My due date was November 15. I used to think November would never come. And then, as it crept closer, I couldn’t believe it was actually so near.

Around 36 weeks things started to get more uncomfortable, and I began looking forward to not being pregnant anymore. I’d be able to sleep (and still breathe) in any position, not just on my left side (which made my shoulder ache). I’d be able to lay to rest my awful compression stockings that I had to wear to keep pain in check from my many, horrible varicose veins. I could pack away my maternity clothes!

But, still, having the baby seemed far off. On Monday, November 5th John and I went to Wesley’s school to visit the transitional kindergarten classroom. This is his last year of preschool, and we need to decide what type of classroom will be the best fit for him next year–regular kindergarten (which has 1 teacher to 20 kids, and high expectations) or transitional (which has 1 teacher and 3 aides, and is a special ed environment, so slower paced). As we drove together in the car we talked about the baby and I said, “I have no inkling of having a baby today.”

Which was true. I never saw it coming. That night around 11 pm I got ready for bed as usual and wrote in my journal, but my back was hurting. After a little while I called John upstairs to sit with me because it was so uncomfortable. Eventually he pulled up an app on his tablet that timed contractions. It turns out they were about 12 minutes apart. And soon they were 7 minutes apart. Then 5, then 4. Around 1:30 am John called our neighbor and asked her to come sleep on the couch so we could go to the hospital.

I had been dreading this labor and delivery experience because having Carissa was difficult. It left me feeling traumatized and scared to go through it again. This time John and I decided I would try an epidural and see how it went without the accompanying pain.

So as we drove to the hospital (with a towel on the seat beneath me, which John kindly gave me in case my water broke in his car), I felt surprisingly calm. The labor pains hurt, but I knew how to breathe through them, and I knew that in a bit I would have the epidural to help.

We arrived sometime after 2 am and got the paperwork started for my stay. I ordered the epidural right away. First they hooked me up to an IV to get a bag of saline solution into my system. I also had negative memories associated with getting an IV, because during Carissa’s labor the nurse took about a half hour trying to set up my heplock (which I never needed), poking both arms in the midst of heavy, horrible back labor pains before finally getting it in. This time was better.

Getting the epidural made me nervous, I think mostly because I’d never done it before. All in all, it wasn’t a big deal. It took several minutes, but there was only one “Ouch!” moment when I got poked in the back, and then my legs started feeling warm and tingly. I was like, “Hey, what’s going on?” and the epidural guy said that meant it was working, and that the needle was in just the right spot in my back.

And that was the last I felt of my contractions. I’ve had three babies, two without pain medication and one with. After my experience with an epidural, here is what I’ve decided: WHY did I never do this before??

Somehow my labor with Wesley wasn’t so bad. But Carissa’s was terrible. This one probably would have been similar. It was so lovely to not feel the pain anymore.

In fact, it was kind of surreal to be at the hospital, in a bed with a gown on, unable to move my legs (but I would move my feet a little), and to just LIE there. I watched “I Love Lucy” on our portable DVD player for a while. The nurse started by lying me on my left side at 3:30 am, and after an hour she came back and rolled me to the right side. It wasn’t until then, when my view of the room changed and I could see the baby bed set up in the corner, that it registered in my head WHY I was there. To have a baby! Right. So, so different from an active labor experience where you feel everything. Truthfully, so much more pleasant.

Around midnight, long before we left for the hospital, my body started shaking. It’s an effect of the hormones during labor, and I remember having the shakes to some degree during or following my other deliveries. This time I was shaking so strongly that they couldn’t ever get a blood pressure reading from the cuff on my arm because I couldn’t hold my arm still enough. Once the epidural kicked in they transferred the cuff to my calf, and finally it worked.

The first hour of my epidural (about 3:30 to 4:30 am) I couldn’t relax. I was shaking hard, and I was adjusting to the feeling of numbness in my legs. It is a WEIRD feeling to not be able to move your legs. I hate holding still, even when falling asleep at night, so this was hard for me at first. We turned up the thermostat in the room and I asked for some hated blankets, and gradually my shaking improved. Once the shaking lessened, I could relax, and once I relaxed, I could rest. From 4:30 to 5:30 am John and I were able to sleep off and on (a very little, but still). I listened to a book on my mp3 player, and John lay on the couch. For some reason they couldn’t find a spare pillow for him and he had to use our coats.

Nearing 5:30 am, I started to notice mild pressure in my lower back sometimes. I figured things were progressing. At 5:30 am they positioned me back on the left side, and after that I could tell things were really moving along. Three or four times I felt strong, strong pressure deep down that clearly meant the baby was getting in position to come. It was nearly 6 am, and the nursing shifts were about the change. I asked my nurse to call my doctor.

Just after 6 the new nurse waltzed in and said the doctor’s instructions were to “progress all the way and then call him.” I told her it felt serious and asked her to check me. She did, and promptly called out to the hallway for someone to call my doctor and tell him to come NOW. I was at a 4 when I arrived at the hospital around 2:30, at a 6 when I got my epidural around 3:30, still at a 6 at 4:30, then about an 8 or 9 at 5:30. At 6:05 my water still hadn’t broken but the bag of water was basically hanging out. The nurse told me to relax and keep my legs closed (hello, epidural, they weren’t moving).

Then people started shuffling in to prepare for the baby to come. My doctor showed up around 6:15 am and got the party started. I felt a little nervous because, historically for me, pushing has been the hardest part of giving birth. So, so difficult and tiring when I was already completely exhausted from enduring the labor pains. So I asked my doctor what to expect. He said, very calmly, “Well, you’re going to take a few deep breaths, push a little, and then you’re going to have a baby.”

Turns out, that was it exactly. He instructed me to take a deep breath and push. which I tried doing. Then he said next time to push a little deeper down. So I took another breath and tried again. It felt like I was doing nothing, and I asked, “Am I doing this right?” John and the doctor both said, “You’re doing great! There’s the head.” I took a couple more breaths and a couple more pushes, and the baby was born. It was the easiest thing, nearly effortless. I couldn’t believe how much easier that was this time around.

The baby girl was born November 6th at 6:35 am. She weighed 6 lbs 4 oz and was 18.5 inches long. She appeared healthy.

I was in such good spirits that I told John to get out our video camera. He gave me a funny look and said, “Are you sure?” But I felt so happy to have had the baby, to not be pregnant anymore, and to have had it be a positive experience for once. So this is the first baby we have video of during the first minutes of her life.

As soon as I held her I thought she looked different from Carissa as a baby. The longer I held her I more I decided she more resembles Wes as a baby. Her hair color and face shape is more like Wesley’s as a baby.

We had kind neighbors who cared for our older kids while John and I stayed at the hospital that first day. He slept at home with the kids that night, and the next afternoon I came home with our new baby.

We weren’t sure what to name her. We had a first name tentatively chosen, but were completely blank for a middle name. The day after she was born John called me from home and suggested a middle name that he had thought of while trying to fall asleep the night before. It sounded good to me, and it was Irish like my first name is. So we decided on Elizabeth Erin.

She is 11 days old now, and we are impressed by how remarkably CALM she is. She seems just happy to be here. Sometimes we watch to make sure she’s breathing, even when her eyes are open, because she can be so still. She cries when we change her diaper or wakes up hungry, but that’s about it. She seems very sweet, and we adore her. Wes loves to hold her and often says, “I carry you?” which is how he asks to hold her. Carissa is merely fascinated by the baby’s dirty diapers, and is practicing being “soft” with her sister.

And here is Elizabeth, in her first few minutes of life.

Our first day in the hospital together. I watched a lot of HGTV–a special treat for me, who doesn’t have cable at home.

A couple days old.

And now, we have THREE.

In September John and I heard about a local Renaissance festival happening for the first time. We’d never been to one so we decided to go and take the kids.

We started by exploring a pirate ship.

Then we watched an archery demo.

The bird demo was next. It was interesting to learn about how birds were used for hunting by kings and nobles.

Here’s a hawk…

…an owl…

…and a red eagle.

We took the kids to a calligraphy station where they got to color…

…and we had Wesley’s name written by a real calligrapher.

And what would a Renaissance festival be without funnel cake or sword fighting?

We had fun, and there were lots of things we didn’t even get to, like puppet shows and a Shakespearean performance. Maybe we’ll go back next year, too.

Our final Friday in Spain we spent at the resort, with a brief trip to the beach.

The kids and I started the day by taking a walk and going to the little playground at the resort.

Then we went back to my in-laws’ hotel room where we (I) made breakfast for everyone. I am not the greatest cook but the bacon, eggs, strawberries, toast, and OJ were a nice taste of home in Spain.

As I started cooking I noticed a pool of water at my feet. I looked under the sink and saw the pipe was leaking. I asked my mother-in-law if it had leaked before and she gave me a blank look and said, “I don’t know. I haven’t used the sink at all.” Based on how many sippy cups and bottles and dishes I had washed in our own hotel room I was kind of shocked she hadn’t even turned on the tap once the whole week we were there! That will be my life someday.

We were within a few short miles of the Mediterranean Sea, and I was determined we would go there.

We took the resort’s free shuttle to the beach.

However, I was the ONLY adult person in our group who wanted to go to the beach. Which meant I had to compromise a little. Instead of spending all day there we took just a couple hours, most of which was spent eating lunch. So our actual beach time was limited to standing on the shore and letting the waves lap our feet. Wes and I had a marvelous time. Everyone else was party poopers and they missed out. I wish we had more time to play and enjoy, but it was still nice to be there at all.

Eating lunch:

Lunch was pleasant and we had time to people watch. Which wasn’t always a good thing, as this was a European beach. Before we left for our trip to Europe I watched a promotional video about this beach to see what it was like, and the narrator was saying how it’s a family-friendly beach. However, even as the narrator said these words, the camera panned over a crowd of sunbathers, including topless ones. Which I thought was funny. And while there, yeah, we saw topless sunbathers. But not many.

We spent about a half hour on the beach with our feet in the water. It was cold, but Wes was CLEARLY in heaven. This man was made for the water. He was sad when it was time to go. Carissa was too timid to dip her feet in, or even to walk much in the sand.

Wes really was the picture of happiness.

My in-laws.

Our family. We couldn’t drag Wes away from the water for the picture.

Back at home we ate pizza for dinner, leftover from dinner the night before at the resort cafe.

We hung out on the bed, playing games on Dad’s tablet.

I caught Wes and Carissa giving hugs.

Friday night was one of those rare occasions whilst on vacation that John and I got out by ourselves for a short time. We walked down the street to a restaurant and ordered a big piece of chocolate cake (which was actually delicious) and ate it outside on a cushy couch while the sun went down. Such a nice time.

On Saturday we hung around the resort again and did things like relax, pack for home, and maybe I took the kids swimming again.

Breakfast:

Wes was up to his old tricks. He does this at home, too:

And, naturally, the kids ate (more) ice cream. These were Magnum ice cream bars, which are distinctly European. You can buy them in the States, too, but they taste better over there.

On our final night in Europe my father-in-law treated us to dinner at a Japanese restaurant where they prepare the food on a grill in front of you.

And that was it! Our time in Spain and England was over; the next morning we had an early flight from Malaga to Paris, and from Paris directly back home.

We stayed up late packing (of course–it seems like no matter how hard you try to be on top of things it still doesn’t get done until the last minute) and making arrangements for our check-out in the morning. Our flight left Malaga at about 6:30 am, so we had to leave for the airport before 5 am. We tried to arrange a taxi service but at the very last second that didn’t work out, and my in-laws agreed to get up early to drive us instead.

At the airport we bought a couple of inflatable neck pillows, recalling how poorly we slept on the overnight flight from NYC to London a couple weeks earlier. The flight to Paris was a couple hours, and once we landed in Paris we had to hoof it to get to our connecting flight. It was in a different terminal, not close by, and we couldn’t figure out the shuttle system signs. So we walked. We made it with just enough time to get in line, use the bathroom, and buy one last, delicious European croissant pastry before boarding our final ELEVEN HOUR FLIGHT home. I am still missing those European croissants.

The kids were awesome travelers. I felt like we always had our hands full, but I think they did even better on this long flight than on our first overseas flight to England. We weren’t sure how they’d do, since this flight left Paris at 10:30 am and we were scheduled to arrive home at 2:30 pm—which, to their bodies, would feel like 10:30 pm. Also, for whatever reason, this plane didn’t have the in-seat entertainment devices like our flight to England had; it only offered the TV sets in the aisle, kind of far away, with the only choice of movie being the one that was playing.

The kids played and ate (we got two meals–lunch and dinner) and even napped. I think John and I got a little sleep, too. I have to say, the meals on AirFrance were so yummy. It’s that European food advantage. For lunch we had turkey sandwhiches, which in the States would be served on bread, but because this was AirFrance, were served on fresh baguettes. Oh, my yum. They were good. And for dessert there was ice cream, so Wes was happy.

The only thing about this flight is that we were feeling ready to be home, and the sooner the better. About three hours before landing, while we were still over middle southern Canada, we hit a patch of shaky turbulence. If you know me, you know I do NOT do well with turbulence, any level of it, and this was on the higher end of shaky, enough to bounce you out of your seat. I like to travel but I don’t like heights, and I prefer to be on the ground. It’s a good thing that John takes it in stride and the kids are too little to know any differently because it means I’m really the only one scared by it. The pilot took the plane higher because (as he later reported on the PA) that’s what the FAA controllers told him to do, but the air was worse up there. He did eventually pull us down and out of the bad air, but I was even more ready after that to hurry and get on the ground.

And, at last, we did.

Our pilot actually managed to cut the flight time down to less than 10 hours, so we got in early. We waited a long time in customs, but the kids handled things well. We were the very last people to get our luggage and leave the terminal.

My brother Matt picked us up and brought us home. I felt like my eyes were going to crash any second. We tried to keep the kids awake as long as possible, but they were out cold by 5 pm or so. It was so nice to be home. What wasn’t so nice is that the kids’ body clocks told them it was time to start waking up around midnight for the day (which would have been 8 am in Spain). Although I was so tired, at 1:30 am I gave up and got up with the kids. They watched TV for a bit, and at 3:30 am we went grocery shopping together at Walmart (open 24 hours!). We survived that first day home, which included a 7 am nap by Carissa (which I had to wake her up from), all of us going out for breakfast at Carl Jr.’s (just so we could have something to do to help pass the time until actual nap time), and an early bedtime that night. It took about two weeks for our bodies (mostly our kids’) to adjust to being home again and sleeping more regularly.

Well, it took me five months but I have successfully blogged about every day of our England and Spain Adventure that we had last May. We have so many good memories and are so glad that we had that time together as a family.

August in a wink:

My Birthday

John watched Carissa in the morning while Wes was at school so I could get my hair cut and have a pedicure. Later my neighbor watched both kids so I could enjoy a peaceful lunch at one of my favorite places with this guy:

It is always so much nicer to eat without children around. And I got my birthday ice cream.

We kept it simple with pizza and a cake from Costco. My sister and her family shared the festivities with us.

Popcorn

Mail and Name tags
When Wes finished his summer session of preschool he brought home his name tag. Carissa instantly cottoned on and wanted one of her own.

She hand-decorated it with her signature scribbles.

Wes saw a segment of Sesame Street where Elmo talked about mail. And all of a sudden he was really into writing letters and posting mail. I think he likes to lick the envelope best, and Carissa likes to put on the sticker-like stamp best.

Our cousins, aunts, and grandmas and grandpas have been getting a lot of mail lately from Wes and Carissa.

Olympics
We watched the Olympics on TV a lot, which Wes loved because he is really into sports. He cheered on the athletes, and if they struggled or missed a shot he’d say, “Oops, try again!”

I started to recognize the influence the Olympics had on Wesley pretty quickly. He started doing flips and gymnastic-type things like headstands all over the house, and I caught him directing an Olympic-style race with Carissa, complete with the crouched start.

Sundance
A week after my birthday I got the other thing I wanted (the first being a lounge chair for the backyard so I can appropriately lounge while the kids play): a night out to watch a play up in the mountains. The performance was “Seven Brides for Seven Brothers,” one of my favorite musicals of all time.

John had a headache, and I didn’t have Tylenol with me like I usually do, so he spent the first half of the play like this:

During intermission I asked random people if they had any Tylenol or such, and I finally found a nice girl in the ladies’ room who led me back to her seat and gave us a couple from her purse. Relief! And John could enjoy (as much as he can enjoy) the rest of the musical. I loved it.

Carissa’s 2nd Birthday

This little princess turned 2.

I wanted to get her a special girly cake for her birthday, but as I looked around they were all so expensive. I decided to compromise: I made the bottom layer myself (using cake mix, even) and bought the top mini cake at a grocery store. I ordered the little Dora figurines online for just a few dollars.

My thoughts about trying to make a cake myself: 1) I’m not very good at it. It looked kinda sloppy up close, but from a distance it wasn’t too shabby. 2) I’m not 100% convinced the saved money was worth all the time it took to bake, cool, frost, and decorate myself.

But, she had a cake. And it was pink. And it had Dora, her most favorite character in the universe right now.

The cousins came over to share her birthday.

Wesley blew out her candle, but she didn’t mind.

After cake the kids went outside for ice cream cones (“ice keen cones”)…

…and to play.

The kids trooped back inside for gifts.

With cousins around, there were many helpers to open the gifts.

This was the first time we got Carissa real girly toys, geared directly at her; previously she just played with the toys we already had, which were originally Wesley’s. The verdict: She LOVED her new toys!

We got her some Dora the Explorer books, which even now (two months later) are her favorite books.

I found a used play kitchen for cheap in the online classifieds.

Her aunt Tara gave her a doll, which she instantly fell in love with. Add the doll to her new baby stroller and toy purse, and Carissa was in full Mommy mode. She loved it all.

Cruisin’
One day I looked out back to find the kids and didn’t see them anywhere.

Upon closer inspection…

They live the good life, for sure.

Carissa’s Outfits
We are constantly amazed at Carissa’s creativity and strong-headed independence. Wes is a little (a lot) more subdued. For instance, he doesn’t care what he wears, but she usually has an opinion about what shoes to wear, whether or not she wants to wear a hat, or if a walk outside necessitates certain accessories like a backpack, purse, and balloon.

Her favorite accessory is definitely her pink Hello Kitty sunglasses. And her favorite place to eat anything is the back steps. She likes cereal and milk, which is also different from Wes. Her favorite kinds are the Dora the Explorer cereal and Cocoa Krispies.

Water
Wes loves playing in the water. He wanted to go to the swimming pool a lot (like, almost every day), but I just did not have it in me to take him more than twice (it’s a lot of work for me). As a consolation prize we have a wading pool in the backyard, which he still really enjoys. He likes to put rocks in the water and toss them around. I also invested in a water squirters, which both kids like.

Umbrellas
I found Carissa’s pink umbrella for 50 cents at a yard sale. She likes it almost as much as her sunglasses.

On Thursday in Spain we took one last road trip from our resort to Granada, Spain to see the ultra-famous Alhambra.

If you’ve never heard of it, don’t feel bad; I hadn’t, either. But it’s the #1 tourist attraction in Spain, and that combined with the fact that it’s run by the government makes it one of the hardest places to get into to see.

Granada is about 2 hours northeast of our hotel. We aimed to get there around 10 am to try to get tickets for admission in the afternoon. The government only allots a certain number of tickets for entry each day. If you get there and they’re gone, you’re out of luck. The tickets also regulate your entry time to the more famous part of the Alhambra called the Nasrid Palaces. You can visit the other parts of the Alhambra, but you need to line up and be prepared to visit the Nasrid Palaces at your designated time.

Our experience at the Alhambra was good, but initially very confusing. Not only was the tickets situation confusing to us but we had a hard time even finding where to enter the place after buying our tickets. And the place is giant, so we ended up walking around a lot in the hot, hot sun trying to find an entry point. Finally we found a way in on the south side and John and I enjoyed walking through the Alhambra Museum, which has some cool artifacts (but no pictures allowed), and the Charles V Palace.

After we finished there we hiked back up a hill towards the entrance of the Alhambra to eat lunch at a neighboring restaurant, La Mimbre. I remember looking at the menu and not feeling particularly excited about the items offered. I ended up getting one of their specials, which was soup followed by steak and potatoes, followed by a cake dessert. I also remember how pleasantly surprised I was at the food’s quality (except for the soup–I didn’t like it). The steak was tender and delicious and it came with fried potatoes that I couldn’t get enough of, and the coconut cake was too good to share. Carissa ate a lot of steak and French fries. These are the only pictures I have from lunch:

Following lunch (and diaper changes) we walked through another section of the Alhambra called Generalife (“Garden of the Architect”), which was a summer palace and gardens. We never made it through the palace, but the gardens were AMAZING. However, it was also very, VERY HOT, and so we didn’t want to spend too long here.

It had nice views of the city.

Another reason we didn’t roam the gardens too long was because we had a specific entry time for the Nasrid Palaces, and we had a bit of a walk to get there from the Generalife.

The Nasrid Palaces, specifically, pulls in the most visitors, and it is carefully regulated by many rules. We couldn’t bring in our stroller (never a convenient thing, as usually we had at least one child asleep in it) and we had to wear the diaper bag backpack on the front of our body instead of the back. Why? Still not sure. We also had to stand in line in the hot afternoon sun until they let us in.

The highlight of the Palaces seemed to be the intricate engravings and architecture which, yeah, were really neat but we didn’t feel like we were blown away by the experience in general. Some pictures:

This is the Lion’s Fountain. It was being restored when we were there so its area was not open, except to pass by it. It’s from the 11th century. The lions represent the 12 tribes of Israel. Two of them have a triangle on the forehead, indicating the two chosen tribes Judá and Leví (similar to, but different from what my own faith believes).

After the Nasrid Palaces we took a little rest (actually, we did this a lot during the day. Have I mentioned how it was HOT?). There were several locations in the Alhambra with vending machines that offered water, soda, milk, and sandwiches. We went through all the water we had brought with us (and we thought we had brought plenty) pretty quickly and had to buy more.

The next stop was the dungeons (ruins of them, anyway). Bano = “bathroom.”

And from there we went to one more area, the Alcazaba: the military fortress. This was maybe my favorite place, just for the views of the city and surrounding mountains.

We were kind of tuckered by now, which was late afternoon, and we headed home. When we got back, the kids ate pretzels and milk on the floor…

…played with the toys from the SuperSol supermarket…

…and jumped endlessly on the bed.

Here’s everything I neglected to blog about in a more timely manner from July.

Our wedding anniversary. Our marriage is 10 years old. To celebrate we got a sitter and went to a free heritage days celebration that included interesting displays from the Pilgrim days and presenters demonstrating the work of colonial bakers and blacksmiths. It was actually really fun. And so NICE to be out without children. Good thing, too, because they would’ve been jealous of this:

My dad’s side of the family had a reunion near enough that we attended.

The kids loved the pinata. Not the candy so much as the hitting.

Cousins Carissa and Ashley.

My sister, brother, and me with some kids.

Girl cousins.

Wes went to preschool four days a week for about 2.5 hours in the morning. This was his aide assigned to give him a little extra help.

And while he was in school Carissa and I did motherly-daughterly bonding activities like drinking frozen hot chocolate at the mall.

One day I found that Wes had scribbled on the table. But when I looked up close and saw how nicely he had written the letter “W” over and over again, I couldn’t be mad.

The kids are joined at the hip, sometimes…

Playing in the sink.

In the sandbox.

In the wading pool.

Eating ice cream.

And apples.

Making a birthday card for their grandpa.

And getting messy doing it.

Eating breakfast on the couch.

Wes likes to put toys or DVDS (which I have since hidden) on the treadmill (which is unplugged) and push them down the conveyer belt, go to the other side, pick up, and repeat.

He also likes to build tall towers, but sometimes he likes to line up the blocks instead.

He is a climber.

Carissa loves her teddy bear.

She’s also a pretty good shopping companion.

She is a painter.

This is her favorite place to sit–on the back steps.

Picture time.

One day I took them swimming. I don’t have pictures of the pool, but of them enjoying their post-swim milkshakes in the car.

We had a church party in the canyon that involved playing football…

…and wading in the stream. Which I wasn’t willing to do, but a kind neighbor was.

About five seconds after we left, this was the kids:

Our grass mysteriously died in patches while we were on vacation in the spring. John miraculously brought it back to life after careful reseeding and diligent watering. Another reason I’m grateful for a husband; if it were up to me, the grass would’ve just died and that would’ve been that.

Park morning with cousins.

“Airplane!”

We took the kids to a Taste of the Valley event. Here’s us leaving.

And I took the kids to a small local parade. To say they loved every second is an understatement. Wes loved yelling “hi” to the floats, Carissa loved grabbing as much candy as she could, and Wes loved throwing the candy right back at the throwers.