"Sugar and Spice and Everything Nice"

I keep starting blog posts, then I don't finish them. They're stacking up in my saved folder, maybe I'll get them out eventually.

For now though, I'm spending a lot of time holding a tiny bundle of perfection. Secora had her first check up with the doctor (the midwife also examines her regularly) and she's doing just fine. She right around 7.5 pounds now..her weight loss stayed well withing normal limits and she's started gaining again. Her next weight check will be this afternoon.

I'm also thinking a lot about the nesting I'd like to do when I get home. I have an almost insatiable urge to sew and preserve food. Preparing for winter, I suppose.

Secora Yvonne

As I said yesterday, baby girl #3 made her grand entrance yesterday morning. Since it's the name that was driving everyone crazy, we'll start there. We finally settled on Secora Yvonne a little while after she was born. Her middle name was a toss-up between Yvonne and Arlene (or Darlene, or Carlene). Arlene would have been a tribute to Arlene Blum, who led the first all female team of climbers up Annapurna and is also a scientist. Yvonne is a nod to Yvon Chouinard, and once I found out Yvonne means archer (it is archery that brought Josh to Texas A&M, where we met), that sealed the deal. This also caries on the tradition of tipping our hat specifically to people important in Yosemite climbing history.

Secora is just a name we liked. I happened upon the Japanese version, Sakura, and liked the sound. It is actually a name, just very very rare (it's much more common as a last name). Until she was born, there was a possibility she could've been Savannah instead (so you did make fun of it Carolyn!! LOL), which I LOVED, but I just couldn't commit to once I found out how popular it is.

She is doing well and her big sisters are over the moon. Momma and Daddy ended up pretty much being awake for about 38 hours straight for labor and delivery and the aftermath (that whole "nap when the baby naps" thing doesn't apply when you have other children running around!), so 9pm is suddenly seeming WAY late for my bedtime!!

Baby is Here!

Baby made her arrival this morning! I'll get a more detailed post, with pictures, up just as soon as I get some sleep (aside from catnaps, I've been up for 33 hours now), which is hard with a new little precious cuddle bug to hold and stare at!

The short story is she was 38 weeks and we had a complication free home birth. She's 7#14oz, 20in, and everything checked out just fine health-wise!!

Long Time No Post

It's been over a week since I posted. And I have a good reason for that...

I'm over 37 weeks along now. That's full-term people. yee-haw.

Last week my back started bothering me off and on. Friday it blew up. Okay, not really, but it might as well have. Something was seriously, seriously wrong. I'm still not sure what, but it involved massive pain...to the point where having contractions was a relief.

Oh yeah, contractions. Still having those. Been over 2 weeks now since that started. I have basically stalled out at this point with each pregnancy (you know, about 5cm dilated and somehow NOT having a baby) and I'm just about convinced that my body won't labor past that point without my water breaking for some strange reason. That's actually a good thing since it's bought each baby a couple extra weeks of baking time, but it's not a whole lot of fun for mom.

By yesterday morning, I woke up to my back feeling normal (as normal as possible when you're carrying a 7-ish pound weight in your tummy). And, I found I had caught the head cold Josh and Sierra dealt with last week. Cause nothing compliments end of pregnancy exhaustion like sinus congestion, headache and fever.

And now, my back feels like it's flaring up again. The main suspects are either serious muscle issue or very minor kidney stone(s). I'm leaning towards muscle issue, but who knows. Whatever it is, it'll probably be better when baby girl decides to join us.

So, all in all, I've been a freakin' bowl of sunshine to be around. So I haven't blogged, because I learned many many years ago from a certain adorable bunny that "if you can't say somethin' nice, you shouldn't say nuffin' at all."

When I post again, it will probably be because I have newborn pictures to share, which we really do expect to happen any day now.

Communication Shutdown

I have a few friends whose children have autism. I know that I don't know the struggles and joys they face on a daily basis as they work to help their children learn how to handle social situations. I do my best to support the moms and to be understanding if the children don't quite follow what we've come to expect as "the norm" at play dates. I try to explain autism to Sierra in age appropriate terms when she asks questions and to let her know that it's okay to play with these kids and that they have boundaries just like everyone else that she should respect; those boundaries may just be a little different.

When I first heard about the Communication Shutdown, it was through a friend of mine named Carolyn. What she had to say made a lot of sense to me and, frankly, she's in a much better position to give an opinion than I am. She wrote a guest post on another friend's blog about how to really be supportive of families dealing with autism and rather than ramble on and on about something I am definitely not an expert on, I will just link to her words.

And....Still Pregnant

I've been having prodromal labor for a week now. That doesn't really surprise me because the same thing happened with both of the girls. Unlike all those online descriptions of easy, short contractions that don't do much though, my version of prodromal labor is contractions that are anywhere from 3 to 10 minutes apart, last 60-90 seconds and feel all the world like "real" contractions--radiating to my back and all that fun stuff (I've had two un-medicated deliveries, I'm well versed in what the real thing feels like and these hit the same intensity as transition at least once a day). And I suppose they should feel like real contractions because they do get me at least halfway to that magical 10cm, 100% effaced goal. I imagine more typical prodromal labor is more like what I feel through most of the pregnancy--contractions that are there, but don't require any concentration to get through.

I've officially entered the land of conflicted emotions. It's good for the baby to bake longer and pregnancy-wise I'm comfortable enough to carry her longer without complaint. The contractions are exhausting though and I'm not exaggerating when I tell people I will get more sleep after she's born (and she's my third, I don't think I have unrealistic expectations about how much sleep I'll be getting). So every hour that passes, my brain does a little "yay! still pregnant!" happy dance while the rest of me whines and complains that I just want to rest and if it's going to take delivery to do that, so be it.