Life

Saturday, May 24

1. Ellen's Kitchen for breakfast.

2. Visiting our old house and having the kids swing in our tree once more.

3. Dinner date night with great neighbors and friends.

Sunday, May 25

1. A trip to the "pirate park."

2. My family of 7 all together all weekend long.

3. Sunday night dinner on Gigi and Coach's porch.

Monday, May 26

1. Taking the kids to the beach where I grew up at.

2. Seeing an old neighbor who used to meet me and my dad on the street as we walked to the bus stop every morning in elementary school. He gave me the biggest hug.

3. Sandy kids taking a hot bath, dinner, and settle down time in our bedroom.

Tuesday, May 27

1. When we drive down Coach and Gigi's road Hart sees trees and says, "Coke, Cheechee." He knows where we are going.

2. Watching "Live, with Kelly and Michael."

3. John coming through the front door after work and the three big kids running into his arms screaming, "daddy, daddy, daddy!"

Wednesday, May 28

1. The way Hart says "fan"...he says "man" really softly..it's the cutest sound.

2. Nursing Link and the way he stops to smile when he is almost asleep.

3. Dropping Isla off in the PVPV car line for one of the last times. My little first grader only has 5 more days at PVPV.

Thursday, May 29

1. Putting together a micro block Lego lion with Leo during nap time.

2. A driftwood wreath for our front door.

3. Watching "so you think you can dance" with John and Isla.

Friday, May 30

1. Link's 2 month mark!

2. Picking up my sweet Leo after school. He's always the last one to be picked up on Friday but his teacher sits with him and let's him play and he always has the biggest smile on his face when I walk in the classroom. His hugs are the best too!

3. The way my kids think the song "Turn Down For What" is hilarious...probably because they've never seen me dance to a Lil Jon song until now.

 

Life

Saturday, May 17

1. A walk to the park with just Isla, Hart, and Link while the big boys played golf.

2. The Farmers Market. Seeing a lot of friends and neighbors there and watching the kids enjoy snow cones.

3. An afternoon splash park swim.

4. Hart's one and a half Birthday!

Sunday, May 18

1. Finally a chance to mop the floors while John took the older four out for the morning.

2. Helping Isla with her last First Grade project.

3. A dinner of salmon, spinach, and mushrooms.

Monday, May 19

1. Smiles from Link when I bend over his bassinet in the morning and he sees me. Heart warming!

2. How the definition of a good morning to Palmer is a popsicle, playing outside for a little bit, taking a "rain," and having lunch before napping.

3. An afternoon of no whining!

Thursday, May 22

1. A morning spent with the boys at coach and Gigi's...breakfast, exploring the woods, playing on a tire swing, and lots of smiles.

2. A nap on the coach with Leo on my left and baby Link in front of me in his swing.

3. Isla coming home from school kinda quiet and hugging on to me...when I asked if she was okay she flashed me a huge smile which revealed she lost her first tooth!

Friday, May 23

1. Coming up with Isla's EP with her teacher for next year. Our little girl tested off the charts for gifted and although we are excited for what this means for her schooling it also reveals challenges we will face with her at home! We are ready though!

2. Coloring a Thor book with Palmer.

3. Link, the baby of the family! He is lucky to have this title. I will baby him forever!

 

 

Back to Life

It's been 6 weeks since our family welcomed baby Link and now we are back into somewhat of a routine. Life is wonderful so I want to get back to documenting the moments during the day that made me happy or gave me life!

Monday, May 12

1. The way Palmer pulls back the curtains in hart's room and says, "I want to see the world!" He says "wow" every time to the view of our pond from the second floor.

2. Big opened mouthed smiles from our 6 week old baby boy! It's pure joy!

3. The love for Duplo blocks that Hart suddenly has. He will sit and build a perfect block tower at 17 months old.

Tuesday, May 13

1. Seeing 3 manatees swimming by the tiny bridge in my parent's neighborhood on our walk with Gigi. They were huge and all 3 boys were amazed! (Link was asleep).

2. A new pair of ballet shoes for Isla.

3. The way Hart rubs his cheek and ear while he's drinking his bottle and I'm rocking him.

Wednesday, May 14

1. Teaching Palmer how to draw a stick man...we've got a long way to go but he was so proud of himself!

2. Leo wanting to wear his Spider-Man hat to school today because his best friend wears the same one.

3. Isla's teacher letting the parents come into the studio to see the girls' ballet and jazz routines for their recital.

Thursday, May 15

1. I wish I had some happy moments, but today was just hard!

Friday, May 16

1. Leo had me to his school for a belated Mother's Day celebration and the whole morning was amazing! I'm so lucky to be his mommy.

2. Coming home to Palmer and Hart and having Palmer yell, "mommy, you're home!"

3. Recital pictures for Isla!

4. Catching up with John after all the kids were asleep...a long week deserves a large glass of wine!

 

The Final Birth Story

Link Brannon Halman was placed in my arms on Sunday, March 30th, 2014 at 8:23 pm.
This baby boy completes our family!  Here is his birth story:
False labor lasted every night for a week and a half.  Like clockwork at midnight my contractions would start and would come every 10 minutes.  Sometimes they would last an hour, sometimes 3, but on the 30th I woke up and was still having them.  I knew this would be his birthday!  Our family decided to go to breakfast and run errands in the morning.  We went to Dunkin Donuts and sat at a round table that was the perfect size for all 6 of us.  It was our last meal together as a family of 6.  The kids had hash browns and shared a box of munchkins and I just remember thinking how happy I was with our sweet little family.  After breakfast we went to Walmart where we bought a hamper and Isla got more knit looms and yarn to knit baby Link more hats.  The kids also found and fell in love with tiny fishing rods that they put on their Easter wish list.  Then we made our way to Buy Buy Baby to get Palmer a new car seat.  We finally got home around noon.  John said he would make lunch so I went into the backyard to play with everyone.  I pitched Palmer some balls to hit and pushed all the boys on the swings too!  At 1:00 I went to the bathroom and let’s just say I had a sign that labor was imminent.  I wasn’t having any regular contractions so I was hesitant to call the Dr. at first.  After the 2 littles, Palmer and Hart, were put down for naps, I made a last minute grocery list of things we needed.  John went to Publix while I rested on the couch and Isla and Leo played in the backyard.  I started having contractions 11 minutes apart so I decided I should call the Dr.  Doctor Adams was on call and said, “You are 39 weeks pregnant with your 5th child…yeah, you should come on in!”  I remember looking in the backyard through the door at Isla and shaking my head yes at her.  She ran up and said, “you’re having him today?”  I told her I was going to the hospital and she looked at Leo and they both screamed with excitement.  John got home and unloaded the groceries then loaded our bags into his car.  I called my mom and told her it was the real thing and to get here fast!  Since she’s 40 minutes away, I panicked and called my neighbor, Lyndsay, to come over to watch the kids until my mom arrived.  I just did not want to be that girl in the news that delivered her 5th child on the side of A1A.  On our way to the hospital everything was strangely calm.  I’ve never gone into labor this way…with all my others I was having extremely painful contractions that were close together before I made my way to the hospital.  With this one I was even wondering if they were going to stop once I got to the hospital.  However, once we pulled into the parking lot at 3:30 they were every 6 minutes apart and once I was gowned up and was in the triage room, they were every 4 minutes apart.  But I felt pretty much zero pain.  That’s why I kept second guessing whether or not I was really in labor.  Our nurse was Renee, who we had before, and she immediately recognized us.  She’s a funny, laid back girl who really made this labor memorable.  When she checked me the first time it was 3:30 pm and I was 3-4 cm dilated, so she just let us lay there and let the monitors tell the story…which after an hour clearly showed I was in labor, contracting every 4 minutes.  After a bunch of paperwork, we made our way down the hall to Room 9 where we would welcome our 5th and final baby!  Once we were set up in our room it was time for me to get the I.V.  This was the most pain I felt through the whole labor.  Anytime I have to get blood drawn or I.V.s administered it’s awful because I have such small veins.  Renee stuck me once in the left arm and nothing, then once in the top of my left hand (that one was excruciating) and still nothing.  Finally, she moved to my right arm and struck gold.  Both arms were throbbing but I was glad to have that out of the way!  I was GBS positive, so I received my first bag of antibiotics while I got my fluid too.  I’m allergic to mycins and even had my allergy bracelet on when all of a sudden Renee looked at me and said, “Oh My God! You’re allergic to what again?”  When I told her mycins, she frantically checked the bags and saw it was penicillin.  Then we laughed about it because she knew the pharmacy saw my allergy and wouldn’t have given me the wrong meds but she had a moment of panic.  I told her it’s not life threatening and that my lips only swell up and she was like, “you don’t want to welcome your baby with big ‘ol lips.”  Ha!  After all my fluids and about an hour and a half of listening to our little boy’s heartbeat and monitoring contractions, which were still not painful, Renee checked me and I was 6-7 cm dilated.  At 6:00 pm I received the epidural!  I didn’t even feel like I needed it, but I’m so glad I got it because of what was about to happen…At 7:00 pm Dr. Adams checked me and I hadn’t dilated any further but my water broke during the check.  An hour later, at 8:00, is when our sweet boy’s heart beat stared decelerating with every contraction.  The nurse said this could happen when you dilate further and he’s moving down the birth canal.  She checked me and I was 8 cm.  But with every contraction here on out, his heart beat kept decelerating.  The good thing was once the contraction stopped it went back up to a normal rate.  So they made the conclusion that it was from cord compression.  They moved fast from here, about the time that John came back from getting a snack from the vending machine, wondering what in the world was going on.  They put an oxygen mask on me and were going to put a catheter in my uterus to fill it back up with water to “float the cord.”  However, when she checked me before inserting the catheter I was at 9 cm so she decided to let me just start pushing to get the baby out.  They knew since he was our 5th baby that he would come out fast.  Later our nurse told us if it was our first I probably would have had an emergency C-Section because they would not have wanted me to push for an hour for fear of what would have happened to baby.  From the moment she told me to start pushing I had 3 contractions and with each we completely lost his heart rate.  I’ve never been so scared and sad.  With tears running down my cheeks I pushed with all the strength I had.  I wanted my boy out safe and sound in my arms!  So finally after pushing through those 3 sets of contractions he came into the world with the umbilical cord around his neck!  Dr. Adams quickly looped it off his neck and he let out a tiny cry which I was so grateful for!  I’ve always feared the cord being around my babies’ necks at birth and when I saw it around Link’s neck I was so incredibly scared but that cry was the greatest sound in the world!  They placed him on my belly and started suctioning out his nose and mouth and rubbed his back until he started crying some more which reassured everyone he was okay.  I then told my baby boy I loved him for the first time, kissed his slippery head, held his little hand, and breathed in those precious seconds knowing it was the last time I would experience this amazing moment in life.  Our family was complete!  Link Brannon Halman was born Sunday, March 30th, 2014 at 8:23pm.  He weighed 7 lbs. 9 oz. and was 19 3/4 inches long. 
I can finally say I feel completely whole.  We have been so blessed to have 5 healthy children and I thank God for these 5 precious gifts he’s given me and John.  My life is filled with more joy, love, and happiness then I ever thought possible and I can’t wait for all the memories our family of 7 will make over the years!  This “Final Birth Story” was bittersweet to write but I’m ready!  Ready to move on from birthing babies to raising babies and watching these angels grow up.  Our 5th baby “Links” us all together and nothing will EVER break us apart! 
We are The Halman Family:

John, Carrie, Isla, Leo, Palmer, Hart, and Link

“Just another ordinary miracle today” ~Sarah McLachlan