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Tuesday, 06 October 2009

Samuel's Birth Story

Due to my use of HypnoBabies, my vocabulary has changed and I felt it may be helpful to provide a key:
Birthing waves or pressure waves: contractions
Lightswitch: a switch in the back of your neck, through which signals between the brain and body (pain, voluntary movements, etc) run. To turn it off puts you into instant relaxation; your body is perfectly limp and your mind is clear, and though you still have feeling in your body, there is no pain. You can focus on breathing and on directing mental anesthesia to wherever you want your body to feel better.
Belly Lift: a technique where one holds the pregnant belly, lifting a few inches up and pulling it in, to direct the weight of the baby down the canal. This is to help make each pressure wave more effective and to relieve pressure on mommy’s back.

Samuel James Brown came into my arms for the first time on the 25th of September, 2009, and he was beautiful! His birth was, too.

Thursday, Sept 24, mid morning: I realized I was leaking amniotic fluid. It was a small, slow leak, and nothing else was happening. I called my midwife, who told me that my water would likely break within 24 hours, or it would heal itself and stop leaking. Throughout the rest of the morning, I just went about my daily routine and chores. At about 3:15pm, my water broke for real…I was not really having any pressure waves, though. I called the student midwife and told her my water broke, but nothing else was happening, and that Jeff and I would come in sometime in the evening. I then called Jeff and told him he might want to come home a little early, but there was no need to hurry. An hour later, he came home, and we packed the van and did everything we felt we needed to do, went on a walk, listened to the HypnoBabies CDs, and went on another walk. I had a few weak pressure waves, more while walking, but mostly nothing was happening.
Finally, at 8:45pm, we walked into the birthing suites. Autumn was the student, and Suzanne was the supervising midwife. Autumn checked me…I was dilated to 1cm, maybe 1½, and 50% effaced. The baby’s heart rate was steady and good, and he was in ROA, a great birthing position. Throughout the rest of the story, you can know that generally, Autumn would check things, then Suzanne would do it again to test Autumn’s knowledge and accuracy. As I was still not having regular pressure waves, they advised me to go home and get some rest and call if things picked up or if I felt it was time to come in. Glad to have a chance to sleep, Jeff and I went home and went to bed.

Friday, Sept 25
I awoke a few times during the night, feeling pressure waves that were steady though mild. I got a few times to time them; the first timing session, they were 5-7 minutes apart and 20-30 seconds long. I listened to the Birthing Guide CD as I timed them, and remembered to turn my lightswitch off with each wave. After an hour, I went back to bed and awoke two hours later; I timed again and they were about 3 minutes apart and 30-40 seconds long, but still very mild. I called Suzanne and she said to keep timing them and call in a half hour to report if there were any changes in intensity or duration. I timed them for another 15 minutes, then felt like lying down…and I fell asleep. When I again awoke, around 8:30am, the pressure waves were nearly gone. Just a few here and there, and still mild. Jeff and I ate a leisurely breakfast, and around 9:30, Autumn called me to ask how things were going. I told her, and she informed me that Suzanne would like me to come in.

Jeff and I arrived at the birthing suites by 10am and they checked me again: this time I was dilated to 3cm. They were a little concerned that I had progressed so little and my waters had ruptured 19 hours before. After discussing different options, we decided on a cervical massage that would dilate me more. I turned my lightswitch off and focused on a HypnoBabies CD and Jeff’s relaxation prompts, and felt myself drift as the massage began. She stretched the cervical opening to 6cm, then Jeff and I went out for a walk to stimulate waves strong enough to hopefully keep it there. We went out the back and walked along a beautiful, aromatic peach orchard, stopping as each pressure wave came on. I’d lean into Jeff and he’d do a belly lift. I felt like it was helping a lot. After a while, we returned to the suites and I paced, rocked on a birthing ball, reread all of the HypnoBabies articles on birthing time, and did everything I could to keep the pressure waves coming. Even so, they became less frequent and less intense.
    At around 2pm, Autumn and Suzanne checked me again, and I had shrunk back down to 3cm. At this point, there was one hour left to the 24-hour mark from the time my water broke, yet I felt calm and confident that all was and would be okay.   Suzanne asked me what I wanted to do. I replied, “Honestly, I just want to take a nap, but I’m afraid that if I do, things will stop altogether again.”   She said that maybe resting could help and to go ahead and give it a try. I got comfy in the bed and Jeff turned on the Birthing Guide CD (again). This time, one part really stood out to me: “You are allowing your body to do what it wants to do…you just relax and allow things to happen, and when you allow your body to work, it works, and everything happens for your body to work the most efficiently, calmly, and in complete comfort” and so I redirected my focus from trying to have pressure waves to just seeing what my body would do if left to its own. Within moments, the pressure waves increased in intensity and started coming a little closer together.
     Then Suzanne came in with a little cup and said she had some homeopathic pills that might help. I agreed and as they dissolved under my tongue, I started to have real birthing waves! After three very intense ones, I said to Jeff, “I have to get out of bed…I don’t think I can take these lying down anymore!” and Jeff was thinking, “what?!?” We’d been in the bed only 15 minutes or so. Soon, the pressure waves were right on top of each other and so intense that it was hard to find comfortable positions. After several of those, I said it was time to fill the tub. Autumn got it started while Jeff helped me through a few more waves. The tub filled quickly and I eased into the warm water just as another one came on…then they stopped for an entire two minutes. “Uh-oh,” I thought, “the warm water is too much! They’re going to stop!” then I felt a strong one with the urge to push! I informed the room that I felt like pushing, so Autumn checked me…I was dilated to 8cm and she told me that I couldn’t push quite yet and to try to hold off. The next birthing wave hit, and I consciously stopped my body from pushing three times, and oh, was that difficult! With the next wave, I said, “I’m sorry, but I have to push!” and so Autumn leaned in to check again, though it had only been a moment, and with surprise, exclaimed “There’s a head! Go ahead and push.” And so I did! I breathed a deep, vocal “aaaaah” and pushed with my abs while consciously releasing all tension in my face and on the pelvic floor. It felt so good, like I was relieving a great pressure…even when the birthing wave was over, I kept bearing down with an “aaaah,” taking a deep breath, and bearing down again…his head was mostly birthed in between 2 pressure waves, then one more and he was out! Autumn caught him and placed him on my chest and I relaxed back against the wall of the tub, trembling and laughing.
The first words out of my mouth were, “That was easy” though I would only consider it easy in comparison to my previous birthing experiences, though. Then I devoted all my attention and my words to the precious little boy in my arms! Samuel’s birth is recorded as taking place at 3:47pm. He was 8 lbs, 6 ½ oz, and measured to be 21 inches tall.   The midwife’s record has me as having spent 1½ hours in labor and 3 minutes pushing.
It was an hour later that they weighed and tested him, with the exception of the Apgar, which was given while I held him in the tub. While he was being tested for weight and all that other stuff, I was checked for tears, and was surprised to learn that I had torn enough to need stitches. I didn’t feel it at all! It had torn right along the episiotomy scar and so was nice and strait for them to stitch up.
   We all rested a few hours, and by 9:30pm we were headed home.

    Though I usually forgot to consciously use my lightswitch, my body reacted almost as if it went “off” on it’s own with each pressure wave, and the things I learned and practiced in HypnoBabies made a huge difference throughout the entire time! I can’t believe I didn’t know I had torn! I also am a permanent fan of water birthing. The water was so wonderful! I was buoyant and could move with ease as my body wanted to, ultimately enabling the birth itself to be as easy as it was. I will never willingly birth on “dry land” again. In the past, I would take a mirror and examine myself a few days after birthing…I often found bruised and swollen tissue, but this time it looks normal except for the line of stitches and how stretched out it still is. I am much more comfortable in almost every way. Many of my ligaments are giving me a little trouble, but otherwise all is feeling good and healing quickly.
    What a beautiful birth this was! I raise prayers of gratitude to my Heavenly Father for the wonderful experience it was, and for His guidance and blessings throughout.

Friday, 02 October 2009

Just pictures

All of these and more you can see if you go to Facebook, but here are a few for here.

A few days before the baby was born, Joseph was "playing" the piano and having a great time, even though it was off.

Within the first few hours of life:

Adam loves his new little brother!

Julie admiring her new baby brother

Sarah got to hold Sammy and Jerica at once.

Joseph took a few days be ready to hold Sammy, but it worked out well!

I love little baby feet!

I took a whole lot of pics while he was sleeping, and I love them!

His profile...he definitely has the same nose as Adam!

Short little legs. So cute!

Precious little hand!

I made a little pile of diapers during the night-time changes. This morning, Joseph wanted to play with them, and I tried to get him to leave them alone, but Jeff said, "He knows what to do with them. Let him throw them away." So we asked him to throw them in the garbage. He grinned and ran down the hall with them. This is where we saw them next:

So this is the first week of Samuel's life. I hope you enjoyed it! I've written the birth story, but I need to summarize it (it's 4 pages long and has every little detail) and decide how much to share publicly before posting it.

Wednesday, 30 September 2009

He's here!

This is overdue, I know, but Samuel James was born last Friday, Sept 25th, at 3:47pm. He is a healthy 8lbs, 6-1/2 oz and he's about 20 inches long (there's been some confusion as three different people/offices have given three different measurements. I'm going with 20, though).

The birthing suite was wonderful, HypnoBabies helped a ton, and from now on all my babies will be born in warm water! It was a beautiful experience!

Pictures and my birth story are almost ready and will be coming soon!

Tuesday, 22 September 2009

Last Saturday was my "official" due date...

but I honestly didn't expect the baby to be here yet. My adjusted due date (according to my 20-week ultrasound) put me back 10 whole days, so I think I'll have my baby closer to the end of September...we'll see what happens!
Saturday was an excellent day! I took Joseph to an appointment at the Little Gym in Orem for a motor-skills evaluation and we had fun there. I got back to the house to pick up Jeff, Adam, and Julie, and we went up to Park City to join the other foreign exchange students in the same program as Julie for a day of touring. Well, naturally, everything was too expensive. So we walked around a little, ate lunch, then split off from the group and drove down historic Main Street before heading towards home. We stopped at Granny's Cafe in Heber (we'd heard that they had the BEST milkshakes ever) and got a couple of shakes, then went to a beach at Deer Creek Reservoir and waded in the cold water while finishing our shakes. We came home and relaxed to a movie until Eliza called. She had just reached Provo and I was going to get to see her soon! I haven't seen her in over a year, I think, and I was really excited for that. So I threw some Mac N Cheese on the stove and hurriedly straitened up my house and did some dishes, finishing just as Eliza reached my house. It was SO nice to see her! I showed her my home and we chatted and ate leftover soup (the noodles were for my boys, who don't like soup) then went to Eva's to visit together as sisters. It was awesome!This last week has been busy. I went into a 2-1/2 day Nesting Phase and got so much done! The second day, Jeff and I traded rooms with Adam and Joseph...that was a lot of work, and though I rested often and had lots of help, it killed the rest of my nesting energy. It took me 5 more days to finish organizing my bedroom and deciding what to do with tons of random little things. But overall, I am pleased with what was accomplished! Our home is pretty much ready for the little one...
I still keep thinking that it might be a girl…I even packed one little girl outfit in the baby bag, just in case. Ron visited for 10 days and went home on Monday the 14th. Things were busy and fun with him. He arrived on Friday the 4th, and as soon as he was settled, we went to Olive Garden and then to play mini-golf. Julie joined us, and we all had a great time! I lost miserably, but I don’t care. I’ll just blame it on my lack of balance…I swear, nearly every hole, my first “putt” either missed the ball completely or it hit the ground first. Julie laughed so much at me! She lost her ball completely and had to get a new one, so I got to laugh back. The next day we went to Oktoberfest, and it wasn’t really what we expected, so we didn’t stay long. Probably our favorite thing was the 1996 World Yo-yo Champion, who did a lot of cool tricks. Jeff videotaped a lot of the coolest ones. We ended up not eating any over-priced German food because we got lunch before we went, and left for home before we were hungry enough to eat again.
Monday was Labor Day and Jeff’s birthday. In the morning, we went to Cascade Springs and hiked there, then had a picnic in the mountains near a little brook. That evening, we had a pizza party, of course! The rest of Ron’s visit we took it easy, watching movies, playing games, occasionally going out to eat, and of course Ron went with Jeff to play volleyball.
Oh, one more exciting thing happened while Ron was here…and that's what I blogged about on the 5th.
Well, we got the stitches out the next Saturday morning, and Adam did really well for that, too, even though I didn’t have my camera with me. It's been just over a week since the stitches were removed, and the scar looks bad but is doing well. Now for some pics from cute boys, Oktoberfest and Eva’s birthday.

Joseph playing with a spoon

Joseph sharing a banana with Daddy

Adam just being cute

Joseph and Lynzi at Eva’s party.

Adira got a thank you card from Locks of Love. Here she is showing it off with Caitlyn.

The Birthday Girl…

The pregnant sisters

Serra and Johnny

My dashing oldest brother, being silly.

Adira has really taken to Julie, and wanted to be in a picture with her.

Kathleen and Becca are best friends.

And we can’t forget Jada!

Michael and Timothy were too busy catching grasshoppers and refused to have their pictures taken. Everyone else was just busy or I forgot to get them.

These are from the next weekend, at Oktoberfest:

Jeff n Mary

Adam & Julie

Ron and Mary.

There were a lot of pictures of the mountainside, and Ron took some good ones of us NOT behind the silly board, but I don’t have those yet. Also, I took pictures of the boys playing in the jumping tent, but all the pics were fuzzy because the boys were jumping around.

**I wrote the above several days ago, and have had issues trying to post it. Ug. I will now tell about the past few days, and as this is already way too long, I'll to my best to keep it short. I forgot to mention that Friday evening, Sarah hosted a Baby Sprinkle for me. Just a celebration of having a baby and a few gifts to help me keep up with things. It was a lot of fun, and thanks to everyone who came and for the gifts I received. Thanks to Sarah for planning it and Rachel for doing the games. I loved seeing my friends!
So this past Saturday Eliza visited me and we had a great time even though it was only 2 hours or so. The next morning, we all went to Mom and Dad's ward meetings for the baby blessing of John's new one, Serena. She's about 6 weeks old and she's SUCH a beautiful baby! I'm kicking myself for forgetting my camera. After church, we crossed the street to Mom's/Grandma's house and put together our potluck lunch and just talked...each of us 6 kids but Teresa was there, as well as some friends of John and Vanessa. We had a great time! Cindy (John's older daughter) was so cute! She kept coming up to me for hugs and snuggles and telling me that she loved me so much...then when the afternoon was half over, I asked if she knew my name. "I'm not sure" she replied, "I think it's....Teresa?" I giggled and told her she was close; I'm Mary. She smiled and hugged me again then ran off to play. Jeff and Julie left early to put the boys down for a nap...Adam was starting to nod off while playing and Joseph was getting grumpy. I stayed a few more hours and got to see some more relatives and to taste Grandma's homemade toffee (with chocolate and pecans!)...yumm! I came home and had a quiet afternoon.
Monday we went for a WAY overdue grocery shopping trip and I did some more cleaning/organizing. That was about it. The boys were really good and napped well and played nicely and were almost always obedient. I was pleased with them all day. Joseph has boomed and is saying new words every day, and starting to ask for what he wants...he says, "mayyyyy" and then the word if he knows it. It's so cute. "mayyyyy....juice?" "Mayyyyyy.. ?" Adam decided on his own to go potty a couple of times, too, and I was very pleased.
Tuesday (today) was my prenatal appointment and all looks great with that. After that, I went home and "researched" for my family's Halloween costumes...I think we'll go with a Dr Suess theme for our family. I dreamt about Thing 1 and Thing 2 this morning, and I think Adam and Joseph fit the part well. :) The boys have continued to be better than usual (I'm wondering why, but hey, I won't complain!) and Adam even went poopoo in the potty! Big Hurray! I also got a lot more cleaning and mending and stuff done today.

For now I am just biding my time and waiting to see when Baby decides to come. Each day I get a little more accomplished and I get a little more sore. All in all, I'm feeling great, though, and am simply excited for the next big event of our lives!

Sunday, 06 September 2009

Yikes!

I have SO many pictures...from Eva's birthday party, some cute things my kids have been up to, our day at Snowbird for the Oktoberfest (that was fun)...but those will wait until next time. I want to dedicate this entire post to the last 2 hours of my life.

8:20pm: I have bathed my boys but let them continue to play in the tub while I did something else for a while. A few minutes later, Joseph comes running out, bare naked and wet and so cute and thrilled to have escaped. He sees me and runs back toward the bathroom, and I follow him to grab the towel and take care of him. As I waddle down the hall, Adam starts crying. I had already told him to not stand/jump in the tub, but he'd been up to it again. I think you might know where this is going...

8:25pm: Adam is standing at the edge of the tub, and there is blood rapidly dripping onto his chest and tummy. His mouth looks clean, his nose isn't bleeding. Confused, I search for the source of the blood. I check the underside of his chin...the gash is between 3/4 and a whole inch long, and it looks deep, but I can't tell because of the blood coming out so quickly. I call Jeff. I have him grab a dark red towel and get Adam out of the tub while I call down the stairs (where everyone else is watching a movie) and inform the household that I think Adam needs stitches and that I need help. I hand a towel-wrapped Joseph with his diaper and pj's to Julie, the first to make up the stairs. I come back to Jeff, who is snuggling Adam in a chair. Adam is slowing down his cry (which was never hysterical in the first place). The blood is slowing and we adults (me, Ron, Sarah, and Daniel) are standing in a group around him trying to get a good look at the cut while I carefully dress his bottom half. Once others have established that it does indeed look like it needs stitches, I grab a bandaid to hold the cut together and put a shirt on him, and Jeff and I head off to Riverwoods Urgent Care.

9-ish pm: We are driving to the clinic and praying that Adam will be good and hold still for them and that he will not be scared or in too much pain. We reach the clinic with not too much trouble (we only ran 2 red lights, and we double-checked for safety). They don't have anyone else being attended to at the moment, so Adam gets right on in. Paige (the nurse) confirms that he needs stitches and takes his vitals and weight and all that. She leaves a moment and since I have my camera in my purse still from Oktoberfest, I decide to take a few pics. Here's the first one:

She returns and puts this gel on his chin to numb it up then puts gauze on it. He is still calm and she brings little trains from the waiting room for him to play with. She leaves again while the gels begins to take effect. He's very happy, though he occasionally states that "chin hurts". I take a couple more pics.
-Telling Daddy about his train....then saying "cheese" for the camera.

Next Joanne, the physician, comes in. She and the nurse are both rather young, attractive women...I watched a child study video in a college child development class about how children are better for "pretty" teachers than they are for other teachers...something about a pretty face creates a desire to please...Adam is no exception...he liked these ladies and calmly did as they asked him to. We wrapped him like a burrito in a blanket and laid him on the sterile bed thing. They re-cleaned his chin and took a needle to do a few test pokes and see if he would need to have Lidocaine injected into the area for proper numbness. He laughs nervously but doesn't flinch away, so they don't bother with the needle (thank goodness...those are uncomfortable). I have a brilliant idea: on my camera is a video of Adam singing "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star" (I think I posted it recently). Adam LOVES watching himself in this little video. I play it maybe 10 times over as she stitches him up, stopping to take the occasional picture. As the video plays, Adam holds perfectly still and giggles. Joanne comments that they've never had a child giggle while getting stitches. She and Paige are awed and delighted, and they sing with the video and they sing other children's songs when I take pictures. They love him! I pray silently a prayer of gratitude that he is doing so well. When it is all done, they give him a Bugs Bunny bandage and let him out of his burrito blanket. They then give him a Thomas the Tank Engine sticker in exchange for getting the train toys back (he held them under the blanket the entire time) and off we go!
-One stitch down. These little globs of chin fat kept squeezing out as she stitched, and she'd have to push them back in.

-4 down, almost done....
-All done and cleaned up again!

We are pleased and grateful that Adam was so calm and happy and good for Joanne and Paige, and they were so good with him! They were upbeat and friendly and just plain fun to be around. They definitely put him (and me) at ease.

We drove home, stopping by a grocery store for bandaids (we're almost out) and children's ibuprofen and some "good job, Adam" candy.
Now Jeff is just getting him settled down enough to go to bed. He did so well! I gave him a dose of ibuprofen to take the edge off the sensations he'll inevitably feel when the gel wears off. I remember when I had stitches (while pregnant with Adam, actually), I was miserable when the lidocaine wore off!
My main worry is that he will play with them and pull them out or cause them to get infected. So now I ask for your prayers, that he will heal quickly and that he (and Joseph) will be able to leave them alone and let them heal properly. The stitches are supposed to come out Friday or Saturday.

Friday, 04 September 2009

So it’s been a couple of weeks since I last wrote.
I'll start with Eva, who recently had a birthday!  Last Friday I took her on a date to Sizzler. She hadn’t been there since she was with Christopher! So Eva and I went, just the two of us, and had a nice dinner. We planned to go to the dollar theater, but the movie we wanted to see was sold out and everything else was PG-13. Yuck. So we came home to our families a little early.
Mom and I were planning a little birthday party for her, and when she started having consistent contractions on Sunday, we thought we might have to cancel it. Her labor stayed mild and the hospital sent her home...Sunday and and Monday there was no progression, so we had a dinner party at Mom's house.   Mom made hot chicken salad, I made rolls and brought a salad, and Grandma made a delicious fruit cocktail cake. Rich and Katy came, and it was great to see them...they don't come out very often.

Ron comes to visit us again, (he arrives today) and will be here through the 14th of September. Tongith we'll go out to eat and then mini-golf. We’re going to have a party for Jeff’s birthday (a pizza party, of course!) and also we’re going to an Oktoberfest celebration at a ski resort. We think this will help Julie; though she doesn’t show much homesickness, I am sure she misses things about Germany and her family. Also, Jeff is excited to go. It won’t be like German Oktoberfest, which is all about beer, but just a celebration of German culture and traditions. Those are all our set plans for Ron's entire stay, but we'll have fun. I'm keeping things light for when Eva's baby is born and in case she may need my help.

More good news! No more mice! We have found three dead ones so far, from the poison. One had made it through the floor behind the stove and into our storage room…yikes! Luckily, it ate the poison first and died before it did any damage. I wish we had a different way to get rid of them, though…I hate to kill them like that.
I think I mentioned in the last post that everyone was sick. Well it’s finally almost out of our house! It was a nasty little bug…it didn’t make anyone terribly miserable, but goodness gracious it’s been hard to get rid of! I don't cough any more, now, and Julie only gets it at night. I got Echinacea herbal capsules for her, and they’re working. I can’t take them because I’m pregnant, but I’m getting over it alright anyway. Joseph still coughs a little, but not often, and Adam still seems to have it bad inteh mornings, but it disappears after breakfast. I’m just super glad that this difficult bug wasn’t too miserable.

Adam did the cutest thing the other day. Jeff and I were sitting down to dinner, but not quite ready to eat. Adam and Joseph were already in their seats, waiting for me to finish making their sandwiches, when Adam looked to Jeff and said, “Daddy, fold your arms! Mommy, fold your arms! Joseph, fold your arms! Daddy, say, ‘Henly Fahver’…” Jeff decided to go along with it, and Adam guided Jeff through the entire blessing, and it wasn’t the prayer he usually gives when he prayers without our guidance. It was just darling, and Jeff and I were so pleased!

   Ive mentioned in previous posts that I’m trying HypnoBabies for the birth this time. I’ve been taking the classes and really enjoying it. I have a good hour’s worth of homework every day, consisting of physical exercises to strengthen and prepare my body for a smooth labor, and mental exercises to help me teach myself to respond successfully to self-hypnosis and to brainwash myself into honestly and truly expecting a pain-free, easy birth. It’s working really well, actually. One of the homework things is a relaxation thing…one day it’s a CD I listen to, and the next day, Jeff reads a special script to me with kooky relaxation music in the background. 2 weeks ago, the script included a “test” where Jeff “worked on” my arm. This means that he was supposed to pinch me. The instructor taught him how hard to pinch. One night Jeff was doing the script and I was so deeply relaxed that I didn’t hear him anymore, and suddenly I heard him ask, “Now did you just now feel pressure or discomfort?” and I knew that he must have just pinched me. I hadn’t felt a thing! So I said so…”I didn’t feel anything” and he did it again (he’s supposed to do it twice, rubbing my arm in between) and I only barely felt the slightest bit of pressure. When he asked if I felt discomfort or pressure, I answered “pressure…barely” and when the relaxation exercise was over, he told me that the first time he pinched me 3 times before I answered! I asked him to pinch me again, without me being in hypnosis, and he did, and it HURT!!! So I know this is working, and I am very excited about it. I've had other cases where something was really quite uncomfortable, but with self-hypnosis, all the pain left. It was amazing! I'm certain that this will work wonderfully....Natural painless childbirth, here I come!
Jeff and I are toying with the idea of recording this one, by pictures or video or a combination of the two. I've been inspired by successful hypnobirths I've seent through my class and on youtube, and I'd like to inspire others with my success story.

The boys love playing “Ring Around the Rosy” and will turn in circles around the room while I sing…Adam will sometimes sing, too. The other day after about 8 rounds of it, Adam was done, so we stopped singing. Well, Joseph still wanted to play, so he turned in circles and sang, “roun….roun….roun….roun…down!!” and plopped onto his backside. It was SO CUTE! He did this several times and I tried to get a video of it, but he saw the camera and stopped. Adam saw the camera and started singing again. Adam LOVES watching our little home videos of him.

Potty training update: it’s a roller coaster! Some days Adam does wonderfully, and others he just frustrates me so much! I’m wondering if he understands the word “before” when I tell him to tell me “before” he goes poopoo. I’ll have to think of a way to teach him that word so that I know for sure that he really understands.

Julie is continuing to feel more and more comfortable with us and to open up more. She spends a lot of time talking to friends in Germany on the computer, though, and I wish that she would hang out with her American friends that she is beginning to make at school. That’s one of the points of her being here. She’s supposed to make American friends and be and American teenager as much as possible for the school year, so she can really experience life here fully. I’m not sure how to encourage that, though…I never really hung out with kids outside of school either! Honestly, though…I feel she needs more of a social life. For now, I’ll wait. We’ve only had two weeks of school so far. Homecoming is in three weeks, and I really hope someone asks her to the dance.

I’ll end here now. Love ya'll lots!! I'll post again when I have a moment, but it may be a while.
ta ta!

Friday, 21 August 2009

Hello everyone!
Well, a lot has happened since I wrote you. First, I’ll tell you about Julie’s room. We were really stressed about finding furniture for her room, as anyone who keeps tabs on my facebook thoughts can attest. Jeff was able to try a small specialty store and get hardware for the bed that was hardware-less (I took my a while to talk him out of just using twisty ties!). We set it up Thursday night (the 6th). Then we went to set up the desk that had come with it, and the desk fell apart, literally. It was no good. All day Friday I continued my efforts of the previous week: I went to garage sales, DI, and Savers, and I posted to KSL sellers and Craigslist sellers, and was crying with frustration that I couldn’t find a dresser or a desk for Julie’s room. Because I spent so much time looking for furniture, I couldn’t get the house as clean as I’d wanted it to be, but I have had to just let that go and not stress about it because I was crying and getting angry too much as it was. Saturday morning, someone called me back about a dresser they had posted in KSL, and so I went to pick that up…it was perfect! I loved it. I also got a second dresser from her, which we’ll need when the new baby is born because Adam and Joseph have too much clothing to share the dresser they have. So their dresser will be for the baby and the new dresser will be theirs to share because it’s larger.
When I got home from buying the dresser, I noticed the house across the street had a desk for sale for $10. It’s a very old beast. It’s a corner desk, 5 feet by 5 feet, and made of solid wood (not an inch of particle board). It was probably built to be a teacher’s desk back in the 60s or 70s. Well, we hauled it on over and were still setting her room up when it was time to get her from the airport. Luckily, traffic was good and we caught up with her just minutes after she had retrieved her bags. I felt the Lord had really blessed me that day, and totally made up for the stress of the previous week.
Julie is so fun and she is such a sweetheart. Without being asked, she helps with dishes and light chores and with Adam and Joseph. She loves the boys and thinks they’re so cute! She laughs at them all the time. Her English is really good, but like me, it takes special people to bring her out of her shell. I’m working on it, but since that’s not my gift, it’s a slow process. Jeff can bring her out…he absolutely loves speaking German every day! He can make her laugh so hard she can barely breathe! Sarah is good, too, at keeping conversation going and involving Julie.  Julie will soon think that Americans only speak about babies and being pregnant! She’s never been in a house that prays so much, but she’s getting used to that. She is definitely overwhelmed with how different our way of life is…from the foods we choose to eat for breakfast to the fact that every household has a car or two and the cars are so big! So far, though, she says she likes almost everything I have cooked for her. She is definitely a teenager, and when I get into girly mode, we have fun together. The other day we were grocery shopping and she needed shampoo and body wash. After we chose her body wash, I went over next to the men’s body wash and we had fun for a while sniffing and comparing the mens’ smells. We liked one by Nivea the best…even better than Old Spice.

Sarah and I had a fight a week and a half ago. It had been slowly building up for several weeks with an issue that has bothered me since we moved together. Eva can’t believe I actually got mad. I was so mad at her that I yelled at her. I really hate to say this, but I think it actually helped. I mean, she hasn’t changed anything, but as a result of the confrontation, we as a household changed the expectations and since then, there has been clear air, so to say. I no longer expect her to do such and such chores, and so I don’t feel as frustrated when I end up cleaning up after her. And on the other hand, I am trying harder to ask less of her (she felt I was pushing my children on her too much – I disagree, but that’s not the point) and so she has relaxed a bit, too, and there has been peace and harmony and happiness in the house…the tension is all gone now.

On Monday, Sarah held a girl’s pedicure night…Eva and I and one of Sarah’s best friends who is also pregnant came, and Julie was invited. Sarah gave us each a foot bath and massaged lotion into our feet, then trimmed and painted our toenails. Eva chose a clear glittery polish. I chose sparkly bright pink and Sarah even did a tiny white flower on each of my big toes…it’s so cute! Julie got French-tipped toes, and Lori (she’s also having a boy and is due in mid September) chose purple polish. It was a lot of fun, talking and eating cookies and fudge and being pampered!

I cannot think of much else to say. Adam has been doing well with potty training. We went out for 10 hours on Saturday, and he did not wear a diaper or have an accident all day! I was very proud of him. He still does not go poopoo in the potty. He will take off his underwear and go, and then say “Eew! Yucky!” and he will use his underwear like a paper towel, and pick it up without touching it, and take it to the toilet to be flushed. At least he cleans up after himself. The past week, he's decided to pee on his bed before making any awake noises. He knows that the instant I hear that he's awake, I'll run in there and tell him to run, run, run to the potty.  I would go in there before he's awake and wake him to go, but I don't want to risk waking Joseph, who is a light sleeper.

Oh, I have a story to tell you. The other day I was looking for something in the garage, and Adam came up behind me, saying, “Here, Mommy! Have a lion.” I turned to look at the “lion” and he was holding a dead mouse! It was a teenage mouse, still small, and there was blood in his fur. He was holding it by the tail. I think maybe Toby had killed it, but I don’t know. I yelped and shook his wrist until the little thing was flung out, then I ran Adam into the house to wash his hands. Then I found a bag to take to the garage and properly dispose of the mouse. He knows a mouse in a picture, so I’m not sure why he called it a “lion” but goodness gracious, he startled me!

Toby is gone now, living with his real owners. Adam misses him. He’ll walk outside and say, “Where is doggy?” and then refuse to accept any answer I give him. Also, since Toby has gone, we've had a very frustrating problem: Mice have come into the house! We saw it (or one of them) the first time the day after Julie arrived.  Then nothing for a few days, and then just this week we've had several more sightings, with 4 just yesterday. Eek! I still don't know if it's just one or if it's a few.  We think they are field mice who had come down from the mountain, were attracted to our compost pile (that's where we first became aware of them) and then spread into our house. We're debating whether to get on freecycle and ask to borrow a hungry cat for a few days or to just kill the cute little things. I love mice in cages...I think they're darling little creatures...but I don't like them running loose in my house where they'll get into my food and leave poop and stuff everywhere! And since they are wild, who knows what disease they may or may not have? I'd rather a hungry animal made a meal of them than that they died without helping the world somehow...but the logistics of getting a predatory animal in the house is just frustrating.  So I guess I'll go buy some poison today.

Joseph has been evaluated and will receive speech therapy like Adam did. We start next week, I think. He is starting, barely, to try to say words, which is already a huge step in the right direction.

We've all been sick lately. Sarah got it first: a sore throat with a cough...after several days, around the time Julie arrived, Joseph and I got it, and Jeff just got the cough. Jeff is still coughing at night, as am I. Joseph seems to be about over it. And poor Julie got it the day before school started! She is already almost over it, though...she was good and went to bed really early to sleep and let her body heal. I haven't had that opportunity, which is why I think I still have a lingering cough. Sarah went to a dr and got antibiotics for it. Eew. I hate being sick! It frustrated all the fun plans I had for Julie!

I guess that's about it...this really has gotten long now! We enjoyed some family gatherings, overwhelming Julie with cousins (and she has yet to meet the Eddington family!). All of her living relatives equal 17 people. Wow.
I'll post pictures of my cute toes and of Julie and other fun things when I have more time.
Tata!

Sunday, 09 August 2009

Just a little one

Okay, I have the pics from Dan and Bonnie's stay, but not enough time to share the details of what we did together...I don't know if I'll ever get around to it...Juliane arrives in just a few hours and I'll be busy with her until school starts, I think.

But I had to post a cute video of Adam and a random pic of Joseph.

Joseph is fascinated with the whole potty training thing as he watches Adam learn. He loves to play with the potty and with this: a little potty rim that goes on top of the big toilet. Adam likes to use that one occasionally. (don't worry: I sterlize it after every use)

And here's the video of Adam. Enjoy! Please excuse the lack of pants...we're potty training and those just get in the way.

One more piece of great news: Today Adam went poopoo in his potty for the first time. He hasn't gone in his diaper for well over a week, so as you can imagine, I am THRILLED to bones. I didn't even catch him starting to go and stop adn take him to the potty...he was sitting there on his own and just went! Woo Hoo!!!!

Wednesday, 29 July 2009

Empathy

Just a quick thought backed by a few stories to share:
Adam is unusually aware of other people’s pains, for a 3 year old boy. A couple of weeks ago I was having a very hard day and crying a lot. Adam said, “Mommy crying. What’s wrong, Mommy?” And I told him, knowing that he didn’t understand what I was talking about. He gave me a hug and turned to Joseph, saying, “Joseph, be nice a-Mommy.” He gave me the most adorable grin and was really extra good and nice to me for the next several minutes after that.
Today was exceptional though. We accompanied Sarah to an appointment with her fertility dr. She knew he’d be doing a vaginal ultrasound, and after last month’s unpleasant findings, was very nervous, both about the uncomfortable invasion and the possible findings. She was telling me that being in the waiting room was making her nervous, and that she was about to an anxiety attack. Adam, who’d been eating fries and sipping punch leftover from lunch, looked up at her and said, “Relax, Sarah.”
I have NEVER heard him say that. I had no clue he knew of the existence of the word “relax”…but the timing and the words were inspired, and Sarah burst out laughing. It cured her completely of her anxiety and we were still giggling over it when we entered the exam room. Fast forward half an hour. Sarah wanted me in the room with her, as moral support in case they didn’t find any ripe eggs…so the boys had to come in, too. I had Adam enthralled with his green truck and Joseph was on my lap looking at a back. The doctor was doing the ultrasound, and though trying to be gentle, was hurting her (good news: she had a ripe egg…bad news, this makes her more sensitive up there). She yelped after one particular movement, and Adam looked up at the dr and said, “Be careful a Sarah! Don’t touch a Sarah!” I ruffled his hair and said, “Adam, it’s okay…he’s trying to help her.” He turned to me, scowled, and said, “Don’t touch a-Adam!” then turned his attention back to Sarah and said in the sweetest voice I’ve ever heard: “I’m SO sorry, Sarah.”

Isn’t that the cutest thing ever? I don’t think I’ve ever known a 3 year old who was that aware of other people’s discomfort. Now if only he can realize this applies to Joseph, too…

Moving on, today Adam went peepee in the toilet. Hurray!

And now I’ll share a few pictures I have recently taken:

This is old – from Ron’s last visit at the beginning of June. Ron had them enthralled by finding little video clips of Thomas the Tank Engine.

This is Jeff and kiddies in a pond at Rachel’s birthday party.

Rachel’s cake:

A rainbow we saw on the way home from said party:

Adira playing with her bag of Pirate Goodies she earned:

And Becca:

Adam being a gentleman and holding the door for me:

And me dressed up for church that day, pregnant and chubby but stil feeling cute:

This is Joseph wearing a bowl on his head…he loves to pull them from the cupboard.

I still need to blog about my week with Dan and Bonnie. They took a lot of pictures which they will share with me, and then I can share a few with you…until then, Happy Blogging! Love you all!

Saturday, 18 July 2009

An Awesome Day!

Today was a great day! Because we are now in PEEP (Provo Early Education Program), who will help Joseph start talking, we got to go to the Provo Veteran's Pool for free. Nearly every Friday, they reserve the pool for two hours in the mid-morning, and we are allowed to bring friends and family, too. So this morning I loaded Adam, Michael and his friend Cassidy, and Becca and Adira into my van and we all went to swim. This was so much more than a pool. It's a waterpark! It's got a HUGE pool that goes very gradually from 18inches deep to 5-1/2 feet deep, two very large waterslides (I went on one, and that thing was fast! I could barely breathe!) and a kiddie play area that's maybe 18inches deep total but has little water slides and lots of colorful fountains to play under. The kids LOVED it, and I was their hero for the morning, and it was free!

I came home and Adam went right to bed, and Joseph, who hadn't eaten lunch at Eva's house, was given a sandwich....and fell asleep at the table before he finished it! I took advantage of the naps by throwing together a bunch of random stuff to make a BBQ sauce and then tossed it all, with the boneless pork ribs, into the crock pot. I realized we had too much meat, so I called Jeff and told him to find a couple of people to come over for dinner.   Then I made dough for rolls and napped while it was rising.
    As dinner time approached, I decided to make fries (I've got a LePresse, and it cut the potatoes into fries so fast! I did 8 or 10 potatoes in as many minutes, including peeling time!). While they started baking, I rolled the rolls into crescents and put them in the oven, then I went out to my garden and harvested some beets, peas, and carrots. The beets I boiled and carrots we ate fresh and crispy. The peas are snap peas which I will put into a stir-fry soon. Anyway, I even served homemade cherry jam with the rolls and homemade apricot nectar to drink....this was the most home-made meal I think I've ever done! Jeff found a nice couple whom we met at Rachel's Pirate Birthday Party last Saturday (well, Jeff already knew them from BlueHost).  They were great company and they liked the beets (I was worried about that...Jeff isn't fond of them, and not many people are used to them) and we have very few leftovers.  After dinner, we played a few rounds of Bang! and they went home. The random things I threw together for the BBQ sauce turned out pretty good! I think it needed more brown sugar or honey or something, but everyone liked it. I like my BBQ sauce really sweet, though.

After I put the rolls in the oven but before I harvested the veggies, I took 3 minutes to play on Facebook, where I got a hint from a friend to check out a blog to which I had submitted a few pictures for a contest:  http://together-we-learn.blogspot.com/ I won first prize! I feel so cool today! As a prize, I get a gift card, woo-hoo! There were many options...I chose TGI Friday's. By the way, just a little plug for the blog...it's put together by the wife of Jeff's best friend from BYU-Idaho (there's a mouthful!) and it's absolutely awesome! Every day it features something different, from recipes to helpful household hints to bettering ourselves and our relationships. She gives ideas for Family Home Evening and just all kinds of things, and I look forward to reading it every day. You are all welcome to follow it and submit ideas and stories and whatever. I've tried a few of her recipes and loved them, and submitted a couple as well.

  The boys went to bed without too much fight tonight (they're still awake but at least they're not screaming) and I'm getting ready to shower the chlorine off and go to bed as well.

  I love my life!

Thursday, 16 July 2009

dr's appointments

Adam and Joseph and I all had check-ups this past week.
Adam is 38 inches tall (60th percentile) and 28 1/2 lbs (14th %-ile). His weight is continually improving, though his BMI is still way below the curve of most kids (13.8, the 1.43%-ile). I am pleased with this. He's gradually coming out of his picky-eater's habit of the past year and a half. I can't push, but I am able to convince him to occasionally try one bite here, one there, and he often likes it, whatever "it" happens to be at any given time. :) He's also right on target with all developmental points. Horray for Adam! His thumbsucking has GOT to stop soon, though, as he has dramatically altered the natural shape of his entire mouth, and will likely need a retainer to stretch it out before his permanent teeth come in. They did say that I can hold off on that until he is potty trained. We'll see how it all goes!
Joseph is 22 lbs, 10 oz (10.7%-ile) and 33-1.5 inches tall (83.2%-ile). His height has exploded as his weight has improved! His head, at 18 3/4 inches, is the 49%-ile and that's all okay, too. Again, the dr is pleased that his weight is jumping up on the percentile curve. Developmentally, he's right on target everywhere except communication (just like Adam!) and we've been referred to a speech therapist for him. I called them and he'll be evaluated probably next week sometime. I thought I was doing more (verbally) with him than I had with Adam, however he is even further behind than Adam was at 18 months. Sigh. Otherwise, all is well with him.
I am now in my 3rd trimester. I exersized more this past month and forced myself to drink more water...and it worked...I gained only half as much as I did each of the previous two months. My midwife is pleased. Baby's heart in the 140's and he is head-down. My uterus measured 32 1/2 cm, though I am only 29 weeks...so this may be a big baby...either that or all my weight gain is affecting the measurement, I don't know. All in all, I am healthy and well and the baby seems to be so also. Yay!
Yesterday we picked a few more buckets of cherries...these ones are tart pie cherries. Today we washed, pitted, blanched, and pie-i-fied all of them. Eva and I each have just over a dozen jars of pie filling which turned out fantastic! Yay! My feet are swollen and my body (especially my back and belly) is sore from being so active with no naps and few short rests...but I've got the feel-good feeling of a job well done. I worked hard and accomplished all I hoped to.
Dan and Bonnie arrive soon, and the rest of my week will be preparing for their stay. Then we get 10 days of fun! After they leave, I have two weeks before Juliane arrives. Jeff and I are so very excited for them all! I got email addresses from the Young Women in my ward and many of them have become penpals with Jule so that when she gets here, she'll already have friends. She is getting so excited to come to America! I hope that it (and we) live up to her expectations and that all in all she has a great experience here.

Monday, 13 July 2009

Cute little girl and bedtime/potty time woes

This last week has been pretty blah. Just some cleaning, some trying to get Adam to potty (he hasn't done anything except play on it in over a week now), and some getting frustrated to tears over sleeping battles, potty battles, and boys just being boys at times when I didn't have the patience to handle it. I even called Jeff one day, while having an emotional breakdown, and he came home from work 2 hours early to take the boys downstairs and keep an eye on them while I rested and accomplished stuff. He saved me. It was my second breakdown that day, and even with his help, I was constantly on the brink of a third until late that night.

I want to talk a little about sleep and potties and get some advice (or help!) but first, I want to share the cutest thing that happened in the bathroom at Chuck-a-Rama's the day that I took Michael there. I can't believe I forgot to mention it when I blogged about it the first time, but that blog was too long anyway.

So, here's my "cute little girl' story:
After Michael and I had eaten, I went to the restroom. Normal enough. As I was washing my hands, a little girl with big eyes and blond curls, maybe 5 years old, came in with her big sister. The sister went into the stall, and the little girl went strait to the paper towel dispenser and got a paper towel out. She then stared at me a moment and asked, "Do you need a towel?" in her tiny little voice.
"Not yet, but I will soon" I replied in that voice that people use when they talk to little ones. So she stood there and watched me until I turned the water off, and then she gave me the paper towel. I thanked her as I took the towel, then she said, "In primary, I learned that we are supposed to serve others. But today is not Sunday anymore. Today is Tuesday."
Smiling and repressing a giggle, I said, "Actually, today is Thursday. I'm very glad you remembered your primary lesson. I'm a primary teacher, and I don't think my kids remember the lessons for very long."
At this declaration, her eyes got really big and she asked, "Do you know me?"
"No. I teach in Senior Primary...I teach the 10-year-olds."
"Oh. Do you know _____?" She said the name of someone who I assume is an older sibling of hers.
"Nope, I'm sorry. I teach at a different church house than the one you go to."
Here, she looked very confused, like the idea of another church or church building had not occured to her. She's obviously still young enough that life beyond her little world does not exist. That other people she's never met have daily activities and feelings and churches. At this point, I'd dried my hands beyond the point of dry and thanked her again for serving me so kindly. Then I said goodbye and walked out, just grinning. What a perfect example of what we hope our children will learn and do. I doubt that the specific example of getting a towel for a stranger in a bathroom was ever given in her primary class. She must have thought that up all on her own, and it just made my day! It gave me hope that maybe, just maybe, the kids I teach occasionally internalize something I teach them.

Okay, my boys actually went down for a nap without protest today, and so I need to take advantage of that and get my own nap....I'll hurry through this as quickly as I can:
I NEED HELP
I'm at my wit's end and my patience's end with bedtime and potty time.
First bedtime:
When we first put the boys together in a room, they had problems, but mostly they did alright. A few weeks ago, Joseph learned how to open the door, and it's been horrible since then! We can't seem to get them to want to sleep together. Naps never worked in a shared room, and so for a couple of months we've put Adam to nap on my bed, Joseph on their bed, and I'll get the best I can get while on the couch. However, with only a couple of months left before Sammy is born, we need to train the boys to sleep together day and night. Nights have been bad. We tried putting a child-safe door knob cover on their knob and keep them in the room. Two days later they figured out how to take it off. The Jack-in-the-box game lasts hours, no joke, and we can't keep putting them in over and over and over and over. We have stuff we need to do! When Adam was Joseph's age, he got the hint within a few days. Joseph is just too persistent! If it's just him, I can stand on the other side of the door and hold it shut. He'll get mad a cry a few minutes, then usually give up and fall asleep. Only a few days has he persisted longer than 10 or 15 minutes. Sometimes I'll tie a rope from the door to another door and that will keep it shut and once he's been quiet a while, I'll remove the rope so he can get out when his nap is over. BUT we can't do that at night-time when the boys are together. Even if one falls asleep while we're doing the bedtime routine, the other will wake him when Jeff and I leave. If we hold the door or tie it, then they may give up, but Adam, knowing that parents are no longer going to give attention, will use that time to either play and play and keep Joseph from resting which makes Joseph mad, or he'll pick on Joseph and make him cry. Then we go in to calm Joseph and discipline Adam. Adam got attention. He wanted attention. He knows that works, and he does it again, and again, and again.
I know there MUST be a way to train them to stay on the bed, heads on pillows, no squealing (Adam's favorite "wake-Joseph" tactic) and leave each other alone. My younger sis and I did it pretty well most of the time! But I can't figure out the right motivation for either one of them. Last week we again started trying to put Adam to sleep on my bed, and later carrying him into his room, which usually works, but sometimes he or Joseph will wake up during the transition, and the cycle starts over. We put them down around 8....lately they play or fight until past 11 before they crash from exhaustion, have a poor sleep, wake up too early, and make my life miserable. What can I do? The easy answer is separate rooms, but that's not an option for us.

Potty. Adam no longer goes on it. He'll say he needs to, then he'll just play and fool around and waste my time and patience. Joseph is interested and will try to sit on it while Adam is sitting on it. Or to sit on Adam's lap. Or to reach into the bowl while Adam's on it. I can't lock him out of the bathroom....he gets into ALL kinds of mischief while unattended. I think Adam might respond to the no-diapers-at-all thing, and walk around free as ever for a few weeks...but I'm not willing to risk messes on the carpet and my kitchen area is too open to close off. And Joseph is still in the way and distracts Adam and me. I don't know what to do! I want Adam set in his potty abilities before Samuel is born, but there's not much time left and I'm just frustrated about it. Adam knows how. He knows the feeling before, during....he knows the routine, he knows he'll get candy or doritos (he LOVES Doritos) and lots of chocolate milk, all of which are rare treats. He knows how to tell me. But he wants his diaper. He doesn't care about being a big boy, or being like Daddy. He wants his diaper. Between his lack of motivation and Joseph's interference, I just don't know what to do! HELP!

Well, I'm going to get what sleep I can before Joseph wakes up...I know my time is short, as he has NOT been napping well lately. Thanks for listening to me vent. I look forward to any help you can give. Write me, call me, whatever.

Monday, 06 July 2009

My 4th of July weekend

All in all, I think it was a great day! I really wanted Michael to have a good time, since he was here with us while his entire family partied in Washington and Oregon. His friend Cassidy invited him to go to the hot air balloon show and the parade with his family, which was awesome! Michael woke up at 5am and had a quick breakfast before heading down to Cassidy's house.
The hot air balloon show is a yearly tradition in Provo, and very popular. Michael got to go up in one that looked like a pig. I wish I were there to see and experience and take pictures...but I really love my sleep! At the parade, he got to see a lot of things he thought were really cool, the best of which was a military tank...and Michael was one of the chosen few who got to go inside of it! He also loved a part where people with canons and guns through the ages came by and shot off the guns...I assume they used blanks, but Michael sure enjoyed it!
Meanwhile, Jeff and I went up to SLC to have lunch with one of my old roomies who lives in Alaska and was there for a family reunion. She gave us directions to her grandmother's house, which was gorgeous! It was built by her great-great-uncle in the 30's into the side of the mountain. It's small but lovely, like a little cottage. The view of the valley is breathtaking, and there's a little stream that runs through the property. Lamby was on her way back from running an errand and we beat her there by over half an hour...but her family was nice and welcoming to us and made us feel comfortable while we waited. The living room of this little house was amazing! The walls are made of broken china, figurines, shells, and pretty rocks set into cement. There was a piece of a teacup with the handle coming out, and beautifully painted glassware of all kinds....it was art, not just a wall. When Lamby arrived we got to talk with her for maybe 45 minutes, and then it was time for her to leave for her family reunion, so Jeff and I went to Wienerschnitzel and then headed home, arriving not long after Michael had arrived home. We had a quiet afternoon...I napped while Jeff and Michael played video games, and when the little boys woke up from their naps we had hot dogs then left for downtown Provo to see if there was anything cool going on.
In Provo, Michael and Jeff got caught up in a juggling show that was pretty cool. They juggled knives (which they proved were sharp by cutting carrots with them) and flaming torches, which one guy accidentally caught on the wrong end (ouch!!) and dropped. The show stopped with that, I guess so the guy could doctor up his hand. We wandered to the 1776 Village, which had tents put up that represented various parts of life for the colonies: a blacksmith tent, where the guy was forging knives, a stocks for the humiliation of criminals but which people loved to get into and take pictures with, a lady's dress shop with gorgeous gowns in it, a gun shop with antique-looking guns, and a few other random things that were fun to see. We were about to leave when an animal show started, so we watched that for a while. The guy was an American Steve Erwin. He works with crocodiles and reptiles and insects that most people avoid. The first thing he brought out was a tarantula. Then he brought out two scorpions in bowls...a little yellow one and a huge black one. He asked us if we'd like to know how to tell if they're poisonous or not...and told us to just put it in our mouths. He then proceeded to put the huge black one into his mouth, completely, closing his lips behind it and everything! Eww. Then he said that probably wasn't a good idea, because if it WAS a poisonous one, we'd die. Then he pointed to the pinchers. They were big and scary looking....used for crushing their prey and pinching their predators...so they don't need strong poison and are okay for pets. The yellow one stayed in its sealed bowl, and had tiny pinchers but a longer tail. This one, he told us, is one of the most deadly in the world and is found in the deserts of Africa and the Middle East. He also brought out a crocodile skull and told us how to tell, just by the head, whether we are looking at an alligator or a croc. Alligators have a huge overbite...Crocs are more even, and will always have two lower teeth that protrude even when its mouth is closed. There are even dents in the upper jaw to make room for those two teeth. He gave some really funny reasons why we shouldn't have them as pets. They live longer than us, will get bigger than us, and most obviously, they can and would eat us...and we'd become poop. What would our parents have to kiss goodbye? Eww...he really played to the kids and it was awesome. He then brought out a lizard and I think was getting ready to show a snake when we left.
We came home and I threw a few frozen pizzas into the oven and made batter for funnel-cake. We ate pizza, then I made the funnel cakes, and that was fun! We ate them with a bottle of cherry pie filling that didn't seal when I was canning last month, complimented by pineapple tidbits and powdered sugar. Yum Yum!! I'll have to make those again for Pioneer Day. Eva says she's never had a funnel cake, so her family will be invited.
After funnel cakes we drove 2-1/2 miles to the Provo Temple grounds to watch BYU's firework show. I thought the fireworks would start at 9 or 9:30. I'm not sure why I thought that, but I did. They started at 10:30 and lasted about 15 minutes. Disappointed, we begun the 3/4 mile trek back to the van and were halfway there when another firework show started! We set our chairs on the sidewalk in front of someone's house and watched those while Jeff got the van. We got a head start, at least, in leaving the crowded field...and even so it took us a grueling hour and a half to drive home! We arrived after midnight, the little boys fast asleep and Michael sadly disappointed that we couldn't do our little fireworks because it was the Sabbath already. I'll just save them for Pioneer Day...that's only 2-1/2 weeks away, and Utahns get to do fireworks for that, too.

Sunday we just relaxed! It was so nice! There was still a lot of funnel cake batter left, so I fried that up and at the suggestion of Jeff and Daniel, who felt they'd had enough sweet, I put chili, lettuce, tomatoes, green onions, cheese, and sour cream on them, like Navajo Tacos. They were really, really good! I felt the dough was a little sweet for our choice of toppings, but no one else agreed....they were a hit. Michael was especially excited to get to eat beans, and I'll just say I am SO grateful he had his own room while here!
After dinner, Michael, Adam, and I visited my parents. While there, Adam did the cutest thing! I was talking to Dad in his room, and from the living room I hear a frantic little voice "Mama! Mama!" so I left to see what it was. Adam reached me in the entryway, "Mama! You broke it!"
me: "Broke what"
Adam, pointing to the living room: "You broke it!" (By the way, that's Adam's way of saying something isn't doing what he wants it to do)
Me: "Show me what it is"
Adam: "May I have some broke it, please?"
Me, very confused: "What's broken? Take me to it. Show me"
By this time, we were in the living room and headed towards Grandma's famous toy box.
Adam: "Mama, say 'how do you ax?' "
I laughed and said, "How do you ask?" (We say this to him when we want him to use full sentences and not just 2-word demands)
Adam: "Mama, may I have some Broke It, please?"
And I opened the stubborn lid (the "broken") and, laughing, said, "Yes you may, Adam! Here you go!"
Adam, with enthusiasm: "Thanks, Mom!"

Okay, okay, I'm almost done. I woke up at 7:30 this morning and got Michael off to scout to camp. After I dropped him off, I noticed that he failed to take his pillow and his towel. Oh well! A couple of hours later, Jeff called me, nearly frantic as he explained the following situation: Over the weekend, one of the stand-up freezers at work, filled to the brim with snack food for employees, had died and they were going to throw out all the food, which had thawed. That is hundreds of dollars worth of food, and Jeff couldn't bear to see it go to waste.
(a little background that makes this funny...I often hear a story of Jeff's dad calling Mom Brown from his work for the exact same thing...he's a UPS driver and made a delivery to a store that had a freezer die and was throwing away tons of food they couldn't legally sell or donate to a food bank. Money was tight for them, so Mom loaded her 8 kids into their van and went to "save" as much food as they could....Mom laughs about it now. Jeff was a small child, but he remembers it...rather fondly)
So I went to our outside fridge and made us much room as I could. Jeff arrived with two HUGE boxes overflowing with hot pockets, corn dogs, burritos, chicken sandwiches, and other random things. The chicken I didn't dare refreeze. Chicken is too sensitive for that. The rest of the stuff is SO loaded with sodium and preservatives that we felt okay putting it in the freezer again. It was all still very cold, and a few items still had ice crystals. When we were overflowing, I took the rest to Eva's garage and shuffled stuff in her deep freezer and outside fridge to make some room, then filled those to capacity, too. We had to put a heavy box on top of the deep freezer just to get the lid to close enough! It's not a small deep freezer, either!
Then I got onto Freecycle.org (I love that site) and posted the situation. I have had 6 people come by to take some and have given away 8 grocery bags and a small (by small, I mean the size of about two or three shoe-boxes combined) box full of stuff to poor married college students, a family out of work, a single mom with ravenous teenage boys, and some others who expressed need. I think I gave away nearly a quarter of it. Mom also came and took some, and I have one more freecycle person I expect to come tonight (actually, one just came while I was writing this!) I had to take some back from Eva's freezer to restock mine after the first 4 people came. One lady has 10 kids to feed!
I think that Jeff and I and Eva's family can handle the rest, though it will take a while to get through the hot pockets, which are most of it. I don't even like those very much. Jeff does.
So...guess what we had for dinner tonight? I had a BBQ chicken TV dinner, Jeff had a chicken sandwich and a TonyRoma's BBQ sandwich. The boys had those little crustless PB&J sandwiches. No one has felt even the slightest bit sick, so I think we got them all to the freezer in time (phew). Goodness. No pride (as I shake my head and chuckle to myself). Jeff "saved" all this food just as they were taking it out to the dumpster. It's a good thing they didn't sit because it's in the high 90's today...very hot and dry.

Jeff called just before naptime for the boys...so I put them down, and they were nice and quiet...they didn't put up a fuss at all! Then Jeff came and we took care of all that food. After over an hour of enjoying a quiet house, dozing a little and checking my email, I went to the garage to grab a snack, and the boys were in there, playing happily. Sneaky little guys! Jeff used to do things like that to his mom, too. I lightly scolded them, and took them back to bed, where they really did sleep, giving me two more hours of peace and relxation. Ahh.... :)

And so, happy Monday to all of you and have a great week!

Friday, 03 July 2009

It's nice to have time...

...to write often again.
Well, it's been a few days since my dentist appointment, and the tip of my tongue is still tingling...which confirms my fear that this will last a while. Fortunately, it doesn't tingle as intensely as I remember it tingling 18 months ago, and so my hope is that it will dissipate before 3 months are up.
I finally thought of a way to describe what I feel to someone who's never had this happen to them. Have you ever used your tongue to test the strength of a battery? If the battery isn't dead, the moisture in your mouth touching both the positive and negative outlets creates a current that "zings." This zinging feeling with a dull but still useable battery is about how my tongue feels. I can still taste flavors and feel textures through it, but it's definitely distracting.
I decided this may be a good thing, as it has motivated me to snack less often. In my post several days ago, I lamented how much weight I've gained in the past two months of my pregnancy. Well, now that I can't enjoy that one cookie as much, or that handful of dried cherries (though that one IS a healthful snack) or nuts, maybe it will contribute to my not gaining so much anymore. I've also started walking a lot more again - and I'm sleeping better than ever!

Life is happy for me the past couple of days. Yesterday I asked Michael if he'd sweep and mop my kitchen floor for me before going to hang out with his best friend. Well, he not only swept and mopped, but vacuumed, wiped my stove (including under the burners), reorganized and swept my garage and my patio, and scrubbed both of my sons' chairs and the wall behind Joseph's chair. I was so pleased with his hard work and desire to please that I offered to take him to dinner, anywhere he wanted. He chose Chuck-a-Rama, and so there we went and had a nice time, just the two of us. The waitress was pretty, and Michael told her so. She blushed and smiled as she walked off....it's cute to see Michael becoming interested in girls and trying to impress them.
We also bought some fireworks (I gave Michael a $10 budget...and spent $22 - so he's going to make it up to me by cleaning the basement and maybe weeding my flower bed) and then I found out that I can't do fireworks in my driveway because I'm too close to the mountain. With as much rain as we had all June, and still more than usual as July has begun (it rained last night again and much of yesterday), I'd think the fire hazard would be much lower this year and they'd be more flexible. However, I'll honor the law and see if I can find an empty parking lot far enough away but still close as reasonably possible so that we can enjoy our purchase together.

Sarah is going to Idaho for a month...she gets home the same day Juliane arrives. I have mixed feelings about that. In some ways I'm sad. I'll miss her company and conversation and having her cook on her days...but I'll look forward to not cleaning up her messes anymore. I've been really frustrated with how little she's cleaned lately...it's like she knows that if she ignores it long enough, I'll do it because I can't stand the mess. She'll load the dishwasher if things get tense, but I don't think she's hand-washed the pans in over a month. Rinsed, occasionally, but not washed. Sometimes she'll fill it with water and leave it alone for three days, and it starts to stink and grow stuff, and then I'll get fed up and wash it. And often she'll say she'll do something, and not do it, which really bothers me and I'm beginning to lose confidence in her word. At least she takes good care of the garden and has helped a lot with Toby, and she says she's always willing to help with my children when I need it, and I really appreciate that. And like I said, I'll miss her company. She's a sweet woman, and very empathetic and always there to give a hug when I'm feeling down.

Anyway, there some of my musings. Thanks for listening to me ramble yet again. :)

Wednesday, 01 July 2009

two posts in two days...I'm on a roll!

This blog's title: Dentist Mistakes and Permanent Marker
Yesterday was a trying day for me.
The morning went well. I baked the very last batch (yay!) of cherry raisins, and the children let me sleep in until 8:30 (Yay again!) and Adam went peepee in the potty in the morning, too, sitting on it of his own accord.
Late morning, Sarah dropped me off at the DMV to renew my license while she ran some errands. I walked in to discover that this particular DMV only does titles and registration, and the other DMV in Provo does renewals. It's about 2 miles south of where I was. I call Sarah. No answer. I wait a few minutes and call again, then sit down and pray then crochet a while. Then I call her again. Crochet. She calls me. She had forgotten her phone, and after running the first errand, realized it and drove home to get it. At least I didn't have to wait longer than 1/2 an hour! We get to the other DVM and from there everything runs smoothly, we have lunch, we go home and put the children to bed.
I go lie down for my nap. Just as I enter that deeper state of relaxation the doorbell rings. Ugh. It's a lawn-care salesman. I go back to the couch and just as I enter that deeper state of relaxation, Adam cries out in pain. He'd gotten out of my bed and stepped on something. It didn't injure him, just hurt. So I love him better, tell him to stay in bed, and go back to my couch. I'm almost to the dozing stage when Sarah calls me. She's lost and needs me to find her way on GoogleMaps. That takes several minutes and just seconds after I lie down again, my "wake-up" alarm goes off. Sheesh! The world was conspiring against naptime!
So I go to the bathroom and floss and brush preparatory to my dental appt, where I have one filling to take care of. Fast forward: I'm in the dentist's office. The assistant offers me Nitrous Oxide...I point to my bulging tummy and with a smile say, "I think I'll pass." She grins and starts talking animatedly about her children and as she puts the swab of topical numbing stuff in by my tooth, recounts the following story:
   I was on birth control when I found out I was pregnant with my 4th. I was not happy about it. I had gall bladder problems and couldn't have surgery because of the baby. I was in SO MUCH PAIN, it made me crazy. After a few weeks of intense pain and sickness, I told my husband that I knew it was a sin, but I just couldn't handle it: I was going to abort the baby. He saw my pain and agreed to support me and never blame me. This was in California, where abortions are easier to get. So I went to my dr, determined to get an abortion. My dr was out, so I saw the dr on call.  This doctor gave me the lecture of my life! From spiritual to moral to physical reasons, he told me why I should not have an abortion. Then he told me this was the son we'd been waiting for, and promised me that if I kept him, the pain would go away. Then he practically shoved me out of his office. I got home and I was SO MAD! But I thought about what he said and the pain did go away. A week or so later, I went to my next check-up. My regular dr was there, and I asked him, "If I wanted an abortion, would you do it for me?" He replied, "Sure. We can do it right now if you want." I said no thanks, it was okay. Then I asked to have a word with the dr I'd seen before. I wanted to thank him. Their records had no evidence of a dr by that name. They had me as having seen the dr on call, but it was a different person. I insisted he was NOT the dr I'd seen, but it had been Dr So-and-so. They said a dr by that name and description did not work there or anywhere nearby. Hmmm...interesting, isn't it?
Anyway, my dr was still concerned about my gall bladder problems, and said if I started to get jaundiced, I had to go in right away and have the baby taken so they could treat me. I now knew that everything would be fine, but a few weeks later, I started to turn yellow. I felt okay, but my mom insisted I go to the dr. I refused, but after several days, she just took me. I didn't want to go. I didn't want them to take my baby. We got into the elevator at the hospital, and I was still yellow. We got off the elevator, and it was gone. They checked me out and said I was perfectly fine and healthy! I told my mom I knew it would be okay...and it was. We later found out that it was indeed a boy. I wasn't surprised. I call him my miracle baby.
What a cool story that is! By the time she was done telling it, the stuff had done it's job, my gums were tingly-numb, and she called the dentist in to administer the real pain killer. As he inserted the needle, I felt a sharp pain travel down the side of my tongue. It hurt SO BAD! I jumped and gasped, and the dr, feeling terrible, said, "Oh, I'm so sorry!" and tried to be gentle...but the damage was done. I spent the rest of the eternity that the needle was in my mouth cringing and wringing the edge of my shirt, my eyes watering and my tongue on ice-fire. The dentist left for a moment to let the stuff kick in, and the assistant, after handing me some gauze to wipe my eyes, continued telling me about her children. I was grateful for the distraction. My tongue was thoroughly numb, though tingling nonstop, when the dentist returned. I couldn't talk clearly, so he knew it had set in enough and start to drill the cavity. I felt the cold inside my tooth and mentioned it, and concerned, he said, "let's get some more for her" to which I replied, "No...I don't want the needle again. I'll be okay." So he kept up the work. And I've never had so uncomfortable an experience in my life! (Natural childbirth is less painful than that!) Fortunately, it was just one filling, one surface, and a small one at that. It didn't last long (I was out within a half hour), but I couldn't help the occasional jump or gasp or cringe. At the end, he said he didn't think the tooth was numbed at all. I believe him. He'd caught the wrong part of nerve and numbed my tongue, but not my tooth. He traumatized the nerve completely...It's now the next morning and my tongue is still tingling. I have a feeling it won't stop for at least three months. That's happened to me before (but I didn't feel the pain last time...it was simply that the numbing stuff never completely wore off).
After that the afternoon went well. I went to Target with the gift card Eliza gave me and bought a really cute wallet that matches the purse I got for my birthday. My other wallet was falling apart and wasn't big enough to hold bills properly, so my money always crinkled a little. Thanks, Eliza!!
Sarah offered to make dinner as I was sore and cranky, and after dinner I watched a movie...I was ready to relax...this was the first movie I have watched in over 3 weeks....the first time I've had on open block of time long enough for a movie. While I watched the movie, Jeff and Daniel and Sarah left to help someone pick up and move a washer they'd bought. Michael, who is staying with us while Eva's family is on vacation, was upstairs. My children played in the basement for most of the movie, then went upstairs. I could hear Michael playing with them, so I turned my attention back to the movie. I guess that after several minutes, Michael went back into his own little world, too...
   When the movie was over, I went upstairs to discover that my oven, fridge, and a prep table we pulled in for canning had all been colored upon with a blue marker, which on further inspection turned out to be permanent. I am very careful about where I keep my permanent markers, but this one had been used for marking jars, and whoever had last used it had thoughtlessly dropped it into one of the boxes of jars. Urg! It took us a while to find the offending marker...it was outside, where we also discovered that Toby had been scribbled upon! We called Toby's owner, who laughed about it and said she did worse things to her dogs when she was a child, and not to worry about it. I'm glad she understood.
Michael cleaned my oven with a wet washcloth in a matter of seconds, but the table and fridge are textured and did not want to be cleaned! Just as I was discovering all this, the other adults returned. Jeff put the chillins to bed while Daniel and Sarah disappeared downstairs. I did my best to clean the mess. Here are my findings:
~Mr Clean Magic Eraser doesn't really work. It faded just a tiny bit.
~Mom suggested nail polish remover. That helped, but only with a Q-tip and a half-inch at a time. Very tedious, and it still left soft blue streaks.
I hopped online for tips.
~Rubbing Alcohol (better than nail polish remover, but had to be applied the same way...still very tedious)
~Moistening Magic Eraser with rubbing alcohol instead of water (worked great...for about 8 square inches, then suddenly stopped working, even with re-moistening.)
   Finally, I was nearly in tears with frustration. I'd been working for well over an hour and had hardly made a dent in the mess. Sarah came upstairs about then, and discovering my predicament, and seeing the bottle of nail polish remover next to me, had an idea...she left and returned with a bottle of pure acetone and bag of cotton balls. That worked like a charm, and she helped me clean the rest...within 10 minutes the fridge and table were clean with just the slightest tint of blue, not noticeable unless you're looking for it.
   ~Pure Acetone works
Toby will just have to shed the blue over time. There's no hope for getting that out of his fur! Adam and Joseph each have a few small marks on their hands and legs, but I'll just have to let that fade over time, too.
So, when your child (or children) manage to get ahold of a permanent marker...go get pure acetone! Sarah says you can find almost anywhere, and it will save you a lot of stress. I don't know about walls...and it would be a bad idea for carpet or clothes...but it works on fridges and card tables!
Finally, at midnight, I got to go sleep...oh, sweet soft bed! Today I am definitely taking it easy!

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smile4iluvya

- Name: Mary
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- Member Since: 8/1/2006

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I love to read, cook, crochet, and make children laugh. I'm talkative and friendly, and kinda weird. I like having dinner parties and doing crossword puzzles. I'm a mommy of two and absolutely love it! Anything else you wanna know? Ask me. I don't bite.

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