Family Meeting

So I had to quickly take a minute to write down about something that happened. McKell informed us that we were having a "family meeting". She and Cayden really headed it up and Ashlee went along with it. It was apparently a very serious meeting because McKell had me type of an official announcement on the computer reading "Family Meeting. In the Living Room. In 10 minutes." When we arrived in the living room, they had it all set up, complete with a homemade pulpit and notes. Wow.

First order of business? They felt that they should get paid for all of the jobs that they do around the house. We discussed this and agreed that their normal jobs would not be paid for because that is just what we do when we are in a family. However, if they wanted to do extra jobs for money, we would be happy to comply. (Note: none of them have asked to do a job for money yet!)

Second order of business? This summer has been kind of boring. We don't do swim lessons any more and we aren't doing anything fun because of the new baby. Again we discussed this. Apparently, they wanted to go to Disneyland. (I tried not to laugh out loud at this suggestion!) We assured them that someday we would go back to Disneyland, but had to wait until the little ones were a bit older. We also made a list of some of the fun things we could do over the summer.

We seemed to address all of the concerns and the family meeting adjourned on a happy note...until next time.

Grateful

I know things have been a little "bumpy" around here lately. So today, I wanted to focus on some things that I am grateful for.

-I am grateful for healthy children. In the past 2 weeks, we have dealt with hand foot mouth disease, stomach flu, jaundice, and strep throat. To say that I am grateful for healthy children, is an understatement! For the most part, we are all doing well. Ashlee is still getting back on her feet from an awful case of stomach flu, but they are all doing well.
-I am grateful that my big kids are good helpers. Cayden follows after his dad and takes good care of me. It is really sweet. The girls are also good helpers. McKell seems to have the magic touch with Jaxson and can get him all cuddled in and sleeping.
-I am grateful for an amazing ward that has brought in dinners, gifts, and goodies for us. They have been so great and I really am so thankful for the service that we have received. We have received so much love and support. Having dinner brought in has been such an enormous help. We are so grateful for this!
-I am grateful for Priesthood blessings. We have had quite a few over the past few weeks and I know they have helped. I am grateful for our neighbor who came quickly to give Ashlee a blessing with Rob when she was so sick.
-I am grateful for family and their love and support.
-I am grateful for our garden that has continued to grow, even though we haven't been doing much with it. Look what we had today!
-I am grateful for Rob's time off. Of course we didn't even realize how this would be a blessing to us over the past year, but we have been very careful with how much work Rob has taken off. We are SO grateful for this now as he has been able to be home with me and not have it affect his pay etc. I could not have done this without his help!
-We are so very grateful for our sweet little baby boy who is healthy and doing well. He has already brought such a special spirit and so much love into our home. He is doing well and we all love him so much!
There are so many more things I could write down, but those are just a few.

We continue to try and get back on our feet day by day. My health is not returning as quickly as I would like. I am very used to getting back on my feet rather quickly after having a baby. So this has been all so new to me and a real struggle. I am amazed at how my mind can be saying "go go go" and my body just does not comply. I am still incredibly weak and not feeling great. I know now that some of that is due to the fact that I hadn't fully gotten all my strength back after having the flu so bad before Jaxson was born. But every day I am trying to make progress. I can now at least carry Jaxson. I am working my way up to being able to lift Sadie.

This week will be a big transition as Rob goes back to work. He is off for a few more days and then will try half-days. I am so grateful for him and all he has done to pull our family through this tough time. Grateful indeed.

Update - July 8

Just a quick update on us and "As the World Turns".

-First and foremost, THANK YOU to everyone that has been so wonderful with words of support, prayers, well wishes, etc. for us. We have been so touched by everyone's outpouring of love and concern. We have had meals this week which has helped so much from our ward and are trying to get back on our feet.
-The GOOD NEWS is that Ashlee DOES NOT have hand, foot, mouth disease. WHEW! She already had it when she was younger so she has antibodies for it already, plus we quickly realized that her symptoms were not at all the same as Sadie's. This is a HUGE blessing because there is nothing you can do for HFM disease except wait it out. The other GOOD NEWS is that Cayden and McKell have also already had it so they should be pretty much immuned as well. SUCH a blessing. The BAD news is that Ashlee is still very sick with a fever and throwing up. I just got back from the doctor with her and she tested negative for strep, any type of flu, etc. (I had them test for anything imaginable just so we could cover our bases.) I was a little worried about maybe West Nile virus because she got bitten by some mosquitos over the weekend, but she didn't show enough signs for that. It looks like a yucky tummy virus. She hasn't kept anything down for the past day, so we have to watch for dehydration, but hopefully we can start getting small sips of liquid in her and she'll be back to normal. Again, I am praying that nobody else gets this in our house! The highlight of the day? When we were at the dr's office today and Ashlee was picking out her sticker for being good and ended up puking all over the clerk's desk including their mail, drawers, etc. They were so nice about it and we got everything cleaned up.
-Cayden is at Scout day camp today and hopefully having a wonderful time!
-McKell is pretty darn bored with a sick sister and a brother at scout camp. She will be excited to go with her cousins to a birthday party tomorrow at the Aerospace Museum!
-Sadie is doing much better. She is able to eat more and hasn't had a fever since Sunday. Her "mouf" still hurts a little and she is cautious of what she will eat, but at least she is eating and running around. She loves the new baby...a little too much at times. I didn't realize how loud this child is until I brought a newborn home. Our little Sadie has some serious PIPES!
-Jaxson is doing great. He is so beautiful and sweet. I took him to the dr yesterday to check his billirubin aka jaundice. He is a little yellow still but fortunately, we don't have to do the light blanket unless we see him get more yellow or if he doesn't eat very well. This boy loves to eat! He gets downright frantic when it is chow time. He does not like to have to pause to be burped and lets us know it. He isn't sleeping great at night yet, and I spend a lot of the night on the couch with him with both of us dozing.
-My health is okay. My leg doesn't look as bad, so that is good. It still hurts A LOT and causes a lot of pain when I am on my feet too much. I still have a hard time walking while carrying Jaxson so Rob has to help me with that at times. My blood pressure was checked yesterday and was still high. Not quite sure why, but we'll continue to monitor it and take the medication. Supposedly, one of the best things for it is rest. HA! It causes me to have bad headaches a lot and just feel really weak and yuck. But I'm trying to just push through it. I really cannot handle much more of me being incapacitated!

So, that is the update on us. We take things day by day because quite honestly, things around here seem to be changing on an hourly basis. We appreciate the continued help, prayers, love, and well wishes for us. We have been really humbled through all of this.

Update and photos of baby Jaxson

I wanted to get some more photos up of our sweet new baby boy. He is such a darling baby and we all are in love with him!

I also wanted to give a quick update on how things are going. First, we want to say a huge thank you to so many who have sent their well wishes, prayers, calls, etc. during our bumpy beginning with Jaxson. We appreciate it more than you can know.

So, here is the status on things:
-Jaxson is doing great. He is healthy and sweet and a beautiful baby. At first, he wasn't doing too well on the eating front and having a hard time swallowing without a lot of air and not eating too much. But he has quickly figured out not only how to eat, but that he likes to eat! He is so tiny (for one of my babies) so I am glad to see him eating. He still sleeps a lot and is pretty content. Our first night home was VERY hairy with both him and Sadie waking up. Last night was a little better. It is amazing how, with a newborn, 3 hours of consecutive sleep feels like a lifetime! All moms know what I am talking about.
-Sadie is still pretty miserable with a mouth full of yucky blisters from this stupid hand, foot, mouth disease that she got. The good news is that her fever is gone so she has her appetite back. The bad news is that her mouth still hurts so much that she wants to eat but can't. It is excruciating to watch her be hungry and just cry and point and say "mouf" (mouth) because she wants to eat. We hope this ends soon. She slept better last night so that is hopeful.
-Just as Sadie is getting to the tail end of this awful illness, it appears Ashlee has now got it. She complained of not feeling well tonight and when I looked, she had a little blister on the corner of her lip. You have GOT to be kidding me! We are praying with all the faith we have that the other kids won't get it and that Ashlee will have a much milder case because she is older. We are completely converting to all paperwear so we can throw away everything after we eat. Because this is a viral disease, there is really nothing to do but wait it out. So much for pawning off any of our kids right now.
-Rob is holding up okay. I'm sure he is exhausted and ready for life to return to 'normal' - whatever that is. I think he is just happy that Sadie is finally starting to feel better.
-On my health update, it is still not great. My leg continues to hurt all the time due to the blood clots aka phlebitis. I have to wear these lovely stockings that are a real pain, but are supposed to help. I still can't walk really well at all and can't carry Jaxson while walking, especially on the stairs. The first night I was home, I apparently was more weak than what I thought and Rob had to literally catch me 3 times as I was blacking out. It was not a good feeling. I have had a few more spells like that so I usually have Rob nearby when I am feeling dizzy or doing the stairs. I am going in tomorrow to my OB to have my blood pressure and leg checked. According to my home BP monitor, my BP is still very high, even on medication. We'll see what it shows tomorrow. We don't know why it is contintuing to stay high, but I don't like it. I am still really swollen and puffy because of it and it worries me a lot, as it does Rob. In addition, to make it more "fun" my back is killing me. We knew this would probably be the case, but I was really hoping it wouldn't be so bad. To sum up, as Rob puts it, I am a mess.

When I started this blog, I promsied that I would be 100% honest and not "sugar coat" anything. It is my forum to share our lives, both the ups and downs. So I apologize if I have been a "downer" lately. It is amazing how your physical well being has a direct impact on your mental and emotional well being. So please pardon the ventings of an emotionally and physically drained mom.

To sum it up...I feel completely depleted at the moment. I think most moms can relate to how it feels right after having a baby. There really is no other feeling like it. I honestly struggle with it a lot and have struggled after each baby I have had. My hormones feel like they are completely whacked out, I am a weepy emotional mess, and I just feel lousy. I truly hate how I feel after having a baby. I know a lot of it is post pardom depression and "baby blues" and I just do not like feeling so out of control with my emotions. To be honest, I have had more crying emotional breakdowns in the last few days than in the last few years combined.

I know there is a purpose and reason to everything. I know that in the grand scheme of things, I will probably look back and understand the "why's" of things. But right now, while in the moment, I have a hard time with it. I have pretty much been in constant pain with my back this whole pregnancy as well as being "morning sick" the whole 9 months. I have tried to push through that and do the best I could. But then at the beginning of June, I came down with an awful case of what appeared to be the "swine flu". I have never been so sick in my life and am honestly still recovering from the effects of it. Add to that, some toxemia just for fun. So for the past few weeks, I have been dealing with that. I really thought that these "challenges" for me would be over once I had the baby. So it has really hit hard to not only still be dealing with all of those issues, but now adding a blood pressure issue, the normal post-pregnancy "recovery" issues, and this horrible pain in my legs due to blood clots that won't be going away any time soon. I am constantly in some sort of pain and sometimes it all hits at once. I have great pain meds from the doctor, but I can't take them because they knock me out and I can't function. So I continue to be in a lot of pain all of the time. In addition to having a very sick 22 month old and now another sick child. Yep, pretty much emotionally and physically drained and depleted at this moment.

Through it all, I am still trying to see the positives in things. They are what I try to focus on, even though that is hard. So, here are a few.
-My 3 older kids have been stellar through all of this. They have been SO good and very self sufficient and have become quite a great team of 3. Tonight, they all pitched in and cleaned the downstairs and did so with no grumbling or complaining. They have become quite good little friends through all of this. Tonight, they sat at the bar and went through the Hymn book and wrote down the words of their favorite Hymns.
-Rob has been able to be home. I can honestly say that I would NOT be able to even function right now if Rob wasn't home. I am so eternally grateful for this man and the incredble person he is. He just carries the load while I can't and I continually pray for him to have an added measure of strength, patience, and energy. He amazes me on a daily basis. Not only is he having to take care of the kids, including a very sick little girl, but a wife who is a mess. I am not looking forward to when he has to go back to work. I pray that things will be better by then.
-My ward is bringing meals into us which is a huge help! It is so comforting to know that task is being taken care of. I physically could not do it right now and it is such a comfort to know that it is one less thing for Rob to try and manage. My family has also been a great help with meals and help. I wouldn't have made it through the first few days in the hospital without my parents and my brother, Jay.

-Out of all of this, we have a sweet new baby boy. Jaxson has already brought so much love to our home. A new baby just carries that special spirit with them because they are so new from Heaven. He is a valiant little spirit and I love looking into his wise dark eyes and talking to him. He is a special little guy and we love him so much.Getting weighed - 7 lbs 11 oz - SO tiny for one of my babies!

I am so glad my parents made it in time for Jaxson to be born. This is my mom - the proud grandma. Jaxson is their 31st grandbaby.

I LOVE this photo of Jaxson and my dad. Just the two of them having a deep conversation.

The proud daddy! I love seeing Rob with our babies. He is such a big guy and seeing him hold a tiny baby is just priceless!

Yep, he is Rob's son. Look at those fingernails!

First bath. He did not like the bath part but loved getting his hair washed.

Jaxson & McKell

FINALLY...a little brother for Cayden! My 2 sweet boys!

Ashlee's face says it all - she is just goofy in love with her new baby brother!

My "welcome sign" to my room. I had amazing nurses at the hospital. What a blessing!

This is what Rob had to do to entertain Sadie. She wasn't feeling well when they came to visit us, so he kept his distance with her. He even had to resort to the rubber glove balloon tricks!

Jaxson and his Uncle Jay. Jay was so sweet and helpful while I was in the hospital. He gave Jaxson the cute little bear in the picture.

All dressed up and ready to go home.

Sadie didn't even want to look at Jaxson the first time she came to the hospital. But when they came to bring us home from the hospital, she heard Jaxson cry for the first time and has been amazed by him ever since. She is so sweet and says over and over again, "Hi baby...Hi baby" She loves seeing his toes, his fingers, his head, etc. She already loves her baby brother.

Rob FINALLY gets to hold his little boy! Aside from the day he was born, Rob wasn't able to be with me at the hospital because Sadie was so sick at home. It was wonderful to finally let him hold his baby boy.

"Mr. Amazing" - Uncle Jay gave him this shirt. He looks so cute in it!

Wide awake and looking out the window. Such a wise little man!

An update on us

I apologize for the lack of posts and info and pictures going out about the new baby etc. It has been a very "bumpy" last few days. Here is the update on us and what is going on and what we know.

-7/1 Jaxson William Peacock was born at 7:37 pm. He weighed 7 11 oz and is beautiful! Lots of dark hair, beautiful skin, and as the nurses have all commented, "Such sweet sweet baby!" We'll hope he stays that way. I was induced 2 weeks early with Jaxson due to PIH (pregnancy induced hypertension aka toxemia.) My blood pressure was quite high when I arrived and actually got even higher once I was induced which was worrysome. The epidural was done quite early to help get my blood pressure down a bit which it did, which is good. PIH can be very dangerous for both baby and mom because of the risk of seizures, stroke, placental tears, etc. So my BP was very closely watched. The only real "cure" for PIH is to deliver the baby. I have had this issue with all of my other pregnancies but Sadie so it is a familiar road. While at the hospital, our other kids were at my parents' home and we find out that Sadie has had a rough day with a high fever, very irritable at times, etc. NOT what I want to hear. Unfortunately, this meant that Rob couldn't stay here at the hospital with me and the new baby for very long at all after he was born because he needed to be with Sadie. I got settled in my room that night and spent hours just adoring my new beautiful baby boy.
-7/2 - At about 3:00 am , I got up to go to the restroom and noticed some pain in my left leg, but didn't think much of it. Again at 5:00 I got up, but this time the pain was much more noticable and intense. I have had quite a large vericose vein in my left leg for some time. It first became noticable when I was pregnant with Sadie. I have never had any problems with it and it hasn't cause me any pain etc. While pregnant with Jaxson, it had gotten worse, but still no pain or problems with it. However, the morning after I delivered Jaxson, I was in horrible pain with my leg and quickly realized that it was due to this group of vericose veins in my leg. They had become very hard and painful and went all the way down my leg. Within a few hours, the was a read rash surrounding the veins that kind of "tracked" everywhere the vein was. It is very difficult to walk because of the pain. The dr immediately ordered aspirin and an ultrasound. The bad news is that I definitely have blood clots in my leg. The good news is that so far, they are superficial, not deep, which means they aren't the kind that will break off and go to my heart and lungs. I was immediately put on "compression boots" which is actually like large blood pressure cuffs on each leg from top to bottom that constantly compress on and off to help with blood flow.
-I was in contact with Rob throughout the day to check on Sadie. She had a rough night last night, but after a Priesthood blessing and Motrin, her fever appeared to have broken around 3:00 am. (As you may or may not remember, we have to be VERY careful with Sadie and fevers after the little stinker scared us to death with a febrile seizure due to a high fever when she was younger.) Her fever had spiked quite high to around 103 the day before so we were relieved to see that she was doing better. She was tired, but at least the fever was gone...or so we thought. Rob took the kids to Chuck E Cheese - our family tradition when Mom has a baby. And then came here to visit. By the time he arrived here, Sadie was not doing well, was clingy and crying and I could immediately tell that something was wrong. Rob took her on a walk while I introduced the older kids to their new brother. They love him! I felt so bad that Rob couldn't even hold Jaxson, but Sadie would not let him go and was a mess so he took the kids and went home. I was really sad that I didn't get to spend much time with Rob and that he didn't get to even hold the baby. I guess we just roll with the punches.
-On Thursday evening, my leg was actually getting worse and the rash was spreading. I was put on aspirin and also an antibiotic just in case there was any infection.

Friday, July 3
-After a pretty rough night for both me and Rob, we are both pooped. He was up a lot in the night with Sadie who's fever had come back on full force. Because of the holiday, our doctor's office was closed. I asked Rob what Sadie's symptoms were and he said it was just the fever. He said that she had said that her mouth hurt and that is when the lightbulb went on. He checked her mouth and sure enough, she had little blisters in her mouth. I've seen this before with my other kids in years past- hand, foot, mouth disease. Fortunately, our pediatrician had come in to do Jaxson's circumcision so I talked to him about Sadie. He said that definitely sounded like what it was and that because it is viral, there isn't anything they can do, other than motrin and tylenol. I think everything at this point just came to a boiling point. I was dealing with exhaustion, mommy hormones already but then to add blood clots, pain, and a very sick little girl at home, and I had really had it. My poor doctor had to witness this meltdown. Fortunately, amidst this, my blood pressure had remained down at 131/83. But I was really worried about going home. I knew Rob wouldn't be able to help me with the baby because he was going to be on full time duty with Sadie. I also knew that because of the pain of my leg, I couldn't get around with a newborn. We asked if I could stay another day but because of insurance reasons, we were told no. It was a rough day yesterday, but we put our heads together like we always do and made a plan. Rob would take the kids to the Riverton Parade and then come and get me and we would just "wing it". Unfortunately, my check out time was earlier than we planned so he had to break the news to the kids - no 4th of July parade. He got the kids in the tub, I got everything packed here at the hospital and we were all ready to go home.
-6:00 - The nurse came in to do my check out and final vitals and out of the blue, my blood pressure had spiked up to 174/92. We thought it must be a fluke so the nurse got a different machine and tried again. This time it was 172/92. The doctor was called and I was immediately given a booster dose of blood pressure medication to get it down ASAP. After the medicine and waiting 20 minutes, my blood pressure was now 176/88. Obviously, there was a lot of concern. I was put back in bed, given 3 more doses of blood pressure medication, and told that I wasn't going anywhere. I was staying another day. Seriously. I made the call to Rob who had to tell our poor kids that not only had they missed the parade, but now we weren't going to be bringing Mommy and baby Jaxson home either. Poor kids! They did okay with the news due to a trip to Artic Circle and a movie party. I actually felt a little relieved to be staying another day to try and let me leg hopefully improve and get some strength back so I could take care of my new baby. At this point, another little "bump" was brought up - they had already discharged Jaxson because they thought we were leaving. So I was a patient, but not him. AAGH! After A LOT of phone calling and figuring things out, they were able to cancel his discharge and let him stay here with me.
-Saturday, July 4 - Happy 4th of July....I guess. It is morning and I am waiting to hear from the doctor to find out what is going on. My blood pressure isn't as high due to the meds they have had me on. But it is still too high. This morning it was 141/79 and just now it was 133/87. I guess we'll just play it by ear. I haven't talked to Rob to check on the status at home. He has been such a trooper through all of this! I can't even express how grateful I am to have a husband that is handling all of this. Not only is he taking care of 4 kids all on his own, he is dealing with a very sick little girl and still trying to make things fun for the kids. I am not one that likes accepting help and I definitely do not like being told I have to "take it easy" so this has been challenging. I know we are going to need help for the next little bit until I can get these blood clots under control and my BP figured out. I am so thankful for a great family, neighbors and ward members who have helped.

So, we'll post pictures of this cute little guy as soon as we catch our breath. And I will update the blog as soon as I know more. We would really appreciate everyone's thoughts and prayers right now for our family. Thanks so much!!

We're having a Baby!

Here are some picture, more to come. Isn't he cute :)

First moments with Mom.












Here is the "Mini me" pose.



















7:37 pm - We have a baby boy. He weighs 7 lbs 11 oz, 20 inches long. He has curly dark hair, long fingers and long fingernails. He's quite peaceful. He has the pouting face down, and makes an occasional whimper ( it's almost like a small squeak ) when you move him.

6:50pm - Marci is currently a little more than a '7'. Her parents are here and now we get to have a nursing shift change. Contractions are coming about every 2 minutes quite regularly.

5:50pm - Marci has gone from a '4' to a '6' in little over an hour. She's still doing well. The nurse is starting to get everything ready, and Marci's parents have been called, so it shouldn't be long now.

4:45pm - Marci is being quite the slow poke, so the nurse came in and increased the oxytocin. She is currently at a '4' and so the nurse will check back in an hour or so. Baby looks great, Marci's blood pressure has remained high all day, but she is doing ok. We have an awesome nurse 'Regina' that is taking good care of us. We just finished watching 'Taken' with Liam Neeson. All I can say is 'Dang, is there anyone left alive in that movie?'. Kids are at Marci's parents today, we are sad to hear that Sadie isn't feeling well. As we get closer to delivering, her parents will come over, and her brother Jay will take over watching the kids. The kids are super excited to get a little brother.


1:25pm - Dr Irion came in to break her water, so that should get things going.

1:15pm - Epidural is in, and soon will be worth it :) We had a very good Anesthesiologist compared to the last baby, he was even cracking jokes. ( "What did the Zero say to the Eight? Nice belt");

11:40am - Right now she's hooked up to oxytocin and doing well, and we're kicking back watching Valkyrie.

11:15am - This is Rob. Marci has put me in charge of blogging today. We are here at Intermountain Medical Center. We arrived around 10:30am and were able to get checked in quickly. We have a great nurse that is taking care of us.
Of course Marci had to have prima-donna veins, and get the Anesthesiologist to put in her I.V after one unsuccessful ( but painful ) stick.