One week later

I was going to go through the first week of life with 4 sweet boys but right now I just don't have time, maybe tomorrow. Right now dinner is ready and I have 1 in the sandbox, 1 on the swing set, 1 asleep on the couch (going to be a long night with that one), and 1 slumbering away in his crib. All 4 need baths and Tyler has left to go back to work after a week off. Tonight will prove adventurous if nothing else.

So here is a quick picture of my 4 boys together. Cute little bunch aren't they!??!

Van's First Outing

This was to cute to not make the blog. Tallon has been helping Orrin learn to pump himself on the swing. Today he held onto Orrin's swing and they went together. Too cute.

Tonight my baby brother Jacob was ordained to the office of an Elder. It was a wonderful experience. I can't believe that he is that old! My dad gave him a wonderful blessing and I am so thankful for the great example Jacob is for all of my sons.

Here is Grandpa Chad with Van

Grandma Thelma, Van, Camilla, and Tyler

Van is named after my Grandpa Van who is married to this wonderful woman, my Grandma Thelma.


It is great to have moments like this captured in pics.

Just some Pics

The twins have been soooo stinkin cute with Van! I am so glad that this is the emotion they have chose to display and not anything else. Tonight Vivin was holding Van and Orrin was teasing him and trying to get him to smile. We couldn't resist some cute pictures.





I think it is time to invest in some new cowboys hats, what do you think!??!

Home!!

It was wonderful to wake up to this this morning.

The doctors said that it was safe to take Van home today!! What wonderful news. His billi was down again, he weighed in a 6lbs 1oz, and his platelets are up to 47,000. We have to be really careful with Van and make sure that he doesn't have any bleeding and come back in a week to check his levels again.
Here is my little man all dressed and ready to come home.

Tyler brought the twins' and it was wonderful to have all my boys with me. While we were filling out all the discharge papers the boys stayed busy eating ice cream...

and watching TV.

Seriously he is soooo cute.

Around noon we got to load Van up in the car seat and off we headed for HOME!!

What a wonderful sight it was to come up 7th Ave and see our home waiting. It was even more wonderful sitting on my couch with all 4 boys cuddled around me watching a movie. Life is Good!

Too Cute for Words

We are overwhelmed with cuteness and love.

This picture of course is off Van's little tummy. To the twins' it is know as his "fish". The first time they came to see Van they had him all undressed and examined every inch of him. They started laughing and said "Mom, look at his fish!", so now every time they see him they want to see his fish. Too funny!

So today was a hard day. Dr. Pockat came in early and said that Van was up 2 oz which was great. His billi was down to a 9 which was encouraging. His platelets were up but only in the 30,000 which was baffling. There was no reason that his numbers were so low. He showed no sign of infection or anything that would cause such low numbers, so Dr. Pockat said that he had called down to Salt Lake and talked to the neonatoligits(sp) at Primary Children's so see if they had any theories of why Van's numbers where so low. They didn't have any "easy" answers so they were going to research it and give a call when they had maybe some answers. They want Van to stay under the lights for another 24 hours and around noon the nurse came in and said that the doctors in Salt Lake had called and wanted to do a cranial ultrasound to check for bleeding on the brain. I freaked out and just cried. Tyler was on his way but still had 2 or 3 errands to run plus the boys to drop off. It was Tallon's last day of school and I was pretty bummed about missing it and now my baby could have a brain bleed. I called my dad and cried and he agreed to come and help give Van a blessing this afternoon. The ultrasound tech came in just a few mins after the nurse told me and soon I found ourselves in a room doing scans on my babies brain! It was quick and painless and Van slept through the whole thing.
I was glad when Tyler came and I could get a hug and cry a little. It is amazing how crying makes me feel better sometimes. My parents came and Tyler and dad gave Van a beautiful blessing. Van was promised to be made well and the doctors were blessed to find a reason for the low platelet numbers.
The doctors also ran some more blood work on me to see if I had maternal antibodies that were attacking Van's platelets. This would be a good thing compared to a brain bleed. Tyler stayed with me until the doctor came in and told us that the ultrasound of Van's brain looked great and if everything stayed the same through the night we would be able to come home tomorrow. I hope this is the case. Ty left to put the twins to bed and Tallon is staying the night with me. It will be nice to have some company for the night.

Day 3

This morning it was decided that I could be discharged!! Yeah for me. But Van's lab work wasn't all that encouraging. His billi was still at 11 so another 24 hours under the lights was ordered. His platelets are still low and the doctor is starting to question reasons why. They like the numbers to be in the 150,000-200,000 range and Van is hanging out in the dangerously low 20,000. Which basically means if he was to get a cut he would bleed to death. That is just a great thought isn't it. So more labs have been ordered for the morning, which means 1 more day. Van's weight today was down to 5 lbs 14 oz.
Tyler brought the boys up to see me and baby tonight which was a nice break from the quiet. We ordered in room service and had a nice hectic dinner in a hospital room. On the way home Tyler took the boys out towards Kelly and they got to see 4 herds of Buffalo, elk, a bald eagle, 2 moose, and antelope. The buffalo were crossing the road and surrounded the van. Tyler said at one point you could have reached out and touched one. I can only imagine the dreams my little ones had tonight.
Just some pics of tonights fun

He Glows

Well last night Van starting looking really YeLlOw. So this morning it was no surprise when his billi test came back at 11. Dr. Pockat started photo therapy this morning and we are in hopes that one day will be enough. I was taken off of the Mag and found out that now I get to me monitored for another 24 hours. Boo. I was in high hopes that we would get to come home today. Another joy was getting a catheter in the middle of the night. Not the most pleasant of experiences, but oh well, at least it got to come out this morning. Van's blood work also showed low platelets. The doctor doesn't seem to be to worried, but mentioned it just the same, so I wonder where that is going to lead. Where we know that we are going to be here for at least another 24 hours, Tyler went home to be with the 3 boys and give the grandparents a break. So I get to spend a lonely night in the hospital with nothing to do but watch my baby glow.

First Day Visitors

Tyler and I got a few fun hours to just enjoy Van. He is so fun to just look at and love on. It still seems really weird to have him here! Strange I know but to us he is just a little miracle and we are just in awe that he is a member of our family. It is strange to think that we "thought" we were done with 3 little boys. Finding out that we were expecting Van was so fun, yet so odd at he same time. How glad I am that he has been added to our family.
Here are some of his first visitors
Vivin meeting Van for the first time

Grandma Sherri, Vivin, Carter, and Tallon

Granddad and Van

Aunt Brynja with Van

Tallon loving on Van

Vivin holding his little brother

Orrin with Van. It took Orrin a bit to warm up to Van but once he held him he was in love

Cousin Carter taking his turn

Uncle Dirt came up for a visit and it looks like he enjoyed his few minutes with Van

Grandpa Chad getting his first glimpse of Van.

It was wonderful having so many come to the hospital. It is one of the best things about having everyone live so close.
Dr. Girling had some red flags pop up during the delivery so she ran a few tests and it has been determined that I have toxemia and that there was a tare in the placenta. That is why I went into labor and now they need to make sure I don't have any seizures so they have put me on a Magnesium Sulfate drip for 24 hours. I have to be monitored really close because it makes people really out of it. It stinks being hooked up to an IV and to have to drag it everywhere but it is better than having something really bad happen. What an eventful day!!

Van's (amazing) arrival

So I woke up this morning around 2:00am with contractions. I was in denial, I will be the first to admit it, so I didn't start timing them until 2:30 and they were 2 1/2 mins apart. I didn't know whether or not to start my phone calls or to see if things would pass.

I finally decided to call Tyler and at least let him know that I was contracting and get his opinion on the situation. We decided that he would start getting ready to head home from Kemmerer and I would call the doctor on call and see what she thought we should do. As I talked to Dr. Girling I was pretty set on the fact that if we traveled to Jackson we were going to have the baby. No false alarms no nothing, the little guy was coming today. She had her own idea that included me driving to Jackson to be checked and then we would make a plan of when the little guy would come. I was not all that happy. If Tyler was coming from Kemmerer and missing work it needed to be for a good reason. She advised me to start driving and continue timing the contractions and if they went away I could just turn around and go home.

I called Tyler back and told him of our conversation and we decided that I should call the moms and he was going to head home, we would meet in Jackson in 3 hours. I called Sherri first to sit with the kids. I then called my Mom and asked if she would drive me to Jackson. I told her that I would just drive to Thayne and pick her up at the house in about 20-30 mins. She convinced me to just sit tight at the house with Sherri and she would drive to Afton to come get me. When Sherri got to the house I had all the bags ready and was just waiting for my mom, so Sherri got the lovely task of timing my contractions. They were still at 2 1/2 mins but getting a little stronger. Sherri was a little concerned with me making the 1 1/2 hour drive to Jackson with the contractions so close, so I called SVMC to see who the on call doctor was and if delivering in Afton was a choice. I was put on hold twice and finally decided that Afton was not going to be a good choice because the on call doctor had some OB experience and I needed an emergency C-Section @ 38 weeks. I started remembering all to well the drive to Idaho Falls in labor with the twins and Jackson was starting to get really far away. But soon my mom was there and off we headed. It was now around 4:00 am.

I never realized just how far away one place can be. I usually try to find a way to break up a trip with timing. Weird I know. For instance it is 20 mins to Thayne, another 20 to Etna, and then before I know it I am in Alpine. The elbow isn't that far up the canyon and then we are at the Hoback. Jackson is just a few more bends away. Well this time, stupid me, did some quick math in my head and figured the trip in contractions. How many more was I going to have to feel before receiving the oh so wonderful epidural. Join with me in my insanity. 90 mins divided by 2 mins = approximately 45 contractions. It didn't sound all that bad to begin with but as they got closer and harder I realized I was going to have to experience more of them then I originally planned on. Jackson was really starting to be a long ways away.

My mom is not the fastest driver in the world. But I will tip my hat to her this time because we were making pretty good time through the Valley. Then we hit the canyon with a speed limit of 55 and I ever so nicely advised her to not obey the law this one time and to turn on her flashers and get going. The traffic through the canyon was full of jerks who didn't care that I was in labor with contractions now only about 1 1/2 mins apart. They took their sweet time letting us around and some of them were even kind enough to call us into dispatch for our driving. By the time we hit the feed grounds I was hurting, I mean the kind where you just flop your legs around trying to get the pain to go some where else. I was being brave and only few words had escaped my clenched lips at this point but I didn't know how much longer I was going to make it. I started having bad thoughts of delivering the baby in the car only miles from the hospital. Thankfully that didn't happen and we arrived at the Emergency entrance of the hospital @ 5:15 am.

I was taken by wheel chair to the Maternity ward of the hospital hoping to see the smiling face of Dr. Girling. We had called her as we hit the outskirts of Jackson to let her know that this wasn't false labor and all, so I thought she would be there waiting. She wasn't. I ever so nicely asked for some sort of pain medicine to make everything go away and was told that I couldn't get anything until my doctor was here and had checked me to make sure that everything was OK. My contractions were about 1 min apart now and I was at a 5. I really didn't want to feel anything anymore and as the contractions got harder and harder I got more insistent about getting some pain med. The nurses finally gave me a shot in the arm to stop labor and that didn't work. Dr. Girling walked into the small exam room that I was in around 5:55am and visited about how I felt. I don't think I answered one of her questions through my clenched teeth. I was told that the OR was being prepped and that the anaesthesiologist was scrubbing in so only a few more mins and the pain would be over.

I politely asked if I could use the bathroom before going into surgery and the whole room stopped. The 5 or 6 nurses who were prepping me all got strange looks on their faces and Dr. Girling calmly asked if she could just check me before I got up. She did and then calmly said "Never mind, we aren't going to surgery, this baby is coming now." The room all of a sudden got really busy. You see I wasn't in a Labor and Delivery room. I was in a closet they called an exam room that didn't have one single thing for delivering a baby. Dr. Girling asked me to give a sample push and if the baby moved we would deliver. (I honestly freaked out right about here. the chances for delivering VBAC after 2 C-Sections isn't all that great. there is a chance of sever bleeding). I pushed and the baby came right down. Two more pushes and he was here! Words can't express what was going through my mind. I was overwhelmed with love, exhausted from 4 hours of labor, and totally baffled at what had just happened. Once you have a C-Section the doctors tell you you will always have a C-Section. Natural delivery was something I was never supposed to experience. How glad I am that I did.

My mom called Tyler and left a message on his cell that the baby was here and mom and baby were fine. Yes, he missed it. He was still 45 mins away when little Van came. Tyler has always been by my side as I have had our babies but not this time. It sounds sad but really it was okay. He was kinda upset when he got the message and couldn't figure out why they couldn't have waited another 45 mins to do surgery and then he heard my mom say that I had had him natural and he was okay with the fact that he had missed it. He was loving on his little boy when I got to my room with a great big smile. Oh how he loves his boys.

So there you have it. Now for the pictures.

Here is my mom and Van just mins old

Here is a very exhausted me with my little bundle. This is a first for me, holding my baby who is just mins old. I usually don't get to hold them until they are a few hours old.

Daddy and Van meet for the first time.

Mom and Van

We named him Van Nolan Hansen after his Great Grandpas, Van Dana & Nolan Taylor. He was 6 lbs 4 oz & 18 3/4 inches long born @ 6:02 am on May 24th 2010.
Welcome to the world my little one!

a TAD bit nervous

So tonight we said good-bye to Tyler one more time. I am a bit nervous about having him gone this week. Knowing that we are at the end of this pregnancy and having him 3 hours away is not the best thing in my mind right now. I don't know why I am panicking because everything looks good for this coming Friday, but I am. Mother hormones is what Tyler calls it. Any way, we have the crib up and I moved the dresser into the room tonight and got all the clothes moved around, so I think that I can officially say that we are READY!

So here we go...

preparing for another baby. Since the little one didn't come yesterday, we spent alllll day today rearranging the house to make room for his arrival. My sister, Jennie, came up earlier in the week and helped to get our storage room in order so that we could move "my" room (the one where I store all my junk) into the storage room, so we could move Tallon into "my" room, and put the baby in Tallon's room. Sounds like a lot of fun doesn't it! Thankfully my parents came and spent most of the day helping. I was no help at all since I am still on bed rest and 4 boys running around the house was quite the adventure in itself. But at the end of the day we got done what we needed to. Tyler still has to set up the crib and we need to move a few dressers around but for the most part I think we can say that we are ready for the little one to come. Considering we only have about 5 days left in this pregnancy it is about time that we got things ready!

what's ONE more week!

Well... we didn't have the baby today. I woke up sick and very uncomfortable, but my blood pressure and everything looked good so they told me to check in REALLY early next Friday and we would have the baby then. This is the best thing, but I still cried. Not a lot, just enough to feel better. Really after 3 weeks of surviving bed rest, I can do 1 more, but I really don't want too. Boohoo for me. Now I am done feeling sorry for myself and I am off to watch the boys play with their daddy outside... see there is a highlight to not being in the hospital.

Small update of sorts

Tyler is still working out of town during the week and home on the weekends. We are almost half way done!! He has made some amazing trades this weekend, so pics will follow.

Tallon is 7 days aways from graduating from the 1st grade! He received his second honors for reading and we are soooo excited for summer.

Twins are raising hell everywhere they go. They are soooo full of it lately and longing to be outside but the weather is not cooperating very well. We are all a little stir crazy right now.

I have been on bed rest since April 30. It has been a long month at our house. I am so thankful for all the help that has been offered and extended. The meals that have been brought have been delicious and the twins have loved all the play dates. Thanks so much for all who have helped it is much appreciated. I have an appointment this Friday and the doctors told me to bring my husband and my bag! So we will just have to see what Friday brings. We are still scheduled for a C-Section on the 28th so I either have 3 days left or 10 days left! I can't believe we are that close to welcoming boy #4!! Can't wait to meet him.

I promise a real post to follow!