Happy birthday, Little Man!

Its hard to believe that this little creature

Grew and grew

Into such a little man

Who delights us daily

With his smile

and his antics

who is such a great big brother

and is handsome to boot.

we love you, little man!  Happy birthday!

In the spirit of the birthday "season" a birth story, 4 years later

A's birthday is tomorrow.  His 4th birthday.  Wow.  I know its cliche, but I can't believe that he is four.  It seems so, well, grown up.

My kids love hearing about how they were born, and what E and I did with them the first few days.  I just shared A's with him last night.  He loved it.  Since his special day is tomorrow, I thought I'd share his birth story with you.  Its a copy and paste from a mommy board I originally posted it on.

Austin Davis's Birth Story
7/15/2006






Thursday afternoon (july 13), I went to the dr. and had an ultrasound. I was dialated to 2 cm and the dr. stretched my cervix. The ultrasound measured Austin weighing 7 lbs 12 ounces.






Friday afternoon, I decided to take some castor oil. I didn't really think it would start labor, since it didn't when I was pregnant with Olivia. I didn't take much, and was a little concerned when I didn't start going to the bathroom around the 2 hr mark. But, I did get really sick to my stomach, which I thought was due to the fast food I had just eaten. Around 7 my contractions started, but were very irregular and not very strong. After we put Olivia to bed, I decided to take a bath. After my bath, my contractions started getting stronger and closer together. We decided to call our neighbor over to watch Olivia around 11. We got check into the hospital around 12 am. on saturday morning.






I was hoping to go for a while with out an epideral, but I caved shortly after I arrived. I was dialated to 4 cm when I got there with my contractions ranging from 2-4 minutes apart. They started getting closer together and I couldn't get up and walk around, (hospital policy after an IV is inserted) (a small side note here, inserted after the fact, four years later...  I did my homework after his birth and found out that this was NOT hospital policy, just what the nurse told me.  I got educated and prepared for I's birth with the facts. :) ) They were getting unbareable, so I ordered the epideral. By the time I got the epi, my contractions were making me sick to my stomach and I was close to throwing up. The epi kicked in after 2, and they gave me some medicine for the nausea shortly after. I then slept for about 5 hours. It was great! When I woke up, I was dialated to 7 cm. The dr. came and broke my water and I dialated to an 8 immediately. Within the hour, I was ready to push.






The nurse was going to have me give a few pushes before she called the dr, (since I was a vbac, they thought it would take longer to labor and push). I pushed once, and she called for the dr. Once the dr. arrived, I pushed for about 15 minutes. I guess my husband was trying to "help" me push because he almost passed out and had to go lay down on the couch while I finished pushing. At 12:01, the dr. gave me a small episotomy and at 12:02, Austin Davis Abney was born. He weighed 7 lbs 7 ounces and is 20 inches long.






The minute Austin was born, they put him on my chest and cut the cord. I was able to nurse him immediately, and he latched on great. I was such a different experience from my c/s, in all the best ways! It was a fabulous birth!

working on some things

If you happen upon my blog today, you may notice that its a bit wonky.  I'm trying to work on that. :)  I promise I won't leave it.  Well, for too long anyway.

ETA: Okay, I give up.  I've been working on the size of the pictures on the left side bar for over an hour today.  I am calling it quits for now.  To the 5 people who read my blog, please excuse the mess. :)

"He's definitely one of yours!"

Those were the pediatrician's words to me when she showed me where baby I falls on the charts. 15 % for weight, 30% for height, and 60% for head circumference. Yep, he is certainly following A's pattern for growth (O was a bit smaller... like 0% for weight, but height and HC were about the same.)

Everyone at the dr.'s office also commented on how much our children look alike. I have to agree. He's definitely one of ours.

Olivia

Austin
Isaac

Two recipes: a tried and true, and one that's new.

E's been coming home late the past few days. So, the kids and I decided to make a new popcorn recipe. It sounded great! Kettle corn with a Cinnamon twist. Yum!

(in case you are wondering what I made it in, I have a stove top popper. I have had this Whirley-pop for a while now, even though its been broken since I used it the first time. It was a gift, so I couldn't take it back to get a new one. )

We started with some Cinnamon, sugar, and salt.

with a touch of almost-four-year-old-little-boy love

put it all in my Whirley pop and gave it a go.

I was so excited to try this. It just sounded SO yummy! Unfortunately, I went to turn the handle and the top piece snapped off. It may not sound too vital, but that small turning plastic piece is what kept my Whirley pop whirling.

Here's the end result when said plastic piece snaps to pieces during cooking.

Not exactly what I envisioned. It doesn't taste good either. But, Orval to the rescue. I threw some microwave popcorn into the microwave, then threw the spice mixture on top. Its still pretty good, but I'm sure that it would've been better made the correct way. Especially with that homemade kettle corn.

My tried and true recipe went a little smoother. Blueberry cobbler is in the oven now!

On the ingredients list:

1 stick of melted butter

1 cup of sugar

1 cup of flour

1/2 c milk

1 tsp of baking soda

1 can of pie filling (we used fresh blueberries. about 3 cups)

1 cute little helper

Mix everything but the blueberries together. (this works best if a little boy does the mixing.)

Pour into a dish. Pour blueberries (or any fruit filling, really) on top.

Throw into a preheated oven at 375 degrees for 40 minutes.

Well, I think I hear my timer now. I'm off to check the progress of my yummy dessert.

aperature and other things I don't understand

I've been trying to mess around with my camera today. I did something big for me. I switched it to manual mode. (gasp! I lead such an exciting life, don't I?) Unfortunately, my manual mode was stuck with who-knows-what settings, leaving all of my pictures black. Not black and white. Just black.


After getting some online help via facebook (seriously, how did I ever function with out that?? ha!) I got it to have color. Then, I spent over 30 minutes, trying to find the manual to my camera. Once said manual was found, another 10 or 15 minutes to figure out how to change the aperature.

I found it. But, the only subject that I could get a "good" picture with was a pacifier. Nice.



I messed around for a while up in I's room with some natural light and some with the flash. The results were, well, Meh.

At least the subject is cute.

throwing babies, stress, and the death of creativity

When O was about 6 months old, E threw her across the room. (He claims he tossed her gently, but my version makes for better story telling.) She was screaming crying loudly and I needed a break from the noise. I sent E in to rock her. As E was headed to the rocking chair, he tripped. As he was falling, O sailed out of his arms, blissfully unaware of her misfortune, and landed with a thud.

E, of course, felt horrible. I came running into the room, not knowing what on earth had happened (all I heard was "thud" and then a "waaaaaaaaaaah!!!!!!!!!!!"). Turns out, she had actually landed onto a large pillow and E was the one who had made the thud, and O's crying was only from the shock of it all.

I had a similar incident today. Except for one little difference. I didn't throw toss accidentally drop the baby. He was unable to be dropped/thrown/projectiled into the air because he was in the sling, snug against my body. (I actually fell into the road, crossing the street to get from one of our church buildings to another.) Zeke didn't even hit the pavement. In fact, he seemed to enjoy the funny ride, and had a big grin on his face after I stood up. (I'll pretend he enjoyed the ride, versus laughing at his mommy's klutzy-ness.)

I, however, didn't walk away unscathed. A few scrapes, and some bruises. Definitely a bruised ego for sure, and probably some physical ones as well. Thank God that Zeke was in the sling and I couldn't drop him. It would've really hurt him if I had...


Which is kind of stressful to think about. Stress, stress, stress. To say that I've been overwhelmed lately is, well, an understatement. I feel like nothing is getting done right/well enough/fast enough and that there is always a to-do list a mile long. A friend wanted me to sew some stuff for her, I's baby food issues (we've now decided to skip purees all together) the kids have taken turns getting sick, thrush, antibiotics, etc, etc, etc.

In efforts to try to lose more weight, I've started running the past two weeks. However, I feel like instead of relieving stress, like everyone claims, its actually causing more. Stress over when to fit it in, where to do it, how long, how far, how to keep the kids entertained, etc. Not to mention it cuts into my kid-free time in the evenings, and my hubby time. I feel like E and I haven't' seen each other much this week. He and I were alternating what evenings to go run/workout. When we get back, its shower then sleep.

I could go on and on and on. But, I won't. I've decided to cut back on some expectations as well as some things. For instance, part of my stress is coming from my creativity. I get excited about ideas of things to make. Particularly, things I can make by sewing. But, I get stressed when it doesn't work the way I want, or it takes longer than expected, or I don't have time/energy/hands to do it. So, the sewing machine is getting put away this afternoon. Back into the master bedroom closet. Away where ideas can't stare me in the face every day while I sit nursing the baby, wishing I had free hands.

I'm not sure what else I am going to cut out right now. I might try to combine my devotions with running and see how that goes. Maybe some sermons on my mp3 player, or some worship music perhaps (but, I need fast music, so I'm not sure what to shoot for there...) Whatever the changes are, it has to change for my peace of mind. It needed to change yesterday.