Rachel's hospital bath

Another difference between this hospital and the last was that they waited until the baby was at least 6 hours old before they gave Rachel her bath.  I thought it would be fun for the kids if we waited for them to be there before she got the bath.  So, late in the day, almost evening of Rachel's first day she got her first bath.  This has to have been the craziest thing I have ever seen.  The aide put down a paper sheet thingy that was to soak up the water in her bassinet. 

She kept squeezing water on Rachel from the wash cloth and then she would wash her. 

I think you can see it here in this picture, the inside of the bassinet is soaked with water. 

Gwen was the ever patient watcher.  Once Nate was sure Rachel wasn't crying out of stress, he just sat back in my lap. 

I can't remember what they were talking about here, but it sure looks interesting. 

Wet and angry, see the water?

Finally hair washing. 

We apparently didn't take any pictures of the clean baby, I think it ended up being time to eat and the kids left shortly after that, Nate possibly traumatized for life.  Gwen happy to help with bath #2! 

Rachel's birth

I know some of you are likely curious what happened with Rachel's birth.  Rachel was at least 10 days past her due date by the time I went to the hospital on Sunday.  I was not in labor, showed no signs of going into labor anytime in the near future, but it seemed like it was past time to get her out.  I really thought she would come out before the agreed upon induction date, but what do I know, apparently.  If you don't what to hear about Rachel's birth in detail, I would stop reading now. I have not included any pictures, so you don't have to feel obligated to continue on this post.  
Our induction time was 11am Sunday, so we went to Church, went to the hospital and checked in.  They started me on the IV antibiotic and told me I would need 2 doses before I started anything and those doses needed to be 4ish hours apart.  Can I make an aside here, penicillin IV BURNS!  Just an FYI!  So they started the first IV at 12ish, when it was done we started walking the hospital, had some lunch and did some birthing exercises (squats, lunges, stomping) until dose 2 at 3:30.  At 4 they tried to break my water, that did not work, they could not get a place to break.  Rachel was still high and I wasn't much dilated.  My only option was pitocin.  Those that know me know that I wrestled with this for some time.  I wanted nothing to do with pit, but it was truly my only option, so we had some dinner and I got some pit, probably around 6.  The cool thing about the teaching hospital was they have all the latest things (well, I don't know that for sure), but they had wireless waterproof monitors, so I could walk around the floor while they monitored the baby remotely.  COOL!  They continued to monitor and increase the pit until I was at a good contraction level.  The thing I noticed is while I was doing the aforementioned exercises I could feel no pain, but as soon as I finished I would get another one.  The Dr checked me around 8 and broke my water.  Rachel had moved down a smidge and they started to decrease the pit to see if I would continue laboring without the pit. The pit was turned off completely around 10 and the midwife checked me at around 11, still no more progress, so we had no choice but to go back on the pit again.  I laid down in bed to rest and they started the pit at 12ish, I was at 4cm.  By 12:30 I was in real labor, at about 1:30 Eric suggested the shower.  The nurse came in, informed me I finally looked like I was in labor and started to get the room ready.  At 2ish the nurse checked me, I was at 7.  About 10 minutes later I declared it was time to push.  They moved me to the bed and said I was at 9, but NOT TO PUSH.  At this point I was over their suggestions and told them I was pushing.  They kindly informed me that my cervix wasn't all out of the way yet, I didn't really care.  Finally my cervix was clear, but the midwife still told me I couldn't push because I would tear, I told her I couldn't help it I had to push.  She told me to breathe and look at her, I made it through most of the way through the contraction without pushing, but the last 10 sec or so.  And EVERYONE was yelling at me not to push.  I maybe was a little cranky!  Finally, she said I could push and I did, but apparently not good enough because they were fussing at me again.  But, I finally got the head out and the shoulders (which BTW when you have a baby with a 14.25 head circumference, you really don't notice the shoulders!) and they laid Rachel on me.  It was 2:21am.  Apparently now they do a delayed placenta cutting if possible, so they didn't cut the cord until 2:26!  This apparently allows the stem cells to flow into the baby after birth, seemed like a good idea, before birth, during birth, I realized I was still having contractions and although Rachel was on me, it felt like an eternity.  

Rachel!

Rachel was born this morning at 2:25 am, she is a rather large baby and I will detail her birth in another post, but I wanted to post some pictures.  Here she is right after they weighed her!  Wow!  I can not believe she is so large!

She has been a good baby so far, although I am finding it difficult to keep on her hat.

The big sibs don't really know what to think yet, but they appear to love holding her, and get upset when she cries.  She is so large that really they have to hold her together! 

Grandma enjoys holding her also.  She was holding her and holding her and holding her and Gwen wanted to know why she couldn't hold her again, when Grandma had one of her extended holdings. 

So as not to repeat myself

Today we had our final Dr's appointment before the baby makes its grand entrance.  As those of you who have been with us through all 3 pregnancies, you'll know that our babies are late.  Eric and I were both late, why wouldn't our babies be.  Today I am 40 weeks, 5 days or some such nonsense. Hardly dilated but I think the baby has moved down a tad.  Conditions are "favorable" for birth, she just has to move down and she is taking her own sweet time.  The Dr said I looked well rested, and not near as exhausted as I did the previous week, which can be attributed to the visit from my Aunt, who basically took over all responsibility while I just rested.  Thank you Auntie! 

Tomorrow I will be having a stress test-basically they hook us up to monitors and check the baby's heartbeat over 20-30 minutes and make sure she is comfortable and not in duress.  We have an induction scheduled for Sunday, just in case the baby doesn't come over the rest of the week.  I asked for as late of an induction as possible to give this girl a chance to make her exit naturally.  We are hopeful that she be here soon!

So there you have it, yes I am still pregnant and I am ok with that, thank you for asking.  I would like her to finish her business and come out before Sunday though, I'll even let her pick the day!   Now off to get ready for Grandma who arrives soon!  

Art project

I decided that we should do art projects everyday! Then we did this first project and we haven't done one since!  The kids loved it, but I feel like it was an utter failure!  We took all our broken crayons and wrapped up some cookie cutters, and cupcake holders in foil and proceeded to put in the broken crayons.  You can see Gwen diligently working here. 

Here are 2 molds, we put them in the oven at 200 or so and then let them melt. 

Nate was our broken crayon label peeler...tough job for a tough kid! 

Gwen and her handy work...

Here they are partially melted

But this was the problem, we couldn't keep the melting crayons contained as hard as we tried. 

We did get some successful crayon pieces and the kids loved it, and now we have way less crayons, but Eric was not pleased with the clean up...I was too pooped to do anything but peel all the foil.  We did eventually figure out that boiling water worked cleaning the crayon wax...we might never do another art project this summer. 

Happy Birthday, Nate!

Today is our little man's birthday.  Such a crazy little guy!  He is full of life and energy who keeps us on our toes.  He will be starting preK this fall and he is looking forward to it. 

He is really getting into LEGOs this year and Superheroes.  He is also making up hilarious stories.  If you talk about something, says ghosts, he will tell you about an involved story he has made up about his experience with ghosts.  Very funny. 

He is still our cuddly little guy who loves to sit and read. He will sit for a long time and look at books for a long time, but he will happily listen to you read him a story. 

He is struggling to drop a nap, he really needs to still nap, but with his sister home and no afternoon car trip to pick up his sister, it is a real struggle.  His listening skills drop to nil and he loses impulse control.  I am hoping this is a short transition, but you never know. 

He does make have a pretty funny way of saying things and we can tell he is going to be a pretty smart kid.  I am hoping the structure and learning he will get at school will calm him down a little.  He seems to be pretty hyped up and has a lot of energy, I am hoping to one day learn how to channel his energy for good! 

We sometimes forget he is only turning 4 today because he often acts older and his vocabulary is so advanced.  He loves our camera and will take numerous random pictures, as a matter of fact I put together a slideshow of his random pictures, a lot of them are from Christmas, but I put a couple of recent additions in there.  I will also post his birthday slideshow after that, if you'd like to see it.  Sorry, I'm to lazy to annotate either slideshow.

The world according to Nate - slideshows

NateB'day2012 - slideshows

Bowling!

We have been burning up the Groupons lately, we got one for 2 hours of bowling.  Since Eric can't allow something like that to burn a whole in his pocket we went this weekend.  I was thinking of waiting until after the new baby came, which would have been easier and less exhausting for me, but Eric wasn't on the same page.  I think the manager was concerned I was going to go into labor.  The kids had a great time.  They used the ramp for most of the time and they even put up the railings for us also.  Let's just say we all did rather well. 

We made it through 2.5 games, by the end we were all pretty much done, Eric kept asking if we wanting to leave, but I paid for 2 hours, I was staying.  Nate was more interested in the video games than the bowling and I was pretty sore and exhausted, but it was great fun and I am glad we did it.  We also took some hilarious video. 
This is Gwen at the beginning, I can't remember if this is where she tries to kick her leg back or not, but man the kid is observent and by the end she wasn't using the ramp at all...

Untitled from Melanie Ubil on Vimeo.

We gave both the children the rules of the alley...first wait until the guy in the next lane goes before you bowl and for Nate I added a special rule, don't dance in the lane, come back over the line...sometimes we had to remind him, sometimes we didn't!

Untitled from Melanie Ubil on Vimeo.

Gwen's spare, the little kid beat me the first game, but I beat her the second and third game. 

Untitled from Melanie Ubil on Vimeo.

Unfortunately Eric had to do some trick shots, and some "granny" bowling, which meant Nate had to bowl Granny style...Eric had to go up and help him though.  I should mention the lady only had to come over once to recover a ball that didn't make it all the way down the lane! 

Untitled from Melanie Ubil on Vimeo.


Untitled from Melanie Ubil on Vimeo.


This, I think, is the funniest video from the day.  Gwen decided to bowl without the ramp, and it I think is funny.  She is so cute and after the first time she tried it I recommended a little swinging of the arm. I'd like to call this one, "look Ma, no ramp!"

Untitled from Melanie Ubil on Vimeo.

The Jungle

Every year, starting in Kindergarten the kids at the school do a play.  They combine both classes and work for weeks on this play (I have heard there is a 3 year rotation on the plays, which means Nate's will be different!)  Everyone has lines and parts, Gwen was stripes #6.  They had a "dress rehearsal" in front of the whole school in the morning and then that night we had to be there kind of early, so they could get ready!  Gwen was also a greeter and handed out programs. 

We worked for what felt like months on her lines and she finally got them.  There were about 6 or 7 songs, it was really cute.  Some of it very funny.  Unfortunately, I didn't realize the camera was going to die.  Eric mentioned when we got there, oh yeah, the battery was low last time I used it, helpful!  Gwen had quite the problem with her hat! 

The scene shown below was hilarious, there was at least one kid who really got into the whole guitar thing, which was really fun to watch.

Here is Gwen doing her part, she did a great job and we are very proud of her!  Since she mostly mumbles we are very excited when we don't have to strain to hear her talk. 

They had a nice little reception for afterwards and Gwen got to keep some of her props, very exciting stuff! 

Emily's big day

This weekend I had the honor of going to Charlotte and celebrating Emily's Baptism.  The Dr said I was still good to travel until the end of the month, so we packed up Saturday and drove up to Charlotte.  We got there a little early so we could hang, chat and make sure we weren't late!  Emily's Baptism was the first Baptism at this Church, they don't actually have a Church building yet, so they meet in the rec center.  A Priest comes up from the sister Parish and does the Mass.  He seemed slightly confused, because he thought I was the Mom and hadn't lost the baby weight yet, when he figured that out, he thought Eric was the godfather, when he figured that out he then realized that Jess had an older son.  He gave a lot of blessing on us all before Mass and we all walked down the aisle with him.  Since there was no Baptismal font in the rec center, when it came time for the Baptism, he had us all stand in front of the Church while Dave, the godfather held the bowl for the Holy Water.  He gave a really nice service and Emily didn't even make a peep.  She was so good!  Unfortunately Jess didn't have a charged camera, Grandma forgot her camera so we got the only pictures.  For probably the first time EVER we had a completely charged camera and were ready to go!  Eric took all the pictures and he even got a video.  If you look closely you can see me giving Nate the evil eye because he's trying to blow out the Baptismal candle. 

Emily's Baptism - flash slideshow maker

We then all went out to dinner to celebrate and we'd decided to stay the night, but the kids just couldn't settle, so we popped them in the car and drove home!  We got home about midnight.  We stopped twice, but the kids were already asleep.  Once because I was like, "get me out of this car", I have to move and once because Eric felt the same way!
We are spending the rest of the weekend pretty low key, the husband's home and I guess we will be doing some grilling and what not, but that's about it!

Trees

We have some huge trees in our front yard, they provide some really nice shade and unfortunately some not so nice sap and bird droppings on the car.  But most of the time really enjoyable.  The kids asked to hang in the tree with Daddy's help about a month ago, they asked me to take some pictures.  I fortunately had the camera in hand, so I did take some pictures.  I finally had to say ok, enough, they were bordering on the very silly in their poses.  Silly kids! 

Hangin' out - slideshows

6 years

It is weird to be in the same exact place I was 6 years ago, except in a different state.  I am still pregnant, with a girl, and a husband in school.  The only difference is 6 years ago I was in Florida.  These days I am feeling like that is the only difference. 
I don't have much to say this year.  Recently I wondered, am I cranky because I am pregnant, or am I cranky because today was coming, it is hard to judge since I am in the final weeks of pregnancy and have been told I am cranky, but why?  I guess it will be a while until I figure that out.  I don't have any fabulous or insightful words to say today, just things change but yet somehow stay the same. 
I still think how much easier this is for me than for other people, not because I am heartless, but because I live so far away.  My interaction with my Dad was limited to vacations and phone calls and not everyday phone calls, sporadic ones, once a week or so.  It is easy to go about my day and not think about calling or visiting or any of that.  I didn't have day-to-day interaction.  But yet as today has drawn closer I realize I will never forget and I will likely always get a little depressed and cranky around this time, whether I am pregnant or not.  Although Dad has missed so much in my life that I can talk to him about, he is still here in our mist everyday.  I often feel like his only grandson is the channel through which I feel his presence the most, the second child, the child who makes us laugh, just like my Dad, the second child who made us all laugh.  Thanks for watching over us Dad, and although I wish you were still available for the face-to-face I treasure knowing you see every good thing and bad.  Love you Daddy!   

3pm

I don't know what it is about 3-4pm but I am so exhausted this time around.  It could be that I am running Gwen back and forth to school, getting up and walking in the morning, or I am just at the end of this pregnancy and am caring a lot of extra weight!  It could be that I am very busy with school finishing and things happening where we aren't home that much.  Fortunately I don't have any swelling, but my legs are tired and that affects everything.  I think I am going to have to rethink dinner. 

more interested in teeter-totter than strawberries

Other than that, everything is good with this pregnancy. I am very fortunate that I don't have serious complications when it comes to pregnancy and that I don't have any other complaints that tired.  I might start going to bed super early because these days so I can recover.  Part of the problem is that I have been go-go-go and I had to do some volunteering yesterday that usually requires 2-3 people and it was only me.  The person that usually volunteers that day is late so it was a while in before I realized that it was going to be just me.  I got fussed at for not calling anyone, but really it takes time to call people and who had time to think of that!   

What says Welcome from FL than a pink flamingo, placed by Gwen

I think the kids are enjoyed my lay on the couch in the late afternoon because I give them my undivided attention, as long as they stay by the couch.  They are playing more piano.  Gwen would like to take lessons this summer, and I have started giving her rudimentary instruction on the piano, she can find middle C and name all the white notes.  She knows how to hold her hands and sit up straight.  We can't afford to give her formal training and I think she might be a little too young to start with formal lessons, only because I am not sure we can handle the fights over everyday practicing yet. 

Nate wanted to be right in the action

Gwen has her big school play tonight.  I have heard she has come a long way.  She can be so timid that she doesn't say her lines very loud, so we have been working with her on it.  I have heard from her teachers that today during the "dress rehearsal" in front of the school she did a great job.  She is pretty excited about it.  The only problem is Nate didn't nap today, so I hope that he isn't a terror during the performance, since they start right at bedtime.  Maybe he will be mesmerized and fall asleep, a girl can dream! 

Shh!  Don't tell Gwen where Nate plays when she's gone

I started this post last week and still haven't finished it.  I just haven't been in the mood.  I am reaching the last weeks of this pregnancy.  I had a doctor's appointment yesterday.  Everything still seems to be going well, no indication that I am going to be having the baby any time soon.  Although Eric seems to be worrying I will be going early.  I am hoping to hold out until AFTER school finishes.  I still have stuff that needs to be done that I don't want to having looming over with a newborn in tow!  

trap or strawberry patch protector?

I seemed to have developed some sort of allergy/cold.  I have started to take something for it, since I don't really want to be worn out and trying to get birth.  The doctor has asked me to take it easy, so I have removed all the toys on the floor of my kid's room.  Apparently they can't see the hamper or find trash cans, so I'm just helping them out.  They just can't seem to keep stuff off the floor and cleaned up.  I get tired of repeating myself and I just can't clean up their room anymore, so as they keep their room clean and put back stuff where it is supposed to be they will be able to get 1 item back.  It took Nate about 1 hour this morning to realize I was serious and he just got some cars back for FINALLY putting away his shoes and hanging up his jacket.  Their birthday's are coming up and so we need to clear some stuff out, especially now we will have a new baby who has stuff also.  Hopefully Gwen won't freak out too much! 

"Look I trapped a butterfly!"

We are in the home stretch around here, we have clothes washed and hung, toys pulled out, which is a good thing, since I am now down to weeks instead of months.  We are in good shape for this baby, the benefit of #3 is that we still have barely used stuff from #1 & #2 from these first months.  We all are looking forward to meeting the new baby and gearing up for summer! 

The Wedding

Gwen's godmother got married last weekend, we drove up to Virginia Beach with Mom to the wedding.  We had a really nice time.  I was asked to do a reading, so we had to drive up on Thursday to be there for the rehearsal.  I was fairly nervous about the reading, but I've been told it went well, I am pretty sure they didn't have a videographer, so we'll never have any proof.  Kiki did a great job with the wedding, she was beautiful and since she and her husband met at a dance studio, there was lots of fun dancing!  Of course, by then I was not too into doing anything but sitting in my seat and watching.  The kids danced and danced and danced.  The kids were obsessed with Kiki and kept running up to her and giving her hugs.  We let the kids stay up way past their bedtime and everyone crashed in the hotel. 
We had a great mini-vacation.  The hotel was right on the beach. So the kids played on the beach, the water was cold!  I miss the gulf coast!  The kids didn't care though and played in the waves.  We even saw some dolphins.  We had adjoining rooms with Mom, so we had space, and could sleep in.  It was great! 

Kiki's wedding - free slideshows

Teddy bear

I have been working on a little something for the baby.  I found the pattern in a book and have been trying to figure out how to put it together and it hasn't been easy.  These are the body and the head. 

The book doesn't really give any ideas about how to put the things together it just says seam, but I haven't been real sure how to do that, but I bumbled through the process, I think. 

This is what the teddy looks like, with all the pieces.  I have since seamed and stuffed all the parts.

I just have to figure out how to attach. It says use the ladder stitch, and use strong thread.  Does that mean use the knitting thread or some other type of thread?  How do I know it is strong?  I don't know, I'd like to finish the project up, but I am nervous about attaching, I didn't think this would be nerve wracking for me. 

Anna and the egg hunt

On Holy Saturday, we didn't have much to do, so we decided to take the kids to build-a-bear and make a bear for the new baby.  We have made "bears" (Nate's is a turtle) for each of the kids with their in utero heartbeat in the bear.  Since we already have the name picked out and know it is a girl, we figured it didn't really matter when we did it.  So we did it early. 

Here they are kissing the hearts to put in the bear.  The lady actually let Gwen stuff the bear, but apparently I didn't get a picture of that! 

Here they are fluffing up "Anna" as Gwen has dubbed her.

They really enjoyed this, I think they would have stood their all day. 

We spent the next hour, or so it felt, trying to decide on accessories and outfits for Anna.  Have I mentioned that Gwen really enjoys accessorizing!?  We finally got everything done and had heard they had an egg hunt.  We had gone to Eric's work for an Egg hunt, but sadly we got there late and missed the whole thing, the kids where greatly disappointed, so we decided to do the one at the Mall.  They had scavenger type thing where they had clues and then you had to guess.  Some of the clues were to advanced for the kids, but this one was easy to figure, we asked the kids which store had a blue butterfly and Nate got into a pointer pose and Eric and I about fell on the floor!  It was so funny, of course when I went to get a picture Gwen had to do the same because Nate was getting the attention! 

There was a lull, and by lull I mean that the kids where losing steam, so we took a candy break! 

There where 12 or so store participating, most gave candy, but some, fortunately gave bubbles or stickers.  Thank goodness!  Needless to say, the kids really enjoyed the day and where pooped!  A good day before Easter for them, to be sure!