Saylor's Birth!

I want to blog this while it's still fresh in my mind! A little back story. I was going in for weekly non stress tests from 36 weeks on because I had quite a bit of anxiety during pregnancy. I went in on Wednesday 11/23/16 for my weekly non stress test! My blood pressure was higher than it should have been (I didn't have any blood pressure problems during pregnancy). Saylor wasn't moving around enough so they sent me to ultrasound after monitoring me and the baby for a couple hours. In the ultrasound they did something called a Bio Physical Profile where they check all sorts of things with the baby, placenta, cord, etc. They watched her breathe for about 10 minutes straight, they were looking for tone, they were wanting her to kick or open and close her hand. It took her almost half an hour for her to open and close her hand (keep in mind they are pushing on my belly, jiggling it, making me drink sugary drinks, literally trying everything to get her to respond) . She finally did, so technically she passed the Bio Physical Profile but the ultrasound tech, Doctor and nurses were still concerned so they made an appointment for me to come in for another non stress test 2 days later on 11/25/16 at 2pm.

11/24/16 was Thanksgiving day. We had plans to spend Thanksgiving with Chris' family at the cabin. I was still feeling uneasy because I should be able to constantly feel my baby moving and I wasn't. I would feel little movements here and there but she wasn't as active as she normally was. We had Thanksgiving around 1:30PM. I thought it would be a good idea to drink a whole bottle of Martinelli's to see if I could get her to move with all that sugar. Drank it all. Nothing. I kept telling Chris I would feel better if we could just go to the hospital and make sure she is OK. He agreed. After dinner and spending some time with Chris' family we left. We went straight to the hospital and they started a non stress test. We were there about 90 minutes and Chris texted his stepmom Wendy.

Chris: "Ugh we are gonna be here forever lol" 7:57pm

Wendy: "Why?" 8:01pm

I got up to go to the bathroom. Was coming back out to be hooked up to the monitors. At 8:06pm my water broke. I screamed for Chris to get the nurses as I just stood there. 

They got me back in bed and checked me and I was already 2 cm dilated. I sent Chris home immediately and told him to grab our hospital bags, that was around 8:10pm. At 8:20 PM I texted Chris "C section is in 40 minutes. They said hurry back. Don't worry about car seat until later." 8:25PM "Are you almost back?" My C section was going to be at 9pm. Around 9pm the nurses asked me if I was able to walk to the OR or if I wanted a wheelchair. I told them I could walk. I was walking with one of my nurses and we got into the doorway and she stopped me. I looked down and there was blood all around me. I normally do fine even seeing my blood in a tube, but got super sick seeing it everywhere and passed out in the hallway on the way to the OR. I remember being on the floor confused about what had happed and looking up at one of the nurses and asking if I was going to die (it was a real thought to me at the time). They assured me I wasn't going to die, but I was still scared. They got a wheelchair and wheeled me off to the OR and told Chris to get ready. 

In the OR my nurse was standing in front of me and I was holding on to her while I got a spinal block. After the spinal block I laid down on the operating table. Every so often the anestologist would spray me with ice cold water from my hips up and I would have to tell him when I could and couldn't feel it. Once they were sure I was numb, Chris came into the OR. I had oxygen on my face so it was a little hard to talk loudly. About a minute after Chris came into the OR we heard one of the doctors say "scalpal." and the anestologist told us they had begun the C section. Not too long after that we heard one of the doctors say "Hey there chunker" and then heard our sweet Saylor girl take her first breaths and start to cry. Which made me cry. Chris went over right away to see her and I was able to get a little peek at our beautiful little girl. Chris brought Saylor over to me after she was wrapped and cleaned off a little so I could see her. Love at first sight. I asked the dr before we left the OR if the cord was around her neck. He said it was once, which could explain why she wasn't doing well in the stress tests. I was so happy to know that she was ok and that Chris and I followed the feeling that we needed to go to the hospital that night and not wait for the non stress test on Friday, and glad my water ended up breaking and she was delivered safely. 

As they were finishing stitching me up Chris and Saylor went back to my recovery room where I met them not too long after. She was perfect. Saylor weighed 8 pounds 4 oz and was born at 37 weeks 3 days gestation which makes her a little bit big. She had a few blood sugar problems the first day and her lowest tested blood sugar was 28. So we worked hard to get her blood sugars in the normal range. She was poked so many times and took it like a champ. We are so glad that all her other tests came back normal! 

She had so many visitors that first day and throughout our hospital stay and loved being held by all the people that love her so much!

Our little Turkey's feet!

Minutes old

Mom and baby Saylor

Saylor getting her blood sugar checked! 

Saylor and her cousins Milo and Sloan

Uncle Matt

Not a fan of bath time!

All clean!

Saylor and Daddy!

Grandpa and Nana Shanks

Aunt Annie

Uncle Beau


Aunt Corinne and Uncle Derek

Great Grandma and Grandpa Jensen


Our sweet friend Megan is in her last semester of Nursing school and was working one of the nights we were there and came to visit Saylor!

Her preferred position to sleep in. 

Proud daddy!

Going home outfit! (thanks Megan) 

All ready to go home! 

We are happy to be home and excited for Saylor to meet more of her Grandparents and Aunts and Uncles in the coming weeks! Bring on the visitors! :) 

Being Prepared

Chris and I have been working on making our 72 hour/ emergency packs! We first got the idea from one of my best friends Carra. She talks about it in her blog post here. She was the one that originally motivated us to start working on this! In her post she talks about what she has in their emergency backpacks and what they need. She also includes what they have in their Tornado Space (where they go when a tornado is near).

Backpacks

We are just using backpacks that we have for now but are planning on replacing them eventually with better (waterproof) backpacks.

Clothes: 

What we need:

At least one change of clean clothes

One pair of old tennis shoes

Jacket

Toiletries

What we have: 

Travel sized shampoo 

Bar of soap

Tooth brush and travel sized toothpaste

Lip Balm

Bandaids and Neosporin

What we need: 

Mini First Aid Kit

Comb

Lotion

Other:

What we have:

We each have a pocket knife

Garbage Bags

Notebook and Pen

We each have 2 Emergency Mylar Blankets

Survival eating utentils (spoon and fork in one) 

Hand Sanitizer 

Paracord bracelets with a compass, whistle, and fire starter

What we need: 

Waterproof Matches

Emergency Radio

Cash

Can Opener

2 Lifestraw Water bottles good for 1000 liters of clean water

Flashlights

We have also been working on our food storage! We love Thrive Life and how it tastes! We also get it from Carra, she is a consultant for Thrive Life and extremely helpful. I used to ask her tons of questions a day about food storage and she was great at answering them all! She personally uses a TON of the Thrive Life products so she knows what the best food storage items to buy are! Her website is HERE, check it out!

This is what we have so far! We store it in the cabinets above our fridge because we don't always need to access them and it is the perfect place to store our food storage! We try to buy at least one thing a month to add to our food storage! 

We have 2 #10 cans of Whole Wheat Flour, #10 can of Mashed Potatoes, #10 can of Green Beans, #10 can of Sweet Corn. Pantry can of Pineapple Chunks, Pantry can of Instant Milk, Pantry can of Red Seedless Grapes, Pantry can of Tomato powder, and a Pantry Can of Passion Fruit Yogurt Bites. 

March- Charlie's Birthday and Easter

We have been busy working lots but have been able to do some fun things lately:

Chris's niece Charlie turned 3 so we were able to celebrate her birthday with her! 

She is the cutest! 

Dying Easter eggs

Easter Baskets (Chris' on the left, Stef's on the right) 

Chris's Easter lunch Masterpiece, Cal-zone ! Chris has been really into creating things in the kitchen lately! 

They usually turn out really well too! Most are pizza related (he LOVES pizza) 

We were able to have Easter dinner with Chris's parents in Utah (Michael and Wendy). We usually go over to their house each week for Sunday dinner! We love having family so close and being able to spend time with them! 

Bachelor Workout

I have recently started the 21 day fix! I found this Bachelor Workout online and thought it was so funny and such a good idea!

I got this from the link that I included above! If you watch The Bachelor and haven't gotten your workout in for the day try this!

1. When a rose is mentioned: do 10 jumping jacks. 

2. When the date card arrives: plank until the girls stop obsessing over who gets to go (or 30 seconds).

3. When a girl cries: do 10 sit-ups.

4. When the bachelor cries: do 30 sit-ups.

5. When one of the girls says she’s “falling for him”: do 10 burpees. 

6. When one of the girls says she is “in love with him”: do 20 squats.

7. When the Bachelor says that he “has a great connection” with one of the girls: do 10 tricep dips (use the couch or coffee table for this). 

8. When someone says the word “relationship”: do 15 v-ups.

9. When one of the girls says the phrase “I could really see myself marrying him”: do 20 bicycle kicks.

10. When one of the girls says that she’s “there for the right reasons” or is “ready to be married”: do 15 jumping jacks.

11. When there is a one-on-one date: plank for 30 seconds.

12. When the girl gets the rose on the one-on-one: do 20 squats.

13. When one of the girls complains about being on a group date: 20 sit-ups. 

14. When the Bachelor kisses someone: 10 burpees. 

15. When one of the girls interrupts the Bachelor talking to another girl: 15 v-ups. 

16. When one of the girls mentions another girl when talking to the Bachelor: 30 jumping jacks. 

17. When Chris Harrison says something: 30 bicycle kicks. 

18. When someone wears a swimsuit: 20 sit-ups. 

19. When the Bachelor is shirtless: Plank for 1 minute. 

20. When the Bachelor says he loves one of the girls: do 10 jumping jacks, 5 burpees, 10 sit-ups and plank for 30 seconds. 

Happy Birthday Sloany!

We had a birthday Breakfast with Sloan and all her cute little cousins on January 9th! 

It was hard to get a picture of her still, here she is jumping on her little trampoline with her baby doll!

Courtney made her these awesome pancakes! Happy 2nd Birthday Sloany, we love you so much!

Christmas Trip to the NW

 We got to take an awesome trip over Christmas to Vancouver, Washington and Anacortes, Washington! We had so much fun with both of our families! We wish we could see them more often!
We tried to be good about getting pictures! We spent the first half of our trip in Vancouver and the second half in Anacortes!

About to leave for our trip to the Northwest! 

Vancouver:

Stef's dad and Niece, and the dogs!

Milo got a pie face game for Christmas from Grandpa and Grandma Polifka, he even liked playing it without the Whipped Cream!

We went to Portland for a day! Voodoo Donuts! 

Polifka Family pictures 

Taken by Mallory Wilkes

Anacortes:

We took family pictures with Chris's family in Anacortes

Mom and Kids

Chris and his sister Miranda 

Graydon looking over the bridge! 

 Visiting Deception Pass

Washington Park

Graydon came on all of our adventures and we LOVED it! Graydon is the best and always down to have some fun! We can't wait to go back to Anacortes soon!