Category: Groftzoo Updates

A First Picture

I went to an ultrasound school yesterday and got a free ultrasound just for fun.  It was so nice to see the little guy who is making me so uncomfortable.  🙂

We didn’t get any good 3D shots, when we started trying he turned his head into my back and wouldn’t move again.  Stinker.  But we did get a nice profile shot:

#9
That thing up by his face is a foot.  The other one was planted firmly between his legs and wouldn’t let us get another look at his gender, but I have no reason to think the first U/S wasn’t right.

Oh… and he’s breech.  I know we have a long time for him to turn, so I am certainly not panicking yet.  I am mildly concerned because all my other kids were head down and stayed that way well before this point.  I have a midwife appointment next Wednesday and we will talk about it then.

Warts and All

I hate to post when I am in a slump.  I don’t want to be a downer and really don’t like for people to see me this way.  But I have been in a slump for a while now and life is passing this blog by.  So I am just going to let this post be what it is and see what happens.

My house is a chronic mess.  Picking up things that don’t belong on the floor is a bad idea for me anymore so the best I can do is kick things into piles and nag the kids.  That makes them super happy!  (Not really.)  But better yet it makes me feel like a crappy mom for freaking out about little stuff.  And I really screwed up this weekend, with two things that will cost us a bunch of money, so I have spent the day kicking myself.  Or I would have, if I could still reach to do it.  But mostly I just waddle around and whine instead.

This pregnancy has been a rough one on my vanity.  I started bigger and have gained more than usual and I can’t really do anything about it.  My skin has been a nightmare, especially on my face where another chin, a wider nose, and a couple of jowls have shown up.  And isn’t outgrowing clothes fun?  It was when I was a kid.  Not so much now.  Let’s not even discuss my hair which has become such a nuisance that it mostly is just shoved up in a clip all the time anyway.  At least it is cool that way!

Anyway… enough about my messy house, money troubles and weight.

In other news, I have two kids who REALLY want to get their drivers licenses.  Which could be a great help if I can ever find time to take them driving.  Or gas money, which brings up that whole money thing again.  Still, when did my kids get this old?

Lots of reading has gone on here this summer. Since there is really no TV to watch (only netflix streaming and that is limited to stuff PG and under) the kids have finally gotten bored enough to pick up some books.  Which is great, except for the giant piles of books on the floor as they filter through them to find something to read.  This is the same floor that I can’t seem to bend over and pick things up off of.  I can boast that I actually finished a book!  Starting them is never a problem but finishing is never my strong point.

We were able to see the Harry Potter 7.2 movie the night before it opened, which was fun, and our 21st anniversary is this Wednesday – We have a gift certificate for a nice dinner and will use that sometime in the next week.

The kids have a little bit bad case of cabin fever since we are stuck indoors most of the time with the heat.  Even going places is difficult because they whine and cry about the hot car seats (and yes, they are covered while we park, they still get hot enough to bother them.)  So we mostly don’t go anywhere.  We do swim a fair bit and Max and Lily have really improved this summer.  Lily can get to a back float and rest and can swim all over the pool.  Max is a completely independent swimmer now.  Molly has a death wish and thinks she can breathe underwater.  She is constantly just throwing herself off the pool steps and just enjoying the feeling of being submerged.  Crazy girl!

So we have our good times too.

Here are some recent pictures just to bring you up to date:
Posy straightened Lily’s hair one day last week, she looked like a completely different kid!
Posy straightened Lily's hair! Posy straightened Lily's hair!

Snow white bit her apple and fell into a deep sleep…
Snow White
Yes, another sleep picture.

Who needs Barbie Dolls when you have little sisters to dress up? Molly is ready to take on the world!
Molly is all business!

And finally, the best for last: Molly and Max having a potty party.
Max and Molly: Potty chat
So that is it for now.  Like I said in my last post, I am working on small things to make life more manageable right now.  This is just one of those long, dreary summers and we’ll get through it just fine.

I hope you all are keeping busy and cool!

Sweet, Sweet Sleep

The year after Ben was born, we noted a curious trend in our pictures.  For nearly a year, all the pictures we took of the kids were either of them sleeping or in the bath.  We had 4 children, age 7 and under, and we were both seriously overwhelmed.  Seeing the kids sleeping was a reminder of just how lovely and sweet they were.  And I guess we documented that a lot to help us remember that!

So I had to laugh when I was flipping through my recent pictures on my phone the other day and I realized that I have an awful lot of pictures of sleeping kids right now, and not much else.

Molly conked out while watching TV Naptime in James's room Sleep swing Car nap for Molly Lily's sweet sleep

You have to admit, sleep pictures of little children are a little bit enchanting.  And it s so nice to know that they are not getting into anything right at that moment.  But it brought home to me the reminder that I am gearing up for a year or two of fairly intense chaos and I need to be careful to take care of myself in this, while keeping things smooth for my family as well.

I have felt pretty decent during this pregnancy, but muscle pain from abs that have been ripped apart many, many times now slows me down considerably.  As much as I am looking forward to our new baby, I am not looking forward to not having the time to spend quiet hours with him as I enjoy his newness and recover from birth.  We will be swept quickly back up into the ebb and flow of daily life with many demands.  For this reason, pain and discomfort aside, I am grateful for this pregnant time when the baby is quiet and manageable and all mine.

Still, his time will come, and I will find myself again in that mommy fog of having 4 kids under 7, 3 of whom aren’t yet in school.  Only this time I have several children older than 7 who also need me.  So I think I have preemptively gone into sleep appreciation mode.

This coming school year will be a challenge like none I have yet faced, and I am bracing for a bit of a hurricane.

In the mean time, I am doing my bit to prepare: planning a month of meals that replays each month on my google calendar, working on a running chore chart for the kids (and getting them to DO the chores, which is the real trick), decluttering the house, tightening the budget, planning out Christmas.

God, for His part, is working on my heart, as always.  Teaching me to let some things go, to trust more completely, and showing me more of what it means to really pray.  You can follow that part of my journey over at Circling Jericho, where my wandering around in circles does seem to help get me somewhere.  I am specifically being raked over the coals addressing the issues I have with trying to control everything and surrendering to God right now.  (Part 1 and Part 2, with more to come.)

For now, I will prepare for what I can and try to let go of the rest, and maybe take a few more pictures of the kids with their eyes open, because they are absolutely delightful awake as well.

Updates!

I realized yesterday as I posted on Control and Surrender at Circling Jericho that there are quite a few things I have left out of my recent blog updates.  Mostly because there haven’t been many recent blog updates.  So, in the interest of keeping you all up to date with us, I will cover the last few months of stuff.

Let’s see… where to start?  You all know that I am pregnant with number 9, and I can say now that morning sickness this time was on a completely normal level.  As much as morning sickness sucks, it is not nearly as bad as hyperemesis.  But I was spared that this time and, while it slowed me down quite a bit, it wasn’t too bad.  HOORAY!

As I was easing out of morning sickness, Jay had a pretty major work accident where part of his right middle finger was removed when a manhole cover slid from his grasp and crushed it off.  This led to emergency surgery and many weeks of pain.  I have never seen him in such pain.  But he is doing much better now and back to full function, albeit with one finger a bit shorter.  I have pictures of the injury, but I think I will spare you those.

The next thing up this spring was a string of sicknesses in the kids (which they generously shared with us as well!) that lasted over two months long.  It included two stomach viruses, and a couple of nasty respiratory bugs that brought on asthma flares and eye infections.  One of the things I have learned in this large family is that about every 4-5 years we will have a string of sicknesses that lasts for months on end, where it seems like we just can’t get everyone well at the same time.  This is one of those years for us.  As I write, everyone is well (knock on wood) but from the sounds in the other room, I am betting Molly gets a breathing treatment before the day is out.

Part of this spate of sickness hit Molly particularly hard and landed her in the hospital for a night for IV hydration.
Sick Molly
That was no fun for any of us.  She hadn’t held anything down for over two days and suddenly hit a point where she was nearly limp and barely awake anymore.  Time to head to the ER!  After looking at how dehydrated she was, they made the call to admit her.  One dose of Zofran (How I love that drug!) and lots of fluids later, she was good ans new and was released just 27 hours after arriving.

So that brings us to about the end of March, which puts us squarely in the middle of Lent with all its extra masses and events.  And so we spun in circles for a few weeks.

Then a couple of weeks after Easter, Tessa received the Sacrament of Confirmation and First Holy Communion!  Her godparents were able to come into town for a whirlwind trip to be with her and we had a lovely weekend.  (Isn’t she just beautiful?)
Tessa's First Communion

The next big event was our 20 week ultrasound.  So I am sure you are all wondering what the boy/girl score will be with the addition of #9.

<Drumroll…>

IT’S A BOY!  And, more importantly,  he is perfectly healthy.

Which brings us to a total of 4 boys, 5 girls.  The kids were all hoping for twin boys to even the score.  But I think one baby at a time is enough for me right now.

Finally, at almost exactly 18 months, Molly decided that she was done with diapers and potty trained.  That took up a lot of my time while she went through the stage of needing to go potty nearly every 20 minutes.  But I think we are past that now and she is reliably even sleeping in panties!

After that, school got out, summer school started for Posy, and I spent a lot of time writing for the moms’ retreat.  And now here we are in the middle of June.

2011 is speeding by faster than I can grasp!

Ready for Cinderella

So here begins the year in pictures once again. I make no apologies for it’s lapse, even though it was longer than I planned, or for the quality of the pictures. This here is real life and it moves too fast sometimes for me to go and get my good camera.

So… here are Molly and Lily, ready for their daily viewing of Cinderella.

20110503-083202.jpg

Molly is a blur, because she is always trying to grab the camera or phone. Lily did her own hair this morning! Can you tell?

It’s a Random Post Kind of Day

I’ve still been feeling sporadically like crud and so haven’t resumed posting as promised. But there is a lot of crazy stuff going on today, so a random post would be fabulous! I will be hitting and running with this post all day, so expect it to be disjointed.

1. I woke up this morning dreaming of Einstein bagels and strawberry Shmear. Yum. A quick glance in my wallet tells me this is going to be an unsatisfied craving.

2. On the way to school this morning, Lily reached down and unbuckled Molly’s seat, which then FELL OVER WHILE I WAS DRIVING! Thankfully we had just turned into our neighborhood. But it freaked both Molly and me out. Lily was duly punished.

3. Molly has been in disposable diapers while I have had morning sickness and I am trying to get her back into cloth again. She doesn’t like the bulk after being used to trim ‘sposies, and screeches like a banshee every time I put one on her. And they gave her a rash. So in the midst of trying to rewash the diapers in some more bum friendly detergent, my washer seized up.

4. And I have a lot more laundry to do.

5. Really, a LOT.

6. But I am supermom! So I set up a chain of kids, one to watch the lights in the laundry room, one to relay messages, and one to try to distract both of them, and went to the circuit box. I would flip a switch, ask the next kid if the light was off, he would ask the next one. And we played telephone like that until we found the right switch, and reset the washer. Now hopefully we are on our way to clean clothes. (Knock on wood.)

7. A facebook goodie: This eBook was circulating yesterday and I decided I am going to try to take the challenge. I may not be able to do 31 days to clean with this number of people around, so I intend to take two days for every one in the book. That is more my pace.  I hope to blog it, but you all know how that goes…

8. Had a snack of fritos, the laundry load is complete (finally!) SO time to switch loads and start on the family room.  I have new slipcovers for my 20 year old couches.  If I can get the toys all picked up, those go on TODAY!  Before and After pics to come!

9. The family room is mostly done.  One of the couches cleaned out and slipcover on, I am going to let Jay do the other one.  I’m just too grossed out by the stuff in the crevices.

10. Fed the kids lunch: Toy Story Soup.  I scrounged up some leftovers.  Checked on FedEx tracking 100 times today, my new stroller (GREEN!) is out for delivery.  Can’t wait!

11. Jay got home and was able to get the gunk out of the washer drain.  Ew.  My husband is a hero, the washer works great now!

12.  MY STROLLER ARRIVED.  I spent most of the rest of the afternoon putting it together and fiddling with it.

13. Ben’s school concert was tonight, so Jay took him and I got pizza for the rest of us.  Now it is time to fold some laundry, clean the kitchen and get the littles in bed.

14. Posy got a 94% on her Algebra test!  She’s worked really hard to get there!

Enough for today, my evening will be busy, but I will try to add the pictures tomorrow.

Back Again!

I told you I would be back around 12 weeks and here it is – tomorrow is 12 weeks. Yesterday brought us the peace of mind of a nice, quick heartbeat at the midwife appointment. I had been worried. Even though I still felt nauseated and other lovely pregnancy symptoms, they were so mild (comparatively speaking – no one ever even had to think of putting me in the hospital this time!) that I just couldn’t shake the idea that maybe something was wrong.

I know something still could go wrong, but 12 weeks and a good heart rate are a great start to things and feeling better (mostly, anyway) is wonderful too.

Now, in the past 6 weeks, my house has fallen completely apart and I need to get things back up to par around here.

The first steps are, of course, dinner and laundry. Grocery shopping has been nothing short of agony for the last few weeks, so short trips were all I could handle. But the meals are planned and shopped for now. All I have to do is cook them.

Laundry. My old friend. I have been working on it, a little at a time. We’ll get there. There is always and ebb and flow to that anyway. So we are on our way.

Once those are underway and back up to normal, then it is time to tackle bedrooms. Let’s just say there are some I don’t like to enter anymore. Like ALL of them.

But for tonight. All I am doing is laundry and dinner.

Starting tomorrow, I hope to get the picture a day going again. Baseball is in full swing, so that should provide some good shots.

Hiatus

Our Year in Pictures is going to have to take a little break. I am just too nauseated and exhausted to keep up. I will check back in when I can, but I plan to pick up the project again when I hit 12 weeks, God willing I will feel better by then.

See you soon everyone!