Rachel's Choir Concert

Rachel has been in her school choir all year.  She had a solo at the Christmas program, and then she had this part at the end of school concert.  There are a few technical difficulties at the first.  Another little girl starts off singing, and then Rachel comes in with the harmony.  She is right on, pretty amazing for a ten year old!

Updated Pictures

We have had a lot of birthdays since my last post.  Rebekah turned 2 and Sarah turned 6 in December.  Rachel turned 10 years old in January. 

 

 Rebekah - 2

 Rebekah - 2

 Couldn't help but take a shot of all six of them.  Katie, Rebekah, Sarah, Rachel holding Abigail, and Nathan.

Rachel - 10

 

 Rachel - 10

 Sarah - 6

Sarah - 6

 

I think I just post pictures of my kids on this blog, but they are my life, so there you go.

Six

 Abigail is two weeks in this picture.  She changes every day.  Actually, this blog will be about how quickly our family is changing.

 Six kids.  This picture was my idea, but Abigail is looking at David holding her on top of her siblings, like he is nuts.  We might be.  Rachel, Katie, Sarah, Nathan, Rebekah, and Abigail.  The last three weeks has been interesting.  My mom has been here helping us, and that has been wonderful.  This is my first day of being solo, and I don't know how I feel about it.  I have always enjoyed being independent, and I have always had a hard time accepting help from others.  So, I am grateful to have a baby 3 weeks old.  I am even more grateful to have a nine year old and eight year old that are so helpful.  Rachel and Katie have grown up a lot lately, and I love how they can take care of themselves, and help me.  Sarah is Sarah.  Always jumping and bouncing around, but very aware of her younger siblings and I have loved how school is already making her grow up.  Nathan, for the first time today, put his arm around Bekah, and she fell asleep on him.  He did want to give her away earlier this month, he said we had too many babies, but he might get better with her soon.  Bekah tells me if Abigail makes a peep.  Newborns are perfect, but I do get excited when I see them growing.  I am probably too fond of change...I like having new things, and doing new things.  Abigail, is a fun new addition.

 Katie and Rachel.  They have grown a lot, but are so silly sometimes.  Rebekah and Abigail and about the same months apart as these two.  They are ask all the time if they are twins.  This was my conversation with Katie yesterday:

Katie:  Mom, people always ask if Rachel and I are twins.

Me:  I think you guys like it.

Katie:  Yeah, we do.  But I think I can tell us apart.

Me:  Oh?  How?

Katie:  Rachel has big teeth, and I have little teeth.

I was going to point out that Katie has no teeth, but I had a good laugh without mentioning that.

Bekah's hair is so different than the other kids.  All of our children are so different, but I like how her hair and complexion make Bekah an obvious difference. 

Six children are going to be a challenge.  I knew that before we had our sixth.  They each have their own differences and similarities.  I hope we are ready for the challenges, but ready or not, her we come.

Abigail

David and I had our 6th child this monday.  She was born at 3:23 am.  She was 20 inches long and weighed 7 lbs 2 oz.  We have decided to call her, Abigail Shayla Foley.  We are so happy to have her here.

 

This was different from my other labors, but they have all been different, so I guess I should have expected it to be.  Friday and Saturday night, I had hard contractions for about 2-3 hours, but they never got closer than 10 minutes apart.  Sunday night I was still contracting, but it was random.  So, I went to bed and at 1:00 am, I woke up with a really painful contraction.  I was going to time them for a while before I went to the hospital, but they hurt too bad, and I didn't want David to deliver in the car.  So we called our neighbor, Donna Putich, and she came right over.  We pulled over every 4 minutes to have David help me through a contraction.  He would push on my knees, something my brother Joseph and his wife Jenn had shown us.  It helped a lot. 

 

We got to the hospital at 1:30 am.  They got me right in, and honestly, I have never been more pleased with the nurses.  They were amazing.  They were so considerate each time I had a contraction, they would stop what they were doing, let David just focus on helping me, and let me focus on getting through another contration.  I was able to move when I needed.  The doctor that was on call, Dr. Heath, was also very good to work with.  He ask what we wanted.  I wanted a natural birth. 

 

About an hour after we got there, the contractions were getting harder.  They were mainly in my back, which was a little different than I remember with my previous labor.  Finally, I had a hard contraction that broke my water and I ask that the doctor get in here.  When we got to the hospital I was dilated to a five, then an hour later, we were at a six.  The water broke about 45 minutes later, and we were at a nine.  The doctor came in, and said to push.  We have decided she was faced the wrong direction, because although it only took one contraction to get her out, I have never had such a hard time pushing the baby out.  She was also pretty bruised around her face, and David said she came out kind of side ways.  So, that was also a hard part of this experience.  David was amazing through it all, he helped when I needed it, and it was wonderful for him to help me.

 

The doctor wanted to give me pitocin to help deliver the placenta and stop the bleeding, but I told him no.  That stuff hurts, and unless there was a problem, I didn't want it.  He said he really recommends it, but I was firm that I didn't want it.  So, I delivered the placenta and he says, "Wow, theres not much blood, glad we held off on the pitocin."  Me too.  I was able to nurse the baby right away, and after we were ready, we moved to the recovery room.

So, here are our wonderful six children.  I picked this picture because this is Bekah's face pretty much all the time.  She thinks this is her baby, and if she is not within a few feet of Abigail, she is asking where she is and running to her as fast as she can.  Rachel and Katie decorated the house and room for her, and we are all just grateful she is here and all is well.

Katie's Baptism

 Katie was baptized last month.  It took me a while to get the pictures I wanted, so sorry I'm so late.  They baptized her right before the Brigham City Temple Dedication to give all eight year olds a chance to attend.  She turned 8, two days before the dedication, so we were all really excited she had that opportunity.

 Special credit to my mom for making a beautiful dress for Katie's baptism.  It was just the right one for Katie, and she loved it.

 Mom and Katie

 The baptism day was so nice.  We had lots of friends and family come, and it meant a lot to all of us.  But the most important and great thing, was seeing Katie get baptized by her dad.  David and I had talked to Katie a lot about the covenant she was making and the important step it is in our Heavenly Father's plan.  She made the decision and we are very proud of her.

Katie found a cake online and it turned out all right.  I did have to prop it up in the back, because it would have just toppled over.  I followed the directions, but whatever, Katie was happy and that's all that matters.  Thanks to everyone who came!

The Allusive Due Date

In my experiences of having children, there is a guessing game that accompanies my due date.  With our first one, she actually came early (bless her), the next two hit the due date right on, and the following two came after the due date.

I recently talked to someone who ask when my baby was due.  I said, "Oh, 2-3 weeks."  And she replied, "Oh, so any minute now."  No, I wanted to say, it will be either on time, or late, probably the latter.  I was trying to be polite by not commenting, but I loose my sense of politeness the last month of pregnancy...or the last few months or pregnancy.

Anyway, I've thought about this due date, and here are several things that annoy me.

1.  I don't think anyone tries to make me feel this way, but I do.  I feel incompetent as a women when I can't have a baby on time.  So, they give you this due date, and in your own mind, your always thinking, well I can go to that date.  Then, I don't.  So, the next few days, I'm always wondering, what the heck is wrong with me.  And the feeling is justified when I have good intentioned people who call and ask if anything is happening.  Or, very annoying people, who at social gatherings say, "You still here?!", "Hasn't that baby come yet?"  "You look like you're going to pop!"  Uhhhg.  Yes, I feel like a failure because the baby has not come yet, thank you for letting me know your thoughts also.

2.  Now, I could just be induced, or even if I had C-sections, that would take out this whole guessing game.  I have my reasons for not being induced, which would take up a lot of time.  But, the point is that with a lot of women being induced or having c-sections, more women can have a baby "on time" and accomplish the important task of reaching their due date, which makes me look like something is wrong.  Again, my own lack of promptness comes to hit me in the face.

3.  Women who can have healthy babies up to 3 weeks early are lucky, I'll not deny it.  I have a friend who, for her first 3 children, had them 3 weeks early.  On her fourth, she said she was about to die because the baby came only 1 1/2 weeks early.  Poor woman.   But, it was what she was used to.  That is probably the only comfort with this baby is that I'm fully expecting the baby to come late.

4.  So, my doctor walks in yesterday and says, "Well, you're about there.  Any day now."  No, I remind him of my history and say I'm not expecting anything.  He says, "Well, you should be more optimistic."  I've been optimistic, and it always leaves me anxious, exasperated, then I have an emotional breakdown.  I prefer realistic.  But, even my doctor is convinced I should have a baby on time, which puts more pressure on me...and increases my feelings of incompetence.

This is probably pointless writing this out.  I can only change myself to be a little more pleasant when I am in the last month of pregnancy.  I remind myself, I am very lucky to have pregnancies with few worries that result in healthy babies.  I am always grateful for the miracle of birth and to have a sweet little infant in my arms, there is no comparison.  I am reminding myself that not "everyone" thinks less of me for my babies getting comfortable in me and wanting to be in there as long as possible.  I will be happy to have this baby before Halloween, which gives her a good couple of weeks after the expected date.  Still, I might not answer the phone or choose to go to anything social for those weeks.  I am still pregnant, and the final comforting thought is, people do give you some leeway when you go over your "due date".

Happenings

 Sarah is the only one who wanted to sign up for soccer this year.  She has done really good.  The other girls love to play, but Sarah seems to have some skills. 

 I love watching the kids play sports.  Sarah is fun to watch because she is a good player and scores.  Somehow, that just makes it more fun.

 Labor Day weekend, our family got to go to the Brigham City Temple open house.  My parents have been called to work in the Temple, and it is a special place to our family.  So, David and I felt a need to take the kids and go through before it was dedicated.  It is beautiful.

 The grounds are smaller than most temple grounds, but still beautiful.  Our children were fun to take, and were excited about entering the temple...and the cookies afterward:)

That weekend, we also had my nephew, Ryan get baptized and niece, Quincy Beth, get blessed.  We celebrated my Mom's 60th birthday and so the whole family was together for these occasions.  Here are all the grandchildren with Grandpa and Grandma.  Zoom in and take a look at our two newborns.  Joseph and Jenn's, Quincy Beth.  Dave and Mel's "Benson" (he is 1 week old in the picture).  That makes a total of 16 grandkids in the picture, fun!