Something New to Worry About

Two of the dumbest stories I saw today in the six minutes I've been able to watch TV:

From Oprah (whose word I usually take as gospel): her entire show today was "shoe and handbag makeovers". She and her fashion editor and a couple of stylists had a shoe intervention. I learned that wearing the wrong pair of shoes can make your feet look fat. Great, thanks a lot Oprah. I was just worried about my butt and thighs...now I have to worry about my feet, too!

On a sidenote: is it just me or do these makeover shows always give ladies the most unrealistic new look? I mean, granted, the ladies usually do look better and I'm all for updating one's look, but when the most important thing about your favorite pair of shoes is that they're comfy and don't pinch your bunions, is the stylist really doing you a favor by putting you into 4" leopard-print, peeptoe stilletos?

From the BBC and the amazingly awful Trisha Goddard Show, which is a little like a combo of Jerry Springer and Jenny Jones: Is My Female Parrot a Lesbian? Apparently this woman's parrot hates her husband and constantly attacks him, so she (the wife, not the parrot) wanted to try to determine if her parrot is gay.

For real?

For Dad - Triumph

This is the one:

http://www.triumph.co.uk/usa/2010_SprintST_Overview_2010SprintST.aspx

Or, if the Sprint is a "bit much" for me to handle, I like this more simple, classic approach:

http://www.triumph.co.uk/usa/2010_Bonneville_Overview_2010Bonneville.aspx

I've got five years to plan for it.

Halloween 2009

"Peek-A-Boo"!

Chicken, Lil' Punkin', Chicka-Chicka Boom Boom

So, Halloween has come and gone and as usual, I feel like a bit of a slacker because I didn't decorate, dress up or even make treats for Josiah's class. I did make his Chicka Chicka Boom Boom costume, so I did something...but even that was pretty simple. As you can probably tell. Josiah absolutely refused to wear it to school on Friday, insisting that no one else would be wearing costumes. Imagine his surprise when most everyone at Patch Elementary came dressed up.

I tried hard not to be offended. You have to pick your battles and it was one I didn't particulary feel like going crazy over.

Josiah and Annika weren't terribly excited about Halloween until about 4:15 p.m. yesterday evening. Trick or treating was to begin at 5:00 and run until 8:00. Suddenly, the idea of CANDY (!) being handed out seemed to penetrate their skulls and within about 28 seconds, both of them were in costume and itching to get out the door.

I took them and Hans stayed home with Will, who let me dress him up in his little Halloween outfit and indulge in some pictures. Maybe next year he'll go along. Josiah, Annika and I headed out around 5:30...a perfect early fall evening with the moon almost full and the scent of burning leaves in the crisp air. Since housing here is so dense, we were able to gather a lot of candy in a small amount of time. We went down our street and up the next row of housing, then took a shortcut back to the homes of the "very important people (aka: Generals, etc.)" and hit a few homes back there. You know, the houses where they give out entire Hershey's bars...not Bit O Honeys (though I LOVE Bit O Honey and have nothing against it). Back down the other side of our street and we were done.

We returned home where I let the children turn their pumpkins over and stuff themselves with as much candy as they could hold. Surprisingly, they didn't eat every bit and then vomit. They showed remarkable restraint...they each ate less than half, gave a lot of things to each other and to Hans and me and saved the rest for today. They have been nibbling off and on today and it's almost gone. I figure, what the heck...Halloween only comes around once a year.

And hey--they fell asleep just fine, no bouncing off any ceilings!

Pictures - Week 2

Hans and Will reading Wolverine, Will and me with our crabby faces, Will awake (!) and relaxin' in his bouncer, and Will and me with with happier faces (well, ME anyway!).

Pictures of all three of our little pumpkins tomorrow. Now it's time for this tired mama to take herself to bed!

Week Zwei

Here we are, rounding the corner on week number two. So far, so good. Today has been a sleep day for Will...he's been asleep since lunchtime (it's 5:20 p.m. now). Monday and Tuesday, he had much longer periods of wakefulness, which is good because it means that he sleeps longer stretches at night. So, we'll see what happens tonight...most likely a Mommy & Will party until the wee hours.

But I've been known to be wrong before.

Anyway, Will had his two week checkup today, so the real purpose of this blog entry is to let everyone (hi Jan and Donna!) know that he has put on almost one whole pound. As for length, we're not sure, because the hospital told us 21" at birth, but they told us 19" today...hmmm, I don't think he's shrunk 2".

The doctor says that Will looks great, is inputting and outputting at proper levels, and was generally pleased with his progress thus far. Will had to get a vitamin K shot in his little thigh--he wasn't too happy about that...he did that newborn cry where the little voice ratchets up into the end of the scale that makes dogs writhe, complete with 4-5 seconds of absolute worked-up, silent, mid-cry fury during which he turned an alarming shade of red.

I'm like "Dude, take a breath!"

He fell asleep directly after the fury and the shot and after the heel stick and bloodletting, so I guess it was either so stressful for him that sleep was blessed release or it actually wasn't that stressful.

I'll choose to believe option B...this is my third time around and I still don't enjoy watching any of my babies being stuck.

That's the news from Stuttgart!

War Stories, Part III

As promised, here is the third installment in the saga of Rachel's childbearing.

(I will try to keep it G-rated, my apologies to my male readers)

So...travelling back in time to October 13th and my last OB visit with the good Dr. Voss. I'm sure I blogged about the fact that I was un-dilating. I had gone from 1 cm to fingertip to closed. I was sure that Will was going to be my "intervention" birth, that I would end up having to be induced.

I still haven't learned that when I am "sure" of something, the exact opposite usually happens...

I woke at 4:00 a.m. on October 14th with a slightly painful contraction. Not take-your-breath-away painful, but definitely much more noticeable than all of the Braxton Hicks contractions I had been having. The day passed as normal. We got Josiah off to school, Hans off to work and Annika and I settled in for another day. Throughout the day, I had sporadic contractions. Once or twice, it seemed like they were starting to be regular, and then the next one wouldn't come when it was meant to and they'd taper off.

I spent the day doing what I normally do: household chores and being mommy. Picked up Josiah from school, made a stop at the library to get new books, came home and eventually got started on supper. Around 5:30, I started having more timeable contractions, but they were still at least 15 minutes apart and not overly painful. Hans was supposed to go to order his new car after supper, but I asked him to stay home, just in case. After he and the kids had supper, we decided that at the least, I should probably run up to the hospital to be monitored and checked, just in case.

We dropped the kids at our neighbors, grabbed all the bags and headed out. I'll tell you, I still didn't think that I was in active labor. I thought that I'd get to the hospital, spend thirty minutes on the monitor and be sent home. But better safe than sorry, we reasoned.

We hit a little bit of traffic, so it took awhile to get over to the hospital, but by the time we got there, the contractions were getting closer together. We went up to Labor & Delivery and they showed us to a room and hooked me up to the monitor...about five minutes later I had a noticeably more painful contraction, so I had Hans call the midwife back in to check me. Just in case...and sure enough, I was 6 cm dilated.

We weren't going home without a baby!

Thankfully, Hans had filled out the paperwork for the epidural right away, so they came in, drew some blood and started an IV line. While I waited for the anesthesiologist, my wonderful midwife, Julia, gave me some great painkillers to take the edge off. Contractions were about five minutes apart and still very manageable with a focal point and some breathing, but the painkillers made me very calm and almost drowsy in between, which was nice. I was afraid that the Germans would be reluctant to issue drugs, but Julia kept offering me different meds. And lo, they were wonderful. I had my drug-free birth...I didn't care to repeat it!

And then the clouds parted, the golden rays shone down and the angels sang: the anesthesiologist arrived. This was probably the most painful aspect of the evening. When I had my epidural with Josiah, I was in such an incredible amount of pain (probably due to being scared out of my mind at having my first!) that having the epidural was pretty much unnoticeable. With Will, I was managing fine and feeling good between contractions, so getting the epidural turned out to be more uncomfortable than anything else. I had trouble being absolutely still...between contractions and the reaction of my leg and hip twitching while he was settling the catheter.

But once it took hold, I didn't feel a thing. Not a thing...no contractions, no pressure, nothing. It was bliss. Julia stayed with us now and awhile later she declared it time to start pushing. The doctor came in, but it was still very lowkey--no gowning up, no bright lights, no tray of shiny instruments, just the four of us in the room. I pushed for a little while on my back, but they were a bit worried about Will's decelerating heartbeat and had me get up in a squat (I know, sorry) with one arm around the doctor's neck and the other around Hans'. The doctor helped by pushing down from the outside and three or four contractions later, there was Will!

Afterward, it was so peaceful and nice. Julia and the doctor checked Will over a little, wrapped him up and handed him off to Hans and me and then they left us alone for over an hour. The entire stay at the hospital was like this...very little intervention. The doctors and nurses checked in once or twice a day and then left us alone. They weren't constantly coming to get Will and take him off for blood tests or this, that and the other thing. They weren't constantly coming in to poke and prod me. It was nice. Julia told me that some German women spend up to a week in the hospital and others choose to go home after only six hours!

So. Thus ends the trilogy of Rachel's War Stories...Will's birth was truly perfect in my eyes. None of those situations that so worried me during pregnancy came to fruition. We were able to leave the kids with our neighbor, make it to the hospital and have the epidural and a peaceful, pleasant birth.

And we got Will.

Three Peas in a Pod

I have been interested to see all three of them side by side, so here they are: Will, Annika and Josiah, all within a week of their birthdates...

Yep, they're definitely siblings!