Father's Day

As usual, I took pictures of the kids in Josh's shirts for Father's Day (thanks again for the idea, Allison!). This year was especially tricky, though, because not only was I exhausted and sore, but Josh was home all day. We eventually just told him to stay away and did our best to keep it a secret.

We were stuck inside without decent lighting, but their happy faces made up for it I think.

more pictures!

Your pleas (hi, Mom!) have not fallen on deaf ears. It's just hard to get everything done that requires two hands in the small stretches of time when I'm not having to hold or nurse a baby. She is exhausting, even if she is cute.

What's that? She is cute? Well why don't you take a look and decide:

I vote yes.

sometimes, when the worrying gets out of hand

Sometimes, when your baby is not gaining weight the way she should be, and there's a few days until your next weight check but your worry is keeping you up at night, you look for some peace of mind.

Or is that just me?

grandparents are great

It won't be long before this blog returns to its regularly-scheduled programming. By this, I mean that the other children might get some representation from time to time. Before that, though, more Miriam!

When you're the new baby in the family, you get lots of grandma and grandpa hugs:

The best part of it is knowing that they just adore her. She is a lucky girl to have so many grandparents around to dote on her. Plus, there's this:

waking up is hard to do

Miriam

Walking in to a c-section is much different than being wheeled in. On the one hand, I had much more time to be nervous. On the other hand, I was not at all concerned about my baby. Maybe I should have been worried, but I really wasn't. I was excited and ready to get things going, but not in any pain. It was odd. I must have been a little stressed, though, because when they finally let Josh come in the room, I felt relief. It helped that the anesthesiologist was amazing. He was funny and walked me through every step of what was going on.

When they started the surgery, Josh said, "They're slicing you open now!" The anesthesiologist did not approve. After I assured him that I was not squeamish, he chuckled. I guess he's had to keep a few dads from freaking out the mom during surgery. After what seemed like just a quick minute (the nurses mentioned more than once that my OB is pretty quick), someone said, "Did you order one with hair?" And sure enough, she's rather hairy for one of our children.

She weighed in at 7lb. 11oz. We joked about naming her Slurpee. In reality, it did take us a few days to settle on a name. Eventually, we narrowed it down to Eileen (after my grandmother) or Miriam. We tried both of them out (a name really needs to be tested!) and settled on Miriam Rebecca. I might be biased, but I think it's the perfect name.

And that was it. I got to hold her once they checked her out (just minutes this time, instead of hours). Eventually, they took her to the room while I got stitched up. Although I was anxious to be moved to the recovery room with her, this was a nice chance to close my eyes. Even though I just laid there, surgery is exhausting. I had to assure the nurses that I was feeling fine; I just felt better with my eyes closed. Then after they transferred me to the recovery room, it was just me, Josh, and our baby for a few hours. That is my favorite part of having babies: that quiet time after the baby but before everything gets crazy. 

Is there anything as wonderful as taking pictures of a sleeping baby in the middle of the night? I think that there is not.

People ask if we think she looks like baby Jonah or baby Caroline. Yes. I think she favors Jonah more than Caroline, but I don't thinks she looks just like he did either. In the picture with us together, she looks just like baby Caroline did. She does have (as do the other two children) Josh's crazy feet and (like Jonah) my long fingers. Other than that, we will have to keep investigating what she might share with her siblings. Oh darn, another reason to stare at my baby some more.

All in all, this may have been my best birthing experience. The nurses were all wonderful (seriously they were all really great..except the one time my nurse forgot my pain meds), my babies at home did fine (thanks, Jo Jo!), my recovery seems to be going the best out of three at this point, and it was calm. In fact, that is the first word I think of when I think of Miriam's temperament: calm. She is a very calm baby. She eats calmly (I could handle a little more enthusiasm from her at meal time, actually), she cries calmly, and she loves to just look around. 

It's a good thing she is so calm, because the first thing her sister and brother want to do every morning or every time they return home is to bombard her with kisses. Who knew she would be such a good bribe? (You want to hold the baby? Okay, as soon as your room is clean.)

she's here!

She's here. She's wonderful. When we get home and upload the pictures from the camera, this blog will most likely be flooded with the story of her first day of life and pictures of her from every angle imaginable. Until then, here's a sneak peak:

I call this "Mom, will you please stop taking pictures and feed me already?"

Jonah and Caroline love her so far. In fact, when it was time for Jonah to go home after a visit this morning, he did not want to leave without Miriam.

Jonah: I want to take her home with us.
me: Well we can come home tomorrow!
Jonah: You can stay here with Daddy, and I'll take Miriam home with me.
me: Well what will she eat?
Jonah: You'll just make her some bottles. (He and I talked about the breast pump last week.) Just make a couple gallons of milk and we'll take that, too.

Well okay! I'd better get pumping then. I'm glad he likes her.

something I miss about Alabama

I've been spending far too much time online these days ("these middle of the nights" would be more accurate), and I've been missing Alabama. A friend there recently posted about how her daughter tee-teed in Publix. It was embarrassing, but the workers were so kind. She left feeling grateful for the nice people at Publix. First of all, how could a grown woman writing the word "tee-teed" not make you miss Alabama? Second of all, I love Publix. Everyone there, workers and shoppers both, were always so kind to my children. I don't miss the prices (Fry's is really superior in that regard), but the kids do miss the drivable carts.

Second, I read this:

http://sylcell.wordpress.com/2014/05/31/to-the-lady-ashamed-of-being-pregnant-with-her-fourth/

I was reminded that even when my children were being terrors at the grocery store, someone would invariably say, "How old are they? You are so blessed."  Who knows how many children would be considered strange in Alabama as I somehow managed to have one boy and one girl (and therefore was well within the bounds of an "acceptable" family), but I'll tell you this: in the almost-year we've been back in Arizona, no stranger (other than one sweet grandma last week) has ever stopped me to tell me that I am blessed to have my children.

Is it a fellow shoppers responsibility to affirm my life decisions? Nope. Do I miss the outward love of families and children I saw in Alabama? Yep.

P.S. If you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all. Don't presume to know or have any right to a say on how many children a person has. Why even risk the pain you might cause someone by asking? Remember, "Roll Tide" works when you don't know what else to say. Roll Tide.

if there's no picture, it didn't happen

A few important developments took place in the last 24 hours to allow this post to happen:

1. I found the camera battery charger.
2. I bought a new computer.
3. I bought some new bath toys, so Jonah is happily playing in the tub.

So not quite three weeks late, here is proof that our firstborn child real did have a birthday:

Cake and Lego candles courtesy of my mom. "Jonah 6" in marshmallows courtesy of I-can't-write-in-frosting.