Why Why Why

This is the way my day started out. Don't let the calm, neat, orderly and idyllic scene fool you.

This is where the day has gone. And that was after the cat stepped in his poop and tracked it all over the house and the massive clean-up that ensued from that.

Slackers

This blog is officially manned by a couple of blog slackers. To make up for the current slack, I would like to post this picture of Isaac, because he's cute. He's almost got a tooth, he's figuring out how to crawl, he's still waking me several times at night, he's eating one meal of solids a day and he's the happiest, cutest little baby boy EVER. So there.

Thursday's Thoughts. AH HA! That's IT!!!

Let’s see. What can I say that is worth wasting your time over.

We had Thanksgiving at my house last Wednesday evening. I brined (is that a real word?) the turkey, made dressing instead of stuffing, and completed the feast with cranberry jalapeno sauce, pecan pie, cherry pie and lemon meringue pie. Mom made mashed potatoes and Grandma made a pumpkin pie. I know it was a success because I just at some leftovers last night for dinner and the turkey is still juicy. Also, my dad said that is possibly the best Thanksgiving meal he’s ever had. Now that there is quite a compliment.

Thanksgiving dinner...with half of us not there yet.

Speaking of Thanksgiving, I am reminded every year about this time how incredibly blessed I am…we are. Our fridge and pantry are brimming with food, we have enough money to pay our mortgage and buy electricity and clothe the kids and still there is some left over to waste frivolously. I am trying to become more frugal and mindful of the gifts that God has given me.

We took a family photo. From top to bottom, left to right that's me, Del, Isaac, Mom, Dad, my mom's dad (Gramps), Anna, my dad's mom (GG), Lily, Rachel, Sarah and Ella.

I’m sewing like a banshee. I am making purses and wallets and shopping bags and balls and crayon rolls and stockings and…am I ever grateful that we’ve taken a break from school for six weeks. During this time of holiday excitement, I am happy to have the freedom to work in the sewing room as I need and not have to worry that I’m getting behind in school.

The state of my sewing room; it must look like a guest room again by Saturday .

 This is a picture of the messenger bags I'm making for the girls for Christmas. I'm making one for the neighbor's daughter, too. I made them from men's cargo pants. This particular one is for Sarah, since blue is her favorite color.

I am considering changing my writing curriculum to Classical Writing. Granny has been recommending it for many months and I can see the kids getting really bored with the writing we are doing. I wish there was a way I could try it out on the kids to see how they like it. It seems to combine grammar and writing and includes a lot of creative stuff which the girls really would enjoy. They spend most of their free time reading, playing outside or drawing and this curriculum includes a lot of that…as far as I can tell.

I wish you could see the laughs and smiles and giggles I get from Isaac. Are all boys this sweet-tempered? My mom says my brother was the type of baby to make a mother never want any more kids. I think he had a colic problem. But Isaac, even with a bit of a sour stomach sometimes is the sweetest baby I ever did see. Always happy and never cries without a purpose. What a blessing he is to me after such a hard and miserable pregnancy. He is definitely worth every second of moaning and groaning I did about what a sorry state I was in.

I have a better picture of his sunny disposition but Blogger keeps distorting the picture so I'll have to post it later. Look at his lovely chubby cheeks!!!

Alright, stop distracting me. I have to go sew.

 Isn't Lily cute? She's got that mischievous look in her eye.

Thanksgiving Thursday

I am thankful for so many thing, but today I think I will just say that I am thankful for a son and the Son.

Thursday's...Things??

I'm really into taking pictures of the girls' eyelashes. Maybe I'm covetous. These are Anna's and let me tell you, this blurry picture was hard won. This is a girl that cannot stay still to save her life.

Rachel is a little uncomfortable holding Isaac. Of all the girls, she seems to care the least that he's around, but she still likes him.

 Speaking of Rachel, this is what her ankle looks like. It looks like she got burned. I'm treating by putting triple antibiotic ointment on it and covering it with gauze pads and tape. I change it every day. I've never felt more like a nurse.

And here she is in her broken-foot-boot and with her crutches. She's getting pretty good with the crutches. The orthopedist said that her broken foot is about 70% healed and that the horrible, awful-looking sore on her ankle will take longer to heal than her broken bones.

Anna is starting to refuse taking naps during the day and then passing out in random places and odd positions. This was two days ago. Yesterday it was at her high chair.

 This looks like a mess but it's actually really beautiful cypress vine and a green bean plant. You may not be able to see the green bean plant. Ella has picked quite a few green beans from the plant that we're going to eat for dinner tonight.

Here's a closer look at the pretty flowers. It's not a very good picture because I took it through the window instead of going outside. But there's snakes back there.

 We've never gotten the stump removed from our palms that died during the hard freezes we had this past winter. I think the stump looks lovely with this bitter melon vine growing on it.

 And look at my baby boy!! Look at his chubby cheeks. Ignore my double chin!

Thursday's...Tidbits??? Thidbits???

Do you know it's near on impossible for me to write anything here without some pictures to prompt me. Isn't Sarah cute with her baby brother?

You may or many not know that Rachel broke her foot and there were a few complications with the splint being on too tight. I don't know exactly what's going on here but I think it has something to do with her skin dying. Anyway, it's getting better every day. Next time she's hobbling around in her boot and crutches I'll snap a photo. She's cute.

There are blisters all over the dead skin area...or whatever that is. The orthopedist said it was fine and told us to expect blisters. It looks terrible though doesn't it.

Ella has the most lovely eyes. She's got these lines around the outer edge of her iris. And beautiful eye lashes.

I thought this acorn was pretty.

Other than school and nursing and sleeping and making food and wasting time on FB and playing Bejeweled Blits (thanks a lot Johanna) life is pretty normal around here.

Baby Lips

YUM!

Three Things

First, this is the kidney stone that I finally was able to get rid of. Something this size rolling around in your kidney and down your ureter does not feel good. It's amazing how much better I feel today than I have in the last week because of it.

Second, Isaac is really cute. Sarah took these three pictures with my cool camera and macro lens.

Isn't he sweet? He has a nice quiet cry, unlike the last two babies.

And look at the toes. So precious.

Third, Anna is silly.

Ode to Isaac

Okay, I don't really write odes. I mean...EVER.

Anyway, Isaac was finally born on Monday, August 16. Here's how it all went down.

A few weeks ago I could tell I was passing a kidney stone. Not sure if you've ever passed a kidney stone, but I hope you never have to find out how much it hurts. The pain went away and I continued on, whining and complaining and crying about being pregnant...still.

So then at my appointment last Thursday the OB tells me that I've dilated to 3cm and she thinks I'll go in the next day or two. This is something you should never tell a pregnant lady that's miserable. You should just let her believe she's got another 11 days or she'll go crazy looking for signs of labor. Truthfully though, I did have all the classic signs of labor but nothing much was happening. It's hard to convince my body to go into active labor on its own. It just sort of leisurely contracts when it feels like it and never really gets the show on the road.

Friday, Saturday and Sunday come and go with absolutely no baby. How frustrating. Sunday night I start to get severe kidney pain again, on my right side. The pain is so strong that I soon can't tell the difference between a contraction and the pain in my kidney and ureter. I call the OB nurse around 2:30AM and ask her if I can take a Darvocet I have. She okays that and says to come in to the office in the morning to get checked out. The pain killer lasts about an hour and 40 minutes. The whole time I can feel contractions; they're nice and strong but about 5 minutes apart. Upon pain of TMI, about 4AM I sorta thought my water broke, but due to some other circumstances that are best left unmentioned, I just couldn't tell for sure. The pain of the kidney stone was increasingly getting worse and worse. Del finally told me to call the OB nurse again and she told us to go ahead and go to the hospital.

At the hospital they finally gave me morphine for the kidney pain, but it only took the edge off and it was short-lived because it was IV injected. Surprisingly the doctor on call said that I should be admitted, treated for the pain and labor induced. I was ecstatic. I hugged the nurse, who has six kids; the first one is a girl and the 5 younger ones are boys.

The rest is easy, I got a room, I got an epidural which totally took care of the incredible kidney pain and the contraction pain, I got a whiff of Pitocin, I napped for a little bit while listening to Isaac's heartbeat, I felt like I should push, they came, they saw I should push, we conquered child birth.

Isaac was born at 5:07PM. He weighed 8 pounds 5 ounces, was 21 inches long and is definitely a boy. Wow, what a shocker. He's the heaviest baby we've had by nearly a pound. Rachel has been the biggest so far at 7 pounds 9 ounces. He had a hard time with latch for the first 24 hours but he's got it now. He's home and we're all settling in nicely.

Still having trouble with the kidney stone, but it'll go away eventually. I'm on Lortab for that. I'm tired, obviously, but feeling very happy and energetic.

So there you go. And now for the pictures.

The cord was wrapped twice around Isaac's head so Del didn't officially get to cut it this time, but he got to cut off the leftovers.

Our nurse Cindy and Dr. Sanchez.

Screaming little boy. Look at his hands. They had him under a warmer for a long time because he couldn't maintain his temp.

Not my best pose, but hey, I just had a baby.

Sarah and Isaac. The kids came with my parents the next day and they loved him instantly. They like to sit on the couch and hold him.

And I love this photo because of those yummy squishy lips.

*if you'd like to see more pictures, go here: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=21963&id=100000415701409&l=47c0313f33

Isaac's Room

Whaddaya think?  I wish the rug was bigger but we're trying to not spend a whole bunch of money.  I repurposed that rug from Del's old office in our bedroom.  I'm really happy with the bedding.  Now I just need to come up with some sort of inexpensive widow dressing...that doesn't include me sewing because I'm just not into that right now.  Maybe when my joints are less loose and painful.  I feel like my legs are going to fall off every time I get up.  He'll spend up to a month in our room in the bassinet then be exiled to this room so I can get some sleep; noisy babies.  So I have some time to think about the windows.

24 Weeks.

Sorry, but since I'm always the one taking the pictures I can never get my face in.  Besides, I don't want to scare you off.  This morning I was hold Lily after she had hurt herself.  I had her propped up on top of my belly and Rachel said, "Mom, Lily is sitting on Isaac."  It was really funny.

IT'S A BOY!!!

After five girls, I can hardly believe we're having a boy.  We laughed so hard that we will name him Isaac. 
*I took out the boy part picture; I just couldn't handle it.*

She gave us some 4D picture, too.