Changes

I have been doing a lot of thinking lately about life and all the changes that happen. Just looking around we have one of the most beautiful changes happening around us, Autumn. The leaves are changing and nature is preparing itself for the next season. Isn't that so much like we do?c Constantly preparing for the next season in life? Whether it be children growing, changing friendships or the dynamics of our neighborhoods, life is constantly changing. We have lived in this neighborhood for eleven years now and really there have not been very many changes. Sure we have gained a new home behind us, the neighbors girls have grown and moved out to start their own adult lives and one is going to be having a baby in a few months, the trees have gotten significantly bigger and yes, we have added 5 kids since moving in. But one change that I have been noticing the most lately is the elderly neighbors. We moved into a neighborhood where there were several "older" families and not very many young ones at all. Several years ago the spunky man across the street passed away and this spring another man kitty corner from us passed on. There is an elderly couple across the street that have been in poor health the last few years and currently he is in the hospital. The sweet little old lady whose husband passed a few years ago fell and broke her hip a year and a half ago, her family has been going through the house and cleaning things out to prepare to sell it. The dynamics of our quiet little neighborhood will change a lot depending on who buys it. I secretly hope it is a nice family with kids around some of my kids ages, especially Jarrett. Boys are scarce around here.
Another big change has been my children, where has the time gone (and this year has been fast) Jeni is 19, Jarrett will be 11 in a few months and he has changed so much in appearance and attitude. Gabi will be 7 in March and is changing a lot, she has lost a couple teeth and is a very good helper with Eliza and loves to be a girl. Gretchen will be 5 in March (which seriously is only 5 months away?) that is a whole hand. Yikes! She seems to be trying so hard to be a good helper with Eliza as well, however she has not found her grace yet and Eliza is too big for her to help in the ways she wants to. Elliott will be, gulp, 3 in 8 weeks. He is a blast and has an awesome imagination. And little Miss Eliza, she is almost 8 months old already, really? How can that be? I just had her a couple weeks ago. She has changed so much in appearance and is doing as all babies do, growing and learning new things. I want to freeze time, maybe on a warmer day though.

Conspiring?

When we were kids my older sister and older cousin Veronica had this great game called "Run from Jan" The name of the game is pretty self explanatory as to how the "game" worked.
So, I couldn't help but wonder a couple weeks ago if something similar was going down at my house with Gabi and Addy and Gretchen. Addy was over to play and they asked if they could play face painting, I said sure, naively thinking of little things on the cheeks. NOPE.
A few minutes later Gretchen comes walking up to me looking like this:






I don't think she had any idea what she looked like. I couldn't help but wonder if she consented to the full markering of the face or if it was something plotted out by the older two.....hmmmmmmm

Conversation

This is the conversation that went on the other day at our house:

Me: Gretchen, go get dressed

Gretchen: Can I wear a skirt and shirt?

Me: Sure

a few minutes pass, she returns, in just her underwear

Gretchen: Why can't I wear a dress? (insert whiny voice)

Me: You can, you asked if you could wear a skirt and shirt, so I said you could, I never said you couldnt wear a dress, go ahead.

a few more minutes pass, she shows up wearing....a skirt and a shirt. She baffles me.

It's about time!

Wow, after a friendly reminder that I have not introduced the newest member of our home (thanks Audra!) and a friend discovering and reminding me I have a blog (Hey Josh!) I pulled it back up. Much to my dismay my background had a snowman on it. Gesh! That guy would only last about 2.5 seconds outside today. Time for some updating.
Our lives are not too action packed and no way will I bore you with what has been going on since December in our lives...BUT I will share with you about our sweet little addition to our home. No, I am not talking about any structural changes to our house (however another bathroom would be nice, and a functional basement, and a bigger kitchen and bigger laundry room hehe) I am talking about sweet little Eliza Christine.

Miss Eliza Christine was born March 4th at 1:09 pm and weighed in at 7lbs 12 oz and 21 inches long. Now most people will say, that is a good sized baby, pretty average in size and I would agree. However miss 7 12 coming in after her brother who was 9 lbs 11 oz and the rest of the siblings around 9 lbs, she was as I liked to call her, Dainty.

I am going to rewind the story a bit and tell about her birth, which in itself was alot different in ways than the others as well. Actually alot of my pregnancy was different, less weight gain (nice) not as much pregnancy sickness but more illness that I couldnt kick, like colds, sinus infection, bladder infection.

Anyway back to the big day. We arrived to the hospital and went through all the get changed, hooked up to the monitor, IV put in, blah blah blah, oh yes and for those who dont know, this was a planned c section and our 5th one too. So we are hanging out waiting for everything to get ready, I am texting with my sister (Hi Dawn!) and watching Tv. Chris is reading the paper, pretty normal stuff for us pre baby. They come and get us to goto the recovery room to wait until it was time for me to go in the C section room and get my spinal block. Some someone who was to be there wasnt able to get there right away so back to our room we went. Well, they had already moved my bed to outside the recovery room so I kicked back as good as a largely pregnant woman can in the recliner. Still texting with my sis to let her know what all is going on and talked to my Dad on the phone who had gotten turned around in town and needed help to the hospital.
Finally they came to get us and I went into the surgical room. Now they dont allow husbands back there while they are putting the block in, which is ok as mine doesnt like needles. Now the anesthesiologist was a VERY tall man and he had the bed raised up so high I didnt even have my feet on the stools they give you to put your feet on while they put the spinal block in. So was just a bit difficult to get my back right to help him out with nothing to push my feet on. He got the necessary stuff in and they laid me back while the spinal was kicking in and got me all prepped to go. Only the spinal never took. They tested and waited and repeated several times. Finally the anesthesiologist leans over to me and says "the block isnt taking" (really? so those pinches of pain were not my imagination?) "we are going to have to put you under." I was stunned by this and really not aware of any other options so I agreed. Now this also meant my husband would not be in the room either, since I would not need a support person. This I hated. We had already planned on getting my tubes tied while they were in there and neither of us were going to be able to see the baby in her first minutes outside of me, not the way I had pictured going out of my season of having babies. So, out I went.
I remember them waking me and I was in the recovery room, my nurse was asking me questions that I could only nod or shake my head at. My mouth was super dry as they give you a med to dry out your mouth while the tube is down your throat and my throat was a bit sore. (I kept thinking to myself, now I understand what Jarrett goes through) I was also in ALOT of pain. I remember my nurse asking me if I was numb, they assumed the spinal was just taking awile and would kick in, well it didnt and I was hurting really bad at the incision. So they qickly started me on Morphine with the PCA pump, I kept refering to it as my friend and truely it was! On top of the incision pain they were giving me pitocin to help stop some of the bleeding. The doctor told me I had alot of scar tissue and it bled pretty bad and found out the next day that I was pretty close to needing a transfusion but my blood count started to go up on its own. (whew)
It seemed like forever before I even realized my husband was in the room, I heard him talking to the nurse who was checking the baby. He took my hand and I wanted to cry, but couldnt, all I could do was stare at the ceiling and breathe through the pain and suck on a washcloth to wet my mouth. Finally I was able to ask him how big she was, figuring upper 8's at least. I had to ask him a couple times to make sure I heard him right. She was born at 1:09 and it was after 3:00 before I was taken back to my room. Completely abnormal from what we were used to. With the others (except Jarrett) I was able to nurse the babies in the recovery room and look at their sweet faces right away. Not this time, because I was out of it and in pain they had Chris give her a bottle and it was a couple hours before I could really look at her face and really see her. This being part of the reason she was nameless for a day and a half. We went into the hospital with 2 girl names Eliza Christine and Evelynn but not sure on the middle name. Like we had done with some of the others we had to see her to decide, and we couldnt decide which one she looked more like. We decided on Eliza but the poor little thing, her mama called her Evelynn a couple times :) and in my foggy mind was worried we picked the wrong name.
The day after she was born I got a call from the anesthesiologist to see how I was doing and if the block had taken later. I told him it had not. He said they were going to be doing some investigating as one of his colleagues had the same thing happen to another woman and she had to have a general as well. Both of us having medicine from the same batch and they were thinking it was bad, so they had pulled all if it from that batch. I am glad, I would hate to have someone else go through that. I never did hear anything else about it.
All in all, we got our sweet little one, she is very precious and has killer smile. She stares right into our eyes and she has this look of maturity in her eyes, alot like Jarrett had. In fact her personality is alot like his as a baby.
We are now enjoying this last season of having an infant and it is exciting but scary and sad to move past as that has been what has defined who I am for so many years. Now I have to find a new me in this new season of life. Scary, but I think it is going to be a fun adventure!