baby #7 gender reveal

My told me many years ago when I was a teenager that I would have 5 boys. As the ultrasound technician said today, "Well, it looks like Grandpa does know best." Indeed, it would appear that my dad is a prophet because this baby is a boy. Finally, I can say without any sense of guilt that this baby is the last one! We told the rest of the kids with balloons and blue food this evening. No one is very surprised but it appears that everyone is happy.

february around here

Dave and I went with Keri and Michael to see BYU Folk Dancers at the Conference Center. We met up with Aaron and Becky Love for dinner at Crown Burger beforehand.

Anne lost her first tooth. She's only four!

She also made all of the Valentines for her preschool class by hand. It took her a long time but was just what she wanted to do. She loves to draw!

Speaking of teeth, Sawyer's teeth (or the lack thereof) are looking a bit like a jack-o-lantern. How does he even eat?

Ben's favorite shoes to wear are Anne's. Usually an unmatched pair. He also loves to dress up. Reminds me of Sawyer at that age.

We had an Olympics party for the Opening Ceremonies on the 7th. When I mentioned the Olympics were going to start soon, Nathan exclaimed that we had better have donuts just like last time. This party was sort of lame because I was still feeling sick with baby #7. The kids were still happy though. We spent the next two weeks watching lots and lots of hours of Olympic coverage which I thoroughly enjoyed.

We spent lots of time in rehearsals all month. I'm directing a stake Broadway revue that Dave, Emma, Nathan and Sawyer are performing in. Slade and Nathan are also in rehearsals for the school play, Robin Hood, and I help with the choreography. These rehearsals fill our Tuesday and Thursday nights and Saturday mornings.

I took Emma down to Mesquite, NV, for the President's Cup soccer tournament. More on that in another post.

Dave received an award from work. He and I got to go eat delicious food at Thanksgiving Point for the recognition dinner. Then, I got to sit back and listen to how totally awesome my husband is at work. He really is just awesome all around.

While not as much as in January, I still spent a lot of time in bed feeling sick. Of course, this means that there are constant messes all around my house. The counter is usually filled with bread, cheese and milk left out from someone's snack making.

hello world

Because of the gestational diabetes I have been dealing with this pregnancy, I was told that I would be induced a week early. Friday, July 1, was the day.

We arrived at the hospital at 7 am. After getting all the preliminaries like paperwork out of the way, I got an IV and was started on pitocin. The doctor also broke my water at the same time. The baby did not handle the start of contractions well at all. After each contraction his heart rate dropped. Consequently, they turned off the pitocin. We waited about an hour before the pitocin was restarted and I got an epidural. This was just before 11 am.Things continued moving along. Dave read The Girl Who Could Fly out loud to me. I didn't feel much until about 1:30 when the contractions got quite severe. The doctor was called and after pushing through two contractions, Benjamin Warren said hello to the world at 1:58 p.m., weighing 7 lbs. 1 oz. and measuring 19.5 inches

 

Ben wasn't breathing well so I only got to hold him for about a minute before they whisked him off to the nursery to put him on oxygen. Dave went with him and watched him get his first bath. After almost two hours, we were finally reunited.

 

Megan brought the rest of the crew to see their new baby brother at about 5:30 that evening.

 

 

 

They came back the next morning to visit also. Dave left about 4 in the afternoon on Saturday leaving me alone for a quiet evening and morning. Ben and I finally went home on Sunday at about 1 in the afternoon.

 

Here we are 9 days later. I am feeling really good. I've felt the best I've ever felt after a delivery. Ben is doing great too. He is acting just like a newborn--eating a lot, pooping a lot, sleeping a lot. He seems to be a fairly calm baby so far but that certainly could change. The other kids all adore him and want to hold him all the time. Even Anne loves the baby and she has handled his arrival rather well. I've been told to put him down and hold her instead only a few times. Last week, Dave took mornings off and Keri came to help in the afternoons. There has been lots of quiet time for me to watch TV, read books, eat lots of the formerly restricted carbs, and enjoy my new baby. Today, I even managed to take a few pictures.

 

Tomorrow, Dave is going back to work and the reality of life with six children will really hit. Wish me luck!

catch up

How is it that another two weeks have gone by with nary a post from me!? I think I'm feeling like there isn't much to write about but I'm going to try and dig deep...

I have been:
--getting ready for the baby
I purchased a baby album kit and got it all put together which makes me feel one step ahead.

After recognizing the fact that I had not a stitch of baby girl clothes, I asked me sister to take pity on me. She sent clothes to CO with another sister which will then come out with my mom. Isn't family great! I still had to have something for the first week so I went to Kid to Kid and got a few sleepers and then some more essentials from Target.

I had grand plans to make some freezer meals but that never happened. Instead I put together some pancake and muffin mixes so Emma can get breakfast ready easily. I froze about 8 dozen balls of cookie dough. We also made Snickerdoodles but none of those made it to the freezer!

I'm in cleaning and organizing mode (when I have enough energy). Each night I make sure the house is picked up in case I have to call my neighbor to come over in the middle of the night. There are plenty of things I haven't gotten to but the house is generally good to go.

--playing outside
The weather has been lovely lately and the kids have enjoyed being outside again. The tramp is getting lots of use. The bikes and scooters have come out again. Emma has enjoyed a few games of football and basketball with the neighbors. The snow from our yard is almost completely melted too. Can't wait for spring!


--editing pictures
I have been working really hard to getting our family snapshots edited and printed. I finally finished 2007 and am working on 2008. The kids have been pulling out the albums and scrapbooks a lot lately. I am feeling a strong desire to focus on getting our family stories scrapbooked this year. I am retaking the Library of Memories class at Big Picture Scrapbooking. I think that Stacy Julian is a genius and absolutely love her philosophy and system. This is my third time through the class because alumni take it for free. Each time, I get a few steps closer to really getting a good system in place that will get me back to scrapbooking. I have lots of stories to tell. Watching the kids look through the pictures and the few scrapbook pages I have done makes me even more motivated.


--definitely watching too much TV
Currently, one of my favorite nights of the week is Tuesday. American Idol, Biggest Loser and NCIS are all on that night. And Fridays are for CSI:Miami.

I won't even begin to talk about how much my kids are watching. Afternoons are the worst. It is just so much easier to let them entertain themselves so I can nap/clean/work on the computer. With the weather warming up it has been easier to turn it off. I need to be better about this. Play games. Read out loud. Something! However, I'm thinking that a new baby in the house is not going to help things.

--going, going, going
Besides all the usual places we go, I took the kids to Frog and Toad at the SCERA on Monday. It was great. Even Sawyer did well since each child had a treat box and the show was only an hour. We'll have to go back. Dave and I went to see Keri perform in The Phantom at the Hale Center Theater. The performers were great. The writing...not so much. Dave took Emma and Slade to the police station for a tour on Thursday. Finally, we all went as a family to Chuck E. Cheese's on Friday for a last family-of-six fun outing.

I am scheduled to be induced this Friday (eek!). Hopefully I'll manage to get a few more things accomplished, spend some more quality time with my kids, get more pictures printed, and get off the TV and computer. We shall see....

blink of an eye

I blinked and suddenly two weeks had passed again with no attention to my blog. Well, I have been busy. Swimming lessons, photo sessions, visiting with old friends, enjoying a visit from my parents, playing at the lake with all the Daniels...


AND

....sitting on my couch, feeling tired and queasy, and pregnant. Yep. Baby #5 is due for arrival in early March. We waited until last week to tell the kids. Emma is totally ecstatic and telling everyone (which is exactly why we waited to tell her). The boys couldn't care less. Of course, we are all hoping for a girl. I'm also hoping to feel very very done after this baby. Is it possible?