Dressing Difficulties

Taylor was getting her pjs on and was having some difficulty getting them over her head. Of course, it was very frustrating to her, but we all got a good laugh out of it because she looked like an elephant. At least she was able to end the moment with a smile.

Getting Loves from Mom and Dad

It's so much fun holding and kissing my kids . . . especially when they're babies.

Sleepy Boy

Well, Declan still is soooooo sleepy. The poor girls ask to hold him, but he's always asleep. He wakes up and just wants to eat and go back to sleep. They never seem to be around when he wakes up so that they can hold him then. Being a mother of 4 (with way too many things to do . . . of which I'm behind on A LOT of them), I make them wait until he's awake again, but of course they always seem to miss that brief waking period.



What's nice is that he actually sleeps in his carseat, especially if he's just been fed. From the get-go Payden would only sleep 30-45 minutes in her carseat. That was it. Even if she was dead tired, she would only sleep that little bit. We had many unpleasant trips to Houston because she just wouldn't sleep. Even now she only sleeps in the car on a VERY VERY rare occasion, which made for some fun travelling days when we were on vacation. It's been so nice to have a baby that sleeps in the car again. I even get him in and out, and he just sleeps away. It's soooo nice.



Tom loves to come home from school, grab Declan, and take a nap. He just LOVES it. It's nice because it lets me make dinner without having to deal with any kids because Tom has Declan and the girls watch their PBS shows at that time. It really has worked out quite nicely.



Hopefully, Declan will keep being a good sleeper. Taylor slept well for the first 6 weeks of her life, and we've had problems (some medical, some not) ever since, so hopefully I can end on a good note . . . hopefully!

Another That's-Just-Not-Right Moment

Taylor was waiting patiently for her breakfast. I looked over at her and thought she had her hands next to her face. Then I realized they weren't her hands . . .



THEY WERE HER FEET!!!!

Payden LOVES Her Brother

Honestly, I'm waiting for the jealousy to kick in. She's always had a streak of jealousy when I hold other kids and even at times with her own sisters. I'm just shocked that I have never, ever seen any kind of jealousy with Declan. There's even been moments where she's been hurt or just wants her momma, and if I'm holding him, she just squishes in next to him to get her momma time, but she never asks for me to put him down; she just gets her snuggles with him right next to her. She absolutely loves him. She gives him tons of kisses and hugs. She loves to come up to him, get him to grab her finger, and then she shakes her hand and says, "Let go," laughing the whole time. Then when he finally releases her finger, she does it all over again. When he's on the ground, she loves to come lay by him. If he ever touches her, she excitedly tells me where he touched her, and she has the biggest smile on her face as she's telling me. "Ma arm. He touched ma arm" (or whatever body part it might have been). I just hope this stays this way because it's toooooooo cute!!!!

(Sorry about the sideways pictures. They're not like that on my computer, so I'm not sure why they're sideways when I download them.)

Taylor Issue . . . Almost to a Close

So you know, the candy worked. She's still not back to normal, and there's some other potty issues we need to work on (like not playing around on the potty, washing hands immediately after, and such), but she's NOT pooing on the floor anymore. Yea!!!!

I Do It!!!

I'd just finished giving the girls a bath and was going to dress Payden. She snapped up her pjs and ran across the room, saying, "I do it." I sat and watched as she attempted to get herself dress.



She did okay with one sleeve, but the other she couldn't figure out what had gone wrong. She kept trying to put it up over shoulder like it was supposed to, but it kept falling back down.



When she went to put her pants on, she initially had both legs in the same hole; of course I wasn't able to get the camera in time to snap that picture. She finally got it right, but was unable to get them over her diaper. When she decided she'd finished, she excitedly yelled to me, "I did it!"



So here we have it - a onesie on backwards with one arm coming out the neck hole, pants that aren't pulled up over her bum, and one proud 2 year-old who did it herself.

Unfortunately this has become the trend. She grabs her clothes and runs across the room where she tries FOREVER to get dressed. If I try to help her, she throws a FIT; sometimes though I do have to step in because she just can't get it. I guess that's life with a 2 year-old!

Another Taylor Update

So, she did it again. Apparently, she honestly truly 100% believes that her body will not let her poo on the potty, only on the floor!!! Isn't that crazy??!! We've tried to convince her otherwise . . . we've reminded her that she's been pooing on the potty for a LONG time and that she can still do it now, but she really doesn't believe us. We told her we'd be locking all of the bathrooms today, so she has to have my help to go potty and then Tom promised here that if she poos in the potty then she'll get some candy. If that doesn't work though, I really don't know what to do. I mean how do you convince a 4 year old that she can go poo on the potty?

***Payden just saw the picture of Taylor's poo on the computer. She ran over and grabbed a Kleenex and then sat and tried to clean up the poo. She rubbed the picture over and over, but couldn't figure out why it wasn't coming off. She's such a clean freak and a big helper.

Our Not-So-Little Man

Tom has always joked that, in nursing our babies, I don't feed them milk, but rather cocaine butter. Cocaine because they all LOVE to nurse, and butter because they have no problem gaining weight.

Well, we went to the doctor today for Declan's 2 week appointment. Now he's actually 17 days old, but first I'll remind you of where he began: 7 lbs. 14 oz. and 21 inches long.









As of today, he's 9 lbs. 13 oz. and 21.75 inches long. If you consider that all babies lose weight after they're born, especially nursed babies, then he's gained over 2 lbs. in 2 weeks!!!! What a chunkers!!!

More to Taylor's Story

***Contents and image of this post aren't for the squeamish!

So I thought we were done with everything and that everything was back to normal. I was wrong. Taylor went down for her nap today in our room. I heard her get out of bed, so I went upstairs to check on her. Well, she had to go potty. I told her to hurry up and get back to bed. She came downstairs a few minutes later because she needed some toilet paper. Her bum was so messy, I cleaner her up downstairs and went back upstairs with her to help her get dressed and get to bed. We got to the bathroom and there on the bathroom floor were 2 piles of poo. GROSS!!!! I couldn't believe she'd pooed on the floor. It didn't make any sense. I cleaned it up and warned her that if it happened again she'd get in BIG trouble and talked to her about how we go poo in the potty and not on the floor.

Well, a little later we heard Taylor get out of bed again. After a few minutes she came down again saying she needed toilet paper (even though we'd already brought some up before). I asked Shelby to go run upstairs (I was feeding Declan at the time) to see if Taylor had pooed on the floor. Shelby got back and told me no, but Taylor kept telling me she wasn't ever going to let me go upstairs to my bathroom. I knew something was up, so I handed Declan to Tom and ran upstairs. When I first looked in the bathroom I didn't see anything. I started to open the door all the way when I heard it scrape against something. I looked down and saw this (this view is actually from behind the door) . . .



I could not believe it!!! I started thinking back over the past day or two and I suddenly realized what was going on. I first thought back to Saturday when she first pooed on her own after the whole ordeal from Friday; she had said she'd been standing up when she pooed, it fell on the floor, and she'd picked it up with toilet paper and put it in the potty. I'd cleaned up the floor after that, but didn't think much of it; I figured maybe the laxative had kicked in, and she hadn't been able to control it. Then I thought back to what she'd told me at breakfast Saturday morning before she'd pooed on her own. She had told me that she wasn't going to poo again; she was just going to have me get it out of her each time. I realized that, because the first time she'd pooed had been on the floor, she must have decided that the only way she could poo was if she pooed on the floor!! I talked with her, and that's exactly what she'd decided, and she was refusing to go poo on the potty (now remember this is my EXTREMELY strong-willed child, and getting her to change her mind can be next to impossible).

Now I'll have to say I was upset, frustrated, and extremely disgusted. I gave her the option of sitting with me while I cleaned up the mess or going to her room for time-out while I cleaned up. She refused to sit with me, so I put her in her room and started cleaning. I sanitized EVERYTHING . . . amen to Clorox Wipes and Lysol 4-in-1 Cleaner and carpet cleaning vacuums. It was definitely a good thing that it took me a long time to clean because it allowed me to calm down and gather myself.

Now, I was also hoping that the lengthy time-out would help Taylor remember not to poo on the floor ever again because a LONG time ago this method worked for me. I used to get "sick" a lot in Kindergarten - 24 days worth. Now some were legit, but a lot were not. My mom got tired of it, and so the next time I got "sick" she made me stay in my room until my sister came home from school because, if I was too sick to go to school, then I was too sick to do anything anyways. I remember, and this is one of a few memories from that time, sitting in my doorway just crying and screaming to get out. I remember it very vividly to this day. I can tell you for sure that in 1st Grade I was only sick a few days the entire year . . . so I'd obviously learned my lesson. Hopefully Taylor will remember how much she hated sitting in time-out waiting for me to finish cleaning and hopefully she'll remember/decide to not poo on the floor ever again.

I still can't believe she thought that she could only poo on the floor and that she just wasn't able to go on the potty. Now we just have to wait for the next time she needs to poo to see if she's decided she can poo on the potty. I hope so . . . for her sake and mine!!

Ma Owies Hurting

In July, for some reason Taylor and Shelby decided they had to tell me about every little hurt they could find. Every day they'd tell me about their hurts, even hurts they'd already mentioned the day before. Payden HAS to do what her sisters do, so she started telling me about her oweies, too - the real ones and the pretend ones.

Well, during my mom's stay, she bought the girls new shoes and Payden actually got a real owie on the side of her foot. Although it's been over 2 weeks, we have to put a bandaid and medicine on her owie every day. Usually she remembers right before she goes to bed, and then we hear her whine, "Ma owies hurting." She is such the drama queen.

Last night I fell asleep on the couch holding Declan. I woke up a little after 3 to Payden whining "Momma" over and over and over again. She doesn't usually wake up in the middle of the night like this, so I was really wondering what was going on. I got into her room and noticed that she was sitting up. I got over to her and noticed that she had her ankle raised in the air. She looked at me and said . . . well actually faked whined, "Ma owies hurting." I couldn't believe it. She woke up and woke me up in the middle of the night to whine about an owie that is over 2 weeks old and DEFINITELY is not hurting her. Oh my!! I rolled my eyes, but figured I might as well go get the Neosporin and bandaid as that was going to be the only way to get her to lay down and go back to sleep. What a child!!!

Murphy's Law

I never had a slice of bread,
Particularly large and wide,
That did not fall upon the floor,
And always on the buttered side.

It's 2;20, and I just put my finished bowl of breakfast cereal in the sink. At least I've finally eaten today and at least I'm not crying and at least 3 of my 4 kids are sleeping. Unfortunately all of the frustration and hardship is not over with yet. Let me rewind things for the moment and take you to the beginning.

On Monday Tom came home and asked if he could go on a school trip to Laredo from Thursday to Saturday. He'd get 200 points for doing it. In our lives, getting Tom through dental school is top priority. He asked knowing that my answer would be, "Yes. If that's what you need to do." I'll have to admit I wasn't thrilled about being home alone with a 6 year old, a 4 year old, a 2 year old, and a 2 week old, but I'll endure what I need to for his sake. Then things fell through, and I was off the hook. On Wednesday when he got home he informed me that he was going to be able to go after all, so we got him ready, and Thursday morning we dropped him off at school, knowing he'd be gone until Saturday. In the back of my head I thought something was probably going to go wrong because 1. I was home alone for 3 days with 4 kids and 2. I had recently posted an entry on my blog about feeling blessed. I thought of it as a possibility, but I just never thought it'd really happen.

On Thursday we headed off to Target. This would be a first - shopping with 4 kids alone. It actually went well . . . really well . . . , but there was something that bothered me. Taylor. She asked to be put in the cart. I told her she'd have to stay there the entire time, and she was okay with that. In fact, she never asked to get down. If you know Taylor, then that is just UNUSUAL. She is my worst kid at the store. If she ever asks to be in the cart, then 2 seconds later she's asking to get out. Now for a few days she'd been talking about her poopoo not wanting to come out, and when we got to the car, she told me that she didn't want to walk because it hurt. That's when I started getting worried.

When we got home she refused to help because she said it hurt. After we unloaded and I got dinner going in the oven, I made her sit on the potty. I told her she'd have to sit there until she got her poopoo out. Well, she sat and she sat and the girls ate and she sat and Declan ate and she sat and she cried and the girls went to bed and she sat. I would go in to try to help her, but I was also having to take care of everyone else. Well, she sat down at about 7:00. By 10:00 she was still sitting and going nowhere. I had Tom talk to her to see if that would help. Nothing. I finally decided to give her a warm bath, hoping that would loosen things up a bit. Nothing. Taylor was super tired and just wasn't willing to push things along. I called our local Children's Hospital's Call-A-Nurse line (awesome resource!!!). The nurse told me to lay her down, bend her in half, and push on her perenium to help her get it out. I tried, but Taylor would not have any of that. She is very strong and very strong-willed, and those things together made her quite the little fighter. In fact, at one point while I was trying to bend her in half, she was fighting and pushing back and yelled at me, "Get off, you giant beast, get off," (which I would have found totally hilarious if it weren't for the fact that it was late at night and she was fighting me about helping get her poo out). Finally, I was just done. It was 10:30. She was tired. Declan had been awake for a few hours doing the whole ordeal and was tired and wanting some mommy time. I was tired. It was so frustrating because the problem poo was right there, visible, but I couldn't do anything to get it out. Taylor was fighting any of my help and not doing anything to help herself. At 10:45, she finally was in bed, but I was soooooo frustrated because I knew the whole problem was not over with. Tomorrow we'd have to wake up and deal with this all over again.

Unfortunately because Declan had been awake for awhile, he had a hard time settling down to sleep. By 11:30ish, he was finally settled and asleep. I laid him down and did what I normally do on stressful days like this . . . pigged out on some Oreos and milk. By midnight I finally was laying down on the couch trying to fall asleep, which of course was hard for me because Tom wasn't there. I hate going to bed when he's gone. It is the hardest thing in the world for me, so being on the couch watching TV is a bit easier for me to fall asleep then upstairs in my big empty bed all alone.

Anyways, morning came too quickly. With school starting next week, we've been trying to wake up as close to 7 as possible. Going to bed late and the few wake-ups with Declan made me a very tired momma by the time the alarm went off. I rolled out of bed and got the kids up. I'd told Taylor I'd be calling her doctor in the morning, so I napped on the couch while waiting for the doctor's office to open up. When I talked with them, the options weren't much different than what the nurse had told me last night. They did recommend giving her a laxative or a laxative suppository. I knew with just trying to bend her in half last night that the suppository was just not going to be possible by myself (although when I told Taylor the options, this was actually the option she preferred). Since I had castor oil from when my mom was in town, I tried to give her some of that. Well, in true Taylor fashion, she fought it and spit it out. There was oil in her hair, all over me . . . everywhere!!! I decided to put her on the potty again, but she just wouldn't try. She kept telling me she wanted to do nothing. I tried to get her to understand that nothing wasn't an option - that her body was going to start having major problems if she did nothing, but she just wouldn't listen. She was too set on not wanting to push it out because it hurt.

While she waited to get in the bath (I wouldn't let her bathe with Payden because of the whole poo-sticking-out-her-bumhole thing), I called the doctor's office again. By this time, they were going to close for the day (and the week) in about 15 minutes. I rushed to try to get us there in time, but by the time we got there, the doctor was gone. I was sooooooo frustrated. I cried. I was upset at Taylor for refusing everything. I was alone. I was feeling like there wasn't much I could do. I decided to head to the pharmacy on the way home, where I picked up a more child-friendly laxative and some suppositories. When we got home, Taylor again refused to take the laxative, spitting it out everywhere. She insisted that she just wanted to go to sleep, which worried me even more because she NEVER WANTS to go to bed. I let her go up there on her own and then after I'd put Payden down for her nap, I went upstairs to make Taylor take the laxative. Now I've had to fight getting medicine down Taylor before, but this was the worst fight I've ever had to do, and of course it was a TBSP of medicine combined with some milk to make it go down easier - so it was TONS of medicine to try to get her to drink. After a huge battle and me pinning her like I've never pinned her before, I got her to take the medicine. I was soooooo excited that I was finally able to do something, but unfortunately it would take 12-72 hours before anything would happen, so now we would have to wait. I got ready for the day while she fell asleep and then I came downstairs to finally eat for the day.

After naptime, we had to wait for the miniblind guy to come, then head out to Shelby's school for "Meet the Teacher" and then go on over to our friends' house for dinner. We went to Shelby's school, but, because nothing had happened with Taylor's problem, we had to push her around in a stroller, and she was really whiney. I didn't want to go over to our friends' house with her like that so we headed home. Despite my extreme frustration with Taylor, it was so heart-breaking to see her in so much pain and discomfort. It was frustrating to see her choose to do nothing instead of do something to help herself feel better. Finally after dinner (about 7:30), she told me she wanted to go to bed, and I noticed her body was starting to shake uncontrollably. I got really worried then because her body was obviously starting to react, and I wasn't sure what I needed to do next, other than the ER, if we couldn't get anything to happen.

I told Taylor that she could only go to bed after she sat on the potty for a bit. I had to force her on, but she sat down. Of course, she wasn't trying to get anything out, despite telling me otherwise. I'd had enough, so I decided to push on her perineum to see if I could help things along. She did NOT like that at all. In fact she started to scream and cry, but it had helped. She grabbed my hands and told me she was going to hold them forever so that I wouldn't do that again. It was cute that she thought she could stop me, but she couldn't, and at this point I wasn't going to let her stop me. I pushed again and noticed that enough had come out that I could work with. I put on the surgical glove that the pharmacy had given me today (thanks to them); bent Taylor in half, which she fought and screamed, but couldn't do much because she was sitting on the potty; and helped her get out the problem poo. I just can't believe that in a matter of a few months I've had to help get the poo out of 2 of my children. They'd better know how much I love them!!!

Anyways, it worked. My help and her bending over worked together and finally out came the problem. Of course, I knew she'd need to get a lot more out to clean out her backed-up system, but with a few stools out and the end to her shaking I figured we should be good for the night. I did make her take one more bath to see if it would help get anything else out, and then I put the girls to bed. It was such a relief that something had come out. Of course, I knew that tomorrow wouldn't be easy to get her to try again because she seemed to have decided to never ever go potty again, which really worried me. For now I was just happy that we'd made some progress and that the girls were in bed at their normal bedtime.

Now there's more to the story. This was not the only problem that I had to deal with today . . . of course. Declan had a major problem today as well. When he was circumsized, the doctor used what's called the plastibell method, which left Declan with a ring around the circumsized area that would eventually fall off. During the morning I was changing his diaper when I noticed that the ring looked like it was finally coming off (of course they said it would fall off in 7 to 10 days and this was day 14). I was excited, so I started to take the ring off. Well it wouldn't come off because for some reason it was still attached to about a millimeter of his skin. I tried to move it lightly to see how well attached the skin was, and it stayed attached. Plus the slight movement caused a reaction in Declan . . . an ow-that-hurts reaction. Now what was I supposed to do. This ring was dangling from a VERY sensitive area, and I had no clue what to do about it. I called the doctor's office, and they initially said for me to just remove it. It would hurt for a little, but that would be it. Okay. This is my 2 week old baby with a problem in a VERY sensitive area, and the thought of "just removing it" caused me pain. There was no way I was going to do that. The nurse then came up with another plan. She told me to put some Neosporin with Pain Relief on the attached skin, put his diaper back on, and just check later to see if it had come off on it's own. That was a plan I could live with. Of course being in the midst of the whole Taylor ordeal, I figured with my luck the ring would stay attached, and I'd have to manually remove it. This whole thing didn't help with my emotions either, and the tears came and the feeling of being overwhelmed hit like a ton of bricks. Fortunately, the nurse was inspired because the next time I changed Declan's diaper the ring had fallen off on it's own. I was so relieved at how nicely that resolved itself.

You'll be happy to know that I was able to get Taylor back on the potty (by force initially) and she was able to go #2 on her own Saturday morning. Of course, I played up the excitement on her doing it all by herself in the hopes that she won't have any more problems about going poo and that maybe she'll decide it's okay to go poo. In fact this morning, she seemed to think that the only way she would ever get any poo out again was if I manually removed it . . . uh . . . no! She'd better think again. Getting poo out of her body is her responsibility; not mine. Anyways, she's excited to be able to walk again and sit again and that she pooed all by herself and that she no longer has to wear a diaper (she had to through this whole ordeal).

Now, I just have to deal with the next problem that has started to arise . . . runny noses. All 4 kids have either a stuffed or runny nose. AHHHHHH!!!! I'm definitely counting down until Tom gets home. He has been missed, and I'm ready to have him back. Maybe then Murphy's Law will stop wreaking havoc on me!! I can hope, right? :)

I'm Feeling Blessed

Everything has been going really, really smoothly. First of all, Payden and the girls have adjusted well. They LOVE holding him. Payden is always asking, "Can I hold it?" We're still working on the fact that it is a he. The moment he starts making a peep one or all of the girls go to him to rock him or give him his pacifier. In fact, we're working on waiting until he's actually upset and not just making a noise before they intervene. I hope he learns to enjoy having 4 moms because . . . that's what he's got. They really do just absolutely love him, and we've not had any major adjustment issues so far.

Then there's Declan. He is the calmest baby I've ever had, and the easiest to understand. There's not been a cry that I haven't understood, and, in all honesty, he doesn't cry very much. With my girls, I would try to burp them in the middle of their feedings, which is recommended. After a bit, I always gave it up because they would get so upset, and I just felt like it wasn't worth it. Not Declan. I feed him. Put him on my shoulder to burp him, and he just calmly sits there. Then when I lay him back down again, he starts eating again. There's no crying, no fussing, nothing. He just calmly goes through it all.

With his sleep I feel really blessed. I discovered on the second day home how to get him to sleep well. All I do is swaddle him really tightly and then lay him in his carrier. He sleeps soooooooo well that way. At night time I do the same thing with the swaddling and laying in the carrier, and so far he only wakes me up 1 or 2 times a night. It is so nice. I usually feed him and put him down for the night around 10 or 11. Most nights he'll wake up again between 2/3 and then again between 5/6. Occasionally he'll sleep until about 4/5 and then when he does wake up again the alarm's going off for us to get up. I'm in complete shock (and waiting for it to end) because I've NEVER had a child who's done so well so early on. I've never had a problem with them having a hard time sleeping during the night, but rather they'd wake me up 3-4 times during the night to eat. I definitely feel like I deserve a nice, calm baby after my strong-willed, dramatic, more-demanding girls. Anyways, I hope things will continue to go well. I won't bet on it, but I'm definitely enjoying the good moments for now!!

This is how Declan sleeps . . .





Unless his dad is home and wants to nap, too. I'm just glad that Declan seems to be taking after his dad . . . a good sleeper.



I thought these next 2 pictures were just too cute.





I realized in one of my previous posts that I hadn't snapped a shot of Shelby holding Declan since the hospital. She looks so sweet in this picture.



This is in an outfit Nana bought for him.



Finally, I don't think he's a full-blown redhead, but in the next 2 pictures you can definitely see some red in there.

10 Years!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

10 years!!!!! It's hard to believe that 10 years ago today Tom and I got sealed together in the Mt. Timpanogas Temple.



This is my favorite picture.





We have gone through soooooo much in these 10 years . . .

* Moved 9 times - Provo/Orem area (3), Houston area (3), San Antonio area (3)
* Lived in 2 states - Utah and Texas
* Finished my Bachelor's in Elementary Education (1 year)
* Started Tom's education - undergrad (5 years) and dental school (4 years)
* Owned 7 vehicles - Nissan Sentra, Geo Prizm, Dodge Dakota, Kia Sportage, Toyota Sienna, Dodge Durango, Honda Shadow
* Had 4 kids - Shelby, Taylor, Payden, and Declan

There's also been lots of good times and, unfortunately, some hard times as well. Sometimes it feels like we've been together for a lifetime. In fact, life before Tom seems like forever ago.

Anyways, here's our family today . . .



Tom hates this picture, but we don't have any pictures together because it's always one or the other of us behind the camera.



3 cute girls - Shelby (6), Taylor (4), and Payden (2)



1 handsome little man - Declan (1 week)

I am very grateful for Tom in my life. I'm glad he "drug me to the altar," as he puts it. I love being with him, and I love doing things with him. There's no one else I'd rather be with. I love you Tom!!!!!!!!!!

Shelby's Reading Position

This is how Shelby LOVES to read. We'll find her all over the house - on the entryway tile floor with her feet on the stairs; on the stairs with her feet on the wall; on the kitchen tile floor with her feet on the pantry or garage door; on the living room floor with her feet on the couch or piano; on the spinning office chair with her feet on the armrest; and our least favorite place . . . on the couch with her feet on us. It's funny because I always liked to read with me feet up (not quite that up, but up nonetheless).

Build-a-Bear Accessories

My mom was in the kitchen cleaning, and Payden had gone in there to be with Nana. Soon we heard Payden singing, which is always hilarious and cute because she yells and makes up her own songs. My mom turned to look at her, and then came rushing out of the kitchen to get her camera. This is what she saw . . .



Apparently, she's decided the Build-A-Bear accessories were meant for her. She was so proud of herself and strutted around the house for awhile wearing her beautiful accessories. Funny girl!!

Our Little Boohbah

I snapped this shot of Declan the other day, and it totally made me think of the Boohbahs from the PBS show. What do you think?

A Daddy's Love

Tom LOVES his babies. It's actually a funny thing because all of the boys in his family are this way. They are these big, huge guys, who you'll catch cooing and baby-talking and just loving babies. It's too sweet. Anyways, whenever Tom can, he loves to hold Declan. He'd hold him forever if he could. Here are a few of the moments that we've caught so far . . .

Baby Declan

Here's a few shots of Declan over the past few days. I forgot how tender your heart gets when you have a baby. Then you remember when your other kids were little, too, and well it's hard to keep the tears from flowing. It really is a wonderful time, despite the aches and pain of recovering and adjusting to a new routine. It definitely humbles you and makes you feel so blessed to be able to be a parent and to bring these little ones into the world.

It is even more wonderful when your other kids are excited, too. The girls have really been awesome about adjusting to having Declan in the house. I was especially worried about Payden because she is such a mama's girl. She's seen me hold babies before and has not been nice about it at all. She spends a good amount of time snuggling with me throughout the day, so I really, really worried how she'd adjust. Well, she has loved him and will just snuggle up to me with him on my lap without any problems. She loves helping out with him and is very protective of him and his stuff. She wouldn't even let Shelby put her feet on his carseat because it was the baby's and not Shelby's. They all have been great helpers and love to look at him and give him hugs and kisses. Not a cry goes by without them letting me know and trying to help him out. He is definitely going to be well-loved for the rest of his life.















We love you Declan!!!

He's here!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

My due date was August 4th. Shelby was right on time, Taylor was induced a week early, and Payden was about 10 days early. I thought for sure he would come by his due date, but no . . . he had other plans in mind; apparently I needed to experience a little of each. On Sunday the 3rd my mom flew in to help with the baby for a week. On Monday, she insisted I take castor oil (which is absolutely disgusting and has very fun side effects). Nothing happened. On Wednesday, my doctor stripped my membranes, so we waited and hoped. 3 am Thursday morning I woke with contractions 3-5 minutes apart. In my other pregnancies, if I'm having contractions, then I'm going to have a baby that day. Again, he had other plans in mind. My contractions lasted 5 - 5 1/2 hours and then stopped, coming about once an hour for most of the day. Tom had figured I was going to have the baby that day, so he'd not gone in to school. All day he'd ask, "Having a contraction?" Only to hear a disappointing, "No." We were so used to the past where when the contractions started, they didn't stop until a baby came. All day we waited and waited for them to increase, but nothing. It was a LONG and FRUSTRATING day!!!

About 10 that night, they started coming fairly consistently every 10 minutes and they were a little more painful than they'd been before, so we got hopeful that something would happen soon. We went to bed to get a little sleep. Although I woke here and there with a contraction, I was actually able to get some sleep, so again . . . nothing was happening!!!! At 5, Payden woke up. I brought her in our bed because I was tired and too lazy to rock her a bit. Well, as soon as I got her in to our bed, the contractions started coming every 10 minutes and were more painful than ever before. By 6 I decided we'd just go to the hospital and see if they'd admit me. Fortunately, the contractions were staying pretty consistent, I was dilated to a 4, and my doctor wanted me to have the baby as badly as I wanted, so I was admitted!!!

I was going to see if I could last, but eventually decided to go ahead and get an epidural. I've done the all-natural thing (not by choice), and, if there's no need to suffer, why do it. Once the epidural came, we waited and waited and waited. I had to get some antibiotics in me because of a bacteria I carry that could pass on to the baby. The doctor wanted 2 doses, so we had to wait 4 hours in between doses. Of course that meant there was no speeding things along, so we waited and waited. My epidural started to wear off, and I felt like I could feel the baby coming. The nurse checked and sure enough I was ready, but we had to wait for the doctor. So again we waited and waited. Finally, about 1:30ish, she came. Once she came it took no time at all. Finally at 1:56 pm, he arrived. I guess maybe the lesson to learn from all of this is patience!!!

So here he is . . . 7 lbs. 14 oz. and 20 inches long (my biggest baby - I do feel lucky about that). In Chinese, 8 is the luckiest number, standing for prosperity, so his birthday is the luckiest day in the Chinese year - 08.08.08 . . . and a really cool day to have a birthday.





He has a nice pathetic little cry that we love and has been a really good baby so far. Saturday morning Tom, the girls, and Nana and Papa (my parents) came to visit. Tom picked out the outfits and the bracelets and the ribbons and did Shelby and Taylor's hair while Nana did Payden's. He has some skills when he tries (about every 2 years . . . when I have a baby).



Of course the girls were soooooooo eager to see their new brother and to hold him. I was worried about how Payden would handle things, but she has done really well. My mom said that while Tom and I were at the hospital, she heard Payden talking to her bears, saying, "Mama. Baby. Hospital." I've asked her a few times where the baby is and if it's in my tummy anymore, and she's not fooled at all and will immediately point to the baby.











Everyone got their turn holding the baby. He's definitely a well-loved baby. He has been caressed and patted and kissed and loved thoroughly by his big sisters. It's too cute.



I know I'm mean, but I thought I'd make you wait to find out his name. Tom and I have gone over names again and again. If I liked a name, he didn't, and vice versa. There was a name that he really liked that I was okay with. I wasn't 100% about it, but then again there was nothing that I was 100% about. There were names I liked, but of course he didn't like them, but there was never an A-HA moment where I knew that was the name. I decided since this was Tom's only boy and I was okay with this particular name he liked (there have been MANY that I have absolutely vetoed) that I would let him choose the name (of course it didn't help that he's been feeding the name to the girls . . . tricky guy), so finally our baby boy has a name . . .



Declan Thomas Orme
(Declan is pronounced DECK-lan. It's an Irish name, meaning full of goodness. We first heard the name from a Scottish guy in our ward here a few years back whose son was named Declan.)

We are soooooooo excited to have him in our family and glad that he is FINALLY here!!!!!!