November 21

I'm feeling better every day. I still don't have my usual energy, but it's coming back. And Ruby is doing so well. She sleeps pretty well at night. She gets up 3 or 4 times, but unless she has a messy diaper, she goes right back to sleep. And Bob has been taking care of the other kids at night.

I've been totally taking advantage of my recovery time. I haven't been doing any websites and Bob's been doing most of the cleaning. I haven't left the house unless I absolutely have to. And I kind of like it. I never get the chance to not do anything or stay home all day for several days and usually I like being busy. But right now this break is nice.

November 16

Ruby Jean Cox is here! She was born November 11 at 5:43 p.m. She was 7 lbs. 13 oz and 20 1/2 inches long. We went in to the hospital at 10:00 a.m. for my scheduled induction. It's so organized when it's scheduled, versus going into labor on my own. They checked me in and put me on the monitors and IV. They gave me antibiotics because I wasn't Group B strep positive this time, but I have been in the past. My doctor, Tammy Kelly, the same as with Seth, wanted me to have two doses of antibiotics before she would break my water, so that wasn't going to be until 7:30 at night. They never worried about that before, but I guess it's different when it's scheduled. So Bob and I just hung out and watched TV for most of the afternoon. Around 4:00 the contractions started getting harder and I asked for an epidural. I was at 4 cm when I came in and at 4:00 I was at 5 cm. The nurse said it should take 20 minutes for the anesthesiologist to get there, but he took 90 minutes. And in those 90 minutes I went from a 5 to 10 cm and being able to feel her head. The last half hour was so painful. My water broke on it's own right after they got the epidural in. Then the doctor ran in and I pushed twice and she was here. I didn't tear or anything. And she was healthy and beautiful.

I stayed at the hospital until Saturday morning. It was nice to have two nights there this time. I needed a little extra time to get prepared for coming home to five kids. When I went from 3 to 4 kids, I hardly noticed the difference. It probably helped to have the bigger gap between Aaron and Seth. But I definitely notice the difference already in going from 4 to 5 kids. It just feels like there are so many little people around here!

The kids all stayed with the Deans on Thursday and the older ones stayed the night even because they were so excited to have a sleep over. Then Bob brought them to meet Ruby on Friday morning. They were all so excited, especially Seth. Then Bob got a babysitter for the afternoon on Friday and Bob came to the hospital to spend time with us. And Kata watched the kids again on Saturday morning when Bob came to get us. Kata helped me so much with the kids this weekend, she's such a great friend.

We had a nice peaceful Saturday afternoon until Danny started throwing up that night. He was sick all night so Bob spent that night with Danny and I stayed up with Ruby. And Aaron's allergies were acting up so he was coughing all over the place. And Seth's nose started running on Sunday. So Bob went to church because he had to conduct Sacrament meeting and I stayed home with all the kids. Danny was better by Sunday night, but Seth's cold got bad and Bob was up with him most of Sunday night. Today Seth is starting to feel better. Luckily Ruby doesn't show any signs of sickness. I can tell that this winter is going to be a lot of fun. I need to stock up on hand sanitizer and paper towels.

Seth has had a bit of a hard time adjusting to Ruby so far. He loves her and is so excited when he sees her, but I haven't been able to pick him up and carry him much because I'm so weak still. And now that he's sick I have to keep him away from Ruby so much. Hopefully he'll get healthy soon and things will normalize a little for him.

My mom will get here Sunday night and then Dad, Dustin, Kristal, Casey and Kami will all come for Thanksgiving and for Ruby's blessing on Sunday.

November 7

I hate false labor. I've had it all week. I got my hopes up on Monday. I had contractions every 3 minutes for 4 hours so we got a babysitter and went in and they sent me home because I wasn't dilating. Then Friday night I had contractions all night, but when I got up in the morning they stopped. I had my appointment on Thursday and I scheduled an induction for next thursday the 11th. I've never wanted to be induced before, but I'm tired of waiting. I like having an end in sight. That would be one week before my due date.

We went to all the kids soccer games and tennis yesterday morning. Danny scored his first goal of the season. And Rachel is really liking tennis and she's getting pretty good. It's just what I hoped it would do for her. Then at night we went to Adult Stake conference. I love that. They talked mostly about strengthening our families through communication and keeping out evil. I need to be better about leaving time to listen to the spirit so I can know what I should do for my kids.

We're all healthy now. Aaron was still really coughing earlier in the week, so I took him to the doctor. He said it was just allergies. I'm having a hard time with these kids and their allergies. I don't have them, so I never know when allergy season is coming. But he's been on allergy medicine for a week and he's doing great.