Couple Of Baby Pictures

Do you love this baby?  I took these on his one month birthday!  Yes - he wore three different outfits (at least) that day!  There's a reason I call him "Quinny the Pooh!"

Cottage Meeting

Yesterday morning, David and I hosted a cottage meeting at our house.  I'm not very happy with myself for forgetting to take pictures, but there's nothing I can do about it now.   Wait - maybe I can illustrate it!

Let me back up a little and give you some history:  I already mentioned a month or two ago that my dad is running for County Commissioner.  That's been exciting and stressful and consuming for me.   And I'm just watching from the sidelines.  My parents and my sister Katie (who is helping Dad manage his campaign) are the ones who are truly consumed by it.  I had no idea how much goes into these things!  The time, expense, and intensity are exorbitant!  They are all doing a great job and I think Dad's campaign is going very well.  I wish I could help more, but my life is pretty focused on the baby right now, so I just listen to what's going on and offer encouragement when I can.

A week or two ago, neighborhood caucuses were held - where each precinct in the area chooses their delegates to attend the county convention in April.  Again, I couldn't attend.  Even if I was chosen as a delegate, I couldn't go to the convention with a newborn.  David went, however.  There were about 90 people from our precinct in attendance and David was chosen to be one of the five delegates.  Hooray for David!  For those of you that don't know David very well, he's a bit politically inclined.  Or at least politically opinionated. He's taking his responsibility very seriously - keeping all his mailers and emails in a folder, writing notes and charts for himself comparing candidates, attending meetings, etc.  I'm proud of him.

Ever since the delegates were chosen, things have really been heating up on the campaign trail.  If Dad can get 60% of the 900+ delegates' votes at the convention, he will automatically be the republican candidate this fall.  If not, there will have to be a primary election.  Of course, we'd all like to skip the primary, so we're putting all we can into winning at the convention.  We're not sure if it will happen - dad's opponent is pretty aggressive (not to mention a professional campaigner - literally - that's what her job is).  Anyway - it seems like every available minute (for dad, and also for Katie) is being spent making phone calls, attending meetings, sending out mailers, responding to e-mails, etc.  The goal is to speak to all 900+ delegates in person by convention time. 

A pegasus unicorn and a rainbow.  Not actually part of this story, but I'm trying to keep you engaged with my exciting illustrations!  hee hee.  Maybe I'll just say, "It's magical working on a campaign!"

Dad has been holding meet-and-greets at local restaurants and libraries.  He's also been meeting at people's houses in what are called "cottage meetings."  These are more informal, casual meetings (like fireside chats) held in people's homes.  They are usually attended by the delegates that live nearby.  They're a great opportunity for people to ask questions and have more one-on-one interaction with the candidates.  David and I decided to host one at our house this past weekend (Saturday morning at 9:00).

I invited two other men who are running for different positions to come present their information along with my dad, thinking that having a few candidates would help draw in more of a crowd.  Then, I made about 20 phone calls to nearby delegates inviting them to our cottage meeting.  I also posted information about it on a special facebook page for delegates only.  I was pretty nervous about the possible turnout.  With only a day or two to go, I had three RSVPs.  I didn't want to waste the candidates' time.  I was stressed out!  The kids helped me clean up the house as good as we could (and hide the things we couldn't get to) and set up a table with fresh fruit, juice, and doughnuts. 

What a delicious spread!

In the end, I think our meeting turned out very well!  We had about 23 people here, including the candidates and their spouses, etc.  I think there were 14 or 16 delegates.  Way better than I expected.  We actually ran out of chairs.  The delegates came prepared with some wonderful questions and the candidates did a great job answering them.   I wore real clothes (as opposed to PJs) and makeup for the first time in a long time!  The baby slept quietly in my arms the whole time and the older kids played quietly downstairs.  They came up after the meeting was over and polished off the refreshments.  It was really fun for all of us.  I was glad to have had the opportunity to do this for my dad and also to be involved in the political process a little bit.

My dad standing in front of my fireplace, speaking to the delegates.  I'll let you decide which ones are my mom, David, and Katie.

Me, wearing make up, holding Quinton.  Boy!  I need a haircut!

St. Patty's Day

I wasn't planning on doing much for St. Patrick's Day this year.  But as things turned out, Quinton was having a good day and he let me get more done than I'd anticipated.

For breakfast, I made the family apple cinnamon overnight oatmeal in little jars (more about that new recipe some other day) and colored them green.  I thought they were super cute and creative.  The kids ate them, but not with the enthusiasm I'd hoped for.  They wanted Lucky Charms.

Everyone got decked out in green for school.  The girls even had green braids in their hair.  My mom came over in the morning and watched the boys while I ran to the store for a few miscellaneous items.

For dinner, our family traditionally eats corned beef and cabbage on St. Patrick's Day.  This year, I wasn't up to any fancy cooking.  And I REALLY wasn't up to any loud, complaining kids.  I'd been shut down for nearly every other fun holiday meal I'd prepared this year, and I wasn't ready to fight the corned beef battle.  Besides, I recently read somewhere that corned beef isn't even Irish.   Irish immigrants had never seen it before coming to America.  I missed my delicious corned beef dinner, but I thing I was the only one.  Instead, I went with the easy, child-pleasing,  food-color-everything-bright-green route!  We ate green Macaroni and Cheese, Green applesauce, green punch, and peas.  (Oh, and brown sausage - just because David wanted it).  Healthy?  No - not really - no.  Fun?  Easy?  Yep.

Our home evening lesson wasn't Irish at all.  I decided to spend at least one FHE per month spotlighting someone in our family.  It seems like a good idea right now because the baby gets so much of our attention most of the time - I want everyone else to know that they're still important, special, and loved.  Bronson was our first person to spotlight. I drew names earlier that day as I was preparing the lesson and Bronson won.  He was so excited and proud as we shared the things we love about him, listened to him tell us about his favorite things, and watched a home movie of him when he was a baby.   Now the other kids can't wait for their turn to be spotlighted.

After FHE, we had a special St. Patrick's Day treat.  We even had a treasure hunt, with clues leading all over the house to find it.  It was a cake in the shape of a rainbow (one circle pan, cut in half and set on end) with a pot of gold at the end (a cupcake).  And that was it for St. Patty's Day.  Nothing too fancy, but more than I thought I'd get done.

Looooove This Boy!

When Joshua brought home his preschool's class picture, Dave asked, "Why is Josh standing up when everyone else is sitting down?"  Ha ha!  The answer is, of course, he's not.  He's just that tall!  I love it!  I guess it helps that he's the oldest boy in class (his birthday's in October, so he missed the Kindergarten deadline).  

This probably has something to do with him being the oldest as well, but Josh is a very popular boy at school!  Nearly every parent has told me that their kid talks about Josh at home all the time, and says he's their best friend, etc.  A couple of the girls in class have HUGE crushes on him and sometimes,when we're walking down the hall, I hear a kid whisper, "Mom - that's Josh!"   He's the preschool superstar!  Funny Boy!

Odds And Ends

Life's just pluggin' away over here.  My life revolves around sleep (mine and the baby's), feedings and diapers.  Its all kind of blurring together.  But, I realize that almost two weeks have past since Quin was born and I need to document a couple of things in this family history before they are forever forgotten.

• A hospital story I forgot to share:  I had told David, my parents, and anyone else who asked that since I was going in at 9:00 am, I was sure the baby would be born around 3:00 or 4:00 pm.  That seemed reasonable to me.  The nurses weren't sure about it, though.  Their goal (which they seemed to think was lofty) was to have him here before 5:00 pm.  Hmm.  When the IV didn't go in until after 11:00 am and the epidural after 1:00 pm, David leaned over to me and said, "Doesn't look like he'll be here before 3:00, Kell."  My response was, "Oh yeah?  Watch this."  The nurses got a HUGE kick out of that.  When the baby was born about 45 minutes later, they acted like I was a super hero!  As if I had any control over it.  But, they thought it was pretty cool that I was like, "Just you watch me!" and then I did it.

• That whole first day in the hospital, I was euphoric!  Everything had gone so smoothly, the baby was safely here, and I felt great.  I didn't take a single pill that whole day!  I didn't need it.  In the days leading up to my delivery, I was concerned about my body and its strength since I had completely stopped exercising around Thanksgiving time last year (it was just too painful with this pregnancy - it did more damage than good).  But after the baby was born, I felt fabulous - considering.  I thought to myself, "Wow!  I'm amazing!  I must be getting really good at this birthing thing!"  The nurses kept asking me if I needed pain meds, and I kept insisting that I didn't.  Then, night came, and I fell asleep.  I only slept for about a half hour when I was awakened by the most horrible, whole-body, throbbing pain I can remember.  I felt exactly like I had been hit by a truck - I'm not just saying that metaphorically.  My toes hurt!  Why would my toes hurt?!?!  My hair, muscles in my shins, shoulders, feet - even my teeth!  Boy!  Was I wrong about being good at the birthing thing!  I only took Lortab for a couple of days, but I'm STILL a little stiff!

• Girl babies are MUCH more fun to dress up than boy babies. Girls get cute headbands and bows, frilly dresses, leg warmers, even little tutus! BUT - the one advantage that boys have over girls is the mustachifier! No girls get to look this cool!  Thanks, Wahlquists, for this awesome gift!   He looks a bit like a young Wilford Brimley!

• Quinton is a really sweet baby!  He's still tiny, but so far, he's been a fantastic sleeper!  Better than any of my other kids were.  He has his moments of pure fussiness, but there are also a couple of times per day when he sleeps in his crib for HOURS.  I've even had to wake him up to feed him a few times.  I've been able to get 5, 6, once almost 7 total hours of sleep at night!  Not always, but often enough that I feel pretty good!

• My mom has been spending a lot if time at our house this past week.  It's been such a blessing to me!  She's been taking the kids to school, then coming over and helping me clean, do laundry, cook, or whatever else I need for a few hours.  Then, she picks the girls up from school.  She's amazing!  It's been great having her around and I kind of dread the day when she finally stops coming.  But I guess I have to grow up someday...sigh...  We've also been blessed by many sweet neighbors, family, and friends who have brought us meals and gifts.  I think I've only cooked dinner once this whole month!  We are truly blessed!

• About a day after Quinton came home from the hospital, our dishwasher died.  It died about 95 days ago and we'd already had it repaired once - wouldn't you know it, the repair was guaranteed for 90 days.  Ugh.  So...we had to buy a new dishwasher.  Thank heaven for tax returns!  I wonder what it would be like to actually use our tax return on something fun...

Ooooh!  Shiny!

• 
  The four older kids are transitioning to their new life with a baby pretty well.  I think Nicki is starting to feel stir crazy because I am always saying "no" to her millions of requests for play dates, outings, etc.  But for the most part, all of them are doing great!  They've been making up big elaborate games and playing quietly downstairs for hours.  Some of their games are incredibly messy, but I think messes are wonderful (in the basement)!  They're having fun! It beats the heck out of a tidy house with kids that are plugged in all the time.  I should have taken more pictures of their face painting, plays, and experiments. The weather has been good enough this past week or so that they've been spending more time outside as well.  That's been good for all of us!  The girls have also stepped up and helped a ton with our morning routines.  They basically pack their own lunches now, as well as helping get the boys fed and dressed, holding the baby, etc.  They are a tremendous help!

Last Sunday, the kids spent a long time building an entire city in our basement.  There was a train station, a farm, zoo, the ocean, cars, a jail, fire station, and plenty of houses as well.  It was awesome!

• 
  Finally, I'll leave you with some pictures of our growing baby!  Alison did a little photo shoot while he was getting his sponge bath the other day.  He's getting bigger and chubbier already!

Trying to eat his shirt.

Welcome, Baby!

Let's get to the good stuff, shall we?

On Monday, February 24th, David and I prepared to head over to the hospital.  Nicole made a special power point presentation wishing us good luck, and Alison prepared a list of 20 or so riddles to keep us from getting bored while we waited for the baby to come.  Both gestures were so sweet they almost made me teary.  I was a little nostalgic about my babies at home and kept hugging them and telling them how much I would miss them.  My mom came over to our house around 8:30 am.  She and the kids wished us goodbye and watched us drive away.  Then, she took the kiddos to school and commenced operation hold-down-the-fort.

David and I arrived at Ogden Regional Medical Center at about 9:00 am.  Things went very smoothly and comfortably in every way.  We got situated in our room and met our nurses.  I got strapped into the equipment and answered a million questions, etc.  Pretty simple stuff.  The nurses offered to take a short list of our favorite baby names all around the floor and conduct a poll for us.  Quinton was the overwhelming winner.  But of course, by this time, we decided to meet him first before making any decisions.

At 11:00-ish, the nurse hooked up my IV (worst part of the day for me - I hate needles. I almost passed out.  Not kidding) and started the pitocin.  Boy!  That stuff really works on me!  I was in mucho de pain pretty quickly.  My doc came by to say "hello" and break my water.  I was nervous about having it broken before my epidural was in, but it didn't hurt.  The contractions were really kicking in by this point. I tried to act tough for a while, but then I decided that tough equals stupid, so I asked the nurse to call the anesthesiologist.  He came in and did his thing.  He wasn't really very friendly or talkative, but he sure was good at what he did.  And you know what?  When I'm in the middle of contractions, I don't really want a friendly, talkative person in the room with me.  I'll take competent and efficient any day!  He had me all set at around 1:15 pm.

Enjoying a pain-free minute.

After the epidural was in, I settled down and enjoyed about two or three pain free contractions.  Then, suddenly, the pain was back in a major way!  I told the nurse, who was surprised to find me completely ready for delivery.  She called the doctor and he arrived about 15 or 20 minutes later.  That was a long 15 minutes!  I wanted to push really bad!

The doctor arrived, made small talk for a minute or two while he got all prepared, then told me to start pushing.  It all happened so fast!  I pushed three or maybe four times total.  Man!  It was hard though!  I don't think I've ever pushed that hard before.  I know this was the only delivery I've had where noise actually escaped my mouth.  Not screaming or anything, but kind of grunting/groaning from the exertion - like a weightlifter or something.  It was tough!  Doctor Davis had to help twist his big shoulders out (another noise making moment for me), and then, at 2:05 pm, the baby was here!  Amazing!  From the time they hooked me up to my IV to the time I had a baby in my arms was about three hours!

That is his umbilical cord by the way.

Our little bundle of joy wasn't exactly little.  He was HUGE!  The doctor and nurses were amazed that we delivered him so quickly and smoothly.  We tried to guess how much he'd weigh, but none of us got close.  The biggest guess was 9 lbs. 3 oz.  Our baby tipped the scales at 10 lbs. 3 oz.  He was born with chubby, kissable cheeks.  I was madly in love in an instant!  Due to his large size, we had to watch his blood sugar levels for a while.  I guess big babies have a hard time maintaining their own blood sugar levels.  Sure enough, they dropped a bit within his first hour (down to 30 for you medical types).  After one bottle of formula, they came back up and stayed up for the rest of the time.

David started coughing a few days before, so he wore a mask around the baby.  Still does, for that matter.  

A few minutes after his birth, we decided to name him Quinton David - a name we had decided on early, then discarded for months.  Somehow it resurfaced right at the end and pulled ahead of the others.  We love our little Quin!

Quinton David Gee.  Since he's our fifth child, we named him Quin.

The hospital was a special, peaceful joyous place for Quinton and I for the next couple of days.  Due to a large number of deliveries that first night, they asked me to move to the c-section wing.  It was the best thing that could have happened to me.  The beds were better, the halls were quiet, and by the second night, there were only four patients on our whole floor.  It was very nice.  Thanks to my parents and David taking care of things at home, I was able to spend two nights resting with my new boy.  Dave spent as much time as he could with us, while also taking care of bed times at home and dentist appointments that needed to be met, etc.  My mom and dad kept the other kids happy, clean, on time, and well-fed.  Words literally can't express how grateful I am to them.

Megan and Katie came to visit us that first night.  

My favorite picture!

Sibling visitors!  Bronson was so excited, if just a tad rough in his affections.

Nicole and Quinton.  Josh didn't want to hold the baby for a day or two.  But he was just as excited as the others.  

Alison and Quinton.

Grandma Smith and Quinton.

Grandpa Smith and Quinton.

Grandma Church, Grandma Smith, Quinton, and Grandpa Smith.

The Days Leading Up To The Baby

This delivery was my first experience with having a scheduled induction.  Bronson was induced, but that was not planned - it was more of a "mental health" decision.  This is the first time that I had an end date in sight weeks in advance.  The reason we had one at all was because the doctor could see that we were going to have a big baby.  He wanted us to induce a few days earlier than we did - our delivery was only two days before the due date (it worked out best with David's work schedule).  I honestly didn't think it would even matter.  I was SURE he'd be making an early entrance.  All four of my previous kids were born early.  Alison was only three days early, but Nicole was 10, Josh was 19, and Bronson was 12.  This being my fifth child, and a large, heavy one at that, I figured we'd be meeting our baby boy sometime around Valentine’s Day - gives or take a few.

As the first few weeks of February ticked by, I started to feel pretty stressed (which is always intensified when you go to church and listen to all the well-meaning (??) people say thoughtless, sometimes hurtful things).  Watching Sue's wedding get closer and closer by the day added to the stress.  There were a couple of days in early February that I seriously cried for hours.  However, once Suzette's wedding passed by and the family was able to attend, and once those arbitrary "near Valentine's" days were in the rear view mirror, I settled down into a peaceful groove.  Having the induction date set made a huge difference to me!  I still talked and joked about wanting to be done with this pregnancy, but I didn't feel the overwhelming pressure that I'd felt a week or two before.  I could go to bed each night thinking, "If it happens tonight, great!  If it doesn't, that's okay too!"  I honestly felt like the baby would be here on the 24th.  If he came earlier, we wouldn't make him wait, but I wasn't holding my breath for an early delivery any more.  I didn't have any emotional breakdowns in the middle of church anymore either.  It was liberating!

Because of my age (36) I had to go to my appointments a half hour early every week and take a non-stress test.  Basically, they strapped me to the same machines they put on you when you’re in labor.  One's to monitor the baby's heartbeat and the other is to record any contractions.  They wanted to make sure that the baby was doing okay, which he always was.  I was able to relax for 20 minutes and read a book during the test - it came to be one of the best parts of my week!  And after each test was over, my blood pressure was better than it had been for the entire pregnancy.  If your baby's not stressed, then a non-stress test is like a day at the spa!  I'm sure it's NOT that way if the baby isn't doing well.  

On President's Day, David and I paid the girls to babysit for a couple of hours while we went out to lunch.  It was a really fun date - one of the last we'll probably have for a while.  On Saturday, the 22nd, we went grocery shopping together at our neighborhood market while the kids watched Saturday morning cartoons.  It was like our last big hurrah.  It totally wiped me out for the rest of the day.  The next day was Sunday, but I stayed home from church because of my frequent and painful (but not regular or steady) contractions.  And then, we were there!  It was time to have a baby!

I've never been very good at sleeping on Christmas Eve.  I get too excited.  Well, Baby Eve is about a thousand times more exciting!  Add in the fact that David was getting his annual spring sickness (coughing, snoring, etc.- I ended up moving to the couch), and I was pretty proud of myself for getting any sleep at all.  Who could sleep knowing that in a few short hours, you'll be holding your new little baby in your arms?!?!?  I was nervous about the details of the delivery and anxious for the family I'd be leaving at home, but mostly - I was just ready to meet our fifth and final baby and start our new life together.