Birthday #8!

Eight years ago I had the fastest delivery ever! So fast it in fact that Joel didn't even have the camera out. The other three took at least 15 hours from when we got in to the time they actually decided to grace us with their presence and they needed forceps and/or a plunger to get them out but not Ben. Ben decided that he wanted out and he wanted out now. My Dr. always scheduled me to be induced since Shayne broke my tailbone with her huge head and my babies were all around 8 pounds two weeks early. But with Ben he waited until only 4 days before my due date and I thought for sure I would have to deliver him C-Section. Joel and I had told Heavenly Father that if we were done having kids then this delivery would be be a C-Section so they could just tie my tubes while they were in there and we'd be done. If not we knew that we needed to have 1 more kid. Well when the time came to go to the hospital we packed the kids up to sleep overnight at grandma & grandpa Beckstrands and dropped them off. The hospital is 2 blocks from their house which was really nice. We got to the hospital and they broke my water because I was already dilated to a 6. I always dilate a month early so that was no big surprise. And my water never broke with any of my other babies so everything was going as planned. It had been 4 years since Josh and so naturally I thought it would be the same 13 hours of labor and 2 of pushing because my body would have to relearn a few things. So I got my epidural - my best friend - and we settled in. I turned on the TV and Joel went back to his parents house to make sure the kids got ready to for bed and then to Subway to pick him up some dinner. Well, by the time he got back and got his sandwich out the nurse came in to check me and slammed my legs together and said, "Don't push!" and ran out of the room. It was just after 10pm and luckily Dr. Chamberlain was making his last rounds at the hospital and was just 2 rooms down. He and 5 other nurses came running in all a blaze trying to get everything ready. A couple minutes later he said push and I did and then he said to stop because his head was out and the cord was in the way. So he moved it and and told me to push again and he was out. 1 contraction, 2 pushes and out came a dark haired 8 pound 6 ounce 20 inch baby boy at 10:15pm. My biggest baby. Tons of black hair! I was so happy because the other 3 took after Joel and were all toe heads. I yelled to Joel to get a camera and the first picture he got was of them weighing him. I don't even know if there is a picture of me with him in the hospital. One thing is for sure...we knew there was one more baby waiting to come down to us. But until then we would enjoy this dark haired dark eyed baby that turned into a blonde haired blue eyed boy.

We don't do the big, invite the whole neighborhood, birthday parties for our kids every year. We do one on the 8th, 12th, 16th and 18th. Milestone birthdays. All the rest consist of cake and ice cream with the cousins on the closest Sunday to their birthday. Well, since this was #8 we went all out. We invited the whole neighborhood thinking that some of them will be no shows. Nope. All 17 kids showed up. It was pretty funny. I drove my van full, Joel drove his van full and JoEllen drove her van full over to AntiGravity Arena. It was really fun. The kids ended up loving dodgeball. They played it most of the time.







Then we took them all to the closest park and had pizza and cupcakes and let them run around for awhile and play. At the end I made them all climb up the rick wall and head to a van. Ben loved it.



That night we went to the Dixie College game and The JAZZ BEAR was there. Ben got a little basketball from one of the security guards. It was a long, fun, busy day. I'm glad I have 4 more years until his next one.