My parents brought the kids to the hospital to meet our new baby last night. We told them the name we had decided on for the baby was Luke. They all loved it! They gathered around his bassinet. Andrew climbed up on a chair next to Luke’s bassinet and touched the baby. He laughed and squealed and pointed at Luke. So adorable! They each held Luke and gave him so many kisses. Surprising, his hair is still intact from all the stroking they gave him ;).
One. More. Time.
Baby number 5 is on his way… well… maybe. They haven’t officially checked us in yet. Jess is only 3.5 cm dialated, as of 7:20 pm and they say her contraction are far too apart, but they are very frequent and they are very painful.
Stay tuned for updates as they happen. Next dilation check is at 8:20 pm.
9:30 pm: When they tested her at 8:20, she had progressed to 4 cm. I then ran off to Burger King cause I didn’t have dinner. When I got back, our nurse, Alisha, said she was checking us in to Labor & Delivery. She said she couldn’t get a hold of any doctors (that’s reassuring), so she made the call to do it. Good choice.
At Burger King, I had a Bacon and Cheese Tendercrisp. As far as I can tell, the whole thing was just one big blob of fat.
Anyway, Jessica just got her IVs put in. That’s all for now. Check back soon.
10:24 pm: Epidural getting started.
10:58 pm: First epidural failed. At one point, while he was trying to place the needle, Jess involuntarily kicked her leg and the anesthesiologist had to pull the needle out. He later decided she needed a break and a different set of eyes.
While he was gone, her water finally broke and she is 7 cm. Epidural, attempt 2, is starting now.
11:17 pm: Epidural is done. They think he will be here relatively soon.
11:34 pm: Jess is super drowsy. Hopefully, we both can get a quick nap in. Our current nurse says an hour or two, but they are getting all the equipment and tools in and ready to go.
12:15: It’s pretty calm here. There was too much epidural medicine for her and it spread up to her chest. They sat her up and turned off the pump and she’s doing much better now.
1:35 am: Baby is born! Mom and baby are healthy. So far he has not been weighed, measured or named. Expect all that some time in the morning… hopefully…
9:54 am: Baby was born on 8/29/2015 at 1:10 am, weighing 7 lbs. 11 oz. and measuring 20.5″. Jess and I got some much needed sleep. Unfortunately, the side effects of the epidural are causing major headaches for her. We are awaiting more pain meds.
And here’s the long awaited pictures.
Girls are born pink, boys are born blue, right?
Grandma is proud of her cord cutting abilities.
Put. Me. Down!
Look at those little eyes
That’s what her hair looks like after 6 hours of labor! Unbreakable beauty.
I called Uhaul too late and they only had small trucks so we ended up renting a Penske 26′ truck that was harder to load. It had a power lift on the back that all the kids stood on to get a ride up and down.
The kids were happy helpers. They did such a great job staying out of the way and helping to carry things.
My sister and Joey came to help us along with so many men from church!
Haley turned eight yesterday on her birthday! I love this beautiful girl!
What a great husband! I love this guy!
A while ago I got this free organ at a garage sale. It turns out I am a sucker because it is very hard to give away an organ!! I have listed it on Craigslist and had no bites! So we left it on the curb with a free sign. I really hope someone takes it or we are going to end up paying to get rid of this thing!
So many garage toys!
Dan gave each kid a ride in the moving truck which they loved!
My sister and Joey stayed after the unloading and helped me unpack my whole kitchen! They worked all afternoon assembling beds and unpacking. And my friend Julie, who goes to church with us and now lives just around the corner from us, brought over homemade bread and jam! I feel so blessed for all the help we received! We have so many kind friends at church that gave up their time and energy and backs to help us!
There is still a lot to do, but it already feels like home!
We closed on our new house today! It is a beautiful brand new two story, four bedroom house. Here is the tour! Right inside the front door is a wide entry way and an office off to the left. The living room is straight ahead and has a beautiful view of our backyard and trees.
We have a gas fireplace in the living room.
The living room opens to the kitchen. The kids were so excited that we have a water dispenser. Emily calls it “the magic water spout like Leila has.”
Upstairs are all four bedrooms. Abby’s is the first one on the right that looks out over the street and to the lake across the street that will eventually be obstructed when they build a house there. But it is gorgeous for now!
Emily’s room is across from hers and looks out over the backyard.
The master bedroom and bathroom are my favorite part besides every other part! I can’t wait to get in my soaking tub.
Andrew seems blissfully unaware of everything!
The back of the house has window wells filled with toads! Huzzah for new pets that don’t require feeding, cleaning, or housing!
We went out to dinner to celebrate and then came back to our old house for our last night here. The kids camped out together in JZ’s closet until we eventually made them sleep in their own bed so they might actually fall asleep.
Tomorrow starts the two day process of moving in. I told Dan we should just leave everything behind. I like it empty and perfect. But I suppose we should at least have a change of clothes and maybe some food…
I love our new house and thank the Lord for this wonderful blessing.
Friday morning, Dan picked up the kids and brought them to the hospital to meet Andrew. They each brought the presents they had picked out for him and balloons they picked out with Aunt Jenny. They were really impressed with the buttons on my hospital bed and vaguely interested in their new baby brother. But after settling down a little they sat down and held their new baby.
The nurse gave them each stickers that said Big Brother or Big Sister and their own hospital bracelets.
Abby couldn’t take her eyes off of the baby. In every single picture we took, she has her eyes down looking right at Andrew’s face.
We ate lunch together in my room and the kids watched a little TV while playing with the up and down buttons on my bed. Then Dan was going to take the kids home to do a surprise. Emily wanted to stay with me at the hospital, so I said she could spend the afternoon with me. They would normally discharge me after the second night, but I really wanted to go home at the 24 hour mark, so they said as long as all his tests came back good we could do that.
Emily and I spent a lovely afternoon cuddled in my bed watching TV and reading on my kindle and taking care of the baby. We ordered snack food up to our room and I took a nap. The doctor took Andrew to get his circumcision. She said he was a champ and was happy and calm when he came back 20 minutes later.
Dan and Abby and JZ came back around 4:30 in the afternoon. The nurse took Andrew away for his final tests and weigh in. He did great and they said as soon as they could get discharge orders we could go home.
All ready to go home! We bundled him in his cozy car seat and put a car seat cover over the top to protect him from the crazy frigid winter night.
On the ride home, the check engine light was on in our van and the engine was not shifting right, revving at the wrong times. As we got off the freeway, the drive light started blinking and the traction control light came on and wouldn’t go off. We knew something was really wrong with the car and just hoped we could make it home. As we rounded the last turn to home, the car started losing power and wasn’t making it up the tiny incline very well. The streets are still unbelievably icy to top it off. The car was smelling so bad, but we made it into our garage. I’ve never been so glad to be home safely.
We spent a few hours loving on our new little guy in the delivery room before being transferred to a recovery room. He cuddled for a little bit and then was ready to nurse. He latched right on and nursed like a champ.
As soon as Andrew was done nursing, the first thing I did was order my dinner! I was so crazy hungry!
Later in the evening, Andrew got his first bath. He screamed to get his hair washed. But loved sitting in the warm water. After getting all dressed and wrapped up, he fell sound asleep. And so did Dan and I.
We’ve has babies in Bellevue, WA and Newport Beach, CA and now it’s time for St. Paul, MN! It’s -10 with a wind chill of -30°F and our baby boy is heading (head first, get it?) our way.
Be sure to keep hitting refresh as we will be updating with all the interesting tidbits.
1:00 am: Jess wakes up to contractions. Eventually she wakes me up and tells me she thinks the baby’s coming. I give her a Father’s blessing and tell her that today is the day and instruct her to go to hospital, but she doesn’t want to be wrong so she refuses to call the hospital.
2:00 am: Jess calls the hospital and they tell her to come in. I still have to convince her to actually go in. Joe Walker, from church, comes to watch the kids.
2:30 am: We are caught in a massive traffic jam. Not really, it’s the middle the night, even the rats are asleep… or frozen.
3:00 am: We are at the hospital and they are deciding whether to admit us. Jess is 3 cm, same as last Friday, but they want to keep us for another 2 hours to see how things are progressing.
5:00 am: I awoke after a 2 hour nap while Jess read on her Kindle. Things haven’t been progressing as well as hoped, but because this is the 4th kid (and they come faster) and Jess has Strep B (not the same as Strep Throat) she needs to be on antibiotics, so they’ve decided to admit us. Yeah!
6:00 am: Jess gets some lab work done. While I’m standing with her I start getting light-headed and dizzy and have to sit down. I for sure would have passed out if I didn’t. Nurse Kim, said it was likely due to lack of sleep and brought me some OJ.
7:00 am: Jess is itchy on her head and neck and has turned bright red. Apparently, the antibiotics can cause this and is known as Red-Man Syndrome.
8:00 am: Jenny West takes over watching the kids. Apparently, when the kids woke up and didn’t find their parents, but, instead, someone else, they just carried on with on their normal lives and never questioned anything.
10:15 am: Jess just got an epidural. Previously, they were planning on breaking the water at 10:45, but it looks like that might get pushed back due to a lot of craziness with other pregnancies.
Jessica Before Going to the Hospital
12:00 pm: Change of plans. Because Jess is not progressing, still 3 cm, they decided to go with Pitocin instead of breaking her water. That is done now, so hopefully things will start moving along now.
2:00 pm: They’ve upped the Pitocin a couple of times. They started at 4 and we are now at 8. Jessie is finally dilated up to 4 or 4.5 cm.
3:00 pm: They broke Jess’s water. Apparently, this gives the baby more room to move down and releases some hormones to get things moving. We should really start moving now.
4:00 pm: We just posted a little game on Facebook to guess the baby’s name.
4:15 pm: 9.5 cm! Let’s do this!
4:32 pm: Andrew Lee Friedman is born weighing 8lbs 5oz and a length of 20″. Lots of brown curly hair and nice chubby cheeks. And boy can he scream!
Oh one more thing, Jess helped guide her own baby out and then cut the umbilical cord. She’s the mom who can do anything.
That’s all folks. Thanks for reading.
I haven’t written on this blog for almost a year, so it is high time for a post. And it better be a good one after that long of a break. So here it is… my brother’s wedding in Utah. It doesn’t get better than this! Ryan’s beautiful new wife is Camille. We spent the days leading up to the wedding getting to know her. The kids loved her and I am so happy that my brother landed such a wonderful woman.
Before the wedding, Uncle Ryan gave each of the girls a necklace with a little crown on it and gave JZ a tie clip with the scriptures on it.
JZ was so proud to be the ring boy. He stood perfectly with the pillow next to Ryan during the ceremony. Emily and Abby were flower girls. Emily threw her rose petals with flare as she walked down the aisle. Abby just held her basket, but still walked down the aisle and looked beautiful.
The kids met my grandma and grandpa a few days before the wedding, but we got a picture of our four generations together at the wedding.
I should have taken more pictures with all the cousins that were there. It was so wonderful to see so many of them!
We drove out to Chicago to spend Thanksgiving with Dan’s mom. The kids love going to Grandma Nancy’s house and did really well on the car ride this time. After we got the turkey in the oven, we made these fun apple turkeys.
JZ dubbed his creation the “Spiky Turkey”. Don’t poke your eye out!
Look at that beautiful bird! And the beautiful grandma!
Betty, Mike, Maria, Mark and Carly came over for dinner!
We played pin the feathers on the turkey
And celebrated JZ’s birthday!
And then everyone got a bag of gifts from Grandma Nancy!
The birthday boy!
Grandma took us to the circus! It was dragon themed. Everyone loved it!
All the kids got light up wands/swords. Abby kept trying to follow the light on the ground and was turning in circles.
The other day, Emily sat me down on the couch and handed me a bucket. We pretended to eat popcorn out of the bucket and she told me we were going to watch a show. To my surprise she started describing the show – “there’s the dragon sticking his head out!”, “here comes the circus man”, “watch the bikes, mommy”. It was so cute. So we popped some real popcorn, ate it out of our buckets and continued watching our pretend circus. Thanks for a great trip, Nancy!
The World Was Never Ready 