My Little T-Rex

Trexton Ray was born July 21, 2019 at 3:57 am weighing 8 lbs 1 oz, 19 in. long.  We all LOVE him so much, and I can't believe I was ever bummed about having a surprise pregnancy!  He was suppose to come to our family, and now that he is here I feel like our family is complete.

Birth Story: (You may want to skip this section if you don't want to read the TMI)

Saturday, the 20th, my siblings all drove into Las Vegas for our biennial family reunion.  My sister's family got here earlier enough to have dinner and swim.  Then, they stayed at our house that night because their condo didn't start until Sunday night. It was a blessing they did because I went into labor, and since they were already here, I didn't have to call and wait for someone to get here in the middle of the night.

I woke up about 1 am to go to the bathroom.  I think I was leaking amniotic fluid, but wasn't sure. I literally went to the bathroom every 15 minutes to check, but still wasn't sure.  I was having contractions, but they were not consistent.  One would be 5 minutes, the next 8, the next 4, etc.  Some of them hurt, others didn't, so I was so confused!  I kept debating if I was really in labor or not.  Finally about 2:45 I came downstairs to walk around to see if they would stop or be more consistent.  That was when I went to the bathroom one more time, and felt the gush of water.  I knew that was not discharge- that was my water breaking more than just leaking.  That was my for sure answer that it was time to go.  After that, the contractions came on hard and fast.  We left the house by 3 am, got to the hospital about 3:07, and little T-Rex was born at 3:57 am. We had to go to the ER first, answer a bunch of questions, and then we got brought up to the L&D unit. I was already at a 7 when I finally got checked at the hospital. I knew he was coming fast.

Sure enough, the next time she checked me I was a 9, and then the pressure... I was having one REALLY LONG continuous contraction. There was no break.  One nurse was trying to get an IV in and I didn't even notice.  The other was trying to get me to sign those permission papers you have to sign.  I do remember her saying, "When you get a break!"  I was like- "There are no breaks!"  I signed chicken scratch during the really long contraction.  Then I had to push.  I was yelling that he was coming right now.  The nurses were like the doctor is walking down the hall.  I yelled again that he was coming, and sure enough, he came 2 minutes before the laborist walked in. Apparently, only his head came out, and I stopped pushing.  I was drained, and the pressure was gone, so I relaxed, until the nurses started yelling at me to push.  It took all I had to push his body out. I also lost a lot of blood, which resulted in me almost passing out the first time I tried to get up and go to the bathroom.  (Luckily, the nurse stayed with me and kept me talking/mumbling as I was blacking out.  They were able to get me back to the bed in time).

Because of his quick entrance to the world, I had a 2nd degree tear down the middle and a few more incisions on the sides.  Lots of stitches (that I could feel), and extreme exhaustion.  I was shaking from the experience, and I could hardly talk.  Josh was great and kept giving me water when I needed it. I am pretty sure little man bruised my tail bone, too.

His Name

Our three older kids have uniqueish names with Ys in them, so we needed a name for baby brother that was uniqueish with a Y in it.  Coming up with a name was not an easy feat.  We didn't agree on most names, and we just didn't talk about names that often.  Finally in the hospital we discussed naming him Ryder or Bryer.  One of those would be his name, but we weren't sure which one.  When the kids came to the hospital, we asked them which name they liked best.  Payson didn't like either.  In fact, he really wanted us to name him Trextor.  One of the names I liked was Trextyn with a y, but Josh didn't like it because he didn't like it spelled with  y, so we pushed it from our minds.  When Payson brought up Trextor in the hospital, it got us thinking that maybe we could go back to Trexton, but not spell it with a y.  That made Josh happy.  Trexton's middle name is Ray, which has a Y, so that counts!  Ray is on both sides of our family, so it was the perfect middle name.

Hospital Stay
We were in the hospital for 3.5 nights including the night (early morning) he was born.  The reason being is because I was strep B positive.  We had to stay 48 hours because Trexton came too fast for me to get antibiotics.  Somewhere, somehow, his blood test didn't get processed until really late, so we couldn't even leave at 48 hours, and had to wait until every thing came back negative.  I wasn't thrilled, but I feel very blessed that even though we had to stay extra nights, Trexton didn't get any nasty disease or sickness from my strep B.

My extra day was lonely because Josh had to travel for work.  My mom came for a couple hours, so I could shower.  My dad brought me a milkshake, which lifted my spirits!  My family was so awesome to keep my kids every day all day while they were on vacation in Vegas.  They were able to come visit us in the hospital, and Zaylee was so cute and excited.  She kept saying, "That's my Baby Brother!"

Home and Happy
Anyone who has had a baby (or 7)  know that those first couple weeks after birth are rough.  It was so nice to have family take the three older kids for the first five days of Trexton's life.  After they all left- the house became a disaster and I got less naps. Plus, Zaylee and Josh both got sick on Sunday.  Zaylee just wanted mommy and Josh couldn't hold Trexton because he was sick, so that was an adventure. My friend was nice enough to bring the two older kids home from church, so the rest of us got a good nap while they were gone. Between the lack of sleep, sore body, engorgement, and other un-mentionable soreness, and a sick 2 year old and husband, I really don't care that my house is a mess!!! Some sisters in my ward have been so nice providing us dinner, and we look forward to having Molly come.  I am  slowly recovering from this crazy birth, and despite all my complaining it is all worth it to have Trexton be a part of our family.

The kids absolutely adore Little T.  Zaylee has had some jealousy and has been throwing little 2 year old fits these last couple days, but I think part of that is her being sick.  She still really loves her baby brother.  We (the kids and I) managed to take some newborn photos of the little guy. Payson asks to hold him the most.  I think he loves having a best brother!

First Bath

It has been a tradition for me to always let the older child(ren) help with their younger sibling's first bath.  It is always an adventure because the 2 year old usually helps a little too much, but the kids always love helping. Anyway, here are some first bath picts.

Babies truly are miracles, and we love ours!

Outdoor Adventures

Two out of three of the adventures that have occurred in the last two weeks don't really include Zaylee me.  Josh took the two older kids camping last weekend to Bryce Canyon where they met Grandma Molly there, and then again this weekend to the Arizona Strip Bundy Reunion where they met Grandpa Jones and Mimi and a bunch of Jones relatives.  I am too pregnant to have any desire to camp or travel that far away from a hospital, and Zaylee is 2, so she got to stay home with me.
 
The other adventure was our day trip on the 4th of July to Willow Bay on the Colorado River just under the Hoover Dam.  Since I actually enjoyed this little adventure, I will share our experience with it first!

Willow Bay-

Willow Bay was only about an hour from our house, and pretty close to Boulder City.  The river at this location is very slow, which makes it easy to paddle the kayak up and down stream.  We were lucky to claim the last shady spot on land. (As soon as we left someone snagged it).  The water was freezing, but it felt OH SO GOOD!!  Zaylee didn't like the coldness of it, but the older two and I had no problem.  My favorite thing to do while we were there was to just lay in the shallow water on the floaty.  

  

After Josh got the kayak blown up, we all piled in and took it on the river.  Zaylee did not like her life jacket, and whined every time I tried to put her off my lap onto the kayak bottom, so I got kind of hot in the kayak, but Josh dripped water on my back.  He did all the hard work.  He blew up the kayak and did all the rowing (except when Avenly wanted to "help" him, which I am sure made it so much easier:). 

 

After we got back and cooled off in the water, Josh took Payson and Avenly out again.  Zaylee and I sat in the shade since she wouldn't get in the water with me.  At least she was cute eating her snacks!

We only stayed a couple hours, but it really was a great way to spend the 4th of July in the Hot Nevada heat.  That night we had grilled steak and salmon for dinner, and found a place behind the houses where other houses couldn't block our view of the hundreds of fireworks going off all around us.  There was not one big show, but we saw lots of "tiny" shows all through Las Vegas.  Payson preferred "a big show," so I told him next year we would go to another town and find one.

Bryce Canyon- Josh, Payson, and Avenly (Grandma Molly)

The plan was to not camp two weekends in a row, but Josh had bought a telescope, and heard there was a free star party at Bryce Canyon.  Bryce Canyon happens to be about 4 hours from us and from Grandma Molly, so she met them there and had a fun filled time camping.  Hopefully, I can capture the details of their trip through the stories the kids and Josh told me and the pictures Molly shared.

Josh and the kids stayed the night in St. George Friday night, stopped in Cedar City for Strawberry plants, and then headed to Bryce, where they met Grandma Molly at the visitors center.  There they made a model rocket.  They did some hiking, tinfoil dinnering/breakfasting (which I made ahead of time), fishing, and tent camping.  Grandma Molly is a trooper for sleeping in the tent. They got rained out for the star party, so that was a bummer. The kids told me they did a church devotional the next morning.

 Josh was going to stay in Zion's when they thought there was actually a camp site open the next night.  They set the tent up and started cooking fish, but then a car full of girls pulled up.  Apparently, Josh and the kids were at the girl's tent site, but their tent had blown away.  Josh ended up packing up the tent and coming home really late.  He did get to see some stars and planets, though!

The Bundy - Josh, Payson, Avenly (Jones Reunion- many Jones relatives)

The family just got back from the Bundy Reunion.  Bundy is Great Grandma Peabody's maiden name.  The Bundy reunion is HUGE, and Steve and Deana try to go every other year.  I have only been once 4 years ago.  Josh took Payson and Avenly 2 years ago, but Zaylee was a little baby, so we stayed home that time, as well.  This time around, they only went for one night and were able to sleep in the RV that Grandpa Jones had rented. 

They had fun eating a big family dinner, dancing, and playing with cousins.  Luckily there were no flat tires this time for Josh, but I heard his dad got one on the RV.  Josh also didn't take any pictures, but they all said they had a great time!