Ack! Ey-yick! Bahs!!!

Translated from Elizabethean into English, the title says "Zack! Eric! Boys!!" Tonight, she decided that she'd start calling the two oldest J. boys by their names. She was so cute standing in the den in her PJs, looking up at the balcony and calling their names! Eric heard her and came out of his room. She giggled. "Hi Ey-yick! Hi!" He snuck downstairs without her seeing him and hid behind the sofa. When she walked toward the sofa and started calling "Bahs! BAHS!" again, he popped out and said, "BOO!" She squealed, laughed and threw her arms around his neck. I love seeing the two of them interact -- I've kept him since he was six months old. He'll be 18 in March. I know I'll blink and *she* will be 18 going on 38.

My sister often says, "Who takes a child by the hand, takes the mother by the heart" and that is so true. This family loves the girls to the hilt - and now I understand how much our love of their children has meant to Bill and Diane all these years. I remember once upon a time saying, about Eric and Zack, "I cannot imagine loving my own children more. I know I will, but I can't imagine it." I felt the same when Alex and Lauren were added to their family. And, even though I do have my own children now -- I still fiercely love those four.

Naptime and bedtime kisses

Elizabeth cracks me up sometimes. She has decided, over the past few days, that I need to "kiss" everyone and everything in bed with her when she goes down for a nap or for the night. Our routine is now this: rock and read a couple of stories (only one story at naptime), whichever book we read is the one that she wants to take to bed with her (the other story we read at bedtime is her Bible story - and she is not allowed to take that book to bed with her), say goodnights and give kisses.

"Sleep tight, Elizabeth" [kiss] She then presents me with Red Baron. "Sleep tight, Red Baron" [kiss]. She holds up Purple Blankie (yes, her blanket) "Sleep tight, Purple Blankie" [kiss] Then we repeat this with Cloud (the bear), Puddles (the duck), Simon (the bear/lovie), Dora, Boots (not the Nick Jr "Boots" but a stuffed monkey we named Boots), and...whatever book she's chosen to take to bed with her. Sometimes I even have to kiss pages *in* the book!

Last night, I had to kiss Margaret Wise Brown's book The Wonderful House (this is by the same woman who wrote Goodnight Moon) - both of the covers and the last page, which has a big cat on it. The other night, I had to kiss Swiper the Fox from Dora's Halloween story. I'm guessing this is just a phase, but I indulge her because it's so cute. When I think it has become a manipulative trick to get out of turning off the lamp...I'll stop. But for now, I suck it up. However, I draw the line at kissing the Barney book. It's the only Barney thing we own, she's never seen the evil purple dinosaur's show (and hopefully never will - that's my goal) - but she does like the book. I will be Lucy VanPelt if I'm ever expected to kiss that blasted purple blob!!!

Insomnia and vacuuming don't go together

For the past few weeks, I've been unable to get to sleep before 2a.m. and I hate it. I think there has been one night in the past month that I've actually been in bed and asleep before midnight. Not sure what the deal is, but it's got to stop! It would be okay if I felt like I could run the vacuum cleaner; however, something tells me that the other people I live with wouldn't exactly like the sound of the vacuum running at 2:00 in the morning. Truth be told, I've done that before and Brad took a huge hunk out of my backside - but I can't blame him, really.

I've tried all the "wind down" tricks - warm bath, reading, Sleepytime Tea, etc. Nothing works. I just know that one of these days, the insomnia will go away and I'll return to sleeping like a normal human being. I'm not sure what the trigger is - it's not caffeine related, it's not depression related (I'm taking Zoloft and it's working wonderfully, thank you for asking), I'm just a freak (shut up, you don't have to agree!!!).

Now if you'll excuse me, I'm off to snuggle my 21½ month old who doesn't seem to want to go to sleep herself tonight. Ahhh, leave her alone for 15 minutes and she manages to put herself to sleep. I think she missed seeing her daddy today - he's been gone all day and she adores him.

Thanks, Rebecca

So, here I am - thanks to Rebecca - recording motherhood as experienced by me for the world. Oh, how terribly exciting and I'm sure you can't wait to read it. Maybe I'll do better at keeping this up than my journal - which I'm horrible about keeping. I can't remember the last time I wrote anything in it.

This past weekend, I had to remind myself several times "I waited ten years for this child!" Elizabeth is almost two and it is showing! She had several meltdowns in Hobby Lobby because, well, she's twenty-one months old! Being in a shopping cart is not fun when your 9 and 7 year-old cousins get to "be free" even if they're walking alongside you and holding your hands while you're in the cart. You want out and you will raise all kinds of Cain until you get out! Hey, you've got your grandmother, your great-aunt and your aunt all on your side!! You can do it! And she did. But then, she suffered a massive meltdown. As my sister was carrying her through the store (we were leaving so all the other poor shoppers could shop in peace), Elizabeth was writhing, trying to get loose. My sister just held her more tightly. "I'm stronger than you, Elizabeth." More writhing. "I'm...still...stronger...than...you." (learning that being stronger than E is a difficult thing to be!). Massive meltdown at the cashier so Boop (grandmother) buys Peanut M&Ms -- hmmm, maybe *I* should've been having the meltdown if that's the result!!

We decided to go eat lunch. Buffalo Boy (what my nephew used to call Buffalo Grill because he thought grill = girl) sounded good; but the boys wanted to go to McDonald's because they have Playland and "Elizabeth will love it there." So, the adults sucked it up and we went to McDonald's. They were right, Elizabeth loved Playland. I wish I'd had my camera with me - she looked so cute playing. My mom was cracking me up, though, she had a hard time letting E play on the equipment by herself. My sister and I kept saying, "She'll be fine" and Mom would say, "All those other kids aren't letting her play and they're being rough around her." "This is a child who can wham her head on the floor, cry for half a second and then take off playing again. I think she can handle other kids - she's perfectly capable of taking them down! Sit down and eat, Mother!" My sister and I just laughed.

Almost time for Brad to get home from work - housework needs to get done and I hate doing it until right before he walks in the door.

Katherine's birth story

Again - so I don't lose it, I'm making sure it's blogged and back-dated.

Katherine was delivered via scheduled, repeat c-section on Tuesday, May 11, 2004. My first choice for her birth day was May 7; but my OB told me he wasn't really thrilled about that date. Turns out a dear friend of mine got married on May 8, so that worked out wonderfully - I was able to go to Shannon's wedding instead of being in the hospital recovering from a section.

On Tuesday morning, Mom came to our house to keep Elizabeth so that her Monday night could be as normal as possible - dinner with Mommy and Daddy, sleeping and waking in her own bed, then off to Boop's house after breakfast. Brad and I left for the hospital at 7a.m. and arrived there at about 7:25.

They took me to an LDR room to prep for my section and we got the same room as we had when I delivered Elizabeth - so we were prepared for the fact that the room is either an oven or a freezer. There is no happy medium. I was so nervous, I'd have Brad turn down the air, then turn it up, then turn it down, then back up...poor guy!

The anesthesiologist came in to talk to me about my spinal. My aunt works in the anesthesiology department and had already warned him about how sick I tend to get with anesthesia. He and the anesthesiology resident did quite a bit pre-operatively to help control the nausea that I might have. They did a great job, because not only did I not get sick, I wasn't even nauseous the entire time we were in the OR!!

After doing all my pre-op work up - we suddenly found ourselves headed to the OR. Just before I left for the OR, Kim and Katie came in (Todd and Tim were already there and had prayed with us). They had Brad wait in the recovery room until they called for him.

That OR had to be the coldest place on the planet! I was shivering horribly because it was so cold (and this was pre-spinal). I was sitting on the table and they were prepping everything for my spinal when I hear from behind me, "When did I say I'd bring Krispy Kreme donuts?!" Ah, my OB had arrived and had seen my husband. Brad had joked that he was going to tell him, "I thought you said you'd bring the Krispy Kreme?" So then, the entire OR ends up in a discussion about Krispy Kreme donuts (personally, I'd rather have Shipley's - but to each his own).

Then the search is on for latex-free gloves - leave it to me to be the difficult patient. Once latex-free gloves are found for everyone except the anesthesiology resident, we're ready to start. My OB served as my "support" while the anesthesiologist did my spinal. I was amazed at how quickly it worked. My legs were tingling and warm immediately (unfortunately, the rest of me was still freezing despite being covered with toasty warm blankets). They laid me down, started oxygen and finished all the prep work. They put up the drape and Brad was brought in.

My OB and the resident cleaned up adhesions from my previous section on their way in and on their way out. Apparently I had quite a few. I was trying to not go to sleep (they'd given me Phenergan shortly before my spinal). I don't really remember a lot about the surgery other than the anesthesiology resident holding my arm still so they could get a good blood pressure reading - that's how hard I was shaking! And I remember the anesthesiologist patting me on the head asking if I felt sick --- not one bit!

I heard "clear fluid" called out and knew it would be just a few seconds before I heard Katherine's cry. They told Brad to stand up and someone said, "You can take pictures, Brad!" (My OB later joked, "We had to tell him to take pictures this time, he was so laid back about the whole thing!") I felt pressure as my doc pushed her down and then the weird feeling of her leaving my body. Immediately, I heard her crying and everyone on the other side of the drape said, "What a beautiful baby!" She was suctioned and handed off to the pediatrician who stopped briefly so I could see her. Brad walked over to the table to take pictures while they dried and stimulated her (she was not happy!!)

They wrapped up Katherine and handed her to Brad who brought her over to me. He had one of the ped residents take a photo of the three of us. I gave her a kiss, Brad a kiss, then he and Katherine headed to the nursery while I was stitched up and sent to recovery. All in all, an uneventful repeat section that I'd do again in a minute!