"Welcome Brother Shark Bait"

It's taken me a little while to get this post together. I guess I don't have as much time on my hands at the moment as I did a few days ago :) but I'm ok with that. Anyways, our sweet little boy, Ivan Erastus Swan, came to join our family on Wednesday March 18th at 7:36pm, after 3 hours and 16 minutes of labor. I'll have to see who won the guessing game later. But I wanted to post some pictures and my journal entry of his birth story. So here it is, enjoy.

Saturday March 21 2009

Wednesday, March 18th at about 9:30am I had to call Aaron at work. No, it wasn’t the phone call saying I was in labor that he was expecting. While I was doing my hair, Lincoln had locked himself in our bedroom. Why the bedroom door of our apartment has a keyed lock on it (as opposed to one of those dinky bathroom ones with the hole you can stick a sucker stick through to unlock), I have no idea. Supposedly the bedroom lock is supposed to be able to be unlocked with our house key, but I could not for the life of me make it work. I tried everything I could think of to get the door open, including my credit card, and trying to talk Lincoln into unlocking the door. Nothing worked. I ran up to the apartment manager’s place, but they were not home. So, I gave Aaron a call. He agreed that we couldn’t just leave Lincoln locked in the bedroom for an indefinite amount of time until the landlord got home to help, so he came home. He tried all the things he could think of, and nothing worked. Eventually, after Lincoln had been locked in the room (luckily he was happy) for about an hour, Aaron decided that the only thing left to do was kick the door down. We made sure Lincoln was out of the way by using a mirror to look underneath the door. He was sitting in our office chair rocking back and forth. Then Aaron kicked the door down. Now we have a nice big hole in the door next to the door knob. But at least Lincoln was out. Then Aaron biked back to school.

I had a doctor’s appointment at 5:20pm that day, and I was really hoping it would be my last one. Aaron came home around 4:00pm from school. I was feeling kind of weird. Almost nauseous, and a little light-headed, so I was lying on the couch. I got up to go to the bathroom and noticed that I was spotting a little bit. I decided to call the doctor and see if this was something to be worried about or if it could wait until my appointment in an hour. The nurse told me it was ok to wait. Right after that, at 4:20pm, I had my first contraction. It wasn’t painful, just uncomfortable. The next one didn’t come for 20 minutes, and the next one came in 17 minutes. We decided that they weren’t close enough together yet to take action and decided to go to my doctor’s appointment and see what they said. We did pack my hospital bag and Lincoln’s overnight back in the car with us when we went just in case.

While waiting at the doctor’s office, the contractions got closer and closer together, but still not anything to get really excited about. When Dr. Jacobs came in they were coming about 5 minutes apart, but they still weren’t as painful as I remember them being. He examined me and said I was dilated to a 6 and I was definitely in labor and we should head over to the hospital and get checked in.

We called my mom so she could be on her way down. We called Aunt Debby to meet us at the hospital so she could take Lincoln home with her. The whole time I was having contractions, but I was able to relax and handle them pretty well, so it wasn’t too bad being in the car. I was even able to hold Lincoln (he didn’t want Aaron to hold him for some reason) while we waited for Debby in the parking lot.

Once Lincoln and Debby drove off, Aaron and I walked into the hospital, went up the elevator and checked in. It was so much calmer than my entrance to the hospital to deliver Lincoln. Our nurse’s name was Heather, and she was so nice. I changed into my hospital gown and went over and laid down on the bed. She put the IV in and talked to me the whole time. She was very accepting and encouraging about us wanting to have the baby naturally (a lot of nurses and doctors are not). She was friendly and talkative between contractions and left us a lone to relax and do our thing when the contractions hit until they were finished.

Aaron was a wonderful coach. He would rub my feet when there wasn’t a contraction and then when I told him one was coming on, he would come up by my head and hold my hand and talk to me about relaxing and breathing. I think I did a lot better with the relaxation/breathing part this time. I didn’t feel so panicked every time a contraction came on, and I didn’t hyperventilate like I did when Lincoln was being born. Contractions stayed pretty steady at 3 minutes apart for about an hour or so. Then Dr. Jacobs came in around 7:20 pm and broke my water. He felt my tummy with his hands and estimated that he would probably be around the high 6 low 7 pound range. Smaller than Lincoln was. This sounded like good news to me.

All of the sudden things got really intense. The pain of the contractions went up about 5 notches, and the pressure of the baby beginning to come out was unbelievable. My resolve to have the baby naturally kind of caved at this point. I think because I didn’t know how much longer it was going to take and I didn’t know if I could do it with this much pain and pressure. I asked for the pain medicine that they can put in the IV. But Heather, Dr. Jacobs, and Aaron were wonderful, they told me that I was really almost there, that if they did the pain medicine now they would have to call in a respiratory team for the baby, and that they knew I could finish this. They were very encouraging, and I am grateful for that. So we went on with no pain medicine. And then I started pushing. For some reason I had it in my mind that the pushing part would be a lot easier this time. Well, I was very wrong.

Up until this point Heather and Dr. Jacobs had commented several times how calm I was and how I seemed to be handling the pain so well and they couldn’t believe I was doing so well. As soon as I started pushing, I’m sure they changed their minds. I probably would have been embarrassed actually, if I hadn’t been hurting so bad. But I felt all my calm and all my relaxation just melt away. I was whimpering and then when the contraction would hit and I felt the enormous urge to push, I would scream. Aaron said it was a lot louder than when I screamed delivering Lincoln. And afterwards my throat was pretty raw and dry. Pushing…how can I describe it this time? With Lincoln it felt like I was trying to poop out a cannon ball. This time it was so much different. You know those really thick plastic bags that hold candy and stuff? And they are so hard to rip open and once you use all the force to open them then all the candy comes bursting out and goes everywhere? I think it felt like I was one of those plastic bags and we were trying to rip me open to get the baby out. Lincoln came out in one push, and then it was over. Not this time. Dr. Jacobs would tell me when to push, Heather would walk me through it, saying not to scream but to use that energy and put it into the push, then she tell me to take a big breath, and then push and then breath…etc. She was very helpful in helping me to concentrate on what I was trying to do. Aaron, bless his heart, got to hold me hand. I’m surprised he has any of his hand left, I’m sure I squeezed so hard. And after each push he would tell me what he could see, the top of the babies head, the whole head, the shoulders, etc. That was very helpful to me because then I knew I was making progress. To me, not being able to see what was going on down there, it just felt like I would push and push and there was still so much pressure.

The funny thing about having a baby though, is that as soon as his shoulders were out, the pressure was gone, and the pain went down to a bearable level almost instantly. The rest of the babies body and the amniotic sack and all the rest of that stuff that comes out with it, just feels like a really slippery gooey thing sliding right out of you. I could see my baby, sort of, through the nurses that had taken him to weigh him. I found out then that I’d had an episiotomy, and apparently a pretty big one, since it required 6 stitches. (The one I got when I had Lincoln only required 2.) Maybe that would explain the ripping sensation.

But it didn’t matter any more. My little Ivan was here! He was born at 7:36pm, approximately 10 minutes after the doctor broke my water. Turns out he was a big guy. 8 pounds 2 ounces 20 inches long. They kept asking me where I’d been hiding him, they were so sure he was going to be small. He must’ve had as rough a time (or worse) coming out, as I had of getting him out, because his poor little face was once big purple bruise. He also had a little bit of a cone head. So at first glance he looked a little scary/alienish. But to me he was an adorable baby. He had tons of brown hair, and he peeked open his little blue eyes and looked right at me while I held him. And right away he nursed. I really didn’t have to coax him or anything, I just offered and he accepted and it went really well.

I would have liked to get more pictures, but our camera battery died. But we did manage to get a few first thing. I remember, I just kept looking at him and saying, “I did it, I did it!” over and over again. We got to have him for about an hour after he was born before the nurses took him to get him washed up. My mom came during that time, and so she got to hold him before he was even clean. Then they came to take him to get clean and they had Aaron go along with them to the nursery. They got me cleaned up and into my room.

It amazes me how much the Lord knows each one of us and exactly what we need. During the last month I’d been so stressed out about how things were going to go with this delivery as far as getting to the hospital. I was worried that I wouldn’t be able to get a hold of Aaron, or that for some reason we wouldn’t be able to get to the hospital on time. I worried that we wouldn’t have anyone to take Lincoln (even though we had about 40 different plans of what to do with him in all sorts of situations) or that my labor would be so fast that we wouldn’t have time to do anything, and on and on. And I prayed so many times that everything would work out. And it did. It turned out better than I could have planned it. Not only was Aaron home, but he didn’t have to miss any school or work to take me to the hospital. My labor was slow enough and mild enough that we were able to get Lincoln to Aunt Debby without any trouble. Also, I remember during labor praying that I would be able to do it and that when it got to the hard part I would have the confidence and strength to make it through. The Lord answered that prayer through other people. When I got weak and unsure of myself, I had an encouraging nurse, a smart doctor, and the most wonderful and loving husband a girl could ask for, sitting right there with me helping me get through the last stages. I am so grateful for my blessings and the Lord’s love for me.

Ivan had quite a few visitors during our stay at the hospital. Uncle Kelly came about an hour after he was born and brought Aaron and I chicken sandwiches and a chocolate milkshake from The Malt Shop. It was SOOO NICE to have real food for dinner instead of the hospital food. Then an hour or so later Uncle Ryan came by. He took some pictures of the three of us. We were really grateful for that too because our camera battery had died and we didn’t have very many pictures. The next day my mom and Lincoln came to see us. Lincoln was so cute. He came in the room and looked at me holding Ivan, and said, “Baby?” and I said, yes this is baby Ivan, come see him. Lincoln toddled around to the side of my bed and got a big grin on his face and pointed at Ivan and said, “My baby!” It was adorable. I had Linc come sit on the bed by me and he showed me that Ivan had toes and fingers and eyes and ears and hair and a nose. He pointed to all of them and said each one. I wish we would have gotten that on video it was so cute. Our good friends Danny and Suzy Park and their little boy Nathan came by around 6:00pm and brought us a pizza for dinner. It hit the perfect spot. It tasted SOOO GOOD! What can I say I really don’t like hospital food, and even if I did they don’t give you enough to keep a flee alive. I mean come on, I just had a baby, I’m starving for crying out loud! Mom and Lincoln also came back in the evening, and mom brought her camera so we got a few pictures of the boys together. Later in the evening Whitney and Kirk came to visit and brought us some delicious cookies and an awesome balloon that said It’s A Boy! on it. I thought that was great, no one had ever brought me a balloon for a special occasion before (ok maybe a birthday, but that doesn’t really count). Friday morning Bryan and Emily and Penelope came to visit while we were waiting to get checked out. Emily also brought her camera, and so we got some more darling pictures of Ivan. I was glad about that too, because his bruised face was starting to heal and he was getting cuter by the minute.

It took us forever to get checked out. The doctor had told us he’d be in between 9:00-10:00am but didn’t get there until about 2:00pm. We were really anxious to get home. It always feels so much better to be at your own home. We did finally manage to get home around 3:00pm. It was fun to be together as a little family of four. It’s still so hard to believe that Aaron and I are the parents of two little boys. It’s also amazing how much we love them both. Now I guess the real fun begins.

Time to Make Your Guesses

Ok folks, since I STILL haven't had this baby yet, we are going to play the same game we played with Lincoln. We're taking guesses. We want to know:

1. What day you think Ivan will be born

2. How much you think he will weigh

3. How long you think he will be

4. Number of hours you think I'll be in labor (just to clarify, that's from first contraction to birth).

Here's a little bit of information that may or may not help you make your guestimations. My due date is March 24th. I am currently dilated to 3 centimeters. Lincoln came 10 days early, weighed 7 pounds 7 ounces, and was 20 inches long. My labor with Lincoln was 2 and 1/2 hours start to finish. So there you go...your guess is as good as ours!

Book Review: The Phantom of the Opera

by Gaston Leroux

My review rating: 3 of 5 stars
I originally got this book for Aaron for Christmas, because he likes the movie so much, but he hasn't had time to read it, so I picked it up about two days ago. It's about 300 pages and an easy read, it probably took me 10 hours or less over the course of two days to read it.

It was a little different than the movie which I liked. It took a little longer for the love story to unfold, but they probaby had to scrunch it down in the movie to make it fit in a reasonable amount of time. It had mostly the same characters as the movie, with a few extra; the main one being the Persian. I really liked the role he played in the book. I thought it added a lot to the story. Also in the book you get a lot more background about the Phantom, which I also liked. And, at the end of the book, it explains how he managed to accomplish all his tricks, which I liked, because it made them more believable. In the movie I find myself disliking and pitying the Phantom. In the book I dislike him and pity him even more, probably because I learned a lot more about him.

I wasn't super fond of the way the author chose to narrate the book. He did it from his own point of view as if he had been researching the mysterious "Opera Ghost" and was publishing his findings. I felt like a third person omnitiant narrator would have been a lot better. I also didn't really like the charactors of Raoul and Christine that much. They seemed really flat to me. And of course, when reading a book you don't get to hear all the beautiful music the way you do in the movie, which I felt left the book a little lacking.

So, I think it's safe to say that this is the ONLY instance I can think of where I actually like the movie better than the book. However, I did enjoy reading the book, I thought it added a lot to the story, and I would recommend it. Good, clean fun!

Book Review: The Secret Life of Bees

The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd

My review

rating: 2 of 5 stars

I finally picked this book back up and reread it. (I as assigned to read it once for a class and never finished.) It's around 200 pages, and a very easy read. Only took me about 6 hours.

I thought the book was ok. It's set in the 1950's or so, against a back drop of the civil rights movement. It's about a white girl, Lily, whose mother died when she was 4. Her father isn't very nice to her, so she runs away with her nanny, a black woman who has recently gotten in trouble with the law while registering to vote, to a town she knew her mother had been to. The end up staying with 3 black sisters who keep bees. While staying there, Lily learns about her past, and about herself. This part of the book I liked. I think the emotional stages she goes through while finding herself are very realistic to what all of us go through at some point or another. So it's easy to relate to Lily in that way. I also liked the civil rights backdrop and thought it added a lot of interesting insight to the story and what it was like to be in the South at that time.

In the book, the black sisters have their own little church, in which they worship the Black Madonna (aka Mary, the mother of Jesus, as a black person). I've had a lot of people ask me if I think the book is sacrilegious because of this. My answer is no, I do not think that. Yes, the religion and its practices are very different from what I believe, but I don't think reading about this religion is any different than reading about any other religion that believes something different than what I do. I didn't think anything they portrayed was offensive or anything like that, just different. I did think that the author spent a lot of time on the religious part, which isn't a bad thing, but it was kind of boring for me. Which is why I only gave the book two stars. But all in all it was a good read. It has some foul language, and some potty language, but other than that pretty clean.

View all my reviews.

The Publicity Dilemma

I got this article off the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saint's Newsroom website. I've never heard of the show Big Love before, but I liked what this article had to say about handling negative publicity about the Church in general. Anyways, read it and see for yourself what you think.


SALT LAKE CITY 9 March 2009 Like other large faith groups, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints sometimes finds itself on the receiving end of attention from Hollywood or Broadway, television series or books, and the news media. Sometimes depictions of the Church and its people are quite accurate. Sometimes the images are false or play to stereotypes. Occasionally, they are in appallingly bad taste.
As Catholics, Jews and Muslims have known for centuries, such attention is inevitable once an institution or faith group reaches a size or prominence sufficient to attract notice. Yet Latter-day Saints – sometimes known as Mormons - still wonder whether and how they should respond when news or entertainment media insensitively trivialize or misrepresent sacred beliefs or practices.
Church members are about to face that question again. Before the first season of the HBO series Big Love aired more than two years ago, the show’s creators and HBO executives assured the Church that the series wouldn’t be about Mormons. However, Internet references to Big Love indicate that more and more Mormon themes are now being woven into the show and that the characters are often unsympathetic figures who come across as narrow and self-righteous. And according to TV Guide, it now seems the show’s writers are to depict what they understand to be sacred temple ceremonies.
Certainly Church members are offended when their most sacred practices are misrepresented or presented without context or understanding. Last week some Church members began e-mail chains calling for cancellations of subscriptions to AOL, which, like HBO, is owned by Time Warner. Certainly such a boycott by hundreds of thousands of computer-savvy Latter-day Saints could have an economic impact on the company. Individual Latter-day Saints have the right to take such actions if they choose.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints as an institution does not call for boycotts. Such a step would simply generate the kind of controversy that the media loves and in the end would increase audiences for the series. As Elder M. Russell Ballard and Elder Robert D. Hales of the Council of the Twelve Apostles have both said recently, when expressing themselves in the public arena, Latter-day Saints should conduct themselves with dignity and thoughtfulness.
Not only is this the model that Jesus Christ taught and demonstrated in his own life, but it also reflects the reality of the strength and maturity of Church members today. As someone recently said, “This isn’t 1830, and there aren’t just six of us anymore.” In other words, with a global membership of thirteen and a half million there is no need to feel defensive when the Church is moving forward so rapidly. The Church’s strength is in its faithful members in 170-plus countries, and there is no evidence that extreme misrepresentations in the media that appeal only to a narrow audience have any long-term negative effect on the Church.
Examples:
During the Mitt Romney election campaign for the presidency of the United States, commentator Lawrence O’Donnell hurled abuse at the Church in a television moment that became known among many Church members as “the O’Donnell rant.” Today, his statements are remembered only as a testament to intolerance and ignorance. They had no effect on the Church that can be measured.
When the comedy writers for South Park produced a gross portrayal of Church history, individual Church members no doubt felt uncomfortable. But once again it inflicted no perceptible or lasting damage to a church that is growing by at least a quarter of a million new members every year.
When an independent film company produced a grossly distorted version of the Mountain Meadows Massacre two years ago, the Church ignored it. Perhaps partly as a result of that refusal to engender the controversy that the producers hoped for, the movie flopped at the box office and lost millions.
In recent months, some gay activists have barraged the media with accusations about “hateful” attitudes of Latter-day Saints in supporting Proposition 8 in California, which maintained the traditional definition of marriage. They even organized a protest march around the Salt Lake Temple. Again, the Church has refused to be goaded into a Mormons versus gays battle and has simply stated its position in tones that are reasonable and respectful. Meanwhile, missionary work and Church members in California remain as robust and vibrant as ever, and support for the Church has come from many unexpected quarters — including some former critics and other churches.
Now comes another series of Big Love, and despite earlier assurances from HBO it once again blurs the distinctions between The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and the show’s fictional non-Mormon characters and their practices. Such things say much more about the insensitivities of writers, producers and TV executives than they say about Latter-day Saints.
If the Church allowed critics and opponents to choose the ground on which its battles are fought, it would risk being distracted from the focus and mission it has pursued successfully for nearly 180 years. Instead, the Church itself will determine its own course as it continues to preach the restored gospel of Jesus Christ throughout the world.

Crib Bedding

I did it! I finally, FINALLY, finished Lincoln's dust ruffle for his crib. It turned out pretty well I think. Here is a shot of the whole bed, so far, with his matching pillow case and fitted sheet. I still have to make the blanket that will take the place of the fish one he has in there now.

Here is the up-close-and-personal view of the dust ruffle.

On an angle.

Also, for FHE tonight we decided to start getting Ivan's room ready. We moved the computer desk out of the study (which will be Ivan's room) and into our bedroom, took the night stand out of our room and put it in Ivan's room. Then we took the changing table out of Lincoln's room and put it in Ivan's room, since Lincoln doesn't hold still enough to be changed on the changing table any more we figured Ivan would get more use out of it. Then there was a gaping hole in Lincoln's room where the changing table used to be, so we decided to rearrange Lincoln's room. This is a picture of how Lincoln's room turned out. His dresser is on the wall next to the crib, you just can't see it in this picture. The thing you can see, with all the books on top, is a book case, it's where the dresser used to be. Lincoln's room is the only one with a picture because it's the only one that's finished. Well, our room is I guess, but it was a mess :) and Ivan's room still has a lot of work before it will be ready for the little guy. But we made a start, and that's the important thing. Now the only dilemma I have is I'm not sure what to do with the rocking chair. I really want Lincoln's room to have a chair in it, because we read stories in there all the time, but I also really want a chair in Ivan's room because I get the feeling I'll be spending a lot of time in there during the late night hours and I'll want somewhere to sit. I keep telling Aaron I need to get a Papasan chair for one of the rooms (probably Lincoln's) but he doesn't believe me yet that it's a need and not a want. Guess I'll have to keep trying, eh? :)