The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

I am writing this post on the last day of 2014. Looking back on this year so much has happened or didn't happen (like winning the lottery- however I guess you would actually have to buy a lotto ticket). We have been blessed with another sweet child, who although is the cause of me dozing off as I write this is a beautiful little girl that we are so lucky to have. Foster is pretty cute too but does try my patience- so that will be my new goal for 2015- PATIENCE. I will continue to try to read a book a month too (since I totally read 12 more books this year than I did last year). We had a great holiday season and are so blessed to have such wonderful family to share it with. We were spoiled as usual and so were our kids. I finally upgraded my phone from the cracked Iphone 4 I had been using for lets just say too long. Brennen went on a pheasant hunting trip for 4 days in Montana (yes he left me ten days after Collins was born for 4 days) and he also got a new watch and shoes. Foster wasn't so sure what to think of Christmas. Didn't really get the whole concept, which is nice as parents. He knew who Santa was, but didn't really get that he would bring him presents. He knows he says HO HO HO and his name is Santa and that was about it. We happened upon the Grinch- not the cartoon but the one with Jim Carrey one night while I was feeding the baby and to my surprise Foster loved it. He kept asking to watch it, until he discovered home alone. He loved that one too and kept asking to watch it. Weird, I guess he is just growing up. He has a fisher price nativity that his Grandma gave him that he has loved to play with and a mickey mouse that sings and dances to deck the halls. At the end of the song it Mickey says Oh Gosh, and don't worry that my son didn't pick up on any of the words of the song but by golley he says "Oh Gosh" right along with Mickey.  While I am not proud to admit that he has watched a little too much TV this last month as we have tried to adjust to the new baby it has been fun to watch him interact with it. Those Disney shows ask all sorts of questions and he answers and is learning a few things from them. But that will be another goal for 2015, less screen time. (Pray for me!) Collins has had a tough couple of weeks, she is extremely gassy and has a little bit of an acid reflux problem. It is extremely painful for her to burp or fart, and until she gets it out she is not a happy camper. Plus the poor girl has caught a cold and she can't poop. Lets just say if she is awake she is not real thrilled with the way she feels and she is not afraid to show it. We are trying to figure it out, we have tried gas drops, bottles, baths, I eliminated chocolate and dairy from my diet and even had to resort to a suppository.  She is definitely causing me some stress, but I wouldn't have it any other way, so privileged to be a mother. I only have a few days left to figure her out before I go back to work and Grandma's get to watch her (again.... pray for me). She seemed to have everything check out at her 2 week appt so that is good, just need to get rid of this cold so she can breathe and cough a little less. She was back up in her weight- had grown 2 in (which I think was a little off) and her head was a little bigger too. Our kids have some seriously big brains.

                                         

A few pics to follow of the last couple weeks.

Missed a pic of Hazel due to her being right after my screaming child.

 He was loved opening his presents, and didn't love to give them to others, had a breakdown when I asked him to give Tucker, Presley, and Hazel there presents, just kept saying mine. He did not get it, so we will work on that for next year. He got a new hoop for his room, and tramp (which he will not be able to use until the snow melts) and a few other little things.

  Tried to get a pic of the kids in there Christmas Jammies from Jingles our family elf. Just look at Collins face, that is about how good she feels, and most the time her forehead is scrunched even more.

It was awesome to get some snow, finally. We were able to spend a little time out there at Grandpa's. He even joined in on the snowman building fun.

 Christmas was wonderful, but oh so exhausting, trying to get from place to place.

We are lucky enough to have a Dad/Grandpa who is always thinking of us, he bought a cabin up Logan canyon and we have been lucky enough to spend some time up there.

Aunt Jill is here visiting and we are so glad. She never should have offered to give Foster a ride around the kitchen as you can tell be his face he was pretty stoked and didn't want to get off.

                                              

This girl loves to have her hands on her face or right near it. She will suck on them if they aren't covered up so I am pretty sure that is what she was doing in the womb.

                                     

Well Peace out 2014,  hello 2015. Hope to have lots of fabulous stuff to blog and journal about this year.

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.