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.