Spring Time in Oklahoma

This is what was seen just east of us yesterday.  We heard the sirens going off and immediately turned on the news.  I could see the storm from our back porch.  Kind of scary.  A little earlier in the day some rotation went over us and I could see it.  Kind of crazy.  I have never seen such beautiful yet horrifying cloud formation in my life. 

I am not posting this to scare family that has been worried about us.  I just really wanted to save this picture and memory of this.  Along with showing the power of spring.  Just one more reason for me to not like spring time (besides all the allergies I have).  Nature sure does amazing things.

(Because it is a panorama you might have to click on it to see the whole thing)

It's a girl!

So here is the story of our little Anastasia.

 

Contractions started Sunday morning.  They weren't consistent by any means so I thought they were false labor again.  By the time we were supposed to leave for church, I had several that were only 4 minutes apart.  Thinking this might be the real thing we decided to stay home.  Of course a half hour later or so, they all but stopped.  I was disappointed because I thought....oh great, we stayed home for nothing but false labor. We should have just gone. 

 

I continued to have contractions thoughout the day, but nothing consistent by any means.  So we went to bed.  Eric fell right to sleep.  I couldn't get confortable so I got up and wandered around the house, turned on a movie, tried to keep myself occupied.  I wanted to let Eric sleep in case I needed him later.  Around 1am I started to time them.....still about a half hour apart.  Been there, done that, probably false labor again.  At around 2:30 or so I decided to go try to sleep.  When I layed down, the contractions got harder.  Luckily Eric was right there to help me get through them.  I decided that laying down was not what I wanted to do so I went to sit in my recliner with a warm rice pack pressed up to my back.  Yes, once again, I was having back labor.

 

At 3am the contractions were regular, about 10 minutes apart.  They slowly got closer together and much stronger.  I was able to let Eric sleep until about 5am when I just couldn't do it by myself anymore.  I sure do love my husband and all he does for me.  He sat on the windowsill next to the chair so I could squeeze his hand during contractions. For the first time I thought I was going to throw up, luckily I didn't.  I did end up changing positions to the floor.  For some reason I like the floor when I am in labor. 

 

I am not quite sure of time at this point, I think I was a little delirious.  But anyway, I think it was a little before 6 that I told Eric to call the midwife and let her know. My contractions were about 2 minutes apart by then and I knew we were getting close.  I think it took about 15 min or so for her to get to our house.  Right before she got here, I felt like I needed to push so Eric layed me down so I could breath through them better until she got here. 

 

 Just after she had set everything up she checked me and told me I could push at any time.  Oddly enough, I didn't feel the need to push but did anyway.  She slowly came out.  I was so exhausted by this point, I didn't hardly feel like I could push.  Luckily, our bodies are made so the they get pushed out regardless of what I do.  So she came slower than the other kids, but I think that was WAY better in this situation.  I remember that I thought it took forever for contractions to come for me to push.  Never had that before, ususally they are right on top of each other.  Another blessing for me I think with being so tired. 

 

There she was...a beautiful baby girl with a lot of hair  .Everything was slow after that.  Clean up was slow and I loved it.  One of the first things that Eric said after "It's a girl" was "What are we going to do with three girls in a row?"  I had to laugh.  When they weighed and measured her no one believed how big she was.  They actually weighed her several times to make sure it wasn't a mistake.  I couldn't believe I gave birth to a 10 lb baby without any problems.  No tearing or anything.  I guess I was just made to have babies.  I do believe that it was a blessing that she came so slow or I probably would have torn.  She loves to eat and is really mellow.  Looking back now, knowing how big she was, no wonder I was so uncomfortable.  Sometimes I think it would have been better had she come two weeks ago.  We might have just been in the low 9's then.  Oh well, we are glad she is here now.

 

  I absolutely LOVED having a home birth.  I loved not having to wake up my kids or anyone else (besides the midwife) to have the baby.  I loved that my husbands attention was able to be solely on me instead of having to answer 500 questions from the hospital.  I loved that I could give birth in a mostly dark room where I was comfortable, and could be in any position I wanted to be in.  I loved not having to deal with nurses that don't listen or are grumpy.  And I loved being able to get into my own bed after ward so I really could sleep.  And I love being able to let my kids see the baby whenever they want instead of only for a little while.  I am definitely going to do this again with the next baby.  Such a wonderful experience.  And such wonderful midwives. 

 

Me and Tasi a couple hours after birth, in my own bed.

 

Tasi awake and looking around for the first time.  She is really mellow so far and hope it stays that way.  In this picture it looks like she is bald on top, she isn't....it is just still matted down.  We will take another picture after her bath and post that.

 



Our not so little family anymore.

 



Dana, Tasi, and me after a shower.  Dana delivered Tasi.

 



Lottie has been super giggly since the baby came.  Here she is laughing with Dada

 



Lottie likes to look at the baby but doesn't really want to touch her.  I think she is going to like being the big sister.

 



Although Porter was a little disappointed to not get the brother he really wanted, he is still way excited.  And loves being able to hold her, and wants to tell everyone about her.  He has the same problem we all do....he keeps wanting to call her Charlotte.  We'll get used to it.

Christmas and Porter's Birthday

Christmas was so much fun this year.  We were excited to actually be able to get our kids some things that they wanted and things just for fun instead of just what they needed.  Even though we are still far from family we have started to make some good friends here that we enjoy spending time with.  We spent Christmas Eve with our friends the Fosters and some others from the ward, that we were able to get to know better.  We did a nativity with all the kids which was a little crazy at times but fun.

Adie was a shepherd, Lottie was a sheep, and since Porter was the only boy (older boy I should say, there was a baby boy), he was Joseph.  It was a lot of fun.  Here are all the kids in their outfits.

Here is Porter getting his hunting/fishing wii games.  He was excited, but now he keeps begging Eric to take him out to do the real thing.  And it was funny, about 3-5 days before Christmas he started asking for Santa to bring him a fishing pole.....well, Santa didn't come through on that one.  I guess it was just to close to Christmas for that.  But birthdays are coming.

I wish we had pictures of the girls.  Adie just wanted to play with a couple of toys in the princess tent she got from Santa, and Lottie just wanted to look at all of the books that we already had.

On another note, Eric had the best Christmas EVER it seems.  He got a compound bow with arrows and other things to go with it.  Now when he is home from work early enough, he is out in our "backyard" shooting it because you can do that here.  He hasn't missed the bag once.  Now he just has to find a place to go hunting so he can really use it.

We also had Porter's birthday party.  He has been begging for an Angry Birds birthday party for 6-8 months.  So I figured we should stick with that.  It was so much fun.  It kept me busy especially having sick kids the whole week before.  Luckily everyone was mostly healthy on the day of his party.  We made sugar cookies as thank you gifts for all the kids.

And since Porter doesn't really like cake, he wanted cupcakes.  I don't really understand the difference, I would prefer cake that has layers and a filling throughout but whatever, he is his fathers son.  But they were fun and easy to make.  And I think they turned out pretty good.

Here is his table of "treats" and snacks for all the kids.  Thanks to so many people for the ideas and whatever for this.  Stephanie Sams, thanks for the banner.  Natalie Dayton, thanks for the lime slushie drink that my family can't get enough of and can be dyed any color.  Thanks for whoever decided it should be National Popcorn Day on my sons birthday so we will always have his favorite popcorns at his parties.  And thanks to pinterest for the pig watermelon idea.  That was a huge hit in itself.

The kids were excited about everything....boys are fun!  And I am glad that Porter doesn't cry anymore when people sing to him.

They played "Pig Stomp" where they had to stomp on each others King Pigs.  Poor Adie had a hard time getting into this game with all the rough boys.

And I did venture to make a pinata.  Of course I forgot to take a picture before they started whacking it.  But all my fears about it not lasting long were put to rest when we had to bring in Dad to make the initial crack so they could do the rest.  Way to go paper mache, you held up to the test.

It was a lot of fun and good to meet the kids that Porter talks about all the time.  The kids from school that he likes a lot have all invited him to their parties, but they hold them on Sunday's and we just don't do that.  So I am glad that they came to his.  And he did get a fishing pole for his birthday.

I have made a new year's resolution to update this once a month.  So here is hoping I will be able to do that.