Gus's Story

Early Saturday morning, around 3 am, I started feeling some pain. But it was a sharp pain, not like the crampy pain I remembered contractions being. So, I got up and decided to take a shower to see if it made me feel better. And if it didn't, at least I'd be clean. So after I got out of the shower and decided it was time, I woke up Blake. Blake had fallen asleep on the futon while reading. I nudged him and said, "Blake, wake up." All I got back was a long whiny moan. So, I said a little sterner, "Blake, we need to go to the hospital." This time I got a response: "Don't talk to me like that!" Ha! Silly Blake is such a fun, animated sleep-talker. So, I went in our room and started packing a bag when Blake came in and said, "Did you say we need to go to the hospital? Did I say don't talk to me like that?" So, we called sweet Hillary to come watch the boys and we were off to the hospital around 4:30.
We arrived at the hospital and after the nurse concurred that my contractions were coming pretty strongly about 4 minutes apart and I was dilated 3 cm, she announced I had won myself a ticket for admission. I made sure everyone knew I was ready for my epidural as soon as possible and was wheeled up to labor and delivery. My contractions were coming stronger and I was so proud of myself when the nurse and anesthesiologist said they could hardly tell when I was having a contraction because I was handling it so well. The only thing that gave me away was that I got a bit quieter. So, the epidrual was placed around 6:30 and it was time to rest.
Around 8, the doctor came in to check on me and said that the epidural had slowed my contractions down and that the labor wasn't progressing. So, she broke my water to see if that would help things along. Then, around 8:30 the nurse came in and gave me some pitocin to speed up the process. I was pretty out of it, but Blake didn't think the pitocin was a good idea. He started asking questions and told the nurse we weren't in a hurry to get the baby here. Basically she just told him that it was doctor's orders as she was injecting it through my IV. Well, the pitocin worked a little too well. I went from 3 cm to 10 cm in 1 hour. There had been a shift change and when the new nurse came to check on me, she said the new doctor had been called in to an emergency c-section, so she was going to take me off the pitocin and then hopefully my labor would slow down enough to wait an hour for the doctor to get there. About 10 minutes later, my room was swarmed with nurses, trying to figure out my blood pressure and Gus's heart rate. My blood pressure runs a little low anyways (The doctor asked me if I was a runner. I told him no. To which he replied, "Oh. Because sometimes athletes have a lower heart rate." I told him he didn't ask me if I was an athlete! :)) but Gus's heart rate plummeted due to the stress from the quick labor. Since the on-call OB was in surgery, the nurses found another OB in the building who came rushing in my room with a vacuum in hand ready to get Gus out. Luckily, one of the nurses stopped him and said, "Wait! This is her third baby. She can probably push him out faster than using that vacuum." So, three pushes and several nervous tears later, at 9:59 am, Gus Philip was born.
After Gus was stable, I got to hold and cuddle my sweet new baby for a minute before the nausea (a side effect from the pitocin) kept me busy for the next two hours.
So Blake and Gus got to spend some quality time together. I love that wherever Gus went, Blake was always right by his side.Gus weighed 7 pounds, 10 ounces and was 19 inches long. I already loved him so much before he was born and now I can't even describe how full my heart is. Welcome to our family sweet baby boy. Your mommy loves you so, so, so much.

Baby Gus

He's here!
Gus Philip
January 30, 2010
9:59 am
7 pounds 10 ounces 19 inches

and so, so precious

Another Tennis Star

Today little Jack decided he wanted to join in on tennis lessons. I think the deciding factor was when the coach offered him an orange racket--his favorite color. I thought it would last a few minutes, but little Jack, was such an obedient student. I couldn't believe it. He stood still where he was supposed to, did the warm-ups, and waited patiently for his turn to hit the ball. My favorite was definitely the warm-ups. Oh, I can't even begin to describe how stinkin' cute it was to watch him twist like a helicopter, try to do a jumping jack, run forward to touch the net, run backwards to the service line, then run by sliding your feet side-to-side around the court. What a good little tennis player.
This is Jack eating the first end-of-class popsicle he actually earned. And what color did he choose? Orange, or course.

Less Than a Week

This morning I had my (hopefully) last doctor's appointment. I am dialated to a 1 (but the doctor so generously gave me a "but maybe 1 1/2"--nice, huh?) and am about 25% effaced. I asked the doctor how big she thought this little guy was going to be. After some squeezing of my belly she said, "I know your history and I know you have big babies, but I have a hard time believing this baby is bigger than 7 pounds. But, I know I guessed low 7s last time and that guy ended up being high 8's, so..." I love that it's such a fun mystery.

We have our house all put back together, still need to do some last minute vacuuming and grocery shopping, but I think we're ready to go. I have diapers and the perfect outfit for the little guy to wear home. What else do you need? I can't believe he'll be here any day now. If I could pick a day, I would pick 2/1. Then, all the boys in my family would have birthdays with 2s and 1s. 12/22, 12/10, and 10/12. Pretty cool, right? Plus then I'd be in the hospital and get to watch the first of the last of Lost. Good planning I say.

I'm pretty sure we have no idea what's in store for us.
2/6/10 P.S. I wrote this post on the day it's dated, but never had Max take a picture of me to go with it. :( But this is a picture he took of me on 1/27/10. Even though it doesn't show my whole belly, you get the idea. Maybe one day I'll be all caught up with my blogging...

Are we ready for Brother?

Since this morning my house looks like this:
I would say that's a no. Definitely a no. Blake has been so, so helpful this pregnancy. Really. He wakes up in the morning with the boys and feeds them breakfast, he changes Jack's diaper, he does the dishes, he run errands, and he cleans--a lot. What has come over him? And this weekend, he decided to give the carpets a good cleaning. Hence, all the furniture out of the carpeted rooms. And what do I do while he does all of this? Lay in my bed a take long naps. Now that's love. And I really love Blake.

And the boys are pretty helpful too. Max has found a new love for vacuuming and little Jack does things like try out the baby's pacis to make sure they work. I love my family.

The Academy

Our pass to the Academy expires at the end of the month. Sad. So, we've been going a lot this month. Yesterday Blake came with us. It's a lot more fun when Blake comes with us. He was finally able to take Max to the new moon show while Jack and I faced the humid heat to look at the butterflies. We will really, really miss the Academy.

Goodbye T-Rex.
Goodbye fishies.
Goodbye penguins.
Goodbye insect catching game.
Goodbye gorilla. (Jack loves this stuffed gorilla.)
Goodbye Children's Discovery Zone.
(Forever Max's favorite thing about the Academy was this puzzle. He loved this puzzle. Once I thought about getting it for him as a gift, but decided it's much more fun as a novelty at the Academy. You know, because there's nothing else to do there... :))Goodbye turtle that we love to climb on.
Goodbye Claude, you creepy looking alligator, you.
It's been so fun for me to take the boys to the Academy; especially when I started taking Jack while Max was at school. Max was more interested in playing in the Discovery Zone than looking at any of the exhibits. With Jack, he would just sit there forever, watching Claude do nothing or the fish swim around. I have really good memories at the Academy with family and friends. So, we'll see you Academy...unless some friends decide to take us with them (hint, hint).

Our First Bay Area Outing

After we moved to San Francisco, it was weeks before we actually had a chance to explore the area. We took a weekend to go to Disneyland for our anniversary, the next weekend, I went back to Utah for my friend Kristen's wedding, and on top of the traveling, I was learning how to be an accountant starting her first busy season, and Blake was job hunting. But when the Beck's came out from Arizona for Braden's heart surgery at Stanford during the first part of February 2003(right, Caryn?) we really wanted to go down and see them. I don't remember if we looked up directions how to get down to Palo Alto--I'm sure we did, but maybe just partial directions, starting at the freeway. Problem is there are a lot of freeways and of course, we got on the wrong one. So, our first Bay Area Adventure was a stop at Treasure Island on our way down to Palo Alto. Just a minor detour. At least there was a place to turn around on the bridge before we got all the way to Oakland.
We did finally make it down to Palo Alto to see sweet baby Braden and eat dinner at PF Changs. And now, I just think it's so funny how lost we were, especially since every so often Blake STILL gets on the freeway heading east when we really want to be going south.

Rain, Rain GO AWAY!

We've had some pretty lazy days around here lately. Very lazy in fact. They always go the same way. First, the boys climb up in the window to see if it's raining. It ALWAYS is. Then, they stay up in the window and watch a movie. And then maybe another movie. And then they'll eat. And maybe later, another movie...
Dear San Francisco Clouds, I know you're crying because you're just so sad this is our last January here with you, but all this rain is not something that is going to make us miss you. Thank you, Addi.

Anniversary Celebration

We had big ideas of celebrating our anniversary doing something super fun, romantic, and exciting, but when we woke up to rain, a flooded breeze-way, a flooded garage, and more and more and more rain, we decided that it would probably be best to stay home. Plus silly Blake scheduled some evening patients. But don't worry, he pulled through with a late romantic SF Soup Company dinner (that I have been craving) by candle light to go along with Season 3 of How I Met Your Mother. I know--I am a lucky girl! I can't think of a better way to celebrate 8 years with the man I love.

8 Years and Counting

I think in my anniversary post every other year, I've mentioned how absolutely freezing cold it was 8 years ago in Salt Lake City. 18 degrees, I think. And I've also mentioned how we took group pictures right off the bat and then everyone ran inside to get warm, except a select few troopers, dedicated to getting some quality pictures. Well, this year, I realized besides my parents and Blake's mom, there was another person who was willing to brave the blizzard to get some quality footage. My Uncle Joe.
He followed us around the entire day videoing and I love seeing what we were like and what we were saying that whole time. Really, the thing I learned most about myself during the picture part was that I was deliriously giddy. I was laughing at everything. I guess I was in love. :) But the fun part, that I really didn't remember anything about, was at the luncheon. These are the things I didn't remember, that really stuck out to me, after watching the video:
*As we went around introducing people, a common theme was to say, "My name is so-and-so, and I'm Blake's favorite aunt" or "my name is so-and-so and I'm Addi's favorite grandma."
*Ty was the only one of Blake's siblings who introduced himself and his family. Louie, not even a member of the family yet, stood up and introduced himself, then went around the table saying, "And this is Rachel, Beth, Blythe, Ashley..."
*After my Grandma Bergeson introduced herself, she said, "And I'm the Grandma who makes dresses for her granddaughter that match her doll's." I like that we have the same memories about each other.
*Grandpa Bergeson told a funny joke and was still, or maybe I should say already calling Blake "Jake."
*Both of our dads gave little speeches
*While Blake and I were telling the story of us, Blake said the work "jack" a lot. Like he thought I would "jack him." I like that now we have a Jack. :)
*And most embarrassing of all, something I had totally wiped out of my mind, is that I called Blake "Brandon" while talking about him. But in my defense, I was super nervous and was telling a story about Blake and Steve, but ended up saying "Brandon and Steve" since at that time it seems like Brandon and Steve were one being. I think I recovered nicely, though. :)
So, a big thank you to Uncle Joe for videoing the whole day. I can't watch it without a big smile on my face. What a perfect, perfect day! Happy Anniversary Blake, I love you!