Post Baby Update

Well it has been 6 weeks since little Bekett joined our family and it has been busy.  Here are some of the highlights of our last month and a half.

Tate and Grey continued thier Jedi training.

Tate continued his big brother apprenticeship. 

Zoe started her seamstress training under the master.  Ben's mother Mani was here to help us with all of our needs (especially our need for sweet treats!).  Zoe learned many valuable skills from her including sewing, crocheting, hat making and cooking.

Cute Tate!

And again!

Zoe had her final piano recital and piano guild.  This is the group of students her teacher teaches.

Zoe had her final orchestra concert and is feeling pretty good about playing the viola.  I think she will play again next year.

Zoe had her end of the year dance recital.  She had to practice her sexy walk which was more than a little bit disturbing for me.

Gresen had Nana (Ben's mom) wrapped around his finger.  She was worried he didn't eat enough so she would follow him around with food.  He was very particular about what he would eat namely cucmbers and hot dogs with ranch and noodles.  And of course the ever present milk cup!

Bek was also honing his skills...sleeping...

...asking for food...

...digesting...

...looking adorable.

And there is daddy ready to answer every need!

Tate graduated kindergarten his teacher was Mrs. Murphy and he LOVED her.  We are so proud of how well he did in school.  He worked very hard often doing a whole months worth of homework in one sitting.  He memorized all of the need to know words for kindergarten through 4th grade!

Tate also had his spring piano recital.

Ben found an injured baby bird in our yard and had hopes of nursing him back to health.

He was very soft and small.

Zoe fell in love with him and was heart broken when he died.  We both cried.  She made him a little coffin and dug him a grave, then decorated it with her favorite rock.  It was so sweet and sad, one of lifes lessons I guess.

Zoe looks just like me in this picture!

My 3 cute and crazy boys!

I made those feet!

Zoe was so proud of putting the baby to sleep for the first time.

Tate advanced to the next level of his big brother training!

Greysen of course chose these 6 weeks to individuate and has been expressing his independence in many different ways.  He regularly uses the word "NO", often refuses to follow instruction, 

dresses himself,

makes hilarious faces and says awesome things.  For example he didn't know what his scrotum was called so he named it zjuzj (Ben and I just had a discussion about how to spell it and I am still not sure that works.)  He said to me the other day "I nub dis baby so much!"

Here I am still rocking my double chin!

I took these of my sweet boy today.

Love that bummy!

Here is Beks first real bath after the umbilical cord fell off and he healed from his circumcision.  Warning naked baby alert!

Welcome Bekett Marley Sorensen

Well I was beginning to think that I would stay pregnant forever, but little Bekett finally decided to make his grand entrance.  I am going to give a run down of that night's events, some of the details may be a little much so you are welcome to skip ahead to the cute pictures if you like.

Saturday May 26th I was doing everything I could to get labor going.  Ben has been doing a long term substitute teaching job and Memorial Day weekend was the only long break he would get until the end of the school year.  Ben's mom has been with us for a few weeks and was getting anxious to meet her new grandson.  Plus I was just incredibly uncomfortable.  I ate a bunch of fresh pineapple for breakfast which is supposed to stimulate labor and then we decided to go on a long walk.  We walked the Wenatchee River trail for 6 miles.  I was exhausted but no contractions to speak of so I decided to take drastic measures.  I have never been brave enough to do it before but I decided to try Castor oil because a friend of mine had recently tried it and it worked for her.  Around 4 pm I took a dose in an orange julius.  Nothing happened so around 6 pm I took another dose.  Around 8 pm I started to feel the effects.  No contractions to speak of but my colon got a good cleaning.  Around 10pm I started to have some irregular contractions but they were not serious so we went to bed around 11:30pm. 

Around 12:30am Sunday May 27th I rolled over in bed and felt a rush of fluid.  I thought at first that I had wet the bed.  How embarrassing right!  I soon realized that I had not wet the bed but my water had broken.  This has never happened to me before.  With my 3 other pregnancies my water had to be broken by the doctor just before delivery.  We decided this was our cue to go the hospital.  Ben went to wake Zoe up and I took a quick shower.  Once we were all packed up (except for the camera which we forgot!)  Ben, Zoe and I went to the hospital.  I was having contractions but they were 5 minutes apart and not very hard.  We got settled into a room and then they took my blood pressure which was 154/95.  Way to high for me since my average pressure before this was 118/80.  They were very concerned that I was developing pregnancy induced hypertension.  I was not concerned about this because I knew that I was very dehydrated because of the long walk and the colon cleansing as well as a long pregnancy where I had a hard time drinking anything.  I told them to keep bringing me fluid and I would rehydrate and my pressure would go down.  They insisted on starting an IV.  Normally I have great veins and I have never had to be poked more than once but since I was dehydrated they had to try 4 times and finally use an ultrasound to get the IV into my vein.

This picture doesn't do them justice but my arms looked like I had been in some type of terrible brawl.  Because of my high blood pressure they didn't want me to be up and around so we all rested.  Around that time the nurse also expressed some concern about the amount of blood I was loosing and about the apparent position of the baby.  They tried positioning me in different ways to get the baby to turn over.  Around 7 am after drinking what seemed like a gallon of apple juice and having IV fluids my pressure went down and they allowed me to walk the halls to try to get labor going.  I walked the halls for about an hour and then they checked to see if I was making any progress I was only dilated to a 4 so the doctor suggested that they start me on pitosin.  I was hesitant because I have heard that pitosin makes contractions much more painful and makes it much more difficult to deliver without pain killers.  I have never used pain killers during a delivery before and I preferred not to.  I agreed to the pitosin knowing that I may end up getting an epidural because of it. 

Around 10am the contractions were pretty intense and I was feeling like I either needed to deliver soon or get something for pain.  They checked me and told me I was only dilated to a 5.  This was very discouraging for me and I decided I was going to have to get and epidural.  They called the anesthesiologist.  Those were the longest 10 minutes of my life waiting for him to come.  I was in so much pain.  When he got there he decided to give me a spinal block because it would work faster and wear off faster.  I agreed and he put the block in.  Once the block was in I had to wait another 10 minutes for the numbness to work its way from my toes up to my abdomen.  Within 5 minutes I had 2 of the worst contractions I have ever had in my life.  The hospital room erupted in chaos as nurses and doctors flooded into the room.  Everyone was talking at once, someone was putting a mask on my face, someone else was putting a pulse oximeter on my finger, I heard someone mention the babies heart rate, someone else commented on my bleeding, someone else was telling me to roll onto my side, no that didn't work let's try the other side, we have got to get that baby out.  I was so confused and in so much pain that I took the mask off and dropped it and flung the pulse ox off of my finger.  Then I remembered Zoe and asked where she was.  They brought her to the bed she was crying and looked terrified.  I looked her in the eye and told her I was going to be okay.  Then they told me it was time to start pushing.  The numbness from the block still hadn't made it up my legs.  I pushed 4 times.  I remember thinking that something wasn't right because my pushing didn't feel as effective as it had with my other deliveries.  They had to use a vacuum to help me out.  Once the baby's head was out several people shouted at me to stop pushing.  There was a pause and then they allowed me to push him the rest of the way out.  One he was out the doctor told them to open up the pitosin and let it run freely into my IV.  Thankfully by then the block had reached my abdomen.

You may be wondering what happened, why the big rush to get the baby out in 4 pushes.  Well, there were a few things that I wasn't aware of.  After the block was placed and I had those 2 hard contractions the baby quickly engaged in my pelvis and his heart rate dropped into the 80's.  Normal heart rate for babies is around 150.  I was also bleeding heavily and the baby was being delivered face up which is a very difficult position to deliver a baby in and often leads to a Cesarean section.  It is also a very painful way to deliver a baby.  The baby also had the cord wrapped around his neck.  It turns out I also had a partial placental abruption which is what was causing me to bleed and why they insisted on the pitosin at the end to stop the bleeding.

In the end a healthy baby boy was born introducing:

Bekett Marley Sorensen
6 lbs 9 oz
20 inches long
red hair
   

Ben's mom Mani has been with us for a month to help out while Ben was working and when the baby came.  She has been so amazing.  She is a great homemaker and a fabulous playmate.  We have been so lucky to have her.

Wow!  I look swollen and tired.  Well, I had just been through a lot.  Look at my sweet kiddos!
Bek looked pretty bad also fro, having his face slammed against my pubic bone.  His eyes were so swollen that they kept flipping inside out.  Like that annoying boy in 6th grade use to do.  It was kind of freaky.

Grey loves his baby brother and wants to hold him all of the time.  He is very impatient for Bek to play cars with him.  Funny side note; Grey wanted to name Bek Jim.

Tate wanted to name Bek Alvin.

Lots of Bek cuteness to follow...

My good friend Shawna made this blanket.
Ben took these pictures.  Didn't he do an amazing job!

Needless to say Zoe feels a special bond with her little brother.  There where a few minutes during the delivery when she thought we both were not going to make it.  She was very brave.   Her favorite part of the delivery was watching Bek's head come out.  She also thought it was "horrifying and awesome" to watch the doctor sew me up.  Zoe wanted to name Bek Gilbert or Bennett. 

Bek thought Zoe's nose looked like dinner!

Tate is a great big brother!  He wants to hold the baby whenever he can.

We are so thankful that everything turned out for the best and both mom and baby are healthy and blissfully happy. Not running any marathons soon though. We are going to rest and recover together.

Bek's first bath