Sweet Baby Jane

I wrote this post just after Jane was born, but was FINALLY now able to get it to uploaded, now that Jane has turned one. So, sorry for the wait.

TMI Warning: This is a birth story, in mostly all it's glory.  Read at your own risk. If that's not your thing, skip ahead to the pictures.

The morning of May 7th, I was awake a lot of the early morning hours; between my bladder, a few Braxton Hicks contractions, losing my mucus plug, and worry about all the things to get done pre-baby.

We had already completed most of our list: I had a full freezer, months of diapers and non-perishable foods, the baseboards/walls/cabinets had been scrubbed, and the garden planted. We had also squeezed in a quick trip to St. George and a day trip to Antelope Island (during which the whole time I was concerned about being able to make it to the hospital if I were to go into labor). Mother's Day and Father's Day gifts had been purchased. I had a mani/pedi scheduled for that evening and a neighborhood girls' night out the next day. We were pretty much just counting down the days at this point.

I had lost a lot of my mucus plug over the last few days, so I figured we would have a baby before the end of the weekend. As we got the kids breakfast and got ready for the day, I suddenly had a familiar wet feeling---my water had broken again. 3 labors in a row all started with my water breaking, which supposedly happens in only 10% of the population, but 100% for me. I called my nurse since my doctor was out of town, and was advised to come into the office for my already scheduled appointment as soon as I could arrange for childcare. Steven commented that he had woken up and thought that this might be the day...

I sent Steve off to work to wrap things up since I was just having a slow leak and no real contractions. I called Papa Bill and asked if I could drop off the kids.  I got the kitchen cleaned up, skipped my heparin injection, threw my hospital bag and a bag for the kids in the van, and dropped the kids off with Grandpa; warning him that I didn't know if/when I'd be back.

When I got to the doctor's office I had to wait for what seemed like FOREVER. Normally, here is very little wait, but this felt particulary long. I got checked, and was found to be almost completely effaced and dilated to a 2. It was also confirmed that I was leaking water.

Since I still wasn't having any real contractions yet, the doctor allowed me to go home and give the van to the grandparents, feed my kids lunch and give Steve some time to get ready before checking into the hospital for an induction. But she wasn't going to let me make it to my mani/pedi or the 2 wedding receptions I had planned for that night due to the risk of infection with a broken amniotic sac.

Anyway, I cancelled all my plans, called both sets of our parets to let them know what was going on, and told Steve to meet me at home.  We were having a baby!

When I went to pick up the kids, I let them know that their baby sister was on her way and hopefully they would get to meet her after dinner. They didn't really seem to understand what was going on, but I didn't really expect them to.

I got the kids lunch, and Steven packed a few last-minute things for the hospital, then we decided to grab a celebratory lunch at Felman's Deli on our way to the hospital. Both of us were too nervous to really eat, so we just split an awesome meal since we didn't know when we'd get to eat next. When the owner heard we were on our way to have a baby, he came to congratulate us and told us to come back after the baby was born.

We got to the hospital around 1:30 or 2, and I was hooked up to a slow drip of Pitocin to get things going. I had flashbacks to William's 32-hour birth and hoped I wouldn't have to go through that again. We laid out our guesses for the time of birth.  The doctor (not my regular OB, who was out of town), commented that she thought I'd have a baby before the end of the day. My guess was after dinner, but hopefully before bedtime so the other kids could meet her. Steven thought later in the evening.

Contractions started out regularly, but were not very intense for about an hour.  Then, they started picking up and were very quickly difficult to handle so I asked for an epidural.  That was the longest wait in my life (or so it seemed). Steve distracted me by reading to me from the book he was reading and it helped to take my mind of the pain which was pretty much all-consuming at this point.  The pain was getting very difficult to manage due to the nature of my babies (especially this one) being sunny-side up. The back labor was INTENSE.

I got checked and was dilated to a 5. I was disappointed. I was in so much pain by tis point and it just seemed like time was slowing down. After the epidural started working, the nurse said she had a trick to turn babies.  I laid on my right side, put my left leg in the stirrup, and the nurse pushed on the baby's shoulder. Then, I was left to hang out in that position for about 30 minutes. The nurse checked again and I was a 9.5! All I did was lay there and the nurse and baby did the rest.

The doctor was called and checked again, rotating her head slightly to help me dilate the rest of the way. I pushed maybe 5 times and then we had a baby! The epidural wasn't on full blast likeI've done before, and while I didn't feel pain I did feel the sensation of the baby leaving my body, which was kind of neat. Very surreal and I saw her sweet face and she didn't even cry, which is very much her personality so far.

                                      
Introducing the newest member of our family, Jane Marie Garff. 5/7/2015, 4:35 pm, 7 lbs 11 oz, 20.5 inches.

Just over 2 hours of labor was definitely doable! Jane had her cord around her neck a couple of times and had swallowed a fair amount of amniotic fluid (she was spitting it up for days), so the nurses had to work on her for awhile before I got to feed and snuggle her.

It was instant love. I immediately felt possessive of my new treasure. And why wouldn't I? She is an absolute doll!

Grandma and Grandpa Garff brought the kids to meet her and it was sweet to see how much they loved her already.

I found it really interesting to compare her to baby pictures of my other kiddos.

Jane

Caleb and Lily

Jane

William

Jane

Lily

Jane

Caleb

Jane

Lily

Caleb and Lily

Jane

William

I mostly think she looks a lot like Caleb right now.

Jane

Caleb

No matter who she looks like, she definitely looks cute.

Foster Mom

I've been debating about what to do about the pet situation now that Nike is gone. I'm not a fan of having no pet...but I'm also 25 weeks pregnant and have a lot to do before this little girl gets here, so a puppy doesn't really make sense (though it is tempting...). 

The plan right now is to get a baby bunny in the next month or two, and then get a puppy when life calms down after we have this baby. And I'm not dealing with potty-training, big-bed transitioning twins.  

But in the meantime, I've decided to foster dogs with Rescue Rovers. They take dogs out of the shelters and give them a home until they are able to find a new home.

Our first lucky guy was Bulldozer. A Great Dane "puppy" of around 100 lbs and 1 year old. He was a sweet dog, awesome with the kids. Caleb especially misses him. But Dozer has found an awesome new home with a dog brother and four strapping young boys to play with. 

Our current dog is Tater. Tater is a 2-year old Catahoula/border collie mix. He's potty trained and doesn't mind being left alone when we have to run to the store (some things we were working hard with Dozer to fix). But he definitely needs some leash work, so we've been going on lots of walks/runs in an attempt to fix his bad habits and help him find a forever home. 

The first thing Caleb said to Tater was, "I Love you, Tater!" The fostering thing might be hard for my sweet sensitive boy, so we'll see how it goes. But it's fun for now, though I can't wait until we get a dog that is a good fit for us permanently.

Nike

I'm dog-less. 

Nike had been showing signs of age for some time now, and hasn't been able to run with me since shortly after the twins were born. 

 In the last few weeks of December he stopped eating, had a hard time controlling his body functions, lost 10 lbs (down to a final 49 lbs from a more typical 75-80), and was quickly losing control of his legs. I made the hard choice to put him down. 

But then again, I wasn't about to let him starve himself to death, either. It was one of the hardest decisions I've ever made, but luckily, the vet (dad of my old friend Dagny) said he would have done the same thing if it were his dog, so I have some consolation.

Nike was the best dog. He was well-behaved and hardly ever did anything to get in trouble (except the occasional taking food from babies, and they practically have it to him so it's not really his fault), he would run with me for hours at my pace, and he let my kids climb all over him.

I miss that dog. Finding a new one as good as him will be difficult.

 It's been an eventful and stressful week. I got a new niece, lost a dog, wrote a talk, and had a lot of drama in all aspects of my life. Hopefully the next few weeks calm down and I can hopefully get a new dog soon, but until then, I just hope I can make it through without too much more crying.

Merry Christmas!

The Next Big Event

I've done 2 1/2 marathons in the last 6 weeks. One was 1:28, good enough for 4th in my division; and last week, 1:44 for 1st in my division (it was a small race). 

And now I'm taking a break until my next big event: Baby #4 due May 17. 

Of course, I may still try to fit in another 1/2 marathon or two before then. I'll probably be a lot slower by that point, though. :)

Accident-prone

Of all our children, Lily is the most "adventurous". She likes to run as fast as possible, climb higher than I prefer, and is often falling or tripping or otherwise getting injured because of her "activities." 

So it's no surprise that she was the first in our family to get stitches.

Though this time it wasn't her fault. I was doing dishes, and Steve was getting a movie ready for Movie Night (it was Lily's turn to pick and she picked "Frozen"). Lily tripped over Steve and was inconsolable...and started bleeding uncontrollably from the bottom of her foot. I could see it was deep enough she would likely need stitches, so I gauged her up, put on a sock to hold it in place, and headed off to urgent care.

Luckily, I had "Frozen" on my phone because that was the only thing that made Lily happy.  After what seemed like eternity of a crying baby in the waiting room, Lily's injury was examined. It was though it might have got the tendon, so a  more senior doctor came to look at it. Still, they were unsure, and of course my phone battery died, so we had a kicking and screaming mess on our hands in the form of my daughter. And boy, can she scream! She wouldn't stay still enough for a thorough exam and cleaning, so we almost had to go to Primary Children's to have her sedated.  But with 4 of us to hold get down, we finally got her cleaned up, determined it wasn't a tendon that was cut, and put in 7 stitches.

After a Popsicle and a sucker, Lily finally calmed down and we went home. But Lily wasn't allowed to go in our brand-new sandbox or finish out the next week of swimming lessons. :( luckily, I got a refund for both her and Caleb's lessons.

And when we asked Lily what happened, she said Daddy cut her...his toenails aren't that bad. :) Caleb had thrown one of my nice Pyrex measuring cups a few days prior, shattering all over the tile. While I had vacuumed and swept several times, we assume a stray piece must have ended up by the couch where the injury occurred.

It was a hard 10 days, but I'm happy to say that our baby girl is all healed up and we are back to bike crashes and brother fights as usual.

Drop 13 Race Report

I ran the Drop 13 1/2 marathon a few weeks ago. LOVED it. The whole race is down Big Cottonwood Canyon and is beautiful. I had been training hard and was ready to run my best race. I even lost 13 lbs, so I could get an extra medal.  And then the week of the race, my knee and leg started to hurt...an injury was coming on. So I took the week mostly off, and figured I'd power through, take some ibuprofen, and hope for the best. 

I wanted to be conservative, so I started off relatively slowly (6:45 min/mile), and sped up after the halfway point to closer to 6 min/miles. 

Miles 6-11 were between 6:15 and 5:56, and I felt awesome. My fastest mile of all time (in high school track) is 5:52, so to come that close in a 1/2 marathon felt fantastic. I also shattered my previous 2-mile (12:45) and 5k (20:00) and 10k (40:14) records; replacing them with 11:57, 18:54, and 37:40, respectively. I didn't know I could go that fast! Sure, it was downhill, but still, I was thrilled with the results. The last couple of miles slowed down a bit because it flattened out a bit, a set of stairs, a near miss when a car ran the red light, and a poorly marked end of the course. I finished in 1:23:44, my fastest time ever (by 5 minutes!). And my first negative split! Definitely trying that strategy again. It was the best I've felt during and after a race.  I just needed to prove to myself that I could get fast again after twins, and I'm proud to say that I did it!

My time was good enough for a 2nd place overall trophy. I put the trophy on the mantle, so William decided to put his tball trophy up there, too. :)  

Assuming I heal from this injury soon (2 weeks without running and still no end in sight), I have some lofty goals this season. I've been pool running and biking to maintain fitness, so between that and losing my love handles this summer (hoping for another 5-10 lbs of fat loss to get back to pre-pregnancy racing weight and speed me up a tad), I should hopefully manage ok.

My next goal is to best my all-time marathon time of 3:22 (shooting for a 3:10-3:15, I had a 3:32 last year with only half-hearted training), and hopefully break 1:20 in the 1/2. I had a decent amount of spunk left at the end, so I probably should have pushed harder. And I race a lot smarter now that I'm older...we'll see what happens come fall. 

The Happiest Place on Earth, Part 1

Ever since we moved from SoCal, I have wanted to go back. Steve even had a job interview in LA when the babies were 2 months old (obviously, it didn’t work out), and I was really hoping we would move back.  Don’t get me wrong, I LOVE being in Utah: Close to family, affordable housing, no traffic, among other good things.  But I miss the beach, the weather, the people, the character, and especially Disneyland. 

William opted to do a flu shot study in which they would pay him enough for us to go to Disneyland.  Steve opted to stay home with the babies (even though he would be in Rancho for work the next week) so it was just me and Silly Billy.  It was a blast!

We flew out Saturday morning, and met my friend Kyle (from Progressive) for lunch at the Counter. It’s my favorite burger place in SoCal and I’m bummed there isn’t one here. William refused to speak to Kyle, so that was a bummer, but I did get a sweet Progressive tote as a parting gift.

After lunch, we drove down to Santa Monica Beach to spend the afternoon in the sun and sand.

Our William is a total beach bum.  I even got him to jump in the waves. He could spend all day in the sand and water.  Guess we need to come back this summer.  Or build a sandbox.  One of the two.

After the beach, we went to Westwood for Diddy Riese and to drive by UCLA.  William was tired and not feeling well, so we just shared an ice cream sandwich and hit up the grocery store for supplies…like Disneyland tickets.

We stayed with Steven’s Uncle Dave in Reseda that night. William was a huge fan of Dave and Mary Lou.  I think the toys helped, lol.

The next morning was our tour of SoCal.  We drove from Reseda out to church in Rancho Cucamonga to see some old friends. I don’t think a lot of people knew I was coming even though I announced it on FB, because I got a ton of shocked (but pleasantly surprised) faces and so many hugs. I’ve never been so warmly received in my life.  Makes me want to move back.

After church, we visited my 89-year-old Grandpa in West Covina. William is into rockets and space right now and was really excited to meet a real rocket scientist. It didn’t hurt that he gave us some lemons and limes to bring home. My grandpa has Celiac disease and between that and his age, can’t travel much, so this was the first time we had seen him since the move.

Next stop was Irvine with the Bouslogs. William and Macey picked up right where they left off. They had a great time together.

He even drew her a picture. He said it was Daddy and Caleb and Lily and William and Mommy with a baby in her tummy. Not an announcement, though I did get a little baby hungry at church after a day without mine.  I had to borrow babies from friends. :)

The other side was a dog and William and Macey, I think. 

After dinner, we were off to the Bode’s place in Grand Terrace.  It was 3 hours of driving that day.  Ick.

William LOVED Gwen and Audrey. They weren’t entirely sure how to combine bad guys and princesses, but they still had a lot of fun and we were sad to leave.

And I would have been sad to miss out on seeing Rebecca (and little Nolan!). After someone cooks you dinner and drives 20 miles to clean your house multiple times, it really cements a friendship, I think.