D-DAY! (aka Delivery Day!)

June 6, 2016

Nathan's Birthday

aka D-Day

aka Delivery Day for Sharee!

Presbyterian Hospital, ABQ, NM

After a very uncomfortable Sunday, (church was an exTREMEly long 3 hours for me that day) and finishing the night enjoying the Utah Valley Children's Choir Concert, (awesome, but again, I was SO uncomfortable) we drove home enjoying a spectacular lightning storm, got ready for bed and called it a night.  

A few hours later, I was awoken by some pretty good contractions.  It was early in the morning, about 2:45 I think, and I lay in bed for awhile waiting to see if the contractions would subside.  After awhile I started timing them and decided maybe I should take a shower just in case.  After my shower, we decided it was probably time to head down to the hospital.  We left about 3:45, after telling Dallin and Daphne they were in charge when everyone woke up because we were going to the hospital to have a baby.

We arrived at the hospital about 4AM and they took their sweet time in triage even though I asked for an epidural right away, rated the pain of my contractions an 8, told them this was my 7th baby and I have a history of rapid birth.  When they checked me upon arrival I was dilated to a five, but I knew from past experience that could jump much higher with just one good contraction.  Well, even though I kept asking what the status of my epidural was, they just dinked around, laughing and talking out in the hallway.  After about 40 minutes, they officially admitted me, and took me to a labor and delivery room, where I AGAIN asked about the epidural. They said first they needed to draw some blood for some blood work and run a bag of IV fluid through me.  I asked how long it takes for one bag to drip through.  "About 30 minutes," she said.  My contractions were so intense and close together at this point, I knew I wasn't getting that epidural, because that baby was definitely coming sooner than 30 minutes. 

Sure enough, after a few more minutes and me praying between every contraction for strength to last the next one, it wasn't long before I felt like I needed to push.  With about 4 good pushes, our sweet little Nathan Arthur was born at 5:12 AM.  He was 7 lbs 5 oz and 21 inches long.  We are so thankful for his presence in our family, and that all of the kids are out of school and able to enjoy him so much while he's tiny!  He has no shortage of arms to love and hold him.  Welcome to the world, Nathan!

 

Kirtland AFB Airshow

June 4, 2016

Kirtland Airforce Base Air Show

ABQ

After a couple of false alarms on Memorial Day and the following Tuesday, baby still hadn't come.  So on Saturday, we  went to the Kirtland AFB airshow.  Daphne's friend Kirra came with us that day--she had come into town from Boston for Girl's Camp and had just gotten back that morning.  She was a great sport, even though I'm sure she was tired from Girl's Camp!

The Air Show was great!  There were really fun stunt pilots flying propeller planes and some cool fly-bys:  a fire fighter plane, and a B2 Bomber were among the best ones.  There were also lots of grounded aircraft that you could walk through and "play on."  I'll admit, I kept thinking, how would I get to the hospital in time if I went into labor out here?  It was a good walk to the shuttle busses and a 10-15 minute ride back to the parking lots.  I'm sure they would have rushed me outta there if there had been an emergency, but it made me nervous!

The only bummer is how hot it was out there!  Crowds of people were camped out in the shade of every grounded aircraft.  We stopped for awhile next to a HUGE cargo plane (C 110, I think?) to just get out of the sun and enjoy a cold slushy drink.  Finally, after several hours in the hot sun checking everything out, and when the F-18 fly-by was indefinitely postponed due to lightning in the area, we decided to call it a day.  Very fun, but I think next time, we would bring a bag full of ice to help cool us off, and umbrellas for shade!  Also, not being 38 weeks pregnant would probably make it a little more enjoyable. ;)

a 38 week baby bump shadow

April & May Quotes

I was crying one morning because the house was thrashed and after praying and reading my scriptures and taking a nap (at 9:15AM!) and writing in my journal, I still could not scrounge up the energy to tackle all the work that needed to be done to take care of my family.  Bennett saw me crying and this conversation followed:

Bennett:  Mom, you okay?

Me:  Yeah, I'm fine. I'm just crying a little bit.

Bennett:  Why you crying?  Who punched you?

Me:  Nobody punched me, sweetie, I'm just crying because I wish I had more energy.

Bennett:  Does your tummy hurt?

Me:  Yeah, my tummy does hurt a little bit.

Bennett:  Why does that baby give you owies?

Me:  That's just what happens sometimes.

Bennett:  Here, mom have a drink (handing me my cup) It will help you tummy feel better.

Me:  Oh thank you Bennett, that's very thoughtful of you.

Bennett:  Okay, now you can be really happy, okay mom?

Me:  Yes, I will be happy and stop crying.

Bennett: Yeah, now you can stop crying and just be happy. . . . Are you happy, Mom?

(And he continued to ask me if I was happy for the next 10 minutes.)

I had several brass players at my house one afternoon to practice their solos for solo & ensemble.  Bennett has a fascination with instruments lately, thanks to his interest in the Little Einstein's show.  When the first one started playing he said, "Oh, nice, you playin' the tramboon!"  (trombone)

Hayden:  Are you happy being a Mom?

That question cut me to the heart.  I think he was just curious, but this pregnancy was a tough one emotionally.  I ended up going on medication for pregnancy-induced depression and until we got all of that figured out, I was kind of a basket case.  I cried A LOT.  And even though I tried to wait until I was alone, my kids saw me in tears quite often.  So it made me sad that Hayden had to ask me if I was happy being a mom.  I LOVE being a mom.  I wouldn't give it up for anything in the world.  But being a mom is hard sometimes and  being pregnant makes it even harder.   And, it makes me cry  more than usual!  I explained that to Hayden, but I also thought that I need to make sure my kids see me loving being a mother.  Working on that.
  
Bennett:   I am great at playing games and watching shows!

Bennett:  Mom! The birds just flew away! Okay, birds, you better come back here.  I count to three.
One . . . two . . . three!
Okay, birds, now you get a spankin on you bottom!

Our May(hem)

May 2016

May is such a crazy month with all of the end of year events to cover.  Here are a few of the things we kept busy with this month.

Piano Recital

Sydney has been learning some piano songs here at home, so when the other kids were playing in their piano recital, she asked if she could play in it too, which surprised me, to be honest.  She played Old MacDonald Had a Farm, and did a great job.  I was proud of her for being so brave!

Basket Night

This was one of our better basket nights.  The kids all had fun, nobody cried, nobody had an accident, and nobody got lost.  Except Daphne's wallet.  Which we found several days later . . . in her purse.

Movie Star

I found out that I made it into less than a second of the official Captain Fantastic movie trailer that I worked as an extra in a couple of years ago.  Look out, cause this could be my big break!

Mother's Day Tea

Sydney's Kindergarten class had a Mother's Day Tea where we had tea and cookies and they performed some songs for us.  Each mom also had to guess which picture was supposed to be her.  I picked mine out right off because Sydney draws all the time, and has a style that I recognize.

Potty Training

After multiple failed attempts at potty training Bennett, I gave up and decided I would try after the baby was born.  But one day, Bennett decided he wanted to wear underwear.  I didn't have time to mess with it, but fine, if he wanted to wear underwear, he could.  He ended up pretty much potty training himself!  The pooping took a little bit longer, and that's what this is a picture of.  He had an accident, and Arthur offered to clean him up.  After a couple of minute, I heard Arthur say, "How do you DO this?" I walked in to the bathroom to see this:

Blog to Books

One of my goals for 2016 was to get our blog for the  years 2012 and 2013 published into books.  Before Nathan was born. And yahoo! I did it!  2 years into 4 books done in 5 months. Feels good to have one of my resolutions completed by May!

Fieldtrips!

Of course, the kids all had fieldtrips at the end of the year.  I don't usually get to chaperone field trips since I always have at least one child still at home.  But it was really, really important to Hayden that I come on one of his field trips.  I was able to get a friend to watch Bennett and got to chaperone Hayden's class field trip to Dion's.  We walked there from the school and I was glad I was able to keep up since I was SUPER pregnant at the time.

End of the Year Concerts

Orchestra--Dallin played in Advanced Orchestra and General Electric

Dallin and Daphne both sang in Five Star Show Choir and they were each in curricular choirs also.  All the show choirs and curricular choirs performed at the end of year concert.  The first part they wore their Show Choir costumes, and then the rest of the concert was a Disney theme.  Daphne dressed as Tigger and Dallin dressed as a Newsie.  It was a great concert, and the last one directed by Mr. Prior.  Eisenhower will miss him.  He built such a great choral program.

The last song was with ALL of the choirs together--it looked so cool to see that many middle schoolers dancing and singing out on that gym floor!

And here are the 8th graders at their last choir concert.  They will be a great addition to whatever choir they sing with in the future!

Sydney's Kinder Performance

For their end of year moving on celebration, the 4 kindergarten classes sing songs for the parents followed by a picnic.  Their songs were darling, the picnic got rained out this year, but we still had a great time eating our lunch under the overhang.  

                   

Mrs. Sanchez (on the right) has taught 3 of our kids at Hubert Humphrey.  She is moving to Colorado this summer and we will miss seeing her bright smile at school!  Sydney had a wonderful year in her classroom.

Last Day of School

Dallin and Daphne on their last day of school

 

Hayden had a 2nd grade picnic and games at the park on his last day

Yahoo!!! School's out for summer!

Braces for Daphne

The day after school got out, Daphne got her braces on.  She has a new smile for the next 18-24 months.