Captions From Caryn and Cade

Sunday, October 11, 2015

We Got Our Girl!!

As most people know we've really wanted to have a little girl. We were super excited when we found out we were expecting one. Of course there was always a little fear that the ultrasound person was wrong and the baby would be a boy. Here's how it happened... Two days before my due date I woke up having irregular contractions. I got up and waited to see what would happen. After a couple of hours they were still coming, but at random times. I thought that they might lead to something so I decided to wake Cade up and we started packing. (You would think we would be ready to go this close to the due date since we have a drive to make, but we live on the edge and don't get ready ahead of time.) But since the contractions still weren't regular and Conner's primary program was just a couple of hours away, we decided to wait a little longer. When we got home I was still having irregular contractions so we decided to drive to Mesa to be on the safe side. By the time we arrived, everything had stopped.

My due date came and went. At my last doctor's appointment, I was 2.5 centimeters dilated. On another night, I woke up having contractions regularly about every 5 minutes but they only lasted about 30 seconds. So once again I got up and got ready in case this was it. They continued a couple of hours and then fizzled out again. It was getting really annoying to lose so much sleep for all this false labor.

Three days past my due date I started having contractions every half hour and they were pretty strong. We decided to take the boys over to Carol Ann's house to play and then if we needed to go to the hospital they could just stay and spend the night. By bedtime, I hadn't had any contractions for an hour and a half so we went back to my mom's house for the night. But of course, soon after getting there the contractions started again. I didn't tell Cade anything because I didn't want to be the girl who cried wolf all the time so he went to bed, but I stayed up to see what would happen.. After an hour of contractions every 10-12 minutes that lasted about a minute or more, I decided to wake up Cade. He seemed slightly annoyed that we were doing this again, but I can't control these things. After a few more contractions we decided we better have Carol Ann come over since it would still be about an hour before we would get to the hospital. Carol Ann arrived at 2 am and we were in triage at 2:30.

In her first moments...

I was hooked up to the monitors and after awhile the nurse reported that I was having contractions about every 8 minutes. I could tell she thought it was still going to be awhile from her lack of attention and interest, but I knew it wouldn't be that much longer because the contractions were really strong and painful. Then she checked and said I was dilated to 8 or 9 centimeters and called for the doctor. Unfortunately, they thought my actual doctor wouldn't have time to get there so I just got the on call doctor. A few minutes later I started feeling the pressure to push. I told Cade that the baby was coming. I didn't mean right this second, just that it was starting, but the nurse overheard me and immediately said she wasn't having a baby back in triage and I was getting a room now.

At about 3:30 I arrived in the delivery room with lots of nurses and the doctor and started pushing. Everyone immediately got down to business and was telling me how to push and helping me along. I thought the baby was right there because of the way the doctor was working around inside me. But then someone came and told the doctor another patient was about to deliver so he left, and the nurses stopped guiding me. For the next while, this continued. Everyone would be helping me, really pushing me to push her out, and then all of a sudden just stop. Then Cade would be left alone to help me, because even though the professionals would stop, the need to push did not. I don't know how many times I asked Cade if he could see the head, but he always said no. I was getting really confused because when people were helping me it seemed like I was just a few pushes away from being done, but then they stopped like I wasn't close. But I was too into what I was doing to ask what was going on. I was also wondering why it was taking so long since this was my third baby. I had planned on not having to push for very long this time, so why was I still going?!

After about 2 hours of pushing the doctor mentioned that the baby was face up instead of down. I've heard how it can be much more difficult to push out a baby when they are face up so I started to understand why it was taking so long, but I still expected it to be over soon. The triage nurse came in to see the baby and I heard the other nurses tell her how it hadn't come yet. At some point, one of my nurses said how I needed to have the baby before their shift was over in two hours, and then responds to herself saying that "of course you'll have her by then." The nurses started having me push in every way possible. I tried being on my side, on all fours, sitting on the exercise ball, using the squat bar. Nothing helped and it was like torture trying to get into every new position and I could tell that I couldn't push as hard in these other positions so I kept going back to just sitting on the bed.

My nurses left and new ones arrived, the sun came up, I watched many hours pass by on the clock, and I was still pushing. The doctor started mentioning getting an epidural and possibly needing a C-section, but said I could keep trying to push for now because the baby was doing fine and not distressed at all. When the nurse started mentioning those things too I asked what good an epidural would do. She explained to me that the baby's head was tilted and that the top of her head just keeps running into some pelvic bone and that doctor keeps trying but hasn't been able to move it. (That explains what he's been doing up there every time he comes around.) The epidural will relax my muscles and "might" get her to move just enough to come out. It was pretty depressing to hear that after over 4 hours of pushing the baby hadn't moved, but I was at least glad to finally understand what the heck was going on.

The nurse didn't seem at all confident that the epidural would do the trick and I knew if I got an epidural and it didn't work then I would definitely get a C-section. The only good thing about a C-section is avoiding labor, but since I had already done that I REALLY didn't want a C-section. I also didn't want to get an epidural after having gone through that much, but I was wishing that I had known what was coming so I would have gotten an epidural to begin with. After a while I said I would get an epidural, but the nurse started saying how she didn't want me to do anything I didn't want to do and that we could just keep trying different positions. So she brought in the peanut ball and told me to use it, but just relax and not push so I could rest for a few minutes. Everyone left so I could "relax". I tried not to push but it hurt more not too.

So peaceful...

Things are a little fuzzy at this point, but I think I got rid of the peanut ball and was just laying on my side. Suddenly I had some super strong urges to push and they were NOT stopping. Cade was telling me to push with it, but I was getting panicked with no professionals in the room. I was trying to tell Cade to call for help while pushing hard enough to get through it without actually pushing the baby out. Thankfully my nurses started trickling back in. The first one didn't seem to know what to do and the second probably didn't really believe that it was time. But soon everyone was back in the room and ready to go, but then for just a minute the pressure stopped :) I'm sure they all thought I was just full of it. But in no time the pressure was back and the baby was moving! The head was finally coming out but I just didn't feel like I could finish it off. The doctor told me I could just rest a minute and stop pushing if I needed to. After about 3 seconds of that I realized the doctor must be insane to think it would be better to let the baby be half out. That's a pain that I cannot describe :) and I forced myself to finish it off. And it really was a girl!! Lucy Elizabeth was born at 9:11 am weighing 7 pounds 11 ounces, after almost 6 hours of pushing. I had no idea that was even possible, I've never heard of such a thing and might not believe it if I hadn't been there.

Her bruised head

Later I found out that Cade had sent out a text to a couple of people asking for prayers when I was starting to falter and give up, and it wasn't much longer before Lucy came out. So thank you to all those who helped with that. I also learned that sometimes you really get what you pray for so be careful :) Leading up to the delivery I just wasn't feeling ready or able to push the baby out. I figured I could deal with the labor, its just enduring pain after all, but I just didn't feel like I had it in me to push out the baby (probably because I never forgot how much I hated the pushing phase with Caleb). So I had been praying for the strength to do it naturally. Well I was given the strength and energy to do it, but I was really pushed to my limit!

Caleb loves her!

Our visitors

Monday, July 7, 2014

Happy Birthday America!

We had a fun 4th of July this year, with just our little family of 4. We started the morning off with delicious red, white, and blue pancakes.

Then we finally made it to The World's Oldest Rodeo in Prescott! We've lived here for four years and this is the first time we actually made it. The first year we lived here is when we learned it existed but didn't do anything about it. After it was over we felt like we missed out so we decided we would go the next year. When the next year came along, we tried to get a group of friends to go see it, but it never panned out so we missed it again. Then last year we tried to go but were having trouble buying tickets online so we just showed up and they were sold out. So this year we made sure to get tickets a little early and finally made it!

It was fun, but it would have been a whole lot more fun WITHOUT the kids! Conner loves horses and being a cowboy so we thought he would have fun (at least for awhile) and we wanted to take him. Since Conner was going, there was no point in getting a babysitter for just Caleb so we brought him too. Caleb was just how we expected, a little restless but manageable until the end when he was getting really tired. But sadly, Conner was in a bad mood and wanted to leave from the very beginning, and was just annoying the whole time. Cade thinks Conner didn't like the first event, (cowboys trying to saddle their horses the fastest and it involved pulling the horses to the ground somewhat violently). But this picture shows that Conner was already grumpy before we even got to our seats.

For future reference, we learned that even though you are not allowed to print your tickets at home and must pick them up at the will call, they don't have enough people giving out the tickets and you must arrive at least a half hour early or you will miss the beginning. That was irritating, but at least we made it in time for the prayer. I had forgotten that rodeos are probably the only place left in America (that isn't a church event) that begin with a prayer. I don't know why they do it, but its so refreshing to see there is one place left that prayer and tradition haven't been outlawed from and that people from different backgrounds can come together and be respectful to others' beliefs.

This isn't a good picture, but Caleb had just started sticking his tongue out in the cutest way and we tried to capture it. A few days later we learned it was because his first tooth was coming in and he kept feeling it.

When it comes to sleeping, Conner and Caleb are complete opposites. At about Caleb's current age, Conner would take 2-3 hour naps in the morning and again in the afternoon (and sleep through the night!). But Caleb doesn't find sleep so important and if he falls asleep in my arms for 2 minutes and then wakes up when I transfer him, he has taken his "nap" and we are screwed. That's what happened on our Independence Day. So Caleb went to bed early and missed out on fireworks. I didn't want to fight crowds and traffic by myself to see fireworks with Conner, but luckily we have a great view of the fireworks from the end of our block, which is up on a hill. So Conner and I drove down to the corner (its a really long block, seriously) and watched the fireworks sitting in the back of the truck. It was perfect, and he really enjoyed them this year.

We had a great family day celebrating all of the freedoms we enjoy in this country and remembering the many, many sacrifices that have been made for that freedom.

Sunday, June 1, 2014

Another Softball Injury

Softball season is back. Its annoying to me because tax season just barely ends and I'm happy because Cade is home more and then he starts leaving in the evening to play softball. And he always wants me to come watch. Not only can I barely watch for 2 minutes before I get bored and start watching other people, but this year there aren't really other wives there for me to talk to. Plus, its difficult to keep Caleb entertained and happy since he likes to go to bed early.

We had just been back in town from Mesa for about an hour when Cade started asking me to go to softball. At first I said no because I had a lot of unpacking to do, but he convinced me by saying we would run a few necessary errands after the game. Plus, I didn't want to unpack yet so it was a good way to get out of it.

About halfway through the game, I looked up just in time to see Cade run right smack into another player, Rob. It was pretty much at full speed and they both fell right over. It was almost humorous at first, and obvious that they were going to be in pain. I expected them to get right back up, but neither did at first. I thought, "Hmmm, that must have really hurt". Then Rob sat up and Cade rolled over but still wasn't really moving. I started to get concerned at this point and other players were running toward them. A big group of guys formed around Cade and he was staying on the ground so I was really getting concerned at this point. I decided I better head over and see what was going on. I knew it would freak Conner out so I just pretended like nothing was happening and sent him away to play. I slowly walked to the outfield, not really wanting to see what was going on and thinking of previous patients I have worked with. (When you work with people with TBIs and see its affects you get pretty concerned about head injuries.) Thankfully, once I got up there I heard one guy asking Cade some orientation questions and he was answering them correctly, so I breathed a sigh of relief. There was a lot of blood, but that doesn't bother me. A few of the guys from our ward started telling me right off that he was ok. There was another player (that I don't know) there who is some kind of medic or fireman or something and was holding Cade's head still and telling him not to move. I guess he was worried about a neck injury. Someone called the paramedics and they came and checked the guys out. They were both well enough, just needed lots of stitches. Cade's forehead ran into Rob's chin. I watched for signs of a concussion, but Cade didn't have one. He was a little out of it for the next 24 hours though, but I think that was partly exhaustion from still recovering from his illness the day before, getting hurt, staying up late getting stitched up, and then getting up early the next morning with Caleb when I went to work.

Cade and Rob after being bandaged up on the field.

According to Cade, he might have briefly blacked out because he just remembers hearing himself moaning and wondering why he was doing that. Then he realized he was having trouble breathing. He got the wind knocked out of him. It was awhile before he felt the pain in his head, he didn't know he was bleeding until some other guys told him.

On our way out a lady we know stopped us and said not to go to urgent care for stitches because they do a terrible job there. Her daughter and some other people she knows have ugly scars from the poor stitching they received there. Our insurance won't pay to be stitched up at the ER and that would be a small fortune so we were going to risk urgent care anyway. But then thankfully, Rob stopped us and said his dentist friend was going to stitch him up and said he would do Cade too if we wanted. We were a little apprehensive about going to a dentist to get stitched up but figured if urgent care wasn't going to do a good job then we might as well try the dentist since he was free.

When we pulled up to the dentist's office I noticed the sign said he did oral surgery so I felt a little better that he knew what he was doing. He did a great job too. He spent over 3 hours of his night stitching these 2 guys up, totally for free. We can't thank him enough! He said Cade's cut wasn't straight and isn't in the best spot so it will probably leave a bad scar. But the stitches looks as good as they possibly could, nice and even. Each guy got about 15 stitches across and some dissolvable ones inside because the cuts were so deep.

Getting ready to be stitched up.

So much for running all of our errands. It was a late night for the boys, but I really lucked out. Caleb was really good as long as I stood up with him. He only started to get really fussy in the last few minutes. We're so grateful the injuries weren't any worse and for the generosity of Dr. Arnell.

After the stitches.

And just for the record, Cade did call the ball. But according to Rob, he didn't think Cade was going to make it so he went after it too. It just would have been nice if Rob would have mentioned that while running straight at Cade :)

Friday, May 30, 2014

Happy 90th Birthday Grandma Joyce!

This past weekend we celebrated Grandma Joyce's 90th Birthday! It was a formal event, per Grandma's style. It was like a miniature family reunion, we got to see so many relatives that I haven't seen in a long time. There was a nice program where each of her kids and a couple of her brothers talked about some memories from their childhood or things she taught them. It was fun to hear some new stories about Grandma and learn more about Grandpa Rodgers, aka "Tuffy". Then of course there was lots of great food to enjoy!

Grandma listening to stories.

Grandma with the beautiful cake Suzy made.

Most of the Rodgers' clan

Grandma and Grandpa Rodgers enjoying their youngest grandbabies.

Ashley, Crystal, and I

Alyza, Caleb, and Abby. It makes me laugh because its true to their personalities: Not so happy, indifferent, and smiley.

Our little family

Grandma and her siblings

Following the formal party, there was an after party at grandma's house for all the relatives, complete with Grandpa Fred's enchiladas and a money dive!

Conner and the Jensen boys searching for coins.

Cade and Blake letting Caleb and Abby test out the water.

Caleb joining in on the action. I just bought him a new swimsuit but we were too lazy to even put it on him.

I tried to sneak a picture of my mom from across the yard, but she noticed just in time.

Grandma tossing in money.

Jared and Uncle Whit deep in conversation, with no idea they are being watched :)

More unsuspecting guests.

Emily and Emma getting rich.

Me and Grandma Joyce

The partying continued throughout the weekend. But as usual, no family get-together these days is complete without Cade or Conner getting sick. Luckily this time it was Cade and not nearly as deadly as the Johnson pandemic at Lake Mead Easter 2014. Two other kids also came down with this one, but its unknown how Cade caught it since he was no where near the sick children. I'm starting to think Cade is immuno-compromised.

Sunday, March 2, 2014

A Recap - Part 2

Every year Cade has to drive around northern Arizona during the week of my birthday. I usually go to Mesa so I'm not hanging out by myself on my birthday. This year I decided I would go with him. As boring as being in the car with kids for hours at a time is, it sounded better than taking care of the boys by myself with very little sleep. The boys did great. Caleb slept most of the car ride. Conner had activities to keep him busy and there were enough stops to keep things going. We mostly had to stop at Walmarts as Cade set up cubicles so Conner just enjoyed playing with the toys in the toy aisles. The Page Walmart has an area with little rides for kids to play on, as well as a massage chair that you can pay a few dollars to get a massage from. After being there for awhile Conner decided to jump off that massage chair. I saw him doing it and wasn't at all worried because it wasn't very high and jumping off of things has been his new thing. But somehow it didn't go right. I guess he didn't catch himself enough and his head still hit the concrete floor. He wasn't too happy and you couldn't help but feel a little bad for the kid.

While at one of the hotels we gave Caleb his first real bath. Its amazing that it took that long, but it had just been easier to give him sponge baths up to this point. (Ok actually Tina gave him his first real bath the morning of his baby blessing, but it was really quick and we weren't watching so I'm not counting it.) But he loved this bath.

Just a few hours after this picture was taken things were very different. In the middle of the night Caleb woke up, I fed him and tried to put him back down, but he was really fussy. It took some effort, which was strange. Not long after that he woke up screaming. We had no idea what was wrong and NOTHING helped to calm him down. The poor thing (and us) screamed, and I mean screamed, for over 2 hours straight. After that he finally cried himself to sleep for short periods but then would wake up screaming again. We called his pediatrician, they said since he had cried for over an hour we should bring him in. But of course we were a few hours away. We thought about going to urgent care but I really had my doubts that they would be able to help an infant with a mysterious problem. Cade needed to either finish up his work or would have to drive all the back the next day. While trying to decide what to do Caleb calmed down a little and fell asleep so we decided to try to check out of the hotel (we were supposed to stay another night), get Cade's work done as fast as possible, and head home. If he started screaming again before that then we would try urgent care. Luckily he was mostly done screaming. I took the boys to Denny's while Cade worked and Caleb slept for most of the day. On the way home we stopped for dinner in Flagstaff and he started screaming again but stopped as soon as we started driving again. Then he was fine. Our only guess is that I ate something that really did not agree with him. I have no idea what that would have been and we haven't had anymore problems since then.

Here Caleb is in the middle of a yawn or sneeze .

The first smile caught on camera! And maybe its just me, but I think he looks a lot like Uncle Sam here.

It did stink that we had to end our trip early because that day was actually my 30th birthday and we were going to celebrate that night and the next day. Cade had some ideas of things we could do in Page that would have been fun. But after that Cade just got right back into work and my birthday was forgotten. I actually had found something a few days later that Cade was getting ready to make me. I didn't get enough of a look to have any idea what it was because Cade stopped me just in time. I kept waiting and waiting to get this mysterious thing but it never came. Finally the day before Valentines Day (over a month later) I mentioned it again and I received it for Valentine's Day. It was a candy bar card. It was really nice, but it would have been nicer had I received it anywhere near my birthday and without reminders.

Conner loves jumping into the picture when I start to take pictures of Caleb.

That was the end of our visitor/vacation streak. We started trying to get back into a normal routine. Caleb was still staying up until 12-1 am and waking up every 3 hours to eat and I was getting to my limit of patience with that whole thing. Cade was really busy at work, came home at midnight many nights. (Why did both of our kids end up coming right before tax season?!) And poor Conner was really the one suffering. I had very little patience for that kid for awhile. It didn't help that a little before Caleb was born Conner went on a bit of a rebellious streak and was throwing lots of tantrums. As it continued into this time, I no longer was nice about it. And everyday Cade turned on some tv show on Netflix as he got ready in the morning and the episodes kept playing while I slept in. Conner has never seen so much tv in his life! He possibly watched more tv in the last 3 months than in his entire life before that, so sad.

A few weeks later my parents came for a quick visit. It was nice. They got their first experiences in the prowler.

The boys heading out

My mom heading out. She's thinking "Oh this will be fun to drive around the block."

My mom returning. Now she's thinking "That was not around the block! That was flying through a dirt field going 100 miles an hour!" (According to Cade it was 30 mph)

At Caleb's two month check up he weighed in at 13.8 pounds (61%) and was 23 inches (25%). He seems like a giant to us. He has grown so much faster than Conner did. At 2 months Conner was not yet 11 pounds. And Conner has always worn clothes at a younger age than he is. Caleb starting wearing 3-6 months clothes right at 2 months and now at 3 months he is starting to wear 6 month clothing.

Many people ask if Caleb looks like Conner did as a baby and the answer is YES. When I look at this picture I think its Conner, but I know it's not. They definitely have the same eye shape (not color), mouth, and pale skin.

Here is Conner in the same pajamas a couple weeks older than Caleb was in the above picture.

The big difference between them is the hair, or lack thereof. Its easy to tell this is Conner because of all the hair, but just the face alone sure looks like the face of Caleb above.

But in this picture Conner's hair is flatter and could be mistaken for Caleb.

Speaking of hair, Caleb was born with some really long, straight hair. He had a little mullet in the back that we cut off just before the grandkids pictures and never got a picture of it. Then as the days went on he started to lose a lot of hair in some spots and not in others. So we started giving him small haircuts to try and even it out. By 2 months we had already cut his hair 3 times. Luckily, after being ugly old man type of bald for a couple of weeks it started to grow back in. Now he has a pretty even head of hair, but still not a whole lot of it.

Caleb's hair not long after birth

Soon his hair was similar to daddy's

A little bit more evened out, but he continued to lose more and more hair for awhile.

Now its growing back in nicely.

The night he found his hands!

Last week things finally started getting back to normal. I finally feel like I have time and energy to do more than just the bare essentials (which is why I'm finally blogging again.) Caleb just started going to sleep by about 9:00 (for the last 4 nights) and has been waking up on average 2 times a night. I can't wait for him to sleep through the night, or even to only wake up once. But looking back at how bad he slept at night in the beginning, I'm happy to at least see some good progress. Conner is past his tantrum/rebelling stage and is great with Caleb. He just loves that little guy. And thankfully they are finally taking naps at similar times so I have some time to myself again. And there is a lot less tv watching going on now. Cade and I even went on a date a few weeks ago. We went to dinner and then saw the Harlem Globetrotters. It was fun. Not as many tricks as I hoped for, it was more of a comedy. But still it was great to be alone for a little while.