Moving day can easily be described as the worst day of my life thus far. It was stressful. It was chaotic. We moved into my parents home, temporarily. My parents home is great, we love it there. They did their best to clear space for us but honestly, I have a family of six. It was going to be very tight.
We realized we needed another storage unit the night before our move and were scrambling to get one that morning before help arrived. (This resulted in my husband renting a moldy unit - in his defense, he can't see well at all and thought it was dirt AND he was highly stressed. Why no one else said anything or raised question to this is beyond me. I didn't find out about the mold for two more weeks which might have been a good thing.)
By early afternoon I lost it. Completely. I was crying uncontrollably. I couldn't stop. I just cried and cried. I have never felt so unstable in all of my life. We were living on top of each other, my parents and sister had already had their "fill" of our family for awhile and yet here we were. Normally, I love the first couple of weeks with a newborn. It is hard to adjust but I love the newness and the special spirit they bring into a home. I love the excitement of siblings. This was taken from us this time around. My normally patient parents and sister were also at their end. My poor kids had 5 cranky, tired, and impatient adults telling them what to do.
Their are much worse things in life. I do realize. But for my extremely hormonal body, it was about all I could take. The best part of all is when we called to ask for our landlords to check us out and they said they were "too busy". They picked our move out date and they were too busy to come check us out. I was livid. Very plainly I explained that "too busy" was unacceptable and they met Marcus at the house that night. They charged us money for a nail hole in the wall to hang a picture (a picture that we had asked permission to hang) and for some other nick on a wall. We also paid for a window that we broke (we knew we would need to replace it). We have never been so anxious to be rid of people in our lives. I have never seen my husband dislike anyone but boy did this couple top the list for him. As we went to bed one night he said he never wanted to hear their names mentioned again. That is big for my hubby.
Side Note: We recently (5 months later) have had a discussion about progressing towards forgiveness. We are working on it:).
Pictures of the kids meeting Paige for the first time. It was such a special moment.
The entire reunion we had been expecting to have a baby and still nothing. Yoshimi had been hoping to see the baby and we all started praying that I would have the baby. Nothing. On July 27th, my due date, I tried everything that might start labor... EVERYTHING (ok except caster oil). Yoshimi and Jun had a flight early Saturday morning (the 28th). Still no luck.
We said goodbyes and Marcus and I headed home. We put kids down and Will was having a hard time going to bed (from being overtired). I told him I would cuddle him in my bed. It was a good moment. He fell asleep quickly wrapped in my arms. At 10:30pm, while holding Wil,l I had my first contraction. It was so small and not painful at all. I even had the thought, "Was that a contraction?" The same feeling came regularly for the next 15 minutes. Every 4-5 minutes. I still was not in any pain at all. I told Marcus. He started timing them and they were getting closer. He was worried but I wasn't because I wasn't in pain. Marcus finally said, "I am calling your parents! They are too close." He called my Dad at 11pm to give him the heads up. By 11:15 the contractions had changed and were much stronger and 3 minutes apart. Marcus called my dad back and said to come right away. We packed up and were ready to go by the time he arrived.
Marcus and I hit every single red light on the way to the hospital. It was ridiculous. By this time I was in pain. We arrived at the hospital at midnight. It was something like 12:03am on the 28th when we checked in.
In the past when we have had babies, we check in and everything is calm and we wait and wait and wait. Not this time. We had multiple nurses attending us. They called the doctor and he came right away (from Payson). When I had been in labor with Will I had used a birthing ball and it had helped a ton. This was our plan this time as well. They brought in the ball and I swear it hadn't been used in a long time, was very deflated, and tiny. I felt like I was sitting on the floor. Not going to work. (This is a super frustrating thing about having babies in different states. Every state is different on how they believe babies should be delivered and it is HARD to get them to open their minds or listen.)
At this point my pain level was super high and I asked for an epidural. It was scary because my epidural in Minnesota was horrible. My doctor reminded me that I wasn't in Minnesota (where epidural rates are very low - they believe in natural babies big time - not a bad thing unless you want an epidural... remember 6 poke markes on my back afterwards:() and the anethesiologist here was very practiced. Marcus and I had about 10 minutes of alone time and then it was delivery time. After a push or two baby was out. It was 2:45am.
Welcome Paige Catharine Darrington 8 lbs 11oz. She was so teeny to us after the last two 10 lb babies.
We haven't really started having reunions on my side of the family but we have done a big get together every couple of years. Marcus started calling it a reunion so that is what I am going to call it too.
This year Yoshimi had planned to come visit over the 24th of July. Levi and Christy and family came out (Levi for only a weekend because of his new job with Delta but Christy and girls stayed and I am so glad they did. It is so hard to be a single parent especially when your young kids are out of their element and routine so I have to mention how nice it was to have them stay.) My cousin Tracy - that we consider family- couldn't make it this time because she was having health problems.
The last time we had all gotten together was Christmas 2010 in Minnesota (so much fun!).
When we found out I was expecting baby #4 July 28th we knew it might get a little interesting but we didn't want to cancel the reunion.
Activities that I can remember:
-We went swimming at Sparks. It was a blast. Side note: This is something the kids and I did a ton before baby came. One of the apartment complexes my dad works with is Sparks and they have an outdoor pool. It isn't huge but big enough for our needs. It also has a hot tub that isn't too hot. When school finishes at the end of April most of the BYU students go home for the summer and we get the place to ourselves. It was heaven. My pregnant body loved the water and Reagan is swimming on her own but needs to be kept close just-in-case. Will and Ainsley can motor around in life jackets. The apartment manager (and my Dad) made sure I had my own key and we had constant access.
-Aunt Lindsey put up the "tight rope" and provided lots of fun for all ages.
-Hiked Timpanogas Caves. This is one that my family passed on this time:).
-Went to the Fiesta Days Rodeo on the 24th of July. It was ok. I think we all agreed that the smaller but less commercial rodeo in Nephi is more enjoyable.
