My First photo shoot! Aren't I beautiful?

I took these pictures right before the picture lady came--since we had her all dressed up and all. :) Baby M is a sweet heart. She has a bit of jaundice (sp?) so we are still in the hospital, but that is o.k. They will test her again tonight at 7 and see where she is at. After that, they will decide whether to put her under the lights or if we are o.k. to go home.

M is eating soooo well. She will eat anywhere between 2 and 3 oz every 3 hours or so. She loves to be swaddled and WARM!! no cold for her. :) She really is doing great. :)

family

My AWESOME sister. she stayed with the kids last night and is taking them to her house until Monday. Seriously, the BEST!!!!!!

Cousin L. . .

My two red heads.

SISTERS!!!!!!! :)

my cute hat that mommy knit for me. :)

labor details and first bath!!!!

This is the labor and delivery time table. It takes me FOREVER to dilate to a 5 and then I usually go pretty quick. I went from a 5 to a 10 in 8 minutes!! :) Baby M is doing well and I'm feeling pretty well also. :)

1:30 Non-stress Test
2:00 Non stable heart beat
2:30 Admitted into Hospital
4:00 Hooked up pitocin and antibiotics for strep B
4:00 to 6:00 Watched man from snowy river!!! :)
4:45 Start feeling contractions
8:00 Second round of antibiotics, dialated to a 1-2
9:00 Epideral….freedom….peace….sleepy…..very sleepy
2:10am dilated to 4 cm 75% effaced
2;25 epidural reload---awww, sleep again.
5:30: Dilated to a 5 water broke
5:38 dilated to a 10
WAIT FOR DR. to drive to hospital from her home. . . I didn't think M was going to wait for the dr. to get here.!!!!!!

BORN 5:52 in one contraction!!!! What a sweet baby. She GOBBLED down her first bottle like a mad woman. :D D got so many great pictures of her right after being born and now we can't find them. . sad, sad, but we are trying to make up for it with other pictures. :) Here are some from her first bath. :)

D waiting for the bath to be ready!

bubbles all over me!!! :)

What is going on?

My red hair is CLEAN now!!

Daddy stretching and yawning during bath time.

We love you sweet M!!!! :)

M!!!

Here are a few pictures of baby M. We just realized that somehow all the pictures we took got deleted (sniff sniff). So we are going to try to find them, but until then, here are a few we took just a second ago. :)

She was born at 5:52 a.m. and weighed 8 lb 13.4 oz. They haven't measured her yet, so we aren't sure on the length. We are pretty sure she has red hair. :)

I'll post more about the timing, etc. but for now, I'm tired and going to bed. :)

Baby M is READY!!!!

Well, here I am blogging in labor again!! :) It's because I have such stinkin' long deliveries!! :)

Actually, I went in for a non-stress test today and they ended up admitting me. M had irregular heart beat and so since I am 6 days over (according to my dr.) they kept me here and induced me. Once I was admitted and hooked up, baby M's heart beat was fine, so no worries, but since we are here and admitted, they are starting me.

I am just now starting to feel contractions, so you probably won't hear from me again until I get my epidural!! :)

2. . .

2 more days until my due date.... Well, the date that I think is my due date. According to my dr.'s I'm almost a week over due by that point. I'm really ready to have this little bundle. . . . It's pretty much all I think about, which makes the time go by slower anyway. :)

I have another nonstress test tomorrow and a dr. appt. on Friday. We will probably pick an induction date on Friday. Part of me really wishes I would go into labor on my own. I did with L and Z and they were much easier than J's labor. But at the same time, it would be nice to have scheduled so babysitters were in place and I would know when to expect my sweet M.

Either way, it is getting close. . . . . I just wish it were today. :) hee hee. Send the 'have a baby' vibe this way!! :)

We actually made it. . .

ALL THE WAY THROUGH SACRAMENT MEETING TODAY!!!!!! Nobody had to be taken out. . this is a day to remember!!!

tile. . . tile.. . . tile. . . tile. . . . . . . .

We have been working on getting our basement finished. It is a Ssssslllllllooooowwww process. We were hoping to have it done by the time M arrived, but we decreased our goals to a bedroom and a bathroom. We have the bedroom done and J and L are happily sleeping in there. And we are SOOOO close to having the bathroom done!! :) This was D's first tiling experience, but thanks to some good friends that had great advice, and a great tile saw by my brother-in-law (thanks Dan) I think it worked well. Once the tiles are dry, we can put the grout down, and we have the vanity and toilet ready to go as well. It will be close. . but we just might make it before baby M arrives. :D.. . if not, then really soon after. Our growing family is growing out of our home!!! LOL But I think we will make it. :)

A Man hard at work!!!!. . GO D!!!!! :)

First hair cut for Z-man

Oh, my sweet Z-man. How I love this little guy. Today he had his first hair cut and it was pretty much a chop job since a 15 month old doesn't really know the meaning of 'hold still.' :) oh well. He still doesn't have a ton of hair on top, but he was getting a scary-hairy mullet in back, so we decided to chop the mullet and bring him out of the 80's. :)

While I have him and only him here, I thought I'd write a few things about Z-man and what he's into these days. Into is the key word.. . and it's EVERYTHING. He loves to explore and is a busy, busy boy. He loves the garbage can, the toilet, toilet paper, any drawer with lots of things to pull out and 're-organize,' etc. etc. He is a smart little cookie and knows what button to push on the dish washer to make it go, the computer to turn it off, the TV to provoke his brother, (that's always fun), and how to make his toys sing to him.

He is getting to be a great little climber. He climbs on all the chairs. We turn them backwards so he doesn't climb onto the table as well. He loves to climb the stairs and is getting quite proficient at sliding down as well.

He knows what fast food is (I think the kids and I have eaten out way to much while I've been pregnant.) As soon as the bag is handed to me through the window, he is 'uhhh-ing' for me to hand him a fry. doh. We're going to have to break that habit. :) He loves to drink out of straws and water bottles.

Z-man is in the run everywhere stage of life. He doesn't walk anymore. . just runs. :) He doesn't like to sit still or be trapped in anyway. . . (church is an interesting thing right now.) He has made it through sacrament meeting a few times, but most of the time, D takes him out. He is a loud screamer if he doesn't get what he wants.. . . but on the flip side, he is the easiest kid to make laugh. SERIOUSLY. I think he came out of me laughing. He loves to wrestle with his Dad and will giggle, giggle, giggle. All you have to do is look at him funny and he cracks up.

Z loves J and L. J takes good care of him when we have babysitters, etc. and helps him feel o.k. I think he relies on her for a lot of things too. J loves to chase him around and make him squeal. L likes to bounce bouncy balls in the kitchen with him. After the ball goes, they both run with all their might to get the ball (which usually ends up bouncing somewhere else and they have to turn around and start the chase over again.)

Z is a great sleeper. He will take two 2-hour naps each day and sleep all through the night as well. He has a binki hooked to a monkey that we call 'mr. monkey' that he loves to sleep with. He is such a fun little guy to be around.

Right now he is teething, so he's having a bit of a hard time, but he will make it. I think he's getting his molars. . . OUCH. poor guy. Z has been my most cuddly baby and loves to give hugs and big wide mouth kisses. . . I LOVE THEM, but I think I'm the only one that doesn't mind the slobber. It must be a mom thing.

Z also LOVES being outside. He loves to go for walks and would play outside with the big kids ALL DAY!!!!

We love Z so much. I can't imagine our little family without him. We were thinking about only having two children at one point in time and then we felt as though there were more for our family, soooo, here we are. I'm soooo glad I have my z-man. He makes my little heart happy. :) We love you, Z!!!!!! :)

Nice 9 month belly shot of me!! :)

Another Dr. Appt. . . and more to go!

Well, I hit the dr.'s office again today. I am actually dilated to 1 cm instead of zero! :) Hey, I'll take any progress at this point. ;) My Dr.'s think I'm due tomorrow (the 18th) due to an early ultrasound. So next week, I'm considered 'past due'. Therefore, I get to go in for 2 nonstress tests next week as well as my next Dr. appt. I don't think my due date is for another week, so . . . . . .. We'll see what next week brings. :) If I don't have baby M by my dr.'s appt. next Friday, they will schedule an induction date. Most likely the 27th.

I'm glad they are taking precautions, but at the same time feel a bit like it is unnecessary for another week. I've tried to tell them I have big babies, but they are stuck on tomorrow being the due date. :) Oh well. I'll just use the time as a get-away time for me and enjoy the relax time! :)

Sunday Baking!!!!!

Sundays often become a baking day. We like to do something fun as a family and we like to eat treats too!! :) So last Sunday we baked snickerdoodles. These are such GREAT cookies to make with little kids because they get to help roll the dough in the cinnamon and sugar and 'criss-cross' the cookies afterwards with a fork. :) J and L LOVED the hand-on activity. . . . and I enjoyed letting them help. :)

They are growing up so quickly. I love them so much!!!

:) :) :)

Wow, it's amazing what a bit of sleep will do for a family. We all got some sleep and good food in the tummies and are much happier. :) I had a dr.'s appt. on Friday and I'm dilated to a whole fingertip!!! :) I'm not too concerned about it though. I know baby M will come when she is ready or that I will be induced. So either way she's coming in the next couple of weeks. I've NEVER really dilated more than a 1 with any of my babies before I go into labor, so it's not much of an indicator as to when I will go.. . . .

I think I'm a bit backwards of most people. I'm antsy the whole pregnancy to get the baby here until about the last 1-2 weeks. Then, I can see the light at the end of the tunnel and quit worrying about 'how much longer.' Because it's actually close enough to see. :) So for now, we are just enjoying the days.

I visited a friend in the hospital today that just had her baby boy and he is sooo sweet. Congrats McKinlay's!!! It made me excited to have baby M and a bit nervous as well remembering all that having a baby entails. :) :) but I know we will make it.

We had a great Saturday today all together. D showed the kids how to ride their bikes over a ramp and down the back hill. This is what they were doing when I got home from visiting my friend. . nice, huh? They thought it was great. They kept setting up blocks for D to bunny hop over. LOL. D is such a big kid!! :) I LOVE IT!

Well, that's just a quick update on the Palmers. :)

Just an OFF day for all of us. . .

So, you know those days where everyone in the family seems to have an 'off' day?? Well, today was that day.

After being up all night with contractions and having them continue this morning, we decided to check them out . . . well, we got the babysitter here and everything set and headed to the hospital with hopes of having our baby today. . . NOPE. Once we got in the car and started driving, the contractions STOPPED. SERIOUSLY, After about 12 hours of contractions (they weren't really bad hurting ones, they just kept coming), they just STOP on our way to the hospital. We got stopped on our way to the hospital in a traffic stop because vice president Biden was being FLOWN to the airport in his helicopter. . . We drove up the median and told the cop I was in labor (I've always wanted to do that.) But, like I said, they stopped before we could get to the hospital anyway.

L had a great time playing with his friend, but has been throwing fits since and wouldn't come home with me when I went to get him. Z-man got a diaper rash today and has been . . . umm ouchy and grumpy. J and D seem to be holding it together quite well, and I'm just soooo tired from being up all last night. obviously Baby M had an off day since she thought she wanted to come and then changed her mind. . .

So, I'm hoping to chock this day up to an 'off' day and hopefully tomorrow will be better. CRAZY!!! I'm sooo ready for bed and it's only 5:20. I just want to curl up with my pillow and ZONK!. .. now only if I COULD curl up with a pillow and get comfy! LOL. . . . soon, soon!!

So. . . .

so, it's 2:39 a.m. and I cannot sleep. I've been having BH contractions and I just start to get to sleep and I get woken up from a tight tummy. I would love for this to develop into something, but it's not really going anywhere. Just annoying for the past 5 hours.. . . . so I can't sleep. They have been somewhat sporadic and not very strong, so I'm not very concerned. I should do something fun and pull an all nighter, but really, I just want to be able to go to sleep. :) Maybe it will turn into something. . probably nothing more than a sleepless night. Oh well. :)

4th of July 2009!!!!

Today was a fun 4th. It started out with D taking the older two 'mud' biking. They determined it wasn't really mountain biking since they weren't really in a mountain. . it wasn't road biking or sidewalk biking. .. and since they were going through a lot of mud, it was determined to be mud biking. Regardless of what it was called, they had a BLAST!!! D was pretty proud of his kids. We hit a fun new park for a picnic and after that, we headed to a parade (which I was slightly disappointed in. I remember so many fun floats and creative people in parades. this one was mostly people riding in cars with a sign hanging out the window as to who they were.. . oh well). The kids got quite a bit of candy and replentished our candy basket.

Tonight we BBQed with some friends. It was raining during the parade, so no pictures, but here are a few from the 'mud' biking and the park. :)

Happy 4th.

Holiday!

YEAH!! Happy 4th of July weekend. I'm so happy that D has the day off today. It is AWESOME when he is home. It really makes the time go by soooo much faster. He finished up painting the downstairs bathroom this morning and is starting to lay out some tile. I think it's going to look really good.. . I hope. I'm not the best decorator or color-picker-outer, but I think it's going to look nice. :)

I had a dr. appt. last Wednesday and I'm still dilated to a ZERO!!!! If I haven't had baby M by the 27th, they will induce though. That is about 3 days past my original due date.. . and about a week past the bumped-up due date. So the most I have left is 24 days. :) Wow, it seems like such a long time to me right now, but hopefully the days will click by and who knows maybe she will decide to drop and actually come around her due date. :) Wouldn't that be a nice surprise. :) (I'm not really counting on it. My babies like to hang out inside me for as long as possible before entering this crazy world.)

Well, everyone enjoy the weekend. :)

Ultrasound of Baby M.

Today I had an ultrasound!! LOVE IT (said in the tone of weezy from dragon tales). The Dr.'s wanted to know exactly where the head was, etc. Well, the head is down and ready to go. They did measurements and she is approx. 8 lb 4 oz already with 3 more weeks to go. hmmm? Big baby girl. Anyway, the ultrasound technician wanted to play with their 3D machine, so she took some shots. Unfortunately the umbilical cord was right in front of her face, but we got a few that kind of worked. :) She looks so squished in there. . . poor girl. the tech said that 3D ultrasounds are better around 30 weeks because they aren't so squished in there, but it was still fun. I love ultrasounds. It was fun to see her. Everything is looking good. . . . just big. :)

Fun and crazy weekend.

Well, I will start with the crazy and move to the fun! We had some great big storms move through the area Thursday and Friday. This is what we found outside after D made it back from his trip. Our small trickle of a stream had become a monster. If you can see in the picture below, it is coming up the bottom of our hill. usually our creek trickles just beyond the small tree in front of the yellow siding home. The big tree is where the kids like to swing, and ALL of our small trees were completely under water. Our oak tree had tipped over and was getting a great bath from the current. I was sooo sad and thought for sure our little trees were gonners. . . WELL, good news. They survived. I couldn't believe it. they were all there, hanging out when the water receded. :) Happy day for me. I love those little tulip and sycamore trees. The kids LOVE to check on their 'own' tree and see how much it has grown. Anyway, of course, D wanted to get out a canoe and head down the 'rapids.' :) I don't think this picture does it justice, but it was some seriously flooding. I'm glad we live on a hill. :)


Next the fun stuff. Saturday was a TOTAL neighborhood day. It was crazy and fun. The neighborhood was having a garage sale, so all the neighbors were out. Some neighbor girls were selling lemonade and J had been working very hard at some 'art' to sell, so she took her pictures out and sold many of her pictures. I think she made about $4. :) I remember trying to sell ROCKS as a kid to the people passing by. She had fun sitting with her friends and making money. :) L roamed the neighbors garages and talked to people/played with their toys that were for sale. :) Z-man just slept and hung out for the most part.

It was SUCH a hot day that after the garage sales ended, all the kids got in their swimming suites and played in the sprinklers/ water for hours!!! While we were all visiting, we decided to have an impromptu neighborhood BBQ. So we headed home and everyone fixed something to bring. It was fun to hang out with neighbors. We eventually put Z-man to bed, L got tired and crashed watching a movie in the house, but J was so excited to be allowed to stay up late socializing with the neighbors and watching the stars come out. It was a hot day, but so much fun to spend with our great neighbors. We really do have GREAT neighbors. D and I stayed and hung out until about 12:30 (WAY past our bed time). . . .. . but so much fun.

L makes me laugh

Last night was kind of a funny night during our bedtime routine.

We read a chapter in either the bible or book of mormon each night. Well, actually D or I tell the story of what's going on in the chapter and pick out a significant verse for each child to read. Last night we read in Matthew about the young man that comes to Christ and says he has riches and posessions . . what else does he need? Christ tells him to give it all to the poor and follow Him. The young man walked away sad because he couldn't do that. After we talked about what that meant (putting Christ above everything. . even our possesions.) and we gave the example that if Christ asked them to give all their money, huggies, etc. to the poor and to follow him, what would we choose? After J explained to me the logic behing following Christ, L looked at me and said, "I would just walk away sad." I asked him why and he said, "because then I couldn't get my really fast car. And Jesus walks and walks and walks and my feet would get really tired if I followed him." LOL. I love that kid and the way his mind works. He definitely thinks for himself. :)

After we read our scriptures, it was time for prayers. L has recently been into 'saying them in his mind.' Well, that's fine, but he's also been telling me after his prayers are done that he counted all the way to 22 during his prayer (AKA I'm not really saying my prayers, but count long enough that mom 'thinks' I said my prayers.. HA) So tonight after he was done, I asked him what he said to Heavenly Father tonight. He looked so pleased as he began singing, "I love you, you love me, we're best friends like friends should be. With a great big hug and a kiss from me to you. Won't you say you love. . . me. . . . too!" I had to try very hard to keep from laughing. I'm sure Heavenly Father LOVED hearing those sweet words of love from my L. :) Like I said earlier, He definitely thinks for himself. He doesn't do things necessarily how they 'should' be done, but rather how he thinks they should be. :)

I love you, L!!! :)