Zoë's life: day 1

Even in the throes of labour it was difficult for me to imagine actually having another baby. I couldn't picture another baby. Even with her feet jabbing my rib cage constantly I somehow couldn't all the way believe there was an entire human being inside of me the past several months. And yet--look at that--there was! 

If Andrew or I have any concern about bringing another child into our lives, our family, the world, we are not the only ones. Concern Baby is concerned.

Zoe has some concerns about the hat the nurse slapped on her head after her bath...

A memorable Memorial Day weekend: Zoë's Arrival

"I'm not even going to set an alarm," Andrew said when we went to bed on Friday night. And for once there really was no need to. No soccer, no church, no school, no plans.

"Sounds good. But I'll probably wake you up at four o'clock in the morning to tell you I'm in labour," I joked.

I was decent though and waited until six o'clock in the morning to wake him up. I was not in labour when we went to bed but I woke up at 3:08 with a rip-roaring contraction. Ten minutes later, there was another one. Nine minutes later, there was another one. Six minutes later. Seven. Six. Seven. Eight. Eight. Eight. Finally a holding pattern. Just kidding! Seven. Ten. Ten. Ten...

Fourteen...Fourteen...Thirteen...Twelve...

"Maybe I'm not in labour after all," I thought to myself at 5:40.

With contractions now fifteen minutes apart it certainly didn't seem like real labour. What happened to longer, stronger, and closer together?

5:51
5:59
6:07
6:12

Wait? Five minutes now? Maybe I should wake up Andrew...

Chilly swimming

The high today was a surprisingly cool 75°F but we went to the pool anyway because that's how we roll. I suppose the water itself wasn't too bad, but the air was rather chilly once you were wet. We stayed for about an hour.

Rachel was the first one in, of course. The little ones (and I) were a little more hesitant but eventually we all hopped in, though the hopping in didn't last long for the smallest among us.

Miriam's Preschool Graduation

Miriam had her end-of-year program this evening. The kids recited poems, sang songs, and even did a silly dance for their families to showcase what they learned throughout the year.

Miriam's Muffins

My mom is doing a series of posts about her life history and her most recent one was describing the process of freezing corn on the farm. She says,

When Colleen married her farmer, and was about to harvest her corn for the first time, she called Mom and said, "I don't know how I am going to do it all without any children to help me!" Mom assured her that it might actually be easier without the help of children! That was the first time I realized that the joyful event that freezing corn was--was a carefully created tradition that required patience and sacrifice on the part of our parents. We thought they needed us, but really we needed to help.

"Amen!" is what I thought when Miriam asked if she could make banana bread "by herself" this afternoon. Baking is another one of those things that is much easier without the help of children...and yet something children need to help with.

To her credit, Miriam did do a lot of the work herself. She mashed the bananas, which is my least favourite job (I made Benjamin do it the last time I made banana bread (we haven't been eating bananas very fast lately and today was another cool, rainy day)). She measured the flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt, but the sugar container was nearly empty so I had to get out our big bin and fill it up before she could measure that.

"Is it alright if some of it floofed out of the bowl?" she came to ask me while I was putting the sugar bin away.

"Yeah, that's fine," I said. "Just be careful."

But then I saw how much "floofed" out and cringed inside.

38 weeks and counting

Being high risk for multiple—and almost conflicting—reasons is so much fun complicated. Now that I've made it past 37 weeks (the shots worked—no preemie!) they're getting anxious for me to have the baby already (there was talk of induction today—that's a first for me) because of gestational diabetes.

I was at the doctor for hours today.

We had to review my blood sugar numbers, which are good. Good enough that we might not even have to worry about induction, especially since I haven't gained any weight at all this past month and am technically measuring small (which means that the baby can't have grown too much either).

Rachel's last soccer game

We went swimming after school once again, naturally. It took us a few minutes to get out the door because of homework and chores (and fighting) and packing a picnic dinner. One of the moms on Rachel's team volunteered to get pizza for after the soccer game so we didn't pack a big dinner—just enough to hold us over until 8:00 when the game would be over.

I don't know who thought a soccer game for these girls at 7:15 on a school night would be a good idea, but that's when their final game was scheduled for and then we had a pizza party after so it was definitely bedtime when we got home.

So, we swam and ate and swam some more before showering and changing and running home to pick up Daddy so we could go to soccer. It was actually a beautiful evening for soccer; it was already cooling off and was just nice rather than sickly hot.

Baby blankets

Well, I finished reading the Book of Mormon on Friday, I finished Zoë's blanket on Sunday, and this morning the odometer on my bike passed 686 miles so I made it to San Fransisco. And Zoë's still not here. I have the feeling she'll hang on until the bitter end (I'm 38 weeks today!).

Her blanket ended up rather small, but it's super warm and thick. It'll probably make a better tummy time mat than a blanket this summer, but it will also make a nice car seat blanket for the winter. It's not really the sort of thing you'd wrap a baby in, but that's okay because it's pretty.

Walking, swimming, walking, and swimming

Miriam woke up ready to be my super-duper helper this morning and was a little too helpful the entire day.

"I'm going to be your super-duper helper today!" she proclaimed.

"Great," I said.

"Do you want me to open all the blinds?" she asked while I was making an egg for myself (having already helped the kids with their breakfast).

"No. I'm still in my housecoat," I explained. "I want you to wait until I get dressed."

"But I opened my blinds and it's a beautiful day!" she chirped.

"That's great," I said. "But I'm still in my housecoat. I don't want the blinds opened until I get dressed."

"Okay," she said, grabbing the string for the blind in the kitchen. "I'll just open this blind."

Oh, the one of the window I'm standing right in front of? No thanks.

"Miriam," I said, "If you're going to be my super-duper helper I'm going to need you to be a little less..."

"Cheerful?" she interjected.

"Willfully disobedient, actually," I corrected. "Cheerful is fine. Disobedient is not."

First day at the pool

We walked to the pool after having lunch since Daddy and Rachel were off at soccer. Miriam was rather excited to go swimming and chattered the whole time about all the things she was going to do.