16 Months

I can't believe I have not blogged in 16 months, almost to the day. As you can tell from my last post 16 months ago brought baby number 12 in to our lives and it has been a wild ride so far. I guess one of the main reasons I haven't blogged has been my health. After having him the high blood pressure that I usually get during pregnancy decided to stick around and plague me. Sleep was very elusive, still is  most days but during that post partum time I was really struggling with insomnia and anxiety. Things have gotten better for the most part but I do sometimes have bad days.

Even after 16 months and weaning him he isn't much of a sleeper so as cute as he is I am usually quite exhausted. However I am hoping to pick up the "pen" again and work at trying to do this blogging thing better. First on the agenda is to figure out why I can't get my photos to work on here...

I have lots of posts floating around in my head so if you think about me check back to see if I have made any progress.

He has Arrived!

Sorry to take so long to post a picture. The c-section went well on Thursday. I had great intentions to stay in the hospital until Sunday, resting and watching all the movies I packed but as with all great intentions...they don't always turn out. By Friday I was ready to sleep in my own bed, mainly because the hospital doesn't allow you to sleep with your baby in your bed but we weren't getting any sleep otherwise so I figured I could get better sleep at home. So they let me go home Friday evening after it had been 36 hours from the delivery. The only thing I missed about the hospital was the adjustable bed. It isn't so easy laying flat in a bed after a C-section. But being home was definitely great, especially since I didn't have a DVD player in my hospital room to watch all of the movies I packed anyway.

Anyway, without further ado...and rambling...we are very pleased and proud to introduce Daniel Noble. He weighed 7lbs 2oz and was 20inches long. Born with a head full of dark hair.

We chose his middle name because it is Dad's 105 year old Grandmother's maiden name. I will post some better pictures soon.

Two More Days

We are down to just two more days to go until the scheduled C-section. The Lord has been gracious in answering some specific prayer requests...DH's mother was ill and he needed to travel to see her but we knew there was a possibility of needing an earlier C-section if my blood pressure didn't cooperate. First we prayed that he would make it safely to see her before she passed away. He did make it and was able to be there with her as she went to meet Jesus. We knew we wanted him to be able to stay a bit longer to see his sister when she arrived from out of town so we prayed that my blood pressure would stay down until he returned. He got home safely and it stayed fine....

Until last night. We spent a couple of hours in Labor and Delivery last night monitoring my blood pressure and the baby as it had creeped up a good bit. After resting for awhile and seeing that the baby was doing fine the mid-wife let us go home. So now we are praying that if I rest for the next two days that all will be well until Thursday morning when it is all scheduled. Of course we covet your prayers that all will go well with the actual delivery.

Keep watching for the update that baby has arrived and his name...

Seven Brides for Seven Brothers

I have never seen the musical but that is what comes to mind as we just found out that Baby #12 is a BOY! We will now have 7 boys and 5 girls.

I had an ultrasound a week ago Thursday and we had the ultrasound technician put the gender of the baby into an envelope. I gave the envelope to dad and he went shopping for "THE" blankie fabric. He chose a very cute monster fabric then brought it home to surprise us.

Now on to trying to find a name...that is the hard part. We are down to about 3 1/2 weeks until the scheduled C-section with the possibility of it being 2 1/2 weeks. I am still going to the doctor twice a week which makes planning for much else impossible. I have several projects that I just can't seem to get done but I suppose it is time to get busy....

A Pregnancy Update

Since I am still having the "can't figure out my pictures" problem and I don't have any pictures of me pregnant(ugh) or of the baby, I thought I could at least give a quick pregnancy update.

I am now 31 weeks along. Although we don't know what we are having, I can definitely say that this is one very active baby. With the rest of them I felt kicks and punches but with this one I feel flips and rolls. Boy, maybe???

This pregnancy has gone by pretty fast. I guess because B#11 has really hung on to being the baby of the family. We are STILL trying to get him to sleep through the night and stop getting into bed with us in the mornings. Well, I am trying to stop the morning routine but dad loves having him climb in bed with us.

Next week starts my twice a week visits with the doctor. Life basically comes to a halt and we plan our days around the appointments that are made for me by the doctor's office. I go in on Mondays for a growth ultrasound and to see the doctor. Then on Thursdays I go in for Non-stress tests where they hook me up to a fetal monitor to see how the baby is responding to movements. It can seem a bit overwhelming and sometimes unnecessary but after B# 10's birth and circumstances I don't argue when they want to do extra monitoring. It is a small price to pay in my opinion.

Our C-section is scheduled for April 9th so if all continues to go well we have about 7 weeks to go but if my blood pressure goes up then it will get bumped up to April 2nd.

I can't help but pray that somehow the Lord will allow me a safe regular birth instead of a C-section. Something to pray about...

Cheaper By the Dozen

 

Blessing #1 and wife

 

                                                                            Blessing #2

                                                                        Blessing #3

                                                                   

                                                                      Blessing #4

                           Blessing #5                                                            Blessing #6

Blessing #7

                                                               Blessing #8

                                                                  
                                                                      Blessing#9

                                                 Blessing #10                                                             

 

                                                                   Blessing #11

AND

 

Baby #12 Due April 2015



The Plans of a man's heart

I was scrolling through the blog just now and saw the verse at the bottom that I have had there forever, thinking I would change it pretty often. As I read it again it got me to thinking about B#11's birth. I spent a good portion of my pregnancy reading about natural childbirth and birth after a C-section. DH and I read about birthing without pain meds. But in the end things didn't go as I had planned. Am I disappointed??? I am not sure I can answer that. We both said all along that the most important thing was a healthy baby and healthy mama. We have both. Was my birth experience what I had hoped it would be? Nope. But there are little things that came up during the baby's C-section delivery that made me think that this way was the better way. The Lord is in control and many are the plan's of a man's heart but it is the counsel of the Lord that will stand.

Update on My Frugality Challenge

So far for my Frugality challenge to myself, I have spent $88 out of my $100 budget. I have gotten 11 cloth diapers with inserts, a bouncy seat, an infant carseat and a crib bedding set. I recently found some Bumgenius and Flip diapers on Craigslist. Usually brand new these diapers run around $14 each. I emailed a bit with the lady and she ended up coming down to $8 per diaper for me. And even better than that...they were in a town over an hour from us but we have friends who live there and they were willing to pick them up for me and it even worked out for them to drop them off to me at home because they were going to be in the area.

 

 

Then I found this beautiful Pottery Barn crib bumper on Craigslist for only $15. Actually it was the bumper, crib skirt and 2 window valances for $15. Usually Pottery Barn bumper pads go for at least $99 brand new, some even higher. Now lest you think from the very girly-ness of this bumper that we know we are having a girl, you would be wrong. We have no idea what we are having and we aren't planning to find out but I couldn't pass up this beautiful set just in case it is a girl. Besides, if B#1 and his wife have a girl, we could always see if they want it or just resell it.

I stilll have a few things left on my list and with the cloth diapers I may indeed go over but I at least have a goal and a list to work with.

My Frugality Challenge to Me

I am a pretty practical person. I see really pretty things when I am out and about but I just can't bring myself to buy things just because they are pretty. I always say I am too practical, which isn't necessarily a good thing. But I suppose in the area of baby things, being practical can be a good thing. There are so many neat things that you can buy for a new baby. Gadgets that you didn't even know you needed can be found all over the place. So for me being practical can help me not to go overboard when we are having a new baby. You probably wonder what in the world I would need for this baby since we have already had babies. Surprisingly I have a list that I am working on. Things either wear out or you realize that you need something a little different to help you make your day work smoother. That is where Craigslist comes in handy. I made a comment to DH that I think I can get everything on my list for $100, so I thought I would make that a personal challenge to me. DH works hard to provide for our family and I want to make sure I am doing my part and not spending the money he makes frivolously. I have heard that there is a local Facebook buy, sell, trade page that is supposed to be good too but since I am facebook illiterate I am not sure how you find it.

So here is my list and the progress I have made so far:
An infant car seat- got one for free, had to use some elbow grease to clean it up but it is basically brand new.
A baby bouncy seat- got one off of craigslist for $10
A gender neutral, cream colored crib bumper
A cream changing table pad cover
A cream colored crib sheet
A baby monitor
Cloth diapers and supplies- got started with 6 almost brand new diapers/inserts from craigslist for $25, usually these sell for almost $20 each.

It is kinda fun trying to find good prices. I suppose it is like hunting for men. We all like a challenge. So this is my challenge to myself. Adding in the cloth diapers will definitely make it more challenging. I think they will be the toughest pieces to find. I will let ya know how it goes.

And Now for the Announcement

This is my handsome first born and his beautiful wife, whom I have decided to call BW#1 here on the blog. That stands for Blessing #1's wife. Pretty creative, huh? Anyway on with the announcement. We Skyped with them this week where they shared with us that they are expecting a baby!

I must admit that I haven't wrapped my brain around the fact that we will be having our 11th child in July then welcoming our first grandchild in October. While planning on how to update the nursery I am thinking things like, "What do I want my grandma name to be?" and already thinking of ways to make sure we are the grandparents to this baby that we want to be while having a newborn and 9 other children at home. A good friend and I were discussing these things and we came up with the fact that generations ago this was pretty common. Mothers were still having children while their oldest were getting married young and having children. But then along came the thought that we should have 1.7 children(whatever that means) and get right back into the work place.

We are extremely happy for them and look forward to watching them as they grow through this new phase of life together but one thing has come to my mind as I contemplate them sharing their wonderful news with family and friends...The value of life. When you are expecting your first baby, then your second and possibly even your third, you will get all kinds of congratulations. Babies are wonderful, how exciting! But when you are announcing your 5th or 6th or 10th you get anger and rude comments. When did the value of that little life become so much less than the value of a first or second baby?

Just some thoughts of a mama to many and soon-to-be Grandmother.

Protein Bars

With this pregnancy, I have been trying to be much more mindful of getting lots of protein in. During pregnancy a woman should have at least 60 grams of protein. I like to spead it out through out the day if I can. I read label after label of all the "protein" bars. I must have looked ridiculous as I stood in Wal-Mart reading labels in the pharmacy section where they keep the protein bars. Of course there are all kinds of bars available with tons of protein. I actually took one to show DH which was like a snickers bar that had something like 30 grams of protein. In the end I just couldn't bring myself to buy them because of the huge list of ingredients, most of them I couldn't even identify. What is soy protein isolate anyway?!? Then I tried buying some Kashi bars but they weren't really any different, maybe a smidge better. Then DH suggested I try the protein bar aisle at our grocery store. There I saw Larabars for the first time. I remembered bookmarking a page on my computer that mentioned them so I thought I would check them out. They don't boast the huge protein content that the others do, at a relatively low 6 or 7 grams of protein but when I looked at the ingredients list I decided to be brave enough to give them a try. The first one I tried was the Peanut Butter Cookie bar. The ingredients were: Dates, peanuts and salt. WOW! Three things. But would I like dates???  I actually did. Now DH and B#4 absolutely did not like them. But that's okay, the other kiddos did. Not that I plan on feeding them to the whole tribe at $1.32/bar. I have a hard time spending that on me so I decided it couldn't be that hard to make from scratch.

Enter Google. Need a recipe, go to Google. Turns out lots of people are making them from scratch. If you are interested in trying your hand at it you can find the recipe I used HERE. B#2 and I just love them and they were really easy to make and while dates in and of themselves don't have much to recommend them in the nutrition department, aside from calcium and magnesium, they do a good job of substituting sugar and giving these bars something to hold them together. I would say the protein in these "protein bars" comes from the nuts that you add in. When I made them I used almonds because that was what I had on hand. I also added chocolate chips because you can never go wrong with chocolate chips!

I would love to hear if you have ever tried Larabars and if so what you thought of them.

Day 4? and an Announcement

Well last night didn't go as well as the night before but still pretty good overall. B#10 woke up around 4:30 but didn't seem to want to go back to sleep until around 5:00. So while I am still thankful that he only woke up 1 time instead of 5 I do need to figure out what to do when he seems to think he has slept enough and wants to stay awake for a while. Any suggestions that do not involve letting him cry it out?

And now for our announcement:

 This is a picture of B#11 taken about 8 weeks ago. We haven't really shared it too much while waiting until I was farther along in my pregnancy. Now some of my blog readers have told me that they can always guess when we are going to have a new baby because of my lack of posting. Well I guess I didn't disappoint this time since I just didn't feel up to blogging for quite a while. Now that I am in my second trimester I am feeling much better. We are excited to be blessed with another little one and look forward to July when he or she is due. Dad says he doesn't want us to find out ahead of time what it is and that is going to be so difficult for us girls as we love to sew and shop for new baby before he or she arrives. 

Quick Update

Sorry, no pics for this post...Just wanted to tell you about our night last night. B#10 went to bed at 8:30 and slept....FOR 12 HOURS STRAIGHT! I was the one who was awake last night:). I kept thinking that he would be waking up any time now and then I would go in there and check to make sure he was still breathing. I actually woke him up for breakfast this morning! Whoever it is that is praying...keep doing it.

Night #3

Well night #3 of weaning B#10 went very well. He only woke up 1 time around 3am and quickly went back to sleep, still being rocked at this point. His naps are even going better. He is still asleep now and it has been almost 2 hours. Typically he would nap for about 40 minutes to an hour then wake up crying only to have to be rubbed or patted back to sleep. Keep praying for us that it continues to go well and that last night wasn't a one time thing. Of course the goal is for him to start sleeping through the night without any rocking involved. He is such a smart boy that I am sure he will get this figured out, in time. He is already starting to talk a bit and follows directions just as well as his older siblings. He loves to say "Hi" when he sees us.

Aren't children such a blessing? Where would we be without them?

Weaning B#10

I haven't nursed B#10 during the day for quite a while but I have been unable to wean him from nursing at night. Some nights he would wake up as many as 5 times to nurse and honestly I don't think he was getting any milk. It has just become a well ingrained habit for him. Dad and I agreed that it was time to do something so a couple of nights ago we started weaning him. I am not one that can stand letting my babies cry it out, at least at night. We did do that for his nap times to get him to stop needing to nurse to sleep during the day but there is just something different about doing it at night, for me anyway. So I decided that a good compromise would be that everytime he wakes up either I or dad would go in and rock him back to sleep. Now that isn't as easy as it sounds since he was so accustomed to nursing back to sleep. He cries and pushes on me until he finally settles down. It doesn't usually take long, a couple of minutes or so of crying. But I feel like I can handle this crying because I am right there with him, holding him and rocking him. Maybe we are just starting a new bad habit but I felt like this was at least something that I could work towards and hopefully it will break his need to nurse.

We have done this for two nights now and it really hasn't been as bad as I thought it would be. Last night he slept for 5 1/2 hours straight, which is a record for him. He hasn't nursed at all since Friday night so I am counting it as progress. I'll let you know how it goes.

Noah Update

As I am sure you can tell, my days don't leave alot of time for blogging. Mostly I am walking through the days in a fog of sleeplessness. Noah seems to have the typical nightowl problem that most newborns have. He sleeps great during the day with all of the noise going on around here but come nighttime he is a grunter. He does sleep but he grunts and fusses most of the night and only sleeps well if he is in mom's arms. We usually end up on the couch sleeping together in hopes that dad will get some rest since he is on night duty with Audrey. He goes back to work this week so my nights will be quite interesting as I try to get up with both of them and then throw in the 2 year old who still wakes up some nights. Other than that he is doing great. He is gaining weight like crazy. We took him in with me for my postpartum checkup and he weighed 6lbs 13 oz which was up from 6lbs 1 oz only a few days prior to that. Then he went in for a two week check up two days later and he weighed 7lbs 2 oz. So despite being labeled a preemie, he is weighing more like a full term baby and is still as cute as a bug's ear in my opinion...

Noah Walker

I don't usually post names of our kiddos but I did want you to know his name...for those of you who don't read my girls blogs.....Baby Noah arrived on Wed. Oct. 5th, almost 5 weeks early. I don't have alot of time to type since I am sitting in the NICU of a local hospital but I wanted to tell you of the Lord's goodness before heading, bleary-eyed, to bed for a couple of hours.





Last weekend I started having some contractions that were a bit bothersome to me in their frequency so I talked to my midwife. We had already decided a few days earlier that we should go back to the Perinatologist for another growth ultrasound for baby since he had a two vessel umbilical cord instead of a three vessel cord. My original appt was for the 10th or 11th of Oct. but we ended up moving it to Friday the 7th. Unfortunately Mark wasn't going to be able to go with me that day so I decided to give the dr.s office a call and ask if there was anyway I could come in on Wed. the 5th instead. I was able to get an appt. so on Wed. off we went.





I was still having some contractions off and on but nothing too serious. While the ultrasound tech was doing the scan she excused herself and came back with the doctor. I knew something was wrong at that point. The doctor proceeded to tell us that baby's heart rate had some periods of dipping down lower than he liked to see it. He suggested being monitored in the hospital for a few hours. We weren't thrilled with the idea as we had some things we wanted to get done that day but consented to it. DH and I decided that while I was hooked up to the monitors he would run our errands and then come back about the time I should be ready to head back to the dr. for him to tell us what he saw. While being monitored baby had several episodes of dropping heart rate for 3 or more minutes. When the second one happened with in a minute my room was flooded by nurses and doctors and I was quickly put up on my hands and knees to try to get baby to change positions and move off of the umbilical cord. Right at that moment is when Dad came through the door, shocked to see what was going on. I am sure he was expecting me to be just sitting demurely in the bed hooked up to the monitor. We were very quickly educated on the C-Section process, risks and benefits. They didn't have to convince me, I knew I didn't want to experience his heart rate dropping again like it had. That was very scary and I just cried out to the Lord while on my hands and knees for Him to bring baby's heart rate back where it needed to be.

Apparantly while they were getting me ready to go back to the OR baby had another drop in heart rate, which I didn't know about so they sped things up and wasted no time getting me in the OR. Dad had to wait a bit to come back until they had the anesthesia in place. God provided a wonderful staff in the OR. I had a student nurse at my side holding my hand and quoting Scripture to me the whole time until Dad was able to come in and then she came back to my side when he left to go with baby to the NICU. We didn't know until later that night that baby's APGAR score when he was born was a 1 which is the lowest you can get before there is nothing. His umbilical cord was wrapped 4 times around his neck and he had a knot in his cord. The OB Dr. who did the c-section said that if I had waited to come in even one day the outcome of his delivery would have been drastically different, meaning we probably would have been looking at a Stillbirth. Everyone in the OR was amazed when I told them that I actually wasn't supposed to have come in until Friday. We have been able to share with alot of people while here the Lord's hand in all of this and we have had alot of Christian nurses which has been wonderful.

There are so many babies here that need prayer and their families too so if you think about it, pray for the NICU babies. That is how I fall asleep each night while here. Tonight we will be sleeping in the family room with Noah which is a last step before being discharged tomorrow, Lord willing.

Gender party

Today was the day that the kids threw a Gender Party for DH and I. Basically, when we had our ultrasound done last week we asked the technician to put the gender of the baby into an envelope which we brought home and gave to the kids without looking:). They made a cake for us and colored the batter the correct color of the gender of the baby (ie pink for a girl, blue for a boy). They also took the younger children shopping for little gifts for the baby. When DH and I got home from a day at the beach for our anniversary which is this week, we cut into the cake....So the baby is a....



Even numbers now:)

Baby #10

Finally, I can write about why I have not been blogging much of late. Baby #10 is keeping me very tired. We are expecting him/her on DH birthday, November 4th. We don't know the gender yet but our kiddos do and they are planning a family party for us tomorrow to find out. So stay tuned and I will let you know whether this baby will even out the number of boys vs. girls or if the girls will still be in the lead:).

First Foods

B#9 just started having solids. For our babies, we start them with brown rice cereal and then once they show that they are doing fine with that we move on to avacado. That is the lovely green mess on her chin. Most of them eat it fine as babies and it is so healthy for them. I must admit that our pediatrician was quite surprised at our choice of a first food but she agreed that it is a good choice. I love avacado so the more of my children that grow up liking it, the better.