Baby is here!

This is Brent. Ann went into labor yesterday morning at about 6:00 AM. Everything went extremely well, just a little slower than expected. She delivered a healthy baby girl at around 5:00 PM yesterday. Ann did awesome! She's super strong and I'm very proud of her. Ann delivered in the water and it was so nice not to have someone there trying to get her out of the water (happened when Lady was delivered in hospital bathtub). The entire process was very peaceful and much more comfortable than being in the hospital. The midwives were great. It was nice to have them there just in case something went wrong and it was really nice to have them there to clean up. :)

AJ was there for the entire process...she got a bit nervous when Ann made a few fun primeval sounds during transition, but aside from that she thoroughly enjoyed being involved. The other kids were able to come into the room immediately. The baby was nursing within about 20 seconds of being born. Her APGAR score was a 10...the highest of any of our kids so far.

This was Ann's longest labor so far...11 hours. She said she has a new found respect for my youngest brother's wife who just successfully went through 30 hours of labor with a natural birth.

Ann will give more details later. Here's a pic of baby girl #4...no name yet. She is 21 inches and 7 lbs 6 oz.

Introducing.......

Luke

AND

Leia
AJ picked Leia and the little girls picked Luke. (Roo was in Tae Kwon Do class and trusted us to pick a good one.) Maybe it's because I'm a hormonal pregnant woman, but I couldn't just take one. Hopefully Brent's ok with it. I figure 2 cats will just kill more gophers, right?

And Lady has officially claimed Luke as her own. She won't let the other kids touch him at all.
ps I totally psyched you out with that title, didn't I? ;)

What am I doing before this baby comes?

Well, since you asked, I'll tell you.

This entire pregnancy seems to have been made up of a particular routine. It goes something like this......

I'm pregnant!

I'll have time to think about the pregnancy and this new little sister after......

after we refinance our house....
scrap that, after we find a new house to buy.....
after we sell our current house....
after I get all packed up....
after we move.....
after we finish this yard....
after I finish school w/the kids...
after a birthday party....
after a baptism...

Well, all of that "stuff" is finally out of the way. So this week started out with NOTHING to do. Seriously, my calendar and to-do list were pretty darn empty. So Monday sort of stunk. (I really do hate Mondays....it's always such a bummer coming down off the weekend high.) The kids and I didn't get much of anything accomplished that day. (I did get a nap for the first time in forever, which was heavenly.) And I quickly decided the rest of the week would NOT continue that trend. I refuse to sit around, twittling my thumbs, waiting for this baby to make her appearance.

So yesterday we did chores like normal, the kids played with friends, and then we spent the evening at the Oquirrh Mountain Temple Open House. It was lovely. Afterward we ordered Thai food from our favorite place and sat and enjoyed the evening with my little bro and his wife and their cutie daughter. (Don't tell, but I was sort of hoping that the spicy Thai food would kick my uterus into gear....no such luck.)
Then at 10pm my midwife, C, came over for (most likely) my last prenatal appointment. Why at 10pm, you ask? Because it worked out better for her and for us than a daytime appointment. And Brent got to talk to her a bit and ask her some questions he had and he got to hear the baby's heartbeat, which he hasn't been able to do for a while.
My sister called while C was here and was dumbfounded that anyone would have that kind of dedication. This is one reason (among many others) that I love midwives (especially homebirth midwives). The care I've received from C has been incomparable to the care I received with my other kids. And I haven't even had this baby yet! :)

Today is filled with neighborhood friends here at our house to play and I'm strongly considering getting a sitter for tonight to go to the temple (to do a session, not to the open house again) with my wonderful husband since we probably won't have the opportunity to go again for a while, what with a baby constantly attached to my breast and all (I can't wait!).
This afternoon we're going to go pick out a new member of our family. The gophers are finally driving Brent crazy enough that he consented to get a cat. It will be an outdoor cat, mind you (something I never wanted to do). Because really, how can it kill gophers if we have it inside all the time?

Tomorrow we've got a trip to the zoo planned and I may take my sister up on her offer and head down to her Enrichment night.

Friday we've got piano lessons and then possibly a homeschool field trip to Wheeler Farm (always a fun place).

If I make it past Friday with a baby still in my belly, this will officially be my longest pregnancy. This baby does seem pretty comfy in here still, it could happen.

So how much of this stuff will we actually get done? Who knows? But it feels good to have stuff planned so that I'm not sitting here, impatiently waiting for a certain someone to introduce herself.

It's hard to believe I'm at the end of this road for a 5th time. It's gone by way too quickly. I really do love being pregnant. I'm going to miss my belly and the wiggly little person inside of it. But I'm getting so excited to meet this child and see just who it is that's been taking up all this space inside of me, kicking, tickling, hiccupping, doing dances on my bladder, and all that other fun stuff I'm going to miss. Isn't it amazing how much you can love somebody that you haven't even met yet?

This is really happening! (Well, not right this minute)

My midwife, C, came again this morning and things are progressing well. Baby's descending and is "in position." She seems to be a bit on the small side, which is just great with me! None of my kids have been very big, though. I'm pretty lucky that way. I'm 38 weeks and measuring just under that. (Sorry about the crappy picture.....it was the best I could get in front of my (apparently dirty) bathroom mirror.) Notice that she's low enough now that it looks like I have to pee when I'm holding the bottom of my stomach! :)

Last week C brought the birthing tub and all of my supplies for the birth (she brings HER supplies when she comes for the delivery).
The kids were asking all about what it was going to be like and I apparently didn't explain everything well enough to them. I did tell them that Daddy was going to "catch" the baby. Roo was very excited when Brent came home and saw it all. He exclaimed, "Yeah, and you can catch the baby with the net!" He's got it all figured out!

Here's my preparation for this new little one.

We are all getting very excited for this baby's arrival, but we're hoping she holds out another week or so since AJ is getting baptized on Saturday. We really don't want to have to postpone that.

And this baby is coming just in time. Because just this morning I decided to put Lady in pigtails for the first time. And yep, it's official. She's not a baby anymore.

Where in the world does the time go? And how do they grow up so fast? Are there any vitamins I can give them to slow down just a bit?

NOT a Night I Want to Repeat.....EVER!!!

We almost lost our wonderful dog, Ruby, last night. Brent and I went on a double date with some friends and when we got back Ruby started acting a little weird. Her hind legs started shaking and she acted like it was hard to walk. We were trying to figure out if she'd somehow hurt herself or we thought maybe she got stung or bit by some insect and was reacting to the poison. We watched her for a few hours and things just got worse.

She got to the point of not wanting to even get up and she was foaming at the mouth and panting really hard. We did some more research online (I love google) and I called the emergency vet and told them her symptoms. We figured out that she'd probably gotten into some poison of some sort when the kids and babysitter were playing with her outside. We and our neighbors have all put gopher poison out since we've been having troubles with them lately. Brent always covers it up really well, but we think maybe one of the neighbors didn't do a good enough job. The vet said it also could've been snail bait from one of our neighbors' houses.

I ended up taking her in to the vet last night at midnight and she got even worse on the ride over. One of the symptoms is hypersensitivity to stimuli and she did NOT like being in the van. She had a small seizure on the way there, so I called them when we were almost there and they came out and got her immediately. They took her back and hooked her up to an IV, gave her some charcoal, laxatives, and a sedative. She had a high fever and was not doing well.

The doctor said if we would've waited until morning, she might not have made it. And if we wouldn't have brought her in at all, she would've been dead within 24 hours for sure.

They kept her overnight and I just went this morning to pick her up. She's doing much better, but is still shaking a bit and panting. Her fever has come down and she's walking around and eating and drinking, which is really good. Her muzzle and paws are covered in charcoal and she's got a sad little wrap on her leg from where they put the IV. But she looks so much better than she did last night. I was really worried when we got there that she might not make it. I've never seen her so terrified.

It's a tricky thing, being a pet owner. While we love Ruby SOOOO much, we're not the type of pet owners willing to spend thousands of dollars to keep her alive. And with just moving into a new house and having a baby here in a couple of weeks, it's not like we've got tons of extra funds floating around.

They would've liked to keep her a few more hours to keep the IV running, but it was going to be over $100 more for just 6 more hours there at the vet. So we opted to bring her home this morning and pay *just* $400 for the night of care.

I'm glad there are 24-hour vet care places or we'd be without Ruby this morning. Our next decision to make is whether or not to get a cat to keep the gophers away. ;) Obviously we won't be using anymore poison and we'll be keeping a much closer eye on Ruby while she's outside.

Here are some pics of our sweet doggie from this morning:
The kids were SOOO excited to see her after they found out what happened when they woke up this morning.

Back in Business

Brent was finally able to get the diaper sprayer hooked up to the toilet again last week. I can't tell you how happy I am to be cloth diapering again. I was getting quite sick of paying for disposable diapers all the time. It's amazing how fast you go through them and how much money they cost! It's ridiculous!

Bon Jovi Reborn

I'm raising an 80's punk rocker.

Jealous?

I knew it.