Happy Thanksgiving!!!

We went to my Aunt Serena's for our Thanksgiving meal. Well she is really my dad's cousin but we have always called her Aunt Serena. Audrey had a cold and before we left to go she got worse and so she and Steve stayed home which was very sad. It wasn't the same without them. We have never spent Thanksgiving with my Aunt Serena and her family and it was really nice. We were supposed to be in Oklahoma this Thanksgiving but because I had a c-section and because he was born two weeks before this we weren't able to go.

A friend of mine loaned us this Baby's 1st Thanksgiving outfit and bib, so cute!

I want to gobble these two turkeys up.

My grandma

Grandpa with his buddy.

The rugrats minus Miss Audrey. Cole, Olivia, and Kellan, they had so much fun together.

The yummy food

One side of the table- left to right - my cousin Jessica, her mom Serena, Jessica's husband Matt, my grandma, my mom

The other side of the table- my dad, me, my cousin Josh, and his two friends.

My dad's cousin Serena

A picture of him in his car seat with only his little face peeking out

In these last few pictures, he is smiling, and it's not from gas bubbles. I don't care what they say I know he is smiling from us talking to him and not from gas bubbles. He just lights up sometimes when you talk to him and gets a huge grin. He can't be getting a gas bubble every time he grins when we talk to him. He does it in response to hearing our voices.

Grandpa can really make him smile

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving. I am so thankful this year for so many things but especially for the birth of Owen. Thank you God for giving us another child.

The Birth Day

Here he is! Doesn't he look so long in this picture?

Just moments after he was born

My midwife Angela who was there for it all
The sweet nurse Lindsey who stayed with us all night, such a sweet nurse!

One proud dad

One proud grandpa

My little monkey

At Boulder Community Foothills Hospital they only use cloth diapers so that's why it's so big on him.

Our view from our hospital room

So I think I'm ready to share my birth story now. It has taken me two weeks to grieve how it all happened but I'm starting to accept it and know that God was in control and this was His plan for how Owen was to enter this world. This is very long and mostly for my memories so feel free to skip over it if you want.

On Tuesday, November 10th my water broke at 1:30 a.m. My water never broke ahead of time with either of the girls so this was a different experience for me. I didn't tell anyone until the morning but I was having some contractions. I actually went back to bed and tried to sleep through some of them which I think I did a little. Then I went and told my mom about 6:00 a.m. Everyone got up and got ready as if we were going to leave to go to the hospital any minute. The problem is my contractions slowed way down. I called my midwife and she wanted my contractions closer together and longer so we waited. I had an appointment with my chiropractor for acupuncture to see if that would help my labor get going so I went to that and I think that helped because my contractions after awhile got closer but it still took all day. Between 7 and 8 p.m. they started getting harder and I said I think it's time to go. Steve had taken the girls to our friends house and then we were off to the hospital. The ride to the hospital is around 30-35 minutes and it was awful. My contractions were coming so fast my mom thinks they were 1 minute apart. Steve pulled up to the emergency entrance and we got a wheelchair. I was in bad shape. When the midwife checked me I was at 9 cm. Wow! Almost there right? Wrong! We had called ahead before we left from home to ask for an epidural as soon as I got there because I couldn't handle it anymore. If you know me, I always try to do natural labors and I work very hard trying to do relaxation techniques that they taught me in Bradley Childbirth classes that I took when pregnant with Olivia. The problem is I can never make it to do a natural birth. My labors are very difficult and I can't stick with it. So, got the epidural and then I was at 10 cm. Problem, the station Owen's head was at was a +1. The midwife thought I should rest and see if my uterus could work to bring him down farther so I wouldn't have to push for 3 1/2 hours like I did with Audrey. Well, after 1 hour the epidural started to wear off. They decided to have me push without the epidural so I could feel my pushes and see if he would come down. 45 minutes of pushing, he wouldn't budge. Another 1 1/2 hours and still nothing. At this point, I was exhausted, weak, and emotionally done. I said I couldn't do this any longer and what could we do. The midwife checked with the Dr. on call to see if he was far enough down to use forceps or vacuum which I didn't want these to happen either. The Dr. said he wasn't far enough down. So I said what other options. Either push more and hopefully he would come down or a c-section. I couldn't push more, I had no strength left. I had cried and cried for awhile because I was tired of them saying, "You're doing great!" If I was doing great, he would be out. I was so frustrated. I finally gave in and said I want a c-section. I can't believe I uttered those words because that is the last thing I wanted but I wanted it all to be over. It took a long time to get Owen out because I had so much scar tissue built up from my c-section with Olivia that it took the Dr. forever to remove the scar tissue. The Dr. thought she damaged my bladder and when removing some of the scar tissue on my uterus, she tore a hole in my uterus. They finally got to Owen and I heard the Dr. say that he is really stuck in there. He was posterior which means he was facing the wrong way to come out and his head was twisted funny. Posterior babies are very hard to deliver and his positioning is the reason he wasn't come down into the birth canal. This is what happened with Olivia too except I don't think she was posterior she was just a big girl, 9 lbs. 8 0z., and stuck in there too. Owen was 9 lbs. 7 oz. and the midwife and Dr. think that he might not have been able to come out vaginally. Audrey was 7 lbs. 6 oz. and I was able to do a VBAC with her but she was also 2 lbs. smaller. Not sure how I made two big babies but I had trouble with both of them. No one in Steve's or my family have big babies so what's up with me? Since I've had 2 c-sections, the Dr. said I now have to have only c-sections. Also, I will be high risk because of the tear in my uterus that was repaired. She said that it would be dangerous to go into labor next time so they would schedule a c-section at 38 weeks so that I wouldn't go into labor. We've always wanted to have 4 children but we need to just focus on my recovery and will think about that later. Also, I'm having trouble healing. My incision site was infected and oozing and yesterday they almost scheduled surgery for me again but they were able to get rid of dead tissue in the office and pack the section that won't heal with gauze. It has to be repacked every day for maybe two weeks. So I have a home health nurse coming for the remainder of this week and weekend since the Dr.'s office is closed. I also spent some time in the E.R. last week because I had horrible aches and stiffness in my legs and Steve and my midwife were worried about blood clots so I spent 3 1/2 hours there to find out that my Total CK was high which means I was having muscle breakdown from not moving much since my c-section and all I could do for that was drink lots of fluids and take Ibuprofin. That has slowly gotten better but boy oh boy have I had a tough time with recovery this time. No fun!
I am extremely thankful that it wasn't worse and that Owen and I are alive and he is doing so well. He is such a good baby and I am so thankful for him. The first week I couldn't tell this story without crying but I'm doing a lot better and have to remind myself constantly that this was God's plan for us.

Introducing...

Owen Andrew Lee weighing in at a hefty 9 lbs. 7 oz. and 21 inches long. He arrived on Wednesday, November 11th at 4:05 a.m. I just got out of the hospital today because I ended up having a c-section. I'll get into more details later but I wanted to post a couple of pictures. My dad is returning to Wyoming tomorrow so I want to go visit with him but will post more later.

Aww, they are staring at each other. They met for the first time today!

They are going to be such great big sisters.

Our new family of five

Today Might Be the Day

Well, that didn't take long. At 1:30 a.m. today my water broke and my contractions began. I was able to go back to sleep after my midwife's o.k. and then they got a little stronger and I finally got up at 6:00 a.m. The contractions are not very close together and lasting very long so it may be awhile. She said to call and go in the hospital when they are 3 - 5 minutes apart for an hour. So everyone but Olivia is awake here getting ready in case we need to go. I'm excited to meet my little man. If you read this today, please be praying that everything will go well and he and I will both be safe.

Due Date Come, Due Date Gone

Well today is my due date and no baby yet. I wasn't expecting him to be here yet because I was late with the girls so I'm o.k. with it. I saw my midwife today and she said I was 3 cm dilated already and to just be patient. I know women who have been 3 cm dilated for weeks so this doesn't tell me much but it is exciting to know my body is doing something and that I only have 7 cm more to go. I feel lots of pressure down by my cervix and it is a lot harder to walk so he is definitely down low. Hopefully he'll come this week. I'll keep you updated.

Another baby celebration

I have several friends that I know that do not go to my church and thus weren't at the church baby shower and so my friend Sabrina planned a really fun girls' night out/baby shower at Olive Garden for us. It was so nice and great that they all came, each one from a different part of my life and everyone seemed to have a great time together.

Sabrina, me, and Vicki

Sabrina and I used to work together for more than 3 years and then have kept up our friendship since then. Vicki is my childhood friend that I've known since we were very little and grew up together. It's very fun because she lives 20 minutes from me now and our two oldest girls are 6 months apart and play together, which by the way are carbon copies of us when we were little, looks and personalities.

Shelley, Lynne, and Andrea

I know Shelley from our kids' music classes. Our kids have been in many of the same music classes since they were very little babies. Andrea, on the right, and I met our childbirth classes when we were pregnant with our first kids and have remained close friends ever since. Her mom is Lynne and she also has two young adopted daughters so we get together with her and her kids every once in awhile too, such a sweet mom and I'm glad she got to come.

My cousin Annie, her daughter Katie, and my mom

Annie and Katie live about an hour and 15 minutes from me and they drove to celebrate with us. I grew up in the same town with my cousin and we were and are very close. I'm so glad they made the trip.

I am so blessed to have each one of these women in my life and am so thankful for their friendship.
Do you see the diaper cake in the background to the left? Sabrina made that for me, isn't it awesome. I love having creative friends.

This picture was the last one taken near 11:30 p.m. and that's why I look exhausted.

Thanks for a great night ladies!! I had a wonderful time.

Trick or Treat

On Saturday, my mom surprised me by bringing my sister-in-law and three of her kids here to hang out for a few days. They tried to make it down for the church baby shower but the roads were closed part way and the route they took lasted almost 9 hours so they missed it but they made it in time for the kids to all go trick-or-treating together like they did last year in Wyoming. My girls were so excited and it made it a lot more fun for them to be with their cousins. We had a great time with them and are so glad they came.

Isn't Jason adorable in his giraffe costume? Sorry, the pic is a little blurry.

Miss Sara as Hannah Montana

She kept asking me, "Where is my stab?" instead of "staff".

She had a blast!

My nieces helped my girls carve this cute pumpkin and grandma helped them make caramel apples, yum! I wished we all lived closer.

Vicki's 1st Annual Halloween Party

My friend Vicki and her husband Matt hosted a Halloween party last Friday and it was a lot of fun. Olivia dressed up as Sleeping Beauty and Audrey was Little Bo Peep, an outfit Vicki's daughter Paityn wore last year.

Vicki had each guest bring a fun dish to share that she found on the internet so here are some of the dishes.

Halloween Brownies

Spider Bread served with Chili

Veggie Graveyard

String Cheese Fingers

Forked Eyeballs - we made these, well Steve did, I tried and ruined the first batch. I bought the wrong red frosting so the gel was running, oops.

Strawberry Ghosts

Hot Dog Mummies

The host and hostess as Pirates. Matt was pretending to hold his sword.

Sleeping Beauty and Belle

The kids went into a room that was dark and an adult was in there and jumped out and scared them. This did not go over well with my girls but the other kids kept returning for more screams.

My Little Bo Peep with a scabbed up nose

Vicki really went all out with her decorating and said she wanted to make this a yearly event, so fun.

My Silly Girl