Congrats

My son Rex who is becoming quite the little speller, drew me this picture to congratulate me on having Baby Race.

Never before have I seen a more spectacular spelling of the word "congratulations."

In fact, it is so awesome that I think I will only spell it the way he spells it from now on.

I think I have to frame this one.

Ostrich Festival Parade

My girlies got to dance in the Ostrich Festival Parade this past Saturday! Race is only a week old but I felt guilty missing it. So, to the parade we all went. Our first outing as a family of 7! We lived through it just fine and we didn't even forget a kid somewhere!

Here are 3 of my handsome boys waiting for the parade to start:

Race isn't in the picture because I was wearing him like this:

I LOVE my Moby Wrap! Best way to carry a baby around!

We got there early enough to catch Ronald McDonald himself walking to the parade line up. Rex ran out to meet him and asked him if he and any burgers for his daddy. Sadly no, but he did stop long enough to give him some high fives and foot fives.


Coincidentally, Ronald was marching right behind our girls and Rex thought it was the epitome of comedy to do armpit farts at Ronald. I guess Ronald shares the same level of humor as my 5 year old and laughed really loud and then shouted "There's my favorite dude!" Come on, we should totally get free burgers for that!

The girls are here! Ella is at the front of the trailer:



Tabby said she did her best marching ever. She looked so cute with her cute little self.



I was glad I made the decision to head out and see my girlies but don't be fooled. I'm for sure not back in action yet. I went right back home and put my sweats on.

Validated

If you would have asked me who my kids resemble most, I would have told you they look like Dale's side of the family. That was until I saw this picture that my mom recently took of Rex playing airplanes in their backyard.

When I saw this I thought "Man, this picture looks so familiar to me for some reason." Then it struck me. I was thinking of this picture:

Me running in my backyard about the same age. Ha! Who's got the dominant genes now???

He's Here!

Our awesome little Race Preston Morris was born on Saturday at 5:26 p.m.! The labor was difficult and a bit scary at one moment but it was all worth it because we got this!

Perfect little Race! He was 9 lbs and 2 oz and was 21 inches long. Really though, the jury is still out on his length because he looks way longer than that to me. I'll get back to you on that.

Anyway, I loved my labor nurses and they were all the biggest help to me. I had one Ethiopian nurse who was like an angel whispering the sweetest things in my ear while I tried and tried to get Race born.

The problem was you see is Race got stuck. This has happened with 4 out of my 5 kids. Everything is fine and then at a certain point, the babies get stuck. And then they stop breathing. And then all the nurses run in. And things get really serious. And I get terrified.

But long story short, all was well and Race was delivered just fine thanks to the help of my awesome nurses and doctors.

I really did think this was going to be my smoothest delivery ever because even though I was scheduled to be induced Saturday morning, I went in already in labor. I thought that it would be quick and easy. But apparently, Morris kids don't like to come into the world without a fight. But I won, I pushed him out.

When we first got settled into the room, I saw the nurse had written a list of the goals for the delivery. She said she didn't write anything about pain control because she didn't know if I wanted pain control. I told her to write it on there in all caps. She took artistic liberties and added the exclamation smiley face.


When he was born, I got the biggest rush of emotion partly because of relief and partly because I knew this was my last delivery ever. Then I heard his cries and I knew he would be okay so I cried even harder. Next, they put him on my chest and I cried like a crazy person.

Here he is just after delivery:


Here's Dale holding his viking baby for the first time. I am of Nordic decent. Thus, all my babies are vikings.


And Auntie Magi giving him some love:


Here he is the next morning. The swelling and the redness went down pretty quickly. He has a little stork bite above his eye and I think it's precious. Tabby had one too in the same spot.


He can already smile. Talented boy.


Sleep and sleep and sleep.


On Monday it was time to go home. We got him into his outfit and took some pics before we left.


Love the frog bum.


The kids were just dying to meet him. Rex held him first and it was love at first sight. I swear, brothers have some sort of special bond and I could feel it happen between them instantly.


Tabby was next. Poor thing. She just wants to mother this baby so bad but I guess I'm feeling a bit over protective still. She was head over heels today just because I agreed let her put on his socks. I need to loosen up.


Ella was all over this boy. She won't let him out of her sight now. She just wants to kiss and snuggle him all day.

Gunner points and says "Baby!" I have to be really careful because Gunner just wants to mess with Race and push on his belly and poke him. One cute thing Gunner does is finds all the baby stuff around the house, brings it to me and says "Baby want?"


All in all Race (and I could eat my words later) seems to be a sweet good-natured baby. One thing is for sure, he's got brothers and sisters that already love him like crazy. Seems like he will have an easy time fitting in with the rest of them.

Who may not have an easy time however, is this gal. Knowing that this is my last one, it will be hard for me to watch him grow. It makes me just want to hold him tight and not put him down.

I just have to remember that every stage is fun and amazing. From learning to walk, to learning to ride a bike, to going to school, and on and on and on. It's all pretty dang awesome.