Tuesday, January 10, 2012

I am Blessed...Belated Christmas...

 Blessed...

Or Bliss...

I'm still in that newborn-honeymoon-stage...I'm about to find out that he has exceeded the newborn-poundage at my midwife appt. this afternoon. (Here is my pilot cap project)


This was the first Christmas for us that I could tell on people's faces "this is it right?" All children act up, but we have been grateful so far that we've been able to take all our children to a restaurant without the drama that can sometimes follow. Having worked in the restaurant business, I recall the "oh no here comes a table with children" reactions from servers.


Yes, this is me, Thanks to Miss B (sorry I had to do that!)
Our church puts on Bethlehem Live each year. We have somewhere between 5000-6000 move through our modest gymnasium, transformed into the town of Bethlehem. Israel was one of a few babies who played that main role. He preformed for over 2000 audience members.


This, I will never forget :: I could not understand why so many of the teens and children from the school tours KNEW his name. I mean, not the name Baby Jesus, but my baby's name, Israel. Until it finally occurred to me what they were actually saying -"It's Real, It's Real!" - sounds like "Israel"! For more of Miss B's great photography you will just have to stop by her website!



Over the holidays, one extended family member looked me in the eyes and told me how blessed I was with these children, as she described the pain in their own family of pregnancy loss. I looked at her (knowingly from my own experience), and said, "you are so right (with tears in my eyes), we may not have a lot of money but we are blessed with these precious gems!" My heart goes out to the many Mamas that I know, and do not know, those that I've met through this blog, or through Above Rubies who've experienced this painful thing of loss. My 100 year old Grandmother-In-Law just passed away, just days before she'd mentioned seeing a vision of her daughter that she lost (due to pregnancy loss) in heaven, waiting for her. It warms my heart that we have children waiting for us in heaven!


Better late than never - Merry Christmas! (smile)

Thursday, December 15, 2011

Little House Birthday Blessing


Looking for a theme for our oldest birthday child, we decided on a "Little House on the Prairie" birthday party. I'm not much of a specialist in any particular area, so experimentation is the name of the game - especially when it comes to cake making and decorating! (The links take you to past attempts). But we did have fun between the peanut butter puffs, butter cream icing, and pretzels!


Some arrived dressed for the occasion, braids and all!


I had scoured the internet for "Little House Paper-dolls", but to no avail!  I decided to set my own hand at making my own, and they actually turned out nicer than what I did come across online. So, once I can scan it, and make it into a down-loadable pdf file, I'll make it available for a free download on my blog, for those interested!


We made butter, by shaking up 35% cream,  in a mason jar. (Alot of shaking, while the adults helped).  They scrubbed and washed some (clean) cloth diapers on an old fashioned wash board. Coloured their paper-dolls. Ate cake. Played. Watched and episode of Little House on the Prairie. Opened gifts.


And finished off sporting their new "Dear-Friend-Kelly-Made" Bonnets! (Thank-you, Thank-you Kelly!) Once her website is up and running - I will link to her dear handmades! 


 We didn't send them home with treat bags, partially because I'm not a huge fan. Nope,  instead each pioneer girl left with her paper-doll, some butter and a bonnet.


Seven on the seventh! Bonne Fete Ma Belle, my extra set of arms, the other little mother!

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Saturday, November 26, 2011

Birthstory: The Israel Story

 That rosy, content, face of a newly fed baby rests on my lap while I type. We welcomed little Israel, 6 lbs, 14 oz. this past November 18th, born in my bedroom at 2 minutes past noon. Surrounded by 2 dear midwives, my husband at my side, my 7 year old daughter and her "sibling support", 16 year old Amy. There is no comparable feeling of relief than when you've just birthed a baby. What an extreme emotional sensation I shared with the 100's of 1000's of other women who also birthed on this day across the world. Going from that intense war physically, mentally and emotionally to it being over...over...over, and this healthy baby resting on my abdomen, chord still pulsating, the midwife is giving him a massage seconds after he is born. I greet him, laughing, crying seconds before, now laughing, welcoming him, and minutes later he has his first breastfeed.


 He nurses like a pro. Like he's been practicing this for many months.  It's hard to believe that this little one, my smallest of my 4 babies, was my hardest homebirth so far. My waters, with my first 3 did not break without the help of a midwife just prior to baby being born or while I was pushing baby out. I had always wondered what it would have been like to start labour with the breaking of my membranes. Be careful what you wish for, you might just get it. And now that I've experienced it, I don't recommend it.
 
It was my due date, Thursday November 17th, and my excited Selah, 7, had been saying all day, "I hope it's tonight, God, please let it be tonight". I gently reminded Selah, that I usually start labouring in the morning, and that that is more convenient than labouring all night. But as chance would have it, that evening,  it was between 7 and 8pm when I realized, with one hard contraction that my waters had broken. By 8:00 I texted my husband, who was at a church meeting.  My midwife had told me to give her a heads up, when contractions were 10 minutes apart, so I did. She'd come over when contractions got to 5 minutes apart.  Rene stayed for the meeting, because contractions were not close enough together for him to come rushing home.
 
My husband and Amy arrived about 10ish. The midwives both showed up somewhere around 11pm. And my contractions were all over the place, without consistency, yet more intense than I had ever felt before. By midnight I was sure I was in transition, and felt like pushing. I'm told that with posterior babies, that's how it is - you just feel some relief with pushing far earlier than it's time to push. Only one of my babies was actually born posterior, but the other 3, I am sure I also laboured with them in posterior position, because of the back labour. When my midwife checked to see if it was indeed time to push Israel, she said, Nope, that his head is not in the right place and I was far from fully dilated. I was shocked. I should know by now the sensation of transition - the "I can't do this anymore", "I'm done". This continued for another 10 hours. Exhausted by morning, my husband and midwives talked about the 18 hour antibiotics, 24 hr. mark induction at the hospital and choices as such.


 When I heard, I marched to my room, and said out loud to myself  "I'm having this baby by noon!" Not that I'm against hospitals, many women have wonderful experiences, but I knew I was a prime candidate for intervention, with the membranes rupturing before labour, dysfunctional labour, primed for induction, and I was hardly managing as it was. I had a little cry, called up 2 like minded Mama friends, who prayed with me over the phone. Following that, on my midwifes recommendation I took the lemon verbena cocktail at around 10am. The contractions picked up a little, especially in intensity, but not in consistency. My brilliant husband called our Chiropractor. We were desperate, and he would do a house call. If I've ever been on the fence about chiropractors - I am NOT anymore. What I experienced was amazing. I don't typically enjoy adjustments - I just know it's good for our immune system and that it is preventative.  Immediately after the adjustment to my sacroiliac, lower spine, neck and lower spine again, I felt a surge of fresh energy. My husband said, "let's use that, and don't sit down". So staying vertical, contractions immediately became back to back, and endorphins were finally kicking in to manage those contractions. Just 45 minutes after that adjustment, Israel was born.


 Is there any other time in a woman's life where she feels as savage and ungraceful as when she is pushing a baby out? It is not the time to worry about what you look like. As baby's head was crowning his heart rate plummeted and my midwife said loudly and firmly that I needed to push the baby out now (which I had never experienced with my previous 3 births). With my pushing history, this was going to be interesting. But I was on the home lap, sprinting to the finish line, and with all the power I could muster, he came out with the chord bunched up on his shoulder, causing the drop in heart rate. And he is beautiful, healthy and strong. His name is Israel Chets (pronounced Sh-ay). He has a 2 year old mother who dotes on him all the time, a 7 year old mother who truly is a great help to this mother, while his brother, is eager to show him his tribal fighting dance!


Wednesday, November 16, 2011

Handmade Birthday Gift Giving

I was so grateful for all your kind words, thoughtful mothers, on my last blog post! I do find these seasons, although short, some of the most surreal times in of life!


 Last weekend our 2 year old daughter was invited to a 3 year old girlfriend's birthday. Now, some families may not appreciate homemade gifts as much as others - but I knew this family enough to know that they would be just fine with the choice....plus, it satisfies my own toy-convictions!


My new favorite site is PINTEREST! It's been around, but I'm not always on the web-ball as to what is the latest and greatest. This site is the greatest though! I'll probably search EVERYTHING here before I do another Google search again. The problem one could run into is the possibility of pinning and pinning, but not doing.


So, searching for a birthday gift idea, I came across this and thus was my inspiration for the Mama and Baby in sling and house-purse. If you are on Pinterest, let me know, I'd love to follow You Too!

Thursday, November 10, 2011

Pre-Labor....Labor of LOVE?


Officially the one week count down has started. I've been fooled before, with periods of false OR pre-labor....I remember clearly when Elousia's labor began, thinking, "OH YA, This is how it feels!". This will be my 5th labor experience, with our 4th living child. Some kind folks often ask if it's my first - I'm not really sure how to respond, but sheepishly tell them it's my 4th (not ashamed - just not sure how to tell them)...their response usually has to do with telling me that I'll know what to expect, like I'm some sort of pro at this birthing thing. "Ya, Right!?!" Ya, the rose-colored memory of my past 3 homebirths, kind of blocks my true memory of how it all began...and can I really manage it this time???

Thanks to Kelly who took these photos, she encouraged me by telling me it wasn't until her sixth labor that she kind of felt like she had a grasp on it....That is the second Mama to tell me that (said in a sing-song voice: "ya, it was about my sixth or seventh that I felt like I could manage this!") Well that's just peachy, I'm a few short of that!  Now, I shouldn't be so negative, I love birth, I love pregnancy, I'm devastated by losses.


It's just the "is this it?", nope, "is this it?" syndrome, that drives me nutty! I'm in the zone. I'm distracted. I have a one track mind. If I could just tell the world around me to quiet down and go find something to do, while I focus on what I want to focus on - That would be great!


I had hoped to get into the new birthing center in our city with this birth, for something different. Yes, the above photo shows one of the birthing rooms! Lots of space, large tub for laboring OR waterbirth, bathroom equipped with shower nozzles everywhere to address that back labor, nice wood ladder for dangling off of or pushing...so many lovelies that my home currently does not have...not to mention SPACE!  If you are a local, and you are thinking that you want to go with this, I should let you know that a midwife is mandatory over a doctor, because there is no intervention or pain medication available here. It's just like a homebirth...away from home. Alas, they are not open for births until after Nov. 22.  For us, now,  it's a race against time to compile the birth supplies and prepare my own space! I'll let you know what the final outcome is!

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Tuesday, October 25, 2011

For the love of Dress-Up!


I love dress-up!
Some things that I am pondering right now....


These days my goal is to be more disciplined with homeschooling, with the baby due in about 3 weeks....a little break from the regular routine for a couple of weeks after baby arrives will be nice. 


This week I added Squaw Vine to my pregnancy tea, hoping it will contribute to a sooner and smoother labor. And nesting has begun.


I met a lovely lady through Kijiji who graciously sold me AND posted to me her prefold diapers. I'm selling my old variety of diapers, and working towards just prefolds and similar stock so that it stacks and packs nicely!


A brief follow up on my week of kcwc? It was a week full to the brim of activity! And I got less sewn than I had hoped. The sewing area, however, is now ready for sewing and that is a great accomplishment in itself. 

On the list was a baby quilt (which I am sorry that I have no photos of that yet, but it should be about half done this week), a nightgown for my oldest, made from vintage linens and a 2nd hand pinny or apron.


I did manage to crochet a baby hat or two...no pics I'm afraid, so here is one from another year, and Elousia's vintage coat with added wool felted leaves covering a stain.
  
There are some gorgeous lovelies on Elsie Marley's kcwc flicker group!

Monday, October 10, 2011

:: October 2011 kcwc ::


Thank-you to Jenny from Peas n Carrots (my new Above Rubies friend and Waldorf Inspired homeschooler!), for introducing me to the Kid's Clothing Week Challenge at Elsie Marley's Blog! This is just the motivation I need. From Oct. 10-17 the challenge is to sew for one hour a day towards my children's projects.
It just so happens that I'm starting my first attempt this week at a Real quilt. As in, an expert quilting friend, Joyce,  is walking me through, starting from the basics, and ending with a crib or throw quilt for this fourth baby, arriving in approximately 5 or 6 weeks.
There are few art disciplines that I really got my hands on the basics other than maybe music and dance....when it comes to the fine arts, fiber arts, hands-on-art, I tend to hack my way through it. Sometimes the results are pleasing, and many times not so pleasing. I learned most of what I know of knitting and crocheting from Youtube videos and other online resources. So, (or should I say "Sew"), I'm excited about Joyce bringing me to the basics of quilting!
Other projects for this week will include some upcycled creations toward's some children's clothing items that have been in the procrastination basket, I mean project basket for a while.
Today my KCWC accomplishment was preparing my work space and washing fabric to prepare it to SEW!

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