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Thursday, May 31, 2012

Kylie Bobbette Heaton

Meet our newest addition.....

Kylie Bobbette Heaton
Born May 29, 2012 @ 23:23 (11:23pm)
7lbs. 6 oz. and 19 inches long

 Here's our birth story:  On tuesday morning after getting Hunter and Madelyn off to school the rest of our family spent several hours in our garden. We moved the water hoses, picked weeds and planted a few herbs. I was hoping that working in the garden for the upteenth time would bring on some contractions but no such luck. We came home, Kory worked on his laptop and I set up the playpen in our room for the future arrival of Kylie. Kory eventually left for work about 2:15, my big kids came home from school at 3:30 and by 4 we were next door to help Aunt Natoshia pack up her car as she was moving to Nebraska the following morning. I really didn't do anything but take a few canning jars and plastic containers downstairs into her storage room. I then sat at the kitchen island chit chatting with everyone else that was there to help. Aunt Heather had a banquet to attend later that night with her husband and her big girls. I volunteered to watch her little girls ages 9, 6 until she got home so that they wouldn't have to spend the evening by themselves at home. She dropped the girls off about 6 and I started warming up left overs for dinner to feed everyone. While going through my fridge I was filling up our chicken buckett rather quickly. I asked the kids to go empty it and told them that dinner would be ready when they got back in. Being it wasn't just my kids feeding the chickens it was taking them a bit longer than usual. It was now about 6:45 and tired of waiting for the kids to come back in I put the last plate in the microwave,  pulled up the internet to blog about some recent projects I had completed, the microwave beeped, I set the now warm plate on the table and sat down on our computer chair. Immediately I felt a gush. I just sat there thinking no way was that my water breaking. I must have lost complete control of my bladder. However there is no way I could have pee'd that much that quickly and be as wet as I was and have a puddle in the chair. I went hobbling into the bathroom still unsure of what had just happened. I kept standing and sitting trying to see if I could get more gushing. Nothing was happening. I changed my pants feeling a bit embarrased and glad my kids weren't around to see me "pee" my pants. I started walking back out to the kitchen to "surf" the net real quick about how to tell if your water had indeed broken becuase I was still a bit unsure what had just happened. And then it happened again. A huge gush and I was soaked! With every movement of me walking back to my room more and more fluid was leaking. 

I immediately called Kory to inform him. He said he'd be home right away. I started calling around to sister-in-laws to take care of my extra kiddo's and no one was home. In the end I called Natoshia who was moving the next morning and asked her if she'd take the girls I was tending. By this time the kids were inside ready to eat. Natoshia came right over and having dinner ready got everyone eating while I ran around getting everything we would need in Cedar out in the car. Kory got home, had to get in the shower as he was covered in black coal dust. When he was ready we quickly loaded the kids up with the intention's of meeting my parents at the hospital who would take them until it was time for us to go back home. Of course the van was on empty so we had to make a quick stop to fill it up. Lucky for us instead of having the 2 hour drive ahead of us that we were planning on Cedar Mnt. had just announced that they would have the road open every weekend and during the week from 7pm-7am. So it only took us an hour to get to the hospital.

About 8:30pm we pulled into the hospital parking lot. I was having contractions about every 8 minutes but they didn't really hurt. Some did but the majority seemed to be more like Braxton Hicks. The worse part about them was that every stink'n contraction real or not that came I had the pleasure of feeling another "gush" come out of me. I seriously had no idea what it was like to have your water break. I assumed it was a one time occurance but for me it most definetly was not. When I got out of the van I had another "gush". Getting out of the van the kids said it looked like I had pee'd my pants. By the time I had walked into labor and delivery I felt like I had jumped into the pool waist deep. My pants stuck to me, my socks were soaked and I felt I had a pool of water in my shoes. Disgusting!!!  It was by far the most bizarre feeling I have ever had!   When the nurse checked me I was a bit bummed to hear I was only dialated to a 3 and still pretty thick. The nurse thought we'd probably have a baby in the wee early hours the next moening.

An I.V was placed about 9pm and I was started on just a little pit to see if we could get some contractions started. By 10pm I was at a 5 and the Anesthesiologist was called for an epidural.  At 10:30 I had just received my epidural and could feel it starting to take effect. When checked the baby's head could be felt and I was at a 6. At 11 o'clock my doctor came in to check on us. I was now at a 7-8 and was told that baby was quickly decending and that we'd probably have a baby by midnight. This was my 5th epidural and I have never had any issues with them in the past. This time however I had a hot spot which means I was numb where I was suppose to be except for one paticular spot on my right side. Oh my HECK!!!! Even though the majority of me was numb I could not believe the pain I was feeling in this one little spot. I have no idea how women give birth naturally. There is no way I would ever even try to do it naturally having felt the pain I felt this go round in that one little spot. Kuddo's to those women who can do it. I am most definetly not one of them. Not much later I was starting to push and miss Kylie was born at 23:23 or 11:23pm. We were only at the hospital for about 3 hours before she was born. To be only at a 3 when we got there and really not having any contractions at all.... This birth went so fast!! I'm not complaining by any means but still have a hard time thinking about how fast everything went.


We had a few visitor's come see us the following morning. Here's Aunt Hanna taking a turn with her newest niece.
 Lovely picture of Kory and I!
 Unfortunately my camera's batteries decided to die. Luckily Aunt Sheri was there with her camera and took pictures of our kids taking turns holding Kylie. When I get them from her I'll have to share.

When all of our visitor's left Kory went out and bought some new batteries for us. Wed. night Kylie was tested for jaundice and her scores were a bit too high. She had the priviledge of spending the night on lights. She had to wear a face mask to protect her eyes from the lights. She absolutely HATED the mask!!!
 This morning to our delight we were released from the hospital. We met up with my mom to get our big kids back and headed home with our newest addition. It's so good to be home. Kory had to leave for work almost immediately this afternoon when we got home leaving me by myslef with all 5 kids. I was a bit worried wondering if I would survive by myself on my own tonight but everyone has done really well. The big kids have done great taking turns holding Kylie and just being helpful. There hasn't been any whinning, fighting, they've done what they were asked the 1st time and have just been very helpful to me. I really, really appreciate there help this afternoon.  
 Emily was pretty proud of herself when she discovered that while she was singing to Kylie she had fallen asleep. She let me know that if I wanted I could wake her up in the middle of the night for her to sing Kylie back to sleep if I wanted. So helpful!
 I was on the other couch talking with the girls and Brayden when I heard Hunter mumbling something to Kylie. It took me a minute but I was able to tune out what the girls were saying and focus on the mumbling. He was telling her in a hushed tone how pretty she was and that he loved her already! I then asked him out loud what he was saying? He wouldn't tell me and acted embarased that I may have heard what he was saying. I just let it go but I'm pretty sure of what I heard him saying. He's been a bit bummed to have another sister. He was really hoping that the ultra sound was wrong and he'd get another brother. I'm glad he'll admit even if it's only to the baby that he loves her already. Despite his teasing and not knowing when to quit egging his siblings on he has MANY moments of being a good big brother.  
Here's our beautiful little girl!
Kylie Bobbette Heaton

The kids picked Kylie's 1st name several months ago. I think it's pretty cute and everyone's agreed, even Daddy to stick with it. When it came to a middle name I have been unsure and Kory's been of no help of course. We have given all of our kids a "family name". For some it's their 1st name and for the other's it's their middle name. Some of the "family names" are from the Heaton side while other's are from the Christensen side. All of them have a family member that they were named after. I wanted to contine this with Kylie.

My parents live across the driveway from my grandparents. My kids call my grandparents GG (great grandma) and GG pa (great grandpa). Being we lived in Hurricane for a year before moving to Alton I felt like each of my kids developed a relationship with their GG and GGpa. Even Brayden only being 2 loved to go on walks with GG and get a never ending supply of jelly beans from his GG pa. Unfortunately GG is suffering from Alzheimers. On her good days she knows who my children are. But more often than not she does not remember their names or who they are or that she is their great grandma. Alzheimer's is such a horrible disease. It saddens me to know that at this moment in time for the most part she does not remember my kids. Hunter, Madelyn and Emily are old enough that I think they will always remember GG. They have memories of living across the driveway from her. They will beable to share stories about her with there own kids one day. Brayden I think is too young and won't be able remember the short time he had with her but at least he was able to spend some good times with her regardless. She could get him to laugh, they talked to each other and he was always quick to give both GG and GGpa hugs and kisses. Almost every sacrament meeting Brayden would walk over and sit on GG's lap. It breaks my heart to know that Kylie will never have this experience with her GG. Kylie will know who she is because we will teach her but she'll never have the experiences that my other children had by living so close and before the Alzheimer's really took control of her life. I don't think GG will ever "know" Kylie like she was able to "know" my other kids. GG will probably always have to ask who that little girl is, what her name is and how she belongs to the family. After much thought we've decided to name Kylie after her GG, Bobbette Grow. Whether GG knows it or not Kylie and her will always have something in common, something that they share, a bond. So that is why we've named our new little girl
Kylie Bobbette Heaton. We love our GG and GG pa!

Thursday, May 24, 2012

37 weeks

As I mentioned in my previous post both Kory and I were hoping I'd have baby Kylie sometime this up coming weekend just for convience sake. I have tried almost everything I have ever heard of trying to get some contractions started. For instance walking everywhere I go, bouncing on a excersise ball (is suppose to make baby drop to apply pressure to the cervix),  walking, eating a lot of pineapple and spicy foods (irritates the bowels to start contractions), walking, taking Evening Primrose Oil orally 2x a day and using it as a suppository at night (softens cervix to allow baby to drop and apply pressure), walking, sex (Kory asked is this was the feast before the famine? LOL), walking, doing everything I was told not to do a few weeks ago because it started contractions (vacuming, mopping, going up and down the stairs, etc.), accupressure,  oh... and did I mention walking???? Despite how hard I've tried I've basicly had absolutley NO contractions during the past week! Yesterday I did drive to Orderville and back and had several braxton hicks with maybe 2-3 real contractions but nothing significant. I told Kory yesterday that I've given up on this weekend. I'm not planning on baby Kylie making her big entry any time soon. I told him when the doctor checked me at 34 weeks I was barely a one and I wouldn't be suprised if I hadn't made any significant changes.

This morning I had my 37 week appt. I wasn't suprised to hear I was only a 2+ and still pretty thick. It's progress but not much! Kory decided that we need to make plans for this weekend and then Kylie will decide to come afterall. I guess we'll see but I'm not planning on it. As mentioned before at my last appt. my doctor said she'd induce me if I wanted on June 4th. On this date I would be 38 weeks and 4 days! Now I've heard from almost everyone that doctors have a hard time inducing before the 39th week. There is a new law or something or another that makes it dificult for the doctor to explain why induction is neccesary before 39 weeks. She put in a request at the hospital for June 4th with the excuse of me having big babies at 39 weeks, being 2 hours away from the hospital and having quick labors. Her request was denied! Meaning the earliest she can induce is June 7th, the 39th week mark. I can still go into labor on my own and won't be sent home or if I have any bleeding, migraine with dizziness, sudden extreme swolleness, etc it would mean medically neccesary and she could induce before that 39th week mark.

My mom asked earlier today if I was disapointed with this news? I'm really not. Maybe it's because June 4 to June 7 is only 3 days more??? I'm not uncomfortable, I don't have the feeling "get this baby out", I can breathe, I can eat, she's not hurting me. I'm doing just fine. My only complaint is the frequent need to pee and my shirts are getting to short to cover up the ugly prego paneling in my pants! Honestly I feel like if I went to 40 weeks or beyond it woudn't bug me at the moment (I'm sure it would if I did by that point) but I'm still very content with this pregnancy. I'll admit I don't want to go to the full 40 weeks in fear of how big this baby would be and the need of a c-section. Madelyn was my longest term baby. She came at like 39 weeks and 2 days or something. She weighed 8lb 14oz. She was too big and I had a very hard time getting her out. The doctor had basicly given up and we were being prepped for a c-section. The only thing we were waiting on was for the Anesthesiologist to come back in to do his job for the c-section. While waiting several minutes and having had a much needed break from pushing the Doctor decided to try a few more times while we continued to wait. Kory was pushed into the corner to get dressed in scrubs and I ended up with a nurse on both sides of me pushing on my belly while I too was pushing. The anesthesiologist came in just as I pushed her head out. About bloody time! By then of course it was too late and we were basicly done. Of all my kids it took me the longest to recover from her birth than anyone elses. I really don't want a repeat of that! All of my kids have been on the larger side for the week they were born in. If they had gone "full" term (40 weeks) all of them could have easily been 9+ lbs. And so instead of letting nature take it's course I will allow myself to be induced at 39 weeks. I'll just hope and pray Kylie isn't too big! What's crazy when I really think about it is that June 7th is exactly 2 weeks from today. Induction would take place before 8am and by this time 2 weeks from now we'll have met our newest addition. Scary!!!

Wednesday, May 16, 2012

36 Weeks

                                                          I am 36 weeks as of today.
                                                                        Yippee!!!
 I had a doctor's appt. earlier this week and the 1st thing she said was "Congratulation's, you've made it farther than your 1st. born." Hunter was born at 34 weeks and 2 days according to my journal. We were very blessed with his early arrival in the since that he was healthy and didn't have a NICU stay or any lung development issues.  Even though pregnancy is not always the easiest and there are days that I want this all to be over with I'm glad we haven't had a baby born that early since. I'm so glad we've made it to 36 weeks. One more week and baby will be considered full term! 

My doctor did not check me this week in fear of "stirring" something up and causing me to go into labor. My next appt. is next thursday at which point I will have hit my 37th week mark and I will be checked. I always like to hear how much effacement or dialation has taken place. It's good to know that the annoying contraction's that I'm currently having is doing something even though it doesn't mean I'm going to go into labor the next day.    

My doctor is willing to induce me June 4 if I want. That's a monday (2 weeks from this coming monday). My only problem with this date is that it's Kory's birthday. One day when money isn't alway such an issue I'd love nothing more than to suprise him with a little mini get away, just the 2 of us for his birthday. I'd love to do this many times. We make birthday's such a big deal around here that I think it would be hard to be away on one of our kids birthday's. The doctor said anytime that week she'd be willing to induce except for that friday. Which day do I choose???

If I could have it my way I'd love baby to be born next weekend, Memorial Weekend. I'm hoping that the doctor checking me next thursday will stir things up and we can get this show on the road. If I could deliver sometime saturday (37 weeks &3 days), be released from the hospital sunday than Kory would be home with us all day monday as it's one of his paid holiday's. Kory wouldn't have to miss any days of work, his pay check wouldn't be short and the road going over Cedar Mnt. will be open (only for that weekend). This means instead of having a 2 hour drive to the hospital we'd only have a 1 hour drive. Kory has been working the night shift for the past 1 1/2 years. He was told yesterday that in a week or around June 1st that he'd be put on the day shift. I am so ready for this change and I know he is too! I hate to see him finally get this much awaited change, be working in a new area, under a new boss and as soon as he starts he's having to take at least 2 days off due to me having this baby. We are hoping that the day I have the baby he'll stay the night at one of his cousins house, be able to pick me up the next day and bring me home. He doesn't want to travel the 2 hours home the day I deliver just to drive back the next day to pick me up and then go home again. Too much traveling!! So for our convienence of not having to miss work or a smaller paycheck and the travel time reduced by half we are hoping for next weekend. If only things worked out to our liking.  


A couple weeks ago I got my hair cut. I've been meaning to blog about it but never got a picture taken to show it off until tonight. I'ts not the best picture of me with the puffy, tired eyes, no make-up but it shows my hair cut the best. It's short! Much shorter (like 7-8 inches) than it was a month ago. I haven't had my hair this short since I was in highschool. I usually get my haircut before having a baby but I've never gone this short before. I wanted something different and a little easier to maintain this go round. It's definetly different but it's not easier to maintain. I think I asked for too many layers at the end and I find that I have to curl my hair everyday to make it look nice. If I don't curl the layers my hair lays flat against my head and I feel like I look like I just rolled out of bed. It just looks flat with nothing to it. I like my new do when it looks like this but I'm not in love with it. I tried putting it in a pony tail the other day and it was still too short. I have too many short layers that wouldn't stay back without the help from a lot of bobby pins and than I just looked like a pin cushion.  I think I'll like it much better when my top shortest layers reach my chin instead of the bottom of my ears. I just need a few more inches.

Saturday, May 05, 2012

Angry Birds Party

Several years ago Kory and I decided that our kids didn't need a big elaborate birthday party each year. Birthday parties are fun but they are time consuming, can be expensive and frankly are a lot of work.  That being said both Kory and I grew up having birthday parties where many friends were invited and we wanted our kids to have this experience too. We decided that we would pick different ages and when a child of ours turned that age that would be the year they got a big birthday party that they could invite friends too. On the other years we'd still celebrate birthday's but it would be a "family" birthday party, just mom and dad and their siblings. So far this has worked out very well and the kids look forward to those "special" birthdays. Our "special" birthday's are when they turn 5 becuase that's when they start school. When they turn 8 because that's when they will be baptised and when they turn 12 since this is when they leave Primary to join the YW/YM.

Last year while living in Hurricane Hunter turned 8. This was his year to have his big friend birthday party. At that time he wanted a knight/castle theme. Unfortunatley Hunter had some friends that weren't behaving the way they should and Hunter was following in there footsteps. It got so bad that I even went and talked to his "best friends" mom about some of the things that were taking place. The mom already knew about most of them. She had even told her son that she was expecting some of his friends parents to come to her because of his behavior and what he was "teaching/telling" his friends. After several weeks and trying  different consequences, nothing seemed to be working. We felt like we were nearing the end of our rope and didn't know what else to do. After much thought we informed Hunter that any more of this unappropriate behavior and he would loose his birthday party. I HATE this part of parenting. It wasn't a terrible suprise when the behavior didn't change and we had to follow through with our part and took Hunter's 8th birthday party away. It was absolutely HORRIBLE. He cried, he was mad/ devasted and I felt the exact same way but something had to change. As horrible as I felt, this consequence worked. He quit playing with this friend at school and the lying stopped along with some of our other issues we were having. 

So a few months ago Hunter asked if he could "earn" a birthdy party this year, even though he wasn't suppose to have one when he turned "9". Kory and I both felt that since he was willing to "earn" it and wasn't expecting it we'd go ahead and give him one. After several days Hunter decided he wanted an Angry Birds Birthday.   We decided not to have his party during his birthday week as this was our Spring Break and knew many of his friends would be out of town. We picked a saturday 2 weeks ago but then we had a snow storm blow in. Trying to look ahead at the weather and finding a day that there wasn't too much else going on we chose yesterday.
Here is one of the 12 invitations that he and I made one day after school just using cardstock and googly eyes. On the back we had printed out all the party info. I loved the way it turned out.
 I'm not a fan of the birthday/treat/thankyou bags that the friends take home after parties. To me they are usually full of junk! There's usually candy, dollar store toys that break too easily and just stuff that falls on the floor and I end up picking it up.  My kids know that if I have to pick any of it up it goes straight to the garbage. The interesting part in this is that they don't miss what very quickly winds up in the garbage. It makes me sick knowing that someone's mom spent money on this stuff that I've just thrown away. At each of my kids pary I try to come up with something that the kids will actually like and use as their thankyou for coming party favor! I'd rather spend a few dollars on somehing they'll like than a bag of treats that will be thrown away too soon.
That being said, one of the games the boys got to do was a wrist rocket game. I searched for quite some time for some cheap sling shots/wrist rocketts. I was a bit amazed to see wrist rocketts going for $5-10 a piece. I couldn't spend that much and then I saw on ebay 20 wrist rockets for $40. This was a bit more than I had wanted to pay and I didn't need 20 of them however $2 piece sounded much better than $5-10. So I bought them and this became our thankyou gift to each of the boys. When the boys realized they got to take them home I won "the best mom of the year" award. During the party I heard over and over and over how I was the coolest mom or the best mom cause their mom wouldn't have spent that much money on wrist rocketts to pass around. I thought it interesting that most of the boys knew they were normally $5-10 a piece. I'm glad I found a party favor that the boys will LOVE!
 Here is our game. Uncle Jason was able to get me the canvas for free and then I spent a day painting on it to match our theme.
 The boys then were able to use their wrist rocketts and shoot giant marshmallows through the holes. Some of these boys had quite the aim.
 We borrowed some foam noodle swords and the boys had a sword fight!
 The biggest part of the party was suppose to be a "live" angry birds game. Kory and I made up a sling shot area using our swing set,
 We then piled a ton of boxes in the front lawn to build with. Unfortunately we had 30-50 mile an hour winds yesterday. We had an incredibly hard time keeping the boxes on top of each other to give the boys a chance to knock the tower over using the sling shot. The wind was just too strong!
 Another activty was a scavenger hunt. We ended up having a total of 13 boys including Hunter at the party. I split them up into 2 teams and sent them off with their 1st clue. It was this: When your up you want to go down. When your down you want to go back up. What am I?      Hint: I can be found at the _________ (I rhyme with spark). After their 1st clue I had the 2 teams going in different directions. I had 9 different clues around town. The clues would then lead them to the fire station, the school bus garage, post office, milking barn, church, etc. Their goal was to find the golden eggs that the green pigs had supposedly hidden. With easter being just a few weeks ago I took some of our eggs and spray painted them gold. The last clue lead everyone back to the house where they eggs were waiting to be found in our tire swing in our front yard.
 We had plenty of color full food to enjoy. I had a fruit tray with banana's, strawberries, apples and grapes. Then the fun part was gum balls, mini jaw breakers, mike n' ikes and a bowl of gummy worms with green juice to help wash it all down.
 I really really wish the dang wind would have stopped. I considered moving his party indoors but there was no way my house could handle 13 wild boys! So we stayed outside. I don't think the kids minded as much as I did. It was pain in the neck having plates and cups flying all over the yard. I put 2 rocks in the bottom of the garbage can and it still got blown over and I had to run around and pick up the blowing garbage.

Near the end of the party Hunter opened his presents.


 Afterwards I brought out his requested cupcakes instead of cake this year! I was impressed with the way my birds turned out. They were fun to make!


Every single boy whined and complained when there mom's came to get them after the party. It made me feel good that even though some of the games were harder to do with the dang wind that they all had such a wonderful time and didn't want to go home. Kory wasn't suppose to be working the day shift yesterday but ended up being called in. Not having the help I was expecting, yesterday ended up being a long day. I was ready for the party to be over. Hunter has told me many times that it was the best birthday pary ever. All that hard work was worth it!

I had to share this picutre when I saw it. Brayden being the typical little brother, ran around with a stick in his hand yelling, "Expeliomous" to all the boys. The boys were great with the 3 year old trying to tag along and play with them. All I can is he has watched Harry Potter a few too many times!