Oh! Did I mention I had a baby?

Eli James was born April 24, 2014. He weighed 9lbs. 3oz. (the exact same weight as Grace) and measured 20 1/2in. 

I had a much different labor story with this little guy and thought I better write about it for our family journal before I forget.

Before I write about Eli's story, I need to write about his older siblings and how they entered this world.

Grace was Due on August 18, 2008 (Deryk's and my 1st year wedding anniversary). My water broke on August 17th, A Sunday afternoon. I was actually in the middle of dishing myself up a sloppy joe and watching the Summer Olympics. I calmly took a shower and prepared my things for the hospital while Deryk finished his meal and cleaned the dishes and put the left overs away. We made our way nervously, but calmly, to the labor and Delivery floor at Pocatello Regional Hospital. We were admitted at 6:30pm and spent the night watching the Olympics and waiting for the nurse to let me know it was time to push. I could write about the pain and waiting for the epidural, but anyone acquainted with child birth already knows what this is like and really needs no reminder, and how completely amazing it is when the epidural starts to work and you can finally relax and let the experience of becoming a new mother enfold you. And no, I have never ever had any intention of having a baby without an epidural, there is no medal of honor to be won, no national recognition to receive, no honorary position to be given for having a natural child birth, so I opted out of it.

Everything went very smoothly with Grace. 12 hours after my water broke, I was ready to push. 10 minutes later, I held her in my arms! She came to us on the very day she was expected, we share our anniversary with our first born. As she was placed in my arms, I was overwhelmed and thrilled to meat my first born, to finally become someone I always wanted to be...A Mother.

Seth was Due July 5th of 2010. But at a doctors appointment 3 weeks before the due date, my doctor worried that he already weighed 10 PLUS pounds! I was scheduled to induce for the following Monday, June 28th.  I awoke on Monday morning at 5am, took a shower, did my hair and make-up (I know! But I wanted to look nice for family pictures this time around...I didn't, but at least I felt somewhat decent when visitors came to see the new baby). We were admitted into Logan Regional Hospital at 6:30am. I was immediately put on PIT. This time I waited to order the epidural until I had progressed to a 7 so that I would progress quickly. Again, I was thrilled when it began to work and found myself enjoying the process much, MUCH more. At 2:05pm I was told I could begin to push. Seth was born at 2:15pm, he did not weight 10+ pounds he only weighed 7pounds 13 ounces! LUCKY FOR ME! No complications, no problems, just a regular straight forward delivery. The complications came afterward when the doctor began to note some birth defects and then began to wonder if our little Seth might have  some physical and mental disabilities along with a heart defect. For a few days my heart was in my throat, my thoughts were confusing, but I was blessed with peace and acceptance of whatever came to be. 3 days later we left the hospital knowing our son was completely healthy and only in need of a few operations to fix some physical defects.

Eli's story is a little different. I was in labor with him for the longest amount of time and had the hardest time progressing with him. It was frustrating! Even after I was given the epidural, I couldn't relax because I could still feel the pain and on top of that, my body wasn't doing what it should do, what it had done 2 times previous to this baby.

Meeting little brother for the first time.

Brother love!

my due date for Eli was May 5th but I began to feel labor pains late Tuesday evening (April 22nd), but they were very weak and very sporadic. All day long on April 23rd I continued to feel these labor pains, and yet nothing amounted to anything. Finally at 12:30am on April 24th I woke up with a lot of pain as well as dizziness, nausea, and blurred vision. I had never felt like this in any of my deliveries, but I knew I needed to go to the hospital. We went. The nurses had us walk and walk and WALK. I had a lot of pain, but I was not dialating. I continued to walk lap after lap after lap around the labor and delivery floor at Mountain View Hospital. FINALLY, the doctor decided to break my water...nothing happened, still remained dilated to a 4 (which I had been dilated to since my doctors appointment 4 days before this). SO, they put me on PIT. Slowly, I began to progress and after 2 long days of contractions, I delivered on Thursday, April 24th at 2:10pm without any further complications. Eli had a few complications after birth as well, but nothing to serious. We stayed in the hospital an extra day because his blood sugar levels kept dropping to low. We were finally able to figure out a feeding schedule and routine that would help him stabilize his blood sugar levels and we were able to take our sweet baby boy home to the anxiously awaiting family.

All ready to go home!

And we are finally on our way home with another sweet blessing!

Eli's birth was different for me in another way as well. This pregnancy was my hardest. Partly because of my age, patly because of my physical problems, and partly because of my school class I was teaching. I struggled a lot in this pregnancy just to get through each day. I cried a ton...but what pregnant woman doesn't. I was sick more than what is normal for me. Deryk cooked and cleaned more than he really should have. But we got through it, and when Eli finally came to us, I felt a sense of relief like I had never felt before! It was so overwhelming, I immediately thanked my Heavenly Father for getting me through it, for bringing this boy into the world safely. I was finally done and I took a few minutes to finally relax and be grateful. I will never be sorry for the sacrifice I have had to make to get my babies here, they mean the world to me! I would do whatever it takes to do it all over again! I am inspired and amazed by the women who go through so much more than I do, and are willing to do it again and again, they are true women of sacrifice and love, I admire them.

Eli is now 2 days short of being 11 weeks old!! He is adjusting to life, it has been a little hard at times. He cries quite a bit, and HATES to be put down for any reason. He doesn't like the bouncy chair with the vibrator, he hates the rocking chair that also has a vibrator, but he loves to swing, but only side to side, not front to back. It took us a while to figure this out, but I am sure many a mother has been through this stage of discovery and understands this frustration well. Eli LOVES to be swaddled. He is the only one of my three children who has been easily calmed by this. He also loves to be snuggled tight. He has a family who adores him, a sister who will do anything, and I mean ANYTHING, for him, and an older brother who wants him to be old enough to join him in all his wild and fun games, but is often disapointed to learn he just isn't quite there yet...someday soon Seth! We love this sweet boy and look forward to learning more about who he is and who he will become!

Missing Posts From the Summer of 2013

We went to Boise in June 2013. Deryk had to go to a training and we decided to take advantage of a free trip (well, mostly free).

 We went to the Boise Temple, but the grounds were closed for repairs and up-keep. But we took pictures anyway.

 Grandma Sue came with us. I love this picture of Deryk and his mom.Precious!

While we were in Boise we went to The Children's Discovery Center. The kids played and explored here for hours!

We also went to a fun water park, The Boise Zoo, and shopping at the discount stores. Thanks to my cousin Aliesha for all the fun suggestions, we had a great time while Deryk sat in a classroom for three days. He will have to go again next summer, I think we will tag along again.

One of our favorite places in Smithfield is Mac Park! We spent a lot of summer evenings here. Sometimes we would roast hot dogs and marshmallows, sometimes we would just go to walk, sometimes we would go to play in the little stream that passed through the park, and sometimes we would go for the movie in the park on Saturday nights (this was our all time favorite activity!).

I wish some of the pictures turned out better. Spending evenings at Mac Park was seriously one of our favorite activities, I just had to post some of the memories we made there. It makes me long for summer to look at these pictures.

Summer flowers picked by little boy hands is just another reason I love the summer months so much!

We had a fun sleep over with Miriam, Porter and Eva. We love having family come and play with us!!

Grace was zonked out! We always play hard when we have family to entertain!

One of the saddest moments of our summer was having to say goodbye to the Bland family! Laura was the worlds best baby sitter! And her teen age children treated my children like they were brothers and sisters. My children adored each of them!! They still talk about them often. We couldn't have been more blessed to have such an amazing family part of our lives! What great examples they set for each of my children. We miss you Laura and the rest of the Bland family!

Before we left, we had the chance to get together with the Blands for Family Home Evening and a friendly match of Croquet.

 See!  You can see just how caring she is!

Stephanie and Grace, isn't she so beautiful? She has  a sweet personality to match.

That about wraps up the missing posts from our summer of 2013. I think I've finally caught up on our summer posts! It only took me 8 months to post all of them! Jeesh! I'm bad at keeping a family journal!