Calton Floyd

Good News. It didn't kill me. It tried, but my body did finally win out and forced the "issue".
I have told this story so many times I am under the delusion that I will never forget the details of it, but I know from experience that that is not the case. I will, in fact, forget some of the facts, feelings and faces if I do not write it down.

Contractions suck. Pure and simple. And I had them for days. And only made it to 2 cm dilated for it. Totally not worth it. There was the night when I was contracting for about 4 hours. They were perfectly timed at 4 mins apart. When I finally said, "yeah, call dad in the middle of the night and tell him to come hang with the kids so we can go to the hospital". About 4 minutes after my dad showed up, the contractions stopped completely. haha. very funny, kid. That was the day that we wanted the baby to make an appearance because we thought the birthday of 11-22-11 would be cool. And we were deluded enough to think we got a vote on the date...so much for thinking. After that I wanted (and was told very frankly) that I could not deliver for days because then it would just be inconvenient. You see, we were in the midst of Thanksgiving week. So I did as I was told and only contracted a little here and there for the next few days.

There were a few doozies on Thanksgiving Day where Joe simply turned to me and said "if this kid makes me burn the turkey there will be issues." So I crossed my legs and sat like a nice young lady that was not in pain. We had a lovely Thanksgiving. Joe is still an incredible cook and showed off his brining abilities with a fantastic bird, scrumptious cranberry dressing and his always fabulous cheesy mashed potatoes. I made stuffing from a box, steamed some green beans and stayed out of the way. My mom made rolls, sweet potatoes and pies. We had way too much food, but it was good eatin!

Since this child was obviously not on board with it's fathers and my idea of the ideal birthday I figured I'd try to wait it out until December anyway (much cooler birthstone). But again, my vote didn't count. On Saturday night, actually Sunday the 27th early morning about 1am I started having really hard contractions. I didn't wake Joe because he needed his sleep. They stopped by about 3:30 anyway and I was able to go back to sleep. Once again, just a few hours reminder of how much I do not have control over my own body.

There is also an important side note here. About a week previous to this Joe had completely thrown his back out. I mean out. Like he was on the floor. out. couldn't move. It was bad. 3 Trips a chiropractor and finally to our doc who prescribed steroids! for a week finally resolved the issue. But it was bad. I was more worried about how I would get Joe to hospital if labor actually came. There was a time that I was sure that he would wrestle me for the epidural once we got there too. It wasn't pretty, but luckily the kid stayed put through the worst of it. And for that, we thank you, little one.

Anyway, I had hard contractions, but they stopped. I got up Sunday morning needing to pee and thinking that I had already somewhat peed myself. Awesomeness of pregnancy. I waddled into the bathroom and more gushed. I had experienced this before with Kiya. My water had broken. I called back to Joe in the bedroom that my water had broken and he needed to call dad. I knew I had a few minutes while we waited so I jumped in the shower. This was a good idea. The water felt good and I got to feel like I was somewhat cleaned. The problem was that my contractions were super hard and really close together. After I had stood for as long as I could I got out and we headed to the hospital. The ride was not pretty. I had leaned my chair back and just braced my arms and legs against whatever was there and had hard contractions about every 2 mins. I was yelling the whole time. I'm sure it was hell on Joe who sped the whole way. We made it there and I told Joe to get a wheelchair because I could not walk. We got into the hospital about 7:30. It was no secret that I was in hard labor. I begged for an epidural and they said I needed an IV first. Fine, I thought. Not so fine, it turns out.

Since my water broke at 6:30 am. I didn't eat or drink a thing so I was REALLY dehydrated. So much so that 2 nurses took about 6-8 shots and finding a vein that wouldn't "roll". I was close to killing. Contractions were about a minute apart and honestly the urge to push was getting to real. I didn't want a natural birth. I'm not that much of a woman. I like medical advancement. Joe was trying to fill out paperwork too and I wouldn't let him because I needed him everyone of those minutes to get me through the pain. After both wrists, hands and elbow joints had been tried and bruised to the point that I looked like a heroin addict they asked the anesthesiologist to try. Thankfully, he got my vein then promptly told me to sit up and rushed my body with drugs. God bless this man.
Once I had my epi my doc checked me. As he was checking me he was telling me that he still had to prep me for a c-section since I had had one with Garrin. That made me mad and I just started pushing. The doc kept saying how low the baby was and I was bound and determined to not hear anymore about the possibility of surgery. It worked. When the doc checked to see how dilated I was he said "well, you're a 7, no 8...well 9! ok, you can push, but give us a second!". The nurses all scattered to get equipment that was needed and my doc hurriedly threw on his protective gown and gloves. The epidural that was given to me had worked and had worked so thoroughly that I was completely numb from the waist down. All my others had allowed me to still feel the pressure of the contractions but I think the anesthesiologist had taken pity on my and just dosed me to the highest degree. It was weird to not feel anything but since I had done this all before I just tried to squeeze what I thought were the right muscles. Turns out they were. About 4 or 5 pushes later a little boy was placed on my tummy. It was 8:35 am. He was perfect and I had such a flood of relief and joy.

He was 7 pounds 6 ounces and 21 inches long. My biggest baby. As they cleaned and checked him Joe told me that under the light his hair was almost a reddish brown. His vitals were great, he was doing fabulously. I had torn a little bit and was getting some stitches as the nurse told me that he had some "road rash" on his face from his fast entrance too.

When everyone had left and it was just Joe and I we looked at our beautiful baby boy and both knew that of the list of names that we had, he would be Calton. We actually did take some time and spell out all the ways this name could be and mutually decided that we liked it best this way. His middle name is Floyd which is both Joe's middle name and his fathers.

He is a very sweet boy who loves to be cuddled and swaddled which is a first for my kids. He took to nursing automatically and has adapted to outside life so seamlessly that it's almost unfair.

I was worried most specifically about how Kiya would react but she has taken on the mother role so well that I have never been more pleased to be wrong. The boys love him too. It's so great to have him here. We are beyond blessed and I am totally in love.

My Daughter is Weird

See Those?

Those are hair bands which have now all been thrown away because Kiya became obssessed with putting them on her foot like this and it would cut off her circulation. So if she did it at a time that I was not paying attention...her foot would go blue. Seriously. This kid figures out some weird stuff to entertain herself. *Her feet are fine and the blue thing only happened once later in the day after I took this picture...then I threw them all away.

Mind, Body & Soul (Or how a 4th pregnancy may kill you)

I've been pregnant a few times. I'm aware of all the things that "can" happen. I'm also very blessed that most of my pregnancies have been terribly, terribly easy. Until this one. It still is on the low end of inconveniences compared to some, but it's been really hard on me. This one has been harder on my body, my mind and my spirit. I'll show you why.
I was okay when we learned we were pregnant. It wasn't planned, but it wasn't avoided and a complete surprise either. Joe and I had both accepted that one more would be good and at this point, we were both not getting any younger, so sure. This year, this'll work. The tax break should be good and apparently i can only birth children in odd years (99, 07, 09 & 11).
Having had both genders of children I figured that I'd be able to tell pretty easy what I was carrying. According to how I carry (low or high) this is a boy. According to how I feel (nausea and such) this is a girl. Awesome.
Long standing tradition is to not find out. I did this to myself. I actually did want to find out on this one. It won't kill me not to know, but I thought it would be fun to find out early on this time. Nope. Joe likes the tradition and the kid was not AT ALL cooperative at ultrasound time. So much for my vote.
I think I have gotten progressively more crazy with this pregnancy as well. I'm not really one to panic, but I have had some serious panic/anxiety attacks. I don't like this at all. Maybe part of me thinks that because I am messing with fate by always saying "this is our last one" that I'm just waiting for something to kick my trash for thinking I get final say in this. Joe has had to talk me down from the ledge several times on this. Thank goodness he is able to do so.
Now to the body....oh goodness, my body. Find me a woman that doesn't already have body issues, slip an extra 30 or so pounds on her, swell her joints, change her center of gravity, stretch out her skin to a bursting point and make sure that food is unappealing to her as well. good times.
Now, mind you, since all these things are intermingled as a human this continues through the pregnancy. only you don't get any control. So imagine being a schizophrenic where the smaller "inner voice" has all the power and you can't even take an aspirin to quiet it down. Body temperature? no control. Food cravings ALONG with nausea? nothing to do with you! Ability to walk and think at the same time? get serious. and LEST we forget I also have 2 other small people controlling my life from the outside as well. I am FAR outnumbered so the triple crazy makes perfect math sense, right?
You might also think that because your body has been through this, it would be easier. Not so much. I think my body remembers so well that it starts all the crappy stuff early. I had only gained 2 pounds in the first 20 weeks or so, but it made me feel like I was hefting around another 50 or so. My back was sore, my knees would give and oh. my. highness. I would not wish this hip pain on anyone. Since week 5 or 6 I have had to very strategically place pillows all around me to help alleviate the searing pain of this crap. And the position has to change every few hours. Maybe a quick map of my body would be helpful here just to make sure it's clear.
Head - messed with for above reasons. It's already crowded in there but add extra doses of hormones and lack of sleep and food. no bueno.
Eyes - dizziness is just part of excitement whenever I stand up.
Shoulders - for some reason I can only position my neck well on my pillow on my left side. My right shoulder rolls differently. I can't figure it out.
Boobs - oh the fun. but wait! those are not for fun! Those are medically needed to make sure that your baby eats so no touchy!
Stomach - um, I used to have a pretty nice torso area. Yeah, before all those previous kids and the scalpel that showed up to usher one of them out. Also, my belly is not round. It tilts to the left. Hopefully, I'm the only one that really notices this.
Hips!!!! - ouch. I've heard about prenatal massage and chiropractic care for this kind of thing, but I'm pretty sure I would bankrupt us in the matter of days if that did work so I'm just trying to work through it as best I can. I think they call it round ligament pain. I call it hell.
Thighs - The kid is being carried a good foot above these but apparently all the extra weight is just settling there in case it decides to move down.
Knees - does anyone not know that I have had like 13 knee surgeries? on BOTH knees. it's been great.
Ankles/cankles - I did NOT have this kind of swelling with any other of my pregnancies. This kid is gonna hear about this for years. Like how my mom tells me that she lost her curly hair for me (it came back like 30 years later)
Feet - I don't remember my feet hurting like this when I would work 10 hour shifts on my feet. how is that fair?
One more part that I'm sure everyone wants to hear about the digestive tract. hmmmm. how to put this delicately. See when you are preggo you have to take prenatal vitamins. these can either give you constipation, diarrhea or just plain nausea. Added bonus to the already nauseated. I get the added bonus of being IRON DEFICIENT with this particular kid too. One more pill that *may* cause constipation, diarrhea or nausea. Oh, and you have to take that one on an empty stomach, while standing and you can't lie down for at least 30 minutes. PLUS make sure your kids don't even look at these pills because iron poisoning is apparently the leading cause of all children's deaths. Ok, factor that into the already fabulous advice I have from everyone (docs included) to make sure I am taking it easy, lying down, with my feet up. all day. yeah, totally doable.
This is why I am crazy. Keeping all of this running through my head all day is exhausting. But I'm already the mother of 3 and have to keep their days going as well. It is a constant battle up in here to keep the hormones at bay, the kids calm, the food down and my spirits up. Most days I win, some days I fail miserably. But this too shall pass...
Soon enough I'll have a precious little one and then none of this will matter. Joe made the comment the other day that having this one on 11-22-11 would be cool. Now i have that to fixate on!

i loves...

...that Garrin will always move to whatever couch/chair that i am on to cuddle with me.
....kiya has started to master using the word "please"
....Trevin will almost always do what i ask, when i ask. He makes my life a lot easier.
...i have tonz of family and friends that would be willing to help out at any moments notice.
....fall.
...that my kids play pretty well together and show each other affection.
...for all my shortcomings my friends will always help me focus on my strengths.
....that we have a beautiful home.
...that it is friday.

Rants!

What's the opposite of post-partum depression? pre-natal depression? I'm just self diagnosing here. My mood swings which are hopefully much less noticeable on the outside are kicking my pregnant booty. and there's lots to kick at this point. I'm stir crazy. I was on employment websites yesterday totally convinced that I could start a job at a hospital doing the night shift tomorrow, if they would just give me the interview...
I can no longer use the back burners of my stove because if I am using the front burners and lean over them I will ignite the innocent child in my stomach. Hardly seems fair.
My boobs, though huge by normal standards look teeny compared to my big stomach now, dangit.
I got a call from my docs office that I am iron deficient. I blame the parasite. Means one more freaking huge horse pill I have to take.
This baby thinks that me sleeping is super boring and kicks me all night long. I'd really prefer the hours of a newborn because then at least occasionally it can kick someone other than me.
My kids watch too much tv because if I don't keep my feet up enough during the day my feet swell and my knees kill. So not fair to them.
It is month/quarter end which means Joe is working all. the. time. It's not news to me. Happens all the time, just annoying.
Pregnancy nightmares. these are just hell. added onto the already superb sleep I'm getting.

I know I have a good life and I am really really blessed, but egads some days...

lunch time!

Are you suggesting that relief society potatoes and twix is not an appropriate lunchtime for a 30ish weekly preggo mom? how dare you.

I'll have you know that I did start with the twix. But I rethought and then placed the twix back in the cupboard to heat up the potatoes first. Sacrifice, people, sacrifice. Besides I can only eat one of the twix bars a day so it's not completely insane up in here.


But what to do while the microwave is going?....hmmm. Well, looking past the fresh grapes, strawberries, yogurt and BBQ chicken that is staring at me as the logical choice my eyes instead wander to that HUGE container of cookie dough from Costco. yep, that would be an excellent appetizer.


Normally, this kind of thing would not be in my fridge. See, I can be a bit of a cookie snob. I am not a great cook, but I am a decent baker. So last week I suddenly had a craving for chocolate chip cookies. Not a big deal except to make my cookies I'd need a good 3-4 hour heads up and that wouldn't help with my RIGHT NOW craving. I asked Joe to make me some and he looked at me like I had asked him to make me cookies. See, this point was established very early on in our relationship. Once he discovered my ability to bake (which was even before we started dating) it was written into the contract that that was MY field and he would not step into it. In all fairness and sweetness though he did take me to get ice cream which helped.


So anyway, I decided we needed to be prepared for this type of emergency again. I remembered that Costco had a coupon for it's pre-prepared tub o'cookie dough and since we just happened to be going there the next day, I picked one up. I'm a sucker for a good cookie, I'm an even bigger sucker for cookie dough. and my kids have totally picked up on this horrible yet tasty habit of mine. Once they hear the kitchen aid going they both run for front row seats by the bowl. totally awesome.


So yeah, there is my lunch. a spoonful or so of cookie dough and then I had a bowl of funeral potatoes. I'm also drinking lots of water and will now take my pre-natal vitamin. Once that settles, we'll see how the twix sounds...


(I wrote this post because I realized how silly I was as I was doing it and sometimes you just need to memorialize your silly. Feel free to laugh with me)

Sixth Grade 4th school

Trevin is off to his first day of 6th grade. Which means that next year I will have a jr higher. And a kindergartner. And a preschooler, and a 1 year old. I'm just mapping out my insanity plea now in case you are wondering.

I'm very proud of Trevin's educational journey. He has always been a good student and gotten good grades. He's only had minor behavioral issues (like getting too excited to participate and forgetting to raise his hand first). I've had very little trouble dealing with the boy in the academic world. That doesn't mean that I'm not worried about his future. Jr high is a totally different beast as anyone who has lived through it understands. I'm just hoping he continues to improve or at least stay steady.

His teacher this year I am impressed with, just from the one meeting. She is very atune to the fact that her kids will be in jr high next year and she wants them to be ready. She doesn't assign homework. She simply assigns the work for the day and if you use your time to get it done, then wallah! no homework. If you don't time manage, then you'll probably have homework. She also believes very strongly in the fact that these "kids" need to be the ones in charge of their work and the communication that needs to happen between parents and teachers. She spoke of how this is how it is in upcoming schooling and work environments so getting them ready now is the best approach. I couldn't agree more. I hope Trevin really catches on so he has this little advantage and has a certain skill set in place by the time the nightmare and scare of jr high begins.

I am apparently lacking as a parent though as I did not get a picture of him this morning. I think I have pictures of his first day of preschool (with Miss Gina), kindergarten (Eaglecrest) and first grade (Fox Hollow), but beyond that, I've slacked. I just use school pictures. I will, however, post pictures soon of his chipped tooth before and after. It was the mark in my head of the beginning of school. Me getting him into the dentist in enough time that he wasn't known in his 6th grade class as "dumb and dumber". The chip was repaired and I can look at his smile without wincing anymore. Onward and Upward!