Family Pictures

Here are some pictures from Grandma’s camera.  I especially love the ones of my husband and Reece.

A Post from a couple weeks ago

Today I am a very proud mommy of Jif.  He has been such a good big brother this last week.  He is always concerned about "little sister"and loves to give her kisses on her head and make sure that she always has her pacifier with her.  He tells her that he loves her and hasn't shown any signs of jealousy.  The reason I am especially proud of Jif today is because he is such a good missionary.  Today my mom took Jif out to the playground and as they were walking Jif smiled and said "hi" to a Vietnamese man who lives in our apartment complex.  This man was so touched by Jif's kindness that he stopped and started asking my mom questions and they began a conversation.  It turns out that this man has a wife and 2 children who are back in Vietnam.  He is going to the University here for 4 months and needs to find a job so he can have his family come to America and join him.  He told my mom that he believes in Christ but was unable to worship in Vietnam because it is a communist country.  That started a conversation about our beliefs as members of the church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  This man asked for a Book of Mormon and agreed to have the missionaries come to his home and teach him.  All of this because a little boy took the time to smile at a stranger and say "hi".  I can just imagine the loneliness of this man, so far away from his family, trying to start a new life for his family, and not speaking the language very well.  Jif's kindness to a stranger probably made his day so much happier and also gave him the opportunity to be introduced to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  Sometimes I am so astounded by my almost 2 year old.  I have so much to learn from him.  Today he taught me that sometimes all missionary work needs to be is a smile to a stranger. 
In other news Reece is doing well.  She is our little snuggle bug.  She is a pretty easy baby, still wakes up a lot at night, but that is to be expected.  She sleeps upright in her little baby bouncer and I haven't noticed any digestive issues since we brought her home.  She loves her pacifier, takes a bottle really easily, and has the hardest suck ever.  Not comfortable for this new mommy.  This week my cramping kept getting worse and worse until it was unbearable.  My husband took me to the ER and they found blood in my urine test that they took with a cath sample.  The doctor said that with the blood in the urine and my symptoms he really thinks it is a kidney stone.  He gave me the option to have a CT scan to confirm the kidney stone, but I opted out to avoid unnecessary radiation and he thought that was a good choice.  He just said to drink lots of water, continue taking pain medicine, and if the pain gets worse to come back in and they would use the CT scan to see how big the kidney stone is.  Today I have been feeling a lot better.  So hopefully that's what it was and it is over now and I can get back to recovering and taking care of my kids.  I also had an increase in blood today and I called the doctor and she just lectured me on overdoing it.  I tried to explain that I hadn't overdone anything because for the last few days I have either been in the hospital or in bed, but she wouldn't believe me.  Then she lectured me on not drinking enough water, which is dumb because most people would be amazed at how much water I drink, I know my husband is.  Sometimes it is so infuriating to me when doctors have their superiority complex.  It's annoying when they lecture without even listening to the patient.  I saw that a lot when I was a nurse and it is something that really bugs me. 
I have really been blessed this week to have my mom helping me.  It would have been really hard without her.  I will be sad when she leaves, but then my husband will have more time to be home so it will be good.  It's been a good week, despite our little trials.  I feel so blessed to have two healthy beautiful, unique children and a supportive family.  I am happy.

Our Beautiful Princess

Deciding to be induced was a difficult decision for me.  I wanted to go into labor naturally, but I was scared that if I waited Reese would be 10 or more pounds like her brother was.  My doctor did a high definition ultrasound that was supposed to be very accurate.  Reese was measuring a week under weight (at around 7 1/2 pounds at 39 weeks) so my doctor encouraged me to wait to go into labor naturally.  I prayed and pondered the decision of whether to induce or not for a long time.  The feeling that I got was that I should be induced.  I scheduled my induction for when I was 39 weeks and when my doctor checked me I was only dilated to a 1.  My doctor encouraged me to wait until at least 40 weeks so that perhaps I would be dilated more by then.  I was discouraged when I found out I was a 1.  I had been having painful contractions, I was walking and doing everything I could think of to help me go into labor but it seemed to be for nothing.  Between 39-40 weeks I didn't feel a single contraction and I kind of gave up on the "natural induction methods".  When I went into the hospital to be induced at 8am on Sunday, December 5th to my surprise I was already dilated to a 4.  How does that work, painful contractions that make me barely a 1 and no contractions and I show up a 4?  Sometimes I really don't understand how labor works.  The hospital room was nice and big, my nurse was from Hong Kong and for the life of us we could not understand her.  We asked to have a different nurse but the hospital staff told us they would encourage her to speak more slowly to us.    It made me nervous and uncomfortable to have a nurse that I didn't understand.  In fact one time she had the nurse anesthetist come in to give me an epidural before I had even asked for one.  So my husband and I tried to understand what my nurse was talking about while she started the pitocin.  I started feeling semi painful contractions but I felt like I could handle the pain.  My husband and I played monopoly on our phones while waiting.  We didn't have internet access at the hospital because they only had an ethernet connection and we didn't bring a cable.  In fact when we asked the hospital staff about wifi, most of the nurses weren't sure what wifi was.  We had to explain the concept of wireless internet to the hospital staff, weird-I thought we were in America.  I put off having an epidural because I was doing fine without one.  Then at about noon I felt a gush of fluid and the nurse checked me and sure enough my water had broken on it's own.  The doctor came in and broke my membranes more so that all of the water would be released.  As soon as she did that my contractions were unbeareable.  I immediately asked for an epidural.  The nurse anesthetist came right away and did a fantastic job and gave me the most perfect epidural that I could have dreamed of.  The nurse anesthetist was definitely my favorite hospital employee during my stay there.  The only weird thing was that they wouldn't let my husband stay in the same room as me while I was getting my epidural.  So he had to leave, which I wasn't a fan of.  The epidural was great, the nurse checked me again and I was still only a 4.  No progress, but I felt great and pain free so I went to sleep.  When I woke up I texted Josh's mom to tell her that I hadn't progressed and I had no idea how long labor would be, this was around 4pm.  I got a new nurse and the new nurse spoke much better English.  The new nurse said that she wasn't going to even check me until I started feeling pressure.  She left the room and about 5 minutes later I started to feel some pressure.  I made my husband look at the monitor and sure enough the contractions were coinciding with the pressure.  I called the nurse back in and she checked me and told me that I was an 8.  She said it might still be a while and left.  About 10 minutes later I started to feel like I needed to push and got really shaky.  We called the nurse back and she told me that it probably wasn't time yet but checked me anyway.  I was a 9, she told me to do a small push and so I pushed and then I was a 10.  She told me to stop pushing and she went and got the doctor.  The doctor came and I started pushing.  It took 4 pushes and 15 minutes total and my beautiful baby girl was born.  As the baby was crowning they told me to stop pushing and let her come on her own so that she wouldn't make me tear.  That was the only painful part after my epidural.  They asked me if I wanted to touch her head.  I said "no way-it hurts I just want to push".  To prevent me from pushing the nurse had me cough, so after a couple coughs she came out.  They joked that I coughed my baby out.  As my baby girl came out and my husband cut her umbilical cord, the doctor said "I think that we may have underestimated her size, this looks like an above average baby.  Immediately after she was born I got to hold her.  It was an unreal experience.  I didn't get to hold my son right after he was born.  As they weighed her and cleaned her she cried, but softly.  She was 8 pounds, 12 ounces, and was 20 1/2 inches long.  She was born at 4:42 pm which was crazy because my husband guessed that morning that she would be born at 4:45 pm that day.  The doctor was surprised that the ultrasound was so off on her weight and all that I could say was "I told you so".  Maybe with my 3rd baby they will listen to me and induce me earlier.  However, I thought that 8 pounds 12 ounces was perfect.  She seems so small compared to Jif-even though the nurses all said that she was huge.  She looks just like her daddy.  She has fair skin and blonde hair.  I think that she has my nose.  She loves to cuddle and be swaddled and suck on her pacifier-3 things that Jif would never tolerate.  She is perfect in every way.  She has been a little fussy with some digestive issues.  The pediatrician said it is probably because she wasn't squeezed and traumatized enough during the birth process so her GI tract didn't get squeezed and it is still a little irritated.  She spits up and gets a bloated stomach if she goes to sleep lying down so I try to keep her upright as much as possible.  When she was born my husband could not stop talking about how beautiful and delicate she is.  He is absolutely in love with her.  He's a little bit sad though because he is in the middle of finals so I have kicked him out of the house and he is not allowed to wake up with her in the night until his finals are over.  He can't wait to spend more time with her.  Jif loves "baby sister".  He talks about her non stop and seems to not be too jealous about her.  He has been a little bit sick so we haven't let him hold her yet or get too close to her.  He's happy though because Grandma is here giving him lots of attention.  He has already convinced Grandma that all he eats are fruit snacks and goldfish crackers and that he doesn't have to eat broccoli.  He's so mischievous.    My mom is here helping us out which is such a life saver.  With Josh in finals I don't know what I would do with my mischievous toddler and my sweet newborn who hates to be put down.  It's so nice to have my mom here.  We are just in love with our new little family.  We are so thankful for all of the blessings and help that we have received.  We are doing well and I am recovering much faster than I did the first time.  Reece is a champ at breast feeding and I am doing things that it took me weeks to be able to do after my first born.  We love our beautiful Princess and I am having way too much fun dressing her up and putting bows in her hair. We are so happy to have her in our family.