Collins Annie Reese

Well it wasn't without great effort that this baby finally arrived. I thought for sure I would go early,  I was huge. Believe me I tried all the tricks in the book to get this little girl here by Thanksgiving. Foot rubs, spicy food, bumpy car rides, lots of walking and jumping, I even worked up til the day before Thanksgiving. But none of it worked. I still had a baby inside me when Turkey day arrived, I didn't give up hope that she would come soon though since Brennen had all weekend off. Much to my dismay she didn't, I was having lots of contractions but nothing closer than 7 or 8 minutes apart. It happened thursday friday and saturday nights, I would get contractions constantly then I would fall asleep and wake up and they would be gone. Saturday night I woke up with a few harder contractions on and off but kept falling back asleep. Then I woke up at 3 and went the bathroom, when I laid back down I felt a little trickle of water, but that was it, fell back asleep. Then I woke up at 4 am to gushing water. My water broke, but still I wasn't having regular contractions just gushing water every time I stood. Called the hospital and they said to come right up. So we called Bayli and she came down to stay with Foster. As we were getting ready to leave he woke up and started singing Happy Birthday, no crying or fussing, just sat straight up and started singing. He knew! The night before when I was putting him to bed he was cuddling with me and he patted my belly and said "get out". Didn't think anything of it then but I think he really was having some revelations:) When we got all checked in and hooked up and I was only dilated to a 3. So we waited an hour, still a 3. Got my epidural at 7:30 am, then we started pitosin. Contractions were coming but not real consistently so they wanted to monitor closer so they put in a uterine sensor that measured the strength of the contractions, then upped the pitosin again, by 11 I was a 5, then a 8 at 1pm, then the dr came in at 2 and I was a 10, he was in-between his sunday meetings and was in a rush so he wanted to start pushing.  I was a bit unprepared though, I thought I would have had more time to give myself a pep talk. So we pushed for a solid 30 minutes and she moved but then was doing the exact same thing Foster was doing, getting stuck on my pelvic bone, after numerous failed attempts to get past it, the Dr said he would like to use the vacuum, if I was ok with it. At this point of hunger and exhaustion I was ok with anything that needed to be done to get her out. She was turned slightly sideways so her head was already mis-shaped. A few good pushes and her head was out, but shoulders were turned just enough that they were stuck as well. I had nurses pushing on my stomach and my legs and the Dr was pulling. Her shoulder displaced and it allowed her to come out. The cord was wrapped around her head and neck so they were in a hurry to get her out, the Dr was pulling the cord away from neck as we were trying to get her shoulders out. All they all could say was she is huge for someone like you. So I was thinking a 9-10 lb baby, so I was ok with the 8 lbs 2oz that she really was. Dr Fowers was great and his last words to me were. "we are not doing that again, we will not be going 40 weeks and 1 day." Hallelujah, after trying to get the little bug out I would have to agree. She has a skip in her heartbeat that they are monitoring and she had jaundice so she was on the lights 24 hrs a day except for feeding and changing from thursday until monday. Which totally sucked but it could have been worse. She was down to 6 oz at her 3 day appt, but didn't surprise me while she latched on great she was so sleepy from the jaundice that it was hard to get her to eat consistently. She is a very gassy baby and has a real hard time getting her poop out, the poor girls tries so hard.  But she is beautiful and a pretty content baby, just still has her nights and days mixed up. 

View from the delivery room. It was a chilly morning with a little snow.

Please don't judge her by her looks in the next few pics, her head was so not in a symmetrical shape the cone head was there, but the right side was indented in from her position.

So we had a list of names that we were trying to decide from, I kind of wanted to give her a family name of some sort since that was what we did with Foster. I loved the name Annie which was my great grandmother on the Godderidge's sides name. Brennen was not a fan of it at all, so her maiden name was Collins, which Brennen liked much better. I know some people might look at her weird but I think it is a beautiful name and after reading up on some genealogy and history, and a few temple visits I knew that is what her name should be. So Collins Annie Reese it is. I hope she can be as determined as my great grandmother was. She did not have an easy life, but she made the most of what she had and persevered and lived until she was 99 years old.

She was not a fan of her first bath, except for the head bath under the sink.

Foster was so unsure of his sister, when he first came in he wouldn't even come near us. But it didn't take but a couple of minutes for him to want to hop up with me and hold her. You can see in the next few pictures how he goes from unsure to sure about her.

She was spitting up all night, but passed all her tests, except the bili was high so we had to follow up with Dr Bell on Wednesday and as described above she ended up on the lights. But we were able to go home on Monday night. Thank goodness because I was able to sleep much better.

Here she is in her straight jacket and tanning bed.

I tried to take a few pics of my two babies, it wasn't easy as I was by myself but a couple turned out ok.

Thank goodness I have talented friends to help me, we did a little photo shoot and got some much better pics, Sorry for the overload but have to share, there is nothing more beautiful than a sleeping newborn.

 These two boys aren't bad either.

 Look at those cheeks

It's been two weeks, I am still a little sore, my milk is definitely here and I am so lucky to be a mother, while its not easy and my temper has been short with this little man, he sure does love his sister. If she even makes a peep he is there to rescue her while he may choke her with her binky its all out of love. We just have to keep a real close eye on the two of them. 

We will keep you updated, as we go tomorrow for her 2 week check, Pray for a good heart beat and good bili levels.

Foster Turns TWO!!!

                                       

Foster turned two, and yes it is terrible, my little boy is growing up. But even more terrible is the fact that he really has his terrible moments......................... (keyword-moments)

Like when he won't share his toys, he is constantly saying "Mine"
Like when he is a Bully to his cousins, it never goes unsaid from one of them, "Foster hit me, Foster pushed me" He is learning but geez he is a bully sometimes.
Like when he totally knows he needs to poop and leaves the room to hide instead of going in the toilet.
Like when he screams NO at the top of his lungs

But thank goodness those terrible moments are few and far between when compared to all the wonderful moments

He is talking sooo much better and man does it just melt me when he says, "Love you Mama", He is also really good at saying Thank You when he is given something. Also very good at saying "Done" in the middle of sacrament when a talk, prayer or song ends, he totally thinks it is time to go home and will look at us and say "Done?"

He has made me proud twice by pooping in the potty, but not without major bribery, the kids just doesn't care if he has to sit in his poop.

He has also picked up on singing, and will pretend to sing the hymns at sacrament. He has picked up on the ABC's from a chair my mom gave him that sings them and with all the November birthdays he has got the birthday song down pact and sings it constantly. He even sang it to himself!

He is so forgiving and loves to show people he loves them (well the people he knows anyways). He gives the best hugs, wraps his arms around ya and pats your back with one of his arms. Love it! Also gives plenty of kisses. One morning he woke up and I was awake but pretended to be asleep to see if he would go back to sleep. He went into the living room and kitchen and walked around for a minute, then he climbed up on the bed and laid down next to me, hugged me and fell asleep.

He gets so excited to go to grandpa's house, the barn, or when his cousins come over, I wish I could bottle up his excitement.

                                               

He rolls his eyes, yep Whitli taught him well. He will look at you in the corner of his eye and then roll them. It's pretty funny.

He has started showing more interest in stuffed animal and figurines, also he loves to play guns. Still loves to play catch and "shoop" which means shoot hoops. My mom got him a buddy ball for his birthday which is a ball that unzips and turns in to a stuffed bear, I wish we would have been filming the first time we unzipped it to show him what was inside the ball, he jumped like there was a spider coming out of it, it was so funny- had to be there I guess.

He is starting to spend more time doing things, he doesn't get sick of things so easily. He has really enjoyed
Drawing/coloring
playing with play dough
Legos
Trains
Motorcycles
Puzzles

Loves to eat, still, but mostly just wants treats.

Other side notes....................................................

We took the sides of his crib and turned it into a toddler bed. Needless to say he has fallen off ALOT! He is a wild sleeper and just cant quite figure out how to stay on, don't worry we cushion his fall with pillows and half the time he stays asleep. He still takes pretty good naps for me at home as well.
Who needs a stuffed animal when you have a basketball.

                                        

Tara had a party for him at daycare with cupcakes, So sweet of her and he loved it.

                                      

We were able to have a little party with family since his birthday was on a Saturday. We all hit up the jump zone and then came back for cake/ ice cream/ and of course presents, he was spoiled we shouldn't have even bought him anything because everyone showered him.

Hazel can out climb him anyday, anywhere, as evident from the pic, I blame his short legs and big head throwing him off.

He was thrilled to be the center of attention (just like his dad), he was so cute and couldnt even wait til the birthday song was over before he blew out his candles.

I didn't do to bad on the cake either, just bought a big sheet cake and then made a motorcyle track (in the shape of a 2) and added a start and finish line.

Two year check up- first visit that he did not cry, even was super brave for his flu shot. Proud mommy moment. Still hasn't quite grown into his brains.

Our handsome little man, doesn't love photo shoots but at least a couple of them turned out. Especially since his amateur mother is the photographer.