Fancy Hospital Pictures

Alyssa came to the hospital right after Parks was born and got these shots that I love so much!

Parks Henry

Parks is here! It has only been a little over a week, but I'm already a little fuzzy about the details of his birth. I want to write down the details of that day, at least as I remember them at this point.

I was induced with my first two kids, and I was trying to hold out and wait to go into labor naturally with this one. I had an appointment the day before I was due though, and I changed my mind. I asked how soon they would induce me. My body felt like it couldn't hold out anymore and I had had this crazy cold that made me cough all the time which gave me an almost permanent headache. I was also having a hard time sleeping because I felt like I was choking on mucus all the time. Anyway, I gave up. The doctor stripped my membranes and told me they would induce me on Monday, two days after my due date, if I hadn't gone into labor on my own by then.

That weekend was general conference so we were in Mattawa, we were all crossing our fingers the whole time that something would happen, but it didn't. With my past inductions they kept pushing me back a few days, because it wasn't an emergency, so I was thinking that would probably happen again. Surprisingly then ended up calling me just before 6 a.m. on Monday morning to tell me they had openings and that I could come in. I was so anxious and nervous about it all by this point that it was such a relief to be headed in to get the show on the road.

We left the kids with my mom and got to the hospital a little after 7. Our nurse was Rachel and she was so wonderful! I keep thinking I should look her up so we can be friends. I really loved her. She got my IV in on the first try, which is always a huge relief since I don't always have such good luck in that department. They got me started on pitocin and discovered my cervix was posterior. That made it so they couldn't break my water right away. After a few hours things had progressed enough that the doctor, Dr. Kobalter, was able to break my water which made things progress pretty quickly. I got my epidural shortly after having my water broken. Drew and the anesthesiologist were very chatty while he was getting all set up, and Rachel asked if I wanted to punch them. Admittedly, it was a little tempting. I had been really cold up until this point, and after I got the epidural I felt so warm and cozy which I loved. At this point when I had Ezra I conked out for a few hours, but for some reason I just couldn't fall asleep this time. I rested and had my eyes closed for a few hours, but I just could not fall asleep.

By the time I needed to push I was so very exhausted I did not think I was going to be able to get that baby out. I have no idea how, but I ended up pushing him out in one contraction. Three pushes. The nurses and doctor were really excited and kept telling me how awesome that was. I'm surprised I didn't get any high fives. Haha. This was the first time I have cried at one of my babies' births, and it seemed to be mostly from sheer exhaustion.
Parks Henry Christensen was born at 3:17 on April 7th 2014. He weighed 8 lbs. 12 oz. and was 20 inches long. He was born with his hand up by his chin/neck which seemed to be significant to the doctor, but didn't make any difference to me or him as far as I could tell. He does have the one blood shot eye like Darcy did, so maybe that is related I guess. At first we thought he looked completely different than our other kids (besides all the dark hair), but after a couple days we couldn't believe how much he looked exactly like Ezra. We have had lots of positive reactions to the name Parks, but also plenty of negative reactions which has been a bit of a bummer for me, but Drew and I really do love the name and we suspect people will warm up to it once they get to know him.

He is such a beautiful sweet baby, and we feel so blessed to have him as a part of our family!

Sweet new baby straight from heaven.

 

 

 

Kisses from Ezra

 

Family of five!! (My swollen face could practically be number 6!)

Maternity Pictures

 A week or so before I was due Haley suggested that I should have our sister-in-law Alyssa take some maternity pictures for me. I always have to preface this with how much I love my babies, but I am kind of a pregnancy hater. Because of that fact, I never thought I would have pictures taken of that miserable time, until she suggested it. I eventually had the thought that it might be nice to have some pretty pictures when I was pregnant, so I could maybe have some sort of positive memory about it.

I seriously love how these turned out. These are some of my favorites.