At the Park

Last week, the girls begged me to go to the park. I told them if they could finish a few chores by a certain time, we would go. They finished just in time--so we went. I've made a goal to improve my photography skills, so I took the camera along. Here's how it went:


On the way to the park, I stopped and took pics of the neighbors' flowers. I LOVE this flower. Anyone surprised?

The first thing we did at the park was swing. I had Clayton in the Moby Wrap and was pushing both Kallie and Whitney on the swings. (Did I mention that I'm STILL recovering from a c-sec? The incision has healed, but my body is still getting up to speed.) I taught Kallie how to pump and then told her to keep it up. When she begged for more pushing, I told her to pump. She got mad, ran off, and started pouting. She has the most expressive little face!

I call this one "Whitney on the Slide"--for obvious reasons. Whitney LOVES to slide. Don't most kids?

The next few are me trying to be artistic. I love this bridge one because the girls look like they're making supermodel faces/poses.

This is their reflection in one of those plastic mirrors. I'm surprised the mirror is still intact. Most that I've seen look like they've been scratched to death by a wild animal.

The girls decided to play hide and seek. As you can see, Whitney is hiding and Kallie is seeking.

And, just to prove I was there... (This is the other side of the earlier mirror...and again, not one scratch!)

As we were getting ready to leave, we saw these blackberry bushes.

Kallie decided to try a few. She said they were really good!

My Thoughts on 9/11

Eight years ago today, I was stunned--like the rest of America. The news of the attacks hit me pretty hard, as I was leaving for my mission 2 month later. My thoughts of security were smashed to pieces and it took me a few weeks to regroup. But, honestly, leaving this country so soon after 9/11 was a great benefit for me because I learned why America is so wonderful and worth preserving.

When I left for the Baltic States, I didn't realize how fortunate Americans are. We can enter most countries in the world with nothing more than a passport. Other nationalities have to obtain residence visas before they can even put one finger over the border. As an American, I was allowed to stay and travel freely for 90 days before a residence visa was required.

Living in a post-communist country, I have seen first-hand the effects of a people that turn their ability to choose over to the government. You eventually lose your individual ability to make a choice. Any choice. People I spoke with on a daily basis described to me how their jobs were selected for them, how their class was determined for them (no chance to improve), and how they were required to purchase even household items according to their class. I was never so grateful for the chance we have in America to both succeed AND to fail--according to our choices. Many of the older generation I spoke with who had lived the majority of their lives under such restriction really didn't know how to make choices.

I am grateful to live in a country where I can practice the religion of my choosing. And, that there are no government-mandated punishments for doing so. As a missionary, religion was my topic of choice. I spoke with many people who, in public places, would not discuss religion above the tone of a whisper. Again--carry over from a time when religious choice was disallowed. But, here, if I so choose, I can shout my belief in Jesus Christ, in the Book of Mormon, and in a living prophet. What a blessing.

I am also grateful to live in a country where I make decisions about my family size. I think about restrictions on families in other countries--my first 2 children are darling girls. I would not give either of them up for the WORLD and I'm glad that my government doesn't tell me that I should. Having just welcomed our third child into our family, I'm grateful that I have the ability to choose whether we'll have 1, 5, or 20 kids.

There are so many blessings we have living in America. Even our poorest areas are blessed beyond the poorest in other countries. We truly don't realize how fortunate we are. To anyone who would like to disagree with these thoughts, I appreciate that you have the choice and the freedom to do so. I hope you also appreciate that freedom.

Kallie-isms

The other day, Kallie and Whitney were sitting at the table eating breakfast. Ryan and I were teasing the girls that Whitney was going to drive the car later that day. Kallie counter-argued, "But she doesn't have a silent!" I inquired, "A what?" Kallie repeated, "A silent. You know, a driving silent."

This morning, Kallie and Whitney were fighting over playing with a little kids' cookbook that Kallie has. I reminded them to share and saw Kallie open the book. As I left the room, I heard Kallie say, "And it came to pass..." Guess she really does pay attention!

Three is not a crowd

This morning, as I finished feeding Clayton, my girls came into our bedroom. As is now the case, as soon as they walked in, they immediately asked, "Where's Clayton?" They have tabs on him at all times during their waking hours. When they saw that I was feeding him, they gathered around and touched, talked to, and gazed at him--all while he was blissfully having breakfast. When he was finished, I cuddled him onto my chest to burp him. When Whitney realized what was going on, she joined right in, patting along with me. Kallie, too, noticed the joint patting effort and came over to participate as well. It was a sweet picture to look at that tiny little boy with three sizes of hands patting his little back. He doesn't know yet how lucky he is to already have the adoration of three girls!

The Birth Story

So, I thought I'd post my version of Monday evenings events here--both for my own journaling and for those who are curious.

We arrived at the hospital at about 5:20 p.m. I was concerned that I wouldn't be on "The List" since no one from the hospital had called by the time we left the house. I worried, (as I usually do), in vain. They knew we were coming and we were called back about 10 minutes later. We were taken into a room with 4 curtained areas. I think it's a place they usually used for pre-term labor monitoring, but since the unit was incredibly busy that night, that's where we started out. After changing into my gown, my nurse started poking me for an I.V. She usually gets it in on the first try. It took 3 tries this time around. I was grateful that she was able to take the 5 vials of blood needed through the I.V. port instead of a separate poke each time. By this time, we were approaching 7 p.m.--and my scheduled time was 7:30 p.m. I didn't have much time to dwell on this, though, as they announced that we were ahead of schedule and would be heading down to the O.R. within a few minutes.

As we walked through the hall, my mind was racing. It's been a while since my last c-sec and I remember all of the issues from the past 2. It was more than enough time to work up some nervousness. As soon as we got in the room, the anesthesiologist administered my spinal. After the initial "pinch" of the topical anesthetic, I had to ask if it was done. Yep--all done even before I knew it had started. I layed down on the table and focused on relaxing as much as possible while they prepped me for surgery. With my previous c-sec's, I felt like the spinal numbed me up to my collar bone. It made it hard to breathe and I think contributed to my nausea. But this time around, it didn't spread higher than about the bottom of my ribcage. I was numb higher than that, just not dead-numb. I could feel a lot more of the pushing/pulling, but absolutely no pain--AND, I never felt short of breath. That, alone, was a miracle to me.

Within a few minutes, they pulled Clayton out. He came out just as I predicted: kicking, screaming, and peeing. My Dr. commented that with the amount of fluid Clayton had off-loaded, he had probably lost a few ounces. After determining his APGAR scores, (9 & 9), suctioning a bit, and wiping him off, they wrapped him up and handed him to Ryan. As I looked at that tiny little face, I could definitely see familiar features. He looked like Whitney, but had definite Kallie features as well. It's fun to see that our children have a look that connects them all.

About this time, my nausea kicked in. I was amazed that it held off for that long in the first place! As soon as I mentioned the impending off-loading, the anesthesiologist added Zofran to my IV and slapped a motion sickness patch behind my ear. I did throw up a couple of times before the meds kicked in, but miraculously, that was it. I was seriously amazed by this--because with my 2 previous c-sections, it has taken several hours for the nausea to abate.

When I was all closed up, they took me into a recovery room and Ryan went with Clayton to the NICU. Clayton was doing REALLY well, but since he was born prior to the 37 week mark, he had a mandatory 6-hour stay in the NICU for monitoring. After my 2-hour post-op monitoring, I was wheeled on my stretcher into the NICU to see and hold my baby. The pic in the post below is the first time I held him. Let me tell you--it was about 10 p.m., I had barf in my hair, and was getting over the post-op shakes. I didn't feel attractive for the pic--but I was thrilled to hold my little one!

After a few minutes with my son, I was taken to my room and tried to get some sleep. Yeah, right. Does anyone get sleep in the hospital? They brought Clayton in to my room around 2 a.m. and he stayed there the rest of the time I was in the hospital. About that same time, I started getting up and walking around.

I have to say, it's been interesting having a "pre-term" baby. Clayton and Kallie were born 5 days apart, gestationally, and he was bigger than she was at birth. However, Clayton had to have a "car seat check" to make sure he would be able to breathe well in his car seat. Kallie never had to have one. Apparently, those 5 days make a difference in a baby's ability to breathe in a typical car seat. Clayton didn't pass his test--his oxygen saturation was consistently too low. So, we had to rent a special "car bed," which is a little boat-shaped bed that straps into the seat belt. There was a possibility that he wasn't going to pass his car bed test, which would have meant we would have to leave him at the hospital. I'm SO glad that didn't happen!

Now we've been home for almost a week. Clayton is growing before our eyes. He is a very good eater and rarely cries. Sometimes, it's hard for me to believe he's actually here--but I am really enjoying him! He is a sweet, cute little bean and we're so happy to have him in our family.

Baby Clayton is here

Clayton Thomas Segeberg arrived on a rainy summer evening at 7:40 pm. He was 7 lbs 8 oz, and 20 3/4 inches long. Both Mom and baby are doing great.

How about...now?

Well, my final appointment was this morning. After a great NST, my nurse came in to see how I was and inform me that my bile acids had indeed gone up again. (This time from 10 to 14.) She left and while she was gone, I was absorbing the idea that our little boy would be arriving tomorrow morning. When the Dr. came in, he said that with my levels going up so quickly, especially since I'm already on medication, (which is supposed to decrease the numbers), the indication was immediate delivery, and how did tonight sound? TONIGHT? Yes, tonight. By the time I go to bed tonight, our son will be here. My Dr. advised me to go get something to eat ASAP and then to not eat until the delivery tonight, which will be around 7:30 p.m. I wanted to laugh, cry, and breathe a HUGE sigh of relief all at the same time. I laughed a little, breathed a little, and the tears came later. For now, I'm just pretending that I'm in labor--minus timing contractions.

Waiting

Final blood draw was today. They only had to poke me twice! Now we're just waiting for the results. Also had my final ultrasound today. I am 36 weeks, 1 day today and the Dr. estimated that the baby is 8 lbs. He'll certainly be MUCH bigger than my other two were! He has chubby little cheeks and a fuzzy little head. I can't wait to see him in person! Now, I just have to get through the weekend before I know if it will be Tuesday or Friday...

FINALLY!!!

I had yet another appointment today. Story of my life right now. It was just an NST, which really is quite relaxing, (well, unless the baby's not cooperative). Last Friday, at my last appointment, my Dr. said that I wouldn't need to do any more blood work and we'd be on track for August 14, unless my bile acids went up to around, say, 10 or so. They've been sticking around 4-5, so I was celebrating the end of the blood work.

At my appointment today, the Dr. told me that last Friday's blood work showed that my bile acids are up to 10. Should I be surprised? Knowing that it can take a few weeks for the bloodwork to reflect the symptoms, I'm not surprised at all. It's been about 3 weeks since my itching exploded. Thankfully, I've been on medication since my symptoms intensified. (And, all I have to say here is I KNEW IT!!! I knew this itching meant something!)

Anyway--what this now means is that I have one more round of blood work to attend to on Friday. If the numbers go up again, they will move my c-sec up to about Tuesday or so. If nothing changes, we'll stick to the original plan. I have to admit, as grateful as I am about this, (I'm feeling SO huge), I'm a little stressed, as I still need to get everything set up and put away in preparation for his arrival. Guess I'd better get busy, huh?

The Ha-Ha-Ha

A couple of months ago, my girls were playing nicely together and I was getting things done. All was right with the world. When they finished, Kallie found me and gave me a minute-by-minute report of their imaginary adventures. She explained that Whitney was pretending to be the "Ha-Ha-Ha." I couldn't figure out what in the world she was talking about, but smiled and nodded because, hey, they had fun and I got things accomplished.

Just this past week, I FINALLY figured out what the Ha-Ha-Ha actually is. I figured it was some sort of bad guy, but I couldn't figure out for the life of me why they decided to call it the Ha-ha-ha. I found out quite by accident while shopping at Costco. Whitney started playing with her hands/fingers as she usually does. If she has 2 of anything, those 2 things will have conversations and interactions with each other. It's great because she can entertain herself anywhere. At one point, I heard one of her hands say something along the lines of, "I'm going to get you! Ha, ha, ha!" (in a bad-guy-style, slower, deep, menacing tone). The other hand replied, "No, not the Ha-ha-ha!" Thus, the bad guy is named the Ha-ha-ha. I finally understand! And, I have to say, it definitely makes sense now.