Hey Jude

It has been a wonderful couple of weeks in the Davidson home. Little Arlo has already brought so much more love and happiness into our lives. My recovery is coming along, it was slow at first, but I am feeling almost back to normal now. The baby lost a considerable amount of his birth weight, so I've been feeding him like crazy. It took him awhile to get the hang of nursing, but we seem to have overcome that challenge, he just needed a couple more weeks of maturing. He also had a bout with jaundice; I put him in the window a couple of mornings and that cleared up on its own. I had some depression the first few days home, but Jeff had me save a few ounces of milk for him, and he took over getting up with the baby so I could get a good nights sleep and that really helped chase away the blues. The girls are adjusting pretty well I think. Its hard to tell since they are out of school, we off our schedule, and they've been eating holiday candy and treats. We were very lucky to receive so many meals from some of the best people out there. It was greatly appreciated and was a lot of help.

The Monday before Christmas we had our 4th annual Gingerbread house Family Home Evening. We had family and friends over for a Family Home Evening lesson on the symbols of Christmas, the kids decorated gingerbread houses, and then we sang Christmas carols. The kids seemed to have a good time and its something I look forward to each year. It's a tradition that helps us point Christmas towards the Savior and I hope to continue it for years to come.

Jeff finished the built in shelves he and I designed for the baby's room. I love them! He even encorporated some dowel rods for shoe box-sized toy bins. We have something similar in the girls room that retails for around $70. The dowel rods cost less than $5 and the bins were $1 each. We built the toy bin just under $20 and its built into the rest of the shelving.

Christmas eve was spent with my family and we had our traditional Mexican food feast which was wonderful. The girls had so much fun opening their gifts from Nana and Papa and Grandma Lo and Grandpa Gene. Baby Arlo slept through most of the festivities; Grandma held him for a good portion of the evening. We got home around 9:30 and the kids were all asleep. Jeff and I put the girls gifts under the tree including a pair of bikes that Jeff put together the night before.

The girls got us up about 7:00 on Christmas morning. Daddy read the Luke account of the Christmas story and then we let them go downstairs to open their gifts. They were very excited and loved their gifts. We had cinnamon rolls for breakfast and then got ready to head to church. We had a very nice Sacrament meeting with some lovely music. Jeff was asked to play and sing Silent Night on his guitar and he did a great job. We enjoyed the rest of our Sabbath together and the girls happily played with all their new things. We spent the evening over at the Bryson's eating, visiting, and putting together a puzzle. The girls had a great time and the kids really played nicely together. It was a great way to end Christmas day...we didn't get home until a quarter to 12!

We've had to drive into Tucson everyday last week it seems. The baby had two appointments with the pediatrition to check on his weight. He is slowly gaining and they are happy with the progress he's made. He's consistently opening his eyes now that almost all of the bruising and swelling has gone down around his eyes, although he has a blocked tear duct which is causing some discharge from his left eye. I also had a doctor's appointment to check my inscision and everything is looking great. We took advantage of our trips into Tucson and took the kids to mall to play one day and to the movies another. We are really enjoying our Christmas break and it already seems as though Arlo has always been with us. Although, we are quickly realizing that we are out numbered; I have a suspicion that the change from two to three children will be more tricky than from one to two was.

Baby It's You, Reprise

Friday morning, after taking Felicity to the bus stop, Jeff and I loaded up our stuff and set off for Tucson Medical Center. I had a non-stress test to make sure the baby was doing well and would tolerate the amniocentesis without any problems(we were doing an amniocentesis to verify the baby's lungs were mature enough to deliver early since he was so big). He was a little sluggish as I had to be fasting from the night before. The nurse came by about an hour later to prep me for the amnio. There were a few good pockets of fluid, but the baby was so wiggly by this point, he was making it difficult. The midwife joined us for support and the doctor decided where she was going to put the rather long needle to take out some fluid. Just as she was about to, the baby moved into the pocket of fluid she was going to use so they re-planned; she said the baby could sense my apprehension and was responding by moving a lot. I closed my eyes and tried to really relax, Jeff said I didn't even flinch when she put the needle in, which felt no worse than getting a shot. The baby continued to wiggle even though there was a sharp needle up by his bum! The doctor was able to get a few vials of fluid and everything went well, I didn't even need a band aide! Jeff left for his geography final and I went back to observation and another non-stress test to again assure baby was doing well.

About an hour and a half later the nurse came in to let me know that the baby's lungs were mature. The doctor came in and gave me a choice; she said she wasn't really happy they scheduled me for Friday, seeing as I was only 37 weeks, she said we could go ahead with a c-section today, or I could go home and eat, take the weekend to prepare and come back on Tuesday. I decided that since we had already made the necessary arrangements and we were already there, we would just go ahead and deliver at 37 weeks. Jeff arrived back from his final just as they were moving me to a labor and delivery room to prep for the c-section. We visited with the OR nurses that were going to be attending as well as the two doctors who would be performing the surgery, an intern who would be watching, the anesthesiologist, the midwife, and a few other people. I think the IV was the worse part of the whole thing, but once I was ready and they came to get me I started to get really scared. I'm not sure why, with Helen I was cool and calm. I chatted with the OR staff during her c-section, but not this time. When it came time for the spinal block tears just started streaming down my face as I desperately tried to hold still. They were prepped and ready to go and I just felt so panicked I couldn't catch my breath or stop crying. Jeff was allowed in and he came and put his hand on my face while the midwife held my hand.

The doctor gave me the play by play as we had discussed earlier. I wanted to know how the scarring and adhesion looked and get her opinion on whether we could have another baby. At first everything went well, I heard all positive things. "Scar tissue looks minimal, there's some slight adhesion, everything looks good so far Heather" then a small gasp and an "oh, my gosh". The room got pretty quite and she said "there's a window, I can't believe this". Moments later the anesthesiologist leaned over to Jeff and said here comes the baby if you want to see it being born (to which he shook his head and made sure his line of sight was well under the screen). There was a lot of pressure and pulling and then that beautiful sound of new baby cries. Not loud or particularly strong, but there just the same. Exclaims of "wow, look how big he is", "look at those thighs", "he has the cutest cheeks" came streaming to my ears from the other side of the screen. The doctor briefly brought him behind the screen for me to see and then whisked him to the Neonatal nurses. They eventually wrapped him up and gave him to Jeff to bring over to me, where I could see his adorable face and kiss his soft forehead, perfectly round. Jeff went with the baby to be weighed, measured, and evaluated. I closed my eyes and let the exhaustion and fear wash over me.

After they were finished with post surgery, the doctor came around to my side and said we were really lucky and we obviously were living our lives the right way because someone was looking out for us. When she got down to the uterus, there was a uterine window at the old incision line. The weight and pressure of the baby had caused it to stretch so thin it was transparent. Had we waited until the next week, had the baby gained another couple of ounces, it could have ruptured and we would have lost the baby and put my life in serious jeopardy, especially since we don't live close to a hospital. She said in her opinion, we shouldn't have anymore children; they didn't have a written consent for a tubal ligation, so they sewed everything back up, but we should talk about permanent sterilization soon. I was glad the baby was OK, and I was eternally grateful for whatever person mistakenly scheduled us for Friday instead of the following Tuesday, but my heart was broken at the idea that we couldn't have anymore children, that I'd never get to be pregnant again. Tears well up in my eyes as I think about it now. Jeff has wisely reminded me that just because we can't have anymore of our own, it doesn't mean that our house will never experience another baby. I love him.

We made it back to the recovery room and Jeff and baby Arlo were waiting. He let me know that he was 10 pounds, 4 ounces and 20 1/2 inches long. He was perfect. He has lots of soft brown hair and a weird patch of completely white hair in the back. The nurse said it was a birth mark, no pigmentation at that place on his scalp, it's kind of cute and luckily not large enough to be a stripe or overly obvious. His eyes were pretty bruised, and only after about three days have we been able to see them as he is now just opening them. They are blue, as expected and very curious.

My recovery has been relatively fast and I didn't need any narcotics while in the hospital. I was up walking by ten o'clock that night (once I regained real feeling in my feet and legs), and had all my tubes and IVs taken out the following afternoon. I was eating regular food by morning and feeling pretty well. My doctor said since I was doing so well, they would release me and the baby a day early as long as I promised to come back in to have my staples removed on Monday.

The girls came by on Saturday morning after their Big Sister class that I had signed them up for. They were very excited to see their new baby brother and took turns holding him. My grandparents came by later in the afternoon to visit. I wasn't feeling up to any more visitors, so we spent the rest of our time in the hospital by ourselves until we were released Sunday afternoon.

I am so in love with my little guy, and Jeff is smitten too. I'm so grateful to everyone who has been supportive and helpful. Especially those who gave us clothes and other necessities including a crib. I have the best friends in the world. I'm sure that there will be lots of pictures and stories to tell of little Arlo's adventures, we're looking forward to taking Christmas pictures together as a family and enjoying the holidays!

Baby It's You

What a surprising, wonderful week this was! I worked on Monday of this week and after work met Jeff and the girls at the school auditorium for Helen's preschool holiday program. It was cute and she did a great job singing and dancing, but I, being a rather practical parent, think it was rather pointless. They only sang one or two holiday songs and mostly it was kids too young to be counted on to behave in an expected way picking their noses and staring blankly. After we took the girls to McDonald's for an ice cream treat and then to the grocery store to pick up some necessities. It was a long day and I didn't get home until around 8.

Tuesday was my last day of work until February. I headed straight to my visiting teaching appointments after work, which I always enjoy. I love visiting with the great sisters I have assigned to me, and was happy to take over some cookie/candy baskets. I had Jeff take some pictures of my beautiful belly, sorry they are not terribly modest, but I couldn't help but want to document it; I love pregnancy I think it's an amazing beautiful thing and I feel so incredibly blessed to be able to experience it.

Wednesday I slept in and had great plans to get everything ready for the baby. I did a little cleaning and sewed some Christmas gifts I had been meaning to get to. We were expecting to go in for an amniocentesis next week, but I got a call Wednesday morning that I had been scheduled to go in Friday morning at 8 AM. So an actual due date of December 27th, got moved to December 20th, then December 13th, now December 9th. We finished getting the house picked up and made arrangements with everyone we needed to.

Thursday, Jeff and I planned to take a trip to the Mesa temple, as it will probably be awhile until we can go again. Felicity left for school and we took Helen to Jan's and we headed up to the Phoenix area. As we pulled up there were not very many cars and scaffolding up the side of the building. We parked and got out (I had checked the schedule online to make sure they were open) and were met by a groundskeeper who asked if we were there to volunteer. Upon realizing we weren't exactly dressed for work, he let us know that the temple was closed until the 13th. We were so disappointed, supposedly they were suppose to announce in ward meetings that the temple was closed, but I guess I missed that memo. So we turned around and drove home. We spent the rest of the day getting our bags packed and the house ready. The baby's room isn't quite done, we still need to put up/paint the bees that are going on the wall, and Jeff hasn't finished the shelves yet...it will just have to wait.

I decided to give our special birthday its own post so as to not go on and on, so for the rest of the events for this week, check it out!

All I've Got to Do

Ok, this week seemed like a bit of a blur. I left work early on Tuesday to make it to my NST at TMC. That went well and I was home by 6. We had Family Home Evening after dinner and we talked about "stranger danger", which term never came up as it's an extremely poor way of teaching your children about safety. We talked about how our bodies are like the temple and how important it is to treat them right and how nobody else has the right to touch our bodies. I had the girls put bathing suits on over their clothes and we talked about the "bathing suit rule" (nobody should touch you where a bathing suit covers). They loved this physical demonstration and it was hard to get them out of their suits when home evening was over. It's important to teach our children about the Savior and other gospel essentials during home evening, but we also feel its a good time for other teaching moments as well. We talked about how the girls never have to be ashamed to tell us something and they never have to keep secrets from us. Most importantly, we taught them that even people they know have the potential to hurt them, that a bad person is not some villain they don't know. It was well received and I hope that it's information they'll never have to use.

I had a big day on Wednesday. I had an ultrasound to continue to monitor the baby's size. At 36 weeks and 1 day gestation, the baby weighs approximately 9 pounds, 2 ounces. For perspective an average baby at this gestational age weighs about 5.75 pounds. He is in the 100 percentile for weight and head circumference, he's of average length. After my ultra sound I had a consult with the obstetrical surgeon again and we discussed our options. She's concerned that if we wait to do the cesarean section at 39 weeks the baby could be over 11 pounds at which time I would be at an elevated risk for uterine tearing and damage at the time of delivery that could result in me having to have a hysterectomy. We decided the best course of action is to do an amniocentesis at 38 weeks (around December 13th) and if the baby's lungs are mature to do the c-section that day or within a couple days. I wish I could say I was excited to meet our little guy two weeks early, but it complicates things a little. Firstly, an amino test is a little frightening, although she reassured me that worse case scenario is that I would go into labor, which would be OK. Secondly, Jeff has finals that week at school and both the girls will still be in school. It also messes with when I was going to take my maternity leave. If we delivered at 39 weeks I was going to be able to PTO that week, then would come my two weeks of holiday pay and I wouldn't start my maternity leave until January 3rd with it ending eight weeks later. Now I have to take my PTO next week and start my maternity leave on December 12th. I will get eight weeks from the 12th which means I'll have to go back to work three weeks sooner than I had anticipated. On the plus side, while I love being pregnant, I have been very uncomfortable this pregnancy and it will be a bit of a relief to deliver, although recovering from a c-section isn't necessarily easy either.

Since our plans have been adjusted by a week I've been trying to get everything ready. Friday I had an NST in the morning, which lasted for almost two hours because the baby was not cooperating. Then I met my mom and grandma at the thrift. My mom and I then went shopping and I got a couple more gifts for Jeff and I got the girls some candy and small things for their stockings. I met Jeff and the girls back at my parent's house and we had dinner together and then my mom and I made six pounds of fudge, which was the last thing I wanted to make for my candy baskets. I was beat by the end of the day!

Saturday, it was cold and rainy, but Jeff hung our Christmas lights. He also worked on the shelves he's making for the baby's room. He didn't get them done because of the rain, but hopefully he'll find time this week. I decorated the gingerbread men and cut out cookies that I made a few weeks ago, and really enjoyed doing it. It was a task, but it was fun and I think they turned out pretty cute. Felicity and I cleaned the entry way while Jeff and Helen went to get a gift for Felicity from Helen. I really wanted to deep clean one room in the house per day until the baby comes. We took everything out of the closet and reorganized it, donated some shoes, and packed up some shoes that don't fit the girls anymore. We mopped inside the closet and cleaned the doors and baseboards. It looks great, even if the rest of the house is still a mess! Jeff and Helen came home shortly after we finished and Helen announced what she had gotten for Felicity, "guess what Felicity, I got you an Ariel doll". Oh, well!

We had stake conference this week and we showed up early so we could find a parking spot. I ended up not having to interpret as the young woman I interpret for wasn't there. It actually made for a pretty long meeting on an uncomfortable pew. I'm hoping to finish sewing the baby's blessing outfit this evening. I'm grateful I'll have some added time to get ready this week since I'm only working Monday and Tuesday. Time is just flying by, but I'm very excited for the Christmas season. We'll be getting our tree tomorrow and will decorate it for FHE, one of my favorite traditions.

Your Mother Should Know

What a fabulous week we had. It was a short work/school week and we really enjoyed one anothers company. The girls' both had Thanksgiving festivities at school. Jeff took Helen to the preschool on Tuesday for their "Thanksgiving Tasting", Helen had a blast and was so excited about eating turkey.

I started my NSTs (non-stress tests) this week on Tuesday morning. It basically consists of checking in at Labor and Deliver at TMC and having a quick ultrasound to measure the amount of fluid around the baby and then being hooked up to a heart rate monitor which records the baby's heart rate and movements and makes sure that the resting heart rate is within the normal range (a sign that baby is healthy and tolerating his environment) and that the heart rate accelerates during a movement. It didn't take too long and both times I went in this week the fluid was normal and the baby is very active and healthy. I worked from home on Wednesday which was nice and peaceful.

I received the remainder of the Christmas gifts I ordered online this week including the changing table for the baby. Jeff and Felicity put it together for me Wednesday evening, after which Helen and Felicity used the extra Styrofoam to have some sort of sword battle.

Thursday morning we picked up the house and I made cranberry relish (my favorite), a sweet potato pie, and a pecan pie. In the evening I made some garlic mashed potatoes and Jeff fried our turkey. We had my parents and my brother and his wife over at 5. Normally I enjoy making the whole meal, but this year Jeff was very insistent that I give up a little control. I admit I was grateful to not have to do it all myself, I was pretty tired and soar that evening from the little bit that I did do.

We enjoyed a restful Friday and did venture out briefly in the afternoon. I had a NST at TMC and we stopped at Target so that Felicity could pick out a gift for Helen as she was spending the day with Nana and Papa. Saturday was very productive and I'm starting to feel more ready for the baby; only three weeks and two days left! I made some stocking-stuffers for the girls from something I saw on Pinterest.com, a pair of ear warmers/headbands. Jeff took the girls to dinner at his brother's house. I had to stay home because we were babysitting Saturday evening, but they had a great time.

It seemed a little harder this year to be joyous as some events that brushed our lives made some of our gratitude a little more somber. There is a family in our stake, no one I know, nor did I even recognize the name, but there was some sort of household accident that left their 17 month old baby in a coma. We learned that he later was removed from life support and passed away. My heart just ached for this family and the tears came easily even though I don't know them. Thursday we learned of a tragic airplane accident that took the life of young man (along with five others, three of which were small children) who was close friends with Jeff's younger brother, a young man we had had in our home a few times. Again tears welled in my eyes and my heart felt heavy for what it must be like to loose someone dear, especially during the holidays. My gratitude this Thanksgiving was to my Heavenly Father for the knowledge that my family can be together forever, that if for some reason He were to call one of my children or my husband home, that I would be with them again. I am grateful for the great blessing and trust that has been given to me as I've experience the joys of motherhood. I have a great love for my family, for our extended family, and for our amazing friends. I am thankful this year for those things most of all.

I made the girls pilgrim hats for dress up this week. They were quite a hit!

One after 909

So tired! We had a nice week, busy as usual, but nice. Monday we took a walk in the Rancho Sahuarita park and the kids enjoyed throwing rocks in the water, antagonizing the ducks, and climbing on just about everything. It was cool, but very enjoyable. I didn't get very far before I was too tired and need to turn back.

I was feeling pretty exhausted on Wednesday so I took the day off. I ended up making gingerbread cookies and cleaning up a little bit while Jeff and the kids were at school. I have a to-do list of all the things that I want to accomplish before the baby comes and I'm making pretty good progress. Jeff volunteered in Felicity's classroom as he usually does on Thursday afternoon. I'm grateful he has the time since I can't. He is all registered for his Spring classes and it works out pretty well for us. I'm going to have to go into work really early, around 5 AM, but it limits the amount of time the baby will have to be with someone else. It looks like he'll need a sitter on Monday and Wednesday for about 5 hours. I need to get over my emotional block and find someone willing to watch him (we're not really comfortable with him going to a public daycare).

It was my off Friday, and busy as usual. I had a midwife appointment in the morning which went well. They did another blood draw since the consulting physician wants to do a hemoglobin screen to look at glucose levels over the last three months, they are still convinced that diabetes is the cause of the baby's extreme size. I have another ultrasound (our 5th I think) on the 30th to continue to monitor the baby's growth and they want me to start non-stress tests (NSTs) twice a week until I deliver. One at TMC, the other at the birth center. I'm hoping I can continue to juggle all this and work until December. After my appointment I met Jeff and my mom at the primary school for the kindergarten assembly. Felicity was receiving the Owl of the Month award (basically student of the month) and her teacher invited us to be there. She was very excited, we are very proud of her. Jeff and I had lunch with my mom after and then headed home to get some chores done.

While Jeff and I were cleaning up, Helen took her pre-school napper into the kitchen to play with it and ended up sound asleep on the floor. My children will sleep anywhere! We brought out all the infant toys and cleaned them up. We also got out the baby bath, swing, and some other things and cleaned the "garage storage" dirt and dust off of them. You would have thought it was Christmas seeing how excited Helen got about each "new" toy to be pulled from the container.

I made a birthday cake for my dear friend Jan's daughter this weekend and it didn't turn out quite the way I wanted it to, but the kids really liked it. She had a Dinosaur Train themed birthday party and the girls had a blast. They really enjoyed getting their faces painted and jumping on the trampoline.

After the party we stayed and helped clean up and then had pizza with the Bryson's. The kids played and we adults watched a movie while I finished up the blessing blanket I have been crocheting for the baby. He now has a blanket and booties to be blessed in, I have his outfit cut out, I just need to sew it. It's on my very long list! I did get to mark some other things off the list though. We bought some of the last necessities we needed this week including a changing table and diapers and wipes. It's the first time I've bought diapers for a new baby, with both girls we got so many at my baby shower that we didn't buy diapers for the first 6 months!

We had a lovely sabbath and enjoyed time together as a family. We even made some more Christmas cookies. I'm almost done with my Christmas baking, I think the fudge is the last thing I need to do, aside from decorating the cut out cookies and the gingerbread men.

We decided that we would host Thanksgiving here after all. I promised Jeff that I wouldn't try to do it all and only picked a few of the menu items to make and asked my family to bring the rest. We're looking forward to that, as well as a short work week! We hope everyone has a wonderful and happy Thanksgiving this week, I'm certainly grateful for my family, for all our great friends, and our extended family whom we love dearly.

I Will

So this week did not go the way it was suppose to! It's a big week for us, my birthday on Wednesday, our anniversary on Saturday, and Labor Day in between. Orignially we had planned to enjoy a weekend get away, just the two of us. A few years ago for our anniversary we stayed at a bed and breakfast in Snowflake, AZ and went to the Snowflake temple as part of our quest to do service in each of the temples in the United States. We had a wonderful time and wanted to repeat the experience, only this time planning to do a cabin in the Salt Lake valley. Alas, being so close to my due date and it being dangerous to go into labor, we were advised not to make such a long trip away from home. Ok, plan B. My parents were to take the girls Thursday night and all day Friday and we were going to go out to dinner and movie and then take a day trip to Mesa. Well, we ended up watching Gabrielle Thursday night so no dinner out, no movie. Friday morning I popped into work early in the morning to tie up a few loose ends. I was in charge of a catered lunch later in the afternoon and I was handing it off to a collegue who had agreed to take over for me. Yeah, so much for that, he called in sick and I had to stay and take care of the meeting. I got home around 2:30 which was too late in the afternoon to make it to Mesa. Jeff and I instead went to a matinee and then picked up the girls from my parents house. Oh, well! I hope to make it out to dinner and to the temple before the baby arrives.

Speaking of baby, as of Monday I have 20 work days left and only 5 weeks until the baby's big day. We are so excited, and not quite ready. The girls are excited as well. We had a very productive weekend and were able to accomplish a lot. I got the girls winter clothes out and packed up the summer things and clothes they have out grown. We finished the chair rail in the baby's room and cleaned up the house. I've made a lot of progress with Christmas preparations and baked pumpkin bread and cut out cookies. I also wrapped all the gifts I've bought so far.

On Monday we had a Family Home Evening lesson about the importance of families and after, we put the baby's crib together as a family. The girls had so much fun and were actually pretty helpful. We made the crib up too, although we'll have to take the bumpers and blankets out and wash them since the cat was under the impression that the crib was for him and everything is now covered in black cat hair!

Saturday I met one of my best friends in the world for lunch in Tucson. We hadn't spent time together in quite awhile and it was so nice to chat and catch up. Life just isn't complete without friends. Since friends came up, I have to mention that Saturday was the anniversary of the day I married my best friend. We have had probably the happiest year of marriage so far this year and I feel blessed to have him as my eternal companion.