Pumpkin Carving

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Sweet Baby!

I could sit and snuggle this sweet baby all day! I just had to capture some of her sweetness while holding her this afternoon. Sorry if they aren't in perfect focus but I was holding her and trying to take these with out disturbing her to much. I think the pictures speak for themselves....

Kids perspective of a new baby...

Every time we have a new baby Larry and I wonder how the youngest of our children will react to no longer being the baby of the family. Luckily we don't have any horror stories of children hating the "new kid" and doing really naughty things to the baby. I did have one child who are really naughty to ME after having another one, but in his "defence" I didn't really know what to do with him when I was taking care of another child. I learned my lesson on how to involve the other kids, and how to entertain them when mom is busy with baby. Since then it hasn't been bad. Hayden is pretty set on mom doing lots of things for or with her and Larry was worried she was going to flip out with the new baby. But I wasn't to worried she had had some practice with the baby that I babysit. When the kids came to the hospital to see her Hayden was pretty shy but loved holding her. All of them did. But Hayden seemed a little worried when we said it was time to get going and she was holding her and I told her that it was ok because we would bring Ruth home and we would get to keep her forever and ever. Hayden hugged her tight and said "she can ride in my car seat!" Hayden also tells everyone we see (at the store, at church...) "I'm a big Hi her" (Her word for sister) and then she tells them that this is her baby hi her Roof (her word for Ruth) It is pretty sweet how much she just dotes on her. I love it!
All the kids fight still to see who can hold her first after school. I use this to my advantage. I tell them no one gets to hold her till they have done their homework, hung up their backpacks and washed their hands! I get what I want and they get what they want. This is working for now, I am hoping it will last. I am sure when she starts smiling and laughing at them they will be just as excited to see who can make her laugh and smile the most. Now she is smiling in her sleep. I think it is the sweetest thing in the world to see a baby smile in their sleep. I really think they are remembering heaven. We are loving having a new baby, I am loving not being pregnant, and all are doing well!!!

Ruth's Birth

I know I said I wasn't ready to tell many details yet and I think I am feeling like I can put into words all I think and feel about her birth. It sounds kind of funny I guess that I wasn't ready to share it all publicly but it feels like a very personal story to me and the more I reflect on all that happened that week and day the more personal it feels to me and the more grateful to my Heavenly Father I feel that things turned out the way that they did. Her birth really kind of started the week before she was actually born. Which is not a surprise to those who know me and my pregnancies well. It takes me a week to have a baby for real! I do what they call "patrimonial labor" Sorry if that is spelled wrong but I am not a doctor! It means that my body will labor for weeks or more and not really progress with out help. I have done it every time!!! Anyway Thursday before she was born I was tired of having contractions that were keeping me up all night, and hurting all day and knowing that stuff was happening just slowly as usual. So I had my 38 week check up and figured if I was having real contractions maybe they would help me speed things up like they ALWAYS have in the past. 38 weeks was my longest previous pregnancy (BROCK)! So I thought surely this would be the week they would HELP! I went in and the Doctor checked and said I was at a 3 and if I walked for an hour and she checked me again and there was change she would send me to the hospital. I did and actually did progress to a 4 (which for me is a big deal!!! Normally at a 4 I am begging for an epidural!) She sent me to the hospital and they got everything checked in. I called my husband to the hospital (who happened to be working out of cell phone range that day!!!) Called the school sent my kids to friends house, called my mom and she drove the 3 hours to get my kids and stay with them while we were in the hospital. We spent close to 14 hours with pit, having good contractions, and doing my normal thing, no change. I told the mid wife this is what I do until you break my water. I have done this 4 times and this is what happens I could do this for weeks and will do this for weeks!!! She refused to do anything other then give me a sleeping pill which I refuse to take because I am dis functional if I take them! She sent me home at 10:00 at night. I was in tears and frustrated!!! I thought maybe I could get things going again in the morning and get a different doctor who might actually help me. I walked and walked, I even tried pumping (I know TMI). But nothing kept them going. It was like my body was tired of having contractions so it just refused to have more then a few at time. I called and made my next appointment with the doctor. Since I hadn't because I fully expected to have a baby by this time. Monday was my appointment. I was kind of hoping that maybe there would have been some change and they would have mercy on me and send me back. But I told Larry I wasn't going to go unless they promised to break my water because I know pit wouldn't do anything but make me hurt. There was no change but the doctor said Friday (my 39 week mark) they would induce me if I hadn't gone into labor on my own before then. I was feeling hopeless that that would actually happen at this point. So figured I would stop trying to make it happen at least I knew there was an end in site and I could just try to rest until then.
Oh and the day after they had sent me home from the hospital I was feeling so discouraged and actually kind of nervous because I hadn't ever had this happen to me and what if things actually did happen fast this time and I didn't have time to get everything taken care of.... scared and a little overwhelmed to say the least. I wanted Larry to give me a priesthood blessing so I could feel more comfortable in our situation but he was feeling a lot of the same feelings and felt like he was to close to the situation to give me a blessing that he didn't feel was coming from him and what he wanted me to have and not what Heavenly Father truly wanted to bless me with so we called our very good friend (who also happens to be our bishop) and asked if he could give me a blessing. He came and gave me a blessing that evening and I can't remember all of what he said but there were a few phrases that stuck with me. That my body would be able to rest, that the delivery would be speedy, and the baby would be safe. This was a big comfort to me because I had never been pregnant this long and I was a little worried that the baby would end up being to big to deliver. But then I would remind myself also that for the last 4 check ups I was measuring a week behind, and the last 2 there was no change so technically at this point I was 2 weeks behind. (This should have worried me but didn't for some reason.) Anyway I felt like everything was going to be ok and let myself rest for the rest of the week.
Wednesday night I noticed baby wasn't moving much. Usually when I go to bed there is a circus going on in my belly and there was almost no movement that night. In the morning when I first wake up is usually a really big movement time and the baby only kicked once or twice all morning. I started to get worried and called a friend to see if she would be worried, or if she thought I should call the doctor. She told me absolutely call the doctor. So I dropped Hayden off at a friends and went into be monitored at the office. They monitored me and the baby's heart rate was just fine and she actually woke up a little while I was there. I went home knowing everything was ok but was very terrified on the way there! The doctor said sometimes baby's do this right before they are born, so I figured maybe stuff was going to happen on it's own anyway... My mom came that night so she would be there with the kids in the morning when we left for the induction. We were scheduled to check in at 10 am. I woke up having real contractions that morning and figured my body was getting a jump start on the action. Although I had multiple dreams that night that they sent me home because they were to busy for me. When I was having the contractions I knew that they wouldn't send me home because I was actually doing this on my own finally and they surly couldn't send me home now being dilated to more then a 4 and a good 70% effaced. So we got there got checked in and they got my IV in and the midwife came to check me and broke my water right then! It wasn't even 11 am yet! I was so happy that we were for sure staying now and there was going to be a baby soon! They started pit about an hour later because my contractions weren't really progressing and speeding up the process is great by me. I went in wanting to see how far I could go with out an epidural. I have always had one before and was very glad to have one but this time I thought maybe I had done enough prep work I could labor in less then a day and if it was going to progress fast enough maybe I could do it. Larry was really helpful, comforting, and supportive the whole time. We had our favorite nurse there (who also is a member of our ward and has been there during part of all of our girls labor, or right after). She was really helpful in giving me suggestions as to things I could to to help myself be more "comfortable" help things move a long, I was in uncharted territory for me and hadn't ever been able to move at this point of delivery before due to the epidurals. But things were moving a long ok but I reached a 6ish or a 7 and knew I wasn't going to make it drug free but was afraid I would have such a strong epidural I wouldn't be able to feel to push (I have had one of those before and it was kind of hard) The magical man with the drugs offered me what we called an intrathecal (spelling???) when Ethan was born I don't know if that is what they still call it. It is a shot of pain killers in your spine but there is no catheter, and it only lasts 3 hours. You still have sensations, you feel the contractions only with out pain. I opted for that. It was wonderful!!!! I knew exactly what was going on, could move my body my self, and was totally comfortable. I knew when it was time to push and the drugs were really starting to wear off when it was time so I was kind of in a hurry to finish. The whole time the baby was having what they were calling "earlies" which means with every contraction the heart would decell but would recover quickly so they weren't to worried and thought it was actually a good sign at first that things were progressing well. But once I told them I thought it was getting close the decells had changed drastically and the mid wife was in a hurry to get the baby out too. So she told me to go for it. From there it took about 7 minutes to deliver her (a record for me. I think my shortest was 15 before that!) The first scare was, as soon as her head was out the midwife yelled at me to stop pushing they had a cord. The cord was around her neck 3 times and looped under itself so it had tied a knot in it. She couldn't just cut it and unwrap it she had to cut it and untie it to get it off the baby's neck. It was around there so tight they couldn't just slip it off either. Once they got her untied she came out with one more push. Larry was accutally able to deliver her. The mid wife let him do this when Hayden was born and it was such a great experiance for him that we asked if he could do it again. He did a great job! They let me hold her a little while they rubbed her down and she was so tiny. My smallest baby ever at 5 lbs 8 oz. She has a head full of hair though! Now if you don't want TMI stop reading for a minute. Then I delivered my placenta which was very very little, the cord was also pretty small. Our nurse told Larry that she has only seen placentas that little from smokers, drinkers, or heavy heavy pop drinkers. Which I am neither. I have pop about 2 times a month and even that it is a glass with pizza. So part of me wonders if she had stopped growing, or even started loosing weight in there since things weren't quite right. The doctor did say she needed to come out because much longer in there like that wouldn't have been good for her, and as far as the delivery if she had taken even 2 minutes longer coming out they would have ended up resuscitating her and she would have been in the nicu. As it was she was in the nursery for an hour just getting checked, getting some extra oxygen and all that just as precautionary. But was doing very well very quickly! She even started nursing very very quickly and has been a very good eater from the beginning. She came out hungry!!! I guess I am feeling very blessed and watched over by my Heavenly Father that she came as quickly as she did, that everyone that was there to help us did such a wonderful job, and that she came when she did which was just the right time for her. She is so beautiful, sweet, so snugly, I couldn't ask for anything more. Her brothers and sisters all love her and are so proud to have her in our home it is truly wonderful to have her as a part of our family. I get so teary when I am holding her watching her sleep and she smiles in her sleep. Only a few days old and those little twitches of smiles are so beautiful to me. I always have thought when they do that they must be dreaming of heaven, remembering something I can not. She was there such a short time ago with our Heavenly Father, so fresh so sweet and innocent. How can I be so blessed to have her in our home?

It's a Girl!!!

After my longest pregnancy ever she has finally arrived! She was born Friday evening and is so perfect!

We named her Ruth Donna Davis. Her brothers and sisters LOVE her! Hayden is very proud to be a big sister! If Amelia says she is a big sister Hayden is proud to remind her that "No I am the big sister!" They fight over who gets to hold her.

This is our favorite nurse giving Ruth her first bath. She has given all of our girls their first bath. She has been there durring or right after our girls have been born, we ask for her when we go in to the hospital, and we were so so glad to have her with us during Ruth's delivery! We had a scare durring the delivery and it was so good to have her with us. I might talk about the delivery later but I don't think I am ready quiet yet.

Here is the proud daddy holding his brand new baby girl!

Sweet baby Ruth weighed in at a whopping 5 lbs 8 oz. and was 18 inches long! She is our smallest of our children at birth. She is sweet, sleeps as much as you can ask a new baby to sleep, eats like a good little baby ready to grow. As my dad would say she is "farming" code for milking and spreading manure! We couldn't love her more and more happy to have her in our home. She is truly a blessing sent from heaven!

Kids update....

So there are some funny things my kids have been doing lately that I don't want to forget that I thought I would just write down. Lately Hayden will tell me "I don't like that" to what ever the food is that she thinks she might not like. Even though sometimes it is something she has eaten before and loved! I don't push it I just put it on the plate and figure we'll see what happens. Most of the time she will see her brothers and sister eating this and she will taste it and then with a really cute surprised voice say, "I do like it! I do like this!" It cracks me up because it makes me think of Green Eggs and Ham. She will tell me she doesn't like it and then decide I do like it! She is also really into being "independent" She wants to do it herself. She will tell me "I do it!" What ever it is, buckling her seat belt, buttering her toast, cutting her food... what ever the task is. Again I figure why fight it she has to learn it some time anyway. So I let her try (unless I am in a huge hurry which involves a huge screaming fit) But after just a minute she will say, "I need help." I love that she wants to try but is still willing to accept help when needed. Even though most of the time she won't accept the help from daddy, only mommy! I think this will change when baby gets here... Hayden is also really into getting me to watch her do what ever it is she is up to. Usually her trick is jumping off of something (usually the bottom step of the stairs. She will tell me "watch me mama!" So I will look and she will count to 10 then say blast off! And hop off the step. It is pretty cute. She also knows most of her colors, and some shapes! I think she is brilliant! I know I am biased but I don't think Ethan could count to 10 before he was 3, or know as many colors as she does... I am sure it has a lot to do with the coaching she gets from her 3 older siblings but I think she is amazing!
The boys are very interesting lately too.... With the impending birth of our 5th child there have been lots and lots of questions from our boys! They amaze me at the things they ask about, and what they come up with. I don't remember having these questions as a kid but my mom didn't have a baby when I was 9 or 7. Her last one was when I was almost 3. But having bigger kids has opened up a whole new vocabulary at our house, as well as late night topics. Although not always late at night. We often have these questions come up on the way to school, soccer practice.... It is quiet interesting the things they come up with. But I feel confident that my boys now know exactly how babies are made, and how they are born. Both ways! Brock was very fascinated, and worried about the option of c-sections so we actually found one on line and let them watch and have explained that mommy will not die if they have to do this. I had a Doctor's appointment Monday and we knew there was a chance that I might go to the hospital to have the baby from there... (that was the hope anyway!) When the boys got home from school Brock walked in looked at me very puzzled and said, "did you have the baby today?" I chuckled a little and told him no, I wouldn't be home if I had. I told him that the baby was going to be born on Friday and then a whole other gamete of questions came as to how do I know and how can the Doctor make me have the baby.... It is kind of funny. My boys even know now that the doctors can take "eggs and seeds" and put them in another mommy so she can have a baby. It is pretty interesting the things we talk about in our house now days.
Amelia is kind of stuck in the middle of it all. She is loving kindergarten, and soccer. She seems to be distracted enough by all of that that she doesn't pay a whole lot of attention to the rest of the goings on. She will join conversations if the boys are asking questions and she is there, but I think she is just more excited about Grandma coming and spending some time here then any of the rest of it. Oh not to say she isn't excited about having a baby, I know she is going to love love love having a baby and will mother hen this baby, I just don't think she is as concerned with the hows and whys there is a baby coming. Either that or she is just holding it all in better because she is waking me up at least one time a week if not more with "bad dreams" Which I think could be stress related, I am not sure. She had me up 2 times last night which really stunk because it was the first night in a few days that contractions weren't keeping me awake! I think I am getting better at sleeping through them because I still hurt in the morning like I had been having them I just am getting immune to the pain...
It is quiet the interesting time in our house waiting for this baby to come! Only a few more days thankfully!!! We will post to let everyone know what we have when baby gets here!

Pumpkin Patch!

We have a favorite pumpkin patch. We have gone there almost every year since we have had kids! The last 2 years they were closed and we were very sad! We always get these giant pumpkins there and for the last 2 years we haven't had one because we haven't been able to find one! We were very happy to see their signs up again this year and went back to get our giant pumpkin!

They always have a fun little hay maze for the kids. They always like this part. They also have a corn maze, hay rides, slides, a corn box (instead of a sand box). And tons more! We love this place. Hayden just looked so cute sitting there I couldn't help myself.

We have lots of fun looking for the perfect pumpkin. We pick one giant one for the family and then we let each of the kids pick out their very own pumpkin. Larry and I always pick one or two too. I liked this picture of Amelia sitting in the wheel barrow of pumpkins. We filled that and a big wagon!

We gave Hayden a ride in the wagon on top of the pumpkins. She didn't like it so much because it didn't feel steady I guess and it was kind of a bumpy ride. But she sure looked cute sitting up there!

Our kids love the hunt for the perfect giant pumpkin. We started this giant pumpkin tradition the very first year we had Ethan. He was only 8 months old but I knew I wanted a picture of him naked in a big pumpkin so we bought one to put him in. We have done it every year since then. This year Ethan kept telling me that the pumpkins didn't look as big as the ones we usually get. I told him they are just as big as they always have been but they look smaller because he has grown so much. I reminded he would fit in there when he was little but now he is 9 and a half so he is bigger then they are. It made him a little sad that he couldn't get into the pumpkins anymore.

Here is Ethan picking his pumpkin. He is so big!

Brock was pretty cute picking pumpkins. He liked the big ones, but liked finding ones that are funny shaped and colored. He found one that looks like a top, and several others that he thought was fun. But ended up finding the perfect one!

Hayden thought the whole thing was a lot of fun! I am pretty sure she doesn't remember last year since she was almost 2. So it was "new" to her. But she sure loved looking at all the fun pumpkins. She really loved the "baby" pumpkins!

Now our front porch is covered with beautiful pumpkins, gourds, and corn stalks. I am not really into all the ghoulish Halloween decor but love all the fall natural stuff. So most of my decorations get thrown away every year after Halloween because they are rotten. But it sure looks pretty now!!! Oh we have "added" spider webs and spiders to the front porch too. Well does it count if you just didn't sweep them away and they are "natural" also? Because technically I didn't put them there. I just left them there.
Oh and just so you all know... NO The baby has not been born yet!!!! I am now "over due" compared to the rest of my 4 children! I am praying this baby will come soon because my body is DONE! But I can't complain to much I guess because at least I am not constantly having contractions, although if I was I know I could actually have this baby pretty quickly since I am half way there anyway! Anyway we are doing good and holding on. Hopefully not for long!

Another Soccer Saturday!

Just another day being the "soccer mom" I have to admit I don't love the whole "soccer mom" thing. Only because it keeps us running around all the time from one practice to the next. But it is a lot of fun for the kids so we do it!

 

Amelia loves being the goalie. She got to play goalie the who game today. She loved it and did a great job. I think she only let 2 in.

 

Ethan had a great game too. They lost but did a good job. Ethan really plays hard and stays right in the game. I am always so proud of him.

 

Brock has really come a long way with soccer! He really really works hard. He runs like crazy and has really learned how to control the ball. At one point in the game he was able to dribble the ball all the way down the field! It was a lot of fun.