Well Here They Are:

the THREE BOYS!!!

My Dog Ate My Keyboard But Actually It Was Other Reasons Altogether

Roughly the last pictures I took when it was still fall outside and still November

I'm not sure how it happened. A 5 weeks hiatus. Record lows. 

I appreciate the comments and emails in my absence, although I must say my personal favorite came from Chelsey who said she looked me up on Facebook to make sure she didn't see any "RIP Kelly". HA! 
Because if it's been 5 weeks and I haven't uttered so much as a single inter web posted word I must be dead. 
Or pregnant.
with a baby...
for the fourth time.
May the heavens open up and send us the best they've got! And if that doesn't solicit at least 20 comments of "hang in theres" and "everything will be great" or "sanity is over rated anyway" maybe one or two, "who needs cleanliness and order?" then I'm leaving forever.
And If you saw this coming, you should have anonymously phoned in your warning. 
That's what friends do;)

Week 39

Yesterday I picked up BabaJuje. She was at the Ford dealership in the service department. That meant she is on spring break and that meant she was mine for the day (or as long as I could keep her around).

We ran all sorts of errands. One of which included McFlurries. One included Five Guys. Another to pick up mulch and misc. at The Home Depot. Then it was off to pick up prescriptions. Then back to the fort where the children and I had to fight over her attention.

Being so multi-talented she was able to please both the children and me.

The side of the house is mulched.

Existing curtains have been hemmed.

New curtains have been hung in the playroom,

and Lena and Simon got to spend the day with their beloved Juje.

For proof that she still loves me go here.

The moral of the story is: steer clear of this place unless you want to be put to a mad woman's nesting work. Are you begining to sense how severe it is this time around?

***

Still no baby. But here's another taste of what I'm looking like these days:

It's only going to get worse from here.

Wish a baby for us by the end of this week, will ya?

Cuz, you know, the mulch is in at least.

Birth Junkie

Waiting for a baby to be born is a test of patience.

Yowza. You can say that again.

Waiting for a baby to be born is a test of patience.

To help ease the time, I like to read birth stories. I'm a weirdo nut for them. I'll take them anywhere I can get them.

Lately I've been reading lots of them in books, but also on Design Mom.

I love that she is posting all kinds of different birth stories.

Namely this one. If you haven't read it, you really must take time to do so.

Simply beautiful.

Do you like to read birth stories?

I believe birth stories can change our perspective or mindset about birth and link us, as women, to one another. All powerful and unique in their own ways.

Get your birth junkie on.

Just In Case This Baby Is a Little Girl

Because it can't hurt to be prepared.

(adorable knit booties from here)

In hopes to raise some serious excitement about this little baby I am declaring Saturday,

"Baby Saturday"

Things like setting up the co-sleeper, washing the appropriate gender neutral first-days clothes/blankets (the itty bitty white and cream stuff.....oh how I love babies in white and cream), buying all the essentials for the homebirth, re-visiting the car seat situation (three across will be happening, my friends- do any of you do the three across thing?), and I think buying "gifts" for the baby from Lena and Simon will also be a part of Baby Saturday. I'm thinking new la las from Lena and one of these sweet swaddling blankets from Simon.

Because, what do you really need for baby no. three?

A Little Baby On My Bed

I love seeing my tiny little tines in the middle of a crisp white bed, the place where we will undoubtedly be spending plenty of time getting to know each other.

The warm sun beaming through the window on their bodies, with their arms and legs flailing about, making those newborny grunts they make so well.

The afternoons spent nursing and falling in love.

This bed needs a little baby.

Oh! for the house to be filled with a newborn again!

It's getting harder and harder to wait.

Soon enough, mystery baby of mine, soon enough.

Like A Head Of Cabbage

30 weeks.

I welcome the final push, and my feet are almost invisible.

Blessed spring, we can't wait for you this year.

For all the obvious reasons.

A Picture at 2 p.m.

three

20 Down 20 To Go

Signs I am truly half-way through this pregnancy:

-love handles firmly in place, along with a solid 10 pound gain

-rounded cheeks (up top and on "bottom" if you will)

-a full surrender to a maternity clothes take-over

-heartburn/headaches making themselves at home

-restless mind filled with before-baby-gets-here-projects (holy moly there are a lot)

-ultrasound appointment set (we've/I've decided to keep this baby's gender a mystery. how annoyingly fun of me, I know;)

-happily obeying baby's instructions to eat everything sweet and/or baked in range.

...but the best part of the middle is finally feeling good and productive (that is, unless I'm napping in the middle of the day)

This Is Happening

I broke out the bella band.

She's a pregnant lady's trusty companion.

And in this picture I may or may not have icing smeared on my shirt (in the chesty region no less) from the 2 (or was it 3?) cinnamon rolls I snarfed today.

Pregnancy is awesome. I'm just enjoying the ride my dearies.

Oh Mrs. Vaisey- You're Glowing!

That picture looks tampered with.

Or could it be that I AM glowing because I am currently trudging blissfully(ish) forward in the wonderful world that is gestation.

Please also note that my shirt is missing like three buttons because they popped off in the midst of my denial that the shirt still fit.

This is my "I have a secret" face, and it's been on for quite a while.

Four months to be exact.

Geedoo numero tres (aka baby no. 3) due in April.

It's gonna be Epic.

*Oh, and if you don't sign in and show your devotion over to the right after that kind of news, I'll know it's just because you hate babies.

A Blog-Induced Labor

On the afternoon I was posting the entry of Jeff and Lena in the snow, I started swaying back and forth while posting and talking to my mom when I experienced the first low dull pain, and realized I actually might be in real labor. At first I hesitated and tried to make myself believe it was another round of falsies (which had been happening every few nights for a while) but as soon as I felt the uncontrollable urge to walk walk walk, and began doing laps throughout the house I knew it MUST be real. YEA! This was actually going to happen.
I called Jeff, to get him home from work, the midwife, to get her to the house, and Julie, to come pick up my mom and Lena. In the mix of everyone coming and going the contractions got a LOT more intense, so I went upstairs to try to concentrate. It was getting more and more difficult to talk through them, and I headed for seclusion in my room (and hallway because I still had the STRONG need to walk walk walk).
After saying goodbye to Lena and kissing her big fat sweet cheeks and welcoming the first midwife on the scene I was feeling great that I was truly in real labor and that the baby was going to be OUT of me in the very near future. It might have been around 6-7ish that the contractions became longer and stronger, I'm still not sure of a timetable because I yanked the alarm clock from our bedroom out of the wall around this time.
Midwife no. 2 arrived a while later and things were definitely in business. They set up shop in our bedroom and headed back downstairs to give us some privacy and space. (I feel very independent when I am in labor and don't really want anyone to touch or talk to me). This gave Jeff the important duty of siting in the room with me with a look on his face like "I'm here if there is anything I can do!" He made for a great labor companion once again.
Some more time passed...must have been a couple of hours. In the far off land of labor, time is so irrelevant. It's amazing what a different world you enter. By now my very dear and amazing midwife, Meg, came up to sit through a few contractions with me to see how I was progressing. She must have thought baby go time was near because soon the other two birth attendants followed and labor picked up by 1 million percent.
Transition was extremely INTENSE. I mean far more intense than with Lena, which during the whole labor I was comparing the two. BIG mistake. Walking around for the past few weeks at 4cm, we all thought labor would progress very quickly, but it turned out to last almost as long as labor with Lena. I didn't know the work I had cut out for me.
By about the point when I literally thought I couldn't go on anymore, (a point I barely reached with Lena's) I asked Meg to break my water. After she did, pain I didn't think could get stronger, did in fact do just that. I paced around frantically, yelling "I can't do this!, I don't want to do this", when finally I felt the urge to push. This was the difficult part of Lena's labor, this time was not easier but different. It lasted for 20 minutes or so I am guessing. Pushing began in the bathroom and moved to our bedroom where at roughly 10:18 p.m. they laid him across my chest and I looked down at his thing-like hands and couldn't stop saying "he's here! he's here! I can't believe how big he is!"
How truly amazing and powerful it was. At 8 pounds 15 ounces, (a whopping 2 pounds bigger than Lena!) 21 1/4 inches he is perfect. His name is Simon.

41 Weeks, 1 day...and Counting

Paaleeease give me patience to persevere this seemingly endless journey of waddling, groin pains when sitting, standing, or doing anything, clothes not fitting, center of balance totally jacked up, jarring abdomen, constantly using the bathroom, and fitful sleep. May it all end abruptly and memorably with a sweet little baby in arms by tomorrow’s end. Wait, on second thought, make that today's end. Amen.

(Yes, I am STILL pregnant. And, it's probably in your best interest NOT to ask me about it)


On Saturday, I hit my wall. I’ll call this transition. Most people define “transition” as that period when a mom is dilated to around 7-8 cm and the physical pain is intense. This is usually the phase when she’s grumpy, angry, desperate, yelling expletives, cursing her husband for getting her in this situation, asking for pain meds, and just hitting the wall. Usually, it only lasts 20-30 minutes, then it’s time to push out the baby.

No, I have not hit any major physical pain areas of labor just yet (although 8 months of heartburn have plagued me, leading to extreme frustration and irritation). I have mentally prepared myself to deal with the pain of the birth process. I know it will be difficult and that it may be the worst pain I ever endure, but I am ready to embrace physical pain. What I was never prepared for was the pregnancy that would never end. . . one that isn’t exactly covered in the textbooks . . . one that defies all labor induction methods. . . one that just baffles everyone, mostly me who has been ready for this baby to be born everyday for the last few weeks.

I believe my biggest hurdle isn’t necessarily the physical pain of childbirth (pain sucks for everyone, let’s face it), but rather that this is truly trying my patience.

I’ve heard from so many people that I should have had this baby by now based on the way I’ve been dilating (on Thursday I was at 4cm). Or that certain induction methods can't fail. Well, they all fail on me. Those that tell me that I’ll have a fast active labor because I’ve progressed so far, I just block that out. If it takes me this long (weeks) to dilate this far, then how do I know I won’t be pushing for 4 or 5 hours? I’m just going to mentally prepare myself for it, and if it’s all over in less than 2 hours, then hey, I won’t be disappointed.

Just because my labor doesn’t look like everyone else’s doesn’t mean it’s not labor. Sure, you can have Braxton-Hicks contractions for months on end, but that doesn’t mean they’re contractions that progress you toward active labor. My contractions may mostly be painless, but I’m definitely progressing. It’s just VERY VERY SLOW. Of course the baby will come when it’s time, but PLEASE don’t tell me I’m being impatient.

If I was impatient, I would have had a hospital birth. Had that happened, by now, they would have broken the bag of waters, given me pitocin which may have escalated into them offering me an epidural or wheeling me off to get a cesarean section. And, by now, I’d have had the baby. But no, I’m not willing to go that route (Although, I now have a much better understanding of why women out there choose to set an induction date). I am waiting "patiently" to labor and birth quietly in this house

...and I will stay in this house, not going ANYWHERE, until this baby arrives. Until then, know that I do appreciate the love, support, and concern from friends and family. I’m getting over my transitional period of being annoyed at the situation and the things people say to me. But, your best bet is still to not ask me if we’ve had the baby yet . . . trust me, you will know. I’ll call many of you, and others will read about it on the blog. But for now, keep us in your prayers:)

It's A Boy!

...and boy do we have a lot to learn. Time to pack up the pink and haul in the blue.

So, without further ado, may I present baby-Jeff-and-Kelly-boy-spawn:
(p.s. we are saving the real -proof of baby manhood photos- for private viewing sessions only)

Psssssssst...

...Come closer

...closer

...I am pregnant.

SURPRISE! That's right folks, baby Jeff-and-Kelly-Vaisey no. 2 will make his or her debut sometime on or around January 2, 2008. Whew. OK, that's all the secrets for now. Back to your regularly scheduled program.