Baby Austin is Here!

Here is our baby boy:

Austin LeRoy Hatch

He weighed 8 lbs 5 oz - 20 in long

He was born on "Friday the 13th" of June

at 5:44 a.m.

We all are so happy and love him so much. It has been so fun to have the other kids here and witness their instant love for their little brother. They love to hold him and give him kisses.

This is Grandpa LeRoy Wirthin and Grandma Wirthlin holding their 64th grandchild and immediate family member #100

Here is his dramatic birth story:

After a few days of false labor (see post below), I went to bed Thursday night again feeling contractions. I was going to have my mom come and sleep over, but I didn't want to disappoint myself if this was more false labor. Luckily, I was able to sleep for a few hours waking up only occasionally as I felt something. Around 2:30, I was definately awake and could not sleep between contractions. Around 3:30, Paul was up, too as I kept squeezing his arm hard every 6 or 7 minutes. About an hour later, my neighbor came over, who is a doula and brought her teenage daughter to stay with our kids. I remained in bed as this was the best position for me to comfortably deal with the labor. As Paul was loading the car, the pain became very intense and my neighbor was getting nervous. The contractions were still a little bit irregular - about 4-6 minutes apart, so I didn't think that I should worry. The last contraction before getting in the car, was the worst one, yet -  and after that things were very different.

I am not usually a very loud or dramatic person, but at this moment I was not much like myself. I was screaming in the car as the pain and pressure increased. As Paul approached the stop sign by the timpanogas temple, I yelled "don't stop! don't stop!" Luckily it was about 5:30 a.m. and not much traffic - he ony had to zoom around a few cars on a road that is usually pretty busy. We pulled up to the front of the hospital - left the car running and rushed in. I laid down on the floor of the elevator (still screaming) to releive some pressure. Paul yelled to the nurses and they helped me into a delivery room. They told me I would have to wait as the doctor was on his way. I yelled again, "I'm not waiting for anyone!" A few minutes later, the baby was born and delivered by a midwife who was on call in the hospital.

When asked if I would do another natural birth - I think I would (but I would probably try to go to the hospital a little sooner). Right now I feel so great (other than the sleep deprivation from 3 nights of labor). Immediately after the birth, I felt awesome, and it was so nice not to have an IV or to be stuck in bed unable to feel half your body. There was extreme pain, but it was manageable knowing that it would be over soon. It was also nice not to feel any weird side effects from Pitocin or Epidural. When Anthony was born, his heart rate reacted poorly with the Pitocin and I had some weird side effects to the epidural like itchiness and extreme drop in blood pressure. I have to say that even thought I felt the most pain with this birth, I feel that it has been my easiest delivery and recovery out of all of them.

False Labor

False labor is a cruel trick to be played on pregnant women, especially when you are almost a week overdue. This picture was taken on the 12th before taking the kids to the babysiter because I was sure the baby was coming that day.

Tuesday night I was up from about 2:00 - 7:00 having contractions every 5-10 minutes, so, I thought Wednesday was going to be the day. However, around 10:00 am, the contractions slowed down and only came irregularly throughout the day.

Wednesday night I went to bed very depressed - then the same thing happened, although this time the contractions hurt. I was up at about 2:00 a.m. again. I thought for sure this was real labor. So we sent the kids to the babysitter and Paul stayed home from work. Around 11:00 the contractions slowed down and became very irregular, although they were still strong. I was about to break down and cry, then we decided to make a fun day out of it to get my mind off if. So, we went out to lunch, went shopping at IKEA, went to look at boats, and went to a movie together. It was a fun day-off with Paul and it brought my spirits up a little. That evening, Paul took the kids out for dinner and to the Thanksgiving Point gardens while I took a nap. That is when the contractions started again - I did not know it at the time - but this time it was the real thing. (see next post)

Being almost a week overdue and having so much false labor, I was beginning to think that my body would never go into labor on its own. I was convinced that I would need to be induced with pitocin - like how I had my other babies. But I am so glad I waited it out.

I decided since me and four sisters have gone overdue for our babies in the past few months (Cathy - 10 days, Mary 9 days, and Alison - 12 days), that we need to make a song entitled "What do you do when you're overdue?" This is sung to the tune of the primary song "what do you do in the summertime." Cathy has allready given me the lyrics to her verse:

What do you do when you're overdue

And all of your projects are done?

Do you excercise on a ball?
Or walk around the mall?

Or sit in your car and cry?

Is that what you do?........So do I!

Happy Due Date at Lagoon

Friday was my due date and we spent the day with the kids at Lagoon. (along with thousands of other people).  The kids all had a great time on all of the rides.  The weather was great for Lagoon with overcast skies and highs in the upper 60s.  I mostly just sat around and watched, but Paul did convince me to ride the log ride with the family hoping that it would put me into labor.  Unfortunately, it did nothing - so we are now at 2 days overdue.

New Mom Haircut

Before and After

I thought I should blog my new haircut to keep with the trend since both Al, Cathy, and Mary blogged theirs.

I know the before picture is really weird, but it is the only picture I could find of me where my hair was not pulled back.

It feels good to get rid of a lot of hair - it is a little shorter than I hoped, but my hair grows fast.  The kids hardly recognized me when I picked them up.

Crazy Wind Storm

Last night, we were all outside as I was trying to finish planting the veggie garden.  It started getting winding and we felt a few rain drops, so Andrew went to get his umbrella.  A few minutes later, I was still planting and a huge gust of wind came.  A large piece of siding blew through the air, just above my head, then I looked over and noticed this huge tree was down on the lawn.  Poor little Andrew, who was still trying to hold on to his umbrella was really freaked out because his umbrella caught a huge gust of wind, which flipped the umbrella backwards (like on Mary Poppins) and broke it.  Meanwhile, Abby and Anthony were getting blasted in the face with dirt and debris.  I picked up Andrew, and Paul got the other two and we ran inside with everyone upset.  (Andrew is still a little nervous to go back outside).

I am still shocked and sad that this big, nice tree fell.  We will have to call a tree service to come and chop it up and then plant a small one in its place.  We will miss its nice shade this summer.

Lots of Junk!

I decided to blog my yard sale purchases since Al and Emily both did.  I am still not very good at being selective at yard sales and I end up buying junky stuff.  Andrew really liked it when I set up all of the stuff on the porch.

Abigail went with me since the boys were at the Father/Son Camp-out -  I realized that you buy more junk if your kids go with you because they will want to buy random things that you never would.

Here is what I got (favorites 1st):

New with tag - size large black board shorts - for my post-pregnancy summer - .25

Conair hot sticks - these made the best curls for Abby's dance recital - 1.00

Race car ramp - I thought this was junky, but it has been entertaining the boys for 3 days now - .50

Bucket of dublo legos - $3

Barefoot dreams blankie for Lilly - $0.25

Cloth diapers for Al - $4

Newborn sunhat - .50

yellow rain boots for Anthony - .75

picnic basket - .25 (this was Abby's purchase)

Wired flowers - .25 (Abigail picked these, too)

Polly pocket clock - .25

lizards and snakes - .50 (she picked these out for the boys)

books - about $2 - some are not pictured

red umbrella - .25

hot chocolate maker - .50 (I already have one, but maybe I can leave it in the trailer)

baby backpak - $1 - why did I buy this? - I allready have a nice one - maybe Cathy wants it

Not pictured - some really old, junky barbies that Abigail picked out - .50

BBQ Pork

The last few times that I have made BBQ pork, I have not been happy with the results, using recipes that are basically a piece of meat slow-cooked in BBQ sauce.  These recipes are easy, but do not have very much depth of flavor.  They were also a little too sweet for me. Here is what I did: first I read a few recipes in cookbooks and online.

BBQ Pulled Pork

4-5 lb pork roast (I used a shoulder with bone-in) - remove as much fat as you can before    cooking 

Sprinkle generously with salt and pepper and place in crock-pot.

Add:

1 chopped onion

about 1 T Worcestershire sauce

a couple of tablespoons of brown sugar

1/2 c cider vinegar

1/2 - 1 cup BBQ sauce

Then fill with water to just about the top of the meat.

Cook on low 10-12 hours.

After it is cooked, take meat out - remove bones and fat and shred.

Dump out most of water - reserving the onions to mix with meat if desired.  Leave a little liquid to keep shredded meat moist.

Return shredded meat to crock pot.

At this point you can simply season with salt and pepper and let each person add his or her own BBQ sauce. Or you can add BBQ sauce to the crock-pot, mix with meat before serving.