Got it!

Jack is sitting up!  & I finally managed to get a decent picture of the little cutie smiling!  He really is such a sweetheart!

Shutterfly

In the last 6 years we have taken over 17,500 pictures.  How do I know this, you ask?  Well, you know how I've been looking for a perfect place to store pictures?  Remember how I spent a few years uploading over 2,000 photos to babyhomepages in hopes that it would serve as our babybook only to find out it was going to cost a pretty little chunk of change?  Well, I'm pretty sure I just solved the problem!

I hope I solved the problem, at least, because I just spent three weeks going through over 17,000 pictures, uploading them to shutterfly!  Ok, I didn't upload 17,000 pictures.  I only uploaded a mere 6,000 of them (that's a guesstimate, my friends.  I am not going to count them to find out).

I really do think this shutterfly thing has something going for it.  For starters, it's free.  It backs up all of our photos and I can automatically link it to a share site.  And, I can order prints or make projects directly from the site.  Viola!  Everything I was looking for in one place!

I will keep this blog for occasional posts about our current goings-on and cute little lukie sayings - things I want to remember and topics that interest me.  But I have long thought that this format was best for words, not pictures.  And, let's face it, I'm really not much of a writer. :)

So, without any further ado, introducing:

Our New Shutterfly Site!

Jack 4 Month Update

We just got back from Jack's 4 month appointment.  He is 17lbs (90th percentile) and 27 inches (95th percentile)!  :)

Jack's Birth Story Part II

My mom and the kids visited for awhile

In the interest of brevity, I will sum up the beginning of my birth story with this: We moved to Florida, insurance was an issue and I couldn't find a midwife that I liked.  Every single midwife I met followed an obstetrics model and wanted to induce me at 41 weeks exactly and NOT A DAY LATER!  Well, guess what folks, I always go a day later... or SEVEN.   So, I said a prayer to St. Gianna, one of my favorite saints, and asked her to intercede for me and help me to find a good, trusted woman to help me deliver this baby.  And you know what?  That very day I found Judith.  Judith is amazing.  Judith was sweet and gentle, she listened and addressed every concern of mine.  She has ten kids of her own, all whom she delivered naturally.  Judith loves God, birth, babies and is a CNM.  Perfect!  Only Judith didn't take my insurance.  And the only person that did was a man I shall call Dr. P.  Dr. P is CRAZY! There is really no other way to describe the man.  He gets a little nervous if he finds himself delivering a baby over 7lbs!!!  No joke!  After my third visit, Dr. P had me convinced that Jack was going to be the size of a toddler and I was going to kill him (and possibly me) if I didn't go in for a C-section at 39 weeks.  We went argued back and forth for a couple weeks and finally reached a comprimise, scheduling an induction at 40 weeks.  It wasn't ideal, but I figured I was going to be induced anyway, so why fight it?

By this point I had definitely settled on an epidural.  I was already so tired of fighting and I think I had given up on feeling like I could do it.  Also, truth be told, as a doula I've always kind of wanted to know what an epidural is like.  We scheduled the birth, my mom bought her ticket and plans were made.  It was also around this time that my blood pressure started creeping.  It's amazing, especially in retrospect, how a calm and trusted caregiver can do so much for a woman, physically and emotionally.  It's also amazing to me, looking back, how the opposite type of caregiver can have such deletirious effects on a woman as well.  After both the birth of Kate and Luke I never struggled with post- partum issues and I think it was in part, because I had such excellent emotional care with my midwife throughout the entire pregnancy.  In start contrast, Jack's pregnancy was filled with much anxiety and uncertainty and it has been the only one where I have struggled with some (mild) post-partum issues... perhaps more on this in another post?

A few days before I was scheduled to go in for an induction, Judith called me said that we could work something out and she would attend Jack's birth.  So, I fired Dr. P on the spot.  My blood pressure actually went down!  Amazing!  Since I was already on the schedule and my mom was in town, we decided to go ahead with the induction at 40 weeks.  I went into the hospital at 7pm, on December 9th, they checked my cervix.  It wasn't quite a 2, so they put me on cervidil over night.  They next morning, they came in to check me and my cervix had not really changed, but we decided to try pit anyway.  After a full day of contractions on pit, nothing had really changed.  Jack was just not ready.  Judith suggested we go home, rest and come back in a week.  Mark and I were exhausted and thought this was a good idea.

Kate was really pretty amazing.  The contractions weren't so rough, but I still had to breath through them.    Each time, she would put her hand on my shoulder,  tell me to relax and stroke my hair.  She's a natural little doula!

Part III (the part where he is actually born) coming soon!

4 Months & A Trip to Alabama!

Jack was four months yesterday.  He's getting so big!  As I type this he is wearing a 12 month outfit.  He rolls and babbles, giggles and reaches for things - he has an amazing grasp too!  Just this week, he started getting a little shy.  He will often grin up at me and hide his head in my chest when I smile back.  SO Sweet!

He was baptized on Easter Vigil.  Ah, the Easter Vigil, how I love thee!  I love how the fire, candles, incense, darkness & light really help us to worship with our entire being.  This ancient symbolism incorporated into the divine liturgy is simply beautiful!  I really recommend the Vigil to all, Catholic and protestant, alike.

This was really special because it is also the day that Hope came into the Church!  And I had the amazing honor of being her sponsor!  Brianna recently wrote that converts give us such hope and remind us that Christ's Church is worth choosing.  With all of the excitement of Baby Jack's baptism and Hope's confirmation and first Eucharist and with the beauty of the Vigil (did I mention I LOVE the Easter Vigil?!), it was hard not to be downright giddy with excitement, even if it all was a bit nuts!  (I'm not sure Chad and Mark had quite the same experience of the Vigil, sitting in the cry room with six children ages 6 and under).  We arrived at Church at 7:30pm and did not get home until after midnight!  It truly was a beautiful night!

Our journey to Alabama was a ton of fun too!  It was so wonderful to see the Kidd family and spend some time with them!  It was just like old times.  Well, without Verano and all the awesome people there.  Boy, do I miss that place!  I think I will forever miss it.  The trip also reaffirmed how much we love road tripping as a family.  Just a few more weeks and we'll be on the road again!

39 Weeks and... Could YOU JUST COME OUT ALREADY???!!! (Part I of Jack's Birth Story)

I found this little gem in my draft box.  I distinctly remember writing it and feeling much better afterwards.  I also remember deciding not to post it because I didn't want to sound like a big complaining baby.  Maybe I was a big complaining baby, but in fairness, it had been a rough pregnancy and a rough year.  I think I was also really scared at this point too. I was genuinely frightened to give birth for the first time ever in my life.  Reading this made me realize that I haven't really shared much about Jack's birth with anyone.  So let's just call this Part I in Jack's Birth Story.  More to come soon.


*******

I am a proponent of natural birthing. No, I don't think it's the only way and yes, I do think there are many times when medicine in birthing is a very, very good thing. I believe that women should have options when it comes to bringing their babies into the world.

My past two births have been fairly good experiences, especially in retrospect. I avoided many unnecessary interventions and an epidural and was able to nurse and bond right away. All things I really, really wanted...

So, how was it that at 11pm last night I was begging Mark to take me in for a cesarean... and I'm pretty sure I was serious.

This pregnancy has been very, very different than the others. It all started with the progesterone injections every other day, not fun, but not the worst. But then of coure, the vomiting began...and continued EVERY DAY until I was about 20 weeks. I lost weight and had many days where I was simply incapacitated. Then, we prepared for a move and moved far away from a midwife I completely trusted and a birthing world that was ideal. I searched for a health provider here and came up short on many accounts. And then, just like magic (of the black kind, I'd have to say), on the first day of my third trimester, I began vomiting daily again.

And then the craziness started. I got the stomach flu at 33 weeks and with it, accompanied many hours of hard, very real contractions. And I remembered how hard labor is. And in the absence of a health provider that I really trusted, I began to grow really frightened of the journey up ahead. The flu went away and so did the contractions and, despite throwing up almost daily, I actually felt pretty good.  Fast forward to 37 weeks and a new friend entered the seen: constipation and with it, hemorroids. And now, here we are at term with an incredibly awful UTI and the stomach flu again! And...I am pretty much giving up. I don't really care how this baby enters the world as long as it is in a safe and healthy way. I'm so sick I can't imagine laboring or pushing this little guy out. I was scheduled to be induced tonight and I called and cancelled. Normally, I would be very happy to put off an induction, but I am not. I am so incredibly sick and uncomfortable I just don't care.

Jack

He does smile.  I promise, he does!  A lot actually.  It's just that every time he's smiling away, I go to take a picture and since our apartment is rather dark, the flash shines an orange light while focusing on him.  This tends to freak him out and he usually ends up looking at me like this (or see St. Paddy picture below):

I will try harder to get some pictures of this little guy"s gummy grin.  Well, actually, he's not so little.  I weighed him today and he is almost 17 pounds!  Yes, he's 3 1/2 months and 17 pounds.  He's recently found two new BFFs, his feet.  Loves to play with his feet.  He must think they are rather tasty, too.  Oh, and he's rolling all over the room.  We were watching family videos and I couldn't believe how much he looks like Kate.

No?

He is one seriously loved little dude!