Oh What do you do in the Summertime?

I always try to have a loose schedule of sorts in the summer so that we aren’t getting up every morning and wondering how we are going to fill the hours.  Each day we generally do something, but of course we can change it if something else comes up.  All three older kids are in swim team in the morning, and then we do different stuff in the afternoons—we have library day, a swimming day, a movie theater day, and on Mondays we have a new thing—making and musical Mondays—which means we STAY HOME!! (This is generally my favorite day.)  We make or cook something and watch a musical.  Also, catch up on laundry and cleaning. 

Anyway, there is a point to this long description of my life presently.  This Monday we made salsa and watched Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.  And for some reason I was much more laid back then usual—probably because we didn’t have to pack up and go anywhere at any specific time.  I found myself spending fun time with all my kids—especially Ella and Conner, who probably need that a lot more these days with Savannah around.  And wow, I really enjoyed my day—and I enjoyed my family.  And it felt so nice!  Then I thought to myself, this must be how Alayne Favereux feels every day!  She is my children’s amazing piano teacher and she seems to have it figured out ya know?  She knows how to ENJOY life and she ENJOYS people.  So, I decided, that’s how I want to be more and more. 

And THAT is what I want to do this summertime.

More of this…

and this…

and this…

and this…

and, uh, this was just a really cute picture. 

Savannah’s Blessing

It was a very nice day. It was a beautiful blessing and I felt the power of the priesthood very strongly when Jack gave the blessing. It also just gave me such a sense of gratitude to be blessed with all these great kids.

One thing that was a bit of a dissapointment though--I figured with a few gagillion relatives sitting by us in church that I wouldn't have to worry about my kids for one Sunday--yeah, unfortunately they still wanted to sit by me! At least, Ella, Conner and Logan all did (and consequently they are my biggest trouble makers). I did still have a lot of extra help though, and Savannah slept through everything beautifully.

Here is the little beauty herself:

Beautiful sisters! ( And Logan and Conner wouldn’t sit for any more pictures anyway... Girls are just more patient.:))

It worked out that my brother Danny and his family were visiting when we did the blessing—they live all the way in North Carolina so it was so nice that they could be here for it.

We love this little one!

Since you can’t all come and see my hallway…

I thought I would post this.  Jack worked really hard on updating these and I just love to walk down the hall and see these hanging up.  Also, they are right across from our changing table and Conner loves to look at them.  So, anyway, here ya go:

Angie growing up:

 

Sunny growing up:

Logan growing up: 

Ella growing up:

Conner growing up:

 

Savannah growing up: (Just a little bit, but unfortunately she is also doing it.)

 

We decided to do this because I really hate school pictures and so we never get them.  Every time Jack updates we just put the old pictures behind the new ones, and some day they will have a lot of them to look at.  Just a fun way to document how fast they grow—sniff, sniff.

Life

I think this picture sums up my life right now…

Angie captured it for me. 

However, despite the craziness of my two monkeys, the fact that school and activities are still happening (yeah that school is out next week!!), and that Jack is back to work full time again, I am surviving and things are feeling more “normal.”  Savannah is a great baby—she eats, sleeps, and poops well.  And I just love having sweet moments with her several times a day.  There’s nothing like a newborn baby gazing up at you to keep you calm in the midst of hearing screaming/laughing/yelling/mischief making all around you.  Babies are such a blessing!!

 

 

And we are falling more and more in love with this one..

Don’t you love the outfit Kari made????

And this beautiful dress that Jennie made—and the hair bow to match!

 

Oh sweetness….

 

Just love this pic—Conner just had to sit next to “Baby” with a blanket just like her.

As this picture points out, there may be some slight neglect of my older children in the morning while they are getting ready for school—okay, actually, this was for crazy hair day—but she did it all by herself so there really was some neglect I guess.  She used a sand toy to get this style—leave it to Sunny!

Happy day!

Mother’s Day, more Savannah, and Whatnot

(This is a very scatterbrained post—it is allegorical because it represents my brain right now.)

 

Mother’s Day started out very nicely.   If it looks like I just woke up, that’s because I did—to waffles, whip cream, and strawberries no less!  I decided to brave church because, well, it was Mother’s Day.  It went…okay.  It’s tough without a husband to sit next to you I tell ya!  I ended up taking Savannah out and having Conner come with to the Mother’s lounge—I think this may happen often—luckily Angie is really good with Ella when I have to go out.  We just take sacrament meeting week by week, so we’ll see how things go next Sunday. 

Here’s Savannah all ready for her first day at church—she was an angel—it’s those other two munchkins that give me trouble—at least after sacrament meeting they are in nursery and primary!:)

I just thought this was a cute moment—Sunny trying to teach Ella rollerskates.  Ella told me she wasn’t very good on the the sidewalk, but she was great on the grass!

 

Classic dad and sleeping baby photo…

The was me on Easter—two days before Savannah was born.

Then two days AFTER Savannah was born, Sunny did this play—she is the Slinky Dog in Toy Story—on the left.  Jack did her makeup because I was a little preoccupied—it was a stretch for him, but I think he did a super job!

 

Savannah bathing..look!  She does open her eyes sometimes!

So, Savannah is doing much better with the nursing and because it is going well I am starting to feel more normal—and become more aware of my surroundings.  And, I have a new challenge—figuring out what to do with my toddlers while I am stuck on the couch!  After helplessly watching them do several crazy things, I decided I might as well nurse with my camera close by so I can at least get a good laugh later…

Speaking of toddlers, these two have definitely been acting out more these days…I am sure it is the new baby, but it is tough—any suggestions on things you have done to help toddlers cope with a new baby?  

Pictures of the Newest Whiting!

Here’s some pictures of her right after she was born. 

  

First bath—she loved it when they put the water on her head!

 

Conner checking out the little lady that will dethrone him..

All ready to head for her crazy life in our home

 

Proud grandma…

She’s doing well here at home—breastfeeding has been challenging for us, but we are getting it.  I had a wonderful lady lactation specialist come over today and she was very helpful—after some meltdowns I am feeling much more confident and she is beginning to latch much better.  But she is just at sweet as can be and getting prettier every day!

Birth Story…

So, Savannah’s birth was a fantastic experience. In many ways it was just how I pictured it, and in others it was way different. Of course, even though my really active labor was very short, this story will be pretty long—just to warn you. This was probably the hardest and most beautiful thing I have ever experienced, so I definitely want to document it well.

Let me start at the beginning. On Monday morning I woke up with some fairly intense contractions. I had had contractions before, but these felt different and also they were coming about 5 minutes apart or so. I was still able to manage them fairly well with just telling my body to relax and breathing through them—then I decided to take a shower to help me relax—and just to take a shower. So, after the shower I still had them so I called my doula (a birthing coach) and told her. These had gone on now for about 3-4 hours. She said to just wait and see what happened and go about my day as normally as I could. I was planning on laboring for as long as I could at home anyway, so I did just that. The contractions did let up some, but still continued sporadically throughout the day. In the meantime, I did all my normal Mommy stuff, finished making Sunny’s costume for her Toy Story play (That was a good thing by the way), and did a little shopping as well. Things just moved along throughout the day and I figured that I must not have been in “real” labor. Then that night after FHE they started up more intense again. However, since I was able to manage the pain I decided not to worry about it. That night I did get up several times with contractions, but I was still able to sleep. All this while in the back of my mind I was like, “Maybe this is labor after all,” but since I had never gone through it before I wasn’t really sure—and I didn’t want to go to the hospital and be wrong.

So, the next morning is when things got busy REAL quick. I woke up with an extremely intense contraction around 6:00A.M. Boom! They just started with almost no relief. So, I got into the shower again and had Jack call my doula for me. After talking with me for a few minutes and listening to me breath through my contractions she realized that they were only 2 minutes apart and told me to get down to the hospital. I was happy to get to the hospital, but I was NOT excited about having to ride in a car for 10 minutes. Poor Jack was so good—probably because he was a little scared that he might have to deliver this baby if he didn’t get me moving! He had to finish packing our stuff, help me get dressed, and keep helping me to work through the contractions all at the same time! They were just so close together that I had to focus all my energy on trying to stay calm and relaxed. I was very impressed with how well Jack did—I was able to stay calm because he was such a great coach to me and he really listened to me. He also had to get the kids off to school! Then Kari came over to stay with the little ones and we were off. I remember walking past Kari to our car and seeing her and trying to smile or something. She said that after she saw my face she called Corey and said, “Oh yeah, she’s having that baby today!” During the car ride I just closed my eyes and kept breathing and relaxing—I had practiced a lot of relaxation and I always did it with my eyes closed. I pretty much closed my eyes through my entire labor and I didn’t even realize it!

So, okay, I’ll try to get more to the end here. When we got the hospital and finally checked in and went to triage I was already dilated to a 6. That was good news! But I was still dying to get back in that shower. So we got to the room and that is straight where I went. Finally Amy my doula showed up and between her and Jack I had a fantastic, supportive team. They really helped me so much, and my sweet mother was just quietly in the background telling me sweet loving things every once in a while. I guess I was in the shower for about an hour—that’s what Jack said, but it seemed much shorter to me. I continued to labor in there until a little before 11:00A.M. Then after about 30 minutes of pushing (which was the hardest part for me—definitely) my fabulous doctor told me to reach down, grab my baby girl, and pull her onto my chest. Jack even got to help pull her out, and he didn’t even faint! That feeling of “bringing” her out and putting her on me was so beautiful it was worth all the preparation, labor, and hard work—and then some! Then after that it was sort of funny because I finally looked up and saw everyone who I had heard helping me. Literally, I hadn’t seen my doula, my doctor, my mom, the nurses—no one. I had been so focused on the labor that they all sort of melded into the background, but I was still very aware of them. It is hard to describe, but all I did was finally look at my doctor and say, “Well, hi there Dr. Tutt! Good to see you!” He was a wonderful coach as well and he was so good with the pushing. He never told me when to push—just let me go at my own pace and start and stop when I wanted to. And then between pushes I would hear him softly taking relaxing breaths, and that helped me to do the same thing. One funny thing was I started to scream some as I was pushing and one of the nurses was like, “Honey, try to save that energy for the pushing if you can.” Well, I tried but found I liked making the noise to help me so I did it anyway. Then by the end that same nurse (at least I think it was the same nurse) heard me scream and was like, “That’s right! Get angry sweetie!”

So, that is how our sweet little baby girl Savannah Rachel joined us. Labor, birth, and pregnancy are just amazing. It is crazy how we prepare for so long for this one day to happen, and then when it is over it is a feeling of true joy. I feel sooooo blessed to have had this experience. Because of it, I will hopefully get to do what my mother did for me for my daughters some day—relate to her in the birthing room and tell her she must be close to the end because that is how she felt, etc. Life comes full circle sometimes, and this is one of those times. It has also given me an even greater love and respect for birth mothers—what a sacrifice they make to bring these babies into the world and place them with families—and then just to go home. Wow.

Well, I know that was long, but I had a desire to share it and to write it down before I start to forget it. Hopefully, the only thing I will ever forget is that pain!