What a week!--part 1

Introducing: TATE BARBEN

Born: March 4, 2009 at 2:44 p.m.

Weight: 8 lbs. 11 oz.

Length: 21.5 inches

As Jake says, "We caught the Tater!" Wednesday morning at 7:15 a.m. I went in to be induced to have our baby boy. My doctor came in, broke my water and we were on our way. Things were going very well, I dilated quickly, was very comfortable during my contractions, and besides some slight nausea with the pain medication, we were excited that my labor this time with Tate was seemingly going to be short and sweet......little did we know the change of events that would occur.

When I was dilated to a 9, they called my doctor and I was getting ready to push. My doctor arrived and was observing the baby's heart monitor and asked the nurse if that was the fetal heart rate or the maternal heart rate, and the nurse wasn't quite sure. Immediately I saw the concern on my OB's face and she said, "Let's get going." Apparently the baby's heart rate was dipping so I then proceeded to push as hard as I could while I continued to observe the looks on Jake's and my doctor's face. I tried pushing a few times, and then they pulled out the vacuum and I pushed with that to try to get the baby out, then they had 2 nurses pushing on my belly, used the vacuum, and me pushing to try to get him out, one of the last things my doctor said was "Push sweetie, like you don't want a C-section." Well no matter how hard we tried we couldn't get Tate out, and his heart rate by this time was dropping, so in a matter of seconds, they prepped me for a C-section. The nurse anesthetist pumped my epidural line with one last shot, unhooked me, and he and another nurse wheeled me to the OR. They tossed Jake a bag of surgical covers to put over his clothes and said they would be back to get him.

When I got to the OR, they immediately reclined me back and put the sheet up in front of my face, which I assume was so they could immediately sanitize the area, right after they reclined me I started feeling nauseous and began puking over the side of the table onto the OR floor. (Glamorous I know) I immediately felt tugging and said to someone "Will someone go get my husband." The nurse replied, "On my way" then Jake came in and sat on a stool next to my head. Because of the surgical garb Jake was wearing the only thing I could see were his eyes, and just by looking at him I could tell he was concerned. He was holding my hand and kept stroking it, then I heard the doctor say, "Here he is!" I heard Tate whimper a little, and then I said to Jake, "Is he ok?" I could tell by Jake's eyes that the baby was ok which was a relief. I next heard the doctor talking about "sutures" so I knew that they were sewing me back up, and the next thing I know I am waking up in my labor and delivery room and I can see my doctor and Jake standing at the foot of my bed. Jake is holding the baby and says, "Here he is honey, do you want to hold him?" I don't even know if I replied back to him, I was so drugged that I could barely keep my eyes open. The next few hours were a blur because I kept going in and out of sleep, with family coming in and out to see how I was.

Around 6:00 p.m. they moved me over to post partum, and I started feeling a little better. Come to find out the major reason I couldn't push Tate out is because he had a ginormous cranium of 37 cm, and was facing posterior (face up) but the major reason for the C-section was because of Tate's dropping heart rate. So apparently I like going through labor so much that I thought I would try both kinds this time, vaginal and C-section. Although the recuperation hasn't been fun, I am so grateful we were able to get Tate out and everything was relatively OK.

Because everything happened so quickly and was kind of a blur, it was interesting to get Jake's perspective on what happened. Here is what he had to say in an email to his friends about the delivery:

"We have welcomed a new little guy into our family after a scary turn of events last night. My wife and I were joking around in the labor and delivery room that the second time around has been so much easier than the first, and wouldn't you know it we jinxed ourselves. While delivering, the baby became lodged in the birth canal “sunny side up.” Meaning he was looking towards the sun…a bad deal. To make matters worse his heart rate suddenly dropped to a drastically low rate causing a panic in the labor and delivery room. What followed after that was chaos. Doctors were stripping tubes and IV’s from my wife, they threw an OR gown at me and told me to get dressed and just like that they were running down the hall with my wife. Can you say, “WHAT IN THE WORLD IS GOING ON?????”
I stood there in the labor and delivery room for what seemed like an hour, although it was probably only a few minutes. When they finally came to get me we pretty much ran down the hall towards the Operating Room. I turned the corner and there I saw two doctors on top of my wife jerking, pulling, shaking, and tugging to get the baby lose from the canal. I never knew child birth could be so violent! I didn’t tell my wife this but it reminded me of the end of the movie “Braveheart” when they were torturing William Wallace. Nothing worse than being in the unknown, my only gauge for the seriousness of the situation was the look on our doctor’s face and the frantic nature in which she worked to free the baby.
Despite the unexpected and dramatic first few minutes of his life, surprisingly he is doing great! My wife is fine too thank-goodness! The doctor told me later that she was very worried for a few minutes and my response was, “I work in sales and have learned to read facial expressions pretty good, your facial expression told me everything I needed to know!” It was wild!"

Little did we know that the delivery was just the beginning with our adventure with Tate. I will post Part 2--Tate in the NICU to give more details.

Out with the old, in with the new!

So I have decided I just need to start blogging in the present! Our New year started off with a bang, we had a killer virus that wiped out our computer and the geniuses that I took our computer to in order to be fixed replaced the hard drive without asking us and we lost all of our pics and information off our computer (we are working to retrieve them off our old hard drive), so never use stupid PC Laptops for anything! So I need to insert pics of Abby's birthday, Thanksgiving, Christmas, etc. later so when I eventually make this beloved blog of mine into a book they will be in here somewhere.

This last month Jake has been traveling quite a bit in order to see all of his reps before the baby comes. They have been doing alot of reorganizing at his job and I am just grateful he still has a job, no matter how much he travels. Now that we are in February he is starting to feel spring fever big time and is pretty bored, the poor guy always is looking for something to do! Here is a picture of Abby playing while Jake cleaned out the garage, as you can see she is sporting her "thug" look.


As for our upcoming arrival, we have been getting the nursery ready--thanks to my awesome husband who has done the painting, assembling, etc.! We are pretty much ready for him to come, last time when I had Abby I waited until a week before she came to get everything wrapped up and I vowed I wouldn't do that again with another kid which I am glad I didn't wait because my energy level has gone way down! Last week they told me our baby boy was measuring 3 weeks ahead of schedule and was close to 6 lbs. already. Boy was I excited until I went in this week and my doctor told me she wasn't going to do take me any earlier than the 1st of March, which bummed me out because I was hoping for having a February baby instead. Don't they know never to tell a pregnant woman that she has the possibility of delivering early and then take it back?!? The baby is healthy which is good, and my belly is getting bigger by the day, and I am praying my belly will hold on and I won't get stretch marks (vain I know, but I can't help it!) Speaking of babies, I was able to throw a baby shower for Marci for the upcoming arrival of her baby boy in March and it turned out really fun! We missed some of our friends that went on the cruise, but it was really fun to see girls from college, high school and even elementary, and lets just say being pregnant with my twin sister makes it a lot better to go through!

Abby is getting funnier and sassier by the day. She is talking like crazy, and she continues to amaze me with the funny things that come out of her mouth. For example she will be doing something and adjust something and say, "That's better!" Or she says, "It's really stuck Mom," or "It really hurts Mom." Also her new favorite phrase is, "Give me that Mommy!" when she wants something, and then another one that she throws out when I ask her to do something is "What?" like she has no idea what I am talking about. We are talking an awful lot about Tate her baby brother that is coming, and I think she is starting to realize it more and more that she will be a big sister, but I am sure she has no idea how it's going to rock her world! Although today she came up to me and gave my belly a hug and said, "I love you Tate." which melted my heart. Abby loves to sing, especially her ABC's, loves to do puzzles and read books, and go over shapes and colors. She picks up on things so fast and its been really fun to watch her grow into a "big girl." When I look at her I can't believe that she is 2 because it feels like I was just pregnant with her, and it makes me a little sad that she will have to share the spotlight with a sibling, but on the other hand I am so excited to meet our little guy and watch our family grow!
I swear time flies at warp speed when your are an adult, here are some pics to enjoy!

Marci and I belly to belly, technically our due dates are 10 days apart. Some friends at the showers we had for Marci.

Here is the best and worst of Abby: After church a couple of weeks ago (she did have a little coat to go over this dress) and Abby showing that I am not the only one that has had trouble sleeping lately, this is a pic of Abby at 2 in the morning when she wouldn't go to bed. You gotta love the hair!

Jake loved to lay by the heater as a child and now Abby loves it too,

whenever she hears the heater kick on she says, "The heater's runnin!" and goes

and sits on it with her blanket. Of course it makes her mad when Daddy isn't always around to sit by the heater with her but her Daddy is so proud he has passed on the tradition.

October 2008

In October we enjoyed the last of the good weather with playgroups at the park and at the zoo. We also were able to enjoy visits from Aunt Marci for conference weekend, Jake did more hunting, and of course we enjoyed our Halloween. Abby was able to go to my parents ward carnival, a playgroup Halloween party, my sister Katie's trunk or treat, and our own ward's trunk or treat and carnival. She finally got the concept that if you say, "trick or treat" people give you candy, and continued to try it on us a few days after Halloween. She was a lady bug again this year....the costume still fit and it was warm, and on the actual day of Halloween we had her wear a monkey costume because it was a little colder outside. Here are some pics of us enjoying the fall weather at the zoo, and our numerous Halloween parties. Thanks to to Kresta for having a really fun party at her house for the kids, and to Anne and Erma for putting together a hilarious party for the adults. Because I was pregnant Jake and I came up with the idea of me being a "Bun in the Oven" with him as "The Bunmaker". Some people didn't quite get it at our trunk or treat, but thanks to Jake's fantastic artistic ability my "oven" turned out quite well and detailed. Thanks honey!



This is what we saw when Abby started undressing herself and trying to climb out of her crib, so we decided it was time to move Abby to a "big girl" bed.

Trying on Daddy's hunting stuff



With Mommy at the zoo



This is what Abby started doing when we would say, "Say Cheese."


How our big girl measures up

p.s. I dropped my camera at my sister Katie's trunk or treat and broke my camera so pics of Halloween will come very shortly, as well as posts about our November and December 2008, then we will hopefully get caught up and ready for the new year of blogging!

It's a BOY!!--September '08

When I arrived back into town from St. George and after the whole scare with my pregnancy, I went to my OB for a followup appointment. Luckily things still looked good, and she told us that most likely the subchorionic hemorrhage would resolve itself by the end of my pregnancy. Well when she was doing the ultrasound the baby was moving a ton and I said to our doctor, "is there anyway you can tell us what we are having?" She said she could try and then pointed to something on the screen and said, "do you see that, normally little girls don't have those." I couldn’t believe it! She told us she wasn't 100% sure, but that we could pretty much plan on having a BOY! Unbelievable! So in a matter of a couple of weeks we thought we were miscarrying and then we found out we weren't and that we were going to have a boy! Of course Jake was/is ecstatic, and I was surprised but kind of not surprised because this pregnancy has been SO different than my pregnancy with Abby, our little boy has given me a run for my money!

The rest of our September was pretty mellow, people thought we dropped off the face of the earth because we got back from St. George and got settled and then Abby and I got sick, and Jake was gone a ton for hunting/work trainings (20 out of the 30 days!) ,but we survived and were excited for Fall to come!

St. George-Labor Day '08

So because I am still lacking in skills in the blogging department, I have decided maybe 1 post a month about what we did will do??? I am just kidding, but because we are nearly to the end of November I decided for family history purposes to still post about our September 2008 and October 2008.

Our September started out with a real bang! We went to visit my sister Emily and her husband Brandon in St. George for Labor day weekend. I went down with my Dad, Abby, and my other sister Katie and her family on Thursday, and we had a really fun time swimming and hanging out. Jake was doing the Deer Archery hunt, so he decided to meet up with us on Tuesday, September 2, because he has some business down in that area and then we would drive home together on Thursday, Sept. 4.

Jake got to St. George at about 9:00 p.m. on and we were hanging out at my sisters, and I was singing with Abby and bouncing her on my lap. Well I started to cramp, so I thought I should lie down because I had overdone it, well no sooner has I layed down on the couch when I started bleeding pretty badly. That is never a good sign for a pregnant woman because it immediately means something is wrong. I was just so glad that Jake and my family were there because we were trying to figure out the best thing to do, we called the ER and they said to put my feet up and rest and pray that it stops. Well after that my Dad, Jake and brother in law Brandon were able to give me a priesthood blessing, and immediately after that I felt comforted. I physically started feeling a little better and emotionally I was able to calm down and I knew that regardless of what happened, it would be OK.

The next day I woke up and felt better and the bleeding had pretty much stopped, so we decided to try to get in to a doctor and were able to find one that worked with our insurance that would fit me in that day. As we waited at the doctor's office I couldn't help but prepare for the worst when they told me I was miscarrying. The doctor did an ultrasound first and then they were going to test my hormone levels. Well when they did the ultrasound the doctor said, "well there's your baby, it looks like everything is ok." We were so relieved!! The doctor continued to check things out and discovered that I had what is called a subchorionic hemorrhage which basically means a pocket of blood outside of my uterus. Normally the body absorbs it but because it was larger than normal it bled out and that is why I started bleeding. At first I thought it was something I had done, but the doctor said it's a pre-existing condition and is only diagnosed later in the pregnancy via ultrasound. He then told me to take it easy for the next week or so, so we were fortunate enough to be able to stay in St. George at my sister's longer than we expected and I was able to have help with Abby because I wasn't supposed to lift her or anything. All I can say is after that I know what it would be like to be on bed rest and if it were just me it may not be so bad, but being on bed rest and "taking it easy" with a toddler doesn't exactly go hand in hand. Luckily I had my sister and brother in law, Jake and my Dad to all help me with Abby so with Jake being able to work from home we just decided to stay down in St. George for some extra time for me to recuperate. Here is a pic with Abby with her Aunt "Emmi" and Uncle Brandon, and their dog Keona.


and here is a pic of Abby being silly playing in Bree's water bucket when we arrived back home.

August '08-Cherry Hill, the greatest fun spot you'll ever know--August 2008

This last summer my older sister Char convinced me that I should buy a Cherry Hill pass because she would be visiting for a month in the summer and we could go as many times as we wanted and then I could use the pass the rest of the summer. Well the bad news was that Char had some complications with her pregnancy but the good news is that she was able to stay the whole summer and play with me at Cherry Hill. Boy, are we glad we got passes because we had tons of fun and definitely got our money's worth. Here are some pictures of when Char's husband and Jake came with us and we were able to have a fun day at Cherry Hill. Abby rode the big waterslides for the first time and didn't quite know what to think of it, but all in all she is definately a water baby! Most of our August was spent wrapping up our playtime at the pool, while Jake was scouting and on the Archery Hunt for Elk with his Dad and friends.