One Week and Counting...

One week old

Thanks to everyone for all your well-wishes and comments about how cute my new baby is. Even if it was obligatory, I still appreciate them :-) All in all, I would say things are going really well. I think if someone says they just absolutely love the first few weeks of having a newborn they are either lying or delusional, but that's just me. I do feel blessed, though. She is a sweet baby and she likes to sleep a lot, and that includes during the night. The last few days she has been sleeping in 4 - 5 hour chunks! The first time she did it at night, I woke up at like 4:00 in the morning and ran over to make sure she was still alive. Now if I wake up, I just think sweet.

My mom and youngest sister Ali flew in the Saturday before I had Little Miss (The Diva doesn't fit her - she is too sweet). It was so nice to have them here, as my mom kept the house running the entire week after I had the baby. And believe me, we did not pay well and gave her a run for her money. Thanks again, Mom!

My dad drove up this last weekend to see his new granddaughter. While he was here we went on and did her baby blessing here at our home with our family, the bishop and a couple of friends. Here is a picture from her blessing day (5 days old):

With grandparents

I was scheduled to be induced on the 15th even though I wasn't due until the 20th because, well, just because. She was big, I was bigger, I kept having low blood sugar issues, and I was just ready to get on with it. So we went in at 6:30 a.m. but they didn't get me hooked up on the pitocin until 8:00. I think it was about 2 hours later that they broke my water. Things were going pretty slow because my contractions were not getting into a regular pattern despite being cranked up on the pitocin. And all I could think about the whole time was how I was starving! I wanted to eat a steak. Finally, later in the afternoon things started to move a little quicker and around 4:00 I was feeling a lot of pressure "down there." I told them and they said I was at a 9 1/2. The nurse said she would come back in about 15 minutes. So 30 minutes later I ring them again, "Um, hellllooooo?" are you coming back because this kid is about to fall out of me!

Sure enough I was complete and ready to go. Earlier they had asked me if I would mind if during the delivery a paramedic student could stand in the room and observe (from over by the baby station) as part of his training. I didn't really care at that point, because, well, let's face it - it's not like half the hospital floor hasn't already seen your crotch by then anyway. So there I am in all my glory and in walks Mr. Hottie Paramedic Student! He was like 20, but still! We both studiously avoided eye contact.

So it was time to push. I had an interesting experience with the epidural this time, though. In the past, I have been able to move my legs, feel plenty of pressure, etc. This time, I could do that with my right leg, but not my left leg. It was dead. Completely. I could sort of wiggle my big toe and that was it. Very strange sensation and one I did not like because I could never tell if when they told me to push harder if I was actually doing anything. I was thinking that I was going to be so ticked off if I couldn't get this kid out because I couldn't feel what I was doing! But, thankfully, I ended up pushing for only about 20 minutes and at 5:01 p.m. Little Miss was here.

I just remember feeling sooo tired during the delivery and afterward. A very different experience, as well. With my other births, I remember feeling a rush of endorphins afterwards and being wide awake, wanting to take in everything around me. This time I was so wasted. And it wasn't even close to being my hardest or longest labor, so I don't know what the deal was. I chalk it up to being older. And hungry.

That night was a killer thunderstorm. There were like 70 mph straight line winds, crazy lightning and of course massive rain. A nurse actually came in and told me that we were under a tornado watch and if it turned into a warning I would have to be moved out into the hall. Luckily, that didn't happen.

All in all, the boys have responded really well to having a new little sister in their midsts. Little Man has done exceptionally well considering he was uprooted from his position of being the youngest. He loves to help with her and calls her "our baby" whenever he is not referring to her as HeeHaw. Yeah, not sure where that one came from, but that's what she's been dubbed.

In summary: I think it's going to be fun to have a little girl!

Here's my baby girl...

Born Monday, June 15th, 5:01 p.m.

9 hours labor

9 lbs. 2.4 oz. (my second biggest)

20 3/4 in.

First pic with mom and dad

Lots of love from big brothers

At the hospital - 24 hours old

First time home with proud big brothers

More pics and stuff later....

Don't Mess With the Zohan, er, the extremely pregnant woman

This past Monday Big J had a baseball game. Little Man brought his Spongebob glove and squishy baseball to play with during the game. He and Little J were off to the side throwing the ball around and Little J (probably on purpose) overthrew Little Man by quite a lot and the ball went way over by a fence where two girls, I'm guessing around age 7, were playing. One of the girls picked up the ball and ran off with it. Little Man went after her to get it back. She started taunting him by either holding it up too high for him to reach or throwing it really far and then running and getting it before he could. I tried to give her the benefit of the doubt that she was just playing with him, but it was pretty obvious that she was just being a bully.

I told Little J to go over and get the ball since he was the one who had thrown it over there in the first place, but he was slowly getting his shoes back on and poking around while Little Man was getting increasingly upset that this girl would not give him his ball back. And she was leading him closer and closer to the street as he chased her. So I lugged my huge self up and out of the camping chair and started to head over there. In the meantime, Little J takes off and runs ahead of me and in true Little J fashion starts to put some ninja moves on her. Well, it started out he just grabbed her arm to get the ball, but then it escalated from there.

I got over there finally and pulled both of them apart and told them to cut it out. Little J shook me off and the girl screams in my face, "LET GO OF ME!!!" I let go and said, "You need to give them back their ball." So she takes the ball and totally throws it as hard as she can away from us. I looked at her and said, "No, M'am. You need to go get that and hand it to me. That was rude." Then the next thing I know, I turn around and her mom is there in my face,

"Don't grab my daughter! I saw you grab her! Keep your hands off of my daughter!"

Can I tell you it took me every ounce of composure not to punch her? Or atleast do a very solid belly bump. I already was wanting to sit on her kid, but then to have her come freak out on me just about sent me over the edge. I tried to assume that she had only seen that second of the entire altercation (although I don't believe that) and I just looked at her and said, "I wasn't grabbing her. I was separating them because she took their ball and he was trying to get it back and it was getting out of hand." And then the girl pipes in, "Yeah, and he kicked me, too!" I seriously wanted to slap her. The mom just goes, "Well, I saw you grab her and you need to keep your hands off my daughter!"

I was SO MAD. I wanted to tell her her little kid was a freaking brat and next time I was going to do more than grab her arm. But instead I just walked away. I had to. It was thisclose to getting really ugly. Later, Little J goes, "I just wanted to punch that girl in the face and give her a bloody nose!" I think next time I just might let him.

************************************

In other weird happenings, last week I was out and about and decided to swing through the drive-thru at McDonald's to get a drink. While I was at the first window paying, this red car swoops in front of me and drives up to the next window, they hand him my drink, and he drives off. I was like, "Uh, that car just got in front of me and took my drink," and the guy I'm paying starts laughing like "what the heck?!?" They gave me another one, but all the workers were laughing at how they had just been duped. So in case you want to sell your soul for $1.08, that's how you do it.

***************************************

In other news...I have progressed some in the pregnancy department, but I'm not holding my breath for anything imminent. I was checked yesterday and am 2 cm dilated and 50% effaced, with the estimation from measurements, etc., that she is already right around 9 lbs. So... the decision was made that if nothing happens on it's own by Sunday, I will be induced bright and early on Monday morning. I'm not due until the 20th, but I don't feel it necessary to try to beat any records for having large babies. And since I was induced 6 days early with Little Man and he came out 9lbs. 4 oz. I am ok with going in on Monday to get this show on the road.

According to the numbers...

Number of times I have had sick kids this month: 3

My kids hardly ever get sick. For example, I had not taken Big J to the doctor in over 2 years. He hadn't missed a single day of school in over 2 years. Until this month - he missed 4 days of school. Crazy. He was sick twice this month and Little Man was sick once.

Number of pink eye cases in the past week (this number does not factor into the above number): 2

Thankfully, I was able to just call into the doctor for the second one instead of having to take them in. (Big J and Little J were the victims).

Number of gushing nosebleeds in the last 24 hours (2 of which bled for 20 - 30 minutes each despite pressure being applied): 4

Little J has always had a nose that bleeds more easily if it gets bumped, etc., but I don't know what the deal has been. He sneezed yesterday morning and had a big nosebleed, and then last night we went to dinner and he was leaning over his coloring and it just started gushing again. A nurse from another table actually came into the bathroom and applied pressure for a straight 15 minutes after seeing that we weren't able to get it to stop. I'm sure her dinner was totally cold by the time she got back. What a nice lady - her name was Amber. We never made it to the dinner part, as his nose would not stop and so we left debating if we should take him to the ER. On the way, it finally did stop, so we just went home. And then this morning he woke up and had a doozy of another one. From the playroom into their bathroom looked like a scene from a crime show. Then he had another one tonight after he said his knee bumped it when he was playing around. What is the deal?!

Number of days left until I am due: 25

I am now taking bets - you know, the traditional amount of labor time, birth day/time, baby's weight/height. To give you an idea for more accurate guessing, here is a summary of my past birth experiences:

Big J - Induced at 38 weeks because of pre-eclampsia; 16 1/2 hours of labor; Born at 10:24 a.m.; 7 lbs. 15 oz.; 21 inches

Little J - Induced at 38 weeks because of pre-eclampsia; 11 1/2 hours of labor; Born at 2:58 a.m.; 8 lbs. 5.5 oz.; 22 inches

Little Man - Induced at 39 weeks because he was gonna be a big one; 7 3/4 hours of labor; Born at 7:15 p.m.; 9 lbs. 4.3 oz.; 20 inches

I have been measuring between 2 - 4 weeks big since 30 weeks. As of today's appointment, I am dilated "a fingertip." Whoever guesses the closest wins. Well, you win nothing except the honor of being featured as the most omniscient reader of my blog, but hey, it will be fun!

Finales

So I admit that I don't watch that many TV shows faithfully. I also admit that I am usually a season finale groupie, meaning that even if I haven't watched the show during the season (either regularly or at all) I will watch the season finale of it. I guess that's weird, but sometimes I don't want to invest time into a show, but I still have a slight curiousity about it so I will watch the finale because that is when all the good stuff happens anyway. I didn't really do that as much this year; however, here is my opinion on the finales I did see:

1. 24 - I thought the season was great, but the finale was just ok. Kind of anti-climatic for me. It was so anti-climatic that I don't really have anything else to say. My guess is they are going to cop out on the resolving of Jack's illness in the next season by making it a year or more in the future and making references to how lucky he was the experimental stem-cell treatment worked or something along those lines. I still don't like bad Tony, and he is still bad, even if he was doing all this under the pretense of righting past wrongs.

2. Grey's Anatomy - One of the best finales I saw for one reason only - I did NOT see the whole George thing coming at all, which usually I pick up on those things. I was completely shocked and audibly gasped when he wrote out "007"on Meredith's hand. And I was still shocked a few days later, so that means it was good. I liked how they left it open - did he/will he and Izzie die or not?

3. Private Practice - Good finale, although a little day-time soap opera-ish for me. They left plenty of things hanging, though, to make me want to see how they play out in the next season.

4. Fringe - Great finale. The whole Peter's gravestone revelation was cool and the ending in the alternate parallel universe with Leonard Nimoy and the Twin Towers was awe.some.

5. American Idol - I honestly didn't care who won, and I watched it for the performances only. I thought they were good, especially the ones with Queen, Kiss, Keith Urban and Lionel Ritchie. I doubt I will watch American Idol ever again, though.

6. Chuck - This was a great finale. It was possibly going to be a series finale, but I heard it got picked up for 13 episodes next year. I loved the whole "Domo Arigato Mr. Roboto" shoot-out scene. That was classic. And then who can't love the fact that Chuck has skillz now?

7. Life - As I've said before, I was really disappointed this show was cancelled. But I liked how they wrapped it up well enough with Crews swapping hostage places with Reese and taking out the Russian baddy with one swift move. And the insinuation he did it all because he's in love with her....aaawwww.

8. Lie to Me - It was just kind of like a normal episode, so pretty anti-climatic for a finale in my opinion. I like the show, but the main guy Lightman always looks to me like he needs to de-lice or something. Or at least take a shower.

I think those are all the ones I watched. I could be missing some, I don't know. If I can't even remember them, then I guess they weren't that great anyway. I know I still need to catch up on the NCIS episodes and watch the finale for that one. Other than that, the only show I will probably be DVRing now is So You Think You Can Dance.

What about you? What finales did you like?

A really random book review for no particular reason other than the fact I've been hormonal and don't want to write a big whiny hormonal post

I am not a big re-reader of books. In fact, I hardly ever re-read any book. But, a couple of weeks ago I decided to re-read Gone With the Wind since it has been probably 10 years since I read it last. I was a huge fan then, and again I am convinced it is one of the best books EVER. I am already a historical fiction fan anyway, but this book is in a class of it’s own. It's no wonder it won the Pulitzer Prize.

I love the historical and cultural aspects of it, but what I really love is the characters. There are very few books that can develop a character to the point that you know all their flaws and inner workings, yet you are still deeply intrigued by them, admire them and yet are repulsed by them at the same time. There are few books that can develop its protagonists in such a way that they could easily be the antagonists, have them do things that morally you would object to, and yet, somehow you are still able to completely relate to them and also believe that the end justifies the means. I mean, how can you not love a dainty Southern belle who is ballsy enough to blow the face off of an intruder, marry men she doesn't love, and grate against the status quo in order to protect her family and get what she wants?

And I love the love/hate relationship between Scarlett and Rhett Butler. It gives you some of the most classic diaglogue of all time. The lack of sappiness and knight-in-shining-armor crap (although he is her knight in shining armor) that is usually in romances is replaced with the shrewdness of their characters and the utter rawness of their relationship as it develops over the years. They see each other for what they truly are (which isn’t always pretty), they say it like it is, and they have some dang hot chemistry, too. Ultimately, I think this novel could be considered a tragedy, but the grit and the gumption that permeates the entire book doesn't let you feel that it is.

Another plus with this story is that there are very few books that translate over into films that capture the core of the book so honestly. Gone With the Wind the movie is, out of necessity, a thinner version of the book, but I think overall it portrays the story and characters as they are in the book, which is why it is also such a great movie. My main pet peave with the movie is I think they make Ashley way too wimpy, when he should have come across as gentlemanly, handsome, and scholarly. The book is obviously more detailed and contains things the movie leaves out (like Scarlett having children by her first two husbands, for example, and some of the characters) and I think the book is a little less innocent than the movie, but overall it is a good adaptation. I don't think you get as much of the inner workings of the characters' minds in the movie, which to me is of huge interest in the book, but it is still a great movie and if you are not interested in reading a 1500 page book then I recommend at least seeing the movie so you don't miss out on the story.

To be honest, I have no idea where I am going with this or even why I am writing it. I guess to say that if you want something a little more meaty to read with lots of grit, drama, romance, and unflinching honesty, then I highly recommend this book.

Happy Mother's Day!