Summer (or so) Recap

Okay, the baby is older, summer is over, and it's time to get my act together (like that will ever happen). So here are a few things that have happened in the last few months, in whatever order I happen to think of them.

I found a pretty good deal to sign Gabriel up for karate during the summer. He liked it for maybe 3 lessons and then it was always a battle to go. We made him fulfill his commitment to do it until the end of the summer, as it was something he had said he wanted to do. Toward the end of summer, he started to like showing off his cool super hero moves, but we decided it was best for him to stop anyway.

Lily has really started liking princesses and prefers to wear dresses over anything else. She loves to sing and dance, so we started her in dance classes. She didn't like the first one, but she warmed up to it quickly and loves it now.

Gideon started crawling at some point. He's been doing it for a while now and has gotten very good at it. And fast. He has no interest in learning how to walk, though, and will get angry if you try to teach him.

Jeff had to work a decent amount of overtime with all the wildfires, but we usually get to have a lot of fun when he is home and even managed to take a trip to the beach before summer ended.

I started working out really hard to lose the pregnancy weight that I don't think will be going anywhere until I'm done nursing. Then I totally messed up my back. I had a bulging disc and discovered that I have degenerative disc disease. I've been seeing a chiropractor and doing some rehab, and I'm getting close to being good as new, but I'm only slowly getting back into exercise.

Gabriel started preschool!!!! He had absolutely no anxiety about being dropped off. He's in his third week now, and he has a lot of fun, but if you ask how he likes it he'll say it's too long and it's not fair that everyone but the teacher has to sit crisscross applesauce. He's a goober sometimes. He is also SO smart. I already knew that, but it's coming out even more now that he's in more of an environment specifically geared toward education.

I think that's a pretty good nutshell recap. Here's some pictures!

Birthday Party!

We had a rough time planning Gabriel's birthday party. We figured he's still young enough that we could get away with only having family to make the planning easier, but Jeff's work schedule has him gone on Saturdays and Sundays.
We were thinking we would have just a short dinner time family get together during the week, but that would have been hard on family in Visalia. We finally realized today was a day off for most people so we just had to figure out a time early enough for Visalia people to get home, but late enough so the people who didn't have the day off could come.
We finally figured it out. It was perfect. Then Jeff got called to a fire. He told us to go on without him, but we were both really sad about it.
When I broke the news to Gabriel, he said, "Well, maybe he'll be here when it's not my birthday." There were times when it clearly bothered him, like when he had to silence everyone at the party to tell them his daddy couldn't be there, but he had a really fun time.
He loved playing with cousins, was completely spoiled with presents, and even got to video chat with Daddy before bed. He is such a sweet boy and it was a lot of fun getting to celebrate him.

Pictures!

I haven't had anything too exciting to write about, so I thought I would just put some pictures together from the last little while.

We went to the park and Lily kept telling me to tickle her while she was swinging. She was originally on a big kid swing, but we had run into one of her friends from church who is a little younger and Lily wanted to swing next to her friend.

Gabriel asked if he could take a picture of me and Gideon and I kind of love it.

Gabriel is really into pictures lately. This is when he posed Mickey for a picture with Gideon.

He also asks to be in pictures with Gideon about 63 times a day.

We played outside after church on Sunday and Gideon had his first time in a swing!

During church Gideon was being disruptive so we took a break to chill out on the floor of an empty room.

Gabriel, I mean Santa, really loves Gideon and can't stop touching him. Like, for real. He never stops...

Also, this picture is much more recent than Christmas. Gabriel is obsessed with Santa Claus.

Gabriel fell asleep in a super weird position while watching tv. Also, he can rarely be seen without that Santa toy.

Baby Troubles

Okay, so Gideon has been our most difficult baby by far. A few days after Jeff was first called away to the fires, I noticed that he would cry, no, scream for about an hour and a half every night after I put the other kids to bed. It was like clock work. One Sunday, I was in the mother's room with another lady who told me one of her kids had really bad colic. She said that the predictability of Gideon's crying could mean that he had colic, too. So I started thinking that might be his problem and I might just have to wait for it to go away, but I wasn't  completely convinced.
Over the next couple of weeks, the crying got worse. It got to the point where, if he wasn't sleeping, he was crying.
During all of this, some other things were happening, too. Gideon's belly button didn't look quite like the other kids' did. It was this adorable little swirl, like a cinnamon roll. But one day, it wasn't anymore. It was sticking out. Not like an outtie belly button, but like a little nub sticking out of his belly. It totally freaked me out. After some research and a visit to the pediatrician, I discovered that it was an umbilical hernia, it's normal(ish), he's fine, and it should go back to normal on its own with time.
The other thing happening was that he wasn't eating really well. He would lose his latch 2 or 3 times while eating, I never felt like he got enough to eat, and he would get hungry again really fast.
Not knowing if any of this was connected, I was trying to get advice from everyone on everything. I found myself in the mother's room at church with another lady. She had experience with both umbilical hernias and tongue ties, which she suggested might be Gideon's problem with both eating and all the crying. She said the hernia never bothered her baby.
I don't know if hernias affect different babies differently or not, but I know that on that same day I noticed two things: Gideon was crying less and his hernia didn't look as bad. Could be connected, might not be.
Gideon continued to cry less over the next few days, but I was still concerned about his eating habits. Luckily, he had a doctor's appointment coming up, so I decided to ask about tongue ties. The doctor took a look and sent us to a specialist. We got in to see the specialist the next day and he confirmed Gideon's tongue tie. He took care of it right then and there while I panicked inside my head about whether or not I was doing the right thing.
Right afterward, he still wasn't eating well, but they said that could be because it still felt raw and to give it some time. Then it happened. Tonight Gideon ate from both sides for the first time! He ate so much! I was seriously so happy I could have cried.
As his temperament continues to improve, I'm really excited to be able to have more fun with and worry less about my baby.

Back at it

Well, we went from having a 3 year old with a broken leg while I was super pregnant to having a very difficult baby while I was recovering from a c-section. Hence, I haven't kept up with recording the events of our lives. Now we're past the worst parts of it (though we're still working on determining what's bothering the baby) so I'm going to try to be better.
Jeff was sent to work on some of the big fires in Southern California that happened before Christmas. He was assigned to defend Rob Lowe's house at one point. Rob Lowe and his son tried to bring the firefighters brownies to thank them, but CHP wouldn't let them because of the evacuation orders. Jeff hadn't taken his paternity leave, so he was able to use that to come home from the fires for Christmas. We were super excited about it, but it was after he left that Rob Lowe was able to provide Jeff's group of firefighters with a nice dinner. Dang it!
Gideon didn't seem to understand what the big deal about Christmas was, but the other kids loved it! They got just what they wanted from Santa and assumed that all their presents were from Santa even after we would say something like, "Look what your aunt got for you!"
Now, a week later, they are still constantly dancing around the house while singing Christmas songs. I suspect that will last a couple more months. We just love Christmas!

Gideon's Birth Story

Life was absolutely crazy leading up to Gideon's birth. To make all the craziness a little harder to deal with, I had been having contractions for WEEKS. I had finally gotten to the point where, no matter how strong or close together my contractions were, I didn't bother timing or even thinking much about them because I knew they were just more Braxton Hicks. It was uncomfortable and driving me crazy, but I tried to just ignore it. It seemed to me that the baby was comfortable right where he was and didn't plan on coming out until his scheduled c-section date of November 6.
The Saturday before Lily's birthday, we celebrated with some of the family. Going home, I was actively trying to ignore more contractions. As much as I wanted them to be real so I could be done with this especially difficult pregnancy, Jeff's parents, who were supposed to take the older kids while I went to the hospital, were out of town.
As the night went on and we got the kids in bed, I became much more unsure about the seriousness of the contractions, and I started to have some other concerns as well. After doing some timing and internet research, I decided I wasn't in labor, but I had a feeling I should go to the hospital anyway. I tried to ignore it because logic and reason told me everything was fine and I the hospital would just monitor me and send me home if I went. I even told Jeff we should just go to bed. But throughout the night I had been saying little prayers and, after going to bed, I just couldn't shake the feeling that going to the hospital was the right thing to do.
My step-dad came to our house while the kids were sleeping, my mom was on call in case I needed anything in the hospital, and Jeff took me in. I felt like I was just being an awful inconvenience, because I pretty much knew I wasn't in labor and everyone's sleep was being disrupted based on a feeling I had.
At the hospital, I was hooked up to monitors and had a few tests run. Everything looked normal, but there was just enough reason for the doctor to run another test and order an ultrasound to check fluid levels. That was the first time we got a good look at Gideon's face, which made the trip feel worth it even if we were about to get sent home. Once again, everything looked normal. But, while all this was happening, there was a period where Gideon's heart rate got dangerously low, so they wanted to keep me another half hour to make sure it didn't happen again. Just a couple of minutes later, while Jeff and I were talking about the food we would get on the way home, baby's heart rate dropped again.
All this time, while the doctor was ordering tests and things, it was all being done through a nurse. I never actually saw the doctor. When Gideon's heart rate dropped the second time, the nurse came in and checked a few things and left. A few minutes later, a woman walked in and introduced herself as the doctor on call. She said that the baby's heart rate caused some concern and that the ultrasound showed that his head might be a little small. If I wasn't so far along, she might suggest something else, but, as it was, she thought it would be best to not take any chances and to do the c-section. We agreed to it, and preparations began.
With my other c-sections, I remember being in almost a euphoric state, and I felt so good that I was barely aware of what was going on. They must have skipped the good stuff with the anesthesia this time, because I. Was. Miserable. I was incredibly uncomfortable and, while they had numbed the pain, I felt way too much of what was going on. When the baby came out, I had the same "I can't believe it!" excited moment that I had with the other two, but I found it difficult to keep the excitement up as they spent another half hour or so doing what they needed to do before finishing the surgery. However, it was nice that one of the nurses kept taking Jeff's phone so she could get pictures we wouldn't have been able to get.
Immediately after the surgery was finished, the doctor told me that she didn't want to freak me out while she was working, but I should know that I had a lot of scar tissue from my previous c-sections and that having another baby would be very difficult and maybe dangerous. So, while we were pretty sure we would be done having kids after this, it became official in that moment.
I don't know if I'll ever know if it was necessary to take Gideon out early. Once he was born, there didn't seem to be any concerns about his heart or his head, and he passed every test they did on him in the hospital.
Gideon made lots of noises after he was born, but it wasn't talking noises like Gabriel made when he was born. Gideon's noises were more like noises to soothe himself, which makes sense because he is a very calm baby. He's very sweet, loves cuddles, and sleeps like a champ. Like seriously, he sleeps so much. I have to wake him up to feed him and then fight to keep him awake long enough to finish eating. I absolutely love him, and he already fits in very well with our family.

Lily's Birth Story

When Jeff and I first started dating, his sister did one of those tricks on me that's supposed to tell you how many kids you'll have in the future. According to this weird voodoo, I was supposed to have three boys. Despite the fact that Jeff and I had JUST started dating, his family seemed to believe from this point on that Jeff was going to have three sons with me.
Fast forward to my second pregnancy, and this was still their firm belief. They were so convinced that, after I had my ultrasound that told me the baby was a girl, several of them repeatedly reminded me that doctors sometimes make mistakes and they would believe that it was a girl after she was born.
I believed the doctors, but I had something else to talk to them about. After needing an emergency c-section with Gabriel, I had to decide if I was going to try to have this baby naturally or schedule another surgery. I would have had to find another doctor if I wanted to do it naturally, because she wouldn't even attempt a VBAC. I decided that, after having a really rough recovery the first time, I didn't want to risk a failed VBAC and an even worse recovery.
So we scheduled surgery for November 2nd, which was really the only day that worked with Jeff's work schedule. He had just recently started with Cal Fire, so he wasn't going to be able to take a lot of time off. The hospital said the only time they could get all the staff they needed that day was 5:00 in the evening, which seemed a little weird, but whatever.
To be prepared, I would have to fast all day long. That was the hard part about having it in the evening. Jeff and I planned to get up and go out for a nice breakfast together while it was still okay for me to eat to hopefully make it easier for me to resist the rest of the day.
The morning of the big day, Jeff and I got up and started getting ready to go out when I realized that the contractions that I had been casually ignoring had been getting stronger and closer together. So, instead of going to breakfast, we went to the hospital. At first, they told me I would probably be sent home since I already had my surgery scheduled for later that day. However, after they checked me out, they said I wouldn't be going anywhere. They called my doctor to see what she wanted to do, and she came in to do the c-section around 11 am. Thank goodness I hadn't eaten yet!
The doctor made a comment about how Lily had gotten the day right, just not the time. And that's my Lily. She is very good at doing what she's supposed to, but in her own time and in her own way.
Jeff had asked ahead of time if he could watch the surgery and the doctor didn't only okay it, but let him take pictures. Yuck.
While I was still numb from the anesthesia, they put Lily in one of those rolling cradle things and rolled us both to the recovery room. I noticed her fingers looked a weird color and mentioned it, but I was told that it was just because the blood flow takes longest to get to her extremities. Once she was allowed, my mom came in, saw the purple fingers, and didn't like the explanation she was given. So, despite the fact that the nurses wanted to do more tests on Lily, my mom made them give her to me so she could get some body warmth. Within minutes, she looked much better. I'm so grateful for my mom's boldness in that situation and hope that I can be better at doing that.
Lily was the sweetest baby, wasn't too bad about sleeping, and quickly learned to smile with her entire body. She's still super sweet, and I just love her to pieces.
Oh, and Gabriel has absolutely loved her since day one.