I think my blog is broken

Wordless Wednesday...from a month ago that wouldn't post

Sam's Birth Story

On Monday, I woke up just not feeling right. In the afternoon, I took a nap. When I woke up, I was getting mild contractions in my back. My contractions were erratic and never got consistent enough to go to hospital. About 10 pm, my contractions stopped except for maybe once an hour. I was a bit bummed, but since I had a scheduled induction for Tuesday morning, I was okay.

I woke up Tuesday morning at about 3 am and never got back to sleep. We had to be at the hospital at 6:30 am.

We got to the hospital and they hooked me up to the pitocin. I wanted them to break my water so things would progress faster, but said I had to be on antibiotics for 4 hours first since I was positive for Group B Strep. So, for the first 4 hours, I stayed at about a 3-4 cm. That's the same that I was when I checked in. Dan and I were actually starting to get bored. And the contractions weren't even as painful as the ones from the night before.

Around noon, my doctor had another doctor come break my water. That's when things start to get painful.

I am not what you'd call "crunchy" or a naturalist, but I decided that I didn't want an epidural this time. Epidurals take like 12 hours to wear off of me. They make me feel like crap. And after a lot of leg/back problems in the past year and half, I didn't want a needle in my back or my leg numb ever again. So, I didn't get an epidural.

My sister Jenny went without an epidural about 6 months ago when she had a baby. She went without because her insurance wouldn't cover it and it would cost her like $1000. She gave me a book and a lot of advice. She said that she would breathe deep 3 times and then the contraction was over. This is what I did. Except I had to breathe deep four times per contraction. I would count, and sometimes out loud. I knew that if I just made it through the 4, I would feel fine again. And I felt totally fine between contractions. I could talk and carry on like normal. Until the next contraction hit. When I was dialated to a 6, the nurse offered me a birthing ball. It was actually quite comfortable to sit on. And it made the baby drop down fast. And I suddenly felt nauseated. The nurse said its common to get nauseated during the transition.

After 2 contractions while sitting on the ball, the doctor arrived and they decided to check me. The doctor said I was 7-8 cm. He then said that he wanted to check me during the next contraction. He wanted me to push just a little so he could check the cervix during the contraction.

Well, I pushed a little, and my body took over. I couldn't stop pushing. The doctor only had one glove on and the nurse had to try and catch the baby with a towel. The doctor quickly put two gloves on and finished delivering the baby. The pushing/delivery was one of the most intense things I have ever been through. It was such a shock to me, I'm not sure how painful it was or wasn't. I don't really remember since it was so fast and intense. I think it was one of the fastest deliveries the doctor has ever had.

Poor baby Sam ended up with a bruised face from his quick exit. I felt bad for him.

After a 24 hour stay, we came home from the hospital. Our kids our so excited about the baby. Alex doesn't seem jealous at all yet.

Sam is such a sweet baby. I feel extremely blessed to have him. And I am so thankful for Dan and his support.

Summer Fun

We went camping at Payson Lake for a couple of Days. The lake was really beautiful. It was perfect for swimming and rafting. We saw some people with surf boards and oars. That looked fun! Maybe next year.

Dan bought a gigantic bag of gummy worms. I think that's what Anna and Alex subsisted off of.

Caleb being silly like usual.

This was the first time we actually brought our dog along. Our kids loved having the dog along. Our dog liked it, but wasn't happy that he wasn't allowed in the lake too.

I must say that Dan is much better rowing the boat than me. Its a lot harder than it looks. He took a lot of trips out to the middle with the kids. I only went out once or twice, and not very far. I mostly rowed in circles. I gave up on the oars and rowed with my hands for a while too. Rachel jumped out in the middle of the lake (its not that big) and swam back. She was wearing a life jacket, so we weren't worried she was going to drown. She thought that was great.
A couple of funny things that happened:

First, in the middle of the night on the first night, our bed in the tent-trailer partially collapsed. I guess the previous owner fixed it, but obviously not very good. We were sleeping---well I wasn't cause I had heartburn---and all of the sudden our bed dropped a foot. Dan was startled awake and said a 4 letter word. One of our kids happened to be awake and heard this. Let's just say, Dan probably hasn't heard the end of that. We made do with sleeping with the bed mostly pushed in the trailer instead of pulled-out. Dan is going to fix it the right way. I keep telling him we should get one last camping trip in before I have the baby, but he's too worried that I'll go into labor while we're camping.

The other funny thing was Alex. He decided that he wanted to go wash his hands in the faucet by the outhouse without telling anyone where he was going.
We suddenly heard him screaming and running hysterically towards us. Right as he got to me, he tripped and fell. (Ok, that wasn't funny). He said that a giant truck was chasing him. He happened to be walking right down the middle of a one-lane road, so the truck was slowly following him since he didn't get out of the way. I guess he thought they were chasing him. Probably doesn't sound too funny, but it was so laughable at the time.

We had a great time and will definitely go back camping there again.

Alex on a ride at the SL County fair.

Cassie, Caleb and Rachel decided to try out a ride that was a bit scary at the fair. Rachel and Caleb did not feel well after this ride. I guess they get motion sick. They didn't want to ride anything else after this one. I stopped at Wendy's for a frosty for everyone on the way home. Neither of them felt good enough to eat theirs. They did eat theirs later after recovering on the couch for a while.

Anna riding the motorcycle. My nephew Jake is in the background. Part way through the ride, he decided he didn't like it, and screamed the rest of the time. Anna and Alex didn't want to get off.

36 week appointment

I am still measuring big. I am measuring 38 cm when I should be 36. I am dialated to 1 and 50% effaced. I sure hope this baby comes early. Here's a picture at 35 weeks. In all of my other pregnancies, I avoided ever getting my picture taken. This time, I figure that it won't last forever, and I want to remember what I looked like.

My sister Angie just highlighted my hair today. Jenny is going to give me a haircut later today. It makes me feel a lot better to get my hair done. Last week was ponytail week, as you can see from the pic.

There's an end in sight!

I went to my 34 week (almost) appointment today. I am still measuring big. The doctor is guessing that this baby will be in the mid 8 lb range. He certainly isn't going to be a tiny one.
And they scheduled and induction for August 30th. They originally scheduled it for Aug 26, which was 8 days early. However, the hospital wouldn't allow that. So they had to change it to the next time the doctor delivers, which is the 30th. Hooray! I won't be pregnant forever!
I've had a lot of false labor recently. Some days, I cam barely walk 10 feet before getting a painful contraction. They checked me at 32 weeks, and the contractions weren't doing anything. Thankfully, last week, on the day of Rachel's tonsillectomy, the contractions stopped. I feel like Heavenly Father blessed me to be able to take care of her. I am slowly starting to get a few more painful contractions again. I'm not talking about regular Braxton Hicks contractions. These actually hurt and make it so I can't move.
Rachel has had a hard time since her tonsillectomy. The first few days, she threw up a lot. We decided that it was probably the pain medicine, and took her off the pain medicine. She stopped throwing up. But she's been in a lot of pain. She is only on regular Tylenol. She cries a few times a day, and wishes that she hadn't had the surgery. Usually that's when her throat dries out and the Tylenol wears off. In another week, I'm sure she'll feel better. I've been getting practice getting up in the night by getting up in the night with her.

Parade and hikes

For scouts on Tueday, they had a hike to Ensign peak. Dan hiked it with our kids, while I stayed at the bottom. As you can see from the picture, it was really windy at the top. They saw a small rattlesnake on the hike. Rachel, not thinking, went very close to the bush that was rattling, to get a closer look. I'm glad she didn't get bit.

Last Saturday, we went on a hike to a waterfall with Leslie. The hike is only about half a mile. I was proud that I made it. I only had to stop 4 times for contractions on the way up. I didn't want to get left out on this hike. We dipped our feet in. It was really cold water. This is not a dangerous area, so it was perfect for our kids. Nobody could keep their feet in very long.

Leslie and Alex by the waterfall. Alex wasn't too fond of getting misted by the waterfall.

Yes, its me. Leslie took this one. Finally, a non-belly pregnant shot.

Dan with Alex by the waterfall.

I took our kids to the South Jordan parade. My sister Leslie came with me to help. She was buddies with Alex, to help him get candy. As you can probably tell from the picture, it wasn't warm.

We've been having a fun summer so far! On Tuesday, I took our kids bouncing at Classic. On Wednesday, I took them to the waterslides at Classic. They had a great time bouncing. After an hour, they were hot and tired. Alex is so fearless. He went up one call "Bounce Everest". When he got to the top rung, he fell backwards. It was probably 20 feet tall. Of course, its a bounce thing at the bottom, so he was okay. He stopped crying before I even got to him, and was going up the climbing thing again. He was a little more careful at the top that time. Then, he kept going on it again and again.

At the waterslides, Alex and Anna stayed in the kiddie pool area with me. Rachel and Caleb both know how to swim, so they stuck together on the big waterslides. I could see them most of the time from the kiddie area, so I wasn't worried about them. And the pool at the bottom of the waterslides is only 3 feet deep. They all had a blast and didn't want to go home when it was time to leave.

I enjoy having Leslie along when we go places. Its nice to have an extra adult along. And my kids love her.

Anyone know someone I could set her up with?

Her requirements: Must be active LDS. Must be in their 30's. Have a career that doesn't involve being a bagger, sign-waver, or working fast-food. Must not still live with parents. She's okay with dating divorced people or people with kids. She is very adventurous. She is a bit blunt---she tells things like it is. She is athletic and happy. She is a computer programmer, and has her own house.

Okay, so if Leslie reads this part of my blog, she might be a little miffed. But hey, I really just want to help her meet someone. :) So, if you know someone, let me know.

Dan's first Half-Marathon

Caleb holding a sign for Dad. I thought it was cute that he wrote "Run like a road runner" at the bottom.

Mile 13.

Dan ran his first half-marathon ever! It was the Bear Lake Half-Marathon. I am proud of him. He is trying hard to get back into good running shape after all these years of marriage. He is already planning to do another half-marathon. We got him a running water belt pack thing for Father's Day.

We stayed in a cabin with Dan's family at Bear Lake for a few days. The weather was cold for this time of year, so the lake wasn't much fun at all. My brother-in-law Tom ran the half-marathon too. He is really fast for so little training. Dan's sister Liz was training for it too, but ended up doing the 5K instead because of an injury. They both did well in their races.

Watching people run makes me quite envious. But I wouldn't trade this baby for anything in the world. I tried to run a few times this pregnancy. It has been one of my hardest pregnancies, if not the hardest. I've had low iron and been extremely tired. I end up with contractions from walking up the stairs. If I do too much, I get consistent contractions and have to lie down. 2 months and 1 week to go.

New pics and some rambling....

Me attempting to get Alex to smile for the photographer

Our family

My favorite kids in the whole world. :)

My blue-eyed boy. You would never know how mischievious he can be with that cute little smile. He speaks pretty well now, since he will be four in a few months. However he still says some funny things: Yeyow is yellow. Gwobwet it Goblet. (as in Harry Potter and the Goblet of fire.) Guess you can tell he has older siblings since he's seen several of the Harry Potter movies. We've been trying to do the alphabet with him. He hasn't been very interested. Today at church he suddenly starting naming letters. He's been holding out on us! He knows more than he lets on.

My brown-eyed boy. He's almost done with 3rd grade now!

My Anna girly. So girly. Likes to wear dresses or skirts every day of the week. I thinks she's only worn pants a few times this year. And that's just because she wanted to play in the snow. She's not actually so girly in other ways. When she sat with our neighbor at church she drew a picture of a fire-breathing chicken and a turtle with its eyes popping out. I think she's been reading too many of Caleb's silly books with him. Like Captain Underpants and Diary of a Wimpy kid. I guess that's what happens when you have an older brother and a younger brother, and your sister is quite a bit older.

I didn't repost any pictures of Rachel this time since my last blog was about her.

I am counting down for this pregnancy to be over. The last few weeks have been really tough. My energy level is about zero. After I do a little bit of cleaning, I am so exhausted that I can't do much else. I am so used to being able to do whatever I want, and it is frustrating for me to have to slow down so much with this pregnancy. I have discovered something good: Pepcid AC. It works so much better than Tums. I wish I had discovered it on my other pregnancies.

We are probably gonna name our baby Sam (officially Samuel). That's the name that we keep coming back to. Rachel thinks its fun to poke my stomach and play "name that body part" when somethings sticks out. Anna and Alex like to feel the baby kick too. Caleb is excited about the baby, but absolutely doesn't want to feel the baby kick.

Dan is getting excited for the baby as well. He said to me at church, "All these babies are getting me excited to have our baby!". At home he said, "I wanted to ask some of the moms to hold their babies, but I thought they'd just give me dirty looks and think I was wierd." I doubt any of them would have objected. I'm happy that he is excited for the baby.

Two more days of school for Rachel and Caleb. Hooray!! We are also gonna take the summer off of lessons, sports etc. Its nice to take a break from everything.

She's 11!

Rachel turned 11 on Friday. I can't believe what a beautiful young woman she is growing into.

For her birthday, we went to the Mayan restaurant. We got front row seating, and there were a lot of performaces because they were filming a commercial. I hope the kids end up in a commercial, not me.

This was the first birthday that she really didn't want toys--except for a new hula hoop. She got clothes, jewelry, a new bed set, and some colored lip gloss. She loves to wear colored lip gloss all the time.

The top picture was from our family photo shoot about a week ago. Dan's cousin Melina did our pictures this time. (When I get the CD in the mail, it won't have the copyright on it. The one she emailed me did.)

I am so glad to have Rachel for my daughter. She is a wonderful daughter and friend.

Monday Rambling

Saturday was the school's 5-k, fun run, and healthy living fair. I am on the committee, so I spent a lot of time getting breakfast items and raffle stuff.
When we woke up on Saturday, there was an inch or two of snow on the ground. It certainly wasn't warm outside.
Dan and Rachel ran the 5K, and Caleb and Anna ran the 1 mile. Rachel got ahead of Dan in the 5K because he ran the first half mile with Caleb and Anna. She got so far ahead of him, she never even saw him. I thought that she would need him to pace her, but she obviously didn't. She was the first 5th grade girl to finish, and ran almost the entire way. I was really proud. She was really thrilled too. She hasn't been running at all. But she's been swimming a lot.
I was proud of Caleb and Anna for the 1 mile. They stuck together and finished about the same time. Dan also did well finishing the 5k.
I didn't run because I was helping out and I'm about 5 months pregnant. Alex hung out with me and had a free Jamba juice and got to jump in the bounce house. The fair turned out really well this year. My kids did not want to go home because they were having a lot of fun.
I'm glad to have that over with. Now I feel like I can relax.

Caleb has been on a basketball team this spring. It is a challenge for him. He is not aggressive, and has a hard time paying attention to what is going on. He is making a lot of progress with his basketball skills though. It is hard for me to watch, because nobody passes the ball to him and the coach doesn't put him in much at all. Maybe I'm overly emotional, but it makes me sad. He has touched the ball only once the entire season during a game. Only 3 more games to go. I won't be signing him up again.
He is happily in the chess club at school. He really likes chess. I don't even know how to play chess. Maybe one day I'll have him teach me. I really don't care if he likes sports. I just want him to be happy.

I threw my back out on Saturday, from all the fun run stuff and cleaning the entire house. I've been in pain for a few days. I thought Tylenol wasn't really doing anything, but like clockwork I start to feel worse when it wears off.

This pregnancy has actually been kind of tough. Either that or I'm just wussy.
Anna is finally excited about the baby, even though it is a boy. She wants to feel the baby kick every day.
I ordered all the nursery bedding, curtains, rug etc. and it came within a few days. I am looking forward to painting the nursery. However, I'll have to wait til I feel well enough to. I am getting excited for the baby. We don't have a name decided on. I have a name I've decided on, but Dan doesn't agree---yet. Just wait. :) Now I just need a recliner rocker or a comfy chair to sit in for feeding the baby. And a bunch of clothes. Rachel loves shopping and is anxious to shop for baby clothes. Its actually rather fun having an older daughter. The other kids and Dan hate shopping. But she doesn't, so she's my pal.

I'm counting down until school gets out. I'm excited to spend more time with the kids, and to be able to relax our schedule a bit. And have fun with the kids. I'm planning on taking the kids swimming a lot, even though I will look like a whale. We always write up a schedule of fun things we are going to do during the summer. Park day, swimming day, fieldtrip day, library day etc. Some days all the plans go down the drain. But we do stick with it a lot.

So, that's all for today's rambling. :) No pics for this one.

Easter 2011

Having a hard time deciding on a color for his egg.

All of the kids together for a second.

My girls.

Rachel.

A cute note Anna left for the Easter Bunny.

Caleb.

Alex being silly.

Anna smelling the tulips.