9 Days Later...

Nine days after Rebecca was baptized, Lia Elizabeth was born.  She was one day shy of three weeks early.

I got a phone call from Dr. Groom on Friday the 7th.  He informed me that my recent tests showed that I was getting preeclampsia, which was what I had with Rebecca.  He did not want me to wait until the 27th to be induced, so he called Valley Hospital and scheduled me to be there at 3:00 am on Monday the 10th.  I was nervous that the baby was not ready and might need to stay at the hospital, but I was also a little relieved.  I had a seven day window from December 20 through December 26 when Dr. Groom was going to  be out of town.  If I went into labor on my own during that time, there was a good chance the on-call doctor would have taken me down for a c-section since I had one with Rebecca.  Most doctors won't attend VBACs (vaginal births after cesareans).  I'm lucky that Dr. Groom  will, but if he was gone when I went into labor, I didn't have a choice.  With this new induction date, I didn't have to worry about that window anymore.

***Warning: Birth story to follow.  Skip to the pictures if you don't want the details.

I was at Valley at 3:00 am, which is what the hospital requested due to limited space.  Dr. Groom got stuck at Summerlin Hospital with another patient and didn't get to me until about 10:30 am.  So Kevin and I got a good nap while we waited.  I was already significantly dilated when he got there so he broke my water and started me on a low dose of pitocin.  I had just a few complications.  My blood pressure was high, so I was given something to lower it.  Also, the baby's heart rate decreased with every contraction, so I had to wear an oxygen mask.  My doctor also put some fluid back into the placenta which kept the umbilical cord from getting squeezed with every contraction.  I thought that was interesting.

I did get an epidural when I wanted it this time instead of right at the end, which is what happened with Braden.  My anesthesiologist was Paul Reynolds who happened to go to high school with Kevin.  Since he knew Kevin, he took good care of me.

Lia was born at 4:08 pm.  She weighed 5 pounds 8 ounces, and she was 17 inches long.  She was a little peanut compared to her 8+ pound brothers.  But she still wasn't nearly as small as her 2 pound 11 ounce sister Rebecca.  Rebecca even asked if Lia was smaller than her as a baby.  I told her, "Rebecca, we'll never have a baby smaller than you."

Except for having low blood sugar and having to stay in the nursery for an extra few hours until the nurses could get it to a healthy level, Lia was perfectly fine at almost three weeks early.  We got to leave the hospital with her the very next night.  I'm so grateful everything worked out the way it did.

Rebecca's Baptism

My oldest was baptized on December 1st.  My induction date was set for December 27, which isn't too close to the 1st, but I was still a little concerned that we might have to postpone the baptism due to a baby arriving.  We didn't, and everything went really well.

When we got there, no one had a key to the closet with the baptism clothing.  President Seager showed up with a key that opens every lock in the building and saved the day.

It was a stake baptism, but there were only four kids getting baptized.  The organizer asked us to find a musical number.  Rebecca's Aunt Emily sang "Baptism" and my mom accompanied her.

Congratulations, Rebecca!  We're so proud of you!

Leaving AHA

Rebecca graduated from 1st grade and William graduated from preschool at American Heritage Academy this year.  I sent Kevin to William's graduation at the park due to morning sickness, so we don't have any pictures.  But we loved his teacher Mrs. Devito, and we will miss her.

I got a few pictures of Rebecca's last day in Mrs. Walker's 1st grade class.

Here I am with the high school teacher from 2011-12.  We had a crazy year switching from BYU Independent Study courses to the AHA curriculum, but we made it work, and we had a great year.

We'll miss being a part of American Heritage Academy, but we enjoyed the time we got to spend there.

William and Spencer's 5th Birthday

William and Spencer's birthdays are about two weeks apart, so my sister and I have a combined birthday party for them every year.  This year we had their party at Pump It Up.

Here are most of the cousins watching the safety video before the party started. 

(from left to right: Hannah, Rebecca, Abbey, Braden, Kennedy, Gage, William, Ryder, Spencer, Tyler, Brooke, and Whitney.)

Here's Avery

This is my cute sister Jodi going down the slide.

And Whitney with her broken ankle wasn't supposed to be playing, but this little gymnast couldn't resist.

Birthday Boys

I love these two boys.  Happy birthday, William and Spencer!

Mother's Day

I've had a great Mother's Day this year.  All three kids came home from church with something special for me.

Rebecca:

William:

Braden:

And this morning from Kevin I got breakfast in bed and THREE candy bars.  Chocolate is always my favorite gift, and my husband knows me well.  I hope everyone had a nice Mother's Day!

Request for the Tooth Fairy

Rebecca has been losing a lot of teeth lately.  She's lost eight teeth altogether, and she's working on her ninth.  Every time she loses a tooth, she writes a note to the Tooth Fairy requesting what she would like to get for her tooth:  

It says, "Pleas give me a doll a Barbi doll and four $ pleas thank you and I want to keep my tooth"

She's so specific about what she wants the Tooth Fairy to bring her.  I wish I had another note she wrote that said she wanted "ten buks."  And I'm not sure why she always wants to keep her teeth.  They're pretty gross.

This was the Tooth Fairy's response to her on the back of her note:

It says, "I usually only give one dollar per tooth, AND I usually take the tooth.  But here's two dollars and I gave your tooth to your mom.  Smilingly, The Tooth Fairy"

I thought I had kept all of her notes, but I can only find one.  They are all so funny to me.  I'll try to keep the note for the next tooth she loses.  She has a loose silver tooth, and she thinks the Tooth Fairy is going to give her $50 for it because it's silver.  We shall see about that.

#4

We're having baby #4, and it's a girl!  She's due January 1st, but my doctor usually induces me a week early to make sure he can be there when I'm in labor.  So she'll probably be arriving between Christmas and New Years.  We're all excited, but I think Rebecca is the most excited of everyone.  She can't wait to have a sister!