Moments Like These

The other day I was feeling exhausted from trying to get used to having a little one again. Then I looked over and saw my former baby of 8 years rocking and kissing my brand new baby. It made me realize that I just love precious moments like this.My kids are growing so fast and they don't stay small for long. They grow out of the baby stage so quickly. I also realized that even though things have changed and are changing for my family I am so blessed. Here are a few of my other favorite things about my kids when they are just babies.





I love it when this little guy focuses on me. I also love rocking him and singing to him. I have always loved rocking my kiddos it is one of my favorite things about babyhood



Cuddling: I could cuddle with my kids all day long. Even to this day I love it when they climb into my bed on Saturday mornings snuggle up and watch cartoons with me.





First bath. He didn't really like it but now it has become a favorite thing for Diego and something we look forward to each night.

Out of Hibernation.... At Least I think So

WARNING! The last picture is pretty gross. If you don't like blood you won't like the picture. It has taken me 3 weeks to even look at them.

So I am finally ready to relive the delivery story. I arrived at the hospital on Nov 16th at 12:05 am to be induced because of my blood pressure. When I got there they started me on cytotech. They also told me that I was already contracting so I was hopeful. Going into the induction my Dr. knew that I was nervous because it had been such a long time since I had a baby and I was worried that my body wouldn't know what to do.

Anyways, they kept using cytotech and I had only progressed from a one to a two then they switched to pitocin. After lunch time my Dr came in and asked me if I wanted to go home and try again the next day or if I wanted him to break my water and be committed to have the baby that day no matter what. I of course chose to stay. I couldn't bear the thought of starting all over again after already being in labor for over 12 hours.

My contractions were right on top of each other all day. They were about 30 seconds apart and super intense. They were not able to give an epidural because I was stuck at a two. Finally around 4:30 pm my Dr told me I should really consider an epidural even though I wasn't at a 3 yet. I was a little heart broken because I was hurting like crazy but managing without an epidural. At that point I had even decided that maybe I wouldn't get one. But I did what he asked and sometime after 5 pm I received the epidural. I went right to a 5 plus and then the baby's heartbeat dropped. (I had been on oxygen all day because it kept dropping) My Dr had a heart to heart with me and we decided that he needed to be born right away.

Before I knew it, the whole room was swarmed with nurses and people getting me ready for the O. R. It is all kind of a blur. I do remember my Dr coming over to me and rubbing my head. He told me that he was going to take good care of me and that I had nothing to be ashamed of. He told me that I had done a good job and that he was proud of me. I really needed that! I wasn't crying at the time but I think he could see the look of defeat on my face.

Then he helped Carlos anoint me with consecrated oil and he gave me a priesthood blessing. It kind of shocked me to have my Dr give me a blessing but I am so grateful that he and my husband honor their priesthood and were able to do that.

Everything in the O. R. happened so fast. All I remember is my Dr. asking if I could feel him pinching me and then using a hand held Doppler on my stomach and saying that the baby's heartbeat was only 90 and that he had to take him right then. Within seconds he had him out. He also told me "don't be hard on yourself Kari, it was the baby's fault." He had the cord around his neck twice and was posterior. He had said we could have kept trying all day but it never would have happened on my own. Finally after 18 hours of labor at 6:16 pm we got to meet our sweet little boy that we had waited so long for.

The recovery has been rough the only regret I have is that I don't remember a lot of what happened. But maybe that is a good thing. My husband has been amazing!I am so grateful that the Lord put the right people in the right place and time to help me and our sweet little boy. Plus not many people get to have surgery and have something wonderful to love on after. The baby blues are almost gone and I'm starting to feel a little better each day. I am so blessed!




Proud Papa


Just a little guy only 5 lbs. 15 oz.


I don't even remember this picture being taken. I was so out of it at the time. My nose is red from wearing oxygen all day.




Dr. Gatherum removing the cord from his neck. I told my Dr that it was a good thing he was wearing a University of Utah surgical cap. If it had been BYU I maybe wouldn't have let him operate on me. We had a good laugh over that.

He's Here!

My niece Katy and Diego




Going home!







Introducing Diego Cruz Medina. Born November 16th at 6:16 pm. He weighed 5 lbs 15oz and was 19 inches long. I will post more pictures and update the "labor and delivery" story when I feel a little more up to it. This has been a harder recovery for me so I am taking it easy.And I'm just trying to work through the baby blues ( don't worry, I get them with all my delivery's.) We just love him to pieces and don't know how we ever went so long without him. I could seriously hold and kiss on him all day!

Yellow belt

Bryce (Emilio's best bud) and him


Uncle Chris and Emilio

Emilio has been taking karate since this summer and has recently received his yellow belt. He was so excited to be advancing. He also had a Veterans Day program last week and he was able to invite his uncle Chris and Uncle Jon. He was so glad because Jon just moved back with his family from Portugal and Chris moved to Draper this summer and just happened to be down. Chris fought in Iraq and Jon in Afghanistan. He is so proud of his uncles.And I am proud of what a great boy he is.

D- Day

These are probably the last pregnancy photos I will be posting. Why you say? Because I am having a baby on Tuesday! My Dr. went ahead and scheduled me for an induction almost two weeks ago. I have been wishing I would go into labor on my own without being induced but my body and this little boy doesn't seem to be cooperating. I am so grateful we made it this long. I will be 38 weeks and 2 days. Which is a week longer than my last baby. I am also so grateful that we did not have to deliver him at 33 weeks when everything started to get ugly.

I am VERY excited and VERY nervous. It has been such a long time since I had a baby. I hope my body remembers what to do. I'm also a little sad to have it over with. This pregnancy has been such a miracle and a blessing for our whole family and friends. Carlos is even super nervous. He keeps telling me he thinks he has forgotten how to care for a new baby. I know he will be wonderful. My kids really have the best Dad. We can't wait to meet our little boy!

Baby Shower

The baby shower hostess my beautiful niece Katy and I


Mmmm....Food


Me and the basketball


Liv and my nieces....Good times


Presents


My sister Angie and I with the same look on our faces. I guess we are related

My darling niece, darling sister and darling Mama threw me a baby shower on October 16th. It was great! I told them I didn't need one but they insisted that since we were starting all over again that I did. And I am so glad they decided to. I got so many things that we were still needing plus we had a great time. This was the first baby shower for my daughters to go to and they had a blast! I'm so lucky to have such a great family.

Halloween 2010

This year Victor dressed up as a zombie lumberjack, Emilio was a news reporter or paparazzi and Alesia was a Disco Diva. Olivia dressed up as a zombie soccer player but she was so busy hanging out with her friends that we didn't get any pictures of her. They all came up with their costumes on their own and didn't even want to buy anything. They just used stuff we already had. I think they knew it would be hard to get stuff since I am still on bedrest. What good kids I have! It was so hard for me to have to stay home on one of my favorite holidays but I did it and hopefully it will pay off for me and the baby. It was even harder to not get to wear my " Bun in The Oven" costume Darn!





This is Alesia a couple of weeks ago. She dressed up as a Cheerleader for her friends Halloween party. I think she makes a pretty cute Cheerleader. But I'm not biased at all.

35 weeks

I decided to do a recap of the beginning of my pregnancy to the near end.I am amazed by the changes a woman's body goes through in order to accommodate enough room for her little baby. It is a beautiful thing and truly a miracle.


10 weeks


20 weeks


30 weeks

35 weeks


Victor putting together the swing from Aunt Chantyl

Since every Dr's apt each week seems to bring new unexpected surprises I decided I had better post more frequent belly shots in case I deliver early. I can't believe how much I have grown in the last 5 weeks. I feel like my skin can't possibly stretch anymore. And my belly button is no longer a belly button. Just a straight slit across my stomach. Even my face is swollen and fat. I feel like I am carrying a monster in my stomach. Not to mention I feel like I have lost every ounce of muscle I have worked so hard for the last few years. Despite that I am still surprisingly enjoying this last part of pregnancy. We waited so many years to get here that I just don't want to take any of it for granted.

I am realizing how much us Mom's sacrifice for the sake of our little ones. Being down all day has left me a little bummed out and I have been eating SO MUCH. I feel like I am starving all the time. It's going to be a long journey back to pre- baby but I will get there! I hope....

My Rock

Have I mentioned how much I love this guy? He has a way of making things so much better for me. Last week I had another Dr's apt to recheck my blood pressure. I was very hopeful that everything was going to be great and that they would take me off bedrest. Why wouldn't they? I was doing good and felt fine. Well lets just say, my appointment didn't go real well. I ended up in labor and delivery doing an Non stress test getting steroid shots and radiology for a fluid check. I then found myself begging my Dr not to admit me.

With a lot of pleading I was able to go home with strict orders. I knew I would have to continue to endure more bedrest, weekly labs and NST's. I was bummed out but I knew I could handle it. Then the next day on my way out the door for my second steroid shot I got a phone call from my Dr. He told me that the ultrasound they had done the day before found a problem with the baby's bowel or intestine. He said he was not sure if it was life threatening or not so I needed to see a specialist immediately. The appointment was made for the following week.

My emotions were already on the edge. But that pretty much put me over the edge. I called Carlos and he came right home. He was asking me every question you could think of. Of course I didn't have any answers to give him. Later that night he decided to go play basketball to clear his mind. When he got home he could tell that I had cried myself to sleep. He woke me up and said that he wanted to give our son a fathers blessing. It was a priceless moment. I could feel all of the love and concern he had for our child in his voice. We both knew then, whatever the outcome that we would be okay.

As we went to my appointment with the perinatologist yesterday, the hospital it was at was right across the street from the Temple. It made me even more grateful for the eternal family I have. And for my extended family that had been fasting and praying for me and our son.I knew the Lord had us and continues to have us in his care.

I'm so grateful that he has blessed me with the husband that I have. He is truly my Rock! He is not perfect and neither am I. But he is what is perfect for me and I love him so much!

Bedrest.....Ugh!

So this is where I am spending most of my days lately. Confined to the couch or my bed. Glamorous isn't it? I knew too much of a good thing had to be just that. I have been running phenomenal blood pressures my whole pregnancy in fact low blood pressures and have been optimistic about them staying that way. But at my appointment Thursday it was up. It isn't much of a surprise since 32 weeks was when I was "put down" with Alesia. I guess it was just wishful thinking. Although, I do have to admit this last week just about did me in. We had 3 SEP meetings at the kids school in one day and between work and non stop running around I have been wiped out.

So now I am doing my best to stay down without going crazy. It is hard to not think about all the stuff you cannot do. It is also hard when you already have 4 kids with extremely busy schedules. And it is hard to not be working when Christmas is right around the corner. But my main goal is to keep this little guy in my tummy as long as I can.

I go back on Tuesday to see the Doc and do a bunch of lab work. Hopefully all will check out well. Once again, wish us luck!

Varsity!

Victor made varsity for the cross country team. At his last JV race he took third place and and finished first on his team. His coach told him he was keeping his eye on him for varsity. Today he competed against another kid on a three mile run in order to see who got the one open varsity spot and he did it! He will now get to run at region and state in the next couple of weeks. He is so excited and I am so proud of him.

Around 12:45pm this afternoon I realized that I hadn't even told him good luck when he left to school this morning. I totally had forgotten about his race and I knew the bus would be leaving at 2:00 pm. I was able to hurry and run a card to him at the High School to tell him good luck before his race and that his Dad and I were proud of him whether he made varsity or not. Well I should say I dropped it off in the office so I wouldn't embarrass him. I was afraid he wouldn't get it but I made the secretary promise me that she would get it to him before he left and she did. Luckily the race in St. George was canceled and his coach had him do the race off here in town.After all the years of putting him in sport after sport he finally found the one he truly loves and that makes me happy.

Slow Down!

Yesterday I turned on conference for a while. I happened to turn it on in the middle of President Uchtdorf's talk. I'm sure I missed some of the really important parts but I think I turned it on just when it was right for me. I got a sense that the point he was trying to get across was to slow down. To take time to appreciate the things in your life whether big and small. In April in the Saturday session he also gave a talk about being patient and letting things happen in Gods time. Oh how hard this is for me.

The funny thing is, lately when I drive, well actually what seems like daily when I am driving It seems like I get behind the slowest people and I hit every red light like clock work. This has become a big laughing moment for my husband and kids as they witness it happening and they see the frustration on my face or hear me complain about others not driving the way they should. Last week this happened to me once again except this time I was alone in my car. As I could feel the anger start to overcome me I could hear something tell me to slow down (not that I was driving fast) it was more of a slow down and enjoy the things in your life kind of feeling. So imagine my dismay when I turned on the tv and heard Elder Uchtdorfs words of slowing down and enjoying life and all that is in it. Perhaps that is not what everyone else got from it but it the message that I needed to get from it. So I am going to try to do better I am going to try to slow down and enjoy things in my life more. I have decided that my time on the computer looking at things like facebook will be limited to a quick browse periodically or a quick update post for my family. Since blogging is my source of journaling I am going to wake up early before my kids and spend a little more time writing down my thoughts or updating my blog/journal.I'm also going to take time to do more of my own personal scripture study before my family wakes. (We will see how good this goes once the new baby arrives.) And most important I am going to make more one on one time with each of my kids and husband and maybe even cut back on some of the "extras" that we have going on in our lives in order to do this. Hopefully this will leave more time for family scriptures and prayers. The things that are really most important but most neglected right now in our life.

Sometimes I have to remind myself that all of the extra things in my kids lives are good but not always necessary.It isn't always great for us to be running from place to place without sitting down and "checking in" as a family of finally coming together to eat dinner at 8 o'clock at night with no time left to do homework or prayers.God didn't ask me as a parent to raise the next superstar athlete. He asked me to teach them the things that they will need to get them back to him to hopefully obtain celestial glory someday. Those are the things that he will ask me someday as a Mother. If I did all I could to put the gospel first in there lives or did I let it get overshadowed by all of the other extras. I want to be able to answer him in the most pleasing way I can. Don't worry, I am not going to pull my kids out of all of there sports but maybe limiting them to the one thing they really love instead of the three will be a good thing for us. The hardest part will be balancing it all and keeping the really important things first. With careful planning I know we can do it.

I feel inspired and uplifted! Now its time to put it into action!

Now You See Them, Now You Don't

Braces



No more braces. Look at that great smile. This was a very eventful day. We celebrated by popping him some popcorn and talking about all the foods he could eat now.



This is Victor exactly 5 years ago



And this is Victor now. Shaving his stache for the first time. WHAT? I know, can you believe he is old enough to shave. I can hardly bear it. I can't believe what a difference 5 years make. It seems like it was just yesterday that he was 3 years old sitting in our car singing at the top of his lungs the words to "All my Life." by KC and Jo Jo. Oh how he loved that song. Ah Sigh.....