More Pictures with Tanner and the kids

Picture of Tanner

Tanner Dean McRoberts

Kari set a new record this morning. After a very short 8 minute labor, Tanner was born at 5:32 AM. The only thing I did this morning was prove that regardless of speed, there is no way to get from my house to any local hospital within 8 mintutes. As a result: Tanner was born in the car; Kari delivered the baby herself; and all the kids in the car thought it was pretty fun.

Looking back, it was quite a fun experience. Those 8 minutes were pretty stressful, but the fact that everything ended fine leaves us with feelings of gratitude, relief, and some pretty humerous moments.

Here is some additional information for a more detailed timeline:

• 2-3 AM: Kari distinctly felt the baby drop, but didn't feel any contractions, pressure, or pain.
  
• 5:oo AM: Brayden randomly wakes up and sets up a bed in our room


• 5:24 AM: Kari awakes, uses the restroom, feels a lot of pressure, and waits 1 minute to see if it continues or not.


• 5:25 AM: Kari wakes me and indicates it's time to leave. Thankfully Brayden was upstairs and already awake. He was really helpful in hurrying and getting Natalie up and ready.


• On a side note: getting in the car was somethat humerous. While I loked the house, the kids and Kari got into the car. The ice had sealed the two side doors shut, and as I approached the car, Kari had her legs on the dashboard and all the kids were scrambling over her to get into the back of the car.


• 5:26 AM: We are on the road and call the doctor.


• 5:27 AM: We call Nate Nelson and coordinate having Emily meet us at the hospital to pick up the kids.


• 5:29 AM: Kari feels another heavy contraction and the baby's head pops out.


• 5:30 AM: Dr Draznik calls back, we update him regarding Kari's status, and decide we will head to St. Elizabeth hospital (10 minutes total trip) rather than Christ hospital (25 minute total trip).


• 5:30AM: Nate calls back and we confirm Emily should meet us at St. Elizabeth


• 5:32 AM: On Kari's next contraction, the entire baby is delivered. Kari did a great job catching him and ensuring everything was fine. The umbilical cord was torn during the delivery and came out detached. Kari instinctively pinched it shut with her fingers and held it until we arrived at the ER. Withing 15-20 seconds, the baby started crying and we all felt a great sense of relief. Leah sat in the seat behind mine, and probably had the best view. Once Tanner was born, Leah kept saying "A baby, a baby; ... Daddy there's a baby". She was quite taken by surprise that a baby suddenly appeared in the front seat with Mom.


• 5:35 AM: We arrive at the ER. I ran inside and told the nurse that my wife just delivered our son in the car. I wish I had a camera to catch the look on her face. After repeating, she registered what I said, and called for help. It was amusing watching the ER personnel act out of their element. They were scrambling not having towels, blankets, gloves, clamps, or any of their other normal tools accessible. At one point when the resident physician asked for some clamps, an aid ran inside and came back with at least 20 different clamps, and tripped spilling them all over the driveway.


• After that, they took Kari and Tanner inside. I waited with the kids, cleaned up the car, and headed in to catch up with Kari.

Reflecting on, and retelling, the events of this morning, I feel very grateful. We are first and formost blessed to have a Heavenly Father who knows us and is distinctly aware of the challenges we face. Throughout all of this, and the tense moments of the last week, we have felt the comfort of our Heavenly Father, and have felt reassured that everything, would work out fine.

Secondly, we are truly blessed to have great friends here in Kentucky. Our friends here have become our family and we love and cherish them. Nate and Emily willingly watched our kids last week during Kari's false alarm (all 5 hours in the middle of the night). Again this morning, they were so willing to come at a moment's notice to help us out. Thank you guys!

Thirdly, having been through one home birth, I am all too aware of the kind of mess that gets left behind. Today, I am grateful that 1) I put a towel on the passenger seat last week, 2) we have leather seats, and 3) we had those deep winter floormats. The combination of the three made cleanup much better than last time.

Here are the baby's stats:

Tanner Dean McRoberts

Born: 5:32 AM (I got to call the time)

Weight: 7 LBS, 11 OZ (Kari was shootin' craps)

Length: 19 3/4 inches

Now - what you all have really been waiting for ... here are some pictures:

Well - the upload process was pretty slow from the hospital, and the kids are getting wrestless. I will upload some more pics tonight after I get the kids to bed.

Love you all and thanks for your support!

Guess when!

I have been thinking about putting a game together for family and friends to be more involved in baby #4 birth. Especially since he is supposedly(per Jeremy) the last one!!
So lets play a guessing game!

Questions:
1. When will baby be born(Date/Time)?
2. How much will he weigh?
3. How long will he be?
4.What is my favorite thing about pregnancy?

Either email me or leave your guesses in the comments. The winner(s) will be openly congratulated on this blog and may receive a treat/prize in the mail if I get around to it after the baby is born.

Hint for guessing: I am scheduled to have my water broken around 7am this Friday morning if baby has not come by then.
GOOD LUCK!!

Pregnancy Fun

This pregnancy has been so much fun! I love feeling the baby move inside of me, and I have been pretty lucky with having only a little nausea and heart burn. I have been way tired though and that leads to being thankful that I still have two good nappers in the house!!

We have been sick though, add on my trying to get things ready for our little man, that leads to Braxton Hicks(which I have never had!!). We had a false alarm last night. Jeremy saw me resting and asked me about my contractions. I told him they were coming regularly but not very strong. He immediately worried so we called the Doctor and the Nelsons(they are our go to for the kids), woke the kids up and headed to the Hospital. I have never felt contractions before that did not mean the baby was about to pop out; so I assumed even though it was over two weeks early we would have a baby after leaving. Well, I was dilated to a 4, which has progressed from the 3 I had on Monday at my appointment. But not much in the way of strong contractions, just little ones that seem to be getting my body ready rather than being in actual labor. We were sent home around 2:30am because the Hospital was so busy and I was too early for them to help me along. So much for a dry run to the Hospital!!

At least we are now preregistered and our bags are packed. Now if I could just get myself into the sewing room to finish mine and Faiths car seat covers....

Here are some cute picks of Faith and I with our prego bellies. We are both having boys and we were only a month apart. But due to her trying to have a v-back and me usually going early they could be a lot closer in age.

4 of us prego ladies also went out to dinner to celebrate our upcoming babies. We ended up going to Deweys. It was yummy salad as usual, but randomly my part of the pizza was burnt, so they said they would make a replacement, but that ended up being burnt too. So the manager explained that the oven needed to be recalibrated said a third pizza was being made and would be ready in 5 minutes plus he comped the pizza. So our total bill was only for the salad we shared!! So we had leftovers and money to spend, so after we went over to Coldstone to indulge our sweet tooth. Yum!!

It is sad thinking this could be my last pregnancy!! But at least I have really enjoyed it!!

Our Christmas in Califronia

We were able to spend a fun holiday vacation in California. We were there for 18 solid days(plus 2 for travelling). The kids loved seeing there grandparents, cousins, and aunts & uncles. In that order. ;p

On the airplane to California. The trip was made longer with a delay in LA.

Here are a few pictures taken at that time. Keep in mind I borrowed my mother in laws camera a lot because mine was dead or dying, and I do not have those loaded on the computer at this time! So we will make do with what I have.

Jenalee at the Zoo

We celebrated Jenalee's 2nd Birthday, Natalie lost her second tooth, we went to the San Diego Zoo, Mormon Battalion, and Lego land. Of Course we shopped, hung out with family, and went to the Natural History Museum at Balboa Park too.

Jenalee turned 2 on December 22nd and we had a family get together that night. Aunt Melony made her a beautiful princess castle cake. Yum!! Thanks, Melony!

She also enjoyed opening up presents. She loved the dolls she got from the Grandparents and Aunt Genel! She is way into babies. Which could be good or bad for me...depending on how much she wants to help when Tanner is born.

Natalie showing her second lost tooth. Both from the bottom row. The Tooth Fairy has been very good to her giving her a Dollar and a candy per lost tooth so far.

Family picture at Legoland. Tons of fun! Especially since the whole McRoberts family got in for Free. Thanks for getting in line for those radio deals!!

I finally finished the Christ Nativities for our Moms. I loved how they turned out. I hope our Moms did too!

Mormon Battalion Picture. The kids loved this place. They got to pan for gold, play on wagons, and see a fun video presentation. Plus it is next to the San Diego Mission so we went to the old town set up they had there too.

Here are the kids New Years Eve with some of their cousins. The girls loved that they had matching jammies. Thanks mom for mailing those to us!

Last but not least is Uncle Ryan. The kids loved seeing him, and his new fiance(though she was girlfriend at the time) Barbie. Thanks for being so good to us Ryan with all the movies, gifts, and time spent with us! We also loved meeting Barbie and can't wait to see you guys again in August at your wedding! Congratulations!!

Updates

Giving the blog the Spring look early to warm us up from the cold winter weather. Enjoy the title picture we took last May in the Great Smoky Mountains!

Hopefully I will upload more current information by tomorrow!!