Sunday, April 19, 2015

a trip to cajun country

Dad and Mom recently flew and then road tripped with me and ALL THREE BOYS (!!!) down to Baton Rouge.  It was wonderful.  We stayed at Grandmaw's house and soaked in time with her and our family in the 80 degree weather.  We also ate Grandmaw's famous chicken and dumplings, gumbo, had some raw oysters, po' boys and a crawfish boil.  Yum!  And Brenda made me some homemade petite fours! The way to my heart is through my stomach apparently!

We flew from Minneapolis to Atlanta, stayed with Mom and Dad that night and then drove all day the next day to LA.  Grayson, Jackson, and Callum all did pretty great! Here's the rest of our travels in pictures.

My view on the plane (thank goodness for Mom!)

My view on the road trip (thank goodness for naps!)

We made it to BR and Grandmaw's house

Our dear friend Ida came to see us and love on Cal!

The next morning the twins wanted to help Grandmaw even in their pjs!

Aunt Kathy pushing the boys

Grayson with the flower necklace his Gram made him

Uncle/Grandpa Jim probably teaching them about lizards.

Mom and Grandmaw keeping Cal happy

Cal loved his snuggles with Aunt Tammy!

This truck came by while the boys were outside!!!

Grandmaw let the big boys play with her chair! Haha!

Driving the backhoe at Jim and Brenda's!

Jim's custom built swing was hours of fun for these two boys!

Looking at baby birds!

"Fixin'" Jim's truck by putting screws in every possible crevasse.

BIG fishing pole.

Jim helping Cal get a head start on walking (his cute belly!).

Lovin on Grandmaw

Lovin on Brenda

Cal with his Gram

And with his Grandpa

Grandmaw, the boys, and me at PawPaw's grave.  He would have loved to see these great grandsons!!

At the hardware store with Grandpa

Splashing at Mike and Kathy's

Puddle stomping

Tanner getting some smiles out of Cal!

We all LOVED our visit!

After the drive back to Georgia Gray and Jacks enjoyed the swing set Grandpa had built!

our Cal

I've wanted to write down Cal's birth story, so here's my attempt at getting it down somewhere before I really forget all the little details.  Our precious little guy will be 5 months old in a few days.  I cannot believe that all this was nearly half a year ago now!

Well, I’d never been pregnant before past 35.5 weeks (since the twins came then!), so with Cal he really did chart new territory.  Overall I was more nauseous early in the first trimester and pretty uncomfortable in the last month, but everything in between was great.  Cal moved around so much more than the twins because he had all the space to himself!

After 36 weeks came and each subsequent week, I was a little surprised he was still in there! I just kept scheduling normal life things always a little unsure if they would happen, but they did.  We even planned to have dinner at some good friends’ house the night of my due date. 

Now, a week or two before my due date I’d woke up with some (later I realized were Braxton-Hicks) contractions.  They were a little regular but stopped after maybe 30 minutes to and hour.  At this point I was going to my OB every week.  I still wasn’t dilated at all! Nothing. 

I’d also been having contractions faintly on-and-off the day before my due date, November 20.   I had an appointment the next day (on my due date) and my OB said I was barely 3cm.  She proceeded to strip my membranes, which for some can jump start labor.  I was a little crampy (which is supposed to be a good sign) but honestly had gotten used to the contractions.  So that night we packed up the twins and headed 30 minutes north to see our friends.  It was a really fun night and a delicious meal.  In the car on the way back I was starting to get more uncomfortable.  Sitting started to be more and more painful during contractions.  When we got home we started doing our normal bedtime routine for the big boys, but I couldn’t even sit down while Andrew was reading them their bedtime stories.  I was starting to think that this was it- that or I was going a little crazy from wanting this baby to come.

An hour or so later, Andrew called some friends of ours to come over and watch the boys.  They were out to dinner a little while away so it was about an hour before they got there.  It was around 11pm by this point.  I was in pain by this time and sounded pretty over dramatic Im sure!  Anyway, as soon as our friends pulled into the driveway to stay the night with G + J, we were nearly down the street. Thank goodness! 

We got to the hospital just before 11:30, which thankfully was before the triage maternity ward closed their front window. They gave us some paperwork but when they saw me get out of the wheelchair leaning over and breathing heavily, they said told us to go ahead to a room.  Thank you, people! 

After a while of laboring in the room, I was checked again and I was only 3cm! I was thinking how my pain tolerance most be the lowest ever! But thankfully my water broke a minute later and that signaled that I could get my epidural.  Again, thank you, Lord!   As an aside, I have said many prayers of thanks for that epidural. 

My contractions were strong, close together and painful.  Even with the epidural I could feel them though without pain.  An hour later (maybe around 2) I was 6cm.  An hour later I was 10cm.  They wanted me to wait another hour or so, but after maybe 20-30 minutes I felt like I couldn’t keep our sweet boy in much longer. 

So in a nutshell the doctor came in said, “Yep, he’s coming soon!” and after 12 minutes of pushing our little man arrived!  It was incredible!  Compared to the sterile C-section I’d had with the twins, this felt like such an intimate celebration of a new life! Cal was healthy and those first moments with him were beyond amazing.

The next afternoon I was checking out of the hospital.  Cal was a DREAM newborn!  Though lets be honest, preemie, colicky twins who were in the NICU for a week and a half, set Callum up to be easy compared to his big brothers!


Also, we chose Cal’s name 2 days before he was born!  Andrew had heard the name Callum while we were in England last summer and he really liked it.  It grew on me, but then I continued wanting a more traditional name, though I did love the nickname Cal.  Eventually we chose Callum Noah for this boy.  Callum means “dove,” a symbol of peace.  It originates from St. Cloumba, a Scot who brought the gospel to Ireland about 1500 years ago.   Noah was the name Andrew's Mimi originally wanted give him.  And in the Bible Noah was deemed a righteous man by God and means “rest.”  Our Cal has lived up to his peaceful/restful name!  He has been more than a joy to have in our family!  We also pray for our sweet boy to have the peace in his heart that only comes from knowing Christ and though things around his may seem chaotic (like at our house) that he'd be at rest.

Here are some pictures of Cal in his first several months of life!

One day old
One week old; His first Thanksgiving (at our house in Minneapolis)!

One month old
Me and Cal at Christmas at Mom and Dad's
Cal with his brothers

This little guys is a world traveller.  He was 2 months in this passport picture!
Two months
He slept his way through his first international flight to England.
Cal is often entertained by his big brothers, but here he is the center of attention and serving as their entertainment!
He is just the cutest!
I love his expressions!
In the early days he took many naps in my arms!

Three months!
He's more alert and sitting up even better.
Cal's bath times are always fun and he's never cried during them!

Four (ish) months
A few days ago- nearly five months

Friday, March 27, 2015

fast forward

I looked back at my last post and it was October, so I was about 8 months pregnant.  Well, sleeping in the room next to me is a 4 month old little boy! So, yes, life pasued the blogging, but here's the fast forward of the last several months!

October:
  • Baby prep!
  • The end of pregnancy was not comfortable! (I'd never been that far along before since our bigger boys were preemies!)
  • Our church approved us to move over to England and start a new ministry to university students there (very bittersweet...exciting opportunity, but many things and people we feel incredibly sad to leave)
November:
  • Our sweet Callum came! Born Nov 22 at 3:40am. He was about 7.5 lbs and was a dream! 
  • Thanksgiving with an 8 day old :)

December:
  • Life with THREE boys! 
  • Flew to Atlanta to spend Christmas with my family (my sister and her family got to meet Cal)
 

January:
  • Grayson and Jackson's first professional haircut!
Grayson was very serious the whole time! Ha
Jackson was trying very hard not to smile!

  • Traveled again to Atlanta for training and then to England- thank you family for keeping our kids in this tundra we live in!
(saw my dear friend Catilyn while in Atlanta)
(Sheffield, England)

February:

  • Traveled to Indiana
  • Finally settled back into life at our home
  • Cal outgrew the newborn phase (so sad!!)


March:
  • It's starting to warm up here, which has meant the occasional warm-ish day to play outside!
  • Cal is now 4 months!