4 Weeks Ago I had a Baby

Due to my hugely swollen ankles and feet and my overall gigantic-ness, I felt sure I would go into labor on my own this time. No such luck. On February 24th I went in at 6:30 am to get induced. This was probably my easiest labor. At 7:45 I got hooked up with my IV and the pitocin drip started. At 8:20 the doctor broke my water. Of which there was a river (something I don't remember with my other ones). An hour later I got my epidural before anything got painful. The epidural was actually TOO strong. I couldn't feel a thing and started to feel like I was going to pass out from being lightheaded and my blood pressure dropping. So they gave me some epinephrine and turned the epidural down 3 points and all was well after that. Before I knew it was time to push. I had to be told because I couldn't feel a thing. I started pushing by noon. It was all so casual since I wasn't in any pain or anything, the doctor was just chatting with the nurse not even facing me and I was worried I was going to push the baby out while she wasn't looking and no one was even going to catch it. Occasionally she would take a peek and tell me what an "amazing birth canal" I had and to push again. At 12:28 Evan was born, all 8 lbs. 12 oz. and 21 1/4 inches of him.

My friend Kam came and took some gorgeous pictures of him in the hospital. All subsequent pictures have been on my iPhone and they look really bad.

Chad finally got his male heir.

He has delicious, furry, squishy cheeks

Welcome to the world, little man!

What our life is like now....

There was a lot of sibling love going on the first few days, which combined with my postpartum hormones and lack of sleep caused a lot of anxiety and grouchiness on my part. But things are better now.

It is definitely weird having a baby after an almost 5 year break. The basics I remember, but I feel like I'm learning all over again how to figure out the Eat, Activity, Sleep time scheduling. I keep re-reading my old copy of Secrets of the Baby Whisperer. I shouldn't complain, he is a textbook baby so far, and no more difficult to get to sleep than any other. I'm just out of practice and have forgotten what it feels like to be sleep deprived.

My biggest challenge is keeping up our schedule with the other kids, when all I want to do is sit on the couch and watch TV and hold my baby--not drive carpools and go to gymnastics and soccer practice.

My one triumph is I give him 2 oz. of formula in a bottle a day. I've never been successful having any of my other kids on both breast and bottle so I was determined to do it with this one. Just knowing I can have a tiny ounce of freedom if I need it means so much to me.

So now we are just getting into our routine. Chad threw his back out a few weeks ago. He likes to make sure that he gets his moment whenever I have a baby: a kidney stone 2 weeks before I had Rylee, a migraine during my labor with Avery that was bad enough for him to leave the hospital and miss the birth. And I don't remember what happened with Izzy, but I'm sure there was something.

I lost 20 pounds and then plateaued and proceeded to gain 2 pounds back thanks to Cadbury Mini Eggs. I have another 20-25 to go and no pants in sight that I even remotely fit into. And that's when I reach for the Mini Eggs to make me feel better.

I wish I could just hideout in my house with those Mini Eggs, Evan asleep on my chest, and Downton Abbey going on repeat in the background. Oh, well.

Just so you know....

I am one week away D-day. If I don't go into labor on my own, which, I never have, I will get induced on Friday the 24th. I have very mixed feelings about this. Like all moms. I want this thing out of my body and to have my body back and be comfortable again. But I'm scared to death about all that comes after. It's been so long since I've had a baby I don't even remember what to do. I haven't changed a diaper in like 2 1/2 years, let alone get up with a baby in the night. If it were just about taking care of the baby, I think I could handle it. But I've never had to balance older children with taking care of a baby before. Some things will be easier: no toddlers to worry about, older kids to help hold the baby and possibly change diapers (am I dreaming here?). But how do I stay on top of all the elementary school junk, home work, soccer practice, gymnastics, my YW calling, house work, etc. AND take care of the baby? I can barely handle that stuff as it is, let alone do it while making sure a baby is breastfed, has a nap, and a clean diaper. I'm terrified to say the least.

But I know others have found a way to do it, so I guess I will too. In the meantime, pray for me. And as my parting gift before I slip into baby prison, as my friend Nanci calls it when she's stuck at home with sick kids, below are recaps of the last 6 months or so, if you are interested.

projects i've done

I got together with 2 friends and we made upholstered headboards. This one is for my room, I'll post pictures when I actually have it hung. And I made another one that is a more simple camelback in tan suede with bronze upholstery nails around the edges for my guest room. It was so fun and easy! Next we are going to make benches to go at the foots of the beds.

Silhouettes for the staircase. These were harder than I thought. None of the proportions worked out and it's hard to tell who is who. Oh well, the overall effect is cute.

Tree for Avery and Izzy's wall after my friend Dana toned it down a bit to make it more whimsical.

Tree as I originally did it, a little heavy on the scrapbook paper flowers. I went to the trouble to make them and I hated having so many left over so I just put them all out. Dana pruned it.

Painted my old, yucky, brown piano black and had the bench recovered.

And of course the biggest project I've worked on was the nursery. You've seen me mention my neighbor Dana a few times on my blog... I don't know what I would do without her! We share a love of decorating (not that I'm any good at it, but I still love it!) and she is attempting to take her hobby to a more professional level and has started a blog and working as an interior decorator. Because she loves me she wanted to help me do my nursery. While we know themed nurseries aren't "in", we did a golf theme anyway because this is Chad's one and only shot at having a boy. Since she did a whole post about the nursery on her blog, I'll just connect you there if you want to see it so that I don't have to repost pictures.... Oh, and don't be distracted by the giant "E" over the crib constructed out of a golf club... That was just for the pictures so that we would have an initial. Once we name the baby I'll put a big, gold initial over the crib. Maybe it will be an E, maybe it won't, but I will tell you one thing: it will not stand for Eben!

recap 4

My friend Dana helped me do my first complete nursery

Avery had another surgery on her birthmark

Izzy started ballet and tap, something I swore I'd never do, but she begged and it was at the exact time and location as the other girls' gymnastics, so I figured it was worth it to have to drive only one time a week to have all three of them in lessons for something at the same time...

Chad put on his New Year's Eve Fireworks Extravaganza. Hint: those aren't presents under the tree....

My awesome friends threw me the most amazing, to die for golf-themed baby shower ever! My friend posted good pictures so click here to see the amazing details.

recap 3

Rylee got baptized

Avery got to be Mary in the nativity re-enactment

Izzy was an angel

Went to California for Christmas for the first time in 4 years? Because my brother AJ got married

Baptized Rylee in California since we were already there

recap 2

Chad lost some of his several members of his snowman family, but gained a new 20 foot santa and reindeer...

Rylee turned 8 and became quite tweenish...

Lots of soccer.

This one was surprisingly good at soccer, scoring 9 goals one game.

I don't know why these pictures aren't showing up in order.

recap 1

Attended a few UT games. Sometimes we had better seats than others...

Izzy started her last year of preschool.

Rylee started second grade and Avery started kindergarten

Halloween

Here I Am

Bullet time:
- I actually didn't mind having my kids home this summer. They finally started to play with each other really well and stopped fighting (as much), which left me lots of alone time in my bed. Where I spent a lot of time.
- I feel like I owe my bed an apology for not appreciating it enough. It wasn't until November 2009 when we went camping and I slept on the hard ground for the first time in like 15 years that I realized how wonderful my bed truly was. As I was lying in it this summer wishing myself dead from morning sickness I composed a lot of odes to it, but I can't remember them now.
- Avery took it upon herself to be my nurse and would bring me drinks of water and peppermints and wintergreen lifesavers (which strangely helped me feel better). Sometimes she would cry and get mad if I couldn't think of anything for her to bring me while I was in bed.
- The house pretty much fell apart this summer and we still haven't recovered 100%. I'm working on forgiving Chad for several of his comments along the lines: "When are you going to do something around here?" and upon coming home from work, "Still in bed where I left you this morning, huh?" Some days the stench of the dirty dishes in the kitchen was enough to keep me in my room at all costs.
- After a particularly traumatic throwing up in a trashcan and peeing on the pantry floor while Avery dry-heaved and screamed and Rylee missed her piano lesson and yelled at me I decided to fill my Zofran prescription. That helped a lot, but things were never 100% better.
- We took an impromptu long weekend to South Padre Island because if we all didn't get out of the house we were going to die. Literally. We had a great time at the beach and all was well until my Zofran prescription ran out and I threw up on the car ride home because Chad wouldn't stop for lunch until we got to a certain BBQ place that was 6 hours away and NOT EVEN GOOD.
- I have a lot of throw up stories. They all involve me peeing my pants at the same time and the one from last Thursday involves Avery throwing up from watching me throw up and then us being late to pick up Rylee from gymnastics who was crying in the lobby thinking we forgot her. Good times.
-But I'm 16 weeks now and mostly over the hump except for a few bad days here and there.
- AND according to a few ultrasound pictures that seem rather definite... we are having a boy! Chad is beside himself. He keeps talking about the father son campouts he'll get to go on and how he now has someone to go to dinner with before the priesthood session of Conference, and he wanted to get him a onesie that said "Daddy's Number One Draft Pick"... And then he said we should have another son after this one and I said No Way Jose. You made comments about the kitchen being a mess during my morning sickness.
- But we are very excited and now I have to concentrate on explaining to Chad that he gets zero say on the nursery decorating (which he has a sudden interest in now that it's a boy) and that we are NOT naming him Eben Ray and calling him E-Ray.
- Oh yeah, and Rylee started second grade and Avery started kindergaren and Izzy is in her last year of preschool. Good times ahead for the Browns if I can survive homework, soccer season, and battling over names with my husband.

Sorry so stream of conscious, I just figured I should get this post written so I can take a shower after exercising for the first time since May. Go me.

Highlights from a Sleepover

I think sleepovers exist to either make you feel really good, or really bad about your children. We haven't really done any before, but tonight we have over two very sweet girls of our good friends--a swap since they watched our girls overnight a few months back. Their good behavior has only made my children look worse and shown me what an ineffectual parent I am. And instead of inspiring me to do better it just makes me want to give up. Highlights from this sleepover that have showed me how horrible of a mother I truly am include:

- Child A repeatedly telling me thank you for letting them come over and stay.
- Child A making sure we had a prayer over lunch
- Child B (who's 5) telling Child A "Remember, mom said to be cooperative!" When Child A didn't want to play something Avery wanted to play. Child A quickly gave in after the reminder.
- Child A saying thank you at least 5 times for us taking them to McDonald's for dinner.
- On the way home from McDonald's I tell everyone in the car that when we get home they have to put on their pajamas before we can watch a movie.
Child A: Don't we need to take showers?
Me: Nah.
Child A: But we always take showers before bed.
Me: Well tonight you don't have to.
Chad: Texas is in a drought, we're doing our part.
Child A: I really want to take a shower. I don't like to be all sweaty before bed.
Me: How hygenic of you. You can take a shower if you want.
Child A: Oh good!
Then I spent a few minutes trying to remember the last shower/bath my girls took since I've been counting the pool as one a lot the last week.
- 10 minutes later, through the bathroom door where Avery has taken her to show her where I am Child A asks: Do you have any body wash?
- Nope, sorry.
- What about a sponge?
- Nope, we don't have those either.
- Well, I'll just use whatever you use.
- We don't really use anything. (In defense of our unhygenic sounding habits, I've had girls with a lot of UTIs, itchy birthmarks, etc. and so we stay away from the whole soap in the bath thing)
- Well, how about a wash cloth?
- I do have one of those! I'll get it in a minute. (I then dig through the pile of towels under the sink for a wash cloth that was given to us as a wedding gift and never used).
- I overhear Child A trip over some toys upstairs and comment to Child B, "I need to get better at stepping over things."
- Child A comes into the room where Chad and I are putting to bed overly tired and cranky children having fits about not being tired and asks if we're all going to say a prayer together. Avery screams NOOO! She doesn't want to and isn't coming.
- Chad goes and says group prayer with Child A and B and Rylee. Child A blesses that everyone will be more helpful tomorrow. Apparently she witnessed the lack of cooperation whenever I asked Rylee and Avery to do something.
- Rylee comes crying into the room where I am finishing getting Avery and Izzy settled in bed crying about the back of her arm hurting where I had applied OTC wart remover that morning on some tiny white bumps that haven't gone away for months and which I finally presumed must be warts. I tell her I'll be with her in a minute thinking she is exaggerating.
- Upon finally inspecting Rylee's arm I discover that the medicine has burned sores all over her arm. Chad and I spend 10 minutes applying wet washcloths (who knew they could be so useful!) and ice to it.
- I ask Child B if she has gone to the bathroom repeatedly and she tells me she doesn't have to. Due to the large drink she consumed at McDonald's I am nervous and finally ask her point blank the last time she went pee. During the afternoon hide and seek game 6 hours ago. I tell her she needs to go potty before bed. She still says no. Finally I tell her it's our family rule to go pee before bed. That seemed to do the trick. You can tell that in her family they actually follow the family rules.
- 30 minutes after I get everyone in bed I hear the loudest crash imaginable from upstairs followed by crying. Child B has fallen out of the queen size bed she is sharing with Child A.

And now I am blogging because it is keeping me from my evening prayers in which I really need to ask forgiveness for being such a lacking mother. So now you know, we don't bathe everyday, own body wash (actually Chad does, but I didn't think it was right to wash a child with Irish Spring) or sponges, my children don't clean up their toys, are ungrateful, and we don't have regular family prayer or pray at lunch. And I accidentally burn my children with medicine.

And Child A and Child B will have a lot of fun stories to tell their parents about us when they go home tomorrow.

Not Holding Anything Back

I'm pregnant. I'm sick. I threw up in a clogged toilet today because Chad didn't have time before work to fix it. The number on the scale at my first OB appointment was the same number that I saw the day I came home from the hospital after having Rylee. I didn't get to go to California this summer. My children watch TV all day and are bored out of their minds. Texas is in a massive drought and super hot. We found kittens in our backyard that are both a blessing and a curse. I went on a cruise in June that contributed to that large number on my weigh in. I still have a month until school starts. Rylee knows I'm excited for school to start which makes me feel like a horrible mother. My kitchen smells and my house is trashed.

Not Cool

When I picked up Carson, the little four-year-old we carpool with, from preschool today I noticed one of the boys in his class staring at me. Finally he blurted out: "Are you Carson's grandma?"

It took me a full 30 seconds before I could answer "No!"

Our First Family Vacation

So, in a moment of weakness we decided to take our first Family Vacation. We've taken many trips to visit family, and Chad and I have slipped away on our own a few times, but we've never had an official Family Vacation all together...

I've always had a thing for Disneyland. I like the way it smells, the flowers in the shapes of characters, the feel of Main Street, all the old classic animation. I would live there if I could. We decided to try Disney World since it was something new, and we were all about something new with this whole family vacation thing. And at the time I was planning this I was feeling frugal so we decided to drive. I regretted this decision as our trip got closer, but by then plane tickets had gone up too much.

The drive actually ended up not being that bad. The girls had a portable DVD player, a laptop, iPod, and 2 iPhones to play with. It's not like they suffered. Very different from the road trips I remember. On the way back we stopped in New Orleans for a few hours and that helped break up the drive as well.

We had a great time and I'll give you a synopsis of the highs and lows and some pictures for the grandparents.

Highs:
- Getting to go to all four parks: Epcot, Hollywood Studios, Magic Kingdom and Animal Kingdom
-Watching the girls' faces when the met the characters. Especially Izzy. Izzy has a love for The Princesses like you wouldn't believe. Since she's three, I think it's cute. The last time we were at Disneyland Rylee was her age and totally content to have the princesses pointed out to her from afar and then move on. Not Izzy. I tried to get away with this maneuver, but after the first day Izzy informed me, "Jasmine likes kids. I saw her talking to them. I want to have my picture with Jasmine too, not just look at her." Which brings me to...
-Lunch at Cinderella's Royal Table inside the castle in Fantasyland. Most expensive chicken nuggets ever, but so fun to see the girls' reactions as the princesses all came to our table. Although Ariel seemed a bit baffled when Avery asked her about Melody (supposedly her daughter according to Little Mermaid 2, a library rental that was watched probably six times on the drive to Florida).
-Not cooking for 9 days
-Getting Izzy onto Thunder Mountain multiple times despite being a good 2-3 inches shorter than she should be (thanks to some creative puffy hairstyles, tall shoes, and tissue paper stuffed in the heels)
-Relatively low lines
-Fun memories that should last a good five years :)

Lows:
-The last three hours of the drive there
-Avery and Rylee crying to go back to the hotel to swim the first two days instead of visiting Epcot and Hollywood Studios
-Avery crying from the moment we left the hotel until we got on the first ride (sometimes this could take over an hour) usually due to an injury or desire to stay at the hotel. Some of Avery's injuries included but were not limited to: walking into a car's rear view mirror in the parking lot, collapsing herself in the stroller, being cold, and getting her tongue stuck frozen to a popsicle.
-Having to constantly stuff Izzy's shoes and adjust her hair in order to sneak her on the 40 inch height requirement rides. It only worked 60% of the time. Sometimes she had squooshed the tissue paper in her heels down too much by the time we got to the front of the line and they would send her back. I'm afraid this whole experience traumatized her, to be measured and found wanting was a little confusing. The first couple times we went on rides with no height requirements she was baffled. "Why they don't measure me?"
-Wednesday night we decided to stay for one last ride on Thunder Mountain. Big mistake. While riding the coaster thunder and lightening started and they stopped us on the high point of the track. Then it started to sprinkle. Then it started to rain. Then it started to pour. Then a hurricane came. Well not really, but it felt like it. We got to finish the ride then walk back to the entrance from the farthest point in the park in the hurricane. It was super slippery and Rylee fell once and I pulled a lot of muscles trying not to fall. Then we had to wait for a ferry to take us to the parking lot. Fun times.
-Me slipping and almost breaking my neck in the rain while walking down the stairs from our hotel room. Who covers outdoor stairs with slippery tile??? Do they want a lawsuit?
-Chad throwing out his back on Expedition Everest trying to cover a terrified Avery's eyes.

By mid-week we'd found our vacation groove and there were definitely more highs than lows. So for those who care (read grandparents) here are some pictures from the trip...

The beginning of many pictures

Refueling on our drive at Mickey D's

Princess nightgowns to start the trip. Tinkerbelle visited every night while they were asleep and left them a gift on their pillow if they were good during the day. This was a double-edged sword in that it often caused some very early risings to find out what she left. Good thing Tinkerbelle lives 5 minutes away from a Disney outlet.

We tried a few creative hairstyles to help Izzy reach the 40 inch height requirement for a lot of the rides.

Obligatory Epcot Golf Ball shot

Playhouse Disney/Disney Junior (why do they always change the names?) concert at Hollywood Studios

More pics

Izzy hugging her Royal Invitation to lunch in Cinderella's castle. Supposedly you have to get these reservations six months out. I tried a few months back to schedule but they only had time slots for like 9:30 at night. I gave up. At 12:15 on a day with a crowd of 8 out of 10 Chad walked up to the desk and was able to get us in within 10 minutes. Go figure. I'm starting to doubt the exclusivity of this invitation.

At lunch in Cinderella's castle the princesses all take turns coming to your table to talk to you. This keeps your children from eating their very expensive chicken nuggets. You also get a Wishing Star and magic wand that you get to make a wish with. Chad got a princely dagger. An explosion of words came out of Izzy when Belle came to our table. She was trying to convey something along the lines that she had Belle's movie and knew that the Beast was really nice and not to worry. I don't think Belle understood a word of it but just smiled and said, "I'm so glad you know my story!" I really wish I had that exchange on video.

Rain on Thursday kept Animal Kingdom nice and empty for us. Hooray for dollar store ponchos!

More Animal Kingdom

More pics

After walking by the too-long line to meet Jasmine, Izzy finally lucked out on the last day.

Frontierland Mickey and Minnie

Riding Thunder Mountain with arms up! Rylee rode Expedition Everest with her arms up too and I freaked out that she was going to fly out of her seat since she's so skinny!

The infamous popsicle Avery got her tongue stuck too. She's still crying about it.

On the way out, figured we should get a quick picture by the castle.

New Orleans

So we stopped in New Orleans on the drive back. It really helped to break things up. This city is fascinating! It makes me want to do a ton of research on it and write a novel set here.Cathedral

French Quarter

Buggy tour through the French Quarter

Graveyard. People in New Orleans have to be buried above ground due to the water underground...

Lunch in a famous Po-Boy sandwich shop