Carson's visitors

Here are the people who came to see Carson at the hospital!  They're in the order that they stopped by.

Grandma G, Papa G was sent off on a last minute business trip so he'll meet Carson another day.

Lisa

Auntie Kina

Grandma H

Papa H



The siblings meet...

Daddy and I decided that Kayda and Dillon were to be the first to see/meet Carson.  We also decided not to announce his name until after they knew him.  Here they are seeing him for the VERY first time!

They learned with their cousin Brett (about a month and a half old now) that the best place to kiss a baby is on their head.  They both did a great job!

Holding Carson for the first time!

Dillon took a little convincing to hold Carson but he did eventually.

Here we are, officially a family of FIVE.  Course if you consider Kayda's point of view we are now a family of six (she counts Hank).

Carson and his gifts from big brother and big sister, plus a gift from Aunt Kirsten and her family and Grandma G. 

Here he is all dressed up for his pictures.  This is his "going home" outfit too.

Kayda and Dillon are both SO excited to have their very own baby brother.  Kayda constantly wants to hold him or touch his hand and she loves to sing to him.  Dillon isn't quite as constant with his attention but he'll work his way back to touch Carson's hand or show him a toy.  It will be interesting to see how much our life changes when we bring him home tomorrow!

Carson Fredrick

Carson Fredrick was born on August 8^th, 2011 at 10:17pm.  He weighs 8lbs 15oz and measures 19.25 inches!  The biggest of our little ones at birth!

Here’s the story, with a lot of details because I want to remember them!

August 8th (2 days past due):

I dropped off Kayda and Dillon with Grandma Peggy so I could go into the office to do my ultrasound (to check fluid levels) and the non-stress test (to make sure he was doing ok in there). On the drive down I had the brief thought that maybe I should get all our hospital stuff but dismissed it as wishful thinking (way to go Mommy). At 1pm I got that ultrasound and was told there was “plenty of fluid” then off to my ob to do the rest. Carson was as active as ever and impressed the nurses and doctor for the second time with how much he moves. At 2:45pm the ob (Dr. Hanlon) checked my cervix, I was 3cm so she did a membrane sweep, well that ended up breaking my water (it broke when she was removing her hand so I think it would have happened soon anyway)! I was so paranoid about not knowing when to go to the hospital. Guess I didn’t need to be! So I packed up, called Daddy and headed over. Can’t say I was disappointed in the slightest!

At 4:15pm I still hadn’t started to have contractions so they started an IV of pitocin. At 6:30pm the doctor came in to put in some special monitors since I was doing a VBAC (vaginal birth after c-section). She discovered I was 4 cm dilated, 75% effaced and the baby was at -1 station (not quite fully engaged). She also found that not all of my amniotic sac broke (apparently there are two layers) so she broke the remainder at 6:40pm.

At 8:00pm I finally chickened out and got an epidural, let me just say this epidural was a thousand times better than the one I had with Kayda. I could still move my legs and feel when the contractions were happening just without the pain. After receiving the epidural they checked me again. 6cm, 75% effaced and 0 station so Carson was moving down. Dr. Hanlon was planning to come back in two hours but I was reporting to the nurse that I could feel a lot of pressure so they checked again at 9:45pm: 9cm, 95% effaced, +1 station (first step of 5 on the way out). Once again we made plans, I would be checked again in half an hour. Just before 10pm I called the nurse, I wanted to push and the pressure wasn’t letting up anymore so she came over and got Dr. Hanlon there. We were ready! It took a few minutes to get everything ready, Dr. Hanlon had to go ask another woman (a first time mom) to hold off on pushing (she had been pushing for 45 minutes) while I delivered. Felt kind of bad about that but I got it done as quickly as I could. Started pushing at 10:06pm and sweet Carson was born at 10:17pm! Dr. Hanlon was going to use the vacuum to help because he was facing sideways but the scalp sensor kept it from working. He corrected himself so it really wasn’t needed anyway. The umbilical cord had been wrapped around Carson’s neck but it was not tight so she was able to slip it right off. Daddy got to cut the umbilical cord too! I only needed a couple of stitches this birth so I was excited!

We had a few visitors while I was in labor, most before I started hurting. Grandma H, Grandma G, Kayda, Dillon, and Auntie Kina. Auntie Kina hung out with us up until pushing, though she didn’t get to meet Carson because Kayda and Dillon get to do that first. Later in the evening Grandma and Grandpa H came by (after I got my epidural so I could actually visit). Kayda and Dillon spent the night with Grandma G and were having such a grand time that even though they were still awake when little brother was born they didn’t want to come down! So they’ll be here once they’re up and dressed in the morning.

I didn’t get to sleep much (it’s 6am and I have given up), Carson kept waking up so Daddy is sleeping, that way when we go home I can go sleep in another room while he takes care of Carson between feedings. I can honestly say I am happy to just look at him! Another perfect baby!

This is REALLY delayed but... more preschool art!

I finally got around to photographing Kayda's last round of preschool art!  Woohoo, goodbye pile of papers!  Just in time to start with TWO piles of paper in September!

Dillon and I stayed one day and they were making crayons.  Here are Kayda and Dillon's.  They each had to draw 5 of their favorite things on their crayons.  Kayda's were Brutis, a long neck dinosaur, the new swing set, the camping trailer and Hank.  Dillon's were the camping trailer, t. rex, Hank, cars and bikes.  Mommy had to help Dillon (held his hand to try to help him draw what he wanted) with quite a few but Kayda's are almost entirely her own.

Swimming with Kyoko!

Well, I tried signing the kids up for regular swim lessons but I am just so darn picky that after three VERY disappointing lessons I gave up and switched them to private lessons with Kyoko.  I used to work with her at the pool and I KNOW she will really push the kids and that she is FANTASTIC.  So each kiddo got four sessions with her all to themselves.  The first lesson she had them back to where they were last fall and by the end of our last session she had both Kayda and Dillon doing great glides and back floats as well as working on their "reach and pull" arms (beginnings of crawl stroke).  I don't think I will ever be able to convince myself to go back. 

Dillon is a great little "reach and puller".  I don't have any pictures because I was video taping part of the time but he gets those arms nice and big as well as keeping his body lined up straight, no floppy swimming here!

Kayda has a harder time staying straight when doing "reach and pull" arms, though by the end of the lesson Kyoko had her doing pretty darn well.  Her glides on the other hand are BEAUTIFUL.  She was doing back glides with kicking on her own going as far as (I'd guess) 15 feet. 

Considering we don't get to practice swimming all that frequently I'm very happy with their progress, now I just need to work really hard to keep them in the water.  Fortunately Auntie Kina offered to work with them until I can get back in the water with them, since she was also an AWESOME swim teacher I figure I should take her up on it.  Hopefully she won't regret offering!

Baby is full term!

I never did get a prego picture of the other two so I figured I should do one now.  I'm 37 weeks today.  Daddy and I were trying to get some pictures and Dillon wanted to be in there too.  Course, I very much prefer the pictures with him in them (Kayda was at Grandma H's still from her sleep over).  He was giving my belly kisses.  The kids are very sweet and very excited to be big siblings.  I told them when the baby got to where he could hear and Kayda will sing songs "for the baby" and they talk to him.  They LOVE to feel the baby move!  This baby will know it's older siblings for sure when he's born.

Play dates!

In the last few weeks we've gone kind of play date crazy...  Unfortunately I didn't get pictures of all of them but here are a couple. 

The girls that live just down the street (Kylie and Tazzmine) like to come over and play with the kiddos.  They LOVE to play in the pool.  Tazzmine wasn't here this particular day but they were having a great time none the less.

We had a play date at the park with Joshua and Jacob, the kids all had a great time so we planned a trip to the lake.  We lucked out because the weather held out just long enough for us to enjoy the lake before the rain came.  Kayda played in the water for a bit and then just wanted to snuggle.  Dillon swam until he was shivering with Joshua.  Once he dried off and warmed up a little the two boys went on to play with the sand. 

We also went and played with Madelynn and baby Joshua.  We had lunch with them and then they played with Madelynn until Joshua woke up from his nap.  Then there was pretty much no way to separate them from the baby!  They were fascinated and wanted to hold him and help him play in the exersaucer.  It was so fun to watch! 

I'm working on setting up some more play dates, I'm trying to get as many in as I can before the new little one comes and it gets harder to get out and about.