Playing Catch-up

I can't believe it's been a month since my last post. And I was doing so well. Life just seems so busy lately even though I am home a lot more these days. And it's not for lack of blog ideas. Seriously, I think of stuff all day long to blog about, kind of like when you catch yourself thinking in Facebook status updates :P.

We started school a few weeks earlier than I'd originally anticipated at the girls request... which is fine by me. A two week head start definitely couldn't hurt us. This year we are doing all Rod & Staff except for our Princess Class (more about that later) and I really like it. We are doing EVERYTHING which may be adjusted over Christmas break. I think the hardest part is trying to figure out were the girls are. In several subjects I would like to skip ahead, past the stuff they already know but at the same time I'm afraid I'll pass over some key building block they'll need later. So for now everything is review. Which makes for easily bored girls but this will pass... I hope.

Without going into much detail yet Graham and I recently applied with a national missions organization and in the 'waiting to hear' stage... We both seem really drawn to Chicago and have excitedly been perusing tons of sites looking at housing and such... It really is a fantastic city. We'll see.

In other news: Graham has put together (with TONS of help from one amazing Sarah Cox) a Fall Men's Softball team. I think he spends 80% of his time thinking about and planning for this. It will be fun for the kids and I to cheer them on... Maybe I'll post schedule and score stuff here.

Bullet point recap for this past week:
* Silas and Izzie are under the weather - nothing too serious
* Didn't sell near as much as I'd like at JBF but I registered to consign at the Weatherford one so hopefully I can sell the rest.
* My Dad got promoted to Sgt. and will start in his new position next week. All part of the final plan to retirement and no one deserves it more than him!

That's all for now.

Happy Birthday Boo Bear - Isabelle Turns 2!

My precious Isabelle Grace turns 2 today... Just some photos to share

I couldn't for the life of me figure out how to add music to this post without it being obnoxious and taking forever (maybe because it's after midnight) but I wanted to post the lyrics to the song. It's by The Choir and it's called 'Cherry Bomb'. :)

She makes a lot of trouble, yeah
When things to go the way she plans
Discusses problems in theology
Nobody understands

She makes noise
She breaks toys
She fills my heart with joy

Cherry bomb, cherry bomb
With a face just like a cherub
She's a bomb, yeah
She makes her presence known
Cherry bomb, cherry bomb
With a face just like a cherub
She's sweet as anything I know

She never takes things lightly, no
Her little heart explodes sometimes
I hold her tightly in my harms
She really blows her Daddy's mind

She thrills me
She kills me
She spills grape juice on me

Cherry bomb...

She thrills me
She kills me
She makes noise
She brakes toys
She fills my heart with joy

Cherry bomb...

Oh Baby!

The older I get the more I realize I don’t know as much as I thought I did. I recently watched The Business of Being Born, a ‘controversial documentary that takes a hard look at America's maternity care system, juxtaposing hospital deliveries against the growing popularity of at-home, natural childbirths’(1) . It really opened my eyes.

The births of each of our four children have been a little different from the previous one and as I’m learning more I’m pretty sure the births of the remaining children God chooses to give us will be different as well. A family friend recently had their tenth child and in sharing the birth story I contemplated sharing each of ours. Then I realized there wasn’t a lot to share.

Our first, Chelsea, was delivered by a Dr. (All our children have been born in a hospital and I had an epidural with each, no complications) I was induced about a week past ‘due date’(2) and then, while in labor they put me on several drugs - I don’t even know what they were. I spent most of labor in a groggy, unaware state and while I remember bits and pieces the experience, as a whole, is a blur. It took about twelve hours from start to finish and about three pushes. Afterwards I was a little discouraged about the ordeal. Even though there were no major problems I still felt like it could be better. So, I opted to switch to a midwife.

Next was Mackenzie. I was scheduled for an induction but the night before she decided to start the process on her own. The midwife was a little scatter-brained which didn’t give me a whole lot of confidence but I’d been through this a mere 10 months before. 8 hours and two pushes later Kenzie arrived with no complications.

Isabelle was delivered by my favorite midwife so far but she too was induced. I was a week past and after being monitored at the midwife’s for awhile they decided to send me over to the hospital. They started the induction and before long I was given an epidural. It wasn’t dispersing correctly through my body so they had me lay on my side. Best thing I’ve ever done. Within 30 minutes I felt pressure and called the midwife back in. While she rolled me over to check things out she realized our little Boo was half-way here. No pushing involved. Not a single push. Labor was about 6 hours if I remember correctly.

Again with Silas I used the same midwife group in the same hospital. I was only four days past my due date but they scheduled an induction for the next morning. Graham and I went home and did some last minute house cleaning. When we were finished I sat down on the couch to rest and started counting contractions. It was around 5 or 5:30. When they were 5 minutes apart we called the midwife, dropped the girls at my mom’s and headed to the hospital. We arrived at the hospital around 8. I tried to labor as long as I could until it became too painful before having the epidural. This didn’t take too long, mostly because I was stuck on a bed, on my back, and I don’t know any pain management techniques. It slowed labor a little so they put me on a tiny bit of Pitocin to move things along. After awhile I asked to lay on my side and sure enough, same as before, within about 30 minutes I felt pressure, no pushing, and he was here. Slightly less than 6 hours since I started counting contractions.

In light of the new things I’m learning I would like to try a birthing center and no drugs next time. Because of my previous birthing experiences I feel confident that complications are unlikely and if I could educate myself more on the art of labor, I feel like a natural birth would be a much better choice. For everyone. And my husband whole-heartedly agrees. In fact, he said it’s the hospital births that weird him out. While I like the idea of a midwife the ones I’ve used aren’t too different from most doctors. They have no hesitation to use inductions or Pitocin. This is a little disheartening to me but I’m not defeated.

As I grow, both in age and in my relationship with Christ, my views on things are changing. A LOT. I used to say “I would NEVER have my babies at home” and “I could NEVER drive a 15 passenger van”. Now, those are things I HOPE will happen. :)

1.Netflix
2.I’m learning that due dates don’t mean much. God is sovereign and babies will come when they are good and ready.