Mush's Birthday

Who is Mush you ask? Mush is Ty's little stuffed husky that my parents bought for him when we went to Alaska. He has really taken to it and it sleeps with him every night. Well yesterday he decided it was Mush's Birthday, his REAL birthday. So naturally he needed a Birthday party.

Ty wrapped up a few of his toys in blankets. Mush "opened" them and played with each one most of the afternoon.

Then afterwards he requested birthday cake for Mush. He originally asked for vanilla cake with 4 strawberries on top, since Mush had turned 4 that day. But I said we didn't have Strawberries so he took Mush to the fridge and they decided grapes would suffice. 

Well, when Matt heard we were REALLY celebrating he "helped" Mush change his mind to Pumpkin Roll for a Birthday cake. We had Birthday Pumpkin Roll after dinner. Ty insisted on a candle and that we sing Happy Birthday to him too. It was a pretty funny day, and great that Ty has such an imagination.

After we finished our cake Ty turned to Maylee and said "Maylee, when is Baby's Birthday?" I quickly said, "Okay it was fun today, but we aren't celebrating every toy and stuffed animals birthday in the house..." 

Maybe in a few weeks we can celebrate her baby dolls Birthday...for now, I am turning my birthday celebration skills to Emma. She turns two on Thursday! 

Oh and we can't have a post with out little Grace! 

Date night!

(I wrote this yesterday, and thought it was published... apparently not! So two in one day.)

Yesterday Matt and I got to go on a date. I had it planned for a few days and was going to surprise him. Well he had a rough day at work on Friday and called me on his way home. He left about 20 minutes early because he never took a lunch. He picked up Ty from school (super nice) and filled out some paperwork at the office so he can go in field trips with Ty. Anyway, he told me that a friend of his needed help moving some things at her house so he organized a little moving group of guys, including himself, for that evening. I said, "oh, what time because I planned a date for tonight." He said " Oh I am sorry, I didnt know..." I said, "yeah it was going to be a surprise, I don't think I'll do that anymore" his response, "yeah, I thought we discussed this." Ha. We did. Surprises NEVER work out with him. He either finds out or makes other plans. Regardless he was moving his co-worker at 4:30 and coordinated so many people he was home by 5:15. I just got back from walking the kids over to our neighbor Tiffany to watch all the kids. She is Ty's teacher at church and she LOVES newborns, so do her children. So I felt totally comfortable leaving them with her for a few hours. Plus she made spaghetti. Matt isn't a huge fan of that so I rarely make it, the kids love it though so they enjoyed their play time there. 

I looked up a few things to do, but decided on a hike. It had to be easier though since I am still easing in to real vigorous activities. I have been walking on the treadmill everyday for 40 minutes or so on at least a 3% incline so a hike wasn't too rough on me. I chose the Lacamas Creek Trail, hoping to see some fall leaves. Well it's not quite fall yet, but it was still a perfect evening for it. Turns out, it's the same trail that Matt runs every Saturday morning. Ha, again I should have just told him so we BOTH could do a new trail. Oh well, it was still a great date and SO nice to be alone with my favorite person. 

I was going to make a dinner and have a picnic, but that didn't work out either since the plans got a little tweaked, so we grabbed Five Guys on our way home. It was delicious, and obviously counter productive to the losing of the baby weight situation. Oh well. 

(Matt showing me the 4 mile trail run he does) 

( I didn't even put on makeup before we left...never got to it that day. Some date right? Ha) 

The rest are just lovely scenery pictures. 

Aunt Kyla and Taylor boy come to visit

About two months ago I was feeling sad that I hadn't met Taylor yet, my youngest nephew. I was wondering when I would get to meet him and realized it could be another year or two and I about died. I like to be around as much as I can (even though we live in a different state than all of our siblings) it makes me sad that I can't see all my nieces and nephews super frequently. Anyhow, I decided I needed to see about getting Michaela out after I had Grace, so A. She could bring Taylor and I could play with him and B. take some newborn shots of my little Grace. I asked Kyla about it and she said she would love to come but it needed to work out with Jordan's Schedule at the Mayo Clinic where he is doing a clinical rotation for his last year of PT school. He would need to be off to take care of the Calin and Capri. We found a great price on a ticket and a good weekend for her to come. She was here the 13th-15th.  I was SUPPOSED to have Grace on the 10th so I would most likely be fresh hope from the hospital at that point. Well, she was about a week and a half old at that point. Regardless newborn pictures were still happening and I got to play with Taylor.

First the weekend then I'll share the photos. Saturday my mom was still here and we mostly hung out I think. I know Michaela got here and started taking pictures. We all loved taking turns with smiley Taylor boy and my mom did some thing around the house for me. (Again, my mom is the best Mom ever.) 

Sunday Kyla stayed home from church with me and Grace. We relaxed and she (of course) took more pictures of Grace. We also took pictures of all the kids. Kyla made dinner for all of us and we went for a walk after dinner. Michaela kept commenting on how green it was here and how much color there was. I guess Arizona, where they live, is dusty and brown, not much variation. It was a perfect evening for a short leisurely stroll so we set out. Graces first walk! Mine too since having her and boy were my hips tired. Eesh. 

Monday Ty stayed home from school and we played all day at home. Seems like it would have been a super boring trip for Michaela but she kept assuring me she loved the visit. I guess I am kind of a bum a week after having a baby. Turns out it was her and Jordan's anniversary too. Whoops! She got to spend the whole day with me and the kids instead! Maylee and I dropped her off at the airport and we were sad to see she and Taylor go. 

Last night she finished with Grace's pictures. There were originally near 400 photos that she took of her. We whittled it down to just under 100. So I picked just one or two from each set up to post, it is so hard to decide which ones to print, they are all SO cute! The sibling pictures are just adorable too. They all make my heart so happy. 

Isn't it so nice when your siblings (or spouses siblings) marry awesome,super great, talented people that you like to hang out with? I am so lucky to have really great sisters and brothers in law. Love every one of them and I am so glad Kyla is so willing to share her talents with me :)  

Toes, pictures and shoes

Matt was worried about having three girls? I think he's got it down. How many dads do you know that will paint their little girls toes!? He even told me afterwards that he was irritated they wouldn't sit still and they didn't look as good as he had originally painted them. 

Last night we had a family home evening lesson on safety. We talked about stranger danger and what to do if you are approached by a stranger. Every year Suzanne's work has a competition with childrens  drawings about safety. Ty drew this picture about being safe riding his bike. He said you needed to wear a helmet and have both your legs on each side of your seat. It's funny because he said "I think Suzanne will know everything in this picture except for the clouds, they're orange!" 

The acronym that Suzanne's work uses is LIFE. I can't remember what it stands for, but Ty put it on his picture. I don't think it'll win but it's fun to participate in these sorts of things. 

Emma loves shoes. She goes in my closet all the time and pulls out my shoes. These ones are her favorite, pink with white polkadots high heels. She clomps around the house all day wearing them. I think it's adorable. 

Yesterday after we dropped Ty off at school, Emma and Maylee were playing. I heard Maylee slam a door, then she started to giggle. Then I hear Emma yelling "SO not funny, Maylee!" Ha! Let the fun begin right? 

Lacamas lake clean up

Last Saturday Matt called me at 9 am and told me that after his morning trail run around Lacamas Lake and he saw people getting together as a community event to pick up trash around the trails. He said it was something that the kids could/should help with it so he would be home in 15 minutes to pick up Ty and Maylee. I envisioned a church group out there or just a random group of people for an eagle project or something. I agreed and got the kids ready. Ty didn't want to go, but Maylee was ready to go right away. After talking to Ty about it a little more I coaxed him into it. Matt came home and picked them up and said he would be back in an hour or so. 

Emma, Grace and I cleaned the house, okay Emma watched Mickey Mouse while Grace napped and I cleaned. 

The kids got home wearing plastic hard hats with stickers and had little garbage truck squishy toys and teeny bottled waters, followed by Matt who was carrying a hefty swag bag... What? 

Apparently it was a Community Event in the sense that the city of Camas puts it on, complete with BBQ afterwards. Awesome! I was hoping that it would be a good character building experience for the kids, sounds like it was a party. Ha. So maybe another time for family home evening we'll have to do it with out the party part. 

Matt snapped a picture of the kids before they started picking up trash. 

Only in the city of Camas would the trash pick up swag bag be mainly paper products. If you didn't know Camas High School's mascot is the papermakers and there is a huge paper mill in Camas. 

It sounded like an annual event, so hopefully next year the whole family can go pick up trash. 

Recommitted

I read a few entries that I wrote in 2007 and 2008. I crack myself up. I used to blog every day before work. How great was that! I wish I did that now. I really should try it since something funny happens near every day. For example, when my mom was here last week we went to the park for some fresh air. When we were driving home my mom saw a house (in the neighborhood we are thinking of buying in) with big hanging baskets on the front porch. She said "oh look at those pretty hanging baskets!" Emma chuckled and said "Grandma, you're so crazy..." We all laughed. She is always saying funny things and I can't believe she isn't even two yet! 

(Emma, like always commandeered my iPad and took a few photos) 

Ty constantly wants to hold Grace, he always wants to feed Grace, he wants to do anything he can with Grace. If she is crying he is right there next to her, covering her up with a blanket, giving her a paci or stroking her hair to try and help her. He loves her tremendously but also he hates the sound of her crying. He has become interestingly sensitive to smells and sounds lately. Cheerios, he hates the smell of any kind of Cheerios. His sisters love Cheerios for breakfast. He won't even sit at the table with them, but they want to sit by him so of course fighting ensues. From my last post I fear it sounded like Ty is a perfect angel. He is, for the most part... But he IS still a big brother. He loves to tease, bother and chase his sisters. 

The other day Maylee and I were talking about what makes us special. I asked her if she was going to do something that made her special what would it be, she said she was a good dancer so she would dance! I agreed with her since every time a good song comes on she's dancing around and saying " shake the booty, shake the booty" Emma told me she would sing a song and demonstrated her singing "la la la loo la!" 

(My girls at home while Ty is at school) 

Grace has been our best newborn yet, so like my cousin Steph said, "way to end on a good note!" She has been sleeping through the night since she was about 4 days old. She of course wakes me up to eat, right on schedule at 2:30 am, but not by crying, just by trying to suck on her hand. When she came home from the hospital Matt slept with her right next to him every night. He fed her at 2:30 am when he didn't have to work and when he does have to work he gets all ready for work and most mornings I wake up to a perfect sight, Matt sitting on the bed next to me, with a suit on feeding Grace with a burp cloth over his shoulder. It's just the best and literally makes my heart bubble over with joy, then of course it leaks out my eyeballs when I think about it. Grace doesn't spit up at all so the risk factor isn't there for feeding her in a nice suit. Another nice thing since all the other three, especially the first two were real Pukey babies. 

(My sweet little Gracie) 

Last Friday she had her 2 week check up. She is now 7lbs 5 oz. she eats abot 3.5 sometimes 4 ounces per feeding every 3 to 4 hours. This is WAY more than our other children at this age. She is eating us out of house and home. We will need to switch her to powdered formula soon to cut down on costs but right now she eats so well! We tried to switch to milk based sensitive, didn't work out, she  was not too happy about that change so, we'll stick with soy for another few months. 

(The kids throwing their own slumber party in the guest bedroom aka "grandma and papa's room")

Matt has been the BEST over these last few weeks. I don't know how I ever got so lucky. Maybe he has just really figured out how to be super Dad after #4 but he upped his normally great game to flawless. I've had the best last few weeks as far as recovery goes with all the help that I've been given. 

Our friends have been so great too. I had asked for meals to be brought in for four days, Monday through Thursday last week. I thought that was a bit much BUT since it's my last baby I thought what the heck, may as well... Then I had a friend tell me she didn't care if I asked for it or not, she was bringing me dinner on Friday, then another friend had us over for dinner on Saturday. Tonight I pulled out one of the freezer meals I prepped before I had Grace (Green Chile Chicken Enchiladas) and when I went upstairs to take a nap Maylee woke me up and Matt followed her to tell me to go back to sleep that he would take care of doing the rest of dinner. I love that guy. Tonight he even made me cookies! Not good for trying to lose my 15 or so lbs of baby weight, but excellent for my sweet tooth :) 

I hit the treadmill the last couple days and have walked for 40 minutes each day, only 2 miles both times! Yikes, I've got to start somewhere. I lost my Tracey Anderson Post pregnancy work out DVD so Suzanne is mailing me hers to borrow. Hopefully I get it soon, I am anxious to strengthen my hips and legs before I start running. I don't want to get injured again like right after I had Emma.

Anyway, this random post is long enough, but I am really trying hard to blog more. Even if no one reads it anymore I really like reading my old posts and remembering the little things. 

The Yellow Line Incident

Sunday night Ty came in to sleep next to me in bed. He hacked and coughed in his sleep a ton. I decided to keep him home from school on Monday. Michaela and Taylor were on the last day of their stay. It was nice to have Ty home, I wont lie. I miss the kid during the day. (More on that later) I gave him some Triaminic and he was actually just fine. He did take a nice long afternoon nap however.

Tuesday I picked up Ty from school and this is what he said, first thing "Hi Mom! I was taken to the Principals Office today."

WHA? It's only his second week of school and all ready my sweet little Ty boy is being sent to the Principals office?

Here's how the rest went.

Me: "Why were you taken to the Principals office?"
Ty: "I wanted to be alone at recess, so I went over by the parking lot way over there (pointing far off away from the field) and there was someone in their car with it running. They turned off their car and got out. They grabbed my hand REALLY tight and took me to the Principal."

Me: "Whoa, so did you know this person? Was it a play ground teacher? Did you try to get away?"
Ty: "No"

Me: (alarmed but trying not to react like a crazy mama bear before getting more details...) "Okay so what happened with the Principal?"
Ty: "I thought I was in trouble, but she told me that I wasn't in trouble. She told me about the yellow line at recess that we aren't supposed to cross then she walked me back out to a recess teacher who showed me the yellow line."

Me: "Did you know about the yellow line before and purposely cross it?"
Ty:  "Did you know the Principal is a big fat lady?"
Me: "Ty! You didn't tell that to her did you?"
Ty: "No Mom, I am telling YOU that is what she looked like."
Me: "You know its not nice to tell someone that they are are big fat person right?"
Ty: "Yeah Mom."
Me: "So did you know about the line?"
Ty: "No."

Me: "Could you tell the line was yellow when they showed it to you?" (He's color blind, if there was a mix up there, that could cause confusion.)
Ty: "Yes mom, I knew it was yellow."

Me: "So are you going to cross the line again?"
Ty: "No I wont cross the line Mom."

Me:"That's good. Hey so why did you want to be alone at recess anyhow?"
Ty: (insert heartbreak for every Mom right here) "I wanted to be alone because no one would play with me at recess. I don't have any friends to play with."

Me: (holding back my tears and trying to be tough) "What about Sahib? Don't you like to play with him?" (The kid he sits next to in class)
Ty: "I try to play with him, but he just runs off."

Me: "What about Luke? How about you try to play with him?" (Luke is a friend from church who is in another class)
Ty: "Well, I thought I saw Luke so I ran aver to play with him but it wasn't Luke, it was someone who looked like him."

Me: "Oh I am so sorry that you are having troubles at recess finding friends to play with."
Ty: "Enough about me Mom, What did YOU do today?" (He always says that... it's so sweet that he cares about what I did)

Matt gets home from work just 30 minutes or so after Ty gets out of school. I relayed all the info to him and he calmed my nerves a bit about the random stranger part. We spoke with Ty about how important it is to stay where a teacher can see you, and behind the yellow line at recess because maybe that person isn't a nice person and what if they took him somewhere else instead of the Principals office. He agreed it's a good idea to stay behind the yellow line. He told us (again) that he wouldn't go past it again. We asked him if anyone had told him about the yellow line before this incident he said that he didn't know about it.

I worried about him and his recess anxieties for a while that day, and intermittently suggested ways to him for making friends at recess.I told him to maybe wait your turn to join a game, or get a ball and kick it in the field, or even compliment someone and ask their name. He told me he is too scared to talk to someone on the playground he doesn't know. I thought this was odd since he's never had a problem making friends with kids at the playground when Matt or I have taken him. Maybe the difference is we aren't there?

Wednesday I asked him how recess went when I picked him up. He said it was good and left it at that so I didn't push it. Mrs. Wahlstrom called after Matt got home from work to report the incident from the day before. Matt spoke with her about it and she relayed the same exact story that Ty told me. She also said that Ty isn't the only person in her class having troubles finding friends at recess so she was implementing a new thing the following day called Recess Buddies. She said it was to help the children "keep track" of one another, but really it was so they would meet more kids in their class than just the ones that they sit with and they would learn how to play with others at recess. We thought that was a really good idea. Matt also told Ty how good it was that he told us right away about the situation instead of us finding out about it when Mrs. Wahlstrom called.

Flash forward to today.

Me: "So, what was your favorite part of the day today?"
Ty: "Playing at recess, we got to play TWO times!"

Me: "Who was your recess buddy?"
Ty: "It was Devin."

Me: "What did you play with Devin?"
Ty: "We played with the ball on the rope. (Teatherball?) We were playing then Toby came over and kept hitting the ball when it wasn't his turn. I told him not to do that and to take turns but he kept hitting the ball anyway. Then Devin told him he didn't want to be his friend anymore and Toby went away."

Me: "Sounds like you were on the right track for talking to Toby about taking turns. Do you think it was very nice of Devin to say that to Toby?"
Ty: "No."

Me: "Maybe next time you can find a game that Toby knows how to play so he can play with you both?"
Ty: "Okay Mom."

He's a very good mediator at home so I am not surprised that it is translating to school. At home I hear a lot of "GIRLS! STOP! Okay, now Maylee (yada yada yada) and Emma, (yada, yada yada)" Even as I type this blog right now I hear him saying this exact thing upstairs. Hehe. Hopefully he keeps this sort of thing up so he can be my right hand man come the Tween/High School days of his younger sisters for before, during and after school. We've keep the hormonal rages to a minimum.

Anyway, Monday night (before the incident, so of course this confirmed my fears) after everyone was gone and I realized that I would have to be doing everything on my own. I had a melt down. I thought I was okay with it all, but I must have been distracted Ty's first week with just barely birthing a baby. Also, having my Mom here for that week to pack Ty's lunches, drop him off and pick him up really helped as well. (Side note: Maylee has decided that she wants Grandma to take her to her first day of Pre-school too. She told me today) I was so anxious about not knowing who Ty was with, what he was learning, how he was doing every second of the day. He is such a sweet, kind, generous, loving, thoughtful little guy and I don't want school to change that. I want to be there for him when he doesn't have any friends at recess to wipe away his tears. It's difficult to step back and let him experience those sorts of things on his own and be there as home support instead of being on the front lines with him. Like I said, I miss him terribly during the day. As I cried Matt just hugged me and validated my concerns, he told me he was worried too.

One of the highlights of my day is waiting outside his classroom door each afternoon. When the door opens he runs to me with a his bright blue eyes shining and a big smile on his cute little freckled face. He yells "Mom!" then we talk about his day as I hold hands with him to the parking lot and load him into the car. I know days like this pass far too quickly, I know soon he wont want to hold my hand or even want me to get out of the car when I pick him up from school. I am trying to savor every moment I get with him now because all too soon he wont be so little anymore.

Grace is here! A short Novel

I think I am usually quicker on the draw to write up Labor and Delivery stories here on the blog but its been a bit of a whirlwind since this one was so unexpected! USUALLY I have SOME control over when I have my little ladies, this time it was a true surprise. Like my friend Ann said "Well, Mickie, this is how EVERYONE ELSE has babies... at the most random time!"

This is the long story... scroll to the bottom for the 4 sentence version.

It all started on Thursday. I had a Dr. appointment that morning and he stripped my membranes, to spare the details i'll just say it doesn't feel very good but it gets the party started. Really it was in preparation for my induction date of the 10th. My mom had bought a plane ticket for the morning of the 9th, to come help for the week after I had her. I was actually due on the 17th, but I never have made it to my due date thank goodness. I told Matt it's because Heavenly Father knows just how miserable and painful and terrible pregnancy is for me so he doesn't ever make me take more than I can handle, which is never seeing my due date.

The whole day after the appointment I got a few things done but really wasn't feeling great. I had a Primary Presidency meeting that night (i moved it to my house) and tied up the rest of the loose ends for our upcoming Primary Program on the 28th of September. I was in charge of planning and organizing the whole affair, which is quite a big undertaking for someone that is 9 months pregnant. It wasn't a cake walk but I think I left the rest of the Presidency in a good place and I am excited to just come to church that Sunday and watch it.

Thursday night I kept having contractions. I always have a TON of contractions but I've never kept track of them before because they are so sporadic. All I know is I would fall asleep and wake up 15 minutes later in pain. Fall asleep, wake up... it was a rough night. At about 4:30 am I thought that I should get up and actually pack a hospital bag just in case I really was in labor, but I fell asleep sometime after that thought and woke up when Matt left for work about 2 hours later. I told him to keep his phone on and close while working just in case. He kissed me and left for work.

Friday was Ty's first "Practice" day at school. It's called Smart Start where he goes all day 9:05-3:20 (SO LONG for a little kinder like Ty!) but it's with only half of the students in his class and it's an introductory day. Since we have the boundary exception, we will be dropping him up and picking him up each day (insert sad face for Ty, he is really looking forward to riding the bus to school someday). I left pretty early, unsure of really where to go, the front or back of the school or how crazy it would be will a ton of parents dropping their children off. I circled around and realized it would be pretty much like an airport, if I wanted to get out I needed to park.

I found an unofficial spot by noticing other moms with kids backing in. I took a spot and left the girls in the car with the engine running so I could quickly walk Ty over to his classroom. Well Mrs. Wahlstrom hadn't opened the door yet and it would be 5 more minutes before she did. I didn't feel comfortable leaving the girls THAT long so I hurried (key word here, hurried is more painful business when so far along) back to the car, grabbed the girls and came back to Ty's classroom while beginning to be swarmed by other kids headed to their classes. We waited a few more minutes and when it came time for Ty to go in, he gave his teacher a Hi-Five and walked right in. No fears, no tears just excitement. It was a little anti-climactic I guess.

I got home and I thought I would have a harder time with him in Kindergarten but I was preoccupied with labor pains, maybe that was a good thing. Maylee and Emma were amiss that morning with out their Brother to be peacemaker, game maker, lunch maker, potty helper and general leader to them. Turns out, Emma and Maylee dont get along with each other as well with out Ty, or maybe I was just in a bad mood (again loads of unregistered pain computing in my brain and everyone else just being irritating) but I felt like all morning I was breaking up fights and begging them to just get along. I started to do laundry and got about 3 loads washed. I folded up a couple things to go in a potential hospital bag, including my Hospital gown. Matt came home for lunch and actually took a nap instead of working out. I thought that sounded like a good idea, so I got the girls lunch and put away all the kids clothes in their closets. I put Emma down for a nap and when Matt woke up to eat and head back in to work I lied down on the couch. Maylee (always down for a cuddle) snuggled in right next to me and I dozed. I turned on some Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and got a little sleep/rest. Before I knew it, it was time to pick up Ty. The girls and I parked in the same spot. Ty was NOT happy to see me, since he wanted to ride the bus. He told me he wanted to go on a field trip that day at school and was disappointed that they didn't so he had a grouch face. The girls were happy to see him though. We got home and planned on going Back to School shopping for Ty. He needed new tennis shoes, after a summer of flip flops and crocs his feet had grown too big for his vans. Also, a new backpack since his Pre-School one was too small to hold his lunch AND his Harmony Huskies take home folder and lastly a new Back to School outfit.

Matt got home, did his workout and we were talking about dinner when Ty said "I think we need to go to Red Robin for dinner, I love Red Robin" (Are our kids SPOILED or what! When Matt and I were children, we didn't go out to eat very often and when we did, we DEFINITELY didn't dictate the restaurant) However, both Matt and I thought it wasn't a bad idea. By now I was feeling really really junky and having tons of contractions but again I didn't keep track of them just clinched my teeth and tried to breathe. We got to Red Robin to eat before shopping. We waited a few minutes and were seated. We ordered our food I drank a few sips of water and to my surprise, I started crying. I didn't know if it was pain, maybe being overwhelmed or just being overly emotional. Matt asked what he could do, since I think he was as caught off guard that I was crying as well. I grabbed his phone, left mine and said "I think I need to go outside and get some fresh air. I think I am labor." He said okay, and right when I stood up the food got there. The kids started eating and Matt asked if I wanted them to pack mine up. I was feeling so sick I didn't think it would work out, so I told him to have Emma eat my dinner. I got outside to the parking lot and just walked around a little and started timing my contractions. Sure enough they were coming on every 3 minutes for about a minute each. After about 10 minutes I text Matt and said,  "I am in labor, we should go to the hospital" his response? "I have a tee time tomorrow" my response "Jerk :)". (There is our marriage in a nutshell. haha always a joke...) So he hurried the children we got in the car and headed home to pick up stuff for the hospital. I went in and grabbed our phones, the iPad and the clothes I folded and my hospital gown and a few other things. I wasn't sure they would admit me, but it was worth a try.

The whole time driving there Matt kept saying "How are you doing, are you still in labor? Do you still want to go in?" I was just quiet. I wasn't sure, it was all uncertain and I would HATE to go to the hospital and have them say, "You're close, but you aren't quite there yet, come back when _________ happens." So we got there, Matt dropped me off at the front and I went to Labor and Delivery. I walked in and said "So I think I am in labor." The nurse said, "Oh, okay, here is some paperwork." Bleck, paperwork. So i filled it out and got in a room. A nurse came in (Dawn) and said he would hook me up to see about contractions, check my dilation and my effacement. She got everything all done before Matt and the kids made it upstairs. I didn't want to change into a hospital gown until they officially admitted me. So I was hooked up with just my shirt pulled up. I was dilated to a 4, when the morning before I was a 2. So there was progress, but they wanted to make sure it was enough for active labor. She left for 15 minutes. I counted only 3 good contractions so I was worried they were going to tell me to go home.

She came back and said "Well, you've had a TON of contractions, pretty strong ones too. They're coming every 2 minutes pretty consistently." I was surprised, but shouldn't have been since I really cant tell when I am in labor or not... She checked me again and said she wanted to me to go for a walk for about an hour though before she officially admitted me. This is when confusion began. Will I be admitted? If so, who will watch the kids? My mom isn't coming until Tuesday! I wasn't ready! Do we wait with the kids here until then, THEN find someone to watch them? Or should we just get someone now so they don't have to sit in the hospital for an hour?

So, after an hour or so and phone calls to my mom and a friend we decided to just have Ann come and get the kids, come stay with them until either I am admitted or not. She agreed to stay the night with the kids if she needed to do that as well. (Three cheers for Ann!) So Matt went down with the kids, got them all set with Ann and came back up. In that time the nurse came back to check me. She said I was probably still a 4, MAYBE a 5... but that the babies head had moved down and she felt comfortable admitting me even though I didn't dilate as much as she'd hoped. It was now probably 9:15 pm. I got changed into the hospital gown at that point and she went to go get the IV stuff. I HATE the IV part but she did a great job unlike with Emma where the girl was LEARNING on me as her FIRST PATIENT. She did all of this while Matt was gone, which was difficult for me since I like to hold his hand and try to keep my mind off of that part. But I made it through and was all set by the time he made it back up.

By now I was really feeling the contractions and wondering if going natural again was a good idea or if I should get an epidural. The nurse told me as soon as my blood work came back I could get an epidural. After about 30 minutes I decided, what the heck, I don't need this in my life. I am just going to get an epidural. So in came the doc and I got the epidural. Matt was there for that to hold my hand, which isn't as bad as the IV in my opinion. Afterwards it was about 10:30. Dr. Calvert broke my water and said he would be back in about 2 hours to check me but to most likely deliver a baby. I was wondering about that since I didn't have any pitocen, It would be the first L&D that I went into labor by myself and stayed in labor consistently, OH and the first baby I wasn't Strep B Positive, so none of that yucky penicillin either! I asked Dr. Calvert what he was going to do while he waited, he said "Take a nap of course!"

Matt and I watched a few Jimmy Fallon youtube videos while I text a few people. I spoke to my mom and she got it worked out to fly in Sunday afternoon. After about 20 more minutes the nurse walked in, she checked me and said she thought I was ready. I was shocked... ready? really? I thought I would have at least felt like it was time. So Dr. Calvert came back in at about 12:30, I asked him how his nap was, he said "Great actually!" He got all ready and decided to wait just a few more contractions before I pushed. He put an exercise ball shaped like a peanut between my knees to open things up just a little more and after about 2 minutes I was ready. We got all set, I didn't feel a thing but i could move my legs just fine. He told me when to push, it took about 2 maybe 3 pushes and Ta-Da baby Grace was on my tummy while Dr. Calvert cut her umbilical cord. He teased Matt and told him to cut the cord, then asked if I wanted to. That isn't our thing, so he said, "okay, okay i'll do it..." He cut it and stitched me up a few stitches. I got a good hour of skin to skin with the little lady while Matt chatted with Dr. Calvert for a bit and started a group text to the family.

Grace has loads of dark brown near black hair. It's shocking considering all our kids are so blonde! We'll see if it stays dark or turns blonde like her siblings.

She sucks her thumb! It's so cute/

Right after I was done, they gave me a little bit of pitocen through my IV and turned off the epidural. I realized I was STARVING (hello, I didn't eat dinner) so the nurse got me a little food. The nurse gave Grace a bath and did all her other shots and things they typically do right after the baby is born. Then it was time for Grace to eat. Matt got all ready and asked how much he should try and feed her, usually it takes a good 45 minutes to feed a newborn burp and change them. The nurse said about 5ml. Matt put the bottle in Grace's mouth and about 1 minute later he pulled the bottle out of her mouth to see how much she drank. 15 ml! WHOOPS! Guess she didn't eat dinner either! Haha So needless to say, the girl can put it away. She eats faster and more than ANY of her siblings. She is going to be a Chunky Monkey in no time.

So they moved us to the recovery floor and I realized the perks of birthing 4 children is the Labor and Delivery is a piece of cake. The healing, swelling, bruising and bleeding is fairly minimal. Not too bad... what does hurt is the INSIDES. Boy oh boy, it felt like I was still in labor! After about 24 hours of what felt like really strong contractions every 30 minutes or so I was waving the white flag. They were only giving me Ibuprofen to help with inflammation and pain. The hospital OB was making her rounds and she came to check on me Saturday evening. She was shocked I hadn't all ready asked for anything stronger and pretty much had a prescription ready for me. OH that made a world of difference. I didn't take anything stronger with Emma and was fairly miserable for about a week afterwards. This time on a little stronger pain killer I am able to move better and do a lot better. Hopefully in a day or two I can be done with it and be back to the occasional Ibuprofen.

The hospital stay was a little tricky, since my Mom wasn't here quite yet to help it totally threw Ty for a loop. There has always been a standard operating procedure Grandma comes to take care of the kids while Mom and Dad stay at the hospital. Well Ann doing it this time was upsetting to him. He woke up Saturday morning pretty upset that Grandma wasn't there. Ann was amazing and helped him through his tough time. She took them to the store and had each kid pick out a balloon and toy for their new sister (two princess balloons and a blue star, can you guess who picked what?) She brought them to the hospital at Noon. The kids came running down the hallway. Grace had been an ANGEL her first night. A little fussing but really not much. Matt took that night shift and slept with her on the make shift bed that is in the recovery room for fathers. I crashed but had to wake every hour or so to get up and use the bathroom/writhe in pain. Anyway, she had some good peaceful sleep then brother and sisters came... Matt was holding Grace in the chair next to me. Emma ran in and said, BABY!!! EYES!!! then poke, right in the eye. Haha. Poor girl. They love her. She gets a LOT of attention.

Matt has been Dad/Husband of the year through all this. With it happening so quickly with out a plan he took care of everything while he dealt with an emotional wife and children. He went to the store in the early morning and bought a TON of fruit for me and some cookies. He bought muffins and chips. When the kids came at noon he had all their lunches ready to go and had them all sit down and eat then hold the baby. He took them home at about 1:30 and put Emma down for a nap. He did the yard work he wanted to do took a shower changed his clothes and left the kids with another friend of ours, Angela, so he could come back and be with me and Gracie at the hospital. Ty had another melt down, he wanted GRANDMA, not to go to play at the Thomas's house. He worked through it and ended up being okay that night. Matt and I watched football games all day and purposely ignored the BYU game so Matt could watch it recorded on our DVR that night and I would use my parents sling box and watch it on my iPad. He stayed until about 8:30 and went to pick up the kids and he left me for the night. Of course I cried and was not excited to be by myself with Grace. Our children have a history of having a rough first 24 hours. Everything went just fine through the night. I watched the football game and got sleep in between feedings. Grace had her next weigh (6lbs 11oz.) and they did her 24 hours tests which she passed. Grace was great with everything and never tried to die, which always makes a mom happy.

Originally they said we wouldn't be released from the hospital until about 2 pm because that is how long it takes for the OB and Peds to make their rounds. We were frustrated with that because my mom was flying in at 2 and we needed to be able to pick her up from the airport. My nurse, Jessica was in the room to hear Matt and I talking about this (again I was quite emotional) and she made sure to tell the next nurse to have us be first on the OB and Peds list to get us out of there so we wouldn't have to find anyone else to watch our kids and we could just go home.

Well I ended up sleeping from 2:30 am to about 8:30 am. I cant believe Grace let me sleep that long! The nurse, Dani finally woke me up because the OB was ready to see me. I was her first patient that morning. I was fine to be released. So we were just waiting for the Ped to give the okay and we could leave. He came by at 9:30 am again, I was his first patient. I changed, packed up the room and was ready to go by 10. Matt and the kids were there by 11 and we were out the door. Big high fives to the nurses for getting us out of there so soon.

We got home I took a shower and took naps and Matt went and picked up my mom. Since then, it's been great! Grace has a fussy time from about 9 pm to 3 am... so that has been rough. Matt and I did every other night, but now he is going back to work tomorrow. He got up this morning at about 10:30 and said to me with puffy, baggy bloodshot eyes, "Mick, I don't know how you are going to do this." Yeah pretty sure I am going to be a Zombie for the next 6-8 weeks or so. But it's easier to get through it knowing that this is my last one. I am enjoying it a little more, having a newborn. I think Matt is taking time to enjoy it a little more too. I wish he didn't have to work and could help me all day everyday, he's so amazing. My mom has been SO GREAT with the other three children as well. Next week will be rough I think, adjusting to me doing it on my own. Wish me luck and say a prayer for me, i'll need it!

Short version: Friday I didn't feel well, I went to the hospital at 7:30 pm. By 10:30 or so I had an epidural, by 12:41 am Sept 6th Baby Grace arrived. Matt was amazing, the kids love her and my Mom is here helping until Saturday. We're all doing great!

Grace Mignon Spence
Born September 6th
12:41 am
6 lbs. 15 oz.
19" long