Playing catch-up

I have all sorts of fun pictures from my phone that I keep meaning to stick on here.  So this post will be a huge mish-mosh of some randomness.  I think I'll make a summer vacation post all on its own later- too much fun stuff to post.

Note... blogger is doing strange things with the arrangement of my text and pics.  And I don't feel like trying to figure it out :-D

Ryan learned to ride his bike this summer.  This picture is actually from August 1st.  The balance bike we purchased him was a huge contributor to that learning.  Steve is pretty excited that he has now taught a child at ages 6 (Ellie), 5 (Katie), 4 (Sarah) and 3 (Ryan).  Tommy and Anna have their work cut out for them to keep up the trend!

The girls have loved dressing and snuggling with Anna...

We had a rather impressive double rainbow and Ellie did her best to capture it...

 While our garden wasn't a huge success, our carrots certainly were!  I might do an entire raised bed next year of just carrots.  The kids LOVED going out and picking enormous carrots.

 I had the opportunity to go on a field trip with Katie to Applewood Orchards and pick apples.  It was a great chance to have some one-on-one with her.  Those times are fairly few and far between any more.

Steve purchased a motorcycle and the kids love to go for rides with him.  It got pretty chilly right after he bought it, so there haven't been as many opportunities as they'd like.  I haven't been on it yet.

The daddy horseback rides are getting trickier.  We did eventually get the 5 bigger kids on, but there's just no camera proof.

These pajamas are from Christmas last year.  When we pulled out winter clothes the kids had a blast playing in their matching PJs.  It's getting tough to find matching jammies for such a wide range of sizes! 

Sometimes you just have to have picture proof at how reverent your children are.  Before this was taken we did our usual reminder of, "fold your arms, bow your heads, close your eyes and listen."

We picked apples as a family and then made applesauce together.  

 Tommy is learning the ropes of feeding Anna her bottle.

We went and watched the cadets march onto the parade field for the presentation of the Thayer award.  It was really quite the impressive sight to see!  I loved it.  Kids (and let's be honest... Steve as well) got bored and hungry pretty quick.

Anna had her first ride on a swing and loved it.

The girls played in the stream while I went searching for good picture-taking spots.  This is the park right next to where the Tolmans used to live.

Katie gave us her interpretation of the definition of technology. 

Katie was lucky and I got to go in to her class again for the 1st grade Hoe-Down.  

Sarah and Ryan were sporting Dad's big shoes and giving a sneak-peak at our Halloween costumes.  Those will receive their own post eventually.

I took all 6 kids (by myself!) on a field trip to the Harness Racing Museum as part of an activity given by the housing people here.  The kids loved it and I was fascinated by this sport I had never heard of before. 

Steve turned 36...

Katie was running down the stairs, took the turn too quick and slammed into the ledge.  Ouch.  Thankfully glue took care of it.  She wasn't too keen on the idea of stitches.  And the nice doctor gave her a popsicle, too.  

When I was in the hospital after Anna was born my mom took the girls out shopping and this is the outfit they picked out for Anna.  They were so excited she could finally fit in it! Can you tell who isn't quite ready for school yet?

We started up Joy School here.  I gotta say- I miss my group of gals back in Illinois.  It is myself and one other mom, as we couldn't get anyone else to join us. And we asked many moms!  So far so good. 

Tommy just makes me laugh every day.  He adores his new spider-man rain boots and along with a cape and mask is constantly becoming "disaster-boy".

The kids love to watch Steve play his video games.  Even if they have to crowd around and watch him play on the Ipad.

We are becoming more economical in our sleeping arrangements.  

Since my other girls were spring babies, many of their clothes are off-season.  But I still love them, so Anna gets to wear each outfit at least once so I can enjoy it again.  This was for church today.

It is extremely rare that Anna will just snuggle and fall asleep anymore.  Had to capture it this afternoon.  

On a side note... We switched Anna back to milk- based formula and her bowel issues cleared up.  Her colic has disappeared, but her high-maintenance attitude remains :)  There are some days I wish she would be content just hanging out, but she's getting there.  I can get the best smiles out of her now, which I love.  We spend a lot of time cooing at each other each day.  Anna is probably the best night-time sleeper I've ever had.  She's typically only up once a night, which is heavenly.  She's thinking about rolling, but more than anything she just wants to get moving.  Always wants to be sitting up, not leaning back.  And you can tell she really wants to be part of the action.  

Ryan no longer calls her "the new baby."  She is now known as "Anna Banana."  (with the soft "a" sound).

I still live my life one day at a time.  I get frustrated at times that I cannot seem to get much farther out with my planning, but I suppose if I'm surviving each day, I'm doing pretty well.  

A blessed baby

On September 30th we had Anna's baby blessing.  Steve's sister was awesome and drove 8 hours with three of her kids to be here and support us for this great occasion.  And she was great and held unhappy Anna, which was also awesome.  I did everything in my power to get Anna to be happy during her blessing, but alas- she cried anyway.  Thankfully Steve has a powerful voice and we could hear him just fine over her wimpers.  Or maybe I'm just getting better at tuning out her cry?  The one thing that really stood out to me was that he blessed her with a healthy body and a strong mind.  Considering all that she has gone through that was a great thing to hear!  Maybe it was the blessing, maybe it was the fasting in her behalf, I don't know- but starting that evening Anna improved significantly.  For three straight days she was a happy baby.  I didn't even recognize her!  It was a huge blessing for us.  I believe that her constipation troubles are keeping her from being always happy, and I hope to get that taken care of soon.  But it was a wonderful day with wonderful friends and family to share it with us.

I love the boys' faces in this picture!

Because of all the craziness of feeding people right after church, we didn't get many pictures taken.  I took the ones of just Anna on Monday morning and she was extremely cooperative and absolutely beautiful in her blessing dress.

A funny little note... her neck was too big to button the top button :-)

Sweat Test

Have you ever heard of a sweat test before?  I hadn't.  Apparently it is the only test that can rule our Cystic Fibrosis.  Who knew?  Anyway...

When Anna was born apparently she had some "markers" in her blood test showing she might have CF.  I am a carrier and Steve was never  tested, so we don't know if it's possible that we could pass it on to our kids.  Since she had those markers, and constipation is a possible side-effect of this disease (which Anna's constipation has been getting worse) we went ahead and did this test.

The day of the test I had tried to find a sitter for the boys, but it fell through, so I had to take the three little ones.  The day was overcast, but no rain was forecast for West Point.  Well, apparently Valhalla (40 mins away) had a forecast for thunderstorms.  And of course they hit right before we parked the car.  I thankfully had one umbrella in the car and Steve's jacket, which was a lifesaver.  Anna had a carseat cover which thankfully kept everything but her socks dry and I had a change of those in the bag.  So the only problem- the boys couldn't figure out how to hold the umbrella to cover themselves (they each had a lunchbox they were toting as well.) And then they moved at a snail's pace walking up to the hospital door, which was quite a distance away.  I was carrying two diaper bags (one full of warm clothes, blankets and IPads) and Anna.  We were quite a sight.  I was trying to hold the umbrella, keep the boys holding the umbrella as well so they would walk faster (big failure there) and just get out of the rain.  Oh, so frustrating.  We were soaked by the time we got inside.  I have a picture of Tommy sitting in the office looking quite water-logged.  The boys were really good about it, which helped.

The test was supposed to last 1 hour from start to finish.  My appointment was at 11, so I arrived at 10:30 to get admitted and taken to the office.  We carted all our stuff down and around this huge hospital and arrived to find out that the appointment that was supposed to start at 10am had just arrived before us.  So I had to occupy my three children in the hallway of the hospital for an hour before it was our turn.  I was not very happy about this turn of events.  The boys weren't too naughty and once we got into the office for the test they were so anxious to eat all the treats I brought for them they were happy as clams.  I really was proud of how well they behaved themselves.

And the sweat test...

Here's how it works:
First they wash the inside of the arm with warm water over and over to remove any oils or dirt in the pores.  Then they attach these little disks that are attached to an electrical source.  The gel in the disks numbs the area and opens up the pores.  After that the area is washed one more time and then a different set of disks are applied to the skin with little itty-bitty tubes and blue dye.  Three disks were strapped to her arm, then some paraffin wax to hold it in place.  On top of the wax she placed hand warmers, then wax again.  Then we bundled Anna in a bunch of layers of clothes, hats and blankets and waited for the girl to start sweatin'!  Thankfully she slept through the actually sweat part.  After about 1/2 hour the tech came back in, removed everything, and checked the disks.  Thankfully Anna had produced enough sweat to do the tests.  Then we were sent on our merry way and waited for results (which we were told takes 24 hours).  This was 1 1/2 weeks ago...

Just got the phone call about 2 hours ago that the test came back negative (I figured it would).  Next I am to make an appointment with a GI (gastro-intestinal) guy to figure out what's up with her gut.  Again- 2 weeks ago my doc said she'd put in the referral and I would get the paperwork in the mail.  Never got paperwork and when I asked about it today... oops- guess she forgot.    Now I have to wait until at least Tuesday for the referral to be approved and to be assigned a doctor.  Gotta love Government Health Care!  And that doctor will be at the same hospital as the sweat test.  

In the meantime poor Anna is administered suppositories at least once a day.  Not fun for us, definitely not fun for her.  But it makes her feel better, which makes us feel better :)

Overall Anna has been doing better.  Not a fabulous, happy baby- but we get a few smiles each day and her happy times are extending.  I'll take every little victory I can get!

Sometimes you feel really proud...

Ellie has an incredible teacher this year.  Sure, there is far more homework than I would like (which means homework for me, too- gotta check answers and spelling, etc) but Ellie is learning and growing and her teacher adores her.  How could she not?  Anyway... here is a note she left on Ellie's homework sheet last week...

"I love how you attend to every detail, Ellie- even illustrating your cover.  It is this attribute that made me recommend you for student council.  I know you will do a great job organizing fun events for our school! I love your pictures."

Pretty much every week Ellie gets these kinds of glowing reports from her teacher.  Ellie is apparently very helpful in class, attentive, and willing to do anything and everything the teacher asks of her.  She's becoming that way at home, too (mostly).  I am so proud of my little, though not-so-little, girl.

Anna at 6 weeks and Funny Ryan

So Anna will be 6 weeks old tomorrow.  Time has flown by, but at the same time it has dragged on and on.  I feel like a bad mom saying it, but my baby is just not a whole lot of fun.  She cries... a lot.  She is rarely content.  I think I might get an hour of content/ almost happy baby time total each day.  So I'm either carting her around (which typically she is still crying or fussing) or I'm lucky and she's sleeping or hanging out in the swing.  It is so extremely exhausting.  My body hurts all over from holding her and trying my hardest to keep her happy.  I try to take a nap with her in my arms in the afternoons so that I can get some rest.  Thankfully Tommy still takes a couple naps a week so I can do that while putting Ryan in front of a movie (yes, my electronic babysitter- but I am asleep on the couch in the same room...).  And Steve has been a rock-star husband this week and taken Anna all night long downstairs a couple times so I can get a full night's sleep.  That has made a HUGE difference in my healing and my mental health!

I love my snuggle time with Anna.  It's just that it's so hard to get her to sleep and keep her asleep.  Even when we snuggle she still wakes every 5-10 minutes and fusses with gas pains.  I feel so sad for her pain and wish I could figure something out to make it all better.  Oh, and on top of gas pain, she is now constipated from the formula.  I took her in last week to try to get something to help and they said wait a week and come back to see if her body regulates any more.  Nope- just continuing to get worse and that makes baby even more miserable.  I go back Tuesday to demand something to help remedy this problem.

A big frustration with my colicky baby is that I just cannot get anything done around here.  Thankfully I have been able to raid my freezer of frozen leftovers so that my family can actually eat a real dinner.  Not always, but usually.  And my girls are often stuck tending her after school so I can get dinner on the table.  My house is rarely tidy anymore (though Steve had the kids do a huge clean-up this afternoon and it looks GREAT!)  My boys probably feel neglected during the day since I'm busy with "the new baby" as Ryan says.

Needless to say there is a lot of mommy guilt going on in this house.  I was watching a show the other night where the baby was so sweet and cuddly and happy and I found myself longing for that kind of baby.  Steve and I were joking that we got a lemon of a baby.  Just gotta figure out how to make lemonade, I suppose.

So here is what we have tried with Anna to help lessen the effects of her colic:
breast milk for the first 6 days
regular Similac for a week
sensitive formula Similac for a week
Enfamil sensitive formula for 2 days- holy even more miserable baby!!!
Similac soy- a couple days- worked pretty well but still colicky
probiotics- turns out made her worse as well
now we're on Target brand soy formula (love the cheaper formula!) and it is the best we've tried

We have had a couple people suggest going to a chiropractor to get her adjusted.  Seems kinda strange that a baby would need adjusted, but I'm almost to the point where I'll try anything.  There are other probiotics I could try as well.  And of course there is always time...

She looked adorable today in her little dress from my sweet friends.  Ellie was excited about the "ballet dress".  We had every intention of taking pictures and then she was either sleeping or crying all afternoon.  Bummer.  Maybe I'll dress her back up tomorrow and try again :)  And maybe I just might actually post a picture on here.   yet another thing that isn't getting done around here.


On a side note... Ryan has been doing some pretty funny things lately
-  He always calls Anna "the new baby".  Rarely have I heard him call her by name.  He told one of our cadets yesterday, "have you seen our new baby?  We got her from the hospital."
-  He has told me on numerous occasions that he doesn't want to have our new baby anymore.  He wants to have a boy baby instead.  Sorry buddy.
-  We had the missionary couple here to watch the kids the other morning so I could go on a field trip with Katie. When I got back I got a pretty funny report from them.  Apparently Ryan had raided the kitchen of my wooden spoons and rubber spatulas.  He was using them as swords.  At one point he waved a rubber spatula at Elder Hohosh and told him, "If I cut you in half it's okay, because you'll go to heaven and Jesus will put you back together again."  And no, we did not teach him that in Family Home Evening ;-)

That's just the way it is... a baby story

Sometimes having kids is tough.  Pregnancy this go-round was really rough.  I felt good for probably only about 2 months.  Which means the rest of the family felt good for about... 2 of the last 9 months ;-)

But first, let's talk about all the great things about this time around for me.  We arrived at the hospital at 6am ready to go.  I had been awake waiting for the alarm since 4:15, of course.   We were the only ones there (gotta love small hospitals!) and I got full attention.  While they got me set up, Steve worked on getting all the electronics online and wifi up and ready to go.  All the important things, of course.  

Every single person I came into contact with was awesome.  Nurses were great- beyond great.  Anesthesiologist was incredible. I had two there, and the one that actually gave me the spinal was an older gal, Maddie, who worked with one of those "doctors without borders" a few times a year.  She is retiring in a year and wants to do that full-time.  How great is that?  The other, Kyle, was one of the guys that hazed Steve when he was here is first year at West Point.  Everyone did a great job teasing him about that, of course.   My doctors were excellent and very proficient at what they did.  I was beyond impressed.

At about 8AM they walked me back to the OR and all the set-up began.  They were all so kind and were joking and it was a grand ol' party in that operating room.  We had lots of discussions about what to name the baby.  One nurse, Stephanie was a big fan of her name- the perfect combination of mine and Steve's name.  I thought if we were to combine our names it would have to be "Steeffanie (say with a Russian accent and you get the idea).  :-D  They let Steve come back for the whole surgery, which is fairly unusual from my experience.  The first cut was made at 8:13 (I remember because it was Aug 13th... at 8:13) and by 8:27 our little angel was delivered.  She was in breech position, and it ended up that her legs were up at her head, too!  It took a little pushing and pulling to get her to come on out.  But oh, the sweetness of that little spirit coming and joining our family.  Always an emotional moment for me.  Steve got to take pictures of all the clean-up fun while they finished up with me.  He went with baby girl Elgan (no-name girl) and they finished up with me.  All was done by 9am- again... I think it was record time.  The incision site looks awesome.  Best I've had so far!  And this is the first time I didn't get those horrible shakes after surgery.  I don't know what was different, but it was heavenly!  I did end up being extremely itchy for two days, but that's a very normal side-effect for me.

Since I was the one-and-only on the floor, I was able to recover in my own room and the nurses just hung out with me for a couple hours while they did all the checks to make sure all was well.  Again- so incredibly awesome.  Baby came in and she ate like a champ.  Do you get the theme that all the stars aligned on this day?

I was spoiled for three days.  Every day, multiple times a day, I was asked if baby had a name yet.  We were choosing between a couple names.  The top two names were Hailey and Clara.  We thought we really liked Clara, but every time I tried to call her that, it just didn't seem right.  So I spent hours scouring the Internet for a name.  So ridiculous.  But for some reason I just couldn't figure it out.  Let's just say there were many tears shed over this dilemma.  Blame it on the hormones and lack of sleep.  In the end Steve told me to pick a name and he'd be happy with it.  And our girl would fit her name no matter what we picked.  What a good husband I have.  By Wednesday morning it was decided and I made Steve write up the birth certificate before I could doubt myself some more!  So my Anna has a name and I love it.

The only really hardship I had while there (besides the name) was that Anna was constantly hungry and I couldn't keep up with her.  In the end we supplemented and that made for a happier baby- at night anyway.  Nurses didn't want me supplementing during the day.  There were times that she got so frustrated that she refused to even try to eat.  The cramping and crying was far too reminiscent of colicky Katie.

I had the choice to stay until Thursday if desired.  Only problem: school started Thursday morning.  And this was Sarah's first day of Kindergarten.  I couldn't miss that big milestone!  I came home Wednesday right before dinner.  It would be an understatement to say I was a bit overwhelmed by the chaos of being home again after the quiet of the hospital.  I started to doubt my decision to come home. The first couple nights were rough.  Again, Anna was just hungry and her day/night schedule was off and I was tired and sore and Steve was kind and took over multiple times when I just couldn't do it anymore.  Two nights he slept on the couch in our room with Anna in his arms.  It taught her to sleep at night, though.

By Friday night we were starting to see that Anna was not doing well.  My milk had come in, but she was still trying to eat nonstop, then cramping and crying and there was nothing I could do about it.  Basically all day Friday she cried.  It was rough.  So that night Steve drove into Central Valley (since it was after 7pm and everything was closed here) to get some formula.  And Anna finally slept!  Yes, there was definitely some mommy guilt involved in that decision.  But considering that 4 out of 6 of my kids have had issues with my milk, I wasn't too overly surprised.  Frustrated?  Yes!  Isn't mother's milk supposed to be the best?  Sheesh!  While Anna was tons happier, there was still a little bit of fussiness there, so Wednesday Mom and I took another trip to the store and picked up some "sensitive baby" formula and Anna has been an angel.  I hope we finally have this all figured out.

There is a bonus to having baby on formula, though.  My girls LOVE to be in charge of feeding Anna! They all absolutely adore her, and Katie and Sarah especially fight over who gets to hold her and feed her.  All the kids have been great with her.  Ryan and Tommy every once and awhile pay attention to her, but mostly they don't care too much.  Which is probably safer for Anna.

And I think that about summarizes the last week and a half around here.  I've tried to stay as immobile as possible, but it is really, really hard.  I've basically been confined to my room except for a couple hours when I emerge and join the fray.  It's just quieter and more comfortable for me on the bed.  My mom was a lifesaver.  She kept my house clean, the clothes clean and my children extremely happy.  I feel like I missed out on her visit, since I was in my room so much, but I also feel as though my recovery has been a million times better than any other because I was much more careful about too much exertion.  And having her here has been a huge factor in that.  Unfortunately, Mom left this morning (insert extremely sad face) and with the timing, I've been here alone all day.  There has been too much stair climbing (I was doing only once-a-day) and other such things, but after tonight Steve is on leave for 10 days!  Yay!  I'll recover tomorrow?

We tried to take some newborn pictures yesterday morning and Anna cried the whole time.  Kind of a bummer.  I think we got a couple fairly good ones and once I convince Steve to edit them I'll post them.  She is a sweetheart and I feel beyond blessed that she is a part of our family.  It already feels as though she's always been a part of the "Elgan Clan."

Oh, and I have SIX kids!!!  Kinda strange to say...


note from tiff: I'm gonna have to go back and do an edit later.  Children are hungry.  And mistakes made above will hopefully be rectified soon!

After

Announcing our sweet Anna.  7lbs 14oz, 20 1/2 inches.   Born August 13th at 8:27 AM.

More pictures to follow

Before...

Here is a picture from today, August 12th after church.  If anyone out there is like me, I always love to see how the pregnant girl looks before the baby.  And so, I figured we'd try one quick photo shoot before this little girl joins the family.  We actually got some family pictures too, but this is the one I wanted Steve to edit for me for this post.  We'll try to get those others up soon.  This is taken up at Trophy Point with a great view of the Hudson below.  In less than 12 hours my little one will be here.  I'm finally starting to feel a little apprehensive about the surgery and everything involved there.  Prayers are always appreciated!  :)  I apologize to everyone who has felt shafted in my lack of communication lately.  Life has felt a bit crazy trying to get ready for baby #6!

Colored Easter Eggs

We did the usual coloring of Easter eggs this year. Just the girls did it with us, as the boys had both crashed for naps. Somehow there was no picture taking involved. Well, the girls were quite proud of their end products. The next day I had to pick some to make deviled eggs and the girls were having a hard time parting with the ones they had created. So Sarah, in all her sweetness (she really has such a kind heart) said,

"It's okay Katie, I'm going to miss them too."

Funny Ryan words

Ryan says some really funny things. I should write them down as soon as I hear them, as there are so many, but here are the ones I can think of off the top of my head:

If you ask him a question, such as if his basketball shorts are new, here is what you can typically expect to hear: "they sure are, Mom bought them for me." He loves the word, "sure". Uses it in place of "yes" as well.

He had 4 grapes sitting in front of him on the counter. He started pointing to each one and counting. What did I hear: "uno, dos, chase, kato..." Here is how he counts to four in english: "one, two, fee, five!" Any ideas what my kids have been doing while I've been miserable in bed the last few months?

His teachers in nursery at church are Bro/Sis Fillerup. We were practicing their last name last week, and here's how it comes out- "Budde Fowup and siste Fowup". Now that would be cute, except that's also how he pronounces the word "throw-up"

Family Home Evening

Here's what our lesson was on last night:

We talked about Adam and Eve and their family and how much Heavenly Father loved them. Pulled out the Gospel Art kit and found pictures of them, baby Moses, baby Jesus, and Jesus with the children. Again, discusses how much Heavenly Father loves all his children. Then we pulled out these pictures and I asked who each of them were. Kids liked this game.

First baby Ellie:



Then baby Katie:



And baby Sarah:




Baby Ryan:



And of course baby Tommy:



And then I pulled out these. My children were completely confused (as was my scanner, if you can't tell). They couldn't guess who this baby was?



Anyway... baby #6 is expected to arrive mid-August 2012! The kids were so incredibly excited and Ellie said she felt like crying she was so happy :-D That makes for a happy mom! Now if only I could start feeling better...