Evicted...

The Josie Smith story (so far)

So it's been about a week since I had Josie and I am so grateful every day that she is finally a part of our family. Here's how she made her entrance:

**This may be a little long, though I'm going to try to hit only the highlights. You've been warned.**

Thursday, April 16th - I get a massage and right afterward we all go on a long walk (I was getting desperate). On our way home, I notice that I'm starting to have a few contractions. I'm excited but we've had SEVERAL false alarms with this pregnancy so I'm trying not to get my hopes up.

Friday morning, April 17th - The contractions lasted all night long but weren't regular and never got any worse. I chalk it up to another false alarm and take the boys to our regular Friday playgroup. At the playgroup I notice that I'm still contracting, but again, I'm not getting too excited about it because they don't really hurt - they are just annoying.

12:30ish - We get home from playgroup. I am starting to time my contractions, but they aren't regular yet. They are starting to get slightly more uncomfortable, but I still think it's going to be another fakeout.

2:30 - I'm on my way to get a pedicure and I notice that my contractions are starting to come closer and a little harder. They are starting to hurt a bit. I consider cancelling my pedicure, but since I'm still convinced it's going to be another fake-out I keep the appointment.

4:00 - I had been timing my contractions during the pedi - a consistent 7 minutes apart and starting to hurt. On my way home I call my doctor's office. I'm told to wait until they're 5 minutes apart and then head over to the hospital. I get home and tell Justin that we're probably going to the hospital tonight. We call our good friends Missy and Enoch and put them on stand-by.

5:30 - My contractions are now about 4 minutes apart and starting to hurt. We leave for the hospital.

6:00 - I get up to labor and delivery. I'm checked and told that I'm dilated to a 4 and about 60% effaced. They aren't sure that I'm really in labor (because my water hasn't broken yet) and they aren't sure they're going to admit me. My doctor (the resident) tells me he'll be back in A COUPLE OF HOURS to check on me again and then they'll make the decision on whether I'm really in labor or not! I tell my doctor that my past experience has proven that this is going to happen FAST and I don't have a couple of hours to wait. He needs to admit me and get me my stinking epidural (I'm a beligerant laborer). He tells me that third children can be tricky and he'll be back in a couple of hours (I mean, it's not like I know my own body or anything, right).

6:30 - 7:00ish - I am starting to get really mean to my sweet nurse. She was great - the only one (besides Justin) who really believed that I was in labor and was going to be admitted. She just kept on talking to me and touching me through my contractions. Why do they do that!?! I keep yelling that I need my epidural and that SOMEONE needs to get the doctor back up here to check me again - and I NEED MY EPIDURAL!!!!!

7:00ish - My poor nurse takes pity on me and goes to get me an anesthesia consult (even though I'm not technically admitted yet). This way, when they DO admit me, I can get my epidural right away. (My doctor still hasn't come back yet.) The anesthesiologist comes in and I immediately fall in love. He wants to give me my epidural. He goes through his little speech about epidurals and what can go wrong and all that. I keep thinking, 'I don't care - if the epidural doesn't kill me - these contractions will.' He then needs to ask me questions that I can't answer because I hurt too much. Justin answers them for me. Then he leaves, but only for a minute (oh how I loved him).

7:30ish - Resident doctor comes back in to check me. I'm now a 7 and I don't remember how effaced, but I do know that they've FINALLY decided to admit me!!!!! Hooray!

7:45-8:00ish - Right after the decision to admit me is made, my anesthesiologist Matt (who I really do love with all my heart) gives me the mother of all epidurals. He tells me that it will take about 30 minutes to be effective and I want to cry - I know in my heart that I don't have 30 minutes. So, because Matt is awesome, he gave me a spinal block in addition to my epidural. He tells me that it should kick in almost instantly. He then gives me the lovely button that I am allowed to push to increase my drugs. I immediately start pushing that button for all it's worth.

8:00ish - I realize that, no matter how often I push the button, my epidural ISN'T WORKING!! Matt tells me that he was afraid of that. He tells me that I was so progressed by the time my epidural was administered he didn't really think it would work properly. He hoped that it was taking the edge off though (jury's still out on that one - I'm not sure it did anything). I immediately start hating the resident doctor for not admitting me right away like I had asked.

8:15ish - My water still hasn't broken and everyone - my doctor, Justin, the resident, my nurse, and the anesthesiologist - is just standing around chatting while I am in excruciating pain. Lovely. I ask why they are all just standing around and I'm told that my water hasn't broken yet (duh). They don't want to break it for me. Shortly after this (I mean seconds later) SOMETHING FELL OUT OF ME!!! Honestly - fell out. I freak out and ask someone to check and see what that was. It was my amniotic sack. My water never broke - it just fell out. Gross but true! Everyone in the room is a little shocked by this - apparently it doesn't happen often.

I now ask if I am allowed to push - seeing as how stuff is now just falling out of my body. The resident tells me that they are waiting for me to be fully dialated. He then asks if I'd like to be checked (what makes you think that, Captain Obvious?) I say yes and they check me.

8:41ish - SHOCK - I'm fully dialated and am given the green light to push whenever I feel like it. I go ahead and give one 'test' push. She crowns. I give one more good push and everything comes out. I mean EVERYTHING - all at once. Head, body, placenta. It all came out at once. Justin told me that, when she came out, the cord was wrapped around her head once and he didn't even have time to pull it off of her when everything else came out.

Everyone in the room said they'd never seen anything like that before - from the amniotic sack just falling out to the head, body, and placenta all coming out at once. All told, it took less than two minutes to get her out. Nice. My epidural is working fine now. I feel all drugged and happy at this point (happy enough to apologize to my nurse and stop hating the resident).

So there you have it. The labor was rough. I've never been in so much pain in my life. I wish my epidural would have had time to work. I'm SOO not a fan of pain. The positive side - at least if was fast. I was only in horrible pain for about an hour and a half and then she came out. The delivery was amazing. I am so glad that my body was working with me to get Josie out. Evicted. That's what my body did to her. I'm very glad it did - it made things so much easier.

The moral of this story - when a pregnant woman says that she knows her body and that things will happen fast - people need to believe her and GET HER HER DRUGS!

We were only in the hospital for 24 hours before we were discharged - and it would have been faster but no one notified our pediatrician so we had to wait for that. However, before we left, Vanessa came and took some pictures. I think it's appropriate to add them here.





She's changed so much this week that she barely resembles these pictures anymore. The boys are finally feeling well enough to hold her and they are so in love with their new sister. I'm so happy that this is all behind us now and we are able to start adjusting to life as a family of 5!

Announcing...

Josephine Cathryn Smith

"Josie"
April 17th at 8:41 p.m.
8lbs. 4ozs. 21 inches

My amazing team of doctors. I was so glad that Justin got to deliver. He did a great job!
Why Josephine? I love the name. It's from the book 'Little Women' by Louisa May Alcott. Josephine 'Jo' March is the main character and she's beautiful, smart, independent, strong willed, and fun loving. I have always loved that character and that name. It was a last minute decision to use it. Justin is still warming up to Josephine, but he loves the nickname Josie and that's what won him over.




Right before we were discharged.

Sucking her thumb already.
These boys were fascinated with her (especially Noah and Enoch). They already adore her.
It's been an amazing couple of days. The labor was awful - I went so fast that I didn't get my epidural in time (for the record, I do NOT recommend natural childbirth). The delivery ROCKED - my body literally threw her out, I pushed twice and not that hard either! The boys are in love with her and want to touch her and know where she is all the time - which is kind of a curse right now because they are both sick (delightful). I'll elaborate more later I'm sure, but for now, enjoy the pictures. She's so gorgeous and we love finally having her with us!

GRRRR

I'm SOO over this pregnancy. (Thanks Rachel, I stole this cartoon from you - it's very appropriate.)

Easter

This year we had a fun and busy Easter weekend. We started out with an Easter egg hunt at the medical school:
The boys were both really excited to find eggs this year. I discovered that Noah is a great egg-finder!
After the egg-finding was done, there are always other activities for the kids. This year they had face painting, balloon animals, foam eggs to decorate, pin the tail on the Easter Bunny, and a station where the kids could get tattoos. As always, my kids absolutely loved it!
Sadly, Justin didn't get to come with us. He got called in to help with an autopsy (eww) a couple of hours before we were supposed to leave. Bummer. The boys were so excited that they wouldn't look at the camera. And notice Noah's chocolate face. We learned this year that he can unwrap chocolate candies all by himself - TROUBLE!! (Also, this is the absolute LAST picture you will be seeing of me until I have this baby.)
That afternoon, we had the Petersen's over to help us decorate Easter eggs. Missy and I weren't sure how into it the boys would be, so we didn't hard-boil too many. We will not make this mistake again next year! The boys LOVED it! They would have decorated eggs all night if we'd had enough. This was the first year I've decorated eggs with my kids and I'm glad that they enjoyed it so much!

Both of my boys look so grown up to me. I can't believe that I'm going to have a kindergartener in the fall!



The finished products. It's kind of obvious that these were done by little kids. I tried to explain the 'less is more' concept to Clayton, but he didn't quite get it. Maybe next year. I think they're really cute though!
Sunday morning started out a little rough. Noah woke up in a 'two year old' mood and was determined not to have any fun. Clayton woke up and was angry because we wouldn't let him look for his Easter basket right away. However, we did let them look for their Easter baskets before we left for church. Clayton had a great time looking (because he'd been looking forward to it - I swear, this is the BEST age for holidays). His was hidden a little bit harder this year and it kind of tripped him up, but he was a trooper and kept looking. Noah's was hidden in plain sight, but I think next year he needs a trickier hiding place - he really is a great finder! (This is kind of a long video, so feel free not to watch it - it's mostly for the grandparents and aunts and uncles.)

The boys also looked exceptionally handsome in their Easter clothes.
This was the best I could get of Noah. He might have been having a "two year old" kind of day - but he sure looked good having it!
I love how handsome Clayton looks. He's growing up so fast. He wants to wear a belt and tie to church every Sunday now so that he can look like Daddy.
We concluded our Easter celebration with a delicious dinner at a friends house. Their was another Easter egg hunt, some Wii, a few bruises (well, only Noah ended up bruised - not surprising), and lots of laughs. I'm glad that my kids are old enough to enjoy these holidays. I'm also really glad that Clayton is old enough to sort of understand why we celebrate.

Sugaring

For the first time since we moved here, we went sugaring! Sugaring is a big deal in Vermont. It's that special time of the year when they tap the trees and make maple syrup. YUM! A lot of the sugaring houses are open to the public and you can take a tour and see how they make the syrup that Vermont is so famous for. Since we went on opening weekend, the place we went also had some free stuff (I LOVE free stuff). We got to sample maple candy, sugar on snow, and a bunch of different kind of salsas (random, but yummy).
The best part was that the weather was very cooperative! It was in the 60's so it was the perfect day to walk around and enjoy the outdoors. We got to go with a very fun group. The Petersen's and Zinke's had done this before so they knew more about sugaring than we did. It was great to be able to go with good friends. However, since we went with a group of small boys I didn't get to learn as much about the process as I'd hoped (oh well, there's always next year, right). It was a great day and here are some pictures:
Eating sugar on snow. Since it was a really warm day, there actually was no snow, so it was just syrup on ice - but it was still delicious!

I know I'm his mom and so I'm a little biased, but seriously - this little boy is the CUTEST two year old ever! He's recently discovered pockets and I think he looks so cute walking around with his hands in them.
Our family in front of the sugar house. I had to go with the best pic of me (I'm big and pregnant, I think I deserve that), so Justin kind of got the shaft here.
Clayton in front of the sugaring house. It was so hot in there. I had to chase Noah around so I didn't really get to hear what exactly happens in there, but it looked cool (again, maybe next year).
This is how they tap the trees nowadays. I wish that they would have had some old-school ones with the buckets, but the place we went didn't have any of that. There are a bunch of rubber tubes running between all the trees.
The woods were a muddy mess!! Of course, these three thought that was the best part. We literally had to strip both boys down to diaper/underwear before we let them get in the car. Boys will be boys and these boys were so glad that it was muddy. Sadly, all the members of our family were wearing sandals - not a good choice of footwear! I can't count how many times I got stuck.

Missy and I were walking in the back of the pack and thought this was cute.
Our group. It's hard to get a good picture of 9 people! Especially when three of those people are kids. Again, I'm not sure what exactly Justin's doing here, but whatever it is, he was doing it in ALL of our group pictures.
So that was our adventure to the sugar house. Sorry I can't really provide any interesting details on what happens or how they actually make the syrup. Think of it this way - I'm giving you something to look forward to for next year!!

**No baby yet. Sad.**

The WORST April Fool's Joke EVER!

I'm getting excitingly close to having this baby. I've been doing everything in my power to get her here - I'm serious, all the wives tale stuff (with the exception of castor oil - I just can't seem to go there) but so far nothing is working. I have been contracting for days though so I'm hopeful that things will happen soon. However, Clayton would have been late (I was induced on my due date) and Noah was only three days early. So past experience tells me that I've still got about a week before I should start getting too excited about going into labor.

Wednesday though (April 1st) I was contracting like crazy! Around 6:00 I started timing them because they were getting pretty hard. They were coming pretty consistently about 6 minutes apart. Once I determined that they were staying pretty consistent, I jumped on the treadmill to try to speed things along. After about an hour of that I got bored/it started to get too hard to walk and contract at the same time. So then I started doing housework - vaccuming, laundry, sweeping, dusting, etc. all in an effort to get things going. The contractions stayed 6 minutes apart but they did start to get harder. Justin and I were sure that I was going to have that baby that night! We called the people who were going to come and stay with the boys and told them to be prepared for a middle of the night phone call, packed my hospital bag, and got the car seat ready to go. Finally, around midnight, I told Justin that I was going to go and try to lay down and 'rest' through some of my contractions. Bad idea. I fell asleep. When I woke up a few hours later I noticed - much to my horror - that, while my contractions hadn't gone away, they had become irregular and less painful. Bummer. It was the worst April Fool's joke ever. My body thinks it's SOOOO funny. It's not. So now, two days later, I'm still contracting, but it's nothing promising.

So, here we are. Playing the waiting game. I do not care for this game. I'm trying to keep my days packed so that they seem to go faster. I feel like we are SO ready for this baby to come. I just need to get her here!

Here are a few more of the pictures that Vanessa took. I love how they turned out!
I just love this one. Clayton was so cooperative during the photo shoot. I wish that Noah would have been equally cooperative (stinkin' two year olds).

This was about as good as we could get with Noah. It's a good one though!
Compared with Clayton's head, my stomach looks HUGE (although, it looks huge anyway).
I just love this picture of Clayton. So handsome!
I thought this was cute of Noah, very typical of him. I've had two thumb-suckers, I wonder what the odds are that this one will suck her thumb too.
Vanessa did so many things, we ended up taking over 500 pictures! I never thought I'd ever want to do a maternity shoot but Vanessa made me feel so comfortable and I am so glad I did it! I love how these pictures turned out!



Now, we did take a few that were a little more "risky". Those ones actually ended up being some of my favorites. They look very artsy and cool (but you don't actually see anything - so they aren't anything I would feel too weird about my kids seeing someday). I think we are going to take the pictures and put them in a little photo album that my kids can see one day, if they want to. Perhaps in another post I'll post a few of them. They really are awesome!

Thanks Vanessa for taking these awesome pictures! I love how they turned out!