The coming of Lydia Naomi Hoge

Well as you know by reading this blog. We had a little bit of an adventure even getting up to the time of delivery. I am so glad that is over and she is here with us.

How it all started:
I was to be induced on  Dec. 6th at 7 AM. My mom was coming in town on the 5th around 5 PM.  We were to pick her up and get her settled in before the induction the next morning. Well.... On Sunday, Dec. 4th I taught the sharing time. When asked how I was feeling I said that there was a little bit more pressure in my pelvis. If  I wasn't going to be induced on Tuesday I would probably be going into labor on my own pretty soon.
Ulla (Hans' mom) wanted to Skype us before things got a little too crazy. So we talked to her after church and tithing settlements (which we did a little early, due to the induction). I was sitting on the air mattress and Hans got on and it was killing me so I told him to get off. Oh man, I just couldn't get comfortable!

After Skyping we went and did some stuff together as a family. Went to bed and then I woke up at 2:20 AM feeling like I needed to empty my bladder. Hoping to feel better to my surprise it didn't help the pressure. So I couldn't go back to sleep. I just got up and got in shower to see if that would make it stop, but it didn't. The contractions were 3 minutes apart so I called labor and delivery and they told me I could wait it out or come in. I decided to wait. I thought for sure I was going to be in labor forever so what was the point of getting everyone up in the middle of the night? I went to the farthest point in our house so I didn't wake anyone up blow drying my hair and finishing getting ready. After this I decided that I couldn't wait any longer. the contractions seemed to be getting stronger, but were still about 3 minutes apart. I woke up Hans and told him that I was having contractions and I called Labor and Delivery. I told him that they told me to wait it out if I wanted to or I could come in. I asked Hans if he thought I should go in. I didn't want to wake up Arlee if they were going to send me home and telling me I wasn't dilated enough. So I asked him if he thought I should just drive myself? Hans then said, "Yeah that would probably be best so we didn't have to wake Arlee and the Coyles up if it was nothing." (with Arlee I went in and they kept me). While Hans and I were discussing this I had a couple stronger ones that were making it hard for me to concentrate and talk to him. So, Hans got in the shower and I started getting Arlee's stuff ready while calling the Coyles. I called Sara and she didn't answer. I called her again with no answer. Keep in mind that it is 4 AM! I kept getting stuff ready for Arlee and Hans was out of the shower. I asked him if he had Ryan's number and he did. I called it and I heard a Chipper voice say, HELLO! This caught me off guard a little. It was Ryan. He asked what was going on and I told him I needed to go to the hospital. He said "Great! So are you going to bring Arlee over than?" I told him that we would be leaving our house shortly to bring her over. We got Arlee out of bed and carried her out to the car. Arlee said, " I don't have my shoes on." So I went back inside and got them. When I got back out she was wide awake. We told her that she was going over to the Coyles and we would go and get Lydia. By now, Arlee was pretty excited and being her joyful self. On the way there Hans said, "I feel kind of bad taking her when she is wide awake." I agreed. Then Hans asked me, "Do you want me to step on it." "No it is okay, I am sure that we have plenty of time and I am not in much pain," I said. 

We got to the Coyles and Hans took her up to the door to drop her off this was around 4:30 AM. While he was gone I had 2 pretty painful contractions that put me in tears. I felt like I was going to die before he could get back to the car. He had to have been gone for maybe 2 minutes. Hans got back in the car and I told him I just had a couple big ones. Now we were off to the hospital. While going there (5-10 minute drive) I have several contractions that were getting stronger and stronger. I then remembered Hans asking me if I wanted him to step on it... "You can step on it now!" After realizing that we were going 50 mph on a 35-40mph road. I told him to watch out for cops. We parked the car and got out. Hans was walking so fast that I had a hard time keeping up. Finally, I stopped trying to keep up and told him that it wasn't that easy walking while having contractions, let alone walking fast. He slowed down and walked with me. We got to the hospital and checked in around 4:45am. They asked me if I wanted a wheel chair and I told them no. Then then lady said, "oh, you want to make this as short as possible huh?" I told her, "Last time it was 18 hours. I am not worried." Hans and I walked 

up to Labor and Delivery and still having contraction after contraction. The lady at the desk said, "decided not to wait?" She got us in the room to monitor me and then could tell that I wasn't very comfortable. She decided to check me. I was at a five so they took me to the delivery room/recovery/my room. A few minutes went by and I was in a lot of pain. I kept asking for the epidural. They said they had to do blood work before they gave it to me. Well after another half hour they had me sit up so they could start it. Well then I sat up and the contractions got worse. They had me lay back down so they could check me. I was at a 9/10. I wanted them to try and give me some drugs. I sat back up and after one more contraction I felt like she was coming out. They put some drug in to take the edge off and took the thing out and I laid back down. The head was in position. My doctor wasn't there yet. They told me not to push, but if I felt like I had to then they were there. Around 6am my doctor got there and by 6:15 she was out.  I have to say that was a lot of pain and I am so glad it wasn't a long labor with no epidural. 

She was beautiful! Hans and I were so happy to see her. She was a healthy non-balloon looking baby (with her head measuring a few weeks ahead of her body). She was perfect and we couldn't believe how fast she came. I kept saying, "I can't believe she is here." "That went by so fast." "Holy cow that hurt." "I don't know which is worse, having a long labor with no pain or having a short labor with a lot of pain." I guess I will never be able to answer that last one. I hated parts about both of them. 

Hans was a huge support. Although he really couldn't do anything for me regarding the pain, but be there. He was a comfort and he really does calm me. When he was calm I could be too. He usually doesn't get too worked up, which in this instance it was great and much appreciated. 

She is STILL a GIRL!!! YAY! I am for some reason expecting a surprise since some people get them, but I am not at all upset that she came out what we were planning for. 

Lydia Naomi Hoge
Born at 6:15 AM
6 LBS 4.6 OZ.
18 inches long
9 and 9 on the Apgar

 Hans didn't get to hold her for awhile. They gave her to me and then cleaned her off and gave her back to me to do skin to skin with her. I wasn't told to do this with Arlee, but I was with her. It was nice and relaxing. She did a great job at eating right from the start just like Arlee. I could tell that Hans really wanted to hold her so I finally gave up and gave her to him. He is such a good dad to both the girls. I love that he isn't afraid of showing them how much he cares for them. Right from the start too.

 First family picture.
Hans went and picked up my mom and then they went and got Arlee from the Coyle's around 5:30 PM.

 Arlee giving her kisses- Not coached by the way. She just loved her right from the start.

 They look so much alike. I saw Lydia and that is what thought right off. I felt like we had just had Arlee and she was just small again. Arlee wasn't there so it was easy to think that I guess.

 Arlee, Lydia and my mom

 Love Arlee's face in this one. HA!

 Kali gave this blanket to Lydia. She has made one for all the little ones in our family. I think she is now doing this for her in laws too. Kali had my mom act like her when she gave it to me (Kali and everyone else was still in Utah and elsewhere). I was to close my eyes until she gave it to me, because it wasn't wrapped. My mom had a pretty good attempt, but couldn't master Kali's emotions and facial expressions while giving it to me to see for the first time. I love this blanket! Thank you Kali... and Shawn.

 Lydia was pretty fussy the next morning, but Hans got her to sleep for a bit. This was also so they could do the hearing test-which they had to be asleep.

Me and Lydia. The hospital workers were pretty surprised to see me up and moving around. I have to say that I was too. I wanted to get up and get a shower. Not only that, but do my hair and get out of that OH SO REVEALING GOWN! Not very attractive in pictures or to ones' complection. Just joking, but seriously they are ugly!

 Lydia all ready to go! Car seat was a little bit big on her.

 Lydia brought Arlee home a present! M-I-C-K-E-Y M-O-U-S-E! Mickey Mouse. Not only any Mickey, but the one with the hat off Fantasia.
*Don't pay any attention to my eyes on these I was beyond tired! That happens when they wake you and/or your baby up every hour.

 As you can imagine I was so ready to go home.

 We gave my mom a Rememberance Willow Tree for coming and helping us with Arlee and everything else.

 Lydia had a blow out when she was just a couple days old so in turn she got a bath. This picture reminded me of Arlee when she had her first bath.

 Arlee holding Lydia. Not holding her very well, but she loves her and just check out her hair! I didn't get to her yet, but I thought it was a cute picture.

 Arlee came into our room a little early so she fell back asleep on our bed. I put Lydia next to her to get a picture. No way they could actually sleep in the same bed with out Lydia getting hurt. Arlee moves all over the place and usually gets you with a hand to the face eventually.

 This is when Lydia was a week old. I should have been 40 weeks at this point. I thought I would take my 40th week picture anyway. Seemed like a great idea since she was a week old and I was a week into my recovery. Not to be cocky, but I look pretty good. Well at least compared to when I had Arlee. Maybe, this is due to no epidural?

 Arlee with my mom and Lydia. Arlee had a hard time with I can't pick her up and my mom needing to help her with everything instead of me. She started to get over it by the time my mom was leaving. Better late than never right?

 I love this picture!

 Since Lydia is pretty much a Christmas baby I thought I would take a picture of her in her stocking. Arlee picked it out by the way.

 I love this picture. Since she was in the stocking I tried getting a few others.

 LOVE!

Lydia was fussing so Arlee stopped what she was doing and gave her a kiss. 

When Lydia is fussing or crying Arlee is my helper. She'll run over and give her kisses, give her the binky, pull up her headband that fell over her eyes, get me a towel to wipe up the spit up-happens a lot. More than a burp rag can handle. She has been so great! Now that I can pick her up I feel like Arlee has been a lot better and not so fussy. She hasn't had a problem with Lydia to date, but me being sore was horrible for her. I still get sore every now and then, but mostly I feel great. When I was still not picking Arlee up she would tell me, "Mommy, I don't want you to be sore anymore." This is while she was fussing too. It was so sad. I never realized how much I picked her up, until I had Lydia. 

Sorry it is so long, but it is my family journal and I hope you all made it to here. :)

Updates for NOVEMBER... and Lydia

Well lets just call this one catching up. This isn't something that I am normally doing as you may have noticed. However, I think I got caught up in the Thanksgiving holiday as well as waiting for Lydia to get here.

This was the first time that it snowed here in Yakima. I have to say that I have kind of missed it to a point. Especially since Utah had already had so much. Hahaha okay, not really but I am glad it snows here too.

Hans and I were able to dry apples as well as make apple sauce. We finally got all the necessary stuff for it and I have to say that we had a great system down. I was quartering the apples, boiling them and Hans was cranking them through the strainer and putting them into bottles. Then I was in charge of sealing all of them. On the second day of apple saucing we probably bit off more than we could/wanted to chew. I realized that Hans was going to be going to bed early and we had over 30 bottles to seal up. I didn't have enough room in the fridge for all of them so I had to stay up and seal all of them. Now keep in mind 30 bottles doesn't sound like a lot until you have 7 spots in each sealing batch and times that by the 30 minutes it takes to seal them. MAN!!! I was in for a long night. We finished the apple saucing on Tuesday (the week of Thanksgiving). One dilemma that we had is where are we going to put all those bottles? Well... they are all nestled under Lydia's crib. Turns out that under beds is a great place to hide anything from packing boxes, toddler mattresses and now food storage (apple sauce) in the guest bedroom we have the dried apples in the closet. They make a delicious treat while you are on the computer and hungry for something. : )

60 quarts of apple sauce and 7 gallon bags of dried apples. I am so thankful that my mom taught me at a young age to make apple sauce, even though I wasn't happy about it then. I would have rather played with my friends. When you are the ones paying the bills it is a really nice break knowing that it doesn't cost all that much to make and eat it. (except this year when we bought everything, but the dryers and some of the bottles)

For Thanksgiving we- Hans made a dutch apple pie. It was delicious... the second time around. The first one had too much cinnamon. Anyway, the apples that were used were granny smith apples that we had picked at the same time as the ones that we dried and sauced. After making 2 pies with them we probably have enough to make 2 more. Something that we will be doing shortly I am sure.

I made the pumpkin pie and it was delicious!

For Thanksgiving my long time friend, Tanya came down from the Tacoma/Seattle/University Place area. She came down with her husband, Kevin, daughter, Alyia (who is 15 days younger than Arlee) and their son Abram who just turned 1 the day before Thanksgiving.
They got in around 11am on Thanksgiving. We talked and they got settled and then it was time to get the turkey ready. I told Hans that this was all up to him since I hate to handle the meat. Let alone one that still on bones of the animal.  As you can tell Hans and Kevin both tackled this and it turned out great.

Hans is about ready to start carving the turkey. Nice huh?

Here is our table. Looks fancy doesn't it? Arlee loves using the glass cups like us she does a great job at it. I know it just might be a matter of time before something happens that I won't want to let her, but that is why I don't by the expensive kind. Talk about a good plan. We bought them at IKEA when we were going to announce the gender when I was pregnant with Arlee.

I have to say that I love our new table and it was great being able to have everyone (7 1/2 of us) sit at the same table comfortably.

Hans with the drum stick.

Arlee and Alyia ready for their sleep over. They did so great last time that they had a sleep over at our house. Not this time. It took about an hour of telling them to go back to bed and stop playing with their toys before we decided to split them up. Arlee was not happy about this. However, she did finally go to sleep. That is all that matters. Right?

Hans had to work Black Friday in Richland (Tri-city area- 1 1/2 hours away) so he went to bed early while we watched a movie. Tanya and Kevin got up and went shopping in the wee hours of the morning while me and the three kiddos stayed nice and warm in our beds. After all I did want to take advantage of sleep since I wouldn't be able to soon. Not to mention I was done with the shopping. FELT GREAT!
After we got up and ready for the day Tanya and I took the kids to the park while Kevin did some studying. We ate lunch and then took Alyia and Arlee shopping while Kevin and Abram stayed home. This we did without strollers which was a big mistake with two 2 year olds

After a day of shopping and hanging out Hans got home and we watched a movie and went to bed. The next day we got up and ready and headed out to lunch at one of our favorite places here in town, Bob's Burgers and Brew. They have awesome food! You always leave full too.

Hans and Arlee at lunch. We took the Bohmans here and they loved it too.

After lunch they weren't ready to take off yet so we took them to the Yakima Greenway (walking path). We went for a walk by the water and then took the kids and the BIG boys to the playground.

Arlee ready for the walk in her new pea coat.

Abram, Kevin, Alyia, Arlee and Hans trying to throw rocks in the water. It doesn't look like it is to far from them, but it is. We were up on a hill. The girls kept throwing them at each other on accident. I have to say that I thought for sure Arlee or Alyia were going to end up crying despite our efforts to correct their throwing habits.

Arlee and the playground doing the usual picking up leaves, sticks or rocks. She is a silly girl this way.

Like I said earlier. We took the BIG boys to the playground.... Hans and Arlee love going down the slides together. Honestly, I love to go to. But you would never know I am always holding the camera. Maybe sometime I should be in a picture. HAHA probably not going to happen. It is okay though. I am good at capturing their moments.

Tanya and Abram on the slide.

Pretty much right after I took this picture we loaded back up in the cars and headed to our house so they could get the rest of their stuff and hit the road before dark.

On Sunday Arlee wore her new dress. She looked so cute. I had to get a picture. All of Arlee's dresses she had either out grown or they were for the wrong season. So we got her a couple of new ones and this is one of them. She said it was her big wedding dress and she was going to go to the temple- not church. She has told me on more than one occasion that this is what she wants to do, just like mommy and daddy, Kali and Shawn, Patti and Sven, Grandma Woo (my mom) and Papa, etc. Arlee is so funny. We have pictures of us from our wedding around the house and she always talks to us about it and says that she wants a pretty white dress so she can go to the temple and get married. I love to see how much she grasps and how she relates it back to us.

After dropping off some Miche stuff (www.mymichebag.com/chelsey_hoge) at a friends house she gave me some cupcakes among other goodies from a party that they were having. Arlee was very grateful to get it and the picture below is her enjoying the cupcake. Have to say SAIMI- Arlee seriously loves you. : )

This picture I took today. Arlee and went to the mall and walked about for a little bit. We met up with some friends, ate lunch and came home. Arlee was playing on the bed (guest bed-set up for my mom coming into town for the delivery. She will be watching Arlee for us) and all of the sudden she rolled off (probably because it is an air mattress and gave out) and fell in between the bed and the computer desk. Normally this wouldn't make Arlee cry, but today it did. This was a huge hint to me that she was tired and needed a nap. I laid down with her and with in about 5 minutes she was out. Got to love when they are ready for a nap and just fall asleep so fast. Naps don't happen very often with Arlee, so it was welcomed. I got a couple things done too. YAY!

Doesn't she look so cute and calm. This is a good feeling as a mom. I gave her a blanket after I took the picture. Just and FYI. She wasn't sleeping like this because she was cold. She was cuddled into me. 

I love when she cuddles with me, this also doesn't happen very often. 

I went to my doctor appointment on Thursday and she said that I was at a 2 and still softening up. She checked my fluid and it is now at a 7. I asked her if she was going to induce me and she said that she thought it would be a good idea since it is getting on the lower end and I will be 39 weeks and 2 days when it is set for. She said that it shouldn't be a problem. She asked me about doing it Monday and I said Tuesday would be better. I was to be picking up my mom on Monday night. She checked with Labor and Delivery and they had an opening so I am set for Dec. 6th at 7am. This is going to be weird since I went to the hospital last time, because I was having contractions, now I think I will be going in before that can even happen. I am happy though. However, it is nerve racking to think about having a baby and going through that process not know what it is going to turn out like. She doesn't think that I am going to need a C-section, because I delivered Arlee fine, but it all depends on how things are when the time comes. 

We would love any and all prayers on our behalf. I think that it should be okay, but I always hate going to the hospital and everything that comes with it. The recovery, but a new baby girl will make it all worth while. I love her so much already. When I see her and hold her I know that love will grow as it did when I had Arlee. I know that Heavenly Father has a plan for all of us and I am leaving it up to him. He knows best and the best is yet to come. 

I am so thankful for Hans and the father that he is to Arlee and soon to Lydia. I could not have asked for a better partner to go through all of this with. He is so calming and makes sure that we are all doing well. I have to say that he is my rock and I love him. I know that this sounds cheesy and all, but I really do love his guts.

Arlee is another great person in my life and I am so glad to call her my daughter and know that Heavenly Father trusts me with her. Honestly, she is great and a joy to have. I am so happy I can be at home and raise her and Lydia. It is a joy to see your child grow up and learn new things. 

The thought of having two is blowing my mind, but I look forward to all the craziness and love that comes from having them. Now we just wait for a few more days. Hopefully she comes quick. 18 hours with Arlee was a long time.... but worth it.

Next time I am going to be a mom of two! YAY!!!!

Chels-38 weeks and 6 days...and counting.