The Time Has Come....

...for me to move to my new bloggy home.

All my archives will stay here,
but if you want to see anything new please visit my new blog

Laughing Mommy

(http://www.laughingmommy.com/)

Hope you'll come visit me there!

Emma Walking

Update to Sunday Festivus 5th Edition

You can read Sunday Festivus 5th Edition here.

Rogene found another one of the magical air fresheners! He found it at AutoZone, in case any of you want to run right out and buy one right this very second. And you totally should! It smells that good!

Sunday Festivus 7th Edition

I've been sick for almost two weeks now with the worst cough ever (Thanks Tessa's Preschool!) so that is the grievance I'm going to air this week. I've been having coughing fits that seem endless, and regular over-the-counter cough syrup doesn't help.

I went to the doctor on Friday and they tested me for Pertussis, also known as Whooping Cough. (I don't know for sure yet if I have it or not, but I do have all the symptoms.)

"Whooping cough?" you say. "I thought everyone was vaccinated against that disease."

Well, yes, but apparently the vaccine wears off and once you are a teen or adult you can catch it again unless you are re-vaccinated against it. Adults and teens are just miserable if they get Pertussis, but it is very serious for infants and young children.

In 2004 there was an outbreak. (Check here to see how many cases of pertussis were reported in your state.) So they decided to add the Pertussis vaccine to Tetanus and give it to adults.

So, if you haven't had a Tetanus shot recently, I'd go get one. You do NOT want this sickness.

To air your grievances, or just read more Festivus fun, head over to my sister's blog Terrific Teens.

Scripture Saturday

"Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess,

for He who promised is faithful."
~Hebrews 10:23 NIV

Emma's Birth Story

Our7Qtpies is having a birth story contest. Write your birth story, post it on your blog, then go leave her a comment so she knows you've joined in the fun. Good luck!

Emma's Birth Story

I woke up at 2am on the day before Emma's due date with some very intense contractions. They started out at 5 minutes apart and stayed that way. After about 2 hours of waiting to see if this was false labor, I woke Rogene up and we started to get ready to go. We called my sister and niece to come over and watch Tessa and we headed for the hospital.

(Here is my nomination for Most Horrible Nurse)

We got all checked in, and the contractions at this point were so bad I couldn't talk or walk through them. I was taken to a triage room at about 7am and checked. Let me mention again that these contractions were very painful... I was having to concentrate to get through them. When the nurse checked me, lets call her Nursy McBossypants, she said that I was not dilated AT ALL. NOTHING! I was SO DISAPPOINTED to hear that! She gave me a big story about how they might have to send me home, blah, blah, blah. Also, they had this terrible plastic triage hard-as-a-rock bed that was so uncomfortable and Nursy McBossypants wanted me to lie down on it and wear a blood pressure cuff. Well, I wanted to sit up in a chair because the bed was so uncomfortable. I told her I understood that she wanted to put all the monitors on me, and that I wanted to be a compliant patient, but I needed her to BACK OFF A LITTLE BIT! She was grumpy and she left and, I kid you not, she didn't come back for FIVE hours!

(I should also note that when Nursy McBossypants checked my weight, she could have just looked at the number and wrote it down in the chart, but instead it SAID IT OUT LOUD! For everyone to hear! Is that really necessary? I heard her do it to another girl too. SO RUDE!)

The contractions were very painful, and I laid on that horrible bed and Rogene rubbed my back with each contraction. I visualized the words to a praise song that I like with every contraction, and that helped me cope.

Finally at noon, Nursy McBossypants showed back up with an OBGYN to check me. The doctor said I was at 5cm and could move to a labor/delivery room and get my epidural. I wanted to hug that OB doctor and give her the official title of Dr. Lovely. (Here is my nomination for worse doctor. Actually he was an anesthesiologist, but whatever!)

Rogene called my doula Margy (the same doula who was with me for Tessa's birth), who arrived quickly, and we got settled in the new room. The anesthesiologist showed up, and gave me my epidural. Lets call him Dr. Grumpy. He snapped at my NEW nurse, who was very sweet and didn't deserve it, several times. The epidural was not good. The pain relief was spotty, my legs and pelvis went completely numb and I couldn't move them even an inch on my own. Dr. Grumpy neglected to tell me that this epidural had a button I could push if it started to wear off. Thanks for all the good info, Dr. Grumpy! The pain relief lasted for about 4 hours and right when I was at 10cm and ready to push it wore off completely. I grabbed the button to push it, but it didn't work. My doula pushed it, the nurse did, and even my midwife, but it didn't work. Thanks again Dr. Grumpy, for the excellent epidural!

Oh, and I forgot to mention that by some lucky twist of fate, I got to have the same midwife that delivered Tessa deliver Emma as well. Pretty neat trick considering both girls were born in different cities and at different hospitals. Also, because Emma had a twin that we had lost to miscarriage (long story), my chart was flagged to have a doctor present for the delivery. Dr. Lovely came in and said that my midwife was here, and if I wanted her to stay for the birth she had no problem with it. Again, I LOVE DR. LOVELY!

My water had still not broken so Emma's head was still really high (blocked by the bulging bag of water). Finally they broke the bag of waters and while her head was descending I thought I was going to die the pain was so bad. I had this weird thought... that for the first time in my life I could understand how an animal in a trap can chew their own leg off to get out of the trap. I felt like if I could have chewed a limb off to stop that horrible pain, I certainly would have. Strange, I know.
I pushed for about 45 minutes (much better than the 3 hours I pushed for Tessa's birth) and Emma was born. She had not "pooped in the pool" (released miconeum into the amniotic fluid) like her sister had, so they put her right up on my stomach and I got to see her right away and hear her cry instantly. It was so amazing to see her beautiful face. She looked so much like her sister, and yet so completely had her own look too. And she was huge! She weighed 9lbs 10oz and was 21.5 inches long. Rogene and I were so happy. Our family was complete now that Emma was born.
I didn't get that great rush of hormones after her birth. Possibly because of the stellar job Dr. Grumpy did with the epidural? And the after pains were so intense. I wasn't expecting the after pains to hurt so much, since I seriously don't remember them at all after Tessa was born. Thankfully, my NEW nurse gave me some pain pills and that did the trick.


P.S. I want to add a note that my sister and my mother did a very selfless and sweet thing for me. They stayed at my house and watched my daughter Tessa (who was 3.5 years old at the time) for me even though they really wanted to be there for Emma's birth. I've been a stay at home mom since Tessa was born, and since we are rarely apart, she did not want me to leave to go to the hospital. I could totally relax at the hospital knowing that Tessa was in such good hands. I'm so thankful that my mom and sister gave me this great gift of watching Tessa for me.

Tessa's Birth Story

Our7Qtpies is having a birth story contest. Write your birth story, post it on your blog, then go leave her a comment so she knows you've joined in the fun. Good luck!

Tessa's Birth Story


I woke up on Saturday morning, the day before Tessa's due date, with painful contractions at about 2AM. The contractions were regular and 5 minutes apart. I called my midwife and she said it was time to go to the hospital. I took a shower, made sure my bags were fully packed, and we headed to the hospital at 7am.

Once we got to the hospital and were checked in labor stalled and I was given a sleeping pill and sent home. We stayed in bed all day and tried to rest, but I was still having very very painful contractions, they were just about 20 minutes apart. This went on for the entire day and the following night... I fell asleep and woke up every 20 minutes, sometimes getting up to try to walk off the contraction. I got pretty exhausted. The hospital had told me I needed to show up on Sunday for some tests and to see how labor was progressing. So I went in even though my contractions, while painful, were not regular or 5 minutes apart yet.

So Sunday afternoon about 1pm we went back to the hospital. While I was waiting for my midwife to come check me I still had some of my sense of humor. We ran out of toilet paper in the bathroom and I remember yelling loudly (so the nurses at the desk would hear) that "I SHOULD HAVE GONE TO THE OTHER HOSPITAL IN TOWN. AT LEAST THEY HAVE TOILET PAPER IN THE PATIENTS ROOM!" The midwife knew I'd had enough of the slow painful way this labor was going, so she did an exam and (oops!) broke my water for me. From there on my contractions got crazy. They went from 5 minutes apart to 2 minutes apart in a matter of an hour.

At this point we called my sister, my mom and my doula to come for the big show. (My and my doula Margy.)


Oh, and I forgot to mention that all day Sunday it hurt me to sit or lie down. I didn't even want to sit or lie down for the exam at the hospital. I needed to be standing up to be able to handle the contractions. I think standing up and walking around really helped my labor progress, and I'd like to take credit, but I really COULD NOT sit down. My husband and I did the "slow dance" move to help ease the contractions, and it really helped. I don't know how I could have survived it without him there.

Here is my nomination for worse comment by a nurse ever... my nurse (who was a terrific labor nurse, by the way) asked my sister, who is only 8 years older than me and looks even younger than me, if she was the baby's GRANDMOTHER! GASP! (This is a picture of my sister and her family with Tessa that day. She does NOT look like a grandmother!)

Finally I reached 5 cm and they let me have my epidural. I didn't feel the needle at all and was so glad for the break in the pain. I got the elusive "walking epidural"... the pain in my uterus was gone, but I could totally feel my legs and move them too. I was super glad about this until it was time to push, when I realized that I wasn't numb far enough down and I could feel the whole pushing process with all the stretching and pain. One good part about a walking epidural is you still feel the hormone rush after giving birth... the one that makes you feel like everything is right in the world.

After 3 hours of pushing Tessa was finally born.

At one point during the pushing I thought, "They keep telling me I'm doing great and making progress. But they've been saying that for 2 hours! Maybe they are lying to me!" When my water broke they found miconeum in my amniotic fluid (she had "pooped in the pool"!), so the second she was out they cut her cord and whisked her away to be suctioned out so she wouldn't aspirate any miconeum. Waiting to hear her cry was the longest moments of my life. When she finally cried I breathed a sigh of relief and they brought our beautiful baby to us. She was all chubby and swollen and she weighed 9lbs 3oz and 22 inches long. She was such a miracle. We felt so blessed! Our 10+ long years of infertility were over.(Rogene, Tessa and me.)

I'm not sure why, but I felt terrific after Tessa was born. I was starving and ate a bunch of yummy snacks that my sister had brought. We used Martinelli's to have a toast. It was one of the best days of my life. Tessa was so beautiful, I couldn't believe she was ours!

P.S. To all expecting moms out there... not all labor and deliveries are bad. Mine wasn't. The labor wasn't terrible, and the delivery wasn't terrible. Painful, yes, but not more than you can stand.

Happy Chinese New Year to Lily!

Happy Chinese New Year

**Thank you to Stacie B. (Lily's Mom) for the pictures**

Some wishes for you...

Photo Friday

Pam and Braden making a snowman several years ago.

Wii Wii Wii Wii All the Way Home

I found this video over at Purple is a Fruit. But it belongs to Jen at Breedorf... it is her baby Theo doing all the giggling when his dad plays the Nintendo Wii. It will totally make you laugh. If you like it, go leave Jen at Breedorf a comment.

What Exactly Do These Drawings Really Mean? Anyone? Anyone?

Rogene found this hilarious web site. We laughed until we cried! It has those drawings that are meant to warn you about something, but sometimes it is hard to figure out what the drawing means. Here are a few of my favorites. (Go to this web site to read them all.)





Try to absorb as much of the radiation as possible with your groin region. The current world record is 5 minutes, 12 seconds.









A one-inch thick piece of plywood should be sufficient protection against radiation.

If you've become a radiation mutant with a deformed hand, remember to close the window. No one wants to see that.

If a door is closed, karate chop it open.

Your respiratory and digestive systems are optional. Cast them aside if you feel you no longer need them.

To eliminate smallpox, wash with soap, water and at least one(1) armless hand under a faucet with no sink.

First Kiss

My dad got this picture in an email. I thought it was just too cute...

I had to post it on Valentine's day.

Plus, it reminds me of my kids. They will lick ANYTHING.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Happy Valentine's Day to my three Valentines.

I love each of you so much! I'm so thankful for you three!

Words of Wisdom Wednesday

"Nothing will benefit human health and increase the chances for survival of life on Earth as much as the evolution to a vegetarian diet." ~Albert Einstein

"Until he extends the circle of his compassion to all living things, man will not himself find peace." ~Albert Schweitzer

"If you have men who will exclude any of God's creatures from the shelter of compassion and pity, you will have men who will deal likewise with their fellow men." ~St. Francis of Assisi

"I have no doubt that it is part of the destiny of the human race in its gradual improvement to leave off eating animals." ~Henry David Thoreau

"I don't understand why asking people to eat a well-balanced vegetarian diet is considered drastic, while it is medically conservative to cut people open." ~Dean Ornish, MD

"Your choice of diet can influence your long term health prospects more than any other action you might take." ~Former Surgeon General C. Everett Koop

Works for Me Wednesday

Hair Accessories Organization


Do you have daughters? Do they have a million tiny little ponytail holders and barrettes and clips? (My daughters call them "clippers".) Do you have a drawer in your bathroom where all the accessories are dumped?


Well, I got sick of searching through that mess every day! One day I was getting out some embroidery floss and had an idea. Hair accessories for kids fit perfectly into the little compartments in an embroidery floss organizer (also called a Bead organizer I think). You can even fit a baby hair comb and brush into the large compartment on the upper left hand side. The organizers are see through so even with the lid closed you can find what you need. It's what works for me this week!

P.S. If your kids are like mine and have an insane amount of hair accessories, get several organizers and separate everything out by color.


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For more great tips check out RocksInMyDryer.