Sibling Love

Samuel holding Miriam

A few days ago, Samuel says, "Mom, I like having a baby sister." That pretty-much sums it up.  I love these kids!

Miriam update, not quite a week old

So Miriam is a perfectly proportioned baby (according to the doctor anyhow) being in the 75th percentile for height, weight, and head size.  She also has a WONDERFUL temperament.  She is calm, sleeps well, eats well, and is all-around cute!  (As are most babies -even the fussy ones that often, make me laugh by their grumpy faces - cue Samuel here, the grumpiest baby for the first few months.)  She is truly a blessing as fitting her into our "routine" is really no trouble.  I'm struggling to make myself rest (as I know I need it) but once I get somewhat recovered I see us having an amazing summer.  The other kids have nothing but love for her and have been quite helpful!  It's like living a very good dream.  (On a side note, with lots of changes happening right now: Daddy's work schedule shifting with his new job (same company) and the beginnings of our garage building adventure, I cannot be thankful enough for an "uneventful" addition of our newest.  God can be  merciful after all :)


Baby Feet :)



Rebekah, Samuel, and Jacob meeting their new sister.

It's a baby!  :)

Playing computer games with Daddy.  All the kids loved this as babies.

Thumb sucker? She would be our first, but this is probably a fluke.

Happy 2nd Birthday, Paul!

Paul now has to share his birthday (May 17) with his younger sister.  We realize this will "scar him for life" but we figured, if you are going to mess your kids up, you might as well pick something good, right?  :)

In any case, lets talk about Paul.

- His  favorite thing to point out is a train or train track.  We hear lots of trains at our house, although we cannot actually see the tracks.  He often calls out train or train track at random times and I must answer that "no, there is no train or train track" several times before he will let the possibility go.

- Paul has recently discovered he can make "conversation" and often does so quite forcefully until someone responds to him.  If he is telling you something, he will get louder and louder with his word (or words) until you acknowledge him in some way.

- His vocabulary is growing by leaps and bounds.  Some of his favorite words (aside  from train or train track) are "coppeee" (coffee- ask Daddy how he learned this one :), cheese, cracker, cookie, drink, "nack" (snack),  bear, snake, baby, "Abeka" (Rebekah), "Jajup" (Jacob), and of course DADDY!!

- Paul is a very climby kid.  Seriously, he can climb up pretty-much anywhere the "big kids" can.  And he loves to climb up somewhere and then jump off. Fortunately he has not hurt himself yet, but I imagine it is only a matter of time.

- He likes to put on other people's shoes (like Rebekah's or Daddy's) and clomp around.  He would probably be happy to put his own on, too, but bigger ones are a little easier right now.

- Paul continues to be cute as all get-out and I just want to "eat him up"-especially those blonde curls :)
















I love you my sweet little boy!  May God continue to form you into a caring and thoughtful little man!

Welcome Miriam Dolores!

Miriam Dolores finally decided to show up (not without some "medical suggestion" I must add) on May 17, 2012 at 4:10pm.  She crawled out at 8lbs 8oz and 20.5inches long.  Not tiny by any means, but at least not HUGE.  I don't really have too much to say about her labor.  I was quite disappointed to have to be induced again.  It took a considerable amount of time to get the pitocin to make any decent contractions (about 5 hours of "waiting").  Fortunately, I had just started these slippers for my oldest daughter, Rebekah.  And when I say "just" I mean I really had cast on the beginning stitches the night before.  Look how far I got!  I was beginning to wonder if I would be able to finish them before the baby was born!

Although I was proud of myself for handling most of the contractions well, I did get a little crazy at the end.  I think I might have scared my doctor, the nurses, my husband, and possibly anyone within earshot, but it worked for me as I had hit the "fight or flight" point of pain and since I could not run I took to some "Jane of the jungle" screaming which quite effectively cut off any advice, tips, requests etc from my nurses, doctor or anyone else. But it made the pain survivable, so even though the bed did not quite get broken down before the baby started coming, in the midst of pushing they did at least get me where I needed to be (although I didn ot make it easy on them!) to allow Miriam to make a smooth exit.  I had my eyes closed and attention on feeling this baby "pop out" so I missed most of the "chaos" I caused.  But I suppose every doctor needs one like me to keep them on their toes :)

Here she is sporting the hat I knit for her.  It is a touch large at this time, but I could not resist a photo-op with it :)

 Nana (my mom) and my oldest daughter, Rebekah were our first visitors.  Miriam seemed to approve of them.  The rest of the family will most likely meet her tomorrow.

Small Successes

It has been a whiney day for me (or perhaps a whiney last couple of weeks!)  Then, I stumbled upon my friend, Monica's post about small successes and realized that focusing on the positive might help some.  So, here ya go. . .

1)  I believe I have "calmed down" significantly lately, as the past couple weeks I was getting "overly agitated" with mild pregnancy annoyances and such.  I am much calmer and at peace with things now.

2) I am proud of myself for listening to my body and adapting my schedule and priorities to suite (aka lots less physical activity and more times for rest).  This may sound silly, but for someone "addicted" to getting my daily exercise, it has been a challenge.  I especially feel guilty taking the car to pick up the boys from school on such nice days (when it is about 5 blocks to walk), but it is what it is.  That walk now is long and hot and I often feel miserable afterward - not up to cooking lunch or "tidying up" so I take the car and am able to do the rest of my afternoon chores.

3) I have made SIGNIFICANT strides in my homeschool preparation (as if I really know what to prepare for :)  And the end is definitely in sight.  In fact, I could easily start with the planning and prep work I have done so far (as I'm sure I will change my mind about some things anyhow, so doing too much now is silly anyhow - as it could end up being a waste of my time).  We are set to start in June with a "light schedule" - just to get the kids introduced to the concept of what I have in mind.  I think it will nicely compliment the summer activities we are signed up for (Tumbling class, Kids Yoga, swimming) by giving the kids something to "think about" and a chance to "rest" each day with our "book work" and activities.

4) I'm not sure if this is a success, but I am IN LOVE with these new knitting needles I got.  Seriously, they make me want to knit like crazy!!  Unfortunately, this silly baby hat is a challenge and a half as I have never knit in the round before, but just picking up the needles and messing with the soft yarn makes me happy - even if I never finish it and/or it ends up looking frightful (most likely :)

5) I have been really trying to begin my day with a short early morning prayer time (not easy when just getting the kids up in time for school is a challenge) and I like to think it is helping me focus more - and it does a good job of whetting my appetite for more prayer throughout the day.

6) I have done a pretty good job of keeping up with the mail lately.  I think it might be a little nesting instinct helping, but I'll take what I can get if it keeps the clutter away!

To join in the small success fun, check out Catholic Mom.

Baby Baby Baby

So I don't mean to run the world over with thoughts of pregnancy, childbirth, and of course, BABIES!  But I have four minutes to wait while my external hard drive moves my clip art onto this computer so I can finish making my Girl Scout Certificates for our final meeting this evening and I figure I might as well pop over here and share my thoughts for today, as that is generally what blogs are for, right?

Anyhow, I visited my doctor again today (wouldn't want her to miss me, you know :) and I am still in shock over what she said.  When I asked her last week  about potential times and dates to induce, there was some mis-communication going on.  I was speaking about this week (my 39th) and she thought I was referring to the current week (my 38th).  Apparently current OB doctoring law says no voluntary inductions before 39 weeks and I am all for that - don't get me wrong.  I was asking about being induced two days before 40 weeks (but she thought I was asking about 2 days before 39 weeks).  So anyhow, there was the confusion.  So today when we sat back a minute to "talk" and she says, anytime this week is fine if you really want this baby out, I about died of shock.  I have been SOOO READY to be done and now all of a sudden, I could be - AS EARLY AS THIS EVENING!!  Good thing I was sitting down!  The funny thing is that now that "the time" is finally here, I have this odd patient feeling and actually ended up leaving the hospital planning to return again in a week - unless, of course a miracle happens (hint hint, God) and my body decides to kick this baby out on its own.

So,why did I decide to wait another week and a half?  I'm not 100% sure, but it just feels like "the right thing to do" at this time.  Maybe I got a little scared thinking about labor (especially induced labor - with those mean pitocin contractions. . . /shudder) and maybe I have been looking at my schedule too much and I do have a lot planned this week - my last MOMS club coffee shop visit until August, my Parents As Teachers visit, a pedicure (who can give birth without one of those?!? :) with my daughter.  Yeah, I guess I can keep busy and let the baby cook another week.  Just, please Baby Girl, don't be 11lbs like your brother Jacob.  Anything under 10lbs would be golden - really.

Oh and for all those praying for me, thank you.  I imagine that is where the peace in all this is coming from.  (Well, that and getting very little sleep the past couple nights - exhaustion makes me a little calmer.  That's why I'm such a good mom.  I am greatly subdued in my usual sleep-deprived-stupor:)  Hopefully I can rest up, finish up these last few things, and then some time next week, ready or not, she will have to come and we will start our new adventure as a family of seven.

Pregnancy update #2 for Baby #5 and some rambling

I am a big fan of pictures.  I like to take pictures.  I like to look at pictures.  I like pictures!!  I think I have "bloggers' block" because I just cannot seem to imagine blogging without pictures!!  But for many reasons I am not able to have pictures at this time, such as:

1) I have no current prego pictures of me and do not feel like trying to take any at the moment.
2) Although I am aware of the location of the camera and the camera cord, I have no desire to get up and gather them and make it back to the computer.  (By that time I would loose interest in blogging. Trust me, this happens ALL THE TIME.)  So all those "cute" pictures I have taken recently of who or whatever are still not accessible at this time.
3) Even if I did manage to get all those amazing pictures off the camera, onto the computer, I would surely get distracted by organizing them, ordering prints for them, and/or I would find pictures from that last event I MEANT to blog about and get myself back in a I'm-so-far-behind-I-might-as-well-not-blog-anymore-funk.

So, to summarize, I have no pictures to go with this post.  Now, on to the actual post.

I am 39 weeks pregnant today.  After some discussion with my doctor at my last visit, I am trying to prepare myself for going AT LEAST a week over and then of course, to being induced again (ugh).  Don't get me wrong, I am optimistic (or was - as I was having quite a few contractions - off and on - for several hours at a time - and I was just SURE things were happening, but then I got checked to discover. . . .nothing is happening) and would really LIKE to have this baby soon and go into labor on my own, but for whatever reason my body just does not seem to get things figured out and my babies tend to be HUGE so I can't wait for my body to "get things figured out."

In any case, that is where we are at now.  I have whined to anyone and everyone who would listen.  I am pretty miserable.  Mostly it is the varicose veins that have been doing me in as all my support hose are all getting runs (not to mention they are hot!) and even with the hose, my body does not like being vertical (or even sitting) for very long.  I have been "couch camping" as much as possible lately.  For some reason being physically troubled makes me mentally off my game as well.

After a few "attempted resting" days I am feeling "a little" better and that is certainly helping my sanity lately.  But I certainly miss exercising and doing more than just "surviving" each day.

The one perk to all this sitting is that I've had more time to sit around and "goof off" (aka do things just for pleasure) but I am out of practice on taking time to myself.  Plus, often my house and children "taunt me" as I just want to get up and cook and clean and play with them, but I just CAN'T so not only do I feel bad, but I feel bad that I can't do what I want.  So not cool.  But the end is near and I am trying to stay focused, as maybe the baby really does just need a little more time to"mature."  Plus, in the grand span, what is two or three more weeks?  Oh and I still have that "to do" list that needs to be FINISHED, of course, before the babe comes.  Some of it has been done, but I keep adding to it.

Here is the current version:

1) Homeschool prep
*I've really made great strides in this department, but I need to finish up a few more things.

2) Picture organize
*Yes, I want to get all my pictures, from the three different "digital storage devices" I have them on and put them all together in an organized fashion.  Then I want to order the prints from the most recent ones - then label the prints and put them in albums - hah, I laugh even as I type this.)

3) Knit baby hat
*I know, it is May, the baby does not need a hat, but it is a small project and I am still a "beginner knitter" and I just want to FINISH AN ENTIRE PROJECT already - as I have several started (including 2 slippers that don't match - one for my pair and one for my daughter's pair) but other than a small scarf and a few "pretty cloths," nothing really completed.

So these three, keeping the house clean, the laundry done, and the meals coming . . . that is the plan for the next few weeks.  Sounds like the plan for the past few years and probably the next few years, doesn't it?  But because of the nature of this time I am more acutely aware of all that is going on right now - living each moment more fully somehow.

Well, it is time for dinner.  I will stop with the ramblings now.  And I think I will just post this without thinking about it too much (as saving it will cause me to delay and then it will be obsolete).

So there it is.  Hopefully my next post will be pictures of our new little lady.

Blessings all!