Patience: A Lesson In Joy: picture

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Candid

Harper was not pleased with the family pictures

Sometimes the best family photos are the the candid ones, not the studio-portrait–everyone-smile–and-look-slightly-to-the-left ones. Here, Harper is furious that we are attempting to get him to hold still for just one family photo during a trip to a downtown festival. But this is the first all-4-of-us family photo, and we were going to take the picture, gosh darn it!!

Corbin's Birth Story

Corbin Colin Holliday Adams

8lbs, 2oz. 22 inches

4:48 pm, September 29^th, 2011

Sunday, September 17^th to Saturday, September 24^th

Long birth stories are my specialty! Though I gave birth on 9/29, my story starts on 9/17. Just a few days after my due date, I woke up on Sunday morning with contractions at about 4am. They were strong enough to wake me, but I could breathe through them easily. They went on for a few hours, and slowed a little and enough that I still went to church with the family. I napped at home afterwards, where the contractions woke me up again. I continued to contract all evening long, and by 11pm, I was having contractions every 6 minutes or so. Thinking that it might be “go time” soon, I decided to lie on the couch and rest between contractions. I knew from previous experience that I would be able to sleep between 6 minutes contractions. I lay down on the couch, and drifted in and out of sleep between contractions for about 4 hours. The contractions spaced themselves out to about 8 – 12 minutes while I was resting, but were still strong enough that at around 4 or 5 am, I wasn’t able to sleep any longer. While up, they came back together a little to a consistent 8-9 minutes. I called my midwife, Olivia, to give her a heads up that I was contracting, but I knew it would be a while before she would need to come over. She recommended I rest, perhaps do some nipple stimulation to speed things up, and to let her know when things picked up.

Here’s the part where I should mention that we had planned a homebirth. I had many doubts and frustrations about Harper’s pregnancy and birth (his story is here), which for a variety of not very good reasons, was highly controlled and medically managed. I felt that I had sort of missed out of the opportunity to have a normal birth process and wanted the best chances of getting that labor experience with this pregnancy. I had originally met with a few other practitioners, but they (and their labor philosophies) made me feel that I would be dismissed as another repeat c-section.

Back to Monday. By the evening, my contractions had slowed even further to about 15 to 30 minutes apart. I was disappointed, but I knew that this was my body getting ready for baby, and that was exciting too. Tuesday morning, I woke up again at 4 am with contractions that were about 8 to 10 minutes apart. I spend the morning laboring through, by the afternoon, they had slowed further, and by evening, they were back to 30-60 minutes apart.

The same pattern happened Wednesday. I had an appointment with Olivia. She checked me and determined I was 2cm dilated, but that my contractions were all considered “prodromal” (aka false labor), since by definition, labor is contractions that get stronger and closer together which dilate your cervix. She recommended that I go back to work, since my contractions always seemed to wane at about 9 or 10 in the morning, and I could really use the distraction. So for Thursday and Friday, I woke up with contractions around 4 am, contracted 5-10 minutes apart until 9 or 10, and then went to work. Saturday the pattern was the same, without having to go into work. It should go without saying that I was getting very little good sleep during this time.

Sunday, September 25^th

Sunday morning came around, and I woke up with contractions yet again, around 2am. These contractions got consistent quickly, and were about 3 – 4 minutes apart. I called Olivia again, and since I was having more frequent contractions for a few hours, she decided to come over. We called family friends and had them pick up Harper. While Olivia was there, she would frequently check the baby’s heartbeat after contractions, check my vital signs, and give me suggestions and tips on breathing through the contractions. I contracted for several hours, but again, they started to spread out. In the afternoon, she checked my dilation, and I was still at 2cm. She decided that I was not actually in active labor (despite the initial signs otherwise) and went home. I was fairly disappointed. I had been contracting, having “false labor” for a solid week. After all these signs, I had really hoped that having contractions so close together was the indication that we were actually ready to get started.

Monday, September 26^th

Olivia recommended I not go into work Monday, even if I had the same pattern of contractions I had on Thursday or Friday, since she could tell I was getting frustrated. She recommended lots of rest, and trying to do things that might get my mind off things. I had some contractions, but it was fairly slow and mellow. I got two hour long naps and went to the library with Harper and Tom. For me, this was actually a really good thing. Many of you know that I had a little brother pass from SIDS when I was young, and Monday, the 26^th, was the date of his death. I had dreaded the thought that my child might be born on that day – I didn’t want the two events to be at all related.

Tuesday, September 27^th

It was as if my body was respecting my brain’s feelings, especially when, at right around midnight the 27^th, my contractions started up again at about 10 minutes apart. I started getting heavy and hard contractions, more intense than they had been, and by about 2 am, woke Tom up for his help in getting through them. I called Olivia, because between 1 am and 3 am, they were 3 minutes apart. I got in the bathtub because it sounded good. Olivia showed up in the next few hours (I don’t remember the exact time) and I was dilated to about 4cm. While I had hoped it would be more, I wasn’t really surprised at all. I continued to labor throughout the morning and afternoon. Olivia and her assistant Nicole, set up the tub, since I definitely appeared to be in active labor, but didn’t fill it fully, because they were going to wait until I was in need of more pain relief. The birth tub looked wonderful and I couldn’t wait to use it.

In labor, talking with Nicole

At around lunch time, Tom and I went to the bedroom, since being loving and affectionate can make your body produce oxytocin, which is also the natural labor inducing hormone. My contractions had grown further apart, in the 5-10 minute range, and we were all determined to get back to the 3 minutes apart from earlier that morning. I labored all afternoon, without getting closer contractions, until we decided on a change of pace.

Tom rested (since he had been up all night too) while me, Olivia and Nicole drove to the beach. We spent probably close to an hour walking on the beach, looking at shells, walking through the water, contracting, and trying different homeopathic labor stimulators. It was amazing. I knew that if I had planned a hospital birth, I would already be in a hospital bed, possibly induced, but definitely stuck there, and instead, I was taking a peaceful evening walk on the beach, while in early labor. I picked up a few shells I liked; I am going to put them in a baby book to remember that experience. It was fantastic, the most relaxed I had felt since starting all these contractions days ago, and it is a part of my labor that I will treasure forever.

We got some food on the way back to the apartment – something spicy, of course! When I got back to the house, Olivia recommended I rest. My labor had still significantly slowed down, but my history suggested that it would pick back up in the middle of the night and she wanted me well rested when that happened, especially since I had not slept since Monday afternoon. Nicole lived close, so went home, but since Olivia lived farther out, she stayed in case my labor picked back up. I slept for about 2 hours before my contractions really started to bother me enough that I could no longer rest. I tried to stay in the bedroom and relax, but the contractions were uncomfortable enough and frequent enough that I wasn’t actually falling asleep between them, although I was able to rest a little.

Wednesday, September 28^th

For the rest of the night I contracted like this. We have a small couch at the end of our bed, and I sat on it, leaning and moaning into contractions every 10 or so minutes. I was actually impressed that Tom was able to sleep through most of this. It was fine that he slept, he needed the rest too, and at this point, I was still able to manage them mostly on my own. Finally, around 6am I stopped trying to rest, Tom got up and we went into the living room where Olivia was sleeping. Once we’d woken up for the day, she checked me and I was dilated to about 5 cm. She also checked my pelvis and stated that my pelvis definitely felt big enough to birth this baby. At this point I was getting weary. I hadn’t slept more than two hours since Monday afternoon, and all these contractions were only very slowly getting me anywhere. I was feeling dejected and knew that I couldn’t deal with this for much longer. I felt that at this rate, it could be another whole week before anything happened! I was taking days out of my maternity leave that weren’t being spent with my child, I was physically tired, and emotionally drained. We had a serious discussion about what steps to take next and when, and decided that if I had not given birth by Monday, October 3^rd, I would go into the hospital and request a c-section. We chose that day since Tom’s mom would be in town to watch Harper, but I was still giving my body time to do its thing.

While the tub was draining

That morning, we decided to try some more aggressive but still natural methods of inducing labor, including herbal tinctures and castor oil. After a few hours, I was still only having a contraction every 15-20 minutes or so, and Olivia decided that if I were going to go into “active labor” I would have by that point, so she decided to head out and go about her day. She tore down the birth pool and brought all her supplies out to the car, and left. I was crushed. I knew it didn’t make sense for her to stay if I weren’t in active labor, but I was just so disappointed to NOT be in active labor. I took a warm shower and cried a little, but at the same time, there was a sense of relief knowing I had an end date in sight. Logically, you know the baby isn’t going to be in there forever, but emotionally, I was starting to feel as if I’d never meet my child.

I decided to take a nap, and that was when the castor oil kicked in. I started contracting every 5 minutes or so, and in between contractions, had to run to the toilet. They became more intense than they had before and by 4 or 5 pm, I needed Tom’s help to get me through them. I was re-energized that this may have been the kick start I needed, and Tom and I worked through the contractions that night until they were about 3 minutes apart again. We would kiss in between contractions to keep the oxytocin flowing, in hopes of making the contractions stay close together. I kept thinking “Let’s get them closer and stronger and get this baby out!” They were painful contractions, and there was a lot of deep moaning on my part, and a lot of encouraging words and reminders to breathe in deeply from Tom. We called Olivia and she came over (again, the poor woman!). She checked my progress from that morning, but I was still at 5cm. I couldn’t believe it! I had been having rough contractions for 9 hours, and they hadn’t dilated me at all! I tried not to be discouraged. I kept on working through each contraction, and they had spaced out a little, but were more irregular. I might have a few that were 2 minutes apart, and then another 8 minutes later.

Thursday, September 29^th

This went on well into the morning. Around 1am I started to get really tired. Olivia kept reminding me to relax between contractions, but even once the contraction had ended, the pressure in my pelvis made it extremely uncomfortable to sit. I tried sitting on my knees, on pillows, on an exercise ball, but I couldn’t get comfortable enough to even relax my body, let alone catch a cat nap between the longer spaced contractions. Tom was up with me the whole time, though he was able to get cat naps between contractions. He kept up with giving me sips of water and nibbles of cashews and raisins to try and keep my energy levels up, but nothing could compete with the lack of sleep. The last time I had slept for more than two hours was Sunday night, and the last nap I had was Tuesday night. That would be difficult under any circumstances, but when you add in the physical exertion of labor, I was starting to struggle. I was having difficulty breathing through the contractions and started to breathe too quickly, as if I were hyperventilating. Both Tom and Olivia had to constantly remind me to slow down, but I couldn’t seem to remember that from contraction to contraction. Instead of the preferred low, deep moans, I started to fall into a high pitched whine, and after a while it got to the point where I would break down crying during a contraction, because I simply didn’t have the energy to power through it. All I could think was “I wish these contractions would stop so I could sleep.”

I knew there was only one way that would happen. And at about 4am, Olivia checked my progress. I was 5 cm dilated. Still. I had been at 5cm for about 24 hours, despite 16 hours of active contractions. And that was it for me. I knew that even if I kept going, I was not going to have the energy to push my child out of me. Tom, Olivia and I talked it over and decided to go the hospital for an epidural. This was an emotional decision. I knew that simply walking into the hospital, not having dilated past 5cm in 24 hours, at 42 weeks pregnant, that I was looking at a high likelihood of a repeat c-section. But I had to rest.

We went to the hospital, checked into triage, and I was immediately put into a room, since I was clearly far enough along. Checking in was interesting, because they weren’t entirely sure how to process me as a homebirth transfer. Thankfully, Olivia was with me and able to supply them with all my prenatal records, and all the notes she’d been taking during my labor process. (As a legal homebirth midwife, she was able to do all this – some women don’t get that option! However, she doesn’t have hospital privileges, so aside from providing information on my prior care, there is nothing else she could do for me). It took them almost two hours to get the epidural in me, during which I had a few really rough contractions. It was even harder to get through the contractions at the hospital than it was at home, but somehow, easier to relax in between them. Maybe my body knew it would be sleeping soon

Contracting before the epidural

Once the anesethiologist showed up, Olivia gave me a big hug and left the hospital. She had another woman in early labor, and Nicole had been sitting with her. They were now going to switch places. I had my worst contractions ever while getting the epidural in – I wasn’t able to move or rock for them and had to stay still. Once the epidural kicked in, I was finally able to rest. Tom was able to rest. And we both did so beautifully. I got a good 4 or 5 hours in and felt like my sanity had been restored to me. Nicole arrived during that time and in addition to being an assistant midwife, she was a doula, so it was really wonderful to have her there.

As an aside, as patient without a practice, I was assigned to the hospital’s house staff, which is made up of residents and their faculty attending physicians. I work closely with them professionally – I do statistical analysis of their research studies and attend their journal clubs to help them understand the statistics in the research articles they read. I was worried it was going to be awkward having them as my doctors, especially with something as invasive and personal as birth, but it wasn’t, and I was relieved about that. Additionally, and I don’t know if was because we had a professional relationship, but no one said anything about me transferring from a homebirth midwife.

We had hoped that just the act of allowing my brain to rest would allow my body to take over and do its thing. But when I awoke, my contractions were fairly far apart (about 10 mins). We met with one of the residents, and the midwife working with her to talk about our options and decided to go ahead and break my water. This was about 11am, and I was dilated to… you guessed, 5 cm! At first, I was especially excited to see that one of the hospital midwives was working with the residents. I was still hoping for a vaginal delivery, and figured she would help maintain that hope. However, I was dead wrong about her. When she broke my water, she first asked what I’d like to use to get labor going, (as in some sort of induction drug). The attending doctor had already been in and told me that he wouldn’t induce me at all, which was well in line with my wishes (induction after a prior c-section can lead to an increased chance of uterine rupture). When I said we wouldn’t be using anything (she clearly hadn’t talked to my primary doctor) she said that they’d wait 3 hours and if I hadn’t progressed, they’d give me a c-section. It wasn’t a question, it was a statement. I told her something along the lines of “We’ll see what happens” and she left. An hour later she came back in and told me I’d be having a c-section and I should get a gown on. I nicely but firmly said that I’d like to wait a little longer before making that decision. She started in on the scare tactics, saying things like “Well, we want to make sure that you have a healthy baby and can still keep your uterus.” As if waiting a few hours after 10 days of contractions was going to make or break my uterus. And this is the same woman who offered me induction drugs! She wasn’t interested in what I thought or how I felt, it was her opinion that I was going to get a c-section, and somehow she felt that trumped everything. When she left, Nicole said that while she had never met that midwife before, she was really disappointed by her. I was too.

However, she did wait for a few hours before returning. During that time, I had requested a hospital grade breast pump, thinking that maybe a little nipple stimulation might get those contractions closer. They were definitely strong; I could feel them despite the epidural, though they still weren’t painful. I got them closer together, but not enough so, and when I took a break from pumping, they spaced back out.

At about 4pm, the doctor, resident and midwife came in. The doctor asked to check me and determined I was 5cm. Surprise. This means that I had been at 5cm for at least 34 hours. He also checked my pelvis. He very factually and respectfully explained to me that he was more concerned about the risk of uterine rupture with me than a typical VBAC-er (Vaginal Birth After Caesarean) simply given the length of time I had been contracting and how my dilation had stalled. He said while he felt my pelvis was certainly large enough to accommodate baby (which is exactly what Olivia said), he also said the shape of my pelvis felt flatter and more ovaloid than the average pelvis, which may be why I was stalling at 5 cm, and why I might have stalled at 5 cm with Harper’s birth too. In his opinion, my chances of having a vaginal birth were zero, and he’d prefer to do a c-section. He suggested I talk it over with my husband and let him know what I’d like to do.

After deciding on the c-section

Though both the midwife and doctor both agreed I should have a c-section, it made a world of difference to me in how it was presented. I talked it over with Tom and Nicole, and I agreed to the c-section. They prepped me for surgery, gave Tom his goofy scrubs, got Nicole’s number so that she could come sit with me in recovery afterwards, and we were ready to go. The surgery was straightforward and simple. The doctor was impressed with how little scar tissue I had (yay for my previous doctor!) and when it was time for baby to come out, Tom looked over the curtain and said “Baby’s got lots of hair! And testicles! And a penis!” and that’s how I found out I had another little boy!

Our newest addition!

Corbin was wonderfully healthy and my surgery went quite well. I was much more alert and awake afterwards (probably because it was the middle of the day and I’d recently had sleep) than I was with Harper, and was able to be pushy enough to see Corbin right away (it took them an hour and a half to get Harper to me, it took 25 minutes to get Corbin to me). Nicole stayed with me during recovery and we talked about how crazy it was that though I took two completely radically different approaches to birth with my sons, how both births ended up being eerily similar. It helped me learn a lot about myself and though it was difficult, I can say that I definitely that I got to experience a normal labor and birth experience (normal for me, apparently). I don’t regret a thing, and I am still thrilled that I attempted to have a homebirth, because it made for a very peaceful pregnancy.

The Boys of Almost Spring

After a nice, sunny almost 80 degree day, we decided to head to the beach in the late afternoon. We couldn’t resist. Wrightsville Beach starts charging in March, and we wanted to enjoy the sand and the sun on a glorious February day.

But by the time we actually got the shore, the sun had started to set and the chilly nighttime air started to set in. We only stayed for about 20 minutes, but we still had a nice time.

All Grown Up…

My little boy is all grown up. We got his haircut, because it was getting so long. He’s gotten his haircut before, but just enough to take off the mullet. This time, we requested the hairstylist bring on the clippers!

Our little boy looks so grown up now!

BEFORE:

AFTER:

Okra, version 1.0

So, never having had okra before, I had no idea what to expect. All I knew was that I didn’t want to fry it. Browsing through comments on allrecipes.com frightened me somewhat – though praising a recipe, people would say something along the lines of “… and it doesn’t have that “slime” normally associated with okra!” Quite the backhanded compliment, it seemed.

However, I was dedicated to using the okra. I used all of it in one recipe, just in case I didn’t care for it, I didn’t have to find more ways to use it that I wouldn’t eat.

What you see here is simply called “okra & tomatoes” and in addition to the obvious ingredients, has green pepper, onions, and a few slices of bacon. I served it over brown rice, over the suggestion of several of the recipes commenter's.

The recipe was good, but I’m not sure that I would go out of my way to buy okra just yet. But if I get it in another veggie basket, I think I’ll know what to do with it.

Three Years Down, A Lifetime to Go…

Last Saturday, Tom and I celebrated our third year anniversary. We tried a a Italian restaurant downtown for the first time (I haven’t had lasagna in the longest time!) and then went to a pool hall.

One of the nice things about having a son is that our date night started early so we avoid all the Saturday night crowds and we were home in time to put Harper to bed.

Sometimes you forget how badly you need some husband/wife time until you finally get it. Good news, we’ve finally got ourselves a trustworthy babysitter!

Erin Erin Bo Berin

Erin came to visit last weekend. While it’s rough living 3 hours from your best friend, I’m just thankful it’s only 3 hours, considering we’re each about 1,000 miles from the city we met and developed our friendship in.

But the nice thing about living in a beach town is that when people come to visit, they want to go to the beach. Sometimes, it’s so easy to get caught up in daily life and we forget to enjoy ourselves. Tom and I have only been to the beach 3 times this year and it’s the middle of July!! It doesn’t help that Tom works weekends and is taking a full load of classes this summer.

So yay! for Erin visiting. and yay! for going to the beach. My favorite things, all at the same time :)

Darling, it’s better…

Today, in celebration of my surprise day off (found out Friday that we had Monday off – no one ever tells me these things!!), Tom, Harper and I went to the beach. Harper and I ventured into the ocean, staying close to the shore. While he was none too happy to be wearing his life jacket, there was no way I was letting him play in the ocean without one!!

We played in the nice cool water on a hot and sunny day. Tom on the other hand:

Studying for his stats midterm this Thursday! What a studious, responsible and handsome guy!!

Suspicious of the Strawberry Farm

In the middle of April, Tom, Harper and I decided to go strawberry picking. We went to Lewis Farms

in Wilmington.

Rows and rows of green bushes. It was extra helpful that plants were on mounded hillls about a foot high. Harper was dressed in day old, dirt colored clothes, which was one of our better ideas. We plopped him in a row and Tom and I started off picking berries.

Harper busied himself eating the dirt, grabbing the leaves and trying to crawl over the mounds of bushes. Ironically, he loved the dirt, but made the bitterness face whenever I'd hand him a strawberry. Unless of course it had been dropped and covered in dirt. Then it was delicious (apparently).

If you take a gander at my Flickr photos in the sidebar, you'll see the progression of our neat blond little boy being replaced by a muddy, dirty, still beautiful little boy.

Best Smile Ever 2.0

Happy Birthday Harper!

Happy Birthday to you!

Happy Birthday dear Harper,

Happy Birthday to you!

Here is my little boy, giddy at everyone singing to him. We were worried we were going to have to have his birthday party indoors, which would have been a tight squeeze. But the rain clouds broke in the early afternoon, so we raced over to the local park and set up his birthday party. It was hard to decorate in the wind gusts (especially since I was trying to decorate with crepe paper and balloons) but I was thrilled to be outdoors, so it didn't matter. After presents and lunch, it was time for cake!

For more pictures, see the Flickr sidebar after May 1st (I have uploaded too many pictures this month!).

Pots and Pans Band

Originally uploaded by hillidaa

Or maybe Mixing Bowls and Spoon Band - either way, Harper is our lead... noise-maker? Though it looks like he might have control over that spoon, he's really just flailing it independently of the bowls, while smacking the bowls with his other hand.
It started as a tactic to keep him out of the kitchen while I was cooking and then we started drumming together. I guess Momma is the back up noise-maker!

An Easter Celebration

Easter was a low key event in our home. No gorging ourselves on a wonderful ham dinner with enough leftovers for a week, no baskets filled with Easter grass and chocolate bunnies. But still, Easter was a celebration in our home.
We went to an Easter Vigil at St Mark Catholic Church and enjoyed the symbolism of worshipping in the dark for the first half hour of the service, followed by joyful halleluahs and the ringing of bells. I woke with the sun (and Harper) and enjoyed a peaceful half hour on the porch at the break of dawn, pondering the wonder of the resurrection. We let Harper play with the eggs from his Gumbo and Poppy while the rest of us dressed in our new $5 polos (hurrah for Old Navy giftcards). We went to church, where I was disappointed that we didn't sing my favorite Easter song:

He lives! He lives!
Christ Jesus lives today
He walks with me and talks with me
Along life's narrow way
He lives! He lives!
Salvation to impart
You ask me how I know He lives, He lives within my heart.

But then the sermon sort of addressed it - Christ doesn't just live within our hearts, or is with us "in spirit." He truly ROSE FROM THE DEAD! Why else would the disciples, hiding and in fear after his death, become so enthusiastic they were willing to risk imprisionment and death? Certainly not because Christ was "with them in spirit" (though He was) but because He was with them in BODY.

Afterwards, we went to the beach and enjoyed the sea, sand, breeze and weather. Tom grilled pork, which was tender and amazing, and we had a wonderful Easter celebration after all.

Be a Tourist In Your Own Hometown

Originally uploaded by hillidaa

The Cape Fear Region (which include Wilmington, Carolina Beach, Wrightsville Beach, and a few other less beachy places) hosts the "Be a Tourist In Your Own Hometown" event annually in the beginning of March. Many, many local tourist attractions provide free admission to persons who are legal residents of New Hanover County (and sometimes the surrounding counties of Brunswick and Pender).
Apparently, it's a promotion for the locals to know all the good tourist-y locals and thus promote them to the tourists that come during the summer. When someone asks, "How is the Cameron Art Museum?" you can give an informed opinion. (My opinion - small, but lovely- definitely worth a couple of hours on rainy afternoon.)
So Tom and I decided to check out the Battleship North Carolina. It is permanently secured on the Cape Fear river right across from downtown Wilmington. We've gone over there and mulled around outside the ship; not wanting to pay the admission. So we decided it would be a perfect time to tour the ship itself.
It was fun, we had a good time. We knew better than to bring the stroller, so I had my wrap on. But having a different center of balance on those steep stairs is a little concerning!
Tom was more impressed than I was I think, only because I've seen my fair share of military ships. I was more interested in the placards with memories from the crew than the actual boat itself.
All in all, it was a fun couple of hours on our local tourist attraction. I probably wouldn't pay full price admission for it, but I'd recommend it to anyone who had a coupon.

Heartbreaker

Heartbreaker
Originally uploaded by hillidaa

This is my little heartbreaker. Those big blue eyes, that soul searching look. He melts my heart!

Too bad he's got big giant nerd genes that will activate throughout high school. But in college (should he choose to go), he'll melt the hearts of all his nerd-girl classmates.

I might be biased, though.

Geek in Training

While I try not to have too many expectations of who I expect Harper to be when he grows up, I can't help but hope that he is a geek. Math, Biology, Chemistry, Physics, any of the math or sciences would be lovely. The best I can do is to encourage critical thinking, and give him educational toys.

Have I gone too far?

The Pros and Cons of Air Travel

Pros:

Making a two day trip in 5 hours.

I don't have to drive.

Airports are fun.

Can feed Harper without stopping.

Cons:

Small seats.

Expensive food.

Being stuck in a big metal tube with dozens of people for 5 hours in the middle of flu season.

My poor baby is sick.

My poor Tom is sick.

I am sick.

Thanksgiving Joys

Mom added this slide show to her blog, and I felt it was fitting, as we spent Thanksgiving in Omaha. Credit goes to Mom for all the pictures.

Quick! Our Apartment is Infested... With Bookworms!

In my "What to Expect" book, there is a little blurb on how to stimulate your child though toys and games. It says that children Harper's age won't listen to stories, but that they will enjoy the bright colors of picture books. We find with Harper this is half true. He loves his board books, mostly to chew on. His "toy box" (a small square basket) is more than half filled with little board books we have been given or collected. I even found little 3 inch books that are perfect for his hands.

But he doesn't just enjoy the board books. We read chapter books to him, with occasionaly pictures. While his attention may wane after just a few pages, he will sometimes listen to a whole chapter. Tom is currently reading the Wind in the Willows to him, and I am reading the Mouse and the Motorcycle.

We don't do this because we are trying to creat a genius baby. We don't sit down with flashcards and try to teach him to read, or enroll him in classes so that he'll be doing calculus by age twelve. In this day and age, reading is often viewed as arachaic. Why would you read when you could watch tv or listen to your mp3 player? I want Harper to be a reader. It is wonderful and increasingly rare.

Hair Tourniquet

So, a few weeks ago, the wierdest thing happened. I was cleaning out Harper's toes when I found this:

It kind of freaked me out. I was able to pull a strand of hair out, but it was so deep, I couldn't tell if I had gotten it all, especially since it didn't seem to get any better (by forming back into place). It looked like it might have broken the skin it was so red, so then I was also worried about infection. It was a Sunday afternoon though, so the only place I could go was the hospital. The doctor called it a "Hair Tourniquet" and confirmed that I did get everything out of it, the skin was not broken, and that the line may take several days to go away.

It took over a week for that line to go away!! I'd never seen anything like it (aside from a tight hairband on the wrist, which hardly compares) and I have 8 siblings and my mom did daycare!

At least our first ER visit was a mellow one.