Tuesday, September 22, 2015
First day of school, 2015
The first day of school for both our girls. Lacey started first grade and Amy started pre-K. They both seem to be thriving and loving their teachers. Obviously, Lacey's favorite color is purple, and Amy is obsessed with pink. Vincent is has not decided on his favorite color yet.
Friday, September 11, 2015
Vincent's Birth Story
I never quite know what to say when people ask me how
delivery went. I suppose that technically, delivery went wonderfully. After delivery, not so much.
But first, I’ll take a moment to chronicle my pregnancy,
since I didn’t blog about it like I did with the girls. It was kind of one
thing after another with this boy. Well, not with him, but with me. He was
always perfect. My pregnancy started with the expected nausea and fatigue. Then
at 8-9 weeks, I caught the flu (the fever, cough, sore throat flu, not the
stomach one), and I don’t think I’ve been so sick since I had mono 10 years
ago. Thanks to my good midwife, Tamiflu, and amoxicillin, though, I made it
through with no complications. I recovered enough within a week or two to hop
on a plane and make the 10-hour flight to Paris, France with Phil. It was the
trip of a lifetime, and I’m so glad that I got to make it and that I was
feeling well for the whole thing. I wish that I could have been a little more
adventurous with my food choices, but other than that pregnancy had very little
effect on the trip.
Before we left for Paris, we were able to tell the girls
that they were getting a new brother or sister. We hadn’t told very many people
at that point, but I had had a good ultrasound when I saw my midwife with the
flu, so I was pretty confident that we could tell our family. Of course, when
you tell your kids about a pregnancy, it’s a pretty good bet that pretty soon
everyone else will know. And sure enough, during Sharing Time in Primary that
Sunday, someone asked Lacey, “How many people are in your family?” and she
answered, “Well, my mommy has a baby in her tummy, so we have five people.”
Evidently it was the highlight of Primary that Sunday and there was much
laughter. That’s my Lacey!
So, back to all the annoying stuff that I had to deal with
during this pregnancy—it started with the flu, then we found that my thyroid
was going a little crazy (which turned out to be normal. It happens to 20% of
pregnant women and almost always resolves by 20 weeks, which it did—it just
meant lots of bloodwork and follow-up with an endocrinologist). Then I was
diagnosed with gall stones, which are really not any fun, so pretty much I need
to get my gall bladder taken out but really don’t want to deal with surgery.
Then the week that Vincent was born I came down with a case of shingles.
Luckily, we caught it fairly early and I was able to start a round of
antivirals to keep it from getting worse. Add to these things the sciatica,
PSD, and terrible, horrible round ligament pain that would strike at any time
day or night, and I would say that this pregnancy was definitely the roughest
yet. Though, don’t get me wrong, I know that I’m lucky to have had a relatively
complication-free pregnancy (three of them, in fact), and nothing was any worse
than just being annoying thanks to the excellent medical care I have available
to me.
And that brings us to July 31, 2015. Phil and I had sent
Lacey and Amy off with my parents to Fishlake for a family reunion that I was
very sad to miss, in the hope that they would come back and I wouldn’t be
pregnant anymore. They left Friday the 24th and of course returned
on August 1st, the day that Vincent was born. But first, the 31st.
I had my OB appointment with my midwife that day. I was 4 cm and 90% effaced,
and I convinced my midwife to strip my membranes. She wasn’t going to at first,
because of the shingles, but after consulting with the OB decided that it would
be fine. So we did that, and almost immediately I started getting contractions.
Unfortunately, they were weak and erratic and went away entirely by bedtime. I
wasn’t too discouraged, though, because I know that labor is more likely to start
in the middle of the night. So I just went with it and got some sleep while I
could, and sure enough, I woke up at about 3:30 with strong, consistent
contractions, about 4 minutes apart. So I elbowed Phil and told him that I was
having a baby, and he hopped up and took me to the hospital.
Perhaps I should have mentioned this before, because I think
it’s important, but about halfway through pregnancy, I decided that I wanted to
have an unmedicated birth and that I would use Hypnobabies as my method of pain
control. After two fairly traumatic births with epidurals (lots of blood loss,
massive tears, broken tailbone, lots and lots of pushing, etc.), I decided that
there had to be a better way for me. I needed to learn how to let my body give
birth on its own terms instead of forcing it. I did the home study program
(read a book, listen to some CDs, practice relaxing, etc.), and it helped me
not only prepare to give birth, but to deal with the fear and anxiety caused by
my previous deliveries. I was seriously terrified of what would happen if I
broke my tailbone again, since it still hurts me occasionally.
But, anyway, at the hospital we checked in, got a room,
found I was at about 6 cm, monitored Vincent for a little bit, then I got to
“relax” in the tub for a while and wait. During this time, I was able to put my
hypnobabies training to good use. Every time I felt a pressure wave (a.k.a.
contraction) come on, I closed my eyes and relaxed through it, easy peasy. Phil
says that on the outside, I looked like I was just chillin’. On the inside, of
course, I was concentrating very hard on keeping my body open and loose and
relaxed. I wish I could say that I had one of those anecdotal pain-free births,
but….. didn’t happen. What I did have was a very calm and controlled birth.
After about an hour, maybe, I don’t know, my midwife said that whenever I was
ready, and if I wanted to, she could break my water and then Baby would come
really quick. It took me a bit to be ready, but I decided that it was time. I
was ready to be done, honestly. So I had to get out of the water and back on
the bed, and my midwife broke my water, and that’s where the real work began.
As soon as that lovely cushion of fluids was gone, the contractions intensified
to the point that I started asking myself what I was thinking, wanting an
unmedicated birth, and please just make it stop. I had to stay in bed hooked up
to the monitor since V’s heart rate dipped when I sat on my birth ball. But
that wasn’t a big deal, since it was only another 10 minutes or so before my
body decided it was time to push that baby out. And what do you know, three
pushes (and several screams and maybe a few hisses, and yes, the thought “Get
it out, get it out” crossed my mind) later, I had a beautiful baby boy placed
on my chest, and he’s never really left. In fact, he’s there right now, snoring
away as I type. And so, you see, I had a really fantastic delivery. It was
exactly what I wanted—unmedicated, minimal interventions, very little tearing
(what I did get can most likely be attributed to the episiotomy that I got with
Lacey), no broken tailbone. Life was good!
For like an hour, anyway. I nursed my baby boy, and he
latched beautifully (hooray!). Phil snuggled him, I snuggled him, it was good.
Then I felt a gush where there shouldn’t have been one, and I sent Phil out to
tell the nurse that I felt like I was bleeding—a lot. The nurse came in,
thinking that I probably just needed to empty my bladder (not an unreasonable
assumption, since birth does crazy things to a person’s bladder). But, no,
there was lots of blood, and the nurse’s tone turned to all business. She
called my midwife, who was on her way home and decided to turn around, gave me
all sorts of medication to try to stop the bleeding, none of which worked. My midwife
arrived back and tried more, different medication, which also did not work. The
consensus was that part of the placenta must have been left behind in my
uterus, causing a hemorrhage. That’s a scary word after giving birth. After
this, things start to get fuzzy. I don’t know how much of that is from the
Percocet (sweet sweet pain relief) and how much is from the blood loss, but I
remember an ultrasound, I remember my midwife telling me she had called the
doctor and he was coming to perform a D and C to remove the rest of the
placenta. Then there was an anesthesiologist, some nasty thing to drink so that
I wouldn’t have reflux under anesthesia, or something. Mostly I just lay there
with my eyes closed. Eventually, Phil took V down to the nursery, and the
medical personnel wheeled me to the O.R., and I really don’t remember anything
after that, but that’s by design, seeing as I was under general anesthesia. I
know from my hospital bill that I was there for about 50 minutes (they bill by
the minute), and later they told me that I’d had a blood transfusion to replace
some of what I had lost.
I, thankfully, didn’t have any adverse reactions to the
anesthesia, besides the fact that I couldn’t stop crying, for some reason (or
no reason, really, it’s worse than PMS). The nurse (or someone, I don’t
remember who) said she would bring me a tissue, but I never got one. Oh well.
After this, they took me to my room on the mother and baby floor, and I stayed
there for the next couple days, free of any more complications or excitement. V
stayed with me for the entire time, since I had shingles and there are lots of
precautions where newborns are concerned. But as far as I know, no one caught
chicken pox from me.
Recovery was long and frustrating. It took several days before
I could stand up for any period of time. Then even when I could stand, standing
too long would make me pale and nauseated. I ate lots of hamburgers (yummm) and
drank lots of water, and eventually started to feel more like myself.
Vincent is a sweet baby. He loves to snuggle, of course, and
is easily soothed, usually. He’s growing like a weed. He’s probably gained 3
pounds in the past 6 weeks. He feels so big in my arms already.
And all that being said, if anyone wants to come hold my
baby so that I can take a nap, please let me know. Because I am so tired. SO
DANG TIRED.
The end.
Saturday, October 11, 2014
10 years
So, sometimes, very rarely, I have been known to wax a little sentimental. 10 years ago I met and started dating this handsome fellow. :) So far, we've survived a year and a half of dating, a 2-year LDS mission to South Africa, a degree (mine), most of 2 more degrees (his), 6 1/2 years of marriage, 2 pregnancies and the resulting spawn, 2 beautiful daughters, 3 years of mortgage payments, 1 out-of-state internship, 3 addresses, approximately 1.5 million pizzas, and 3 cars. Yes, 3, because we just bought a minivan to replace the car that Phil smashed in the snow 1 3/4 years ago. I guess that means we're officially old fuddy-duddies, but I like my van. We've even affectionately named it "The Van."
So, anyway, I scrounged around and found a picture of us together for every year that we've been together. Except 2006, when Phil was in South Africa for the entire year.
2004 T-Hall lobby, Deseret Towers
2005 (a.k.a. The Year that I Didn't Wear Makeup)
2006 South Africa
2006 Utah
2007 reunited after 2 years
2008 My favorite day
2009
2010 The year Phil started wearing glasses again
2011
2012
2013
2014
My loves. Things change a lot in 10 years!
Tuesday, June 24, 2014
Latest project, All Creatures of our God and King
Text: St. Francis of Assisi trans. by William H. Draper
Music: German melody, arr. Katherine Bobo
Again, not a great recording, but I don't have much to work with (and it may have something to do with all the wrong notes...).
Friday, March 28, 2014
More music
So I guess composing music can be as addicting as a good book--the house just goes to pot while I'm in the middle of it. But it's fun, and my free trial of Sibelius is about to run out (now accepting donations, lol). Song titled "Sing Praise to Him" Music by Katherine Bobo, words by Johann J. Schultz (Hymn #70 in the LDS hymnbook)
Sunday, March 16, 2014
Catching up, and an original composition.
So..... I'm not so great at blogging these days. So I'm going to catch up really quick by just posting a bunch of stuff from the rest of 2013. I don't have much from 2014.... BUT ...
Here's a song that I wrote. It's not a great recording, but you can listen if you want.
Here's a song that I wrote. It's not a great recording, but you can listen if you want.
November and December
Well, we don't have any good pics from November, and the videos are cute but too big to upload. So... on to December! We started off with a snow storm.
And Lacey had her preschool program.
The girls built a snowman with Grandma.
And decorated a gingerbread house with Grandma.
And Christmas morning we got lots of toys. :) It was as magical for Lacey and Amy as I hoped it would be.
Showing off Lacey's presents to Grandpa, Uncle Brad, and Daddy.
And Lacey had her preschool program.
The girls built a snowman with Grandma.
And decorated a gingerbread house with Grandma.
And Christmas morning we got lots of toys. :) It was as magical for Lacey and Amy as I hoped it would be.
Silly Uncle Brad.
Showing off Lacey's presents to Grandpa, Uncle Brad, and Daddy.
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