Wesley's birth

I want to record Wesley's birth story so here's how it all went down:

At my doctors appointment on Thursday (Sept. 16th - 6 days overdue) my doctor asked when I wanted to be induced. I said sooner would be ideal because my mom was supposed to be leaving on Monday the 20th. My doctor said to call the hospital the next day and they would tell me if I could come in at 6pm, or if I needed to wait until the next morning. So I called on Friday and was told they were full and couldn't fit me in so I needed to call back in the morning. I called back on Saturday morning and was told they would call back at noon... then told to call back at 6pm that night. After being told to call back Sunday morning I finally lost it and started crying. It was very frustrating and I told Brian I couldn't handle calling anymore and getting my hopes up just to be disappointed - so I would just wait for them to call me when they could fit me in. Sunday morning Brian started making calls on my doctor's emergency line and ended up leaving 4 or 5 messages for her to call us back. When we hadn't heard anything by 11 we went to church. After sacrament meeting Brian saw that he had a message on his phone. It was my doctor saying that we could come right down and that it was ridiculous that they hadn't fit me in yet. So we left church and my mom and the kids dropped Brian and I off at the hospital. Finally!

On our way to the hospital!

Once we were all checked in they started me on pitocin. Because I had a c-section with Sophie they had to start at a very small dose and gradually increase. We waited from 1:00 until 9pm with me having pretty mild contractions and only being dilated to a three. The first nurse we had was pretty opinionated (but nice) and asked me if I wanted an epidural. I told her I had a natural birth the last time and wanted to try to do it again, but since I didn't know how I would react to pitocin I was going to see how it went. She asked me if I had ever had pitocin and when I said no she said, "Oh, your going to want an epidural." Which kind of made me mad. I needed encouragement and not to be told I couldn't do it without an epidural. Inside I was thinking, "I'll show you lady!" She left at 9 and another nurse came in who was more encouraging and just told me to let her know if I wanted anything. Sometime around 9:15 the resident came in and broke my water. I was still only dilated to a three but she was able to do it. The strangest part of that was right after she broke my water she told me the baby had it's hand up by it's head. I was amazed how she could tell and she said she was touching the baby's hand right then! Crazy. It didn't take long for my contractions to pick up, and from then on I really had to concentrate and go into "the zone" to get through the contractions. Brian was very helpful and rubbed my feet or did whatever I asked him to do - or not to do :) After a few hours or so my contractions were getting very intense but they hadn't checked me again so the nurse said to let her know when I started feeling pressure and they would check me. Awhile after that I sent Brian to find the nurse because I just had to be checked to see where I was at so I could mentally prepare myself for how much longer it was going to last. She came in and checked me and I was at a 9. Yay!! She went to get the doctor and while she was gone I got this major urge to push so I started pressing the nurse call buttons and yelling into it, "I have to push! I have to push NOW!" I sent Brian to get them as well, and luckily they were right down the hall because I couldn't wait one second longer. It was pretty intense, but once I started pushing not 5 minutes later I was laughing and crying and looking at this sweet face. He was born at 1:09am.

What an amazing experience it was. I was so grateful to have Brian there with me. He was wonderful... and had bleeding fingernail marks in his hand to prove it! Oops.

Proud daddy!

The kids meeting baby brother for the first time.

The girls!

The boys! Miles was a bit more interested in the tv show that was on...

Sometimes I can't believe they are all mine.
Checking out turned out to be a looong process because my pediatrician's office didn't have someone there to check Wesley out. We waited in our room from 10:30 until 1:00 until they finally decided to use one of their in-house doctors to check Wesley out so we could go. My mom ended up extending her ticket and my mother-in-law came in on Monday so we got to have both the grandma's with us for a few days after.

Love him

Our new little love...

And our family of six...

Wesley is such a good baby and we are all in love with this new member of our family. We are spending lots of time getting to know him and enjoying his sweet newborn self.

Introducing...

Wesley Cordell Phillips

8 pounds 1 ounce

21.5 inches long
September 20th 1:09 am

We are so excited our little guy is here! Ten days late but worth the wait.
Mom and baby are both doing great.

growing up and growing out!

The other night Sophie came out of bed and brought me a tissue and the needle-nose pliers and asked me to pull out her top tooth. This tooth has been loose since May and was finally ready to be pulled! Brian pulled this one out and it popped right out. So we are saying hello to a new phase for Sophie. Where is my little girl? Now we have a girl who is getting her grown up teeth, liking Taylor Swift songs and trading Silly Banz at school. She is growing up.

And here's me - still growing out! I'm 41 weeks today and still no baby. However, I went to the doctor yesterday and I am calling the hospital tonight at 4 and if they can fit me in I will be induced tonight at 6pm. I have mixed feelings about it. I would be willing to wait a few more days because I just keep thinking that my body should go into labor on it's own since I've done it before, but my mom is leaving on Monday and she needs to spend some time with this baby before she has to leave. So we may be getting a baby tonight! Yay! I really haven't wanted to be induced but I hear it isn't so bad if your overdue. I guess my body just wants to try everything... I had a c-section with Sophie, a VBAC and epidural with Nora and a natural birth with Miles. Now I get to see what an induction is like! At yesterdays appointment I was dilated to a 2 so that was good because with my previous c-section they couldn't induce me if I wasn't making progress. So we may finally get to meet our little late-comer!

Happy Birthday!

In case the title of the post misled you into thinking it was our baby's birthday - sorry! (Okay, so I meant to trick you. Haha. But I might as well get some sort of pleasure out of being overdue!) Today is Brian's birthday and even though the birthday celebrations aren't as awesome as usual considering we are all anxious for baby to come, I had to post what a lucky family we are to have Brian in it! He is an awesome husband and father. I truly couldn't ask for anything more... I've had a crush on him since I was 13 years old and love him more every day. Our kids are so blessed to have him as a dad. He is funny, patient, loving and all around wonderful!
Happy Birthday Brian.
I'm really hoping to take him on a deluxe overnight stay at the hospital tonight for his birthday!

Hoping...

that this is the last picture of our family of 5!

School Kids & Happy Due Date!!

On Tuesday the girls had their first day of school! Sophie was ready and Nora was a little nervous because she didn't know what to expect... but they are both really enjoying it so far. Both of them have wonderful teachers and I think they'll have a great year!

Ready to walk to school with the neighbors - not the two on the sides of course.

Our second grader. I remember loving 2nd grade so I hope Sophie does, too!

Nora got eased in to the full day program. The first day was an open house where I took her for an hour or so and we found her locker, cubby, table, etc. The next day she had 1/2 day and on Thursday she stayed all day. It is so strange not to have her with me but she is really loving kindergarten {so far} so I am happy for her to be learning and growing.

This was the first full day they had where they walked with dad to school.
How I love my three school kids! :)

Today is baby's "due date" so we are patiently waiting for him/her to be ready to join our family! I am feeling good - excepting for some crazy sharp pains in my thigh/groin area when baby is being active. Otherwise all is well. I have a doctors appointment scheduled for Thursday but am hoping I won't need to keep it! My mom came on Wednesday so we are enjoying having her here to help us out and spoil the kids!

The weekend

We had an eventful weekend. Friday afternoon I took the kids to fly kites at a nearby hill. We were planning on meeting Brian there - but he called and said he'd just lost the file that he'd been working on all day long and had to completely start over. Yuck. We were all pretty sad about that. The kite flying didn't turn out as we all had hoped. The wind was too crazy so the kites wouldn't stay up. Nora's got tangled up about 400 times and Sophie's got caught in a tree so I ended up having to lift her up into it and we eventually got it down. And Miles lasted about one minute with his kite... but it was nice to get out and do something together anyway! And there were moments of fun, like these:

We had a barbecue/camp-out with the neighborhood on Friday night and had a good time making s'mores and playing in the backyard. The girls were sad they didn't get to sleep in the tent with Brian, but it was a bit rainy and he didn't get back until later because of the extra work he ended up having to do. But they forgave him quickly, see:

Miles started running a fever on Friday night and Brian and I each got to spend some time with him throughout the night.... On Saturday I decided to take Miles to the Instacare since it was the weekend and with the baby coming (hopefully) this week I wanted to make sure if he needed antibiotics we got it taken care of quickly. My neighbor Ruth took the girls and I took Miles down to the doctor. And I am glad I did because he has a respiratory infection and needed antibiotics. He was a miserable little boy! I took him to the store to get his prescription and while we waited I took him back to the toys to let him pick out a car. He just laid on my shoulder and said no to every toy I asked him if he wanted! It was so sad. I set him down to look at the toys and he just laid down on the store floor. Poor boy. So we went home and I put him in bed with a movie. Saturday night didn't get much better and Sophie also started running a fever. Sunday morning Nora also wasn't feeling so well so we kept all the kids home from church while Brian and I swapped going to meetings. The girls gave Miles lots of loving:

I am happy to say that today they are all feeling much better and Miles slept much better last night. Hooray! So now we are ready for the baby to come! In fact, when I saw this picture I realized just how very ready I look:

Wow! But I will be okay with waiting a bit longer because tomorrow the girls start school and Wednesday my mom is coming out! It's hard to believe that soon we will have a new member of our family. We are so excited to meet him or her!