Birthday Baby

The day my mother turned 31, I was born. 

Yesterday marked my own 31st year.  I spent the day with my own contractions.  Here's how it went.

Contractions started on Sunday and continued all.day.long.  We took the kids for a hike in the dark Sunday night and told them the baby might come tomorrow.  We put the kids to bed and cleaned the house.  I kept contracting.  Around 1 AM I was no longer able to sleep through the contractions.  I started timing them and was excited to find they came just five minutes apart.  An hour and a half later, I called my midwife to give her a heads up.  We asked Mammie and Poppa to come get the kids.

{Elijah sat up in bed and said, "Oh!  Is the baby coming out?"  Then he climbed out of his bunkbed and prayed for me.}

The children left around 3 AM.  I tried to sleep again - and did, fitfully, for about two hours.

Then I walked around the house and the neighborhood having contractions.  The contractions would space out - but still come at least every 10 minutes - and then pick back up.  I felt like I was riding a rollercoaster, and I was reaching the point of exhaustion.  The tell-tale sign?  Yesterday evening, per our midwife's advice, we were going to run and get some food.  I got ready and then had a meltdown that would rival any of my children's.  The kind of meltdown where you just stare at your kid and think, "Wow.  What happened?  Is something wrong with their brain?"  (Eric was actually giving me that look.)

I've always been jealous of those people that walk around halfway dilated for days and days before their baby comes.  And I've wondered what it would feel like.  Well, it feels just the same as walking around with a closed cervix...only, in my case, there have been a lot more contractions.

Eric is off to work where he can explain to people that yes, we are planning a homebirth and no, you can't get pitocin at home. 

I'm off to pick up the children who I'm sure will have lots of great questions as to how/why/when the baby HAS NOT COME.

12.18.2012

Home Life

This is the high chair our friends bought us when I was expecting Elijah.  Five years and three children later, it finally bit the dust.  Here Elijah prepares for his last haircut in his highchair.  It is so weird to think of him using that as a baby!

Eggs for breakfast, a trend for which I am very thankful.  We also have them for lunch and dinner~:-)

My kids are REALLY into forts.  The couch was moved away from the wall for flea-vacuuming purposes (more on that saga soon) and the kids found a new hideout.

Moving the couch spawned a whole new set of adventure for these guys.  That is what I consider creative play~;-)

7.10.2012 - 7.12.2012

Gymnastics

We had a really fun little run with gymnastics lessons this summer.  I found a Groupon and, after making sure Elijah and Haven could do back-to-back classes, signed them up!  I have very fond memories of my own gymnastics lessons, and was really excited for the kids to try everything.  Gymini Athletics exceeded my expectations.  They had Elijah and Haven both running hard for their 45 minute lesson.  After I found out about the siblings playroom, I was even more excited about this place. 

 

Girlfriend was on a mission during her classes.  They set up six or so different activities in a circular pattern and you follow the path to the next activity.  Haven remembered how to do each thing; I was surprised at how quickly she caught on.

Waiting in line for her trampoline time.  I think this was her favorite part.  We had to practice our jumps at home; "pencil jump" and "out and in" did not come naturally for my children~;-)

This little stinker was constantly trying to join the class.  She would sneak around or under the fence and just start rolling around on the floor.

This was Elijah's favorite activity, I believe.  He was great on all the bar activities.  "Mom, why don't they move my bars up even higher?"

The best parts about our gymnastics experience were gleaning ideas of things we could do at home and observing how well Haven does when peppered with lots of physical tasks. Hopefully we'll run across another Groupon, because this was FUN! 7.9.2012