He is here....

Evan Andersen Ray arrived this afternoon at 2:18pm. He weighed in at 8 lbs 8 ozs, the largest of my babies. Length of 20 inches is average. Like his previous siblings, he has a good amount of dark hair and gorgeous blue eyes.

Labor went pretty smoothly. When we came in I hadn't dilated, but my cervix had thinned out some. I got started on Pitocin at 8am. I was pleased to get my epidural about 11:30am. They broke my water about 12pm. Things progressed nicely and quickly until he arrived. He was trying to come out "sunny side up" or face up, so Dr. C turned him with no problem. After 2 contractions, he was here.

Due to his quick descent and exit, he has some bruising on his face, but is still ridiculously cute. He is sleeping like a little angel and eating well. Enjoy the pics.

Getting cleaned up right after birth.

Not Enjoying his bath too much.
Chubby little cheeks and nice dark hair.

Baby Update

I went in today for my 38 week check up. After the hospital fiasco, I was hoping to hear that I had dilated some and was eager to find out my induction date.

As my doc is checking me, he gets a weird look on his face. Not the thing you want to see when someone is "down there". I immediately know that I haven't dilated anything and he confirms. But he also mentions that he didn't feel a head (like he should have and they did when we left the hospital), instead he was feeling a hand or foot...yes, Evan has decided to do some somersaults and is now sitting up in my uterus. (Little stinker will fit in well with his difficult brothers.)

My doc decides we will indeed proceed with my induction, which will take place on Tuesday April 20th @ 7am. At that time, we will check to see if he has flipped again. If that is the case, the induction will proceed as normal. If he decides he likes being butt down and doesn't flip in the mean time then they will proceed to "turn" him and then induce me. If the little stinker won't be turned or the cord starts to come out, I will then need a c-section.

He also tells me that if my water breaks, I need to run, not walk into the hospital. If Evan is still breech they might be able to flip him in time, but if the cord comes out things could go very bad. He emphasized that normally when your water breaks, you have some time to gather things together and mosey in...but with a breech baby I need to get to the hospital immediately and worry about bags and all that junk later.

Can you tell that I'm really super excited for this? The topping to this wonderful cake is that my platelets are low. At last check (a few weeks ago) they were at 104. If the level drops below 100 I will not be able to get an epidural. (Granted, the same thing happened with Owen and my level stayed high enough to get the epidural, but just barely.) So I don't know what kind of excitement is awaiting me next Tuesday....guess I'll just have to wait and see.

Oh, the last little bit of joyful news....my husband's second "sample" to the urologist came back positive again! Holy moley! That is one fertile man and I blame him for my current predicament. ARGH!

Animals according to Logan

As I was walking upstairs to take my shower, Logan woke up from his nap. He followed me into the bathroom and insisted that we needed to play Mario Party on the Wii (a little obsessed, I fear, but there are worse things in the world). I told him I was going to take a shower and then we could discuss what to do.

A few minutes into my shower, he comes over and asks, "Hey mom. Do you know what I learned about in Primary?" I had seen his picture that came home, but decided to play dumb.

"Nope, what did you learn about?"

"I learned about animals." He shouts while jumping around in circles.

"Really. What did you learn about animals?"

"I learned that animals give us stuff."

"What kind of stuff?"

"Well, cows give us milk. And sometimes cheese. Some animals give us meat. Chickens give us EGGS." (Keep in mind, we decorated eggs not too long ago for easter, so they are super exciting to talk about.)

"Really. How does that happen?"

"The chickens give us eggs. And then someone puts them in the container. Then we get them from the store and make egg salad sandwiches." (Did I mention we decorated over a dozen eggs that are now being eaten? Can you tell what Logan has been enjoying for lunch lately?)

"How do the eggs get into the carton."

"No, mom. I said container. Someone puts them there."

"Do you know who puts them there? Maybe a farmer?"

"Oh, yeah. The farmer puts them in the container. Then he puts them in the fridge while we are sleeping and then we buy them from the store. Did you know that a farmer lives on the farm. He takes care of the animals....all the cows and chickens and pigs and ducks. Did you know that ducks have eggs too?"

"Really? That is pretty cool."

"Yeah. Then they come out of the shell and become ducklings."

This conversation when on for quite as I finished my shower and got dressed. All the while, I heard about lions that are as big as his dad and other things animals give us.

My favorite part of the conversation was when he told me about fish and how they give us water. When I asked how they did that, he replied," Well, they put it into their bodies and then they spit it out. Then it makes mud for the pigs to lay in."

This kid just cracks me up.
In case you were wondering. We decided to watch Toy Story instead of playing the Wii. I have a feeling that we might play tonight for our family home evening activity. :) This way, I can still be there to watch the movie, but also get some things done on my netbook. A winning situation for all.

I give up!

I am not enjoying being pregnant...that will not be a shock to anyone that knows me. So this past weekend I decided to "put myself" in labor and make this kid come out. I am already dilated and it is my fourth kid and all so I thought this can't be that hard.

I tried cleaning the house....I now have a really clean shower and laundry done but not much in the way of contractions. I decided that I needed to kick it up a notch and start walking.

On Saturday, Nikki and her kiddos came over to use my washing machine and hang out (plus if I actually went into labor our babysitter would be here). I mentioned my desire for a good walk and she said she would join me. We decided to head over to Arctic Circle for a milkshake. My hubby who kept all the kids but JD decided to meet us there and we could have dinner. Yummy!

So 3 miles, a chicken sandwich, fries and Raspberry Cheesecake Milkshake later my contractions were coming. Not super hard or steady, but there none the less. By the time Brian came to pick up the family, the contractions were hardly there so I chalked it up to some good exercise and yummy food.

When Steven and I were going to bed, my belly was hurting so I asked my hubby to rub it. He noticed that I was having contractions semi-regularly and decided to time them. They were coming every 3-5 minutes and lasting about 1 minute. After consulting a pregnancy book, we thought maybe I was actually going into labor. We called Brian to give them a heads up and decided to try and go to sleep. After 1/2 hour of continual contractions and no sleep we decided to head over to the hospital. We called Brian and started loading up the car. Shortly we were headed over to St. Als.

We got there around 11:45pm and requested room 6 (which I now hate and will refuse to enter again) and got on with all the fun-ness. I peed in the cup, answered a million questions and got hooked up to the monitoring machines. My contractions were still steady, about 4 minutes apart. About 12:30am I finally got "the exam" and to my surprise and dismay, after all those contractions, I hadn't dilated one bit from my appointment on Tuesday. My cervix was thinning some and Evan had moved down some, but no dilation. After consulting with my doc (who I'm sure was happy to get a phone call of this nature in the middle of the night) they decided things weren't going anywhere and I was free to go. Or I could walk around the ward for an hour to see if anything happened. I being my idiot self, decided to try the latter option.

In hindsight, I would have just left. But I figured, I'm here....Brian drove all the way over and I want this kid out. So Steven and I walked in laps around the maternity and postpartum wards for an hour. We timed it and discovered the full circuit took about 6 minutes. The nurses, my husband, the on-call doc were all convinced we were wasting our time. About 3 laps into it, I was convinced, but still determined to finish what I started.

After the hour, she came to check me and said that I hadn't dilated and could go home. The one glimmer of hope that I currently cling to, is that she said after the walking she could clearly feel Evan's head (which she hadn't been able to before) so he dropped some more. I put my PJ's back on and at 2:30am headed back home.

While walking those laps around the hospital, I decided this kid just doesn't want to come out. I will lay on my couch and wait to be induced. This will give me a chance to get some reading done, watch junk TV and work on my cross-stitch. Tomorrow I have an OB appointment and expect my doc to laugh at me some. I don't expect to be dilated at all since my contractions stopped a couple hours after coming home and I have had only a few since them. But at least tomorrow I will find out my induction date and can plan on that.

All that effort for nothing....well, maybe not nothing. I did get a milkshake, a knee that really hurts now, a clean shower and I can expect a nice bill from the hospital for our fun little jaunt. Yea!

Pregnancy Update

I had my 37 week appointment with my OB today. At my last couple appointments I have been measuring big so he wanted to do an ultrasound just to check out how Evan is doing.

Steven met me at the appointment and we were quickly taken back. They forgot that I was having the ultrasound, so they took me to a normal room. After I had already undressed, they moved me to the right room. Steven had asked if I was going to put my pants back on, I said "Heck, no! I will wrap this sheet around me and walk over to the room." I don't think he fully realizes how difficult it is to put on pants as a pregnant woman and to just have to take them off again....that is crazy.

Dr. C came in and we started. He did the ultrasound measuring Evan and the amniotic fluid. He said fluid levels look good (which I guess was one of the main concerns). He asked how big my other kids were...Kim 8 lb. 5 oz., Logan 7 lb. 6 oz and Owen 7 lb. 2 oz....all pretty normalish size kids. He said that according to current measurements Evan is about 7 1/2 lbs. If things go to the bitter end, I could be pushing out another 8 1/2 lb or even 9 lb baby. How fun for my last. :)

Next came the "fun" part. The internal exam. I have been having contractions for the last couple weeks, nothing regular or too painful, mainly just irritating. But I was hoping that I was at least dilated to 2 or 3 so that an induction could be considered. Dr. C asked me what I thought I was at, I didn't want to answer...what if I said 2 and it was 0. That would have sucked. He made my day and told me that I am dilated to 3 cm! I meet the criteria for induction! That means the latest this kid will be born is April 20th. We will set up the induction at my next week at my next appointment. (They can only schedule a week in advance.) I about floated out of the office.

So, to recap....I am dilated to 3 and will be induced April 19th or 20th if I don't go into labor on my own. Evan is going to be a good size baby. And these contractions are actually doing something! Yea!

Plethora....

So many blogs to post....not enough time or effort....so one blog with a whole bunch of different things....

***My family came in town this weekend for my nephew, Johnathon's, blessing. It is always fun to hang out with everyone. I don't have any pictures of the fun events...Steven and I forgot to get out our camera and take pics, but Steven did copy everyone else's memory card onto the laptop and hopefully I can get those over to my netbook one day.

For dinner on Saturday night we went to:Oh, so yummy. The Idaho Spud pizza is the best and the cookie dough dessert pizza is ridiculous! Everyone ate until they about exploded. We got a pic of Sharon's "food baby" belly compared to my Evan belly....very close in size might I mention. :)

***Major accomplishment of the weekend....Between my mother and grandmother we were able to get my cross-stitch framed.


For those of you who don't know (and quite frankly, what kind of friend are you if you don't...) This is the Greg Olsen cross-stitch that took me two years to finish. I had started it as my 10 hour project for my YW Personal Progress, but it turned into the beast that didn't want to get done. A YEAR after I was called into the Primary Presidency, I finally finished it and will have to do something else when I re-attempt to get my Personal Progress medallion. (Fortunately, Kim turns 12 next year and we can do it together.)

It is currently in my hall closet, while I decide where to hang it. (I would be forced to murder anyone who harmed it in the meantime, so it is safely tucked away from little people's hands.) I can't wait to get it hung on the wall, so I can look at it with great pride. Steven has been instructed that in case of a fire, once the children are out of the house, he must rush back into the house and retrieve this. He says he will think about it, but when I threaten to do it again when it goes up in flames me might think long and hard.

(PS...Thanks to Mom and Grandma Smith for getting the boppy cover done also. It was priceless to see my mother sewing on Kim's Barbie sewing machine. I really need to get the foot for my sewing machine so I can sic them on my other sewing projects come Evan's blessing.)

***Next up, my awesome deal of the year....well, the weekend for sure. At Target, I purchased Kim's easter dress and the Toy Story 1 & 2 DVD-BlueRay Combo packs....Guess what I paid for this...

You'll never guess...so I'll just tell you. I paid a mere...$22.38 Yes, that is correct...22 dollars and 38 cents. How you ask? Toys R Us had a special running that if you bought both of the movies they only cost $16.99 each. Not a bad price, but wait, I had a coupon for $10 off each movie. So they would only cost $6.99 each. Awesome! Well, my Toys R Us sucks and wouldn't take the coupon, so I headed over to Target to have them price match. On my third Target store, I finally able to get both movies. But here is the awesome part....Target was also running a special that if you buy both movies they took $10 off. So the movies came down to $1.99 each. How awesome is that...Kim's dress was also on sale for $16, so that saved me $3.99 What a wonderful shopping experience! (BTW...Thanks David for sending over the link to the coupons....that saved me some hassle trying to print them off from Disney Movie Rewards....) Oh, I also forgot to mention....these discs also have a voucher to go see Toy Story 3 in the theater for free....2 DVDS and 2 movie vouchers for $3.98 does life get much better than that!?!

***I noticed as I was updating my reading log that my baby counter says I only have 26 days left until my due date. That seems so close, but for the really fat lady who has to get up every 1 1/2 to 2 hours to pee it also seems so far away. I look forward to my appointment next Tuesday. I am measuring big, so my OB wants to do an ultrasound to check Evan out. I also get to do the group B strep culture (not too excited for that) and see if I'm dilated yet. (Which I better be, because I am having contractions and if they aren't doing anything I will be VERY NOT happy.) Luckily, my OB said from this point out, if I go into labor they will no longer try to stop me. That is wonderful news...so Evan could come any day now.....get excited!

I think I am done....ready to eat dinner....so long for now!

Missing my little girl

As I'm sitting here enjoying the quiet of two boys upstairs (one napping and the other pretending to), I can't help but miss my little girl.

Kimmy flew out last night to visit her dad in Cali for a week and a half and I miss her already. It's been an odd thing. I frequently don't count her as one of my children because she doesn't cause me problems like the boys do...she is old enough to take care of herself and so I don't need to spend a lot of mental energy or physical effort to make sure she is alright. When people ask how it is being the mother of 3 kids, I frequently reply that I don't know...I only feel like I have two. But now that only having two to take care of is a reality, I realize the deep hole that has been created.

As we sat down to dinner yesterday and her spot at the table was empty I was crushed by the reality that she wasn't here. I realized how Logan felt when it was time to leave the airport yesterday and he said "I don't want to leave, because then I would miss Kim." As I got up this morning and realized that I would have to get the boys breakfast because Kim wasn't here to do it. (She has been a wonderful help through this pregnancy...getting the boys going with breakfast in the morning so I can sleep in those extra ten minutes.)

She is such a great helper around the house...even though it takes her three times as long to do the chores that it does me...she gets them done without too much complaining. She is tirelessly patient with two little brothers (soon to be three) who are constantly trying to play with or tickle her. Yesterday she was bored and wanted to play on her DS. I told her it was okay. A short while later, I looked up from my cross-stitch and found her sandwiched between her two brothers. They sat there for quite a while just watching her play.

I can't take too much credit for how awesome of a kid she has turned out. Sure, I changed her diapers and breastfed her for the first part of her life, but what else could I have done. She managed to survive toddlerhood with a single mother who worked two jobs and went to school...mostly due to the help and influence of my parents for those many years. She adores Steven who has considered her his kid from the moment he met her (which was on our 2nd date).

All in all, I couldn't have asked for a better first kid....lets just hope that we can all survive the teenage years ahead of us. And also the upcoming 6th grade year while she learns how to play the flute. :)