Baby, Baby, Baby, Baby!

First things first: The answer to the sweet babies of mine picture question in the Top 10 Questions post are: 1st: Josh; 2nd: Luke; 3rd: Zach; 4th: Ben. Yes, I have babies that are born big and chubby and uber-kissable! I love it!

After this last fun baby-themed post I will stop with all the baby stuff...mostly. But this is the last really random baby-info one, I promise. I saw this "tag" awhile back and thought it was really cute/fun, but never got around to doing it. So with the bun in the oven, I thought I would give it a shot. I tried to be as concise as possible, and considering I am Miss Wordy herself, and how much women in general love to talk about their pregnancies and deliveries, I think I did pretty darn good!

1.Were your pregnancies planned?
All but Josh's. We definitely wanted more than two, but we were planning on waiting until Adam had finished his MBA program to have a third. But we are so glad he came along when he did!

2. How long were you married at the time of birth?
Z: 2 years, 4 months
B: 16 days plus 4 years
J: 6 years, two months
L: Two months shy of 9 years

3. What were your reactions?
Always very excited! With Zach I was pretty nervous, too. Life was really about to change! With Josh there was a little surprise added in!

4. How did your spouse react? Adam is always really happy about being a daddy again, but I know he is always a little nervous for me to be pregnant; he doesn't want anything to happen to me.

5. How old were you?
Z: Three days past my 23rd birthday. I was so happy to be 23, because there was an ad on the wall of my doctors office advertising a special support group for "young moms" ages 16-22! Although I was still a young mom, apparently I was old enough not to need a special support group by three days!
B: 24 years, 8 months
J: 26 years, 10 months
L: 29 years, 6 months

6. How did you find out you were pregnant? Pregnancy tests at home. With Zach, Ben and Luke, I took them the day I missed my period. With Josh I was four days late before I realized I might be pregnant. I'm a very regular kind of gal.

7. Who did you tell first? Adam! And then my Mom.

8. Did you want to find out the gender? Yes! Are you kidding? I am way too much of a planner to not know ahead of time, and way too impatient too!

9. Due Date?
Z: 12.25.2000 but born 12.13.2000
B: 08.25.2002 but born 08.31.2002
J: 10.25.2004 but born 10.21.2004
L: 06.05.2007 but born 06.02.2007

10. Did you have morning sickness?
Z: Nausea during my first trimester with a couple of throw-ups but that's it. I was OK as long as I ate small constant snacks. Then I had a weird 2-week stretch during my second trimester where I was really sick after I changed prenatal vitamins, but once I changed back, I was fine.
B: The same as with Zach during my first trimester. Then during my late 2nd and through my 3rd trimesters I had killer heartburn, that sometimes was so bad I got sick.
J: Not bad at all. Just super tired.
L: Back to nausea during my first trimester, I think I threw-up once. And then just exhaustion!

11. What did you crave? I'm not a huge "craver," usually there are things I can't eat though! But here are a few I can remember....
Z: Costco Chocolate Chocolate Chip muffins; turkey sandwiches on sourdough
B: Hot and Sour Soup, but I OD'd and I still can't eat it; mushrooms (which I had hated up to this point)
J: Cheerios; pickles; fresh fruit of any kind; avocados (which I had also hated up to this point)
L: Milk; Tillamook Mudslide Ice Cream on a cone

12. What irritated you the most? Always smells, even too much of good ones could be off-putting. And dirty sinks. And my patience level is so low when I am pregnant, that my children not listening or fighting irritated me more than usual to the nth degree!

13. What was the child’s sex? Boy, boy, boy, boy!

14. Did you wish that you had the opposite sex of what you were getting? No. We were always happy with our boys. But that doesn't mean we wouldn't have been excited to hear the word, "girl!"

15. How many pounds did you gain throughout the pregnancy?
Z: 27
B: 31
J: 35 (and he was the one I exercised most with!)
L: 29

16. Did you have a baby shower?
Z: 2-one with friends at college, one with friends and family at home
B: 1-a joint one for myself and my friend Tamara, thrown by our playgroup friends
J: 2-one with friends from Adam's MBA program, a surprise one while we visited home during the summer with my playgroup friends (same ones as the shower for Ben!)
L: 1-surprise shower hosted by Jen and Beth, seriously so surprised!

17. Did you have any complications during your pregnancy? Not until delivery. Both Ben and Josh had meconium in the amniotic fluid, so a neonatologist had to be called in for both deliveries. And Josh also had the umbilical cord wrapped around his neck. But both boys were just fine!

18. Where did you give birth?
Z: Evergreen Hospital, Kirkland, WA.
B: Evergreen Hospital, Kirkland, WA.
J: American Fork Hospital, American Fork, UT.
L: Evergreen Hospital, Kirkland, WA.

19. How many hours were you in labor?
Z: My water broke early in the morning of the 12th, but it was so little, they wouldn't let me come in until I wet through a pad, I think they thought I was just peeing. I, however, knew that was not the case. But at 4 that afternoon, it finally REALLY broke and we headed to the hospital. I never actually went into labor, so after 5 hours at the hospital of walking around trying to trigger labor, they induced me. Zach was born at 11:08am on the 13th.
B: I was 5 days late when I finally went into labor. I had irregular contractions for 16 hours before they got regular. At about 11pm we went to the hospital and I was at 4cm's. They gave me an epidural and my labor stopped, so they had to induce me again. Ben arrived at 6:18am, six days after his due date.
J: Due to his size, I was induced at 1pm on the 21st. Josh arrived at 6:11pm. Fast and easy!
L: Luke was also induced because of my past big baby size, he took longer than Josh though. I was induced at 9am and he didn't arrive until 3:30pm.

20. Who drove you to the hospital?
Adam did for Ben, Josh and Luke, but he was still in Utah taking his last final of his under-grad career when my water broke with Zach. Zach was 12 days early after all! So my mom took me to the hospital after my water had broken. Fortunately I had that whole day where I knew my water had broken, but the nurses were making me wait until I wet through a pad!! Meanwhile, Adam reserved the next possible flight, camped outside of his professor's office hoping he'd show up before Adam had to leave for the airport, which he did. Adam took his last 3-hour final in 45-minutes, and flew home. He got there before my contractions even started, before they induced me. And he even got a B+ in the class!

21. Who watched you give birth?
I know not everyone is like this, but I like a team. Doctor, nurses plus:
Z: Adam, Mom, Sis, Dad (Yes, my Dad was there, up by my head taking pictures. No judgements please. My dad has a medical background, not weird for me at all).
B: Adam, Mom, Dad (Sis's cell phone was off!)
J: Adam, Mom, Dad (Thanks scheduled induction for family member's being there in UT from WA!)
L: Adam, Mom, Dad, the doc barely made it in he came so fast once I started to push!

22. Was your baby delivered the regular way or by c-section? No c-sections!

23. Did you take medicine to ease the pain?
Z: Yes, but it didn't take well. It took the anesthesiologist 45 minutes and 10 tries to get it in and it didn't even block the pain well; maybe 50%. Which is worse than delivering naturally I think, at least then you are prepared!
B: Yes, so strong that I couldn't feel anything...kinda nice, but really odd!
J: Yes, perfect, no pain, but definitely pressure.
L: No, by choice. I wanted to give it a try, so I did! The labor wasn't bad, it was really just the transition and pushing that hurt like the dickens! But the recovery was amazing, easy, relaxing, nice, no pain whatsoever. I have to say, it was extra nice to have my labor team there for this one!

24. How much did the baby weigh?
Z: 8 lbs. 12 oz.
B: 8 lbs. 5 oz.
J: 9 lbs. 4 oz.
L: 8 lbs. 9 oz.

25. What did you name your child?
Zachary Adam Conlin (after dad)
Benjamin Alexander Conlin (after great-grandpa)
Joshua Stanley Conlin (after my dad)
Lucas Daniel Conlin (after Adam's dad)

26. How old are your children today?
Z: 8 years, 4 months
B: 6 years, 8 months
J: 4 years, 6 months
L: 1 year, 10 months