Kids say the funniest things....

Last night Jacob panically (that's not a real word) told me that he had hair growing on the top of his foot. I told him that it was okay. He said "It looks just like the hair that grows right here on my primary teacher" and points to the side of his chin. His primary teacher is a woman. I couldn't contain the laughter as I assured him that it was normal to grow hair on the top of your foot.

Story number two happened a few weeks ago after one of Jacob's first days at his new school. He told me that his teacher didn't get much sleep the night before. I asked if she told him that and he said "No, she just has big purple bags under her eyes." Again could NOT stop laughing.

Last one...when Adam's bottom is a little sore when he wipes, he tells me "Mom, don't wipe too hard because my bottom is spicy." He means stinging but I think it's so funny that I've never corrected him.

Jimmerized!

Lucas wants everyone to know he's a big BYU fan too. Here he is with his BYU hat, the BYU bib my mom and sister made him, and his BYU quilt, made by our friend Bea.

The BYU basketball game last night was awesome. College basketball is not my favorite sport. I dislike the 20 minute halves and the 35 second shot clock and it gets sloppy and messy BUT how can anyone not like BYU and Jimmer right now. After last night I will backtrack on my earlier opinion and say that Jimmer really does have a shot at the NCAA player on the year. As long as the NCAA can get past that he plays for BYU. (The NCAA sports world has something against BYU.)

Isn't this quilt amazing? Bea is a great quilter and knows how much we adore BYU. Thank you, Bea!

The next best thing to watching Jimmer play last night was listening to Greg Wrubell call the game. I love Greg Wrubell. I mean, luuuvvv him! I'm one of those fans that brings headphones and my trusty FM/AM radio to the games so I can hear Greg call the plays. I get made fun of for this on a very regular basis but it is the only way to watch...with Greg in your ears. I have a new item for my bucket list after listening to the game last night. I want to sit in the box or courtside with Greg Wrubell while he calls a BYU game. Can any of you hook me up with that, please? This is me with my headphones at football game. Just try it once, you'll never go back.

I am also very jealous because my crazy brother who loves sports and BYU as much as me camped overnight to get his wristband to get into the game. Then he was at the Marriott center by 2:30 yesterday to wait in line to get into the building. He was on channel 5 news. He got 7th row seats. That's him in the Deseret News. Man, I wish it had been me. Someday when I don't have a newborn....

Super Bowl

Lucas and I are die hard Colts, Peyton Manning and Austin Collie fans. But we'll be wearing green and yellow for the Super Bowl and praying that Austin gets healthy again and can get hit without getting a concussion.

I bought that onesie last year in May just after I found out I was pregnant. I thought for sure my brand new baby could wear it while we cheered on the Colts in their return to the Super Bowl. Well, that didn't quite work out and I blame it entirely on too many injuries for the Colts. To console all my fellow Colts fans, I added this adorable picture of Lucas sleeping in my arms.

P.S. I will admit that Aaron Rodgers is definitely winning me over.

Einstein and Pookie

I have these two stuffed animals that I've had since college. The pig's name is Einstein. I don't even remember why I named him that but I love him. The family I worked for when I went to Ricks gave him to me for Christmas in 1999. David gave me the Tigger in 2002 and I named him Pookie. The kids are always wanting to play with them and they do as long as they don't take them off my bed. But for some reason I've taken pictures of my babies with them. However while I'm sure I took some of Adam, I can't find them.

Lucas

Matthew

Jacob

Update: David didn't want Adam to feel left out so he went downstairs and took this picture.

Adam

Funny story

The other day I was changing a stinky diaper of Matthew's and I gagged. Adam said "Mom, please don't throw up". But when I gagged the second time, Adam said "Mom, I'm going to get you a bowl." Poor child! The effects of my pregnancies are far reaching and obvioulsy tramatic for my children. Hopefully they won't inherit my very sensitive gag reflex. At least none of them can inherit my side effects of pregnancy.

The library

According to google maps, I live .3 miles away from the Highland Library. It literally takes 30 seconds to drive from my house to the library. I was really excited about that when we bought the house. David, well, not so excited. So I made the 30 second drive Saturday evening to the library. I thought the Pleasant Grove library was small but the Highland library is tiny. I mean really tiny. However, I still managed to find 5 books for me and they did have some Magic Tree House books for Jacob and they have a large DVD collection but I didn't find many animated childrens movies. Overall I'm still excited that I live that close to the library and plus the Highland splashpad is just 10 seconds past the library. I knew when we moved to Highland we'd miss the PG pool lots and lots but at least we have the splashpad.

Today I finished unpacking the last few of my boxes and organzing my second storage room. Over the weekend since it finally warm up a bit, David got his garage unpacked and organized also. Now I want to start picking paint colors because the white walls are really boring and drive me crazy. Besides what else is there to do in the middle of January. Both David and I can't wait for Spring and warm enough weather to work in the yard. David's going to build me some more grow boxes and I'm excited to get my garden in. The water in the hot tub has finally thawed but we still have frozen water behind the jet packs and can't get the jet packs out. I think the weather is going to turn cold again before we get all that water thawed. But hopefully soon we'll be able to get the hot tub up and running. The house is coming together and it's been great. We love our new home but are missing our PG friends. Luckily we live close enough that we can still see them. I still haven't been to church yet because I've been staying home with Lucas but I'm thinking about going for an hour next week and having David stay home. The neighbors have been great to come over and introduce themselves though. There's only two other boys Jacob's age but several girls. No one from the ward is in his school class and he's had a hard time being the new kid in class and I've had a hard time with a new school, new teacher and significantly more homework. Really? I mean does a first grader really need reading, writing, spelling and math homework every single night? I just got an email today about registering Adam for kindergarten next year. Can time just slow down a little bit, please? My kids are growing up too fast. And here's another picture of Lucas just because I think it's cute and he looks so peaceful. He slept for 5 hours straight last night. He's wonderful!

Bathtime for Lucas

The verdict is still out whether Lucas really likes his baths. He doesn't scream during them so that's a good sign. David has showered with all of our babies. It's easier for me and my back hurts so badly bending over the tub or kitchen sink that I prefer the shower. However, Lucas is so small David has a pretty hard time keeping a hold of a slippery soaped up baby. See how skinny his arms and legs are. Still he's just so precious and smells so good after his bath.

He's doing better about nights and days. He's done a couple of 4 and almost 5 hour stretches at night for us. And is much better at going back to sleep instead of wanting to be up at night. David appreciates that greatly. He had his two week check and he is up to 7 pounds and 20.5 inches long. Only 12th percentile for weight but 33rd for height.

This was my attempt at a self portrait of me and Lucas. I haven't taken any pictures of him and me besides when he was born. Those aren't exactly the pictures you want to be showing anyone.

I had to include this picture of Jacob I took on Sunday. I was planning on taking pictures of all the kids in their Sunday clothes but then my battery died. Jacob just looks so grown up in this picture.

Adam's stitches

Adam was feeling left out that his stitches pictures were not on the Internet. On Sunday November 14 Adam woke up with pink eye so he and I stayed home from church and went to the pediatrician's office for an antibiotic. Later that night I was in my room taking a break and David was working on dinner. I heard Adam scream but stayed put knowing David could take care of it. But then I heard David tell Adam to move his hand and then he yelled "Ashley, I need you!" I knew there was a big problem. Sure enough Jacob and Adam had been playing keep away with a football and Adam slammed his forehead right into the corner of the wall and split it open. I couldn't quite get the bleeding under control so I knew we probably needed stitches. So back to the pediatrician's office we went. This time mom came and stayed with Jacob and Matthew and David went with us. The put a numbing patch over the cut and then about 45 minutes later put 5 stitches in his forehead. Adam was a champ and watched a movie while they did it. I always think my kids are going to have a fit but he quietly sat there and when he would start to wiggle or think about what was happening David would ask him questions to distract him. Five days later we had them removed and now Adam has a lovely scar on his forehead. He was more bothered getting them taken out than put in. I'm really hoping to not have anymore unplanned hospital visits, stitches or any other medical procedures done on anyone in my family for 2011. We'll see how well that goes.

Before stitches

After...

Jacob's eye surgery

On July 13, 2010 Jacob had an accident where his eye was injury and required surgery. Matthew was taking a nap, my mom who was living with us at the time, had gone grocery shopping, I was mostly dead on the couch trying to fall asleep before I threw up my lunch and Jacob and Adam were supposed to be watching a movie and playing in their tent. They were in the family room with me. All of a sudden Jacob starts screaming and I launch myself off the couch. It was the real "I'm hurt" screams not just my brother hit me screams. He comes rushing out of the tents with both hands over his left eye screaming "I'm going to die"! He is so hysterically I can't even figure out what is wrong. Finally I get him to lay down on the couch but he still won't remove his hands from his eye but he has told me that he stabbed himself in the eye. I finally have to yell at him that I have to see his eye so that I can help him. There was blood coming through his hands and I needed to see how bad it was and talking to him wasn't working. Yelling at him to move his hands finally got through to him. When he moved his hands and tried to open his left eye all I could see was the white of his eye and blood. So I placed a wet cloth on his eye, put his hands back on his eye and told him to push. I was pretty sure I was going to throw up so I took my phone to the bathroom and called my mother to come back home, that I needed to get Jacob to the ER. I had a car but at that point in my pregnancy I couldn't drive. I couldn't hardly walk around without throwing up. Next I called David and told him Jacob had stabbed himself in the eye and I was taking him to the ER and he needed to come home. I will always remember his response. He said "right now?" I lost it then and started crying and said "Yes, I need you right now!" I think he thought that since I was so calm he couldn't have been anything bad and number two I don't think he had quiet processed what I was saying. Then I called a neighbor to come sit with my other kids. By the time we got seen by the ER doctor, I had gotten Jacob to open his eye and move it in all directions. That made me feel a lot better. The bleeding had also stopped. The ER doctor told us that his eyeball was not punctured and that his vision seemed to be consistent with an eye injury and not far from normal but that he didn't have the equipment to see everything he wanted to and he was sending us to the on call opthamologist. His office was in Lehi and he was an excellent doctor and help. He confirmed that Jacob's vision would be fine and that the injury was only to the white of his eyeball and not the iris. By this time we felt like we had an accurate story from Jacob on what had happened. He was holding an extra tent pole that had previously been broken in his hand. He lowered in head and body to get out of the play tent and the bottom of the tent pole hit the ground but his head kept moved forward and he stabbed himself in the eye. From injury we could actually tell it was more like the jagged edge of the tent pole scraped his eyeball and then cut his upper eyelid. The opthamologist was concerned about the cut in his eyelid. He would have to have it stitched but he was worried that the tear duct had been damaged. So he called an eye reconstructive and plastic surgeon for us. The surgeon agreed to do the surgery that night at Utah Valley Regional Medical Center. Jacob had to have his eyes dilated at the opthamologist. Amazingly, up to having his eye dilated Jacob was extremely cooperative and not scared of anything the doctors were doing to him. This is the kid that had to be pinned down by 4 adults to be given his flu shot just months earlier. But the dilation gave him a horrible headache, stomach ache and he was generally just feel horrible. He complained of the light hurting his eyes so David gave him his sunglasses. While we waited for the surgeon's instructions I held him in my lap and he feel asleep. We went home to get some things and to give Jacob a priesthood blessing. But the car ride home made him sick and he threw up. In the end it was a blessing he threw up since now he would have an empty stomach for surgery and we wouldn't have to wait. Time was of the essence because they didn't want anything to start to heal before surgery. Jacob refused to take off the sunglasses so at home we were able to get his and his blanket. We made it down to UVRMC and the surgeon explained that if his tear duct was severed which he guessed it was they would put a tube through into tear duct and into his nose to hold it open so scar tissue wouldn't form. They would stitch his eyelid and hopefully would not have to stitch the tissue and muscle in the inside corner of his eye. The surgery started around 8:30 pm and the surgeon guessed maybe 45 minutes to an hour. We got to be with Jacob in the pre-op room and the anesthesiologist agreed not to put the IV in until after Jacob was asleep. I was so grateful. Jacob was in good spirits and talking to all the nurses. Still it was very hard to watch him go down to the operating room without me. Shortly after surgery started my dad who had been doing his calling at BYU showed up and sat him us. I was falling apart by this time. I was hungry but sick and nervous. I picked at David's food but was sure I was going to throw up so I stopped eating. After an hour in surgery, I was ready to walk up walls. Finally about an hour and 20 minutes later the surgeon came out to talk to us. There was actually two eyelid lacerations that he had to repair and he did place the tube in his tear duct and stitch it in his nose but he didn't put any stitches in his eye which was good. Stitches in your eye would be horribly uncomfortable. Just shortly after that they brought Jacob out and we went up to the pediatric floor. Jacob was awake but didn't really want to be. He wanted his sunglasses back on and I asked for his IV to be covered somehow because I was sure if he woke up and saw that he would lose it. My dad stayed to take me home but I didn't want to leave Jacob. Finally David asked me to please go home because he couldn't take care of both me and Jacob at the hospital. Fine, guilt me into going home. Dad and I got home shortly after midnight but I didn't sleep more than two hours that night. Then Dad took me back to the hospital in the morning and Jacob was awake and had eaten breakfast and was watching Nacho Libre on David's laptop. He had awoke at about 2 am hungry and had eaten and stayed awake talking to David for over an hour. I wish I had been there but I know Jacob was happy with his Dad too. Jacob was discharged shortly after that and in good spirits. He never knew he had an IV in and showed me the cool glove he had to wear on his hand (that covered the IV). David had asked the nurse to take it out in the morning when Jacob was still sleeping and she did. Jacob was happy and ready to go home and in love with his special hospital bands that he wore on his wrists. We got home and settle and Jacob got visitors and little treats and presents all day long. He loved it. He wore his sunglasses for almost a week straight. I think they were more of a security blanket than helping with pain.

Jacob in the morning watching Nacho Libre.

Jacob right after surgery and not completely awake

One week after surgery. The eye surgeon wasn't very happy with how the tissue was healing so thickly in the corner of his eye and so he had Jacob do some steroid eye drops to help thin it out. His eye is so red here you can't even see the tube in the corner.

On December 23rd, the surgeon removed the tube from his tear duct and we're hoping that some of the inflammation and redness that has been in his eye since the accident will finally go away now but it could take up to a year. That eye will always be susceptible to redness and irritation now. In fact when Jacob is sleepy his eye is very blood shot but just that left eye and just the side next to his nose. However David and I have said over and over again how blessed we feel that the injury didn't cause more damage, that his vision is fine and that he didn't lose an eye. Also we are amazed that during the entire event in July I did not throw up one time. Heavenly Father really does bless us with tender mercies.

Jacob ready for surgery. He was excited to have his hospital wrist bands again. And loved the orange slippers they gave him for his feet. In fact he thought the whole hospital experience was a grand adventure. Again I'm amazed he cooperated so well with the doctors and nurses. He had to go under again but this time surgery was just 5 minutes to remove the tube.

Jacob's eye before surgery with the tube still in.

After surgery with the tube removed. Plus the surgeon gave me the tube to keep. I was shocked how long it was. See the red dot above his eye. The nurse had me draw that was they wouldn't do surgery on the wrong eye. Um, only one eye has a tube to remove, pretty sure you can't miss it!

The house

Since I cannot find my pictures of the front of the house, this one that I stole from the MLS listing will have to do. This is the front of our house when it doesn't have a foot of snow in the yard. I am loving being back in a house again and am so grateful to have a garage again. My number one complaint of living in the condo was not having an attached garage. I love being able to get Matthew into the car without having to chase him all over the parking lot and to be able to get Lucas in the car without having to take him out into the weather. Just straight from the house to the car. So nice! Okay I like everything about my house but right now I'm grateful for my garage.

More of Lucas

Lucas is a great sleeper especially during the day. Unfortunately he likes to be awake more at night. How long does it take for a newborn to figure out their nights and days? Hopeful soon. Although I must say I have a fabulous husband who takes his night duty very seriously. Usually I feed the baby and then put him to sleep but within 20 minutes he's awake again wanting company and there's where David's night shift starts. He's always willing to let me sleep and he gets up and holds the baby. Lucas will do a 3 to 4 hour stretch at night so between that and David, I'm not too horribly sleep deprived. I'd be a mess if it weren't for David. Most of you know how much I cherish my sleep!

Doesn't Matthew have the best hair in the whole world?!!

Adam and Lucas

Lucas is really tiny to us. He came home from the hospital weighing 6 pounds 2.5 ounces and his newborn clothes are practically too big for him. His umbilical cord fell off last Friday much to Jacob's relief. He didn't like to see it telling me it creeped him out and if he accidently felt it underneath Lucas's clothes when he was holding him he'd give him back to me. His eyes look dark in these pictures but really they are blue, well dark blue. I'm not counting on them staying blue but for now I'm liking that he has blue eyes. My kids look so much like their dad that I have take anything I can that they might have inherited from me.

Lucas

Our 4th little boy, Lucas Eddy Parra was born the last week of December at 1:04 am after 11 hours of labor. He weighed 6 pounds and 7 ounces and was 18 1/2 inches long. He was 2 weeks early because I had high blood pressure again. I had to be induced on the day we planned to move. Instead my wonderful dad, my brothers and brother in laws (and Amy) moved us completely out to our new home in Highland while I was in labor. I wanted to try to go without an epidural and with lots of help from David and my mom and my midwife I was able to do it.


We are at home now and I am loving not being pregnant anymore and having a new baby. Jacob, Adam and Matthew love Lucas and fight over holding him, especially Matthew. Matthew has adjusted very well to being a big brother. It helps that he loves his dad so much and would rather David do things for him than me. So it doesn't bother him that I'm with the baby so much.




My thoughts on not having an epidural...I am very very glad I did it. It was something I have wanted to do since having my first. With Adam it wasn't a full blown idea yet. I was more scared of the pain than the epidural still. And Adam was a 24 hour slow labor. With Matthew I wanted to try and after it was over wished I hadn't of gotten the eipdural. But I thought I was in for another 24 hour labor instead of the 6 hour labor it was. I thought with Lucas I would have another 6 hour labor and probably would have if they had left me hooked up to the pitocin. Instead I had an 11 hour labor and it was a good thing it wasn't any longer. I was so glad to not have to go through putting that needle into my back again. Plus I think I was much more efficient at pushing. And mostly I just wanted to experience it without the epidural. I wanted the least amount of medical devices as possible. So a benefit of having the pitocin turned off was that I didn't have to have continous monitoring anymore and I loved that. They did leave the IV port in my hand but at least it wasn't attached to anything. However I did miss the calmness of having an epidural. We didn't really have the camera ready and David didn't get to see Lucas be born because of the position I was in and because he was so focused on helping me get through. He just looked down and Lucas was out. Him being born seemed to happen so much faster this time. When you have an epidural they get everything ready and then tell you to push. No one had to tell me to push. Pushing was a way out of the pain and I pushed! I'm glad I had a midwife there instead of an OB doctor. I'm glad the midwife was Roberta. I think she's fabulous. I'm glad my mom was there and not just David. My mom helped me not cave in and do the epidural. Mostly I'm glad that David went along with it. David went along with all our crazy ideas of coping with labor including the tub which I know he thought was straight out of some voo doo medicine book. When I said I needed his hands he just gave them to me. He rubbed my neck or back. I never thought I would want to be touched during a contraction but it was a security blanket for me and helped me feel safe during all the pain. I'm very happy with Lucas' labor and delivery. I've been asked if I would do it again. We aren't planning on having more children so I felt like this was my last chance to try this and that's part of why I'm so glad I did it. I like being able to say that I did it. My pregnancies are so horrible and I get so mad that my body can't seem to do pregnancies like it's suppose to do so I like that my body was able to deliver a baby like it was supposed to. If I had to do it over again I would do it without the epidural again.

Because we were moving everything was packed. Before I left for the hospital I was able to find the car seat and my newborn baby clothes out in our huge storage pile in my dad's garage. But I couldn't find the baby blankets. So Jacob and Adam generously offered there blankets for Lucas to use to come home from the hospital. This is Lucas ready to leave the hospital with both of their blankets.

A note on Lucas' name. The second week of December I told David that after we had Christmas all bought and ready we had to figure out a name for the baby. I have always liked the name Lucas but David prefered Samuel. I tried really hard to fall in love with Samuel but in the end just couldn't do it. So David told me Lucas was fine especially since he named Matthew. But we both agreed on Lucas' middle name Eddy. Eddy is my maiden name but he is not named for me. He is named after his Grandpa and Grandma Eddy because without my parents we would have never gotten through this pregnancy. My mother came every day for the first 14 weeks of my pregnancy to take care of me and my boys. Then they moved in with us for the month of July and after they moved into their new home in my mom still came over for another 2 weeks. So for 20 weeks straight my mom took care of me, my boys and all my household chores while David was at work. While they were living with us Jacob had his horrible eye accident where he was stabbed in the eye with a broken pvc pipe and had to have surgery. My mom took me and Jacob to the ER because I was too sick to drive during that part of my pregnancy. Later my dad came to UVRMC and sat with us during his surgery and then took me home afterwards so I could try to sleep and then took me back to the hospital in the morning. In September they help us move into the condo and let us store all of our stuff at their house but even more they let us use their yard and house whenever the condo walls were closing in on us. And as I said before my dad took care of moving us into our new home and then my mom unpacked and cleaned the house. Both David and I wanted to name Lucas in honor of them and the good, good people they are not just during this pregnancy but for all they have done for our family. Thank you, mom and dad! We love you so much.