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Pretty Baby

I just wanted to post some pictures of Scotty. They sure change fast! And I think with each child, their infancy goes even faster. Jeremy took the ones of him in the blue striped outfit last night and the others are from last week. Wyatt sure loves his little brother. Atalie is always whining about not holding him enough, but when she holds him, she lasts about 30 seconds. Cozette loves to hold him, too and is very proud of herself when she can calm him down.

Birthdays

Wyatt and I just had our birthdays and for the most part they were great. For Wyatt's we made homemade pizza and had the grandparents come over for some cake. I made two bundt cakes and put them on top of each other to make a giant pumpkin! We had so much leftover cake! He was so excited to get a guitar from Gramma and Gramps and we got him a new bike. Kids are great. He immediately wanted to start putting the bike together. When Jerm finished, Wyatt started riding it around the house. It was very cute and the only time he'll be able to do that!

My birthday was spent with a really high fever and a breast infection. So I was of no help carving pumpkins or even trick or treating. Mette was nice enough to give me a really great massage on my neck and shoulders while everyone was trick or treating. We didn't even get any pictures of the kids in their costumes. That's how out of it I was. It was nice to have Cristin and Erik here with their boys. Wyatt sure loves it when Luke (Wook) comes down.

My niece Audrey got baptized the next day and then Sunday we blessed Scotty. Jeremy gave a really nice blessing about how he was saved for this time because he is strong. That was very comforting, especially with Prop. 8 going on and let me just say how relieved and less stressed I am since that is all over, for now. These kids do need to be strong today with all this stuff that is happening! Protesters outside of the temple! I just can't believe that this is really happening.

Anyway...Happy Autumn to everyone!

Proposition 8

I have been thinking about this for days now, that I need to write something on here before we head to the polls on Tuesday. I haven't been able to nap during the day because I can't turn my mind off about this. Proposition 8 is a big deal. Our family has been praying for it to pass. We have donated money for it to pass, we have also donated a lot of time and so have many, many others. I know a lot of people think that we are intolerant of others. I disagree. I know that we are all God's children. I hope those who know me, know me as an unhateful person. I don't hate anyone. I may not agree with what you are doing, but I don't hate anyone. I think everyone should be treated equally and I feel that we already are. I know people will disagree because we want marriage to be between a man and a woman only. That is how God meant it to be. And if this proposition doesn't pass, will it then make it okay for a man to marry his daughter or a man to marry two women? When will the line be drawn? I also don't think it is okay for my rights to be taken away as a parent. Right now I have the right to say what is taught in school. If this doesn't pass, that right will be taken away from me. We could go on and on about this, but I know that it is morally wrong for a man to marry a man and a woman to marry a woman. I love everyone, but please don't push your beliefs on me. I hope you will all pray about this decision and do what is right. What is right for our kids and future generations. Vote YES on Proposition 8!

P.S. If you don't know what this is a picture of, you better read the Book of Mormon, in Alma. Jonathan, I hope you don't mind me using this! :)

New Pictures!

I just wanted to put up a few pictures of the baby and some of Cozette playing soccer. She played goalie, and did great. I love the one of her with sheer anticipation on her face! Kids are great! The girls have been very helpful with Scotty and even Wyatt wants to pick him up and carry him around. Yikes!

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!