Luke's Birth Story

It's crazy to me that it has been almost 6 weeks since Luke has joined our family! We are still trying to figure things out with him but overall he is an easier baby than Mason. Maybe that means the next kid will be even easier?? I can dream lol.

I wrote things down in my phone as they were happening in the hospital; it was a whirlwind of a day/night. I woke up at 4am that morning to use the bathroom, and realized my entire body was INCREDIBLY sore. Like, imagine you had worked out HARD for the first time in a long time, full body, and you can't move. That's how I felt. I couldn't use my arms to push myself out of bed or roll over. I fell back asleep until about 6:30, and was still super sore, but couldn't fall back asleep, so I got out of bed around 7 and started working. I mean, I still had a bunch of time to kill before I had to be at the hospital at 1 that afternoon. I worked for an hour and a half, and was too tired to focus on the screen. So I watch Friends for a few hours to kill more time. Ironically, it was the end of season 8 where Rachel is pregnant/giving birth. Fitting for my day later!

I called my OB's office around 9;30 and asked if I should come in early because I was feeling so crappy. Of course, it was the awful terrible nurse that answered the phone, and after putting me on hold, she told me to wait until they had me scheduled. FINE! I cried then watched more Friends. Sean made me a quesadilla for lunch, and at 12:30 we left, dropped Mason off at Sean's parents' house, and went to the hospital! At this point I was in a much better mood, although I still ached all over.

They got me into my room, and about 1:30, my nurse Kacy did my IV, and at 2pm nurse Lori started the pitocin. I was at a 2+ at this point, not quite a 3. At 3;30, the nurse anesthetist came in and did my epidural, and she, the nurses, and Sean and I were all cracking jokes. It was such a relief to be able to have humor abounding at this point. After I got the epidural working, they tried upping the pitocin levels, but baby did not like that. His heart rate kept dropping. At this point I was like, really? This is turning into Mason's delivery all over again! At 4pm they checked me again, I was at a 4. Slow progress, but progress nonetheless.

Around this point, Jenny showed up with food for Sean, and hung around for the delivery. She is a great cheerleader for anyone interested lol.

Right after that, I started getting really shaky. They put like 3 heated blankets on me and checked my temperature. It was over 100 degrees, and probably had been all day. They gave me Tylenol at 4:30. At 6, I got a new nurse, Jen. She checked me at 7 and I was at a 5. They started me on two different antibiotics at this point through my IV to help with the fever, and to get it in my system so it got into baby's system as well before he was born. I also ended up rolled over to my right side, and his heart rate stabilized after that.

Shortly after they checked me, I started to feel pretty much EVERYTHING that was going on. I squeezed Sean's hand so hard with every contraction. The nurse anesthetist finally was able to come back in and give me a huge new dose, and by 8 I was hardly feeling anything again. Hooray!

But it didn't last long. Within 30 minutes I started feeling like I needed to push. We paged Jen, and she came in with another nurse, and I was at a 10! I had fully dilated that whole time my epidural wasn't working. No wonder I was hurting! Through the fever, contractions, and stuffy nose (yay pregnancy congestion) I was miserable, so when they told me I was at a 10 I was so happy! They called my doctor, started setting everything up, and started making bets on when baby would be born. I started pushing around 9:20, and after 3-4 pushes, he was born at 9:40pm, as guessed by Jenny! The cleaned him up and did the APGAR test and all the other things they do, and then put him on my chest for skin to skin. Love that!!

Luke Thomas Parker - 12/30/15 - 7 lbs 11 oz. 20 inches long.

My rock and my cheerleader. Love them both so much!

The fun did not stop there. Luke was totally fine, but I still had a fever, and kept going between hot flashes and severe chills. They took Luke to the nursery, and Sean went with him, Jenny stayed with me and held my hand through some of the most violent, severe chills I have ever had. At one point I think my fever was almost 104. Finally things settled down, Sean came back to the room, Jenny went home, and they brought me manna from heaven, the first meal I'd eaten in 12+ hours. I know it's just a crappy deli sandwich but it is the best when you have been through childbirth. I could go for another one right now...

Anyway, Sean went home around midnight or 1, and I tried to get some sleep. Luckily Luke did really well with breastfeeding, and after he finished he went right back to the nursery. The nurse had to keep coming in to check on my fever and uterus and bleeding, so I didn't sleep a whole ton that night.

My day nurse was Raiden. She was awesome. I told her about the day before, and what all hurt (hemorrhoids...) and she ran into my bathroom, and said "You don't have a tub! You need a tub. I'm going to switch you rooms!" And she did! My fever would always come back as my Percocet was wearing off, so I went through a lot more hot/cold flashes, though none as severe as right after Luke was born. Raiden was awesome and would bring me heated blankets to help warm me up. My night nurse that night was Sheryl, and I slept a little better that night. The next day, my nurse was Vickie then Wendy (there weren't a lot of people there so Vickie got to go home). That afternoon, while Carly and Bryce were visiting, my temperature spiked again, The on-call OB came in and switched my antibiotic from Mefloxin to a combination of Ampicillin, Gentimicin, and Clindamycin, and that started doing the trick.They all kept apologizing "sorry you have to stay an extra night" and I was like "Uh, I'm kinda on vacation right now even though I'm sick, so no worries!"

Carly is like 35ish weeks pregnant in this picture. Baby Grant kept kicking Luke, like, "Hey man, that's MY mom!!"

My night nurse was Jodie. I was telling her about how badly my IV was hurting, and she finally switched it to my other hand for me. That was a huge relief! Before she switched it, I could hardly hold Luke to nurse him. My day nurse was Raiden again, yay! I went all day without a fever so finally I was able to go home! We left the hospital around 6:15pm and started our life as a family of 4!

Christmas 2015

We had a pretty easy going Christmas this year. Being great with child, I didn't want to travel far for anything. A few days before Christmas, my sisters came over, and Jenny spoiled Mason and Oakley with some really cute stuff! She is the best aunt ever :) Mason got two shirts, a pair of boots, and a cute little stick dragon to ride around on. Or in his case, carry high above his head and make it "RAWR!" at you ;)

On actual Christmas, we woke up and did stockings and Santa. Mason got a scooter and a couple shirts from us, play dough in his stocking. From my parents he got a wooden train set, a book about dinosaurs, slippers, and a dinosaur apron.

Then around 1030 we headed over to Sean's brothers house to do Christmas presents with his family. Mason got new pajamas, a cool tractor, cowboy boots, a car mat, and a little Toothless figurine that he pretty much takes everywhere with him. He loves it. He also got Dinosaur Train dinosaurs and a train set to go with them. We had quite the dino Christmas!

We came home for lunch and naps, and then for dinner headed up to Sean's parents. I made a caramel apple wreath, and it was SO GOOD! I think I had a whole apple to myself, and I only did two apples. I thought I saw the idea on Pinterest but I couldn't find it! So I'll pretend I made it up.

A couple weeks before Christmas, we made it up to Temple Square with the youth in our ward to go see the lights! Mason liked pointing out the ball that Moroni stands on lol.

I also did a few homemade Christmas gifts this year! I made this owl pillow for my sister-in-law, Becca, and did the blanket for my sister-in-law, Jenna.

And as a side note/memo to my future pregnant self, Christmas music that talks about Christ (Mary, Did You Know and others like it) make me bawl like a baby. I haven't cried this much listening to Christmas music ever.

We are blessed!

This has been an incredible, yet stressful, year for our family. But from all of the stress and heartache we have felt have come some very real and amazing blessings. I am so thankful to my Heavenly Father for all He has done for is this past year.

When Sean and I got married, we spent years, literally, trying to decide what career path he would follow after graduation. We knew he wanted to do something in the medical field, but he had so many different interests. Shortly after we were married, he got a job as a physical therapy tech and a prosthetist/orthetist tech, and was able to experience what both those career options would be. After a lot of consideration and prayer, both those options were off the table. He also thought about med school and PA school, but after taking a Medical Professions class at BYU, didn't like the idea of PA. So we settled (I use that word lightly, because it wasn't really a decision) on med school, but it never sounded right. We fasted, prayed, and went to the temple a lot with this question in mind. It wasn't until 2.5 years after we were married that we decided a decision needed to be made. And that once we made that decision and moved forward Heavenly Father would guide us as to whether that was right or not. So we decided on med school. And after about a week felt like that was wrong, that PA was the way we should go.

Fast forward to this year, when we were actually ready to start applying for PA school. I had spent hours compiling a list of possible schools for us to apply to and we narrowed it down to 9. Nine applications, 6 offered interviews (so far), 5 accepted and attended interviews, 3 acceptances, 1 wait list, and a $10,000 scholarship offer later, we are so excited to say we know where we will be going for PA school! We will be attending UC Davis' PA program and Sean couldn't be more excited about the 4 day class week. The fact that once we decided on PA school, everything came so easy after that (it really was super easy to get everything done), and interviews were offered much earlier than anticipated (we really thought Sean would be flying all over the country after Christmas, leaving me with two kids and little help while he was gone).  But his interviews were all in September and October, and I was able to spend time with Kelly and her family (thanks again you guys!) to pass the time while he was gone. And, getting accepted and knowing where we will be going before baby comes was an even bigger blessing to me. This really confirmed to me that Heavenly Father answered our prayers, definitely not in our timing, but the way that would be best for us, and I can say I know we made the right decision.

Sean officially graduated from BYU last December, and after Christmas it was time for him to find a full time job. He started applying for jobs, and sent his resume to a random physical therapy office in Springville. They weren't hiring at the time but he got a call a couple days later asking him to come in for an interview. He was offered the job after talking to the head guy for about 2 minutes, and has been working there since! His schedule is crazy (7-5 MWF and 7-12 TTh) but we love it, especially Mason, since Sean has two afternoons off during the week. It will be great in the upcoming months as well because he will be able to volunteer at the Provo City Center Open House while that is running!

Right around the time Sean started his new job, I miscarried at 6 weeks pregnant. I was so excited for baby number 2, and it came as a total and complete shock to me. I was so upset for weeks, and it took us another few months to get pregnant again. From that though, I found out that I had a few ovarian cysts (a couple had already popped), which I would never had known had I not miscarried. I am currently cyst free thanks to being pregnant, and the other two cysts popping earlier this year (worst. pain. ever.).

We have been really lucky to live close to family while we have been in Utah. Sean's whole family lives here, and I have a lot of cousins. Kelly has really spoiled me by giving me tons of baby clothes, and now all the baby things they don't need anymore (exersaucer, high chair, johnny jumper, etc.) for the rest of our kids to use. Sean's mom and sister offer LOTS of free babysitting for us to go to the temple or out for a date night. My parents and sister spoil Mason with clothes (his entire 2T wardrobe consists of stuff bought by my mom and sister, or were hand-me-downs from Kelly's boys). I am so lucky to be so watched over in regards to Mason.

I have been working for Career Step since September 2008, since I graduated college (minus a 2 month break when Mason was 4-5 months old, then they asked if I could come back). In that time I have had a lot of different positions and responsibilities, and most recently have been helping with extensions for people needing more time for their course. While I am sometimes jealous of moms with one kid who got to always take naps when their kid napped, most of the time I am grateful for something to keep me busy, while providing necessary income for our family. Recently we have been wondering how we were going to make ends meet when baby came and I needed some time off, but at our company Christmas party, we found out that all employees were going to receive a $1000 bonus, and part time employees (me!) were going to get paid holidays finally! I almost started bawling my eyes out right there with 250 people in the room. You bet I went up to the CEO after and gave him a hug and thanked him, and let him know what a huge blessing that would be to our little family.

On December 30, baby Luke decided to join our family! And babies are just a wonderful blessing. His birth blog post talks about everything, but he came safe and sound despite me being very sick.

All in all, it has been a whirlwind of a year. I can't say it has been my favorite year, but we have been richly blessed in more ways than we probably even know. I am excited to see what 2016 brings our family!