our sweet family times: August 2011

these past 3 weeks have just flown by. a quick little synopsis of 'the birth story':
we arrived at the hospital at 8:30am (after waiting since 5am for 'the call' to come in). we were extremely lucky, they only had 2 rooms left, and us and the other resident couple steve and amanda were able to get the last 2 rooms. otherwise we probably would have had to wait until the next week!
they started pitocin right away. nate broke my water after about an hour (as per my OB's ok). the monitors all said i was contracting regularly, but i felt no pain. they kept turning the pitocin up, still no pain. finally after about 2 hours or so i started having insanely painful contractions. i begged for an epidural, and the anesthesiologist was there in about 10 minutes. pretty good service :o)

he started an epidural/spinal block. i don't know why he did a combination of both, but it worked, so i was happy. our room was huge, with windows covering one whole wall. it was a beautiful view of the mountains, and nate's clinic was right across the street. my OB had 2 lectures in didactics at nate's clinic that afternoon. so he came to check my progress after his 1st lecture. that was at about 2:10. i was dilated to a 9, so he had me do a 'test push'. after that i was complete. they broke down the bed, and in a matter of minutes (and only 3 pushes) our sweet baby greyson was born. it was so peaceful, the room was rather quiet, my OB was calm and collected, and it was just perfect. they cleaned him off for a minute, then brought him to me for 'kangaroo care' (skin-to-skin). what a sweet little angel, i just couldn't believe how perfect he was.

doctor daddy

1st time the girls met their new brother

biggest baby yet!

grandma debs

grandma nielson

grandpa brian

nate's mom was there to take pictures right after he was born, and my dad was waiting in provo to see him really quick before he had to go back to work in SL. my mom brought the girls right up, so they all got to see him before he was even bathed in the nursery. nate took him to the nursery while the nurses got me ready to move to mother-baby downstairs. there was some sort of miscommunication, and my pitocin didn't get turned back on. i started to hemorrhage really bad, so they had to give me a shot in my rear and do some other things to get the bleeding under control before they'd let the baby come out of the nursery. it was scary for a little while, but soon enough everything was under control.

i'm not a big fan of staying in the hospital, so we came home the next afternoon. everything seemed to be going great for about a week, until the next sunday. i ended up getting mastitis worse than i've ever had it. high fevers, and my body hurt so bad i literally couldn't function. when nate was gone, either my mom or nate's mom would come over to hold the baby and take care of the girls. by last tuesday my bleeding was still really bad, and i still had a fever. they sent me to the hospital wednesday morning for an ultrasound, and sure enough there was retained placenta. so last wednesday i had a d&c. it went well, and we were home by that night.

(the girls sleeping on the air mattress in the playroom. of course greyson didn't want to be left out!)

(i'm trying to add pictures so you don't get bored stiff....)
we were blessed that during the 3 days that i was horribly sick, greyson slept all day and all night. he was an angel, and i'm so grateful that we had all the help that we did. my stubborn body is still working on healing. i had another appointment today for the bleeding, they're going to try a medication again for 2 days, and if that doesn't work, then it's back for an ultrasound, and possibly a repeat d&c. i am just hoping and praying that my body just heals on it's own this time.

all-in-all greyson has been just an angel. nate has been amazing to help out so much, and the girls are great helpers as well. i am dreading school starting monday (i start to cry just thinking about it) because caitlin and abby help out with the baby so much, it's going to be hard with them gone all day. but they are sooo excited about school.

last thursday-saturday was nate's residency family retreat in park city at the newpark hotel. i got the green light from my OB to go as long as i took it easy. it was exhausting, but fun and the hotel was so nice. i LOVE nate's residency, and all the residents, families, faculty, everyone is just amazing. we couldn't have had a better residency program!

this was our hot tub on our balcony at the hotel. the girls loved the bathrobes...they were in heaven