Birth Story- Samantha Style

 We arrived at 5:00 pm for a night of preparing for a delivery the next morning. 

Well, she did come the next morning, barely.

Since I was being induced early so that I could be off of my blood thinners for a set amount of time prior to delivery, I had to be given cervodil to get my body ready. 

As the nurse was giving it, she said that it could put me into labor.  I did not have high hopes because I thought that is what they used with Lily and it did not.

Well, about 1 1/2 hours after it was put in I had my first significant contraction followed by 3 more in that hour. They slowed down/ eased up for about an hour and then picked again about 10:00.

My nurse decided it was a good idea to call my doctor at 10:30 when I was dilated to a 4 and let her know that I would not be making it until the morning.

My doctor came in and by 11 she had  broken my water and took a seat on the couch in my room to await Samantha's arrival.  She was determined not to miss this one.

The contractions became much stronger and it became harder to talk through them and at 11:59 Peter mentioned that if I wanted to have her on the 11th I had 45 secs to do so.  I told him it was not going to happen.

About 30 secs after midnight, I had a really  hard contraction and told them I was starting to feel the need to push.  It was go time! My doctor stood in the doorway of my room and gathered the troops (aka the nurses and techs and nursery nurse).

At 12:06, with about 3ish pushes from me, Samantha came into the world and let us know she was here with a hearty cry. She was blue and had a bruise on her eye and shoulders from delivering so fast.  So fast meaning that she had not even fully descended (you know when they say a -2 or +2 when you are delivering as to where the babies head is at) when my water was broken. 

She had so much hair it was amazing!

Dr. Nazarian was so wonderful and truly did deliver Samantha- the first of my children to be delivered by the doctor since Joey. 

We are so happy she is here, we love her and her brothers and sisters have been super helpful with her- some possibly a little too helpful than is safe for Samantha but we are working on that. 

 Behold a million pictures

 Candid last prego photo

 I believe it was this kind of thing that landed us in this situation!

 Precious!

 Seeing her up close and Dr. Nazarian in the background.

 Proud Dad!

 Dad and his girls later that morning. 

 Jon took this one and it is a great pic!

 I do believe Joey held her too but Jon was taking pictures and Joey did not hold her that long so we missed the picture. 

Oh my goodness- look at that brood! I love them all and I would not trade any of them for anything. 

 Our fancy celebration meal from the hospital. Peter had steak and I had salmon. Yummy!

 Behold the hair (and slightly purple shoulders).

Ready to go home. So very small in her car seat!

5 Buddha's

Tonight is the final night of 4 kids. Tomorrow we'll max out seat belts in the van and have the newest addition to our family. So as a tribute to our kids, here are the final pictures of Shellie before delivery.

 Joey - Sept 2003

 Jonny - Dec 2005

 Bells - Nov 2008

 Lily - Aug 2011

Samantha - April 2014

Isn't my little wife beautiful? It's fun looking back at these and remembering how much we've grown as parents and as a family.

More to come...

Ducks and Swimming

There is a pond with ducks by the pool where the boys have been doing swimming lessons.

Lily has tried catching the ducks on multiple occasions.

Wednesday night I remembered to grab the old hot dog buns and we fed the ducks.

 Lily chased the ducks thinking she could have them eat out of her hand. 

Arabella and I finally convinced her that the way to feed them was by throwing the bread into the water.

She had a pretty good throw.  These ducks must not have been very hungry because they did not really swarm to the food as I have seen with other ducks. 

 My favorite moment was when she was running so fast her shorts - that are new and a bit big slid down past her bum and she kept on running! Such a funny girl!

 Arabella was a trooper. She sprained her ankle on Tuesday on the trampoline but she was able to hop along and keep up with Lily for the most part. 

 This picture of the ducks is for Arabella who wanted one because they were so pretty. 

 Inside the pool Joey (below to the Right and Jon above) were swimming. Jon does a lot of playing and often splashing.  Joey was moved to a different class on this day and worked really hard on his strokes.  I am proud of they work they are putting in. I can see them getting better. I do not expect them to be star swimmers but I do want them to be able to pass the Scout swim test. 

I must say that the humidity and smell in the pool fills me with a rush of memories every time. Also, there are swim teams practicing while we are there and the "ready go (pause) ready go (pause)..." is so familiar. I am really excited that our pass to the Activity Center includes lap swimming. I want to lose myself in the monotony of swim down flipping swimming back over and over. There is nobody by your own mind and for me it was so therapeutic many years ago.  I am hoping I will find that same sense of peace in the water again.

Signs of Progress

Peter successfully installed the ceiling fan Wednesday morning before flying out of town again.

Way to go!

 And I finished my bow organizer- it is supposed to be a flower pot and I used green ribbon for "stems" that the bows clip to. I am pleased with how it turned out. I sorted the bows into flower and flower shaped bows for this holder and regular bow shaped ones for the other.

My plans for this weekend are to get my bag packed and to clean the car seat. I may try to get started on stenciling the girls' dressers but we will see where the weekend takes me. 

Full Scale Preparations

First, this is Lily in her new "I will strike a ballet pose every time you want to take my picture" pose.  She is also sporting what she calls "Let it Go" hair or sometimes she calls it Elsa hair.  Thank you Frozen for helping my girls to love braids. 

 She got a new puzzle at the dollar store today and did it surprisingly fast and with little help from me. She was very proud of herself. 

Now for the nitty gritty of what has been going on around here with Peter home. 

I finished weeding the front flower beds and the kids raked up a bunch of leaves working quite well together. 

 I needed to come up with a new arrangement for some of the girls' hair bows- with 3 there will be more and Peter is thrilled! ;) So the dining table is covered in a mix of craft supplies to make a new bow holder and church stuff- I had sharing time and I have yet to put it all away. 

With soon to be 5 kids it was time to get some new dressers.  Kids clothes get bigger as they do and so the girls sharing a dresser was not really working so well anymore. 

We got a great deal on 2 very similar dressers but they were the above color/finish.

Actually this is one that has been sanded down.  While Peter was away, I sanded and primed both dressers.

 Peter's job on Saturday was to get them both sprayed. He was happy to have another chance to use his sprayer.  We bought new pulls at Hobby Lobby and I hope to stencil some purple and green designs on the front but for now they look amazing! I spent yesterday switching clothes over-now I can not remember where I put what type of clothes but I will get there.

 Believe it or not, this is Samantha's room.  There is obviously still a great deal of progress to be made in there. The food storage cabinet that is going to be built in the office is designed but it will not be built for a few weeks until Peter is less crazy at work, oh and not working 9 hours from home. 

The girl's old dresser has been moved in and the newborn and 3 month clothes have been washed and are now put away; as well as the blankets and burp cloths.  Now I just need to get the bins back into the attic.  We bought a ceiling fan to install and Peter tried to do it last night. It should have been a quick project but when the builder strips the screws out that need to be removed to install a new fixture you will have all kinds of problems.  The car seat is in the black garbage bag waiting to be washed.

My coworkers threw me a surprise diaper shower- it was absolutely wonderful.  So, my Pottery Barn changing table (I have never had one until now) that Peter found on the side of the road, is cleaned and in place and stocked full of diapers and wipes.  

I bought the paint for her room yesterday. it won't get painted before she comes but at least we have it so we can start whenever.  I also came up with a decorating idea, which is not really like me.  This means I have been to 2 different thrift stores, Lowe's, and the craft store getting various things to complete the look. I am pleased with how it is coming together so far but I am sure it will need a few more things once it goes up. I will post more pictures soon. 

My kids are in full count down mode- who are we kidding I am totally too!

I go in on April 11th at 5:00 pm and April 12th is the big day! It is super exciting and at the same time a bit surreal.  There is so much going on around here that at times I have to remind myself that I am about to have a newborn that will consume a good portion of my time. I am so grateful for my amazing husband (who will be in town after another week long trip starting tomorrow), my helpful children, my parents who are coming to help out with the first bit of insanity, and Peter's mom who is coming 2 weeks after Samantha is born to help me while Peter is away for the weekend. 

Alright, there are things to get done so off I go!