Check you out!

Here is Meg getting inspected...

she had a perfect Apgar score, such an over achiever

She is my smallest baby.

The nurse was concerned about the postion of her right foot. It bends at the ankle in a awkard angle. Her pediatrician looked at it and said that we will keep an eye on it. He said that he would be more worried about it if it was stiff or hard to move, but the joint and tendons are really flexible so that is a good sign. It could be that she was just postioned that way before she was born. It might mean that there is a problem with her hips. She will have an X-ray when she is about 4 months to check out her hips.

Meg nursed really well at 5pm about an hour after she was born for 20 min on one side and 10 min on the other. But then she was absolutely not interested in eating for the next 14 hours. She would even be awake and I would try to feed her and she just stuck her tongue out to stop any attempt. She ate again at 7am the next morning. Since she was so young the doctors were not that worried, I guess it is not too uncommon. I don't remember any of my other kids not wanting to eat for so long.

Meg getting the scrub down.

Whew...time for a nap!

Welcome to the World

Meg Elizabeth

May 6th 2008

3:55 pm

6 pounds 9 ounces

I really wanted this baby to come on her due date...and that she did!! I woke up May 6th having a contraction that was definitely painful. I continued having very sporadic contractions all morning. They varied between 15 min to an hour apart. I didn't think that there was much going on because they were not getting closer or regular. So I took Emma to dance class, and then got her ready for preschool and then went to my regularly scheduled prenatal visit. They asked if I had any contractions I said that I had a few but not anything regular. She checked me and said that I was dilated to a 4-5 and that I should go to the hospital. She said that as soon as she breaks my water I would have the baby. As I was leaving she said she would call the hospital and tell them that I was on my way. I said great, I'll see you soon.

Unfortunately I forgot my cell phone. So I called Eric at 2:00 from the doctor's office waiting room on my way out. Eric told his patient that he had to go and we met at our house. I packed a bag while Eric dropped Elijah off at Tara and Mickey Hale's and we were off to the hospital.

We got to the hospital at about 3pm. Eric took this picture of me when we were checking in. At 3:10 they still hadn't admitted us we were in one of those monitoring rooms where they make sure you are actually in labor. As soon as someone came in I asked for my epidural and they said that they had to check me and monitor contractions and yada yada...I told them that I had just come from my OB and that I was dilated to at least a 4-5 and she was the one that sent me here (my Dr. hadn't called ahead to let them know I was on my way which is kind of par for the course with her). So they went ahead and skipped the monitoring room and admitted me. I told them I really wanted an epidural so the nurse tried to get blood and the IV as quickly as she could...I guess they have to do some tests on the blood before they can give you an epidural. Once the IV was in the contractions were every 5 min. and very intense. The nurse checked me and shook her head, and told me that I am at an 8. I can feel my eyes bulging as I ask "what does that mean?" She says that she'll try to get the epidural but we might not make it. I was freaking out.

I just kept thinking I don't want to do this without an epidural...I don't want to do this without an epidural! I had about 3 contractions and my water broke. Eric ran to tell the nurse and they grabbed a resident in family practice that was in the hallway to come and catch the baby. The resident barely had time to put on gloves (literally, her gown wasn't tied and the head was halfway out by the time she had the gloves on) Meg came soooo fast. She weighed a whopping 6 pounds 9 ounces and was 19 3/4 inches long.

Meg is a perfect, beautiful little girl. We feel so blessed to have her in our family.

No Baby Yet

My due date is just around the corner. I am glad that she hasn't come yet because I had a bunch of things that I didn't want to miss, and I also had a long "to do" list. Luckily I haven't been too uncomfortable either. But now I am mostly caught up on life and church today is the last thing I don't want to miss. Eric left 2 days open in his schedule this week so if the baby doesn't come by Wednesday he will just be twiddling his thumbs at home. So now I am feeling like she will come late. It would be perfect if she came on her due date...in the evening...after Eric was done with patients for the day. Is that too much to ask?

These pics were taken Friday night after our date night. (Our last friday date for a while--that was definately on the "I don't want to miss this" list!)

Sneak Peek

We got to see our new baby today. I am 37 1/2 weeks pregnant and I have never had an ultrasound this late. We are hoping to have another VBAC, so the doctor wanted to make sure the baby was positioned the way it should be and the size was good. It was really fun. The ultrasound technician took a few measurements, it looks like she is about 6 1/2 pounds right now. I guess babies can gain up to 1/2 pound a week at the end so we are looking at about 7 1/2 pounds. It is hard to see that much when the baby is so big but we could see her little face and arms. She had her fist up in front of her mouth at one point. In this picture you can see her head (which was down). I am excited to meet her! Now if we could just decide on a name.....

Reflections of Christ

My Dad sent me an email with this website, http://www.reflectionsofchrist.org/, I thought it was really moving. I checked out there blog and there is an even longer video clip with a song I just fell in love with.

More "Fun"

We got home from our Spring Break road trip on Tuesday. So and I decided to give the car a really good cleaning...you know wash all the car seat covers, vacuum, a really thorough job. It was long over due and I still hadn't switched Elijah from his baby carrier car seat. As I was washing Emma's car seat cover and soon to be Elijah's car seat cover the washing machine went a little crazy. I felt like I was on some TV show where the washing machine overflows. Only my machine just stopped since it is a front loader. I have never seen so many suds...this is even with the "High Efficiency" detergent that isn't supposed to get as many suds.

It took me two days to unpack the car and get it sparkling on the inside. The car smelled like pine sol and fabric softener when I was done and the car seats looked almost new. It just felt nice to stand there and look at my clean car.

I avoided going anywhere so as not to get my clean car contaminated with kids and such, but on Friday we really, really needed milk and other supplies so off we went to Costco. "Kids lets try to keep this car clean for a few days, no food and stuff like that OK." So I am admiring my clean steering wheel and clean dashboard, and there is no more dried milk from who knows when in the cup holder in the console. We are just about to pull into the parking lot of Costco when I hear a vomiting noise and Emma starts yelling that Elijah just threw up. The car no longer smelled like pine sol and Fabric softener...

I thought we were in the clear as far as sickness went. Nobody had been sick in our family since Monday. Well I guess that's life. Elijah was sick until the next Tuesday. Sunday was the worst He threw up 4 or 5 times. But at least we were at home and since it was General Conference no one had to miss church.

Elijah has been going to bed with a bottle for as long as he was on a bottle. Which was at about 7 months. I know, I know...I should know better. But it was just so easy he goes down at 6-6:30 in the evening and usually sleeps until almost 7. It was really nice and he loves going to bed. Just before he got sick we attempted one night of laying him down with no bottle. it didn't turn out so well. We finally caved and gave him 1/2 a bottle. Then when he was sick if we gave him a bottle he would just throw it up so we eventually gave up on the bottle and even though Elijah loves his bottle he didn't mind going with out, since he knew it was just going to come right back up...poor guy. So one positive side effect of him being sick is he doesn't do bottles any more. And he still likes going to bed. We kind of lucked out. It worked out nicely to have him be done with a bottle before the new baby comes. I am quite relieved.

Spring Break Fun?

The week before spring break was parent teacher conferences which meant that the kids all had 1/2 days of school. So we decided to leave Thursday after the kids were done with school and Eric put in a 1/2 day of work and drive down to Utah. We managed to pull out of here at 2 pm...not a great start, but hey we were headed for Utah!! I thought it would work out so well for our little Lijah-bug to fall asleep for a nap right after we took off...yeah right! No luck in that department. So around 5 we pulled off to get some dinner for everyone. And I thought, "surely Elijah will fall asleep for the night now. I will feed him dinner and change him into his pj's and give him a nice bottle..." It worked! He fell asleep...for about 2 hours. then he stayed up the rest of the way to Utah. That's right until 2 am! He was fairly content but still 2 am, Yikes! It took us a clean 11 hours for the drive.

We spent Friday and Saturday with my family. We went out for dinner with the adults on Friday and just hung out playing games and stuff on Saturday. Sunday we were going to the Fillmore's for a big family dinner. Eric was also planning to go skiing with the kids and Grandpa on Monday. As dinner was starting Eric was feeling some gurgling in his stomach. I thought it might have been something he ate last night. By the end of dinner he was quarantined to the downstairs bedroom, puking his guts out in the toilet. He got sick right after everyone got there and missed the whole dinner and everyone cleared out pretty quickly after we realized that Eric was not just suffering from indigestion.

Eric was up all night running to the bathroom and I decided to sleep in a different room so as not to get sick. Emma and I "slept" in the room next door. At about 2 am I hear Emma throwing up right next to me (still asleep by the way). Good thing we were in a king sized bed. So I wake her up and run her to the bathroom, clean her up, get a pot for any future episodes and she goes back to sleep. I, meanwhile, am waiting to see if Eric is going to get up again, or maybe one of the boys sleeping in the room across the hall will be sick next. I couldn't sleep.

So as I am laying there next to Emma (she is sick 2 more times in a 2 hour period) trying to relax and fall asleep. I start to notice (or I am hoping imagine) that I don't feel so well. My stomach was gurgling. But that could be from lack of sleep right? By morning I am sure that I am not feeling well and that it is definitely not just in my head. And now Elijah is awake and Eric is still feeling terribly. What a day! I only threw up once, but I felt horrible all day.

Everyone was feeling at least a little better Monday night. Not great, but for sure better. I should also mention that David Earned the Grandpa of the Year award while Eric, Emma and I were sick. He took Gabe, Isaac, Parker, and Bentley sledding and then to Fat Cats for bowling, pizza and ice cream. I am glad that the boys were not sick and able to have fun with their cousins.

I was going to drive myself and the kids back on Thursday and Eric was going to fly back on Tuesday so he wouldn't miss so much work but he didn't feel good about sending me home alone since we knew there was a bug going around that could possibly make the drive home an unbearable ordeal. So we all left Tuesday. Eric cancelled his flight and afternoon patients to make the drive home with us.

Fortunately we made the drive home in about 10 hours, plus we had an earlier start. So far Gabe and Isaac have not gotten sick. I didn't think that Elijah was going to either but...that is another story.