General Updates...because it's been awhile....

I keep telling myself that I need to keep track of all the unique things my 3 year old says. Some of the stuff is just so dang funny. So I will list a few here, and update as new ones are heard/remembered.

'Quentinisms'
chawbwy/chubby - strawberry
gwinch - wrench
benenenenana - banana
pedder - computer
Iseewus - I'm serious
banks/binks - thanks
num nums - M&M's
Donals - McDonald's
McDonals - donuts
dacter - tractor
bishop - spaceship
sicky cup - sippy cup
mook - milk
bee - fly
twain/twuck - train/truck
Weeam - Liam
myfeewex - Felix
budderjewwy - peanut butter and jelly sandwich
chicken - any and all meat
pweese - please
muster - hamster
mymakween - Lightning McQueen car

As is typical of any three year old, most everything he says is prefaced with 'my'. He is generally delightful, as far as three year olds go, he entertains himself, and is happy most of the time as long as he is getting his way! When he is on the flip side of happy, he can often be heard saying "FINE!" with his chubby little arms folded across his chest and running off in a huff to go be in his room. If you bump into him, he will tell you to "Watch you going!" If you reprimand him, he breaks into loud sobs and wails of "I sawwy, I so sawwy!" It's really quite difficult to stay mad at the little fellow for very long, especially when he turns his big brown puppy dog eyes on you. He knows all his letters and most of his numbers, and I won't be too entirely surprised if he is reading in the next year, as he is starting to sound out the letters he so loves to play with.

Cade was baptized last weekend, and it was a very special occasion indeed. Family came from out of town for the event. I couldn't stop the tears from flowing, the Spirit was so strong! The love in the room was overpowering. His Aunt Shauna and myself sang "Beautiful Savior" while his sister Brenna accompanied. Uncle Jesse gave a wonderful talk on baptism, and one of his former primary teachers, Brother Radford, gave an awesome talk on the Holy Ghost that came with a little bag filled with physical reminders of the gift itself. One of the items that came in the bag was a little hand carved wooden heart. Cade walked around with that in his pocket for days. I have noticed that Cade has been trying really hard lately to be kinder and more loving, of course, he is also still the same rough and tumble, rambunctious boy we all know and love. But baptism seems to have really left an impression on him, and I appreciate the subtle change in him.

Jaron earned his Wolf badge in Scouts and has advanced to the Bear den. He really enjoys the scouting program and is looking forward to Scout Camp this year. He has really taken off with reading, and has discovered the Captain Underpants series. He has reached that fine old age where all humor bathroom related, armpit farts, and burps has become ever present. He loves to watch Cartoon Network on the computer, and hates doing his homework. When things don't go his way, you will hear his catchphrase of "Ugh!" ring throughout the house.

Brenna is progressing rapidly with her piano lessons. We got her a MIDI keyboard for her birthday. She doesn't quite appreciate exactly how cool it is, she wanted a digital piano. Brenna is also a voracious reader. She spends hours reading. We go to the library on a regular basis and she checks out a small mountain of books each time and she is generally done with them before the three week time limit is up. She had her 11th birthday on the 6th and invited a plethora of girls over for her party. We had 16 pre-teen girls in the house, it was just a small uproar for about 4 hours or so. They watched Ferris Bueller's Day Off, ate Chinese food, had their faces painted and generally had a pretty good time. So we officially have a 'tweenager'....more adventures ahead, I am sure.

Haedyn is slowly getting bigger. I have really been appreciating this time that I have had to enjoy her while she is so small. All my other babies just got so big so fast, it is nice that this one is taking her time. Although I am getting a little tired of all her newborn clothes and am wishing that she would just get a little bit bigger so that I can put her in all the cute 3 to 6 month stuff that I have. I took her in about 2 weeks ago for a weight check, and she weighed in at 8 lbs 6 ozs. The MA there said that by her 2 month visit, she should double her birth weight..which means she should be about 13 pounds by now, they would like to see her between 10 and 12 pounds. I have an appointment for her today to get her first set of vaccinations and to re-evaluate her growth. Right now, I am supplementing her with formula per doctor's orders. If she has gained enough weight, then I can cut back on the formula. I am glad she is such an easy going baby. She doesn't care how she gets her food, just as long as she gets it. She sleeps a lot and well, is easy to soothe, and doesn't cry too much. It doesn't hurt that she is also incredibly cute! She has started to interact with others by smiling and cooing, and she tries really hard to control her head so that she can see what is going on around her - but she is still really wobbly at this point. We had her baby blessing done the same weekend as Cades baptism. It was lovely. Rob blessed her that she would be a kind, happy, and healthy child, and that she would look to serve and help others throughout her life. He blessed her that she would listen to her parents, and follow the example of her siblings. She was also blessed that she would enter the Lord's House with a choice son of God to be married for time and all eternity and that she would be able to raise a family of her own. Haedyn didn't make a peep during the blessing, and waited to fuss after everything was done. We had everyone over at our place afterwards, there was a lot of good food and good company. It was a nice weekend overall.

I will probably add pictures at a later date/time. But if you absolutely must see pictures, there are some on Facebook..you can find me under the username momof5foxes............tatafornow!

In Quentin's World...

My son, Quentin, is at that age when just about everything that comes out of his cute little cherub mouth is belly - laugh worthy. Take, for example, this past Monday. Shauna, my sister-in-law, was over at my house visiting. She had a really snazzy looking top on (Shauna, if you ever want to 'donate' it...well, you know...) It had lots of randomly placed sequins on it, and Quentin was, well...intrigued. He innocently pointed at a group of sequins, and said in his cute little three year old voice, "Waas dat?" Shauna replied, "That's a sequin." "Is Quentin's?" queried my toddler. Shauna chuckled..."No...it's a sequin.." "SeaQuentin's?" came the reply. It was all over then...sides splitting, eyes watering... Quentin just stood there..he giggled a little because we were all laughing, he didn't understand what on earth was so funny, just that he had once again done something devastatingly cute. He gave an ever so charming, dimpled grin, and scampered downstairs to play with his ever growing horde of cars.
None of us will ever be able to say or hear the word 'sequin' without giggling...ever again.

And now we are Seven...

I went in for a regular Midwife appointment on Tuesday morning, never expecting the events that followed.....

I had an appointment at 11:30 a.m., and had planned to be told the same.."Sorry, no change", run a couple of inconsequential errands afterwards, and then return home to continue the never-ending waiting game. Boy, was I wrong!

I was taken back to the exam room and all the routine stuff was done. My midwife for this visit was Teresa Demery, someone I had met with before and enjoyed visiting with. We chatted while she checked for the baby's heartbeat, but she couldn't find it after about 2 minutes of searching. Things got real quiet as she continued to search...she asked me if I had felt any movement that morning, I answered that I had not. I could feel the panic start in the pit of my stomach, she looked at me and told me to come with her to the ultrasound room. We moved quickly and quietly down the hall and started the scan. She looked for a good five minutes...nothing...I started to bawl and moan "NONONONONONO" over and over..this couldn't be happening! She tried to calm me down and assured me that she was not an ultrasound technician, and that she was probably just missing something. She personally walked me down yet another hall to Maternal Fetal Medicine where they performed another scan and after five minutes of nail-biting searching, found a heartbeat. She was just fine..just curled in a really tight ball.
The midwife and I returned to the office, the whole staff cheered when they got the news that everything was fine. We returned to the exam room to discuss options. She checked me and found me 80% and 1 cm dilated and asked me if I would consider induction. I was so rattled by what just happened that I said yes. She was rather shaken as well and told me that she just didn't have a good feeling about sending me home to wait this out and she also said that this just doesn't happen...finding a heart beat at 39 weeks right away is the norm, it shouldn't have to be searched for and wasn't a good sign. I was instructed to go get some lunch and to produce myself at Labor and Delivery at 1:30 p.m. to get started.
I called Rob and gave him the heads up, I was still crying and scared. Rob wasn't too happy with my emotional state, but was able to calm me down, and told me he would meet me there in a few hours.
I went down to L&D, got checked in and proceeded to wait. They hooked me up to monitors and watched the baby for awhile and actually tried to talk me out of the induction, but I wasn't budging. At 3 p.m. they hooked me up to Pitocin and there was no turning back. Rob came at 6 p.m. and the contractions were just starting to get painful and much closer together. We walked for a little bit in the halls, but that even got hard to do, as I felt like I was getting hit every 30 seconds. My main plan for pain control, besides movement, was to labor in water. Wouldn't you know it, Labor and Delivery was absolutely slammed, and the ONLY room they had available was a room with a shower! UGH! So, at about 7 p.m. I couldn't handle walking any more, and there was no tub to float mindlessly in, so they brought me a birthing ball and I sat on that and rocked while the hot water from the shower beat down on my back. I had the ball sitting right over the drain and ended up flooding the entire bathroom...most awesome... I hit transition in there, and I have to say...it hit hard! I couldn't handle the pain and became extremely uncooperative. As usual, Rob had his hands full trying to keep me focused, and he was doing a pretty good job assuring me that this pain was getting me closer to my goal and that I was almost done. I didn't feel almost done, but I knew that I was DONE feeling like this, so I asked for an epidural. I said I would forgo one if I was at a 9 (then it's too late!) Angel, the midwife, checked me again..I was a good stretchy 7 cms. But I wasn't a 9, so I was done! I returned to my bed to await the anesthesiologist...it was the worst 15 minutes of my life. I was out of my mind with the pain, but he finally came. It was about 9 p.m. at this point, and I was pretty sure that I still had a good 2 hours to go before I was finally finished. Dr. Kelly Meyer administered the epidural, and he let me remain lying down while he worked. I don't think it was the most optimal positioning for him, and I couldn't remain as still as he wanted me to, so he had to stick me at least 4 times before the catheter was finally placed. He pushed the first bolus of medication in and I felt instant relief, and I was also instantly quiet and that made everyone else in the room laugh....I only said one word...."warm". Dr. Meyer cleaned up all his goodies, and the nurses and midwife set about positioning me in the bed. I was useless at this point with my legs feeling like inflated blimps, but I tried to help with my arms...it kind of worked. Anyway, they got me positioned, and Angel took a peek down at the business end of things, she looked up at me and then at the nurses..."um...umm....weeeellll...she's right there!" She said "maybe two pushes, she's coming folks!" It was a flurry of equipment at this point..Angel was trying to get her gown on and gloved up, there wasn't any time to break the bed down, she just got covered and sat down on the end of the bed and caught the baby as she quite literally just dropped out! The only thing I was aware of was the extreme amount of activity in the room, then the next thing I knew, Rob was at my side telling me he could see the head, then the head was out, then Angel lifted the baby up and onto my belly and I closed my hands around the smallest most perfect little thing I had ever seen. She was warm, squirming and screaming for all she was worth. The next thing I felt was this warm little river flowing down my side as she peed on me, and some warm gooey stuff in my hand that was covering her bum. Well, at least I knew she wasn't broken! About 15 minutes later, the placenta delivered and it was discovered that I had two lobes, so there quiet possibly could have been twins in the beginning, and also my placenta was starting to deteriorate, which explained the scare we had in the morning. It was a good thing we brought her when we did! So, after 6.5 hours of labor, we got ourselves a fine healthy, albeit little, girl!

Haedyn Janae Fox arrived March 31st, 2009 at 9:31 p.m. weighing 6 lbs. 13 ozs. and measuring 19 inches long. She is proving to be a quiet, mellow little thing who likes to sleep a lot so far. We are happy to have her and she is well loved!

The frustration sets in....

At week 36 of this pregnancy, the midwife I saw that day put in my chart that I was to be induced at 39 weeks if conditions were 'favorable'. I've been jinxed.....I have had non-stop contractions since that point, but none of it is 'changing' me to a more 'favorable' state. I GIVE UP!
I lost five pounds, and the midwife today told me that I am 70% effaced..but shut tight as a drum. I now have the cast iron cervix and the incredible floating baby...she won't drop. And if she doesn't drop and apply some pressure to my 'girly parts', then heaven knows how long she will be in there! The midwife also informed me that fifth pregnancies often go this way...lots of useless uterine irritability and little to no progress....mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmkay'....thanks!
In other news, I have officially taken leave of the hospital. My nurse manager and I agreed that it would be better for everyone if I started my maternity leave now, so I can come back that much stronger in about a month or so. She offered me a total of 14 weeks off....I don't think I need that much. I may take 8, tops. When I come back, there will be a high need in maternity, and I will finally get to cross-train, so that definitely has me looking forward to returning!
Even though I have been through the birth process a few times, I still find myself getting just a wee bit nervous as to how I'm going to handle it this time. If I am already in this much pain...how the heck am I going to deal with it when it's 'for real'? Will I even know? I am starting to get to the point where I can almost ignore the contractions, because I know they aren't doing anything to pay attention to. About the only thing that might get my attention is my water breaking...that I might have to do something about!
Sorry for the whine, folks....the wait is on.....for how long? Who knows?

OH MY HOLY FREAKIN' OUCH!

I went in for my external version today...it was one of the most excruciatingly painful moments of my life! They turned her...it took a half an hour to do so, she was VERY stubborn about being moved! I about ripped Rob's hand off, it hurt that bad!

It turns out that she was in a frank breech position, meaning that if I went into spontaneous labor and she just happened to be born, her butt would make it's entrance first, with her legs folded in front of her face. She had her little head tucked up right underneath my heart...guess she liked the sound..maybe I will try a ticking clock once she arrives and see if she sleeps through the night...

I went in to see my midwife a couple of hours later. I thought she might have flipped right on back to her former position, and the midwife could not tell by palpation if the head was still down. So they popped me into an ultrasound really quick..and she was still head down. All I can say is...PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE stay there!!! I will do almost anything to avoid a C-section...but if they have to do this again..then they are inducing me immediately afterwards!!! I swear I am going to have bruises on my belly for days!! Tonight is definitely a Lortab night!

Directionally Challenged Baby

I went in yesterday for yet another ultrasound to check the baby's size. She is not quite 7 lbs, + or - 13 ounces......AND.......she's breech. I am scheduled to go in on Tuesday for an external version, which I am NOT looking forward to! You see, even the midwife doing the simple act of rolling the doppler over my belly causes me pain, and this procedure is going to be 100 times the pressure! The doctor told me that there was a good chance that my water would break during the procedure, as well as a risk of placental abruption (placenta tearing from uterine wall - VERY BAD!)

End result....if all the drama mentioned above actually does happen, then I am whisked downstairs for an emergency C-section. I am thinking that the worst that will happen is that I will have a VERY sore belly for a couple of days. Maybe, if I am lucky, this kid will just decide to flip on her own and I can just forgo all the aforementioned drama!

So, everyone....start sending your good vibes this way...turn...turn...turn...

'Baby Door update"

I am now in the weekly check mode..I am almost done! The midwife checked me and I am 60% effaced, baby is still ballotable, and no dilation has happened. Upon palpation, baby is found to be between 5-6 lbs. Which is on the large side for this point. The midwife suggested that I might want to consider induction at 39 weeks to keep the weight manageable. I told her that there was absolutely NO way that I would consider a chemical induction! She told me that they would just break my water if I was 2-3 cm dilated and let things take their course. I agreed to that. So, whether I go on my own, or am induced, this kid is coming by the end of the month!