Life with our new baby

It's always an adjustment, adding a new member of the family. Sleepless nights and lots of crying and trying to get a nap and doing our best to meet everyone needs! Braden had a cold when Clark was born and I think that's how Clark got RSV. At about 3 weeks we went to the doctor and they ran a nose swab test that said he had a common cold virus and RSV. The first couple days were the scariest. He had trouble breathing and we needed to suction his nose a lot. He would choke on my milk while nursing and turn purple and blue until he could finally breathe again. Very scary!! He had a few days were he was very lethargic and wouldn't eat much. He is doing better now but is still coughing and congested. Hopefully he will just keep getting better!

It's been so nice living close to friends and family that have come over to help and keep my company. My aunts have been awesome! 

For Valentines Day, Paul and I kept up with our tradition of "14 Days of Love." We do acts of service for each other each day until Valentines day. Paul wrote me notes, bought me flowers and candy, cleaned the house for me, etc. Some of the things I did for Paul was make cheesecake, take the kids so he could have a break, bought Bridge of Spies, made his favorite dinner, etc. We got the kids little valentines, too. It was a low key Valentines this year. 

Here are a few more pictures of the last month! 

 Clark is a month old now! A few days ago I would have said that he has no regularity in his schedule, even though I have tried. But now he is starting to be a little more regular. We started some sleep training and he can put himself to sleep now! He eats, has some wake time, and then when he shows signs that he is getting tired, I put him down before he falls asleep. Sometimes he cries for a little but he is learning. For the last couple of nights he has only woken up once at night to eat. Right now we try to go to bed around 10, he usually wakes up around 2 to eat, and then at 6 for the day. The rest of the day we try to follow the baby wise schedule every 2.5 hours, eat, wake sleep. He eats 8x a day. It's worked great for my other kids so we are giving it a try again! He is fussy here and there but I can normally calm him down pretty easily. He doesn't like to be left in his swing or bouncer for very long before he wants to be held again. He has clogged tear ducts so he has goopy eyes a lot and I'm constantly wiping them. He likes to lay down and look around. He's pretty adorable and we love him so much! 

Welcome Clark!

We decided to be induced on Friday 22nd. My due date was the 18th and we really thought I would go into labor on my own but I didn't! I was at a 3 and 80% effaced the week before my due date so I thought I had a pretty good chance but it didn't happen. We induced on Friday so my mom could come and help with the kids and so we could take advantage of all of Paul's paternity leave with the baby here. 

We went to the hospital early on Friday morning and got started on pitocin around 8am. My doctor broke my water around 10. After that the contractions started to hurt pretty good. I got an epidural  around 12. It worked great for about an hour and then I started having some really intense contractions that I could feel around 1:30. They got worse and worse and I thought about asking the anesthesiologist to come back and make sure the epidural was ok  but I didn't want to sound like a wimp. It got painful enough that I couldn't hold back a few tears so Paul went and found him :) The nurse came in too and checked me. I went from a 4 to a 9 in an hour and was ready to push! So a bad hour, but worth it! The anesthesiologist gave me another dose and it kicked in shortly after the baby was born so I wasn't in any pain for all the after-birth stuff which was really nice. All in all, it went great. I'm so relieved and grateful that the delivery went well and most of all, that Clark was born a healthy boy. 

We didn't know what we were going to name in when he was  born so we thought about it for about an hour afterwards. We looked at him and decided Clark was it. I love it. We spent a nice hour together after he was born before they bathed him and dressed him, etc. He was able to nurse pretty quickly too. 

Later that day we had visitors come to the hospital to meet little Clark. I couldn't wait to introduce him to Susie and Braden. Those are special moments. Susie is the cutest big sister! She loves little Clark! Braden thought he was pretty neat too. We all admired him together for awhile before Grandma took them out for dinner with the rest of the family. 

My aunts and cousins came to see him too. They waited until after the kids had met him. Samantha and Clark share a birthday! So here are the birthday kids:

My mom was able to stay until Sunday morning. It was so nice not to have to worry about the kids. Paul stayed with me at the hospital on Friday night and we told the nurses we wanted to go home as soon as we could on Saturday so they were really helpful in getting us out of there. I don't like to stay at the hospital! 

This last week has been really great. Having Paul here makes all the difference. He takes great care of the kids and handles all the stuff around the house. I've been able to nap and rest and enjoy Clark. Braden has had a really hard time not getting as much snuggle time with Mom. He's my little snuggler. Sometimes he gives me funny looks when I am nursing Clark like -"what in the world are you doing?" I know it will be a lot harder when Paul goes back to work so we are enjoying having him home for now!

Clark is sleeping a lot. He seems to have a good temperament so far. We usually go to bed around 9:30 and he wakes up around 1 to eat. Sometimes it takes a little while for him to go back to sleep and then he has been getting up around 5 to eat again. We love our little Clark! He is so precious! 

Happy New Year

We weren't feeling well for New Years Day but we still tried to do a little celebrating. Braden was throwing up and Susie and I had head colds so that wasn't too fun. We took down our  Christmas decorations down and decorated a New Year's tree. We made pizza and watched a movie in our jammies. Around 7:30 we watched a kids countdown on Netflix and celebrated the New Year! Happy New Year!

I've  been trying to find fun things to do to keep us busy so I'm not constantly thinking about when I'm going to deliver this baby. We love the Treehouse museum in Ogden. We have a membership and it's great! The kids and I went last Saturday when Daddy was working.

 We decided to have some family fun for FHE and go bowling this week too. The kids loved it. Thankfully they have these great railings the kids just had to push the ball down! Braden actually scored pretty well! 

My due date is 2 days away now. I'm thinking I still have another week. Aye. We are excited to meet our new little guy and hoping that everyone adjusts. Paul gave us blessings a few nights ago and that was so nice. 

Christmas 2015

We had a great Christmas this year at my mom's house. Paul had the whole week off from work so we spent it in Cedar City. We had fun baking and playing games with family before Christmas day. We drove to St. George one night to see the house that won $50,000 for their Christmas light display. It was pretty spectacular. We went out to dinner and everyone was so helpful with the kids. Paul was feeling really sick that day and I was so nervous we were all going to get the flu 2 days before Christmas and away from home! He stayed home and rested and the next day he felt better! Whew! Christmas is saved!

Christmas Eve was fun. We all spent it at Tiffany's log home in Kanarraville. We had our Christmas Eve devotional and talked about the gifts we had given to the Savior throughout the month to honor Him and His birth. Then we watched a movie and had treats. The kids left a few cookies out for Santa before they went to bed. We didn't get much sleep that night though.. the air mattress the kids were on had a bad leak so both of them ended up in our bed... you can guess how well we all slept! But hey- what's a family vacation without a few sleepless nights? 

Santa brought Susie horses to play with and a millennium falcon ship for Braden. I can't get enough of this little 2 year old in his Vader jammies. Cutest Darth Vader ever. They both got light sabers for Christmas, too. 

After presents we headed back to Grandma's for naps and helped her prepare Christmas dinner. It was nothing short of amazing. Mom makes the best Christmas dinner. We had roast beef, mashed potatoes, homemade stuffing (pictured below), green salad, and my favorite- cranberry salad! 

We are so grateful to have family that loves us and that we get to spend time with them for the holidays. On the way home we stopped at Uncle Benjamin's and saw Grandma and Grandpa West. The kids were really excited to see them too. We have lots to be thankful for!