Memorial Day Trip

We had a fun, busy week! We celebrated Braden’s sixth birthday, my sisters and mom threw me a beautiful surprise baby shower, we had a barbecue with friends, the boys went fishing on grandpa’s boat, the kids rode motorcycles, and we enjoyed the company of grandparents and cousins for nearly a week. It was a great trip, and it was over much too quickly.

Now we’re home with an exhausted 9-months-pregnant mama, a basement bedroom that flooded while we were gone, ten loads of laundry to wash, and lots of chores to catch up on. We have cousins coming to stay with us in two days and staying for a week and the kids are excited for a week-long cousin party. This weekend we have a father-son camp out, a track meet, and a piano recital.

The Fourth Year

I was cradling Asher in my arms as we finished up the last few minutes of our walk around the neighborhood. (He’d fallen and scraped his knee.)

“I can’t believe you’re almost four, Asher!” I said, pulling him closer.

“I know,” Asher agreed. Then he added, “And it’s good because the fourth year is free!”

Doctor Day

We had a morning full of doctor visits- my OB check up and Joshua had appointment to get his cast off. Because of the locations and times of these appointments, it made sense to take Josh with me to my visit. We got up early, ate a light breakfast, and then left for my 7:50 appointment.

I knew I was getting a cervical check and GBS test done so I decided to leave Joshua in the waiting room. He had a book to read and he is a very obedient and well-mannered nine-year-old so I trusted him. I let the receptionist know as well and afterwards was given many compliments on how sweet, cute, and well-behaved he was.

My appointment went well. Baby sounds great. The silly girl has been transverse for a long time, but I finally thought she’d turned head down. I can usually tell what position my babies are in, but I guess I am losing my touch (or maybe this baby is just very sneaky) because she is actually breech. Silly girl! I feel like she still has room and time to turn, but I’m a little nervous after our experience with Asher.

My cervix is pretty low and soft considering there’s not even a baby putting pressure on it. I’m dilated a very loose 1cm internally. At this point that’s perfect- it’s not too much with just over a month left to go (6 weeks), but it’s nice to know that things are slowly getting ready.

Best of all, I have permission to travel for Memorial Day! My OB said to take it easy and listen to my body, but I have the go-ahead to leave. Yay!

I got blood work done to check iron and platelets and then we were done.

Josh and I had a little time to kill and we were both hungry so we went to the cafeteria. I got a bagel and chocolate milk. Joshua got a fruit and yogurt parfait, a banana, strawberry milk, and a candy bar. He was happy and kept telling me how fun it was to be together. We talked the entire drive to the children’s hospital and I loved spending time with my boy. He and Rick have lots of one on one time, but I usually don’t get as much time with just Josh.

We were early for our appointment at the fracture clinic so we waited together in the waiting room.

They did an X-ray and then we took a few pictures of the signatures and messages that had been written OB his cast. Finally, it was time to remove the cast. I was curious about the process and I took pictures. I loved Joshua’s face and the way he rubbed his arm after it was out if the cast again.

His arm wasn’t nearly as skinny or stinky as I expected it to be and he even still had his tan line from before the cast went on in April.

The orthopedic said his X-ray looks great and there’s new bone growing like it should be. She said he’ll be sore for a few days and have some limited mobility, but he should be back to normal very quickly. She also told him that he can’t jump on the trampoline, swing on the monkey bars, or jump out of swings for a month. And definitely no wrestling for the month of June (Josh was hoping that answer would have changed).

Josh said it felt great to have his cast off. He kept rubbing his arm and wiggling his fingers and grinning. We ended our morning with a celebratory candy bar.

Patient Pup

Jacob loves animals! He really enjoys Sophie and usually remembers to be gentle with her.

Lately Jacob has wanted to carry Sophie. He’ll follow her, saying, “I wanna grab her!”

It’s a good thing Sophie is a patient puppy!

POP!

This morning Jacob slashed my labor ball several times with a pair of scissors. It didn’t pop right away. Nope. Instead, I sat on it and it popped right out from under me!

My first thought was, “Oh, no! Am I really that fat?!”

But then Jacob matter-of-factly stated, “I scratched your ball,” and held up a pair of scissors. A closer inspected revealed a criss cross of deep scissor marks all over one side of the ball. One was bound to blow!

Rick can’t stop giggling over the hilarity of it all. He didn’t see it happen, but he must be picturing a classic cartoon scene in his mind.

As for me, my tailbone is sore from landing on it (but only when I sit). Mostly, I just really miss my big ball. It was the only place I’ve really been able to be comfortable lately.

Rick says he’ll go buy me a new one today… So I guess I can forgive him for all the giggling.

Speech Therapy Graduate

Joshua was late to talk and when he did talk his pronunciation was wrong for just about every letter and sound. I worried from the time he was a year old, and finally got his pediatrician to refer him for a hearing test when he was three and a half.

He failed his hearing test. He had negative pressure in both ears and that was preventing his ear drums from vibrating at all. Basically, he’d been hearing sounds as if he were under water. It was enough to communicate, but not enough to speak correctly. His ear drums were damaged from the pressure and we also found out that he was tongue tied.

Josh had ear tubes placed and his tongue tie clipped. He started in speech therapy. His therapist was mean-spirited and disrespectful. Before long I had a four-year-old who cried at the thought of going to speech therapy.

I pulled Josh out and continued to work with him at home. He began to read at that time and that helped his speech tremendously. Most of his sounds came as he learned to read.

By age 7, he was only missing t, s, and z sounds. Because he hadn’t made progress on those sounds like he did with all the others, I decided to start speech therapy again. Last year he began speech therapy at the elementary school, but only got a few sessions in before the end of the year.

This year, Joshua has gone to speech nearly every week since October. He has worked hard to pass things off. Just after Christmas he passed off his s and z sounds, and last week he finally passed off the very tricky r sound.

Today, a week before the end of school and many years after we learned there was a problem, Joshua finally graduated from speech therapy! His s/z are perfect in regular speech. His r sound is still progressing in speech, but his therapist tells me that’s normal. He has come a long way and worked hard. I’m proud of my speech therapy grad!

Day of Rest

Sunday was not restful. It was filled with church, home teaching, visiting teaching, and an Elder’s Quorum fireside. I was gone all morning and right after church, Rick was gone all afternoon and evening.

I also had several little-boy-disasters with lotion, water, make-up… Asher and Jacob went to bed early after all their afternoon craziness.

I had contractions all day, but wasn’t able to rest for all the reasons listed above.

We saw the first part of the eclipse, but missed the full eclipse when clouds completely blocked the sun. I was so disappointed!

So it was a long day… But that’s okay. It happens sometimes! And I did really enjoy church and being able to go visiting teaching.

Day Camp and a Girls’ Outing

Today was the stake Activity Days superhero-themed day camp for all the girls 8-11 years old. Maddie is not quite eight, but seven-year-olds with summer birthdays are allowed to attend. Maddie was absolutely thrilled to be able to go, especially with Brenna. They have both been counting down the days like they’ve been waiting for Christmas.

I got the girls up at 7:30 and laughed when they said it was “early.” I guess we’re officially on summer time now!

They ate and showered and got dressed in their camp t-shirts and the superhero capes the made at a recent activity. They looked so cute, and their outfits were identical even down to their shoes.

I took them to the stake center, which was swarming with cute little girls in matching red camp t-shirts and all kinds of homemade superhero costumes. We found the check in table and one of their leaders. My grinning girls gave me quick kisses and ran off to start the day…

And silly old hormonal mom started to cry!! I held the tears back until I was in the van and then I blubbered all the way home.

The girls were just so cute and so happy and they are growing up so fast and I felt so blessed to have them and blessed that they have each other as sisters and blessed with five boys and blessed with another little girl and I just kept finding more reasons to cry. Gotta love those crazy pregnancy hormones!!

When I picked them up at lunch time, I walked in to a gym full of little girls all singing Army of Helaman and, yes, I cried again!

Both girls got giant pixie sticks. Brenna commented while eating hers, “Mmm. Pure sugar with artificial coloring is really good!”

In the afternoon Aunt Elaine came with cousins. The girls were delighted! We took them out for some “girl time.” Kate got her ears pierced. The girls all picked out something fun at Claire’s, soaked themselves in perfume samples, rode the escalator, ate pretzels with cheese, and giggled like crazy! They had a blast together!

Stuff

**Drew has a new word: Stop! He uses it frequently now, adding it to his other words: no, hi, Dada, owie, and wow.

**P’lups: How Jacob says pull ups. It makes me grin every time.

**Asher slept in his footed pajamas with a singlet over the top and a baseball cap. He has been wearing his singlet constantly and “lifting weights” (our three-pound dumbbell) to get strong. At Walmart, when Asher suddenly had to go potty, we learned just how challenging it can be to make it on time when you’ve got a singlet on under your clothes and jacket!

**Drew has an empty dresser next to his crib. When he goes down down for a nap, he reaches through the crib bars, opens every dresser drawer and then pushes the back of the dresser to tip it over. We’re moving the dresser today.

**Asher has a small, round, black candle stand. He calls it his “black hole” and says it can suck things up and make them disappear.

**Jacob says “What’s that?” constantly, even when he knows what “that” is. It is literally constant, like a scene from a movie.

**Braden recently stayed up late to make Rick a Father’s Day present. He was so proud when he presented Daddy with the finished product, a piece of cardboard with blue construction paper taped all over it. “See?!” he cried. “I invented blue cardboard for you!”

Balance

Yesterday was a “down” day for me. I didn’t accomplish much and I rested a lot and I felt really guilty for it too. By the end of the day I was more tired than when the day began and I was frustrated as well.

I thought back to my days of bed rest with Drew. Physically, the days of resting constantly actually made me more tired.

I remembered those days in the spring when we thought there were major complications with this pregnancy. I was upset and didn’t feel like doing anything. But sitting in bed only made me more upset and emotional.

Thinking about those two times, I decided that being more active would help me both physically and emotionally. Of course, it’s a very difficult balance right now, like walking a tightrope. I don’t want to do too much and bring on contractions or aggravate the spotting I’ve had off and on all week. I also don’t want to do so little that I feel worse physically and emotionally (unless I get put on bed rest, of course).

So today I decided to experiment. I usually wake up early lately, being too uncomfortable to sleep in. Today when I woke up at 6:45, I got up and took a walk. I didn’t walk far or fast. I just took a nice stroll in the early morning sunshine. I was nice and relaxing. I walked for about 15 minutes at a leisurely pace and then went home.

I read my scriptures and tried a few positions that are supposed to help encourage a breech or transverse baby to turn. Baby Girl is still transverse. I can tell she still has lots of room to turn, but with my due date getting close, I’d really like her to settle in head down where she belongs.

I woke the kids and we spent the morning doing some cleaning. I alternated cleaning and resting, once again just trying to listen to my body and create a balance.

Maddie recently moved out of her old room and into the basement. So now Brenna and Maddie share one basement bedroom and Joshua and Braden share the other. Upstairs, Asher and Jacob share the little boys’ room. Drew’s clothes are in there too, but he’s still sleeping in Maddie’s old room because he sleeps so much better by himself. It’s already hard enough to get Ash and Jake to sleep at night!

The room is has nothing left in it but beds and empty dressers. Baby’s stuff will go there and it will eventually be her room when she is done sleeping in our room.

I keep the upstairs bedrooms clean, but the older four kids are responsible for their own bedrooms. Their rooms, and the shared basement bathroom are usually pretty messy.

Today we finally “gutted” their rooms together. We threw stuff away, cleaned out corners and closets, organized toys and other possessions. It was a long process, but we got it all done.

At the end of the day I was tired, but I was happy with what we’d accomplished and glad that I pushed myself to clean.

Rick surprised me and took tomorrow off. I think he’s worried about me overdoing it and wants to help. I’m so excited to have him home for a three-day weekend!

We also have family coming into town this weekend and a possible trip planned for next week (if my OB okays it). Braden’s birthday is coming up in just two weeks, Joshua will get his cast off soon, the boys have a father/son camp out coming up, there are several track meets in the coming weeks, and we have cousins coming to play the first week of June. It will be a busy few weeks… And then it will be baby time!