First two weeks of life

October 25, 2009
My name is Houston Schlenker Wilcock and I was born on Friday, October 9th at 4:18pm. I was 6 pounds, 9 ounces and 19 inches long at birth. The original date mommy and daddy were expecting me was around Oct 30 but I decided to surprise them and come exactly 3 weeks early. It all started when mommy’s water broke at about 4:40am that Friday morning. She had been contracting and cramping all week but nothing had been regular enough for her to think they were real labor contractions. I had to break the water to let her know I was ready to come! Daddy was pretty alarmed when he was woken up by mommy running to the bathroom saying, “Mickey, Mickey I think my water just broke”. After a lot of leaking and calling the doctor, mom and dad decided it was time to head to the hospital. The only bad part was mom and dad were not prepared for this early arrival. They didn’t even have a car seat to take me home in yet! In fact, this was the weekend mom was planning to go shopping for all the baby and delivery needs. While mommy showered, dad packed a bag and made some peanut butter toast for mom. She was so nervous she only got a few bites down before they were out the door on their way to the hospital. At one point during their frantic preparation, daddy stopped and said, “If your water really did break, we will have a baby today.” I guess that was his attempt to allow things to set in. Mommy and daddy shared a special hug after that because they realized they would get to meet their son today.
When we all arrived at the hospital at 5:30am, mom was still leaking but not contracting at all. She thought, so far, labor is pretty easy, but she didn’t realize what was coming. After mommy put her hospital gown on and her fluid was confirmed as amniotic fluid, mom and dad made some phone calls to family letting them in on the surprise. Grandma Wilcock was on a flight within hours and arrived at about 11am in Provo. Grandma Schlenker was not as lucky. She had committed to watching cousins Ashton and Nick for the week because Uncle Mark and Auntie Laurel were going on vacation to Mexico. Both grandma and mommy were very sad she couldn’t be there sooner but made a plan for her to come exactly a week later.
At 7:00am the nurses checked mommy and she was only 1 ½ cm dilated. Since they wanted to deliver me within 24 hours of the water breaking and mommy was not progressing very fast , they started inducing the labor with petosin at 8:00am. Mommy lasted a whole 3 hours before daddy convinced her to get the epidural. At about 12 or 12:30, daddy and grandma Wilcock went to get some lunch. Right before they left mommy was dilated 2cm, but when they returned in about an hour (1:30) I was getting anxious and mommy had dilated 9cm!! Daddy was funny and didn’t even believe mommy when she told him. The doctor said mommy could start pushing me out in about an hour. At 2:15 mommy was completely effaced and the nurses instructed mommy to start pushing at 2:40. Mommy thought pushing was the hardest part. After an hour she didn’t feel like I was going anywhere and she was very very tired. She became very nauseous and that made pushing even harder. When the doctor came in mommy wanted to work even harder and that made her throw up. However, after she threw up, it only took a few more contractions to get me out. Mom says I was pretty purple when I first came out but she didn’t care. I also had quite the cone head according to daddy; but they put a touque on me to cover that up and to keep me warm. While they sewed mommy up they put me on her belly to get cleaned up. I didn’t cry that much but it was quite cold. When they were all done with mommy, they laid me on her chest so that we could bond for the first time. I was so content and new my mommy and daddy loved me so very much. Mommy and daddy watched me as I looked around the room and made little cute noises. They noticed how long my fingers were and how dark my hair and eyes were. They loved my full lips and tiny little chin. Daddy and I were so proud of mommy and how hard she pushed for almost 2 hours. Mommy was happy the doctor never had to pull out the forceps even though he offered. She was also happy the pushing was over!
I got to spend over an hour on mommy’s chest and she even tried to feed me. Then daddy and me went to the nursery so they could bath me and make sure I was healthy. That gave mommy some time to rest, clean up and eat…finally! I got to see mommy again once she was moved down to the room we would sleep in. The first night was a little hard because mommy was in quite a bit of pain and refused to take the powerful pain killers. She was also worried about each little peep that came out of my mouth. She tried to feed me every couple hours and we snuggled a lot. The only real sleep she got was when I was laying right beside her. Daddy had to sleep on a chair that pulled out into a bed. It was very hard and he didn’t sleep well either. The next day Mickey and Grandma Wilcock were on a mission to get everything mommy and I needed for when they took me home. They were gone most of the morning which gave me and mommy more time to snuggle, rest and try to breast feed. This was also the day when everyone wanted to come see me. My first visitors were mommy’s old roommates Ashley and Kim. They were impressed that mommy was up walking around (she finally gave into the more powerful painkillers) and they thought I was the cutest thing. They brought me a fleece sleeper that looked really warm. Other visitors we had included Justin and Jenny Alphin, Kent and Kate Griffeth, Uncle Deejay and Aunt Richelle, Dan Welte and Auntie Andi. Auntie Andi got on a stand-by flight so she could spend the weekend with us too. By the end of the day, mommy was pretty sick of visitors and pretty exhausted.
The next day was the day we were going to head home. All morning mommy, daddy and me got to spend some quality time together while Auntie Andi made us lots of frozen meals and Grandma Wilcock did some final shopping and organizing. As the day went on, Mommy got more and more nervous to leave the hospital. She knew I was a big responsibility and she wanted to me a good mom.
When we arrived home, the home was very clean and all my clothes and supplies had been organized. Mommy’s favorite part was the brand new rocking chair waiting for her in the nursing room. Mommy was so grateful especially because she felt so unprepared to bring me home.
Grandma Wilcock had to fly home that night because she had to work the next day but I got to spend some more time with auntie Andi because she left the next day. Auntie Andi was so nice to make us meals and clean the house. She even gave me a cute little sleeper and a book called “You are Special”. She read it to me and I listened the whole time like a good boy. I think that may be my favorite book.
My first official outing from the house was for a bilirubin test at the BYU health center. Mommy and Daddy were sad the results came back quite high at 18.5 which meant I had to lay in “bili-bed” until it went down to 12. In the end I had to lay in that darn bed for 2 days and got my heel pricked 3 days in a row. Daddy was able to stay home with mommy everyday which was nice because mommy didn’t eat or sleep much at all. Plus she had to feed me every 2 hours to help flush the bad stuff out of me. The two hardest things about lying in that bed were that I couldn’t be swaddled or held which are two of my favorite ways to sleep. Mommy was so overjoyed when my last test result was 12.5 and she could rock me to sleep again. I was also happy to be off the bed of lights because Grandma Schlenker came that Friday. She came when I was exactly 1 week old. Mommy was so excited and got me all dressed up so I looked cute for Grandma (not like it is hard).
Grandma has stayed busy while she has been here. She bakes lots of yummy things and always has well-balanced meals ready for us to eat (Daddy has never eaten so many veggies). She also sewed my Halloween costume. I am going to be the cutest football ever! She was also here for my 2 week appointment. I was already up to 7 pounds, 6 ounces! Everything else looked good and I go back to the doctor on Monday to get circumcised.
My first outing by choice was attending Daddy’s BYU flag football game. It was pretty chilly but mom bundled me up and held me close. Mommy was so proud of me and loved showing me off. My doctor said that I should stay away from people for about 12 weeks because of germs and people spreading the swine flu virus to me so Mommy enjoyed taking me out while she could.
I definitely have discovered my hands. I love to move them a lot especially when mom is trying to feed me. My legs and neck are also getting stronger. I will be rolling around in no time! I have also been sleeping better for the past few nights. I go 3-4 hours until I get hungry which mom loves because she can sleep more.

Update?

An update is long overdue so I put Houston in charge of updating the blog weekly. Enjoy!

Ultrasound Pictures

It is easier to see the picture of the face when you know the chin is pointing to the right. I see Mickey in him already :)

We are having a...

BOY!! Yesterday we had our second ultrasound and discovered the long awaited gender of our baby. The umbilical cord was in between his legs so it was hard for the tech to find a clear picture of the evidence but she found a couple. Mickey and I are over joyed to start planning to have a son. This will be the 4th grandchild and grandson on the Schlenker side and the 4th grandchild and 2nd grandson on the Wilcock side. Everything else the ultrasound technician checked out looked great so our baby is developing wonderfully. Mickey and I have decided to wait until the baby is born to officially choose a name even though we have a couple of favorites. I'll be sure to post the ultrasound pictures very soon.

Summer Jobs

The count down is on to find out the gender of our baby. We are so excited to find out!! Until then however and for the rest of the summer we need to earn some major money. I recently took over all of the responsibilities at the Faber home (the family we work for to get free rent). I work for 4 hours in the afternoon cleaning and cooking and was not aware that four hours could go by that slowly. Luckily in the morning I have another part time job that goes by a little quicker. I answer phones for an alarm system company as a customer service representative. It does not sound that glamorous and it isn't but I work with some really great people who keep me laughing. The worse part about this job is that I have to work Saturdays. Boo

Mickey is staying busy with almost three jobs. Everyday until the end of May he will work with the BYU track team (except they are paying him now, thank goodness). Many mornings he is also installing satellite systems for a local company. The third thing he is doing is umpiring for the Orem city softball league (he is also playing in the same league with some friends). Umping for this league made him interested in umping for girls 12 and under fast pitch softball. He does that on the weekends and earns quite a bit more.

We are very excited for our upcoming sand dune quadding trip down in Rexburg, ID. We will be meeting my Dad, brother and some other friends for some good times. I won't be able to participate as much as usual but it will still be nice to get out of Provo/Orem. That along with baby gender news is coming up next weekend!

BYU Graduation

The best part about graduation was having family come to visit. My parents and grandparents came the weekend before the ceremonies and Mickey's parents came the night before. Here are some highlights of the whole week:

• Going out to eat a lot is always fun and I am so happy that our parents love Zupas just as much as I do. We went twice... yum.
• My grandparents brought my birthday present which was my great great great grandma's first engagement ring restored and looking extremely beautiful. I believe it came from South Africa where her fiancee sadly died. I inherited this ring from my Great Grandma Campbell.
• At the commencement, I actually sat quite close to my family and could see them the whole time. This is quite amazing because of the near 7000 grads and parents filling up the basketball stadium the odds are not that good. When all of grads stood up at one point it almost took my breath away.
• We were lucky enough to have Elder Nelson and Pres Uchtdorf speak at the commencement. Having the whole ceremony centered around the gospel made it so special... I love BYU!
• That night all of the family went out to Olive Garden for a meal. I loved all of the chatter and laughter (plus the waitress thought I was graduating from high school... I took it as a compliment).
• The next morning was my college's (fine arts and communications) convocation. Before I parted to take my place on stage, we took a lot of fun pictures as you can see. Dad-Tim is so talented!
• Walking across that stage to receive my fake diploma was sure something. At that moment I think it finally hit me that I was graduating.
• Again, we were lucky enough to have Elder Oaks speak at the convocation (he had 3 grandchildren graduation in my same college and one even I even new quite well). His talk was very inspiring and I felt it was directed at me because he spoke a lot on parenthood.
• That night we attended a BYU vs Utah lacrosse game. It was a little rainy and cold but we had a great time together. Sadly that night I said goodbye to my parents. I am so grateful for their support through my whole college experience.
• The rest of the week was spent with Mickey's parents. Usually I don't love to sit and watch TV all day on Sunday, but it had been so long since I had sat and did nothing for any period of time I welcomed watching NASCAR for hours with open arms. We had a great time with them and were sad to see them go as well. I am also so very grateful for their support. Many of my friends did not have their parents-in-law come out for their graduation so I felt extremely blessed!

Second Trimester

To mark the day of my second trimester, Mickey and I attended our second doctor's visit. After the routine checks, our doctor pulled out an instrument that would allow us to hear our baby's heartbeat. After about 5 very long minutes of looking, he gave up and recommended we get an ultrasound asap to see what was up. Not surprisingly, Mickey and I were a little worried but didn't say a word about it until we were in the ultrasound room. When the ultrasound began, we could see the little body moving right away and our fears were alleviated. The little heart was beating 160 times a minute! It was so precious to see. So what was at first a little scare turned out to be a blessing because we already have a picture of our baby and the knowledge that it is healthy. The ultrasound technician told us the reason the doctor could not find the heartbeat was because my uterus is retroverted. This means it is sitting more inside of me than usual. She called me regular variant and said there is nothing to worry about.

Next week we have both sets of parents coming as well as G&G Campbell to help celebrate my long awaited graduation. Hopefully my energy level will increase a bit so I can party hard. We are very excited to see and spend some time with family.