Our Christmas in pictures

Since I am holding aleeping baby, this post will have minimal words am lots of pics (it'll be long). I hope everyone had a merry Christmas!

On Monday night we had our annual Kleven Christmas party. The little kids go up to the stage and hold letters that spell CHRISTMAS and stars and we all sing a great but not too well known song called "C is for the Christ child, H for Herald Angels in the night," etc. This year Natalie and Brooklyn were old enough to hold stars. So cute! Excuse the blurriness.

Some of my dad's cousins dress up as elves and do a funny dance every year. We all just die laughing. Love the tights.

Hannah's turn on Santa's lap. She didn't have much of a reaction. Hmmm, Santa's nose looks just like Uncle Paul's...

Natalie on the other hand was terrified. Poor thing. All the preparation in the world did not help when she saw the jolly fellow close up. She still got a "'prise" though (surprise).

Tuesday night was the Hatch family party (Mark's side). Natalie had a fun time, but got cranky near the end.

Natalie always says, "hold you mommy now" whenever I have Hannah in the sling. So this is what we look like.

There is a talent portion of the night, and Natalie said she wanted to sing Jingle Bells. Turned out to be a solo on my part once she saw everyone looking at her.

Hannah is really excited about Santa coming, can't you tell? Can I just tell you that I love these little jammies? They are vintage 1983 terry cloth pj's that my BIL Mike wore as a baby. It just makes her so cuddly.

Hannah bonding with her Grandpa. She stared out into space for a good while like this.

Natalie leaving the cookies and carrots for Santa and the reindeer. Good thing we had a cookie delivery earlier or mom would have had to run to the store for some last minute cookies!

These pics are a little out of order, sorry. Christmas eve night we had my mom's sister's family over and we had a yummy dinner and a small program. Here is my sister Katie with her hubby Ryan.

Hannah slept the whole time.

Natalie and Brooklyn dressed up as Mary and baby Jesus and Elizabeth and baby John the Baptist ti let both girls carry a baby. We were trying to avoid fighting. Too bad we had only one manger! It was so cute and funny. Kudos to Katie for putting that together.

Natalie opening her ornament, a Barnes family tradition for Christmas Eve.

I made a doll house for Natalie for Christmas. Here's how it turned out.

The little family on their comfy couch.

The family is supposed to be us, can you tell who is who?

The kid bedroom.

Kitchen.

She loved it! Hannah was not as interested.

Nat became a pro at opening gifts. Here is her book of herself that I made for free on snapfish.com.

She told Santa (well, hypothetically, not the real guy she was scared of) that she wanted a book and a baby for Christmas. Here is the baby we got her. She carries it around all day long

Then we went over to Grandma S's house for more Christmas. Here are Russell and Aubri (Mark's sibs) and Hannah.

Nat helping daddy open his gift.

It was a great day! Now we just have Natalie's bday on Sunday and we're done with presents for a while. Yay. Bring on the new year!

Second attempt

We tried another photo shoot. I'm trying to get little naked shots of Hannah(so cute!) but when I take her clothes off, she wakes up. I even heated up the room first with a portable heater. How on earth do people capture naked newborns? Maybe I should try nursing her to sleep while naked. But then she'll pee on me. She does that a lot. Any suggestions? Here is the result of that day. Just one turned out, even though her eye is half shut. I still think it's cute!

Meanwhile, this is her favorite napping spot. She's in a sling if you can't tell. I don't mind except after about an hour, my back gets tired. I do like the fact that I can use both hands and help Natalie do stuff while Hannah gets a nap close to her mama. Natalie doesn't even notice she's there. In fact the other day I was reading her a story on the couch and she said, "Baby Hannah go? (as in where did she go?)" and I pointed to her sleeping on my chest and was like, "she's right here!" haha.

Natalie is doing ok with the adjustment to big sisterhood. She does fine until she wants me and I'm busy with the baby. Especially nursing. Everytime I sit down to nurse (which takes about half an hour) she suddenly wants to hold me and gets all whiny. So I have her get a book and sit by me and we cuddle and that helps.

Not to complain but to journal, it's been rough the past couple of days as Hannah has been a very cranky baby. She hasn't slept too well during the day (thankfully at night she is doing great--waking up every 2-3 hours to nurse then goes back to sleep) and whenever she's awake she cries a lot. Hopefully that will improve and she'll go back to how she was before.

I won't indulge you with the details, but I developed a HUGE infection at my stitches site and had to go in to have it "taken care of." I'm also now on antibiotics and I'm wondering if they are making Hannah a sad girl. I was in a lot of pain and now I am pretty much back to my normal self, which I am SO grateful for. Yay for modern medicine.

Anyway, not much else is going on around here. We are all waiting anxiously for Mark to be done with his finals on Wednesday. He will finally be able to come out of his study room and be with us as a family! Hooray. We are going to have a great three weeks with him out of school.

TTYL!

My little redhead

Hannah's first photo session

Here's what we came up with today. I took a lot of pics, but only a few were good enough to keep. I suppose that's how it goes, huh? I thought these turned out pretty cute.

These are a few of my favorite things

The Birth Story

Here it is, folks. ***Warning*** It is very long and detailed. Just letting you know!!

Hannah Beverly Simonson

November 30th, 2008

7lbs 15oz, 21in long

I had been having contractions (ctx) through Friday (the 28th) and Saturday on and off. My mother-in-law took me to have a pedicure and reflexology done on my feet to try and speed things along on Friday (my due date) and ctx slowly got stronger through Saturday. By that evening I decided I would try walking at the mall (I hate labor-inducing walking). They increased in intensity by walking but decreased in frequency. I didn’t like being in public w/ ctx so strong I had to stop walking and talking to get through them, so we came home. By 10pm I felt like we should go to the hospital, so we packed up and left.

I was really annoyed when we got there because it was after 8 and we had to park at emergency and walk down this long hallway to L&D. The walking brought stronger ctx which I didn’t like, even though I knew that’s what we wanted. The triage nurse found me to be at a 4 and 85% effaced still (I was 3+ and 85% at my dr appt a few days earlier), which discouraged me because I thought for sure all those ctx would have been doing something. She suggested we walk for 45 min or so and then get checked again. We did that, but I was still at a 4. I asked if we could go home; I didn’t want to labor all night at the hospital.

We got to bed around 1:30am. I could not handle the ctx lying in bed, so I covered the labor ball with a sheet, wrapped a blanket around myself, and managed ctx by tilting my hips forward and breathing through them with great effort, then dozed in between on the pillow on the bed. They varied in how far apart they were between 4 min and half an hour. At about 3:30 they got so bed that I couldn’t do it on my own anymore, so I woke up Mark and he started helping me through them. He would remind me to relax where he saw me tensing up (my face, shoulders, hands, etc). I had an idea to have him massage my lower back through the ctx, and what relief! They were a million times better than before. We did that till about 5, when I needed something to eat.

I scarfed a bowl of honey nut cheerios between ctx and then I realized that might have been a mistake, because afterwards I felt like throwing up during every contraction. My mom came downstairs around 5:30, watched us manage a contraction on the couch, and said, “Go back to the hospital right now!” Mark ran around getting our stuff that we had brought back in, and every time a contraction would start, he’d race back to me to massage my back. Without that back massage, I probably would have asked for the epidural the minute we got to the hospital.

Anyway, we got there without having to do any ctx in the car, except one at a red light. It was early enough that there was nobody else on the road, so luckily we just stayed stopped until my contraction was over, then kept going. The women’s services door was open by now (6:15am) so I got in a wheelchair and was rolled into triage again. The same nurse checked me again, and found me to be at a 6 and 100% effaced. Yay! I knew that the long night had been worth it, but I also knew that transition was right around the corner, and I didn’t know if I could handle it. With Natalie’s labor, transition ctx were right after each other with no break in between. It was super intense and for me, the most painful part of her labor.

We got to a room and got through a few ctx and the doctor stopped by. He checked me and saw that I was stretchy to an 8 with a bulging bag of waters. I was confused because 8 is supposed to be during the transition period, but I hadn’t felt like it had begun yet. I had just thrown up before he got there, and I wondered if I was in transition, but wasn’t sure because it was just so different than Natalie’s labor. The doctor asked if I wanted my water broken and I said sure because I knew it would keep things going. He did, and there was meconium in the water. He didn’t make a big deal out of it, but they did tell me that when Hannah was born she would have to be checked out right away instead of being placed on my tummy. Anyway, after the water broke the next couple of ctx were harder still. I was so scared because I didn’t know how they could possibly get more painful, and I STILL thought I hadn’t started transition yet.
Dr. H wanted to see how the head was moving down during a contraction so he waited for one. The one that came was the most intense by far. It took me completely by surprise and I yelled, “get your hand out!” He did, but there was no relief. He said, “That’s not my hand, it’s the head!” All of a sudden everyone was running around getting stuff ready for the birth. He said, “If you feel like pushing, go right ahead.” I said I didn’t feel the urge yet and since I was following my body, I was not going to start pushing yet. He was ok with that and we all just waited for more ctx. I think I was still in denial that the baby was almost here, because still I hadn’t had the ctx on top of one another like with Natalie. They were still a few minutes apart, and I had time to rest in between each one. I used that time to close my eyes go deeply within myself to handle the next one. Mark said at this point he couldn’t even tell I was having a contraction except that I would nod my head at the beginning and say “ok” at the end. He massaged away, the dear heart. I was sitting up with my knees out to the side like in a butterfly stretch, and suddenly I was hit with giant pushing contractions. I laid back (the bed was reclined) and started moaning and yelling and covered my eyes. When I opened them again, the bright lights were shining on me, and people were putting my legs in the stirrups. I didn’t want to push that way, but when they told me I could move, I just couldn’t. The ctx were so strong that I couldn’t possibly think about anything else. It was 8:30am when I started pushing.

Pushing this time was totally different than with Natalie. My body forced me to push and I could not do otherwise. It was like throwing up—you can’t stop once it starts. I pushed a few times and got lots of encouraging comments from the nurses and Mark and Katie (my sis). I felt myself stretching, but at this point the ring of fire was relief compared to the contractions. I screamed a couple of times, but they reminded me that I have to hold my breath to push, so I had to really gain control of myself to be able to hold my breath. I could feel that I was going to tear, and blew out through my mouth for a minute or two to allow myself to stretch. I think everything was just going too fast though, and I had to push again. I got a small 1st degree tear which made me happy because I didn’t tear more than that. Anyway, I heard suctioning and asked, “Is the head out?” I didn’t even feel it come out, weird. They said yes, and I pushed again and felt her body come out. What a strange out-of-this-world feeling. It’s so incredible that an actual human being came out of my body. I just can’t wrap my head around it.

She was born at 8:40-- I only pushed for 10 minutes. They took her over to be checked out, and honestly I didn’t even mind because I was still reeling from the pushing so much I would not have been able to enjoy the moment of meeting her as much as I would have liked. It took a minute or so to hear a cry, but Mark was over there watching and sending me happy faces, so I knew everything was ok. I delivered the placenta, got stitched up, and was able to meet my darling little redhead.

The feeling of no pain once the placenta was out was so incredible. That was truly a time of euphoria for me. It was such an amazing experience and I am so grateful and happy that it turned out so well. We are both happy and I am healing amazingly. I already feel like I did 3 weeks postpartum with Natalie. I am so glad she was finally born!

More pics

Thanks everyone for all your kind comments! We are so excited to have Hannah at home. She is a great baby and Natalie is going back and forth between being very interested in her and not wanting mommy to nurse. We are adjusting big time around here. Anyway, as soon as I find a free few minutes I will write the birth story. It was a wonderful birth--everything I hoped for! Here are some pics in the meantime.


Our little family.
What she looks like with her eyes open. Her skin turns red easily and at the slightest touch.

Natalie holding her baby sister in their room.

Here you can kind of see the color of her hair. It looks red a lot of the time; we'll just have to see if it stays!

Hannah and her daddy.

Well, they are both sleeping so I am going to catch a quick nap!

ANNOUNCING.....

Hannah Beverly Simonson was born this morning at 8:40, weighing in at 7 lbs 15 oz and measuring 21 inches long. She has cute strawberry blonde hair and is happy to be out of confining spaces!

Alisa will post her full birthing story later on today! Stay tuned...

What I'm grateful for

I am grateful to be able to carry a baby to full term. So many babies are born prematurely and have many health problems because of it, and I'm grateful mine will be able to avoid those problems. I am also grateful because many couples struggle with infertility and it has been a huge blessing in our lives to be able to have children. That's what I'll focus on as I struggle to roll over in bed until this baby decides to show her cute little face.

I'm still pregnant.

So I guess yesterday was what they call "prodromal labor." I sort of was expecting it since I had it for days before Natalie was born, but still, yesterday's contractions got my hopes up! Oh well. They continued all the way till I went to bed, then I woke up with NOTHING. I have had like, 4 contractions today, and none of them were of the intensity of yesterday.

I did have a dr appt today, and I am dilated to a "3 plus." Which means I'm between a 3 and a 4 I suppose. The baby's heartbeat was low, so they did a non-stress test and it turned out fine. She must have been sleeping before. It was somewhat depressing to schedule my 41 week appointment but hopefully I won't be able to make that one! Thanks for all the well wishes everyone!

I may be in labor

Just an update. Today I've been having regular contractions ALL DAY! Wahoo. They have varied in intensity and frequency, with the closest being 4 min apart for an hour or so, and with the most intense happening right now. But right now they are about 8 min apart. They are strong enough to make me stop what I'm doing, but I can still talk through them. I would rate them at a 3 on a scale of 0-10 with BH being 0 and transition/ring of fire being a 10. Anyway, I will be going to sleep early in hopes of getting rest before the really hard stuff if this is really it. Hopefully the next post will bring good news!

40 weeks....

Yes, I'm still pregnant for those of you who don't see me on a regular basis. :-) I will be 40wks on Friday actually (ticker is 2 days off) but I took a pic early.

I am dilated to a 3 and still 85% effaced as of my appointment on Thursday. My next one is this coming Wed, if I make it until then. Nothing exciting to report other than I am having random, scattered stronger-than-BH contractions here and there. In fact, I had 2 during church today. I also had one that woke me up the other night. So here's hoping my extremely amazing strong human grower uterus is gearing up for the big day sooner than later.

I love this book.

I know I'm sort of obsessed with this topic right now, but if anybody wants to learn more about natural childbirth and are considering it, I HIGHLY recommend this book. It is so amazing and inspiring. I'm taking notes to give to Mark for things to remind me of whilst I'm laboring. I'm feeling more ready to give birth again after reading this!

Tag again!

Ok, I was tagged by Kari who had a GROSS picture of a freshly skinned javelina on her blog. haha. Rule is the fourth pic in the fourth folder of your pictures, so here's mine:

Natalie is 7mo and she was mad in the high chair. I was baking and trying to keep her entertained at the same time. I tag whoever wants to do it!

Our day in photos

Simply because I want to show off some photos I took today, here is what we did.

In the morning Natalie and I drove to Scottsdale to visit Melanie and so I could drop off Natalie and run a couple of errands in the area that would have been harder with her. She had fun playing with Brooklyn in between fights.

One of their "getting along" moments. We like those best.

Then in the afternoon we went to the park. I like how this picture shows all her fuzzy fly-aways. She only slept for one measley little hour after her long morning and horrible pre-nap crankiness. I was glad I fell asleep right after she did or else I would have been bent out of shape about not getting a nap!

I started feeling really sick while pushing her, so I ended up sitting down on a swing while she played on some of the "big kid" swings. She was entertained by swinging on her tummy for a long time. I finally convinced her to come home, but first we had to pass by the playground, and of course she wanted to play on it. Somebody had filled the bottom of the slide with sand, which gave her plenty to do as she scooped it off all over her body.

Do you like the cloud? Yes, I just sat on the bench and watched. I was feeling so icky (stomach sickness kind of icky) that I didn't even care at this point.

And this is the end result. Yes, she is in her socks. I told you, I was sick!

It was overall a fun day, but I'm realizing I need to take it easy a little more. I'm pooped!