Kaden's birth date 4.3.2018

I should have written this post a little bit sooner after Kaden's birth because I am suffering from serious mom-brain. I was forgetful before I had kids, but now I feel like my brain functions at about 50% capacity, ha ha.  I do remember the important stuff, so...

Kaden was due April 1st,  but was still sitting comfy in my uterus (which I was grateful for given it was Easter and April fools and we had a lot of family plans going on), so I chose to be induced on April 3rd.

Dan and I arrived at the hospital at 10 am, did the usually check-in/medical history questions then waited for my doctor to confirm with the nurses that it was okay to start the induction. I was dialated to a 2 when they started me on pitocin at noon, but I was having regular contractions all on my own, so they kept the pitocin pretty low the entire labor. My doctor broke my water around 2 pm.

I don't remember the exact timeline of how quickly my cervix changed and dialated, but I remember thinking that because it was my second kid my labor should have been progressing much faster than it was.  I felt like it spent an eternity in the hopsital before it was time to push!  In reality it was only about 7 hours. Dan and I passed the time playing cards and watching GSN.

I opted again for the epidural after experiencing some intense and painful contractions. Power to all you natural birthing mothers out there, but I was not about that life (give me all the modern medicine!!) I am extremely grateful I had the epidural because I ended up getting an episiotomy...more about that in a bit.

Kaden was not doing well each time I had a contraction, so the nurse put a contraction monitor up inside my uterus to get a more accurate reading of my contractions, and they flushed fluid back up there periodically to help him out. I wore an oxygen mask for the last few hours. At one point I was worried and panicking at the thought of something being wrong with my baby and needing an emergency c-section. All of the sudden our room filled with so many nurses and my doctor all fussing with me and discussing our baby's dropping heart rate.  My doctor checked me and said Kaden was higher than he'd like and I was not yet at a 10, but it was time to start pushing and get this baby out!  So, that's what I did.  I only pushed for 20 minutes, and part of that was because my doctor gave me a medilateral episiotomy to get Kaden out quickly.  It was something that I did not want or expect going in to labor, but because of the situation it was necessary.

Pushing was such a different experience this time, partly because of the added stress of knowing he was under stress, and partly because I couldn't help but FREAK out at the episiotomy (I'd heard way too many horror stories about them). Also, my doctor had made the comment right as I started pushing that "wow, this kid is a 'moose', you are going to have to push hard to get him out."

7:28 p.m. Kaden was born! I remember that final push and seeing the doctor pull him out and lay him on the table to cut his cord.  I remember thinking he was so beautiful and in awe of such a tiny, precious human. He had dark brown hair (which shocked me since Elise was bald!). His head was not cone shaped at all. He had a penis!  Ha ha, of course I knew he was a boy since 20 weeks pregnant, but it still took getting used to seeing baby boy parts for a while lol.

Because there was meconium in the amniotic fluid, they had to suction out his lungs before I could hold him.  This happened with Elise too, and I hated waiting!  I watched as the nurses did their jobs, suctioning, measuring, weighing him. In my mind I was thinking, "okay, can't we do this after I hold him?!!" But I waited patiently for them to finally hand me my sweet baby boy.  He weighed 8 pounds, 3 ounces and was 20 inches long.

Holding him for the first time against my chest was priceless. Looking into his sweet newborn eyes, listening to him breath against my chest, smelling his perfect newborn head... I finally understood what every one had been telling me for nine months...your heart grows with each child and you really do love your second child as much as your first.

The next best moment of the night was when Elise came to meet her new brother. I honestly didn't know how she would react. She was definitely a bit shocked and overwhelmed by everything, I think. She was very sweet with him though! She wanted to hold him and see him, but mostly she just wanted to curl up on my lap and cuddle me. I didn't mind one bit.

The next few days we spent in the hospital to recover before going home. Kaden was a little jaundicy the second night at the hosptial, so they kept him under the bili-lights all night except to breastfeed. He hated them, and screamed the entire time. He lost his voice from crying to hard, so of course, I cried a lot too! Thankfully, his levels were normal after that night and he didn't need to spend any more time under the bili-lights! Our stay was pretty great for being in a hospital. I seriously loved my nurses, and our family was so great to help out with Elise and bring her by for visits every day.

Picture time:

Kaden sharing how he felt about leaving his nice warm home in my uterus ;)

Last picture of that insanely large belly

First family picture

Dan's family came to visit right after Kaden was born. I only got a picture of grandma holding him though.

Elise holding her baby brother for the first time

Easter, 2018

Easter this year was a lot of fun. It was Elise's last Easter as an only child. The Easter bunny stopped by our house, leaving his footprints behind for Elise to follow and lead her to her hidden Easter basket. She loved following his trail of prints, finding eggs along the way (some filled with candy, and some of them were the eggs we had decorated the night before with Grandma Jensen), and eventually finding her basket filled with treats and toys! With each egg she found, her excitement grew, and when she found her basket she said, "I'm soooo excited!" She is at the funnest age when it comes to holidays!! Another cute thing she said as she was following the Easter Bunny's tracks was, "the Easter Bunny knows ME!" :) He sure does, lol.

She got a princess set with a crown, wand, bracelets, and earings a Branch Troll toy, a Barbie Kite, a "My Little Pony" toy, and some candy. She's a total girly-girl; could you tell?! ;)

This year Elise was old enough to really enjoy and get into Easter egg hunts, so we got our fill of them! By the end of Easter weekend, she'd collected more candy than she did on Halloween! 

The first egg hunt we went to was at Grandpa Twitchell's. His apartment complex hosted and a lot of kids showed up. Elise went with her cousins Will and Marzia, Amileah, and Harrison. She wasn't quite fast enough, and the "big" kids always ended up scooping the eggs up right before she did! She scored 4 eggs lol!!  The next morning we went to the Payson City egg hunt. They broke it down by age, so she was able to get A LOT more eggs (read: lots more candy for mom and dad)! Finally, we had an Easter egg hunt at Grandma Jensen's on Easter day.  Elise and her cousing Brenley hunted TONS of eggs hidden around the yard. There were even Easter eggs for the couples to find too! How thoughtful of the Easter bunny ;)

The Easter bunny also visited Grandma Jensen's house and left behind a second Easter basket for Elise and Brenley, filled with toys and goodies. Spoiled, right?!

Pictures of the fun weekend:

Easter bunny gifts:

Payson City Egg Hunt:

Egg hunt at Grandma's:

PS-today was my due date...still pregnant lol.

Baby Number 2!

I am due in two weeks exactly...so I guess I should write at least one blog post about my second pregnancy!

So I don't forget, I want to share an experience that happened before I got pregnant. 

It was summer of last year, around June 2017. I was teaching swim lessons at the Francom's pool. It was a normal day with my normal class. I was watching some of the kids swim from one end of the pool to the next and happened to glance up at the parents who were there to watch. One lady was holding a little baby boy in her lap. At that moment, I was instantly overcome with emotion and a strong feeling that my little baby was waiting to come down and be a part of my family.  I honestly started to tear up; thank goodness I had sunglasses on and was able to compose myself quickly!

That afternoon, I went home and shared the experience with Dan. I tried for a few days to convince myself that it was hormones and that another baby was not what I wanted right now. See, prior to this, we were on the fence of even having another child. We loved Elise with all our hearts, but we never really considered having more kids. I knew now that we were meant to have another baby, but as Dan and I talked, we both felt that we wanted to wait until the new year to start trying. We discussed enjoying the rest of our summer and then enjoying the holidays without me being pregnant...

Well...someone else had other plans!  I found out two weeks later, after that spiritual experience, that I was pregnant. Dun, dun, dun. I was a little shocked considering Dan and I hadn't "tried" to get pregnant.

I wish I had done better at documenting this pregnancy. To quickly recap:

The first trimester was brutal. I was so sick from about six weeks to sixteen weeks. I experienced morning sickness with Elise too, but not at this level. It was miserable, and it left me feeling ambivalent about being pregnant. I couldn't get excited about it, which left me feeling very guilty and already as though I was failing as a mother before the kid was even born. Not to mention, I went from being the most involved,  "hands on" mother to Elise, to a couch potato. She watched a lot of TV for those few months and didn't get the attention from me she was used to. I felt so much guilt for my lack of activity and energy with her. It was rough physically, but I was rough on myself emotionally, which made things worse.

My second trimester was better. The morning sickness went away, but the fatigue I have felt this pregnancy lingered. With Elise I was working full time throughout my whole pregnancy, so I think that helped distract me from the fatigue. Not to mention raising a toddler can be exhausting.  This trimester seemed to last a lifetime. But it was also an exciting trimester! We found out baby was a BOY!

My third trimester has been pretty smooth. I still dealt with the fatigue, but I think I got used to feeling so tired all the time. I have been blessed to have a very smooth pregnancy (knock on wood) and have not had any complications whatsoever. My doctor joked that he should give me some of his fee back since it's been so easy!  From what we know, this little guy is happy and healthy which is the best feeling of all. We tentatively decided on a name this trimester. Boy was that a tough process! We are 97% sure his name will be Kaden Daniel Jensen.  We also got his nursery all put together, had some awesome baby showers thrown by family and friends, and now we just get to wait out the last few weeks in anticipation!

I had my first cervical check a few days ago at 37.5 weeks, and I was at a 1 cm and 60% effaced. My doctor told me this baby will likely go over my due date as well. Elise was a week overdue, and I was induced, so I wasn't too surprised. Honestly, I am hoping he stays in there until after my due date, which is April 1st; it happens to be Easter this year, and I want Elise to be able to enjoy Easter and not be in the hospital. There are also many dates the last week in March that I really don't want the baby born on. My brother and nephew are coming to visit from California for the first time in four years, and I don't want to be in the hospital for that either. So, if he is content to hang out in my womb until after my due date, it's fine by me! Just not too long after. ha ha....

I didn't document my pregnancy selfies as religiously as I did with Elise either. I felt sick, tired, huge, and I honestly thought to myself, "I never look back on all the belly selfies I took with Elise, so why take them this time?"  In my third trimester I have tried to do better. Here are a few I did take.

16 weeks. The first bump pic I snapped 

21 weeks

28 weeks

31 weeks

36 weeks. Elise posing with her belly out too like mom's ;)

37 weeks

Now that I am so close to the end and so close to finally holding my sweet baby boy in my arms, I can say the excitement is hitting me!  The feelings of self doubt and failing as a mother are pretty much gone. I am feeling more confident to be a mother of two!! Here's to hoping the next couple weeks pass quickly!