Since we've been home . . .

We came home from the hospital Saturday, Sept. 25th. Week One was a little miserable sleep-wise. Collin had his days and nights mixed up and hardly slept at all. . . and we hadn't quite figured him out yet. He escaped every swaddle we tried so his own arms would wake him up. Then, we found out that he wasn't getting enough milk from nursing, since he was always sleepy when he nursed and would fall asleep about every 3 seconds. After working on the feeding (with frequent, frustrating lactation specialist appointments) and swaddling, we had a happier baby and he started to sleep for longer stretches.

Swaddled next to daddy

Funny sleeping positions

 During week 2, Grandma Grothaus came to visit, and to help while Rob started school. During this time, we started to give Collin formula after he nursed to make sure he was eating enough, and that made a huge difference in his sleep patterns since he was well-fed. He began having long stretches of sleep at night (5-6 hours at a time!!) and we started getting into a better routine. He started to love baths and started having more awake and alert time. Then, during Week 3, Grandma Grimmer came to help. It was nice to not have to be alone right away with my new baby when Rob was at school all day. 

Also this last week, some girls in the ward had a baby shower for me. It was so nice of them, since we were so new in the ward. It was lots of fun to get out of the house and celebrate our cute baby!

  Collin is lots of fun. We're still working on the feeding thing, since he is still a sleepy eater. But we're getting more and more used to being parents now.

Collin with Grandma Grothaus

He makes the funniest faces!

Aunt Lindsey made him this blanket.

With Grandma Grimmer 

Hanging out with his sock monkey friend. 

We love our cute boy!!

A Baby Story

 Our baby is 3 weeks old already! I decided that I needed to write down my labor and birth story before I start to forget details. **I wasn't going to post this because it is long and boring and mostly for my own records, so don't feel obligated to read it!**

We were hoping that our baby would come by at least his due date (Sept. 26th), since Rob was starting school a few days after. Our doctor (Dr. Carter) was willing to induce labor starting at 39 weeks as long as my cervix was looking good. It was really hard to decide whether we wanted to do that: we preferred that it would happen naturally, but we also really wanted to have some time together with the baby before Rob got busy with school. We felt like we had been sitting around for a long time doing nothing but waiting, and we didn't want to waste our time when we could be spending it getting settled in with our baby. Anyway, since our doctor thought my cervix would be ready, we decided to plan for induction and meanwhile try to get labor to start on its own. . . which didn't work.

We went to my doctor Tuesday the 21st, and she said that we could come in that evening to start cervical ripening stuff overnight. That day was so weird. It's so crazy to know that in a few hours, you're going to the hospital to have a baby. I was stressed. I'm not very good with decisions so of course I was worried that we shouldn't get induced, and that things would go wrong. It's also pretty scary to know that you're about to be in the worst pain of your life for probably a very long time. . . I know that lots of women, at the end of their pregnancies, get so anxious to have their baby that they aren't even scared of the birth any more. My pregnancy was relatively comfortable and easy, even at the end, so I never really got to that point. It was still scary to me.

We spent that day packing our hospital bags, relaxing together, taking a long walk, and eating at Olive Garden right before going to the hospital. Rob also gave me a blessing before we went, mostly for comfort. It really helped me to feel better about the whole thing.

When we got to the hospital, the nurse started me on a low dose of Pitocin to ripen my cervix overnight. I was able to get some sleep in the uncomfortable labor bed, and at about 5:30 in the morning, Dr. Carter came in and turned up the Pitocin to a labor-starting dose, and broke my water. I was dilated to about a 3 at that point. I went back to sleep and we woke up a little later, still feeling fine. My nurse told me to do some walking, so Rob and I walked up and down the halls for a while. I was starting to have mild contractions but overall felt okay. When we got bored of that, we went to our room and played card games. My contractions were getting a lot stronger by that time and I decided to sit in the jacuzzi. It really helped soothe the pain.


After I was done in the jacuzzi, the nurse checked my cervix and it had not changed at all. It was about 1:00 in the afternoon by this time so we were starting to get nervous that the pitocin wasn't working. Since my water was already broken, I needed to have a baby soon one way or another. Dr Carter told the nurse to stop the pitocin for a while because she thought maybe my body wasn't responding to it any more since I had been on it for so long. The nurse stopped the pitocin and gave me a morphine shot, to give me a chance to rest before starting the pitocin again. I rested but never really fell asleep. . . just half-slept. Rob slept like a baby.


At about 5:30, the nurse started the pitocin again and we did a little more walking. Soon, the contractions started getting really strong. The pain was mostly in my lower back and Rob put pressure on it whenever they started. He was super helpful throughout the whole ordeal. After walking, we went back into the room and I tried sitting on the birthing ball. As soon as I sat on it, I started to feel really queasy. I grabbed a barf bag just in time. This was kind of a big deal. . . I hadn't thrown up since I was young, maybe 6 or 7 years old. I ALMOST made it through the entire pregnancy without throwing up, but lost it on the very last day. Rob and I laughed about it quite a bit, because I guess I was kind of dramatic about it. After that, I let the nurse know that I was in enough pain to get the epidural.

At the beginning of my pregnancy, I was convinced that I would try to go without the epidural. But, as it got closer and more real, I was leaning towards getting it. Not necessarily because of the pain, but mostly the anticipation of pain really freaked me out and I wanted to know I could have relief when I needed it. I know everyone says this, but the epidural was so great. Almost instant relief and comfort, and I could finally relax. It was really good for me emotionally I think, to not have to sit there waiting for the pain to keep getting worse all night. The nurse checked my cervix after that, at around 9:00, and it was still only between a 3 and a 4. We were disappointed and felt sure I was going to need a c-section in the morning. The baby's head wasn't quite pointed in the right direction, so the nurse put me in an exaggerated sideways position (right leg up in left stirrup) and I went to sleep. At 11:00, she checked my cervix again and shockingly said, "you're at an 8!". Apparently that position helped the baby to move right where he should, and I'm sure after getting the epidural and being able to relax, I was able to progress better. We were so excited and hopeful. I still wasn't feeling pain, so I went back to sleep.

At about 2:00, she came back in, woke me up, and checked me again. She said I was ready. I woke Rob up and started to get nervous about the whole pushing thing. Even though I was numb, I expected that pushing out a baby would still be really scary. I suddenly got chills and started to shake. The nurse checked my temp and I had a fever. I couldn't stop shaking and even though I knew it was because of the fever and onset of delivering a baby, it felt like I was shaking out of fear of pushing. I started pushing at about 2:30. My contraction monitor wasn't working so I had to tell the nurses when I had a contraction. Even though it was really hard work to push and hold my breath, I didn't feel pain, only pressure. After an hour and a half of pushing, my baby was here!

**As a side note, After Collin was born Rob told me, "All I could think about while you were pushing was, 'I have really bad gas!'" That made me laugh, and laughing hurt.

Because I had a fever, Collin did too as he came out so he needed antibiotics for 2 days. They gave it to him through an IV in his hand. His fever went down quickly, though, and we were so glad our baby was perfectly healthy.

I felt so lucky that things turned out so well. Even though I spent a long day in the hospital, I felt calm and relaxed the whole day. I didn't spend that much time in pain either and felt like I had a pretty good labor and delivery. Also, when Collin was born, one of the nurses said that he looked like he was overdue (because of his wrinkled hands and long fingernails) so it was a good thing we had him when we did. That reassured me of our decision to be induced. Rob was so good at helping me feel relaxed, and all in all, our birth experience was very calm and peaceful.

Collin Jude Grimmer

On Thursday, September 23, 2010 at 3:53AM we had ourselves a baby boy!  His name is Collin Jude Grimmer and he is the best baby!  He weighed in at 7lbs 2oz and was 21" long.  One reason Collin is special is because he has his Dad's hands and feet.  I'm sure that most of you already knew, but we've been a little behind on blogging.  We will post a blog with details about the birth sometime soon!

Welcome to our family Collin Jude!  We are so lucky that we get to be your parents.  You're teaching us so very much already.  We love you!

Summer Fun!

 

Welcome to Seaside, Oregon! We went here to celebrate my birthday!  Seaside was really cool.  It had lots of shops and stuff.  Unfortunately, we got stuck with a dreary day.  You really couldn't see the ocean at all, it was cold and foggy and the water was freezing.

 Rachel has often told me of her memories of Seaside as a child, when her family went there and visited the Seaside Candyman.  This place had somewhere around 170 different flavors of salt water taffy.  Rachel has since then ranted about how she loved this place.  We went back and as you can see (In the next picture), tried almost every flavor.

 

 My birthday was awesome!  My wife is the best and I love her!  She got me a manly diaper bag, because I was complaining one time about how feminine diaper bags are and how much of a sissy I would look like with them.  This manly diaper bag will make me and my son look like real tough dudes.  I also got Super Mario Bros Wii!  Really fun game.  I got a few shirts.  Lastly, she got me a grill with tools, charcoals and hickory wood chips.  I am now a grilling king.

 Our baby has gradually been getting bigger.  Here's a recent picture of Rachel and our boy at 36 weeks.  Rachel has been getting more and more uncomfortable, but still feels okay most of the time.  Her main symptom is swelling in her legs and feet, pretty much all the time.  A few people have mentioned that it's the worst they've ever seen.  Other than that, she feels tired and light headed a lot.  She still feels lucky to have had a pretty easy going pregnancy though.

 A couple of weeks ago, Rachel and I went up to northern Washington to Lake Palmer for our Grimmer family reunion.  This was a monumental one, because all of my brothers and sisters were able to make it there at the same time.  The whole family was there on Sunday (Minus Steve.  He was sick, but greatly missed).  The whole week had fun activities.  On Tuesday, our sister-in-law Diana planned a baby shower for us, since we weren't going to have one otherwise.  It was really well planned out with fun games and treats for all.  Above is a picture of Rachel and I at our baby shower.  The crown had to be put on my head via scotch tape.

 The first game we played was something like, "Don't break the water."  Appropriate, for a baby shower.  You had to hold a water balloon between your legs and run to the goal.  I failed miserably.  The second, (pictured below) was some other game where you had to roll dice (doubles, 7 or 11) in order to gain control of the pot of M&M's.  When you had control you sucked M&M's with the straw into your cup.  Rachel and I came in dead last.  We really sucked... or we didn't suck.  Something like that.

 We got a lot of awesome stuff for our son.  The super baby outfit was amongst the coolest of them.  We got an awesome bassinet, and lots of diapers and wipes.  It was a success and a lot of fun!  Thanks Diana!

This is our Mom, Dad & Sibling picture.  This is the first family picture we've had in 6 years.

Here's the rest of the family.

We spent the rest of the week swimming and boating.  

This picture was of us jumping off the boat (Pictured left to right: Dan, Diana, Amber, Scott and Rob). 

During the reunion, I was the master wakeboarder!  At least, I was until I crashed and got a concussion, that is.  I'll tell you the story, because it sounds like it was funny (I actually don't remember any of it).  I was wakeboarding and I was weaving in out of the wake.  I guess I was just being retarded or something, because my board turned sideways and I face-planted into the water.  I remember that my feet rocketed out of the boots and I just floated for a while in extreme pain with my eyes closed.  After a while I swam after my board and went in to the boat.  I helped Amber figure out how to get the wakeboard on and then I don't remember the next half hour.

I guess the next half hour progressed like this: We had this other red wakeboard that was bootless.  I wanted to try it out.  I tried it before my concussion, but was unsuccessful in getting up onto it.  During Amber's attempt to wakeboard I kept asking if I had tried out the red board yet.  They said that I had and I would reply back, "Did I get up?"  This happened several times until Rachel, Kim and Dan decided to ask me other questions.  "Do you remember FHE on Monday?"  "No."  "Do you remember our baby shower yesterday?"  " No. . . We had a baby shower?"  So it was pretty obvious something was wrong.  I kept making the same lame jokes and asking the same questions.  That's pretty much it.  I still don't remember the half hour, but the rest of my memory came back.

That's the story of my first concussion.

 

In other news, we're finally done with organizing our apartment.  We had lots of little projects we'd been meaning to do, so we've kept busy going through things and organizing. Now that we're done with everything major, it's relax time until baby comes and school starts.  Rachel is 37 and a half weeks along now, so the baby is already full term. We're really excited for it to happen already. Maybe our next blog will have baby news!