AAAA...

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACCCCCCCCCKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKK!! We made it. We are on this side of crazy. Crazy being our past month, of course. Having all of our things packed up, too many weeks in a hotel, moving across country in our Beverly Hillbillies getup, closing on our new house. In a couple days, we'll be moving in. Halleluja!! I am going to enjoy every square foot of space we have there, finished or un. And the land to run! Or, more correctly, for the kids to run. Halleluja! I'm here and alive, somehow. I'll be a blogging fool again soon. After we get moved in and our computer hooked up. Until then, I'm not making any promises I can't keep. Missed you, though! Can I hear a halleluja?

Dream Machine

When we booked our househunting trip, I was so excited to get a free upgrade from a full sized car to the next best thing. I pictured me looking all cool cruising the streets in a Jeep Commander- my dream car that I'll never have because we have a lot of little bodies occupying our home. Finally! I would get my chance to have one, if only for a week.

Heh.

Double Heh.

Instead, I floated around in this beauty:

Sometimes, mind you, me in the backseat and Zane solo in the front because the baby was fussy. We looked way awesomer than I had imagined.

Lemons & Lemonade

I'm completely uninspired. Seriously. If I blogged too much, you'd be as close to sleeping as I am. Which is pretty darn close, fyi. My baby woke up every hour to eat last night. Apparently stress decreases your milk supply. Who knew? Not me. (You were right, Susan. I am stressed!)

But with everything bad, comes something good. I've found that to be very true.
*We found out last month that we'd be homeless in less than a month. Yep. Perfect. Just what I wanted with a new baby! The good part? We don't have to worry about selling our house like many people in this economy do.
*We had a completely lousy realtor on our house finding trip. But completely wonderful friends to help us out.
*Zane and I both fell in love with the same house. Nothing bad about that.
*It costs more than we wanted, but we got more than we wanted. Including two different neighbors from our church! Who wudda thunk it?
*We will be living in a hotel for the weeks that we are in between houses. (shudder) But at least I won't have housework during that time. And continental breakfast is nice, too. I know, I'm reaching. It won't be great.
*I don't want to leave these wonderful friends we have here behind. It makes me sad to think about. However. Before you know it, we'll be in our gorgeous home in an area filled with people who already have welcomed us with open arms.

Life has a way of evening the score, doesn't it?

She did it!

My little big sister, Tara, lost 68 pounds in one year! WAY TO GO!! YOU ARE A ROCKSTAR!!!

Treading Life's Waters

I'm amazed. My husband remembers all the little details about our babies. Like which one cried the instant her diaper was dirty. Strange. I don't remember that. Or even half of those tiny details he does. He's like a walking baby book. Thankful for that. (I can, however, remember when each baby started sleeping through the night. That is monumental in my world. Logan took the longest, Izzy quickly made my life easy.) The lack of remembering sort of made me wonder, am I that bad of a mom? Now it's painfully clear why I don't just remember. Sleep deprivation. Even though my dear husband wakes up with the kids and gets them off to school so that I might sleep in. (Thank you, Zane!)

Babies consume your life. I literally spent two hours straight just on the baby alone this morning. I'm unsure what it is, but this baby is by far the hardest to adjust to. Not only do I have this tiny, beautiful, helpless baby to take care of: but I have four other kids. And oddly enough, they still go to school and come home with homework, dirty their clothes, themselves, get hungry, etc. I feel like I have a juggling act in the circus and I'm constantly dropping a ball.
It's really hard to have to say to your child time after time, "Not right now. I have to finish feeding the baby." Especially when your other children need you, too. Maybe not in the completely needy way a baby does. But they need you none the less. I can see it in each of them, in their own way. And it squeezes my heart a little, especially with the heightened emotions you experience after baby comes.

We'll get there. Maybe when life slows down, it's throwing a lot at us right now. With baby, the possibility of hip issues again, the relo headaches (very much plural) and everything else that's been happening. Gah! So if I'm not here often, it's not you- it's me. It's life. And we're taking it one minute at a time.

*snicker*

pssst! My kids are busy cleaning their rooms, unaware of the fact that our realtor called and our showing was cancelled. Ssssh! I'll tell them when they are done.

Good thing I didn't do more than my weekly cleaning AND I gave up on scrubbing the eggs off of our house. (we're tagged with at least a dozen this weekend. Fun times.)

*snicker* Is it weird that I haven't ever actually won the Mom of the Year award? *smile*

The Waterbirth

Ever since watching a waterbirth on The Baby Story, I always wanted to try one. All the promises of a more calm and relaxing labor, less pain, no tearing, easier healing after the fact had me intrigued. And it didn't disappoint.


When I went to the hospital, my contractions had been consistent for an hour. I was dilated to four and after monitoring the baby for a while, I was allowed to get into the tub. Since I'm admittedly a wimp when it comes to physical pain, I asked for pain meds to take the edge off. Because I just knew the pain would become overwhelming. Whatever they gave me could only be taken a half of a dose at a time. You had to wait 15 min. to get the second dose. Never in my life could I have imagined feeling that relaxed during labor! So when Zane suggested the jets, I was all for it. It could only add to the relaxation, right? Wrong! Go time! It aggravated her enough to come meet us. I pushed 4-6 times (foggy memory) and there she was! As beautiful as ever. I never did get that second dose of pain meds...


Knowing what I know now, I could have easily done it without any pain meds. I was at the hospital for two hours before she arrived. And in the tub for 35 min. It was like a dream come true. If you are thinking about this method, I strongly urge you to try it. It's wonderful. And labor I am truly thankful that I was able to experience. If you have been in labor, you understand what a strong statement that is.

If you have any questions, please feel free to ask. Here or by email. I'd love to be able to persuade you into trying one yourself...