Taylor Lynn Jensen

August 31, 2010 I had a doctor appointment at 10:30am. My doctor checked me and said I was dilated to 3cm. He decided to strip my membrane at that time. He told me I would more than likely have the baby within the next 48 hours. I left there and went to Menards to let them know I would like to take my maternity leave now and why. I went to the bathroom while I was there and noticed some blood had come out. I was very nervous about driving home, cuz I wasn't feeling that great and well, I didn't want to deliver the baby on the road by myself. But I just wanted to go home, so I did. I made it home just fine. I was having some contractions but they were light ones and only had a couple within an hour. I really wasn't feeling good though. I asked Bill to come home from work, because I was getting nervous. Bill got home around 3:30pm. He even got a flat tire on his way home, and was freaking out that I would go into labor before he got home. But I didn't. At 8:oopm I decided I would start timing my contractions, since the kids were in bed. I was having one every 10- 20 minutes, and they weren't regular. My brother and sister-in-law talked me into calling the nurse to see when I should go into ER. She said when the contractions are 5 minutes apart and are steady, or if a gush of fluid comes out or a lot of blood. I took a warm shower and went to bed. I was in bed by 10:30. I tried really hard to get some sleep, but I couldn't sleep. It was annoying me. I finally, got to sleep. I awoke around 2am, because I thought I just peed the bed. I was like "crap. I can't control my bladder, now! Great what's next!" I went to the bathroom to find clear mucusy liquid in my underwear along with some bloody discharge. I said "Bill" (no answer), I said "Honey" a little louder (still no answer), At the same time I clapped and said "Bill" (loud) "It's time". He shot out of bed and ran around the house gathering things up. I cleaned myself up and went to the door, I asked Bill what he was doing, and he said he was just getting a few things. I thought it was funny cuz my bag was packed and in the car. Whatever, he was nervous. I called the nurse and let her know I was on my way. While we were there a doctor had checked me and said I was still dilated to 3 cm, but that he didn't think my water had broken yet, cuz he could still feel a bag of water. He did a test to see if I had amniotic fluid in my vagina, and I did NOT. Well, what in the world leaked out all over my pajama pants and in my underwear? I never did get that answered. My contractions weren't getting any stronger and I wasn't progressing, so they told me to go out for breakfast and walk around the mall or Wal-Mart or something. Well, I don't know what you look like when you wake up, but I don't look pretty and neither does Bill. I had no desire to go out for breakfast or walk around a store looking the way I did. So we went home. We got home around 7:30am. Bill's mom, Cel, was at our house. Bless her heart she went over to our house to get my boys ready for their first day of school. We missed them leaving; I was pretty bummed I didn't get to see them off. I played on facebook for a while, then I walked to the post office and got my mail. Mean while Bill went back to sleep. I knew there was no point in even trying to get more sleep so I didn't even try. Around 10 I decided to go for a walk. I walked up and down almost every street in Babcock, which took me about 40 minutes. I thought for sure I would go into labor now, but no; I didn't feel any different than when I left. Bll woke up shortly after I got home and went to his parents to help work on their roof (which was right next door). I decided I would try to take a nap. I laid down for an hour, got irritated that I couldn't sleep and got up. My sister and I were texting back and forth pretty much all day. She told me to draw a bath and sit in that for a litlle while, and maybe that will help with my contractions. So I started to draw a bath. I went to the bathroom to go potty and get into the bath, but everytime I came up off the toilet seat I leaked a little pee (so I thought), so I would sit back down. I was getting very irritated with my bladder when it dawned on me that OMG! This might be my water breaking now. I texted Bill and said You need to come home now. Before I even got off the toilet he was home asking me if it was time. I called my doctor and told them what was going on and about my ER visit the night before and they told me to go into the clinic. So, fine I put a pad on and off we went. The whole way there I leaked fluid out. By the time I got there I was pretty soiled. I got into see a doctor not mine, cuz mine wasn't there, but while the nurse was checking me a big gush came out all over the table and floor. The doctor came in and said yes it looks like your water just broke however I still need to follow procedure and check you and test the fluid. He said I was dilated to 6cm! And of course the test came back as positive. But he said he could still feel a bag of fluid in there.(Geez, how many bags of water do I have in there?) I finally, got a gown and changed into it with Bill's help. My shape up shoes got ruined!!!! They were full of amniotic fluid; it was very disgusting!! Yes, Bill threw them away! Ok, so from 6:30am to 2:30pm I dilatd 3cm!! OK, they transported me to the birthing center. There, Amy, had come to see how things were, and Julie came shortly after Amy had left. The nurse gave me some pain medicine, but she didn't give me a full dose cuz she said I was little and she didn't want to overdose it. Well. it wasn't really working. My contractions were getting stronger with everyone. I asked if I could get an epideral. The doctor was busy delivering another baby so I had to wait for her to ok it. She finally got the ok and ordered it. After a short time I finally, told the nurse I feel like I have to push, now. She checked me and said I was dilated to 10 and to go ahead and push, so I did. The nurse said she could still feel a bag of water up there, but it was ok to push. She said the doctor would pop it when she came in. I pushed and pushed and pushed and cried and cried and about 15-20 minutes later(which seemed like forever to me) out came Taylor!

Taylor Lynn Jensen was born on September 1, 2010 at 5:49pm. She weighed exactly 7.06 pounds and was 19" long. That was by far the most painful delivery I have ever had, but it was the shortest. I honestly, don't know if I could've handled much longer without pain medicine. I don't plan to have anymore kids, but if it should happen again, I decided I will go with the epideral shot right off the bat, so I don't have to go without pain ever again.

I'm holding Taylor for my first time, and Bill is waiting ever so patiently for his turn. I must say he was a pretty amazing partner through this. He didn't tell me "Push honey, you can do it" or "Don't give up now" in fact he didn't say much at all. He put his arm around my neck and for whatever reason it helped me push. The nurses were so wonderful! I had one specific nurse who helped me breathe correctly; she ended up being an all around wonderful nurse. And all the nurses were telling Bill to "look at this" and "look at that" and "Bill, look, you can see the head coming out!" My doctor stayed right at my crotch and didn't leave. The pain was the only thing that was horrifying. Everything else was wonderful! Looking back on it, it reminded me of a labor that took place at home. You know, with a midwife and all my lady friends around me, helping me, and calling Bill by his name, showing him all the wonderful things about the delivery that they wanted to make sure he didn't miss. It was really nice.

Scavenger Hunt

Babcock Scavenger Hunt
August 7, 2010

Today, I wrote a list from A-Z of things the boy's had to look for around town, OUTSIDE. I arranged the pictures in order, but can you guess what the picture is of? Some pictures are hard to see; sorry, Austin was the camera man.

Well, do you give up? Some letters we had to be creative with if that helps. Otherwise the following are the answers:
A-Acorn, B-Baseball, C-Couch, D-Dogs, E-Evergreen, F-Football, G-Garage, H-High Tower, I-Ice Cooler, J-Jeep, K-the letter K in buick, L-tree Limb, M-my sad looking Japanese Maple tree, N-New siding, O-Oak tree, P-Pop can, Q-Quickly moving car, R-Red flowers, S-Smiley face pillow, T-Trailer, U-Underwear, V-Van, W-Wind chime, X-the letter X on license plate, Y-Yellow flowers, Z-Zipper. And Yes, I promise, all of these items were found outside. I know this, because I went with them on their scavenger hunt.

Ultra-Sound Pictures

These are pictures of my baby at 12 weeks inside my tummy, obviously.

This baby has fingers, toes, arms, and legs! It's amazing that at 12 weeks it has all these features!

Surprise!!!

January 1, 2010: It's 2:30pm. Bill just left for work. I officially did NOT get my monthly deal in December. What do I do? I'm gonna take a test.

January 1, 2010: It's 2:34pm. As I was peeing on the stick I saw a - (that means the test is working) and a + ( that means YOU ARE PREGNANT)! How do I tell Bill??

This is what I sent to him via text message at 2:37pm:

You're gonna be a DADDY!!!
And he was excited! So excited, he told Everyone he knew before he got to work.
Congratulations to us!!

Austin's Big Day at the Doctor's

Austin had a doctor's appointment on February 18, 2010. He had a physical and 5 shots in his legs! OUCH!! This was him in his gown before the physical. Doesn't he look adorable?!

Austin was so tough when he got his shots. His face got all red (that's when I started to tear up), and then he started to tear up..And then it was over!!! I hate, absolutely hate taking the kids to get shots!!! The nurse was so proud of him! She told him he could pick out 5 things from the treasure box. Plus, he got a bunch of stickers. When, we were walking out to the car, he said he NEVER wants to get shots again!!!

Christmas 2009

This year Grandpa Steve came to our house a little bit early for Christmas, because he and Debbie were going to Utah for Christmas. When he came we made sure we went to the light show at Wild Wood Park in Marshfield, WI. This stupid thing was there and our family jumped behind it quickly, and Grandpa took a snap with his phone. I tried taking pictures of the light show, but they all came out with a big light blur. This is the neatest thing to see. I have made it a Christmas tradition every year to go to this. The city and a ton of volunteers buy TONS of LED lights and display them all throughout the park/zoo. You can walk or drive through this enchantment. They have the lights blinking to Christmas carols. This is breath taking! This is free to the public! They, also, accept cash donations and canned goods. Every year no matter how much money I have or not, I always take canned goods there. On certain nights Santa is there. There is a little hot chocolate and treat stand. This year the kids got to pet and feed some reindeer. In one of the buildings they had music and a strobe light in it, and it was heated! If you ever have a chance to come to the center of WI, coming after Thanksgiving would be a great time. So, you can see this amazing light show!

This year for Christmas I did an advent calender with the boys. I found a cloth one at Menards and I bought a Santa head ornament that could fit in each day's pocket. Each day of December I put a note in the pocket. The kids would read it and it would take them to a certain place in the house. There, they would find a little present. To help them get into the Christmas spirit, some days I would give them candy and tell them they would have to share it with so many friends. Another day I bought them crazy red/green hats and told them to put them on and lets take crazy pictures of ourselves. Another day I bought them little blue plastic buckets that had lids on them. Inside the buckets were sugar cookie mix. The note told them they need to make sugar cookies, fill up the buckets, and give them to a friend to share with their family. Below are the picture of the kids decorating the cookies!

This is a picture of the kids getting ready to take their buckets filled with cookies to their friends' houses. Cole took his to Brenden's house, and Austin took his to Nick's house. Both families were thankful! When, the kids got home, they both had huge grins on their faces and felt good about what they did. Not only is this a good thing to teach your kids, but now everyone isn't obligated to eat so many cookies.

Crazy pictures in crazy hats in our crazy messy house!

This year I asked Grandpa if he would make Austin a lego table. I told him how I wanted it, and then he made it! It was perfect! I bought a bunch of legos off of Ebay to give to him along with the table. This pic shows the kids playing after we opened gifts. Thanks Grandpa for a beautiful gift!!!

Austin got this teddy bear from Santa. He hauled this huge thing around with him everywhere I would let him. He put on an old pair of shorts and a t-shirt on it. Eventually, I talked him out of dressing him in the shorts. Then, he only wore a t-shirt and his crazy red hat.

Halloween 2009

This month was a fun month. We did so many fun things as a family. Such as: pumpkin carvings, raking leaves in back yard and jumping in them, went to the Harvest festival in Nekoosa, decorated the house and yard for Halloween night...



This is one of many outfits Austin got for Halloween. (He was lucky to get so many, because I bought him one, his dad did, and Austin bought himself one.) This is the one he ended up wearing, though.

These next two pictures are of this crazy sweater I found for Austin at the pumpkin festival in Nekoosa, WI.

This is Austin's first sentence he's ever wrote!!! It says: "Austin said, I like to try on my knight costume." I had to take a picture of this. It's great!

And these last few pictures are of all of us carving our pumpkins! This was a super messy job, but we all had fun doing it. I baked the pumpkin seeds in a lot of oil and salt, when we were done. They were absolutely delicious! Everyone enjoyed them!

I wish I would've felt better Halloween night, so I could've showed you how we decorated the yard. However, Cj, Bill, and I weren't feeling the greatest. Cj had a fever and chills. Bill was sick all over. And I had a little fever but was the strong one for the night. We all forced ourselves to get dressed up and went trick or treating in Pittsville. There we met up with a big group of Cj's classmates. It was so COLD but so much fun! When we got back, Cj and Bill went to bed. Austin and I went around in Babcock. We met up with Brenden and his mom. We got a ton more candy here.
Bill carved some small white pumpkins to look like skulls. He did an awesome job. We stuck those on sticks and stuck them in the ground. We made a path that went to our front door around the house to our back door with the skulls and black torches and solar lights I had. In the back yard we had some styrofoam tombstones with our names on them. The candy was on the back steps in a bowl. We didn't have many kids come. So, when I saw them I told them to take as much as they'd like, because I had a ton of candy. In the front yard we had two big pumpkin leaf bags with a couple smaller ones around them placed on each side of the driveway.
Oh, what did we all go as for Halloween? Did Bill and I dress up? Yes we did!!! I went as a go-go dancer: I had black stretch pants on, black knee high boots with Bright Red boot warmers over top, a crazy shirt that was hidden by my coat, and a black/red wig that had high pony tails on each side. Bill dressed in his renaissance outfit. Which he totally regretted, because he froze in it. His outfit consisted of a red tunic and black pants with a belt around the waist. He, also, had black knee high boots on. Cole went as a Vampire. His outfit was pretty simple. He wore a pair of jeans with whatever shirt and a black hooded sweatshirt. He had a black cape that had skulls all around the edging. Bill painted his face, and he put in a pair of vampire teeth. Austin was a GI Joe ninja. He bought his one piece outfit at target in the toy section for like $8. We then found a thing he puts on his back and it carrys two swords in an X. He had a black mask to cover his face which kept bothering him. He ended up taking it off.