Parker Jack Turns ONE!

     I have no idea how our sweet Parks turned ONE in July.  It seems like he should till be our tiny little baby.  Between him, his brothers, and the first quarter of school I am just now finding the time to write about his birthday.  

We decided to have a carnival theme for his party.  His Daddy did a great job helping me decorate and made the cutest food for the party.  He wrapped up cheeseburgers like you'd get at the circus, made corn dogs, and even popcorn.  Parker loved eating little bits of his burger! 

The Big Top!  

Number One cake

 Yummy food that Daddy made.

 Parker did great with his cake!  He enjoyed smashing it and just kept trying to suck the icing off.  He was not happy when we took it away.  He amazed us at how much he was really into everything.  His brothers didn't seem to love their first birthday parties as much.  Parker didn't fuss, get tired, or complain about a thing.  I think he was just so happy to have everyone he loves all together! 

     He even opened his own gifts really well.  Everyone loved spoiling this precious guy! 

     Parker is just the most amazing little person.  Since his first birthday he finally has some teeth.  All four came in right together.  He's been working on his fifth tooth this week.  He started walking just a few weeks after his birthday.  Now he runs everywhere!  He loves to play ball, and wants everyone to read to him all day long.  He keeps Nana and Pawpaw busy during the week with his love of books and trying to climb on everything!  We could not be more honored that God gave us this beautiful little man to complete our family!

Parker Jack Smith

Parker Jack Smith

July 29, 2015

7lbs. 5 oz.

19 inches long

I went for a check-up on Monday, July 27th (Mike took off work early to come with me) and I was really not dilated to anything at all.  My cervix is so damaged that it makes it hard to check and a few weeks earlier the doctor thought I was a 1-2.  The doctor joked that we knew I had an opening to my cervix since I'd had other kids, but otherwise we wouldn't be sure.  I couldn't believe I was already 38 weeks along.  I had never carried a baby that far! The doctor scheduled our induction to be on Friday, which was Mike's birthday.  I spent the next day thinking of everything I needed to get done and made lots of plans of things to do on Wednesday and Thursday.
But...on Wednesday morning I woke up just before 7:00.  The boys weren't up yet, so I decided to try to go back to sleep.  At 7:05 I felt a strange feeling and my water broke all of a sudden!  It was so weird because it didn't happen that way with the boys and I'd given up hope it would this time.  I ran to the bathroom and immediately called Mike.  He had just gotten to the Springdale exit headed to work.  I told him I wasn't hurting and we probably had plenty of time.  He told me he may have driven just a little fast to get home though :)  Then I called Mike's mom and my Mom to see who could get to me the fastest to be with the boys.  It turned out that Mike got here so fast that my parents just headed to the hospital and Nikki came to stay with the boys.  I showered, put make-up on, and gathered up a few last minute things.  I came out to the livingroom to find Josey and Gavin snuggled up in the recliner waiting for me.  I told them we were having a baby and they started screaming and cheering.  Super sweet moment!  Mike arrived and installed the carseat really quick.  We headed to the hospital and it was a pretty interesting ride to say the least.  I figured we had plenty of time, but got worried when a few contractions hit.  When we got there Dad and Mike got me a wheelchair to get me inside.  We got all checked in and I was dilated to about a 4.  The doctor came in and said if I didn't start laboring on my own he would give me Pitocin at 11:00.  Sure enough no contractions really, so they started inducing around 11:30.  Candra and Alicia were in Butler, Missouri at our cousin's house, so when they got the call they left and made the trip home in about 2 and a half hours, exciting road trip for them!  At about 1:20 I was starting to get more uncomfortable and the baby's heartrate started dropping with the contractions.  It was scary because I was worried about baby boy.  By 2:30 they had me on oxygen and inserted an internal monitor to watch the baby more closely.  I knew he would be fine, but I was definitely more nervous than I had been in my previous deliveries.  At 3:00 I was in a ton of pain but only dilated to a 7.  My cervix wasn't wanting to dilate through the scar tissue.  So painful!  I abandoned my plan for a natural birth like I had with Josey and Gavin and asked for an epidural after the nurse checked me and tried to loosen the scar tissue...worst pain in my life probably!  Getting the epidural was awful because I was already in so much pain.  My doctor had to head over to Mercy hospital for a c-section and told us he'd be back in a hour and a half.  I didn't think he would make it back!  The epidural worked for about an hour or so then I was in extreme pain again...no idea why it didn't work!  I may as well have not even had one because I was in just as much pain as natural childbirth.  I just kept asking why I was feeling everything and what went wrong?! At 4:50pm I knew the baby was coming any minute and asked to push. The nurse let me push a little, but then told me to try to stop pushing.  That's almost impossible!  At 5:03 Dr. S ran in the door and tried to get gowned up.  Everyone was helping him scramble to get his shoe covers on and he nearly fell over.  Pretty funny after the fact :-)  As the doctor put on his gloves I said I had no choice but to push.  He said "go ahead" and sweet baby boy came right on out at 5:06 pm!  So glad our doctor made it in time.  He delivered all of our boys and has taken wonderful care of me for the last 8 years, so special. 
     The first thing I thought was that the baby was so tiny.  I expected him to be bigger since I was 38 weeks and 6 days along.  I also thought he was such a beautiful baby.  Perfectly shaped head and just adorable!  Mike and I were instantly in love of course!  Mom and Laura stayed for the delivery and it was so great to have them by my side as well as Mike.  Of course Mike was an amazing coach and kept me as calm as possible.  He helped me to focus on the baby and gave me strength when I thought I just couldn't do it.  I just held the baby and nursed him until all of our family came in to meet him.  Such a joyous and special time!
     We debated his name and finally decided on Parker Jack Smith around 11 pm that night.  Everyone had left, so we text them to tell them his name.  We had been tossing around the name Parker for a few months and Jack was my Dad's great-grandpa's name. I think it is perfect! 
     We are just so thankful for this sweet baby boy.  I had to go through a lot of hurdles and discomfort during the pregnancy just like with Gavin, but it was all worth it because we were given this precious miracle.  We love you Parker Jack!

35 Weeks Along!

Our family and friends threw us a wonderful baby shower this past weekend!  It was so fun to celebrate our new little guy.  I have slowly started checking things off my to-do list this week.  The doctor put me on modified bedrest at 33 weeks along, so I have to take it easy but I am still getting up to cook for the boys, etc.  I'm glad it is summer vacation and I am not missing work to be on bedrest. 
Today we finally made it to the day we have waited for, the cerclage removal. It was more difficult to remove this one and it was pretty painful at some points. It only took about ten minutes to get it out though, and I survived :-)  My cervix dilated to about a 1 right when he removed the stitches.  Baby boy measured 37 weeks, so he may be on the bigger side.  We hope we can keep him put for a few more weeks.  I delivered both the boys during the 37th week, so hoping we can make it that far.  We are so thankful for all the well-wishes and prayers from our family and friends! 

Baby Boy #6!!

     We had a check-up scheduled for February 26th and I wondered if maybe we would find out what we were having.  With the other boys we didn't find out until our big scan at 20 weeks along, so being only 17 weeks I wasn't sure if we'd find out.  When we got to the appointment they asked if we would like to find out, so we went ahead.  It only took about a minute and a half to see that we were expecting another baby boy!  The doctor didn't have to tell me, it was more than obvious.  We were fully expecting to hear this, so it was no surprise to us.  My immediate thoughts were: YAY another sweet baby boy to cuddle, I'm always going to be the only girl in the house, and how in the world are we going to feed three teenage boys someday?!  We are just beyond thrilled to be expecting another precious boy.  
     We pulled together a quick gender reveal party for a week later and it was perfect.  We didn't tell Josey and Gavin so they could find out in a fun way.  Josey popped a balloon filled with blue confetti and we sprayed the boys with blue silly string.  It was fun to watch their excitement and see everyone else's reactions.  The theme was sweet cupcake or stud muffin.  We had tons of desserts to celebrate our little stud muffin.  
     Naming him will be quite the challenge though!  We have used our 10 favorite boy names with the other boys, so we are running low on ideas.  I'm betting he will be nameless for a while, just like Gavin was for his first six hours of life.  We definitely want to have him safely in our arms before we name him, so we've got some time. 
      I am now 20 weeks along and we are just taking it one day at a time.  Some days I am more uncomfortable than others and just have to really listen to my body.  I tend to overdo it and end up hurting later.  I can't wait to see baby boy next Thursday at our anatomy scan.  Can't wait to get a glimpse of his sweet little face! 

Baby Smith #6

Gavin has officially joined Josey in the big brother club!  Josey was so excited to pass the "big brother" shirt down for Gavin to wear.

Mike and I had a few conversations during the summer about whether or not we would try to have more children.  We were so thankful after I delivered our healthy, rainbow baby Gavin.  We really didn't talk much about it after he was born, but when he turned two I really started wondering if we were done.  We love our little guys so much and couldn't think of a reason why we wouldn't want another one.  Even back when we married at 18 and 19 years-old, I always pictured us with a house full of children.  Only two problems were keeping us from jumping right in.  Did we want to struggle through months or years of fertility treatments again?  Could we handle the worry of another high risk pregnancy with required surgery?  We had never prevented pregnancy after Gavin and in the back of my mind I hoped maybe it would "just happen."  In August we decided that we would just go ahead and contact my doctor and see what he thought.  He ended up prescribing me the medicine over the phone and I started it that same day. I took Femara, the same drug that we use to conceive Gavin.  The first month was awful.  The cycle failed and I had a lot of bleeding and the most awful cramps I have ever had (that's saying a lot with everything I've put my body through).  I was hesitant to even start a second cycle.  We did and yet again we did not get pregnant.  I figured ok, two failed cycles hopefully only about 8-12more failed attempts and we will be pregnant.  I started the third cycle and about 14 days in I started bleeding and had awful pains.  We were unable to finish the "trying" days for that cycle.  I took a test on day 28, the day before Thanksgiving and it was negative.  I didn't even bother to tell Mike it was negative and he actually text me later saying he had hoped it was good news since I hadn't told him it was negative.  I thought it was sweet that he was hoping for a positive just as much as me.  I was busy baking that day and then we celebrated Thanksgiving Day with our families.  The next day I just had this impulse to test again.  We went shopping and I picked up a test.  I came home and decided to take it really quick before dinner.  I could not believe it when the incredibly faint line appeared.  I didn't even think of a cute way to tell Mike, I just yelled for him to come see if he could see the line too.  We decided it was definitely positive.  Of course I cried and Mike just hugged me.  We were again so very excited but our usual fear was also there.  I tested a few days later and it was definitely positive.  We decided not to tell anyone until we had an ultrasound.  We usually tell our families, but since I had so many complications with the cycle we wanted to wait.  We went in on December 22nd and saw one healthy baby on ultrasound!  What an amazing day!  We wrapped up the ultrasound picture and gave it to our parents to announce on Christmas Day.
We are still amazed that it only took three cycles to get  pregnant this time.  Many have asked if it was a surprise baby.  I like to think of it as a planned surprise.  We never imagined we would be on this journey again so soon.  The baby is due on August 6, 2015.  The due date is just seven days earlier than Gavin's so I feel good knowing the timeline for everything.  Will the baby be born on Johnny's birthday July 20th, Gavin's July 25th, Mike's July 31st, or even Jaxsen and Asher's on August 5th?  Most likely we will have another July baby!  I've never carried past 37 weeks, so we will just have to see.  I have surgery on January 28th to have the cerclage placed to ensure I can safely carry the baby.  I'm hoping for no bedrest until the end of the pregnancy after school gets out.  It worked out great with Gavin, so we are just praying for the same outcome.  I am so thankful for this amazing blessing we have been given.  I am staying positive and getting very excited to hear a heartbeat in a few weeks!  I just can't wait to start feeling baby kicks again and to hold another sweet baby in my arms this summer. 

Josey Goes to Kindergarten

I can't believe that it is December and I am just now writing about Josey starting kindergarten.  I think this has been the busiest few months we've ever had!  August seems like so long ago!  I wanted to write some things down so that I will always remember when my sweet little guy started school.
It is so awesome to have Josey at school with me.  I love seeing him randomly throughout the day :)

Here he is on the first day of school.  He was so excited and absolutely adorable! 

I have so many fun memories about his first semester of kindergarten.  Here are just a few things I don't want to forget.

1.  The way he was so confident going to school the first day.  He didn't cry or seem sad at all.  I had a few tears, but Mike dropped him off since I had to be in my classroom at the same time.  I did a pretend drop off before Mike took him so I could get a picture of him with his teacher and get to be involved to some extent.
2.  The way he smiled when I went to check on him at lunch that first day.  Just precious!
3.  How excited he was to get to be a car rider the first time Nana came and picked him up because I had a meeting.
4.  He figured out after a few weeks that there was run-walk in the morning so he started begging to get to school early so he could run a lap.  Early isn't my strong suit, so he has only done it a few times, but he loves it!
5.  I started coaching Girls on the Run every Tuesday and Thursday after school, so Josey also had a lot of fun running the track after school and hanging out with the girls.  They kind of adopted him like a little mascot. 
6.  After school he would sit in the car rider line and wait for me to come get him.  After a few weeks I let him go out to walker duty with me.  My favorite thing was how he would run in every day for weeks and hide somewhere in the library from me.  It was adorable and the librarian and library aide would play along :)  He would giggle so loud when I "found" him! 
7.  Josey and another teacher's little boy will follow the janitor around sweeping after him.  So cute! 
8.  I will always remember how much he needed a hug from Mommy after school when he had a rough day.  He has struggled with getting his work done and has been impulsive.  He got down on himself for a while, which was hard to see.  He has really improved since then though and I think he is going to be a great little student :)
9.  I love how excited he gets to read new words and count as high as he can.  He is really loving learning new things! 

Josey also started playing Upward Football, so that kept us pretty busy.  He had practice every Thursday night and a game on Saturday.  He really improved by the last game and finally pulled an opponents flag at the last game.  He was so proud....so were Mommy and Daddy!

Here is our little flag football player after his very first game.  It was definitely adorable watching 5-year-old play football!  It was crazy how well they played by the end of the season. 

 

Mommy and her big boy on picture day!  Love this kid so much!!

Josey's birth story

I can't believe Josey will be FIVE tomorrow!  I realized I had never blogged his birth story and I want to have it written out just like Gavin's.  My mom kept an awesome journal for each of our five boys' births, so I borrowed it today in case I forgot any of the details!  Thanks Mom!

On April 18, 2008 I worked all day teaching second grade at Salem Lutheran School in Springdale, Arkansas.  I had been dilated to a 5 for a week, but I just had to finish the week and make it through CPR training Friday afternoon.  During the training I was contracting a bit and was really out of breath.  One of my friends offered to drive me home, but I was ok and made it home safely.  Mike brought Subway home for dinner.  I was contracting pretty regularly, but I guess since it was my first baby and my due date was still three full weeks away  I wasn't sure if we should go in :)  I made Mike install the carseat and I finished up a couple of other things.  I wanted to clean the house and vacuum (so everything would be perfect!) but it was pretty obvious that Josey was on his way!  It was the most uneventful trip to the hospital ever, not dramatic or exciting like we had expected, ha!  We decided to stop by Walmart so Mike could get a few things.  I remember thinking as I walked very slowly toward the checkout "Oh wow, I'm really uncomfortable.  I think this is really happening!"  We got to the hospital and they checked me.  The nurse didn't really say anything so I asked if we would be staying.  She laughed and said "We normally don't send people home when they are 6 centimeters dilated!"  I called family at about 11:00 pm and told them we were going to be parents!  My mom, Laura, Mike's mom, and Deb showed up and hung out while I waited for something to happen.  I continued to dilate without any real pain at all.  Dr. Schmitz came in at 2:05 and broke my water.  The pain became intense in about 30 minutes.  Crazy back pain!  I didn't have any pain medicine AT ALL!  I was really set on delivering naturally.  Less than 20 minutes of pushing and I delivered our beautiful miracle boy, Josey Alexander Smith on April 19, 2008 at 3:52 am!!  He was 7 pounds 1 ounce and 19 inches long with a head full of hair.  I remember just looking at him in disbelief.  He was beautiful and perfect.  Mike said his first thought was that he was relieved he really was a boy, haha! 

It seems like just yesterday, and a lifetime ago at the same time.  I have said before that April 19, 2008 was the day when I knew why I was on this Earth.  It was the day I became a Mommy.  Josey has been with us for the best and worst moments of our lives.  He truly saved me when we lost Johnny, Jaxsen, and Asher.  Some days I was so grief stricken that I could hardly stand, but one look at my sweet Josey and I knew I could go on.  He has completely had my heart from the first moment I felt him move in my tummy.  I am so proud of the big boy he has become.  He is loving, smart, hilarious, goofy, sweet, and amazing!  Seeing him become a big brother to Gavin this last year has been wonderful.  He loves his baby brother more than anything.  He is gentle, patient, and kind eventhough it has been a huge adjustment after four years of being our one and only.  Bubba- Mommy loves you to the moon and back!  I am so proud to be your Mommy!