So cute

Taegen holdin on to daddy

My little family

There is a railroad right by our apartment. This one isn't used any more so we thought we'd take a few family pictures. The first one is on the path right before the tracks.

the wind was blew my cover, thats why my butt looks ginormous! haha

Taegen loves his new toys. The mirror on the left is his favorite.

Taegen rolls over onto his side. This was taken mid roll, so he goes a little further than what this shows. I sure do love this little guy.

He loves looking at himself in the mirror

Happy one month old Taegen

I can not believe that Taegen is 1 month old! It's crazy how fast it's gone.

Just look at my stud...so adorable!

Smiling in his sleep

Its blurry, but it's still a smile.

-Taegen already rolls over onto his side. He's obviously not rolling all the way over yet, but I'm still super proud :)

- His neck muscles are really strong. He holds his head up for minutes at a time trying to look at the world.

- He's turning into a cuddler. He use to not like to be held up on your shoulder and cuddled, but now thats one of the only positions I can put him in to calm him down.

- He likes the sound of the dryer

-He's still in his newborn clothes. He's so long and skinny nothing fits him. They say they grow so fast, but after a month, he still only fits into newborn outfits.

- He loves to go on walks

- He is really alert. He's awake more than he sleeps (during the day anyways)

- So far he's slept really well through the night. He usually only wakes up a couple times and will already sleep 4-5 hours at a time. (knock on wood, I hope he doesn't grow out of this one)

- His mommy and daddy love him so so much! Life is so different now, but we wouldn't change it for the world! He's changed our world for the better.

WE LOVE YOU TAEGEN WESLEY!

Our trip

We finally made it to Springfield. The trip took around 25 hours! Taegen did really good the first half of each day, but started getting really fussy around 2 or 3. We stopped at Nauvoo on our way here. It was really pretty. The temple is incredible! The spirit that you feel there is so amazing.

Me and Taegen in front of Nauvoo Temple

Jon and Taeg in front of the Joseph and Hyrum statue

Here's what the sign says "On the morning of June 24, 1844, Joseph Smith and his brother Hyrum left their families, homes, and fellow saints for the last time. Traveling on horseback, they paused on this bluff, Joseph looked admitingly at the unfinished temple and the city of Nauvoo and declared: 'This is the loveliest place and the best people under the heaves; little do they know the trials that await them.' Joseph and Hyrum then continue on to Carthage, Illinois, where they face legal charges and eventual death at the hands of a mob"

The view from the front of the temple

We also stopped at Carthage jail. This was really cool.

Me in front of Carthage jail

the bullet holes from the shots that killed Hyrum Smith. The second one is on the side up above the handle. It was once cut out of the door and replaced with a non broken piece, but luckily it is now back.

the top window is the one Joseph fell out of after he was shot

The inside of the window Joseph fell out of

Look how beautiful it is there. Its so green. So different from back home

They have these golf ball water towers every where over here. Jon thinks they're so cool, so he took a pic :)

We had to cross the Mississippi river to get here. It's HUGE!!

Oh and I had to post this. how cute. Like father like son. Taegen had just moved, but right before they were sleeping in the exact same position.

Also, our nephew Tatum's funeral was today. We're so sad that we couldn't be there to support our family during this hard time. Tatum was so adorable and helped and changed so many people in the short time he was here. Tatum, you are loved and will be missed tremendously!

sleeping

Look how cute this picture is. I just had to post it

Picture upload

Life has been a little crazy, trying to get use to life with a new born. I knew it was going to be different and hard, but no matter what everyone says to you, you just can't fully prepare for it. We've been having fun though. Here's some pics of my little man. :)

Taegen's first bath. He actually liked it at first, until I had to wash his hair. Then he freaked out a little

Taegen in his duck towel

First outfit with and without the jacket. Beep Beep

Olivia giving Taegen kisses

Grandpa and Taegen

Aja and Taegen (We had to give aja away :( It was so hard.)

SMILES!

Here's just a couple extra pictures

Me and my sisters out to eat for Kristel's baby shower

Steph, Kristel, Kimi, Me, Taegen, Stacie, Eric's grandma, Janet and Cristen (missing Julie, she was taking the picture)

Hudsen was so tired he fell asleep like this. Chocolate on his face and all. haha

Home at Last!

Well we're officially home, thank heavens! I'm so glad the whole ordeal is over and that we were able to take our precious son home happy and healthy. That was not the experience we were expecting to have, but are so glad that everything turned out ok.
I'll start where I left off last time, Taegen was on respiratory machine to send air into his lungs at a more forceful speed than he could breathe in. This air helped open up his lungs the rest of the way. He was on this until wednesday. Once he was able to breathe enough on his own to keep his lungs open, we were able to hold him any time we wanted. This was such a relief. Not being able to hold him was pretty rough. Luckily that was only for a short period of time. I was also able to start breastfeeding once he was off the respirator. This has proved to be a little more difficult than I thought it was going to be. But we're stickin with it and I know he'll catch on. Since I was now able to breastfeed, anytime he woke up they called us (if we weren't already there) to have us come down to feed him. and since the NICU checks the infants every 3 hours night and day, my sleep is offically gone :)
Thursday morning during one of the feedings, our nurse came in with a pair of the bilirubin lights and said he now had to be on the machine until his levels went down. Well this was really shocking to us because we thought we had opted out of that test. We wanted as little poking and proding done to our little guy as possible. We researched our options and had decided to opt out of this test. They talked to us about it, and told them we would talk about it and let them know if we decided to change our minds. Well, we never gave them permission to do the testing and the next morning they came back and said his levels were a little high. Needless to say we were not happy that they disregarded our feelings and did the test without our consent. Anyways, so all day thursday we had to lay on this bed with the blue lights shining with a wrap around his head and eyes so the lights wouldn't do permanant damage to his eyes. It broke my heart to see him with the bandage around his head. Feedings were the only time we were allowed to take him off and only for about 30 mins at a time. When we were done, I always made Jon or the nurse put the wrap back on his head, I just didn't have the heart to do it myself. Friday morning the doc came in and said his levels were low enough that he could be taken off the lights....YEAH! It was so nice to be able to hold my baby again for how ever long I wanted. (I think he was held the majority of the day by either me or Jon :) )
Now the only thing keeping them from releasing Taegen was his urine output. They had him on an iv to make sure he wouldn't get dehydrated. He had to be weaned from the iv onto just breastmilk and he had to have enough wet diapers to prove that he was getting enough food. By thursday night his output was at 1.9 (the required level is between 2 and 3) so we were hoping that they would just let us leave. I mean .1 didn't seem like a big enough deal to keep us there. At rounds with the docs friday morning they told us to get a few more breastfeedings and wet diapers then we would be released. We were so excited to hear this. Our deadline was 5:00. At 2:00 they checked his output and it was down to 1.6 we were so discouraged. We thought for sure they'd make us stay another night. We did everything we could to get the little guy to eat a whole bunch then hopefully he'd have a good diaper that would raise his numbers. That didn't work. When we went to change his diaper a while later...NOTHING! We were getting so frustrated. The nurse came in and told us she'd talk to the doc and to not get discouraged. She came back a while later and said the doc said we could be released anyway! FINALLY 3 days of being in the NICU is not fun. I don't think I've washed my hands that many times in my whole life.
We are now home (well at my inlaws since they're out of town, so we don't have to drive home and be super far away just in case we need some help) and it's going great. He's doing really good and it's so nice to be able to hold him without all the wires.
We're loving being parents. Jon is completely amazing! He's so good and patient with Taegen (although when it comes to him catching onto breastfeeding I'm a little more patient, which is funny cuz I'm normally the impatient one) He's been so helpful and involved. He's actually done almost all of the diaper changes, and my choice! I think I've only changed two so far. How lucky am I?! He came with me to all the middle of the night feedings even though all he could really do was sit there. He's always wanting to be right there with him. It's so cute. I love the boys in my life!!!

Taegen with all the tubes and wires :(

Jon and Taegen doing skin to skin

My boys taking a nap together, so cute!!

Taegen Wesley Evertsen

He's finally here! He was born Tuesday April 13 at 12:56pm. Weighing in at 8 lbs 2 ounces 21 inches long. Labor was LONG! around 48 hours total with really bad back labor.
Our original plan was to have a home birth. My consistent contractions started at 1am on monday, my midwife checked me at about 2 pm and I was only at 2 cm, 75% effaced. 4 hours later I was 3 cm, almost 100% effaced, and 4 hours after that...yup you guessed it, 4 cm 100% effaced. By around 5 am I was barely at a 5. (mind you this is after 31hours of labor) Since I wasn't dilating and he wasn't dropping we then decided to go to the hospital. I was really disappointed that I didn't get my home birth (but maybe next time) but it was good that we ended up going to the hospital. Once we got admitted they gave me some pitocin to help my labor get moving which then led to me getting an epidural. 4 hours later Taegen was born after less than 1/2 an hour of pushing.
When my water broke Janae noticed there was meconium in the fluid, which was another reason we decided to go to the hospital. When he was born he had a lot of meconium and amniotic fluild in his nose and throat, he was really floppy with slow reflexes and was having trouble breathing properly which caused him to be really gray instead of pink. We told everybody we wanted immediate skin to skin contact, to breastfeed asap and for the cord to stop pulsating before the clamped and cut it. Well since he was having these difficulties none of these things happened. They gave him to me for a few seconds before they wisked him off. They worked on him in our room for 30-40 minutes. Then NICU nurses then came up and helped out and decided that he needed to be taken downstairs to the NICU "waiting room" (I dont really know what it is called so thats been my name for it). Its a place where they give babies 6 hours without officially being admitted into the NICU to improve their conditions. We were told his lungs weren't opening up all the way and he couldn't keep them open. We then were told we had to wait until 7 o clock for any definate answers. In between that time I got to go down to see him and they let me hold him for a few minutes. Jon got to hold him a little later for a short period too.
At 7 we were informed that he was doing better but not enough to be able to come up with us and that he was going to have to be admitted to the NICU! In the chest X-Ray they did they saw a small tear in his right lung that had leaked out some air. This they said should heal on its own (if it hasn't already) since its so small. It also showed he has hazy lungs. They don;t think its eunomonia since he's not showing any other signs but will have to monitor him closely. They think it's either underdeveloped lungs or he has some sort of infection since his white blood count is really high. he also has some weak white blood cells. Luckily it doesn't look like he has too many of those. They have to have him on a respiratory to help expand his lungs. When they take him off of it, he does OK, but not as good as he needs to be. After a minute he starts grunting and showing signs of labored breathing. He needs to be able to be off the respirator or atleast on a lower dosage before they'll let him start breastfeeding. I will be able to pump and keep them in the fridge for him when he is able to start tho. He also has a tube down his throat to help release some of the air that is being pushed into his stomach from the respirator.
This has all been a pretty traumatic experience. It all seems a little surreal. Almost like it's not my baby and he's a nephew of mine or something. I'm sure this feeling will pass when we get to hold him a little more. They are saying as of now to plan on about 5-7 days of him being here. He could be out as early has two, this would be in the case of a miracle baby though. It all just depends on little Taegen and how long he wants to take. We just love him though and can't wait to be able to take him home.

Jon holding his son for the first time. Taegen with some tubs. This is one of the times they took him off the respirator.

Taegen in his incubator :(