Kinley's newborn photos

Here are Kinley's newborn photos that we had taken when she was first born. The little stinker would not sleep for anything. I tried feeding her, rocking her, cranking up the heat in the house, nothing. Nothing would work. Although the pictures are still good, they are not what I wanted. I wanted pictures of a SLEEPING baby. She wasn't even happy during most of the session. *sigh* 

New Testament Class, Week 1, Student Choice Assignment

Choice #1 The Baptism of Jesus Christ.

Review Matthew 3:13-17. Then answer the following questions.

1) Why was John hesitant to baptize Jesus?

John was hesitant to baptize Jesus because he felt so inadequate to do so, as Jesus was perfect, and John   knew that he himself was far from perfect.

2) What is taught here about the Holy Ghost?

These verses teach that the Holy Ghost is a separate personage from the Father and the Son. The          scriptures state that the Holy Ghost descended from Heaven "like a dove" and Luke added "in bodily shape". The Holy Ghost does not confine itself to the form of a dove. The sign of the dove was a witness for the Holy Ghost, and a sign to John the Baptist to signify the truth of the deed he had just performed.

3) Jesus Christ said He must be baptized to “fulfill all righteousness.” List three reasons why Jesus Christ was baptized. (see 2 Nephi 31:6-11).

1) He humbled himself before the Father, and witnessed to the Father that he would be obedient to him in  keeping his commandments.
2) He showed the children of men the straightness of the path, and the narrowness of the gate, by which they should enter.
3) He set the example for all of us to know what is required of us to enter into the Kingdom of our Father.

4) What evidence is found in Matthew 3:16-17 that the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost are three separate personages in the Godhead?

Jesus came out of the water after being baptized, the Holy Ghost descended upon him like a dove, and a voice came from Heaven saying, "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased".

New Testament Class, Intro Week, Student Choice Assignment

This past week I began a new semester of classes online with BYU-I. Since I just had Kinley, I wanted to take a little break, but not a full break, as I probably wouldn't continue with my schooling if I had, so I am just taking one-two credit class. I decided to take a religion class that focuses on the birth, life, death, and resurrection of Christ, through the four gospels in the New Testament.

For this class, I have to do a "student choice" assignment each week. Once part of this assignment is that I get to choose how to complete the assignment and which assignment I want to complete. Once of the choices for how to complete the assignment is to post to a blog the answers to the assignment I want to complete. Since I already have a blog, I figured this would be the easiest way for me to complete the weekly assignments. This week our reading focused on the birth of our Savior. I chose to fill out this chart and answer the question below.

 

Who	How they learned  about the Savior	What they knew about the Savior	What they did with their knowledge
Elizabeth (Luke 1:39-45)	John the Baptist leapt in her womb.	Mary was carrying the Savior in her womb.	Acknowledged to Mary that she was blessed to be the Savior's Mother.
Shepherds (Luke 2:8-18)	An angel of the Lord came to them in the field and told them of Christ's birth.	The angel gave them a sign to know where to find the Savior.	They "made known abroad" the things the angel told them and that Christ was born.
Simeon (Luke 2:25-35)	The Holy Ghost told him he would not see death until he saw Christ.	That he was "set for the fall and rising of many in Israel."	Praised God and acknowledged that God kept his promise because he had just seen Christ.
Anna (Luke 2:36-38)	Saw Christ when she came in the Temple.	She knew he offered redemption to all.	Gave thanks unto the Lord.
Wise Men (Matthew 2:1-12)	They saw the star in the East.	Christ was to be the King of the Jews.	Went to Christ,   worshiped him, and brought him precious gifts, but did not return to Herod to tell him where Christ was.
Herod Matthew 2:1-18)	The Chief Priests and scribes told him about the prophecy.	Christ was to be the King of the Jews.	Diligently searched for Christ. Had all babies 2 and under killed.
Chief Priests (Matthew 2:1-6)	The writings of the prophet.	He was to be born in Bethlehem.	They told Herod of the prophecy told by the prophet.
Nephites (3 Nephi 1:12-22)	Their fathers told them of the signs that would come when Christ was born.	The day before   Christ was to be born, there would be no darkness when the sun went down.	They saw the sign of Christ's birth. Many hearts were softened. Many believed and were converted unto the Lord.

Question: What do I know about the Savior, how have I learned it, and what am I doing with what I know?

I know that the Savior is my older brother. His Father is our Heavenly Father, his mother is Mary. He was born in Bethlehem under the most humble of circumstances. Christ came to this earth to be mine, and your personal Savior. While on this earth, he lead a perfect life, one that we all can look to as an example of how we should be living our lives. During his life on earth, he loved all, forgave all, healed the sick, taught the people His gospel. He continues to be humble, kind, loving, pure, forgiving, patient, meek, as well as many other attributes we should all be striving to obtain. I have learned about my Savior from my parents, in my church classes, through person scripture study, through seeing the example of many people in my life who posses these Christlike attributes. I continually strive to teach my children about their Savior though my words and actions. I try each day to be a disciple of Christ in all that I do and say. I am on a continual journey of forgiving those who wrong me, and asking for forgiveness of those I wrong. I strive each day to be thankful, and thank my Savior for his sacrifice on my behalf.

First day of school

I'm a bit late posting about the first day of school. I'm not sure why. Maybe it's the whole taking care of a newborn thing.

Cooper started Kindergarten this year. He is in one of the afternoon classes. I am super happy he goes in the afternoon. He gets on the bus at 12:15, right outside our house, how convenient, huh? After that I am able to get Shiloh down for a nap and have a few quiet, uninterrupted hours to myself to get homework and house work done. Yes, I started school this week. I'm only taking one-two credit class though, so it shouldn't be too bad with a newborn.

Cooper has done pretty well with the adjustment. He has had a few rough times though. Last Thursday he was crying when he got off the bus. Then Monday as soon as the bus pulled up, he dropped his backpack to the ground, said he didn't want to go, and ran back in our house. I had to puuulllllll him out from behind our couch, carry him out to the bus, lug his heavy self up the bus stairs, sit him down in an empty seat, hugs kisses, love you's,yadda yadday, then walk off the bus, hoping and praying he didn't run after me. Thankfully he didn't, and has gotten on the bus every day since then like a pro. He still tells me he doesn't want to go because he'll miss me, but I make him go anyway. Mean mom right here!

Mason started 2nd grade. So far he seems to really like his class, his classmates, and his teacher.

Shiloh had to have her picture taken too. And she is pretty cute, so Jeff didn't say no.

Mason in his classroom.

 

Kinley, waiting for Cooper's bus to come.

Ready to ride the school bus for the first time.

Cooper lined up, waiting to go in his classroom with all the other Kindergarteners.

Cooper in his class, at his desk.

Kinley's first three weeks

Kinley's first three weeks of life have been pretty good. She is a great baby. She loves to be held all the time. for the first two weeks, the only way we were  able to get her to sleep for any length of time was in her car seat. That has now changed. She now prefers to sleep on Jeff or my chest, and snuggled up in the Moby Wrap during the day, and at times, I can get her to sleep on her tummy on the couch, (while I watch her closely, of course). We haven't had a ton of visitors. The two times we have had a lot of people at our house passing her around, she had a hard time settling down for bed, so I guess in some ways, fewer visitors has been a good thing.

 Great Grandma Long

 Great Grandpa Long

 Kinley's milk coma after tasting milk for the first time at three days old.

 First bath at home. She wasn't very thrilled with it, but after having a few more baths, she is doing better and remains calm during the whole ordeal.

Deep in thought.



Overall the other three kids are doing well adjusting to life with Kinley. I was pretty nervous about Shiloh getting jealous, but so far, she is doing really well. Shiloh calls her "Kin" but can say Kinley as well. It's pretty cute. I'll have to try and get that on video and post it. The other morning I heard Shiloh calling for Kinley from her room. She used to call for me, I guess I've been replaced.

Introducing Kinley Elaine Borders

I was scheduled to be induced Thursday morning at 6am, Kinley had other plans though. 

I went to bed around 11pm Wednesday night, but I didn't sleep well. I woke up around 12:30am with some pelvic pressure. I slept off and on until about 2:10am. At 2:20am I felt like Kinley punched me "down there", at that point, the pelvic pressure got even worse. I got up to use the bathroom. When I came out, Jeff had woken up and asked if I was okay. I felt really weird and when I tried to answer Jeff's question, all I could say was, "uh....I don't know, I think so, uh.... maybe not, I don't know." Truly , I was just mumbling. I don't think anything I said came out clear. Jeff asked me if we needed to go to the hospital. More mumbling and nonsense. Then I had a contraction. Not just a contraction, but a contraction that, if I were at the hospital, I would have asked for an epidural after that one. (When I am in labor, I like to go though as much of my labor and contractions without an epidural, only getting one when I feel like I can't handle any more pain.) I then had another contraction that was so painful, I couldn't hold myself up. I told Jeff I wanted to take a shower before going. He laughed at me, told me "No, we're going now", and insisted on me getting dressed and going.

We were in the car on the way to the hospital by about 2:35am. The whole way there, I had more strong contractions, really close together, lasting for over a minute each. We got to labor and delivery at 3:00am. They took me right back to the triage area. "Really, you're going to triage me?", I asked the nurse, annoyed. "Yup, we triage everyone", she said. Once in the triage room, I had a few more contractions while trying to get undressed, so the nurse could check my cervix. As I was getting on the bed, my water broke (at 3:10am) and when the nurse checked me I was dilated 6cm. Not a surprise, with the contractions I'd been having.

I was then rushed off to a delivery room. At this point, the contractions were almost unbearably painful. I was grunting, saying oh my gosh, oh frick, this hurts, grunting, saying oh my gosh, oh my gosh, oh frick, this hurts, this hurts, over and over again. The nurse in L&D tried unsuccessfully to get an IV started in one arm, so she moved onto the other arm. I asked for an epidural. Jeff laughed at me. (rude) "Uh, I don't think you're getting one", he said. My contractions were so close together, and so painful that I couldn't hold my arm still long enough for the nurse to get an IV started. Jeff had to help hold down my arm, while I basically held him in a choke hold to help deal with the pain. squeezing his arm or hand just wasn't cutting it. Once the IV was in place, I felt like I needed to push. My nurse checked my cervix and I was at 9.5cm, so after getting through one more painful contraction I was allowed to push. Sometime during the blur of it all, my Doctor arrived. Luckily, he was already at the hospital delivering another baby. I pushed one time. Kinley's cord was wrapped around her neck. Once my Doctor freed the cord from around her neck, I pushed one more time and Kinley was all the way out. 

Her stats were: 

Born at 3:31am on Thursday August 23rd.

Weighing 7 lbs 2 ozs.

20 inches long.

Head circumference of 14 inches.

I have always wondered what it would be like to have a "natural" birth, but I've never been brave enough to do it. I don't think I could have done it if my labor was much longer than it was. It was probably the most intense hour and ten minutes of my life. I feel so blessed to have a perfect and healthy baby girl to snuggle and love.

Kinley with Dr. Richards

Papa Borders

Grandma Borders

Grandma Meador

Two proud big brothers and a not so sure big sister.

Papa Meador

The Snell Family

Ready to go home.

Baby check up x 4

This week has been a crazy one!

Monday morning, at 12:30am, I woke to some pretty strong contractions coming every 3-5 minutes. After and hour and a half of that, we decided to go to the hospital. They monitored my contractions for another hour or so. The contractions stayed the same. I then got to walk around the hospital for an hour to see if that would help the contractions get stronger. They didn't. So I was sent home because the contractions I was having wasn't dilating my cervix any more than it already was (4cm). While at the hospital my blood pressure was higher than it has been, so my Dr. wanted to see me in the office later that morning for that and also to re-check my cervix. At his office, my blood pressure was still high and my cervix was still dilated 4cm. If I was dilated 5cm, my doctor could have had me admitted and broke my water. Dumb hospital rules. If my blood pressure wasn't as high as it was, I'm sure breaking my water wouldn't have been a topic of discussion.

Tuesday morning, around 1am, I again woke to some more strong contractions coming every 5-7 minutes. After an hour and a half I got up and walked two miles on our elliptical. The entire time I didn't have one single contraction. Nor did I have any the rest of the morning. Lame. Tuesday afternoon I called my doctors office to chat about the contractions I had had that morning. I was concerned that they may have dilated my cervix more. If my cervix was dilated more, I knew that once I went into labor, I would progress really fast and deliver fast too, so I just wanted to be prepared and know how long I should stay home once the strong contractions began. The ARNP I talked to wanted me to come in to be checked. I was still at 4cm and my blood pressure was still really high. My doctor was at the hospital delivering a baby, so when he got back to the office, he said he wanted me to come in the next morning to run some tests.

Wednesday morning I went in. They drew blood and gave me all the necessary supplies and instructions to collect my urine for the next 24 hours. (FUN!)

Thursday morning I went back in for my regularly scheduled appointment. They put a rush on all my lab work. I'm not sure what they were checking from my blood, but I do know they wanted to count the amount of protein in my urine. If the protein count was about 300, that would mean I had preeclampsia and would need to be induced that day or the next. My count was at 165 (150 is normal). So no preeclampsia for me and no induction.

My stats from this visit were:

100% effaced.
4 cm dilated.
Measuring 38 weeks.
Baby's heartbeat 156 bpm.
Gained a total of 31 lbs.
38 weeks, 1 day pregnant.

Because of my higher than normal blood pressure, but lack of protein in my urine, I have been diagnosed with gestational hypertension. If I do not go into labor on my own, I will be induced later next week.

Also, because of my high blood pressure, I get to go back in Monday morning to have that checked. Hopefully this next week will not consist of an OB appointment every. single. day.!

Testosterone X 5 update

The other night, after Cooper's birthday party, the Snell's were still at our house. All five of our boys we lined up on the couch together. It brought back memories for four years prior, actually just two weeks shy of four years. My heart just melts. I love each of them so much! These five guys are some of my most favorite guys in the world.

 August 10, 2012 

Mason, Cooper, Connor, Zachary, Benjamin

August 27, 2008 

Mason, Connor, Benjamin, Cooper, Zachary

Here is the link to the original blog post I did about these guys in 2008 http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=111480048598582867#editor/target=post;postID=6355737111718869351

Cooper is FIVE!

 This little man is FIVE! I can't believe it. He has brought so much joy into our lives. He has a great personality. He has a way about him that just makes people around him smile. Just being himself is all it takes, one smile, one laugh, and he's got others around him smiling. 

With the few peanut scares he has had has made me realize more and more how precious his is. How precious all our children are. If he doesn't receive proper treatment, quickly, we could loose our little man. That scares me more than I can express. On the other hand, it makes me that much more grateful for each day I get to spend with him.

We love you Cooper!

Birth

 One Year

 Two years

 Three Years

 Four Years

Five Years