I'm sorry it's taken a week and a half to update my blog! I would have loved to do it sooner, but I spent most of the week recovering from birth - didn't feel like walking to the library, ya know?! Even now I don't feel like walking there, but if we're out already, we drive to the library and I quickly run in. I love our library AND my laptop!

So, what has been going on this past week and a half? Life with baby Maria has been wonderful! I did already type out my birth story - wrote it the day she was born, actually! Here it is:

Here I sit in the hospital, with my laptop, enjoying wireless internet access. LOL! The nurses must think I'm a crazy nut. Perhaps, if I had been posting while I was also pushing the baby out ... but nope, I was in the waterbirthing tub. Do you think I'd bring my laptop in there?!

I have a few moments to type out a birth story, as the nurse is testing Maria's hearing, which I know full well is fine because she had a wonderful startle reflex in the womb. I'd drop a spoon and she'd leap! But I do have some free moments ...

I've been having contractions for weeks - mostly pressure, no pain, and coming 10 minutes apart or more. They would annoy me, keep me awake, keep me guessing ... but not progress into true labor. I passed my due date of the 24th and figured I'd be pregnant forever. Of course that never happens! On Monday, my MIL came to watch the children so we could go on a last date - our 10 year dating anniversary is February 3rd so we figured it would be a good occasion. We went out, came back home, and I had a painful contraction. Woo hoo! But then I didn't have another like it for over a half hour. Bummer. I timed them and that's about how they were, so I went to bed without much hope for a baby that night.

Well, I never did fall asleep - the annoying contractions were coming back, with a painful one mixed in here and there, but never closer than 15 minutes, until about 12:00 am. Then they were all painful, but still 12-15 minutes apart. By 2:00 am when I woke Dh, they were 8 minutes apart, and within minutes of him getting up, they were 4 minutes apart! I figured this had to be it - it was painful pressure, not just annoying pressure.

We called SIL who lives less than a block from us, and she came to watch the children while we took off. We got to the hospital a bit before 4:00 am and the contractions were more like 3, sometimes 2 minutes apart. My midwife arrived, with her student midwife who checked my cervix and I was dilated to 5-6 cm. Woo hoo - progress! I hopped in the waterbirth tub and settled in. I was fairly conversational until a contraction came, and I would just silently breathe through them. Labor was going beautifully!

Then all of a sudden my mood changed and I felt doubt - I can't do this! I asked to be checked and I was 9 cm. This was 2 hours later. Within a half hour I was feeling pushing pressure and they said just to go with it if it felt right. Probably around 7:00 am I started pushing just a little here and there, testing the feeling ... ouch! Then the urge really hit and I started pushing with every other breath and POP, I felt my bag of water explode and Maria's head slammed down and popped out with the next push! Then it felt like I delivered 4 or 5 more heads (LOL!) with more pushes, and woosh, she was out and I felt like a million bucks! It's so amazing how you can go from feeling like you are DYING, to feeling elation and exhilaratoin!

So I turned around (I had been in a squatting position, leaning on the tub walls for support) and put my arms around the baby, who was giving a few squawks. She was all wet and slippery, of course, and her legs were floating in the water as I held her and she was kicking them, it was so cute. Then they got me out (ouch) and we did the rest of the labor stuff in the bed.

And yes, it was a girl, and she latched on right away and didn't come off for over an hour! She's a little leech already, LOL, which is great! I don't anticipate any nursing issues with her, as she's either nursing or rooting around.

And so what has she worn? One of my teeny longies with a disposable, one of her hats, she's used the bamboo velour blanket by Zany Zebra Designs, and I almost put a BBH on her but just as I grabbed it, she started pooping! So we stuck with the disposables - I don't want to mess with meconium on the dipes!

Okay, she's been gone for a long time, I miss her. I usually never let my babies out of my sight but I am alone at the hospital this time - Dh went home to stay with our other children - so I figured I'd use this time to type, use the bathroom, etc.

Well, if you got through that, thanks for reading!

Okay - so that was what I posted on one of my forums. I left the hospital the next day - Wednesday - and it was REALLY cold ... I know it was well below zero that day. Allen had left me and Maria at the hospital and went home to be with the kids, and then they came the next morning to pick us up. It was not a restful night - Maria seemed to be troubled by her burps and gas, and I got up more than I should have. I think I might have slept an hour total that night?

Night #2 - not much better! But they are getting better each night, as Maria figures out life outside her comfy womb, and as I learn what all her cries, grunts and squeaks mean! Last night was really good - 8:30 to 1:15!

Gotta run for now ... more later!

~Sarah

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7:32 am, 7 lbs 13 oz, 22 inches.  More details to follow!

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For the baby, that is!  I thought she was going to come this past Tuesday - I was up all night with contractions, but during the day they became more irregular and not as intense, so Allen decided for me that I wasn't ready.  And he was right, unfortunately!  And I wouldn't mind the wait for baby IF I could stop having these contractions, but they keep me guessing all day long! 

In the meantime, I'm keeping busy with homeschooling.  We started some new curriculum on the 1st of the new year, Rod and Staff workbooks.  Both Aaron and Alayna are using the same books, although Aaron is (newly) 6 and Alayna is 4 1/2.  They call it the preschool curriculum ... but they don't really have a "K" curriculum so I figured this would be a good fit for both of them.  They really enjoy it!  I am noticing that they each have their different strengths; Aaron is very good at tracing and writing letters and numbers, where Alayna is good at matching and coloring.  And Serena ... even though I'm not formally teaching her, it's amazing how much she picks up for being newly 2!  She can recognize quite a few letters, count to at least 3, and her vocabulary is getting better.  I'm sad that I didn't work with the older ones when they were her age ... but I thought they just weren't ready for that stuff yet!  Well, they're all still young and I'm still learning as I begin this homeschooling journey!

I said I was done knitting, BUT I did decide to start a few instock shorties for our March stocking, LOL!  I am so lost at the end of the day without something to knit.  I started a pair last night, and finished this morning ... it was supposed to be my weekend project but apparently I knit too fast, or have too much time on my hands! 

Also on my agenda has been getting all the food ready for after baby comes, and we're doing quite well on that.  Today I may make some extra pizza crusts to freeze ... we'll see.  I feel pretty crummy, pretty "contraction-y", but I still have all this mental energy I want to expel!

Here are a few pictures; both taken at the library.  Aaron with a cowboy hat on, and Aaron and Alayna with the alphabet puzzle that Aaron put together.

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Yes, I have a NEW laptop!  Woo hoo!  I'm in the library playroom, watching the children play, and uploading pics, typing here, taking Serena to the bathroom, LOL! 

I thought I'd put a few pictures up - of the kids and our Christmas baking (goodies for relatives):

I'm due pretty soon - having a good time while I wait, in fact!  I have been so busy with cleaning, organizing, etc ... the nesting instinct has really kicked in.  I haven't had this much energy in MONTHS, maybe even the entire pregnancy. 

Well, I heard that my friend Katie had her baby so I'm off to check her blog!

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My little baby Serena Joy is two years old!  We celebrated her birthday over the weekend with family and friends, and she had a wonderful time.  I can't believe how she has grown.  She's talking a lot more, playing with her big brother and sister, and she's potty trained!  Time really flies!  I don't have much time to write (at the library) but thought I'd post some pictures of her special day.

Making the cake!  She loves to help in the kitchen.

The finished product:

And here she is, enjoying the cake! 

After that, a few presents!  She received a handmade doll (made by Jody of www.hyenacart.com/PurpleCowCustoms) from us, a cloth book of prayers from Grandma and Grandpa N., and a neighing, flashlight-like horse toy from Grandma and Grandpa J.

Whew!  Bedtime!  She LOVED her doll and fell asleep right away with her, so I had to snap the picture.

Happy Birthday, Serena Joy!

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Aaron, Alayna and Serena in their wedding finery!

Our family!  Can you see the baby bump?

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Growing up, if I had been voted anything in school or in life, it would have been least likely to be a good mother.  Honestly!  It's not that I was a mean person, but I was not interested in children at all.  I avoided babies at all costs!  A newborn was cute, sure ... but so are baby turtles and featherless baby birds.

I figured I'd have one child or perhaps two someday - that's what everyone does, right?  I was married at 18 and my husband and I figured we'd wait until we were 25 or so to begin having children ... after we both went to college and had our careers underway. 

What a JOKE!  I am 24 right now and I have three WONDERFUL children and I am so glad my life ended up not as I envisiond it, but as the Lord envisioned it. I don't know exactly what happened, but when I turned 19 the mothering instinct kicked in.  Since delivering my firstborn a few months before turning 20, my life has changed dramatically. 

A verse that really stands out to me is 1 Corinthians 1:27:

"But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty".

The only way I can BE a true mother is through the Lord.  It's not "in" me like it is for other people.  Family, friends and aquaintances are usually amazed at the changes they have seen in me - and it is an opportunity to show that it is GOD who gives me the strength to be who I am.

Welcome to my blog!  I hope it is entertaining and perhaps even thought-provoking. ;-)

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