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)!

Real Summer

Real Summer is finally here.  The kind that sees us opening windows early in the morning to let the cold air in and shutting them tight at 10:00 to keep the hot air out.  M is enjoying the 80 degree weather...me, not so much. 

This whole past weekend has been a weekend of firsts.  E started riding a two-wheeled bike.  F took the plunge and joined the pond swimming club with the kind of encouragement only IJ and M can give.  Our first baby guinea escaped and spent a lonely night on the roof.  In the morning, M climbed up only to have it fly across the driveway into a tree.  Throughout the day it called pathetically and occasionaly soared to various parts of the ten acres.  But by evening it had had enough and let E catch it at the fence.  It is now safe with its flock.

Not a first and probably not a last were the mud fights which ensued when the boys were tired of water.  They slung mud for an hour at trees at each other and at their sisters, Oh My! before finally coming up to admire themselves in the reflections in the windows; And I thought they were putting that show on for me!  Does anyone know that scene in Mr. Bean The Movie?

We have reached my last week of pregnancy...if this baby comes on time.  Stay tuned for my Top Ten Indications You've Reached Your Due Date post...  if the baby hasn't come before I get around to writing it!

Happy 4th

Fourth of July would not be complete without:

Food (star cheese!)

Friends!

Fun!

Fireworks!

Thanks to the S Family for joining us and making our 4th memorable!

Kale Chips

It's hard, and a little anti-climactic, to follow a wedding post with a post about vegetables.  But here I am!

Our (okay, M's) garden is doing quite well and the green leafies need to be eaten every day.  Not just because they are good for us, but because we don't want to waste them!  I don't always feel like making green smoothies.  My fall back is adding the greens to stir fries or soups or just serving them steamed on the side.  What you hear about including children in gardening so they'll eat their veggies is true.  Even IJ is still excited about eating chard from his (M's) garden.  The kids prefer to go in the garden and pick a few leaves to munch on between huckleberry forages, but I think I may have stumbled upon a new snack...

...kale chips!  Google "dehydrated kale chips" for recipes.  I kept reading that these are just as grubbin' as potato chips-which I could not believe.  How could KALE chips be as good as POTATO chips?  Well, they are.  We ate the entire contents of three dehydrator levels right before bedtime last night.  Which is equivalent to a large bowl of freshly picked kale.  I just tossed the leaves in olive oil, lemon juice, and sea salt and dried them at 145 degrees for a few hours.  The raw food people dry at 115 degrees for a longer time, but I'm not too concerned about destroying enzymes at this point. 

The kids loved them, M loved them, and I loved them.  The best thing is...I can make them and store them for later!  If they last...

And just for fun:

 The roundest egg we've ever seen.

Life's a Beach

This beach has always been special to our family.  M used to bring A and L here to play and discover beach life when they were little girls.  When M and I started dating, we strolled on this beach and dreamed of our future together.  We brought the younger set of kids here to play and discover beach life before we moved.

All those memories culminated in one that we will cherish forever.  On this day, July 1, 2012, our youngest/oldest daughter exchanged vows of matrimony with her husband.

 

After the ceremony, A and K hosted a small gathering at their home.  A few friends, siblings, and parents attended, as they wished to keep the celebration small.

We wish them the very best in their new life together and we love them very much.