Darell Robert Poulsen

Well, it's been awhile!
I might bore you, but I wanted to start back up by sharing Darell and Brandon's birth stories because I am pretty sure I don't have either them recorded anywhere.

We found out we were pregnant with Darell when Madison wasn't even a year old. We had some issues with the birth control I was using and had to change, but Darell was created before that happened!

The pregnancy was so different than Madison's. I was only a tiny bit nauseous the first trimester and threw up once after a very weird tasting roast I made. I had the same extreme exhaustion for the first trimester but as soon as the second trimester hit I felt like a new woman. I was taking Madison to the gym everyday and putting Stewart through his Master's at BYU by working from home for the same company I worked for when I got pregnant with Madison. It was the perfect set up because I could work 40 hours a week and not miss out on much family time at all and Stewart could still have ample quiet time to study.

Darell dropped around 38 weeks and I felt like I couldn't walk anywhere. Or sit. Or bend over... I was SOO ready for him to be out. When I was two days shy of my due date I prayed and prayed and prayed for him to come soon because I was SOO done. I had so much pain everywhere in my body and I was so dang exhausted.

The next morning around 5am I started feeling contractions. These made me very excited, but I also started remembering how hard these will freaking hurt. Once I couldn't handle them anymore we dropped Madison off with Javier and headed to Timp. All throughout the pregnancy I kept telling Stewart his job was to keep me moving and not let me get the epidural until I absolutely needed to. With Madison I was laying down for 10 hours and it drove me nuts. When we got to the hospital, Stewart told me, "Alright, we have to walk around the entire parking lot before we go inside." I replied through gritted teeth, "No we aren't. We are walking to that tree then going inside." It felt like daaays walking to that stupid tree. When we were done I walked inside and passed the anesthesiologist that did my epidural with Madison and was reminded how much I appreciated him. About 45 minutes later I saw him again. Darell was out in 15 minutes with 3 pushes. I huge difference than Madison. He didn't have nearly as big of a head thank goodness! His has definitely been the easiest birth.

His first year was very rough. He wasn't a great sleeper and when he was about 6 months old he got RSV. His height and weight started declining on the charts. I realized I wasn't producing nearly enough milk, but I couldn't get Darell to take a bottle - with breastmilk or formula. It wasn't until he was about 10.5 months that I tried cows milk... and BAM. He guzzled it down. We have still been trying to get him to gain weight, but he is developing so well in all other areas. He talks just as well as Madison, can count, and can memorize a song within a couple times of hearing it. He loves the "nice ladies" in nursery and he is definitely the jokester in the family. He has such a happy demeanor and is so innocent in just wanting to have fun all the time. He has learned how to annoy Madison and has no shame doing it. Darell is definitely a little explorer. He loves to play in the dirt, loves dinosaurs and cars, and has told us multiple times he would love to have a snake in his lap during dinner (he saw a picture in a National Geographic magazine where a family in India ate with a snake laying across their laps). Darell is one of my all time favorite people to talk to and joke around with. Man I love him!