Babies

Gabriel, Fawkes, Cora, Christopher... all babies that are loved and gone within the last few years.  As one of 12 sisters and sister in laws, there have been many miscarriages, babies and infertilities.  Each situation is unique and definitely guided by God.  I've felt closest to my Heavenly Father when I was a missionary, when I made covenants in the temple and when I've carried these babies that he's sent to us.  But sometimes these sweet babies don't have a chance to live here for a while.  We still love them.  They're still my nieces and nephews, and if you know me... I love every single one of my 48 and counting nieces and nephews.  We love all these sweet lost ones and their parents, siblings and grandparents. 

Gilchrist Family shoot

I was so lucky to be a part of this shoot.  My sister and her husband lost their sweet baby, Cora, not too long ago.  Emma, the oldest came up with the idea of sending messages to Cora on balloons.  So Sharon wanted to do a family photo shoot.  I have to admit, while it was easy to take the pictures.  It was not easy to do it without tears.  I loved doing this.  Thank you for letting me be a part of it.

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.

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.

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

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. 

 



pregnancy

I'm getting to the end of this pregnancy and I wanted to write down some current goings on and thoughts before the baby comes.  I'm so excited to meet this guy.  He's active, strong and loves to hear his brothers and sisters talking to him.  He's measuring 4 weeks ahead of schedule, so the doctor did another ultrasound on him.  He was measuring 6 lbs and has lots of hair... I'm kind of hoping that he decides to come insanely early because I'm already feeling uncomfortable and ready to pop.  (Which makes sense.  I'm 34 weeks and measure 38... yeah, I feel ready.)  I've been scheduled to be induced August 19th.  I'm excited, but I wish the doctor would induce me the week before.  Ada starts school the 18th and Sammy starts school the 21st.  Small conflicts there... They are both super excited for school to start, I just hope I can find a good sleep schedule for them and the baby to coincide so that I can help them get up and ready for school in time. 

Robertson 4th of July Family reunion

Because I had the chance to be so close to my mom's family, I very much encourage any chance to build relationships with our family.  This one is Jer's favorite time of the year I think... he LOVES the treats, visiting, and the Pinewood Derby.

 

Evelyn and cousin Samuel

Being in the pool is awesome when you're big pregnant... I almost feel normal again.  The kids are getting more and more adventurous in the pool.  Ada can now swim without floaties, Sam can swim without any help from parents, and Evelyn has started swimming and jumping about 5-10 feet away from me. 

Love these kids.

Dad got this awesome picture.

Marg and kids... That was fun to chat with Marg, Mary, Becca and Diane

Ada's festive hairdo

Family talent show

Driveway of Fire

Evelyn was so excited for sparklers!

Ada, who's never had a problem with fireworks was terrified of them this year... She very reluctantly did one sparkler, sat 10 feet behind me while watching the fireworks and even left to go inside for a while during all the fireworks.  Luckily she came back out in time to see the grand finale.  She was wowed by that.

Sam loved it so much that he giggled if a firework came too close to  him and asked Dad if he could help throw some flowers.

Sam's car did really well this year... it was in the top few.

Evelyn was in the top three... I think she got 2nd place.  She was so excited to see her car winning.

Jer LOVES to make his cars

Ada was very disappointed with her car, but honestly it wasn't bad.  It won first in the group of the cars that lost the first heat.

When Ada got over her loss, this is what she decided to do instead... Helped Evelyn watch her car.