Maggie Lu

Saturday June 13^th started out a little earlier than most Saturdays around here. It was 3 AM when Alixa woke up with some pretty strong contractions. She called the doctor to get a professional opinion, which is pretty pointless when you are on your 4^th baby. The doc (who wasn’t her regular OB but the weekend on call doc) told her not to go into the hospital until she’d been having contractions for at least an hour. Jarom’s rule is that he doesn’t deliver babies, so they called some friends and packed up to go immediately. The first call was to Kim Larsen, who dragged herself out of bed to come over and stay with the other three kids. The second call was to Heather Moore, an amazing professional photographer who had offered her services to Alixa during her delivery. She got to the hospital at the same time as Jarom and Lix, and was far too excited considering the terrible hour.

 This is how Jarom supports you during labor. He's the greatest. 

Dr. Holt, excited to see Alixa. We're so glad she could make it. 

Lix got checked in and had her initial vitals and monitors set up to keep tabs on the baby and all that jazz. The nurses asked if she wanted an epidural. Lix said yes. Then they checked her out and found that she was dilated to an 8. The bad news was that there was almost no chance that there was enough time to get the epidural ready before the baby got here. The good news was that this was not going to be a long labor. Alixa was able to hold it off just long enough for her normal OB, Dr. Holt, to get to the hospital, even though she wasn’t on call. She’s so nice. Dr. Holt arrived at about 5:15, got suited up, and then it was a few short minutes before Maggie arrived at 5:32. As has been the case with each kid, Alixa handled delivery like a champ. All the nurses kept telling her how impressed they were with her calm demeanor throughout the whole ordeal. And other than a couple terrifying, primal screams right when Maggie was born she didn’t make much noise. She’s amazing.

 Maggie's first few moments

The new wrinkle in this delivery was that Jarom got sick. During the last two contractions the combination of too many smells (from all manner of bodily fluids and hospital disinfectants) hit him pretty hard and he came dangerously close to throwing up on Alixa while she was pushing. He was actively scouting out the nearest barf bag and had decided that he would ask someone to step in and take his place after what turned out to be the final push. As Dr. Holt pulled Maggie out and held her up Jarom darted out of the room and into the bathroom. When she asked if the father wanted to cut the cord everyone looked around and wondered where the father was. He came out after a minute looking as white as a ghost. It’s possible that it was more than just a reaction to the smells because he felt queasy and sick for the next 24 hours as well. But don’t worry, he has recovered nicely.

 Jarom in recovery. And Alixa making sure Maggie was on social media as quickly as possible.

Maggie arrived at 6 lb, 4 oz, with a thick head of dark hair. She is without a doubt the quietest of the Winn babies, although that means very little. There was a little concern about a possible irregular heartbeat, but an EKG and additional monitoring ruled that out. Alixa recovered like a superhero, and was walking around a couple hours after the birth. It was a fast paced, exciting few hours, followed by the monotony and constant interruptions of a 30-hour hospital stay. The nurses are all great, but it’s their job to keep coming in and check on you, which means you can’t get any sleep.

But now Maggie is home and the real fun begins. The kids all love her and couldn’t be more excited about having a new baby. Emily’s face lights up any time you give her the chance to hold the baby, and she loves to say Maggie Lu in her little Emmy voice. Bo is a great big brother, although he gets a little too in-your-face sometimes. And Jenna has told us that she is going to be a good helper for her mom whenever she needs it. There are definitely some heightened sensitivities as everyone figures out what their new role will be and how some of the routines will be changing, but we are very grateful for a healthy, tiny new addition to the crew.

2015, Q2

I’m getting worse and worse at blogging. I blame Alixa, because she does such a good job of covering the day to day events in this family’s lives on instabook and twitgram and the like. But I suppose it won’t hurt to make an appearance here once a quarter or so. So what’s been going on around here? Rain. Mostly rain. Texas barely missed having its highest recorded rainfall in April, so it one upped itself and demolished the all-time record (for any month ever) in May. It’s like we are living in Forks, only with fewer creepy people watching us sleep. All this precipitation has severely limited pool time for Lix and the kids, although it has removed the terrible drought conditions we’ve been living in for years, so once the rains stop (fingers crossed) the splash pads will all be open for the rest of the summer.

 In April the family took a trip out to Utah to celebrate Grandpa's 60th birthday. Since there 

were a lot of family around Emmy and Bo got birthday parties too.

 This is the room where Emmy was held captive for a few days. 

And the kids got to ride a train, which was awesome.

Lix has been working hard on new baby Helga. She is now into the part of pregnancy where you are uncomfortable all the time and are usually complaining about why the baby won’t come out. As an animal who eats his food whole I completely understand. We are all crossing our fingers for an early delivery. But she and the baby are healthy and doing well, and for that we are thankful.

Jenna is wrapping up her first school year. She couldn’t love anything more. She got admitted into the talented and gifted program, which will really start in earnest next year. She is a voracious reader and has even been caught sneaking a flashlight into her bed so she could read after she was put to bed (her mom used to do that too). She loves going to parties with her friends, dances at her school, and was awarded the Smarties award from her class for intelligence and hard work in all areas.

 Picking up Jenna from school everyday, playing in the tree.

 Playing with Hank, who lives with Zak and Sam. 

And Emmy's birthday present, a wiggle car. The kids can't get enough of this thing.

 Jarom's coworkers threw him a baby shower. They are nice people.

Bo finished his first year of preschool and also loved it. It is hard to believe how much improvement he has shown in a year. When he started he couldn’t even trace a letter on a page, and now he knows an awesome letter chant for all 26 letters, has started to read, and does a pretty good job of coloring inside the lines. He was named Mr. Excellent thinker by Mrs. B, the greatest preschool teacher on the planet. He “played” soccer this spring, although with all the rain he only actually played 3 games. He scored some goals and seemed to be much improved from the fall. He is hyper-sensitive these days. It is a rare day that goes by without Bo sobbing about something, usually something so trivial it just makes you want to slap him. But when he isn’t crying he is about the sweetest boy and best brother we could hope for, so we haven’t sold him yet.

 Spring means field trips to safety town to drive cars and slurpees.

Above: Bo as a TV    Below: Easter egg hunting

Emily is cute as a button and maximizing her last few weeks as the baby. She is starting to ramp up her vocabulary, which has made it easier to figure out what she wants. She seems to be about ready to be potty trained, although that probably won’t happen until after the new baby arrives because it is hard to find a week that can be dedicated to the training. She is not, however, ready to let go of her binky. We actually tried this for a couple days last month with disastrous results. So it has been postponed, much to her delight. She is the family prayer reminder, and will never let a meal start or go to bed without folding her arms and giving everyone judgy looks until the prayer is said.

Jarom just finished the Stake basketball tournament, which was a great success. It was a double elimination tournament, and after losing a disappointing first game in overtime the ward team ran off 7 straight victories to claim the title. Even though it is silly it is still very satisfying to win it all. Nate even managed to foul out of the final game.

Above: Jazz with her first kill. Weak sauce. I'm on like a million. Below: Sodapalooza's back!

 Jenna got moved to her own room and a big girl bed in prep for the new baby

 The cutest Black Knight out there

 His first graduation! Hopefully there are more.

The Winn family sang in church a few weeks back, which went predictably. Alixa spent the entire song crying, Emmy played with the podium, Bo fidgeted around and sang a few lines of the chorus while Jenna and Jarom sang a duet. It was great. And we are in the middle of birthday season for the kids. Emmy turned 2, Bo turned 4, and we are now making plans for Jenna’s 6^th party, with a new birthday to appear in there somewhere. Here’s hoping it’s sooner rather than later. And that the rain stops.

 Jenna also graduated. Emmy didn't, so she has to do manual labor for the rest of her life.

 The lake covering the sidewalk and a quarter of the street was a permanent feature during May