Welcome Isla Sage

Two weeks ago today my precious second baby daughter was born! Here is her birth story:

So before Isla was born, I had mentioned casually to a few people how cool it would be to have all three of my babies born on a Sunday. I guess God heard me and decided to honor my whim because that's what happened! Two Sundays ago it was conference weekend. I had finished my last day of work the Wednesday before and my mom had been here for about a week. We had been much slower getting everything ready for baby than we were with Levi or Emery but we had finally gotten a new car seat, washed all the baby clothes and blankets and burp cloths and towels and stuff, set up the pack n play and got some diapers. And I was soooo done being pregnant. I was so much more uncomfortable this time around. I think partially because I wasn't walking or doing the prenatal yoga but I had finally reached the full-on waddle stage of pregnancy. My pubic symphysis was killing me and I just felt huge, awkward and just uncomfortable! So I was ready to have my baby, but I was only having a couple of contractions a day so I was feeling a little disheartened. 

On Wednesday (my due date 9/29), I had a non-stress test and ultrasound of baby Isla. She was looking great and rocked the non-stress test so that was reassuring. But I was still only 3 cm dilated which is what I had been for the last 2 weeks or so so that was discouraging. That whole week any time I went anywhere, people kept looking at me slightly concerned like "oh my gosh are you going to have that baby right here?!" It was getting old. 

Anyway, that weekend was General Conference weekend. Levi and Emery actually were really good and mostly just played together upstairs and let us actually watch conference which was nice! Sunday morning I had a couple contractions but things didn't really start happening until the Sunday afternoon session when finally, finally, the contractions started coming semi-regularly and I started timing them. About halfway through the Sunday afternoon session I asked Eric if he had his hospital bag packed (he didn't haha) so I told him I thought baby was probably coming today and he went and packed it. 

I was nervous because Emery's birth progressed so quickly so I didn't want to wait too long to go to the hospital. So as soon as we finished dinner my contractions were between 3 and 7 minutes apart and we decided to go. The drive to the hospital was sooo much more pleasant than it had been with either Levi or Emery! I actually felt a little worried they would send me away or something because my contractions weren't really painful yet and they were about 7 minutes apart on the drive. But looking back, I am so glad we went when we did. 

We checked into the hospital and were able to get settled into the L&D room and I was still relatively comfortable. They did the fetal monitoring and tracked my contractions and I was able to talk and answer my own medical history questions haha. We just paused for contractions as needed. Anyway, the nurse checked my cervix and I was dilated to 5-6 cm she said so Eric and I thought, "ok well maybe we'll be here for a while before things get interesting." Nope! After we had been there for I don't know, an hour and 15 minutes or so, I went to the bathroom and my water broke! And after that, things got real, really fast. My contractions picked up speed and intensity exponentially. I walked around the room a little bit and swayed with Eric and sat on the birthing ball and swayed through the contractions. I feel like a did a pretty good job managing my breathing and staying calm but man, I hated it haha. After not very long (maybe 20 minutes or so), I had Eric call the nurse in because I was like "screw this I think I'll get an epidural." By that time I was sweating and my contractions felt right on top of each other. But when the nurse checked me I was fully dilated! So she quick called in some people for the delivery. The OB on call from my OB's office (Dr. Robert - who happens to be my least favorite of the lot) wasn't there yet so the nurse was like, "This is the hospitalist just in case you can't wait for your OB." and I was like "I'm not waiting for anyone!" And then I pushed out my baby. Haha. Three pushes and sweet Isla Sage was here at 8:57 pm! She came face up just like her sister. And holy cow it was intense but kind of awesome to do it totally natural again! They had to suction out her mouth a couple times but then she started yelling and turned all nice and pink and they put her on my chest. I had a little tear again that needed stitches and I was shaking like crazy again from all the adrenaline but thankfully this time I didn't bleed too much! I was a huge baby about the stitches again and totally almost had a panic attack about letting the hospitalist stitch me up. The poor hospitalist seemed annoyed with me, but Eric did a good job of trying to get me to just focus on him and Isla and the nurse kept trying to reassure me and we made it through. I swear the stitching is the worst part of the birth experience every time! When that was over, I breathed a huge sigh of relief and was finally able to relax and just be with Eric and Isla. Isla was rooting all over my chest and latched right on when I guided her to the breast and then proceeded to want to nurse for the next three hours straight! 

 So yeah, that's how Isla Sage came into the world. She is so beautiful and I am just soooo happy to not be pregnant anymore. I love being able to snuggle her and be able to hand her to Daddy or Grandma too! Levi and Emery LOVE Isla and Emery especially is constantly wanting to hold her or help her with her binkie. Isla has been struggling kind of a lot with gas pain and reflux. She doesn't actually spit up much because she swallows it back down but she does a ton of squirming, grunting, gagging, coughing, etc. She gets the hiccups multiple times a day and just seems genuinely uncomfortable when she lays on her back, especially at night which has been a BIG challenge. I have gotten pretty sleep deprived and have had a few days when I feel completely like a zombie. Thank goodness my mom is here because she has been a HUGE help with Emery and taking care of things around the house. I feel like I've done nothing but nurse Isla and try to burp her (a challenge). I know this stage won't last forever, but I wish there was more I knew to do to help poor little miss out. She is actually a pretty good sleeper and good-natured when she's not uncomfortable. We've been giving her probiotics and simethicone and I've tried to limit dairy but nothing has been super helpful yet. I think her digestive system just needs to mature a bit. Fingers crossed it happens soon!

Both of us just soo tired!

Emery meeting baby Isla! So excited to be a big sister!

Levi meeting baby Isla! I love how tender his face is in this picture! 

Come On Baby!

 Well, I've made it to the home stretch! Only a couple more weeks before baby girl is here! I can barely believe it. I've spent pretty much the entirety of 2021 pregnant and I am so glad to see that coming to an end. This pregnancy has been so different from the ones with Levi and Emery. I don't know if it's just that I'm older now and much less active but I've had struggles I never had with either of them. Thankfully the nausea and vomiting have been much better this time (since like 5 months in) but other things have been hard- I've been getting a lot of pubic symphysis pain and hip pain- especially with rolling over in bed but also just moving in general, I've had ankle swelling and insomnia and it's just harder to move than it ever was with Levi or Emery. I guess that's what I get for not doing yoga this time! Also, my ferritin levels are ridiculously low again so they want me to do iron infusions, but the infusion clinic is being lame and having a hard time figuring out my insurance (even though I've given them the information twice now) and so I haven't been able to get scheduled! Which makes me nervous that I won't get it in time to help me before delivery! I'm going to have to call them again tomorrow to follow up (AGAIN). Yet another reason to hate the US's messed up health insurance- we just need to go to a single-payer system. 

Anyway, so physically I am so ready to be done being pregnant but we are not actually really ready for baby to come yet. Although we did a lot of work this week and we are much closer than we were. We finally set up the pack n play, I washed all the newborn clothes this past week along with the blankets, burp cloths, car seat cover, nursing covers, boppy covers, etc, I pulled out the changing pads and cleaned them, we set up the swing (which I then decided I hated and bought a new one off of Facebook marketplace), and I built some underbed storage for Emery's room! It's been a busy week for sure! Then yesterday, I had a bit of a flop of a drive-by baby shower. Only one person actually came by.... although a bunch of people texted me afterwards explaining why they couldn't make it and they have been dropping by gifts on their own over the last couple days. Guess we didn't pick a very good time. 

The drawers turned out exactly how I wanted them too! And I love that because I made them out of plywood left over from the Murphy bed and the hardware was still left over from when I did Emery's dresser before she was born, all I had to buy for this whole project was the caster wheels and a fresh sample size of the pink paint to match the dresser! Totaled like $20 for the whole thing! 

And while I've been busy doing all this stuff to prep for baby, Eric and Papi have been busy too finishing up the pergola and it is finally finished! I love it soooo much! I wish we had more time to enjoy it with friends before baby comes but at least it's built to last so we will be enjoying it for years to come. The other night I really loved just sitting out there watching the kids and Eric play on the trampoline together and enjoying the finally cooler evening and the beautiful sunset and listening to chill music on our tiki torches. It was the kind of night I hope stays in my memory- especially Levi and Emery's smiles and laughs.

 

Speaking of Levi and Emery, poor Levi's teacher came down with COVID (we think) and has been out for the past two weeks! Which means he has only had 4 days out of the past 6 weeks of school with his actual teacher!! I'm so grateful he is flexible but I just feel so bad that he hasn't gotten to actually experience kindergarten normally yet. They couldn't find a sub for his class many of the days so they just split his class up into small groups and distributed them among the other kindergarten classes! It is definitely not my fav. His teacher is supposed to be back this week and do kindergarten assessments and I feel like not only does she obviously not know Levi but the kid hasn't even had a chance to really learn in a normal setting yet! But again, Levi doesn't seem too bothered by the whole situation. Thank heaven! 

I can't believe that Emery only has 3 weeks left at her school before she will be home with me and baby girl for 3 months! That's going to be quite an adjustment for all of us. I am worried she's going to be pretty bored and I feel like I need to look up a bunch of home preschooling activities for her and come up with a schedule. But the other part of me feels like it is super unrealistic to think I would actually be doing any of that with her while also trying to take care of a newborn and you know, recover from birth and raging hormones. At least my Mom will be here for a while to help out! 

Also, both of the kids have started soccer and had their first games this past week! It is sooo cute to watch Emery run around in her soccer uniform. Unfortunately, she somehow ended up on a mixed-age team so she and another girl are a lot younger than their teammates (3 to their 4 or 5) and you can really tell. But Emery still seems to have fun and is working hard in practice so hopefully she gains skills anyway. Her coach is great so that helps!

And Levi has come a long way since he first started soccer and actually scored a goal yesterday during his game! His team is so fun because it has his friend Willy on it as well as Teddy who also used to be in our ward so we have friends to sit and chat with during games and practices. Levi's team also somehow is a bit mixed-age but thankfully Levi is one of the older ones and happens to be the tallest one on his team! 

So yeah, that's what's going on here! Just getting ready for baby and hoping my iron transfusions come through before she gets here :) 

 

I may not be able to prep a nursery since Emery's room is already so cute and decorated so instead I made some macrame to hang over the pack n play in our room. Pretty quick and easy project :)

The Saturday after we were done quarantining we went down to the Mesquite Rodeo! It was really fun! They had all the regular rodeo events and also mutton busting where little kids try to ride a sheep and junior bull riding which I didn't even know was a thing! It kind of really freaked me out to see such young kinds on bucking bulls but I guess that's how people learn to be rodeo cowboys! 

Levi had "Dress Up as a Book Character" day at school on Friday. We had not prepped at all but this is what he and Eric came up with Friday morning before school! I love that they thought of something using things we already had on hand! And he proudly told me at the end of school that he was the only chef in his class.

Last Sunday we had fun as a family doing one of the adventures from the Family Adventure Book that Katie and Kendall got us for Christmas. The kids especially had a blast trying to avoid the "lasers"

Outbreak

 So August started off with the family reunion. I'm going to be honest, I had a bit of a bad feeling about it from the beginning. It wasn't like a spiritual, hey-something-bad-is-going-to-happen feeling, more like me just not wanting to go! And I was a bit trepidatious of us being in such a crowded location. But I wasn't really worried about COVID. I thought, Eric and I are vaccinated and the kids will probably be fine, so I didn't give COVID too much thought. But when we walked in and saw the massive hoards of people and none of them wearing masks and completely ignoring the signs that asked non-vaccinated people to wear masks, it did make me a bit uneasy. A bit, but not enough for us to peace out and skip the reunion or anything! So we stayed. And as far as actually spending time with Eric's family went it actually was a little better than I expected. As expected, we didn't see much of Mike and Kristie's or Joseph and Erin's families except during our scheduled family times on Wednesday and Thursday evenings. But we did see a bit more of Carma and Travis and Blake and Shannon and their kids than I expected. And we got to spend a fair amount of time with Greta and Matt and their kids and Matthew and Valerie and Silva. And Emma floated around and made sure she spent some time with everyone. Overall, it was actually alright. I didn't as hot or stressed as I was worried that I would. And the kids had a BLAST. Emery LOVED the water park and would have kept going down those little slides with Maren and Silva forever I think. And Levi had a great time doing magic quest with his cousins. And the family nights were nice. The first night, we did a little family history activity where Papi had spray-painted PVC pipes brown and gave each of us "branches" to write our names on and together we literally built our family tree. That was pretty cool. And the next night Joseph and Erin were awesome and put together Seran Wrap balls for us again and, like last time, it was absolutely hilarious and a really good time. That was probably my favorite night of the reunion. We also spent some time Thursday morning doing a service project together as a family picking up trash at a park in Grapevine near the water park. That was a nice addition to the reunion I think, although it was awfully hot out there and honestly we didn't last super long. But we did get a lot of trash picked up with all 30+ of us working on it. 

I love that Emery and Silva are holding hands in this picture! 

I love that we were able to get a pretty good shot of Papi and Nona with all of their beautiful grandchildren! 

Emery and Jonathan

Levi was so excited about winning lots of tickets at the arcade. 

Emma was definitely a favorite with the littles. It was so cute to watch them all swarm and tackle her! 

Emery doing morning yoga in the lobby

Emery and Maren probably went down this yellow slide together at least 20 times. 

So no real smiles but these girls are still such cute cousins! Rachel, Maren, Emery and Silva

Levi had fun doing the ropes course with his dad and older cousins. 

Seran Wrap ball fun! 

Emery was all about being passed around and sitting on everyone's laps! Here she's with her cousin Katie and Silva.

Anyway, so the family reunion was good. The kids had a great time and got to be with their cousins and that was what was most important to me. But then, Monday morning, we got a text from Joseph that both he and Erin tested positive for COVID. And from then on, we all started dropping like flies. Carma and Travis' family came down with it, Blake and Shannon's family tested positive, Emma got it, Nona felt symptoms, Matt and Greta's whole family got it and we got it. Eric and I tested ourselves and the kids on Monday night with OTC antigen tests and all came back negative so we went to meet the teacher night that night at Levi's school and met his new kindergarten teacher. But the next morning Eric started having a cough and feeling really tired. He started wearing a mask at home and we had him sleep upstairs to try to keep the rest of us from getting sick. The kids and I were good that week. I worked like normal and we sent Levi and Emery to school with masks on. But then by Friday, Eric's PCR test came back positive for COVID. On Saturday, my throat started feeling a little sore and on Sunday I woke up with a fever and also tested positive for COVID. The kids had no symptoms but we kept them home on Monday to be safe and retested Levi and he also tested positive for COVID. So we've all been in quarantine since then. Thankfully, our symptoms have all been pretty mild. The kids have been almost completely asymptomatic the whole time. Levi maybe had a tiny bit of congestion for a day or two but that's it. Emery hasn't had symptoms at all. We weren't able to test her again because all of the OTC antigen tests in the area have been sold out, but we just assume she also got it. Eric was worst that first week with fatigue, a mild fever and a cough and he's better now except for a lingering cough. I was worst on Sunday just super fatigued with a low grade fever. Since then I've just been a little tired and have had some mild congestion which hasn't gotten worse but also hasn't gotten better and is just kind of hanging out. We were lucky and I credit that to me and Eric being fully vaccinated. Most of our family members thankfully only had mild symptoms as well except for poor little Maren who was really sick with a 102-104 degree fever for several days and scared all of us although thankfully she never had to be hospitalized and she is doing better now. I still can't believe how many of us who were fully vaccinated tested positive! It really changed my mindset about COVID. I mean, I think I took for granted the fact I was vaccinated would mean I was protected but now I understand that the vaccine's job is to prevent SEVERE illness, death, and hospitalization- which it has done. But it is not to keep us from getting it at all or spreading it. And this Delta variant is no joke! Erin and Carma right away were like "the family reunion was 100% worth it! Wouldn't change a thing!" But Greta and I were talking and we don't feel the same. They were like, "my kids just get 10 more days of summer! and made great memories with cousins. yay!" But I'm like, this is not a good thing that we had an outbreak in our family. Who knows how many others we may have infected? And I'm glad that for their families it was only mildly inconvenient but I'm sure Shannon felt differently with her very sick little girl. And it is not easy for me and Eric to quarantine at home with the kids and have to juggle working remotely and childcare. Levi went to his first three days of kindergarten but now is home until next Friday! I'm worried that by the time he gets back, all of his classmates will have made friends with each other and he will be an outsider who doesn't know the rules. And Greta and Matt were both pretty sick and miserable and trying to trade off taking care of three energetic children while being very fatigued while Anson missed his first 10 days of school also. It's not all hanging out and playing videogames. Anyway, so I've had a lot of feelings about all this. Greta and I have talked on the phone several times which is helpful. 

All things considered, this past week of quarantine actually went pretty well. Somehow, miraculously, Eric and I were able to trade off working and work at night and I ended up only having to take 1.5 hours of PTO! Which was exhausting but nice to save some of that PTO for my maternity leave. And the kids have been getting a little extra screen time and been a little bored but altogether not too bad. We've found some things to keep us busy. The kids and I have cleaned a fair amount, I've gone through all our newborn clothes and baby boy clothes and sorted them out into things to keep, recycle, sell and give away. I was able to get most of the stains out of some of Emery's old white clothes successfully which was nice. I built the shelves to go on the sides of the Murphy bed and Eric and I installed those. And I started building some under-the-bed storage drawers for Emery since we will need more clothes storage space once we get baby girl's clothes into her room. And the kids and I have played together a fair amount playing Mancala, Legos, Emery's princess game, Sushi Go, etc. Only a few more days and then Emery can go back to school and I can return to work in person- as long as my symptoms improve! 

Levi's first day of kindergarten! 

On Emery and my first (and so far only) day home together just the two of us we did nails. Of course, my little princess wanted a picture of her light pink sparkly nails :) 

Still a work in progress, but it's coming along! I've got one more shelf to make and then the nightstands to do on either side. I am planning on getting the plain wood ones from Ikea and then veneering the drawers to match the bed and then staining the whole thing to match. The blue painter's tape marks where the tops of the nightstands will be. 

Over the course of quarantine, Emery has insisted on wearing either her ladybug costume or a swimsuit all day every day! 

This sums up her typical quarantine attire. 

Levi: "take a picture of me doing this!" He has gone shirtless most days at home as well! 

With all this going on, we've missed some of the things we were looking forward to, like the start of the soccer season! Emery and Levi both have teams and Levi gets to be with Willy from the ward which he is pretty excited about. I am excited for both of them to get to start playing! I love soccer. 

On top of all of this, I can't believe how soon baby girl will be joining our family! It's less than 6 weeks away now and it's getting real. Eric and I finally went looking for our infant car seat and realized we no longer have one so ordered a new one haha. I've finished our baby registry and Lindsay Merkley and I have made some plans for a shower. I'm getting bigger and more awkward every day and my pubic symphysis and L hip are killing me at night (mostly when I roll over or stand up and take the first few steps to go to the bathroom or in the morning) so I'm seeing a pelvic floor PT on Thursday to try to get some help for that. And this week at work I start training my replacement on our team at work! She's an experienced therapist with her PCS so I'm a little bit intimidated but she's new to ECI so she'll still have some things to learn. Hopefully, we can both learn from each other! 

Anyway, so that's what's been going on. Here's hoping me and Eric's residual COVID symptoms clear up quickly and we can get back to more normal life! 

Before the family reunion, Eric and his dad (with help from Matthew and a couple guys from the ward) started building our pergola! It's now on hold until our quarantine is over but I already really love how it's looking! 

Can't wait to get this pergola finished and enjoy some nice evenings sitting on chairs out here while the kids play on the trampoline!