Welcome Elliot!

The stats for people who don't want to read this whole thing:

Elliot Henry Blood

Dec 20, 4:06 AM 

(Due date was Dec 17)

7 lb 4 oz

20 inches long
Really, Really Cute

Anybody who has talked to me in the past few weeks should know how antsy I was for Elliot to come. I found out the week before Thanksgiving (36 weeks pregnant) that I was dilated 2 cm and my doctor told me to take it easy to make sure that I made it to at least 37 weeks. He was pretty convinced that I was going to have the baby early. I made it to 37 weeks... then 38 weeks... 39 weeks... 40 weeks... by then I was dilated to 3 cm and about 70% effaced. My due date was Dec 17 but I was absolutely convinced that I wouldn't make it that long. Elliot had dropped quite a bit as well and I was really waddling around. I wasn't crazy uncomfortable like I know many women are during their last few weeks of pregnancy, but I was really hoping for a birthday as far away from Christmas as possible. 

I kept working up until the day I had the baby, which made some of my co-workers VERY nervous. Apparently there was a woman who had a baby in a Raytheon bathroom about 4 years ago. The fire department and her cubicle mate delivered the baby then they helicoptered them to the hospital. One co-worker in particular told me this story multiple times and tried to convince me that it would be worth it to have such a cool birth story. I disagreed, but we did have fun making extravagant plans on what we would do if I had the baby in the factory. My favorite one involved me giving birth in a missile container while a forklift carted me out to meet up with the ambulance/helicopter (people were really fixated on there being a helicopter) and then swaddling the babe in ESD smocks. Fortunately I did not go into labor while I was at work and people got to give me crap when I showed up to work every day, even after my due date passed. I could have gone on leave whenever I wanted to, but the idea of sitting at home waiting to go into labor sounded pretty boring to me. I was also closer to both Aaron and the hospital at work. 

I started having contractions around 10:00 p.m. on Friday night, right after we got into bed. This was December 19, 2 days after my due date. My doctor had said that I should wait to go into the hospital until the contractions worked their way down to 6 minutes apart and stayed at that frequency for at least an hour. Mine were only 3 minutes apart right from the start. However, I wasn't sure if it was the real deal or not because they weren't quite as intense as I had expected them to be. I could still walk and talk through them. I decided we should be play it safe and woke Aaron up (yes, he was already fast asleep after being in bed for just a few minutes) and told him we should go to the hospital just in case. I figured worse case scenario would be sent home, and I didn't want to risk having a baby in the car or some 7-Eleven parking lot if we waited longer. We threw some last minute stuff together and headed out. I was surprisingly calm through all this.

By the time we got to the hospital around 11:30, the contractions were more intense and I was becoming convinced that it was go time. We got all checked in, and sure enough I was dilated to 6 cm. The contractions were still coming every 2 to 3 minutes apart. They got me hooked up on an IV (which was horrible- I hate needles) and sent me to the nice labor room. The IV fluid was super cold and made me shake all over.  Once I got the bag of IV fluid in me, they could give me the epidural. Having the epidural put in wasn't the greatest feeling, but it was definitely worth it. I can't really imagine going through labor without one. I was able to get in an hour and a half nap in before I woke up feeling the contractions again around 2:30. I called the nurse back in and she pushed the magic 'no pain' button. Apparently I was progressing so fast that the epidural had a hard time keeping up. I was now dilated to 9 cm.

The nurse checking on me more frequently after that, and pretty soon she said it was time to start pushing. The doctor on call was with another woman at the time, so the nurse and Aaron help me through the first few pushes. The nurse then left to go get the doctor and I didn't know what I was supposed to do, so I just held back the urge to push for a while. It wasn't that strong anyway because I was all numbed up. The doctor came in after not too long and got all set up. It went pretty quickly after that. I think I was only pushing for about 15 minutes, including the pushes before the doctor got there. In retrospect, it was too fast because I ended up getting 3rd degree tears. I didn't know it until she started stitching me up because I couldn't feel anything. Have I mentioned that epidurals are awesome?

I had spent a lot of time thinking about what I would say when I saw it for the first time. When I actually saw him I don't think I said anything at all. I just looked at him in awe when they put him on my chest and toweled him off. He was so TINY. 

First picture of the little guy. I forget what his head measurement was, but they said it was in the 95%. The rest of him was in the 60%. Hence the rather unfortunate tearing.

Itty Bitty Feet

Heart melting

Hello World!

We stayed at the hospital until Sunday afternoon because we had to wait for all the various people that have to get us to sign things before we could check out. We didn't mind hanging out- my bed was super comfy and we thought the food was good. We all got caught up on sleep and it was actually pretty relaxing. Elliot has been a healthy little champ since day 1. He was slightly jaundiced, but that went away by his first appointment a couple days later. We are absolutely in love with our little guy!

First family picture. Elliot was asleep and rather floppy.

A Very Krusty Thanksgiving

Better late than never...

KRISTY TUNG CAME FOR THANKSGIVING!!!! It was just plain awesome having her around. I hadn't seen her since she left on her mission almost 2 years ago. It was great having a really great friend around and catching up on each other's lives.

Krust enjoyed seeing the native plants probably more than anyone else. "Hi, I'm Kristy, and I like Flowers..." haha. We went on a walk on the nature trail by our house and to the Desert Museum. I was concerned about going into labor while we were out and about. It added a layer of excitement and danger to our activities. Luckily the little guy didn't cause any trouble.

Saguaro, pregnant belly (it looked very different when I turned sideways), and friendship! This is on the wilderness trail by our house

Chewing on those things like farmers do 

This series of pictures from the Desert Museum makes me incredibly happy, especially the last picture where you can see that she was surrounded by random people and kids wanting a turn in the turtle

We spent some time playing Age of Empires. Ok, we spent a lot of time playing Age of Empires. Aaron won every time, even when Krust and I were on a team. I attribute this equally to Aaron's great skills and my complete lack of skills- I was holding team Krustash back big time. Video games were not part of my childhood so I lack the video game instincts that other people seem to have.

Nerrrrrrds

We invaded Aaron's sister-in-law's family for Thanksgiving. The Mikesells were incredibly hospitable despite the fact that most people had no idea who we were since we aren't actually related to them. The food was incredibly delicious, and I had my first exposure to deep fried turkey. There were also 4 types of mashed potatoes and more pies than I could count.

The Mikesell's backyard with classy lights

Also of note: Aaron and I won an athletic competition! The Mikesells have a homemade ladder golf set and we won the tournament. Our strategy was to get our opponents to lower their guard by completely missing the ladder most of the time and then have some incredibly lucky rounds at the end. 

Stock image of ladder golf

I hereby end this post with a picture of one of my favorite humans wearing my halloween costume.

Krusty Krang

Babies & Log Cabins

Last week we bought a dresser off of craigslist for the baby. This ended a months long saga of me being disproportionally stressed about not having a dresser for all the baby's clothes and a place to put the diaper changing pad. Aaron, being the rational man that he is, kept saying that I should hold off until a good deal popped up. After checking Craigslist and the Facebook yardsale pages daily for way longer than my normal attention span, I became convinced that we should just shell out and buy one in a store. The idea of not having a dresser ready to go when the baby came was a huge deal for me.

Around this time I got an email from my Aunt Cecelia who is serving a mission in the Family History Library. She sent out a link to a digitized copy of a family history book. I read through the stories of my not-so-distant ancestors and came to the conclusion that I'm spoiled rotten. I'm going to share some stories about my Grandma, Great-Grandma, and Great-Great-Grandma from when they were at the same stage of life as me.

Great-Great-Grandma Anna Sophia
Anna Sophia and Gustaf Johnson were Swedish Immigrants who settled in the Idaho frontier. They had 10 kids. Here's some excerpts from a history written by my Great-Grandpa, Gustaf Henry Johnson.

"Early in June Gustaf received word that a son had been
born to him. With fifty dollars in his pocket, he hastened back to Hyde
Park. The child was named Gustaf Henry. He was born in a lean-to
at the home of Sam Seamons, a kind friend who cared for the mother
and the baby. The family moved into their home and remained in
Hyde Park until the spring of 1887."

After that, Gustaf moved his little family to Idaho to try farming with his brother, Olaf. Let me say here that I have always loved that I have ancestors named Gustaf and Olaf.

"The brothers hauled logs from the mountains and built a cabin for Gustaf
in the vicinity of the present location of the Archer (Idaho) Meeting
House. The door was of cottonwood lumber which swelled and shrank
according to the humidity. The cabin consisted of one large room
divided by "factory cloth" into kitchen and bedroom. Poles served for
roof and ceiling and were covered with straw and dirt. One opening
in the kitchen and one opening in the bedroom covered with canvas
served for the windows. The bedroom floor was of cottonwood lumber;

one-half of the kitchen had a board floor, the rest was dirt." 

The farm thing flopped pretty hard that year, so Gustaf travelled to a slightly bigger town where he lived in shoeshop and worked for the winter. Anna Sophia stayed behind in the cabin with baby Henry. It hit -40 degrees a few times that winter and Anna only had a straw mattress, a blanket, and two quilts. She worried that the baby would die if he got uncovered during the night.

Dang.

This next part that Great-Grandpa Henry wrote is pretty great. This is talking about how his younger siblings were born. 

"...The matter of being born

in those days was a comparatively simple affair. When the time drew

nigh, the little mare was hitched to the cart and was rushed down the

road as though headed for a fire. Neighbors always had a way of knowing

that a new arrival was expected. A Mrs. Stevens from Jarnigan and

a Mrs. Cook who lived at Eagle Rock were the midwives who served

the family during these years. The midwife came and performed the

essential delivery and came back at intervals during the next two weeks

for the follow up work. The fee for the complete service was $10.00,

but even $10.00 was real money in those days. Usually Father did the

essential chores about the house and the neighbor women also came in

to help. It is surprising how precocious young children were even in

those days. We figured out where babies came from. It was very simple.

The midwife brought them in her black satchel."

Great-Grandma Esther
Esther grew up in a pretty well off family in Sweden. Gustaf Henry met her when he was there serving his mission, and she moved to America to marry him a few years later. They were married in 1910 and moved into a 2 room house where they had 3 of their 8 children. They then moved to a farmhouse where they frequently had to house hired farmhands. Esther had to feed the six to ten men on top of taking care of her kids. She also had to chop all the wood needed to cook, clean, and warm the house. They did eventually get running water, electricity, a telephone, and a furnace in the 1920's... but then the Great Depression hit. They had 7,000 sacks of potatoes that were completely worthless- no farmers could sell any of their produce. They gave the potatoes away to neighbors to use as pig feed and had to sell their remodeled house and move to a smaller farm with no electricity, well water, bathrooms, or furnace. Esther's 8th child was 1 year old when that happened.






Grandma Johnson
Grandma Johnson had her first two kids while Grandpa was serving in the Air Force during WWII. He was transferred all over the country every few months and they constantly thought that he was going to be deployed to Europe, even though he never was. Grandma lived near wherever Grandpa was stationed when she could and lived with relatives the rest of the time. They even lived in a converted chicken coop for a bit after Uncle Jerry was born. Grandma was living with her in-laws when Aunt Jean was born. Grandpa wasn't able to come see them until 10 days after she was born, and was only able to stay for a few weeks before heading back to the base.

Grandma and Grandpa with baby Jerry

That level of instability and uncertainty is hard for me to imagine. I am quite settled with a house and more than what we need to be comfortable. I am quite attached to my Aaron and imagining him only being able to see me and Elliot every few months is saddening. He would miss so much! Grandpa wasn't in the delivery room for the first two kids, and had to pretend to be an assisting doctor to get into the delivery room for their third kid. I'm glad that we live in a day and age where the expectations for fathers have changed and Aaron will able to be with me every step of the way.

My dad was born (kid #7) after a particularly bad winter. They had blizzard after blizzard and the roads would get blocked with snow. Grandma kept having false labor pains and would have to make calls to get the snowplow to come and clear the road to the farm so that they could get to the hospital, only to get sent home. That happened three times before my dad was finally born in March. Yet another reason to be grateful for Arizona weather...


All of this really puts things into perspective. "I have so many cute baby outfits in bags instead of a dresser" doesn't really seem like a hardship anymore. We are truly living in a world with comforts that are absurd when you take a step back. A lot of things that I thought of as "needs" in order to get ready for the baby really are not that important. Does that mean that we should get rid of all our earthly possessions? NO! But I for one am going strive to be more grateful for all the things I have.