Young Jedi

He claims he's yoda...

It's a lightsaber in his 'pocket'

And yes, I d.i.e.d. laughing.

Lemonade!

What else would I do when I have a 3 day old newborn?  Do a lemonade stand with my boys, of course!

 They ended up making a little over $18 total (people are really generous!) and split it 3 ways...

 Jace was just chillaxing inside...

 being adorable!

Holy cow I was exhausted!

Soooo... we're going camping for the 4th of July- but honestly, it'll be way less work than being home because my kids will be totally entertained and I won't have to be cooking or cleaning up... thank goodness for our trailer or there is NO way I'd go!

Welcome Home Baby Brother!

Boy was I ready to get home- 24 hours couldn't pass quickly enough!

All dressed and ready for the adventure!

The kids were very excited to have us home...

I love Eli's expression here:

Not surprisingly, Hailee didn't see what the fuss was all about...

Her shoes were FAR more interesting *grin*

It was sooo nice to be home, even if it's chaos, it's my controlled chaos!  I have such sweet kids and am so thankful for the time I have with them!

Visitors

The boys were so excited to get to meet (and hold) their new brother!  

 One of the perks of being the oldest, is getting to go first...

All three of them were so gentle and careful- I love how taken and reverent they were with their brand new baby brother!

 Hailee on the other hand, had no intention of getting any closer to 'whatever it was I was holding' than this:

Our first picture as a whole family!

My parents with their 23rd grandchild!

Details, details...

Wednesday June 27th was sunny and beautiful- a great day to have a baby!  My mom came to pick up the kids to bring to my sisters house while I went to the hospital... she took some pictures of the last time I had only four kids! Hailee was sensing the impending doom I think:

The boys were so stinkin' excited!

I'd gotten notification from my insurance company a few months back that as of July 1st, my deductible and out of pocket maximum were both increasing... great!  So it was going to cost me somewhere between $1,500 and $2,500 more to have my baby if he was born in July.  My due date was actually July 12th which put me at 38 weeks at the end of June... no biggie, I thought, I'd had all my babies between 36 and 39 weeks and they'd all been healthy and come home at the same time as me.  When I explained my predicament to my ob, he informed me that elective inductions before 39 weeks were no longer allowed- no exceptions.

At my 36 week appointment  I was 3 cms dilated and 60% effaced.  A good sign.  My ob gave me lots of tips on getting into labor.

But no dice.

At my 37 week appointment, I was 4 cms and 75% effaced.  Not as much progress as I'd hoped for.  My ob wanted to help, but his hands were tied.  He did indicate though, that if I were to go into the hospital 'in labor', and some degree of cervical progress was documented, that he could break my water... *wink*wink*

So, Wednesday late morning was the convenient day and time we chose for me to "go into labor."  Jaime, my nurse, had a nursing student with her that day, and they both took such good care of me.  The nurse who (literally) delivered Eli wasn't working that day, but had given Jaime the heads up about my deliveries ... after she'd gotten me all admitted she sat on the counter and announced that she didn't trust my labors and she wasn't going anywhere!  I was still 4 cms when my doctor came to check me, but he announced that the monitor was showing beautiful contractions every 3 minutes and that he could break my water!  Seriously?  I could NOT feel any of them, but sure enough, I saw the contractions on the strip with my own eyes... He broke my water at 11:45... I'd had my water artificially ruptured twice before- no biggie with Dallin and Hailee, but this time WOWZA- it hurt like no other- aaaaand I am a total wimp.

Pretty much from that point on, as my contractions became noticeable (not painful, mind you) and regular, with each contraction I couldn't help exclaiming, "I don't want to do this!"  Seriously, the anticipation of the pain is the worst- well, at least for me...

Despite the looming torturous waiting, it really was nice sitting there with Nathan and my parents and my nurse- we talked about all sorts of things- none of which I really remember- I'm sure I was obnoxious because I get really sarcastic when I'm stressed.  But it always came back to me saying "I really don't want to do this!"  I really really really contemplated getting an epidural... knowing that the longer I waited, the closer I came to the point where getting an epidural wasn't an option anymore.

I got up several times to sit on the birthing ball to hopefully help move things along... went potty a few times... but mostly just sat in my bed and gushed- such an lovely feeling *bleh*

My nurse and I discussed pitocin a few times, and after about an hour I was sick of feeling like nothing much was happening (though I was a few more centimeters dilated)- so I asked her to start some pitocin (CRAZY, I KNOW!!) because I just wanted to get it over with... totally irrational, yes.

So around 12:30ish my nurse started pitocin.  A pretty slow rate, but enough to get me going... after a few minutes, I started putting my head back with each contraction and breathing a little more seriously- not so much because of pain, but because I could tell that they were getting stronger and I was trying to calm myself down.  I think I probably commented that "I really didn't want to do this" with each contraction from that point on- just in case anyone was still unclear.

Nathan joked that he was going to time the painful part of my labor this go-round, so he could prove to me that it didn't last for hours like I had claimed with Hailee... so when I calmly announced with a contraction that "this contraction is a little more uncomfortable- maybe I could rate it as a 3 on the pain scale" he started his timer.

It was a slippery slope.

I had a few minutes after that contraction passed, where I asked my nurse when she was going to call the doctor- she said she was going to give me a few more contractions like that before she'd check me and call him.  The next contraction was much more serious, I asked her again WHEN was she going to call him?  She hopped off the counter and came and checked me... I could literally feel baby descending with this contraction- and she could only 'check' me to her 2nd knuckle- she told the nursing student to call my ob's office and send him over.  I remember the nursing student very calmly informing whoever answered at the office that we were ready for him- I wanted to scream, "NOW, we need him here NOW!" but fortunately, I was able to restrain myself.

With the second very painful contraction on the heels of the first, my nurse said that his head would deliver with the oncoming contraction... I was grabbing for the side rails, but they weren't enough I needed something more substantial- I remember taking Nathan's hand/arm in one hand and my dad's in the other- the human touch was comforting.  As the contraction passed, I realized that his head had not delivered... I breathlessly said to my nurse, "you told me his head would deliver!" to which she responded, "well honey, that's 'cause you didn't push, if you feel like you can push, then push!"  Since the next contraction was piggybacked right on the last, I started with a little bitty scared push... and for the first time in any of my labors, something clicked and I realized that pushing would make the pain stop, it was a means to an end... by no means did pushing feel good physically, as I've heard some women say, but it did feel good mentally- because I had the power to get this over with!  It felt like that contraction was in slow motion- like every moment was the maximum I could push, but then I found more to push with... and more... and more... and then, his head delivered and I didn't have to push anymore- his body quickly delivered and the pain was gone!  I know the first thing I said was, "I'm so glad that's over!"  I had joked my nurses beforehand that I'd say that at least 50 times in the first 5 minutes after he was born, and I'm pretty sure that I did.  It was just such a relief that it was over with and that there weren't any complications and that he was healthy and transitioning so beautifully.  I loved the first few minutes with him on my belly- he had a good strong cry and was looking around and chewing like crazy on his hands- I was rather overcome with the instant bond that I had prayed for with this little boy.  He was mine, and he was meant for our family.  Such peace came with that overwhelming feeling.

At some point during the actual delivery, I was aware that my doctor had arrived, but nurse delivered the baby- my dad was kinda surprised with how concerned my ob was with getting his booties on and fussing with his gown and such- I was glad that he didn't come in and push my nurse aside... whatever we had going on was working- he could see that things were going smoothly and I'm very confident that if things weren't going well, he would have stepped in...

And then came all the fun afterbirth stuff.  Seriously, that sucks.  Why does such a wonderful moment have to be ruined by more pushing and the ob and nurses "massaging" my belly- ouch!  Massages are supposed to feel good.

At some point, Nathan informed me that from that first 'uncomfortable' contraction til the baby was born, was 9 minutes and 22 seconds.  Not bad.

So we had a healthy and beautiful baby boy who looked just like his big brothers... now we just had to come up with a name...

He's Here!

Baby boy made his grand entrance into the world at 12:58 pm today!  5lbs, 10 oz, 18 inches long.  A grueling 9 minutes and 22 seconds of labor- Nathan timed it...  He's beautiful and perfect and looks just like his siblings!  Name and more details to come...

The dreaded word...

Hailee is in such a fun, agreeable stage-she loves to be a 'good girl' and a 'helper'... but for a couple of weeks, she's occasionally started shaking her head from side to side when she doesn't want something... and about a week ago, it progressed to shaking her head no when she didn't want to do something... and today, it got combined with the word "no"... not defiantly (yet), but certainly she is realizing she has a choice.

So yay, she has a new word.

A few more words recently:

'mouse' (mouth-as she shoves her finger in your mouth)
'ice' (eyes)
'ees' (ears)
'ees' (teeth - ever so slightly different from the 'ees' that is ears!)

Big girl, Big bed! (sorta...)

We moved Hailee into her ' big girl' bed last week... I was a little apprehensive because even though all the boys were in a big bed by 22 months, Hailee is just... young.  And she loved her crib.  And when I took the side off a few weeks ago and put on a half side rail, she freaked out... Literally ran throughout the house screaming in sheer terror... I quickly surmised it wasn't going to happen that night and put the crib rail back on.  Since then, she's loved her crib all the more.  Except that she loves to crawl into bed with her brothers and pretend she's going to bed just like them.  An enigma wrapped up in a riddle... She's a girl for sure!

So the other night, she was quite perplexed by the wooden thing daddy was putting together in her room... once all together, and I put her crib matress and quilt and sheet and blankie on, she started to get a little worked up... Until sweet daddy laid down and showed her that it was a bed and it was ok for her to lay down on.  She crawled on the bed and snuggled right up to him.  After a few minutes, I reminded him that we really don't lay down with our kids to get them to sleep... She fussed for a second when he got up and perched on the side of the bed, but never got up, she just laid there and sucked her thumb and loved on her blankie and sang to herself just like she would in her crib!  She slept all night, and in the morning was singing her usual non-sensical song until I came in.

I know we're in the 'honeymoon' phase, but right now for naps and bedtime and waking up, she doesn't get up without someone going into her room- like she thinks she can't... during the day she'll climb up and down cuz she likes to play on her bed some times, but when its time to sleep, its a different story!

Obviously, she hasn't quite figured out that there is a 'head' and a 'foot' to her bed... she does acrobatics in her sleep!

Big move

After lots of late nights and lots of black paint we finally have this:

One step closer to being ready for baby brother to come!  The boys are officially moved down into the basement- it's so far away, but they're pretty excited about it- I'm glad we decided to move them all down together... I didn't want to move Bryson down by himself, and if we only moved Bryson and Dallin, Eli would have told us ALL about it I'm sure!

Super Mario Bros Party

While it's always pretty easy to know what Bryson is interested in, it's a little more difficult with Dallin.... except for when it comes to video games- Super Mario Bros in particular...  not surprisingly, that was just what he wanted for his birthday party this year!

He got to invite six friends (whom he chose very easily) and I had so much fun planning it... I learned from doing Bryson's party last week to just get all the 'stuff' done ahead of time- I even had an hour before the party started where I put my feet up and relaxed- which was very needed.

Bless the internet!  Pretty much every idea I stole off the internet...

Loved the King Boo balloons- and SO easy to make, even for someone as un-artistic as me!

The treats won after each game... star power (sour gummy stars), ice power (mini marshmallows), fire power (red hots) and yoshi eggs (candy coated almonds).

honestly, I'm pretty sure my boys were a little disapointed when they weren't able to actually spit fire or ice or be invincible after consuming these.

The question mark boxes... with gold coins inside of course!

Each kid got a Mario or Luigi hat... or Princess Peach crown to keep- no I didn't make these- I do know my limits... I ordered them off ebay.  Worth every penny- I ordered a few different hats also (Waluigi and Wario) and my boys play with theirs every.single.day.

What do Mario and Luigi love to eat?  Pasta!  And pasta is messy.  And making your own pizza is fun and fills some time- so we made our own pizzas!  (as if making pizza isn't messy, right?)

They loved the foam mustaches on the straws... the girls got red lips instead of mustaches.

Pin the mustache on Mario:

Mario bingo:

The cake... *sigh*

Why I spend so much time making a cake that 6 year olds will devour without fully appreciating the awesomeness of it, I'm not sure....

Overall, the party was a hit- Dallin says it was the "best most fun EVER!"  And that makes it all worth it for me!  And now I don't have to plan another party for almost 2 years *phew*

That night, when Nathan and I checked on the boys before we went to bed ourselves, this is what we found:

Love it!

Dallin has really come out of his shell- we're not exactly sure when it happened, but he's not the quiet calm child he used to be... at least not at home!  Apparently he reserves his crazyness for at home- all reports from school are that he's pretty quiet and reserved.

Dallin loves to learn- he's always been a very self motivated learner too- he learns a lot from Bryson as he constantly gleans information (good and bad) from his big brother.  His kindergarten teacher this year was blown away by Dallins writing- he writes paragraphs!  Lots of details and great pictures- she says she's never seen anything like it!  She even showed one of the first grade teachers his writing and the first grade teacher said she wished half of her students could write that well by the end of first grade!  Dallin loves school and is genuinely bummed when school is on break.

I love what a good worker Dal-Pal is... I can give him a list of tasks and he will finish them completely every time... especially if a reward like playing the Wii is involved!  He knows how I work too- often times on Saturday mornings, he'll be the first one up, make his bed, take a shower and get dressed and then proudly tell us that he's done all those things... and then quietly ask with a BIG smile if he can play the Wii.

Numbers speak to this child- grandma was a little hesitant to buy him a clock(?!?) for his birthday, but it is one of his favorite things- he sleeps with it every night.  He frequently sets an alarm to count down til dinner or til a specific time I said they could watch a show or the like.  He loves numbers... and totally retains facts associated with numbers- a while ago, he got to open a bank account.  While we were at the bank, he saw a GIANT bag of dimes- weeks later he told Bryson that he'd seen a bag with 10,000 dimes in it, which equals $1000.  Bryson totally didn't believe him and they got in a little argument over it- they finally came to me, and I confirmed Dallin's claim.  (even just now, I had to clarify the facts with Dallin!  And yes, there really were that many dimes!!).  Also, Dal is a saver, not a spender.

He is also very brave- mostly when it comes to medical interventions which he has more frequently than the average kid.  From blood draws to surgeries, he really has been a trooper- He doesn't let a peep out when he has to get his blood drawn other than a whispered, "ouch" at the moment of puncture... sure, he knows he gets a treat in exchange, but there's no added drama.  Given his dramatic medical history, lets hope the worst is behind us!

Dallins fav's at age 6:

Favorite Color: light blue
Favorite Restaurant: Jack in the Box
Favorite Food: cheeseburgers
Favorite Drink: soda (what kind?) 7-up
Favorite thing to do: play baseball (really? Hmmm.)
Best Friend: Ella
Favorite Movie: Cars 2
Favorite TV Show: Wipeout
Favorite Toy: DSi
Favorite Animal: dog
Favorite Book: The Berenstain Bears

So I must admit, while I anticipated almost all of Bryson's answers correctly, I missed almost all of Dallins- he's not quite the 'open book' that his brother is!  (but, I'm also pretty sure some of the answers would be completely different if asked again tomorrow!)

Eight is Great

I can't believe my baby is eight- and baptized!  Bryson is such a sweet boy, and he really tries hard to choose the right.  We're so proud of his choice to be baptized.

And I can't believe that I didn't get more pictures than this...

He and his cousin Ryan were baptized together, I'm so glad they got to share this day together!

Eye Surgery (again!)

So with my four 'healthy' kids, I've now endured NINE surgeries.  Yes, I should stop saying they're healthy... I've already decided that...

Waiting for pre-op (at 0'dark-thirty)...

In case there was any doubt whether or not she needed surgery...

Hello, crazy eyes!  

She was so snuggly before surgery- I loved it!  She just cuddled me and her blankie (and lovey) and sucked her thumb... I was pretty surprised when it was time for them to take her back to the OR that she went so willingly- She went right into the nurses arms and put her head on the nurses shoulder!  I'm sure the pre-med versed factored into that a little...

After surgery as she was coming out from the anesthesia, but before I was back with her, the PACU nurse said she just opened her eyes and reached for the nurse- as soon as the nurse picked her up, she stuck her thumb in her mouth and closed her eyes again... no crying or anything!  (What a huge difference from Dallin who comes out of anesthesia combative and o.r.n.e.r.y!!)  That's how I found her when I arrived in PACU- snuggled up to the nurse sucking her thumb- she was very eager to come to me as soon as she heard my voice though...

it was a good thing her iv didn't interfere with her sucking her thumb!

After a record fast discharge, we were home!  My mom had the other kids, so I just sat with Hailee on the couch and we both slept... so nice!

When she woke up, she decided she was HUNGRY!  And she figured she should have breakfast since she hadn't eaten any yet that day!  Her first bowl...

Her second bowl...

Dallin and Eli were plenty occupied during Hay-bugs recovery...

After breakfast/lunch, she played for a little bit, and then decided on a late nap...

The whole time, she never really rubbed at her eyes, which the doctor said would probably be the case- unlike with Dallin's past eye muscle surgeries, the muscles Hailee had worked on don't really irritate things much causing the eyes to itch-  I was sooo glad that was the case!  Especially cuz she was able to sleep in her crib that night without arm restraints and able to suck her thumb!  

The next morning, she was up and ready to go as if nothing had happened!

Eyes looking pretty straight on post-op day 3... sclera a little bloodshot, but not too bad!

So glad this surgery is over... it would be wonderful if it was her only one, but I'm betting she'll need more when all is said and done.  *ugh*