A Whole Day by myself w/ the kids

Tomorrow is the first day I will be completely by myself for the whole day, start to finish, with all the kids. Aaron is going back to work and, although his trip lands at 5:45 tomorrow night, for all intents and purposes, it's all me.....start to finish.

I will do breakfast (pop tarts)
dressing the kids (the little ones will remain jammied up)
lunch packing (I think I can rook the husband into doing that tonight)
getting myself ready (tomorrow's ensemble definitely includes a hat)
dropping Sydney off (school is across the street and we'll still probably be late)
2 week check up for Rem (appt. at 10:30...surely I can make that without a problem)
lunch for Harper (so happy peanut butter sandwiches are her fave)
naptime.....probably for EVERYONE
play time
pick Syd up from school (the dreaded car rider line)
Monday folders
homework
Killer Hour!!!!!! (dinner will definitely include leftovers and chicken nuggets for the kids)
Bath time (so glad we bathed Rem this morning so he won't need one for a day or two)
Story time (it's my favorite part of the day...and easy to do while snuggling the newborn)
Bed time
Whew!

Wish me luck!

Life with 3 - I think I can, I think I can, I think I can

Wow! Two weeks ago tomorrow we became a family of 5. As I have heard stated from a friend of mine's sister "we can't play man to man any more, must switch to zone defense". I have also heard people say, "going from 2 kids to 3 is the hardest transition....after that it's pretty easy to add to the family"- Unless God has serious other plans I will never know if that is a true statement. Here are pieces of knowledge I have garnered in the last 13 days.
1) My house will never be clean again
2) My 2 year old can only handle so much of me holding baby brother before she spontaneously combusts in to a serious temper tantrum
3) My 5 year old just may be getting lost in the mix because she's SOOO well behaved
4) It's possible Sydney may never be on time to school for the rest of her life
5) The dinner hour just became exponentially harder with the addition of a newborn
6) In a matter of a few weeks I will be able to do a report on the evils of chicken nuggets on a nightly basis on children under the age of 5
7) The baby likes to snack.....unless I only have 10 minutes to feed and then he likes to nurse for half an hour to get good and full.....Murphy's Law
8) My to do lists are going to have to be shortened to a maximum of 5 things a day for the next several weeks
9) I changed my mind, I don't like the travel aspect of my husband's job...oh wait, he's a pilot - can't quite get around that.
10) And finally - if the dog makes it another 6 months in this house it will be a sheer miracle.

On the upside, I stated before that I could not wait to see the new dynamic this little guy would bring to our house, and though a lot of that remains to be seen, we already feel so complete with his presence. As crazy as life is...it just feels right.

Thank you God for blessing me with a 3rd reason to blow off the dishes and snuggle instead. Thank you for 5 year old bedtime stories, for 2 year old tickle wars and for 2 week old rooting and snuggling. Thank you for my dirty house, for my stressed out husband, for chicken nuggets and for thunderstorms that bring my older two running into our room at night for comfort from the storm. Will the world hear me complaining time and time again? Probably. But, in the great scheme of things I know that I wouldn't trade a single second of my life for anything.

Happy Thanksgiving.

Remington's Birth Story

A story that begins with a little fear and a lot of excitement and ends with a baby boy nestled in my arms 8 1/2 hours later.

Many of you know that since the horrendous labor story of my first child I have been drawn to do this child birth thing all natural with no meds. I contend that, although it is hard work (they don't call it labor for nothing), my recovery is so much quicker.

We have been ready to meet our little bundle of joy since the test came back positive, since the ultrasound came back with male anatomy in the picture and more so in the last few weeks before delivery. I was one of those crazy people who nested myself almost out of a nest. I cooked, I cleaned every surface in the house over and over again. From the moment my midwife said, "ok you are term and if labor started now we wouldn't stop it"....it was my license to get labor started. Especially since Harper was 9 days late....I was not about to go through that again.

Four days before my due date I had a regular pre-natal appointment in which my blood pressure was a wee bit high. After taking it 3 more times and it continuing to rise I was sent home and encouraged to relax and come back on Friday for a blood pressure check.

Thursday morning I got up and just didn't feel right. I was nauseous with a headache. I called the doctor who said to come in so we could check the blood pressure. It was high again. She sent me home to get a baby sitter for Harper with instructions to be back within the hour. Everyone was called, we found a sitter, found someone to pick up Sydney from school, got the grandparents on their way here, called the doula and away we went to the hospital.

I was induced with cytotech at 12:00 and then walked the halls.....9.million.times. Contractions were happening, I was making progress, my doula arrived, we joked and laughed, I contracted through it. The contractions were regular early on, but not intense until way later. I really thought it would be another quick labor. Babies have a funny way of fooling you. As the hours pressed on, the pain became more intense. I started to doubt if I could do this. My doula was amazing. My husband was phenomenal. Words of encouragement streamed from both of them. "You can do this", "You are unbelievable", "You are strong and beautiful", "this is a beautiful gift you are giving your baby".....on and on they encouraged me. Sarah tells me when it got really bad she would see Aaron shake his head, turn away, wipe his eyes, gather his strength and find more words of encouragement to whisper to me. My work was the toughest, but it can't be a picnic to watch your wife in that much pain and discomfort. Around the 8:00 hour was when the contractions became almost unbearable. But I had these two people that continued to tell me that I could do this, that I was doing this and that it was almost over. Around 10:00 I could feel myself push at the top of the contraction. I remember Sarah saying "push with your body, not with your voice" - clearly I was getting noisy. The midwife came in to check and said, "You are doing it, Courtney. Listen to your body and go with it." The rest of the delivery I had almost no direction from anyone. I didn't need it. My body was completely in charge. At 10:30 my midwife said "he's crowning". I pushed one more time after that and out he came at 10:34. It was beautiful. He cried immediately. He was ready to nurse immediately. He is a fantastic baby. So far, he almost never cries, he sleeps very well and is a champion nurser. The dude loves to eat.

I could have never done it without my amazing doula and unbelievable husband.

I am blessed.

Good Things Come to Those Who Wait

Today I am 39 weeks pregnant. Four days ago I thought I would be holding our new bundle of joy by now. I had contractions from 7:38 until 2:52. They were the kind of contractions that you knew meant business. Deep, low, breathe through it, rocking back and forth contractions. The last one lasted 5 minutes. It was rough, but doable. I say all this as a cheer to myself because, once again, I plan to have this baby medication free.....and it's not easy, but it is rewarding.

I had forgotten what it was like at the end of the pregnancy to just wait...and wait....and wait some more. Fortunately, for my husband it is hunting season and he has things to take his mind off the waiting. My work from home business is at a stand still, Sydney goes to kindergarten during the day and I only have Harper to keep my mind off the waiting. I have nested myself, almost, out of a nest (my family has threatened to kick me out if they have to smell one more cleaning chemical....EVER). I have walked, I have sat on the ball, I have spent time on my hands and knees all in an effort to move this kid down into my pelvis and get the ball rolling.

Last night my husband and I reminisced about how we waited and waited for Sydney. We went to the mall and walked and walked. We walked the halls of the hospital for hours on end to try to get early labor to speed up and in the end I waited it out by watching Oprah and Wheel of Fortune.

I am reminded how we waited and waited for Harper. I walked 2-3 times a day...in JULY trying to get that child to create an plan of evacuation. We thought every night was "the night". I contracted, I cried (not because they hurt but because I knew they didn't hurt enough to be "it"). I cried because I couldn't sleep. I cried because I was ready to meet Sydney's little sister. I cried because I cried all the time and I decided I ALREADY had postpartum depression. I shed more tears in the last 3 weeks before she was born than I had my entire pregnancy combined. And then I cried more because I had to be induced.

In both cases....The wait was totally worth it. Yes, Sydney can be a bossy britches and drive us crazy. Harper can TOTALLY drive us crazy with all her antics, but they have definitely made our home, our family and this world a better place.

So now we are down to the waiting game with little Remington. We are so ready....even Harper who has been calling him "poopy boy" for the last few months now says she's ready. What I must remember is that patience is a virtue and that this wait, this long and drawn out wait is going to bring to us (hopefully sooner than later) an amazing addition to this family, a new dynamic, one that is sure to shake things up and, again, make this home, this family and this world a better place.

Tonight we are going to go to the mall and, as a family of 4, we will walk and walk and walk and try desperately to create our family of 5 by tomorrow....but if, by chance, tomorrow we are still a family of 4 I pledge to relish in that - to know that Remington is not ready and that our new, fun family of 5 will have to wait.....and that will.be.ok - it must be.