Life with baby Megan

We came home from the hospital on Wednesday night...only 27 hours after Megan was born. We could have stayed longer, but I really don't like staying in the hospital. I never could really fall asleep with all the weird lights and noises that can't be turned off. I even sent Megan to the nursery in hopes of five or six hours of uninterrupted sleep...seems like a good idea, right? Well, the nurses disagreed. They still woke me up every two hours to take my temperature and check my blood pressure. That was lame. So we came home.

~~~~~

I'd forgotten how much newborns sleep. Yes, she eats every two hours, but she promptly falls asleep as soon as she's done. And stays asleep until it's time to eat again. Open eyes are a rare treat.


I'd also forgotten how tiny newborns really are. I look at an outfit and think how small it is, then I get in on Megan and it totally drowns her. How cute.

~~~~~

Jane spent most of the last week in Salt Lake with my parents. For all of Thursday and most of Friday, it was just Megan and I at home during the day while Chris was at school, then just the three of us in the evening. Honestly, it felt like we'd traded Jane in for a newer model.

But Jane did come home Friday evening. She ran in the door and immediately pounced on Megan, who was lounging on the couch, minding her own business (a.k.a. sleeping).


Luckily, the attack didn't last long. Jane quickly found the new doll set that we'd bought her as a gift from Megan...not that it makes any difference to Jane who it came from.


All she's done since she's been home is play with that doll and all the fun new accessories. It definitely helps to keep her from giving Megan too much attention.

~~~~~

We did eventually get Jane to sit still long enough to be officially introduced to her sister. They sat for a few minutes...


...then Jane decided they both needed to lay on the pillow. That was just great until Jane decided Megan wasn't in exactly the right place and tried to move her. Megan came dangerously close to rolling off the couch--but only after she'd been smashed in the face.


We'll keep working on the siblings relations.

~~~~~

So, every parent passes things on to their children, whether they want to or not. Our family has a few oddities that have already appeared, giving Chris and I some special connections to our children.

Chris has a small birthmark on the elbow of his left arm. Jane has one, too. In exactly the same place.


I was born with a small hole on my upper ear. Nothing major, it just looks like I've had my ear pierced in that one spot.


Oddly enough, Megan was born with an identical hole. In exactly the same place.


Such are the legacies we choose to share with our posterity.

~~~~~

Jane has been just a touch jealous of the baby. Megan has spent quite a lot of time in my arms the last two days, primarily for her own protection. She's too new and too much of a novelty to leave her within Jane's reach. I'm not worried--we'll all get used to her eventually. But nonetheless, Jane has showed signs of attention deprivation. There came a point today when she decided that if Megan got to take a nap on Mom, then she should, too.


She laid down on me and promptly fell asleep. It's so hard to get her to take a nap lately that I didn't want to try to move her (Chris was gone, so I was on my own at this moment...). We stayed on the couch just like that for over an hour. Needless to say, I was a little sore when they both finally woke up.

~~~~~

All told, life is good.

Megan Leigh Wampler

The Birth Story

Let me be the first to say that I think we did pretty well this time. With all of the possible terrors of childbirth, we managed to come out pretty much perfect. Don't shoot me, but I might even say it was easy...

Neither Chris nor I slept much the night before--is anyone surprised? He got up at 5:30 and called the hospital. We were told that we could come in for the induction at 7:15. That gave us just the right amount of time--I could shower and finish packing a few last minute items, but there wasn't enough time to get really anxious.

You can't see it, but my shirt says "Rub for Luck".

I really liked our nurse, Justine. She was very nice and was excellent at answering any questions we had. She gave great explanations for everything. And she was ever-so-slightly sarcastic--she fit right in with our group.


Once the paperwork and questions were all done, Justine put in the IV. That was actually one of the most miserable parts of the day. I hate IVs, and it made me rather nervous to think about having it stuck in my hand all day. The first attempt resulted in a burst vein (I think that's what she said). So not only did I have to get poked again, I had a big bruise on my hand that was being pushed on all day by the IV hookup. That was miserable.

Doesn't it say something that in my story of giving birth, I complain about the IV?

We started the Pitocin just after 8:00 in the morning. Contractions started about an hour later, shortly after 9:00. They started out fairly regular, about three minutes apart and lasting one minute each.

At 10:30, I opted for the epidural. Sometimes it seems wimpy to get an epidural, but really, I'm all for taking advantage of the technologies that are available today. It was uncomfortable to get the epidural in, of course, and I was kind of surprised at the tape the anesthesiologist used. I don't really know what it all was, but he sprayed some kind of stuff all over my back and then plastered everything with silk tape. I have never had that much tape attached to my body...it took me almost an hour this morning to peel off all the leftover stickiness.


My mom came up to be there for the labor at delivery. Once the epidural was in, we played the waiting game. We watched the first two Harry Potter movies, played a round or two of Set, and basically just chilled.

Who can complain about that?

My doctor, Dr. Strebel, came in and broke my water around 11:30, and labor picked up after that. By 3:30, we were getting ready to start pushing. Here is me getting ready...


...and here is Christopher.


I guess we all have our own preparation techniques.

Once the doctor arrived (yay! he missed Jane's birth, so I was really glad he was here this time!), we started pushing...and then we were done. I pushed through two and a half contractions--all told, about six minutes. I was actually kind of surprised at the moment when Dr. Strebel told me to stop pushing. I didn't even know that she was already here.

The Baby

Megan Leigh Wampler


October 6, 2009


4:02 pm


7 lbs 2 oz


19.5 in

Mom's nose, Dad's personality

Lists, 2nd Edition

things I love about not being pregnant:

I CAN BREATHE!

I can bend over...my stomach doesn't get in the way.

My nose is already significantly less congested.

I can hug Christopher from the front without losing my balance.

I can roll over in bed with no occurance of earthquakes.

I can hold my baby in my arms.

Once upon a time

The Garden

Once upon a time, we had some planter boxes. They were full of weeds.


We pulled up the weeds and planted vegetables and flowers.


The lettuce, onions, carrots, peppers and tomatoes were a welcome addition to many meals,



...and then school started. And the garden died.


We had harvested all the vegetables in the far west end of the box, but the rest, sadly, were left to their own devices, at the mercy of the elements. Including the frost.


A few things suffered on and struggled for life, but...


...it didn't always turn out well.


We decided to put it all out of its misery. The onions found a new home in the garage,


the carrots moved into the fridge,


and now we have some planter boxes.

The End

Thank you, Craig, for taking care of the garden. Thank you, Janet, for cleaning my house. The bathroom smells lovely!

The Puzzle

Once upon a time, we started a puzzle.


A long time later, we finished that puzzle. Not a single one of the 3,000 pieces was lost, even though several were threatened with a slimy death in a toddler's mouth.


Yesterday we glued that puzzle,




so we could hang it on the wall.


Later. After it's done being re-flattened by all the heavy textbooks stacked on top of it.

The End

Thank you everyone who helped us finish this puzzle: John, Valerie, Jess, Janet, Craig, Heather, Jake, Rebecca, and anyone else I forgot.

The Soldier

Once upon a time, my uncle joined the marines. Eventually, he joined the National Guard. He served one year in Iraq,


and tomorrow he goes back again. So we spent the afternoon enjoying each other's company



and eating Grandpa's famous homemade ice cream,


even though it was a little cold outside.

The End

Thank you Darren and all the soldiers out there who fight to keep our country free.

The Baby

Once upon a time, we had a baby.


A year later, we decided to have another one.



In two days, she'll be here,


and our family will be more than this.

The End...almost!

excuseable laziness

Just a little thinking out loud today...

...on being pregnant...

I feel huge. As I was telling Chris, that's probably because I am huge. I'm five days away from having a baby...that seems like a good reason to feel huge, right?

People keep asking me if I'm excited to be having a baby. My usual answer: I'm excited to not be pregnant. For whatever reason, I don't really associate being pregnant with having a baby. Probably sounds really weird. But that's how it is. I find being pregnant to be a rather crappy experience overall. I try to keep the crappiness separate from the baby.

So am excited about the baby? I'll be excited when she's here. For now, eh. I'll be glad to not be pregnant. That's about where it stands.

...on school...

We had parent teacher conferences Tuesday evening and Wednesday morning. It's surprising how hard it is to sit in one chair for four hours straight--the schedule worked out this year that I didn't have a single break between any of the conferences. It was rather hard to walk after sitting for so long...

Today and tomorrow are UEA weekend, which for all those non-Utahns out there means no school for anyone K-12 in the state of Utah. Since I'm being induced on Tuesday, it doesn't make a whole lot of sense to go to school on Monday, then leave for maternity leave. So I'm done with school as of yesterday.

Well, almost. I'm still not done writing all my sub plans yet. I've made a lot of progress, but there is a lot to be planned when I'm going to be gone for an entire month. I feel like I'm writing a small novel just to cover the basics...hope that's ok, Tannie! My plan is to finish typing up everything today, then go back to school tomorrow to get all the copies made and books neatly arranged. At least, that's the plan...it better work.

...on Jane...

Jane is doing fine. She is still completely oblivious to the fact that she'll have a sister in five days. She'll point at my stomach and say "baby" which seems promising, but then she'll point at her own stomach and say the same thing. Oh, well.

...on Christopher...

Chris has been really busy with school this semester. I guess that's understandable since it's his very last semester. I guess he's saved a lot of the hard classes for the end. It's hard to work it out any other way, really. He's been doing a lot to make sure he's ahead on his assignments so he won't get behind while we're at the hospital. Hope that works out too.

...on my house...

Yes, I confess again, my house is a mess. It's hard to get anything clean when I can't bend over to pick things up and I can't stand for more than five or ten minutes without getting really tired. Chris's parents are coming to visit for the weekend and they have offered to help clean things up so the house is ready when the baby comes. Thank you!

...on my shirt...

Chris had our large crockpot filled with chili yesterday, warming it up for a shotgun shooting activity with the Elders' Quorum. I made it home before him, so I opened the crockpot to check the chili and turn it down if needed. Well, I pulled off the lid (which has a rubber seal) and it basically exploded on me. And all over my white shirt. Sigh. I washed it twice as soon as it happened...I used bleach the first time and it didn't work. I used Shout stain remover the second time and it didn't work. The shirt is now in a bowl on the counter soaking in a bleach solution. Sigh. I really like that shirt, and I don't find chili spots to be a good fashion accessory. Anyone know any good tricks for getting chili out of white cotton?