2 week pics...

3 kiddos

My feet

Nick's ears

My nose

stretch!

A good friend, Heather, offered to take pics of my sweet girl.

from my sister marlies...

So ....this is how I remember it...
It was bedtime for the kids.  Mom had been busy all day and asked if she could put them to bed.  She had put Matthew on her bed to wait while she went into her office to put Claire down.  She asked me to go check on him and said " he is watching the game". I walked in and he was glued to the tv.  I tried to talk to him, but got no response until I asked him what he was watching....he looked at me and responded with a shrug and a matter of fact comment...the game:).  I thought this was so funny but never believed he was really watching "The Game" until I left and came back a few minutes later. He was still sitting in the exact same spot watching.  I could see him get excited as one particular team made baskets and dribble the ball.  That little two year old was really watching that game.... Funniest part.  I think he believes he was voting for the aggies because their uniform was red.  So darling!!!!,!

I remembered another one of the stories....
First morning he was with me I gave him his bath and as I was putting his shirt on, I realized I had accidentally gotten out one of Claire's shirts instead off his.  Because I had three other kids in the bath tub I put it on him with the thoughts that I would switch it later.   I quickly learned I had just put an Aggie shirt on their biggest fan!!!!
For the next thirty minutes he ran around the house pointing at his shirt yelling "Go Aggies"and throwing his fists in the air.
I didn't think much of it until after I tried to change his shirt.  As I was pulling it over his head, he looked up at me with those sweet baby blues...grabbed his shirt, and  in a whisper said, "Go Aggies".......To say the least, he wore it the rest of the day....who could say no to a fan like that?????

zoey's birth story...

My 3rd little "grey alien", isn't she sweet?
term from my brother, Ben

 I had been having contractions for...well...MONTHS! We almost went in on several occasions. But I was determined that I would wait out the pain for my water to break. I wanted to have a natural birth. Nick STILL laughs at me, but I had been doing research and a ton of literature stated that if you have a 'gentle' birth, or natural birth, the child had less colic, reflux, general upset, etc. OHMIGOODNESS was Claire a hard baby. That could have had a LOT to do with being a first time mom, but she also had a traumatic entrance into life, so who knows? I had wanted to try natural with each of my kids, but Nick is not so supportive of people who go through pain when there is no reason. I gave into it with Claire at 8 cm, still labored for another 4 hours to make it to a ten and then PUSHED for 4 hours. Having a cord wrapped around your little one's neck certainly slows down the process. I'm sure the meconium didn't help, either. Looking back, I don't mind that I gave in with her. Matthew was a BREEZE! I made it to a 9 and couldn't bare the thought of another 3 hours of labor with a few more hours of pushing. So, I gave in. 5 minutes and 3 pushes after I received the epidural, the kid was out. Seriously. And he was the EASIEST BABY! Despite his lung/tracheal problems. People tell you the second birth is easier. Obviously I wasn't listening. So...I was determined to try a 'gentle' birth.

I prepare you now. I don't get overly graphic, but I am going to be honest and tell you more than I have with other births. So, if you are not interested in reading further, then don't. I'm not offended. I honestly record it for posterity and don't expect people other than my children to really ask a lot of questions. And only so they can know what to expect.

I picked hypnobirthing. I picked it because I read my friend, Marissa M. did it with hypnobirthing and for no other reason. I checked the book out from the library and read it. Practiced the exercises and died of cheese overload in the process! Who dreams of themselves in purple mist?!? Let alone the other colors of the rainbow!?! I did settle on liking the 54321 and the aaa....bbb...ccc...exercises just fine. Breathing was just like the stuff I teach voice students, so no biggy. I did the squat, pressure point stuff, and looked up yoga for pregnancy and labor online. I was ready.

I prepared for labor: Walking up to 12 miles a day, spicy food, pressure points, stripping membranes (4 times!), shoveling snow, etc. Finally, when I was about ready to die, the contractions came for real and STAYED! I was so nervous they would go away that I didn't tell anyone about starting real labor except for my friend, Heather, who watched the kiddos for the first part. We went grocery shopping, we picked up a dresser for the kiddos room (ding and dent sale! Hooray. Rosi's WELCOME BABY present. Thanks, Momma), and finally we dropped the kiddos off and headed in.

Last pic of just the three of us!!

Treanna (said Trina) was my CNA and when she asked me how I was planing on doing this birth, I told her hypno style and she mentioned she was a trained Doula. Well, cool! She actually put a bit of pressure on Nick and said she'd show him what to do. I was thrilled. Reading about hypno and the Bradly method, and other choices, Dad's are supposed to be super involved. I didn't think for 1 minute that I could convince Nick to help me with this. Pain? "Come on, Deb. God made pain medication for a reason. Use it".

So, first check: 5 cm
AH!!! I hadn't waited long enough to come in! Darn it! I was so scared the contractions would go away, I wasn't willing to see if my water would break. I wanted to know how far along I was and wanted to know NOW! So, we went in.

Got in the Jacuzzi. Blessed waters. Thank you. LOTS of hypno stuff there.

Next check: 6+ cm

Nick helped me walk around, Treanna told me to keep my jaw loose and say "ah" a lot. Felt ridiculous  but it helped. Nick put pressure on my lower back and I swayed. Again, felt ridiculous.

Next check: 8 cm

CALL THE DOCTOR! He's breaking this water NOW!

Doc check: 8+ cm

Doc breaks water and 3 almost unbearable contractions later, I was able to push. I expected to have to be checked before I pushed, but Treanna kept telling me it was okay to push if I felt it was time. Oh my word. It was time! 3 pushes later, she was out. Can I describe the feeling? Not romantically, so I won't. It was bad. I was shaking so hard I was scared to hold her. I was light headed and the pain, while had significantly reduced hadn't completely vanished. Wow. That was a doosey.

Couldn't have done it without Nick and Treanna. Seriously. All the nurses I've ever talked to about doing it naturally all tell me that EVERYONE always asks for pain relief and 90% of the women who make it with no meds is because they are too far along to get one. Well, I didn't ask ONCE for pain relief. instead, being the idiot I am, I asked for the doc to break the water! AH! I now know the difference between laboring with my waters intact and without. I was right to not want to come in until my water broke, but MAN! I think we would have had the kid on the kitchen floor had we waited that long!

First pic with parents

 She is a KEEPER! She snuggles, phew! She looks a TON like Matthew did when he was born. She has stork bites on the back of her neck. She is a good nurser!!! Phew! So far, no mastitis. With Claire, I had it 4 times, Matthew I had it 3 times. I'm more than relieved. She has been known to sleep 6 hours...scaring me @#^*@*(@!)-less when I wake up to hear nothing from her. She is LOUDER than both my other kiddos combined at this age. She had jaundice and had to be on bililights for a few days, but nothing horrible. I'm so grateful for this monster.

First bath---this is how we knew she liked to snuggle. She kept nudging
her head into the nurses hand as she cleaned her head off.

Matthew and Claire weren't allowed in the hospital at all, so this
was the first time they saw her, at 3 days old.

1st brother kiss

The pic of Claire's first time holding her isn't cute at all. So I need to find a substitute. 

plugs...

To prevent this...
(Zoey)

or this...

or this...

or this...
(claire)

add this...

and bliss!

kisses

Han Rolo...

So, I had the baby. My sister (Marlies) came up from Vegas and watched my kiddos the next two days. She had quite the experience. She mentioned to me a few stories:

a few about Claire:

1. Claire received some bows from Aunt Marlies. She kept picking the pink bow...and putting it back. Marlies told her finally, "you can have the pink bow, Claire." and she replied, "My mom doesn't like me to have pink." I'm not even going to explain this one. If you don't already know, then it's not funny.

2. Claire loves pickles. As kiddos, Nick and his siblings would spend an hour eating a pickle. A single pickle. Wrapped in a napkin. I'm all for pickles, but I prefer them cold and crisp instead of warm and rubbery. Claire has picked up the trait. Any time Marlies would ask Claire what she wanted for a snack, she'd regularly reply with "a pickle".

Matthew:


1. Cousin Gali kept getting hit in the head because Matthew kept throwing the ball at it. Finally, Gali had enough and ran downstairs to her daddy for comfort (and probably protection). Matthew stood at the top of the stairs and yelled, "Hey you down there! I sowwy!"


2. We call Matthew, Bruiser. He lives up to his name. He often has a bruise somewhere. This week he received one on his eye, just below his eyebrow. We still aren't sure where he got it. This would make his 6th black eye.

3. Marlies is obsessed with Han Solo. Always has been, always will be. So, Marlies was wearing a Star Wars shirt. Matthew runs up to her, sits on her lap, pulls her shirt so the picture is clearly visible and says, "Can I have dat?"

4. Marlies gave Matthew some action figures from Star Wars. While presenting them to him, Marlies told him to always kiss Han. She also gave him a light saber and showed him how to fight. Today, we were cleaning some toys up and he spied his light saber. He picked it up and looked around...spotted a worthy target in Yoda...went into attack mode, rumbling "fight!!!" (literally ran over to Yoda, who was sitting peacefully on the ground, and started whacking Yoda with his light saber)...Shortly after the epic dual was won and Matthew victorious, he wanders over to find Han and give him a kiss. "I lobe it."

She's here!!

Well...in the natural verses epidural game, I am not sure which one wins. I was so out of it with this one (natural) that I couldn't even hold her. I was shaking so hard, I was worried I was going to drop her. It was cool to know that I could do it, though. If your interested in her birth story, you'll have to wait. I don't have those pictures right now, so I'll do that post later.

This one is to announce her name. Nick and I had a really hard time agreeing on this one. I do LOVE the name he picked, but I liked mine just as much and mine had additional meaning because it's my mother's name. Being that she's the most influential woman in my life, that tops the list of other names for me. Plus, I think she totally looks like it. So Nick suggested, "We'll name her Zoey Rosemary. I'll call her Zoey and you can call her Rosi." I call her both. But feel free to choose for yourself. And she can choose which one she likes better when she is old enough to do so.

This one makes me laugh my head off...see if
you can guess why