Meet... Kate

No I haven't forgotten that we have a blog. But things have been... well- let's call it "busy" since I don't think there is a word in the English language that aptly describes having three children under the age of 5- one of them being a newborn.

Our hospital stay was absolutely wonderful- I love St. Mark's hospital- and my OB- Daren Watts was so worth our three hour drive. He has delivered all three of our children and if we ever do have another one- he'll deliver that one too. I was discharged after four days, and our baby with me. It took us a few days to finally decide on what to call her- she is absolutely beautiful and we had a hard time. We went back and forth for a few days between Katelyn and Hadley and finally settled on Katelyn.

Kate was born around eight on June 7th and weighed 7 pounds and 1 ounce. She was 19 inches long and had a mullet. The anesthesiologist (sp?) was nice too- he snagged our camera from Shaun and took a few pictures of all of us and the operating room. Shaun prefers to stay behind the curtain with me- claiming that he doesn't need to see all the blood and guts involved so it was nice to see a few pictures of what else was going on while I was staring at the ceiling.

Shaun and I have always held with the idea that kids should have middle names- so, next we worked on picking out Kate's middle name. This actually wasn't much of a discussion. We chose Marjorie, after my grandma. When Ryan was in the hospital back in March, I was 6 months pregnant, with a very active baby in utero. But the day that we were life-flighted to Salt Lake, my baby stopped moving. Not all the time- once in a while I would get little kicks so that I knew she was okay, but she remained extremely calm throughout Ryan's stay in the hospital. I know that part of that was because she was feeding off my stress- but instead of feeling that way- it felt like she was reassuring me that things were going to be okay. When she stayed calm, it helped me stay calm. It was such a big job for someone that wasn't even born yet. How could someone so tiny help her mom in such a big way? I don't know how or even why she did it- maybe that's why Heavenly Father sent her to us. But the fact remained that she was strong. And she needed a name to match that strength. My grandma Newren has been another source of strength and love to me throughout my life and it seemed silly to entertain any other ideas about a name. We are certainly honored to have our own little Marjorie.

I know that four days anywhere can seem like a long time- but I actually enjoyed my stay in the hospital. It was nice to have a few days to sit with my daughter and get a chance to get to know her before life started again.

I had totally planned on being the mom that sent the baby back to the nursery to sleep so that I could clock some time behind closed eye-lids- but she was so good that it wasn't even necessary!! She slept right next to me and barely made a peep when she was hungry. It was like she was squeaking at me. It was also fun because my sister would come and spell Shaun in the evenings and sit with me until it was time to go to bed- we sat and talked and watched TV together- I miss her and it's been fun to spend time with her for a little bit.

It was so funny as we got ready to leave on Thursday- both of my boys were pretty darn big babies- Ty was 10 pounds and Ryan was 9, so when we bought an outfit for them to go home in that was a size 0-3... it barely fit. I think Ty was all but bursting out of his. I remember Ryan's fitting a little better since his stay in the NICU made him lose a little bit of weight. But when I put this little 7 pounder into a 0-3 outfit... I had to roll the sleeves and the pants came up to her armpits. She looked so funny! I still can't believe how little she is or that she is mine.

But I am most grateful for the fact that she is healthy and (seemingly) happy. We have had so much chaos in the last few months that it is such a relief to sit back with our three kids- each beautiful and each healthy. We are so blessed.