin was happy too, but not as hands on as Allie, and Maddie was shocked - she didn't want to be near me or the baby - I think she was scared that I was dressed weird and had all these hospital equipment around me.  

Kristie also came and took some photos for me (but we didn't get one of her!), while I ate my first hospital meal of the day -  cheeseburger and fries.  The funny thing is Kevin loved the cheeseburger so much that I ordered the same meal (with a variety of desserts of course - my favorite was the chocolate cake) 4 times over the course of two days for Kevin, while he sneaked me in food from Pei Wei and Costa Vida. Good trade in my opinion.

 In Rm 1103

After we moved to Rm 1103, the kids and Kevin's mom and dad visited with us for a while until it visiting time was over.  Kevin left to go home around 11 p.m. and I sent Zane to the nursery for the night around 11:30.  It was a long day, but one that seemed to go by fast - and I was exhausted from the whole labor and birth experience.  I was happy and grateful that our prayers were answered, and promised blessings came to pass in one special day.  I am so grateful to be a mother to another one of Heavenly Father's choice spirits.

 Our family of 6!

13 Years

Yesterday Kevin and I celebrated our 13th anniversary.  No big happenings this year since I am due to have baby #4.  We exchanged our traditional letters which I love!! and went out to dinner.  It was quite a challenge to slide in a booth at Outback! I barely could bend over to eat - I'm sure that was a funny sight.  Then we spent the rest of Monday night delivering presents for FHE.   I am glad to be married to a good man - who works so hard all day but is never tired to help me with chores and kids when he gets home.  He is a great example to the kids and I, and I cannot imagine life without him.  13 years flew by so fast, I am glad we have many more years to spend together.

On Sunday I had a spur of the moment thought to take pictures since the kids wore their Christmas best to church.  Here is our family after 13 years together:

and Allie took these of us (me + 30 lbs + retained water, I figured it would be good to look back later and remember what I looked like at 39 weeks!):

Night Before the Big Day

It is finally here.  Baby #4 will be in our arms tomorrow, hopefully by lunch time.  It is such a relief to finally know that he is actually going to be here.  I am going to the hospital to be induced before 8 a.m. My first thought is that it will be nice to be able to wear regular clothes again - I have been wearing/rotating 3 bottoms for the last 2 weeks because none of my other ones fit or are too uncomfortable to  wear.  That's what I get for not buying any maternity clothes.  I was so tempted last week to buy a new pair of maternity jeans!

Today I spent the time hanging out with the kids, delivering the last of the neighbor presents, buying last minute baby things (I had forgotten I actually need a new breast pump, a monitor, and a bath tub!) -- I also spent some time organizing presents so that when I get home in 2 days Kevin will know where to find the stash (you know I put them in random places and remarkably I remembered where they were all today!).   Then nostalgia struck as I finished the last of my to-do's.  

I patted a crying Maddie's head and felt a little sad she wasn't going to be with me for two days.  The little sweetie has been my little couch buddy the last couple of weeks - and she is so sweet to ask me if I would be sleeping downstairs every night. And since the only place comfortable is my couch (too hard to get up from my bed!) my answer is always yes.  I talked to her today over and over about me being gone for two days and that I was going to be at the hospital to have her baby brother.  I don't think she gets it yet though. Hopefully she will do fine. 

Then there was the thought of "wow this is my last night of being pregnant" and it made me a little sad, surprisingly.  I had to snap out of that thought and tried to remind myself that the last two weeks have been tiresome and not so fun.  But the feeling persisted.  I realized I never stopped to think about being pregnant because this pregnancy had been by far the easiest the first 8 months.  I was so buried in lots of other things that I just never slowed down to soak in the whole pregnancy experience.  I got a lot accomplished even with a growing belly - and for the first time, I didn't get a migraine after I was 12 weeks along.   I won't miss being fat and uncomfortable, but I will miss carrying a baby.  There is just a special feeling that is around when a baby is about to come!  I am so glad to finally be able to snuggle a newborn tomorrow.

So for the rest of tonight we are going to watch a Christmas movie and just have some lazy time.  I am hoping everything will go smoothly and be home just in time for Christmas! Pray and wish me luck!

Gingerbread House Decorating

December 18th

Being at the tail end of my pregnancy did not help with our usual Christmas traditions this year -- sure we got our elf Timmy Doodle out and the kids had fun finding him in random places every morning, and we also did our 24 Days of Christ-centered Christmas Advent devotionals but when it came time to do gingerbread houses, I went the easy way out this year and got the ready-made kit, instead of baking and cutting the gingerbread houses from scratch like I have done the last few years.  The kids love the homemade kind!

Kit or no kit, they still  had lots of fun decorating and fighting over who got to decorate what, while Kevin and I watched. Maddie got into it this year, decorating her own little gingerbread cookie, and ate lots of candy while she was at it.

One of Maddie's gingerbread cookies broke when it fell while she was holding it up like this.  She almost had a meltdown, but I convinced her that we could put it back together.

Maddie's 1st Dance Recital

December 17th

This week's Christmas programs ended with Maddie's 1st dance recital at Crystal's dance studio.  She wasn't feeling up to it that morning - she got up too late and told me she didn't want to go to dance.  After breakfast she felt much better and wanted her tap shoes on.  So off to dance we went.  We got her cute costume on, and true to Maddie fashion, she suddenly started acting shy when she saw all the parents in the room.  So all through the class presentation she just stood there and watched.  The only thing Crystal got her to do was tiptoe across the room.  Her grandma Lorraine and I just had to laugh.  No amount of cheering or cajoling from us got her to dance.  Silly Maddie!  I asked her after how come she didn't want to dance, and all she said was "Cause..."

Maddie and Mayzie Richins

Maddie's cute class of 2.5 - 3 year olds

Miss Maddie's 3!

Miss Maddie turned 3 a couple of weeks ago.  She is quite a fun little girl with a personality.  She loves singing, sitting at the piano and pretending to play and sing, and hums when she walks around the house.  Her most recent obsessions are Strawberry Shortcake and Pinkalicious, reading books over and over again, and wearing all kinds of shoes (still!).  She likes to dress herself too and has quite an opinion when she does - she comes out her room sometimes a little mismatched, but she confidently tells me, "I'm pretty, Mom!" and then asks me for some lip gloss.  She also has to check what she looks like in the big mirror.

Her room is constantly a mess.  She carries books and little toys around all the time and will ask me to read her a story over and over again, especially Pinkalicious, which she can fill the words in for you if you ever stop reading.   After seeing a Pinkalicious doll at Walmart, she wants Santa to bring her 4 things - Pinkalicious, the pink "cuc-cakes", Goldie, and the other Pinkalicious dollie. 

We had a birthday celebration for her at home on Saturday after Thanksgiving.  She had two requests - a pretty cake and purple balloons.  So we made sure to get her those. When we were out shopping, she liked this princess birthday hat too, but didn't want to wear it at her party!  When it came time to blow her candles, she kept saying "I can't do it!" and acted all shy.  Then she thought the presents that were not wrapped in pink or purple were not hers.  She kept saying "no, it's not mine" and hesitated opening them.  We had to convince her they were hers.  Silly girl!

We love her so much and she has always been a joy to have in our family.  Kevin and I many times look at her and think where the time has gone?!  She was our baby with the cute little pout three years ago - and wish we could freeze or slow down time a little so we can enjoy her in her cute preschool stage.  I am so glad she still has 3 more years at home with me.  We are so blessed to have her!