Monday madness

6am- Sarah wakes me up to tell me Charlie has bowel issues. All over the carpet. Again.
6-8am Steam cleaning carpets. Keep finding more poop. Fight feelings of wanting to get rid of dog. Neighbor out walking sees me dumping water out in my front yard and comes to see Will. Stays 1/2 hour to tell me all her birth stories. Lingering smell in my house.
8:15 Wake Peter. Go back to bed with Will. Think about all the things that need to be done. Finally succumb to sleep.
11:30am Sarah wakes me up again. Peter is on the phone. He has a carpet cleaner company coming in a few minutes to the house. Jump up, dress in whatever is on the floor, go downstairs to start moving furniture.
11:45 Wake up Nathaniel to help me.
11:50 Carpet cleaner shows up. I'm not looking good. Poor carpet cleaner guy.
1pm Carpets done. Go upstairs to shower but talk on phone to Lily & Linda instead. Feed Will.
2:08 Get off the phone and suddenly realize I have forgotten Will's 2-wk appointment that started 8 minutes ago in Provo. Still not showered.
2:10 Call to reschedule Will's check-up. Start getting ready for shower.
2:15 Man shows up to pick up jaundice lights. Realize this is probably who was beeping in when I was on the phone. I have to get dressed again. Pretty sure I'm leaking on one side as I sign papers.
2:25 Go back upstairs to try for shower again. Will is not impressed. Feed Will. John is driving me crazy about something he wants on the computer.
3pm Leave Will with Sarah and head to pharmacy and library with John. Plan to go by store but everything takes too long and Sarah calls to tell me Will is gearing up for mom again.
4pm Feed Will. Put chicken in oven.
4:30 Leave for store with Nathaniel and Will. Will decides he is restless tired. We move fast.
4:45 As I'm nearing the end of checking out I find that I must have left my ATM card in library bag. Send Nathaniel to go out to the car to retrieve ATM. There follows a long few minutes for Nathaniel to return as other customers look put out (I'm in the speedy checkout lane.)
4:48 Nathaniel returns with library bag in tow. No ATM. I write a check.
4:55 Return to car and find that I put my ATM in the opposite pocket of my purse. I had it with me the whole time. Will cries the few blocks to the house while Nathaniel tries to give him a pacifier.
5pm Feed Will. Realize I've eaten a bowl of Life cereal and three cookies today. John still harassing me about buying Legos on the computer.

Now that I've written this I see more clearly why I didn't have time to clean the kitchen today.

But I also get to see this:

The first week home

 Will's "olive skin" as one person put it, is actually jaundice. 
No chance anyone in this family will end up with truly olive skin.

 We tried putting him in some sun, 

but he ended up on the lights at the house.

 Smiling in his sleep.

 John and his new playmate. 

I caught him yesterday pinching Will's nose shut.

Oh, John.

 Tired mama.

 Here is Grandpa Johnson with his 10th great-grandchild.

Will's color is getting better now and he got off the lights last night when they declared a 13.7 as good enough. 

Now we can bathe him whenever we want:)

His heels have been pricked seven times so far and his patience with it has run out. I could tell yesterday he almost knew what was coming and it was more upsetting to him. Not looking forward to that 2-wk appt. coming up where they'll do it again.

July 10, 2012

William Low Mitchell

Born July 10, 2012

9:50 pm

8 lbs. 13 oz.

21 inches

This is one proud daddy.

Our "little Will" was not so little!

P.S. Utah Valley Hospital was incredible.

And guess what? 

This is our first boy who looks just like mama.

I have proof.

Check out my baby picture:

Rebecca returns from Girl Scout camp

Snapshot of our scraggly girl on pick-up day. 

Camp Cloud Rim above Park City, Utah

We picked up Rebecca from Camp Cloud Rim on Saturday. She had a great time and was able to do several water activities despite the fires that kept them inside for a day. She made a fast friend with her "buddy" they assigned her to. We were told that girls who had gone to both Trefoil Ranch and Cloud Rim tended to prefer the latter and that was the case here. She really loved it.

I think it is so impressive that she headed off to a camp that she had never been to without knowing anyone who was going to be there. This is a girl that loves camps!

Irrational thoughts of full-term pregnant woman

With my due date coming up in exactly one week all kinds of positive signs are going on in respect to my body looking ready but of course that doesn't necessarily mean anything in my case. I never have gone into labor without some sort of intervention. Peter wants a 4th of July baby and the hospital will induce me starting today. The kids keep begging me to take castor oil like I did with Rebecca but I have no desire to ever taste that wicked awful stuff again and have a violent, rather messy, ridiculously fast-have-the-baby's-head-come-out-in-my-sweats-labor again and I'm sure the nurses at the hospital will appreciate that, among other things.

It is hard for my family to understand why I'm so miserably uncomfortable but don't want to be induced just yet. If one of them would like to do it for me and find that the epidural doesn't work again they would never question me again. For me inducement= epidural and my one epidural I had in my life didn't work AT ALL. The good folks here at Utah Valley insist they are the best and they'll get it right this time. It was those California doctors that don't have nearly the influx of laboring women that makes them out of practice. Maybe so. I've been told to request the anesthesiologist with the suspenders. The ladies around here swear he is a miracle worker.

Truth is that though I'm miserable, I'm also scared. I feel too old to do this again and with my ever-expanding body continuing it's current downward spiral I keep feeling more and more apprehensive about my ability to labor and push out this little person. Every time little Will moves around and it sends shocks to every part of my nether regions, or I get up in the night to go to the bathroom and my whole body feels like it has been beaten by 2x4's sometime the day before I think, "Oh my gosh. How am I going to do this?" At the same time I have flashes of wanting to just cut it out myself.

Rational thought is a minute by minute battle with pregnant women. I know this. I tell myself this all day long. Or I say "Relax. Everything is going to be fine. It is coming very soon. You can do this. Just keeping breathing in and out for now." It's the not knowing that kills me. (And most other pregnant women on the planet.) That's why Peter wants to induce. He really liked that with John. We plan, we go in, we have a baby. Seems like a no-brainer to him. He isn't a man for surprises.

It's just that when something gets me going I labor like a champ all by myself! (and I want to try that epidural thing again!!)
Peter asked me what I planned to do today.
I said maybe I'd start another puzzle.
Or maybe I'll jump on the trampoline.
Whatever.

Bad parents vs. John the non-eater

White bread

 cheese

 corn dogs

french fries

chicken nuggets

 chips

pancakes

peanut butter & jelly

 granola bars

 oatmeal

 mac & cheese

 baked potato

 fried eggs

 turkey bacon

 chips and salsa

 anything sugary

These are the things John will eat.

Recently Peter and I have realized that John has moved himself from the things he will eat with at least some form of nutritional value to eating absolutely nothing of any value whatsoever. The other night we had hoagie sandwiches, baked beans, pickles, potato salad, and chips. What did John eat? Chips and chips only. I've been buying some chips for lunches and granola bars for snacks but these are becoming John's mainstays now. With the recent drop in his activity level due to his arm we have all noticed John has been putting on a little bit of an extra layer-- ahem, as in fat.

So we have had to take drastic measures over here. Everything John normally snacks on is gone and/or hidden by mom. When we told him there would be no more white bread he cried like his dog died for a good hour. Peter told him we had not been doing our best as parents lately because good parents wouldn't let their child eat like this so now we have to repent. John begged us to be bad parents.

The whole thing has gone pretty much as expected. Yesterday he wanted fried eggs. I told him he would have to eat something else with that as the only part he eats is the cholesterol filled yolks so he would have to have some wheat toast, or wheat pancake, or oatmeal, etc. He absolutely refused. The crying and begging and bargaining and so forth went on for at least an hour I'd say. I looked at him and said that was very sad that he was so hungry. Then I finally said I needed to go take a shower. He finished his stages of grief and finally decided on the pancake with the eggs. He ate and was good as gold for me the rest of the day.

We went down to the Springville pool last night, just John and I because Rebecca is at Girl Scout camp, Nathaniel and Sarah took the van to Lagoon, and of course Peter was at work. It was a rather blissfully quiet day. They were doing a pirate party at the pool for family night. We were there for 2 1/2 hrs as John did the diving contest twice, and eagerly searched for coins in the pool to cash in for prizes at the desk. I had to call one neighbor for a ride down and one for a ride back. Sure would be nice some days to have that third car! Nathaniel needs to get a job.

John got free popcorn and candy at the party and wouldn't eat anything after that last night.
Not surprising.