One Month

I've been afraid to say this publicly in fear that I will jinx it, but Emmett is seriously the best baby EVER!  He really is amazing.  He rarely cries.  He loves just looking around and especially loves staring at fans.  This is the big thing. . . . he sleeps. . . . at night. . . and it's wonderful!  We have had three pretty awful night sleepers in his older brothers.  I pretty much just assume that babies don't truly sleep through the night until they're close to three.  I've read books and numerous articles about getting kids to sleep through the night.  We've pretty much tried everything.  We've seen stages of improvement and felt like things were working and also digressions that have been horrible.  Now that we have Emmett I've come to the conclusion that some kids are just good sleepers and some are not.  Sure, there are things that you can do to improve your chances of good sleeping, but sometimes you can only do so much because that child may just take three years to figure out that night means sleep. I know that there is a good chance that Emmett may have rough nights in the future, but for now I am really enjoying and grateful for this sleep that I never experienced with my other boys.  I put Emmett to bed between 7-7:30 each night and he sleeps until 2-3am, and then goes back to sleep for another 4ish hours!  He's AMAZING!!!

He's so cute too.  The boys are still in love with him.  He is smothered in kisses everyday by Owen and Noah and Hyrum love holding him.  His umbilical cord hung on for quite a while, but it's off now and he has such a cute little belly button:)

He has super long fingers! 

Where did Emmett go?  He's camouflaged!  Noah changed his shirt when he saw what Emmett was wearing so that they could match.

 

RUSHTON REUNION 2013

This was the big summer of the Rushton Reunion.  It's always fun catching up with cousins and family that we only see every two years.  I wish we could be closer to spend more time with everyone.  This year my parents found an amazing huge cabin just next to Monticello, Utah.  There were also a few smaller cabins close by that we rented out for the families with screaming babies up at night (that included us).  There were no big things to do each day or plans other then meals and night time devotionals, yet each day was filled with laughter and running around.  There were lots of crafts and things for the kids to do if they wanted, or they could just run around and play with cousins.  We were never bored.  It was relaxing and fun.  Following are some pictures of the talent show on the second night. There were performances of the violin, bagpipes, and the recorder out of Ethan's nose (yep that was a big hit)

We took some family pictures while we were there.  There are more and better ones that I will post later.

The big kitchen table usually had some kind of craft the kids could come and work on whenever they wanted.  My boys LOVED the beads and made all kinds of things.  Hyrum spent hours here. 

 The kids also liked that there were a lot of creepy stuffed animals all over the walls. :)

Another big hit activity was the water balloon sling shot that Uncle Jeff brought.  One of the afternoons they had all the dads and Grandpa out as targets.  The men got wet, but paid the kids back when they swapped places and all the dads got to shoot the slingshot at all the kids.  

Here's a shot of Grandma and Grandpa holding the two newest grand-babies. (that's number 25 and 26!)

Emmett is Adorable x 2

I couldn't resist another post.  There are just too many great pictures not to love them all.

Emmett is adorable!

Today we got our CD back from Michelle Reyes (click here to see her website).  She did such an amazing job that I teared up a little bit when I first saw the pictures.  To be honest, I think the newborn photo shoot craze is kind of weird.  I wasn't planning on doing the load of naked baby pictures of our little man until Michelle approached me about a trade possibility.  I have a hard time refusing a good trade, so we decided to do it and have the photo session.  I am SO happy that we did.  I just love looking at these pictures.  Emmett was four days old when these were taken.  I had only been home from the hospital for a few hours.  I was tired and it took all my energy just to shower and get all ready.  When I look at these I am filled with emotions of gratitude for such a healthy, beautiful boy.  I am grateful for what my body went through to get him here.  He is so sweet and pure.  We all love him so much.  The boys love him beyond belief.  He is the calm and peace in a chaotic, crazy day.  We love our sweet little boy.  Here are a few of my favorites from the session:

(Notice his cute cowlick on the crown of his head. It sticks strait up.)

Hyrum's Big Day

With Emmett's coming and all the excitement that comes along with bringing a new little person into the world, we didn't want Hyrum to feel like we passed over his birthday.  He's been talking about his birthday pretty much daily for the past six months.  We knew we had to make it a special day for him.  We had an Oriental Trading magazine come in the mail a few months ago and Hyrum was certain that it came just for him.  He would go in his room and look through each page analyzing each toy and party favor.  His party theme desires changed several times, but he finally decided on aliens.  There aren't a lot of alien decorations out there, but we did the best we could.  Originally we were going to do something outside, but there was a record making heat wave in Utah and so we decided to move it to the church's gym.  Most of the party preparation and purchasing was done before Emmett was born because I wasn't sure if I would even be out of the hospital on the big day.  I was SO happy that I was able to be there.  Other then some setup and take down I didn't do much during the party.  Brett was an amazing MC for all the kids.  IT was a big group of kids and he kept the games moving along and the kids happy.  They started with some games and a little dance party (Hyrum loves showing off his dance moves). 

 The piñata was the most important request that Hyrum had for his birthday.  He talked about pinata's every time he mentioned his birthday.  

 The kids loved the alien party hats.  Although his Alien Cake ended up looking a little more like a five eyed frog, it seemed to appease Hyrum.

Sometimes I can't believe we have a six year old.  It's crazy how fast the time goes.  He is such a sweet boy and I am so glad we have the opportunity to have him in our family.  When we asked him what kind of ice cream he wanted for his birthday he immediately told us what kind of ice cream his cousins like/don't like, because he wanted to be sure he had something for everyone.  He cares about what people like and wants to make people happy.  He got some amazing presents.  They've kept him in his room for many hours this past week, busy playing.  Brett found an amazing kids electronics exploration kit that we got him for his birthday.  He has had so much fun making things and learning about circuits and how electricity works.  He is so smart.  He loves to learn how things work.  He is very inventive and tells me several of his inventions each day.  I'm excited to see where his mind takes him in life.  We love you, Hyrum!

Home with Emmett

The boys love Emmett.  I have been pleasantly surprised at how well the boys do with him, especially Owen.  I can't say that I would trust them alone with him, but they really do love him.  Hyrum is usually very responsible with him and wants to be a good big brother.  He always wants to have a long tern holding him and snuggling with him.  Noah loves holding him too.  When Noah holds him he usually says, "Mom, I'm going to give the baby a present!"  and then he kisses his head. It's SO sweet!  Owen is a little scary with Emmett sometimes, because he doesn't know his own strength.  Sometimes he will give him 'high fives' on his body, but for the most part he just wants to hold and kiss him.  He is so sweet.  Whenever he sees me holding Emmett he always plops down near me and pats the floor between his legs, indicating that he wants me to put Emmett there so he can hold him.  He loves his little brother.  We have to keep a close eye on him because his snuggles and hugs can sometimes be a bit too much for our little peanut.  We like to say that Owen just loves Emmett so hard.:)  

 This picture was taken on Hyrum's birthday.  Hyrum turned six when Emmett turned one week old.  I love my cute little men.

 This was the last night with Grandma Rushton here.  It was great to have her help for two weeks.  The boys will miss her.  Owen will especially miss going on walks with her every morning.  

28 June 2013 – Emmett Rigby

Contractions again.  I had been getting them every night all week fairly consistently, so it wasn’t a big surprise for me to be having them.  I recorded them, as I had the previous nights.  On this night they seemed to be a little more intense.  On June 27th the first contraction is recorded at 9:08 PM. And it continues. . .  9:18,9:28, 9:39, 9:46, 10:01, 10:24, 10:37, 10:53, . . . time to doze off while watching The Office on Netflix. . . the short sleep was kind of pointless because I kept waking up in pain when another contraction came.  Now it’s time to start recording them again: 12:07, 12:17, 12:28. . attempting more sleep but not working very well.  Now I’m wondering if I might actually be in labor.  I was pretty hesitant to get my hopes up because I was positive I was going into labor pretty much every night for over a week. 28 June 2013 - 2:18am, 2:28, 3:12, 3:18, 3:25, 3:35. . . ok, time to wake Brett up and pack things up for a trip to the hospital.  Brett ran down to wake my mom up and have her move her slumber upstairs so she could hear the boys when they woke up.  Still coming. . . 3:39, 3:42, 3:45. . . now we’re in the car. . .3:48, 3:50, 3:52, 3:56, 4:01, 4:04 (this last recorded one was in the hospital parking lot holding onto Brett’s hand)

After signing in and getting hooked up to machines I had the fun of being monitored for an hour.  The babies heart rate dipped quite a bit during my contractions, so the nurses kept a close eye on him, but it was never bad enough to worry.  After being monitored they prepped me for surgery.  Here we are in our monkey suits ready to go:    

The anesthesiologist gave me my spinal, and it didn’t bother me because I was so excited and ready to meet my little man.  I know I don’t have a perfect memory of my other births, in fact big parts of them were really a blur, but I didn’t feel like my numbness was the same this time around.  I was a little concerned, because it seemed like I had more sensation this time than I did with my previous three C-sections.  I was assured that everything was fine.  Things seemed to be going well too.  When they made the first incision I could barely feel it.    My regular Ob was out of town so one of Dr. Jones’ associates performed the surgery.  Brett and I were talking about Hyrum’s birthday party coming up to keep me distracted from the details of what happened behind the ‘curtain’.  A little while into it I started to feel pain, and the pain was increasing.  I couldn’t think about anything else other than the pain.  I started throwing up.  With my body lying down on the table and unable to move my arms I just had to tilt my head to the side and Brett caught it in a vomit bag.  I am so glad that Brett is not squeamish and is so helpful in yucky situations.  The pain was so bad that I don’t remember much of what else went on.  I remember them showing me our beautiful baby boy and I was so happy and relieved to hear his cries.  However, I was in so much pain that I struggled to even turn my head to look over at him when they took a picture.  Brett went with Emmett to be checked out and cleaned.  With the other boys, Brett has gone with the nurses to take the baby to the nursery.  I was so scared that I was going to die that I asked Brett to stay with me until my pain had stopped.  Brett told me the anesthesiologist inserted two syringes of drugs into my IV and shortly after I started to calm down and feel better.  As soon as I was okay Brett went to find our cute little miracle and wait for me to join them. 

Brett and I went into this birth with different ideas for his name.  We had gone back and forth with favorites and finally decided that we would make a final decision when our little Fishy got here.  When we saw him we both knew that he was Emmett.  There was no hesitation between us.  This little man born at 6:54 am on June 28th was Emmett Rigby Partridge.  We had been waiting for him to join our family for what seemed like forever, and now that he is here we cannot be happier.  He is loved beyond belief by Brett and I and his three older brothers, who still call him ‘Mystery Baby’ or ‘Fishy’. 

I was so happy to hold him for the first time about an hour after the surgery. 

He had some visitors on his first day of life that were very happy to meet him.  Owen loved holding him too, even though we didn’t get a picture.  His three older brothers are happy to have a new member of the family and I can tell they are going to be great big brothers for him.

 

I stayed in the hospital to recover for the full four days.  I loved having that time to really bond with Emmett.  I love holding him and having him sleep on my chest.  He is so small and warm.  He makes the cutest little squeak noises and doesn’t cry too much. As for me, the recovery is going pretty well.  Pain medicine alters my ability to function so much that I get off it as soon as possible.  I stopped taking them before I left the hospital and have been doing fine.  This is my first C-section that has given me bad bruising around my incision.  I was pretty worried about it when three different nurses commented on how they had never seen bruising so bad.  My lower abdomen had a very black and blue bruise about 6 inches long and 4 inches high above the incision and a smaller one just below.  Now, nine days later I can see a big improvement in the bruising.  The coloring on a lot of it has now changed to yellow and it doesn’t hurt nearly as bad as it did last week. 

My mom was able to keep up with laundry, dishes, cleaning the house, and the boys.  I’m very grateful that she could come, and I’m glad the boys were able to spend some good time with her.  She left early yesterday morning and so we’ve now survived two days with our family of six.  I feel very blessed.

The boys have been so great with Emmett over the past week.  Owen has surprised me the most.  Sometimes he can be rough and too hard with him, but usually he is very sweet.  He LOVES holding Emmett and snuggling with him.  I am excited to see what great friends they will be.  I have more pictures and fun things to post, but for now it’s time for me to go to sleep.  I feel very happy and complete with my beautiful bigger family.