6 Weeks down

I went for my 6 week post partum check today. I can't believe it has been that long already. In some ways it's gone by so fast and in other ways, especially the nights, it has been very long. We haven't been doing very much to blog about other than trying to adjust to the new addition. I feel like it has been a very big adjustment...but we have made it, through the circumsion, everyone having colds, learning to grocery shop with 3, remembering all the crap you have to bring with you when you leave the house with a baby, resuming my calling, and night after night of no sleep, to name a few things.

Kellen is a sweet baby as long as he isn't hungry, tired, gassy, poopy, or having girls in his face harassing him. He continues to kill me at night though. Neither of my girls as babies woke up like he does. Last night I think it was 4 times. Twice to eat, once because he had gas pains and once with an enormous poopy diaper. I'm trying all the things I know to get him to sleep better. I've started a night time ritual with a bath and lotion massage. I use white noise by his bed, I swaddle him, I use the vibrating on his bassinett, I've put him in the swing.....but none of these make any big differences. Any suggestions??

Common things happening around our house

Olivia is struggling the most with baby Kellen. She just wants to help but I find myself constantly telling her, "no" way too often. The most common phrases are, "Stop trying to put lipstick on the baby." And "Don't press on his head."
Zoey has adjusted very well and in fact now that she is an older sister to two kids I feel like she has already grown up a ton. Yesterday she sat at the computer and watched Taylor Swifts music video for Love Story, over and over. And at the library she wanted to check out a 'real' book instead of a picture book. So she sits and has this grown up book on her lap. She can read, but is definitley not advanced enough for this book. She flips the pages and keeps telling me how good the book is. Within a span of 5 mintues she was already on page 33. So cute.

Vampires and Babies

So early this morning, roughly 3 AM as I got up for the 6th time to try and get Kellen to sleep I made a discovery. Most everyone I know likes Twilight.....so as I held Kellen in the rocking chair, exhausted and frustrated I caught a whiff of his sweet, delicious newborn smell. And when he finally fell back to sleep and a contended sigh escaped letting me smell his yummy newborn breath it completley drew me in and I was in love again. So I've decided that is how vampires must smell too. That sweet, intoxicating smell that makes you want to get closer despite the danger, or in my case, the exhaustion and frustration. (Certainly more sleep is needed when you start comparing fictional events to real life. )

Baby Kellen and Recovery

Today has been the first day I've felt normal enough to do anything "extra". Recovery this time around has been very difficult for me. I think with the other births I didn't have the same demands.....two other children that need to be places, a house, a busy calling and a husband that works 12 hour days. For some reason I've had alot of anxiety about doing it all this time and seriously didn't get any sleep for way too many days. Things are getting easier everyday. Nursing is always hard for me. I don't know if it's because of the c-section but it takes along time for me to figure it out and make it work. I just read on the news that a woman in California gave birth to 8 babies and is going to try and breast feed them. I feel like a wimp when I read that. We'll just keep working on it. I have had wonderful help from my parents, my in-laws and the ward for which I am so grateful. Here are a few pics....nothing spectacular I need my sister-in-law Nicole to come get some great ones for me. Warning....there may be blood involved in some of them Beware!

THis is me leaving the OR and going to a recovery room. I look terrible but that is pretty much how you feel after surgery. Luckily the 'shakes' and hot flashes hadn't started yet or that would have been a real treat of a picture

Kellen Van Went

The girls love him to death. They fight over who gets to hold him,kiss him, even yes, wipe his bum!
This is the DR holding him up over the screen for me to see for the first time.

This is him all the way out of my tummy.

And this is his head just being pulled out. Yes that flabby orange stuff is my stomach. And yes that is the big gapping hole they cut in it to pull him out.

THis is Joe prepping for surgery. He is very squirmish about blood and guts but he always is so great in the OR.

Except he almost missed the birth this time. I was scheduled to go at 12:30 but got pushed back because of an emergency c-section. They told us it would be at least another hour. So JOe left to get something to eat and seriously five minutes later they came and got me. I tried calling his cell but there was no coverage in the hospital. I was in the OR they were almost done prepping me and my DR finally found Joe.

Baby Kellen Van is here!

My employer recently switched insurance carriers from Pacificare to UnitedHealth. No big deal right because UnitedHealth owns Pacificare. No worries, baby comes in January, not a problem, surely Centennial Hills Hospital 2 minutes from our house takes UnitedHealth. Well, turns out it doesn't. We find this out on Wednesday, a mere two days before the baby is scheduled to arrive via c-section. Next closest option is Summerlin Hospital, about 25 minutes away from our house. After a few days of begging for an in-network continuing treatment exception to allow us to go to Centennial Hills (much closer, more convenient, easier for folks to see us), we decided to make the switch when UnitedHealth was noncommittal. Naturally, not even 45 minutes after we make the switch UnitedHealth approves our request for an exception. Too late by then.

Luckily, we have the best doctor ever, Dr. Tammy Kelly. She is excellent! I even made it known that I used to do medical malpractice as an attorney while we were chatting the OR and it didn't faze her!!:)

Baby came out just fine, 8lbs, 6ozs, 20inches long, little bald-headed like his daddy with a bit of reddish blonde hair.
See pic below!

Miley Cyrus overload

No baby yet. If I don't go into labor, I have a c-section scheduled for the 16th. So I'm trying to exist the next 10 days. The worst part is I'm not sleeping at all. Between getting up to pee and trying to turn myself over and an aching back I literally wake up every hour. I'm a walking zombie. But even worse than that is that when I wake up at night I always have Hannah Montanna songs running through my head. Zoey got a guitar hero hannah montanna game for christmas and after hearing her play the game it's the one thing that I can always seem to remember.

Ooops!

So in this day and age of the internet, email, text messaging, and online bill pay I rarely have need to use traditional methods to communicate. (the post office) It makes me think about that Seinfeld episode when Kramer tries to stop the mail from being delivered to him because he realizes it's just a conspiracy for pottery barn to put their catalogue on your counter.
Anyway, I officially apologize to anyone who got a christmas card from us that required additional postage. I innocently bought two boxes of chrismtas cards, one being square, and one rectangle. Apparently the square ones, though no bigger than the other card costs more to send. I feel cheated by the card company because I think they should have written in big black letters across the label, "requires additional postage" because how am I supposed to know. So if anyone actually dug in their piggy banks and rescued the card from its holding cell at the post office consider it a christmas present to us.
But to everyone else we wish you a wonderful Christmas. We love you and hope for the best in 2009!