Halloween 2015 and a Time Warp

Once upon a time, Halloween was a simple affair. Perhaps it was because I only had one child at the time. Maybe it was because I was not yet confident in my sewing and creativity skills. Whatever it was, Halloween once looked like this:

Akiko's first Halloween - 2005

And then this:

Halloween 2006 - Minnie Mouse

Then for a Relief Society activity, we made poodle skirts and I ended up with just enough fabric to make Akiko one, too. That was the first year her Halloween costume had been planned well in advance. The skirt was made in March of that year.

Halloween 2007 - Sock hoppers. Matching costumes with Grandma Sachiko

She liked that costume so much, she wore it again. But this time, she was a "pink pirate." Moses had joined our family by then:

Halloween 2008 - The "Pink Pirate"

Moses the Not-So-Big Not-So-Bad Wolf.

Also the first year I coordinated some costumes.

The next year, we moved to California two weeks before Halloween. I was so stressed out about moving that I had decided to wait until we got to our new house and then just purchase some costumes once we got there. As I began shopping for costumes amidst all the moving chaos, I quickly became disappointed. The costumes were either horrendously expensive, or affordable and crappy low quality. Akiko was also old enough to have a very specific costume in mind. I'm still not sure how it happened, but I managed to pull together something, finishing them within hours of the ward trunk-or-treat party.

Halloween 2009 - The Snow Princess. Obviously pre-Frozen. 

Moses the Mummy.
This costume has since been worn by all our boys.
Hyrum will wear it again in two years.

And that, my friends, marked the beginning of my homemade Halloween costume insanity (though one could argue that it began the year I dressed as Chun-Li from Street Fighter II way back in 2001 - best costume ever).

Since then, I have been pretty adamant about making the kids' costumes. Sometimes they've been easy to put together. Other times they've been more difficult. Most of them since have blog posts, but here's a recap:

Halloween 2010 - Akiko the Black Kitty

Asher the Mouse

Moses as Anpanman - One of my favorite costumes.

The next year after that:

Halloween 2011 - Reused costumes are the best. I only had to make Little Red's riding hood.

And the year after that:

Halloween 2012 - Tombo and Kiki. Another of my favorite costumes.

Asher as the Mummy.

Simon making his debut as the Mouse.

We moved right after Halloween that year, and the blog, unfortunately got put on the back burner shortly after that. Here are the costumes you missed:

Halloween 2013 - The Incredibles.

Asher also had an Incredibles costume, but refused to wear it. He was traumatized about being a "scary monster" from the year before, he wanted nothing to do with Halloween and was genuinely freaked out about the whole affair. He stayed home with Joseph and passed out candy while I took the rest of crew to gather goodies. These costumes were a huge pain to put together. Finding long sleeve shirts and leggings in everyone's size and making sure the shade of red matched was nearly impossible. I honestly thought this was going to be a simple costume to put together, but it was not the case at all.

The next year was much more simplified:

Halloween 2014 - Asher as Fancypants

Moses the Orange Kitty

Akiko the Black Kitty, again

Simon making his debut as the Mummy

Asher's costume was so obscure, nobody knew who he was. They all called him a pirate. He would get irate with them and tell them, "I'm Fancypants!" Besides us, there was only one other person who recognized him, a missionary serving in our ward. But Asher knew who he was and that's all that mattered.

Moses' costume is an homage to his favorite YouTuber, Stampy, who plays Minecraft with his friends and posts videos of himself playing Minecraft with his friends.

Thankfully, Akiko and Simon were just using old costumes, so I only had two sewing projects: the fancy pants and the orange cat.

And, hey, with that, we're all caught up to this year:

Halloween 2015 - Asher the Blue Ninja

Moses as Harry Potter

Akiko as Luna Lovegood

Simon as Anpanman

Hyrum the Pumpkin

When I found out we were pregnant at the beginning of the year and realized I would be due within a month of Halloween, I told the kids almost immediately that they needed to think about what they wanted to be. In early March, I asked for their costumes and told them they were not allowed to change their minds. I thought I was doing myself a favor, but it ended up being somewhat of a disservice.

Over the next several months, I put together a list of all the things I'd need to gather, researched, started pricing things out, and planning what to do and when. I happened to go into the fabric store on a day when sewing patterns were on sale for $2 per pattern, so I snagged Asher's costume pattern immediately. That was fortuitous.

Unfortunately, because of the worst first trimester ever and the nearly debilitating anemia, my planning wasn't able to be put into action the way I'd hoped. I also had a three week long road trip that went through five states to plan and execute in the middle of summer (which I promise will be blogged about soon). Most of the costumes didn't get put together until after school started. I do not recommend commencing a sewing project when you're eight and a half months pregnant.

I'm very pleased with Asher's ninja costume, even though it took everything out of me to put together. Hyrum's costume was easy enough. I was able to work on that while Joseph and I watched Netflix in the evenings. Those two costumes were finished before the baby came. With Hyrum's costume, I thought I'd have a much smaller one month old baby to fit into a knitted sleep sack. He was too big for it the moment he was born. But knit fabric is stretchy and he only has to wear it a couple times, so we squeeze him into it anyway.

With the Potter costumes, I really just needed to sew a couple simple robes and gather accessories. I wasn't able to get to cutting and sewing the robes before the baby, and because of the c-section, I wasn't able to cut the robes myself, but our sweet missionaries came by and helped me measure and cut out the fabric. I'm not particularly happy with the end results, but it's because of the pattern and instructions I found and followed that are at fault. I know what to do to fix them, but I didn't have any more time (or fabric). Besides, the result I ended up with still gave the general idea of what we needed, so I'll live with it.

Simon was originally slated to be Elmer Fudd. I even went as far as purchasing the fabric I needed. However, with no pattern to work off of, little time, no energy, and no desire to try to track down a rifle, Elmer Fudd got scrapped and Anpanman was pulled out of retirement.

Simon is thrilled. He wouldn't have known Elmer Fudd anyway. He's not particularly familiar with Anpanman either, but we do have some toys that I brought back from Japan a few years ago that are super popular with our kids. For a few months lately, Simon has been asking us to tie blankets around his neck and then he runs around the house yelling, "I Super Simon, the hero!" So, when I pulled out all the accessories for the costume which, for the last five years, have been used as pajamas, getting him into costume and character was an easy sell.

I really should have kept things more simple this year, but you live and you learn. Five kids to get ready for Halloween is no easy task, but it is something I enjoy doing and I do know my kids appreciate the effort. It will be nice someday when they start doing their own costumes, but I know I'll miss all this craziness, too.

Hyrum's Story

Last time I wrote, I was two weeks from my due date and Hyrum had finally flipped heads down. All was looking well for a vbac. At my 39 and 40 week check ups he was still heads down. My due date had come and gone and my doctor wasn't going to discuss inducing until I had reached 41 weeks because the risks of uterine rupture increase with vbacs if they induce. She did order me to to a stress test to make sure the baby had enough room and amniotic fluid and see that everything was okay.

Monday afternoon (4 days post due date), I showed up to the hospital for the stress test. Everything seemed to be fine. I'd had some fairly regular Braxton-Hicks contractions, but nothing major. They sent me to ultrasound to check the amniotic fluid. I saw the technician grimace, but she didn't say anything to me. Once she was done, she sent me back to labor and delivery for more monitoring. A few minutes later, the nurse came in to talk. Hyrum was breach. The doctor came in after a while to discuss what to do. I had already called Joseph and after we talked and prayed, we decided that the best thing for all of us was to just go with a c-section. Yes, I was disappointed, but I'd kind of had that gut feeling that the vbac wasn't going to happen for a few weeks, even though Hyrum had been heads down for the last month.

Tuesdays, apparently, are c-section days at this hospital, so the staff kept telling me how serendipitous it was that I had come in on that Monday for the stress test. My surgery was scheduled for the first thing Tuesday morning. We were expected at the hospital at 5:30am. We had a lot of juggling to figure out how to get the older kids taken care of. Asher had been sick and home from school for nearly a week, so we needed someone to watch both him and Simon, make sure the older kids got off to school and that they had after school care. Luckily, we have very good friends who were willing to rearrange their already busy lives to help us out. My friend Becca offered to come to our house at 5:00am to be there for the kids when they woke up, make sure they got off to school, and hang out with the little boys. Our other friends, the Warners, offered to take care of Akiko and Moses after school.

We had one last meal together as a family of six and everyone went to bed early. Around 1:00am, a contraction had woken me up. I thought maybe it was a strong Braxton-Hicks, but a couple short minutes later confirmed that I had started labor naturally. While this was something we had been waiting to happen for the last several days, it felt too little too late at that point, especially since we knew the baby wasn't in the correct position.

Joseph and I spent the next couple hours puttering around the house getting those last minute things done and killing time before we felt like we really needed to go. We woke Akiko up and asked her to lay in bed next to Simon in case he woke up, but of course, she was so excited the baby was coming, she was wide awake after that. I dealt with the contractions the best I could. I was trying to hold out until Becca would be able to show up, but by about 3:00am, I just couldn't handle it anymore. Unfortunately, that's when Simon decided to wake up and freak out that I wasn't in bed with him. I laid down next to him and tried my best to get him back to sleep while not making any noise with every contraction (which is nearly impossible) and relax as much as possible. I had to give up after about the fifth contraction. They were just too intense. We had to go. Thankfully, Simon decided that it was a great time to play on the Kindle, so we sent him to bed with that and left Akiko in charge for the next hour until Becca would show up. I got in the car. Joseph got in after a couple minutes. Apparently Asher had woken up and Joseph had to get him back to sleep. Moses slept through all the ruckus like a good boy.

We got to the hospital a little after 4:00am and I was hooked up to the monitors. Since we were a bit early for our appointment and was in labor already, the doctors had to be called in. I had dilated to 3cm, but the nurse couldn't feel a bottom or a head, so they wheeled the little ultrasound machine in to check Hyrum's position. He was transverse and was not going anywhere. He couldn't move from his position because of the contractions. Everyone rushed to get the OR ready, which wasn't that big of a deal since we were only a little early for our scheduled appointment.

Around 6:00am, I started to get delirious from being up all night. I'd only gotten about three hours of sleep. I tried to rest the best I could between contractions, but they were so close together and more intense, it was impossible to do. About 6:15am, they wheeled me into the OR. At that point I was panicking, exhausted, sobbing, in pain, delirious, and about ten other negative emotions all at the same time. Thankfully, my anesthesiologist is a friend of mine from church and I had requested that she be there, which she was happy to oblige. She was amazing. Kind, caring, and got her job done as quick as she could to put me out of my misery. I'd never been more relieved to get poked by a needle, even though it still hurt.

It was so bright in the OR, but I kept my eyes shut through almost everything. I just wanted to sleep through it all. At some point, Joseph showed up. At some point later, I heard Hyrum's first cries. A few minutes later, he was laying on my chest, though I couldn't hold him because my arms were strapped to the table. I remember kissing his chubby cheeks and crying. I vaguely remember Stephanie, my anesthesiologist friend, keeping me up to date on everything that was going on. Everything was such a blur. I was almost too tired to care.

Joseph and the baby were lead into the recovery room while I was put back together. I eventually showed up. Joseph greeted me with an excited, "Did you hear how much he weighs?" I shook my head no. "Ten pounds and two-and-a-half ounces!" I knew he was going to be our biggest baby. My belly was so big at the end and I had gained about 58 pounds this time. I wasn't quite expecting a ten pounder. I kind of remember the doctors and attending nurses in the OR exclaiming what a big baby he was. Nearly everyone on staff has said something about it. I still think he's a perfect little newborn. He's still way smaller than Simon is now.

So, here we are now. Hyrum is perfect. I'm slowly recovering, but doing a lot better at this point than I did with Simon's recovery. I was able to walk around a little bit 24 hours post-surgery. I couldn't do that last time. Everything hurts, but little by little it's getting better. Now that the baby is finally here, I feel like we're on the downhill side of everything. Life is crazy. I miss my crazy family at home and they miss me. Joseph is trying to scramble around getting whatever he can while being a single dad for the time being. Ladies in our ward have set up meals for us for the next several days. Friends are stepping in to help us out wherever and whenever they can.

I am truly grateful for how everything turned out. It wasn't what we planned on, but we had always known the risks and were aware of the complications. I'm grateful for a loving Heavenly Father whom we can rely on to guide us in our decisions and lead us to the best possible outcome. I grateful for the opportunity I have to be the mother to the most amazing kids I've ever known. I love them so much. I'm grateful that Heavenly Father trusts me to be their mother on earth. They are such a blessing. I'm excited to see what ingredient little Hyrum brings to our wild, crazy concoction of a family.

I wish Asher were in this cute picture. Perhaps he was the one who took it.

I love this sweet picture of my family so much.

Those cheeks! I can't stop kissing them!

Introducing...

Hyrum Brady Wecker

10 lbs. 3 oz., 21" long

Tons of black hair and a dimple on his cheek.

I'm in love.