We are now "a 6 family" according to Cloudburst! This morning was my scheduled induction. I was 3 days overdue, and even though I really wanted to go into labor on my own, I really didn't want to wait any more! We came into the hospital around 7:15 this morning and something about the hospital put my body into gear- I started contracting before I was even hooked up to anything! The Doctor broke my water (I was 4 cm dilated) around 8:30 and the pitocin was started. By 9 AM the contractions were 2-5 minutes apart and starting to hurt a lot. I asked for an epidural.... but the anesthesiologist was busy with a C-section, and then another patient had asked for an epidural ahead of me, meaning it would probably be an hour before I could get mine. The nurse turned down the pitocin drip... but by then my body was in full labor. I ain't gonna lie... it was horrible. I could barely breathe, started crying and was shaking from the pain. I have never felt pain like that before and wasn't prepared to handle it. Thunder tried many things to help, but man, that hurt bad. He kept telling me to just get mad at the pain, and actually got me to laugh a few times, don't ask me how. Props to the ladies who do natural births out there!! Around 10 AM, the angel, er, anesthesiologist came in and I got the blessed relief of modern medicine. Ahhhhhh, that's some good stuff. I was dilated to 6-7 cm at that point, and a little over an hour later I was ready to push. I couldn't feel too much at that point, but with 3 pushes he was born! He was born at 11:20 AM and is 8 lbs. 3 oz. and 20.5 inches tall. What a cutie! He looks so much like his older brothers, and his hair even has a slight reddish tint to it. He's so cute and mellow! He had apgar scores of 9 and 9, and he's a good eater. At one point the baby was a little fussy... at least until Thunder started to hold him and talk to him. The baby definitely recognizes his daddy's voice and calmed right down. They hung out for a long time and the baby just looked up adoringly at daddy's face and listed to his voice. Too bad I couldn't reach the camera. Yeah, he definitely has dad's long feet.
Now, Grandma, why are you steeling my chocolate covered almonds? You think I didn't see you? The other kids have all been running fevers earlier this week, so we had them wear masks and not hold the baby. They were good sports. Speaking of the baby... we're still searching for a good blog name, so we'll keep ya posted. We're all doing well!
This is me on Sunday, my due date. You may have noticed that Sunday was 2 days ago. Why am I still pregnant?!? ***Warning: next picture not for faint of heart***
Yes, I have an "outie." How could I not? This poor kid is definitely running out of room. My hips hurt, I can't sleep, can't walk for very long, have swollen ankles, have vericose veins, feel nauseous again and won't have any contractions that stick!! I was really hoping to go into labor on my own. But I'm only crazy enough to wait 3 days past my due date... I'll be induced tomorrow. Wish me luck! Any predictions??
Oh well, enough griping. Grandma is here now! She arrived a couple days ago and we've been having fun.
Tornado was having fun messing around with the older kids' tangrams. Little bugger.
Yesterday was unusually hot, about 90, so we got out the slip-n-slide.
Everyone had a good time, although they all had fevers by the evening! They were a little sick earlier and I thought they would be OK... but Cloudburst ended up missing school today. Ooooops.
So I must admit I have been spoiled these last few days. I had my birthday today, and Mother's Day yesterday. Sunshine asked me today at dinner if it was going to be my birthday every Monday, and I just said that would sure be nice! Most Sundays, Thunder is gone the whole day. But yesterday, we all slept in, we ate breakfast together, and then Thunder casually mentioned that he had canceled all meetings for the morning. What a nice surprise.
The kids helped Daddy pick out what every preggo lady needs- some fat clothes. I've never had a baby in the spring/summer, so all my post-baby stuff is for the winter.
And a small addition to my Valentine's gift.... Thunder totally surprised me with the wedding band to match my ring. Love it!
After breakfast yesterday, Thunder had me sit down in our big cushy chair... and gave me a Chinese foot massage! Yes, in a home depot bucket :-) He rubbed and soaked and pressed and poked and scrubbed and lotioned up my feet for nearly an hour. Wow, that was the highlight of my day. I darn near fell asleep. After church, Thunder grilled some delicious steaks and took care of everything after dinner. What a fulfilling day.
And then this morning, it started again! We were all awake early enough before school that we did presents then. I was excited to open up a blender! Ours broke a while ago, and I have missed making smoothies. I also got some more clothes and a ring sling for the baby (who should be here any day now!!).
As a present to me, Cloudburst got up, got dressed and checked in her backpack for homework, all without me bugging her. And I got so many hugs from Sunshine and Tornado.
We enjoyed another of Thunder's divine grill offerings... BBQ chicken. He does such a good job. It's what I wanted more than anything else. He also made potatoes, rolls and cut up strawberries. The poor guy was worn out by the time bedtime rolled around tonight! I got many phone calls and messages online... it's so nice to be remembered!
Don't you just love this time of year?
And oh yes... a funny story. We were eating Friday night and Thunder happened to look in Cloudburst's mouth, and notice that a tooth was missing! The poor girl lost her 2nd tooth and didn't even know it. She was a bit distraught that the tooth fairy might miss her pillow that night, so she wrote this note, complete with an explanatory drawing. And even though the tooth fairy was very tired that night, Cloudburst received her bounty :-)
Last Saturday, Cloudburst participated in her first official timed running race. We've run off and on since last summer, and she enjoys it. When we got the flyer about her school sponsoring its first annual 5k/1 mile race, she asked right away to sign up for it.
The day of the race was not so pretty- cold and rainy. I had stowed my jogging stroller and roller blades in the back to go out with her, but just did not feel like it when it came time to line up. I was a little nervous that she would be able to follow the course, but we drove around it and I assured her that there would be lots of people to follow.
We were there a bit early, and everyone was having a good time.
Lining up for the race, Cloudburst found a few friends from class.
Look at these two cheerleaders! They clapped and yelled for everyone who came down the home stretch.
Here she comes- almost finished!
Here she is at the end! She ran the whole time and finished with a time of 11:33. She finished second in her age group (if you check out this site, subtract 3 minutes from all times). We all enjoyed several of the snacks they have for runners afterwords, talked to Nana, Grandma, and Aunt Jenny. Even though I could just hobble around trying to catch a few pics, it was a fun morning for all of us while Thunder was in China.
Thunder is now in China for a business trip (yes, I am 36 weeks, but I feel good, and don't think I'll go into labor). Here is a description of his first day over there.....
Right now its 1am, so we woke up from going to bed at 1am the previous day and a long flight. We headed upstairs for some breakfast, it was decent. From there Mr. Lee, the Vice Chancellor of Foshan, (like a Lt Governor in the US) picked us up and with our agent Thomas and we went to the largest steel manufacturer in the world. Then we went to the largest ceramic manufacturer. Driving here is crazy, I cant believe there are not accidents all the time. Randall kept joking about getting some real Chinese food... he was thinking something good like at PF Changs. Well, we showed up to a restaurant with nice BMW's, LandCruisers, etc., and Thomas said this is a very nice restaurant Mr Lee is taking us to. Hey, free lunch on the communist party? Works for us.
We walked in and there was a ton of tanks filled with fish, shrimp, clams, eels, snakes, turtles and pretty much everything else. I was couldn't believe it. We were asked what we wanted. We deferred, and we ended up having a ton of seafood, a little cooked, and a bunch of other food that I have no idea what it was, and I didn't want to ask. They just kept bringing more and more food out. Anyways the custom here is to drink tea at every meal, we had coke instead. Thomas said the meal was over $1000.00 US dollars that was paid for us.... uuggh my stomach.
We then went to the Canton fair, indoor trade show of miles and miles, 50,000 vendors. We looked at a lot of product, hopefully something will work out. We then went to visit Mr. Chang, who manufacturers our totes. The factory actually was amazing, 3 levels with over 800 employees. We actually see them working on our totes, they also were working on backpacks for the Lakes and Travelon, for QVC; this is a quality place. Of course, before going to the factory we had another huge dinner the owner wanted for us. Now I can't eat anymore Chinese; I was just looking at the whole fish, and it looked like his tongue was sticking out at me.... no more seafood please! Well, Thomas took us to get massages, not bad for 10 bucks, what a long day.
Spring Break was last week. About 4 days before Spring Break started, Thunder called me from work and asked, "so, hey, what do you think about renting an RV and visiting some national parks next week?" After I had a few minutes to wrap my mind around that, I figured that would be great fun!
This is our RV. Ahhhh, our lovely RV. We learned so much about fixing RV's on this trip. Some interesting "features" we discovered:
retractable stairs to get inside the RV- not functional... we used a stepping ladder
the door separating off the back bedroom, um, fell off the frame
the heater stopped working one night
the generator overcharged the accessory battery (to power onboard electronics), resulting in boiling battery acid that smelled like rotten eggs
we clipped a dear; we almost missed it.... almost
our kids absolutely LOVED the RV!! (Or SURV according to Sunshine) Great way to travel
We stopped here on our way through Zion National Park. Cloudburst felt like dancing when she saw the beautiful scenery.
After driving through Zion's, we decided to head to Bryce National Canyon for the night. And it snowed that night. Randall and Michelle's heat went off the whole night.
We spent the rest of the trip in Moab. We had wanted to go to the Grand Canyon, but the north rim is closed until mid-May! Bummer. On Thursday we rented an off-roading Jeep and headed into the Canyonlands Park near Moab. We started on Potash Road and it was so BUMPY. I swear the baby dropped a few inches from this ride.
The kids loved the ride, but they held on for dear life in several sections.
After climbing several hundred feet, we stopped here for a breather. The expansive views were just breathtaking.
It was so fun to watch the kids' eyes open wide as they took it all in.
We caravanned everywhere with Randall and Michelle and kids. Cloudburst found a surrogate little sister.
And this is what it's like for an 8-months-preggers lady to climb repeatedly into a small Jeep. At the time of our trip I was 35 weeks along.
We then drove on another trail to Musselman Arch, which is one of the few arches that people are allowed to walk on. I thought Thunder was absolutely nuts to walk across with all 3 kids, but that's how brave dads are!
It was about 3-4 feet across. I had a brave guide on our Indiana Jones-like walk.
The kids all got along great! It was fun to travel with friends.
We then drove up, up, up the Shafer Trail. It kept climbing and climbing on a narrow road with sheer cliffs right out my window. We collected rocks from the side of the mountainside. I was getting a bit sore by this point and was never so happy to see asphalt at the end of our ride.
In the Canyonlands, we drove down to Mesa Arch. The hike in was only about 1/2 mile... just about my limit.
This is all of us in front of Mesa Arch. The air was so fresh and the view was humbling.
We took one more short off-roading trip back to Moab, along Long Canyon Road. Along the way, each car has to pass under a giant boulder that fell several years ago.
Too bad the kiddies missed the end of the ride!
On Wednesday, we had passed a park, and the kids made us promise that we would play at a real park. Zion National Park? No, mom, a real park.
See? All the kids enjoyed playing at the park.
Friday we went over to Arches. I knew we wouldn't be able to visit many of the arches, since they require long or strenuous hikes, but Sand Dune Arch sounded perfect for us and the kids. Too bad it was cold and blustery!
All of us had sand blown into our eyes, hair, and clothes, and we had to dump out our shoes before getting back in the RV. If you can see the small dot at the top of this pic, it is Thunder's head peaking over the top of this slickrock near Sand Dune Arch.
More fun at Sand Dune Arch.
Awww, what a handsome guy.
Here is the Parade of Elephants... one of the many arches we had to enjoy from the road due to lack of parking.
We all looked forward to taking a nice warm shower at the end of the day... one of the perks of finding a nice RV park!
The Doctor broke my water (I was 4 cm dilated) around 8:30 and the pitocin was started. By 9 AM the contractions were 2-5 minutes apart and starting to hurt a lot. I asked for an epidural.... but the anesthesiologist was busy with a C-section, and then another patient had asked for an epidural ahead of me, meaning it would probably be an hour before I could get mine. The nurse turned down the pitocin drip... but by then my body was in full labor. I ain't gonna lie... it was horrible. I could barely breathe, started crying and was shaking from the pain. I have never felt pain like that before and wasn't prepared to handle it. Thunder tried many things to help, but man, that hurt bad. He kept telling me to just get mad at the pain, and actually got me to laugh a few times, don't ask me how. Props to the ladies who do natural births out there!!
Around 10 AM, the angel, er, anesthesiologist came in and I got the blessed relief of modern medicine. Ahhhhhh, that's some good stuff. I was dilated to 6-7 cm at that point, and a little over an hour later I was ready to push. I couldn't feel too much at that point, but with 3 pushes he was born! He was born at 11:20 AM and is 8 lbs. 3 oz. and 20.5 inches tall. What a cutie! He looks so much like his older brothers, and his hair even has a slight reddish tint to it.
He's so cute and mellow! He had apgar scores of 9 and 9, and he's a good eater.
At one point the baby was a little fussy... at least until Thunder started to hold him and talk to him. The baby definitely recognizes his daddy's voice and calmed right down. They hung out for a long time and the baby just looked up adoringly at daddy's face and listed to his voice. Too bad I couldn't reach the camera.
Yeah, he definitely has dad's long feet.
Now, Grandma, why are you steeling my chocolate covered almonds? You think I didn't see you?
The other kids have all been running fevers earlier this week, so we had them wear masks and not hold the baby. They were good sports. Speaking of the baby... we're still searching for a good blog name, so we'll keep ya posted. We're all doing well!
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