Lydia Ruth Kearl

Our final addition to our family arrived yesterday, March 20 at 5:35pm. What a sweet blessing she is weighing in at 5lbs 11 oz she's our smallest baby yet. She was about 19.5" long. If you ask me, she's absolutely beautiful and perfect in every way. I wanted to write that down so I could remember how I felt in this moment, knowing full well I won't always feel this way. Like when she has me up all night, or when she talks back to me, or when she tells me I'm the worst mom ever, I know all of those things lie ahead of me.
As much as I don't want to relive my pregnant or labor, I do want to remember, so I am writing it down and blogging is the best way for me to do it since I'm terrible at journalling any other way. (it is a known fact that I'm not so great at this either)

                                           

I knew shortly after having Elliot that I wanted another baby. As much as I swore Elliot was the last, I felt bad that he was so much younger than Donovan and wanted him to have a friend like Clara and Donovan have in each other. Although we got pregnant sooner than anticipated, it was nothing short of a blessing. If I had waited, I may have changed my mind, Elliot is a little more of a challenge than I thought he would be and the thought of having another one like him scares me a little. So it's a good thing I got pregnant before Elliot started walking or it may not have happened.

The pregnancy was pretty difficult. Besides being sick and puking all while moving and turning my children's lives upside down, (moving to a small town was not fun for them at first) I spent a week in the hospital with a terrible kidney infection that spread to my blood which was one of the hardest things that has ever happened to me. I felt the sickest I have ever felt, I was alone in the hospital without my family and I was worried about the health of my poor baby. A few weeks after this I had another kidney infection. I was just extremely grateful that it wasn't septic and was treated with antibiotics, out of the hospital. I may have felt awful, but at least I was feeling awful at home!
My immune system must have been really low because I seemed to always have something this pregnancy. Between colds and flus, it was a tough winter in our house.

I have never been so big with any of my other babies, it was crazy how much weight I gained. I felt like a beached whale, none of my maternity clothes even fit.

I was having braxton hicks contractions starting at 20 weeks or so. If only they actually meant anything and helped me when labor came along.

This baby was a crazy active baby. Which was nice to know she was healthy but she kept me up all night with her crazy karate chops and constant hiccups.

At about 36 weeks I started having random small amounts of bleeding. It was happening every other day or so, but wasn't of any concern. Then at 38 weeks exactly, I lost a large amount of blood. It was quite scary for me, but I figured it was what it was and we would keep a close eye on it but my midwife wanted to meet me at the hospital to check things out. We packed up the kids at 8:30 pm on the 19th to drive to the hospital where my mom met us to take the kids to her house. Carol checked the baby and everything seemed fine. Then she proceeded to tell me that we would have to talk to the ob on call and see what she would recommend. That's when she dropped the bomb...she said chances are it would be induction or I would spend some time in the prenatal unit being monitored closely. I thought for sure I would just go home that night. My heart sank when I realized I wasn't going home, regardless of what I wanted.

So I transferred rooms to be induced. I was completely in shock. I was supposed to go on a field trip with Clara the next day and I had just promised her it was going to happen. I figured what could happen between her going to bed and waking up the next morning. Ha! She was not happy when she woke up and my mom told her I wasn't going with her to the science center.

Just before midnight they hooked me up to an iv and monitors while I waited for the baby to come. By about 4am the contractions had picked up and they set up the room for delivery. At about 4:30, they stopped. They upped the drugs and we waited. I had contractions all morning that were pretty painful, but nothing that got me anywhere. I got in the bath and felt some relief but by noon I had gotten nowhere. I was 4-5 cm maybe and I was exhausted. My midwives were headed home to rest while another came to take over. At this point I was so done. It's so discouraging to work so hard and get nowhere. I opted for an epidural so I could get some rest.
As my contractions picked up, babies heart rate would drop really low. So, in came the next ob on call to tell me what she recommended. (so much for any rest, but at least I wasn't in so much pain anymore)
The next step was to fill my uterus back up with fluid in hopes it would relieve some pressure on the baby. Thankfully it worked and she settled down a bit. I managed to get a little sleep, which was nice. It was hard not to watch the clock and think I should have been home by now.
Then the babies heart rate started dropping again. I thought I was doomed for a c section. My midwives were talking on the phone and I heard Wendy tell Carol she was going to check me in an hour or so to see how far I'd come.
At that moment I told her I was pretty sure the baby was coming. Wendy told Carol to head over and hung up. She checked me and sure enough, the baby was coming out. She didn't even have a chance to put gloves on. She paged a nurse to come help. I pretty much laughed Lydia out. I did not push for a second, in fact I was almost trying to keep her in cause I wanted Carol to be there. She didn't make it but was there a short time after.

Lydia had the cord around her neck, but also around her body in various ways, which is what was causing her to heart rate to drop. Every contraction was compressing the cord against her body and restricting blood flow. She came out all purple and covered in vernix but was crying almost immediately. We will never know what caused the bleeding, but we can only go by the assumption it was the best thing to do at the time. We have no way of knowing what would have happened if we left it but we know shes safe and sound with us now. I do know it was amazing to finally hold her in my arms. Nothing is greater than that feeling.

I don't know what is considered a "normal" labor but I always dreamed of having a different labor than what I have experienced. All 4 babies have been OP (heads turned=worst back labor ever) and 3 of the 4 have had almost identical labors. I think this was my hardest labor yet, but Elliot's would be a close second. I guess I can officially give up on the dream of a labor without back pain.

I am extremely grateful that labor is over and everything ended well. It was about 8 hours of hard labor but it felt like a lot longer than that. Thankfully the pushing part always comes easy to me. It's a great way to end a terrible experience and start a new one. I'm grateful that I had 3 amazing midwives who were the best support anyone could ever ask for. I'm grateful for my husband who isn't the most involved with my labors, which is exactly how I like it. He sure steps up when we get home. He takes such good care of me and the kids. I'm thankful he has the week off to help me so I can focus on my sweet new baby. I am so glad my mom could take the day off work to watch the kids for me, I have to admit I panicked a little every time I thought about where the kids would go.

       

 

I can't say enough how much I love snuggling our new baby. I love holding her and hearing her grunts and sneezes and her regular occurring hiccups that have carried on even after being born. I love how excited the kids were to welcome her to our family. It truly makes me realize I am the luckiest mom and I have everything I could ever hope for.

Christmas Party

One thing the kids look forward to every year is my moms work Christmas party. The first time we went it was at the Talisman Center. They had it there for a couple of years then they switched to Heritage Park. They did it there for 2 years and changed it up again. Good thing because it wasn't my favorite place to go. This year it was at the BMO Center at the Stampede grounds. It was done really well and decorated nicely. The kids got animal balloons made, their faces painted, they got crafts, we had lunch, Jeff took them ice skating and they even met Santa and got presents. This is the first time I have ever forgotten my camera for the party. Of course it was the best one to have a camera for. Here are the pictures I took with my phone of the kids with Santa. I can't believe how big they look on Santa's lap (Jeff thinks it's time to tell Clara, but I don't want to crush her, or me)
I personally love the classic crying pictures. I know have one of all the kids. I just love them!

We look forward to next years party even if it's going back to the Talisman center. (I hate swimming)

Super Dad

I just wanted to get it out there, This man is amazing.

He is absolutely the greatest father and husband I could ever imagine. The past few days I have abandoned him and he has really stepped up. He has not only been taking care of the kids all by himself but he also baked 4 cakes for the ward Christmas party. I had signed up to do them but was unable to, so he took it upon himself to call his sister and find out what creaming butter and sugar meant so he could do it for me. Then he delivered the cakes and corn I was to cook for the party to the church. He never complains. He works so hard to provide for our family and takes such good care of us all. We are truly blessed to have him.

He sent me a picture of one of the cakes. I wish I could have eaten it!

I am thankful that he has been keeping me updated on what I have been missing, even if I wish I could be there for it all. Elliot has finally learned how to climb down the stairs on his own! This is life changing for us because often he climbs to the top and then screams right away to be brought back down. Donovan scored 5 goals in soccer today! He has turned into quite the athlete. He is so fast and works so hard. Clara lost her front tooth today. Now she is missing both her front teeth. She told me that it doesn't mean that's all she wants for Christmas though.

I am also told that both Clara and Donovan have brought home excellent report cards. I can't wait to see them!

Poor Dino

So the kids had This past Monday off. I had all these great plans to take them somewhere fun. Then I got really sick. I got hit with the worst cold I think I have ever had a few days before. So we ended up staying home. I planned on setting up Christmas in our house. Well I was too sick for that. Poor kids, another boring day for them. I figured to lighten the day I would let them pick anywhere they wanted for lunch. I put myself together and got everyone ready to go. I went into my room for one last thing and Donovan started crying. Now he has a tendency to whine and I have a tendency to ignore it. So when he came to me I basically told him to deal with it or we weren't going for lunch. He was holding his head and wouldn't stop crying so I decided to give him the attention he wanted. He was covered in blood. Probably more blood than I have ever seen before. My first thought was what a great mother I am. Second thought was oh no, what do I do? I cleaned the cut up enough to realize we were headed to the hospital, not lunch. So I patched him up really fast, trying to remain calm and we loaded in the truck. Poor Donovan. He was in so much pain. It was a long drive. We finally got to the hospital and checked in. The nurse told me he would probably need stitches. Of course I wanted to say duh, but I restrained. I mean, do you think I would really drag 3 kids to a disgusting, dirty, ER if I didn't have to? We waited about an hour, that's a perk to small towns as I'm sure in the city it would have been at least double that. We were all starving so we ate lunch from their vending machines while we waited. That's right, if you didn't already think I am mother of the year, perhaps our lunch of cheesiest, pop and crackers does. Anyways, Jeff managed to make it and save Clara and Elliot. Donovan saw a doctor and he decided that no stitches were needed because it was such a clean cut. They used that super glue stuff and put bandages over top. Donovan told me he was never going to become a doctor because he didn't want to have to hurt kids heads by taking old bandages off and putting new ones on. He decided he is going to teach kindergarten instead because that makes kids happy.

 Waiting for the Dr.

 I would say our day off was not as planned, that's for sure but I'm glad we got Donovan taken care of. He has had a terrible headache since but he's so brave and so strong. I was so proud of him when he saw the doctor, you could tell he was super scared but he acted so tough.

Today would be the day we could take the bandages off. Well, last night while the kids were getting ready for bed, Donovan came running up to us and asked why his head was bleeding. Sure enough, more blood. Poor guy. I called healthlink just to see if it was worth the drive. She told me to take the bandage off, Donovan started crying and yelling "no, don't touch my bandage". I talked him into it and thankfully it was so soaked in blood it almost fell off. It seemed the corner of it was not healing and was quite swollen. So back to the ER. Donovan wanted his dad to take him cause he didn't want to get blood in my car. Ha! He got right in at the hospital (small town blessings) and I'm told he was brave again. They glued him back together and now we hope it heals. Poor guy had to miss soccer on Monday, and again tomorrow. (Soccer and Wii are the two things he is most passionate about, so that is a big sacrifice for him).

This is a picture of his reopened wound. These pictures aren't great, they were taken on my phone. I guess I was too worried about getting him to the hospital to take better pictures. Maybe that scores me some mom points?

What cut his head open you ask? The couch! Of all things. Clara and him were goofing around and she pushed him. He fell into the couch and ended up with a wound about 1.5" long and about a cm wide. I could not tell how deep the wound was, I did not see the end of it, but I know it was pretty deep for a couch wound. Clara felt terrible and cried with Donovan all the way to the hospital. Thankfully we don't visit the hospital very often which is why Donovan is excited to bring his hospital bands and head wound to show and tell later today. It just happens to be his day for show and tell today, so at least he gets something out of the hole in his head, as he likes to call it.

Halloween 2011

Introducing our princess kitty (with her hockey super fan cousin)....

and our monster crew....

We started our Halloween weekend with trunk or treating at Jeff's brothers ward. The kids loved it. They had a parade around the gym, which kids always love. Then we all headed outside to do some trunk or treating. We have never been to a ward with so few primary children, so it was funny to see the kids finish visiting all vehicles after 15 minutes. I think my kids ended up visiting all the vehicles 3 times. Hopefully the ward didn't mind that we crashed their party and took advantage of them...

This is my nephew in the parade.

 

Elliot hung out with me in the back of the truck while I passed out candy. I couldn't resist posting another picture of this adorable face.

I went to Clara's school to watch the Halloween parade. It was a bit of a joke and nothing compared to Chaparral's, but the kids enjoyed it. We barely saw Clara as she ran right past us to catch up to her class, so I caught her in the hall afterwards and took a picture of her and her friend.

 

Elliot and I joined Donovan in his classroom for a small party they had. I don't have any great pictures of that, but I wanted to mention it so you don't think I left Donovan out.

So this is obviously our first Halloween in our new house and new town, which was pretty exciting. You always here how small towns are the best for trick or treating. However, we have this tradition of trick or treating with the cousins, we can't forget about that. It wasn't a unanimous decision, but we trekked to Chaparral for one last year of trick or treating there.

Who would want to miss out on trick or treating with their cousins when they have this much fun? The hockey superfan is missing from this picture, he kept falling off the stairs and I guess I didn't get a good picture of him. 

Stacey fed us a yummy dinner, as always and the kids headed out. Elliot made it to one house and he scored a full size box of Smarties. The kids went trick or treating for a good hour or so and made out like bandits with their loot. We left a little early so we could trick or treat around our block. They went to a few houses here, but by the time we made it a lot of houses had already turned off their lights for the night. We look forward to trick or treating here next year, as we heard some great stories. Most houses decorate like crazy here, and there are a few haunted houses as well. There are some streets that were so packed with kids we couldn't drive through if we wanted to. It all seems very exciting and makes me look forward to seeing what the neighbourhood has in store for Christmas decorating.

Elliot is 1, Clara is 7!!

I can't believe my baby is one! Elliot turned one on October 14th. I have to admit, things have changed in our family with him being the third. We didn't have a birthday party, we did have my family over for a dinner, that was well overdue anyways. I'm sad to say, I didn't even attempt to make Elliot a birthday cake. I bought a cake that I knew I would love to eat and realized there was no way he could blow out a candle on that cake, so I sent Jeff to the store to buy him a little cupcake or something. He came home with a mini cheesecake. Not quite what an average child would want, but he has no way to complain, so it's what he got. He actually enjoyed eating it surprisingly.

I will say, there is no lack of love for this child. We love him so much and are so grateful we have him in our family. He has been such a joy to have around. We got off to a rough start. For the first 3 months or so all he did was cry all day. He was not a happy baby. I will be forever grateful for my mother in law who would come over for a couple of hours every week and hold him so I could do stuff, or even just have a break. I remember her coming over and baking me bread when Elliot was born, how spoiled can a person get? I also remember my sister in law Stacey taking Clara and Donovan for me whenever she could. She is a very busy person, and it was amazing that she used her free time to help me out. I can remember feeling so happy that I got to enjoy Elliot, even if he wasn't always happy. At least I got to hold him and cuddle him and love him while he was so small and not feel guilty that I was neglecting my older children.
Elliot has always been a good sleeper. I rarely remember waking up with him through the night, even in the very beginning. I think he did that so he could prepare me for the daytime, when there was no way I could put him down.
Now, Elliot is a busy 1 year old. He was crawling by the time he was 5 months old. He was pulling himself up by 6 months. Thankfully he didn't start walking until he was 11 months old. He sure is a curious baby. I've never really had to child proof anything, until he came along. Everything needs to be childproofed with him around. Toilets are his favorite thing to play in. A close second is the cupboards, he loves pulling stuff out of them. I often find random measuring spoons and cups throughout my house. He loves to eat, and he will eat pretty much anything. I think he would sit in his highchair all day eating food if I let him. He's still a thumb sucker. It's hard for me to watch, but I tried to stop him, he just would not give it up. I am glad he only does it when he is tired, so hopefully he won't go to kindergarten sucking his thumb. He loves Bella. I can't believe how much he loves her. His first word was Bella, after he mastered the phrase uh oh. Now all he says is uh oh and Bella. Everytime he sees a dog, or anything furry, he says Bella. I admit, it's pretty cute when he says it, but I sure wish he would say mama or something. We are working on that, and I think he is close.

I am excited to watch him grow up. He is definitely going to keep me on my toes, but I just love being around him. He brings so much excitement to my life. I love how Clara and Donovan take such good care of him and love him so much. I can't imagine my life without him.

Today is Clara's birthday! She turns 7. I can't believe my baby is 7. Time sure flies. I remember holding my sweet baby girl for the first time like it was yesterday. She is so perfect.

I love having her around. She is such a good helper. She is so amazingly smart. She is so talented. She loves to draw and color and she is really good at it. She started piano lessons this year. For some one who doesn't have parents who are musical, she sure picks piano up well. She continues with her dancing, it will be her 5th year dancing and she is so good at it. This year she will be doing competition dancing. Even though it is more money than I would like to spend, I am excited for her. She has struggled with our big move, and dancing seems to be her outlet. I am so grateful for that. She goes to dance and nothing else seems to matter.

I continue to pray that she will settle into her new school and make some good friends like she had in our old house and I hope that it happens soon for her. I had no idea it would be so hard on her moving here, and I am constantly thinking about her and hoping for her happiness.

For her birthday we gave her tickets to the Selena Gomez concert. I went with her and we had so much fun. We didn't make it to the end, but it was an amazing night. Clara loves Selena Gomez and wants to be like her so bad.

Her birthday party is coming up this weekend. She wanted to go to Chuck E Cheese. She was allowed to invite 6 friends and chose them carefully. She picked mostly old friends, but invited our new neighbour as well. Then she decided there was a girl in her class she wanted to invite. So I'm pretty happy that she is inviting 2 people from here to go to her party. She will have 3 cousins there and 1 of my best friends daughters. While I don't enjoy Chuck E Cheese at all, I am happy to do what I can to make her birthday special.
I just love all of my children. They bring me so much joy. While I miss snuggling with my brand new babies, I sure enjoy watching them grow and learn. It is so satisfying to see them turn into the people they are becoming. I am so proud of each of them and I feel so blessed to be their mom.

Thanksgiving Weekend 2011

Thanksgiving weekend was a little crazy for us. Jeff headed down to Cardston with Clara and Donovan on Friday night to spend some time with his family. That left me and Elliot all alone. When I woke up Saturday, I cleaned a bit and then admittedly, I was so bored!! It's crazy how going from 3 kids to 1 can be a huge adjustment! So I dragged my parents to the mall with me and went shopping. That evening I left Elliot with my parents and headed to one of my best friends (Alysha) houses for a surprise birthday party. It was great to see her, as we certainly don't see enough of each other. It was a good night, and I sure love that girl.
When we woke up on Sunday, I packed up and we drove down to Cardston to join Jeff and his family. His whole family was there at one point (minus 2 grandchildren, one who is on a mission). It was a big weekend for the family because it was a sort of reunion before Jeff's parents head on their mission for 18 months. They leave this Sunday and are going to the London, England mission. We are very excited for them, but words can't even describe how much we will miss them.
The weekend was very busy. Imagine having 11 siblings, their spouses and 34 grandchildren all in one house at a time. Thankfully the weather was nice so we weren't confined to being inside the whole time.
I love Jeff's family, and I am thankful to be a part of it. I am thankful for so many cousins for my kids to play with, they love seeing them and look up to the older cousins. I am thankful for so many sister in laws that I can rely on, and I am especially thankful for the ones that I have become such great friends with. I am also thankful for Jeff's parents. They do so much for the family. Imagine having 36 grandchildren (and more on the way) and remembering birthdays and special events. I feel so blessed that my kids love their grandparents and have such a strong attachment to them.
It was a bittersweet weekend. It was great to see everyone, but it was sad to say goodbye to Jeff's parents as it was the last time we will see them before they leave. We spend a lot of time with them and that time is very important to our family. Clara and Donovan were so sad to say goodbye and cried on the drive home until they fell asleep. We used it as an opportunity to teach them about missions and to teach them about blessings that come from sacrifice, but it was still a tough drive. As much as we will miss them and especially during special events, we look forward to hearing their stories and learning from their experiences. What a great example they are to their family. Jeff's mom has said a few times that this is the hardest thing she has ever had to do, but she knows it will be worth it.

In all the hustle and bustle of the weekend, we didn't get to do Thanksgiving with my family. We haven't forgotten about them, we will make up for it this weekend as we celebrate Thanksgiving and Elliot's first birthday. It's crazy to me that my baby is 1 but if the next year goes as fast as this past year has gone, I figure Jeff's parents will be home in no time!!