New adventures

 long nights

 braces

 new adventures in eating

 swinging for the first time

 Mermaid by Macey

 Lots of pool time

...and had to include at least one pic of Isaac....

2 months old

14 lbs.  Sleeping thru the night.  Newly expert nurser.  Never could guess it from the pics, but he is such a smiley guy.  

Sawyer's arrival part 2.

Just to warn people, this might be tmi (too much information) for some.  I'll just say I warned you.

I was happy to have Sawyer out of me, healthy and in my arms.  Jacob left soon after Sawyer's arrival to pick our kids up from our friend's house and put them to bed.  I was really bummed to learn the kids couldn't come into the hospital room and meet their new brother and see me.  Because of flu season, all kids 12 years and younger aren't allowed with the babies.  I understood, but is was really disappointing for the kids and for myself.

After the delivery, I was happy to not have the effects of the epidural.  I could get up right away and pee and even take a shower if I wanted.  These were luxuries you don't have when you are numb from the waist down.  Sawyer had no problem latching on right away and started nursing.  Life was good.

Jacob called after he got the kids home and in bed to check on Saywer and myself.  I realized while talking to him I felt blood gushing out of me.  I checked out what was happening down below and there was a LOT of blood.  Too much blood.  I told Jacob I better go and called the nurse in to check things out.  I could tell by her expression that much blood wasn't normal.  I will always remember the pain of a natural child birth, but I will also remember the pain of the nurse pushing on my stomach as hard as she could to push out the blood clots.  Ouch.

They needed to clean up my bloody bed so they had me get up and wanted me to wash off in the shower.  Getting up was a bad idea.  As soon as I stood blood was just rushing out of me onto the floor.  It was crazy.  It looked like a crazy horror film. 5 different nurses rushed in.  I pretty much blacked out at that point.  The nurses were injecting me with fluid, medicine to help stop the bleeding and who knows what else.

When I was able to stand up again and the room was pretty much cleansed of my blood I got back into bed.  I remember thinking I didn't want to die.  I remember thinking there in no way someone can loose this much blood and live.  I remembered the blessing my husband had given me earlier that night.  It gave me strength and peace and I knew all was going to be ok in the end.  Later, after all was in control the nurse told me I had lost about half my blood.  She said for some reason, my hemoglobin counts went UP and not down during that time.  I know I was being watched over.  I know.

I was pretty weak after so much blood loss.  I was closely monitored and given several different kinds of meds to help control the bleeding.  They also did that horrible pushing on my stomach thing a lot to get rid of all the blood clots that were hanging around.  Oh, that was so so painful.  But those clots needed to get out of me.

My time in the hospital was like a vacation.  Well, minus the whole almost dying thing.  Someone was tending to my every need, bringing me meals in bed, lots and lots of cuddle time with my little man.  I missed Loraya, Isaac and Macey tho.  It didn't seem complete to not have them with me.

I was so excited to go home.  Because of my bleeding, I had to stay 48 hours in the hospital.  The kids were up waiting for us to get home.  I was so happy to have us all together and to be alive.  

Sawyer Leigh Kelly

A few days before Saywer arrived.

I never go into labor naturally.  I was so sure that I would need to be induced with Sawyer as well, but, he had other plans.

I had an appointment on March 12th in the AM.  I was prepared to beg/cry/bribe....do whatever to set a date that they would induce me.  I was worried about how big Sawyer might be and they scheduled an ultrasound to determine the size, only to cancel it with out me knowing.  They said since everything was normal and healthy at 20 weeks, there was no medical reason to do another ultrasound.

It wasn't hard to produce the tears.  I was done and I was so worried about Linda arriving and leaving and not having the baby.  I did convince Courtney, the midwife I have been seeing, to check to see if I was dilated.  I was already at 4 cm, so she went ahead and stripped my membranes.  Upon leaving the appointment I started having contractions, that felt much stronger and more frequent then I've ever felt before.

I went about my day.  Went and got my hair cut.  Got a chicken sandwich from Chick-fila.  Went and picked up some things from Lowes.  Picked up Macey from preschool.  Talked to dad on the phone.  When it was time to pick up Loraya and Isaac from school I was having pretty regular contractions and was even having Isaac time how quickly they were coming.  It was about every 5 minutes.  I was nervous to admit I was in labor but realized I better start making preparations.

I packed a hospital bag.  Called the hospital and told them I thought I was in labor.  Called Jacob and told him he better get home so he could take me to the hospital.  Called Sharleen and had her husband come and pick up my kids.  I was still unsure this was really it.  I have never got into labor naturally and this was all new to me.  I felt like a first time parent and questioning what I should do and how I should proceed.

I will be forever grateful that Reagan, who also happens to be the bishop in our ward, suggested Jacob give me a priesthood blessing.  The spirit was strong.  I didn't know how much peace that blessing would bring me and how much it would be needed that night.

I still can't believe how things progressed.  We checked into the hospital around 5:30.  My contractions were getting stronger and continued to be every 5 minutes or so.  They called my mid wife and she agreed I needed to stay and have Sawyer that night.  Yay!  After a while I told Jacob to go and get something to eat since he hadn't eaten dinner yet.  He joked that when he got back make sure I would be ready to push.  Haha.

Jacob was gone about 20 minutes.  Things changed while he was gone.  My contractions were getting crazy painful and I was getting desperate to get an epidural.  They hadn't hooked up my IV yet and hadn't done the proper blood work.  The epidural never happened.  I can't describe the experience of having a natural birth. It was pain I never thought I could live through.  When it came time I told the midwife that I needed to push.  No one needed to tell me I was fully dilated, I knew what I needed to do.  Oh the pain was so intense.  I was screaming, acting completely crazy.  Sawyer's shoulders got stuck while pushing.  That was another whole realm of pain I don't know how to describe.  Then suddenly he was out, and the pain was immediately gone.

I was stunned as to what I had just done, what my body had allowed me to do.  To top it off Sawyer was a big boy!  9 lbs 9 oz.  20 inches long!  I was really in shock.

Sawyer was/is a beautiful baby.  He was very swollen and bruised from dropping and being pushed out so quickly.  Heaven was close.  I loved Sawyer completely and felt that my world was full.

I had him at 8:54PM.  Jacob left by 9:45 to pick up the kids and get them in bed.  Little did I know the excitement wasn't over for the night.

To be continued....