Brigham's Birth

Here are some pictures of Baby Brigham at the Hospital.

Introducing: Brigham Michael

I'm finally posting some pics of Brigham. My sister got most the pics of the hospital experience, so I will post more of those when I get them from her. But for now, these are some cute pics from the first week of his life. He is a really good baby and we are so happy to have him in our home.
He was 9 lbs. 9.4 oz. & 21.5 in. long. And it was a typical "this is my fifth baby so it should be super easy....but then turns out to be your hardest yet" experience. I really wanted to try going without an epideral this time, just because I thought it would be neat to have that experience. And after the way Breanne, Eli, and Scott came, I knew that I could easily do it. But Brigham had other plans. First of all, I never went into labor on my own (which baffled me). And he was a big baby, so the longer we waited for me to go into labor on my own... the bigger he got. So I decided to go in for an induction on my "due date" (the 9th of Sept). I got to the hospital at 11:30, and was positive that I would have this baby before 5:00 that night. I got some pit, and was doing just fine (pain wise), got to a 4 1/2 and my doc broke my water.... thinking that this baby would slide right out like the rest of them.... but no..... I dialated to a 7 and my contractions got super hard!!!! Then after an hour, I was only an 8, and like a -2 station. He was just so far up there even with all the contractions. 2 miserable hours later...still an 8! But now he was finally low enough that the doc and the nurse thought he could be POSTERIOR! Which would explain why he was just coming right out like we had planned. By this time, I'm thinking that I need the epideral because this isn't going to over any time soon. I was grateful that my doctor made it my call, and was trying to respect my wishes to go naturally, but this was not what I had in mind when I said I wanted to go without the epideral. And thank heaven I was able to get the epideral within a couple more contractions, because I was dying. So then I got to "relax" a little and just let the contractions come for another 3 hours!!! Then I had to push for about 40 minutes to try to get him low enough that the doctor could finally go in with forcepts and turn him so I could push him out. He came at 12:11 a.m. so his birthday is the 10th of September. They had to suck fluid out of his lungs, but other than that, he is perfectly healthy! I was just grateful for the advancements in medicine that made what could have been a really bad situation into a non-life threatening one. I just don't know if I would have ever gone into labor on my own, or been able to push him out without the pain help. Maybe on the next one.... if I go into labor on my own, and it seems like everything is normal and healthy.... I will try again. I certainly know that I could do it (because I did it for more than 3 hours!) And then I will be able to see what the "afterwards" that everyone talks about feels like. We will see. But for now, just so grateful to get to bring home a healthy baby boy. I can hardly believe that he is our fifth! Time just flies. We are so grateful for all of our children! Life is good.























First bath (at home anyway).

Do you see that pregnancy ticker?

So I can't believe that my little prego ticker over there says 39 weeks and 6 days. I can't believe I will have made it to 40 weeks. But hopefully I wont be going over. I've caved and decided to go be induced. Maybe a little Pit will just get me going. I'm just shocked I haven't gone on my own yet. And I hope that this little one comes quickly once things do get going!

Next post should be of baby!

The "Ugly" House

We are re-siding the house, and getting new windows. So this is what the house looks like right now, and according to Breanne it is pretty ugly. But no worries, it wont look like this for long. And it should look fabulous once it is all done!

Just some cute shots I got, and thought I'd share.

Silly Breanne!

Cutie Scott Boy.

Back to School!

Yeah! It's that time again!


Here we are going to "back to school night" at the elementary school.








Josh, waving good bye and heading for his first day of second grade.






Josh.










Eli, who started preschool this year! He has a little bit of a hard time going, but once he is there, he loves it.












My little guy....is getting so big! And next year, he and Scott will be in the same class. That should be fun.













Breanne going to Kindergarten, which started a whole week after her brothers started school! She was so upset that she had to wait. She is so social, and was so excited for school to start! She will do great!













Here she is, waiting for the bell to ring and the teacher to come out. I thought it was awesome to see all the parents who were there sending their little ones off to big school.













And then I had to take a picture of my mostly empty minivan. It will have another occupant soon, but for that day, all I had left in the car was Scott. Luckily for him, Eli only goes Mon, Wed, Fri. And Breanne is around most the morning. Here he is watching a show. What a cutie. I can't believe how quickly time flies. It is amazing that Josh in already in 2nd grade. I remember sending him to preschool, and thinking of what a big deal that was. It will only be too soon that they are all teenagers. I'm so glad that they have each other. What special kids. I hope this year will be a good one for them!

The cast comes off.

After only four weeks of having a splint on.... it came off, and the pins that were in his bones were taken out. Boy.... Little ones heal fast! But at this time, the bone still had a miner fracture, so we had to be super careful with him. (No tramps, play grounds, or even nursery.) But he has endured it well. Two weeks later, he had another X-ray, and the bone was completely healed, but he still doesn't have total mobility with it yet. (Meaning that he can't quite put it all the way straight, but the doctor says that should be fine in another couple weeks. And he can put it more and more straight every day.) So the Broken Arm ("Bad, Bad, Owie" --as Scott says) is pretty much over. Thank heaven. He is so cute. You just hate to see your little guy having any problems. But he really was a trooper, and just so cute.



Here he is just before we went to the Doctors.

And here he is when we got back.

"Look how cute we are, you should take our picture!"

My kids seriously came up to me tonight asking me to take their picture. And when I asked why, they possed for me and said, "Look how cute we are, you should take our picture!" So I did. And yes...they are super cute. I should take their pictures more often!

Cast Buddies!

Grandpa Mortensen and Scott-- showing off their cast together! Scott (who broke his arm), and Grandpa (who had knee surgery). Luckily, both will recover quickly, and wont need to look like this for long! (But it makes for a super cute picture!)

Happy Birthday Julie!

My birthday this year wasn't exactly a "thrill a minute", but that was perfect! I just can't run around a lot right now. But the parties we had were a lot of fun, and I got to have Wingers Sticky Fingers and Papa John's Pizza that night for dinner! And I got lots of wonderful presents!!! Thank you everyone!!! I really like the things I got to hang on my walls...because they are beautiful, and because it motivated me to finally hang something on my walls. So now the house looks a little cozier, even though it is still under construction, and even though many of the picture frames are still empty. Oh well. But Jared did a great job shopping for me! I was very pleased with everything. Life is good! The best present is that I have such an awesome family!

WE FOUND TT!

This cute, but very LITTLE teddy bear has been missing for over a year! It was my teddy when I was young, then I gave it to Joshua a couple years ago who named it "T.T.", and LOVED it. It was his favorite! And I thought his name choice was cute and creative. So we were all super sad when it mysteriously disappeared last summer. We had family visiting, and in the chaos, I figured it got taken into a car, probably fell out somewhere, and was gone forever! But last night Jared found it in his closet, stuffed inside a sock! Now there is a place where mom would not have looked! (And I had looked in a lot of places!) So we are thrilled with his return! Hopefully T.T will not go missing again any time soon!