Pictures!

So, here's something that hasn't gotten to happen in quite a while--Sunday morning pictures :) For some reason I had a little extra time before needing to head out, so I seized the opportunity to dig out my very neglected camera and capture some pics of my sweeties! Enjoy!

Jedidiah Owen--A Birth Story

Wow! It's been a really long time since I've posted something on this blog! Unfortunately, it may be just as long before I post again; but, I've had enough people ask about how Jedidiah's birth went, that I need to just write it down while it's fresh in my mind :) So, I hope you enjoy!

Well, after Josiah's scary delivery and hospital time, we went back and forth over having JO at our midwife's birth center or delivering at St. Luke's hospital (which is sort of intertwined with Texas Children's) with a group of 5 midwives who deliver there. After going through all the pros and cons of each, we made the hard decision of leaving a midwife we love and trust and went with a group of midwives we'd never met before.

On Thursday, August 4, we had an appointment, and I told the midwife (who we were meeting for the first time) that I was probably going to have this baby no later than the end of the weekend, based on how I was feeling that day. Sure enough, around 8:30 that night I started having contractions! I waited a couple of hours and then took a shower to see if they still continued. They did. So then we had to decide what to do--stay home and wait a little longer or go on to the hospital. Typically, I would have gone to bed and slept as long as possible. But I was really nervous about the whole traveling to the hospital thing, not knowing if things would progress super quick like with Kerith or be really nice and gradual like with my other boys. So we called the midwife on call and asked what she thought we should do. She suggested we come on in, so we did.

So we got to the hospital around midnight. I was 4 cm and still having consistent contractions every 5-10 mins. Well, after pacing the room for a couple of hours and in the back of my mind wondering how long they were going to let me stay before having a baby, I was sooo tired that my contractions started dying out a little. At that point, I had somehow voiced to the midwife and nurse on duty about how tired I was, and they were both so nice and told me to take a nap and that I could do this birth however I wanted. After they told me that, I was finally able to relax and stop fretting about getting sent home :) So we took about a 3 hour nap and then walked a few laps around the floor, watched a lot of HGTV and just waited out the contractions. At 9 am, I'd gotten to 6 cm, so that made me happy to know that I was indeed progressing! Around noon or so I didn't feel comfortable doing the laps anymore b/c I started feeling like my water was about to break and didn't want that happening outside of my own room. So I walked laps around my room as long as I could. Around 3 pm, contractions were pretty strong and kept feeling like they'd break my waters, but nothing. I was so ready to just have the baby at that point that I told Eric I was going to see if the midwife would just break my water. She came in not long after and asked if I wanted her to check me. YES, please! I was 8 cm. She asked if I wanted her to break my bag. YES, please! I'm so ready to have this baby out of my belly and in my arms. So, she broke my bag, I got my urges to push. Oh yeah, I forgot how much pushing hurts and makes me want to throw up. But my wonderful husband has done this enough times now that he knows to get my fan and follow me around so it's blowing right in my face :) And 15 minutes later, our precious "little" guy made his entrance to the world outside of mommy's belly at a very healthy 8 lbs 14 oz and 20 in!

Of course, nothing compares to having your baby in the comfort of your own home, BUT we were very satisfied with our hospital birth this time around. We're very grateful there was no push for enemas, IV's, epidurals, or continuous monitoring. Every 30 minutes or so, they'd use the doppler to monitor JO's heart rate during a contraction, and every couple of hours, they'd hook me up to monitor contractions and heart rate for 10-20 mins. But I was able to walk around, lie down, take a shower, rock, eat a snack or do pretty much whatever I would have done at home! We were thankful that, overall, everybody left us alone and let me labor naturally the way we wanted. Our baby was never taken away from us at any point. I took JO to the nursery for about 15 minutes so I could take a shower, but other than that, little man never left my side! And then, to make things even better, they released JO as soon as they did his bilirubin test and got good results. So about 26 hours after his birth, we were out of there!

Here are a few pics!

Time Flies

Wow! Has it really been over two months since I've gotten to blog? We've just been really busy around here the past couple of months. This mommy is totally worn out at the end of the day, and there just hasn't been much time/energy to blog. But I'll try to give a little recap of the past two months. Here goes...

My sweet Mikaela pooh turned FIVE years old on August 25! I can't believe she's getting so big. She is Mommy's big helper and has the best imagination. She loves her siblings and loves to "mother" them. She is always wanting to pray for others and is very sensitive when she thinks others are hurting. She doesn't miss a beat and has so much energy that I wish she could share some of it with me :) She just had to have a cake (even though she doesn't really eat it)--so this is her spur of the moment masterpiece--well, it tasted good, anyway :)

Mikaela usually loves to learn and has turned out to be a pretty good student for mommy. I'm very blessed to get the opportunity to teach her at home!

The month of September was filled with schooling Mikaela and Elijah, chasing after a VERY busy 17-month-old and caring for a precious newborn. I'm not sure I can remember any specific details, but here are a few pics I captured toward the end of the month.

Kerith has got to be the cutest thing ever right now. Any time she wakes up, she has to have her lovey, baby and blankey come with her. She LOVES to feed herself and insists on it. She's my first baby to get to feed herself. She is usually very messy afterwards, and I'm reminded why my other two didn't get to feed themselves :) There are just too many people needing Mommy these days--the poor baby has to fend for herself :)

"Fro Up"

As I was getting some meal ready yesterday, Elijah comes into the kitchen saying, "Mommy, Bosiah fro up on me!" I kind of ignored him at first b/c he and MJ have a tendency to tell me Josiah threw up when he's really just spitting or something. But then I looked up to see the following images. I couldn't help myself--I totally cracked up, while EM kept telling me, "It not funny!" :) It's just pay back for all the many times you threw up on Mommy, Buddy :)

Munchkin Funnies

I know--it has been awhile. It's not that my kiddos have stopped saying and doing cute and funny things; I've just ceased having time to blog about them. I do try to write some of them down though, in hopes that one day I'll get to write about them :)

MJ: (whining) "Daddy, Elijah hit me with the ball orange! The one with the hairs on it."

___________________

(While eating breakfast one morning and looking out the window)

MJ: "A group of birds is having a meeting."

Me: "A meeting?"

MJ: "Yes, a bird meeting. They're worshiping God."

___________________

(One of my favorite things that Elijah currently says--I just can't correct it right now :) )

EM: "I irsty."

___________________

MJ: (whining--yes, we have lots of this) "Well, I'm just bored." (pause) "What's bored mean?"

___________________

EM & MJ: (while eating breakfast and looking out the window) "The squirrels are playing tag!" :)

___________________

EM: "I want to measure you (as he gets his tape measure out). You twitty-five sits (25 cents)."

___________________

MJ: (while lying in bed with her after praying and singing) "Don't you want to go lay down somewhere else?"

Me: "Why'd you ask me that?" (Just curious to see if she was going to tell me the truth or not)

MJ: "I just thought you might want to go lay down somewhere else."

Me: "You mean you want me to leave so you can play?"

MJ: sheepish grin :)

_________________

One day while MJ was holding Josiah, Eric and I look over, and she had put him up close to her and was trying to lift up part of her shirt to nurse him :)

_________________

MJ: "Did Josiah have johnson...like I did?"

Me: "You mean jaundice?"

MJ: "Yes, did he have that?"

_________________

(While wrestling one day)

EM: (laying on top of a screaming MJ--he's getting big enough to kind of hold her down sometimes) "What's a matter, Kayla? What's a matter?!" :)

_________________

MJ has asked me a few times if we could change Josiah's name to Josiah Banana, and then she proceeds to call him Baby Banana :)

_________________

Me: "Mikaela, did you hear Elijah fall out of bed last night?"

MJ: "No, I was wide asleep." :)

_________________

When saying Lightning McQueen's name...

EM: "Lightning a Queen"

MJ: "Lightning the Queen"

________________

MJ has started doing lots of addition and subtraction in her school work. So when she sees something like this: Luke 1:13-16, she says, "Luke 1, 13 take away 16." :)

________________

My Sweeties

Watching TV

Pure Sweetness

Oh, these kids love, love, love their baby brother. Even Kerith is in on the action and is always giving Josiah tons of sweet kisses (it's just kind of hard to get her pic when I'm holding JL out for her to kiss :) ). They're so sweet--hope it stays that way as he gets older and starts getting into their stuff :)