Trunk-or-Treat

Cinderella and Superman go trunk-or-treating at the church.
Superman with a sword? Pretty cute light sticks Grandma and Papa got for the kiddos.

Miss Kimberly didn't wear her costume because it was way too hot. She will be a pumpkin. Instead she wore a Halloween onesie with slipper rattles. Here she is with Papa.

Grandma took Cinderella around to the different trunks. Daddy and Papa took Superman. Mommy handed out the candy at our trunk. We had our lights around the trunk, our spider web inside, the spider on top of the hatch, a pumpkin lantern, and our smoke machine.

And here is their haul from the fun night.

Making cards

Timmy and Sheila made Halloween cards for their grandparents this year. I made up two cards each for them and a bunch of die cuts. Then they glued and colored away. I sent one from each to my parents and the others will be given to Ray's parents when we see them again since I forgot them last night at the Church's trunk or treat. I forgot to take pictures of the finished projects but they turned out cute.

My Darling Family

Need I say more?

2 Week Appointment

Kimberly had her two week appointment today on base. We were a little annoyed. Our appointment was at 9 but we were supposed to be there 15 minutes early for paperwork. Ray had his PT test on base and was running the track. I waited for him to get done but then he walked a lap to cool off so I had to leave him since it was 5 minutes to 9. (His test started at 7:30 and should have been done long before then but of course there was delays.) He got a ride over to the clinic and met us there. I got checked in by 9 but then we waited 45 minutes before they even called us back. Kimberly needed to be nursed since she hadn't nursed since 6 this morning. They took her weight, height, and head measurements and then took us to a room where we waited another half hour to see the doctor. The computers had crashed so that was part of the problem but still that is a long time to wait. While waiting for the Doctor, I nursed Kimberly since she would wait no longer.

Anyway, Kimberly weighs exactly 1 ounce less than she did at birth. She has grown an inch. She is between the 25-50% across the board. She is definitely my smallest baby now since both Sheila and Timmy were in the 90% by this time in most areas. Also Kimberly has to have a vitamin D supplement because she is solely breastfed. So our lovely couple of hours out stretched into 6 hours. We had to go to the track for Ray's test, the clinic, Burger King (we were both starving right after her appointment and I also needed to nurse her on the other side so we sat in the car and ate while she did too), the pharmacy, Ray's work (pick up a gift basket they had for us), post office, gas station, Goodwill (I cleaned out the kids room yesterday and got rid of 3 garbage bags of toys), and the grocery store.

Plus there is a million things here I would like to do. I wanted to frost sugar cookies with the kids this afternoon. I got the dough made last night (had to refrigerate overnight) and had planned to bake them before Sheila came home from school but I will be nursing Kimberly soon and then Sheila will be home soon after that so we won't be able to frost them until tonight since they will have to cool before then. Sheila will enjoy cutting them out though.

As for me I am doing pretty well 2 weeks after. I have lost 25 pounds (most of that was from the water retention). I can finally get most of my shoes on. However, I still can't wear many of my prepregnancy pants yet. Just one or two fit comfortably. I hope that with another 5 pounds I will be able to wear them. I plan on starting to walk every day again soon. I usually walk with a neighbor every morning after the bus comes but this week so far we haven't been able to but hopefully tomorrow.

And last night Kimberly slept through the night last night. She didn't go down until a little after 10:30 but I woke her up around 5:30 this morning to nurse. I got up at 4 and pumped since I was dying. She stayed up for over 8 hours yesterday afternoon though so I knew she would be tired by the time she did fall asleep.

Kimberly Pictures

Here are some more pictures of my cute little daughter. I am still trying to get a picture of the three kids together.

Fair 2009

As promised here are some pictures from the fair that we went to first part of October. The kids really had a good time and Sheila asked to go every day the rest of the week.

These are the items I won blue ribbons on. The pumpkin bunting is going to be Kimberly's Halloween costume.

Coming soon: more pictures of Kimberly.

Adjusting to a newborn

This is my first time fully breast feeding. Finally success. Some of you know of the struggle I had with the first two. Anyway, one thing I was not use to was an infant that wants to nurse 24/7. Well, that is what it seems like. Kimberly has what I like to call "feeding frenzies." She will want to nurse every hour for several hours in a row and then take a 2-3 hour nap and then start again. I was averaging 3 hours of sleep at night for the first 3-4 nights. Then I was up to 6 hours but in 1-2 hour snippets. Last night I put her down at 8:30 and then went to sleep myself. She woke me up at 10:30. I was up until about 12:30 with her. As I lied down I was thinking that if I got 2 hours of sleep more that would be good. At 4:45 this morning I had to wake her up to feed because I was in pain. It was nice to get the 4 hours of straight sleep. Plus the two before and the nearly 2 I got while she nursed this morning I almost got 8 hours of sleep and for the first time in over a week I feel fairly rested.

Before whenever she was awake she wanted to be nursing. Now she will go short periods of times where she will sit and just look around. She is still not too fond of the swing but she will at least go in there for awhile now and even fall asleep if she is really tired. This morning was the first time I was able to really prop her up and take some pictures of her. I hope to download those today sometime and post them.

She is now letting me know it is time to eat again so that is another adjustment, having to stop or cut things short to tend to her. The other kids I can tell just a minute but she does not understand that.

The Wait is Over and Boy was it an Ordeal

From God's Kingdom

A precious Infant descends from above.

In this Miraculous event

Bestowing Blessings to

Our Eternal family

In this earthly Realm.

Little angel in my arms

So many Years to come.

In the above poem I have hidden a clue of the gender of our baby. I will reveal the answer at the end but first I want to share my ordeal.

I never went into full labor on our own so off to the hospital we went early Monday morning to be induced. I had decided I would get my epidural right away since before I had waited and then an emergency would happen and it would take a few hours to get it. I don't like being induced. The labor pains don't build naturally that way and so I rather have the baby come when it wants but I was ready for this little one to come.

The doctor at the hospital that day was one of the doctor's at my office I didn't see very often. The nurses informed me that he doesn't like his patients to get an epidural until they are in active labor. I should have packed up them and rescheduled for the next day but they assured me that he wouldn't let me die.

So of course I immediately go into active labor. I haven't taken any birthing classes since Sheila so I am trying to remember breathing techniques. The nurses would leave Ray and I alone for an hour at a time. After about 4 hours I am begging for the epidural. They check me. I am now a 2 but the baby is still way up there.

Four more hours go by. I am dying. The nurse checks again. I am a 3 but the baby is still up there. She goes to talk to the doctor. About 15 minutes later she comes back to tell me no epidural yet. But she will give me IV medicine. She gives me that and keeps asking me if I was feeling it. No I was not. She checked me again. This is maybe an hour from the last time. I am an 8-9. Funny thing is that when she left us I told Ray "just you wait they are going to wait too long and then it will be too late to get my epidural. I will be so mad if that happens."

Now I had already discovered I do not have a good pain threshold and more power to women that can do it without but I love the marvels of medicine. Oh, I also should have taken it as a bad sign when they blew two veins trying to get my IV in. I now have two massive bruises on my arms.

So now I am an 8-9. The nurse runs to get the doctor. He comes is and I am begging for the epidural. He checks and decides I do have time to get it. It takes them about half an hour to get it in. I started feeling it. Relief. Had a couple of contractions. No pain but I do still feel them. They all leave the room again. I start to feel the contractions more and more. They are starting to really hurt again. My feet and legs regain feeling. Ray runs out to tell them and comes back with the epidural guy. He says we have to wait for the doctor because if I am fully dilated I will just have to push without the pain medicine.

The nurse gets there and I am fully dilated. I am so mad by now. They get me ready and I have to push. And of course I would have back labor with this baby. It felt like my tailbone was breaking. Luckily it only took a few pushes to get the baby out. The baby was lined up perfectly and so even though I was exhausted and had to stop pushing when the baby was partly out to regain some strength and didn't think I could go on. Both Ray and the nurse had to get me to stop freaking out and look at them so I could push the last time.

Finally the baby was out. But I still felt everything else and so I didn't get to enjoy the birth as much as with the other two when I felt nothing or very little.

Here are some pictures of the arrival of our beautiful baby.

Daddy cutting the cord.
You may see the sweat rolling off my nose in these two pictures. I was so sweaty and hot.

So out comes the baby and they announce. "It's a GIRL."

They laid her on my stomach and she had tons of dark, long hair. A perfectly round face and nice shaped head. Thank goodness she was straight down.

Kimberly Dawn (If you look at the large words in the poem above the first letter of each word spells out Kimberly) was born at 2:20 p.m. weighing in at 8 pounds 4.2 ounces and 19 1/2 inches long. My shortest baby but my chunkiest. She was over a pound heavier than they anticipated.

After cleaning me and the baby up I got up to use the bathroom and everyone was surprised that I could walk to the bathroom. I told them the epidural was completely gone. I thought using the bathroom would relieve the pressure but nope. I asked for some pain medication but I couldn't have that until I ate. We called down to the cafeteria to get me something to eat.

We called our parents to tell them what it was. As soon as Ray's parents told Sheila and Timmy they had a sister they were at the door with their shoes on. They got to the hospital at around 3:30. Still no food. I am barely perched on the bed because my tailbone still feels like I broke it.

Ray goes out to McDonalds to get me something and while I am finishing that my food finally arrives and they want to take me to my new room. I finally got my pain medicine and it takes effect as I am walking to my new room. I now can say I had a baby all naturally and next time I will go with one of the doctors that let me have an epidural right away so I can enjoy holding my baby instead of writhing in agony.

So those dying to know I did think I was having a girl the whole time. Maybe that is why I called her all the time. Sheila is thrilled. She wanted a girl baby so bad. I came home yesterday afternoon. She is an awesome nurser but she likes to do it every hour in the night so now I have to get her adjusted. I am living off of about 3 hours of sleep a night with snoozing while she is nursing. She likes to be held all the time too. I am so glad Ray has time off to help make the adjustment. But she is a good baby. Doesn't cry much and loves to look around as much as she can.

I will post some more pictures later of ones we took with Ray's camera. I tried to here but I had issues.

Another update

Well, I am still WAITING. I don't remember being this impatient with the other two. But the wait will be over tomorrow. I go in at 4 a.m. to be induced. I think it would be kind of funny if I went into labor naturally tonight. The labor I had all day Friday petered off in the middle of the night and I have only had a few since then. My in-laws spent the night and everything. They will be coming over tonight too. I am so anxious to meet this little one. I have no clue what to expect. I was leaning towards one gender but in the last couple of weeks I just don't know.

Today I picked up my things from the fair. (We went to Sacrament meeting but knew I couldn't sit more than that. Everyone was surprised to see me there and still pregnant. It gave me the opportunity to let people know about the baby coming tomorrow.) I got a surprise though when I got to the fair. I had a lot more ribbons than I thought. I guess they ran out and since we went the first night of the fair some items didn't get their ribbons yet. Most of the ones that were missing were white ones (third place) but still I was thrilled to know I got a little more prize money than originally thought. I got a total of 7 blue ribbons (first place), 20 red ribbons (2nd place), and 12 white ribbons. I had one item not get a ribbon. I was okay with that.

After loading up the van I went to start it while Ray got the kids buckled in. Nothing. We had jumper cables and the family next to us (who had two cars worth of stuff they had entered) gave us a jump. Or rather tried to give us a jump. We got lights and stuff back but the battery kept clicking.

I luckily had brought my cell phone. Ray and I usually don't bring them to church on Sunday but since I am so close to delivering I decided to take it. I tried Ray's parents but got the answer machine. So I called my neighbor. She said she would come and get us right away. Then I called the in-laws back and left a message. We went back in the fair building and I took Sheila to the bathroom. While in there my in-laws called. Ray decided to stay there and wait for his dad. They would go get a new battery to see if that was the problem. Robin came and got me and the kids.

About an hour later Ray called and said it was the battery. He wasn't so sure since it wouldn't jump but I have had batteries die, die in two cars and was 95% sure that was the problem. Plus when we got it service last we were told our battery was not holding the charge as much as it should. We should have bought one then but we had just registered the vehicles and decided to wait until the next service 3 months away. Next time we will just tell them to replace it. He came home just after 2. So much for both of us getting good naps before tomorrow. I got just over an hour nap and Ray will get about an hour when he gets up for dinner in about 15 minutes.

The rest of the evening will be for finishing packing for the hospital and tying up other loose ends around the house. I still don't have the pictures downloaded from the fair. After I get back from the hospital and things wind down here a little I will have to download and blog about them all since we will have the baby pictures too.

Friday Fill-Ins

1. Sweet dreams will be eluding me for a long time.
2. Patience is not a virtue especially for me. (At least right now.)
3. Silliness can relieve stress.
4. Sheila will be Cinderella and Timmy will be Superman this Halloween.
5. Outstanding or not I will love my children.
6. To have this baby is what I want right now!
7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to having a baby, tomorrow my plans include having a baby and Sunday, I want to have the baby already!

Update news: I have been having contractions since 2 this morning. They are irregular right now but have come as often as 5 minutes apart so hopefully within the next 24 hours I will be having this baby. But 3 weeks ago I also did this so I am not getting my hopes up. I also added 3 extra days to my poll since I may not be induced until then.

Hanging in there

Still no baby. We went to the fair last night and even though I am sore this morning I don't know if it has done any good. We took most of the pictures on Ray's camera so I will post some pictures later.

The kids had a lot of fun at the fair. Grandma and Grandpa came with us. The kids rode rides for over 2 hours. I ended up sitting at one of the eating booths for about 40 minutes when my husband and mother-in-law disappeared with the kids. Ray didn't leave me any money so I ended up eating the free popcorn from one of the church's booths. (He did bring me a funnel cake when he did come back.)

Fairs here are a little different than out west. The fair I remember growing up had two huge buildings (or three) of booths from 4-H, other entries, and local businesses. Then there was the animals, horse shows, cattle auctions, tractor displays, rodeos, etc. Rarely did the carnival come to town at the same time. But despite that we had tons of fun at the fair every year. I was involved in 4-H for several years and so it was a big deal.

Here the carnival is the main attraction. There are a few animals, one or two 4-H booths, and then three small rooms of entries from people like me who do crafts at home. One for afghans and quilts, one for other crochet, knit, sewing, and other such crafts, and one for plants. The rest of the building is full of booths, mostly the different Christian churches, namely Baptist in this area. The missionaries use to have a booth out at the fair every year but the last two years have not. The booths lure you in with free ice cold water (because it sure is hot, humid, and muggy even at night here), fresh popped popcorn, fun little books for the kids, etc. The kids got fire hats from the fire department. Sheila has been a pretend firefighter since they visisted her school a week ago.

My father-in-law put in two of his paintings in the fair (he really is good, I have two lighthouse scenes he has painted for me in my house and Ray just picked out another picture for his birthday which he has on display at a hospital and will give to us when he gets it back.) He didn't get a place but he did get honorable mention and a merit reward. It is a lot harder to place in the art department since they only award one of each ribbon (1, 2, and 3 place) for each catergory (paintings, photographs, etc.)

I put in 40 items. Usually they award ribbons for every item in the craft categories. But the last couple of years they have been getting stricter in their judging I guess. I got ribbons on about 30. Of those I got mostly red, one white, and then a handful of blues. I was surprised on a couple of items I did not get a ribbon on. I still will get a nice amount of prize money.

The kids could hardly wait to get outside for the rides. Timmy was just barely tall enough this year. He enjoyed most of the rides but would not go on the helicopters or the ferris wheel. Ray or Grandma went on as many rides as they could go on with them but the rest Sheila and Timmy went on together. Timmy was done after two hours but Sheila still wanted to go so Grandpa took her on a few more. Then right before we headed home we let them each play a game (some of the games for the little kids they get to play until they win.) We paid the couple of bucks extra so they could choose one of the big prizes. They both played a fishing game and Timmy got a big blow up dolphin and Sheila got a stuffed smaller dolphin.

I was hoping all the walking would get things moving along with the baby but other than a few aches and a few contractions last night nothing has happened. Tomorrow is my last doctor's appointment. We will see if I have progressed any and see if they were able to schedule the inducement for Monday. I wanted the baby to come on it's own this time. I prefer that over being induced but I think by Monday I will be just ready to have this baby one way or another.

Still waiting

Nine days later and I haven't dilated any more. I am not really surprised. I didn't dilate at all with Sheila until I went into labor with her a day before my due date (she was born the day AFTER her due date so yes I was in labor 50 hours with her.) With Timmy I was only dilated to a 1 when I went in a week early to be induced since Ray was only home for Christmas because of his 3 month training. We hope this time the baby will come when she/he is good and ready but the doctor did schedule me an inducement today for October 12, the Monday after my due date, if I do not deliver by then. I am not too worried about going that long. I would like to have this baby soon though because the swelling is becoming unbearable at times.

I have also began to snore. My husband told me I snore really loudly. I have woken up myself snoring. I hope that will go away once I deliver. I suspect a lot of the weight I have gained lately is water retention like it was with Sheila and I hope to lose a lot of that within in the first few weeks. (With Sheila I lost over half the weight I gained in two weeks and most by 2 months after having her.)

I may decide to go to fair next week just to see if I can get things moving a long with this delivery. At least maybe I will be able to watch conference this weekend.