Here's what's been going on...

I figured it was time for an update. Nate made it through another week of block exams, which was madness like usual. He pretty much quarantined himself in the bedroom for the entire weekend before, and then got about 3-4 hours of sleep a night the entire week of his finals. We got to spend about an hour together on Valentine's day, but I definitely felt worse for him than for me. His hard work paid off, and he did super well on all of his exams.

I went back to work a couple of weeks ago, which was quite the adjustment. Sawyer is getting watched by my friend Alisha and her sweet little girl Leila. It's hard to be away from him all day, but I get to be super excited to come home to him.

My mom came into town on the weekend of Valentine's Day to entertain me, and help me get my house in order before going back to work. We had take out Cafe Rio and Cheesecake Factory for our Valentine's dinner. What a date!

Thanks mom!

Sawyer's first kicks. Thanks Rich and Heather!

Our little man is getting bigger, and longer all the time.

He smiles! Ok, he's been doing this for awhile but it's like the greatest thing ever.

His new little jumper toy. His feet are still like a foot from the ground and he has blankets wedging him in, but we thought we'd try it out. He's gonna love it, can't you tell?

Nate and I went to this fun Morrocan restaurant for a late V-day dinner. This belly dancer was amazing...I've never seen hips move like that. You had to eat with your hands like straight outta Along Came Polly. It was super fun!

Nate's parents came into town last weekend for some golf and r&r. It was good times.

Happy Birthday Seth

Happy 4th Birthday Buddy!

Mama drama!

So, we have had quite the weekend in the Mortensen house. First off, I got a breast infection called mastitis, which means my right one turned bright red and hard and sore, and I got a fever of 102.7. It was Saturday night and we were trying to decide whether to go to urgent care for me...
Meanwhile, we were trying this new system for Sawyer to get him on a better sleep schedule. According to this book Babywise, you are supposed to lay the baby down in his bed and let him cry it out until he falls asleep to get him used to falling asleep in his own bed. So I wrapped him up (apparently too tightly) and put him to bed, where he proceeded to cry for 45 minutes (he's been known to be a stubborn boy). We finally decided to get him out only to discover that he was super hot from the thick blanket that was on him. It was kinda chilly when I put him down but all that crying must have been quite the workout. We took his temp because he felt so warm and it was 100.8. I called the nurse line at my ped's office and she said that I should take him to urgent care because babies under 12 weeks need attention if temp is over 100.4. We took off all of his clothes and gave him a bottle to drink and he seemed to be calming down. I thought I could tough it out til morning, but not the babe. We didn't want to go to urgent care if we didn't have to because my stupid insurance won't allow e.r. visits unless it is definitely an emergency, and there is only one 24 hour urgent care that they allow in the entire Vegas area and it's in North Vegas. Ridiculous! It was 10:00 p.m. and we knew we would likely be there most the night in a waiting room with lots of sick people. We waited 15 minutes and the temp was slowly dropping. By 45 minutes later it was right where it was supposed to be. The nurse gave me the ok to keep him home under close watch. Phew! I straight up baked my baby like a pot roast. What a horrible mother!
He did not let me forget it easily. I tried to tell him that I'm a rookie, but he wasn't having it. Sunday was paybacks. Unfortunately, I was bedridden with a horrible fever ( I did make it to urgent care but the antibiotics hadn't kicked in yet), so Nate got the brunt of it. Sawyer cried all day! He didn't have a fever and he would eat just fine, but he refused to sleep. He was so tired he had little bags under his eyes, but he was putting up a fight! Maybe he was having nightmares from the night before. Nate took it like a champ, taking care of me and Sawyer all day while still trying to study. His day finally ended at 3:00 a.m. What a hubby! Luckily, Sawyer and I pulled through unscathed. He wouldn't smile at me for a day, but now we're back on track:)

Sawyer update

The little guy is already 7 weeks old. I thought it was time to post some new photos. I know that I am terrible about blogging but I'll try harder for my little sis, who is across the world in Jerusalem.

Our little angel

Sawyer with his cousins, Mia and Seth.

Doing exercises with Grandpa Mortensen

Taking a bath in grandma's sink

Sleeping with dad. He already likes our bed better than his!

Sawyer Mortensen

Sawyer Destroyer Mortensen (ok he still doesn't have a middle name) arrived on Friday night December 5th, at 7:22 p.m. He weighed in at 7 lbs. and 10.5 oz. and was 19.5 inches long, and he has huge hands and feet. He is so sweet and such a good baby. He had to spend a couple of hours in the nursery after he was born because he had a little trouble breathing, but everything is fine and he is doing so well. We are loving every minute and feel so blessed to have such a healthy little guy.
Now, regarding labor, it did not go exactly as planned. Let's just say that all the hypnosis in the world would not have saved me. A good idea in theory, but not quite in practice. I guess I was just not man enough for that pain!!! They started me on Thursday night at about 10:00 p.m. with Cervadil. I had pretty mild to moderate contractions through the night and into the morning. They started Pitocin at 8:00 a.m., broke my water at 10:00 a.m., and that is when the fun began. I fought through the pain for a few good hours, but they kept increasing the Pitocin which would bring the contractions on even stronger. By 3:00 p.m. I was dilated to a 6 and completely effaced, but I was barely holding on. The pain was seriously insane! The nurse told me she had to up the Pitocin again and I was sure I did not have it in me. She informed me that I probably had about four more hours of labor as generally you dilate one cm per hour. I finally conceded and got the epidural, which took another hour before the doc showed up and the pain wore off. The sweet anesthesiologist was so great and explaining the entire process to teach Nate as he prepared for the epidural, and I was holding my breath and ready to cry and scream, "just stick the damn needle in" but I bit my tongue. By the time they checked me an hour later I was dilated to a 9. It's amazing to watch a contraction on a monitor and feel nothing after feeling like I was on the brink of death just moments earlier. Okay, I'm being a little melodramatic, but seriously I underestimated this. I pushed for an hour and a half, and out popped baby. Wow!
It's been more emotional than I anticipated. I am crying all of the time because I just feel so lucky. Nate has been unbelievable. He's all about changing poopy diapers and getting peed on. We're laughing all the time. It's awesome!

Tonight's the night!

So, December 2nd came and went with no baby. My first problem is that I jinxed it by telling myself and everyone around me that I would not be going late. I kept thinking that I was so uncomfortable (can't sleep...or walk...and my stomach feels like it is being ripped apart from the inside out) and I could feel him sitting on my pelvic bone just a waitin' to come out, so there was no way that he would come after my due date. My ob seemed to think the same thing like two weeks ago, which did not help. My whole fam was here for Thanksgiving last weekend, and I was sure we would have a baby by the time they all left. They tried to give us some "alone time", and make me walk, and rub my ankles, and eat spicy food...anything to induce labor. Well, alas, here we are and still no baby. So, I've decided to give in and get induced....tonight!

I really did not want to get induced. I am going to try to have a natural birth, and induction does not help. But, my doc will only let me go a week over and it's better if Nate does not have to miss much school, so we committed. Nate and I took a hippiebirthing... no j/k... a hypnobirthing class to prepare, and they are all about avoiding introducing synthetic chemicals into our bodies during labor because our bodies are built to naturally go into labor when the baby is fully developed and ready (I thought hippies were all about drugs, but I guess the times have changed). Hypnobirthing is all about getting into a calm and relaxed state (self-hypnosis) and through breathing and visualization techniques, you are supposed to be able to minimize or diminish the pain of childbirth. Induction meds heighten the contractions and make them come closer together, and so yeah, we'll see if I make it. I hope getting induced does not sabotage my hopes of having a natural birth, but if in the end we have a healthy baby then I guess it does not much matter.

So, onto a more interesting topic.... eating the placenta. Yeah, I know it sounds disgusting. My little bro said if this is something I am seriously thinking about then I should not share it with anyone. Since when have I been a private person? Never. So here goes... in our birthing class a woman came and taught us about a process called placenta encapsulation. The premise is that during pregnancy, the placenta starts regulating hormones instead of the hypothalamus, and a woman's body has 3-4 times the normal level of hormones just before childbirth. Within four days after childbirth the hormone levels crash and it takes a few weeks for the hypothalamus to kick in and start producing hormones again. This is why 90% of women experience some level of the baby blues. So, someone came up with the idea of eating the placenta. Apparently, we are the only species of mammals that do not eat our own placentas. This woman will come to your house after you give birth and steam the placenta, put it in a dehydrator, and then comes back the next day and grinds it into a powder and puts it into capsules. You are then supposed to take three capsules per day for the first few weeks or months after birth. This is a way to use your own hormones to supplement while your body adjusts. It is supposed to help give you energy, help to produce milk, and help to avoid getting the baby blues or postpartum depression. Nate thinks that it makes complete sense from a physiologic standpoint, and he is all about it. Anything to keep me with a sound mind. So, I'm still a little undecided but I'm thinking we may try it. I'll keep you all posted. Now I just need to get over the idea of a placenta cooking in my kitchen...umm yummy!

FUTURE DR. MORTENSEN

The white coat ceremony

A couple of weeks ago we attended Nate's white coat ceremony. Both of our families came down from Salt Lake (we have the greatest and most supportive families we could ever ask for), and crammed into our little two bedroom apartment for the weekend. It was such a cool experience. I'm so proud of Nate for everything that he has been able to accomplish so far, and all that he sets out to accomplish. I know that he is going to be such an amazing physician. Anyone that knows Nate knows that he puts all of his heart into everything that he does (he lives by the words of the great Ricky Bobby "if you're not first, you're last"). This is certainly no different. He's always telling me that he feels such enormous pressure because he knows that people's lives are going to be in his hands one day soon, and he owes it to those people to be the best. So, keep truckin' babe! You're almost there, only 30,960 more hours to go!