>Breakfast at Lucille’s
Family trip to the aquarium
Cupcakes from Tee and Cakes
Dinner at SOBO

>Growing up in Ohio, I do not recall a lot of people driving around with Ohio Native bumper stickers. There just wasn’t that desire to distinguish yourself as someone whose parents chose to give birth to you in Ohio from people who parents gave birth to him/her in another state. I am not really sure what all the fuss is about, but I was thinking about it today as I took a picture of my own little Colorado native:

From Thanksgiving

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Last year on Thanksgiving, I was so overwhelmed with emotion during grace that I almost started to cry. I was so thankful that baby Jack had finally arrived. And so, so,so full of crazy new mom hormones. But I feel the same way this year. I am so thankful for my wonderful family, friends and neighbors. Thank you!

And I was looking for a wonderful picture of my family, and I decided on this one because of that joie de vivre!

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I found out on Thursday that my dear, sweet Jack has been attacking other babies at the daycare. Apparently he picks one out and makes a bee line for him/her, and, if he can make before anyone gets to him, he climbs on top of the other baby and bounces. The teachers have been encouraging him to climb on top of a teddy bear and bounce on it, which I guess isn’t as fun because there is no screaming, crying, and general mayhem. I would be freaking out about having a bully instead of a baby, but we went through the exact same thing with Luke and he turned out to be a nice, little gentleman.

But we do need to tone down the horseplay at home, I guess. And no more hysterical laughter when he attacks his brother. But they do look so cute together when they wrestle.

>This car came with 25 balls. And we decided that wasn’t enough. Dave wanted to get 7000, and fill up the whole basement, but I put my foot down at 200.

From Jack’s birthday

At the party, there was some present opening pandemonium:

From Jack’s birthday

This one is very fun, and tasty:

From Jack’s birthday

Speaking of tasty, I had some problems with the snake calzone.

From Jack’s birthday

But the rest of the pizzas turned out well:

From Jack’s birthday

And then the big kids went downstairs and left the little ones to yell down the stairs at them:

From Jack’s birthday

>One year ago today at 12:30 am I was propped up on the couch, cursing Dave’s cough, and my incessant heart burn, and watching Harold and Kumar go to White Castle. I fell asleep at some point and then I woke up at 5:00 am and went back to bed.

At 6:30 I woke up again and I thought maybe I’d be having a baby that day. It was in fact, pretty obvious that I would be having a baby that day but for a while it didn’t sink in. I thought, “Hmm. Maybe?” I decided it was the perfect situation because I could leisurely get ready for work/the hospital rather than rushing around in the middle of the night. I took a shower and finished packing my bags and looked forward to getting Luke off at school and finalizing the plans for where he’d be staying that night. Then Dave woke up and I told him my water had broken. His eyes sort of bugged out and he got up and read the child birth preparation pages that I had book marked for him.

I called the Dr. around 7:30 and she said I should meet her in the office at 9am. I said, “OK, sounds good, but I have a feeling that I might have a fast labor. Nothing is happening now, but if it changes, you need to be really close to the hospital.” I don’t think she really took me seriously.

So I did a little work, sent some e-mails, (including one that said if I didn’t dial into the 10:3o meeting it was because I was at the hospital) while Dave took Luke to school and then we left to get coffee on the way to the hospital. Unfortunately, while Dave was taking a picture outside the coffee shop the line had grown out the door. Dave wanted me to play the labor card but I didn’t feel like announcing to everyone at the coffee shop that my water had broken so we just left.

The doctor gave me the option of going home for a while or just checking into the hospital because I was only 3 cm and not really contracting. We hate to waste gas, so we stayed.

The Dr. also said, “Since your water broke, we want to have this baby within 24 hours, so after 12 hours we’ll want to start pitocin, so we’ll do that this afternoon.” I thought to myself, “Yeah right. I am not doing that, but no sense fighting with her now because the baby will probably be here by this afternoon.”

So Dave went with me to labor and delivery and got me into a room and then he left to get coffee. I called Andrea while I waited for a nurse to come in and I said, “Hi – I am 3 centimeters can you pick up Luke from day care?” The answer was no because one of her kids had pneumonia and she was at the hospital too. Fortunately, Dave had already talked to our plan B at daycare that morning and they were prepared. I got off the phone with Andrea at 10:45 and then I started having contractions.

My nurse was a thousand years old and t a l k e d and m o v e d really s l o w l y which was really annoying. She made me get an IV right away, which if I should have declined if I was 100% serious about natural child birth. That took forever and a day and hurt! and I just wanted to be in the tub. (With Luke the Jacuzzi was the key to managing my labor.) Finally the nurse finished the IV and monitored me forever while she filled the tub with what I would consider to be cold water. I finally got to get in the tub and Dave sat there with his coffee and went to turn the heat up every five seconds when I asked him to. I kept letting water out and filling it up more with hot water, but it wasn’t really working for me like it did last time. Finally, I said, “Listen, finish that coffee and get some gum because the coffee smell is killing me.” That made us think things were getting serious so I got out and had the nurse check me. She said I was 4 cm. I was like, “That’s it? What the?” That was at about 11:30. This may have been around the time that I said to myself, “What am I trying to prove? I’ve already had one natural childbirth, I know I am awesome.”

Then I sat in a rocking chair and breathed through my contractions for about 15 minutes before I said, “I want an epidural.” Dave did absolutely everything right from the standpoint of the coach of someone who wants natural childbirth. He convinced me to get through 3 more contractions; he relaxed me by touching areas that were tense and saying, “relax your arms right here” etc. Halfway through a contraction he’d say. “30 more seconds.” But after each contraction I would say, “I really want an epidural.”

So he said, “If you want an epidural, you push the button for the nurse.” So I did.

The nurse said she had to check me first, which she did and I was at 6cm. She paged the anesthesiologist, and then I guess she went to lunch because I didn’t see her for about an hour.

Finally the anesthesiologist got there and I said, “How long is this going to take?” He said, “About 10 minutes for the procedure and 10 minutes for this to take affect.” And I said, “That is 10 contractions, please hurry.” Then he was telling me all the risks, asking me all the questions and I was like, “Yes no, yes yes, that’s fine, where do I sign?” He said, “how far along are you? ” And I said. “6” and he said, “That far? I’ll give you a little bit of a spinal and you’ll feel some relief right away.” I was feeling a ton of pressure and really intense contractions but I decided to keep that to myself lest someone decide it was too late for an epi. I also noticed my toes were curling with each contraction, and I remember being 10 cm with Luke and waiting for the midwife to show up so I could push and hearing a nurse say, “I can tell when the contraction is at its peak because her toes curl.”

Then just as the needle went in I thought, “I hope I didn’t just make a big mistake.” Then my legs started to feel tingly and I laid down and opened my eyes for the first time in half an hour and I took a deep breath and said, “Ah, I feel so much better.”

I got to relax for 30 seconds before the nurse said, “I can’t get a pulse on the baby, roll on your side.” And of course the exact thing happened with Luke but I was already 10 cm so they vacuumed him out. At this point I didn’t know how far along I was and I was thinking, “I am going to need an emergency c section.” The nurse was now t a l k i n g in slow motion, “Hmm. No still no pulse. Try rolling to the other side. Hmmm. No.” And I was thinking, “I made a huge mistake” And I felt like I was going to cry. And she said, “Try pushing, maybe he is so low I just can’t get a reading.” And then, “Quit pushing, he is crowning, and I don’t want to deliver the baby myself.” So I laid there while she called the Dr. and when she arrived, the nurse said, “He’s crowning.” And the Dr. said, “Hold on I just need to put on gloves.” And the nurse said, “He’s coming out.” And then I saw the Dr. throw a gown on and run across the room and the next thing I knew she was holding up a baby and he cried right away.

Then I started crying for real.

They put him right on my chest immediately and I didn’t even notice anything else because I was holding my baby and I was totally in love.

Then the anesthesiologist came in and said, “Well, you should be feeling that epidural now. How are you feeling. I just stared at him, as did Dave and the Dr. and the three nurses. Then he said, “Wait, is that the? Did you have the baby already?” So that was funny.

And then Jack and I just snuggled for an hour and it was a very blissful beginning.

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From halloween

I look like a psycho on this picture, and if you have been reading this blog, I am sure you know why. Long story short, I had just given Jack a bath. And he has Mr. Potato Head teeth in his mouth.

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Welcome to my new monthly feature, in which I mock Parents magazine and the ways it increases (my) parental anxiety. I know it means well. But does it go too far? You be the judge. Well, actually I’ll be the judge, and I already know that the magazine makes me crazy. Guilty! Last month I learned what to do if I drive off a road and my car becomes submerged under water, and I’ve already forgotten what I learned, not that I will ever need it. (I’m talking to you, Mom.)

This month in The OMG! Guide to Parenting Disasters: What to do when when your baby gets his/her head stuck in the lions cage at the zoo. Seriously. Sadly, with each day that passes, I realize that I do in fact have a child who will get their head stuck in the lions cage. In fact, days after reading this article, Jack get his arm stuck in the grate over the window well.

I thought, “AHH! OMG! Parenting Disaster! What do I do? Panic, panic, panic. No, don’t panic. I read that article. And I think it said not to panic.”

And Dave said, “You need to calm down.”

And I said, “Actually I know what to do, because I read that article. I am not panicking.”

And Dave said, “Pull his arm out.”

And I did. So I think the article was, in fact, not helpful because all I could do was picture the approaching lion and realize I didn’t remember anything from the article. (Confession – I may have just looked at the pictures.)

So, I was relating this story at work, and going on and on about Parents Magazine and how weird it is that I suddenly have a subscription, and my good friend and fellow lactator, Carolyn, said, “Yeah. Best five bucks I have ever spent.” Thanks a lot Carolyn!

(Now if we could just figure out who subscribed Dave to Men’s Health and Prevention…)

Photo Credit: Parents.com

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And now: Joy!

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From halloween

We were running a little behind this year, just barely managing to get the pumpkins carved yesterday, but that is good because that means I have a backlog of blog (backblog?) material, which I will need if I am planning to partake in NaBloPoMo this month. (By making sure I have at least one post per day.) My original plan was to do NaNoWriMo but there is just no way. Maybe next year.

Quotes from Luke this morning:

After I asked my son who doesn’t like to finger paint, refuses hand stamps, and never wants a temporary tattoo, if he would help me sort through the pumpkin guts to get the seeds out, “Eww! NO! I don’t want to get pumpkin innards on my hands, that’s gross.”

Me: “I need to look up a recipe for baked pumpkin seeds.”
Luke: “Just put the pumpkin seeds in a pan with some salt and olive oil!”
Me: “I know, but I don’t know what temperature or for how long.”
Luke: “Oh, well I can’t tell you that.”