Kimber's Navy Family

I've written about this before, but after I had baby #4 2 and a half years ago, I had complications that required surgery. The surgery included a hysterectomy. We weren't sure if we were done having children (correction: I wasn't sure if I was done) and so we talked to my OBGyn about the risks of another pregnancy. He told us that the complications most likely wouldn't get worse during pregnancy, but that, while the pregnancy would be safe, it wouldn't be comfortable and that the complications would be worse post-partum. We had a tough decision to make: one more pregnancy or a hysterectomy? After a lot of late night discussions, we decided to try one more time. We had 4 boys and we were "going for the girl." We started trying for baby #5 when baby #4 was almost 6 months old. I got pregnant with baby #5 almost a year later. From the beginning, it was a rough pregnancy. My morning sickness (all day sickness) exasperated my complications. We were told the p...

School is starting up for the 2016-2017 school year and everyone is starting to post back to school pictures. This year we will have a 2nd grader and twin kindergartners. While I am (nervously) excited to have three children in school, I cannot believe how quickly time has passed. And I feel like I'm not the only one who feels that way. So many of the back to school posts say, "Where has time gone?" There is an expression that always pops up in the mom circles: "The days are long but the years are short." When I think about our twins, this is how old I think of them in my mind:   And instead, they are big bad upcoming kindergartners now. And our oldest... I still think of him as a preschooler. Instead, he's now the oldest of FIVE children and our towering upcoming 2nd grader, at 4'8": The first days of preschool were shocking to me as well, disbelief that we now were at an age where our children were off to school on their own. ...

My first trip to labor and delivery for contractions was at 27 weeks. Each week after that I've had to take it easier and easier. I haven't been able to drive the children anywhere or take them out of the house by myself for almost a month. Now we've had preterm labor and steroid shots for baby #5. I've been on modified bed rest for a couple weeks. My OB has told me to keep taking it easy and do the minimum and I'm supposed to lay down and drink as much water as possible each day. My other favorite part of the instruction, "If you have someone to help with the children, you should use them." It sounds easy enough on paper, but our day to day life is not conducive to bed rest. My husband is on submarines and we have 4 boys: a 7-year old, 5-year old twins, and a 1.5-year old. Managing our house (with minimal assistance) and 4 young children while being on modified bed rest has been challenging. So here are my tips on surviving bed rest with 4 children:...

My husband walked around the bed this morning to kiss me good-bye before heading off to work. "How did you sleep?" he asks. He asks me that. 32 weeks pregnant with our 5th kid (6th pregnancy). How did I sleep? I had heartburn. I woke up a little after midnight and thought I would puke. I had Braxton Hicks. I felt like I needed my inhaler every time I rolled over. And forget about finding a comfortable sleeping position when your hips slide out of place every time you lay on one side too long. Lately I've been doing a lot of pregnancy grumbling. Like a lot of people, I hate being pregnant. The waddling. The huffing and puffing while doing small tasks. Braxton Hicks while trying to load and unload children from school pick up and drop off. The aches, pains, discomfort, irritable uterus, post-partum, all of that. It is all so frustrating. Of course there are amazing things about pregnancy. I love the excitement of seeing two pink lines when all I've been seeing is ne...

Today the children bickered all morning. As it turns out, bickering is a pet peeve of mine-- pregnant or not. The lazy sibling fights where no one actually wants to get up and solve the problem and so they whine, " Noooooo.... " " Yeeeeeeeesssss.... " or hiss each other's names at each other whenever someone looks at their toy/approaches the area they are playing in/talks to them. Whining, bickering, back and forth arguing... GADZOOKS! It drives me insane . Especially when I don't feel well and so the children are reduced to the most frustrating of behaviours when playing amongst themselves. It was a rough morning getting our 1st grader off to school and the other three boys dressed for the day. By the time I set off on my quick errands, I was fried and done. The preschoolers apparently were as well as they were asleep before I even made it to a main road. We came home for lunch before preschool started and they devoured their plates of food. I made seco...

We have 4 children-- a 1st grader, twin preschoolers, and a toddler. I'm 28+ weeks pregnant and my husband is active duty Navy on submarines. When putting our children to bed, there are three different ways that it happens. The first is when I'm not pregnant and somewhat helpful in the evenings; this would be the two adults approach. The second happens either when I'm pregnant, exhausted, or my husband has been working really long hours and trying to squeeze in all the time he can with the kids. This is when Daddy puts the kids to bed. The third pretty much only happens when my husband works super late, has duty, or is underway. (For all you non-Navy folk, duty is when my husband stays the night on the submarine and underway-- or deployed-- is when the submarine is out to sea.) Bedtime has always been a "Daddy thing" at our house, so if he's home, he is in charge at bedtime and I just assist. With his Navy schedule, a lot of times he is coming home right wh...

I wanted to share a blog post about our recently answered prayer. At 22+ weeks pregnant, I went in for my 20 week ultrasound. (This was the earliest my OB could get me in for the ultrasound.) The appointment was on a Friday. The following Wednesday, we received a phone call that they found abnormalities on the ultrasound and gave me a whole bunch of complications it could be. They told me the pregnancy was high risk and I needed to get in with a MFM (Maternal Fetal Medicine) right away. I met with my OB 2 days later, that Friday (23+ weeks), and they again went over the possible complications and had me go to the lab for blood tests. The earliest the MFM could see me was a week and a half later, when I would be 25 weeks. Our OB told us at the appointment that the pregnancy was going to be high risk. That more than likely I would be spending a lot of time at the OB and the MFM to be closely monitored for the rest of the pregnancy. We were so scared for the outcome of the preg...

I was reading some blog posts recently and they were discussing how we as parents should be more vocal about our miscarriages and open about whether or not we are trying to conceive. There were a lot of points in these posts that I agree with-- how isolating miscarriages can be, how heartbreaking a negative pregnancy test feels, the emptiness and longing as you pass your due date without a baby in your arms. But some of the other points made me think about my own experiences with miscarriages and my current pregnancy. I think I have finally sorted out my thoughts into a blog post... So, first of all, I'd like to clarify that we do not struggle with infertility; my fertility is normal. When I talk about trying to conceive, all of this is within a year of trying to conceive without fertility treatments. I am adding that only because I am not trying to misrepresent myself or to represent a journey that I have never taken. I have many friends that struggle/have struggled wi...