Josiah Nathaniel

On Saturday we took the kids swimming. This allowed me to move slightly more comfortably for a couple of hours and provided the kids an outlet for their pent up energy.
On Sunday at church I could not get comfortable. I am sure I was driving everyone crazy. I think I stood up and walked around every 5 - 10 minutes. After church we ate lunch with Zach's parents and took the kids to the Winnie the Pooh movie. I still could not get comfortable. This continued all through our evening although I was still convinced that it was not doing anything. I figured it was just end of pregnancy aches and pains.
On Monday morning at about 545 I got up to pee, as I walked back to bed my bladder was hurting. I was sure this was still residual from the bladder/kidney infection, but as soon as I settled into bed I started having waves of pain in my back and lower stomach. I pulled out my phone and started tracking them, they were coming 45 seconds long and a minute apart. They were intense and I really had to focus to get through them. After five of them I woke Zach up and told him we needed to get moving. He called Carolyn (our most awesome doula and friend), my mom, his parents (to come get the kids), and the  midwife.
Zach started running around getting things together. Thankfully we had packed the bags. We had so much slow labor last time I figured we would have lots of time to do it, good thing Carolyn had told me a couple of times to get on it. By the time Zach's parents got there to get the kids, my mom and Carolyn arrived and I was ready to go. The contractions didn't let up at all. Once I was standing that was the only way I was comfortable. I tried to sit on the ball once while waiting for everyone but I shot right back up the second I hit the ball.
I think we all thought I would be laboring at home for a time but the second everyone arrived we were on our way back out the door. The drive was brutal. Sitting was not what I wanted to do. Thank God the Guide was not covered in bumps and potholes as it was when we made that drive for Ellie. When we arrived at the birthing center around 7 Anne (midwife ) and Jess (assistant Midwife) were already there all set up. Anne checked me and kind of nonchalantly said that things were looking good. When we asked how dilated I was, kind of expecting a 6 or 7, she laughed and said oh about a 10
What????? The only thing I could think was that everything was happening way too fast. The labor was so strong and it was all happening so fast. I continued on for another 2 hours that way until we decided to break the water, then he was born in half an hour. I am sure if we had broken the water as soon as we got there I probably would have only had 1.5 hours of labor. As it is labor started about 6am and he was born at 930.
He was much bigger than any of us had anticipated. He weighed in at 11lb7oz and was 22.5 inches long. My largest baby by a mere 3 lbs. No wonder everyone thought I was carrying twins.
Josiah was really grunty. At first we just thought he was a noisy baby. He grunted all through his first feeding and continually through the first couple of hours. The midwife started to get concerned about how much he was retracting and how labored his breathing was. We decided we had better take him into the hospital. He was checked into the nursery and put on oxygen, by that evening he was in an incubator with an IV in his tiny little hand. I was not permitted to nurse until the following afternoon and I was not even allowed to hold him until much later that night.
I loved my delivery at the birthing center and would definitely do it again. The experience was amazing in comparison to my other two. It was really hard though to move to the hospital 4 hours after giving birth not as a patient but as a parent of a patient. Thankfully they were able to find me a camp room (closet with a cot) to call home for the next two days. I stayed in the nursery as much as I could until someone sent me back to lay down. Zach covered most of the rest of the time with him. Needless to say we were both exhausted.
We were able to take him home on Wednesday afternoon after having gotten him to take a couple of good feedings. He had already lost 1lb though. Since then we have been working really hard to stabilize his weight and get him to start gaining weight. He got down to 9lb13.5oz. We have him slowly inching his way back up. We have been at 9lb 15oz for the last couple of days. He is such a sleepy baby that he has a hard time waking up to eat, which makes feedings take that much long, which makes him more tired and you can probably see how that can become a vicious circle.
Please pray that he wakes up a little more thoroughly to eat and that he starts to put his weight back on.

Raspberry Festival - Written on Saturday 7/16

I have been having contractions on and off since Tuesday, mostly in my back which is totally different than my other two. I really have not been quite sure how to guage them as a result. Zach stayed home starting on Wednesday as things seem to keep escalating in the evenings and then slow down during the night. We have been trying to do things with the kids to make them feel special and to keep me moving. Lot's of walks to try and get things moving along. This baby has a mind of his own. I guess that is what we get for naming him a fiery gift from God.

On Friday we went to the Raspberry Festival to kill time and keep me moving. Samuel said he wanted to climb the wall. I didn't really think he was serious. I got into a conversation with one of the vendors, when I turned around, Zach had gotten Samuel hooked up. I was shocked, and amazed. He made it 3/4 of the way up this adult climbing wall before his arms got to tired to keep going.

 Ellianna chose to jump in the jumpy house instead. Good choice for her. She loved it.

And now we wait!!!!

Well at my last midwife appointment a week ago I was 1.5cm and slightly efaced. This didn't really give me much hope that anything was going to happen anytime soon. Yesterday at our appointment I was at 3cm dialated and 80% efaced. That could mean tomorrow or next week. I have some hope since we went to the hospital pretty well into labor with Ellie and I ended up only being 4cm.

I feel like we are ready though. The house is clean, the laundry is caught up. The books are caught up. The house is organized. So now we wait. Wait and enjoy the time with our other two littles. We want to spend this time really focusing on them and making them feel special so that they are excited about these changes too.

Swimming Lessons

We did swim lessons at the Athletic Club this year. Last year we did them at the Y. Since I wanted to put our fearless Ellie in this year that was not an option for me. The Y requires parents to leave the pool deck and watch from a window upstairs over the pool. This was just a little far to be from Ellie the fearless. Also they had all the kids on the edge of the pool in the youngest age group. At the Club we were able to stay on the pool deck on bleachers and the kids stayed on the steps.

 We really enjoyed our whole experience here. The kids were in the Belugas. Ellie did great and so did Samuel. Samuel was advanced to Clownfish next time and Ellie will do Belugas again.

 Ellie needed to work on paying attention. hehe. This does not surprise me. They both were very comfortable with the water by the end of the six sessions. I think technically they want you to tack on another session to ingrain it farther. That would be right over the due date though and is not going to happen.

It is really important to me that my kids can swim and be safe around water.

Summer Fun

It has been a struggle for me to find the balance between getting ready for baby and just having fun with the kids. Yesterday I looked at the forecast and saw that it was supposed to be rainy the next two days. That was enough for me to put everything else on hold long enough to have some sunny summer fun with the kids.

 We went to Grandma's with the fun sprinkler and pool toys that Ellie had picked out with her birthday gift card from Auntie Pam. Mom and I sat in the sun and watched while the kids played in the water.

 Ellie was so cute in her Hawaii swim suit from Grandma. At one point she decided that swim suits were overrated however and completely stripped off everything except her crocks. She just would not be persuaded to put it back on. Normally this would totally not fly. But right now I am tired and as Zach likes to say I have the reflexes of a dead cow. He says this in love of course. he he

Every now and then the kids would come to warm up. It was a fun morning. Thanks Mom.

4th of July

Since Zach was working on the fourth starting at 11 am I really didn't have any ambitious ideas of what we could do. I didn't really plan on doing much of anything. Then I ended up talking to Carolyn who invited us to join them at the Overstreets for a Potluck. I am so glad that she did.

We started the day by going to the Blaine Parade. I had never been before. I can honestly say that if it was just me I probably wouldn't go to very many parades. But viewing them through the eyes of my children makes them so much fun. Their excitement and enthusiasm over the smallest little things is contagious. Mom went with us to the parade. Thankfully. The whole trek there was quite exhausting at this point in my life.

Later we went to the Potluck at the Overstreets and had so much fun. I got to sit and chat with great friends while our kidlets had the time of their lives. There were so many other kids to play with. They also had a jumpy house, cotton candy machine, and snow cone machine. And a metal swing set that the kids thought was amazing. I didn't plan on staying as late as the fireworks but in the end by the time I looked at the clock it was time to go down to the show and so we decided to stay.

Samuel's response to the fireworks was priceless. He exclaimed " I can't believe my eyes."

We didn't get home until 1130. The kids had both passed out 10 minutes before getting home. I had to make the decision between putting them into their beds covered in dirt or dipping them in the bath. I chose the bath. They were both balling, they didn't want to bath they just wanted to go to bed. I was glad that I did though when I stripped them down and the bathroom floor was covered in sand and the bottom of the tub looked like I dumped mud in it. Libby and Ellie had been showering each other in sand.

You can imagine my relief in the midst of all the tears and drama when I turned around to find Zach home 3 hours earlier than I expected. He showed up right when I needed him most.

Remembering Hannah Beth!

I have never said anything about this as I didn't feel there was anything that I could say that wouldn't make the whole thing that much sadder. In December My brother Owen and his wife Angela lost their sweet baby girl Hannah Bethany. We don't know why God chose to call her home but we are thankful for the time that Owen and Angela were given with her.

My dad and my brother Jared are really into competitive races. Marathons, Triathalons, Iron Men... Last weekend they were relaying a half Iron Man in Vancouver. They decided it would be a good opportunity to pay tribute to our sweet neice. So they named their team "Remembering Hannah Beth"

 Unfortunatly I was not able to be there for the race. Samuel and Ellie went with Grandma and Papa and Uncle Jared to get registered for the race though.

The guys did very well. They placed second in the Men's Relay and ended up getting interviewed by a bunch of people including Canadian TV stations.

Owen and Angela, please know that we are still praying for you guys and that we have not forgotten your sweet baby girl. We love you and miss you very much.

The Countdown is on!!

I thought for a while there that I was going into labor early but it turned out that I was having labor symptoms as a result of a UTI and Kidney Infection. Once the antibiotics kicked in things settled back down again. I am very thankful for that.
Now we are hunkering down and waiting. 12 days left today. We are trying to stay on top of the things around the house as much as possible so we don't start behind and do extra fun things with the kiddos. Our family is going to change a lot in the next couple of weeks.

Ellie's 3rd Birthday Party

I have done Parties for each of my kids each year. Not that they need it, but it is a great way to get to see some of our friends that we don't always get together with. This year I was kind of dreading Ellie's Party because I am so tired all the time. I tried to make it as simple as possible.

We met our friends at the city park with some sandwich makings, cupcakes, juice and chips. It really was super simple. The weather wasn't looking like it was going to cooperate but thankfully the rain stayed away. We ate lunch, opened presents, had cupcakes and then the kids spent an hour or so playing in the park with all of their friends. It was the easiest party I have ever done. Might have to use that one again.