love at first sight

 Well as you can imagine it's been VERY busy around here. It's been hard keeping everyone up to date with Joseph's progression. He is doing very well. He is one month old now and they took him off oxygen this week and we've been training in the breast feeding. He weighs 4 pounds, 12 oz. as of today :) WOOHOO! Still quite a road ahead of us but feel so grateful for his progression. Thank you for your prayers in his behalf. I will post updated photos soon. Sorry I'm so behind. For now, here are some photos of first hours of his life. 

Emma and Thomas love Joseph SO much and are always remembering him in their prayers. I think it was love at first sight when they were brought to the NICU to come see him, they were glowing. They are anxious (especially Emma) to have him home. We all are.

 Emma and Thomas just glowing when they first see their baby brother just hours after he was born.

 

Here is a note that Emma wrote for the NICU bulletin for the whole staff. How sweet :)

 The kids have been drawing Joseph some pictures to hang up in his station in the NICU. 

Here is Thomas' drawing. Notice the little red smiley face. He's been SO good at drawing those lately :)

 This is a note Emma wrote all by herself. The only words that she needed help to spell was family. Derek and I were so surprised and proud. It reads...

"We are your family

and your familys names are Emma and Daddy and Mommy and 

Thomas"

 This a letter Emma wrote to "Joey" before we named him. She liked the name Joey. Well she was close enough :) She can still call him Joey if she wants to.

more Emma drawings

She writes...

"Dear Joseph

I love you

You are the 

cutest baby ever." 

How true that is, how true that is.....

bed rest

It was such a challenge being on bed rest for myself and my family. As soon as the doctor gave me the orders on October 18th just days before Joseph was born, I didn't know how I could do it.

Earlier in the week, I had a melt down to Derek. I knew and feared the doctor was going to tell me bed rest at my appointment on Thursday. I didn't know how I would do it all with taking care of my family, my calling as Primary President, and my HUGE list of things to get done before this baby came at Christmas and taking care of Christmas. I then asked Derek for a Priesthood blessing. In the blessing it was said that "this baby would come when he/she was supposed to." I thought about that for a few minutes and hoped that that meant the baby will come closer to his due date.

Well, I was faced with a whirlwind of emotions when the doctor told me later that week that I could have preeclampsia and he wanted to run more tests. I held back my tears as long as I could after he left, then his nurse Rachel came to talk with me to see how I was really feeling. I lost it. My load  feeling heavy and I didn't know I would do this. Then of course Monday, Oct. 22nd, tests resulted that I did indeed have Preclampsia.

Well as soon as the word got out to friends, family, and neighbors we have been well taken care of ever since. My wonderful counselors and Secretary in Primary have totally taken over and carried more of the load. We've had meals brought to us, neighbors taking care of my children and so forth. We have felt SO blessed. 

My sweet family took such great care of me while I was on bed rest. This picture of Emma brushing my hair pretty much sums up how I was treated. Derek was such a champ during that short time on bed rest before Joseph came and still is as we try and balance life out between home and being at the hospital NICU with our sweet Joseph. We're getting through it. We are adapting. There are harder days then others, but with all the love, prayers and support we are getting through it. We thank you so much for the prayers, we are feeling them.

Frazier family Halloween 2012 part 1

 Just before I went on bed rest in October we got a lot of Halloween crafting on! First we made some foot print ghosts. Thomas and Emma kept saying how much it tickled to paint their own feet. I think they turned out adorable. They were hung on our front door window right away :) The kids have been obsessed with ghost sounds this halloween. At the beginning of the month Thomas did not like it when we made the sounds because I think he associated it with monsters, and he didn't like that. :) Then he warmed up to the idea of ghosts and we've had fun with them since. 

Project #2, we made ghosts out  of paper plates. They drew some cute ghost faces on them and had fun running around with them after completion. 

Project #3, We made haunted houses. I cut out the black houses and let the kids put them on colored paper and let them color in the windows of the houses and draw in the back ground. They turned out quite cute. I love watching Thomas concentrate on something with his tongue sticking out, so cute.

Emma's haunted house

Thomas' haunted house 

 Emma was drawing something halloween almost every day, here are a few for your viewing pleasure. :)

Here is a pumpkin Emma drew on for little "Joey". She already named the baby before we did. She was just SO ecstatic to have a new baby brother and was quick to decide his name. Of course she now calls him Joseph. :)

And we shall name him....

Joseph Friedrich Frazier

Our little man

Our "little man was born Tuesday, October 23rd at 11:09am
He was 31 weeks along.
(This ultra sound was taken the day before his surprise arrival) 

 This is how the story goes....

 Thursday, October 18th my doctor put me on bed rest due to my blood pressure being way too high. They ran more tests the next two days like a 24 hour urine test along with blood work. He was also concerned about how often I was having intense braxton hicks and cramping.

I met with my doctor again the following Monday, Oct. 22nd. The results came back as too much protein in my 24 hour urine test. My blood pressure was also still through the roof. He diagnosed it as Pre-eclampsia. He explained to me that Pre-eclampsia symptoms are too much protein in the urine and continued high blood pressure. I also had some swelling in the ankles. It was strict bed rest from then on out. He sent me to the hospital to get a steroid shot to help the baby's lungs develop quicker. I was supposed to go in for another one the next day, Tuesday Oct. 23rd.

Tuesday morning around 7:30am I was laying in "my bed" (the couch) and heard the children come down for breakfast. Derek was getting them fed and I repositioned myself and BOOM the intense cramping and braxtons began. They were strong. They continued being SO intense the entire hour. I was in a place called "Denial." This baby couldn't come yet. If Derek just takes me to the hospital they will stop the contractions. Then the second hour came around and they definitely turned into real contractions about 5 minutes apart.

Derek called the doctors office and they told us to go to the hospital because Dr. Young was already there and he would want to see me. Derek's mom came to our home a little after 10am and we were out the door and headed to Orem hospital, about 15 minutes away. The contractions were now about 2-3 minutes apart. Derek tried driving as fast as he could. I think we were driving behind the slowest people ever. The contractions turned into about a minute a half apart and I was deathly scared that I would deliver this baby in the car.

We arrived at the hospital and all I remember is Derek running into hospital to get a wheel chair and coming out with a nurse. She asked how far along I was, we replied 31 weeks and her face just dropped and she had a worried look and then her response was "Oh that's not we want to hear." Oh man, that was what I didn't want to hear. I was in a panic and kept saying, "this baby can't come now!"

I remember entering the doors and seeing bright colors of green and blue nurse uniforms charging to me and hearing all sorts of commands, "31 weeks, 31 weeks, get Dr. so and so, call the anesthesiologist, call the transporters, call the respiratory specialist," etc...  PANIC!

We arrived to hospital at 10:43am

They didn't even have time to get me into a hospital gown. They checked me and I was at a 6 1/2; too late for an epidural. The anesthesiologist tried doing a spinal block and when you are having contractions every minute and a half it's very hard to hold still. I remember I kept saying, "I can't have this baby, it's too early." The the spinal block didn't take. They told me to roll over onto my back and they checked me again and I was fully dilated. They said to get ready to push. I remember thinking, (but apparently I actually said it out loud) "Holy Sh.., I'm having this baby natural."

I started pushing at 11:08am and he came at 11:09am.

He weighed 3 lbs. 5 oz. 16 inches long.

He is beautiful. He was so quiet of course. He was blue at first, but they got him pinkish red pretty quickly. They took him away and got him prepped for the transport team to take him to the NICU in Provo. It was a blessing I had him natural because if I had been drugged then I wouldn't have been able to sit up to say goodbye to him when they came back an hour and a half later to transport him.

Derek followed them to the NICU and was with our little man all day/night. 

He is doing pretty well for his circumstances. All the nurses and doctor say he is quite feisty. He is a little fighter. :) I will give more updates later. 

The name is still being determined.

We love you sweet little man. We are grateful you came into our family.

A pumpkin for Rowan

So we accidentally grew a few tiny pumpkins in our garden this year. 

Emma decided to color one to take to our niece Rowan.

Our chicken Sarah

photo taken July 2011

While we were gone on our trip to Maine/New York, our sweet pet chicken, Sarah was killed by a raccoon. It happened the early morning the day, (Oct. 2nd) we got home. Our neighbors heard the chaos two mornings in a row, but Sarah and Spot fought their way until Sarah couldn't win anymore. It was terrible. I think the worst part was breaking the news to sweet Emma. It was the first time we have seen her so heart broken over such a loss. She buried her head into Derek's chest and just wept. Derek and I were heart broken for her. Throughout the day she was in better and better spirits especially after Preschool. Something that we find comforting, especially Emma is knowing that Sarah fought and protected Spot from the raccoon. Emma calls Sarah a hero. Later that day we went outside to entertain Spot and Emma started yelling at the top of her lungs at the raccoons,

"Get away raccoon! We don't like you. You didn't win.Raccoon why did you hurt Sarah?...she is the winner! You stay away from Sarah I mean it. Raccoons you don't take chicken eggs they are for people, not YOU!..."

I just let her yell as much as she wanted to get it off her chest. It was sweet.

Our other chicken Spot is pretty depressed. I never really witnessed a depressed animal but it's very apparent in Spot.  Each day, it gets a little better.

photo taken March 2012

 Spot is sitting at our window seal every day since the loss, just looking in and watching us. She just lets Thomas pet her and sit with her. When we told Thomas the news of Sarah, he just kept saying "Sarah, died?" "Spot sad?"

Ok, is this picture hilarious or what?

This is a letter Emma wrote to Sarah. It reads..

"Love, Emma

Dear Sarah 

You are a Hero

Thank you for 

trying to protect Spot

I will miss

you" 

We buried Sarah up in Grove Creek canyon up from our house. Emma read her letter to Sarah and the children watched Derek cover her box up. They helped cover it with rocks. 

Emma comforting Spot.

We will miss you Sarah.