Wednesday, January 29, 2014

Veteran Mom?

A couple of days ago, C said to me, "Mom, you are a veteran mom."  I agreed that I was on my sixth kid so I guess that makes me a veteran.  He cleared it up, though, by saying that I was veteran because I'd been a mom for 14+ years (If you count pregnancy, 15+).  Either way, I guess I fit that description.

It was brought home to me a little yesterday when I had a resident doctor at my OB appointment.  I had never seen her before.  She was asking me questions to prepare for the impending birth of our little guy.  As she talked to me, these are some things I realized.....I have given birth in a LOT of different ways.

One question:  Did your water break with your other children?
A:  One it broke and gushed, Two it broke and trickled, One I went into the hospital with close contractions and they broke it there.

Another question:  Do you use medication or not?
A:  One I had a full epidural, one I had a half epidural, one I had some IV drugs, and one I had 100% "natural" or without any drugs.

Question:  How long to you like to stay in the hospital?
A:  AS LITTLE AS POSSIBLE!!!  But, I have stayed anywhere from about 18 hours to about 50, depending on everything else going on.

Question:  Do you like midwives or MD's?
A:  Three I have used midwives and loved them.  One I used an MD and enjoyed that too.  I guess I am pretty easy to please.

Question:  Do you already have boys or girls?
A:  Counting my step daughter, I have two boys and three girls, and this little guy will even it out.

Crazy.  It seems like each birth is different and each situation is different.  I guess when you list it all like that, I am indeed a veteran mom!

One thing that has been relatively consistent:  I have gone between 6-12 days early with each of my deliveries.  I don't know if he will follow suit.  Kind of hoping he doesn't.  The kids have sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo much going on in February that closer to due date would work out well, but whoever said delivering a baby is convenient?!?

Sunday, January 19, 2014

16 months

Still planning to do some catch-up. We have been sick this week. Up three nights in a row with a baby that could not sleep. Thank goodness CK takes at least half of the night shift. I am so grateful.

Now is my turn to be sick. I feel yucky. But, this too will pass.

V turned 16 months today. She says a bunch of words and she is so much fun.

Monday, January 13, 2014

Our definition of "Babymoon"

This weekend, CK and I used our free hotel night (that expired THAT night) to stay at a local fancy hotel.  It is funny to me how close we are to delivery of this new baby.  For that reason, I think it might count as a "Babymoon."  I have heard of "Babymoons," but we definitely did it differently.  We took our baby with us!  Our four older kids were with their other parents, so we took V and right after C's tournament on Friday, off we went.
For the most part, we had a lot of fun!  The room wasn't all the way cleaned and that was a bummer.  V really struggled to fall asleep (another bummer).  But, the hotel was fancy and fun and all three of us loved it.
We were on the 8th floor and V loved looking outside.
She also decided it would be fun to wear Daddy's shoes.  She is obsessed with shoes.  She quickly gave up on wearing them both, but it was fun to watch her hobble around in one.
She also loves to sit on things.  This bed pillow was perfect for her.
There are a whole bunch of indoor walkways and fountains and trees and water and plants.  It is beautiful.  We walked around Friday night.  V seemed to enjoy it, although I think she was afraid of falling in the water even from her stroller.  She got quite scared.


We asked V where the baby was and she patted my belly.  :)  She really has no idea what is coming, does she?
After she refused to sleep in the crib, we laid down a blanket and gave her a pillow and her pacifier (that she only uses to sleep at night).  We thought she might just sleep, but every time she got close....nope.
Meanwhile, we played Pandemic, which is one of our favorite games.  We haven't won playing with two people, but we did win and V just left us alone to play for the most part.  It was fun!
Here is the view of the lake from our room in the morning.
We had an interesting round-about-McDonald's adventure for breakfast.  We finally ended up at a McDonald's inside WalMart.  It worked well and was just perfect for us.

A view from the elevator, looking down on all the fun walkways.  Notice the atrium-like ceiling.  It helps keep the temperature controlled while allowing the plants to thrive.  Pretty cool.
This train was moving, even though they were in the middle of recreating the scene.  V thought it was pretty cool.
Prego Mom and Baby Girl.
My man.  I am so lucky and so very happy.  What blessings are mine.
This picture got misplaced somehow and I will just leave it here.  Daddy is tickling V.  She loves it and her laugh is very cute!  :)

In other news, I had a lot of contractions last night (Sunday).  They were painful, but short, but also close together.  I really don't think he is coming this early, but with CK gone next weekend it does worry me a little.  I am sure that everything will be fine!

Sunday, January 12, 2014

C Basketball tournament

 C had a basketball tournament Friday and Saturday.  We were lucky that we got to attend most of it, even with our weekend getaway. 

Friday night, they only played one game.  They won pretty handily.


 V loves watching the game....especially when C is on the bench where she can see him better.  This was her second day in a row watching C play (Thursday they had their regular game).
 C's team had a bye in the bracket.  My guess is because when the brackets were established, they were undefeated.  So, they only played one game on Friday.
On Saturday, we were coming back from the hotel for his first game.  They lost pretty badly.  The consolation for this is that the team they lost to won the championship - handily. 

Because they lost, their third game was for third place.  They played neck-n-neck for most of the game, but they did end up losing.  What a bummer. 

The funny thing is that tomorrow night they play this same team again (for a regular season game).  They can win, I know it. 

I still have so much to finish posting about Christmas.  I can't wait to share it all.  But, since the baby is so close with his fast heartrate and I am exhausted and still juggling the rest of my life....I haven't caught up yet.  But, if the baby is not here before this weekend (I don't expect him to be), CK will be out of town to see A and maybe I can get caught up.  (Fingers crossed)

Thursday, January 9, 2014

You win some. You lose some.

At C's basketball game. Undefeated season will be over. In 4th quarter and it is 33-13 for the opponent.

Final ended up being 39-15. The other team was very good. It threw our team for a loop.

The mommy part of me just wishes I could make it all better. But I know that it is good for C to learn disappointment and frustration and grow from these experiences.

I guess that is what Heavenly Father thinks for us too. He probably hates it when we ache, but he lets us, so that we can learn and grow and develop.

I love that I can go support him. Supporting all these kids isn't easy, but it means a lot to me and a lot to them. C's smile when he sees me in the stand is priceless and makes every sacrifice to get there so worth it.

In other news, I have not been feeling well. I am more exhausted than I have ever been in my life. Baby boy's heart rate was high this week. It seemed to calm down after a while, so they let me go home (from my doctor's office), with just the warning to be cautious. I think he is fine, but it does make me a little nervous.

Tuesday, January 7, 2014

Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve was so much fun.  How I love having all our family together!  As a blended family, it doesn't happen often enough.  I think there will always be various heartaches related to the divorces and this is definitely one of them.  We are so blessed, however, in that our family has blended seamlessly.  Our kids love each other so much, and we each love each and every kid as our own, whether or not they began this way.  We are a blessed family indeed.  I can see that the Lord does indeed make up for the heartaches and trials of life - sometimes here on this earth and sometimes in the next life, but, indeed, they are made up.

First, we took the kids out to eat.  This has been a tradition since before J was born and we love it.  Thanks to my dear Aunt and her Christmas money that allowed us to have a nice dinner and not worry about the budget!
When we got home, it was time for the crazies to begin.  All four of these kids pulled their pants up super high and danced and danced to the Christmas music.  It was funny and moments to be cherished for sure!
We had a fire in the fireplace.  Look at our five amazing children!

More crazies.  So fun!
We also have a tradition about "'Twas the Night Before Christmas."  I grew up with my dad reading us this story after we read the Christmas story out of the bible.  When we moved to Texas in 2001, I called him and asked if he would read it to us over the phone.  Nearly every year since then, he reads it to the kids over the phone.  They love it and look forward to it.  I think my dad does too. 

So, this year, we read the Christmas story out of the Bible together, we sang a hymn, prayed, and rejoiced in our Savior, Jesus Christ, and then....we called Grandpa.  What a special tradition.

Then, all four kids had a sleepover in C's room.  We could hear them talking for a while, but they actually fell asleep more quickly than I expected!  What another great memory for our children to share!!!  So blessed!!

Monday, January 6, 2014

Christmas Eve Morning (Dec. 24, 2013)

 Christmas Eve Morning, we got together with our cousins.  I love having my sister live so close to me.  I love that we can plan things together and that ALL our kids love it! 

This year, we hung out together for a few hours in the middle of the day.  This allowed us to have individual family time for both Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, but still have the joy of celebrating together. 

We began with a yummy brunch.  Yum!!!

 V loved their Little People nativity set.  She especially loved playing with Baby Jesus.  How awesome it is that she loves our Savior, Jesus Christ. 

 After brunch, we played some very fun Christmas Minute-to0win-it.  I am so glad my sister had these all set up.  I actually planned on doing some with the kids during the break, but she had much better ideas and she had created it all so very well.  Everyone had so much fun. 



 After the Minute-to-win-its, we opened presents.  Everyone loved their gifts.  It was so fun, especially to see how much they loved GIVING the gifts they had chosen. 

These are all of my parents' grandkids!  I wish they could have been here too.  Amazing kids...everyone of them.  I love them all.  Families are great!  We are so very blessed that we have such a great one!  Someday they will all grow up, but for now, we had them all together.  So happy!  :)

Lights at the Speedway

One of the things that we did together as a family was to go and see the lights at our local racetrack.  We went as a Family Home Evening activity on the Monday before Christmas (Dec. 23, 2013).  I had read online that it wasn't a great display, but we decided to try it anyway.




I took a lot of pictures and just randomly loaded a few.  For our family, it was a blast.  The kids loved it.  They loved being together.  They loved doing something different.  It was about 45 minutes of driving and looking at the displays.  They weren't anything huge or spectacular, but there were a lot of them and the kids loved pointing them out to each other.  They even said that we should make this a tradition.  :)  Worth our money if we get to spend time together.  :)  I am blessed with the amazing family that I have. 

So much to document....so much to document

I have so much that I want to document.  We had an amazing Christmas with all five of our children gathered around us.  The Spirit was here.  We had peace.  We did fun things.  We played together.  We laughed together.  It was an amazing time. 

It was amazing even though we still had different combinations of kids.  C went on a campout, so for a while we had K, A, J, and V.  Then, later, K, C, and J went with their dad, so we only had A and V.  Then, A went back to Missouri and we had K, C, J, and V for a bit too.  It was always good, though.  :)

I will try to update my blog with pictures to go along to document our time together.  It may not be in order, but hopefully I will, indeed, capture it all.  Look for more to come.  :)

Thursday, January 2, 2014

Incredible stat of the day

I have a lot of posts to complete....but I wanted to remember this-

We have been married 29 months. Guess how many of those months I have been pregnant??? 20!!!

I was wondering if we'd spent more of our marriage with me pregnant. Uh, yes, I think so! What will CK do when he has a non-pregnant wife? Hopefully he still likes me! :)