Stuff

Easton started first grade last Friday. I can't believe it and I really miss him during the day. But I must say it makes life easier. I love Easton but he tends to dominate things and I have really been enjoying my time with Lincoln. I have a hard time connecting with Lincoln because most of the time I am yelling at him (during bed time) so it's been so great!

Love all these cute first graders!

It's a miracle. This is a decent picture of my handsome boy!

Hello Max at 3 weeks! You sure are cute! I told Nathan I am falling in love with him. Of course I already love him, but the feelings are so much stronger because he is the one who doesn't throw fits or talk back. (For now)  Love him!

He is also my only baby that hasn't minded tummy time. 

I went on a "run" for the first time on Saturday. It felt sooo good. Good for my soul and painful for my body. As you can see I have a lot of work to do to get to where I want to be. St George Marathon 2014! Goal: sub 4

Our raspberries are doing great this year. Every day we get about this many raspberries. We make smoothies. Yum!

I have had post partum depression with every baby but never taken anything for it. It feels like this weight in on me and I cannot do anything. It's awful. This time I decided I needed to do something. I take what is called "deplin". It is a B vitamin supplement that is partially broken down so my body can absorb it! I cannot believe how big of a difference it makes. I forgot to take it for two days and I was a mess. Just thought I would share in case anyone is struggling with something like this. I love that it is a pretty natural thing, but don't love that it is $90 a month. But so worth it!

Also, this time I decided to try shrinking my hips. Since I got home from the hospital I have been wearing this ace bandage thing that is meant to help you if you have abdominal surgery around my hips. You have a hormone called relaxin in your body for 6-8 weeks after delivery. It helps your hips widen to get the baby out. Anyway, it's totally working. I won't know for 100% sure until I lose 15 more pounds , but after Mason, at 9 weeks post partum, my hips measured 2 inches bigger than they do now, and I weighed the same as I do now. Cool huh? My jeans never really fit the same after Mason even though my weight was the same. SO, I would highly recommend trying it!!! They sell things specifically for this on amazon, but for about $20 more than what I paid for the ace thing at Walgreens. 

That's all for now. Have a great day!

I made it!

Oh man was last week a doozy. I wanted to just die! I came down with the flu last Tuesday. Chills, fever, aches, headache, cough. It was like I was living in a feverish haze for 4 days straight. It was hell. 

Nathan was my hero and was so helpful with the kids. My friends also saved the day by bringing me dinner and even lunch. I cried one day when my friend called to tell me she was going to bring me some campbells chicken noodle soup. It was the only thing I felt like eating! And when she came to my door she had Einstein's for me instead. Cried again. I have been blessed with the best friends a girl could ask for! 

I just am floored that I got sick in the first place. I had the same thing when I delivered Mason. I thought a summer baby would be awesome since there wouldn't be much illness going around. Then Nathan came down with it 3 days before I had Max. I didn't come down with it until he was 11 days old. Go figure. I'm praying my kids don't get it. I have been super careful. 

Easton has been so wonderful and helpful. Lincoln loves Max but is having a hard time listening. And Mason is awful like usual. Our mornings start bright and early with Mason waking up at 6 and then waking up his brothers. It makes me want to cry!

On one of my sick days Max kept giving me these smiles over and over. It was the cutest thing and just what I needed!

It's a love/hate relationship with these two! Mason has dumped him out of the bouncer, rammed his head with a dump truck, and is constantly hitting him. He goes from nice to mean in seconds! It's so unpredictable.

I also survived going to the store with all 4. It took all day to get ready to go and then all day to recover. I know I'm ridiculous. Max was so good in the moby and the other kids were bribed with Popsicles. :) 

The boys come home!

I'm sooo happy to have all my boys home today! Easton was so excited to see Maxwell

Lincoln was sooo excited too! I told Lincoln I missed him so much and he says "I know you did mom!"   Little stinker!

And grandma Judd got to see him too! It was a big day for Max!

Seriously he is just the cutest! I want him to smile so bad! 

What's in a name?

I figured I should do one more post today (sorry for those that get these emailed to them!) 

It was sooo hard to come up with a name we both liked for this baby. Nathan wanted Sawyer, Luke, or Hudson. I didn't mind Luke but I didn't feel like it was his name. I really didn't mind any of the names but I just didn't want to use them. I knew I wanted something short this time. I really liked Chase or Jace. In fact we almost named him Chase! I had it  posted on Instagram and Facebook for 2 seconds. Then we decided against it. I didn't like the way Chase Nathan Judd sounded. I would have wanted it Nathan Chase but Nathan didn't like that. Anyway, Maxwell was kind of one that never was really on either of our lists. But I love the name Max. It works for a little boy, and a teenager and even an adult. But if he wanted something more sophisticated Maxwell was good. 

Anyway, then we asked Mason to say each of the names. He said Chase, "cheese", and Luke "uck", and Max, he said perfect!

So there you have it!!!

A Baby Story

I like birth stories. If you don't, then don't read it. I love to have it documented as well.

My mom came into town when I was 38 weeks and 3 days pregnant. My midwife had told me 5 days before that it could be any day! I am pretty sure she cursed me! So we waited. My mom had never been to any of my births. She had always been nervous about seeing me in pain and didn't know if she could handle it. But this time, I invited her and she decided she wanted to! We went on walks, I ate whole pineapples in a day, walked some more, scrubbed my kitchen floor on my hands and knees that ALWAYS gave me contractions (didn't give me a single one), cleaned, organized, sewed, everything! Still nothing. I didn't even have false labor like I had before she got there. UG. We watched a TON of Baby Story episodes on TLC. Lots of them natural birth stories. My mom felt super prepared to be there so it was great! 

Nathan was as sick as a dog. I have never seen him that sick in our whole marriage. He usually gets sick for a day. He was sick from Tuesday through Sunday. So he was sick on Friday when I was in labor. He took a nap on the bench in the room while I was laboring away. Poor guy. At least I wasn't the one with the flu this time! I swear he had exactly what I had when I gave birth to Mason. Not fun.

My due date came and went. We enjoyed our fourth of July even though all we could think about was the baby. My dad had come the Monday before the fourth. On Friday morning I called the midwife and went in to get my membranes stripped again. She said I was dilated to a 5 and seriously could go into labor at any time. Well I got home and started to have more contractions. That morning I had cleaned my bathroom and done a bunch of laundry. I was READY. I went to the hospital about 2 hours after she had stripped my membranes. I was dilated to a 6 already! Sweet! So she admitted me. She wanted to break my water. I wasn't really happy about that thought, because my experience with that meant the contractions would instantly become more intense. 

Well it didn't become any more intense. For two hours I just labored on the ball playing my phone. I kept saying "this has GOT to get harder than this". It was a piece of cake. Well she checked me, I was STILL a 6. That was super discouraging. She had said it would be 3 hours. Wasn't looking like that at all. I got seriously annoyed with the nurses who kept having to position the monitors because the baby kept moving. If I ever got pregnant again by COMPLETE ACCIDENT. I might do it at home. Its super annoying to be poked and prodded. Seriously.

Then Paula (my midwife) wanted me to start on pitocin. This was the opposite of what I wanted. But whatever. I was ready to get everything over with. She started me at 1, then bumped me up every 30 minutes. I ended up being at a 5. I can't remember what time it was, but it must have been after 6. I was done. I told the nurse I just wanted an epidural and didn't care anymore. And really, the contractions weren't that bad. AT ALL. I was just discouraged. So Paula came in and checked me again. She said when I had a contraction I was at a 9. So I didn't get an epidural. So glad I didn't! Later she told me that when a mom tells her she wants an epidural because she is done and doesn't care, that usually means they are super close. I think it was about 45 minutes of transition and then I was ready to push. 

She had me laying on my right side because baby wasn't turned quite right. With each intense contraction during the transition phase, the nurse would push on my back and Paula would push on my knees. I cannot tell you how much that helped!!!! The counter pressure was awesome. I felt the baby come down and come down fast. It was time to push. In one contraction, I was able to pull baby Max up to me. My favorite thing. Its always so shocking how small they really are. 

I cut my own cord. Nathan is extra squeamish and has no desire. So I have done it the past two times. 

One of my favorite things about natural child birth is that the intensity and pain of labor is gone the second that baby comes out. Well not this time. I think it was because of the stupid pitocin. I was in SO much pain. And my stupid idiot nurse was the WORST uterine massager I have ever had. She pushed on my stomach with all of her weight. I couldn't handle it at one point and told her to STOP just STOP!!! She didn't of course. And it didn't really even help because I ended up having to be on a major drug to stop my bleeding because it was too much. Yikes. I just kept thinking...I am SO glad I don't ever have to have a baby again. I'm sooooo done.

Maxwell Nathan Judd

8 lbs, 11 oz and 21 inches long. Perfection

Even though my birth experience was not my favorite one, I still really loved my midwife. She was such a calming presence and she guided me while I was pushing such that I didn't even tear. My recovery (besides the after pains) has been the easiest yet. I feel great!

Mason was soooo excited to meet his baby brother. He literally was bouncing off the walls and wanted to hold him a million times for a second or two each time. I can't wait for the other boys to meet him!

I love newborn hands

ready to go home!

I'm so in love!

I need to get some meat on these little scrawny legs!

I'm sooo glad my mom was able to be there at Max's birth! I wish I had a picture of her! I forgot to get the pictures off of my parents camera. Its so much fun to have a newborn in the house, even though its so much work. Sleep will be interesting for the next few weeks!

That's all!

While we were waiting...

While we were waiting for the baby to come, Easton and Lincoln were having fun in St. George with their cousins. 

Mason was having fun with Grandma and Grandpa Seibel. He recently became obsessed with this Toy Story book. And he LOVES Big Al. You know the bad guy? He had never watched Toy Story before and it was so funny how much he latched on to the characters in this book. And thankfully we can now use the movie to entertain him for 20 minutes here and there when we need to!

The kids went ice blocking! Lincoln was realllly concerned about ice blocking. He really was confused and thought it sounded terrifying. Like going down a literal rocky mountain or something. So I was happy to see these pictures of both of the boys doing great!

They had a fireworks show!

i love Linc in the background!

This is a Christmas miracle! Easton has been terrified of fireworks ever since he was born. We are making progress! :)

The cousins put on a concert 

They went swimming in the 118 degree weather

And they went to the Laub family reunion in Beryl! (This was after baby)

Apparently Lincoln can't ever take a break from his favorite activity...weeding

The kids got to ride horses!

I wish Easton could figure out smiles. He is such a cute boy when he smiles right!

I'm sad we missed out this year! I can't wait for next year!

Lincoln the farmer

Lincoln is our little farmer. Nathan took the picture above at Charles' house for Sunday dinner. This is the second week in a row that he has gone and picked the weeks in Charles' little garden. When Nathan asked Lincoln if he was sure he wanted to go outside and weed because it was so hot, Lincoln replied "I have to do my working. If I get too hot, I'll come in and drink more Sprite".

He also went to Charles' big farm last week to help Abby water the pumpkins. He had a blast and can't wait to go back. I love this little boy. He sure cracks me up. This is something that is in his blood. I hope it never goes away!!!