July 11, 2011

Sam,

You did it! We were so excited to find out that we could room with you. The doctor looked at your papers and said,  "I see no reason why we shouldn't move him ahead."

I held you in my arms because you were crying. I held you in my arms as I studied my Scriptures. We both listened to Michael Dowdle.

I must mention the love and sacrifice that you mother made for you and has for you. Since you were born your mother has spent her time and energy all for you. She has been selfless. For over ten days straight she would drive with me to the hospital, breast feed you, then pump milk, then drive home, maybe eat and maybe get an hour or two of sleep before doing it again. There is no doubt in my mind the strength and love you mother has for you and the Lord Jesus Christ.

After some time in the room and some more feedings you and I embarked in the "carseat trial."

You looked so small and cute. Cute is not a word I usually use by the way. I ran to our room to get a picture of you.

I am writing this as you are in the carseat. I have great expectations of you son, even past the carseat.

July 9, 2011

Sam,

You came in a wake of miracles.

It had been about a week since you were born. Your mom and I felt worn to the bone because we were traveling back and forth from the hospital all day and through the late night hours.

One evening right before we left Nana Fin gave me some mail. I was excited to look at it so I opened it and looked at it as I was driving. "Wait til' you're done driving," your mother asked me. I put it down and finished our drive back to the hospital. Once there I sat down and looked at it. It was for health insurance. The deductible was about one hundred dollars and the coverage went back until April. The insurance I currently had for you had a ten thousand dollar deductible and I still had to have you go through underwriting. I thought it was a trick so I looked it up on the internet. It seemed to be real, but to make sure I called your Papa Fin. 

"It's the best insurance on the planet," he said, " I would take it in a heartbeat." I was shocked all the more. 

I called the insurance company that sent me the letter. Surly they wouldn't cover you back until April; I hadn't payed any premiums. I asked the insurance representative "So... does he have to go through any underwriting?" 

"No, sir, you've earned it."

Well let me go back a bit. 

In high school I spent two days of my summer modeling as a nerd for a stock photography company. I made a couple hundred dollars and felt very blessed.

Years later, after marrying your mother and attending Snow College, I received a phone call from Grandma Power. "Zach, someone wants to pay you."

Well come to find out a big company made a commercial and wanted to pay me for it. I was surprised. I had already been paid a couple hundred dollars, now they wanted to pay me more. 

I started to receive checks in the mail. Don't worry, we saved every penny of it. 

And that's what the representative meant when she said "No, sir, you earned it."

Well, it came at the exact right time. Your stay in the hospital was mounting in the tens of thousands. 

I know that the Lord is looking out for us. Nothing could have been felt as a bigger blessing and been timed so exactly. 

I know that Jesus Christ lives.

Love,

Dad

July 7, 2011

Sam,

Today was a rough day for mom and I. 

I woke up this morning to a "Mr. Power... Mr. Power..." and saw the social worker standing above me.

He told me that there was "no more room in the inn tonight."

Your mom was with you at the time, so I sleepily walked down the hall to let her know.

We moved out. Mom cried tears of frustration. After I took her home I came back so I could talk to the Doctor. I waited for a couple hours. When he came I tried to explain that you needed to progress. He kept you at the same orders; three feeds a day. 

Love,

Dad

July 6, 2011

Sam,

I have been so excited to see you.

You've been in the hospital for nearly a week now, and you've been doing fabulous. 

When you were born the pediatrician said you were very opinionated. Later that was confirmed when you refused to nurse on your mother's left side. For some reason you only liked the right. Good job son; choose the right. It's good to know that you are so young and only choosing the right. 

You were strong-willed from the beginning. When I told Papa Fin that you were strong-willed like he is he said "Poor sap. He'll have to deal with that the rest of his life." I laughed. It will serve you well as you master it in these last days.

So, here's a break down of your birthday. Mom went into labor the midnight after your baby shower. If I'm right you were probably excited for all the presents mom was opening. She woke me up, with much difficulty. I'm a heavy sleeper. Nana Fin, your mom and I hoped in the car and started to drive.

We were headed toward Provo, but then did a u-turn toward American Fork Hospital, which is next to the Mt. Timpanogos Temple. Once we were there mom started to dilate about a centimeter an hour. She was focused and, for some unknown reason, enjoying the labor. At one point she was crying saying "I love it, I don't know why, but I love it."

Then she started to say things like "You guys are so rude," because we wouldn't let her have an epidural. She made me promise not to give it to her, and that was a great sacrifice she made for you. Later we found out that the placenta was pulling away from the uterus and causing her excruciating pain. She stopped dilating at 9 centimeters. She just needed one more, but it never happened.

The doctor came in and made some quick decisions. Before I knew it she had forceps around your head, was telling your mother to push, and was trying to pull you out. After your mom popped her IV out from pushing so hard, and after Doctor Kari Lawrence gave her an episiotomy, which hurts by the way, you were out in the air screaming.

You had blood in your lungs and stomach from the premature dismissal of the placenta. They put you on a table and cleaned you off and sucked out as much blood as they could. They laid you on mom for a second, then whisked you away to the Newborn Intensive Care Unit. The whole way down you were grunting. One of the doctors explained some things about your lungs. 

They put you on a ventilator for an hour and a half. During that time they poked your heel and did other necessary procedures. You cried and I whispered "Hey Sam," and continued to soothe you. "If he does well when we take the ventilator off then we can keep it off," the pediatrician said. You did well. At that point I knew you were a strong soul.

And you continued to be strong. Your first nursing was 41 minutes long. You only needed to go for ten minutes to move to the next level. You did great. In the mean time your mother was pumping milk, called colostrum, and conserving every little drop with a syringe.

They put a IV on your head. We all laughed because for a second it looked like a bow.

Eventually we moved you to the Timpanogos Hospital, for insurance reasons. That was a hard move for your mother and I. You did great, but we struggled to adjust to the new hospital and new procedures.

You kept improving. I was so happy. You went from two breastfeeds to three, and now we have hope that you will improve to four breastfeeds. 

And that's a quick rundown of when you were born.

July 1, 2011

Sam,

That's what we decided to name you.

Happy Birthday son.

I looked at you when you were born and said to you, "I'm going to love you and take care of you for the next twenty years; the rest of your life; the rest of eternity."

I love you son.

Love,

Dad

It is official!

Many of you already knew, but I decided to publicly announce that I am Pregnant and Due July 30th 2011! This would make sense since.....

1. I have been so sick. sick. sick.

2. I am always tired, I could sleep all day:)

3. Smells drive me batty! Things like my favorite perfumes, my favorite salsa, my favorite soaps, and lotions etc. Are so gross, gross enough to gag.

4. I can only keep down certain foods like potatoes, refried beans, tomato soup, rice chex, etc. This sure makes cooking a chore!

Zach and I could not be more excited! The best thing that ever happened to me was marrying Zach, and the best thing that has ever happened to us is having this baby!!!!

The Delayed Christmas Post....

Warning...So many pictures ahead, all from our awesome Christmas Break, and I barely had any pictures of all the fun things we did with our families! here it goes...

Zach in all his awesomeness...
Eva's Christmas horse (homemade with Nana) is eating lettuce from the kitchen floor. Eva LOVED this horse. This is a major understatement.
Eden and Nana read lots and lots of stories! Eden has some stories memorized reciting the title of the book, the author, and then each page. The best part is that she tells the stories with emotion, and facial expressions!
Zach and I in our Christmas eve attire...I got Zach a men's nightshirt with his name embroidered on the pocket :) we all had a good laugh, and then I wore my annual Christmas onsie :)
This was Lydia in the nativity as can you guess? a lamb or something? I even combed her hair for her.
This is us as lambs/donkeys in the Christmas nativity.
The classic cousin trio here! Macyn, Wendy and I were all born close together and have been great friends ever since!
Check this little guy out! Especially those little animal hands!
The kiddos...look at Eva in her little wiseman get up and little oakley with the scrunched face.
Zach and Eva, wismen from the East.
We tricked Eva into being a wiseman by putting her little minnie mouse stuffed animal in the box so she could carry minnie around.
Eden was Mary, but she would say that her name was "Married"
Eva and Unlce Haydo down at Riverwoods.
Eden and Bethany at Thanksgiving point to see the Reindeer.
Looking at the Reindeer that were very very small.
This little one cracks me up. She woke up from a nap, climbed in her little sister Leila's pack and play and played Alien, her made up name was "SipSap". The Static got the best of her!


We played in the snow until we froze.
Eden and Eva's favorite was the snow man "clifford" that we made.

The break was so great! In fact other than the fun things we went out and did, we watched almost every Jane Austen movie we could get out hands on. We watched the full Pride and Prejudice, Emma (3 versions, watched multiple times!), We then watched sense and sensibility, and who knows all the other movies like that out there. It was definitely a blast.