Patience is a virtue that I have still not learned- and neither has De'etta :)

Or- sorry for making everybody wait!

She was born at 12:34 Sunday morning, so she was a Resurrection Baby! Saturday I talked Ian into taking me to town for a walk along the river. I walked at least 3 miles and- surprisingly- labor started right after. It was about 7 or 8 hours long I guess; although, I think if I'd not been so tired and ready for bed after the walk, I'd say it would have gone a little more quickly. She was born posterior, so my mom and Ian who were on either side of me got to see her little face come first. I hear it was quite a sight! There was some meuconium in the water, so the nurses held her/suctioned her first, but then my mom got to cuddle with her till I was ready. She was beautiful, alert, active and loud at birth, and has been pretty much the same in three hour intervals since.


I will say that the hospital experience was not that great, and there were a lot of things I was disappointed with. But I'm so grateful that she is here and healthy and now home, and God definately met me where I was. He calmed me and held me there during the labor. I felt unsafe and pressured to do some things that I thought were dangerous, and I could feel fear in the room- their fear- but it just seemed to roll off me as I prayed.


Elizabeth roomed with us during our hospital stay. She left our room for two hours Sunday night so that I could rest (because her tummy was uncomfortable, she'd had trouble going potty), and for 45 minutes Tuesday morning (for the PKU, billi-test, and discharge stuff). Since coming home Tuesday afternoon, she has been the center of attention. Micaela sings and sings to her. Nathaniel and Gabe watch her every move and long to gently touch their baby sister. Asher runs between playing with his toys and petting sister's head. None of the children have held her yet. They still are coughing and running fevers off and on.


And now the real reason I'm sure you're here...
Elizabeth Ann weighed in at 8lbs 5 oz (same as her brother Nathaniel) and measured 21.25" (.25" shorter than Nathaniel)


Nana was very happy to get to be there
Elizabeth wanted her mommy, but the midwife wouldn't let momy have her yet
Daddy was proud
Mommy's in love

And Asher has his own personal baby

And it Begins!

I lost my plug this morning, and I'm still having low contractions. Some mild. Some intense, but all fairly short. Maybe tomorrow?

A great praise!

I've had horrible back aches for the last several weeks. My upper and lower back have been sore, painful and tender. I've woken up every night when rolling over because it hurt so bad. I get up all bent over like an old woman. Anyway, last night around 4 I got up to go potty, and I noticed the pain is gone! I'm not tender at all or the least bit sore. I feel normal! Well, normal for being 9 months pregnant. I have no idea what caused it or what made it go away, but THANK YOU, GOD!
Also, I had mild, low contractions all night, and I feel like baby moved down a little more. I can now say that I'm excitedly expecting, and I don't feel nearly as depressed as I have. I actually feel capable of managing the house and children in this state.

Just another day...

Nothing really special happened today. I had to get the kids up and out early to make it to my ultrasound this morning. They had wanted to do it next week at 41.5 wks, but the tech was going on vacation with her children, so they just moved it up. It was fun to see the baby. She is high still. She had two hands and one foot in front of her face, so I have a picture of a nose surrounded by appendages. It's pretty funny. Her other foot was sitting on her bum in my rib cage. The tech couldn't believe how far up she was! After the appt, the kids and I went to eat lunch with my mom. We had soup and salad from Olive Garden. They have Micaela's favorite soup. Everything we eat is her favorite, so I don't know if it's that much better or not : )

All the older children are now getting croupy, and Nathaniel and Micaela are running fevers. They were very mellow this afternoon. They had some hot chamomile and honey tea and colored pictures for me. Nathaniel wrote me a long letter of random letters.

When Ian came home we had breakfast for dinner- eggs, toast, sausage, and potatoes. And then.... the UPS man came! The orchard had messed up our order last month, sending us an extra peach instead of one of our apples, and then a different apple had been on back order. Today they mailed us both our missing apples and an extra one to boot! We received ten trees for the price of eight, and Ian's thrilled to have our little orchard plot filling up. We'd like to get two cherries and another plum and almond next spring, and then I think we'll have exhausted our space for trees. This fall I'd like to get blueberries, but we'll see if we have the money. Anyway, we all went out after dinner and planted the three new trees. The boys are such big helpers, they each had their shovel out and helped move topsoil and break up clods for their dad. Micaela wanted to help too, but she really wasn't feeling well and I sent her inside to cuddle on the couch and read a book. Asher chased kitties.

As a little side note- I'm finally having a few Braxton Hicks contractions!!!!!! The full moon is tomorrow- maybe? I'm taking evening primrose on the advice of my midwife- actually I haven't yet taken one, but I'm going to as soon as I get up. And that's the end. My loving husband is working on his second load of dishes tonight (I made a mess this morning before I left), and I'm about to go do my fourth load of laundry today (I've been slowly washing bags of hand me downs- so I've got extra to do each day).

Still at home :)

Vicki called last night after I was in bed to see if I'd had a baby- I haven't yet. I'm still not having any contractions or any other indications. I did have an appointment with the midwife. The baby's heart beat was soooo high she thought that maybe she was not feeling the head down, so we did a quick ultrasound to check. Baby is still head down, but her head is floating very high, and her bum is in my rib cage! I think that baby is posterior, but that doesn't mean anything since she's so far from being engaged. I'm still 3cm. Basically there's no change at all. The midwife doesn't think there's any visible reason for the baby to stay up high. She seems to think that labor contractions will push the baby down; of course, I can't be induced so we have to depend on natural methods to stimulate contractions if they don't come. If I don't go into labor by 41 wks, they'll schedule me to come in and have my water broken during the folllowing week. There are two risks there- with 3 of my pregnancies, my water was broken way longer than 24 hours without labor (which means c/section at a hospital) and also since baby's so high, there's the danger of cord prolapse. Anyway, I've had to come to terms with the fact that God knows when and how this baby will be delivered, and it doesn't matter if it's naturally or surgically- there's really nothing I can do to change it.

A few more photos..

Here are some photos of Asher before and after his first hair cut...

One of the mystery shrubs.. any ideas? The flowers look like mini daisies with yellow centers. They covered the whole stem before there were any leaves, and now there are more flowers and just a few leaves.


A pretty forsythia, and another photo of a quince.
This is one of the mature plum trees. We assume it's just for decoration, but of course we have the faint hope that it might produce fruit :)

This is Micaela with Sally the kitty kitty.

This is Micaela modeling some of the daffodils. She informs me we have thousands, and that is good since she has picked hundreds.

This is Micaela with Striper, the shy kitty. It is really strange that Asher can catch Striper, but Ian and I can't.

Gabriel wanted his picture made too. He is always accompanied by his dumptruck, hoe and shovel.

Here he is swinging. I love the grin ;0)
I'm not posting a photo of me, but I still have a ginormous belly.

Except for the haircut, all the pictures are from today. I'm using this to help me remember when things bloom, and where they are. So far I've given away about 25 clumps of lillies from the lilly bed. I'm trying to make room for strawberries and peas. There's at least 50 more clumps in that bed, and they can all be divided about 6 times I think. The irises are in very bad need of division. I've never done any flower gardening before, and I'm afraid to ruin them, but they all need to be moved to make room for vegetables. I'll keep a few, but I don't need 100s and 100s of bulbs! Chas, if you're reading stop by any time for lillies or irises. I can't promise you a certain color, but I can promise a profusion :)

While we were outside today, Asher was catching up on his sleep. He hasn't run a fever at all since the hospital, and his breathing is sounding 100% better. His cough is not bad at all now unless he's mad. Nathaniel didn't want to come out- he was working puzzles.

a middle of the night update

Asher had to go to the ER today for a breathing treatment. He also got a dose of oral steriods to open up his wind pipe. He is doing much better and has been able to rest since then; although he still has that barky cough.

Just before I took Asher to the hospital, Micaela started throwing up. YUCK! That's why I went to the hospital and Ian stayed home. I don't know if it's viral or food related, but she seems to be over the worst. She reported feeling queasy again after attempting to eat dinner, but she was ok.

The middle boys are fine- VERY loud and active, but fine.

Ian's exhausted from sitting up with Asher all night. He tried to take a nap today, but our active little boys pulled a dresser down on top of themselves- one of those things you KNOW you SHOULD fix, but never get around to ACTUALLY doing- so he had to get up and screw it to the wall and console Micaela who happened to be under it with Gabriel.

Which brings us to me! I have nothing to report except a nagging fear that something is preventing this baby from descending, and that I may have to have another c/s. Oh, and I'm a little sick to my stomach and very sore from our terrible mattress (actually the mattress only bothers me when I'm pregnant- Ian says it's psycological). That's why I'm not asleep at 2:30.

In other news... while I was gone to the hospital three ladies from the church came by to bring us lunch. It was just after Micaela had thrown up and Ian was trying to get her to the bath room to finish. He opened the door, told them I was at the hospital with Ash and that Micaela was sick, and that he had to go. They told him they'd brought lunch. He said leave it on the porch and went to help Micaela. He has no idea who it was, so I have no idea who to thank :) Also, they're supposed to bring us meals after we have the baby, so they probably think we've had the baby, and someone will probably bring us lunch tomorrow! I don't know why but I think it's really funny that Ian wouldn't stop a moment to talk to them.

Bad timing...

Everyone knows that I had expected to have the baby between the 38.5 and 39.5 week mark because of my history. At that time Asher was recovering from a staph infection. Now we're up with croup! Maybe we'll have this baby when he's recovered- is that 10 days?
That remark was slightly sarcastic and made last night just before my battery died. Now that it's morning, let me say that Asher really is very sick. His wheezing is really bad. Please pray for him to not be ill long. He had mild RSV as an infant (he caught it when we lived in the 1 bedroom, and all the other children had it, too, but I thought it was a cold). Anyway, he is more susceptible and his immune system is probably down from such a long course of antibiotics for staph (he is a carrier and tends to get repeat infections). He insists on Ian holding him constantly, and he can't sleep laying down, so he's been in Ian's arms all night and morning. Right now he's playing with the humidifier.

Three more days?

I'm still here, and I'm still contraction free. I can find no reason to skip ballet today, so I'm about to load 'em up and head 'em out. Micaela of course is thrilled to go dance, and the boys are thrilled too. They LOVE ballet. They don't know exactly what ballet means except that at ballet, there are always 10-15 boys in a waiting area full of hot wheels. It's a class of homeschool girls with LOTS of brothers. Well, I guess 3 are mine and 3 belong to another lady, but that's only about half :) I promised my mom a photo of Asher's haircut today, but I haven't taken it off the camera yet. I'll get around to it. I've got at least three more days right?

Another day of comfort ;0)

Well, the day has begun (at my house it's been day for 4 hrs already). It's nearly 9:30, and I've not even had a twinge of a contraction. For every night/morning I don't have contractions, I'm adding 3 days to my timeline.... that takes me to what, Saturday? I just don't know what to do till then. I can't do school, I'm at a good stopping place and I've just parked for a while. Well, we are doing math. Day before yesterday, Micaela climbed up in a tree and tried to do her math, but she kept dropping her pencil and climbing down to get it, so I made her sit at the table. I'm just doing little things- this morning I scrubbed the dirt and grime from around the washing machine basin rim. I can't believe how dirty it gets. I'm going to blame it on the kids, but really I've never seen a machine get so dirty, so I don't know what it is. I guess I've never lived on 6 acres of dirt either. I don't really know what to do with the rest of my day. Everyone has cleaned (and subsequently trashed) their room already. Ian swept and mopped this morning. I want to go take a long walk, but the kids can't keep up, so I guess I'll just let them play outside and I'll sit and watch. I think I might polish furniture and finish hemming Micaela's dresses. Chas has inspired me to learn to sew, and I made three little dresses a couple weeks ago. I made all three in about 4 days, and now 2-3 weeks later, they're still waiting on a hem. I'm terrible! I was excited because I made them by myself! I did have my grandma come over and show me how to put in a zipper. They turned out pretty well for a first project.
Well, the children are getting rowdy, and rowdiness always leads to someone getting hurt- and then someone else tries to defend the hurt child and the other child gets hurt, and it's just a vicsious cycle...

An unsupervised morning at my house...

I have told the children that mommy is getting ready for Elizabeth. She is SURELY coming this week, so I'm cleaning and organizing and repacking a few things that I raided from mine and the kids' bags. I have to catch up from the weekend. Saturday I was swollen and yucky feeling, and I left poor Ian to take care of the kids by himself- so we didn't clean up that day. Sunday after church we went to town and came home to find a busted pipe and no water- so we didn't clean up that day either. Today the water is fixed and I have a HUGE mess. The children have been left to entertain themselves.
It's barely 10:00, and already they have fought a war with Captain Hook and killed him. They have hidden from and outsmarted the Catcappers- mean people who steal children and (like a strange cross between Pharoah and Edgar on the Aristocats) throw them to the crocodiles. They have cleaned their rooms, dressed, brushed their teeth, fed the kitties, and cleaned the playroom. Micaela has read some books to her brothers. Asher has read several books in the floor of Micaela's room surrounded by 2 Peter Pans and a Wendy, and then again by those fleeing the Catcappers. They also shut themselves up in the boys' teeny tiny closet and got stuck. I thought that was funny, but they didn't care. They were safe from the Catcappers in there. Afterwards they worked puzzles (because they dumped the pieces out in an effort to distract the Catcappers) which I promptly hid. Now they are doing school. Micaela is the teacher, and she's pointing to the alphabet chart with a giant stuffed flower stem, making them repeat after her... This is A (A), B (B) C (C) D (D) E (E) Eeeeehhhhhhhff (Eh), no Eeeehhhhfff (Eh) NO! EEEEeeeeehhhfff (FFFFFFFF), and so on. Then she did the sounds... A says ah, B says Buh, .... and S, S says Eeeeehhhhhssss. You get the picture :) They've stopped with the Alphabet and now they're doing 'Maps.' Micaela is reading all the names of the states/countries on our maps. Gabriel is repeating. They want to play Caribou next. I'm very grateful there've been no fights this morning!

A post of photos

The long awaited Christmas outfit picture (this is the best of the bunch) :)








The explosion of Mount Thera. Is this already on the blog?

A VERY common sight in our home.

Sisters are always useful for getting the hair out of your eyes.

We all like to paint. Some of us still like to eat the paint.

Micaela and Nana at the baby shower.
Daddy's Valentine to all of us. YUM!Asher is reading here to find out exactly what a Valentine is.

One of the first days warm enough for us to spend a long time outside.
Daddy turned the soil in the garden, and Asher drove the tractor.

This last weekend we planted peas and made a few raised beds. Asher enjoyed digging.
Nathaniel flew his stringless kite.

Gabriel and Micaela both spent a lot of time digging and planting. Gabriel is desperate to plant the GREEN seeds.

Here's daddy covering the peas after building his trellis, and beneath are some of daddy trying to scare me to death- I mean removing a dead tree.
These next two are photos of flowering quince, I think. One is from a day where we had a little snow. We're still trying to identify all the shrubs and flowers around the house.