Birthing Story

Baby sister was due October 4th, but we really were expecting her to come a week late like Connor did. It was better for Clark's schedule and me getting help if she come a little later.
Things were progressing though about a week or so before her due date. I passed my mucus plug and having lots of contractions off and on for two weeks. There was one specific day Clark "requested" baby sister not come, his day was slammed and rearranging things would be a pain, other than that things could be managed.
It was Monday night, September 28th. Clark fell asleep on the couch super early while watching Monday night football. I was of course up (I hate being pregnant, I can never sleep) just hanging out. About 11pm, contractions started in full swing. I was having spotting as well, so I knew baby girl was coming. I continued to let Clark sleep on the couch. I woke him up an hour later and said, hey, pretty sure I'm in labor. His response, cool, then went back to bed (yes seriously, that is exactly what happened). I went back to our room and starting timing contractions. They were painful and ramping up, about 2-5 minutes apart. When I couldn't take it anymore, I screamed for Clark. In my mind, I figured it would be awhile until she would come since Connor was a 13 hour ordeal. I didn't want to be sitting in the hospital for hours (Clark tells me about so many women, I was determined to not be one of "those" people) but wow were these contractions painful and coming fast. Clark is a little surprised I was in that much pain and said, do you want to go to the hospital??? I tell him, well we better find someone to watch Connor. By this time its about 1:30am. After a few phone calls, we got our home teacher from church to answer (click here to know what that is). His wife wasn't working at the time, so she was available.
Clark tells me I should go get in the shower. I REALLY did not want to, I could barely move before another contraction started. I tell him, why don't you check how far I'm dilated. He says no I don't have gloves, I yelled at him to do it anyways. I still didn't really think she could be coming this quickly and I'm still thinking I didn't want to go to the hospital too early. Well, I'm at a 6, so it's time to go. Clark texts my Dr. to see if she can deliver. My Dr actually started working at another facility and hospital but still had privileges at Lawrence General. Delivering where Clark worked, makes it a bit difficult. I know all of the residents, which I didn't want any of them delivering me. So it gets a bit complicated on who is available at 2 in the morning. But luckily, she wasn't working at her new hospital, so she was good to go.
By the time our friends got to our place to watch Connor, I was dying. Luckily the hospital is less than 10 minutes away. Clark is flooring it and I'm yelling. We get off the highway and get stuck behind a car, who I swear was drunk driving. Clark and I both starting yelling at the car to move.
We debated about how to enter the hospital. It's located on a huge hill and the parking lot is far away. Most woman enter through the ER, but we didn't have time for that and Clark didn't think valet ran all night. Clark decides we should go around back through the workers entrance, it's closer. That's all well and dandy, but there are stairs and still quite a distance to walk and I'm having this child. We park and as soon as I step out of the car, my water breaks (thank you for at least waiting until I was out of the car). I am beyond done and Clark is trying to drag me across the parking lot, up the stairs and to the elevator. Thankfully he at least found a wheelchair when we got to the elevator.
[Looking back, I can laugh about the situation, But I was NOT laughing then. This child is coming and I'm walking up a flight of stairs to get in the dumb hospital. Clark yells at me to stop pushing and I tell him I can't help it.]
We get to the room, my Dr arrives 5 minutes later. She's amazing and jokingly tells me thanks for washing my hair for her (I was still soaking wet from the stupid shower). She checks me and I'm at a 10 and tells me to start pushing (ya pretty sure I already was lady). Due to a bad experience with Connor, I opted not to go with an epidural or any pain killers. Boy was I regretting that decision at that moment. But I pushed for 30 minutes and out came baby girl Van Den Berghe, September 29th @ 3:03am. I didn't tear as bad this time and only had to get a few stitches. But I delivered a 7 lb 9 oz baby naturally with not even an IV. After things settled down one of the nurses says, is that a fitbit on your arm? How many calories did you burn? Well lady, since I was laying down, I got zero steps for this crap.
Recovery went WAY better this time. I went home the next day even and felt pretty good. It was a lot easier walking around and sitting was manageable. I remember with Connor thinking, every inch of my body hurts, I feel like I have run into a brick wall. As horrible as this 4 hrs was, I most likely will go natural again (granted we have another child, I'm struggling with 2!). But I'll probably go to the hospital a little sooner as well.

Connor mannerisms

Connor is talking up a storm, always asking questions and telling me funny things. He repeats everything we say. His favorite phrases right now are,

"What doing momma?" (What are you doing?)

"2 minutes, ok" (in reference to wanting to do something in 2 minutes, usually watching curious George or getting fruit snacks)

"Play cars, ok momma"

"You hear that momma?" (In reference to some sound he hears; either the train, fire wheoo wheoo (fire truck), or our neighbors dogs)

"Hold you." (Pick me up)

When we were driving to the Red Sox game, we were downtown trying to find parking and Clark and I were bantering back and forth about parking and how much we were willing to pay. I was getting a little annoyed, when Connor yelled from the backseat, "momma, be nice to dada," followed by a bunch of random jabber I didn't understand. He had his little index finger out shaking to, telling me the what for. We both started cracking up and I had to apologize to Clark.

We were playing cars the other day in the hallway, and he stops and says, "be right back momma, have to go potty," then runs into the bathroom and washes his hands. I about died laughing. Pretty sure I tell him that at least 3x a day right now.

He loves to run. Our new place is circle shaped and the perfect running or biking track for Connor. We do lots and lots of laps everyday.

He's still obsessed with cars and trains, well any type of transportation really. He at least lets you play with him now though and touch them. He's still particular though and you have to play on his terms and ask what car you are allowed to play with.

He's a terrible eater. Just wants to snack and eat junk all day (just like his 9 month pregnant momma). He cannot sit still (or even sit for that matter) during a meal. He is usually standing on the chair and watching himself in the giant mirror on the wall. Or running back and forth between playing and eating. I made chicken pot pie on Sunday, which he likes everything I put in it. When I put it down in front of him he said, "sorry momma, can't eat that" and then ran off.

He has been difficult lately. Getting him to listen or follow directions is a battle, everyday. I get very frustrated with him. He is so wild to and gets in this destructive mode where he uses me as a jungle gym and jumps everywhere and throws everything. If you ask him to clean up, he says no. But if he does it on his terms, he cleans up rather well and even sings the cleanup song with me.

He is still my snuggle boy though. Loves to cuddle me and give me hugs. I still have to ask for kisses but he gives them on demand. I was super annoyed and frustrated with a lot of things last week and started crying, he instantly stopped and ran to me and said over and over again, "it's ok momma, it's ok."

He loves playing with his friends James and Brock, always asks to see them. Loves nursery at church.

Book reading

Connors been really into stories lately and I find him reading all by himself. He wants me to sit down and read to him all the time too. I love it! I love when I find him reading the stories to himself in his cute little voice.

Red Sox

We finally got tickets to a Red Sox game. Then clarks schedule changed and he ended having to work Memorial Day and I lost the tickets in our move. I was so annoyed about the whole thing. 

We bought them with a group, so the ticket purchase wasn't in our name and I didn't even know the lady who bought them. Thankfully she was super nice and called the box office and got them reissued for us. Clark got off a bit early too, so we made the second half of the game.

It was super hot that day and we woke Connor up from his nap, so it was a little hectic. As soon as we sat down in our seats Connor said, "no baseball, go home!" Luckily a cold lemonade distracted him for a bit.

It's a pretty cool stadium. I think I still like wrigley more, but it was awesome to be there. Baseball is rather boring to me, but goon got games is just fun.

After the game, they even let kids run around the bases. Clark fulfilled his life long dream of running the bases.

Connor the helper

We moved, and unpacking and trying to get ready for this baby girl has been a nightmare. He's colored on our our TV, walls, couch and I'm sure other things I just haven't found yet. He's so sneaky and fast.

He also LOVES playing with baby sisters things (that were once his). He gets so happy crawling in the pack n play, finding toys, and chewing on the binky (that he never liked). He also loves unpacking the baby clothes and throwing them everywhere.

The oven

My child is obsessed with the oven. It broke probably 2 weeks after we moved in, then we couldn't use it for a week, so I just didn't care if he played in it. Now that we have an actually working oven, he won't leave it alone. I finally bought an oven lock because I kept finding things in it. Well last night, while I was cooking pizza, I started smelling something burning, like plastic. Turns out he put 3 cars in the bottom broiler. It of course has a separate door that I can't lock. Good-bye cars.

Random Connor

Connor has been really fun lately. He's talking a million times better and speaking in sentences (thankfully -- I was worried for awhile!). He's been better at actually "playing" with you. He'll throw the ball and kick it back and forth, he's actually getting the concept. Melt downs are rare and he still naps. So overall, I'm really, really liking this age. The two's started out rough, but the past 6 weeks or so have been great. Mind you, he's still CRAZY as ever, never stops moving (unless he's sleeping), but he's fun. There is always a bruise/cut/bump on him. If only he would listen to directions and instructions better :)
Here are some random pictures from the past few weeks...
FHE ice cream

He loves wheo-wheo's (fire trucks). And sometimes he's just really cute when he puts his hat on :)

He's really into baseball right now. He's a great pitcher, an ok hitter, and a terrible catcher.

Still loves his cars and lines them up whenever he can. It's so interesting to watch him talk and play pretend. I just love it -- he's in his own little world. He'll actually let you play with him though most of the time now and touch his cars, so that's a vast improvement.

We spend lots of time at the park with our friends. He loves his buddy James.

We've been watching Ryan a few times a week and they play really well together. Ryan is obsessed with Connor and follows him everywhere/tries to act just like him (although he is a much calmer child than Connor - very sentimental).

I have to hide things constantly from this child, I seriously can't walk away for 2 seconds or something like this happens.

We went to a birthday party with a pinata. Handing him a stick to hit something is a bad idea :)

Connor's Farm

Last weekend we headed to Connor's farm in Danvers, MA. They were having a blueberry/raspberry festival. It was suppose to rain (thankfully it didn't), but the cloud cover was much appreciated. Once those disappeared in the afternoon, it got way to hot, thus we left. Overall it was a great time. And Connor passed out as soon as we got back in the car :)

He was in tractor/car/truck heaven.

Our attempt at a family photo

We couldn't leave without getting some blueberry pie and ice cream. Connor didn't appreciate the pie much

He was seriously so happy and in the zone playing with the dump trucks, tractors, diggers, etc. There was definitely a lot of crashing and sound effects going on. All boy this kid.

We got to go on a cow and tractor ride. Connor was skeptical of this cow.

There was also a big, bouncy, inflatable area for the kids. Connor went crazy on it of course.

VDB grandparents come to visit

Clark unfortunately was working nights the week his parents were in town, but it was great for Connor and me. They helped entertain us and get us out of the house so Clark could sleep. He was on OB and was crazy busy everynight and was exhausted. So he came home late from each of his shifts and woke up late, thus we only saw him about an hour everyday.
We started out he week heading up to the White Mountains and seeing Mt. Washington (the highest point on the east coast). We rode an old cog train up the mountain. I was nervous about Connor and how he would handle it (more like will he be entertained enough), but he honestly did fantastic. It was a super small train and packed, so I'm glad he still liked it.
It was super windy and quite chilly at the top!

The next day we headed to the beach. It was kind of cloudy, which was nice, thus we didn't burn or melt to death. It was a perfect beach day. Connor loved playing in the sand and hated the water (quite typical).

On Friday we headed to Rochester, NY for the weekend to see the Hill Cumorah Pageant. Clark's family grew up 30 minutes from there and was in the show a few times, but I had never seen it. It was a short/packed weekend. I was quite exhausted. Connor in a hotel room with 4 adults isn't my favorite. Especially when he wakes up at 5am (thank you Papa VBD fro entertaining him in the hallways). I didn't take many pictures, not even one from the pageant -- oops.

We were able to visit Clark's grandmother. She has Alzheimers. She is quite pleasant though. Connor and her took a nap together while we we were there :)

We also visited Joey, one of Clark's old roommates from BYU doing medical residency in Rochester. We got together to have ice cream. Connor was not happy the ice cream was all gone and had to take a picture.