Lyla turns 2! About 2 months ago!

So until recently my computer was missing about half of it's keys, so I haven't blogged...in a long time! But there is so much I want to say about Lyla! She really is the highlight of my days, and her friendship and love really are a strength to me.

So here are a few pics of her birthday bash with friends. My friend Rachel helped me plan it, and it was so cute! It was a garden theme, and they all had pipe cleaner bug antenae, and they ate mud cake with worms, and played toss the bee through the flower. They also got to finger paint on the back porch and had a great bug search, equiped with magnifying glasses!

I just wanted to write down a few things lyla has said in the last few months that have made me laugh:

....Lyla called anything that was a condiment ranch, including mustard and ketchup, etc. Well one day while going on a walk, she triped and fell, and scraped her hands. I picked her up and dusted her off, and looked at her hands, which were bleeding. I thought she was going to see that and freak out, but instead she got this amazed look on her face, and looked up at me and said "RANCH!"...

...On a trip to Yuma, we stopped at a rest stop to give us some wiggle time. We were eating a banana under a ramada when Lyla looked up and pointed and said, "big umbrella"...

...My friend Amee is a consultant for Scentsy, and I had just bought some wickless candles from her, and had left them on the table. Lyla got up there and opened one, took a big wiff and said, "oooohh candle, delicious!"...

...I had been kneading sourdough, when Spencer woke up. So I stopped what I was doing to go check, in the time I was gone, Lyla had pulled a chair over, and was at the island pinching little dough balls off, and rolling them into little balls and lining them up all along the counter while sining, "I am making the bread mama!"...

...On a trip to Subway, we had ordered Lyla her very own meal for the first time. Her little sandwich had cheese, ham, and olives, of which she ate entirely, except for the bread. Jesse said, "Well Lyla you haven't even touched your bread." To which she responds by looking at him, and then gently patting her bread with her hand...

...On a walk to the park, Lyla and I passed a yard with some weeds in it. As we were meandering by she suddenly stops and throws up her hands, "oh a weed, I will pick it!" and promptly tore it up by the roots. She held on to the weed for the next 1/2 mile until we got to the park.

OK, OK so you are probably bored with Lyla stories, but I just get such a kick out of her sometimes! And hopefully I can resume posting at regular intervals. I have so many cute pictures, and stories of Lyla and Spencer.

If I could, I would... garden that is

So yesterday I was feeling all sorry for myself... with that large barren backyard, calling for me to come do something to it. And I being green with envy at me sisters ability to grow things, thought I might give it a whirl. So with gusto, I found a tutorial online about how to make a raised garden bed.

Directions say easy, 1 hour project.

Oh, did I mention that I have clay for a backyard, not dirt? Oh, and did I mention that is why I decided to make a raised garden, and the clay is the bane of my existence, and also the reason the backyard is barren?

1 hour project has now turned into a forever project, because said dirt will not allow me to stake the garden bed into the ground as tutorial requires.

So $60 spent = no garden bed today, and probably not tomorrow either.

So I tried soaking the ground with water. But guess what, my nice backyard is waterproof. Yeppers, water just sat on top of that dandy clay.

Any suggestions anyone? What have you done to overcome your backyard woes? How can I garden in this blasted desert?

Sentimentality

Last week was such a beautiful week with my children. Because they were both sick, we stayed home, and slowed down. And because I took the time to slow down, I found moments. Moments were I realized how much I love my children, and how much I cherish the time I get to spend with them and watch them grow.

It is easy for me to forget to enjoy motherhood. Sometimes I just survive through it. But motherhood is my life's greatest work, and even though I may feel as if there is nothing to show for the work that I put in... there is, and I see it every day in the faces of my sweet babies.

"Lickety Split"

For all of you birth story lovers out there... here it is.

On December 31st, and January 1st, I had very regular but extremely mild contractions. They came about every 3 to 5 minutes for about 5 hours of both days. They weren't painful, but they were annoying because my body was doing work, but I wasn't getting any results (a baby).

On the night of December 31st, I started losing my mucous plug at my friend Rachel's house while we were playing new years eve games. This really jazzed Jesse, because he thought he might get his tax credit and exemption for 2 kids for 2010. Silly accountant! But losing the plug didn't do anything, I had a peaceful, contractionless night. And I continued to lose my plug over the next 2 days.

The next 3 days are negligable, as nothing happened at all, until Tuesday. On Tuesday morning I woke up feeling great, I made breakfast, fed the chickens, played with Lyla, and then we both showered and made ourselves pretty for my appointment at the birthcenter.

We got there around 11:20 for a normal prenatal visit, and shot the breeze with another pregnant gal in the waiting room. At about 11:50 they called me back, and as I got up from sitting indian style in my chair, I felt a huge popping sensation and sound in my belly. I thought I had severed poor Spencer's head from his body, and I was only comforted by the fact that I would be able to hear his heart beat soon during my visit.

Well, as I was walking to the back to get on the scale, a huge contraction started. So I tried to wrangle Lyla, get weighed, have a contraction, and pretend everything was completely normal at the same time. Excruciating!

The lady then took me back to the "Yellow Room" and asked me to sit so she could take my blood pressure. I complied, and as I sat down, fluid filled my underwear. And another intense contraction started. So she took my blood pressure while I was contracting, and as soon as she was done I asked to be excused to the bathroom, telling her I thought my water just broke. She looked sceptical, but took Lyla for me anyways.

As I sat on the toilet, more fluid gushed out, followed by another contraction. I returned to the "Yellow Room" to tell my nurse I was indeed in labor and that I would need to call my husband immediately. To which she replied that I had some time, and I should probably let the midwife check me first.

I could tell this was going to go quick because the contractions were really powerful, and I already felt like I needed to keep going to the bathroom to relieve pressure. So I called Jesse anyways around 11:50-ish, and then told the lady I needed to call my friend Eevi to watch Lyla. So I told Jesse he needed to get to the birth center because my water just broke (afterwards, I found out he thought about heating up his lunch and eating it first before he came, thank goodness he didn't!!). Eevi asked me how much time she had, and I told her enough time to find a sitter for Saku and get to the birth center ASAP.

Finally the head of the birth center (Olga) came by and made a joke that the midwives were fighting over who was going to deliver me, and I just stood there blank faced having a contraction. To which Olga quickly responed, "oh, you don't want to be fought over, we need to get you back to the back, you are in labor!" Apparently nobody realized how "in labor" I was; they thought some lady's water had broke, and they had lots of time to hash out details before true labor started.

Well a sweet nurse watched Lyla for me, and Olga took me back to one of the birthing rooms, and I promptly striped (I hate having clothes on when I'm in labor). Fran, the midwife came rushing in right behing us, and asked me to lie down to get checked. She quickly determined I was at a "6 or 7" and helped me up, and as I stood more fluid came out, and Fran said "uh-oh there is meconium in the fluid". So immediately I'm stressed they are going to take me to TMC. So I asked Fran if I would have to be transfered, and she said, "No honey, you are going to have a baby now."

So I asked to get in the tub, and I as soon as I got in tub my body involuntarily began pushing with each contraction on it's own. I labored with my head and arms draped on a towel on the edge of the tub, and I was on my knees in the water with my legs apart. In between contractions, I asked to call my husband again. Jesse was at Speedway and Alvernon, so I told hime to drive faster. He got there at 12:30 and I continued to labor for another ten minutes until Spencer was born at 12:40, about 45-50 minutes after my water broke! I birthed him in the tub, and was able to reach down and pick him up out of the water myself, and put him on my chest. Eevi unfortunately missed it, but was there right after to support and take Lyla.

Now because labor was so rapid, I didn't have the conventional hypnobirth. There was no time for script reading, lengthy relaxation techniques or deepening. Plus Jesse wasn't there to do it. But I did use SEVERAL other hypnobirthing techniques and practices which made labor trully more do-able. It was so much less painful than Lyla's labor, and according to the midwife because of the shortness of the length, it should have been more painful and intense. Yay for hypnobirthing!! I would totally recommend it!

I didn't tear at all (suprising since I tore 2 inches with Lyla who was 5lbs 11oz and Spencer was 8lbs 3oz), and I was up 2 hours after he was born. The midwife just said I had some abrasions near the clitoris (around where I tore last time).

Because it was so rapid, Lyla wasn't able to see the baby come out, but the nurse did bring her in as soon as she found out we had the baby. So she came in while i was still in the tub. She was fine until she saw the water turning red and the baby started to cry, then she cried too!

And funny enough, they didn't have to aspirate him or anything even though there was a small bit of meconium in the fluid. I was the only one who touched Spencer for the first 2 hours of his life. They never even washed him. All the vernix (chunky white stuff) eventually soaked back into his skin. They didn't clear his eyes or mouth, or weigh him! It was so natural to just reach down and pick up my baby and lay back with him on my chest. Beautiful! They waited to clamp the cord until it stopped pulsing, then Jess got cut it. They eventually came and weighed him when we asked, and right before we left 5 hours later they did his newborn check. It was amazing.

I know I left out alot of details about what I did as far as hypnobirthing, and other details, but if you want them... just let me know!

Little Spencer has been a champ, and recovery for myself was speedy. And we have been doing well. The day after he was born, a lady called from the birth center, just as a follow up to check on us. She said "well it states here in your paper work from the midwife that you were in labor for ummm, well the midwife just wrote "lickety split" in her notes, she must not have had time to write down the begining and end times."

On the Friday after he was born, while at the birth center for his PKU and hearing check, 4 staff members that were on when I went into labor came in to see the famous "lightening baby" that had been talked about all over the birth center! Jesse and I thought that was hilarious. We love our lightening baby, and we can't wait to watch him grow, which will probably seem just as fast as his birth when we look back over the years.

For now, he is a great eater, and a good sleeper, and a marvel to us! We can actually put him down. Lyla was strictly opposed to that, so this time around has been a breeze. He opens his eyes all the time to look around and interact, which Lyla never did either. We have actually had to train ourselves to put him down, because we were so used to having to hold an infant constantly!

Lyla loves Spencer too! She can say Spencer, which she says "Pency", which to me always sounds like she is saying "bunchy". She is always asking to "help". She loves to hold him, and will tell you "no" and push your hand away if you try to take him before she is done "helping". And she always lets us know he's "crying", even if we are holding him and can plainly see that he is crying.

Today, she was laying on the floor next to him, and reached over and patted him and said "Hello Spencer, little baby", and then gave him a big kiss. What a wonderful big sister she is!