The Flergers!

When you are awaiting the birth of a child, the closer you get to the due date, the slower time seems to pass. But after the birth, everything speeds up and you find yourself longing for time to drag again, though you know that you have no control over it. This month and all things about it have been a blur and time has flown so quickly! I found it only fitting to name this blog post after one of my favorite albums (and those of you know know me will appreciate it.)

The first part of the month of August seemed to take forever. When August began, I was 38 weeks pregnant and felt like my due date was never going to arrive. I felt like a ticking time bomb--and I know that Jesse must have been looking at me as though I was. When my doctors appointment on August 6th rolled around, we made the decision to go ahead and induce after I hit 39 weeks for a couple of reasons, the main one being that Jesse would not get any time with his new baby if we didn't go a week early, and also because I had had a large baby the first time and my doctor had concerns about her shoulders fitting through the birth canal. I had a rough pregnancy and was so ready to meet my girl.

The week before the induction Jesse and I went on two dinner-and-a-movie dates. We tried new restaurants and enjoyed a little bit of time alone before we became the parents of two children. We laughed and made nervous conversation about how we would manage it all. A month ago we put our house on the market and there had been extra stress on us that neither of us have been able to escape so the dates we went on were much needed.

Honey and Papa arrived the Friday before the induction and I was able to breathe a little easier once they got here. I knew that no matter what--whether I went into labor on my own or if she waited until the induction--that my sweet Lucas and our Lily Dog would be taken care of.

Our last Family of 3 pic!

One more belly shot the night before the induction.

We left so early that we didn't want to wake anybody up, so we wrote them notes instead.

Ready to go!

I didn't sleep hardly a wink the night before the "eviction" date (I joke, but that's what I lovingly called it.) My brain was too excited and full of nervous thoughts and I maybe slept 2 hours between 10pm and 4 am. We had to be at the hospital at 5am on Monday, August 11th. We arrived a bit early so I went up and got a cart--Jesse loaded it with all our bags and stuff and then went to park the car. When we arrived I put on a very fashionable (haha) hospital gown and they got me hooked up to an IV and started me on Pitocin.

I need a nap...

I did get to nap for a little while, at least until the contractions really started to kick in and then I decided to give the birthing ball a try. (I'll spare everyone a picture of that, though yes, I do have one.) We watched several episodes of Firefly, Jesse napped (a little) and played games on his iPad, and kept supplying me with cups of water and ice. Around 11:30 things started to feel pretty darn uncomfortable and I asked for an epidural because I had been told that there were two c-sections at noon and the anesthesiologists would be tied up with that for a while and I did not want to miss my opportunity for pain relief. Thankfully after I got my epidural I was able to rest a little (in between the beeps of the machines and the regular interruptions, that is.) I had a wonderful nurse named Mary who I was lucky enough to have all day--she was so calm and low-key and made me feel as comfortable as possible.

Checking out the contractions while sitting on the birthing ball. I couldn't see the monitor so I got creative!

Does anyone else think one of the contractions looks like butt cheeks?

My sweet girl decided to take her time getting here and put me through a fair amount of pain doing it. My effacement and dilation happened quite slowly, and it seemed as though I was stuck at 4cm for a really long time. Around 3:15 my doctor came to check me and said I was between a 6 and a 7. Unfortunately my epidural was not holding steady and I started feeling a massive wave of pain and my contractions got unbelievably worse in a short time frame. The pain caused me to feel dizzy and nauseated, which lead to me yacking my guts up into a bag (fun times!) As much fun as that was, it got the ball rolling and in 15 minutes I went from 6cm dilated to 10cm and fully effaced. It seemed that Little Miss decided that it was time to show up to the party and the rapid descent made my labor pain quite intense. (I might have bruised Jesse's hand...) Nurse Mary had to call my doctor back at 3:30 and tell him he needed to come back because her head was sitting just before the exit and she wanted to come out! About 15 minutes later they had everything set up and ready to go--I pushed 6 times and out she came!

Mommy cut the cord!

Hello Baby Girl!

Forgive the shift in audience, but from this point on I'm going to write the blog post to my daughter. This is her story after all...

You came out fighting mad--those little lungs were working overtime from the get-go. You were covered in vernix and goo and did not appreciate the nurses who were trying to clean you up. But you were perfect. Your head wasn't squished or coney, your face wasn't flattened or smooshed, and you had ten perfect little fingers, ten toes and a head full of hair. Dr. Roberts asked Daddy if he wanted to cut the cord but he declined, so I asked if I could do it. Apparently this is not common, and Dr. Roberts said he can't think of another Mom that had ever asked him to do that. I told him I was a hands-on kind of person and like to throw myself into the experience, so he handed me the scissors and I made the cut that separated you from me. Your crying stopped as soon as they put your tiny body in my arms and you laid your head on my chest.

We named you Gable Willow Fletcher. Born at 4:06pm on August 11, 2014. 7 lbs. 14 oz's and 19 1/4 inches long. I was in disbelief when they told me your weight that I asked "are you sure?" because I was expecting you to be closer to 9 lbs. like your big brother was. You were so perfect and pink and amazing. Your eyebrows and eyelashes at birth were very fair--almost blonde and your hair is a pretty light brown. Your Apgar scores were 8 and 9 and once they had you all checked out and semi-cleaned up, you and I spent some skin-on-skin time together for almost an hour. I nursed you there in the delivery room for the first time and marveled at how beautiful you were--I couldn't stop staring.

Your Daddy wanted to hold you so badly but he was patient and just let the two of us get to know each other. He waited over an hour just to hold you--you will never understand what a long time that was for him. Before they moved us to our postpartum room, Daddy finally got to hold you. You will never know a prouder Daddy than your own. He was instantly in love with you and held onto you like you were the most precious thing he's ever seen. You share a similar birthmark with your dad and brother--the red stork bites on your eyelids and on the back of your neck.



We spent the rest of the afternoon and evening recovering in a room that had a giant window in it. Your Honey and Papa came to meet you and brought us dinner a little later that evening and they were so excited to get to hold you. Your Honey and I have a very special mother-daughter bond and she's been looking forward to meeting her granddaughter since the day we found out you were a girl. She says "there's just something special about little girls" and was so excited to know that I was going to be your Mommy.

Such a proud Honey!

Papa was so happy to finally meet you too!

You got your first "bath" in the hospital--Whitney, our night nursery nurse came and cleaned you up and got the remainder of the birth goo off of you and washed your hair. You were so calm and relaxed and seemed to really like having your hair washed.

Confession: I read an article a while back called Opting Out of Birthday Insanity because I have been looking at ways to tone down my own insanity about birthdays. (And holidays of any sort.) This is a hard process for me because I am the kind of person who wants other people to enjoy themselves even if it stresses me out. :) I have so many happy memories of my own birthday experiences and I want to make sure my kid(s) have happy memories to look back on when they get older.

The funny thing is, my happiest childhood birthday memories were the ones we spent at home. Mom's homemade strawberry cake, singing, my grandparents there, a friend or two...those were my favorites! Which is why (since my son had his first birthday) we've done parties at home. I'll admit, my motivations are love-driven and I try to do special things for Lucas (and Jesse too) for their birthdays, but some of it is probably superfluous and unnecessary--they aren't going to think I love them less if the Happy Birthday banner doesn't coordinate with the theme of the party. :)

Lucas's 2nd birthday 3 years ago "should" have made me realize that I needed to tone it down a little bit when my son completely ignored all of his party guests and was completely overwhelmed by the noise. Same with his 3rd. And his 4th. When he shut down and blocked out everyone by crawling onto the couch and playing with one toy (instead of showing interest in opening all his other gifts) I "should" have taken notes that said "Hmm...maybe this wasn't a good idea." He doesn't really even like cake and could have cared less about the themes.

It is self-induced insanity. I do this to myself telling me that its for him. But if I stop and look back and really notice what was going on, it wasn't for him at all. The parties, the cake, the toys, the friends---those were for my memory book and not his. I've gone and made it all about me...and that gives me Mom guilt. :(

Here's a short list of what Lucas cares about the most:
1. Mommy and Daddy 2. Honey and Papa 3. Water of any form, but especially swimming pools. 4. Trains of all sorts, but especially Thomas. 5. Anything with wheels. 6. But mostly, he just wants to hang out with the people he loves.

So here's what we're doing this year. I'm unplugging from the insanity party I've been doing the last 4 years. I'm allowing myself to stop feeling so wound-up about birthdays but instead to focus on my sweet boy and things that he will actually care about.

Papa will be here this weekend and Lucas loves Papa above most anything else. Papa's birthday is Friday, so we will probably go somewhere that Papa likes to eat (my guess would be Joes' Crab Shack.) Lucas will crawl all over Papa, give him kisses, beg him for tickles, and generally smother him during the 4 days he'll be here. (That's Papa's present from Lucas.)

For Lucas's birthday, we're going on a 1 hour train ride around Grapevine on Saturday and then going to Bass Pro Shop to watch them feed the giant fish in the humongous tank (that's a joy for both Papa AND Lucas!)

We're not having a party. No guests aside from his nearest and dearest (with exception of Honey whose extenuating work circumstances will keep her from coming this year but she'll see us in June.) Our close friends who know and love us (but especially love and understand Lucas) I'm sure understand.

Can I tell you that I'm actually more excited about Lucas's birthday this year than in the past few? I can't wait to see his face when he gets to ride a train with Papa, or the sparkle in his eyes when he watches the big giant fish eating their lunch. Having Lucas has taught me a lot, and I'm a learning more and more about how to be his Mommy. And maybe its taken me 5 years to figure out that a big party and lots of chaos isn't what he likes or needs but I'm getting there! :)

There still might be cake... :) And candles. And birthday singing. :) (Some habits are hard to break.)

I'm sorry for the lack of posts---I read so many blogs but find myself without a lot of time to do much writing these days. I will try and be better but I can't make any promises. :(

Family Updates:

Last week we had quite a surprise---SNOW! And lots of it! So much that we had a 5 day weekend--we were off Thursday and Friday because of the snow, and Monday because of President's Day and it was AWESOME! I totally believe we should go to the 5 day weekend. It rules. Jesse built a little mini-snowman for Lucas (who liked eating the snow) and we enjoyed mugs of hot chocolate and tea at various times throughout the day.

Lucas is 9 months now and just blossoming into such a cute little man! His grin is infectious, his smell is intoxicating, and his presence is something I treasure and thank God for every single day. He weighs 23 pounds, is 31 inches long and is wearing between 12-18 month clothes! He's a beast! He has very little interest in crawling because he can't see what is going on around him and would rather stand instead. If he's awake something on his body is wiggling--he has those little hands and feet going non-stop and wants to feel and touch and eat everything. We had a bit of a scare a few weeks ago when he was diagnosed with RSV--I had to take a week off of work to care for him because he required thrice-daily breathing (nebulizer) treatments. But he's back at his school now, healthy as an ox and droolin' all over the place.

He has 8 teeth and it would appear that more are on their way because he's a total drool monster and chews on anything that sits still for too long (including mom--I have bruises on my shoulder from where he got me!) We're trying different foods with him that he can eat with his fingers. To date he's had cheese, Cheerios, Gerber Puffs, chicken nuggets, green beans, tater tots, bread, melon, banana, strawberry, and pancakes. He gets about 85% of it in his mouth and when he fails to hit the mark our trusty pooch Lily is there to vacuum up the rest (she's much more efficient than the Eureka anyway.) So far he does a lot of babbling but he does say dadadadada and babababababa a lot. He LOVES the water and bathtime is so much fun for him! We think he's going to be a "righty" but I guess that can change.

He'll be making his first airplane ride in a few weeks when he and Mommy go to Albuquerque. We're going to my cousin Vanessa's wedding in Farmington, NM. Should be exciting!

Jesse and I are in our 2nd semester at school. I'm knee deep in sewing projects (my 8th graders are making aprons and my 7th graders are making bags--all are being made from "re-purposed" items such as tshirts and scrap fabric.) Jesse has his hands full with a class of 28+ gifted kids in his 8th grade class plus his 6th and 7th graders. We are enjoying our role as parents and are always amazed at our sweet son and how big he is getting. Jesse is a wonderful father and puts so much effort into making sure Lucas is well taken care of.

There are far too many pics to post but I made a collage of some of the recent stuff going on with Lucas. Hopefully I'll be back to blogging more regularly--I'm just so busy these days! Love and hugs to all of you who read this regularly.