Semana in Mi Life - Lunes

As if you didn't think I was crazy enough... Here's a peak into the nitty-gritty, survival-of-the-Kibbe part one of seven (also known as one of my favorite 7 days of blogging : ) 

A was up somewhere between 1:30 and 3 last night and I made the TERRIBLE mistake of picking up my phone - usually I cannot go back to sleep as easily... when will I learn???

I was up a little earlier than normal. Currently I'm into Isaiah with the prayer card from Lee's ordination - I mean Deacon Joseph, but I still haven't gotten used to that : ) - and I'm back into coffee (since having the bebe) and still have some Hazelnut left from my birthday

We hit Trader Joes yesterday and if by we, I mean I because really I'm not quite ready for shopping with 4 kids quite yet. TJs Frosted Wheats have tons of 'doubles' (connected) pieces and those are highly sought after around this breakfast table. I stuck a few packs of gold coins for St. Nicholas because that will be here before we know it!

I didn't quite get all the laundry done yesterday which is a problem given my philosophy on laundry - Saturday or bust. That's not to say I won't finish up what is in the washer or dryer on Monday (because Sundays I definitely don't don laundry). There's a load in the dryer, a load waiting to be dried on the counter (which I forgot about) and a load in the washer that also needs to be dried 

Hi sweet baby boy!

TJs was out of our favorite pumpkin muffins - as in both locations : ( which is a huge problem because we LIVE on those things. So I decided to give the Gingerbread mix a whirl. PS - loading the muffins with a scooper is way less messy. Last year I tried loading them with a turkey baster and that went over about as well as my first round of pound cake baking. 

M is such a scavenger. The girls have started to get up around 6:30 so there's a bit more time for the general riffraff a breakfast which is nice to not have to feel like I'm forced to rush them. Also, the gingerbread muffins were terrible - I thought. The ginger or molasses or whatever was super strong. Good thing Grammy is sending us so pumpkin muffin mix. 

E's uniform and this ruler-yard stick thing she convinced Grammy to let her bring home and bring for show and tell. Crazy thing is - I loved messing with that thing growing up. 

I wasn't in the mood to listen to A scream from the swing while we hustled around the house so to the sock/carrier/Beco/lifesaver. He wasn't happy about getting down. Also note the laundry on the bed that was fluffed but NOT folded before we left for school - reason number 2042735 why laundry is done on one day of the week. 

One minute later... A and I meet the girls in the chapel for prayers before school. E has the Christmas cards down (from last year) - they each pick a card and they pray for that person/family. Send us a Christmas card - you're getting prayed for year round, whether you like it or not! Today R chose to mope around and whine and cry and not do as she was told so her dessert was nixed for the day before 7:30

Ahhh... my front seat. Let's see - there is the sock/carrier, words to O Come Emmanuel, E's old set of sight word flashcards, a burp cloth, a blanket, my word notebook and 2 kid bags and a partridge in a pear tree. 

On the 15 minutes ride to school everyone cried or screamed over something... 

E - Not singing O Come Emmanuel in Latin - I started in English - where does her Latin obsession come from???

R - Singing in general - she was being pouty since the chapel/not being able to find her shoes/ getting her hair brushed

M - She took off her shoes and couldn't reach them

A - Unhappy about his state of being in the carseat and not eating

Sometime their screaming and antics get to me but now I just try not to laugh especially when 3 of 4 or 4 of 4 are wailing. 

I'm feeding A in the parking lot at preschool

M wants help getting her shoes on

R explicitly stated 'she's not helping' - fantastic

Successful day at the office with A. 

I pick up R and M from school. Find out R's got E's old church shoes on - this kid cannot keep up with shoes. Get school pics - which are way better than last year's. And listen to Rand M argue over A's sunshade 

They think it is hilarious hiding in the bushes

On the way home...

M - Silly An-due

R - He's not silly

M - Silly Annn-Due

R - He's not silly or funny eee-der

{she's in the same mood as I left her but apparently she had a good day for her teachers}

This is what happens when a 2-yr-old loads the school stuff - that would be R's spare set of clothes. 

Afternoon work has begun as M finishes up lunch. I definitely miss having E around for lunch. R has taken to playing with her Legos while she's gone. 

A is not getting into a deep sleep so he's been up most of the afternoon flipping between eating and the bouncy seat - because typing with one hand gets really old. 

Now for my FAVORITE part of the afternoon - the kind of afternoon that makes the craziness of working while still having the kids under foot in the afternoon. Stuff like this reminds me WHY I do what I do and that the insanity of some days is worth it. 

Papa had to bring his 'digger' back home so he could play with it some more because it is the end of the pool season. The guy who drives the truck that carries the digger and Lee are unstrapping it and he shouts to A - 'Boy, one day this will be yours!' 

Then I couldn't resist the Father-Son photo-opt

Then Lee said 'too bad he cannot run the controls'

A's not so sure...

E gets home from school and immediately make plans to pick more sweet potatoes with Jibbe later in the week - stay tuned for that.

And I thought a lot of paper came home from preschool... NOPE. 

M destroys R's handiwork while R and E are outside playing while I make very little headway at the cleanup of my work stuff, laundry and school stuff. Lee cleaned up the lunch stuff (yeah, I saw you - and I appreciate it) and I think it drives him totally nuts that I don't just put stuff directly in the dishwasher BUT he's got bigger fish to fry. 

We head to shop for E's school's can drive. Also known as Advent Activity #1. Eastern Catholic / Orthodox Advent starts 40 days before Christmas. We do a Jesse Tree (which we actually haven't started because we are slackers : ( and a weekly act of charity. 

Taking 4 kids shopping is an test of patience - in fact just loading them up in the car seems miraculous at times. Didn't I just say I wasn't ready for that??? 

All loaded up.. Now ask me how we are going to get this into school tomorrow - maybe, just maybe I'll remember to throw the stroller in the van and make my life that much easier : ) 

I'll try not to cry over this pic

Then we head out to dinner. Yep. As if shopping with 4 kids wasn't crazy enough we even took them out to dinner - only because it was the school's HSA/PTA function at a super kid friendly restaurant. We faired pretty well. A just wanted to be held and since I've mastered the art of living life without a free hand I just obliged. I put him down once just so I could scrape the dressing off my salad bowl and sure enough the kid woke up! And I happen to not be in a listen-to-sad-bebe-mood...

Papa had Bible Study so I was flying solo for bedtime. Mix in super tired baby and a toddler who can take off their own diaper and it could have been really interesting : ) I got A settled while the girls got ready for bed. Parenting when you are outnumbered is all about prioritizing who needs what and what can I do the quickest to meet the most people's needs... either that or a super guilty conscious -so A and I had a nice snuggle while the girls played

E - So I can have your Olaf forever

M - ...

E - Can I have it forever and ever?

M - Yes!

E - R, now I have an Olaf like you!

{nixed that one before she even came in the door to tell me about it}

Sometimes the bebe must be sad because Mama needs to go potty

We read... E read. No one got shoved off the couch. It was a good night

Even better because I snuck in 15 minutes of ab work before I started this post 

More about A

These little feet took a big adventurous journey into the wide world of the kindergarten class on Friday - for show and tell. E didn't know we were coming because really... I don't want to commit to anything much above the bare minimum. So she was speechless - literally - when we walked in the door after Mass. She saw us at Mass but definitely wasn't expecting us to show up for show and tell. It was actually kind of funny to watch her teachers try and coax answers out of her... 

Teacher - How much did he weigh when he was born?

E - (without missing a beat) 30 lbs

Cue memories of being 65 at the Mother's Day preschool party in the spring. 

A wrapped thing up when I let the kids touch his feet. Yes I took off my germa-phob hat for 2 minutes and let them do that. 

It was a good morning. Rewind a minute... A and I went to Mass - that would be me plus one (super easy) kid at church. It was heavenly. No wondering what M is doing. No trying to convince R to stand up. No asking E to stop fidgeting with her dress/bow/shoes/coat/book. It was also refreshing to be back in church after labor - knowing the why behind the pains of childbirth. 

After Mass, the priest - he is fantastic - gave A a blessing and something that he said stuck me - "bless his parents who cooperated with Your Will".

A is very into eating, sleeping, and making lots of gas. One difference between him and the girls would be in that department. His Papa will vouch for me on that. 

See that little bitty red spot on his eye. That's all part of the bruising from his birth. I don't have a super interesting birth story by any means but I suppose I'll type one out just to bore you. 

Okay... His name. Everyone wants to know what's the deal with his name. So from E's perspective... 

Neighbor (who we don't know super well but was bringing us dinner? - neighborhood love) - So why did you Mommy and Daddy pick the name Andrew? 

E - (super as-a-matter-of-factly) He was a saint 

Honestly, when we were tossing around boy names last year we could have opted to use name #1 or #2 but we figured we'd change it up. I told Lee I really liked Andrew but I wasn't sure if he'd like the middle name I liked. 

Athanasius? he asked.

Yes? 

Sold. Done. Andrew Athanasius was in the books and really didn't think we'd use it. 

Now, Athanasius who the heck is he? 

St. Athanasius and St. Nicholas (yeah the guy who is mistaken as Santa Claus) were two bishops in the 300s who stood firmly against the Arian heresy that was plaguing the Church. In fact the majority of Christians believe Arius and his false teaching. Little bit of early Church history to find about that name choice... 

7 Quick Takes - From the weekend of M's birth

This is not M's official birth story but it will be pretty darn close... Enjoy!

--- 1 ---

Now this story really starts nine months ago... I mean no, no : ) This story really starts on the day we went and got sent home from the hospital. Basically after three hours at 0/0 and a $1711 bill to my insurance we were back a square numero uno.

On Halloween I had another (final) dr appt and I dragged Lee along. I had an ultrasound and a stress test for the baby - I had it with E too but this time the baby was a jumping bean which was good. My doctor (at the practice there are 4 doctors and you do NOT see all of them - you see your doctor and you get what you get at the hospital - which is perfectly fine with me) was on call the first weekend of November. Great. He's never delivered one of my babies nor did I really want to roll the dice and get the doctor who delivered E. 

Cow and ballerina cuteness

He gave us the pros and cons of induction - I was 0/0 that day too so nothing seemed to be happening naturally. I was pretty much terrified of Pitocin because I did not want my labor to get out of control to the point that I would need/want an epidural. Stadol - fine. Epidural - not in my birth plan. The doctor was willing to let me go to 41.5 weeks but said Sunday (11/3) I would be 41 weeks and he could induce me then. It was entirely my/our decision I just needed to call and make the induction appointment for Sunday or come back to the office in 5 days. Seriously there was not pressure to do one or the other - which I appreciated.

After some short soul searching, I very reluctantly called to make my appointment for a Sunday induction... But not without a few tricks up my sleeve to get this labor party started...

--- 2 ---

So with my challenge in hand/mind/heart, I set out to beat the clock and go into labor before Sunday morning at 6 am. I had written off going trick or treating with the girls because I was going to be super pregnant or with a new baby. Since it did not seem like I could walk enough, Papa and I took the girls out in our neighborhood. I carried R on my shoulders a few times to try and put some extra weight on the baby (that's not really why I did it but it sounds reasonable, right?). That was Thursday. 

Friday I tried to get everything organized at work - morning and afternoon. With the AC broken (it was warm that day) I left sweating feeling like I had run a race and finished up as much as reasonably possible. Came home to anniversary dinner with Lee. He made an eggplant and goat cheese tapa which was really good followed by some chocolate cake - anyone heard eating eggplant can induce labor? Probably alot more needed than I ate that night. 

Saturday... oh Saturday. I had also been told pineapple juice could induce labor so I had my 46 oz can popped and ready before breakfast. I drank half before setting out on my EPIC pre-labor walk. My goal - to walk 2 hours. I figured I had walked 90 minutes the weekend before E was born so why not shoot for 2 hours. Induction was a short 24 hours away. Well 6.5 miles and a good long conversation with Nani later - I had walked 2 hours and my feet hurt. And I was not in labor. 

Nike Running App to prove it

So with swollen feet and two girls who wanted to play outside Lee and I sat on the porch and watched them as I drank the remainder of my pineapple juice. After naps we headed to church - in the Mount. Fortunately there is a whole basement dedicated to loud noisy kids. Mass is streamed on a projector screen so R banged on the metal chairs (whose idea was that to put the noisiest chairs possible where kids are going to be banshee children?). R was way confused when she heard Papa's voice proclaiming the Gospel and for the prayers of the faithful (he was on deacon duty). E hung out with Jibbe and generally had good behavior. 

Hello... we would not take a good pic for Mama

After Mass we stayed and talked to the priest who said something along the lines of - "Tomorrow's an exciting day" to which my response was "Yes... kinda. Minus that whole going through labor thing." Lee was talking to a bunch of people too so I ended up talking to the woman who was down in the cry room with me and R. She said to try Castor oil to get labor going and that several of her 8 kids were born with the help of Castor oil.

Well one of my biggest fears about this labor was going into labor at night and having to call and wait on Jibbe to get here... So I succumbed to my fate of induction the following morning... Not without a good 30 minute pump action before we left. 

--- 3 ---

Fast forward to the hospital... I was the only induction for the morning. I was surprised that my doctor actually would induce me on a Sunday. Anyways. I got checked in and the nurses asked me 50 million questions - some of them twice or three times. Finally at 7 they started the IV with Pitocin and I was 3 cm / 80%. I wanted to walk around but not possible because I was on Pitocin? Grrrr.... So bedridden and induced. NOT what I wanted.

Fantastic hospital shot, no?

Nothing much to report for 3 hours until my doctor came. I was 4 and some percentage. I was super bummed to be only 4 after 3 hours of this crazy Pitocin. I was almost ready for some Stadol because the contractions were still manageable but I wanted to wait until I was 6-ish. That's around the time I got it with E and R - and had two doses before they were born.

My doctor broke my water around 10 am.... then things got a little crazy.

--- 4 ---

I ended up getting the Stadol when he broke my water which was a really good idea because things got intense. The Stadol made me care a bit less but that drug does not effect any pain levels. Lee started reading through the Psalms so I could focus on something other than the contractions.

After some time of contractions I called the nurse who checked me and I was 8 - I think this was about 10:45. I specifically remember asking her to not leave the room - even though Lee was there - she had to go out and get the scale and stuff so everything would be set for the baby.

I asked her if I could start pushing and she said I couldn't because my doctor was on his way back to the hospital. FANTASTIC. You break my water and then peace the heck out? Well... I was not actually thinking that. They were telling me to focus on not pushing... Yeah good luck. That lasted all of three or four contractions.

FINALLY my doctor came back and was suited up and ready for the delivery action. I pushed a few times - honestly probably not more than 5-10 contraction cycles and baby M was born at 11:09 am. It was such a relief to finally deliver the baby. I did not want to hold her immediately because I was so darn thristy. You know all they give you is ice chips. On top of that I had not had anything to eat or drink since 9:30 the night before PLUS it was daylight savings so tack on an extra hour AND add the intense breath-through-labor breathes... I just wanted some water. No luck. I was begging... Just ice chips until everything was cleaned up.

Brand new

Boo!

We waited along time to see you!

My doctor looked at me and said "Look at your baby" to which I said I can't because I need some water. Looking back it seems weird. So desperate for water. I never really have this overly emotional attachment to my babies at first sight. I mean really... getting them out is a ton of work and not to mention painful. I do think that some of my response was due to the Stadol. That stays in your system for 2 hours and I was still working through the second hour of the dose.

Lee held her first - just like that country song that makes me cry... and now you can too {READ IT!}

Look at the two of you dancing that way
Lost in the moment and each others face
So much in love you're alone in this place
Like there's nobody else in the world
I was enough for her not long ago
I was her number one
She told me so
And she still means the world to me
Just so you know
So be careful when you hold my girl
Time changes everything
Life must go on
And I'm not gonna stand in your way

But I loved her first and I held her first
And a place in my heart will always be hers
From the first breath she breathed
When she first smiled at me
I knew the love of a father runs deep
And I prayed that she'd find you someday
But it's still hard to give her away
I loved her first

How could that beautiful woman with you
Be the same freckle face kid that I knew
The one that I read all those fairy tales to
And tucked into bed all those nights
And I knew the first time I saw you with her
It was only a matter of time

But I loved her first and I held her first
And a place in my heart will always be hers
From the first breath she breathed
When she first smiled at me
I knew the love of a father runs deep
And I prayed that she'd find you someday
But it's still hard to give her away

I loved her first

From the first breath she breathed
When she first smiled at me
I knew the love of a father runs deep
Someday you might know what I'm going through
When a miracle smiles up at you
I loved her first

--- 5 ---

Whew!!! Kleenex anyone? 

With an unparched mouth I was ready to hold our sweet baby girl. So little M was finally here... With a semi-cleared head I started to wrap my mind around another little girl. She nursed awhile in the L&D room. Lee called and texted necessary parties. I texted people but I was not really up for talking. 

Lee went and made a CookOut lunch run with the traditional Mint Oreo milkshake victory shake. 

M stayed with us for the entire afternoon. Much different than E and R who were whisked to the nursery an hour after birth. {Hospital policy change that I found out about and it was pretty great}

Proud Papa

Happily in recovery with baby having eaten and drank

We talked about L&D and watched football - yes I approved. We talked about how I was super glad that it went so quickly and how there were 3 other women in labor at 7 am and none of them had come out yet - I asked the nurses. 

We talked about how M does not look like E or R. M has the blondest, smallest eyelashes and a tiny bit of hair in the back - unlike E and R who had heads full of hair. She is a keeper : ) 

--- 6 ---

Sister meets Sisters

Hi baby sister!

We encourage touching on the head!

R content with Mama and her cup!

E and R were both skeptical. E did not want to hold M which was fine. R wanted her snack... shocker. Jibbe, Papa, E and R trekked to the gift shop to get something for new baby and then it was off to the normal nighttime routine for them.

--- 7 ---

Then it was M and I for the night. She was fine. The hospital beds are the pits. I got in a good walk that morning during the shift change and M was in the nursery and not screaming so I was fine with that. It was nice to have some time to reflect on the other day and peek in the nursery window and see the 7 babies in there. 

During the shift change the nurses and doctors were talking about their patients and I heard seizures, spina bifida and E.coli all come up. At that point I realized how special life is and how easy it is to take good health for granted.  

After the shift change, M resurfaced hungry as expected. My hospital has a lactation consultant who is awesome - and if your hospital or birthing center does not have one you are totally missing out! So she was there to help M and I get organized in the feeding department. I have to keep telling myself, okay I have done this for 18 months... M has been doing this for 18 hours. It is easy to forget the details of breastfeeding that make it easier for mama and baby. 

Are we going home yet?

This is exhausting

Snuggling up!

Bye-bye hospital!

That's a rap!

Lee came with breakfast. The woman came to get all the name info. We paid our {insanely expensive} bill and we were wheeled out. 

                                                  

For more Quick Takes, visit Conversion Diary!