Announcing Henry David!!!

Tonight, at 7:30pm, my newest little boy will be four weeks old. And this is his first mention on the blog. I have good excuses as I always do, but for now, suffice it to say (or is it "sufficeth to say"? I've always wondered)....I had my baby!! and he's a cutie!! And I DID manage a VBAC without any drugs, in a birth center! But just by the skin of my teeth, ha ha, more details later. This post is for pictures and general rejoicing. I will quickly post more recent pictures in a new post, but let's pretend this post was done a month ago, when he was newly minted. These pictures are all from his first night on the "outside". Welcome, welcome little boy. And here's hoping you survive your older brother...

Because My Mommy Told Me To...

and I'm a good daughter, sometimes. You'll remember (or not) that I was lamenting the limbo-like state in which I've been living in my last post. My marmee very wisely recommended that the only thing to do when one is stuck in limbo is to stop and smell the roses. I've been trying to follow her advice, and of course, cuz that's what we do on blogs, I thought I'd share!

Rose #1-- In a very fortunate twist of timing and fate, and probably also a tender mercy of the Lord, my brother, who had been looking for a cheap place to live up here nearer the city, decided to move into a room my aunt had just down the hall from our apartment. We cleared out a couple of shelves in our kitchen and now he uses our kitchen for eating (he has his own bathroom). I was excited to spend a little more time with him, but I really didn't foresee what a blessing this would be. He has been such a help and relief for me; playing with Boo, giving me little snatches of time to myself. The other fortunate accident is that he works nights, so he is here mostly in the morning, and while I try not to rely on him too much, about once or twice a week he will winkle Boo away to the park for a couple of hours or so and I will get a little more rest or maybe clean up a little. This has been particularly wonderful as I'm nearing the end of my pregnancy and am so very tired and not always able to do the very energetic things that Boo was used to having me do. Plus its just been fun having more time with my brother!

Rose #2-- We found a pretty groovy little car with 6 seats called a Mazda5, and we feel like we managed a pretty good deal on it too. Our car payment is even less than we thought it would be and so hopefully it won't be so stressful to go from our old situation of low rent and no car payments, to having to pay car payments, a mortgage, and utilities all at the same time. It will still be a bit of a shock, I'm sure, but hopefully not as much.

Rose #3--(ok this is getting cheesy now right?) Boo really is a little delight lately. He is so gung ho about words and talking, there isn't anything he won't try to say. He knows almost all of his shapes, colors, numbers (well 1-10) and is working on letters now. The latest crack up is that he has learned to say "pentagon", "octagon" and last night Jon taught him "semi-circle". that one really made me laugh. I would have said half-circle, but semi-circle is way funnier coming out of a baby's mouth. He's finally gotten a little more independent (thank goodness! timing couldn't be better on that one!) and just runs around tinkering with stuff and talking and singing to himself, labeling everything and telling it what color or shape it is, happy as a little clam. He also seems to be able to understand more, and so I can explain things to him and he will stop freaking out or whatever he was doing. Not all the time, but a lot more often. Thank goodness for small favors!

R4--The one on the way is in really good shape. He's in the right position, which is a relief and hopefully means it will go better than my last little posterior boy did. I've got a lovely, funny, laid back midwife who is a total sweetheart, and a birth center all lined up that I might want to move into, it's so cozy and comfy and beautiful with a ginormous padded bathtub. Yes, padded. I never seem to have any problems with blood pressure or sugar or protein or iron levels or anything else they test all the time, and my teeth didn't even freak out or my gums bleed like they did last time (i took the vitamin and nutrition thing into my own hands this time and it has made a HUGE difference from the pathetic prescription prenatals I took last time that I swear didn't do anything but make me constipated and nauseous.) I discovered prenatal chiropractic care at the very end of my pregnancy last time and have been using it this entire pregnancy and it also has made ALL the difference. Almost no pain whatsoever, especially compared with last time. Now if HF would just guide me to a way to sleep better and pee less (overshare? oops) than pregnancy would be a piece of cake, lol, if it can ever be that. Anyway, I'm very very grateful for how this one has gone so far and am crossing my fingers that everything will continue on the right track for these last few weeks.


R5--Can I take a minute to talk about my husband? He is such a huge help, and has basically taken over cooking in this last little while. And luckily, he actually can cook! I was talking to a friend who said when her husband "cooks" they get pizza. I was reminded again of how very lucky I am. He's sweet and gives me amazing massages and is so good with Walter. It is such a joy to watch my little boy (and future kiddos, I'm sure) enjoy having a good father. It really helps to heal the little permanent ache in my own heart when I think of my own father. The Savior helped me forgive my dad and move on, but my husband has helped me in ways I don't think I can ever truly explain to anyone who hasn't been in the same situation. Seeing my children with a devoted and loving dad every day for the rest of our lives (may they be long) will be a joy and a blessing that I cannot describe. I love him! And I love my Heavenly Father and Older Brother for helping me find him!


K-the cheese fest is over, thanks for putting up with it. I'm sure you understand the need to keep your spirits up when it's starting to feel like you will be pregnant for ever. Can I ask a favor? If you are a praying kind of person, will you pray that the baby comes at the best time? I don't do inductions or any of that, and he can be a little late if he needs to be, or early, haha, I wouldn't argue with that, but he can't come in between like May2-7 because there's yet another wedding I'd really like to go to. And have you noticed how I post once a month and then I post a novel? Sheesh, I've got to work on the short and sweet posts. Actually, that's probably all you'll get after the new baby comes!

Waiting, Waiting, Waiting....

Next to the word "Limbo" in the dictionary would be a picture of yours truly; not DOING the Limbo, trying to get my big ol' belly under the stick, but just existing in a state of limbo. In grad school we would have pretentiously called it a Liminal Phase, but these days I don't use words like that so often. Every bit of my brain is wrapped up in waiting right now, and it makes it hard to think about anything else. What am I waiting for?

1. It's time for this family to get a bigger car. I've been squeezing my belly through a tiny space in a 2 door coupe to put my toddler in a car seat in the tiny back seat for long enough I suppose. Plus we cannot fit two car seats into the back row of our compact cars. So we are doing our research about cars and loans and I'm just waiting to see what kind of minivan we end up with. Fingers crossed it is smallish, as fuel efficient as possible, and a non-monstrosity that doesn't make me feel like I'm driving a boat. This could take a while to find....

2. House hunting, especially in this market, which is made up primarily of Short Sales right now, is a major waiting game. We have three different offers out on houses right now, 2 of which have us in first position. We just have to wait for that wonderful 3rd Party Approval, otherwise known as Behemoth Bank, which moves slower than molasses in January even though you'd think they would like to get some money out of a sinking ship and not end up with another foreclosure on their hands. Everybody send hurry up vibes to the banks!! Then we'll just see which one comes through first, really. I can't decide which one I'm rooting for, it changes on a daily basis. Plus maybe we will keep looking at other houses and then who knows how many offers we will end up putting down. So right now, I have this strange feeling like my brain really wants to make plans (nesting, anyone?) but I can't, because I don't know if we could be in a house in a month, or two, or four, and which house and where. Should I start nesting my little apartment ( I have been anyway, but I've reached a stage where I don't know WHAT to do now and I'm just sort of flummoxed by this waiting game. And lastly...

3. I've got a little over 5 weeks left until my due date, which of course doesn't mean much, except that I'm in the most uncomfortable stage of my pregnancy, the part where you kind of wish you could go into a coma for a month or you had a ginormous fast forward button on your life. Pregnancy is the ultimate waiting game, and the last month or so is the ultimate of the ultimate. So that's my life right now. It's amazing how preoccupied you can be with waiting, how much time you can spend thinking and wondering. I wish I could be better at putting it out of my mind and having a little faith. I'll keep working on that, and I'd welcome any suggestions!!!

The Morning Status Report.

Every morning lately, when I go to retrieve The Kiddo from his bed, this is the greeting I get:

"Daddy? Work? Yamma? Work? Doel? Seeping? Kessy? Bye Bye?"

*a pause for translation* Boo is listing where everybody is when they are not here. Yamma is Gramma, and Doel is his Uncle Joel, who, even though I keep saying that he is actually at work, for some reason Boo has decided that he is always sleeping, because I said that ONCE, 3 weeks ago. Kessy is his Aunt Kelsey, and I guess he's not sure where she is, so she is just Bye Bye, or not here.

This is what I hear:

"What, you again? Just you? Just Mommy? No Daddy, no Grandma, or perhaps any awesome aunts or uncles? Anybody? Alright, I guess I'll hang out with this old Mommy again."

No, I don't feel too terribly sorry for myself; I know he is going through a phase where he is just figuring out how the world works and how people come and go in his home and his life and his day. I also know that someday he will realize how lucky he was to have me at home with him. But until then, I wouldn't mind too terribly if one of these mornings he said something like:

"Mommy! Here!!" 

After nearly 2 years, I'm still new at this!!

A week or so ago, I was trying to get out the door to get to the Children's Museum right when it opened. Walter had his coat and shoes on, which always makes him hang on the door and whine about "Ouside?" (outside) until we go, and I had a few more things to pack into the bag. So I was grateful when he found himself a little something to do, and to keep himself quiet. I checked on him and saw him bent over my purse and made some quick mental calculations as to how much damage he could possibly do with my purse. Deciding it wasn't much, I hustled back into the kitchen to get some snacks packed, etc. Life was good there for a minute, as packing snacks with a quiet, happy toddler is a lot faster than packing snacks with a toddler who is standing on your feet and shrieking about "ouside!" (which is the next step after hanging on the door). Then I heard from the living room, "Waltuh no! No!" causing me to chuckle to myself. It's just so funny when he does his impression of me. Then reality hit me, and I had a little heart stopping moment of fear. Walter says that when he has a) just heard me say that to him, often after pouring water out of the bathtub and onto the floor, and recently b) when he thinks he's done something that I WILL say that to, when I see it. Running into the living room, this is what I saw:

:

As you can see, he had already pulled quite a few things out of my bag, which would have been fairly easy to stuff back in. Apparently, my "quick mental calculations" forgot about the can of powdered milk I had already packed in my bag for his bottle later on.

I've been diagnosed with PILS

also know as Pregnancy-Induced-Laziness Syndrome. It's here to stay for about...sigh...15+/- weeks. There's only one known cure: an extended stay in New Baby Land, where the one recuperating from PILS is basically out of contact with the world, blogging and real, and not to be held responsible for the crazy, sleep-deprived things that may come out of her mouth.

Symptoms of PILS may include: calling crackers and canned corn "lunch", referring to naps as "priority #1", forgetting that she even owns a camera-often for weeks at a time, switching to full time disposable diapers even though she once whole-heartedly loved cloth diapers, driving around for a while with an expired driver's license, sometimes resorting to formerly forsworn disposable cleaning wipes, eating frozen pizza a little more often, and not posting on her blog for far too long.

Sufferers might even forget to brag about the mind-blowing new tricks of their adorable genius-toddler even though he can now count from 1-4 and correctly read those numbers AND, randomly, the number 8. Also he can name 5 shapes and 4 colors, can string together 2-4 word sentences, and has been making some pretty funny/cute attempts at the alphabet song, and likes to pretend to read from really big grown-up books that have no pictures in them. Finally he may spend large quantities of time looking at photo albums over and over, intent on correctly labeling all the family members he can.

Some side effects of trips to NBL are: purchasing paper plates and plastic cutlery, even more of the aforementioned frozen pizza and/or takeout, frequent and shameless requests for fun babysitting and "play-dates" for older children, often complete ignorance of the continued existence of cell phones and internet, and a ginormous new batch of picture taking.

Anyway, thanks for bearing with me while I work on living with PILS and preparing for "recovery".