Six Weeks

Caroline turned 6 weeks old on Wednesday. Can I just tell you how much I love this little girl? I feel like I have more perspective with her than I've had with any of the others and am able to take a little more time with her, have a tiny bit more patience during the night and when she's crying, and just enjoy every day with her. Maybe it's having a kid after thirty, maybe it's having your fifth kid, maybe it's having your last, whatever it is, I'm lovin' it.

Took these for Bud for Father's Day

Summertime!

Thinking we'd be overwhelmed with 5 kids, Bud and I didn't plan anything for the summer until August. Well, we feel up to it now and are kind of bummed we have to wait so long for a break, but we made our "Summer Fun" list and have been checking some things off. So far the kids have made a lemonade stand, gone to Burger King, gone to the dollar store, had Dirt Dessert (Oreos and pudding with gummy worms), Slurpees, silly-string fight, and have swam in their pj's. There has also been tons and tons of regular swimming. Here are some cute pics:

Dancy Dance Time

Elle and Mae had their recital last Saturday. They tap-danced to "Yellow Submarine". It was adorable to watch, but even more adorable to see them all dressed up. Their best friend Judy was in the class too, and we figured out that all these girls will be in high school together. Judy will be a senior, Elle a junior, Mae a sophomore and Judy's little sister Kate, a freshman. We are in so much trouble! : )

3 Weeks In

Baby Girl turned three weeks old yesterday. Although I feel like I've been awake for most of the three weeks, it's all kind of a blur. This is kind of a candid post, mostly because I like to use our blog as a family journal, but I do want to remember what having a newborn is like so I'm no tempted to do it again in a couple years. : ) Caroline really is a wonderful baby, so beautiful and healthy and we are so blessed to have her in our home. We've just had a few kinks to work out and although it's my fifth, I've totally forgotten how hard having a newborn is. About a week ago she started spitting up like crazy. Actually, I should say throwing up, because it seemed to be pretty much everything she had taken in was coming back up. I hated the idea of her having a food allergy and having to cut out dairy, wheat, and chocolate (what else is there to eat?), but did cut back a bit and it was still happening. Finally decided she was taking in too much air and had to burp her every 1-2 minutes during her feedings (soreness!). Things got better, but it would still happen every now and then. Then we figured out I was overfeeding her. We've stuck to a pretty strict feeding schedule not overdoing it, and it seems to be working. Hopefully she'll grow in to what I have to offer.
I was telling Bud how tough it is to have this beautiful tiny baby who you just want to enjoy every second of because in a heartbeat she'll be big, but you're so tired and stressed most of the time it seems near impossible. The feelings of guilt I have because I'm not spending any time with the other four and the stress to keep Caroline thriving and wanting to enjoy the sweet moments of awake she has, added to very little sleep, really makes for one loser of a Lindsay. But I know we'll come out of this newborn fog and normal will settle in soon. Right now she's napping and I think I'll try to get a shower in, after I look at her for a little bit. Here are some pics of the past couple of weeks:

VERY loving sisters:

One of our "rough" days (all three girls were crying at once)

They're already dressing her up:

The girls made Caroline a crown:

Other happenings:

Mae's "cereal box skirt"

Dance picture day

Bud hiked Lone Mountain with the twins

After bath pictures

Sweet Caroline

I can finally put "The Stoddard 7" on our blog now! Baby Caroline finally entered the world on Wednesday, May 11, 2011. She weighed in at a perfect 7lbs., 8oz. and 19.5 inches. Her delivery was my fastest yet at only 9 hours. That may not sound that great, but after Elle taking 17 hours and Mae taking 12, 9 was seriously awesome. I had the greatest nurse, Myrna, who made it her goal to deliver me on her shift. Caroline came exactly 30 minutes before her shift ended. We couldn't seem to get my epidural quite right, it was way too strong at first, then we turned it off, then back on less, but by the time I started pushing I was feeling way more than I ever felt before. I knew the only way to end the pain was to push as hard as I could through almost every contraction, so she was out in less than 15 minutes. As soon as she was delivered and placed on my chest I just wanted to shout through my tears of joy, "I did it! I got her out! I've sucessfully delivered three VBACs! I have 5 children and I'm done!!!" I've never felt so proud of myself. Then I realized that my legs were still in the stirrups and it probably wasn't the best time for bragging.
Of course, being one of our children, Caroline has jaundice and we almost didn't get to go home the next night because of it, but luckily we escaped the prison, hospital, and got home at 10:30pm. Caroline had had a horrible first night in the hospital, but did great the next two. She's a great eater and total sweetheart. She really only cries when she's getting her diaper changed. We feel like we've hit the jackpot even though it's only been 5 days and I'm sure that could change at any moment. I'm just so grateful to have her here safely. I feel beyond blessed. The "high" is starting to wear off as the sleep deprivation and pain from nursing kick in, but hopefully the new normal will settle in over the next few months.

Spring Break and Easter

I guess our school district wanted Spring Break to coincide with Easter this year, but boy was it late! And since it was so late, we weren't able to do too much since the baby will be here in just a couple of weeks, so we stayed close to home and had a pretty low-key break. Lots of cousin, friend, and family time, a little swimming, and a little surgery. Poor Jonah - he had a cyst removed last year that didn't heal right and had to have the procedure done again last week. He is seriously one of the bravest kids I know and didn't even make a peep during the procedure. 9 stitches and it already looks so much better!

The girl's Easter started early with an egg hunt with their preschool class. I loved the picture I got of them starting their run toward the eggs. Such great faces!

Nana took the kids for a sleepover Friday night and they got to have a night-time egg hunt with flashlights and find all sorts of goodies. These were some silly glasses they got that cracked me up.

Sunday morning the kids woke up to Easter baskets and a quick egg hunt before church. I really wanted a picture of the kids in their Easter clothes, but with being late for church already and posing them in the sun, we didn't get a good pic, oh well...

After church, we dyed eggs for our annual Hilbus Easter Egg Beauty Pageant and Egg Wars. Stoddard's came away victorious this year with Elle winning the Grand Champion of the beauty pageant and me winning the Egg Wars! Some people will tell you the wars were a little lax this year, but pay no attention, it doesn't matter that I had to beat my 9-year-old son and 13-year-old niece. What matters is I did what needed to be done and won. (Just joking!)

The kids each got their own thing of "Flarp" in their baskets and that's really been the hit this year. I took a little video you can check out on YouTube if you want: http://www.youtube.com/user/lkstoddard5?feature=mhum#p/a/u/0/LhCgcUYGsas