The kids have had spring break this week; and with a new baby around and Mommy not so spry, that translates into an excessive amount of movie viewing. Hook has been a favorite on the menu. And apparently that results in conversations like this one from tonight with Georgie:

Georgie:  Mom, was Captain Hook right?

Me:  Umm, I don’t know. What did he say?

Georgie: He said that parents tell their kids stories so that they’ll fall asleep and the parents can have time to themselves.

Me: Yes! That sounds about right to me.

Georgie: (insert hysterical laughter here). I knew that was a dumb question. You guys would never do that to us. I just had to ask it to get it off my mind.

Me: (dead silence)

Ahhh, so trusting! I didn’t bother to correct this charming faith in our parenting skills. He undoubtedly wouldn’t have believed me even if I had.

Rachel

P.S. Anika finally lost her first tooth on Tuesday, which she was pretty excited about. As soon as I can schmooze my Hubby into downloading the picture from the camera, I’ll post it for you.

Yay! He’s out. Phew! I can sleep on my stomach again, which is clearly the most important point in this entire story. Want to see a picture (of the baby, not me sleeping on my stomach)? Meet our newest monkeyhead (as his Daddy has started calling him already), Henry George Shubin:

Henry was born yesterday evening (March 24th) at 5:26pm. This picture was taken this morning so he doesn’t look quite so much like he’s been in some sort of professional boxing match. If you’d like to see the rest of the pictures, they are here: Henry’s Birth Pics.

Henry’s a big boy! Did you see all the rolls he has in the birth pictures? Those are no lie. He weighed 9lbs 7 oz when he was born and is 22 inches long, all of which is much larger than our other kids (they were 7#5, 8#2, 8#9, 9#0, and 7#5).

Since I had been dilated to 3cm for at least a week before Henry was born and was pretty miserable, Patricia (the midwife) broke my water yesterday around 11am when she came over for my appointment. For the first couple hours not too much happened, which was pretty discouraging.

For the three nights prior, I had gotten very little sleep. I’d slept for about three hours, woken up and then couldn’t get back to sleep for the next three hours followed by maybe an hour and a half of maybe being able to sleep. So, after two hours of not-really-consistent contractions when I walked around that stopped when I sat down, I trudged upstairs to dejectedly take a nap for an hour.

This turned out to be a great idea! I had probably four contractions during nap and another four or five during the shower I took when I woke up. They were starting to get a bit harder (not really anything I’d classify as “hard labor” though) and closer together but still slowed down when I sat down to rest.

About four o’clock all the wishy washy contraction stuff was replaced by hmmm, I think I might be in transition contractions. Much more ouch, closer together, didn’t go away when I sat down ~ yep, time to get in the tub. An hour and a half in there and we had a baby. Yay!

Since we and the Shubins and a few other miscellaneous personnel had gone over to my parents’ house the night before for Easter, the kids had all been disbursed to grandparents’ houses. Everyone came back to meet the new baby and then took back off again to go back to where they came from. Faith and Kyra are still at George & Tanya’s (Hubby’s parents) until Thursday, and the older three kids came back home this afternoon. Having the little girls off is quite a relief and I think the older three are likely to be rather helpful.

I was just heading off for a nap when the big kids got home, and they were all thoroughly delighted to sit with Henry on the couch and watch a movie while I was upstairs. When I came back down, Trinity was holding him and looked quite content. When I left I had told them that if Henry fusses to run upstairs and tell Daddy and had reminded them that if they decided to hold him while they were on the couch to support his head. Trinity said that Henry fussed a bit so she picked him up and he settled right back down. I don’t think she particularly wanted to give him back when I came back downstairs.

Georgie, who has been asking for me to please have a baby brother for the last five years, managed to come down with a fever Sunday afternoon that continued through Monday morning. The midwife said he could come see the baby but shouldn’t hold him or breathe on him. We called Georgie before they came over from Grandma’s house and let him know so he wouldn’t be too disappointed, and I was so proud of how he handled himself! He didn’t complain or anything.

Today when he came home, he said that he had felt better all day today (which Grandma confirmed) and that he was kind of hoping he could maybe hold the baby today. Since when Trinity had the flu a week or two ago she had a fever one day, then nothing the next day, then a fever again the day after that, I was a bit concerned that Georgie might just be in between fever days. However, George and I discussed it and Georgie finally got to hold his new baby brother today. I don’t have the pics of that up yet, but I will in the next couple hours.

Here are a few more pictures for ya.
Note the rolls of chub (this was right after he was born):

And in case you were wondering how a 9lb 7oz baby possibly fits inside my belly (I’ve wondered that every time I look at my stomach in the last 24 hours), he smooshes up like this:

So who does Henry look like? His big brother, of course! Here he is next to the baby picture that they took of Georgie in the hospital right after he was born:

Rachel

Actually, I was ready before, but I’m really ready now.
Yesterday I cleaned all three bathrooms, swept the floor downstairs and
vacuumed downstairs (notice mopping was not involved with any of this),
and did all the laundry.

Today I cut all five of the kids’ hair (I always know it’s haircutting
time when Georgie starts to look like the Shaggy Dog), figured out
everyone’s Easter clothes, made four jars of pancake mix with the kids
(because obviously the world would come to a flaming end if Daddy were
unable to make them Saturday morning pancakes for the next month), and
made a grocery list so we’ll have stuff to take to church on Sunday and
milk for the week.

I usually make a fancy breakfast for Easter and Christmas that consists
of a big cinnamon roll braid (cinnamon roll dough braided into a
wreath), sausage, and fruit plus OJ. George told me I was banned from
monkeying with it this year, so he’s going to pick up Cinnabon tomorrow
and we’ll have that instead.

Since my big cleaning didn’t put me into labor yesterday, I also jumped
on the trampoline twice. That didn’t do it either. In case you were
wondering, it was pretty uncomfortable. Did seem to make the baby drop
even lower though (George wanted to know how that was possible).
Sooooooon would be good. The midwife said if I haven’t delivered by my
Monday morning, she’s going to break my water which should put me into
labor (did this with Kyra and went into labor five minutes later). Nice to have a definite end date anyway.

Hopefully my next post will have something useful to report (like a small kid with a name and pictures).

Rachel

Okay, any time now would be good. Like now. Or in ten minutes. Or now. The midwife came yesterday and I’m 3cm dilated and 60% effaced. This is good in that something is going on and that I’m already done with the early phase of labor before I’ve actually gone into labor. On the other hand, I’ve waddled around at 3cm for a week before actually delivering with prior pregnancies. This is not especially comfortable (or remotely comfortable; actually, comfort doesn’t really figure into this scenario at all).

Last time I was 5cm for two days before I delivered. The midwife didn’t want to freak me out so she told me I was at three and I didn’t find out I was at 5 until I was actually in labor. She was probably right; I would almost certainly have freaked out and not let George leave the house (for all three of you people who are unfamiliar with labor terminology, you deliver when you are dilated to 10. Most people do not waddle around halfway done yet not actually in labor).

This morning while the big kids were in school, George and I took the little girls out to Clackamas Town Center and walked up and down the mall for an hour and a half in an effort to get labor going. Nope, not in labor yet! I’m starting to get a mite impatient….

On the other hand, this will give me a chance to take a nap this afternoon since I slept dreadfully last night. I had weird dreams all night about things like glow-in-the-dark mice, goat-bugs with detachable heads, and people who could turn us into sand if they touched us chasing me and George. This was when I actually got to sleep. Not overly restful!

The kids seem to be getting antsy too. You know how animals get weird right before an earthquake? That’s kind of what our house seems to be like. All five of them were psychotic yesterday and definitely on the weird side at church on Sunday. Happily, they seem a bit better today.

Trinity’s bizarro fever seems to have gone away. That was weird! She had a fever on Thursday, nothing on Friday, fever Saturday morning that was gone by the afternoon (which she spent rollerblading around the house), and was fine on Sunday and has been ever since. Anika, on the other hand, woke up both Monday and Tuesday saying she didn’t feel good but had no fever or any other symptoms other than “unspecified malady.” Being meanies, we sent her to school anyway and told Amy (her teacher) to call us if she deteriorated and we’d come get her. She improved throughout the day both days and was fine by the time she got home. What do you do with that? She took a nap yesterday afternoon. That’s what you do with that!

So to recap, the sickies are more or less gone again (or at least are in hiding) and I’M READY TO DELIVER NOW. I’ll keep you posted. Hopefully it will be tonight. Argh!

Rachel

Well, a week later I’m starting to finally feel human-y again. Kind of nice since I’ve only been sick for a week!!! Urgh. Of course, now Trinity is sick. When we had this nastiness two or three weeks ago, she and I and Georgie were the only ones who didn’t get it. Apparently, the bug was just taking a breather.

When Trini got home from school this afternoon, she looked pretty zombified but when I asked her if she felt ok she said she was just tired. The kids went upstairs to go do their reading and homework and then came down to veg and watch Mythbusters. Trinity curled up on the loveseat away from the TV and looked like she was going to take a nap, which didn’t seem too odd since she had said earlier she was tired. That is, until Georgie goes, “Trinity’s asleep again.” Again?? What again?

He said she had also fallen asleep when they were doing their reading. Some kids this would probably not seem too extraordinary for. Trinity tends to come down telling me that she read longer than she was supposed  to because she just had to know what happened next. Okay, time to check her forehead! Yep, she was definitely running a fever. Drat!  Now Georgie just needs to get it and that will be everyone.

At least I didn’t go into labor while I had the big, bad flu. The midwife says that that’s pretty uncommon anyway because the body seems to know that going into labor when the mother is sick would be a bad plan. Oh, in case you were wondering, the baby seems just fine despite the fact that I barely ate anything for the first several days of being sick. He’s bouncing away like any kid who’s supposed to be coming out in the next two weeks.

That’s it for around here. Guess I’ll be missing church again this Sunday. I think I’ve missed three out of the last four weeks now due to either people being sick, me being sick, or me & George being on our date weekend (which happily managed to fall in between bouts of the flu). So frustrating!

Rachel

And I thought I had managed to avoid the flu when everyone else had it a few weeks ago. Apparently not! I started feeling a bit crummy on Thursday and was full on fever, cough from hell, runny nose, misery, insomnia (worse than the normal 38 weeks pregnant insomnia) by Friday. This is pretty much exactly what George and my Mom (and half the other people I know) had and it seems to hang on for a good five days before improving.

Last week I was so hoping to go into labor soon. Now I’m really glad that I’m not in labor and haven’t been having any consistent contractions. Ha! Actually, the first night, Thursday night I slept terribly and spent half the night downstairs on the recliner before heartburn cleared up enough to go back upstairs to bed. The next morning George said it didn’t seem like I’d gotten much sleep (!) and wanted to know if it was from the contractions.

“What contractions? I didn’t have contractions last night,” I told him. He told me that I’d been breathing heavily and moaning every four or five minutes all night. What?? I had contractions off and on the rest of Friday (but nothing serious since then), so he was probably right. Weird!

Anyway, I’ve finally resorted to drugs so I can get some sleep (Friday night was a whole four hours). Hurray for Nyquil! I slept for a solid seven or eight hours last night and then took some Dayquil and leftover bronchitis meds a couple times during the day which let me get in two solid, two hour naps. Drugs are good! At this point the baby is close enough to due that he’s fully developed, and he’s been banging around in there all weekend. Glad he’s feeling okay anyway. Actually, they don’t really like it when you run a 102 degree fever when you’re pregnant and tell you to take a fever reducer anyway.

George has been a champ and taken care of everything while I’ve been a vegetable. He’s such a great guy! Georgie came in to check on me upstairs a couple times too.  He brought me the fan so I could sleep through all their racket downstairs and then he brought me a big glass of water when I ran out. Such a sweetie!

This whole drugs thing is kind of nice. I feel normal-er at the moment, which I’m pretty sure is directly related to the Dayquil. Guess it’s hard to tell whether the feeling better is drug-related or actually recovery-related until after the meds wear off. I hope this clears up soon. Sick + pregnant is really not too great.

Rachel

Friday morning Hubby and I distributed small children all over town and were back home by ourselves by around 11am. We spent two whole days just the two of us, and it was heavenly. The house was clean (thank you, Tanya, for cleaning my downstairs carpet last week) and is bizarrely quiet with no children in it.

Hubby commented at least six times the first day that it was weird being that quiet. Hehe. And he spends most of the day in his office! Reminds me of the first year Georgie went to school. It took me two months to get used to the massive downturn in volume level during the day.

Our weekend was thoroughly lovely and restful, and we did nothing important at all. We went to the movies twice (which is twice more than we’ve been in several months) and out to eat twice (Claim Jumper on Saturday night for our anniversary. They have the best food). We milled around the mall and stopped at Target to pick up the last few odds and ends for the new baby (everything is now cleaned, folded, and ready to go).

Oh! And I learned something new about Hubby We stopped at Costco on Saturday to pick up some new sneakers for him, but they were out of his size. Since approximately 3/4 of the city shops at Costco on Saturday, we usually try to avoid this madhouse and go during the week. We got there around lunchtime and once Hubby had checked out the shoes, he decided we should have lunch by eating all the samples that Costco apparently puts out on Saturdays.

Since he does the vast majority of the grocery shopping around here (I plan and make most of the meals and make the shopping list; he does the actual shopping), this apparently is something he’s done before and become quite expert at. You see, one mustn’t wander willy-nilly around the food section; there’s a system to eating food samples.

You have to start at the meat section (this week they had pork loin), then mill through the cheeses (hard Irish cheese that I skipped because it looked dry and gross), then head over to the refrigerator area (ravioli, which was quite good), and on to the freezer section (orange chicken which was so so). I skipped the yogurt because we eat that regularly around here, and then we continued on to the drinks a bit further down the row. In case you were wondering, strawberry flavored Propel water tastes very much like watered down Kool-Aid (which I actually spent several weeks drinking at Teen Missions) and is quite disgusting. Dessert was a bite of some organic fruit rollup-y thing.

Hubby also informed me that not only do you have to go in the right order, but you have to time it correctly so that the bites will be ready and you don’t have to wait for the servers to cook the food. Clearly, he’s put wayyyyy too much thought into this! We had to wait a bit for the orange chicken, but everything else was ready when we arrived at the station. So, that was our romantic lunch (I had eaten before we left)… My husband is an expert at food sampling at Costco. Who knew??

We sort of slept in on Saturday but after being awakened by small children for many years, sleeping in doesn’t come terribly naturally. However, we actually did manage to both sleep in until after ten. Even me! I haven’t slept that well in weeks. It was divine. We ate cinnamon rolls in bed (heehee) and watched TV. So relaxing and a lovely way to begin our anniversary (twelve years now)! I don’t remember ever eating breakfast in bed before. I’m sure I must have, but I can’t think of when so it must have been so long ago that it’s been deleted from the old memory banks.

So that’s it! That was our weekend. My parents brought the kids home around three and they were all a bit wacky as is the norm when they’ve been away for a couple days. They seem to have recovered nicely though, and are now behaving much more like semi-civilized people.

I’m 37.5 weeks along now so if I were to go into labor now (ha! Like that will happen), they wouldn’t do anything to stop it. Unfortunately my midwife is going out of town this weekend (yes, we have a backup midwife who is on call) so this would not be ideal timing. I had contractions for half the night last night, but they weren’t anything too serious. The baby has been dropping all day though, so between those two things I’m a mite worried that I might deliver this weekend while the midwife is gone (she leaves tomorrow). On the other hand, then I would be done which would be a big plus…. Guess we’ll see!

That’s all the news around here. Hope your weekend was charming as well.

Rachel