Kayden Michael Frericks--birth story

I have decided that since I wasn't blogging yet when the boys were born, so I never posted their birth stories, I'm going to do it for their birthdays this year(what I can remember of each story anyway).  So, here it goes:

About two or three weeks before Kayden's due date, we found out that he was a BIG baby. The ultrasound tech estimated that he was about 9 pounds by 37 weeks gestation, and was also breech.  So, my doc decided that if I haven't gone into labor on my own by 39 weeks, he would either induce me if baby had turned around, or schedule a c-section if he was still breech. 

So, at my 38 week appointment, I expected to be scheduling a c-section, since I hadn't felt the baby flip, and I assumed that if he was as large as they were telling me, that I would have noticed.  I had mentally prepared myself to be having surgery.  THEN, my doctor went to examine me, and said, "it sure feels like the baby is head-down", so he ordered another ultrasound, and sure enough, the little bugger had flipped!  So, we scheduled an induction for February 26th, and were on our way. 

This is where, four years later, things are a little foggy.  I really wish I would have documented this experience better when it first happened.
Our induction was scheduled for 8:00 (I think).  We arrived at the hospital, got checked in, put on a beautiful gown, answered five million questions, climbed onto a bed, got hooked up to an IV of Pitocin, and waited. I don't remember exactly how far into things the real contractions started, but I know that it was some time after my doctor came and broke my water.  I do remember that there was A LOT of water!  The nurses couldn't believe how much water I had.  They had me walk around to keep things moving, although this didn't last long, because I was much happier to just lay in the bed and be miserable.  I remember extremely painful contractions, and holding onto the side of the bed.  I know that I fought through the pain way longer than I should have. I tried a drug before my epidural, and it kind of helped, but it didn't last long.   Once I got my epidural ( I don't remember how many cm I was when I got it, I'm thinking 7ish?) the pain was manageable, but not gone. I remember my nurse, giving me a little controller and saying that I could push the little button to give myself another dose every 15 minutes.  She said I could push it as often as I wanted to, but it would only release medication every 15 minutes. That little button was my friend!  I remember asking quite often, "Has it been 15 minutes yet?", then pushing the button and feeling the cold liquid move down the tube against my back.  Lovely I tell you.

Once I had the epidural, I was able to rest, and even sleep for a while.  I went through at least three or four nurses throughout the day.  One told me she thought I'd have a baby by 7 p.m.  When that didn't happen, the next nurse said, by 9:00, so I had Mike call my mom and tell her she could come down, because we'd have a baby by 9:00.  

At about 8:00 p.m, the nurses had me start pushing.  I pushed, and pushed.  And pushed.  And pushed.  They had put me on oxygen to help me breathe through all the hard work.  I pushed for four hours before my doctor decided that the baby just wasn't going to come out.  So, he rolled in a cart with a little machine with a suction cup on the end.  He attached the cup to the baby's head, and as I pushed, he pulled him out.  When he finally came out, I remember hearing the doctor say, "Well, no wonder he wasn't coming out!  He's huge!"  
They put him on the scale, and there were the numbers:  9 pounds, 14.7 ounces.  That's a ten pound baby.  
He was huge, but he was healthy and he was beautiful!

Two days later when it came time to go home, we realized that the cute little outfit we brought for Kayden to go home in was too small, and Mike had to go home to get a new outfit that was a little bigger.  Of course, the one he brought said, "I love Daddy!".  

4

Kayden turned 4 on yesterday, and I was absolutely dreading it!  I'm not sure why, but the fact that he is going to be four years old really freaks me out.  It seems like three is still little, and four is BIG. 

This means that he'll be in daycare full-time for just one more school year, then he'll go to kindergarten.  This means that I no longer have three boys, three and under.  I now have three boys four and under.

He talks about all these new, big boy things he wants to do.  He wants to go to swimming lessons, he wants to go fishing, he wants to go to school, he wants to ride a big boy bike(which is what we got him for his birthday), not his trike, he wants to help shovel the driveway, he wants to help make supper...

But he still needs his blankey at bedtime, or when he's sad.  He still wants help going potty.  He still wants to rock with his mommy.  He still needs help buckling his seat belt in the car.  He still needs a hug and a kiss every morning when I drop him off at daycare.  He still likes to be carried.  

I know that my kids growing up is inevitable.  It's going to happen.  I just wish it wouldn't happen so stinkin' fast....

Not yet...

I went to Kayden's room to wake him up this morning.  He stretched his little arms and said, "Mommy, am I four?"

"No, not yet.  Two more days.  But you get to celebrate your birthday at Sharon's today!"

Not yet.  
Thank God.  
I get to keep my 3-year-old for two more days.  
Wouldn't it be nice if we could freeze our kids at our favorite age?  
I would keep Kayden three for-ev-er!  
Just sayin'.  

Uh oh!

I just wanted to point out (mostly for family journaling purposes) that Tyson now waves bye-bye, throws things on the floor and says, "Uh oh" then laughs like it's the most hilarious thing he's ever seen, and also officially has his two bottom teeth!

Thankful Thursday

This week I'm thankful for:

=a Kayden/Mommy day=

=a Monday off=

=pediatricians=

=Target (and their pharmacy)=

=coupons=

=a last few days with my 3-year old before he becomes a "big boy"=

=Rhonda coming over (again) so that we can watch Amazih play basketball with only ONE child with us= 

Sick baby (again)

For some reason, my little Tyson just can't stay healthy!  Although he is one of the happiest sick babies I've ever seen, it seems like he's always got something going on.  

Toward the end of last week, he started a little cold/cough.  It seems like whenever he gets a cold, it goes right to his lungs.  I picked him up from daycare on Monday, and Sharon had a look of terror.  She explained that she had to give him the "baby heimlich".  She said that he was sitting on the floor, then started coughing and couldn't catch his breath.  She had to flip him over, and hit his back.  Nothing came out, so she stuck her finger in his mouth to make sure there was nothing in it, and then he just threw everything up. He's been sounding really wheezy, and when things were getting worse rather than better, I decided that I'd take him in yesterday afternoon. 

We waited for about half an hour in the germ-infested walk-in clinic waiting room before we were called back.  The doctor that saw him found an ear infection, and said his breathing sounded really bad. She decided to treat him for the ear infection, asthma and possible pneumonia. 
So, I headed to Target to pick up FIVE different prescribed medications.  He is on drops for his ears, an anti-biotic for his ears, his albuterol in his nebulizer, a steroid in his nebulizer and prednizone.  I literally, had to make a schedule for his daily medications so that we can remember when to give him each one.  It's going to be a miserable two weeks....

Kayden/Mommy day!

After  our Friday night basketball adventure, we headed home, and put the kids to bed.  Saturday morning, we got up and got ready, then headed to Brainerd for Sydney's birthday party.  We spent the entire day there, and headed for home at bed time.  All three boys fell asleep on the way home, and we were able to put them all right in their beds. Heavenly I tell you.  

Sunday we spent the day at home watching the snow fall.  It was one of those days with no real plans so I had lots of things I wanted to cross off my "to do" list.  I did get a lot done, but the house was still by no means in order.  

Monday was President's Day, which meant no school for me!  So, I took Tyler and Tyson to daycare, and then Kayden and I headed into St. Cloud for a Kayden/Mommy day.  We had a bunch of errands to run, starting with his 4 year pictures.  After some prodding and bribing, he did quite well.  After pictures we headed to Target for necessities, and toy browsing, then to Space Aliens for lunch.  He absolutely loved it!  It was so nice to have that time with just him and I.  We ordered lunch, played a few games, earned tickets to get chincey crap to take home with us, took two potty breaks, pointed out every alien picture in the building, it was awesome!  

By the time we were done with lunch, he was getting tired, but we still had a few stops to make.  We headed to Old Navy, where I scored some deals on a few shirts for (believe it or not) myself!  Then we headed to Sam's Club.  He fell asleep on the way, but (very unlike him) woke up when I got him out and didn't even whine or complain!  After Sam's we still needed to hit up the grocery store.  By the time we were done, we were both exhausted!  We headed home, dropped off our bags, put away groceries, then headed to daycare to pick up the little boys. 

Jinxed!

So, Friday night we decided to do the unthinkable.  

We took ALL THREE boys to Amazih's basketball game.  I'm not real sure what we were thinking.  The game got started late, because it was Parent's Night, so they had a little hoopla before the game.  

As we took our seats in the bleachers, busted out a few toys(but not too many, because we needed to save some for when we got desperate) for distraction, and all was grand.  Tyler and Kayden were happy checking out all the people, Tyson was on someone's lap (could have been a relative, possibly a stranger) and all was good.  

THEN, the woman in front of me turns around and says, "They are so quiet and good!".  So, I says to her: "You just jinxed it".  Within minutes, there was yelling, there was tears, there was fighting, there was whining, there was climbing....

So, at about 8:30, Tyler's normal bedtime, it was only halftime!  Needless to say, he was cranky.  During halftime, I took him and Kayden into the hallway to run, Mike took them to get popcorn, I stood and held him for a while.  It was a process, but we stuck it out.  

And that Auntie Mazih better appreciate it, darn it!  

***There is another game tonight, but Rhonda will coming to watch Tyler and Tyson***

Thankful [day after] Thursday

This week I'm thankful for:

::an almost-four-year-old who learned to draw people, a sun, a spider and flowers, and tell me all about it!

::Woody---Tyler's newest companion.  

::a break in teething

::ECFE

::melting snow

::a good book

::time to read a good book

::healthy kids

::sunshine

"Me do!"

My little Tyler is funny.  We often will say things like, "Who wants to take a bath??", and he'll raise  his little hand, and yell, "Me do!!!".  Hil. ar. i. ous.  

So, last weekend, my dad and my brother were having a conversation about cars, when my brother said, in response to a question, "Yeah, but who wants a Hyundai?", and, right on cue, in the middle of playing with his legos, Tyler responded with a quick raise of his hand, "I do!". 

Oh man, I love that little guy. 

"Balentime's Day!"

"Mommy, is today Balentime's Day?"

"Yep, that's why we are bringing your Buzz and Woody Valentines to Sharon's and to school tonight"

"Oh, and Grammy is getting me a special Balentine today too, it's gonna be BIG!"

The procrastinator that I am, Kayden and I sat at the kitchen table at about 7:30 last night writing names on his Valentine's.  We had to do 20 for preschool, and eleven for daycare.  Toy Story 2 happened to be on the Disney Channel last night, so he was, to say the least, a little distracted.  He finally just said, "Mommy, you just do these Balentime's for me.  I don't wanna miss this movie."  

So there I sat, writing names on the "Balentime's", and putting them together with the pencil that went with each one.  

By next year, he'll be able to write his name, and I will sit on the couch and watch T.V while he signs 30-some valentine's.  Maybe I'll teach him to write, Tyler and Tyson too...... :)


Happy Balentime's Day Ya'll!

Baby turned BIG BOY!

On Wednesday, I took Tyler to get his first haircut.  His hair had gotten ridiculously long, but on a good day, was absolutely adorable. Curly, blonde, whispy, it was baby hair. 

Then there were the not-so-good days.  Days when he took long naps, or when he spent a lot of time with his winter hat on, or days when he smeared his breakfast/lunch/snack/snot in it.  It got bad. 

If it were up to Mike, he would have gotten his hair cut months ago, and we wouldn't have spent $10.00 to cut it, he would have had me cut it at home, like I do his and Kayden's.  So, I made the appointment, and when I got there, I told Christina to just cut it with a scissors, not too short. So, there he sat, on the special little boy seat on the big haircutting chair, with his little green smock with racecars on it.  He sat unbelievably still. She cut away.  With every snip, he looked older and older. By the time she was done, I had another (slightly shorter) Kayden. I swear to you.  They could be twins.  He looks so different, but so handsome.  

He definitely deserved the orange Tootsie-pop he got when he was all done.

On the bright side...

As I've mentioned before, we go through A LOT of diapers. We have two kids in diapers, and we probably will for a while. One bonus to using a lot of diapers, and having to use the more expensive, name brand diapers is the rewards that go with it.  

Since Kayden was a tiny baby, I've been collecting Gifts To Grow points from Pampers.  On every pack of diapers or wipes, there is a code.  You go online and enter the code, and earn points. There is a catalog of rewards to choose from, and I'm working on earning this for Tyler's birthday or maybe this.  To date, I have collected 3,499 points.

If  you use Pampers, and don't collect the points, I highly recommend starting.  You can earn anything from prints from Shutterfly, to magazines to books to puzzles to spa treatments to Sam's Club gift cards.  If you're not going to use them, I will accept your donations ;) 

Thankful Thursday

This week I'm thankful for:

....Girl Scout cookies!

....a little boy turned big boy thanks to his 1st haircut!

....no trips to the clinic

....a clean car, thanks to my hubby(even if the complained the whole time about how messy it was---when will he understand that I chauffeur 3 kids around 5 to 7 days a week????)

....a predicted warm up from these frigid Minnesota temperatures(this morning, my car  thermometer read -20)

....Monday night volleyball with a great group of girls

....dinner out with the girls

....Auntie Mazih's basketball games

....the hil-a-ri-ous things that come from the mouth of an almost four year old and almost 2 year old!

*Pee*

We currently have two kids in diapers. Anyone who is a parent these days, knows how expensive diapers are.  Plus, my boys apparently pee A LOT because we aren't able to use those generic brand diapers.  Major leakage.  So, we spend, I would say, at least $60 a month on diapers.  This drives Mike nuts.  He has been randomly putting Tyler on the potty, and yesterday, he finally went.  Maybe I'm weird, but I am not nearly as excited about this as I should be.  I hate potty training.  It's such a process, and a pain.  It's so much easier to just put a diaper on a child, rather than worry about making sure they go potty every 10 minutes, cleaning up the mess when they forget or choose not to use the potty, cleaning up the floor after they use their new-found toy to spray urine all over my bathroom, find a potty in a store within 5 seconds, before we have a mess, driving frantically down the freeway when a little voice from the back yells, "I gotta go potty!!!".  

I'm exhausted just thinking about it.

But, hey, he did it.  

Wahoo.  

I think. 

Tyson::9 months

Tyson had his 9 month appointment on Friday.  His ears were clear of infection, his breathing was back to normal, and he is a healthy 21 pounds!  I don't have all of his stats handy right now, but he was in the 50th-60th percentile in everything.  I was kind of wondering about his weight, because he has really gotten kinda chubby in the past month, but I guess he's normal :)   

He also is pushing his second tooth through, which has made for a couple sleepless nights!

A date?

We had a pretty low-key weekend.  Not a lot happening.  

BUT.....

When Tyson was born, Mike's parents gave us a gift card to Buffalo Wild Wings and said that they would like to babysit while we go out to dinner some time. Well, it's now almost 10 months later, and we're finally using it.  We started looking at our calendar, and realized that we needed to get Kayden's birthday present (we wanted to get him a bike, and I wanted Mike to help pick it out), and our schedule was filling fast with birthdays, basketball games, Mike being on-call, etc.  We didn't have much planned for this weekend, so we figured we'd go.  

So, Friday night I got home from work, fed the boys supper, and then when Mike got home, his parents came over, and we headed out.  Our first stop was Toys R Us, I had a few coupons for there, and I knew they had a good selection of bikes, even in the winter.  We were able to find one there, and--to my complete embarrassment--Mike even rode it around the store to try it out.

After Toys R Us, we headed to BWW's to eat. The place was packed, but it was nice to be able to have a meal with no kids to feed, mouths to wipe, spills to clean...I could go on and on. We took our time eating, then headed to Target.  We wanted to check their bike selection (just in case), and we needed to pick up Tyson's latest prescription, and some diapers, etc.  We ended up being in Target almost until they closed!  We got home and all three boys were asleep.  We visited with Mike's parents and his sister for a while, then they headed home and we were off to bed. 

Thankful Thursday

This week I'm thankful for:

**a birthday celebration with family---and others

**kids who seem to be on the up-swing of recent illnesses

**a weekend ahead with no major plans, which means time to get my house back in order

**a great dinner out with great friends---and no kids in tow!!!

**an awesome family weekend 

**Desitin

**Cherry Coke

**coupons

**slightly warmer temperatures (I think we'll climb into the teens today!)

**babies who sleep all night---or most of the night at least!

**monkey piles

15???????????

My baby sister is 15 today.  

15.  

Seriously?  

Where did the curly-haired 2 year old go? 

Oh yes, she turned into a 5 foot 8 inch basketball playing teenager.

Don't worry.  She isn't driving.  

Yet. 

So, "Happy Birthday Amazih".  

Thank you for being my extra hand with my boys when I need it. 

Love You!