EASTER EASTER

Holidays are much more exciting with littles. Which may or may not be the reason why the Easter bunny got a little carried away over the weekend... Worth it.

EARLY EASTER

I know Easter is still a few days away, but the mr.'s extended family had their Easter celebration a week early due to General Conference. Pancake breakfast. Egg hunt. Fun activities. My littles loved hunting for Easter eggs and were excited to find some filled with confetti. Not to mention eggs filled with candy. They love candy. After the hunt, they joined their cousins in dying eggs (thanks again, Lisa!). It was a lovely morning.

BLESSED

We are still alive. And starting to form a regular routine. I never anticipated it to take me TWO MONTHS to get back to feeling normal. With all of my other littles, we were good to go after two weeks. But this last little one has really given us a run for our money. Thinking about all that has happened over the past two months makes me realize that I've needed this. I've needed to learn how to work through a difficult phase. I've needed to learn how grace applies to me. I've needed to learn how to take a step back and just... be. It's been humbling; I've had to rely on people more than I've ever had to before. And now that we are in a better place, I am able to see just how blessed I truly am. Even with struggles, my life is beautiful. Speaking of beauty and blessings, OUR little beauty was blessed by her daddy a couple of weeks ago. It was a lovely day.

CHALK

We're spending a lot of time outside. Perfect weather. Extra sunshine. Fresh air. Our main source of entertainment lately? Chalk.

SIX

Oh hey, blog. I sort of forgot about you. It's these six littles. They are crazy. And hard. And crazy hard. It's funny to me - up until now, adding another little to our family was not much of an adjustment. I could tackle the world minutes after returning home from the hospital. This time, though. Eesh. Not so much. These last [almost] four weeks have been rough. Not being able to recover in my "normal" time-frame did not help matters, either. So I can tell you - WITHOUT A DOUBT - that six is our limit. I mean six kids in 6 years is just pure insanity. Waaaaay more crazy than five kids in 5 years. Trust me. But you know what? Even though there have been some flat-out miserable days, I wouldn't change anything. This difficult phase is just that. A phase. It won't be long before I am back to conquering this "mom of many" thing (I hope). For now, the house might not be as orderly as I would like. The kids might not be taught preschool every day. And I might not cross off all the tasks on my to-do list. It's okay. We'll make it.

LAST LITTLE

My last little is here. And she is already a week old. Needless to say, life has been a blur and has come with a myriad of emotions.
It's funny to me; when I was pregnant with my first, I thought I KNEW how labor and delivery would happen. Not even close. But I figured by baby number six, I would have a much better idea as to how it would happen. I mean... IT WAS MY SIXTH. I've done this a few [i.e. half dozen] times.
As with my previous littles, I was needlessly worried that I would need to be induced. But, as in the past, labor started on its own. I woke up in the wee hours with contractions 10 minutes apart. Figured it would only be an hour before they were down to 3-5 minutes apart, as with past pregnancies. Three hours in and contractions were still 10 minutes apart, but lasting as long as 3 minutes apiece. It was time to go in. We called my mom to come stay with the kids so we could head to the hospital. Registration. Triage. Labor & Delivery by 6 am. I was brought into L&D faster than my records could be transferred, so the anesthesiologist told me she wouldn't give me an epidural. My nurse FOUGHT for me to receive my epidural immediately (& won), but it left the room very tense. A procedure that should have only taken two needles in the back ended with me being poked four times (during the mother of all contractions) since the local anesthetic wouldn't take. Luckily, the epidural was effective. Immediate relief. Fast forward to half past noon. We held off delivery to coincide with my OBGYN's lunch schedule; I'm convenient like that. Since contractions were STILL only 10 minutes apart, I had to push 3 times while not having a contraction. And she was out. My last little, sweet as can be. As before, I immediately grabbed my camera and clicked away.

Olivia Hazel

January 7th at 12:35 pm

7 lbs 6 oz, 20.25 in

This is really the only shot I got at the hospital; things went south before I had the opportunity to take more photos. About 8 hours after delivery, a headache set in. Painful, but bearable. At 10 pm, I sent my little love to the nursery to get some sleep. I figured ibuprofen and some rest would kick the headache. When I woke up at 3 am, it felt as if my head had been hit by a truck. The worst pain imaginable. I got up to use the restroom and was clutching the walls for support by the time I was headed back to bed. I couldn't think. I could barely walk. The moment I was back in bed lying flat, I felt fine - as if I had imagined the whole thing. Any time I sat up, the overwhelmingly painful headache would return. It was then that everyone realized that I was experiencing spinal headaches. My spine must have been nicked during the epidural procedure and I was now suffering as a result. For the next 11 hours, nurses, CRNAs, and anesthesiologists were in and out of my room, trying various methods of relief. Nothing. Throughout this entire time, I only saw my baby once. I was in so much pain that I couldn't even handle holding her. Finally, it was decided that I needed a blood patch. The mr. barely made it back to the hospital in time to comfort me during the procedure. Blood was taken from my arm and placed into my spine via another epidural. The pain to my lower back was intense, but my headache was IMMEDIATELY gone. Miraculous. I was discharged a couple of hours later and went home. Unfortunately, the relief only lasted a day and a half before the headaches returned. I had to go back to the hospital Saturday afternoon to have a second blood patch. More needles. More back pain. More restrictions. Bed rest for days. But this time it took. And I am now [head] pain-free. Even though this experience has come with its own little nightmare, I still enjoyed the process. Oddly enough, I'm going to miss this...

365: WEEK 52

I did it. Friends, I DID IT. I took a photo every. single. day. in 2014. This whole experience has been overwhelming and beautiful and enlightening. I've learned to shoot from new angles. I've learned to shoot in new light. I've learned to shoot with spontaneity. I've laughed. I've cried. I've grown. This has been one of the most exhausting goals that I have ever undertaken, but I am so grateful that I have been able to accomplish it. I will be able to look back on 2014 and visually see where life has taken me. I can't wait to have a book made of all of these photos; it will be something that I treasure always. My favorite image of the week: December 27th - Future Occupations. These littles have been the subject of my work for a majority of this past year. It has been AMAZING to see how much they have grown and how their personalities have developed. I wish I had the energy to do this always, just to capture them. Maybe in a few years...