Random Photos & Happenings

Between the heat (we're in the middle of Washington's heat wave, hitting the highest temperature's every recorded in Seattle's history yesterday), postpartum recovery, and nursing/holding baby Madelynn all day, I haven't been able to think or post. So, here's some of my favorite photos from the week and some random thoughts about them.



I think "Elf" is an appropriate title for this photo. Mika took it while Madelynn was being weighed right after her birth. Her poor ear was folded down in the womb for a while and the angle of this photo makes it look pointed. Funny! I think it might have been caused by having no amniotic fluid (the reason I was induced). I'm guessing that her ear was stuck against the uterine wall and was unable to get a change to unfold since she didn't have any water to float around in. It's taken five days for her ear to unfurl and look normal.


I just love those moments when siblings get their first chance to hold their new baby brother or sister. This is the morning after her birth.


Sam wanted his chance to hold her just as much as Mika did.


Josh even got his chance to hold her with help. We are relieved that he likes her and doesn't seem to have any anomosity towards her. We were worried he might be too jealous of his status of "baby". He's already moved from calling himself "baby" to calling himself "big brother", with a huge smile. He still won't accept "big boy" though.


The previous photo of Josh holding Madelynn was inspired of this all-time favorite photo of Mika holding Sam. Sam was 7 hours old in this photo.

I love this photo of the boys and Madelynn. I especially love how distinctly blond and blue-eyed Josh is in this photo.

This photo not only shows how large my homemade boppy pillow is but that Gracie has not forgotten his place on it. He loved laying next to Josh when he was nursing. It's been a while but he climbed right on and took his rightful place next to Madelynn the day we came home.

Ok, this photo has nothing to do with Madelynn but was still a fun photo from this week. Josh, as you can see, eats his sandwiches in a funny way. First, he eats the cheese, his favorite part, Then, he eats the bread from the middle out. The meat will remain on the plate, never to be eaten. He'll eat Subway sandwiches normally, complete with the meat, though.

This is the result of how Josh eats his sandwiches. I'll call it "Mustard Face".

Finally, here's a photo of Madelynn today.

She's Here!

Madelynn Adele arrived Friday evening. She was 8lbs 13oz and 19 inches long. The kids are enamored with her, even Josh, whom we were worried about.

Birth story follows...with all the details.

Friday morning, we went to my AFI (amniotic fluid index) and nonstress test. They were required because I was, at that point, 9 days past my due date. Well, I failed my AFI because my fluid index was less than 1cm. They look for 5cm minimum. That meant two things: she needed to be born asap and, even if the birth center was ok with it, the law prevents them from letting me birth there. The midwife was willing to try natural induction with castor oil and homebirth. However, our home isn't amendable to homebirth at this time, we didn't have a birth kit, castor oil did nothing to induce Josh, and we felt more comfortable just going to the hospital with this issue.

So, the midwife transferred our care to her OB backup and we were given 55 minutes to get from Olympia to Tacoma, stop by home for a few things, and get to St. Joes. We arrived just on time. After making it through admitting, we waited on the delivery floor for a while for a room to be ready. I ended up with my choice of two and chose one that had a little nook in the corner that I thought would be a good place for the kids to hang out. It was perfect as it came with a mattress on the floor as well; we dubbed it "the cave."

We got everyone into the room, completed paperwork, and started the required continuous monitoring. Once that was done, the nurse hooked up the telemetry unit, which allows mom to be mobile while still having continuous monitoring. I specifically asked for it, and used it during labor. Then I ordered lunch (yes, they let me eat!). After I ate and the nurse returned from her lunch, we started the IV, which I'm thankful to say took only one try (it's taken up to 4 tries to get IVs in me before), and started the pitocin on the lowest possible dose. It was the OB's hope that it would only take a little to jump start my natural contractions as I was already 5cm, 0 stations, 50% effaced, and having very mild, irregular contractions.

For the next few hours, the nurse gradually increased the pitocin by .5cc every 20 minutes and occasionally took my blood pressure. I was very relieved that my already almost borderline high blood pressure didn't go up any higher. After a while, she started increasing the pitocin by 1cc every 20 minutes. Finally, they started upping it by 2cc every 20 minutes. Somewhere in there I asked for and got dinner. We got up to 12; the highest they go is 20. So much for my own body taking over. Shortly after we got to 12, my contractions started getting a little uncomfortable. I went for a walk and met the OB, who was working with another mom in another section. She suggested we break my water so we headed back to my room. I was skeptical about that helping since we knew I had VERY little water. She broke it (at 8:00pm) and was hoping to see SOMETHING come out; she got something...very little something. Surprisingly, that did it. Almost right away, my contractions became hard.

I decided I'd rather be up and about so Scott and I started to go walking through the maternity ward. I didn't get far. I got to the nurses station right outside the door and leaned against their counter for a hard contraction. I made it about 2 feet before I had to concentrate on another one. Realizing that I couldn't walk far, I went back my first spot on their counter and spent the rest of labor there. I realized that I was nearing transition, then I really hit transition. Scott calmly stood with me, leaving me alone as I was doing ok and not wanting to irritate me.

It wasn't long before I started losing control and breaking down. It got really bad. I started having to vocalize and started freaking out between contractions because I was dreading yet another. A nurse asked me if I wanted something for the pain but I realized that it was much too late for an epidural and doubted anything else would do any good so I ignored her...besides it was time for another contraction. A nurse asked me if I was ok (I was crying pretty hard and breaking down emotionally between contactions which felt like they were seconds apart). I ignored her as I was a little busy. Scott, on the other hand, realized how close I was to pushing and took a nurse aside to tell her. They ran for the OB then.

Once the OB arrived with her student (whom I had already given permission to be there), she suggested to go back to the room, at which point I vomited in the barf bag they gave me when I asked for it a few minutes early. I stuck my hand out to try to give it to someone and before someone noticed, I had another contraction and just dropped it on the floor. Almost immediately, I grabbed the trash can and dragged it to me to vomit quite a bit more. I always vomit at the end of labor so this was normal for me.

They finally got me in bed. I was not happy to be there because it is much harder to deal with contractions lying down. I got much louder at this point. The OB checked my dilation and called me complete...which I could have told her without the check. They put my knee to my chest and tried to get me to hold it and push. But I didn't want to push so I refused. (I got very obstinate) So, they called for a nurse to help hold my legs. Once she came in, they told me to push. I really didn't want to push and it felt like my body was doing it for me anyway, so I screamed and yelled instead. At some point, my nurse offered me her hand which I took. She regretted that as I hold very tightly. She had to pry my fingers open to lower the head of my bed and replaced her hand with just her thumb so I couldn't hurt her anymore. The student told me that I wasn't pushing but rather talking instead. So, I tried to push while still not wanting to. At some point, I felt that I was crowning and started yelling for them to get the baby out of me. It didn't work; I still had to push. Scott says that they did pull her out quite hard though. It shocked him as with my others, their body slide right out once the head was out, but Madelynn didn't. She was finally all the way out (at 8:57pm) and I was instantly happy. Scott said the change in disposition was instant. LOL

They gave her to me. We checked to see what gender she was as we didn't know going into labor. Once the cord stopped pulsing, they got it ready and helped my 7 year old, Sam, to cut it.
With permission, they took her to the crib to weigh, measure, give vitamin K, etc. to her. Meanwhile, they checked that I didn't tear. I delivered the placenta and they did the uterine massage. The older kids took a good look at her. I nursed her. The nurse helped to me the rest room and got me ready to go to the postpartem room....yada, yada, yada.

How did the kids take it? This was their second birth as Mika and Sam were at Joshua's birth. I had an epidural with him so it was a nice, calm birth. This one was anything but that. Josh slept through it in "the cave". Mika ended up hiding in the cave so she didn't see it, but certainly heard it. Sam watched from a chair with a barf bag in hand as he was feeling sick to his stomach. He was very confused about that so we explained to him why he felt that way. It went well...they all survived. Amazingly, Mika isn't scared away from having kids herself some day.

Once we got downstairs to the postpartem room, the kids all kissed me and Madelynn good night and headed home with dad. We decided it would be best that he stay with them, especially because Josh would need him. They returned the next morning and all took turns holding her for the first time while we waited to be discharged. I went home around 3:30pm.

Overall, it was a good birth. I really don't regret anything, especially since I wasn't surprised about needing to be induced. All four of my kids were planned OUT of hosptial births and three of them ended up in the hospital for one reason or another. I've learned to be ok with that.

Everyone just adores Maddie. Mika always wants to hold her. Sam wants to hold her on occasion. Josh has even wanted to hold her a couple of times but mostly he names all of her body parts and kisses her all over.

Monkey Labor

(Slight TMI alert)

I'm 40 weeks and 6 days pregnant today.

We left this morning for my 41 week appointment. I went there with my fetal movement record in hand (baby's moving great), hoping to get some answers to some strange happenings with my body, and hoping to get some help in moving things along. My biggest worry is this drawing out too long as the birth center limits their clients to 42 weeks; after that, you can't birth there anymore. My other worry would be failing a nonstress test or AFI (amniotic fluid index). It was failing the latter one that led to the requirement of a hospital induction with Josh.

So, we got there. My urine tests were good. My blood pressure was fine, a tiny bit elevated, probably due to slight heat-induced swelling, but fine. My pulse was fine. I've gained a grand total of 15 pounds. I'm measuring 40 centimeters. Baby's heart rate was 128. She thought it felt like I had a good pocket of fluid as it felt like the baby was floating nicely...easy to move around.

She asked about how things were going and I explained all the weirdness of the past week. Approximately every second or third day, I've had contractions that are uncomfortable enough to wake me up at night. I've timed all 5 instances of them; they were 11 minutes, 9 minutes, 4 minutes, and 7 minutes apart. The last instance was last night and I couldn't time them because they seemed to be on top of each other. Each time, it was uncomfortable enough and consistent enough that I thought it was early labor. Finally, due to discomfort and the need to pee, I'd get up only to find they stopped completely when I was upright. The midwife agreed that usually you hear about contractions that pick up when you are upright and stop when you lie down. That's what was weird about it. We also discussed that I've lost a small amount of my mucus plug on a few occasions but not enough to think I had lost the whole plug. I also told her, that to appease those who strongly believe and suggest certain labor induction techniques, I had cleaned my kitchen floor (it's now very nice and clean) and taken a walk yesterday. I figure, at worst, I'd have a clean floor and might have helped the baby into better position.

So, we opted for an exam and some cervical massage to, hopefully, help things out.
The first good news was that the baby is lower than it's been feeling previously. The internal exam came out with a -2 station. She said I was about 50% effaced which is normal for a moms who've had baby's previously. She also said I was 3 centimeters dilated with a stretchy cervix that could easily be stretched to 4 centimeters...but you don't measure the stretchy measurement. She figured one good contraction and I'd be at 4 centimeters. So, I'm done a good portion of early labor already. : ) Then we got on with the uncomfortable part...cervical massage, which anyone who's had it done KNOWS isn't a "massage"...more like torture.

Now, we get to the explanation of my title "Monkey Labor". It's a term they like to use to explain what's been going on. It appears my body has been swinging in and out (like a monkey) of labor. Those night time contractions are definitely doing something. It figures. Every birth has been something different:

Mika's was 78 hours of very slow progress following premature rupture of membranes. After most of that, my cervix had swelled and we ended up transferring to the hospital.

Sam's wasn't quite so long but I hit transition (9cm and puking) and stayed there for 5 hours. We finally ruptured membranes to move things along as it was bulging in front of the head, making it so his head couldn't engage and finish the job properly.

Josh's simply never started on it's own; at 15 days past my due date, I had made very little progress cervix-wise. I ended up with a hospital induction using pitocin.

This baby has decided to do the monkey labor thing.

It makes me want to keep having babies just so I can have a "normal" labor with one of them! LOL

So, the plan now is this:

I'll be using Evening Primrose Oil to, hopefully, help my cervix keep ripening and moving along. I have a AFI test at 8am in Olympia on Friday (ugh, we have to leave home at 7am for it). I'll be drowning myself (ie. drinking TONS of water) in hopes to keep the amniotic fluid levels up. Following that, I'll be going straight to the midwife's office for a nonstress test. Assuming everything is going well, we'll do more cervical massage.

Of course, the real goal is that none of that is necessary on Friday because I'll have had the baby by then.

40 weeks 2 Days

Well, I passed my due date two days ago. This is the stage of pregnancy that can be both annoying and fun.

Annoying because people start worrying about you being past your due date and imagining all kinds of bad things that could happen. Annoying because people also start suggesting all kinds of inducing techniques, including the suggestion (sometimes not so much a suggestion) that your provider should have you in the hospital on pitocin. Annoying because people start asking you daily, if not more often, if there's been any progress.

It can also be fun though. Fun because when people see that you are obviously very close to your due date, they ask you when you are due. It can be fun to see the look of panic when you tell them 2 days ago, or a week ago, or however long ago it was. They seem to think that the baby is going to fall out right then and there...as if that happens.

How do I feel about being past my due date? I'm fine with it. Pregnancy is typically 37 to 42, and even 43 weeks long. As far as I'm concerned, I'm not due until the baby decides it is time and makes its way out. Unless there is a legitimate medical reason to force the baby out, he or she can stay there as long as he or she wants. I'd rather have a "late" but fully developed baby than a forced labor that results in a baby with immature lungs or holes in its heart. Yes, it can and does happen!

Learning Chess

This is a rather embarrassing thing to admit.

I just taught Sam to play chess. It's been years and years since I've played. So long, in fact, that I had to look up the rules to remember them all. First, I taught him how to set up the board. Then we went through each piece and how they moved. We discussed a few of the lesser used moves like castling and en passant, a move I was not familiar with. Finally, we discussed the goal of the game and terms like check, checkmate, and stalemate.

Once he got all that down, he wanted to play. I think he learned a lot in that first game. One less was that you have to pay attention to the game. I moved while he was watching the tv. He had no idea which piece I had moved and to where. It's a good lesson that he needs to learn, in general, so I didn't tell him which move I made. He also learned about getting too excited about capturing a piece only to realize on my next move that he had just sacrificed an important piece. Ooops! A pawn isn't worth losing a knight or rook.

So, play went along until I had captured all of his pieces except his King. This is where my lack of practice, skill, and strategic abilities shows up. Despite my having captured every piece, we still tied. Yep, the game ended in a stalemate. His king wasn't in check but neither could he move it to any piece without putting into checkmate. At first thought, this seems like I won but the rules state that a stalemate is considered a tie.

So, my son tied his very first game of chess.

Curriculum 2009: Poetry

Now that I've finished a couple of simple sewing projects (the nursing pillow I posted yesterday and curtains for my daughter's room), I'm back to my curriculum posts. Today, is poetry.

Poetry is a topic that I don't do well with so my hope is to expose my kids to the concepts used in poetry, but not necessarily make them experts in it. I'm also not the type of homeschooler who requires memorizing poems; my kids would balk at the idea. And since I'm working towards trying to get my daughter to enjoy learning again, I definitely don't want to do anything that I know would go against that goal...which memorizing poetry would definitely do for her.

Like many of our other language arts subjects, I will be using Michael Clay Thompson's curriculum for this. Sam will be using his Music of the Hemisphere's book, which is the first in the series. It explains all the various poetry vocabulary, giving examples of each. Things such as rhyme, rhyme scheme, eye rhyme, near rhyme, onomatopoeia, alliteration, assonance, and meter are covered. It goes into quite a bit more than that.

Mika has already been through this book. I found that we had a very hard time hearing the supposed meter in the examples. That's ok with me...at least she knows they exist. Like the other language arts subjects, she'll be taking the year off. Next year, she'll pick back up and do the second poetry book with Sam.

My next post will cover writing. In that post, you'll finally get to here more about what Mika will be doing in place of formal studies.

My Nursing Pillow

Yesterday, I finally made it to JoAnn's Fabric and bought the fabric to make my new nursing pillow. I shocked myself by actually finishing it all in one day, too. That's quite an accomplishment for this non-sewer who can barely thread the machine. Here's a photo of it; you can click on it to enlarge it to see the fabric better.

I used an off white flannel fabric for the pillow. The removable cover has a sky blue background covered with palm fronds. Over that background are lions, tigers, monkeys, hippos, and elephants. It's a cute fabric. There were girl fabrics that I liked better but since we don't know what we are having, I opted for something babyish rather than girlish or boyish. I briefly considered trying to match my living room decor but the fabric choices didn't work well for that.

The pillow is at least twice the size of a normal boppy pillow. Because of that it works much better than a boppy, too. It's hard for baby to roll off of it because it is so large. As our cat, Gracie found out when Josh was a newborn, there's plenty of room for him to curl up next to the baby as well. I also found out that I could rest hinge end of my laptop on the outer edge of the pillow angled up on top of the baby and then be on my computer while nursing. It's a great pillow.

Here's a picture of me nursing Josh when he was about a year old with the laptop. This was my previous nursing pillow (same basic pattern I made my new one from) which died a quick death due to being made from recycled muslin that was in pretty bad condition, my poor sewing skills, and being overstuffed.

Names, Names, Names

Nine days left until my due date and we still don't have a girl's name. We have a list of ones that sound ok to us, a few name sets (first & middle together) that are ok, but nothing that is coming out as "the one". We've begun joking about taking a list with us and naming her (if it's a her) after she's born. But what if we can't come up with a name then either?

Mostly, there is just something about them that aren't doing it for us. It might be the meaning. One of them is pretty popular with the family but it rhymes with the name of one of our other children, which makes me less thrilled with. Some don't seem to fit with the other kids' names. Some are cute but too trendy. Some the kids don't like, or Scott doesn't like, or I don't like. We just can' agree. Some of them just sound awful a few days later.

So, here's the list so far. It's been getting longer rather than being narrowed down. That's not helping.

Abigail
Sophia
Kelsie
Madelynn
Emily
Madison
Jeanette*
Naomi
Raylene
Sarah
Susan
Susanne/Suzanne
Yahali*
Natalie
Natasha
Adah*
Adalena*
Adalene*
Danielle*
Lillyanne
Teyla
Julia
Juliet
Nadine
Adele

Abigail seems popular. The not-so-good thing about that name is that we have a cat named Abby. The good thing about it that name is that it is the ONLY name Josh will say. We've considered putting it together as Sophia Abigail.

Naomi has been on the list for quite a while. One difficulty with that one is the kids don't care for it and we can't figure out another name to put it with. I have a hard time thinking of the name Naomi (as a first name) without putting Ruth together with it. LOL We've considered Teyla Naomi, but Teyla doesn't have a meaning and doesn't seem to fit with the other kids' names.

Lillyanne was a very early possibility. I forgot about it until a friend mentioned Lily on Scott's facebook.

Natalie Susanne is a more recent thought. I don't care for a name that means "Christ's birthday" because it just doesn't seem to fit for a July baby. Natasha is another consideration with the same problem.

The names marked with an * are ones that were interesting when first seen but not anymore.

It's just not coming together!

Curriculum 2009: Vocabulary

Like spelling and grammar, Mika will not be doing formal vocabulary work this year unless our plan doesn't work out.

Sam, on the other hand, will be starting up with Michael Clay Thompson's vocabulary program. I'll start him with the level that goes with his other language arts, which is Building Language. I personally don't care too much for this level of MCT's vocabulary program because it is just too basic; however, it will give him an introduction into the program. This will work out ok because I'm sure that he is not ready for the next level, Caesar's English I, which is very advanced.

Building Language spends a lot of time showing a similarity between language and Roman architecture. They use this analogy to show that words are just like arches and aquaducts; made up of parts that each have a function. Then it goes into some very basic stems that most 3rd graders probably already know like re (ie. redo, replace) and un (unbutton, undo). There are some stems included that may not be basical knowledge like spec (spectacle and speculate). Overall, I don't feel that the book does a good job explaining the vocabulary, but since we have it and it is an intro to the more advanced book, we'll do it.

Curriculum 2009: Grammar

It's Grammar Day.

Sam is moving into a new grammar program this year, while Mika is getting the year off from formal study.

Sam has been begging me to do Mika's grammar program. With him entering 3rd grade, and his progress with language arts, I think he'll be ready for it this coming year. He'll be using Michael Clay Thompson's Grammar Island, Sentence Island, and Practice Island starting in the Fall. I really like this program. It's comprehensive, non-repetitive, and challenging without being dull.

For the grammar component of Michael Clay Thompson's language arts, you begin with Grammar Island. This paperback text presents the parts of speech in simple, uncluttered pages. It only takes a couple of weeks to cover. Once this text is done, you move onto Sentence Island, which covers the parts of a sentence in story form. In this text, you read about a fish named Mud who wants to learn about sentences. He meets a variety of marine animals who lead him through understanding subject, predicate, direct objects, indirect objects, prepositional phrases, clauses, and types of sentences. Like Grammar Island, it only takes a few weeks to cover. Once you've read both of these texts, you are ready for Practice Island.

Practice Island is where you find the meat of the program. This workbook contains 101 sentences for analysis using a 4 part process. Below each sentence, there are four lines. On the first line, the student names the parts of speech for each word in the sentence. On the second line, the student names the parts of a sentence. The third line is where the student identifies the prepositional phrases, if any. The fourth line is for identifying the number of clauses and type of sentence. By the time, the student is done with these 101 sentences, they'll be pretty good at identifying everything that they've learned.

Now, before you think there is a lot missing. The next level, and each subsequent level, briefly reviews already learned material and adds additional material. For example, Grammar Town (the second level of the series) adds in several verbal phrases, such as gerunds, appositive phrases, and infinitive phrases. Paragraph Town, the book after Sentence Island, leaves grammar and goes into the writing of paragraphs.

One good thing about this program is that as a homeschooler, you only need to purchase the teacher's manuals for the first three levels. They include the complete student manual with a few comments for the teacher and exercises in the back. This saves quite a bit of money. The also offer homeschool packages that include all 5 componets of the language arts for a discount.

I'll discuss the vocabulary and poetry components of Michael Clay Thompon next.

Like I explained yesterday, Mika will not be doing formal language arts study. Any grammar will be taught in context of her other work.

Curriculum 2009: Spelling

With my mind occupied with summer, getting next year's school work organized, and preparing for this birth, I haven't had a lot to post about lately. Then it occurred to me that I could talk about our curriculum for this coming school year. So, I'll be doing that, one subject at a time.

Today is spelling.

Spelling is changing for both my kids this year. Sam is leaving the world of Spectrum and will begin using Spelling Power. Mika is getting a break from formal language arts this year, but if our plans don't work out, she'll continue where she left off in Spelling Power.

Spelling Power is a spelling curriculum that covers all grades, 3 through 12. It costs about $65 which makes it a great deal when you consider that you won't need to buy another spelling curriculum ever.

We don't use Spelling Power the way it is set up to be used though. The curriculum provides spelling lists for each level, and suggested activities (for each learning style) to help the student practice and remember them. The day begins with a pretest, after which the student only works on learning those that he missed. The next day's pretest includes yesterday's missed words and any new words that you can fit into the time period. The program is suppose to take about 15 minutes a day. We skip most of this, primarily using just the lists.

Rather than using the activities listed in Spelling Power, we will use SpellQuizzer, a spelling software program that I blogged about a few months ago. Over the summer (probably while nursing the baby), I will be inputting Sam's lists into the program so that they are ready to go. Then each week, he can use SpellQuizzer to practice his spelling words. He loved his trial of the program; I think he'll enjoy spelling this year.

Mika, as I said, is getting the year off from formal language arts. Rather than working through her spelling lists, we'll simply be correcting any misspelled words in her other work.