Day 2 of our Sweden Adventure!

Day 2 Tuesday April 7th, 2015: When you stay in the Icehotel overnight, you literally only stay for the night and get out by 10am the next morning because they let people come in and tour the rooms. You can stay more than one night but you have to turn in your sleeping bag every morning so it's not left on the bed and then get it back the following night. Because they want to make sure you're up and out by this time, they send someone in between 7:30am and 8am to wake you and give you some hot ligonberry juice (it is delicious! It's one of their berries that grow there). But you see we were nowhere in sight when this juice arrived (they probably thought we were wimps who couldn’t handle it) because we had our own wakeup call at 7am...I had to pee. I HAD TO PEE REALLY BAD. And it didn't help that I had to untie the knot without my gloves, so my hands were cold then unzip the sleeping bag, wiggle out, get my shoes on, and walk to the dressing room. Oh AND as I was walking out someone stopped me and asked if I'd snap a picture for her, so being the nice person I was I did. Only she wanted several. And I. Had. To. Pee. Finally after she was finished she said "I can take some for you if you'd like"…my reply "no thanks, I have to pee REALLY bad". She apologized and felt extremely bad for asking. I finally relieved myself and swore that I'd never drink water before bed again. It gets me every time! But their water is so unique that I had to have a glass. Their water flows from the Torne River that is located directly behind the Icehotel which is also where they get all the ice to build with. You can literally go down to the river, when it's not frozen, with a cup and scoop up some water and drink it right there. It's amazing! Anyways, I sit down in front of the fire to warm up a bit and Chance meets up with me (I didn't even wait for him…I had to go). We decided we'd go book our excursions for the next two days then go have breakfast, get ready, go back to our ice room, take pictures and grab our sleeping bag.

Except upon returning to our room we found our sleeping bag had already been picked up and the extra pair of socks I had on the night before (but had taken off because I got snow on them) were missing. We still got our pictures though. We also went through most of the other rooms and it's astounding what the artists can do with snow and ice.



When you first enter the Icehotel this is what you seen.

This is looking back at the front door.

 

Come on, you know you were wondering if we did...but only Chance has evidence against him!

I mean come on, most people can barely make a decently proportioned snowman. The secret to how the snow was not melting fast is it's not really snow. It's what they call snice (snow and ice mixed). They put the snow through this blower machine which mixes it with water and compresses it, making it hold its shape longer and not melt as fast, then blows it out onto the frames they have set up to give the Icehotel its structure. They change the design and structure every year, so no two years will you go and see the exact same thing.
Our first excursion was getting a look into a mushers life by going on a dog sled ride (we had the choice to drive one ourselves or just ride…we decided to just ride and really enjoy it), having lunch, going to the kennel, then back to the resort. It was a four hour excursion which took up the first half of the day. We lucked out because we were the only ones on this excursion. Our musher/guide picked us up at the resort with the huskies ready. Walking to them, we learned that they aren't huskies like our husky, a pure bred Siberian husky. These are Alaskan huskies, mixed breed dogs, but they are referred to as huskies because of their ability to pull a sled. Some main features a husky has are long legs and as funny as it sounds a long tongue because it helps cool them off. At first I thought this was going to be a romantic ride where maybe me and chance would cuddle up in a sleigh and just enjoy the ride but that thought was quickly gone after the ride began. Not that it wasn't fun, I just really didn't know what to expect so I planned something super romantic. I blame this on movies because they set you up for failure in a real life experience. First off, the sled was just a long piece of wood that you straddle, thankfully having some padding on it with a reindeer skin on top. Second (warning to all those who sit in the front..ahem ME), how do you think huskies potty when pulling a sled for an hour? Yeahhhh. They do that while running too. Nothing flung up on me or anything, well snow did once (yes, it was SNOW), but sometimes I thought it might. Plus it made it stink pretty much the whole time because I could bet that every dog pooped at least once during the ride. That's 11 dogs folks. Past that though, the ride was super peaceful and mind blowing.

 

These dogs were trained to pull hundreds of pounds. Not forcefully either. These dogs were eager to pull us. They couldn't wait. Matter of fact when we stopped for a small break to stretch our legs, the musher thought he had the breaks on good but as we walked toward the sled to get back on, the dogs got super excited and took off! LOL! You should've seen us chasing that sled. Of course the musher got close enough and told them to stop and they did. They listened to the musher without him even yelling. He just spoke in a normal tone and they heard him. The lead dogs, the main ones needing to hear him, are at least 20 feet away. When my kids are just 3 feet away, I still have to raise my voice for them to hear me. Selective hearing they have. Back to the ride. To get to the cabin for lunch you had to go through some wooded area. Let's just say after the bumps and hills we went over, I just knew I was going to step off that sled an inch shorter. No.shocks.what.so.ever. It actually kind of gave me a headache. However, it was still a blast! So we get in the cabin where it's nice and warm. There's no running water or electricity in this cabin so guess what? No bathroom. Just an outhouse and pee tree. No, really. There's a specific tree designated as "the pee tree". Thankfully I hadn't had any water so I was good. There was a SUPER small kitchen (I can't even believe it's considered a kitchen) with a gas burner and a bucket for the sink. They had several big jugs full of river water for drinking or washing purposes. And they heated everything on the wood stove that also heats the cabin. Energy efficient to the extreme. However, this "kitchen" didn't hinder the guides ability to fix a scrumptious lunch. Yes the same GUY who was the musher, fixed our lunch. He brought everything with him in a backpack, except for the main dish...moose! We had a 2 course meal with chips and pretzel sticks as a starter. And these chips were amazing. They looked like plain ruffles chips but they had some kind of seasoning on them. We also had river water and some delicious strawberry Kool-Aid type juice to drink. For the appetizer we had mushroom soup with bread. Now, neither me nor Chance like mushrooms but after being in the cold for an hour with wind smacking you in the face...anything that could warm you up was delicious. Granted it was probably like an MRE powdered packaged soup that you just add water and heat (totally kidding..well I really don't know if it was or wasn't), it really was delicious and he put some spice on top to give it that kick. Talking about it makes me want some now. And the bread...oh.my.goodness. It's not like our square pieces. This looked more like a small pizza crust, but cooked and not tough. Oh man, it was so good. We dipped the bread in the soup and were on cloud 9! Hoping the entree would be half as good as the appetizer, we were served chopped up MOOSE and vegetables with a side of mashed potatoes. The guide told us he was going to give us more meat and fewer potatoes because usually he gives more potatoes and they never get eaten and people always ask for seconds of the meat. Our verdict: it was good. Really good. But not spectacular. To me, it tasted like beef jerky. I liked mixing the meat with my potatoes. When I told him that he kind of looked at me weird and I responded with "it must be an American thing" but if you know me you know I do NOT mix my foods. I need a plate that separates each food and I only eat one food at a time. I guess that was just my cover up on how to tell him it was good just not spectacular. After eating and watching him wash dishes (he washed pans, plates and all in his little "sink" carefully, EXCEPT our cups. I watched him dip them in the soapy water then in the rinsing water and put them up to dry. He didn't actually take a wash cloth to the sides where our lips touched. Immediately I'm thinking “I hope the person who drunk out of these before us doesn't have any diseases or sickness”. I'll just tell myself he was symbolizing a dish washer. Yeah. Dish washers don't use wash clothes either...) we checked out one of the other cabins that you can stay in on an overnight husky excursion in search or the auroras. It was nice but we didn't book that because we had already paid for our rooms at the resort. We then headed off to the kennel. No sooner than the sled started moving Chance got a bad charley horse in his leg, but he just kept his leg stuck straight out and we kept on riding. We get to the kennel and there's over 100 dogs...talk about loud. I don’t know if I believe the musher when he says it's quite at night. But then again, I guess they're usually pretty tired after a long day’s work. See, a bunch of mushers move there from all over Europe every winter to do these excursions and stay at this kennel. Our musher was from Estonia. And actually 3 of the dogs pulling our sled were his. Anyways, again these dogs are super smart. After they were unharnessed they each knew exactly where to go for their kennel...there's a lot of kennels. Usually 2 dogs per kennel, so around 50. After the dogs were put up, the guide showed us around the kennel a little then drove us back to the resort. Surprisingly the roads weren't bad. Of course, these countries are equipped for that kind of weather. We get back around 3pm and hadn't booked any excursions for that night (earlier that morning when we booked our excursions, we originally rented a car –mini cooper to be exact- that belongs to the IceHotel to drive up to Abisko Sky Station. This is the place that I talked about in the very beginning that is the best place to see the Northern Lights. Except we found out after we got back from the dog sledding that they had already closed the Sky Station for the season just a few days prior) so we decided to check in our warm room and then join in on a free tour of the Icehotel (you have to pay if you don't actually stay at the Icehotel) that was in English at 4pm.

This is where we learned about the snice, the Icebar, the church (also made of snow and ice; detached from everything else; and used for weddings and baptisms, no services), and how they build it every year. But the weirdest thing...as we were standing outside the Icebar listening to our guide, we looked up and there was a huge gaping hole in the roof. It had begun melting and collapsing (a huge piece fell in while we were standing beside it).

Later that night when you could really see the hole.

We had noticed that they had 2 x 4’s propped up against the doors that morning so no one could get in, but didn't know why. Plus remember we had just been in there the night before, technically early that morning. But again, it was the very end of the season so this was expected. Oh and remember the night before when we were walking around and I didn't want to lose my life to the dark? Come to find out the church is what was there. Well I didn't know that! So after the tour and going back in the last few rooms we hadn't seen yet, we had already decided we were going to take naps. We're on vacation, no kids...yes, we are getting an uninterrupted nap. Ha, I didn't even sleep but maybe 30 minutes. I was still on a high from the dog sledding excursion.

But of course, Chance dozed right off like always. We get up around 8pm and had dinner reservations at 9pm...late, I know but it was either at 6pm, meaning no naps, or 9pm because the 7:30pm slot was booked. Usually when you're alone and have dinner reservations with your spouse, you try to doll yourself up...yeah, not here. Don't bother packing those super cute dresses with heels because they'll just take up room in your luggage. Remember the fleece pants and sweater I was in the night before? I pretty much wore that under my snow suit the entire time we were there. Sexy right? It was too cold to worry about wearing anything else. We get to the restaurant, look at the menu and agree were going to have to step out of our comfort zone. For an appetizer we got scallops...disgusting. Neither of us liked them. For our main course we got a reindeer steak with a potato cake (potatoes in the shape of a piece of cake) and some kind of dried up fruit crumble (neither of us ate it because it was more of a garnish). Absolutely amazing!

Never did I think Rudolph would taste so good! For dessert I got fried vanilla mousse with cloudberries (another wild berry that grows there) and a dollop of orange sherbet ice cream.

Holy moly! Best dessert ever! And Chance got a raspberry ice cream with panna cotta.

His was delicious too!! Ironically, I was getting super hot because I had the fleece on plus my snow suit pants still on and they, of course, have the furnace set to super hot so after dessert we had to high tail it out of there. For once I was excited to get outside! It was about 10pm when we left, we get outside and the sky is pretty clear so we decided to go behind the Icehotel by the river and sit and hope the auroras come out. It had been super cloudy (and apparently rainy, but we slept through that) just an hour before and the level was only a 3 (on a scale to 9) to see them that night but we were hopeful. Remember when I said its dark here? Really, really dark? You've never seen so many stars in your life.

It was so dark, we couldn't even adjust to the brightness of the flash and hold our eyes open!

This is behind the IceHotel where we sat and waited for the auroras. Down by the tee-pee to be exact. The tee-pee is where the moved the "IceBar" since the original one collasped.

The walk way to the IceHotel. The gift shop is on the left.

We weren't the only hopeful ones either; another family came right after us and then two others. The first family that came just so happened to be from Maryland so we talked for at least an hour with them before they went in because of the cold. And if you're wondering, almost every one that we came in contact with, not just the workers but even the visitors spoke English. You know, that should make Americans feel horrible. We say things like "if you don't speak English you don't belong here!" Or "there shouldn't be a press 2 option" when making phone calls, "we're American, they need to learn English!"...I know because I USED to be one of those people. We've made it so hard on others that they've had to learn our language to visit the land of the free and we expect them to know ours when we go elsewhere. What's right in that? If living in another country has done one thing for me, it's opened my eyes to have compassion for other ethnicities. Because here, we're the outsiders. But the Italians (well most) or other places we've visited don’t treat Americans the way Americans treat others. They try to communicate with us in our language, not huffing and puffing that we can't speak their language. Stepping off my soapbox...we waited until midnight out in the cold and then decided we'd head back to the room and wait for a call if they appeared. See, if you stay at the Icehotel you can be put on a call list so that when the auroras appear, instead of standing outside waiting all night in the cold because they can appear generally from 10pm-2am, they give you a call and you run outside. Unfortunately, that night we didn't get a call.

Our trip to the IceHotel..Day 1!

Three nights, four days to ourselves. No kids. This is big. We haven't been on a trip together since Florida 2008 after Jayden died. What will we do? Are we sure we can leave the kids that long? Santorini, Greece sounds nice. Orr remember that blog you came across about the northern lights? I think that was in…oh yeah Abisko, Sweden (one of the best places to see the northern lights because they have such clear skies and little light pollution, both of which are vital to seeing the lights). Ah, that would be awesome to see. Unfortunately, we've waited too late in the season and not many people are still booking northern light excursions in the north because the midnight sun is coming (they have 50-70 solid days of sunlight in the summer...no.dark.at.all.) and the window to see the lights is almost up (end of September to end of March). Oh but wait…what's this about an Icehotel?! Made completely of ice and snow...and you get to sleep in it?! Get out. Where is this again? Oh, Jukkasjärvi, Sweden also known as…IN THE ARTIC CIRCLE. Dear lord, I've seen enough snow this year...buttt this sounds like an adventure. An adventure you can only do without kids (not saying kids can't go and have fun in the snow, because we all know Gavin would have loved it…but having to dress them up and undress. Not to mention the constant complaining of I'm cold, I'm cold). Plus it's away from light pollution and in the aurora belt, so we could possibly see the lights. THIS. This is it! They have so many activities so even if we didn't see the northern lights…it'd be worth it.
 
Jukkasjärvi, Sweden it was.
 
This is what was going through my mind while trying to plan our excursion.
 
Day 1 Monday, April 6th, 2015: We dropped the kids off at a church family members house (whom we appreciate, love, and thank so much!!). Have I mentioned how blessed we are with our church FAMILY? This is what I'll miss most about Italy. Yes, we have blood family in the states. But they don't get us like our family we've made here. They share something with us that not a lot of our family does and that's a close relationship with God. They don't sugar coat anything to make you feel like you're a good person. They deeply care for us and us for them. Getting a little off topic...we then headed to Venice airport for our 11 hour journey to Jukkasjärvi.

 

We had two layovers. One in Copenhagen, Denmark..

and Stockholm, Sweden..

then finally arriving in Kiruna, Sweden where we took a shuttle (which I might add was amazing inside. It had lights in the roof to sort of symbolize the aurora borealis! I didn't want to be that American who takes pictures of everything…but that later changed) to the Icehotel. You could also arrange for a dog sled to pick you up at the airport and take you to the Icehotel and then back to the airport when departing but because we were arriving so late and leaving super early and it's already cold with the sun out…you can imagine it's colder with the sun down. Plus there’s no shelter while riding on the sled, AND it took 90 minutes...we decided to pass. Going here we learned that currency was way different. At least in euro, it's sort of similar (you can almost guesstimate stuff, like $20 equals around 25-27€). But here...oh my word. Let me grab a receipt. Okay, for two pair of wool socks, a normal beanie for Chance, and an Eskimo hat for me, it costed 764 Swedish krone (SEK)!!! When you hear that price and don’t use a similar conversion, your heart kind of skips a beat and your mind immediately goes to "these socks better give me super powers and this hat better be made of gold", lol! BUT after converting it, while still a lot for those 4 items and granted they were bought from the Icehotel gift shop, it was around $90. Much better! Anyways, we get to the Icehotel (it's a resort type place that has the actual Icehotel plus warm cabins in case you don't want to be a Popsicle and a restaurant) and get our luggage squared away in the dressing room because anything we took out with us would freeze. The dressing room is for the people staying in the Icehotel. It has showers, bathrooms, changing stalls, a sauna, and a living room type area to hang out just in case you get too cold. It was nearly midnight, but we still wanted to walk around and check out what we could. So we suited up (we had bought some cool snow suits before we came figuring it wouldn’t be our only time needing them) as it was -3 Celsius (around 26 Fahrenheit) outside. Detached from the Icehotel was a huge igloo place, also known as the Icebar. This was our first siting of what the inside would possibly look like in our cold room we were staying in, so inside we went. Obviously this is where you can have drinks but the cool part is, the cups are made of ice! The "chairs & tables" we're also ice with reindeer skin on top.

Front of the IceHotel

Inside the IceBar

The outside of the IceBar

Come to find out how they made this igloo is they took a huge balloon (I'm assuming a hot air balloon) and sit it in that spot, then sprayed water over it until a nice thick layer of ice had formed then they deflated the balloon and wa-la! This was the first year they had tried this design. We later learned that there was another "igloo" attached as a concert room but it had collapsed before we got there due to it being the end of the season. When I say end of the season, I mean we went there from Monday-Thursday and they shut the entire resort down that following Sunday because everything was beginning to melt. And when I say melt, yes that means they let the Icehotel melt every year and rebuild a new one every year. They bring in artist from all around the world every year to design it (if you think you could do it go to their website Icehotel.com and submit a form!). This year they were celebrating their 25th year! After leaving the Icebar, we walked around the back of the Icehotel and not having seen this place in the daylight, therefore not knowing what was in the dark (remember no light pollution…so VERY dark), I told Chance I'd rather live to see my kids again (you know what I'm talking about…how on movies people go in dark dark places you know they shouldn't because something bad is going to happen...well I'm not that stupid and can tell when I shouldn't go somewhere I ain't suppose to), so we turned around. We then decided we were super tired and ready to go to bed. We go get our sleeping bag (you get the option of a single sleeping bag or a double) and a snow mitt (I wanted to take my iPod out with us to take pictures so I had to put it in this so it wouldn't freeze). We chose a double sleeping bag because I'm thinking body heat will help keep us warm. Yeah. Never again. Think about it. When you go to get out, you can't just slide it off because someone else is sitting on the other side. So you have to wiggle and whatnot to get out, plus you can't pull it up over your head because again someone is next to you and might not want it over their head, so I had to burrow down in it. Back to the story. There's five types of rooms you can stay in: art suites, northern lights suites (we were thinking they'd have some big hole in the roof in case the northern lights were to appear and you could see them while laying on your block of ice but no, it's a room with lights set up to glow across the ceiling symbolizing the auroras...it was still beautiful though), snow rooms, ice rooms, and deluxe suites which have a separate room apart from the Icehotel with your own sauna and bathroom. We had booked the northern lights suite. We get in our room, look around and immediately think…"what have we gotten ourselves into?" Then about 2 minutes later Chance slid and fell! LOL! The bed thankfully had some sort of thin mattress so we weren't completely uncomfortable. Oh, and of course because everything is built out of snow and ice there were no doors to the rooms, just a curtain.  It's always a chilly -5 Celsius (23 Fahrenheit) inside the Icehotel, so it wasn't UNBEARABLE for us. However it was still extremely cold. So we crawl in our sleeping bag, zip it up, draw the string creating a hole only for our heads (yeah imagine that in a double sleeping bag…not much room to move) and then tie knots in the string so it doesn't come undone during the night (you're given all these instructions before they send you out). Chance decides he's going to sleep like he usually does at home, on his side with one arm sticking out of the covers. I told him he's going to wake up and his arm would be black and frost bitten. His arm slept inside the sleeping bag. Although, they tell you not to sleep with your head under the "covers" because it'll create condensation or something another and usually I cannot stand my head to be covered but this time, I had to keep it covered. I can't sleep if my nose and ears are cold. If you're wondering what we wore or you're supposed to wear, they tell you all you need is thermals and the sleeping bag. I had on a fleece sweater, fleece pants, a hoodie with my hood up, gloves, and one pair of socks. I'm pretty sure Chance had on sleeping pants, socks, a long sleeve thermal plus his snow jacket...only thermals, ha. Now the worst part of staying in the Icehotel. Trying to fall asleep. When you're that cold, for me, it's super hard to fall asleep. But with the fake auroras dancing on our ceiling, it helped relax me and I finally passed out around 2am. But don't think it was a solid sleep, because I kept waking up to my face being cold even under the sleeping bag.

 

 

Super blurry but its the only photo we have of us in the sleeping bag.

Goodnight guys! Stay tuned for Day 2! ;)

I Cheated Child Labor!

No seriously. If you ask me how long I was in labor, my response is 45 minutes.

Saturday January 18th, 2014 "Estimated Due Date"
Obviously, no baby. Hadn't even lost my mucus plug yet. Was definitely starting to feel like I was going to be pregnant forever. I was so uncomfortable. Couldn't sleep or join in any physical activity with my kids because my previous 89 pound body was to its breaking point.



Very beginning..3 weeks 6 days.

40 weeks!

Sunday January 19th, 2014
I decided on this day I was going to try and make him come. I started doing laps up and down our stairs then my calves began to hurt so I quit after 3 laps. I got discouraged then mad and decided I'd try dancing with the Kinect. Me and Gracie broke it down to a couple songs then had a nice nap. Woke up, went to the bathroom to find I had started to lose my mucus plug! Excitement set in and so after church that night me and Chance decided to break it down (get your minds out of the gutter...we danced you fools!) some more.

Monday January 20th, 2014
Danced some more, lost some more of the mucus plug, nothing out of the ordinary. Every day when I got Gracie off the bus her bus monitor would say "Oh no, Mommy's still here." Yep, Mommy's still here, thanks lady. She really meant "Oh no, Mommy's not at the hospital yet" but she's Italian and I let it slide.

Tuesday January 21st, 2014
Figured since it looked like I might be pregnant for a little longer might as well detail the van and get the car seats reorganized. 40 weeks and 3 days pregnant. Thankfully a good friend brought over her exercising ball that night, so my back pain was relieved quite a bit.

Wednesday January 22nd, 2014 also known as MARCUS' BIRTHDAY!
4 days "over due" but trying to soak in each painful day of our last pregnancy. It would be the last time I ever felt kicks, heard a heartbeat besides my own in my body, be physically intwined with our children, or have the "pregnancy glow" with a beautiful round basketball tummy. But alas, at 4am my body decided today is the day. Contractions started but weren't very consistent.
6am- I had to get Gracie up and ready for school. While she got ready, I sat on the exercising ball trying, if anything, to help engage the baby.
7:20am- got her on the bus and off to school then came back in the house to start getting ready for our 40 week OB appointment. Contractions were still there, but still nothing consistent.
9:30am- Arrived at my appointment and by then the contractions were 10 minutes apart and 30 seconds long. I still was unsure if I was in labor. With Gavin my contractions started out minutes apart and I knew forsure I was in labor the moment I felt the first few. The nurse asked me if I was having any pain and of course I let her in on what was going on. The week before we had discussed sweeping of the membranes as our last measures at this appointment to hopefully avoid induction. The doctor came in and from what I had told her she figured I was in early labor. I asked about the membranes and if it would help move things faster so we'd have a baby today but was afraid that if I wasn't in labor that it would make me more uncomfortable, possibly make contractions happen for a little while, stall out and then end up being induced anyways. Lifes about taking risks though, right? So while checking me, which I was at a 4 and 75% effaced, she sweeped the membranes and said " I'd like you to stay around base for a while [she was a new doctor who had gotten word about me previously not making it to the hospital and she wanted to be sure I made it this time]; go walk, get some breaskfast and see how you feel in a little while. It'll surprise me if I don't see you back in a few hours".  She left the room and I told Chance that we weren't getting to far from the hospital. The contractions immediately got closer and a little bit stronger, but nothing actually painful. So we came back to the house, loaded the van with hospital bags and what not, pulled Gracie out of school, went to Subway and grabbed some lunch while being asked by many "no baby yet?" to which I replied "he'll be here today". I don't think people caught on that I was in labor. I mean, I didn't look it nor feel like I was. After we ate, we decided it best to take the kids to our friends just incase this was the real deal and things moved quickly like they did with Gavin. Contractions by now were 4 minutes apart lasting about 45 seconds. We dropped them off then I realized I forgot my camera at the house. Out of everything I could have forgotten, I forgot the most important thing. We had to go back home and get it. On our way back Chance looked at me and said "See, I feel like we're doing it right this time. You know, how you see on movies they're always running around getting last minute things taken care of like this before they rush to the hospital to have the baby?" I looked back at him disgusted saying "I feel like we're doing it wrong. I want to be home." We got to the house, grabbed the camera and I quickly used the bathroom where I discovered the "bloody show".  I told Chance we might want to make our next stop the hospital, because you know me I wanted to go check the mail and all. Heading back to the hospital, Chance made sure to hit every bump and pot hole that he could when I had a contraction.

1pm- We arrived at the hospital, got up to L&D where they luckily got me in a room because apparently everyone on base decided today was a good day to have a baby (if there's not enough room at the base hospital for you then you're sent to the Italian hopsital and after my experience there with Gavin they'd have either delivered me in the hallway or I'd been having another unassisted homebirth). I presented them all with this nice birth plan:

Dear Staff of Aviano Air Base Medical Center, Labor & Delivery:

We are looking forward to sharing our upcoming birth with you. We have created the following birth plan to help you understand our preferences for our labor, birth, and postpartum. We fully understand that if a medical emergency occurs, these guidelines will need adjustment, and we are flexible, but it is our hope that you will assist us in making this the experience we hope for.

Labor:

·         The freedom to walk, move, and change positions as desired throughout labor/birth

·         Use of the shower as desired

·         Pain medication/anesthesia only at my request- --please NO offers

·         Hep-lock ONLY for IV---no fluids or any other medicines running unless an emergency occurs

·         Minimal cervical checks

·         Wireless belly monitors if available. If not then only to be hooked up minimally.

Birth:

·         I want to choose the position in which I give birth

·         No one to touch me while pushing---i.e no one “stretching” me so that I won’t tear. Just catch the baby!

Postpartum:

·         Wait a few minutes for the cord to be cut

·         Following birth, I want immediate contact with baby; baby placed on my chest, parents and baby left undisturbed for one hour following birth

·         I plan to exclusively breastfeed and would like to begin nursing shortly after birth

·         Any newborn procedures performed after first hour

·         All baby exams done in the presence of the parents

If for some reason a life threatening emergency happens I give my husband complete authority over me, to make decisions on my behalf if I am unable to.

Thank you so much for your kind and understanding care. Your assistance in achieving our ideal birth is greatly appreciated.

The doctor checked me to see if any progress had been made since that morning and I was dilated to a 5, 75% effaced, and -2 stationed. I requested the wireless monitors because I assured them I would not be laid up, strapped to the bed. Twice they "accidently" almost put the wired ones on me but I made sure I  got the wireless. Then they came in and inserted my hep-lock IV, which was incase an emergency was to arise and they needed to give me any medication, fluids, etc. About an hour later our photographer showed up. I walked around, sat on the exercising ball, chit-chatted, peed, ate ice chips and white donuts...you know just passing time while contracting.

The entire time I kept repeating "I feel like I'm cheating labor". It was seriously no pain stronger than my 4 year old (ahem 5 almost 6 now) could probably handle. I talked through almost every contraction. I didn't feel like the contractions were doing anything to my body and honestly I didn't think we were going to have a baby today. There was even a point where the nurse came in and said your contractions seemed to have spaced out...they're 6-7 minutes apart. I said "I know, I can tell." I mean don't get me wrong, I could tell they were progressively getting stronger because I began to start moaning through them, but they still weren't THAT bad.

 

The nurse repositioning the monitors to see if that's why my contractions weren't reading consistently.

Our photographer even was worried we weren't going to have a baby anytime soon because she said by 6pm if nothing was happening she would have to head home (she has a toddler of her own). Bummer, but completely understandable. So around 4:15pm my sister called not knowing what was going on so I gave her the 411 (I had text her but forgot she didn't have internet to receive the text). We talked for about 15 minutes and then I had a pretty strong contraction so I let Chance end the conversation. Right after that contraction, I had another. Chance and the photographer had started to shut the blinds in the room because the sun was going down and you're not allowed to have them open while giving birth incase there was a peeping tom out there. And as Chance had his back to me not paying a bit of attention, really focused in on shutting the blinds, I said "Something's about to happen. I just had two contractions back to back and that doesn't happen unless something's about to happen". No sooner than I finished my sentence, my water broke (this was roughly about 4:35pm). 

 

Talking to sissy.

First serious contraction.

Water broke.

Things just got real.

So with a louder voice I said, "uh my water just broke". He immediately walked out in the hallway and said "her water just broke" because we know how quick Gavin came after my water broke. You'd have thought someone was giving away one hundred dollar bills with as fast as they got in my room and prepped. But still, I sat on the bed, in absolutely no pain wondering where this baby was. I wondered, did my water break and I'm not fully dilated? This was completely different. Because I wasn't feeling the need to push yet, the doctor and some of the nurses decided to leave the room. The thing is I was feeling the need to push but didn't feel like I could unless I was on the toilet. The nurse in there didn't think it was a good idea but I got my way and went and sat on the toilet. I did actually have to pee but then the pressure got worse.

 

The nurses standing around waiting...

So I made my way back to the bed where my body finally decided it was go time. With my belly facing the back of the bed and my knees planted in the crease, kind of like squatting, I began to push. Now please don't think I was as happy here as you seen in the pictures I posted on Facebook or as pain free as I've been gloating about...because I was not. Pain was horrendous and I kept saying I couldn't do it. I started to cry because I didn't want to do it. And there was a difference in pushing this time...with Gavin my contractions were constant so there was never a moment I wasn't pushing after I started. Here, I had to work with my contractions. They weren't constant. They came and then went away for a minute then came back. At one point, I remember it feeling like his head was half way out then all of a sudden my contraction left me high and dry and I couldn't push without it. I don't think I've ever wished so badly to have another contraction. 

 

 

Finally that contraction came and with a few more big pushes and me wishing they would just pull him out (but they didn't), Marcus Avery Ryan was born at 5:25pm. As the doctor, nurses, and Chance were gawking at him I face planted into the back of the bed feeling so relieved. He made no sound, just like Gavin (I'm pretty sure the med-free birth contributed to this because Jayden and Gracie came out screaming...or maybe it was because I was induced with them and they weren't ready to come out and the last two boys came on their own...). He just looked around taking everything in. I felt horrible because I didn't care to hold him right that second. They kept saying "just look down, you can see him!" or "if you'll turn over you can hold him" but I just wanted to breathe for a moment.

 

The awesome doctor who spent Marcus' first few mintues with him. He made a face at her and she mimicked it.

 

Finally after a few minutes, my 8 pound 8.1 ounce baby was passed to me and again my heart grew.

 

 

Following in big brothers footsteps, before even being handed to me he had pooped in the towel. Matter of fact, there was meconium in the bag of water. Seeing as he hadn't been getting the proper nutrients in utero (scarasm), he instantly took to the boob and was a pro-nurser from the get go (I think those 4 extra days benefitted him).

 

Yep, I was hungry minutes after birth.

 

Chance had planned to go get the kids and bring them up to see the baby then go home with them, leaving me and the baby at the hosptial. I was okay with this plan except I was still contracting really bad and in a lot of pain. Not to mention the hormones exiting my body turned me into a bawl bag. So we decided the kids would meet him tomorrow and we would soak up every second for now. We got to our new room and the night went smooth. Marcus slept in the plastic bin beside me and only woke a few times. The next morning after breakfast and showering, Chance ran home to let the animals out and get cleaned up then went and got the kids. I hear them coming from down the hall and after Gracie seen him she went to the bathroom sniffling. I asked her what was wrong, and she said "I'm just so happy he's finally here!" Best.sister.ever! I asked her if she wanted to hold him and instantly she jumped in the bed. Gavin on the other hand just kept pointing to him saying "baby" but he didn't want anything to really do with him or me. He was angry with me. I had someone else in my arms. I barely got a kiss bye when they left.

 

 

That night it was just me and Marcus, even though I was told I would be going home with my family. They really had no reason to keep me. I had a non-medicated, natural birth with no complications. What was the deal? Oh yeah, remember that baby boom? They were over their heads with paper work and hadn't got to mine yet. Even the next day, they didn't release me until after dark around 6pm.

Finally our family was complete and all together!

 

 

Fast forward one year and three months...

• Marcus is one year old.
• He was exclusively breastfed until 6 months and still breastfed until 13 months.
• He had all of his front teeth by 10 months and has all of his besides the top two canines now.
• He started walking a few days after his first birthday and unfortunately daddy wasn't there to see.
• His first word was da-da and didn't say ma-ma until he was 11 months.
• As I mentioned above, he wasn't born crying and he didn't cry for his first 24  hours of life, not even when the doctors were messing with him. But now, he loves to scream and roar at you!
• He literally was happy and quite all the time...except for at night when he was teething.
• His first two-three months of life he wouldn't sleep unless he was on mine or Chance's chest in the recliner on the couch. Then he started rolling and I was sleeping good although he was sleeping all night, so we transitioned him into the rock n play then into his own crib at 6 months where he's been since.
• He rolled over from his belly to back right before he turned one month old.
• He began crawling around 9 months.
• He would not eat baby food. Every blue moon maybe sweet potatoes but switched solely to table food by 8 months.
• For the first few weeks of life, he would hum while he was asleep.
• He traveled to the states on his first birthday.
• He's never taken a bottle. Not even with breastmilk. He went straight from the boob to a hard top sippy.
• He got pneumonia while in the states after we had been snowed in for 5 days.
• He loves to climb on anything. Dare devil to the extreme.
• He knows sign language. Thank you, eat, milk, all done, please, and more.
• He loves to sing "Let it go" "Hotdog, hotdog, hot diggity dog" VeggieTales theme song, and Baby Signing Time theme song.
• VeggieTales, Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, and Baby Signing Time are his favorite things to watch.
• He loves to be outside.
• He has stranger danger meaning he acts like he will run from us but once he notices we're not following, he'll come back.
• He can say "da-dou" (thank you); 1, 2, 3 GO!
• He's our only daddys boy so far.
• He loves to be sung to to sleep, "Jesus loves me" in particular.
• He loves to worship in church. He even lifts his little arm.

Marcus,
You are such a blessing and perfect addition to our family. I didn't know how it was going to work being out numbered kids to parents...but not for one moment have we ever regretted it. Matter of fact, we've chosen to have more if God sees fit. You strengthened our faith in God when he healed you in my womb. You are a delight to watch. If that's all the rest of my life consisted of, that would be okay. You make me laugh even when I don't want to. Your personality is contagious and addicting. Raising you is so tiring, but I'd never trade one single cent to miss a moment. I love to watch your little mind work. You are most definitely a problem solver. I pray you grow up a strong and mighty man pursuing after God. He has an amazing plan for you. We love you so very much!

I wanted a decent picture with all of us looking and Jayden's picture in it. With 3 kids that's nearly impossible. So, I took the one image our photographer got of us all looking and edited it myself to make it look like Gavin was holding the picture. Hopefully you wouldn't have been able to tell if I hadn't told you!

 

This is the original.

 

He, obviously, is not a fan of cake.

Birthday party!

 

Birth and Newborn Photography done by Wibbly Wobbly Photography

One year family photos and smash cake session done by Randi Underwood Photography

Birthday party pictures done by myself.