The Hospital Stay

Having four days at the hospital was a very nice and a very much needed stay. We got so lucky to have amazing nurse after amazing nurse care for us. The food was great too! I definitely recommend delivering at Utah Valley if you want an awesome menu for all meals!

We had many visitors come to meet Charlie at the hospital. We definitely felt loved by family and friends.

A few of the visitors:

Sean, Alli, and April

Karl

My siblings:

 

Amy

 Aryana (with Great-Grandma Arbon and Aunt Erin)

The Tadje Family

...and there were several others...just no pictures...

While recovering, I became very nauseous most of the mornings and some of the evenings. The doctor and nurses all had their own opinions as to what was causing the nausea: hormones, bleeding, pain medications, etc. The only way for me to deal with the pain was to sleep. Jason did an amazing job stepping up to the plate to care for me and for Charlie. Jason stayed in the hospital room with me practically the entire time! He left a total of two times in the four days/nights we were there to get himself some food...and even those were quick runs amounting to less than 30 minutes. While I was “out” several hours each morning, Jason was able to get some real quality time with Charlie, finger-feeding him the milk. With the care of an amazing husband and some great nurses, I could rest easy knowing Charlie was in good hands.

When Saturday morning came around, the morning of our discharge, we were filled with feelings of excitement and anxiety. We truly had a great stay at the hospital and were nervous to take on caring for a newborn all on our own. We knew we couldn’t just send Charlie to the nursery each night anymore. We were now responsible for the nights, as well as the days. But at the same time, we were so excited to bring Charlie home with us and to begin the next chapter in our lives as parents. 

Charlie's going home outfit (and first time in a onesie)

First time in a car seat 

Too dang cute!

Check out those cheeks...

...and that double chin!

Officially home!

Such a nice sign from the Gruber family!

We arrived home, took a nap, changed a few diapers, were visited by Aunt Jean and Uncle Lloyd, and then packed up again to head to my parents house (more on that later).

Beautiful flowers from Aunt Jean and Uncle Lloyd

Father and son time

 After making a quick stop at the Grubers to say hello to all of the family, we headed for the Arbons.

And Then There Were Three!

Charlie Banks Gruber

 June 19, 2012

8 lbs 12 oz

19 inches 

Jason and I arrived at the Utah Valley Regional Hospital at 7:30 AM, and by 9:00 AM, Charlie Banks Gruber was born. Because he was still breech, we delivered by C-Section. I was a little nervous and anxious because the doctors were in a hurry, so I felt really rushed...it all happened so fast. But in the end, the delivery went perfectly. I didn't feel a thing! Absolutely no pain! I would have to say it was a very pleasant way to deliver a baby, especially when I've heard of friends and family who have undergone hours and hours of labor!

Last moments of pregnancy!

Before going into the surgery room

Just as all new parents do, Jason and I loved Charlie instantly! We can't believe he is our own!

Jason was a trooper, watching the birth from above my head

I couldn't help but cry when I first saw Charlie

My big baby boy!

Love that double chin!

We saw some red hair that first day, but it has looked more blonde ever since.

In the recovery room, holding Charlie for the first time

Proud Daddy

Charlie and Grandma Arbon

 Charlie and Grandpa Arbon

Charlie and Grandma & Grandpa Gruber

Thanks to my cousin's wife, Mandy, we got a special photo shoot in the hospital:

 

Thanks Mandy for the awesome pictures!

and...

Happy Birthday Charlie! 

The Final Stretch: 40-41 Weeks

The day before my due date (June 12th), I had my 40 week check up with my doctor. When checking me, he noticed something didn’t feel normal in the position of the baby. So he did an ultrasound and found that Baby Gruber’s head was no longer in the downward position, but was resting under the right side of my ribs. My doctor explained to me that the baby was breech, and the best course of action was to schedule a C-Section for the following Tuesday (my 41 week mark).

This news took me completely by surprise. I was not prepared to hear that news...I couldn’t help but to break down in the examination room. Of course I knew the important thing was delivering my baby in the safest way possible, that’s all that really matters, but I was extremely disappointed with the realization that I was probably not going to have a normal delivery like I had imagined. I had also heard of future consequences for delivering by Cesarean. I was devastated.

So essentially, I had a week to prepare myself and to do everything I could to get the baby to flip down. Jason was great through the whole thing. He was constantly researching more and more techniques that are supposed to help get the baby to flip. The disadvantage was that I only had a week. A lot of the “exercises” and “positions” that help with flipping babies work best between weeks 34-37, giving the baby the time he needs to make the flip. When I was checked at 38 weeks, all was normal and the baby’s head was down. So being 40 weeks and hearing this news was very surprising and did not give me the ideal time. I spent the week constantly thinking about the way I was sitting, the way I was walking, the way I was sleeping...anything to persuade him to flip. I did Inversions, Breech Tilts, Side Stretches, etc. I did crawling exercises. We used cold and hot pads, Beethoven music, and light, to try to get him to move. I spent an afternoon at the Larsen's pool trying to relax and loosen my body. I even went to the chiropractor three times that week to get “realigned” and receive the Webster treatment. At times it would feel like we were making progress, but before we knew it, he was back to his favorite position: laying sideways in my belly.

As we waited for our baby, we were able to participate in family activities that we originally thought we would be missing out on. Jason’s sisters were in town, so we got to hang out with the Tuttle and Spencer family. We even got to be a part of Alli and Karl’s birthday celebration. So fun! 

Jason, me, Amy, and Robby

Happy Birthday Alli and Karl

I was given a lot of love and support through the whole process. Lots of prayers from family and friends and blessings from Jason. It was an exhausting and emotional week. I wanted to have hope and faith he would flip and I would go into labor naturally before 41 weeks, but I also wanted to face the potential reality that a C-Section is what was meant for me and my baby. Even though a week is not ideal for moving babies, Jason and I both agreed that we were glad we didn’t know any longer...it would have been very tiring and stressful knowing and trying things for more than a week.

Tuesday morning finally came around, and Baby Gruber was still breech. But we felt good knowing we had done all we could do to get him to flip. We were ready for our baby to safely join us by C-Section.

Father's Day

Father’s Day came and went with no new Baby Gruber. My due date was June 12th, and so we assumed Jason would have a “real” Father’s Day this year. But no, baby was on his own schedule....however, we celebrated just the same.

Bryan was asked to speak in church that Sunday, so we drove down to Draper to attend church with my family. Bryan did a great job.

Afterwards, we spent the afternoon celebrating Father’s Day with my dad. We ate great food, opened fun presents, and played Ticket to Ride (of course). I must say that a couple of my siblings refuse to play anymore because we have played so much. But my dad still LOVES it. 

The evening was spent with the Grubers. We joined up for dessert and presents for good old George.

When we finally got home, Jason opened his presents from me. He always has fishing on the mind, so finding him a gift he would like was not hard at all. 

 

Yep, Frog Togs of his very own!

I feel so grateful for all of the wonderful men in my life, especially my husband, Jason. He truly spoils me and treats me better than I deserve. I could not ask for a better partner and eternal companion. Love you, Jason!

Camping at Sliding Rock

Before Jason’s friend, Richard, left to work at Lake Powell for the summer, we all got together for a summer camp out (Rich & Kamilla, Nate, Sarah and fam, and Parker and Alli). Mind you, I was four days away from my due date...so needless to say, we attended the evening tin foil dinners and night around the campfire, but did not camp overnight. The “campsite” we went to was just next to Sliding Rock (a frequent camping area for Jason and his friends). Jason and I made delicious teriyaki steak and vegetable tinfoil dinners, and also roasted/warmed our Costco Rosemary bread. Yum! We chatted around the campfire, the boys fished in the pond and rode on Rich’s motorcycles. Rich even entertained us with a couple bike jumps off the jump into the pond. You can’t have a campfire without s’mores, candy, and soda, and so we made sure to load up on all of those yummy things. 

Helping the boys fish

So pretty!

Rich making the dive!

We even saw a  blow snake... of course, Rich picked it up...

Thank goodness for good, fun friends!

Gone Fishin'

Time for Jason to put a word in on the blog – this is a first – but it was a request made by Emily, so I agreed to. The Thursday of Memorial Day weekend, two friends from high school and I decided to go on a fishing trip.  Originally our friend Trevor Cook had wanted to take myself and Parker Redding to Henry’s Lake up in Idaho.  Due to really bad weather that was moving in we decided to stay a little closer and head East to Strawberry Reservoir.  Like most trips or pretty much anything my friends and I do, it was planned last minute with minimal organization.   It ended up being the three of us and Trevor’s dog Sage.

We loaded up in T’s car, which was also pulling his fishing boat.   We got up to Strawberry Reservoir Thursday night right before dusk.  It was quite cold, but we got a fire started and set up camp as well as the tent (which I had brought along).  The next morning we got up early, and headed out to Renegade “harbor”, launched the boat, and set out for our first session of fishing.  We got into the fish early, or I should say Parker did.  We started landing quite a few cutthroats as well as rainbows. 

The weather was windy, with occasional strong gusts.  We didn’t mind too much since we were catching fish and having fun.  We fished for about four or five hours and decided to go back to camp and take some naps as well as eat lunch.  We kept four fish that morning to eat for dinner that night.
Upon arriving at camp, it was quite windy, and it didn’t take long to realize the wind had completely snapped one of the tent poles in half and tore some nice holes in the rain fly.  Seeing the condition of the tent and our circumstances was quite comical considering we still needed some type of sleeping arrangement for the next two nights, especially with the threat of rain in the forecast. 

We ate lunch, which was bratwursts, and luckily enough that morning we found some old buns in the bow of his boat from a previous trip (we forgot to buy buns the day before).  After lunch we went out again to the lake and though it was still windy, we had come to terms with the weather, and figured we were there to fish so why not.  Well a few hundred yards from the harbor as we entered the larger bay area, the wind picked up.  Unfortunately, T’s boat wasn’t running its best so we didn’t have much speed.  The waves picked up and we instantly knew we had to turn around and head back.  With the three of us and Sage and all our gear and coolers, the boat was hitting the waves pretty hard, and water was close to spilling over into the boat from the sides.   I know we were all a little scared, since the wind was so strong and the motor wasn’t 100%, it felt like we weren’t making much progress back to the harbor.  Eventually we made it back, and I’m sure the people on shore got a good show watching us flip around in the middle of the bay and get drenched by waves as we put-putted back to the harbor.

 

Wearing Frog Togs with pride!

After much deliberation, we decided to head even further East to try some other fishing places that T knew about. (Much to his dismay – “You don’t leave fish, to find fish” – T’s comment referring to our great success that morning)We then drove out to Starvation Reservoir.  After driving around for a long time, and not knowing where we were, we luckily ended up finding an amazing spot right next to the water.  We fished a little from shore that night and had a good fish fry (Thanks to T cooking up the fish from Strawberry) and also some freeze dried rice, oh and I can’t forget the healthy serving of sand in each of our meals due to the consistent wind and lack of lids to our pots.

That night, the wind calmed down just long enough to deceive Parker and I that we would be fine to sleep out on a tarp, while T slept in his car.  Well to say the least, after the first big gust, Parker and I both had ridiculous amounts of sand in our sleeping bags and just about everywhere else.  I maybe got three hours of sleep.

I woke up first and decided to do some more shore fishing before the others woke up.  After just a few casts, I hooked into a 15” small mouth bass!  It was a great fight and is definitely the biggest smallmouth I have ever caught.  

For breakfast we ate eggs, bacon, cereal…..and some more sand.  Although we were already at Starvation, we decided to go to a different lake that T had told us about.
We decided due to continued wind and lack of a tent, that we would fish the rest of the day and then head back that night (Saturday).  We arrived at the new lake and found a random place to launch the boat.  We unhooked the tie-downs and we about launched it, when we spotted another spot that was more promising.  Upon arriving at the other launching location, and after a few trial and error back-ups, Parker and I stood helpless as we saw the boat slide off of the trailer and onto the ground…yes, we had forgotten to put the tie-downs back on.  When I saw this happen I thought all was lost, the boat was ruined, and we would never get it back onto the trailer.  But out comes Trevor to investigate the damage, and amazingly he didn’t look too worried.  He only asked about the motor and if it was ok.  Sure enough with a little fisherman brute strength and the trailer “wench”, we got the boat back onto the trailer, with no harm done.  I found out afterwards the same boat fell off the trailer on the freeway, going freeway speeds and yet no damage was done.

We began fishing the lake, and didn’t have much luck.  We tried fly after fly and lure after lure as well as trolling.  The wind, of course, was still harassing us and even with both anchors down we still floated our way across the shoreline.  About two and half hours in, and still without any fish landed, I decided to try my trusty jig again.  And after about four or five casts… “FISH ON!”.  We quickly realized it was a nice sized fish, but we weren’t too sure of how nice it was until it finally got close to the boat and and surfaced and our excitement hit the roof!  It was big, and we HAD to net it.  Trevor had the net, and Parker was getting an anchor up to help avoid the fish getting caught in the line.  T netted the fish, but after a few seconds, and all of us amazed at how big it was, the fish jumped out of the net and back into the water.  My heart stopped, and I’m sure T’s did too.  LUCKILY, the fish didn’t break the line and the jig stayed hooked.  T netted the fish again, and it was quickly brought into the boat.  At this point I already knew it was the biggest fish I had ever caught in my life.  All three of us were like giddy school boys looking at this fish while taking pictures as well as getting the specs.  It was a tiger trout and weighed in at 6 lbs and was 24” long.  We kept the fish and I couldn’t have been a happier fisherman.

I’m sure many would read this story and think with the horrible wind that it was not worth it, but let me just say it certainly was!  When my grandpa in California quickly caught wind of my fish (no pun intended) he offered to get the tiger trout mounted, and so it is.

What the wind claimed:  Tent, T’s glasses, Parker’s sleeping bag case, storage bin, T’s frog togs case, and a good amount of food.