Coming down

I'm sure this feeling will be familiar to anyone reading this, similar to a race let-down period, I'm hitting a wall. The past month has been completely nuts with Baby Girl's arrival and all the house stuff. I think that I'm a pretty good person to have around in busy and stressful times. I do well with a bit of chaos and can keep my head and organization to the extent that people have often commented they have no idea how I'm doing it- it being whatever needs to be done. Well, she's here, the house inspection is done, and I've got, say, maybe a tad more hormones running around my body than usual, so I can feel a crash coming on. I haven't hit the random crying-for-no-reason post-partum point yet. For me that's been about 5 days after, so by the beginning of next week that's where I'll probably be at. I'm trying to just enjoy the absolute blessings I've got in my life but there's something about my personality that leads me to dwell on small trivialities to keep my brain occupied when there isn't enough external stress. So, I'll cry "because" this is our last baby, because we're leaving this house, even though I can't wait- because this is where Superman was born, because I don't really like pink and we've already gotten about a dozen pink outfits for her. I'll cry because I'm not quite sure what to do with a girl, and I don't think girl toys are nearly as cool as boy toys, but also because I'm a little scared about the whole mom-daughter relationship thing and how I know that there will likely be times when I'll push her away by trying to do what I think is the best thing for her. Or, I'll just cry, no reason.

I think I'll be taking a blogging break for a little while to get myself together again. Right now I don't have a lot of interest in, well, anything. I'll get through it, I've been here before, it's just not the fun part and I'm not sure I'll be up to sharing. Thanks again for all the well-wishes, I'm sure I'll be back soon and I'll be keeping tabs on everyone else until then.

Pictures and info

Thanks for all the congratulatory responses! Just to let you know, we do have a name in-real-life, but I don't have a blog name for her yet, to go with Hot Wheels and Superman. I realize that anyone could probably find out who we are relatively easily, but SuperDad prefers that we not use names, especially for the kids. You never know these days, it's sad but true.

She was 8lbs 4 oz and 20" long. I'm told that's long for a girl, but she still seems so tiny. She's asleep right now, the boys are looking forward to her waking up so they can "help" me give her a sponge bath. They've been so great with her, she may be the most-kissed two-day old ever since Superman kisses her just about every time he walks by her.

Here's a picture of all of us at the hospital, and her close-up. Thanks again for all the well-wishes.

"Race Report"

Well, we're home and Critter has arrived. Or, I guess I should say Critterette. Yes, it's a girl. She's not quite old enough for me to have figured out a suitable name for her, I guess we'll just go with Baby Girl for now.

The whole induction thing was much less invasive than I had expected. The dr. broke my water about 11am and she shot into the world a little after 2pm. You don't need all the details, things were steady from 11am until about 1:15pm. Then at 1:15pm the nurse said we could walk around the maternity ward if we'd like, I was going stir crazy in the room so I said yes. After three laps I was feeling really uncomfortable, we got back to the room and she was on her way. There were about 25 minutes of some intense pain and a little nervousness due to a compressed cord and the fact that they couldn't find her heartbeat. Finally they got the monitoring back and the dr. barely had his gloves and gown on before he reached up and caught her. Don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining about being in labor for only four hours, but that last part was quite overwhelming.

She's doing well, her brothers are thrilled to meet her and they've both shown much more interest and concern for her well-being than I had anticipated. I'm pretty exhausted because we probably got a total of three hours of sleep at the hospital, I don't know who can rest at a hospital- it's impossible. Glad to be home, our family of five.

Thanks for the many well-wishes throughout this pregnancy. I'm looking forward to getting back into shape after the next couple weeks of recovery, another journey I'll be sharing.

The end of the tunnel

Tomorrow's induction day. I was really hoping I'd go into labor before then, and I still could, but at 10 days over I guess tomorrow's the day. I'm a bit nervous about the whole induction thing and I'd rather have it progress naturally, but this is the best option available. The doctors think it shouldn't actually take much to get things going, but then again they didn't think I'd even make it to my due date.

I'll be back Thursday or Friday with the update, depending on when this one arrives I might have to be there more than 24 hours. Thanks for all the well wishes.

Nothing.

Still here waiting. Up to six extra days of maternity leave now, but I'm ready to get things going.

Almost the happiest place on Earth

No, not Disneyworld, my favorite local spot is the used bookstore down the street where all paperbacks are $1 and most hardcovers at $4. The bookstore is a converted residence with a main house, a barn and four other small outbuildings all crammed full of books, the owners live in the residence next door. I now have 11 new books to last me the next few weeks, it's always good to have a book handy for those late night feedings or baby sessions when I'm up, but don't want to noise of the TV to distract the baby. I also stock up on kids books there. My kids have 1 full sized bookcase almost full and four 4-shelf bookcases full of books. I'm so glad that they enjoy reading almost as much as I do, and it's been so much fun rediscovering some favorite books of mine from when I was a kid. They're big into the Berenstain Bears, Franklin, Clifford and some other random story favorites.

I was up again from midnight until about 5am with annoyingly irregular yet stronger, contractions. Then a little after 5am I was able to get back to sleep until Superman woke up at 5:40am or so. Not the most rested feeling today. We went for an hour walk this morning, then I came home and vacuumed the house, cleaned the bathroom and helped SuperDad move more bins of clothing and packed items out to the POD sitting in the driveway. I keep hoping that Critter will get the subliminal, and verbal, eviction notices that have been given, but no luck so far. My sister arrived at my parents a little while ago, she's been planning this trip for months to come and meet her new niece or nephew, now there's no niece or nephew to meet yet. She's here until midday Monday so there's still a chance.

A happy anniversary. This weekend last year was my first triathlon at the Timberman Sprint, and 17 years ago today was my first date with SuperDad. Time just flies.

Pregnancy status: 6 days overdue, hoping for Critter's arrival soon.

One Down

Only seven days on the market and we got an offer on our house! It wasn't quite full price, but it's close enough that for the peace of knowing this whole thing will be done, and the fact that we won't have to worry about showings or open houses with a newborn, it's worth it. I'm just thrilled because now our offer on the new house becomes a done deal, we should close and move mid-October. Enough time for me to recover and be more helpful, and before I have to return to work. I guess that this was all meant to be, I can't believe how lucky we are.

All is quiet on the baby front. My sister will be here tomorrow to meet the baby which will most likely still be in utero. Oh well, we're ready whenever he or she decides to make an entrance. At least I've now got a full extra week of maternity leave- woohoo!

Status

Uterus status: occupied and quiet- except for the occasional random contraction, annoying and useless.
Medical status: if Critter doesn't appear by next Wed, we go to the hospital at 6:45am for the induction process to begin.
House status: waiting for feedback, hopefully an offer
Mood status: tired, low energy, getting anxious
Grandma status: calling quite frequently for updates
Grandpa status: proclaims Critter is a girl because of the "grand entrance" she is commanding
Kids status: bored more often than usual, especially since I'm not as energetic and active as a couple weeks ago
Fitness status: I walked for an hour and a half on Tuesday, almost an hour yesterday, not sure what I'll do today. Really disappointed lately that the pool closed for the summer because I had been planning to swim throughout this maternity leave time.
Weather status: storms should come through later today, I've heard that sometimes barometric pressure changes can trigger labor, I kind of hope so.
Weight status: I've lost 4 pounds over the past two weeks, because Critter's squishing my stomach which makes me feel full more easily, which is nice. Overall weight gain, 30 pounds, two more than I gained with Hot Wheels and Superman.
Overall status: Happy to be home, trying to be patient, knowing that things will happen as they should for whatever reason.

False alarm

This time yesterday we were over at Labor and Delivery and I was being monitored for contractions that were pretty consistently 3-5 minutes apart. Then they checked and I was only 2cm, the same at last Tuesday at the dr. office. So, I walked. I walked for over an hour and a half, I'm pretty sure it was actually a decent pace, which people kept commenting on. The contractions felt stronger, and we had walked enough that my legs were actually tired, I was really hoping it would get things going. Unfortunately, that resulted in nothing, so we were sent home, with my apparently cranky uterus left to randomly contract throughout the rest of the day. I had been up all night because the contractions started at midnight after I had crawled into bed at approximately 11:40pm, so by 8:30pm last night I was completely exhausted. Nothing happened overnight, so here we are again, waiting. It's only three days past my due date and I haven't really been all that anxious to get things going, but after getting to the hospital and really thinking Critter was arriving I'm very disappointed that we're still waiting to meet him or her. I was also very embarrassed that this is my third time around, I should know what I'm doing, and I woke up everyone early for a false alarm. I called my mom at 5:45am for her to come watch the kids, I woke Super Dad at 5:30am to tell him we were going, I just feel silly. Oh well, not that motherhood hasn't made me do plenty of silly things. I'll just try to enjoy these last days at the mother-of-two, it's inevitable that critter will arrive at some point, he or she just has a mind of his or her own, already.

Not Monday...

Unless things move quickly, today will also pass without critter's arrival.

We've got a second showing on our house Wednesday morning at 10am. An offer in less than a week would be amazing!

Until then I'm pretty much waddling along, keeping the kids busy going to friends' houses, they can't make as many messes in the house if we're not here.

We'll see what tomorrow brings.

I also have to mention that lately it feels like I should always be nine months pregnant for all the compliments I've been getting! People have been telling me how great I look and they can't believe that I'm due to have this baby already. It's a nice little boost, especially when I'm feeling especially large and cumbersome.

Yawn

Well, it looks like my due date will come and go without a critter arrival. When I think over the events of the last three days I can't believe the amount of stuff we got done around here while I was this close to being done with pregnancy. We got a call yesterday that our offer on the new house was accepted! It could still fall through if another buyer that doesn't need a contract contingent on sale outbids us, but we're hoping that our full -price offer will hold up. I'm so excited, but still trying to stay in reality because it could all come to an end without the house. Today we had an open house, our realtor told us 7 couples came through and at least one seemed very interested so she's hoping we might get something going soon. I know it's unrealistic to think it will sell in a week or so, but you never know, there were three offers on the house we got a contract on and it was only on the market 8 days. All off the moving, packing, mopping, vacuuming and cleaning over the past couple days has felt like to some major workouts to this body, all leading up to the impending big event. I remarked to Super Dad that I really appreciate all the work he did over the past few days because I was able to help with far less of the heavy stuff than normal, his response was that he'll rest while I'm having a baby.

Now on top of pregnancy related insomnia, we've got home sale/buying insomnia. Last night we're both awake at 3am talking about where we'll put the fish tank, will the piano fit in the new house, what do we need to get done first and how long is the list of projects we'll have? We're pretty sure it's a few years long. But, it will all be worth it.

Looking forward to things moving along, I certainly hope it's some time this week because my sister's coming next weekend to meet him or her. On the other hand, it's all extra maternity leave time from here on out, so a few extra days wouldn't bother me at all.

Pregnancy status: Due date today!

Still here

The past 24 hours have been completely crazy. We put an offer on the new house yesterday afternoon and listed our house. We spent the day running around like nuts trying to get the house ready and we already had a showing this morning. We were told that the people liked the house but they're still trying to decide where they'd like to relocate so they'll be seeing some other properties over the next few days.

Critter's still comfortable, I'd welcome any guesses on delivery time, size, gender, etc. There wouldn't be any real prizes, but the satisfaction of being the best guesser for one person.

Happy weekend, all.

Pregnancy status: 2 days to go.

What time is it?

It would be 3am right now and this is the fourth night out of five that I am awake at this time, and have been for over 3 hours. I thought for sure we were headed to the hospital overnight Sunday, contractions consistently 10 minutes apart for over 3 hours then they mysteriously dwindled to 15 minutes, 20 minutes and finally random, lasting throughout most of the day. At my dr appt on Tuesday the dr said he figured it would be any day (didn't need to be a rocket scientist for that pronunciation- third pregnancy within a week of due date, duh), tonight I was up at midnight again with contractions, but they've not gotten closer than 15 minutes or so. Just frequent enough that I won't be sleeping, again. This is just getting tiring.

To add some more excitement to life, we're planning to put an offer in on a house tomorrow and list our house for sale. What could be more reasonable three days before expecting a baby but to try to sell the house? At least the arrival of babies in our house has always been accompanied by drama. When Hot Wheels was 4 weeks old we were both laid off and 2 weeks before Superman was born we found out Super Dad had diabetes. The new house is definitely dated, original 1960 kitchen, bath, carpet, etc. but it's been kept in great condition. The yard, though, is killer! It's got over an acre and a half and as the kids get bigger it's going to be an awesome place to play. Wish us luck, please, this might add some chaos to life but it would all be worth it if it works out. I'll finally have a garage to park my bike!

That's about all from here. It's been a quieter week this week, I don't have the energy or desire to be on the go as much. It's not always easy keeping the boys occupied at home, but they're surviving just fine. Luckily we've got nice neighbors with a pool that we've been invited to swim in a couple times. Makes the heat and humidity more bearable.

Weren't we bored?

Today the boys are over playing with grandma and grandpa for the day. I dropped them off after church this morning, around noon, and grandma said they'll drop them off here after dinner. We spent some time cleaning out what has been, for the last 8 months, the receptacle room for every item we didn't want at the time and didn't know exactly where to put. Now, it's ready to be the baby's room. The crib is put together, the changing table is set up- the only item I bought new for Critter was a changing table pad because after the two boys the vinyl cover was cracked and scratchy, even through the terry cloth covers. After Critter arrives, I will also buy one gender appropriate bedding set, Hot Wheels got a generic, but cute, set at my shower, Superman had a cute sports set and I think that this one deserves to have at least something for his or her very own. Since Critter will be in the bassinet in our room for at least a few weeks, I'll get around to buying one not too long after his or her arrival, right now it's got just a generic sheet, but at least if people come over to visit we can show them a space that feels like it's just for Critter.

That actually didn't take too long to get finished, so Super Dad and I found ourselves with a whole afternoon on our hands. We went out for a nice lunch and then came back home, after driving by a local house for sale we're going to try to make an appointment to look at. (Because really, what could be more fun right now than adding trying to sell our house to what's going on, but if it's a good deal it might be worth it) Now he's playing a video game, I'm hanging on the couch, a little sad that it's a completely gorgeous day to be outside, but my back can't handle much walking these days. I was reading a book in the hammock chair for a while, but even that got uncomfortable. We were talking about how we used to think our life was busy before we had the kids and now we just have no idea what to do with free time when we get some. Not that I'm saying people without kids aren't busy, I think you fill your life with whatever you've got going, it's just weird to have this down time that never seems to exist during daylight hours with a 4- and 2-year old around. I miss them.

Yesterday afternoon we went to a friend's house for an annual pig roast party- they really do get a whole roasted pig- but I haven't ever tried it. They had a pool put in last summer and it's about the nicest home pool I have every seen. Hot Wheels spent 3 solid hours going from the slide to the diving board, until we dragged him out to eat and drink something. Superman was in about two and a half hours and he's decided that he loves to float on his back. I'm amazed at how comfortable he is being reclined backwards, even to the point where both ears are submerged, as long as he's got his flotation suit, Hot Wheels gets way to nervous to lean his head all the way back like that. From what I've seen, many kids do. Here's a picture of the boys in their flotation suits at the beach, they're Spiderman and Superman. They always get a ton of compliments when they wear them, I think it's been a nice little self-esteem boost to not only be comfortable in the water but to get some cute attention for it.


Plans for this week are pretty open, we're planning to get together with friends tomorrow, I go back to the dr. on Tuesday and then I've got lunch plans on Wed. Super Dad's going to take the boys to play with their cousins that day, too, so I'll even have some time to myself in the house. In the almost four years we've been here, I've only been alone in the house once, back in April when I was really sick and he took the kids to play with their cousins one afternoon and stayed until almost bedtime. It's kind of creepy in the house when it's quiet, but nice at the same time. I think I'll just curl up with a book and chill. Other than that, I guess we're just sort of at the daily waiting game. Grandma's a bit anxious, keeps checking in with me to see how I'm feeling. I've tried to reassure her that it won't be any secret when this baby's arriving because she's the one coming over to watch the boys when we go to the hospital! Superman is especially excited about this one arriving, he asks daily whether the baby's going to come live with us today and he tells me all about the baby in his belly that's going to come and live with us, too. I think that's been the coolest part about being pregnant this time around is that the kids really get it. So, I may or may not be around much, I'll check in and update whenever there's anything to tell.

Pregnancy status: 7 days to go, or whenever Critter's done cooking.

Ten...

Minutes until I get my stuff packed up to volunteer at our work sponsored triathlon this afternoon.

Months until the event I anticipate will be my first sprint triathlon of the 2008 season.

Days until I become a new mommy again, for the third (and last) time.


The triathlon this afternoon was supposed to be my first ever triathlon last summer but was then rescheduled due to the extreme heat index and violent storm lines rolling through. It turned out to be my second triathlon ever and it's a fun little one that I think will be an annual event of mine for as long as I remain employed at my current company (many years, I hope) and as long as the fitness center company runs the event. There are approximately 55 individuals and 10 teams that will hit the water at 5:45pm and 5:55pm, respectively, this afternoon. It's a fun little event, although the six-lap bike course it a bit tedious. They cite manpower, or lack thereof, as the reason they can't have a longer out and back course and the six loop course is actually convenient for spectators. I'll be sitting in a lawn chair directing cars to not drive onto the course while bikers are on the course. After the race there's a little dinner with the awards and I'll see a few people from work that I like, so it will be a fun afternoon of volunteering and feeling a little like a person that's somehow involved with sports at a time when I get out of breath walking to the mail box.

This morning we went to a local aquarium with grandma and grandpa and then we all had lunch together. It was a lot of fun, but after walking around for 2+ hours my back was quite tired and I was ready to sit. Probably the last family picture we'll have of just 4 of us, so I'll share.