Everyone's Favorite Party Game

Yesterday I was sitting in the family room reading and Will crawled up in to the kitchen. Nothing new...he goes back and forth between the family room and kitchen all day long. But after he went up to the kitchen I didn't hear anything for a minute so I looked over and Will was sitting on top of the kitchen table. I don't know how he managed to get up there without making any noise. He is a monkey boy.

And now it is time for everyone's favorite party game: Where Has Will Been? Yes, Will spent the day destroying the family room, kitchen, and bathroom. While I folded the laundry, Will emptied out all the cans. While I showered, Will emptied the bathroom cabinets. While I cleaned up the kitchen, Will emptied the entertainment center. Etc. Etc. Etc. So much for getting the house cleaned up before the family gets here!

Starting at the beginning

Will is asleep which is amazing and means I can use the computer without him desperately trying to get at it. Last night I spent a full hour and forty minutes trying to get him to sleep. He wouldn't calm down when I rocked him so I put him in his crib which usually results in him screaming, but last night he was perfectly content to just play with his stuffed animal and pacifier and mobile. That is, he was perfectly content as long as I sat right next to the crib in the rocking chair. Tonight I was watching a movie with my cousin and he just crawled over to me, laid down, and went to sleep- so I guess he is making up for last night. Bryce is on a scout campout which is why I am entertaining myself on a Friday night.

Will is walking more and more. He will stand up and walk from the coffee table to the couch or over to the tv or even across the whole family room, but crawling is still his predominant method of transportation.

His other new trick that he started doing on our car ride to Vegas is singing Old McDonald. If we sing the song he will sing EIEIEI (he doesn't do the O). We thought it was just a fluke at first, but he does it every time.

Since I don't have anything specific to add this time I thought I would go back to the very beginning...

On Friday, July 15, 2005 I was at work at the BYU Bookstore and started having contractions. Everything I'd heard said you'd have contractions for days before you actually went into labor so I didn't really think anything of it . . . especially since we were supposed to be going on a church campout that night (yes, even though I was 9 months pregnant). Will wasn't due until the 27th so we thought we could fit it in. After work we drove up to the campout- but the directions were wrong so we ended up driving on bumpy, curvy mountain roads for about 2 hours. By the time we found the new directions and actually made it to the campsite my contractions were about 5 minutes apart. I thought they might stop when I got out of the car and walked around but they didn't. Bryce ate dinner and then I decided we needed to go. By the time we made it down off the mountain and back into Provo I was very uncomfortable and my contractions were every three minutes. The doctor said to go to the hospital when your contractions were three minutes apart so we stopped at the house quickly (Bryce got the carseat) and then drove up to Timpanogos Regional Hospital in Orem. When we got there the nurses decided to watch me for an hour so they hooked me up to all the monitors and after an hour said that I wasn't progressing and so they were sending me home. They told me to come back when my contractions were 2 minutes apart instead of 3. Before I left (which was at about midnight) they gave me a morphine shot. The morphine knocked me out until about 8 the next morning. When I woke up my contractions were only about every 6 minutes or so ("only"--HA!). We spent the day waiting for them to get closer and even went up to BYU campus and walked around for a distraction. By 10:30 that night (Saturday) they were back at 3 minutes apart and I was very unhappy. My back had started hurting severely by about 5 that evening and was getting worse. Bryce kept trying to talk me into going back to the hospital, but I kept telling him that they said not to come back until my contractions were 2 minutes apart and that they would just send me back home. Meanwhile my mom and little sisters had just arrived in Salt Lake and were getting their rental car to drive down to Orem. They called to tell us they were at the airport and Bryce told them we were just leaving for the hospital. I had finally given in and said we could go back because the pain was definitely outweighing the fear of being embarrassed by being sent home again.

At the hospital they checked me in (again), hooked me up to all the monitors (again) and said that I wasn't close to delivering (again). After an hour they called my doctor who (mercifully) told them I could stay this time (even though I wasn't any closer to delivering than when I went in the night before). Being officially admitted to the hospital meant I could have an epidural though. First, however, I had to have antibiotics because I had tested positive for Strep B at a prior checkup. I don't really know why, but I couldn't have an epidural until the antibiotics were in. The nurse couldn't find a vein to start an IV so after about 15 minutes of poking (which I don't remember feeling at all) she called in the head nurse who spent another 10 minutes trying to get the IV in. Once it was in they started the antibiotic drip. Once the antibiotics were finally in I had to wait for the anesthesiologist who was busy somewhere else in the hospital. All told, I finally got the epidural at about 1:30 in the morning. Shortly after that my water broke and the nurses assured me that would probably speed up the labor process (since I still wasn't anywhere close to actually having a baby---however, with the epidural in I really didn't care--I was ready to get some sleep anyways). About 10 minutes later the monitors all started beeping and the nurses came in to figure out why the baby's heartrate was dropping. They thought the monitor had just slipped off so they kept trying to adjust it and put me on oxygen just in case. The monitor was still beeping though so the nurse said she would just check me to be sure and when she did she said "OH MY GOSH PROLAPSED CORD" and then everyone started moving. She said "Call the doctor STAT STAT STAT" and nurses were running in and out of the room. Then the nurse (who was maybe a year or two older than me) looked at me and said "You're gonna have a c-section, ok." <--It wasn't a question. [Note: a prolapsed cord is when the umbilical cord slips out before the baby and each contraction squeezes it shut blocking off the baby's bloodflow...it's a lot like stepping on the garden hose. Most prolapsed cords happen with breech babies (meaning they are feet first instead of head first), but Will was head first which is very unusual] My doctor was, of course, home in bed so they had to get him to the hospital ASAP. The nurse had to try to push the baby's head up to relieve some of the pressure on the cord and they lowered the head of my bed so that gravity could help too. Even so, the baby's heartrate just kept dropping lower and lower. When the heartrate started to drop into the 50s the nurse said "I'm sorry guys, this isn't looking good" which was the first time I actually thought something bad might happen. Everything was happening so fast that I had just kind of thought "we're in the hospital, they'll take care of things." The anesthesiologist ran back in and started more meds in the epidural to get ready for the c-section. This is about the moment when my mom walked into the room with no clue of what was going on. Apparently she had decided to come to the hospital and see how things were going and walked in right after they found the prolapsed cord. I saw her and thought "they contacted my next of kin?!" because when I checked in they made me right a next of kin and said it couldn't be Bryce so I had written my mom. Doctor Gordon and Doctor Judd arrived and wheeled me into the operating room. Two nurses held up a sheet so I couldn't see anything, the doctors splashed some betadine on me, and they did a very fast c-section and pulled out Will. He was born at 2:14 am on Sunday, July 17th. I could hear the nurses thumping on him and then he started screaming. After a while a nurse showed him to me for about 1/2 second - he had gone to sleep and looked like a miniature old man - and then they whisked him off to the nursery to get an IV and some fluids in him. The nurses cleaned me up and wheeled me to a recovery room and after a while Dr. Gordon came in and said that he had set a new record tonight: from when his phone rang until when Will was born was 18 minutes! All I can say is that it was a very quick ending after being in labor for 2 days!! My doctors and nurses were excellent and we owe them for our healthy baby. Since Will was being worked on in the nursery I didn't get to see him until a little before 6 in the morning. (I'd been up all night, but it was sort of an eventful night so I didn't really notice). The same nurse who had discovered the prolapsed cord came in to check on me and asked if I had seen the baby yet. I said no so she called the nursery and they told her they would bring him in when they were done with him--which they said would be soon. About 15 minutes later they still hadn't brought him in so my nurse loaded me in a wheelchair and took me down the hall to the nursery to meet Will. (She was a very good nurse.) The nursery nurses were annoyed to see me and said "We told you we'd bring him down," but my nurse just said "Yeah, we just felt like going for a stroll so we came to see him instead." Finally by about 8 am I had been moved to a regular room and they finished with Will and brought him in to us. Bryce made some calls to tell people I wouldn't be at church and they would have to find subs for my Primary class and then we finally got some sleep! We were very thankful: - that we went back to the hospital even though my contractions still weren't 2 minutes apart (a prolapsed cord at home would have been fatal for the baby) - that I got an epidural as soon as they would give it to me (the extra time it would have taken to numb me for a c-section if I hadn't already had the epidural could have lost us our baby = it is good to be a wimp!) - for the labor and delivery nurse who found the prolapsed cord and remembered exactly what to do even though she had never seen one before...and later took me to meet Will - for Dr. Gordon and Dr. Judd --> the fastest c-sectioners in all the land and very nice too!
- for my anesthesiologist - I tell Bryce that I would have married him if I hadn't already been married...after all, he made all the pain go away instantly which was very endearing! and he was the only one I could see when they were doing the c-section and he gave me a play-by-play and described Will for me
- for the cooks at the hospital -- they had good food there! :-)

*Will turned out to be just perfect with no lasting effects from the oxygen deprivation caused by the prolapsed cord. He does not, however, have a uvula (hangy thing in the back of your throat)--but that is unrelated!! :-)
Oops- Will woke up!

R&R

So I think I have finally recovered from our vacation enough to write an update here. Not that our vacation wasn't enjoyable...it just always takes a few days to unpack and get things back in order at home. Bryce had to go to Vegas for work (BlackHat) so Will and I went with him. The conference was Saturday, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday and then we headed to California and returned this past Sunday evening. Some highlights: (pic 1: Will and me in front of window in our room at the Flamingo)

-Bryce's work put us up at the Flamingo (not Caesar's Palace as we originally believed). Let's just say you know it's going to be outdated when the website touts the hotel as "an anchor of the strip since we first started rolling dice in 1947." Now it did appear to have been updated however...in approximately 1965. Orange carpet is never a good idea. Orange carpet with yellow bamboo on it is an even worse idea.

- The first morning in the Flamingo I pulled back the curtains and found dirty clothes. A little disturbed by the presence of dirty clothes in my supposedly cleaned room I called and asked for housekeeping to come. (I was on my way out and wanted them to turn over the room while I was gone since I wasn't planning on being gone for very long...also I wanted them to remove the clothes.) Here is my conversation with the annoyed-sounding housekeeping lady after being on hold for over 15 minutes just waiting to talk to someone:
Me: Hi, I was just calling to request housekeeping.
Them: For what?....like to turn over your room?
Me: Yes..and also there were some dirty clothes on the floor of our room when we arrived
Them: Well are they your clothes? (sounding very annoyed)
Me: Nooo...they are NOT my clothes...they were here when we arrived. (Thinking: Yes, clearly I put my dirty clothes on the floor and would now like housekeeping to come pick them up for me)
Them: Can you hold?
holding approximately 7 minutes
Them: Hello? (I think they were hoping I'd hang up)
Me: Yes
Them: Security is going to have to come get the clothes
Me: Well I was on my way out. They are on the bed with a note.
Them: Maam you have to be in the room for security to come.
Me: Can I just put them in the hall or something? I was just leaving.
Them: Can you hold?
holding approximately another 7 minutes
Them: Hello
Me: Yes. (unfortunately for you I'm still here)
Them: Maam security can not come in the room without you being present and you CAN NOT put them in the hall.
(* Now please explain to me why every housekeeping person under the sun has full access to my room, but security absolutely can not enter?)
Me: (more than a little annoyed--mostly because the woman is saying everything so disgustedly like I'm really bothering her) Well maybe I will just put them in the garbage and forget I called. I am on my way out. They are not my clothes. I do not care about them. They were in the room when I arrived which frankly is kind of gross.
Them: Maam I understand that they are not your clothes. They must have been left by a previous guest. Security will have to come get them.
(*No maam I don't think you understand...they were OBVIOUSLY left by a previous guest and your cleaning of the room apparently did not entail removing them...THAT is the problem)
Me: Well I don't have time to bother with this now.
Them: (all sugary sweet all the sudden) Oh of course not maam...just call security whenever it is convenient for you.

- So I went out shopping with Will and when I returned in 2 hours the clothes were gone and the room was cleaned....which is clearly a miracle since security HAD to get them and COULD NOT come in my room without me.

- Will found every disgusting little bit of stuff in the hotel room - including dead bugs, a cheeto, several "made in china" stickers...all of which I pulled from his mouth

- The pirate show in front of Treasure Island has been changed. It now features "a pirate ship seduced by a boatload of sexy sirens" = terrible dance numbers performed by women in bikinis who must have been too old to be strippers or something. Definitely glad we dragged Will out and stayed up late to catch that.

Now for the real highlights:

- I think Will out-ate both me and Bryce at the hotel buffet. He was still eating pieces of cantaloupe and watermelon and rolls after Bryce and I were finished. Kids under 3 eat free--- Ha! They didn't see Will coming!

- Will's trick of the week was waving. He suddenly learned how to rotate his wrist and developed this perfect little parade wave. Sometimes he waves with one hand and sometimes with both. We'd push him down the strip in his stroller and whenever we passed someone he'd give a big grin and wave.

- We took Will to the hotel pool which he loooved. The first day I took him he played for about 45 minutes and then fell asleep while we were still in the water. Bryce took him the last night we were there. Bryce put his sunglasses on Will and Will actually left them there. Will was wearing his little swim trunks and no shirt and these big sunglasses and waving at everyone he saw. He had a fan club of his own by the time we left. There were no other babies around so he got lots of attention. I wish I had a picture, but we didn't bring the camera down to the pool. You will just have to picture it. He is a little flirt.

- Lauren and I went to the Ethel M chocolate factory. The best part is the free sample of your choosing at the end. Will did even better though, he got three free samples because all of the different ladies working gave him one. Unfortunately, I stuck them in the side pocket of the diaper bag, forgot about them, and they melted and got on Lauren's shorts.

After Vegas we headed for California. We took a ferry to Catalina Island which turned out to be a very expensive form of transportation to a few touristy shops. Bryce did go snorkeling twice though and said there were lots of fish. Luckily it doesn't appear that Will got his mom's aversion to all forms of travel. He loved the boat- unlike his mom who was seriously in danger of throwing up. (pic 2: Will trying to grab the camera as I try to take his picture on the "beach" (aka rocks) on Catalina)


We took Will to Huntington Beach. He like playing in and eating the sand. He also liked crawling along the edge of the water until a rogue wave came and knocked him over. He crawled over to another baby and was doing his excited "hello" screech, but the other baby wasn't so interested. I doused Will in sunscreen and kept a close eye on him and thought he was well protected, but when I changed him into pajamas hours later his little back was totally red. Bad parents. (pic 3: Will and Dad at Huntington Beach)

On Saturday we drove back to Utah and stayed with Stacy and Angie and family in St. George. Will loved having other kids and new toys to play with and explored the whole house. I think he was a little too excited though because he would not sleep at all that night. I got up with him four separate times and couldn't get him to calm down.

On Sunday we went to church, said happy birthday to Cameron (Bryce's cousin-- now 13) and drove back home. Will did very well in the car on the way home. He seems to like the car better now that he faces forward and can see out.

Unfortunately we didn't take many pictures...it seemed like we could either enjoy ourselves or add a camera bag to the stuff we were already carting around (diaper bag, purse, stroller, Will) and then worry about taking pictures.

This week has mostly involved trying to get things unpacked and catching up on sleep. Will came down with a cold right after we got back and then Bryce got it and then I got it so no one has felt like doing much. Will is beginning to take more and more steps. Yesterday he took 6 steps over to Bryce. He usually only walks when diving for something though. He wants to get somewhere so he takes a few steps while diving forward at me or Bryce or whatever he was trying to get to. I don't think he realizes that he could just keep walking.