Mama Dani's Musings

Saturday, January 14, 2012

Week in Review- Week 2

This past week was pretty much week one of getting back in the swing of things. With the help of my mom, I started back up with my daycare. One of my daycare kids won't be back until the end of the month so daycare was only part time this week. Friday, mom and I took the kids to the Children's Museum. Sean and Maddy had a blast and after two weeks of getting use to having a new baby in the house, I think they really needed the outing.

Here's a few pictures from this week:

The crazy big kids:

Sleepy baby:

My favorite way to carry a newborn: the Moby Wrap!

The kids and I at the Children's Museum:

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Monday, January 9, 2012

Kids Say: 2011

I love looking back on my "Kid Say" posts but I realized I didn't make nearly enough of them last year. Before starting this year's, I thought I'd go back and remember some of what Sean and Maddy said last year. Thankfully, I posted a lot on Facebook. Here are some of my statuses through out 2011:

Jan. 4th
Maddy refuses to try to say the new daycare child's name. Instead, she calls her "friend". ♥

Feb 10th
Today Sean tells me "My grandparents know everything."

Feb. 17th
Sean told Maddy that he was going to fix her doll stroller and "it be new, no time!" lol

Feb. 22nd
Sean says "Bracky" is president, he lives in the White House and works in the Oval. ♥

March 1st
Maddy just growled at me "I love you" ♥

April 6th
Sean: "T-rex have giant feet! But they can't stomp on people!!"

April 26th
Sean- "I don't like hearts. I like circles, even squares and even rectangles but I don't like hearts."

April 28th
I told Maddy that there's a baby in my belly and she says "little baby! Open it!!!" LOL

May 3rd
Sean- "Mama! A bird at the bird feeder!! I love animals...but we can't eat fish." Why not? "There's a big fish on the house!" ??????

May 16th
I'm talking to hubby and Maddy gets between us "No mama, I nursey you!" lol

May 21st
The puppies are being loud so Sean says "Maybe we should put them back in Keme's belly. They weren't loud in there!"

May 31st
Sean do you have a girlfriend? "no. I only have 1 money. I can't paid em. I have a crane truck!"

June 23rd
Sean falls. Maddy-"You ok!?" Sean-"Yea" Maddy-"Hurray! He ok!!" ♥

July 1st
I'm laughing at Sean right now. He's talking to Annabelle (dog), trying to convince her to snort. lol

Aug. 8th
I love Maddy's made up words. Most recently we've heard "fudderfly" and "yummy-licious".

Aug. 20th
I just told Sean that he was smart and he said "And sweet too!!"

Aug. 23rd
Maddy's sitting with dad talking about Barney. Dad says "does he sing - I love you, you love me, let's get together and climb a tree?" Maddy said "no. Let's try again" LOL

Aug. 26th
Sean saw the radar picture of Irene on the TV so I was telling him and Maddy about the storm and Maddy tells me "We need a rocket ship!"

Sept. 8th
Sean just told me "Mama, I think I want a baby brother." I told him "We'll have to wait and see. It may be a baby sister." To which he said "I think I already have one." lol :)

Sept. 17th
Maddy didn't make it the whole class today and boy does she know how to tug at my heart strings. She came out crying and saying "I dance. I cry. I want you." :(

Sept. 19th
When Maddy sneezes she tells me her nose needs to be blessed. ♥

Sept. 24th
Mommyhood at it's finest: Maddy crawls in my lap "I love you! You make me so happy!!" ♥

Oct. 14th
Sean is doing circles in the livingroom and tells me "mama..I'm not going to fall and bonk my head again this time. I'm going slow and am being carefull."

Nov. 4th
Sean- "The big walking hot dog made the mess in the kitchen." ???

Nov. 11th
My 4 year old wants to spend his birthday money at the "workshop" (Lowes).

Nov. 18th
I love when the kids randomly come to hug/kiss my belly and talk to Jellybean. I also love how Jellybean actually responds to them. ♥

Nov. 21st
Tonight Maddy told my belly "I love you baby brother and sister!" She seems to think I have 2 babies in there..not to mention the one she thinks is in her belly. Someone's going to be disappointed...

Nov. 26th
We finished getting the tree up today. The rest of the decorations are going up tomorrow. Sean says the tree's up so tomorrow can be Christmas Eve. lol

Dec. 3rd
Maddy heard that I'm going to the chiropractor this morning. Now she's trying to say she needs to go b/c her back hurts. lol

Dec. 19th
Sean is so sweet. The kids are going to give each other gifts this year. I thought it would be nice if they made the gifts and suggested a bracelet for Sean to make. He said yes but he also wants to make a necklace and a jewelry box to put them in. :)

Sunday, January 8, 2012

Emily's Birth Story

Emily’s birth did not go exactly like I had imagined it. Sean’s birth was after a typical first time labor- about 15 hours long. Maddy’s birth was after a 4 hour labor. So I had expected that this one could possibly be another fast labor but not quite like this! I especially wouldn’t have thought that I’d give birth before my midwife (Bettie) arrived. But let me start from the beginning...

On the morning of December 29, 2011 I woke up and started getting ready for the day like any other Thursday. I noted that I was feeling crampy. I also noticed a little bloody show when I went to the bathroom. I remembered I had bloody show when I was pregnant with Sean but it was a whole day before I went into labor. Since I wasn’t having contractions I didn’t think too much about it. Right about 8:00 I had my first contraction. I had another about 8 minutes later. These were painful but they didn’t stop me, much like the contractions I had the Monday before. I was not convinced I was in labor yet but the combination of bloody show and contractions got me wondering so I sent my doula (Heather) a text: “Preggo brain is at it again...how significant is bloody show?” I heard back from Heather around 9:00. I told her that my contractions were then 8-17 minutes apart. She suggested that she come over to see if helping with the kids would help me relax enough to make progress then we’d know if I really was in labor or not. ..I should have called my midwife then too but it didn’t cross my mind as I still wasn‘t convinced I really was in labor.

Contractions continued and I decided it would be best if my daycare kids (twin 13 month olds) went home. They were picked up shortly before 11:00. Heather arrived shortly afterwards. That was when things seemed to start progressing so around 11:30 I called Bettie. She didn’t answer so I decided to send a text instead of leaving a voicemail. In hind sight, I should have left a message and called back until I got her. I then sent Richard a text saying for him to come home at lunch and called my mom to ask her to come home so I could send the kids to her house. Richard got home shortly after 12:00 and immediately walked the kids to mom’s. My back was really bothering me so I decided to get in the shower and since I hadn’t heard from Bettie, I asked Heather to call her. The shower didn’t help as much as I hoped so I got out. Since Richard had just gotten home from work (ship yard) he took a shower. Heather said that she got ahold of Bettie and that she was coming. I think some miscommunication happened here. Bettie didn’t seem to realize I was so far along so she didn't leave right away.

The contractions got stronger and more intense after the shower. I also started feeling a little nauseous during the contractions. I moved from the living room to the bedroom because I thought laying down would feel better. It felt worse. At that point I yelled “I want this baby out now!!”. I couldn’t take any more contractions laying down so I changed positions to knelling and leaning over Richard. What a difference it made!! It was pretty awesome. I was able to calm down a little and work with the contractions. Then Heather asked if I was pushing. I hadn’t been meaning to but yes, I was pushing. Heather told me that it was time to take my pants off. Funny how you just don’t think of things like that. It was a good thing I got them off too because my water broke right after that. I had no sense of time but between what hubby and my doula say, I pushed for 5-10 minutes. Emily Noelle was born at 1:18pm…while my midwife was still on the road to us. What an awesome feeling it was to look down and announce “It’s a girl!”

By the time Bettie got to us, I had delivered the placenta and Emily was nursing away. Emily being such a good nurser (latched right on and nursed for a very long time) really paid off. I had retained a little of the placenta but Emily’s nursing kept the contractions coming and the bleeding down. I was given an herb (can’t remember what it’s called) and my midwife pushed on my belly until the rest of the placenta came out. I had a small tear so she then stitched that up. After Bettie was done taking care of me, Richard cut the cord and Bettie did the newborn exam. I could not believe it when Bettie said that Emily was 7lbs!

Emily’s birth was nothing like I imagined it would be but it was just amazing. If I was to go back and do it again, the only thing I’d change would be to make sure Bettie got there on time. It was just an amazingly fast labor.

Now for the pictures:

Just moments old

Kisses...oh the newborn smell!!

Getting checked out

And weighed

Photo opt- baby feet... and midwife Bettie and her assistant Debbie

Close up of those little feet!

First bath..she did not like it!!

Back with mommy

Then some time with daddy

Time for big brother and big sister to meet little sister

Maddy gets to hold her

Sean's turn

My other birth stories:Sean's Birth StoryEmily's Birth Story

Saturday, January 7, 2012

Week in Review- Week 1

This was our first full week as a family of 5. We had pediatrician appointments, chiropractor appointments, a midwife appointment, and a newborn photoshoot. Emily saw the pediatrician on Monday and then again on Friday. By Monday (4 days old), she was already 2.oz above her birth weight. She gained another 1.5oz by Friday making her 7lbs 4oz. Maddy and I went to see the chiropractor and found out that Emily could get a free visit. So Emily got her first adjustment. Emily didn't like the midwife appointment because that's when she got her heel pricked for the PKU test.

Here are a couple of moments I captured this week:

Sean woke up from nap and fell back asleep on Richard...who then fell asleep. Then the dog joined them. Maddy then woke up from nap and fell back asleep on Richard and the cat joined them. Emily was nursing through all this and fell asleep in my lap.

Emily's cord fell off this week so she's now in cloth diapers.

Thursday, January 5, 2012

2012 Blog Plans

I've made my list of 2012 resolutions but thought I'd also sit down and think about what I want to do with this blog in 2012. I still plan on blogging often but for the most part I will be getting away from a blog schedule. Also, I originally started blogging to just blog about our life, the kids milestones, etc. I have gotten away from that and want to get back. So, you'll start seeing more random posting...some of my favorites were the kids say posts.

Here are my plans for last year's regular posts:

Project 52: I did pretty good with this last year. I really enjoyed looking back at all the pictures when I put together the year review slide show so I'm definitely continuing this this year. The difference will be that I'm going to move it to the weekend and expanding it into a week in review.

School Days: We haven't really been doing weekly themes so trying to do a homeschooling post every Saturday doesn't make much sense. School Days posts will no longer be on a specific day or even every week for that matter. When I blog, I may blog about a whole unit or just a project that we did...some units/themes are more interesting than others.

Recipes: I recently moved this to facebook. Recipe posts typically are only a link to a recipe and a couple pictures anyways so now they can be found in this facebook album. Older recipes can still be found under the "recipes" tab at the top of this page. I need to get back in the habit of trying new recipes too. Especially since hubby and I got some new kitchen gadgets for Christmas that we need to try out!!

Kids Meals: The lunches I was making for the kids started not getting the excited reaction they once were so I stopped doing them. I will start these up again but it won't be a weekly thing so that hopefully they'll become an exciting thing again.

Sunday, January 1, 2012

Good bye 2011, Hello 2012

At the beginning of a new year I like to take a look back at the previous year. Here's a look back on 2011:

We celebrated Maddy's 2nd birthday.
We found out we were expecting #3!
Keme had puppies.
We evacuated because of hurricane Irene.
Maddy tried out dance class but ultimately decided not this year.
Sean had his first (and hopefully only) trip to the ER.
Richard and I celebrated our 5th wedding anniversary.
We celebrated Sean's 4th birthday.
We may finally have answers on Sean's small size.
I had ups and downs with the daycare business but am ending the year on a good note.
Last but definitely not least, we welcomed little miss Emily Noelle into our family on December 29, 2011....birth story to come.

I also attempted Project 52. I did pretty good right up until the end (only missed 2 weeks).
Here's most of 2011 in pictures:

I'm really looking forward to 2012. Here's what I would like to accomplish:

Work on living on a budget better.
Build our savings.
More quality time with Richard.
More quality time as a family.
Cloth diaper Emily...no falling back onto disposables like we did with Sean and Maddy.

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