It's been almost a year!!!

Welcome back! I can't believe it's been almost a year since I have posted any pictures. My mom keeps hounding me to post some pictures so she can keep up on her little grandkids. So here goes, this one is for you mom!

As you can see we had another baby! He is truly a miracle and he is so sweet. He was born on June 14th, 2010 the same day as his older cousin Jenessa - only she is 18-19 years older. We named him Kimball Reid Olson.

Most people would automatically assume that we named him after the late prophet Spencer W. Kimball, but that's not how it worked out.

Kimball has always been a name that we "liked". In fact, it was in the top 5 names when we were trying to think of names for Dallin and Thatcher as well. About 3 months before he was born I went to a Stake RS conference. The theme of the conference was "The One" and they were showing a mormon message. President James E. Faust (I think it was him) was telling the story of the 3 young men (ages 18-19) that carried each one of the pioneers across the Sweetwater River in the dead of winter. I have heard this story numerous times before and while it was always touching to me, this particular time I was crying so hard because of how greatly I felt the spirit. Later on, in the message, President Faust told us the names of the 3 young men that sacrificed so much. The last name that he mentioned was David Kimball.... After hearing his name, the spirit burned within my whole body and I knew that was going to be my baby's name.

Kimball is such a good baby! He goes anywhere and everywhere with us and never complains. We had him out on the boat at 3 weeks, where mommy was skiing, took him camping at Lake Chelan for 4 days when he was 9 weeks old and he has been so content. He is a complete joy to his mom and dad as well as to his 2 older brothers! I just keep thinking how blessed I have been.

I gave myself Lovenox shots through the whole pregnancy and everything was fine. My doctor had me stop the shots a week before I was induced. The night before I was going to be induced I felt like I should ask my Dad and Jason to give me a blessing, but I ignored the prompting because I had had a blessing a week before that and I felt like if we had family prayer in the morning then everything would be fine. The next morning when I was induced at 5am everything proceeded pretty slowly. Through the afternoon the doctor broke my water and by 6pm I was dilated to a 10. The doctor told me that my baby was still really high up and that he was going to let my body naturally labor the baby down before I started pushing. Periodically the doctor checked me until 10pm saying there was no progress and the baby was still too high to start pushing. He said that because I had been at 10 centimeters for 4 hours that the tissues were all starting to swell and so it was like I was going back to an 8 and 9 centimeters. He said he would give my body 1 more hour to see if it would move the baby into position and then we would need to do an emergency C-section. I started crying as I whispered to Jason that I had been prompted last night to ask for a Priesthood blessing and had brushed it off.

I immediately called my mom and dad who were staying at my house with my older 2 boys, after explaining to my mom what was happening, my Dad rushed to change out of his pajamas. After getting off the phone with my parents I realized it had taken 20 minutes to explain everything and to give my Dad directions to the hospital. It takes 20-30 minutes to get to the hospital and that's if you know where you are going and how to find which room I was in.... I thought he would never make it. He and my mom dropped to their knees before he left and said a prayer asking for our safety. My dad arrived at the hospital 5 minutes before my hour was up and that was a miracle in itself! He and Jason gave me a priesthood blessing; blessing me that I wouldn't have to have a C -section and that we would both be fine. It was a very powerful blessing that the spirit was very strong.

A new nurse came in a few minutes later and told me that having a C section on your 3rd child would stink and she wanted to try something before the doctor came in. She had me get into a different birthing position and the baby started dropping right away. The doctor came in and she told him she wanted to try something first before he checked me and made a decision. Well the new birthing position did it because Kimball was born 20 minutes later. It was seriously a miracle!

The doctor spent the next hour and a half trying to stop the bleeding after the birth and I almost had to have a blood transfusion. Without going into too much detail, he put in a bunch of stitches which kept tearing even further because the tissue was so swollen and then said that he felt like he slowed the bleeding enough that they could wait until the morning to decide what to do. I was sooo tired. They left my epidural in through the night which I was so grateful for because the after birth pains are the worst and by the morning the doctor said I was going to be just fine. It took me an extra day or 2 in the hospital to be able to stand at all and they sent me home with a walker so I could get around. I couldn't even walk! I didn't mind staying though because the hospital food was amazing!!! Salmon, steak, chicken sanwiches with avacado and bacon....it was one of the best "restaraunts" I have eaten at in a long time!!!

I must say though, that while the actual birth was a scary and miraculous event, this was the easiest birth to heal from. Everyone tells you that the more kids you have the longer it takes your body to get back into shape and the after birth pains are incredibly painful, but that stuff was all easy for me. I credit everything to the power of the priesthood!! My testimony was really strengthened through this event and now I have a beautiful baby to show for it! He is simply an angel!!!