Chasing Life

Once upon a time I used to like Halloween (most likely because it involved lots of sugar, which I am a big fan addict of).  But ever since I moved out of my parent's house I have hated it.  At my first house I would have teenage kids who were not even from my neighborhood come to my door without a costume on,  ask for demand candy, and then trample my plants and kick my carved pumpkins on their way to the next house.  I put up with it for two years and then decided to ban the holiday.  I became the scrooge of Halloween, closing the curtains and turning out all the lights at 5pm every Halloween.  But once I became a parent, I started struggling with the pressures of society telling me I was a bad mom if I didn't dress my kids up and take them trick-or-treating.  I'm not a big fan of what Halloween represents, or of feeding boatloads of sugar to my kids, but I do find something endearing about getting out with m...

So my dad's dad passed away last Thursday.  At his funeral on Tuesday it hit me that I no longer have any living grandparents.  With that realization I now regret not having spent more of my time talking with them about their lives.  What were they like as kids?  What was their family life like?  What were their best moments in life?  What do they wish they would have done differently?  An entire generation of my family is now gone and I am grieving the fact that I did not take full advantage of the wisdom and experience that is now gone with them.  I need to make a more concerted effort to not make the same mistake with my parent's generation, and also do as much as possible to make sure my kids and future grandkids do not have the same regrets someday.

Baby Kye is no longer a 'baby'!  Here's the before and after shots...    

Despite having planned to have four kids since I got married, shortly before Jolie was born I had some major doubts about whether I would be able to stay home with four kids and not lose my sanity.  Well, despite yesterday's post I am happy to report that I am doing it.  Although our house is much louder, there are more dishes in the sink, and our laundry piles seem to be bigger every day, I can honestly say that life is good.  Crazy, but good.  Although four kids means four times the arguments, discipline, and tears, it also means four times the fun, laughter, and love!  Since the day we decided to start trying to have kids, our guiding verse has been Psalm 127:3-5, "Don't you see that children are God's best gift, the fruit of the womb, his generous legacy? Like a warrior's fistful of arrows are the children of a vigorous youth.  Oh, how blessed are you parents, with your quivers full of children!" I obviously have my ...

Here is how my 4th day with 4 kids ages 4 and under started... In anticipation of being woken up by the baby every hour for feedings, I went to bed early the night before (around 8:45pm). Despite those hourly feedings, my day started out with a bang at midnight when I woke up to find that both my nursing bra and the towel I had put on my bed were both soaking wet with milk. At 5:45am my 19 month old decided it was time to wake up (apparently he didn’t get the memo that Mama had a newborn). Although I don’t ever go and get him until 7:30am, his babbling in his crib was enough to keep me from being able to go back to sleep. I decided to take a nice hot shower instead. About 5 minutes into the shower the baby wakes up and starts crying. So much for the relaxing shower! I dry off, nurse the baby back to sleep, and then start looking for clothes to wear to the bible study I was going to that morning. Between being engorged and having to wear breast shells for nursing, I looked ridiculous ...

So Jolie is 3 weeks old now and today my life as a stay at home mom of four kids ages 4 and under begins! It was supposed to start last Monday, but my in-laws were kind enough to give me a break for one more week by taking the two older kids home with them for a few days. But now they are back, Paul is at work, and I am here with the four little ones trying to carefully plan my first steps in hopes that they will lead us down a path where we can flourish as a family of six. To celebrate, I am going to start blogging on a regular basis in hopes that it will keep you all more updated, me more accountable, and serve as a type of journal for my kids to be able to read when they get older.

So it turns out I was in fact in labor when I last wrote! Pretty sad that this was my fourth pregnancy and it still wasn't clear. I ended up being completely dilated by the time we got to the hospital. I think I probably went from 7-10cm just during the walk from the hospital ramp to the labor and delivery room because I was having contractions that stopped me in my tracks every 30 seconds. Not fun! We got to the hospital around 11:45pm and Baby Jolie was born at 2:24am. The first hour was spent waiting for my doctor and the anesthesiologist to get done with a c-section down the hall before they could see me. Since I was fully dilated when we arrived I could not get an epidural, but I was able to get an intratheacal shot to help with the pain. We waited another 30 minutes for my water to break, but that never happened so the doctor ended up breaking it for me so that my pain meds would not wear off before the baby was delivered. About 15 minutes later we decided it was time to st...

Jolie Sophia Nystrom was born @ 2:24 AM, August 7, 7# 11 oz, 20" long. Everyone is doing well and will give more info when they get home.

So it's been a LONG time since I've done a Nystrom update, but I thought me going into the hospital to hopefully have our 4th child was reason enough to finally do it! I'm not having regular contractions spaced nice and evenly every 4-5 minutes like you're supposed to have to go to the hospital, but I've been contracting pretty hard every 10 minutes since around 3pm and they are quite painful so I'm gonna at least go in and get checked and see if anything is progressing. If not, I'll either stay at the hospital and walk the halls until something does happen or they'll send me home. Either way I won't be getting any sleep tonight. I'll be sure to have my mom send out another update when baby actually arrives. Until then, I'd appreciate prayers for a quick, smooth delivery and a healthy new baby!

Our biggest news (for those of you who haven't already heard), is that one week after my last update in November we found out we are pregnant with our fourth child. I actually found out on Monday that it is a GIRL so I am ecstatic! Our family will be nice and balanced like I like things, two boys and two girls. When the baby arrives in early August, we will have four kids ages 4 and under. That is a bit overwhelming to think about, but it is exactly how we wanted it. All the kids will be about a year and a half apart and we hope, as a result, they will be great friends growing up. The holidays were pretty relaxed for us this year. We had my sister and her family over for Thanksgiving, which is when we first announced our baby news. The following day my sister and I did a little early morning black friday shopping, and I finally broke down and bought a GPS and a new tv (both of which Paul has been bugging me about for years). For Christmas we had planned to go to Paul's parents...

It's been almost 5 months since my last update, so my guilt has finally motivated me enough to get another one written. I got so used to writing about our moving and traveling adventures that it is difficult to just write about everyday stuff now that residency is keeping us in one place! Back in July, Paul was fortunate enough to only have to work one shift over 4th of July weekend. We decided to go up to my parent's place on Mille Lacs Lake (where I spent my summers growing up). It was little surreal being able to do the things with my own kids that I did as a kid on the same lake that I did them (fishing, tubing & skiing, playing on the lake shore, etc). And there is nothing that makes me still feel young more than doing active things that require some physical skill (such as water skiing). Unfortunately I only caught one fish, but I guess that's better than getting skunked! We were also able to go to my parent's other house in South Haven a couple weeks after t...

Let the fun begin! Yesterday was Paul's first official shift of his Emergency Medicine residency here in MN and we're off to a wonderful start. He had a busy night in the ER, got home around midnight, slept for a few hours before having to go back to work for morning conference, came home and saw the kids and I for 30 minutes, and is now sleeping again until he has to go back to work for his second shift in the ER. THIS is why we have not been looking forward to residency! But, it is my residency resolution to try to look at the bright side of things...we are now down to 2 years and 364 days until residency is over! :) Seriously, besides the long work hours, we don't really have much to complain about. We are happily married (most of the time), have three wonderful children (most of the time), are living in a great house with family nearby, and pretty much all of our needs are met. I am working on finding a church and establishing a social network here, but that is obviousl...

Just wanted to report to those who don't already know that we bought a house! I went back to MN on 4/3 and had a signed purchase agreement three days later!!! Although I can't even stand the thought of having to leave San Diego, knowing we have a great house to move into helps me cope. Paul was home with the two older kids (yes, he survived on his own for 10 days), so he hasn't even seen it yet. I was able to take a video of the house for him though so he has at least gotten a virtual tour. It's so hard to believe we only have 42 days left before we move. I swear we just unpacked our boxes (oh wait, we did just unpack our boxes!). We're headed up to LA this weekend. Paul is going to the CrossFit games qualifier (surprise surprise) and I am going to Mamma Mia with a girlfriend. Then on Sunday we are going to check out Saddleback Church (home of Pastor Rick Warren, author of The Purpose Driven Life). The following week we have two different sets of friends coming into...

I will start this update by telling those of you who don’t already know that we will be moving back to Minnesota after Memorial Day. Paul got matched to his number one choice of programs, Hennepin County Medical Center (HCMC), in Minneapolis. Needless to say he is quite excited and I am just happy to finally know where we will be living for the next three years! We will most definitely miss San Diego, but we have been waiting a long time to be back close to family (4 years, actually) and so it will certainly be nice to go back ‘home’. Paul starts his orientation on June 15th, so we don’t have very long to get situated once we arrive. Paul is taking some time off from work to stay home with Kade and Jacey while I fly back to MN for 9 days with Kye to look for a house. Hopefully we will find one before we move. If not, my parents have a house near St. Cloud that we can stay at while we continue house hunting, but it would be quite a drive for Paul to go to work everyday (almost 90 minute...

Happy 2009, everyone! As I write this update we are awaiting news as to where Paul’s career will be leading us next (again), raising a newborn baby (again), and living in a new house (again)! Back in December, Paul finished his 10 days of interviewing for residency programs back in the Midwest. He felt very good about how they went so we are hoping he will get selected by one of his top two programs (HCMC in Minneapolis or Regions in St. Paul). We find out what residency program he will be joining in mid-March. Hopefully the time will pass quickly. As I wrote in my very brief update about a month ago, our third child Kye Aaron was born on 12/20. It took him a couple of weeks to catch on to the whole nursing thing, but he is apparently doing just fine now as he has already gained 3 pounds in one month. We’ve already got him onto the Nystrom sleep schedule of going to bed at 6pm. Now if he would just stay sleeping all night that would really be something. Kade and Jacey have adjusted to ...