Oslo's Birth Story

He's here! And I am so grateful and relieved that he is. But let me start at the beginning. On Saturday, July 27th, Aaron and I spent the morning getting some things finished in Adelia's room. We hung up her mirror and I helped her organize her dresser drawers, and we hung gold polka dot decal stickers on her wall. We're trying to make her room more comfortable and snug, we've been working on it a little at a time all summer. Anyways, once we'd done all that, I was laying on my bed taking a break and putting my feet up so they didn't swell. Then I had a contraction. It didn't hurt, but it was strong enough, that I was pretty sure it wasn't a Braxton Hicks. Then I had another one. After the third one I decided to start timing them and let Aaron know. I didn't feel like it was time to go yet, so we got our hospital bag ready and went from room to room picking up and straightening things so the house would be clean for Aaron's parents if they ended up needing to come over. Contractions were consistent for about an hour, but stopped except that I was having a lot of lower back pain, so I think it more likely that I was probably just having back labor. But, thinking that contractions had stopped I sat down on the couch to rest. Within a minute or two they had started again. We decided to call Aaron's mom and let her know there was a potential that we would need her to come down. We cleaned a few more things. We decided to call the hospital and fill out the admissions paper work over the phone. While Aaron was on the phone, contractions got stronger and longer but still weren't painful, but I felt like it was probably time to go. Aaron called his parents and asked them to come out. They said they'd be there in 30 minutes. We set the kids up downstairs in front of a movie and left Lincoln in charge. Then we got in the Suburban and drove to the hospital. It's only 11 minutes from our house, which is awesome.

We parked and walked in. The lady at the check in desk took our insurance card and my driver's license and sent us straight up to labor and delivery saying she'd send our cards up when she was done. The nurse at the labor and delivery desk took us straight to a room and told me to put on a gown and then she'd check and see if I was far enough along to stay. I was only dilated to a 1.5 and 60% effaced. The same as I'd been at my Dr. Appointment on Monday.  So I'd been laboring for 2 hours already and made zero progress. This was not normal for me. The nurse said that because my contractions were consistent and because I'd gone fast in the past, she'd let us stay for an hour and check me again and see what that did.

So I got in bed and got hooked up to the monitors. My contractions were consistently 3 minutes apart at this point and strong/tight but not very painful. My Dr. (Dr. Jeff Nance) happened to have just finished a delivery in another room when my hour was up, so it was him that came to check me again. I was almost a 2 dilated, but still 60% effaced, and he said they couldn't do anything for me until my cervix thinned out because I was only 38 weeks along. He asked me how I was feeling, and I told him I was nervous to go home, because the contractions were still consistent, and I'd always had really really quick labor and deliveries. He said he could let me stay another hour and walk around to see if that would help. If I made any progress after an hour he would admit me, but if I didn't then he would send me home, and if he sent me home he would give me medication that would stop my contractions (if it wasn't real labor he said, if it was real labor it wouldn't stop the contractions and I could come back.) and then I'd probably deliver closer to 39 weeks instead of 38. We opted to stay and walk and see what we could do.

I told Aaron, after the doc left, that I did not feel good about using medication to stop labor. Getting sent home was one thing, and if we had to then so be it, but I did not want to medically stop my labor. It didn't feel right. And Aaron agreed that he felt like we were going to have this baby tonight and it didn't feel like we were going to go home. I asked if he could give me a blessing to be at peace with whatever was supposed to happen, because I was pretty anxious about being sent home when I've always delivered quickly after contractions become consistent. In the blessing Aaron said that I would make significant progress in the next hour, that we would stay and deliver the baby and that I had been blessed with a healthy baby boy and that everything would be well. It was a huge relief. And I knew I had faith in that blessing and that it would be so. But I also thought of Nephi and him finding the ore to melt the tools to build the ship, instead of just asking for the tools. So I prayed to Heavenly Father and said that my blessing had said we would make the progress we needed to make in order to stay, so what did I need do to so that my body would make the progress? And the answer that came to my mind was "squats". So I started in one corner of the room, walked diagonally to the other corner (maybe 15 steps) turned around, walked back to the first corner and did ten squats, then repeated, over and over again for an hour while Aaron read to me from A Gentleman in Moscow to take make mind off of things. About 15 minutes to the hour I had the thought that I needed to ask our kids, and Aaron's parents, and my parents, to pray for us, that we would make the progress we needed. So I texted my mom and Kerry who said they would and Aaron texted his mom and dad who said they would and that they would ask the kids to pray too. It seemed important that our kids be a part of it. Dr. Nance had driven to Provo hospital to deliver another baby during our hour, so he didn't really end up coming in to check me until 7:30pm about an hour and a half since I started walking, instead of an hour. By now my contractions were still consistently 3 minutes apart, but lasting longer and were getting a little uncomfortable. They hooked me up to the monitors and checked my cervix. Dilated to a 3 and 75-80% effaced. We were staying!!

Huge relief. I was grateful beyond words. And quickly said a silent thank you prayer. My nurse got my IV in and started dripping saline through in preparation for the epidural. That took about 20 minutes. Then the anesthesiologist came in and gave me my epidural, which was also a nice relief because contractions were starting to hurt a tiny bit. My epidural felt really heavy this time, my legs were beyond numb but also felt like they weighed a million pounds. I couldn't even feel it at all when the nurse would move my legs around to check me. And rather than going fast, like I usually do, and like I kept telling my Dr and nurses that I do, things progressed really, really, slowly. I was only dilating at a rate of about one centimeter per hour. What the heck?! I kept thinking that things would pick up and go super fast. But they did not.

When I was dilated to a 4 Dr. Nance came in again and broke my water. I've never had my water broken before I was all the way dilated, so that was different.  But Dr. Nance thought it would get things going and speed things up. It did not. Hour after hour we sat in the room, slowly dilating. Sometimes Aaron would read aloud to me from A Gentleman in Moscow, which we've been reading together for a few months. And sometimes our nurse would come in and talk to us. Our nurse was awesome. Her name was Kendra. She was fun to talk to, down to earth, and great at explaining all the medical things. She was pregnant with her 3rd baby, so I felt like we had a lot in common, since I was also pregnant. We took guesses about what time the baby would be born. Aaron guessed 11:45pm, I guessed 12:30am, and Kendra guessed closer to 1am. When it got close to 1 am and I was still only at an 8, Kendra ordered us sandwiches from downstairs, because we hadn't eaten since lunch. And when the sandwiches didn't come soon enough, she brought Aaron in a slice of her own pizza that she'd ordered in from Dominoes. I couldn't eat until after the baby was born, but she said she was saving me a piece too because she knew how hungry women are right after delivery.

Shortly after that, my contractions started to slow down. Kendra said it was because my body was tired and had been laboring for a long time. So they gave me pitocin to get things going again, and had to keep upping the dose. I had the pitocin drip for about 2 hours. And then finally, finally, finally, I was all the way dilated. Dr. Nance came back in and got ready to deliver the baby. I pushed for just a couple minutes, maybe 3 or 4 pushes. And then the baby was out! He was blue. Very, very blue. He had the umbilical cord wrapped around his neck three times! But before I even had a chance to really panic, Dr. Nance calmly and quickly unwound the cord, and as soon as he did the baby gave a loud cry and immediately began to turn red. They put him on my chest and let me hold him while I delivered the placenta. His face was severely bruised and purple, and he was covered in white vernix caseosa, but he was beautiful and perfect.

I knew instantly that he was Oslo, and I desperately hoped that Aaron knew it too. I couldn't stop smiling. I love meeting my babies for the first time. It's such a sacred experience. Aaron cut the umbilical cord. Dr. Nance was explaining that the baby had been turned about a quarter turn, and that he was a big baby, and that these two things, along with having the cord wrapped around his neck three times, had probably prevented him from clearing my pelvic bone, like a baby normally would, and getting stuck under it instead, so he couldn't push against my cervix to help open it up....long story short, that's why labor took 13.5 hours instead of the normal 3 or 4 that it usually takes me. Oslo was born at 3:52am on Sunday July 28th 2019. He weighed 8 pounds 1 ounce, and was 20.5 inches long.

That's huge for being two weeks early! I'm so gratefulthat he came when he did, he was obviously ready, and if he'd waited longer, he'd have been bigger and had an even harder time coming out, or he might've squeezed the cord around his neck even tighter and cut off the blood flow in the cord and not survived. I don't even like to think about that. I'm just immensely grateful that he came when he did and that we were allowed to stay at the hospital and have him. I don't want to imagine how things might've gone down if they'd stopped my labor and sent us home. Yikes.

As soon as Aaron and I were alone with the baby, Aaron agreed that he was definitely Oslo. Ross Oslo.....but it was so, so, so, tempting to add a second middle name that started with 'S' so that his initials would be R.O.S.S. We'd talked about it lots and lots in the months proceeding Oslo's birth, but I'd never been able to convince Aaron to use a second middle....until we'd decided that we'd probably use Oslo a few weeks ago, but even then, all I could get from Aaron was "maybe". So we talked about it again. And I said "PLEASE!" Because it's not very often that your initials line up to be your first name, and it's not like he'll walk around being called all four of his names all the time, most people will probably have no idea what his full name is, so it's like a fun little secret. And besides, he's baby #7, grandkid #25 on one side, and grandkid #21 on the other side, so it might be fun for him to have something special, like a second middle name, because no one else in the family has that. Aaron agreed, probably more with the "please" than with any of my reasons. And so we chose Sullivan as Oslo's second middle name. Because we've always liked and considered using it. Because the three syllables flow nicely with the other names.

ROSS OSLO SULLIVAN SWAN

I got to fill out the birth certificate. I've never done that before. And then obviously he'll go by Oslo. Nicknames are still up in the air, but Ozzy seems the most natural one. We called the kids to tell them their baby brother's name first. Then we sent out a text to the rest of our extended family memebers. It said:

"Hi Everyone! Just wanted to introduce this little (big) guy.

His full name is Ross Oslo Sullivan Swan.

Ross after my dad and one of Aaron's ancestors who helped found Hooper. The two of them are buried in the same cemetery. 

Oslo, which means, "meadow beneath the ridge" which is where he was born, and also after his Hogan ancestors who immigrated from there.

And Sullivan, because we have always liked it and wanted to use it. And because it makes his initials R.O.S.S. :)

He will go by his middle name, Oslo. Probably Ozzy for short. But we'll see about the short."

So that's the story. Oslo and I are both doing well. We're hanging out at the hospital as long as our insurance will let us, to rest up, then we'll go home and rejoin the circus. Ha!

Fourth of July 2019

Fourth of July at Payson Lakes wearing our homemade Ts.

 We loved spending the day at Payson Lakes last Fourth of July, so we decided to to it again this year. We rolled out of Elk Ridge about 8:40am, and got up the canyon is decent time. We had invited Aaron's side of the family to go with us, and we were in charge of getting up there and saving a spot on the shore. Except.....there was no shore! We've had such a wet winter and spring that the lake was very full, and the sand on the beaches was no where to be found.

After walking around a bit, we found a little grassy area behind the path, that had a good spot for kayaks to dock. Ruby and Cal and Ollie and Adelia and I staked our claims, while Aaron and Lincoln and Ivan ferried all our food, coolers, towels, umbrella, etc. across the lake by kayak. The last load Aaron brought over was a watermelon, and I couldn't help but laugh at how funny he looked rowing with it on his lap. I told him (eight months pregnant that I am) that I knew exactly how he was feeling.

Lincoln

Aaron ferrying the watermelon across.

 We hardly got our spot set up, when the kids were off like a shot into the water on the kayaks. The weather was gloriously cool, like in the high 60s low 70s, at least in the shade where we were sitting. It did warm up as the sun rose up over the pine trees. And there were a couple of times I was warm enough to go stick my hands or feet in the water, but I never got too hot, or over heated. My hands and feet never swelled. I was so worried that I was going to get too hot and not be able to get cool, and then we'd have to leave and I'd ruin the day for my kids. But the weather played so nice. It was warm enough to be on the lake without freezing, but cool enough to sit in a chair next to the lake and be comfortable. We couldn't have asked for anything better. And even though there were a lot of people at the lake, fishing or riding bikes, there weren't very many boats ON the lake, so when we were out in the kayaks it almost felt like we had the place to ourselves.

Ivan

 We brought our three kayaks, and Aaron's parents came and brought two more kayaks and two inner-tubes. Kelly and Esther also came up with their three boys. Adelia was the queen of the kayak and took to it like a fish takes to water. She towed her siblings and cousins all over the lake. Ollie and Ruby and Eli had a good time paddling around in the kayak that we tethered to the shore to keep them from going out very deep. Cal and Levi played in or got towed on the inner tubes, and threw rocks into the water, and ate all the delicious food. I hardly even saw Lincoln and Ivan, they were our on the water so much. Everyone did a pretty good job of sharing kayaks and rotating through turns. I was even able to find a life jacket that would fit me, and Aaron and I got to go out together a time or two. It was magnificent to be on the lake, our in nature, using my body (or at least my arms) to do something physical. This has probably been the fastest, best day of my pregnancy because I didn't feel like garbage the whole day.

Adelia

Ollie

Back of Ruby's head

Cal

Ivan (far), Lincoln (middle), Ollie (close) 

Krystal pregnant with Lucky #7

Aaron said I reminded him of Rosie the Riveter with my headband, so I had to do the pose. 

 We stayed at the lake until about 6pm, much longer than I had anticipated even in my best-case-scenario dreams. So it was a really good day. Kelly and Esther came back to our house with us afterwards. We whipped up some tacos for dinner and the kids watched a cartoon spiderman. Then at about 8pm we started rounding up sweatshirts and blankets (because the weather had turned cold and windy) and loaded up in cars and headed down to Nephi to watch the firework show at Juab High School. They put on a good show. We sat so close we were right underneath the fireworks. The fireworks echoed off the mountains and the school building behind us, and they were LOUD. Ruby cried for the first bit. Cal didn't cry, but he was on my lap and kept ducking his head under the blanket every time a boom went off, but then he couldn't stand not to see the flashes of light, so he'd bob his head back out again. The video I took of him saying, "Wow Mom WOW! So wows!" Pretty well sums up how he was for the entire show. He makes me laugh. The thing I love about fireworks in Nephi, is that you don't have to wait a million years in traffic before you can get out of the parking lot. It clears quickly, and it's right next to the freeway, so we were on our way home in a jiffy. On the way home 5/6 kids fell asleep. I can't remember the last time that happened. Cal was the one who stayed awake, but that's because he had a two hour nap in between the lake and fireworks. I will probably be REALLY sore, and tired tomorrow, but I loved every minute of this day. It was the perfect day.

Adelia, Asher, Levi, Esther, Kelly, Ruby, Ollie (standing), Krystal holding Cal, Eli, Lincoln, Ivan, and Aaron taking the picture. Firework show in Nephi at Juab High School.

Krystal and Cal. It was windy and cold.

Cal wasn't sure about the fireworks at first.

Homemade T-shirts!

It's been a couple years since I made a Fourth of July T-shirt. This year I decided to go all out. You see, my kids have been complaining that summer hasn't felt very summer-y, because we haven't gone to the pool, or the splash pad, or camping in the mountains. We haven't had a fire, or slept out on the trampoline, or any of those usual summer things.....why? Because I'm pregnant. And I'm tired. And it takes a lot of energy to six kids and all the stuff that goes with them to any of the above mentioned activities. They are doing swim team, and swim lessons, and tennis, and tball and baseball and ballroom dance camp.....so it's not like we're doing NOTHING. Buuuuuuut it sorta feels like it. I totally get it.

So, my kids have been complaining about a lack of fun summer activities. I had the idea today, that we should make Fourth of July shirts together. I'd seen a youtube video awhile back about making DIY shirts using freezer paper and bleach spray, and I'd been itching to try it. And since I don't fit into practically any of the clothes that I own right now, I was in the market for a Fourth of July shirt anyway. And so were almost all of my kids. We ran to Walmart, I let them each pick out what color shirt they wanted (Walmart's blank Ts are like $3/$4 bucks.....not a bad deal. Especially when you have to buy 7 of them. (Aaron didn't want one.)

Walmart took wayyyyy longer than I thought. So by the tie we got home it was already 4pm. We threw the shirts in the quick cycle laundry (because you have to wash them first), and while we waited we looked up different ideas for designs we could print out on the computer. The idea is that you can trace your design onto freezer paper, cut the design out with a razor blade, iron it onto the shirt, and then mix 1-1 bleach and water in a spray bottle, spray lightly over your design, blot with a paper towel, then wait about 10 minutes. The parts of the shirt not covered by the freezer paper will lighten. Once the shirt is dry, you pull the freezer paper off (what's underneath will still be the original color of the shirt), rinse thoroughly in cold water to remove the rest of the bleach, then wash and dry like normal to "set" the colors. Sounds easy enough.

Well, I didn't have freezer paper, I had wax paper.....and it turns our those two things are NOT one and the same in this instance. The kids had all picked out these elaborate designs, we'd traced them, cut them out, and no matter how hard we tried with the iron, they would not stick to the shirts. I started to panic just slightly at that point, because I'd promised the kids these awesome shirts, and we'd already spent a ton of time on them and now it wasn't working! Agghhhh! So, instead we tried masking tape and star stickers and alphabet stickers. I told the kids we'd have to simplify the designs a little to only things that could be made out of tape and stickers. I thought they'd be disappointed, but you know what? They stepped up to the plate and handled it alike champs. They got super creative with their designs and shaping things out of tape. And I feel like they even had a little more ownership over the whole thing because they had to take charge instead of just printing something off the computer.

We set up the bleach spraying station outside on the deck. By this time Aaron was home, and he was a very good sport to jump right in and help. He loves me, even though I drag him in to all my hair-brained schemes. It was 11pm before we put the shirts in the washing machine. I'll have to take a picture of everyone wearing them tomorrow. But they turned out awesome.