Sami's World

I do feel bad that I haven’t posted anything to my blog. I was planning on posting something Sunday after church but I took a nap instead, good thing too…..

My water broke at church on Sunday. No it wasn’t a gushing in Sacrament meeting or anything! I went to the bathroom right after church before going downstairs to have root beer floats in celebration of Father’s Day. The water broke in the bathroom. I went down stairs as casual as I could. Talked to a few people, gathered the family and went home. I was going to try and do something productive in the early afternoon but just fell asleep instead. I woke up at 3 and Alix and Milo wanted to go for a walk so I did. At 3:30 I went upstairs to keep from being “noticed” when I had pain. By 4 I was in a HOT shower. We left for the hospital by 4:30pm. Hayward was full, Santa Clara was full so they sent us to Oakland. An hour later when we get to the hospital I was in a good amount of pain. We checked in a little after 5:30 and the baby was born at 6:45. When I got to the hospital I was at an 8, 90% effaced and 0 station. They rushed me into the room to have the baby but I just got distracted and frustrated and nightmares of 3 more hours of labor hit me and so I demanded an epidural. By the time the dr got there, asked me all the questions, I signed all the paper work and they inserted the needle it was time to push. I had the epidural for about 3 contractions, 3 pushes and they turned it off (a total of about 10 minutes max!!). But it was nice. Since it took a little while to wear off they were able to do a small repair inside, push on my tummy and move me around and I felt no pain. By the time the epidural wore off I hadn’t experienced any of the after birth pain. It was worth it to me.

Here are the stats:

Keri Ann was born on Sunday June 15 @ 6:45pm
She weighed: 10 pounds 6 ounces
Her length: 22 1/2 inches long
Head circum: 14 inches

She’s very happy and healthy. They were a little concerned about her blood sugar levels but they were all normal and rising each time they checked. We were discharged from the hospital today, Monday June 16 @ 1:30pm. The kids were all excited to see us come home. They made a welcome home sign for Keri and all wanted a chance to hold her. Except Milo, he has been a little apprehensive about holding his new sister. I’m sure he’ll get a desire to hold her soon. Afton, on the other hand, keeps walking around saying ‘I hold it, I hold it.’ It’s VERY cute.

Well, with only 3 hours left of the day, I suppose this baby will be considered “over due”. I’m ok with that…. :0)

I haven’t had any signs of labor. I have an OB appointment tomorrow, we’ll see what he says. Perhaps it will happen tonight and then I won’t have to go to my OB appointment.

I’m really glad that grandma Thompson has been here. The kids have enjoyed her tremendously. They get to play a lot and they get to be “spoiled” for a week. Jaime has learned a new song on the piano, learned to crochet and has learned to curl her hair on her own. What a great experience this has been for Jaime.

We miss grandpa a lot. He was here all day Saturday and half of Sunday. On Sunday morning I walked into the bedroom and Niah runs up to me and says ‘I’m going to marry grandpa!’ I told her she had to ask grandma. So she asks grandma. After a moment of thought grandma agrees. She runs up to grandpa ‘I get to marry you!! Lets get married.’ I told her she had to have a ring to give him. She said ‘No I don’t, he already has one.’ Boy was that little girl VERY happy. After grandpa had left and Niah woke up from her nap, all of a sudden she draws in her breath and her eyes get really big and sadly she says ‘I forgot to marry grandpa.’ I couldn’t help but laugh. She required a hug and some reassuring and then we decided she’d have to marry him next time she sees him. It was a very cute exchange!!

Saturday was a fun day with grandma and grandpa. Everyone just enjoyed a lazy morning of talking, wrestling and getting ready for the dance recital. Jaime did a great job once again and we all enjoyed watching her. Niah went on Saturday with grandma, grandpa and I. Scott stayed home with the other three. After each number Niah would turn to grandma and say ‘Wow, that was a great dance!’ She is going to be our next dancer, I’m sure!! Jaime was in the first number and then in the 5 number which is a VERY fast clothing change and her costume was quite involved. So I told her as soon as she went off stage I’d run down to her dressing room and get her ready. By the time I got there (about 2 minutes) she was already done with the hardest part! It was an eye opening experience that she is growing up and really doesn’t need me that much anymore. It was kinda sad for me! She was more than capable of doing her costume change without any help from me. After the recital we came home and then Scott and I left for about an hour. There is a girl in our ward that does massage therapy and said she’d give me a foot and hand massage to help me relax and sometimes, it helps to start labor. It was an amazing massage, the first “professional” massage I think I’ve ever gotten, and it did relax me very much, but as far as labor, no help!! But that’s ok, it was still a great experience. After that we came home and had pizza and then bed for the little ones. The adults stayed up for a while talking and enjoying each other’s company. We tried to get to bed early so we would be ready for Sunday.

Sunday was stake conference so we didn’t have to be at church till 10am. That extra hour really makes a difference. We had time for a nice sit down breakfast, wrestling and leisurely dressing times. We even brought a church bag. We gave up on taking things to church about a year ago, it was getting to be too much work and didn’t seem to help. But for two hours we realized we needed it. The kids were awesome!! We were very pleased by their behavior and we even made it to the end. As soon as we got home we had some lunch and then we had to say goodbye to grandpa. Too bad, we miss him very much. We took the chance to go for a family walk, without grandma though, but perhaps she enjoyed the quiet time. After putting the kids to bed we talked and then we all crashed too.

Monday, June 9 was a lazy day at home. Just the same ole’ routine but with an extra adult. That helped a ton!! I was able to get some school work done with Jaime and Alix and the little kids did not feel neglected. We did chores and naps and made dinner. We had shakes for dessert, FHE and then bed. We had a late bedtime because it was a hot day and it would not have worked to put the kids down any earlier. We stayed up late and watched a Atlantis. Grandma had not seen it so we all enjoyed it together.

Today, June 10 was an easy day. We spent the morning getting ready to go to Jaime and Alix’s end of the school year party at the park. I left early with the girls while grandma braved the little ones today. We ran a couple of errands and then went to the park. It was a great turn out and lots of good food. We played some relay games and just had a great time. We got home about 2:30 and I crashed. The kids watched a movie with grandma. After I woke up we got everyone dressed and headed to Wal Mart. Mostly because we all wanted to get out of the house and we did need a few things. After an hour in Wal Mart we went to Costco. After another good hour (or more) in there we finally told the kids we would go home. They were VERY good in both stores and we really had a good time with them. After a dinner of hamburger and french fries, we sent the kids to bed happy and tired.

Here we are tonight enjoying the cool night air and each other’s company. We are very glad that we are a family and all the kids are excited to have the baby come home. They are also very glad that grandma is here and they are all campaigning for her attention. She is so good about it and seems to please them all in the end.

Milo has been keeping us all in stitches. In his prayer the first night after grandma and grandpa were here, he said ‘Please bless grandma and her foot and bless that mean old bad dog.’

Grandma told Milo how cute he was and Milo informed her he was not. Grandma told him that she thought he was cute. Milo said ‘everyone says that I am cute, but I am not cute. I’m COOL.’ Grandma said ‘ok, you are cool and handsome.’ Milo agreed and was happy again.

Well, once again I’ll sign off with the proclamation that I may not write again for a little while. We shall see. Good night to all and happy dreams.

Well, I decided I should write an update now since you never know what could happen in the next 3 days. Although, knowing my luck, I’ll have plenty of time to update you on all our “adventures”…..

Monday June 2 was my trip to the tire place. I decided to make the appointment as early as possible so we could come back and still get things done. We left by 7:30 am. Our appointment was at 8 am. We got there with 5 minutes to spare. They were done by 8:45, I ran one errand and we were home by 9:15am. Plenty of time to get a lot of things done. Except I was exhausted by then and so we did nothing!! We ate again, everyone was hungry by then. The kids played. We did naps, a little school, I took a nap and then it was chore time and dinner time. When Scott got home we went out to the backyard and did another family clean up. The kids were awesome and we had a ton of fun. For dessert I made a Greek pastry we had eaten on Saturday that we all loved. It basically turned out to be fry bread made into balls and soaked in honey. It was amazing and VERY YUMMY!!

Tuesday was very low key. Nothing on the schedule. We made up for the lost time from the day before.

Wednesday June 3, was my “busy” day. We had P.E. in the morning. It was the last one till the end of summer and so we did a picnic. I made some cupcakes for all to share and it was a very fun, relaxing event. We didn’t get home till 2:30. Enough time to get our chores done and dinner cooked before Scott got home and Jaime and I ran off to Dance Recital Rehearsal. We got there in enough time to realize it was HOT in the dressing room and we could not hang out there except to change. Jaime and her class did well during the practice and we got home about 9:45pm. ***After dinner, I was bathing all the kids and getting them ready for bed so Scott could put them to bed as soon as he wanted to. I had Jaime, Niah and Afton in the shower and Milo and Alix were goofing off. I didn’t mind because it gets too crowded with all of them together. Anyway, just as I was getting Afton and Niah out (Jaime was already done) Alix comes bursting into the bathroom crying and blood coming from her mouth. She was way too upset to talk so I had her spit out the blood into the sink so I could see what was wrong. She spit 3 mouthfuls of blood into the sink before her mouth was clear enough to look at. I still had a hard time figuring out what she did. I had Jaime get back into the shower and help the little ones finish rinsing and then got them out (this while Alix is spitting blood into the sink). So what did she do? Her and Milo were trying to navigate the upstairs with their eyes closed. Alix decided she’d try and climb through the opening between her bed and Niah’s bed (they have bunk beds). She was about to go through and then somehow brought her head down on the bottom of the opening and bit her tongue (I figured out later she bit it all the way through). The blood finally stopped and her tongue was sore and bruised, her lip was swollen and bruised and she had a little cut on her chin. She was one miserable little girl. After a quick shower and a lot of love she finally calmed down. Anyway, when Jaime and I got back from the rehearsal she was up crying. Scott said she had not slept well since he put her down and he was trying to put some orajel on her tongue. Finally we were able to get some motrin down her and then we sat up for about 30 minutes trying to help her calm down. Both girls finally got to bed about 11pm.

Thursday was another “busy” day. I had my ob appointment at 9:30pm. I dropped the kids at the babysitters at 9. Got to my appointment on time. The dr was running 30 minutes behind. That’s fine. I read a good magazine….. Everything is fine. The baby is in position and I have another appointment next week. After grabbing the kids we came home and had lunch and naps. We had enough time to do some school and then we got ready for piano. After we got home from piano we made dinner. After dinner I got the kids bathed and Scott helped me put them to bed. I ran to the store for some last minute groceries while Scott mowed the front lawn. We actually had everyone in bed on time, even us!

Friday, today, was a busy day. We wanted to get as much cleaning done as we could so that when Grandma and Grandpa Thompson arrived, we could just enjoy their company and not worry too much about cleaning. The kids were awesome! They had everything done by 12:30 and even some extra stuff. We spent the afternoon eating lunch, doing a little bit of school and then watching a movie (after all, we didn’t want to dirty the house we just cleaned!!). I took a little nap in preparation for tonight. Scott got home at 4:45, the babysitter came at 5. We did a quick run down and we left by 5:15pm. We took Jaime and Alix out for dinner and then we headed over to Jaime’s dance recital. Scott and Alix found their seats no problem, I got Jaime down to her dressing room (with fan in hand. There was NO way I was going to spend another night in that hot dressing room. During and even after the show I had moms and girls thanking me for bringing the fan!), no problem, we went to change Jaime, NO TIGHTS!! AHHHHH!! I run upstairs, ask Scott to run to the nearest store and buy some. Even then he wouldn’t have made it back. Lucky for me there was a mom there from Jaime’s dance class who said she had an extra pair of tights and Jaime could use them. Yay for mom’s with extra stuff!! The recital went off without a problem. Everyone danced well and all the girls enjoyed themselves. Jaime felt like the queen of the night. It was also fun to go out to eat with just the older girls. It’s a much different experience than with all 5 kids. We got home by 9:30pm and the babysitters reported that all was well. They fed the kids, took them to the park, bathed them and put them to bed. AWESOME!! I took them home while Scott put Jaime and Alix to bed. We put the finishing touches on getting ready for grandma and grandpa and now Scott is out getting them at the airport and I sit here tapping away at the computer.

Scott has been awesome this week on working on my to do list. He has pretty much wiped out most of the list. The things left a big projects that require a Saturday to do. I’m so grateful for him and his willingness to do the things that need to be done and he does it with a smile and he even involves the kids if he can. What a great husband and father I have. Thanks Scott.

Sunday May 25 was a nice day. We spent the day at church trying to keep our overly exhausted kids semi-happy and reverent. After church we ALL slept (well, except Jaime, she never takes naps). We got up in enough time to get everyone ready to go and head over to Joey and Gayles for a fun bbq. We ate YUMMY food (as always), watched a few VERY fun movies and got home at 1am. While we were there, everyone helped sing Happy Birthday to grandma Ackerman and then everyone took a turn talking to her. I think we kept her on the phone close to two hours!! It was fun though. I hope she enjoyed it as much as we did.

Monday May 26, Milo had an eye dr appointment at 9:30. So it was an early morning. We had to wake him up to get him ready for his appointment. It was nice that it was a holiday, no traffic!! The appointment went really fast. Yes his eyes need protection. No there are no glasses that he can use till his face surgery is done. His eyes have not gotten better but haven’t gotten worse either. He should have his face surgery ASAP so his eyes can get more protection. We were gone in about 10 minutes. We made it home in time for us to help finish up the household chores. Scott was a busy little bee and did 4 things on his “before the baby is born to do list”. The biggest and best one being that he installed a ceiling fan in the dinning room so we can eat dinner in a more comfortable atmosphere during the hot summer evenings. After that we got everyone ready to go and went to Grandpa’s grave. Someone had been there before us and put flowers on his grave, it was very nice. We talked about grandpa and his life and explained Memorial day and it’s importance to the kids. Niah was pretty miffed through the whole experience because she couldn’t actually see grandpa and wanted to dig up the grave to see him. She also thinks Grandpa Thompson is dead. Sorry Grandpa Thompson, I think we will go through this with all the kids. It will be good that she will see you in a week. After that we came home and had left overs and got all the kids to bed early. We even went to bed early!

Tuesday was back to normal. We spent the morning cleaning and getting ready for Jaime and Alix’s teacher to come for the final meeting before the official end of school. It was nice to turn everything in and be done according to the state. After that we did do some more school and then spent the rest of the day relaxing (I really needed a nap!). After dinner, baths and bed, I was pretty wiped out. I was ready to go to bed. But instead I stayed up and tried to finish some primary stuff. I finished a lot, but not all of it.

Wednesday, we went to P.E. in the morning and that was fun. The kids enjoy playing with the other kids and its fun for me to talk with the other moms. After we got home we did some school, chores and then prepared for daddy to come home. It was a very low key night. I like those.

Thursday, May 29 we spent the morning doing all our school and chores. At 2:30 we left and mailed a bunch of stuff at the post office and then went to Jaime’s piano class. I dropped the kids off at a babysitters house then went to a dr appointment. I’m sure you all know how that went. I picked up the kids and made it home in enough time to get dinner on the table before Scott walked in. We had a nice family dinner, then bed time and then I went to a primary meeting. While I was gone, Scott made cookie dough for me so that all I had to do was back the cookies the next day. I came home with a nice long list of things that I needed to get done before Sunday. I went straight to bed and was glad of it!

Friday, was my “busy” day. I woke up sure I either had the flu or I was in labor. That has never happened to me before. Usually when I’m in labor I know that is what it is. This was hard to tell. I spent the first hours of the morning just miserable, but I had to bake the cookies for that evening. Once those were done I sent the kids upstairs to watch a movie while I napped on the couch. I didn’t have much time because I was watching someone else’s kid for them and I didn’t want to have to cancel on her. So after I slept for about an hour, she showed up. I felt a little better but not great. Finally my body decided I needed to go get sick in the bathroom and as soon as I was done with that, I felt GREAT!! I called and told Scott about it and he said, ‘It was probably the two pounds of cherries you ate yesterday.’ I think he was right! I’ve been totally fine every since! I think I’ll stay away from cherries for a while. The afternoon went smooth. The kids all played well together and enjoyed having Maya over. After lunch we had a quiet time and I snuk in another 40 minute nap on the couch. Then Sister Powell came over and I watched her two little kids while she went to an appointment. We played for about another hour, cleaned up and I loaded everyone in the van. We went to the park and enjoyed our usual park play day. Sister Powell picked up her kids from the park and after we were all done, I took Maya home. Scott met me at the park and took Jaime and Alix to Milo’s sports class. I took Niah and Afton with me and we had a quick dinner of cereal and then we went to the church for a going away. Brother Eyre in our ward has been called as a mission president in Canada and they leave in a couple of weeks. It will be sad to see them go, but we are excited for them. We took the cookies I made with us and someone else’s veggie tray and enjoyed seeing the ward members and having the kids play a little more. Scott had to bail on me because there were problems at work and he was going over to a members home to help them finish the inside of the house they were moving into. The Fa’anunu’s are renting a house that needs a lot of work. The owner was willing to rent to them cheap if they did all the work. So anyway, Scott went to help. After all the kids were in bed I watch a movie and then retired myself, for I was VERY tired too.

Saturday, May 31, was suppose to be our super clean day to get ready for the baby’s arrival. Everyone else did really well, but I just don’t last that long anymore. We got everything pretty much cleaned but we didn’t put up the baby’s bed, or get the hospital bag packed. O’well, there is always this week. About 10 am Scott was looking out the window and noticed the back passenger side tire was flat. He went out and realized there was a screw in the tire. Lucky for us we had a spare and he was able to change the tire. Also, lucky for us we paid an extra $15 to have all our tires repaired or replaced for free for the life of the tire. So Monday, I will be taking the tire in and having them fix/replace it. At noon Scott headed over to the Fa’anunu’s once again and this time helped them actually move. They used our van, one other van and a truck. I guess it went well but Scott had to bail by 3 and he said they still weren’t done. We got everyone ready to go and left the house about 4:30. We were suppose to meet Joey and Gayle at a Greek Festival at 3pm. We were running seriously behind. But they were very amiable about it and that made it easier. We called Auntie Sara and sang her happy birthday and then each of the kids talked to her while we drove to the Greek Festival. The festival was fun. Too pricey but we got in for free and that was nice (someone had given Gayle a ton of free tickets). It was fun to watch the dancing and try some of the food. The kids had a great time too. We got home about 8:30 and everyone was in bed by 9. I had to do the rest of my primary duties and didn’t make it up to bed till 11:15pm. It was late but that’s ok, I knew I was done with my primary stuff.

Today, Sunday June 1 we all got up late. Afton has been our alarm clock, up at 6 (or before) no problem. But she did not wake us up today. At 7 Jaime walks in and asks why everyone is still sleeping and are we going to church today. She was so good and got in the shower first while her parents dragged themselves out of bed. We showered everyone and got them all dressed and breakfast eaten and out the door to church by 8:30am! We were so pleased with ourselves. We got all the primary stuff done and my copies made and sitting in Sacrament by 8:50. Church went really smooth today and for that I am grateful. We are all now home having quiet time. The three littlest are sleeping, Jaime and Alix and Scott are reading and I’m tapping away at the computer. How sweet the silence is! The rest of today is low key with nothing scheduled but family time.

We’ve learned this week how children really do associate things to every day life. For instance, Scott shaved earlier in the week. When he came down stairs, Niah snuggled into him and then looked up and said ‘Daddy, you smell good! Is today Sunday?’ We just rolled with laughter.

Jaime saw Dad’s jean jacket on the couch, he had taken it the night before when he was helping fix up the house. She said ‘Did dad go fishing?’ He always takes his jacket with him fishing. It’s the little things like this that the children will remember when they are old and have grandchildren.

In primary today during closing exercises they were talking about Nephi, Lamen and Lemuel going back to get the plates. Sister Bennett was telling them about the three brother’s getting chased out of the city by Lamen. She asked the question, ‘what would you do.’ All the kids just sat there and then Milo shoots up his hand (I’m not sure she was actually looking for an answer). Milo says, ‘You know what I would do? I’d go right back in there and chop his head off.’ It was so funny the way he said it and how true to the story it was. He’s such a good kid and not afraid of anything, especially bad guys!

Other than that, things here are status quo. Just living life and waiting for things to slow down a bit so the baby can be born. The kids are so excited about the baby, about Grandma and Grandpa Thompson coming and about Jaime’s dance recital. So many fun things happening all at once, they are having a hard time containing their excitement. I’m so blessed with such wonderful children. I’m glad they are part of my life and I’m so glad that they are strong in the gospel. I hope and pray that we can always be the loving, patient parents they deserve.

We miss you all. Much love to all of you!