Six Little Pumpkins

Aren’t they darling?!

Our Sweet Baby

I keep meaning to sit down and write about the birth of our sweet, beautiful baby. It was so east to write the long, detailed version of Asher’s birth a year ago. Of course, at that time I spent five days in the hospital following my c-section and had plenty of time on my hands. This time, I haven’t had nearly as much time as I did then and so it has taken me longer to record all the details. But here they finally are.

Labor started at about 3pm on Wednesday afternoon while the little boys and I waited during Brenna’s gymnastics practice. I’d experienced lots of contractions during the previous few days (twice we’d debated about going to the hospital), but this felt different somehow. I wondered if it could be the real deal. Contractions were close together and very painful from the start. I was bleeding quite a bit as well, which is always a good indicator that labor has really begun.

Rick went to work when we got home, but told me he’d be ready for me to call at any time. I made arrangements for the kids (they’d spend the night with my brother and sister-in-law and Rick’s mom would come down the following day to take care of them) and packed our bags. Rick called  to check on me at 8pm. I was still having close, painful, regular contractions and they were getting progressively worse. Rick decided to come home.

I told the kids that their baby brother was probably going to come. They were all instantly shrieking with joy and it made me happy to see their delight. Joshua, being the logical thinker that he is, was a little skeptical though. He wanted to know how I knew for sure that our baby was coming. I explained what contractions were and told him that I was having lots of them. He listened thoughtfully and then asked, “So you’re not really sure then?”

Brenna was more optimistic. “I am so excited to see my baby brother,” she exclaimed happily. Then she sighed dramatically and admitted with a grin, “I didn’t think I could wait any longer to see him!” I chuckled; obviously this baby was coming just in time!

When Rick got home, he gave me a blessing and he loaded our bags in the van. We said a family prayer and got the kids buckled in the car seats. The kids began our 45-minute journey to Uncle Mike and Aunt Heidi’s house by singing a joyful made up song about their new baby brother. They were so excited to finally meet him and excited to stay with Uncle Mike and Aunt Heidi as well. Braden even cheered when we pulled up at their house.

We got the kids settled and thanked Michael and Heidi for their help. We really appreciated having a place to leave our kiddos while we were in the hospital. The kids absolutely adore Mike, Heidi and their kids and I felt secure leaving them there.

The drive back to down to the hospital was quiet. I wasn’t feeling good and contractions were getting more and more painful as we drove along so we didn’t talk much.

I was almost 4cm when we arrived at the hospital. Before too much longer I’d progressed to 5cm. I was thrilled. I usually have long labors because I always get stuck at 4cm. It takes many hours for me to progress past 4cm (usually at least 10 hours), but then I go very quickly from 5cm to 10cm. So the fact that I was already at 5cm made me very hopeful that I’d get the shorter labor I’d been hoping for.

But then I did not progress. Instead of getting stuck at 4cm, I got stuck at 5cm. Contractions were getting incredibly painful and were very close together. Because I was attempting a VBAC, I needed to be monitored continuously so I was not allowed out of bed. It made it even harder to work my way through contractions when I couldn’t stand, walk, or move freely.

We ran into another problem as well. As I sat in bed and rocked through contractions, it was very difficult to keep our little guy’s heart on the monitor. It would have been better if I could have laid back in bed, but I was having a hard time even sitting in bed and laying down seemed out of the question. It was pointless to be monitored if we weren’t getting a good solid tracing of our baby’s heartbeat.

Ultimately, even though I’d wanted to go without one, I decided an epidural was the best option. Considering that I couldn’t get out of bed, contractions were extremely painful, I’d been stuck at 5cm for several hours already, and we weren’t able to keep track of baby’s heartbeat well enough… an epidural just seemed like a good idea. My nurse said that they like to see VBAC’ing moms get epidurals anyway because then they are ready for a c-section if the need does arrive.

12 hours into labor I got my epidural. It was such a nice relief, it gave me a much needed rest, and we could finally watch the baby’s heartrate as closely as we needed to. Rick went to sleep on the couch in my room. I tried to rest, but I was agitated and anxious. The thought of a c-section loomed constantly in my mind.

Another c-section would not have been a terrible thing, but I knew it would be much easier without one. Plus, if I had another c-section, I knew I’d probably have the rest of our babies by c-section as well, which is something that would impact the spacing of our children and my recoveries and perhaps even the number of children we would have. I really wanted to avoid a c-section.

As the hours passed with contractions 2-3 minutes apart and no progress, I really worried if I’d be pushed into another c-section for failure to progress. I kept telling my nurses that this is just how my body does labor and that I always get stuck for a long time. I hoped they would listen.

My OB broke my water around 7am, hoping that would get my cervix to dilate further. She told me that I had “membranes of steel.” It took five tries and quite a few minutes for her to break my water and even then she could only get a small tear in the sack. There was never a big gush and I had a lot of fluid still inside.

Shortly after that, my contractions began to slow down. It became obvious that we needed to augment things a little, but we had to be careful because I was attempting a VBAC. My nurse placed internal monitors on the baby to monitor his heartrate and on my uterus to monitor the strength of contractions. (An external monitor can only assess the timing of contractions, but not how strong they actually are.) This was all done so that I could be carefully monitored as they started a pitocin drip.

The pitocin did the trick and got contractions going strong again, but my cervix still did not change. I was getting more and more frustrated. I felt like pulling off all the monitors and wires and just going home. I prayed hard that I would dilate and not need another c-section.

In the afternoon (I am not exactly sure what time) I began to feel pain in my cervix with each contraction. I was reassured, thinking that maybe things were finally going to change. Contractions were about 2 minutes apart and with each contraction, the pain got worse. Even with my epidural, I could feel intense pain between my legs, in my lower back, and in my uterus where my c-section scar is. With each and every contraction, the pain got much, much worse until it was excruciating and intense in spite of the epidural. It was some of the worst pain I’d ever felt. In between contractions, when I could actually form complete thoughts, I wondered how much I’d be hurting without the epidural.

The pain became so severe that it concerned me. I paged my nurse, but she never came. In particular, I felt intense pain where my c-section scar was. Each contraction hurt so much that I felt completely unaware of anything but the pain. I’ve never felt anything so intense. A horrible contraction began to build. Through the fog that this created in my brain, I was suddenly acutely aware of one thing outside of my pain. It was the sound of our baby boy’s heart on the monitor. The rapid, reassuring beeping that I was used to hearing slowed to a frightening pace. I glanced at the monitor and saw that his heartrate was only in the 50’s. The contraction ended and his heartrate recovered, and I frantically paged the nurse again. This time she came.

With the excruciating pain I was in and our baby’s severe drop in heartrate, I was very concerned about uterine rupture. Those are the two biggest signs and I knew that a rupture would probably be fatal to our precious baby. I was so scared, but my nurse reassured me that his heartrate had recovered so well and was mirroring contractions so perfectly that it was more likely that he was ready to come. She checked me and I was fully dilated. She marveled that I’d been right all along- I got stuck at 5cm for hours and hours, but then went from 5cm to 10cm very rapidly. She also upped my epidural to cover more of my pain.

My nurse paged my OB and she arrived promptly. The nurse paged her twice actually because of the baby’s dipping heartrate. It dropped to the 50’s with each contraction, they were a little concerned, and my OB wanted him out quickly. 

My first push was very unproductive. My OB realized that baby was crooked so she reached in and straightened him out. I pushed once for his head and then gave a half push for his body. He was born at 2:52, almost exactly 24 hours after labor began.

Rick’s mom had called just before my OB arrived. She was in the parking lot of the hospital so that she could pick up our van to get the kids from Mike and Heidi’s. It was perfect timing. I told Rick to tell her that she could join us in the delivery room if she wanted to. She made it just in time for his birth, arriving around the time that he crowned. It was neat that she was able to be there to witness his birth and share that special moment with us. I was glad that she arrived just in time and I hoped that she felt as glad to be there as I was to have her there. This baby is her 27th grandchild.

It felt wonderful to deliver a baby vaginally after my c-section with Asher. I’ve never felt sad that I had a c-section and I never felt like it deprived me of anything. Even though Asher’s birth was frightening, I never felt any negative emotions about the need for a c-section. But it was still so nice to have a normal delivery again. I was thrilled that I had a successful VBAC. Hopefully I can have VBACs with all the rest of our babies.

I didn’t have any tearing or bruising or visible damage of any kind. My OB checked the scar on my uterus and was impressed with how perfect and healthy it was.

We hadn’t been sure of our baby’s name and had toyed with several options while I was pregnant, but when he was born and we got a chance to look at him and hold him, we knew what his name should be. We named him Jacob Dwight, a name that fit him completely. He looked like a Jacob and felt like a Jacob and it was the right choice. He even made a cute Jake as well. Dwight is after Rick’s dad and we both feel honored to have a son named after his grandpa.

Jacob was 6 pounds 6 ounces and 20 inches long. However, I am certain that his measurements were off. A different scale weighed him at just over 5 pounds and when we measured him with our tape measure at home he was barely over 18 inches tall. He looked smaller than even Braden who was 5.5 pounds and 18 inches long. Plus, he can wear clothes and hats that fit Braden but were too small for Asher, who was 6 pound 4 ounce and 19.75 inches tall when he was born.  So I still think that his first measurements were off by quite a bit.

Jacob was breathing a little fast so the NICU was called. The NICU nurse said his lungs were clear and his O2 saturations were perfect so she wasn’t concerned. She was ready to leave him with me, but my L&D nurse was worried that something would go wrong. She asked if we could send him up to the newborn nursery so that she wouldn’t have to worry about checking him and taking care of me. We agreed and Rick went along with Jacob.

I was out of recovery very quickly and met my two handsome boys in the nursery shortly after they arrived. They monitored Jacob for a while. Even though he continued to breathe fast, he was looking great. They ordered a chest  xray and cbc (watching my itty bitty newborn get his blood drawn for a cbc was so sad) just to be extra cautious.

Breathing rapidly can drop blood sugar levels as they baby burns calories and wastes energy. A drop in blood sugar then makes the baby even more tired and less able to breathe on their own. It can be a vicious cycle, and was one we wanted to avoid. I tried to nurse him, but he was too tired so we gave him a bottle instead, again as a precaution.

The nurse told me that if anything was off in the xray or the labs or if he got worse, he might need to be admitted to the NICU. I was worried and prayed that it wouldn’t come to that. Thankfully, everything came back perfect and Jacob still looked great. Before long he was back in our room where he belonged.

They continued to check his blood sugar and they checked his bilirubin levels because he looked a little jaundiced. His poor heels were so bruised! 

Jacob passed his hearing test in his right ear, but completely failed in his left ear. The audiologist said we shouldn’t be too worried because he probably just had vernix in his ear. We will retest that ear in about two weeks. I feel like everything is fine and I am not worried about his hearing.

I was surprised by how much I missed being pregnant, even just hours after Jacob was born. I always miss the feeling of a baby inside me, warm and wiggling. But I usually don’t miss being pregnant in general. This time I really did. I felt like I could be pregnant for another 9 months and told Rick with a joking wink that we should start trying for another baby now. In seriousness though, I do miss being pregnant and I already feel ready to be pregnant again. And I miss being pregnant with Jacob specifically since I will never have that chance again.

We were very eager to get home. We missed our kids (they weren’t allowed to visit us because the hospital has visitor restrictions during the flu season). We wanted to be home for Halloween also. The oncall pediatrician made us wait until the 24-hour mark and said we could only go if blood sugar levels and billirubin looked good. However, he was confident sending us home though, knowing that this was our sixth baby. For the same reason, we felt comfortable taking him home when he was just a day old. We joked that it was like escaping from prison because there were so many hoops to jump through. 

By 7pm on October 30th, we were discharged. It felt great to head home with our precious little Jacob. We put him in his cute little preemie clothes and tucked him into his car seat. We used the JJ Cole BundleMe that I bought and I loved it right away. It is so warm and cozy and secure- perfect for a baby born in cold weather.

Jake had scared us right before we left when he gagged on some mucus and spit up. It frightened me so I rode in the back seat with him. Rick and I talked about our sweet Jacob and how grateful we were for him. The car was quiet and peaceful as we talked.

We arrived home after bedtime. (The kids were there with Grandma. She’d picked them up at Mike and Heidi’s after watching Asher’s birth.) The lights in the front room were on and the blinds were open. The kids all jumped out and screamed surprise as we opened the door. They’d made welcome home signs and Brenna had made a beautiful little bracelet and card for me while she was with Aunt Heidi. They crowded around us eagerly, bouncing and giggling and pushing in around the car seat. I hugged and kissed them all and it felt so great to see all my babies again!

We reviewed the “baby rules” that we’d talked about earlier- always wash your hands or use hand sanitizer before touching Jacob, don’t pick him up or hold him without help, and so on. Then we finally lifted tiny Jacob from his car seat and let the kids take turns holding him. They were all delighted by him and I took lots of pictures.

Our little Asher did great with Jacob. He was curious, fascinated, and very gentle. I was pleased by his reaction as Rick helped him hold Jake and as he gave him kisses. He was so excited but so gentle at the same time. It was a perfect one-year-old reaction to a new baby.

Asher also was happy to see us. He snuggled up to me just like he always does and gave me the biggest hug ever. I loved it. I don’t think Ash will have any jealousy or any trouble with this new-baby transition.

We gave the kids treats from the hospital and their new baby gifts. We always get the kids presents when a new baby is born (and they always pick out something for the new baby as well). It gives them something to look forward to and it celebrates their roles as older siblings. It just seems to help with the transition overall. This time we went with something simple. We got each of the kids a Walmart gift card. They have been really fascinated by the gift cards at the check out and we thought they’d have fun picking their own presents out.

We are all doing well at home. I feel wonderful, even with very little sleep in the last few days. I feel better now than I did the day before Jacob was born. My bleeding has nearly stopped and nothing hurts- even without pain medication. I am so thankful for such easy recoveries! Feeling good makes it easy to care for my other children. I’m a little tired, of course, and I am slightly emotional as my hormones adjust, but I feel so great that it’s easy to deal with those things. I weigh myself multiple times each day. It’s just so fun to eat constantly and still lose several pounds every time I step on the scale. Gotta love nursing!

Jacob is amazing, He is nursing well and is healthy and perfect. He has some sores on the back of his tiny head where the monitors were. He is a sweet baby. He rarely cries. When he’s upset, he tends to moan and whimper instead of crying. He is as cute as can be! He only has a little hair, but it is darker than any of our other kids had. (They were all either blond or bald.) He looks a lot like Asher and Brenna. In fact, I frequently call him Asher accidentally. His eyes remind me of Brenna, but sometimes I see Joshy there too. And he definitely seems to have Maddie’s cute little nose.

The experience of bringing another baby into this world is just as incredible and miraculous the sixth time as it was the first time. At the hospital Rick and I marveled over the fact none of this has become “routine” by now. It’s just as incredible to have our sixth baby as it was to have our first, second, third, and so on. Plus, I appreciate it more than I did with our first babies. I understand just how precious this all is and how rapidly this newborn phase will pass by. I feel more confident in myself and more capable as a mother.

It is also wonderful to have so many other family members to share this new baby with. If there is anything more magical than watching my new baby as he sleeps, it is watching my older babies watch my new baby as he sleeps. I love seeing how much my five children adore their new baby brother and that makes this entire experience even sweeter. It is one of the best parts of having a large family! The first thing Brenna did this morning was wash her hands so that she could hold her baby brother and Asher loves to give him kisses.

I am still amazed at how blessed we are! It has been a miraculous incredible journey! It was so easy to get pregnant with Jacob, which was nice after miscarriages before Braden and then being unable to get pregnant with Asher. Two difficult conceptions followed by such an easy conception really taught me that Heavenly Father is in control and babies come when they are supposed to come and that things work out perfectly if we trust His will. I am so thankful for how easy it was to get pregnant with Jacob and for how much I learned because of it.

I am thankful for an easy, healthy, wonderful pregnancy. Other than when I was sick at the end of the pregnancy, I was able to easily juggle pregnancy and all my normal household demands. I felt so capable as I balanced it all and it made me confident that I’d be able to have the large family I desired… because after all, a mommy with many children can’t just take a year off for every pregnancy. I was so glad to know that I could take care of the kids, homeschool, the house, and everything else while still dealing with the normal demands of pregnancy.

I am thankful that all of my prayers were answered during Jacob’s labor and delivery. My labor was longer than I hoped for, I was anxious during it all, and there were many minor concerns after Jacob’s birth (fast breathing, low blood sugar levels, failed hearing tests, high bilirubin counts, etc). I prayed constantly from the moment labor began and I haven’t stopped praying since then. And every one of my prayers was answered. They weren’t always answered exactly like I hoped, but our needs were always met and every answer was the perfect one. I am thankful for the power of prayer!

I am thankful that Jacob is doing so well and that I feel so good and that the other kids are adjusting so easily. We have never, ever had a problem with sibling rivalry or jealousy when a new baby arrives. I am thankful that this time is the same. It’s so nice to add a new baby to the family without any drama or any jealousy or any other concerns. I am thankful that my children want new babies as much as I do. They are already asking about their NEXT brother or sister.

I just feel so, so blessed and so thankful! What a beautiful journey this has been so far.

Halloween Fun

Our Halloween has been different this year. We usually “go all out” for a fun, month-long holiday. But this year was much more simple.

With the kids being sick at the end of the month, we didn’t do nearly as many crafts or as much baking as we usually do. The kids did make the cutest little bats, spiders, ghosts and pumpkins, but I was just too busy with sick kids to organize anything more detailed. And, obviously, delivering a baby two days before Halloween impacted the holiday as well. But we still had fun and made good memories.

On Halloween day, Rick and Grandma took the kids to the pumpkin patch. We go there every year and spend the entire day and most of the night. There are just so many things to do there! This year, however, Rick only took the kids for the afternoon. I stayed home with Asher and Jacob. I didn’t want to expose Jake to any germs and we decided that Asher didn’t know what he was missing anyway and would benefit more from a nap. But when I saw the pictures that Rick took, I sort of wished I had gone along. It made me sad that I’d missed it, but I was glad that the kids had so much fun and I knew that it really was better to keep our two-day-old newborn home from such a crowded location.

We had chili for dinner (Rick made it this year). Afterwards the kids made haunted houses as we do every year. This is one of our favorite traditions! The kids had a blast building their little graham cracker houses and decorating them with tons of frosting and candy. We even painted the houses with melted decorators chocolate and the kids really enjoyed that.

For Halloween Brenna was a white pixie fairy, Joshua was a football player (he wore his team pads and jersey and even sported a purple mohawk), Maddie was a pink fairy princess, Braden was a monkey, and Asher was a lion. They were all so darling in their costumes! Asher was so fascinated by his costume. He kept looking at his hands and giggling.

Before Jacob was born I’d debated buying a small costume for him. I never got around to it and I was sad because I really wanted to dress him up for his first Halloween. Back in August I bought a fuzzy fleece jacket for Jacob in size newborn. I bought it because it was cute and warm, but on Halloween I realized that it was brown with little teddy bear ears on the hood. So that became Jacob’s Halloween costume. It was way, way too big on him, but he looked super cute!

Rick took the kids trick or treating this year. Once again, I was so sad to miss out on the fun. I felt great and wanted to go along, but there was no way I was going to take my newborn out into the cold night air. It was actually a pretty warm night, but I felt better keeping him home. So Jacob and I stayed home with Rick and the other kids went trick or treating.

After the kids had filled their buckets with treats and everyone’s ears were cold, they all came home. Everyone stayed up late and watched a kid-friendly Halloween movie together. Tomorrow we are still going to have our traditional caramel apple bar. It’s just too fun to skip! Plus I spent a lot of money on apples and tons of toppings to top them with.

I bought the ingredients I need for some of our favorite Halloween treats- our pumpkin cake, caramel popcorn, devilled eggs (with jack-o-lantern faces), and so on. Tomorrow I might make some treats for everyone to enjoy.

Like I said, it has been a very simple Halloween this year. We didn’t have our annual party and we skipped a lot of our usual traditions. I feel a little sad and guilty about not doing more this year, but I also feel like Halloween was successful under the circumstances. We all still had fun and we made good memories together and that’s the most important part of Halloween (or any holiday) anyway. Plus there has to be balance in all things. This year we had to balance Halloween with the arrival of a new baby and I think we pulled it off.

 

 

More

More was the first sign my other babies learned, but it took longer for Asher to pick it up. He started using it today though. It’s so cute and I love watching his communication skills grow.

Asher also shakes his head and says “nuh-uh” when he doesn’t want to do something. Whenever he does this, I am reminded of how quickly he is growing up.

Our New Son

Our sweet baby boy has arrived! We are thrilled and we feel so blessed. I will share all the details tomorrow.

Rambling

Wow, Halloween is just days away. I know this very well because my kids keep reminding me. Madalyn constantly counts the days on her small fingers and then announces rather wistfully, “Oh, Mama! I can’t wait until it’s three days from now!”

And speaking of our Madalyn, she is doing great. She hasn’t had even a hint of a fever since that one yesterday afternoon (the fever that broke on its own before I even had a chance to give her any motrin). She has been playing and happy and doing just fine. She’s not coughing anymore either. I don’t think she’s sick, and I am very thankful for that.

Maddie was, of course, bitterly disappointed that we kept her home from the football party last night. We really did think it was for the best. I kept Braden home as well (because he was so grouchy) and Asher too (because he didn’t even know what he was missing and I wanted to put him to bed at a decent hour). Maddie cried when Daddy, Brenna and Josh left (with Josh proudly wearing his enormous, past-his-knees football jersey), but her spirits lifted when I pulled out a box of pizza that I’d bought on my way home and a candy bar too.

After we ate, we enjoyed some “girl time” with Braden diving in as well. Madalyn and Braden put make-up on me, painted my nails, and fixed my hair. I even let them use a cold curling iron (not plugged in) so that they could pretend to curl my hair. They had a great time and I really had to scrub my face afterwards. Maddie especially loves playing salon.

Daddy and the big kids got home late. Josh had a blast at his football party and loved seeing all his friends. He got a certificate of achievement, a framed team picture (all the boys signed the mat around the picture), and a cool football trophy with his name on it. Afterwards, Rick and the kids picked up pumpkins to carve since we’d canceled our trip to the pumpkin patch. (We are still hoping to go to the pumpkin patch, but we wanted to get pumpkins carved before then.)

I had yet another rough night. I was having close, painful contractions for many hours. They were coming strong enough that I didn’t want to sit in bed through them. I needed to walk and move. It was late at night by this point so I went and walked on the treadmill. I kept a slow pace, but I found a lot of relief simply in walking through my contractions. It was a double-edged sword though because walking brought them a lot closer together.

They were only 2-3 minutes apart and I was hurting a lot and then started bleeding. I don’t usually bleed until real labor starts. So far during this pregnancy I have had lots of brown discharge and even mucus streaked with blood, but this was the first time that I ever actually bled. I went and laid down and tried to rest. Eventually things slowed down and I was able to sleep.

Asher slept in until 7am, which is unusual for him. I changed his diaper and his pajamas because they were wet too. I wrapped him up in his blanket and tucked him into bed with me. Bless his heart, Asher snuggled up to me and slept until 8:30! It was so nice.

Today we have lots to do. I always have several nights of painful contractions before active labor begins. I’ve had enough nights of contractions by now that I think this baby could come any day. I have NO gut feeling on when his birthday will be, but I want to be ready. I need to pack hospital bags, scour my house again, and do more laundry. I have enough to keep me busy for the day until Brenna has gymnastics at 2:30. 

Rick is working tonight. I am still not sure when this baby will come. I’ve had strong feelings with each of my others, but this time I just don’t know. I would not be surprised if he came today. And I wouldn’t be surprised if he was born in November too. I just hope that when the time does come, that I will know it.

Baby Update

I had a great OB visit this morning. I truly love my OB! I am so glad that I found her! She is great and she will be my OB for as long as we live here. She’s the best!

Baby is still doing great. He is healthy and strong and growing normally (based on my fundal height measurements) and his heartrate is perfect. My OB says Baby can come whenever he wants to and she seems just as excited about his arrival as I am. I still say that he can come whenever he wants to as long as it’s not on Halloween or the day before!

I am 3cm and 60% effaced. I have always started labor from 2cm so this is more dilated than I’ve ever been without actually being in labor. In fact, I was 3cm with Joshua, Madalyn, and Asher when I arrived at the hospital in active labor. (With Braden I was 4cm when I got to the hospital and with Brenna I was induced from zero cm.) So I already feel like I am ahead of the game. I tend to have longer labors (so far they have ranged from 12 hours to 30 hours) so I am hoping that being  more dilated before labor actually starts will make things go a little faster.

This little boy’s head is very low and right where it should be. He does have a tendency to float up and down still, but I am not worried. Asher was flipping in circles constantly- head down, then transverse, then breech, then transverse again all in the same day- so as long as this baby doesn’t do THAT, then I am okay. My OB said that his head is low enough in my pelvis now that this baby isn’t going anywhere. 

I’ve had a few rough nights this week with lots of contractions and lots of pressure. I feel like my body is very close to going into labor, and I bet this baby will be here within a week. If he’s not here by my appointment next Tuesday, my OB will strip my membranes and that will probably put me into labor. I still can’t believe that I will be holding my son so soon!

Change of Plans

Our pumpkin patch plans have changed once again. We’d intended to go last week, but the boys were all sick. We decided to go today instead, but ended up with two big complications. First of all, we woke up to a snow storm, which is not exactly ideal pumpkin patch weather. And, just as the storm began to clear and the sun appeared, Maddie started running a fever.

Madalyn ran one for about an hour in the middle of the night and we were hoping it was a fluke. But a second fever seemed like more than just a coincidence. However, her second fever was very short-lived (shorter even than the first) and broke on its own with no medicine. She’s been coughing since last week, but her cough is actually much better now. She seems completely normal and she says that nothing hurts or feels sick.

Even so, with swine flu being in our house so recently and with Maddie running  fevers (even they’re occasional and break on their own) we felt it was better to “play it safe.” We canceled our trip to the pumpkin patch and I kept the younger kids home from Joshua’s football party tonight (Rick took Brenna and Joshua). I kind of doubt that this is the swine flu because Maddie is doing so well and her fever was so brief that it was almost non-existant. But I’d also feel terrible if she did have the swine flu and we passed it along to someone else. I think this pandemic wouldn’t be nearly as bad as it is if people would be more careful when their own families are sick.

Because Maddie is doing so well, I am not as worried about this baby coming as I was when the boys were sick. She seems just fine, isn’t coughing, and hasn’t had a fever since her 10-minute fever this afternoon.

Fall Leaves

The leaves are all changing with the arrival of autumn. Recently Braden looked out the window and observed, “The trees are changing colors, Mom.”

“You’re right, Buddy. Do you know why they are changing colors?”

“Yes,” Braden replied with certainty. “It’s because the trees are lighting up!”

I thought that was a perfectly appropriate explanation. The trees often do look as though they are lit up and glowing.

Shopping with Braden

Rick and Joshua had just gotten back from a wrestling meeting and I was getting ready to head to the store for some night time grocery shopping.

“Can I come shopping, Mama?” Braden wanted to know. “Cause I will miss you too much if I don’t come.” He was standing there in his red fleece pajamas with his big blue eyes and his sweet little face. He looked so cute and like he really would be crushed if I left without him. There was so way I could turn down such a request.

So I slipped his jacket on him and took him along. Braden was delighted. I love snatching one-on-one moments with my children as often as I can and it was truly delightful to spend the evening with Braden. He said so many cute things that I actually began jotting them down on the back of my grocery list so that I would be able to remember them all. Here are the highlights…

Braden was extra chatty as we drove to the store. He knew how special it was to be up past bedtime and he was very animated and excited as a result. I loved listening to his soft, somewhat raspy little voice as he chattered on. Then the van grew very quiet as Braden suddenly quit talking.

“Braden?” I called into the darkness of our nearly 12-passenger van. “Are you okay?”

There was another moment of silence and then Braden’s tiny voice sighed, “Yeah. I’m just too tired to talk right now.”

Once at the store Braden was incredibly talkative again. He kept repeating, “You are the best mommy ever!”

Braden was thrilled when I bought him a new candy bucket for Halloween. It was orange (his favorite color) and it had a friendly little ghost on it (Braden loves nice ghosts right now). Braden held his new bucket with great pride. But he was a little confused about when he could actually use this new bucket to collect candy. He kept holding the bucket up to me and requesting, “Now can you put candy in my bucket?” Now matter how many times I explained that we wouldn’t put candy in it until Halloween, Braden still didn’t understand. He had a candy bucket and he wanted candy in it.

We stopped in the baby section where I bought newborn binkies. Braden watched thoughtfully and then soberly said, “We need to buy me new binkies soon.”

“We do?” I asked. I was surprised to hear him mention his own binkies because he hasn’t had one since he was two. At that time- when binkie fairies and bribery and stickers hadn’t worked- we told a little fib and said that our dog, Sophie, had eaten Braden’s binkies. Then we replaced them with a new toy. 

“Yeah,” Braden sighed. “We need to buy some new binkies because Sophie ate mine… That bad dog.”

I tried not to chuckle out loud. I was surprised he remembered all that so well.

We continued our shopping. We bought groceries for the week, Halloween candy, everything we need for our annual Halloween party (our family only due to a baby coming so soon), a costume for Brenna (who has been indecisive for weeks, and so on. We filled the cart and kept it all within budget.

We had a very enjoyable evening together, Braden and I. It was so nice to spend time with just him, my precious little boy. I hope that I can always, always remember how sweet and charming he is now at the tender age of three.