The Bentley story

Monday:
My 37 week check up. My midwife said that she could check me and if I was starting to progress at all she could strip my membranes. If I was ready to go into labor, stripping the membranes would just kind of jump start the process. If my body wasn't ready to go into labor, then it wouldn't do anything. I said sure! I was dilated to a 4 and 70% effaced. She stripped my membranes.
That night we went out to delicious Mexican food with Kacey and Casey for Kacey's birthday. Our theory is that greasy Mexican food will start labor. My water broke the day after we had Mexican food with Josh and Summer when I was pregnant with Carter.
That night I had tons of contractions that were strong and regular for about an hour and then would slow down for an hour and then be regular for an hour, then slow down for an hour. And then at about 6am they stopped and there was no action all morning. I did not sleep a wink that night.
Tuesday:
Quiet morning, all the normal activities, no labor. Jefferson came home at lunch and we decided we would try to jump start labor just for fun. The two of us played our kids' Wii game that involved an activity pad, kind of like DDR. Most of the games just involve a lot of running on the pad. We laughed a lot and I was seriously out of breath, not to mention cramping up like crazy! Then we did some acupressure and those definitely caused some contractions to kick in, just not regular ones.
Between 3:00-4:00pm I started having contractions every 7-10 minutes that would make me stop for a second. These continued, somewhat regularly, for a few hours. Finally around 6 we decided to have Abbey come over and watch the kids so we could head down to the hospital and see what was going on. I figured if there was some progression perhaps they would break my water and just speed things along, if not, then at least we got that out of the way earlier in the evening rather than the middle of the night.
We went to the hospital and they monitored me for a while. The contractions were coming regularly, just not super productive (ie painful) and I wasn't progressing. I was maybe 1/2 a centimeter more than the previous day. They had me walk around for a while and see if that made me progress, because if it did then they would admit me and get things going. Well, it didn't. My contractions became stronger and were definitely regular, but just not dilating. They said we could wait another hour and see what happened or head home and come back when the contractions were even stronger. We opted to go home.
We got home around 10:30 and Abbey decided to stay the night just in case we were to need her in the middle of the night. My contractions were immediately debilitating and every 5 minutes. We went to bed and I slept off and on for about an hour. Then I walked around the house, heated up my bean bag and tried to work through my contractions, which were every 3-5 minutes. Finally at 2:30am I woke Jefferson up and told him it was time to go!
Wednesday:We arrived at the hospital at 3:00am and I was dilated to a six, contractions every 3 minutes. They were painful!!! They did all the admitting stuff and started me on my antibiotic because I was group B strep positive. The antibiotic needs to run in over four hours before they would let me deliver (if at all possible).
What we look like at 3 am...4:30am I am at an 8 and get the epidural. I have to be poked twice. That was fun. I mention that I really respond to meds and would prefer a lower dose of the epidural if at all possible, so I get 7mg instead of the standard 10mg.
5:30am I am dilated to a 9, water still in tact, otherwise that baby would have been out! Again, they won't break my water til the antibiotic is in. I feel EVERYTHING during the exam. I can't feel my contractions, other than a tightening at the top of my belly when they hit, just like Braxton hicks, but my legs are completely not numb, not tingly, I have full function of them, and I can feel everything down below. I am slightly concerned, but think maybe it will go numb by pushing time.
6:45 I tell them there is a ton of pressure down below and I feel like I could push. "Don't!" I am told. Not til 7:20 when the antibiotic is all in.
7:20am they will finally break my water. I am fully dilated, water is broken and I immediately tell them that I have to push. I push and feel everything. OUCH!!!!! Jefferson said I gave him a terrified look and squeezed his hand really hard.
7:24am Baby Bentley is out and I pull her up onto my chest. Apgars 9 and she is absolutely perfect. 6lbs 14oz & 20 inches long. So in love
Proud Papa
This is to show how big her hands and feet are... at least they look it to me.
Me and my midwife Georgianna
Bentley Olive
Bentley did not love her sponge bath
but she did love getting her hair washed... such a girl.
She has a little bit of blond hair
The kids meeting Bentley for the first time:This is pretty much all Andi wants to do all day long... love on the baby.
Going home
Highlights:
*When Bentley was placed on my chest Jefferson said, "Look, no cord." I immediately knew that he was referencing that the cord wasn't around her neck like it has been with our other three kids. The midwife however, just looked at him like he was crazy and said, "Yes, there is..." We had to explain. It gave us all a good laugh to think that perhaps we didn't know every baby has an umbilical cord.
*Visitors and the good tidings they brought
*pellet ice chips
*text message from Jefferson after spending half a day watching the kids saying, "As much as I respected you before this week I respect you even more for not beating these kids."
*Lots of quiet time with just me and Bentley.
*Room service all day long... I ordered chips and a chocolate shake on more than one occasion.
*Celebration dinner. The night before you leave they have a special menu that you get to order from... soup, salad, entree, dessert, and drinks that is all delivered on a fancy little tray with a bottle of sparkling cider in an ice bucket.
*Every new mom gets a half hour massage

Bentley Olive Harmon

Bentley Olive was born Wednesday morning, February 23 at 7:24am. She weighed in at 6lbs 14 oz and is 20 inches long.

Until I have time to post more pictures and the whole story you can visit bellababyphotography click "view photos" and enter password: 0223bentleyharmon to see more of this beautiful babe.

Full Term

Here I am at 37 weeks! Full term = come any time baby!
Consequently I have a hard time painting my own toes so I enlisted some help. What a good man I have. My toes, in fact, look better than when I do them. And some of my dear friends surprised me with a little dessert shower! On Thursday Jefferson said we were going to go out for a little date and to be ready to go at 8. Well, "the babysitter" knocked on our door at 8 and I opened it up to find some of my best girlfriends there to whisk me away! We headed to the Cheesecake Factory where we enjoyed appetizers and cheesecake, of course. Baby girl (and mom) were spoiled!
I was so surprised and loved it! Thanks for such a fun evening ladies!

This kid can tie!

A few weeks ago (January 30th for journaling purposes) Carter ran upstairs and yelled, "Mom, I tied my shoe!" I thought for sure it was just a fluke, or that the shoe had just remained tied from the day before. But he came up and showed me his one shoe and then proceeded to tie the other shoe. It took a decent amount of time and there were quite a few loops and wrap arounds that weren't required, but still pretty impressive. I have never sat down and tried to teach him per se, I just explain what I'm doing when I tie them most the time.
He is now almost to pro status with the shoe tying. He is getting faster and they actually stay tied. If the laces are too short on a shoe, that poses a problem, but for the most part, he's a shoe tier! Way to go C-Mac!

The haps...

Last weekend we decided to head down to Twin Falls, very spur of the moment, to visit Jefferson's aunt and uncle and fam. We were only down there for a couple of days, but it was a nice change of scenery. Jefferson's cousin Taylor is always so good at taking care of our kids and entertaining them.
She took them out to feed the horses, which they always love.
Taylor also did Andi's hair and make-up. She felt pretty special. Oh yeah, and gave her gum... see it hanging out of her mouth? Gum and lips, her two favorite things.
We had a great time with the Long family, as always. The rest of the week we have just been hanging out.
The girls getting some time with dad:
Taytum doing some shopping in the nude:
Carter and Andi put a puppet show on for us:
And we have been enjoying some wonderful weather! We had to head out in it one day when it was only upper 40s, but it was sunny with no wind, so the kids loved it! Then just today it was in the low 60's and we took advantage of it by playing outside all afternoon. We grilled up some tri-tip for dinner with roasted asparagus and parmesan garlic bread. It did not feel like the middle of February.
And this pic is just to show the belly. I'll try to take a good side shot to post soon.
And before I sign off I wanted to post a few things about my kids and their funniness. We have this pink unicorn that's like those stick horses that you ride and Taytum "rides" it around everywhere. She has also discovered that your voice sounds funny when you plug your nose, so she is constantly plugging her own nose and babbling and then going into fits of giggles at herself. She thinks she's pretty funny. She has also decided that she likes to look at books with people. She has always loved books, but never has wanted them actually read to her, until about a week and a half ago, and now she wants me to read to her all the time. This is a good thing. Maybe it will help with her vocabulary.

Carter has learned how to write everyone's names in our family, including "baby" for little sister and he writes them all the time. Usually accompanied by pictures of everyone. He writes out letters to make up words and he even wrote me a little note that said, "I luv mom." I loved it! He gives the best prayers, and possibly the longest prayers I have ever heard. He is very specific in them and goes on for minutes on end it seems. They are very sincere and very sweet.

Andi has had a really good attitude this past week and has done awesome at accepting whatever answers I give her. She has been really good at playing with Taytum while Carter is at school. It's so cute to peek in on the two of them playing babies in their room. Andi is also very good at making sure that Taytum's lips remained glossified along with her own. I sense some fun sister years ahead.

Bring on the Baby!

No, we haven't had our baby yet. I'm only 35 and some odd days folks! But we are ready for her! I am not wishing her out any day soon, but everything is all set up. My dear family humored me last Saturday. We cleaned the church and then headed out for donuts. Side note: we had such a good time cleaning the church. It was a great opportunity for our kids and they loved helping out Heavenly Father. They were master dusters! Anyways, after donuts we went to Babies R Us and I had a great time. Jefferson tolerated. We stocked up on diapers, bought binkies, picked out a coming home outfit and got a little stuffed animal and toy for baby girl. I know, I complain about our ever growing tub of stuffed animals, but every kid deserves their own special "friend," as my kids would call it.

After we got home I went to work on washing all of our baby girl clothes. Got those washed and folded. Then I took apart our car seat and bouncy seat and thoroughly washed those and put them back together. I took apart our bassinet, washed all the parts of that and set it up in our room.The past couple of weeks I have also been busy making some new bows and binky clips for baby.
I bought some new headbands and hats at this site.And made a car seat cover based on the tutorial at Sumo's Sweet Stuff. (yes, that's my sis. Isn't she super crafty?!) All that is left is packing the hospital bag!