New Blog!

I've started blogging again but with a brand new blog. Find it here: http://theeclecticmom.wordpress.com/

It's been a long time...

a long time since I blogged.
or had 3 kids(as the blog address implies).
We have had lots of fun and a big change!
This past June we were blessed with a new addition. Our 5th child and 4th girl. Now, having come from a family with just me and three brothers this seems fair. Well, maybe except to our Sam.

Here I am before the action! It was Saturday and the three older kids had been gone all week. Even two year old Rachel had been at Grandma's since Friday. Baby was now a day "late" and the kids were all expected home the very next day.  Aack! What to do? I needed some peace and space to be able to go into labor. On top of that, I was worried about having a really quick labor while the kids were home and no time for sitters to come and pick them up again.

So, I decided to do what I had vowed not to do this time. Castor oil. I really wanted to go into labor naturally. I never have. Mostly because I am terribly impatient.  Here is a list of my inductions:

#1   5 days early took Castor oil
#2   2 days early blue/black cohosh
#3   2 WEEKS late castor oil
#4   2 WEEKS late castor oil

So, I sent out my sweet husband to get the dreaded castor oil. I usually drink blended with a teeny bit of orange juice and follow with an orange juice chaser.  My midwife, who is wonderful, recommended a castor oil milkshake. Threw that up despite my best efforts and took another dose with my OJ. So you have my recommendation on taking castor oil if this information comes in handy!

Then I settled in for labor. Here I am, waiting. I have been so busy with life that I still cannot get my head around having a new baby. I was excited though! Here I am with my hair done, expecting my baby to be born sometime before midnight as the midwife and I had discussed.   ha ha ha ha ha!


After a while, I heard a little pop and my waters leaked a bit. So I called the midwives and asked them to come. They got there around midnight. I was so happy to see them. They are with Birthstream Midwifery and are wonderful! By 2am, I was a 7. Things appeared to be moving along. This was my 5th baby after all!
At 6am, the midwives asked me to get out of the tub to change position. I was still a 7! When I got out there was a huge gush of amniotic fluid. I had sort of assumed my waters had broken more fully in the birthing pool. I walked another couple of steps and there was another gush, walked a couple more steps and there was a 3rd and final gush of amniotic fluid. There was so much amniotic fluid! Things were really going to happen now...or not!

Don't worry, this has a very happy ending. Here is a sneak peek!



So, after much walking and squatting and trying to sleep just a bit(it was exhausting) we made it to 2pm. It was quite something as I watched the sunrise and wondered if this would be my first baby born during daylight hours. At 2pm it was determined that baby was trying to present forehead first. The midwives had me get into a knee chest position to draw the baby up and out of my pelvis so that she could be repositioned. AND THEN...things happened. Labor progressed! Just after 6pm baby Mary made her grand entrance into the world!


It was the longest, hardest thing that I have ever done. I am so thankful to have a wonderful husband who supported me through this and knew in his heart of hearts that I really didn't want to go to the hospital and have a csection IMMEDIATELY!

It appears as if my large amount of amniotic fluid and Mary's short cord were behind her extra long birth. She was carefully monitored throughout and her heartrate was good until the last minute before she was born. Incidently, when she was born Mary had the cord around her neck and a true knot(pretty rare) just like big Sister Rachel. My babies are acrobats!

So, that's it! Isn't she beautiful? Well worth it!  My midwives were great too. I am sooo thankful to them for their support!

 
 Here is big sister Rebekah with brand new baby Mary. Two of my adorable girls!

So that was how we got our 5th, extremely precious bundle of joy! Precious Mary.



The McAllisters have been busy

...and I sure you have been too over the 8 months or so. My little girl is now almost 11 months old. She's almost walking. She's still a joy even though she is teething. Sarah is such a great big sister. Rebekah is doing well although today she feels unloved and hates division problems. Sam is 5. Oh, we went to DisneyWorld which is a first for our family. We even got picked to open the Magic Kingdom. Here is a picture of that. It was a fun experience. The baby was with Nana in this picture. We especially enjoyed Epcot but were a little underwhelmed by their version of Pirates of the Caribbean and Small World.


We were quite pleased with ourselves for finding the $15 Large Pizzas at our hotel(Pop Century). The best food deal, I think. We had a lot of fun on the different rides. The girls and I loved Rockin' Rollercoaster. Test track(coming soon to California Adventure) was really fun too. We had one low point in our trip when we missed the boarding call for our SouthWest flight and I had to sit and listen to my 5 year old son crying "mommy, mommy" for a couple of hours as he sat with strangers in the seat in front of me. We were all sitting alone but you would think someone would have pity on a 5 year old and let one of his parents sit next to him. That was semi traumatic.

But we've been good and I'm going to try and update this thing more often. If I don't , blame facebook or maybe my 4 kids or 2 jobs, or maybe that homeschooling stuff I do. Who knows?!

SAM

Sam is my 4 year old son, my only son. I have 3 daughters and 1 son. I was told having a son would be different and it's true. Sam has SOOOO much energy. He is currently being a little bit rebellious and I am struggling to find time to spend with him to show just how special he is to me. But he can also be so, so very cute. Here he is sleeping in a laundry basket the girls designed as a carriage for Princess Rachel. Did I mention he adores Rachel? He does. I love that too!

10 Weeks Old!

Well, tomorrow will actually be 10 weeks. 10 happy weeks with our sweet little girl. She already has her own personality and is adored by her 3 older siblings.

So far she has...

Baked cookies for Daddy.

Celebrated a one month birthday!

Compared size with beloved "Big Baby"(who has had that name for YEARS, who knew toy story would pick the same name as my 4 year old daughter?).

And Smiled every day!

Our new arrival

We are very excited to announce the arrival of Rachel McAllister! She was born on April 24th, 2010(just 12 days "late") and weighted 7lbs 8 ounces and 21" long.

Rachel had a true knot in her cord. Thankfully(as we learned is usually the case) she was okay.

She was born in the water. A wonderful option!

Look at all of that vernix she had. My midwife mentioned that my babies tend to look about two weeks early(by exam).

After she was born I spent at least an hour holding and nursing our beautiful new addition. We began to notice that she had lighter hair than our 3 other children. Then it was time to weigh her. This is the way our midwives weigh babies.

Here is Rachel being examined. What a pretty baby!

Family started coming. Big brother Sam was sooo excited!

Happy Birthday Rachel! Welcome to our family!!

It must be time for a new post

because my husband Jon told me so and that is saying alot...you know what I mean if you have seen his facebook page! Well, life is pretty good. I am 34 weeks now and in case you don't remember we are expecting a little girl. We got that information from an ultrasound, not any one of the 4 intelligender tests I have had in my possesion. Those only told us we were having a boy, or a girl, or maybe a boy. The ultrasound lady only said "girl" and showed us what seems like proof so we are going with her. The 4th intelligender was returned to Walgreens unopened.

I had a little bit of a scare when I didn't feel the baby move from one evening 'til about 10 or 11am the next morning. I was worried and went down to see my midwife. That did the trick and the baby started kicking just as I was getting off the freeway and a couple of minutes to my midwife! My wonderful midwife Tosi did a non stress test. I was a little embarrassed but just glad everything was okay.

Sam turned 4! When he woke up, and I told him it was his birthday, he very sweetly looked at me and asked when he would be big as Yayah Bekah(his sisters). We went down to John's Incredible Pizza Company to celebrate and had a minor fender bender on the way. No damage to our car except a bent license plate which is good because we only owe like $230 on it. Edited: We only one like $230 on the car, not the license plate!