Slideshow for E

Happy Birthday 2 E!

Little e turned 2 yesterday. Here are some of the pictures of the festivities.

Hello Kitty Cake

E loved the cake, but when we put candles on it she wasn't so pleased.  She didn't want anything to do with the flaming candles she pushed the cake away until J finally blew out the candles for her.

 

With the whole gang.  Dad is so sneaky, but you can see him in the reflection from the window.  Little T is wearing the Hello Kitty Princess costume.  We were using the Hello Kitty picture from the dress for the cake design.  Then Little T snatched the dress and put it on.  We told him he had to be the "model" until the cake was finished.  He wore the dress around until the party guests arrived.

I think all 2 year old girls like Dora.

The Happy Birthday girl.

Pictures of e

I should post these more often.  She has grown up so much over the summer.

Peanut Butter Jelly Time

We've had a birthday! Little e turned one Jan 3rd. I finally downloaded pictures today. We started two traditions for first birthdays in our family. One is is to go to the zoo. It was a bit cold though. I think we'll reschdule for a warm day. The other is a shaped birthday cake.

Little "a" had a frog. It was supposed to be a butterfly made with four heart-shaped cakes. After I baked the cakes I realized that would be *way* to big, so we made one heart into a frog. A frog was sort of the theme of my young adult life. And I had received several frog themed baby gifts. It worked.

(Apparently I have no digital photo of the cake.)

Little "t" had a smiley face. In his first year of life we called him "Mr. Smiles." Besides we had just moved four months earlier. We had all been sick a lot and it was a simple cake.


Little "j" had a "Lightning McQueen" cake. It was really chosen by his siblings. If I had been going by what he liked it would have been an Elmo cake. The race car was really cool though. I designed it myself based on Little t's slippers. Little t still thinks the cake was for him. (Shh, don't tell.)


Little "e" had a Dancing Banana on an I-pod. You know, the one that sings "It's Peanut Butter Jelly Time." Haven't heard of it? I hadn't either. It was one of the funny things "T" brought home from OTS. Apparently it is really popular in some circles (Family Guy). He downloaded an app of the funny banana and e loved it. ( I wish I could link it, but I'm not that talented. You'll just have to google it if you want to see it.) She would dance and be silly every time we played it. Soon we renamed the song after her. It was really no question what her cake would be.


Another tradition is, every birthday the kids get to pick a birthday balloon as one of their presents. That has been fun. She also got a dress up skirt. We started calling her the peanut butter princess.


My last tradition is I've been making a slide show for my blog. I've started it, but it's way to late to finish now. I'm going to put it here. Check back. I'll post a note when it's available.

Blessing Day

This post is way overdue. We blessed E last Sunday. Here are some pictures. I made the dress when I was expecting A. A cousin of mine was making dresses for her nieces. I was inspired. Making this dress was A LOT more work than I thought it would be. I'm glad I got to use it more than once.

One Month

E is now one month old. It’s amazing how they grow so fast. She is already so much more responsive. She is starting to look more like a baby and less like a new born.

We received good news this week. My brother and his wife have been waiting to adopt for over a year now. They were hoping to get placed when we had J. They got announced to over the weekend. It’s a boy and he is due March 10^th. I’m excited E will have more cousins her age. So far J is the only odd man out. All the other kids have cousins on one or both sides that are close to their age.

Their baby will be half black and half white. They were hoping to adopt a black boy, so they are really excited about this. I talked to a friend here that adopted bi-racial children. She said she always gets questions when she is out with her kids. I wonder, without begin disrespectful, if the "Mother at the Swing" (see Karin's blog) might also apply to this situation.

I remember a story from my youth of a bishop asking people to stand if they lived during the life of latter day prophets. He started with Joseph Smith. A chuckle went through the audience in reply. Then he read Brigham Young. To the surprise of the then young story teller one of the aged widows in the ward stood. She had been born a few months before Brigham Young died. I think with the passing of Gordon B. Hinckley perhaps one day E will be an aged widow who will connect a child to him.

My Birth Story

I had a rather different experience with this birth, so I wanted to share my story.

L offered to come up and help me with the birth this time. It was a great comfort to have someone there who understood where I was coming from. I was concerned that the three hour drive from Chicago might be too long and she would miss the birth. On Wednesday night (January 2) I started having contractions around 9:30 P.M. By 10:30 they were in a were in a regular pattern and coming closer together. We called a sitter and L. We told L when she was ready to go straight to the hospital just in case. She got there way before us so we had her come back to our place and we all slept for a few hours. By 3:30 AM my contractions were 5 minutes apart and coming stronger. The hospital is a 30 minute drive and I was GBS positive again so we decided to go in. I figured we'd have a baby by breakfast time.

We went to the hospital got checked in and waited. My contractions had slowed and I figured it was because of the traveling. We walked the halls then lay down to try and relax. Nothing worked. By 7 AM my contractions had all but stopped. My labor was stalled. “T” had an interview he couldn't miss in Milwaukee. He had to leave by 9 AM. I decided I should check out. Partly so “T” wouldn’t be tempted to skip his interview and partly so I could go eat and see if we could get things going again.

My doctor was okay with me leaving if the baby passed an NST (non-stress test) conducted by ultrasound. The baby passed the test. The ultrasound technician was super nice and even printed out some pictures for us. The doctor cleared us to go. It was really weird to leave the hospital knowing I was still in labor. I was really confused.

L and I went and got breakfast and walked the mall. All the while I was completely puzzled why my labor had stalled. I kept thinking of Karin's story about concerns she had about the baby stalling “Buggy’s” birth. I thought maybe it was because I knew “T” had to leave and wouldn't be back until after lunch. I felt confident that it was the right time for the baby to be born. The due date was Dec 24th. We thought it was a girl and A was born on her Uncle Tr's birthday. January 3rd is Uncle Jer's birthday. Jer and Tr are birds of a feather, they even work together.

After lunch and a little more shopping we went home. Something I had been hesitant to do for two reasons. One, my kids were there and they didn’t understand labor and why mommy wouldn’t bend over and no talk to them every five minutes. Two, because I knew as soon as I hit transition it wouldn’t take long. We could get regular contractions, but nothing more than we'd had the night before. I didn't want to go back to the hospital and have labor stall again. This time I was waiting to see signs of transition.

When we got home we started thinking about the baby's position. In the release NST the baby was facing my left side. The baby had previously always been facing my right side. Either way, not the ideal birth position. I logged on to Doreen’s website and clicked the spinning babies link. There I learned that it is difficult for the baby to rotate if the chin is not tucked. I pulled out the photos given to me by the ultrasound tech. They clearly showed the baby’s chin was up. So we got out the birthing ball and tried hula hoops. Then I got in the shower and did pelvic rocks until the tub filled with water.

I decided to try rotating the baby manually. I was a little nervous about rotating the baby with my hands. But at this point I figured I had few options. Surely they would induce me if I went back to the hospital. They baby would certainly be born one way or another in the next 12 hours. I checked to make sure the baby was still moving. And then gentle tried to move the baby. I was surprised at how different it felt in the water. Submerged I was easily able to rotate the baby. It seemed like the baby’s shoulder was caught on my right hip bone. I could feel the contractions radiating from there to my back. I worked that area for a bit and the tension seemed to free.

I finished up and went to my room. I asked my husband for a blessing. Then I lay down to listen to my body. I was unsure if I had been successful in rotating the baby. It was about 7 PM and my husband was taking the other kids to his brother’s house to spend the night. Before he even left I noticed strong swift contractions and started getting the feeling we should go to the hospital again. He told me to go rest and call his brother’s house if we decided to go the hospital. I lay down again for about 5 minutes, but now I knew it was time to go.

L and I called and got in the car and left the house around 7:30. Contractions were now coming fast and furious. I took a large garbage bag to sit on and a bed pan just in case. We checked into the hospital around 8 PM. This time I opted for the wheelchair. I asked them to call the doctor. The nurses wanted me to change and check me etc. before they called the doctor. They checked me and said I was at a 5 or 6 but everything was really loose. I’m sure the bag of water was bulging and I was already starting to tone. Luckily they told the doctor to come. Not to long later my water broke and I was ready to push. I looked at the two nurses in the room and wondered which one was going to deliver the baby. Fortunately the doctor arrived moments later. And a beautiful baby girl was born at 9:05 PM.

Warning: gory details ahead. Probably for experienced moms only.

I went with side lying position this time. It was a little awkward because they wanted me to hold my leg way up in the air. And of course I still tore, but Emma does have fewer stork bites (birthmarks) than my other kids. So far I think I prefer the supported C birth position. I will probably go with that if there’s a next time. I guess that’s just the scientist in me, I always want to try something new in hopes of finding a better way.

Two other funny things. Doreen told me to try touching the baby’s head when it crowns. I didn’t with J, but I tried it this time. Only the baby hadn’t completely crowned yet. It was more like a fold of skin. I thought I was touching the cord instead of the head. And I had a moment of unnecessary concern. “Oh no, the cord is prolapsed.” But of course it was not.

The other funny thing was after the birth they were kneading my stomach to make sure the uterus was contracting and I wasn’t hemorrhaging. (Everyone’s least favorite part.) A large heart-shaped blood clot shot out and “T” was standing right there. He had a moment of shock before he realized that it couldn’t actually be my heart. He is still making jokes about it though.

Your probably wondering about the GBS. They weren’t as crazy about it here as they were in Logan. There I was on antibiotics for officially one hour before the birth. They marked GBS + on baby’s bassinet and they kept me 48 hours. Here they didn’t even get and IV in before the baby was born, so we were really not following regulations (I tried.) They kept us for 48 hours (well the nurses let me go after 6 PM but the doctor’s official orders were after 9 PM). And the scheduled a one week check-up and told me to keep an eye on the baby and her temperature. So far she is doing great.