Figured it Out!

Think I figured out who Laura most closely resembles~

Laura

Beth

A Few Extra Photos

Laura takes after the rest of us and gets hot feet if they are covered :) I remember all of the other kids doing this too when they were babies :)

Elder Walburg got transferred to another area and stopped by to get his handshake from Rob ~

Eva spotted the camera and decided she needed me to take a picture of her ~

Laura cuddling with Daddy. I even caught the end of a smile :) Oh, and yes, Rob is growing a beard. He has always wanted to see what he would look like with one and decided to take advantage of his two weeks at home to get one started.

First Bath

I'm running a bit behind on updates. Things have been a bit busy lately. My class ended yesterday, so I had a big project due last weekend and two more smaller projects due this week. On top of that, we've spent a bit of time researching cars that seat eight and checking them out. We finally decided on a burgundy 2006 Toyota Sienna and finished buying it on Thursday. We love it! The kids love that the side windows go down and that, even though it seats 8 instead of 7, there is more room for everyone :) I like the power sliding door and the huge seats and huge cargo space in the back :) Rob likes that it's a Toyota. He thinks those are the best cars and nothing else compares to them :)

Anyway, back to other updates ~

Laura at one week old ~

Laura's cord fell off last Friday, so she got her first bath on Saturday. We used the little tub the hospital gave us. She didn't fit quite as well as Eva did, but she is over a pound larger. She didn't mind it, although I don't think it's on her list of favorite things. She screamed when I first took her out of the bath, but stopped as soon as I wrapped her up.

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I love the smell of babies right after baths! Beth agrees with me and cuddled right up with Laura ~

Eva wanted to cuddle with Laura as well. Not surprising as Eva always wants to cuddle with Laura :) She's such a good big sister!

Laura's First Week

I can't believe it's already been a week since Laura joined us! We are loving learning more about her :) So far she is the most laid back baby I've had. She pretty much just eats and sleeps and happily hangs out while we do things. She only cries when she's hungry or when I change her diaper. She is pretty patient about waiting to be fed as long as she's being cuddled, but when she finally decides she's had enough waiting and needs to eat, she is very adamant about it being NOW. She can sleep through anything. In the car the other day, Eva and Jack were literally having a screaming contest (they weren't upset, they were just seeing who could scream the loudest). Laura slept through it. Eva is always patting Laura's face and tummy and Laura doesn't seem to mind at all. All five kids can't seem to get enough of Laura and holding her or kissing her :)

Laura sleeps pretty well. She'll eat for 30 mins at a time, but then sleep for four hours. I'm not sleeping very well yet. I'm still having a lot of pain at night or when I lay down for long periods of time. Everything hasn't quite gone back to where it's supposed to be yet. I need to get back in to the chiropractor :) I'm so grateful that Rob has two weeks of paternity leave! I can sleep in or take naps and it's not a big deal. Plus I'm honestly enjoying my nights :) Everything is quiet and Laura is such a cuddle-bug!

The older kids miss me being as involved in taking care of them though. Beth especially thought that I preferred spending time with Laura and that this was how it was going to be from now on. I had to explain to her that having a baby is really hard work and that it was going to take me a week or two to be able to get up and around and do everything I used to do. I'm sure it doesn't help that I'm at the end of my quarter right now as well. I have a term paper due tonight (Sunday), then five more days of class, then I'm done with the quarter! I'm taking fall quarter off. I only have two classes left after this one though and then my internships and I'll be done!!!

Here are a few pictures from this week. I didn't get pictures of everyone; I'll have to work on that! :)

A couple times a day, Laura stays awake for an hour or so, happily watching what's going on. Every time I try to take a picture of her like that, the flash makes her squint.

Laura loves sucking on her hands and anything else that gets near her mouth. Kylie thought it was hilarious when Laura tried sucking on her cheek while cuddling with her :)

Jack takes his responsibility as an older brother very seriously. He loves holding Laura and every time he does, he explains to me that he needs to take care of her and be nice to her. I don't remember him being this interested in Eva as a baby; what a difference a year and a half makes! He is so much more grown up now!

Our current challenge is figuring out what to do about our car. The minivan only seats 7 and we now have 8 members of our family. We've tried getting an extra seat for the middle, but it doesn't fit with the model we have :( We're probably going to trade it in for a car that seats eight. We went and checked out a Honda Pilot today, but weren't horribly impressed with the lack of space in the trunk. It looked bigger in the pictures. I think we may have to stick with looking at minivans or even *gasp* a full sized SUV. Rob calls those "Mormon Battle Wagons". We've thought about just using two cars, but we do a lot as a family and even if we end up with a larger car that gets worse gas mileage, it will still use less gas than two cars going everywhere.

Meeting Kiki and Presents

None of us expected Laura to make it full term. Kiki, going by the dates that Jack and Eva were born on, had arranged to work from home for a whole week so she would be here when Laura was born. In classic Laura fashion, she showed up the week afterwards and waited until Kiki was hiking in Yosemite for the weekend and had no cell phone service. Kiki got home really late Monday night, so she came over on Tuesday to meet Laura. She even brought us pizza for dinner, cupcakes for dessert, and the makings of root beer floats to celebrate!

Eva has decided Kiki is on her very small list of favorite people. She even sat on Kiki's lap and shared her pizza!

As the last few months have been really hard for all of us, we got each of the kids (except Laura, who isn't old enough to need one) a present to celebrate Laura's arrival. We handed them out after dinner on Tuesday.

Eva got a new doll ~

Megan got a Barbie that came with a big dog (that swims) and two puppies ~

Beth got a doctor kit ~

Kylie got a gumball machine that dispenses toys ~

(Eva with her doll again - she was very excited about it!)

And Jack got a Power Ranger Samurai toy ~

Dr. Beth giving Jack a check up ~

Kiki's present was a new niece :) Kiki commented that she was so big compared to how tiny Eva had been :)

Together At Last

We all enjoyed the weekend, but it was really nice to be back together again!

I must admit, Eva is kind of a Laura-hog. She doesn't like sharing her with her siblings.

Last Day at the Hospital and Coming Home

We took full advantage of Betsy taking care of the oldest five kids and rested as much as possible. Rob spent all day at the hospital with me, then would drive home at night to sleep (without nurses coming in every hour or two) and to take care of the cats and dog. There have been quite a few upgrades made to hospital rooms since we started having children and the couch/bed in my room was actually pretty comfortable! Rob and Laura napping on it ~

Monday night we had a couple more visitors. Beca and Garett came by to meet Laura and we had a blast talking! It was almost like a double date :) I totally forgot to take photos of them with Laura though, so I'll have to get those at some point. Jojo came by after dinner, bringing Rob a double baconator, both of us milk shakes, and me spring rolls from PeiWei. She had planned to be there for Laura's birth, but Laura showed up on one of the two nights she was out of town. I told her that was ok; Laura's birth wasn't quite the nice calm experience that the others were :)

Rob headed home and let Jojo and I spend the evening together :) Laura fell under her spell just like the rest of my babies have. Laura had been nursing every 30-45 minutes all day, but she stayed asleep in Jojo's arms for over two hours! Jojo's influence even lasted through the night and Laura slept really well, only waking to eat every 2 hours.

I got a lot of sleep (comparatively) that night! Every time I woke up, I'd spend time just looking down at the tiny little girl in my arms and marveling that I had been blessed again with such a beautiful and sweet baby!

As Labor Day weekend was over, Rob waited to head to the hospital until after rush hour was well over. He spent the morning finishing up some yardwork. We dressed Laura in the little ladybug outfit Rob had picked out for her months ago. We were worried it wouldn't fit as it's size preemie, but it did! Barely :) We had another outfit in size newborn, but really liked the ladybug one :) There are even antennas on the hat!

I had a wonderful experience in the hospital and had some great nurses :) Several of them told me I was the easiest patient they had - apparently having six children leads you to have very few questions for the nurses. One told me I was her best patient ever, which totally made my day!

We had forgotten just how small newborns are. The straps on the carseat needed a bit of adjusting . . . 

Jojo decided not to choose between "fun" flowers and "traditional" flowers and brought one of each :)

I came home to an amazing clean house (Ashley spent two days cleaning and organizing the downstairs as a welcome home present)! The four older kids were at school and Eva was hanging out with Betsy, so I had a few hours to relax and adjust to being home.

I put it to good use ;)

My experience this time (other than the actual labor part, which was the most painful thing I have ever gone through) was amazing! Betsy took incredible care of our children and even texted me pictures several times a day of all the fun things they were doing. Her gift of those few days to me and Rob is without a doubt one of the best presents anyone has ever given me! We had so much support from our friends through visits, phone calls, text messages, and facebook comments and it meant so much to me to see how loved we are by those in our lives! Thank you to each of you for your friendship, support and love!!! We are so lucky to have you as part of our lives!!!