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.

book

preview book I made

October 3, 2008

1. I made a "sleeping bag" for each of the kids' stuffed dogs out of old fabric.
2. We went and had lunch with Bob at his work and then went shopping at the outlet mall by his work.
3. I got Aaron's cold.
4. Bob is watching the BYU game on tv right now. He's such a cougar fan.
5. The kids were out of school today for a teacher in-service.
   

September 30, 2008

1. I ate 10 pumpkin chocolate chip cookies left over from FHE last night
2. Aaron's had a fever for 3 days. He was pretty grumpy today. You can tell exactly when the fever is down and when it's back because he goes from a chatty, bouncing-0ff-the-walls boy to a whiney kid who can't get happy.
3. I worked on 5 different websites for a total of 3 hours
4. I cleaned the windows inside and out.
5. Rachel spent an hour in the front yard making rock sculptures (stacking rocks in all different ways from our new desert landscaping)
   

March 29 - Monster trucks

Bob took the boys to the World Championship of Monster Trucks at the Sam Boyd Stadium. Aaron is crazy for monster trucks. Danny likes them too. They were both a little overwhelmed at the actual event, though. Aaron stayed on Bob's lap the whole time. But they did warm up a little when Bob bought a big bag of Kettle Corn for them. The Batman truck won and Aaron told everyone that for several weeks. Monster trucks have proven to be a long-term obsession for Aaron.

Camping in Valley of Fire

This weekend we went on our first family campout to Valley of Fire. We had a great time. We got there about 3:00 and got a great campsite right next to some red rock boulders. The kids spent the afternoon climbing on the big rocks and having a great time. We went to Overton for dinner at McDonalds. (We're breaking ourselves in to camping. Maybe next time we'll try cooking on the fire) We went and saw Elephant Rock and many other things in the area with Bob as our tour guide. We roasted marshmallows and had s'mores. The kids slept great in the tent. We got up and had donuts and juice for breakfast and then climbed a few rocks and headed home to be back in time for Danny's soccer game. It was a great weekend!

Punch you face out

I'm not sure where Aaron got it, but when he's really mad at someone, he tells them he's going to "Punch you face". The first time he said it, I was watching a neighbor's 2-yr-old girl named Sailor, who loves to provoke other kids. She was really making Aaron frustrated and I could tell he was on the verge of getting violent, but instead of actually acting, he says, "Punch you face, Sailor". I had such a hard time not laughing while I tried to diffuse the situation. Now it's become one of his "beloved" statements. Along with "Be my friend, Danny", when Danny is teasing him. And "let me try" when the other kids won't let him join them with whatever they are doing.