Calvin's story

Wednesday was pretty exciting for me. I had started in labor! They were regular and though I was able to sleep that night I kept waking up counting contractions. I got up at 5 a.m. showered and got ready to look pretty at the hospital. 

Then Thursday got really dull.  My contractions stopped abruptly before they got painful. So we had an uninterrupted Turkey day after all.I took the kids on a turkey trot for donuts and hot chocolate down at the river while Brent played football. Then we had an awesome meal over at our friends the Martins. Brent kept telling them this was the best Thanksgiving dinner he had ever had. I was a bit offended, but had to admit that we were lucky that a baby hadn't got in the way.  I slept like a baby all that night and didn't feel a thing. 

Friday morning Brent left for the office to spend the day drilling and filling with Kennon as his assistant. I went for my first walk ever around my neighborhood around noon. During the walk I was thrilled to start a long contraction and this time it hurt like the real thing. 

But I had made rolls that morning so I hurried home to roll them out. We were all craving Thanksgiving again and we needed some more rolls. By 1:30 I was cooking away, having painful contractions 2-5 minutes apart and trying to get ahold of the dentist. He wasn't answering his cellphone or office phone. When I finally reached him he begged to fix a broken tooth first. I wasn't in too much pain so I debated messing up his day and left it up to him. 

I called him back during the next contraction and said, "Actually come home, I would feel much better if you did, please".

By 2:30 my obedient husband was home and I was cleaning up from dinner. We were trying to decide if it was painful enough now to head to the hospital. I spent about 15 minutes in my bedroom cramming hypnobirthing then came down and had him CUT MY HAIR. He made me wait till he finished his pie. After the hair cut, I called the Dr. and told her we might be checking in soon. 

Finally we got in the Buick and kissed the kids goodbye. We checked in about 4. I was still smiling and walking around during contractions and was hoping we didn't come too early and things would be a bit boring this time.  They checked and announced that I was 5 and 80%. Darn. We were too early. I am going to be here awhile. 

We got settled into our birthing suite and my midwife broke my water at 5:15. Brent settled in the corner with his remote planning on enjoying his suite for the next few hours. I heard him call the kids about 10 minutes later and told them it will probably be a couple hours. 

I was really upset but too out of it to say anything like, "No way am I laboring 2 more hours! On my side of the room things were changing fast. Within two contractions of my water being broke, I had a lot of pain and then the pressure of a head. I told the nurse that I was feeling his head there and she said, "Ok, I'll go tell your midwife." She came back in a couple more contractions and immediately checked me. 9.5. It was time to get ready to push. 

Brent snapped this picture right about then. He hadn't heard a word out of me in the last 10 minutes or so but finally perked up when he heard "9.5" called out.  Kashann might need some support now. Better get a picture first. 

I was totally unable to call for help. I tried waving him over a few times but he didn't notice. I was trying to hard to relax, go numb, float off on a raspberry jello,  breathe slow and deep, anything but  admit that I was dying over there. That's the whole point of hypnobithing. Never focus on the pain because then it might actually start hurting. Hah! 

The two nurses behind me had been whispering constantly at the computer and I wanted so bad to scream at them and the man operating the TV to please go away or stop the noise. But I couldn't because of course then I would be breaking my concentration admitting to pain not pressure. In my lap (Brent didn't get this in the shot, but it's right there) is my hypnobirthing book. I am pretty sure that is totally not the right way to do this because it is impossible to get yourself into a hypnotic state when you are flipping through pages everytime you get a break in between contractions. Brent might've found me way more entertaining then the TV if he had took the time to notice his birthing partner. 

Anyway, here we were ready to push and I had Zero energy and didn't think that baby stood a chance of coming out that way. It was probably the hardest thing I ever did getting him out, but Brent says I always say that. 

Oh, but it was awesome. I was so proud of my natural delivery. It took me about 10 minutes and of course it was all worth it in the end. It really went perfect. It hurt, hurt, hurt and it was dang hard. But the whole thing went so fast and was super thrilling. Best experience ever. Never doing it again though. 

                                    Calvin Jackson was born at 5:55. 
He has been Calvin since 16 weeks when I first saw him on the ultrasound and sent the text to Brent at work, "Calvin is fine" announcing our success in creating another son. Jackson is after my Dad, J Alan. The J stands for his mother Faye Jackson. I called Dad yesterday trying to settle on J. or J or Jay. He is just a J - no period. Which is a little weird and I just couldn't decide if we would regret it. He mentioned that J is for Jackson and suddenly I knew we had his middle name. We will call him Calvin J still but Jackson is too cute to leave out. 

He is so perfect. Ahhh, I love him. I feel like the luckiest momma ever with another little miracle. 

 Brent left 20 minutes after to go get some screaming children 15 minutes away. We had promised that they would be there right after. They showed up so early that the baby was still on my chest covered in his birth and I had literally nothing on, but a sheet as they had me slip my johnny off my shoulders and over him, skin to skin. It was pretty funny to have all these children on top of me, taking over the scene. 

They all wanted to see the toes.  oooohhhh :)

Brent can't believe he now has two. Calvin is the spitting image of Marcus .  . .and thus his Daddy too. 

They each held him though I warned him he wasn't ready for kisses. It was sooooo exciting for each one of them. Finally they placed him on the scales and we checked out all 8. 2 lbs and 22 beautiful pounds and inches of him. 

After the family of 8 reunion came to an end, Brent took them out for ice cream and left me and the baby to recover for the night. Luckily we had him quick so Brent could be home. I'm not sure who slept less. Me caring for a newborn or Brent at home with Marcus. Marcus woke up with horrible croup at 3 a.m and they spent much of the night in a steamy bathroom. 

My sister Candice sewed this for Calvin. It has a C on his shoulder and was the perfect fit. Even room to grow.  He wore it home. 

We took our one day old home last night to save a little money. That was the only reason. 

I wasn't ready to face it all again. 

 And it was a crazy welcome home. Way too many helpers and holders. I checked into my new room about 9 p.m. The room I kicked Savannah out of for the nursery. She is sleeping with the croupy 3 year old for a few months. I am going to sleep in her bed right next to Calvin until our nights are more normal.  I've never moved out of the room before, or asked Brent to but it just made sense so I could flip on lights. And I was pretty glad all night to have the room. He pooped 6 times in between the hours of 10 p.m. and 7 a.m. And there were lot's of feedings to aid in those poopings. 

Today went awesome. We all stayed home with the newborn and two sick kids and had church down in the basement by the woodstove. Back to real life tomorrow. Brent's back at the office and the kids will need lunches, rides, breakfast, reminders, laundry washed, dinner, Ahhhh.. . . . 

Wish that life could stop for Calvin and I for at least a few more days and I could just hang out with him in my little room and ignore all that other stuff. 

Miracle # 6

Calvin Jackson 

8 lbs. 2 oz.  22 inches 

Born on

11-25-11 

at 

5:55 p.m. 

Everything went perfect! More details and pictures to come. 

 I am so lucky to finally have a new camera and a daughter that is eager to become a photo expert. She has been urging me to let her do a photo shoot before I no longer have the cute belly. We ran down to the river for a half hour photo shoot yesterday afternoon. I am due in 10 days.

 As always as soon as she takes photos she immediately comes home and uploads. Then edits. And sometimes signs right into Facebook. This time with my photos she decided to sign into her mothers account.  Then she called me down. There were at least 30 pictures uploaded on my page! I started flipping through them telling this was way too many. Then I saw she actually posted a picture I thought was so bad I had asked her to delete it immediately about 10 minutes before so even Dad would never see it. And there it was on facebook. For about 2 minutes. So I deleted all the fat whale ones and left the ones that would bring compliments. So if you think I look tiny remember for every pic that looked good there were double that many that were grotesque and made me look huge. I hope not too many people in the world were logged onto facebook for 2 minutes yesterday and had a chance to copy or even view that one picture. She tells me it was an accident. I doubt it. Time to change my password.

 Camille had a birthday last week! Ten years old and still as sweet as can be. 

She has been pleading to become a featherhead for several months now. By now, I told her it's too late. Feather heads are out. But her mind was made up. So off we went to get her a birthday feather. She is wearing her new birthday sweater and some makeup for the hot date to Olive Garden for her birthday date with her parents.

 And we have our 8 eight passenger vehicle just in time. Our 2nd son has already been quite expensive. Brent is proud that we finally caught up with the rest of the world and bought a car that was made after Y2K. It's a 2003.


We got pulled over 10 minutes after the sale on a family drive. I heard that Steve Jobs always drove around without plates because they give you a grace period of 6 months after the sale. We thought we would try it out.  Luckily we were just warned and police escorted all the way back home. It was nice that he didn't say a thing about our lack of seat belts in the front seat. No seat belt law here in NH and sometimes we take advantage of that. We were just driving down Main Street to a football game at about 15 miles per hour.


I don't think I'll be driving this too much. At least this winter. Brent has big plans to have it be his office snow rig during the week and has ordered a snow plow for the front. So it's totally tax deductible. He'll take it off whenever the whole family needs to go somewhere.

Here's a quick update on each person.

Brent finally got around to hanging a family picture in the living room for me. He is really picky about screwing things into the walls because he wants them screwed into a stud and I am too lazy for that so he makes me wait for him to do it. It can take months. So finally one Sunday night we were having company and I insisted. He found a stud and started to drill and suddenly we had water spraying out of our walls and all over our living room. He had hit the one 1/4 inch heating/water pipe in the whole wall. And he was pretty mad. And of course, it was all my fault too because I had been so insistent that he had to hang that picture. So we had a large mess to clean up and had to cut a whole in the wall. I got it all patched and painted again. I told him that was the easy part. The hard part continues to be getting  him to hang up the family photo.

Kennon has her own photo business thanks to her parents splurging on a new camera. She would love to do your family photo shoot when you come for a visit. Just make her swear to not post any of them on facebook. 

Savannah had a bad week. Her parents confiscated the Ipod her friend gave her. No more internet devices for our children. We learned our lesson. In one month she had become pretty addicted to it and has had major withdrawals. We are going to get her a new one for Christmas to make it up to her. But it won't have any wifi access. Her Dad also made it up to her by giving her his homemade ice cream recipe and letting her start making up her own and freezing it. She asks on a daily basis. She made a mix that she keeps in the fridge and then just freezes up one serving. A couple days ago she carried the ice cream machine down to the sauna and froze her serving down there to keep it a secret and to insure that there would be no sharing involved. 

Did you know we have a real sauna in our house?  I can't wait till I can start enjoying it when the baby is out. A hot tub would be nice to compliment it.

Camille superglued her lips together yesterday. She couldn't even get them open enough to cry for help. She is notorious for starting up craft projects when she is supposed to be getting ready for school and she knew she shouldn't ask to use the superglue for a spontaneous art project 15 minutes before the bus came so she tried tearing the stuck lid off herself. With her teeth. And out it came gluing her shut. Once we got her unsealed and scraped she told me her sad story. I couldn't help but say, "I can think of some daughters that I would be glad to have their lips superglued but Camille you aren't one of them." 

Caroline is enjoying her new popular status. All because of a scarf and a pair of sunglasses and loads of self confidence.  She told me that even the boys are chasing her around every recess now calling her Grandma. Camille confirmed that she saw at least a hundred kids chasing her around during the recess. I told her that's great but she better work on a new one because nothing lasts forever. 

Have you heard of Harold and the Purple Crayon? Last week it was Marcus and the Purple Marker. We have five flights of stairs in this house and he traced three of them. I happened to notice a thin purple line one morning just above the wood stairs on the edge of the trim. I followed it and it just kept going and going. All the way to the top of the house. Then it came back down again on the other side. It was a pretty straight line and it must've been pretty fun tracing it. I was overjoyed to find that it wiped off because he happened to choose a washable marker. I have no idea when this occurred. He told me he did it, "In the middle of the night." 

Kashann is getting so close! 

I think I secretly love being 8.5 months pregnant. There is so much anticipation. And I finally get to run around and be a pregnant mom in society. 

Brent will be glad to get him out just so I will quit talking about labor constantly and telling him "Honey, I think this is it, I think I am feeling a contraction." 

 I got hooked up to the monitor yesterday at my appointment because they wanted to track the heartbeat better. They also were concerned that I was still measuring 36 weeks. Although I was worried I did have my hopes up that it might lead to being admitted.

 I lay there for 25 minutes and they finally determined that his heart rate was fine after all. The best part was actually seeing that I had 2 contractions show up on my paper reel during that 25 minute span. So this is for real. I am having a baby soon. 

As the new high priest group leader in a ward of not enough high priests,  Brent has to teach almost every other Sunday. I like it because he often comes home inspired to improve some area of his life. A couple weeks ago it was on journaling. He hasn't kept a journal in over 15 years. His last entry was in December 1995 stating, "I met a nice girl. . . "  Since then I have been doing all the journaling. So he decided that he would start out the new Brent last week by writing a family letter on his family's website. He just wrote another one yesterday. Here's an excerpt from that. " A couple of our neighbors noticed my Ron Paul lawn sign. One of them wrote us a letter secretly confessing that she likes him too. She actually didn't like him as much as she detests Romney. She said,"Anyone but Romney".  I don't think I've seen another lawn sign for any candidate in our town so who knows what people are thinking. I'm pretty sure we're some of the few conservatives. The other neighbor who lives next to us saw the sign and invited us to his restaurant/Inn for a Ron Paul event. We ate dinner there and Kashann even met him as she was exiting the bathroom. She didn't get to shake his hand and I'm pretty sure it was because he saw her leaving the facilities.  The weather has been very nice this week. Around 60 in the day with sunshine. It dips down to freezing at night but this kind of fall jacket weather is perfect for me. We spent a couple hours Saturday stacking up our last cord of wood and tarping it for the winter. I spent almost the rest of the day cleaning the garage again.  This is the third time I've organized the garage and this time I finally have it down. It's tough getting all the storage organized, motorcycle stored, bicycles hung and still have room to park two cars, walk around, and still have space to get the snow blower out first.  I decided to prepare for #6 by building a car seat mount the other day. It's quite a clever contraption if I do say so myself. It sits right between all four captains chairs and is held firmly in place with sturdy climbing harnesses tied to the seat brackets in the floor. I figure that gear can stop an adult falling off a cliff it can surely save a little tiny baby in a car crash. We'll see if Kashann actually allows it to be used.  Probably the funniest thing to happen this week was when I took a picture of Kashann with our new camera and then zoomed in on this gigantic zit she had on her cheek. She was on the phone with someone at the time so I just kept showing it to her while I blew it up bigger and bigger on the screen. She finally got fed up and yelled, "Why do you keep showing me that picture of your nipple?"  I'm sure whoever was on the phone was wondering what was going on. Signing off from the Free'est state in the nation, Brent." We got a Cannon Rebel last week. And it is pretty amazing. I didn't even think it was that big of a blemish but he seriously had me looking at what I thought was a picture of his nipple. So far Kennon has been the only one using it. And Brent when he sees a great picture opportunity. He actually was taking one of my teeth with his new Macro lens on the camera that he needs for his office pictures. But he couldn't help focusing in on what was above my smile. I am so lazy about figuring out new techno stuff. But after one week I am thinking that was way too expensive of a toy for our 13 year old so I better sit down with the manual and figure it out. She has already taken hundreds of pictures. A lot of them a lot like this one right here. And it's hard  for me to fit the time in right now. I am cramming so much into my schedule and still somehow so anxious to have the baby even though I am not ready. Just last week I ran into my very own copy of Hypnobirthing at the swap and shop-- the Dump. You are supposed to practice most of the pregnancy so at just 3 weeks to go I need to cram. I am feeling so excited and positive about the impending birth of my son. All of my earlier fear has disappeared and I am anxious to see if I have learned enough from the last five to finally do everything just right and have a wonderful birth. See how great this hypnobirthing stuff is? Here I am in all my glory Saturday night off to a Stake Harvest Ball.  Marcus asked where I was going just before I left and I told him "to the Ball with Dad."  "Hey" he said, "Cinderella went to the ball."  And she looked nothing like this did she? We danced one song. And laughed the whole time because Brent felt like he was dancing with a fat man. We couldn't get far enough away from each other to keep my belly from hitting him. I just went for the food anyway. And of course a good excuse to go on a date. We had two this weekend. :)  Marcus's friends across the street showed up to play Saturday afternoon. He has no idea how lucky he is that he has these older buddies. Caroline doesn't take it for granted. They are her favorite friends to have over.  She sometimes has a hard time at school getting people to want to play what she wants to play and so often just runs around by herself singing songs. That's what she always reports to me anyway.  But last week was different.  She got these sunglasses out of the prize box in her speech class. Now she wears them to school everyday.   Her teacher makes her take them off for class, Darn, but she wears them at every recess. With a scarf tied over her head. She has worn scarf and sunglasses everyday since that speech class. I guess they turned her life around for the better. She calls herself grandma and all the girls follow her all over the playground as her grandchildren. It is a big hit. She almost stayed home from school this morning because she couldn't find the sunglasses and knew that the scarf alone wasn't going to do the trick. She left the scarf on the counter and instructed me to, "Drive to school as soon as you find the sunglasses and don't forget the scarf!" Her sisters are so embarrassed that she dares to wear a head scarf and sunglasses to school. I think it's awesome.

Well, I decided to be up now. Whether I should be or not is another question but here's my reasoning. I've had zero contractions for weeks now and the closer I get to having this baby (less than a month now till due date) I can't help but totally switch gears from keeping him in to getting him out. It is purely selfish I know to want to have a small baby so the delivery is easier but I can't help it. Marcus was 8 lbs.15 oz. and I liked birthing my 7 pounders way more. 


It's quite a shock to my legs and feet to hold me up at all. I don't know if it is the weight of my tummy or more the lack of exercise for the last 5 months but they aren't adjusting well to the their new job of holding me up.  I am cleaning like mad and loving having the freedom to do so. Moving slowly cleaning like mad of course. But oh, am I sore.


We had an eventful week. Saturday the 29th we had a fairly large snowstorm (at least for prehalloween) and it knocked out our power for days. We got by very nicely with our new wood stove in the basement. Brent had the foresight of putting one in just days before. We also bought a home within the the district that gets town water so when the power goes out the water continues to flow. So besides the inconvenience of warming up water on the stove (gas burners we lit with a match) and taking sponge baths we fared pretty well. We didn't even lose any food because I unloaded all the contents of my fridge and freezer into coolers and tubs and put them outside.


We recently added dish network to our monthly bills and it seems that we just sit around and watch TV every night since then. Without power there wasn't much to do after about 5:30 in the dark. So we all sat around a candle in the same room and talked for a couple hours. We usually went to bed by 8:30 which also was great. Finally the power came back on Tuesday afternoon, but the phone and Internet was still down until last night. I found the whole thing totally bearable and even think these kind of things are a great break from our fast paced life. I love having an excuse to not have to do keep up with the world because we couldn't for a few days. Even our cell phones were out. Brent's got fried somehow and won't even work for phone calls. That probably was our only casualty. The weather is back to normal temps now and the 8 inches of snow we had in our backyard is busy melting away.


Halloween went on. Luckily the storm caused them to postpone festivities until Monday on . . . yes the actual Halloween day. Last year when Halloween was on Sunday we were so impressed that NH scheduled it on Saturday. This year we found out the sad truth that it had nothing to do with observing the Sabbath. Trick or Treating was scheduled for Sunday night this year. So they just have some crazy tradition of celebrating the holiday the night before.


But with all the power lines down they were forced to move it to Monday and told all the kids they had to get it done before dark at 5. We have about 15 kids in our neighborhood and they all go together and meet at the corner by our house. That is about all the trick-or-treaters we had. It was awesome to keep it all in the neighborhood. Then we all went to a neighborhood potluck at a house without power. We huddled around their wood stove with candles and the hosts BBQ'd outside in the snow. I was impressed that the party went on with or without the power. At least the host didn't have to clean since we couldn't see the dust anyway.


I have had a series of problems lately that are contributing to no pictures for the blog. First our IPhoto just up and disappeared from our computer. It is just gone. Not in the trash. All of our pictures were also on Picassa but they are just disorganized all over the place now and there is no way to upload our pictures at all now on this computer. That's what happens when you have 8 people using a computer from the age of 3-41. And of course nobody knows what happened. And then our camera just quit. Right after I got ONE measly Halloween photo of only half my children.


So Yay! We finally get to buy a new camera. For the last 5 years we have been using one that another dental student family (Dave and Briste) donated to the Casper Family after they found out that we hadn't gone digital yet. They had a spare and just handed it over. It worked great but once again had way too much wear and tear thanks to multiple users. So now we are deciding how nice of a camera we want to bring home. It's always a debate when you have children. It seems so much smarter to spend less on stuff so you aren't so upset when the kids drops, spills, tears, colors on. . .  just completely destroys that thing that you had to pay hard earned money for.


Here's a quick rundown on the children.


Kennon was able to compete in the qualifying XC race at state and got her best time ever.  She is now exactly my height and everyone is trying to convince her to play basketball. Except for me. Too many bad experiences trying to live up to my height on the court. She also is busy singing with her schools Silver Lining Group that accompanies the Jazz Band and finally was brave enough to try out for a solo that she sang at a local concert held in our town square.


Savannah had a great season playing offense in Field hockey her first ever time turning out for a sport. She is now trying out for the school play. Her rich and privileged friends have been improving her life significantly lately. One friend donated her their 2010 pair of Uggh's since her parents bought her 2011's. Then another friend handed over her $250 IPod since her parents recently upgraded her. I wish they would clear these gifts by her mother first. There is a reason we didn't want Savannah to have her own IPod with Internet access.I don't know if I can survive raising children this way and think my parents had it way easier.


Camille is playing piano daily and of course starting to hate it since she now is taking lessons and has to practice effectively. She also is playing the flute in the school band and finally got over the fact that our instrument was a craigslist find and that's the main reason we chose that instrument for her.


Caroline is still the loudest, sweetest, and the big sheriff around the house making sure that we keep it fair. And we never do according to her.


Marcus is reading. He is the easiest kid in the world to teach. Are boys smarter?


And his little brother has been the wildest baby yet. I love it because the Dr's have me so worried about him with his placental problem. But he constantly is letting me know he is alive and kicking. We can't wait to meet him.


Brent is spending his day off today with his handyman working on the outside of our house. It is expensive to hire out and usually totally against our core principles of being independent. But Brent was smart enough to know that he would never tackle some of these big projects on the house without someone showing up on Friday morning to work with him.


They are fixing our wood siding replacing some older boards and then building a deck. We are loving our new house despite all the stuff that needs to be done. We have been very happy here and are so glad to be done with renting. Neither of us could stand the fact that we couldn't fix anything around there.  We have plenty to do now. Neither of us will have a reason to be bored for a long time.

Six weeks left

I have had 5 hospital deliveries and was determined to never have another one.  Especially after Marcus's delivery in that horrible hospital in Buffalo. I had to use community bathrooms/showers post delivery that I was sure were never cleaned judging by the fact that in the three days I visited it the same bloody band-aid was never removed.  I was so anxious to get out of there before I caught something. And even in the clean hospitals I had delivered my girls in WA, I hated the constant rotation of nurses and all their contrary ideas about how I was supposed to be going through labor.

Thus, before becoming pregnant this time we decided that first of all we wouldn't add maternity insurance to our plan. It was an additional $1,000 a month in insurance premiums just to add maternity. So instead of a expensive hospital delivery I was going to see a midwife from a birth center and possibly even give birth in our home. It sounds so New Hampshirish.


I was pretty disappointed at 16 weeks when the midwives from the birth center said that I needed to go to an emergency room rather than be seen at their center. Having no choice I started seeing an Ob/Gyn and of course will be delivering at a hospital. Without any insurance coverage to pay for it. And I've seen expensive specialists and am about to have my 4th ultrasound. Of course I don't have a choice with any of this because we are trying to protect an unborn baby here. I also am very glad that this birth will be in a hospital after all. A rupturing placenta is a bit scary during delivery as it can cause hemorrhaging or an emergency Cesarean birth. 

Last week I called the hospital where I will deliver and found out the answer to the question I have been dreading to ask. 

How much is this going to cost?


All I can say is it's lucky for me that I opted to have three natural deliveries in the past and know that I can survive a contraction at 10 centimeters dilation solo. It's an extra $3,000 to have any kind of anesthesia and then on top of that the epidural starts at $500. That's the base hookup fee and buys you a mere 15 minutes. Each subsequent 15 minutes increment- $125 more. That could add up fast. Now I am pretty much against epidurals after one horrible epidural headache with Caroline, but at the some time it is nice to always have it as a back up, you know?

But that kind of frivolous spending is definitely out of the question.  Or at least my birth coach (Brent) will do his very best to talk me out of it no matter how insistent I become during labor. He is thinking about having me sign a pre-birth plan that he can hold me to and supersede any last minute change of plans that I begin insisting on.

So definitely no epidural. Hopefully no $$$C-section$$$$ either. And if we can make it without anyone insisting I need a $3,000 IV in my arm -we will be getting a baby for a real bargain. 

 Marcus's birth was the fastest yet most painful experience ever and once pregnant again that's all I could think about. (I made Brent promise during and after delivery to NEVER let me do this again.) So what to do? 

I am researching hypnobirthing. Who says I can't try something new for #6? I actually am too cheap or stubborn to buy the hypno CD's.  I mean it's not like I am new at this, I don't need someone else to teach me, right? 

I think I have the basics of it down though. I have been spending a lot of bed rest time focusing on brainwashing my too wise mind with affirmations such as
" Birth is a safe and wonderful experience."
                            
                            and 

"My body knows exactly what it is doing"  

                             or 

"The power and and intensity of my contractions cannot be stronger than me because it is me". 


So the plan is if I can remain calm and positive I may be able to just have the most beautiful, painless birthing experience yet.


"All I need to do is relax and breathe -nothing else" 


Sounds beautiful doesn't it?

32 weeks and Ron Paul

 I asked Camille to take some photos of me at 32 weeks so we could document bump #6 for Kashann.  Most of the pictures were just bump- not much Kashann.

 I finally made it to the heavily anticipated 30 week mark. That is when they said they would ultrasound and re evaluate the bed rest. My ultrasound showed a healthy baby but of course still an abruption of the placenta. Just a small blood clot remained but there was also some fresh bleeding in the uterus. No idea how that could've been caused at my activity level. I went home pretty disappointed after having my fingers crossed that I would just get to live it up the last two months.

So I am still pretty much on bed rest. . .now until the end. Or I would say 37.5 weeks should be far enough along to not worry about getting things moving. I don't think I will start any running program until postpartum but I would love to just not worry anymore every single time I am on my feet.
Starting at 29 weeks I've had contractions. In the five other pregnancies I never had ANY early contractions/braxton hicks so it was pretty scary and got me back in bed for a couple days. But it's easy to get relaxed again after a couple good days that all is well and have a day or two where I overdue it again. It's so hard not to.

 In some ways I have gotten pretty good at just watching others work. Brent backed his car into the woods the other day in our back yard after a rainfall and then couldn't get out. He had all the kids out pushing him out. I felt bad for him but couldn't help laughing and thinking that would be a great place to retire the old Buick.

We finally got to see Ron Paul live at a Town Hall Meeting in Nashua, NH. He doesn't stick around to shake hands like Mitt does and we were disappointed. 

His audience has a lot of wackos in it. I found one of the craziest (I missed getting her blue lycra spandex in the picture) and asked if Brent could get a photo with her. 

Brent had his third paid vacation week of the year. Paid means we pay employees all week for not working and we make Zero. Besides going backward financially, we loved the week. All the girls were in school and for the first time a week vacation really felt like a week vacation.  Brent got involved in so many projects around the house. He is planning his deck, fixing some siding, installing a new wood stove, packaging up over 500 lbs of wheat, beans and oats that he decided we need in our food storage. Lots was started but little was finished (he didn't get much help from me)  but we had a good time also sneaking in some lunches, a little shopping for furniture and a vehicle for 8 -(no luck still on the vehicle but we did find a couch), and even a town hall meeting. For now Brent is supporting Ron Paul and I am on Team Mitt. I loved what Ron Paul had to say but it just makes more sense to me to support the one who is most likely to win. Plus, he kind of won me over the last time when he greeted me like an old friend.

Caroline loves soccer

Now I know what it means to be a soccer Mom. I have two girls in soccer right now and that means 5 practices/games a week. Add in two piano lessons, one field hockey match,  a X-Country Meet and all the hockey and running practices after school, and a Young Women's church activity on Wednesday and I am living in the car every day after school.
It's actually not as bad as it sounds. The kids are having fun, working hard, and I am making friends with all the other Mom's. I like this stage in my life. I can't wait to add a baby to the mix. Actually I would say, "I can't imagine" how I will add a baby.  Somehow we need way less on the calendar come December 1 (baby due date). We are still trying to decide if we should give in and start basketball as soon as soccer ends. Because you can do anything for a couple months but I don't think this kind of schedule should be on going. New baby regardless. I have to say HURRY way too often to my children.
But for now Caroline is enjoying her first sport. She never stops running out there and seems to understand the rules and which way she should kick the ball. We are all amazed. 

Cheering and Parenting

 Kennon ran in her first home cross country meet of the season. Here she is running with the pack just after the start. They hold the race at a local farm so they run through the woods,  up big hills, around ponds,  through rows of apples trees, and sometimes swarms of bees.

And here she comes. I know I have said this before but I love seeing my daughter race across the finish line.  I even jumped up out of my chair and cheered. She placed 13th overall. She also was voted to be team captain this season. Go, Go Kennon. 


Notice the new blue shoes. After so many miles, this is Kennon's first time racing in new shoes. In the past she wore whatever Mom picked up 2nd hand in her size. But she had outgrown her 8's and refused to take over my 9's that have been gathering dust the last few months on my shelf.  She was determined to have a new pair that she could put her own miles on. It made sense. She runs about 10 miles each week. 


Well, all the kids needed sports equipment this year. So we decided to hand out $50 dollars each and let them run with it.  Savannah bought her a hockey stick and goggles on ebay for about a 1/4 of the cost, socks and shin gaurds at Wallmart, and picked up a pair of cleats her size at the town swap shop, pink shoelaces not included. She came in right at $50.  


We figured if Savannah could get all that Kennon should have no problem with one pair of shoes. So I took Kennon shopping and pointed out a nice pair for $35, which would mean $15 in her pocket- No sales tax here, folks. 


But she was convinced that a pair for $70 was far superior in performance. Or at least style. So she made up the difference and got her new blue shoes. Not without some completely pointless arguing at the checkout that we were making life way too hard for her. But I think for a girl who had many opportunities to work all summer a $50 handout was plenty generous. 


Of course I am not including these details to embarrass my children. I just think that they will be interesting stuff to look back on. 


With Mom down this summer, there was much to do. And we were willing to pay them for most of it. Everything but daily dish chores were up for grabs. And of course there was also the dental office that now needed a cleaning crew and grounds keeper since that employee was on bed rest.


Some Saturdays some children were not willing to go. They didn't mind the cleaning so much. They just couldn't handle the inspections by Mom that always followed. So they stayed home and another child made the money that weekend. But declarations like, "This is the last time I am ever coming to the office!" didn't stick and everyone took a turn. 


By the end of the summer due to the many financial opportunities provided for them it was determined that they would all be buying all their own clothing. There was plenty of complaining during school shopping (Mom on wheels accompanying them)  but we made it through. The kids made some excellent choices within their budget. They always are so much smarter when the credit card won't be footing the bill. Suddenly they don't need one more T-shirt after all. I sometimes felt bad and wanted to just spoil them, but then remembered if I caved I would be taking away their work incentives and I knew that I couldn't do that. Not if I wanted my lawn mowed once a week. 

 
So far the younger two have remained mostly immune to the realities of the hard knock life of Team Casper. They still think that a trip to the swap shop is far superior than a trip to the mall so for now Caroline just makes a dollar an hour and then drives us insane until it is spent. We'll deal with them later and maybe we will have it figured out better by that time. 

I hate to post that it was the worst summer ever because I know life can be so much worse than feeling great and just sitting around relaxing but. . . . I  had so many mountains I wanted to climb, festivals to attend, places to explore, lakes to swim in with my kids, and the list goes on. This is such a summer paradise up here. 

We barely got a chance to relax last summer with starting the practice and moving in, and I was really looking forward to being a new house organizing it and doing fun stuff with my sister. All that other stuff is still on my to do list. Luckily, Peter got the job and they will be back next summer and give us another chance to show them it's a great place. 

My poor kids. I don't even think they can remember that I used to be sort of fun. Now I am just that lazy mom on the couch that bosses everyone around and she can't actually do much of anything herself. Luckily we splurged on our first above ground pool that was big enough to keep them entertained at home all summer. 

It was perfect for Caroline. It was just up to her shoulders so without any supervision she finally learned how to swim. 

Camille even thought it was deep enough for practicing her dives. 

 

And though we ain't fancy with this wimpy new pool, rickety bottom of the line trampoline, and free swing set from the neighbors . . somehow it was enough to earn us best backyard hangout on the block.

 There are 6 girls on our street that are all either 2nd graders or 4th graders. And for some reason the mother on bed rest house is the place to be.

 They especially like playing with my new wheelchair. I mean my very old very ugly wheelchair that Savannah insisted on buying for $5 bucks at a end of summer yard sale so we could hit up all the stores that didn't have motorized scooters. So far it has just been traveling all over our backyard with children and has yet to go along on all the trips Savannah planned to outlet malls and TJMaxx.

 All the girls are playing a sport this fall. Unfortunately that means I am headed in all sorts of directions and have to choose which daughter I will support each evening. Here is Savannah at her first field hockey game. I think #4 (the one with the pink shoelaces) was just looking for an excuse to get to wear a short skirt and hang out more with her best friend, Natalie #5. 


Camille and Caroline are our first soccer girls and they are loving it. Kennon is once again on the cross country team. I have to decide every game not only which one to attend but also should I even attend since my Dr. recently told me that my bed rest was intended to by spent "Laying down" not "sitting down"?


Luckily I just found that out and was at least good for something this summer. Like cooking and washing dishes sitting on a stool for hours.

 And burning office confidential papers with my children in our driveway. They all want to help me with this task. It's a lot more fun than using a shredder. 
We have a very organized neighborhood with a president, secretary and treasury. They held their summer block party last weekend.

I guess they used to get together for progressive dinners once a month and finally just scaled back to two parties a year for summer and Christmas. We have felt very welcome and definitely notice that this neighborhood doesn't fit the New England stereotype. 

Marcus has two older boys that live next door and it is pretty hard to keep him from crossing the street at all times to see how they are doing and what toys he might be able to play with today. Despite the 8 year age gap these two get along very well. They let Marcus run their remote control cars and send him home with something every day to add to his growing toy collection. Caroline also seems to prefer the boys. When she wants a friend to come over to play she asks to invite "the boys next door" rather than the two 7 year old girls down the street. 

The other night I went to a Relief Society Meeting with Kennon and Savannah and was upset to come home and find dishes still waiting for Mom to wash next to my kitchen stool. However it turned out that Camille had a chunk of tooth fall out of her mouth right before I left so Brent took the three younger kids to the office with him for an emergency appointment. Marcus and Caroline sat in the corner and watched while Camille and Dr. Casper got down to business and fixed the tooth. I guess if I can't have a maid, I should be grateful for an in house dentist.


There has been a lack of pictures documenting this pregnancy. I guess it's hard to remember to do photo shoots when you're never up and about. 

Aug 31. First day of School

 Kennon -8th grade   Savannah 7th grade.

 My growing up way too fast daughters head off to school. Both with straightened hair, big earrings and even eyeliner. And a lot more confident than last year at the new school. This year we live so close they "get " to walk. 

They complain that life is so rough and good parents in our neighborhood drive their children to school. I tell them that they are spoiled to live a 1/2 mile from school and skip the bus all together. I used to walk a 1/2 mile to my bus stop at the potato sheds (winter, snow and ice) . .  . And Then ride the bus for over an hour. 

 Camille- 4th grade and Caroline -2nd grade leave over 2 hours later and the bus pulls right up to our driveway. Which is great since that is about the max I am permitted to walk. They have already been up for hours though thanks to our Mandatory 6 am Family Scripture Study. But they move so slow and are so easily distracted  that I am happy to have two whole hours to coax them out the door. 


They are the last to get on the bus and the first stop off the bus in the afternoon. Once again, quite spoiled. (Caroline brought the parasol to school for the first day. Her friend had given it to her the day before and she was convinced she needed it to keep the sun off her during recess.)

 Camille went straight to the back of the bus taking her rightful spot among the 4th graders now she has finally made it to the top. 5th grade goes onto middle school. I like the old days when they let kids stay at the elementary through sixth grade. 

Marcus won't be riding the bus for two years yet but he insisted on a school bus picture. 

We had an awesome day home alone together. I have never been so anxious to get my kids off to school. All so I could finally enjoy my bed rest in peace. I know one is still hanging around but I am happy for minus 4. Marcus never asks me to take him anywhere and never tells me that he is having the worst summer ever.