Kenidee Lyn Shelton - Birth Story

Well I'm long overdue for a blog post. I'm not sure if people really read my blog anymore but I've had so much fun reading through my old posts about Ethan at different ages I figured I should start up again. Also, I haven't written down Kenidee's birth story yet and trust me it is one for the books!



Before I get to her birth, I'll do a brief run down of my LONG (figuratively, she was actually born a month early) pregnancy. Kenidee certainly kept us on our toes! I started having complications at 11 weeks when I woke up in the middle of the night with a lot of bleeding. I thought I was having a miscarriage. It was super scary. We rushed to the ER where we had a ultrasound and thankfully Kenidee was doing great. In the ultrasound they found a very large sub chorionic hemorrhage (bleeding in the uterus). The ER doc basically told me to go home and wait for a miscarriage and that at least I get pregnant quick...(I wanted to punch him). Well with lots of prayers, blessings, and modified bed rest the hemorrhage eventually cleared up (around 19 weeks). I was taken off the blood thiner (Lovenox) shots when the bleeding started and ended up not taking them the rest of my pregnancy because they seemed to make the bleeding worse. I had numerous doctors appointments and ultrasounds. After the hemorrhage cleared up I got two UTI's which were a bit of a scare and then just like clockwork around 30 weeks I started having regular Braxton Hicks contractions. Then when I hit 35 weeks my blood pressure started to rise. I was in and out of the hospital for the week with lots of monitoring, tests, ultrasounds and lots and lots of contractions. Ultimately the doctors determined it was best to have my C-section as soon at I hit 36 weeks, instead of waiting until 37 weeks like originally planned. Chris had an interview in Philadelphia the day the doctors wanted to do the C-section, so we ended up waiting one extra day, Chris flew back early from Philadelphia and arrived home at 10:30 PM the night before we went in for the C-section. Let's just say it was one of the most stressful weeks of our lives!

Saturday, November 15, 2014 we arrived at the hospital early in the morning for my scheduled C-section. Ethan spend the night at my parents. We were ready to go. Nervous but ready. The anesthesiologist came to talk to me before the surgery and explained why they were going to do a spinal block instead of an epidural (I've had a epidural with my pervious c-sections). He explained that a spinal block is one shot in the spine, unlike the epidural which is a tube that stays in your spine and allows for more medication if necessary. He explained that the recovery is much better after a spinal block and that I would only need to be numb for a short amount of time which is why they chose the spinal. His logic made sense and so we went ahead. I remember being super nervous that morning but being happily surprised when the IV didn't hurt as much as I had remember and happily surprised when the needle for the spinal block didn't hurt that much either. Little did I know...I was in for it...

Before the doctors started the surgery I could tell that I wasn't numb enough. I expressed my concerns and they told me I just needed a little more time and the doctors wouldn't start until they knew I was numb. Well then came the pinch test...(I blame myself for not being more vocal during this test...) anyways the pinch test is where the doctor pinches me and asks if I hurts. Well, I've never been great at describing my pain so I told her that I definitely felt it but it didn't hurt very much....(which in her mind meant that I was numb). So they went ahead and started on the C-section...

Within seconds I could tell I wasn't numb enough. The cutting was uncomfortable. Not super painful but just fairly uncomfortable. Chris was trying to talk to me to keep my mind off things but I couldn't talk, I was too tense. I was thinking to myself just get through this cutting part and then it will be easy. Little did I know, the cutting was the easy part. After cutting through 3 different layers they have to separate your abdominal muscles enough to then cut your uterus and "squeeze" the baby out through your muscles. A little gross and graphic, I'm sorry. Well the separating of my muscles was excruciating.  I have never felt pain like that. I was screaming, crying, groaning...you name it. It was a like a war scene. Because I could feel so much and was so tense the doctors couldn't get my muscles apart very far, which meant Kenidee got stuck. I was in so much pain. One of the doctors (we're talking a 6'5'' 250 lb doctor) was kneeling on the table pushing on my stomach with his whole body weight trying to get her out. They eventually had to use a vacuum suction thing to get her out. She came out blue and not breathing for a few seconds and bruised on her face and shoulder. It was such a relief to have her out. She started crying soon and the nurses brought her over to show me. Chris somehow managed to get a great picture of me looking at her but I don't remember seeing her at all, my eyes were so blurry. I kept thanking the doctors over and over again in tears for getting her out healthy. I told Chris to go with Kenidee and they stitched me up which was still pretty painful but nothing like I had just experienced. The nurse that took Kenidee told Chris, "I have never seen anything like that. I am so sorry."

People have asked me why the doctors didn't put me to sleep. My parents asked the doctors the same question the next day and the doctor said that they were on the border of putting me to sleep but if they did Kenidee would have to be rushed to the NICU because she would've gotten the medication as well and with her being a month early they didn't want to risk it if they didn't have to. I'm really glad they didn't put me to sleep because even though it was the most painful experience of my life, she was healthy and it only lasted like 10/15 minutes. After the surgery was over I felt great. My recovery was actually much easier than with Ethan, as far as C-section pain goes. I did some how manage to get a spinal headache which was terrible for a few days but overall the recovery was great.

We are so blessed to have Kenidee in our family! She was born at 36 weeks, 6 lbs 11 ounces and 18.5 inches long. There was some concern with keeping her blood sugar levels up as well as Jaundice in the first week of her life but we managed to keep her out of NICU. She's had some issues with acid reflux since being born but now that she is on medication for that she is a much happier baby! Ethan is absolutely in love with her and tells me all the time, "I love Kenidee" or "I'm going to keep my baby sister safe" He is the sweetest with her always wanted to give her hugs and kisses. We love our baby girl!

Baby #3

Where do I even start...

We are pregnant with baby #3! We are so excited to be adding to our family! I am just over 14 weeks and so far this pregnancy has been much different than my other two.

For starters I have been way more sick. In fact at 14 weeks, unfortunately, I'm still feeling nauseous. It's definitely improved significantly but I was hoping it would be gone at this point. Now, I feel silly even talking about this because I've only thrown up 4 times and I know some people who throw up more than 4 times each day for 20+ weeks - I don't know how you do it! ....but for me it was way different than my first two pregnancies.

14 weeks

Second, I have a sub chorionic hemorrhage (SCH). From talking to docs and researching, my best understanding is a SCH appears when there is a tear between the chorion membrane and the uterine wall (they are supposed to be fused together). The SCH is the blood pooled between the chorion membrane and the uterine wall. Anyways, when I was 11 weeks I woke up in the middle of the night with significant bleeding. We went into the ER where I was diagnosed with this SCH. The tear was 20% or in other words 20% of the membrane was separated from the uterine wall. The docs essentially told me I had a higher chance of miscarrying and I just had to wait and see.  I bled once more over the next few days. I was taken off the blood thinner (Lovenox) shots that I've had been taking since week 8 for other complications found when I was pregnant with Collin.  A huge blessing was that despite the SCH our baby was doing great on the ultrasounds with a strong heartbeat and great growth. Anyways...I went back in the doctors a few days later and the SCH seemed to be healing up great. Hence my trip to Guatemala a couple of days later - (this trip had been planned for months and I was super bummed about almost having to miss it). The doctors put me back on the blood thinner shots and off we went to Guatemala were we had a great time with no bleeding and no complications. More on our Guatemala trip later.

I was excited to go back in for my follow up ultrasound a couple of days ago because I naively assumed that since I was no longer bleeding that the SCH had healed and I would get the go ahead to resume exercising. If you know me well you know I'm big into running/swimming/working out in general. I was excited for the doctor to lift my restrictions! Well unfortunately the ultrasound was quite the opposite of what I was expecting. The SCH had actually grown to 50% (so 50% of the chorion membrane is separated from the uterine wall). The prognosis at this point is the doctors hope to get me to 34 weeks and are fairly confident I can make it to the 3rd trimester (27 weeks), which is a little unnerving to hear considering Collin was born at 25 weeks. They took me off the blood thinner shots again and I am now just taking a baby Aspirin. I will have a follow up ultrasound in a week to see if it's starting to heal. We are very hopeful that being off the blood thinners will do the trick! In the meantime I am on a modified bed rest. I say modified because I don't need to stay in bed I just need to rest as much as I can, not lift anything/anyone (namely Ethan), not do anything I don't absolutely have to and avoid walking around a lot, which means our daily adventures will have to change drastically, at least for now. We are so grateful to have so much family close by! And so grateful for all the help offered from neighbors, friends, and our church.

The great news is that our baby is healthy! Another difference is our baby is measuring 3 days ahead of schedule. Ethan and Collin both measured small throughout my whole pregnancy. Another difference is that (according to the ultrasound tech's best guess from a 14 week ultrasound) we are having a GIRL!!! Now I know this is not 100% and 14 weeks is very early to detect gender so we will see in the coming weeks (I will be having lots of ultrasounds..)

Wow that was a long update!

Funny Boy

It's been forever since my last post. I've got plenty to update on - baby #3, trip to England, trip to Guatemala -  but in the meantime I wanted to tell you about my funny boy.

I love this stage Ethan is in. Yes, it is frustrating at times, when he stubborning shouts "No" when I ask him to do something, or when he cries/screams when we leave a fun activity, but those moments seem so small in comparison to the moments of joy. I love having a little buddy to hang out with all day long.

I love that he is talking so well. I love to have conversations with him. He's been so funny and sweet lately I wanted to document some of the things he's said:

• My mom and I were sitting out on her front porch while Ethan was running around in the front yard, we decided to try to teach him some spanish and started with "hola." We told him to say "hola" and as we were talking to him a neighbor drove by in his truck. He looked at us laughing and said "That's not Olaf that's an old man!" 
• About 4-5 months ago, Ethan took a bite of the laundry detergent pod and immediately threw up. I called poison control and he was fine but he hasn't forgotten about the experience. Rewind to a couple of weeks ago...I've been sick with this pregnancy and told Ethan one morning while he was in my room helping me sort the laundry that I felt sick and threw up earlier that morning. He looked at me very seriously and said "Did you bite the laundry?" I laughed and told him "No" He then said "Are you sure?" I had to then convince him that I did not bite the laundry pod. 
• When asking him if he wants a little brother or a little sister he smiles and says "I want children."
• He says "Mac and pony" for Macaroni
• I was giving him a bath one night and felt sick so I was laying on a pillow in the bathroom. He said to me "Mommy do you feel sick?" I responded with "Yeah I do but I'm okay" He then melted my heart and said "What can I do for you?" He is such a sweetheart!
• Lately he's been saying his own prayers at night. He starts "Dear Heavenly Father. Thanks to see mommy. Thanks to see daddy." He then goes on to say thanks for different activities and people we've seen that day. He is so smart!

I'm so spoiled with such a good hearted, funny, smart, little boy! I love you Ethan!

Ethan turns 2!

My baby boy turned 2 yesterday! We had a Monsters University themed birthday party. Thank you to Megan for helping me set up and take pictures! She was a life saver! Ethan LOVES Monsters University and asks to watch it at least once everyday (I don't always give in to his requests...but lets just say we've probably seen Monsters together 20 times)

We had a couple simple games for the kids to play including Pin the Eye on Mike and Mike Ball Toss. We gave Ethan a bubble machine for his birthday which was a huge hit at the party. Ethan absolutely LOVES bubbles.

 Mike and Sulley cupcakes. You may have to use your imagination a little bit

Ethan had been looking forward to blowing out his candles all morning, well for the past month really. When I went to get him out of his crib on his birthday I said "Yay Ethan it's your birthday today! Happy Birthday!" And he excitedly proclaimed "Yay! Blow Candles!!!" We lit and relit his candles 3 times...and then 3 more times at night with Chris and another cupcake.

Ethan has great little friends and cousins!

Happy as can be with his trucks and a sucker

Ethan is such a fun little boy. We seriously couldn't ask for anything more. We are truly so blessed to be his parents! 

At 2 years old Ethan:

- Talks like a pro. Communicates really well with us and can say pretty much anything. He is a little parrot sometimes. He recently started saying "grab some tissues babe!" as we leave the house because he heard Chris say that once. 

- Always says "sure" instead of "yes." It's the cutest

- Is super smart. He knows every animal sound, and quiet a few colors. He has an incredible memory and will remember names after only hearing them once. 

- Is too busy to eat most of the time. We battle with him constantly trying to get him to eat and most of the time resort to turing on a TV show or sticking food in his mouth while he is playing...I know horrible habits... 

- Loves candy...what boy doesn't though?

- Sleeps great at night. Will sleep usually from 8 to 8. One day he slept in until noon, which had us shocked and worried. Takes a 1-2 hour nap during the day.

- Loves his binki and blankie.  Will ask for them as if they are one word "binki-blankie"

- Loves Nursery. He was heart broken when we had stake conference last week and he couldn't go to nursery.

- Favorite TV show is Mickey Mouse and favorite movie is Monsters University or Frozen. 

- Loves to play outside. In the snow, rain or shine he wants to be outside. 

- Is the sweetest little boy. He has moments of tantrums but I honestly can't complain he is happy and content the majority of the time. 

We love our Ethan!

Stitches

Well our latest news is that Ethan got stitches last Wednesday. We were playing in the basement and he tripped over a toy and landed face first onto the wheel of his bike. He sliced his eyebrow open on the bolt/corner near the wheel. I wasn't sure if he needed stitches or not, he seemed happy enough after a few minutes of crying and comforting. After calling and consulting with Chris and both of our moms we decided to take him in just to be safe. Sure enough the moment they saw him they said he needed stitches. The slice wasn't very long so 2 stitches did the trick. I don't think any of us could have handled any more than 2! They wrapped him up in a sheet and we still had to have 3 people pinning him down. He screamed and cried and kept saying "mama, dada, I'm done, I'm done" It was the saddest thing. He also tried to roll onto his stomach as he said "karate chop karate chop" (he constantly asks for back massages or karate chop). I couldn't help but laugh a little at his request. He was so tough and the moment the stitches were in and we weren't pinning him down anymore he was good to go. He was a champ at keeping a bandaid on for the past 5 days. He got the stitches out today. I was nervous how that would go but again he was a champ. He wasn't a huge fan of the scissor near his eye but he only shed a few tears. Here's to hoping these are the first and last stitches (I can dream, right?)

Halloween

We had a wonderful Halloween. I love that Ethan is old enough now to enjoy the holidays. This is how we spent the weeks leading up to Halloween:

Visiting Erica in Texas for my nephew Bradley's baby blessing

Running the South Jordan Half and setting a PR

Playing in the leaves

 Carving pumpkins - which Ethan loved! He played in the pumpkin guts for hours until I had to pry him away from his bath

Exploring the local Halloween attraction Cornbelly's

Experimenting with various crafts at home and missing the wonderful weather in California

Before we knew it it was Halloween! We dressed Ethan up as a cowboy. He LOVED wearing his costume and is convinced he still needs to wear his cowboy boots everywhere we go. 

The day before Halloween, Sorenson Capital (where Chris works) threw a super fun Halloween party for the kids. They went all out. There was a movie and pizza room, a cookie decorating room, a pumpkin painting room and TONS and TONS of candy. Ethan was in heaven. 

On Halloween day I took Ethan to Thanksgiving point farm in the morning so he could ride his horse. 

Afterwards we met most of Chris's in South Jordan for lunch at Chick-fil-A

Ethan and his cousin Logan

 Later in the afternoon we drove to Orem and trick-or-treated to a few houses in Cherry Village with Megan, Matt, Blake, and Haley. Then came home and trick-or-treated to our neighbor with Chris. 

We had a very fun Halloween filled with way too much candy. 

Ethan is 18 months

My baby boy is 18 months old! Time sure does fly. He has such a fun personality and is always making us laugh. We haven't taken him in for his 18 month check up yet. But that is coming soon. 

A few things about Ethan at 18 months:

- Social butterfly. Loves to walk by and wave at strangers. He knows he's cute. 

- Talking more and more. I am losing count of all the words he says. His favorite words are "No!" "Mommy" "Car" "Ball" "Juice" "Cheese!"

- Says "Cheese" whenever I pull out my phone (maybe I take too many pictures...)

- Mr. Independent. Likes to wander away from me whenever he gets the chance.

- LOVES nursery

- Points out and says "Jesus" in pictures. 

- Can pull everything out of a cupboard in record speed

- Loves books

- Loves to play with cars, trucks, balls, bikes

- Picky eater, unfortunately. He used to eat anything, now every meal is a mini battle.

- Loves juice and corn on the cob. Oh and cookies and any other sugary candy/chocolate/chips. 

- Sleeps great at night. Hurray for his own room!!

He's a funny one Mr. Ethan. The other day while grocery shopping at Smiths, he was sitting in the car attached to the front of the cart, and while I was in the check out line he grabbed a bag of skittles and before I could stop him he opened the bag and began stuffing handfulls of skittles into his mouth. Silly boy. 

He is such a joy and we are so blessed he is ours! We love you Ethan!