thing 7

coming September 2016.


to clear any confusion, see here, here, here, or here.

thing 6

coming November 2014.


to clear any confusion, see here, here, or here.

Running

Honestly, I'm not running as much as I would like to these days.  However, with Spencer's schedule, that is to be expected.  I could take advantage of our YMCA membership and go during the day (the kids actually love the child watch there, anyway), but between it being sick season and not wanting to feel like the whole day is taken with me trying to run, I feel like it's better not to.

Twice in September I actually got up before 5a to go to the YMCA and was able to get back just as Spencer needed to leave for the hospital.  The first day I did that went great!  I did not feel tired at all (that was a Friday).  The following Wednesday I went again and felt like I could barely function the rest of the day.  Unless I'm going to bed at 8p, I think that option has closed itself.

October has been a little bit nicer.  Spencer only had to work the first weekend and in addition, one of his chosen weeks off was last week!  That was so nice in so many ways.  I was able to go running three or four times.  I only go 2 miles each time and I am getting slower each time, but I don't mind.  The weather has been wonderful for running and I love being able to get outside.  I'm looking forward to Saturday.

Unfortunately, November's schedule will be back to hopefully one day off per week for Spencer, so unless I want to get up before 5 again, it looks like things will slow down even more.

I think I was 18-19 weeks in both of these pictures.  Definitely getting up there!

And, no, we're not going to find out the gender before-hand.

 

17 weeks

I only know how far I am because I count it out every week to look up how big the baby is to tell the kids. And I am amazed at how fast it's all going!

The kids love hearing about "Baby." "Baby," incidentally, is the name that's going to stick around for a while since we will not be finding out gender this time around! Spencer just really doesn't like it when I manage to fit in "Nobody puts Baby in a corner" into conversation. I must admit, though, sometimes it is a real stretch.

I keep hearing that my belly is getting "really big" or "big and fat" (the latter from Lilia). Andy asks almost every day if Baby is pushing on my tummy yet. Not yet, I tell him. I've gotten to explain that my body just knows how to move all my organs around already to get ready for Baby to get bigger. I think everyone is getting really excited for when they will all be able to feel Baby move. Even Anne knows where to point when I ask her where Baby is.

And here we are. Turnip-sized Baby at 17 weeks and 1 day.

thing 5

coming March 2013.

Anne Cotterell

Anne Cotterell was born Saturday night, February 5th, at about 7:30. She was 8 lb 10 oz and 21 in, making her our biggest baby.

Saturday afternoon, Faith's contractions were getting stronger and stronger and we called Lynsie who came over a little after 4. We all had dinner together and by about 6 we felt it was time to go. We got to the hospital after finding out our OB was not on call and his partner was going to do the delivery. We were a little disappointed, but were happy that Dr Babb was taking a night off. Then one of the nurses, after trying to room us in a C-section prep room told us Dr Elliot does not do VBAC's. That was a bit of a surprise and after we were in the regular L&D room we told the nurse we weren't going to consent to a C-section. At that moment, I think both Faith and I said silent prayers as we were left by ourselves in the room. Then the next time the nurse came in, she told us that Dr Babb was, in fact, coming. I am not sure what went on in the phone conversation between Dr Elliot and Dr Babb, but we will be always grateful that Dr Babb supports his patients' decisions and was so willing to give up his time off.

At this time Faith was at an 8+ and fully effaced and the contractions were getting stronger. She was doing so well that the L&D nurses were amazed that she was progressed that far and still smiling and talking and not clawing my eyes out (I guess that is common in their hospital). Dr Babb then broke Faith's water and within a few minutes her contractions got to be not so smiling-and-talking, and thankfully she is too nice to claw at eyes. She told me she was feeling pressure, I got Dr Babb and the nurses from the hall and they got all gowned up in time for the delivery. Faith never really had to push, and Anne arrived a pink, large baby. Oh, and Faith did all of this with NO EPIDURAL. She is one tough cookie to say the least. She decided before leaving she didn't want one because the recovery is so much better, and she was able to get up by herself later in the evening.

They let Faith and Anne come home Monday night and everyone is doing great.

Enough talk, here are pictures.

With Dr Babb

Love that we got pictures of both Andy and Lilia climbing on the couch.

Monday was Andy's birthday. So we had some cake and ice cream in the hospital room.

Whatever we have must be genetic.

Overheard and random thoughts

Me: Andy, what kind of present do you want for your birthday?
Andy: Uhh, BLACK!


Things have been going well lately. I have a tendency to let frustrations get to me and I end up responding in less-than-ideal ways to our kids. The end of a pregnancy is an easy time for this to happen. I'm not a bad mom. I'm just not always a very nice mom. On Sunday I realized something that is helping. We had ward conference on Sunday and a member of the stake primary presidency came to the class I teach (CTR-4, Benny's class). At the end of class this lady told me that she really enjoyed the lesson and said that I did a great job with the kids. I thanked her and was glad to hear the nice things she said. Then I wondered if someone observing me in our home would say the same thing about how I work with our kids. I want Christ to be a constant presence in our home. I don't think that he would give me the same feedback as the sister in church did. Sometimes, sure. There are often times, however, that I let fatigue get to me or I let myself get annoyed at the things all kids do. At those times I would not get the feedback that I am handling our kids really well. I'm working on getting that feedback.
I remember my parents telling all of us at different times that if we couldn't get along with our family members then we couldn't go play with our friends. I think I would be well-served if I institute that rule for myself now.

This pregnancy is continuing to go well. At my appointment today I found out I'm at a 3 and 50% effaced. I'm thrilled that things are headed in the right direction. This just goes to show every pregnancy is different. This is the first time I've crept along like this. We'll see how it ends up! (besides, of course, the fact that it will end with a baby.)
A little history: Because Benny was born by c-section I have to have one scheduled every time. Thankfully my doctor is willing to schedule them for as late as his insurance will allow giving me as much time as possible to go into labor on my own. Andy and Lilia were both delivered normally and we have no reason to think that won't happen again. I'm scheduled for 10 Feb, so, if nothing else, two weeks from tomorrow we'll be holding our new baby girly.

At this point everyone is nesting in their own way. The boys have been really starting to care for their stuffed animals in a nice fatherly way. It's really cute to see. They're doing a very good job taking care of their "babies." Lilia, also, is getting quite maternal. She's latched onto her babies much more lately. They know what's going on and it's really cute to see.

None of this may make sense. I've been close to falling asleep for a while now, so forgive me for the ramble. Hope you at least enjoyed the "overheard"!

Snow day plus

We had a snow/ice day today. Spencer didn't have to go into the clinic, which was really nice; Benny's school was canceled (did I ever mention he's doing 2 dys/wk, 3 hrs each time of a preschool? He loves it); my doctor's appt got canceled; and I rescheduled visiting teaching. We had a fun day at home together. We played outside for as long as each of the kids could handle it. Andy lasted the longest and had a great time. Lilia liked eating the snow off of her socked hands (no mittens) and got cold the fastest. Benny played for a while and enjoyed it until he got too cold. It was fun to see how excited the boys were about the snow. I think their favorite thing to do is eat it.

With Spencer home I was able to add three more casseroles to the freezer today. I'm really happy with how that's going. I made 4 chicken and broccoli casseroles and we had one for dinner. It worked out really well.


Pictures from our snow fun:

After eating plenty of snow!



Playing around after lunch.



Lilia's getting better at "cheese!"

Because they looked so cute the other day:





And, the pregnant pictures. At 37 weeks.

thing 4

coming February 2011

*confused? see here.

She is Here!

We are happy to announce that Lilia Cotterell was born last night at 12:38 AM. She weighs 8 pounds, 5 ounces, and is 19 inches long.

Faith had been kept up all Saturday night/Sunday morning with contractions. The contractions were not super strong, just enough to keep her awake. She only dozed about 40 minutes the whole night. I am amazed she functioned as well as she did yesterday. We went to church and by that time she was consistently contracting every 10 minutes. After church we just waited for them to increase in frequency and intensity until we decided it was time to go to the hospital. We called Steve and he came right over to be home with the boys. We got to the hospital at about midnight, got checked in, and Faith's water broke as we were still signing forms in the L&D room. Unfortunately that was before she could get an epidural. The nurses had called the doctor and he got to the room and barely got suited up in time to catch the baby. Faith did a great job and all of the nurses afterward were all impressed with how well she handled the delivery with just local anesthesia.

Faith and Lilia are both doing very well. We will post more pictures along as we go.

39 1/2 weeks

but who's counting? believe it or not, i'm actually not counting down. i wouldn't know to when. i definitely don't want to count down to the 24th because i'm really hoping to avoid a c-section still. i'd love to be able to count down to the 17th (my due date), but i don't think i can plan on that two pregnancies in a row! i've been having contractions on and off for the past week so i'm pretty sure things will work out just fine. i will say that i'm definitely looking forward to this baby coming. and sometimes, in all honestly, not very patiently. spencer's been very good to put up with me.

i've also been getting really excited for the girl to join us. i've seen some really tiny babies at different places lately and i can't believe we're going to have another one of those!

in all my glory...

misc

one of these days i may get around to having spencer take a pregnant picture of me. i'm just about 39 weeks. it really has gone by fast, but all the same, i am ready for this baby to join us. a couple of weeks ago my mom suggested i make a list of things i wanted to get done before the baby came to keep me busy and to avoid sitting around just waiting. i'm really grateful for that suggestion and got a lot of things done. i finally cut andy's hair, got our "dining room" table (most often used as a catch-all) cleared off and usable, got caught up on laundry, got more done on the girl's stocking (if i wait until december it'll never get done!), scrubbed the kitchen floor (on hands and knees this afternoon with spencer's help), and got 7 casseroles in the freezer. i've got two things left on the list that could go either way, really. hopefully she comes within the next week, though. i'd rather not get close to the c-section date (scheduled for the 24th).

i've also kept up my walking. i actually lengthened my original walk and am going almost 2 miles every day. i'm really grateful for it but it's definitely getting harder. i think i'll keep going every day partly for the sake of my pride. not a good thing, i know, but motivating!

it's been great to have spencer home. he's been a huge help with so much! he's been working about 20 hrs/wk from home for his dad's office. it's really nice. we've been able to do some fun things with the boys. we got a membership to the aquarium here and are looking forward to enjoying that even more. benny loves the sting rays and sharks and always makes a point to find "marlin, dori, and finding nemo."

the boys are growing up so much these days. it's been really fun to watch. here are some pictures from a few weeks ago. we set up the oscillating sprinkler in the back and the boys had a great time running through it! when drying off, benny asked to be tucked in. and, of course, he wanted andy to be included as well.

back at it

this morning i was surprised when spencer's alarm went off at around 6:30a (give or take a half hour since i was too tired, even, to look at the time on our ceiling). i assumed he wanted to get some studying done this morning before the rest of us got up and started distracting him. a little while later, however, spencer got back into bed and said, "it's your turn." he had gone on his run. obviously i'm not supposed to just pick up running in my condition, but i've been talking about getting back into walking before this baby comes. it just hasn't been important enough to get me out of bed before spencer leaves for school. i stayed in bed for a little while longer but i did, indeed, get up and go walking this morning. according to map my run i went 1.36 miles. not too bad for the first time this pregnancy. i'm really glad i went out. it was a beautiful morning - overcast with everything wet and smelling alive. i feel really good so i'll definitely be going once spencer finishes school this semester and i may bring myself to get up earlier in the morning to go before he leaves. no promises.


this will also double as a pregnancy picture. i'm just over 31 weeks and feeling good! spencer did some omm on me a few months ago that has really helped with my sciatic nerve pain (i'm reaping the benefits of having a physician in the home already!).

i know i haven't said much about it here, but we are very excited for "the girl" (as we've dubbed her) to join us. i've actually been much better at writing in my journal (and recently started working on our photo albums), which is more important to me than blogging these days. i'm not even sure if i mentioned we're having a girl. we're really looking forward to the new experiences we'll have. the boys will be great with their little sister. they come with me to all my appointments and benny loves seeing the "baby movie" or hearing her heartbeat each time. it's still quite strange to think of being a mother of three and a family of five, but we are thrilled.

by way of information, i am due 17 june but have a c-section scheduled for 24 june. we are hoping and praying that i go into labor on my own before the 24th, but we'll have to wait and see. any extra prayers are welcome! it's been an interesting experience here because my doctor can't talk very candidly about my having a vbac due to laws and insurance issues against vbacs. however, if i go into active labor on my own, they won't stop me. it makes it much more helpful that spencer has already learned to check for dilation!