random

Hey Josh, so, do you remember that time when you were four and you rode your bike a quarter mile down the road to the school to look for Ben and his friends?  yeah, when they weren't there, you turned around and came home?  for most of the ride, no one even knew you were gone.  when we figured it out, dad noticed your bike was gone and took off on his to look for you.  he found you on your way home.

Hey Sarah, do you remember that time that you got bit by a field mouse while trying to catch it to hold?  it let you get close and then it bit your finger, latched on and you had to shake it off.  yeah, your love for animals knows no bounds.

Hey Ben, do you remember that one time you were jumping on the tramp with Josh and you hit heads and it knocked out a tooth and loosened another?  yep, you lost two teeth that night.

Hey Sarah, do you remember that time i was outside working in the yard and you came outside to see if you could play with a friend and you had locked all the doors?  Josh, do you remember how you slept through all my knocking on your window trying to get you to come to the door and everyone in the neighborhood heard me but you?  Sarah, do you remember how I pried off the screen to a window, put you through, you unlocked the door and then came to the window to tell me it was open?  That was fun. :)

Hey Reddick, do you remember that one time you slobbered on your siblings faces?  which time, you ask?  I've actually lost count.  They love your kisses until the get slobbery.  I laugh every time.
Do you also remember the first time you got in the bath with Josh and you could sit up?  You both sat there and laughed at each other.

he really did turn four.

Once upon a day (March 27th), Joshua turned 4!  I never documented this.  Maybe because I only took two pictures?  Yep, the one where he is licking the batter bowl for his cake and the other, he is holding up four fingers.  Because he is four!  Four is the greatest age!

 Josh is a sweet big brother.  He is so gentle with Reddick & a big helper, it is so nice!

 Josh loved being the birthday boy.  He did enjoy his presents but what he liked best was his cake.  Whenever anyone called to wish a happy birthday, he would tell them we were going to have cake.  This is important after all. :)

 His favorite gift?  a basketball hoop that sticks to the door.  he loves to play, preferably without pants.

 handsome boy.  i think this is Easter Sunday.

 no cavities!

 Josh still naps sometimes.  He and I have a bond, we nap together and it is my fav!

 Ice cream @ Kirt's drive in during the Priesthood session.

 He does make some great faces.  Right after I took this one he wanted to see it.  He knows he's funny.

 Aunt Kimberly gave him his own mini Book of Mormon.  He loved it!

 This is Josh & Sarah helping me make jam.  I don't know what he was more excited about, the knife or helping me make jam.  It's debatable.

 I'm pretty sure he's watching a movie.

 He can be quite resourceful.  If you don't want to get burned by your toast, try a pot holder.

 This kiddo can color!...& make a face.

These pics highlight a few of the things I love about Josh.  I have always enjoyed him.  It makes me teary to think about it.  He has brought so much joy to our family.  He loves to tease, wrestle, laugh, jump, play with balls...really anything rough or boyish.  When he settles down he is either reading with me (which we both love), coloring, playing pbs kids, watching wildkrats, or he falls asleep with his "D" (blanket & I don't know where it got that name).  We love Josh and loved celebrating with the "birthday boy", which he still calls himself every now and again.  

So there I was... warning, not for the faint at heart.

Large and in charge...and then some.  I might have been this big before, but maybe not.  I was still shocked to find out the size of the one inside!  9.2 they said, 9.2?

Getting him here was an adventure and tougher than I expected.  Lucky for me, there were a lot of people who were worried about me having this little or should I say big guy, at home, so they were praying...hard. :)  I guess it's also lucky, I'm tough.  No, not luck, blessed to be tough.  I can do and actually have done something uber hard.  (I did have Joshua, our 4 yr old without drugs, just in the hospital and that was a lovely, four hour labor, starting at 2:30 A.M. with a broken water and hard contractions, ending at 6:30 with his arrival.  It was lovely.)

So, there I was.  Wednesday May 8th, (my "due date") sleeping in my bed.  I awoke to contractions at about 1:30 A.M.  Since I had placed my order and was hoping and praying for a repeat of Joshua's birth, I thought, "this is it!"  I began relaxing through the contractions and timing them.  They were a decent amount long, 45-60 seconds and were 10-15 minutes apart.  I was just waiting for my body to flip the switch and start laboring hard and fast like last time.  Well, time passed.  I got up, walked around, Zach gave me a blessing, he gave me some yummy fruit juice ice chips he had made and time passed.  The contractions were super hard ones.  There was one that I thought had broken my water it was so hard.  Yeah, no.

We texted Zach's sister & my family to say, "today's the day" and Zach's sister Kimberly came over about 6:00 to be there when the kids woke up and help with them.  Time passed and then I fell asleep.  No more contractions every 15 min., they were now every 30 and I slept.  We went for a walk with the kids and the contractions continued.  Well, Kimberly took the kids for lunch at her place, we took a nap and contracted some more.  I lost my mucus plug but that was it.  Good sign I guess, that the contractions were doing some good.
I talked to my midwife and asked if she thought I should try some oils, jump on the tramp, foot rubs, etc to get things to pick up or what...  She said I could or I could just go about the day as normal.  Oh bummer!  I was supposed to be holding our baby by now!  What's a normal day after that expectation?  We did try the PMS blend, essential oil, (with clary sage in it) that gave some good contractions but nothing stuck.
At 5:00, we went to Huntsville park, picked up the kids and went to Subway for dinner.  I was still having grab the seat your sitting on type of contractions about every 30 minutes.  At Subway they might have been a little closer together than that.
We went home and got the kids into bed, the contractions changed back to every 15 minutes at 8:30.  These were some toughies.  I got in our bath tub around 10 to see how I handled them in there.  The bath was nice.   The best was when the water was on when I had a contraction.  Yeah, that was the best.
Zach thought it was crazy to watch my uterus contract so much.  My huge belly got small with these contractions.  They were doing some work.
We called Heather my midwife about 20 after 10:00 to tell her they had been consistently 10 minutes apart for the last hour and a half, and were getting closer every time.  We were down to 6 minutes apart but not consistent, when we called her.   She asked us to time them for twenty minutes and call her back.  Well, we got caught up in contracting and didn't call her back until after I got out of the bath at 11:00 and she got there at 11:30.  She knew it was game time.
Yeah, I thought the contractions were tough before this, they were seriously intense now.  They were at there longest, 5 minutes apart.
My method for birthing that I practiced and used with Joshua is the Bradley method.  I think like these people and very much appreciate the body and what it does naturally.  I try to stay out of the way by relaxing every other muscle & leaving the uterus to do its job.  Problem was is relaxing wasn't coming very easily for me.  I was tired by this point.  Very tired.  I had used all my best relaxing earlier.  Now, it seemed like every contraction, I was praying that the Lord would help me to breathe.  He did, thank goodness!
About 12:30 Heather checked me for the 1st time and I was an 8.  My water hadn't broken yet but she said it was super saggy and ready.  I asked her if she thought we should break it and she said, "let's wait until Janelle (her assistant) gets here".  Next contraction, my water broke. *hee hee.  Next contraction I am pushing.  Then I threw up-which I'd never done before.  I'm sure that helped move things along!
I was on my side at this point and didn't want to push my baby out in this position so I asked for help moving into the sitting squat position at the head of the bed.  Man, moving at this point in labor is seriously rough!  We got there though.  Janelle got there shortly after I was in this position.  It was nice to have someone on the other side of me.
The nice thing about the pushing stage is that the contractions are different.  They are SO much easier to relax through.  I was so exhausted at this point that I didn't want to push.  I honestly just wanted to lay there!  So, I did.
I was actually scared to push as well.  I don't know how to explain my labor brain but I was quite scared.  The last baby I had was dead when she was born.  This was something that I did not plan on thinking or feeling or facing at this point in labor.  I had a really hard time.
Zach was trying to coach me to push and my midwife recognized the difficulty and quietly suggested he give me a minute.  He did.
Then I asked Zach to help me push.  I needed him to count for me because I needed him to challenge me.  I was having a really hard time getting myself to really push.  This helped but I still struggled a great deal.
When the baby crowned I was overcome with the burn and couldn't breath.  I couldn't get him back down or out.  He just stayed there.  (I would not recommend this to anyone!  Holy crap!)
All the while, my midwife was checking his heart beat and he was doing awesome.  I did finally pull it together and get the job done.  I really only had probably 4 or 5 quality pushes (that's how bad I was handling things) and he was out!
They put this sweet baby on my tummy and I was overcome.  I was in shock and in love all at the same time.  Oh, the sweetness that could never be described in words!  He was totally relaxed and content it was amazing.  They put a warm towel over his back and I just held him.  He cried the sweetest cry.  There was no rush.  No bright lights, mayhem or chaos.  Zach cried, I was just holding him, not sure if all that had just happened.  I nursed him, held him and loved every minute of it.  His little body was a big body.  I remember looking at his hands thinking, you have big hands.

I have this vision in my mind of these three great people helping me deliver this baby and for how intense it was for me, it was not a chaotic or out of control feeling.  Everything was fine.  They were all so calm and encouraging and strong.
After I had all the time with Reddick that I wanted, I gave him to Zach, (you can't see Reddick below, but he is in Zach's arms, just wanted to document my awesome coach, husband!) my midwife stitched me up, which I needed...pretty badly.  Then, the part that Zach loved most was they helped me into the shower and helped me get cleaned up and back into bed.  They changed the sheets which didn't "really" need to be changed but was super nice to get into a freshly cleaned bed.  They just took care of me and were so thoughtful and caring.

Then I got back in bed all clean and watched as they did all the checking on Reddick.  I was seriously shocked to hear he weighed 9.2!  He was also 20.5 inches long.  As I watched though I just kept thinking, this is a big baby!  They were so good with him.  I loved how I didn't feel like his needs were disregarded.  They were kind to him and didn't just let him cry.  They would put their pinky in his mouth to calm him and were very gentle.  Zach cut the umbilical cord off.  They had just put it into a ziploc bag while they were taking care of me and left it attached.

 This is how they weighed him, in this sling held up by a luggage scale.  It reminded me of a stork package.  Pretty resourceful, I'd say. :)

Then I got Reddick again, nursed and loved him.  I was, and still am, honestly in heaven.

Then we got him dressed and bundled him up...and ready to meet his siblings in about an hour!

Of all the perks of not having to drive the canyon when in full and contracting labor or being able to climb back into my bed, or having a very calm birth, I absolutely loved it when the kids came upstairs in the morning!  -this was my favorite!

Josh was the first one up, as usual.  Zach heard him come upstairs, so we sat up and watched as we saw a light in the hallway.  It was the light of Josh's headlamp.  He came into our room, saw Reddick in our arms and quietly gasped and said, "our baby!"

 Sarah followed close behind, "you had our baby?!"

 After she held him we asked her to go wake up Ben.  Which according to reports, went like this: shaking Ben and exclaiming "mom had our baby, he's upstairs!"  He was up those stairs in no time.  Now, this kid loves his brother!  He kept saying, "he's so sweet."  He is still saying that.

They all love their brother.  It has been such a wonderful thing to welcome Reddick to our family.  Our children are so sweet with him and hold him so gently.  They have been in awe at how much I nurse him!  It seems like every time they walk into my room, I'm feeding him.  They sing to him, lullabies they've written, read him stories or talk to him about what they see.  It is love in action.

Having the opportunity to have Reddick at home was really great.  I didn't decide to have him at home until about 28 weeks.  I had another midwife who would have delivered him at Ogden Regional.  After I got passed the point that I lost Lily, I started thinking, praying and pestering Zach about the option of a home birth.  It seems I had a really hard time settling on having him at the hospital.  It was crazy, he probably got annoyed with how much I asked him what he thought and if I should have him at home or the hospital...

Once I spoke to my hospital midwife about helping me if there were complications and she consented to it, I felt an incredible amount of peace about having him at home.  That peace was welcome because it seems I fretted about it forever.  It was nice to have a decision made.  

Because I did feel peace with my decision, I wasn't worried about possible complications.  I knew everything would be alright...and if there needed to be a switch, that I would be prompted to know it.  

I've been asked if I have another baby, if I'd have that one at home too.  My answer to that is, I would do the same thing in making my decision that time as I did this time.  I would pray about it and consider it and do what I felt best with.  I am happy with this choice for this baby though!

So here we are, one week old today!  He is such a sweet baby and has been a delight!!!

Reddick James Nielson, May 10th, 2013, 1:47 A.M., 9 lbs, 2 oz., 20.5 inches.  Blonde hair, mostly on the back of his head.  Long fingers and toes.  Dimples in his cheeks.  Cute little ears and sweet gassy smiles.  Welcome to our family Reddick!  I am one happy Momma!

p.s. for those reading this: if there was something you wanted to know and I didn't write about, please ask.  I'm not sure if I missed any major details. :)

The BIG EIGHT!

This handsome son of a gun turned EIGHT on the 9th!  I am not sure I'm ready for all this growing up business, but he sure is!  He is so excited to be a Scout!  He was thrilled to get baptized!  He had the birthday of all birthday's.  We won't even try to top this one!

 He requested opening gifts first.  So, before breakfast he received his scout uniform, a pocket knife and scriptures from us.

 We made him a delish breakfast of pancakes, bacon, eggs, and oj, per birthday boy request.  Then, Zach took Ben and his best buddy Henry to Fat Cats for a couple hours.  Here he is admiring his score.

 This is the front of his baptism program.

 These pics, were on display at the baptism with the programs.  Below is the inside of the program.

 Ben and Henry at Fat Cats bowling and air hockey.  These boys had a hoot.

 Below is the cake our neighbor made for Ben's birthday.  He loved it and it was also super, super yummy!  Ben is obsessed with basketball these days.  I can hardly believe the passion from this kid in this area.  It blows me away!

 I was so overwhelmed with feeding everyone and getting everything just perfect that this is the only picture we have from the baptism.  The primary president did take one of Zach and Ben before, to my relief!

This was a wonderful day!  We were so grateful for all the help and support from family and friends.  Ben was so happy to be baptized and we were so proud of him!  I sat diagonal from Ben, so I watched his face during the talks and songs and stuff.  He knew he was following Jesus and he was confident that it was his own choice and he was happy to do it.  After he was baptized Zach said Ben said, "I am so happy, I could just cry.  I feel so clean and so happy!  All my sins and bad things are washed away.  I know we are never going to lose another game of basketball again!"
We were surprised with a visit from Zach's parents who are on a mission in Tennessee.  This was so fun and Ben felt so special they came just for him.
It was a wonderful day!  For a wonderful boy!  Happy 8th Birthday Ben!

Ice fishing

lately i have thought so much about how i want to blog our lives.  i look through our pics and i feel so blessed.  yet, it is so overwhelming because we have so many things i'd love to blog about!  well, i just decided i would post the most recent thing and let that be that instead of stressing about it.

 the most recent thing is ice fishing.  perch is yum.  zach is super dad.  the kids love the ice.  all these provide the motivation and zach makes it possible.

 he did just take the boys a few weeks ago after work and sarah and i stayed home and made cookies.  warm, yummy and sweet company.  a great combo.

 josh was SO excited to catch his first fish!

 i actually went with the family last saturday for my first time.  yeah, we thought about sunscreen when we were out on the ice.  not a whole lot i could do about it then.  i felt so bad the kids got fried.  seriously, they were a bunch of walking beets for a few days.

 ben kept counting how many fish we were catching.  he loves reeling them in.

 sarah loved it too.  in fact, i could hardly get a turn with a pole.

truth be known, i loved sitting out in the sun, enjoying the company, the scenery and the snacks.  good times.