Makenzie Emma

We were very happy to find out I was pregnant with baby #4. In February when I was 9 weeks I started bleeding. Went for an U/S and it showed that the baby was only 6 weeks and we couldn't see a heartbeat. My midwife had me do an HCG count. It did not double in the 48 hrs like it was supposed to. In fact it barely went up. I was very distressed and tried to prepare myself for a miscarriage. My MIL came and stayed with us for a week so I could be on bedrest. I stopped bleeding and nothing happened. 3 weeks later I went in for another U/S and it showed a very healthy 9 week baby. Apparently my dates were off, though we don't know what caused the bleeding.

After that everything went well. I went to CA in July to be in my sisters wedding. James and I went to Hawaii right after and had a great time! Not easy though to explore Hawaii when you're great with child :)

At my last official appt she was in a breech position. My mom came out a week before my due date. My labor started on Saturday morning on the 25th, 3 days before my due date. I thought for sure I was going to have a baby early for a change. The midwife came out and checked me. I was only to a 3 and the contractions were starting to space out. I continued like this all day Saturday and Sunday. Sunday evening I went to church to distract myself. Didn't help much. Monday I went to my midwife appt. No change and the contractions just kept getting strong and close and then petering out. The midwife checked her and she was still breech. Her heart rate was good and everything was great. While we were talking about having a breech birth I could feel the baby moving around and the midwife wanted to check her again before I left. She started feeling around and asked me if I had felt her moving around while we were talking. I said yes. She said "she's head down now". Craziness. She was very excited though as she doesn't get many breech babies. Since this was my 4th baby it was obvious I wouldn't have much problem with her head getting stuck. So she wasn't concerned if she turned again :)

We went home and things continued like this till the next day. On Tuesday contractions really got stronger, but would never stay regular. The midwife had said to keep track of them and call her when they got regular and stayed that way for an hour straight. That never happened, but at some point (I think in transition) I told my mom "I don't care if they're regular, call her now I want her here". So she called and the midwife was on her way. 15 minutes later my water broke. They called my midwife and let her know. She tried to hurry, but ended up getting in front of a highway patrol car. No speeding for her! Lol.

About 45 mins after my water broke I could feel her head coming. My mom was telling me not to push because she didn't know if my cervix was dilated or not. I thought to myself "doesn't matter her head is coming out, I must be dilated". I had to push, so I did. Her head came out and the midwife walked in. My mom started to move out of her way and the midwife told her to stay there! The midwife checked and there was a cord over one of her shoulders, which she pushed off and then I was able to push her the rest of the way out.

At 12:01 am, October 29th, Makenzie Emma came into the world into her Nana's hands! She was 8 lbs 8 oz and she did NOT come out breech! She turned again before she was born. She did have a knot in her cord though, so apparently she was always a very active baby ;)

Makenzie is a very laid back little girl. Loves pretty, girly things and loves babies. She is always a little mother to our new babies. She is very talented on the piano. She was a bit slow in her learning to read. She just finally in the last few months started reading and is so happy about it.

Blessings, ♥T

Jason Wesley

We were really excited to find out I was expecting baby #2. I took the test and left it in the bathroom, James read the results and told me. :D I was really hoping for a girl. At my ultrasound the technician wasn't allowed to tell me the sex til she had it confirmed with the head technician, but as she was doing the ultrasound I could see the parts and said "it's a boy". She was all surprised and said "you can see that?" Um duh, obviously I could! lol... I was slightly disappointed but was happy that James Michael was going to have a little brother.

I didn't have a very eventful pregnancy. I did get big quite quickly and everyone thought it was twins. But nope, just one BIG boy! I looked like a torpedo at the end :)

I had my appt on Friday the 20th, 5 days after my due date. She checked me and stripped my membranes. That was around 3 pm. By 4 pm I was in active labor. I called the midwife on call and she said I could come in or just wait til I wanted to come in. I decided to wait. Finally around 10 pm we decided to go in. I was at a 5 almost 6. So we of course stayed. I got to a 6 and stayed there for a few hours. They broke my water and I got to a 7 and stayed there for a few hours. They decided to give me some pitocin to speed things up. Um, yeah, that was a bad idea! Yes, it made things go faster, but it also made it much more painful. From that point I ended up getting 2 shots of stadol.

I finally got to 9 with a lip and the midwife said I could push with the next contraction and she would push it off. So I did and with just a few minutes of pushing at 4:43 am October 21st, I gave birth to a chunky 8 lb 2 oz dark haired, dark eyed, beautiful baby boy!

We named him Jason Wesley, after my husband cousin/best friend who died of CF. His middle name is the same as my husbands.

He is a very smart and talented boy. Very athletically and musically inclined. In just one semester he went through an entire piano course. He loves to wrestle with his brother and is just through and through BOY!

Don't have many pictures since he was born pre-digital camera :) But are some recent ones!

Blessings, ♥T

Kathleen Rose

This is long overdue, but I just haven't had the time or desire to finish it recently.

I found out I was pregnant in Oct of '07. I immediately was exhausted, as is usual for my pregnancies. I was completely incapable of even doing the most simple tasks. (It was at this point that we put the 3 older children in private school as I was not up to caring for their schooling.) After I got over the exhaustion things were pretty much normal and "easy" for a seventh pregnancy. Nothing out of the ordinary or bizarre. With taking care of 6 little ones, taking kids to and from school and keeping up with "life" it passed fairly quickly though.

When I was nearing the end she was very active. Even when I was walking or moving around she would not be still. (She is still very bouncy :) I remember trying to walk and she would jump so hard forward that it would literally make me move forward. Several times it almost caused me to trip!

When I found out my due date, June 29th, I KNEW she was going to be late and I just KNEW she was going to be born on July 4th. Why? Because we had just moved back to our old house and I was really looking forward to going to the fireworks! The displays there are awesome! So much better than what we have here. I was really, really wanting to go see them and I just knew that because I really didn't want her to be born on that day she would decide to come then.

The week she was born I managed to come down in a very SEVERE sinus infection. On July 3rd I finally went to an Urgent Care center because the pain was so bad. I started having some mild contractions that afternoon. On July 4th the contractions were getting stronger and coming a bit closer, but as is normal for me, kept stalling. The midwife assistant came and checked me. I was only a 3-4 I think. She watched me for a while, but nothing was happening so she left. By evening they were actually getting pretty strong and I was really hoping they would hold off till after the fireworks. Yes, I know, very silly! LOL... But my sweet little girl was ever so kind and she let me go to the fireworks! YAY!!! I must say they had a magnificent display, even while having contractions it was very enjoyable. :D

The next day they finally started getting much stronger and closer. The assistant came again and checked me, I think I was 4-5 at this point. But I honestly don't remember. I labored in our jacuzzi tub (boy do I wish I had that still!) for the day and finally somewhere around 10 pm she checked and said I was 9 with a lip. For all my previous pregnancies this meant baby was coming in a few minutes. So because I didn't want a water birth I got out. We called the midwife and she came. Took her around 45 mins. Nothing happened. I had really wanted to be squatting for this birth but tried to use her birth "chair" and it did not work. Somehow she was sitting on top of my pubic bone and couldn't get around it so I had to get in bed. I laid on my left side and finally she started to come out. Apparently her head came out sideways, so her position was odd in the birth canal I guess, that's why it was so difficult for her to get around my pubic bone?

She came out, and just as I suspected, she was bald and WHITE as can be :) I had very little to no heartburn, and from my experience with 8 kids now, the amount of heartburn does affect how much hair they have. They put her on my stomach but I couldn't pull her up any further because her cord was so short. When the cord stopped pulsing Makenzie got to cut it. As she cut it she said "Michelle you get to cut the next babies cord" Lol...Not what I was thinking about just then!

There were a lot of things that I wasn't happy about for this birth but I have left them out, but here is where I will put what happened that makes me very upset. At this point I had still not be able to nurse her because she couldn't reach. I had just pulled her to my chest and she wasn't tremendously interested in eating yet. We were just starting to work on latching on. For some bizarre reason the assistant midwife (whom I hadn't even wanted at my birth) was the one who ended up delivering her. So she was the one who was "down there" still. For whatever reason she pulled on the cord. Now if you've read Michelle's birth story you'll know why that was NOT something I wanted to be done. So of course as soon as she pulled I started bleeding heavily. I ended up having to PUSH the placenta out while the midwife pulled it out. As soon as it came out the reason for the bleeding was obvious. Her cord was missing the Wharton's Jelly for about an inch from the placenta.When she pulled it snapped the arteries. Thankfully the blood had mostly stopped transferring and I didn't start hemorrhaging. Because I hadn't started nursing and there were no hormones causing contractions my uterus didn't start cramping down. I was still bleeding heavily and my uterus was not returning to normal. So the midwives had to put a hand inside me and push up on the uterus while the other pushed and massaged on it from the top to get it to start contracting. After giving birth and pushing the placenta out, it was not a very pleasant experience. To say the least.  Thankfully it worked and a shot of pitocin wasn't necessary.

After all this I had a beautiful 7 lb 10 oz baby girl born at 12:01 am on July 6th. I had very little problems after she was born. I was very sore as usual, from nursing, but that stopped pretty quickly using some homeopathics.

I now have a very "bouncy" little 3 year old. Her favorite movie was Piglet's Big Movie, but she is so much like Tigger! She loves being hugged and playing with Little People. She talks a lot :) She just recently got glasses. I had suspected that she had an issue, but couldn't tell for sure. Sure enough she did. After we got her glasses we went to the store. As we were walking through the parking lot she said "Look at all those cars, I can see them" and when we got in the store she said "Wow I can see all that stuff!" :D So cute, but I guess she really couldn't see much before! She looks so adorable with her glasses on!

Here's some pictures of her growing up :) This first picture is supposed to be next to last but I can't get it to move down... Oh well :)

Blessings, ♥T