October Happenings

Addie has really surprised me by wanted to run races. I think her Aunt Molly is starting to rub off on Adds. So Addie and I have run, but realistically, walked 2 races now. They both were a ton of fun! I hope we continue this excitement in the spring when the weather turns warm again.

The first weekend in October, my sister (and her family) and my mom and brothers came to visit. It was a General Conference trip so they came and went but not before we could have a ton of fun with my nephew Max! The kids were great at Gardner Village!!!! They had a blast on the witches scavenger hunt! I love that little kid, Max! He is even more adorable in life than in this pic!!

And this is Happy Baby Parker! He is the happiest baby I have ever seen. He is just smiling and loves to be around people. In fact, the only time that he cries is when he realizes that nobody is around paying attention to him! Can we say Spoiled?! But he is so happy, it is easy to spoil him!

HAPPY very Belated Birthday Jayne!!!!

My dearest Jayne,

I have known that you were going to be mine since I was 10 years old! I will never forget it and I am sure that you won't either since I talk about it often. But that was the day that my testimony of eternal families was born and I KNEW you were supposed to be in my family. It was after my Grandma Flake's funeral and I was having a quiet moment saying goodbye to her at the cemetary. Then, just as real as a bird chirping, I saw a picture of you in my mind. Blond hair, blue eyes, huge dimples, and I heard a voice tell me "Jane. You will have a daughter named Jane." And then 17 years later, that moment became reality when I held you in my arms. I love the decision that Mike and I made to add the "y' into your name. It is unique and original, just like you!

Six years after your birth, I never could have imagined having so many emotional moments with just one child. I now know why you were brought into my life. I appreciate your honesty, love and sincerity,and at times, trials. You have melted my heart with such wonderful, heart felt compliments and made me so frustrated that the only thing that kept you alive was the fact that you were named after my Grandma Flake. From your febrile seizures when you were 2 yrs old, to your potty training for 1 1/2 years, to your newly diagnosed disorder, I wouldn't change a thing about you.

I remember when we lived in AZ, one Fast Sunday, you ran up through the choir chairs, and of course, I had to get you. I remember asking Bishop McMullin, 'What do I do with her?" I had had one of those moments of complete frustration and instantly he changed it with two sentences, "You love her. Just love her." The funny thing is that I saw the Savior telling me that, not the Bishop. And once again, I knew that you were supposed to be mine.

I will never forget researching Oppositional Defiant Disorder and not knowing whether to cry or laugh because it described you perfectly. And then reading the test results from the doctors was another confirmation of your personality and the struggles that you have gone through. I loved going to the 'learning doctor' and having our mommy/daughter dates with you. I love your energy for life. We will work through any trials that you will have, together. And yes, at times I give you more leniency but I know that you are trying so hard to be good. I can see it in your beautiful blue eyes.

My only prayer for you is to take that good energy and stay close to the Gospel. Be good. Do good. Act good. Show goodness in all that you do!

Happy 6th Birthday! I love you!

Love,

Your Mom

Smiles!

I love it when babies start to coo and smile. And that is the stage that Parker is at! And the whole family is enjoying making him smile! We had his 2 mo. old check up and he is growing! 12 lbs. even, 23 1/2 inches. But I do think "Buppie" will be out of sorts the next couple of days from his shots.

We had Parker's blessing on Sunday at our house. Due to the fact of it being Stake Conference. My mom and sister were in town for Women's Conference and so my dad was the only one who had to fly in for it. It was very nice but to be honest, I don't know if I really liked doing the blessing at home. Right after the amen was said it was like, 'OK fire up the grill, and lets eat!" I kind of like having it at church so that the sweet feeling lasts longer. But it was worth it since I had my family in town.

We also celebrated May birthdays! Grandma Kelly's, Jayne's and Uncle Matt's. I don't know what is going on but I am a rockstar this year with birthday gifts. Not to toot my own horn but they have been creative and enjoyable but yet needed and practical. Or atleast that is how I feel when I give them away! You know what I mean....not like the generic candle for your ma-in-law, but nothing homemade where you know they are going to go home and throw it away. Hopefully they liked their gifts as much as I liked giving them.

Meet Parker William!!!!!

Parker William Kelly

Born: March 2, 2010

4:02 pm

8 lbs. 4 oz.

21 inches

Our miracle baby! To say that everything went great with the delivery, would be a lie but I know there are worse horror stories out there and we have all heard of some. But I am writing this as my journal and not to get sympathy or to be dramatic. So here is the timeline of Parker's entrance into the world.

Monday night: Mike gives me a blessing and tells me that "I will know what is going on with my body and I will be able to express my feelings to the doctors and nurses....And the doctors and nurses will be able to perform to their ability and knowledge."

Tuesday:

7:30 am: got called to go to the hospital at 9:00 am to be induced.

8:00 am: Accidentally took Jayne's ADHD medicine instead of my prenatal pill.

8:10 am: chugged a ton of water so I could throw up Jayne's meds, but to no avail!

10:00 am: got hooked up to the pitocin, with an increase of dosage every 30 minutes. Got checked and I was dilated 1 cm, and only 50% effaced, and Parker hadn't dropped so he is really high up. Nurse comments that I hope I have a baby today and that I am not sent home.

12:00 ish: Dr. Terry breaks my water with the nurse literally pushing down on my stomach so that he could reach. That gives you an idea of how high up Parker was. But at least I know I am having a baby and I am not going home. Still dialated at 1 cm.

2:00 pm. Talk of epidural comes up. My mom tells the nurse I will be ready at 3:30pm (so that I can feel what natural labor is like since she had 5 natural births). But I am to the point where I can't breath, can't even open my eyes, can't talk, and contractions are only a couple minutes apart. My mom goes to lunch, I tell the nurse, when the dr. is out of surgery, I am ready for the epidural. (love ya mom, but I had enough and I am not a pioneer!!!)

2:30 pm: Nurse checks me and I am still dialated 1 cm. I AM REALLY MAD! REALLY MAD!!!!! Who is hooked up to pitocin for 4 1/2 hours and doesn't even dialate!!!!!!!! And I am ready for an epidural!?!?!? Am I the biggest wimp out there?! But I know I have reached my limit and I want an epidural NOW!!!! Went to the bathroom before getting the epidural and I noticed blood on the bed. I go to the bathroom and passed a huge blood clot. (it was massive...I literally felt it come out in a fist size ball!) Tell the nurse and she says it is not normal but it probably has something to do with the fact that the baby was so high up. Then the anestesiologist comes in and hooks me up to the epidural. Life is better now.

3:20 pm: The nurse notices that the baby is starting to go into stress and so I am put on oxygen. I am finally dialated to 4 cm. And the nurse reminds me to tell her when I feel pressure 'down there'. But for now, just try to get some rest.

3:40 pm. Nurse comes in again and wants to check me. Baby's heart rate is really going down with every contraction and she says if I have more of these, then it will be c-section time. I tell her I am starting to feel pressure down there and she checks me and says that I am dialated to 8 cm. and we are ready to go. While she is texting Dr. Terry, he walks in the door to see how I am doing. He says, OK let's have a baby. I start feeling 'out of it' right now. The nurse tells me important information about pushing and I remember thinking, "I know she is telling me something but I don't know what she is saying."

3:50 pm: He checks me and I am fully dialated and ready to push. Then Dr. Terry tells me the same instructions that the nurse told me and I realize what I am supposed to do. Phew. The Resident doctor sits down in 'catching' position and Dr. Terry talks him through what is going to happen. I feel a contraction coming and so I am told to push. Parker's head comes out and Dr. Terry notices that the cord is around his neck. He tells the resident dr. to cut the cord and then Dr. Terry pushes the resident dr. out of the way and takes control when he finds out that the cord is around Parker's neck not once, not twice, but three times. Yes, the cord was around his neck 3 times! My mom catches on to this whole thing since I am really out of it now.

4:02 pm: Dr. Terry tells me to push again and I just lay there. He says, 'Push' and I reply, "you mean me?" (That shows you how out of it I really am). I push through the second contraction and he is out! Yes, that is right. I pushed through 1 1/2 contractions and then Parker was out!!! And good thing too. Because I passed another blood clot right before Parker came out. And so he swallowed a lot of blood. I remember saying, "Is he ok?! He isn't crying! Is he ok?" The pediatric nurse takes Parker and has to clean out his stomach because of the high amount of blood that he swallowed. The nurses all tell me that he is fine he is just quietly taking in his surroundings. Then the doctor continues to work on me and I find out that there is a lot of blood and that my placenta has gone to shreds. So he has to pull my placenta off of my uterus, in pieces. I think the eye opening experience was when Dr. Terry told us how happy he was that Parker came out so quickly. You could tell that he was extremely serious and happy taht I didn't have to have a c-section right then and there. And the other eye opener was when my mom asked Dr. Terry what the record for times the cord is around a baby's neck and he replied, "tres. Tres times." So I don't know if Parker was the record or tied the record but atleast he is healthy and ok. And the fact that Dr. Terry and the nurses were calling him the miracle baby is in itself both alarming and humbling at the same time.

But both Parker and I are healthy and strong and feeling great. I am so enjoying this baby of ours and I can't put him down. I am totally eating him up. Welcome to the world Parker!

February Happenings

It is time to play catch-up again. So here are a couple of things that we did in February. Well, actually Spencer turned 4 in January so I guess it is catching up for 2 months and not just one. If anybody doesn't know, Spencer and Mike are best buddies. Spencer will climb all over him at church, at home and anywhere else, I am invisible and I love it that way. He loves his 'big buddy' and 'big buddy' loves his 'little buddy.'
Can you tell that Spencer is in the "let's make funny faces for the camera" stage? We had some friends/family go to a fabulous place called PIRATE ISLAND for Spencer's birthday. Think Chuck E Cheese and Mayan Restaraunt and you get Pirate Island. Needless to say, this is every boys' dream. It is worth the drive to Orem. Tons of fun!!!!
Good times at Pirate Island. Good times.
Nevermind the brown whale in the middle of the picture. But it is fitting since we had one last family activity to see "Jonah and the Great Fish" on stage. The performance was awesome!!!!! David Osmond was Jonah, and the whole cast was top notch. Remember Gev from So you think you can Dance? He was a dancer. Ashley Delegroso from Dancing with the Stars? Her little sister was a dancer as well. And there were more fabulous actors and actresses. If anybody knows about the "LIKEN" dvds, they were the ones that produced the play. We can't wait for Jonah to go to DVD so we can add it to our collection of church movies to watch on Sundays.
And we can't forget the 'false alarm' that happened Feb 12. I was having contractions so bad that when Mike came home from the temple, I started counting them. After 10 contractions in one hour, we headed to the hospital at 11:30 pm. The great joke was on us though. STUPID BRAXTON HICKS!! So Mike's mom and dad were on the way to the hospital around 12:30 am when I was told I was going home. So they ended up spending the night at our house and I got a shot of morphine and phenegren. So Grandma made Valentine Sugar Cookies with the kids. (Jayne wanted to watch Sat. morning cartoons) but Addie and Spence loved the time with Grandma.

Just get ready because the next post will be of the new little guy. Only 5 more days (if I don't get bumped from the induction list on March 2). Cross your fingers because I know that we are. Hope you all had a great Jan/Feb.

Goodbye Tonsils and Adenoids!

On Monday, Spencer had the wonderful priviledge (note sarcasm) of getting his tonsils and adenoids out. We felt like it would be a good idea since on a healthy day his tonsils were a size 3+( out of 4) and his adenoids had a 50% blockage. Nevermind all of the snoring, sleep apnea, coughing attacks during the winter, sinus infections, and strep throat. So Monday was the day! And he was such a trooper! He was wonderful!!!!!

The only thing that was a bit nerve-racking was when the surgery was scheduled for 1:00 pm and the ENT Dr. hadn't shown up yet. At 1:15 pm, both Mike and I were aware that Spencer's patience was closing, QUICKLY!!! Can you blame him if the only thing he had for breakfast was jello and apple juice and then he had to stop eating that at 10:30 am???? Needless to say, he was hungry and he was going to let everyone know in about 2 minutes. But then the Dr came and he was gone at the nick of time.

(Spencer is dressed and ready to go.)

(Uncle Chris, Cosmo the dog, dad, and the star of the day!)
(sidenote: Uncle Chris is Mike's oldest brother from Michigan who is a Plastic Surgeon. He was there for moral support and it was very comforting having someone know all of the 'lingo' and the right questions that we didn't even think to ask. Thanks Chris!)

(Saying goodbye! EVERYONE at the hospital were so awesome and nice to Spencer! They even let him take Cosmo with him to the OR.)

After the surgery, which lasted 20 minutes, they let one of us go to the PACU room, which is before the recovery room. I said to MIke, "I pushed him out, I get to see him." But down the hall, I could hear him crying for daddy. So I came in and there were 3 nurses with him and he was upset. I asked him if he wanted mommy or daddy. Of course, he said daddy and so I gave him a kiss on the forhead and turned around and got Mike from the waiting room. I couldn't even tell you what the PACU room looked like, I was in and out so quickly. After 10 minutes, they were transfered to the recovery room and that is when Uncle Chris and I were able to see him.

And this is what Chris and I saw:

Apparently, after Spencer saw Mike, he immediately calmed down and fell asleep. After that, he was a gem! Wanted apple juice, Sprite, and to watch TV. And he got it all!

(His ride to the car. Loving the attention!)