Here's our little Seth; one month old today!
Tuesday, September 18, 2012
Another tooth gone...
Kellie lost another tooth last night just before bedtime. It is the first tooth on the top that she has lost and this morning she was very excited to show off her "jack-o-lantern" smile.
Monday, September 17, 2012
Caleb's Baptism Announcement Photo Shoot
Caleb turned 8 this month and will be baptized soon. With all the chaos of having a baby, I knew I had to get his pictures done early, so Caleb and I had a little photo shoot towards the end of July. I am definitely not a professional, but I think we got some good shots to use for his invitations. I even included the ones with goofy expressions, because they make me smile! Here we go:
(You'll just have to check your mailboxes to see which one we chose to use!)
Wednesday, September 12, 2012
Daddy/Daughter Dinner & Dance
Matt and Kellie attended their 1st Daddy/Daughter Dinner & Dance tonight at church. Kellie was so excited to go and kept telling me that she "got Daddy all to herself tonight."
They had a great time, although Kellie refused to dance with Matt. Apparently this was a trend with a couple of the girls because she was not the only one! Matt and a couple of the other dads became "wallflowers", but watched the girls have a good time. anyway.
She wouldn't dance with Matt, but she did agree to dance with one of her sweet little friends, Sydney. (Matt said the pictures are a little blurry because there was "a whole lot of twirling going on.")
She wouldn't dance with Matt, but she did agree to dance with one of her sweet little friends, Sydney. (Matt said the pictures are a little blurry because there was "a whole lot of twirling going on.")
Seth's Bath
Last night after we got all the other kids in bed we decided to give Seth his first real bath at home.
Seth looked very confused at first, but was content to try to look at the water. A few minutes later, he started wailing.
He was pretty relieved to get OUT of the bath and into Mommy's arms.
He really enjoyed a post bath time snuggle with dad.
(I think that maybe he was in a little bit of shock- he just sat with Matt, with this glazed expression for several minutes.)
Seth was born with a lot of dark, dark hair. He has more than any of the other kids. Some of it has started to full out a little bit, but I wanted to make sure to get a picture of all that hair!
Tuesday, September 11, 2012
The Story of Seth
You would think that by your 5th child you would have some idea what to expect in a pregnancy. This baby and delivery decided not to stick to any pattern set by the other 4, though. The Journey to Seth was full of surprises.
Timeline of Seth
Early 2012: we learned that we were going to have a baby. My due date was August 29th.
First Trimester: Nausea, fatigue and all that fun stuff.
At 20 weeks: we had an ultrasound and were told that our baby was a little girl.
At 28 weeks: I passed the glucose tolerance test. This was entirely unexpected since I have had high blood sugar and gestational diabetes issues with the last 3 kids.
August 2012 (first week): I develop higher than normal blood pressure and am put on bedrest. Two firsts here; one, I have never been on bedrest before, and two, I have never had problems with high blood pressure before. Luckily Matt was able to work from home to help out with the kids.
August 14: Matt and I celebrate our 13th wedding anniversary with a visit to the doctor and an ultrasound to check on the well-being of our little one. We learn that the baby is NOT a girl, but rather a little BOY. To say we were surprised would be an understatement. We then spent the evening packing up the box of pink girl stuff, and pulled out the box of blue. We also pull out the baby name books to try to figure out what to name him. (Romantic evening, I know...)
August 16th: Kids first day of school, which I missed because I was still on bedrest.
Friday, August 17th: I go to the office for a non stress test, since my blood pressure is still elevated. Baby was fine, but we confirm that I am contracting about every 6 minutes, although the contractions are not really hard yet. I was convinced that they would go away since I had been having non-eventful contractions for several weeks.
By about 6pm the contractions were still coming at a predictable 4-6 minutes apart, although they were not very strong. We decided to go to the hospital to be checked, to avoid a 2am dash to the hospital in case things got worse. Even as we were driving to the hospital I was convinced that they were going to send me home. After all, it was still 11 days until my due date and ALL of the other kids were late, most over a week late. I had been induced with all of them.
After 2 hours of walking around the labor and delivery floor I had progressed from 3 cm dilated to 5 cm dilated, and was told that I was going to stay and have the baby that night. I was shocked. Although frequent, my contractions were pretty weak compared to my other labors, and it was so much earlier than I had anticipated. The doctor was convinced that I would have a quick delivery, since he was my 5th, and the others had mostly arrived quickly, once my labor was started. Again, this baby chose mot to follow my norm.
I'll be honest- I got a bit scared at this point because I really wasn't emotionally prepared to be in labor that night. Although I knew that women go into labor on their own all the time, and that technically having a baby early was possible, that had never been my experience. Even as the doctor was breaking my water to speed things along I was in a little bit (okay a whole lot) of denial, thinking to myself, "But this can't be. I am not in labor... this is just not how it works!"
With this mindset, when they offered me the epidural, I took it, even though I had never had one before. I thought that it might help calm my nerves.
I progressed quickly to a 7- and stayed there for many hours, stalled. About 6am I was about 9 cm and was told that soon I would have the urge to push. I didn't ever have the urge. At about 7:30 the nurse came in and told me that we needed to start pushing, whether I was having the urge to or not. I really don't think the nurse was expecting little Seth to be born so quickly. It only took 3 pushes and he was born- before the doctor could even come in the room.
August 18th: At 7:58am, on August 18th, Seth was born. 9 lbs 5 oz. 21 inches, 11 days early.
Later that morning Seth made a trip to the NICU for high red blood cell count and the rest of my day was spent in bed, unable to sit up because of the severe head and neck pain and the vomiting. Matt went back and forth from my room and the nursery, taking pictures of Seth with his phone to bring back and show me.
Week of August 19-25th: I spent the next week trying to recover from complications from the spinal headache, still unable to stand or sit up. Seth was released from the NICU on Monday and was doing well.
We both returned home on Tuesday, hoping that I would improve at home.
My sister Janice arrived to help with the kids while I was trying to recover.
By Thursday it was apparent that I was not improving and so I was admitted back into the hospital. Several procedures and tests and many many prayers later I began to get a little bit better.
By Friday evening I was able to sit up for short periods of time and returned home to the family. I improved a little bit each day, although I had residual migraines for about a week after returning home.
Through this delivery I have learned (once again) that things don't always go as you expect them to. I expected to have gestational diabetes again. I didn't. I was expecting a little girl. Turn out it was a boy. I expected to have to be induced like I was with all the others. I went into labor on my own. I was expecting to be overdue. I was 11 days early. I have never had an epidural, or any complications after delivery. This time I did.
Through all these surprises I was humbled and blessed more than I could have imagined. My family was cared for, not only by my relatives, but by the generous members of our ward who called, prayed, dropped off meals, chauffeured our kids to and from school, and took Levi on playdates. We were truly blessed.
Although I would not care to repeat the experience, I am so completely in awe of the love and generosity and kindness of others. I know that my family was being watched over at this difficult time and I am so grateful.
Welcome to our family, Little Seth, may the rest of our time together be a little more "predictable". We love you!
Timeline of Seth
Early 2012: we learned that we were going to have a baby. My due date was August 29th.
First Trimester: Nausea, fatigue and all that fun stuff.
At 20 weeks: we had an ultrasound and were told that our baby was a little girl.
At 28 weeks: I passed the glucose tolerance test. This was entirely unexpected since I have had high blood sugar and gestational diabetes issues with the last 3 kids.
August 2012 (first week): I develop higher than normal blood pressure and am put on bedrest. Two firsts here; one, I have never been on bedrest before, and two, I have never had problems with high blood pressure before. Luckily Matt was able to work from home to help out with the kids.
August 14: Matt and I celebrate our 13th wedding anniversary with a visit to the doctor and an ultrasound to check on the well-being of our little one. We learn that the baby is NOT a girl, but rather a little BOY. To say we were surprised would be an understatement. We then spent the evening packing up the box of pink girl stuff, and pulled out the box of blue. We also pull out the baby name books to try to figure out what to name him. (Romantic evening, I know...)
August 16th: Kids first day of school, which I missed because I was still on bedrest.
Friday, August 17th: I go to the office for a non stress test, since my blood pressure is still elevated. Baby was fine, but we confirm that I am contracting about every 6 minutes, although the contractions are not really hard yet. I was convinced that they would go away since I had been having non-eventful contractions for several weeks.
By about 6pm the contractions were still coming at a predictable 4-6 minutes apart, although they were not very strong. We decided to go to the hospital to be checked, to avoid a 2am dash to the hospital in case things got worse. Even as we were driving to the hospital I was convinced that they were going to send me home. After all, it was still 11 days until my due date and ALL of the other kids were late, most over a week late. I had been induced with all of them.
After 2 hours of walking around the labor and delivery floor I had progressed from 3 cm dilated to 5 cm dilated, and was told that I was going to stay and have the baby that night. I was shocked. Although frequent, my contractions were pretty weak compared to my other labors, and it was so much earlier than I had anticipated. The doctor was convinced that I would have a quick delivery, since he was my 5th, and the others had mostly arrived quickly, once my labor was started. Again, this baby chose mot to follow my norm.
I'll be honest- I got a bit scared at this point because I really wasn't emotionally prepared to be in labor that night. Although I knew that women go into labor on their own all the time, and that technically having a baby early was possible, that had never been my experience. Even as the doctor was breaking my water to speed things along I was in a little bit (okay a whole lot) of denial, thinking to myself, "But this can't be. I am not in labor... this is just not how it works!"
With this mindset, when they offered me the epidural, I took it, even though I had never had one before. I thought that it might help calm my nerves.
I progressed quickly to a 7- and stayed there for many hours, stalled. About 6am I was about 9 cm and was told that soon I would have the urge to push. I didn't ever have the urge. At about 7:30 the nurse came in and told me that we needed to start pushing, whether I was having the urge to or not. I really don't think the nurse was expecting little Seth to be born so quickly. It only took 3 pushes and he was born- before the doctor could even come in the room.
August 18th: At 7:58am, on August 18th, Seth was born. 9 lbs 5 oz. 21 inches, 11 days early.
Later that morning Seth made a trip to the NICU for high red blood cell count and the rest of my day was spent in bed, unable to sit up because of the severe head and neck pain and the vomiting. Matt went back and forth from my room and the nursery, taking pictures of Seth with his phone to bring back and show me.
Week of August 19-25th: I spent the next week trying to recover from complications from the spinal headache, still unable to stand or sit up. Seth was released from the NICU on Monday and was doing well.
We both returned home on Tuesday, hoping that I would improve at home.
My sister Janice arrived to help with the kids while I was trying to recover.
By Thursday it was apparent that I was not improving and so I was admitted back into the hospital. Several procedures and tests and many many prayers later I began to get a little bit better.
By Friday evening I was able to sit up for short periods of time and returned home to the family. I improved a little bit each day, although I had residual migraines for about a week after returning home.
Through this delivery I have learned (once again) that things don't always go as you expect them to. I expected to have gestational diabetes again. I didn't. I was expecting a little girl. Turn out it was a boy. I expected to have to be induced like I was with all the others. I went into labor on my own. I was expecting to be overdue. I was 11 days early. I have never had an epidural, or any complications after delivery. This time I did.
Through all these surprises I was humbled and blessed more than I could have imagined. My family was cared for, not only by my relatives, but by the generous members of our ward who called, prayed, dropped off meals, chauffeured our kids to and from school, and took Levi on playdates. We were truly blessed.
Although I would not care to repeat the experience, I am so completely in awe of the love and generosity and kindness of others. I know that my family was being watched over at this difficult time and I am so grateful.
Welcome to our family, Little Seth, may the rest of our time together be a little more "predictable". We love you!
Thursday, September 6, 2012
Can you tell WHO is WHO?
People keep asking me who Seth looks like. To be honest, I can't really say, because all I can think is that he looks like one of OURS. There is definitely a family resemblance - but I can't really pinpoint who exactly looks like who. Can you?
(I'll give you a hint... Aaron's picture isn't up here yet- I need to scan it in because he was born before we had a digital camera and Kellie is the only one in a dress!)
Picture #1 is CALEB
Picture #2 is SETH
Picture #3 is LEVI
#4 is KELLIE
Caleb is 8!
Our little Caleb is not so little anymore! He turned 8 yesterday and was very excited about it. He woke up and insisted that everyone in
our house wish him a "Happy Birthday" because, (and I quote), "It's my
day and it's important that everyone knows it."
He was excited to open presents and was VERY excited to see a cub scout uniform. He's been waiting and waiting until he can do all the fun things in Cub Scouts that he sees Aaron doing.
He had a great day- we sure love him!
Lounging...
Seth is a great little baby. He is not overly fussy, and as is typical of most newborns, he is fairly sleepy most of the time. Here's our little lounger...
He is still slightly jaundice, so he gets to sunbathe every afternoon.
Saturday, September 1, 2012
Levi is 3 Today!
Levi was very excited to come home from the store today with ROOT BEER for his birthday dinner.
Levi has been making this face ever since his Aunt Janice came to visit us a week ago. I suppose I should "thank" her, huh? :)
Caleb made Levi a birthday picture.
Gifts from us, Grandma and Grandpa J, and Aunt Melanie, Uncle Jordan & Spencer.
3 Candles!
Construction Toys!
Post-celebration crash...
Levi got these Birthday glasses at church in nursery. I love it!
Happy Birthday Big Guy! We love you!
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