home sweet home

here's a nice shot of our home so far...
it turns out that rentals in this area are tough to find, so we're waiting on a house that's being built. stay tuned for pics and details of our adventure from arizona to ohio by way of el paso, san antonio, guthrie, wichita, and st. louis

my big boys:

may 31, 2009 - the details...

MASON GRAHAM ROBERTS
BORN 5.31.09 @ 3:32 AM
7 LBS 15 OZ 19 INCHES
BROWN HAIR & DARK EYES

mason's middle name "graham" is the maiden name of two of his great-great grandmas (one on grandma roberts' and one on grandpa roberts' side of the family).

after watching WAY too much TLC in the hospital, i feel compelled to share our birth story (sorry for any details that might gross you out)...

i got up early sunday morning around 1:30 for a potty break, as usual. i had been having intermittent contractions that night, but nothing regular or different than the past few weeks. a few minutes after i got back in bed, my water broke. and boy did it gush. after reasoning with myself about the inevitability of the baby coming that day, i woke russell up and told him and he goes, "Really??" we were both in such shock because i was 4 days late with calvin and we definitely weren't planning to have this baby 8 days early. i didn't have anything packed for the hospital and we hadn't made arrangements for calvin because my mom was planning to come on wednesday. so, i called the hospital to find out if we could wait a little while before coming. they said no. we rushed around getting bags packed and called our friends kari and ben who saved the day and picked calvin up at the hospital. meanwhile, contractions were getting stronger and i'm continuing to soak through clothes w/ the water breakage. (my water broke after we got to the hospital with calvin, so this was a new and unpleasant experience!) we got to the hospital about 2:45 am and i went to check in while russell waited outside with calvin to meet kari. i finished up and had to waddle out there and give him a kiss before he left. i just felt so bad for leaving him so quickly. we wanted to try to make this as stress-free as possible for calvin to help ease the adjustment of sharing his parents with a baby brother and us getting him up at 2 in the morning and running around didn't help. he grabbed two of his friends (stuffed animals) and was so cheerful and excited in the car, though.

anyway, russell and i got into triage and waited for about 10 minutes to see the nurse. she came in about 3:00 and calmly started hooking me up to the fetal monitor and checking temp and blood pressure. my contractions were coming every couple minutes and were pretty strong, so i was anxious for her to check me and see how far i was dilated and then to get us to a labor room where we could more comfortably work through the contractions. she got baby's heartbeat on the monitor and then started to collect a sample of fluid to MAKE SURE it was my water that broke. hmmmmmm. i know that urinary incontinence is an issue in pregnancy, but i've never peed that much on accident and then continued to pee accidentally for the next hour straight! i guess it's protocol, but i was annoyed. so, she finally checks my cervix and says i am dilated to a 5 or 6. i was glad to hear that because i was only a 3 when we checked in to the hospital with calvin and it seemed to take forever to get to 5 or 6. while she's down there, the nurse asks if my doctor talked to me about the baby not being head down. what??? i told her that he was head down a couple weeks ago, but that she hadn't checked for that at my last appt. the nurse said she wasn't sure what she was feeling, but it wasn't a head. she starts calling to try to get an ultrasound brought in and then baby's heartbeat goes down on the monitor. so, she checks me again and then starts calling lots of people quickly. she said she's pretty sure what she's feeling is the umbilical cord and possibly a foot. so, the baby did some acrobatics at some point in the last couple weeks and he was now breach. also, the cord was prolapsed, which means it's coming out first. this accounts for the drop in his heartbeat and is obviously really dangerous because it gets pinched and cuts off blood, oxygen, and food supply to the baby. it also means an emergency c-section. so, nurse starts calling more people quickly and they lay me flat and get ready to move. russell can't come with me because they have to use general anaesthesia (i wasn't getting an epidural and i didn't even have an i.v. in at this point. we're flying to the operating room and they call a doc who is asleep in one of the rooms (waiting for another delivery) to come do the c-section. my doctor had left the hospital about 20 minutes before this and there wasn't time to wait for her to get back. meanwhile, this WHOLE time, the first nurse still has her fingers in my cervix and she is holding the baby off of the cord so he can breathe and monitoring his heart rate. when we got to the o.r., i asked if he was gonna be okay and she said she didn't know. that was the scariest point for me. it's one thing to get to the hosptial in pain and be worried about being able to cope through the delivery, but it's SO much worse to be worried about the baby surviving the delivery. they started the i.v. on the operating table and the anaesthesiologist told me he would be with me the whole time to make sure i was okay. the nurse who is holding baby off of the cord shouts that we need to go because he's down to 30 or 40 (that was his heart rate) and the last thing i remember is feeling like i couldn't breathe. i realized later that it was the drugs putting me to sleep, but i seriously thought i was suffocating and was trying to raise my arms up to tell somebody, but they weren't working.


i woke up and saw russell - he said hi. i asked if baby was okay. he said he was fine and they were bringing him in to see me. what a handsome little miracle! they had him out in minutes, less than a half hour after we got to triage. we spent 3 1/2 days in the hospital and it's so good to be home. my mom changed her flight and came sunday night, which was a lifesaver since russell had finals this week.

mason is healthy and so mild-mannered (just like calvin was - such a blessing). he's eating well and sleeps like a champ, usually just getting up once at night to eat.


calvin is adjusting well and loves his baby brother. he likes to use a high squeaky voice when he says "he's so cute!"russell and i are tired, but we love having 2 boys.

mason

sorry for the delay in an update...mason and i came home today. here's a few pics - lots more details to come...

He's here!

baby boy came eight days early this morning via an emergency c-section.
mother and baby are doing great!
he's very cute!
stay tuned for more details.

mother's day

3:30 am. potty break

7:00 am. potty break. russell gets up to do his primary lesson

8:30 am. get up and waddle to the shower

8:45 am. smell food. head downstairs and calvin, sitting at the table, greets me with "happy mother's day!" eat yummy breakfast prepared by my dear husband. flowers, home-made cards, and chick flick on the table.

10:00 am - 1 pm. church. primary kids remembered the words and sang an awesome medley for their moms, calvin was SO reverent in sacrament meeting, got a dark chocolate candy bar for the mom's gift, sharing time duty for me and calvin pooped 5 minutes before i needed to teach senior primary (russell was also teaching), it's 107 (ONE-HUNDRED AND SEVEN) DEGREES in our car when we leave church

1:30 pm. start soaking my hot feet w/ swollen toes in ice water. russell thinks i'm crazy. he makes me lunch anyway cuz it's mother's day. calvin and i eat ice cream cones. call moms and grandmas to wish them a happy day. calvin keeps saying "happy mother's day" and "happy birthday."

3:30 pm. put calvin in his bed, try to take a nap, no such luck.

4:45 pm. calvin out of bed after he sang and practiced gymnastics the whole time. we wake russell up and he starts dinner.

6:30 pm. delicious mother's day feast: chicken cordon bleu, rice, fresh green beans, watermelon, and cream puffs...thank you my love! calvin takes AN HOUR to eat because he just wants to sing "i'm trying to be like Jesus" instead of chew and swallow. i didn't even know he knew that song - fun surprise.

7:30 pm. decided we should take some pictures today (see below...i'm now regretting this for obvious reasons). also shot cute video of calvin singing...no regrets there! i've been singing this song to him since he was in the womb and it's the best mother's day gift that he is singing it back.

(calvin's modeling my new pearl bracelet!)

9:00 pm. family prayer...calvin helps his daddy: "thankful for mommy, thankful for daddy, stinky toots, Jesus Christ, amen!" couldn't stop laughing.

10:30 pm. went to bed

11:15 pm. got up w/ a bottle of tums and wrote this blog post. 4 weeks (3 now) til baby comes...boy am i ready to start sleeping again. haha (at least the heartburn will be gone, right?)

some recent silly pics of my boy - i do love being a mom!

1:00 am. went to bed again

firsts

Calvin had his first camp out in the backyard with Russell a couple weekends ago. It was a trial-run for our ward father/son camp out and I think Russell's glad he tried it at home first...

my boys ready to set up their camp site

making their foil dinners

they did some exploring in the back while dinner cooked

they were nice enough to eat inside w/ me - it was too hot outside!

ready for bed...calvin lasted until 11 pm and then they came inside for bed. he was so excited that he wouldn't even sit still on his sleeping bag. russell even tried pretending like he was asleep and calvin put his face like an inch away from russell's and just watched him for a few minutes, then kept talking and asking questions. so, no father/son's this year with the ward, but they certainly had a good time (and a good sleep once they came inside)!

the next day, calvin went to his first friend birthday party. it was a disney princess party with a bounce house, bbq, and face painting! he got a baseball and a football - no surprise - and had a great time!

last weekend we went to our first diamondbacks game. calvin wanted to wear his mariner's hat and bring his mitt, but we were a little high up to catch a fly ball. we sure had lots of snacks, though, and a great time!

it's probably also a first that i've posted as much as i have in the last few days. i'm trying to catch up before baby comes (in 3 1/2 weeks!) and i have a real excuse to put it off. so, stay tuned for a couple more posts in the next few days...

spring break

we had a much-needed break for most of april and got to see lots of family. calvin and i flew to slc on apr 1st and spent a week with grandma and grandpa perkins. we got to see aunts, uncles, cousins, great grandparents, and friends. russell got to study and take finals and then met us in seattle for his spring break - apr 10-19th. it was nice to spend so much time together that last week and see family in seattle. here's a summary of our marathon trip:

utah

grandma & grandpa perkins took us to see the farm animals at thanksgiving point

learning to milk a cow

goats

horse (he changed his mind about a pony ride when he got close to them,
but loved looking at the horses)

cute baby calf

grandpa had a little shadow for the whole week, unless he was gone, then he followed grandma

easter egg hunt with some cousins

i think that's the one he ate w/ the wrapper still on

logan, alex, jacob, hannah and calvin (sorry about the weird reflective eyes...)

calvin with great-grams and gramps perkins after a delicious lunch at el matador

playing w/ cousins in jamie & rich's fun backyard


seattle

riley and calvin enjoying smoothies

playing with ethan - calvin loves his "big" cousins

dyeing easter eggs

so glad we got to meet new baby owen

calvin's blue egg w/ his name on it

easter morning - at least the easter bunny brought toothpaste along w/ all the junk

another egg hunt

who would expect them to actually look at the camera?

ready for church

russell and i got to go to the temple

we had to hurry and snap this picture while his shadow was showing (the sun wasn't out much until the end of the week)

russell, chip, calvin and riley riding the train in tacoma

bridge in tacoma

tacoma union station in the background

glass museum in tacoma in the background (weird looking blue things and cone-shaped roof)

displays on roof of glass museum

fountain in front of glass museum

eating delish seafood at ivar's in seattle

and feeding leftovers to the seagulls...

on the wharf

we got to see ethan's first t-ball game - he had a great hit!

mariner's game

calvin loves his aunt kyle


wow...i'm tired just reliving this whirlwind trip. but, it was SO good to see loved ones and to enjoy some cooler weather! it's already in the low 100's here and i'm miserable.
thanks mom & dad and chip & deb for hosting us!