Baby Monkey's birth story.

   I am happy to write my birth story here in little spare time that I have now. For the last few weeks I was getting really anxious about Baby Monkey not arriving early. For some reason I was really convinced that he was going to be an early baby. And I had lots of Braxton Hicks daily to convince me that maybe I was right. But then this horrible sickness invaded our family and we all got very sick. It started with Girly Monkey and then Little Monkey got it, and then Daddy got super sick and finally me and Funky Monkey got it too. It was a really nasty bug that made all of us miserable. Most of us would have coughing fits that would lead to throwing up. I am suspecting that what we really went through wasn't a case of flu but a case of whooping cough, at least the symptoms fit the diagnosis.

Sunday Snapshots - Welcome Baby Monkey!!!

   Guess what happened Friday? Friday, the 29th, Baby Monkey's Due Date! At 7:28 am, after 24 hours of labor (5.5 hours of active labor) Baby Monkey was born. He was 8 lbs 13.5 oz, and over 21 inches long. His labor was a hard one, and just like my other monkeys he was stuck in his shoulders so I am pretty bruised up. But we had a wonderful home birth and both Baby Monkey and I are doing very well. We are all so in love with him! Here are some pictures for your enjoyment.

Well hello there Baby Monkey

Meeting his siblings

Daddy and Baby sleepy

Meeting Big Brother

Meeting Big Sister

Meeting Little-Big Brother

Rest time

Meeting Grandma

Grandma and 2 Monkeys

Bath time

First bath

Not liking bath at all

More first bath

Proud Daddy

Breaking into Advent Calendar

Meeting Great Grandma

Sunday Snapshots - getting ready for our baby!

   Hello everyone. I hope that everyone had a restful weekend. We spent the whole weekend getting the house ready for the arrival of our baby boy and dealing with Girly Monkey's sickness. We went to the doctor's to make sure that she didn't have Bronchitis, and thankfully she does not. It looks like a viral infection, so we were prescribed some antibiotics to help her get better since she has not gotten any better over the last 8 days.
   We also spent the weekend getting the house ready for our new baby and trying to get everything ready for the home birth. I have a list of things that I need for the home birth and I have almost managed to get all of these. Since I am 37 weeks this Friday, if our little boy arrives at any time after Friday he can be born at home (since he is considered full term at this point). So here is my list of things I had to get and an emergency list that I still have to fill out.

Baby items washed and organized in our dresser. 

Something better on the horizon.

   First of all, Happy Halloween to all you little Ghouls and Goblins out there (and their parents too). Halloween is such a fun day for kids, both big and small. For that one evening, children let their imagination soar and they let themselves be transformed into someone else. It is not a holiday worshiping the devil (what I heard in my house growing up) but a day for fun. The history of Halloween is very interesting indeed. I don't know very many kids that don't enjoy dressing up and receiving candy. My kids are not any different. They start looking forward to Trick o' Treating in September, and usually get their costume ideas by end of summer. Since I make most of their costumes I need to know well in advance what they are planning on being. Once they decide, my Monkeys are bound to change their ideas oh about ...... a million times. This year was not any different. I had everything from angry birds, to 60's girl, to football player, to Garfield. 3 weeks ago I had to finally tell the Monkeys that there are no more changes to the costumes as I had to start making them. So we ended up with a Fisherman, A Hello Kitty, and a Knight. Making the costumes at home allowed me to keep the costs down, plus I don't have to feel bad about buying a costume for one year that will eventually find it's way to the landfill. I try to make costumes that are either recycled (second hand stores are great for the supplies) or are made up of parts that the kids will use again.

I would much rather be teaching art now than making a birth plan!

   I am 32 weeks pregnant today! At my last midwife's visit I was asked about my Birth Plan. Well, since I have been through this routine 3 times before I never thought that I needed it. Since none of my previous births went as I envisioned I would rather just "wing it". With Funky Monkey, I had envisioned a peaceful birth, surrounded by people I love, in a privacy of my own hospital room, with the whole thing lasting no more than few hours from start to finish. Well, was I wrong. The labor lasted over 30 hours, I spent 2.5 hours pushing, ended up with whole bunch of interventions, and there were more people looking at my nether regions than I care to discuss (they must have had about 15 different students coming and going, and all of them wanted to see how everything was with me).