New Girl

As promised from last time, here is the story of Emily Brooke’s arrival:

Friday morning (4/5) began like most any other, with Jarom getting up and getting ready and getting off to work before anyone else in the house had woken up. Once at work Jarom was enjoying his first hour, the one before most of his coworkers arrive and start chatting and asking him to do stuff. Right at 7:50 he got a call from Alixa informing him that her water had broken. This was uncharted territory for the Alixa, as in both previous deliveries her water was broken at the hospital. She wasn’t really having any contractions, so they decided to wait a few minutes and call the doctor’s office when they opened at 8. Except they didn’t open until 9. So then she called our good friend Ali, who is a delivery nurse, for her advice. Except she also happens to be one of those crazy runner people and she was out for a leisurely 20-mile jog. Eventually she was able to get in touch with her doctor who advised her to come on down to the hospital. This was a problem because that morning was set aside to go see Disney on Ice: Rockin’ Ever After at the Mavs arena. The doctor was surprisingly unsympathetic to Alixa’s desire to go with Jenna and Bo to see the show. So Jarom left work and headed home. There he found Alixa putting the finishing touches on her makeup. Nobody wants to look homely in their birthing video, right? He threw some stuff in a bag and sent it with Lix to the hospital, and then he packed up the kids and headed to the show. You just can’t let tickets like that go to waste. Jenna was all dressed up like Cinderella and the kids had a great time watching two hours of ice skating awesomeness with all their favorite Disney characters. Jarom did get a strange look from Jenna’s preschool teacher after Jenna told her that her mommy was “at the hospital getting my new sister out of her tummy.” But Jarom had his phone on him and if contractions had started he probably would have left the show early, although definitely not until after Merida won the archery competition because the pyrotechnics were sweet.

 Sunday best + crocs + a shark hat = awesome

 Best friends/excavation crew

After the show the crew trekked back up North to Frisco where everyone got a quick lunch and Jarom left the kids with Mario and headed out to be with Lix. She hadn’t made much progress and was mostly upset that the Wi-Fi signal in the room was terrible and didn’t allow her to catch up on her shows while she sat in bed and absorbed Pitocin. Sometime around 2:30 her body started really getting into it, with contractions getting stronger. Now Alixa has always wanted to do a natural birth without painkillers, but she chickened out with babies 1 and 2. This time she wanted to save some money (we are thinking about getting a new minivan for her and all savings go towards that) so she was really trying to hold out. She was doing great until around 3:45, when she caved and asked for the epidural. But at that moment the guy was in with a C-section and would be a few minutes, so she had to wait. And then the window had passed, because this little girl was coming quickly, whether Lix could feel it or not. And based on the facial expressions and the intonation of her blood-curdling screams, she could feel the pain. Jarom felt very much like he had been transported to a movie set in medieval times where the doctor goes in the room and you can just hear screaming through the door, except that he wasn’t waiting outside the door. But Lix did great, and at 4:00 Emily arrived, crying very loudly to let us know that she would fit in with our existing 2 loud children and our 1 loud cat. She weighed in at 6 pounds 2 ounces and 18 inches, for you stat heads out there.

While I wouldn’t aggressively recommend childbirth without drugs, it isn’t without benefits. Apparently the recovery is noticeably better if you haven’t had an epidural. At least that was Lix’s experience. Within a few hours she felt like she wanted to walk around a little, and the following days she felt much better than she had the last two times. I’m not sure how to weigh that against the most intense pain a woman can go through, but it’s something. Friday night Jarom headed home to keep an eye on Jenna and Bo and not sleep on a hospital fold out couch. It was a terrible experience. Jenna was entering the bad part of some sort of virus so he had to go get her some medicine. When he returned he found her hoarsely calling for help in her bed, which was now soaked because she had peed in it. He pulled her out and got her started in the bath while he put her sheets in the wash. Poor Bo was obviously not going to sleep through all this mess so he let him come hang out too. After Jenna was all clean she went to sleep on Jarom’s bed with him and Bo went back to his room. This was about 12:30. At about 2:30 Jenna woke Jarom up by telling him that she had to throw up. He quickly picked her up and carried her into the bathroom, barely making it to the sink before Jenna let fly. The fact that Jenna knew she was going to throw up, told Jarom, that Jarom was able to wake up quickly and get Jenna into the bathroom without tripping on some toy and that all the vomit was contained in the sink is the strongest evidence of a loving God that I’ve ever encountered. The rest of the night was uneventful.

Saturday morning Mario and Jarom and the kids went down to visit Emily, who was doing quite well. Jenna couldn’t hold her due to the illness, and in fact didn’t get to hold her until today. But both she and Bo were very happy to see her. Nate called while the kids were there and speaking to Bo asked if he was excited about his new sister. Bo excitedly replied, “Yeah, Emily Brooke!” None of us had ever heard him say that name nor did we have any idea that he even knew it. It was a very adorable moment. There were also a few visits from some of Alixa’s good friends, who all commented on how tiny Emmy is (this is the standard reaction so far) and generously set up a help schedule of some meals and some babysitting during the first week to make Alixa’s life easier. There has really been a ton of help from many people, and it has all been much appreciated. By Saturday afternoon Lix was ready to get out of there, but not before she got her much anticipated Celebration Dinner of steak and lobster. It was fabulous.

 Watching TV with Sonic

 Easter morning. Weeks later, same hat

Same nebulizer, same Jenna, different sized face

Bo got Tusk from Grandma. Instantly best friends.

The past week has been a crash course in remembering how to have a newborn. Sleep when you can, accept the help that people offer you, and take strong mental pictures of the cute moments to get you through the 3 am crying sessions. Jarom was able to work from home a few days this week, and has put together cribs and moved around rocking chairs and looked for breast pumps and baby clothes and all sorts of other baby stuff that has been boxed up for the past 18 months or more. Generally speaking the kids have been great, although Bo has been particularly sensitive and grumpy this week and we think that has something to do with the upheaval of our little world here. Jenna is pretty much done with her illness, Lix is dropping pounds like crazy, and Emmy is a mostly content little kiddo, so we really don’t have anything to complain about. I hope you are all as lucky as we are.

New Arrivals

We are moving into full blown countdown mode here at the Winn house. Baby Emilzoomius is supposed to arrive in 2 weeks, but Lix is really hoping for that always elusive Winn early arrival. She has been going through boxes of baby clothes marveling at how on earth we accumulated so much stuff for such a little person. Based on my calculations, if we change the baby 4-5 times each day there is a slight chance that she will be able to wear each outfit once before she outgrows them. Lix got two baby showers for #3, one from Jarom’s coworkers and another from her local friends. Both were wonderful events and we got lots of nice gifts from very generous people. The highlight from the work shower would probably be a stroller to put the carseat into. For Bo, we simply stole Nate and Kenzie’s, but they’ve still got Callie so we had to find a new solution. The top gift from the local shower was undoubtedly Alixa’s new diaper bag. Jarom says that it is crazy to add a 5^th diaper bag to the rotation, especially at a cost of over $150, but you really can’t reason with pregnant women, and it was a gift anyway. Jarom did manage to squeeze a free round of golf out of the deal, so he’s thrilled. All in all, a big thanks to anyone who was nice enough to get us a gift. We are very lucky to have so many nice people in our lives.

And because learning how to handle two new babies is always better than one, we are also working on training Sonic. He is in his early teenage stage right now, where he has too much energy and sometimes plays a little too rough. We have transitioned his home base from the laundry room to the garage, and are slowly introducing full outdoor life to him. At first he was very skittish and basically just stood at the door until you let him back in. After all, there are lots of new noises and things out there that he has never seen before. But he is getting the hang of it. He loves to climb trees and is pretty good at it, even though his first attempt got him stuck 12 feet up and Jarom had to climb up and save him, much to Jenna’s amusement. When he isn’t pouncing and chewing your hand he is a very good cuddle buddy and we all really love having him around. There are a pair of spray bottles kept in the house that get used fairly regularly for when he climbs on the table or gets too feisty.

The other thing that Lix has been yapping about for a little while is her “push gift.” Apparently this is a real thing that women have tricked their way into getting in return for having a baby. I guess the miracle of birth just isn’t enough for some women. Jarom has never gotten Alixa one of these gifts, so he decided to make up for it and get a great present this time. Before I tell you what the gift is, I must put out a warning: Jarom doesn’t care that you think his gift is terrible, which many of you will. Jarom doesn’t care if you are not pleased with his lack of imagination and romanticism when it comes to the gifts that he gives his wife, whether it be for Christmas or a birthday or as a reward for getting rid of a parasite. Jarom is perfectly content with his pragmatic, reasonable approach to gift giving, and if Alixa is bothered by it she is welcome to look elsewhere for her presents, because he isn’t going to change anytime soon. Now back to the gift. One of the things that we all really loved about this house is the hardwood floors that run through the main floor. There is also some tile that Alixa hates in the kitchen. And ever since we moved here those floors have been a pain in the butt to keep clean, because we have messy adults and messy kids and the only vacuum that we had to clean the non-carpeted area was a little $15 stick one that did about the job you would expect for that price. So Jarom decided to get Lix a Dyson. They’ve talked about this purchase for a long time, but as anyone who knows Jarom and is familiar with Dyson’s price point could guess, they’ve never made the leap. After the first time she used it Lix walked around in her bare feet and was overjoyed that she couldn’t feel anything but the floor. So despite its hefty price tag, the yellow machine will be sticking around a while.

One other event that happened a little while ago but escaped me was a visit from Jarom’s long lost high school buddy Aaron. He went to the Air Force Academy and has spent the past decade flying US cargo all over the globe, but recently decided to switch and become a flight trainer. That means that he had to spend a few months in San Antonio and he was bored enough there to make the drive up for a day. They got some subs with Nate and Kenz, Aaron ate two of them, and they talked about their lives and caught up. Jarom has had a few chances in the past few years to see old Delaware friends, and it’s always been a good time. It reminds him that he is getting old because lots of them are married and having kids (who does that?) and he talks with them about how his body is holding up and whether or not he can still play sports with the young’uns. Jarom was recently wondering how old he will be when Bo is able to beat him at basketball. Any guesses out there? Old people, how old were you when your kids passed you athletically? At any rate, it was great to see Aaron and find that he is doing well, and hopefully it won’t be another ten years before they cross paths again. And next time I write it will hopefully be a birth announcement.

Editor’s Note: Mitch wrote this Thursday evening, but I was very tired when I got home from playing ball and failed to put it on the interweb. And so now I should probably mention that a healthy 6-pound baby girl arrived this afternoon and that Mom and Baby are both doing well. Mitch will elaborate on the whole experience as soon as he can.