Waiting for the arrival

I am officially off of bed rest as my goal date of June 1st has passed. Our son has been cooking long enough to avoid any type of risk for a home birth. The birthing room is set up just perfect, the birthing tub was delivered earlier this week, fresh flowers decorate the house and room, and the cameras are ready. Now we wait. It is an exciting time as it is one of the few things in life that I have absolutely no control over when it will happen. Mr. B has been home this last week as my surges have begun, but have developed no pattern. It has been so very nice to have him close to home as he was always so busy with work for the last 3 that he could barely keep his eyes open when the babies finally came. Just the idea of being able to be home has really allowed for a very peaceful and relaxed state for all of us. I practice my hypnobirthing techniques daily. Hypnobirthing is a way to redirect the tension and discomfort felt during child birth into more useful ways, to help your body work with nature instead of against it. Instead of tightening every muscle in your body, which is such a natural response to pain, hypnobirthing teaches you how to do the exact opposite and release all tightening so that the discomfort is reduced and the baby comes into a world that is just a little more peaceful free of screaming, fear, premature pushing and drugs. I also plan to have the baby in the birthing tub, which should also help my body to relax. I know some of you are thinking that I am a little cukoo, and I am certainly not suggesting everyone should deliver this way, but it sure makes sense to me.

A home birth

I have always wanted to have my children at home. In my heart, I have always felt there was a more peaceful and less invasive way to have a baby. Unfortunately, a home birth with a mid-wife is not covered by our insurance and it is hard to justify a home birth when I could do it at the hospital for free. Well, with all my new found free time I started to spend more time day dreaming of my perfect birth experience. There just had to be a way. With the encouragement of an amazing women, who also happens to be my prenatal yoga teacher and hypno birthing teacher (more about hypno birthing later) she referred me to a naturopathic doctor who does home births. Since she is a doctor and not a midwife, our insurance will actually cover the home birth!! Mr. B has never been excited about the idea, but after meeting her and discussing all of his concerns, he FINALLY gave me his support. So 30 weeks into my 4th and final pregnancy I dropped my OB/GYN and changed doctors. I am so excited to be able to be home and not have to fuss with the hospital. My girls are excited too.

I am being evaluated

So now I am home and have catching up on deep cleaning, paper work that needs to be dealt with, service calls that are long over due for our alarm system, reading more to the girls and holding my little Ms. O while she naps instead of putting her down. Am I really going to have another baby, when Ms. O is still so little. Really! Anyways, Mr. B started a very interesting conversation the other day that he started like this....." Depending on how well you do at being at home will determine how long before you have to go back to work." I was caught a little off guard at his statement and wanted him to clarify what the hell he was talking about and asked him to explain further. In his police officer/military tone he went on to say "Well, I am evaluating how you are doing around the home and the better you do, the longer you can stay home." OMG, is he serious??? Since he wasn't laughing I thought I would let him continue to dig his grave and went on to ask him exactly what I was being evaluated on. "Well, cleanliness of the house, frequency of cooked meals, variation of cooked meals, frequency of love making......." And on he went, digging, digging, digging. When he was all finished, I paused, letting him think that I was really considering his evaluation plan. I smiled very sweetly at him like it was the greatest thing I have ever heard and then I spoke. First, I had some very choice words about this evaluation process, told him to kiss my...... and said some more colorful words and told him to kiss my....again and left the room. So much for passing my evaluation. Bummer.

Bed Rest

Towards the end of every pregnancy my body starts doing all kinds of weird things. Most of them I will just keep to myself, but mainly I start pre-term labor way too early. A couple of weeks ago I was feeling soooo much tightening in my stomach and loads of pressure in that whole area. I remember showing a house and having a feeling that if I sneezed the baby was going to fall out. I went to the doc only for her to tell me what I already knew....time to stop working and get my feet up. It probably didn't help that during that week I was working real hard at getting my garden going which involved digging, shoveling and on my hands and knees trying to make those neat little hills that you see on farms. With out wasting any time after leaving to doc's office, I called my real estate friend and handed over all my files to her and put my feet up. Now my bed rest is the kind where I just have to take it easy and not spend so much time on my feet. I have absolutely enjoyed every second of it and it has been so nice to be home with the girls. I guess it is one of those things that when you are home all the time, you sometimes day dream about working and when you are working all the time, you wish you could be home. The never ending battle of being a mommy.

Busy, busy, busy!

Seems like just yesterday that I was blogging about those crazy 2 weeks, I don't know if the older you get the faster time flies or if the more kids you have the faster time flies??

Anyhow, the months of March and April have been non-stop. Finally purchased a membership to the zoo and have enjoyed using it. Don't know why I waited so long. Now when I need Mr. B and the little ones out, I have a place to send them.

My grandma on my moms side turned 80 and she threw herself a fabulous party in the big city of Miami, AZ. Hundreds of folks came out to celebrate, most of them my immediate family. The pictures show all my girls cousins and our children, and the other one is all my boy cousins. Last count I had over 40 first cousins. Much love to my grandma who had 12 children. Watching her surrounded by all of her children almost had me wishing for that large of a family, almost.

Then there was the exciting day when Ms. M declared that she was ready to take her training wheels off. It was so amazing to watch my little girl have so much determination to ride her bike all on her own. In the video, you can hear her say "I can do it this time!" Oh, she is so awesome. It took her a few days of trying and now she is all over the front and back yard.

After 8 years, Mr. B finally fulfilled his military obligation. We had a nice party where he was surrounded by family, friends and his Army buddies. The kids put camo on their face and the adults played pin the grenade on the tank. Now there are no more worries that he will be sent anywhere. When his retention SGT emailed him about reenlisting, I took it upon myself to respond and let him know that under no circumstances will Mr. B reenlist and that if he has a problem with that he could speak to me directly. Mr. B was not too happy that I did that. Something about being embarrassed that his wife was laying down the law. Whatever, mission accomplished...no reenlisting.

Easter was at our house again this year. I just love Easter. We had 3 egg hunts this year. One for the little ones, one for the tweens, and one for the adults (thanks for the idea T). Ms. D and I hid the eggs for the little ones while Tia T, T, and Ms. A played Easter Bunny for the tweens. The day was filled with food, games, eggs, Golden eggs, and the money egg! Now, I may be pregnant and moving slow, but guess who found the money egg??? ME!! 60 bucks was all mine. I can't wait until next year.

The last 2 weeks.....

If you would like to read how the last 2 weeks transpired, then scroll down to the entry titled My Baby Turns 1 and read up.

A beautiful wedding- SUNDAY

Today my cousin E got married at the Tempe Art Center. She looked awesome and everything about the wedding was perfect, including the 2 plates of food I devoured. I love weddings and am always very moved at the love that people feel for each other. The judge who married them was the same one that married Mr. B and I over 5 years ago. Hearing his voice took me back to the day that Mr. B and I were standing in my backyard exchanging our vowes and remembering how he looked at me as we stared in each other's eyes promising forever. Mr. B gets a lot of bad press in my blogs, but he really is an amazing man and it was nice to be able to take a moment and think back to that very special day for us. After such an emotional, tragic and overwhelming 2 weeks it was refreshing to end it with a new life for 2 people and most importantly, love.