Yoo-Hoo! I'm Over Here Now!

The new and improved Anxious for Nothing!

A Long-Overdue Update

My littlest one (who still doesn't have a blog pseudonym yet) is 9 weeks old now, and she is such a delight. She's very smiley and loves to people watch. She's starting to reach for interesting things, such as a toy or Papa's beard.

This is probably the last year before I start officially homeschooling D.L.F. Right now he and Cupcake spend their days reading, playing educational computer games, listening to music, playing with Duplos and other toys, playing outside, and going places with T or me. D.L.F. reads very well, and he sometimes likes to just sit and read a book by himself. I can't really take the credit--he pretty much taught himself to read by playing Starfall and watching Leapfrog videos.

Our garden is still producing tomatoes. Everything else has gone to seed. After the tomatoes are done, I'm going to pull everything out and plant some lettuce and spinach for a fall crop. It drives me nuts to have to pay a dollar (or more) a head for lettuce at the store, now that I know how nice it can be just to walk outside and pick whatever I need for a salad or sandwich. And home-grown lettuce tastes better, too.

My back is almost back to normal now. During my most recent pregnancy, I had constant, debilitating pain in my lower back that got worse with any kind of exercise. I put up with it, figuring it would go away after the baby was born, but it didn't, so I found a chiropractor, and he has really helped a lot. I've been doing Leslie Sansone walking videos to try to get back in shape. Three kids in four years does a number on one's body.

I'm excited about a year-long women's inductive Bible study I've joined. We'll be studying the life of Jesus. It meets once a week at a large church, and there are classes for children during the study. D.L.F. and Cupcake love to go to their classes and do art projects and play with new toys. Once a month at the same church, I go to a mom's group. A lot of my friends from my (small) church attend the Bible study and mom's group, too, so it's great to have time to fellowship with them.

T and I just started teaching Junior High Sunday School at our church. Neither of us have ever worked with Junior Highers before, so it's a whole new experience and we definitely need the Lord's help to know what to do!

I was a bridesmaid in my good friend's wedding this past weekend. I took Baby with me, since she's nursing. It was challenging trying to do the necessary bridesmaidly preparations while feeding and otherwise caring for an infant, not to mention the late-night rainy driving (T and the kids stayed home this time...normally he spoils me by doing all the driving on long trips so I can read or snooze), but it was totally worth it. My friend was truly a radiant, happy bride, and I'm very excited for her as she starts life together with her new husband.

T has been home sick for a few days with a bad cold. Hopefully, he'll keep it to himself. :-)

I haven't been doing much else. Obviously, taking care of three little kids takes up most of my time. Everyone tells me this stage of life will go by so fast, and I believe it. "The days are long, but the years are short."

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Baby Dear

 

Baby Girl's Birth Story

 

I woke up on Sunday morning, July 18, 2010, when my 2-year-old daughter and 3-year-old son climbed onto my bed around 6:30 AM and began chattering and bouncing around as usual. After several minutes, they got down and went to play in another room, and as I lay in bed, I realized I was having light contractions, about 12-15 minutes apart. At exactly 42 weeks pregnant, I was ecstatic to finally have some indication that labor was beginning.

We considered staying home from church, but I finally convinced T that I would rather be doing something than just sitting around waiting for contractions to get stronger. After church, we went home, had leftovers for lunch, and put the kids down for naps. My mom picked me up at 1:40 to take me to a joint baby shower at church for another 3rd-time mama and me. My contractions started getting stronger and closer together during the shower. During the prayer time at the end, they were coming about 8 minutes apart and making me perspire and curl my toes!

As Mom was driving me back home after the shower, around 4 PM, I called my midwives and let them know I was ready to come to the birth center. We agreed to meet there at 5:30. I called T and let him know the plans. He was running errands with the kids, but he came home quickly and loaded our things into the van.

I had two contractions on the ride to the birth center and one more as I stepped out of the van; they were uncomfortable, but not at all as intense as our last hurried trip to the birth center when I was already in transition before giving birth to our 2-year-old.

We checked into the birth center at 5:40. I had planned to give birth to this child in the same room we'd used with our other two children, but that room was occupied, so we were shown to a very nice, large room with an extra-deep birth tub.

At this point, I was 4 cm dilated and very effaced.

My midwives made me a turkey sandwich, and after I ate it, T and I decided to go for a walk. It was a perfect summer evening, about 70 degrees with clear blue skies. Once T and I started walking around 6:15, my contractions immediately became much more intense and came every 2-3 minutes, lasting about a minute each. We would walk a block or so, then I would stop and lean on T for support, then we would resume walking until the next contraction.

We returned to the birth center at 7:15. I laid on my side on the bed to try to catch what little rest I could between contractions. I remember having one insanely strong one and saying to my midwives and T, “It won't stop! Why is this contraction going on forever?” They assured me that it was because our baby would be born very soon.

My water broke at 8:07, and I sat on the birth stool at 8:08. After 6 minutes of very intense pushing, our daughter was born at 8:14 PM, weighing 9 pounds, 2 ounces, and measuring 20 inches long with a 13 ½ inch head. I birthed the placenta at 8:27 and T cut the cord at 8:30.

We had planned to go home after a few hours, but we ended up staying overnight at the birth center because Baby Girl's breathing was a little fast. We arrived home around 1:30 PM the next day and introduced Baby Girl to her brother, sister, grandma, and grandpa. Baby Girl is doing great, and we're so thankful for her.

It's a Girl!

Born Sunday, July 18, at 8:14 PM. 9 pounds, 2 ounces, 20 inches long. Birth story to follow....

Still No News

Just in case you were wondering.

Birth Stories (Only Two So Far!)

Still no baby. I've just been reading D.L.F.'s and Cupcake's birth stories to remind myself of what lies ahead....

Baby's Due Date...

...is tomorrow. No signs of labor at all, though. I have a feeling he or she is quite cozy and will still be in there for a while.

The kids are looking forward to their new sibling, although we've been talking about "the baby" for so long, it's probably hard for them to understand that they really, truly are going to have a brother or sister soon. Whenever we mention the baby to Cupcake, she says, "I will give the baby hugs and give the baby kisses and play with the baby!"

We're planning to have the baby at the same birth center where D.L.F. and Cupcake were born. I'm hoping I'll get there in time to take advantage of the big birth tubs. D.L.F. was born in the water, but my labor with Cupcake was so fast that the midwives didn't even have time to fill up the birth tub before Cupcake was born!

Rose Garden

 

 

 

 

My Little Cutie Pie

 

At Least She Asked

Today when I was standing at the counter mixing cookies, Cupcake came and stood right on my feet and asked, "Can I be in the way?"

35 Weeks Pregnant

 

Cupcake is 2!

I made a peanut butter cake to celebrate Cupcake's actual birthday with our small group from church.

 

The next day, my family came to visit and we had strawberries with whipped cream.

 

Cupcake received a wading pool (and a cute little swimsuit) from her great-grandmother.

 

My sweet 2-year-old:

 

Baby Update--31 Weeks

I had an appointment with my midwife tonight. The baby and I are doing very well. I am measuring 31 centimeters, which is right on for this week. My midwife estimates that the baby will be around 9 pounds at birth. Baby is head-down at the moment, which is great--hopefully he or she will stay that way! I think I know when the baby turned, too--I was laying in bed around midnight a couple weeks ago, trying to fall asleep in spite of the very active baby wiggling around in my belly, when I suddenly felt a hard WHUMP!--it felt just like the baby had done a fast somersault, and it almost took my breath away! It's so interesting to have a little person growing inside of me who is dependent upon me and yet moving around independently!

I got to check out a "sibling backpack" to explore with D.L.F. and Cupcake. It contains lots of books for children about birth and new babies, a couple of movies, and cute Waldorf-style mama and baby dolls with snaps so the baby can latch on to the mama and "nurse."

"Cooking"

This morning D.L.F. saw me cracking eggs into a frying pan and asked if he could try. I told him no because the frying pan was very hot. Then I said, "But you'll be able to do it when you're bigger. Probably someday you'll be able to cook a whole meal for us, maybe when you're about 12."

D.L.F. said, "Yeah! I can go to Papa Murphy's and get us some pizza!"

25 Weeks

 

Hoodies

 

Like Father, Like Son

D.L.F. was messing with cords behind the couch while T was sitting on the couch trying to fix someone's virus-ridden laptop. After listening to D.L.F. fumble around for a few minutes, T finally asked, "What are you doing?"

D.L.F. replied, "I think I'll make something turn on!"

Flowers from Our Yard

 

Valentine's Day 2010

 

 

 

And a 20-week belly pic (halfway to meeting Baby!):

 

New Rule

Another new house rule: "Don't color your belly button."

Miscellaneous

-Our new house didn't come with a fridge, so we bought a used one from an appliance shop. Fortunately, it came with a six-month warranty, which we took advantage of when we realized our ice cream was soup and our milk was spoiling within a few days. Some guys from the shop came to our house, replaced a fried part, and voilà, no more ice cream soup.

-I dragged some shelves in from the garage and used them to organize the kids' toys in their room. It's so nice to have floor space in there again. It's still bare on the walls, though. We need to put up some pictures and get some curtains.

-Today only, if you become a friend of Babies "R" Us on Facebook, they'll E-mail you a $5 gift card for use in-store or online. Details here.

5th Anniversary

Friday was T and my 5th anniversary. We dropped the kids off with their favorite babysitter and went to a Thai restaurant which we had heard good things about. We ate spring rolls, lobster pad thai, and cashew chicken. T gave me a silver heart necklace with a diamond in it. Then we went to hear some live bluegrass music. It was short and sweet, but it was fun to go on a real date...I don't think we'd been on a date since last summer.

I am 17 weeks pregnant now. My next appointment with my midwives is in three weeks, at which time I can schedule an ultrasound if that's what we decide to do. Most likely I will get an ultrasound and find out the gender of the baby, if our insurance covers it. It would be nice to be able to refer to the baby by name, and not just call him or her "the baby" all the time. We're 99% set on a boy's name, and probably about 75% sure of a girl's name.

Our New House

We were majorly blessed with all the help we received in moving to our new place. I never got a chance to count, but I'm pretty sure there were at least 15 people on moving day, and that's not counting some friends who helped with packing and unpacking before and after the move. Everything was out of our old apartment and into our new house in just over two hours! Praise the Lord. This move was actually less stressful for me than our last move, even though we have two kids and I'm pregnant now, and we have more stuff than we used to as well.

We have been in our new house for a week. Overall, it's a great place, and we're enjoying it a lot. We have had several problems, though...a slow drain which caused our washing machine to leak all over the garage, a wonky smoke alarm, the heater/fan/light unit in the bathroom which stopped working after a few days, and no internet access. Finally today someone from our internet provider came out to have a look and see what the deal is, and they said they have to re-bury a cable from our house down the block a ways. So I'm at the library right now using the wireless connection.

The kids have been doing well sharing a room. They've been sleeping great, except last night, when they both threw up. They seem fine today, so I guess it was a one-time thing. I hope. However, we're keeping them home tonight instead of our originally scheduled plan of dropping them off for free childcare through our church for a parents' date night. I am disappointed, but I want to make sure the kids aren't contagious. I don't want to put other parents through what we went through last night. The laundry, the crying, the...yuck. So we'll go on a date some other time.

In other news, I have been feeling the baby wiggle around since I was about 12 1/2 weeks pregnant! That's way earlier than with D.L.F. or Cupcake, and it's kind of fun.

Not having internet for the past week, I've been doing a lot more research the old-fashioned way...with books. I'm so, so excited to finally have a yard, so I've checked out over a dozen books from the library about gardening. I'm getting antsy to work in the yard, but it has been rainy, cold, and very windy lately...not exactly prime gardening weather. I'm poring over books and gardening catalogs in eager anticipation. I am extremely excited about the lilac and hydrangea bushes in our front yard and can't wait to see them in bloom.

We still have a lot of boxes to unpack, but things are starting to feel a little more like home.