The 24th at the Aquarium

We were really happy to get Jon back in town before his birthday, and especially after Sophie's stitches incident.  It's really awesome knowing that as long as we live in Utah we'll get to celebrate Jon's birthday with him in whatever way he likes! 

This year we returned to the Living Planet Aquarium and enjoyed seeing the baby penguins we saw advertised on billboards all over Utah.  They weren't so little anymore, but the girls loved watching the older penguins swim under water.  I loved watching them get startled every time a penguin swam in their direction.

Lydia talked and talked and talked of nothing but the sharks as we drove to the Aquarium, but didn't really like them once we got there.  Soph was beyond terrified and was really upset that we spent any time watching them at all.  Jon had gone to get something in the car and because Lydia had been so excited to see the sharks we agreed to  meet there, but once Jon caught up to us we didn't spend another minute with the sharks.

The favorite area by far was the South America section where we walked across a rope bridge a couple of times.  I think the girls could have spent the entire afternoon getting back in line to cross that bridge over and over again.  The birds in there were pretty cool too; some of them looked like birds they'd seen on Rio.  Most of the animals were cool in South America. Just not the snakes.

Before we left to go home we saw this:

 

 

Jon had to get a picture in front of it with his girls.  Well, Lydia and Soph anyway.  They were so tired at this point and Lydia burst into tears almost immediately.  We finally found out that it was because she wanted to be in the picture all by herself, and the teeth were just too much for Sophie.  Lots. Of. Tears.

We drove home so that we could enjoy s'mores and cheesecake (this one was more of a baking disaster than anything else).  Why is it that when you bake for just your own family everything turns out just wonderfully, but if you bake for company it inevitably fails? Am I the only one???  I made Jon cheesecake five years ago and it was beautiful and perfect and we ate it ourselves.  And I didn't take pictures.  I totally should have.  This year there were cracks.  But that's not important.  I covered them up with cream.  And the company was so good that I pretended I didn't care!  It really was so much fun having Jon's parents and the Pynes over. 

We ended the evening with fireworks. The perfect end to a pretty terrific day. The mosquitoes were a little much but the display was awesome and Jon put on a fantastic show. I love watching our girls twirl sparklers around.  They love being a part of the excitement and choosing which firework to hand Dad is a pretty big job. Happy birthday Jon! 38 looks so good on you!! In fact, you don't look a day over 37! ;)

Soph's great fall

 

Summertime is the best.  I wasn't sure how this summer would go with a newborn and Lydia and Sophie wanting to get out so much and be active, but we have incredible neighbors and they've been so good to us, offering to watch the girls and let them swim over at their place or jump on their trampoline.  Anyway, on July 21st it was a glorious day and our neighbors, the Smiths invited Lydia and Sophie over to swim while I tended to Mia. This was an especially welcome invite since Jon was out of town for work.  Changing things up was exactly what we needed.

I walked over to drop them off and stayed for awhile.  The girls were in good hands with their favorite teenage girls (some of them being beloved babysitters. Which reminds me, Lydia once told me to make plans so that Brittany could come over. Thoughtful, isn't she? :)) Anyway, I went home while they swam, snacked and jumped on the tramp.  It was just about time for dinner, so I walked across the street to pick them up only to find out that the girls were having such a great time that they never wanted to come home again. ;) After letting them stay a few more minutes and much persuasion we trekked back across the street for home, excited that Dad would be returning home in a few hours.

We had some trash to throw in the garbage, so while Lyds took the shortcut across the lawn, Soph stuck by my side and once our wrappers were deposited, she started running along the driveway toward our front door.  She's pretty quick, but this time her feet couldn't keep up with her body or something and suddenly she was on the ground.  Her knees landed hard on the driveway, then her chest connected and she slid for a second before her chin made contact with the concrete and stopped her outright (or her chin, that is) while her momentum propelled her body onward a little bit more.  Or as she likes to tell it, "I was running and I fell down and scraped my chest and hit my chin and my body kept going and going and going and going." And to hear her tell it!!  I love her little voice!  Of course in the moment I had no idea that all of that had happened.  I caught up to her and she stood up and cried a little bit.  She kept reaching up to touch her chin and I noticed the blood.  In fact, she left a little trail of blood on the concrete leading up to the front door, a few swipes on the door when she was trying to get inside and then some more drops in the entry. I set her on the bathroom counter prepared to wash her off and then stick a Band-Aid on her chin when I really got a good look.  And that's when I called Jon.  Then I hung up.  I needed a picture to show him.  He couldn't know that she'd need stitches or not unless he could actually see the wound. I wasn't thinking super clearly, but if we did need stitches then I'd need someone to watch Lydia for sure.  I ran outside and bless my next door neighbor, Melanie was outside too.  I waved her over and asked if she could take a look at Soph's chin for me.  I was holding it together pretty well until she confirmed that she needed stitches and Jon called at the same time.  He told me he'd call his mom and see how she could help.  Melanie said she could take Lydia and keep her over there while we went to the Insta-Care. Lydia kept saying how worried she was about Sophie and that she hoped the doctor would take good care of her and that she would get feeling better soon.  She ended up making a get well card for Soph while we were away. 

Grandma and Grandpa Frazier met us at the Insta-Care and held on to Mia while I was with Soph.  It's a good thing too!  She had a hard time at first, but eventually fell asleep, and then slept until we returned home. When we checked in a nurse came over to Sophie and asked her what happened.  She tried her best but clearly didn't want to talk to this lady so I did most of the explaining.  This happened at least two more times and I started feeling a little bit like they were trying to find out if I beat my kids. I know, they're just doing their job. So once we were in the procedural room, one of the nurses cleaned out her wound pretty aggressively it seemed to me and Soph barely even flinched! She numbed her chin at the same time and then we had to let her sit for a few minutes so that she'd be good and numbed before the doctor stitched her up.  I found out that the nurse who cleaned her chin told the doctor that she'd need at least two people holding her down while he stitched her up.  I'm sure that the reason that she thought that was because Sophie is so young, but what she didn't know is that Sophie is incredibly tough.  She was supposed to be wrapped up like a burrito in one of the hospital blankets, but they didn't have one in there, so she had a sheet placed on top of her and I stood next to her to comfort her and help hold her down if needed, alongside another nurse.  Well, she didn't need either of us.  She was so incredibly brave through it all! Admittedly I felt a wee bit squeamish watching the doctor pull on her raw skin while he hooked the stitches in, but Soph just lay there looking at me like I was in the middle of telling her a moderately interesting story.  She was so calm and trusting and patient.  I know I had my share of stitches growing up, but I can't imagine I was ever as brave as this little lady.  We were told to come back in five days to have the stitches removed and she got some stickers and a sucker.  Which, by the looks of it, made it all worth it! She'd later tell anyone who asked about her stitches that she was "brave like Merida."

I love this little girl!  She's super polite when she wants to be, saying "my pleasure" and "no thank you".  She puts her fingers in her mouth if she thinks she's in trouble, or she's nervous or upset.  Basically anytime she's uncomfortable. She loves to play library with Lydia, though she hasn't quite figured out that sending her patron away with the promise that she'll be open "in five minutes" or with the request to "come back tomorrow" might not be a much fun for anyone else as she thinks it is.  She's still our little fashionista and not only wants to pick out what she wears each day, but also which dress Mia will wear.  And yes, it's always a dress.  She also has opinions on my clothes and told me the other day that she liked my shoes when she saw me wearing an old pair she hadn't seen before. One of my favorite outfit combos she's come up with for herself consisted of white tights with pink and purple hearts, her patriotic dress and a cheetah smock trimmed with hot pink.  All so beautiful!!  She loves to give all of us checkups, especially shots.  She says these incredible prayers that make me feel like she knows exactly who she's talking to and that He really is her friend.  One night it was late so I decided to skip scripture reading and go straight to prayers and Sophie prayed "we're thank you for scriptures even though we didn't read them tonight." among other things, and I felt severely chastened and decided to share a spiritual thought afterward while making a mental note to never do that again. Also, this girl has so many treasures!  Oh the treasures!!  If there is any sort of container with an opening, be it cubby, backpack, gift bag or Tupperware (to name a few) she will put her treasures into it. Treasures can be anything: hair bands, play jewelry, blocks, ribbons, you name it.  Generally small things, books included.  It's slightly exasperating and yet so incredibly endearing at the same time.  No wonder she can never find her little Apple Bloom pony. And that might explain why we can't find some of Lydia's favorite little horses either....  She loves Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood and I love hearing her sing the Goodnight song to her little kitten.  "Goodnight. Sleep tight.  Dream dreams as sweet as you." She takes really good care of her animals.  Lately she sings "lead me, guide me, walk beside me, help me find the way!" And I love that my girls sing!! When she wants to talk to Jon, she'll say, "Dad, I wanna tell you something." And then waits to make sure he's listening.  She and Lydia love writing letters to Dad and putting them in the mailbox so he'll be surprised and know just how much they love him. But my favorite thing with her lately is when she goes up to me or Jon and tells us, "I love you" just because. And not just us.  She'll suddenly tell us that she loves Mia and even that she loves Lydia. Sometimes.  I love it when these little ladies are sweet to each other.  I can't believe that six months ago we were worried that she wasn't talking.  It's incredible to me how much she's grown! Just last Sunday we were walking through the church heading to the bathroom so that I could change her diaper before we headed home and I realized that it would take longer to walk to the family bathroom than it would to just use the women's.  I told her we were going the wrong direction, so we stopped, turned around and she said, "Jesus Christ wants us to go the right direction." I'm not sure why hearing her say that meant so much to me, but it did.  I'm sure it had something to do with the way she said it.  And that she's barely two and a half, but more than that I think it was that she really knows what she's talking about.  These little ones!  I just love her (and them!) so much!

Best Father's Day ever!

We were so grateful that Mia held off making her debut until after Uncle Nate returned home from the Netherlands, and thought that anytime after his homecoming would be a welcome time for her to join our family.  Obviously if she'd been born before Nate got home from his mission that would have been fine, but this way we were able to spend lots of time with family for such an exciting event.  The final Blackhurst sibling returning home from his mission.  What a wonderful day! And just in time for Lydia's fourth birthday. Even better.

Well, anytime after that would have been awesome, but if Mia was going to follow in her sisters footsteps, then we could expect her to stay put until much closer to June 20th.  Lydia was two days early.  Sophie was three days early.  So it stood to reason that Mia might be four days early. Perfect. June 16th would be a great day to have a baby.  But June 16th was a Tuesday and both Lydia and Sophie were born on a Sunday, so the 14th would be even better.  Another Sunday baby.  Sounds good to me.  Besides that, I have a newfound respect for mother's of summertime babies and hoped to spend less pregnant days in the suffocating heat.  Not that any of us really get to make that call, but it's amazing how much time can be spent wondering about and hoping for a timely birth date.

As it turned out June 14th came and went.  And then June 16th came and went and Mia showed no sign of being anything but content to stay where she was. On a side note, the 14th brought a rather unexpected event in Sacrament meeting.  Right in the middle of one of our neighbor's talks what appeared to be bright red confetti flew through the air only to land on the floor, our bench, and finally my lap.  Jon was counting attendance and Lydia was sitting on a nearby bench. I was grateful that it was just Sophie and me when the explosion occurred.  I touched the goop and discovered immediately that it would likely stain whatever it came in contact with.  Sophie reached for it before I could stop her and her finger turned bright red. What ensued was chaos. quiet chaos, but chaos none the less.  The brothers who had caused the mess were in and out with paper towels trying to clean it up. My friend looked over and thought Sophie had puked up the bright red something or other, and one of the brothers whispered as quietly as he could that he was going to replace my now stained and ruined dress.  His mother was the speaker and kept calm through it all. By the time we'd cleaned up everything the best we could Jon and I looked like bank robbers and the "stuff" had soaked through to my skin.  We found out that a stress ball was to blame for the horrid display and it turns out that it didn't stain. I'd never have believed it if I hadn't seen it myself.

As each day passed I started getting a little more anxious.  I kept asking Mia if she was okay in there.  I ran three miles on the 13th and couldn't get myself to run the following week.  She was moving, but apparently content to stay put.  On the evening of the 19th we had spicy café rio.  Spicy food seemed to do the trick with Lydia so I was hopeful Mia would respond to it as well.  Nothing happened.  For dinner on the 20th we had spicy chicken.  It was amazing to me to reach Mia's due date and still be very pregnant. Maybe she would be born on the 21st and be birthday buddies with her cousin Milo! That would be lovely but I wasn't getting my hopes up. 

I realize now that I was having very irregular contractions starting on the 19th for sure (maybe even as early as the 18th), but they were so irregular I didn't recognize them as such.  Jon and I watched The Hobbit (maybe the first one...? I wasn't terribly focused on the movie) and went to bed late.  I couldn't sleep so I stayed up reading Harry Potter and at about 1:15 my water broke.  There was no question about it.  I was just relaxing in our bed when suddenly my pajamas were soaked and our sheets as well. I turned to Jon and said, "I'm pretty sure my water broke... yep... I'm sure."  Jon called his mom immediately and we both started running around like a couple of crazies. Yay!  She was actually going to be born on a Sunday.  And not just a Sunday, Father's Day! But I wasn't thinking much about that at the time.  In fact, the Father's Day cards for Jon and Grandpa and Grandpa that the girls and I had made and written in were definitely not on my mind, though at one point I had decided to pack them if we did end up going into labor on Father's Day. Oh well.  We'd be sure to deliver them another day.  I felt pretty tethered because with every step I took more fluids came gushing out and I was having a hard time feeling like I could wander from the bathroom. 

Thankfully Lydia and Sophie had had their backpacks packed for days and days.  Each morning Lydia would come downstairs and ask if Mia was coming and if she and Soph were heading to Grandma and Grandpas.  She and Sophie fell in love with some newer Daniel Tiger episodes where Daniel's mom has a baby and he becomes a big brother to baby Margaret.  The girls would sing the songs and get really excited about their baby sister. I loved seeing their excitement and especially how sweet they were with each other.  Well, she and Sophie would wake up to find Grandma there in the morning and she'd be able to tell them the exciting news.  So their stuff was ready, but Jon and I (considering how much time we'd had with her arriving after her due date) were completely unprepared.  We threw our stuff together, Jon's mom arrived and rushed us out the door, "you don't want to be having her on the freeway!!" and we raced off to McKay Dee hospital.  Jon didn't bring his pajamas, we left the car seat and the lovely newborn outfit I'd picked out for Mia was still folded neatly in her closet where it had been for at least a month now.  Oh, and blankets for her? Nope. I forgot those too.  What were we thinking??! But we were going to meet little Mia.  And soon!  I was sure about that.  She'd be the first morning baby. Let's see.  Sophie's labor was 14 hours, but this time my water broke and don't they come faster with each new baby? We'd be meeting her sometime this morning, I was sure of it. 

We rushed out the door, I was sitting on towels and counting the minutes between contractions so I'd be able to tell the nurse what was going on.  We got to the hospital, parked and hustled to the main entrance.  Locked.  Oh right.  It's 2:00 am.  Again, what were we thinking?? So Jon ran back and got the car while I stood on a corner waiting for him, hoping we'd be where we should be soon.  We drove to the emergency entrance where I was quickly given a wheelchair and asked to please not have my baby in the elevator.  Apparently that had happened there very recently.  Well, we checked in at the front desk, were taken to our room and discovered that I was only dilated to a 2.  Oh boy.  So after making sure that Mia's heart rate was fine Jon and I walked and walked and walked the halls.  My nurse told me she'd check me every half hour or so.  So we walked some more.  When I was checked again I was barely dilated to 2 and a half.  So, we got up and walked some more. More and more and more.  Jon told me all about work projects and that made the time go by pretty quickly. We actually witnessed several women being turned away. That wasn't fun.  My nurse's shift had ended so we had a new nurse (she was amazing! She reminded me of our friend Rani and was just so comfortable to be around) and she was okay to let to me walk longer, so we did.  Closer to an hour and a half.  Maybe two hours at which point I was only at a 3. By this time we were thinking we should have tried to get some sleep instead of spending these middle of the night hours walking, especially since it appeared we would be waiting for much longer than anticipated to meet our little darling. The thought of having Mia on the freeway was completely laughable by now.  My nurse told me that we needed to get me started on Pitocin (it was already 8:00 am and I no longer hoped to have Mia before the afternoon) and I cringed a bit.  Going naturally with Sophie was awesome, but I hadn't forgotten the final three hours or so when I was stuck at a 9 and my doctor recommended a shot of Pitocin to speed things along.  Things intensified so much once it was in my system and I wasn't eager to start that when I was only dilated to a 3 and wanting to go naturally so desperately, but what choice did we have?  Things were not progressing and I was a little concerned about infection at this point since it had been several hours since my water broke, so we started me on Pitocin.  The most difficult part about this was that I was tethered.  I had a five or six foot radius to work with which made walking much more challenging, so I ended up sitting on an exercise ball instead.  I felt like that was helping, but every two hours or so when my nurse checked me I had barely progressed. My doctor came around 2:00 (he'd delivered a baby around midnight and assisted with another delivery and had been alerted that I was in the hospital around 2:00 a.m. when I had checked in.  I can't imagine that he'd gotten much sleep) and I was only at a 6. And barely at that.  Pitocin was increased from 2 to 4 and I was reassured that once most women hit a 7 things typically speed up considerably.  Sigh.  I got this.  No worries.  I can hang in there as long as Mia does.  But it was almost 3:00 and 14 hours of labor.  I was sure Mia's labor wouldn't be longer than Sophie's, but that shouldn't have surprised me.  I'm learning even more so that each baby and labor and delivery is unique and that I should expect to be surprised, but when my doctor came in and found out that I was almost at a 7 he said he was going to call it a 6 and a half.  That way we could keep laboring and not think about alternative means to get Mia here.  He told me that I was still progressing on my own, despite how slow things were going, and that he never wanted to talk to me about C-section, but if my progression were to stop that would likely be the plan, so 6 and a half was what he would record.  Okay, I'll take that. I should mention that during one of my contractions my doctor tried to stretch me a bit to move things along.  Again, thank you.  Anything to expedite the proceedings.  Well, by about 5:00 pm and after being mostly distracted by The Princess Bride, I was thinking that an epidural might not be a bad idea.  I was pretty spent.  Jon has never really understood this determination to deliver naturally (you wouldn't go the dentist and refuse to be numbed, would you?) but he fully supports me in it and knows how much I want that for the baby and for my recovery.  So when I started faltering and weakening and suggesting that maybe an epidural was the way to go he helped me breathe through the contractions and became the best cheerleader I could have hoped for.  The nurse came in and saw me trying to hide my tears.  Instead of upping my Pitocin again maybe we could turn me on my side to use the stirrups to speed things along.  Yes! Absolutely.  Again! anything that might help. Talk about intense! But I kept at it for about a half hour and was praying that the next time my doctor checked me I'd be ready to push.  Or even if I was just at an 8 that would be incredibly comforting. Sometime in the 6 o'clock hour, probably closer to 7:00 my doctor came in checked me again.  I'd decided before the next check that if it was going to be another five hours of intense labor I'd better request an epidural.  I didn't have much of anything left in me.  So, when he checked me and said that he thought I was ready to push I was ecstatic!  He had to wait for one more contraction to verify that, but when he did and confirmed that it was go time I was thrilled! The end was in sight and we were going to meet Mia soon.  Really soon it seemed. So I pushed and she crowned.  And then I pushed again and she was halfway out.  My contraction was almost over and my doctor said, "keep pushing! She's just about here!" And she was! She was crying, Jon cut the cord and then she was on my chest and she was just so beautiful! And it was amazing how I wasn't hurting anymore.  It was shocking to me how cold the room suddenly was.  It was unbearably cold (Jon had been freezing, but had put up with whatever temperature I thought I had needed) and I was shaking and shivering, but it didn't matter.  She was here.  My doctor had remarked that her cord had only been 8 inches long.  Based on the responses he was given, this wasn't common.  Umbilical cords average about 24 inches long, so 8 inches really was remarkable.  My doctor kept telling me how strange my labor had been.  It seemed like a first baby labor, not a third, but seeing the length of the umbilical cord offered an explanation.  Perhaps Mia couldn't be born because she was held so close to everything else and until it could all come together she had to stay put...  We don't actually know why things moved so slowly, but that explanation makes sense to me. She actually didn't tear me up at all, but the afterbirth did.  Barely.  Just a scratch.  So when all was said and done, labor was about 18 and a half hours.  Jon sent a text to family at 7:24 "she's here." She was 6 pounds 12 ounces and 19 inches long.  Born on a Sunday just like her sisters and beautiful.  In fact, she was the most beautiful baby Dr. Stanley had delivered in a very long time. And we couldn't agree more.