Tuesday, January 6, 2009

Grahm is ONE, Todd is DONE, and we sure had some holiday FUN

Probably one of my worst titles yet- but is it worse than the fact that I have a million things to cover in this overdue post? Hmm- I think the title might be worse by the tiniest bit! As many of you know, Todd finished up his undergraduate degree at BYU-I in December- he now has an official degree in Computer Science. It is nice to have that solidified, although, not much changes here for us. Todd has been programming the entire time he has been going to school- so same profession, same job. But, now we have no fear of him getting fired and having a hard time finding employment. Todd's mom gave us a SWEET snow blower for a graduation gift and a gift card for me to celebrate the end of our student years. Isn't she sweet? Todd received some other thoughtful gifts- thank you Flatlands, DeArtons and Wheelers! We celebrated TOdd's graduation the same night as Graham's first birthday. Ike is finally one! I thought I would tribute his birthday with a recap of the drama of his birth!

As many of you know, the ultrasound tech told us that Graham would be born a girl. Apparently some leg-crossing confused the gender predictions. So, we were ready to welcome our fourth girl due January 12th but really hoping to have the baby before the new year. Insurance stuff, you know. On December 16th is became clear that we needed to go to the hospital that day for labor issues. I had gone into preterm contractions at least 3 times prior, so we figured we would go in and they would stop the labor ahnd then send us home. Well- I was exactly 36 weeks so they did not stop the contractions. However, the baby's heart rate was WAY too high and so the nurse gave me an IV trying to calm the baby down. My contractions had not very regukar, so I still expected to be sent home. The fluids from the IV stabalized the baby's heart beat and helped my contractions become more regular. The decision was made that we WOULD have the baby that day even if it had to be c-section. That meant no food for me! Well, hours went by and I was progressing fine until we got to a point where the baby's heart rate started dropping. This caused the nurse to get nervous and the NICU nurse was saying "She has to deliver soon- that baby is distressing" The nurse started calling for the doctor trying to get someone in so we could deliver and NO ONE came! She actually got to to point of yelling out "Someone needs to get in here NOW!" The NICU nurse stepped out for minute to find the doctor and the nurse stayed by me. Good thing- because the baby was not waiting anymore and the nurse really just had to catch. Then the doctor comes in and starts being rude to nurse. Seriously? That nurse had paged and called for the doctor at least 10 times. Oooh- it made me mad. But, I couldn't really deal with that because the nurse did get in- before getting chewed out unfairly- 'Oh, its a boy!'
My first words to my son were WHAT?!WHAT?!WHAT?! Todd had given me a look just before that- the same look he gives when he is in trouble- and I knew something was up, but not that!! Well, he was rushed away to the NICU and I am laying there in absolute shock, crying and telling the nurse that he wouldn't have any brothers because this was our last baby and I didn't have a name for him and no clothes and the car seat (I know, of all things to freak out about) was PINK! Our story spread quickly and some of the sweetest nurses put together a gift bag of baby boy clothes for us to take him home in. That night my sister and her husband came to see us and we sat around trying to think of a name. My bother-in-law and Todd wanted to name him Icabod so that we could call him Ike. I said no to Icabod, but Ike is a fine nickname. We settled on Marcus because it seemed to be the best choice. I had to go home without the baby because his lungs were not ready and he had developed a little bit of pneumonia. My sister-in-law came to drop off some clothes from her son and was remembering some of the names we had liked. As soon as she said "And I remember you guys liked Graham" I thought- crap, we gave him the wrong name. After she left I went to talk to Todd and asked if he really liked Marcus because I might have a better name. We both agreed that Graham was the best name and I called the hospital to change it. They hadn't sent the birth certificate information in yet, so it was an easy fix! So much drama- but now we have a wonderful healthy little boy and we love having 3 girls and The Boy!



I know I am really late on the holidays- let me just say that we enjoyed spending time with both sides of the family and we had fun celebrating at home. And if any of you are wondering- no, I did not make any New Year's resolutions about posting more often ;)! Have the best beginning of a new year!