video vednesday: [in a darth vader costume far, far away]

lolo is a puzzle whiz.

So, I know everyone thinks their kid is a genius, but seriously... my kid is a genius.  She got a really neat puzzle set as a gift from Todd's parents recently, and she just up and KILLED it.  I'll prove it:

See?  I told you.  This is clear evidence that she will likely win some kind of brain award someday.

Plus, she's adorable, yes?

rocco's birth, in pictures. but not the graphic stuff, to clarify.

rocco's birth: part two.

read part 1 here.

When we got to the hospital, it was about 8:00 and I was dilated to 5 or 6.  Contractions immediately got stronger and harder to deal with, which is to be expected because laboring in the hospital is the. worst.  

At home, the only real 'job' taking place is birthing a baby.  There is respect.  There is quiet.  There is space to just labor how you need to.  But at a hospital, you have to be upright to get in the door, and upright to change into their gowns.  You have to answer all kinds of admission information and medical history questions in between contractions.  You are strapped into all the monitors.  There are crazy bright lights everywhere, and when you're contracting, there are still a million outside conversations taking place between the staff about whatever it is they talk about.  I hate laboring in the hospital.  In case you didn't catch that.

ANYWAY.  I labored for a while before getting an epidural, and I started getting 'the labor shakes.'  I don't know if that's what they're called, but I got them with Penelope, and they reared their ugly head again this time.  I don't know why, but something about the labor hormones cause like a constant seizure or something.  Unpleasant.  After the epidural kicked in, my midwife broke my water and with the next contraction, I started feeling the urge to push.  

Even with the epidural, I could feel quite a bit of what was happening, and I suspect now it was because he ended up being so big.  It was kind of nice being able to feel my own contractions - with Atticus' epidural, I had to be told when I was contracting and when to push and when to stop pushing, there was absolutely no sensation whatsoever.  But it was also like, oh wow, labor, you know?

While pushing, Rocco's heart rate dropped, and they put me on oxygen, which kind of freaked me out, and with the final push, the tenor of the staff changed.  They were going to have me reach down and feel him as he came out, but instead they started cleaning him off and suctioning him.  He'd passed meconium during labor, which can be really dangerous if it's aspirated into their lungs.  But he started crying right away, which was a really great sign, and once they'd cleaned his face off and his mouth out, they put him on my chest and it was all over.

And with that, our tiny (huge) Rocco made his entrance into the world.

I was blessed to have my sister take photos throughout the evening, so I'll post some of them next week.  In the meantime, take a listen to the hymn we chose to be Rocco's.

video vednesday: you're going to smell great.

just a pep talk for rocco.

rocco's birth story: part one.

Hey there, it's been a while, yes?  Maybe I should catch you up on how everything went down (and came out).

While Rocco ended up being born at 10:38 last Wednesday night, I can't really say for sure how long I was in labor.  I know I had a strong contraction Tuesday night around 11:00, and was woken up occasionally through the night by strong, painful contractions that would then die out.  I had a couple more in the morning, as well as some spotting, and though I mentioned to Todd that 'today might be the day,' it never really turned into anything.  By the time my 8:00 chiropractic appointment rolled around, contractions had totally stopped, so I went in without incident.

At 9:00, I went to my prenatal appointment, had a couple minor contractions in the waiting room, but (again), it ended up being nothing.  I don't ever have them do cervical checks, so without knowing if I was dilating or anything, there wasn't really anything they could tell me.  My midwife asked if I wanted my membranes stripped to try to get labor started, to which I emphatically responded HECK NO (did it once.  never again.  while effective, it was SO PAINFUL.  never again.)   She scheduled me for a nonstress test for the following Saturday, and I went home feeling pretty normal.

However, around lunchtime, stuff started getting real.  My sister texted and asked how I was feeling, and I responded with something like, i...think?...i'm in labor?... I let my mom know to be on high alert for possibly needing to come up later in the day, as I was still hesitant to say for certain it was true labor.  

I get that I could probably have called it sooner, but remember what happened with Laurelai?  I was certain it was labor, and the third time my mom and sister made the 2.5-hour drive up here, I was actually right.  So this time around, I wanted to be absolutely sure before calling for backup.  Even Todd, who had been home the whole day and was scheduled to go in to work at 5:00, asked at 3:30 if I was sure.  

So, finally, around 4:00, I called my mom to come up and watch the kids, and around 4:30, Todd called into work to say he wouldn't be coming in.  In a weird turn of events, we actually had some leftovers sitting in the fridge from the night before, so I got those warming in the oven for the kids' dinner.  They ate, I labored, you know the drill.

My mom got here from Southeast Iowa, and my sister arrived from Des Moines, both a little after 7:00 and not a moment too soon.  While my contractions were coming every 10-15 minutes while I was laying down, they were every 3-5 if I was upright, and getting stronger.  So we waited for another contraction to come and go while I was laying down, so that I could hightail it to the car and get as horizontal as possible before another one hit.  I called the hospital at that point to let them know we were coming, and we were on our way.

video vednesday: #flipphone

she goes inside to seek shelter from the elements, and to find a landline.  blechhhhh.

trick-or-treat, y'all.

As per usual, Halloween happened this year.  As per usual, my mom knocked it out of the park with her mad seamstressing skills, and made costumes for the kids.  Well, she actually just made costumes for the big kids, since I wanted to reuse the Royal Guard and Mr. Peanut costumes from a few years ago for the little ones.

Atticus was a soldier, Penelope was a fairy godmother-slash-fairy princess-slash-tooth fairy, according to her.  Basically, anything in the general category of characters that have wings, a wand, and a tiara.

Sorry for the poor light quality in these photos - we didn't do daytime trick-or-treating downtown like we often have in the past.  We just trekked around the neighborhood for a bit in the evening.  Actually, we went down our block, then up the block the next street over, and ended up with approximately 177 pounds of candy.  And apparently, our neighbors aren't the 'tootsie roll and dumdums' type - it's all the really, really good stuff.  Which is a mixed blessing - I respect our neighbors more, but I'm going to have a much harder time losing the baby weight.

Mom even went the extra mile and special ordered the official patches for Atticus' uniform.

Anyway, Atticus was so into his costume.  Since Saturday night, he has only taken it off it to sleep and go to church.  Penelope has been practicing ascending and descending the stairs in her long, poofy skirt - a life skill worth perfecting when one hopes to be a professional royal.  

I'm not sure why I love this photo of Penelope so much - she looks like she's floating.  What a darling fairy.

Finneas' guard costume was the favorite of the neighbors, and he has been really into wearing the hat around with nothing else but a T-shirt and undies.  He calls himself Undie Boy, and believe you me, Undie Boy is hilarious and downright delightful.  And as always, the peanut costume was my favorite. Laurelai was so. stinkin. cute. in it.  Watching her tiny little legs running that peanut shell around was the highlight of my night, once you exclude all the free Butterfingers.

And that was trick-or-treating!

same old, same old.

Well, folks.  I'm still here, and unless something dramatically changed between 8:30 last night when this post was written and now, I'm still pregnant.  BUT, at least I am pregnant and prepared.  I may not have tons of freezer meals stored up, but I do have a half a pot roast in the freezer that's been seared and thrown in a bag with some carrots and onions.  So that's a step in the right direction.  My hospital bag is packed, my laundry is caught up, the baby clothes are washed, our homeschool term is officially complete.  Now I just need to send the telegram to my uterus that everything is prepped and ready.

UTERUS STOP

GIVE IT UP - MISSION ACCOMPLISHED STOP

SERIOUSLY THOUGH STOP

I guess the only thing holding up this train is the fact that I can't actually send the telegram, as I don't know Morse code.  So I guess I know what I'll be doing with my remaining gestational time.

"What's Up," Weekly-Style.

 Last weekend, Todd's parents came to visit, which was wonderful, and the kids were clearly on board with it:

While they were here, we headed to Kmart, where the sliding door on the van decided to fall off.  I mean, it decided to just, like, fall off.  Which, of course, would have been slightly hilarious when all was said and done, if the other van door hadn't also fallen off previously.  Both sliding doors are now simply jammed into place and completely unusable.  Getting an infant seat in and out of the van will be interesting if not impossible from here on out, so now we get to navigate the joy of solving that problem.  WOOHOO!

Atticus lost another tooth.  He was absolutely accommodating when asked if he would show it off for the camera.

He eventually came around.

Penelope turned five-and-a-half.  WHY DOES THIS KEEP HAPPENING TO ME?!

Atticus developed an immediate and binding interest in termites after an especially titillating episode of Wild Kratts.  Combined with his powerful attachment to building things out of Duplos, this termite mound was the logical love-child.  It came replete with Duplo termites, of course, as seen next to Laurelai's left hand.

Speaking of Laurelai, she won a battle and looked great doing it.  Unfortunately, the battle was waged against one unsuspecting Finneas Van Voorst, who did not appreciate being wonked in the head with a sword, pink and wooden though it may be.

Second-to-Lastly, I am the big 4-0.  I made it, y'all.  And I haven't killed anyone.  Or eaten anyone.  Which are both wins in my pregnancy book.  Now, just to keep my fingers crossed that my stats stay the same as I cross from this side of my due date to the other.  I make no guarantees for your personal safety once I'm officially overdue.

Apparently the kids get their lazy eyes from me.  Comforting.

And lastly, I have written this entire blog post with proper capitalization.  Look at me, I'm nearing thirty and I'm finally growing up.  I guess it had to happen sometime.