The River Trail

One of my favorite places to go walking on Logan is on the trail by the river on the golf course. I'm not exactly sure what that trail is called, but I usually refer to it as "The River Trail". It is a nice paved trail that goes along the Logan river. If you haven't been walking on it, you really need to check it out. I love it for many reasons. It is so green and full of plant life that I often feel like I have left Utah. The river makes it more humid, also added to the feeling of leaving Utah. It is just the right distance for a good walk. And it is just nice to be out in nature.

Lance and I have been especially excited to walk the river trail because we really wanted to see how high the river had risen and how bad the flooding was. We went this past week right after a good rain storm and we were not disappointed. The river was much higher and much faster than usual. I'm not sure what our fascination is with seeing flooded rivers, but there is just something about seeing that rushing water that is very exciting. Weird, I know. Here are some pictures of our little "outing". Will was so good and slept the whole time.

The river is usually several more feet off from the path.

 Its normally pretty smooth and calm, never any rapids.

 Terrible picture of me. I was very tired....like most days.

 Again, the river is much wider and higher. It is typically much lower than bridge.

 This is where the water level was most noticable. This boardwalk is normally over dry ground. The river runs off to the left. But now the water is so high it is spilling under this bridge and almost forming a second river flowing to the right.

 The flooding is so bad, trees are hanging themselves.

 I thought this made a really pretty backdrop.

It looks like the water level was even higher recently. You can see the water marks on the trees. Possibly just from waves, but most likely the water was higher during the rain storm.

4 Weeks Old

I can't believe my baby is 4 weeks old today! Part of me feels like time is flying so fast, but the other part of me feels like Will has been a part of our lives for a much longer time. They sure do grow fast. The first few weeks, I didn't really notice much changes; then suddenly, overnight, he suddenly seemed bigger and stronger! I wanted to do a post about his little quirks during the first month, as well as things that we have been grateful to have around. So here are a few things to remember about Will for this first month:

4 Weeks Old

For the first few weeks, he HATED cold wipes. He would scream as loud as he possibly could the second a cold wipe touched any part of his body. He does not mind them so much now.

One of my favorite things to do is just to play with his hair. I was so happy that he had any hair at all, so I can't get enough of it. I love trying to spike it or just make it look a bit crazy.

Within the past week, we found a new spot that he just loves to lay and look around. After getting his diaper changed on the changing table, he will sit there quiet and content for the longest time. I'm not sure what about that spot captures his attention, but there is something about it that he really likes.

When he is finished eating and you try to put the bottle back to his mouth, he scruches his face and sticks out his lower lip. Its so cute that I usually just keep offering the bottle to him just to see the face.

He wont sleep unless he is swaddled really tight. He flails his arms a lot and if they aren't tied down then he will wake himself up.

He loves to have his hand up by his face at all times. For the first few weeks it made it difficult to feed him because his hands were always in the way. He is learning to move them if he wants food.

He does not spit up often, but when he does he really makes it count. If I feed him too much, then move him a lot and don't give his stomach time to settle, sometimes he will throw-up....a lot. He's only done it about 3-4 times since he was born, but like I said, he really made those few times count.

He currently doesn't have much of a set schedule. The past few nights he has not fallen asleep until 12am-1am, but he has slept until about 5am. He was only sleeping 2 1/2 - 3 hours at a time, so to having him starting to sleep four hours feels great.

Lance and I take the night in shifts. Typically, I'm the one that puts him to sleep, then gets up with him the first few times. Then the second half of the night and into the morning, Lance will get up with him and let me sleep. Lance often offers to take him while I get some sleep, but I am usually too stubborn and insist that he needs his sleep. I'm getting better at accepting his help though.

His new favorite nap spot is on my chest. I just love when he snuggles up to me. I know it probably wont last too much longer, so I am definitely enjoying it while I can.

Everyone says that he looks like Lance or that they think he will look like Lance when he gets bigger. I'm not sure I really see either one of us in him just yet, so I'll trust their opinions. Will does look a bit like Lance's baby pictures though.

Still a little small, but he sure looks cute in it!

Will hated bath time for the first few weeks. I think the sponge baths were a bit cold for him and he just didn't like not being wrapped up in a blanket. Now he whimpers for the first few minutes when he first gets in his little bath, then he calms right down and will just sit there and enjoy the water.

One of Will's favorite expressions is making his lips into an "o" shape. It's pretty cute and funny.

Just within the past few days, Lance has discovered that tapping Will's nose while saying "nose...nose...nose" can sometimes get a smile. We caught this one on camera today. Such a cute smile, I had to put it on here twice.

I just love this picture!!!

Things I wouldn't want to live without:

The boppi: He does not sleep good on the crib mattress, so we put the boppi in the crib and he sleeps much better.

The rocking chair:  I debated and debated on whether or not to buy one, but I am SO GLAD that we did. Both Lance and I have spent hours in that rocking chair and it is a lifesaver. I honestly love it.

Breast pump: I am not sure what I would do without this. Well, I guess I would have to formula
feed. I am grateful that my sister let me borrow hers because these this are freakin expensive!

My camera: Obviously I would hate not to be able to share this sweet little boy with others and it would be sad if I wasn't able to document his life. I am grateful to technology and I'm glad to have a nice camera.

Diapers: Of course, who wouldn't be thankful for diapers. I don't know how our ancestors did the whole cloth diaper thing. I am just grateful that I don't have to.

Postpardum Troubles

It's been a while since my last post. I haven't exactly been "busy", but I just haven't had a ton of time to do a post. When Will finally decides he wants to sleep, I find I have a lot of other things that I want to do, and my blog just got put off for a while.

Will at 3 weeks old

There have been a few...problems that I didn't expect since Will was born. I expected sleepless nights, trying to adjust, and devoting practically every minute to our little guy. What I did NOT expect was how often I would need to see the doctor afterwards. Geeze! I used to NEVER go to the doctors; I avoided it at all costs. Well, mostly because I didn't want to pay doctor bills. Anyways, here is a quick update on some of the interesting and unexpected things going on.

1. I briefly mentioned how much of a struggle breastfeeding was for me. At the hospital, Will was having some major troubles and we talked to several lactation specialists to help us solve the problem. I wont go into all the details, but basically it was so difficult I couldn't even nurse unless Lance was there helping me. Then once we got home, it seemed like Will wasn't getting enough, so we decided to supplement a bottle with formula for a few days until my milk came in. Finally when my milk came in, we did a full good day of breastfeeding and I was feeling good about the situation. The following day, I was so sore, it hurt if anything even touched me. Then when I tried pumping, the milk came out red from blood. Yeah, that hurt A LOT! So again, back to the bottle for a few days.

2. Then finally, about 2 weeks ago another problem emerged. While Lance was at a movie, I suddenly got really cold. I was laying on the couch with Will, but I was so cold I wouldn't even get up to get more blankets or turn on the heat. I didn't feel good and pretty much sat there and cried for about 2 hours. I finally called the doctors when Lance got home and they had me come in. My temperature was 104 degrees and I was told I had mastitis. Basically it is an infection of the breast. So I was given lortab and an antibiotic to take for 2 weeks. That night, I took Will over to Lance's parents and they watched him while I took a 3 hour nap. It definitely helped and made a HUGE difference. So thank you to them. For the next several days, I alternated from having extreme chills to extreme hot flashes. It was not a fun few days.

3. So I have been taking lots of medications to try to help me get over this mastitis. I have about 3 days left of the two week course. Yesterday, I started noticing on my legs that I had these small, red bumps. They kind of looked like razor burn, or the small bumps you sometimes get right after shaving. Then as the day progressed, I noticed them on the backs of my arms and then getting more on my legs. We decided to watch it for a day and they decide what to do if it didn't change. When I woke up this morning, the rash had gotten much worse. I have thousands of red bumps on my legs and now they are covering my arms, shoulders, stomach, back, neck...you name it. And then they started to itch. And I have the hardest time resisting the urge to itch. Normally I would just ignore it and not do anything, but having a new baby makes me much more cautious. So I went to instacare. It was decided that I was allergic to the antibiotic that I had been taking. I was really surprised because I have never been allergic to anything in my life. We decided not to take any benadril because anti-histamines may dry up one's milk supply. So I ended up getting a steroid shot in my hip. Then they gave me a prescription for steroid pills to take for the next seven days.

Below is a picture of what my thigh looked like this morning.

There is just a few exciting things that I have been going through. As much as it sucks, I'd way rather it be me with the problems than Will. Lance has been so extremely helpful. I am so grateful. I have been so extremely exhausted and many times not feeling well over the past 2 weeks. He often forces me to go to sleep while he stays up with Will. He is such a good dad and such a good husband.

Newborn Pictures

Will had his first real photoshoot when he was just 10 days old. This was one thing I decided several months ago that I was going to do. Though you may not guess it from the pictures, Will was not a happy camper. He screamed when we took his clothes off and didn't like being placed in the different positions. We would have his pacificer in to calm him down and just pull it out right before the picture was taken. For how upset he was, I think the pictures turned out quite well. There was one incident when we took his diaper off. Not only did he decided to squirt the photographer, but then he pooped in their little basket. Haha...great fun. Anyways, here are some of my favorites. Enjoy!

This is one of my absolute favorites. I think it is just precious.

How can you not love this?

Labor and Delivery

Just a heads up to the few of you reading this. I plan on telling, in detail, what happened from the moment I could tell I was going into labor until I had my baby. The details shouldn't be too graphic, but don't read if you aren't comfortable with details. I'm not very good at writing in my journal, so my blog pretty much is my journal. This post is mostly for my sake, and I want to remember as much as possible. It's a long post with a lot of pictures. So here begins the story of the birth of William Scott Hinton:

I was so sure that Will was going to be born sometime Easter weekend, that when Monday came, I was not in the best mood. I know my due date hadn't even passed, but I just felt that he was going to come earlier. So I rode up to campus with Lance, like usual, and walked back home. I felt good and made every effort to be in a good mood and just accept what would happen.

10:00pm: Lance and I decided to watch a movie. We got about 10-15 minutes into Wolverine when I suddenly felt a weird sensation. I could feel some fluid coming out into my pants. I looked at Lance and said, "I'm not sure, but I either just peed my pants or my water just broke." He kind of shrugged and went back to watching the movie. I hurried upstairs to the bathroom to see what was going on. I was soaked clear through my pants. I used the restroom and put on some clean clothes. But when I stood back up, more fluid kept coming out. I informed Lance that I was almost positive that my water had just broken and that we should probably go to the hospital to make sure. He started grabbing the last minute items and getting the bags into the car. I had just gotten out of the shower right before we started the movie, so I decided to hurry and blow dry my hair so it wouldn't be soaking wet all night.

11:00pm: We arrived at the hospital and got checked in. They verified that it was definitely my water that had broken. We would be there to stay.

11:20 pm: I was dilated to 1.5cm. I was at this point at my last doctor visit, so I hadn't started changing. 

12:20am: I was dilated to 2cm and 90% effaced. They gave me another dose of medicine through my IV. They also offered me picotin at this point to help speed up the process. The picotin would also make the contractions much worse though. I decided to wait another hour to see how I progressed.

1:30am: Dilated to 3cm. I decided there was no point in waiting around in pain, so I got my epidural. At this point, the pain was uncomfortable but not unbearable. I was mostly experiencing pain in my lower back. The epidural went very smoothly and worked like a charm.

3:20am: Dilated to 4cm and fully effaced. I didn't feel anything after the epidural...except being very hungry. I sucked on a lot of ice and ate several popsicle.

3:30am: I was in the middle of eating a popsicle when my stomach suddenly got very nauseous, and I felt like I was going to throw up. I NEVER feel like throwing up. In fact, there has only been one time in my life that I remember actually throwing up. I'm sure there were times when I was little that I don't remember; but the point is...I never throw up. For a while I was almost convinced that I couldn't throw up. Anyways, Lance could tell I was about to puke and fortunately he moved quick and had a garbage can to me just in time for me to throw up. And it wasn't just a little, it was a massive amount, and it was disgusting.

The next few hours were basically just a waiting game. Lance was able to get a few hours of sleep, but I had a hard time falling asleep, mostly due to the uncomfortable bed and the fact that I couldn't lay flat on my back. It was kind of an awkward angle and not the best for sleeping. I ended up listening to some music, reading a bit of the Hunger Games, and finding anyway to pass the time.

6:15am: Dilated almost to a 10 - they decided to wait about 20 minutes to check again. After the 20 minutes, they had me do a practice push. I think this was basically to see how good I was at pushing and to gage where we were at. At this point, the baby was in about a +1 position. I was still numb from the epidural, but my butt was pretty sore. It was the type of sore you get from sitting in the same position for 10 hours and your butt just aches. So that's pretty much what it felt like. There was also a lot of pressure starting to build inside. The best way to describe it is that it felt like I needed to poop. That was always one of my worries about labor...that I would have a bowel movement while I was pushing. I know it is fairly common and happens to a lot of women, but I just didn't want it to happen to me. But it got to a point where I could've sworn I needed to use the restroom and I wanted more than anything to get it out. Kind of like when you have to go to the bathroom really bad and you are trying to hold it. And it hurts worse to hold it...so I told my nurse that I really felt like I needed to push. Typically once you a dilated to a 10 they have you wait for an hour in what they call "rest and descent". This allows time for the baby to move further down the birth canal, in an attempt to lessen the time of pushing. Instead of an hour I only waited about 20 minutes or so, then we decided we would start pushing.

I'm not sure exactly what time it started, but some time before I started pushing, I suddenly started to shake really bad. It was as if I was freezing to death, but I wasn't cold at all. My entire body would just convulse and my teeth would chatter really bad. It was pretty strange. This continued for several hours. I think it had Lance a little worried at first, but then he just found it funny. They weren't just small shakes, they were large, jerky movements. And the shaking actually got worse after the baby was out. I was wrapped in many layers of blankets, yet I still continued shaking uncontrollably.

7:30am: The nurse had me start pushing. It was hard for me to tell when my contractions were because there was just the constant pressure. The main way we could tell when to push was with the monitor, not because I could feel it. Or I could push on my stomach, and when I felt it get harder, then it was a contraction. We pushed with the nurse most of the time. When we got closer to the end, Dr. Olsen was called in and we started into the final phase of pushing. As the baby was crowning, the doctor said that it had a lot of hair. The baby's head was having a hard time coming out. The doctor spend several minutes trying to stretch me out more, but eventually just ended up doing an episiotomy. Thank goodness I couldn't feel it.

Right before the baby was about the come out, the doctor informed me that he could see some meconium. That means that the baby had a bowel movement inside. Dr. Olsen informed me that they were going to try to prevent the baby from crying right away to reduce the chance that he would breath it in. Also, once the baby's head was out, Dr. Olsen said that the cord was wrapped around his neck pretty good. He didn't seem to worried or panicked, so I tried remaining calm.

8:44am: William Scott Hinton was born! Because of the meconium and the cord wrapped around his neck, they didn't place him on my stomach right away and clean him off on me. They took him to the back of the room and started doing all the checks. Lance cut the umbilical cord and stayed with Will. He weighed 7 lbs 14 oz and was 20 inches long. I was pleasantly surprised because we were expecting him to be close to 9 lbs, if not more. We were also expecting him to be pretty bald, so I was ecstatic to see a ton of hair.

Introducing...Will!!!

We are so very blessed to have this sweet little baby in our lives. We love him so much and can't get enough of him. I can't believe we have already had him for a week. We've definitely had some struggles and are still figuring out how to adjust. The biggest struggle is with breastfeeding. It started off bad and quickly got worse. I am sad to say that I got frustrated enough that we started using a bottle. It's kind of a sore topic for me, and I feel like a failure for not being able to breastfeed. But we're going to try some tricks and we have an appointment with a lactation consultant in a few days, and I'm really hoping that we can get this fixed. I would really like to be able to breastfeed. I plan on doing a separate post going into a little more details about what happened with the breastfeeding.