Happy Two Months Adam!

It feels like I just barely blogged his first month of life, and now Adam is TWO MONTHS. Time really is flying. Some days I lay in bed and wonder what I accomplished, since my house doesn't seem much cleaner and I didn't read as much as the kids wanted. Sigh...I really don't want time to fly by. I just wish I had the energy to go, go, go all day long.

But, back to Adam. He is such a sweet little boy. He has started to smile a lot of make sweet noises, and it melts my heart every time. He was fussy today, because we'd been out and about all day, so I just held him and he was happy. I'm grateful for the time I get to just hold him. The one on one time decreases a little with each child, but I'm trying to give each kid their own mommy time.

Back to Adam. :-) He had his two month check-up and weighs 11 lbs 10 oz, which is 50th% and is 23 3/4 inches in length, which is 80th%. It looks like he'll be tall and skinny like his dad. :-)

He isn't sleeping for long stretches at night, but is a good napper during the day. He has the perfect morning nap schedule from 9:30-11:30 allowing me to take him to the gym asleep in his carrier and he sleeps until we get home. YAY!

His siblings are still great with him. Sarah always wants to hold him, and Steven likes to lay down by him. Steven has been struggling with attention and fits lately, but he's still always sweet to Adam.

Here he is going down the slide for the 1st time. You might notice that Sarah has resurrected Roo, but that's a whole new story.


We're so grateful for our little guy!

Back to School!

I love back to school time. I know there are parents that cry, but I jump for joy. :-) It isn't that I want to get rid of Sarah, but I'm grateful for the extra time I get with the boys. Steven and I get to read and play with his toy trucks, and I get more snuggle time with Adam.

Sarah started her 2nd year at Little Learners Academy. I put her in the pre-k class last year, so this is her 2nd year in that class. Thankfully they have a class for students that have already been in pre-k so they won't repeat anything. Sarah was the youngest, or at least one of the youngest, in her class last year, and one of the oldest this year. I can see a difference. She was very shy last year and didn't make friends very quickly. (I was surprised last year when her teacher told me this) This year she jumped right in and is enjoying herself already.

My little Picaso's

As I wrote in a previous post, we borrowed Mike's brother's bunk bed and turned it into a loft bed for Sarah. We thought it would be fun to let the kids paint the board on her bed, so she would have something fun to look at instead of just brown wood. Tonight we had some family time and got creative.

Sarah painted a rainbow, high tower and the sky above Mike's picture. She also had fun at the end adding her hands and feet to the mix.



Steven focused on modern art with an emphasis in lines and dots. I like the way the lines represent his daily striving to stay on the straight and narrow path and how the dots represent the bumps we all face. ("Intro to art" was my 2nd lowest college grade if you can't tell)



Mike had a lot of fun channeling his inner Bob Ross. It was fun listening to him narrating his painting and seeing how quickly he could add the elements. I love my big little kid.



The kids all added their footprints to mark the occasion. I thought Steven's feet were the same size as Sarah's, but she still has a slight edge on him.

Adam contributed his foot print, but mostly just hung out. :-)

Adam's First Month

I can't believe that a month has already passed away. Here is a brief rundown of what Adam has been up to.

- He eats
- He sleeps
- He poops

:-) Besides feeling blessed that he's my son, I'm grateful he's such a good baby. The only times he cries, besides these past couple days, are when he's hungry and tired. Other than that, he's a very pleasant baby. He's started smiling and making faces and it's so much fun to just watch him sleep. (8/17-update, he now cries when he's not being held during the day, but he's still cute and adorable)

His siblings are still infatuated with them. I've noticed they've become a little jealous of the time Adam gets, but thankfully they never take it out on him. Sarah is a little mommy and always wants to hold him. I've let her carry him a couple times, and although it makes me nervous, it gives her a great sense of satisfaction. I did leave the room once and heard the thump when he fell to the floor, but she felt terrible and I learned to just stay right there. She has been really helpful.


They helped me bathe him, and it was pretty humorous. The towel over his privates slipped and Sarah got a face full of urine. Thankfully we all laughed about it.


This has been a great month with our little family. We love this our little Adam Jett!

My sleeping beauty (or tough guy)

Tonight I was holding Adam in my arms while he slept, and a couple different thoughts came to my head. The first, was how celestial holding a newborn baby is. Adam was in Heaven three weeks ago, and now I get to hold this little angel in my arms. What a special experience. I loved looking down at Adam in his REM sleep and seeing his eyes open a tiny bit, and close. I loved seeing his sweet little mouth switch into a smile and imagine he's smiling thinking of me. (or eating :-) I just love to hold him.

My other train of thoughts was that I feel a little guilty. I love my baby, and have loved all of my babies, (of course) but I feel bad that I've complained about the newborn stage. Some people really love it, but I feel bad that as a stage, I love my child, but not this stage as much. I'm tired, I feed my child for 2-3 hrs/day and I feel bad for not having as much time with the older kids. I've always struggled with wanting this stage to pass as soon as possible. Terrible, I know.

I think I need to slow down. I've never been good at relaxing, but I think I need to try. I always feel like I need to get a lot done in the day, but I bet that if I just slowed down a little, I'd love this stage so much more. Holding Adam, with out thinking of what else I could/should be doing, was so nice and peaceful. I need to do it more often. I need to temporarily forget about elaborate outings, to-do lists and clean floor boards, and just enjoy being with my kids. I need to enjoy this little peace of heaven, because this wonderful newborn stage isn't going to last.

Note: Mike didn't like me calling Adam my "sleeping beauty," so I added tough guy to appease him.

Herriman "Beach"

I just recently found out that there is a beach in Herriman. I made the mistake of mentioning it to Sarah, and printing out the map, on a day we did not plan on going.

She woke up from her nap and got ready for the beach. She put on her swimming suit, shorts, a hat, and a headband. (none of which matched) When I told her we weren't planning on going to the beach, she started to cry.


I'm immune to Sarah's pouting, so I wasn't giving in, but Mike is a softy. He said we might be able to go. Notice the immediate change in countenance...


Followed by an explanation of why we should go...


So, of course we went, and had a lot of fun.




A week earlier Sarah had decided that she does in fact like water, and also likes to swim. She kept her life jacket on and ventured out to where she couldn't touch and swam all around. Steven has no fear, so he swam as well, but Sarah has become a fish. In the picture of all three of them, they were playing "Ring around the Rosies" and going under at the end.




Update: It's the 24th and I'm just finishing this post. We went to the beach again today, and it's still fun. :-)

Welcome Adam Jett Starley

Yesterday, July 10th, at 1:30 AM Adam was born. Although he is two weeks early, he weighed 8 lbs 1 oz and is 18 1/2 in long. He came out crying, but has been a sweet and happy baby ever since.






Here are some close up shots of our new little guy.




Sarah and Steven already love him. (of course) They came to visit us yesterday in the morning and evening and Sarah just wanted to hold and kiss him. When Steven wasn't pushing buttons on my bed, he gave Adam attention as well and was as soft as he could be. Mike told me this morning that Sarah offered to have her room painted blue with airplanes so Adam could share a room with her. :-) She is going to be such a great big sister to him.




Mike's parents watched the kids on Sunday, and brought them in for a visit. Sarah got to hold him in between everyone else taking a turn, but that wasn't enough for her. She was so impatient to hold him, that when Lynette requested another 10 minutes with him I had to set my phone alarm to keep her happy. As soon as it beeped, she sat down and asked for him.


Here is a little info about his arrival if you're interested. Adam was due on the 24th, but we figured he'd come a week or so earlier, because both of our other kids were early. Thursday, Friday and Saturday were Youth Conference and Friday ended up being a busy day for me. We took the youth to the temple in the morning for baptisms, then they played games and had lunch with some youth from Ireland and we watched a movie in the gym. We adjourned for a few hours and then took the kids to a rec center from 7-10 PM to swim. (no, I did not scare anyone by getting into a bathing suit) :-)

I've had a lot of Braxton Hicks this pregnancy, so it didn't phase me too much to have them while at the pool. What did make me wonder, but their increased intensity. My Bishop looked at me a little strange when I went to talk to him and had to slow to an almost stop because of a contraction. I got home around 10:15 and it only took a couple more contractions to determine I was in labor. A friend/neighbor came to our house around 10:40 to stay with the kids, and we were at the hospital by 11 PM.

My contractions weren't very close yet, but I was in labor, so they started me on antibiotics for my Group B Strep and then gave me an epidural. I had considered going o'natural until my real contractions began. :-) Once my epidural was in my contractions went crazy. I could see them, but thankfully not feel them. During a long, and intense contraction, that I'd like to mention again I couldn't feel, Mike made me laugh and my water broke. My Dr arrived soon thereafter and Adam joined our family at 1:30 AM on Saturday the 10th.

He is a beautiful, wonderful little boy, and we are all so grateful to have him in our family.