A Trip to the Lake

 First of all, this little lady is a month old now:

See that hint of a smile?  I have yet to catch a good grin on my camera, but she is smiling and responding to our voices, sweet girl.  Also, our girl is chunking up - look at the beginning of that little roll on her thigh!

 We went up to Silver Lake over the weekend to take 5 year old photos of this girl:

But we also just had a good time.

 Look!  I have my ducks in a row!  The kids were imitating ducks, and they looked pretty funny:

 Our first family photo where you can see all 7 of our faces:

 I love us.

 More ducks:

 Doesn't Everett's face make you laugh?

And if not that one, how about this one: 

 My kids, they are so stinkin' cute.

Here are some other random photos that make me smile:

 Ellie is growing up.  She can be such a huge help to me, and a great big sister.  Tomorrow she starts Second Grade.  I can't believe it.

The Party and Other Happenings

 Maren had a good day.  She is one spoiled girl.

She requested a rose cake.  I have very amateur cake decorating skills.  The important thing is that the cake was delicious.

I love the look of her cousin's face in that photo.  :)

 She was pretty excited to get her very own box of envelopes (I think she's used at least half of them already).

And a dream lite and pillow pet.  All her dreams have come true.

For her birthday, we also had a friend party in the afternoon.  I didn't take a single photo.  I was too busy trying to keep kids entertained, presents from blowing away in the wind, and making sure my other babies weren't crying.  The kids had fun, though.  We also went to McDonald's for dinner.  Party all day long!  Birthdays wear me out, and apparently wear the babies out too:

Other photos:

 Sweet Daisy.  That photo was taken right before she puked all down the front of Ellie's shirt.  :)

 I have good helpers around here. 

Watching some morning cartoons:

 We finally moved up to a flat screen tv.  It's big (of course, anything would be 'big' compared to our old tube tv).  You can see it from any spot in our living area, but the kids still prefer to watch it from the floor because that's the closest you can get to the screen.  Funny kids.

Big 5

Missy Maren,

Today you are five!  You have been looking forward to this day pretty much all year.  I hope all your expectations are fulfilled.  Girl, you are full of spunk and you bring a lot of energy into our home.  You love to get a laugh and make the best faces and tell the best stories.  You give the best hugs too.  You take good care of your siblings and are a fantastic help to mom.  You love to sing and make up your songs as you go along.  You want to be a "Popstar" when you grow up.  Your teachers have always raved about you and your wonderfulness.  You were my happiest baby, smiling at only a few weeks and you haven't stopped since.  You are our sweet Maren, and we love you.

Happy birthday, girlie.

Love,
Your Mom

Lucky

 I can't seem to find time to post these days, go figure.  Right now I've got Daisy on my lap and Lainey is screaming because one of her bigger siblings is teasing her.  Maren is "playing" the piano and Ellie is supposed to be cleaning her room (I'm fairly certain she's not).  What a beautiful, chaotic life.

Anyway, here are the photos from the last week or so.

Back in the day, Nick just wanted a girl...now he's got five of them.  ;)  Lucky guy:

I celebrated my birthday last week:

 I like that photo with all seven of us (and an additional two).

We had a picnic up the canyon with family.  It was a beautiful evening.  Thanks to all who came to help me eat my delicious cake.  :)

 That photo turned out a little fuzzy, but I love all those cute faces!  Oh, and if you were wondering, we had a tie-dye party with my sister, which explains all our fun shirts.

We all love Daisy, yes we do.

 Isn't she beautiful?  What a sweet, perfect baby.  Now, if we can get her to sleep for more than 3 hours at night...

 Aaaahh, summer days.  Two more weeks to soak it all in.

Other highlights of the week:

*Daisy had her two week appointment.  She was 7 lbs. 13 oz. and 21 inches long.  Growing too fast, in my opinion (although she is healthy, thank goodness).

*We went "camping".  We did hot dogs and s'mores over a fire up the canyon and then Dad slept with the kids in the tent in our backyard (coolest dad, ever).  In the morning, breakfast over the camp chef.  Yep, our kind of camping.

*Took all five kids to Walmart on my own.  That will not be happening again any time soon.  The big kids did fine, they were obedient and helpful, it was the sweet newborn who hates her car seat that caused the problems.  I think I've nursed a baby just about everywhere now, including the tupperware aisle in Walmart.

Baby Fix

 You are all dying to see more photos of our little cherub, right?  Well, this one's for you.

 We have a fascination with baby piggies around here.

 I know, those big eyes....  Sweet, sweet baby.

I love these moments with a fresh, new baby.  I'm trying to soak it all in because I know it doesn't last near long enough.

I'd like to say that our house is calm and peaceful, sucking in all the wonderfulness that a newborn brings.  That would be a lie though.  My house is crazier than ever.  My sister and her family moved in the day we brought Daisy home from the hospital, and although we love having them here, two extra kiddos in the house adds a whole lot more noise, mess, and chaos.  We now have 7 kids in the house, 5 of which are under the age of 4.  Chaos, I tell you.  Fun chaos, but chaos all the same.  

Daisy's Story

 Last Friday, July 12th, was my due date.  I had plans to go to my doctor's appointment that morning, and then join my family at our annual reunion that afternoon.  Well, so much for "plans".  I went to my doctor's appointment that morning and my blood pressure was high (this is something we always watch closely during my pregnancies), so they made plans at the hospital for me to be induced.  Now, you'd think at 40 weeks pregnant, this would be good news for me, but I was a bit upset about it.  I was really really hoping that I'd go into labor on my own.  But, a re-occurring lesson learned is that we don't get to plan these things.  Also, we had plans for my sister to come stay with the kids, but because of the above mentioned reunion, she was unavailable.  We did the last minute scramble to get our kids in good hands (you know who you are, and thank you, thank you), Nick gave me a very comforting blessing, and we were headed to the hospital.

We checked in around 1:30 and they had me hooked up to antibiotics (GBS positive) and pitocin at about 2:30.  I was nervous.  I was coming back from a not-so-pleasant experience with Lainey (an emergency c-section) so I was scared the whole time that Daisy's heartrate would drop (after all, it's happened with ALL of my other babies), and I'd be rushed in for a repeat c-section.  I was nervous being induced, knowing that it's not the ideal situation for a vbac.  I had planned to go without an epidural, and they warned me that if my blood pressure didn't go down, they'd encourage an epidural to help it go down.  All these thoughts were swimming in my head and I was a bit overwhelmed by it all.  But, I said a little prayer and held on for the ride.  

So, contractions got started.  I was 2 cm dilated and 60% effaced.  My nurse and midwife were a bit concerned that the baby's heartbeat was found way up high on my belly.  They checked with an ultrasound (twice) to make sure baby was head down (she was).  My water was broken (the midwife really didn't want to, but had to for the uterus monitor to be 'installed', which was necessary with a vbac), they also put a monitor on the baby, which fell out a bit later.  I'll say that one of the benefits of a vbac induction is that they would only increase the pitocin so high.  With a regular induction (which has been all of my other babies) they would increase and increase and increase again so fast that things got painful really quickly, topping out the pitocin around 20 or so?  This time, they could only increase the pitocin to a 9, which is where the pressure in my uterus was ideal, I guess.  I labored from about 2:30 to about 11 that evening fairly comfortably, laying on my side in the bed, watching tv with Nick and chatting with my midwife and nurses, who during this time would pop in and out of my room.

Then things got exciting.  My contractions got harder and I had to get out of bed to deal with them.  My midwife was AMAZING.  She gave me lots of options and encouraged me to do whatever felt right.  I sat on a birthing ball for awhile, and when that wasn't doing it anymore, I stood at the bedside and rocked from side to side, leaning up against the bed during contractions while my midwife and then Nick applied counter pressure on my hips.  During this time, the baby's heartrate was on an external monitor and it wasn't picking it up very easily.  The hospital nurse would come in all concerned that she didn't have a good reading, and my midwife would send her away, telling her that it wasn't a concern and that she had a good idea of what was going on.  Go midwife!  I really felt comforted in her hands, and she really calmed all my fears.  At this point, she was saying that she could get me in the tub (which really surprised me with all the monitors and IVs I was hooked up to), but I knew I didn't have much time.  I made sure that everyone was ready to deliver this baby and then climbed up on the bed.  Once again, my midwife wanted me to get to where I was comfortable.  She was willing to catch that baby right on the floor if that's where I wanted to do it.  Laying on my back at that moment sounded horrible, so I tried my hands and knees.  She checked me again (only the second time I was checked the whole time) and sure enough, I was fully dilated and ready to bring this baby here!  Now came the hard part.  Thankfully, Daisy was here in just a minute and a few pushes, but it sure felt longer than that.  Pushing a baby through the birth canal HURTS!!  (surprised? :)  I screamed, loudly, and didn't care at all that it was quiet hours at the hospital ;).  But, oh, the relief when it's over!  Daisy was born at 12:12am.  I flipped over on my back and my beautiful baby was placed right up on my chest: 

We rubbed that baby up until she was nice and pink.  She was born hungry, that girl, and was rooting and sucking on her hands.  The midwife let the cord pulse out (a new experience for me) and then was clamped and then cut by Daddy.  My placenta was delivered and I had one tiny tear that was fixed with one tiny stitch (yeah, no episiotomy!).  All this time, I was snuggling on my perfect new baby.  They did take her away for 3 minutes to be weighed and measured (Daddy guessed her weight spot on at 7 lbs. 3 oz.), a hat, diaper, and another photo or two:

 And then I got some skin-to-skin with my babe:

 Check out those bright eyes!

 She happily nursed and then she was taken to the nursery with Daddy.  We were all settled in our mother/baby room at about 2:30am.  We were all excited to get some sleep (some of us were more successful than others).  

The next day, she had some eager-to-meet-her visitors:

 Everett would have sat and held her all day.

 Lainey just wanted to poke at her.  She's since taken to wanting to hold and snuggle on her too.

The girls did get to go to the reunion thanks to Grandma.  They had a great time, but were excited to come home and meet their new sister.  They are awesome second mommas.

 This is my new crazy:

 All ready to go home from the hospital, Sunday morning:

 And some extra cute photos, taken when she was 3 days old:

 A little perspective on just how tiny Daisy is:

I did finally cut off her hospital bands.

So, in retrospect, after all my fears, I don't think this birth experience could have turned out any better.  My blood pressure did go down, Daisy's heartrate was perfect the entire time (a miracle with her cord wrapped twice around her neck,  and an answer to our prayers), and my midwife just topped it all off with her extra care in my un-medicated state.  And, we have another perfect baby.