Baby Love

Since we can't name this baby ourselves, we get to think of Grandparent names: what should we be called?  I'm too young to be Grandma.  Mark is not really a Grandpa type.  His first choice is Grandad, but that might be hard for us who have a place reserved in our hearts for the Grandad we still miss.  We think Grandude is more his style! I'm going for Nana; it rhymes with Anna and I was named after my Nana's "second" mother.  Anna-Nana was my nickname for awhile.  So Nana-Anna might be me!  And it's a good thing we don't get to name this baby- so far the kids have come up with Henry, Thomas, James, Gordon, Percy, Jupiter, and Garden.  The baby is due around Christmas, so a name like Kris Kringle, I mean Junior, would be fun.  Or Claus.  Or Heyseus. (I'm totally kidding)  Mark says Silver and Gold would NOT be good names. Any name Kris and Ami come up with will be wonderful, I'm sure!

"Chewla" Joy

"Hey, who stuck their chewed-up bubble gum on my footstool?"

The Blessings of Friendship

A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away, I was blessed with a Bible study with other MOMS called The Blessings of Friendship.  Some of those mom friends still bless me today.  Click on this LINK to see what I mean!  The blessings aren't just limited to my old friends.  My new friends are continuing to bless me with their attentive care during my postpartum time.  God is good.

Grumpy Face strikes again!

She was starving, so a bottle came to her rescue!

Passed out again

The Elusive Sleep Grin

Favorite Sleeping Position

She stayed sleeping in this position on the couch for at least another hour.  At almost three weeks of age (tomorrow!), she is still so mellow and easy.  She has few needs: feed her, burp her, change her, and put her down for another nap.  When she is awake she is happy just to sit in her chair and look around.  She is right on the edge of smiles!  She gazes at our faces in her quiet alert stage and she starts to smile...but sometimes it turns into a yawn and she drifts off to sleep...

I Went to Town

As of this morning, I haven't left my home since LJ was born.  I did take a walk to the mailbox with M yesterday, but that isn't the same as getting in a car and going somewhere.

(Doesn't she look like me? All grumpy?)

Today, M encouraged me to leave LJ home with him while I ran into town for milk and a library pick up.  I'll never make that mistake again! It was horrible!

(I definitely look like this!)

Oh everything was fine at home.  LJ had her bottle and spent some quiet alert time smiling at M.  And nothing happened at the store or library.  I just felt WRONG.  When I got home, and heard I missed her first smile because I was picking up junk that no longer mattered, I had to hold my baby for the rest of the day.

And when I wasn't holding her, I was taking pictures.  About 100 of them.  It will be a long time before I ever leave her again!

Baby Therapy is good.

One Week

Baby LJ is one week old today!  Time is just flying by.  I'm having my usual latch-on issues with nursing her.  I thought I might, so this time I was prepared and we won't have any nasty surprises when we go to the pediatrician next week.  I have to pump and bottle feed until she grows just a little bit more.

How has the rest of the family adjusted to her?  The older kids really haven't shown that a new baby has affected them negatively.  And why would it?  Babies multiply the love, not subtract from it.  They like to hold her, but then they are off playing Bionicles and Piano Wizard (stay tuned for a review on this!).  F is already trying to play peek-a-boo.  She thinks that she and Baby LJ are the cutest in the family.

 The two-year-old on the other hand...he's been very TWO.  His favorite word is NO.  He'll say it even when he means yes.  Every day he manages to sneak into the chicken coop on throw the eggs out the door.  Of course the eggs break.  So we've collected about four eggs this week. 

D doesn't want F to play with HIS baby.

And...the other day we sent D to throw his diaper in the garbage.  He came running out of the hallway crying-really crying!- about a monster!  He's never shown this kind of fear before, so M chased the monster out of the hallway.  The next day, D saw the monster again.  I had him hold my hand and show me the monster.

Um, yeah, that would scare me too.  A big scary grim reaper coming out of the baby's crib?  It's actually the birth pool, all wrapped up in a black garbage bag.  When I first saw it (the house was dark), it gave me the chills too!

Baby LJ had her first trip down to the pond yesterday along with her first visit from her grandparents.  She wasn't the only one who had a first pond trip.  The Pirate went on his first paddle board trip!  Yo, ho, ho!

This bad dog somehow got a vein in her ear ripped.  She came in while my friend was visiting and dripped blood from the front door, all the way to the downstairs living room.  My wonderful friend cleaned up all the blood splatter (it looked like a CSI crime scene). 

Because the rip was on a vein, M couldn't get the blood to stop until bedtime!  He had to use a paper clip over a big bandage to keep the vein closed enough for our second skin to dry.  Anytime she shook her head the bandage flew off and blood spattered all over the place.  And then M would have to go through the process of applying pressure, adding second skin and baby powder (to dry up the blood), and bandaging again.  We took turns sitting with our feet on her back (in a comforting manner-we weren't holding her down) so she would stay in one place and not try to follow us around the house in her usual manner.  Okay, enough about dogs.  We want baby pictures!

Sleeping in my cradle that my dad built when I was a baby.

And finally awake!  She sleeps so much.  I know that by the time school starts again I will wish she still slept this much!  But for now I'm enjoying doing things I couldn't do while nine months pregnant.  Like look under the couch for the remote control.  And getting clothes out of the dryer.  And looking for lost things in low cupboards.

Joyful Pictures

I'm still in recovery.  But I can sneak out to the computer and post pictures, right?  And tell the birth story?

Little LJ was born at 7:50 pm as you know.  This was after only three hours of active labor and just 20 minutes after the midwife arrived.  My midwife was attending another birth over an hour away and said she couldn't make it to our house until 7:45.  I thought for sure the baby wouldn't arrive until much later based on the length and frequency of my contractions.  We are all very thankful the midwife got here earlier than she estimated!

LJ was born in a birth tub in my room.  This was my first water birth and if God blesses me with more babies, the rest will be born in the water as well.  The water gave me the feeling of weightlessness and it was so easy to get into a comfortable position.

IJ and S were staying at a friend's house during labor/birth, but the girls and D were home with us.  We had made all sorts of "if...then..." plans on what to do with the kids during labor.  With the last two homebirths, the babies were born at night when everyone was sleeping. This baby came so fast that the kids at home didn't even finish their movie before they got to come back and meet their new sister!

Having F and E here was very special.  They were able to inspect the umbilical cord and feel the pulse before it stopped and was cut.  They got their baby dolls and crawled into bed with me to practice keeping their babies' heads warm and nursing.  They are pretending to nap with their babies against their hearts in the picture above.  IJ and S love to pet their sister's head and hold her.  But having the girls there to practice their mommy skills is something special.  Not every little girl gets to experience this miracle!

Check out that dark, dark hair!  My five other babies were either blond or bald.  F was the darkest (you can see her first pictures HERE), but not nearly as dark at LJ!  It looks like LJ is going to have dark eyes as well.  She is my biggest, brownest baby yet and as you can see, she is perfectly round and pink all over!  When I hold her I am amazed that just a little while ago that big, brown and pink round baby was inside me!  No wonder I needed to rest, put my feet up, and nap every day!  She's huge!

She is also following the same pattern that she followed in the womb.  She wakes up at bedtime and spends a few hours moving around-right when I'm ready to sleep.  These last few weeks I've had to go sleep sitting up because she would kick my dinner into my esophagus!  Last night she kept me busy until 2:00 AM or so...but then she settled down and slept the rest of the night.  I'm hoping to get her exposed to natural lighting today to help set a good circadian rhythm.

Joyful Arrival

Look who arrived last night, July 10, 2012 at 7:50pm, weighing in at 9 lb 8 oz! LJ!

Mother and Baby are doing fine, resting peacefully.

Top Ten Indications...

...You've Reached Your Due Date.  Just as I promised.  For the record, I have had two early babies and three late babies.  One early baby, IJ, was induced because my water broke and labor never started.  He was three days early.  D was also early, but only a few days as well.  S and F were three or four days late.  E is the latest at 10 days over her due date.  Those were some wicked days, let me tell you.  The doctor overseeing my midwife threatened to induce me if I didn't go into labor on my own the day she was born.  I hated him. 

The Pirate enjoys the sand pit

 So, here I am, the week of my due date.  I don't like due dates because they make me jumpy.  And the due dates all depend on average calculations: average cycles, average baby sizes, and there is nothing average about me.  This is my list:

1. The milk's pull date is later than the baby's.
2. Your husband worries about you going to the grocery store alone.
3. You no longer want to answer the phone and talk to whomever wants to "check to see if the baby is born yet," but then you wish someone would call you because you are so bored.
4. You stop planning activities for the kids because you're not sure if you'll be having a baby or not.
5. You run out of red raspberry leaf tea and don't think Amazon.com can ship another pound fast enough.
6. You drop something and then just leave it on the floor for someone else to pick up.  Bending over takes too much energy.
7. You wake up every 15 minutes at night thinking, "Was that a contraction? No-just had to burp."
8. You wake up every morning thinking, "Well, one more night over. Maybe tonight is the night."
9. There is nothing left to collect or assemble for the home birth.  Every thing is ready to go...and its getting dusty.
10. You start daydreaming about scheduled C-sections.

It looks like I won't be tortured too much longer.  I'm in the very early stages of labor, so we'll be meeting our baby sometime in the next 24 hours (I hope)!

My Surprise Baby Shower

Yes, it is true.  I'm going to have my 6th baby and I have never had a baby shower...until yesterday.  I was completely blown away with the out pouring of love and support from my local friends when they surprised me!  I did know that something was up...I know my husband very well and some things he did in the last month have been out of character for him.

It all started when the first chicks hatched last month and we were unprepared for them.  M decided out of the blue that he wasn't going to be caught unprepared when this baby came, so I needed to make a list of things that I might need for when this baby is born.  He asked when I might need these items and I was like...."When the baby is born?"  No, no, when will it be a good time to go shopping for them because he really wanted to take me shopping.  Him, take me shopping for baby things? I told him the end of June would be fine while I thought to myself, "Is this my husband? This is our 6th baby together.  He's never ever done anything like this before. Who are you and what have you done with my real husband?"  He also got on craigslist to find the perfect replacement for our little baby car seat because mine has been stuck in its base since E was a baby...and it expired about the same time (but we fixed it instead of buying a new one).

Two weeks ago, I wrote "NW Trek Slug Festival" on the calendar for June 23rd.  M looked at it and said, "That is a terrible day to go to NW Trek. I can't go."  I said, "Fine, I'll go by myself. You don't have to go."  He took last Friday off so he could go with us...and I had a date.  For what, I still wasn't sure, but I had my suspicions.

Thursday, M said, "What would you like to do Saturday? Go to the zoo? The beach?"  Again, I know my husband.  We don't do things like that on weekends, especially a weekend after he worked nights all week.  We go on weekdays to avoid crowds.  Plus, he had already said that Saturday was a terrible day to go to NW Trek.  But all of a sudden it was a great day to go to the zoo? Or beach? Hmmm... I made sure I was showered and had clean laundry Friday night.

Saturday morning, M said we would be going to the beach at 1:30 for low tide.  Now I had a time. But then it started to rain.  I could have made it difficult for him.  I could have stayed in my PJs and insisted on cleaning house.  But I didn't.  We decided a trip to Costco at 1:30 would be perfect.  We would let D take his nap in the van on the way in, pick up enough food to survive for a month, and everything would be all good.  But D needed his nap at 12:45.  I just couldn't keep him awake.  Normally, we would wait until he woke up because Costco trips don't have to be timed...but M was agitated by the turn of events.  "Do we have to leave at 1:30 on the dot?" I asked.  "I like to do things by the clock," he said.  Baloney!  "By the way, the Cub Master called.  I left one of my Scout boxes in the lobby of the church and I need to swing by and pick it up on the way in to town."  Now I had a place.  M's story would have been good...but I was at the church the night before talking about Scouts with the youth pastor and there was no box in the lobby.  In fact, I know where all three of his boxes are in the house.  But I didn't say anything.

At 1:25, knowing that he was going to just drive me to the church and drop me off, I suggested that we leave IJ in charge of sleeping D while we were shopping.  I started baby-sitting at age 10; IJ would be fine and D needs the sleep. M suggested we leave S too, which I heartily agreed to (If we were really going to Costco, there is no way I would leave them). 

M drives faster than I do, so a trip that takes me 30 minutes only takes him 25...and M had 5 minutes to kill when we reached the last gas station before the church.  Normally we don't stop for candy bars on our way to Costco, but M needed one.  I had him fill up the gas tank while we were there so I wouldn't have to do it later in the week.  "Great idea!" he said.  Before he got out of the van, he asked me what kind of candy I wanted.  "Suuuuurrrrrprise me!" I said.  I could see he hid a smile.  When we pulled in to the church parking lot, I recognized my friend's vehicles.  I offered to run in and check the lobby for the box, you know, to make it easy for him.  What kind of man would send his 9-months-pregnant wife in to carry a box for him?

Now it was my turn to get back at him... I stood in the lobby for a second, heard my friends around the other side, and walked back out.  I went to the van and told M there was no box in the lobby.  He tried to look like he was confused, but he really needed to figure out a way to send me the right direction.  I said (just for him), "Maybe he meant it was in the classroom you used.  Should I go look there?"  Relief washed over his face as he nodded.

I went in and my friends surprised me!  They had arranged a spa day, just for me!  But I will get to that part in a second, I wasn't done getting my revenge on M.  I told my friends I would be right back after I sent M home.  I went out to the parking lot, got in my seat, acted like I was putting my seat belt on, and said, "There was no scout box there either."  I wish I could describe his face at that moment.  I didn't make him suffer long.  I said with a big grin, "It looks like someone is playing a trick on you!"  He said, "They certainly are!" because he knew then that I knew.

I am not used to being the center of attention and being pampered.  My friend soaked my feet and scrubbed them with a lavender scrub.  She hired a henna artist for henna tattoos-I got my belly done!  She gave me a hair cut!  Another friend gave me a back rub and still another french-braided my now short hair.  We played some games, including the candy bar/diaper game which I am totally awesome at!  I was terrible at the sock matching game.  You can see my priorities lie with chocolate, not laundry.  My friends shared inspirational thoughts and scripture with me for the upcoming birth.  I have never, ever, felt so loved and supported by a group of women.

I promise, I will post pictures when I get some!

It's a Girl!

I had an ultrasound last week and we found out that our new baby is a girl!  Times sure have changed since my first.  Now I get a CD of the pictures instead of heat paper prints that fade with time.

This little girl kept her hand curled up next to her face and wanted to face the camera straight on.  The technician had a hard time getting the profile picture.  Baby Girl must have my nose if she is so shy.  The cutest thing ever was when she opened her mouth like she was practicing her yawn.  Life is precious.

"I have a secret to tell you!"

"I know you wanted to get a new dog in the spring, but..."

Number Eight: Coming July 2012