Chasing Life

Here is how my 4th day with 4 kids ages 4 and under started... In anticipation of being woken up by the baby every hour for feedings, I went to bed early the night before (around 8:45pm). Despite those hourly feedings, my day started out with a bang at midnight when I woke up to find that both my nursing bra and the towel I had put on my bed were both soaking wet with milk. At 5:45am my 19 month old decided it was time to wake up (apparently he didn’t get the memo that Mama had a newborn). Although I don’t ever go and get him until 7:30am, his babbling in his crib was enough to keep me from being able to go back to sleep. I decided to take a nice hot shower instead. About 5 minutes into the shower the baby wakes up and starts crying. So much for the relaxing shower! I dry off, nurse the baby back to sleep, and then start looking for clothes to wear to the bible study I was going to that morning. Between being engorged and having to wear breast shells for nursing, I looked ridiculous ...

So Jolie is 3 weeks old now and today my life as a stay at home mom of four kids ages 4 and under begins! It was supposed to start last Monday, but my in-laws were kind enough to give me a break for one more week by taking the two older kids home with them for a few days. But now they are back, Paul is at work, and I am here with the four little ones trying to carefully plan my first steps in hopes that they will lead us down a path where we can flourish as a family of six. To celebrate, I am going to start blogging on a regular basis in hopes that it will keep you all more updated, me more accountable, and serve as a type of journal for my kids to be able to read when they get older.

So it turns out I was in fact in labor when I last wrote! Pretty sad that this was my fourth pregnancy and it still wasn't clear. I ended up being completely dilated by the time we got to the hospital. I think I probably went from 7-10cm just during the walk from the hospital ramp to the labor and delivery room because I was having contractions that stopped me in my tracks every 30 seconds. Not fun! We got to the hospital around 11:45pm and Baby Jolie was born at 2:24am. The first hour was spent waiting for my doctor and the anesthesiologist to get done with a c-section down the hall before they could see me. Since I was fully dilated when we arrived I could not get an epidural, but I was able to get an intratheacal shot to help with the pain. We waited another 30 minutes for my water to break, but that never happened so the doctor ended up breaking it for me so that my pain meds would not wear off before the baby was delivered. About 15 minutes later we decided it was time to st...

Jolie Sophia Nystrom was born @ 2:24 AM, August 7, 7# 11 oz, 20" long. Everyone is doing well and will give more info when they get home.

So it's been a LONG time since I've done a Nystrom update, but I thought me going into the hospital to hopefully have our 4th child was reason enough to finally do it! I'm not having regular contractions spaced nice and evenly every 4-5 minutes like you're supposed to have to go to the hospital, but I've been contracting pretty hard every 10 minutes since around 3pm and they are quite painful so I'm gonna at least go in and get checked and see if anything is progressing. If not, I'll either stay at the hospital and walk the halls until something does happen or they'll send me home. Either way I won't be getting any sleep tonight. I'll be sure to have my mom send out another update when baby actually arrives. Until then, I'd appreciate prayers for a quick, smooth delivery and a healthy new baby!