Thursday, January 30, 2014

Cody's Blessing and Austin's Bday

 Doesn't my mom look like she's in heaven?  So fun snuggling with Cody! Although he really does get heavy after a while on your chest. :)
 Austin's birthday is coming up so we celebrated early while G&G were here.  He picked out TMNT!
 Tyler blessed Cody on Sunday so my parents could be there for it(Just barely over a week old).  This outfit was given to us by one of Tyler's co-workers.  He looked adorable!
 Poor Cody was woken up from his nap to take the picture.  He wasn't too happy
 It's hard to smile normally for so long...(see A&B)
 Turning 4 on Sunday!

 Blake wanted to help blow out candles...
Making a wish!

Wednesday, January 29, 2014

Benbrook Half Marathon

 Tyler signed up for this Half a while back with some friends and I'm so grateful my parents were here so I didn't have to take Cody out in the freezing cold to watch Tyler cross the finish line. Let's be honest, I wouldn't have gone to watch if I didn't have help! :)
 Austin wanted to run with Tyler to the finish line and I thought it was the cutest thing ever!  Look at him trailing behind.
 And of course he is sooo proud of his medal!
Tyler got 3rd place in his age group and Spencer, in orange, got 1st place, in their age group, so it was a great way to end the race.
Tyler had a lot of fun with his Mohawk.  Makes him look like a wildman. haha

Monday, January 27, 2014

Cody's Birth Story


Picture on top: 40 Weeks and 9 days.  This is the last picture of me pregnant!  Boy I was huge!  Cody was born two days later.  11 days late.

Picture bottom: Trying to see if Cody really looks like he could have fit in there.  It didn't work too well!   I definitely needed a photographers help on this one.

 And now...Here's the story...

Tyler and I arrived at the Hospital at 6 pm on Wednesday, January 15, 2014 to begin the induction.  I decided to go with the balloon to be induced rather than start on Pitocin right away.  I slept with the balloon in all night at the hospital due to the sleeping pill they gave me, thank goodness and in the morning it came out and I was at a 5.  I still had not had any contractions and I decided to get an enema as well.  After that was done they started Pitocin.  By then it was 9am. They upped the Pitocin slowly since they knew I wanted to go natural.  This went on ALLL day.  We watched a movie, played some cards, I was off and on the birth ball all day with consistent contractions due to the Pitocin, but they weren’t too bad.  I was also able to eat breakfast, lunch, and dinner thankfully.   

They broke my water at some point later in the day after dinner and I had a TON of fluid.  I continued to gush for the next couple hours with every contraction and they started to get harder.  By 9 pm I was so tired of hard contractions.  They were harder than what I remembered them being with Blake when I was at a 7, so I had them check me and I was at a 6 or 7! I was so discouraged knowing how much farther I had to go.  So I said forget this give me the epidural.  I had the epidural put in and went numb right away and ended up numb up to my armpits...the anesthesiologist was very concerned I couldn’t feel her pinching my all the way up my rib cage.  All I could feel were my arms, shoulders, and neck.   I started having a hard time breathing and really had to concentrate to get the breaths in, and she took the epidural out right away.  It probably was only in for about 2 minutes total, if that.  It all happened so fast.  My blood pressure dropped very low and I was shaking from my waist up and I couldn’t get myself to stop.  I got an oxygen mask and meds to get my blood pressure up.  They had to put the blood pressure cuff around my leg because they couldn’t get a reading from my shaking arms and they were taking it about every 3 minutes.  Finally it leveled out and she said the epidural should wear off in an hour.  The baby monitors would also not register the baby since I was shaking so much so my midwife put an internal monitor on Cody’s head and she put another monitor (who knows where) to monitor my contractions so they could see how strong they were.  The decided to drop the Pitocin in half at this point to make sure it didn’t bother Cody until I was back to normal.  Through this entire process, Cody never got stressed which was a huge blessing!  I laid there and shook for 3 hours with thoughts of being paralyzed going through my head!  I know, I was a bit dramatic but this scared me a lot and I didn’t want them to take my oxygen mask away since I felt more secure with it on.  

3 hours later I started to get my feeling back little by little and it was such a relief to move my toes again.  I also started feeling contractions again but couldn't move my legs that well still. My nurse came in and said she would put the Pitocin back where it had been and start increasing from there.  This was probably somewhere around midnight.  I was still shaking a bit, but when I was contracting I was able to concentrate on breathing through and not shake.  That was an improvement!   I started to feel the contractions strong and hard again and asked them to check me.  I was at a 7 or 8. Ugh.  Not much progress that entire time I was numb.  As they continued to get harder all I could think was this is better than an epidural.  I was also insistent to Tyler that he just put his hand on my leg which helped me not shake so much.  They said I could get another epidural, but I was not going there again. So I really focused now and just breathed through the contractions and kept my legs as relaxed as I could. And really what got me through was not wanting the epidural.  I also just continued laboring on my side since I did not feel like getting out of bed.    

Finally, around 3am I was ready to push. I screamed bloody murder and he was out by 3:20am. I seriously was the crazy screaming lady at the top of my lungs.  It was so hard to push this big guy out. He was officially 9 lbs 15.4 oz...Which rounds up to 10 lbs in my book! He had the cord wrapped around his neck but my midwife was able to pull some slack and unwrap it. He wasn’t crying when he came out and they rushed him off pretty quick after the cord was cut. I asked if he was ok and my midwife just said, “Oh he's just a little stunned.”  She was a great calming influence.  He started crying not too long after. Relief! And he's been very healthy since. I delivered on my side which was awesome! I highly recommend it.  I didn't tear and only needed 2 stitches.  It’s been an awesome recovery and it may convince me have more kids.  During labor I specifically thought I am not doing this again.  My labors keep getting longer! But who knows. Time makes you forget. 



Friday, January 24, 2014

Welcoming Cody!

 Cody Spencer Hair was born Jan. 17, at 3:20am.  I went to the hospital on Jan. 15th at 6pm to begin induction...It was a long haul.  I will post my birth story soon! For now, here are some pictures of my 10 lbs., 22 in. baby giant. :)
 I always thought all my kids would just end up with red hair, but he came out with a full head of brown hair! I love all this hair!
 Austin and Blake came to visit! They were so excited to meet Cody.  They are the best big brothers.

 In my opinion,  I think he looks like a chunky version of Austin.  He has Austin's nose and mouth for sure.
 Doesn't Tyler look so young in this picture? 
 Ready to go home!  The boys were so glad to see us home! It was a long time away from them!  Thank you to everyone who helped us out while we were in the hospital.  We didn't get home until Sunday night and my parents didn't fly in until Saturday afternoon, so the boys were parentless for a few days!  They survived just fine. :)

Thursday, January 2, 2014

Happy New Years!

 We invited the Simmons over for some New Years fun with all of Tyler's family here.  We had way too many sweets, played some cards, and had New Years 2 hours early so the kids could go to bed!


 We sprayed silly string everywhere when we counted down thanks to Janelle and her family tradition! I loved it! and the kids loved it too.
 Then we got to clean it all up and throw silly string balls at each other!
Blake passed out before Chandler could finish reading him a book.  I wish I would have taken more pictures while everyone was here and we did get ONE family pictures of everyone together on New Years Eve so as soon as I get that one I'll post it.  It was so fun having everyone here!!!  They were all hoping I would have the baby before the New Year so they could meet him (and I was hoping too), but he was determined to stay in there.  Everyone was so helpful in cooking and cleaning and telling me to take a break and sit down or playing with the boys and it was definitely a vacation for me.

Christmas Vacation

 This is my belly at 38 weeks before everyone arrived
 Here's the belly at 39 weeks and 4 days...I think I ate too many cookies!
 Amanda got A & B these animals so every night she set them up doing something different so Austin and Blake got to come out first thing in the morning to see what the animals had been up to all night. Here they are eating the nativity!  haha.
 They also had fun with their Fruit Loops
 There was a lot of baseball played
 Blake has gotten so much better this week and has even started hitting the balls up on the roof!
 A lot of snuggling with Grandpa
 AND TONS AND TONS AND TONS of Disc golf.  And I mean tons!  Tyler's brothers and dad played at a different Disc Golf course every day they were here.  And not just a round of 18.  They played rounds of 36 on most days. 
And when they came home, they played in the backyard.  It was fun for the girls to hang out too and knit and crochet and watch chick flicks and go to the mall....and cook and cook and cook and bake and cook some more!  So much good food was made!

This picture cracks me up!  I looked out the window and saw Chris riding Blake's little bike.  I'm surprised he could fit in there!

Curious George Exhibit

 Grandma, Grandpa, and Amanda arrived!!!!!!!!!!!!  They got here an hour before church started the Sunday before Christmas and it was so fun to see the boys' excitement.  Austin was great and gave everyone good long hugs.  Blake was a bit more stand offish but chatted their heads off with random things going through his head.  I think that is his nervous habit. haha!
 We went to the Curious George Exhibit for the first time with G&G Hair and Amanda.  Blake and Austin both love Curious George and it had been a long time since we'd been to the museum.
 Playing some putt putt
 Building a magnet tower
 Making windmills with Grandma...or Grandma making them and Austin and Blake destroying them
Blake loved the animals in the cages
 Austin loved drawing with the rulers...I've got to remember that at home
 Turning the wheel so the blocks went up the conveyer belt
 The Grand Finale was meeting Curious George in person! This was the first time Blake has sat next to someone dressed up in costume lifesize!
 He even gave him a high five
Amanda and Blake on a simulated cattle drive
 This one spun you in circles and Austin stayed on for a long time just spinning!...
 Then he got a bit too dizzy and slowly fell over and couldn't get back up. It was hilarious!
The museum was a success!  And now we have a pass so we can go whenever we want for the next year!  This will be a great way to escape the heat in the summer.