Wow! I don't even know where to start...I almost died. I'm so happy to be alive!!! It feels like a scene from a movie where you come in from water to dry ground and you kiss everything in sight. I just kiss my husband and kids, so happy to still be with them. Shortly after having Freja I contracted Group A Strep. Apparently my uterus did not close in a timely fashion, allowing bacteria to climb on board. I kept thinking that the pain was just after birth pains because I usually do get those pretty bad. It wasn't until I could hardly put my own pants on that I decided to go to the hospital. I always wait too long! So I went in to the ER where they diagnosed me with septic shock. They were giving me morphine (nasty stuff) for the pain. The morphine would give me about ten minutes of relief and then the pain was back. Anyway they transferred me up to the ICU where I stayed the night. The next morning I was given a paper that I was asked to sign saying that in case of anything getting worse that I consented to them taking my uterus. I wasn't sure I was done with it yet...but it wasn't really a choice anymore. So I called Aaron and sobbed to him. He of course came right away. Within a couple of hours I was in surgery having an emergency hysterectomy. I had a 50% chance of coming out of the surgery alive. My uterus was already a dead organ when they pulled it out. Luckily they were able to save my ovaries (yay). I was kept in a sleep induced state for about 30 hours. My sisters came to see me and I am disappointed to say that I later found out that Chauntel was the only one that cried when they saw me like this. I did not see any bright lights or Angels or anything! But after a few more scares...Dr's thinking my liver might be infected, water around my heart and just general swelling, I was recovered enough to go home. I had a lot of firsts while in the hospital. It was my first time in my adult life in an ER, taking morphine, in an ICU, first surgery, first chest x-ray, first time having an IV in my neck (I had 5 IVs total), staples in my skin, first time having a bowel movement before I could get to the toilet (it's funny now)! Well, my mom stayed for a week after surgery and took care of us. When I released her from duty I thought she would absolutely float out of here she was so happy to leave. My house is small and pretty disorganized. It must have been really hard for her to stay as long as she did. Thank you to all those who came to lend support by visiting or helping. First of all my husband who was my rock, the only person that can truly comfort me, Second of all my Mommy, my amazing sister Chauntel (who in the back scenes of all that was happening to me was taking care of my precious newborn Freja), to my sisters Jessalyn and Darci who flew out of their homes and directly to Utah to do whatever they could, to Lara Kohntopp my sister in law who traveled at a moments notice all the way from Logandale and stayed for almost a week to help watch Anton and Brynja,to Carolyn Grey, to Larry and Jeanie Kohntopp, To All the Chattertons especially to Brandon for making me laugh so hard that I could have busted my gut LITERALLY!, And thank you to all the people who called and lent my husband support during this time, and who brought in food to feed my worn out family. Thank you for all the prayers, I truly saw the divine fruits of those special requests. Thank you!

Freja Leone Kohntopp

So Saturday early in the morning I woke up to a small puddle of water under me, I was so excited. I just assumed that the rest of it would come out when I started moving around, but nothing. So I went from excited to bummed. I took a long shower to sulk and then took a long nap to continue sulking. When I woke up I was having some really hard contractions so I got excited, and got on my computer to time them. I was having contractions 20-30 minutes apart so at this point I am thinking this could last all week. So I was sulky and really frustrated. I put my computer away. I had lost all hope of having my baby on Saturday. About five minutes later my water REALLY broke. Talk about an emotional roller coaster. I told Aaron right off the bat "this is going to go really fast". That was at about 1:30pm. I called my midwife who was teaching a class for the day. She told me her back up midwife would be here in about 15 minutes. I called Chauntel, my little sister, and she was here withing a half an hour, wait that was after about 15 minutes of me cursing her for not answering her phone. She was only expecting to watch my kids for me. Imagine her surprise when at about 2:50ish I had Aaron call her up to help support me. To make a short story even shorter...I delivered Freja at 3:19pm Saturday afternoon, less than 2 hrs after my water broke. The midwifes birth assistant did not make it in time for the birth, she showed up minutes after Freja was born. Everyone was gone by six and our home was plus one and all to ourselves again. I know there are those of you who think that I am crazy but I go through the pain for several reason #1: You should see how excited Aaron gets. I love how I can tell how it makes him feel to catch his own babies and be such a part of the experience. #2: I hate Dr. appointments, I hate vaginal exams, I especially despise annoying nurses, IV's and basically everything about hospital births...except those lovely epidurals, sort of. Lastly #3: I absolutly love having my children be here and feeling like a family right off.

Now a special shout out to my brave little sister, who has not yet had a baby naturally. She honestly had no idea how to be a doula, however, she did a pretty darn good job. I don't think it would have been near as comforting to have anyone but Chauntel here. But Chauntel "lift my chin to my chest on the next contration", what tv show was that on!?!? Just kidding you did great, Thank YOU!

Last Month!

I find myself logging on just to check my own pregnancy ticker. Something like taking pregnancy test over and over when you are trying to get pregnant. I check the ticker over and over to see when she is coming out. I am nesting but it is so difficult with Aaron's arm and my belly to get anything done. So yesterday I was really stressed about getting the yard cleaned up. I don't know why...my house needs attention, but I couldn't relax about the yard. So Aaron and I went out with Trenton in tow and cleaned the yard. It didn't take long but it felt sooooo good to get something accomplished. They say it's the little things in life, right? I also got the baby station set up yesterday. We are going to have the baby in our room in a mini play pen for the first couple months. So last night in the middle of the night Brynja came in and peered into the play pen and said "Did the baby come yet?" I was barely awake and said "what?" she patted her belly and said "Did the baby come out of your belly yet?" She is so excited, I bought her and the baby matching (not exact) gold shoes. It is going to be so much fun!

How much longer?

So this is the point I am at...How much longer? Honestly, I can not wait to change my little stick family at the bottom. I'll be some sexy stick figure and there will be another little person in our family.
For those of you who don't know Aaron had surgery on his shoulder on January 31st. It's been really fun being such a lame couple. I am big and pregnant and he is basically a one armed man. I have enjoyed having him home, someone to talk to and watch movies with. I will miss him when he goes back to work in a month or so.
I plan on going home to Logandale for the fair this April. Trenton is going to be in Henderson for the baseball season. So I might stay at my moms for several weeks. Then come home for a while and then go back to Logandale for a couple of weeks. I think after such a long winter me and the kids need a trip home to Logandale.