Pete's arrival

Pete’s due date was Sunday, October 30. Not only was I certain I’d have him before then, but I was sure he’d be such a quick birth, like Henry, I was afraid of having him in my pants! I was getting pretty impatient with his arrival and was up Thursday, Nov. 3 at about 4 am. No contractions, just couldn’t sleep. When Dave got up at 5 for a run I told him to go ahead and run far away as nothing was going to happen here!

At 6:49 I woke up with the first contraction and I thought, “oh, I remember what this feels like: Pain”. I waited and timed them and they seemed to get more intense and closer, but it wasn’t too bad. I called Dave at work (he’d put in about a 25 minute workday thus far) and had him come home at 7:20.

He got Mary, from next door, to stay with the kids who weren’t up yet and I called my mom to drive from Muskegon and we left for the hospital. My contractions were around 4 minutes apart and definitely getting intense!

We arrived at 8 am (easy to remember times when you’re timing contractions) but were in triage for over an hour as they monitored my contractions. They were concentrated in my back and were getting pretty painful, though not moving closer together. The nurse checked me when we came in and I was at about a 4. We suspected the baby was face-up so I tried hands and knees, but I was terrified they’d send me home as my water had not broken and the contractions still were not moving closer. I was afraid I wasn’t “in labor”

At about 9:20 she checked me and I was at 4.5 so I was technically in labor and making cervical change. They wheeled me into delivery and I started asking for an epidural right away! I wanted a natural birth, like Henry’s, because the recovery is so much easier, but I could tell that I just wasn’t having a similar labor and like Charlotte, who was face up, I didn’t think I’d make any progress with the back labor without the epidural.

At about 10:15 I got the epidural and aside from a nick to my nerve in my right leg (shooting pains and kick was the result), that went well. Suddenly, that back pain went away! But it also revealed the uterine contractions that had been there the whole time that I didn’t even notice with that back pain. Let me tell you, back labor is serious stuff! The uterine contractions I totally could have handled. But since it was in anyway, we turned it up a bit to dull that ☺

The on-call doctor came in about 11:30 and I was only at a 7 and my water hadn’t broken yet and my doc would able to come a little after noon, so we decided to wait for her. She arrived about 12:30 and checked me and as she did we discussed breaking my bag of waters when it broke! That was easy. I was at a 9 or so and she went to change her clothes.

By this point, I could start feeling much more in the uterine contractions and could tell that things were changing. She got back about 12:45 (as I was getting uncomfortable and sassy) and then we could finally this on the road. I pushed with 3 or 4 contractions, for a total of about 20 minutes. But it was strange because my contractions never got closer; they were still 4 minutes apart. Very glad for that epi when he was in the birth canal- I remember that part with Henry and having to wait almost 4 minutes between pushes would have been bad!

At 1:09 pm, he came out and it felt so good! Getting that near 10 lbs off my other organs was so nice! His little hand was up right next to his face and the doctor gently unwound the cord that was around his neck and hand. They put him on my chest and I thought “oh good, I DO love you!” and he was just perfect. Dave cut the cord, the doctors did repairs on the 3rd degree tear (apparently along my old Charlotte fault line).

It took a while to get feeling back after the epi was turned off and I was a “fall risk” as my bracelet proclaimed (I faint really easily) so I had to be gurneyed up to recovery around 4 pm.

Pete’s been great! He hard cried at all. He had the mildest form of respiratory distress, which sounded like a tiny Geiger counter. But that cleared up within a day. He’s been sleeping and nursing just beautifully. Charlotte and Henry were so excited to meet him and hold him; it was a joy to see their faces as they looked upon him.

Duck, Duck, GOOSE!

Last night Charlotte wanted to play a game with me. Henry was in the sandbox and Dave was cleaning up dinner dishes. She said she wanted to play duck duck goose. The following is a transcript of this event.

Kate: Okay, how do you play?
CJ: You sit in a circle and touch peoples heads and say duck and then goose and then you run.
Kate: so do we need another person to play?
CJ: no, we can do it.
[we sit in a "circle" across from each other]
CJ: I'll go first
[stands up and deliberates...wheels turning in mind...]
No, you go first.
Kate: I think we need someone else. go get daddy
[dave and henry join us. CJ wants to play upstairs in our bedroom. we sit on the floor as charlotte goes around us]
CJ: Duck
Henry: Duck [gets up and follows her]
CJ: duck
Henry: duck
CJ: goose! [as she pats Dave's head]
Henry: Goose!
[charlotte runs around the circle, dave gets up to follow her, she completes the circle then keeps going and runs into her room. Henry follows her. Dave follows her. They all come back]
Charlotte: Okay, now your turn, Daddy.
[in a whisper: call me the goose!]

This continued for about 15-20 minutes with Henry refusing to sit down always following whoever was it and repeating duck or goose. The running was in all directions and made little sense or difference whether the person who was it was gotten by the goose. Again, Playing with her is like playing with a drunk person. Just another reason why living with toddlers is like being at a frat party.

The people in your neighborhood

This afternoon as naptime approached, the kids were bickering over toys and me, so I kicked us outside. I picked some ripe tomatoes and Henry noted that the people 3 doors down had a lawn service doing some weed-wacking. So the kids and I walked down there. On the porch was the man who lived there, Mr. Zazakis. He and his wife, Marina, are from Greece though they've been here in the states since they were in their 20's. They invited the kids in right away and gave them candy. The kids made themselves at home and sat on the couch and then it was sort of awkward when the kids decided to go upstairs. But the Zazakis were so nice and welcoming. They sent me home with some candies from Greece that their daughter, who lives there, brings to them. There is a picture of the Mona Lisa on the wrappers.

I think the kids are learning that every neighbor they visit will offer them treats. What a nice neighborhood where that happens. Yesterday we visited Cele across the street and the kids played with her cats. And of course, yesterday when we got home from grocery shopping Henry got out of the car and started calling for Mary and Bernie. Mary was outside and she gave the kids popsicles. We're like the block moochers. I'm okay with that.

Garden Glory

It is a little early to really be planting stuff, but it is getting crazy out of control in my house so I transplanted almost all my seedlings today. I made sure to water them well because they looked pretty traumatized from the move. Hopefully they'll perk up soon. I see the sun is peeking out now so they might get a little warmth.

I plan on covering them with old sheets or a plastic tarp at night for the first few nights because I haven't hardened them off yet. In an ideal world, I would have left them outside for a few hours at a time to get used to the outside gradually. But all of a sudden I realized that I had the time to plant them and I needed them out, now!

My tomatoes were so darn leggy, I ended up stripping the bottom 12-18 inches of leaves and burying the stalk in a shallow trench and then tied the top to a stake so that roots will grow out of the stalk. Tomatoes are good like that. I need to buy lots more cages, though. I only had 4 cages because I used my peony cages on my
peonies this year :-)

I tied some twine up to stakes to make a half-assed fence to keep two year olds out of the garden. But I need to buy some more stakes, too. When my irises bloom, I'll really need the stakes for them and for my gladiolas.

Feels so good to be out in the yard and it is looking sharp with our new playset. If only Dave would agree to cut the lawn shorter. He says longer is better for it. That might be true, but it looks unruly to me.

Oh, biggidy-bomb is up so I'll go tend to him now. I'll post pics later.

Relaxing on a sunny day

I am enjoying a day without a nap. I finally feel good again! About two weeks ago, I got a cold. Then I concurrently got a UTI (thankfully, my dear Dr. Andy was able to prescribe me some stuff since I couldn't get to my doctor). Then Charlotte got some sort of stomach/poop bug that lasted FOUR days. Then as she got better, I got it! But it only lasted a couple of days and Henry never got it.

So I have been napping because I've been sick and miserable. But now I feel pretty good. I worked out today and then we went to see Mary and her new baby, James. He is a peanut! I can't believe babies are so small. Henry looked like Gigantatron next to baby James. My friend Rose also had a baby yesterday, her baby is Elsa. Love that nice german name.

My seed catalog from Henry Fields came today and though I wanted to use burpee (like mom always does), I find this one is slightly cheaper, and so I might use that.

The sun is coming through the windows, the kids are both sleeping and all the world is at peace. Maybe that is the margarita talking. What? A margarita in the middle of the day?? you might ask. BUT, if you think about it, it is the most responsible time for me to drink when I don't have any childcare duties. I just have to be good to nurse at about 5pm. No problem! And though "daytime drinking" is a supposed to be a sign of alcoholism, I can assure you all that I haven't been drinking a whole heck of alot lately. Just too busy/too tired to do much. I go to bed at like 9:30. Last night I stayed up til 10:10 and I thought that was late!

I'd love to post pics, but I"m using my "craptop" and it doesn't have our photos on it, so maybe another time.