Way Too Much Fun w/ Sticky Notes

So this is how I found baby Jay when I came back from switching the laundry..........

Lots of News!

Okay, let me see if I can cover everthing:

This past Sunday, Mark's dad came to visit from Nebraska. He rode the train, which is a forty-four hour ride! He said it is definately the way to travel if you have the time! The kids had a blast playing with Papa. They even took him to the Grandparent's day pancake breakfast! And he came to see Jacob get his name and blessing in church on Sunday!

Mark was also sustained as the bishop of our ward this Sunday, so it was a busy day! We've known about the new calling for about two weeks and last week at stake conference they announced a new calling for the former bishop so it was a long week with lots of questions, but we survived. In sacrament meeting when the stake president asked Mark to stand and be sustained as the new bishop, Jacob was sitting in the pew directly behind Mark and as soon as he stood up, Jacob grabbed the back of Mark's suit coat and hissed "Daddy sit down! Sit down right now." I couldn't help laughing.

The night before he was called, Mark took each of the kids aside and let them know what was happening the next day. Their resonses were pretty funny:

Anarosa: "Great that means you'll be at meetings a lot right? That means the yelling in our house will go down by fifty percent!"

Alana: "That's just crazy"

Jacob: "Oh No! That means you're going to sit up in front......And you'll be watching me the WHOLE TIME!

Then the very next day, we got a call from Anarosa's former elementary school. They finally had a spot for her!! Yay! So, we worked everything out with both principals and she went back for one last day on Tuesday and started back at her old school this morning. She was soooo excited to go back to her old school. She missed all her school friends and especially her best friend. It was nice to drop her off at school and see all her old class mates run up and hug her.

Well those are the updates for the moment!

Three Weeks Old

Yesterday, Jay officially turned three weeks old!!

Anarosa's first day!

Okay, so this technically was not taken on her first day of school. It was taken on her second full day of school. But Monday was a holiday this week, and we didn't get the call confirming her spot in the new elementary school until mid-morning on Tuesday. So we dropped everything and went to get her signed up. They let her start mid-day, since we had had so much trouble, and they wanted her to start as soon as she could. She had a little bit of a breakdown on the way, but once she was settled in her class it was fine! When I came to pick her up, she said that she had had the best day ever! I was sooo relieved that everthing had gone well.

She actually has two teachers (they are job sharing). I met both of them briefly the two days that I dropped her off (one teaches Monday & Tuesday, and the other Wednesday and Thursday and they alternate Fridays). They both seemed very nice. I went to back to school night tonight and they said that she is making friends and participating in class and seems to be doing great! She is still hoping to be able to transfer back to her old school at the end of the semester, so we'll see how that goes!!

First Real Bath

So this was our first real bath. He did really well. Jacob was estatic that he got to help!

Brand New Belly Button!!

Yeah! We finally have a brand new belly button! Now we can have a real bath...

First Day of School......Sort of....

Last Tuesday was the first day of school for the girls. Alana was starting first grade and Anarosa is in third. We have them transferred to the next district over, which is a bit of a hassel every year, but we got all of our paperwork in and got them signed up and registered the week before. They both got their class assigments and were excited to get started.

Then we got a call the night before the first day of school. The principal called to say that Anarosa;s spot was given to a resident who had registered at the last minute. We were totally at a loss as to what to do! Alana started school the next day (and she did great! She knew the teacher and about 1/3 of the class was in her kindergarten class last year) but Anarosa couldn't go. She took it pretty well, but she's been out of school for the first week. We're 95% sure that we've got a spot for her at the next closest elementary school, but we're waiting to get the final okay.

Needless to say it's been quite nerve wracking to me! I felt sooo bad for her, sitting at home with her new back pack and school supplies, while all her friends were starting school. I also felt bad for Alana, we usually make a big deal out of the first day of school and take them out to lunch to celebrate. But it was hard to make a big deal for one child and not have Anarosa feel left out because she wasn't starting school yet.

The upside is that Alana didn't have any trouble this year, I think it helped that she knew her teacher (Anarosa had her for first grade as well) and she knew a lot of the other little girls in her class (they all got to sit together at the same table).

So hopefully tomorrow, I'll be able to report that Anarosa has a spot in school, and that everthing went great for her as well!!

The Logistics of 4

So I am officially the mother of FOUR kiddos now. Which, I am finding requires a new level of expertise.
I took the kids back to school clothes shopping last Monday. (by myself) So, we all bundled into the minivan and drove to Target. The first obstacle was getting our stroller into the car, but once I managed to wrestle it in, we got on our way. The first few minutes went fine. I was pushing the stroller and Anarosa was pushing the shopping cart. We managed to find a couple of outfits for both of our school girls. At that point little Mr. Jay decided that he was STARVING and wanted to eat NOW. Of cource Jacob decides that he has to go to the bathroom at the exact same time, and no he absolutely cannot wait. So off we go with a cart a stroller, a screaming baby and a dancing four year old to go find the bathroom.
Okay, so we get that over with and Jay absolultely does not want the bottle. (Since it's been sitting in the diaper bag for over an hour, I'm going to trust his judgement on that.) So we have enough clothes to cover us for the first part of school, although we haven't tried any of them on, so now we rush through the shoe department and try to get something that will fit everyone. Much to Anarosa's disappointment they did not have "furry boots" in her size. (Aparently it is impossible to go to third grade without furry boots). But we got tennis shoes for everone, in sizes that I'm pretty sure will fit.
So now we're running late to get back to the apartments so that Mark can start his maintence work, and no one has had lunch (Jay's still crying). And it's time to get in the check out line. Now we begin the realy fun game of let's ask mom for anything/everything. Mom can I have......? The answer is always no. I'm just trying to find the shortest check out line, and find my ATM card and hold fussing Jay and make sure that Anarosa doesn't run into anyone with the cart, and I don't have time to look at everything you happen to see on the way. NO!!! (seriously why would you WANT an electronic poker game?) So we finally get checked out and as I'm paying Alana walks up with a small hand held fan with candy in the bottom of it. No... Ten seconds later, umm, Mom......I think it's stuck in my hair. What??? Yes, indeed the fan and the candy are firmly affixed to my six-year-old's head. So now the check out lady is trying very hard not to laugh, because I have officially become THAT LADY. (you know the one who is holding the fussy baby pushing a cart, pulling a stroller and leading the child with a fan stuck to her head to the customer service desk to find a pair of scissors to cut the fan out with!)

Baby Jay!!

Hi Everyone, Sorry I've been absent from the blogging scene this summer, I was just miserable pregnant and then overwelmed with new baby, but I think I'm back in business now.

So to catch anyone interested up:

Short Version:

4th baby

Jay Collins Oakman

(yes we meant to spell Collins w/ an "s")

August 19th 2:23 pm

10 lbs 5 oz

20 inches long

Long Verson:

I went to see the doctor on Monday the 17th (a week after my due date) and we decided that it was time to induce. So, we started calling labor and delivery the next morning at 5am to see if they had room for me. Of course they didn't so we had to keep calling back every two hours to see if we could come in yet. Finally at about 12:00 they called and said that we could come in after lunch. Since we were already eating lunch out with the kids I immediately scarfed down half my lunch, told they kids that had about thirty seconds to eat, because I was DONE being pregnant and I did NOT want them to give my spot away! So, we dropped the kids off at home with my sister Sarah and off to the hospital we went.

It took a while to get in and settled so they didn't start the induction until about 3:00 in the afternoon. They usually start you off on a low dose of petocin and then up the dose every half hour. But somewhere after the first few doses they got really busy and kept missing the half hour mark, so then they would up it by more. We were anxious to get going because my sister was flying back to Utah the next morning at 11:00. And so we really wanted the baby to be born before then. One so Sarah could see him, but also so that Mark could drive Sarah to the airport and take over watching the other kidos. Because of that I put off getting an epidural, because I didn't want to slow things down. As the afternoon evening progressed, the contractions started to get stronger, but nothing very exciting. By this time we had come up with a plan B for the kids. Sarah stayed with them overnight, and our friend Liz drove up from Hollister in the morning to watch them while Mark drove Sarah to the airport, and then Liz took them to Hollister for the night (THANKS!!! You were a life-saver). Once we got that all figured out I felt better about getting that epidural!!

That Epidural: I have had epidurals with all of my deliveries so this would be my fourth (so I know what they should feel like). When they were finally able to come in and do it (they had an emergency c-section across the hall so that pre-empted me). The anesthesiologist came in and did mine. But it hurt, and it only numbed part of my right leg and one spot on the side of my belly. Everytime I told them it didn't feel right, they would have me roll to the other side, and wait a while, or they would increase the medicine in the epidural which only numbed the two spots that were already numb even more. They kept saying they would be back in five minutes to check on me, and then no one would come for an hour or two. Mark had to leave during all this to get Sarah to the airport so I was alone. In retrospect I just needed to be more assertive and insist that they get someone else to re-insert the epidural since this one was obviously a partial block, but I just wasnt' able to. To top everything off, the monitor on my belly that was supposed to monitor my contractsions kept coming off, so they finally gave up trying to re-adjust it. By the time the shift changed, I was just beside myself, they had upped the petocin again so I has having hard contractions with about fifteen seconds in between each one, the epidural wasn't working, and I was not having fun! I finally insisted that I wanted to see the doctor in charge of the shift, and they sent in the new anesthesiologist, He came in and took one look at me and said "We can fix this" Which is exactly what I needed to hear (didn't care if he was lying just wanted to hear it). He re-did my epidural, the new nurse came in and she just sat with me for about twenty minutes to make sure that everything went okay, and that the monitor was picking up all the contractions, and within about three minutes of the new epidural, I wasn't feeling the contractions at all.

Once the new epidural was in things went much more smoothly. Little Jay was born, just before 2:30 that afternoon. The delivery went realy well. He was 10 lbs 5 oz which supprised all of us! (my other kidos were all over 8 lbs but we weren't expecting him to be so big!!) He was 20 inches long. We stayed in the hospital until the next afternoon. (I can't sleep in hospitals and would much rather be in my own bed).

Recovery was good, I was up and about the next day and back to almost normal in about a week.

It's been two weeks now, and I won't be running a marathon anytime soon, but everyhing is pretty much back to normal.

Jay is doing great, he just went in for his two week check up. He isn't quite back up to his birth weight, but he's only off by a few onces and they aren't worried about it. He's doing everything he's supposed to be doing at two weeks old, which is great!!

Thanks for all the support and love!!!