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I have been wanting to sit down and catch up on some blogging. But these days, I’m falling asleep on the couch as soon as the kids go to bed. You see, Desmond sleeps wonderfully all night. But then he wakes up at 5-6 a.m. and pretty much stays awake. All day. He gets a few 10-20 minute naps. I have no idea what’s going on with him but it leaves little time to get anything accomplished around here.

Over the past month or so, we’ve been working on getting some walls painted in the house. I have a thousand projects I want to complete and not enough hours in my day to complete them. Or enough money. Or enough DIY skills. If I could just learn to use power tools, that would be great. We’ve also been trying to fit in some fun outings with the kids. It’s a little extra work to get 5 kids ready and out the door to go explore. But it’s definitely been worth it for us. And the memories we’re making are the best.

Anyway, Desmond and Evangeline are both napping (!!!!) so I just wanted to throw a few pictures up here from the past month or so. They’re pretty random.

All 5 Roberts kids have had the biggest, bluest eyes. They get that from Don. I’m the outcast with the green eyes.

I had to throw in one more from Halloween. We’re already scheming an even more amazing group costume for next year. Watch out! If we pull it off, I don’t know what else could top it!

Evangeline may be part of the reason Des doesn’t get enough naps. She always wants to hug and kiss all over him and hold his hand. It’s the sweetest thing ever but it does drive me a little crazy when she does it just as he’s drifting off.

and I promise that Desmond has other expressions besides shock, haha.

This handsome little guy turned 4 yesterday. We went to the Science Center, had our traditional birthday meal at McDonald’s (fancy, I know) and then we stocked up on ice cream and toppings and headed home to have a little ice cream party. He got to stay up late with me and Don and we played a few board games together. All the kids loved Kingston’s birthday. Liam said “It was really good because it was so peaceful when we went to bed last night and Kingston didn’t keep us awake for an hour.”

That says it all. Kingston is hilarious and oh, so cute. But he is a handful and he’s a big ball of never-ending energy.

Evangeline’s developing personality is so cute and hilarious as well. I love that I’m able to have conversations with her. She is also obsessed with all things girly. That makes me proud because most people assume she would be a tom boy.

I think I already posted a picture of this sunrise from my phone. But I had to share the DSLR version too. It was just so gorgeous!

And surprise! My brother got married on Sunday! He and Sara asked me to photograph their wedding. They found this perfect little spot in Forest Park that looked like it was from a scene from a fantasy movie. They had a quick little ceremony while I had a 2 year old following me and crying because she wanted me to hold her. So I snapped some pictures with a child on my hip. It was simple and unique and exactly what they wanted. I’m so excited to welcome a new sister to our family!

They asked Liam to be the “ring bearer.” Later on in the evening, he proudly told us “This is the first wedding that I got to be a groomsman!”

And then this picture pretty much sums up the day.

We ended the night at Salt+Smoke, a BBQ place in the Loop. The burgers there…..Amazing! And the fries. So good. Actually, it’s now one of our favorites.

So now that we’re moving into the holiday season, I hope to be able to stop here more often to catch up. Although, the more busy we’ll be, the less time I’ll have. We shall see. Have a good week!

November 17, 2015

baby, birthday, Blog, desmond

Desmond’s birth story

Before life gets too chaotic with our big move coming up, I wanted to sit down and write out Desmond’s birth story while it’s fresh on my mind. It was a pretty quick labor but leave it to me to make it a long story. (And this is the shortened version!! I’m writing a more detailed one for myself.)

Desmond Reese Roberts

8lbs 3oz

21 1/2 inches

7/12/15 1:54 am

July 8th was my due date. That day came and went with no signs of labor. This didn’t shock me since my 4 previous babies were all born after their “due date.” ****By the way–I pretty much hate due dates. Even though it’s just an estimate, it’s always discouraging when you pass up that date.

Fast forward to Saturday, July 11th, aka Slurpee Day (7-11), aka the day I wanted to have the baby. Once again, no signs of labor. Don went into work at his usual 9:30 pm, the kids were in bed, and I was ready for a night of rest. I had spent the day very discouraged about the fact that I was still pregnant. It had been a very hard pregnancy for me. I was so uncomfortable and ready to get the baby out. But I had spent the whole day praying that I would be content with the Lord’s timing.

Don texted me to tell me that there was no coverage that night and there was already someone working a double for someone else. My response? “This will be the night I go into labor.” A few minutes later, I got up to get ready for bed. I was in the bathroom, about to take my ambien for the night when I felt a gush of water. My first thought–“what in the world could that have been?” It only took a second to realize that “OH MY GOODNESS!! MY WATER JUST BROKE!” So 6 minutes after my prophetic text, I was sending Don panic filled texts that read “don’t freak out” “but I think my water just broke.” That was at 9:58 pm.

Statistics show that the water breaking before contractions begin only happens about 15% of the time. I was expecting a slow, drawn out labor like I had with most of the others so I felt completely frazzled when things weren’t going the way I envisioned. I knew I needed to get to the hospital pretty quickly because I’ve learned that once I’m actually in labor, my body is pretty efficient at getting those babies out of there. And since I didn’t have my doctor check me at appointments, I had no clue if I was even dilated. I had been having braxton hicks for days but nothing that felt like the real thing. But I had 4 kids sleeping in their rooms, a husband stuck at work, and I was terrified that a baby was going to suddenly drop out of me. It may sound dramatic but that is exactly how I was feeling. So what did I do? I walked back and forth from my room to the bathroom, trying to figure out what to do. And if you didn’t already know, after your water breaks, it keeps on leaking out until you deliver. Good to know, right? Gross.

Thankfully, Don’s very kind coworker (who was about to clock out for the night) offered to work a double so Don could come get me and take me to the hospital!! So, a shout out to her because she saved the night!! And another shout out to Mysti and Menzi who came to spend the night with the kids. Having friends for neighbors is the best thing ever. I’m sure going to miss having them down the road from us.

Anyway, so we finish packing up our bags and started the drive to the hospital. My contractions still hadn’t started yet but I had weird pressure. And just….panic. I spent the entire 40 minute drive to the hospital freaking out, thinking Desmond was going to be born in the van on the side of the highway. There were quite a few tears and some “Please don’t let this baby be born in the van!!” going on. And quite a bit of “oh my goodness. oh my goodness. oh baby. please stay in there.” On repeat. For the entire drive. I could just feel the van speeding up each time. Poor Don. By the way I was acting, he was convinced he was going to be the one delivering the baby.

But we made it! Yay!! It was about 11 when we got there. I was wheeled into the hospital to be checked in. And I made sure the nurses knew that I could have a baby at any moment–even though I wasn’t sure if I was even contracting. I was being a bit dramatic but I really wasn’t sure how fast everything would happen. And I wanted the epidural–asap.

They wheeled me up to a labor and delivery room where they inserted the IV (blah!) and checked to see how dilated I was. Let’s just be honest–that was the worst part of the whole night. Not only was it super painful (and I had to have 2 different nurses check…so double the pain)–but after all that drama, the nurse said I was a whopping 1 1/2 centimeters dilated. And if you know anything about birth (or basic math), you would know that 1 1/2 centimeters is nowhere near the 10 centimeters you need to be for the baby to come out. Embarrassing? Yes, very.

By the time I had gotten to my room, I could feel a few contractions starting. Even though I wasn’t dilated very much, they still called for the epidural because they knew from my past experiences that the epidural would probably not slow down my labor. So–epidural in (yay) and now I could relax. As crazy as everything was leading up to this point, I think it was pretty awesome that I got to skip almost all the pain that goes along with childbirth.

So after about an hour of relaxing with the epidural, the nurse comes to check–9 centimeters. She checks again a few minutes later–10 centimeters. And now I’m feeling pressure. So she goes to get the doctor.

I wasn’t checking times on anything so it’s all just kind of a guess. But once the doctor came and got set up, I was having a lot of pressure and now was the time to push. 1 contraction—push! Almost done. Pause. Wait. Laugh about the awkwardness of having a room of people just staring and waiting for the next contraction. 2nd contraction—push! He’s out! 1:54 am on July 12. My baby boy was born just under 4 hours from when my water broke at home.

This was probably the easiest labor and delivery for me physically. But mentally? I spent those 4 hours in constant prayer. Asking God to help me trust in His plan and His timing. So physically, it was perfectly ideal. But man, it was hard for me to feel so out of control and to be going through so much unknown. But it was encouraging to remember that even though I had no control over how things were going, I knew the Lord was in control. He was taking care of me and baby Desmond the entire time. And everything played out exactly as He had planned.

I’m very thankful for this sweet baby boy. He’s the perfect addition to our crazy family. And even after a difficult pregnancy, I look at this precious baby who is so squishy and snuggly and I keep thinking “aww, now I want another.” Yes, my own baby is giving me baby fever. But for now, we’ll just enjoy being a family of 7!

All photos by Mayci Loving

July 25, 2015

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