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Double Trouble

Mama and Pete

Celebrating

Beautiful Baby

First Day

Minutes Old

Peter getting weighed.

Sam was so happy to finally hold his baby brother.

David Loves baby Peter.

Brothers and Sister

I have some really wonderful pictures I have taken in the past month and a half. I need to share them because my mom is getting rather impatient not seeing new pictures.

Living Too Long In The South

The other day we were sitting in the living room when I noticed something buzzing around one of the windows. It was a pretty hummingbird, and I pointed it out to the kids. Luci immediately piped up with "BUG!! Momma, kill it!" We have some weird, sci-fi looking bugs out here, so it was totally possible to have a bug that big buzzing the window. So sad when your two-year old toddler knows how yucky the bugs can get out here.

All About Labor

1. How long were your labors?

I was in labor for four hours with Samuel, five with David, four with Luci, and an hour and twenty minutes with Peter.

2. How did you know you were in labor?
With all of them I have noticed labor when I got up to use the bathroom. With Samuel it was the textbook bloody show and contractions. It was the same with David,but I couldn't feel any contractions. With Luci, I noticed the contractions, but once again couldn't feel them. With Peter I had mildly crampy contractions.

3. Where did you deliver?
Sam was going to be a homebirth, but when we got to the midwives' office to check how far into labor we were, Samuel was already crowning. David was a home/waterbirth. Luci was a homebirth. These first 3 were born in Arizona. Peter was a homebirth in Alabama.

4. Drugs?
NOOO. And not because I was trying to be all macho, but because I was concerned about the effects on the babies.

5. C-section?

NOOOO, thank GOD.

6. Who delivered?

Our wonderful midwife Paula delivered the first 3. For Samuel, she had Melody and Traci attending. Traci was there with David as well. Krista helped with Luci. Ben and my mom were there for Peter.

Birth Story

Never before have I ever wanted a baby out as badly as I did with Peter. When our due date was given as being in July, I told the midwives I felt it was wrong, and we were probably looking at the beginning of August. Boy, did I wish I was wrong. :-)

At our appointment after our due date had come and gone, we started discussing natural methods of inducing labor. We tried the pressure points (for a full week), with no noticeable effect. A week after the due date, one of my midwives agreed to strip my membranes. She was surprised to find me mostly effaced and a very "stretchy" four. That should have started contractions and labor that day, at the latest by the next morning. When I woke up the next morning, I proceeded onto the castor oil method. It was so stinking gross. And still no baby. My mom was due to leave in a couple of days, and I was really sad that she would not get to meet this little guy she had come such a long way to see. That Friday my mom informed me she was staying for an extra week, and I immediately felt relieved. We decided to drop Ben and the boys off at the theater while we went shopping with Luci. It was a very relaxed, fun evening, and we were all so pleased my mom would be staying extra with us.

I woke up on Saturday morning around 6 needing to use the restroom as usual. I started to feel mildly achy and crampy but decided to ignore it and go back to bed. It got a little worse as I lied there on my bed, so I decided to get in a hot shower to see if it would either a)stop the pain if it wasn't real labor, or b)help labor along if it was real labor. When I couldn't lift my leg to get out of the tub, I figured this was probably finally it. I woke Ben up to let him know, and he told me to call one of the midwives immediately. I did, and told her I thought I was in labor, could I please take some natural remedy to stop making it hurt? This was about 7 and she said she was heading out right away. I went to sit with Ben who completely aggravated me by saying I was almost done. How dare he say such a thing when I still had hours to go? I guess past experience gave him a different perspective and he could tell how close I was. (Sam and Luci both lasted 4 hours and David was 5, so I fully expected to be about that long again.) I told him I was feeling pressure like I maybe needed to push, so he should take a sleeping Luci to my mom. By this point, I was lifting myself off the bed trying to keep from pushing. Ben had just picked Luci up from her crib and was heading towards the door when my water broke. Hearing the commotion, my mom walked in just in time to see Peter's head and then his body slide out. Ben was just coming back into the room at this point, so he immediately jumped into action by placing the baby next to me and wrapping him up in a blanket to keep his warmth. He had called the midwives to let them know my water broke and again to let them know Peter was born. They figured he was born at 7:19am. Once he decided to come into the world, he was in a hurry to get out. :-)

Once we realized (basically I came to terms with how ludicrous it was) that we couldn't drive to AZ to deliver with our wonderful midwife again, I tried to talk Ben into an unassisted labor. The laws here in AL are screwy and we would have had to drive up to TN to deliver if we wanted to have a midwife present. He was of course, completely against the idea. Like I said, Peter had different plans of how his birth was going to work out. I am glad he did things the way he did. :-)

Flying Solo

Well, we finally have our baby. Our due date was for the 22nd of July, but Peter had different plans. He made his entrance on August 2nd. We ended up deciding on a name the day before. I am convinced that he didn't want to enter this world until he had a name. :-) His brothers and sister absolutely love him and love to kiss on him and talk to him. Whenever he hears their voices near him and he sees them close to him, he gives them a great big smile. Is their anything cuter than a baby's big dimpled smile?

I cannot believe that he is already a month old. Time goes by too quickly. We had my mom here for 3 weeks (she added another week when the baby hadn't arrived yet. She was due to leave on the 2nd). She got to see Peter be born, which is the first baby she has seen be born. How special is that? She was such a big help with everything and once Peter arrived, she babied me as well. :-) My sister then came out for a week. She has always wanted to be at one of the births, but it has never worked out. And this time, mom got the privilege. After changing her name to Donny, David has added a song to go with it. Donny Donny Donny du Don Don, sung to the tune of Larry Boy. lol Donna feels oh so loved and ever so special. After our Donny went back to CA, Ben had his vacation time. His scheduler worked it out with the days of so that Ben ended up with an 11 day vacation. He started work on Wed. again, and we miss him tremendously. Not only is the daddy gone most of the day now, but the day he went back to work the 3 older kids woke up with really nasty colds. The next day Peter and I had it. Peter being sick is what kills me the most. He is such a tine little guy and there isn't anything I can do for him other than increase my C intake. So here I am, tending to everyone all on my own. (Yes, being sick makes me VERY whiny.)