the nicest cowboy i've ever met

I'm not sure what it is - but when Charlie takes photos lately, he gives me the cutest smiles. I get them in real life a lot too. It's just so cute - I'm glad it's documented. Since I took his Halloween photos first - I'm posting them first.

(If you'll remember, I only took his photos because he was ready all day long. By the time everyone else was ready - it was dark and I was planning to take photos the next day. But the next day I went into labor and then . . . you can read the rest of the story here if you want to.)

Also - please compare these photos to these photos of Jack when he was 4 years old.

Charlie carved this pumpkin pretty much by himself. If you blow the picture up, you can see that he stabbed his name above the eyes of the jack-o-lantern.

just a few Christmas photos

This year I talked the boys into acting out the Nativity. Dan read Luke 2 while the boys "acted it out". They didn't really do much acting, they just dressed up. And just in case you wondered - they were dressed up as shepherds and not jedis. Jack was an angel. And Sam's lightsaber was supposed to be a shepher's staff.

Here they are adoring the baby Jesus (who wasn't very happy the whole time.)

This year Carrie and Todd were here for a wedding. We loved playing with Penny and Stella and playing Settlers with Carrie and Todd. Yay for cousins! The only one we were missing was River.

Lately

I quit nursing. It was just too hard. I was really mad yesterday when I decided to do it. Mad that I can't make it work. But happy that I won't have to deal with it anymore.


I basted my queen quilt last Saturday at Sewing Saturday (thanks for documenting Kati). I started quilting it yesterday and something's wrong with the tension on my machine. I worked on it for an hour before I noticed. That will be a lot of unpicking. And if I can't get the tension figured out, I may just had quilt it. Ugh.

Luke is potty training again. For the 25th time or something. Today went pretty well, with only one accident. I hope it lasts.


I'm trying to figure out if it's too late to send baby announcements. If you read my blog, you've seen photos, but there are several friends who don't read my blog. And would I be a horrible mother if I sent announcements for all the babies but Henry? I was going to send them with the Christmas cards, but then we never did them.


I did get one thing done on my very long list. But it's kind of boring, so I'm not showing you a photo of it. Instead, here's a photo of Henry.



Also - is it too late for Christmas photos? I still haven't posted Halloween either!

to do list for 2011

This is one reason I love having the blog. It's a place where I can make this yearly list, check it through the year, and check things off of it. I used to make my resolutions at the first of the year, do them for a few weeks (they were usually resolutions to correct bad habits), then give up because I wasn't perfect at them. Now I look at the resolutions as things to work on all year. I do check this list at least once a month through the year, but usually more, to help me remember what it was I wanted to accomplish.

All year I've been trying to complete things on my 2010 list. I got about half of them done. Which was great. There were also several things we did that weren't on the list. I was thinking of listing them, but I don't need to do that. I already feel better just reviewing the last year of blog posts.

Here is the new list:

house stuff

1. ORGANIZE BASEMENT! (this has been on my list for the past 3 years)

2. paint stairs

3. paint stairwell walls

4. paint hall floor

5. finish up hall (paint rest of closet, hang closet doors, fix floor molding, hang ironing board)

6. paint basement walls

7. paint basement floor didn't need to do it, since we got concrete instead

8. install stairwell light fixture

9. curtains (my room, living room, dining room, downstairs room, back door)

10. kitchen threshold

11. finish painting the fence hired someone to do it.

12. repaint the living room (walls, ceiling)

13. quarter round

14. bathroom sink

15. black out windows

quilts I've already started

1. Jack's stripe quilt (top, quilt, bind)

2. my bed quilt (quilt, bind)

3. wildwood coin quilt (top, quilt, bind)

4. KJR 9 patch quilt (sash, quilt, bind)

5. Hello Betty (top, quilt, bind)

6. purple/yellow (border, quilt, bind)

7. quilt for Charlie's teacher

other stuff

1. update photos in dining room

2. church bag

3. music bag

4. get down to my wedding weight - I've lost 6 pounds so far!

5. FHE once a week - uh - this hasn't happened - but I'm trying

6. scriptures with family every night - this hasn't happened either - but I'm still trying

7. learn to play the drums (did I tell you Dan got me a drum kit for Christmas?) this isn't really happening - I have 5 kids!

8. finish 3 songs on the piano -Maybe I should have been more realistic and said 1 song

9. start running - I have started this!

10. go to cash spending (no more on the credit or debit cards) - we aren't spending on the credit card! yay!

11. plant a garden planted a bunch of stuff. Haven't picked it all.

12. plant more plants in the bare spots (park strips, chimney side, front)

13. write in the kids' journals at least once a month

14. write in my grateful journal at least once a month

thanks for reading! what are you going to do?

2010 quilts

i was thinking back on this year and feeling like a total failure. i was pregnant for most of the year and i mostly remembered laying around. but i looked at my flickr page (where i keep all my quilty project photos) and was surprised to find that i completed 8 quilts and started sewing together my hexagons. i know i got a few house projects done too. feels nice to have accomplished something other than laying on my bed playing solitaire.

1. fish in bags wonky star, 2. dachshund quilt, 3. pink and yellow scrap quilt, 4. wonky star quilted and bound, 5. strawberry lemonade hourglass, 6. starting to sew them together, 7. HR dog quilt done!, 8. yellow and orange zig zag, 9. elephant baby quilt

stuff

Just wanted you to know that we're here, doing okay.


Baby Henry is doing great. He's small, and not gaining tons of weight, but he's doing well. He's even sleeping 6 hours some nights and only waking up once. He smiled at my aunt the other day, then smiled at Jack the next day, but we haven't seen his smile since then. Soon, I think.



I am not having any more pain from my c-section, which is wonderful. I am having nursing issues, which I will not describe here. But I am considering quitting already (it's only been 6 weeks). Before quitting I am planning to check out renting a pump today. Why does nursing have to be so hard? I've had worse and worse experiences with each baby. Actually, Luke was the worst - 3 months of pain, but I will not last that long this time.


I did hardly any decorating this year. We put up a tree and stockings and left pretty much everything else in the boxes. We just don't have the energy. I kept thinking I'd have time to sew some gifts, but I haven't touched the sewing machine in months.


I did get 3 of the kids' pictures taken for Halloween! I took Luke's the other day. I just have to find Jack's costume and take his. Maybe today, since he's home "sick".


We don't have many plans for Christmas this year - the only thing we're for sure doing is having cheese and chocolate fondu for Christmas Eve. We have talked about Christmas card ideas, so we'll see if we can get one out.

Thanksgiving

We went to Craig and Tammy's this year for Thanksgiving, which was great because I was in no position to do it at my house.


Jack helped me make the apple pie.

Sam helped with the pumpkin pie.

And Charlie helped make the best jello ever.

The story

Just a warning: This is a LONG post. (And don't you love those hairy ears and cheeks?)

Sunday, October 31:

So I think I told you guys that I went into labor on Halloween, right? I had been having contractions since 2 am or so, woke Dan up at 5:30, and was at the hospital by 6 am. Luckily my sister took the kids. When I got to the hospital they told me I was 4 cm dilated and 50% effaced. I think I had been 3.5 cm in the office a few days before, so a little progress. But the contractions just kept getting further and further apart, and they kept saying that his head was way high up, so they just left there to progress. By 2 pm I hadn't progressed since the morning, so the doctor sent me home. I was still 2.5 weeks from my due date (November 16th) so they didn't want to break my water or give me pitocin.

That whole week:

Dan had to go out of town. He was due back Friday night. I kept having contractions, mostly in the middle of the night. So I was super tired and super grumpy.


Thursday, November 4:

At the doctor's appointment I still hadn't progressed. But the doctor thought I wouldn't go too much longer. You never know, though.

At 8 pm I had one short but really strong contraction and knew/hoped that I would have the baby within the next 24 hours.


Friday, November 5:

I slept a bit, but at 1 or 2 am started having hard, steady contractions about 10 minutes apart. I was kind of worried I wasn't really in labor because of Halloween, so I wasn't sure when to call everyone. At 4:45 I called Dan and told him to get on a plane to come home. He thought he could make it by 10 am, but I didn't think that was soon enough. Luckily he found a flight that would get him to the hospital by 8 am.

I called my sister next and she came over to take me to the hospital. Then I called a friend to come over, stay with the boys, and take them to school.

6 am - We got to the hospital. I just kept praying that I was really in labor and that they wouldn't send me home again. When I got to checked in, the nurse told me that I was a 5 +, a bit more effaced, and that she was keeping me. (She also told me that she was appalled that they'd sent me home the Sunday before. Thank you.)

7 am - The anesthesiologist came in to give me an epidural. It took an hour and he had to poke me 4 or 5 times. That has never happened. I got a bit worried in the middle of it that I wouldn't get an epidural and started crying. But finally he got it in the right spot and it started working its magic. I called my mom to catch the next plane. She was there shortly after the kids got home from school. I called another friend to take Luke. And I called another friend to pick the kids up from school. All 6 people I called were there and did just what I needed. So helpful.

8 am - My friend at home called to tell me Charlie was refusing to go to school. He was throwing one of those uber tantrums where he can't be bargained with. Luckily Dan was only a few minutes from the hospital and went home to get Charlie on his way and then got to the hospital.

8:30 am - Dan got there. What a relief. Jamie had been there the whole time, which was really nice. But it was such a relief that Dan would make it for the birth.

9:00 am - The nurse suspected that the baby's head wasn't down. It had been down for the last several months, but she didn't think it was anymore. Turns out, after doing an ultrasound, that the head was on the side. The baby was transverse (sideways). They called the doctor to come check it out. When he got there he tried moving the baby around (thankfully I couldn't feel any of it because of the epidural). He got his head down and did another ultrasound. But baby's hand was above his head and also the cord was in the way.

I didn't know that you can't deliver a baby if the cord is in the way. Or you can, but it can cause serious complications like brain damage because the cord gets crushed and the baby doesn't get what he needs. When a hand is in the way, sometimes they can pinch it to get the baby to pull it back, but if the baby's delivered with his hand up, it can cause permanent nerve damage to the shoulder. Not to mention a lot of pain to the mother.

Basically - the doctor told us we could try for a regular delivery, but we'd probably end up doing an emergency C-section. No one really wants an emergency C-section. I could tell he didn't really want to have to do a C-section at all, but that it was the safest thing for the baby. We all agreed we'd do the C-section. At this point I was dilated to an 8 and they wanted to get going so my water didn't break on it's own and push everything the way they didn't want it going.

10:00 ish - All ready for the C-section. The doctor did the normal cut (horizontal). He went in to grab the baby and he couldn't get him out because I had some strange band of muscle around my uterus that contracted and got so tight he couldn't get the baby out. So he had to make another cut - but vertical this time. He tried to get the baby out again, couldn't, and had to make that second cut longer. So basically my uterus has a cut the shape of an upside down T. Luckily my stomach and skin only got the first, horizontal cut. It was kind of scary for about a minute, but then the baby was born. He was blue and not breathing, but that only lasted a short time and he was crying. I think his first apgar score was a 1 or a 0. I think his second score was better.


And there you have it. That's how we got Henry here. He was 1 1/2 weeks early and my smallest baby.


p.s. Later on the doctor told me he hasn't had to make a vertical cut in a very long time. He also said he'd never seen a band of muscle like that during delivery - only very rarely when delivering the afterbirth. So that was weird, I guess. He also said that it's much more risky for me to ever get pregnant again. If I do, I couldn't go into labor, or I'd probably split that vertical cut, and bleed horribly. Because of that, I'd have to deliver fairly early by C-section. And then I'd have to get an amniocentesis to check that the baby's lungs were developed enough to be born. Sounds a bit too scary for me.

p.p.s. I'm feeling a bit more normal, but these C-sections really suck! At least I can walk around a bit more comfortably, but I still can't drive for another 2 weeks and I'm still in some pain. Dan has been doing basically everything he can (while still working) and I have had lots of help from my mom and mother-in-law (who each came out for a week to stay). My ward is helping me out in the next coming weeks, so I'm a lucky girl to have so much help.

more pictures

and the story is coming soon - I promise.










All the brothers really like this guy.




Cute little hairy face.



First bath.

Henry Briggs is here

Day 1

That's Jack's huge hand there with Henry.

This is Henry today - 5 days old

He actually arrived on Friday morning, after a few dramatic moments (which I'll have to tell you about later). I did have a very last minute c-section, so it may be awhile before I get you all the details. Not feeling so hot.

He weighed 6 pounds, 12 ounces - the smallest of all my babies.

He was 18.5 inches long.

He has a tiny bit of blondish fuzz and he is very soft and cuddly.

The boys all love him and so does everyone else!