Sweet Cece

My sweet baby turns 4 months old today.

She's seriously the most delicious baby.

 And she sucks her thumb.

Not one of my other children has been a thumbsucker.

I thinks it's adorable.

I mean, look at that--

adorable!!

I Get to Be Her Mama

 This baby girl...

she's growing into a deLIGHTful little baby.

The first weeks were a bit sketchy;

she barely slept, cried so often, and nursed round the clock.

She was a challenge

and shook my confidence daily.

*cue Simon and Garfunkel's song "Cecelia"

which I have sung repeatedly* 

But now?

She's happy.

She sleeps.

She smiles and is even starting to laugh.

She nurses and is satisfied.

She's just plain ol' sweet.

 This one is blurry but I still like it.

*sigh*

And I get to be her mama.

The Birth of Cecelia Corinne

Goodness, what a busy last three weeks!
During the last weeks of pregnancy, I thought I would prepare several posts to have ready to publish so that I wouldn't have to think about it during the immediate postpartum days.  Ha!  That didn't happen...

I have wanted to share the story of Cece's birth so many times.  I wanted to write it well, and to do that I knew I would need two hands and the chance to have a few complete thoughts.
These have been in short supply as of late.

I guess the best way to tell a story is to just start, right?

Labor started at about 2:00 on a Friday afternoon, I had been feeling "different" since about 11:00 am that day.
I decided to send the kids to my parents' house (they both work but we have a key to their house so Linnea could just watch them down there).  They loaded into the suburban and Isaiah drove them over.
While I was getting kids out the door there were no contractions.  If I laid down, I could time contractions that were reliably 10 mins apart.
I texted Beth (my fabulous midwife) to let her know what was going on and we agreed to wait watchfully.

Dennis called in to let them know he'd be late for his shift hauling beets.  He didn't want to miss the baby's birth.  He'd be working an hour away and was worried he wouldn't get back in time if I called him later to come home once things picked up.
  Once the kids were out of the house I decided to try rest.
(I was all alone in the house.  This never happens.  Like, NEVER.  Well, I think I could list maybe two other times in the 18 years I've lived here, so never isn't exactly true.  Rarely, then.  RARELY.)
The contractions were each enough to wake me and I was needing to breathe through each one.  I texted Beth again, and my husband kept texting me asking if I had asked Beth to start this way yet.  He was worried I would wait too long and she'd miss it as she has an 80 minute drive to get to me.
He was nearby, chopping silage, and said he'd keep working on that until I told him to come in.
I gave up trying to sleep and started to pull out the birth supplies, and do some general last minute tidying of the house and my bedroom. I texted Beth at 5:25 and said "I think it'd be good if you headed this way." I took a shower, decided what I was going to wear in labor, and was disappointed that during my long, hot shower there were no contractions.  I convinced myself that I had jumped the gun again and that baby would be days away.

I laid down again, half in discouragement and half in tiredness and had a couple more contractions that were longer and harder than before. I had to really breathe through them and was very glad I had Beth on her way to me.  I wondered if perhaps I should have texted her sooner because they were getting stronger.

Dennis came inside at about 6:20 and Beth got here about 6:45, 81 minutes after my text.  (Turns out that when she says she's ready to hop in the car, she really means it.)  I was working through the contractions, though they were still spaced several minutes apart.  Christine (student midwife) and then Janelle, Beth's assistant, arrived and they set about doing their "thing" which I found fascinating, really.
I became more of an observer, impressed by their teamwork and efficiency and the busy-ness of preparing for birth. It hit me that they were here to help me birth MY baby at MY house. Even though this was my 11th delivery, it was my first birth at home.  It was familiar and new all at the same time.
Things became much more intense and I moved from bedroom to bathroom.  I remember saying, "I don't want to birth the baby in the bathroom; I'm in here because it feels good to lean on the sink" (being higher than the bed, and sturdier, it allowed me to sway through the contractions.)

Before much longer I was back in my room and leaning into the window sill next to my bed;  Dennis came in and I clasped my hands around the back of his neck as I could feel the baby making his or her way down.  Beth had stepped into the next room to get gloves on (I learned later). I heard her say, "Is she pushing?" Dennis said, "Yes."  I tried to answer, but couldn't.  I stood in front of Dennis, leaning into his chest; my water broke, her head came down, I said, "the.....head...." and Beth was there behind me, flipped up my skirt, and caught the baby. 

When I climbed up on to my bed, she handed her to me, helping with the cord since we were still attached.
I could NOT believe she was a GIRL.  I had been so certain that I was carrying a boy--and I don't know why I thought that--but I probably said four times, "I canNOT believe it's a GIRL!"

Cecelia Corinne
4 hours old
wrapped in a blue blanket because she had pooped on the pink ones

I put her skin to skin with me and I covered her with blankets.
Her cord was allowed to finish pulsing, which is so important for babies.

During the newborn exam, Beth noticed that baby had a tongue tie.  Not gonna lie, I was disappointed to learn this.  I knew it could really create a struggle for nursing.  She nursed well right away, but I didn't know what the future would hold. 

She was a little unsettled compared to my other new babies, which made for a long night.  She and I got precious little sleep and she cried a lot.  I nursed her for hours and hours.

So that was Friday night into Saturday.  My younger kids were with my parents and they brought them to meet the baby later Saturday afternoon.

Ivy was the first one in the house,
having run from Grandma's car,
up the stairs and in to the living room,
saying, "Can I hold the new baby?!?!"

Abram was delighted with the new baby.
See his face?  He was so excited to see her!

Andrew loves babies.

The kids have always been so welcoming to the new babies.

Abram loved touching her very soft hair.
He would push the other kids' hands away so that
he could touch her by himself.

A happy big brother!

I decided to keep some kids here at home Saturday night and send Elijah, Ruby, Ivy and Elizabeth home again with my parents.  Then the real fun began as one by one my kids fell to the stomach flu.   If there's a worse time for a family to get the stomach flu than immediate postpartum, I can't think of one.

Nine out of thirteen got sick but it was very short-lived and everyone was better within four days total.
I was one of those who was spared, thankfully!

Saturday and Sunday, there were times I cried.  It was very overwhelming and helpless-feeling.  Dennis was hauling beets and so was completely gone for 14 hours a day and then working here or catching a little sleep.  He's not very hands-on with the household stuff normally, but just having him around to peek in on me and listen to me has been the way it has gone with the other kids.
He called in the day Cecelia was born to say he wasn't coming for that shift, so he was able to be here with me after she was born.  They were broke down at the field so it worked out well for us that he could stay home rather than rush right out after the birth.
He did go haul on Saturday and for the rest of the 2 week season.

Through a series of phone calls on Monday, I was able to get in to a clinic on Tuesday morning to have her tongue tie clipped.

(This picture actually shows her tie fairly well.
Notice her tongue at her lower lip?  That was as far as she could move it.
For effective nursing, babies need to be able to move their tongue.)

It felt weird being out with a 3 1/2 day old baby but it needed to be done.  Nursing a tongue-tied baby is PAINFUL.  Like, white-hot pain.  I cried some more.  Once it was clipped that morning, it was noticeably better; still some pain but I think it was collateral damage from three days of hellish nursing. With the addition of some cranial sachral chiropractic work, we've got it all worked out now.

The birth was wonderful and very special to me; I'm bummed that we got sick afterward because it has meant no rest for me but that couldn't be helped.  

My only regret for homebirth is that I didn't begin birthing babies at home many babies ago.  I don't have too many opportunities left to work with Beth before I age out of the system, haha.

Birth can be very empowering
and it is so very important to listen to, trust, and respect a woman during childbirth.
I have lived through a traumatic birth experience where I was ignored and disrespected among other things.
It was one of the most damaging experiences of my life.
I wish all women, regardless of where they birth, could experience what I did with Cecelia's birth.
Birth is very precious to me and having people I trust attend me during that time was very healing.
The midwifery model of care trusts that birth is a normal life event--not a catastrophe waiting to happen--
that a woman's body is capable of birth and that women and their spouses are responsible for their decisions during pregnancy and childbirth.
Normal, physiological birth was allowed to proceed without interference or intervention
and that is what was so empowering for me.

The only things I would change if I could would be the stomach flu and the tongue-tie! haha!
I felt very safe at home; I felt cared for and like a respected part of the birth process, not just a person out of whom a baby must come.
It was very natural for both Dennis and me to labor, birth,
and meet our new baby here in our home.

Some pictures of Cece's first days...

Love.

My new baby.

She's Here!

Cecelia Corinne arrived at 7:32 pm last night at home like we planned. 

She weighed 8 lbs 12 oz and was 20 3/4 inches long. 

Her story later!!.

Today Would Be a Good Day

The bathroom is clean, the kitchen is clean, the laundry is caught up (except for the three loads that are currently being worn), everyone is healthy, Dennis isn't hauling beets yet, and I went to the store yesterday. Today would be a good day for baby to come, don't YOU think so? I sure do...

Monday's Child

I need to update an old post since three more children have been born since then.

Do you remember that poem called "Monday's Child" ?

Three of our kids have been born on a Sunday: Isaiah, Christopher and Abram
Three have been born on a Monday: Andrew, Ruby, and Elizabeth
One on a Tuesday: Nathaniel
Two were born on a Thursday: Linnea and Elijah
and Ivy was born on a Friday.

I'm up in the middle of the night wondering what this baby will be?

Monday's child is fair of face,

Tuesday's child is full of grace;

Wednesday's child is full of woe,

Thursday's child has far to go;

Friday's child is loving and giving,

Saturday's child works hard for its living;

But the child that is born on the Sabbath day

Is bonny and blithe, and good and gay.

ReCap

You may have noticed some time lapsed between this post and this one.

What was I doing?

I'll tell you.

A couple days before the boys' first football game,

my little people started coughing.

And coughing.

And coughing.

And coughing.

And coughing some more.

They all stayed home from the game with Linnea

but I really thought most were on the upswing...

sleeping better, maybe coughing less, etc.

Except when I got back from the game,

I could tell Abram was not feeling better--

he was worse.

I decided to take him to be seen

and since the facility where I decided to go has no urgent care,

we went to the ER.

He was admitted to the hospital.

Nathaniel was a "respiratory kid" and so was Andrew.

Elijah had a few bouts with this kind of thing when he was a baby/toddler, too,

so I knew enough to pack a bag with a change of clothes for me

even though I hoped we could just do a nebulizer treatment and be on our way.

It was a good thing I packed a bag,

and a book,

and my crochet bag

 because we were there from Saturday afternoon through Monday night.

If you've ever had a child hospitalized,

you know that sleep is hard to come by--

for both the child and the parent.

It seems as if every time one of you has just nodded off,

an alarm beeps, a monitor dings, it's time for vitals, etc.

And if you're a light sleeper like me,

even the most careful nurse who sneaks in to the room to do her check on the child

is enough to wake you.

I was tired, Abram was tired.

He was so upset at being confined.

He hated the oxygen tubing and constantly pulled at it.

He ripped his iv apart and had to have a splint-type thing put on his other arm 

(a "no-no board" they called it)

so that he couldn't bend either arm.

The meds made him hyper,

he wanted to walk around but couldn't because all of his

wires and leads would trip him up,

not to mention the small space of a hospital room

filled with a bed, a recliner, a humongo crib, iv pole, vitals monitor, etc., etc.

Linnea did a SUPER job holding down the fort in my absence;

I was so glad she was here while I was there!

Abram and I had to miss my family's annual hayride at my parents' house

and Dennis did, too, because hay was ready to be cut.

Bummer.

The younger kids were able to go and to tell you the truth, I'm not even sure how they got there!

Dennis handled it with my brother, I think. ;)

With all that sitting (for me), and basically no way to get my circulation going,

my legs swelled so, so much.

As in, I've never been that swollen in my life.

My legs were so very painful

and I was getting extremely anxious to leave the hospital.

The nurses, upon learning that I was 38 weeks along, would joke

how funny it would be if I had the baby since OB was just a couple doors down.

I didn't say much, I'd just laugh a bit,

but in my mind I was like, "No really--you don't understand..."

I was hoping and praying for Abram to get well enough for us to leave very soon

and for the new baby to please WAIT until I was home before deciding to arrive!

It took several days for the pain in my legs to subside.

With the help of a generous friend who supplied me with some oils for my issue 

as well as for the children's ongoing respiratory issue,

we were now on the mend.

Then it was Bipper's birthday.

And the next day there was no other option but to head to the grocery store for a few things,

which ended up being really taxing on my sore leg.

Then another football game.

Then church and a day of horseback riding for Linnea and a couple friends.

Monday was an appointment with my wonderful midwife.

That afternoon my other washing machine died too, leaving me  

days/weeks away from the arrival of my 11th child, with no working washing machine.

I cried.

However, I believe God whispered in the ear of someone we know

who then called me to say she wanted to buy me a washing machine.

ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!?!?!?!?!

Thank you, GOD!

(The new one will be arriving on Monday and is a bit smaller than either of my current non-working ones.

It will most certainly wash clothes well and Linnea and I will just keep that baby workin' all day long!

But if you happen to 

a) know someone who is good a appliance repair who would like to help a family out

or

b) have a functional washer just sitting in your garage for which you'd like to find a home 

let me know!

I believe the one washer is toast....not repairable or at the least, more expensive to repair than it would be to replace all the parts.

The other one I believe can be fixed; just waiting until after harvest to see if we can get that done.)

We met the person in town to get the details of delivery worked out

and now I excitedly wait until Monday for it to arrive!

I drove to my mom & dad's Thursday to wash several loads;

the kids didn't stop wearing clothes simply because

I had no working washer.

I did as much as I could before it was time to head to 

Andrew's football game.

Yesterday afternoon, Linnea and I went to the store for

enough-groceries-to-last-until-the-baby-comes-and-hopefully-beyond.

Honestly, meals are the hardest thing for me to wrap my brain around

when a new baby arrives.

Linnea has taken over much of the cooking

and can also do the shopping if the older boys will drive to town

so here's hoping this time will be a bit easier in that department!

So now I'm up in the middle of the night

(because it's common for me at nearly 39 weeks to 

pretty much no longer sleep)

and am trying to catch up on my some blog posts.

Bipper has a football game later this morning

and then we'll have supper with the grandparents to celebrate Linnea's 14th birthday.

Her birthday is on Sunday but with church,

a 4-H meeting, a provided golf date with her daddy-o,

and a youth group function that evening,

we're fitting it in when we can.

Of course,

any conversation or plan we make is followed by

"unless the baby comes."

34 Weeks

Thirty-four weeks along with Baby #11

and I am remembering this post from when I was pregnant with Ivy.

(The only thing different is that I've not dealt with indigestion at all this time.)

Recap

Blogging has been pretty hit and miss these last several months.
I don't know why, really.  Or maybe I do--I just can't really put it into words.

The weather has been a little cray-cray here lately, jumping from beastly hot to downright chilly.  On Friday night the younger kids and I sought temperature asylum at my parents' house.  (They have air conditioning.)  My parents were out of town for my dad's class reunion; it was a little like having a party when your parents are gone....all the guests (except me) were underage but we kept it really mild.  As in, we got there about 9 pm, I swished them through the tub, put the little girls all to bed, let Bipper and Elijah watch half of a movie while I cooled off in the tub with a book to read, and then put them to bed by 10:30.
Our 2nd washing machine quit working which makes it so easy to fall VERY behind on the laundry so I brought along several loads to wash while we were there.  I stayed up until about 1:00 am doing laundry, slept until my bladder woke me at 3, switched another load and couldn't go back to sleep until 4.  My dad's alarm clock went off at 5; I frantically tried to shut it off before it woke any little people.  Elizabeth had a bad dream at 5:30 so I laid down next to her and then Abram woke up at 7.
So while I wouldn't exactly call my evening away from home "restful", it was certainly MUCH cooler and I got a lot of laundry washed, dried, AND folded.
Our house just has NO circulation and heats up so much on hot, humid days that don't cool off at night that about once or twice per summer I end up taking kids over to my parents.  It's feels like it's either that or end up in the news:  "Minnesota Mom Completely LOSES IT in Furnace-Like Living Conditions".
We never are able to take a vacation or time away so maybe this sorta counts.

Today was actually pretty chilly, which was actually pretty helpful as this week begins our County Fair.  Linnea spent all day washing and clipping her own animals and also those that her younger siblings will be showing.  It's much more tolerable on a cool day than a beastly hot one!

I'm bummed that my camera stopped working a couple weeks ago.  It's a dslr that Dennis let me get about 4 years ago after a particularly good bean crop after having gone for a year with no camera.  The auto-focus quit working and I canNOT figure out why, nor how to fix it.  Very sad me.

New Baby is growing and is now causing some discomfort from time to time.  I feel pretty good to have made it to 29 weeks with my 11th child without much discomfort at all!  I generally feel good, I just need to put my feet up for about 15 mins a few times a day.  Yesterday, I had some pretty bad hip pain that made my work very difficult to accomplish but today is better.

Abram has taken a step now and then, but other than that he has no real interest in walking.  He will definitely be the latest to walk of all the children so far, but today I caught a glimpse of why that might be.  They were outside playing on the cement in front of the garage.  Ivy was driving her toy car (after she and Elizabeth settled their very loud dispute from when Elizabeth took the [toy] key and ran off with it, leaving the [toy] car inoperable) and Abram was standing alongside it.  As Ivy "drove" away, Abram stayed standing on the cement.  The kids were all "LOOK!!  Abram is standing!  He's not holding on to anything!!!  LOOK!!!"  (I was looking, for the record.)
At this point, Elizabeth ran over, cooing "Ooooooh, Abwam!" and tried to "help" him stand, so of course he immediately

sat down.

Delayed walking may be a bit of a defense mechanism for 14 month old boys with 2 1/2 year old sisters.

And that's about all I can string together for a post tonight.

I Can't Think of a Title for This Post

Today we celebrated Nathaniel's graduation with an open house lunch at our church.  It went really well.  See?  Worrying and stressing works!  Just kidding.  I worried too much about how I would pull it off but my mom and my sister helped me in BIG ways and I'm forever grateful.
I will post pictures soon.

Only one guest took a pot-shot to my face about this, my eleventh pregnancy.  An elderly aunt pointed to my stomach and said loudly, "You just don't know the word STOP, do you?!"
Caught off guard, I smiled and stammered something like "I really like having children, thanks."
My uncle said I should have said, "Neither do you!" (know when to stop)

Elijah spent last week with his bestest pal, Gideon, in the big city about 3 hours away.  A week was a very long time, but with texts and calls, it was fun to check-in with him and the time was made bearable.  Having one child "missing" was so weird!

The week before that, Andrew and Christopher were both at Bible camp.  Our family received a gift that provided for the older kids to all go to camp.  Inspiration Point is an aMAZing place.  They both had a super time.  Christopher told me that there was a lot of tooting that happened in their cabin.  He learned other things, too, though.  One day, I wanna go there myself.

Elizabeth started some bangs for herself last week.  So now she has bangs.  I wasn't really planning on bangs, but they actually look really cute.

I found a dead frog in Christopher's barn pants pocket the other day so that was fun.  Or not.  Either way, it happened.

Dennis and Isaiah are gone until tomorrow sometime; they drove back with my brother after the open house because Isaiah and Aaron worked out a deal for Isaiah to buy Aaron's old car.  Aaron lives 5 hours away so it's a trip that takes a little planning for a dairy farmer.

Baby is growing nicely; I am 26 weeks now.  I have my coffee shelf back and have knock things over with my belly.  Elizabeth talks often about the baby in Mommy's "hummy" and thinks we'll be naming this baby Abram, too.  (We're not.)

We were given three tickets to the circus this past week so Nathaniel took Ruby and Christopher.  They had a great time.  Ruby's favorite were the acrobats and Christopher's was the trick bike rider.

So that's a bit of catch-up from here.  I was soaking my oh-so-tired-and-achy feet in epsom salts but now the water is cold and I'm going to go to bed.  Since Dennis is gone, I feel like I really should stay up and take advantage of the opportunity to hold the remote or pick whatever I want on netflix--y'know, live on the wild side a bit.  Maybe I will.  Elizabeth took a looooooooong nap after the party; I don't think sleep is in her near future, so it's not likely in mine either.

Now....to figure out the remote.....

An Addition

Our family is planning an addition to our home.

We will be adding two precious feet in late September.