BIG News

We're having a BABY!  Before I get ahead of myself, I'll start at the beginning.  Jon and I found out we were pregnant on July 4.  A little ironic because in an effort to assure myself that we were truly "done" I had started giving away all our baby clothes and my maternity clothes.  I had kept many of the "things."  But the clothes were making me claustrophobic and I was sure if they were gone it would seal the deal in my mind that three was good.  As soon as I realized my period was late, (I was charting) I was pretty excited.  That tells you how well getting rid of the clothes worked.  Once I had a positive pregnancy test, reality struck that I was going to have FOUR kids and I can barely handle THREE!  Haha.  I was sure Jon would be more overwhelmed than me but true to Jon, he took it in stride and has been nothing but excited! 

As many know, having a baby for us means there is a 1 in 4 chance of the baby having SMA.  We learned soon after having Benson that you can do in-vitro fertilization with pre-implantation genetic diagnostics.  Basically, you do IVF and then test each viable embryo for SMA before implanting.  This ensures that your baby will not have SMA.  I looked into this quite a bit and we finally decided it was not something we would do.  IF we decided to have another baby, it would be au-natural.

 Right off the bat, I wanted to do an amnio so we wouldn't have to wait the whole pregnancy plus another month to know what to expect.  But then I got cold feet.  Like bad.  Statistically, there is a 1 in 300-500 chance that the amnio can cause a miscarriage.  This statistic was killing me.  I kept going back and forth on whether or not knowing was worth the risk.  If we knew ahead of time, we could try to get the baby into some of the current clinical trials.  They are enrolling for infants up to 9 months old.  It's hard to get into these trials but I felt like if we knew for certain and could build up a rapport, we had a shot.  I had Jon give me a blessing and felt good about doing the amnio.  But within a day or two I was back to worrying about the chance of losing the baby.  I prayed continuously about whether or not the baby would be safe, all the while leaving our testing date confirmed.  My own fear kept me from every hearing the Lord's answers to my prayers again. In the end, I relied on Jon's certainty and faith that everything would be okay because I continued to waffle in a land of worry.  I'm grateful my husband is such a rock in times like this.  I seriously can't imagine what I would do without him.

On October 1, at 17 weeks, we went in for our amnio. It was everything I expected and nothing like what I expected.  They did a full ultrasound and then the doctor came in and reviewed the pictures.  Everything looked good.  Apparently they are looking to see that something has fused, I honestly couldn't even tell you what, even though they said it like four times.  But that looked good. He found the spot where he wanted to go in and pushed with his finger on my stomach so he could be exactly sure where he was on me and where that was in relation to the baby.  It was a little freaky to have my tummy prepped and made sterile while I was just sitting there watching.  He stuck a long needle into my stomach while I closed my eyes.  It felt just like a shot.  We were told that he would pull some fluid and discard it before getting the sample to help ensure there isn't maternal contamination.  Jon was looking at the ultrasound and I was closing my eyes so neither of us saw if that was what we was doing here.  But then he told me that he was going to go through the uterus now.  This is the part that was nothing like what I expected.  Everyone says it's uncomfortable to painful.  Which was true but the gross part to me was that he had to really push that sucker in there.  It wasn't just a little poke through the skin.  I watched him pull the fluid from my stomach, all 20ccs.  He said the baby would refill that within an hour and the "hole" would seal instantaneously.  The fluid was sent off to a lab along with a sample of blood from me and Jon.  The lab would culture the skin cells from the fluid until they could test them for SMA.

We decided to wait to share the big news with family until we could do it in person so we booked some flights for Jon's next vacation week (we just happened to have enough points from our Southwest card. wahoo!).  I would be 18 1/2 weeks when we got out there.  It was probably the hardest secret I have ever kept in my entire life and I almost told about 100 times.  But I didn't!  Unfortunately, it was only 10 days after our amnio so we didn't have any testing news to share but we did know the gender.   

IT'S A GIRL! 

This is the picture I text to my sisters to announce the pregnancy after we told my mom.

 

We were beyond excited to have a sister for Vanessa.  Is it possible to not want to even up the numbers?  Vanessa, of course, is very excited.  She talks to the baby, gives her kisses, and has already named her Violet.  Benson is excited to and he is very sweet with babies so I am sure he will be a very cute big brother.  Brigham on the other hand, he has no idea what is coming; even though he talks about the baby in mommy's belly all the time.  This little lady is going to rock his boat big time.

I felt like three has been a hard number for me so I'm nervous to make the jump to four.  But I couldn't be more excited about it either.  I can't wait to meet this little lady, get to know her personality, and see if she looks more like Benson or Vanessa. 

A Trip to Utah

I failed to take hardly any pictures while we were in Utah.  I took a handful on my phone but even left my phone a lot so that didn't even happen often.  I knew I would be sad for not taking more, but we didn't bring our smaller camera and I don't really like hauling our big one around.  Not just because of size, because of Price! :)  So here are a few pix and I'll just have to write about the rest.  These are from the Museum of Curiosity.  It's a new-ish museum that has opened at Thanksgiving Point for kids.  It is 1000x better than the one that was in Salt Lake.  This one was highly impressive.  We were there for nearly four hours and my kids loved every second

 This was a hurricane simulator and Brigham's reaction was so funny we kept making him do it to try to get a picture.  I think some of the other moms thought it was really mean.  Haha.

 We also went to Wheeler Farm.  I thought it was fun and thought my kids loved it.  They got a tractor pulled ride, a little cow train ride, a hay maze, pick a pumpkin, and checking out some farm animals. The hay maze was perfect for the kids, in my opinion.  You could see adults over the top but couldn't see young kids.  But the kids also couldn't weave through the corn and completely get lost from you.  It was short enough that even Brigham could walk through it the whole time.  We tried a corn maze with the Brady clan and it was basically ten minutes of sky high anxiety before we pulled the plug and hauled all the kids out.

 Benson absolutely adores his cousin Sam.  He wants to be with Sam at all times.  And Sam is cute enough to be totally okay with it.  He plays with Benson and makes him feel like a rock star.  Don't they even look like cousins, too?! 

 It's always hard splitting time fairly in Utah and I don't know if anyone is ever completely pleased but we got to spend quite a bit of time with both families.  With my family we went to the museum and Wheeler Farm.  Becky also watched the kids for us one afternoon so we could go to the temple with my parents and then met them for dinner at Mandarin.  yum!  We also had a girls shopping day with me, Becky, and my mom.  I was able to find some sweat pants for Benson that have draw strings!  Thank you  H&M!  With the Bradys, we spent lots of time hanging out at the Brady home, after we welcomed Steph back from her mission.  We were also able to be there for her homecoming talk and the open house after.  We went to a pumpkin patch/corn maze with everyone that was also a lot of fun.  The week definitely flew by and I can hardly believe we are back to the nitty gritty in Missouri.  Visiting Utah always makes me want to go back.  Coming home to our lack of family kind of makes me a little trunky.  I know some people are able to build friendships that are as good as having family but we haven't found that yet.  Maybe it's just because our family is irreplaceable ;)

The New Van and Other Randoms

We got our new van!  It's been really awesome.  It makes getting the kids in the car a lot easier.  I already had the experience of loading everyone in a torrential downpour and I was very grateful I didn't have to deal with the suitcase ramps in that storm. Vanessa rides on the back jump seat.  Benson can ride in his chair but I need to make some covers for his straps because they rub his neck.  and I need to figure something out for his head.  It's only a problem if he falls asleep, but it just flops to the side and looks insanely uncomfortable.  We also have his and Brigham's car seats in the captain chairs, so he usually rides there.  The only down side to this van is that the captain chairs were moved forward with the conversation and you can't push them back at all.  It makes the access into the van from the side doors feel really cramped.  The kids can also kick our seats while they are sitting and that's kind of a bummer. We also can't figure out how to use the navigation system.  Haha.  I'm seriously considering taking it to a Toyota dealer, just so they can show me how to use it.  Now if only we could sell our other van.....if you know anyone looking, let us know!

 I love puzzles.  I have grand dreams of doing fun puzzles with the kids for hours.  I got a glimpse of that when Benson got this puzzle for his birthday.  We had a lot of fun putting it together.

 Vanessa found this monarch butterfly at a local park.  They have a butterfly house and had released a bunch of monarchs for their migration to Mexico just that morning.  This one was hanging out in the grass and Vanessa couldn't resist holding it.  She was really sad that we couldn't take it home with us.  She said the butterfly's name is Maxilla.

 Benson requested to make caramel apples one day.  The kids love helping me make with any kind of baking.

Brigham

I think all my kids are amazing and Brigham is no different.  But we were around family more when Benson and Vanessa were young so they got to know them a little more.  Brigham has pretty much spent his whole life away from family so they don't know him as well.  This post is to share a little bit of Brigham with the family and so we can remember what he was like too.

Brigham is determined.  If he can't reach something and we won't get it, he will find a way to get it anyway.  We have moved our "key spot" three times in an effort to find somewhere he can't reach, even with a stool.  Brigham also rarely plays with toys.  Tools, knives, anything that would generally be "off limits" are his preference.

 He loves to make us laugh and just does his own thing.  He seems to be oblivious to temperature, most of the time.  Hot....cold....as long as he's having fun, he couldn't care less.

 This picture was ten minutes before church started.  If you look close, you can see that he found a small peanut butter and was snacking on it, but got bored and decided to paint his body with it.  Mischief is his middle name.

 He is silly.  He's loud.  He is not one to blend in with the crowd.  He likes to stand out and be the center of attention.  He isn't the type of kid to randomly walk up to strangers and talk but he is the type of kid to not stop talking if he has someone's attention. 

 He is a cuddler.  He loves to be cuddled.  He loves hugs and kisses.  He likes to sit on your lap.  He still naps everyday but he will only nap if I hold him, or lay by him, and let him have his binki (a.k.a. beesh).

 He also insists on touching faces when he is going to sleep.  He literally attacks your face, as soon as he starts getting tired.  If I push his hands away, he will yell at me, "I want your face!"

 He loves fruit and treats.  He is constantly getting into the cupboards trying to find whatever treat he can.  I had to move my baking shelf up higher because I kept finding him eating handfuls of sugar.  He won't touch veggies but he could eat fruit for every meal.

This boy has my heart.  He is crazy, sometimes a little terror, wild, funny, sweet, and tender.  He definitely makes our days interesting and keeps things lively.