It's the Simple Things

I once had a friend that said, "Babies kinda put themselves on a schedule."

I have also heard, "All babies ever do is eat, sleep and poop."

I had to have 5 babies to finally get one baby that makes the above statements true.

This is what my first 4 babies were like...

Baby number one, she would not sleep unless she was on my or Pa's chest, listening to our heart beat.

She didn't want anything to do with breast milk.

She was constipated. She would go for a week and a half to 2 weeks before having a bowel movement.

She would not go to sleep at night, she was one that would not go to sleep any earlier than 11:00 pm.

But she sure did melt our hearts.

I once had a friend that said, "Don't worry about nursing when you have a boy, boys love boobs."

Our second baby,

When he was born the room filled with a spirit of humility.

He was so chunky.

We were able to put him down a little when sleeping.

But while awake he had to be in our arms.

Emma had to grow up quickly, we couldn't hold her as much anymore.

David would not sleep at night away from us.

He also had problems pooping. It was about every week to two weeks.

He could nurse, he loved it so much that I became his pacifier. He was so cute, from the time he was just little he would latch on and his eyes would start rolling up and you could see that he was in heaven with good milk! He is the same today at age 7, you can always tell what foods he likes.

Every time we would have a baby our goal would be, keep the baby in their own bed!

Baby number three...

She didn't like to be put down.

She had the same poop problem as the other two, the doctor once said, "we are at def con 4 right now."

It took some work to get her to nurse but she figured it out.

I wish I had some good advice that I could have tried with this one.

Here is some advice from me, from what I have learned from baby number four.

"If you are going to wait to have a baby for more than 2 years, then be sure that you are very firm with the last baby. Don't get lazy, make sure they listen, enforce what you say. Don't look at them like they are the baby and they don't understand. They understand! Be sure to get that kid out of your bed by the time they are 2 and no later."

This baby number four, came into our lives knowing what he wanted.

He was tongue tied, he could nurse only at the expense of his poor mama who would be in tears or close to tears when he would latch on.

He had issues pooping and like the others we gave him karo syrup water, and suppositories.

Like I said he knew what he wanted and he wanted to be close to us. But by this point we just figured that is what babies do.

He broke his collar bone when he was born so he liked sleeping away from us, until he healed then he would sleep with us as he does now at age 3 1/2.

I learned how to hold him with one arm and do everything else with the other. I probably learned this way before him though. I just came to learn that that is how it is when one has a baby. I think he was two and a half when our bishop said, "It sure is nice to see him walking on his own." Guess it's hard for me to let them grow up. Lesson learned!!

My mother once told me, "let the older children try out the babies stuff, let them be a part of the baby so they will like him."

Very wise advice. I have only had a couple of times where the kids tell me anything that might suggest that they don't like the baby anymore.

Abby once said, "Mom, you don't care about us anymore. You only care about the baby. Why don't you do anything with us?" We sat and read books together right after that.

Jacob said yesterday, "Mom, I don't like that baby anymore. Will you come play cars with me?"

I think it was David that said, "It is good when the baby sleeps, then you have time for us."

Emma really hasn't said much.

Ya know, it's the little things that really matter.

Baby number five...

He poops... it may not be a lot but it is once every other day to every third day.

He nurses... he latched on faster than any of my others. The only time that he really struggled was after I gave him 2 ounces of formula in the hospital, but once he figured it out again he was great!

I can put him down while he is awake... he is so content, I can walk away and take a shower. What freedom this gives me! Of course all of his needs must be met first.

He sleeps... during the day he will sleep for 3 to 4 hours at a time. And I don't have to hold him.

He will sleep on his back or tummy. He sleeps at night. He likes to go to bed around 8:30 or 9:00. He wakes up during the night but he goes right back to sleep. He can sleep in his crib, he can also nurse while I am sleeping.

I worry about saying all of this, my recent change of luck may change back. That would be soooo sad.

The only hardship right now with him is that it appears and it feels like his tongue is tied. I hope to get that fixed soon. Other than that I feel like I have a perfect baby. I just can't say that too loud.

Baby

I switched doctors this past week. I was tired of going in to the doctors office feeling like a number rather than a person. The doctor's never seemed happy to see you, it was hard to get them to smile at me. And the ultrasound tech, wow she was something else... Lets just say I am so glad that I made this switch, I haven't met the doctor yet but everything I hear about him I like. They talk to me about my situation, not statistically speaking which is sooo nice.

When I delivered Jacob he was a 9 pound baby. His head came out fine but his shoulders just didn't want to. So, he ended up breaking his clavicle. He is fine and always has been. He is a very tough boy!! So, the new doctors office is saying that they would like to have an ultra sound done at 35 or 36 weeks, so they can see how big the baby has gotten and then they can find out if we need to induce labor or what we will need to do so we can avoid broken bones, and a difficult labor and delivery. So, right now I am 26 weeks along. That means that if they do need to induce labor we could have a baby in about 12 weeks. Can I just ask, how did this pregnancy go so fast? Where has this year gone?

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Pa and I have been going to a parenting class. It goes for 6 weeks it is call, Learning to Parent with Love and Logic. I like what I am learning. But it is hard to go against my helicopter mom style of parenting. I really want to be there for my kids and help them any way that I can. And at the class they are saying to give the child choices (that is good), and to let them mess up and even hope that they mess up so they are wiser as they grow older (this makes sense too). The sad thing is that all the things I have been learning makes total sense, I just want to "do" more for my kids, pick up after them, pick out their clothes in the morning, nag them about getting things done (because I don't want to use my energy to follow threw with the consequence). I have a lot to work on...

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I have been thinking a lot lately about the signs of the times. About what has been going on with our government and what has been going on with we the people. So many of us have lost our jobs, our cars, our homes. Even though it is tough, it is kind of exciting. Because we are a part of history. I think about the great depression and how our ancestors wrote in their journals about how hard it was and how they were able to get thru. Right now we could really use their advice, their stories. Things that our grandparents have told us for years all those things that have been ignored because they were too old fashioned, well, now it really is time to listen to those that have gone before us. It is exciting to think that we get to experience all this.

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I get to go to the temple and clean it for 3 hours next week. What an honor, what a privilege.

Some might think I am crazy to think this, but I find it an honor when I am even able to clean a chapel. The respect that I feel towards these buildings, I am excited to be a part of a cleaning crew.

Gotta get!

Announcement

I guess it is time for our big announcement!!!

We are expecting our 5th baby!!

Found out last week, or was it the week before that we will be having a

BOY!

We are so excited to have another little one in our house. Jacob with be 3 1/2 by the time the baby comes. That will be my biggest gap in babies. Jacob is almost fully potty trained, so that means I will get to have just a baby in diapers. That will be wonderful!

When I first found out I was expecting I was trying to enjoy being pregnant but also trying to think of all of the reasons I don't like being pregnant. Because I figured this would be our last baby. So I didn't want to feel the temptation of wanting to be pregnant again. Now that we find out we are having a boy, I can relax... because I know there is a little girl wanting to come to our family, so I think I will get to have this amazing experience at least one more time. I am happy about that, just a little concerned about how old I will be...

On to other news.

The economy has hit us.

Pa lost his job the last day of June.

I think we are all taking it well.

I was stressed for the longest time, but for the first time in my life I was able to feel my burdens lifted. I felt the love of our Heavenly Father take the weight that I was feeling.

I know that all will work out.

I know that Heavenly Father is with us.

I know that he is happy with the way we are living.

I know that he will put something in our path that will be better than what we have now.

I know that as long as I have my family I will be happy.

I have an amazing husband and children that are the best for me.

We are blessed!

So, with that said.

They say, "It is not what you know, but who you know that matters."

He was working as Multimedia designer. Web design, Instructional graphics and photography.

So, if anyone knows of something please let us know. Even if it's something different.

Also if it's in a cooler climate we would LOVE that!!

During all of this we have become a closer family.

It has been a great summer to be able to spend so much time together.

We didn't want it to end.

The kids started school again.

Emma is in 3rd grade.

Can you believe it? She is in 3rd grade!

David is in 1st grade, he is getting so big too.

He is the size of a 3rd grader.

I didn't put Abby into school.

I don't think either one of us is ready.

My kids really don't like going to school.

And quite frankly, I don't like them being gone for so long.

Ya know, they go to school for 7 hours, 7 hours!

7 hours where another person gets to have my child.

Where they are basically teaching them what they feel is right or wrong.

7 hours of being with other kids that don't always treat each other kindly.

Then they come home and they need to do homework.

So, Emma gets home and well she needs some down time.

AS WE ALL WOULD!

Then she has to do homework.

She has to read for 20 to 30 minutes

Then she has spelling words to practice.

Then she has to practice her memorizing poem.

Then she has 1 or 2 worksheets to do that are on both sides of the paper.

This takes her 1 1/2 to 2 hours to complete.

I can't imagine what it would be like if I had her in a dance class or something of that nature.

So, here is my plan.

I am looking into homeschooling my little ones.

I can't even believe that I,

a person that runs from anything that is scheduled,

is thinking of homeschooling.

But I am.

And I think I will be good at it.

As soon as I finish training myself to have a change of heart and mind.

So, as I am taking this path to homeschooling my children

I started another blog.

Just to keep track of what I have done and am doing.

So, the new blog is,

homeschooling adventures

I am trying to come up with a deadline of when I want to pull them out of school.

I hope it is soon.

I miss them terribly when they are gone.