April 30, 2009

It's Official!

We are now the proud owners of a white 2006 Suburban! We wrote the check yesterday and drove it home! We are praising the Lord for allowing us to find something that we could pay cash for so we could stay debt-free. We thank Him for His faithful provision over the years that allowed us to set aside money for such a time as this. The kids are absolutely over the moon about our new "truck!" I got to drive it home from Car Max, since Ted had been the one to test drive it. I must say, it handles very well. I remember when we got the minivan, feeling that the van was so huge compared to the Subaru Outback we traded in for it. Ha! The minivan looked so TINY when I was following Ted home last night! But the Suburban drives well and actually does a U-Turn with about the same radius as the van. I think we are going to be pleased with it for many years.

I'll have to get a picture of the kids in front of it and post on here later!

April 29, 2009

Buying a western BMW

The title is tongue-in-cheek...it stands for "Big Mormon Wagon," which is what our Mormon friends called SUVs! Yup, we have to do it. The minivan is no longer cutting it with our family of seven. However, since the Town & Country is completely paid for, we have decided to keep it as well and instead say goodbye to Ted's faithful little Saturn, who has served us since 1996! At almost 200,000 miles, "Alex" is still ticking! But we don't want to take him on another cross-country move. We plan to give him to a young married couple who have only one car.

So yesterday afternoon we went to Car Max. Ted had finished another midnight to 8 a.m. shift, came home, and took a nap while I took the kids to Cindey's house. When he woke, we went home to get him and then headed to Henderson. For such a huge lot, they didn't have many vehicles of the size we need. LOTS of minivans, but they just won't do! However, we did find a white 2006 Suburban that seats nine people. It has 60K miles and looks great. We stopped at the Las Vegas Car Max on the way home and did some checking online, and it seems that finding a 9-seater is harder than it would appear. Most we looked at online seated 7 or 8. So we have decided to put things in motion to buy the 9-seater from Henderson. Ted's going to make some calls today!!

April 27, 2009

Happy One Month Birthday to Lucan!

Time flies when you're getting no sleep! :-) Lucan is one month old today. Despite a bit of concern about his weight loss in the very beginning, he is now a very healthy, definitely growing baby! I cannot believe how many outfits he has outgrown in just 31 days! He's eating great and sleeping fairly well during most of his cycles...as long as Mommy doesn't eat jalapeno poppers, LOL! He's not sleeping longer than 3-4 hours at night, but we have him on a good schedule, so I'm hoping it won't be too much longer. At this point, getting up for ONE nighttime feeding as opposed to two would be a tremendous improvement!

Lucan's beautiful dark hair is slowly disappearing. You can see his receding hairline from the picture, and it's even worse now--the picture was taken a week ago! He also has acne. But neither condition makes him look any less cute, at least to his parents, LOL. Last night Ted was holding him and I was looking at him over Ted's shoulder. Lucan was wide awake and content, just looking around, and Ted said, "Say, 'I love you, Mama!'" As if on cue, Lucan smiled up at me! It was his first real smile, and it melted his mama and daddy's heart. :-)

April 25, 2009

WE KNOW SOMETHING!!

So Ted got an assignment rip yesterday!! Woohoo!! This is an answer to prayer. We had found out on Monday that Major H, whom Ted had worked for at Nellis, had specifically requested Ted to be his D.O. at Wright-Patterson. This was news to us, and gave us something to think about...what would it be like to return to Ohio, where we spent 2001-2004?!

Well, now we get to find out!! We are indeed going back to Dayton. I'm looking forward to reconnecting with friends, going back to our church there, and taking the kids to Young's Jersey Dairy. :-)

We plan to leave Las Vegas July 10 or 11. ACK! That gives me just a little over 2 months to organize all this STUFF. Five kids and four years of homeschooling under our belts makes for a lot more STUFF than we brought with us to Las Vegas.

Ohio, here we come!!

April 22, 2009

Hooray for Grandma!

Ode to Grandma K

She washed the dishes, folded clothes,
Changed a diaper, wiped a nose.

She soothed the baby, rocked a tot,
Fixed us lunch, scrubbed a pot.

She kissed an owie, mended shirts,
Read some stories, nursed some hurts.

She shared her wisdom and her tea,
She shared her time and love so free.

Mom to two, Grandma to more,
We love to see her come through our door!!


We had a great visit with my mom, who was here for two weeks! I'm amazed she still had energy to shuffle through the airport after all she did for us! Not having orders from the Air Force yet, we're not sure when or where we will see her next, so we'll have to enjoy these memories for awhile!







April 21, 2009

Highs & Lows

Highs:
*Lucan slept pretty well last night! I nursed him at 9:20, 1:30, and 5:15. I stayed up after the 5:15 feeding and had hot tea and a real quiet time.

*Then the house was still quiet!! So I finished writing Day 5 of the Commission Bible study.

*We got some schoolwork done this morning and some reading done in the afternoon!

*After lunch, I took the kids to the park with Mom. I didn't even think about the fact that the water in the play area would be on, so I had 4 wet kiddos soaking up the water and sunshine. Kenna ran around stark raving naked having the time of her life. Unfortunately, along with the complete lack of towels and swimsuits was a lack of sunscreen. Bad Mommy. (That should be on the "Lows" list.) Mom and I giggled lots and enjoyed watching the kids play, especially Kenna.

*I got a nap this afternoon!!!

*This evening we surprised the kids with a trip to Coldstone Creamery. We used Tobin's birthday coupon plus a gift card Ted got awhile back. We got ice cream for all of us, an iced latte for my mom, and still had $1.47 left on the gift card. Woohoo!

*Tobin's glasses are finally fixed! He had popped one of the lenses out awhile ago, but we've been so busy we haven't been able to take them to Sam's Optical Center, but Ted was able to take him right after dinner.

Lows:
*Since Lucan slept a little longer last night between feedings, I was feeling fuller than usual, so I decided to pump about an hour before his mid-morning feeding. I got 4 ounces, enough for a bottle feeding. However...when I had to run upstairs, Kenna (who was very curious about the whole process) climbed up the counter and made off with the pump, which still had the bag of milk attached. I caught her on the couch trying to "pump" while dumping 2 1/2 ounces of my liquid gold all over herself and the couch. AAAAAARRRRRRGGGGG!!!

*Just before leaving for the park, the downstairs toilet flooded again after one of the boys pooped. The kids were all buckled up, and Lucan screamed frantically until he conked out (thank goodness) while Mom and I cleaned frantically. Thankfully the toilet is in working order again, and the bathroom floor is once again clean.

*Mom is packing to leave tomorrow. :-( We'll sure miss her!!

April 19, 2009

Easter

We had a wonderful, blessed Easter...despite being a bit harried before leaving for church! I guess that's to be expected with Grandma, a newborn, 4 other kids, and a neighbor going along with us. We managed to make it to the 8 a.m. service just a few minutes late. Ted wanted to go to the early service, since they were predicting the 10:00 and 12:00 services would be standing room only. The service was absolutely phenomenal! Wow! What a blessing and encouragement. Lack of sleep...screaming babies...siblings arguing...none of it matters in light of the glorious fact that we serve a risen Savior.

We came home and changed to comfy clothes, then headed to the F family's house for a relaxed afternoon of food, fun, and fellowship. Blair grilled burgers, and we had an assortment of food ranging from Heather's grandma's homemade potato salad recipe, Blair's famous guacamole dip, baked beans, fruit, veggies, chips, and Oreo ice cream cake for dessert. We grown-ups played a round of Catan (minus my mom, who chose to read instead--I got her hooked on The Shack!), and then Heather and I went to the park behind their house and "hid" the Easter eggs. I had assigned each of my kids a color so that they could search for their own stash. Kenna was delighted to find all the purple eggs (her favorite color)...she didn't even realize there were goodies inside of them!

If Ted and I hadn't been so sleep-deprived, we probably would have stayed longer and played another round of Catan. As it was, we were at their house for about 6 hours, and without a nap, Kenna was more than ready to crash once we got home! We're so thankful for good friends to share special times with.

For more fun Easter pictures, see our album on Facebook.

April 17, 2009

Happy Birthday, Tobin!

So...I'm a little behind on posting about recent events. Last Saturday we had Tobin's 7th birthday party (2 days before his actual birthday on the 13th) at a nearby park. Thank the Lord Ted ran some errands in the morning and discovered that local radio stations were hosting a ginormous community Easter event at the park we had planned to use, so we were able to contact almost everyone and let them know of a last-minute location change. It was a cold and blustery day, believe it or not...very odd for Las Vegas this time of year. (Must be all that global warming.) However, the two hours we were at the park, the rain actually stopped, and it was nice enough that the kids were able to run around and enjoy the outdoor activities. We had themed this party "Outdoor Fun," and I had bought waterguns for all the kids, plus a kite and container of bubbles for each family. (The kites were the cheap, $1 variety from Walmart, but they worked pretty well!) We had some other outdoor toys, too, so there was lots to keep the kids busy.

Since I had spent money on toys, I decided to scale back on the cake. Often we purchase a birthday cake from Sam's Club or Walmart, but this year we made a simple 9x13 pan of yellow cake with chocolate frosting, plus a batch of rainbow confetti cupcakes. I took an idea from recent homeschool co-op parties and decided to let the kids decorate their own cupcakes--so I packed my supply of sprinkles plus some cans of frosting and let them have at it! Really, it was a plot to spend the least amount of time prepping as possible, LOL! (Notice I also avoided having the party at our house, so no clean-up before OR after!!) Everyone had a great time, and Lucan got lots of cuddles as he was passed around.

If you'd like to see more photos, you can view our album on Facebook.

April 15, 2009

General Update

Back to reality...almost, anyway. My mom's still here, so that is helping ease our transition to "normal" routine! On Monday we started a relaxed school schedule again, which I am hoping (praying) will help with some behavior issues. It's been very nice getting back to reading books on the couch with the kiddos. Amazingly, I'm finding some things happening naturally that will help with scheduling the school day if we keep it up--for example, Lucan seems to be nursing approximately 7:30, 10:30, and 1:30 throughout the morning/early afternoon. It has worked well to put him down for his 11:45ish nap, while we're finishing lunch, and then have Kenna do her room time while we do Sonlight reading. That will free up part of the afternoon for me to take a nap (if the stars and planets are all in proper alignment, e.g. if Lucan and Kenna both nap well at the same time!). Currently I have Grandma as a back-up if I need a nap and all is not perfectly arranged!

So, we're back to school...I've done some light housework...and apparently I also need to get back to meal planning. I had been told by the Kitchen Kindness coordinator that meals would arrive M-W-F through April 17; however, no one contacted us last Friday, and we haven't had any meals delivered this week, either. We did get a casserole from my friend Heather when we were over at her house for Easter, so that was our dinner last night. Thanks, Heather!! And we're obviously not starving, LOL. I just need to do some planning is all. I enjoy creating and planning our menu, and now that I'm moving around better, I will enjoy cooking again as well. My only dread is grocery shopping!

Lucan is doing quite well. He is feeding approximately every 2 1/2 to 3 hours, every now and then going 4 hours. When he's fussy, there is usually a reason, though maybe not immediately apparent. (But we figure it out after he blasts out some poop or spits up what seems to be a gallon of curdled milk. Yum.) He's definitely a snuggle muffin...the times when he's fussy and we can't seem to quiet him, he usually responds to snuggle time on Daddy's chest, and the two of them conk out together.

Kenna continues to enjoy cooing over "Baby Duck-an" and doesn't seem at all threatened or jealous. I think it has helped to have Grandma around to read to her and play with her. It's been fun watching her growing interest in puzzles. When Arden was her age, he could do a couple of our 100-piece puzzles (no exaggeration). But Kenna's gifting is definitely in the arena of physical activity! So I've been pleased to see her attention span developing as well as her finer motor skills now that she is working on wooden puzzles alone or with a family member.

The boys have been playing pretty well together lately, which is a huge blessing. There are definitely moments--this week we're working on memorizing some verses about self-control! But overall they have been good pals, which is great with all the extra free time on their hands. Our foosball table has been put to good use almost every day, and they and Charis are all getting quite good at the game.

Ted is still waiting for his orders from the Air Force. Normally we would have them by now, but for various reasons the deadline has been pushed back to the end of April. And here's the kicker--we could actually get an assignment but not know the location until JUNE!!! I'm not sure how that would work, but I'm getting extremely tired of not knowing what's going to happen, where we're going to be, etc!!! It's really wearing on us both. How are we supposed to plan whether or not we can help with Commission this summer?! Or whether or not I can attend Convention (though I've already registered)? We are waiting...not so patiently...on the Lord to reveal His plan for us and are eager to get some answers.

In the meantime, we're also eager to get any kind of sleep these days!

April 11, 2009

A Charis Funny

I was telling Charis that I planned to give Lucan a bath, thinking she might want to help me with the process. She got excited, then asked with a bit of hesitation, "Is his...extension cord gone?" She knew that wasn't the right term but couldn't think of the word "umbilical."

"Extension cord" makes sense to me, LOL!

April 10, 2009

Woot!

I've lost 8 pounds since Monday! Having a baby is a great weight loss program, LOL! Now I'm down to within 8-10 pounds of my starting weight...and I'm pretty sure most of that is in my boobs, ha! Although I haven't yet tried squeezing into my regular jeans/capris/etc. I know I'm carrying more weight around my belly than usual. Can't wait 'til I can start running again!

April 08, 2009

Arden & Lucan

For your viewing enjoyment--and for developing skills of comparing and contrasting (had to get some teacher talk in there)--here are some pictures of babies Arden and Lucan, our dark-haired babies.

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ARDEN




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LUCAN


April 07, 2009

A Tobin Funny

Those who have been following our blog awhile may remember the funny things Tobin said soon after Kenna was born (see this post for the full scoop). He was not quite 5 years old at the time, and his biggest fascination was with how babies are fed by their mommies.

Fast forward two years--the whole nursing routine seems to be not quite as big of a deal for Tobin. However, he did have one question: "Mom, is that the food side or the drink side?"

April 06, 2009

General Update

Whew, last week flew past in a blur. I expect that's how things will go these next few months! I'll see if I can capsulize the events around here. I apologize in advance for the long post, but I've included pictures, so that can help if there are too many words, LOL! Some of you know my blog is mostly for my own benefit--for remembering things when I finally get around to scrapbooking the events!!!

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Ted's mom drove from Denver for a very short but welcome visit. She drove all day on Sunday, March 29, and was here in time for dinner and evening activities. Then she was with us all day on Monday and had to leave on Tuesday to try to beat the incoming snowstorm. It was the first time she had been able to see any of our babies so soon after they were born--both of the girls were about a month old by the time Grandma J got to see them, and the boys were even older, 2 or 3 months. So it was a very special thing to have her visit us with Lucan only being a couple of days old. The older kids enjoyed spending time with Grandma, too, especially since she brought treats like painting workbooks and wooden crosses for decorating!

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Lucan's first few nights at home were difficult--he must have been confused on his nights and days, because he would wake to feed and proceed to be awake and fussy for quite awhile, not an ideal thing for letting Mommy and Daddy get some sleep. But then he seemed to settle into a pretty good routine of sleeping in between feedings. Saturday night was bad again (though we did all make it to church yesterday, hooray!), but last night was good...we went to bed at 9:30, and he woke at 12:07, 3:23, and 6:35. I can handle that!! At least I was able to sleep 2 hours or so in between feedings!

Overall Lucan seems to be a pretty content little guy. He is nursing great. Now and then there are some spit-up issues...I've never had a baby consistently splurt milk out of his nose, so we seem to be suctioning him pretty frequently. He likes to mouth everything that comes close to his face and gets irritated when there is no milk to be had from his blanket, fist, burp cloth, or whatever he's trying to suck on. This has also created a rather distinct aversion to pacifiers in general. Now and then he'll take one, but if he's at all alert to what's going on, he just seems to get mad that we're trying to give him something to suck that doesn't feed his belly at the same time!

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The kids all adore their new baby brother. Kenna is forever patting him and hovering over him, saying, "Awwww!" You know, that noise we all make when we see something cute--she has picked it up and constantly "awwwws" over every little thing Lucan does...even when he's screaming his head off! We're still trying to teach her to be gentle with the baby; she has nearly stepped on him twice while crawling all over the couch even with us right there, so we don't dare leave her alone with him! Kenna is mildly fascinated with the fact that Baby Lucan gets milk from Mommy--she thinks this comes from my "belly." I've caught her a few times with my tube of Lansinoh, and she is diligently applying it to her belly button.

Charis has been a great little mother's helper--you'd never know she was disappointed at first in having a brother instead of another sister. She fusses over Lucan and is so willing to do anything we need her to do. She was thrilled when I let her shampoo his hair during his last bathtime, and even more excited when she got to cuddle him afterwards (shown here). She is very gentle with him, and I trust her to pick him up and carry him around, though I've asked her not to do so up and down the stairs. She is the personality type that asks permission to do almost anything, so I always know what she's doing and when! That's a helpful thing when it comes to picking up the baby, though I do wonder when she'll realize there are a plethora of things she needn't bother asking about (like helping herself to more milk or going out in the backyard, for goodness' sake, LOL!).

The boys are both quite fond of their new brother. Tobin can't help remarking every time he sees him, "Lucan is so CUTE!" He's not as cuddly with the baby as the other kids are, but he does like to sit with me when I'm nursing Lucan so we can read together, sometimes aloud, sometimes our own reading projects. Arden enjoys holding Lucan (with supervision, LOL) and is always hugging and kissing him. Arden has always been a very affectionate guy, very tender and gentle, and I think he's especially happy to have a new baby in the family. He's so quiet (compared to Tobin, that is) that I have to be careful to single him out and give him special attention; otherwise it would be easy for him to blend in with all the commotion around him.

Truth be told, we have to deliberately give Tobin special attention, too, because otherwise he'll get attention for other reasons! We've dealt with a couple of very serious sin issues of late, and we're praying for wisdom and discernment as we teach and train him to obey the Lord Jesus instead of saying yes to Satan's temptations. Prayers in that area would be most appreciated.

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We've all enjoyed having Ted home the last week. Unfortunately, he has to go back to work tomorrow. However, my mom will arrive in the evening and will be able to stay for 2 weeks! I'm so thankful and excited to see her again. It's been so nice having the last week and a half with just our family. Ted grew a "baby beard" but shaved it before I could get a good picture of him, bummer! You can see him here, demonstrating the merits of the "football hold." ;-) Every time we are blessed with a new little one in the family, I marvel all over again what a wonderful husband God gave me in Ted. He is an amazing daddy to our kids, so tender and loving, and he takes such good care of me, too! I think the kids will miss him tremendously when he is back at work for most of the week days, and I know I certainly will.

As for me, I'm still in recovery mode...the stitches have caused no end of difficulties, much worse than when I tore with Charis--I'm sure the tear was much more jagged with Lucan being face up. Still, I was able to make it to church yesterday, and this morning I'm actually feeling like the end of the discomfort is in sight, so praise the Lord for that!! Yesterday was actually the first day in a very long stretch I wasn't able to get a nap (and that was due to having friends over for the afternoon, so a fun reason for skipping a nap!), so overall I feel I've gotten a reasonable amount of rest, though it's never quite the same coming in spurts as it is when you can get it all at once.

OK, this update is LONG ENOUGH!! For those who are on Facebook, there are more Lucan pictures on my profile if you haven't seen them already.

April 03, 2009

A Labor of Love

OK, here it is...the labor story in full, for those who are interested! It was a long ordeal, so I may have forgotten some of the details--but I don't want to wait to do this any longer or else I'll forget even more!

It all started early Thursday morning, around 3:30 a.m., about the time the last false labor had happened. The contractions were enough to wake me up, but I didn't even bother to start timing them. Been there, done that, to no avail! By the time I was awake for my quiet time, Ted had already decided he would stay home based on what was going on, just in case. (Really, he was happy for an excuse to miss work, ha!) The day progressed in a similar fashion to our last labor "scare" on March 16--I'd try to rest, contractions would intensify while I was lying down, then things would slow down for a bit, then start up again. Over and over, all throughout the day, but this time the contractions seemed to be much more noticeable than the previous sessions, so I was hopeful that we were finally getting somewhere.

By dinnertime they were indeed coming quite regularly, about 4-7 minutes apart, and were definitely getting more painful. We prepped the kids for a night at our neighbors' house, our brave neighbors Carmen and Joe, who were willing to keep all 4 kiddos (even Kenna!!) overnight. I do believe the kids were more excited about getting to spend the night with friends than they were about the fact that their baby brother was trying to make an appearance! (Of course, for all they knew, we'd be right back from the hospital with another false alarm!)

We left for base around 7:30 p.m. and got re-routed when we realized they had shut down the 215. As we parked and were walking inside the hospital, I suddenly realized just how long I had been awake dealing with these contractions...and I made the decision then that I would most likely get an epidural, because I was just so exhausted already, I didn't think I'd be able to make it through a natural childbirth, particularly if it was going to be prolonged. As it turned out, I was very thankful that I made that decision early!

I was 4 cm when we got in, and an hour later I was at 7. At that point I asked for an epidural--the pain was much more intense than I remembered with Kenna (my one and only natural childbirth), and I was just so tired. Ted, bless his heart, kept falling asleep in the chair next to my bed--I didn't wake him because I figured at least one of us was resting!! Getting the epidural wasn't fun; I had the shakes like crazy, and thankfully Ted was awake during that process to support me. I found much relief after it was in place and was actually able to relax and rest for a bit. It took about an hour longer to get to 8 cm.

I THINK that at that point is when the doctor broke my water. (I've never had my water break before labor--the first three times the doc broke it, and with Kenna it broke during my first push.) The next hour was spent waiting (with Ted sleeping) and feeling generally tired and uncomfortable (never a fun feeling with the liquid seeping out of your body). I was just starting to doze off when I suddenly felt the urge to push. This was approximately 11:30 p.m. I paged the nurses' station to tell them, Ted awoke with a start, and immediately things started happening around us.

The team got in place, the doctor breezed in, and she announced, "Get ready--she's a multiple--she'll sneeze and this baby will come flying out." I was all set for a quick delivery, figuring Lucan's birthday would be March 26. I started pushing when everyone was ready (somewhat difficult, since I was having trouble feeling any sensation, ha!)...but after a few pushes it was evident that something wasn't quite right. After getting nowhere, the doctor checked and found out that Lucan was face up. I guess the decision at that point was to wait and see if he would flip on his own (this is one of those parts I don't really remember), because everyone left except for one of the nurses and Ted. For a looooong time the three of us worked, me pushing during contractions and trying to vary positions to see if we could get anywhere. The nurse was very kind and encouraging, but really, it didn't seem as if anything was changing. At some point during this process the anesthesiologist had to come back, because I started feeling everything on my left side again, and it was HURTING!! My right side stayed totally numb (dead leg) throughout the whole ordeal.

Finally the doctor came in and asked if it would be OK for her to try to turn him manually. She jacked up the pain meds (she is definitely a pro-pain-medication person!!) to the point that I was totally relaxed, and then she made the attempt. She succeeded in getting him turned sideways, but he promptly turned himself back to the starting position. Sigh.

More pushing, and still nothing was happening, other than me getting more and more tired. Finally the doc asked if we would consider having her use the vacuum. Ted and I were very leery of this, but since it was quickly becoming apparent that we were running out of options, we decided to try it. By this point it was about 4:15 a.m. I asked Ted to call my parents (it was 6:15 their time) and ask them to pray--I just felt I needed some back-up! I was so exhausted, having been up for over 25 hours at this point, that I started to cry. The doc had said that if the vacuum didn't work, they were going to have to do a C-section. The thought of having to go through that after well over 4 hours of pushing was just too much. Of course I had been praying all through the night, but I began pleading with the Lord to let the whole ordeal end soon.

As more and more people came into the room, I was introduced to a new nurse, a male named Kirby. I couldn't help but laugh as I asked, "Isn't that the brand of a vacuum?!" I don't know if he was as amused as I was, but I needed a little laugh right about then! Two pushes later, and Lucan was born--why didn't anyone think of using the vacuum 4 hours earlier?!

For enduring such an ordeal, Lucan's Apgar scores were quite good--8 and 9. He was covered in blood and had a pubic-bone-shaped bruise on his head (poor li'l guy was slammed up against my bone how many times!). Ted was able to cut the cord and give Lucan his first bath while the doctor was stitching me up. I was content to lie quietly and watch my wonderful husband in his starring role as Daddy. Once we were both cleaned up, I got to hold Lucan and nurse him for the first time. He latched on like a champ, and we have had no feeding problems ever since (unlike the whole nursing strike Kenna went on when she was 4 days old!!).

So--thus arrived Lucan Thaniel, after many long hours of labor--but he's very much worth it!! With a nice head of dark hair, he resembles big brother Arden. After losing 13 ounces in the first 2 days, he is gaining weight again and doing quite well. He had a little bit of jaundice but not much, and his color looks great now.

As for me, it's been a week and I am still healing! I had a second-degree tear, which is what I think I had with Charis, but it's very jagged and so seems to be taking a lot longer to heal. I'm so thankful Ted has been on paternity leave, a nice change to Air Force policy. I truly don't know how we would have gotten through this week without him here. My mom comes in on Tuesday, which is perfect, since Ted has to go back to work next Wednesday. We're looking forward to having Grandma K here for 2 weeks.

And that, my dear friends, is the story! I'm off for a hot bath and then a nap! :-) Thanks to everyone for their prayers and support over the last few weeks as we geared up not once, not twice, but three times for Lucan's delivery!! I surely felt the prayers of everyone and am so thankful that God gave me the strength to deliver such a precious little bundle.