Number 5

So as with all things lately, I am running behind on updating my blog. :-p My purpose for this blog was to remember the precious things the kids say/do and to update the family who doesn't live close by.  One of those precious memories I want to record is the birth of our kids.  So here goes for number 5:

Miss Alice was due Oct. 14.  My children have a habit of being early or late but never on time.  (Never mind that it is THEIR time, lol.)  She chose the 18th as her day.  I awoke a little before 7a.m. needing to use the toilet and feeling a little funny.  As has happened with each of my other labors, I went into denial and decided this wasn't really labor starting, so I went back to bed.  After a few minutes of trying to ignore things and trying to go back to sleep, I figured I had better wake Ben up and let him know that I "might" be in labor.  He had me call our midwife Paula to give her a head's up.  We started to get the bed ready and he started breakfast for the kids.  By this time, it was obvious even to me that I was really in labor, and we would be welcoming a baby soon.

Paula arrived and the kids were so overjoyed to have her visiting, lol.  Belle, who was working with Paula, came by soon after as well.  Peter loves to tease people by changing their names, and he called Belle the "other Paula" the entire time she was there.  Both midwives were fantastic, letting Ben and me hang out together while they visited with the kids.  The children LOVED it. :-)

I spent most of my time laboring sitting on the toilet as that felt most comfortable to me.  At one point I had crawled into bed but went back to the toilet soon after.  One of the most bizarre experiences was feeling the baby moving all through the labor.  I could feel her kicking and turning, and I had never felt that with any of the others.  I also never got the urge to push.  Ben was (and always has been) very good at talking me through contractions.  I felt the need to get up and lie down one more time.  As I stood up, my water broke and Alice was on her way out!  As I heard later, Paula had been waiting to catch and didn't even have time to get her other glove on it all happened so quick.  This was the first time I have ever birthed while standing!

The kids had asked if they could see their sister be born.  We didn't have a problem with that, but let it be their choice.  Samuel got a little squeamish and didn't wait around too long.  The other three stayed close by, and I could hear their play by play as they watched their new sister make her arrival.  Alice Rosalina made her entrance a little before 11:30.  She was our heaviest baby at 8lb 8oz.  From the very beginning she has had us all wrapped around her tiny, chubby little finger.

Better Late Than Never?

I keep promising myself that I will come back to the blog to journal all the things in our lives for the kids to come back and read some day. I am really terrible about that. I'm hoping to dedicate more time to this than useless internet browsing. :-D

2009 Catchup

Okay, 2009 is over, and we are settling into the second month of 2010. Where has the time gone? It seems like we are always so crazy busy. Because of Facebook, I was even worse about posting anything to this blog. :-) As a result, I can say that the info on here is years old!

We got to come back to CA December of 2009. The trip went well until we hit Flagstaff, where we ended up driving through horrendous snow. We did make it in time to celebrate Christmas Eve with my parents, and Christmas Day with the in-laws. We are all enjoying being so close to family again.

The kids have all grown so much. I am amazed just looking back at pictures. Sam's reading has taken off, for which I am eternally grateful. David started Kindergarten this past fall and is doing great. Luci wants to join "doing school" with her brothers, so she just started today, and is having fun. She is now 3 and keeping both parents on tiptoes. Peter is ever mischievous and willful. It is hard to not do all the fun things momma keeps trying to stop him from doing! He finally walked at 17months old. (He is 18 months old today.) That caused a little bit of concern, but he has taken off running.

The hardest part of this past year has been the loss of every one of our cats. Reepicheep just never came back one day and has been missing since last February. Yoda was the tragic victim of an auto accident. And Rocco, my very first cat and the one we had had the longest, took off one day in October and never came back either. The two oldest boys got to pick out new kittens at the beginning of fall, and those are the 2 kitties we are left with.

Since life with four little ones does not seem to be slowing down, I will try to balance out time to blog more often. The family I had set this up for is now close by, but I also hope to keep this as a journal for the kids' milestones. At least. :-)

And Some More

Still More

Even More Pics

More Pics

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.)

Too Funny Not to Share

Three Months Away

I knew I had been gone for a while, just not this long. Three months is a long time for grandparents to go without pictures of their little loves. ;-)

April

We had the joy of visiting with Ben's parents in April. Unfortunately, this means that we won't see them when the baby is born. Considering the humidity though, I am sure they are relieved. Sam's t-ball season had started so they were able to join us for games, which absolutely thrilled Sam. I turned 26, and both boys were awed that I could be such a BIG number. lol

May

The grandparents left the second week of May, and we were all really sad to see them go. It was nice to be able to have family around again. Both David and Luci had birthdays in May as well. David turned four and Luci turned two. Both were excited to have their grandparents here as well to join in their celebrations.

I was laid low for three weeks with a nasty kidney infection. Not being able (or more like unwilling) to take anything chemical, I fought it off with herbal remedies and a small lagoon of liquids. Once I managed to kill that off, the kids caught some nasty bug that of course got passed on to me as well. So I was pretty much incapacitated for five weeks. I am glad to say that I am much better, and am now trying to get as much as possible done before our little one comes along next month.

But probably the most exciting part of this month was that Luci left her diaper days behind and is now using the toilet all the time. This will be the first time I have the one fully out of diapers before the next one is born. I am SO very glad. :-)

June

June has brought on the heat and humidity, which is the real killer. As a result, I tend to stay at home more with the kids and just hibernate until the time when I can go out and breath again. Sam's season ended and we missed the last two games. Not my fault. I didn't know until the DAY of, and we were out running errands. We have been trying to get rid of all unnecessary things, but that is rather difficult to accomplish at times. Things are coming along, and the next big thing should be the arrival of baby.

Happy Belated Easter

The kids (mostly the boys at this point) have been so very excited about Easter. We were supposed to have our dinner and hunt with Dy and her bunch, but she picked a much more favorable pursuit (the end result anyway). We had our egg-dying and hunting expedition here at home and will hopefully be able to have another hunt for all the kids when we go over later this week.

I have pictures of the hunt that I will post later when I get them on the computer. Hope you had a blessed Easter as well.

Long TIme No See

What a crazy, busy time this has been. But then again, when is it not, right? We all had a sinus bug right when we got back. We got better. Sam came down with the flu. Luci swallowed two paperclips that she had hooked together, and we spent a perfectly good day in the ER. Sam got better, but not before it seemed as if his insides were going to come inside out. We took Luci in for another set of x-rays only to be told the paperclips had already passed, and somehow I had missed them. David has something wrong with his stomach that doesn't seem like the flu, but it has been wreaking havoc on his little system.

The day we spent in the ER with Luci was the first day of t-ball practice. We, of course, missed it, and the next two practices were canceled due to freezing weather and snow. So, Monday Sam had his first official practice. He was a little overwhelmed at first but seemed to really be enjoying himself before long. His coach is really great. She gave each kid the chance to hit and play a different position each time. I think this will be a much better experience for us than football. Actually, just about anything would be better than football. :-)

Here is Sam making his hit.

Here we see Sam running from first to second.

And here we see what the two littles did for fun while we sat and watched. Is it really bad that I feel like yelling "RUN, Forest, RUN!!" Or that every time a little kid with a too big helmet goes up to bat, I think of Chicken Little? They are really cute, and they seem to be having a good time out there. That is all I ask for.

We're Having a Baby

We had our ultrasound done today! We are expecting another boy at the end of July. Both boys were overjoyed, until Sam realized there was only one baby in there and not twins like he really wanted. Luci just hid her face in Daddy's shoulder as if to deny that this is her reality: a lifetime with three brothers. :-) Baby is completely healthy, which made us really happy. We have picked the name John Wilhelm after Ben's great-grandfather. He was known as Johnny, so that is what we will be calling this baby until or if he decides to change to John. Now just 5 more months until we meet this little guy.

New Gap

Sam has been losing teeth for about a year now. Not at any great pace, but he did start at 5, which I was rather surprised at. His two bottom teeth came in no problem, and the top two are finally starting to come in as well (they came out last Sept. and Oct.) Well, since all these teeth are making an appearance, it was time to lose another one.

He was very insistent last night that I pull it out. Once we did (it was so easy I am glad we did so he didn't swallow it in his sleep.), he demanded I put it safely in a baggy so the tooth fairy could leave him his money. Ben couldn't resist. He had to point out to his son that the tooth fairy doesn't exist. Sam is so patient with his father. "Dad, of course the tooth fairy exists. How else do I get my money every time I loose a tooth?" He can go right on believing for as long as he can. (Since I was asked, santa and the easter bunny are not okay because they go against our religious beliefs.) Oh, and since the tooth fairy was aided and abbetted by my mother with the first tooth, these teeth are danged expensive. Thankfully not as expensive as the first one, but still. I am glad they aren't falling out very often. My sister and I had a laugh over this, since he would probably notice if the tooth fairy suddenly cut her rates. And on other progresses, Luci now very clearly calls Sam by name. Mostly this is to demand his help, but he was rather excited any way.

Let Sleeping Babies Lie

And mommies too, but that's something else altogether. :-) Luci had trouble sleeping the other night. She was restless and couldn't find a comfortable position, no matter how many times she turned or elbowed me in the side and head. Apparantly, this condition extended to David, who showed up in my room sleepwalking. Well, I can't sleep with all of us in my bed. (Believe me, I have woken up with all three kids surrounding me with my back screaming at me from the weird angle they have twisted me in. On the other side is the unyielding form of my husband. Not comfortable sleeping for me.) So I went ahead and put Dave in Luci's crib for the night. Luci thought that was a fabulous idea and wanted to join her brother. Of course, right as I was drifting off into peaceful slumber, finally, Luci started fussing to get back out of the crib. She then chose to lie on the floor between the crib and my bed. I couldn't believe this would really be her choice so I tried to coax her back into bed with me. When that didn't work, I went ahead and folded my quilt for her size and put it down for her. She lied down and went to sleep for the rest of the night and was happy as a clam the following morning. Weird kid. :-)