Miles Carter Rasmussen

 

 

It is very surreal to be sitting here, on Memorial Day, MY DUE DATE and I am blogging about the birth of my 2 week old :)  While I had an inkling I wouldn't make it to my due date, I also wasn't holding out for it because I knew that could end up a road of disappointment, lol!  I always enjoy remembering the little details of the birth of my children, so I need to make sure I write that down in Miles' journal.  But for now, I will give a pretty good detail of it for the blog. 

Nolan was up sick all night, throwing up the day before Mother's Day.  Then on the actual morning of Mother's Day, May 12, he was totally fine!  Weird?  Yes, I thought so.  I figured he must have either ate something bad or been dehydrated or something.  But our thoughts on that were short-lived.  The next morning, Monday, Matt called me from work and needed to come home, he had what Nolan had.  I felt fine then, but just as we were driving home from Matt's work, I started feeling sick, too.  We both made it home in time to hit the toilets, bleh!  A few hours later, Woodside called and Reagan had thrown up at school.  3 down for the count!  This was it for us the rest of the day, as we all took turns barfing and then resting.  Reagan had no clue how to make it to the toilet and so I had a few accidents to clean up as well.  By the end of the day, we had a laundry room full of gross smelling linens and clothing and I was completely dehydrated.  I could not keep a thing down, even little sips of water.  I was also having lots of contractions, strong enough to be something, but not really sure if it was the real thing.  I called labor and delivery and they assured me it was probably due to dehydration and that I should stay home and drink something and rest.  The contractions continued and at 10pm I called my friend Nanci and within minutes, she was over to our house to stay with the kids while we went in. 

I checked into triage, where I was assured that after a couple hours of fluids to hydrate me, the contractions would stop and I could go home.  Poor Matt was so uncomfortable in that little chair next to my bed that he went into the waiting room and slept there for a bit.  Two hours went by and as they were about to send us home, they decided to check my cervix and found I had dilated from a 3 to a 5 in those 2 hours.  I was admitted to labor and delivery where I was told AGAIN that I would only be here overnight with more fluids to stop contractions, then I could go home.  By then, I really did just want to go home.  That was a long night.  It is uncomfortable sleeping in my own COMFY bed at home while 9 months pregnant.  But the labor and delivery beds are possibly the worst sleeping experience ever while pregnant.  Add in the monitors strapped to me belly, the IV in my wrist and YEAAAHH, it SUCKED!  I did not get a wink of sleep!  I was pretty grumpy when the midwife walked in the next morning at 7am and said that my contractions had stopped overnight.  All I could think was, "Ugghh, I just went through all this and no baby!"  But then she said that the baby's heartrate had done some jumping throughout the night and that they thought it would be best to not send me home after that.  So they were going to start my labor.  Hallelujah!  I did not inform her that I kept pulling the monitor off so that I could get more comfortable throughout the night and that was the jumping around she saw.  No, I kept that info to myself.

Ironically, around this time, my contractions started up again.  And this time they were real.  So in my defense, I am pretty sure we would have turned around that day and checked right back into labor and delivery.  About an hour later, I was ready to go and the Pitocin drip was started.  By then, my contractions were about 15 minutes apart, but were very strong and hurt so bad.  I really did forget how much they hurt, holy cow.  I made it to 6 cm before I asked for my epidural.  Once that was in, it was easy peasy :)

 While the labor part seemed to drag on for a while, the delivery was quick.  I pushed just a few times and he was here at 1:08pm.  He was sucking his thumbs almost instantly, that little guy :)  We named him Miles Carter.  We love the name Miles and Carter was just another name we liked, too. 

 His resemblance to everyone in our family was apparent early on.  He looks just like Reagan asleep.  When his eyes are wide open, he looks exactly like Nolan.  From the side, his eyes are totally Matt.  And I guess somewhere in there is me, too :)

 Reagan and Nolan came to visit the next evening and they were both smitten.  They absolutely adore Miles.  I expected that of Reagan, but Nolan surprised us all.  While we still need to teach some safety issues, they both are always hands on to help me out with anything.  Reagan has been a huge help in cleaning up the kitchen when I need it.  Nolan is the first to get me a diaper, a binky, or my purple tube (lanolin).

We came home about 24 hours after he was born, on Wednesday afternoon.  We had meals brought to us all week, which was so nice.  Matt was home to take care of the kids.  Miles is a great eater and prefers to eat every 2-3 hours around the clock.  I am tired!  I also dealt with some painful nursing issues the first week, which resulted in me pumping for a couple of days.  We are getting adjusted though.  And I am getting quite a bit of laughs and smiles in, as I have watched nearly every episode of Duck Dynasty and also the 5 hour Pride and Prejudice.  It's been an A&E sponsored recovery.

Much love to you all and I will try to keep this updated with more.

 

May is upon us...finally!

I have been waiting for this month for the last, oh....7 months I think!!  It is finally almost MAY!!!  Baby boy will be here this month--well, he better be or I am going to seriously bust a cap.

Our flowers around the house are blooming away and so we took some pics of the ones in the front yard with the kids in their Sunday best.  I love the petunias, they remind me of my mom :)  She has petunias in her front and back.  And I love the red, white and purple ones, so patriotic :):)

 36 weeks, baby!!!  The countdown begins...

Spring Break Fun

We had some fun times with friends the week of spring break.  We visited the Lawrence Hall of Science in Berkeley.  This was a very hands on place, perfect for my kids.  They built towers and homes from sticks, petted random animals and had a lunch overlooking Oakland.

Nolan has asked to go back here since we went a month ago.  It looks like we may make a return trip this summer.

We also tried something new...rollerskating!  There is a rink in Antioch and it is totally old school and reminds me so much of my middle school days when we went to the roller rink.  The thing is....I don't remember skating being this DIFFICULT???  My goodness, my kids looked like newborn giraffes, all legs going every which way.  Well, Nolan had the baby ones, so he was good, but Reagan was in tears the first 45 minutes before finally stepping up and showing improvement :) 

The jury is still out on whether we will head back here this summer, lol.

Our last place was Fairyland in Oakland.  They watched a puppet show, slid down a grassy hill on cardboard surfboards, rode a few rides and played on a pirate ship.  Super fun!

Random Easter fun

Although we never eat them, what is Easter without dyeing eggs?

I recently read an article somewhere that talked about how moms are totally getting out of control with the holidays.  Like, growing up, we did all the fun stuff for the holidays, but not over the top.  St. Patty's Day is a classic example.  Growing up, we wore green and tried not to get pinched.  It was a blast!  Now I feel expected to feed my children 3 fun meals, all green colored.  They try to trap the leprechaun, thus making a ginormous state of the art leprechaun trap.  They get candy galore (as if Easter and Valentines isn't enough).  This year Reagan BEGGED to make a leprechaun trap, so I obliged and let her.  They did enjoy it and the leprechaun left them some fun notes he found on pinterest and some gold coins.  It was too much work.  We skipped April Fools altogether.  I am boycotting this whole "over the top" mom thing.

 

Nolan has enjoyed some change in his life.  In addition to always trying to sneak croutons at dinner (this kids LOVES them!) he got a brand new BIG boy bed.  Now, if you ask him, he ALWAYS had a big boy bed, but since baby brother needs the crib (which Nolan has been sleeping in, daybed-style), we bought him a new mattress and set it up.  I love his new room and so does he.



 What is that, you ask?  Why, that is a yellow pleated bedskirt.  And yes, it is girly.  Please don't tell him, he doesn't know the difference:)  I couldn't bring myself to buy a brand new bedskirt.

Our neighborhood pool hosted their annual Easter Egg Hunt.  The kids scored too much candy and I honestly thought, does the Easter bunny really need to visit again tomorrow?  They had a blast with friends, hunting for eggs and planting seeds.  And in Reagan's case, she got to hide some and found them, too.  She must have buried a bunch in one corner, because I spied her all by herself in said corner, loading up towards the end of the hunt.  Smart girl.

 This pic makes me laugh because Reagan *still* has no idea that the Easter Bunny was her seaponies coach from last year, lol.

Stake Conference

Back in March, we had stake conference up on Oakland's Temple Hill.  We do this twice a year and we almost always have beautiful weather!  We like to take advantage and stay afterwards to enjoy the scenery, the Spirit and have a picnic lunch. 

 This year was no exception, it was magnificent with all the flowers and such.  I don't think I have ever seen so many daffodils!!

 We took a walk up on the terrace around the temple and had a nice view of Oakland, the San Francisco Bay and even San Francisco beyond. 

 While up there, Reagan FINALLY lost this dang tooth!

 We were so blessed to have friends to hang out with, especially the Edwards visiting from Utah. 

Random pic of Nolan, sporting his rocket backpack from preschool.  He asked me the other day if he could go to preschool forever?  With sadness I thought, I wish!!  You are at a fun stage, buddy.

Spring has Sprung

We have been blessed with a beautiful couple of months here.  The sun is shining almost everyday and spring felt like it arrived awfully early.  Some of my favorite pics of the kids are just simple outdoor shots of them enjoying the sunshine. 

 Below are some pics of the kids dressed in their Sunday best, just before heading to church.  They were wearing the new clothes I had saved for Easter, but when it was beautiful and 70 degrees in February, I couldn't resist pulling them out!

 Reagan has become a champion on the monkey bars and has the callused, blistered palms to prove it.  This is all she wants to do for recess, yet complains about how much it hurts :)  She finally mastered riding her bike and loves to go ride around the sidewalks and down at the school.

 

 

 Nolan is obsessed with Spiderman and wore his new mask all day one day.  He does make a pretty good Spiderman impression.  One day, I found him sitting on the toilet doing his business, but his legs were pulled in and his feet were bottom-to-bottom.  He said to me, "mom, look I am just like Spiderman!"

 His first day of preschool was in February.  He had a hard time the first week, but now LOVES it!  His favorite thing to do when he gets home, is to surprise me with all his art from that day (and seriously some days, there are like 8 projects!)

I am going to leave this post with some pregnancy thoughts.  I hardly blogged or have taken any pictures about it, but my thoughts are on this baby all the time.  I don't take this for granted, despite how much I complain.  My face is chunky, my thighs rub together and I feel pretty dang ginormous.  But I remember what it felt like when I thought I would never experience this again and I know that it is all worth it.  Despite it being my 3rd and you would think that I would be oh so relaxed, it is the opposite.  I find myself so concerned all the time that all is well.  I have no shame in admitting that I have already checked myself TWICE into labor and delivery after not feeling baby movement for a while.  I think all the time about my family and friends who want a baby so bad, but it just isn't happening.   I know what it is like to have your own timetable and not have it coincide with the Lord's timetable.  It is very frustrating.  Not a day goes by that I don't think and pray for these loved ones.  Every kick to my bladder and sharp push to my ribs I answer with a smile because I know what a lovely blessing this is.  I think all the time about whether the baby is healthy or not.  So far, it all seems good, but sometimes you just don't know until that baby is here.  And then beyond, watching them grow and praying they reach each milestone.  I have been blessed with some good friends who are expecting babies around the same time as me.  I have watched 2 of them welcome babies to earth, only to have to say goodbye just as quickly.  One delivered her son at 20 weeks, just too early to be able to breathe on his own.  My heart ached for her and her family and also for the fact that this is her 4th baby--4th son--born just a bit too early.  Just last week our other friends welcomed their son and were able to spend almost 5 days with him, before he left his earthly life due to complications.  My heart is full.  I find it hard to believe that such good people have to face such difficult trials, but I know that we are never alone.  That knowledge is such a blessing, even though it leaves me feeling so vulnerable. 

And since you listened to my stories and sat through all the photos of my kids, here is your reward: a very rare picture of me pregnant.  This was taken this past week, at 30 weeks pregnant and I was also super sick with a cold/cough.  So basically I can't look much worse.  Love to you all!