Baby Makes 5

Posting the birth story for my own records more than anything...

Zachary Scott was born on December 20, 2014 at 11:13 pm. He weighed 8 pounds 13 ounces (exactly 4000 grams) and was 20.5 inches long. He has lots of black hair and looks a lot like his siblings. 

My original due date was 12/13/14 and everyone thought it would be awesome if he came that day. I wasn't set on him coming that day, but by 39 weeks I was definitely ready for him to come and thought it would be fun. I had a midwife appointment on 12/12 and planned on asking her to strip my membranes, which sent me into labor with the first two kids. Greg had already arranged to take off work for the last 3 weeks of the year, I was already 4 centimeters dilated and 50% effaced, and I had a gut feeling this baby was going to be heavier than my last two. Since I had been planning a pain medication-free labor from the minute I found out I was pregnant, I was not super excited about the prospect of pushing out a super big baby. All of those factors combined made me want to be done and ask the midwife to strip my membranes. She agreed and said she was able to do a good job of it. By the time I got to the car, I was having cramps and by the time I got home from picking up the kids, they were painful. I took it easy for a couple hours as Greg wasn't even home from work yet. The rest of the night was normal and I completely expected to wake up in the middle of the night in labor like I had with the other kids. But I didn't. The next morning I went to Target and Costco. Still no labor. I figured it wasn't going to work at that point and was pretty frustrated that I had expected it to work. Every day over the next week I had frequent, sometimes painful, contractions that never regulated and never came less than 5 minutes apart, so I knew it was never real labor. My midwife even stripped my membranes further on Tuesday and said I was now 5 cm. No labor. I lost my mucus plug over the course of a few days. No labor. I was then told to come in Saturday for a non-stress test (typical protocol after 40 weeks). 

Saturday came and I told Greg that if the midwife wanted to induce me, I wasn't going to argue. I wanted to deliver without pain medication and was nervous about being induced, but I was so uncomfortable and in so much pain from pelvic pressure and contractions that I was ready to be done. I went grocery shopping that morning, came home and had lunch, and went to the hospital for the non-stress test. The baby looked great and the midwife checked me and stripped my membranes again. She offered to induce me because she knew we wanted to be home for Christmas, I was exactly 1 week overdue, and she was a little nervous about the baby being big. I said okay but needed to come back since Greg wasn't with me. She talked with the nurses and I was to come back at 7 pm. I went home and got everything ready and my visiting teacher was ready to come stay with our kids. We got to the hospital a little after 7 and got into a room. I was Group B Strep positive again, so I needed antibiotics before delivering. Standard protocol is to receive one dose of antibiotics at least 4 hours before pushing and another dose every 4 hours during labor. Since both of my previous labors were about 12 hours of active labor, the midwife decided to give me one dose of antibiotics and then break my water to try to induce labor. The antibiotics got started around 8:30 and took a while to administer because the drip was so slow. 

I was checked again and still at 5 cm, 50% effaced, and baby was at a -3 station. The midwife broke my water at 9:30 and by the time I got cleaned up a bit, contractions had started hard and frequent. We were going to go walk but the contractions were already too close together for that to be comfortable. I leaned over some pillows on the bed and Greg turned on Cupcake Wars on Netflix for me. It helped for a little bit, but then I couldn't just try to space out anymore. Greg was great at helping me breathe, change positions, offer distractions, etc. But I went through every coping technique I planned and the contractions were coming so close together that I was struggling. We called the nurse and she walked in, took one look at me and said "Okay, let's try some things." She got a birthing ball and that helped, I squatted at the end of the bed, I swayed back and forth while holding onto Greg, but the pressure and pain were intense very, very low in my pelvis. I told them I wanted to get in the tub and the nurse went to start it, but the drain stopper was having problems. She finally got it to stay down but a lot of water was still leaking and it filled very slowly. As I was getting in the tub, the nurse darted out of the room and came back with the midwife. I later found out that after she had watched me, she went and told the midwife she needed to come see me quickly. The midwife came in and sat with us and, after watching for a few minutes, agreed with the nurse that she should get the delivery stuff ready just in case. The nurse barely had time to start prepping things. A few minutes later I had an urge to push and told them so, so they helped me get out of the tub and back in the bed so the midwife could check me again. I was fully dilated and baby was at a +3 station. The charge nurse came in to help since the baby's stuff wasn't prepped yet. I started pushing on my left side and the baby's heart rate started decelerating. I moved onto my right side and his heart rate still wasn't steady after a few pushes, so they then had me move onto my hands and knees. The baby's heart rate was better in this position, but still decelerating a bit so I had to breathe into an oxygen mask between pushes. Pushing with each contraction didn't hurt as much as labor but I felt like the baby was moving slower than he should. It turned out the baby's right arm was up by his head, so it was difficult to get his head out. His head coming out just felt tight, not anything like the "ring of fire" I had heard about. Then after pushing the head and hand/forearm out, he wasn't budging more after a few pushes. They never said he was stuck or outwardly panicked, but the nurse's and midwife's tones made it clear they wanted the baby out NOW. They helped me turn back onto my right side and the change of position helped the baby turn as well and he was born within a few pushes. Labor, from water breaking to delivery, was 1 hour 45 minutes. 

Afterward, I just kept saying "I did it," in complete shock that I had delivered without pain medication and that it had gone SO fast. They let me hold the baby for a while, but when they finally weighed him and said he was 8 lbs 13 oz, I was pretty surprised he was that big. I let them take the baby to clean him up and Greg held him while I got cleaned up. I shook horribly after delivery but talking helped me stay more still so I basically droned on about nothing so I could stay still while being stitched up from a 2nd degree tear (same tear with all my kids). Since the antibiotics were basically pointless due to the fast labor, we had to stay in the hospital longer to watch for signs of infection, but the window for signs of infection has passed now and we're both great. He's a much different baby than our first two but the older kids are so in love and constantly ask to help and hold him. I am so grateful for another baby and that I got to experience this birth. I had always wanted to experience birth without pain medication, so I am relieved I got another chance and stuck it out even though I was nervous about being induced. We're so happy to be a family of five!

Laughing Together

I love watching the relationship between siblings of all ages, so I really love seeing the relationship form between Aurora and Derek. This is case in point of how Aurora can make Derek laugh by doing the simplest thing, even if he's been crying. Adorable. :)

Too Cute for Words

I know I am behind on posting about 10 different things but this is just too cute to postpone. Aurora watched way too many movies while I was finishing school, and one of her favorites is Sleeping Beauty (perfect, right?). Her favorite scene is where Princess Aurora is walking in the woods and starts dancing and singing "Once Upon A Dream." She even makes me get up with her and pretends to dance. I say pretend because, really, all she does is spin in circles, holding the side of her shirt like Princess Aurora does her dress, and I sing along. Eventually I pick her up and we spin until we're dizzy and fall down, after which she laughs hysterically. Then today, I caught this. Make sure your sound is on. Sorry it's sideways. 

And because both my kids are too cute, here's an updated picture of Derek. He's one of the most social and alert babies I have ever met, until you get the camera out. Then he's usually stoic as a rock. This was a rare social-in-front-of-the-camera moment.

Exhaustion

Aurora doesn't get a nap on Sundays because of our church time. Poor girl, but oh so cute.

The Quiet Book (aka secret weapon)

I wanted to do this post right after my family reunion last June. Then I found out I was pregnant, then my mom died, then I was sick for 20 weeks, etc. So, now I'm posting it! 

When I was pregnant with Aurora (yes, that long ago), my sister-in-law, Cathi, asked if I wanted to make a quiet book with her. She found this blog, www.quietbook.blogspot.com, that outlined ideas and instructions for a quiet book. We thought it was a great idea and decided to start over Christmas. The idea is that if you make it together, it is faster and easier. Once you learn how to make one page, it is easy to make duplicates of that page. We both decided to make one for a friend, so we each chose 12 pages and made 4 copies of that page. When we finished, we swapped and everyone had 12 different pages. Well, we started over Christmas but quickly realized this was a lot more work than we thought. Cathi managed to finish her pages right before Aurora was born (just 6 months later). Unfortunately, I took 9 months after Aurora was born (15 months after we started) to finish the pages for her. I finished my friend's book quickly, but mine took an additional 3 months and I finished it right before Aurora turned 1. In reality, it probably took about 4-6 months of working on it 3-4 times a week. I wouldn't blame Cathi if she never asked me to do a craft with her again.

But now, it's so worth it. Since Greg is in the bishopric (there is a bishop and two counselors leading each Mormon congregation-Greg is a counselor), he doesn't sit with us in church. Trying to keep a toddler quiet and occupied while tending to a new baby is  interesting, and this book helps so much. Aurora is only allowed to have it at church, on airplanes, and in doctor's offices. So, she doesn't get it often and therefore doesn't get bored. I also don't have all the pages in there right now because a few are too advanced for her skill level. As she and Derek grow, I'll alternate which pages are in there so there's always a couple "new" pages when they tire of the others. I'll also probably make a few additional pages as the years go on because there are just so many cute ideas out there!

All of my pages (4 copies of 12 different pages), laid out:

My Mom suggested dark denim for the covers, then graciously let us use her sewing/embroidery machine to embroider the stars and our name. 

Flowers, also teaches buttoning and colors. I made this page.

Traffic light/road page. The poem on the traffic light page says ""Red on top, green below. Red says 'Stop!' Green says 'Go!' Yellow says 'Wait!' Even if you're late!" The road page has a toy car (Greg wanted it to be a Prius, like our real car), a school, a church, a temple, and three houses. And a garage to house the car. Teaches traffic light meaning, pretend play, colors, velcro (traffic light) and snapping (garage). I made both these pages.

Closet and play people. I'm particularly proud of the men's dress shirts, football, basketball, scriptures, and the Y (BYU) shirt. Teaches pretend play, zippering (closet). The girl's hair can also be braided. I made both these pages.

Shoe/telephone pages. Teaches tying the shoe, numbers, and snapping (phone). Cathi made the shoe and I made the phone.

Letter/Mailbox page. Teaches writing, pretend play. Also a really good place to store extra paper/pencil. I made both these pages.

Noah's Ark/Teepee page. The animals in the ark are IKEA finger puppets, but I couldn't find a Noah and his wife figurine anywhere, so I made some. Teaches zippering (ark and teepee), learning animals, pretend play, using a compass. I made the ark and altered a store-bought compass, Cathi made the teepee page.

Letters. Teaches....letters and spelling. Big surprise, huh? I'm missing the J. There are multiples of certain letters so we can spell names. Cathi made both these pages.

Oven/cupcake pages. Aren't these just super cute? Teaches baking, counting, pockets, pretend play, colors. Cathi made both these pages.

Numbers. Teaches...numbers. I know, shocker. Teaches numbers, colors, velcro. Aurora can already match all the numbers. Cathi made both these pages.

Picnic/blanket. Teaches table setting, velcro, weaving, over/under concept. I'm missing the spoon. Cathi made the picnic page and I made the blanket page.

Fishing/bear. The sign says "Help Peter catch some fish." (As in the apostle Peter). Teaches buttoning, pockets, colors, tying. I made the fishing page and Cathi made the bear.

Shapes/baseball mitt. Teaches shapes, matching, snapping, velcro (baseball), pretend play, pocket (your hand can go in the mitt). Aurora can already match all the shapes. I made the shapes and Cathi made the baseball mitt.

Apple tree. Teaches snapping, pockets. Aurora loves apples and therefore loves this page. Cathi made this page.

Help and Family Pictures

Since my mom wasn't here to help with a new baby this time, my sister-in-law, LaDonna (she married my oldest brother), offered to fly out to help me for a few days. Her kids are both in school this year and my brother works from home, so I had no hesitation in accepting her offer. My sister, Erin, had her baby just three weeks after Derek was born, so LaDonna came out to help me first, then went down to St. George to help my sister before flying home. We're very grateful to her family for letting us have her! Derek really prefers to be held to sleep well, so her help was great. She held Derek, cleaned, cooked, held Derek, entertained Aurora, took Aurora outside to play every day, did my dishes a LOT, gave baths, read books, and generally helped me keep my sanity. And on her last day here, she helped us get family pictures done thanks to my other sister-in-law, Cori (she married Greg's brother, Jeff). Aurora was hilarious because she would copy whatever position Greg was in, but then she just started moving around on the bed like she knew exactly what a model is supposed to do in a photo shoot. So thank you, LaDonna,  for coming to help and for the awesome tie for Derek. And thank you, Cori, for the awesome pictures.

Video Post!

These are videos of Aurora I've slowly been acquiring and am now posting them all.  I love watching her dance to her favorite cartoon (Super Why). You can thank her teachers at church for teaching the Five Little Monkeys song. The laser pointer is actually Rajah's toy, but obviously it entertains them both. And apparently we count to three quite a bit around here because she picked that up without us teaching her.