Playing Catch Up

Wow, It has been a long time since I have posted! This is mainly due to the fact that I have been super busy with potty training two kids, caring for many small children at my daycare, and a little splash of just plain laziness!

Rogan is doing great with his potty training, and I am certain that we will definitely be done before kindergarten ;) . He has shown a great capacity for being outside with out having an accident. In my previous experiences with potty training, being in the great outdoors is the downfall of most children. I don't know what it is, but playing outside causes more accidents than a hand dipped in warm water while sleeping ( I have never actually tried this prank, but I have been told that it works :) . We had an impromptu birthday party for him at Chick-Fil-A. He and Ameryn are having a double party in June, but we couldn't let his birthday go by without doing a little something! He loves the motorcycles and guitar that he got! His speech and vocabulary have improved dramatically. I guess being able to hear agrees with him!

Ameryn is doing so well in karate, and just got her blue belt! Her teacher says that if she continues to progress as she has been, she will be one of the youngest black belts that the school has graduated. She really loves the classes and her teachers, but we will see if she still wants to continue with it when her year is up (if our kids choose to join a class, they have to do it for at least one year before they are allowed to stop). She is becoming my little fashionista, always wanting to "have some style." this started with her wanting to roll her socks down, calling that a style. just recently she was looking in my closet and found my black flip flops that have some sparkly things along the straps. "oh, momma, these are so beautiful! But you know, You need to wear them with something colorful. You know, because you don't want to be all black or anything." It was so hard to keep from laughing! And not because it was unsound advice, it was quite true, but for the fact that this was coming from my four year old. A four year old who has never watched fashion T.V. , or even seen a fashion magazine! I don't believe that I had to have this conversation with her today:

AMERYN: "Momma, can I wear my shirt up like this so that it shows my tummy?"

ME: "No baby, we don't wear our shirts like that."

AMERYN: " But why Momma?"

ME: "Because Ameryn, we are ladies and ladies don't walk around with their stomachs showing."

AMERYN: (dejectedly) "I just wanted to show some style."

I explained to her that there are more ways to be stylish while still being modest like wearing bracelets or rings or something of that sort. As in this picture, where she has added a butterfly headband, necklace, and three bracelets that are not in the shot. She was still unimpressed. But when I mentioned that she could put some glitter in her hair all became right in her world again. I just hope that this is not indicative of what is to come as she gets older. I guess as long as she is easily deterred by some well placed glitter, everything will be fine!

Happy Birthday Rogan!

And now Rogan's story continues. After trying unsuccessfully to relax and not wake Chris and Ameryn up I decided to go ahead with the epidural. At that time I had to lay only on my left side, because Rogan responded better to the contractions that way. This made them much harder for me to bear unfortunately, and as I knew that I would want one sooner or later I decided to opt for the sooner. My Mom and sisters had been in the waiting room for awhile trying to let Chris and Ameryn get some rest, so they were able to take Ameryn out of the room for the procedure. I had always said that I would not be comfortable with a student shoving a giant needle into my spine, but when the sweetest girl came in and asked if I would be willing to let her practice on me I couldn't say no. I of course asked her the obvious question of how many epidurals she had done (to be sure that I would not be the first) and she told me that I would be her 40th patient. Everything went great ( as great as it can be with someone shoving and shoving a catheter into your epidural space) except that there was a kink in the line when she programmed the dose into the computer. This meant that I did not receive the full dose and was unable to get any more for a certain amount of time. Whatever she gave me was plenty enough to make the rest of my labor nice and comfy:) . At about 4 a.m. Doctor Kyzer came in to see how things were progressing. I was at 2 centimeters by then. I tried to get some rest but again, nada. I was 3 centimeters at 6 a.m., and then 4 at 7 a.m. Chris' family began to arrive at about 8 a.m., and I was found to be at 5 centimeters. I was able to brush my teeth in bed and Amy put my hair up for me because I didn't want to move my hand with the IV in it. I should have looked in the mirror, for when I later saw my pictures (which will not be posted here!) I vowed revenge on her when she had her babies! By 9a.m. I was a full 6 centimeters dilated. The nurses were expecting me to have a while to go, but I was feeling like things were starting move move pretty rapidly. As I experienced with Ameryn, my body likes to go from 6 centimeters to 10 in about an hour. By 10 a.m. I was feeling some pretty intense pressure and asked for the nurse. like I expected I was a full 10 centimeters and ready to go. They called for Dr. Kyzer and started to prepare the incubator. While we were waiting, Rogan' s heart started to really slow down during each contraction. They had me lay on my left side again to help him out. it happened again with the next contraction and the nurse walked calmly over and gave my stomach a little shake. That seemed to work for him and his heart rate came right back up. When it happened again with the next contraction the nurse gave him another shake and that seemed to be enough for him. He didn't make me worry any more:) . They were ready for me to start pushing then, and with the first one they realized that they would need the Dr. pretty quickly. I don't know about you, but someone telling you to stop pushing once you have started is pretty much next to impossible! Dr. Kyzer rushed in and with five more pushes (at 10:30 a.m., 13 hours after my water broke) our beautiful son was born! He was 7 lbs. 10.4 oz. and was 21 inches long. He has looked like a blond haired blue eyed version of his Daddy since day one and has added to our lives exponentially. He is my tiny ball of pure energy, and I love him to my core. Happy Birthday my son! Your Mommy loves you!

Two Years Ago Today

May eleventh, 2007 was pretty much a normal day for our family. It was a Friday, so Chris went to work and I stayed at home watching Ameryn and the other daycare kids. I was nine months pregnant and hoping that our little boy would make a timely appearance (he was due by the Dr's. calculations on Mothers day, May 13th, by my calculations on the 12th.) and not wait around for five days past my due date like his sister did! My bags were packed. Ameryn was prepared to spend some time with her grandparents after he arrived. I was really hoping that I would recognize real labor and not go to the hospital just to be sent home by a false alarm. we went out that evening (I think that we were playing cards at my parents house, but I'm not sure) and got home around 9 p.m. I put Ameryn to bed at 9:30 and went to relax on the couch before hitting the hay myself. As I relaxed into the couch and turned on the TV I had that peculiar feeling. I knew it well from a night about three years before hand. As I rushed into the bathroom my suspicions were confirmed. My water had broken! So what did we do? I hopped into the shower. We figured that we had a few hours before anything major happened so we tried to relax. Right. We woke Ameryn up and asked if she would rather head to her Grandparents house or spend the night with us in the hospital. She wanted to stay with us so we called the doctor who told us to head on to the hospital. It had been a very stormy night and when we got to Baptist it seemed like every woman in the area had decided to give birth that night as well. "They" say that a storm front brings more babies than spicy food, and I guess that "they" were right on this occasion. After being checked to be sure that my water had in fact broken (I mean, really, can you mistake that?) We ended up in the waiting room for about thirty minutes for a room to be cleared for me. Once in the room I was hooked up to all of the monitors and given my IV (complete with pitocin because my water had broken and I had not started contracting yet) we were left alone so that we could get some sleep. Again, right. Chris and Ameryn slept on the fathers bed/couch while I waited for things to get moving. I don't understand how anyone could sleep with a baby coming, let alone with a needle stuck in there hand, and contractions that were getting progressively worse. That brings us up to about midnight, the rest of the tale continues tomorrow...

Warning, A Bunch Of Potty Language Is Following!

Potty Training. Can two words cause more anxiety than those? I suppose that there are in fact many phrases that come with infinite amounts of angst (for example: hair loss, mortgage foreclosure, limb amputation), but for an otherwise healthy and happy family, potty training can be the cause of massive stress. Not necessarily for the child's father, but definitely for his mother! It goes right up there with walking, talking, and graduating from school. The overwhelming amount of tactics alone can cause cold sweats. Do we use pull-ups? Do we have a "potty party" and make him stay on the toilet all day? Do we go straight to underwear, or just let him run around in the buff ? So many choices. for Ameryn (who was soooo easy to train) we did the pull up route for about a week. After an allergic reaction to the "feel and learn" liner, we hopped straight on the panty train and never looked back. She was daytime trained within the week and fully trained (night and all) by the end of the month! Rogan has been "pre training" for awhile now, which means that we will occasionally sit him on the toilet so he gets the feel for it. He showed an early liking for having a b.m. on the toilet, so I thought that we had the hard part down. For some reason we decided to start his intensive training Tuesday. I don't really know why, but it seemed like as good of a time as any with his birthday being next week and all.His first day was very discouraging. We had not bought any pull-ups, so he went straight to underwear. He did not want to sit on the toilet at all. When he did he just wanted to talk about spiders and fish and give no thought to why he was in the bathroom in the first place. He did realize what was happening when he had an accident, but of course it was to late to make it into the bathroom. Day to started out more promising with no accidents until after nap. Which also means that he held everything until nap time! He did manage to have a b.m. on the potty, and that keeps that record clean! And today I am not only working with Rogan, but Aubrey as well. She turned two in January and is now ready to train as well. Though it may sound like a lot of extra work, it has actually done wonders in motivating Rogan. A little jealousy goes a long way with this boy! I would comment on our progress today, but i don't want to jinx anything :) . Hopefully we will continue to progress well, and be out of diapers before long!
The end :)