Naughty Daddy!

We had our first family outing today and went to Peter's company picnic. They had a few of those blow up bounce houses and slides which our kids were crazy about. Anyway, Peter decided to take all three of our older kids down the slide at once. He was carrying 2 of them and it was quite a spectacle. The video doesn't do it justice because it was a lot steeper than it looks, but it was very funny. Afterwards, the rental company guy came over and Peter got in trouble. Oops, oh well, no harm done!

First Day of Work

This is a little late, but the day we had our baby was Peter's first day of work! So obviously that didn't happen, but 3 days later he did finally start his new job as an estimator. So far it is going really well. He says it is out of his comfort zone but that is good because he is learning and he really likes it so far. He even has his own office with a sign on his door with his name on it. No offense to Carharts(pants) or construction boots, but I must say that I really like his new work clothes. What a hottie! So he started his second week of work this week and then got a severe case of strep throat. He missed a couple of more days from that. This is not good when you are trying to make a good impression, but no one seemed to mind too much so I think he is okay. Overall, Peter says that he thinks he will really like this new job. I just want him to be happy in his career so that makes me feel so good to hear that. He had a really crummy boss that made life miserable the last few months so this is a great change. He is still selling pest control part time for now as well so we still don't see him as much as we want to but we sure love him. I think Peter felt silly that I was taking a picture for his first day of work, but I was just so proud.

The 24 Hour Labor

I completely forgot how busy and tiring it is to have a newborn but I thought I would take a minute and write down a little bit about the delivery. Not everything was perfect, but I won't write about any of the things I didn't like.

I always have so much false labor that it is really hard to tell if I am really in labor or not, even on the fourth time. So on Sunday after church at about 5:00 when the contractions were about 3-4 minutes apart and getting strong I thought we better go in and see. The triage nurse said I was dilated to a 4 so that meant that I should be admitted. Lori hopped on the next flight hoping that she would get her in time for the birth so she could bring Dallin. Once I was settled into a birthing room, labor seemed to slow down a little. The doctor came in and checked me and said I was really more like a 3, but she wanted to check again in a couple of hours. I found that walking helped the contractions to be more intense so we walked up and down the halls for a long time. The doctor came in and said that there was a little change so she wanted to check again in a couple of more hours. So we walked more and things continued to get more intense. Finally at about midnight, the doctor checked again with a little more progress. By then I was getting so tired I just couldn't walk around anymore so I layed down and fell asleep. I guess my body just turned off because it slowed the contractions down a lot. In the morning there was no more progress, I was between a 4 and 5. The doctor suggested that I could go home and labor more comfortably there or we could start pitocin. The thought of being a half hour from the hospital scared me and I was really getting tired of labor so I opted to be induced.

Finally at about 10AM they started the drip and things picked right back up. I was thinking about MAYBE trying natural child birth, but because labor was lasting so long and Dallin was coming I decided to go ahead with an epidural. I asked for a low dose so that I wouldn't be as numb and shaky as the last time and it turned out perfect. I could still move, but had no pain. It kind of made me feel warm all over like I was in a warm bath so I felt great. They put that in at 1:00pm and Dallin and Grandma showed up right after that. I was only about a 6 by then. The doctor said the problem was that the baby was still so high up that it was slowing labor down because the head was not pushing down on the cervix. She said she expected that the cord was probably wrapped around him keeping him up high. That happened with Tanner too so I was pretty calm about it. She also didn't want to break my water with him up so high. Usually they do that to make things go quicker, but oh well.

Finally around 4:30pm, I lost my breakfast. When that happened my water broke! I have never had that happen on its own and I had never felt it because I was too numb. What a weird feeling. As soon as that happened I started feeling every contraction and it hurt bad. I felt so much pressure that I knew the baby was just about ready. The anesthesiologist came back right away to turn up the epidural. It took the edge off a bit, but I could feel everything still. I am sure I was at a 10 for a little while, but the doctor wasn't there yet. When she did come things went so quickly. She checked me and said I had to push now. She didn't have me wait for contractions or anything and didn't even want me to stop and catch my breath. Everyone got into place and after about a minute or two of pushing the baby's head was out. Back to the epidural. With the other three babies I couldn't feel anything at all, but this time, even though it hurt, I liked feeling what was happening. It was a very intense minute. Once the head was out she told me to stop pushing because the cord was around his neck. Then she told me to push again. When his body came out the cord was wrapped around him again so she kind of turned him as he came out to unwind him. I am not sure if it was around him 2 or 3 times, but he was definitely tangled up. The birth time was 5:06 pm. Oh, and of course the baby came out face up(face down is normal), which is no surprise because they have all come out that way for me. I guess it makes the birth harder, but I wouldn't know the difference.

They put the baby on my tummy and after a few seconds he started to cry a little bit. At about that time I remembered that Dallin was there and noticed the big look of excitement on his face. It was so sincere and sweet, I knew I had made a good decision to have him there. Peter helped him cut the cord and then they let me hold the baby for a few minutes. Then they only took him from me long enough to weigh and take footprints and then gave him back. They put a footprint on Dallin's arm too, which he loved. He was such a proud brother. Once they gave him back, everyone left me alone to hold the baby skin to skin for over and hour. That was so neat. The hospitals I have been to before keep taking the baby and insist on the baby being bundled with a hat on afterward. This made for such a wonderful bonding time. Poor Peter felt a little left out though.

Giving birth is definitely my favorite thing in the world. It can be intense and a little scary sometimes but it is so special. There is no greater emotion than finally meeting that little baby that you worked so hard to get. Of course I still haven't gone all natural yet so that might change my opinion. For school the next day Lori put Dallin's visitors sticker on his backpack and he got to show his class his cool baby footprint tattoo. He was very exited to share.

We had the Carter's name picked out for a long time, but when we started calling him by his name, we kept saying Tanner instead of Carter. That is why we had a little hesitation with it. But we really like the name so we went with it anyway. Maybe it is because we are used to Tanner being our baby and we need to get used to the change. Stephen is my dad's name, so the middle name was easy.

Bringing Carter Home

The last few days have been filled with so many precious moments. Carter has filled an empty spot that we didn't even know was there. Carter has been accepted by his siblings with open arms and it is so fun to watch them with him. Here are a couple of sweet things that the kids have done.

When we were about to have the baby the nurses were moving around the room getting things ready, but it was pretty quiet. Dallin was sitting on the couch with Grandma and he started singing this song in a very sweet little voice. He had everyone in the room smiling, but Grandma was the only one that could really hear the words he made up. Later she wrote them down for me:

"My monster truck- It crashed into the doctor's stuff. It wrecked the doctor's stuff. Now the doctor's stuff is broken. The doctor's stuff don't work anymore."

When we came home we brought a gift for each of the kids. Eden got a little baby boy doll. She was so exited. I told her my baby's name was Carter, what was her baby's name? She contemplated for a few seconds and said "My baby's name is Carter too."

The first time I went upstairs to feed the baby she brought her baby along too. We got her a little chair from her room and she sat next to me in my chair. I explained that I was going to feed my baby and if she wanted she could get a bottle and feed hers too. She quickly left and returned with a toy bottle and sat and fed her baby with me. It was priceless.

Tanner is doing better than I expected. He doesn't dote over the baby like the other kids do, but he seems to be okay with Carter. I think that having three kids already, they were already used to sharing my attention so it hasn't made a big difference to them. Having grandmas around has really helped too.


Eden decided to tuck her baby in with Carter.

Carter Stephen Dickinson

Dallin waiting for the baby to come out
And waiting...

and waiting!

Then he finally came. Daddy helped Dallin cut the cord.


Eden loves her new baby.

Tanner is more interested in being silly.

Eden compared feet.

Not too exited.
Now a family of six! What a bunch of monkeys!

Baby Boy!

Our sweet little boy was born last night, May 19, 2008 at 5:06PM!

Weight 8lbs 7oz

19 1/2 inches long

I will put pictures on a little later tonight and hopefully we will have a name soon too.

Fake Out

Still pregnant here, so I thought I would share a lovely story, not. First of all, I have been sleeping horrible for the last few months as you can imagine, many trips to the bathroom, tossing and turning, adjusting all the pillows, the occasional crying child, the toddler that crawls in our bed and sleeps sideways and kicks(why did we ever allow that habit?) ,throwing off blankets because I am hot and then putting them back on later, and worst of all the pinched nerve in my back that acts up when I am sleeping which makes sleep impossible and is only alleviated by doing back rows with weights(I have been up lifting weights in the middle of the night many times lately) or heating pads. It has been over 100 degrees here this week and it is not cooling off at night so the other night we went to bed with the A/C on 76 degrees. I woke up many times sweating so I kept getting up and turning the thermostat down one degree at a time. In the morning I discovered that I had taken it all the way down to 71! I think I will probably get better sleep when the baby comes.

So with all of that going on I was so relieved last night because I went to bed and when I first woke up to use the restroom, to my surprise, it was getting light outside. Ah, it felt so good to have a good nights rest. I noticed that the above mentioned toddler had crawled in between us as usual, but just went back to bed since it would be time to get up soon anyway (we get up at 6). The next thing I knew, I woke up and noticed that I was soaked. My first thought was, wow my water broke! It only took a moment to discover however that it if your water breaks it would not get all over your belly and that my sweet toddler had wet the bed!!! That never happens, and of course they were right up next to me when it happened. I am not sure if I was more grossed out or more disappointed that it wasn't my water that broke. Actually, I think life is pretty funny at our house with never a dull moment. I am fully aware that I do not make motherhood and having a bunch of little ones look glamorous, but I really do love it.

Autism Book

I try to always stay possitive, but every once in a while I find that I get a little autism depressed. These are times when I am so tired and frustrated and I feel that no one in the world understands what life is like. One evening I was having such a hard time I spent a long time at the bookstore looking for some kind of comfort in the autism section and left empty handed. Then I finally found this book on Amazon. Its full of short stories that are uplifting and hopeful and I find that when I am feeling down it really does give me a cup of comfort. I am happy to say that I have not needed it much at all lately because things have been going so well with my little Dallin. Still, I am so glad to have it when I am having those "moments".

Lovin Dutch Ovens

I have been working on Emergency Preparedness the last few weeks. One thing that I just needed to make sense of was if I am going to invest in a lot of food storage, I need to figure out an economical way that I would cook in an emergency. This led me to dutch oven cooking with charcoal. These ovens are so versatile and charcoal is a very cheap and safe way to store fuel. You can even calculate the temperature control pretty easily. So I have now invested in 2 ovens and a bunch of charcoal along with my other essentials that I stocking up on. I also think we will have tons of fun with these for years to come with camping and boy scouts etc.

Wardrobe Changes

Eden is such a girl she cracks me up. Okay, first my confession: I have been trying to make life as easy as possible for myself the last couple of weeks. I do the laundry and then I just sort all the clothes into baskets on the dining room table, one for each person. At least the laundry is clean and sorted, that is as far as I get right now. So with easy access to her clothes, Eden changes her clothes like 10 times a day. Sometimes it is just back and forth between a couple of things, other times she adds layers of pants or skirts on top of the current outfit. She also plops on any of her handful of hats. This morning she had them all on at once. She has about 3 pair of shoes that she changes all day long as well. Other times she is seen carrying around one of her few purses stocked with toys. It is so funny that every time I turn around something is different. I don't want to restrict her because it is so cute, and hey maybe she will eventually be able to get her shirt on right side out and not backward. I don't know what exactly prompts her to go and change, she will just all of the sudden go do it. Normally I would have an accompanying picture, but I packed my camera in my hospital bag yesterday and without easy access, I got a little lazy. After all that would require a trip all the way up the stairs and then I would have to remember why I went up there in the first place. Forget trying to remember the next time I happen to go up, that is just too much to ask ;)

word of the day: I can't remember if I put this one on before but Dallin and Eden have been heard saying Up-Slide-Down (up-side-down)quite frequently around here.

The Things Kids Get Away With When Mom's Out

I was driving to the Doctor the other day and talking to Peter on the phone. All of the sudden he described to me what was happening at home. Eden casually walked out of the toy room, got a stool, climbed up and opened the food cupboard, found the maple syrup, opened it, took a drink, put it back, climbed down and casually walked back into the toy room. The difference was that Peter allowed her to do it a few times while he laughed and took pictures. I don't think that is quite the way I would have handled it, but still, so funny. What a character.

Father Son Campout

Peter, Dallin and Tanner had a great time camping last night. They had fun setting up the tent, eating hot dogs and making smores. Sounds like it was a total hit.

Eden and I had a girls night out and went to dinner and then watched Enchanted. Eden loved having me all to herself. She even got to sleep in my bed with me which was a real treat.

Kindergarten

Today was a day that I have been dreading. I have been stewing over where to put Dallin for kindergarten and today we had our IEP meeting with the school district to discuss it. I have been reading up on rights and laws and getting all of my thoughts together for weeks. I prayerfully came to the conclusion that Dallin should be in a typical kindergarten next year because he is doing so well and I don't want to hold him back at all. He is very social and I think he needs to be around typical kids so that he can learn how to be more socially appropriate. I also think that is the best thing we can do for his language development. I believe kids really learn the most from their peers. So we went head to head with the district recommending an autism kindergarten for 3 hours. We did get somewhere though and they agreed to let him go to a typical classroom with and aid. Wahoo!!! What a relief. I seriously had to be a mommy lawyer and really advocate for him. I took this picture of Dallin this morning and put a copy in the front of his education notebook that I keep all his evaluations in and I just kept looking down at him and it gave me the strength to hold my ground. We still need to work out all of the details, which there are tons of, but at least we are in a great starting place now. I am so glad it is over although there will probably be more meetings to iron out everything and I have not signed anything.

The reason that the district recommends the autism program is because it is so much easier for them and cheaper. I could tell they really had no good data to suggest that Dallin couldn't function in a typical kindergarten with an aid. So of course they kept pushing for this and trying to get me to back down.

We feel really good about our decision and I really think Dallin will be in full bloom next year. He will have a full time aid trained by our ABA company with him all the time, but only help him if it is needed with minimal prompting. He will continue with his home therapy as well for 3 hours every afternoon. He will also have help with Occupational therapy and Speech therapy through his school. This should be a great combination and because he is progressing so quickly I think it will be an amazing year for him.

I remember about a year and a half ago when Dallin was very sick with one of his ear infections Peter gave him a blessing. In the blessing Peter said that Dallin would be able to learn to talk and that he would be able to learn and to behave and function well. I sobbed as I heard those words but couldn't really see how it would ever be possible. Today I see that this blessing has completely changed our lives and brought us to where we are now. The Lord took us in his hand and gave us all the tools that we needed. Dallin is an amazing little boy and I can't WAIT to see how much more he is capable of this next year. Going through all of the trials with him has only increased my love and affection for him. Watching his development lately I have just been in awe of him. I love that little boy so much.

The Bandage is Off

Well it was hard to wait a whole week because I wanted to see what it looked like but today we finally took Eden's bandage off. I am so pleased with the result. The cut stayed closed and seems to be sealed shut. It was open about a quarter inch before. I didn't take any pictures before but trust me, it looks so much better. There is not really much scabbing and it feels very smooth like there isn't a lot of scar tissue forming. The important thing now is to keep it out of the sun and keep it moist. I found that Maderma now makes a cream that has SPF 30 in it. I have to put it on 3 times a day for 2 months!!! The only reason I care so much is because it is right there on her cheek. I have a family member who has dealt with a prominent facial scar her whole life and I just don't want Eden to have to deal with that. I hope that after 2 months it will not even be noticeable. I think she is in good shape thanks to the tape that the doc put on. I agree it was the best thing now that I see the results.
We went to visit Peter for lunch on Saturday in Stockton and went to our favorite pizza place. This is the kids watching the virtual roller coaster. I thought it was kind of neat to see all of there profiles lined up like that.
Peter with Zora at the Pizza place.

21 Days

Why oh why do I still have 21 days to go? Not to whine too much but I seriously feel like this baby needs to come out NOW! I really believe that the last four weeks of pregnancy where you are feeling that you are physically pushed to the max but still have time left is just to make sure that you are mentally over the edge as well. Okay, life's not that bad but I will be one happy woman if this baby comes out sooner than later. Alright no more whining, thats all.

Tanner, Eden and Dallin

Tanner LOVES his alligator. He cries for it all the time. He has to sleep with it (and his special blanky). He wants it when he is sad, or in the car, or any time. He can't stand the other kids to have it. So much for soft teddy bears! It love it when he says alligator in his cute little voice. I just think it is such a funny choice for a comfort item.

Eden is already a budding sudoku guru. Watch out Heidi D!

Dallin started school today. He was pretty exited about it. I wasn't sure if he would be anxious after not going for so long but he jumped right on the bus ready to go see his friends. The month off went really well. He is a pretty intense guy, but I think he loved having all that time to play with Eden. He was exited about telling his teacher about skiing and soccer and the baby coming soon. He is doing so well that it was much easier for me than the last time he was off, but I admit I am looking forward to having a little more rest during the day right now.