Summer Birthdays

Rhema turned 2 on July 15! This was the day we woke up in Colorado for the first time calling it HOME! We stayed with Grandma J the first few nights, then drove to the Springs to prepare to move into our new house. Grandma got an ice cream cake, which Rhema heartily enjoyed.

We have two birthday boys in August: Seanin turned 4 on August 14, and Zaden turned 6 on August 24. We had a joint birthday party at the Focus on the Family birthday party room with some new friends we met through mutual friends who live in Texas. Wendi is a kindred spirit, and I know she and I will get together often! With 7 kids of their own, the B family also homeschools and has much in common with us. We are grateful to have been connected so soon after both of our families moved to the Springs. Charis made the minion cake, which the boys requested!

On August 28, Verity turned 6 months old! We celebrated her 1/2 birthday with a half cake, also made with love by Charis. Verity is writing her own special story, as her cake reflects.

And since she wasn't thrilled in the above photo, here is a happier shot!

Summer Summary

Oh, Summer, where art thou??

I remember...back in the day...when we first began homeschooling, we lived in Las Vegas. It was stinkin' HOT in the summer, and so we happily took our "summer" break in March or April, when it was pleasant outside and we had easily breezed through our school materials. We'd order the next core early and begin another round of school when it was hot enough to fry an egg on the sidewalk. With a couple of babies born during our 4 years in Nevada, plus quite a bit of traveling to Colorado, Utah, and Idaho, we enjoyed our free and easy and flexible schedule, pretty much doing school "year-round" but taking breaks whenever we wanted.

But our next few moves happened during summer months (2009, 2012, 2015), with babies also arriving in summer months (2011, 2013, 2015). So it just made sense to keep a more "regular" school-year calendar.

With last summer bringing us back overseas PLUS a new baby, this summer was bound to be less...stressful, I suppose. But it was busy nevertheless! Here's a rundown of some of our summer highlights:

* Charis, Tobin, and Arden attended the Christian Youth in Action training camp the first week in June. Run by Child Evangelism Fellowship, this training prepares teens to share the gospel with children during 5-day clubs held throughout the summer. The kids learned how to completely run a club by themselves, from leading games and songs to teaching Bible and missionary stories, Bible verses, and review and application activities. It was a lot of work, but they all agree they are glad they did it!

* Immediately after this intensive training week, Charis left for a week-long missions trip to a reservation in South Dakota along with a team she has accompanied 4 different times now. She loves those kids and got to specifically use the skills she had just cultivated the week before as she interacted with kids and shared the gospel.

* Kenna, Lucan, and Zaden had swimming lessons the first two weeks in June. Seanin and Rhema and I enjoyed some quality hang-out time.

Zaden loved getting rides in the boat!

Seanin braved the big slide by himself at the park!

* Tobin enjoyed another great week at Camp Cedars with the Boy Scouts! This year was even more fun for him since he actually knew boys in the troop! Unfortunately, he missed out on a family visit...

* We got to spend some time with our CO family when Joel and Sarah and their boys came through for a few days' visit on their way to a family reunion in Kansas (or maybe Missouri, I can't remember). We especially enjoyed an outing together to see the train park and then get some ice cream in the Old Market.

Charis, Anders, Zaden, Arden (before his summer haircut!!), Cade, Lucan, Kenna

* I flew to Salt Lake City (alone! Without children!) to attend the Young Living Convention. I met up with some friends and had a fabulous time learning more about essential oils and the incredible opportunities available to us. I pumped while I was gone, and while Rhema wasn't thrilled about the goat milk she got in a bottle, she did fine and resumed nursing without missing a beat when I returned.

* On June 28, Ted and I celebrated our 19th anniversary! Actually, I think our date night was the next weekend, but we DID get out for a date. And now I can't remember what we did...pretty sure we went to eat at Sinful Burger...oh! I think we saw Finding Dory! And then Ted took the kids to see it during the discounted matinee show the following week.

Charis made this darling baby Dory for me after seeing the movie!

* We had friends come through and stay with us the night of July 4 on their way back home from a trip. We had a relaxed visit over some yummy grilled food and somehow failed to see any fireworks.

* On July 15 our baby Rhema turned one! Charis made a fabulous birthday cake for her and we had a simple family celebration.

* The last week in July Charis attended a Bible camp with some of the kids in the local youth group. Aside from sleeping in a bunk the first night that had bed bugs in it (!!!!!!!)...she says it was a great week. (Mom is trying to refrain from further commentary here...)

* The first week in August our backyard hosted up to 16 kids during the last 5-day Club of the summer. Charis, Tobin, and Arden all taught 4 clubs, which kept us busy several weeks in a row as we drove to Omaha and Bellevue to other host homes. So it was nice that the last one was right in our yard with kids we knew, mostly from church but also a few from the neighborhood.

* On August 8 the kids took the online Bible Bee test, the culmination of 8 weeks of study over the summer, working through their Discovery Journal to dig into John 13 - 15 and also 14 different memory passages.

* August 10 - 14 I took another trip, this time to San Diego for a "Naples Reunion" with a number of ladies who were stationed there at the same time. It was SUCH a blessing to go! I stayed with my dear friend Joyce, co-founder of Missione di Luce with which I was involved during my time in Italy. She, like many of the ladies I met up with, now lives in San Diego. It was a joyous, refreshing few days as we caught up on each others' lives, prayed together, laughed together, and definitely ate good food together. I'm thankful for the opportunity to go.

We spent all day at the beach, people coming and going as their schedules allowed. Sooooo nice to relax and talk!

Sheri opened her home for sushi-making at lunchtime and lots of hang-out time through the afternoon.

I think this is almost everyone who was able to make it!

* August 14 was Seanin's 3rd birthday! Charis made another amazing cake, and we had a family celebration at home.

* We had a local Bible Bee celebration in our backyard August 20. Nine families had registered for the summer study, and while not everyone was able to complete everything, the feedback seemed overwhelmingly positive. We rejoice that kids spent time in God's Word, learning how to study the Bible and memorizing verses that will renew their hearts and minds! Also, we praise the Lord that Charis was able to qualify for the National Bible Bee Competition again this year.

Kenna receives her certificate and chooses a verse to recite (John 13:34-35).

* On August 24 Zaden turned 5! We had a family party for him since his birthday was on a Wednesday. We had to work around a friend's schedule, but we did finally have a friend party on September 2. Hooray! Two cakes, lol!

I took Zaden to get a haircut a couple of days before his birthday. Everyone was very sad at how short his hair is now, but I still think he's a cutie-patootie!!

We have generous friends who let us borrow this inflatable water slide for the friend party! It was a hit!

Brothers and friends!

Aaaaaaand that's the story of our summer! All good things must come to an end, I suppose. We actually kicked off our school year on August 29, so I will try to be better about keeping more remembrances on our blog as the school year gets underway!

Update: Seanin and Rhema

Our babies are changing so fast these days! I'm overwhelmed by a flood of adorability...

SEANIN:
This is one cute, chunky li'l dude. We aren't sure where the bulk comes from, since it seems he barely eats enough molecules to fuel his happy self, but the boy is a tank, especially compared to Rhema the Lightweight. He really wants to wear underpants and is agreeable about going potty, even telling me he needs to go #1, but so far we have had only a couple of random poo successes. He will wear any underwear he can find, so I had to hide Lucan and Zaden's briefs to emphasize to Seanin that until he poos in the potty, undies are off limits! (I cleaned up quite enough poo messes in his bedroom already, thankyouverymuch, so while in theory it might work to put him in big-boy underwear, I refuse until he produces consistently IN the potty.) He is independent enough that I hope this training phase will be over sooner rather than later! He prefers to dress himself, providing us with endless amusement at his fashion choices, and since he changes clothes multiple times a day, we are often treated to a variety of looks.

Seanin loves coloring at the table while I do schoolwork with Lucan (and sometimes Zaden), although he often patters away to find his big brothers Tobin and Arden, distracting the big boys by wanting them to play with him (they usually oblige willingly). He thrives on attention (no surprise there) and is well on his way to earning his Spoiled Youngest Brother stripes. He feels things deeply--crocodile-tears deeply--and he isn't terribly discriminatory about who holds and comforts/cuddles him. As his mama, it's both gratifying and a bit smothering that one of his phrases when he is feeling distressed is, "Mommy, I need you! Sob, sob!" His verbal skills have exploded recently. I wish I could capture all of the fun little phrases and pronunciations of this phase. One that is unique to him is running words together when he is asking for something. I believe he tries to say, "Oh, could I please ____," but it comes out, "Oh-ki-pease ____."

He sucks his thumb when he's tired and asks to be put down for his nap every day after lunch. (We seriously hit the Nap Jackpot with this child.) Once laid in his crib, he pops his thumb in his mouth and strokes the silky tag on the snap-on crib sheet. Then he has to have about 19 blankets piled on him, tells the person putting him down (usually me but sometimes Charis) "I love you," and all is quiet for 3 hours. (Thank you, God!! You knew I'd need that bit of a sanity saver!)

RHEMA:
Having hit 9 months now, our petitey-sweetie is a bit over 16 pounds, 27 inches. She started crawling almost a month ago, so we are having to be extra cautious now. I've slowly worked her into playpen time; she was a screaming mess the first few times I left her in her room in the playpen with toys, but now she fusses a minute or so after I close the door, then settles in and plays happily usually at least half an hour, which is enough time to get some table work done with Lucan and maybe Kenna. Then we (the youngest 5 plus myself) go up to the attic play room, move the trunk so that it blocks the stairs, verify there are no little anythings she could choke on, and do our core reading while Rhema and Seanin play. It's a routine that has worked fairly well, allowing me to keep an eye on her in a safe place. The only problem is when Zaden and Seanin fight over toys. Sigh.

We are finally in a more or less predictable routine with Rhema. Her sleeping-through-the-night skills have been hit and miss. It seemed she was finally getting to a consistent pattern when she learned to sit herself up...ever after that, she would wake, sit up, and cry, cry, cry until I nursed her and put her back to sleep. She simply WOULD NOT lie back down on her own. I don't even want to say it out loud, but the last 5 nights she has slept until the 4-5am time frame, and after nursing she sleeps another 3-4 hours. Since Ted's alarm goes off at 5, this has actually felt like sleeping through the night for us!! I can only hope and pray that this will be consistent! During the day she is awake about 2.5-3 hours, then naps maybe 1.5-2 hours. So I can count on a good morning nap and a good afternoon nap...unfortunately, at this time, that afternoon nap doesn't really overlap Seanin's nap much if any. Similar to Seanin's sucking his thumb when he's tired, Rhema has started sucking the first two fingers on her right hand when she's ready to sleep!

Rhema is eating well and seems to be enjoying new finger food opportunities (latest favorite: Daddy's pancakes). She moves her hands constantly, and it cracks us up how she uses her first two fingers to rake her food toward her. (Ted calls it "Grabby Sloth" fingers!) Her whole little self bursts with joy when a family member gives her attention; her legs kick, kick, kick, and her whole face lights up. Kenna especially loves to carry her around and hold her and also enjoys spoon-feeding her, which is a huge help. (It so reminds me of Charis with baby Lucan!) But there is no lack of willing volunteers when she wakes from her nap and I ask someone to go get her for me!

August Birthday Boys

Whew...still catching up on 2015...I hope in heaven we get to review all our precious memories from life here on earth, because time is speeding by WAY too fast down here!

We have two birthdays in August. Seanin turned 2 (on the 14th) and Zaden turned 4 (on the 24th). We had a simple family party for Seanin. Our cousins from Omaha had homemade pizza and cake with us. (Charis made the cake!)

Then on Zaden's actual birthday, which coincided with the first day of public schools in our area, we decided to go to the Omaha Zoo! We got a military membership, and it is a fantastic deal! We had his birthday party the next day, since on Tuesdays there was a discount at a local bounce house play place. We spent about an hour and a half letting the kids bounce off the walls there (ha!) and then came to our house for lunch and cake. Charis made this cake as well--from scratch, and it was amazing!

The Littles

Some random tidbits about current life with the littles...

SEANIN
Seanin had his lip tie clipped on September 11 and has done beautifully with nursing ever since!  I'm so glad we had the procedure done.  He was fussy that day (understandable), but was back to his normal self the next day, and we noticed a big difference with his eating and sleeping habits.  And I felt as if he were milking the breast much more efficiently.  Praise God!

We did start putting Seanin to sleep on his tummy a few days ago with fantastic results.  He really had not been a great sleeper at all--ever.  Trying to get some sort of predictability to his daily routine was impossible, and you can imagine how difficult that made our school days (not to mention nights--oy!).  I wondered aloud if sleeping on his tummy would help, since he seemed to prefer cuddling on someone's chest while sleeping.  Ted tried putting him down that way, and lo and behold!  It was like MAGIC!  He goes 3.5-4 hours or so at night and has a fairly predictable 3-hour schedule during the day.  He rarely wakes up in the middle of a nap cycle anymore, and I am SO THANKFUL God pressed that on our hearts to try!

ZADEN
Zaden is adding to his vocabulary daily, and it is so fun to hear him chattering away!  One of my favorite things to hear him say is, "Bess-oo, Mommy!" whenever I sneeze.  He will stop what he is doing, run into wherever I am, and say that if he hears me!  Melts my heart!

Like Lucan, he went through a huge bus obsession.  When he first started talking, "bus" was easy for him to say, and so EVERYTHING on wheels was a BUSSSSS!  This led to great exclaiming in the car as he realized the power he had to name every. single. vehicle that we passed.  "Bussss!" he would shriek.  "Actually, that's a car."  "No, bussss!"

Similarly, all liquid is "milk."  If we are reading a book that has pictures of water, such as his Flashing Fire Engines story book that depicts a hose spraying water at a fire, he pronounces it "milk."  "Actually, that's water, honey."  "No, MILK!"

He is an amazing eater--pretty much anything he sees us eating, he wants to eat himself.  Heaven forbid that we should scoop it up to cool onto his plate before we sit down to pray...no, he wants us to scoop from the pan just like all the big people!

Zaden's eyes are as big as ever and look even more so since Ted buzzed his hair.  It was looking pretty ratty, since he twirled it while sucking his thumb, resulting in various bald patches where it got knotted up so badly that it either fell out of its own accord or had to be snipped.  I almost cried when I saw his near-bald head, but we're getting used to it (and it's growing back!), and I do love how his eyes look bigger than ever!

He still loves "Baby Say-nin" and "holds" him frequently: that is, he holds out his arms, we hold Seanin out so Zaden THINKS he is holding the baby, and Zaden smiles, coos over him, kisses him, and then runs away.  He also likes stealing Seanin's blankets and running around wearing them like kingly robes.

When Zaden goes down for a nap or for the night, he settles himself into his crib with his stuffed buddies arranged just so around him, lies down on his tummy, indicates that we are to put his blanket over him, pops his thumb in his mouth, goes to twirl his hair but remembers there is nothing left to twirl, removes his thumb, and says, "Daddy (or Mommy or Charis, whoever is with him), song!" and then we sing "Jesus Loves Me," just as we've sung with all the kids.  It will never get old!

LUCAN
Lucan is taking on more of a big brother role now that he has officially moved into Zaden's bedroom!  (That noise you heard was the cheering of Tobin and Arden who no longer have to share their space with a 4-year-old!)  The two little boys shrieked with giggles and delight the first few nights but seem to have settled down and are used to sharing now.  We kept Zaden in his crib since he doesn't seem to mind, and he is such a good napper...why mess with a good thing?!

Lucan still loves to build, anything from puzzles to train tracks to magnet structures to Legos to Math-U-See blocks.  He's quite protective of his creations and gets extremely upset when Zaden messes things up.  He will cry pitifully, covering his mouth in his distress.  It's hard not to laugh at the drama, but it does show Lucan's passionate, sensitive personality!  He even asks at times, "Mommy, will you please put Zaden to bed?!" because he knows that nap time is the best time for him to play without interruptions.  Although...then he often has to fight his big brother Arden, who enjoys building with the same play sets Lucan is working with while I do our afternoon school reading!

Speaking of school, we have not officially started any school-ish activities with Lucan.  I may start working with him on some writing.  He has begun showing a lot more interest in coloring and drawing than he has in the past and enjoys creating elaborate picture scenes on the white board when I let him!  The drawing below shows mountains with an orange tree and a blueberry tree on top and a person in between.  There is a small crooked tree in front of the mountain with the fruit trees on it.  To the right of that is Split Mountain (which we went to on Labor Day) with the Leaning Tower of Pisa in between the halves of Split Mountain.  Love it!  (Note that the green scribbles in the top left corner were NOT Lucan's doing and have nothing to do with his masterpiece, LOL.)

Lucan may be on his way to becoming a vegetarian; for some reason, he resists eating chicken in almost any form.  (Chicken spaghetti?  Hello?  Kid-friendly meal...he wouldn't even touch the noodles.)  On the other hand, he adores salad or veggies with Ranch dip and will often fill up on veggies and fruit, bypassing the main course altogether.  Thankfully he does like cottage cheese, cheese, eggs, sausage, and other forms of protein, and of course good ol' PBJs!

A food funny from tonight's dinner...as I mentioned, Lucan really loves salad.  Tonight I made a Caprese salad--fresh tomatoes and basil from our favorite farm stand, mozzarella di buffalo, plus some olives.  Not all the kids appreciate this kind of salad, so we had carrot sticks on the table as well.  Lucan decided to have some salad.  He got halfway through eating it and then lamented, "Awwwww!  There are LEAVES in my salad!"  (Referring to the basil!)

Lucan has continued to do well with using the potty, although he still wears pull-ups at night.  He still feels the need to proudly announce his bowel movements...since the weather has been nice and all the windows are open in the house, we can hear him wherever we are as he shouts, "I DID go poopy on the potty!"  And he will continue to holler that over...and over...and over...until someone reaffirms him, "Good job, Lucan!"  Lord willing, the announcements will stop before he graduates...

Seanin's Nursing Saga

Those who prayed us through Ted's deployment are undoubtedly familiar with all the nursing/feeding woes we experienced with Zaden--starting with his drastic weight loss in the first two weeks, followed by a supplemental nursing system for 4 weeks, followed by recurring blocks and infections.  (For a timeline, view this post, although we had issues probably another 2 months AFTER this was written, culminating with me visiting a specialist in Cincinnati.)

Anyway.  After that traumatic year, you can well imagine that throughout this pregnancy I often had to wrestle with some fear demons that reared their ugly head, taunting me that things would be no different with Seanin--I was doomed to nursing failure.  I spent much time in prayer combating this, over and over giving my body and our baby to the Lord's hands and reaffirming His strength and power and my trust in Him.

I was delighted when Seanin seemed to nurse so well right off the bat, but our second day in the hospital found me with a very sore blister on my right side (the side with all the troubles during Zaden's nursing days) because his latch wasn't deep enough.  At home a couple of days later, the blister had toughened to the point that it was blocking the escape of milk, and I was fighting a rising panic that threatened to totally consume me.  Even though this blister was different from what had kicked off all my troubles with Zaden, the results were seemingly similar.  Much prayer and an SOS to some fellow nursing moms ensued.  I gritted my teeth and sloughed off the blister, hoping and praying for quick healing once the milk was able to flow freely again.  And we continued to work on Seanin's latch, which somehow seemed pretty decent on the left side but just wasn't working on the right.  (I couldn't even nurse him in the cross-cradle hold until just a few days ago--we had to do the football hold.)

I was in touch with the lactation consultant, who is wonderful, but I hadn't been able to reach her at the early part of this because she wasn't on duty.  It was during that time that one of my mom friends sent me some links to check out tongue and lip ties.  I had heard of tongue ties before, but never lip ties!  I looked at the pictures and checked Seanin's mouth.  Lo and behold--a very pronounced lip tie!

Now I was curious.  I checked all of my children.  Amazingly...and yet not...Kenna and Zaden have major lip ties, too!  The two children I had the most nursing difficulties with!  Zaden's troubles were epic, but Kenna's story, in a nutshell, involves an almost-total refusal to nurse for about 8 days after my milk came in (I'm not sure to this day how we kept the child alive, because she wouldn't take a bottle either--feeding sessions were total meltdowns for all of us involved), followed by yeast/thrush, followed by her quitting my right side at 8 months and finally pushing me away for good by 10.5 months.  She never was a great nurser, and I felt lucky that we even made it that long, honestly.

I am so grateful for this new information!  There is such a sense of freedom in knowing that there was a BIG physical contributing factor to the trials I had experienced with nursing these precious souls!  I had always assumed stress was the biggest factor in Zaden's troubles, since Ted was in Afghanistan the first 9 months of Zaden's life, and it wasn't until after his return that things finally seemed to resolve.  I'm sure stress WAS a factor, but oh!  It was so good to know that the lip tie must have heavily influenced things, too!

Check out this list of problems Baby and Mom may have when a lip tie is present (my comments in brackets):

Baby’s Symptoms:

• Difficulty latching on or falls off the breast easily [Zaden's difficulties led to his weight loss the first two weeks]
• Gumming our chewing the nipple while nursing [I don't remember this specifically]
• Unable to hold a paci or bottle [Zaden never would take a pacifier; he's still a thumb-sucker!]
• Gassy (babies with ties often swallow a lot of air because they cannot maintain suction properly) [CHECK!!  This was one of our pukiest kids!]
• Poor weight gain [Referenced above...we had weight check after weight check...]
• Excessive drooling [Hmmm, not really so much on this one.]
• Baby is not able to fully drain breast [YES--that was what led to the blocked duct problems.]

Mama’s Symptoms [I had EVERY SINGLE ONE of these, although the discomfort during nursing tapered off]:

• Creased/flat/blanched nipple after feedings
• Cracked/blistered/bleeding nipples
• Discomfort while nursing
• Plugged ducts
• Thrush/mastitis

While Ted was at the hospital doing Seanin's paperwork last week, I asked him to go to L&D and ask about lip ties and whether they would do a snip.  All my reading suggested that the sooner we could get it done, the better.  The folks on duty had never heard of a lip tie (I also read that many doctors aren't familiar with this!), so the Lt. said she would do some research and call me back.  She called the next morning and said she learned a lot and that they could schedule an appointment for Seanin to see the doctor first, and if the doc gave him a referral, then he could go to ENT to get the tie taken care of.

We were at the doctor's for his exam within an hour.  At first Dr. O wanted me to see the lactation consultant and see what SHE thought--THEN give me a referral.  I asked if there was any reason we couldn't just get a referral right away.  I told him the LC and I had been communicating and she was aware of the issue; furthermore, we had observed that my 6-year-old has a gap in her front teeth BECAUSE OF the lip tie--you can see the frenulum connecting her upper lip and where her teeth split!  So he did end up giving me the referral to ENT.

Unfortunately, when I walked over to ENT to schedule the appointment, we found out that the referral was a general one, which means they could only give me a "first-available" appointment slot, as opposed to an acute referral which could have gotten us in earlier.  As it stands now, we go in on September 9, but that doesn't guarantee us a lip tie snip that day--there is a good chance the ENT doc will examine him and then schedule the procedure for a separate time.  Sigh.

Thankfully, Seanin's latch issues all of a sudden seemed to get better...his lower jaw is relaxing more, he is opening wider, and he really must not be taking in extra air, as he isn't gassy or pukey at all.  So while I still think we need to deal with the lip tie, it's more for the sake of his future dental health and language skills (lip ties can cause lisps as well) than for nursing, although since I have Zaden's nursing history as a reference, I think it certainly would be beneficial to make sure Seanin can continue a good latch all throughout his nursing career so that I NEVER have to deal with a blocked duct or breast infection again!

It's been so interesting to learn all of this with child number seven!  God forbid I would ever think I know it all, LOL!  I do have to wonder how many moms who wanted to nurse their babies but felt they couldn't maybe actually COULD have if their doctors/nurses/midwives would have simply checked for tongue and lip ties immediately after birth?!  From what I understand, a quick snip at that point is virtually painless and would allow better chances of nursing success right from the start.  At least I have the information myself and can share with moms as the opportunity arises.

So, currently, I am pleased to report that Seanin is nursing like a pro now, peeing and pooping like crazy and already growing like a weed.  (When we saw the doc on Thursday, he was 8 days old and had grown one inch and was up to 8 pounds, 14 ounces, having left the hospital at 8 pounds, 5 ounces!)  Unlike my sleepy Zaden, whom I had to wake through the night to nurse in the early weeks, Seanin will NOT miss a feeding, ha!  Every three hours at night he wakes me up!  Now and then I wake him during the day, but usually he is ready to feed on his own.

I will never again take for granted the privilege of nursing my baby and thank God for allowing us to leap through these early nursing hurdles so well...aside from a few days of a sore right nipple, this has honestly been the easiest nursing transition I think we've ever had!  Praise the Lord!

The Birth Story

It should be no surprise that Seanin's labor & delivery story begins with a series of contractions that kept us wondering whether or not this was the real deal!  Tuesday morning, August 13, I had an OB appointment.  My regular doc is in the States on vacation, so I saw a shorter, less green and rather nicer version of Shrek instead.  (Seriously! Dr. N is very Shrek-like!)  When he checked me, I asked him to strip my membranes...but Seanin was so far up that he couldn't get the job done, and I told him not to push it...obviously things just weren't ready.  I was still only dilated 3 cm, which was a bit depressing after all the "fake" contractions I had been experiencing.

Well.  Maybe the check itself started things in motion, because by lunch time I was feeling DEFINITE pains.  They weren't close together...maybe every 15-20 minutes.  I tried resting; I walked on the treadmill; I paced the house.  I debated about throwing in the last few items into the hospital bag.  I alerted Ted and my L&D back-up team (Carla and Joyce, both of whom live close by and were eager and willing to help watch kids when the time FINALLY came).

Not much happened, other than the contractions continuing, sometimes every 10 minutes, sometimes 7-8 minutes apart, sometimes back to 15 minutes apart.  Sigh.  Ted came home early, but nothing of note was happening.  We ate dinner together as a family, and I got back on the treadmill while Ted read aloud from The Fellowship of the Ring.  (Which, incidentally, is the book I was reading the night I went into labor with Tobin!)

Finally it seemed that the contractions were coming closer together and feeling more intense--but not horrifically so.  Still, I remembered that the contractions with Zaden just never really got that bad at all.  Plus, everyone kept telling me that we'd better scoot to the hospital SOON because otherwise I might deliver on the side of an Italian highway.  You'd think so, right, after delivering 6 babies already?!  

But no!  It was indeed getting close to show time, but Seanin proved his mommy right over the doctor (who wanted me to move in across the street from the hospital) and took his sweet time coming.  I just don't have quick and speedy deliveries!  

At any rate, Carla came over around 8:30ish to stay with the kids.  The little boys were already in bed, and the older boys and Kenna followed not too long after, so Carla's job was fairly easy, thank goodness, and we were so glad we didn't have to call her in the middle of the night!  Charis, Ted, and I headed out the door, and I called the L&D ward on base to alert them that we were coming in.

Dr. O, the doc who saw me the night I came in with the beginnings of pre-term labor, was on call that night.  What a BLESSING!  He was a great match for our family!  (I found out later that "Dr. Shrek" had been out to dinner and had had too much wine...so he declined to drive in for my delivery.  No offense to him, but I'm thankful, ha!)  Lt. G, the nurse, also had been on duty that night, and she was there as well.  Perfect!  It was like having a ready-made cheering section, LOL, as they got to see the end of the story!

I was only dilated 4-5 cm, and he was still at -3.  Sigh!  Still, at least it was obvious that I was in real labor and didn't have to go home.  After a bit of monitoring, they let me get up to walk laps around the nurses' station, which helped bring the contractions' intensity level up enough to make me feel like they were actually doing something.

To this point, the worst part was getting my left hand stuck with the IV needle shortly after we arrived.  I didn't really want an IV so soon (I didn't really want one at all), but I didn't have much choice--with the hospital being so small, and with me having had "so many" kids already, they didn't want to take chances with the risk of me bleeding and not being able to stop after delivery (which, remember, was supposed to happen in the blink of an eye according to everyone's predictions!).  The tech who did the IV did not have success with it in my hand--poor Charis nearly fainted when she watched the whole ordeal (my hand is still a bit bruised).  They moved it farther up my left arm where it was tolerable.  

After some walking they wanted to check me again.  This time I was at 6 cm, but his head was still high.  I was getting pretty exhausted--going on 12 hours of contractions.  And while I had hopes for a drug-free delivery, I was honestly getting rather afraid of how much of an ordeal it was going to be to endure not only seemingly endless contractions, but also pushing a large baby out--I didn't know how big he was going to be, but in my head I had the words "9-pounder" stuck and playing like a broken record, just based on the assessments doctors had given during the pre-term labor ordeal.  ("Grande bimbo," the Italian doctor informed me, or something like that!)  Remembering how difficult I had found it to push 8 pound, 3 ounce Zaden out, I finally opted to get an epidural.

In some ways I felt like a failure.  I have so many friends who pop babies (even 9-10 pounders!) out with no pain meds.  And I felt proud (justifiably so, I think!) of my two drug-free deliveries.  I liked feeling like I could get up and move around more quickly than with the others.  Then again...the more I thought about it...Kenna and Zaden were my natural delivery babies, and they were also the ones who gave me the most issues with nursing!  Ha!  They were also born while Ted was deployed...so, interesting case studies, perhaps!

But then, in the delivery room while I was later relaxing and listening to Ted snore while Charis snoozed in a chair, I spent some time praying, and I clearly felt God's Spirit whispering words of freedom to my heart.  In the scheme of things, I felt Him saying, He really didn't mind one way or the other what I chose for this delivery experience.  So I let myself quit stewing about it and instead thanked the Lord for the fact that I continued to have contractions and never really felt them!  

Every 30 minutes or so the nurses would come in and tilt me to one side or the other.  At 3:30am when they did this, my water broke!  WOOHOO!!

Sure enough, it was show time!  Ted and Charis woke up and things started happening.  Not as quickly as they might have if I hadn't been numb though, LOL!  It took awhile before I figured out how to push effectively, and I'm quite sure Seanin would have been born before 4:38am if I hadn't had any pain medicine!  Still, I must say it was WONDERFUL to push out a 9-pound boy and not feel any pain at all!

There were no problems, so I was able to hold him on my chest right away.  I so enjoyed being able to do that while the nurses wiped him down and doc did whatever he needed to do...again, hooray for not feeling any pain and being able to enjoy those precious first moments with our new son!  Charis cut the cord, though she offered to let Daddy do it since Ted was gone for Zaden's birth.  Ted later cut the cord closer, so they both got to cut it.

Our first nursing session was quite a success.  Ted headed home to relieve Carla of kid duty, shower, have breakfast, and get the kids ready to come to the hospital to meet their new baby brother!  Charis stayed with me and was quite a help.  (Read: She held Seanin pretty much constantly while the nurses poked and prodded and helped me up to the bathroom after I got feeling back in my legs.)

The kids arrived in a whirlwind of excitement!  It was so much fun to see their reaction and to announce the name, Seanin Gabriel, which was hailed after months of anticipation and guesswork!  Tobin and I were a bit disappointed that Seanin hadn't arrived before midnight, giving him an August 13 birthday--Tobin's birthday is April 13, and we were hoping he would have a birthday buddy!  However, we agreed that if Seanin had been born in the USA, he WOULD have been an August 13 baby, since he was born so early in the morning here in Italy!  As I mentioned above, there is also the common factor of the reading of a Tolkien work, LOL, plus the fact that both Tobin and Seanin have middle names of biblical angels: Michael and Gabriel, respectively.  Ah, well.  August 14 is a great birth date, too!

The kids all had a chance to hold Seanin, and then Ted whisked everyone away so I could rest.  Seanin and I stayed in the hospital for two full days; I had tested positive for Group B Strep, so they always want to monitor babies 48 hours in that case.  There were no problems at all, and I must say I was thankful for the extra time in the hospital, as much as I hated trying to rest in that bed...it helped with having peace and quiet for feeding times (which was a blessing, as I quickly realized that Seanin's shallow latch was going to take some working on--I got a blister almost right away, sigh, and we're still working to overcome that, although I am praising God that Seanin is starting to open wider and do better).

However, it was WONDERFUL to come HOME!!!  Ted has 2 weeks of leave...10 days of paternity leave and some use-or-lose leave days, so we are taking it easy, working on establishing good nursing habits/patterns, and generally getting used to life with a newborn again.  I have to confess that one thought I've had over and over is, "I'm SO glad Ted is HERE this time!"  He missed all this precious time with Zaden.  I can hardly believe that Zaden was 9 months old by the time Daddy was home for good...they had 2 weeks together during Ted's R&R leave.  Thank you, Lord, that those days are behind us!

He's Here!

Introducing Seanin Gabriel...
Seanin (SHANE-in), an Irish form of John, "God is gracious"
Gabriel, Hebrew, "God is mighty"

Born Wednesday, 14 August, 04:38, at the Naval Support Site hospital in Gricignano di Aversa, Italy
9 pounds, 21 inches