Jonah Shaw Herway

Jonah's due date was April 21st. The last week of March I had an OB appointment and was told my belly was measuring a little small. The doctor wanted me to have an ultrasound to make sure the baby was still growing on track. March 31st I had an ultrasound appointment. I wasn't too concerned when I went in for the appointment, but was a little anxious to hear that things were fine. After the tech took all the measurements, she went to show them to the radiologist. She seemed to be taking a while so I starting getting a little nervous. She came back to tell my amniotic fluid was low, but bordering on ok, so they had called my OB to find out how she wanted me to proceed. The tech told me to wait in the waiting room until they received word from my OB. After 30 minutes of agony for me, they told me I could go home but to call my doctor. I called the doctor and she then told me she actually wanted me to go the triage at the hospital instead. She said I had time to go home and gather a bag and some things. I ran home packed a bag for me and an overnight bag for the boys in case I ended up staying a while at the hospital. I ran over to my friends (Jill) house to thank her profusely for watching them while I was at my appointment and what would now be the rest of the evening. I felt awful as I drove away leaving her with 6 kids to take care of! (4 were hers) 

I got to the hospital, ran into my neighbor who is one of the head L&D nurses and she got me all checked in. I was in triage for about an hour or so before my doctor came by. She told me I'd be staying until I had the baby. She said there wasn't room on the schedule for an induction until Tuesday evening (It was Monday at the time) so I'd be staying on the antepartum floor until induction. I called Seth, who was working, told him what was going on. We both just started laughing because, um, we were supposed to be moving that coming Friday. 

I called another friend (Alycia) and had her pick up the boys from Jill's and she took them home to get them ready for bed. Seth stopped by the hospital to see me, then went home to spend the night with the boys. The next morning Seth took care of the boys while I was bored to tears at the hospital. Seth told me to try to enjoy my alone time and think of it as a trip to the spa. Seth brought the boys by the hospital that afternoon for a visit before heading to yet another friend's house. Luke was a little concerned seeing me in a hospital bed, hooked up to an IV. Taft was just excited to be getting to meet his baby brother soon. "So tomorrow your baby is going to pop out?" Since we thought my induction would be that night, Seth took the boys to my friend Jessie's house to spend the night. Jessie has two boys Taft and Luke's ages and they had a total party. 

Last picture pregnant. 

Around 9 p.m. Tuesday night they moved me to the L&D floor and started Cervadil, which helps to ripen the cervix. What I was not previously told was that this takes 12 HOURS(!!) to work. At this point I had been at the hospital well over 24 hours and was so bummed that labor would not be starting that night. Since we weren't going to be having a baby that night, I sent Seth home for a good nights sleep. I was given a sleeping aid (first one of my life) and man was it awesome. 

The next morning around 9:00 they started pitocin. Around 1:00 I got my epidural and around 4:00 it started wearing off. I went from thinking I could feel my contractions to full on crying like a baby in about 20 minutes. I completely started panicking that I would have to deliver without an epidural. I just kept thinking how unprepared I was to deal with that kind of pain! Luckily we were able to get the anesthesiologist back in and everything was taken care of by the time it came to push.  

Then about 3 pushes and baby Jonah was here. 

First picture with Mom

First picture with Dad

Just the tiniest peanut! 6 lbs 3 oz

Since we had left our kids with my friend much longer than we were anticipating, Seth rushed off to pick them up. When Luke saw Jonah for the first time he said, "I wanted a baby that talked." He was also hesitant to hold him or touch him. He warmed up to him toward the end of the visit.

A visit the next day

First family picture as a family of five!

Herway Brothers

Taft is such a great big brother. He loves Jonah so so so much.

Already trying to get Jonah to laugh

Seth, the hero of the week. He did such an amazing job taking care of the boys, me, packing up our apartment, all the while still going into work!

I took this selfie to remember how precious the first days are. My face shows how completely exhausted I was, but man, just laying there with your baby, almost totally uniterrupted for a whole day, is priceless.

As much as I wanted to soak up my bonding time with Jonah, I was also feeling like a burden on others (by having them watch the boys) and was starting to stress about our move. We ended up staying an extra 24 hours longer than I was hoping, but thanks to wonderful friends it all worked out.

Ready to go home!

Jonah spent one night in our Coronado apartment.

 Seth tell the boys stories every night and occasionally he tells them the stories of the day they were born and they really love it. Seth's predicts Jonah will love his story the most. It definitely was the most dramatic! We are so grateful to have another baby boy to love.

Taft is 5!

Taft turned 5 over a month ago but a lot has happened in that month!

 A day or so after Taft's birthday he climbed up a part of the jungle gym that's he always been too nervous to do. He came running to tell me he had done it and when I asked why he decided to try it he said, "Because now that I'm five, I'm not afraid of heights anymore!" He was really proud of himself.

Taft's birthday celebrations were a little lower key than in years past. I wasn't really feeling up to throwing a huge invite-his-whole-class-and-everyone-from-church-plus-everyone-else-we-know-and-their-parents-and-siblings party this year. I pitched the idea of going to Chuck E Cheese with two friends of his choice for his birthday instead. He was sold from the start! He loved it and didn't ever mention not having a big party. He decided to invite his friends Anthony and Lenox from his preschool class. We took them to Chuck E Cheese to play games for about an hour or so, then headed back home for pizza, cake, and presents. The boys were so adorable together!

Taft's actual birthday fell on a Sunday but we still tried to have it be a good day for him. His birthday breakfast request were German pancakes (or Hootenannies) and for birthday dinner "Noodles with Green Sauce" aka pasta with a pesto sauce.

(I did this same video last year)

Taft is at a very sweet age. He loves to help me out, play with Seth, and be a great big brother to Luke and especially to Jonah. Any chance Taft gets he's kissing or hugging or trying to soothe Jonah. Taft is very giving with his compliments to others. Taft is still our social butterfly and will talk to anyone endlessly (I often have to cut off his conversations with random strangers). Since the move we've met several of our neighbors. One lady in particular has been great with humoring Taft and listening to his many stories. Taft is always wanting to make new friends and introduces himself to any kids we see at the playground or anywhere else really. It breaks my heart when some kids aren't very interested in playing with him. Right now he seems pretty oblivious to the fact when someone isn't interested in playing, but he's only truly had his feelings hurt by other kids one or two times. I'm dreading him starting kindergarten in some ways and that is one of them, that one day, someone will be mean at school or make fun of him and or hurt his feelings somehow. I totally get that it's part of growing up and it's important to have those experiences, but the mom in me just wants to be able to protect him from all that. Speaking of kindergarten, he is pretty excited to go. Although, he started saying he didn't want to go because Seth had told him he'd be gone all day, every day. What Seth meant was just a longer full school day, M-F, as opposed to his half day T/TH preschool. Taft thought he'd never see us! Poor thing. We cleared that up and he's excited about going again. Taft loves to learn new things and most recently has learned to read. He also really, REALLY loves learning about different animals, bugs, etc. He always spouting off random animal facts to us.

I often get comments by other adults about what a good kid Taft is. I know I'm biased, but I have to agree! Like all of us, he has his moments, but he is a very easy kid to have around. Seth and I really lucked out on having Taft as our  kid.

Big Bear 2014

This was our second annual trip to Big Bear for skiing. I didn't ski, I'm not confident enough in my abilities to ski while pregnant. Taft had a great time in his lesssons and did AWESOME. I need to get some video on here. Last year he was too young for the ski school but they had a pre-K snowboarding program that he did. This was his first time actually skiing. It's amazing how quickly kids learn this stuff! I was so proud of Taft for wanting to do run after run despite getting hurt several times.

I love this little trip with my family and I hope we keep going every year that we live in San Diego.

It was a really warm winter so although we were able to ski, there wasn't snow anywhere other than the manmade stuff at the resort. We took a little hike one day and it was gorgeous!

Tubing. The boys had fun but I'm pretty sure they'd agree that the tubing hill at Soldier Hollow in Utah is loads more fun. I wasn't allowed past this chain link fence due to the baby bump. They wouldn't even let me cross to take pictures!

We put Taft is a ski school for the morning and Seth took Luke out (no classes for Luke's age). However, it took serious convincing for Luke to put his skis on. He had a love/hate relationship with skiing the rest of the day. 

Turns out he was feeling super sick this day. He has NEVER fallen asleep on me since he stopped taking naps over a year ago. Later this night he threw up in our hotel. I felt terrible that we made him ski when he probably felt so sick.

After Big Bear (or before? I can't remember) we went to Disneyland for a couple of days. This was our last chance to use our annual passes before they expired. I'm so glad we bought those passes even though they were NOT cheap. I'm bummed that we won't be getting them again this year, but we figured with Taft starting Kindergarten we won't be able to go up as often to make it worth it. Sad :(

A Winter Trip to Utah

The boys and I headed to Utah the day after Christmas. I had decided before going out there that I wanted to have a family-only visit this time. I love getting together with friends and catching up, but I always feel like I'm trying to fit too much in when we visit. It was nice to just relax with my family for a week. Plus, everyone basically had the whole week off from work which NEVER happens when we visit! 

Highlights of the trip: 

Eating at all the bad-for-you places I love

A quality afternoon with the Herways, Herways, and Stouts

Sledding at Sugarhouse Park 

Tubing at Soldier Hollow

A Bluth family party and my parents house with extended family

Wedding dress shopping with Tates

Grandpa and the boys building a snow fort turned sharks mouth. 

Goodnight hugs with Nana and Grandpa

My mom and dad remodeled their kitchen/family room and added on. They added this darling breakfast nook. 

Trip to Scheels.

Looking the part in his camo coat. 

We saw "Saving Mr. Banks" and I fed my pregnancy cravings. For the record, I have always thought Red Vines were gross until like 3 months ago. Now, I LOVE them.

So inappropriate but he was so excited to show everyone his new CTR ring he got in Primary at the parents' ward. He just chose the wrong finger. 

Target practice with Grandpa. My brother sent my dad and the boys Nerf guns for Christmas. They were a major hit. I think Grandpa liked them the best.

Sledding

Sledding at Sugarhouse Park

Train ride at the mall.

Tubing at Solider Hollow. I loved this!! This is a must do next time we're here in the winter again.

Everyone knows these boys can be pretty cautious at times. I was shocked that they BOTH insisted on going down the sledding hills by themselves. They go pretty fast!

Christmas 2013

For a recap of this years Christmas festivities I should just copy and paste from previous years. The kick off to Christmas started with Santa coming to Coronado via the ferry. They had all sorts of activities at the Ferry Landing that day, including bounce houses, cookies and hot chocolate, ornament decorating, cookie decorating, and a snow hill. That night Coronado held their Christmas parade along Orange Avenue. 

We also checked out the Boat Parade the next week and had our best seats yet! We walked down to a dock that we had always thought was private, but turns out it isn't! It also happened to be next to the judges so the boats were sure to come up close to the dock. 

I wanted to go to our Stake's live Nativity, but like most holiday seasons one or more of us was under the weather and we had to miss it. 

Seth and I went the Anesthesia Dept Holiday Dinner at a hotel downtown. It's always fun getting dressed up for a date. My hair looked better earlier in the night. Sigh. 

Letters to Santa. Taft asked for a Finn McMissile that shoots ink, a Lego police car, and a grabber.  Luke asked for a Lightening McQueen and a Mater. 

Our ward holiday party was chaotic. For the last couple years the Primary was in charge of the Christmas party and they would put on the Nativity. This year the party planning responsibilities changed and we had a "Christmas Around the World".  Our ward has a lot of diversity in cultural backgrounds so it was fun to try all kinds of different ethnic foods. 

Taft's preschool puts on a short singing program around Christmas and Easter each year. He did a great job. Unfortunately Seth had to miss it this year. 

It was our warmest Christmas yet so we headed to the beach Christmas Eve. At this point Seth was out in the water with his SUP. Later in the night we had our fancy dinner, opened pjs and Christmas books, and left out cookies and milk for Santa. Sidenote: Poor Taft forgot that our  Christmas Eve present is always pjs. He was excited to open a present and the disappointment on his face was heartbreaking. He was trying so hard not to cry but I saw his eyes filling with tears. He wasn't snotty about it, just disappointed and unable to hide it. I also had the epiphany that since we're having all boys the pjs tradition will probably just be something they tolerate and eventually protest. I loved this tradition as a kid!

 The next photos are my attempt to get a shot in their Christmas Sunday outfits.

The boys woke up Christmas morning happy to find that Santa had fulfilled their requests. I was horrible at taking pictures but we got a little bit on video. We had invited some friends to spend the afternoon with us and had plans to have a bonfire dinner at the beach. I came down with a most terrible cold and had to withdraw the invitation. I felt terrible about it, but spent a good part of the day in bed, slowly dying. The best part of Christmas was seeing the boys so excited and having Seth around all day for both Christmas Eve and Christmas Day!