Photo shoot

Kate

Sam

Sam and Kate

Kate

Sam, meet Kate

Because of RSV/Flu season, kids were not allowed in the hospital when we had Kate. However, they do allow siblings to come visit their new siblings for 1 hour, 1 time. And they make it a birthday party. Happy Birthday Kate.

When Sam first walked into the hospital room he wanted nothing to do with his mom or his new sister. I think he was scared of all the wires and weird things and big bed. It took him a while to warm up to the idea of being there. Once we gave him his cake and ice cream he was good to go. We got him to give Kate a few kisses but he still didn't really like her that much.

Sam giving Kate a kiss

Sam eating his birthday cake

Playing Peek-a-boo behind the curtain

Doing the worm on the floor

Sam, the big brother

Sorenson family picture. St Patricks Day. March 17, 2012

Sam is warming up a little bit to Kate. He says "baby" a lot and he is ever curious to where she is and what she is doing. He will pat her head every once in a while and he also throws things at her. He gets upset when we are holding her and not him. He will get used to it and he will love his baby sister. We love them both!

Kate

Introducing

Katelyn "Kate" Elizabeth Sorenson

Born: March 16, 2012

Time: 8:59pm

Weight: 7lbs 2 oz

Height: 19.5 inches

Male pattern baldness

Lots of dark hair in the back

She has been healthy since she was born. She is a really good eater and a really good sleeper so far.

Kate was released from the hospital on Sunday morning before her mom was even discharged.

Trisha freezing cold, white as a ghost and fatigued.

Because of the blood loss and subsequent transfusion, Trisha stayed in the hospital until late Sunday. We didn't even think we were going to be able to go home on Sunday, so we were not prepared to get discharged. When they decided to discharge us, we ended up having to borrow a carseat from the hospital. Note to everyone out there: Make sure you bring the carseat with you, just in case.

Poor little Kate in this weird carseat. I have never seen anything like it in my life. At least she got home safely.

Birthing a baby

From my point of view:

Here is my timeline, with my own observations/comments/thoughts added in.

March 15-

9:30pm Gallop down the street. Laugh really hard. Trisha has a few contractions.

10:30pm Lavendar bath.

11:30pm I tell Trisha goodnight and tell her to wake me if anything happens.

March 16-

5:00am Trisha starts having contractions and I am dead asleep.

6:30am Wake up. Sam loves to wake up early these days. Trisha is having pretty consistent contractions. I get really excited.

We slowly get ready for the day, debating when to call the MD or go into the hospital. We decide to go grocery shopping and then maybe go in. We get home from the grocery store and I feel the need to make sure everything in the house is cleaned up. We leave Sam with his Nana Cheney.

12:00pm After having consistent contractions every 7 minutes, we arrive at the hospital.

We sit at the hospital for hours on end. Nothing seems to be happening and we get the vibe that we might be sent home. The contraction monitor is not showing any contractions, although Trisha swears she is having them. Trisha gets frustrated. Nurse is dumb. We have to wait for the doctor to get out of his clinic hours and come visit with us. Contractions slow down a little bit in frequency but seem to still be strong, maybe getting more powerful. Lots and lots of HGTV, driving me insane.

Trisha all hooked up

Stupid machine that wouldn't register any contractions. Not even when Trisha was pushing would the contractions register. Way lame.

5:00pm Doctor finally makes it to our room to check things out. He has to step out for a while to deliver another baby. Comes back into the room to check Trisha and thinks she is dilated to 4cm.

6:30pm Doctor tells us that it is gonna happen.

7:00pm IV fluids are pushed, Pitocin is started.

7:30pm Epidural is given. Doctor comes back in to check on Trisha, she is definitely dialated to 4cm and 100% effaced.

8:15pm Epidural is not working properly. Contractions are getting extremely uncomfortable. Trisha asks the nurse to get the anesthesiologist to up the dose of epidural. Nurse comes back and says that the anesthesiologist cannot up the dose yet.

8:20pm Trisha is not very happy that the epidural is not working. She says, "I can't do this! I wanted an epidural!!" She tells the nurse that she feels the need/desire to push. Nurse checks her and she is at 9cm.

8:25pm The pushing begins. I knew that Trisha would be a good pusher, but I think the nurse, myself and Trisha were all surprised how well it turned out. A few cuss words. Screams. Powerful pushing. At some point the doctor asks, "Do you want me to do an episiotomy? It will be a harder recovery and hurt more, but it will help move things along faster." Trisha replies, "How fast?" Doctor then says, "A few more pushes and you'll be done." Trisha exclaims, "Do it. I want it." Toward the end of the experience, Trisha seems a little bit wired/high/out of it, probably because of the pain. Nurse was excellent at coaching Trisha through the process.

8:59pm Several pushes later and we have a healthy baby girl! Trisha says, "Halle-freakin-lujah!!" We are so happy to have her here.

Baby is perfect, with a crooked nose. Lots of dark hair, darker skin.

Trisha holding the baby right after she was born

Also, the placenta would not deliver very easily. The doctor waited 30 minutes after the birth for the placenta to come out and it wouldn't. He tried to pull it out with all of his weight, but it wouldn't detach. It was crazy. He had to go in and seperate it and then pull it out. Trisha lost a lot of blood during the process of labor, about 4 quarts. That caused a lot of grief over the next few days and ended in a blood transfusion. She was in pretty bad shape. But after the transfusion, she felt so much better. Other than that, it was better than either Trisha or I ever expected. It went so fast! Both mom and baby are healthy and happy now.

Inducing labor

It came time to have a baby and we really wanted to help it along. I had the weekend off and I needed the baby to come over the weekend. So, Thursday night after work, Trisha and I went out for a nice gallop down the street. We walked to the furthest back cul-de-sac so that no one would see us and then we galloped. Mostly Trisha galloped along the curb, while I coached her along. It was hilarious!

This is a video of Trisha galloping a few nights before

More importantly, it worked. 30 Minutes of Galloping and we had a baby the next day. Happy Galloping!

Sam Man in the Emergency Van

A few weekends ago, our family was supposed to go to Salt Lake for a wedding reception and birthday party. Trisha had been to the doctor a few days before and he told her that she was not cleared to take the trip, so Sam and I ventured off on our own. Sam had a little cough as we started the trip, but nothing more. We got to SLC without incidence and played with Grandma and Papa. Friday night was the reception for Trisha's cousin, Katy. Sam and I went and stood in the hour long line of people. By the time we got to the greeting line, it was past Sam's bedtime and he was just plain grouchy. I tried my best to make him say "Hi" to everyone, which he generally loves to do, but he wouldn't have any part of it. He just turned his head and cried at me. We got to Bob (Trisha's uncle) and Sam reached his hands out for Bob to hold him. It was really cute. I didn't catch the picture in time, but Sam really did like his uncle Bob. The reception was beautiful, and I am glad Sam and I were able to go and represent.

After the reception we went to Texas Roadhouse with my mom and dad. Sam wouldn't eat anything and he was just tired. I knew he didn't feel well, when I picked him up and he fell asleep in my arms, that just doesn't happen anymore. We got home, gave him a breathing treatment and put him to bed. He nor I slept well that night. He kept coughing and turning and waking up and crying.

Sam at playland

Saturday, we went to McDonald's with all of Sam's cousins and played. We spent most of the day with family. Saturday night was the birthday party. Sam was getting more and more cranky by the second. Probably because of exhaustion and being sick. He wouldn't eat anything, not even cake and ice cream. He just wanted me to hold him the whole time. We had to leave because he was so cranky. We went back to my moms house and I fed him some real food, which he later threw up all over my mom and dads couch. Then I went to give him a bath because he had thrown up. I got really scared because when I took his pants off his legs were a blue/gray color, the color of dead people. It freaked me out. I thought maybe he wasn't getting enough oxygen to his legs. However, his arms and other parts of his body were colored normal, so I didn't know what to think. I called my mom into the bathroom and she looked and got scared as well. Then we called my dad in and he took one look at him and said, "It's probably from his pants." He was right. He had been wearing brand new blue jeans that had dyed his legs. What a relief that was. He seemed to feel a little better so I put him to bed. He then woke up every 2 minutes coughing and crying. I decided it wasn't worth trying to put him to bed on his own, so he came up and layed on the couch by me. He was having a really hard time breathing. I gave him a breathing treatment but the didn't seem to help at all, just made him more upset cause he hates that stupid machine. His chest just kept working harder and harder to breath and his heart was racing and he was so miserable. I was gonna wait it out until morning, but finally decided to take him into the ER. Just before I decided to take him to the ER, I get a text from Trisha that says, "hey, keep your phone on. I'm having some contractions. I'll call you if they continue." Oh great; a night at the ER and a laboring wife 3 hours away, not what I wanted...

Sam sick on the couch

We (Sam, my mom and I) got there at midnight. They got him right in and started doing things immediately. His heart rate was definitely elevated and his oxygen was a little bit low. Mostly his chest was so tight. They gave him a steroid and started a series of breathing treatments immediately. About 15 minutes after they gave him the steroid, he fell asleep and stayed asleep for most of the time we were at the ER. We ended up being there for 5 emotional and exhausting hours. Each hour, they would give him a breathing treatment of sorts then wait a while then the doctor would come in and check out his lungs. The doctor was never satisfied with his lungs and his oxygen kept dropping to 85. Luckily, our good friend, Esther, who works as a social worker at IMC, walked by our door about 3:00am. She kept us company, got us drinks, made us feel good and told us all the good stories about her crazy night in the ER with several level 1 traumas and a few deaths. Poor Sam was still just miserable while we sat in there. The diagnosis: Bronchiolitis, possibly viral pneumonia, but they didn't care to examine that further. About 5:00am the doctor decided it would be best to transfer him to Primary Children's by ambulance. I hesitated, but it's hard to go against what the doctor says. So, a 15 minute ambulance ride up to Primary Children's it was.

When we got to Primary Children's, they did an initial assessment, and acted like they didn't know why we had been transferred there. By this time Sam was acting more like himself and all his stats were showing it (of course). We just sat at Primary Children's for about an hour and a half and they monitored him before they finally discharged us and sent us on our way at 7:30am. We went home and got a short 3 hour nap. Sam was acting so much better at this point, but still had a lot of congestion. The doctor at the ER told us to come back to Primary Children's later on Sunday and go to the respiratory "Suction Shack." So, I took him there and the respiratory therapist analyzed him and confirmed that he still had a lot of congestion, but he didn't really need a suction. He said that because he was acting so great it seemed like he would be fine on his own, just watching him closely. So, after a long weekend, and a really long night at the ER I drove home to Vernal in a zombie state.

Sam in the ER, you can't see all the wires he's hooked up to. We had to hide those under the blanket so he would stop getting irritated with them.

Luckily Trisha didn't go into labor that night, and we kept the ER visit a secret from her until morning when we knew everything was okay so she wouldn't go into labor. Sam got progressively better on his own after that so we didn't have to do anything else. We are lucky since he has already had RSV and pneumonia and bronchitis that it wasn't more than it was and that he didn't need to be hospitalized.

All is well that ends well. Let's hope we don't have to do that again!

To The Rescue

My february book, "To the Rescue: The biography of Thomas S. Monson.

It was Saturday, February 25, and I was sitting on the couch with Trisha at my side. I express my frustration at the fact that I cannot get into this biography and that it may take me a year to finish. I was somewhere around page 200 of a 530 page book. She looks at me and says, "Yeah, sorry, there is no way you are going to finish that book by the end of February." That's all I needed, sounded like a challenge to me (Thanks, Babe!). Lucky for me, later that night, I reached chapter 19 which lead to 20 and 21. These three chapters are the best chapters in the book and the only reading that helped me stay interested and continue reading.

First of all, let me quickly tell you what I didn't like about the book. #1- Not organized. It did progress in a relatively chronological order but even that was all over the place. Ideas were scattered and not fluid. #2- Repetition. The author seemed to forget that she had already told some stories, and repeated them. I guess it's hard to remember what you've written if there is no organization to it. #3- Lots and lots of lists of names. Oh my goodness there was a lot of name dropping. Some, I agree, are very important people, but sometimes I got so bored reading name after name that I would skip to the next paragraph when the names were done being listed. Overall, I think that the information and stories could have easily been written in 250 pages.

Looking past the writing style and technique, the content of the book was awesome! I learned so many things about President Monson's life, how he was destined to become a prophet, how he was raised to be a great man, how he worked to be successfull and how he labored to support and uplift those in need. Let me share some of my favorites from the book.

On vacation in Vivian Park with his family, Tommy and his friend Danny cleared an area that was going to be used for a bonfire later that night. They lit the June grass on fire and assumed that it would just burn a small circle and then they would be able to extinquish it. To their amazement, the fire kept burning up the mountain side. All the family and townspeople came to the rescue to extinguish the fire. After the event he says he learned a valuable lesson that he has kept with him all his life: Look beyond the immediate to the possible conclusion of an activity. Simply stated, think before you act.

Giving a speech to a group of university students, he once said, "During the last half century, there has been in this country a gradual but continual retreat from standards of excellence in many phases of our life. We observe business without conscience; politics without principle; wealth without works...Refuse to compromise with expedience. Maintain the courage to defy the consensus. Choose the harder right instead of the easier wrong. By so doing, you will not detour, but rather will ever remain on the way to perfection."

As he was becoming a well established business man in the community and a righteous leader in the church, he came up with what he calls "Wisdom's Seven Watchwords" which he used to ensure that he remained successfull in all that he did. They are as follows: "Vision, Patience, Balance, Effort, Understanding, Courtesy and Love."

While he was serving as Bishop of the sixth-seventh ward, he had a pamphlet published titled, "A Guide to Happiness through Gospel Service." It outlined 5 principles to aid in teaching the gospel. 1- A personality filled with religious quality. 2- A genuine interest in people. 3-A knowledge of the gospel. 4- A wholesome attitude. 5- A utilization of good teaching methods.

Now come the best chapters in the book. Chapter 19- Weary Not, Chapter 20- Faith of the People, Chapter 21- The Wall Comes Down. So just when I was started to lose any faith in finishing the book by the end of the month, I got to the best cliff hanger of the book. At the end of Chapter 18, it says, "It would become a most significant chapter in his ministry- the rescue of the East German Saints." I know it's not really a cliff hanger, but it was an introduction to a story, and a story is what I needed to read.

President Monson was called as the apostle to supervise the European countries in 1968, about 7 years after the Berlin Wall had been put up. He was amoung one of the first civilians to be allowed to travel into East Germany, and he was definitely the first general athority to enter for decades. He frequently passed into the country through checkpoint charlie and he describes some of his thoughts as he drove through it for the first time. "As he and the Reeses drove toward Gorlitz, they passed through rural areas where farm machinery was horse-drawn, with not a tractor in sight...The autobahns were void of traffic, indicating the scarcity of automobiles in East Germany. Those who did have cars, wrapped themselves in blankets because their vehicles, for the most part, had no heaters." It is so crazy to imagine such a primeval and suppressed country and people! He continued saying his hotel was "the most archaic" he had ever seen with "a bed that resembled a box." President Monsons influence on the people of East Germany and the country would span many decades and would be an incredible blessing for the Saints that endured such hardship. On one of his visits, he delivered the following message to a gathering of Saints, "If you will remain true and faithful to the commandments of God, every blessing any member of the Church enjoys in any other country will be yours." It's hard to imagine that those words would come to fruition in a country imprisoned by a strong communist government. However, that promise was accomplished when the Berlin Wall finally came down and the church was allowed in to the country and a temple was constructed.

President Benson once said, "Only with a faith in the ultimate consummation of the Lord's purposes can people, with all their earthly possesions swept away, continue with spirits sweet and hearts free from bitterness... I promise you the richest of blessings of eternity inasmuch as you continue faithful." That seemed to be a motto for the Saints in East Germany, ever hoping and praying for the fulfillment of the Lord's promises. They were continually asked to abide by the laws of the land and be patient. "That kind of attention to the laws of the land and respect for the governement leaders and the rules they imposed would benefit the Church in years to come..." No doubt it would have been hard to live through the hardships of the time, but the Saints followed the councel of the Church and the laws of the land and in the end, they found freedom. There are countless experiences told in regards to his supervision of East Germany through the decades of change. President Monson was huge in influencing the government but more importantly in directly touching the lives of those members.

Another long term project in the life of Thomas Monson started during his experience in East Germany. The "clothing project" as it is called. His secretary has said that she estimates "he has given away up to ten suits a year for forty years, not to mention the other items of clothing he has shared." That is quite the humanitarian project in itsself for one man to accomplish. And how great for all of the recipients of those articles of clothing. Pretty cool, I think.

At the conclusion of his work in East Germany, he stated, "I have learned from my experience...that man's extremity is but God's opportunity. I am a living witness of how the hand of the Lord has been made manifest in watching over the members of the Church in what once were Communist-ruled countries." Isn't that true? Doesn't it always seem that we learn so much and gain so much strength and insight in times of trouble and hardship? It is an interesting concept, but one that I believe to be true. The hard moments in our life are the ones that really shape and define us!

If you are like me and don't really have the desire/ambition to read the entire biography, you should just pick it up and read chapters 19, 20 and 21. They are interesting, thought provoking and inspiring!!

My final thought of the book comes fittingly from the last chapter. "[President Monson] counsels those just starting out in their families and careers to seek 'the abundant life.' Wishing will not make it so, he says. 'The Lord expects our thinking. He expects our action. He expects our labors. He expects our testimonies. He expects our devotion.' He cautions: 'To measure the goodness of life by its delights and pleasures and safety is to apply a false standard. The abundant life does not consist of a glut of luxury. It does not make itself content with commercially produced pleasure, the nightclub idea of what is a good time, mistaking it for joy and happiness.' He measures the abundant life by the capacity 'to face trouble with courage, disappointment with cheerfulness, and triumph with humility.'" I would add that the abundant life is also measured by the amount of lives that have been changed as a result of our own. I am inspired by President Monson's ability to reach out to the one person in need. It is a quality becoming more and more rare in our complicated world but one that could change the world completely.

Now, for my next book...."The Power of Six"

A Christmas Carol, revisited

I found my favorite quote from A Christmas Carol

"It is a fair, even-handed, noble adjustment of things, that while there is infection in disease and sorrow, there is nothing in the world so irresistibly contagious as laughter and good-humour. When Scrooge's nephew laughed in this way; holding his sides, rolling his head, and twisting his face into the most extravagant contortions; Scrooge's niece, by marriage, laughed as heartily as he. And their assembled friends being not a bit behindhand, roared out lustily.
"Ha, ha! Ha, ha, ha, ha!"

It reminds me of the many times that I have laughed myself silly, until my stomach hurt and all of the muscles in my mouth were sore.