Grandma Hollingshaus

My grandma passed away on Thursday.  She was such a wonderful grandma and we will all miss her.  She had multiple sclerosis and over the last 9 months she started to be hugely effected by it, although it had bothered her for years.  We are happy for her to be free from the restrictions of an imperfect body - she is much happier now- not that she was unhappy before.  She just couldn't do anything anymore by the time she passed.  She couldn't walk or use her hands anymore, which was so frustrating for her.  She is also with my grandpa again, who passed away 4 1/2 years ago.  I miss them both intensely, but I know I will see them again - and for that I am grateful.  I miss hearing my grandpa saying "shhh don't mother" as he does something he shouldn't, like splashing the old ladies at the swimming pool.  And my grandma saying "Jooohhhn!" (John).  

Grandma came along with my family to my brother Steve's graduation from medical school in Iowa 3 years ago.  Here we are at the field of dreams.

Last September my brother Ben was ordained an Elder in the Church.  My grandma was giving my boys rides in her wheelchair.

This was on Sunday.  The nurses had been telling my Mom that they thought Grandma would pass in the next week or two, so Mom wanted us to all make sure to visit her before she died.  I decided to take Lauren up for her to see.  Lauren was only 2 /12 weeks old.   I know how much I love having a baby lay with me, and though Grandma would like it as well.  I think she liked it, except that it was hard for her to see Lauren.  I learned that Grandma always loved the name Lauren and had wanted to name a girl that, but she only had three boys of her own.  She "inherited" my mom, her 3 sisters, and my uncle when she married my grandpa.  My mom's own mother died of cancer when my mom was 12.  Grandma has been a real mother to my mom and her siblings, which  says a lot about who she is and how she lived.  After the weekend was over, and Grandma had been visited by so many people that she was just worn out, she told one of the nurses that she thought someone must have told everyone that she was going to die.  She said "Well I have news for them: I'm not going anywhere!"  

I love and miss you Grandma!!

Here is a link to her obituary:
http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/deseretnews/obituary.aspx?n=janice-hollingshaus&pid=151341646

One Week Old

Lauren is so fun to have in our home.  The boys love to talk to her, and Dylan even said the other day how he didn't realize how much he would love having a sister.  Jayden finally held her for the first time yesterday and fed her a bottle for me.  Lauren has been our most alert baby at this age because her levels of bilirubin have been lower than the other babies.  It has been so fun to have her be awake and looking around so much.  She loves to snuggle with me, and of course I love that, too.  She is strong and has been lifting her head up since the day she was born.  She isn't the greatest sleeper at night.  I have found that if I really want a good stretch of sleep, its going to be with her in our bed.  I try not to do that too much, but when I do, it makes such a difference. 

Austin LOVES Lauren and can hardly leave her alone.  When he sees her he gets all excited and giggles and makes kind of a guttural "kkk" sound.  I think it is supposed to be a tickling sound, but who knows for sure.  He loves to touch her toes, her face, her hands, her bows.  So far, the tough brotherly love has included bows being pulled and let go to snap back to her head, binkies stolen and sucked on, bottles stolen and sucked on, bouncing her in her chair, rocking her in her car seat, trying to carry her to me by the feet which resulted in a small dropping on her head (luckily since she was upside-down and being carried by a 19 month old, her head was only about 3 or 4 inches off the ground).  It all happened so quick I didn't have a chance to even try to stop it.  First Austin tried to put her binky in her mouth, but since she was propped up on the couch, he couldn't reach her mouth.  So he brought me her binky.  He must have decided to bring Lauren to me, since the next time I looked over I saw him standing there with his arms full of a blanket and a little head hanging out at the bottom.  It took me a second to even register what I was seeing, and by then she was on the floor. I picked her up and she just went right back to sleep.  Honestly I don't think it really even woke her up.  Of course I have learned I can't have her within Austin's reach at all.  If she's not in my arms she is either in her bouncy chair on my bed or on the table, or somewhere else out of his reach. 

Going Home

Its always so nice to finally go home from the hospital after you've had a baby.  Its also so weird to get home to where you had a typical routine, but now the routine is gone because there is a sweet baby to take care of which completely changes that routine.

 Its so fun to put your baby in the carseat the first time and see how tiny they really are at first.  You feel like the straps can barely go small enough to fit their little body.

 Where'd she go?  Haha - I laughed to see how much her clothes blended into this beautiful carseat blanket my neighbor made for her.

 I don't know why this picture ended up turned this way- it wasn't before I loaded it.  Now she is all bundled up and ready to go home!

When Dylan came home from school he brought me these flowers picked from a flowering pear tree.  I thought it was really cute of him to bring me flowers!

Photo Shoot

The hospital I delivered at has the best hospital pictures now; I'm sure you'll agree.  They have a photographer come in and do pictures right in your room.  I am so excited to have some fun pictures of Lauren that I love so much!  Lauren was almost exactly 24 hours old when these were taken.  Here are a few of the highlights:

Meeting her brothers

 A girl in the house (besides Mom of course)... the boys have had some mixed feelings about this, but after meeting her, I think they won't mind a bit.

 Dylan of course was the first to hold Lauren.  He loves the little babies so much and was excited to hold her. 

 Austin seems to be a lot like Dylan in the sense of loving little babies.  We have seen a glimpse of that when his cousins Samantha and Rebekah were born just a couple of months ago.  He just giggles when he sees them.  His reaction to Lauren was just the same.  He was so happy and excited to see her.

Ethan and Jayden love Lauren, although both were a little more hesitant at the hospital.  They were excited to see her, but not really in a rush to hold her. 

Lauren Makenzie Gibson

Our sweet baby girl was born on May 4 at 10:37 am.  She weighed 6 lbs 14 oz and was 19.5 inches long.  Everything went well during labor.  We got to the hospital at 7 am to be induced.  Pitocin was started at 7:30.  They wanted to break my water right then, but I insisted on getting an epidural first, because I know that once I have pitocin and my water broken, the contractions get super strong almost instantly, and the baby is born usually within two hours.  It took until 8:45 for the anesthesiologist to come (good thing I insisted on waiting for him or I would have delivered her without it), and then at 9:15 the doctor broke my water.  It took about a half hour for my contractions to pick up this time, but by 10:15 everything was pretty much ready for the baby to come, and the nurses gave the doctor a call to come back over from his office across the parking lot.  After just a few pushes she was out... perfect as can be.  She came out waving with her right arm... that's a first for me.