Thomas Vincent Winn

Why We Chose a Home Birth:

Around the same time we had Landon, some good friends of ours also had a baby… at home. I remember thinking how scary that would be, not to mention painful, and how I didn’t think I could ever do something like that.

Never say never, right?

In a nutshell, these are our reasons for going the home birth route:

Past Experience: Our hospital experience with Landon was not ideal. My OB was out of town, so I had some on call doctor who gave me an awful episiotomy after only one push and without first obtaining my consent. (Months of painful recovery!) In addition, I went into labor on a Sunday which meant the cafeteria was closed, so Scott was starving all day. Scott was also not thrilled about sleeping on the uncomfortable couch in our little room during the two days following the birth. (And honestly, it’s not like the hospital beds are much better!)

Insurance: Or lack thereof, because I had none. A midwife is much cheaper out of pocket that an OB, not to mention I would get to skip all the unpleasant blood work and tests along the way.

Knowledge: We watched the Business of Being Born, which was a great eye-opening documentary; highly recommend it. We also started learning about home birth and came to realize how safe it is, and how much better it is for mom and baby. To anyone giving birth, even if you are set on an epidural in the hospital, I would still recommend learning about the benefits of a natural birth.

Our Home Birth Experience:

Preparation: I’m sure many of you have the same reaction when you hear "home birth" as I once did. But, I assure you; it’s quite a different story when you spend nine months preparing for it. We went with the same midwife, Sherri Price, that our friends did, and absolutely love her. Her experience, care, and knowledge are unmatched. (She is pictured below in one of the photos with Tom and me.) Each month she holds forums at her home for all the moms to be, giving information on a variety of topics: comfort measures during pregnancy and birth, massage, birthing positions, exercise, nutrition, stages of labor, etc… You also get to hear mothers share their birth stories. In addition we took a HypnoBabies class, which is the main “pain management” technique used in many home births.

Prenatals: Many people have asked me what prenatals are like with a home birth so I thought I’d include this little blurb too. The prenatal appointments were held at Sherri's home. (Landon loved to go with because of all the fun toys and cars there.) She would measure the baby, listen to the heart, do a urine analysis, and check my weight. No internal exam, as they are not necessary and just provide an opportunity for bacteria to enter that sterile area. Then we would talk about how things are going, how I was doing with exercise and nutrition, and go over any questions I might have.

The Birth: During this pregnancy I had a very strong feeling that he would come early, and fast. I was only in labor with Landon for 12 hours, so we were thinking it might be 6 or so the second time around. On March 15, I woke up at 5:30am, 8 days before my due date. (Thank you for sleeping in Landon!) I went to the bathroom, definitely was leaking fluid, had bloody show, and knew the contractions were real this time.

Of course it figures, I had been keeping the house spotless every day with the exception of the night before I went into labor. So, in my head I started listing off what had to be done ASAP:

• Clean!!!
• Wash bedding (Scott had been sleeping in the extra bed downstairs because he had a severe bronchitis infection and didn’t want to get me sick. However, we were planning on using that bed during labor so we wanted to get all those sheets clean.) 
• Shower! (Maybe I’ll even curl my hair for the sake of pictures. Haha, yes I did think this would be possible.)

After getting up, I quickly realized that the contractions were a lot stronger and closer together than I was anticipating they would be at the start of labor. I woke Scott up, called Sherri, showered, (didn’t even get around to combing or drying my hair) and then started listening to one of my HypnoBabies tracks while I cleaned up. Scott called our good friends to come take Landon as well.

Sherri arrived at 7:00am. She checked where I was at: only 5cm, but 100% effaced and baby was at +2 station, meaning his head was already halfway down the birth canal. (0 means he hasn’t entered the canal, +5 is crowning.) Sherri ran downstairs to get the birthing tub set up and call the other midwife and apprentice. She only got the tub half full before we ran out of hot water. (Had we known things were going to go this fast, we wouldn’t have all showered and done laundry first!) I was still able to get in the tub for a few contractions but then started to feel pushy (in my head I was thinking, already?!?!) and I ended up moving to the bed because the water was getting too cold. After pushing for only 30 minutes, he was out! Not gonna lie, it was the most painful thing I’ve ever experienced. (There are HypnoBabies tracks to listen to when in labor, and pushing but everything went so fast, there just wasn’t time to think about getting them.)

All in all, it was the most amazing and empowering experience I’ve ever had and I wouldn’t have wanted it any other way.

Thomas Vincent Winn was born at 9:10am, after just 3.5 hours of labor. He was 21 inches long, and 9 lbs, 5 oz. (A full inch and pound bigger than Landon, and born a week earlier.) No tearing whatsoever!!

While Scott and I rested with Tom, the midwives cleaned everything up and set up all the things we needed in our room upstairs. We moved up there and stayed in bed all day, sleeping and enjoying our new little bundle in the comfort of our own home.

Recovery: I absolutely loved my home birth experience and would do it again in a heartbeat. The recovery has been night and day different from my hospital birth experience. After five days I felt amazing. I knew my body still needed to rest, but it was hard to stay in bed and take it easy because I felt like I was already back to my old self again!

Thomas: After a couple of days, it was very evident that something was wrong with Thomas and causing him to nurse incorrectly, leaving blood blisters on both my nipples. (Which were so painful, that I couldn’t decide if pushing baby out or nursing him hurt more.) Sherri recommended a pediatric dentist who specializes in lip and tongue ties. Turns out Tom had both, making it so he couldn’t lift his tongue and upper lip enough to nurse properly. The dentist preformed a ten-minute procedure in which the ties are literally removed with a laser. It took some time for Tom to figure out how to nurse better but by that point, my milk supply was already down because he wasn’t properly getting milk out. As the lactation consultant put it, it was too hard for him to get milk so he would go to sleep and be content to starve. (Although he was/is definitely not starving, just not getting enough either.) Not to mention he has severe reflux (just like Landon did) and spits up most of everything he gets down. Consequently, I’ve been pumping after every feeding and power pumping for an hour at night in addition to taking Fenugreek to try to increase my supply. He has to eat at least every two hours, but usually he's ready after an hour and a half, so this essentially leaves an hour of time between each feeding session. He is still fairly fussy, but hopefully with more milk and acid reflux meds, that will continue to improve. In addition, he has a Staph infection and his big toe nails are both ingrown. Good grief, little one.

Landon: Landon has been adjusting fairly well. He absolutely loves having a little brother and always wants to give him hugs, kisses, and tickles. Of course Landon doesn’t get the attention he is used to, and has started doing things he has never done before, like painting the carpet and coloring on chairs. Not to mention he has become extremely defiant. And, my all time favorite is when Tom’s crying and Landon starts crying and screaming too. “Two babies, Mom!” Oh boy. Thankfully we’ve had family come and go consistently since Tom’s birth so Landon has had fun hanging out with everyone.

Fall 2013 & Winter 2014

The last six months have flown by. In a nutshell, this is what we’ve been up to:

Home 
We moved into our house!! And no, I don’t have any good pictures to show yet. ☺ Landon was a big help helping painting, unpacking, and building (bookshelves, chairs, table, etc… the list goes on and on). As you can see in the pictures below, he also went through a phase of attaching things to himself – in the picture below where the baby tub is tied to his boxers with a belt, he is pretending to be a trailer truck. He is quite inventive.

Fall
We actually had a bit of nice fall weather. My family came out to visit and they were especially helpful in getting all the home projects done that I wanted. Took a trip to the pumpkin patch with them and enjoyed the last bit of heat before winter set in with full force.

Halloween 
For Halloween I was hoping Landon would want to be Peter Pan, since that costume was already made, but he was totally over Peter and had moved on to Bob the Builder. No biggie, we still got tons of use out of it. Halloween gets more and more fun each year as he gets older! He had a blast trick or treating, and wanted to keep going but was just so tired. By the end he was laying down in the wagon falling asleep. One of the things I look forward to most each year is the Halloween party Scott and I get to enjoy sans Landon. This year there were six snakes in the photo room. Don’t be deceived by the smile; I’m having a panic attack on the inside.

Thanksgiving/Baby Ultrasound 
Celebrated Thanksgiving just the three of us, just how we like it. Also, per tradition, went to see a movie in the afternoon. Landon didn’t want to see Frozen because it looked “too scary,” so we went to Austenland instead. One of my favorite books! The movie was also good, definitely as cheesy as we expected, but funny, and fun to watch since Scott knew a lot of the people who worked on it. Baby ultrasound! As much as we would have loved a girl, we both just knew it would be a boy. He’s been consistently measuring two weeks bigger/ahead of where I am. Although this usually means nothing, it’s interesting to note. Boy it goes by fast the second time around! And yes, we have the name picked out, but decided to keep it a secret till his birth. Not that it’s some bogus made-up name; it’s just more fun driving our parents crazy.

The Accident 
December came with a good haul of snow, which Landon thoroughly enjoyed. We couldn’t wait to go back to WA for Christmas and New Years, and make our semi-annual getaway to Victoria, BC. But, unfortunately the night before we were planning to leave, we got in a car accident. Huge, huge bummer but much to be thankful for, as it could have been a lot worse. Long story short, traffic in town stopped abruptly in front of us, and Scott put all his weight into the breaks in an effort to stop in time. We still hit the car in front of us and on impact Scott shattered the top of his foot, breaking and displacing multiple bones. It was classified as a Liz Franc injury; one that puts athletes out of their careers for good. He had surgery on Christmas Eve morning, followed by some scary complications, so we also spent most of that night in the ER. It’s been two and a half months and he just barely got the cast off and started physical therapy. Fingers crossed he will be able to walk by the time baby comes. (Thankfully, our car was fixable and now it looks amazing with a whole new front.)

Christmas 
We couldn’t believe this year Landon actually wanted to see Santa. He was so nervous but just had to tell Santa what he would like for Christmas. Christmas ended up being quite a bit different than we planned because of the accident and surgery. Scott was heavily drugged and out of it most of the day. Landon still had fun opening his presents, building his new train table and jamming out on his drums.

Visits 
After New Years, Scott’s family came to visit. Landon especially loved swimming in the hotel pool with them. Landon’s been doing well in gymnastics and loves going each week - although he’s quite the little spaz and has a hard time focusing and listening to his teacher. He also loves to sit in on Scott’s work meetings, even when he can’t keep his eyes open very long.

Fun Outings 
Landon and I went to the Dino museum. Lots of hands on things to play with at the museum, although Landon was a little freaked out by dinosaurs. He kept reminding me (and himself) that “They were alive a long long time ago… now they’re dead.” But, the dino noises in the background such didn’t make it seem like they were dead. ☺ We also couldn’t pass up the monster truck show in SLC. Landon was in heaven!

Superbowl! 
We had some friends over for a big ol’ superbowl party. Even though we’re not sports people in the slightest, we had the greatest time watching the Seahawks win!!

Faces of Landon 
Top left: L loves to put out fires in the house.
Top right: Helping Mommy clean! He enjoys doing the spray, emptying garbage cans, and unloading the dishwasher.
Bottom left: Most of Landon’s pictures look like this – he will smile at me, but just can’t take his eyes off of whatever thing he’s playing with.
Bottom right: Took an ink pad to his face… “This is my makeup.”

Left: Sporting his "listening to the Holy Ghost ears" from primary.
Right: Helping mommy shop at Trader Joes. (His latest thing when I ask him to smile is to immediately spread his legs apart as far as he can.)

Basketball 
[As you can see, these are the only pictures we managed to take on the good camera during the last six months.] During February, Landon was in a basketball class a couple times a week. He wasn’t super thrilled at first, but that might be partly because he doesn’t do sports much at home. He does what daddy does: make music! They jam out all the time and he loves to go to the studio and “record” songs with Scott and Brenden. By the end of the month though, Landon had definitely improved his dribbling and shooting skills and enjoyed it more and more.

Valentines Day 
On Valentine’s Day this year, we recreated our V-day from 10 years ago. Scott also treated me to a pedicure and massage, which was very sweet and very much needed.

Pregnancy Photo Shoot 
I was so diligent with Landon, taking pictures each week to document his growth. Not so good this time around. At least we got a few memorable picts at these amazing photo spots at Scheels. [35 weeks]  

Warming Up 
We are finally getting a glimpse of spring here, with beautiful warm weather! Play dates at the park, scootering around the neighborhood, and a trip to the zoo. Landon’s favorites at the zoo: the tiger and the new pirate ship play area. We just love being outside!

Family Photo Fall 2013 
Last one of just us three! ☺
Scott Update: [Since there wasn't really a better place to fit this in.] Despite being unable to walk, Scott has still managed to get a lot of work done, with the help of amazing friends. In January he released "Stormtrooper Secrets: Hip Hop Twerk" which hit a million views in less than 48 hours. The song he wrote for the video, "Beat Calls," made it to the top 40 on the hip hop charts, right along side Macklemore, Jay Z, and Eminem, which was pretty surreal. More importantly though, are all the jobs that have come because of the video. Right now he has a team in the Philippines shooting some sweet videos for his You Tube Channel. There are many other videos in the works including one for Ford, and the next Scott & Brendo album will be out sometime before fall. Love my talented hubby!

D Day and New Spice

Dearest Landon,

Guess what today is? You got it, June 13 - yep, the day you should arrive. We have been waiting for 40 weeks now. 40 weeks. And really, you can add another year and then some before that of waiting for you too. And now, you have decided to make your appearance all that more dramatic by being late. I suppose I might be getting ahead of myself. Since it's only 8:30am, there is still a chance you could be born today. However, less than 5% of babies actually come on their due date. Sooooooo, I'm thinking you are just going to take your time and make your grand debut later rather than sooner. You'd think after waiting so long thus far, what's a few more days? And, well, generally I like to think of myself as a pretty patient person - I taught third grade for crying out loud. Yet, I'm REALLY done waiting. Could you please come NOW?

Dearest blog readers,

On Saturday, Scott shot a promo video for the BYU library. It's a parody of the Old Spice commercial that's all one shot (no camera cuts). I got some behind the scene stills of the action - check it: There was a whole set in the atrium of the library, then in a matter of seconds, the actor's sweatshirt comes off, the couch is pulled away, the wall drops, the tree is snagged, and the backpack falls onto his shoulders. Then he walks toward the elevator as the camera follows on the dolly. Sweet huh? They did tons of takes, but finally nailed it after three hours.

Where Has the Time Gone?

Friday was my last day teaching! I can't believe how fast this year has gone by. I almost lost it a couple of times but managed not to. I just love teaching and am so glad for the opportunity I had to teach before having kids. I had an awesome class this year. On Thursday the parents came and had an end of the year party with the kids, which actually turned out being a baby shower for me! The kids had to eat various baby foods and guess what kinds they were - so funny. They decorated lil onsies for Landon and played relay games where each group had to dress a baby doll - of course the boys sorely failed at this, which made it very entertaining to watch.
I think he looks ready to come out! This is the 38 week pict compared to 20 weeks. I remember thinking I looked so big at 20 weeks! HA. Just two more weeks - or maybe not!!! Actually we are hoping he comes this week, sometime between Tues and Thurs. Scott got cast as an extra in John Carter of Mars, the new Pixar movie (first live action) being filmed in Utah. There would be a day of getting fitted (for a sweet warrior costume) and two full day shoots, plus he'd get $150 a day. BUT, it's in Hanksville - 3 1/2 hours south, in the middle of nowhere. Literally. Sooooooo he turned it down, not wanting to risk the baby coming while he was there, and me not being able to get a hold of him.

We moved! Deja Vu, because we are back in Mapleton, in the same apartment we lived in before Alpine. We are FINALLY almost done unpacking. I'll post some picts as soon as we finish...
Last, but not least, you gotta go check out Scott's website. He just got finished editing a new reel and added a ton of new wedding photos that he's taken in the past year. Very cool! Click here.

One Month to Go!!!!

I can't wait!! Here's the 35 week pict. A lil dark, but you get the idea.

The 5,972 Things We've Been Doing...

Seriously, I'm not kidding. March madness in our neck of the woods. Here's an update into our latest happenings:

Dr. Fubalous

Scott is shooting this hilarious web series about a doctor/rapper. We'll let you know when it is finished and online. When he was shooting this music video portion this homeless guy came by and stopped to watch. Then he started dancing, so one of guys working on the project told him to go dance with the dancers. He actually did. Soooo random.

EMERGENCY!
Scott went to the ER three times in seven days. The first two visits- he couldn't breathe because of pain in his chest and abdomen. (I thought breathing was important so we finally decided to go after dealing with it for hours.) Third visit - has a vein explode while getting pumped full of contrast solution during a CT scan. At the elbow, his arm swelled to the size of a large grapefruit in a matter of seconds. Apparently this is something that obviously doesn't usually happen, but if it does, is only seen in people over 70. He is doing much better now.

Happy Birthday to Me!

On March 31 I turned 23! Scott decorated the house and got up early to fix me french toast with strawberries and whipped cream. At school, my kids called me into their music room during their music time. They were all sitting in a circle singing an African song and had a chair set up for me at the end of the circle. Each one took turns coming up to me, whispered a complement in my ear and dropped a nerd candy in a goblet that was set in front of the chair. It was sooooo CUTE! My two favs were 1) "You're the best teacher ever and when I grow up I want to be a teacher just like you." and 2) "You're beautiful." (From one of the boys in my class.) Their music teacher explained that this is an African birthday tradition. Very neat!! After school Scott and I went ate at Outback Steakhouse (Mmmmmm!) and came home to open presents and eat ice cream cupcakes from Coldstone. I love birthdays!

And Getting Bigger...

Here's the photo from 29 weeks. I feel great, besides a little tiredness and being uncomfortably large. Last week I had the gestational diabetes test and rhogam shot done. I thought half the world was negative and half was positive when it comes to blood type. Apparently being negative is not that common. It's only like 17% of people, or something like that. Lucky me.

Catapults!

I've been teaching about forces and motion/simple machines in science this month. As a culminating project, my students made catapults at home and on a sunny Friday we tested them out with marshmallows. I even let them shoot at me, which they were very excited about.

Conference and Easter

Scott's sisters came down from Rexburg over conference weekend so we had tons of fun handing out with them. We all had tickets to the Sunday afternoon session so that was very neat to go to. It will probably be the last time Scott and I actually go to the conference center for a very long time, since kids under 8 aren't permitted. We really enjoyed all the talks, especially the many on teaching children in the home.

Lost and Found!

In November I lost Scott's car keys. I literally searched EVERYWHERE over and over again. I assumed I had thrown them away by accident. I finally replaced them in January. I thought it might be like 10 - 20 bucks to replace. Oh no. $150. Yikes. Those are some high-tech car keys. Sheesh. Well, the other day I was cleaning up our porch and to my utter surprise found the keys laying on one of thees benches out there. I couldn't help but laugh. They're super rusty and gross looking, but I'm very curious to see if they still work...

Moving

We just found out yesterday that we have to move in the next month. We knew when we moved here that the family upstairs were trying to sell their house. They actually took it off the market when we moved in, and had been trying to sell it for a few years now. Well, a friend of a friend was interested, came by, made a great offer, and don't want basement renters. :( Sooooooo here goes the house search again. The fam is so nice, they feel so bad and are trying to help us find a place, while also finding a place for themselves. This has by far been our fav apartment so we are sad sad sad to leave. I laughed when Scott told me. It's funny how these things always seem to happen at the most inopportune times. Oh well. That's life.

Scott's Second Trip to LA

On Sunday Scott leaves for LA for the next three weeks. He will be working on the set of ABC's Brothers and Sisters. They will be filming the season finale.

Goodness. If you made it through that, congratulations.

Twenty-six Weeks and Twenty-six Teepees

We are on the homestretch, just 3 months to go! Latest prego pict at 26 weeks.

On Friday my students each made their own teepee since we are learning about Native Americans. They had soooo much fun! I love doing paper mache projects!

Valentine's Day Excitement

Being a teacher, I not only got to celebrate Valentine's Day with Scott, but also with my class. I had the students write poems about the "Five Senses of Love." They turned out so cute! My favorite one (written by a boy!) went like this:

Love tastes like berry muffins that came out of the oven.
Love looks like the cleanest house.
Love smells like honey from a big beehive.
Love sounds like someone playing soft music on the piano.
Love feels like a new bed with soft covers.

For our Valentine's class party, the parents had the students use conversation hearts to create stories about how "Mr. and Mrs. Winn met." So funny. We played some other games and passed out our Valentines.
Scott and I usually are pretty lame when it comes to holidays. (We didn't get each other anything for Christmas.) But we decided to actually do something this Valentine's Day. Since we live only an hour away from Park City and have never been, we went up there and spent the night. We walked around main street getting some fab picts, eating the best ribs in town, and checking out a bunch of photography exhibits. That night at the hotel we actually got to watch the Olympics!!! (This was very exciting because we don't have cable at home and have been dying to see them.)
The next day we shopped and came home with nothing but baby clothes. Check out the stylin' outfits our lil guy will have:
This coming week is teacher appreciation week. (Yay!) So, my parents decorated my door and I thought it was such a clever idea to tie in the Olympics! All the Olympic peeps have the heads of my students on them. I'm in the middle, standing on a first place platform. Cute!

How to Cutsie up a Compostion Notebook

I thought it was about time I show off my craftiness! I've been keeping a journal for our little boy ever since I found out that I was pregnant. Since then, I have been waiting and waiting to decorate the cover until I knew whether to use blues or pinks. Well, I finally sat down for some craft time and came up with this:

Ordinary Composition Notebook Turned Fabulous
Materials

• Scrapbook paper
• Ribbon or string
• Embellishments
• Ink (I love to "ink" the perimeter of my paper to give it more depth.)

Directions

• For the base paper (mine is white polka dots on blue): Line it up on the black spine then cut the other three sides so they are about an inch longer than the notebook. Glue in place, then fold the top and bottom over and glue to the inside. Fold the side flap over and glue as well. To finish off the inside, cut a piece that will fill the space and glue it in. (I used blue stripes in the second picture.)
• Decorate the front with layers, embellishments, ribbon, string, quotes, etc..

Speaking of showing off, here's the latest belly shot. 23 weeks! Last night Scott did some newborn picts for his cousin Mark's new baby. She is adorable and the picts are priceless. My favorite are these fun ones with her in a tutu.