Getting out and about!

Nathan finally convinced me to go out and eat for date night.  Nathan has been itching to sit down in a restaurant.  I was super nervous bringing Eden out but I knew it was important for Nathan so we went.  Eden was a perfect little angel.  She slept the whole time and didn't make a peep!  They sat us in the worst spot possible though.  We were at the first booth so everyone walked right past us.

The next day we took the kids blueberry picking.  We picked some pink lemonade blueberries.

   

I forgot to take a picture of Eden and me.  We were there too!

Life Lately at home

Eden as cute as ever!

Blakely has been dealing with Musculum contagiosum (part of the pox virus family).  I noticed a few bumps right after we moved to California but they weren't bothering her and she didn't have very many.  About 3 weeks after Eden was born they started spreading like crazy, getting really red (infected), and itching her like crazy.  I finally had a doctor's appointment for McKinley (they canceled her original well child visit because of COVID-they weren't seeing anyone over the age of 2 at the time).  I decided to take some pictures of Blakely to show the doctor at McKinley's appointment.  I wouldn't normally do that but because of COVID the doctors weren't seeing anyone over the age of 4 and we needed to do something for Blakely.  Her doctor gave her some cream to put on it 3xs a time for 7 days.  On day 5 Blakely broke out in hives!  I decided to just give her an antihistamine and continue putting on the cream but only twice a day.  No matter what she was going to be itchy but the cream seemed to be working so I wanted to finish out the days.  

I just checked her yesterday and they are all gone but unfortunately she has scars where most of the bumps were.

McKinley LOVES to dance.  Blair was watching Descendants and anytime a song came on McKinley was up and dancing along. 

Dyer hates getting his picture taken.  This pretty much sums up our days now that COVID basically keeps us home.  Staying in pjs all day!

Little Miss Eden relaxing in her swing.

I don't think I mentioned how much this little one pukes!  We go through a lot of outfits, blankets, and bedding because she soaks them all!  Yesterday I was clearing out her newborn clothes (at 2 months) and just threw away a couple of her pjs because they were yellow around her neckline.  So gross!

McKinley changes her outfit multiple times a day.  This was one of her creations!  If you look closely you can see her puckering up her lips!  So sassy!

She's actually matching in this picture!

Blakely wanted me to straighten her hair.  Blair straightened about half of it.

Mommy's girl!

Another fun outfit!

Eden at 1 month!

Eden sleeps a lot during the day!  She is pretty consistent about waking up every two hours to eat (even at night).  The only problem is keeping her awake to get enough to eat.  

She is most awake around 10 pm (right about when I'm ready for bed)...It's a good thing she is so cute!

She usually wakes up between 5-6 am grunting.  This poor girl is so gassy!  By the time she gets all the gas out and/or finally gets all her poop out it is usually around 7-8 am (right when the other kids start getting up) so I don't get much sleep after 6 am...

Eden is known as the poopy machine!  I've never met a child that poops as much as this child does!  Also, I've never known a child that goes through as many diapers as she does.  My record is 4 diapers in one diaper change.  It's not uncommon to use 2 diapers for each diaper change.  I swear she likes to start her deed in one diaper and finish in a clean one.  And it doesn't matter how long you wait between changing her because she won't finish until that new diaper is on.  You can change her right away thinking there possible can't be anything more inside such a little girl or you can wait 15 or so minutes because you are on to her and she is not going to trick you this time.  But either way the second you get her clothes back on...BOOM she does it again! She is going to poop us out of house and home!   

She does really well with tummy time!  In fact I almost think she prefers being on her tummy then on her back.  She has a really strong neck!

She loves her bouncy chair especially when the vibrate is on.  She also likes her swing but seems to prefer the bouncy chair.  If she had it her way though she would prefer to be held. 

Eden also likes the Moby wrap.  Almost the second I put her in it to go on walks she is out!

Eden is so little!  She is still in newborn diapers and newborn clothes.

Eden is such a wiggle worm.  In the picture above you can see that her foot is hanging out of her outfit.  You might think that this was just a fluke but I swear every time she wore this outfit at least one foot found its way out.  Most of the time when she is wearing pjs she will wiggle her legs/feet up to her torso inside her pjs and get them stuck.  When she kicks her feet or tries to stretch them out she ends up pulling on the crouch part which then pulls around her neck/shoulders and she gets so frustrated!

She even managed to wiggle her legs out of this swaddle blanket!  I think she might be the next Houdini!

Many Faces of Eden

First Bath!

Eden 1 week old- Newborn Pics

Random things during COVID

Blair had fun building card towers!

Blair and Blakely took Nathan's pjs and shirt!

While Nathan was on Paternity leave he decided to grow some facial hair.  It started out as a beard (didn't get a picture of it) and turned into a goatee.  He had to go on base so he couldn't have a beard but because everyone has to wear a mask he was able to shave it to a goatee and still hide it.  Haha!  Once he did go back to work he kept his mustache for about a week (didn't get a picture).  

We finally broke down and bought the kids some playdoh.  Dyer had fun making this sign on May 4th aka Star Wars Day.

Nathan took the four oldest kids on a hike.  He promised them that if they all made it to the top without complaining he would buy them Star Bread.  They must have down pretty well because they came home with a huge box of 60 pieces of Star Bread.  On their hike they saw a snake and cows!  I think it was funny that they didn't take any pictures of themselves...

School of Rock

We started the kids in School of Rock at the beginning of March.  They were able to go for two weeks before COVID-19 happened and they had to close down in person lessons.  The three older kids never got to meet or play with their groups before the shut down.  We started doing zoom meetings.  Dyer was so disappointed because most of his drum lessons before School of Rock have been online and he was so excited to start doing in person lessons.

Poor Blakely wasn't able to do any lessons while the school was closed down.  She is in the Rookies group where they experiment with different instruments to see which one they will like to continue on with.  About half the time the school was closed down I had each of the older kids teach her something for 15 minutes one day a week.  I wanted it to be every week but I think Blair was the only one that was consistent at teaching her something.  

Dyer is in the Rock 101 class.  He has his individual lesson for 45 minutes once a week and his group lesson for 1 1/2 hours once a week.  During the shut down his group really only met for about 20-45 minutes.  They didn't play together so I started having the kids play together once a week in Dyer's room.  Both Easton and Dyer know "Wild Thing" and "Believer".  I only filmed them the first time they played together and they only played "Wild Thing".  I'll need to film them playing "Believer".

"Wild Thing"

Both Easton and Blair are in the British Invasion class together.  They have their individual lessons for 45 minutes and a group class for 3 hours once a week.  During the shut down their group met for about 45-60 minutes.  The only song that Easton and Blair are playing together right now is "(I can't get no) Satisfaction".  This was the first time they played together as well.

The kids started doing in person lessons at the beginning of June.  Since then Blair has been asked to be one of the singers.  She will be singing back up for "Drive my Car" and I think  "Twist and Shout".  Easton will also be playing "A Whiter Shade of Pale".  Along with "Wild Thing" Dyer will also be playing "Let it Be" and "Tootie Frootie"  Blakely's excited to be back and she says (at least right now) that she wants to play the bass.  It looks like we might eventually have a Kelsey band! 

Eden Valerie Kelsey

Eden Valerie Kelsey was born on April 17, 2020 at 12:23 pm.  She was 6 lbs 2.2 oz and 19 in.  A good size for being 3 weeks early!  Valerie came over and stayed with the kids.  Nathan and I checked in at the hospital around 5 pm on April 16th.  They put an IV in around 6 pm and about 30 minutes later they decided to start the induction by putting balloons in.  I wasn't even dilated or effaced so them putting balloons in was horrible!  I got a balloon put in when I had to get induced with McKinley but I was only 10 days away from my due date, was already somewhat dilated, and was having contractions more often.  They told me when I was getting induced with McKinley that a lot of people say the balloon hurts a lot.  Surprisingly with McKinley it was fine.  I felt a little bit of pressure but it wasn't anything like they were warning me about.  I thought it would be the same experience with Eden but holy cow it was not the same at all!  I understand now what they were saying when I got induced with McKinley.  With McKinley though they only used one balloon, with Eden they used two.  I don't know if that second balloon was what made it more painful or what but it definitely was not fun!

It was a very slow and long process.  The balloons finally came out around 5 am.  When the balloons  come out it means that you're dilated to a 4.  They checked me afterwards and said I was at a 4 and 75% effaced!  Finally some progress after about 11 hours!  They did give me some medicine during the night to help me sleep because my contractions were keeping me awake (the contractions were coming every 3 minutes) but the medicine was really trippy!  Almost instantly after they gave me the medicine my eyes got super heavy and I couldn't keep them open.  It was really weird though because I felt like I was in an in between stage of being awake and asleep.  I couldn't open my eyes but I didn't feel like I was completely asleep though either.  I kept having really weird "dreams" and I kept thinking to myself how weird things were and how I wish I could shut my brain off so I could actually get some sleep.  The only positive thing was I got a little break from feeling contractions but I definitely didn't feel like I got any rest.

Around 7:30 am they decided to start pitocin.  I was really hoping that the balloons would be enough like it was with McKinley but that wasn't the case this time around.  Pitocin wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be.  I got Pitocin with Easton and I remember it was horrible.  

Around 10:30 I got my epidural.  I let a student administer it and that wasn't the best idea....I really wanted to say no when they asked but I didn't.  I swear she pricked me at least 7 times and adjusted the needle/catheter several times.  Anyone that has ever gotten an epidural knows getting poked once is enough.  As luck would have it the epidural only worked on half my body like it did with Easton.  This led to more adjusting.  Eventually they were able to get it to kind of work on the left side of my body but not as well as my right.  I tried to sleep for a while (that's the main reason I get an epidural so I can get a nap in. That and back labor sucks!) but they kept coming in and bugging me for the first 30 minutes.  Shortly after 11 they decided to break my bag of water.  It was around this time that my epidural wasn't working anymore.  I could move my left leg just fine and I was starting to get feeling back in my right leg.  Plus I was definitely feeling my contractions again!  Ugh!  All that pain to get the epidural and it wasn't even working!  I kept telling the nurse anytime she came in but she basically kept telling me that it was normal.  Sorry but this is my 5th epidural (didn't have time to get one with Dyer) so I think I know what is normal and what to expect!  Eventually I just pushed the button every 15 minutes on the dot up until she came out to try and get some relief.  I never had to push the button with any of my other epidurals.  By the time it was time to deliver Eden I was only numb (really numb) in my right leg.  I could feel all the contractions and I could move my left leg no problem.  It was so strange!  I think I would have been better off not getting the epidural in the first place.

Around 12:15 pm Dr. Bart and a bunch of other people came in to get ready to deliver Eden.  They were still getting ready and had their backs turned to me when I said, "I'm feeling a lot of pressure! I think she's coming!" Sure enough when Dr. Bart turned around Eden's head was already out!  He had me push one time to finish delivering her.

Haha!  My sister sent this HUGE bow as a joke!  I thought I would snap a picture and show just how ridiculously huge this thing is on her. 

While we were waiting to get discharged from the hospital we did a little photo shoot!  My sister also sent this monthly headband and the monthly numbers below.

Still waiting to get discharged...I was more than ready to leave!  

The girls were super excited to see their baby sister!

McKinley just LOVES and ADORES her baby sister!  

I was super worried that she wouldn't like her baby sister because she is such a mommy's girl.  McKinley is so sweet with her.  When McKinley wants her mommy time she kindly goes around to everyone asking them if they want to hold the baby.  So cute!

It makes me wonder though if COVID 19 wasn't happening if McKinley would still be super sweet with her baby sister.  It has been a blessing to have all the kids/dad home to play with McKinley and help out with the baby.  I think it would have been a tough transition for McKinley if it was just her home all day with me and baby.

McKinley for some reason has a hard time saying Eden's name.  It comes out more like Aiden.  When I correct her and try having her say it correctly she says, "Oh, I mean baby sister!"  

Blakely as first was more stand offish with Eden than her other sisters.  Now she usually wants to hold her first thing in the morning before anyone else gets up.  

Blair is of course still the baby hog.  However, I think Easton might be almost just as bad as she is.  They like to "fight" over Eden.  They are both really good with her.  I can't believe that I don't have a picture of either of the boys holding Eden.  I need to work on that!

Dyer's just finally coming around and asking to hold Eden more.  I think he was nervous to hold her when she was first born but he's warming up to her.  

First Sunday!  We are having church at home these days but we still dressed Eden up in her Sunday best.  I needed to get a picture of her so I could add her picture to the wall!

Sneaking in Eden time before everyone else wakes up!