Wren's Birth Story

I wanted to write down little Wren's birth story before I start forgetting things! Last Saturday (the 11th) was James's birthday. My parents came into town that morning and we wanted to go swimming. Then I realized I didn't have a swimsuit that would fit, so we vetoed that idea. Then we decided to take them to a trampoline gym, but when we got there it was closed for renovations. So, we ended up taking them to the Family Fiesta Fun Center. The boys had a blast playing in the arcade, and picking out their prizes at the end. After that we decided to do bowling since the boys had never been before. At first neither of the boys were interested. Then once they were I was letting them go for me because I didn't really feel like bowling be huge and uncomfortable, but then I thought why not? Maybe it will get some more contractions going. I ended up winning our game! That evening my parents watched the boys and we were able to go on a date! We went to a place called Benja's, which is a Thai restaurant. We had some yummy Pineapple Fried Rice and some Yellow Curry. We joked that maybe the spicy food would put me in labor. There weren't any good showings for movies and it was too late to go anywhere else so I suggested we drive by the hospital so we knew where we had to go whenever I did go into labor. After quite a few wrong turns we drove by the Labor and Delivery entrance and I pretty much had a small anxiety attack. When we got home we just chatted with my parents for a few hours then went to bed. I had quite a few contractions but nothing out of the ordinary or regular so I wasn't worried about going into labor soon.

That night I had a dream that my water broke! I remember waking up and being disappointed that it was only a dream. That morning when I finally sat up to get out of bed at about 7am, it felt like I maybe had squirted some pee out, so I hurried into the bathroom. Before I had even sat down on the toilet I had more liquid running down my legs and I knew it wasn't pee. Pretty soon it started gushing so I quickly found some towels and made a makeshift diaper and ran to the boys room to wake up Ben (he had fallen asleep in there during the night when James woke up). I opened the door and said "Ben! My water just broke!" He quickly got up and woke up my parents. I stood in the bathroom on a pile of towels while Ben and my mom helped pack our bag for the hospital, and shortly after we were on our way! It was a good thing we had driven by the night before!

(Side Note: At my 36 week dr appt, which was on that Monday or Tuesday, I was dilated to a 2.5 and 80% effaced. On Friday I was 37 weeks pregnant.) As we walked into the labor and delivery ward a nurse saw me and said to the other nurses, "oh she has a towel between her legs!" They decided to just get me set up in a room, and never even checked to make sure it was amniotic fluid. They got me all hooked up to the monitors and I could see that my contractions, which weren't that bad yet were about every 4-7 minutes apart.  They checked me and i was dilated to a 4.5 and still about 80% effaced. Some time between 9 and 10 am I got the epidural. I also got set up on an antibiotic becauseI had tested positive for group B strep. After that I was really itchy and I couldn't fall asleep (which is what Ben was doing). They also gave me an oxygen mask since the baby's heart rate was dropping a little bit (I think I had to have one with at least James, maybe Theo too). They checked me again and I think I was like a 6 or 7. We decided to give me a half dose of Benadryl in hopes that it wouldn't knock me out and the itching would stop. Well, it did knock me out and I was able to get maybe a 15 minute nap in and the nurses came back in to check me and decided that I should probably start pushing. They told me the baby wanted to come and remember saying, "just a few more minutes baby," because I was still really out of it and sleepy. I pushed through like 4 contractions and at 11:43am she was born! I was barely lucid during the pushing phase and I really wish I hadn't had any Benadryl so I could have been more with it. The nurses and Dr were surprised that I didn't need any pitocin to move things along and that I progressed that quickly. Although I ended up needing 3 bags of pitocin after her birth because I was bleeding a little more than they were comfortable with.

Wren Luella Van Noy was 7 lbs 11 oz and 18.5 in long, and had a head full of strawberry blonde hair! Ben and I were both very surprised at that! Totally expecting another bald/brown haired baby. She came pretty fast so her whole face and head was bruised and swollen. She was my little purple baby! I felt bad for her, but it went down pretty quickly over the next two days. They told me that because I wasn't on the antibiotics for 4 hours before she was born, and because of her bruising she was at risk for Jaundice and other things so we had to be there for an extra day. Turned out that was a good thing because her bilirubin levels were a little high and she had to spend her 2nd day of life under the bililights. We were finally discharged on Valentine's Day. It was nice to be home and with the boys, who had actually ended up going up to Eagle Mountain with my parents for a day so my mom could get the rest of her things.


Anyways, on Thursday she had her 4 day checkup and her bilirubin levels had spiked to 17.8 which was .1 away from having to be hospitalized. The Dr let us start phototherapy at home with a bilibed and a biliblanket. We had to get her bilirubin levels checked that night at about 10pm then found out at midnight that her numbers had jumped up to 19. The Dr told us to just continue to put her on the lights and try and feed her as much as we can and get her levels checked in the morning. She has been on the lights since! So 5 out of her 7 days of life have been spent under/on the lights. We can only take her out to feed her, and when I feed her I put the biliblanket (which is like a little wand the size of her back) on her. We also have had to get her heel pricked for bloodwork pretty much everyday the past week too. Today her levels are at 15.8 and the Dr thinks that maybe tomorrow she can come off the lights! Can't wait to snuggle our little girl some more and have her be out of her "prison". We are also extremely thankful for the technology we have to get her better! We are also very thankful that she is an excellent nurser!

Pass the Nutella

I'm sitting here at the computer staring at the blinking cursor wondering if I should be putting my thoughts down on "paper" or not. Things are hard right now. I feel drained. Physically, emotionally, mentally, and every other way. A few minutes ago I was wiping Nutella off James's hands, arms, face, and neck with tears streaming down my face. Why was I crying? It might seem silly to you, but it was because I was wiping Nutella off him for the 30th time in the past week.

Every single meal. Every single time I turn my head for more than one minute and find him elbow deep in the Nutella. I am so, so, so incredibly tired of cleaning up Nutella. I also feel like I have a volcano bubbling up inside of me, that is only calmed by the deep breaths I force myself to take. But those breaths can't stop a volcano from erupting. Just like, no matter how much I can want it, wish it, or battle it, my son's Autism will not go away. In fact it continues to rob me of my son. It can erupt suddenly with no warning and leave you feeling clueless and broken. Like when I went to dress James for the day in a pair of shorts that he wore just a few months ago, and just like the jeans he wore the day before (only shorts), and suddenly it's like there is a colony of fire ants living in their pockets. No matter how much I tell him it's okay, swat his hands away that are trying to take them off, plead with him to just WEAR THE SHORTS, he manages to get them off (I skill I didn't even know he had yet). Suddenly basketball shorts are the only clothes that can be on his lower half. And it's hard because I cannot reason with him, not only because he only 4 years old, but because he lacks even the communication skills a 4 year old has. Reasoning with James is not an option. Ever.

It can rob you like when one day, James decided not to eat food. The limited diet he had before (that glorious apple, carrot, pear, peppers, protein bars, goldfish, popcorn, crackers, chips, Wendy's chicken nuggets filled diet) is now limited to 3 things. Nutella, cookies, and popsicles. And so I feel this volcano inside me erupting. I hate you autism (and the ear infection that helped spark the change), for robbing my son of the nutrients he needs to grow healthy and strong. I hate you autism for making me feel like a horrible parent. I hate you autism, for taking my son away, multiple times. I hate you autism, for stealing my sons voice. I hate you autism, for making this parenting journey even harder than it has to be.

 But because I can hear the words to to the slightly annoying song, "Count Your Many Blessings" I am going to try not to end on a negative note.
I am thankful for you autism, for allowing me to experience a different type of life not all get to. I am thankful for you autism, for giving me a chance to prove I can do hard things. I am thankful for you autism, for always keeping me humble.

 I just wat to make it clear that I may not like Autism itself, but I sure do love my little boy who happens to have it as a companion. And although it is excruciatingly hard sometimes, we will keep going. Oh, and please pass the Nutella, we're going to need it.

Side note: After I wrote this post, I hopped on my Timehop app and saw this:

Apparently this was the first time he had nutella. Where it all began.

More of our Summer

Here are some more of the little things we have been enjoying this summer!

being monkeys on grandma's treadmill

checking out the pavilion grandpa has been helping out with at the new stake center

I thought this was funny so I took a picture. The little calf was trying to get milk from a cow in the next stall.

lots of reading!

 This is what happens when you let them finger paint with grandma!

Got to catch up with Keilani and her new baby!

Theo got stung by two wasps.

 Avery turned 1!!!

grandma entertaining Theo at church!

Catching up with the Tingey's!

Looking at the turtles at the BYU pond!

Theo dressed himself the other day and his pants were on backwards ha ha!

I love how James put these glasses on his Pongo puppy!

Beau hugged Ben like this for a full minute after we got back from our anniversary date!

Ben's Birthday

This year Ben basically told me he didn't want anything for his birthday. Or he never gave me any ideas, literally 0. So on his birthday I texted him asking me to meet me at Cookie Cutters at 5:30 for Theo's first haircut. He agreed to it (sucker!). I spent the rest of the day running around getting last minute gifts and blowing up 28 balloons each with a dollar bill in them. Then we met him the parking lot and surprised him by going to Texas Roadhouse instead! The boys each picked out a balloon from the dollar store for him and they helped me decorate a large sign/card for him.

Theo's 2nd Birthday

This is a month late but I finally got all the pictures from it. Basically Theo is obsessed with buses, so I made a bus cake, and we let the kids play in the car wash I made this summer. We had a bunch of family over and it was awesome!

On Theo's actual birthday we surprised him with balloons and a few gifts. Ben ended up working until midnight that night so we celebrated on Saturday. My brother's wife Telsee has the same birthday as Theo, and so we went to a surprise party for her at Los Hermanos. They sang Happy Birthday to Theo and her!

 Saturday was Theo's big day! He got lots of bus gifts, ha ha. Thanks Grandma Riley! ;)

I wish I had been smart enough to turn the cake around so the two was on the right side. Sigh.

Can't believe our little baby is 2 already!!!