Selah Joy's Home Birth

Oh, the joys (and pains) of labor... Our beautiful bundle of Joy, Selah Joy, is a natural born procrastinator just like her momma. We were sure she would be our early Christmas present. That is the way I referenced Christmas to the younger kids. "When is it going to be Christmas, Mom?" "After the baby's born", I would reply. We excitedly planned on what to give our new baby for Christmas. Paul was supposed to run out and get a Precious Moments First Christmas ornament (a tradition for each baby) as soon as we knew the gender...

Most of my babies were 9 days overdue and Grace was the longest at 12 days over. That would put this baby's arrival date on Christmas Eve. Even at 9 to 12 days over, I still had to take castor oil with each one to get the labor started. I was intentionally avoiding that horrible tasting stuff and was wanting to experience a "natural" start to labor. I could also specifically remember every painful detail of Nathan's birth, so it was mentally easier to let labor start on it own instead of deciding that "this is the day I want one of the most painful experiences of my life." I described the thought of labor to Paul as if I'd had already had a leg cut off without painkiller, knowing what it feels like, and trying to prepare to go through it with the other leg.

Well, Christmas Eve came and went, which made for a frustrating Christmas morning for me. I was uncomfortable and was supposed to be holding my Christmas present in my arms. Christmas Day passed without any warm-up contractions, and because Sunday (the day after Christmas) would put me at 14 days over, I finally gave in to the castor oil. I downed 2 oz. of it at 7am on Sunday. By 11, I was having warm-ups! Caleb stayed home from church with me "just in case". By 2:30, I was having irritating contrations 3-5 minutes apart, and I knew baby was coming today! Yay! About 20 minutes later, my water broke and we called Bernice, the midwife, to let her know. She came around 4:30 and the contractions were getting more painful and harder to walk or move through. I went from sitting on my birthing ball, to pacing the room, to sitting in my borrowed birthing pool (which I didn't intend to give birth in, just relax during labor). I wanted to keep moving to make things happen faster and get it over with. It still took a long time. Around 8, I got to the REALLY painful ones and I knew it probably wouldn't be long. For some reason, when they get more painful, they seem to come a bit farther apart. Instead of being 2 minutes apart, like they were all afternoon and evening, they slowed to 5 minutes. After trying to cope with them by laying on the bed (where I intended to give birth), I made it to the bathroom and the pool with warm water looked so tempting, I got in. Two miserable contractions later, I was ready to push! Paul and my sister were in the bathroom with me, and I just remember that when I said I had to push, it seemed like everyone left to tell others. I thought, "I'm gonna have this baby in the water and no one is going to be here to get it out of the water." Since I didn't intend to give birth in the water, I didn't ask the questions like, "How long can the baby's head be under the water?" I fought the urge to push until everyone came rushing back in. Within just a few minutes, we finally met our beautiful baby girl!

One of the benefits of having a home birth is that it becomes a family affair. The kids were in and out of my bedroom (where I spent most of my time in labor). The girls were compassionately rubbing my back and shoulders. All the kids got to see the natural progression of pain during the labor. As they came in during the more painful contractions, Paul would explain that I couldn't talk because of how much it hurt. They were zoned into watching a movie downstairs when Selah was being born, but were called up right afterward and saw her as I was still holding her in the pool. What an incredible thing to see the birth as a miracle of God and not a act of medical science. It seems to make the new baby a natural addition to the family. Even Nathan was able to put the pieces together and realize that this was the same baby that was in mommy's tummy just a little while before.

The homebirth weigh-in.

Signing the Birth Certificate. We'll have to take it to the courthouse later with a notorized letter from the midwife stating that "yes, we did have a baby on this day..."

Nathan and his "new baby sister!!"

It's a GIRL!!! Selah Joy!

It's a GIRL! Selah Joy was born at 9 pm. She was the second smallest baby at 9 lbs 1 oz, and 21.5 inches long! I'll write more about her birth later...

Our New Family!

Selah and momma within an hour after birth. Check out that crazy hair.

Proud Papa!

9 days over...

It's a full moon tonight... With just about every pregnancy, I would watch with anticipation the full moon come, and then go, hoping that it would put me into labor. You hear about the labor and delivery rooms at the hospitals getting packed with women on full moon night. I think it has something to do with the gravitational pull. Same reason it affects the ocean's tide, I presume. So far, it hasn't worked for me.

On the other hand, I usually take castor oil on day number 8 which puts me into within 24 hours and I end up having him/her on day 9 (worked on 4 out of 6. Noah was induced early because the midwife was "going out of business" :) and my water broke with Nathan 4 days overdue). I have decided not to torture myself by gagging down the nasty stuff (yet). I did read on the internet about rubbing it on the belly and warming it with a hairdryer to start contractions. I may be gullible, but I did make a run to the pharmacy and bought some "tasteless and odorless" castor oil. (It's funny that on the directions, it says that you can take it with some juice to make it taste better... so much for tasteless.) Maybe, just maybe, between the full moon, a castor oil massage, and sipping raspberry tea...

Christmas Blessings!

Every year we make cookies for our neighbors and deliver them a week or so before Christmas. Paul and some of the kids took them around last weekend since we weren't sure when the new baby would be arriving and we did our baking earlier than usual this year.

Well, this afternoon, someone called and asked if we were the neighbors who brought the cookies around each year. "I've got something for your family. I'll be over in a few minutes." I had no idea which neighbor it was except that he was elderly from the sound of his voice. (We have a couple of older, widowed farmers around us)

It was Tony, a hermit-type of elderly man who lives a mile up the road. We see him every once in a while crossing the road to get his mail. It's obvious when you watch him walk that he has a hard time getting around, so we've done some anonymous snow shoveling and baking for him. In the years past, he's had a hand-written sign on his front door saying, "This house is boobie-trapped. Enter at the risk of losing an arm or leg." Last year, while delivering bread, the kids read the sign and came back to the car refusing to knock. I finally talked Caleb into knocking and, what do you know, he didn't lose either arm or leg.

Well, after calling, he showed up at our garage door with a 40 pound sack of groceries full of peanut butter, jelly, cookies, bread, cheese, and more. He even bought us a turkey! What a blessing to have such a thoughtful neighbor... and even more of a blessing to see the kids surprised faces. They got a tangible lesson in how God blesses you when you give without expecting anything in return. We even took the opportunity to pray that God would bless Tony for his kindness and help him to know Jesus if he doesn't.

Nathan took a liking to the 4 packages of cookies and tried to claim them as his own...

Zoo day!

It was getting kind of boring sitting around the house waiting for a baby to be born, so we decided to head to the zoo (maybe see if we could start anything). Tuesdays and Thursdays are free through the end of the year and I've been wanting to take the kids there for a few weeks. It finally warmed up enough (all the way into the 20's... whoo, hoo!), so I took my animals to see the REAL animals :)

Nathan wasn't too happy about sitting on the lion when we first got there to take our initial picture, but by the end of our trip, he got the drift that the only reason we came to the zoo was for pictures and he started cooperating.

Gracie and the zebra (or as Nathan would say, "Beebra"). Though I didn't get a good picture of the wild horses that are new to the zoo, both of the girls claimed that they were their favorite animals.

My little Roo's!

That's me... 5 days overdue. Although it was uncomfortable walking through the zoo for 3 and a half hours, the baby seemed to thoroughly enjoy the rocking motion because it gave no hint that it was coming out. In fact, all the walking just wore me out and made my hips hurt. Little did I know that my midwife would call later that evening and ask that I not do anything extra to try to start labor since she had been up the night before with another birth. Of course, my well behaved (yet LATE) baby decided to oblige her...

Today (day 6 overdue), we went sledding. Not me, although the thought did cross my mind (if I wasn't so sore from yesterday). It was our last chance to sled without the crowds when all the kids are off school for winter break. My favorite hill (because of convienience) is situated so that the kids are always in view of the parking lot. They practically sled right onto it. Nathan and I sat in the car watching Mickey Mouse while the kids wore off some winter energy.

Piano Recital

Nope, no baby yet... But this is a very busy time of year with lots going on around the holidays, so I thought I'd blog a bit more before the baby comes...

The boys (Caleb and Seth) had their Christmas Piano Recital this past weekend. Seth made HUGE improvements over last year. Last year, he practically had to be drug up on stage to play his piece. He is alot like me. You couldn't have paid me enough to want to do a recital when I was his age. This year, though, he went right up without threats of any kind! I believe he was just as nervous because I could see his hands visably shaking as he started his first piece. He was also nervously chomping on gum to the rhythm of his playing...

Seth played "Deck the Halls" and "Hark the Herald Angels Sing" (Grandpa Harold's favorite song :), and he played them well. Knowing how hard it is for him to get up in front of people, I was especially proud.

Caleb played a duet with Stephanie Bourg. They are at about the same playing level and they played "Carol of the Bells" together. It was AWESOME! He followed that with "Theme of Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring" (also known as a popular wedding march song). I really had no idea it was a Christmas song, but it sounded fantastic. He's at the point now where he enjoys playing, and it is enjoyable to listen to him. (It only took 5 long years...)

Supersize Me!

Everything is seeming BIG right now! My belly (when I bend to pick up a toy), this baby (when I try to breathe), ALL of the clothes in my wardrobe (time for that stuff to GO), the trip from my car through the parking lot to the store, and the walk across Walmart to get the things on my list... BIG! We've decided to add to the BIG-ness of the season by purchasing our very first Super-sized Van! That's right, we finally dove in and bought a 15 passenger van! NO, it's not because we plan to fill every seat! It's more for "whacking room". What's that, you say? It's the space in between the kids that kills the temptation to "whack" their neighbor :)

We've been looking at a 15 passenger for a few months, and we finally found a honey of a deal on a 2005 van with 16K miles! I have to admit, I'm not too fond of the color, but we have plans to spruce it up a bit... eventually. You can see in the picture below that for now, two of the kids actually get their OWN seat! (That guy in the back window is NOT part of our family :) The Ford van is a bit higher than our Chevy, so we will definately need running boards. I almost have to do the splits to get in. Add in a DVD system with surround sound and we'll have our own traveling theater! The kids will be begging to go for trips. They are already begging me to drive over any bump in the road because they want to see if they can hit their heads on the roof like in a school bus...

While we're on the subject of super-sizing, here's the "Due Date" belly shot. Pretty average for me, but I do have a tendancy to super-size my babies. Obviously, there's no baby yet. I am aiming for the 16th (Grandpa Les' birthday), or if that doesn't work, my next date of choice is the 21st. Seth was born on the first day of summer, so why not a "first day of winter" baby? Ya want to know something really sad? Look at my legs. They are actually hiding Nathan. You can see his little arm sticking out, but that's it. Ahhh, well.... that's life :) Who knows, maybe my next blog will be about our new baby...

Time with my girls

Grandma Connie had the 3 older boys for the night, so we took advantage of it! The girls and I gave eachother pedicures complete with soaking our feet in warm bubbly water, massages and fantastic smelling lotions. Truth be told, I was in need of some pampering, so I gave lessons on how to do a foot massage and they returned the favor on me :) Ahhh, how's that verse go? "Train up a child..." Yep, it's all part of their training. Nathan especially loved having his feet rubbed. He just went off into a daze until I stopped. Next... Backrubs!

Thanksgiving

With the looming birth of our new baby, Thanksgiving kind of got away from me. I am speeding into the Christmas rush, trying to get things accomplished before baby comes. I just wanted to take a minute and share just a few of the things I am so grateful for this year...

... my kids, of course, and how they've grown. I truely (still) enjoy being around them. :)

... my husband. Though we are continually fine-tuning eachother, there is no other person I'd rather spend my life with. He's a hard worker, a great example for our kids, and a man of integrity.

... both Paul's parents and my parents. I'm thankful for the way they raised us, and their love for eachother. And am sooooo thankful for the wonderful grandparents that my kids have.
... for baby number 7! It's amazing to think of this baby that wiggles inside of me now will be here in about 2 weeks! What a blessing and honor for God to give us another life to raise for His glory.

... our new well! Lots and lots of running water! Laundry, dishwashing, FULL hot baths, slip-n-slides, filling our goat's and chicken's troughs. You don't realize how much you miss it until you don't have it.

... my quirky family, and Paul's normal family. I'm not sure if my family would aspire to be called "normal", but I can attest that they are not. That part of them makes family holidays and being together fun. They're like walking into a Bath and Body store and being able to test 50 scents in 5 minutes. On the other hand, there is also a benefit and stability to having a "normal" family to even out the score. Though "normal" has no real definition, Paul's family reminds me of the deep, refreshing scent of evergreens during the Christmas season. Soothing and relaxing. What a joy it is to have both.