Ditte's delivery (Jeremy's perspective)

I suppose I ought to write something about my wife's recent delivery. As most of y'all know, Ditte is not your typical pregnant woman. No offense to any pregnant women who fit the typical mold, but man am I grateful Ditte isn't like that! She doesn't get moody (anymore than normal :) ) she doesn't have any crazy cravings like pickles and mocha ice cream in the middle of the night, she doesn't get that attitude of "I'm pregnant so I can't do _______" (I know there are some restrictions for pregnant women, settle down!) in fact I often catch her doing way too much! On top of it all, she is really, really blessed to have good deliveries.

It's amazing that they do actually get cuter.

So, I was at work on Thursday afternoon (I think crawling in someone's attic) when I get a call from Ditte. Nothing out of the ordinary, she asks how I doing and if I have any idea when I might be home. Then she casually throws out there that "we might need to go to the hospital tonight, but I'm just gonna relax for a little bit, and we probably won't have to go after all." I ask her if she needs me home right now, and she responds, "No, just finish whatever you're doing and if you are able to get off on time, go ahead and come home." I ask her again to make sure there wasn't a hidden meaning behind what she just said and she assured me there wasn't.
I get home pretty close to off on time, and she's piddling around the house picking stuff up and cleaning the kitchen up a little, nothing out of the ordinary. I asked how she was doing and she mentioned that she was having some contractions that were coming in pretty good, but she was fine otherwise. So I went about my business playing with the kids, etc. She went ahead and asked the kids to get their suitcase ready, just in case. I'm watching Ditte and she just isn't acting like I remember her acting right before the other kids were born, so I didn't think anything was going to happen that night. I was kind of bummed because I didn't want to go to work the next day. All of us were watching some TV and she mentions how we should probably go to the hospital tonight, again, very casually. I asked her when she wanted to go, and she said she would call her mom to see when she was going to be home. I probably should have taken more careful note at this point, but the guy in me obviously was kicked into the "duh gear" and it wasn't changing into another gear very easily. Over the next 10 or 15 minutes I noticed she was getting a little snappy with the kids. I was worn out from the day, it was a pretty warm one for us and I was working in Thousand Oaks crawling in some attics, so I was just kind of staring at the wall in space cadet mode.
"I think we should to go to the hospital pretty soon." "Do I have time to take a shower first?" "If you hurry!" I started thinking that something was serious. My mind was then forced into about 3rd or 4th gear and husband mode finally kicked in. (Yes, I took a shower and it was a quick one! Would you want your sticky stinky husband leaning all over you while in delivery? That's what I thought.) We threw the kids and their stuff in the car and off we went to gramma's house.
Because it was after 8pm, we had to enter the hospital through the emergency room, which they had totally changed around since the last time we were there. Yes, I asked her if she wanted a wheelchair and she said no. She wanted to keep walking for as long as possible to keep the labor and delivery as short as possible. After almost getting lost on the first floor of the hospital, we found our way to the elevators and up to the womens unit where they were expecting her.
After I tied up her sexy hospital gown, they hooked her up to the monitors and "I was able to tell her when she was having a contraction, with only about a 5-7 second delay!" I was pretty proud of myself. The hospital had gotten more tech savvy and had a computer monitor with both heart rates and the contractions on the same screen (with the other kids it was a continuos paper read out). One of the coolest things they had was an iHome! I brought the ipod in case Ditte wanted to listen to some music to help her concentrate, and much to my surprise and excitement a full on dock station for the ipod! I seriously showed it everyone that came to visit, and even some of the nurses didn't even know what it was! Back to the delivery.
When she got checked just after 9pm, she was around 5cm. When the doctor got there about 30-45 min later, she was around 8cm.
Some background here, Stephan & Marnie Lovstedt are really good friends of ours, and our Wyatt and their Penny were born on the same day, a year apart. We obviously set up an arranged marriage between them. So when we told them a while back that we were pregnant, they told us that they were also and the due dates were within 3 days of each other! So of course, it was planned from that minute forward that not only would our kids be born on the same day, but if they were opposite sexes, they would be married also! Isn't it just convenient as parents to make plans like that for your kids? Well, we just have it all figured out.
As Ditte was progressing, I kept whispering in her ear that she had to wait til after midnight, so that Scotty would not only be born on our 10 year anniversay, it would give Marnie more of a chance to have the kids on the same day. I got some laughs from her at first, but then she gave me the look like, "it's not funny anymore, and I am not going to hold it until midnight!"
Ditte got to a point where she was having to concentrate on breathing when the contractions came. Right about 9cm she had to do a few "hee hee hoo" breathing techniques. She looked at me a few minutes later and told me to tell the nurse, she was going to push on the next contraction. (For those that don't know, Ditte doesn't take any drugs). The doctor and the nurses came right on in, and within 2 contractions, Scotty jumped out and started crawling around looking for some toys to play with!
In all honesty, Ditte is an amazing woman! I don't think thats news to a lot of you, but I don't think a lot you know how amazing she is! I love her so much and am very proud of her for doing so well. Not only for the pregnancy and delivering of our children, but just how she deals with 3 kids at home all day! I feel like screaming into my pillow with dealing with all 3 kids all day! We really do have good kids, but when you get 1 or 2 of them in a bad mood, forget about it! Logic and common sense get thrown out the window and then forms this emotional roller coaster going through out our house. Is it the two older girls that emit this emotion all over our house? Anyway, I'm glad that I do have a few weeks to be at home and help out where I can. There are some benefits to working in Corporate America!

Our Little Scotty

I've been trying to get on here for the last few days, but alas, I have been a little tired. My Mom was nice enough to post on her blog about the birth of our new son, Scott Johannes Wager, 9lbs. 15oz, 22 inches long. Boy did I feel every inch of that baby inside me!

I'm not that great at writing details because they tend to get a little boring... but I'll try not to be too boring. I went into labor on Thursday afternoon. I was feeling some contractions in the late morning, but nothing I was really paying attention too, since I'd had those before. By about 3PM, after teaching piano lessons, I was starting to take notice of them. By the time Jerm got home around 5PM, I think I pretty much knew I needed to go to the hospital, but we were going to wait until about 8PM since my parents were at Pack meeting for Hans. So we got the kids all ready for bed and I was still busy doing stuff around the house. Jeremy didn't really know how serious they were because I was still moving around and stuff, but I was starting to get a little panicky. We got the kids settled at my parents and headed over to the hospital by about 9PM. They checked me and I was at 5cm. I thought I might labor until after midnight since I tend to have longer labors, but by 10:45PM, I knew I wasn't going to make it that far. The contractions kept coming and were pretty strong. BY about 11:10 I knew I needed to push and sure enough, after I pushed through one contraction, his head was delivered! My doctor let me keep pushing and out came his shoulders and body. At one point, I asked, is he out yet? It was like I forgot to keep pushing to get the rest of him out. The poor kid came out so fast that his little face was bruised for a couple of days. It's amazing how cute they get in just a few days as well.

Jeremy was great. I couldn't have done it without him. I love having him right by my side as we go through this ordeal together. He truly is my best friend and I am so grateful to have him home to take care of me for the next three weeks. It kind of feels weird to need to be taken care of, but I'm glad he's around to do it. He's so great with our kids and loves to be home, which I think is a real blessing.

Anyway, we are really happy to have our new beautiful son. Thank you Mom for being right by me and Else and Nance for rubbing my shoulders. Haans even rubbed my feet for me, as did Jerm. It was a little embarrassing how many people were in there, but once I closed my eyes and focused, I didn't notice at all.

The next day, the 26th, we had a surprise of our friends Stephan and Marnie being in the hospital, delivering their baby! We were hoping to go the same day, but our babies are only 15 hours apart! Pretty funny! They even had their room right next to ours! Their little girl is named Ginger Faye and is just a doll.

I guess that's it! On to rest and adjusting to a new little one! What a miracle life is!

New Piano!!!

After months of searching and dreaming, I finally found my piano! And I bought it! Last week while I was checking on ebay, I found a Yamaha, mahogany finish, for only $1,500! I was so excited! So I called the piano store where it was and went to look at it. The guy tried to sell me a new piano, "for only a little bit more". Anyway, Wyatt and I were there for about an hour trying to decide and we ended up getting it! It got delivered the next day right in time for my piano lessons! It is used, but to us it is beautiful and sounds and plays great. This picture doesn't do it justice, but it is a really nice dark red with a very glossy finish. My dad asked if we put a mirror in our dining room! Now I'm going to be a little bit anal about fingerprints all over it!

Cute little chef and architects

Yummy bread we made with some of the cinnamon roll dough.

I just wanted to put these pictures in of last Sunday's morning events. I wanted to make cinnamon rolls and Wyatt of course loves to help. He even helped me by putting three extra cups of flour in the dough when I wasn't looking. When I told him no, he got little watery eyes and a sweet pouty lip! Poor guy. I didn't mean to hurt his feelings, so I gave him a big hug and we scooped all the flour out. He is at such a fun age. I love being at home with him.

The girls, in the meantime, were constructing the biggest living room tent they have ever done. They even wanted to sleep in it that night. Atalie was the only one who ended up in there all night. Cozette got too scared! Kids are great!

This is some fun facial hair Jerm had for two days. He's had a goatee for about a month, but was going to shave it so he could work at the temple and be clean shaven for the baptism, so he decided to shave it like this just for fun. Too bad he has such tired eyes! :)

Update on prego

Just a quick update on me: I had an ultrasound this morning and everything looks good, even the way the cord is going into the placenta that my doctor has been worrying about is fine! I'm so glad! We should have a smooth labor and delivery. Also, the baby is measuring at 8lbs. 2 oz and I still have 2 1/2 weeks to go! We are looking forward to another whopper of a baby! I have everything ready for the baby except his little bassinet, but that can wait. Wyatt asks almost every day to hold the baby. He can't wait! Neither can the girls. I guess that's it for now!

Cozette's Baptism

Cozette and Jerm before we went into the chapel. The dress she is wearing was the one I got baptized in as well as all my sisters. My mom had been looking for it for a couple of weeks and found it in the attic after I had asked Nancy if she could make one for Cozette. So Nancy made one and Cozette decided she wanted to wear it after she got baptized instead. It was nice for me any way, to have her wearing something a little significant. I'm sure it's probably pretty silly, but I thought it made things more special!
Right after she got all "clean!" We are so excited for Cozette's decision. There was standing room only in the primary room. Most of the people were family, but we had friends there as well. Thank you to all those who came! Even Christian, who wasn't here for more than 24 hours came! Nancy gave the talk on baptism in the chapel for all the kids who were baptized. I even got up to "introduce" Cozette with the other mom's. It's hard talking about your kids because you want to say so much about them and it's hard to narrow the field! I talked about how she likes to do anything active, how she can drive her Nana's buggy and how she is very helpful around the house, kind of how Kirsten was when she was little! Kirsten was proud of me for not crying. I made it all the way through without tearing up until my mom gave her talk on the Holy Ghost and started talking about another white dress Cozette would be wearing in upcoming years! Yikes! It was a very nice service. Audrey, Cozette, Addy, Atalie and Hans also did really well with the song "When Jesus Christ was Baptized". They didn't forget any of the words!
Our family. Wyatt did not want to hold still for these pictures!
Cozette and her Daddy afterward in the dress her Nana made.
Gramps walking the boys around the table at the restaurant as we waited, and waited, and waited for our checks, not to mention we waited and waited for our food, too! Oh well. At least I didn't have to cook or clean for 30 people to come over to my house and eat after we'd been at the soccer field all morning! That's a whole other story! It was a great day!