Hannah's Birth Story

I'm going to start by saying that this pregnancy has been a whole new ballgame for me. Everything about it was really different than my first two, and not just the pregnancy but the labor and delivery were all new experiences. I predicted that I was going to have a girl early in my pregnancy based on the very different symptoms I had experienced. I wasn't 100 % sure, so I was elated to find out that we were, indeed, having a baby girl at my 20 week ultrasound.

I expected to go into labor early with this baby like I did with Lucas. Then we had two family reunions the week of and the week after my due date that I was REALLY hoping to make it to....but that did not happen. That on top of being really uncomfortable made me anxious and even more frustrated that things were not going my way more so than it would normally. At 38 weeks I was dilated to a two and had some random braxton hicks contractions, so I thought everything was on track and we were getting ready to have a baby. But then nothing happened. I tried everything in the book to get labor started knowing full well that she would come when she was ready, not when I wanted her to. At 40 weeks I was dilated to a three, my body had already stripped most of the membranes by itself, and I was having contractions, but they always stopped whenever I laid down to go to bed at night. Because we had been so busy trying to get our old house fixed up and ready to sell plus buying a new house and moving in a month before I was due I didn't have an time or energy to prepare myself to do another natural delivery. I figured I would go for as long as I could then get an epidural.

My due date came and went along with my patients, so I scheduled an induction as much as I didn't want to I just didn't want to be pregnant anymore. I went into the hospital about 8:40 in the morning and my midwife, Julie, was there waiting for me. I had her break my water first to see if that would kick start contractions, but I knew it wouldn't because I didn't have any contractions with Lucas after my water broke with him. About an hour and a half passed with no progress, so I had the nurse start me on pitocin. I finally started to have some good contractions going about every 3-5 minutes for a while and then they started to slow down a bit. She gave me more pitocin to get them going again and that seemed to work. After a while the contractions became more and more intense. I knew I was in active labor at that point and I just didn't have the energy to push through them anymore so I asked for an epidural.

As soon as I got to the hospital I kept complaining that I was hungry. I probably told the nurse and Stephen at least a dozen times how hungry I was knowing full well that I couldn't eat anything until I delivered my baby. It was well after noon and the nurse came in with a peanut ball to stick between my legs to try to open up my pelvis to see if it would help speed things up. I wasn't on there for very long, maybe 45 minutes, before I started to feel some super intense contractions through the epidural. I had to breathe through them calmly even though I wanted to scream so bad. This was going on for a while until I started to feel some pressure that wouldn't go away. I told the nurse, and she said everything was fine. I had a couple more strong contractions and the pressure started to mount. She asked me if I felt like I needed to push. I wasn't really sure because I was numb, but I did. I didn't push, though despite wanting to. She called Julie to come over because it was getting close to delivering the baby. Julie was 10 minutes out, but the nurse told her she didn't have 10 minutes and that the baby was coming. the contractions were so strong I had to have Stephen give me more medicine for the epidural because I couldn't stand the pain.

With each contraction I could feel her head coming, so I told the nurse that I could feel something down there, so she looked and said she wasn't crowning yet and not to worry. She stuck just the very tips of her fingers in there and said she could feel the head, but she didn't call a doctor in or anything to deliver the baby even though she was coming. Before I knew it, I had one last contraction and the baby slid out onto the bed all by herself. No midwife, no doctor, just the nurse who picked her up and handed her to me.

In the moment I was glad everything went well and that the baby was healthy. After the delivery the nurse pulled a doctor in from out in the hallway to deliver the placenta, then Julie showed up just in time to do a little stitch and that was it. She was not very happy with the nurse at all not giving her a heads up before I was ready to deliver. The nurse only checked me, maybe two or three times throughout the whole ordeal, so she really had no idea what was really going on because she only checked the monitor when I was having contractions instead of doing it the right way and checking me every couple hours to really see what was going on.

In retrospect I feel a little angry and upset just as much as Julie did because the whole reason I drove an hour to the Riverton hospital was to have Julie deliver my baby. I feel cheated that she missed it even though she was right next door and could have been there for me, but instead my baby delivered herself without Julie. It just would've been nice to have her support had she been notified a lot sooner than she was. But, our baby Hannah is here and healthy and beautiful, and we couldn't be happier!

Hannah came out just covered in that white waxy coating they get in utero. We each made a guess at how much she would weigh. We all thought she'd be about 7 pounds so we were surprised when she weighed 8.2 pounds. she was born at 4:15 pm the same time Zander was born. We had skin to skin time for while before they took her to get her cleaned up and measured. She has a little birth mark on her left knee, and a perfectly round head just like both her brothers did. She ended up choking and spitting up amniotic fluid for the first two days. They said it was because she slid out so fast that she gulped a bunch of the fluid as she came out, so I had to monitor her closely around the clock and turn her on her side and suck out all the fluid from her mouth and nose. I was surprised at how much she gulped down because she was spitting up a ton of fluid to where she was soaking her bed. We are home now, and happy and healthy. Welcome to the family Hannah Elaine!

She's Here!!!

Introducing the newest member of our family:

Hannah Elaine Washburn 

Born: August 2, 2017
Time: 4:15 pm
Weight: 8.2 lbs
Height: 20 inches

Random Shenanigans

It's so much fun moving because we can play and hide where ever we want!

 We have an apple tree in the back yard. I caught the boys picking the unripe apples and eating them over the fire pit.

 We got a new pool fun center. They love the slide and the "shower". I'm hoping they will play in it all summer after baby sister arrives.

"Zander, do you need to go potty?" "Yes, but I want to go in the grass...."

 The boys love helping in the kitchen, especially when Dad is making chocolate chip cookies!

 Cherry monster! 

 This melted my heart. Zander and Lucas each had a "baby sister" they were taking care of. They had bottles and blankets for her and then they decided she needed a diaper change, so they are practicing wiping her bum.

 We have had this little visitor in our back yard since we moved into the house. He just hangs out for a bit until he gets chased away by the boys or gets bored. We're not sure who he belongs to, but the boys like to feed him baby carrots. He usually hangs out around the sand box or under the stairs.

 I was emptying the pool one night and noticed something was watching me through a vent on the side of the house, so I got a closer look, and it was Toby! Sneaky kitty.

A Fresh Start

So we've been in our our new house for two weeks now, and I am so happy. It has been slow going getting everything put away and organized, but it's getting there. There is a lot of stuff that we need to buy and or replace furniture-wise. This house is twice the size of our last, so there's a lot of space for us to fill.

I wanted to give a shout out to all those who came to help unload the truck from Stephen's family, and especially my brother Scott who drove all the way up here from Cedar City just to help us move. He stayed the night with us Thursday night and helped us finish loading the rest of our stuff in the truck Friday morning and get the house all cleaned up before we left. We couldn't have done it without him.

I just love everything about this house, new city, and our new ward. We had neighbors and ward members come out and greet us that whole weekend while we were unloading the truck. Even neighbors that lived down the street or several blocks away stopped by to say hello and welcome us.

Now that we've had a chance to settle in a little bit, there are a few things about the house I don't care for, but they're little things that we can change later. We put the boys in a room together despite us having six bedrooms. The idea was to help them bond a little better. Stephen wasn't quite sure about it, but I told him to give them at least two weeks, so he's been a good sport about it. It is really hard to get the boys to go to sleep now because all they want to do is play and fight after we tuck them in.

We are also going to give Toby away. I don't want him in the house because he makes the basement stink and sheds hair all over the place. We left him in the house for a whole week before letting him outside so he would't get lost, but I was going crazy with the smell and having to clean poop off the floor because he can't make it in the litter box for some dumb reason. We threw him out last week and he refused to go or stay outside. He just claws and, literally, throws himself at the back door begging to be let in the house the entire night which keeps us up all night, so we are going to give him away. I've had enough. I need my sleep before baby gets here!

We got the nursery put together last week, but now I need clothes and a diaper bag. I am 38 weeks and I still need to pack my hospital bag and ask someone to watch the boys. I am not on top of my game this pregnancy. I'm ready to be done being pregnant, but not ready to have another baby just yet. I'm planning on delivering in Riverton which is an hour drive from our house, so I'm hoping everything goes well, and we don't end up having a baby in the car. Right now all I can think about is the baby and when I'll go into labor. I am always uncomfortable and just want to be able to breathe and move around normally again.

It is so cute, the last few days the boys keep asking when baby sister is going to be here. They are extremely excited to be able to hold her and play with her. They are always playing in her room, and Zander likes to tell me how he can't wait to play with her on his back or outside in the swimming pool. She can sleep with him, and sit next to him during dinner. I've tried to explain that she won't be able to do any of those things for a few years yet, but he's excited regardless. Lucas loves to rub or pat my belly every morning I get up and say, "baby sister come yet?"

I'm excited for mom to come and spend some time down here to help with the boys. I haven't even made any freezer meals! I am so behind on stuff I should be doing to prepare for this  baby, but oh well.

Roberts Family Reunion

The weekend we moved the Washburns had a ton of family come to town from California and Colorado for a family reunion and Grandma Robert's 90th birthday celebration. It was held in Riverton and I have never even met half of the people that were there, so it was nice to be able to finally put faces to names after eight years of being in the family.

Those who planned and put the reunion together (Rachel) did a fantastic job. We had a lot fun despite being outside in the heat all day. The boys were so excited to get to play with their cousins all day in the water and bounce houses. We took some family photos and grandma took us inside the church for a little family history time. I didn't get to hear it all because I had fussy, tired children, but it's always fun the hear about family history. We had cake and sang to grandma. She was extremely grateful that almost everyone came out to celebrate with her, and that she could see all of her (almost) 59 great grandchildren. Baby girl will be number 59 for her, and she loved being able to see her legacy. That night we congregated to Loren's house for dinner and fireworks. What a wonderful family!

 The boys enjoying their cupcakes

Moving Day!

We finally moved!!! I can't even say what a relief it is the leave that house behind. As positive as I tried to stay about the house, it just became too much of a burden to upkeep, and we were constantly worrying about what was going to break next. We got a great deal on it, and I think the new owner will be happy with it. Hopefully they're able to do more work to it and make it look nice. 

Moving was such a pain while being pregnant, but thankfully I have an awesome, hard working husband, and a neighborhood full of good people who came over to help load the truck and help me clean the house. We will miss all our neighbors and friends whom we have come to love over the past five years, but it was just time to move on and start fresh. Again, it feels like a huge weight has been lifted off our shoulders since we moved into our new house. It's a great feeling. Goodbye Midvale, hello Syracuse!

Lego Convention

A few weeks ago we took the boys to a Lego convention in Provo. We thought they would have a good time, and it would most likely be the last family outing for a while until after baby sister arrives. It was pretty cool, there were Lego constructions of everything imaginable from Star Wars, the wild west, planes, boats, and trains, Lord of the Rings, etc... of course Zander's favorite was the Star Wars and Lucas loved the trains that actually moved around. They had a Lego pit where you could sit and make your own Lego creations, so the boys spent some time in there before going to see the rest of the displays. All Zander wanted was a storm trooper Lego man, so we made him into a storm trooper himself. We got their faces painted. Lucas liked the shark. All in all it was a fun little outing; I'm glad the boys enjoyed themselves. We did end up buying a storm trooper guy for Zander and some lizard guy for Lucas. I love the last picture of Zander just longing for a storm trooper figure.