She's Here!

Let me introduce you to Mia Camille (Camille), born December 17th at 3:55 p.m.

For those interested in the birth story, read on. For those who are not, she's beautiful and healthy and we're so glad she's here.

So they started me on the pitocin just after 9:30 a.m. Things were progressing pretty slowly for the first several hours. At one point my nurse, Becky (the most phenomenal labor and delivery nurse on the planet!), thought she probably wouldn't see our baby before her shift change at 7:00 p.m.

The anesthesiologist did my epidural around 2:00 and things seemed to pick up after that. Unfortunatly, it only worked on my right side. They had me shift over to my left side in hopes that gravity would help. The anesthesiologist also came in and adjusted the catheter but that didn't help either. So, unfortunately, I can't say that my delivery was pain-free, but that probably wasn't a realistic expectation anyway. The epidural was very helpful, even on one side. I would estimate the pain of childbirth as one tenth what it was with my other deliveries (especially 10 lb Jolie!) so I don't have much to complain about.

About 17 minutes before Camille was born she made a sudden move. My nurse lost her heartbeat and had to move the monitor down on my belly. Just minutes after that, I could feel a lot of pressure and I knew she was almost here. My nurse ran to the hall and yelled for them to page my doctor. He came in dressed in his street clothes and asked if I could wait for him to change into his scrubs. Another benefit of the epidural! There is no way I would have waited for him if I'd not had the epidural. I only had to push through three contractions and she was here! Yea!

Dan and my mom were both in the delivery room througout the day. I think we all agreed that despite all the worry and angst leading up to my delivery, it was the easiest of all four. There were no problems with my heart and I was SO well taken care of at the U, it was unbelievable. My nurse was with me from 9:30 until 5:30 and hardly left my room through the whole thing. With Jolie and Gavin I was literally begging for someone to come in and check me as my labor progressed and I had the feeling that I'd been abandoned.

So here are the stats: 7 lb 12 oz.; 20 1/4" long; a bit of darkish hair and cloudy blue eyes. She is a very pretty baby and so far her favorite past times are eating, sleeping and pooping. I'm not sure whom she looks like, some say Gavin. From the nose down she definitely looks like Dan. All my babies have had Dan's lips and chin when they were born. Ofcourse there's always hope that her looks will change!

Tomorrow's the Day!

Just a quick post before I go to bed and hopefully get some sleep. Tomorrow's the big day. We'll be headed to the hospital in the morning right after we get Tristan and Jolie off to school. I've spent the weekend getting all our ducks in a row: working on school projects, typing up schedules and routines for those who will be here while I'm in the hospital, doing laundry, depositing money in the kids' lunch accounts, paying bills, organizing, picking up he house... and I finally just now packed a few things for the hospital.

I'm both anxious and excited. Truthfully, I'm a lot more anxious than anything right now. There's something about having done this before that makes me that way (i.e. I know what I'm in for...) Plus I have more to worry about this time. I'm being followed as high risk and I'll be wired up like a Christmas tree (EKGs and heart monitors). I'm also going to have an epidural. I should be looking forward to experiencing less pain than the last three times but somehow the epidural really has me scared. I hope that I know when the time is right, that I can get through the procedure without passing out, and that it will offer the sea of tranquility that it's supposed to. Everyone tells me that it's no big deal; I wish I could believe them.

On the bright side, we should have a sweet little baby girl sometime tomorrow afternoon! Can't wait for that!

Rambling thoughts from someone who laid awake all night

I spent the day wrapping gifts and doing the last of my Christmas preparations. My mom, who I'm sure has sensed my stress and anxiety over the last couple of days, offered to take Gavin so that I could get some of this done. I even sloughed off a PTA meeting at Jolie's school in order to make the most of my time (I hope they forgive me).

I've been feeling a bit... overwhelmed... trying to handle the already insane Christmas season as well as getting ready to have a baby on Monday. The toughest part is that daily life occupies at least 90% of my time. How can a person do anything "extra" when their life is consumed with working, entertaining an insecure three year old, cooking, cleaning, answering phone calls, mountains of laundry, hosting three-year-old playgroup, volunteering in the classroom, driving carpool, making playdough figures for 3rd grade diaramas, checking division problems, listening to Jolie read Junie B. Jones, making cookies for the neighbor's funeral, preparing for Friday's den meeting, refereeing sword fights between someone wanting to fight and someone trying to do math homework, and sweeping up spilled cereal?

And yes, next week we add a newborn to the mix...

But at least tonight there's a chance I might actually get some sleep because I know that my Christmas gifts are wrapped and ready to go. We'll worry about the rest next week.

Baby C.

OK, apparently the sarcasm of my last post (baby names) didn't come through to some. It's a joke, people! There's no way I'd give a kid any of those awful names. (No offense to anyone named Jesusa). I just thought I'd lighten things up a bit given that the poor child has to be born within a few days of Christmas.

I have an update about baby C: You may have noticed that 7 days have magically slipped off my countdown. D-day is now December 17th. I saw Dr. E. yesterday and my exam revealed that I've made some progress since my last visit. I wasn't surprised as I spent part of Sunday night/Monday morning wondering if I might soon be on my way to the hospital. I had some pretty hard contractions that woke me up. Dan was already at work and I realized it might be a good idea to have a plan in place just in case I actually go into labor on my own this time. Most intelligent people would already have a plan, but remember that twice I've been induced past my due date. Once you've been down that road you put the other alternative out of your mind (you have to or you'd go crazy).

So the long and the short is this: I'm scheduled for an induction at 7:30 am on December 17th if nothing happens earlier. Dr. E. is willing to wait but I'm terribly concerned that things might happen on their own just in time for me to spend Christmas morning in the hospital. I didn't truly realize what a bummer this would be until last week when we started putting up Christmas decorations. Suddenly I was overcome with sadness at the thought of missing the kids on Christmas morning. Parents spend the whole year toiling away, disciplining their children and saying "no" sixty times a day; Christmas morning is one rare moment when we can sit back and enjoy the fruits of our labors. We get to witness their joy and happiness, thier wonder and excitement, all the while knowing that WE helped make it happen... and who wants to miss that?

Please vote for your favorite baby name!

As you can see by the countdown at the right as well as the photo of my belly which is now resembling a bowling ball, the big day is quickly approaching. It seems there are two big questions on everyone's mind:

1. When is this baby is going to make her appearance?
2. What are we going to name her?

Since I have no control over question number one (much to my chagrin), I thought I would shed some light on question number two. Dan and I have had many discussions about appropriate names for our baby. Here are our favorites:

Holly
Noel
Jesusa (pronounced hey-su-sa)
and my personal favorite, Carolyn... because that's what you do on Christmas, you go a-Carolyn!

Please vote for your favorite in the comment section of this blog. I'll be checking back here daily until I either pop or my doctor finally decides to give me the needle.

Let's Go Bowling!

We celebrated Tristan's birthday on Friday. We've learned over the years that the week of Christmas is no time to celebrate a kid's birthday. I'll never forget the year he turned three and I was so excited to have a party with his friends. Not a single solitary child could come. We ended up going to McDonalds with Grandpa and Grandma and Aunt Lisa.

Due to the season and the nature of 8 year old boys, we decided to have our party somewhere other than my house. I learned that lesson at Tristan's 6 year old Army party in which chaos, mayhem and destruction ensued.

The bowling party was a hit. We had 11 kids, including Gavin and Jolie. The boys were able to be their loud, wild, crazy selves and it was fun. We bowled, ate these cupcakes that I saw in a fancy cookbook at Sur la Table, and opened presents. We gave prizes to the kids who ended up with the highest and lowest scores. Gavin, by the way, bowled two strikes. Thank goodness for gutter guards!

Oh and thank goodness for Grandma, Dan and Aunt Lisa who helped me with the party. I don't think it would have been quite the success without them.

Thanksgiving Pow-Wow

Look how Jolie showed up from school this afternoon. I knew her class was having a Thanksgiving pow wow today, but I had no idea. Her teacher is is the best!

How are your Thanksgiving preparations coming? Do you have your turkey thawing in the sink and your pie pastry in the oven? Me neither! Actually, I told Gavin we were going to make our pastry today but we haven't gotten to it yet. Still working on laundry and trying to figure out what we're having for dinner tonight. Maybe I'll get ambitious later if my back isn't killing me. At least being 35 weeks preggo got me out of hosting this year! Thank goodness for that.

Queen for a Day

Saturday was quite a day for Jolie. We went to have her ears pierced and then she got to go on a $50 shopping spree at Toys R Us. Saturday night she got dressed up and went to see the play Little Shop of Horrors with Grandma. Three indulgences in one day!

Jolie has been earning stickers toward the ear piercing for the past few months by keeping her room clean. I've been at my wit's end with her messy room. I'll spend a good portion of a Saturday helping her get it organized and then within a few weeks it's back to being a disaster. So we came up with a chart and Grandma was in charge of dropping in from time to time to do room checks. Jolie didn't know when they would be so she made a special effort to leave her room in good shape when she left in the morning. The goal, ofcourse, was earning enough stickers on her chart to have her ears pierced. Let's hope the habit has stuck.

Jolie was also fortunate enough to win a $50 Toys R Us giftcard from Coldwell Banker who sponsored a coloring contest at school. She must be the lucky one in our family because we never seem to win anything! This will make two wins for Jolie in the past few months (the other being a pie-eating contest at the fair). Her picture turned out pretty cool. After looking at it I think she won because she added some things to the picture instead of just coloring it (stars and ghosts in the background). Hmmmm... I wonder whom she gets that creativity and artistic talent from????

Jolie loves musicals and was so excited that Grandma invited her to see Little Shop of Horrors. If we were wealthy and she were an only child, she and I would definitely have season tickets to the ballet and theater. It amazes me that she can sit still and pay such close attention at her young age. But then again, maybe that's because I spend so much time with little boys and they're so UNABLE to do those things!

Je deteste daylight savings!

How is it that I feel so exhausted while everyone is saying that we got an extra hour of sleep this week?

Daylight savings is a great concept but it sure BITES for people who have little kids! Mine (all three) have been up at 5:30 the past three mornings. That combined with being in the last trimester of pregnancy, being sick, and trying to recover from our trip and the time change from the east coast has just about put me over the edge. I feel like a walking dead person.

We spent our last day in Orlando at Magic Kingdom. We wanted to see Animal Kingdom but we decided to go back to Magic Kingdom because the kids really wanted to ride a lot of their favorite rides, plus this time of year it stays open 2 hours later than Animal Kingdom. It was a fun way to spend our last day. I couldn't resist Splash Mountain even though it's not advised for people in my "condition" (shhhh...) Jolie was a lot more cautious our last day there and wouldn't go back on it so it was just me and the boys. I was amazed at Gavin, he truly is fearless. It was a lot more violent than I remember and he had no reservations about going back on it. We even sat in the front seat and got completely soaked! Fortunately, Friday was a beautiful day and there was no rain. On our last trip out of the part we were able to ride in the very front of the monorail with the driver (pilot? conductor?) which was a thrill. You have to have special permission so we lucked out.

Saturday morning we got up and started packing. A few of us had been coming down with a cold while we were there and it really hit Tristan and I on Saturday morning. Tristan woke up and said his ear was hurting. Not a good thing for a parent to hear a few hours before getting on a plane. He had some problems on the first flight but I was able to talk a guy in a coffee shop into giving me some hot water and I used a shirt as a warm compress to massage his ear canal before we got on our second flight.

We're still trying to recover from this HORRID cold virus and get our lives back in order. I've done 9 loads of laundry over the past few days and finally got it all folded and put away last night but I noticed that the hamper is half full again. If anyone finds my extra daylight savings hour please let me know, I could REALLY use it.

Thursday

This morning the kids wanted to swim so we headed over to a pool we discovered on yesterday's scavenger hunt. It has waterfalls and water cannons. Tristan met some friends who he played water football with. Florida still has the strangest weather I've ever experienced. It was sunshine... rain... sunshine... rain all morning. The temperature is still plenty warm (mid 80's) so in a way, I'm grateful for the rain. The first day we were here I was really feeling the heat and humidity and I was wondering if I'd made a mistake coming here 8 months pregnant.

This afternoon we went back to MGM to catch a few things we missed and to see the night-time Fantasmic show. We rode Star Tours which I had forgotten I wasn't fond of when we went to Disneyland a few years ago. Gavin wasn't thrilled with it either, he was sitting between Tristan and I and he was asking for Dan the whole time. I kept telling him to close his eyes if it was too scarry and at one point I even put my hand over his eyes to spare him the motion sickness that seems to come with that ride. He pulled my hand away from his face as though the curiosity was too much to resist.

We also saw a fun Jedi training show in which Darth Vader made an appearance. It was especially fun since we brought the first three Star Wars movies on this trip. The kids have been watching them in the morning and a lot of our conversations have revolved around me trying to sort out the whole Star Wars saga.

We also saw a Little Mermaid Show (Jolie loved it but Tristan acted as though we were torturing him to make him sit through it), an Indiana Jones stunt show, we came across Jo Jo and Goliath from Playhouse Disney, and we went to the big Fantasmic Show which was incredible. Gavin was very concerned about whether Malificint would be making an appearance. She must have made quite an impression on him at the Magic Kingdom show the other day!

It was a fun day! Sadly, tomorrow is our last full day here. We're not sure whether we'll go to Animal Kingdom or back to Magic Kingdom for our last day.

Happy Halloween!

What a nice, relaxing day we had today! It was almost like being on vacation.

When Dan and I opened the shades this morning and saw the sun (yes, that's right... the sun!) we decided to take the kids swimming. They've been begging us to take them since the night we arrived and they saw the pool all lit up from 5 stories above. Problem is, we've hardly been here and it's been pretty drizzly. Today turned out to be a beautiful day.

We also decorated trick or treat bags, went on a halloween scavenger hunt in which the kids were able to do some trick or treating in their costumes, and there was a fun halloween party at the pool tonight. We played games and Jolie & Gavin had their faces painted and Tristan had his caricature drawn.

Oh, and we went by the store and bought some Kit Kat bars since there wont be any trick or treat bags to raid after the kids go to bed. Happy Halloween!

MGM

We spent the day at Disney-MGM Studios. The Tower of Terror was the attraction we've all been excited about. Dan took the kids on his own since it's apparently not advisable for an expectant mother to free-fall 5 stories in an elevator. When I met back up with them, Gavin said that he liked it. He's since redacted his statement, saying that he actually didn't like it. I don't think he's decided yet.

Here are some of the other things we did today: we saw a great broadway-type Beauty and the Beast show (Tristan said it was the worst part of the day); we saw all the Disney celebrities in a big parade (you should have seen Gavin's face when the evil queen from Snow White approached him); Jolie got to dance with the performers in the High School Musical 2 show (again, Tristan says it was one of his least favorite parts of the day although I was watching him during the show and he was clearly mesmerized. I even caught him mouthing some of the words to the songs); we got a behind the scenes look at the making of The Lion the Witch and the Wordrobe (one of our favorite books and very favorite movies); and we saw a cool car stunt and special effects show (the fire and explosions were cool but an especially big hit with the boys... of all ages).

Tomorrow we're taking a break from all things Disney. Marriott has some Halloween activities planned and we hope to familiarize ourselves with the resort where we've mostly just been sleeping.

**Sorry for the sideways photos. Dan doesn't have Photoshop on his laptop so I can't edit them right now**

The Happiest Place

We've spent the past two days at the happiest place on Earth. It's been fun and taken a lot out of us. We've covered most of the Magic Kingdom these past two days. Here are the highlights so far:

Tristan's favorites: space mountain and splash mountain (basically anything fast and thrilling).
Jolie's favorites: The ever-popular tea cups (if I remember correctly, her favorite at Disneyland when she was 2 as well) and splash mountain.
Gavin: the monorail, the tram from the parking lot, Aladin's carpet or whatever ride he was on immediately before you asked him.

Gavin has been very adventurous. I was a little concerned about taking him in the Haunted Mansion today, given that he's very succeptable to scarry things. He's up during the night with either a night terror or nightmare about 3 or 4 times a week. He insisted that he wanted to do it though. We'll see what he dreams about tonight. Jolie is definitely on the road to recovery from her pathological fear of amusement park rides. She still doesn't want to go on roller coasters but she'll try most everything else. She even asked if we could go back to space mountain because Tristan has been talking it up so much.

We knew it would rain while we were here and like good Disney guests, we brought our rain ponchos. Yesterday it was very hot and humid and it drizzled for a few minutes here and there. Today was a torrential downpour. Other than the fact that we all looked like drowned rats, the rain didn't slow us down. Dan and I are watching the local news right now and it looks like we'll be having more of the same due to a tropical storm named Noel. Better go air out the ponchos...

A Monkey, A Gypsy and Darth Vader Himself!

Here are some photos from last night's big Halloween carnival hosted by Tristan's school. We were happy to have a chance to dress up in our costumes since we'll be in Orlando for Halloween. I'm already getting flack about not being able to go Trick or Treating. We'll probably take their costumes along on the trip and see what's going on. Dan and I are trying to figure out how spending thousands of dollars and partying for seven days at the happiest place on Earth could still not be enough. Well, at least for one very demanding little person. Anyone want to venture a guess of who that is???

Birthday Get-Away

Dan and I spent Friday night and Saturday in Logan. The weather didn't cooperate but it was fun nonetheless. Dan booked us a beautiful room in a bed & breakfast which was very relaxing. We took our bikes but didn't end up riding them because of the gray, drizzly weather. I got just a few shots of the beautiful fall color when the sun decided to peek through for a few minutes. We took our time coming home and found a little restaurant that a friend recommended. Dan was very sweet to arrange everything, it was a nice birthday gift and a memorable get-away.

I Love Autumn!

Isn't autumn the BEST season? Gavin and I returned from our morning walk a little while ago and the whole time we were out I was thinking about what a beautiful day it is. I hope this season lasts a very long, long time. The trees in the valley are changing, the air is crisp and there's a bit of a breeze but you can still feel the warmth of the sun on your face. A perfect fall day.

The kids and I also decorated the house for fall over the weekend. I'm not one who gets excited about decorating for every holiday and season but this is one that I pull the boxes out for. I like the fact that you can leave fall decorations out from the beginning of October until after Thanksgiving when it's time to deck the halls for Christmas. It seems worth the time and effort to have them up for a while.

I think Dan and I are going to Logan this weekend to celebrate my birthday. We did that a few years ago and it was so much fun. We took our bikes and rode around town, stopping in book stores and other shops, had dinner at the infamous "Bluebird" and stayed in a bed and breakfast. Logan is beautiful in the fall and just a little ahead of us. Since the leaves haven't quite started falling here, I'm hoping to experience one of my favorite sounds of fall: the sound of crackling leaves under foot (or tire).

Feeling Like a Lousy Parent?

Tonight I have a book recommendation for anyone who is feeling like a lousy parent: The Glass Castle. If you've spent any part of your day feeling guilty about any number of parental shortcomings (i.e. "Oh no, I didn't spend 20 minutes reading with my child", or "Darn it, I don't think my toddler ate his 5 servings of fruits and vegetables today") then you should read this book.

Although the author, Jeannette Walls, ends up finding peace and affection for her parents, her memoir left me feeling shocked that children with such a neglectful and dysfunctional upbringing could survive to become fuctioning members of society.

If you like books like A Tree Grows in Brooklyn and Angela's Ashes, or if you have any level of parental guilt, I think you'll like this book.

My Favorite Assassin

Last night Dan and I hired our babysitters (twin sisters) for a rare night out. I've been dying to see the new Bourne movie. We ate dinner at Rumbi (I love that salad with the mangoes and gorgonzola cheese) and hurried over to the show. It was great! I have to say that it was not a good movie to exit for a potty break, though. I'm already famous for having to use the bathroom half way through a movie, but add to that the fact that I'm 6 months pregnant and there's no chance I was going to make it all the way through. I kept waiting for a break in the action and suspense to make my exit but it never came. I ended up *running* out of the theater during a car chase. I didn't seem to miss much of the story line. Thank goodness for car chases!

This is not my usual movie genre (Yahoo: "Action/Adventure, Thriller"). I keep contemplating why it is that I love the Jason Bourne movies. These are my conclusions:

(1) An assassin with a conscience
(2) Who can say no to Matt Damon?
(3) Shot on location all over Europe and it feels like the real thing: the crowded train stations, the sidewalk cafes, the hotel interiors... I guess it's an escape and makes me reminisce of another time.
(4) They resemble my all-time favorite movie (one of them, anyway) "La Femme Nikita". Not the Americanized one, not the made for TV one... the real one with Anne Parillaud that my French sister, Sophie, and I snuck out to see while I was visiting her in France.

The Miracle of Concrete

What excitement! Who knew that concrete guys were such celebreties? Who knew that chosing a career in the concrete arts would make you such a diva? The driver of our cement truck was so honored with the attention that he let the kids have a photo op on his truck and he let the most awe-stricken child of them all (Gavin ofcourse, just look at the shirt he chose to wear) HONK HIS HORN! We won't forget this day for a long, long, time.

My dilemna now is whether to get Tristan and Jolie from their respective schools at noon so they can put their handprints in the partially-set concrete. It really comes down to what type of mom I am today... am I the mom who needs to get 57 things done between now and 3:45 and thus doesn't want to go to the hassle? Or am I the mom who values the experience and the memories and all that? We'll see...

Destruction on a Larger Scale

This morning Gavin and I were surprised by an unexpected visitor who was ringing our doorbell impatiently at 9:00 a.m. It was "Howard", our contractor's burly, tank-top-wearing demo guy. After I changed into something more presentable and answered the door, he announced that he was here to tear out our driveway and he needed me to move our car. Gavin and I delayed our morning walk for a while so that we could observe destruction on a very large scale. What could be more exciting to a 3 year old boy than not one, not two, not three, but FOUR pieces of construction equipment in his very own yard (for the record: a huge bulldozer, a tractor, dump truck and another piece of equipment I can't accuratly identify but we call it a "grader".) We watched Howard for a while and then went on our walk. The whole time we were gone Gavin kept asking if we could go home. Sitting in a stroller and listening to your mother pant breathlessly apparently isn't as exciting as watching a big guy operate a bulldozer.

For the record, our contractor poured our retaining wall yesterday and they're getting ready to pour the basketball court and side-drive. It looks like we'll be parking on the street for a while since the driveway is mostly demo'd. I don't know when they'll get started on tearing out our front steps and grading for the walkway (which is currently the location of our dead lawn.) I'm learning that it doesn't matter how much you hate looking at your dead lawn though, these things happen as your contractor's schedule allows (and when your contractor only works 4 hours a day, it may be a while!)

Signs that the world knows you're pregnant

I think I can say that I'm officially "showing". These are the signs that have led me to believe this...

(1) At church today, a woman referred to me as "you cute thing".
(2) Another couple of people asked me how I was feeling (isn't it ironic that during my 16 weeks of vomitting and feeling like DEATH, nobody asked me that question...)
(3) This week the manager at Albertson's greeted me warmly, thanked me for shopping at his store, and asked if he could help me out with my basket of groceries.
(4) Lots of up-and-down glances from people who know me well enough but not "well enough".

I thought about posting a photo of my belly but that will have to wait for a day when I'm feeling a little less fat. I'm not one of those women who start wearing maternity clothes (ickkk!) 10 minutes after a positive pregnancy test and who take pride in their growing belly. Actually, it's a hard thing to look in the mirror and see myself blowing up like a balloon.