Introducing...

Janie Lynn Knuckles

arrived Monday, April 28, 2014 at 12:44 a.m.

weighing 7 pounds 2 ounces and measuring 20.5 inches

Just like with Aiden, we narrowed our names down to two.  I like to have 2 names just in case the baby comes out and doesn't seem to match the name picked out.  For a while we thought we were set on Lexi, until I came up with Janie.  Then we struggled.  Trent was really leaning toward Janie, but because we had been kind of set on Lexi I was having a hard time officially switching over.  Probably around 35 weeks I decided to start asking Aiden if he liked Lexi or Janie and kept a tally.  Well for the first like 8 days he said Janie and then he suddenly switched to Lexi for 8 days.  Then I decided to stop asking..haha.  Although my family continued to randomly ask him and he continued to say Lexi.  I was feeling a little panicked because now I was starting to lean toward Janie too.  Anyway, when she came, she honestly looked more like a Janie to me than a Lexi, but I was so worried Aiden would come in and we'd say "Aiden, this is Janie" and that he'd respond with "No, it's Lexi" (he had told us very definitively a few times in the weeks prior "It's Lexi", nodding his head when we asked him).  Thankfully when we introduced Aiden to Janie, he had no problem with it!  He is so great!

We chose Lynn for her middle name because we like to use a family name and Tanis's middle name is Lynn :)  My mom doesn't have a middle name (well now it's her maiden name - Whitmore), so she was out of the running ;)

Now for the labor story.  This'll probably be long ;)

First off, apparently little Miss Janie was waiting for her grandparents Christensen to make it back from Utah before she made her debut.  They had been up there during the week from Wednesday to Sunday for Amy's graduation from BYU and for Jen and Jill to go through the Draper temple.  Yay to all!!  Can't believe I had to miss such big events, but I guess I had a pretty good reason for it :/  So my parents got back Sunday afternoon and I went into labor later that evening!

While my parents were gone I had made up my mind to "ignore" baby girl and just continue to live my life until her due date May 7th.  I'm sure many of you saw my Facebook statuses over the final weeks, but I was confused and getting very frustrated by the progress I seemed to be making with absolutely no contractions to show for it. At my 36 week appt. I was 2 cm dilated and 50% effaced.  A few days later I lost my mucus plug, or so I thought.  Over the next few weeks I learned there's A LOT of that stuff..haha.  At my 37 week appt. I was 3.5 cm dilated and 80% effaced.  And at my 38 week appt. I was 4 cm dilated and still 80% effaced (maybe that should've been a sign).  The problem was that I was comparing my progress to when I had Aiden, so now I know, every pregnancy it totally different!!  With Aiden I was only 3 cm dilated when I went into labor.  Although it is interesting that I had Janie at about the same point in my pregnancy that I had Aiden.  Janie was 38 weeks 5 days and Aiden was 38 weeks 6 days!  So yes, like I said, I had decided to "ignore" her because it was too frustrating to wake up every morning and think "today's the day!" and prepare myself mentally and physically and then go to bed and wake up thinking the same thing again the next morning..haha.

So anyway, Sunday evening, the 27th, we had our cute neighbors, the Moon's, over for dinner.  Trent made homemade pizzas (his specialty ;)) and we were having great conversation.  Probably around 7 though I started to have some crazy pelvic pressure, but I kind of just passed it off as gas, so I had to excuse myself a few times to let it out - you get every detail of the story..haha.  Passing the gas helped a tad, but after about half an hour I started to think maybe this is the real deal.  The Moon's headed out around 7:30 and I told Trent I was going to finish packing my bag and get Aiden's packed.  I decided to start timing with an app I downloaded because I was pretty confident now that this pressure was actually contractions.  And it turns out they were only like 2 to 3 minutes apart.  This freaked me out!  Trent called his mom (8:12 p.m.) and she hurried over (luckily they live like 5 minutes away) and I was so anxious to just GO!  I was SO worried I would miss my opportunity to get an epidural.  I am ALL for them!!  That ride to the hospital was so uncomfortable and I was officially having to stop what I was doing during contractions.  They were coming fast!!  

We got to the hospital (probably around 8:45) and a couple walked in like 2 seconds before us, so we had to wait for them to get checked in before we could, and that felt like an eternity.  Finally we get into the office to check in and the old lady's like making jokes filling in all of our information (thankfully we pre-registered b/c it would've taken longer) and in my mind I was totally freaking out, about ready to bite her head off..haha.  They got me into triage to check my progress and could tell I was in pain, so thankfully they kept things moving quickly.  I was about in tears, actually Trent just reminded me I did cry a little..haha.  Turns out I was dilated to a SIX!  I was so scared! Like I said I was so worried we'd run out of time for an epidural and then I was also worried about actually getting the epidural..haha! Thankfully, right then our labor nurse, Rachel, asked if I'd like one so they got the IV going (I was so nervous about that too) and before I knew it I was being wheeled to our delivery room and the anesthesiologist was in within a few minutes.  Everything was just happening so FAST!  I was officially panicking with every contraction and Rachel and Trent were having to help me breathe through them. I was even grabbing both of their hands..haha.  It took a few minutes for the anesthesiologist to get everything ready and I just kept telling Rachel and Trent how scared I was.  My contractions were coming like 1 to 2 minutes apart and I was so worried I wouldn't be able to stay still through them while the epidural was being placed.  But of course everything was totally fine and within a few minutes I was feeling SO much better!  Oh I am so grateful for those things!!

We finally had a chance to call my parents at 10 p.m. and let them know we were in labor and admitted with the epidural.  That was probably a little shocking for my mom..haha.  Rachel checked my cervix again and I was at a 7.  With rushing out the door, we had forgotten some things at home, including my glasses, so Trent actually headed back to grab them!  Looking back, I can't believe I let him go!  Rachel told me to just rest and call her in if I felt any kind of pressure and need to push.  A little before midnight I felt this pressure and like I could probably push 3 different times so I called her in, and sure enough, I was dilated to a 9.5!  My water still hadn't broken though so Rachel called my OB to have him head over and get things going.  I called my mom (12:04 a.m.) and she headed over as well.  My mom rushed in around 12:30 and Dr. Huish followed right behind her.  He immediately broke my water and I started pushing and Janie Lynn made her debut at 12:44 a.m.  I didn't even push for 10 minutes. I'm still shocked by how fast everything went!!

Just like Aiden, Miss Janie was pretty quiet at first, which had the nurses a little concerned, but once I got to do some skin-to-skin contact with her, she was just fine :)

I have to give a big shout-out to Dr. Huish.  I love him! Seriously, when I got to see him again when we got pregnant with Janie, it was like I was seeing an old friend!  He is almost reason enough for us to stay in AZ..haha. I would love it if he delivered all of my babies!  I give him full credit for the reason I didn't tear with either Aiden or Janie. All of my nurses seemed so surprised - I guess more women tear or need an episiotomy than I realized!

We probably headed to my postpartum room around 2 a.m., so of course we waited to have Aiden come meet Janie ;)  But I thought about him the rest of the night!  I was so anxious to see him!  We had wrapped up a gift for Aiden from "baby sister" (Spiderman action figure) and brought it with us, so when I had Trent go pick up Aiden from Tanis and Kent's, they quickly went out to get a little gift for Janie from Aiden.  He picked out a little dog that looks a little more boyish, but it was his choice ;)  I think that was really helpful for Aiden :)  He took everything so well!  I actually got video from their first meeting, so I'll post that in my next post (it'll take a while to download to YouTube).

And that's the story!  While I was writing this it stood out to me that I called my mom at 12:04 to tell her I was at a 9.5 and Miss Janie arrived at 12:44!  So crazy!!

Anyway, life is so good.  We are feeling so happy!  And I continue to tell Trent how precious I think Janie is :)  When she was discharged she was 6 pounds 10 ounces (babies always lose a little in the beginning) and we had her first appt. yesterday and she was up to 6 pounds 13.5 ounces.  By next week she should be back to her original weight.  I say this all because it's so funny for me when she pulls her knees in and I think, "Just last week this is how she looked curled up inside of me"..haha.  

Aiden is doing great.  Sometimes he seems a little sad to us because we can't give him our full attention anymore, but with each day he seems to do better.  Today we actually went out with just him, and my mom and Amber watched Janie, and I think he really liked that :)  He still hasn't wanted to try holding Janie, I think he's afraid, but he does like to check in on her throughout the day and peeks in on her in the morning while she's sleeping :)

And now for the pictures :)

Proud Daddy :)

Proud Grandma :)

Proud Mommy :)

My mom got Janie some teeny Toms - totally cracked me up when I opened them!

Aiden came to visit!!  Janie got Aiden Spiderman and he was loving it! Oh and I forgot to mention earlier that Aiden seems so huge to me now..haha.

Another proud Grandma :)

First family-of-four photo :)

Proud Grandpa :)

Oh I love newborn yawns!

Can't stop kissing those little cheeks!

More yawns :)

I actually keep forgetting about this, but Janie was born with a skin flap hanging from her left pinky finger. So she's officially had her first little "surgery."  They just snipped it right off.  It's kind of hard to notice, but you can see that bulgy skin flap just hanging there.

We got to head home Tuesday afternoon, and boy were we anxious to get out of there and be home with Aiden!!  I sat back with Janie to support her little head :)

Aiden helping Daddy "hold" Janie!  Love them!

Love this little nightgown of hers :)  Too bad the lighting's so bad.

It was so wonderful to have Trent off for the week!  I'm so grateful for paternity leave!!  I'm already feeling anxious about Monday when he heads back to work :/

Yesterday was Janie's first outing.  We went to the doctor's and then with Aiden to get a haircut.  I may just try to match Janie all the time ;)  I am having so much fun dressing her and putting accessories in her hair :)

Love to snuggle her!

Here's Aiden's labor story if anyone's interested in comparing ;)

Easter Surprise

Holidays are so dang fun with a little one!  Here are the pictures from our Easter Sunday :)

Aiden checking out his Easter basket.  We kept it simple because there was a big surprise waiting in the backyard ;)

Reese's peanut butter egg at 8 o'clock in the morning ;)

Showing Aiden his surprise :)

We won't normally do something this big for Easter, but we were thinking we should really get something since we have a backyard now. We had been thinking about getting one back in March, but we aren't ones to just "hand" things to Aiden, so when we thought about Easter coming up, we thought it was the perfect time to surprise him :)

And now you get a glimpse of our ugly backyard.  We moved in and the whole lawn was weeds.  Trent tried to revive the grass, but it seems to have all died off, so he'll be reseeding soon.  We're just happy to have a backyard, although it is pretty ugly..haha.

Traditional Easter family photo before Church.  37 1/2 weeks.

Aiden by our Easter display table :)

And tonight both of our families came by for Aiden's Easter egg hunt.

Grandma and Grandpa Knuckles got Aiden this little lawn mower. We saw one just like it that he loved at a birthday party and knew he had to have one ;)

I wish I'd gotten more pictures with the family :/

It was a wonderful Easter Sunday.  How grateful I am for my Savior, Jesus Christ, and His sacrifice for me.  I know He lives, and because He lives, we will all live again too.  Because of Him I will get to be with my sweet family forever!

Getting Close

I thought it would be nice to get a blog post in as my pregnancy is winding down.

How cute is he with his arms up like that?!

I got this picture of Aiden Sunday evening when I went in to check on him.  Every night when I check on him I leave thinking something like "my sweet boy" and this night I actually started to cry (just call me a hormonal pregnant lady!) and I'm teary while I write this post..haha. For the last month or so it's just really been hitting me that he won't be the only one anymore, and in some ways it makes me really sad.  Don't get me wrong, I am thrilled for the arrival of baby sister and I really can't wait to meet her.  But I'm also worried about how Aiden will feel. I don't want him to feel any less loved.  I know he will be puzzled when he walks into the hospital room and sees me holding baby sister, and it breaks my heart a little bit.  I do know, though, that the adjustment will be quick.  And I am excited for Aiden to come to the hospital and to finally be able to tell him, "THIS is baby sister!" and see him piece everything together.  Such mixed emotions!! We have really been trying to prepare him and talk about baby sister often.  And we've been trying to spend lots and lots of quality time doing everything he loves before she decides to make her arrival.  We are treasuring every moment with Aiden :)  

Enough of that, no more crying for me.  Now for the funny.  Aiden will randomly come up and just start patting my tummy and say, "Baby sister."  It's stinking cute!  But there was about a week a while back where he'd pat my boob instead..haha.  Don't feel embarrassed reading this, just laugh about it!  It was always when I was lying down, usually in the morning when he'd come wake me up, so my tummy was covered and all he could see was my top half.  When I was telling Trent I said, "Whoops, wrong bump!" :)

Anyway, it's been several weeks since I've posted about this pregnancy, in fact the last time was at 30 weeks after an ultrasound.

I got to have a final ultrasound about a week ago at 36 weeks.  Back at 30 weeks she was breech, but at this last one she was head down.  YAY!!  During the ultrasound the tech actually found that she was measuring more like 37 weeks and 3 days.  Of course no one knows the exact date of conception so the due date is just an estimate.  So it sounds like my due date is actually probably earlier than May 7th!  During the ultrasound it also looked like baby was weighing approximately 6 pounds 11 ounces!  What the heck?!  Aiden was 7 pounds 5 ounces (he was born at about 39 weeks) and we were surprised by that!  How do I have such big babies (for me at least!)?!  I guess the ultrasound always measures a bit high because they're mostly using the head as reference.  But apparently I really am "all baby" as everyone always tells me..haha.  I'm hoping she'll be about the same size as Aiden, but she may be a bit bigger!  The tech also printed off a few 3D sonograms for me, which I never got with Aiden, so that was kind of fun :)

This was also the appointment where I get to start having the dreaded pelvic exam where my OB checks my cervix.  And it actually wasn't as uncomfortable as I remember it being, thank goodness!  So last week I was 2 cm dilated and 50% effaced.  Leaving the appointment with all of this new information I was thinking, "Well dang, she could come any day now!"

Then Friday (the 11th) I lost my mucus plug.  With Aiden I lost my plug about a week before he was born, but I read that it could be anywhere from a few hours later to several weeks before anything happens, so I haven't been dwelling on it too much.

This last Wednesday was my 37 week appointment and I was dilated to a 3 1/2 and 80% effaced.  Pretty crazy because I was only dilated to a 3 when I went into labor with Aiden!

It's weird because I keep having these little signs that labor will be soon, but I haven't had any contractions or anything.  I am definitely ready to be done being pregnant, but I'm not necessarily anxious for her to come, if that makes sense.  I'm using all of the time I can to continue getting things done around the house, preparing for her arrival, and spending time with my boys :)  And now that it's Friday we'd almost like for her to just hold off until after Easter because we have some fun plans with Aiden for Sunday ;)  But of course, I have no say!  So when's the big day baby girl?! ;)

Just to close with a picture.  We took this Sunday before Church since we all had some navy going on :)  The camera was on a tripod and ended up a little crooked, whoops!  This was 36.5 weeks.

BYU/ASU Rugby

Yesterday, the 12th, was Kent's birthday.  We celebrated by going to see the BYU/ASU rugby game :)

Aiden was so happy on the ride up to Scottsdale :)

I realized after the game that I only really got pictures of Aiden and none of the game..haha.  But does that really surprise anyone?

Running away from Grandpa ;)

Sporting his sunnies :)

Watching the game :)

Playing with Grandpa :)

He is pure joy :)

Family pic after the game.  Too bad there are such bad shadows on Aiden's face :/  I am 36.5 weeks along here.

Aiden with Grandma and Grandpa.

Although it was like 90 degrees, there was a nice breeze and it was really nice to be outside :)  And BYU won!  Go Cougars!!