The Beginning

The end of school means the beginning of summer, which means, Summer Bucket List time.  We didn't go as all out as we did last year, in that we didn't try to get half the list done in one night.  But we are slowly but steadily knocking things off our list.

First, we made the list.

Then we put it on the wall.

 First off the list, frozen yogurt for dinner.

 Next up, water balloon baseball, which was super fun, but it turns out it's hard to play an actual game of baseball when the "ball" breaks every time it gets hits.  So we just lined up and hit balloons. It was fun.

A firefly hunt in the front yard.

 I tried to get a picture of the kids with their fireflies, but they were too busy being silly.

 We discovered a new park with a $1 carousel, which wasn't on our bucket list but we had fun anyway.

We hit up the zoo with the cousins and they were back to their spring break shenanigans but the zoo was way less croweded and we had 5 adults for 7 kids and I wasn't pregnant so we had a good time.

 Don't let this picture fool you, Zora cried or nursed most of our zoo adventure.

We've also been chipping away on our 200 books; working on reading the BFG so we can see the movie; made s'mores (twice, thanks for Grandma Pattie); and picked wild blackberries from our backyard.  Unfortunately, those pictures won't load.

My mom (Grandma Pattie) commented yesterday that we're wearing her out with all our activities and wondered how we keep it up.  We don't.  We tried to squeeze as much in while she and my dad were in town because tomorrow when they leave, the party's over.  It's going to be a whole lot of tire mom and nursing baby.  We won't die, but it's not going to be pretty either.

The End

Of everything.  Being pregnant, being in school, playing baseball.  And we're free for the summer.  Too bad school and everything else killed all my creativity so I'm running low on things to do in the heat.

The Friday after Memorial Day, Rex played in his last baseball game.  His team lost by 1 point in the first round of the tournament.  He got two good hits and a few good stops.  He played well and had a good time.  I was not sad that the tournament was single elimination.  He, however, decided to not to play again in the fall.  He'd rather do karate....hmmmm

The next morning, Alice played in her final game as well.  It was HOT.  Mostly the kids just sat in the dirt and the parents hid in the shade.  Alice (along with the rest of the team) got a game ball and was pretty thrilled about it.  Alice will be playing soccer in the fall.  I guess it's good that my kids like to try lots of different sports...a bit pricey but good right?

 Then, Thursday was the last day of school.  Rex got a medal (made out of plastic) for getting the highest math score out of the first grade at his school.  He also got the blue ribbon for something or other...I think for listening well in class.  We're pretty proud of him

Rex rushing out to the bus on the last day of school.

 That night we got our traditional last day of school frozen yogurt for dinner.  We all ate too much and got stomach aches and ate a real dinner when we got home because as much as we want ice cream to work for dinner, it just isn't.

Then on June 17, Rex played in his end of season piano recital.  He played the theme to Star Wars and another song.  He also played both standing up.  He almost always plays the piano standing up.  I'm not sure why, I don't even think he does but it's cute.

 He got the Monkey Award because he's pretty silly and hard working.

 His teacher now has 10 students (only 7 made it to the recital).  She's only 14 but does a great job and we just love her.

 Rex and Elizabeth.   He'll be starting piano back up in the fall with school.  He doesn't get to not like piano.  Sorry.  Now I just have to decide when to start Alice because I really want her to have a few good years before Elizabeth leaves us for college.

Spotlight Hog

Zora was born on a Sunday morning.  Monday was Memorial Day so Greg's parents took the older three kids to Greensboro to hang out with their cousins.  Tuesday Greg got up with Rex for school, made Rex's lunch and put rex on the bus then took the middle two to my friend's house to play for the day.  She also brought dinner that night (thanks Lexy!)   Repeat Wednesday and Thursday.  Things were going great.  My friends were taking care of my kids and bringing me dinner and oogling over my baby and telling me how great I look.  Apparently Greg couldn't handle all the attention I was getting.

Flash forward to Thursday afternoon.  Greg had taken Henry out for an adventure.  I took advantage of a sleeping baby and empty house and got in the shower.  As I'm getting out, Henry waltzes in and says, "Dad cut self."  Not thinking anything of it, I continued with my post shower routine (Greg very often hurts himself).  Then I hear Greg calling him from the living room, so I put a towel on walked out to see what Greg needed.  I found him laying on the couch.  He said, "Ok, I'm holding my leg together.  I'm going to let go.  I want you to tell me how bad it is."  He let go; I looked; and for the first time in my life, I told someone they needed to go to the Emergency Room (I'm usually a put-some-butterfly-bandages-on-it type of person).  Greg called his mom to take him to urgent care.  They ended up having to go to three different urgent care centers to find one that did stitches and took our insurance.  He ended up with five huge stitches.  How did he do it, you ask.  He was on an adventure in the backyard with Henry, so naturally took his machete with him.  He stuck it in some wood, then, thinking he was being attacked by fire ants, he pulled the machete out and in the process hit himself right below the knee.  He thinks he hit the bone.  I don't disagree.  It was pretty deep.

We were a perfect mess that night.  Greg couldn't bend his leg but still wanted/needed to clean the office because my mom was coming the next day.  I was attached to a nursing baby.  By the end of the night, Greg's knee was bleeding again and looked like he'd stuck a golf ball under his stitches.  Luckily Alice is a vampire so Greg told her where to put everything and she put it away.

Luckily my mom's flight got in early the next morning and she drove home from the airport after Greg somehow managed to drive to the airport.

He took the stitches out a few days ago.  He's also managed to ride the mountain bike trail a few times without reopening his wound.  

I'm working on forgiving him for stealing my spotlight.

It's been one week...

since you looked at me

cocked your head to the side and said "I'm angry."

That's from the Bare Naked Ladies, or BNL, as my dad would say because he refuses to say "naked."

Either way, it's a lie.  It's been 15 days.  

I meant to write this post at 1 week, but you know, it just didn't happen.

Aside from not being able to blog as much as I'd like, new baby adjustments are going fairly well.  In fact, I daresay, and knock on wood, Zora may be my easiest baby.  And I think it is because I have so many other kids, who have taught me all the stuff that doesn't matter.  For example, night time feedings.  Greg sleeps on the couch.  Mom sleeps on the other couch.  And Zora and I sleep in the bed.  I've given up on trying to get Zora to sleep in her own bed.  I try every night, she makes it about long enough for me to put toothpaste on my toothbrush and then I pick sleep over having her sleep in her own bed.  So we co-sleep.  Not my favorite but some sleep is better than no sleep.

I've also discovered a new nursing technique called the natural method.  It's amazing.  Rather than fight with little claws and force her mouth open, she mostly can latch herself.  I highly recommend it.  Natural breastfeeding method.  Google it.  But only if you want to see lots of breasts...feeding babies.

The other kids, on the other hand.  Rex still mostly ignores Zora.  Every once in a while he'll acknowledge Zora's existence, and he's sweet as can be when he does.  Well, Alice still just loves Zora.  She asks to look at her all the time.  For the first few days, Alice picked out Zora's outfits and brushed her hair and even helped with her first bath.  The novelty, however, if wearing off.

Henry still just loves Zora and is actually very soft with her.  He is constantly kissing her with his slobbery, booger face.   First thing after every nap or whenever he's left a room and re-entered, "Where's baby Soo-rah?"  And then he kisses her a slobbery kiss.  He also tickles her checks.  And buckles her carseat whenever she's not in it.  And then today, Mom was holding Zora and Henry climbed into her stroller and refused to get out.  He's regressing just a bit.  He's also upped his naughty at least 50 times.  

Henry's naughty level as of late (hitting, pinching, hair pulling, water dumping, extra counter climbing, spitting, toy dumping, anything you can think of) has me wondering when life will go back to normal.  And then I remember: it never will.  There will always be a Zora.  We have to get to a new normal. And hopefully soon, so Henry can spend less time in timeout and I can leave the house without fear of him...being Henry on crazy naughty steroids.

Alice had a photo shoot with Zora on her 1 week birthday.  Alice has a promising career as a photographer.

Mom caught Zora smiling one day.

Zora really liked her first bath.

Zora Jane (Olie Baker)

Zora is Greg's great-great grandmother, Izora Bennett, married to Wade Hampton Crowder Sr, who named his son Wade Hampton Crowder Jr., for whom our Henry Hampton is named.

Annie Jane Pack is Rex M. Roberts' mother.  The same Rex who named his son Richard Rex (my maternal grandfather) for whom our Rex is named.

Olie is for my maternal grandmother, Diana Olie, who was named for her mother Flora Olie, who was named for her mother Annie Olie.

All family names.

I have struggled with this name.  Originally, our next girl after Alice was going to be named Mabel.  And I like the name.  But then we would be naming two girls after the same person--Alice Mabel Sides, which wasn't the reason why we didn't name Zora Mabel, but it was a contributing factor.

When we found out we were having a girl, I started looking at Family Search for a middle name for our Mabel (or at least who we thought would be Mabel).  And I found Annie.  Just about everyone in my family is named Annie.  Annie Olie, Annie Larsen, Annie Jane Pack, Ann Eliza Marsden.  Lots of Annie's.  I spent a few nights reading all the stories on Family Search about all the Annie's and called Grandma Deon to hear some other stories about her grandmother's (Annie Olie and Annie Larsen).  I had to have an Annie.  

But then Mabel Annie was a little too Southern for me.  So I went back to the drawing board and found Zora.  And then added the Jane. And I loved the way it sounded--strong and assertive without being too Southern.  But still no Annie.  And I really wanted Annie.  But Greg didn't like Zora Ann because of the two A's next to each other.  

So we were at a stand-still and decided to wait until little girl made her appearance to see what she looked like.  

And then she was born and I had to make a decision.  I still really liked Zora Jane but wanted my Annie in there too.  So I said ZoraJane Annie Baker and we went home.  When we got home, we all took naps.  Later Greg, apparently, spent some time on Family Search too.  He said he just couldn't remember the Annie part of baby's name and he found Olie, which fulfilled my Annie needs.  So then it was ZoraJane Olie Baker.  And then we wrote it down, just to see what it looked like and ZoraJane does not look good, so we separated it out and it's now Zora Jane Olie Baker.  But I still haven't signed the birth certificate.   

And I have no good reason for not signing it, but I am just feeling anti-commital right now.  I want to try the name out for a while.  But mostly I just want to call her Baby.  I'm going to see how long I can go before I absolutely have to sign it.  So far, 3 days.

 But something about this picture just looks like a Zora to me.

TBA

It all started this morning at 1:07 am when my water broke.

Actually that's a complete lie.  "Labor" has been going on for days really, but because I always deliver late I was looking forward to weeks of on-and-off contractions.  Add to that the weird 48-hour virus that ran threw our house, taking us down one at a time this week.  I was excited.  By which I mean I was dreading it but my mom had already bought her plane tickets for June 9th and my calendar is full of swim lessons, baseball, T-ball, family dinners and other beginning of summer festivities so baby was just going to have to wait.

I was sick Tuesday and Wednesday and woke up several times each night thinking I was either dying or going into labor.  I then reminded myself that 1. I have late babies and 2. my water breaking is always the start of labor.  I rolled over and went back to sleep.  Thursday the off-and-on contractions started.  Nothing regular but intense enough to notice them and not be able to label them Braxton-Hicks.

Friday Greg and I took our last trip to the temple, which is nearly 2-hours away.  I still couldn't breath from the virus earlier in the week and was having some harder contractions all the way down.  I spent the 2 hours planning how and where I would give birth in the temple and contemplating names I'd have to give a baby born in the temple.  Luckily, we didn't have to put my plan into play.

Saturday I woke up to my mucus plug falling out.  I was starting to realize that this baby might not be as late as I thought as first, but also tried not to get too excited, because you never know and the day had to go on.  Greg stayed home with the little two so they could continue to recover, while I took Rex to his game, ran home, switched out Rex for Henry, went visiting teaching, and blah blah blah.  It was a packed day.   All while having well-spaced but noticeably intense contractions.  We put the kids in bed around 9:30 and put the last few things in the hospital bag, checked my list again and commented to Greg, "Well, that's it.  Everything is packed." At 10 pm, Greg started making fun of me for doing dishes so late, but we had invited his parents and brother over for dinner on Sunday and I was just trying to get a head start on things.  I fell sleep on the couch sometime around 11:30 while trying to prepare my lesson for Young Women's.  I finally got in bed around midnight.

At 1:07 am I woke up to myself flying out of bed, punching Greg and noticing a huge puddle on my bed.  My water hadn't just released like it had with the last two--it gushed.  A lot.  Greg asked if I was sure I hadn't just peed the bed.  Um, yeah, I'm sure.  We both changed, called the neighbor to come sleep with the kids, and the midwife to meet us at the birth center.  We were gone by 1:26 and arrived at the birth center without hitting any traffic (which was a concern if my water had broken in the later morning like it had with the last two).  This was actually a fairly pleasant drive, 1. because there was no traffic and 2. because my contractions were still at the same intensity level as they had been the previous two days.  It was nice driving while not in active labor.  By the time we arrived I was questioning my decision to rush to the birth center.  I hated the idea of just hanging out in that little room with nothing happening.  

I unpacked the bag, changed (again) and not knowing what else to do, decided I'd take a nap since I'd only had an hour of sleep.  I put my headphones in since the lady in the room next to us was being rather noisy.  Greg offered to go to Wal-Mart and pick up a sound machine to block her out.  But I couldn't breath.  I'd forgotten the fast-acting decongestant.  Greg looked up near-by 24-hour drug stores and was about to leave when the first real contraction hit and I decided I wanted him close by.  I spent the next few hours alternating between sitting on the toilet and reclining on the bed trying to reach my zen state but the 3 midwives at the clinic made a few too many ins-and-outs for me to really be able to concentrate.  Towards the end I decided I wanted to stand up for a few contractions, then I went to the bathroom again, which is Greg's clue that we are almost done.

Now here's the part that I practiced the most: the birth.  I've read  a lot about breathing a baby down and not actually pushing.  I'd tried this method with Henry and failed because sometimes, you just want to be done so you push as hard as you can to get the baby out.  However, this can be counterproductive as pushing a baby against a not completely ready cervix can actually cause the cervix to swell making the whole process take longer.  Besides, pushing hurts.  So with each contraction,  I took a deep breathe and then breathed down for 6 counts and then started again.  I also used a birthing stool this time, which was lovely because usually I get tired of holding my weight up  so it was nice to be able to sit.  I also made Greg rub my back while I held my hips together as they felt like they were ripping apart.  I have no idea how long this went on.  It definitely felt longer than the pushing phase with the other kids, but it was also more comfortable and less energy-consuming.  Finally I felt the baby come down so I gave one push and out came her head and moments later second push and there she was.  I even said, "Well that was easy" as the midwife handed her to me.  Because it was much easier than Henry.  This is also the part I am most proud of.  I delivered baby without a single scream, grunt, or other weird noise.  Just a quiet, peaceful entry into the world, which was the goal.  Everyone was pretty impressed, especially after the patient in room 1.  It was 4:19 am.  Considering active labor didn't start until after 2, I'd say not bad.

We moved to the bed and did a few of the necessities (deliver placenta, cut the cord, which Greg did with his own knife again, take a few vitals) and then nothing.  Baby nursed for 2 hours, I snacked and looked at my phone, Greg attempted to sleep, but the midwives managed to come in for something or other just as he was falling asleep every time. Eventually they came and did the newborn examine then Greg held baby while I showered and made myself pretty.  

Greg's knife with umbilical cord blood

Chilling with Dad

New born exam

Ready to go.

Then we left.

We got home just in time to help Becky get Henry dressed for church.  We sent them all to church and took naps.   We were a little tired.  And now the fun continues.  By which I mean, labor and birth are only the first horrible steps weeks of pain and lots of baby crying.

Alice is completely obsessed but in a pretty bad way.  We have to keep a pretty close eye on her.

Rex looks pretty interested here, but for the most part, he doesn't care about the baby.

Henry is warming up to her.  Whenever she cries, he says, "Baby crying.  Take a nap."