Swensons Rock!

Saturday, August 14, 2010

Mia and Joy, Aug 8, 2010

Joy's First Bath

Joy absolutely loves her baths. She loves getting her hair washed and feeling the water on her feet. After her baths she is so relaxed. If she gets a bath before bedtime then she sleeps particularly well. Grandma Burgoyne gave her her first bath while I photographed.

Home Sweet Home

Joy and I were so happy to be home (they let us go home the next day, it was awesome). Joy is one day old here. Leila, Mia and Lucy made us this amazingly beautiful and colorful banner. We have been so pampered and I have felt like I have been staying at a fancy bed and breakfast. It was nice to be all together as a family again. Thanks girls for the banner, I love it!

Grandma Swenson sent 15 balloons to represent her and all of her cousins. It was neat, almost as if all of her cousins were here to celebrate her birth with her. Thanks Grandma Swenson!

Joy meets her Sisters and Grandma

All three girls have really enjoyed having their new baby sister join our family.

Leila seemed to be cautious at first, as though figuring out what her new role is as the oldest of four girls entailed. She is doing so well. She is so helpful and thoughtful. It has been nice too because Sam and I had a meeting at her new school (she will be attending a Montessori School, we just got the call last Friday that she had been selected in a lottery for a spot) and so the three of us went to the school and then went out for donuts at the donut shop by our house. She has also been invited by friends to go different places. After the last invitation she exclaimed, "I love being the oldest sister!" So, she has recognized that she gets to do some special things that her younger sisters can't do yet.

Mia has been anticipating having her new baby sister for so long. In fact she was in tears one evening a few months before Joy was born because she said that it was taking too long for Joy to be born. Right from the start she has glowed around her sister. She snuggled right up with her on the hospital bed. She loves being near the baby and making sure that she gets enough milk and that she is warm enough. She loves to put a blanket on her to make her nice and cozy. She asked my mom after the baby was born, "Grandma, why did Mom eat the baby?" The girls know where the baby comes out and so I think that she was thinking that like the food that we eat it ends up coming out that end and so she was thinking that I ate the baby and out she came. Smart thinking, but my mom reassured her that I did not eat the baby.

Lucy has blossomed in her new role as well. She calls Joy "my baby sister". She enjoys sharing her room with her. After going to the hospital and meeting Joy for the first time my mom said that when they pulled into our driveway she said, "I miss Joy". I have also heard her several times saying, "My baby sister is so cute". Lucy has also been playing with her baby dolls a lot more too and explaining that her baby dolls can't walk yet and so she has to push them in the stroller or carry them. She seems to like being a big sister and she sure has some good examples in how to be a great big sister.

Joy is so blessed to have such wonderful sisters that are so filled with love, helpfulness, friendship, courtesy, playfulness and curiosity. Such sweet, sweet girls. We are blessed.

Tuesday, August 10, 2010

Welcome to Joy Debra Swenson

If you look above her right eye and above her nose you can see that she has a couple of red marks there. We think that this is where she would place her hand in utero. During the ultrasound months ago the technician could not get a clear view of her face because she had her hand in front of it. We have since noticed that sometimes when she is sleeping she will put her fingers exactly on the red spots on her face to be in total relaxation. Grandma Burgoyne was the one who noticed this.

Joy Debra Swenson

Joy was born on August 3rd at 1:21 in the afternoon. She weighed 7 lbs 4 oz and was 21 inches long. She is absolutely beautiful and so so sweet. We are so happy to have her join our family. She has already added so much love to our home and family.

Her Birth Story

Joy's estimated due date was on August 29th. The days following the due date were filled with excitement and anticipation as the Burgoynes from Hawaii came for a visit. They left early Monday morning. Grandma Burgoyne arrived on Saturday night.

On Monday morning August 2nd I went in for a non stress test to make sure that the baby was doing alright, this is procedure after the due date is passed. Joy passed all of the tests, the only trouble was that she was breech. Her head was to one side and her foot was where her head should have been. The doctor was able to successfully move her into place. They understandably did not want to send me home because I had twice the amount of water as normal and so she could easily move again and if my water broke that could be dangerous. So we decided to be induced. They started me on pitocin around noon. There was not too much progress that whole day. I only dilated from a 2.5 to a 3. By 9 o'clock that night the doctor said that I should go for one more hour and then be taken off the pitocin and have some dinner, have a shower and then some morphine so that I could get a nice rest and to give myself and my uterus the rest that we need to be able to successfully birth the baby- I had a wise, wise doctor. At that point I was so exhausted, not because I had an intense day of laboring (we had had a day filled with daytime tv, reading books, playing cards, walking the halls etc...) , but because I had not eaten anything all day. My first doctor did not want me eating because there was still a chance of having to do a c-section because of the baby being breech earlier. So I was pretty exhausted emotionally and also due to lack of nourishment. I also think going off the pitocin messed with my hormones a bit. So after a good cry, some food, a shower, morphine and a nice chat with my doctor about some of my worries (I loved how my doctor saw that I was apprehensive about things and so she asked me straight up, "Are you worried about something? and I was. I was worried about if the morphine would work or if it would make me wonky, I rarely take even a tylenol and so morphine seemed so intense. I was worried about if labor started up while I was in my sleep and I was still under the influence of the morphine. Or if the labor started up and I was not rejuvenated enough. She answered every question wonderfully) I was able to relax and be hopeful for what the morning would bring.

The next morning after a good breakfast and a good night's sleep I really did feel like a million bucks. The pitocin started again around 7 o'clock that morning and again the progress seemed slow, but I felt absolutely no pressure from my doctor or nurse or the hospital to feel rushed. The whole team was absolutely wonderful, friendly, considerate... Sam and I were playing cards at noon. Sam's mom called and was concerned about me and if I was exhausted and really we had just been hanging out all day without any hard labor pains or anything. Then all of a sudden active labor came on. I decide that we should put the cards away and that it was time to start doing my relaxation exercises. I was filled with pleasant thoughts as I knew that things were getting going now and tried not to think about estimating how long I would be in labor because that would bring anxiety. With each contraction I was able to brace a laboring ball that I had placed on the bed and had Sam apply counter pressure on my back. With each contraction I worked to relax my entire body and thought of the baby coming down the birth canal. I wanted to allow each contraction to not go wasted and to allow my body and the baby to do what they were supposed to do. We use the hypnobirthing method and this is a fabulous way to go. During this method you kind of allow yourself to be an outside observer, observing what is happening with your body and feeling what is happening during each part of the contraction and trying not to intrude as much as possible. It was really quite neat to feel her as she would get closer and closer to delivery. Between contractions I was miraculously enough able to continue relaxing. In the past that is when I get shaky because I would start to get nervous for the next contraction and that would mess everything up. This time I was able to walk around the room just fine and actually felt quite normal most of the time. For some reason the leaf wallpaper boarder in the room brought me lots of comfort and peace. I also for some reason kept reading a notice on the wall. This helped me to keep my mind in a completely different state. I was able to take myself completely out of the birth experience for those few moments before the next contraction. I then felt that I needed to go to the bathroom. So I went in and told Sam that I thought he better leave the door open this time. So he did. I sat in there for a couple of contractions and then the intense urge to push came. It was exciting and a little nerve wracking. Sam called the nurse and told them that I felt like I needed to push. Of course the doctor and nurses were there in seconds. But at that point it was between contractions and I was doubting myself and whether I really was ready to push. I kept asking them, "What if I am wrong?" and they kept saying "but what if you are right?". So then the next contraction told us that, yes I was indeed ready to push. And then all of a sudden I think 3 contractions later, and a little bit of throw up and all the other messy stuff (the nurses all had to change their clothes afterward because when my water broke it went everywhere) and the "ring of fire" and pushing and breathing I was holding our lovely baby girl and watching Sam cut the cord. She was born at 1:21 in the afternoon. She was also born talking. She was not crying. She was in my arms and was telling me something. She just "talked and talked and talked". It seemed almost like she was telling me her side of the story. At the time I thought this was really interesting and now each day that we get further from the birth do I realize how very special this really was. And then as Sam said it was almost like she realized that we didn't really know what she was saying and she stopped. It was really nice, they let us hold her all mucky and everything for about an hour and a half before they took her to give her a bath and all that other fun stuff.

Sam was so absolutely wonderful during the whole process. He knew exactly what to do while I was laboring. It was like he could read my thoughts which is awesome because during the active labor I did not talk much at all. He knew what to do and was definitely receiving inspiration from on high through the process. He is such a wonderful supportive husband and I love him so much. I could not have had such a wonderful and joyous birth without him and also the amazing doctors and nurses that were present.

So once again, welcome Joy Debra Swenson. You joined us one week ago today and have enjoyed you so much. We love you! (there are no pics of me because I was holding Joy skin to skin and I just wasn't comfortable putting those on the public blog).