Introducing Asher Peyton Abbott! Born July 6, 2016, 9:15pm. 6 pounds, 12 ounces, 20 1/2 inches long.

We are so thrilled to have added him to our family and his siblings are absolutely in love with him!

Even though he was born on the 6th, I would say that his whole birth story starts a few days earlier. On the Saturday before, I started having contractions in the afternoon. It felt just like Phin's birth because it started the same way and about the same time of day. The contractions weren't terribly painful, but they started to become very regular. They were consistently ten minutes apart for a long time, and eventually came to three minutes apart. My mom had come to get the kids just in case, so Harrison and I were able to gather things we needed to pack and prepare to go. I still didn't feel like it was time to go yet until I stood up from laying down and the contractions became very painful and even closer together. So we headed to the hospital.

You would think that with baby number three we would have figured this out. But even though my contractions were consistent and getting closer and stronger, this was not the time. So basically we spent the night in the hospital - with me still having contractions, just getting further apart, even though they got very strong and painful -and really not making any progress. Maybe 3 centimeters. So Sunday morning we came home tired, and honestly disappointed.

So for the next few days I continued to think that each day would be the day. I would have contractions that were consistent and getting stronger and just as we would start to think we should get ready to go, they would die off. So. Much.Fun.

Wednesday morning I had my weekly doctor's appointment (that I had hoped I wouldn't be going to...). He checked me and despite all the "work" I had done over the past few days hadn't made much progress. Maybe a tiny bit. 3 centimeters. We discussed how I was feeling and talked about what I would want my labor to look like. They knew that I had gone natural before and planned to again. He mentioned that if I felt like I was truly in labor and ended up back at the hospital without more progress that we could talk about breaking my water to help get things moving. Since I have had my water broken for both other babies - one after being stuck for several hours - I have always considered that I would need to have that done this time around too. So that was something I wasn't totally against.

I went home and went about my day with the kids. Around 11:00 my contractions started back up. Of course I assumed that this would be another false alarm, so I tried not to get my hopes up. But I texted Harrison to say "They're back".

Not much happened for the next few hours except that the contractions did not go away. I could walk, sit, stand, lay down and they kept coming. So I started to think it might be different this time. The kids ate lunch and went down for naps and I had a little time to myself. I spent that time timing contractions and considering their strength.

At about 2:30 I was feeling frustrated and afraid that they were just about to die off again and I was going to be disappointed again. I texted Harrison and told him to pray and then I literally stood in our bedroom, arms raised up in the air and prayed "Lord, if this is really it, please give me STRONG contractions now." Immediately I had a VERY strong back contraction. I was amazed. So I said "OK, if I have three of those we will go." And within a few minutes I had had three of those same level, very strong, back contractions.

Alright, here we go.

So I texted Harrison what had happened and within a few minutes told him I was ready for him to come home now.

We got the kids loaded in the car, dropped them at my parents' house and headed to the hospital. I called my doctor's office and since it was during the day they told me to come to the office to get checked. I continued to have contractions the whole time, waited to see the doctor. He came in and checked me. Three centimeters.

Are you kidding me?

Nope. Not kidding.

So again we discussed the idea of breaking my water (a different doctor this time). He said that we could do that, and he felt comfortable with that, but since I wanted to go natural it was really up to me. I told him how I have had my water broken both other times and felt that it might just have to happen. He agreed that it might help move things along, but it wasn't a guarantee. But with how far apart and how long my contractions were lasting that it was reasonable to break my water. So Harrison and I talked for a minute and decided that's what we wanted to do.

We went down to labor and delivery and it took a while for them to get us in a room and get settled. But the whole time I was feeling stronger and more painful contractions. By the time we got settled and the doctor came in and checked me again he had the best news I had heard in days - PROGRESSED! 4 centimeters. Hallelujah! At least we were moving.

So he broke my water at 5:30 pm and within a few minutes everything was moving right along. I was having the contractions that I knew were moving us forward and I have never been so happy to be in pain in my life! I went through the rest of labor without any interventions or medications.

I absolutely feel like we made the right decision, because things moved quickly and just short of four hours later we were holding our baby boy!

It wasn't easy, labor was hard, transition was the traditional feeling of "I can't do this", but then we were pushing and it seemed like just a few minutes and he was there. Even though it was tough, it was a short time period and it might have been my best birth experience. Even the doctor said, that he felt like we had made the right call and that "It's nice to have a third time mom who knows exactly what she needs."

Now we are just happy to be settling in at home and figuring out how to be a family of five. I can't wait to share more of our story as we learn and grow!

Simplifying Laundry

Laundry.

It’s the never ending, ever present task.

And with a growing family, our laundry is growing too!

But I finally found a few steps that helped me tackle the mountain and I learned to stop dreading the laundry.

First of all, for me, I like to have a laundry day and just do all the laundry at once. Sometimes that isn’t possible, and some people don’t like to that. These other steps will work whether you like to accomplish all the laundry at once or whether you are doing smaller amounts throughout the week. Some weeks when I can’t do it all at once I do mine and my husband’s laundry on one day and the kids’ another day.

So I gather up the laundry and just get it going.

Step one is put a load of laundry in the washer and SET A TIMER! That way there is no wasted time once it’s finished.

When that load is done it gets moved to the dryer and a new load goes in the washer and I SET A TIMER. Obviously this cycle keeps going until all the clothes are done. But the timer is key to getting everything moved through the machines quickly and efficiently.

When a load is done in the dryer these are the steps I follow.

Our laundry: For mine and Harrison’s clothes I pull everything out and I separate any clothes that I really don’t want to get wrinkled. I especially make sure to pull out my husband’s dress shirts - they are non-iron, so as long as I hang them up from the dryer they are good to go. The rest of the clothes I take and sort (usually on our bed) into piles: tshirts, pajamas, underwear, socks, casual shorts and shirts. Since I usually have more than one load I leave them sorted like this until all our loads are done.

Once all the clothes are dry and sorted into these piles it’s time to put them away. Here’s the thing that saves me a lot of time. (And really, I’m afraid I might lose some of you here)

I don’t fold all the clothes.

Yep. That’s right. Pajamas? Nobody cares if they are a little wrinkled. Underwear? Why fold that?

So I grab each pile that doesn’t need to be folded and put it in the drawer.

The piles that are left only take me a minute to fold and put away.

Kids Clothes:

Because I wash the kids’ clothes together the first thing I do is separate each one’s clothes into their own basket.

Next I take each basket and organize them into piles by clothing type: pajamas, socks, matching outfits, dresses (for Phoebe).

Again, the secret is that I don’t fold most of it.

Now, I’m not saying I wad them up and stuff them in the drawer. But I just lay them in the drawers and it had never really made much of a difference that they aren’t perfectly folded. (Umm, especially since my kids like to pull clothes out of their drawers anyway, so they wouldn’t stay folded anyway.)

And that’s it.

Wash, Dry, Sort, skip most of the folding and put in drawers.

The biggest time savers for me are setting the timer, waiting until everything is dry to put  the clothes away, and skipping the folding.

I hope those tips will help simplify your laundry process like it has for me!

Test Post

Testing this out to see what I think

ya ya ya hey hey hey