This Week at Our House # 47

1. This week was spent getting to know baby Sam. John worked most of a full week, but didn't worry about much else. John has been trying to get a computer thing called Hadoop running so he can learn it to use for work purposes. It has been really hard, but he finally got it up and running. I know that made him really happy.
2. I am always surprised at how long it takes to recover from having a baby. There was a time when I would have the baby and get right back into the swing of things, but that has not been the case for several babies. My body takes more time to heal. It is hard for me to be patient. I took it very easy this week, and now I am trying to slowly get up and do little things like the dishes. I did enjoy snuggling my cute little baby. The newborn time goes by so fast. I love how squishy and cuddly Sam is and I know it won't last.
3. Ruth had two firsts this week-- the first snow of the season in Rexburg and her first line dance. She said she is not country western, but she is definitely quite happy.
4. Kate has made dinner, done all of the laundry, washed lots of dishes, made several batches of cookies, swept, vacuumed, cleaned bathrooms, disciplined little kids, did her school work, and more to help me recover. She has also enjoyed lots of baby cuddles. 
5. Johnny did a lot of dishes and house work too. I have often kept the dishes for my own chore, so I think the kids are a little shocked at how many dishes our family actually makes. 
6. Adam really likes holding baby Sam. He is also really terrible at washing dishes, so I think he needs more practice.
7. Rachel needs more practice washing dishes too. I think Adam and Rachel will now be the go to dish cleaners until they can do it, have the dishes come out clean, and remember to wash the counters and sinks. Rachel will not like that I wrote this about her. She should know that we lover her and think she is adorable as well as not a very good dish washer.
8. Anya loves to hold baby Sam and she is really good at holding his head still and chatting at him.
9. We finished our last week of school before our big vacation. I am so glad to give Joseph a break and not have to nag him to do his work or listen to the book I am reading or to tell him to pay attention or to focus. 
10. Joshua has always insisted that his name is Joshua not Josh or Joshy. He is now trying to insist that Samuel is not Sam or Sammy. But I am really liking Sam the best. Josh was also pleasantly surprised to look back at his baby pictures and see that they look a whole lot like Sam. I am also pleasantly surprised to wrap up the first semester of home school with Josh starting to read.
11. Arwen has quite the little tongue in her mouth. She has learned to say the rudest things. We are going to have to work on that. 
12. Suzy to our surprise adores baby Sam and is very protective of him. When the nurse came to examine him on Monday and do the pku test, Susan was very distressed, crying for him, and trying to guard him by standing in front of him. When Sam cries, Suzy will come over to him and be very concerned. It's cute. But when the nurse was here, I eventually had Kate take her upstairs so she was not too traumatized by the pku test.

Tender Mercies

1. Kate was the main tender mercy this week. She helped happily everyday.
2. It's great that our vacation landed so closely to when the baby was born. 

This Week's Pictures

Samuel's Birth Story

Samuel's labor was the hardest of all of my labors. I went in Saturday afternoon and the midwives gave me some herbs to start contractions. They really worked. I wished I had known about them before now. After contractions were going, the midwife tried to break my water, but the baby had turned and she could not get to it. So I took more herbs and bounced on a ball to bring him back down. An hour later he was in a much better place, so they broke my water. Hard contractions began immediately. I got in the birthing tub. I could feel Samuel's head slide down with every contraction and contractions were coming at about 2 minutes apart. It was not long before I was fully dilated and ready to push. I began pushing on my knees, but after each push, Samuel's head would come down more and then go back up. I tried lying back and pushing with the same results. Then my contractions started to slow down. They may have been as far as 10 minutes apart near the end and we were a little concerned they would just stop. I tried pushing upright and then leaning forward, but it was clear that Samuel was making no progress. The midwife said that it was likely that his head was pushing into my pelvic bone and then going back up. She suggested that I try lying flat on my back to see if that would slide his head under. I did, and then with just two more contractions he came and the midwife delivered him. I had never had to push so much or to change positions so much before. It was harder for sure, though, he was born just two hours after my water was broken, an hour of that was pushing. The midwife handed him to me, and while I looked at his face, John discovered the gender. At that point in time, my contractions had completely stopped. The midwife waited a half hour and then helped my placenta come out without contractions. We were glad that everything turned out as well as it did. My body is older and did not perform as well as it has in the past. It is clear that my muscles are spent after delivering 11 full term babies.

John and I and the baby waited in the birthing center for 6 hours to make sure everything was fine with the baby and me and then we headed home. Samuel was born at 6:23pm and we got home 8 hours later at about 2:20am. In all, we were away from home fir about 14 hours-- 4 of those were spent driving.

In the end, John and I were both very grateful that I chose the birth center even though we had to drive two hours to get there. Because I went to the birth center, I was allowed to try 4 different positions to push the baby out. In the hospital, women are really only allowed to push from one position and if the baby is stuck they will use some kind of medical intervention to get the baby out. We were also very grateful to be able to get home to our own bed and our other children. If I had gone to the hospital, they would have had me stay 48 hours instead of six. We would have had to take the kids into a hospital to meet the baby and that is always hard. In the end, neither John nor I questioned the wisdom of driving two hours to give birth.

This Week at Our House # 46

1. This was the week we were expecting the baby, but he did not come until Saturday night. I will write about that in another post later. Basically John just worked all week and came with me to my final midwife appointment. And of course he was there for the birth and very happy to meet the little baby that looks more like him than all of our kids. 
2. I had a hard time focusing all week while anxiously hoping for the baby to arrive so I spent too much time on Facebook reading too many opinions on the election and finding myself in too much silent disagreement. I was terrible at getting dinner made too, but we had a very nice sister in our ward drop off a lot of food from a banquet her husband was in charge of on Wednesday night. Thursday was my midwife appointment and we decided that if the birthing center was not busy, I would come in and take some herbs and such to get labor going. It turned out that they were not busy, so I got there in the afternoon. Samuel was born at 6:23 pm and John and I and Samuel were home by 2:20am. And that is the biggest reason I am glad to have driven the two hours to have the baby in a birthing center.
3. Ruth was sick for a couple of days this week. She also had a huge art project and had to miss out on hiking with her friends and roommates. I made the kids wait about 4 hours to find out the gender of the baby. I have several texts from Ruth saying please and what is the name. That was fun.
4. Kate is my right hand man. She had a lot of young women stuff this week, but was always diligent about putting the family first. She babysat most of the day on Thursday and for 14 hours Saturday. She plans on making dinner again today.
5. Johnny has been computer programming and John has been buying him things to make it easier and more possible for him. Johnny of course helped Kate with all of the babysitting this week. He seems quite happy to meet his newest little brother.
6. Adam and I planned and did a little homeschool project. We mixed silicone with food coloring and corn starch to make rubbery toys. It was much harder than it looked.-- a lot stickier and a lot harder to get the right consistency before it dried. But it made really awesome bouncy balls. Joseph, Rachel, Anya, and Johnny did it with us. We will try again in a few weeks. Adam is in love with his baby brother. I just love seeing Adam hold him.
7. Rachel is in love with the baby but has been a bit emotional about getting to hold him as much as she wants to. Rachel was the only one that was successful at making a molded toy with the silicone mix.
8. Anya is in love with the baby too. She came to greet him in the middle of the night when we got home and just had the biggest, sweetest smile. 
9. Joseph is glad that the baby is a brother. And now Joseph is losing the title of the biggest baby. Samuel was definitely bigger. 
10. Joshua has been in trouble a lot this week. He was goofy about his school work, and disobedient with everything else. Hopefully he will have a better week next week.
11. Arwen is delighted with the baby. She wanted a sister, but was very excited about getting any baby. She was the first to greet him this morning.
12. Suzy was antagonistic about the idea of the baby and when Kate showed her the picture we sent in the kids in a text. Suzy said "No baby!!! No, no, no, no." She also said to no to holding him and kissing him and everything. But when she saw him this morning, she smiled real big, held him, and sang rock a bye baby.
13. Samuel is a strong, healthy, perfect little baby. He is so very, very calm. He is alert and seems to enjoy looking around at all of his siblings.

Tender Mercies

1. The birthing center turned out really well. The two hour drive has been very hard, but the benefits of being able to get right home to our other children was well worth it. Home birth was not an option here, but even then it would have cost us a lot more than the birthing center which took our insurance.
2. Kate's willingness and capacity to do hard things.

This Week's Pictures

Welcome Samuel Thomas

We had our baby last night at 6:23pm. He weighed nearly 9 lbs and was 20 inches long.  He is very calm and seems to enjoy looking around at all of his siblings. He also loves to eat and eat and so far is champion nurser. He looks just like John. We are so happy to have him here safe and sound and a part of our family.

My Opinion on the Presidential Election

Donald Trump is still a disgusting, lying, adulterer who does not care about the nation, the unborn, or the natural family. I don't trust him one bit. My opinion on him is unchanged. But Hillary was clearly the worst choice. She is a criminal. She is involved in any crime in which she thinks she can make money including pedophilia as the NYPD discovered through Anthony Weiner's computers. She has a huge list of friends, colleagues, and employees who have mysteriously died. She is lawless in every way.

Therefore, I am less disappointed than I thought I would be in this election. I know most people who voted Trump did so because they want better for America. I cannot agree that a vile person can make America better, but neither can someone who has spent a life time actively trying to destroy it. And there is a big part of me that hopes with the republican sweep,Obamacare will die first thing.

This Week at Our House #45

1. I had a really busy week, so I did not spend much time with John. But he did take me on a very lovely date to the best sushi restaurant I have been to since leaving Utah. It was really yummy, a little too pricey, but very nice to be out together. John also very nicely took the van in to have the blower fixed before winter. He just took it and worked while he waited. I was so grateful to not have to do that. We went through the whole winter last year with no way to defrost the car and felt like it was pretty dangerous. I am glad to have this fixed before winter and before the baby comes. John also bought a desktop to help him with some work stuff, but also for the kids to have a computer as his laptop will still be his main work computer. That has been a nice addition and will help homeschool a bit.
2. I had a busy week trying to get things ready for the baby. I had my midwife appointment on Tuesday. They have been doing nonstress tests to see how the baby's heart is doing. So far, things are good. The heart rate fell a little at one point but was normal for most of an hour and a half. We are really praying that this baby makes it here safely. It is now 5 days until my due date. My next midwife appointment is in 4 days. John will come with me then because that is when we will make a decision about what to do if I have not gone into labor yet. We are not expecting to go in to labor by then as I usually just don't go into labor without some sort of kick start. 
3. I did not hear from Ruth much this week. She has been very busy with homework, exams, and art projects. She usually loves art, but I think this course is maybe ruining that. I hope not. She is actually quite good and has always enjoyed drawing as a hobby.
4. We've had trouble getting a hold of Kate's transcripts from North Carolina. We finally got them Friday and now need to mail them out. There was a lot of run around about where they went. We had to be transferred several times on the phone after the high school determined they did not have them anymore. Eventually we had to go to the school board and talk to the right person. Then we had to go back and pick them up. Now we will need to mail them out, All this rigmarole has stressed Kate out very thoroughly. She's learning about bureaucracy.
5. Johnny babysat a lot while I ran numerous errands once again. Since I am his teacher, I make him write papers on books that I assign him to read. He hates that. He will write for school teachers, but he always thinks it's unfair when I make him write. But that is just too bad because he needs to know how to write before college. This week I made him write a theme paper on Huckleberry Finn. He loves that book, but not does love writing about it.
6. Adam had his birthday on Friday, which he just loved! My parents came out today just for a few hours for his ordination to the Aaronic Priesthood. I was glad that my dad was there in the circle for that. Adam is now very excited to join the young men's program. 
7. On Adam's birthday Rachel got herself a serving of ice cream that was bigger than her head. I had warned the kids not to take too much because I did not want to waste such a nice treat. After a couple of kids took a lot, I declared that if someone got their own ice cream and then threw it out, they would be grounded from ice cream for a year. Rachel ate all of her ice cream!!!
8. Anya got to her first Isaiah chapter in the Book of Mormon. She spent 20 minutes reading and trying to understand one verse and then burst into tears because she just could not understand it. John and I thought that was adorable. She is definitely diligent.
9. Joseph may be a very active boy, but he sure is capable. He is only 7, but he can cook using the stove. In fact, he asks to help with dinner whenever he sees me cooking. He makes ramen noodles himself. I think it is time to have him start making brownie mixes.
10. I am just so excited that Joshua can read his Bob books so well. I thought it would be really hard for him to learn to read, but he memorizes well and is not too intimidated by sounding out.
11. Arwen got her new months supply of coloring books, but we are almost out of crayons. She sure loves to color. Arwen also came to me to tell me that she is a big girl. She does this a lot, but this was funny because she was playing with her skirt and lifted it up just like a little girl just as she was explaining that she is actually a big girl.
12. I have been talking to Susan about the new baby coming. One morning, I asked her where her baby was and she stuck out her tummy, patted it, and said "My baby is here."

Happy Birthday Adam!

Our Adam is 12!!! He has been counting down to this birthday since July. He will be ordained to the Aaronic priesthood on Sunday and join the young mens program. Adam is and has always been everything classic boy. He loves to eat. He loves sports. He loves fights. He loves hands on projects and building things. He loves to wrestle and tease. He is fun and wild and good. He has always been very capable and one of my more helpful children. He will do just about any chore for money or candy. Out of all of the kids, he willingly changes the most dirty diapers. We sure love our Adam and look forward to see how he progresses through these next few formative years.