Birthday Story Part 2

I guess with a new baby when I say I'll write more tomorrow it means next week!!! :) My Mom was here for the last two weeks so today's my first day "on my own." So far God has been very very good to me!!! Both are currently sleeping and I thought I'd try to finish the story of our daughter's birth and share a few cute pictures.

"God saw all that He had made, and it was very good." Genesis 1:31 (NIV)

I woke up at 4am having contractions and I laid in bed resting to see if they'd continue even with me relaxing and drinking water. For about 3 or 4 days before I'd been having some pretty strong contractions but if I laid down and relaxed they'd get further apart and then I'd fall asleep or they'd just go away completely. This time I wanted to make sure they were real before calling. After the 5th one about 10 or 11 minutes apart I grabbed my hubby awake thinking "this is the last one you get to sleep through honey!" When the contraction subsided I asked him to bring me the phone and number.

He proceeds to do a couple things and then get out his clothes and begin to get dressed before I say "I'd like to call before my next contraction comes so can you get the phone first." He groggily replies and smiles at me, telling me I'm beautiful. I call at about 5am and since we are all packed I get dressed, put my hair back in braids and we let my Mom know we were leaving.

We arrived at the birthing center at about 5:40am and start to settle into our room. The same room where my son was born, it has a twin bed, a comfy chair, and a large birthing tub - along with it's own bath room. The lights could be dimmed and we just tried to relax and laugh between contractions. Occasionally I'd ask my hubby if he could at least wake up when I was having a contraction and we'd giggle. I was way more aware during this labor than I remember being with my son.

After we were settled in a bit my wonderful nurse (really my best friends Mom - we go to the same church- who so wonderfully said she'd be on call just for us!) checked me and I was 5 cm. She showed me on the little diagram how big that was compared to 10cm and I was convinced we had a long way to go.

After awhile my back began to really hurt so Adam laid behind me on the bed and would push on my lower back during the contractions, I then said I was ready for the tub. I'm not sure what time it was but as soon as they started getting the tub ready for me I had 3 or 4 contractions right on top of each other which was well, eventful. Before I got in the tub I was already at 8cm and it was time to call my Dr. By the time the Dr. got there I was complete and ready to push!

The first contraction I pushed through I was thinking in my head "I'm not sure I can do this, this hurts way more than I remember!" After that contraction I looked at my hubby who was telling me how awesome I was doing and I said out loud "We can do this!" (He asked me later if I remembered saying this and I told him that I felt like I had to say it out loud since my thoughts during the pushing weren't helping me.) After the second contraction that I pushed through I said something to the effect of "Oh my goodness!" and everyone laughed at me that I was so mild manored in the throws of it all!

The third contraction was the last out she came to join us at 8:07am and they plopped her on my belly in all her chubby beauty. Adam and I oogled and googled for maybe a minute or two and then he cut the cord and they wrapped her in a warm towel. I felt like I had to use all my strength with two people helping me get out of the tub but I made it over to the bed. Adam got a chance to snuggle her for awhile and then I did. They never had to take her away from us, a scale was wheeled in and she was weighed (9lbs 4oz). Then we nursed for a good long while and called family and asked my Mom to bring our son out to meet his baby sis.

It wasn't until after lunch that we gave her a bath and got her dressed and measured and foot printed and all that stuff. It was so nice to have all that time to bond and for my son and Mom to be able to hang out until after lunch. We did more cuddling and nursing while my best friend came for a short visit. After which our family Dr. came and checked her out and we were discharged. I think we arrived home at about 5:30 pm and another friend was over just for a quick peek before work. I'm pretty sure we all were in bed by 8pm.

"I will send down showers in season; there will be showers of blessing." Ezekiel 34:26 (NIV)

Our Daughter's Birthday Story (part one)

So it looks like my Dad ended up being the closest guess - crazy as it might be. But I'll buy him starbucks when he comes to visit in a couple days so there are 3 others that guessed the correct date and I'd love to send you all something - Heaven Sent, Ashlee from Mama's Nest, and Audrey from Pinks and Blues. Send me an email to thebutterflymama at gmail dot com with your snail mail address! And thanks for playing!

I'm feeling great. I'm rested and still resting too but really things couldn't be going better as we are all getting adjusted to our wonderful new family member. I wanted to share the first bit of her birth story with you all while I have a moment to type, it's much more slow going one handed but it's nice to have a cutie pie nursing as I go!!!

"Last Monday seems like a lifetime ago," my hubby casually said to me at some point this week. I smirked at him and we both shrugged since it basically was. My Dr. called me late that morning and said, "Heidi, you're still pregnant!" She had told me the Tuesday before that I was 3-4 cm and wouldn't make it to my next apt. Also she made that tempting offer that we could induce any day. I wanted to wait at least until my due date so that brings us back to Monday. With the next day being my due date she asked if I wanted to be induced that next morning. I was done so I agreed that I'd be at the birthing center the next morning at 8am.

I just have to add that watching my son that day was amazing. He and my Mom were making cookies and even though it took them at least twice as long to do it together sitting in the chair and seeing the look on his face made one thing clear. I know why I love to do those things with him and it was great to sit there and see his smiles and the look of satisfaction on his face while he was helping. It IS worth spending this extra time with our kids while they are little since they are only this big today, tomorrow they'll be bigger. (He now seems gigantic next to his little sis!)

Anyway, it was sort of a hard decision to induce vs. got naturally. I was nervous all evening even after my nurse called and explained everything. My husband has since mentioned that I never gave this decision to God and he was right, I didn't have much faith. Especially since I awoke with contractions at 4:00am my worry and emotion was unnecessary. When I woke up I also had the song "I surrender in my head which was a nice one to be singing going into labor.

Since this much has taken two sittings to type I'll write another segment tomorrow!

Welcome to the family

We welcomed "baby sister" to our family at 8:07am on August 14th weighing in at 9 lbs 4 oz and she was 21 inches long. Our big kiddo is officially a big brother and doing great! I'm voiding my no name policy for a day or so and then I'll update this to get rid of it but I thought all my new friends should get a chance to learn her name. She's nursing like a champ and we were home within about 9 hours of giving birth. You'll be hearing more about her birthday soon but I'm going back for another nap now! Thanks for your prayers, she's an amazing blessing!

The update from here is see my last posting! Except maybe with one less finger holding on!

I was totally convinced that this little one would be pretty early so I think God's reminding me who's in charge here!!!

On a totally random note, I totally love my crocs and they've saved my feet and back this entire pregnancy but can I just tell you how much I'd love to wear some really cute shoes again!

Still hanging in there...

I thought this picture from last October was a perfect fit! I'm still hoping that those of you who guessed today end up being right, but not much is going on to indicate that! So I guess there's still time to guess!

There's no hiding my HUGENESS!!!!

Not that I'd even want to try. I'm enjoying this pregnancy as much as I possibly can. I'm enjoying every day of a bouncy, wiggly little girl who even though she's zapping my energy and making me pee at every stop we make, I'm so in awe of the fact that she's in there. About to be born into our family, this tiny person inside me. A whole complete little girl who will soon enough be able to survive outside of my body.

I find that I can't wait for so many things... can't wait to meet her, nurse her, hold her, see my son's face as he meets her for the first time, see Adam hold her and love on her, and see all those tiny fingers and toes. Last week I kept saying, "OK God, give me just 2 more days to get things organized before the little girl comes." This week I find myself hoping that labor starts NOW just because I feel ready. Ready to be an infants Mom again, to parent two kids (sometimes I think I'm nuts too), that I'll still be able to keep up with the house this time, and I'm just ready tomorrow marks one week until I'm due after all.

I can say that I used to be one of those people who thought, "how can there be enough love in my heart to love another child." After all I love my son completely, but after these nine months with my daughter in my womb I feel that I have more capacity to love than I ever thought. Today, I feel more confident in my parenting abilities and full of love for my family and incredibly grateful that God has blessed us dearly and wonderfully in so many ways. Incredibly looking at things from a place of gratitude always helps my perspective and outlook.

Well, the purpose of this post wasn't to be this sappy ;) but share all these pictures of my huge belly that my hubby took this weekend. You can click on the pics to make them bigger if you need to LOL!!! Did you catch Mr. Big Brother's face in the picture where he's hugging me? Silly kid!

Remember to guess my delivery stats if you haven't played already. Hopefully there's less than one week left!!!!

Getting Close

I thought it might be fun to play a little game for the last couple of weeks of this pregnancy. I'm not sure if at the end of it I'll have any energy to give anything away or not but I thought it might be fun anyway to see who's the closest. How about a Starbucks gift card to the winner of the closest guess - that will be easy enough to get and mail!!! UPDATED TO ADD: my Mom will add a couple of hand knitted dish cloths to the prize pot too, they are very pretty and great because they are washable and reusable!!!

I will give you as many details as I have as far as Dr. visits and past history to help you with guessing my delivery date, time, baby's weight etc. Whatever detail(s) you'd like to guess. After our new arrival comes I'll post all of her stats and of course pictures!

Tuesday I was 38 weeks and I'm due on August 14th. Two weeks ago I was about 1 cm dilated and this week 2 cm. With my son I was dilated 4 cm for at least the last two weeks and I delivered him ON my due date at 8:19pm, he weighed 8lbs 6oz and was 21 inches long.

Here's a picture of me at 38 weeks one day along and here's a link to a pic of me pregnant with my son at 37 weeks.

Happy Guessing!!!

Oh, and please don't think you have to have a blog to guess, if you normally lurk around here (that means you read and you don't normally comment) I LOVE comments and the more guesses the merrier!!! :) You can still click on leave a comment fill in your name and comment!

Yup, I've Started Composting With Worms

I've wanted to start doing this for three years and finally got brave enough. I always thought it would be easier with a professionally purchased bin made especially for it. Something like this one but I decided I'm too cheap to buy one. There are many different ways to make one and I chose just to use a big blue plastic bin since we have quite a few of them.

My hubby helped me by drilling two small holes in the bottom and some one inch holes across the top of one side and the bottom of the other. I've read that plastic bins tend to stay very moist so I wanted it to be pretty well ventilated. Then I glued some screening to the outside of the bin to cover the holes, mostly to keep away flies, apparently they worms don't try to escape as long as conditions are not toxic!

With the bin all ready, I shredded a bunch of newspaper by hand until it was in 1-2 inch wide strips then I threw in a couple of handfuls of dirt (worms don't have teeth and need some grit to eat.) I then dampened the newspaper bedding with water using enough so that all the paper was wet but not too much so that it was dripping. After adding the moist bedding to the bin I added the worms which is what yesterday's picture showed. After about 30 minutes they were all underneath the newspaper bedding and now when I open the bin I barely ever see any worms on top. I buried some food scraps in the bedding, put on the lid and let them be.

In just a week that first pile of scraps I put in are almost gone, but I think I did overload the system with too much fruit and veggies a couple days later. Apparently if I just let it sit now the worms will catch up with the scraps and eventually they'll multiply to an ample population to handle our amount of food waste. In a few months we'll have wonderful vermicompost to feed our garden and plants.

Oh, and did I mention that this entire composting system is currently sitting in our downstairs bath tub. It only smells when you overload it with food (even though mine is over loaded at the moment it doesn't really smell unless you go digging in the bedding). You can find more info and order your own red wriggler worms at Mary Applehof's web site and I also purchased her book Worms Eat My Garbage as a reference.

I'll probably be posting periodically with updates on how it's going - but this is how I got it all set up!

I'm updating this post because I forgot to mention yesterday that Jamie who blogs at all things avery just introduced her new business. Her custom photo card site is amazing, it's called Wee Little Designs (cute name huh?!!) and I can't believe the number of designs she has, nor how amazing they all are! Comment and link to her blog by tomorrow and you could win 25 free cards! She's really got talent!