Beds??? Who needs Beds???

I must have slept on the floor too many times while I was pregnant with Myra. Because Myra doesn't realize that you are suppose to sleep in beds. She won't sleep in her bed! I'm afraid it is starting to hurt Josh's feelings. The bed we have in our room for Myra is a wooden cradle that Josh made with his father while I was pregnant with Josh Jr. I don't remember how much time it took for them to build it, but it seemed like they spent a lot of time on it. They did a fantastic job too. It is very sturdy (we have had some bigger kids climb into the bed many times). And it rocks. Sadly we haven't really used the rocking feature very much over the years. Julie (Josh's mom) made the mattress and bumper pads for the cradle. I love this cradle. I am so glad that all of my kids have had the opportunity to use this cradle. And I look forward to passing it on to my children's children. But there have been times that the babies would not sleep in it. Josh Jr. was the first. He slept in his car seat for about the first 6 weeks of his life.... Well it seems that Myra is following suit. She also will not sleep in the cradle. But last night marked the 6 week mark (I can't believe it has already been 6 weeks), so I thought I would give it another try. It was also cooler last night so I thought that maybe if I bundled Myra up in her blanket that it would help her to sleep better in the cradle... And it worked... For about two hours... And then Myra woke up hungry... So she ate... And she went back to sleep... But as soon as I layed her down she was awake again... Hungry again... Bottle this time... Now Myra is awake... So we cuddle... And I fall a sleep before she does... In the chair... So not only did Myra not sleep in her bed... But neither did I :(

Remotes!

With the wonderful invention of the remote control, we have been given a fantastic gift. You don't have to get up to turn on the TV. But my question is, how many remotes should you need???

Last night my brother came over and Josh helped him with cutting wood for a cub scout project... Brian in turn helped us get our new TV all set up so we could watch stuff...

And play video games... or watch Netflix instant flicks on the WII.

Brian was great! He got everything all hooked up, and He even showed me how to run everything... With ALL the Different remotes! Yes that's right we need four remotes to watch TV...

And we only get the local channels! No Direct TV, no cable, no Dish. Just the local channels!

Tricky Fish!

"Tricky Fish! Tricky Fish!" You might wounder why I started this blog out with this quote (anyone know where the quote is from???). I was thinking today as I gazed at my sweet little baby in my arms that tricky fish would be a good nick name for her. Now before you start thinking I am a mean mother to come up with this nick name, maybe you should finish reading this post.

If you read my post from a couple days ago about Myra, you might start to get an idea as to why I would call her Tricky Fish (I would put a link for you to click on and go straight to it, but I haven't figured that part of blogging out). She was a fish in my belly. Swimming all around it, all the time. And as far as the tricky part goes... well I think the number of times that she changed positions on us was pretty tricky.

But it wasn't until this afternoon that I thought of the nickname for Myra. Myra was laying in my lap having just ate. She was a happy little baby, and she started to try and make noises and smile. Now she has been trying this for about a week, but not regularly to catch. The last couple days I have been trying to catch a picture of Myra smiling. But it seems like every time I pull out a camera she either stops smiling, or hides it from me. And so the thought of tricky fish came to me. I doubt we will ever really call her that, but who knows. So anyways, here are some pictures of Myra that I took as I was trying to get a smile... as can see she was a little stinker! But we sure love her. Enjoy!

What a day!

Today was a day. I wouldn't say bad or good, just a day. It started with the mad rush to get out of the house. Still have a hard time getting us all ready and out of the house much before 10am. This will not be good come next week when the kids start school up. However I will hopefully only need to walk with them the first couple of days until they remember how it is to walk to school everyday. But back to today... Both boys had a dentist appointment at 8:30 this morning (what was I thinking???) And since it was a new dentist and I wasn't sure how things worked, I needed to drop the girls off with Grandma Julie (Thanks Grandma) before hand. We were about 10 minutes late getting out of the house. But some how we still made it to the dentist on time (I do have a bit of a speeding problem, but we can save that for another post). An hour and a half latter we head back to Grandma's house to get the girls (after learning of the $400.oo of work on teeth for the two boys...). Now we can never just go in to Grandma's and get the girls and leave. The boys need to have their time with Grandma too. So an hour and an half latter we make it home. To hurry and eat because I made an appointment for 12:30 at the north end of town to have the car looked at (again what was I thinking on the timing issue).
Lunch was a quick rush with most kids eating good (Savannah just doesn't like to eat... meals, she would eat snacks all day if I let her). Now I knew the appointment to have the car looked at would take a little while, so I told the kids to bring their mp3 players, books, and/or DSIs. Hoping that this would make the time go faster for them. The kids did great waiting in the car (except for one terrible hot and thirsty 6 year old), but they didn't really use the things they brought. No big deal, but when we get home Ben and Brooklyn decided that they really want to listen to their mp3 players now. Again, no big deal... except that they both wanted to sing with the music... Loud... and around other people. So for almost the rest of the afternoon I was serenaded by to sweet kids. Both singing different songs, but repeating that song over, and over, and over. Don't get me wrong, it was cute... but loud.
We ended the day at the swimming pool. Our normal Wednesday night ritual. And once we were there the kids disappeared to hang out/flirt with the much cooler lifeguards (we are in so much trouble once they are teenagers). The house is now quiet, and I am loving it.

Myra Jasmine Case!

I figured three weeks was long enough, and that I should finally get on the ball and write about Myra. But I never got it finished and it has been another week and a half. And now Myra is a month old!!! Boy how fast time goes. So here is Myra's birth story (and one day hopefully soon I will tell all the rest of the kids stories). Myra Jasmine Case joined our family on Friday June 18th, 2010. She made her appearance at 7:44 pm after a long quiet day of... not much labor... really!
Myra is the sixth child for Josh and me. And she decided to follow after her older sisters and be a swimmer... in my belly. On May 28th I went in for a normal appointment (I was still three and a half weeks from my due date). Every thing was fine, except that Sandy (our nurse practitioner that we love) was not sure if baby (because at this point Myra did not have a name) was facing the right direction. She we walked down the hall to have an ultra sound... And sure enough our little stinker was breach. Knowing that I was going to be 37 weeks soon, and Dr. Bianco does not want to do inversion after 37 weeks, we went a head with the plan to do inversion the next week. The office called us up to confirm our appointment on the 1st of June (37 weeks on the dot). Tuesday June 1st came and we went to the hospital to have "outpatient surgery" (another story). We go up to Labor and delivery and get checked in... to a little triage room with a curtain not a door. The nurse started an IV and hooked me up for monitoring. Dr. Bianco stopped by and does a quick ultra sound and confirmed that baby was still breach. He then left to do another procedure and said he'd be back in half an hour... About an hour and a half latter he came back. The nurse gave me a shot of ??? and then the turning began. Now unfortunately this was not my first time to have this procedure done. So I knew what to expect. And as far as pain goes this time ranked in the middle. Having Savannah turned was still the most painful, but Cat is the least painful baby turning. Anyways... baby is turned and then we wait for an hour to make sure she is OK. And she seems to be. I don't feel the best because of the meds they gave me, but they were off pretty fast and Josh and I get to catch lunch before he heads in to work. Six days latter we go back in for a doctors appointment. Dr. Bianco feels my belly and is not positive that baby is still head down. So we head down the hall Again to do a ultra sound. But this time baby is head down (mostly). She is just a little off center. Dr. Bianco gently pushes on my belly and moved her back to center. He then remembers that he wanted to check her heart beat (he couldn't get a good read with the Doppler). And guess what we find... in the 3o seconds since he gently moved baby back to center, she has completely turned sideways!!! The look on Dr. Biancos face was priceless! He couldn't believe that she flipped around like that so fast. Dr. Bianco recommended waiting until the next appointment (in a week) to decide what we should do. There was obviously enough room in my uterus for baby to turn, so he thought we should wait and see what she would do. So we wait. And baby swims! A lot! Every night around 10:30 or 11 she would get real wiggly. Seven more days pass and Monday June 14th we go back in for another Doctor appointment. This time they don't even pretend that they know which way she will be facing... they just put us in the room with the ultra sound. Dr. B (Bianco is getting to be too long to type so many times) comes in and just grabs for the ultra sound. And are you surprised that she was breach??? I wasn't! Dr. B gives us the different options we have... Wait another week and see were she is then, wait until I go into labor (which didn't look like any time soon because my body had done nothing to get ready for labor, a side effect of breach babies) and hope that baby had turned the right way on her own (if not it would be a c-section for me), or set up to have her turned yet again and then induce me before she could change her mind and position again. We went with option number three. Turn and induce. We did it with Savannah, and it seem to have worked well for us. So we thought we'd give it another try.

Early Friday morning on the 18th of June Josh and I headed for the hospital. The grandparents had kept the older kids the night before so we wouldn't have to drop them off early (thank you Grandma Julie and Grandma Penny). Josh and I get to the hospital at about ten after 6 (am). We thought we were late, but the nurses thought we weren't suppose to be there until 6:30. Now at this point I am not in labor... not even having random contractions. The nice nurses get started checking me in and getting the IV going. They hooked everything up (but did not do an ultra sound). Right around 7am Dr. B shows up. The nurse gives me a shot of ??? (so that I wont have contractions during turning baby). And then Dr. B does an ultra sound... And baby has already turned on her own! I think Dr. B's exact words were "You are wasting my time". I'm pretty sure he was joking (I hope so). He then asks/suggests that we go ahead with the plan to induce. Josh and I immediately agree. And so the long day begins. Like I said before, my body was not ready to have baby (even though Josh and I think I had more contractions with her before hand than any of the others). I was a big zero! Zero percent effaced... Zero percent dilated!!!

Dr. B gives the nurses her orders and then takes off to see patients that wouldn't waste his time :) And Josh and I wait. I could give you the minute to minute replay of the day, but it would probably put you to sleep (if you need help falling a sleep call and I can give you the long version... I'm sure I'm up. I have a new baby). Anyway here is the shortened version of the day... Hooked up to monitor and IV for half an hour (I was getting LOTS of antibiotics for strep B) then off of IV and monitors for half an hour so I could walk. It went like that for hours!!! The nurse gave me a pill (vaginally) when Dr. B left (so around 7am) and then another one around 11am. Just a little back note, I have been given this pill before and usually after the second dose I start to have regular contractions... Not so much this time. I did have about an hour of time that had regular contractions, but then they stopped. So I got a third dose... and even that didn't get the contractions going. So the day has progressed with IVs and Monitoring half the hour, and walking the other half of the hour, repeated... to many times to remember (and the L & D floor at the hospital really was not that big. I did MANY laps around it). Finally Dr. B came back after his day was over in the office. He checked me and I think I was maybe 60% effaced and barley at two centimeters dilated... and no contractions. Now it is some where around 4:30 or 5 at this point (sorry I don't remember the exact time, but this is my sixth kid... too many times, and number to try and remember... I remember the important ones) and again NO contractions. People later commented about how I had a long painful day... Not really. Just a slow boring day. We watched some Friends episodes, played Yahtzee, watched Italian Job, oh and walked! Don't get me wrong I loved spending time with Josh, but No contractions and it was five o'clock at night. But kind Dr. B decides that my body will give in and go with the flow of having the baby, and so he breaks my water. And if there was ever a question as to why baby was turning SO much, it was answered when my water broke. There was a TON of water in my belly for Baby to swim in! A TON!!!

So here we are at 5 - 5:30 at night. Water broke, but no contractions. Dr. B leaves (the room but he promised to stay in the hospital... he didn't want to miss delivering baby... that's another story for another day). So the nurse adds Pictocin to the IVs I am getting. And finally contractions start coming. And stay coming (all though I think they had to turn the dose WAY up to get the contractions at a regular rate). And so the day continues. Slower than the last couple of kids, but at least we had contractions. Sometime after 6 the contractions got stronger, and more painful. A lot more painful! In fact probably the most painful since... no maybe the most painful. But the pain wasn't across my abdomen. It was ALL in my back! Very painful. At this point (it's like 6:30- 6:45) they check me and I am now 80-90% effaced and dilated to a 6. This is great news because I go fast (REAL Fast) after I hit 5 centimeters. But I am still having a lot of back pain. So our kind nurse (Julie or Jessica) had me try different things (like putting my leg up on a ball and then switching sides) to ease the pain and see if baby would move (she thought that baby was facing the wrong way). This does help some, but the pain is still mostly in my back, and very hard. But now it is around 7:15, and I figure I should be almost done. The nurse checks me again and I am completely effaced, but I am still at 6 cm. :(

SO I give in and ask for some pain meds through my IV (I haven't ever had an epidural... another story... but I have only had one baby completely natural). Our kind nurse (really wish I could remember her name) went to go get them. At this point I sit back up (I had been lying down on my side) because it really is much more comfortable for me. I think there were a couple more contractions before the nurse gets back (it's about 7:30 now). Any ways the nurse comes back and gave me the pain meds... and on the next contraction I really didn't notice a difference. But after the contraction I was able to relax more. And things start to go fast! The nurses hurry to break down the room (and call Dr. B!!!) And I try to breath and relax! And three contractions after the pain meds, baby Myra came in to the world (and Dr. B was there to deliver her)!

Myra was born at 7:44 pm on Friday June 18th. She weighed in at 6 lbs. 15 oz. This tied her for the heaviest baby. She was 19 cm long, making her the shortest baby as well.

Myra is beautiful, and we all love her. I would go on and on, but then this would never get posted (I started it 17 days ago). So I will end here, and save the rest for another day (besides I still need to remember how to add pictures). So enjoy!