She's Here

Happy birth day to this little princess!

We are so happy to finally meet this little girl! And of course, we all think she is perfect. It's 2 am on June 1st now, and for some reason I'm awake. The nurses just came in to take my vitals and they took the baby to give her a bath and do whatever screening tests for a bit, so I'll give the details of the baby's delivery day. It was a normal school morning with carpool and such, and I would have gone on "one last" bike ride again, but it was too cold. But I was going to go on a therapy ride to cope and wait out the day if the hospital told me I could not come in. As it was, I kinda sulked a little bit most of the morning. After the jr high kids were off to school (Mel took them) I just let the little kids sleep (their last day of school was last Thursday), but Daniel and Peter were up early. Daniel stowed away with Mel to carpool and messed up her plans to go to the gym. She ended up playing racquetball with Daniel. They came home around 9, I read a dinosaur book to Peter and that made me tired. Luckily he said he was tired and wanted to sleep, so we both took a nap for an hour. I let Mel be in charge of anyone awake. I was supposed to call the hospital at 11, and around 10:30 I decided to get up and exercise a little bit of faith that my plans for a May baby might come true, so I put on some makeup and curled my hair. 

I said a prayer and called the hospital at 11. The charge nurse told me she talked to Dr. Smith and they'd like me to come in at 2. "Ok!" and I hurried and said thanks and hung up before she changed her mind. Mel was home and I told her in person. I texted Corey and also let the older kids know the happy new via our facebook messenger that I was indeed going to go in today - YAY! I texted Abi and Lily, and they were excited too. I had 3 hours to help the little kids practice and do their summer school stuff, and then I had a nice lunch (teriyaki salmon salad) and packed a few things to take to the hospital. Corey hadn't noticed the group chat or my text, until he was talking with Joseph and J told him. Corey texted and I confirmed Joseph was correct - I get to go in today! Corey was home at 1:30, he gave me a blessing, Mel took a photo for us and we were off. YAY!

Things were a lot slower to get started this time, which is fine, I was just glad to be here. We went to room 103, I got changed, read a little bit, answered 100 questions, nurses coming and going as they did whatever stuff. They asked how quick my labors in the past have been, and I spent a little time looking through the blog to see what I had recorded there. I shared my stats time from water breaking until birth - some were really quick, some were long... Sophi's birth: 10:00 - 12:30, Natalie: 9:30 - 5:14, Owen: 12:50 - 4:48, Daniel 8:05 - 1:46 and Peter 3:30 - 6:50. So that was good for myself to review, to feel like I knew what was coming. Some family expressed concern that I'd better hurry or she might not be born until after midnight, but I was pretty confident it wouldn't be that late. 

They were ready to start pitocin a round 4:00, but my veins were not being cooperative. The anesthesiologist finally got the needle in, then Dr. Smith came and broke my water around 5. Things progressed nicely after that. 

I got an epidural at 6, we all watched the monitor the whole time watching the baby's heart beat and how she responded to the contractions. Here heart rate went down a lot with each contraction, but she always recovered nicely, but it was still a bit nerve-wracking to watch and reminded me of Lily's birth, which was before I blogged all the boring details, but with Lily I was fully dilated and we were just waiting for the doctor, but it went so low that I kinda asked the nurse "Should I just push" and then I did anyway and out she came. They were checking how dialated I was this time cause I did feel like it was happening fast. At 7:45 I had progressed to 4, and I'm glad that I kept a good record of Peter's birth cause this went quick like his. The nurse checked me at 8:00 and I was at a 6, she called the dr, he was there in 20 minutes and I was ready to go. A few good pushes and she was here. She was born at 8:30 on the dot. 

Corey sent a voice recording of her crying and then Mel sent him a picture of all of the girls at home just oohing around the sound coming from her phone 

This is my 11th delivery with Dr. Smith. I hold the record with him, and he thinks I might have the record of births at Alta View too (8 at Alta View... We've had 2 in Provo (J&W) and 3 at Jordan Valley (EH&L))

For the "golden hour" I just held her skin to skin and nursed her. Didn't know her weight or anything, and I wasn't cleaned up much so we didn't get a picture of her to share with family until past 9:30, when I took a few selfies~ 

Corey went home to help get the kids. Joseph had come up from Provo, and he, Mel, and Wes were on their way. Visitors were limited to groups of 5, so JMW came in with Corey's parents - Joseph held her first ~

Then Wes (cause Mel had volunteered to be official baby transporter, thus giving her more turns) 

We could take off the masks in our room so here's Wesley's face, he's in love. She has the most heart breaking and cute little cry, trying to let us know she has had a rough day. 

Corey's mom was next, then we made Mel take a turn so we could try and get a photo

The nurse took her and weighed her and put the goop in her eyes - 7 lbs 5 oz, 19 inches long. Corey arrived with the rest of the crew and let us know they were waiting!

He said that when he got home, they were all already in the car, ready and anxious to go! Lily in the waiting room, having a hard time waiting.

So JW went out, the girls came in - group photo of the new sisters! 6 girls! They are catching up to the boys!

Abi hogged her in the delivery room, then they switched me to the recovery room. We went by and showed the baby to the boys who were still patiently waiting!

In the recovery room, finally Sophi and Natalie got a turn.

No one got to hold her for as long as they wanted! I had to set the timer and rush them through, since we were over the allowed number of visitors and still had a line of kids waiting.

The nurses went to get Corey and the boys so we could get a quick group photo - 

We were supposed to be quick, but no one wanted to leave. 

The boys finally got their turn - Owen

Daniel - 

Aaaaand presenting the NEW BIG BROTHER - Peter!

What do you think Peter? The baby came out of mommy's tummy!

Hyrum got a photo too, ha. 

He called in from his mission in San Diego, Ethan was already in bed in the Dominican Republic. Ethan is lucky that he's coming home in a few weeks and will get to see her in person soon. Poor Hyrum wanted to see what was going on, but we kept wanting to take pictures so we'd hang up on him and some one else would call him, but none of us were really talking to him, or we'd be looking at something but would not have turned the screen and he's like "I want to see!" so that was kinda funny. Joseph holding up Hyrum so he could have a picture with the baby.

Mel was holding Hyrum in the group pic if you didn't catch that. SO it was an exciting day and we are all thrilled that the baby is here. It was late when they left. Corey came prepared with donuts as an incentive to help them be willing to leave and get back into the car. I nursed her a bit and now she's off getting a bath and I'm going to try and rest. We are feeling very grateful to have experienced the miracle of birth again. Life is a miracle. 

Ok, so yeah, it's very late at night/early Wednesday morning, and I'm going to go to bed now. Here's one last video - a message from Corey of Peter telling me goodnight (and that he loves me💕). Precious. I love being a mother again and I love my family! God has been so generous to us, I am so grateful.

Tomorrow?

Yesterday I joined Corey and the kids playing compatibility. The teams were Corey and me with Owen on the side (we didn't have enough cards, so Owen played with the Wride compatibility cards and shared with us his choices each round, he's cute), Mel & Abi were a team, and Sophi & Natalie. Mel and Abi won, but that's ok, Corey and I still know we're a compatible couple. One of the funny moments was when the word was "competition" and I chose pictures looked like sports and business, and Corey mostly did too, except for one of the pictures he chose was the baby. 

"Why did you choose that?" and he said "...cause it's not a competition" teasing that that is the reason why we have a large family. It's just me and my competitive spirit. Ha. So that was funny. Another word was accident. Some of the picture I chose were a dollar sign, a traffic and construction picture, Corey chose those too, but he also chose the baby for that one. "Not that I didn't want any of our children, but for some people a baby might be an accident..."

The hospital called as we were playing and the nurse told me to call Tuesday morning at 7 am. So yay, delivery day is close at hand. That was promising, and then this morning at 10, I got a call from the hospital again. I had a slight hope that they were going to say "Why don't you just come in today!" but instead she said "Dr. Smith has some surgeries tomorrow morning at Lone Peak, so he wants you to call at 11" Ok, that's fine. And then she said "Also, we have a lot of medical inductions scheduled for tomorrow, and yours is elective, so the medical take priority, but just prepare that it might not happen tomorrow..." UGH. 

So I've been exploring my emotions and I'm handling it mostly well. I am still praying for it to be tomorrow, cause I really wanted her to have a May birthday (we have 3 June's already and none in May) and cause tomorrow is my mom's birthday, and I thought that would be special. So, some of my "lasts" are probably second to lasts now. I might exercise again, I might have to sleep for another night with this child making me uncomforable, but I still trust that someday soon I shall be delivered. Me having to wait another day or week for this child is not as hard as some people who have to wait for 10 years to even have one child, not to mention that I've been given 12 already. I trust in God and in his timing, even if I wish things were different or faster. I hope my patience is increasing. I'm glad that I thought she'd come in May though, as that did help me cope, to be able to say/think "next month" and "this month" instead of June. 

Other than the slight lag in my spirits from having to wait another day, today was a really good day and kick off to summer. I got little "Summer Folders" ready for the elementary kids on Saturday and today was day 1 and they did great! 

They all cleaned their rooms, practiced music, did some work in their Scholastic school books, and read. The house is pretty clean and I did a good job helping them too. AND we also had a sit down lunch. Ham sandwhiches for the littles, Salmon burgers with teriyaki for Corey and I and a few older kids.

We kinda skipped dinner, cause Corey took the kids that did all their stuff out to Leatherby's. 

Cause after ice cream of that size, no one needed more calories.

So they had ice cream for dinner and I had apples. They they came back and watched a few movies. We had enough screen time that Corey and I decided to not do scriptures downstairs on the tv and we came up into our bedroom instead. But the sugar from the ice cream must have kicked in big time cause they were all being nuts and wrestling and laughing. Corey and I kinda looked on in awe at the noise. 

So these pics are of them being crazy at 10:30. 

We were waiting for Wes to come back from hanging out with friends. He was supposed to be back at 11, he was a little late. Then we read a little bit of Judges 3, crazy story, and I told the kids if they want to meet their new little sister tomorrow, they need to pray. Maybe their childlike faith will work, cause I'm not sure my prayers are working... I thought I put in the right payment amount, but it appears the cosmic vending machine is jammed (referring to Elder Christofferson's message at April General Conference, that was a good talk for me to listen to today). So it's up to these kids to make it happen. They started to collapse one by one. Things looked much calmer at 11:30.

But we can't stay up this late! I hope we can still keep a good bedtime schedule even with the brighter summer nights. As for this week, the jr high kids have 3 more days of school. I have carpool in the morning, I'll wake up and get kids up but I'll probably have Mel take them. I need to turn off my alarm to call the hospital at 7, and I shall reschedule it for 11 and pray for mercy.

Favorite Hymn

Today at church, for sacrament meeting, we just sang hymns and different people went up to share what was their favorite hymn and why and then we sang it. Last week, Bro Eakins asked me if Daniel or Owen would be willing to share. I thought they were probably too young to really have a favorite hymn, but maybe Natalie or Sophi could. But he wanted someone younger, so I said I'd see. At home, I asked Owen what his favorite church song was. He said "Head Shoulders Knees and Toes". Well, that's not gonna work for his. So then I asked Daniel. He said "Keep the Commandments" That could work! "Why is that your favorite hymn?" I asked. "Because it's easy." Hmm... that's an appropriate answer for a 5 year old, and I don't think we could expect better from a young kid. So I texted Bro Eakins and said Daniel could do it. Today near the end of the meeting, the time had gone over and I was slightly worried they were going to just not do Daniel, but thankfully they did, and said that this last song would just be the final hymn for the meeting. Phew! I was glad that I wasn't going to have a sad toddler on my hands cause he didn't get to do his talk. They said Daniel would be the last one to share a song. He walked up with a smile and probably feeling pretty important. Cute little kid standing behind our tall former NBA player second counselor.

We had reviewed several times what he was supposed to say "I like the song Keep the Commandments, cause it's easy." I tried to have him repeat it to me so he could say it on his own, but he didn't want to say it on his own. He wanted me to help. I said that Abi was going to help him. He looked at Abi and said "You are going to secret it in my ear..." and I thought that was really cute. "secret it" aka whisper, ha. So he goes up there and she told him what to say, and he already knew what to say, but he still messed it up. "I like the commandment..." "The song!!" "...the song Keep the commandments... cause it's easy" and everyone chuckled at his cuteness and Daniel beamed with pride. 

So that was fun. He's a cute kid. We had a sit down dinner today. At church we talked about how important family meals are, to give us parents opportunity to talk to our kids, teach them, and learn what is going on in their lives. I need to do better at sit down meals. I'm hoping to not be thrown off too long with the newborn. I appreciate Abi and Mel and the help that they lend to this area.

I should probably get the other kids to help too. Things are good. Today was my last Sunday at church before the baby comes! We're almost there, hallelujah. Here's a pic from this morning, snuggling with Peter for one of the last times, before another baby shows up to take priority.

He looks squished and uncomfortable to me, yet relaxed. I'm sure he's going to look at feel like a huge kid once I start comparing him to the weight of the baby.

Ride, Audition, & Butterfly

I enjoyed my last bike ride this morning! The forecast said it was going to rain at 8, so I left early to be sure to get it in - woke up at 5:15 am, left at 5:30, and was at Corner Canyon before the Coyote Trail head gate opened. I left from the Coyote Trail Head and went up to BST to Ann's to Peakview to Ghost Falls. I think we're going to have this little girl's middle name be Ann, after Ann's trail, and after my mom if she's born on Tuesday (my mom's birthday). A view of the temple from Ann's - 

I did the quick Rush Trail from Canyon Hollow twice, cause it's so fun. It was a great ride. It never did rain, so I was in a hurry for nothing, but I'm glad it helped me get out quickly and start the day off in the mountains. I was back home before Corey and Abi left for her GMS audition. Corey said he heard that she did great in the audition, although he could tell she was lost and in over her head for the theory exam. The other people were writing down answers and Abi was at a loss just staring at the questions. 

They went out to Ihop after to celebrate all the hard work she had done preparing. 

After he got home, Corey took the little boys out to the Kangaroo Zoo again (Pleasant Grove this time) and they had fun. Corey is such a good dad to all of our children, big and little. And for me, today I've just been trying to getting stuff done before the baby comes next week! Abi found a butterfly in the back yard today, so that was fun.

She shared it with Daniel. 

It wasn't trying to fly at all and looked like it was struggling for some reason. We eventually left it in a tree, letting nature take it's course. We talked about monarchs, and I have hope that we'll find some eggs this year. We haven't had any caterpillars or butterflies the past 2 years. The last ones we had were two in 2019 and then another one that year. An article I read in January said that the numbers have increased in 2021, so I'm going to look more diligently this year. Numbers are still really low, but we're going to exercise faith. Our milkweed looks really good, so yeah, hopefully we'll have some monarch beauties this fall.

Lasts

I've been making note of all my "lasts" - my last time cleaning the toilets, my last time giving Corey a hair cut, my last time painting my toenails, last time washing my hair... everything is a ceremonial "last-time-before-the-baby-is-born!" celebration. Today I was excited to take my iron supplement for the last time. Corey and I also went to the temple for the last time today. We usually go on Saturday mornings, but tomorrow Abi has an audition with GMS so we did the temple today. I went with Owen to his trumpet lesson for the last time. He's doing a great job. They did a little concert for me.

After I was home from that, Corey and I enjoyed our "last" date night. We went downtown to Nordstrom Grill. The Applewood Salmon ginger pear salad was wonderfully delicious again. I'm starting to put away some of my maternity clothes and getting ready to get out all my transition clothes. I'm going to go on one last bike ride tomorrow morning, and yeah, I'm excited that this is my last weekend being pregnant! Hallelujah.

Summer Break Begins

Happy last day of school to the elementary kids! The older kids still have one more week. This morning I took Lily to jazz band and Wes to seminary, cause Wes hurt his wrist last night at a youth activity when he jumped over a railing and didn't land on his feet. It hurt and so he couldn't drive the stick shift and he couldn't take Corey's car and my car isn't here. Yesterday I took Abi to Costco to buy flowers for their ballroom teacher, who is retiring, and on the way home, the van started going totally berserk. The battery light had been coming on for the past two days, so I had taken it in earlier to get that checked, they said it was ok, so I left, even though the battery light was still on. I went home, got Abi, and we left. As we were driving home from Costco, the tv screen light stopped and Peter was with us in the back and he got mad about that, so we just turned it off and tried to turn on music for him, but then the music stopped too, and then front screen was flashing on and off, the air stopped, the windows wouldn't go down, and DRIVE wasn't working! So I pulled over into a neighborhood and tried to assess what was going on. I called Burt Bros and said I was bringing it back in. I put it in low gear but the engine was still revving, and Peter was still mad about the tv and music and also started crying for a drink, Abi gave him one and as he was drinking, the car lunged forward and he spilled water all over his shirt and started screaming. The lights on the flash board lit up, like one that said I was driving in slippery conditions, it was flashing "FCW System Failed" and it was just nuts, esp with Peter screaming in the back. So I put on the hazard lights and drove it in low gear straight to Burt Bros and we left it there overnight. They called me at 10 today and said they test drove it this morning and there were no lights on and it was working fine, and they looked under the hood and wouldn't find anything wrong there either. so... "you can come pick it up" Ahh! SO that is really weird and I hope we don't die driving it.

So that's why I didn't have my car and took W and L to school this morning. When I came home, most of my LCC route was still in shade so I hurried out for a quick bike ride, and got my best time yet. Mel got the kids up and out the door to school. I had a semi lazy day. The kids were home early at 1:00. Owen crashed as soon as he came in the door. He's been our early riser all year, so yeah, he probably needs a break. 

At 2:00 after school, there was ice cream and a color party at our neighbor's house. The kids threw colored chalk in the air, like last year. Sophi and Natalie had green chalk in their hair and over their clothes - 

Natalie joined in the water fight too. 

Peter had a green popsicle. 

He had just gone #2 again like a champ and expected ice cream, so that worked out great. After Abi and Lily got home from school, I left them in charge and took Wesley to the InstaCare to get his wrist looked at. It wasn't busy in the waiting room. 

But we had a bit of a wait in the exam room. That was ok though, cause Peter kept us entertained with a story. 

He was jibber jabbering about dinosaurs and stuff for like 10 minutes.

They took Wes out for an x-ray, and when he came back, Peter continued his tall tale. Soon the nurse and a doctor were

 back and let us know that Wes had a broken wrist. It is a buckle fracture. 

Wes was relieved that he wasn't just being a baby about how much it hurt. And good news is that he doesn't need a cast. They put a splint on and he gets to wear that for 6 weeks, so that is a fun start of summer for him!

One last fun activity tonight was an outdoor movie at a neighbor's house. Lily, Sophi, Natalie and Daniel went over. 

They had quite the awesome set up in the back yard with hammocks and chair swings everywhere. I spy Sophi!

I'm feeling a little sick. I'd say it was just allergies except for the sore throat. I'm hoping to make a plan of attack for summer. The younger kids brought home summer reading charts and things that their teachers for next year asked them to do, so we'll try to get that organized and we're excited for a fun summer. So summer is off to a good start for the younger kids. It's late (9:45) and Corey's gone to bed (we're going to the temple in the morning, our "last" time before the baby is born.) The kids are all still out having fun. I took a late nap for like 30 minutes at 7pm, so I'm good to stay up until they're back. It's been good cause I have been blogging and AM TOTALLY CAUGHT UP now! I haven't been 100% caught up on the blog for a long time. Like it's only probably happened like 3 times in the past 5 years. It was a "before the baby comes" goal, so good job me!