Gavin is home and is the star of the show

Gavin is finally home and his brothers and sister have finally got to meet him. I was discharged from the hospital on Friday but Gavin had a few complications. First they thought he had a blood infection from group b strep. So they had to put him in the NICU and give him an IV to administer antibiotics to him. So I sat in my hospital room without a baby. It was nice to sleep but I wanted my baby. Then he started breathing too fast so they wouldn't let him eat. Because he was so big they had to give him IV fluids to keep his blood sugar up. Then his bilirubin was high so he had to go under lights. Aren't his little glasses so funny? So not only couldn't I feed him but I couldn't even hold him. So after 2 extra days in the hospital he was finally discharged on Sunday and we got to bring our baby home. Because of the swine flu they wouldn't let any kids in the hospital so Zac and Abbi were dying to see him. Carter of course had no idea what was going on. Sunday night, after being at Grandma's for the weekend the kids came home to a baby. Zac and Abbi were thrilled. Carter just stared from a distance wondering what that thing was. He warmed up quickly though. The next day Abbi sat by Gavin's bed all morning (for hours) waiting for him to wake up. I'm sure she'll be an excellent mother #2. And now Gavin is the star of the show. They want to hold him, touch him, kiss him. Even Carter says, "Hold you baby" and "Carter's turn". I even heard him walk by Gavin and say "Hi sweetie." They can't get enough of him.

Gavin is Here

To all who didn't know that Angie was pregnant, she isn't anymore. We headed down to the hospital this morning for her to be induced. Her platelets came in at a whopping 146 and it was a big relief for Angie to be able to have the epidural. They started the pitocin at 8:16 and it was contractions galore. The epidural, however, only worked on the right side at first. Then after some work repositioning the catheter and giving a stronger medicine, her left leg went numb. She still had some lower abdominal pain, though.

At one point (of course, right after the anesthesiologist left) she had a really strong contraction that really didn't ease off. In fact, it last five minutes and the baby's heart rate dropped dramatically. That got the nursing staff's attention and they came running in. Angie and I were a little scared about what was happening as they called the OB/GYN to come in "stat." After the contraction, though, his heart rate went up and the doctor said, "let's get that thing out of there!" Angie got him out in about 4 pushes.

The staff kept commenting at how big he was and each placed their guesses on the weight. Most agreed he was just over 9 lbs. Zac was 7 lb 2 oz, Abbi was 7 lb 6 oz, and Carter was 8 lb 12 oz. Gavin came in at a whopping 10 lb 8.3 oz. He has rolls of baby skin that are just so amazing that he looks like our little sharpei. His skin of course is pretty red but we don't think that he'll be as fair as Carter. His hair is a little darker as well, but his eyebrows are really blonde. We are glad he's here and when Angie gets out of the hospital I am sure that she'll edit my post.

It's just so Natural

Zac and I had another summer excursion but this time we decided to take Maia, our dog. We went to the Morat Lakes in the Naturalist Basin in the High Uintas. I am so used to the Sierra Nevadas that it is amazing to see mountainsides covered in forests. We hiked in just over 5 miles to one of the lakes and then eventually found the other one after we set up camp. Maia had one mishap when she ran back up the trail trying to find us. We were only about twenty feet ahead of her and after backtrailing for about 5 minutes we eventually found her. The next morning we fished at one of the lakes and caught a cutthroat and a brookie. Then we hiked up to Blue Lake and found even more fish, even though they were smaller. Of course, I left my fishing pole at camp. We hiked out the second day to Scudder Lake and planned to spend the night before hiking back out. Then we saw some rain clouds and the lake was surrounded by mud and we changed our plans. We ended our trip a day early but Zac was glad to see his mom, brother, and sister.

Our Real Game

Since Zac is starting a new soccer season I though I would show him how the professionals play. There was some hesitation because he has such a short attention span. I decided to chance it and we went to the Real Salt Lake vs. Chivas game back in August. We had a blast. We sat in the upper deck (yes, the cheap seats) but we were in the front section and we had a spectacular view. We really enjoyed the drums and Zac believed me when I told him that they were playing the drums so fast that smoke was coming out of them. It was a great game because Salt Lake scored four goals. Whenever I tried to point out something in the game that the players were doing, he'd reply. "I know. I do that too." We are already looking for the next time we can go.

Finally . . . Bunkbeds

We finally did it. I guess this purchase signifies the growth of our family. Of course, we first told Zac that he was banished to the bottom bunk and there were many tears. Then we told Abbi that she was the lucky one who would get the bottom bunk and again there were many tears. It sure takes a lot of coaxing to ease the pain for a little girl. After the first night, though, they were happy. Carter was also excited because not only did he get his own bed (and his own room for the meantime) but he also gets to play on the ladder to the bunk bed.

The Baby's Ultrasound

We went into the hospital where I work to see if Amanda, one of the ultrasound techs, could catch a 3D image of the baby. We were there about three weeks ago and he was not cooperating so she invited us to come back another time. This time he was in a much better position but because he was bigger and because of his position there was not much fluid around his face. The fluid around the face allows them to get a better image. In addition, he couldn't keep his hands away from his face and wouldn't stop sucking his hands. She tried several times to get a good picture and we were able to get two that shows his lips, one eye, a chin, and a cheek. It was amazing to see technology at work. The images have a lot of distortion because his face was up against the placenta. I guess Amanda takes the image and then tries to cut away layers to reveal the face. The placenta was so close to his face that she couldn't get a complete picture. She also got a normal ultrasound with his profile and one with him yawning.
While I wasn't looking Angie saw him stick out his tongue to lick his hand. We had the kids with us and I think they were excited to see him as well. We had a fun time and we really appreciate
Amanda taking time to do this.

Cecret Lake

Carter had enough of seeing his older brother taking off on exciting hikes and wanted his turn. Earlier last month we ordered a kid carrier and after arriving I decided to take it out for a test drive. Carter and I headed out to Cecret Lake (yes, it's spelled right) at the top of Little Cottonwood Canyon in the Albion basin. Words and pictures cannot do it justice. The place is covered in wildflowers and I couldn't help myself taking a few pictures. The hike is only about a mile but we had to park at a farther parking lot so it added another half mile or so. The weather was great and Carter enjoyed every minute of it. He wouldn't share his crackers, though. At the lake there were Tiger salamander larvae that Carter kept calling fish. Angie was worried that I wouldn't see anyone up there and I would have a seizure. Little did she know that Albion basin sees about 20,000 people a year and the trail was quite crowded. I even ran into one of the ER doctors that I work with so Angie had nothing to worry about

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Amethyst Lake

Last year Zac and I hiked to Island Lake in the Uintas. This year I chose to go to Amethyst Lake out of the Christmas Meadows in the Uintas. The only difference was that it was twice the mileage. I knew Zac could do it and he was excited.

The hike started out with a gentle uphill and every time we came across a stream or mud patch to cross, Zac carefully took his time. After about two and a half miles the trail became very steep. The articles I read about the hike said that there was a gentle stream with postcard views along the trail. There were postcard views but the heavy spring rains turned the gentle stream into a roaring creek. It was beautiful, though. We trudged up the mountainside and soon Zac was spent. We finally made it to the top of the trail and it returned to a gradual uphill. Zac was getting pretty grumpy towards the end and we decided to not go to the lake and stay at the Amethyst Meadow instead. We were not alone as there were many Boy Scouts around chopping trees, having bonfires, and doing those things that Boy Scouts do the best.

We found out that there were a lot of mosquitoes in the Amethyst area. Despite DEET, we ended up with many bites. There were so many mosquitoes that they were getting into our food. The next morning we hiked to the lake and fished for about a half hour. The lake was very beautiful and we enjoyed seeing a memorable area after hiking so hard. We headed back to camp, packed up, and left for home. Along the way we kept leapfrogging with a different Boy Scout troop. Zac was really happy to know that we reached the bottom of the trail before they did. He was really tired, though, and I ended up carrying out his backpack toward the end of the hike. I was really impressed by his effort and I look forward to going hiking with him. As one of the Forest Service's crews mentioned, Zac's the professional hiker.

Moab

Zac was off track in May so we decided to venture down to Moab. We had never really been there before and had heard it was a good place for kids since there are lots of small hikes. Our kids love small hikes. Even Carter. The first day we were there it was cloudy and overcast and by the time we got to Arches it was raining a little bit. But we decided to hike on. We would find out later that hiking in the light rain is much better than hiking in the heat. We saw balanced rock
turret arch
the north & south windows and double arch all in the first day. The kids loved climbing up the walls at double arch, even Carter.
They were all easy hikes (less than a mile) and the it never rained more than a sprinkle. On our way back to our hotel there was even a rainbow.

The next day we were glad it wasn't going to rain but after hiking in the heat this when we decided we didn't mind the rain so much. We went to sand dune arch. The kids loved the narrow walkways, shade, and the sand. We then hiked to broken arch and on the way Zac and Abbi had fun looking out for lizards. Next was tunnel arch and pine tree arch with hopes of hiking to landscape arch (the longest arch in the world) but we never made it there. The heat had gotten to the kids and there was no going further. So we drove back to the hotel for a well needed nap and of course, the swimming pool.
We loved Arches and one day we'll go back and make it to landscape arch and even attempt to see the famous delicate arch. On our way home we stopped at dead horse point and were amazed at the view. Although you could have heard me say more than once "Stay away from the edge!" All in all we had a great exhausting time. Tom and I were pointing out all the different license plates from around the country and noticing all the people who didn't speak English. There were a lot of them. People come from all over the world to see this place and yet we are only hours away and had never been. So I guess we need to get out more.