Weekend Update

Shannon went to church today in a pink little dress, tights and matching ballet slipper type shoes. It is too bad you can't see her tights in this picture, they are rather cute, but Shannon is still really good at tucking her long little legs under her. The dress actually only reached to her hips- even though it is sized as 6 months.

She slept through church, eating a few times, but never opening her eyes.

Yesterday Shannon slept while her grandfather was cut in half. All the boys were besides themselves watching the man saw right through him.

The rest of the Pine River fest activities were mostly canceled because of rain, hail and wind. However, they boys did see the parade... and Mike swears he will not take them to another parade for at least a year.

Visits

Today we went and visited local grandmothers. My mother had to get her Shannon fix. And Grandma Jeanne still had the magic touch and Shannon slept the whole visit. Grandma Jeanne also had a nice little stroll down memory lane with so many young boys making noise in her house.

Galen had possession of the camera most of the visit and he wore the battery out taking around 100 pictures of Shannon's face. Just like the top one.

Shannon, of course, was her cooing and squeaking self and Grandma and I both agreed we should record an hour of her and sell it to all those people who miss baby sounds.

clouded conversation

Yesterday as we were driving home, I pointed to the sky and told the children "Those are perfect clouds for seeing shapes in. What shapes can you see?"

"I see a tornado." said Ewan

"A tomato." said Ian

"Mashed potatoes." said Galen

what else do you do wiht blankets?

The second picture here is actually Shannon anticipating the next flash. She doesn't care for them much.

Otherwise she does like the taste of Grandma made blankets.

Baby Fix time

With the heat yesterday and today Shannon has a nice little heat rash on her chin, face and arms. We did bathe her last night, but it didn't seem to help much.

oh well, she is still the cutest thing on the planet.

8 days old!

Shannon has been doing a  of sleeping lately. Enough so I have even been able to pay some bills and pick up the Living room. Although, when it came time make dinner, she woke up and demanded my attention for a few hours. Yup Dinner was served at 8.

Besides Shannon pictures for the last 2 days, what you see is Clay and the "male bonding" occuring among the boys. They have been hysterically laughing while watching "Darwin Awards" videos.

Us girls find then more sad then funny.

Excuses, Excuses

After a 2 week absence, we were seriously planning to go to church today. I even ironed Shannon's Sunday dresses last night. But alas, our plans were foiled.- and I can promise you this time it wasn't the promise of labor that caused us to stay home.

It was the battle with mosquitoes, you know the kind that buzz around your head while you are trying to sleep. And then when you get up and turn on the lights to swat them, they hide.

The mosquitoes alone, wouldn't have foiled the church plans for me. But a very hungry baby (with appropriate elementary canal work) combined with those pesky mosquitoes did.

I changed several very messy diapers last night, one set of receiving blankets and had to put a scratchy towel over my new from the wash sateen sheets due to the biggest leak yet. I made sure to crawl into bed before midnight, and Shannon was hungry so I took her with me (after just changing her diaper). Well, she started squeaking and grunting and before I knew it her efforts paid off. She leaked all through her diaper, her blanket, on my sheets, my blanket, and unto me.

So 45 minutes later I crawled into bed again...with a hungrier Shannon. That process mostly continued all night until about dawn, when she finally settled down to sleep.

Ready for the World

Today was Shannon's first outing. Of course we had to dress her brother's up too.

Everywhere we went Shannon was cooed at and people used descriptive terms like "Pretty face" and "Long fingers".

Grandma Lynn was happy to get her baby fix today. Shannon made sure she paid for it too. Her diaper leaked on Grandma's lap.

Galen and Ewan's invention day camp was finished today and we arrived later then we desired to see their showcase. It took us quiet a while to put the car seat back together after cleaning it- and then try to get it installed in the car.

Galen made a water balloon launcher that would have launched the balloons across the parking lot. The camp staff made him reduce his design to fit with in the class room settings. (too bad, go Galen!)

And he also made a robot the looks like the one in the new Wall E movie. Only he misspelled it and it was "Will E". But it so had the character of the one from the ads.

Ewan enjoyed camp too. Luckily Ryan was there for Ethan- and my kids until we arrived. He understood the "Car seat fiasco" issues.

But now both car seats are installed and can be used with much more ease.

Baby love

I believe at least one of these pics is called "I know that flash is coming."

pictures de jour

Shannon today, and Clay today. I guess Shannon isn't the only one who feels no need to wear nothing but a diaper and a blanket.

Ravenous

That word described me this morning, as my milk came completely in and Shannon is a much happier little baby. Her face is starting to unscrunch and she has her first non- meconium bowel movement.

The more food she is actually able to eat, the more she actually sleeps, and that lets me off a few minutes here and there to do things. You know, important things like going potty and getting a glass of water.

By Friday I am hoping I can do other things, like find my hair brush and deal with customer sales.

We will be taking more pictures of her and posting them for all those who are anxiously awaiting them.

Meanwhile, as soon as Daddy gets back from bringing the boys to camp, it will be my nap time, as it has just been over 48 hours and I got to pace myself to handle the demands of this growing family.

We have not yet felt the need to dress Shannon. And unless I figure out how to unhook that umbilical cord clamp, might not dress her until her stump falls off.

I am doing mostly well. My physical complaints can be summed up in a few words: killer hemorrhoids (that is the biggest problem with 10 pound babies) and after pains.

What really gets me is how bad after pains are. I can go through labor and delivery without though of pain relief, but as soon as those after pains kick in- pass the tylonal. Happens for every kid too.

So if you have something chocolate and decedent you are welcome to call, come over and trade it for a two minute hold of our baby, otherwise I will talk with you later.

more baby pics

We tired all the boys out today.
Here is Ewan asleep on our bed while we await for Galen to calm down from an autistic fit.

baby pics, as promised

first pics

Baby, Baby, Baby, Baby, Baby

BABY finally came this morning. She arrived screaming at 6:48 am. Weighing in at 10 pounds! and 22 1/4" long.

She has a head of dark hair. Her name is "Shannon Elizabeth Newbold."

Today is her due date- June 16, 2008.

She is finally napping, and so I will too- after all I was kind of occupied all night.

I will post more later- with pictures.

another week, no baby

I guess what it boils down to, is that I do not want to share her yet.

Especially with people who have hurt me recently and out right refused my request for the traditional "baby in" time.

Nearly every culture has a "baby in" time. A time where Mommies and babies are made to be together for a certain number of weeks or months with minimum distractions. Most often this time varies from 4-8 weeks.

In many cultures it is a taboo for anyone but Mommy, Daddy and Midwife to see the baby during this time.

In our culture it is very challenging to even hold people at bay during the immediate postpartum period, non the less in the sacred weeks of restructuring into a larger family unit that follows.

Ok, She can come now.

I got my garden in!

And there are tornado warnings around us and severe thunderstorms heading this way. What a perfect night for babies.

More effective then a "Go Away" sign.

Our big, friendly dog got himself sprayed by a skunk on our front steps last night.

But at least Mike already fixed the door knob to the garage, that broke the other day- so that entrance can be used again.

Other than that it seems like a glorious sunny day... And I am feeling ready to take it on. I need to take care of business and then I can head into my garden and prepare it (finally) for planting!

Another rainy day

It is another rainy day. The boys are playing- they always play something.. and I gave up and bought them each a new indoor activity toy. We also got Galen's new glasses today (with a duplicate pair).

Baby is still wiggly as ever and has a strong heartbeat. Mommy on the other hand is feeling tired and ornery.

I woke up and went back to bed several times this morning and even after I got dressed I went back to bed. I figure I must be sleeping hard now for a reason.

My house still smells of the wonderful pancakes I made for breakfast around 2pm.

good laugh

I just had a really good laugh followed by a really good contraction.
We are watching Gilligan's Island, and Galen asked about it... Dad said it was an old show, older then him.
And Galen asked "You mean 100 million trillion years?"

No baby yet, yet a headache

Why I should have a "GO AWAY" sign

Any other mammal, when in nature, will not go into labor or birth a baby until all stress is gone and they are in a comfortable atmosphere. If you have a dog for example, and they are birthing on their own and you rush in with 4 others admirers, talking loud, carrying on, etc and the dog is disturbed and uncomfortable, it will stop labor until the environment is "birth friendly" again.

Same as say a tiger in the wild. Not going to go into labor when there are stressors around.

Nothing much happening

Shannon must be a respecter of Sunday nap time.

According to my sources the early or latent phase of labor may last for an eternity....During this phase the cervix needs to thin and dilate to about 3cm. This phase for Galen, Ewan, and Ian each lasted about 3-4 weeks.

With Clay (and with the help of targeted hormones) it lasted for about 2-3 hours.

Today is a good day to have a baby

It is sunny, warm, beautiful weather, no schedules, no appointments... just contractions.

state of being

I am feeling like a PMSie teenager again. My hormones are on the flux.

I have had strange desires to lock myself in my bedroom and tell everyone to "Go away".

Crying for no good reason.

Yesterday, my house qualified as "clean" all day.

I wake up 100 times per night and then eventually give up on going back to bed.

If I didn't know what all this meant, I would probably think I was going crazy. It is amazing that any one around us survives this stage.

So what does it mean when I am too wiped to play the stupid computer game that I usually play when I am too tired to do anything else?

It means the kids are out of school for the summer. If one would dare to call this weather in any way summery.

I had 5 boys here today. The promise of a cousin to play with gave Galen motivation to go to school these last few days (thanks for letting us borrow him).

Well Galen come home hungry, we were expected this. He wanted to make an omelet, so I told him he could use up to 6 eggs. This is did, and there were extra eggs made up so I cooked those for his brothers.

After I cleaned up the kitchen and wiped everything down, Ian got it into his head that he was going to cook an egg. He left his egg completely unattended while he watched Ethan and Ewan play chess. My omlet pan is now black.

By the time Mike smelled smoke, I was cleaning the bathroom, not even imagining anybody would be doing their thing in the kitchen......

And my garden isn't making it in this weather, which kinda bums me, because I told my baby she can't come until after the garden is all in.

Galen Unveiled!

I just got a very revealing phone call this morning. Galen happily announced to Mike, while waiting for his last school bus of the year that he had orange pop at school on Thursday or so of last week.

That explains many things pertaining to this weekend.

And it explains this incident too: "We found some new frames for Galen's glasses, which is useful, because in an autistic fit this afternoon he threw his current ones out the car window, which were immediately ran over. (that was after he threw his shoes in the garbage and tried to walk to grandmas (ie run away)."

I really wish people would open their eyes to the studies on artificial colors and flavors and see what they are doing to kids each time they share/give candy or junk food. See study story here.
It is not just Mike and I and Galen's behavior anymore, there is scientific evidence for it.
Maybe the children need a sign "DO NOT FEED ME GARBAGE."

Sunday Night and All is Well.

not perfect, but well enough.

It was another beautiful day outside, with all the trees in blossom. The breeze was just enough to offset the early summer sun, and We, well at least Ewan and I, went to church. We picked up grandma on the way to save some gas.

By the time we got home from church It was nap time. Grandpa picked up Ewan to play with Ethan and Galen got all upset and tried to walk to grandpa's his old para found him (again, the second time in 3 days)... and sent her sister to the door to alert us. Mike was on the case.

Then he successfully kept Galen busy with some computer games. By dinner time, it was becoming fairly clear that Galen had walked through a wood tick nest or two. So we told him that the best course would be to cut his mop and then have a bath. That way it would be much easier to spot all the ticks, and indeed, we found 4 more just while he undressed.

But he now has a face... with out glasses. :)

And My fingers could use another round of soap to reduce the smell left from Ian's medical procedures tonight. The only kids that are still up are Galen, he wants a story and Ian, who fell asleep during his enema.