Like Father Like Son

Maybe it's just me, but I think they look a lot alike :)
Jason in 1980.
Owen in 2011.

Great News!

Here's how Monday's MRI went at Primary Children's Hospital. His appointment was at 10:30 am, so I was told that I couldn't nurse him after 6:00 am, but could give him Pedialite until 8:30 am...not such an easy thing to do for a baby who usually likes to nurse every 1 1/2 - 2 hours during the day. He wasn't such a huge fan of the Pedialite, but I kind of pushed in on him so his stomach wouldn't be completely empty. I picked up the babysitter (bless her heart for being so willing to take on three little boys! haha), then Owen and I met Jason at the Primary Children's Hospital in Riverton...coincidentally only one block from Jason's work :) I'm soooo glad that Jason could be there because they were running behind at the hospital, so we didn't actually start the IV and sedation until after 12:00 pm...that much longer for us to keep Owen happy without feeding him...there was no way I could hold him because he would just plant his face on me and try to nurse...all you nursing moms out there know what I mean! lol. Thankfully, Jason was able to rock him to sleep. I was really nervous about the IV part because Connor had to have an IV put in him when he was barely a year old and it took six different tries before they were finally able to get the IV in his head! It was horrible to watch. But, Connor's IV was done at an ER...Owen's was done at a Primary Children's Hospital, so little tiny veins is all they do...it was pretty quick and they got it done on the first try. I was so relieved. Next we went to where the MRI would be done and they gave Owen some medicine to sedate him. He tried to fight it off...trying so hard to open his eyes, and when they had him lay down in the MRI machine his legs were shaking like crazy...I don't know if he was scared or still just trying to stay awake...either way it was really hard for me to watch. Luckily, they got a warm blanket and put him on it and he settled down. We weren't allowed to watch the MRI being done, but had to wait by the crib they would bring him back to. About 30 minutes later, they brought Owen back still mostly asleep. I asked if I could nurse Owen, and the nurse said no that he needed to have some clear fluids first to make sure he wouldn't throw up from the medications. This shows you how hungry he was that this time he downed the whole bottle of Pedialite in about 2 minutes. I asked the nurse if I could nurse him now (I was so engorged too!), and the nurse said normally they wait, but he was so hungry that she let me feed him. He nursed until he passed out asleep again. The picture is of him after I fed him. At this point, Jason went home to rescue the babysitter. She said the kids were good and thanked Jason for letting her babysit...Jason's response was no, thank YOU! The kids loved her, and said they had a lot of fun...now whether or not she answers her phone or not the next time we call her has yet to be seen! lol ;) I got to take Owen home a couple of hours later, and he slept most of the day.
The next day I waited until the afternoon, and then called Owen's doctor's office to see if they had the results from the MRI...the nurse told me they did but that they were in a pile for Owen's doctor to review, but that he wouldn't be back in the office until Friday. There's no way I could wait until Friday to find out if my son needs spinal surgery knowing the results are just there sitting on the doctor's desk, so the nurse had the on-call doctor look at them and gave me a call back about an hour later. Obviously, by the title of this post it was good news. There's no evidence of a tethered spinal cord. Yay! Such relief and happiness :) I think even Owen could sense that something good had happened...he was all smiles yesterday afternoon :)

MRI

Our sweet baby boy has to have an MRI on Monday...he was born with a dimple at the end of his spine and might have a tethered spinal cord. I had never heard of this before, but apparently it means that his spinal cord could be attached in some way to some fatty tissue or the spinal bones when it should be free floating. The ultrasound he has is unclear whether or not he has a tethered spinal cord, so hopefully the MRI will give us a clear answer. The hardest part will be when he has to get an IV, but then I think he'll be sedated enough to be calm for the MRI. If he does have a tethered spinal cord then he will have to have a surgery to correct it, so keep him in your prayers please. Hopefully our little guy will be doing okay, but if a surgery is needed it's good that we caught it early before any nerve damage could be done as he grows and puts stress on his spinal cord if it's tethered.

My Little Cheerleader!

Owen started to cry, so I said, "What's the matter? You want to eat?" Then Aidan looked at Owen and said, "You wanna EAT?! You gonna get a breast." Like he was explaining the process to him. Hahaha.

I had just started to feed Owen when Aidan looks like this...

and shouts, "He's BREASTING!" Like it was cheer! I couldn't help but laugh. Just when I thought I was having a rough day, I'm glad to know I have my little cheerleader around to keep me laughing!

Introducing Owen Rick Mortensen...

Here I am at 37 weeks pregnant...after being on bed-rest for a while the swelling gets really bad...I just have to remind myself that I will go back to normal again...it's so nice to be off of bed-rest now that Owen is here...can't wait until I get the go-ahead at my six-week check up to exercise and enjoy the nice Spring weather :)

Here we are starting the labor induction at 37 weeks and 4 days along in the pregnancy. Don't feel obligated to read this...it's mostly for my own records :) I went in to the hospital Thursday night (April 21st) to have some medicine to soften my cervix. They put the medicine in at about 8:00 pm. Then they weren't going to start the actual induction with Pitocin until the next morning. I was really surprised when the medicine to soften my cervix actually put me into full-blown labor. The contractions started coming every 1 to 3 minutes and were getting pretty bad, but I did my best to breathe through them. I had Jason holding my hand and watching the contractions on the screen to tell me when they're starting to go down, and my sister rubbing my feet. Both "coaches" were a great help. Finally, at 2:45 am the nurse was allowed to check me and remove the medicine. I kept thinking, "Please, let something be happening after all those hours of hard work...please let me at least be at a 3 so I can get an epidural!" I was so happy and proud of myself for breathing through all those hard contractions when the nurse told me I was at a 6! Whoohoo! Her next question which I barely let her get out before I said, "Yes!" was "would you like an epidural?" About an hour later I had the epidural in...as anyone who's ever had one knows, that part really sucks, but once it's done it's soooo nice. The only bad part was that the epidural made my blood-pressure drop to about 60/45 which made me feel really dizzy and nauseous. The nurse gave me some medicine to bring my blood-pressure back up which didn't work. Then they gave me Zofran for the nausea...then a second dose of the medicine to bring my blood-pressure back up which still didn't work. Finally, a totally different medication was given and that worked within about a minute to bring my blood-pressure back to normal. Finally, I was feeling well enough to get some sleep. I slept for about an hour. At about 7:00 am, the nurse checked me and said, "Wow, the only thing holding this kid in is the fact that we haven't broken your water yet...as soon as we do that this kid is going to be here!" My doctor got called in for an emergency surgery, so the nurse laid me back and told me that we just had to hope that my water didn't break on its own until my doctor could get back. At about 8:30 am, Dr. Young was back from surgery and broke my water. The baby immediately dropped, and it was time to push! The baby came out in about 3 pushes, and was born at 8:46 am. He was really purple at first, but over by the warmer, he let out a huge cry and started to turn pink. He looked so tiny to me! He's our smallest baby...he came in weighing 7 lbs 6 oz and 19 inches long.

Here he is...just perfect as can be...

Every ultrasound showed Owen with his arms up by his face...I guess this is just how he likes to sleep...

All brand-new to the world...just checking things out...

Proud Mommy...

Happy Big Brothers...

Proud Daddy...

Auntie Sherri...

Delicious cheeks...

Sweet sleepy boy.

Ride home from the hospital.

Sweet little face.

First bath.

Belly Post

I really don't like to see pictures of myself when I'm pregnant while I'm pregnant, but later on...when the bloating, swelling of the face, etc has gone down...then I like to see them. So, for that reason I'm posting this, and for anyone else who wants to see my pregnant belly! Here I am at 31 weeks along...

Jason's New Job

Jason was on contract at his work, but was recently hired full-time. Just as this transition was happening he was made aware of a new job opening in a different department which is more of a position that he was looking for. While on contract, Jason worked as a Portfolio Analyst in Church History which he enjoyed, but isn't really what he wanted to do long term. This new position is working for the same boss he worked for as an intern in the missionary department. He interviewed for the position as a Project Manager in public relations and got it! We're so excited! It's such a relief to have the job security of not having contracts run out and have to be resigned or renegotiated. Now he's a full-time employee in a department he loves, working with people he likes and doing what he actually got his degree in school to do. It's nice knowing he's using his degree when we write out those checks every month for the student loans! Here we are celebrating his first day at his new job. We made some sugar cookies and wrote one letter on each cookie spelling out "Congrats Daddy! We love you."

Potty Training

Let me just start out this post by saying I am NOT good at potty training...I think I lack in the patience department...so I've dreaded potty training Aidan, but with a new baby coming in a couple of months I was hoping to only have one child in diapers. Since Aidan just turned 3 I figured it's a good time to start since Aidan understands he just turned 3, and I could really press the point that 3-year-olds are big boys and don't need diapers except when they're sleeping. Aidan took pretty well to it. We bought Aidan some Toy Story and Cars underwear which he was really excited about. I don't really bother with pull-ups...I've had several pediatricians tell me that it only prolongs the potty training process because they can wet themselves and not feel the consequences of wet, sticky pants. So, on the first day, Aidan was so excited about his underwear that he kept switching pairs every 1/2 hour or so just to try some new ones out. He had an accident first thing in the morning...I told him it was okay that we just need to get some dry underwear and try to go peepee in the potty next time. He was kind of freaked out about using the potty...he would sit on it but not go...finally he went later on in the day and I clapped, gave him stickers and m&ms and told him how proud I was of him. It was so sweet when he looked at me and smiled and said, "you're proud of me?" I said, "Yes, I'm very proud of my big boy." That seemed to make him very happy. The next day was pretty much the same with an accident first thing in the morning and then peepee in the potty after that. I think we're on week four now of potty training, and Aidan doesn't have any peepee accidents, but we're still working on getting him to go #2 in the potty. He usually freaks out and doesn't want to do that in the potty and goes in his underwear instead or waits until bedtime and goes in his diaper. However, just last week, he went poopoo in the potty and now it's about 1/2 the time #2 goes in the potty and 1/2 the time it's in his diaper at night or underwear, BUT we're making progress. I know he knows how to use the potty, and he's getting better about telling me when he needs to go. We're making progress, and that's good! Hope this post wasn't too much information, but I wanted to document it all.
These pictures are from one of the first days we were potty training, and Aidan didn't want any underwear at the moment. He wanted to help me make cookies, so we threw on an apron and started cooking! He just looked too cute not to take a picture.

Aidan turns 3!

The Friday before Aidan's birthday, Jason's mom came to town so we had a little family birthday party for Aidan with Grandma and Uncle Travis, Aunt Trudy and his three cousins and two brothers. Aidan was soooo excited. We had talked to him about his upcoming birthday party for a couple of weeks before the actual party, so for those couple of weeks anytime Aidan heard the word "birthday" he would either start singing happy birthday to himself, or say "it's going to be my happy birthday?" Just to make sure he understood it was going to be his special day. He even understood that he was two, but on his birthday he would be three. We had a Toy Story themed party with balloons, streamers, party bags and a Toy Story cake. Two of Aidan's favorite things right now are Toy Story...specifically Buzz Lightyear and Woody, and Elmo. He's constantly asking to watch Buzz Lightyear...I've seen the Toy Story movies so many times now that I'm really trying to encourage him to branch out a little and watch something else :)
Here are a few pictures of the festivities...

Chocolate Face

Apparently, Aidan decided to abandon his spoon and really dig in there with is pudding...I didn't catch what he was doing until the damage was done! At lease he enjoyed it!

Poor Sleepy Boy

This is what happens to Aidan when he misses his nap! He was trying to finish his snack and just didn't quite make it!

Eating Snow

These pictures are from last month, but they're just too cute not to post. After grocery shopping one day, Aidan just kept sticking out his tongue and telling me he was eating the snow. I just love how kids can find such joy in the simple things in life! Kids are so great :)

Basketball

Gavin wanted to try basketball this year, and he LOVES it. I think it's his new favorite sport...for now anyway! He wants to practice more, but it's still pretty cold outside as far as finding somewhere to practice goes (the games are indoors at the elementary schools). As things warm up we'll have to practice with him outside at the elementary school. I love sports for the kids at this age...they're not overly competitive...more about teaching the kids skills and how to work as a team. In other words, they're fun! And, great exercise for the kids. At this age, they don't call any fouls or traveling or anything, so it's pretty funny when one of the kids will get the ball and get so excited they actually have the ball that they'll just hold it tight and run with it at fast as they can...all the while the moms and dads yelling "dribble it, dribble it!" It's too cute.


After Gavin's first game we celebrated with a lunch at Burger King.