More Baby Pictures

 Most of the time she really enjoys the bath.

 All the kids have been so helpful. Miya made dinner one night when Nona was particularly fussy and I was walking her around. 

 Another on of Andra's onsies.

 First real smiles at 5 weeks. 

I have heard people talk about having less pictures of the last baby, but I find my phone full of pictures that one of the kids has taken. They love her and capturing all the fun things she does. I just need to be better at getting pictures of the big kids. Cannon and Miya had their awards assembly at school last week. Cannon got the IB trait of "Thinker" for the school and got the diamond award for his 4.0 GPA. Miya got the Gold award for a GPA of over 3.9. Both the kids did a great job this year at school and we are so proud of all their hard work. We also had their piano recital and all three kids did such a good job at working really hard on pieces that really challenged them. Cannon did one of his own songs and dedicated it to his sisters. I was crying...and so was Nona!

Nona 1 month

 I love this baby carrier and Nona loves being up and walking so it works out well.

 Aunt Andra made cute onsies for Nona. 

 Starting to get a little chub on her legs and the double chin I gift to all my children.

I love how much all my big kids love Nona. Even though Nona has been a pretty fussy baby they find time to love on her and hold her. We had a few weeks of some serious screaming, but it seems to be getting better and tapering off quite a bit now that she is 7 weeks. She is pretty happy in the morning and we get a lot of smiles and cooing. We got her on medicine for acid reflux which seems to be healing so much. She broke 12 lbs yesterday and we had to move her up to 3-6 month clothes. Love the cute little stinker.

Water

The Saturday after Nona was born we decided to get a few kayaks and paddle boards to keep the big kids entertained this summer.We have had amazing weather for May and June with around 20 days in the 80s and a few in the 90s. The kids have loved going out after school for a paddle and Phil's dad even took a turn on Monday during FHE. He fell off a couple of times, but was able to get back on. I have mixed feelings about summer this year with a new baby. I am worried about the 14 hour drive to Driggs and hope it will be worth it. Nona doesn't love her car seat and screams a lot so it should be interesting. The last few summers we haven't even had a napping kid so it is just go, go, go and this summer will be a shift with a new little one. I am just trying to enjoy this new change and stay sane and positive. I hate change, but I love Nona.

Baby in the House

Pictures from the first few weeks.

We are six weeks out from having Nona join our family and the adjustment continues. She has been a pretty hard baby with a ton of screaming, but we hope to be turning the corner soon. They say it peaks at 6 weeks and by 3 months should turn around so we are at the half-way point and pray to survive another 6 weeks. She will give me a few 4 or 5 hour stretches of sleep at night and the screaming has been better since we got her on medicine for acid reflux and gripe water for gas. They aren't magic and she still has rough nights every couple of days and she is just a pretty fussy baby in general. I told the doctor on Wednesday at my six week check-up that I was afraid he switched babies at birth and gave me the wrong one. We do love her and look forward to seeing how she changes and grows once she figures out this new body of hers.

Nona Faye Combs

 Phil in the birthing suite just as we arrived at the hospital.

Well I had been expecting baby to arrive for weeks just with the placenta previa during the pregnancy and needing to be prepared for a c-section at 37 weeks. Then everything cleared at about 34 weeks so we didn't need to have a c-section and we could just wait until she was ready to come. I went in at 39 weeks and Dr. Nickel stripped my membranes in the morning. I walked around for hours and didn't even have a single cramp. He asked me if I wanted to be induced if this didn't work and I was totally on-board with that. So on Wednesday April 20th I was eating dinner with Mom and Dad and the family and the hospital called to say come in before 7 if I wanted to be induced. I thought Phil had meetings at the church, but he cancelled them and we headed to the hospital. We were there for a while when the nurses (one nurse and one in training) came and to start the IV and get this ready for the doctor's orders. The nurse in training asked if she could start my IV and because I have a hard time saying no and I have great veins I let her try. She was digging around in my hand and blew my vein. It hurt and Phil was about ready to punch her, but then the other nurse took over and got it the second time no problems. Doc came in about another hour later and had me put on a monitor so they could give me a little pill cytotex to help get things started. They only gave me a quarter of the pill and things slowly started and a couple hours into things the nurse checked me and I was at a 4. She asked how the pain was, but of course I go on the low side of things because I hate to look like a wimp. She said I could get off the monitor and walk around and use the bathroom. Then she would put me back on the monitor and give me another pill. She left the room and I walked to the bathroom and then came back and laid down trying to sleep before things got to serious. Once I got in bed it felt like the baby kicked me super hard and then my water broke and things just took off from there. I was having the contractions in my back just like with the other girls. I kept hoping they would shift around to the front, but once they got super hard immediately after my water broke I knew I wanted an epidural. I told the nurse I wanted one and she said she wanted to check me. I told her no because I knew things were happening fast and I was afraid she would tell me it was too late. When my water broke I felt the baby move down a ton and fast. The anesthesiologist came in after I had about 5 contractions and then I had a few more while she was setting it up and with back labor it hurts so bad if someone is not pushing on your back so those two I had while she was putting it in where horrible. Then I was amazed at how well it worked. Within minutes I felt so much better. No pain, just a ton of pressure. The nurse checked me and I was at a 9 (within 20 minutes I went from a 4-9) and she called my doctor to wake him up and get him there. I just held off on pushing until he got there about twenty minutes. I pushed three sets and she was out. So I took the pill around 11:00 pm and she was born at 3:50 am so not to bad. We had a hard time deciding on the name. By the next afternoon we had narrowed it down to two names. Either Nona or Hazel and had eliminated Opal from the list. We liked Faye for a middle name, but also liked Aiko (Japanese for "love child") we would tell everyone that is was child of love instead. After a few hours and trying things out Phil looked up popularity of names and Hazel was more popular than Nona so we settled on Nona. Plus it just seemed right to name her Nona Faye Combs when we talked about it. She weighed 8 lbs 3 oz.

Saturday in Gig Harbor

We spent the morning at the Farmer's Market eating all kinds of good food and listening to some good music. The kids got necklaces and I ate my weight in cheese. Still waiting for the baby to come and trying to enjoy family time. We then went down to this little park/beach. The kids founds some huge starfish and one started sticking to Miya's hand. Phil had to gently pry him off. It was funny watching my kids running around on the beach looking at things and thinking how different my childhood was from what they experience. I loved growing up in Driggs and have so many great memories and I hope my kids feel the same way about their childhood even though it is so different just due to location.

Spring Break 2016

Spring Break this year was all about getting outside before baby Nona arrived. I was walking as much as I could trying to speed things along. We spent the first day walking/rollerblading at Chamber's Bay.

 Day 2: We walked around on the Tacoma Waterfront and stopped to look at what we could find under the rocks. We saw a sea otter swimming around and Miya even saw him come up on the beach for a few minutes.

 Day 3: We spent the day hiking down to the water in Dupont. There was a guy there with his daughter and they went out in the water turning over rocks and found all kinds of sea life for us to enjoy. We just kept following then around. It was great to have the sun out for us to enjoy.