Crazy Day O' Birth

Do you remember me whining about all those contractions keeping me awake at night, and then turning out to be nothing? Well, Tuesday morning my body decided to say, "Hey! You've been punked!"

If you know me very well, then you know I am a big supporter for a woman's choice to have her baby how she wants, as long as it doesn't threaten her or her baby's life. So having a baby at home is just as ok as having a baby in the hospital, same with having a baby using pain drugs vs no drugs. If you know me at all, you also know I'm not brave enough to have a baby without being in a hospital.

I will admit, that this time around, I had a definite opinion on how I wanted to do it this time. I refused to have a baby while on my back and my legs in stirrups. I had done it that way the last three times, and hated it. My babies always chose to be sunny-side-up (facing my belly button instead of my spine), which meant slow dilation, because their heads weren't positioned to push on my cervix the best way. Aka, loooooong labors. Even longer when you take gravity out of the equation. I was in labor with Alex for 36 hours, Anthony 14, and Autumn 4, simply because they induced me with her. All of them I had an epidural, because with sunny-side-up babies, it means horrible, awful back labor and I, frankly, am a wimp. Having an epidural means I am stuck with having a baby on my back with my legs in stirrups. So this time, I was going to attempt no epidural. I didn't want them telling me I couldn't use gravity to help me out. So I enlisted the help of a dear friend who is a doula. She was to be my bulldog while I was busy trying not to give in to having an epidural. She would be the one to help me tell the nurses I would NOT be putting my legs in those stirrups and they could shove those stirrups....in the closet!

Ok, long explanation out of the way. That is so you know, I did not intend in ANY way to have a baby on my living room carpet. Yes, that's exactly what happened, and no I do not intend to repeat that again.

I woke up throughout the night, as I had done for over a week now with contractions here and there that were strong enough to disturb my precious sleep, but weak enough I knew it wasn't "time". Around 2:30 am they were frequent enough that I gave up trying to snooze in between, and went to wait it out in the recliner. Around 3:45 they were about 3-5 min apart, so drank some water and went for a walk around my block. I pulled out my phone and played on facebook while I walked. About half way around the block I realized these contractions were hurting enough that I was pausing when I had one. So I walked back home, and at about 4:10 am, called my doula to let her know what was going on, that she and her daughter (who was going to baby sit my sleeping kids while I was at the hospital) might want to head my way.  At 4:20 my contractions were strong enough I felt this wasn't my body psyching me out, so I woke Tony. My contractions at this point spread back out to 3-4 min apart and I was thinking, "Great, watch them stop now!" Tony put the car seat for the baby in the mini van while I packed a bag for the hospital in between contractions. I was in no hurry, knowing I still had hours to go. At this point I got really whiny. I told Tony, I was seriously reconsidering the epidural thing, cuz I'm a wimp and couldn't handle it if the pain was going to get worse than this, and I just knew it would with hours left for it to escalate. I just hoped that I was dilating enough that the hospital didn't send me back home (like they had done on one of my previous labors). Then I started to whine that maybe I'd waited to long and wouldn't get the chance to get pain killers. I was soooo worried at that point that I was not going to have a choice in the pain killer department and was stuck doing this pain killer free. I called the OB ward to let them know we were on our way and would be there in about 45 min. Two contractions later my water broke at 5am. Yup, I'd waited too long, but at this point it wasn't just for the pain killers. My water had never broke on it's own before, and there I was kneeling at the couch in the living room. I told Tony I felt like I really had to push, and his response was, "No, don't do that!" He heard the splash from the kitchen. Remember when I was whining about having an extra month of fluid for Abigail to swim in? Well, let me tell you, that's a LOT of liquid to be splashing on my carpet. I then moved to the door to put on my flip flops to get in the minivan, cuz I knew we needed to go, with or without the duola. I just hoped the sleeping kiddos would be okNOW! I told Tony we weren't gonna make it, and he asked, "What do you mean we aren't gonna make it?" Right then my doula walked in the front door as Abigail was crowning. Luckily she is awesome and is also a midwife in training and brought her birthing kit. Three more contractions and Abigail had arrived at 5:13am. She must have been in one heck of a hurry.

Doula Dee, clamped the cord, had Tony cut it and we wrapped Abigail up and headed to the hospital. They kinda freaked when Tony called them halfway there and let them know we were coming with a brand new baby in tow. Security met us at the door, wheeled me in, whisked Abigail off to the nursery, and then set me up to sew me up. Abigail and her shoulder shanks got me pretty good.

Everything turned out well. Looking back, it was really crazy, and I'm glad I was in a labor induced fog, or I might have freaked out a little bit about all the amniotic fluid on my carpet and having a baby in my living room with no drugs. I'm glad it happened the way it did, actually. I was able to have her in a position that felt way more natural to me, and without drugs, not that I had a choice though. I am really glad it only took 2 hours and 45 min (I was surprisingly not wore out since it was so short), otherwise I would have had time to succumb to the wimpier majority of my personality and would have ended up having a baby exactly how I didn't want to, on my back, with my legs in stirrups.

What Insanity Must Feel Like...

I have come to a firm conclusion that insanity must feel just like being pregnant. Not just any part of being pregnant, because honestly most of pregnancy can make you question why on Earth anyone would want to do this, let alone more than once, but specifically the last two weeks. In my case, this pregnancy's last two weeks has been far more unbearable than my other three pregnancy endings. Mostly because I have LOTS of extra amniotic fluid this time.

Let me give you an idea. When I was 36 weeks along (that's 4 weeks from due date), I had enough fluid that my uterus was as big as it should be at 40 weeks. So a whole MONTH'S worth of extra fluid. Now compound that with already not being able to tie my own shoes, sweep the floor without my hips aching, not being able to sit for more than 5 min without my tailbone making me want to scream, and not being able to bend over without sending shoots of stomach acid up my throat, and I think you get the idea. Sick of my whining? Well get over it. I'm pregnant and whiny and if you don't like it, go read someone else's blog.

To make things worse, my body is gearing up for labor. It's not being very nice about it either. Why? Because it's interrupting my sleep, every night, for the last four nights. Just three nights ago I was woken up by contractions strong enough not to let me sleep, for four hours, and they were about 5 min apart the whole time. It's worse than hitting snooze for 4 hours. I also don't do well on lack of sleep. I get snarky. Especially when my body is already drained making a baby AND a bunch of extra fluid. Sheesh.

So I'm tired, snarky, uncomfortable, hot, feeling a little crazy, and just plain ready to get this over with......anyone got a crochet hook I can borrow?

Toothless

Alex lost two more teeth. So now he looks like this......

Kinda cute right?

Well he was kinda scared about it. He had already lost his bottom teeth, (as you can see they are growing in nicely now) and his top two teeth were loose then. For some unknown reason, it's taken months for the top two to fall out. Well, they had help. Daddy and dental floss.

You see, he got kneed in the teeth on the trampoline, they were no more ready to come out then, than before. He got hit in those teeth with a baseball (he missed catching it) and again, still the same. I thought for sure one of those events would have made one fall out. They've been really loose for at least a month now, but Alex has been timid about tugging on them or pulling them out.

So finally we bribed him. I believe it was with candy. We also played it that Daddy was nicer at pulling teeth than Mommy. So Alex agreed to letting Tony do it. We tied floss to one and gently yanked. Came right out, bled a little too, but Alex was worried enough from the little pain he felt, that he didn't want to let Daddy do the other one right away. Although he did promise to let him pull the other one the next night.


Night two. The second one hardly bled, and Alex said ouch before Tony even tugged, but it came out. That night we put both teeth in an envelope and put it under his pillow for the tooth fairy, who rewarded him nicely.

So out of all of this, I finally got some peace of mind, (cuz those teeth hanging all funny in his mouth and turning yellow, really bothered me), Daddy got to do the yanking, which I think he was glad to take part in, and Alex got candy, a $2 bill ($1 for each tooth) and a lisp.

Oh Woe is Me....

I must first write a disclaimer. I love being at home with my children, and am truly blessed in so many ways.

 Today though.......

 I didn't sleep well at all last night, and lack of sleep makes me a cranky person. So today, with the weather so gloomy outside, and my lack of sleep, I'm not feeling very grateful. So I'm venting.

My hips hurt, my butt hurts. This means I can't lay down very long, I can't sit very long, or even walk around too much. Absolutely not cool.

Everything at this point is giving me heartburn, so even though I'm hungry, I don't want to eat. When I do, I regret it, either instantly, or within the hour.

I keep having lots and lots of Braxton Hicks contractions, and for some reason am really frightened of something happening that causes me to loose Abigail. Normal paranoia I know, but still I'm on edge when I can't remember the last time I felt her move.

It's rained enough, and then stopped raining enough that the kids wanted to play outside. So I let them. Then they tracked mud and sand in the house.

Guess I should be grateful that I have a house, since a lot of people just hours from me lost everything they had in a tornado. I am, but I still don't want to clean up the mess, cuz it makes my hips and belly hurt more.I should also be grateful that I haven't lost any loved ones from this nasty weather either. I am, just wish they would leave the sand outside.

Oh well, mess, here I come. Then maybe it's my nap time.

Sweet-Little-Stinker-Butt-Princess-Crazy-Hair

 Her name is Autumn Dawn Manley, but she has lots of other nicknames. Stinker-butt. Autumn-potimus. Princess Crazy Hair. Baby Girl. Sweet Cheeks. Little One. Sweetheart. Princess (I swore I'd never call my daughter that, but yet it comes out of my mouth, a lot). You get the picture, I'm sure. She is adored by her brothers and, sometimes that is the only thing that saves her little chubby butt cheeks when she makes them mad. Sometimes I wonder if I've been replaced by her, because Tony is enamored with her. It took him, probably, til she was a year old before he could bring himself to raising his voice to her, let alone put her in time out or spank her. She is his baby. She is also, almost two....

...and in a hurry to grow up.


I don't blame her, she wants to be just like her big brothers. I'm (still) potty training Anthony and she wants in on the toilet sitting action too. She frequently insists on picking out the clothes she wants to wear, and sometimes even tries on 3 different pairs of shoes before she decides which ones will be allowed on her feet. Oh yes, she's very opinionated too. A good dose of stubbornness is tossed in as well, (how could it not when she is the daughter of Tony and Liz?). She wants to buckle her own car seat, which is currently not in her dexterity range yet, so I let her try and then she screams when I do it instead (because she has been trying for 3 min and still hasn't got it). She no longer will eat if someone else is feeding her. She absolutely must be the one doing the feeding. This is frustrating to me, mostly because she gets frustrated and then won't eat anymore. Cleaning up the mess isn't fun either. Ugh.

 She doesn't like messes either. If she thinks there is a mess, I have to stop what I'm doing and give her the means to clean up said mess, or she will empty the diaper wipes container trying to do it herself, and then stuff them all back in, used or unused. She will come to me with a small bit of mud on her finger saying, "mess...mess" which is my cue to clean it off for her. She doesn't like being dirty either, although it frequent;y takes her a while to notice if she's dirty from playing outside. She will also insist on taking a bath if she thinks mess is sufficient enough that wipes won't cut it. Well, she also insists on a bath if someone else is getting one, or taking a shower. Many times I've showered with her crying "bath.....bath....baaaaaath" outside the bathroom door. She gets upset when I don't let her help load or unload the dishwasher, or get out the packet of soap and put it in the little soap door. Same goes for the washer and dryer. She also won't let me vacuum without her assistance. She squeals at me, like, "How dare you clean up a mess without me?!" At least she's not afraid of the vacuum anymore.

She also thinks she can take on her brothers. She will pull Alex down to wrestle him. She will take things from Anthony. She bites Anthony frequently too, only him for some reason (I think it's because she is almost as tall as him and he should kowtow to her). She has even asserted some dominance over the full grown golden retriever, Cooper. He absolutely tolerates her smacking him on the head while she shouts "Don't" to him for licking her face. I think he only tolerates it because then she hugs and kisses his head, probably to kiss him better for hitting him.

 She will lower her head, furrow her brows and point her finger at me and tell me to "Stop" (although it comes out more like "top") or "Don't" when I get on to her. She gets to go to time out frequently for being sassy or back-talking when she does that. Where does she get this from?! Yes I know, modeled behavior I'm sure, but it's definitely her own brand of attitude.Way too much 'tude for two!

She is also such a sweetheart that she gets away with all of the stinker-butt-ness. She started giving hugs really early. Like, before she could walk. Not just wrap-her-arms-around-you-and-call-it-good-hugs, but wrap them around your neck with conviction and squeeeeeze hugs. Best little girl hugs E-V-E-R! She loves to snuggle with me first thing in the morning for a while, before she decides to wallow all over me. She loves to help, likes throwing things in the trash for me, and giving me my phone (well unless she wants to play with it at the moment). She goes to bed without a fuss (almost every time). She is infatuated with all things baby. This is a good thing, since one will be joining our family in the next month. She will rock stuffed animals or her baby doll and whisper sh-sh-shhhh to it. She loves music and dancing to it.

Even though I'm a grown up and she's just a little toddler, I know that it isn't her making me let her do anything, that it is I, who lets it slide. Really, most of the behavior I let occur, is because I don't mind. I don't mind her cleaning up messes, being helpful, trying to potty train, feed or dress herself. I just wish she wouldn't scream and squeal so much about it, especially the times when it's not convenient so I don't let her.

really hope don't rear their ugly head when princess #2 is born), I just can't help but adore her. I mean, what mother couldn't love the almost two-year old who drags a blanket and pillow to the coffee table, makes her self a little bed, and falls asleep while you type a blog post about her, without a fuss or a whimper?! I think I'll keep her.

Potty Training A Stubborn 3-yr Old

 Warning; lots and lots of bathroom talk to follow.

Day 10...... That's how many days into this ordeal I am. I decided that, now that I am home full time, I have the time to finally potty train Anthony. See, I'd planned on doing it several times before now, but would start, and wouldn't end up having the time to commit to be able to finish the job. I'd even taken him to buy his own "big boy" underwear. That was not enough of a motivation for him I guess.

See, my dear sweet little Anthony is the shy, silent type, in public anyway. He'll hide behind me or bury his face into my leg if someone he doesn't really know tries to communicate with him. He frequently hollers "Mom!" at me just to tell me "I love you mommy," in his little mumble voice. Frequently he mumbles and talks really quite. He is also very stubborn. No, I will not blame it completely on his father's genes. Oh yes, Tony is quite stubborn, but I think I equal him with my own stubbornness. So basically one of our children was doomed to get a good helping of it in their personalities. Honestly, more than one child got it, but Anthony is blatantly so. An example. "Anthony, it's lunch time and we don't have books at the table for lunch, please give it to me." He walks past me and puts it in the window seat. Granted he solved the issue, but that wasn't what I'd asked. This is quite common with this particular child. More often than not, he will do what he wants, unless threatened with time-out or spanking, or revoking of some privilege or prize. Many times in those instances, he cries and I still have to make him comply. But he is so DANG cute, and he's my little bear. (He hates it when I call him that and corrects me every time - "I'm not little bear, I'm An-tony!!!") It's probably the only reason he hasn't been sold. I'd make good money off those green-eyes-and-thick-blond-hair looks of his, you know.

Anyway, now that you have an idea of the personality I'm up against, let me vent entertain you.

I started last Monday. Tony had asked me what I had planned on doing that week, since I don't work at a paying job anymore. I told him, "I'm not buying any more diapers for Anthony, I'm potty training him this week." Ok, now we are on week two, but anyway. I took Anthony to the store to pick out his choice of candy for rewards. He was excited. I let him put on big boy underwear. He was excited. I told him to sit on the toilet and try and go potty. Nope, not so excited now. I felt like I was fighting him over it every time I tried to get him to sit on the toilet. I don't even want to count how many messes I cleaned up and underwear put in the laundry the first day either! When I'd realize he'd peed in his underwear, I wouldn't get angry, just ask him oh so nicely where he had peed so I could clean it up. I would even explain I wasn't mad, just needed to know so I could clean up the mess. He still wouldn't tell me. One time he told me the couch. Nope, nothing on the couch. I figured it out about five min later when I stepped in a puddle on the carpet. In my socks. LOVE that feeling.

Tuesday, same thing. Wednesday was worse, because he needed to poop. Anthony has pooping issues. We still haven't figured out if it's a mental or physical issue. He's on Myralax daily, (at least the days I remember, which is most 98% of the time). He still gets blocked up now and then. I don't know if it's because he holds it in and doesn't want to poop, or just has troubles pooping. Well it gets to the point he dances around on his tip toes and whines. Sometimes this can go on for a couple days, but all we can do is wait. Enemas make it worse. Sometimes his little body tries sooo hard to poop, that the more liquid stuff stuck behind the blockage, gets squeezed out. Well, Wednesday this was the exact case. I found myself cleaning up more poop smears than the last time we had a puppy in our house. So I threw in the towel. I put him in a diaper and told him if he was gonna be a baby, not go potty in the toilet, and have to wear diapers, then he was taking a nap like a baby. Not my finest mommy moment. He was not happy. (Me neither buddy). Alex, of course chimed in, that Anthony wasn't making mommy happy was he, and it makes mommy really happy when we go potty in the toilet. Exactly, little man.

That night, I gave all the kids a bath, because I'd let them play outside in the puddles while I worked in my flower beds. (I totally over did it and my pregnant belly told me all about it the rest of the evening). After bathing, Alex had to pee, so he stood at the porcelain throne and peed, just like he has been for years. Well Anthony wanted to be like his big brother and join in, so he stood on his tip toes and peed right next to Alex. All by himself, no coaxing, nothing. I saw the whole thing. He was so excited! So was I! He came running to me, telling me all about it and asking if he had made me happy. Of course, I followed my cue and gushed all about how happy he had made me. He asked if he could put underwear on again, and I sadly told him that no, it was bed time and he had to wear a diaper to bed. As I gave him a kiss and hug good night, he pleaded with me, "Mommy, can I  please wear underwear tomorrow? I don't wanna wear a diaper." Absolutely!


Together, somehow, we had hit a major milestone. He is now super-duper excited to make me happy and go potty in the toilet. I think he also enjoys having power over Alex when it comes to the treats. Every time he gets a treat, he can let Alex and Autumn have one to, if he wants. So he makes Alex as him, e-v-e-r-y-t-i-m-e. (Alex even made the mistake of asking me, and Anthony said "No Alex, you have to ask me!") We've had a few accidents, but only maybe 3 or 4 pee ones since Thursday, and it's Wednesday again. He even asked if he could wear underwear to church when I told him we needed to put a diaper on him. He promised no peeing in his underwear at church. He kept his promise, through three hours of church too! He still hasn't pooped in the toilet. Heck, halfway through typing this I had to go clean him up from pooping in his underwear. Even though this is taking waaaay longer than anticipated, and I still get frustrated, I think we will both come out of this alive, and my little stubborn, tender hearted, three year old, potty trained.


P.S. Autumn seems to want in on the action too, yesterday she lifted the front of her dress and walked up to the toilet while Alex was peeing. It was too funny. Maybe she'll potty train waaaay early. Wouldn't that be awesome!

Today is Another Day Marked by Freedom

So today is the official day that our vehicle loans get paid off! I received my last paychecks from both jobs this week. So I was able to sit down Wednesday, and write a check for the remainder - $1212.75, and mail it to Exchange National Bank and Trust Co. This paid off the loan on the truck and the minivan. Paying this off meant that $690 a month is no longer going out the door to pay another creditor (although they've been pretty cool creditors, and I recommend them highly). It also meant that between not paying daycare ($200 a week average) and not having the vehicle payment anymore, has allowed me to be a mom full time! :) I know, I know, this news isn't new to anyone, I've already told you about paying off the loan through all of the hard efforts me and my husband have put into our finances.

BUT, today it's official! Just had to share.

Oh yeah, and I'm potty training Anthony, and today is the first day (since Monday) that he has been excited and willing! So today may be another day of freedom from changing diapers on the stubborn three year old!