Introducing Teagan Glen Swearingen

Teagan Glen Swearingen

Born December 29, 2010 @ 9:07 am

7lbs. 10oz. 21 inches long

(name pronounced Tee-gan)

Just after he was born

This photo was by Brenner

Wayne has his coat on from picking up my mom

Getting ready to go home

Look at all my boys!

He's so cute!

Our family (Man, we're getting big!)

His Birthday Story

For those who do not wish to know "all the details" this post is not for you. ;-)

I've been incredibly blessed to have good pregnancies and good labor/deliveries with only minor bumps along the way and Teagan was no exception.

My due date was December 27th and we decided we liked the idea of getting through Christmas before having the baby--not that you always get to decide, but we weren't going to "make" him come early. We figured we would try to set up an induction for on my due date. So I wasn't worried as the time got closer that nothing was happening and I wasn't progressing. On December 20th I went in for an appointment and the Dr. said I was still very thick and only dilated to about a 1. He then said he heard a skip in the baby's heart rate and wanted to do a non-stress test and check my fluid level. Non-stress test came back great--no sign of a skip--but my fluid level was on the low side of normal. The dr. didn't seem too concerned, so I wasn't, but then he said that the hospital was booked and it looked like I wouldn't be able to get in for an induction until at least the end of next week (Dec. 30th). That was a big let down. We scheduled an appointment for next the next Tues (Dec. 28th) and he said the only other way I would get in sooner was if my fluid level dropped more.

The rest of the day I was bummed not to have my plans work out, worried about the baby's health, anxious about how to get Mom out here; all those crazy emotions that jump to the surface so easily during pregnancy.

On Tuesday I went in and did another non-stress test and fluid check. The test showed a drop in the baby's heart beat and my fluid had dropped again. Since I was now officially past my due date and had those two issues the dr. said we needed to get in to have this boy. Since my body was still not cooperating they decided to have me come in that night to start cervidel (sp?), which is medicine inserted in the cervix to soften it and get it ready for pitosin in the morning. So I came home and got things set up to head back into the hospital that evening.

We went to the hospital at about 4:30pm and they got me set up. As soon as they put the moniter on the baby we could hear his heart skipping and being irregular. They told us it wasn't something to worry about at this point, but they would be monitering me carefully. They put the cervidel in at 6pm. It was to stay in for 12 hours. They said it typically just gives cramps, but occasionally will start someone into full labor.

Things started out well and Wayne decided to head home about 8:30pm and get rest in his own bed. The hospital bed for me was very uncomfortable and because of Teagan's heartrate the nurse was constantly in adjusting the moniter so that they were getting good readings. Pretty minor annoyances, but I definitely wasn't getting a lot of rest. At around 3:30AM I started having contractions. They started out erractic going from every 10-20 min. apart, then started getting closer and stronger. From about 4:30-5:50AM I was having hard contractions about 13 min. apart. Just before 6AM the nurse came in and decided to take the cervidel out and check me. She said I was a good 4 and very thin. She said I could have the epidural if I was ready and the anesthesiologist was right outside in the hallway. Woohoo! I was ready.

By 6:30AM I had the epidural in and was enjoying my body going numb and not feeling the pain of the contractions anymore. I called Wayne and told him not to doddle getting back in because I was going to be started on the pitosin.

At about 7:30AM, they started the pitosin. Still no Wayne. At around 8:15 I felt some pressure and told the nurse I thought the baby had dropped. She checked and said sure enough I was a good 5 and my water sack was bulging and baby's head was very engaged. She called for the dr. to come break my water. Still no Wayne.

Wayne came just before the dr. at 8:30AM. Dr. broke my water and said I was a 6-7, then quickly said I was an 8 when I had a contraction. At 9AM I said I was feeling more pressure, the nurse checked and said, "you're ready to go". The dr. came in and I pushed three quick times during one contraction and out Teagan slid. No cutting, no tearing. I went from a 5 to birth in about 45 min.! Fastest one yet!

Since Teagan's heart rate had been irregular the NICU nurses were in the room and quickly took him to check him out. They said normally kids will regulate quite quickly after they are born, but unfortunately Teagan did not. They let me hold him for about 5 mintues then took him out the door to the NICU. Wayne went with them.

It was a very odd, surreal experience to have everything go so quickly, then be left alone with no baby or husband. I wasn't sure if I should be happy he was here, or nervous for his health or tired or scared or what. My emotions were a jumble.

They did an EKG and checked him all out. Everything came back normal and they finally said they would just watch him for a couple days in the hospital and hope everything normalizes. They brought him back in and I was able to feed him and cuddle and feel all the great emotions of having just had a baby.

Over the past couple days his heart rate improved from skipping to just a small murmur to completely normal. The pediatrician said he thinks it has completely resolved and though they will keep a watch at normal visits, he doesn't think it will be a continuing issue. YEAH!!

I feel very blessed that everything went so well and smoothly and that Teagan's little issues have been resolved. I'm so grateful he's here and healthy.

Merry Christmas 2010

I'm late--of course--and too tired to be funny, witty, or even interesting so...

We hope you all had as great a Christmas as we did and that this next year brings you blessings of peace, love, joy, as well as many of those "fun" things we all want. ;-)

We are anxiously awaiting the arrival of baby boy #5, due to arrive tomorrow--December 27th--but more likely to come later in the week. We hope to spread the wonderful news soon.

Our love to you all!!

Christmas in full swing

This year has felt a little different. I did really well with getting shopping done early and that has been great. But with the baby coming I feel like my spirit has gone between Christmas mode/excitement to baby mode/excitement. Why can't the two coincide? I don't know, but I feel like one gets turned off to focus on the other. I'm sure it will all come together into about 3 days of crazy fun and excitement.

We've tried hard to stick to doing all our normal traditions this year. We got our Christmas tree the first weekend in December. Then decorated it that Monday night for Family Home Evening.

I made things a little easier on me this year by making round cookies to decorate instead of shapes and then Wayne bought some decorating icing to save me from having to make extra icing and put in bags--very nice. And it didn't seem to hurt the decorating or fun.

So far we have made sugar cookies for decorating, shortbread house pieces--which will come together on Christmas Eve, 6 batches of poppy seed bread, 4 batches of jelly, and 3 1/2 batches of turtle cookies. It mostly has all gone to neighbors and friends, but we have wonderful people who have filled our counter with wonderful goodies in return.

Aiden had a Christmas program called, "A Bug's Christmas". He was a soldier beetle. It was very cute with fun songs and a cute story.

Parker had a Cub Scout program. They went and sang songs and told Christmas jokes at a set of apartments for the elderly. The people loved them coming and the boys did a great job.

I love Christmas and all the traditions and festivities that surround it. It also means Wayne gets time off work and home with us, which is always wonderful. I woke up this morning a little sad to realize we were almost at the end. But I quickly decided that was the wrong attitude and to enjoy every minute of the time left.

I hope to put up another post with our "official" Christmas letter, but if something should prevent me...

Have a very Merry Christmas everyone!

Thanksgiving

Though it's a little late, it's not so bad considering my record.

We stayed put this Thanksgiving. And good thing we didn't try to leave. We had a blizzard come in the Tuesday before Thanksgiving and the freeways close due to winds and drifting snow after Thanksgiving. I did think it seemed a little odd to have snow on the ground for Thanksgiving, but I do love the cold and being able to enjoy the warmth and smells of cooking on a snowy day.

We had a very lazy day. The boys did a lot of playing the Wii and the computer.

Brenner read Hyrum a story

Wayne did a lot of watching of football and playing on his computerAnd I spent a lot of time in this place (notice how the flour is concentrated on the protruding belly) doing a lot of this Thankfully I made it through with little swelling and was still able to enjoy my creations. Wayne did come help me in the kitchen once I got into the heavy cooking--that part I really enjoy about staying home.

Then we ate! Wayne and I aren't big turkey fans so we have made it our family tradition to have fried chicken on Thanksgiving. We feasted on leftovers for the next three days. (1 long day of cooking for three days off--sounds like a good trade to me.)

I ventured out late(er) in the morning on Black Friday (around 6ish) to see if there were any deals left out there and came back pleasantly surprised with getting most everything I had hoped to get without the massive pushing and shoving. The two main toys I wanted were at Target and I got there just as they were setting more of them out. I think I might make this a Black Friday habit. We also took down the Thanksgiving decorations and broke out the Christmas music and decor. The boys were so excited they had to dance.Friday night Wayne and I pulled out the cards to play Hand & Foot and instantly fell back into the competative spirit of the game and have since played it about 5 times.

On Saturday, I took the boys out shopping to buy for each other. Wayne and I were also invited to do sealings at the temple on Saturday which was a wonderful way to top off a great weekend.

I was feeling a little homesick this year and really wanting to do some entertaining, but I thoroughly enjoyed our family weekend together.

Jealousy Issues?

Wayne put up the baby crib one night and the next day this is what I foundI couldn't get him to come out. When I would try to grab him, he would lean as far into the corner as he could to get away from me.I have a feeling we may be in for some rough times when the baby gets here...

Remember us??

WOW! It's been almost a year since I have done anything with this! I admire all you out there that deal with crazy lives and still get around to blogging. I find it very difficult. Family picture in SoCal

Without boring you all too much with the catch up story I will summarize it with, it's been a hard year and a half. It's been a time of growth for me personally and for our family as a whole. We've had ups and downs and everything in between.

I will try to catch up a little on our current status while posting what pictures I have. (Part of the reason for not blogging is that my camera cord has been missing since we moved to Illinois, April '09. Wayne has taken and downloaded many of our family pictures from his camera and therefore they are not on my computer. Then just recently Wayne showed me I was an idiot--my words--because our computer has memory card slots and in one of the big slots is a smaller slot for our memory card. AHH! So now I have a few pictures of recent events.) I'm already thinking this will not be a short update! ;-)

I basically left off blogging after Wayne was told he would be back in a traveling position with ConAgra Foods. January was when he was supposed to start that new job, but it came and went and they still kept him at the plant in Rossville. Then in about March the plant manager in Rossville decided to go out on medical leave to have surgery. They asked Wayne to step in and run things. So Wayne became interm plant manager. In May/June the plant manager returned and Wayne was finally put into his new role. (During this time, he was not traveling yet, but was filling some of his new responsibilities while running the plant at the same time.) Without going into details, we briefly thought we would be heading back to MO in June and put our house on the market. That didn't pan out, but Wayne was now getting frustrated with some things at ConAgra and decided to contact a friend he had worked with who had recently started with a company called Glanbia Foods in Twin Falls, Idaho. We were asked to come out and visit Twin Falls to see if we would have any interest in being out there, so in July we planned a trip on our anniversary weekend and headed out. We instantly fell in love and started to really consider the possibility. Since nothing was currently open, we thought it would be at least a few months before any change would come. We were wrong.
All the grandsons on my side of the fam.

The second week in August we were enjoying vacation in California with my family, when Wayne received an offer to work at Glanbia Foods as the plant manager of their Whey plant starting September 1st! They said they moved some things around and Tada! they were ready for Wayne. So after a lot of thought and prayer we took the job. Things moved really fast at that point. We put the house back on the market, Wayne finished up his last two weeks, and moved out to ID. My family out visiting for Parker's baptism...we went to the Lincoln Museum and took a picture with the Pres. and fam.

We decided to rent a house since the housing market is pretty stagnant right now for selling ours in IL. Thankfully, Wayne was able to find a beautiful house for us within the first couple weeks he was there and on September 24 we left St. Joseph and headed to Twin Falls. (With a quick stop to say goodbye to his family in MO.)

We have now been here for just over a month and we are truly loving it. (Don't we always say that?) Though it's not as condensed of an LDS population as eastern ID, it's way more than any other place we have lived. Most of our street and the neighborhood around us is LDS. The Twin Falls temple is just a few blocks away and we get to see it every day. We've been very welcomed by our neighbors and our ward and we both received callings this Sunday. Wayne is 2nd counselor in the Sunday School presidency and is the teacher improvement teacher. I am the Mia Maid advisor. (After 7 years in Primary, I'm a bit nervous.)

As for our sweet monkey boys....All the boys were Super Mario characters for Halloween this year

Parker is now 8 years old. Morning of Parker's 8th birthday
Parker's cake--rocket ship headed to Mars.
He was baptized in June! He still continues to be rocking the academic world and also did great in baseball this past spring. He's hitting the age that he's really getting tired of moving and is missing his "BFF" Grant. Wayne and I find it quite funny how he's growing into the next stage of life, learning the slang terms and starting to get into music and other interests. He really likes to play chess--this was at a children's museum.
We're finding it to be a little challenging at times, but we try our best to adjust. Parker also started Cub Scouts when we moved here and is finding it very fulfilling. Dressed as a confederate at the Lincoln Museum
He enjoys earning character beads for his necklace and passing off his goals. First set of scriptures

Aiden is now 6. He's still our little space cadet--out in his own world. He continues to be quite the follower and always needs someone to play with or at least be in the same room with.Dressed as Abraham Lincoln @ the Lincoln Museum
He enjoys school and all the socializing and friend making that goes with it.Painting on the paint wall @ children's museum
If you smile at the kid, you're his friend. Aiden and cousin Cameron
He's very sweet that way. Aiden is making great progress in learning to read and loves to try to read every sign we pass when we're out and about. Aiden throwing the ball that will send Wayne into the water

Brenner is now 4. He thinks he rules the roost around here when the boys are gone to school.Holding the Abraham Lincoln mask

The kid was definitely saved for this time of the world. He is so smart with the computer and TV.Dressed as a worker--serious face and all

He figures out how to turn things on, get into programs, and do just about whatever he sets his mind to. He has downloaded some spyware a time or two, but thankfully we make sure we are protected and have gotten rid of it quickly. His 4th birthday cake--always has to have Halloween themed birthday

He's very helpful when he wants to be and actually really enjoys helping me clean and cook. The "Oh, Brenner" moments have calmed down quite a bit, but he still keeps us on our toes.Boys out flying Parker's kite

Hyrum is almost 2 (February).Watching and feeding ducks

He is a sweet, cute, fun little boy. He runs around most of the day content to play with trains, balls, and trucks. I love this picture!

He definitely has learned to have a stubborn streak after watching Brenner all day, though. After being such a huge chunker of a baby, he has really thinned out in recent months. And he has got the skinniest neck! I don't know why, but it's little. Hyrum is quick to smile and loves everyone.Getting a ride from GGma

I worry that if I don't watch him closely enough someone will snatch him and he won't let out a peep. He's known to walk up to anyone at church or in the stores and just give them a big hug.Don't you want a hug from this kid?

He does have a big sweet spot for his Daddy, though. I'm nothing when Wayne is around. Every Sunday afternoon you will find Hyrum sitting on Wayne's lap watching football. It's very sweet.He not only is in a big boy bed, he also no longer has the pacifier--Woohoo!

In April we were surprised to find out we were expecting baby #5! Though neither of us felt "done", we were "planning" to wait a little longer before having another one. But of course after the initial shock, we were thrilled! And what, you may ask, are we having?? A basketball team! We have our fifth little boy coming in just a few weeks, December 27th. Obviously if I had planned it, I would not have made the poor kid have a birthday around Christmas, but..... Now the question is, what do we name him?? We haven't even come up with a single name we can both agree on. We are open to any suggestions.

A walk in the woods--we make cute boys

Wayne is loving his job here--he's the boss, he gets treated to lunch by sales reps, he gets to leave work and play golf with customers, what's not to like? He also likes the people he works with, and though the company is "behind the times" as far as some things go, he likes the opportunity to help them build and grow.

The boys' Halloween pumpkins this year--our first year trying patterns....Aiden is the haunted house, Brenner the monster, and parker the peeking mummy.

As for me, I'm grateful. I'm grateful for my family and my life. I'm grateful for the gospel of Jesus Christ and my testimony of the truthfulness of the restored gospel found in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I'm grateful for the challenges the last year or so has brought. It wasn't easy or pleasant, but we are a better family and I am a better wife, mother, and person for those struggles. I'm grateful for the opportunity I have to serve in church and other ways. I'm grateful for finding friends wherever I've gone. I'm grateful for my children who help to teach me to be humble. I'm grateful to be home with them. I'm grateful to be in Idaho. I'm grateful that this job has potential for stability for us. I'm grateful for the cooler weather. I'm grateful that this pregnancy has been so great and pretty easy. I'm grateful to have little boys who I hope will someday hold the priesthood like their father. I'm grateful for a husband who is a great example of hard work, integrity, righteousness, and love for my boys to follow. I'm grateful I only have 6 weeks of pregnancy left. I'm grateful to anyone who read all the way through this post and is still interested in the happenings of our family.

Our future missionaries

Our love to all!