Holiday Visit to Utah

Early in the month of November my Grandma got pneumonia and was doing quite poorly, then on top of that she got shingles.  Her care plan was that she didn't want to go to the hospital or have medical treatment. Grandma seemed by all accounts to be on her way out. Then she woke up lucid and said, "I want treatment".  So they gave her a shot of antibiotics and said within the next few days they'd know if she would recover or not.  She recovered! We talked with her a few times and facetime and felt like we should visit her.  We had a feeling she wasn't going to die this time around, we weren't sure and we really wanted to see her again before she gets another bout of illness.

Imagine our surprise when we arrived and she seemed elated to see us and remembered us vividly and clearly! She was thrilled to see our family, I think she has a soft spot for us because of all the time we spent with her when we lived in their basement the first 7 and a half years of our marriage.  Especially she has a soft spot for Charlie, the little scoundrel would sneak up there when he was supposed to be in bed and hang out with Great Grandma. She loved it.  We tried to visit her every day, I think we only missed one day.  I hope this isn't the last time we see her but if it is we had some good long talks

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I should explain that picture above.  Grandma had a dream where Grandpa came to get her but she told him she needed a few more minutes.  

 On the second day of visiting her the older kids left with my mom for a bit.  So Brent and I had some time alone with Grandma and Izzy.  Grandma doesn't know Izzy as well as our other kids.  Grandma saw the laughter and light in Izzy, then Grandma started crying because she reminded her of her dad. It was sweet.

Izzy was good about being held by Grandma.  Here they are both kicking back. Izzy with her bottle and Grandma with a naughty treat of an ice cream bar.  Her blood sugar was high the whole time we were there.  Sigh.

When I found out Grandma could be dying I wrote this short story that I might illustrate some day.

***

 “Sneaking up the Stairs” 

There once was a little boy with a great grandma and he was lucky enough to live in her basement. All that separated him from adventure and fun was a staircase. As often as he could, up those stairs he would climb where Grandma was waiting to play. She’d tell him a story from her own childhood as he ate Tootsie Rolls by the gallon. She’d take him for rides on her walker, flying down the hall as fast as a jet fighter. Giggles and laughter could often be heard as they battled unseen monsters. 

When that little boy learned how fun it was to draw, he decided he wanted to make books. He’d draw and dictate she would write his words and help him tape the pages together with cardboard as the covers.

Grandma was his best friend, she made his dreams come true. When he was supposed to be in bed, hoping his parents wouldn’t notice, up the stairs he would sneak to sit and chat with Grandma, and maybe sneak a treat or two. That boy and his grandma what love they shared. A bond that will last for forever.

***

While we were visiting on the last day of the trip Brent asked Grandma to get out her poetry.  She really had quite the gift.  She thinks no one wants to hear it, but we really did love it.

The weather was beautiful on the first day of our trip so Brent decided we should take the kids to Temple Square rather than going there just the two of us.  My parents and those from Nate and Emily's families who could joined up with us. We got kinda grumpy on the way there but we decided to change our attitudes and had a great time.

Our eternal family, here where it all began 12 years ago on our first date.

 We just love this baby girl of ours.  I hope she was warm enough, it was so cold! Griz ditched his coat halfway through and so I draped it over her and she fell right to sleep.
Griz ditching his coat was very funny to Brent and I.  If only he was in a captain america shirt.  When he was 2 years old we took the kids and Griz, wearing his cap america suit, was crazy running around Temple Square. Running through the pansies. Throwing pebbles.  Just crazy. He wouldn't wear his coat either that time.  Griz was running around just as much this time, luckily no flowers were trampled or rocks thrown, but he ran through empty fountains and up on every ledge he could find.

The kids just loved spending time with their Grandma Debbie. Unfortunately I didn't get many pictures of her but this one is super cute. And it's super funny, Izzy is SO big. And her older cousin is so itty bitty. 

We were having fun introducing Brent to his new nephew.  Izzy got jealous when Brent was holding another baby and she Brent got to hold them both.  I just had to photograph Heidi and Mom photographing Brent. Made me laugh.

Izzy had her arm around him and was kissing/eating his head. I caught it right as she was pulling away.

The kids love their grandma Ellen! And this is the only pic I got! The babies get all the attention!

But this is why... 

adorable.

We didn't get to spend as much time with everyone as we would have liked and we didn't see everyone we wanted to.  We did fit in a double date with our friends the Morgans. It was fun to catch up with our old kitty corner neighbors.  We miss them and their kids.

We made homemade mints and toffees one of the nights and then sang Christmas carols afterwords.  It was a room full of great singers, especially Taran. I always feel so happy when I hear Taran sing.  He requested I am a Child of God.

We wanted to see John and Heidi a bit more so we met them for lunch at a new greek place out by their place (Santorinis) it was pretty good but the best part was chatting with them. The boys just adore John and love doing top 10 lists with him.  I wonder if they'll ever run out of things to do for top 10.  It's so funny.

Izzy's ringlets were on point today so I couldn't stop photographing her while we were chatting.

John ordered some spicy peppers with his meal. He told Chico he'd give him a dollar if he ate the pepper. Chico did it bravely and it didn't bother him too badly. Griz decided he could do it for a dollar too. 

After lunch we went up to Grandpa Hatch's. Sanna got a Hatchimal for Christmas. She asked for this picture.

Then when she found out you have to keep the egg warm she was hilarious as she wrapped it in her coat, I just had to phtograph it. Griz and her took such good care of it.

While we were sitting there a bunch of deer went through their yard and Griz was so excited to photograph them.

Then we went to Brent's moms house for a Christmas party. It was fun to chat with everyone and we loved playing the game Heidi planned.

It was SOOO great to see my sister Jenni. We have sure missed her and Matt and Owen. They moved to Indiana so during my summer visits I didn't get to see them.  It worked out for us to visit at the same time! AMAZING!

5 great months

Izzy has been with us for the last 5 months and it has just been so much fun having her in our family.  We feel lucky every single day to see her smiles and her.

We had a baby!

My last two pregnancies my amazing doctor in Utah (he's the best of the best) had me get induced at 39 weeks to help prevent preeclampsia since I'm at a high risk for it due to my history.  So with my new doc here in our rural town of Coos Bay I had talked with her about that same plan and she had agreed to it. So we had planned my parents trip here with my 39 week induction in mind. The Hospital changed it’s policy about a month ago though and firmly denied my doctors request to induce me at 39 weeks. My doctor was awesome and really wanted to help me as much as she could. She stripped my membranes at my 39 week appointment and told me that if I wanted to I could continue to come in every day that week until it put me into labor. Tuesday’s membrane sweep only resulted in Braxton Hicks that fizzled out by dinner time. I woke up during the night with intense back pain but that also went away. The next morning I had a really hard time getting out of bed. I was just so depressed. In the back of my head I knew it could possibly be that day but I felt like I couldn’t get my hopes up. I had a hard time feeling motivated to shower or anything. I however did try to read my scriptures and pray a lot that morning as I was trying to get out of bed and I had the thought to put the picture of the Savior as the screen on my phone. I think that really helped me. I helped me throughout the day and the coming days too.

 So I finally got up and showered and got ready. I went into my doctors office by myself and she stripped the membranes around 11:30. I walked over to Brent's office which is across the hall and was sitting down to write him a note since he was busy seeing patients and that’s when I felt my first REAL contraction. I left a note and went to get us some lunch from a taco place I’ve been wanting to try. I was somewhat confident in driving because I was just sure the contractions would fizzle out like yesterday and would be sporadic so I didn’t worry about driving too much. The pains were pretty far apart at the beginning there so I was able to get the food. Though I do wonder what the guy at the taco shop thought as I sat there with a pained look on my face as I waited for the food! Luckily Brent was able to come out and join me right then and we decided to drive over to Mingus Park to eat where the kids were playing with my parents. As I was sitting there scarfing my food down the contractions were getting closer together. And they were still just as painful as before. It was hurting so badly! Brent was trying to joke with me just like he normally does and was saying something about pushing the baby out. I turned and looked at him with extreme annoyance in my eyes and said “you’re really FUNNY today “. His eyes got real big and he said “woah! maybe you ARE in labor!” I guess there is a certain look on my face that he remembered from Sanna’s delivery. I decided it would be good for me to go with him back to work and go talk to Dr. V again since she’s across the hall from Brent's clinic. She let me right in because she had the afternoon free and told me to let her do a check on me again. She said let’s go ahead and have you go in to labor and delivery right now to monitor contractions and then I’ll come over in a few hours to break your water. She said don’t go straight over, walk around and give it some time so that there’s a difference between what I call to report to them and what they find when they check you. So I texted my mom and said I needed her.  I had originally thought, hey I’ll just walk from NBMC to the hospital.  That’ll for sure keep the contractions going.  But just standing around pacing at the front of the medical center waiting for my mom was so painful that I decided I’d just  let my mom drive me when she got there. (We decided for Brent to keep working so he could finish up seeing his patients for the day but would come over to the hospital as soon as possible) 

  I walked into labor and delivery and they put me in a triage room.  I kept pacing the room to make sure the labor wouldn’t go away while I waited.  They hooked me up to a monitor next and checked me.  When they checked me at labor and delivery they said it was around 3 to 3 1/2 cm. But the contractions were coming pretty regularly so they let me stay! Whenever I wasn’t hooked up to the monitors I continued to pace.  The labor was really strong in my back and luckily a nurse gave me a tip for easing back pain by bending over the bed and swaying.  After a couple hours in the triage room I’d moved to more like a four 4 1/2 so they moved me to a real room so I could get an epidural before Dr. V was to break my water. If I could go back in time this is the part I would change, I wouldn’t have had her break my water. It caused the labor to speed up too fast and it couldn’t keep up with my epidural pump which had been delayed a little bit due to a faulty pump machine. 

 I was having back labor and it hurt like crazy but I was able to practice some breathing techniques which helped but then I started getting the intense pressure which meant baby was in transition and it was almost time to start pushing but the epidural wasn't keeping up and I was still in a ton of pain, breathing techniques weren’t doing diddly squat at this point. We started pushing and after 15 minutes or so I think my mom suggested we see if we could press the epidural pump button again (you can only press it every 30 minutes). I had been thinking of it but was so delirious from pain that I hadn’t articulated it. So we tried it and the extra medicine came in! Within a few minutes I got a bit more relief which helped A TON! Seriously don’t know how I could have done it without the epidural relief. Back labor hurts and her head was just not wanting to come out!!!

 Back labor, why did it have to be back labor!?

 Brent was invited to help deliver her by Dr Vermaire. He was really excited to get to help deliver her. While he was getting his hospital gown on I didn’t push as hard so he’d have the opportunity to do it. Pushing was exhausting so it was nice to take a break every once in a while. That last 20 minutes was a little frustrating for me, everyone kept saying “she’s right there! You got this!” So I’d think “this is going to be the contraction, this is it!” And then she’d still be inside! After about a total of an hour of pushing I finally got her head out and the moment finally came that her shoulders cleared out of me it was such an amazing intense RELIEF, just indescribable. They put her straight on me and I couldn’t believe how big she was but still looked tiny at the same time. She was very healthy looking and it was of course love at first sight. 

 Words can't adequately describe the relief you feel once she's out of your body. Words also can't adequately describe the joy you feel seeing her for the first time and seeing her healthy and real and there with you!

 They waited a bit to weigh her so I could hold her and what not.  I could tell she was big but she still seemed just like a tiny little newborn to me so I was shocked when they finally weighed her and we found out she was 8 lbs 14 oz!!!  Another thing that shocked me was how HOT her body was when I was holding her straight after birth.  No wonder I've been dying of heat! 

She started rooting pretty early on and latched on SO easily. It was incredible.

Another incredible thing was seeing her awesome neck strength.  She pushed off my chest holding her head up and was looking around.  Brent caught it in this picture below.  She sure did not act like a brand newborn like we would have expected.

 We called my dad to bring the kids.  They got there pretty quickly, so excited to meet their new sister!!!!

 I just love the looks on their faces when they're meeting a new sibling. Brent captured it so well!

 They started begging to hold her and I realized I had been the only one holding her that whole time! I hadn't even let Brent or my mom hold her yet.  So we decided to let Daddy have the next turn before the kids got their turn.

In the past Brent and I wanted to have the birth just have him and I in it. This time around though we both felt like we wanted to have my mom there for it too.  So glad she was able to be there for it!

 Not sure what's up with Sanna's expression in this picture.  She really was happy to meet Izzy.

And I'm so glad we got Izzy here before my dad had to go home so he could meet her!

  As I’m taking care of her right now it amazes me how worth it, it all was. To have her here is so wonderful and worth the horrible 9 months and the pain of delivery and the pain I’m experiencing right now in my breasts. It’s all worth it, I just love her so much, she’s such a wonderful gift from God.

 The kids came and visited again before I stayed for another night. The doctor wanted her there two nights since she's a bigger baby.  

I realized we hadn't taken a family picture yet, my friends were visiting me so they took it for us.

The nurse offered to take this picture for us as we were getting discharged.  We won't talk about the temper tantrum I threw when there was a miscommunication between the doc and the nurses about whether we were going home that morning or not.  Luckily my ever-patient Brent got it resolved and no one was hurt in the process... ;)