The tale of the lucky shirt

As we were leaving for the hospital to have Hannah I looked over at Benji and laughed because I realized the shirt he was wearing was the same one he was wearing when Sam was born. We thought that was pretty cool, but then we figured out that it was the same shirt he was wearing when Jordan was born! We have a lucky shirt and it was a complete accident!

Hannah: part one

If you've been trying to get to my blog and have been stopped by a warning that my website contains malware, I fixed it so hopefully you won't get a virus from visiting my blog, or any other blog for that matter.

Anyway, I don't have much computer time lately so I'm going to split this story into short posts so I don't spend an hour on the computer. (That's precious sleeping time.)

I was supposed to be at the hospital at 10:00 am on November 14th and my c-section was scheduled for 12:00. It was a perfect time to go to the hospital because I got to sleep in a little (my last two c-sections have been at 5 am) AND I had enough time to go get my hair washed and styled that morning.

I also had enough time to get my boys ready for the day, get some photos and say good-bye. Then before I knew it we were on our way to the hospital.

I was a little excited....

After checking in and making a payment with the hospital we were ushered to Labor and Delivery, ready to have a baby in a few short hours.

BUT something happened and Miss Hannah did not come at noon. Stay tuned.....

Hannah: part two

When the hospital called to tell me what time to be to the hospital they didn't mention anything about fasting. You think I would remember since I've had a few c-sections already, but I wasn't sure. Just to be on the safe side I decided I would fast. The morning started out fine, I kept silently reminding myself to stay away from food and the kitchen. Then Sam needed to eat breakfast. He wanted Special K with strawberries, but we had Cheerios open, so I gave him some of those and while trying to convince him that they would taste delicious I ate a bunch of them. Yeah, I know, pretty dumb.

After realizing my dumb mistake at the hospital I informed my nurse, who informed the anesthesiologist, who then came in my room and basically gave me a "what were you thinking" talk, and told me we had to push the surgery to 3:00.

I was okay with that since it was just a few extra hours anyway, and I was able to sneak in a little nap before everything happened. Well, 30 minutes later my nurse came back in to tell me that my doctor wouldn't be able to be there until 5:00 that evening. BLAH. I was pretty bummed I had to stay in bed at the hospital that long, but I had to convince myself the time would go by (even if it was slowly) and we were still going to have baby that day. The biggest regret I have (besides eating the Cheerios) is that I didn't eat a big meal. I mean if I was going to ruin my surgery time by eating I wish it had been pancakes and eggs and orange juice. I had to sit there all day with only a few handfuls of Cheerios in my tummy. I was starving.

Some doctors make you have a liquid diet for a few meals after having c-sections, but luckily my doctor isn't one of them. I could eat whatever I wanted after surgery and I had my meal order in my head all day. It's all I could think about, which maybe is a good thing because I wasn't worrying about my upcoming surgery all day.
Find out what my meal of choice was and much more soon...... :)

Hannah: part three

So I waited seven painful hours in the hospital bed waiting for the time when I would be able to hold my baby. My hospital room had a DVD player, so Benji went and rented a few movies, I did crossword puzzles, slept a little, watched TV and just sat there. The day did go quicker than I thought, but then at about 4:30 they told us my doctor wouldn't be able to be there until 5:30. So we had to wait a little more time, but before I knew it they were wheeling my bed down the hall to the operating room. I don't know how many of you have been in an OR, but they are scary. It's freezing cold, the lights are unnaturally bright, everyone has masks on, and there is equipment everywhere. It's what I imagine an alien space craft to be like. Luckily though, I was surrounded by doctors and nurses and not aliens, so I felt a little bit better. A little.

Having planned c-sections are also weird because you go nine months worrying about the little child growing inside of you. You worry that they are healthy, you worry if they are moving enough, you worry that they might come too early, you worry if you miss one day of prenatal vitamins, you worry, worry, worry. Then they lift you from your hospital bed and place you on a cold, hard operating table and then it hits you, I AM GETTING SURGERY! And for a brief minute you worry about yourself, but mostly you are still worried about the baby.

The anesthesiologist started by giving me a spinal block. The first one I had was with Sam and it was fabulous, I might not be remembering correctly, but I swear it only took 10 seconds. This one took a little longer, which didn't bother me. What bothered me is that my anesthesiologist thought it would be fun to explain the whole procedure to my husband. THE WHOLE PROCEDURE! Including, how large the needle is, that blood squirting out is normal, that you have to feel each part of the spine and then from there it is guess work, you know when you hit the right spot when you see spinal fluid. As he is explaining this, the nurses are telling me to try to stay calm and not move. It was awful, but it finally worked and I was numb.

The actual c-section doesn't take that long, you feel a bunch of pressure and pulling and soon there is a baby. They brought here around the curtain so I could see her, and I couldn't believe how pretty she looked. This is an awful admission, but I didn't feel the same after seeing some of my children for the first time. They looked beautiful after they were cleaned up and had color, but for a few seconds I have thought my babies were not so pretty. Sorry kids.

I was able to hold her right away, which I haven't ever done before. Usually I don't get to hold them until I am in recovery.

Then she was whisked away to the nursery and Benji followed to get some photos. I love this picture of my boys watching their little sister for the first time. Jordan adores her, if you can't tell.

She was weighed, poked and prodded and then given a bath.

Here is Benji with Doctor Furgeson (and a nurse with Hannah).

They took me back to my room to recover, and brought my sweet baby in for some bonding time. I sent my dear family to get me a sandwich, soup and sugar cookie from Old Grist Mill and a pint of brownie ice cream from Walmart. Yeah, I was hungry, and I had been thinking about it all day!

Oh yeah, I had a baby.

Hannah Brees Hadfield
November 14, 2011
5:54 pm
7 lbs 13 oz
Cute as a button.
Mom and baby are doing well.

Playing in the snow

There are a few parenting related things that make me cringe. I hate doing them.
1. Installing car seats. Important. Necessary. Annoying.
2. Dressing kids to go play in the snow. Important. Necessary. Annoying.

Anyway, that being said, I love watching my kids play in the snow and they were extra excited for the first snow this season, so of course I was a little excited too.
I love his little bum.....

I think my favorite thing about having a fenced back yard is that I can bundle them up and send them out to play in the snow without having to get bundled up myself. I can just watch from the window with hot chocolate. Nice!

Smothered

My boys miss their dad while he is at work. I think the hardest thing about commuting is that Benji gets to see them for maybe a minute in the morning (sometimes not at all), and then for about an hour at night. Sometimes when Benji gets home he is pooped from working and driving home and needs some wind down time before playing with the boys. Unfortunately, the boys don't understand that and end up smothering their dad with attention. I walked in the room the other night and Sam had climbed up Benji and perched on his shoulders.
The look on Sam's face was so funny because I could tell he thought he was being sneaky or funny.

Either way, he was pleased with himself for getting some dad time.

I want to be like dad.

Jordan's new favorite game is pretending to be Benji. One thing I've observed is that the boys think Benji drives to Bountiful, eats lunch and then comes home because that it how their imaginary dad world works.

Anyway, Jordan also loves pretending he has a smart phone (like daddy) to play angry birds all day. He also loves to pretend to go swimming like Benji.

Then one morning I found him working on Sam's teeth.
(This photo had to be cropped because he was a naked dentist.)

I love this time of year.

Here's a picture I took in my front yard the other morning. It was funny because when showed Benji the picture he pulled out his phone and showed me a similar one. The clouds were just too awesome not to enjoy.

Halloween

Oh boy! Yesterday was a full day! A fun day, but a very full one. I started the day out with a scowling angry bird inches from my face saying, "Did you steal my eggs?" Jordan was in character from the moment he woke up and was disappointed that I didn't want to sit on towers all day while he knocked them over. We did that a few times, but it wasn't sufficient for my Angry Bird.

My boys wanted to be in their costumes as soon as they woke up and that was fine with me. Sam told me, "I want to be a bunny so I can jump and nuggle (snuggle)." I guess those are the things bunnies do.

Jordan had preschool so we got him dressed and dropped him off. Even though it might look like he's in pain, this is really his angry face.
Once we were in the preschool he was pleased at how many people liked his costume. He has introduced all of his teachers to Angry Birds because he talks about it all the time! None of them knew what it was before my sweet, obsessed son.

After we picked up Jordan from preschool we went to Kent's grocery store to trick or treat there. They hand out cans of root beer, string cheese, twinkies, fruit snacks, chocolate milk, chips and other fun treats. My boys LOVED it! It maybe was better than knocking on doors. While I was there I noticed they had their Halloween candy (the good chocolate candy bar stuff) on sale for $1.50 a bag. I ended up buying all my Christmas candy! :)

After Kent's I had a Doctor's appointment so I dropped the boys off at Nana's house to play. I reminded my doctor that we had scheduled my c-section for the 14th, but he was going to try to see if I could have her on the 11/11/11. He told me if I REALLY wanted that day we would make it work. Of course I want a healthy baby girl, but I think it would be awesome for her to have the cool birthday. After all, choosing the day I have my babies is one of the advantages of having c-sections.

Wait, this is a Halloween post. Back to Halloween.

So, we got home and had a few minutes to get ready for our ward's trunk-or-treat. But then I started feeling bad that we hadn't carved pumpkins yet, so in world record time, we made this guy.
Then we headed out the door for the trunk-or-treat.
This is my costume, it's kind of hard to see in this picture, but I have an Angry Bird pig on my belly. Jordan was sad that Hannah wasn't going to dress up this year, so I helped her out a little.

Jordan was good at staying in character the whole time, I caught him practicing angry faces.

Benji contributed to the costume theme with a shirt. It actually ended up being a good thing for those that didn't know what Jordan was dressed up like Benji could just point to his shirt. Either people know what an angry bird is or they have no idea, so we got a good kick out of those that didn't know what he was. An old lady guessed he was a frying pan and my neighbor thought he was a demon.

This one is opposite of a demon....

Benji walked around with the boys while I sat at the car.

Here is my self timer portrait.

When I was getting pictures of the boys I told Sam to give Benji a big bunny hug.

But he immediately pulled away and yelled, "You hurt me!!"

It was because of Benji's scruffy face. I guess bunnies never get scruff.

Sam was just full of great faces yesterday:

And he had fun jumping and bouncing.


After the trunk-or-treat we ate some dinner then headed out to knock on some doors.

I started out by waiting with the stroller by the street, but my boys don't quite have door etiquette down yet. If nobody would answer they would both start yelling, "HELLLLLO? Is anybody in there!!? Your lights are on!" Also, Sam thought it was okay to play with anything in the yards or on porches. He also would stay and chat with each person. He would tell them about his costume, his candy and what he did that day. (He'll be a great missionary.)

Here they are with all their loot. I can't believe how much candy they got! I also can't believe how much candy we had left over. WHAT are we going to do with it all!!?