Bringing Baby Home

I'm so glad Ethan was able to come home and post to let you all know we had our beautiful and perfect baby Bolton. Of course, I think I'll add my experience for recording purposes...

It all started on Tuesday night (my due date, June 29). Ethan told me on the way home from work he had a feeling that I was going to have the baby the next day. Wouldn't that be nice? I thought. I was making dinner for my family, baking corn bread, yum, while Eliza played at my feet taking things out of the cupboard. She got bored and went to play in the other room, leaving a plastic serving tray on the floor. When the cornbread was ready to go in the oven I moved over to it and my foot landed on the tray and slipped. My legs split and I landed on my right knee, pulling my groin to the point of crying out in pain and then breaking down in tears. To give you an idea of how bad my yell was, both Jonas and Bryant came down from watching their movie to see if I was OK-I knew I must've sounded pretty bad. Ethan helped me up and then I sat on the couch the rest of the evening. I talked to my dad and told him, "Maybe it will send me into labor." I did have some contractions while I was sitting, but I wasn't really serious.

Me, the night of my due date

The next morning, after (another) difficult night I got up at 6 am. I was reading my scriptures and noticed that I was having a lot of contractions, so I thought I'd time them to see if they were consistent. They were coming 10 minutes apart and they felt different. I don't know why or how but they felt real. So when Ethan came home from working out at 7:35 I told him I thought I might be in labor. I asked him to give me a blessing and in it he told me I would know the right time to go to the hospital. I planned to go about my day and just see how it went. I was helping a friend take some kids to the library at 9:30, I had my doctor's appointment, normal stuff. The kids and I went to the library, then we went to the park and had a picnic with Ethan. My friend watched the kids at the park while I ran to my appointment. I told the doctor I thought I might be in labor, my contractions were about 8-10 minutes apart at this point. He checked my cervix and said there wasn't really any change from last week, maybe I was a 2. I was frustrated. But life goes on. He did say if I thought I was in labor I could to the hospital at any time to see if my cervix made any changes over time. I wasn't about to go to the hospital at 2 cm. So I went to get the kids.

Ethan had just beat me to picking them up, so I opted to do the grocery shopping instead. While shopping I had a few contractions that really took my breath away and they were still coming, between 6 and 9 minutes now. I came home and Ethan put the groceries away for me, what a sweetheart. The details of the evening are a blur. I know it rained, Ethan and the kids went out and played in the puddles and got soaked. I read my book and hid away in my bedroom. Around 8 pm, the kids' usual bedtime, I came out and decided it was a great time to clean the house. So the kids got to stay up late to contribute to the cleaning. We got quite a lot done, thankfully. We told the kids that Dad and I might be gone in the morning and after some questions as to who would be here, Bryant said, "So when we get up, if you're not here, we'll know you went to the hospital?" Right.

At 9:30 pm I called my friend who was going to come help with the kids and told her it might be the middle of the night because I was thinking I was really in labor. She, being the gem she is, was ready to go middle of the night and all. I read some more, tried sleeping a bit. When the contractions started waking me up around midnight I told Ethan that I was pretty sure I was in labor and that we should start thinking about when we should go to the hospital. I wanted to take a shower first and make sure everything was ready to go. He thought I should probably get ready to head out, so I did. At 1:00 am we called my friend to come over. She got here, we talked about a few essentials and then headed over to the hospital 5 minutes away. My contractions were about 5 minutes apart and they were quite intense at this point. I was feeling a lot of pressure. I asked Ethan how far dialated he thought I was, he guessed 5. I said I was hoping for a 6, but thinking I was probably at a 5. If I wasn't, I was going to be really, really disappointed. So Ethan changed his guess to a 3, to help me not get my hopes up.

We got to the hospital and the folks at the ER rushed me to Labor and Delivery as fast as they could. I was glad for the wheelchair as I could hardly walk through the contractions at that point. They took me into the triage area of L and D to see if I was really in labor. I have never been there before, how exciting! They hooked me to the monitor for a few minutes and then checked my cervix... I was at a 6!!!! HOORAY! The nurse walked out for a minute and I told Ethan how excited I was, I made it to a 6 at home! They moved me to a delivery room and started all the in-processing questions and paperwork. I could answer their questions until a contraction would come, then Ethan would have to take over. They were coming right on top of each other too. The nurse let me take a minute break while she went to call the doctor. She came back to tell me he was on his way to break my water. We tried to hurry through the rest of the questions and forms (my signature has never been quite so sloppy). Then the nurse checked me again, "Yep. You're complete!" Then to the other nurse, "Get that doctor here, call his cell phone, just get him here!" Within 30 seconds the door opened and in came my doctor! He started telling them what to do, the bed got taken apart, he got ready, they put my legs in the stirrups and then he asked me to scoot my bottom to the edge of the bed. The effort of doing that combined with the contractions I was having were just enough to push that baby out. I knew the doctor was there to catch him so I wasn't worried about it. I was ready. Ethan was completely caught off guard though. He still thought the doctor was going to break my water, I had to laugh when he said, "That's the baby here already!" Yep, I know babe. It was cute. We had a beautiful and perfect baby boy!

The doctor and nurses really made me feel good about myself. They kept saying things like, "You should teach a class" and "That was the easiest delivery!" or "You made that look easy." My doctor even said, "You just need to do that 3 or 4 more times, Kim!" I'm pretty sure Ethan loved that one.

The kids did come to see him in the hospital, but we didn't have the memory card for the camera since Ethan took it home to post pictures already... but it was a lot more manageable to take photos at home anyway... they were super excited!

This little girl in particular. She was on cloud nine.



I was happy to be home with my cute family.

And this little guy is just the best! Oh I love him! For those of you interested in knowing, the name Bolton has been on our list every time we've had a boy. Its the name of a town Ethan served in on his mission in England. We thought it would be cool to use a place from the mission as a name and went through all his areas and Bolton was the only one that would really work for us. Its grown on us through the years and it just felt right this time. They also have a soccer team, the Bolton Wanderers. Ethan has a couple kits that have BWFC on them, he wore one yesterday and told the kids it meant, Bolton Woody Fan Club. So rather than singing a Michael Bolton song, feel free to sing, "We are the one and only Wanderers!" Alma is my grandpa's name. All our kids have family names for middle names, its just an added bonus that Alma was such an amazing prophet.

I love pictures like these... you just can't help but get one or two.
Our first family photo with Bolton. Right after we got home from the hospital my friend dropped by and we asked her to snap this for us. Wow! We have 5 kids!!!
And for your viewing pleasure...





I think he thinks we're A-OK. And I know we all adore him.