David is 1 month!

I always say it, but seriously!?! It's hard to believe that he's already been here a whole month! He continues to be such a laid back, easy baby and I am just loving him so much. I think knowing he's really my last may make me want to keep him a baby as long as possible :) At one month he's still sleeping a good bit and getting up one time during the night to eat and then starts his day at 7am. He's still nursing every feeding in addition to taking a bottle.

A sweet friend Amanda made this precious hat for him! Love it!

"Hey guys, is there something on my head?" :)

He found his thumb! He takes a paci on occasion but looks like he's going to be thumb sucker in the end - like James and Gracie! 

I had this fun idea of taking his monthly pics with all of the kids together and everyone holding up their fingers for how many months he is - How many pics do you have to take of 5 kids to get one where everyone is looking at the camera - still haven't found the answer to that one yet :)

Doesn't Benjamin look like such a big boy!?! He is a wild man! He is "talking" up a storm these days but the only word we can understand is "mamma" which he probably says 100x a day :) He's still cutting new teeth - I seriously think in the last month he's cut at least 6 and maybe more - it's hard to see what all has come in the back of his mouth.

Baby girl holding "Jeremiah David" as she always calls him - silly girl!

Anytime I take a picture of one, another wants to be in the pic too (you can see him trying to sneak in to the first picture)

And then another :) (John-Mark obviously thinks we're still taking the 1 month pic)

Last week a friend and I took the kids to a pumpkin patch. I'm at the point where I MUST have help to take ALL of the kids some where. I just can't keep up with everyone! So thankful for good friends! All the kids got a little face painting - 

  John-Mark really was having a good time - he was just looking pretty serious here - you can't really tell it in this picture but apparently my boys cut their own hair the day before. I kept noticing that JM's hair was looking pretty crazy. Lately I've been cutting their hair myself and I'm still "learning" so they've had some hair cuts that are worse than others. I kept looking at his hair and thinking, good grief, I sure did a hack job on his hair. I was telling Jeremy how bad it was looking and how I couldn't believe what a bad job I did when JM piped up and told me he cut it himself - well, there ya' go! Praise God baby girl wasn't with them when they are were playing "barber"!

James wanted the "tiger" - It was really called a cat in the description book but he can't read yet so he was none the wiser :)

It's hard to see the little heart with angel wings Gracie picked out.

We passed this hay and Gracie wanted to pose and have her picture taken - Such a girl :) I would have loved to take a picture of all 5 looking precious in the pumpkin patch but a)the older boys dressed themselves and were wearing sports attire so it wouldn't be as "sweet" as I imagined in my head, and b)we may still be there now trying to get a decent picture of all of them so, maybe next year :)

Saturday we had our 4th annual Fall Bonfire which has become one of our favorite traditions around here. The older boys had a great time riding on the big tractor with daddy and getting everything ready. Another reason we LOVE our house and the property we have - not many boys get to ride on a tractor all day with their daddy in the front yard :) 

Sleeping baby, blue eyes, circus tricks, curlers, and questions...

If you've followed my blog with my other babies you know I LOVE to take pics of a sleeping baby - which is good because that's all they do the first several weeks anyway :) So far baby David is a pretty laid back baby and basically just sleeps, eats, and looks around. He seems to be the most content as far as being ok with not being held all the time :)I don't know if he's really so much more laid back or if we are so that makes him more laid back but Praise God he is! The first couple of weeks he was eating 2 oz every 3 hours during the day and taking his last bottle at 10pm and then sleeping until 3 or 4 and then back up at 7 (which was so nice but I knew it wouldn't last) At about 15 days I think he hit his first growth spurt and started waking up around 1:30 or 2 and then again at 4am. We started giving him 3 oz every feeding and that has helped some but every night seems to be a different story. Praying he gets in a good one time a night feeding routine soon :) I've always had trouble with nursing in that I never make enough milk for my babies so after all I went through with James trying to increase my supply and never really getting anywhere we always start supplementing day 2 or 3 just so I know they are getting enough. I usually nurse until they get tired of it and prefer the ease of the bottle over me - usually at about 6 weeks. So far David is a great nurser and loves to nurse. I have no idea how much milk he is getting from me but it's enough to keep him interested so far :)

He likes to get comfy in his bouncy seat :)  (Well, really Gracie's old bouncy seat but it's all we've got left :)

Eat. Him. Up

Sweet peaceful angel

At 10 days he lost his umbilical cord and was ready for a big boy bath. He seemed to like it ok - no fussing at all. He's giving me a look here for sure :)
At 2 1/2 weeks we took him back to the dr and he was back up to his birth weight of 8.4 lbs and looked great :)

Everyone asks how Benjamin is liking his new brother - not sure how he feels about David but he LOVES his toys (I seem to remember having pictures of James just like this too!) Ben even has big sister to push him :) (Please excuse her lack of attire - she is in this new thing where she likes to take naps in her undies because she says she likes to be "comfy" - good grief!)

Happy Happy Boy!

He is still DYING to be outside with his brothers and sister ALL. THE. TIME! But he's quite a handful to keep up with - climbing on the trampoline - up the in to the play house - falling down the slide - trying to ride their little 4-wheelers. Wears me out! We have to keep the windows only open a small bit or he will try to climb out! As you can see he so badly wants to be a part of what is going on out there :)

Look at those blue eyes! Ladies watch out!

Checking out David in the pack n play

Trying to climb in too :)

This is his reaction to being told no, you can't get in there with the baby!

Reminds me of another baby pitching a fit - remember John-Mark's reaction to wearing shoes for the first time - classic John-Mark (and apparently Benjamin as well - Lord help me!)

Other than playing with all the new baby toys and pitching an occasional (or often) fit Benjamin is doing great. He's walking all over the place. He's also pretty much totally eating solid food now and lots of it! I seriously think he eats as much as the older three kids! Also, true to our clan he loves to sing and dance. Anytime he hears music he starts bouncing at the knees and he loves to "sing along" with the kids in the car. All the kids love to play with him often to the point of driving him crazy! He especially has lots of fun with Gracie but she likes to tell him what to do and we know he doesn't like that :)

And here's the princess! Yesterday I tried to put sponge curlers in her hair for fun. She thought it was fun for about 5 minutes and then she wanted them out - so no toddlers and tiara's for us - ha! Can't believe baby girl will be 3 in a few weeks!!! She loves being a little mommy and would hold David all the time if I let her :) And while she may look like her daddy she definitely has lots of her mommy in her. She is quite the singer and performer. She also LOVES to read books - so much so that I feel terrible that I have to tell her no sometimes - I just can't sit around and read books all day. Hoping she'll be an early reader since she loves books so much!

It seems both my older boys are preparing to have quite a career as circus performers - I seriously feel like they are always doing some new sort of circus tricks :) Both of them have finally learned how to push themselves in the swing which led to John-Mark standing up in the swings and attempting tricks. This is our double swing that John-Mark has learned (and taught the others) how to get it going by standing on it first. They also are both doing full flips on the trampoline and sometimes even managing to land on their feet! Circus tricks I tell you!

Not one to be left out of anything that his big brother is doing John-Mark is a full bike rider without training wheels! I mean, James just learned how to do this a few months ago and here John-Mark is following right behind. It is seriously like I have twins sometimes!

This pic cracks me up - James with his big grin and David doesn't look too sure about him - or maybe he's not sure about Spider Man :)

James continues to be the ultimate big brother helping me take care of everyone. He has several little jobs to help me out. Grabbing diapers and wipes, putting up bottles, buckling and unbuckling his sister in her car seat. Sometimes we have to work with him because he likes to be the "policeman" and keep every one in line but I have to remind him who the mommy is :) He also continues to ask me at least 50 questions a day. One of his zingers lately was, "mom, if God created everything, how did he create himself?" wow - deep question James. I think I may have a little theologian on my hands!! He also recently asked me why people always say to me that I have my hands full and why do people always stare at us! Very perceptive kid. People do ALWAYS tell me that and lots of people stare at us - as if having 5 kids under 5 years is so unusual! I told him they stare because they've never seen so many beautiful kids and that mommy does have her hands full - with lots of good things - all my babies!!

David's Birth Story

So, I was NEVER one of those girls that had a desire to have a baby naturally (with out drugs). I have several friends who are that way and I've always been like, more power to ya' - bring on the drugs :) My epidural experience with my first delivery was awesome - not too strong that I couldn't feel anything but enough that I didn't feel any pain :) The other three after that were ok - some better than others - one time it only took on one side and THAT was horrific - they eventually got me totally numb but I couldn't feel a thing - thankfully it wasn't my first so the baby was able to find his way out without much help from me :) Probably after my second birth I heard about a book called Supernatural Childbirth. I read it but didn't really think it could work for me. I even thought about going natural with Benjamin but when I got to the hospital after several hours of pretty intense contractions and was only 3 cm I threw in the towel. I later learned that I may have actually been further along than I thought but the ride in the car and even my own tensing up during contractions could have caused me to appear less dilated when they checked me (which similarly happened this time around). Then when I was about 15 weeks along with this pregnancy I ran in to an acquaintance that mentioned the Supernatural Childbirth book again and another book called Christ Centered Childbirth. She also shared with me her amazing birth story of her 4th child totally pain free and got me thinking about it again. We had a mutual friend that also had a pretty amazing birth story so I made arrangements to meet with her and hear her story too.

Fast forward to about 37 weeks pregnant. Jeremy and I are sitting on the couch and I look at him and tell him I want to try and go natural this time and I need him to pray with and for me through this. He looked at me like I was kind of crazy and said, "don't you think you should of thought about this before now?" "Well, this is my 5th time, it's not like I'm totally unaware of how all of this works :)". So we had a talk about why I wanted to go natural and I told him about all the things I had been learning from reading these two books and talking to these other moms and that I really thought this was something that I wanted to try to do and just rely on the Lord for His strength. Then there was just the convenience of going natural. I liked the idea of being able to have the baby and then just get up and walk to the bathroom if I needed to instead of having to wait until the epidural wears off and get the IV out. So we both started praying for specific things and looking forward to how this all was going to play out this time around. 

My due date, September 28th arrives and I'm still pregnant, as alwaysv:)(a Friday - it seems I always have my babies on the weekend:). The night before I had had contractions off and on through out the night but they never really got closer together and eventually stopped all together but I was pretty tired the next day. I called my mom and she had the day off work so she decided to come down and help me with the kids so I could get some rest. I wasn't sure when this baby would decide to make his or her arrival but I knew my body was changing and getting ready and it wouldn't be too much longer. All through out the day I continued to have contractions off and on. Every time I would pray they would get closer or stronger. I went to bed about 9pm ready to get some much needed rest. About 10:30 or so I woke up feeling a contraction. I laid there a bit and they were coming about every 10 minutes. I decided to get up and see if I could walk around some and get things moving. About that time Jeremy decided to hit the sack for the night :) 

I got up, put on my worship music and got out my bible and started walking around the house, singing and reading my scriptures and praying. After a couple hours of consistent contractions every 8 to 10 minutes I felt pretty sure this was the real deal so I decided to take a shower and put on some makeup and get ready to meet my new baby! This was at 1am. After I got all ready I went back to reading and trying to relax some. My contractions still weren't more than 8 minutes a part and I was able to handle them really well and was feeling pretty awesome about what the Lord was doing. I was feeling them but I was really focusing on what my body was doing and how it was just a muscle contracting. Every contraction I was just trying to stay calm and breath through them and not get too tense and then pray over the baby, my body, etc. Around 3:30 I was getting pretty tired and my contractions were still only about every 8 minutes so I decided to take another shower and see if that helped any. After my shower they did get a little closer to about every 5 to 6 minutes. Finally at 4:30 I decided I was going to call the hospital and go on in. I knew the kids would be getting up in a couple of hours and I didn't want to be there when they did. I also was thinking about going ahead and getting the epidural. Not because it was so painful but because I was so tired and I was afraid I had a long way to go and didn't know if I could do it with  out sleep.  So I woke up Jeremy and we were on our way. He was kind of surprised I was ready to go to the hospital because he could tell my contractions weren't as bad as they had been with Benjamin - but I think that was a God thing too. I told him I was just tired more than anything. We got in to my room around 5:15 and they checked me and I was only about 3 1/2 cm dilated. I wasn't really surprised. They asked what I wanted to do for pain and I told the nurse I had been wanting to go natural but I doubted I would make it - me of such faith - ha! So she put a hep-lock in so that if I decided I wanted to get the epidural I would already have the IV needle in and all they would have to do is hook it up. Around 6 or so they had me all set up and all the paper work done and I was able to get up and walk around some more. Jeremy and I went walking up and down the halls. At this point the contractions were getting more intense and I was having a harder time breathing slowly through them and keeping my body from tensing up so they were hurting more. Jeremy was encouraging me that I could do it but I was just so tired I told him I didn't know if I could. I was only 3 1/2 cm, I had a long way to go, or so I thought. I kind of just wanted to get the epidural and take a nap. Jeremy felt certain that I was much farther along than I thought because I had been having contractions every 2 minutes or so while we were walking and he could tell they were much more intense. After about a 20 minute walk I wanted to go back to my room. Once there I had about 3 contractions back to back that were very intense and I thought that was it, I was ready to throw in the towel. I called the nurse and asked her to check me just to see where I was and then I was going to ask for the drugs. She checked my and I was 9 cm!! Oh my goodness. I was almost there. Praise God! He got me this far he could help me finish this. At this point the pain was pretty strong. My water still hadn't broke so I felt a lot of pressure from that. The nurse called the dr and told him once my water broke I would be ready to push. It felt like it took him forever to get in there and I was dying for him to break my water so I could get this baby out. Well, he was too late - just as he sat down my water broke on it's own. After my water broke was when the real pain started. I actually started screaming. It was kind of like an out of body experience. I heard myself screaming and didn't want to but I totally couldn't stop. Jeremy said he actually almost started laughing at me - thank goodness he didn't - I might have punched him in the nose :)  Thankfully I only had to push through about 3 contractions and I heard "It's a boy!!!" that was at 7:15am. One of my prayers had been for a quick and easy delivery. So, even though my contractions had started at 11 the night before - I was only in the hospital for 2 hours before I had him. I have no idea why my labor was so slow at home but it was pretty quick and relatively easy once we got to the hospital :) I don't think I will ever forget what it felt like when his little body left mine. So amazing  and I truly experienced God in a way I never have before. Since this is our last baby I don't have to think about whether I would do it again but I am thankful that I got to experience child birth without drugs this time around. And honestly it was only because of the faithfulness of God. I don't think I could have made it if my labor had been much longer but He knew just what I could handle. After David was born both Jeremy and I were just kind of in awe of what had just happened. I couldn't even look at Jeremy because I could see out of the corner of my eye that he was wiping away tears and I knew if I looked at him I would start sobbing. We've never cried with the birth of any of our children - not that we weren't over the moon each time - this time was just more intense. I'm not sure what caused the emotion in Jeremy - maybe he was amazed at the strength of his amazing wife - ha! No, I think we both experienced God in new way that day. Praise God for His never ending faithfulness.

We are so thankful for our 5 beautiful, healthy, perfect children - more than we could ever ask or imagine!!! **I forgot to add this part to the story but wanted to make sure to get it in here so I'll remember it 20 years from now. Earlier in the night I sent a text to the two friends that had shared their experiences with me and were believing with me and had been encouraging me along the way - just to let them know things were moving along well and to ask for prayer - that was about 1:30am. When I got back to my room after walking and the contractions were getting harder to handle I had a text back from my sweet friend Julie - this was about 6:30 and she had no idea what was going on but it read "No matter what "seeming" obstacles arise, they do not change the fact that it's already done for you by Jesus. Things in the natural are not reality. Spiritual is reality. Heaven is reality. Restful increase is the way of Heaven. You are a citizen of Heaven." Such sweet words of truth and encouragement and literally what I was focusing on and repeating to myself the final stages of delivery. Once again God showing up and speaking to me through a sweet friend :)

Introducing...

Our newest addition - baby David

Finally holding our sweet baby - so glad he was out of my tummy and in my arms!!

We didn't tell anyone if it was a boy or girl until the grandparents and the kids came up to the hospital and got to meet him. They were so cute. Everyone guessed it was a girl except for James - he's been pretty sure it was a boy for a while. They all couldn't wait to hold him. John-Mark was so sweet (he's usually the most uninterested in the baby). He just kept saying "look how little his hands are, look how little his nose is, etc.)

The biggest brother and the littlest :)

Proud big sister aka little mamma :)

An attempt at a family pic. I wish I could be one of those girls that has a baby and then has her hair curled and makeup on for all the pics but heck, I can't even be that girl when I haven't just had a baby! :) 

He looks so totally different to the other four babies. He was a little puffy in this pic and his looks are already starting to change but he still looks very different. It will be interesting to see how his looks change as he gets older and if he looks like any of the others. He was supposed to be the tie breaker since James and Gracie look like Jeremy and everyone says John-Mark and Ben look more like me - we'll see whose genes are more dominant - ha!

Going Home! Jeremy and I laughed that this car seat is in pretty good condition considering it's carried around 5 babies!!

Sleeping on daddy's chest - Love!

My two baby boys. Of course when I got home my little baby Benjamin all of the sudden looked sooo big! I can't believe this is exactly how old James was when we brought John-Mark home. I think Ben is a little more jealous than James was. While I was in the hospital my mom said he walked around asking for me the whole time :( and he doesn't really like it when he sees me holding David. Poor thing is getting in some of his molars so he's pretty miserable anyway - I'm sure adding a new baby is not helping.

For comparison here is James and John-Mark. Crazy!!