Rylee's Firsts

It has been an amazing 2 weeks with our new little girl! We are loving her so much and are still so thankful she is here with us. It has been a little, well a lot, crazy. 4 kids is a lot. It is going to take some getting used to and I am learning that I will have to mellow out a little bit on my schedules and routines in order to survive. :) (at least for a little while!)

Among the craziness, Rylee has had a busy 2 weeks of first experiences:

First visitors

First Dr. Appointment

First shot (PKU)

First bath

First night in crib

First outing (Dad's office party)

First baby blingFirst pedicure

First Christmas Outfit

Since she is brand new, just about everything is a "first" and we are enjoying every second of our sweet girl's experiences and look forward to so many more.

Rylee Joyce Roper

She is HERE!!!!! Our sweet, beautiful baby girl is here! Rylee Joyce Roper arrived at 9:26am on December 5, 2009 weighing in at 8lbs 3oz and 21 1/2 inches long. She is the sweetest most beautiful little thing I have ever seen :).

We are over the moon for her and I don't think anyone is happier than me that she is here. I'm so glad she isn't inside of me anymore!! As I mentioned in a previous post, it has been a challenging week or so for me and to have her here--healthy and happy--is the greatest feeling in the world.

Although it is all said and done now, getting her here was the hardest of all of my kids, but well worth it. Here is the story:

Jess and I decided that we would take the kids to see the temple lights. Matt was coming back from being out of town and his sister, Mar, was with him. Matt called while we were at dinner announcing that there had been an accident on the freeway and he would still be several hours :(. So, I braved the Temple Lights single and I am pretty sure that is what put me into serious labor.

Jess and Ben tried to help, but they have their 2 and, lets face it, it usually takes 2 adults to take on my little Sethie. He insisted on pushing Trent in the stroller, which is fine, but hard too because you have to constantly be on top of where he running off and/or who he is running into. We lasted about 20 minutes. That is when the contractions started to seriously come.

By the time I got the kids to bed and Matt was home, the contractions were still coming. I nervously charted them for 3 hours and although they weren't too consistent, they were very strong. I called my doc who advised me to go to the hospital. Since Mar was at our house, we were able to leave quickly and arrived at the hospital at about 11:45pm.

A quick check at the triage was disappointing. The nurse said I was only a 3. I nearly started to cry. She told me to wait it out for an hour and when she checked me again, I was THANKFULLY a 4 and allowed to stay. WAHOOOOO!!!

By 2am, I was in the delivery room, with my epidural and at a 6. It took me a lot longer to get to a 10 than in the past so Matt and I waited it out, trying to sleep (ha, ha) until it was go time. My doc was on call this weekend so he checked on me at 7am, broke my water and the action began.

Jess got there in time for the delivery and with 2 big pushes my baby GIRL was here! I couldn't help but ask if it really was a girl when she came out. She is!! A little chunk, you would hardly know she was 6 days early. She looks EXACTLY like my boys, except for her....RED HAIR!!!!!

We are LOVING her red hair! It is actually strawberry blonde and I hope it stays! The nurses and all our visitors were having such a fit over it. She is the cutest thing ever.

I love that she is here, I love holding her, I love her sweet little noises, I love her smell, I love to watch her try to open her eyes, I love that she seems so content in my arms, I love her bows and headbands on her little head, I love that she is healthy and strong, I love everything about her.

We were so blessed to have Mar in town and she held down the fort perfectly while we were at the hospital. Matt and I didn't have to worry a bit. We are also so blessed to have Gary and Shirley in town to help now. They are so wonderful--hopped right in the car and came down at first word that she was coming. We have such wonderful family and friends!

The boys ADORE her! It is going to be so much fun having this little girl in the house. Trent is trying very hard to give soft touches. He will definitely have the hardest transition of us all--poor little guy :(. I am glad he is little enough where he won't remember this time for very long and won't know anything different soon.

Welcome home sweet girl, we love you so much!

Contractions

Contractions. Contractions. Contractions. A word that has been on my mind for a week now. In my past pregnancies, the word contraction could have been defined as: when they are 5 minutes apart, consistently, for at least an hour, go to the hospital and when you get there, you will have a baby within the next couple of hours and leave the next day. Not too bad.

My past contractions have not even been that painful--better explained as uncomfortable. Whenever asked my pain level by the delivery nurse, I would usually fib a bit and say "4" in order to get my epidural sooner. This pregnancy has been COMPLETELY different. I don't know why I am surprised since everything has been different this time around from the start, but for some reason I thought my delivery would be the same as my other three.

I have been having contractions since Thanksgiving day. I have, actually, been having them a lot longer than that, but have categorized them as "Braxton Hicks" until about last week. They have picked up immensely in repetition and pain since Sunday.

It started on Saturday night and went on all day Sunday. I decided to go to church since I was sick of charting my contractions (writing down the start time of each one in order to tell how close they were coming.) While at church, I told a few friends I was having lots of consistent contractions. The news spread like wild fire and within minutes the entire ward knew I was in labor--well so they thought.

Here I sit at my computer almost five days later and still no baby. Several of my ward members, including my Bishop, have called and I have to embarrassingly tell them that I still haven't had my baby. The reason I am so frustrated is that I am still having consistent contractions. Apparently, this time, they aren't doing anything more than dilating me to a 2 and 70% effaced (I have been this for over a week now.)

I think I can safely say that I hate contractions. These ones are teasing me and driving me nuts. Each time I have one, I think to myself, "Is this it?" "Am I supposed to go to the hospital now?" For the record they have teased me enough that I HAVE already been to the hospital and sent home followed by 2 doctor's visits (Monday and Wednesday) all to be told the same thing: you are still a 2, come back when the contractions are stronger. GRRRRRRR....stronger?

You might be thinking to yourself, "what is the problem, you are still not even due for 8 days?" I agree, I am not due for 8 days and I am fine with that. I am fine with not having her until my due date. My other babies were only about 2 days early so having a baby over a week early is very uncharacteristic of me, but it is just these contractions.

In the past, contractions were my indicator to go to the hospital, now they are an annoying pest torturing me all day everyday. I wouldn't be complaining if I didn't have to deal with living each moment in limbo wondering when I am going to go into "real" labor. In the end, though, what can I do? Nothing. I have to deal with it and hope for the best.
I look and feel like I am going to pop--don't let the smile on my face in these pics confuse you--I am one miserable-contraction-hating-girl. Keep your fingers crossed for me, hopefully sooner than later I will have a post plastered with pics of our new little girl. Wish me luck...

Trent's Room

The time has come (too soon) to put my baby in a big boy bed. With our little girl coming soon and invading the nursery, Trent has been kicked out :) and is in a new room. I made sure that his new room was personalized and ready for him when I finally made the big move. He still seems so, so little to me and I have been VERY reluctant to take the plunge and move him from his crib, but we finally did it a couple of days ago.


Surprisingly, he is doing really well! The first night I took him in his new room, he seemed like he felt weird about it (after all, it was Seth's room just a few months ago.) We went through our normal bedtime routine and when it was time for me to leave, I laid him down in the middle of the bed and told him this is where he is going to sleep now and then told him, "night, night, love you." With that, I closed the door and left him in his new room.

He isn't used to sleeping with a night light so I wasn't about to introduce one to him now. I don't know if it was because the room was pitch black or if he liked the new bed, but with just one short whimper he went to bed. Both Matt and I listened at the door several times during the next hour and didn't hear a peep. When I felt like it had been long enough, I carefully opened the door a crack to find my sweet baby boy asleep in the middle of his new bed.

The nights have been easier than the days. He spends most of nap time running around the room, reading his books and enjoying sucking his binky (which is a vice only allowed at bedtimes.) I am sure he will catch on to nap times quickly though and cannot believe how easy it was to switch him over. Another sign that my little one is getting big so fast.

Happy Birthday, Dad

Happy Birthday to the best dad and Ampa we could EVER ask for! We love you so much and hope your day was as special as you are! Thank you for all the fun and laughter through out all of our lives. You bring so much joy to us all.

Thanksgiving

This year, Thanksgiving was with my side of the family. Everyone was able to come down and we had a GREAT time!

Ju and baby Jax arrived first. My kids were/ are obsessed with that little guy! All three of them just loved to be around him. Trent was pretty good with giving "soft touches", Seth liked to tell us about every move Jax would make and Wade's favorite part was holding Jax. The little guy even fell asleep in Wade's arms once--so cute!

John, my dad and Paula came into town next. My dad, probably, spent more time at the park than he did at my house. Each day was filled with multiple and LONG trips to the beloved park. As you can imagine, the kids were thrilled! Trent is now old enough to go with Ampa and, both my dad and I think, he had the best time of all the kids.


Ben and I assumed our usual positions as co-cooking chairs. We can cook a pretty yummy Thanksgiving dinner if I do say so myself. :) Even though I am ready to pop, I was still able to pull off my usual assignments. Matt also took on his usual: Gary's pumpkin pies (Yum!)

The rest of the weekend was spent hanging out, shopping Black Friday deals and movies. It is always so much fun to be together and I fell so blessed and THANKFUL for my wonderful family.

Fall Soccer Season

The boys just finished their soccer seasons this past weekend. Wade completed his seventh season and Seth completed his second. Soccer has become a BIG deal around the Roper household and we are all enjoying it. I love that my boys have something to look forward to especially since it is something that teaches them teamwork, hard work and gives them lots of physical activity.

Even though Seth has only been going for 2 seasons, he is REALLY good. He is lucky because he had a big brother to practice with long before he was old enough to play.





Wade continues to do really well. He LOVES to play and we LOVE to watch him! He will rarely walk away from a game without at least one goal (usually more.) His team is also more and more competitive so the games can get really exciting. It's, really, not a bad way to spend a Saturday morning :).