An Opera, Recital and a Play

In this last week we had an Opera, a Recital and a Play.  It's been a busy week and it's not easy hauling a 3 week old baby to all these things.  All you want to do the first 3 weeks is stay home and rest but I didn't want to miss the girls end of the year programs even if I got crap from another Mom at the school for taking my newborn out....sigh.  

Well it finally caught up to me at the end of the week.  I took Ethan and Chloe out for a walk to deliver thank you notes and the whole time I felt so lightheaded and like I was going to pass out.  The rest of the day I had the biggest headache and was achy all over.  By the time Aaron got home I had the chills and was miserable and crying.  He took my temperature and I had a fever so I asked him for a blessing.  I didn't know how I would take care of Ethan and the girls feeling like this.  But in his blessing it said that this was just my bodies way of reacting to being worn out.  After that I went right to bed and Ethan who had been waking up every 3 hours at night slept great that night going 6 hours and then 4.  I felt so much better the next day and was grateful for priesthood blessings and that I didn't have to worry about getting Ethan sick.  

Anyways, Chloe's Preschool did the 3 Nanny Goats Opera and Chloe was Annie Goat.  She did such a good job and she loved singing all the songs.  She had her last day of preschool this week, she has come so far this year and learned so much, Miss Martha was a wonderful teacher.  I can't believe she is done and will be heading to Kindergarten this Fall, crazy!

I've said it before but Emma makes such a beautiful Ballerina.  She is so graceful, Im a little sad that she  is taking a break from Ballet this fall but Im excited that she is trying new things.  She wants to try Karate, which I think she'll love.  

Here are some pictures from her rehearsal.  She is so pretty!

These are from the night of her performance.  She did such a great job, we are so proud of her.

She loved being in the front and leading her class out.   The theme of the night was celebrating broadway and musicals and Emma's class did 'Lets Go Fly a Kite' from Mary Poppins.

Then Emma's 2nd grade class did The Ugly Duckling Play and Emma was a Swan.  Sorry for the crappy pictures, I was on the other side of the gym holding Ethan while trying to snap some decent shots, not very easy....obviously.

She is on the right :)

And what's a post without Ethan.  Here is Grandma Bell getting to meet her newest grand baby.

And Ethan turned one month this week,  I can't believe it.  It's already going too fast.  We're so grateful he came to join our family, he is such a good baby.  He is so patient with me, you can tell how hard he tries and I just love him for it.  Here he is getting his first bath, finally done with the sponge baths.  He liked this a lot more.

Welcome Ethan, Bell #3

Ok wow where to begin.  I've meant to post this sooner but Ethan's only two weeks old and he takes up all my time and I know this is going to be a long post so here it goes.  Later on in my pregnancy I decided to look into a natural childbirth with no medication.  After lots of research, talking with friends, and family who have chosen this too I felt it was right for me.  I read books, took a natural childbirth class, exercised regularly throughout my pregnancy and anything else I thought I could do to prepare myself and I felt like I was strong enough to do it.  Granted it was hard, I didn't go around advertising my decision but when people would ask and I always got the same response "Your crazy! or Why!?!"  it slowly chipped away at my confidence in myself and as the day drew closer I was scared.  

So late Monday night at 10:00 5 days before my due date my water broke.  It wasn't like in the movies where it's really obvious so after telling Aaron I went to bed and tried to get as much sleep as possible so I would have the strength I needed when contractions got regular.   I didn't really get much sleep though, the contractions lasted all night but they weren't consistent yet and I ended up on the couch.  I got the girls off to school in the morning, Aaron called his sister who works for him to reschedule all his patients for the next couple of days which all of them were very understanding about it because they all knew to expect it.  Aaron gave me a wonderful blessing that told me it would be a hard labor but I should trust my instincts and I would know what to do to get through it.  

 We still hadn't told anybody yet, we called my Midwife who just happened to be sick and out of the office so I got the other midwife in the office whom I had never met, just my luck.  Anyways, she wanted me in the hospital right away, apparently if your contractions haven't gotten regular 10 hours after your water breaks you and your baby risk infection.  So we got checked into to the Riverton IHC Hospital about 9:30 and the midwife came over to check on me.  She was really nice, but I was already nervous as it was and wanted my midwife Julie whom I bonded with and trusted to labor with me and help me get through this the way I hoped.  As it turned out my water did break but it was a really slow leak and it had been 12 hours and the midwife was worried about infection, she had another patient down the hall whose water broke and waited to long and now her and the baby both had an infection and were sick so the midwife broke my water even more to help move things along.  

So here I am ready to tackle with all I have and I did!  The most frustrating thing was the stupid Electronic Fetal Monitoring.  They wanted 20 consistent minutes every hour and that doesn't sound bad but when the stupid monitor wont stay in place or Ethan moves around which he was very active and it drops the heart beat for a minute then you have to start all over, which happened over and over again.  You can't do a natural labor if you are stuck in bed the whole time which I was because of the EFM.  I was really upset with this.  After a few hours of trying to handle the contractions laying in bed and not being able to use the tools I learned in my childbirth class which involved being out of the bed I finally didn't care.  I got up out of the bed used the bathroom and labored through some contractions out of bed holding onto Aaron which helped.  But the nurse ran right in and made me get back into bed.  

Now just so you know its afternoon at this point and besides the few minutes the midwife spent with me in the morning Aaron and I had been all alone through this process.  Not like I expected, I thought I would have the support of my midwife through this.  So by this point its about 1:00 and they check me and I haven't progressed past a 4 and Ethan has his hand above his head, they would push it away but he would just stick it right back up there.  The midwife calls from her office and says that after looking at the EFM readings which were totally inaccurate because it kept falling off she thought Ethan was under stress and that I needed to be induced with pitocin to get my labor moving more.  I did not want this at all!  I was so upset and told them I didn't want it and they said I needed it for Ethan.  But I was handling the contractions as best I could and I knew once I was on the pitocin I would be confined to the bed even more and it would make dealing with labor so much harder without drugs because it really throws you into hard contractions fast.  And it did!  After they started the pitocin I was in agony.  I would cling to Aaron as hard as I could screaming every two minutes with each contraction.  I did this for hours. 

 After making it 19 hours of labor with no pain medication and being on the pitocin they checked me again and I was still at a 4.  They said that since Ethan's hand was above his head I wasn't progressing as I should.  I couldn't take it anymore so I caved and asked for an epidural.  I was so angry by this point.  Angry with my midwife for not being there.  Angry at the replacement midwife for not being there.  Angry for being put on pitocin, which lead to an IV, which lead to a catheter, which lead to consistent EFM, which led to an internal EFM on attached to Ethan's head, which lead to being confined to the bed, which led to the epidural.   

Which led to this.  I had to be put on oxygen and I was miserable and so disappointed in myself.  After all my physical and mental preparation I felt like a failure and like all of this could have been avoided.  After the epidural they upped the pitocin and Ethan was born 5 hours later posterior and face presenting  which is exactly what Aaron did.                                              

His poor little face was so swollen and bruised.  He couldn't even open his eyes because they were swollen shut.

Here is a picture of Aaron after his face presenting birth.  Like father like son.

Ethan and I had been through a horrible 24 hour labor and we were exhausted.  But despite it all I was so relieved to finally have him here, safe and healthy.

Aunt Sheena stayed at our apartment over night and brought the girls first thing the next morning.  This was the sweetest moment of the whole experience.  The girls walked in the room and over to the bed to see Ethan and I told them to talk to him and right when they started talking.....

He turned his head towards them and just stared at them for like 5 minutes.   It was the cutest thing, he recognized their voices and was like 'Hey I know you.'  The girls were so shy about it.

Our first family photo.  I asked Sheena to take a picture of the four of us and she was like 'Don't you mean the 5 of you?'  Holy cow I have 3 kids!

I LOVE this picture!  Look at that smile.  :)

They are such sweet big sisters even if they like to bug him when he is sleeping :)

Aunt Sheena was awesome and so helpful through all this, we couldn't have done it without her.

Proud Daddy giving Ethan his 1st bath.

We got to have visitors this time around.  Living in Ephraim and Cedar City we didn't get visitors so I was happy that we had family come see us and meet Ethan.  Here is Grandma and Grandpa Dutson who drove from Delta just to visit with Ethan for a few minutes.

Grandpa Bell makes a 3 generation photo.

Josh and McCall who are expecting their first this Fall came and visited us too.  So excited for these two!

Cheree and Michael also came to meet Ethan and my niece Myree and twin nephews were so excited to meet Ethan and then the front desk said no one under they age 14.  I felt so bad, the boys were crying and I had no idea.

On our third day there which we hadn't planned on staying that long, we were hoping to be able to leave the next day after he was born but they said that we had to stay 24 hours for tests which ended up showing that he was immediate high risk for jaundice.  So another day at the hospital feeling like your stuck in a prison and getting no sleep because they bug you every hour all night long and all day.  Ethan had to be put under the jaundice lights for 8 hours with no swaddling and we couldn't take him out except to feed him.  I hated that.  He was cold and no baby likes to be flailing around.

It was a long 8 hours and we tried to comfort him as much as we could.  He was such a tough little guy, he'd already been through so much.

At about 8:00 Thursday night we had gotten the 8 hours in and we didn't care how late it was we packed up right away and got out of there as soon as we could.  

So happy to be finally heading home.

First night at home in his own bassinet.  We all slept so much better then at the hospital.

Dolly couldn't get enough of Ethan.  She would follow me everywhere and anytime I set him down she would peek up at him and anytime he'd cry she would look at me like 'Aren't you going to do something?'

The two handsome men in my life :)  Another Bell baby that looks just like Aaron, and he really does.  He looks just like Aaron's baby pictures.  With Aaron's dark hair, eyes, and skin Im not complaining, he gives me cute kids.

Despite the awful labor, our family has been blessed with a sweet healthy baby boy, but I don't think I can do this again....but ask me again in a couple of years :)