Our Halloween Eve

This post is more for me since I have the worst memory ever. It seems like I have on going pregnancy brain. So feel free to skip to the pictures.

On October 31st I was busy working my last day of work before going on maternity leave. My c-section had been scheduled weeks before for November 1 at 7:00a.m. I had a lot on my list to do that day before having the baby the following day. I was preparing my substitute to take over my class, finishing lessons, and also trying to get my house clean before my mom flew in that afternoon. I joked at my grade level meeting that this baby better stay put until tomorrow. Ha ha. Mom came in at 1:00 and Quincy went and picked her up at the airport since I had scheduled tutoring at that time. Once she got here we headed to pick up Lucy from preschool.

Before we left I had another tinkle of ...well... how do you put this on a blog... leakage issue. I had been trying to ignore these feelings all day. When I was pregnant with Jensen I had one of these urges followed by fluid, but this time they were just tiny. I didn't think it was a big deal and tried to ignore them all day. When I told mom she said I should call my doctor. I said I would after getting Lucy. We picked her up and even headed to Sonic for our weekly fix. I ordered myself a corndog and cherry limeade. On the way home my doctor's office called me. They told me that they were rescheduling my C-section for 8 am instead of 7. I said I was about to call them and said I felt that my membrane was leaking. The secretary told me to go to the hospital right away. Not what I wanted to hear since I hadn't even packed my hospital bag yet. I called Quincy and told him to come home from work. We got ready and headed to the hospital just two hours after my mom had got to our home. Also leaving my corndog and cherry limeade untouched.

When we got to the hospital they checked to see if my membrane had really broken. The nurse said it didn't look like it had but some little test q-tip test indicated that there was some fluid. They called my doctor and anesthesiologist to see if they would deliver the baby tonight. My doctor said that since I was there he would come perform the c-section as long as the anesthesiologist would let them operate on me. I guess you have to wait a full 8 hours of no food before operating. They asked me what was my last meal was. It had been at lunch time I had hurried and grabbed some Nila Waffers and a Root Beer before my tutoring sessions. Luckily, I hadn't scarfed down my sonic meal or they would of made me go home and come back in the morning. The anesthesiologist said since it wasn't a big meal he would let me be operated on even though it would only be 6 hours instead of 8.

So there we were at the hospital on Halloween watching old reruns of Seinfeld while they were getting me ready for delivery. Not how we had planned our Halloween night. Quincy was going to take the kids trick or treating in our neighborhood and I was going to make a fun dinner for us and of course pack my hospital bag.

For this baby we decided to keep the gender a surprise. I really can't believe that I went through with it. I am not the best with surprises so that even makes it more crazy that I did it. In the long run it really was a savings plan. I bought one neutral outfit and a cute little sweater dress which I had to take back. All the nurses were really excited that we didn't know. They said that it made it fun for them too. Of course they kept asking what we thought we were having. Even on the operating table I said it was going to be a girl. Quincy guessed the same. That makes us 0 for 3 in guessing our kids genders. When Dr. Paul told me it was a boy I really was surprised. Quincy too. I could tell right away that he was excited to have another boy. Right after they told me it was a boy he peed all over me (which hasn't been the only time). Baby boy Walker had arrived in style at 7:45p.m.. He was 6 ounces 7 pounds and 18 inches long.

They took the baby to the nursery while I went to the recovery room. I had to spend 2 hours in there before they would take me to my room and before I could see my baby. It seemed to be like 5 hours though. Mom came with the kids and they were able to see the baby. Then they came and saw me. Jensen kept asking if I was okay and what I was doing. I guess he didn't like me lying in bed with lots of machines hooked up to me.  Finally around 10:30 that night I got to hold and feed my little guy. He was all wrinkly and had lots of dry skin. I joked that he was my little old man..

We didn't settle on Duncan for his name until the next morning. We had two names we were debating on. Duncan is a family name on my father's side and seemed to go along with Jensen so we agreed. It also has a basketball reference which got Quincy onboard. However the middle name didn't go as smoothly. We were once again released from the hospital but still waiting in our room trying to decide his middle name. It's funny Jesse wasn't even a choice to begin with but that's what we ended with. I do feel a little Gilmore Girlish giving Duncan Jesse for a middle name but heck I did most of the work here. Why shouldn't he be named after me?

The kids were really excited to come back the next day and actually hold the baby. This was new to us since Jensen was too young to really understand what was going on when Lucy was born. He also wasn't able to come to the hospital due to the Swine Flu. They both took turns holding the Duncan. Jensen was done after a few seconds and just pushed the baby to the side of the bed. Lucy just smiled and giggled at her new doll. She still treats him like one which makes Mama Bear come out a lot.

Big Brother



Big Sister



Three kids. Holy cow!

Grandma changing one of his first diapers.

Dr. Paul has delivered all three of my children. He joked the next time he would see me is with number four.

We did have a few visitors at the hospital which is always fun since I am in the hospital so long. I am glad they didn't make me stay another day. They always threaten that I can't eat solid food or leave until all of my systems are working. With all three kids it never is working but I seem to get to go home anyway. I must be a hard patient. This time I did get a huge rash on my stomach. It was from the tape they used bandaging up my incision. I am writing this down not to get sympathy but to remember. It was horribly itchy for over a week and didn't help the recovery at all.

Quincy with his brother Greg

Aunt Angie brought Duncan a tiny Rebel onesie to cheer on his cousin.

Jensen and Lucy excited to have Duncan and Mama home.

Mom was an angel and stayed for over a week. I swear I would have gone into post partum if she hadn't come. She was so helpful washing all of Jensen's 0-6 months clothes, helping with meals, entertaining the kids, and even getting me out of the house for some outings. She also watched the kids one night so Quincy and I could go out to dinner to celebrate our 7th wedding anniversary. I will not deny that there were tears shed when she left for the airport.

We are so glad that Duncan is here!

It really is 'just the five of us' now.

Hulk and Jasmine

I feel like every post I write starts off with its been awhile and this time of course is no different. I wanted to catch up on what has been going on with the family. For the month of October this year I wanted to be a fun mom but it just didn't happen. With being in the last month of my pregnancy fun seemed like a lost cause. Jensen's school had a trunk or treat two weeks before Halloween. I felt sick that night so we stayed home. We did venture out to see Dantley play in the Scarlet and Gray scrimmage at the Thomas and Mack, but that seemed to do me in and I couldn't even walk for a few days after. So I have to say I was pretty lame this Halloween season. We didn't even carve the pumpkins on our porch. Totally lame I know. I did have a surge of energy the day before Halloween and we made it to our ward's trunk or treat. I even made chili for the event. Quincy showed me just how much he loved me by wearing a milk man costume with me being a house wife. (Quincy said he is picking next year, could be trouble). The kids chose their costumes this year. Lucy has known that she wanted to be Jasmine for quite some time. Jensen had many options but settled on the Hulk. On Halloween, Lucy got to wear her costume to preschool while Jensen was not able to wear his to school at all. Here are some pictures of our October. Little did we know that an unexpected Trick or Treater would show up on Halloween. More on that in the next post.

 

 Dantley playing at the T&M.
 

We stuck around after to have all the players sign posters. Quincy made me laugh by making sure that they were hung up in the kid's rooms.

Quincy got a little star struck with Anderson Hunt who was the MVP of the final four in 1990.

 

 

Jensen is starting to have his love of the game from his Daddy. He cheered for the Cardinals even though we clothe him in Red Sox gear. I think we have another sports fan in the home.

 

 

The Hulk and Jasmine

 

 

Trunk or Treat

 

 

 

Lucy takes pictures with my camera all the time. This is one of my favorite selfies that she has done.

 

 

 

 

They Say It's Your Birthday LUCY!

 

Lucy turned 4 earlier this month. When we would ask her what she wanted for her birthday she would say everything. She was ready for her big day so we let her open her present before breakfast. Daddy played the Beatles song "They Say It's Your Birthday" as she came downstairs since this is one of her favorite songs. She gave us a little dance of course.

 

Since Lucy was vague on what she wanted she got lots of clothes and new boots, a mermaid doll, new paints and art activities, and a gumball machine. She seemed pretty happy with her present except the clothes. Maybe next time she will be more specific.

 

 

 

 

Since she had preschool on her actual birthday I thought we better bring cupcakes to her classmates. We had a little extra time before school started so we snapped some pictures.

 

 

 

 

Later that night we took Lucy to dinner at Red Robin. She is making this her birthday tradition. I think she loves that they sing to her and she gets ice cream at the end of her dinner.

 

 

 

 

After dinner we met the Kanets at the pumpkin patch. I thought I would have energy to throw Lucy a real birthday party but when it came down to it, my energy level wasn't up for it. So we gave Lucy the option of going to the pumpkin patch or Chuck E. Cheese. She picked the pumpkin patch and it turned out to be a great night. So after a quick change of clothes the kids were ready for the pumpkin patch. They got to ride on rides and bounce on many bounce houses. Luckily, there was a really nice guy working and he just let the kids go and go without making us give up our pricey tickets. Instead we got to save those for the kiddy rides.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lucy, Reagan, Mason, Jensen and Ellie as the farm animals.

Thanks for coming and spending the night with Lucy on her birthday.

 

 

The following weekend some of my family came down on their fall break. Mom and Dad are taking over our old house as a 2nd home and were bringing down furniture. Matt and his family drove down my parents and their Uhaul of stuff. It was fun having family stay with us in our new house and not be on top of each other. We put Matt to work again fixing little things around the house. He truly is keeping up the title as Brother of the Year.

 

On Sunday, we finally had Lucy's birthday cake with the cousins. She got to open presents once again and was happy to have her birthday spread out over a week.

 

 

Our big 4 year old!