Sophia had a Birthday!

Two, she's now two years old and I can't believe it. Her behavior shows it though... let me recall her actual birthday.

We woke up early on Monday just so everything would be perfect. I was dressed and blown dry by 8am, and Sophia cooperated with me in getting her clean and in her super cute corduroy dress that I had picked out several days before to be her birthday outfit. Papa made us a healthy breakfast, and when we were finished, I went upstairs to get Jennie ready for the day.

In the meantime, Soph decided she wanted to destroy the pantry. She started with some simple re-arrangement, and continued with the tearing open, and dumping of, a boxed cake mix, making sure to get as much of the powder as possible on her dress, all over her face, and in her freshly cleaned and styled hair.

Outfit #2 that day lasted through her birthday party at least. We did a simple celebration up at our park with the immediate neighbors. The girls swung, slid, and waited very impatiently for their cupcakes. Everyone sang Sophia's favorite song, (the Happy Birthday song of course), the wind and all of the little girls helped Soph blow out her candle, we all ate Mac&Cheese, Tuna&Peas, and then Papa cleaned up. While walking home, headed for a full bellied nap, she found the only source of standing water, and splashed happily soaking her second dress, tights, and even drenching her shoes. I dressed her in outfit #3 a darling matching sweat suit, warmed her little hands, and put her to sleep... or so I thought.

I didn't hear a thing for quite a while, and dozed with Jennie on the couch. Papa heard her first, and went to keep her company in her room only to find that the little two year old decided NOT to take a nap. Instead she had spent the hour and a half emptying out ALL of the contents in 3 of her drawers including all one million of those dang tiny hair elastics, every one of Jennie's onesies size 0-9 months out, dozens of socks unfolded and spread all over, each blanket strewn over the entire room. And she was naked. Papa found her diaper in the corner just wet (thank goodness), and her pants in another corner also wet. We counted our blessings that there was no poop in sight, put on outfit #4, and she and Papa cleaned her room.

The boys came home and started in on their homework, and then I went up to her room to read her a book. Soph brought me a book that she had torn 5 of the pages out of, and I lost it. I took her little hands, and walked over to the garbage and made her throw her book away. I was so sad to be mean on her birthday, but what else could I have done?

Papa took us to the Heritage Center Cafeteria for dinner, FHE, and her family birthday celebration. We all ate what we wanted, sang Happy Birthday for the umpteenth time, and she tore into her big birthday gift. I knew she liked playing pretend, and I knew she liked "the girls" aisle in the store, but I was not prepared for how much she LOVED her princess tea set! She carried it almost all the way home all by herself, and was even more excited when we took all of the pieces out of the box and placed them on her table. It was seriously the best $7.99 I've ever spent. We did scriptures, song, and prayer, tucked the boys in, and then I played tea with her till 8:30pm. I had to pack up her whole set and take them out of the room for her to get any sleep, but she finally crashed. A perfect ending to a not-so-perfect day.

After she was good and out, I went back in her room and set up 2 of the place settings on her table to play with when she woke up. I fell asleep, absolutely in love with my sometimes terrible, mostly adorable two-year-old little princess.

Jennie Crawford

Jennie Crawford was born October 4th, 2007 at 1:16pm. She is the smallest of her siblings weighing 8 lbs. and measuring a long, 20 1/2 inches at birth. My first reaction was, "She's so beautiful!" She has long skinny fingers, long skinny legs, and long skinny toes. Jennie has been a good eater from day one, and she doesn't seem bothered by the noises of the Crawford home. She smiled on her first day of life, and loves being held by many awkward young arms.

Oh, the name... I'm sure you want to hear about her name. A big thank you to everyone who voted. Corinne won the poll outright, but the name we were leaning towards was Annie. When we saw her though, we knew it was something different, Doug asked "Annie?", and I just wasn't sure.

Hours later, after we were settled in the recovery room, I asked Doug, "what about Jennie?" and a peaceful warmth came over both of us confirming that we were indeed holding Jennie Crawford. Telling Doug's mom (the original Jennie Crawford) was Doug's privilege, and met with stunned silence. We are honored to name our baby girl after her grandma, and gratefully we also have many good friends who share the same name, and only add more depth and love to our association.

Welcome home Jennie, we are so happy to have you in our family!

The Glorious Gown

Finally in labor! Contractions started at 3am, just a few hours before the induction, still 15 or so minutes apart. We arrived at Cottonwood Hospital at 7:45 the scheduled induction time. Julie broke my water at 8:30am and, my labor progressed all morning. Lewis (Doug's brother) and Yvonne (my sister) arrived to visit and help around 11am. Lew left around noon and things got intense from there, when the contractions went from a slow 7-10 minutes apart to 1-3 minutes apart. Doug was my counter pressure HERO! Yvonne kept me from hyperventilating, and overheating. I demanded Julie (my midwife) and the nurse come in at 1pm and was delighted to hear that it was indeed time, and I could push with the next contraction. At 1:16pm and with one "Olympic weight lifting grunt" Jennie was out of my body and then resting on top of my belly, safe, happy, and I can't overemphasize OUT! Her labor and delivery were perfect, I got everything I wanted, most importantly a beautiful healthy baby girl.

Still Inside

Dalton came 1 day early, Joe came 2 days early, Sophia came 1 day early, and at 4 days late, (and counting) I'm feeling like I'll be eternally pregnant with this last baby. I don't know how women patiently go all the way to 42 weeks. I've done my best to choose patience, love, and at my weaker moments indifference. I've broken down on Doug at least once a day since last Wednesday, but to no avail. She is still inside.

Gratefully, I've had my sister Yvonne here to keep me company, help with Sophia's pooping episodes, and distract me from my enormous belly. She's been a life saver.

I was scheduled to be induced on Monday the 1st, and was ready and waiting for the call at 6:45am, but 7 other women came in during the night with natural labor, and took my bed. The day ended up being crazy busy at the hospital with the full moon and impending storm pulling everyone elses baby out of them. By 1:30 that afternoon, they let me know that I wasn't going to fit into their day's schedule, and I could go ahead and eat some real food. I chose spicy Curry-in-a-Hurry with the hopes of bringing on some serious contractions, and it worked.

I had also been drinking my red-raspberry leaf tea, taking black cohosh, walking a ton more than I have the entire pregnancy, and doing all "other" home methods of labor inducement. So when we settled down that evening to a movie and the contractions came, I was not at all surprised, more excited to get this show going! Yvonne timed them for 3 hours till they were about 7-9 minutes apart, and I was moaning through most of them. We called in my neighbor Kimbur to sleep with our kids, and headed for the Hospital.

At Cottonwood Hospital, I was admitted, checked, and monitored for 3 and a half more hours with regular contractions only to find that my body refused to progress. My midwife Julie Jones sent me home with some heavy meds and a promised birth-date of Thursday, October 4th. Induction is tomorrow morning, and they will NOT bump me this time.

I loved Sophia's fully natural labor, and wished for this one to be the same, but again... this baby's still inside, and my patience has been tested to its limits. I'll be praying to go into natural labor tonight, and you'll hear the rest of the story soon after we live it.

Not toilet trained

I can't get Sophia to keep her diaper on. On top of that, she won't use the toilet. Every time I leave her for even just a moment, she takes her pants off, poops or pees on the floor, and then if I'm lucky, she innocently puts her pants back on. Sometimes she doesn't poop or pee, she just takes the dang thing off to be free. This is happening several times a week, and just the other day she snuck up to the playground, did her routine, and came back home buck naked.

The only immediate solution is duck tape. We try to reserve this for night-time, but lately I've been wishing I had the super human power to do it more often. Safe and even application of the stuff requires two (although I think more might be helpful) able bodied adults to put the grey miracle adhesive all the way arround her waist. She kicks, screams, and then we have to make sure all of our scissors are out of reach.

She threw her first real, long, pre-two year old tantrum the other night during our bedtime routine over the duck tape situation. She shouted "No more duck tape!", "I hate scriptures", "You bad mom!", "No singing, no singing, no singing!", "NO Heavenly Father! NO amen!"

She loves her underwear, but just poops and pees in them too. I have a feeling she will be easy to potty train once she gets over her toilet fear. I think she's actually going to love being a big girl, but why is she choosing the few weeks before her sister is born to do it? Why? I would love to send her away to some potty training camp for a week so they could deal with her "crap". Maybe my sister Yvonne is up for the challenge next week. All I know is that I am NOT, I am exhausted, she's lucky that she's cute, and I love her.

Trying to be patient

The countdown is on! I have made progress at each of my appointments. 2 weeks ago I was dilated to a 1, no effacement. Last week my Midwife Julie called me a tight 2 with 80% effacement. On Tuesday, I'll have her strip my membranes, and then we'll see. I'm feeling finished but not hopeless. The sciatica, wacky sacral alignment, edema, and other pregnancy related woes are almost over and I'll soon be holding her in my arms. I've been romancing over the quiet hospital moments when I get to be alone with her, stroking her hair, inspecting her tiny body, watching her grimace and sleep smile. I am so ready for a new baby.

It would be absolutely perfect to have her anytime next weekend. Doug is super stressed at work, his professors and the people at the nuclear center have little empathy for our situation. They all placed bets on her arrival time being early, and since they've all lost now, they are done caring. I won't be starting any of the home inducement techniques till Friday just for Doug. I have a hospital induction scheduled for Tuesday the 2nd, but I've never made it to my induction date. Yvonne just confirmed that she'll be here from the 1st to the 7th, Andy and family will indeed be here for Conference, and my Papa will be here from the 5th to the 19th. I am so blessed with a supportive family.

For now, I just need to relax and mother the children that live outside my womb. Dalton, likes it when I call him my first baby, he smiles and kisses my belly. Joseph loves it when I call him my easiest baby, he reminds me that he'll wash his hands and hold our new one the best. Sophia... well I just hope she appreciates my new lap, and is soft with her little sister. She loves to see my exposed belly and show me hers while we touch bellybuttons. I think they'll be great big siblings.

Rumors

Okay, I'm the one that started this first one. We wanted to head to AZ for Thanksgiving once I noticed that the boys have Wednesday-Monday off of school. We've thought things over a bit and decided that we will not be heading down. Doug has an overloaded schedule that promises to become more so once our little one is keeping him up at night too. Travelling 12 hours each way with 4 kids, rushing all over the state to satisfy family requests, and trying to adjust to a new baby schedule all sounds too daunting for the both of us. Sorry.

I understand that Randy & family will be in SLC for Thanksgiving, and we're excited to see them for a bit during that time. Reason enough to stay put. Since this last trip the kids took to AZ, Sophia has been saying "I want Aunt Katie", and "Uncle Randy's funny."

Now, did Doug overhear a conversation that involved Andy & family coming up here for General Conference? If he heard right, you'll be staying in Midway, but I'd love to fit into your schedule somewhere. I'm hoping that the newest member of the family is draw enough to at least see you for an afternoon. Papa will be here, and we could beg him to make a lovely dinner for all of us.

Chad? Are you and Shelley heading this way as well? Again just a rumor, but if you could afford the gas, we'll feed you and put you up on our lovely air mattress.

I'm only 10 days from being due, and I'm beyond excited to see this little beauty with my own eyes. I think she's a gymnast, but for the possible recessive auburn hair, cocoa skin and hazel eyes the suspense is killing me. I also want to see what my body is made of. I want to experience the whole process and enjoy knowing that this is, (most likely) my last opportunity to feel the hormones rush through my body and take over to help it perform it's animal function. The excitement of it all is keeping me up at night, to which I must respond with a nap this afternoon. Happy dreams. Hope I get to show off my little one to anyone willing to make the trip.

Here's the best shot of Doug on the field accepting his induction to the PHS Hall of Fame. It's a little hard to tell what you're looking at, but that is the PHS band in the back and Doug waving to all of his fans. I was pretty happy to see that his Letterman's jacket still fit. Mom, Dad & Mike Crawford along with the whole Nelson gang were able to show up to support Doug.

PHS Football Hall-of-Fame

This morning I said goodbye to my little family. They're off to AZ to have a wonderful time with grandparents, uncles, aunts, cousins, with a whole slew of planned activities. The kids are most looking forward to being out of school, playing with family, eating out, and using the new DVD player we got for the 12 hour trip each way. Doug is most looking forward to seeing some old coaches, and friends, and reminiscing the old football days, (I'm sure Jennie will be right in with those conversations). I am most looking forward to a clean house, and as much rest as my body can take in. I'm so happy for Doug, (and his mom too!) he remembers those days with such fondness. I think he's pretty excited to show some of those people that he has become much more than a football jock as well. With a great family, a fabulous education, and a bright future, Doug really has it all.

Stomach Flu

Ten days of the stomach flu have kept me from doing much of anything. Those words "stomach flu" don't really sound as terrible as they are. It is more like a stomach and bowel wrenching with nausea, fatigue, and muscle weakness coupled with a periodic fever... sweats, chills and all. I got it, Doug got it, but gratefully Joe is the only other one who vomited, and it was totally contained on his bed. My midwife was a little concerned with my 5 pound loss this week, but I couldn't help it. We think the baby is okay though, she has had my bowels to wrestle and sing with, and I'm pretty sure that when I wasn't eating anything for several of those days, she feasted on my limited muscle supply. It should be over soon.