And Baby Makes....FOUR!

So, I should have written this post about a month ago, but..I've been busy with a newborn and a rambunctious 2-yr-old...plus we've already established that I am not the most dedicated blogger. Again, I apologize.

Jack William Justus has arrived!!! He was born October 6th, 2009 at 2:58am via the natural child birthing process! He weighed in at 8lbs, 5oz and was 20 inches long. We are all doing great now, a month later! Wow, how time flies.

Nathan and I were amazed at how radically different this labor and delivery was compared to Keagan's! Everything happened so fast! I had had a few contractions early Tuesday morning, but then nothing else all day. Just notably more uncomfortable than usual. Then after dinner that night I laid down on the couch (pretty much the only place in the universe that was comfortable at that point) with Keagan and watched some cartoons with him and checked FB. It was really nice, but the whole time I was having mild contractions about 10 minutes apart. I kept waiting for them to get worse, but they stayed fairly mild. I even gave Keagan a bath while having them, and lost track for a little while. At 10:30pm I climbed into bed wondering how much longer it could be before I had this baby....I sure didn't have to wait long. As soon as I got cozy under the blankets my water broke! Figures!! ha ha. So, Nathan and I gathered up our things, informed my mother that we were off to the hospital and got in the car. All the while my contractions were getting stronger and closer together. They were now 3 -5 minutes apart and very uncomfortable!!

Since we had only been to the hospital once before, it took a few extra turns to find...not cool when you're in labor! I'm pretty sure we broke a few traffic laws....but I'm not losing sleep over it! Checking in was super fun through contractions... and no one offered me a wheelchair either! There was no racing down the hall to the delivery room like in the movies. There was me pounding my fist on the counter through each contraction as they copied my insurance info and then having to stop and kneel in the hall on the way to our room through yet another contraction. After I got up I shuffled as fast as possible to our room before the next one hit.

As soon as I got into the bed the contractions got even worse and I was begging for drugs!! Lol! Not something I had pictured myself doing, but everything was happening so intensely fast! When they checked me I was already at 6-7cm!!! I was in labor with Keagan for almost 16 hours and never got past 8cm! So, this was going incredibly fast by comparison. My begging got me a dose of Fentanyl which helped ease my suffering for a little while.

Then came bath time...they say that laboring in water helps ease the discomfort and pressure....yeah, sure, whatever! It may have helped a bit, but once the drugs wore off I was right back to begging again! Lol I got one more dose. The bathtub I was in looked kinda looked like a spacecraft. You fill the base of it, get in, sit down and then it tilts and locks back and you fill the rest of it up. I looked at the dinky little release lever when I got in and thought to myself "I am going to hit that at some point, I just know it." And sure enough, during a doozy of a contraction I tapped it with the side of my hand and the whole tub sloshed forward threatening to spill the ocean of water onto the floor and into the hallway! Fabulous. Did I mention I was having a freaking contraction??? Of course this happened when the only 2 people in the room who knew how to lock it back in place had stepped out! So here is poor Nathan struggling to keep this thing upright to keep the water in, me in the throws of an awsome contraction and the midwifery student scrambling to find someone to help us! Anywho, good triumphed over evil and we got everything back in place just in time to find that I was ready to push!

Somehow I managed to get out of the bathtub and back onto the bed. My pleas for more drugs had fallen on deaf ears since at this point they would have gone straight to the baby and done me no good. Couldn't argue with that one. It took only an hour of pushing and screaming for me to deliver Jack! And he came out perfect!!! It was soo nice to get to hold him straight away because with Keagan it was about 30 to 45min later because they had to close me up and then I was shaking so bad I was afraid I would drop him. So, to get to hold my baby as soon as he was born was amazing!!

Now Jack is one month old and thriving!! Big brother Keagan is not as jealous as I had feared and is very sweet when he acknowledges his little brother. Calls him Baby and kisses his head! He loves to hold him too and sometimes even tries to take him from me while saying "here you go." Keagan seems so huge now at almost 2.5 years old! I can't wait until they can play together. They are going to have so much fun!!!

Anyway, that is our story. We are a very thankful and blessed little family!!!!

Final Days

So here we are, waiting..... *sigh*

I am 39 weeks pregnant, huge, uncomfortable and confused as to why this baby has not made his appearance yet! We all know he's plenty big enough by now, cuz I AM HUGE! lol Keagan still has no idea what he's in for (not that we really do either). Anytime we ask him about having a baby brother or being a big brother he just says...NOOOOO! lol Great....

We recently switched to a midwife and will be delivering at Group Health in Seattle instead of Evergreen hospital. Kinda crazy to change care providers so late in the game, but I am really trying to avoid another c-section and felt this was the best way to do that. Now if the baby would just get here already things would be peachy! We have most of what we need for the baby so far, there are a few things we still need to get, but nothing too major. We do need lots of prayer for adjusting to 2 kids and Keagan adjusting to not being the only adorable boy around!! He's always exceeded our expectations on the things we thought would be tough though, so....I'm not super worried about it.

So we will let you all know when the baby finally gets here!!! =)

BACK ON THE WESTSIDE!!

So I am a horrible blogger! Ha ha! Sorry! As of a few weeks ago we live back in Seattle!!! Its great to be home! I am working part time at Massage Envy in Kirkland and loving it!

In other news, the pregnancy is going really well. I feel good, the baby is kicking away and I am not swelling up like I did with Keagan. And speaking of the Big Bro, he is having a fabulous time this summer playing in the sprinkler and the pool and the park....etc...etc

So...we're back people! Let's get together!!! =)

Visit

Our visit home was fabulous!!! Such a breath of fresh air! Let me start with a funny story...Keagan and I were driven to the airport by Nathan very early in the morning. Nathan parked, walked us in, saw us through security as far as he could go and then had to drive home. Keagan and I all but had to strip to our underwear to get through security (we are very threatening I guess) and get on the first plane. This first plane was the smallest I'd ever been on! We were in row 6 of 9 and they literally asked one person to switch sides of the plane for take off and landing to balance out the weight! ACK! Anywho, we made it to Seattle around noon and I had a hair appointment at 3:30. I came home to find my husband (who had dropped us off at the airport earlier that morning) sitting in my mother's living room with a big smile on his face! "Hi Honey!" LOL His brother had bought him a last minute ticket and they kept it hush hush! So funny! I was not expecting him to be there at all! Then, instead of only one week, he got to stay the whole 2 weeks that Keagan and I did! We have such great family!!!!!! I really didn't want to leave at all!

We got to see almost everyone, even Nathan's Dad from Japan on the very last day we were there! We really had a great time!!

Thanks everyone for being so wonderful!!! We love you!!! =)

It's a.....

BOY!!! Yes, that is right folks, we are adding another Justus boy to the group! Now....if we could just pick a name we'd be set! lol

We went on Friday for the ultrasound and everything looks perfect! And, as with Keagan, there is no mistaking that he's a "he"! We are super excited!!! We got nuthin as far as names go tho. We only had a girl name picked out, so now of course we are having a boy! Oh well, brothers will be fun and that just means we get to try at least one more time for our baby girl!

I am doing great. I am 21 weeks pregnant now, half way! Which is insane, because I feel like I just found out and now we are half way there! Ack! =) I feel good, tired and slow, but good. As my tummy gets bigger Keagan seems to weigh more an its harder to carry him around, but other than that there isn't a lot I can't do yet. I can still tie my shoes and bend down to pick stuff up, which I have to do a lot because Keagan likes to chuck stuff on the floor when he's done with it. haha

So that is the news!!! See you soon! Keagan and I will be in Seattle from June 11th thru 25th. Yay!

Progress

So, Nathan finally had an interview yesterday and it went really well! They were very impressed with him! We are fairly certain that as soon as they can they will hire him on! yay! There is a process they have to go thru before hiring a new person so...in the next week or so we should have a *final answer.* This is a big step in the right direction and the reason we moved here, so we are both pretty darn excited! Nathan is studying hard to get his next certification, CCNA. He takes that test in the next couple weeks.

Keagan is doing well. Seems like every time I put shorts on him he falls and skins his knee tho! Poor little guy! But he's talking more and being more independent. It's fun. Well, it's mostly fun! Sometimes there are major fits that are not so much fun, but what can you do? He IS almost 2!! =)

The weather here has been great this week! Like a Seattle summer! I wish it would last, but I know it won't. Soon it will 95 degrees outside with 95% humidity and I will have to stay inside all day! We are looking into local pools and beaches tho to cool off. We also plan on getting a kiddie pool and sprinkler for the backyard, now that it has been reclaimed from the dog! I'd like to say I'll get used to the heat....but I'm pregnant now and even if I wasn't - HOT HOT weather is not my thing. Oh well. This is where we live now so I gotta suck it up!

Crafty

I made two pillows! Hand stitched! Made with a mother's love. ha ha Did I mention that I have no idea how to sew?! lol Its one of those things on my list. I wanna be the cool mom who can hem pants, make curtains and stuff like that!! This time my creativity came from need. Keagan has a big boy bed that has a safety rail, but it doesn't even go half way down the bed. Since he sleeps like me, ALL over the place, he keeps falling out of bed. If it was a twin size bed buying a safety rail would be no problem. But his is a toddler bed and the one option I found was $50!! As much as the bed!! So...I made one. =) Its not perfect, but it seems to be working so far. Just gotta reinforce some of the stitching. The other pillow was made from the extra fabric I had left over. Like I said, I am not "Suzie Homemaker" so of course I bought way too much fabric, and a few other things to be returned. But the little pillow I made for Keagan turned out quite cute if I do say so, and its pretty cozy too! =) It was pretty fun to do...now to take some classes so I actually know what I'm doing!

Test Day For Nathan

So Nathan had his first test today and he passed!! Yay! That means he gets the first certification he needs to get his job!! Once he gets the job then he has to take another test to get anoter certification to keep the job. That will be in a month and a half or so. Then he will continue to get more certs to get raises. Things are looking up! This one was the big one though since he hasn't been studying very long and the job opening came up a week sooner and cut into his study time. So he was really nervous, but he did great!

And to add more fun to the day Keagan stuck a bubble wand in his mouth and made the greatest face!!! Lol Surprise and disgust all at once! A very scrunchy face indeed.

First Dr Appt in VA

So, we found a practice who is pro-VBAC (vaginal birth after cesarean) and saw the doctor on Wed. The office is new, small, and clean. The people at the front desk were friendly and helpful. I was little disappointed that they didn't have anything to entertain children in the lobby, or in the rooms. So, of course Keagan gravitated towards the bio-hazard waste bin...*sigh*
Did the usual when we went back to the room, I have actually lost about 4 pounds in the last month or so. Talked to the nurse, she was nice. Heard the baby's heartbeat!!!! 152 and going strong!! That was by far the most exciting part of the appointment!! Because until you can feel the baby moving there is no way to tell if they are doing okay in there or not. So it made me feel much better!
Met the doctor who was very nice and has a daughter a little older than Keagan. He gave me more info about the hospital we will deliver at, and the bigger hospital down the way they have privileges at that also has a level 3 NICU. Pretty cut and dry.
AND I made my appointment for our ultrasound - MAY 29th!!! So I shall keep you posted on that! Yay!

Really?!

What the heck! I mean, really?! Did I seriously just go to a major grocery store here and find that they do not carry, frozen or fresh, chicken breast??? Not only could I not find it, but was told by an employee that they do not carry it! WTH people!!! What did I find? About a thousand pounds of drumsticks, oh and don't forget the chicken FEET they carry. Chicken breast?! That's just crazy!

Of all the problems I thought I would have here (getting lost, meeting new people, finding a new church, adjusting to living with other people...) having so much trouble at the grocery store was NOT on the list!!! How ANNOYING!!!

Fun Times At The ER

We were out having fun on the 15th. We went to Maggie Moos (an ice cream place) and then to Borders. Keagan found all the books of the kid shows we've been watching recently and was holding tight to an Elmo book the entire time. Finally we were ready to leave and Daddy needed the Elmo book to pay for it. This made poor, little Keagan unhappy, and already being close to his bedtime or past it, he dropped to the floor in dismay. This is not something that unusual for Keagan, but the crying that immediately followed was a bit strange. We didn't notice that he wasn't using his left arm until we got him home. Hoping that it wasn't what I thought it was (nursemaids elbow) we put him down and prayed he'd wake up better in the morning. He did wake up, at midnight, and was still hurting and not using his arm. So we were off the the ER. Fun Fun Fun! It's the same place I will mostl likely deliver at in October, so the trip was at least a learning experience for where the hospital is. All he needed was his elbow to be gently popped back into place and a little Tylenol and he was good to go. We were home by about 2am. By the next morning it was as if nothing had ever happened. Hopefully that will be the last trip there for a long while!!

The BIG Move

This will be the longest one! Sorry!!
So, most people plan things out in advance. Weigh all the pros and cons and then step carefully through the maze of choices until the main objective is reached. Or maybe not. We fall into the NOT catagory for sure! Nathan and I decided about 2.5 weeks beforehand that we were moving across the country to Virginia!!
What had happened was...he tested for SPD and for some very strange and unknown reason was not accepted. The only thing we can figure is that this was God's plan, because being a part of SPD would have been such a good fit for Nathan. So on to plan B...crap, what is plan B??? Well, they say it's who ya know right? Well, who we know that could help with getting Nathan a job in this super awsome economy happens to live in VA. And that was that.
After deciding that Keagan and I would fly and Nathan and Adam (friend with job hookup in VA) would drive the car towing a trailer with all our stuff in it, we shipped all of our stuff instead via Fed Ex so that they guys wouldn't have to deal with the trailer and we wouldn't have to ghetto-ize our Nissan Maxima with a tow hitch!
I was slightly nervous to fly across the coutry with my 20 month old son who does not like to sit still for any length of time! Luckily the flight was at night and with the aid of Benedryl it could not have gone smoother! People were super helpful and the boy slept the whole way!! And when he woke up the next morning at the Dulles airport he was happy as could be! Such a blessing after stressing out about it for so long! (I went from Washington State to Washington DC, and from my layover at the Dallas airport to the Dulles airport!)
To make the rest of the last 2 weeks here a short story...Nathan and Adam arrived safely a few days later with the car intact and all the stuff we shoved into it! We are living and mooching off of our very generous friends until Nathan gets the certifications he needs and gets the j.o.b. Keagan has been adjusting beautifully to the new house, new people, his pseudo big sister Charlie and (drum roll please) his big boy bed!!! More about the shopping, bad produce, crazy traffic and other interesting tid bits about VA in following posts! Not to mention updates on the newest addition of our little family who currently resides in my belly!!! lol
Love and Blessings people!!! Miss you!!