Micah Gardner Wolf

Welcoming our Wolf Cub #4, Micah Gardner Wolf!

Micah was due on January 25th, the same due date I had (and I was born on February 3rd).  With my track record of being 10 days, 10 days, and 14 days late with the other three kids, I fully expected he'd come on my birthday or after.  So on the night of the 23rd when I felt contractions, I didn't think much of it.  I'd been having on and off contractions for the last month, and I wasn't ready for a baby yet.  But by 10 pm, I couldn't ignore the pain and knew these weren't going to stop.  So we got the kids up and loaded them all in the car and took them to the Malones house (thanks guys!).  We stayed there and talked until almost midnight because I hate hospitals and want to stay as little time as possible in them and because this hospital charges for each day's stay starting at midnight! (apparently my even my body is cheap because it waited until after midnight to birth Kyla and Micah! :)
This labor felt very similar to Kyla's and Cooper's so when I got to the hospital I was sure I was at the same place I was with them (at a 10 and ready to have the baby in 30 minutes or less!).  So the nurse was very casual in getting me checked in and I just laughed inside picturing her reaction when she checked me and I was a 10- doesn't she know this is my 4th??  I know my body!  She finally came around to check me- here was my 'I told you so' moment!
"Looks like you're at about a 3 and 80% sweetie"
Pause for stunned silence.
"um, did you just say a 3...or an 8" (at this point I was sure I mis-heard her).
"Yep, you're a 3."
"NO, no, I know a 3 pain, this is NOT a 3 pain."
She smiled, stood, and left me with my shocked horror.  A THREE?!  I don't consider myself to be a wimp and having had two other children naturally, I was dumbfounded!  For the next 30 minutes the contractions seemed unbearable.  The pain was what I remember right before I was pushing with the other two.  I called her back in...these had do be doing SOMETHING.
My hope was that I'd shock her by 30 minutes later being the 10 I knew I should be!
Alas, a 3 again.
At this point, it was a little after 1:00 AM and I was exhausted.  If I had to keep going with these contractions at the same rate of progression, I wasn't going to survive!
15 minutes went by.  I asked for an epidural.
She then added salt to my progressively painful 'wound' by telling me that I hadn't been technically admitted yet since I had to be at least a 4 for them to move forward with an epidural.  So, she checked me again.  This time the only hope I had was that I was at least a 4, or that she'd be nice and just say I was.  But to my relieved surprise, her eyes got wide as she said I was at least a 6 now.  The nurses helped me into the labor and delivery room and asked for the bloodwork to be done for the epidural.  Bloodwork?  Oooh...yeah, we don't have time for that.
I realized at this point my body was going to listen to me and make this last part happen fast.  The nurse came in to do the bloodwork and I asked to be checked.  Another 15 minutes had gone by since the last check.  Although I did see her roll her eyes, she decided to appease my request.
Here came the wide-eyed look of the nurse I had been waiting for all night!  A 10! Yessss!  My body didn't completely fail me, it was just procrastinating!
We had just enough time to get the midwife in the room (who came in running, I might add) and equipment set up before I was ready to push.   However, I have an issue of my water not breaking easily, and when it does- look out!  I knew if she just broke my water, it'd just take a quick push or two.  I did even nicely warn the nurse standing next to her that it was going to spray...she didn't believe me...  Her face as she looked down at her wet scrubs was priceless!  Game time! One solid long drawn out push and he was HERE! :)   Born at 1:48, A 'small' 7 lbs 8 oz.
Welcome to the world our wonderful, EARLY Micah! We love you!

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He's chunking up fast!  Gained over a pound in less than two weeks.

Life's blessings

Life.  What a sweet blessed experience to be able to live it.  No matter how long or short our experience may be on this Earth, truly what a gift it is to learn and grow!

I love being a parent.  There are definitely hard days and struggles, but then there are those rewarding parenting experiences that transcend any difficulties and make it all worth it.  A possible little glimpse of what Heavenly Father experiences with us when we do what He hopes for us and become a little more like Him.

This Christmas break has been a blast.  We've thoroughly enjoyed the fact that the kids are off school and Rudy's had a good amount of time off to spend together playing and having fun.  We haven't gone and done much, but we've enjoyed each others company and loved being together. 
Tucker and Cooper are such great buddies- I love to see them interact with each other.  Rarely do they fight or have arguments and most of their time is spent imagining worlds, begging to sleep in the same bed of their bunkbeds with their lighted pillow pets, working together building towers, reading books, or getting to the next level on a Lego Wii game. 

Tucker got some chapter books for Christmas and, with their begging to sleep in the same bed, we've recently realized that he's been reading a chapter to Cooper every night by light of pillow pet before they go to sleep.  So tonight, as we started hearing Tucker's voice we decided to eavesdrop on their new nighttime routine. 
We slowly snuck up the stairs listening to Tucker tell about Junie B. Jones' latest adventure.  However, as we got to the top of the stairs, he quietly announced to Cooper, "Ok, that's all for tonight Coop."   Shoot, we thought.  We missed it.  Just as we started to turn to head back downstairs we heard some of the sweetest conversation we've been able to hear since being parents...

"Cooper, who's turn is it?" 
"It's mine, I'll say it"
"Ok, Cooper, dont forget to pray for Kyla's pink eye and that she'll get all better and that we won't rub our eyes at night while we're asleep and if we do, that the goopy stuff won't make our eyes goopy".
"Ok, and I'll pray that we won't have any nightmares."
Cooper proceeded to say an unbelievably sweet prayer in his wonderful little helium voice about goopy eyes and a nightmareless sleep.
After their prayer, they both quietly started singing "I am a Child of God" and Rudy and I realized they were giving each other a second dose of our nightly bedtime routine in the quiet of their room with each other. 
After singing one of the sweetest renditions of "I am a Child of God" I think I've ever heard, Tucker asked Cooper to grab the scriptures.  We heard pages turn and Tucker ask, "what page are we on tonight?"  Cooper promptly responded that the one Tucker was on they read last night and they were on the next page. 
Tucker flipped the page and began summarizing the story he was looking at.  "See him? he's trying to tell people that Jesus isn't real.  See this guy? He wanted to know if Jesus was real so he prayed.
Cooper chimed in, "Yeah, and he knew that Jesus was real and the next day he told all the people and made sure that they believed him." 
After they finished sharing their scripture story with each other, they commented on how 'tonight was a short one'.  Cooper noticed Tucker's pillow pet wasn't in the room. "Tucker, I'm sorry to say your pillow pet is in the toy room.  Want me to go get it for you?" 
"Let's go get it together, we just have to be really sneaky!" 
At this point, with tears running down our cheeks, we realized if we stayed where we were right outside their room, we'd be caught!  We quickly tiptoed to our bedroom just before they exited their room and were whispering to each other in the hall.  They quickly got Tucker's pillow pet, snuck back to their room, and quietly start talking to each other about the fun they'd have together tomorrow.

We've had many sweet experiences as parents so far- hugs, kisses, cuddles, many "I love yous" and cute smiles, little acts of service, and prayers in sweet voices.  But tonight's experience will definitely be at the top our current list of reasons we're so glad to be on this earth and experience those blessed things that Heavenly Father has let us experience in our journey here together.