Madeline's wearing Makeup!!

The other day at the dollar store I bought play make-up. Madeline LOVED putting it on! I think we'll wait a little while longer for her to actually wear make-up. She had fun putting it on Aliza and even tried putting some on Jared. They're growing up way too fast!!

Pictures of Amaya

My sister sent up these cute jammies . They actually fit! Thanks Melissa!

The Best 5 Years

On Thursday, March 26th, Jared and I celebrated 5 wonderful years of marriage. I am so happy to be married to Jared. He is a wonderful husband and father and my best friend. We have had a lot of great things happen in our first 5 years of marriage: (not necessarily in order)

Lived in 3 states; Utah, Maryland, Idaho
Both graduated from college
Bought our first house
Had FOUR kids!
Went Camping multiple times
Visited Puerto Rico, Cancun, Nebraska, California, and Utah
Planted our first garden
Bought a van
Almost moved to Florida
Went to the weddings of 4 siblings (Mary, Joseph, Brittany, and Cameron)
Had our first pets - Guinea pigs named Lily and Fae

The list goes on and on. I have loved these past five years with Jared and my love and respect for him continues to get stronger. I'm excited to see what these next five years bring! Happy Anniversary Jared!!

Aliza is Home from the Hospital!

Aliza came home today after spending 7 days at the hospital. She is super happy and I am happy that I don't have to watch Strawberry Shortcake ever again.

Jared

Partially Home From the Hospital

I'm (Jen) home from the hospital! Amaya and I came home this morning. I wish I could say that Aliza is home as well, but she is still there. They said today that it will be 24 to 48 hours until she can come home. Tonight was her 6th night in the hospital. Not fun.

I wanted to tell a little more about the labor and delivery from my perspective. I started having contractions that were 7-8 minutes apart at 2:00 am on Monday morning. I stayed up for a little bit to make sure I was having c0ntractions and then went back to bed but my contractions were 10 minutes apart. It was nice because I would sleep for 9 minutes, wake up for the strong contraction, and then go back to sleep for 9 more minutes. I can handle that kind of labor.

At 4:30 I had a really strong contraction so I decided to call Jared at the hospital. They always say you should go in when contractions are 5 minutes apart, and I didn't want to get sent home, so I was skeptical of going in, but Jared wanted me to, and honestly I didn't really want to have to suffer through the contractions on my own. So I went in.

Yes, I drove myself, but the hospital is less than 10 minutes, so I figured I'd leave right after a contraction and get there in time for another one to start. Well, I had at least 2 contractions on the way there, so I was glad Jared had encouraged me to come in.

From that point on Jared told the story how I would tell it. One thing I did not like was that the nurse sent Jared to take a shower since he had been with Aliza. Showers are good things, but I wanted him with me since the contractions were coming closer. Good thing he wasn't gone for long... the baby came about 30 minutes later :)


I would say that this was my best labor and delivery. There was really only 30 minutes of continuous intense pain. I can handle spread out pain. I'm glad I wasn't planning on an epidural because I wouldn't have been able to get one :) I am also glad that I had nurses who listened to my warnings of progressing really fast after I am dilated to a 5. The thing I'm most glad about is that Amaya is finally here and that she's healthy!

Just a litte bit about Amaya's name. Amaya is pronounced A-my-a (not a-may-a), and Clarissa is one of Jared's ancestors. We didn't tell anyone (except our kids) her name until she was born, which was fun for us, but probably not for you...


I am very thankful Amaya and I are home now, but I feel very sad because Aliza and Jared are not here with us. Thursday (tomorrow) is mine and Jared's 5th wedding anniversary and the best present I could have for that would be for all of us to be together again. So please say your prayers for Aliza that she can return home. Thanks for all of your love and support.

Amaya Clarissa is Born

Finally, Jen went into labor and the baby was born.

So I was in the hospital already watching Aliza, while Jen, Jen's mom, Rachel, and Madeline were home. Jen called me at 4:30 AM today and said she had pain and was wondering if she should come in. Her contractions were only 10 minutes apart, but I encouraged her to come in, since I couldn't really help unless she was at the hospital.

So she drove by herself (we live about a mile away) and met me at the hospital and she was admitted. Jen's mom came to watch Aliza and Anette come over to watch our other girls all day while we were at the hospital.

She started at a 6 dilation! So they moved us into the delivery room and within 30 minutes the baby was born. It was so fast that the doctor missed the delivery again, but there was a back up doctor. She had no epidural, iv, drugs, or anything. It looked easier this time, but don't tell Jen I said that. Really though, it was tough, just intense pain for 30 minutes this time instead of 3-5 hours like previous times.

Actually, we feel really blessed that everything went well. It happened so quickly, it is hard to remember what happened.

Her name is Amaya Clarissa Pratt. She weighed 6 lbs 11 oz and was 19.5 inches, so she was our heaviest child so far. She was born at 6:49 AM.

Here are some videos.



Meanwhile,
Aliza will probably need to stay another 2 days in the hospital with pneumonia. She seemed all better yesterday, but is back sick again today. So I'll probably spend most my time with her since I'm a little sick already. She has been in the hospital since Friday night.

Jared

April Showers Bring May Flowers

If you'll notice on the sidebar it says that our baby is 1 day old... it's not true. I'm still pregnant, and it's a good thing. Yesterday I was having contractions in the morning and the girls have all been sick this week so Jared stayed home from work to help out.
Aliza got really sick earlier in the week and wasn't getting better yesterday so I called the doctor and took her in. I just wanted to make sure she didn't have anything more serious than a cough. Well, I was very surprised when the doctor informed me that Aliza has pneumonia and had to be admitted to the HOSPITAL! Not quite the thing we need right before the baby comes.
Now I feel very thankful that the baby hasn't come yet. If she hasn't come by Wednesday (the scheduled induction date) we might try to push it back until later so that we aren't sick when she is born.
They said Aliza will probably have to be in the hospital for 2 days. Good thing is if I do go into labor it's on the same floor as Aliza's staying...
It's been one thing after another this year... hence the title, "April Showers Bring May Flowers". I think we're going to have some BEAUTIFUL May Flowers this year :)
What a way to watch March Madness!:)

How to self induce labor... or Not

Technically I haven't reached my due date yet, which Jared keeps reminding me :) but these last weeks sure seem LONG!! I always hear that if you work really hard at the end of the pregnancy you'll go into labor... I'm not believing it.

Here's a list of what I did on Saturday:
-started cleaning the house- scrubbing the bathroom, doing dishes (while Jared went to the church and cleaned- Madeline was sick so we stayed home)
- went swimming with the kids at the rec center. I took Aliza into deeper water and ran around the pool in circles for a while
-cleaned the house some more- more dishes, putting away clothes, etc
- dug out part of our garden (I'm moving it to a different spot in our yard)
- put the kids to bed
- finished cleaning, vacuumed, etc. (It feels SO good to have a clean house!)
* usually Jared helps a TON on Saturday's but he was really sick too, so he couldn't help much

So here I am on Monday, still no baby, still no big contractions... it doesn't work for me. BUT I'm not giving up yet... maybe grocery shopping with 3 girls will do the trick. Come on St. Patricks Day baby!!

Ramblings of a Pregnant Woman

I think I go through almost every emotion every day as a pregnant woman who has just over a week left until I deliver... my poor husband! It's crazy how emotional I can be!

Last week at this time I started getting excited because I was starting to have signs of going into labor and felt like the baby would be possibly coming soon, and on her own (I've always been induced). Then to my dismay, by the end of the week I was no longer having the signs of going into labor any time soon. Bummer. I still have more than a week left, so for me that probably means 2 + weeks, but that's okay... good thing I have plenty of other stuff to keep me busy :) So we're aiming for a baby born on pi day (3.14) or a St. Patty's baby, then we'd call her Patricia :) Jared says 3-27-09 would be a cool day too, but I really don't want to have her born that late... so we'll see.

I've just decided to convince myself that she's coming late so I don't get myself too excited and then end up disappointed because I went late.

Anyway. The girls are doing well. They are so cute with each other and love playing together. I'm excited to see how they are with the new baby and to see what our new baby will look like! Maybe our next post will actually be a picture of the new baby and then you'll know her name... :) How exciting!

Here are some pictures of the girls in the mean time.