Will 1 Month

Will is 1 month!! We haven't been back to the Dr since his 2 week check up. But he's weighing around 9 pounds. He is definitely getting chunky! 

He is cute and adorable and has a very round head (several people have complimented his very symmetrical head.)

He likes to show off his belly to all the ladies. And some how it works and they all come running to smooch him. 

This month has been a lot of trying to figure Will out. Matt and I both got cocky and thought we knew how to deal with a newborn. We definitely had that wrong! Will has thrown us through a loop trying to figure him out. 

He has been a fussy baby. Hutch was an extremely easy baby, so I think we thought we'd get that again. Instead we got a fussy baby. He fusses when he's hungry, he fusses when he's full, he fusses when he's not being held, he fusses when he's being held. The Dr says its colic, which means he's just a fussy baby. 

BUT, I think we are at a turning point with him. The last few days have been a bit easier (of course, as soon as I say that things are going to get worse. Knock on wood!).  We've been giving him a few things to help with gas and that seems to help. 

Out of desperation we moved him into his own room. All 3 of us weren't sleeping more than a 2 hour stretch at night and it was very quickly killing all of us. Once we moved him to his room he seemed to do a lot better. It may be because I sleep through his cries half the time. (oops!!)

But he has been going a lot longer at night and only waking up once or twice to eat, compared to crying for hours on end like before. So we are taking that as a win. And I am really hoping that next months update doesn't include his sleep getting worse. 

Right now Will loves to eat, loves to cry and fuss and loves to torment Matt and I at all hours of the night. He hates sleeping, hates when he's not being held and hates when he's being held. 

Will had his first bath, and you guessed it, he hated it. haha. He'll start loving it eventually. 

 Both the boys love holding Will, Jameson especially loves it! He asks all day long if he can hold Will. Its really cute. 

Will, surprisingly, loves the car. He does so well in the car and usually sleeps the entire ride. But there's always another kid crying to make up for Will's peacefulness. 

He doesn't mind tummy time, but he doesn't get to do tummy time too often. When Hutch is awake Will's tummy time signals Hutch to come sit on him. So we're working on that. 

Will also got to meet his Uncle Eric! It was fun to have him visit. Not sure Eric knows how to hold a baby yet. 

Other updates this month with the other three- 

The twins started their last year of preschool. They were so excited to go! 

And then they both cried and sobbed and held on to my legs and wouldn't let me leave. 

It was a bit traumatic for all of us. BUT when I picked them up they said they had a lot of fun! And then the 2nd day of school, they cried a sobbed a little less. haha. 

Hutch has been pulling out all the tricks for attention since Will was born. He loves to be silly and goofy and do anything to get us to laugh. 

He had his 15 month check up and he is still short and fat. He is in the 30th percentile for weight and the 2nd percentile for height. The Dr thinks he'll hit a growth spurt soon and gain some inches. 

Hutch has been learning so much lately. He is constantly grunting and pointing at things trying to communicate with us. He is really good at understanding what we are saying, we'll tell him to go get the ball or throw the garbage in the trash and he'll do it. It's fun to see how much he is learning!

We've had a good first month adjusting to all 4 kids. It's been a bit crazy, but we are surviving! 

Family Photos 2018

Thanks to Will we got some new family pictures done! Here is a photo dump of all our pictures. 

Pretty sure Hutch is thinking about all the ways he is going to torture Will. 

They have both grown so much this past year! This picture especially shows the size difference between them. Its fun to see how different they are! 

My personal favorite family photo because Will is screaming. haha.

Such handsome boys!! 

Will's Birth Story

 Will's birth story starts when I was 38 weeks pregnant. I went in for a regular doctor's check up, there wasn't much progress. I was dilated to a 2.5 (I was a 2 the week prior), I had the Dr strip my membranes in hopes that that would get labor started. We had an induction date of the following Friday if the baby didn't come prior to that. I really wanted to go into labor on my own, since it went so quick and smooth with Hutch. I wanted to have a quick smooth labor again.

After my Dr appt. I didn't really feel any contractions, I started feeling crampy that evening  and was up most of the night feeling braxton hicks and cramping. I thought maybe we'd have the baby that night, but by morning the contractions had stopped mostly. It was now Saturday and we had a really busy day full of family parties. The whole while at the parties I start having contractions that are beginning to get more and more painful, but they aren't consistent. The contractions are 20-30 minutes apart at this point. We get home from the parties around 5pm and that's when I start noticing the contractions getting closer together so I start timing them. I timed them for several hours with the contractions getting increasingly stronger and more intense, but not getting closer together.

I called the hospital around 9:30 pm and asked them if I should come in, they advised me to wait till my contractions were consistently 3-5 minutes apart. So I continued to keep timing them. Meanwhile, there was a crazy thunder storm, I knew that I wouldn't be able to go to bed so Matt and I went out on the front porch and watched the crazy thunder and lightening while the contractions continued to get more and more intense.

Around 11pm Matt had had enough and decided we were going to the hospital. I was terrified of being sent home from the hospital, but the contractions were also killing me so I agreed. We got to the hospital around 11:45 and checked in. The nurse checked me and I was dilated to a 5. I've never been so happy! Soon after we got settled into our room the Dr came and broke my water. This really started to progress me. I was dilated quickly and the contractions were getting very very painful and intense. I've never had contractions that painful before, I was dying!

Shortly after my water broke I was able to finally get the epidural and get some relief from the contractions. I was able to relax for 30-45 mins before it was go time! The labor was going very very quickly and when I was fully dilated it was suddenly a rush to get everyone in the room to be able to deliver the baby. I pushed for just under 2 minutes and Will was born.

                                                                William Ashton Kirk
                                                      Sunday August 5th 2018 at 3:10am
                                                                 6lbs 11 oz and 20 inches


The Dr was so impressed with how quick and easy the labor went. Having 3 other kids helps the baby slide right out. haha. It was just over 3 hours from the time we checked into the hospital till when Will was born. Its a good thing we went to the hospital when we did or Matt would have delivered a baby at home.

We went to the hospital without a name for the baby. Matt had liked the name William for several months, but I was unsure about it. Seems like its the same story with all our kids, Matt always has to convince me. So while I was in labor, I told him he had to convince me why we should name the baby William. So he did his research right there in the hospital and plead his case. This is what Matt wrote after Will was born-

"William is the name of my great great grandfather who migrated from Scotland to Salt Lake City in 1863 at the age of 9. Ashton is my mother's maiden name  which entails a long line of wonderful people and is also the name of my late brother who was a light to so many. We wanted to honor all of these great people and I hope William can appreciate his great heritage."

It's a wonderful name with great family meaning and I love it! We are very happy to have sweet little Will apart of our family! Hope he doesn't mind the craziness that is the new normal for our life!

Will is very loved already and we had tons of visitors from family.

Grandma and Grandpa Kirk meeting Will

Aunt Becca meeting Will 

Aunt Britt with all the boys. We're already prepping her for all the babysitting she'll do for us. haha. 

The twins meeting Will. They LOVED him. Jameson especially was so so happy to meet Will and was beaming. Carter just wanted to know what was in the presents that Will "gave" them. 

First picture as a family of 6. Still so so crazy that we have 4 boys! 

Grandma J meeting Will. 

Grandpa J meeting Will. 

Proud papa ready to head home! 

We feel very lucky and blessed to have Will apart of our family. Five years ago we didn't have any kids and would have never imagined that 5 years later we'd suddenly have 4 boys!