Staying home with baby

I stayed home with baby from church this week... we're just going to try to get better before we really go anywhere.  Jer took the rest of the family, Ada was very grown up and reverent, and Evelyn gave me her pictures from Nursery saying that she got them because she was being so good.  Sam and Ada both have new Primary teachers and they both seem to be doing really well with them.  Ada was telling me about, "A creepy place where there are dead people and statues."  I think she means the cemetery, but it does make me wonder what led to that conversation.

 

After church hang out.

Sammy's fingers

While talking to my mom and dad, Sam held up his fingers and in ASL showed Grandpa the sign for 'I love you'.  He said, "Grandpa!  This means I love you!" Then turning to my mom, puts up his middle finger, flipping her off, and says, "But you shouldn't use this finger because it means bad things."

Sammy's first day

 

Sam was soooooo impatient to start Kindergarten and was disappointed to have to wait 4 days after Ada started school before he could start.  My mom made it easier by taking Sam on a pre-start of school date.  She took him to Walmart and bought him some school pants, out to eat at Subway (Sammy's choice), and to my mom's house to watch the Croods.  He had so much fun and loved when my mom told other people that they were on a date.

 

He woke up early to get ready for school and was ready ages before Ada. I was able to go to Ada's first day and drop her off at class, but with me and baby sick, we couldn't make it this time.  Ada stepped up to the plate and volunteered to get Sam to his line in the gym that goes to his class.  And she did.  Sam loves his teacher, loves being able to learn new things.  He doesn't like having to deal with other kids misbehaving though.  He got back from school and told me that he wasn't going to tell me anything about his day... but after a few questions, I found out that there were 3 other kids in red shirts like him... that he sat at the green chaired table, that one of the kids pushed him while they were learning to line up in the hall and that Sam got in trouble for talking when he told the kid not to push him.  My mother in law wanted to pick up Sam from school for the first week and a half while I've been sick.  It's been nice that I don't have to try to be somewhere on time right now.  I do miss seeing the happy face smiles when they see they're getting picked up... and Sam told me that Grandma loves to pick him up so he likes it. Cute.

 

Both the kids were thrilled when they found out that they shared Friday recesses.  My two little buddies hung out and played together all recess.  I'm so glad that they get along!

Ada's first day of school

 

This girl LOVES school.  She went to her first full day of school on Monday of last week.  While she was tired when she got home, she came home talking about all the things that she was excited about.  New friends, recess, lunch at school, classroom jobs, and surprise... Math.  She was so excited that she could finish her Math assignment before anyone else was even close to being done.  She was a little sad that her 4-5 "best friends" from her kindergarten class weren't in her class this year, but it only took her a day to befriend a new girl named Cora and a couple more kids in the class.

Seth's first week

So Seth had a roughish first week.  There have been worse, but it wasn't without incident.  His bilirubin was rising each day, but it wasn't high enough for them to order a bili-bed or bili-blanket yet.  Just go in everyday and get more blood tests done.  Because of his bilirubin, he had to have extra feedings to try to kick his liver into working faster... which means more bottles, which is hard when you're trying to teach him to latch and nurse when you don't have an overabundance of milk in the first place.  Which means pumping for me to try to keep my milk supply up.  We also figured out that he has acid reflux.  Thank you Becca for having told me all about it with Rocky... I was able to figure it out and get him some medicine.  Luckily, by the end of the week his bili tests were going down instead of up.  Unfortunately, he and I caught colds and I got double mastitis.... lovely.

 

Seth and his mini-Seth.  They have the same toes, hair color, and hair line...

Ada ballet recital

I have LOVED the rec center ballet classes.  Not always easy for me and the kids to sit in the hall while Ada's dancing, but here are some reasons that I've liked it:

-Ada ALWAYS comes out with a bright beautiful smile after dancing
-Ada's teacher loves to dance and shows the girls that... that's important to me because she's not the "ballet type" body... she just loves to dance.  And that's Ada.  She's never going to be the short and tiny ballet body, but she can love it.
-I want Ada to know that she can do anything that she loves to do, even if it's just for fun.  That's why I started fencing and I LOVED it... even if I was "too big" for it. 
-Ada actually has a very good head for remembering steps and a good sense of timing
-It was only $70 for 3 months of dance classes... no breaking the bank here... yay!
-Ada's teacher said that she should definitely move on to the Ballet 2 class and that she would be excellent in a contemporary class because of the moves that Ada makes up during their free dance time
-The only other thing that Ada's been this excited to do was Swimming classes (liked fencing for the first two years... getting tired of it, didn't like T-ball except to be the one batting... picks up piano fairly easily but gets tired of practicing easily... etc...)

Last week was her recital.  The baby was only 4 days old, so I wasn't sure I was going to make it... but I'm sure glad that I did.  She had quite the audience, and she'd told me not to watch most of her practices so that she could surprise me at the recital with her dance.  EVERY time she saw me while walking on stage or after a dance she'd wave and smile.  And I'd feel like crying to see my baby up there looking so confident, grown up, and that she was actually pretty good at it. I actually did have a few tears on their first song.

Afterwards, my Dad took us out to eat at Pizza Pie Café... our kids love that place.  I loved watching my mom and dad cuddling their new grandbaby.  Seth just cuddled right into my dad like he was meant to be in his arms.

Favorite Evelyn conversation

While mopping the floor today, Evelyn followed me back and forth in the kitchen... I asked her, "Evelyn, look should we make the floor shiny and clean?"  She says, "And WET!"  Yep, that too.

Look mom, I found my hand

Seth newborn photo shoot

Since I have Jer home for the week, I decided to have him help me with the newborn photoshoot.  He set up the backdrop and washed the baby... then he had to take Ada to dance, but I really appreciated not having to set everything up.  All I had to do was turn on my camera and hold my baby.  I haven't had a chance to photoshop any of these yet for lighting or the bruise on his forehead, but he's just too cute and I had to share.  I wish I'd gotten a cute one of the back of his thick head of hair.  Maybe I'll do that tomorrow if I get a chance.

 

Oh my goodness, I have 4... I don't think it's really hit me yet.

Brothers

He kept petting the fur with his hand.  Too cute.

Introducing Seth

This is our sweet baby that was born on Friday.  He's a sweet cuddle bug that we named Seth after my amazing brother.  He's a little jaundiced and probably has acid reflux, both something that we can deal with.  His siblings adore him and I never want to put him down.  8 lbs 5 ozs, 19 inches long.

 

After a fight between the doctor and the federal regulations at the hospital, we were finally induced on Thursday morning.  The doctor said that I needed to be induced because of my Polyhydramnios and the regulations said that unless they could say what caused it, they couldn't induce me for another week and a half.  They sent me to a specialist to check it out and after a very frustrating 3 hour long appointment with 3 little kids in tow... they told me there was nothing that they could do.  Then the next morning they sent me to do another Glucose test because if I had developed late term Gestational Diabetes then they could go ahead and induce me.  Before I was even done with the test, they called me back and said that they were going to go ahead and induce me anyways because the risks of still births and detached placentas was significant enough that they wanted to be on the safe side.  So we packed our kids off to go to Bear Lake with my brother Seth and my sister Janelle... and Jer, me and my mom headed off for the hospital.  They decided to treat me as if I had GD... so they tested my blood sugar every two hours in case they needed to give me insulin.  My sugar levels were always good... but Seth's heart rate did better when they started giving me a sugar IV... and when he was born, his blood sugar levels were at 30.  Anything above 45 is normal for a baby.  They started me at 10 am... I wasn't dilated and my cervix was still really high so breaking my water was a bit of a painful challenge... and my contractions were more painful with this birth than with any of the others... because I could feel them all the way down into my tailbone and up my back.   When they broke my water, I flooded the bed twice since there was so much amniotic fluid... very exciting to say the least.  Seth didn't like it very much and his heart rate dropped.  We had to wait until he was used to it before putting me on Pitocin.  It was fun in a way... two of my mom's really good friends ended up being my nurses throughout the day and it was fun to hear them chatting and catching up.  By 8 pm I was ready for an epidural.  I got it and could breathe again.  I was tired of being in labor and it was really nice to be able to take a nap while my body kept doing the work for me.  By 11 pm I was nauseous, which usually means that body is starting to transition into the last part of labor.  By 1 am we were ready to push.  12 mins of pushing and he was out.  My most painful labor, but my fastest labor and fastest pushing time.  The placenta and cord were humongous... and my sweet baby boy was here.  8/8 baby.  I've still got swelling, but he's safe and we're glad to have him.

 

When the kids got back from camping, Ada ran up the stairs asking to see the baby.  She said, "Mom, I knew he'd be cute, but I didn't know he'd be this cute!"  Sam just kept saying, "Cute!" and Evelyn wanted to hold him and rock him.... she sings songs to him when we drive in the car.  She was also very concerned that his umbilical cord was "going to pop".  Ada has been following me around asking me if it's her turn to hold the baby yet.  She's been a good help actually.  She held the baby while I got breakfast for the other kids and myself.  Both girls were really curious about breastfeeding.  I talked to them about it and Ada wanted to know if she could feed the baby... 

 

Everything is not easy.  He has rough nights, but hopefully we'll get that resolved soon... but honestly, he's healthy... he's here... and I'm happy. I'm glad to have an amazing husband and an amazing mom.  I'm glad that my brother and sister were willing to sacrifice their weekend so that my kids could play with cousins all weekend instead of sit around waiting for mom to get back from the hospital.  I'm grateful for so many blessings.

My favorite

Nothing I like better than cuddling a newborn... Love this boy already and he's only two days old.

For Sharon

Here's one that I did for my sister. I like this pattern... Turned out cute

Ogden temple openhouse

I am so blessed. I love being surrounded by people that I love. Yesterday was just such a day. No, not everyone I love was there, but quite a few of them.  We got to take our cute kids to the temple and show them the inside before it gets dedicated. Since I'm having contractions, Seth pushed me around in a wheelchair. While I felt dumb to be in one, I appreciated it. And the kids loved it beyond. They took turns pushing me around the lobby and all wanted to walk by me as much as possible. But my favorite was Evelyn. She sat on my lap ohhing and awwing at the ceiling, especially in the celestial room. She'd also sit up straight and tell each of the volunteers, "Thank you!" whenever they told us which way to go. And enthusiastically tell us not to hit into things when we'd get close.

Saturday

Saturday was busy, I got to take Ada to my cousin Whitney's bridal shower. Ada dressed up as a princess and told me she loves showers.

Then we high tailed it out to her best friend's baptism.  They were so cute. I love seeing their support for each other.

Pros and Cons

Pros and cons of this pregnancy...

Pros: 
-I was able to get pregnant and carry him this long
-My acid reflux is soooo much better than the last three times
-My SI joint hasn't gone out... it's gotten sore, but hasn't been so painful that I can't walk



Cons:
-Polyhydramnios
-Pneumonia
-Worry about if he'll be healthy when he's born

Sunday afternoon

Lunchtime princess

Forgot to mention

I completely forgot to mention that we went to How to Train Your Dragon 2 with my family... Ada was so cute, she cried at the sad part.  Sam was beaming at the end of the movie.  And Evelyn has been talking about Toothless and how much she likes dragons ever since.  I had contractions all throughout the movie.  I was still having them after we went home, so I started timing them... I was having them about every 10-15 minutes.... for about 3 hours.  While baby is measuring big, I wasn't sure if his lungs would be ready, so I drank a ton of water and laid down on my side while Jer and I watched White Collar.  Eventually they stopped and I haven't had many since (this was Monday night...) That was weird for me though. 

Well, it's official #1

Well, we're having a baby within a week... so I thought I would need to get caught up on several things... like my blog before we did.  Let me start with the baby.  I've been diagnosed with polyhydramnios, which is extra amniotic fluid in the sac.  They want to induce me early so that it doesn't cause the placenta to rupture.  He's healthy, big and boy does he kick.  I just hope that his lungs are ready to be outside instead of in.  We'll see I guess.  I am excited to be done being pregnant though.  Just saying.

Ada and Sam had their last T-ball game.  They liked it, but I think they mostly liked hitting the ball.  We've got bats, maybe I can remember how to pitch well enough to help them out with that part at home. 

We had lots of cousins here for a while... Marg's family, John's family, and we now have Amy's family here.  We also had Anne and Great-Grandma and Great-Grandpa Robertson here from Arizona again.  They came because Grandpa Jay's brother, Bert, gave into his cancer and they were here for the funeral.  I love talking to them.  Judy has a gift at asking just the right questions to get Grandma to story tell.  Did you know that she wears blue and white because that was the color of her school uniform growing up... so she just has worn it ever since.  I could see Kate doing that.   Fun fact to remember.... Grandma told me that Ada was her great-grandbaby #50... and now our new baby will be her great-grandbaby #94 and they are both 94 years old this year. 

The #94s

 

Our nephew, Joey turned 5 too.  He's such a sweet kid... he loves to be involved in anything you're doing.  Loves to pretend, and I LOVE that he smiles every single time he sees me. 

 

We've had the Pass of all Passes forever now, and honestly we've been awful at using them this summer.  I wanted to use them at least once on Seven Peaks water park, so we went.  Jer took the day off after Pioneer Day and we went swimming.  Evelyn was so confident in the water with her floaties on... she didn't want my help at all.  The big slides with Jer scared her a little though.  Ada and Sam both LOVE the big slides and talk about which ones they're going to go on next time.  They saw lightning while we were there though, so we all had to get out of the pools and off the slide towers.  When it started raining, we decided to go home.  Poor Rachel though, she waited in line for 3 slides... They told her she was too little for the first two (even though she's 8), and the lightning forced everyone out of line for the 3rd one. 

 



#2

Jer and some of the nieces and nephews got to hike Mt Timp this last week too.  It's so fun to see them grow up and be capable of something difficult like this.  They left at 4am and got home at about 2pm... They're thinking of starting a "I hiked Timp with Grandpa" club... I went down after the hike and hung out with  everyone chatting until it was a good time to take Johnny and Adam home.  Then we hung out and visited up there for a while.  We seem to be chatting a lot lately... I rather like it.

Jer, Mariah, Adam, Johnny, Aubrey, Amy, and Grandpa

Evelyn and Amelia have become little buddies too... so cute to watch.

Mariah, Ada and Jonathan

 

Sunday, Ada wanted a girls night before school started... So I took the girls and hung out with Nella and my mom... and we had Seth and Grandpa as guest girls.  Jer took Sam and hung out with Jonathan and Grandpa Robertson.  They all had a blast.  Ada painted my nails and Grandma's nails (luckily she doesn't know that both of us hate painting our nails...) and Evelyn volunteered to paint my nails.  For a 3 year old, she did great.  Then we turned on music and danced, watched Scooby-doo, and gave Seth and Grandpa foot massages.  Sam "helped" with the irrigation, made a hot cocoa with dad, played games with his cousin, and they just had a blast.

For fun, we met up with cousins again before Amy's family leaves to Arizona and went to the wood park... Love that place.  I sat and held Susan while everyone else did the heavy lifting... she's so cute, that's for sure.