Life with Tanner here (fair warning--lots of pictures)

This first pic was blurry but waaaaay to cute to leave off-Oh Tanner, I love you too! More than you'll ever know :)

 

 

I love love Love the newborn phase. The up all night doesn't really bother me-it's way better than being up all night pregnant and just holding this little peace of heaven, I love it. And sometimes I feel so bad for him knowing his little tummy hurts but dang, those gas bubble smiles are so stink'n cute!  (hard to catch on camera though)

Recovery this time has been a breeze-I'm not complaining! So mostly we've just been enjoying life and cashing in on snuggles from this cute little brother! (Oh notice my Utah necklace in this pic-I never take it off...until I saw the imprint of it in Tanner's head. Sorry buddy. It's now taking a little break.)

 

Sunday, I felt good enough to go to church but I played hookie cuz I didn't want to take Tanner yet. But Cannon got to hold Tanner standing up-it was a big deal-I was hoping for a cuter picture but no such luck. (I got Tanner a little tie like that too :)  I just need to modify it to make it short enough. So fun. I'm hoping it ends up all three of them with and cute smiles on a blog header or something....maybe...a mom can hope.) Sunday Isaac's coworkers hooked us up with all kinds of goodies, the boys had fun tearing into it and a they are enjoying the new toys and books before Tanner can too.  

Cannon was assigned photographer for the first couple baths. I hate it when he messes with the camera settings on my phone but...the black and white did turn out pretty cute.

 

Colt took a few pics too...they mostly look like his fingers were covering the lens. And that poor little guy got sick-AGAIN. I swear, he catches everything! (Could have something to do with going to sunbeams and there's 12 other little kids there catching/passing everything but still YIKES) He had a bad fever and stinky sinus infection but luckily his fever broke in the night Tuesday night and he seems to have kicked it! Grama cashed in on few extra snuggles. She had to leave Tuesday but she took Isaac with her and dropped him off at the auction Tuesday afternoon and it was basically buy a van or hitch hike home :) So it happened! We are officially mini van people.

 

 

How bout it? Plenty fancy for me, a little nicer than I thought we were going to go actually but I'm good with that! (I say thank you tax return, Isaac doesn't even really like the tax return thing he'd rather not have paid extra money in, "it's just giving the government and interest free loan" oh Isaac but back to the van, its been great all 2 times I've driven it-to preschool and back) The boys love it though and want Tanner to sit in the very back with them. But the first thing Cannon said was "Noah and Zach's has a button they can push and the doors shut, how come ours doesn't...Can we get a new mini van that has the button?" Oh brother.

Cann was make'n the most of his photographer job...then he jumped in on the group selfie-its how we entertain ourselves.

The sun is terrible in this one but the big brother is pretty good, playing some music for Tanner on his new little toy.

 

Love these guys! Look at the one with Colt holding Tanner. Colt: I've got him. Tanner: Oh no! Save me!

Oh now onto the stories.

Last Friday I had to take Tanner back to the Dr because he had blood work done in the hospital because he had "petechiae" or little red spots all over him when he was born. Holy torture they prick his little foot then scrape that dang thing across it gathering one drop at a time. Only they could get enough so they did it to him AGAIN, only to have me get to the Dr appt and him tell me, they still didn't get what they needed cuz it clotted up too soon or some dang thing. I didn't let them do it again. They said we can check it again later-my vote? Sure, quarter past never! The red spots are gone so WHY? Anyway

I was going to incorporate the hospital craziness this go around but then my cute visiting teachers came and brought us dinner -so nice, I felt bad cuz we really didn't need it, this has been the best easiest recovery so far, I feel great!- anyway so one of my visiting teachers is pregnant but she's going to deliver back in Utah this summer and the other one had a baby here last summer. So I asked about her experience and the hospital and she said "Oh it was great, I loved it." 

Oh.

Really?!

Maybe I'm a snot...ok I am a snot
But then Julia (Lingwall) came over and I was asking her and she was a scheduled induction and still ended up with natural child birth because Anesthesia didn't get there in time. Soooo, it wasn't just me, maybe its ya win some ya lose some, around here, I don't know-- I'm just going with my story of some of the craziness:  

I just thought the petechiae was dried blood because they seriously didn't wash him off! -Until hours later- Seriously, love him, so glad he's here, yes set him up on me, but then sweep him away, clean him up, (and clean me up) and put a diaper on him so I don't end up with newborn poop all over me and the blankets and then bring him back in a cute little bundle! I didn't think they were going to bathe him at all and  I was plotting how I was going to pull in off in my counter-less hospital room. But I guess here they just wait until ya ask them too. Weird. My other thought was that the petechiae was from them stink'n exfoliating him with the roughest towels on the planet. Good grief! He was brand new--no softness here! Seriously if I had it to do again I would take my own towels...among other things. Those dang pack your hospital bag lists that have everything and the kitchen sink on them-ya you need it here.  Like soap in the shower--they did have that but you have to ask and I just had my mom bring some from home. Oh that shower it hit me about chest high-but it had the little wand thing but if you turned on the wand pretty much all the water sprayed out of the leaking top of it. Yikes. And (continuing on my rant but in no particular order) they don't use wipes for the baby-so weird right?! They give ya a big old stack of gauze and you have to get it wet...or you could go all sandpaper on him-he'd had it before with the towels! And last but not least how about the "optional" hearing test that's mandatory. I tried to say no thanks, I know he can hear, and the paper they gave me indicated 2 out of every 1000 kids have hearing loss...um that's .2%, tap the side of his little bed and he jumps, pretty sure he can hear-whoa that landed the director of the OB Floor in my room "I'm the director...I'm the director" she had to have told me that 7 times, I wasn't amused. Ultimately I gave in on the hearing test (I was so mad cuz I knew Isaac would have been able to say no and stick with it and I caved.) Then the girl did the test and said "I've never had a kid not pass" as she was leaving. Yeah! My point exactly! Oh well they did let me out of the hospital a day earlier than the other two, that was a bonus.
Ok rant over...until I think of more!
How bout more pics, they're way more fun!
Pics from the Hospital

Some 6 days old pics.

 What my brothers do while I'm being torture with the picture taking by Grama and mom...

 Back to the torture...so tuckered out.

I guess that's it--until next week :)

Tanner's Birthday

So here's the recap of Tanner's birthday.  (Well in a post I'm going to have to edit along the way.)

Had an appointment Tuesday but when he didn't come over the weekend I was really hoping for Monday because the inner math nerd in me just me just thought 4-4-16 would be cool birthday. BUT, nuthin! I just decided my body doesn't go into labor, it won't, and that was fine I'd just find out about getting things going Tuesday. 

But I was wrong.

I was up with Cannon in the middle of the night Monday night-well, Tuesday morning it was around 2:00 am, still nuthin. But sometime after 3, I woke up hurting an I was like Oh crud that was totally a contraction, then another, they were 5 min apart before I even woke up, then it was like 2 minutes apart but short ones then another five, I, never having gone into labor on my own didn't know what to think but I woke Isaac up and told him we better go and we were at the hospital by 4. Ummm I waited pretty much as long as I could until I was pretty dang sure it was go time and even though it was fast, within a 1/2 hour, if I had it to do again I would've high tailed it from the very first contraction! Holy Cow, things move at a slower pace here in Northeastern Missiouri (it really is like a step back in time) they were in no hurry when we got there "ok well we'll get a monitor on the baby then we'll check ya ya and see if we're going to admit you..." Dilly dally USA! Oh I forgot my keys bla bla I asked as we were leaving how many  babies they delivered a day on average...maybe 2 for an average-and do a few checks. Oh. No wonder! Anyway I was a 6 when we got there, she couldn't get my stink'n IV in my hand is still bruised. They wouldn't do a epidural before they got blood work done and results back.Things were moving quick-I wanted an epidural she was like "I'd rather have a Dr here than anesthesia."

So the short version is-it was HELL. And there was a fair amount of cussing in that delivery room too! Not all me though! It's just a different place here, when the second nurse couldn't get the IV for a while either she totally cussed, it was really weird to me but-whatever! Anyway the long version is I totally got a resident anesthesiologist-No rushing him. I was past an 8 before they ever put the epidural in and they said "if you feel like you need to push just tell us and we'll stop what we're doing right away" ummm no just get it in. Then I was "9 plus the only thing keeping you pregnant is the bag of water." Before I even felt tingling in my toes. But he didn't break it hoping to buy that epidural sometime to start working. I don't know, maybe I should have stopped with the short version...I just remember them saying I needed to push and was like no I can't then they go all cheerleader on ya. Crap. Cute Isaac way early on when we got there and I was squeezing the heck out of his hand during a contraction he rubbed the sweat off my forehead kept my hair out of my face, I told him that it felt good and he kept it up (sometimes frantically) the whole time! Anyway closer to natural child birth than I ever cared to get but the good news is the epidural did kick in the deeper we got into the pushing process so that helped even though I'd have taken it an hour sooner! But just before 7:00 -6:57 to be exact- (so whole shoot'n match in less that 4 hours!) little brother showed up weighing 8lbs 9oz (just like Cannon) and 21 1/2 inches long. 

He's perfect. It's crazy but when my kids are on the inside I love'm but it's just not the same-I hate being pregnant for one thing-but they get here and it just crazy how much more I love them than I ever thought possible! 

Mrs Hardee let Colt come to preschool this week too so the boys stopped in to meet little brother before school. I was excited to see them and threw my arm out and asked Colty for a hug-he took one look at that hospital gown turned up his nose and said "Not with those clothes on!" It was hilarious, we've laughed and laughed about it. But they both held him, Cannon was sold from minute one...Colt not as sold but he's getting there.

The boys stopped back by after school too

That night Isaac and I had the celebratory dinner at the hospital-the boys and Grama celebrated at McDonalds

I need to embed this but here's the link to them singing Tanner happy birthday rhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eQ7EqhMb4ms

Anyway back to Isaac and I, he was getting ready to go and I was said "no way, not until he has a name!" It was causing me too much stress. Ultimately Isaac picked Tanner from my list, it was cute he just kept saying "we can't really go wrong with Tanner" and I agreed. He told the boys and I felt really good about it when he told me how much they loved it and were jumping around :) he still "little brudder" a lot too but we love him having a name! We talked about middle names/initials and I just wasn't settled, the next morning I told Isaac I really wanted it to be Allen after my dad. To Isaac it's his father in laws name, to me it's so much more and I thought my whole pregnancy he'd come on Grampa's birthday and I wanted to name him after him, well that's not when he came but still. At any rate Isaac was fine with it so Tanner Allen Ison it is! I love it, we love him!!!!

The hospital...oh the hospital, it was a little crazy (my mom and I were going to make a list of all the weird things) but hey we got out of there after one night so that was awesome.

I'll have to see what the pictures on the camera are like since this is a phone in hand baby in other arm post! But here's his going home outfit and a few more pics to boot :)

Little Buddy made us a family of 5 today!!

Welcome little brother! 

We love you!!

8lbs 9oz 

21 1/2 inches long 

...still work'n on a name...

When a long awaited little brother joins the family it's kinda hard to remember anything from the rest of the week. It was conference weekend, we enjoyed that minus the spotty internet part-that was annoying! The boys wanted me to do fun bags so I complied. We also did the train thing where they made a train out of the speakers. Colt was pretty cute holding his picture up to the tablet to compare if he thought he had the right speaker. Cannon did a good job of telling me what he heard. He's got quite the memory he'd spit stuff back at me trying to earn his fun bag-even if it was a bad example, then he's so smart it's like he'd think that it didn't sound right so he'd add "and we need to follow Jesus"

So about those stupid fun bags I thought I was so smart and ordered a pkg of carnival prizes off of amazon, I was thinking fish pond type things. oh boy! What a waste of 13 bucks on a bunch of garbage! I was scrambling to find marshmallows and jelly beans and such around here to add to the bags cuz the "prizes" were so lame! But tearing into the bag is half the fun sooo...anyway one-ok-two of the prizes were whistles, oh my! That was annoying and terrible mistake!  

Isaac said "who gives their kids whistles and expects them to not blow them?" Then he threw in there "that better make the blog" cuz I put every dumb thing he does on here--it's only fair. 

Sunday Cannon was showing Grandma Ison on Skype how he can run like cheetah--and he crashed into the wall so he's had a big ole shiner all week! He got it good, I think he might have hit the hinge on the door, who knows but I knew the cry was the hurt cry as opposed to the just overly dramatic fake cry I often get.

Monday it was too cold but we went to the park anyway, then the boys and Grama dropped me off at home and went exploring and found another park in Novinger. The boys had a great time and I had a great rest--so Grama probably got the raw end of the deal :) 

They were having a great time playing with these suffering sticks??? 

"Suffering sticks" you might ask-to which Cannon replied "well we're going to burn them" their plan was to roast a raccoon I'm laughing again just typing it! 

Oh and on funny things they say note: my wardrobe most late pregnancy days is the biggest shirt I can find on Isaac's side of the closet, so the other day I wore Isaac's new primary shirt Colt just kept asking me why I was wearing it I didn't think much of it but the next day he said 

 "me glad you not wearing daddy's primary shirt, dus wear you own clothes!"

And my mom is here and she is a lot of help but she really does have a broken shoulder so there's just some things she can't do well the boys have picked right up on that and they will say "I can't I have a broken shoulder" when they don't want to do something it's hilarious.

Anyway--lets get on to Tuesday--in another post

Baby? Only a bad April Fools day joke.

No Baby...yet...the days not over!!! Really the only two things on my list today were blog and have a kid~so I'm getting one of them done. Cannon said to me yesterday "Mom, your belly is so big your back is growing into it." Hmmm

Little buddy, any time now! I really kind of always thought last Monday because that's what the ultra sound said...shows ya how much I know.  I did ask the Dr. this week if due date (April 3rd) comes and goes if we could push the issue because I have big babies~then not knowing his opinion I said "Well, I think they're big." He said "Remind me again how big?" and I said "8-14 two weeks early" (that was Colt although I do think/hope/pray he's more like Cannon and only 8lbs 9oz 4 days late...here's to hoping!!) anyway he said "Yeah, that's big!" And also that he was fine with scheduling an induction. He also asked if I felt strongly about and induction sooner...I said not really and I don't...I just think he'll come this weekend...sort of like I thought he'd come last Monday~Maybe I'm crazy. 

Anyway I'd love to do another post that said he was here! And I did start to feel kind-a cruddy this week sooo maybe... (then of course the crazy lady at church told my mom we just needed a storm because the barometric pressure would drop and send me into labor...(insert eye roll) but when I was at the Dr he said something about the same thing...about that eye roll-I told him that sounded like a bunch of bologna but apparently it really happens. Well then, storm on. We just had about 10 seconds of Hail while I've been typing.) Anyway on to the week!

Yay!!! We had healthy kids this week!  SO NICE. That jump and run with them to the bathroom in the middle of the night was totally miserable (and painful with my HUGE belly) but its been smooth sailing this week. :) SO THANKFUL!

In and effort to keep the Sabbath day holy, we've tried the last two years have the Easter bunny come on Saturday, luckily he's complied :) Last year he came at nap time, but knowing naps are running short especially for Cannon he came in the night, that sneaky little bunny. It was a fun surprise.  

 

  We talk a lot about "we don't point guns at people" then they get squirt guns (oh well) try and convince these two it's too cold for a squirt gun fight-impossible-I held out with the tub option the first night and Sunday I didn't give in but by Monday (which Isaac had "off" for Easter) there was no deterring them...

They'd come in, I dry them off and they'd head right back out "why doesn't dad get cold?" Well A: he's in pants and a sweatshirt ~not surprisingly them having to be in swimsuits was all Cannon~ and B: I'm not sure you've hit him yet ;)

Saturday I also wrapped a few eggs (and dyed a few with a PAAS kit for the first time in my life) so I could show the kids in primary how to egg bust. That was the what we did for singing time labeled the eggs with a song and the winning egg is what we would sing-it was fun. 

That night my mom and I (Aunt Kay was in Nauvoo with Dallas) went to dinner and then watched the Women's broadcast with the Orton's and another friend in the ward. I really love them and I'm sad they are moving! Oh well, enjoy the good times while they last! 

All headed to church in little green, boys in the back! 

Sunday the kids got a few extra Easter goodies from Grama. We ditch the white shirts ASAP in an effort to keep them white so that's why Colt is a little shirtless man. Candy totally trumped getting dressed!

 

Early EARLY Tuesday morning (like 12:30 am) Isaac and Aunt Kay headed to St. Louis. (He took her to the airport  then headed to the auction to look at vans.) They wouldn't let him into the auction early like they do in Vegas so then he just headed for KC. It was his plan all along and then still get back and put in some of his office ours but yikes holy cow lot of driving and LONG day!! He did text me this pic and say "2016 Corvette?"

 

I got a good little chuckle out of that and quickly replied. "I love you but NO!!" AND...at the end of the day, (well the end of the day Wednesday when the Kansas City auction was over) we still don't have a van. Thankfully we have Aunt Kay's car while grama is here, that's a BIG stress relief. I took Cannon to school in it and he said "Lets get a car like this mom!" Its a big (and nice) Expedition. I laughed and said it probably wasn't in the cards. 

Depending on little brother Isaac will still navigate the auctions and stuff next week. When he was talking Wednesday night about catching a flight out of here Thursday afternoon to look at another one I kind of freaked out, I told him if we want little brother to come me being up tight about him leaving town is not very conducive to the process. Not like I really have control but I feel like to some extent my body HAS to be able to relax. (I had flash backs to before Cannon was born and him being really tied up with the dumb goats, it wasn't the funnest memory. I mean he'll drop anything in a moments notice and I know that, but its just hard when I feel like he's going a other directions. I don't think I realized or appreciated how nice it was knowing exactly when Colt was coming!)

Anyway, these boys are enjoying cash'n in on Grama time! While Grama loves them too she'd sure love to have another grandkid sometime too!!

And holy cow--these kinds of things are constants around here. I could take a thousand pics a day that look just about the same. If Colt ever quits playing Cannon tells him "But Colt you were winning!" And he jumps right back in. 

And check out this pic Isaac text me today. So stink'n cute and thoughtful of his students, I was totally impressed!