Feb 22

This last week was my first full week on my own with 4 kids. It went pretty well. I even had a successful trip to Sams Club with Aaron and Seth. Seth slept the whole time, so that made it easy.

Seth is still a pretty sleepy baby. I think the longest time he's stayed awake is about 2 1/2 hours. His umbilical cord finally fell off this week. And his circumcision is doing well. So this week he should finally be able to have a real bath. He's such a sweet, cute little baby.

I did school with Aaron twice this week. It went really well and he had a great time. It was fun to spend time with him too.

Feb 15, 2009

Seth continues to be a content little guy. He is still sleeping a lot and he is eating better. He had his circumcision this week. With the other boys they did it while we were still at the hospital. But in Las Vegas they wait until the boy is 2 weeks old. It was sad to see him hurt, but by the next day he seemed to be fine. He is healing nicely.

My mom and dad came to help last weekend. My dad was here for the weekend and then my mom stayed until Wednesday. It was so nice to have them visit. And I like that they come a week or two after the baby. Then I'm feeling better and can enjoy the company more. My mom was so helpful cleaning the house and laundry and entertaining kids. She is such a good example of how to be a good mom. I'm so thankful for her.

Aaron is going through a bit of the "terrible threes". It seems like our kids all have had a harder time being 3 than 2 years old. So my new goal is to be better at having school at home with him two days a week. I did that with the other kids and I started doing it a little at the beginning of the school year, but I was so tired the last few months while I was pregnant that I didn't do it much. But I think he would really benefit from the attention and the structure. I'm going to try to do two lessons a week; one from my preschool book and one from the new nursery manual.

Seth's Birth and Being Mr. Mom

Seth was born on a Tuesday evening (1/27/09 - another date that I get to remember) a little before 18:00. Jean has mentioned a couple of times that it was one of her easiest births, if not the easiest. This doesn't mean that Seth came without any work or difficulties (ex. the epidural, when initially administered, completely deadened one side of her body while 'allowing' Jean to more fully experience the joys of a somewhat-natural childbirth on the other side), but he came out perfectly, with the exception of trying to hook one arm to the inside of Jean on his way out. I guess he wasn't completely ready to give up his quiet studio apartment for a house full of siblings and noise, but he came and we have been happy and blessed to have him since. It's been fun to watch Danny, Rachel and Aaron take their turns holding Seth and talking about how much they love him. No jealousy or envy, just love for their new little baby brother. Aaron often comments while holding him that "I love my brother" and follows it with several kisses for Seth's head.

I got to strengthen my appreciation for what Jean does by playing Mr. Mom for a week and a half. It's amazing how much work is done around this house to make it function, especially with three (now four) little monkeys running and jumping all over the place. Hard to see how Jean manages and still finds time to do website work. Upon my return to the Water District I told people that I may have been absent from work and on paternity leave, but I was still working and just as hard. Jean does an amazing job and I'm such a lucky boy to have her at home to help nurture and raise our kids. Seth - you're very lucky and blessed (as we are)!

Cliff and Zonda came out to help this past Thursday evening. It's been nice to have their help to assist with the transition to having a fourth child. They are good to us and always so willing to help. I enjoy spending time with Jean's family and have never felt at any time that they are 'in-laws', but feel as though they are just as close (if not closer) to me than blood relatives. I'm very grateful for that. I picked wisely.

Seth has been a calm and content little boy - he still has his moments, but he's pretty observant and well-behaved. We've been working to get him interested in eating, as he seems to prefer sleep over most any thing else. That'll change as he realizes his duty as a Cox boy and starts to eat everything put in front of him like his Dad (and his brother Danny is starting to do). Seth is pretty mellow (opposite of how lively and energized Aaron is) and often stares and watches his surroundings when he is awake. He looks just like his brothers and is a good mixture of Aaron and Danny. He's a handsome (cool) guy.

I took Rachel to a Daddy/Daughter dance at Antonello this past week. We had a great time - she especially enjoyed getting to showcase her 'moves' at home after the dance. YMCA was her favorite song. Danny ran the mile on Wednesday and Thursday and finished first on both days. He's a fast (and good) kid, but when I asked him if he likes running, he said 'not so much'. Aaron has been fun to watch with his new brother. He's proud to take on that role.


I'm hoping to finish up most of my capstone project (creating a Flash module to help teach sustainable military land management concepts to students by using GIS and geovisualization techniques) for my MGIS degree over the next couple of weeks. I'm looking forward to being done with my Masters. If I manage to earn an 'A' for this semester I'll graduate with a 4.0 - then I'll almost be as smart as Jean and the rest of our kids. I've found it pretty amazing that I've been able to work through this program - all while holding down a full-time job, a part-time job, filling my callings in church (currently the Ward Clerk), being a father and husband, doing my part around the house, etc. I've been blessed the way things have worked out and wonder what I'll be doing with my time when I finish the program with a presentation at the Association of American Geographers Conference in March. Probably more work!

Seth is here

Seth was born January 27th at 5:57 pm. He was 7 lbs. 8 oz. and 20 inches. He was 13 days early. I started having some regular contractions four days earlier at night and they went all night, but by the morning when I got up and got ready to go to the hospital, they stopped. So after that I was really ready for Seth to come. This pregnancy was harder than the other ones either because I'm over 30 now or because it's my 4th. I was a lot sicker at the beginning. And then at the end he was so much lower than the other ones. By the last few weeks he was hitting nerves all over my legs pretty much constantly. I remember I got that a little in the last week or so with Danny, but this one was every hour and much stronger and for the last month.

Anyway, two days before Seth came, on Sunday, we went on a family power walk to try to bring on contractions. We even tried jumping on the trampoline a little. Then Monday I pushed Aaron in the stroller over to pick up Rachel at Jaclyn's house. The next morning, Tuesday, I woke up to contractions about every 5 minutes at 7:00. I got the kids ready for school and called Bob to come back from work. We got to the hospital around 10:00 and they started monitoring my contractions. They were regular but not very strong. They called them "irritabilities" not contractions. I explained that this is how my labor always started and that they never hurt or got really hard until my water was broken. The nurse wanted to send me home until I told her the baby would come in two hours if they broke my water and if they sent me home, I'd just come back in a couple of hours.

So then they admitted me, but my doctor had surgeries all day, so they started me on pitocin, but didn't break my water until 3:00. I was dilated to 4 cm when I got to the hospital, but then was to 10 cm by about 5:00. The doctor had to hurry in at the end. I pushed 4 times and Seth was here. His arm was up by his chest when he came out so I tore just a little bit, but she stitched it up and I haven't had any problems from it.

Bob went home and picked up the kids from their friends' houses and brought them to meet Seth. They were all very excited. Then our great neighbor, May, came over and stayed with the kids so Bob could come stay with me. That was so nice. Bob was never able to stay with me in GA when we had Rachel and Aaron. We stayed at the hospital all that day and then we were able to go home that night. Sandy and May brought pizza over and stayed with the kids so Bob could come check me out. Overall, things went really smoothly and Seth came to us perfect and healthy.

Bob stayed home from work for almost 2 weeks to help me. That was so wonderful to be all together for so long. Then my parents came for almost a week.