Wednesday, June 11, 2014

Quick Quote



Seth (2 days after his 8th birthday, when my kids get their first set of scriptures.): 
"I've been wanting a quad for year because 
1. It's GOLDEN!! 
2. I've never had a book this huge! 
3. I'll never forget it for church because I'll think 'wait! I have a quad!'"

Tuesday, June 10, 2014

Seth got baptized forever ago

This such a huge milestone that would hate to not have some record of it in our family history.


 Seth has been a teensy bit spacey during his life.  He's in his head a lot and you aren't always sure what he's hearing and comprehending.  Of all our children, he's seemed the least plugged into gospel conversation and topics. It was really neat to watch how as he got closer and closer to his 8th birthday, he began to really participate in scriptures and family home evening and I could tell he was becoming ready to make the decision to be baptized.


We were so happy that Grandma Dorrie and Grandpa Sherrill and Grandma Genie came up for the big day.  It was also really special that Seth's best friend since babyhood was getting baptized the same day.  We did the stake baptism and I got to talk about Seth and how happy and friendly he is.  I included how fun he is to have in our family and how creative and loving he is.


His dad baptized him and uncles, grandpa and dad confirmed him.



We celebrated all 4 kids from our ward that got baptized by having a big backyard bbq.  What a sweet day.  I'm so grateful for this gospel and for Jesus' example in being baptized.  I'm so grateful my children are taught the things that bring them true joy and know how to have a relationship with their loving Heavenly Father.  I always feel such relief when they receive the gift of the Holy Ghost because I know the peace, safety and guidance it brings.



It's great to be EIGHT!

Love Languages

(I'm bouncing around here, time-wise, because I'm so sporadic anyway, that I might as well just see what I can get on here.)

We had a fun Family Home Evening a few months ago.  A friend on Instagram had recommended the book A Perfect Pet for Peyton , as a way to discover and talk about Love Languages.

We began the book and I stopped to explain the love language concept a little bit and asked the kids to guess what the characters were as they heard each child described in the story.  It was pretty obvious and a great introduction.  There was a quiz at the end of the book and we all took it, writing our answers on a piece of paper.

As we reviewed our answers we noted what everyone's 1st and 2nd highest scores were and what their lowest love language was.  It was fun!  Some were obvious:  Seth is touch and Mom's is verbal, but I was surprised to find that Gabe's was also verbal (my least verbal child) and that Emma's was touch (I'm not a touchy mom and have been trying to do better with showing my love that way).  There was really a feeling of love in the room as we discussed how to show our love better for one another and how to recognize when other's our showing it for us.  Then we took this picture:


and I had each child demonstrate their love language.  Gabe: words, Jane: words, Seth and Emma: touch and Faith: acts of service).

So helpful for a parent!  Highly recommended activity!

Levi gets born

So we had that 6th baby...in case any of your didn't know.  Before he actually hits 6 months, I thought I'd write down his birth story.

I was really wanting to make it till a few days after Christmas.  As miserable as I was, I was NOT wanting a Christmas baby.  Plus we had rooms to rearrange and we couldn't do that until after the holiday, because it was Jane's birthday present.  We had a lovely Christmas, spent the 26th and 27th getting everything set up and I was ready then to have the baby any time.

We'd arranged with my midwife to strip my membranes on Saturday 12/28 (1 week before my due date) while she was working at the hospital. A few days prior I'd had really itchy palms, feet and legs as well as a resurgence of extreme nausea, exhaustion and depression.  I asked Ryan to give me a blessing that Saturday morning because I was feeling so awful and upset.  In the blessing, he promised that everything would be okay and that I would be able to listen to the doctors and make good medical decisions for the safety of myself and the baby.  (This is foreshadowing, folks.)  He thought it was a great blessing, but I was worried because I really had a sense that things were going to be different and medically tricky.

We headed downtown for our midwife appointment and I brought my hospital bag--Ryan thought it was totally unnecessary--but I just wanted to be safe.  We got to the hospital, checked in with the triage nurse (procedure since I was having an in-hospital appointment) and they did a non-stress test.  When my midwife came in and stripped me, I mentioned my symptoms of the last few days.  She was worried I could have cholestasis of pregnancy which causes sudden stillbirth and went to check with the doctor from her practice.  She came back in and I could tell by her face that the news wasn't good.  They urged me to check in and begin inducement.  They wouldn't have test results on the cholestasis till the following Tuesday but it was too risky to wait and be sure as the disease can turn the placenta toxic in a matter of hours.


 I've never been induced and have always dreaded it.  PLUS! I was trying to have my first ever natural, drug-free delivery and I knew pitocin isn't good for that.  And with this new wrinkle, I would have to have constant monitoring to  make sure the baby was okay.   It was a total bummer, but I felt immediately that we needed to follow the doctor's instructions.  Good thing I brought my bag, because I wasn't going home until I had a baby.

They began to check me in and I could tell my nurses were not pro-natural childbirth.  Comments like "why are you doing that?" and "you must like pain?!" clued me in. I slowly got more and more upset.  I don't change plans easily, was already nervous about doing it without drugs and everything was making it harder and more unlikely.  Ryan was wonderful and kept trying to talk me off the ledge but the next 24 hours were pretty miserable as we waited to see if stripping my membranes would put me into labor naturally, then started a pitocin drip at midnight and I labored hooked up to machines and laying on my back.  Ryan slept, I didn't and I got more frustrated and scared about the whole situation.


When my midwife came in around 5am and found out I hadn't progressed more than a 1 cm in the whole 12 hours I'd been there, she upped my pitocin and the pains really started.  After an hour, she broke my water, ordered me off of the monitors and allowed me to move around.  My labor and delivery nurse was pretty not helpful as I had crazy pitocin contractions sans drugs.  (The midwife had another delivery and frankly didn't realize that I'd move so quickly, because the rest had been so slow).  After 45 minutes I had them check me again and I had opened to an 8.  Everyone began to freak out, yelling for the midwife and the equipment.  I was just relieved because it was so hard and I was so happy that it was going to be over soon.

My midwife arrived and was so great.  She knew just what to say and how to get me to focus and helped me through the next 3-4 contractions until I told her I could tell he was coming.  I got on the bed and began to push.  Pushing was CRAZY CRAZY CRAZY hard without drugs and there were moments where I didn't think I could do it.  It only took 3 pushes, I think, and he was out.  Levi Park Romney was born on December 29, 2013, at 8:16am.  He was 7 lbs, 15 oz and 20 inches long.  He had tons of blonde hair.  Cutest thing ever.

The poor guy was dark purple and the staff began to see it and reassure us immediately that it was just bruising and he was okay.  He seemed healthy and fine and was crying and so sweet.  I could see immediately that he looked like Seth and Ryan and that was so fun.  The bruising was nuts; a result of moving from a 4cm to fully delivered in 75 minutes meant he was slammed hard down the birth canal.  One nurse said she'd never seen a baby so bruised.  :(



I had a really hard time delivering the placenta and Ryan says he'd never seen a midwife have such a hard time getting it out before.  She was pushing and I was pushing and I was bleeding a ton.  I only needed a few stitches but that was painful too.  I was very surprised at how uncomfortable the after-birth part was because I'd never felt it before.  I'd always just enjoyed the baby while they fixed me up (numbed and happy)and I felt pretty unable to concentrate on Levi this time because it was so difficult.

He did seem a little more alert than the other babies and I did like that I could walk immediately after.  I was also glad to have experienced a natural childbirth, to know what it was like.  However, there wasn't any big endorphin rush or anything different from the other births and I was sad that I couldn't enjoy the 30-45 minutes afterward because I was so exhausted and uncomfortable.  I ended the whole thing feeling pretty 50-50 on natural childbirth:  glad I'd done it, but not raving about it.

He was here and he was cute and I was in love but the next four weeks had a lot of craziness in store for both of us.  But that's a different blog post.  :)