Randoms - October 2011

 With the birth of Samuel we had a few visitors and lots of pictures taken.  After Samuel was born we went up to Austin to pick up Grandma since Grandpa was able to drive her down with a load.  The boys of course loved seeing the truck and getting to play in it.  While picking Grandma up Andrew of course was trying to be independent and get out of our car by himself and fell and hit his head on the ground.  He gets so many scrapes and bruises.

Oh how our family has grown.  I'm not quiet sure how I am going to be able to handle three boys.  Sometimes I wonder to myself, "What have I done!"
Benjamin and Andrew seem to really love having Samuel around.  They are constantly asking to hold him and kiss him and sometimes even fight over him.  It's actually ridiculous how once Ben asks to hold him that Andrew will starting screaming and shouting "NO, I want to hold him!" I wasn't really expecting them to fight over him.  However, I am glad that they both like him and aren't hurting him.

When Grandpa came to pick up Grandma he got to stay a few days.  We took them down to the Alamo since Grandpa had never been.  They boys enjoyed playing in the garden area and of course I saw it as the perfect place for pictures. 

The boys have been pretty good since Samuel has been born.  They are pretty good about keeping themselves occupied since Samuel is mostly eating, sleeping, and pooping.  One day I went to go see what they were doing and here is what I found:
Andrew is so funny.  He would follow Grandma around and play around her.  She was of course entertained by him and took lots of pictures.  Also, one night she went in to check on Ben and found his pajama bottoms around his head.  I wonder sometimes what he does when he goes to bed right before he falls asleep.
As always, with a new baby, lots of pictures were taken.  Samuel is such a sweet baby and we love having him.  I think since I decided not to breast feed I have been feeling a lot better and less tired.  He goes a little longer at night sleeping and Grandma also gets up sometimes to feed him.  It's going well so far. He also has so much hair that he really does look like his own person, instead of looking like Benjamin and Andrew.

Samuel's Blessing

Samuel was blessed on Saturday October 29th.  With the primary program happening on the last Sunday my mom was here and Van had come to pick her up we were able to bless Samuel at home.  We had a few of our friends come over as well.  He wore the same outfit as Benjamin and looked really handsome.  He looks so much different then the other boys just because of his hair.  He is such a good baby and we are so blessed and happy to have him in our family.

Samuel Eoin Wood

Samuel Eoin(pronounced Owen) Wood was born Ocotber 3, 2011 at 9:45 am. He wieghed in at 7lbs. 4oz. and was 20.5 inches long. He was also born with a lot of hair. None of my other babies have had this much hair, and it's really dark too. It took awhile to name him. It seems to get harder and harder. I'm not sure if it was divine revelation, but that Sunday night before he was born I was watching this show...5000 Day Project: Two Brothers. One of the boys name was Sam. I kept thinking in my head what a nice name and went to bed putting it on my list of names to strongly consider. It was narrowed down between Samuel and Daniel. As for the middle name, we have been keeping it a tradition naming our sons after Jon. Ben got his full first name. Andrew got Ian, a form of Jon. We didn't know of any other forms of Jon so Jon found a list. There were some really weird ones but it was Eoin, Ivan, or Evan. We really liked the way Eoin sounded, but didn't know if it would be too weird looking. I suggested spelling it Owen, but Jon said we needed to spell it the other way in order for it to count as a form of Jon. So there we have it, Eoin, plus how often do you really use your middle name. We are so happy to have him in our family. He came a little unexpected. He was due on the 10th, but decided to come a week earlier. It became a little hectic around here but we managed to survived. My mom was suppose to be arriving on the 6th, we thought it would be enough time to get her use to the schedule before the baby came along. About a week before Samuel was born I was getting into the nesting mood. I was doing a little cleaning around the house trying to get things ready, but since my body was so tired and I was unmotivated to do anything, I knew that most of it needed to wait until he was born. I was also getting the little things done like washing the car seat, the babies clothes, and a few other things that I would have waited until my mom had gotten here. One day I worked a little too much and was having contractions. I decided that I wouldn't do anything until my mom came because I didn't want to induce labor. I went to my doctor appointment on Sept. 30th. I was dialated to a 1 but she didn't think I would come early. I was also measuring a few weeks smaller and she thought I would have about a 6lb baby or he was just sitting really low. I also would have a few contractions throughout the day or evening and if I walked around for a little bit or went to bed for the night they would do away. So on the 2nd before I went to bed my contractions were a little stronger then normal. I headed to bed thinking that they would go away. I woke up an hour earlier with a strong contraction. Around 1:30am I woke up again and the contractions weren't going away. So I got up hoping that walking around would help. No, that seemed to make it worse. About 30 minutes later I knew that the contractions weren't going away so I started getting ready to go to the hospital. I had packed my suitcase the day before, so I did the last minute things, I got Ben's stuff ready for school, cleaned the kitchen, had a hot bath to help sooth the contractions, and then at 4 I woke up Jon cause I couldn't wait any longer. One of my old seminary students (Michelle Swanger) and previouslly offered to help out even if it was in the middle of the night. So I called her up and when she arrived Jon and I headed to the hospital. Once we got there I started to ask for my epideral, but they have rules and needed to ask you a list of questions to admitt you and blood work to do and then they call the anesthesiologist. But after being at the hospital for an hour and a half at 6:17 he walked into the door. And I was feeling comfortable by 6:30. We then started to call family to let them know we were in the hospital. When we arrived to the hospital I was at 4cm, they checked me again shortly after receiving the epideral and I was at 7cm. At 9:40 the doctor came in, checked me, I was ready, and 2 pushes later Samuel was born. He was all blue when he came out, but they reassured me that was normal. He cried and cried, but once he was under the warm light he calmed right down. Since Samuel came early Jon had to take time off work to stay home with Ben and Andrew. They are so happy to have him around and love holding him. I forgot how noisey our house is. After a few hours of peace and quiet whenever Andrew and Ben would come to visit it became very loud. My doctor had told me that I could go home early, but I asked to stay the full 48 hours since it was so quiet in the hospital. I am glad that I did because at 5 in the morning before we were to leave Samuel started to breath very rapidly. The nurse was weighing and measuring him when she noticed and kept him for observation. They called the pediatrician. I was GBS positive so they decided to due some tests. One of them came back positive, but they weren't sure if it was because of mine being GBS positive because he had just gotten his Hepatitis shot, or because of his circumcision. They decided to transfer him to the Children's Hospital downtown for observation and to give him antibiotics. I was handling it fine and then Jon told me the seriousness of it if it was because I was GBS positive and when they wheeled Samuel into my room in the transfer incubator with all the oxygen and monitors around I lost it. Thankfully he was only in the NICU for a few hours before they transferred him over to the Intermediate ICU. They kept him on room air until the morning he came home. And they also but him under the ultraviolet lights for his Jaundice. He was able to come home after 48 hours. Even though I knew it was going to fine, it didn't help that I just had a baby, my mom wasn't here and I was emotionally unstable. But it all worked out and we have him home now. He is a good baby so far. Very relaxed and carefree. I hope this is a sign of things to come.