Lauren – 2 Months

Along with the celebration of Canada Day was the 2-month celebration of Lauren’s life. Thinking about it now, we should have donned her in red and white, but she was late going to a baby shower and… well… girls will be girls! She had her party dress on and was not about to change for a picture by Dad.

Nevertheless, here is Lauren at two months:

And as I was taking Lauren’s pictures, her brother arrived home after a day with Uncle Kent, Auntie D, Macie, and Caleb. So of course, he wanted in on the pictures. You can see how Nolan appears to have grown by 5-years with the arrival of his sister! He certainly is no longer our baby boy. For comparison, check out the picture of Nolan at 2-months with his hammer.

Family Together

On May 13 last month, my grandfather, Frank Goertzen, passed away at the age of 86. This past weekend, his family and friends gathered together in Regina, Saskatchewan to remember and to say ‘good-bye’. Although it was a somber-reason for everyone to get together, it was enjoyable introducing all of our extended family to Lauren and to our growing Nolan.

After the memorial service and graveside service, the family gathered back together to reminisce and catch-up. Here are just a few of the pictures from that time together.

My Grandma Goertzen

Lauren with her Great-Auntie Roxene and Great-Uncle René

Lauren with cousin Sarah

Lauren with cousin Warren

Nolan playing with his Great-Uncle René

Nolan and Great-Uncle René had fun with Great-Grandma’s walker

Nolan decided to push his Great-Uncle

Not sure who had more fun!

Nolan playing with his Great-Grandma Goertzen

Lauren – One Month

For those that have been around this blog for some time (about 2 years!), you will remember my monthly updates of Nolan and his hammer. Well, we have decided to resurect that tradition with Lauren. At the beginning of each month, we will take a picture of her with the hammer, as well, we will include her firefighter-puppy in homage to her eventful arrival.

Without further ado, here is Lauren at one month:

May Long

I am not sure if it is because a) Lauren b) a renewed passion or c) waiting for parts for my next guitar pedal, but I have picked-up the camera again. Nothing in particular, but just shots of around here. I will endeavor to post more of my shots.

Lauren:

Nolan:

Nolan has discovered he loves bubbles!

This is by far one of my favorite pictures of Nolan.

Trail’s “Silver City Days” Fireworks (from our front porch!):

The New Normal

The new normal begins today.

We returned from Vancouver on Saturday. Lauren and Nolan travelled great. We only stopped once to feed Lauren while Nolan and I played in the playground. I do not think our own beds ever felt so good. Although we all had fun (with a little adventure!) while we were in Vancouver, I think the four of us were glad to be back in our home.

(as a note of interest, this first picture of Lauren has her wearing a dress that her Gramma (Sarah’s mom) wore when she was a baby)

(this is the gift from the firefighters that helped deliver Lauren)

A Night To Remember

Before I begin, you should know that mom and baby are doing great. Mom is obviously tired, but very thankful for a safe delivery. We always prayed for a safe delivery while she was pregnant – we just did not realize how real those prayers were.

Picking up where I left-off in the fourth Baby Update, Sarah and I went back to the hospital at 10 p.m. due to the fact Sarah could simply no longer withstand the pain. You have to understand, with Nolan, when Sarah was induced, she went into immediate artificial labor, they would check to see that she had not started to go into active labor, so then they would give her some drugs to ease the pain, the contractions would stop, and then Sarah could rest and conserve her energy. When we returned from the hospital last evening, that is what we expected. However that is obviously not what happened.

I posted the fourth Baby Update at 11:30 p.m., rolled over and went to sleep. Then at 1:30 a.m., I was woken up due to the pain Sarah was in with contractions. She got out of bed and decided to stand in the shower to allow the hot water to relieve the pain in her back. I called the maternity ward and asked what to do. They told me that the pain-reliever medication would have worn off by then, so Sarah just had to listen to her body and allow it to decide whether or not to come into the hospital. I went to talk with Sarah and she was in an obvious amount of pain. She knew that she should get to the hospital, but knowing and going are two different things!

I tried to get Sarah ready to go to the hospital, but she was in a great deal of pain and trying to cope through each contraction. Finally she got ready, and before she started down the stairs at her parent’s house (where we are staying), she called for her Mom to come because she was certain her water was about to break. By the time she got to the bottom of the stairs, her body started pushing!

Frantically, at 2:00 a.m., Sarah’s Mom and I rushed her out to the vehicle telling her to try and stop pushing (much like telling someone not to sneeze!). I unlocked the vehicle, started it, ran around to the other side, and in that amount of time, her water broke right there on the driveway!

Immediately I ripped out my phone and dialed 9-1-1. The emergency-responder dispatched help right away. She then had Sarah go back into the house and lay down on the floor. Her dad grabbed all the blankets, pillows, and towels that he could get his hands on and tossed them down the steps to the entrance way. I continued to follow the instructions of the 9-1-1 operator. Thankfully I did not see the baby’s head, and within a few minutes, two fire trucks and two ambulances pulled up to the house. The first few fire-fighters came in the house and it was quite obvious by their wide-eyes that they are more skilled with burning fires and not mothers giving birth. RIght behind them, though, came in the EMTs and they did an amazing job. They were calm and had the situation well under-control.

After only five pushes from Sarah, Lauren Analeigh Goertzen was born, in her parent’s entry way, at 2:20 a.m.!

Baby Lauren came out crying and after some oxygen, she turned pink right away. Lauren and Grandma hopped in the first ambulance and went to the hospital. Soon behind was Sarah and myself in the second ambulance.

Today, Sarah’s parents, Sarah, and myself are still in a state of shock. We are incredibly thankful. Thankful to the emergency responders, thankful to the maternity nurses, thankful to our doctor, and obviously most thankful to God for truly keeping our baby (and her Mom!) safe and healthy.

We are so touched by the support, thoughts, and prayers of all of you who have sent us well-wishes. In fact the first two fire-fighters who came on the scene stopped by the hospital this evening with a plush dalmatian dog for baby Lauren. This was both their first baby delivery and they said this has only happened four times in the history of their fire hall!

So as I said at the beginning, both baby and Mom are doing great. They will most likely be released from the hospital tomorrow [Saturday] morning. We will stick around here for a few days because the doctor wants to make sure baby and mom are doing well before we travel. Once he says all is well, then we will head back to Trail.

Sarah gave me a daughter for our 5th wedding anniversary – I have to still get her a card!

It’s A Girl!

I would like to introduce you to Lauren Analeigh Goertzen. She was born at 2:20 am weighing 7 pounds 9 ounces.

Oh, and she wasn’t born in the hospital! That full story to come when I’m at a computer. But Mom and baby are doing great.

Baby Update #4

As expected, first day of inductions and still no baby.

Sarah went in for her second induction at 5 p.m. They gave her double the dose, which unfortunately just doubled the intensity of the pain. She was a very tough girl and hung in there during the many contractions (one every 2 minutes lasting for approximately 90 seconds), however at 10 p.m. we went back to the hospital only to learn she was not in active labor (only the artificial labor that the induction produces). So they gave Sarah some great drugs and she is now sound asleep ready to start this again tomorrow.

We return to the hospital for round three of inductions at 7:30 a.m.

Thankfully this time around, as opposed with Nolan, Sarah is better able to cope with the pain. It obviously still hurts like crazy, but she is being brave and tough and I am very proud of her.
Nolan has been a great little guy hanging out with his “Gram” (as he calls her). However we think he knows something is up. We are sure, though, he will be excited to meet his new baby.

Until tomorrow — hopefully everyone has a great sleep.

Baby Update #3

Nothing really too new to update. We are currently sitting in the hospital while Sarah is being induced for the first time. She is connected to the non stress test machine which is showing that baby’s heart rate is good and healthy. If this round does not take, then we will be back this afternoon at 4 to try again.

The real reason I wanted to post this update was to trial and make sure I can post to here from my BlackBerry so that when baby arrives, I can inform everyone as quickly as possible.

Thanks for your thoughts and prayers. May they continue.

Baby Update #2

FINALLY! We have a date and a time.

This Thursday, April 30 at 7 a.m., Sarah is going in to be induced.

After meeting with a number of specialists over the last couple days, this is what we have learned:

1. Sarah began week 38 on Monday, but she is measuring at 42 weeks
2. Doctor figures the baby to be about 8 pounds right now
3. The insulin levels Sarah has been taking have actually been too much, so she is gradually dialing those back
4. Her blood-sugar levels have been quite decent
5. The c-section doctor is strongly recommending she deliver naturally (though a c-section is still possible)

After all of that, the doctors have set-up her up to begin inductions this Thursday. Now we do not expect a baby on Thursday (much to the dismay of Uncle Kent who predicted April 30!) based on last time with Nolan who took 5-days to arrive from the first induction. But who really knows – that’s the biggest lesson I am learning: with baby #2, you can never predict based on baby #1.

I will be getting up bright and early tomorrow [Wednesday] and driving to be with Sarah and Nolan. I can not WAIT to see them again. This bachelor life is definitely not for me!

We will keep you posted.