fourth folder fun~

A blogger friend, Christy, whom I hope to meet in real life one day, tagged me for a funny little post. Take the fourth photo folder on your computer, take the fourth photo from that folder, post it, and explain it.

Here you go....classic me ;o)

This was taken in 2007 May, when I was at the Kdg/1st grade Mother's Day Tea with Caleb who had just turned 7. I used to joke that if we continued going to New Song (the two day per week homeschool co-op we used to attend) that I would be attending the Mother's Day Tea something like 12 years in a row. And probably be pregnant at every other one ;o)

This is the year I was expecting Haven. I think in this photo, I was probably a week away from my due date (and unbenownst to me at the time, still three weeks away from his actual birth day.) It was a very funny May as there were tons of end of year things I was trying to arrange around having a baby. There was the Mother's Day Tea, end of year parties, field day, etc, etc. It eventually became quite comical. My aunt (who helps me a lot in the two weeks following my births) was finishing up her school year as a teacher, and it seemed like everyone had something going on. I kept getting requests to please have the baby by________ or just don't have him on _____ or ______. "Tuesday would be good, but not Monday or Wednesday. The weekend would be okay, but I would really prefer a weeknight." (Have you ever tried to arrange a home birth around your husband, the end of a school year, your mother in law, two sisters, and an aunt? Not to mention my midwife's family was in town. Gee whiz people, you either make it or you don't! ;o) Having previously had all early babies, and knowing May would be busy, I had my house completely cleaned and my freezer completely filled by the end of April, expecting another early baby. Well, Mr. Haven decided to overly accomodate everyone's schedules and not come until the very end of May, a full two weeks late.

Thanks, buddy. That was really thoughtful of you. Being a week and a half overdue at field day was a blast ;o)

more on raising protecting surviving boys~

Warning: Photos of a happy, but somewhat bloody child ahead.

Fair warning.

We've been very blessed around here that we've had very few trips to the ER. And only two of those events involving stitches. For some reason we've had a pile of medical stuff this year, Moriah's eye, Anna had pneumonia, she injured her foot, Caleb jumped off the roof, I had the hemorrhage, Glen and Anna diagnosed with Celiac, but in ten years of parenting, only two sets of stitches. Involving boys, Caleb and Ethan, of course..

So, my Monday morning starts off pretty normal. We're doing a little more cleaning than usual since Susie, my midwife, was coming over. We were all helping clean up, with the kids taking turns playing with Haven while the rest of us worked. Well, someone, who shall remain nameless :o) got slightly sidetracked with his (or her) turn being responsible for the little guy, and next thing I know, Haven has slipped and hit bumped cut split his head wide open on the fireplace hearth.

Now, most of our kids have bumped their heads before with no major problems, but he must have hit it just right. Anna scooped him up as she usually does (she's a little Mommy when it comes to Haven), and I went about my cleaning. A few second later, I hear, "Mommy! Mommy! MOMMY! He's bleeding really bad!" So I rush over, and I can't even tell what is really wrong as his face is covered in blood, and is eye is completely filled with blood. You couldn't even see his eyeball. It's a good thing blood doesn't bother me or we all would've been in trouble..

So I rush him off to the bathroom, get a washcloth, and press it onto his wound the gaping hole in the middle of his head. Seriously. By this time I can tell that's the only injury, his eye is fine, but he has what is literally a hole in his head. All. the. way. to. the. bone. I can see it and the split itself is a good half inch wide. And it is really disturbing. I'm okay, like I said, blood doesn't bother me. When I was younger, anatomy was my one of my favorite subjects and there were several years I wanted to be a surgeon, so I was okay. My kids on the other hand were freaking out.

I sat down, called Glen and told him he needed to get home. He was only a half hour away, so I left the kids here with Caleb (yay, Caleb!) and took Anna with me to take care of Haven in the car. I found out later that Caleb had all the kids pray for Haven after we left. I think that is my favorite part of the story :o)

By this time, Haven is fine. Completely fine. Except that you can practically see his brain. But you know, other than that. He's laughing, talking, playing, and climbing in and out of chairs despite the fact that every time he smiles blood continues to run down his face. No problem, he just wipes it away. Seriously, the kid has blood smeared all over the place, but he thinks he's on a grand adventure. We get to the ER, sign in, and here is this happy, curious little boy investigating everything in the place while sporting a hole between his eyebrows. He seems to have no pain whatsoever. In all seriousness, I completely give all glory to the Father who I know caused the bleeding to stop quickly, alleviated his pain, and was watching over the little guy the entire time.

Here are a couple of the pictures that aren't too bad.

Let's go guys!
Where's the party?

This is after the triage nurse cleaned him up a little.

So, three hours later, and some stitches that weren't exactly the highlight of the day, he taps out in the car before we even pull out of the parking lot. He took a good nap, but went on to play completely normally the rest of the day. He didn't even need Tylenol. What a trooper.

I knew I shouldn't have put off taking Christmas card photos. That's okay, I was kind of looking for an excuse to not worry about them this year.

Now, if we can just figure out how to convince Moriah that he really is her brother and not a monster baby, we'll be just fine.

(And in all fairness to the un-named responsible party, it really was one of those things that probably would have happened anyway. Don't worry, no children were spanked, disciplined, or yelled at in the unfolding of this story. ;o)

So...

Parenting Tip #12

Although not pleasing to the eye,

fireplace hearth guards are a good alternative to stitches.

You know, there are just so many possible captions...

Choose your favorite:

"Aha! Finally...no one is looking!"

"I bribed Moriah to leave everything out."

"Mommy never sees ANYTHING when she's on the computer."

"Someone left out some toys for me to play with get into."

"I'm needing a bath anyway."

"This finger paint sure is yummy!"

"Think I should grow a beard? I think it looks nice!"

"I was making it for you....really!"


and my personal favorite...





"Mommy will be so proud. I can make my own lunch now!"


Parenting Tip #11

Never assume your five year old will clean up after herself.
Never. This is vitally important once your toddler learns how to climb into chairs.

birthday boys~

There's Nothing Like A

First Birthday...

(Where did my cake smashing picture go???)

Can't forget Caleb :o)

caleb's birth story~

**I would love it if you would all share some of your birth stories,

whether by blogging or even in the comments.

I love birth stories.**

Fast forward one year since Anna's birth. (see Anna's Birth Story here.) We've sold our house in LaVergne, and bought a house in Madison closer to my family. (I grew up living next door to my grandmother, my two great-aunts, and my aunt, plus I'm very close to both my sisters, so living out in LaVergne in my first few months of motherhood and no longer working outside the home made for one depressed new mommy.)

I nursed Anna for 11 months, and then she suddenly weaned herself. I found out I was pregnant the day after she turned one. I was very excited. I knew he was a boy from day one. The big name debate was between Caleb and Christian. Glen thought Christian Rivers sounded like a church, so Caleb it was.

He was due on 1 May. That morning, I had a mother-daughter tea at my family's church. I almost won the youngest mom award, but my sweet friend Rachel beat me by a couple of months :o)

I had woken up that morning thinking my water was probably leaking. As with Anna, I had been 5cm for the past week or so. I knew if I called the doctor he would probably tell me to come into the hospital, and wanting to avoid an induction and get to experience the "I think it's time!" phenomenon, I decided to hold off on calling him. At least until after the tea. I mean, who can resist little sandwiches, fruit, and cake? I could have a baby later.

That afternoon I called the doctor. He told me to come on in and if I didn't go into labor by the following morning, I would need to be induced as my water would have been broken for over 24 hours. We got to the hospital and were met by the drill sergeant nurse. My doctor was on vacation, but the on-call came by and said he was fine with me having liquids until midnight. As soon as he left the room, she informed me she wasn't going to let me have anything. (I guess she didn't want to deal with a potentially throwing up patient. I am sooo glad I home birth now!)Not only was she a strict, by the book type, she also had just had a chemical peel, so she was the blistered drill sergeant. That was okay, we kept the lights off.

I really didn't want to be induced. My three regrets after having Anna were being induced, not getting to experience going into labor, and having an epidural. (No flames for women that have epidurals, it was just how I wanted to do things!)

Around 3am I realized (and it really was like an epiphany), "Hey! I'm having contractions that I'm noticing. I must be in labor!" I woke Glen up and told him. He went back to sleep. After a little while, they were getting more intense, so I woke up Glen and called her. She graciously got me a birthing ball that was quite nice. But alas, once again labor was hard, and not knowing how much longer it would last, I opted for the epidural.

Wouldn't you know, right after that, not thirty minutes, I was complete , and Caleb was born with a pushing stage so short I don't even remember it. He had meconium so they didn't hand him to me right away. I remember really noticing the cramping after he was born. I think one of the great benefits of being handed your baby immediately is that your focus is all on that new sweet little person and it helps you not notice the lovely afterbirth stuff.

Caleb Rivers was born around 6:20am, and Dr. Trabue (my fabulous ob that is still my backup doctor and referred me to my midwife, Susie) missed it by mere minutes.

We named our new little guy Caleb Rivers. He weighed 8#14oz. We went home a couple of days later and everything was great. Adjusting to number two was so much easier. And this time I avoided the whole well-baby check event at Vandy ;o)

sweet baby haven~

~happy 1st birthday haven!~

I've been meaning to write down Haven's birth story, for, well, about a year now, so I figured in honor of my sweet baby turning one, today would be a great day to do it.

Well, to start at the beginning, I'll give you a little background. First of all, all of my children (except Caleb who was born on his due date) have been early. Like from 8 days early to 20 days early. So, as Haven was due on 17 May, and wasn't actually born until 30 May, that made for a very, very l o n g amount of time that we were just...waiting. I am a huge planner, like, I still have 4 containers of Tide that I stocked up on before he was born and the amount of food I had in the freezer lasted us a good 6-8 months, I still have 5 more boxes of toothpaste in the cabinet, and still have some diapers that I got before. Like I said, I'm a planner and slightly ocd. So, my house was entirely clean and we were ready to go a solid three weeks before he was due. As he was 13 days late...I was going slightly crazy, wondering just exactly how large this child was going to be (Anna was 20 days early from her original due date and weighed 8#10oz, and Ethan was 11 days early and weighed 9#6oz. My dates were right, and my awesome sister in law had an 11lb baby just months earlier, so this was no small thought, people!). I was beginning to become obstinate in declaring "I don't care what the midwife says, I am not going to the hospital, I'll just hide out in the basement and he will eventually decide to be born, I mean, no one stays pregnant forever...". Not to mention that we had end of the year New Song stuff (you should have seen me at field day!), my sister was finishing up nursing school, my aunt (the teacher) was finishing up her school year, my mother in law who is a tremendous help but who has two autistic high school age sons that were about to be out of school for the summer, and Glen's work schedule, made for a lot of people trying to schedule when this baby should be born. Oh yeah, and did I mention that my midwife had all five of her children/spouses coming in from out of town for Memorial Day? Oh yeah, and I had been hospitalized with pneumonia a few weeks prior. Anyway, it was slightly crazy :o)

So, Sunday before he was born, the day before Memorial Day. I started taking blue/black cohosh. Tastes gross, but you know, whatever works. Didn't work. Didn't actually think it would. I tend to think babies will be born when they're good and ready, and if you force it before your body and your baby is ready, well, often not such a good idea. So, waiting, waiting, waiting.

Okay, so, finally, around 2:30ish on Wednesday, 30 May, I woke up with what seemed like the real thing. Finally. I love waking up in the middle of the night in labor. It's happened with four of my children, and I had been asking God the whole time to please let it happen that way again. It's just really cool to wake up and know today is the day. Then I usually sit around for awhile, the house is nice and quiet, I take a nice long bath, see the sun rise, call the midwife, and wa la! a baby is born about an hour later. Funny how things don't always go exactly the way we plan. Ha ha. I should probably add here that my whole pregnancy, I had pretty consciously been aware of the Lord preparing me for what would be an out-of-the-norm-for-me labor, and especially once I realized this was to be my first late baby, and as I realized this was going to be a really late baby, I began to really know something was going to be different. So I was prepared.

Sort of.

So, everything went according to my previously laid plans as stated above, except the baby an hour later part. I was in labor, still pretty comfortable, just not moving along nearly as fast as all my other babies. Hmmm. Back began hurting more than usual. Called Glen to come home around lunch time (I had sent him to work to wrap up a few things knowing he would head back when I called). Still thinking, normally we would have had a baby several hours ago. Glen's home, on the phone with work (do these people not realize their door knobs and garage remodels can wait until tomorrow! Gee, does my husband not realize their door knobs and garage remodels can wait until tomorrow?), and every contraction I'm kicking him, pointing at my back..up, down, left, right...push harder...get offf the phone already! Not calling the midwife as I just like to be left alone in the calmness and quietness until I feel I have just enough time for her to get here to deliver.

5pm-ish, finally call her as it's getting more intense. She gets here, checks me, sets up. Still no baby. Get to 10cm, she has me push a little, even though I don't have the urge yet, just to kind of assess progress. Finally, she and her assistant realize Haven is posterior. No worries, not a huge deal, they've actually had 8 posterior babies in the last two months, it just makes for a longer labor and harder pushing. Like I said, not a huge deal. Unless you're in active labor trying to contort your 13 day overdue body into Chinese acrobat-type positions in the name of trying to get your baby to turn already. Yeah right.

I have no idea what my kids did all day. Thankfully, they're pretty self sufficient. Plus they had Glen and Anna around to keep them in line. Toward the end there, Anna and Moriah were on the bed with me, rubbing my arm, and Caleb and Ethan would periodically run to the bedroom door, peek in and see me bent over during a contraction (thankfully, I'm a pretty quiet labor-er), make "oh my gosh-that is such a girl thing-gross!" type faces while trying not to laugh and run off again. Noah was probably lining up blocks somewhere. Who knows? Not me.

So, a couple of hours pass of trying to get this baby to turn. Lying down and pushing a little here and there to see if we can just make some progress in getting him to come out sunny side up. Nothing is saying imminent delivery. I'm lying on the bed, Glen is sitting in front of the bed, the midwife and her assistant are across the room writing something down. I decide to stand up and move around a little. Well, Haven must have decided to turn right then, because as soon as I stood up, I felt him come down. Far. As in he's coming out right now. I leaned over on Glen, yelled "head", and he fell out. Literally. Glen and the midwife dove for him and caught him inches above the floor. Still in his water bag. The cord snapped, so both of us are bleeding out all over the place, he's still in the bag, so he's cut off from oxygen, and no one was ready. It was a very chaotic minute or so. Not to mention that my NICU nurse sister who had never made it to one of my home births before, happened to arrive in my front door right as I yelled head, and walked into my bedroom door right as he fell out :o) The assistant has Haven on the bed trying to break and peel off his water bag. I was facing away from the bed, so I never got to see it, but she said it was actually really neat. She said Haven was just in there with his eyes open looking around. He wasn't actually in any distress yet, and she was able to break it in about 30 seconds. Meanwhile, Susie, the midwife, is taking care of me, getting the cord tied off and getting me back on the bed. It was very exciting and definitely the easiest "pushing" stage ever.

Everyone was fine and soon after, my aunt and other sister arrived. There's always such a rush of adrenaline after I have a baby. Being at home is wonderful. As it was around 9pm, Glen went and got the kids in bed and laid down on the couch in the living room while my aunt, my two sisters, the midwife and her assistant, and me were all back in the bedroom laughing, taking care of post-baby stuff, recounting the amazing birth, and just having a great time.

I can't wait to do it again :o)

So...

Happy Birthday Sweet Baby...

We sure do love you!

my (not so) little guy~

Isn't he a cutie?
8 months already,
I can't believe it...
sweet baby Haven.