And then there were five...

(I'm wayyyyyy behind on blogging, so I'll blog about October, November and December later, but I wanted to post this first before I forget all the details.)

Introducing the newest member of our family: Bennett Alan Easton!

My labor with Bennett was very different from the other two, but still pretty short like the others. With Dallin's birth, I was induced and had no regular contractions beforehand. With Connor, I was already 5 cm before contractions really started, so I went to the hospital quickly after only a few contractions.

The morning of Monday November 24th, I felt like it would be a good day to have a baby. A two day hospital stay would put me getting home on Wednesday, just in time for Thanksgiving. My parents would be flying in that night (for a Thanksgiving/baby visit). Plus, I had an appointment scheduled with my midwife that afternoon, and I was hoping that after she checked my progress she would send me over to the hospital. I was already at 4cm for my 38 week appointment, so I figured once contractions really started, things would go quickly like Connor's birth.

That morning around 7am, I started right out with several regular contractions for an hour, then a break for an hour. This kept up all day: a solid hour or so of contractions every 6-7 minutes, then a long break. Mckay stayed home from work because I felt like things would pick up. We went to Home Depot so that I could walk around and keep the contractions going strong and so Mckay could get some supplies for his latest project. That really seemed to help and contractions kept coming longer and stronger throughout the day. We grabbed our hospital bags, dropped Connor off at the home of our neighbors/friends (who would also get Dallin off the bus for us), and went to my appointment with Sharon, my midwife at 3pm. With contractions coming every 4-5 minutes, she checked me and I was about 5-6 cm. We went straight from the appointment to the hospital. Sharon was not on call at the hospital that day, so I got one of the other midwives. I'd met this midwife before and liked her, but I was hoping for Sharon since she had attended Connor's birth. 

My last belly picture at 39 weeks.

Since I tested positive for Group B Strep with this pregnancy, I wanted to get to the hospital as quickly as possible so that I could hopefully get the antibiotics in a full 4 hours before birth. (Given my previous two birth, it was unlikely for labor to last longer than 4 hours total.) We got up to the delivery room around 4 pm. The midwife told me that antibiotics had been ordered and would be there soon. I got changed, filled out paperwork, had a saline lock placed, had 20 minutes of fetal monitoring, and still the antibiotics had not shown up. We keep asking about the status of the antibiotic and was told it should be there soon. Finally at 5pm, the antibiotic was brought in and hooked up to my IV. I see no reason why it took so long to get. This antibiotic is routinely used to treat GBS. I was in a hospital on a labor and delivery floor! Why don't they just keep some stored nearby?! Right next to the saline and pitocin? Ok, I'm moving on...

After the full dose of antibiotics was in, I got into the birthing tub, planning to have another water birth. The contractions weren't very painful yet (intense, but not quite painful), but I was getting bored and wanted to do something different. We watched some TV, talked, ate some snacks, monitored the baby's heart rate occasionally and waited. My body seemed to be in no hurry. Contracts slowed a little. My midwife was hoping I could wait the 4 hours until a second dose of antibiotics at 9 pm before she would brake my water to speed things along. At 9pm, I got the second dose while I sat in the tub. Once that was finished around 9:30, she broke my water. I normally wouldn't have been so quick for her to step in and break my water, but I was getting tired and hungry and just wanted to be done. Up until this point contractions were very manageable. About 10 minutes after my water was broken, the contractions quickly become more intense, more painful and much closer together. Thoughts of "Why did I want to do this again?!" crossed through my mind. A little after 10pm, I felt pressure to push. More thoughts of "I'm crazy but it's too late now!" At 10:15pm, Bennett was out of the water and in my arms.  

He screamed and screamed and had great coloring. 

We got all cleaned up. Bennett ate. He weighed in at 7lbs, 4oz and was 20 1/4 inches long. Since the hospital cafeteria was closed by this point, Mckay went out to grab some dinner for us. He brought me back a special treat.

Smart man. 

I hope ice cream becomes a new tradition for after having a baby.

We got settled into the recovery room and got a little sleep here and there. It's amazing how quickly my body has gotten used to waking every few hours again. 

Bennett got his first bath in the morning.

Just in time to meet his brothers and grandparents.

Meeting Bennett for the first time:

Both boys were excited, but Connor was instantly smitten.

When they went home at the end of the day, Dallin kept asking if Bennett and I could come home with them. He was really sad that we had to stay at the hospital.

The "normal" postpartum hospital stay is 48 hours after birth. With both previous births, I stayed the full 48 hours, but with Bennett's birth I was feeling great and ready to get home to my family early Wednesday, especially with it being the day before Thanksgiving. I knew that with me having GBS, they would want Bennett to stay the full 48 hours, but with how great he was doing, I hoped they could be lenient. And I really didn't want to be getting out of the hospital at 10:15pm. I wanted to get home and see my children before they went to bed.

My midwife said I looked great and was cleared to go Wednesday morning. Bennett was eating well, gaining weight, no jaundice, great temperature, no signs of infection. Several of my nurses said that we might be able to leave before the normally required 48 hours because he looked so good. The on-call pediatrician (who had never met me or Bennett before) came in Wednesday morning to look him over. She came in and said, "So you want to leave early today?" I responded yes and was very hopeful things would work out. The doctor started reading over Bennett's chart: "Weight is good, that looks good, mmmhmm, good good.... Oh wait, you had GBS. (closes chart) I can't let you leave early." I was floored. I said, "Really? You were just saying how great he's doing. Can't we leave just a little early?" She responded that hospital policy is a full 48 hours to ensure no signs of infection for the safety of the baby and there was nothing she could do. 

Enter Mckay.

I'm a person that does not like confrontation, so even though I was upset and frustrated by the doctor's response, I wasn't going to rock the boat. But Mckay is good at rocking boats. He stands firm by what he thinks and is willing to work to get what he thinks is right. Mckay was not there when the pediatrician came, so he asked the nurses if he could speak with the doctor about her decision. An hour later, the nurse came back and said the pediatrician wouldn't be back at the hospital at all that day, and that the pediatrician rechecked her guidelines which said to observe baby for at least 48 hours.

Mckay spent all day researching and found the CDC's recommendations. The CDC's own algorithm stated that while a 48 hour stay for newborns is recommended, "observation may occur at home after 24 hours if other discharge criteria have been met, access to medical care is readily available, and a person who is able to comply fully with instructions for home observation will be present." Mckay told the nurse what the CDC allows and asked to get the doctor on the phone. I think the doctor was getting sick of us. She probably wanted to just enjoy her holiday at home with her family. (Oddly enough, we were trying to do the same thing....) Around 7pm, the nurse came back in and said that the doctor would allow us to leave early, but only if we brought Bennett back on Friday to complete the newborn screening test and if we took him to see his pediatrician on Friday (sooner than the Monday appointment we originally had). I think the nurses thought we wouldn't want to go through all the hassle just to leave a few hours sooner. We were packed and ready to go in 20 minutes. At that point it wasn't so much about getting home early, it was about setting a precedent that hopefully will affect future families. 

 I don't like that the doctors and hospital would have such a strict policy that didn't allow for individual cases. (This is where I get on my soapbox, so you can skip this if you feel so inclined.) Everything about my labor and Bennett's health made him a great candidate for leaving early. And it really bothered me that they tried to scare me into staying, saying that my baby would not be safe otherwise. The last time that any nurse checked on Bennett's vitals or looked at him before we left the hospital was 11am on Wednesday. Had we waited until 10:15pm to leave for Bennett's "safety," it would have been a full 11 hours since his last vitals check. No one was going to be checking on him the last part of the day. If he were to show any signs of infection or complication, it would have been up to me to notice and inform hospital staff. That's something I could do just as easily from home. If you're going to require me to stay at the hospital for the safety of my baby, you better be in my room checking on him right until the end. Ok, stepping down...

Dallin and Connor were overjoyed to have Bennett home. Their very own baby in their own house! We spent Thanksgiving and the weekend loving on our new baby. We admired his hairy back:

and marveled at his blonde hair.

He's been a great baby and we're enjoying getting to know his personality.

Conner Prairie

Dallin had some doctor appointments in Indianapolis in September, which required him being out of school for the day. I figured that rather than drive all the way down and straight back (like I normally do), we'd do something fun and turn a missed school day into something educational. We met my friend Deidra and her 2 kids at Conner Prairie. It's an interactive history park. There's a small indoor museum, but most of the attractions are outside.

There were farm animals that we got to pet in the barn.

 Actors are dressed up in period clothing and they teach you about life in Indiana in the 19th century as you explore the "town."

The kids sat listening to this blacksmith talk about his job for like 10 minutes. I was amazed at their attention span.

The kids got to dress up and do chores.

 Connor in the apron/skirt is cracking me up. (It was his choice to wear it.)

I love these 3 cuties.

We got to play some games that kids played back then, like hoop rolling and walking on stilts.

Connor thought it was a hockey stick and kept trying to take slap shots.

They told me they were on their way to Florida.

 After a beautiful, warm afternoon spent running and playing, we stopped at the apple store (not the kind that sells iPods) on the prairie for some chocolate dipped pretzel sticks and apple cider slushies. 

Our kids sure are a silly bunch of apples.

We love having good friends to do fun things with; friends who talk me into buying an apple cider slushy. That extra cold, sugar rush kept me awake on the hour long drive home.

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Also in September, Mckay's parents came to visit. I didn't take many pictures when they were here, but I did get a few cute ones of the boys when we went to Fair Oaks Farm with them to see the pigs.

Dallin getting an up close look at a newborn piglet (kept behind glass, of course).

There are veterinarian coats and stethoscopes for the kids to wear as they learn about pigs. Connor kept his on for along time.

Looking at all the little piglets.

We love going to Fair Oaks Farms.

County Fair

We finally made it to the county fair this summer! It's been on our summer list for a few years, and the fairgrounds are only 5 minutes from our house, but we somehow have never managed to make it there, until this year. Unfortunately, we went on the last day so all the animals and livestock had already packed up and left, but the rides were still up. And a perk to waiting until the last day is that ride tickets were discounted.

Dallin looks a little scared in this picture, but I promise he did have fun. And yes, I did go on several of the rides even with my pregnant belly. None of the ride restraints but any kind of pressure on my belly, and I only went on rides the kids could go on too, so none of them were unsafe for me and baby.

Waiting in line for the next ride.

Connor was just barely tall enough for most of the rides (with an adult).

Several times when we measured him, he stood on his toes to look taller. Smart boy...

This was the only ride the boys were tall enough to go on by themselves. It was a very simple ride, but they enjoyed it. Mostly, I think they liked feeling grown up.

Next we went on the Ferris wheel together and got a good view of the whole fair.

Paying $8 for a junk food carnival dinner didn't sound that great, so we walked across the street to the Wendy's and got dinner from the value menu. Much tastier! Connor took forever to finish his burger, so we let him carry it to finish eating as we walked back to the fair.

He carried it around with him the whole time, taking little bites here are there. It was really entertaining to watch, though I'm not sure why.

We all had a lot of fun that night. And we made it back to our car and home right before a huge rain storm hit. Perfect timing!

Summer pictures

Now that summer is practically over, it's been fun to look back at all the things we've done. Here are some pictures that haven't made it onto the blog yet.

 We made a lot of Thai food using the Thai peppers and Thai basil growing in our garden. Dallin isn't a big fan of rice, so we tried to form his rice into fun shapes to get him to eat it.

We made him "Lego" rice using a mega block as a mold. I don't think he actually ate the rice any better than normal this way, but he was happier about it being on his plate.

Connor loves rice so there was no need to coerce him.

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We had a water balloon fight one Saturday. 

Dallin and Connor really got into it.

(Do you notice the water spot on the picture that wasn't on the previous one? A casualty of taking pictures during a water balloon fight. Luckily, the lens dried up eventually.)

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Yellow jackets built a nest in our propane grill. That made grilling out very difficult for the first half of the summer. Mckay managed to remove the nest into a jar. Then later that day a yellow jacket "hatched" from the nest.

 Good thing we had a lid on the jar! The next day there were two of them. Eventually we had three yellow jackets in the jar before I got tried of this science experiment sitting on my counter and giving me the heebie jeebies, so I disposed of them.

Later in the summer, we found another nest inside the swing set.

The picture is blurry, but you could see about 20 yellow jackets just hanging out on the chain for the swing. Mckay discovered a nest inside the hollow pipe running across the top of the swings... And then discovered another yellow jacket nest on one of the fence posts... And then he found another nest! We've battled four yellow jacket nests and gone through several cans of Raid, but luckily none of us were harmed by any of them.

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Dallin looking sophisticated.

I made these photo booth props for the Walk for William Syndrome in May (that I somehow never got a picture of!). The kids will occasionally find them and play around. 

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Connor wears his super hero cape and mask a lot, even at meal times.

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We took the car seats out of the car to  be able to transport something large, and Connor wanted to be buckled into his seat so he could pretend to be a turtle.

Sorry for the shaking and sniggering while I recorded him. I couldn't keep myself from laughing!

Baby #3

Way back in July, we had an ultrasound for baby #3 at 20 weeks. It was during the same time as my parents' visit to Indiana, so my mom got to come with us to the ultrasound. We brought Dallin and Connor along as well. They have been really excited and asking lots of questions about the new baby, so I thought it would be really fun for them to "see" the baby. Plus, with Dallin routinely getting 4+ ultrasounds a year, I thought he might like to see someone else getting one for a change. The boys both did really well sitting quietly, putting stickers on everything they could reach to keep occupied.

The baby was all bunched up and hiding. The technician never got the "classic" ultrasound shot of a face in profile, so this was the best face shot.

But you could see the baby sucking a thumb and opening and closing the mouth. Very cute!

Here's a good foot shot.

It took a while for the technician to get a good view to reveal the baby's gender. Finally, she got a shot and said with a disappointed, almost apologetic voice. "Oh, there it is. It's a boy."  We had said nothing to her about hoping for a specific gender, one way or the other. I'm sure she just assumed, seeing that we already had two boys, that we wanted a girl. Then she said, "Well, I hope you at least have a girl dog at home." I had to assure her that we were happy and thrilled to be having another boy.

Here's a belly picture at 26 weeks.

Connor wanted to get in a picture too.  

He's trying to jump up and kiss my belly. Connor loves to see other people's babies and he's been very excited to have a baby in our own house. He asks lots of questions about the baby ("Is the baby drinking milk inside your belly?") and likes to imagine what the baby is doing. When we see a picture of a newborn baby posted on Facebook, he'll ask, "Is that our baby?" Connor is ready to be a big brother. 

Everything is going well with the pregnancy so far. Baby boy is growing well, I'm feeling all the baby movements, aches, and braxton-hicks contractions sooner than with the last two pregnancies. Dallin and Connor have come with me to several of my appointments and the midwives have been really great, letting Dallin hold the doppler wand on my belly to hear the heartbeat or letting Connor help with the measuring tape when they measure fundal height. We're starting to get really excited for baby boy to come, but we still have 11 weeks and lots to do to prepare for his arrival.

Kindergarten

Dallin started school in August. I still find it hard to believe that he is old enough for Kindergarten. He loves school so far and was very excited for it to start. For a solid month before, he asked every day if it was school time yet, and then would get mad at me when I said no, like it was my fault that there is no school during the summer. Making a paper chain to count down the days helped somewhat so he could at least visually see that we were getting closer to a school day.

On the first day of school, he was up and ready so quickly.

Watching for the bus and sporting the R2D2 backpack he picked out himself. (You know, to match the Star Wars lunch box he got for his birthday.)

 Notice the lovely bruise/mark on his left cheek?

Connor bit him... on the cheek... the day before school started!! You could see it on his cheek for a whole week. Connor got in BIIIIIIGGGG trouble for that one.

First day of school shoes.

Connor's aren't new, he just wanted to be in the picture.

 Still waiting for the bus.

It turns out there was a "mix-up" with the bus and with Transportation not having Dallin's information (their fault, not ours). We knew there was a problem but went out that morning hoping it had been resolved. Nope. So we got to take Dallin to school ourselves and see him off into the classroom. And I got to pick him up from school. When I picked him up at the end of the day, he started crying at the sight of me. I thought he missed me and it made me start to get all emotional and worry that he wasn't ready for full day school everyday. Then he said through his tears, "I want to ride the bus!" He didn't miss me after all, he was actually sad at the sight of me because it meant he didn't get to ride the bus with his friends. Thanks for the love, kid. We did eventually get his bus situation figured out and now he is happily riding the bus to and from school. I keep waiting for him to get tired of going to school every day, but it hasn't happened yet.

He is in a regular Kindergarten classroom with his typical peers and is pulled out daily for math, reading and writing with the Special Education teacher. It seems like a good mix for him. He is still pretty far behind his peers in some areas, but he is learning quickly and I love seeing his progress. Today, he brought home a picture that he drew of our family.

Drawing people is a very new skill for him. I love so many things about this picture: the hair, Mckay's cone head, the circle ears. The best part is the baby in my tummy. His teachers don't know that I'm pregnant, so that had to have been his own, unprompted addition to the drawing. I never thought I would get so excited about a silly little drawing, but I seriously love this picture. I can't wait to see what he draws next.