April 2016

     We started the month off with Joel bringing in some sand for our backyard. The kids have had so much fun playing in that sand. Kyla calls it the 'nand' and the girls have to tell everyone who comes over all about their sand pile. Joel also put rocks all around our house and he made a little curbing machine and put some concrete to separate the area where the rocks would go. We all enjoyed watching conference and being inspired by the leader of our church during that same weekend.

     Joel had to put in a lot of hours to get the tile done for the parade house at work. I didn't get to see it when it was completely finished but the part I saw looked great. The house was broken into one night after Joel left and several of Joel's tools were stolen. Someone took all the appliances that had just been delivered and about $8,000 worth of stuff. That put Joel behind a little bit but he was glad that they didn't take the tile saw at least. Joel worked a lot of late hours and he spent several Saturdays working on tile. When he finally did get a weekend to work on our yard it rained and was super windy all day. I was able to put him to work helping me get a few things done around the house and we were able to get everything we needed all set up for the baby to come. I was just glad he finished the parade house before baby Summer came.

     While Brynlee was at school one day I took the little girls to the mall and I had Anna's four year old pictures taken. Then we went and ate at the mall and I let Anna play at the indoor play place they have there. The next weekend I had my sister Heather watch the little girls and I took Brynlee to the mall for some shoe shopping. I had some coupons so she also helped me pick out some outfits for the baby and she picked out a matching shirt for her and Kyla. I bought her some lunch and then we went and hung out with Heather for a bit. It was fun to spend some time with each of my girls before the baby came.

     We had a playdate at our house one day. The kids had a few friends over, we played at the park once or twice and we spent lots of time playing outside when the weather was nice. The girls have been playing dress up and we put the tent upstairs in the bonus room for them to play in. Annalyn has been doing somersaults all over the place and likes to make me count how many she can do in a row. Her record is 136. Annalyn and Kyla have been playing together so much better lately while Brynlee and Annalyn have been having lots more arguments and disagreements. It is kind of funny how that is working out. The school year is getting close to being over and I don't think Brynlee is ready for it to end. She has really loved school this year. Kyla is just as sweet as ever but lately some of Anna's stubbornness seems to be rubbing off on her. It looks like the terrible twos are about to start just in time for her second birthday. Despite all that I sure so love all of my girls. Life would just be so boring without them.

     I spent lots of time getting ready for little Summer to come. I had a doctors appointment once a week this month, ending with the appointment the day little Summer was born. We have all really enjoyed having this baby in our home. I spent two and a half really long days in the hospital and I was so glad when I was finally able to come home. The kids were really glad to see me. Especially Kyla. She had a hard time without me. We didn't get home until almost 3pm on Friday so we really only had one full day at home with little Summer for the month of April. The girls all adore this baby and are constantly asking to hold her. The last Saturday of the month we put Kyla down for her nap and Joel took the older kids with him to the store. They bought groceries and even went to Lowes to buy some wood so Joel could start on the kid's playset. Joel started to work on grandma's garden but it was still way to windy to put down plastic. I never did get a nap that day because Summer would not go to sleep and Kyla took a super short nap. Good thing this baby is super cute and cuddly. Oh how we have all enjoyed snuggling with her. I really do love my little family.

Baby Summer is Here!

     Summer Hirtle came into the world on Wednesday April 27th at 7:12 pm. She was 20 and 1/2 inches long and at 8 lbs. 6oz she was our biggest baby. She is pretty cute and we are all enjoying getting to know this little baby. She has been fawned over and adored by all of her sisters. Summer has quite a bit of dark hair, dark blue eyes, and some long fingers and toes. She has some little stork bites on her forehead and eye that will probably go away in a few months. So far she really likes to be swaddled and she really likes her soother which has made life a little easier on us. She still has her days and nights mixed up so we are all a little sleep deprived. I am sure she will figure that all out soon. Here are a few pictures of little Summer followed by her birth story.

     Wednesday morning started out like any other day. I got up and got the kids dressed and fed and I grabbed my grocery list and then headed out the door for my doctor's appointment. I took the kids over to a friend's house and then left for my appointment. I was going to stop by the grocery store after my appointment to get some last minute things I still needed to buy and to stock up on some food.

     Summer wasn't due until Sunday so I knew I was pushing things till the last second but I fully anticipated having a few more days until we had our baby. I had felt a few contractions all that week starting on Sunday night. In fact I started to think that labor might have been ready to start that night but then the contractions stopped. I was still feeling a few here and there but none that were really painful so I just figured they were Braxton hicks contractions. I don't remember feeling but a handful of those with Kyla so I though it was a little weird but I didn't think too much about it. Besides, I didn't really feel any contractions that morning. I was fully expecting to be dilated to a three since I was at a three for a few days before I had my first two girls.

     I got to my appointment and told Dr. Wiberg I still thought I had a few days and that I was fine waiting so I didn't want to be induced. That's when she did the exam and said "how would you like to have this baby today? You are dilated to a 6." I am pretty sure I asked her if she was serious and then she asked me if I was having any contractions. I told her I had had a few but not in a while. She felt my stomach and told me I was having a contraction right then. I honestly didn't feel anything. At that point my doctor did not trust me to make it to the hospital in time to get the antibiotics I needed since I was GBS+ (I can't really blame her). She told me she wanted me to get to the hospital at 11 and she told me she would come check on me at lunch time and break my water. I called Joel and told him to meet me at home.

There was no time to get groceries at this point so I went to go pick up my girls and tell them the good news. Kyla wanted to come with me but the other girls opted to stay and play with their friend Lachlan so his mom offered to bring them to my house at 12 when she needed to leave. I ran home and quickly grabbed my hospital bag and cleaned up the breakfast mess I hadn't gotten to yet. Joel got home right after I did and he got the car seat in the van. His mom met us at the house and I gave her a few short instructions and then we were off.

     As soon as I got to the hospital they had me change into one of their lovely gowns and then they put in the IV so they could start the medicine right away. My nurse was named Laura and she was pretty great except she forgot to take the clip off of the drip line so we lost about 30 minutes of time to get the medicine. My doctor had just arrived when we discovered that so she decided she would just wait and break my water later that evening when I had gotten all of the antibiotics I would need. Then Joel and I just had to wait. Joel watched two of the Hobbit movies and I finished watching this show I started watching on Netflix a long time ago. I could feel a few contractions but none that were really painful. According to the monitor they had me hooked up to I was contracting every 2-4 minutes but it didn't feel like that to me. They actually brought me lunch and dinner to eat and the had the IV on a pole so I could walk around and do what I wanted. They just came in every half hour or so and checked on the baby and got all of my vitals. I thought about getting an epidural, Joel was more than supportive of me getting one but I decided if I was already dilated to a 6 and in no pain it couldn't be that bad.

     After I got the first dose of medicine they had to wait three hours before they could give me the next dose.  I finished the last dose and then my doctor came in and broke my bag of water at around 5:45 and she told me she was not going anywhere until I had this baby. She waited out in the hall but told me to notify her if I felt any pressure at all.  They had me hooked up to the bed so they could see how baby was handling everything. As soon as they broke my water I started to feel the contractions. Then I was in a lot of pain with each one. I tried getting in different positions but they all hurt. I don't know how people go through long labors without an epidural. Those contractions were excruciatingly painful. I couldn't really focus on anything but on getting through the pain. Before they broke my water I was dilated to a good seven and about a half hour later they checked me again and I was still at a seven.

     Eventually I told Joel I was feeling some pressure and he went and got my doctor and nurse. They rushed in and checked me but I was only at an 8. Despite that I still felt like pushing and it could not have been much longer when the urge really hit me and I just had to push. My doctor told me to just listen to my body and it wasn't much longer before little Summer came into the world. They placed her on my stomach right away and they told me she was for sure a girl. Joel got to cut the cord, it was really short so I could not bring her up to me until the cord was cut. Then they sat her on my chest and I finally got to see her beautiful face and just enjoy holding her. Everyone told me she looked like a big baby and I could tell she was a good size but still she looked so tiny. As soon as I delivered the placenta my doctor had to stitch me up because I had some tearing. I tore in the exact same spot that I tore with Brynlee. That part hurt a lot. They numbed me little but it was still pretty painful. Eventually they took the baby to weigh and measure her and then they gave her back to me so I could nurse her and take her all in.

     Right after Summer was born the only thing I could feel was relief that all the pain was over. There was a lot going on when she was born. There was some meconium when they broke my water so they had a respiratory specialist there on hand just in case and the new nurse that was just taking over the shift was there along with the other nurse. As soon as everyone left I finally got to truly bask in what a beautiful little miracle I was holding in my arms and that overwhelming feeling of love overcame me. Summer has been a pretty good little nurser so far. Joel got to hold her for a little bit and while I was feeding the baby he called all of the family to tell them the good news.

     My mom, Alesha, and my sister in law Heather all came up to see the baby right away. They got there just as they were moving us to another room. My sister Heather came that night and got to hold her as well. Joel's mom was all set to keep Anna and Kyla at her house overnight since we didn't know how long it would be before I had the baby. My grandma had Brynlee spend the night at her house so she could take Brynlee to school the next day. Bryn didn't want to miss school. That meant Joel got to stay at the hospital with me. I don't think he slept all that well but he held the baby for me for quite a while that night so I could get some sleep. 

     Since I had the group B Strep my doctor told me to plan on staying at the hospital until Friday. She wanted me to stay 48 hours so that meant we wouldn't get to leave until 7:12pm Friday night. My experience at the hospital was a pretty positive one this time. All of my nurses took good care of me. The food was good and Joel and I even got to eat a fancy celebration dinner together. The bed was not all that comfortable and they make it pretty hard to get a nap in. It seems like there are constantly people coming into your room. Those were really my only complaints and by the time Friday morning rolled along I was longing to be in my own house. Luckily my doctor discharged me a little early so we got out of there around 2pm that afternoon. It felt so good to be home. 

     Joel's mom brought Anna and Kyla over to see the baby on Thursday morning and they were so excited. They could not get enough of holding and cuddling little Summer. One of the first remarks out of Kyla's mouth was "da baby mell (smell) good!" haha. They didn't want to leave. Kyla had a really hard time being away from me but it sounds like they were all pretty good for their grandma. Brynlee got to come by and see the baby right after school. She really only held the baby for a few seconds and then was super distracted by everything else in the hospital. Joel went home that night to be with the kids so I got to spend a night at the hospital bonding with baby Summer. She was up most of that night and I was exhausted so I finally let one of the nurses take her for a few hours. She brought her back to me a few hours later when she was ready to eat again. 

    These last few days have been long and exhausting for all of us but we sure are enjoying getting to know this sweet little baby. We feel super blessed that she came into the word so smoothly and that she seems to be eating, growing, and doing really well. I was really only in hard labor for an hour and a half. Summer loves being cuddled in the moby wrap and has been such a great addition to our family. Welcome to the world baby Summer. We sure are glad you are finally here.  

8 Year Anniversary

     It has been eight whole years since Joel and I got married. Joel and I celebrated our eighth wedding anniversary earlier this week. I had a dream a couple of times that our baby was born on our anniversary but I am kind of glad she waited. I didn't really want to celebrate a birthday on my anniversary. Joel ended up having to work really late on the day of our anniversary. He really needed to get this house tiled and finished. Since we knew that might happen Joel took me out to dinner on Saturday and he took me for a tour to see the house he is working on. That was kind of fun. I love getting to see what he is working on during the day while he is at work. After that we stopped at Walmart where we picked up some diapers and some groceries. It was a pretty romantic date. Haha. Really it was just some great relaxing time spent alone together. We got this book on tape from the library that we have enjoyed listening to together so just driving around was fun. I love Joel a lot and I sure am glad he married me. Here is to many more years with this good looking guy.

38 Weeks

     I reached 38 weeks of pregnancy on Sunday so I am now officially 38 weeks and five days. At this point baby could come any day but I am planning on being pregnant for at least another week. I kind of hope I have another week because I still have so many things to do before this baby gets here. I washed and put away all of her clothes but other than that I haven't done anything. I washed the car seat cover but I need to disinfect and clean everything else. There were lots of mice in our old storage area so everything is pretty gross and covered in mouse droppings. I am seriously dreading that job. Joel said he would help me but we will see if he ever has the time. I had the kids use my camera to take some pictures of me last week but they didn't turn out that great so I did one on my own on Tuesday. Kyla woke up from her nap and was not in a good mood so she got to take a picture with me. Here are the best picture I got. The second picture was taken by Brynlee when I was 37 weeks.

     I don't think I have ever thrown up as much when I have been pregnant as I have these last few months. The combination of heartburn mixed with smelling anything with a really strong smell has me throwing up. The mornings are the worst. The sweet smelling cereal the kids like to eat is terrible for me. I can hardly throw things in the garbage or change poopy diapers first thing in the morning without throwing up. Sometimes even just looking at something gross has the same effect. I have also been pretty tired and uncomfortable but I am still doing pretty good. I have had some contractions but not a lot.

     Lately I have been making weekly visits to see the doctor. I went on Tuesday and I was dilated to a 1 and 1/2 which is what I was dilated to the week before. I have the group B strep again so my doctor had advised me to head to the hospital fairly quickly once labor starts so I can be sure to get enough of the antibiotics I need. I will also have to stay at the hospital for at least 24 hours and possibly for 48 hours after baby is born. We will see how that goes. Right now I am trying to look at it as a short break and some alone time with the baby.

     The girls are all getting pretty excited for this baby to come. Joel had to put in some crazy long hours at work but he finished the big project he needed to finish so he should be able to take a week off when the baby comes. Kyla is still not so sure about this whole baby thing. Whenever we talk about the baby she tells me she is a baby and then she pretend cries or begs to be held like a baby. We will see how she does. I keep coming up with new names for our baby but so far Joel doesn't like any of them so I have resigned myself to the name we picked out months ago, it just isn't my favorite name so I keep hoping to find something else. At this point it just doesn't seem like there is enough time to come up with anything else. The good new is that I finally came up with a middle name that I like with it. There are times when I feel really anxious to meet this baby (and to not be pregnant) and I find myself begging her to just come as early as possible and then there are times when I just tell her to stay right until her due date because I don't feel ready to have another baby yet. Really I am super excited for her to join our family. We can't wait.

Quotes From the Girls

     It has been a while since I did a post with quotes from my kids. I lost my old notes but I am writing a few of the quotes I remember from last year mixed with some recent one. This time there are even some quotes from Kyla. 

     Brynlee came home from school one day and told me "Mom guess what! There is a boy at school who has a "Cush" (rhymes with push) on me."
"A cush?" I asked. "I think you mean a crush."

"No mom. He has a cush. It means he loves me and he wants to MARRY Me! But I do not have a cush on him. Now when I see him I have to run so he doesn't kiss me."

     I took the kids into the doctor's office sometime before Christmas and Dr. Bennett asked my girls what their plans were for Christmas. Brynlee was quick to respond. "For Christmas I am going to spend the night at my Grandma Hirtle's house with some of my cousins and then we are going to kill our pig named Peppa and then we are going to Eat Her!" Sounds like some pretty exciting Christmas plans to me.

     Joel and his dad killed our pig back in November and I made the kids stay home but they went the next day and got to see the dead pig hanging from the back porch. It didn't seem to phase them. They all asked about Peppa and they were eager to come over the next day to help cut and wrap all the meat. Now we have a freezer full of pork. The kids ate some of Peppa and commented about how good she tasted several times. Then Joel was cooking up some of her ribs a few days ago and Annalyn started balling about how much she missed Peppa the pig and how she did not want to eat her. Then Brynlee started talking about how she did not want to eat the pig either. Joel told the kids that next time maybe he should go hunting and then he would get us a deer. Brynlee's eyes lit up so big. "Yeah, that would be great!" she exclaimed. "Then we could build it a fence and keep it in our backyard." You should have seen the terrified look in her eye when Joel explained that we would not be keeping it, we would be eating it because he was going to shoot it. Haha. The kids were still pretty reluctant to eat the meat when dinnertime came around but they both ate a bit and declared it good.

     Annalyn was singing the wise man song the other day and she kept saying "the rain came down and the flower came up." I told her the words are the floods came up, not the flowers and she looked at me like I was crazy. She still sings it with her words.

     We were driving in the car a while ago and I told the girls I was feeling really tired. "You should just go to sleep," Anna encouraged. "That's what I do when I get tired in the van."

Brynlee was quick to respond, "Umm, mom actually I don't think you should do that. Remember what happened to your grandma when she fell asleep while she was driving."

     Before we moved into our new house Annalyn and I were working on this puzzle when she started crying. "What's wrong?" I questioned. 

"I just love my zebra puzzle soo soo much," she cried and sniffled. "I will miss it when we move to our new house."

"Well, we can take it with us." I told her. "We are going to take all of your toys with us to our new house."
"Really? Well what about my bed?"

"We will bring your bed too."

"What about the trampoline? I think the trampoline is too big to bring.

"Don't worry Annalyn, we are taking the trampoline with us. We are taking all of our stuff with us."

"What about my pinecone tree?"

"Oh well, I am afraid we can't take the pinecone tree with us. It belongs with the house."

"Waaaaaa, not my pinecone tree! I love it so much. We just can't leave my favorite pinecone tree."

Annalyn cried about how much she would miss that tree for several hours. 

     Annalyn loves cucumbers so when we were at the store the other day she begged to get some and happily bagged several cucumbers for me. When we were checking out she got really excited when she saw the cucumbers and begged to have some cucumbers for lunch. I told her we could do that.

     The first time Brynlee went to a doctor's appointment with me the doctor was running a little bit late and we got there a few minutes early. I was taking the girls to their swimming lessons right after the appointment and even though I kept assuring Brynlee that we would not be late she was really worried about how long the doctor was taking. As soon as Brynlee met my doctor the first thing she told her was "Dr. umm, you are really late."

     We were checking out our groceries at Walmart one day and they had this display of fingernail polish right by the check out and Kyla kept trying to play with them. I moved her but as we were leaving she managed to grab a thing of clear nail polish and immediately threw it and it broke. I apologized to the check out lady, told her what happened, and picked up the bottle of nail polish. She just sighed and acted like I had ruined her whole day. I offered to pay for it and she said no but then she complained about having to close down her stand and get someone to clean up the mess. "Well, at least it was clear polish," I told her. She was not amused. Since the lady was so rude I really didn't feel that bad about what had happened as I left the store.

     Annalyn was lamenting one day about how much she missed having dandelions to pick. "I hope grandma grows lots in her yard this year," she told me. As we drove up to grandma's house the other day, Annalyn gasped with joy and exclaimed, "Oh my! Look at all of the beautiful dandelions. This is so great!"

     Brynlee has been coming home with all kinds of tales about school. I never really know what happened that day because most of her stories are a bit unbelievable. According to Brynlee there have been several days at school where the whole class gets in trouble, except for her. She is always the only good one. Kids get sent home and kicked out of school on a regular basis. One day she told me that a boy fell off the bus because the driver shut the door on him and Brynlee's teacher, Mrs. Hubbard had to walk him home. There was another day when her teacher sent all of the girls to the nurses office and they had to get their ears pierced. Brynlee told me she was not allowed to show anyone her ears for two days and she was not allowed to do any chores or any work until her ears got better. One day she told me about how she got stuck in a giant spider web with some of her friends. They were trapped under the playground equipment until Brynlee was able to find a rock and help all of the children escape. There have also been days where the kids walk to the middle school and spend the whole entire day watching movies. I sometimes wonder if I should even ask Brynlee what happened at school that day because I never know if I will get the truth. I think she just likes to make her day sound more exciting than it really was.

     Brynlee has been obsessed with Harry Porter aka Harry Potter lately. She told me she just likes to call him Harry Porter better. We let her watch the first few movies but she keeps begging to watch the rest of them. While watching the quidditch match on the second movies Bryn got really concerned when there was a bludger that was following Harry. She kept on crying out to Harry and telling him to watch out for the bluger.

     For April Fools day (I am not even sure how Brynlee knew about that day) Brynlee woke up and made this elaborate treasure hunt where she had all kinds of items strewn across the hallway for everyone to follow. It lead to her room so she had everyone follow her trail and at the end there was nothing, just Brynlee yelling April Fool's and laughing because she had tricked us.

     Brynlee still likes to ask people embarrassing questions. She asked someone we were talking to how come their teeth were yellow. She also went up to our neighbor one day and told him "wow, you are looking older today." Luckily he is hard of hearing so I don't think he knew what she was saying. She told someone else she didn't think they should be out digging a hole because they were old. You gotta love kids.

     Kyla really wants to like animals but she really just doesn't. She seems to be getting a little less scared of them. We were at aunt Joanna's house the other day and her kids brought out some of their baby rabbits. They asked Kyla if she wanted to hold one and she nodded her head. They sat the little rabbit on Kyla's lap and she threw her hands in the air, scooted as far away from the rabbit as possible, had a slightly terrified look on her face and she exclaimed, "He likes me!'

     When got a nice big pile of  sand for our backyard and the girls have had a blast playing in it. Kyla loves the sand and was sitting out there playing one day when she started to suck on her thumb. Then she took her thumb out, stuck it in the sand and then she put her thumb back in her mouth, only to get a huge mouthful of sand. She sputtered and spit exclaiming, "Yut, dat is yuty." She meticulously wiped the sand off of her thumb so she could keep sucking on it.

     I sure do love all of my girls and hearing all of the funny things they say.