Welcome, Maren!

Our sweet baby girl, Maren Rose, came into the world on Monday, July 7th, 2014 at 9:57pm.  We couldn't be happier to welcome her into our family.

I went in for my weekly check up and ultrasound on Wednesday, July 2nd, Dylan's birthday.  After a fairly routine ultrasound complete with a growth profile, since I was hoping that I wouldn't be coming back the next week, and a check up that showed very little process, the kids and I were set to make a follow up appointment for the following Monday, when Lindsey, Dr. Wagner's medical assistant, came back out to find me and let me know that Dr. Wagner needed to see me again.

After reviewing the ultrasound, Dr. Wagner saw that Maren's expected weight (5 lbs, 8 ounces) had dropped below the 10th percentile for someone at 38 weeks, indicating that she was not growing enough in utero and it was time for her to come out that day, if possible.  Dylan had made it quite clear to everyone at the clinic that it was his birthday and his party was scheduled for that evening, so that wasn't going to work.  Since the baby had passed all the biophysical indicators that the sonographer was looking for, Dr. Wagner was comfortable waiting until after the holiday weekend for me to be induced.  That gave me one last day of work to wrap up the loose ends and the long holiday weekend for John and I to pack for the hospital and prepare ourselves for our third baby.

The kids spent the Sunday night before at Nana and Papa's house so we wouldn't have to get them out the door on Monday morning too, so it was nice and quiet when John and I woke up on Monday morning.  I was told to call Maple Grove hospital on Monday at 6 am to make sure they had room before we headed to the hospital.  Fearing the worst, I called and there was space!  John and I got ready and left the house.

After a quick stop at Starbucks (what I thought would be my last meal before baby), we arrived at the hospital.  It felt strange leaving for the hospital with no strong contractions and no broken water.  It was kind of surreal that by the end of the day we'd have another baby and finally know if it was a boy or a girl.    

My nerves kicked as we were shown our delivery room.   Since it had been 5 years since I had done this, even the thought of the IV being put in scared me, much less the epidural or pushing out a baby! We started with the IV and Dr. Wagner was going to put in a balloon that helps to dilate the cervix, but I had made some progress over the weekend, so instead she broke my water to get things started.  After that, I was started on pitocin.

This is when alarms started going off.  The IV pump kept going off every 5 minutes saying the line was interrupted, which it wasn't.  After a couple hours of alarms, the pump was finally switched and didn't go off again.  But then the nurses were having a hard time finding the baby's heartbeat and they noticed that it would drop when I would have a contraction.  After a number of adjustments to the monitor and turning from one side to the other to get the heart rate up, I decided it was time to go for a walk.  I was feeling cooped up in that room after 6 hours of very little progress.

Walking helped a lot!  By the time we got back to the room, the contractions were much stronger and it was time to get the epidural.  I think at this point I was dilated to a 6 or 7.  For as scared as I was about the pain of getting the epidural, it was as easy as I thought it had been previously.   However, baby wasn't enjoying laying down again.  And while most babies thrive when mama is turned on her left side, our baby was only comfortable with me on my right side.  Her heart rate was still dropping noticeably enough during each contraction.

At this time I was hooked up to the IV and pitocin, a blood pressure cuff, and the contraction monitor.  Shortly after receiving the epidural, I also got a catheter and in utero monitor attached to baby's head to better monitor the heart rate, since the external monitor was causing us trouble.  I can't remember exactly at what point it was, but they also determined that I should receive some oxygen to help baby.  It was at this point that I started to get really nervous about baby's health.

Unfortunately, dilation stalled, just like it did with Reagan, after the epidural was given and I sat at a 6-7 until close to 8:00.  John and I passed the time reading and looking through the baby name books we brought for a boy name, just in case.  The nurse had us thinking it was going to be a boy because of the heart rate issues we were having.  She told us they call them "Wimpy White Boys" because the boys seem to have a harder time during labor.  Dr. Wagner had come to check on me after her other appointments at the clinic were done and went to grab dinner with Kim. It was funny to have them texting me while I was at the hospital asking if I had dilated any more while they ate dinner and talked about me!

What I didn't know was that Dr. Wagner was preparing the teams for a c-section upon her return.  I was happy to find out that I had dilated to an 8 while she was out and she was determined not to let me have a c-section.  So at an 8, I started to push with the hopes that my cervix would dilate to a 10 with the pressure from the baby.

For an hour, Dr. Wagner sat with us as I pushed through every contraction.  Eventually, we got to a 10 and baby was ready to come out.  What I wasn't ready for was the call to the special care team and the respiratory specialist.  The nurses all wore pager/intercom devices around their necks and my nurse put in the call to the special care team that we were ready for them, to which I heard the reply of "Are you ready for the C-section?"  That was when I found out Dr. Wagner hadn't had very high hopes of a vaginal delivery.  Because of the placenta/umbilical cord issues/baby's size, they were worried that something would be wrong and that she would need some extra care.

Maren didn't exactly fly out like her brother did, but it was significantly less pushing than we had to do with Reagan.  I would say I pushed for about 30 minutes and finally baby came out, screaming (and proceeded to cry for the next 4 hours)!!  Guess we didn't need the respiratory specialist, but I sure was glad they were there in case something really was wrong!

As she came out, Dr. Wagner grabbed her by the feet and held her upside down for us to see if it was a boy or girl.  At first I almost forgot that we didn't know, I was just so happy she had come out alive and crying!  When I looked and saw it was a girl, I started crying.  I was so relieved that everything was okay and it was a girl!  She was briefly put on my chest while John cut the umbilical cord and then swept away to the special care team to get weighed and cleaned up.

Our little peanut came out at a healthy 6 lbs, 1 ounce and 19 inches long with only a little hair and bright blue, alert eyes.  I couldn't believe how little hair she had after her brother and sister had healthy heads of hair at birth.  Had she been full term, I'm sure she would have been almost as big as Reagan who was only 6 lbs, 9 ounces, it's just that Reagan wasn't monitored with weekly ultrasounds when I was pregnant with her.

Maren - 2 Months

Maren turned 2 months old on September 7th and we headed to the doctor yesterday for her 2 month checkup.  Despite her small start, she is quickly making up for it!  Maren weighed in at 10 lbs, .08 oz and 22 inches long, nearly doubling in weight from her appointment on the Friday after she was born!

At 2 months, Maren:

• Sleeps 6-7 hours after falling asleep (however many times that is around 8 or 9 o'clock, so I don't necessarily get the same amount of sleep.
• Is super happy in the morning.  That is usually when we get the killer smiles :).
• Loves her changing table.  We call that her happy place! She always has big smiles for us when she is getting her diaper changed.
• Loves her mommy and her daddy, but he sometimes gets the confused, "who are you?" looks.
• Can hold her head pretty steady.  Not quite ready to sit up, but is pretty strong.
• Spends a lot of time in her car seat, driving big brother to school or running errands during our free time or bring big brother or sister to their different activities.
• Is a super easy baby.  We are very blessed to have such a sweet girl for our number 3.

Skating Lessons

Both kids have taken skating lessons: Dylan, earlier this year and Reagan at this time last year.  Finally!  We were able to enroll them in a class together and both kids were really looking forward to the chance to skate together with their friends E & E.  

The kids were all smiles before getting on the ice!

They had the kids all grab onto the wall when they first went out on the ice. 

Then the class divided into two groups.  It was kind of self-selecting . . . the kids who could stand up and the kids who couldn't.  You can see in the above picture that Dylan cheated slightly to be with Reagan and Ethan!!  Although he knows how to stand up and skate (he's fairly slow, but he doesn't fall down much), he gets pretty lazy on the ice and takes help where he can find it.  

Skating came back to Reagan a lot faster than I thought it would!  She's really improved over last year!

The three of the four kiddos :).  

Winter Fun!

It was so nice to have gorgeous weather in January, at least for a few days!  We were able to make two trips to the park for some ice skating and sledding before the rain came and then the extremely frigid temps.  

Even though the day was only in the low 20s, there was no wind and a bright sunshine, so we felt much warmer than it was.  

John and Reagan skated together to get her used to being on the ice again. 

Dylan did some practicing with a chair (even though he really doesn't need it).

Reagan decided she needed a chair too (she didn't). 

Dylan soon told us his feet were tired and after a few rides on the chair while Daddy and Mommy pushed him, he wanted to take his skates off.  He was more interested in pulling the sled and digging in the snow than skating.  (And yes, there is a perfectly good hockey rink that is not flooded, next to the tiny skating pond the city created and flooded instead as a consolation prize due to budget cuts).

Next the kids and John headed to the sledding hill.  It was the perfect set up to have it all in one place!  The hill was just the right size for a 3 and 5 year old.  

Each kid took turns going down with Daddy.

Then we felt comfortable enough to send them down together.  This is my favorite sequence of pictures showing just how much pure joy the kids were having going down that hill: 

Happy

Happy

Happy

Happy

Happy

Face plant right in the snow

But still happy!

I've never been one to enjoy the outdoors in the winter, but I think we found our new favorite activities!

Happy New Year 2013!

To celebrate the end of 2012 and the beginning of the new year, we wanted to keep our celebration pretty low key.  I knew the chances of me making it to midnight were pretty slim, let alone the kids!  Instead we had a kid friendly party with two other couples to ring in the New Year as the clock struck 10 o'clock. 

Dylan dressed up in his New Year's garb.

All the boys!

Celebrating with a New Years toast at the strike of 10!

After the guests had left and the kids went to bed, John and I managed to celebrate the New Year with the east coast and called it a night.  Man, I sound old.  We really don't party like we used to anymore!!

Playing with Picasa

Gotta love those long, thick eyelashes.  She is so lucky!

 



Pinterest Inspiration

John is getting mighty sick of Pinterest this holiday season and it's only Dec. 2nd!  Our kids were both ready for bed early tonight, so I thought I would try out one of the photo ideas that I saw on Pinterest.  Here are two of my favorites out of the many (we took 161 pictures to get these two!).  They are by no means professional pictures, but good enough for me.

 

 

 

Not sure why this one isn't going vertical, but I'll try to fix it later.  Will be cool to see how these print out, if I ever get around to it!