Welcome to the World, Luke!

So I've kind of dropped off the face of the blog world, thanks to having 4 kids and no desire to turn on a computer. But I decided today that I needed to write down Luke's birth story so that I don't forget the details of that day, now that he is 5 months old! Ok, here it goes.

Monday morning, May 4, 2015, I went in for my 38 week appointment. My due date was May 19th but with my blood pressure so high and a constant headache, my doctor had talked about inducing me on my 38 week day, which was May 5th. Well, I went in and the headache was still going strong and my blood pressure was super high. So my doctor decided to call over to labor and delivery to see if they had any room. Being a Monday morning, he said it was very unlikely and to plan on having Luke the next day. He came back in the room a few minutes later and said they had room and were waiting for me! Holy cow, here it comes. Months before, I had decided I was going to do this one natural. I've never had a good experience with my epidurals and didn't want to go through another one so bring on the pain!

I left the office and went home to grab Brian and hospital bag. We waited for his mom to come be with the other 3 boys and then headed to the hospital. By the time they got me hooked up to the antibiotic, being strep B positive for the 4th time, and pitocin, it was around 11 AM. Dr. Kirkman, my doctor, didn't want to break my water until I had the first dose of antibiotic. So we waited. The contractions began and weren't all that bad. I went in to the hospital dilated to a 3 and 80% effaced. Heidi, Laura, and Tara all came to hang out with me while I went through labor. We were thinking it would be awhile when the doctor came in at 2:30 and broke my water and I was still at a 3! What?! I had been having contractions every few minutes for the past 3 1/2 hours so I was pretty annoyed. But after he broke my water, they started coming very strong and fast. I had heard all about the back pain involved with labor but hadn't really felt any. Having no pain meds, I was expecting a lot of pain, so I asked Heidi if she would use her massage magic and help with that part of the labor. Well, when those really strong, hard contractions came, all the pain was up front. Nothing in my back. It literally felt like my stomach and pelvis were ripping apart with some of the harder ones. SOO painful! At 3 PM, my nurse came in and checked me. Dilated to a 5 and 90%. Better I guess. Luke's heart rate was kind of dipping every once in awhile so she wanted me to turn from side to side and walked around a bit to keep it up. So for the next hour, I walked around (which was fantastic!), grabbed on to anything to squeeze during the hard contractions, and groaned A LOT. At around 3:45, I was feeling super nauseous and felt the need to vomit so my dear sisters ran around the room, looking for the barf bags, which were nowhere to be found. So I finally paged my nurse, at around 4. She decided it was a good time to check me since she could tell I was in a lot more pain since the last time I saw her. She checked and I was at a 9! Hallelujah! Almost there.

She asked if I felt the urge to push. When she asked, I did not. The next moment however, my body started to push and I could feel Luke coming down! She started to freak out, telling me not to push, and holding my legs together. She called my doctor, and paged in other nurses. In came about 5 nurses, with the delivery table, warming table for baby and another nurse telling me not to push. I don't think they understood, I couldn't NOT push. My body had taken over and as hard as I tried, I couldn't stop pushing when I had a contraction. Also, my legs were being held together, which made things a bit more painful. So the one nurse who was in my face, telling me not to push, turned to my nurse, who was still holding my legs together, and told her to let go and prepare to deliver the baby. As soon as she let my legs go, Luke's head came out. It was such a relief! I had to push one time to get his shoulders out and at 4:08 PM, Luke Henry Harding was born!

The cord was wrapped around his neck a few times so she unwrapped it, and placed him on my belly. What a sweet little blue angel! Seriously, the miracle of birth is truly a miracle every time. I have had the privilege of experiencing it 4 times myself and every time, I am in awe of the miracle and perfection of these sweet little angels. The NICU nurse took him pretty quick because he wasn't pinking up as quickly as she liked but once she got him crying, he was red in no time. And in ran my doctor, just a few minutes too late! I think the adrenaline from delivery was starting to go away because I started to shake and my legs were so tired! But I felt amazing! I really only had severe pain for just over an hour. Totally worth it in my case to not have the epidural.

Anyway, they got my sweet new angel all pinked up and weighed. He came in at 7 lbs 8 oz. and 20 1/2 inches long. Perfect! He seriously was the sweetest little thing! They finally brought him over and I got to snuggle my sweet little babe. His face was pretty splotchy and red, which they said was bruising from the cord being wrapped around his neck. I'm sure being held in didn't help in that aspect but whatever. He was here and healthy and I survived no epidural! All in all, a pretty great experience.

After we were moved up to the recovery floor, they had to take Luke to the nursery for a bit. His temp was a little high and his blood sugar was really low. After about an hour, he was all good and ready to be snuggled by his mama! He had so much blond hair and the sweetest little cheeks, perfect for kissing!

 Luke Henry Harding

 Skin on skin with my sweet little mister

 Coming home!

 My very favorite thing about newborns. Mmmm...

 6 weeks old. Such a happy baby!

 And now here he is 5 months old! How time flies when you are having fun!

This little boy has brought so much joy and love into our home. My boys, all 3 of them, loved him from the second they laid eyes on him. Even to Cohen, Luke can do no wrong. They all had a bit of an adjustment period with me and Brian but never held any animosity or anger towards Luke. He is our sweet little man and we all couldn't be happier he is part of our family. What a perfect way to complete our family! I love my four little babes with all my heart! I feel so blessed to have them and thank my Father in Heaven every day for the opportunity to be their mother! 

New House

That's right! We bought a house! I'm so excited!! I have really loved the place we are in now but we have outgrown it. We have never lived a place longer than we have our current town home. It seems weird to me that we've been here for over 2 years now. It has flown by. We have had some really great and some really hard memories here. I will miss it. But I am so excited for more space. And no wall neighbors!! YAY! So where is this wonderful, new home? It is in our old Millville neighborhood! Where our last home was. Its about 4 houses away. Crazy we are going back. I loved it there and I'm so so excited to go back! I feel like last time went too quick and I was heartbroken to leave. But we are heading back! We had been house hunting for a very long time, with a long list of wants and needs. We found a few really nice options that were at the top of what we wanted to spend. We both never felt quite right about them. Then we walked through this house. We had walked through last August and loved it but we didn't feel like we should put an offer on it. Then we walked through again in January and knew this was the house for us. I walked through again and was overwhelmed with the peaceful feeling that this was my new home. It was so great to finally feel at home somewhere. It has everything we wanted, in our price range! What more could we ask for?! We closed on it last week and are painting and moving this week. Its been a crazy few weeks and this week is going to be insane. But I'm soooo excited, I don't even care! My boys are going to love having a yard, almost as much as I will. This summer is going to be legendary! And to be back in our wonderful Millville 2nd ward. I can't even tell you how happy I am. We have been in some pretty great wards since we moved but honestly, nothing compared to Millville 2nd. So many great people, in such a great place. Did I mention I was excited to move back? ;) I will post pictures when I get done moving stuff in. I am super excited to start this new part of our lives!!

Our Family

Ok so 2013 was a crazy year for me. Going from two to three kids was a much bigger adjustment than I thought it would be. So I kind of stopped blogging for basically the whole year. This year, I want to do better. I really want to remember the little things about my kids since they grow so fast! This post is for me to update on my little family!

Ethan is thriving in preschool. He loves every Tuesday and Thursday. Everyday, he asks if he can go to school. I think kindergarten will be wonderful for this kid. He wants to learn to read but gets too frustrated with himself. Hopefully we can work through that. I took him in for his 5 year well check/shots and he was 44 inches and 44 pounds. He is such a sweet, sweet boy. He helps me whenever I ask. He loves his brothers but especially baby Cohen. He tries to help him walk all the time and can make him laugh like no one else can. I love to see my boys interact. Ethan will be such a great big brother to Brayden and Cohen. Ethan can also have an attitude. A bad one. He gets really feisty sometimes and timeouts work wonders for this kid. He tries very hard to be good and make me happy. One last thing about this handsome boy of mine, he calls me mother and Brian father. I'm not sure why he started doing this but it sounds so cute when he does. Everyone comments on how sweet it is. It is funny to hear him yell out "MOTHER!" It's definitely refreshing from hearing mom all day :)

Brayden. Oh sweet, sweet Brayden. He is 3 alright. He is so cute and sweet and smart and feisty and full of attitude. He is so smart and loves to learn things along side Ethan. He picks up on things much faster than I realize and understands more than I give him credit for. He is very excited to start preschool in the fall. Every time we pick up Ethan, he asks if its his turn yet. Fall cannot come soon enough for both boys. I also took Brayden in for his 3 year well check. He was 35 1/2 pounds and just under 39 inches. 80% for both. He doesn't look that big to me but he is solid. Brayden throws fits like no one's business. He gets set off by the smallest things. And gets stuck on that thing. It gets really frustrating sometimes for us both but timeouts have had a good effect on him. And they give me time to settle down as well. But he can be the sweetest, most loving kid there is. He loves to cuddle with me and gives me the sweetest smile every time he snuggles in. I love it and know he won't be like this long so I am cherishing every single moment I get. I love my Bray and am so so glad he's part of our family!

Cohen Cohen Cohen. He has been such a sweet, sassy baby. He loved to cuddle for a long time and now wants nothing to do with it. He jabbers all the time but can only say a few real words. He says mama, dada, and catch really well. He is pretty stubborn when we try to get him to do new things, say new words. He looks at us like we're crazy and continues doing whatever it is he wants. He is so stinkin' cute with his smile and sweetness. I can't get enough of him! He started scooting around 9 months and real crawling around 11 months. He walks around everything but will not even try by himself. He will walk everywhere as long as I'm holding his hands. He was a mama's boy for a very long time but has recently switched to dada. He loves his dad so much and his Grandpa Harding even more than both of us ;) He will fly out of our arms to get to him. Cohen is also a thumb sucker. I know this is going to be difficult to change but for now, I don't care. He has 6 teeth and got his first around 7 months, sooner than either of my older boys. I stopped nursing him at 10 months because he started to bite, hard. I took him in for his 1 year well check/shots and he was 30 inches and 22 1/2 pounds. Average all around. I love his chubby cheeks and just his whole face. He looks the most like Brian to me and I love it! I honestly don't see anything in him that comes from me and I'm ok with that. His dad is pretty handsome ;)

Which brings me to Brian. He has changed jobs once again but hopefully this will be the one for a long time. He now works for a company called Energy Wise. He started doing a little consulting for them earlier in 2013 and they loved him so much they offered him a really great job! Which means we'll be staying in Cache Valley for awhile. I don't think either of us thought we'd be back here for good but here we are! Brian is still working on school but hopefully will be done this fall, with a degree!! Yay!! Hopefully! Its been a long road with school and we're both ready for him to be done! But he loves his job and it is challenging at times, which he loves. He still works with Millennial doing their office managing. He doesn't have to work too much doing that but for now, he likes it. He works so hard for our family, and I can't even begin to tell you how grateful I am that he works so hard so that I can stay home with my boys. Brian is the best husband, father and man I've ever known. I don't know what I did to deserve him but I'm glad he's mine forever!

Me. Well not much is going on with me except my boys. They are my whole life and it is wonderful! Most of the time. Sometimes its a little hard and breaks are definitely needed, for me and the boys. I wouldn't want any other job though. Being a mom is harder than I ever imagined it would be but I know that it is also the best thing. It has made me a better person and I am forever grateful to my sweet boys for making me a mother. And I'm forever grateful to my Heavenly Father for trusting me with their sweet spirits.

Welcome Baby Cohen!

Its been too long since I've updated and I decided I REALLY needed to update before I forgot the little details of Cohen's birth. Yep, that's right, we've had another boy! And he is seriously the sweetest little thing and we all love him to pieces. But more on him in a bit. This is the story of how he joined our family.

Around the new year, I was starting to get a really bad headache and every time I had my blood pressure taken, it was super high. So after about a week and a half of this, my doctor decided he was going to induce labor. I went in on the 9th of January for a check-up and was sent to have my baby! I wasn't quite ready to add another child to our family but ready or not, he was coming! I came home to grab a few things, including Brian, and off we went. We got there around 4 PM and was hooked up to IVs and antibiotics as soon as possible. I was dilated to a 3 at that point so they hooked up pitocin, which I have never had the pleasure of experiencing until then. It wasn't the greatest stuff and started to make me really nauseous. I was already pretty nauseous from my bad headache but the pit made it so much worse! They gave me some anti-nausea medicine to help with that and off the nurse went. I didn't see her much, which is different from my other two births. The other times, I was checked every hour, on the dot, to see how I was progressing. With Cohen, the nurse said she didn't want to check as often to prevent infection. Totally understandable. But to all those who have had babies, that final stretch can seem like forever and it is nice to know how much longer until you see your baby.

Anywho, I started having pretty hard contractions about 10 minutes after they started the pit so I asked for the epidural. The anesthesiologist took forever! But finally got my epidural around 5:30( I think, I'm starting to lose the little details). He had to take my blood before I could get it because my platelets were low and going lower, which he said is a sign of preeclampsia. Luckily, my levels hadn't dropped enough to where I couldn't have my epidural. So I got it and was feeling much better. Some of my sisters came to the hospital, as well as my mom and Doug, which was fun. We just chatted and joked until about 9 o'clock, when I was starting to feel a lot more than I wanted. My nurse checked me and I was at a 6. Seriously?! I was a little disappointed but hoping this kid would make his debut on the 9th sometime. I was still feeling a lot of pain so I hit my button for a boost of epidural meds a few times. Didn't help. Around 9:15 I had to urge to push. It hurt soo bad!! So I had one of my sisters find my nurse. She took awhile coming in since she had just been in and I wasn't too far along. At about 9:30, I was about in tears and she finally came in. She checked me and I was a 10 and ready to go! She couldn't believe it! But she rushed out and called the doctor to get there ASAP. He got there about 9:40, had me push and Cohen was born at 9:43 PM. Sweetest sound in the world, hearing him cry. And so relieved to have him out. According to my doctor, my epidural had stopped working at about 9 and had worn completely off by the time he was born. No kidding?? I felt it all. Luckily, there was no tearing or cutting or I think I may have kicked my doctor in the face.

Cohen James Harding was born 7 lbs. 9 oz. 19 1/2 inches long. I'm pretty sure they had my due date wrong, seeing as he was my biggest and earliest at 2 1/2 weeks early. But he is perfect in every way and we love him so so much! The boys had no problems with him once we came home. They had issues with me but they love baby Cohen so much, maybe a little too much sometimes.

 He was born with a lot of bruising on his face from coming out so fast. They even had  little sign in his crib saying he was bruised so they didn't think he wasn't getting enough oxygen. Poor baby :(

 I just love how tiny everything is when they are first born. Oh I love him!

 Going home!

 He was born with soo much blonde hair. When we had an ultrasound done at 34 weeks, the technician said she saw tons of hair. I thought for sure it would be dark with how much there was on the screen but he came out just as blonde, if not lighter, than Ethan. Crazy!

 Again, tiny. Love it!

Nothing sweeter than a sleeping baby!

Halloween, Ethan's Birthday and Brayden's Birthday

Yes, I'm a little behind on the times. And I'm trying to catch up before tomorrow. Hopefully I'll get to that before the baby comes :) Anyway, our fall and winter are crazy busy with all the holidays, birthdays and parties we go to. Halloween this year was so much fun. Ethan was really into going to every house and saying Trick or Treat and thank you. Brayden was more content with the first candy he got (sucker) and sticking with that. Abi was here for Halloween so they were able to go together. It was such a fun night!

Ethan's birthday happened to fall on one of the days that I was gone on my sibling vacation in Mexico so we celebrated when I got home. He begged for a VERY long time to go bowling for his birthday so we did. He was really good and beat me! He had so much fun and Brayden had so much fun just cheering everyone on. He tried a bowl or two but wasn't too into it. Then we came home and opened presents and did cake and ice cream. It was so nice to be with my little family and celebrate my handsome boy's birthday! I can't believe he is 4 already. He is so incredibly smart and sensitive. He is always concerned about my feelings and how I'm doing physically, especially being pregnant. He will randomly tell me he loves me so much, melts my heart. I just love this kid so much!

Brayden's birthday was a fun day too. We celebrated on the 21st due to Christmas stuff going on and it was just easier. We had cake and ice cream with both grandparents and Tara and Taylor. It was so fun. He got spoiled rotten and loved every minute! Thank you everyone for coming and for the gifts! On his actual birthday, we took the boys to see Rise Of The Guardians, which they loved! They both couldn't take their eyes off the screen. That was the first movie we have taken Brayden to and he loved it! SO fun. We sure love this little bug. He adds so much personality and joy to our family. He is always so happy and fun loving. He does NOT like getting into trouble, takes it so hard! He hates seeing anyone sad and wants to make you feel better if you are. He is a super cheese ball and wants his picture taken all the time. He is learning new words everyday and surprises me with how smart he is. We love you so much, Bray!