My Fourth Baby

My Fourth Baby

1. Were you married at the time? Yes

2. What was your reaction when you found out you were pregnant? freaked out, major concerns about concurrent medical conditions

3. How old were you? 30

4. How did you find out you were pregnant? HPT

5. Who did you tell first? Hubby

6. Did you want to find out the sex? no

7. Due Date?  13 or 11 December 2012

8. Did you deliver early or late? early

9. Did you have morning sickness? yes

10. What did you crave? fruit, protein

11. What irritated you the most? concurrent medical conditions

12. What was your fourth child's sex? boy

13. How many pounds did you gain throughout the pregnancy? 23

14. Did you have any complications during your pregnancy? concurrent medical conditions of -PTSD, anxiety, depression, fibromyalgia, IBS, migraines; pregnancy induced carpal tunnel and reflux

15. Where did you give birth? Balboa; Naval Medical Center San Diego

16. How many hours were you in labor? 3

17.Who drove you to the hospital? Hubby

18 . Did you take medicine to ease the pain? no

19 . How much did your child weigh? 8lbs 0.2oz

20 . What did you name him/her? Champ

21. How old is your fourth born today? 6 days

22. Who does your child look like? daddy and older brothers

23. Did you get mad at your husband during labor? No

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Quiz

Let's see how much you remember!

1. WAS YOUR FOURTH PREGNANCY PLANNED? no

2. WERE YOU MARRIED AT THE TIME? Yes

3. WHAT WERE YOUR REACTIONS? freaked out

4. WAS ABORTION AN OPTION FOR YOU? NO

5. HOW OLD WERE YOU? 30

6. HOW DID YOU FIND OUT YOU WERE PREGNANT? HPT

7. WHO DID YOU TELL FIRST? Hubby

8. DID YOU WANT TO FIND OUT THE SEX? no

9. DUE DATE? 13 or 11 December 2012

10. DID YOU HAVE MORNING SICKNESS? yes!

11. WHAT DID YOU CRAVE? fruit, protein

12. WHO/WHAT IRRITATED YOU THE MOST? concurrent medical conditions

13. WHAT WAS YOUR THIRD CHILD'S SEX? boy

14. DID YOU WISH YOU HAD THE OPPOSITE SEX OF WHAT YOU WERE GETTING? we thought we were having a girl and nearly everyone we knew also voiced that opinion, so having another boy was a surprise

15. HOW MANY POUNDS DID YOU GAIN THROUGHOUT THE PREGNANCY? 23

16. DID YOU HAVE A BABY SHOWER? no

17. WAS IT A SURPRISE OR DID YOU KNOW? n/a

18. DID YOU HAVE ANY COMPLICATIONS DURING YOUR PREGNANCY? yes, see above

19. WHERE DID YOU GIVE BIRTH? Balboa; Naval Medical Center San Diego

20. HOW MANY HOURS WERE YOU IN LABOR? 3

21. WHO DROVE YOU TO THE HOSPITAL? Hubby

22. WHO WATCHED YOU GIVE BIRTH? Hubby, midwife, nurse, corpsman

23. WAS IT NATURAL OR C-SECTION? Natural

24. DID YOU TAKE MEDICINE TO EASE THE PAIN? no

27. HOW MUCH DID YOUR CHILD WEIGH? 8 lbs, 0.2 oz

28. WHEN WAS YOUR CHILD ACTUALLY BORN? 04 December 2012

30. WHAT DID YOU NAME HIM/HER? Champ

31. HOW OLD IS YOUR FOURTH BORN TODAY? 6 days

Announcing...

Our little one has arrived!

04 December 2012

0315 PST [3:15 AM]

It's a boy!

8lb 0.2oz

20 3/4in

Nickname "Champ"

[Yes, I am still working on the birth story.]

Before & After

Before:

03 December 2012 0740 PST

[I have pregnancy induced carpal tunnel, hence the wrist braces.]

After:

04 December 2012 0356 PST

One last pic before transferring to my postpartum room.

Welcome little one!

My birth story to follow soon.
[Hint: Labor didn't start until 04 Dec.]

Digital Photo Update

Update from this post.

 

11/12 So far the data recovery program has found some 200K+ images, but they're mostly temp internet icons. Some family pics in the mix, but we won't know how much was saved until the program is finished and we restore the files. Then we have the long hard job of sorting through the renamed, mixed up files. At least there's a small light at the end of the tunnel...

11/15 So far nothing is readable that's been recovered. and it will only recover small files, 4k or less. none of the actual pictures. we're trying a different program now.

We were able to restore a good chunk of the pictures with the second program. They are not in any order and there's no rhyme or reason to how they were recovered, but there's definitely clumps of photos recovered. It'll take quite a while to sort through and organize them again. I'm so grateful for what we have saved.

All Digital Photos Gone

Hubby reset one of our computers this last week. He "cleared the drive" and installed a new OS. In the process he deleted nearly 10 years of digital photos. He had assumed they were on our other computer, but they were not. I asked several times this week if he could help me find the files, and he kept saying they were on the computers. Finally, he investigated, and they are gone.

I haven't printed pics since spring 2010 [printed up to fall 2009], and those were for the family album, not the individual kids' albums. That makes just over 3 years of family photos and 4.5 years of specific child photos completely gone. I am so sad and disappointed.

We used to have our pics on the now reset computer, the upstairs computer, and the external hard drive. He had pulled them from the upstairs computer to rely on the external drive months ago. For some reason, and he can't remember when or why, he took them off the external drive and 'thought they were saved somewhere else'. I didn't know they weren't on the external drive anymore, until I started looking. After he reset the computer I tried to access the photos, as he's always saved them in the past when updating or fixing a computer, but had no luck. I tried the upstairs computer, but didn't expect to find much as I knew from the last several months they weren't directly saved there. I had some trouble checking the external drive, and that's when I asked DH for help.

Hubby is trying a data recovery program at the moment, but he's not having any luck. I feel like crying, but I'm numbing out. This is so heartbreaking.

New Mom Glow

Someone asked for pictures of me after I gave birth.  To see my triumphant new mom glow.  The I did it!

As you can see, I was more worn out with my first child's labor than my subsequent deliveries.  No sleep and no food for two days does that to a person.  Add on thirty-six hours of labor and you have a recipe for one worn out momma.  Oh, and I couldn't sleep after giving birth either.  Talk about an endorphin rush.  Too bad I didn't get much sleep for the next month and slumped into PPD.  Hubby was working overtime and I had no help with adjusting to motherhood.  No friends or family to show me the ropes.  I felt so alone.  And desperate for sleep.  Munchkin was the epitome of a "happy spitter" in the doctor's office and a colicky, pukey baby at home.  I learned some tough lessons, but those experiences helped me become the mother I am.  Munchkin and I learned together.

Either later the same day or the day after Munchkin's birth.

 After my rough labor with Munchkin, I was not about to have the same experience again.  I researched everything about unmedicated birth.  We looked into switching to a midwife and the possibility of hiring a doula.  With my pre-term labor scare the midwife was out of the question, and doulas were hard to come by in our area.  At least with our budget.  I was blessed with a wonderful nurse once arriving at the hospital.  I had a full night sleep the night before and a great breakfast that morning.  Twenty minutes later, my labor started.  Fourteen hours after that, and Little Miss joined our family.  Little Miss had the cord wrapped twice around her neck, though not tightly.  She had also released some meconium prior to birth.  From the lack of staining and her clear lungs they think it was during transition and shortly before birth.  She had no ill effects.

Twenty-three minutes after Little Miss's birth.

With Pumpkin I had on again, off again labor for three days before the real deal.  I had a midwife at the Naval Hospital, but no doula.  Not that there aren't doulas out here, time just got away from me.  When it came down to it, the family who was going to watch our kids had left for vacation and it took hours to get a hold of anyone so we could go to the hospital.  Then I found out the wasn't a midwife on duty, luckily it was at shift change and one just came on.  Great experience with my delivery.  The only thing that didn't follow my birth plan was the nurse lying my bed back while I was pushing.  Bad idea.  I ended up with internal muscle damage and a trapped nerve by the time everything healed.  Twenty months later and I learn all of this with a physical therapy evaluation.  Pumpkin had the cord wrapped once around his neck, loosely, and promptly had a bowel movement upon exit [he hit the sheet].  Pumpkin had some breathing difficulties at first and needed some further evaluation.  Somehow he didn't get all the amniotic fluid squished out of him during the birth process and it took about twenty four hours for him to have it all exasperated manually or coughed up.  Then he was a happy camper.

Three minutes and twenty-four minutes after Pumpkin's birth.

So there you have it.  A brief review on my births and my new momma pictures.

Our Christmas Meal

I can't really call it our Christmas Breakfast this year (2011), as we didn't eat until 4PM.  You can see that our traditional family meal for Christmas is breakfast related, it was merely delayed due to attending church services in the morning.

As mentioned in previous Christmas posts [here, here, and here], we have a large breakfast/brunch on Christmas morning.  This year was only different in the time on the clock.  We asked for everyone's participation an input and we had a feast.  Those that needed to had a small breakfast before church and snack after; everyone else took the time to fast.

Our Christmas Meal:
Waffles
Eggs
Hash browns
Sausage links
French Toast [non-dairy]
Biscuits and Gravy [non-dairy]
Cream of Wheat [non-dairy]
Orange Juice
2% Milk
Almond Milk
Condiments of ketchup, fake and real maple syrup

18 Grandkids!

I am eagerly awaiting the final set of pictures from my sister-in-law, for now I wanted to share this. 

 

My in-laws with 18 of their grandchildren [Hubby's older daughter was the only biological one missing].  Eighteen of twenty-two, blended families included, grandchildren from my mother-in-law.  My father-in-law has five grandchildren.  Thus making the total grandchildren for my in-law's 27!

Would you like to know another fun fact about our family pictures?  Some of the adults had wanted to just wear jeans; go casual.  After the big pictures, they wanted to have the children change back at the house for more pictures in their new duds.  The kids decided they wanted to wear their new clothes for the big family pictures.  That made me feel really good.

Sewing - Christmas Vests - All Together

Here are the vests all together.  All. Twelve.

I used Burda patterns 9812, 9781, 9990, and 9732.

Sewing - Christmas Vests - Black & Red

We're down to the final three.

Here we have our red vest.  For this vest I used Burda 9781.

 Then, we have the two black with red detail vests.  I used Burda 9812 to make them.

 

All three together-

 

Whew!  Tomorrow we leave for Arizona!

Sewing - Christmas Vests - Blue

One of the twelve year olds, nine year olds, and five year olds each love blue.  Here are their vests.

For these two larger sized vests, I used Burda 9812.

 

For the smallest blue vest I used Burda 9990.

 

 All three blue vests together -

Pumpkin's Finished Quilt

I had the patchwork side all finished and pinned to the fleece side in time for Pumpkin's birthday.  Here is my previous post about the quilt.

With all my other sewing I had hoped Hubby would finish his yarn knots to attach the two sides so I could finally put the binding around the edges.

After running out of thread for my first vests we headed back to JoAnn's and let Pumpkin choose his blanket binding.  Over the Christmas weekend I paused on finishing the vests and attached the binding to Pumpkin's quilt.  I then finished the yarn knots.  To be fair Hubby did about 1/4 of the quilt, he later told me he was impressed with my time saving technique that I had learned at a previous Relief Society meeting.

On Christmas evening the family was playing a game of Qwirkle; in between my turns I worked on the knots.  I did not hand sew the binding, I machine stitched it.  If you look closely you can see the area where the sewing machine and I did not get along.

I really wanted Pumpkin's blanket done so he could enjoy it.  With pins still on it he was hesitant to do much with it, so it just sat and was forgotten about. [Maybe this was part of Hubby's delay?

 

 

Ready for Church on Christmas

I really enjoy having church on Christmas.

Growing up my family went to either the 7pm family service or the 1145pm late night Christmas Eve service, and again for the 10am Christmas Day service.  Well, at least one of those but the intention was to go to both Christmas Eve and Day service.


On Christmas morning we all got up and showered and went to church, actually Sacrament Meeting. 

After church and before everyone dispersed into the house I asked if we could take a picture on our back steps.

 

Christmas Eve 2011

This year we invited our missionaries over for Christmas Eve dinner, a newer tradition our family started after moving to San Diego.  Before bed we kept with our tradition of reading from the scriptures about Christ's birth.

 The only pictures of Hubby on Christmas Eve were this one, one you could see up his nose, and a third with is leg and foot.  As you can see we are all gathered around for scripture reading.

Sewing - Christmas Vests - Silver

We only have one silver vest for the group.

 

I used Burda 9812 to make this vest.

Sewing - Christmas Vests - Bronze

Ok, so there's some orange on the first one and gold/brown tints on all three.  I'm not sure what the main color(s) should be considered on this set. Everyone so far has liked the look.

The fabric for this vest was picked to go with the green.  My nephew's favorite color is orange and this was the best I could find.  Again, I used Burda  9990.

These two vests are made with the more brown & gold fabric.  This was the last fabric picked out.  It has the same pattern as the blue vests. The top vest is made with Burda 9990.

  This vest, the smallest of the twelve to be completed, uses Burda 9732.

All together -