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.