Presenting Rudy Adam Barker

On Friday, August 31st I started having contractions pretty close together.  I had just seen my doctor and she expected that it would be soon.  She told me because it was my 5th child that as soon as they were 5 minutes apart for a half hour that  I should get to the hospital.  Luckily Mike was doing interviews near by and he headed home. About 1:00 we dropped Laila and Noah off at Barb's house and headed for the hospital.  The hospital was pretty full and was having a hard time placing us.  At about 6 :30 I got my epidural and was relaxing.  The nurse told me that if I felt any pressure to let her know.  She came in and asked and I said I guess I fill a little bit.  She checked, looked nervous, told me not to push or move, and ran to get the doctor.  Everyone came flying in the room, throwing things into place for the delivery.  As soon as the doctor was ready they told me to push and little Rudy came flying out at 7:54 P.M.  We were very excited to see him, know that he was healthy, that the whole pregnancy had gone well and that it was all over.  It is always amazing to see these special little ones come into the world and change our lives forever.  He is perfect and the perfect addition to our family.  I am excited to watch him change and grow.  I am taking all the opportunities I can to hold and cuddle him.  Knowing that he is our last and that our family is complete feels good.  I am ready to raise my family, move to the next era in our lives and see what adventures comes with that.  Five kids is going to be a challenge.  I may have freaked out the other day wondering how I was going to keep tract of all of their homework and stuff when they are all in school.  And thinking about the responsibility of helping them return to their Heavenly Father is overwhelming but I know He will help us because these are His children and He trusts us to do the job. 

A whole month has past.  I had forgotten how much time a new born requires and how tired we get from not getting good sleep at night.  This recovery has been harder than with the others.  It has been one thing after another.  I am not a very patient person when it comes to getting better.  I have a hard time taking it easy and watching others do what I usually do.  I have a hard time not feeling well enough to have fun with my kids or run the house.  Thank goodness Mike was able to take a couple of weeks off work. I keep wondering what I need to learn so that it can all end.  The only thing I can come up with is that I need to stop and take the time to enjoy my children.  When Noah asks to play catch that I should do it because it is more important. When Laila wants to read I stop, sit down and read.  I need to let things go because there will always be something to clean or do but my kids will only be little once.

 Rudy is changing a lot.  He looks so much like the baby pictures of his brothers. Sometimes he looks like Jamen, sometimes like Wiley and sometimes like Noah.  I guess I will have to wait until he gets older to decide who he really looks like.  Maybe he will surprise me and have a whole look of his own.  One thing is for sure there is no way they could switch our babies in the hospitals because we definitely have Barker babies.  Everyone is loving him too much.  The poor boy gets woke up because everyone wants to hug and give him besos all the time.  Noah got teared up today looking at pictures of him because "I just love him so much."  We really do love our boy and are super grateful we get to have him in our family.