You never know what to expect when you bring a baby home from the hospital. How will life change? Who will have the first meltdown - the 2 year old, the baby, the mom, the 4 year old? Will I sleep? What were we thinking!
Bringing Iris home felt so good. She had been long overdue and I was so ready to show her off to all our new friends in Palatine who have been praying so fervently for our health and safety through this whole process. I had an inkling from the start that she'd be an easy baby so I felt confident that the transition would have its rocky moments but overall would be an easy thing. Iris' first outing was to church on Sunday morning. Nana and Papa were there to take care of June and Ruben so all I had to do is walk into the building (carrying nothing but the diaper bag), sit down in church, and show off our daughter. One hour later I was exhausted and Iris had slept the entire time. Home again, home again jiggety jig. Ahh...time to relax and get to know Iris. The cutest newborn thing she does is her "silent cry." She'll be laying in the bouncer or on the floor and if she needs something she starts crying but no sound comes out of her mouth. Her face is all scrunched up and her body is writhing but no sound. Usually someone notices that she's "crying" before she gets to the stage where a scream might pop out. I'm sure she'll grow out of it, but for now, silent crying is the best newborn invention ever. Communication without the hearing loss. Nana and Papa have been a huge help this last week but by Monday it is time for them to leave. Nana left frozen burritos in the freezer, a fridge full of fruits and veggies, and extra presents for June and Ruben when we feel like Iris is too much the center of attention. Papa converted Ruben's closet into an awesome fort by taking down the hanger bar and shelves and adding a ladder up to this really cool kid space. We'll just have to decorate it eventually.
Tuesday morning I had planned to take fairly easy at home, but the kids were definitely cabin feverish and I figured I'd waste just as much energy trying to entertain them at home as I would if we got out of the house. So we went to the library story time. The kids really enjoyed it (we sang five little monkeys jumping on the bed - how could it be bad) and we even got our new library cards before we left so we could check out some new books and movies. It was just after 11 so kids are getting hungry, I'm getting hungry and I realize that with the new books in the diaper bag, Iris in her carseat, and Ruben pulling at my hand, it is going to be a terribly long walk out to the car. By the time we get there, I'm shaky, the kids are still hungry, and Iris is still sleeping (thank the Lord!). I pull out granola bars to tide us all over and drive home where I manage to walk upstairs and turn on a Dora movie before I collapse on the couch. I lay there until Karl comes home for lunch. He feeds the kids and himself and gets me some food as well while I lay on the couch in pain. My back hurts, I'm engorged to the hilt, I'm pretty sure my blood pressure is too high and I have a headache. Pretty much the worst I've felt in a while. Why did we go to the library again? I put in another movie after Karl goes back to work and curl up to sleep. Thankfully, Karl's able to come home early from work before an evening meeting so I have some time to collect myself, medicate myself, and empty myself of excess milk before dinner. Wednesday will be better, I tell myself even though by 8 that evening I'm feeling pretty cruddy again. Did I mention that Iris has been perfect this whole time. She eats and sleeps. Whew.
Wednesday is a fantastic day and thankfully so because Thursday does not start out well. Iris has been sleeping really well at night with only one meal around 2 or 3. Wednesday night she went to sleep around 10:30 and at 4 I realize that Karl is tromping around downstairs and that Iris is still sleeping. I wake her up and feed her because I need her to eat, and Karl comes in to tell me that there is standing water in the garage because it has been raining nonstop for the last 6 hours. By 5 am, we're both downstairs with a shopvac and bucket trying to figure where to put all this water before it overflows into our finished basement (new carpet even). By 5:30 our next door neighbor Steve has his shopvac in our basement as well and we're furiously trying to manage the influx of water. Kids start waking up so I once again stick them in front of a show in our bedroom (best morning ever, in Ruben's estimation) and when I come out I see at least three different neighbors in our front yard conferring with Karl and Steve. Next thing I know one of them is back with a submersible pump and 20 ft of pvc pipe. Just in the nic of time (water is now level with the step up into our house - I'm avoiding the basement because I assume it will be flooded next time I walk down the steps), the pump makes some headway and after an hour of pumping there's only an inch or two of water left in the garage and after 2 hours we're nearly dry. Karl's able to get the sump pump working again (on the list of things to buy, new sump pump), and even though the rain continues to fall, we're safe. The sewer line is full so we have a little bit of seepage from our utility room but by evening that has resolved as well. I would like to take this moment to say a huge prayer of thanks for neighbors who were so willing to sit out in the rain at 5:30 in the morning to help these people they've never met before save their basement carpeting. Thank you, Lord!
Friday is a normal day with Mom's PEACE group in the morning (I let Ruben and June wear sandals, and on the way there it started snowing), movie and nap in the afternoon and we got our first delivered dinner that night. Amazing! As we go to sleep at the end of our first week with Iris, Karl notes that it's snowing and sure enough, we wake up to a nice coating of snow. What a week.
I'm laying out these details because it's amazing to note that the largest struggles we had this week were not in any way related to Iris or even to June or Ruben's adjusting to her. June continues to love to hold Iris and takes particular pleasure in helping get her dressed which includes picking out the clothes which should always include a hat to match. Ruben loves to talk to "baby Iris" and really hasn't put her life in danger as of yet. Iris herself continues to give me plenty of sleep at night, nurses well, poops semi-regularly, and only cries when you change her diaper with cold hands (and then she'll tell you how disappointed she is in you!) Iris seems to know that our emotional strength was sapped in the nine days after her due date and has atoned for her behavior then with her perfect nature now. The last 3 months have been a series of life transitions, any one of which could throw a family into turmoil. Yet, the Fays have managed to weather the storm and I'm sure it is in large part due to the amazing number of people who pray for us on a daily basis. We truly appreciate these prayers and know that God has listened. While we've traversed these transitions well enough, we're ready to settle down to a normal routine. We're ready if God has yet another challenge in mind, but for the foreseeable future we've got our feet on the ground.
Sunday, April 21, 2013
Finally, the birth
My last post was April 8th when I implied that our baby would soon be entering the world. I didn't follow up with that post right away because I was angry. Our baby did not come on Monday the 8th or Tuesday the 9th or Wednesday the 10th or even Thursday the 11th. In fact, once contractions stalled out on Monday afternoon, I didn't even have any inkling of labor signs for the rest of the week. I felt great and was incredibly frustrated that I wasn't feeling horrible (as in labor horrible). Nana and Papa came up on Tuesday and thank goodness they did. The distraction of having someone else care for June and Ruben and cook meals gave me a little opportunity to relax and come to terms with the idea of induction. The doctor was by no means forcing us into induction, but we had scheduled it for Friday and quite frankly I was ready for induction even though I knew it meant not having the kind of birth experience I wanted. Pitocin means epidural after all. But as long as I ended up with a VBAC, I was fine with whatever. Plus I knew from pictures that my belly was getting pretty darn enormous and that meant the baby inside was getting that much bigger each day as well.
Thursday night we had an amazing get together with 30+ Schmidt Family cousins. Miriam and Jeremy were in town from Bratislava, Slovakia which had encouraged Tom and Kathy to come in from New York. A party's not a party without Gretty, Gogo, and Pootie, and Dad had decided the week before, baby or no baby, he was going to be there too. The people that actually live in the Chicagoland area were also there (Lehmann's and Niermann's) so Rachael and Chris have officially won the award as the best party throwers for the year. It was so much fun to see Vera, Ursula, and June playing together as if they've always been best friends and to catch up with all my aunts and uncles at a locale that was not Lake James. I was actually happy to still be pregnant just so I didn't have to miss such an amazing opportunity. But by 6 the next morning I was ready to sign the eviction papers for this little bundle of joy.
Since Fetal Fay waited so long to be born, she did get the opportunity to be born in a brand new hospital with amazing cavernous rooms and nice fresh equipment. The only down side to the new hospital was the nurses and doctors were still figuring out where everything was. Any time a supply was needed, the nurse would look in at least two locations before spotting the item she was in search of. It was actually fairly humorous most of the time. By the time we filled out paperwork and stuck me with an IV and took blood samples, it was nearing 9:00 and then Dr. Johnson came in and quickly broke my water. I was still only 3 cm and maybe 60% effaced. I had scheduled the induction with Dr. Peter Johnson but his partner, Dr. Susan Orhan was also on the floor that day so she popped in from time to time. She was less happy that I was so overdue and a VBAC patient and pressed me to get an epidural right away just in case we needed an emergency C-section. Thankfully, the nurse knew my wishes and called Dr. Johnson without my asking and he said "epidural or no epidural, whatever she wants to do." Thank you. So we labored. I was on a low level of pitocin so I knew the contractions were harder and more erratic than they would have been naturally but I was willing to try it for a while. Mostly I was afraid if I got an epidural too soon I'd be too numb to push and wouldn't be able to VBAC. By 1 in the afternoon I was ready for an epidural and only pushing 5 cm. The contractions I felt and my emotional state were comparable to the way I felt during transition when I was laboring with Ruben. The pitocin made it impossible for me to rest fully between contractions and that knowledge made me want to just stand up and leave this whole labor behind. I'd be pregnant forever if someone would just make the contractions stop. The anesthesiologist came in and soon I was able to contemplate rest. There was a strip of my belly that didn't take the epidural so I still felt contractions but only down the left side of my belly (weird sensation by the way). I was still plenty able to move around in bed from side to side and within a half hour or so I was at 8 cm. The nurse called Dr. Johnson and by the time he showed up I was ready to push. This was the part I was nervous about with an epidural because with June I had been so completely numb and unable to move once I had been on an epidural for a while. But this was fine. The first contraction of pushing was learning curve but I managed to get her crowning, the second contraction got most of her head and then the third one popped her out. Wow. that was nearly easy (It wasn't, but it has been a week so I've already forgotten how much it hurt).
It's a girl! Iris Annette! Wow. It felt so good to just hold her and know that I wasn't pregnant anymore. Ahhh. She was caked in vernix, that lovely cold cream like substance that keeps babies from pruning in the womb. Most babies are born with some vernix but by 40 weeks most kids have started to kick the habit. By 41, it's odd to see a baby with it caked on like this. What can I say, she thought she needed to stay in a bit longer.
While I'm holding her and Dr. Johnson is finishing up the clean up, everyone starts guessing her weight. I guessed 8 lbs 12 ounces or something like that because I knew she was big but she looked so small. Dr. Johnson thought there was no way she was that big and guessed 8 lbs 2 ounces. The nurse who took her to clean her off a bit, picked her up and went "whoa, that's a big girl." Once she was wiped down a bit, we all watched in eager anticipation as the scale calibrated her weight. It took a while, but we finally ended up at 9 lbs 7 ounces.
WHAT!!! You have got to be kidding me. That's enormous! There is no way I just pushed out a 9 and a half pound baby. I think I said something to that effect at least 10 times while we were still in the labor and delivery room. I was stunned. I knew she was going to be big but that seemed a bit obscene. And quite frankly it hadn't been that hard. What would it be like to give birth to a 6 lb baby. I guess I'll probably never know.
By 6 in the evening we were settled in our post partum room and June and Ruben and Nana and Papa were visiting. By 8 when they finally left I realized how exhausted I was (and how much I had to pee). Since I had only really had the epidural for an hour and a half or so (not the 6 hours I had with June), I was able to get up and walk around pretty quickly and felt like recovery was going to be fairly easy. My blood pressure had been pretty high the last three weeks of pregnancy and continued to be close to 150/90 throughout my stay at the hospital. If I laid on my left side for a half hour or so before they came to check me it would fall back into the 130/80 range but any activity would send it back up. Friday night was full of heel pricks for Iris (because she was LGA - large for gestational age) to check her blood sugar and the continued removal of tubes and wires from my body. First the epidural and the epidural tape (ouch...that's one way to have a hairless back) monitors and catheter, then the pitocin drip, then finally the next morning the IV. If only I could remove the countless bangles of hospital bands then I would feel like I could move my arms with ease. Saturday had the hearing test (passed), another visit from the kids and grandparents as well as Rachael, Vera, and Nora, PKU blood test for Iris, and quite a few blood pressure checks for me. Every time it was too high, I'd lay down and she'd come back a half hour later to make sure it had gone down. As we're getting ready to leave my blood pressure is still really high and there are implications that this one thing might keep us from being discharged after 24 hours. I can promise you that if I am told I have to stay in the hospital one more night, my blood pressure will NOT go down. Get me out of here!
These are the things we learned about Iris in the hospital. She's easy. She caught onto nursing immediately and rarely ever has latching issues. She takes a binky and sucks it with a cute little squeaking noise. She likes to sleep. Once nurses stop waking her up to test, wash, or take her temperture, I know she'll be a great infant sleeper like Ruben was. Oh, and did I mention she's beautiful. And she's loved by the best dad, big sister, and big brother any little girl could ask for. She looks like Ruben when she grimmaces and screams and she looks like June when she's sleeping peacefully. Her eyes are bright blue and with our genetics have a 50/50 chance of changing to brown in the next couple months. She has more hair than June but less than Ruben's shock of black hair and what hair she does have seems to be fairly light in color. And she's long - long arms, long torso, long toes and fingers. I can't wait to get to know her better.
P.S. I realize that this blog entry didn't mention Karl nearly as often as it should have. Karl was my rock through this process. He comforted me through the emotional aftermath of a stalled labor, kept me calm when Dr. Orhan was being pushy, questioned but backed my decision to get an epidural, and kept the outside world up to date on Facebook and by text. I knew he was controlling all the details so I could focus on the main event (if you're not aware, this is a flip flop to our usual relationship roles). He is amazing and I felt bad I didn't mention in the body of the text as much as I should have. He handled the periphery with strength and courage.
P.P.S. Ruben and June truly loved meeting their sister as the pictures show. While Ruben might at some point step on or injure Iris in some way, he loves her dearly and has to be told to stop kissing her. June just gazes in awe at her little sister and asks constantly if she can hold her. What more could we ask for in older siblings.
Thursday night we had an amazing get together with 30+ Schmidt Family cousins. Miriam and Jeremy were in town from Bratislava, Slovakia which had encouraged Tom and Kathy to come in from New York. A party's not a party without Gretty, Gogo, and Pootie, and Dad had decided the week before, baby or no baby, he was going to be there too. The people that actually live in the Chicagoland area were also there (Lehmann's and Niermann's) so Rachael and Chris have officially won the award as the best party throwers for the year. It was so much fun to see Vera, Ursula, and June playing together as if they've always been best friends and to catch up with all my aunts and uncles at a locale that was not Lake James. I was actually happy to still be pregnant just so I didn't have to miss such an amazing opportunity. But by 6 the next morning I was ready to sign the eviction papers for this little bundle of joy.
Since Fetal Fay waited so long to be born, she did get the opportunity to be born in a brand new hospital with amazing cavernous rooms and nice fresh equipment. The only down side to the new hospital was the nurses and doctors were still figuring out where everything was. Any time a supply was needed, the nurse would look in at least two locations before spotting the item she was in search of. It was actually fairly humorous most of the time. By the time we filled out paperwork and stuck me with an IV and took blood samples, it was nearing 9:00 and then Dr. Johnson came in and quickly broke my water. I was still only 3 cm and maybe 60% effaced. I had scheduled the induction with Dr. Peter Johnson but his partner, Dr. Susan Orhan was also on the floor that day so she popped in from time to time. She was less happy that I was so overdue and a VBAC patient and pressed me to get an epidural right away just in case we needed an emergency C-section. Thankfully, the nurse knew my wishes and called Dr. Johnson without my asking and he said "epidural or no epidural, whatever she wants to do." Thank you. So we labored. I was on a low level of pitocin so I knew the contractions were harder and more erratic than they would have been naturally but I was willing to try it for a while. Mostly I was afraid if I got an epidural too soon I'd be too numb to push and wouldn't be able to VBAC. By 1 in the afternoon I was ready for an epidural and only pushing 5 cm. The contractions I felt and my emotional state were comparable to the way I felt during transition when I was laboring with Ruben. The pitocin made it impossible for me to rest fully between contractions and that knowledge made me want to just stand up and leave this whole labor behind. I'd be pregnant forever if someone would just make the contractions stop. The anesthesiologist came in and soon I was able to contemplate rest. There was a strip of my belly that didn't take the epidural so I still felt contractions but only down the left side of my belly (weird sensation by the way). I was still plenty able to move around in bed from side to side and within a half hour or so I was at 8 cm. The nurse called Dr. Johnson and by the time he showed up I was ready to push. This was the part I was nervous about with an epidural because with June I had been so completely numb and unable to move once I had been on an epidural for a while. But this was fine. The first contraction of pushing was learning curve but I managed to get her crowning, the second contraction got most of her head and then the third one popped her out. Wow. that was nearly easy (It wasn't, but it has been a week so I've already forgotten how much it hurt).
It's a girl! Iris Annette! Wow. It felt so good to just hold her and know that I wasn't pregnant anymore. Ahhh. She was caked in vernix, that lovely cold cream like substance that keeps babies from pruning in the womb. Most babies are born with some vernix but by 40 weeks most kids have started to kick the habit. By 41, it's odd to see a baby with it caked on like this. What can I say, she thought she needed to stay in a bit longer.
While I'm holding her and Dr. Johnson is finishing up the clean up, everyone starts guessing her weight. I guessed 8 lbs 12 ounces or something like that because I knew she was big but she looked so small. Dr. Johnson thought there was no way she was that big and guessed 8 lbs 2 ounces. The nurse who took her to clean her off a bit, picked her up and went "whoa, that's a big girl." Once she was wiped down a bit, we all watched in eager anticipation as the scale calibrated her weight. It took a while, but we finally ended up at 9 lbs 7 ounces.
WHAT!!! You have got to be kidding me. That's enormous! There is no way I just pushed out a 9 and a half pound baby. I think I said something to that effect at least 10 times while we were still in the labor and delivery room. I was stunned. I knew she was going to be big but that seemed a bit obscene. And quite frankly it hadn't been that hard. What would it be like to give birth to a 6 lb baby. I guess I'll probably never know.
By 6 in the evening we were settled in our post partum room and June and Ruben and Nana and Papa were visiting. By 8 when they finally left I realized how exhausted I was (and how much I had to pee). Since I had only really had the epidural for an hour and a half or so (not the 6 hours I had with June), I was able to get up and walk around pretty quickly and felt like recovery was going to be fairly easy. My blood pressure had been pretty high the last three weeks of pregnancy and continued to be close to 150/90 throughout my stay at the hospital. If I laid on my left side for a half hour or so before they came to check me it would fall back into the 130/80 range but any activity would send it back up. Friday night was full of heel pricks for Iris (because she was LGA - large for gestational age) to check her blood sugar and the continued removal of tubes and wires from my body. First the epidural and the epidural tape (ouch...that's one way to have a hairless back) monitors and catheter, then the pitocin drip, then finally the next morning the IV. If only I could remove the countless bangles of hospital bands then I would feel like I could move my arms with ease. Saturday had the hearing test (passed), another visit from the kids and grandparents as well as Rachael, Vera, and Nora, PKU blood test for Iris, and quite a few blood pressure checks for me. Every time it was too high, I'd lay down and she'd come back a half hour later to make sure it had gone down. As we're getting ready to leave my blood pressure is still really high and there are implications that this one thing might keep us from being discharged after 24 hours. I can promise you that if I am told I have to stay in the hospital one more night, my blood pressure will NOT go down. Get me out of here!
These are the things we learned about Iris in the hospital. She's easy. She caught onto nursing immediately and rarely ever has latching issues. She takes a binky and sucks it with a cute little squeaking noise. She likes to sleep. Once nurses stop waking her up to test, wash, or take her temperture, I know she'll be a great infant sleeper like Ruben was. Oh, and did I mention she's beautiful. And she's loved by the best dad, big sister, and big brother any little girl could ask for. She looks like Ruben when she grimmaces and screams and she looks like June when she's sleeping peacefully. Her eyes are bright blue and with our genetics have a 50/50 chance of changing to brown in the next couple months. She has more hair than June but less than Ruben's shock of black hair and what hair she does have seems to be fairly light in color. And she's long - long arms, long torso, long toes and fingers. I can't wait to get to know her better.
P.S. I realize that this blog entry didn't mention Karl nearly as often as it should have. Karl was my rock through this process. He comforted me through the emotional aftermath of a stalled labor, kept me calm when Dr. Orhan was being pushy, questioned but backed my decision to get an epidural, and kept the outside world up to date on Facebook and by text. I knew he was controlling all the details so I could focus on the main event (if you're not aware, this is a flip flop to our usual relationship roles). He is amazing and I felt bad I didn't mention in the body of the text as much as I should have. He handled the periphery with strength and courage.
P.P.S. Ruben and June truly loved meeting their sister as the pictures show. While Ruben might at some point step on or injure Iris in some way, he loves her dearly and has to be told to stop kissing her. June just gazes in awe at her little sister and asks constantly if she can hold her. What more could we ask for in older siblings.
Wednesday, April 17, 2013
June, the Visionary Planner
(by Karl)
June has demonstrated on a number of occasions to have her mom's orientation toward forethought and detail (as opposed to her dad's lack thereof), but she seems to possess some of dad's more creative side.
And she has recently starting talking a great deal with her hands. Waving them emphatically, palms up, fingers loosely holding an imaginary baseball, to underscore the level of excitement and decisive action that should be elicited. She will raise her eyebrows and get this big gleam in her eyes and proceed to lay out these grandiose visions of what we should do. Today I received a call from June right as I was leaving work, "Daddy, I fink we should buy some wood... or find some wood an' we should get a hammer or sumfing an' build a birdhouse. And then we should get some paints and a brush an'... paint the birdhouse!" (emphasis added; the hand that wasn't holding the phone I'm sure was waving all over the place as she proclaimed) "Cuz we like looking out our window at the birds... and Ruben likes chasing the birds... huhuhu (chuckle to herself as she thinks about how silly Ruben is about running after birds; seriously, it's absurd!)."
So we had a special family outing tonight, and we found two very nice pre-built birdhouses from Hobby Lobby.
And we have a painting project for two older siblings tomorrow morning.
And... a show-and-tell for dad when he comes home for lunch!
June, what other grandiose dreams and plans are you going to cook up?
And when did you get so old?!
Monday, April 8, 2013
Fetal Fay
So we're sitting at home counting time between contractions and I might as well waste this time blogging instead of checking Facebook for the thousandth time. The kids are happy and safe at the Hooker's house ready for a night of fun and luckily enough the kids don't have school tomorrow so they'll have fun in the morning as well. As we sit here waiting, I'm reminded how much waiting this kid has prompted already in his/her short life. We're only five days past the due date but it might as well be six weeks because I've been ready since March 21st. Contractions have been going all day in the 3-7 minute range but only once an hour or so do I have one that causes me to stop what I'm doing. We'll go in to the hospital soon and then probably wait until someone breaks my water and then I think the waiting will stop.
So let me write now about what I think this kid is like so far. Movement has definitely been a strength of this kid. With Ruben I was impressed by the strength but for this kid it is more about the square footage covered in a single movement. A kick might start up by my ribs but by the time things calm down the entire side of my uterus has been beaten. Also, besides being generally upside down for the past few weeks, the position of this kid changes on a daily basis. He/She might be lying on the right side in the morning and by noon he/she's facing forward and by bedtime we've rotated even further around. Both Ruben and June were posterior (sunny side up) so we'll see where this little one ends up once labor gets to the good part.
Other than movement, this kid has been pretty congenial. Unless I stay up past midnight the nocturnal kicks don't wake me up although Karl has been surprised a few times in the middle of the night by the movement that I'm able to sleep through. Every once in a while I'll get a stretched out foot or hand sticking out beyond the limits of my stretchy skin but a simple touch and push and Fetal Fay complies.
Fetal Fay, we're ready to name you Iris Annette or Ezra James and stop calling you Fetal Fay (no matter how cool the name). So get moving, okay! See you soon.
P.S. I wrote this blog on Monday, April 8th. On Tuesday we scheduled an induction for Friday morning hoping to never get that far. As you know by now, Iris made us wait once again and didn't show up until April 12th and even that took a little coercing, but that's a story for a different blog.
So let me write now about what I think this kid is like so far. Movement has definitely been a strength of this kid. With Ruben I was impressed by the strength but for this kid it is more about the square footage covered in a single movement. A kick might start up by my ribs but by the time things calm down the entire side of my uterus has been beaten. Also, besides being generally upside down for the past few weeks, the position of this kid changes on a daily basis. He/She might be lying on the right side in the morning and by noon he/she's facing forward and by bedtime we've rotated even further around. Both Ruben and June were posterior (sunny side up) so we'll see where this little one ends up once labor gets to the good part.
Other than movement, this kid has been pretty congenial. Unless I stay up past midnight the nocturnal kicks don't wake me up although Karl has been surprised a few times in the middle of the night by the movement that I'm able to sleep through. Every once in a while I'll get a stretched out foot or hand sticking out beyond the limits of my stretchy skin but a simple touch and push and Fetal Fay complies.
Fetal Fay, we're ready to name you Iris Annette or Ezra James and stop calling you Fetal Fay (no matter how cool the name). So get moving, okay! See you soon.
P.S. I wrote this blog on Monday, April 8th. On Tuesday we scheduled an induction for Friday morning hoping to never get that far. As you know by now, Iris made us wait once again and didn't show up until April 12th and even that took a little coercing, but that's a story for a different blog.
Tuesday, March 26, 2013
The puzzling prodigy
So we've always known that Ruben is particularly smart. He caught onto language really early and easily. He's constantly surprising us with information that we thought might be above his comprehension level. Granted, he's socially and emotionally a normal two year old so his intelligence at times jumps out and surprises us all. For June's fourth birthday I found a 48 piece floor puzzle that I thought would be a great activity to tackle during the transition time between Davenport and Palatine. We had one floor puzzle that the kids enjoyed doing together, but Ruben never showed any particular interest in doing puzzles before I purchased this kitty tea party puzzle for June's birthday. While we were staying at the Hefernan's house for a week, we probably completed this puzzle 20 times. I really don't feel like I'm exaggerating. Ruben, especially, just loved the puzzle. With some of our gift card money we went to Target in search of other good puzzles but came back with some 48 piece junky puzzles that the kids liked but were hard to put together. His fine motor skills are closer to that of a two year old than a four year old. We received another floor puzzle as a gift and I found another one at Goodwill, so now we at least rotate between three puzzles. We also bought a whole bunch of smaller 24 piece puzzles that are quick and rewarding. Our puzzle stash is built up and now puzzle time is a regular part of the day. For a while I was impressed by Ruben's puzzle skills but assumed he wouldn't have the attention span for independent puzzling but the other day while I was in the shower I came out to a completed 24 piece puzzle on the living room floor. The kids have different strategies when it comes to doing puzzles. June likes to complete the whole edge first or at least the whole sky or the whole ground. Ruben on the other hand, picks an object within the puzzle and build the pieces out from that one image. Edges and corners are fairly insignificant to him. Weller Inn, Look Out! We've got another puzzler on our hands.
Monday, March 11, 2013
Are we crazy?
Sometimes I consider updating this blog a chore and dread sitting down to record the mundane in entertaining ways. However, I've realized that blogging is actually a luxury and a joy that can only be enjoyed when I'm properly situated with life. The last six weeks have been crazy. Literally.
I'm about to lay before you the plans of a family who has no real concept of what is "normal" or "feasible" for a family of our make-up. Obviously, Karl took a call to a new congregation in Palatine, IL. In and of itself, the call made perfect sense. He had served at Trinity, Davenport for three and a half years in the role of a "generalist"associate pastor. According to the book he read called Inside the Large Congregation, three years as a generalist is fairly typical before moving on to a more specialized role within a church body. The call from Prince of Peace, Palatine came out of the blue and after visiting the congregation, we decided it felt very much like a place where Karl could specialize and grow. not crazy.
When Karl accepted the call, I was six months pregnant with baby #3. In my mind, this gave us 2 months to move and settle and then I'd have 2 months left to get to know the community and congregation before greeting little baby Fay into the world. That may have been a little idealistic on my part. We ended up moving when I was 35 and a half weeks pregnant (and utterly useless when it came to all things move related). At six months pregnant, you think you'll have energy forever because you're living with all those nesting energies. At nearly nine months pregnant, your body has given up trying to live with this new invasion and is merely interested in hanging on until labor and delivery are over. Naps are a requirement and physical labor is laughable. Putting on my shoes takes effort so packing a box to move or driving three hours with kids by myself requires caffeinated Cherry Coke.
Ruben had just turned two and June turned four in the middle of this transition. Enough said.
We had initially looked at about 5 houses when we went to visit Prince of Peace in late November. By early December after Karl had accepted the call, we put in an offer on a really awesome house on Sanborn Drive. Unfortunately, we just missed it and had to start from scratch. We came back the next week and looked at every house in our price range. One stuck out as a good amount of space for the money. It was also around the corner from the church so our transportation budget would go down significantly. Karl drove back to Palatine for the inspection where a number of significant issues were discovered along with a multitude of little things that had just been neglected. We still liked the house, but needed to have the power and water turned on to make sure we weren't throwing ourselves into a money pit. We knew it would take TLC, but we didn't want to spend the next 5 years solely on house projects. The inspector was able to check the house again after the power was on but once again bad communication meant the water was off. Turns out the owner had an enormous bill to pay with the city and wasn't going to pay it until he was sure we were going to buy it. We weren't going to buy it until we were sure the house was sound so after a month of back and forth we finally were ready to back out of the deal. The initial closing date on the house had come and gone and the thought of starting the house hunt from scratch was terrifying now that I was seven months pregnant and Karl was getting installed two weeks in the future. And then God performed a miracle just for us. The house on Sanborn was back on the market and as we were filling out paperwork to put in an offer the listing agent lowered the price by $22,000. WHAT!?! Who does that? We offered over asking (but still way under our initial offer six weeks earlier). Three days of crossed fingers and constant prayer and the offer was accepted but the closing date (we had asked for early February) was moved to March 1. Great we had a house! Crap, we can't move in for seven more weeks! My due date and the closing date were moving a little too close for comfort, but God had dumped this amazing house in our lap so we were going to trust that we'd have the ability and help to get moved in and settled before the baby arrived. Karl's a fantastic painter and handyman so even if I'm laid up, at least he'll be able to throw some energy behind the move in. Okay, this will work.
From January 22 until March 1, Karl primarily lived in Palatine with some amazing members of the congregation who fed and cared for him better than I've ever done. The kids and I mostly lived in Davenport during the weekdays but spent most weekends in Palatine (I think I figured that I drove the route from Davenport to Palatine or vice versa 9 times by myself with the kids - yucko). Thankfully it was only a 3 hour drive and the kids had ipods and toys enough to keep them entertained. While in Davenport, we spent time doing our regular activities - dance class at the Family Museum, walking the mall with Michelle and Ellie, Mom's Group at Trinity, Jan's house while mom got stuff done, etc. I also managed to pack up most of the house, keep it clean enough to show on a regular basis, and start to arrange some necessities for the move like a new doctor for me and all those utility changes - who doesn't like to call 800 numbers. The time actually flew by, and pretty soon I was starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel. Our house in Davenport had a slew of people in one weekend and after the threat of a second offer we accepted an offer above what we were asking! Seriously, God, you're amazing with real estate...you should consider a side job. The inspection on the Sanborn house was fairly tame compared to the other house but we knew we'd need to replace a lot of the appliances but otherwise the bones of the house were great and the neighborhood astounding.
And then Karl broke his arm. In thirty years he had never broken so much as a toe and now he goes out for a run a week and a half before we're scheduled to move, slips and breaks his distal radius. Really. Wasn't the timeline already challenging enough for us! Since it was his right wrist, we weren't playing games and he went immediately to an urgent care facility where he was sent to an orthopedist who happened to work in an office that mainly does nose and boob jobs. The initial cast was placed up to his bicep completely freezing his wrist, elbow, and most of his thumb. After a few more days in Palatine trying to figure out how to hunt and peck with his left hand to get some work done at the office, we all headed back to Davenport for the big packing party and send off. If he felt useless at work, he definitely felt just as useless at home. Somehow or another we managed to pack up everything in the house and even find some amazing deals on Craigslist to help furnish the new house. We threw a house cooling party that the Schmitzers and Tuckers soon found out was more of a "you lift the heavy stuff that we've been avoiding" party. By this point we knew that this move was not going to be feasible unless we enlisted the help of anyone and everyone who offered it. Rather than try to narrate the entire "help came where help was needed" story, I'll just bullet point it.
I'm about to lay before you the plans of a family who has no real concept of what is "normal" or "feasible" for a family of our make-up. Obviously, Karl took a call to a new congregation in Palatine, IL. In and of itself, the call made perfect sense. He had served at Trinity, Davenport for three and a half years in the role of a "generalist"associate pastor. According to the book he read called Inside the Large Congregation, three years as a generalist is fairly typical before moving on to a more specialized role within a church body. The call from Prince of Peace, Palatine came out of the blue and after visiting the congregation, we decided it felt very much like a place where Karl could specialize and grow. not crazy.
When Karl accepted the call, I was six months pregnant with baby #3. In my mind, this gave us 2 months to move and settle and then I'd have 2 months left to get to know the community and congregation before greeting little baby Fay into the world. That may have been a little idealistic on my part. We ended up moving when I was 35 and a half weeks pregnant (and utterly useless when it came to all things move related). At six months pregnant, you think you'll have energy forever because you're living with all those nesting energies. At nearly nine months pregnant, your body has given up trying to live with this new invasion and is merely interested in hanging on until labor and delivery are over. Naps are a requirement and physical labor is laughable. Putting on my shoes takes effort so packing a box to move or driving three hours with kids by myself requires caffeinated Cherry Coke.
Ruben had just turned two and June turned four in the middle of this transition. Enough said.
We had initially looked at about 5 houses when we went to visit Prince of Peace in late November. By early December after Karl had accepted the call, we put in an offer on a really awesome house on Sanborn Drive. Unfortunately, we just missed it and had to start from scratch. We came back the next week and looked at every house in our price range. One stuck out as a good amount of space for the money. It was also around the corner from the church so our transportation budget would go down significantly. Karl drove back to Palatine for the inspection where a number of significant issues were discovered along with a multitude of little things that had just been neglected. We still liked the house, but needed to have the power and water turned on to make sure we weren't throwing ourselves into a money pit. We knew it would take TLC, but we didn't want to spend the next 5 years solely on house projects. The inspector was able to check the house again after the power was on but once again bad communication meant the water was off. Turns out the owner had an enormous bill to pay with the city and wasn't going to pay it until he was sure we were going to buy it. We weren't going to buy it until we were sure the house was sound so after a month of back and forth we finally were ready to back out of the deal. The initial closing date on the house had come and gone and the thought of starting the house hunt from scratch was terrifying now that I was seven months pregnant and Karl was getting installed two weeks in the future. And then God performed a miracle just for us. The house on Sanborn was back on the market and as we were filling out paperwork to put in an offer the listing agent lowered the price by $22,000. WHAT!?! Who does that? We offered over asking (but still way under our initial offer six weeks earlier). Three days of crossed fingers and constant prayer and the offer was accepted but the closing date (we had asked for early February) was moved to March 1. Great we had a house! Crap, we can't move in for seven more weeks! My due date and the closing date were moving a little too close for comfort, but God had dumped this amazing house in our lap so we were going to trust that we'd have the ability and help to get moved in and settled before the baby arrived. Karl's a fantastic painter and handyman so even if I'm laid up, at least he'll be able to throw some energy behind the move in. Okay, this will work.
From January 22 until March 1, Karl primarily lived in Palatine with some amazing members of the congregation who fed and cared for him better than I've ever done. The kids and I mostly lived in Davenport during the weekdays but spent most weekends in Palatine (I think I figured that I drove the route from Davenport to Palatine or vice versa 9 times by myself with the kids - yucko). Thankfully it was only a 3 hour drive and the kids had ipods and toys enough to keep them entertained. While in Davenport, we spent time doing our regular activities - dance class at the Family Museum, walking the mall with Michelle and Ellie, Mom's Group at Trinity, Jan's house while mom got stuff done, etc. I also managed to pack up most of the house, keep it clean enough to show on a regular basis, and start to arrange some necessities for the move like a new doctor for me and all those utility changes - who doesn't like to call 800 numbers. The time actually flew by, and pretty soon I was starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel. Our house in Davenport had a slew of people in one weekend and after the threat of a second offer we accepted an offer above what we were asking! Seriously, God, you're amazing with real estate...you should consider a side job. The inspection on the Sanborn house was fairly tame compared to the other house but we knew we'd need to replace a lot of the appliances but otherwise the bones of the house were great and the neighborhood astounding.
And then Karl broke his arm. In thirty years he had never broken so much as a toe and now he goes out for a run a week and a half before we're scheduled to move, slips and breaks his distal radius. Really. Wasn't the timeline already challenging enough for us! Since it was his right wrist, we weren't playing games and he went immediately to an urgent care facility where he was sent to an orthopedist who happened to work in an office that mainly does nose and boob jobs. The initial cast was placed up to his bicep completely freezing his wrist, elbow, and most of his thumb. After a few more days in Palatine trying to figure out how to hunt and peck with his left hand to get some work done at the office, we all headed back to Davenport for the big packing party and send off. If he felt useless at work, he definitely felt just as useless at home. Somehow or another we managed to pack up everything in the house and even find some amazing deals on Craigslist to help furnish the new house. We threw a house cooling party that the Schmitzers and Tuckers soon found out was more of a "you lift the heavy stuff that we've been avoiding" party. By this point we knew that this move was not going to be feasible unless we enlisted the help of anyone and everyone who offered it. Rather than try to narrate the entire "help came where help was needed" story, I'll just bullet point it.
- Nana cancelled her week of clients so she could come clean (first the carpets in Davenport, then the kitchen floor in Palatine) and help with the kids. She also found all the baby clothes and supplies, sorted and washed them, and left them in nice neat piles ready for the baby's use in a few weeks
- Jim McCabe picked up a washer and dryer from Craigslist, stored, then delivered it.
- The Wiemann's organized an entire team of people to come on move-in Saturday to install appliances, clean and paint
- A member of Prince of Peace installed the washer and dryer and the new cooktop (which required him to totally rework the drawers and countertop since the cut out was too small for the cooktop we bought on Craigslist)
- 12 people painted 70% of the house. We still painted the kitchen on our own and will paint the kids' rooms eventually.
- The move team hired by the church were incredibly punctual and efficient and had us loaded up before one on Thursday and unloaded Saturday morning by noon.
- Rachael and Chris Hooker (cousins who live 10 minutes away! Thank you God!) provided childcare as well as toilet renovation and mold removal.
- a member of the call committee volunteered to be our lawyer for the closing of the house so not only was it done with tremendous care but also was enjoyable since we got to spend time with a good friend
- Another round of Wellertives helped clean and move furniture and unpack on Sunday.
I'm sure I've forgotten so much already, but this gives you a general picture of the help that was provided. Besides some last minute cleaning in Davenport, I spent most of the move directing traffic and sitting on a chair in the living room like a sack of potatoes. I've never felt so lazy in my entire life. Here's my new house and I'm not even participating in the process of turning it into a home.
We've lived in our new house for one full week now and while we still have plenty of boxes to sort through, things are starting to get done. The kitchen is fully functioning with a fridge that cools, a cooktop that cooks, and a dishwasher (!) that cleans way more efficiently than I do. We've even got a few meals ready to be cooked as well as a couple of frozen pizzas in case the baby shows up way ahead of time. Karl organized the garage and basement bedroom today to create a toy room in the basement for the kids and one whole stall for a car to be driven into (the other garage door doesn't open and that stall is completely full of stuff anyway.) I can drive around town without getting lost and even know which grocery stores I like for which items. I got June enrolled for preschool next year. I've found an OB that will let me do a VBAC again and I'm going to see a chiropractor on Wednesday to put back in place what I have damaged while trying to lift things too heavy for a pregnant woman to lift (like Ruben). For both of my appointments this week I have volunteer babysitters from the congregation. I've joined a mom's group on Friday mornings, and I have a built in friend in Rachael. How cool is it that after 30 years of living more than 6 hours away from family, I move 10 minutes down the road from a cousin who has kids my kids' ages. Not to mention, we actually get along as well.
So answer me this. are we crazy or has God just challenged us to step beyond our comfort zones and ask for help when we need it? If the latter is the case, would you please help me inform him that I would have been challenged enough with perhaps half of challenges.
p.s. I know this post would be better with pictures, but that's just one more thing that I haven't gotten to yet. Eventually...
Friday, February 8, 2013
June's 4th Birthday
After a nearly forgotten Christmas (we didn't buy one single gift for our kids for that holiday but did go to a water park hotel with the other Fays in mid-January), I figured June's birthday would be a similarly forgotten day. However, we actually did make it a special day. The kids and I were in Davenport so we spent the morning at the family museum for June's dance class and then I dropped the kids off at Carol and Lee's house for some special grandparent time while I ran errands (like buying birthday gifts for June). We had planned a special Skype birthday party since Dad was in Palatine, but he surprised us all and drove home for the evening. We still had Nana and Papa, Aunt Betty, and Uncle Brad and Aunt Susan on video chat. June got a lot of neat gifts including her first video game from Nana. She also got water colors and a puzzle from mom and dad but her favorite gift was a simple Hello Kitty coloring book that she talks about all the time but doesn't have much interest in actually coloring. For dinner we had pancakes with blueberry syrup and cake left over from Dad's installation for dessert. We even got to snitch bites with our fingers before we cut the cake. I'm a few days late but I even managed to interview her just like I did last year.
1. What is your favorite color? purple
1. What is your favorite color? purple
2. What is your favorite toy? barbie
3. What is your favorite fruit? banana
4. What is your favorite show? Dora
5. What is your favorite thing for lunch? peanut butter and honey sandwich
6. What is your favorite outfit? a dress, a long dress from Nana
7. What is your favorite game? A dora one
8. What is your favorite snack? cookies, animal cookies
9. What is your favorite animal? Elephant
10. What is your favorite song? a Dora one
11. What is your favorite book? I love my Barbie book
12. Who is your best friend? Hallie
13. What is your favorite cereal? I like Cheerios
14. What is your favorite thing to do outside? play in the snow
15. What is your favorite drink? milk
16. What is your favorite holiday? Christmas
17. What do you like to take to bed with you at night? my babies. Them sleep by my side
18. What is your favorite thing to eat for breakfast? I like pancakes and eggs
19. What do you want for dinner on your birthday? Pancakes
20. What do you want to be when you grow up? princess
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