My Labor of Love for Locklan :) Part 1 - August 25, 2015

I've decided that, for me, the most difficult part of pregnancy is the mental endurance it requires from me. The last two weeks are always so mentally and emotionally exhausting! Pregnancy is definitely a mental marathon. I have always (from pregnancy #2 and on) experienced Braxton Hicks contractions from mid-pregnancy on, which only intensify in strength and become more frequent (and in hours-long runs) as my pregnancy continues. I went into labor naturally with Aurelle, Jovi and Waits, leading one to think that I would easily recognize real contractions from the "practice" ones. 

Well, one would be wrong in this instance. :)

I have spent the entire last two weeks of every pregnancy absolutely convinced that I am going into labor just about every hour or so. Every contraction feels so intense, that every time one comes, I swear that THIS. this has got to be the real thing. 

...Just to be disappointed. Every. single. time. 

And then I will start having regular and intense contractions every 5 minutes- which will last for hours, only for them to finally drop off completely at 2 in the morning, leaving me with a few hours of sleep before my kids wake up and I am exhausted and STILL pregnant for another day. 

I found myself, even with my 5th pregnancy, having to remind myself that this will actually end... you know... eventually. Somehow your body has the ability to trick you into thinking that your current pregnancy will actually last forever, and you will be pregnant for ALWAYS. Which is, of course, completely ridiculous. But ah, such is life to the mind of a feeling-overdue pregnant woman!

(I don't mean to sound negative, here. I love pregnancy. I really, really do, as crazy as it sounds, and I am grateful for each and every day I get to grow and nourish my precious little babies inside of me, especially when it means that they can grow and develop as they should, and come into this world as healthy as possible. I'm just trying to keep things real here! It can sure seem hard while you are minute-to-minute anxiously anticipating finally holding your little one in your arms, while also existing and functioning on so little sleep! ;) )

All of my previous pregnancies have come to an end between 9 and 17 days early (17, 9, 12 and 10 days early- in order of pregnancy). Women follow patterns, my doctor said. I'll be at least 9 days early, my mind translated, of course. Well, 17... 12... 10... and 9 "days early" came and went. Eight "days early" I was at church when I had previously told everyone there was absolutely no possible way that I would be there, and everyone asks "How are you still here?" (Words to never speak to a pregnant woman over 37 weeks)

The day I hit 39 weeks, I had an appointment scheduled with my midwives where they promised me that they would help move things along with a sweep of my membranes (sounds better than "stripping membranes" to me) if I wanted. (Yes, please!) After finding out that I was already dilated to 5 cm, my midwife informed me that in her patient history, women who were somewhat progressed in early labor would have a baby within 24 hours of a membrane sweep. I left the office cramping mildly, and was in active labor within an hour and a half.

Not knowing how long it would take for full labor to kick in, I had the wonderful idea to go home and pick up my family and my mom who was staying with us, and go and run some errands to help keep my mind off of the crazy pregnant woman impatience I knew I would experience otherwise. While walking around (translate: chasing my kids around the toy aisles of) Ross, I was using my contraction timer app, and was logging pretty uncomfortable contractions that were 2-3 minutes apart. 

After about half an hour I was beyond regretting my idea to run errands, and informed everyone that had accompanied me that I wanted to go home, and that pregnant ladies in almost-labor always win. So we headed home, stopped by In-n-Out on the way to grab lunch for the kiddos (and me! since they never let you eat at the hospital... a policy I strongly dislike and disagree with!), and my mom announces to the cashier that "you better hurry, because we have a woman in labor waiting in the car!", and the cashier looked at her like, "uuuhhhh... then why are you in here ordering burgers?" Or so Kyle says, haha. 

It was while this woman-in-labor was waiting in the car for lunch that the real contractions began. They slowed down in pace, but picked up in intensity. I knew, without a shadow of a doubt, that this was the real deal. But as they had slowed down to 5 minutes apart, and all we needed to was drop my mom and the kids off a home and pick up the hospital bag, we were in no real hurry. Besides, I really wanted to eat my burger and shake. :)

I lasted about 5 minutes and half of a burger at home before I was ready to head to the hospital. I have experienced going into labor at home four times now (and made it to 9 cm dilated with Aurelle before getting an epidural), and I can tell you that not all labors are created equal! Labor with Aurelle and Jovi was very, very manageable. I never experienced any pain, only extreme discomfort. Labor with Waits was different. Every single contraction, even in very early labor, was extremely painful. Going into labor with Locklan was the same way. These contractions were intensely uncomfortable, with a nice sharp stabbing pain in my lower abdomen and cervical area. I had such hopes (now looking back, I think of them more as "grand delusions") of delivering Locklan without any pain medication, but with the contractions I was experiencing this time around, I was so excited to get to the hospital, just so they could get me hooked up to an epidural ASAP!

As soon as we grabbed our bag, said goodbye to the kiddos and told them they would get to meet their new baby brother soon, we headed out to our car. Now as a little back story, about a year before, the ignition in our van locked up so that we could not turn the key to start it. It costs a little more than we usually have laying around to get it fixed, so we had the locksmith come out, un-jam it, and never went in to get it fixed. Over a year went by and we only experienced it getting stuck again one other time. And I bet you can guess where this back story is going... The day I am in labor, at the time we are heading to the hospital so I can give birth, when I was already dilated to 5 centimeters that morning, we get in the van, and... they key won't turn. YES. Of all the days and times, this is the day and time where we can't get our car to start!

To say we were frustrated would be true, but slightly on side of being an understatement.

Kyle decided to call his sister to come and pick us up and drop us off at the hospital. An idea I wasn't completely thrilled about. Which is a little silly, because, really...  it doesn't matter how you get to the hospital, it is just kind of important that you get there, right? But all I could think in my cranky contracting state was how dumb that was to have to be dropped off at the hospital by my sister-in-law! Hah. We sat for about 10 minutes after Kyle called his sister, you know, just hanging out in a parking lot, sitting in a car that won't start (meaning: no air conditioning) in August- in labor, kind of waiting, kind of freaking out (and sweating), and not knowing at all what to do. We decided to say a prayer, Kyle pounded on the ignition a couple dozen times, and just like that, the ignition worked! I don't know if I have ever been so relieved at an answer to a prayer before! And we headed to the hospital...

As I have no pictures of being in labor, I'll give you a little teaser of part 2 of this labor story:

To be continued...

Waits 18 months- Aug 2015

In early August, Waits turned 18 months old.

About Waits at 18 months old:

Height:  31 in. (8.4 %)
 Our little shorty... down from the 22nd % in height at 15 months!

Weight:  21.98 lbs. (19.2 %)

Head:  18.38 cm. (29.5 %)

•Waits will cry and face plant (literally!) anytime Daddy or I leave. He will even begin to cry when he sees Daddy packing his back pack because he knows that means Daddy will be leaving soon. So sad and so sweet and cute.

•Waits is a marathon napper. As he shares a room with Minnette, who like to stay up late, he often will not get enough sleep at night, but will easily make up for it by napping for up to 5 hours in the afternoon!

•While our little Waits was right on track with our other children for when he learned to crawl, he took a little but longer to learn to walk. Our first three all walked right around 12 months, while Waitsey boy learned to walk at almost 16 months!

•He is still  not talking as much as we would expect him to at this age, and we are in the process of beginning early intervention speech therapy. For his initial consultation he scored very high in his cognitive, social and all other skills, besides his verbal speech, which was very low. 

•Waits loves to play with cars, balls, slides, and riding toys.

•Waits loves to 'help' in the kitchen by playing in the kitchen drawers and cabinets. He especially likes to pull out pot lids and the cheese grater and stirring utensils and either organize them on the kitchen floor, or spread them evenly throughout the apartment. :)

•He loves to run down hills/ramps. There is a hallway in our church building that is divided into stairs on the left side, and a ram on the right hand side. Waits will climb up the stairs and then turn around and run down the ramp over and over and over again.

•Waits loves to climb. 75% of my time is spent getting him down from objects in our home. The desk, the table, the top of couch, etc.

•Waits' newest obsession? Splashing in the toilet water and throwing multiple entire rolls of toilet paper in it!

•He recently learned how to spin

•Waits allows his two big sisters to carry him around like a doll most of the time. When we found out while I was pregnant with Waits, that we were going to be having a boy, everyone told me that he would have four moms, and boy, were they right. He gets so much love. He will go to them for comfort and even choose to sit in their laps for story time (and by them, I mean Minnette and Aurelle. Jovi is still pretty young for that, though she is still a great friend to Waits and a good 'mom' to her baby dolls :) )

•He loves to eat oatmeal and to try and feed himself. I still share most of my meals with him, especially breakfast, because he just eats more that way. He drinks water from big cups by himself, and refuses to drink water from a sippy cup anymore! (But will drink a smoothie from one, fortunately)

•He is as happy and healthy as can be!

•We all love him so much, an are so excited to see him as a big brother by the end of the month!

Minnette Turns Six! Aug 2014

It is really, really fun to plan birthdays for our kids as they get older. Minnette has been planning some of the details of her birthday since her birthday last year! Since baby brother Locklan is due within a week or two of Minnette's birthday, Grandma Murphy decided to plan the arrival of her stay in Provo to include Minnette's birthday. It was a literal multi-daily countdown to the day grandma got here, which also meant that Minnette's birthday was the next day.  It's been a very exciting time in our house lately with Grandmas, birthdays and babies!

Minnette chose German pancakes for her birthday breakfast, which was a refreshing change form the usual junk cereal/donut request we've had for the last 7-8 birthdays, at least! 

Soon after, she opened her cards and presents:

And then got ready for birthday pictures and a birthday date lunch with Mom (and Grandma!) at our girls' beloved JCW's for a corndog and milkshake. (She had been set on alfredo and lasagna from Olive Garden for months, and last minute decided she wanted JCW's instead... sweet little children and their sweet and simple requests. It is so easy to make her happy!)

Our sweet, happy and amazing now SIX-YEAR-OLD Minnette:

The picture Minnette chose for our wall frame:

Can you believe how big she has gotten, and that we now have a six year old???

And to be added later:

Minnette picked fishing for our family date, so we decided to plan that for the "party" portion of her birthday. She wanted to go to Salem Pond, eat pizza, have a candy decorated cake, go fishing and invite her friend Alice and her family to come with us. Who could say no to that? Unfortunately, our phone died on the way to the pond and we didn't bring our charger with us. But our friends, the Lybberts, were kind enough to take some pictures for us, and I will add those here as soon as I get them!

Minnette's well check stats:

Weight- 46.08 lbs. (61st %)

Height- 45.75 in. (65th %)

BMI- 15.48 (57th %)

And NO SHOTS until she is 13! She was pretty happy about that! :)

A little about Minnette:

-Loves playing with legos (both duplo and regular), coloring, train tracks, building puzzles, Mr. Potato Heads (we have a HUGE bucket-full, and our girls get very into creating characters them and imaginative play with them), dress-up, play-doh, and playing outside with her friends and sisters.

-Taught herself to ride a bike without training wheels in a matter of 5-10 minutes on another kid's bike a few weeks ago.

-As Grandma and Grandpa Murphy would say, she is our "little newscaster". She loves to update anyone on anything and everything that is happening in her life. She will often call down to kids playing in the quad to tell them details about her day, or tell the cashier at the store all about what we did for Family Home Evening, or tell her friend's mom about what we ate for breakfast. It is so sweet to see what she finds important and wants to share with others! I am always curious what she tells her primary teachers ;)

-Will be starting home school kindergarten this fall!

We sure love Minnette and her very bright and sweet, happy spirit. She is such a great leader with her siblings and brings so much love with her into our home. We are so grateful she came to our family!

A Few Random Kid Videos- Aug 2014

Waits pretending to eat play food (he was copying Daddy):

Waits giving high fives:

Kids dance party before bed:

Waits brushing his teeth:

Duck Walk- Aug 2014

A few weeks ago, Kyle came up with a fun idea to pass the afternoon with our family: a duck race down one of the rivers on BYU campus. We gathered all of our rubber duckies, and even a toy boat and sent them floating down the river as we tracked their progress to the pond at the end. I was surprised by how much our kids loved this. It was a total hit... that is, until half of our ducks went missing (probably sucked into the flitration system, is our guess) and Minnette, in particular, was devastated. 

Here are some pictures of the girls follwing their ducks downstream:

It's gard to see, but there is a duck family nesting across the stream in the shade of the tree:

Where our ducks went missing:

Aurelle rescued our boat:

documenting our way downstream:

And then we enjoyed some turtle and duck watching at the pond south of campus:

Cute, tiny man:

A turtle!

Ducks!

And a few pictures of the incident where Waits decided to throw his hat into the pond and Kyle had to fish it out of the icky water with a stick!

And a cute video of Jovi telling me all about the ducks:

36 weeks- Aug 4th 2014

Since I haven't taken a belly picture in 14 weeks, I figures it was about time to document the growth of our second sweet boy:

Based off of prior deliveries, as of the day this picture was taken, I have less than three weeks until D-day, and we are so excited to finally meet, see and hold our little Locklan!

Pioneer Village- July 2014

July 24th is kind of a big deal, here, in the great state of Utah. It is a state holiday that celebrates the arrival of the Mormon pioneers to the Utah Valley. Depending on where you live, there are a ton of activities held to help you get into the pioneer spirit and remember the sacrifice made by them as well as learn a little bit about what their day to day life was like. Not being originally from Utah, this is a new one for us. It has been a lot of fun to find opportunities to celebrate this holiday with our family, and we will definitely be bringing it with us wherever we end up moving! 

We headed over to Pioneer Village, just a few blocks away from our apartment, and completely FREE, where we got to watch a blacksmith make a spoon (which he let us keep!):

do some leather stamping:

See what a day of school would have been like for early pioneers:

Waits liked the chalkboards (and eating the chalk!):

And play some pioneer games:

Kyle showed the girls how to use stilts:

We couldn't believe that this was completely free for our entire family, and that they are open almost everyday and run completely off of volunteers and donations!

I have absolutely no pictures of the rest of our pioneer day activities, but they included these:

Pretzel Log Cabin craft

Soap carving (the favorite for our kids and all of the neighborhood kids!)

churning our own butter (using baby food jars and marbles)

a chili and cornbread picnic (that's authentic pioneer food, right?)

and will hopefully, in the future, also include:

homemade bonnets

writing in homemade berry ink with quills

corn husk dolls

old fashioned hand washing

candle making 

and camping, complete with a campfire meal!!