Christmas lists!

Well, after several months of not knowing our password for blogger, I finally bit the bullet and went through the steps to change the password to get back in here.



I wanted to put our Christmas lists on here so we can keep coming back to them and adding things as I think of them!



The first thing we all want for Christmas is to be together as a whole family in one spot, letting the kids all play together.



Since that is a tall order :) here are some other ideas:



Family gifts:

Kinderseat (dark wood to match our table)

Snow-themed gifts that I would think are too frivolous to buy for ourselves (i.e. anything that is fancier than a $10 plastic sled)

Passes to Treetops Ski area in Gaylord MI

Gift card to any indoor water park in Michigan (Great Wolf Lodge or the one in Mt Pleasant or in Frankenmuth)

Shirts from where your from, especially if they're long sleeved, for the whole family/just the kids (to be matchy matchy)

Special play dates with he kids individually

Somehow set up a date night with babysitters for Justin and me

Himalayan salt lamp (big)

FIESTAWARE!!!! Any blue, green, cream, or slate. Want flour, sugar, and cookie jars. Could use lunch plates. Any cool server or tumbler that can be used as a flower vase. Bonus if it's vintage and\or a retired color

Magazine subscriptions for the kids (we have Highlights and National Geographic kids already, both for GG)


Mary:

Shoe size 9.5 (need taller black boots)

Shirt size L (need nicer work tops/tunics/cardigans that are interesting and from a unique store that we don't have in alpena)

Nice slippers

Smart wool socks

Pjs that are warm but you can still nurse in them (i.e. no long shirts)

Math-themed accessories (Etsy had a math print infinity scarf, zulily had pi earrings and golden ratio necklace)

Etsy gift card





Justin:

Shoe size 10

Shirt size M

Pant size 34/31

Likes:





Grey:

Shoe size 11-12

Shirt and pant size small or 6/7

Like:TMNT, legos, any nonfiction book, Paw Patrol, Pete the Cat,  car/trucks/hot wheels, nerf guns, shopkins, Dino's, superheroes and villains (any type), iTunes gift card to buy apps, dvds about said likes for car trips, puzzles in the themes above, size goggles and little kid skis (he is 40lbs)

Etsy or handmade winter hat to go with any of the themes above (colors: black, gray, neon green accents)



Hazel:

Shoe size 7/8

Shirt and pant size 2T or 3T (do 2T if she's going to wear it right now)

Likes: nemo/dory, super Why, Mickey Mouse, legos, babies, any/all books, Melissa and Doug puzzles, her own special Melissa and Doug (or any) plastic placemat for the table, Ty brand stuffed animals with the big eyes (any animal, she's obsessed with the displays she sees in stores)



Stoney:

Shoe size: 4

Shirt and pant size: 12-18 mo

Likes: teething rings, balls, things you can throw, sitting on your lap, biting you





Sammy and Sophie: any dog toy that has nicer fabric and can't be destroyed in 5 min





Keep checking back as I will be updating as I think of things!



- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Normal camera roll pics as of late

Grandpa left and didn't take Hazel with him. 

Stone also likes grandpa 

Weird look 

Chicks at Quality Farm and Fleet. "This one is the daddy and this one is the mommy and those ones are babies." 

Our weekend

Justin's recent Corkscrews and Canvas creation.

6am and sitting in a box

Special date time to try and give GG more attention. He wanted to paint a bowl that he could put candy in that Hazel couldn't get. 

Hazel is binky-obsessed, and sometimes we mess with her and her binkies. 

Cute

Sitting on cousin MaKenna's lap

Fat girl problems...

Hazel is almost 17 months old, and she has always had trouble sleeping. She just started sleeping through the night in the month or two before new baby was born. She has always been an early riser, waking up at 6am everyday. Lately, she has been waking up for the day at 4 or 4:30am. Not super fun when your newborn wakes 2-3 times a night and goes to bed around 11pm. Poor Justin, who gets up with me in the night to change Stone for me before I nurse him, has been waking up with Hazel early every morning since Stone was born. Zzzzzzz. 

Well, we think the have figured out why she is waking so early- big girl is hungry! No matter what or how much we feed her for dinner (or pre-night night snack), she is awake at 4am ready to eat. 

So, a few nights ago, Justin took in some  of my snacks that I eat in the middle of the night, and fed them to her while rocking her in the rocking chair. Then, he lays her down and she goes back to bed until 6:30am or so. #fatgirlproblems 

Birth pics

3 minutes old

Peeking

Feeling a little better- one hour old

Justin getting to know Stone

J's first time holding Stone 

Tiny feets

Looking like Hazel

Heading to our room 

Grey's and Hazel's birth stories

In case you're interested!

http://christensencooper.blogspot.com/2011/02/greysons-birth-story-told-by-mary.html?m=0

http://christensencooper.blogspot.com/2014/10/one-month-old-and-hazel-birth-story.html?m=0

Stone's Birth Story

Well, after a long hiatus, we are (hopefully) back to blogging!

Here's Stone's birth story, which I wrote on his one month birthday. It was such a magical birth, and it went so smoothly even though I had great concerns about the quality of the care I would receive at our local hospital (with no other birth options available to me).

It is a long birth story - sorry about that. I tend to be a bit long-winded. But I want to remember every detail!

I hope you enjoy it :)
Mary

The birth of Stone Michael Christensen-Cooper
Tuesday, January 12, 2016

               For several weeks, I had not been feeling well; body aches, lots of Braxton Hicks contractions, upset stomach, feeling fatigued, and getting light-headed if I stood for too long. Thursday of the week before, I was feeling so ill that I started to move around my work schedule so I could start to take some time off of work. This was not easy for me, as there is no one to replace me at work, and if I don’t do the work, it simply does not get done. However, I continued to work a full day Friday, keeping an obligation with a small school to lead an afternoon meeting with several teachers. I returned late to my office on Friday evening, and simply dumped my stuff, saying I would organize it all on Monday. I thought in my head: What if I don’t come back on Monday, then this mess will be here for my entire maternity leave! Although that made me anxious, I decided that I would be back, and I would just leave it and go home. I think this is the real reason I went into labor early.

               The weekend passed pretty uneventfully, with lots of time at home playing with Grey and Hazel. Justin took the kids grocery shopping, we did laundry, and we went to bed Sunday night thinking that the week ahead would be a normal one. On Monday, I would be 38 weeks.

               At about 2:30am early Monday morning, I started to feel some regular (what I thought were) Braxton Hicks contractions. I tried to stay sleeping, but I did keep checking my phone to see how close they were together. I could tell that they felt different after just a few contractions, and when they came pretty close together, I woke Justin and told him that I thought I was in labor and that he should time the contractions.

               They became pretty intense, with increase tightening of my entire belly each time. I got to the point where I could no longer lay down, so we moved downstairs. I decided that the bathroom would be the best place for me; it is cooler, and I already had tea lights all around. I got the yoga ball and had Justin light the candles and get my essential oils. Justin put music on for me; I settled on soothing stream sounds since I was visualizing myself in a forest with my feet in a small stream as a part of the hypnobirthing work I was involved with my doula.

We closed the door to the bathroom since it felt best for me to make loud, low noises during the contractions. It felt so good to bounce on the yoga ball, and Justin got me a pillow to lean on in between the contractions. They were very regular, coming at 4 minutes apart for over an hour. Justin wanted to, and eventually did, call to make arrangements for the kids, but the entire time I had a feeling that this was not the real thing. I did not feel the pressure that I knew I needed to move the baby down. I would talk to the baby in between contractions, telling it to move down. But with each contraction, I only felt the belly tightening pain, not the low, intense pressure that I needed.

               Denise came at about 6:30am to get the kids, and I moved to the couch to try and get some rest. I am not used to long labors, and I knew I would need my energy if this were to last all day. The next thing I knew, I woke up on the couch at 10am, and there was no baby in my arms. Justin said that I had one or two more contractions, but that was it. Laying down stopped the contractions totally.

               After sitting on the couch for a while, I got up and got around for the day. The shower felt good, and I ate a big lunch. After lunch, I was feeling back to my “normal” pregnant self. I swept the floor, did some laundry, and stuffed cloth diapers for Hazel. I rested for a bit too.

               The kids came back to the house around 4pm, and Justin packed bags for Grey to stay with Denise and Hazel to stay with mom and dad Christensen at night. They left just after dinner, and Justin and I vegged out and watched TV.

               I went to bed Monday night around 10pm, and I honestly did not feel like anything would happen. But, sure enough, at about 3:30am, I felt a strong contraction. I stayed in bed for about an hour, and Justin knew to time the contractions since I already started my low, loud moaning. They were as a steady 4-5 minutes apart. At about 4:30am, the contractions were too intense to lay down, so I went to my spot in the downstairs bathroom. As soon as I got on the yoga ball, the contractions felt different, and the pressure was increasing. We stayed in the bathroom for about 45 minutes, mentally prepping the whole time for baby to come soon. I drank a lot of water and ate a granola bar, knowing that I would need energy since the labor was not moving as quickly as the others did. I also tried to use the bathroom often since I knew it would be important to have an empty bladder for labor.

               My contractions went from 4 minutes apart to 1 minute apart pretty quickly, and I would have stayed in the bathroom the whole time if Justin did not force me out and into the Explorer. Our doula met us at the hospital, and by the time we made it up to labor and delivery, I was dilated to 8.5 cm. However, baby was at station 2, not down far enough to put a lot of pressure to start pushing. And, my water did not break. I got to labor and delivery at 5:30am. The nurses started the IV for antibiotics for GBS at 5:40am. I was very happy to get Aunt Niki, my sister-in-law’s aunt, as my main nurse. She was a major rock for me during most of the labor.

               With Justin and my doula coaching me to visualize my stream, I contracted until about 6am when Dr. Conboy arrived. He checked me and I had not progressed at all. Although it was only 3o minutes, I was surprised that I was not progressing since my contractions were 1 minute apart and very strong at this point. Dr. Conboy informed us that there was a big pocket of amniotic fluid that was a “bubble” at the baby’s head. This was preventing the head from putting the pressure needed to dilate me all the way. I knew this meant that either the water needed to break pretty quickly, or I would be stuck contracting for a long time. (And I knew it could be difficult for my water to break since I was measuring that I had a large amount of amniotic fluid for the last part of my pregnancy.)

               After thinking about it, I decided to try different positions and see if that would help to break my water. I walked, sat on the toilet, stood and “danced” with Justin, got on all fours, used the squat bar, and went on a yoga ball. I used essential oils and visualized myself at my stream. At 6:45am, Dr. Conboy checked me, and I had not progressed. I knew that my energy was decreasing, and that I had to keep as much of my energy as I could for pushing. So, I decided to have him break my water. He broke my water quickly, and I felt the most intense pressure thus far. The gush was so intense that it not only soaked the bed and the doctor, but somehow soaked my slipper socks I was wearing.

               Each contraction brought more and more pressure, and by 7:15am I felt the need to push. Dr. Conboy checked me, and as with the other two births, there was a small “lip” keeping the baby’s head back, and I was “stuck” at 9.5cm. I knew this meant changing positions and moving to try and get that last 0.5cm to move. From here, the timeline gets fuzzy for me, but I tried many of the same positions as before.

               As I was changing positions, I saw Dr. Conboy whispering to the nurses. I finally asked what they were talking about, and Aunt Niki let me know that baby was sunny-side up, and it was not looking like it was going to move. She informed me that there were some things we could do to try and help the baby get into position, and I said I wanted to try them. Aunt Niki and my doula pushed on either side of my hips as I contracted standing up. We tried this through several contractions. We moved to the bed and tried this method while contracting on my side. These hip pushes hurt intensely, and I asked to take a break after a few more tries.

               After some time of contracting in different ways, one intense contraction with the squat bar led me to scream, “I feel like I need to push!” The doctor rushed over and checked me, and I was still at 9.5 cm. Pushing at this point would not bring the baby down since there was still 0.5cm left. Just like with the other births, the doctor tried to, and successfully, manually moved the last 0.5cm. It was finally time to push!

               I decided to push with the squat bar since it had done so much to move the baby down. I would lay back and rest between contractions. My doula was to my right, counting for me as I pushed, and Justin was to my left. I had a nurse at each leg, and the doctor at the foot of the bed. With each contraction, Justin would move to the foot of the bed to look me square in the eyes, coaching me to think about my stream. The doctor was great, suggesting the mirror for me to see my progress between contractions. This was the first birth that I was able to see using the mirror, and I am so grateful to have been able to see it all.

               I started pushing at 8:20am, and by 8:30am I was exhausted and screaming between each contraction, “Is this the last one? How many more times do I need to push?!?” The mirror was not helpful to me at this time since I knew that the baby wasn’t almost out.

               With each time pushing, I felt more and more pressure. Then, the heat came. I lost energy quickly, and I knew that I was not pushing in a way that was productive. I only pushed for 10 minutes with my previous births, and I was worried that the pushing would last a long time and I wouldn’t be able to keep up. The doctor and my doula were both coaching me how to push, but I was just so tired. At one point, my doula told me to bear down and growl like a mama bear. I knew that techniques like this could work (I read about them in one of my crunchy pregnancy books), so I growled like a bear. To this day, Justin jokes about growling like a mama bear with me.

               I want to note at the point that I only had antibiotics in my system. I still had a hep-locked IV in my hand, but I had no other drugs in my system. The hypnobirthing helped me immensely through the contractions, but I quickly realized that it would not help me through pushing. But I knew that pushing meant labor would be over and baby would be here. I also want to note that in the beginning of pushing, somehow my IV got pushed a bit, and blood was streaming down my hand. The doctor asked the nurses to take my IV out totally since I would not be needing any emergency drugs. I knew this meant that I had made it and baby would be here soon!

It wasn’t until I started to see the head that I really got motivated to push the baby out. Once I saw the head, it was only two more contractions until the baby was out. It was the most intense pain – there’s really no way to describe it. The second to last contraction, when I could see the head crowning, I was sure I was going to pass out. Then, the doctor told me to give one last big push, and I pushed with every ounce of my being. The baby came out in one BIG plop! It was 8:50am and baby was born sunny-side up.

Time stood still as I could see the doctor hold up the baby and transfer it to my stomach. In that time, I thought I heard my doula say that it was a girl. I screamed with joy, “It’s a girl! Is it a girl?” Justin said, “Not, it’s a boy!” I replied with, “Oh, shit!” Not because I was sad it was a boy, but because we had no boy names prepared. This got a good laugh out of the entire room.

Baby boy CC stayed on my stomach and chest for the first 2 hours of his life. His Apgar scores were perfect, Justin cut the umbilical cord, the afterbirth came very easily this time, and the doctor gave me two small stitches for a very superficial tear. Baby boy nursed when he was just 7 minutes old. Slowly, the doctor left, and one after another the nurses left. Our doula left after about 45 minutes, and Justin, baby and I had the rest of the 2 hours to ourselves. We peaked at his fingers and toes. We kissed his nose. And we told him about his brother and sister. And he nursed like crazy. It was the most joyous time, and I will always remember the amazing feeling of having the baby on my chest that entire time. It made all of the preparations, worrying, and pain of labor worth it to have my new baby on my chest.

Baby boy met his brother, sister, grandma, grandpa, mimi and grampy just before dinner on Tuesday. We decided on a name on Wednesday: Stone Michael Christensen-Cooper. We wanted a strong name that wasn’t too popular for a first name, and a middle name that was a family name. We also tried to keep with the “color” theme that we have with our other children, so that’s how we settled with Stone Michael. 

Grey has a Blog!

As you know we haven't posted in a while. Well the kids are getting bigger and we had another baby. That's the long and short of it. I'm sure Mary will share the birth story soon. 

Grey is now into the blogging world! So we do want you to check out Grey's new blog! He will be posting photos, videos and all things important to Grey. 

We had him start this to keep him busy while at home and not terrorize his younger siblings. But also its something he's very excited to share with his friends and teachers at school. 

He will be posting about his family, school, art, Legos, sports, dinosaurs etc! He may even have a specials guest every now and again. So thanks for checking it out! I'm sure he'd love to know you liked it too. 

Here's the link: getgoingwithgrey.blogspot.com