Then Comes A Baby... (2010)

WARNING: This is a birth story full of pain, (but hey it has a really adorable and chubby ending) you might not want to read this if you are pregnant or thinking about becoming so.

Last post, I left off with us getting home in time for classes on Monday. Well 3 o'clock Monday morning I woke to some very uncomfortable contractions (you know where this is headed...) I was able to go back to sleep until 4, then I had to give up. I had forgotten how bad contractions could be. You see with Owen, I was induced and I elected to have an epidural since I heard pitocin can make your contractions more intense and I wasn't interested in that. Since I didn't feel a single contraction or any pain at all for my last child I had forgotten what it was like to be in labor.
I was miserable when I was having the contractions and dreading the next one when I wasn't. They were so intense that I literally wanted to escape my own body every time a contraction hit me. I was screaming and crying through every one. After dealing with this for an hour I decided I wanted to go to the hospital even though my contractions weren't as regular as they say they should be ( a couple would be every 5 minutes then some would be every 8, and then 3, and then 10...). All I could think about was that the hospital was my relief and I wanted it now or was gonna loose my mind! We called my brother to come and watch the boys while we went to the hospital. It only took him 5 or 10 minutes but it felt like hours. I had basically decided I was gonna leave my children unattended and go to the hospital anyway (hey, he was gonna show up soon, I rationalized), when my brother finally showed up. I moved to the car as quickly as my pain-racked body could take me, crying the whole way. I was desperate. In order to save a few minutes of waiting I made a split second decision to go to the closest hospital instead of the one I had originally chosen. I was counting the minutes it would take to get there and unrealistically calculating how few contractions I might be able to get away with before the epidural took effect. Nathan parked and I got out of the car and went into the hospital without him. I just wanted to get in there as fast as I could, but I only made it 3 yards inside the door before I had to lean up against a wall and cry miserably. A very sweet angel of a doctor was walking past and tried to comfort me, sent some one to notify Labor and Delivery that I was coming, and guided me toward the correct elevator. Nathan caught up to me and we went up. As soon as we got in I was already begging for my pain relief. In the room the nurse checked me and was surprised that I was already fully dilated. They had to get an IV in my arm before they would give me a spinal epidural. Apparently I was dehydrated and that makes it really hard to successfully insert a needle. They had to stick me 2-3 times in each hand. I didn't care about that minor pain I just kept begging for I didn't really know what anymore. Then finally the anesthesiologist came and got the IV in and then gave me my epidural. RELIEF! Immediately after that the doctor came in and told me to start pushing...

On September 13th around 6am, just 45 minutes after arriving at the hospital Ronan Young Shirley was born. 9 lbs. 1 oz. and 20 .5 in. long and he was a week early! I was only in labor for 2 or 3 hours! It felt like eternity.

I felt much better afterwards.

He sure was a cute little chunker.

His brothers were, of course, delighted to have their little brother out in the open.

I chose to not take the week off (or for some people maybe it's longer, I don't know) because for me the worst possible thing would be to fall behind in my classes. So 58 hours (2 1/2 days) after giving birth I was back in my classes. Don't worry, I took it easy. At least I avoided walking to much.

So note that when ever I have said or will say, "I was going to school full time" that Art classes have double the in class hours of most typical college classes (and probably the out of class time required as well) so when I took 12 credits in the winter it was really 24 hours a week in class and when I took 14 credits in the fall that was really 28 hours a week in class then add out of class time. So basically when I wasn't sleeping, all I was doing was taking care of Ronan and working on my assignments. Nathan had to give me food or I usually wouldn't remember to eat (I confess I don't really do a whole lot better when I'm not busy either).

All I'm saying is that life was crazy.

Catch Up: Jan-Sep 2010

I know that it has been forever since the last time I posted but I have a pretty good set of excuses! I will summarize the last 20 months (gosh that's long!) over a series of several posts.

January we moved in to our apartment in Wymount and started the winter semester. We had decided I would go full time and Nathan part time for three semesters and two terms and then he would graduate in April 2011 and I would finish up my degree long distance. Even though Nathan was taking fewer classes he still had work so things were really tough and we had to get some help watching the boys regularly or loose sleep and some times a combination of both. We also found out I was pregnant!

February Owen learned to walk at 10 months old. The picture is at the duck pond south of campus. We were giving him some support as he learned.

In April was the end of winter semester, Owen turned one year old, and my brother got married to an adorable young woman.

In May, Nate started taking the boys for hikes up the canyon. Even though I was getting larger with child, I accompanied them on one of their expeditions. The boys wanted to spend most of their time throwing rocks in the river.

May

June was the end of spring term and my load finally lightened a little (but not completely) for summer term. I know Nathan appreciated it too after being Mr. Mom for 6 months.

In August and September, things got really crazy right before fall semester Nathan was asked to go to Orlando for two weeks to do some work on site for Tupperware. Classes were starting and we couldn't find a babysitter and I was due in two weeks. So we took Liam and Owen to stay with my family and drove back the same day. I dropped Nathan off at the airport the following day (Sunday).
I started my classes all alone. It was the strangest feeling to be the only one at home and be a lone person with no kids attached (it was lonely). The next weekend, my brother and new sister-in-law (who also go to BYU) were having a late reception at my parents house, so I went down with them to see the boys and attend the reception and then we drove back for school.
I picked up Nate at the airport the next Friday night. Saturday we drove down to pick up the boys and drove back Sunday after Sacrament Meeting and were home in time to get some rest for classes the next day. Or so we thought...

Avatar

We just went to see Avatar at an Imax theater last night. Grandma stayed home and watched Liam and Owen While the rest of the family went to the movie. I was bouncing and skipping as I walked to the movie feeling so light and it dawned on me that this was the first time I had been away from my babies in almost 4 months! (And I haven't been without Owen for even longer) I know that sounds a little pathetic maybe but I didn't really want to ask someone to babysit when I didn't know anyone very well and Owen was only recently was old enough to leave behind.

I thought Avatar was pretty cool. I agree with Nathan's Dad when he said "I like it when the Indian's win", the basic plot isn't original but it's still an impressive thing to watch. I read a review that said Avatar was like a teenage boy's dream (rescue an alien race, get a hot alien girl to fall in love with you, etc...) I had to laugh at a couple parts because it made me think of that review, but it was still awesome. The Imax was in a furniture store called Jordan's furniture. I had never heard of anything like that before. They have put a lot of attractions in their store to get people to walk through and see their furniture and hopefully buy it. I think it's a pretty good idea.

I was totally entertained by the women's bathroom! There were full length mirrors on all the bathroom stall doors. When I went into the stall and sat down to do my business. I was very uncomfortable when I finally realized I was watching ladies washing their hands. I felt very exposed (even though I wasn't really) when ladies were checking their appearance in the "mirror" and it looked like they were looking at me! Totally Genius! I have been raving to everyone about how awkwardly cool one way mirrors in a bathroom are! They kept the stalls dark as an important element in keeping the privacy. Only down side is then you can't check to see if the seat is wet before you sit down.

Let it snow!

We are in Massachusetts with Nathan's family for the holidays. This is me in looking at the beautiful fresh snow while staying cozy inside! One of the best ways to enjoy the winter weather (especially if you've been in warm Florida for the past 4 months). Here is a summary of the time since my last post:

Liam and Nathan in front of "Pooh's howse" at Disney World.


Liam and Owen were wheeled around Disney World in style!

Liam trying on a hat after the Pirates of the Carribean ride. It's nice that we all could ride, even Owen! Nathan and I didn't have to take turns on almost any of the rides we went on.

Proof that I was there too! I got in free since it was my birthday! (they are ending that promotion this year, saddness...)

You can tell Liam loves his brother, Owen has to be pretty tough to handle the attention Liam gives him!

Nathan's internship ended on Dec 11th and we were planning on leaving the next day. I started fretting about the packing two weeks before we were going to leave and started packing the week of our departure. My brain felt pretty scrambled by the time we left. Here we have just about everything packed up...

2 days before we left we went to downtown Disney with some friends. It doesn't cost anything to walk around and there are lots of cool things to see. There was a Lego store that was showing off some impressive Lego sculptures outside. (we are posing in front of one of the smaller sculptures) We walked through a restaurant full of animatronic dinosaurs, Liam was pretty impressed. We had a fudge sundae at the Ghiradelli soda shop, mmmm.... very good! Downtown Disney wraps around a body of water so they have a ferry to take you across if you don't want to take the long way around. So we rode the ferry back to where we started when we were ready to go home. It was a lot of fun, Liam loved it.

Liam got a pirate sword from the ferryman at downtown Disney. Liam impressed him by calling the ferry a water taxi (he has a book full of different kinds of vehicles)

A different way to pack up Owen.

On our way to Massachusetts for Christmas. We split the trip down the middle by staying with my aunt Melissa in Virginia for a day. Liam and Owen were very good for both halves of the trip.

Luckily we just missed the snow storm that hit Virginia after we left. It caught up to us a day or two after we arrived in MA. But that was okay, as long as we weren't driving in it we didn't mind so much.


Super Owen!

Liam likes to wear his uncle Kevin's motorcycle helmet. It's very heavy but somehow he manages to avoid capsizing.

Liam was so excited to get to play in the fresh snow with Daddy, it was all hard and crunchy before.

He made Nathan take him out twice that day. Nathan made him a little 8" snow man that they played with for quite a while. It was very cute.

October

Since it's been over two months since the last post, I'm going to back track a little.

We started potty training Liam the last week in September. No more diapers! It took him a week to figure out what needing to go feels like and what he was supposed to do, then he did pretty good most of the time. It took another week to start going to sit on the potty himself and some where in there we stopped using diapers when he slept. Then in another week there were virtually no accidents, yay! Also, Owen started army crawling at the beginning of October and now tries to eat everything in sight. He'll get up on all fours and rock but he won't do a real crawl yet. He's pretty fast though and very busy! Just in the past week, he's started to sit up all by himself too!

Liam calls it "my iPod" He likes to play the truck racing app, the drawing app and the puzzle app (especially the puzzle app!).

Mid October we were invited to a pumpkin carving party. We brought home the pieces for the eyes and nose because Liam liked to use the Jack-o-lantern as a puzzle. We took pictures right before we threw it away because it getting was moldy inside.

A friend gave us 11 fitted cloth diapers and 2 diaper covers at the beginning of the month, so mid month I decided to give cloth diapering a try (On Owen, not Liam! Remember, Liam is potty trained! Yay!). After a couple weeks, I bought 13 prefolds and 3 more diaper covers to supplement the ones that were given to us. We're still working out the nitty gritty stuff, but it' seems to be working for the most part.

Liam is using a pillow for a turtle shell.

Owen discovered he likes climbing on things, especially Liam's froggy potty. The only problem is he gets stuck once he's up there. He has pulled himself up to stand using the stairs. He has also tried to pull himself up using the coffee table and the beds.

Liam wanted to be a pirate for Halloween. He got really excited when he got his pirate beard painted on, he would yell: "Arrrr matey!" When Liam saw what I was wearing he said: "Mommy, you a pirate girl!"

Liam also liked Owens outfit. It was to small to wear in the conventional way, luckily he didn't mind wearing it as a little hooded cape. He ran over to my make up in the bathroom and said: "Make me a tiger nose!"

September

Since it's been over two months since the last post, I'm going to back track a little.

Liam and Owen were delighted to have Daddy back! The trip to Orlando was about a 30 hour drive. We left Friday afternoon and arrived Monday night. Our only problems were Liam kept getting car sick until we got him some children's Dramamine and getting a flat tire the last day of the trip. Liam and Owen were suprisingly good for the trip. Still I'm pretty sure I want to avoid road trips that take longer than half a day in the future. Unfortunately, I know of two coming up before the year is over (ominous music playing...).

Owen started eating rice cereal at 5 months. He just wasn't satisfied with only nursing anymore. After a couple weeks we added the fruit and vegetable baby foods. He loves them all and so does Liam. Almost every time I feed Owen, Liam comes over and says: "Ahhhh" and waits with his mouth open until I give him a bite.







We went to Gatorland on Saturday the 19th since Tupperware offers employees free tickets.





It was pretty cool, Liam really enjoyed it. The gift shop had some awesome things like back scratchers made from real alligator "hands" , real lacquered alligator heads (they look alive), alligator skulls , plus toy alligators of every kind. (I really wanted to send my brother Chris an alligator back scratcher to use on his girlfriends, but I didn't... not yet anyway...)

The next weekend we went to Seaworld. They offer a Funpass which means you can come back all year for the same price as a single day pass, so we decided we should start going so we could make the most of our ticket price (we've gone three times as of November 1st). Liam loves all the fish. I think sea creatures are probably a big hit for kids of all ages, there is something so magical about them.

Kittens

So, Nathan's internship has been extended 3 months! So that means we will be driving out to Orlando. He will be flying in Wednesday night, I'm so excited! It's been a long 8 weeks. The boys have grown so much. Owen has been working at grabbing things. Liam is talking better all the time. They have been having fun playing with the little kittens. It is fun to watch all these little kids carrying them around. It has been nice to be here with my family and spend time with them and get to know my younger siblings better. We will be driving to Idaho for Grandpa Shirley's birthday. Nathan's family will be there, so it will be like a mini family reunion. From there we will drive another 37 hours to Orlando, yipee! Lots of things going on! Oh! I can't wait 'til my love gets here!