The Birth Story

On Thursday May 21st I decided to take the kids down to the museum center. We didn't have any definite plans for the day, and we had purchased the membership at the beginning of the year and had only managed to get to the center one other time. The kids had such a great time there that I thought it would be a good time to use the true advantage of a membership and just run down for an hour or so before the baby came. Little did I know that this would literally be what happened.

So we ate our lunch and gathered ourselves together and headed to the children's museum. We had a great time. We all played together in the ball area for a good long time and then we went into the craft area and they kids made paintings of different colored circles using cups and easter egg halves. We then headed over to Kidstown where the girls proceeded to empty out one of the kitchen areas into the pretend metro bus. They were playing "we're going to North Carolina". They played very nicely together and even played well with other random kids who wanted to play on the bus. Ali even carried on quite the conversation with one little boy's grandpa, explaining to him in great detail (much to his delight) why it's so wonderful to go to North Carolina. I began browsing my Creation magazine that I had brought along when I realized I was having stomach cramps, or at least that's what I assumed the first one was.

By the time I felt the 3rd contraction I ruled out the gas pains and stomach cramps. Mike read my mind from across town and called me to tell me his students had just left ( it was 3pm). I was in the middle of deciding whether or not I should call him at work and bother him with what could be false labor. We were on the phone long enough to determine that they were indeed 5 minutes apart. Mike looked up on the internet that they should do that for about an hour before we call the doctor, which alleviated my rising panic that the baby might possibly fall out on the floor of the children's museum. We agreed I should go home and drink water and put my feet up to see if they went away. The kids were disappointed that it was time to go (and Jillian was unimpressed when I said I was having contractions that MIGHT mean baby Veronica was coming so I didn't bother telling the other two). In the end we agreed 5 more minutes in the construction area and 5 minutes in the "adult" museum part. I was uncomfortable at that point, but nothing more than I'd experienced monthly throughout all my life. By the time we were finishing our last 5 minutes in the "adult" museum, I had a contraction that made our exit slightly more urgent. Ironically, as we sat on I-75 in traffic that was thankfully not too horrible, I remembered that my friend Amy had promised to show me the back way home from the museum center the next time we went together. We arrived home at 4 o'clock and I immediately sat in the recliner and began to down water. Mike arrived home at 4:10 and I was quite sure that the contractions were not going away.

Level headed as always, Mike had me call the doctor while he called the Gasts to see if they had anyone available to come stay with the kids. The mid-wife at the practice decided to send me straight to the hospital saying that if I had dilated past 3 cm (as I'd been that for a couple weeks) they would go ahead and have me have the baby. Rachel Gast was at our house in 10 minutes. Mike grabbed our half packed bag (his half was completely packed, I had managed to pack pajamas at least) and we headed to the hospital. Fortunately Mike was driving because my contractions were at the point of squirming all over my side of the car and gritting my teeth a bit. We spent most of the drive to the hospital on the phone with friends, arranging childcare for the girls till my parents could get back to town (they had left for a mere 72 hours to see Sam's preschool graduation in NC).
----Ronda came to relieve Rachel Gast and spend the night with the girls. Amy came and got the girls the next morning and graciously took them to their end of the year homeschooling celebratory picnic. Jen Moore even made them certificates for being new big sisters so they wouldn't feel left out when all the homeschooled kids got their certificates. Mom and Dad got the kids from the Yeazels when they got back to town and brought them to the hospital so they could meet Veronica.-----
Once we got that figure out we were on Montgomery Road and my phone was dead. We pulled into Bethesda North at 5:00 pm. Mike used the valet parking and we headed to the third floor. Well I should say that I headed first, but as I was walking with a bit of difficulty and feeling quite stereotypical as the giantly pregnant woman huffing and puffing her way through the lobby, Mike caught up to me easily. We took the elevator to the third floor where I declared my name to the maternity receptionist who slapped a purple piece of paper down and said sign at the 4 Xs. Fortunately they were large Xs and i scribbled my name and requested a bathroom. (According to my husband I was quite "surley" toward the receptionist, but I REALLY had to pee and she was asking for my insurance cards and stuff. I was in the middle of a contraction using all of my power to remain upright and on my feet so I tossed my wallet to my husband for him to get out my insurance card--I had bad aim and he thought I was throwing it at the receptionist. Apparently my tone of voice was not exactly sweet at the time either- again, I was having a contraction:)) The receptionist called a nurse and they got me into a triage room (as construction left them with no public restroom). I got to use the restroom and then settle onto the bed to get checked. Apparently I was 9 cm with a bulging water sack. They wheeled me to a delivery room and on the way sweetly replied to my request for an epidural that I did not have time for that.

Ever since I got pregnant with Suzy I have "entertained" the idea that I might like to experience natural childbirth. In fact, with Suzy I even waited till her actual due date before having an induction thinking that she might come on her own before then. But being the somewhat impatient pregnant woman that I am, I was induced with Suzy on her due date and got my epidural before my petosin. Knowing the evil that petosin is and the extra pain it creates, it was not an option to be induced AND have natural labor. In reality, I really never thought I would actually experience natural childbirth because I'd never actually gone into labor on my own before. Anyway......This was the moment when I realized that I was indeed "Oh, crap!" going to experience natural childbirth. The fantasy picturesque ideal of natural childbirth was gone and reality hit home. Quite uncomfortably.

They wheeled us into a delivery room and called for the doctor from Associates in OB-Gyn. His name was Dr. Metherd. He was very nice. I don't recall that I'd ever seen him before. Although there is a plus to that in that I didn't worry at all about what he thought of me, whereas I really like my regular OB and would have to see her again, yearly, for the rest of my life actually. They asked me if I wanted to have them break my water. I recalled my friend Amy's words that the water provided a cushion between the baby's head and my body and that contractions hurt more after the water was broken. So of course I said no. They already hurt like crazy, who in their right mind would say sure, bring on more pain. They said that I could just push the baby out if they broke my water. I still said no as the pain had not gone away, so my answer was still no to the more pain request. Apparently they decided I was not in the right frame of mind to answer such a question because they went ahead and broke my water. ( Mike had to tell me that later, I thought it broke on its own) I pushed 3 times with a certain level of awareness about the process. The last labor class we had attended was for the twins. I was told that on the third push the baby actually moved. I found that disappointing as I had pushed 3 times. When I told my husband that my ears felt numb, the doctor told me to breathe a little deeper because that meant I was hyperventilating. I had never done that before either. New experiences all around.
From here on out we'll have to rely on Mike for accurate information in another post. It's a little fuzzy around the edges for me. I remember the doctor telling me that he didn't mind my screaming but that screaming detracted from the pushing so perhaps I could try grunting. People were alternately telling me to breathe and push. Once my sweet husband reminded me very gently to try not to scream. Eventually I told them all that breathing was no longer an option because every inch of my being was telling me to push that thing out. I don't know how anyone could stop to breathe with a baby's head partially out of their body. I can't imagine I will ever forget how that felt. Needless to say there was the moment of "pop" and she flew out the rest of the way. She was perfect and healthy and amazingly clean. Most of the amniotic fluid had been trapped behind her so she got washed off as she came out. From first push to last was 12 minutes. She was born at 5:27 pm. 12 of the most amazing minutes of my life. I don't think I would have had the courage to choose it on my own, but natural labor was an amazing experience.

Suzy's new information

Babies eat boobs.

Little Einsteins

All the Becksfort ladies went shopping for Ezra and Sam's birthdays yesterday, the girls were great and the shopping was a lot of fun. Ezra is having a rocket party so we decided to get him something "Little Einsteins" because it has Rocket and because it's musical and because my girls love it too. So we ended up with a little piano that has all kinds of buttons (it will be a miracle if the demo batteries make it to Ezra as Suzy has yet to stop playing with it). It also has pictures of four composers on it and plays samples of their songs when you push their buttons. Suzy calls them the "grandmas". The grandmas play pretty songs for the newborn baby to sleep to. Isn't that nice? Hopefully Lee's newborn baby will love to sleep to them too:)

Oh, and Suzy and the girls got a little jellybean treat the other day. Suzy was on my lap trying to decide whether or not to eat the last one when she dropped it. She looked all over my lap and in the chair when she decided the newborn baby must have eaten her last jellybean. We stood up and found the jellybean but Suzy is still not convinced the newborn baby didn't at least try to eat her jellybean.

Michael Phelps

Ok, all of my daughters know who Michael Phelps is. Tonight while playing charades, Suzy was a "person". She frantically waved her arms in a somewhat swimming motion (after pointing her toes a few times) and was quite specific that she was "Michael Phelps- Yeah!". Jilli and Ali get as caught up during the replays as they did during the original airing of his meets. The topper was this evening during the closing ceremonies. After watching Phelps win "again" by .01 seconds, Ali declares "Michael Phelpy pleases me". Fortunately they were so mesmerized that they did not notice their parents rolling on the floor.

Campers!

Ok, so with our summer speeding away from us and the home improvement projects lasting longer than planned (as they always do) our big camping trip to the Mohican Wilderness has been postponed a year. The joy of a nuclear family vacation - we can take it whenever we want:).
In order to enjoy a little camping for free we decided to put up the tent in the front yard. It was just another reminder that the kids don't need the whole frills package to enjoy things. They celebrated as if we had just discovered gold in the front yard. The twins helped us put up the tent, and then celebrated the success by having Suzy chase them all around and in and out of it. This was highly entertaining as the first 5 times anyone went in or out, they tripped over the bottom zipper part. There was no crying though, just more laughing and popping up and running again, because camping is about roughing it.
After the tent fun (or "house" fun as Suzy called it) wore off ,we realized it was really hot outside so we went inside to cool off (another perk of home camping). Eventually the evening cooled and we put Suzy to bed (as nobody would have gotten any sleep if she was in the tent) and the rest of the gang headed outside for fun and games. Since we don't have our fire pit yet, we skipped the classic smores and headed straight for flashlight tag. We also played flashlight funny face/scarey face, shadow puppets, and a game called "what's that" - an Ali creation where we tried to guess what the dark shapes outside were (please note parents are no fun at this because they actually know what all the shapes are and also it was a full moon).
Around 10 I was told it was time for me to go inside as it was time for the "real camping" (apparently since i was going to sleep inside with Suzy and not in the tent, I did not qualify for real camping). This coming from two children on comfy marshmellow beds (the great irony being that we had lent out our air mattress to cousin Charlie and so Mike the old man was the only one actually sleeping on the ground. Big Daddy points for him! ) We did agree that it was time for sleep (and one last bathroom break into the house because of the excessive water bottle usage in the tent). So I kissed my campers good-night wondering if they would stay out all night or if they would be coming in at some point.
They did make it all night long and in fact even slept in till after 8! They are definitely their Daddy's daughters, professional campers from the start. Hopefully by next year we can even allow Suzy in the tent.

the baby is 2

time for the phrase that parents can be found all over the world muttering to each other in a state of sincere confusion... "when did that happen?" My baby turned 2 today. We celebrated by driving past the zoo. Once I realized that 2 of the three parking lots were full, we simply waved at the animals as we drove past and headed for a hike at the nature preserve. We managed to walk the smallest nature trail before nature called to Jillian and we headed back to the center for the restrooms. That was the farthest we got into the woods today as we found a small pond teeming with tadpoles to examine for a very long time and then there were caterpillars (while shockingly similar to the ones at our house) that were amazing in every way and must be tended to and corraled and examined till a mothers brain completely shuts off out of boredom thus stimulating the "go home and clean" reflex. If they want to stare at caterpillars, they can do it while I have something to do too. We did take a walk after dinner. Suzy's favorite activity. it's a catch 22 of course because it's a grand birthday activity because she loves it soo very much, but it usually ends in a time-out as she pitches a royal fit when it's over. Not even the "we're going home to have cupcakes" was a consolation to her. She did eventually enjoy her cupcake and the 25th rendition of "Happy to You" for the day. She made Mike blow out her candles. I think she realized he'd had something to do with her success on the previous cake. We ended the day with a nice long bath and her first real attempt to say squirrel during her prayers. This is what threw me into the "she's growing so fast, where has it gone" state that currently encompasses me. My baby doesn't bother to say squirrel, she can't, so she calls them frogs. That's why we started blessing the rodents during prayer in the first place. it was too cute. needed to hear it every day.

"Look Suzy, there's a squirrel! Do you see the squirrel?"

" Yeah"

"Where's the squirrel Suzy?"

"Yeah, Mommie. Frog! Dere's Frog."

What's life going to be like when she actually uses the word squirrel? I suppose she can't call them frogs forever. Just imagine, someday she will even use all those tiny little connecting words in the middle of sentences.

Really?

I blog this so that one day I can (on the advice of my sister) use this information to mortify my children. My children can also credit their continuing lifecycle to the "Good and Angry" book that has been the recent topic of our little book study.

Finally, at the end of a particularly active trip to walmart for a few groceries, i arrive at the checkout ready to be done and in the car headed home. The girls had been, shall we say, energetic during our shopping. Not necessarily disobeying or being wild, but certainly walking that fine line that every mother knows. They sweetly help me load the groceries onto the conveyor and then play with the check writing board that swings out and the usual checking out activities that occur when trapped in a two foot space cornered on every side by toys and candy. (side note that there is a special level of hell for the designer of the checkout line " Lead us NOT into temptation people!") anyway, after noticing that walmart is overcharging 10 - 25 cents for almost every item I have chosen to purchase that day as compared to the posted prices for said items (another level of hell), I proceed to remove my attention from the twins in order to inform the poor cashier of the mistakes.

Please note that of course upon reading this in hindsight, one does go immediately into red alert mode; however, I had assumed that i was being accompanied by my wonderful 5 year old children.

Here is the point that life takes on a slow motion quality. I look up from paying the cashier to see my twins both leaning through a fence barrier type thing and licking (yes you read correctly) pre-packaged bags of popcorn for sale.

L-I-C-K-I-N-G.

BAGS.

5 year olds.

They are both giggling and wiping their tongues all over the packaging as if it's some sort of sugar fountain.
I can tell you that I did use a tone of voice that immediately wiped any sort of smile from their faces and that they are still alive by the grace of God.
I cannot answer the question that everyone who reads this will ask of themselves...... WHY?

and no, i did not purchase the popcorn. but really unless you lick the outside of the bag too, it shouldn't affect you, the poor person who may eventually purchase it.

Dreamin

Suzy had a very, very bad nightmare in the wee hours of this morning. There was a great thrashing about in her crib with fussing and crying. Mike, the dutiful father, braved going into her room to see what was the matter even though it was 6:45am (an hour which angers his wife to have to become awake and tend to the children). Poor Suzy did not look at her daddy, she was sound asleep with one final cry escaping her lips..... "mine". One can guess who was the terrible monster(s?) in her dream:)

Geez Louise

Tonight Nanny and Mike took the kids to get ice cream while I went to a mom's night out to regain some perspective and some sanity. So I thought I would share with you the stories that I got to hear when I got home.

The ride home from the ice cream store contained much singing. Inevitably, the song turns to Old McDonald and his wonderful farm, as this is the main song in Suzy's repertoire. She loves to sing "E-I-E-I-O" and has begun to adjust the song a bit as well. For example... Old McDonald had a farm "E-I-E-I-O" and on that farm he had a duck "E-I-E-I-Duck". The twins think this is quite funny. So Michael began the song... Old McDonald had a farm "E-I-E-I-O" and on that farm he had a (pause from my husband to allow children to choose animal)..... "Boober" comes the selection from Ali followed by Suzy's "E-I-E-I-Boob". My fabulous husband doesn't miss a beat "Now Ali, there really is a boober bird and it makes a call something like this (insert choking gargling sound). Can you make that sound?" Ali attempts this gagging and concludes "no". Mike then brings it to the logical conclusion "then you need to pick another animal". Someday my children will spend time trying to find the boober bird in our National Audubon Society's Guide to Field Birds, I am sure of it.

Jillian was about to throw a fit at bedtime because Ali had picked three stories and she had not gotten a chance to pick one. The crisis was averted by my quick thinking and extremely handsome husband. " I didn't realize you hadn't gotten a chance to choose a book, Jillian. You may read one more before bed and choose it." to which he got this response....
"Geez Louise! I'm so lucky!" and no there was no sarcasm in it.

Cold and Flu Season

I blame Adam and Eve. I seriously doubt there was cold and flu season in the garden of Eden. Without a doubt poor Jillian got the worst of it. A stomach flu, head cold, and pink eye. I knew she wasn't well when she put herself to bed at 11am and slept till 5pm. I would have wanted to sleep it all away too. The good news is that she has emerged victorious! It was a great day to see her dancing around again with the other ladies (who slipped through the germie grasp of the season without a scratch!) But admittedly dancing is a very ambitious activity for someone just feeling better. So we decided to haul up the old atari early (we were taking it to church for our annual congregational meeting) and the girls played space invaders and pac man and Mike played centipede and I discovered the freaky music to haunted house is still freaky and the game still makes me jump at 32. Geesh.

Bath Time!

So it's bath night. Jilli was supposed to go first, but Suzy had other plans. Mike went to go get a mountain dew out of the garage and left Suzy to visit with Jilli while she took her bath. When he returned, this is what we found. Yes, she is wearing pants, a onsie, her jacket, and socks. Praise the Lord we had at least taken off her shoes earlier. Good times.

Dad's Night

The twins are having a great time at preschool these days. Jillian is betrothed to a nice christian boy named Jack, although I believe that perhaps Ali may also be betrothed to Jack. This was the aspect of preschool that I was not expecting, but at least they are nice boys from christian families:) The girls had a very special night of preschool a few weeks ago. Daddy's night is a chance for all the dads to spend an hour with their kids at preschool and see what they do during their school days. (It is a co-op, but generally it's stay-at-home moms who do the working in the class. ) One of the neat things they did for Dad's night was to interview the kids during the preschool day about their dads. Here are Jilli and Ali's thoughts on their father.

Ali's Interview:
My dad's name is : Michael
My dad is 11 feet tall
He weighs 9 pounds
He has blue eyes and blonde hair
His favorite color is orange
His favorite food is chicken with sauce
His favorite TV program is football
My dad's job at work is a teacher
He helps mom at home when he: clean up the food
The thing my dad does best is: clean up the kitchen
The thing I enjoy doing the most with my dad is : play goldfish

Jilli's Interview:
My dad's name is Michael
My dad is 15 feet tall
He weighs 15 pounds
He has blue eyes and brown hair
His favorite color is red
His favorite food is red and green peppers
His favorite TV program is Jasmine
My dad's job at work is teaching students
He helps mom at home when he: holds the baby
The thing my dad does best is: works on the computer
The thing I enjoy doing the most with my dad is : I love him and I like to watch him tie my shoes.

Time to workout

The girls were playing in the guest room downstairs and Mike and I heard a very terrible thump. It was probably the only time we have both gone running at once. We burst forth into the room to see what had occurred, and scared the dickens out of the twins. They about screamed for their lives. Both were fine, I don't even remember what made the thump, but I certainly remember what they said next. "We thought you were bears!" Time for electrolysis or the stair machine I guess.

Look out sister!

Today the girls were playing a game called Lucky Duck. It was their first time playing with their new game (compliments of Nanny) and all three of them were very intent. Yes, even Suzy because this is a game of a moving stream with quacking sounds with lots of little rubber duckies. The twins were playing with Nanny and they had very nicely given Suzy a game piece and were letting her take turns (ie letting her grab random duckies and create log jams of duckies while the rest played the game). This was ok for a while, but then Suzy got a bee in her bonnet and began stealing Ali's pieces that she had collected out of the stream (collect 3 and you win). Suzy would grab them and hold them as far away from Ali as she could. She would turn her back on Ali with a quite gleeful look on her face. There was much commotion as we would take the pieces back and try to continue with the game. But Suzy was not to be satisfied and Jilli had finally had enough. THOSE ARE AAALLLLLIIIIIIIS! came the loudest holler I have heard out of my firstborn and I can tell you that everything in the room came to a stop. It was actually quite hilarious. Nanny couldn't help but chuckle and I'm looking at Mike like, should we even say anything about that because it's how we all felt and her sister was being a huge pain in the rear. Mike said as sternly as he could muster that we don't scream at Suzy because she is so little and doesn't know any better. However, I firmly believe that my ornery third child knew exactly what she was doing:)

Motzerella

The girls have taken an interest in the story of their birth. So every morning on the way to preschool this week, I have been asked and have obliged to tell them the story of when they were born. Weds morning Jillian asked to hear the story of Suzy's birth when I was done with theirs. I told them that Suzy's birth was a little different because there was only one baby in my belly. Ali omits this huge and I mean HUGE gasp. "Oooh, poor Suzy!" and Jilli adds "She had no company, no friends!" It was incredibly sweet and just a reminder of how the twins see life a little differently than the rest of us singletons. There was consensus amongst all of the members of the vehicle that Suzy is now very happy to be out of Mommy's belly and have the company and friendship of her big sisters.

I have decided I love driving around with the girls in the Jeep. Especially the twins, they are at a fabulous age for discussions while we tootle around town. Today, my favorite passage came from Ali. Consider that we are singing along with the kids CD when all of a sudden....
"Mom, did I have Motzerella when I was a baby?"
What? Yeah, I mean, I guess. Not when you were a brand new baby, but after a while you're allowed to have cheese . Why?
" No momma, did I have Motzerella when I was a baby?"
What are you talking about Ali?
"Did I have Motzerella poopers like Suzy did today?"
ooooh, you mean Diaherrea?
"Yes, did i have diaherrea when I was a baby?"
Indeed they are both long and complicated words:)

My favorite mis-speaking of Jillians: underrupted. as in "Ali! You underrupted me! I was talking first!"

A little known fact to share... Suzy loves to body slam her sisters. If the girls lay down on the ground on their backs (for instance in the driveway to be traced with chalk), it is like a sonar beacon to Suzy who will arrive from wherever she was previously occupied and launch herself across their stomachs. She giggles and wiggles around there for quite some time, in fact she has never ended a session on her own.

The Yeazels

For quite some time we have been hanging out with the Yeazel family. They are wonderful friends and we love them very much. In fact, they are so much a part of our daily lives that Ali's mispronunciation of their last name went unnoticed until a few weeks ago when Ali walked up to Mrs. Yeazel and, in trying to get her attention, she used her name. "Dayeazel". It took us a while to figure out how she got that one, but Mrs. The Yeazels finds her new name very cute.

Really?

We had a very interesting conversation with Jilli this morning. In the process of helping out an upset tummy, Mike gave her a peppermint and was telling her that her tummy knew the peppermint would help but that her brain needed to learn that information. Then he came up with the question, "Jilli, what does your brain look like?". To which Jilli had this reply.....

It's a bunch of teeny tiny little monsters (fingers demonstrating very tiny) who think and think and think until they decide and then the stroke in your belly goes away.

Now you know.

Suzy's ear thing

Something new about Suzy. We discovered it with ice cream first, but it works with ice water as well. When you give the girlie something cold to eat or drink, she pulls at her ears. "Is it cold Suz?" and she answers with a tug, tug, flappity flap. Every time.

The Dog

Ok, normally these posts are places to read the cute wonderful stories of my children. Well, to break with convention and simply because it has, and I mean MUST, be noted... this one is about the amazing lack of intelligence in our precious Cleo. She is a wonderful sweet and loving dog, couldn't be better with the kids. It's the screen door she has a problem with. This evening, once again, for the 8th time actually, the dog has tried to sprint outside through the screen door. While the words are leaving our mouths "wait for the....." the dog is running into the screen door. Tonight she actually took out the whole door. She kills me.

Little Prayers

Ali: Thank you God for all the things God gave us. Amen.

Jilli: Thank you God for making Ali get healthy and make Daddy happy forever. Make Mommy happy forever so she will not give us spankings. And thank you God for not letting the trees die or anything.