Karter's Birth Story

On the morning of the 19th I went into my midwife to have my membranes stripped for the 4th time in a little over 2 weeks. My midwife told me her guess for me was Saturday the 21st. Being already 6 days past my due date, it was alittle disheartening to think about facing 2 more days. I went home and resumed my normal routines. About 2:45 in the afternoon I had a contraction. it was no biggie. it didn't hurt very much and I'd already experienced literally hundreds just like it in the past 5 weeks. Shortly after that Kyle took the kids to run some errands while I retreated to my bed to feel crummy and sorry for myself that I was still pregnant.
Over the next hour I experienced enough contractions that I thought I should start paying attention. My contractions were very sporadic and not at all regular. About 4:45 I thought I should call my midwife and just give her a heads up that I was having the contractions and see what she thought. I figured I'd wait for Kyle to get home to call, I expected him around 5:00. Well, as how all things go, Kyle wasn't home until after 5:30 and I wasn't able to reach my midwife until 6:00. We chatted. My contractions were still any where from 2 minutes apart up to 7 minutes. I could still walk, talk and breathe through them. It was decided that I should eat some dinner, take a shower, and she would call me back after an hour and we would go from there.
She called back at 7:00 on the nose, right as we were starting our family prayer and scriptures. At that point I was pretty sure the baby was coming, but was sure I still had several hours. until 10:00 at least. I saw no reason to not put my kids to bed first and then head into the hospital. My midwife agreed to call back in a half hour. Kyle was looking at me like I was crazy. He wasn't sure why I was waiting. I was still convinced we had plenty of time. I told him if he felt so urgent he could give his mom the heads up and throw the bag in the car while I continued the bedtime routine.
When my midwife called back she asked, "so, what are you thinking?" I told her we were going to leave for the hospital. Glancing at the clock 7:34, we would be leaving in the next 10 minutes for sure. I hung up with her and called my mom to tell her we would be leaving for the hospital. For some reason I started crying while talking to her, not sure why but it was very emotional. As I hung up with her the clocked switched from 7:36 to 7:37. I went and kissed my kids good night, and headed out the door. When I reached the car a contraction hit me so hard I had to lean on the door frame and was physically unable to get in the car. After waiting a moment for it to pass I climbed on in and we backed out of the drive way. It was 7:46. It took about 3 minutes to get out of the neighborhood and to the freeway entrance. In that time I had 3 contractions. Kyle pointed out that they were every minute. I continued to have a contraction about every minute for the rest of the drive. It's about a 20 minute drive with no traffic. Kyle drove 90 the whole way with moderate traffic and made it in 15. I spent those 15 minutes resisting the urge to push and yelling at Kyle to make the pain stop, insisting that I couldn't do it and I needed an epidural. We pull up at the hospital at 8:03. I stumble out of the car while Kyle went to park the car. I somehow made it inside where a security officer kindly helps me into a wheel chair and begins wheeling me up to the 6th floor.
I begin having a very surreal experience where I'm feeling hyper aware of my surroundings but I feel like I'm viewing it on TV or even as if I were reading my thoughts out of a novel, not experiencing them for myself. I watch the security officer hold the elevator door for a man and his son. Silently I'm cursing this kind man who is helping me so much, for helping other people. I watch the man look at me as he pushes the number 2 button. What are you doing? I'm screaming n the inside, I don't have time for this! I'm very aware of the boy who can't be more than 8 staring at me with huge eyes. They exit and we make it to the 6th floor. The security guard wheels me into admission and takes off. I can't help it but I'm yelling at the staff. I'm telling them that I need an epidural right away. I don't have time to be in here. They don't understand, I don't have any time!!!!!! They ascertain that I am indeed Kari Holker and tell me kindly that they are taking me into the triage area and I begin to flip out on them. I don't have time for triage, I need an epidural right away. They convince me to stand up and help me out of my clothes. They get me on a gurney and a nurse says, "She has a lip and her water is bulging!" All of a sudden it went from 2 nurses in the room to at least 7. Immediately the gurney starts moving and I hear Kyle's voice. Finally he's here!
I'm in the delivery room and in less than a minute my midwife walks in. She comes and sits at my feet, she's able to get my attention and she tells me, " your baby is coming". I hear a nurse say, " get the camera daddy". Kyle turns to get our camera out of our bag. My brain stopped working and my body took over. I pushed. Kyle turned back towards me and sees Karter's head. I push again and his torso is out. I'm being coaxed to reach down and catch my baby, I tell them to just pull him out. I push one more time and he's out and in my arms. 3 pushes, 1.5 minutes, I'm still on the gurney and the time is 8:14. Crazy. It seems like something you'd see in a sitcom. It's now 6 days later and I'm still not quite sure that it really happened to me. But he's here! He's perfect and healthy and adorable. His older sister loves taking care of him. She's very hands on from picking out his clothes to helping change diapers to turning on a musical toy for him when he starts crying. Big Brother Kendal has adapted very well to the baby. He's not as hands on, but you can tell he takes his role as big brother and protector very seriously. His interpretation of helping "his baby" when Karter cries is to throw a blanket on his head.

Kids say the darndest things

I had an interesting conversation with Kizzy this morning. It went something like this.
Kizzy (having stripped down to her undies): I'm a rock star!
Me: you're a rock star? Well, rock stars wear clothes.
Kizzy: No, Mom. Rock stars are 'makin' (Kizzy speak for naked).

Where she came up with this I have no idea.

Pre-School Graduation

Today was Kizzy's last day of Pre-School for the school year and she has a little graduation "ceremony".  It was really cute. Her class recited the Pledge of Allegiance and then sang "It's a Grand Ol' Flag" Then sang 2 cute little songs about the days of the week and learning.  Then they were given  little certificates.  We took our little "grad" out to lunch afterwards. She loved pre-school and I know she'll be looking forward to it next year. She learned alot and is well on her way to recognizing all her letters and numbers. She can recited the alphabet and count to 20. She knows all of her shapes and colors and un-preschool related she's starting to grasp gospel concepts. Kizzy is one smart cookie and I'm loving watching her learn and her imagination grow.

Bullies

I hate confrontation. I mean really really detest being involved in it. Therefore, over the last few years as I have had to deal with a person on a regular basis who has a tendancy to be a bully to all those around them, I have just bit my tongue and and then done my best to avoid them. For the most part. I have once or twice spoken up. And this person, in true "I'm entitled to everything" form has ignored my protests and continued with the offensive behavior. Today they went a little too far and I snapped. I called this person a not very nice name in my response. I know I shouldn't have.

However, why should I just endure being bullied? Shouldn't I speak up? And when my original defenses get ignored, should I come on stronger?

What would you do? (Please keep in mind, this person not only treats myself inappropriately, but also my children.)

Preschool

Kizzy started preschool mid february and is loving it! Back at the beginning of the school year I felt that Kizzy wasn't quite ready to start preschool. Around Christmas I thought she'd probably do well, but I figured she'd still have to wait until next school year. And then out of the blue, my friend MariAnne sent me an email. She teaches preschool out of her home and one of her students this year had a conflict with schedules and she suddenly had an open spot in her class. So Kizzy was able to start in the middle of the school year. She loves it! She looks forward to going every week. She can recognize every letter she's learned so far and loves doing her homework. She's starting to really show how creative and imaginative she can be, which is a lot of fun to discover about her.

Kizzy's self done 'do

Kizzy dressed herself for the snow outside

All dressed for preschool!

I sure love my girl!

Boy Oh Boy Oh Boy!

Yes, that's right, it's a boy. While Kizzy will be outnumbered, Kendal will get a little buddy. So far the names we are thinking are:
Kyle Joseph Jonathan (aka KJ)
or
Karter Gideon Clarence

Right now Kyle is leaning towards Karter.

What do you think?

Kendal at 19 months

I love my little red-head boy! He has the cutest smile and such a funny personality. Lately his vocabulary has exploded and I thought it would be fun to share what he can say.

Where's Daddy? (asked probably over 200 times in a day)

here doe (here you go)

ess you (bless you)

chess (yes)

no

mine

stop

doe way (go away)

ball

bear

thank you

hello

hi

bye bye

water

cheese

yummy

Mama

I yuv you (I love you)

Sitzy (Kizzy)

awesome

antsome (want some very similar to awesome, but there is a difference)

more

Uh-uh

Ah-Ah (grandpa)

socks

shoes

poopoo

peepee

please

up

down

He also is a neat freak, he picks up after himself and will go as far as try to make Kizzy's bed and picks up her toys and clothes. If he finds anything that is trash he will stop playing in order to go throw it away. He'll even go out of his way if he notices a sleeve from a shirt hanging out of the hamper. He always asks for a paper towel after meals so he can clean his tray and his face. He's an excellent hand washer.

I think Kendal might be mechanically minded. His fine motor skills are very good and he can be entertained for hours by making things fit together.

Kendal was born with music in his soul. As a newborn he would perk up to music in a way that was very noticable. Since then he has shown a love for playing with instruments. He is always "head dancing" (Sometimes he dances with his whole body, but mostly he keeps rhythym with his head, but it can't really be called head banging). He always notices music, even from sources that I don't realize is music at first (such as commercials). The most amazing thing is he can carry a tune. While he can't say most of the words in songs you can tell which song he's singing.

You can recognize the difference between "I am a child of God" the "abc song" , "I love to see the temple" and many more.

He's a MAJOR daddy's boy. If Daddy is home he wants absolutely nothing to do with anyone else. However when Daddy is at work he's very lovable and sweet to his Mama. He gives lots of loves and kisses.

All in all he's a sweet boy. He has a sense of humor and is very funny. He's a good brother and looks out for his sister. He tends to be whiny but doesn't have much of a temper so his tantrums are minimal. He's a great sleeper, and doesnt' do well when he doesn't get his 12 hours at night and his 2-3 hours during the day. He sometimes is naughty on purpose but not to be defiant, he thinks he's funny. He's going through a phase of separation anxiety which makes nursery a work in progress, but I'm confident he'll grow out of it. One major difference I've recently noticed between Kizzy and Kendal is that Kizzy loved everything animal and could identify and make the noises for at least a dozen different animals by the time she was just past 12 months. Whereas Kendal is just starting to take notice of animals and can only identify dogs and bears and his 3 animal noises are barking, growling and mooing.

One of my all time favorite things that he does is fishy lips and I cannot seem to get it on camera, but as soon as I do I promise to share.

I love my baby boy!