Hows it going?

My plans last week were thwarted over and over again. Of course that's how life goes. :)
I overslept two days and one day I spent at the hospital with my mom for some fixing up on her. She's fine. Of course carting around Lily in her carseat was no fun. I'm definitely getting a Moby wrap until she is big enough for the Ergo without the infant insert. I am really sad that the infant insert is not working out for us.

The rest of the week was a blast! We went to Chuck E Cheese, the beach, bowling, and the museum. The beach was HOT! I now remember why we go around 4pm when we go. But we had fun with our home school group. Lily did awesome and I had some more practice nursing in public. I don't think I will ever get used to it. :)

This week we started our informal school schedule. We are working on workbooks until the end of September when we start our real school schedule. Today was almost a bust because I had to take my mom to the social security office, but we were in and out so I was able to get home and do some more schooling before lunch.

Slowly but surely we will get back into the groove. :)

Be Blessed!

How do you get back to normal?

I have a few steps I am going to take.
The first one is to make sure that I pick up my Bible and prayer journal every day. Why is it that the first thing to go when your life is topsy turvy is your Bible reading? Shouldn't it be the one thing you continue to do during the chaos? Crazy!

The second is to sit down on Sunday evenings and come up with a meal plan and schedule for the next week. Right now working out a schedule on a week by week basis works for me. I can glance at my calendar and see what is going on for the week and plan around that. Like I said before this week will be a really fun week, but I would like to start our read alouds again and I want to get some projects done as well. I have to loosely schedule everything right now with the baby, but having written down what comes next will help when I am pulled away by my precious baby.

The third thing I will be doing is revamping our chore system. I need to streamline it more so that I can check up on how everyone is doing in a more efficient way. I'm still noodling this as I'm not sure how I am going to work it out. I need to give Jonathan some chores and really Tamara needs to start learning how to work in the kitchen. So, lots to think on here.

And the fourth thing I am going to do is continue to read other peoples blog posts and ideas. It sounds like it's counterproductive to getting more organized, but it's what motivates me. My new favorite thing is the link up on Raising Homemakers. I am so motivated just from that! I am the type of person who reads Little House on the Prairie, Janette Oke or an Amish fiction book and I want to hop right up and go make my house a little homier. Blog time for me is educational time. I'm constantly learning.

I hope to get back to semi regular blogging. It's a nice outlet for all the thoughts in my head. :)

Be Blessed!

Getting Back To Normal

And what exactly is this normal I am speaking of?? :)
It's being a wife, mother, and homemaker. It's trying to re-prioritize my life. It's recognizing that this small wonder really needs me right now, but so do my other children. It's eeking out time with my wonderful husband and trying to reestablish a comfortable home life for the rest of the family.

My baby is growing up so quickly. She is already 2 months old. Where is the time going??

I have tried off and on to get some school going but it's not working out.

Next week we will celebrate the first week of public school here by playing.

We will play at Chuck E Cheese on Monday, the Museum on Tuesday, the beach on Wednesday, bowling on Thursday, Friday is TBD.

I plan to post on my Large Family Review Blog about how we managed the whole week affordably.

After our week of play we will buckle back down to our Read Alouds and finishing up workbooks.

The last week in September we will formally start our new year.

In the mean time I will be thoroughly cleaning the house and rearranging/reorganizing some of the more cluttered areas.

I will be working with the children to reestablish their chores. Right now it's almost an anything goes scenario with their chores and that is SO not working out for me. :)

Lily is getting older and is establishing a more set routine for herself. Right now it's totally baby led as far as feeding and napping. But I am seeing more of a pattern.

My kids need more of a routine, my hubby needs more of a routine, and I surely need more of a routine. It's been pretty chaotic around here.

I have new ideas and new tricks up my sleeve. We'll see how it goes!

Lily Grace's Birth Story

I have been working on this post for weeks now! Weeks! Hard to type when my hands are always so busy. But, oh, how much I love it!! This is our first picture with all three of us!

After praying all week to go into labor naturally, my water broke at 2:15am Friday June 18. Even though I kept telling people all week that I was going to have my baby on Friday, I did not have my bag packed, her bag packed or the car seat ready to go. Thankfully, even though my water broke I was not experiencing contractions or other problems. By 3:30am we were walking out the door.

One last picture before we go. See, I told you I was getting huge! Roy was so excited. I was just nervous. Of course it was also at this moment that I realized my plan was to do laundry all day on Friday so the kids would have clothes to wear while I was in the hospital. Thanks to my wonderful friends and mom who put together outfits for them all.

Oh yeah.. I forgot to put gas in the car after running all of my errands on Thursday. Roy was so nervous he pressed the buttons to fast and actually had to go in and pay. He was not happy. I was just walking around the car. Still no contractions.

This picture is just for posterity. This was right after she was born. Lovely picture.LOL

At the hospital we were informed that our birth plan had been completely changed. I would be on a glucose and insulin drip during labor, I would be on pitocin, and fluids. We finally agreed to a low dose of pitocin because contractions were still very very mild.

This was the next day. Roy was beat. He stayed with me the whole time.

I did manage to labor with no epidural until about 1pm. I was at 6cm and they wanted to up the Pitocin some more because of the slow progression. I knew if they upped the Pitocin I would pass out. The contractions were already so bad that I spent ALL of my energy trying to relax. Plus, the contractions were in a weird place. I felt them in the very tops of my legs. No matter what position I tried I could not relax that part of my body enough to deal with the pain.

The look of pure relief on Roy's face when I consented to the epidural made it worth it.

My blood sugar stayed pretty stable throughout labor. I think it went to 148 once while I was pushing. If it stayed between 80 and 100 they did not have to do insulin or glucose. I think they only administered the insulin twice and the glucose three times.

I labored well for another five or six hours. When my nurse came into to check me I was at 8cm and then she said something horrible. I was swelling on one side. She said if she told Dr. B then he would start prepping me for a c-section. She finally decided to tell him that I was progressed another 1/2cm. She then laid the bed flat and turned me on my right side.

I remember tears pouring down my face as I cried out to God. Friends came in a prayed. The pain was becoming unbearable but I welcomed it because I was praying that the contractions were working.

Nurse Kim, then brought in her replacement Nurse Becky and told me she'd hand picked her just for me. When Nurse Becky checked me a little later I was at 9 1/2 and ready to push. It was 8pm.

The first few pushes weren't so bad. Although, the epidural was only working in my legs at that point. The anesthesiologist was called in at one point and asked to administer some morphine. I remember that all very vaguely. I do remember staring at him and thanking him. LOL

I pushed and pushed and pushed. I remember Dr. B finally coming in. I looked at him and said, "Hi!"

Here's where the story gets funny.

I'd been pushing and only grunting a few times. I thought I was doing pretty good. Dr. B does not do episiotomies. At the time he told us that we thought that was amazing. So shocked that we did not ask him how he avoids them.

When he did the perinium massage I screamed and might have actually stood up on the bed.

Yeah, he thought I was more numb than I was.

He was so shocked that he actually got onto me. I missed a whole contraction while he explained very sternly that I needed to get control. (Just know he's still my fave!! He made up for it later)

This is Nurse Kim. The nurse I told you about earlier. Isn't she beautiful? I LOVE her.
I pushed some more and then, THEN! they told me to stop pushing b/c the Dr did not have his scrubs on yet. OH yeah, the top of my baby's head was sticking out and my contractions were constant! I remember begging Dr. B to help me. He kept telling me he was coming. The next thing I knew he was above me and my baby was slipping out. I felt the head, the shoulders, then she was on my stomach and he was beaming like a proud papa.

It was later described as a frantic birth. Once she started coming she was coming. LOL

Stuff was knocked over in the haste to get his scrubs on. His hat and shoe coverings were actually tossed to the other side of the room before he could get those on.

The best part was when they announced that my baby was 7 pounds 1oz. Dr. B turned slowly towards the nurse and in disbelief asked her to repeat. She did.

Then he turned back to me with a huge grin and kept saying, "Your my hero!" He then told everyone in the room about my diabetic journey. LOL

I asked him why he ever doubted me! :)

After the room was cleared out and Roy had gone to get our family waiting in the waiting room Dr. B came back in and gave me a hug as we admired my new baby. He then apologized for getting on to me and told me I was still his favorite patient. He waxed on admiringly for a few minutes about what a great job I'd done during the whole pregnancy. It was pretty sweet.

We had a pretty uneventful stay. Though the next day they informed me that they thought Lily had an infection and wanted to start antibiotics. They took her to the nursery to get the IV in and two hours later they were still trying to get a vein. When they brought her back in to me she looked at me wide eyed and breathed a little sigh before snuggling in and sleeping for three hours.

All in all I think it was a pretty positive experience. The hospital was great and my nurses were the BEST! I loved them. I ended up with a 2nd degree tear but it healed up nicely in just a couple of weeks. I was in some pain but I was able to get up and move around about an hour after birth with no problems.

Lily ended up with Jaundice. They started talking about all the treatment options, but I knew if I could just get out of the hospital and to my holistic pediatrician it would be ok. I knew she would just have me nurse, nurse, nurse.

Her levels continued to go up but they did discharge us because I had an appointment with her pediatrician the next day. And of course she had me nurse, nurse, nurse and her levels went straight down!

Breastfeeding went well and is still going great. I had some issues the day my milk came in. Bad enough that Roy went to Walmart at 11:3opm and got a manual pump. I pumped it out for a day and she ate from a medicine dropper. After that I only used the pump to get the milk started for one day and then after that she has been a pro.

She is a wonderful baby. A true gift from God. I just can't believe how blessed I am. I still get a little teary eyed when I look at her.

Thank you all for your prayers. I am convinced she is such a healthy, happy baby because of all of your prayers. Our God is an awesome God.

Here it all is finally! Sorry I have been away so long. She is a month old now. :)

Be Blessed!

Welcome!

Miss Lily Grace was born on Friday June 18 at 10:09 p.m.
She weighed 7lbs 1oz and was 20in long.

Her daddy is smitten as are the rest of us! :)
She is beautiful and happy.
More pics and a birth story to follow.
Thanks for all of your prayers.

Be Blessed!

Can you tell what I'm doing?

All images are from BHG.com
I am busy, busy, busy preparing for baby. I know I keep promising a belly pic and I really will get one. I meant to get one today but I put on my working clothes before I could. Trust me, no one wants to see me in my working clothes. LOL
We finished the floors in our bedroom and one more coat of paint aught to finish the walls. Then I will set up her corner of the room. I have already pulled all of the newborn and 0-3 month clothes out. I bought most of her blankets the other day though I do have some material to make about three more receiving blankets. I will start that project tomorrow.

My Dr. decided to induce Monday the 21st. I was fighting it for awhile but I think I have almost decided to do it. I will be 39w which is when they like to induce diabetic patients. Everything looks great for me so I was actually going to try to wait one more week. I still don't know for sure yet. I keep praying for some guidance but have not really heard anything either way. I don't want to be induced. I don't want an epidural and I was afraid I would have to have one with the pain of induction. I have read a few accounts lately of women not having epidurals with induction. I'm still wavering. I am probably going to call my OB tomorrow and ask him to talk me through some stuff.

The good news is that at 38 weeks I was 4cm dilated and 70% effaced. He might just have to break my water. I know still painful but not Pitocin. My prayer is that she actually decides to come this week and make all my decisions moot. That would be awesome! I have some contractions at night but nothing regular. What a wonderful Father's Day present that would be!

Be Blessed!

Almost 38 weeks

Still hanging in there. I will try to get an updated belly picture today or tomorrow. Let's just say it's HUGE! Tomorrow I will be 38 weeks. At the OB on Monday I was 3-4cm dilated, 50%effaced, and 0 station. I have had some contractions since then but nothing noticeable really.
My OB was really pleased with my progress and said that if he has to induce all he will probably need to do is break my water. I'm pushing him to the full 40 weeks, though I have agreed to be induced after that. It's a compromise I made with my DH. I am hoping that extra week will do it for me and I can start labor on my own.

I am OBSESSED with cleaning, organizing, decorating, and crafting right now. The only problem is that the C.O. and D (cleaning, organizing and decorating) is centered on my bedroom. The rest of the house can survive without me. I think it's because Lily will be moving into our room.

Dh is finishing my floors today and Tuesday (if Lily stays put) he will be painting for me. He might even start tomorrow. Yes, I know it's Sunday but time is running out folks! :)

Monday I have a fluid scan and NST in the A.M., then we are going to pick up Lily's bed and a few other essentials, and then I have my OB appt in the afternoon. It's gonna be a full day.

I had a wonderful baby shower with my church last Sunday. I got lots of clothes and baby dolls for my baby. We did not get anything on our registry so there are a few things I have to pick up still. We will do that on Monday when we get the bed.

We seem to be set for clothes through about 9m so that works. By set I mean the child has about 4 outfits a day. LOL I thought about weeding out some of the clothes passed down to me, but they are all so cute. Believe it or not I have no receiving blankets/burp cloths for this baby. I remember with Jonathan I was loaded with those. I thought the girls and I might whip up a few on our own. Good practice for us. :)

Well that's my baby update. I will try to get a belly pic and some pictures of the outfits my mom bought her oh and some really cute things that were made for me and baby up tomorrow or Monday.

I am having so much fun planning for this baby! We have one week of school books left. After that we are off though I did schedule in some read alouds and narrations. But that's not really school it's to much fun! :)

Be Blessed!