Let me tell you about the last week of 2011!!!

The last week of December is generally... well, laid back. It's that quiet time between the mad rush of Christmas and the fun of New Year's Eve. Sometimes Thayne has it all off... sometimes he just works a couple of days but the kids are usually content and happy and entertained by their new toys and games. I knew that at some point we were looking at Kimi having her baby, but never did I think that the last week would leave me so.... tired?! Excited?! Overwhelmed?! Or so Happy!!!

Christmas was awesome because it was Sunday. I loved spending Christmas at Church and home resting and enjoying hanging out. No pressure... no worries. Monday morning my brother called and asked if we had any babysitters around to watch Jax while they went on a date to the movie. They didn't want to take him out around too many people and had wanted to see the new Sherlock Holmes movie so I told them I would bring Willie in and hang out with him for a bit and run errands. It was time to pick him up when I got the call... Garrett said they were dropping Gabe off and that I should pack my bags. Tiffany had been having contractions and they were headed to Utah.

I ran home and grabbed my stuff and took off, about 40 minutes behind them. We were actually a little worried that they wouldn't make it to the hospital since she was having pains 3 minutes apart on the last hour of the trip.

They got there and settled not long before I made it. I was almost disappointed to hear that she was still the same as she had been on the Friday before. There is a reason for that, I am sure. No doubt we had some tender mercies that night. Her doctor wanted to come over and check her and break her water. She got there right before 11pm and broke her water right at 11 o'clock.... and things picked up from there! 2 hours and 13 minutes later, at 1:13am on December 27th, sweet Isaac Jay came quickly into the world. I feel so blessed to have been able to be with Tiffany again as she gave me another beautiful grandson! I love that I get to be her 'coach' or whatever it is I get to be called. I just love that I get to be there. It feels good to be able to help her breathe, help her handle the labor so well. And she does so well! She is tough! Her doctor was amazing, stayed with her the whole time also. He came quickly... and it seems there was a reason he needed to get here early and with great haste!

Tiffany went to her appointment the Friday before Christmas and called to say she was 70% effaced and dilated to 3. I asked them why they were coming home! I really did worry that she wouldn't make it back. Garrett gave her a blessing when they got home and in it she was told that she would know when he needed to come and that she would have time to be where she needed to be for his birth. Monday morning Tiffany text me asking about the famous labor shake. She told Garrett that she needed to do it. He asked her if she was sure. She was, and she did, and it worked! Isaac was having trouble getting his lungs cleaned out. He was born so fast that it didn't give him a chance to get his lungs cleared. Garrett and I were watching the nurses work on him. When everything settled down, when we knew Isaac AND Tiffany were okay (I admit, I worried about Tiffany. She bled a lot after Gabe and I was more than a little worried about her this time. In the end her doctor took great care of her and I was extremely relieved. It's funny how I feel like she is my own daughter!!!) I noticed her doctor standing by the door of the bathroom talking quietly with a nurse, looking at the placenta. I had honestly thought the umbilical cord looked a little funny, not like I remembered with my kids, and not even with Gabe... though his was extremely short! It looked skinny, a little different. Then I glanced at the placenta and knew it didn't look quite right. There was a big 'clot' the size of a fist... and then what looked like darker blood in the shape of a smile. So I stepped closer to the doctor and she explained what she was looking at. She showed me that one of the arteries in the umbilical cord had ruptured... causing the big clot. She said that was likely the reason that the placenta was so hard to get out. She then told me that she had no idea when that happened. She said that typically when that happens, babies do not last very long. She explained that somebody was watching over him and he must be here for a reason! That is when I grabbed Garrett and told him that he needed to hear this. Tender Mercies... blessings. The gift of life.... a beautiful boy that we are so grateful to have in our family!

Mommy, Daddy and baby Isaac!
Another son to love....
Sweet boy....brand new from heaven!

He is a little junky.... took them a bit to get his lungs cleared out!

7lbs 9oz... just what Gabe weighed, only he was 2 weeks early.

Welcome to the cold cruel world...

Another beautiful baby boy! So much fun added to our family! All these amazing boys!!!

Gabe loves his new baby brother!!!

So I left Utah after Isaac was born, too wide awake to worry about being tired driving home. Got home at 6am hoping to get to sleep for at least a couple of hours. That didn't work! So I was awake!!! All day. Only to be informed that Kimi would be induced the next night. The 28th. Kailee was planning on going with me. We were going to leave late the 28th after she got off work but I had not slept AT ALL that night either... so the plan was that I would get some sleep and we would leave at around 3am the morning of the 29th since they were going to start pictocin that morning. Yeah... that was a good plan, except I had a hard time going to sleep and then I heard Noah wake up at midnight because daddy had left him on the couch sleeping with Wyatt... so the baby that normally sleeps through the night was wide awake at midnight. And so was I. Running on absolutely no sleep, we took off. 5 hours the OPPOSITE direction.

I have to say, I just was not excited about Kimi's doctor. In the beginning she told her having a large baby would be no problem. 2 weeks before Kimi has him she starts saying he is big and they should just do a c-section. Funny... 2 weeks BEFORE he was born she told her he was over 8 lbs and would have a huge head (last I heard, 14 inch head is pretty normal). Kimi wanted to do it natural. One nurse wasn't really helpful AT ALL... wanted her on her back being monitored the whole time. Kimi handled the labor well.... I was SO impressed with her. In the beginning she was starting to tense up when the pains hit. I asked her to look at me and listen, that these pains were going to get MUCH worse and she needed to breathe through them... and relax her entire body and just let the pains wash over her. SHE TOTALLY DID JUST THAT!!! I could not believe how awesome she was!!! At lunch time, I told her maybe walking and then sitting on the ball would help. We had a pep talk, told her that she can do this. So we ran to get Wyatt and Noah and get lunch and Kimi went for a walk. Until the nurse noticed she was walking... told her she had to be back in bed being monitored. Can you see where this is going????? Kimi insisted on the ball for a while and guess what? Her water broke!!! Funny thing? I told the nurse Kimi looked just like I did with Garrett... and I had SO much amniotic fluid. She said Kimi didn't. Kimi told her I probably know something since I had 16 kids. She looked at me over her glasses and said to Kimi, "Who is really your mom?" Kimi pointed to me. She pointed to Eva, Matt's mom. Kimi said no, and pointed to me. She then asked how many kids I really had. I told her I REALLY have 16 kids! She then explained that she has 9 kids so she knows. I told her 9 kids is awesome... but she gave me crusty looks every time she walked in the room. Matt says that she kept pointing out that she had 9 kids so she knew everything so when she finally met someone with more kids that her, it totally ruined her claim to fame and she was mad! haha :) Well, Kimi's water broke and she had a LOT of amniotic fluid!!! (ha... told ya!) and she quickly moved to a 5 and head was engaging. She had been in labor for hours then, but was so sweet. She would just ask me to massage her feet or rub her back, or have Kailee and I push on her knees when she had a pain. I kept watching the contractions and while they were hard, they just didn't seem to be doing exactly what they should. I was frustrated because they just kept telling her they should just do a c-section but they wouldn't let her move at all to help him come down into position. Long story short, after many hours her doctor pretty much told her that she had no hope of having her baby naturally. I completely disagree... I am kind of bitter about it, and Kimi isn't happy about it either... but you know, he is here, and healthy. It looked like his head was trying to come out in a weird position (um, yeah, because you know, he had been floating around in all of that amniotic fluid and then they put her flat on her back and wouldn't let her up again!) so our little Jared Matthew came into this world by c-section at (I think... it was a long blurred day) 10:03pm on December 29th weighing 8lbs 12oz and 19 inches long (only well... 3 days later he was 21.5 inches so really... who knows anything about this sweet boy except he is absolutely adorable!!!) Kailee and I were very bummed because we had been looking forward to seeing Jared be born. It's funny, my mom was worried about Kailee being in the room watching a birth. I, of course, had no such worries. Kailee said though that even seeing the pain and even seeing things go wrong, she thinks it is awesome and can't wait to be married and have babies.... and that I get to be there for her too!!! :) I love these girls!

Soooooooooo... we are thrilled to welcome to the world, and to our family... Jared Matthew!

It's all fun and games till the REAL pain sets in! I still can't get over how amazing Kimi did. She was so tough!!!

Sisters forever.... in joy and in PAIN!

Hey Matt.....

Let this forever be known as the moment mom told Kimi that she is going to walk, and get her water broke and get this thing moving... literally minutes later Kimi got on the ball and her water broke!

Mom and Kimi... a little pep talk!

Brothers just couldn't hold up and passed out in the waiting room!

Matt in his pretty white suit ready for the c-section. He feels a little more comfortable in his POLICE uniform.... not the silly white jump suit!

8lbs 12oz....

Jared thought it was a pretty rude to take him from his comfy place and bring him into the cold cruel world....

Grandma and Jared... feeling like my heart may BURST from all the love of these new babies!

Kailee said she fully intends on being THE BEST aunt of all!!!

Poor Jared was so gassy... so grandma had to get him calmed down!

Awwwww... sweet Jared!

Wyatt was so excited to get to see Jared!

After less than 3 hours sleep we got up, spent some time with Kimi and drove home. 5 hours in one of the worst wind storms I have ever witnessed. There were miles of white out from dirt, not snow... but dirt! Then it would sound like it was hailing, but it was miles of rocks falling on the car! It was insane! There were moments of it being absolutely terrifying... not able to see the lanes in the road, not daring to pull over because people were literally all over the road, but scared of going forward. We were just so glad to finally be home. Now... if only I could sleep! And if only I could figure out how to get Jared much, much closer to his grandma!!!