Baby #4...

Has sure thrown me for a loop.
Since we decided to wait to tell our parents or anyone else until I was quite far along, and because this will most likely be my last pregnancy, I have been writing all of this down as we go so it's kind of like talking to my mom and for the memories...

-I almost got our electricity disconnected in the middle of January... The coldest it's been here. The same day a cat froze to death on our lawn.
-I just flat out forgot to tell my primary kids they would be singing in sacrament the next Sunday.
-I literally did not change out of the same pajamas three days in a row. I didn't even brush my hair. I did brush my teeth without throwing up.
-Not entirely sure we can blame this on pregnancy but Tahnyon nearly severed his finger with a kitchen knife resulting in a surgery and thousands of dollars in hospital bills. I was one frantic pregnant mommy when I saw all that blood and a finger hanging off. So much so, that Nate thought we should have them check the baby out while we were at the hospital. The panic... THAT, I can blame on baby #4.
-Merely pinning food on Pinterest throws me into dry heaves.
-And on top of that, if I happen to be looking at pictures of something (like quinoa) I can smell it. Like overwhelmingly so.
-I've been so much 'sicker' this time that Nate is sure I'm having twins.
-My Christmas wreaths didn't come down until Jan 29.
-I started regularly going to bed before 10:00. You know it's bad when Stacia's asleep before midnight.
-I told Nate one night while I was trying to decide what to make for dinner... "I just want to throw up and then eat all the food at all the restaurants-is that too much to ask?" Then an hour or so later I ate an ENTIRE foot long sub by myself. That's a lot of food, folks!
-I wake up sobbing often. I have CRAZY nightmares when I'm pregnant. And now I've developed this irrational fear of riding in the same car as my kids, Nate, and my parents lest we get in an accident and I am the only one to survive.
-Arahlee's b-day came and went without a huge party. You know I love a good party. But I still wasn't feeling great, had no energy, and decided that since she doesn't really have friends to invite it would be ok to forgo the big party.
-Tayv & I had his valentines planned out for a month. The night before he needed them I still hadn't worked on them much and had no desire to do them. He did make it to school with Valentines though. :)
-The many times I almost fell asleep driving after 2 minutes because I'm now ALWAYS uncharacteristically tired.
-The two glucose tests I failed.
-The day I found out that I wouldn't get to use my beautiful baby girl name that I have been fixated on.

Of course there's been plenty of good...
-like when my VT brought me brownies because Nate was out of town and Tahn's dr appt turned out to be a useless waste of time and money. And she didn't know I was pregnant or that I had been craving brownies that day.
-When we told the kids and Tayvin wouldn't stop talking about and to the baby for... Well, he still hasn't stopped. :)
-When Aree, Tahn, and I played on the tramp with balls in our shirts while they talked all about having babies in their bellies.
-When Nate held me night after night because I was so sick and just wanted to die.
-when Nate refused when I asked him to just shoot me now. Guess I didn't actually want him to.
-Cherry luden cough drops.
-When I discovered that Frozen gogurt (which i normally despise) helped my stomach and the kids thought I was the coolest for letting them eat three in one sitting all because mommy needed to.
-The night I ate two, almost three, ice cream sandwiches because, surprise , I can stomach those too.
-Feb 19th- the day I got to see my baby for the first time. And he/she waved at me. I'm not even kidding. It's hand was up by its mouth and then it started waving and didn't stop for a good ten seconds. It was the cutest. I also found out that day that my lump is completely gone and we don't have to worry about that anymore.
-The day we found out we're getting another sweet little boy. And most of all, that he's healthy.

I feel something should probably be documented about this pregnancy. And being that I still have not taken a single belly picture, this will have to do. Oh, and since I got in trouble for not letting either of my sisters know what is going on, here's the latest....

Around 32 weeks I was diagnosed with preeclampsia. It is considered a mild case but regardless, my dr won't let me go past 38 weeks. Of course, I already felt like it was coming way too soon so I was not thrilled with the idea of her coming early. In the meantime, I go have NSTs twice a week, an ultrasound once a week, bloodwork and other tests done once a week, and a dr's appt once a week. Super, huh?  There have been a few little scares here and there but when Little Miss was measured via ultrasound at 34 weeks she was around 4 lbs 5 oz and healthy. I was given steroid shots to help her lungs develop in case I don't make it to 38 weeks.  Since I have had a c-section previously, my dr won't start me but he did say he would strip my membranes twice that week  and then break my water to see if my body would do anything. If not, I will have to have a c-section. Nate will be out of town training a new hire that week so hopefully she'll wait until he gets back! Until this pregnancy I loved being pregnant. I don't know if it's the fact that it's a different gender, the lack of recovery time in between pregnancies, or that I'm getting older but this one has just been difficult. I hate to say it, but I'll be glad when it's over. 
I cannot wait to meet this little miss, hold her in my arms, and paint her fingernails. :) Tayv is so excited to have a little sister and Tahn repeatedly pats my belly while saying baby. It makes my heart happy.
Mostly, I'm just grateful right now to know that things will work out the way they're supposed to when they are supposed to. We've been so blessed with healthy, happy children and are at peace with how this baby is developing and all that has happened.

Do you know what this cute, pink, tiny cowboy boot means?

We'll be adding a sweet little cowgirl to our family!

Nate is thrilled, I'm scared, and Tayv is confused.

He wanted a girl SO badly but also decided that Tahnyon should get to have a little brother like he does. He also says I'm having a girl puppy since my belly isn't big enough to have a baby. :)

These poor, poor children.

Perhaps this is something I need to get used to but I feel SO sorry for Tahn and this baby. Tahn just doesn't get a whole lot of attention, has to grow up sooner, and is going to be the middle child. :( And this baby? Honestly, I'm so incredibly busy and overwhelmed that days go by without me even thinking about being pregnant. So... this is a post JUST for the baby. I just want to actually document that I'm pregnant. :) Tahn's will come soon.

-18 weeks
- 0 lbs gained, 5 lost
-I'm still sick often and rarely feel like eating. (SO different from my other pregnancies. :D)
-I get 4-5 headaches a week that just don't seem to be curable. Lucky for me, my Dr told me to try tylenol with caffeine this week to see if that will help. So I felt no guilt going to buy a 2 liter of my new love, cherry coke. But wouldn't you know, I haven't had a headache since. It sits in my pantry. Just waiting.
-Tayvin still doesn't really believe that I'm pregnant. He keeps saying my belly isn't big. :) See why I love this kid?
-We will find out in 2 1/2 weeks what the gender is. I hope for Tayvin's sake it's a girl.
-I feel the baby move often and Nate has felt it a couple times but it's still fairly weak.

SUCH an exciting post, I know. Perhaps in a few weeks it'll get more exciting....

On pregnancy...

I feel I'm in a lose-lose situation with this pregnancy (with the exception of the beautiful baby growing inside me that I will get to meet and hold in my arms of course.)  All I'm trying to do is be a good mom and wife. But this being growing inside me is making me so sick and emotional I can't be a good anything. Well, maybe good icy hot. :)

New News

There will be no cute way of announcing it this time cause frankly I feel like we JUST did this.  I'm pregnant. Due in March, a day before Tahn will be 18 months.
Crazy? Yes.
Coming regardless? Yes.
Stressed? Yes.
Will we survive? I certainly hope so.
There you have it-why I've been sick, emotional, lazy, and MIA.
BUT...  On the bright side....
Tayvin REALLY wants a sister (and Nate wants a girl.) I was informed of the Drano test. It says its a girl...we'll see.
I am out of my 1st trimester and finally starting to feel better. Just DON'T bring hamburgers around me, please! :)
Nate has given me permission to SPEND money if it's a girl!
Babies R Us is having a trade in sale which just happens to work perfectly since my infant car seat expires in January. (So run over there if you need baby gear!)
No more birthdays in the fall!!!

3+1=Us

I always have the best of intentions. When I was pregnant with Tayvin, I started a journal for him. I wasn’t the best at writing in it but I wrote about how I found out I was pregnant, how I told Nate, the day we found out his gender, his birth story, etc, etc. I intended to do one of these journals for each of my kids. One day I did go look for a journal for Tahnyon but they didn’t have one I liked. That’s as far as it ever went. Thus, the blog. So here’s the birth story for Tahn’s digital journal…



September 5th- lots of contractions. Went camping. Rode in my dad’s truck. Was absolutely sure I would be having that baby in the tent after the bumpy ride up. Fail.

September 6th- Started to feel uncomfortable thanks to the beach ball under my shirt and decided I wouldn’t mind having the baby come out sometime. (Let’s just say that up until this point, I was perfectly happy being pregnant.)

September 11th- due date.

Canning peaches and decided to make Nate a fresh peach pie. I figured 1 of 2 things would happen. Either I would go into labor because there was a fresh peach pie beckoning to me and I wouldn’t be able to eat it OR I wouldn’t go into labor but then I would have a fresh peach pie to console me. Sure enough, contractions began. They were about 6 minutes apart so we decided to go walk to see if they would increase or decrease. They increased. We waited. And waited. I really didn’t want to go the hospital to have them quit like they did with Tayv. Called my mom and had her meet us in Salt Lake to pick up Tayv. Pain. Arrived at the hospital around midnight. Of course, because we decided to go the hospital, the contractions stopped. Well, they didn’t stop per se; they just weren’t doing much for me. Tahnyon got grounded till he’s 27 and they sent me home.

September 12th-We went up to Kamas to pick up Tayv from Mom & Dad’s and hung out for the rest of the day. I was a bit depressed. Meanwhile, I’m still having contractions pretty regularly. We decided to leave Tayv there so my parents wouldn’t have to drive down again to pick him up.

September 13th-Nate made me breakfast to eat on our deck and we played cards for awhile. 1 pm-show up to church to discover we had missed Stake conference. Went for a drive. Nate made me go on a 4 mile walk. There was a little running involved towards the end. Labor begins! I didn’t sleep much that night but told Nate to go in to work for half a day. He refused.

September 14th-Finally get out of bed at 6 because there is no sleeping going on. (From me, not Nate.) Shower. Start laundry. Go downstairs to do dishes. Water breaks. I think. Change laundry. Wait awhile to tell Nate my water broke because he’s on the phone. Finish packing bag. Refuse Nate’s insistence to go to hospital immediately because I need to finish laundry. Make bed. Clean bathroom. Make Tayv’s bed. Change laundry. Finally admit that perhaps now is a good time. Contractions 2 minutes apart. Again, pain.

10:30-arrive at hospital. Amazing the difference in treatment you receive when you tell them your water broke.

Talk to nurse. Test to make sure it really was my water that broke. Meconium in fluid. Still only 2 cm. Dr orders pitocin. Stacia orders epidural. Sweet relief. Oh, how I love catheters. Nate watches football.

12 pm- baby’s heartbeat starts dropping. Internal monitor. Oxygen mask. Sudoku. Football. Chick flicks.

2 pm- 4 cm. Epidural starts to wear off. More juice. Nate gets to go eat but is instructed to not come back smelling like food because I’m starving.

5 pm-6 cm. Nurse informs me she’s leaving at 7 but wants to see my baby so it would be great if I could hurry it along. :) We loved our nurse. I know how to work under pressure.

6 pm-pretty sure I need to push. Nurse checks- 10 cm. Call the Dr. Waiting. Waiting.

7 pm- practice push. Instructed to not push anymore until the dr. is there-baby’s too close.

7:40-Dr.Hinson arrives and preps. Disgusting details. Monitors removed.

7:50- Push 1, push 2, push 3. Successful VBAC. 

My sweet baby!
I can't wait to do it again. Seriously.
(On his way out, he grabbed onto the scissors. It took 3 sets of hands to remove his iron grip on them. 8 months later, he’s still like that.)

Minutes old...

Tayv meeting his 'little buddy'...

First family picture...

My life, my joy, my everything...

Oh how I love this sweet thing...

Such a happy (and seriously hot) daddy...

Ready to go home...

My life is changed forever.

Was that fair?

Ok, I guess for those of you not close by, that's not really fair so I'll give you a slightly longer version:
Thursday-Blah-Blah-Blah- went to the dr, new dr, didn't check me, I cried. Went to the hospital for the tests-baby still healthy.
Friday-made Nate a fresh peach pie because I figured if I made one, I was bound to go into labor so we couldn't eat it. If I didn't at least we would have peach pie to eat. Went into labor, walked, showered, dropped Tayv off with mom, contractions consistently 5 minutes apart or less for 3 hours, went to the hospital, baby got scared, contractions died down, wasn't dilating much, dr doesn't want to induce me because of VBAC, sent me home at 3 am.
Super interesting huh?

My cute little farmboy

Last night we met my mom in Salt Lake around 11 ish to drop Tayv off with her and head to the hospital. Frankly, I'm so sick of telling the stories of the last week that I'm going to make that part of the story very short- I'm still huge.
Anyway, we drove to Kamas today to pick him up and I was telling Nate on the way up about Tayvin's conversation with my mom this morning: it was all about how he and Grandpa had chores to do. They got up early so they could head out to the hay field and then to chop wood. Nate said he was a little more concerned for his relationship with Tayv than he was for Tayv's relationship with my dad. I told him he might just have to buy a farm. When we got there, I found out that my cute little farmboy is now the proud owner of his very own work gloves! He has such a connection with the farm, the land, and the animals that I truly don't know what we'll do when Nate moves us away from it. I love that he loves it though!

37 week update

So still no pictures, sorry! I'm sitting at my Mom & Dad's while they're at the temple dedication, Nate's on his way to Florida, and Tayvin is napping. I suppose I should be appreciating the quiet time but lately all quiet time just seems wrong. I should be stinky from not showering in 3 days, have spit-up on the back of my shirt, and have a little baby that needs all my attention. But alas, it will come-probably too soon and then I'll be begging for quiet time.
Anyway, I figured since I had a minute I'd give an update on what's going on with baby.
A couple weeks ago my blood pressure and weight both sky-rocketed (but thankfully, I'm still under goal) so the dr I was seeing ordered weekly non-stress tests just in case I developed preeclampsia again. It's been kinda fun because they do an ultrasound before the testing so I've been able to see the little guy practice breathing and such. He of course is still perfect and actually my blood pressure is down so maybe it was just because I didn't get to see my own dr that week.
I'm having contractions like crazy but not dilating at all which is no surprise! Because I'm trying a VBAC, my dr won't start me unless I'm dilated to a 2 or 3 so I'm just hoping my body will get in gear. If I haven't dilated by Sept. 16th, she'll make me schedule a c-section. :(
Nate's worried I'll go into labor while he's in Florida but I keep telling him I feel way too good, there's no way this baby is ready to come. But for Tayvin's sake, I almost wish he would. He just can't wait to meet his little brother. He must ask 6 times a day if we can get the baby out yet.
Wow, now that I've completely lost all 3 readers I had I'll leave you with something a little more interesting, to me anyway....
A couple weeks ago I was preparing Tayv for Nate's upcoming trips. I had told him daddy would be going to Arizona then the next week he would be going to Miami, Florida. The next prayer Tayv said went something like this...
"Thank you that me and mommy can go to the farm at Grandma & Grandpa's while daddy is in mommy's ami Florida."
Man, I love that kid!

A few things I’m loving, hating, and thinking about…

I know I said 2 weeks ago that I’d be posting but then I misplaced my memory card for my camera , we all got sick, Nate’s 96 year old Aunt fell, and family came into town. So once things calm down, I find my memory card or charge the batteries for my other camera, I promise I will post pictures. In the meantime, here are a few things I’m….

Loving…

• Listening to Tayv talk to his baby brother.
• When Tayv tells me all the things he’s going to teach his brother
• That Tayv made his bed twice today by himself for the first time. (And then didn’t want to get in it for his nap or bedtime because he had already made it! I have no idea where he gets that from by the way.)
• My new fridge that gives me crushed ice at my beckon call.
• Watermelon
• The fact that I will have a nursery this time around!
• Our new ward
• That if everything continues as it is I won't get anywhere near the weight I was when I was pregnant with Tayvin.
• My new washer & dryer that I still intend to post pictures of… someday…
• Air conditioning
• That I have a reason to eat every 2-3 hours.
• All the tiny baby socks (and clothes) that I’ve been washing!

Hating….

• That I have to pee almost as often as I blink.
• That I HAVE to eat every 2-3 hours.
• Waking up in our new, quiet house with no weird curry, Mexican, or other smells to make me sick for the rest of the day.
• How long & hard Nate is having to work until they hire another person.
• Most of my maternity clothes.
• That even though we have our very own yard, it’s still not big enough to get Tayvin the playground set he’s been drooling over at Costco for as long as he could talk.
• That we can’t afford to all go to Alaska for a visit during the summer but Nate refuses to go without us.
• That in a few weeks Nate is going to Florida and I just can’t justify going with him.
• Iron pills, heartburn, and down comforters

Thinking about…

• How it’s so not fair that when Nate was sick he just took some Nyquil to knock him out but even though I can never sleep anymore I just have to live with it. Oh well, good practice I guess!
• Trying to figure out why nobody laughed or even commented on my "Got Pickles?" shirt the other day. I mean, come on people, this is Utah county-this is what you do-make babies!
• The birthday invitations and 50ish baby announcements that I haven’t made or designed yet. (I’m thinking Costco again….)
• How I'm SO not ready for the exhaustion that comes with a new baby but can't wait to hold him...
• That I'm still not completely convinced that we're having another boy even though that's what we saw-just seems off.
• That I'm still stretch-mark free but probably jinxing myself by watching so closely.
• Peanut butter Cyclops cookies, Texas sheet cake, homemade caramels, marshmallow popcorn, ok, what sweets am I not thinking of?