First Week Home (February 10-13)

A few days after we got home from the hospital Uncle Brian Fielding came over to visit and meet Christian.  The Fieldings live in Norway and Brian was just in town for a few days for work, so we were so happy to see him for a few minutes!

Here are a few other glimpses of our first week home:  This is what it looks like when Dad is in charge of a bath:

Christian's First Bath

He didn't love his first bath

Since then he has come to quite like his baths.  He gets baths a lot because at about three weeks old he developed a rash that is topical dermatitis (I think) and it needs to be kept clean.

Christian's Blessing

On February 16th Charles blessed our little Christian.

  He was only 9 days old, but we decided to go ahead and bless him since Isabelle was here.

The blanket is one that Jane got in Bethlehem while she was on her study abroad.  I was on my mission, but she got it for me and saved it and then gave it to me when I had Henri.  We have used it for all of the boys on their blessing day.

 My boys.

James' 2nd Birthday

One afternoon James woke up to a new train table, thanks to Grandma Grace!!!!  He loves his train table and sneaks upstairs to play with it (which is why we set it up before his birthday...)

On his actual birthday Henri and Isabelle made some muffins.

 He understood the theory of blowing out the candles...

 ...but was pretty excited that it actually blew a candle out!

Charles sneaking a taste of frosting.

 Henri was happy to help open up some presents (Cars cars and some more trains and accessories for the train table.)

One of my favorite things about James at this age is that he addresses everything he says.  For example, if he sees a tractor he says, "Tractor, Momma, Tractor."  Or sometimes when he sees me after a nap, "Hey Momma, hey."  Or "This Momma" (which is what he says when he wants me to watch something he is going to do.  It is from when Henri says "watch this" and James just shortens it to "this Momma.")  Or, "Where'd Daddy go, Momma?"  Or, "Butterfly Momma, Butterfly!"  I feel like he is sharing the magic of his world with me!
James can count to seven.  He loves to give Christian "bisous."  He likes to hit Henri.  He LOVES when Charles gets home from work and will scream his high pitched scream and run to him and give him a big hug.  Sometimes he gets so excited he will laugh really hard and run in place.
We love our curly haired, energetic, sweet, stubborn, funny, goofy little James!

Henri and James meet Christian

The evening after Christian was born Jane brought the boys to see the new baby.  They were both really excited and interested.  

Our first family photo with our family of five!

Charles slept over at the hospital the first night to make sure that I was okay.  The second night he went home to get a good night's sleep.

The rest of the time at the hospital went well.  Christian was an immediate champ at eating and I even finagled the nurses into taking him to the nursery for one stretch each night (the new rule at our hospital, and at a lot of other hospitals, is that the baby stays in the room with the mom except when they get taken for medical checks.  Our friend Janalyn works in the nursery at Houston Northwest and unfortunately wasn't working while we were there, but she stopped by and visited and told the nurses that were there to take care of us!)

I tend to have babies that scowl.

The weirdest thing that happened at the hospital was when a lady came in and started taking pictures of Christian and then tried to sell us expensive photo packages with the pictures she had taken.  They were nice pictures, but I don't really need a key chain with Christian's picture on it.  This was a picture that Charles took while she was taking pictures.

My friends Jessica Lewis and Julia Chandler also came to visit us in the hospital one night after Charles had gone home to take care of the boys. 

Christian Greer Hope

On February 6th I got a call from Houston Northwest Hospital and the nurse told me to come in at 5am the next day for my elective induction.  "Don't be late," she said.  I laughed and told her that I wouldn't be late!  So, at 4:40 Charles and I left the boys in the care of Jane (Thank you Janie!) for the weekend and went to the hospital.  We arrived on time, at 5am and got settled into the hospital.

 Here is the timeline of my labor:

• 6:30 started on pitocin
• 9:30 I was 2 centimeters dilated.  That was really about how dilated I had been for a week.  I was prepared for this though, because my labor with James progressed pretty slowly at the beginning as well.
• at 11am Dr. Hulme came in and broke my water.  I was only 2.5 centimeters dilated.  After my water broke the contractions really started to be painful.  There were contractions that I would look at Charles and say, "WHY WOULD ANYONE DO THIS WITHOUT MEDICATION!!!!"
• at 11:50 I got the epidural.  Afterwards I thought, "Well, I definitely feel the Spirit more right now than I did 10 minutes ago!" (I guess in my head I thought that one of the arguments that people use about going natural is that they have a more spiritual experience?)
• 12pm 4 centimeters dilated.
• 1pm 6 centimeters dilated (After the epidural and up through this point I enjoyed one of the most relaxing naps of my life!  Thanks epidural!  Also, I should add here that epidurals usually work great with me.  I still have enough control over my body that I can roll over by myself, which is so nice!)
• 1:20pm 7 centimeters dilated (This is when Dr. Hulme came back and checked me.  His wife Sherri also stopped by to visit.  They then went down to the hospital cafeteria to have some lunch.)
• 1:30pm I asked the nurse to check me again. (I knew that I would go fast from after 6 centimeters because that is how my labor went with James.  I could feel that the baby was ready to come and that I could start pushing.  The nurse checked and said, "Oh, I can see his head. Don't push don't push!" She went to call Dr. Hulme and she was coming in and out of the room preparing for delivery.  At one point I told her, "don't leave the room again!  Charles does NOT want to deliver this baby!"  Dr. Hulme got there and quickly got ready and after one contraction of pushing...
• 1:46pm our sweet Christian Greer Hope was born! 7 pounds 9 ounces, 20.5 inches long.

Calling Grandma Grace and Papa Lon 

One of my favorite things about Christian's birth was that he was closing his eyes while he was all cleaned up and when I was holding him.  Then, when Charles got him and started talking to him Christian really reacted.  He opened his eyes right up when he heard Charles' voice and looked around for him.  One of my favorite moments!

 So new! Just minutes old!

After Christian was born we were in the labor and delivery room for awhile longer.  I nursed him, then Jon and Sherri Hulme visited for awhile.  Then the baby went to the nursery for evaluation and I had something to eat.  I felt so good and then Charles and my nurse helped me walk over to the bathroom.  I told the nurse that I suddenly felt very nauseated.  The nausea soon passed, but then I told her, "I'm going to faint." And then I did.  Charles said that I looked so pale and that my body was shaking and he thought I was having a seizure.  I wasn't, but my blood pressure got down to 30/80.  The nurse was holding me and yelling for other nurses to come help.  I was out for 2 or 3 minutes and I woke up to three nurses giving smelling salts and Charles' worried face peeking around them.  He told me, "I never want to repeat that again!"  I felt pretty rocky for the rest of the day.  I felt discouraged because I had felt so good before it happened.  I don't know if it was just because of going through labor or as a side affect of the epidural, but the nurses seemed to stop worrying once my blood pressure went back to normal.

February

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January

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December

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November

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October

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September

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August

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July

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June

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May

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April

Maybe more of April...

March

Maybe more of March coming...