Let's meet our new sister

A few hours after Abigail was born Grandma brought Noah and Rebekah home to meet her. She called us after they had woken up from nap and said she was on the way with them. We called Andraya and she came over to take pictures. I love her so much. She has been such a great friend and I'm so happy she was there for my birth and then after to record the moments of my babies all meeting each other.

Andraya was in the bedroom with me and Sean and Abigail when they came home. Rebekah came running in shaking her little girl curls. Sean got down on the ground with Abigail in his lap. Rebekah plopped herself right in his lap and showered Abigail with loves. She was so excited to see her. She then spent the next hour comparing her feet to Abigail's and touching her nose and eyes and face. She made her cute little "oh oh oh" sounds and snuggled her head into Abigail's face. Noah was slightly less interested haha. He came in and went straight to me sitting in bed. I told him to go see Abigail and he looked at my belly and was confused for a second. I told him she is down there with daddy. He said oh I'm going to go play with my toys. They are in my room. haha. We had moved some of his toys and the kid table out of the living room and into the kids room while I was in labor. Elizabeth encouraged him to stay and see the new baby. He went to his room for a few minutes and then came back to the bedroom. He looked at Abigail and and watched her for a bit. Then Sean and the kids all climbed into bed with me and we did some pictures. I asked Noah if he wanted to hold the baby and he timidly said ok. After she was in his arms he was pretty happy. He gave her a squeeze and stared at her for a while. Then he said "ok I'm done now." haha. I took her back and we did some more pictures. Noah got bored and went back to playing with his toys. After a while Elizabeth took the kids back to her house to spend the night. The last few days Elizabeth has been been helping so much with the kids. They spent the night at her house the first and second night and then we had them the last two nights. She came and took them to hang out and do fun grandma things Friday afternoon til evening and she had them again Saturday afternoon. Sunday is the first day we will have them all for the whole day home. I'm nervous but I'm excited to have my whole family home all day. Let's see how this family of 5 thing goes. haha. I will post pictures of the whole day later when I get them from my photographer. Here is one of the sneak peak ones she sent me already :) 

 

Home Birth Community Rocks.

So having a home birth comes with getting to be a part of an amazing community of women. I love the women in the group. Stephanie has provided such a great place for us to all support each other and learn. I love the Bellies meetings every other week and I love the facebook group online. So at 37 weeks they do a frame ceremony for the mother at the bellies meeting. I love mine! Before the group starts talking about the subject for that week mothers that are 37 or more weeks at the time tell a little about them and their pregnancy and what they hope for the birth. Then everyone in the group gets to pass around a wooden frame and write on it with a sharpie a word, picture or phrase about what they hope for, or wish for or just as a support to the mother in her labor. It means so much they things people wrote on my frame. They know the drama that has happened with my family with my past pregnancies and the stuff I have gone through with that. They said things like peace, let go and let god, darkness to dawn, smooth. There is something about having people all come together and give you love and support that makes you feel really special and like you can handle anything.

Another thing I love about the home birth community is the tradition of having blessingways. A blessingway is like a baby shower but different haha. Instead of focusing on the new baby coming and getting gifts and getting ready for when baby is here, a blessingway is about the mother and honoring her and getting her ready for labor. My lovely friend Jessica let me have it at her house two weeks ago. I had 8 friends come. It was such a great night with great conversation. I had each friend bring a bead that represented us as a friends, or them or what they hoped for me in my labor and I got to string in on a necklace for me to wear while I'm in labor. That way I can remember the people who love a support me. I also picked out a bead for my mom, dad and my three sisters to string on there, Noah picked out two beads later for him and Rebekah and I have had a few friends that couldn't make it to the party give me beads to string on there as well. I'm so excited to wear it! I also had them write uplifting things on papers for me to put in a cute jar I bought that day for me to read after I have Abigail. Its purpose is for when I'm having a tough day with having a new baby and 3 other children to care for that I can read them and remember the love I have and also just feel good about myself. My favorite thing we did was I got a henna tattoo on my belly! It turned out beautifully. And the best part is all my friends got to get a small one on their hand :) It was so fun to spend time with friends and just celebrate me having a new baby soon.

So my favorite tradition with having a home birth and being in the amazing community I am in because of it is the candle. Stephanie gave me a beautiful candle holder and candle that I get to light while I'm in labor and then its is passed on to other women in the group to use for the same purpose. It is something that unites us all and reminds us of the amazing community we are apart of. The candle holder is three elephants. The story behind the elephants is that while elephants are in labor all the other women in the herd surround the mother the entire labor in a circle to protect her from the wild and give her support. Someone in the group years before I joined made a comment that the women in the group were her elephants and how grateful she is for them. Then it became something that everyone said. We are each others elephants. 

I am in love with home birth and the wonderful women I have met because of the group :) Even after I have Abigail I am going to continue to go to the Bellies meetings and keep my ties with the group. Afterall I'm going to be having lots more babies anyway and you can never get too much love and support :)   

False Labor is dumb

This pregnancy is so different than my pregnancies with Noah and Rebekah. I started having contractions that seem real and like actual labor contractions around 36 weeks. Then the Monday before I turned 37 weeks I had contractions for 6 hours that were 20 min apart. I thought that it could be it but they never got closer together so I wasn't too hopeful but still thought it could be it. Last night was the worst though. I am 38 weeks 4 days today which is the longest I've been pregnant. I know lots of women go past their due dates or at least right up to them and I probably shouldn't complain because so far I haven't had that happen. But when you keep having days you really think its going to happen and then it just doesn't its hard to not get irritable. Plus I had Noah and Rebekah early so its just what I have come to know as the norm for me. Yesterday started out as a pretty great day. Poor Noah has been sick for the last week. He has pink eye in both eyes and a cough. Sean and I haven't been sleeping well since we have been waking up to help unstick Noah's eyes and comfort him when he wakes up. He has eye drops we got to help so hopefully its cleared up in the next day. Any way, Noah has had a tough two weeks. Sean and I are tired and I'm irritable with the pregnancy stuff and Rebekah is in a hitting stage and Calli has been requiring extra attention so Noah has gotten the raw deal and was feeling left out we think. Sean's mom is awesome and took Noah for the day yesterday so he could just have a fun day all about him and I got a break and just had Rebekah for the day. It was so nice to be able to just focus on one child and play. Also I knew Noah was having a great day so I was so happy for him. He got to help in her garden, make pies, visit with his uncles. He had a blast. Noah is such a helper and he loves the outdoors. I'm so glad he got a fun day with Grandma. He was having so much fun he told her "I want to stay here a long time" So Elizabeth let him spend the night.

Rebekah and I went out with my mom yesterday morning and got our nails done and went to lunch. She had so much fun sticking her feet in the water while I got a pedicure and wandering around the salon. Everyone there just kept saying out cute and silly she is. I just love my Bekah babe. She pushed chairs around and played with the carts with supplies. She is cute so she gets a way with a lot haha. After lunch we came home and she took a nap. My friend Emily came over and we hung out for awhile. Then Sean came home from work right as Miss Rebekah woke up from her nap. The three of us played and had fun. Then at 3pm I picked up my friend Adriana and her two children and we went to the mall to walk around and buy shoes. Another friend, Brianna, met us there as well. We walked around for almost 2 hours and by the end I started having contractions. They weren't regular yet but they were getting more and more uncomfortable each one. we went back to my house and they kept coming. I was getting excited that it could be the start of actual labor but I didn't want to be too hopeful. Adriana left around 7pm. Brianna stayed for most of the night. At 7:30pm I started having contractions that were 10 minutes apart. From there they got closer and closer to 5 minutes apart for hours. Sean started thinking this was really it. He decided to go take a nap so he could be well rested to help me when things got more real. Brianna and I went for a walk around my block and the contractions kept coming and getting stronger. Elizabeth even came and picked up Rebekah and took her home too. Brianna left around 10pm and I kept having contractions. Sean and I watched some tv. I was still in denial that it was happening and kept thinking the contractions were going to stop so it was nice to have the distraction of tv. The contractions kept coming at 5 min apart and were more pinching and hurting more and more. It still didn't hurt a whole lot so I decided to go to bed at 11:30pm. I couldn't sleep because they were still uncomfortable. Then at around 2:30am they just stopped. I was beyond irritated. I finally fell asleep after 3am. This morning I woke up at 7am and I'm just so distraught that I'm still pregnant. I feel like an idiot for getting my hopes up and then it just stopped. You would think that by the third pregnancy you would know. But each one is so different! With Noah I didn't know for sure if it was it til hours after I started having contractions and they slowly got closer together as the day went on and they didn't hurt for hours, with Rebekah it was right away 5 min apart and they hurt right away. This time I have no clue what its going to be like. I just hope when I do actually go into labor this time I will know it. I also just hope I have time to get everything ready at home. 

Today is going to be a lazy, eat lots of ice cream and napping kind of day. I'm glad at least the kids had a great day yesterday. They are my favorite. 

35 weeks-38 weeks

Life is busy with three kids and one on the way. Here is an instagram update on my pregnancy.