Happy, Happy Birthday...

Happy Birthday to Chris, happy birthday to Chris...and Tanner

Tanner Clark

January 25, 2009

1026am

6 lb 30z , 19 in long

Chris had a special visitor come on his birthday...and he's here to stay for quite a long time. I still had 10 days until my due date, so we weren't quite expecting him, but I think we were mostly ready. Tanner is named after Chris' brother who passed away, and Clark is my dad's middle name, named after Caleb Clark Baldwin, who was is Liberty Jail with Joseph Smith.

Here's "the story": I had not even had too many regular contractions until Sunday morning, when at about 3am I woke up and noticed that my contractions seemed to be occuring pretty regularly, and they were starting to hurt a bit. At 530 or so I got out of bed and decided to pack a bag for the hospital, just in case. So I packed a bag, and then woke Chris up and told him that I thought the baby might want to share a birthday with him. I did NOT want to go the the hospital just to be sent home and told to come back later, so we hung out at the house for a bit until Tate woke up, and then we left to take him to my mom's house, and then head to the hospital. By this time it is almost 900, and the contractions were hurting really bad, but all I had to compare them to was when I was induced with Tate. With the induction it seemed that they hurt worse, and occured much more frequent, with virtually no resting between contractions. So maybe that is what I was anticipating?? So anyway, we check in and then go to triage. The nurse is asking all the questions, and then I have a hard contraction, and my water breaks while I am sitting in the bed. So she says, "well, at least now you know you get to be admitted." And then she says, " I better check you." So she checks me and gets this really suprised look on her face and says, "you're 9cm!" So they take me to L&D pretty fast, and they ask if I want an epidural. I secretly have always wanted to give birth without one, and I figure since I am already 9cm, it probably can't get much worse. They call my OB and he says he doesn't think he can make it in time, so they call the on call guy from the group. So I labor for about 1/2 hour of ridiculous contactions, the whole time I am thinking about my refused epidural. I tell the nurse I feel like I need to push, they page the on call Dr. to come...while I am waiting I push through 3 contractions or so, the Dr. gets there and I push through 1 contraction, and he's born! For the last 7 or 8 contractions I was wondering what kind of huge mistake I had made by not getting the epidural, but when it all was said and done, I was glad. Now I can say that I did it, and next time...we'll see. Maybe it will be a been there, done that...give me the epidural now kind of thing. I escaped with out a tear or a stitch, and as I am typing this I am realizing that I think I lucked out. It happened so fast, I can't believe that he's here, and I can't believe that I forgot how much work babies are at first. It's an adjustment, for sure. Luckily my mom has been able to help out a ton with Tate, since the feeding of the wee babe takes literally 1/3 of my day right now. Chris has been great, too. I think Tanner is already filling out a little bit, but we'll see tomorrow at his Dr. appt. Little babies make you feel such gratitude. I am so grateful that he is here and that he is healthy, and for the chance and the blessing that I have to raise a little family!

At first Tate didn't know what to think of him and he just kind of ignored him for the most part.

Tate now likes to hold him and won't let him go. He's a little rough. Tonight he tried to pick a booger out of Tanner's nose. Poor Tanner.

I am now way outnumbered, but I am ok with that. Doesn't Tate all of the sudden look HUGE?Here's my 3 boys: