Lucy's Birth

Lucy was born on Monday August 24th at 5:51pm.

Many have commented to me that they wanted to know how everything went, others I'm sure don't want all the gory details, so go ahead, feel free and turn away now.

We arrived at the hospital at 7:15am, my induction was scheduled for 7:30 but I was eager to get there. They immediately got me to my room and all set up. She checked me and my cervix was at 2cm. About 8:30 they started my pitocin drip. We sat there and just waited for the contractions to begin.

We told my nurse that I usually go fast (Myah - my first - was a 8 hour labor, Brett was 5 hours and Evie was 7) but all came within thirty minutes to an hour of my water breaking, so once I go I REALLY go. So about thirty minutes later the delivery team came in and set everything up early just so we were ready to go.

Mom and Ashley arrived at the hospital sometime that morning. The next time the nurse Amy (she was AWESOME by the way) checked me I was at a good 3-4cm. This was around 11:00am. She asked me about the epidural and I went ahead and said yes. The pain was not unbearable, but considering I went from 4cm to 10 with Evie in a matter of about 45 minutes, I didn't want to gamble going through pushing without an epidural.

They came in and gave me my epidural, then doc came in and broke my water. This was around noon.

We waited.

And waited...

And waited....

2pm I was STILL at 4cm, and contractions were all over the place. Nurse Amy helped me get things going by switching the position I was sitting in. We all start to take bets on the time she will be born and the weight of the baby. The nurse even gets her bet in.

About and hour later I was between 5-6cm. This lasted for a while. They upped the pitocin. During this time Aaron arrives at the hospital and we discuss them going to meet the kids at the house when they get off the bus. My cousin Treasure has Evie, so we don't need to worry about her for a while. A&A leave to go get the kids. The school calls Brett had missed the bus. So now we call A&A and have them go to the school and pick up Brett.

Myah calls a few minutes later from home (she has a house key) in a frantic panic that her brother got left at school. Daddy calms her down and lets her know we have it all under control.

During this time my contractions became regular and STRONGER. By stronger I mean pretty unbearable. I thought I had an epidural to avoid this? I found out later these are called "breakthrough" contractions meaning the pain is so intense they break through the epidural. Nice. Didn't know these existed.

The anesthesiologist comes in and gives me more epidural. By now I'm at a good 8cm. The kids get there and I get to give them hugs and kisses before I deliver Lucy. The doctor comes in and we send the kids out in the hall with Aunt Ashley and Uncle Aaron. Now I'm ready to push. I hit my epidural button one more time just to make sure I won't feel anything (I find out later this was QUITE unnecessary I was numb for HOURS into the night).

Lucy comes out without a hitch, two pushes later. She is gorgeous and totally healthy! Doc exclaims "she has more hair than her daddy!"

My ten hour labor. The longest of them all. Who would have guessed that? All things considered it went well, but it was definitely harder than any other one I had experienced. I am so glad though to have my little girl here with us. She is a total sweetie.

Oh, one last thing I forgot to mention. Jamin comes home to get the kids ready for bed that night and the dog (the suicidal one) is all bloody and scratched up again. Just couldn't be a Miser birth without a kid missing the bus and a doggie suicide attempt...

Thanks Sweetie

I've been doing all these wonderful Facebook posts that say things like the following:

• Julie is washing boxes full of baby clothes by size, and scouring Craigslist for a double stroller. If I feel adventurous today I may tape off Myah's room to prep it for painting.
• Julie Got the girls room painted, furniture moved in, and baby clothes down from storage and sorted! I'm finally starting to feel prepared for another baby!

But, I have a confession to make. I'm not the one who has been doing all these things and doing the "nesting". It's been my wonderful husband. Without him I wouldn't have any of this done. Seriously.

Thursday night after went into a bout of false labor, hubby began moving furniture, changing outlets and light fixtures, taping the room off and painting until 10:30 at night. Saturday morning, he got up and painted ALL day. Then even after painting he moved all the furniture in while I sat on my butt and tried to decide where I wanted the furniture (and was quite bossy during the process I may add. I'm lucky he puts up with me).

Then to my surprise yesterday he got into the attic and pulled down all the bags of baby clothes, car seats, baby toys etc that have been in storage. Him and the kids sorted them by size into individual boxes that he picked up. It would have taken me days to figure out how to sort them: by size? by season? Lately I've been completely incapable of making any sort of decision. I have no idea what is wrong with me (I'm not kidding about this decision making thing. When I went grocery shopping on Saturday I stood in the pasta aisle for about five minutes staring at elbow macaroni trying to just decide if I wanted regular or jumbo size It's pretty pathetic).

If it wasn't for him I'd be sitting in an empty half painted room right now feeling pretty helpless. He is the best husband in the world and I can't believe how much he got done this weekend. He worked his butt off.

Now, I really am washing the clothes, the ones he sorted. I did go grocery shopping on Saturday while he painted the room, so I have done my fair share (especially for being as ginormous pregnant as I am). I just have to get this off my chest that without him, I wouldn't get much accomplished. He is my rock, and I am so thankful that God blessed me with such a wonderful husband.

4 Weeks to Go

I'm in the final stretch, the "Driving through Texas" stage of pregnancy. You know what I mean by that. It's that horrible stretch where you feel so alone in the world, so miserable, that there can't possibly be an end in sight. Every day moves on but it feels like a week.

So, that being said, you would think that I have the crib set up, the room decorated, diapers neatly stacked in the bin and Lucy's clothes all washed and ready.

But I don't. I have NOTHING done. Nothing I tell you.

Ok, I'm stretching the truth a tad. Last night Jamin and I switched the closets. We moved our oldest into the small closet and moved the girls stuff (Evie and Lucy's which Jamin now calls "the twins" which drives me crazy but that's a WHOLE other story) into Myah's larger closet. This is step one in the big room switch.

Our next step is to paint the rooms (Evie's is purple and green baby colors and Myah's is a blinding shade of hot pink that makes your head spin...I can't POSSIBLY subject an infant to that), switch furniture, then and ONLY then can I begin pulling boxes out of our attic and washing clothes, folding, putting away, washing bottles and taking inventory of what we have and what we need.

We have our work cut out for us. I have no desire at all to paint. I LOATHE painting. I can't even bend over to pick up a toy off the floor or sneeze without wetting myself, let alone paint. Just the thought of this daunting task makes me want to crawl into bed and pull the covers up over my head.

Can someone just wake me up when it is all over? Please?

The good news: baby is head down which means no c-section! YAY! The thought of a c-section has had me up in panic ridden night sweats for the past two weeks. I know, everyone says "what's the big deal?" The big deal is I DO NOT want someone basically gutting me while I'm awake, and the whole "you won't feel pain" doesn't give me any comfort. Someone would still be slicing me open while I'm awake and alert and that puts me in a complete state of panic. So the whole no c-section news is FREAKING FANTASTIC news to me!

The bad news: Jamin has come up with a new nickname for me during this pregnancy. I made the mistake of wearing a red shirt the other day. He has now deemed me "the kool-aid guy". Wonderful. Oh well, it could be worse. When I was pregnant with Evie I was "Jabba the wife," but on top of that every time I'd get up he would make the noises of Jabba to go along with it. Good times I tell you...good times.

So, in four weeks I will have myself another wonderful baby girl. I don't think the reality of this has completely sunk in yet, Evie is still so young and I'm busy with her constantly. It's a different state of mind than my last pregnancy, the excitement is still there, but it is overshadowed by fears of having four kids, and two little ones at the same time. I did it with Myah and Brett, so I'm sure I'll be just fine.

After all, once you have three, what is one more?

Why yes, I did swallow a watermelon.

Ok, so it's summer and the season for fresh fruit. I love to buy all the fruit, come home, wash it and put it in tupperware containers so I can munch when I please and all the work is done. I purchased a watermelon two weeks ago at the supermarket (part of my normal summer routine), came home and began chopping away at the thing.

I decided while chopping to take a little sample, and well, I could have just died and went to heaven. I could have SWORN that this was the sweetest best watermelon that I had tasted in my entire life.

So, let me paint you a picture of what this looks like. Me, barefoot and VERY pregnant in the kitchen with a butcher knife in one hand and a dripping piece of watermelon in the other hand. I'd cut a piece and put it away, then eat a piece, and so on and so on....i'm sure it was rather disgusting and unladylike looking me there with watermelon juice dripping down my chin and landing on my very big belly.

By the time the watermelon was finished and cut up, I didn't have as much in the container as I expected.

Three days later the watermelon was gone. My family griped for a few days that nobody else got any, but it's not possible is it? I didn't eat the whole thing did I?

Today was grocery day. Yes, I bought another one. My daughter moaned about how she "won't get any of this watermelon either because mom is going to eat it all!"

I noticed chopping it up today that I must have bought a much larger watermelon, because rather than one tupperware I had three. Then I came to a horrible realization. I ATE HALF the watermelon last time I cut it up. No wonder I didn't have as much as I expected.

So, when asked "are you pregnant or did you just swallow a watermelon?" I can just simply say "Yes".

Children's Reaction to Baby Gender

This was a moment worthy of America's Funniest Home Videos. I think we will send it in.

Picture this, we sit the kids down in front of our beautiful lit Christmas tree. They are sitting there wide eyed with their legs crossed wondering what we are going to talk to them about.

Daddy pulls out the video camera and begins to record. We tell them we went to the doctor and had our ultrasound and we got to see the baby. Their eyes grow wider.

"Do you want to know what the baby is?" Daddy asks.

The kids beam, they are extited and want to know. Yes! Yes! Yes! They shout.

"Why don't you guess?" Mommy says. They shout their answers, of course Brett guesses boy, and Myah guesses girl.

I smile, we tell them "It's a girl."

Myah's face lights up, she smiles her cute grin, missing her front teeth. She is so pleased with herself.

Poor Brett on the other hand. His face melts, he puckers up and tears roll down his face, his head goes into his lap as he wails. He did not take the news well.

We try and cheer him up. We ask him if he will be a good big brother, and protect his baby sister. We ask, "What will you do if someone tries to hurt the baby."

He says toughly (through his tear streaked face), "I will punch em in the face."