Depending on how you look at it, the birth of Shark Bait was either extremely long and drawn out or beyond fast and furious.

His story begins unofficially on Wednesday June 8^th which was day one of my 5 days of pre-labour contractions. From Wednesday until Sunday, I lived life in one block of seemingly pointless contractions after another. Sunday morning's bout of contractions was by far the worst- they started at 2:50am and continued to occur consistently, ranging from 7-10 minutes apart, until 9:30am when they stopped completely and without warning. My best friend KJ, who had flown in for the birth, laid with me and timed them from 3:50 until about 5:30 when we decided to call Bruce home from work as we were finally convinced that the contractions might actually lead to a baby. Obviously we were less than thrilled when they came to their sudden stop.

After some umming and ahhing about whether I really wanted to go to church after being up most of the night contracting, I decided that I could sit miserably at church just as easily as at home, so I got myself dressed and ready, complete with 5 inch stilettos and a face that just dared people to cross me. Bruce, half joking but mostly serious, warned everyone we came in contact with to “do not look at Claire in the eye”. By this point, I had gone 5 nights with little to no sleep and I was over it. But, I survived church without causing anyone harm, and even managed to enjoy the messages shared during the meeting. After Sacrament Meeting ended, KJ and I left to go home so I could relax.

Around 4:45, just before the rest of the family would be getting home, we got off the couch and started to make dinner. That's when the contractions started back up yet again. I worked through the contractions to finish up dinner and eat with the family, then we got out Disney Scene It for a little family game time. Throughout the game the contractions intensified just enough that I was now bouncing on the birthing ball to stay comfortable. KJ was timing them religiously and we got to a point where they were anywhere from 5 to 10 minutes apart. At this point, I decided that we should probably go ahead and get to the hospital. I was worried because with Man Cub, my contractions were never consistent or close together until just minutes before he was born. I arrived at the hospital to have Man Cub with contractions still ranging from 10-15 minutes apart and I was dilated to a six. I had him less than 2.5 hours later. I felt that with this baby, we should err on the side of caution and not wait too long to go in. I may have joked about giving birth in the car, but I really had no intention of that ever happening. We called my father in law to come pick up Man Cub, loaded the girls and all our hospital stuff into the car and headed out.

Despite nice, consistent contractions the entire time we were playing Scene It, I didn't have one contraction the entire drive to the hospital. I started to doubt myself. We got to triage around 8:15 and when they checked me at 8:45, I was dilated to a 3. Over the next 45 minutes I had maybe 2 contractions, neither of which was anything to get excited about and when they checked me again at 9:30, I hadn't progressed one bit. I asked to be sent home as I had no intention of hanging out in a hospital when I obviously wasn't in active labour. I figured I was in for yet another night like the 4 previous… contractions that would keep me from sleeping, but never become the real deal.

My birth photographer had met us at the hospital as she too remembered how quickly things had moved when Man Cub was born. She told me to follow her home and pick up a few essential oils that she had on hand that are suppose to encourage labour. I insisted that we pick Man Cub up from my father in law's house as Man Cub had recently gotten into the habit of coming into our room in the middle of the night, searching for me. I didn't want to miss out on a night of cuddling my baby before he was promoted to big brother, so we got him then headed home. It was about 11pm by the time we were back at our house and had all the kiddos tucked into their beds. Bruce, KJ and I settled in on the couch to watch a few episodes of Modern Family and wouldn't you know it, those pesky contractions started up again. And they were coming every 10 minutes. And they were stronger than ever before and accompanied by some seriously awesome back labour.

I texted my great friend Nicole, a baby nurse at the hospital I was going to deliver at, and asked her how I was ever going to be able to tell when to go back in. I felt like I'd made bad decision after bad decision trying to figure out if I was actually in labour or not, from calling Bruce home from work early Sunday morning to rushing to the hospital Sunday night and then insisting on picking up my little Man Cub from Grandpa's house when we headed home from triage. I told Bruce and KJ that I was no longer willing to make decisions and that if they thought I should go back to the hospital, I would go, but that I was not going to be the one to make that call.

Bruce immediately went into sergeant mode and took control. He and KJ timed my contractions and rubbed my back with a massager while I swayed back and forth while leaning on my birthing ball. At 12:30 my contractions had definitely changed in intensity and were coming every 7-10 minutes. Around 1, KJ started saying she felt like we should go to the hospital but Bruce said to wait through a few more contractions. I tried to remain as calm as possible while thinking that the rate this had been going for the past five days, I was never going to actually have a baby. At 1:30 I had a super contraction- 2 minutes long and extremely strong. Bruce decided we didn't have a moment to lose and before I knew it, we had made arrangements to drop Man Cub off at a friend's house rather than waiting for my father in law to get up to our neck of the woods, KJ had thrown all our stuff and my sleeping children into the car and by 1:43 we were on the road. Bruce ran two red lights and at 1:50 we arrived at Barb and Blas's house to deliver our sleepy and excited Man Cub to them. (He loves Blas and was so excited to go to Blas's house, even if it was the middle of the night)

We were in front of Barb and Blas's house less than 2 minutes before we were on our way to the hospital and my contractions were still coming strong and hard. I was starting to feel pressure and the thought of pushing had crossed my mind a time or two. I was panicking because I was so scared my birth photographer was going to miss the whole thing… somehow that, not the very real possibility of me giving birth in the car, was my main concern. When we were just a few minutes away from the hospital, KJ grabbed my phone and called Nicole who happened to have gotten called into work around midnight. She warned Nicole that we were about 3 minutes out and that I was feeling “pushy”.

We pulled into the hospital around 2:05. It took me about five minutes to get into the hospital as I had another huge contraction in the parking lot. I leaned up against a light post and did my best to not push while Sunshine ran to the ER entrance and grabbed a wheel chair. Bruce rushed me inside the ER where we looked around unsure of what to do. There was no one at the front desk and a room full of people waiting to be seen, but we really did not have time to spare. Bruce ran into a room where a hospital employee was taking someone's information and insisted that she had to get us up to the labour and delivery unit as I was contracting every minute and a half to two minutes. Bruce raced my wheelchair through the halls while the ER employee followed as quickly as she was able and got us upstairs.

We got to triage where I immediately asked to use the restroom. While I was peeing, Bruce told the triage nurse that if I was still at a 3 or 4, she might as well run down the hall before shouting that back at me because I might hurt her. He was obviously joking with her (there was no way I could still be at a 3 or 4!) but I think that gave the triage nurse the wrong idea. She seemed to be moving really slowly, taking my information and trying to get me hooked up to monitors when I had a nice, big contraction that got some attention. She quickly checked me and announced that I was at a nine. Bruce texted KJ the news at 2:21 and the nurse (Cheryl) ran my gurney to the delivery room that Nicole had prepped for me when KJ called her just before 2. At 2:23am, Beebs, Sunshine, KJ and my birth photographer Mary all ran into the delivery room while the nurses helped me move from the gurney to the delivery bed in between contractions. I felt an immense amount of pressure, which I made sure everyone knew about, and Cheryl called for a doctor, any doctor, to get in there stat. There wasn't time to get my doctor or midwife to the hospital. There wasn't even time to get an ER doc up there. Luckily, there happened to a random doctor a few rooms over delivering one of his patients and he ran in just as my water broke. Just in time to catch the head as I pushed for the first time. One more push and our baby had arrived. The baby was quickly laid on my tummy and I begged for Bruce to tell me if it was a boy or a girl. He excitedly announced that we had another son… our little Shark Bait had arrived..

Shark Bait was born at 2:29am, about 15 minutes after we got to labour and delivery and just 8 minutes after I was checked in triage. He took his sweet, precious time getting to the active labour portion of arriving, but once he decided it was time to come, things sped up in a big way!

My absolute favourite thing about Shark Bait's birth is that the delivery room was filled with love and support. Of course Bruce was there, and he was wonderful, as always. Both girls were also there to witness the baby's arrival with my very best friend KJ as their chaperone. My birth photographer Mary ran in just in time to snap 4 or 5 photos before he came out. She then documented his first hour or so of life. The stars and planets aligned and my best Arizona friend Nicole ended up being called in to work as a transition nurse that night, meaning she was Shark Bait's first nurse. She took great care of him and even involved my girls in measuring him, taking his foot prints and listening to his heartbeat, making the experience even more special for both of them. 

And the bonus of Shark Bait's super fast arrival- despite being a VBAC which means I am suppose to be hooked up to all kinds of monitors and have a heplock, I was able to have the most natural, non-invasive birth of all my children. I didn't even need oxygen this time around. No IV, no monitoring, nothing. It was absolutely perfect.  

If you'd like to view Shark Bait's complete birth video, send me an email to claireandcrewblog@gmail.com and I'd be happy to give you the password!

Shark Bait's Birth from Officerswife33 on Vimeo.

Whirlwind Weekend in Oregon

September was full of travels for me... just a few days after the wee ones and I returned from our trip to visit Mike, Man Cub and I boarded a plane bound for Oregon, where I was going to spend a few days visiting my dearest friend, KJ. KJ and I "met" almost 8 years ago, just a few short months after we each got married. (Our anniversaries are 7 days apart.) I say "met" because the first 5 years of our friendship we were basically pen pals. We emailed back and forth, instant messaged through Google Chat and occasionally talked on the phone or texted. We didn't meet in person until April of 2010 when KJ and her family went on an epic road trip from Oregon to California, down through Arizona, up to Utah and then back home. My house was one of the stops along the way. Since that first in person meeting, KJ has been able to visit me one other time, during an awesome Southwest Airlines fare deal, but I had never made it up to visit her. I am so glad we have finally remedied that!

My weekend in Oregon was an absolute whirlwind, but honestly, what aspect of my life isn't these days!? We crammed SO MUCH into the 90 hours we had together, and we had a blast doing so.

My plane arrived at 10 o'clock Thursday evening, which was obviously a perfect time to run by Salt and Straw, the most amazing ice cream parlor on the planet. We sampled a variety of their offerings, finally settling on three flavours to take home... Mint Leaves with Sea Urchin Meringues, Freckled Woodblock Chocolate and Honey Balsamic Strawberry with Cracked Pepper. We also devoured the pints that KJ already had in her freezer- Pear and Bleu Cheese and Salted Caramel. By far, the YUMMIEST ice cream I have ever put in my mouth. And I'm happy to say they deliver to Arizona for a mere $25 in shipping fees, on top of the $8 per pint price tag. I know what I want for my next birthday!

After Salt and Straw, we headed to KJ's where we stayed up until all hours of the night laughing and talking and playing Stone Age and watching trashy TV (Extreme Cougar Wives, anyone?). This was our routine every night. There was very little sleeping while I was visiting!

Friday morning we headed to the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry, or OMSI, as the locals call it. It was a very cool museum that made me miss the girls. They would have loved it! (Notice the superhero photo bomb- that's Asher, KJ's 4 year old son who I just adore)

In Oregon, it is illegal to pump your own gas, so all gas stations have attendants to pump for you.  I have to say, when I got back home and had to pump my own gas at Costco, it was a very sad day.

Friday evening I put Man Cub to bed, then KJ and I snuck out of the house to go to the temple together. It was so much fun serving in the temple beside my best friend! And bonus- it got me a little bit closer to accomplishing two of my Thirty by 30 goals.

After the temple, we went to Moonstruck Chocolate Cafe for truffles and milk shakes... as you can see, I ate extremely healthy on this trip. Ü 

Saturday morning we attempted to get up early to head to the Oregon coast, but after being up half the night, we were a little slow moving. Eventually we made it to our first stop along the coast, Cannon Beach. It. Was. Beautiful. The beach has always been my happy place and this beach definitely made me happy!

This was Man Cub's first trip to the beach, and I wasn't quite sure what to expect from him. My girls were not big fans of the beach the first time we took them. I kind of assumed that Man Cub wouldn't enjoy it the first time either. I could not have been more wrong. I put him down in the sand and he immediately threw his body down, which typically is how he throws a tantrum. But this time, it didn't lead to a tantrum, instead he started waving his arms and legs, making "angels" in the sand, then he brought handfuls of sand to his mouth, eating it and laughing. He could not get enough of the sand. He is definitely his mother's son. I almost cried happy tears, I was so excited at his love for the beach.

After playing in the sand at Cannon Beach, we explored the little coastal village. It was just about the cutest thing I've ever seen. Pretty sure that is where I want to retire. In 13 years. I hope Bruce is ok with that. I took lots of pictures of the village to help me persuade him.

Little Asher is pretty superhero obsessed. He wore his cap and mask almost everywhere we went. While KJ and I were browsing in one of the boutiques, he sat like this, watching the world go by. I love that little guy!

After Cannon Beach, we headed a little farther north to Seaside. We browsed some of the stores, ate some yummy Tillamook ice cream and the headed to the beach for Man Cub's first birthday photo session. Those pictures will have their own post in the next day or two.

Baby Mack posed for a shot during Man Cub's session

Sunday was the closest we got to a day of rest. We went to church and hung out at KJ's house, but I can't say we truly rested. It was definitely evident how tired out Man Cub was at this point in our trip. He is not one for sitting still, yet he laid down on the floor in the Primary Room and didn't move. All the excitement finally got to him!

Monday was a bittersweet day. My trip came to an end Monday evening and even though I was so excited to get home to Bruce and the girls, it was hard to leave KJ behind. Our visits are so few and far between, and since we aren't yet sure when we'll see each other again, it was very hard to say goodbye. 

I didn't have to be at the airport until about 5, so KJ and I filled Monday with as much fun as we could. First, we visited KJ's friend Courtney, who over the years KJ and I have known each other, has also become my friend! I bought my first DSLR camera from Courtney and she is the person who inspired me to become a birth photographer. It was great to get to meet her in person while I was there.

Other than visiting Courtney, the two main highlights of Monday were eating at Burgerville and driving across the Oregon/Washington state line, which takes my official "states visited" count up to 30. Hopefully, the next time I visit KJ, we can spend more time in Washington, and maybe even hit Seattle. And eat at Burgerville lots, because those were the most incredible burgers I have EVER eaten. And I had two. In one sitting. It was embarrassing.

It's me!! In my 30th state visited!

 The flight home was uneventful and Man Cub was a great traveling companion. I hated being away from Bruce and Sunshine and Beebs, but there was something special about that one on one time with my little man.

Thank you so much KJ and family, for a WONDERFUL visit. I loved you all before, but I love you even more now and I can't wait to see you all again. Let's make it soon.