weekly 'what's up'

we had a baby yesterday.  and some other stuff happened this week.  mostly, though, the distinguishing news this week was that we had a baby yesterday.

long story short, i woke up at 4:30 in the morning with contractions, and labored through the morning at home.  there was a moment in which i found myself crying and eating fast food in the bathtub.  that was not the most shining moment of the day.  but really, labor went pretty smoothly.  we got to the hospital about 2:30, where they told me i was dilated to 7-8, so it was just a matter of waiting it out.  i got an epidural (i hadn't known if i would opt for it or not), and had her at 6:07 p.m.  really smooth!

enough small talk.  let's get down to business:

 

 

now to just decide with certainty on a name... (oh, didn't i tell you we've started waffling again?  we're no good at this process.)

here's where i'm at with all this.

so, i was due twelve days ago.  and unless something has drastically changed in the interim between my writing of this post and your reading of it, i still have no new baby in arms.  (that sounds like the baby is wielding some kind of weaponry.  i'm cool with that.)

i've had a lot of questions from everyone about how i'm feeling, which is really sweet.  but the truth is, i'm actually doing really well.  now that a lot of that false labor has stopped (the baby has moved to the correct position and is no longer prank calling my uterus) i'm actually feeling pretty good.  

every day there is something that i'm really glad that i got to go to/participate in that i wouldn't have been able to if in the hospital or at home with a newborn.  i got the kitchen ceiling painted yesterday.  there have been leaders' meetings and prayer/worship nights and connection group gatherings with candeo that i feel really, really blessed to have gotten to attend.  and also, i'm really enjoying sleeping through the night still and not having to nurse yet.  (am i the only one on the planet that doesn't love nursing?)

i had an appointment with my chiropractor again on monday, and an appointment with my midwife on tuesday.  like i said, the baby is in the correct position now, and they did a nonstress test to make sure she's still happy and healthy hanging out in there, so i'm not worried about the fact that i'm still pregnant.  the only thing that's remotely difficult at this point is not knowing what each day will hold (and also getting up off the couch.)  i'm just waiting it out now.

just thought i'd give an update!

video vednesday: ...and a newborn baby that i've dressed in a suit...

...to prove to you that i mean business.

facebook

i'm trying to come up with a name for that phenomenon in which you happen across the facebook page of someone you went to high school with and they now look like...a grown up.  like, that guy who used to be some big shot who now just looks like a middle school basketball coach or someone you'd buy insurance from.  or that crazy drama kid who is now, and looks like, a banker.  or that nerdy kid who grew up to, well, look exactly like you thought he would and now he does taxes, so you're kind of surprised at how well you could see that one coming.

and what about when they not only start looking like adults, but they also start going by grown-up names?  like, instead of 'richy' they're 'rick' now.  or instead of 'terry' they're 'terrance.'  or instead of whatever douchey high school nickname they had (usually involving their first initial and then some kind of misspelled noun or adjective), they're now going by something normal, like darren.

is that scenario weirder than when you stumble across someone's facebook and they're still the same person, with the same nickname, doing the same stuff they did in high school?

i can't decide which is more strange.  your thoughts?

let's play a drinking game - drink a sprite for every time i say 'text' and see how long you can go before your bladder explodes.

okay, i have a bone to pick with you guys.

before i got texting (which was only within the last couple of months), i had no idea there was texting etiquette (textiquette?) that i would have to learn to navigate.  and you people never told me.

my biggest question is: who gets the last word?  like, if someone texts you some kind of factual information, do you have to respond?

if you're texting back and forth but you run out of junk to say, or you have to go change a diaper, can you just...not respond?  is that okay, or rude?

why do people insist on texting things like 'ok' and other totally pointless crap?  if i texted a brief informative message to your specific phone number, i probably just assumed you got it.  then my phone dings and gives me that heart attack that only introverts get when unexpected communication crops up.

how long is too long to wait before responding to a text?  minutes?  hours?  days?  sometimes, i can't find my phone, so i can't respond right away.  other times, previously-mentioned introversion kills my motivation to even see what the text says, much less respond.  other times i'm driving or holding a conversation with a real-life, flesh-and-blood human being; in either case, i refuse to check and/or respond to texts.  but how long do i have before i look like a d-bag for not responding?

does it cost extra for me to receive group texts from people with smart phones?  this is probably a question for my u.s. cellular guy, but maybe you know.  and if i respond to a group text, how do i know it's getting sent to just the original sender or the whole group?

is it okay to send texts that you know have spelling errors but are too lazy to want to correct?

i'm sure i have more questions, considering i'm basically a toddler in the world of texting.  but i feel that this will suffice for now.  and you must respond - you owe me big for not giving me a heads-up about all of this.

the weekly 'what's up.'

this baby is officially the farthest overdue i've ever gone (atticus was five days late).  and i had suspected that because of all the physical activity involved in moving and hauling and unpacking boxes, she would come earlier than the rest.  shows how much i know.

 

 

 

oh, just taking a walk, trying to jumpstart labor, and the paparazzi were out as thick as flies.  i just want to live a normal life!

atticus ended up climbing his first tree over at paul and jenni's.  i was so shocked to see these photos (originally taken on todd's phone) - atticus is not typically the tree-climbing type.  but he got even higher than this!

 

 

the kids and i potted up some garden mums, though i suspect i left them a little too long in the nursery pots beforehand and they're all looking mostly dead at this given moment.  we'll see what happens.

 

 

i was about to say that this week was really not much different from any other (you know, grocery shopping, changing diapers, not going into labor), and then i remembered that it started off with our sixth anniversary, which i failed to blog about. whoops. so expect a belated and mushy post sometime next week.

the anniversary day itself was rather uneventful: while i had joked on facebook about braving the state fair in my hugely pregnant and on-my-due-date condition, we really didn't think it was a great idea to venture that far away from home or the hospital (i've heard of home births and hospital births, but i don't really think 'fair births' are a thing. for human people, at least). so instead, we stayed home and i spent two hours pulling our vacuums apart in an attempt to get them working again. yes, i said TWO vacuums - this wool rug is going to be the death of me. and/or my bissel and/or my shopvac.

on sunday, my friend jenni and i spent some time shopping and rearranging furniture and hanging curtains and eating specialty meats and cheeses in an attempt to get the house feeling more homey. what can i say, i guess i'm nesting. (who am i kidding? i've been 'nesting' since we moved in. i think it's less pregnancy-related than it is related to the fact that i'm tired of living in a cornmaze of moving boxes.)

tuesday was the day i didn't go into labor again.

wednesday, finneas barfed on my new rug.

yesterday i had a chiropractic adjustment and am hoping that, as a result, this kid turns around and sees herself to the door.

which brings us to today: still pregnant, still having serious contractions, still drowning all my sorrows in chocolate chip cookies and pinterest.  so, like i said, not really much different than any other week.

happy friday!

*hey, whisper whisper, i have another contributing post on the candeo prayer blog today.  head on over and check it out!

oops, i did it again.

aah, that song brings memories of the original ke$ha.

anyway.  i thought i was in labor again on monday night.  so guess what i did? i called my mom and sister to come because 'THIS IS IT!'  and come they did.  and then go home the next day they did, after nothing ended up happening (besides me crying and kicking some stuff).

BUT.  i went to see my midwife, who discovered the baby is face-up instead of in the normal face-down position.  not to get too science-talk on you, but apparently her weird positioning is putting uneven pressure on my cervix (yikes.  why can i not even type that without getting the creeps?), which causes my body to start and stop labor.  so there really is a valid, scientific reason for my cluelessness!  which is more reassuring than it should be, really.  i just like to know that i'm not being an idiot for no reason.

so, i have a chiro appointment scheduled for this morning to hopefully get her to flip around.  (i SWEAR by chiropractors for stuff like this. my awesome doctor in ames got penelope out of the breech position - twice - and also did a specific adjustment to send me into labor; she was born within 24 hours, and the only one of my kids to be born before her due date.  take-away point: find an awesome chiropractor and rely on them to fix anything that goes wrong in your life.)

really, though, this is getting ridiculous.  i am worried that i won't be convinced that it's labor when it IS actually labor, and i'll end up waiting too long to go to the hospital, so then i'll have some crazy homebirth and i'll get my pretty new rug all nasty and then have to bite the umbilical cord free by myself.  that will be super gross and sad, and all because my crazy cervix is sending drunk texts to the rest of me. 

but i guess it's like i always say, all i can do is cross my fingers that i won't have to chew through my baby's umbilical cord when that time actually comes.

video vednesday: too much 'unexpected mustache.'

orabrush: because my advice is pointless if your breath smells like dumpster juice.




thanks to michelle and thad for introducing us to rhett and link!

getting to the bottom of important things with paige van voorst, P.I.

a while ago, i posted a confession regarding my not-so-secret love for ke$ha's music.  (actually, in searching for that post in my archives, i realized i write about ke$ha a lot.  i guess that just reiterates my point.)  in response, my friend amanda told me that ke$ha made her own not-so-secret confession that she drank her own urine because someone told her it was good for her.

i have been noodling on this lately, and it makes me wonder: when was the last time ke$ha did something - anything - based solely on the principle that it was good for her?  like, if someone was all, 'ke$ha, maybe you should drink a glass of milk.  it's good for you,' what would she do?  would she drink the milk?  because she doesn't really strike me as a milk-drinker, but maybe she would be if someone would just speak up about the health benefits of it.

and if so, then i wonder if the very reason that ke$ha is how she is (and are who she are) boils down to terrible health education?  like, no one has ever mentioned that she should maybe consume more plant foods and less urine and alcohol per day?  and in that case, how can you not feel bad for her?  she is the victim of a flawed education system.

if she is not the recipient of a very poor health education, she probs just felt like drinking her own urine, health considerations aside.  and if i know ke$ha (and i think i do) i kind of feel like maybe that is actually what was happening.  she just felt like it.  and that's a pretty bold move.

quandary solved?

wurzurp.

on fridays, we go out to eat and frequently get some kind of treat for the kids.  last friday, we took the kids to hardee's, which atticus was SUPER enthusiastic about ('this is a good restaurant! this is a REALLY good restaurant!') then we took them to the local dairy/produce outlet and got them ice cream.  this was their response:

on saturday, we went 'amishing' with some friends, which i'll write a whole post on later.  but i'll just say now that it was awesome.

at an amish farm, where we just kind of made ourselves at home.

sunday, todd mowed the lawn again, which means he dug out his headphones again, which means this happened again:

monday, our air conditioner crapped out (like how i b&w'd this photo for dramatic flair?) so we got to call in the experts and have them fix it.  excellent.

also on monday, i thought i had gone into labor.  i had not.  i came home from the midwives' office super tired and sad, and atticus crawled up on the couch with me, snuggled, hugged me, and kept telling me he loves me.  he was so sweet.

in other preggo news, i hit the big 4-0.  

(if you look closely, you can get a sneak-peek at some of the progress in our entryway.  that bright white trim and that hot mama rug?  they make me want to pass out, if i'm being honest with you.  once i get some color on the walls and a few other projects done in there, i'll show some before-and-afters.)

penelope discovered the bliss that is operating a kitchenaid:

and lastly, the kids got to eat some lollipops that i bought a REALLY long time ago (as in, i-only-had-two-kids-then, long time ago) and hadn't gotten around to giving them yet.  yuck, but whatever.  they liked them.  finn got a dumdum.

and this basically sums up where we ended up after sucker night:

the end.  happy weekend!

in case you missed it, this week's blog posts included one in which i sound like i'm trying to sell you a hooker at the end, and also one in which i 'microsoft paint'ed mark zuckerberg's head onto a female chinese basketball player's body.