Baby Bridget is here!

On Friday, August 19 our sweet little Bridget Elayne Jorgensen was born. She came into the world at 1:37 pm, just in time for us to get some lunch! She weighed 7 pounds 14.5 ounces, making her our biggest baby. She was 20.5 inches long and has very dark, almost black, hair. She’s gorgeous and mellow and we love her to death. Birth story: I asked my doctor if I could be induced with Bridget, since I have a history of very quick labors. And let’s face it, I’m not very big into surprises. I’d much rather have a calm, planned delivery than a middle-of-the-night, what-on-earth-am-I-supposed-to-do-with-my-other-three-children delivery. It also made it very easy for Connie to book tickets to come and help us out. I had had three other uneventful inductions and I was already dilated at my 37 week appointment, so my doctor didn’t have any problem with inducing me at 39ish weeks. I was told to be at the hospital at 6am on Friday morning. Of course I didn’t really get any sleep the night before, so having to get up at 4:45 was pretty painful. Not surprisingly, getting things set up at the hospital took forever. For some reason they didn’t have any of my records (no explanation was given for why this was the case), so they had to draw my blood and do my blood work before they could get the pitocin started. It was well after 8 before they got everything sorted (why was I there at 6??) and past 9 before labor began. As soon as contractions were regular, but not very painful, I asked for my epidural. When the nurse asked me what my pain level was, I was sure to tell her that I wasn’t interested in being in severe pain before I had anesthesia. Why would I go through more pain than necessary? I have nothing to prove to myself. I did it naturally (not intentionally, of course) with Paul, and I can say very confidently that I MUCH prefer the epidural. No pain = good. The epidural was administered without any issues. Apparently I have the perfect spine for administering epidurals. I’ve been told this now by 2 anesthesiologists. After everything was good and numb, it was getting close to lunch time and I was dilated to 5 cm. We were just waiting for the doctor to come in and break my water. I told Aaron that since nothing was happening at the moment, he ought to go and get some lunch. Bad idea. My family knows that sending Dad out to lunch because “nothing is happening” means that SOMETHING is going to happen. With my mom, it meant that Kiera was born without anyone in the family there, including my dad. For me, it was slightly less dramatic, but dramatic nonetheless. After Aaron left, the nurse left as well, leaving me all along in the room. I was happily watching HGTV (yay for cable!) when I had an itch on my shoulder. I reached over to scratch it, and when I pulled my hand away, one of the many lines coming off me caught and I disconnected my epidural line from the IV. This is a bad thing. I knew that the nurses needed to see to it right away, so I reached for the call button. But there was no call button. I searched everywhere for the remote, but I couldn’t find it. And of course I couldn’t get off the bed to look for it, because the bottom half of my body was completely useless. At this point, I must have been panicking, because the alarm for my heart rate started going off. The nurses have no way of hearing the mother’s monitors, just the baby’s, so not only was I freaking out with an open epidural line, but the alarm was going incessantly and driving me crazy. I tried to call Aaron several times, but there was no answer. He eventually saw that I had called multiple times, so he came back as quickly as he could. Apparently at some time during the administration of the epidural someone had place the remote with the call button on a shelf behind me and above my head, several feet out of my reach. Aaron paged the nurses, and one came in to inform me that yes, that was my epidural line and the whole thing had to come out. Um, no. That’s not what I wanted to hear. However, after I was told that the open line could introduce an infection into my spine if it was reconnected, I thought that perhaps they were right and that shouldn’t be risked. The nurse anesthetist came in right away, and they sat me up to remove the old epidural and put in a new one. Bad idea. From the way they explained it to me, when you have an epidural, most of your blood flow is in your feet and legs, which is why you have to lay down the whole time you have an epidural. When they sat me up, my heart rate and blood pressure plummeted. It was strange how immediately I felt “wrong.” I had had blood pressure issues after an eipdural before, but this was completely different. The nurses had to stop putting in the epidural because they were holding me upright since I was on the verge of passing out. They administered extra oxygen for the baby and had to give me three shots of epinephrine to speed up my heart rate and prevent cardiac arrest. Fortunately, I have that perfect spine, so they were able to get the epidural in very quickly and get me lying back down. Within 15 minutes I felt completely fine and they were able to turn the pitocin back on. After they were sure everything was stable and that there were going to be no issues, the doctor came in to break my water. She told me that she expected to be seeing me in two to three hours. Aaron and I just looked at each other and smirked. I had heard that one before. No one seemed to really believe me when I told them that my labor went QUICKLY after my water was broken. Sure enough, I progressed from a 5 to a 9 in about 15 minutes. After they got everything set up, I gave a few good pushes and out she came. She was big, beautiful, and purple (which was such a shock when I had my first baby). Every time I have a baby I’m amazed that a child that large fit inside of me. She must have been so uncomfortable! Her head was a bit bruised from her fast entry into the world, but other than that, she was completely perfect. Every time we have a baby I’m so amazed at how beautiful and perfect they are. Every detail is there, from the wrinkles on her fingers to nearly invisible lashes. Katie, Paul, and Averi have reacted so well to having Bridget around. Katie is our little mother, and loves to be useful. She always wants to help pick out her clothes and is the first to inform me if she’s crying. Paul adores babies. He is always running in to have a peek at her and is constantly asking to hold her. He has such a tender spot when it comes to littler ones. Averi isn’t quite sure what to think of her, but she’s warming up. It’s always been her personality to stand back and observe until she’s completely comfortable. When they came to the hospital to visit, she asked to hold Bridget. I sat her down in the chair and put the baby in her arms, then I turned to go get my camera. Immediately she started panicking. “Mom, I’m done. I’m done, Mom. Mom! Mom, I’m done!” I told her, “Averi, I haven’t even turned the camera on. Please just wait until I can get a picture.” She sat still long enough for me to get one good picture, and then she was out of there as fast as I could take the baby. Now, however, she frequently asks if she can hold her, even if it is just for a minute. She’s always sighing about how adorable she is, and she loves to kiss her little wrinkled feet. Bridget really has been a dreamy baby so far. She’s been a champion nurser, which is such a welcome change after Averi and Paul. She got the hang of things right away, and we haven’t had any issues with eating. She finally coming out of that newborn stupor, but she’s still extremely calm and not fussy at all. Aaron’s mom was here for a week to watch the kids and help us out, and I’ve loved being able to just sit and cuddle with Bridget. I really love this newborn phase. Even though the sleepless nights get hard, infants are just such a joy to have around. When I look at her, I think, “I could have a dozen babies!” I have to remind myself that they do grow up, and that’s the hard part. I’m telling myself that I’m just going to enjoy this stage and savor it, since it passes by so quickly. That’s something that does not come naturally to me. I always find myself looking for the next milestone, the next big thing. Having a new baby is such a good reminder to take things slowly and really live in the moment.

The mermaid bash (and a minor tragedy)

I am insane.  Really.  Not only did I agree to throw a mermaid birthday party for Katie one week before I’m about to give birth, but I decided that I would sew tails for all the girls.  And I decided not to go the “no-sew tail” route (which would have been perfectly fine).  Nope.  I had to make them ultra cute.  And they were.  But I was a mad woman sewing all week.  My house looks like a glitter bomb has gone off.  I’ve had to shower every night before bed so that we weren’t sleeping in a bed of glitter (which sounds romantic, but isn’t really).  However, I completed the tails in time to watch Project Runway with my friends on Thursday night, which was the goal.  I didn’t get a tail sewn for Averi, but I convinced her that she would be just fine wearing the mermaid costume that we already own.  And so, without further ado, here are the mermaid tails:   Awww!!  Such cute girls!  When Averi saw that I had taken the tail picture without her in it, she was devastated.  She had to run in and get her skirt on so that she could take a picture just like the girls.   It’s supposed to be a skirt, but she wears it hiked up to her chest so that she doesn’t trip over it, since it’s way too big. And she needed someone to put an arm around her, so big brother (and tail-less) Paul was happy to oblige.  We started the party off by making mermaids out of round clothespins.  I think the girls had a great time with this fun little craft, and it was quite simple to do.     Here’s Paul’s very un-girly merman.  He decided against the red hair and went to town with the manly blue marker. Here’s the food table mostly complete; we were just missing the octodogs and the blue jello, since we didn’t want them to get ruined in the sun.   Cupcakes.  I cheated and ordered the cupcakes from Wal-Mart and just decorated them at home.  For six bucks, there was no way I was going to make them myself.  We hung net under the pergola and filled them with balloons.  It looked quite cute until the wind picked up and popped about 30 of them on the grass.  But fortunately the wind stayed pretty calm for most of the party. Even though I planned most things quite well, I forgot birthday candles for the birthday girl.  I was sure we would have a 6 on hand, but no.  We had 1-5 and 7, but no six.  So we made do with a 5 and a 1, since they equal 6 (even though it looks like she’s turning 51). Loving the Kool-Aid Coolers.  It’s a throwback to my childhood.  I’ve never bought them for my kids before, so they were ecstatic.  I love how Paul’s managed to spill all over his chest.  Do you know how small the holes in those bottles are?  He had to have worked at making such a mess. My beautiful (almost) six-year-old! A very hot Averi.  It was probably close to 100 that day.  Perfect for running through the sprinklers, but very, very warm. And thus our tragic tale begins.  Let me introduce you to Max: Katie has been asking for a fish for a while.  After asking around, I found that bettas had a pretty good reputation for being indestructible.  And we needed indestructible.  We have a long history of dead fish in my family.  So since the party theme was mermaids, I thought that the fish would make a great present and would also look adorable on the food table as a decoration.  Two birds (err…fish) with one stone! I ran out that morning (Friday) at about 10 and bought the fish.  Katie loved her fish.  She named it Max and all the girls were constantly running over to check on the fish.  At the end of the party, one of the moms came over to check everything out, and we stopped to look at the fish.  That’s when we noticed that the fish was floating.  Upside down.  Poor Max was a goner.  He was in a glass bowl, outside, for 2 1/2 hours, on a 100 degree day.  He cooked to death.  The water inside the bowl was so hot that there was no way he could have possibly survived.  I had Aaron whisk the bowl into the garage to keep it hidden so that we didn’t have any tears during the party.  As soon as the guests left, Katie ran inside asking where her fish was.  “Oh, we had to take him inside because he was getting too hot.” (Was he ever!)  “Yes, but WHERE is he?”  “Ummm…don’t you think you should take your presents upstairs?”  So after coming up with one lame diversion after another, I finally managed to slip out of the house and run to Wal-Mart.  Fortunately they had several blue bettas on hand, so I grabbed one and ran home.  We pulled off the switcheroo while the kids were all upstairs resting, and no one is any wiser. I feel terrible, but it’s completely hilarious at the same time.  What kind of person am I?  I manage to kill an indestructible fish in less than three hours.  At my daughter’s party.  I boiled her fish.  I’m sure if there are any animal rights activists reading my blog, they’re howling and demanding that I see justice.  But it was perfectly innocent!  I really did not think at all about the implications of having a live fish in a glass bowl outside in 100 degree heat.  He’s in water, right?  Water makes you cool, doesn’t it?  Poor Maxy.  When Katie woke up from her nap, she informed me that she had thought of an even better name for her fish.  He’s now Mikey.  Appropriate that he has a new name, since it’s a completely different fish.  I’ll tell her when she’s old enough to see the humor in it.  Like when she’s 15. Averi’s post-cupcake face After lunch we had a relay race.  The girls had to fill up their bucket with as much water as they could before time ran out.  The trick was that they had to use a sand shovel.   It was so funny to see their different personalities shine during this game.  Some of the girls were SO competitive!  And others could have cared less who won.  After the game we opened presents.  Katie loved every single one of the gifts she got. Katie’s reading so well now.  She loves reading, and she’s at the point where she can read most things to herself.  Such a big girl!   After presents we got out the sprinkler for them to play in.  Would you believe that in August I could only find ONE fun sprinkler after going to several stores?  Come on, people.  It’s still summer!  It’s HOT!!  Do we really need coats and Christmas trees out?  We then introduced the kids to Red Rover.  I have to say, I now understand why this game was banned at our elementary school.  Paul got clothes-lined, and there were several near incidents.  I’m just glad that we sent everyone home without them needing trips to urgent care. We wrapped up the party with a dance competition.  This was ADORABLE!!  You should have seen them all singing and belting out “Dynamite.”  I loved it.  We’ve got it recorded, and it’s quite hilarious.  Overall, it went really, really well.  I felt especially good when I heard one guest say, “I think this might be even better than my party, and I had a pinata!”  Seal of approval from a six-year-old.  I’ll take it.