I finally made the time to read a friend's birth story today, so that inspired me to finally make the time to finish writing my story about Dean. You absolutely do not have to read this, but I know some of you will want to, hence the "Read More" option. Also, it's pretty long, so I didn't want people to have to scroll all the way through it to get to previous posts.

Dean’s birth story

4:30 a.m.—I woke up. My mind was buzzing. It was nothing particularly new during pregnancy to be suddenly awake, but I started thinking about things I needed to do before Dean was born. The main thing was realizing that it would be really helpful for whoever took Kent to have an info sheet with his favorite foods, activities, where we are in potty training, friends to call for playdates, etc. I started writing it in my head, and then around 5, I realized I was having contractions. I lay in bed a little while longer, feeling the contractions and thinking they felt different but that I didn’t want to get my hopes up that this might finally be labor, since I had had a few periods of regular contractions in the previous weeks and kept having my hopes dashed when they went away. I decided to get up and start typing up his info sheet, and I ate a bowl of Kashi Cinnamon Harvest and enjoyed the silence of the dark morning. I had mostly finished the info sheet when Jack and Kent got up around 6:00, and Jack was surprised to see me sitting on the sofa since he had thought I was still in bed. I told Jack that I thought this might be it but I wasn’t sure, filled him in on the info sheet, and then told him I thought he’d better plan to stay home for at least a few hours, just in case.

Read more »

Labels: belly, Dean

• posted by erica 6/23/2010 09:57:00 PM
•  3 comments

Dean is here! He came on Thursday evening, February 4, at 5:55 p.m. (compared to Kent's 1:11 p.m., ha!), 6 lbs 12 oz, and 20.5 inches long. I had an intense natural labor, the last ten minutes of which were in a birthing tub with Jack right behind me, and Dean came out after only five minutes of pushing. In. Tense. The cord was wrapped around his neck and he had some trouble breathing at first, and even though you'd think it would have freaked me out, I honestly looked at him and thought, "Okay, we're in a hospital surrounded by medical professionals. They know what to do, and he's going to be fine." And he was. They took him to the NICU after we had a very brief chance to hold him and say hi, and after I was stitched up, we started getting reports that he was doing well. I was able to breastfeed him in the NICU after about an hour and a half, and he latched right on — he was obviously ready, and he's been nursing like a champ ever since. He got to come back to my room after about 4 hours (the minimum amount of time they have to keep a baby who's been admitted to the NICU), and everyone who checked up on him after that was really impressed with how well he was doing. No lasting effects from the wrapped cord. Happy sighs.

We just got home from the hospital a couple of hours ago and are enjoying the simultaneous naps of our two little boys, probably the only time they'll ever nap at the same time. Jack is snoozing next to me on the bed as well, but we were eager to get some photos and stories posted. We're tired but happy, relishing the newborn-ness again. It's so different the second time, knowing what to expect and how to deal with most of what comes up; I feel like it's much easier to appreciate all of this time instead of feeling overwhelmed and crazy. I'm healing a lot faster too, though I still definitely feel the effects if I'm on my feet for too long.

When Kent came to visit the day after Dean was born, he immediately wanted to jump onto the sofa next to us and hold him. He actually started pulling him out of my lap, but we've had lots of reminders about gentleness, and he's been so affectionate and great. He's also been noticeably overwhelmed by being shuttled around to different friends' houses and spending his first two nights away from us, so I'm glad we're home now and can start to make our new routine.

More later, but here are some photos from the hospital to get you started...

Labels: belly, Dean, Kent, photography

• posted by erica 2/06/2010 03:23:00 PM
•  10 comments

Both last Friday and this past Friday at the midwife's office, I was 1 cm, 50% effaced. So it goes.

I'm having a lot of contractions when I've been on my feet, and since I've had some serious bursts of energy this week, there's been a lot of activity. I really thought my cervix would have changed somewhat, but it hasn't, so I'm still. Just. Waiting. Rather than being painless like the contractions I had during my labor scare of a month ago, they've started to hurt just a tad, leading me to think that they probably are somewhat productive and might still mean my actual labor will be shorter. But I have zero intuition about this sort of thing.

While I wait, I'm trying to strike a balance between making a lot of plans (which have the potential to just fall through) and being on a state of high-alert all the time. Another couple of weeks of this might make me crazy, though. My due date is 6 days away, and if it comes and goes with a whole lotta nuthin' going on, I may not be a pleasant person to be around.

There's a flurry of upcoming celebrations, not even counting our impending progeny: Jack's birthday is the 12th, then Valentine's Day is two days later, and then Mardi Gras is two days after that (which really means that Mardi Gras is ongoing for several weeks and will be *over* on the 16th). I know I'm not expected to do much of anything for these celebrations, but it would be nice if I had some clue what to do for Jack's birthday, at least. He is the love of my life, and I enjoy celebrating his existence. The only thing I've decided is that I want chocolate-covered strawberries for Valentine's Day, and I'd even be happy to make them myself with some fresh berries from the market. Yes, I'll say it again: I LOVE Louisiana's growing season. My mom will be in town that week, during all three aforementioned celebrations, so I'll make her some chocolate-covered pretzels or something similar since she doesn't like fruit. Or maybe we'll have fondue that day. Or maybe I'll be in the hospital, or home but barely walking, and I should just stop trying to make plans. See, this is my problem.

Kent and I started most of our garden plants from seed this week, so they'll just get to sit in the window and germinate in their little cardboard trays while we wait for Dean. I may run out of space in the garden, but so far, we've planted three hybrid varieties of tomatoes — Beefmaster (huge and red), Jubilee (medium and yellow), and Juliet (grape-like and red) — plus sweet peppers, basil, parsley, and Kent's various seeds (sunflowers from last year, plus whatever we get from his watermelon and pumpkin cups). I'll also be starting okra and green bean seeds in the ground sometime in late February or early March. I cannot WAIT to have okra. That's the one I'm really pinning my hopes and dreams on this year.

I've just made a batch of meatballs for Kent and me, most of which have gone into the freezer for future spaghettis and meatball subs. I love homemade meatballs, especially since I get to make them nice and moist (a little ketchup and sour cream, yum), and I add carrots, onions, and spinach to up Kent's veggie intake. A sweet friend of ours is bringing by a couple of freezer meals today for us to have around after Dean arrives, and I think some of my mom friends in town are going to organize meal drop-offs as well. This is all very helpful, because not only did we LOVE having food brought to us last time, when our church stepped in to help with that, but also I have done very little food planning in all my nesting efforts. The extent of my food planning has been to make more room in the freezer. Winging it. I'm counting on a quicker recovery this time, based on the advice/experience of friends.

And now, more photos.

Series: Kent and the tomato cages







Biggest. Tower. EVER.


Kent sitting on a package of toilet paper, eating a strawberry. Note the nice haircut.


Sharing some Dean kicks

Labels: belly, flora, Kent, kitchen adventures, photography

• posted by erica 1/31/2010 04:02:00 PM
•  6 comments

This morning, I turned in Kent's application to a wonderful little Montessori school, where we're planning for him to enroll in the morning-only program this fall. I loved meeting the director and observing the school last week, found out I already knew one of the teachers (through our experience with the CSA farm this past summer), and see my son completely flourishing in this environment.

While we were running errands this morning, Kent and I were chatting in the car about instruments. He told me that he's going to play some instruments when he gets bigger, so I was asking him what he might enjoy playing. Drums, of course. I then suggested the piano, which he also took into consideration. (Really, he can learn all the instruments he wants — I'll just enable him however I can in that respect.) He knows that Jack and I both play the clarinet, so I mentioned to him that we could pull out my clarinet when we got home and that we could play it together, and he was ALL over that idea. So we got home, and the clarinet came out. I showed him how to put it together (um, gently), then made a few sounds, played a couple of his favorite songs, and then handed it over to see what he could do. He never did get a note to come out, since his tiny body doesn't quite have the lung capacity or mouth muscle strength to make it happen, but he squawked a few times and was pretty amused by those noises. Mostly, we spent our time with me blowing a sustained note and him pressing various keys to change the note. He thought that was totally cool and wanted to keep doing it, the way he wants to keep doing everything that's fun and that makes Mommy tired. Eventually, though, I had to put it away because *I* was out of lung capacity. Tears. Promises to do it again tomorrow. Such is life around here these days.

We had an afternoon at the park with a few friends, enjoying our gorgeous weather and talking pregnancy (three of the four of us who were there are pregnant with our second child) while our kids ran around, got sandy, took turns on the swings, played with the bubble machine that another parent brought along, and gave each other random hugs. The 2.5 to 3 range really is a fun age, even though it should come plastered with disclaimers about the difficulty of keeping one's sanity while enjoying it.

Despite having a fairly normal-sized dinner, I was hungry two hours later and suddenly *had* to have a breakfast sandwich on a bagel while Jack was putting Kent to bed. Thankfully, I had gotten half a dozen bagels this morning from a local bakery. They're seeing a lot of me these days; it doesn't help that it's on the way to Kent's new school. Jack noted yesterday that I'm becoming a bagel addict. My bagel cravings during this pregnancy now seem to be rivaling my broccoli cravings, which is a pretty serious allegation.

Sounds like a full day, right? You betcha. Bed is calling my name.

Labels: belly, Kent, music, SAHM

• posted by erica 1/19/2010 10:13:00 PM
•  1 comments

Still here. Watching/feeling my belly move a lot, and grateful that I haven't had any more labor scares. Thinking about Haiti. Scheming a way for Jack, or maybe both of us, to go in a year or two and help with rebuilding. Feeling better after about two weeks of being sick — upper respiratory infection fought off with antibiotics and a lot of movie watching. I mostly have energy now, so I've been cooking more and nesting more and have partial blog posts in my head that haven't materialized. My mind is running too fast for that, and when Kent is napping, all I want to do is not blog. I know it doesn't make any sense.

Glad tomorrow is payday and a cupcake date with a friend I haven't seen in a long time. The last time I saw her and her kids was at Kent's first birthday party, and we live in the same city. It hurts me when I realize I'm letting a relationship slide.

Cherishing my last few days/weeks with just Kent and me during the day. I'm a little wistful about it already, thinking about how fun and relatively easy some of our days are right now, and knowing that a few of my friends with a baby and an older child end up frustrated with their older kid a lot more than they ever used to be. Looking for a Montessori program for him for the fall (we have it narrowed down to two places) so that he can strike out on his own a little — I think Montessori is going to be a great fit for him.

Needing just a tad more sleep than I'm getting, but I'm pretty lucky with how much I do get. We've been sleeping in the guest room while our bed takes a break. Since I broke it. I am awesome and very pregnant, and all I had to do was sit down on the edge to make the bedrail go kerplunk. Sleeping in the guest room, which is much neater and more calming due to all the nesting efforts, has been like being on vacation. I kind of don't want to go back to sleeping in our cluttered bedroom. Photos of all the nesting will be forthcoming, since we had a very productive few days last weekend.

Feeling mostly ready for Dean, except that labor is starting to scare me again. I can't really stop it or avoid it, so I just need to do what I tell Kent sometimes: I need to get my game face on. We're having what might best be described as a strategy meeting with our doula on Monday, so that should help. Pain with a purpose. I'll be okay.

Bed.

Labels: belly, Kent, SAHM

• posted by erica 1/14/2010 09:46:00 PM
•  5 comments

So last night was exciting, but mostly a little terrifying. I had a serious labor scare, terrifying because I'm not quite to 35 weeks yet. Around 3 p.m., I started noticing very regular, mild contractions, mostly painless but with the occasional twinge in my back or pelvis. They were coming every 4 to 6 minutes. This is exactly how my labor with Kent started, except that it happened right at his due date instead of five weeks early. After the first hour or so, I was joking that it was going to be an exciting day, but after a few more hours, I really started to worry. I started packing a hospital bag (which of course we hadn't packed yet), I had Jack get the infant carseat out of the attic just in case, and I generally felt helpless and broke down crying at one point. I just wanted the contractions to stop. Like with my first pregnancy, I'm used to having frequent Braxton-Hicks contractions, once or twice an hour for the last several months, but when they became this regular, it felt like my body was telling me it was time for labor. I desperately wanted it not to be time.

I had trouble getting in touch directly with anyone from the midwife's office (though I've since located the right number to call), but I did get in touch with my doula René, who suggested I go to the hospital to be checked out and reminded me that if I am showing signs of labor, they might be able to stop it, depending on the situation. Kent had just gone to bed, so we started calling friends, leaving several messages before our friend Mary, who had planned to watch Kent when we went to the hospital anyway, called us back and said she could come over while we went to the hospital.

We got to the hospital around 10, our doula met us there, and I got on the monitor, which confirmed my regular contractions. The nurse we got was terrific, very calm and down-to-earth, and she had me answer a lot of questions and give her a urine sample to make sure I didn't have a UTI or other complication that was spurring on labor. She checked my cervix after a while, and it wasn't dilated at all, not even a fingertip. Thank goodness. The contractions hadn't subsided, but in the absence of any other signs that I was actually in labor, the midwife on call had them send me home at about 11.

I know that a lot of women who go to the hospital and end up not being in labor feel silly, like they cried "wolf". Maybe if this happens again a month from now, I'll feel that way too, but when we left the hospital last night to come home, I just felt relief. Dean's not done yet. Mostly, I feel giddy and thankful, like we dodged a bullet. I also feel totally justified in hiring a doula this time, since we've had this nice practice run now, and I know how calming of a presence she is and how much better I felt just talking to her on the phone about what to do.

I had been anxious about flying to Maryland at 34 weeks, since that's right on the border of when most docs are comfortable letting their patients fly, and I had this irrational fear that I was going to go into labor during our three-day visit and then be stuck away from home with a newborn in the NICU. All through this ordeal yesterday, when I thought I might really be in labor, I kept thinking, "My gosh, we missed that by a day. Maybe it wasn't such an irrational fear."

And yet, mercifully, Dean is still inside. We got back home to his sleeping big brother around 11:15 and fell into bed, and by 3 a.m., my contractions had subsided. I had a great prenatal visit today in which I was reassured that I did the right thing. My game plan for the next couple of weeks is to take it easy and drink a ton of water. Midwife's orders. We'll see how much Kent cooperates with that. If only he were strong enough to open our fridge, I could teach him to get me a glass of water... that'll definitely be a useful skill for him to have once his baby brother is here and constantly nursing.

Labels: belly, Dean

• posted by erica 12/31/2009 08:32:00 AM
•  6 comments

We've had too much rain for several days, and this girl agreed. She decided to wait out tonight's storm in our carport, on the door frame of our outdoor closet. She was peering down at me very knowingly when I got in the car this evening (about three feet away from her) and was so motionless that at first I wasn't sure she was real/alive. She's still there right now, just looking around, waiting for the rain to stop. Aren't we all, darling bird? Yes, we are.

We had what I'd call a Mighty Fog roll in today, lingering throughout the morning and then getting thicker in the afternoon before the rain started back up. This second photo was taken at about 4:30 this afternoon.



Beautiful, peaceful, a little ominous... we went to pick Jack up from work shortly thereafter, and it took us almost an hour to get home because of the bad weather and related traffic. I was sure we were going to run out of gas before we got to the closest gas station to Jack's office, but somehow, we made it there, then got home and made dinner.

I kicked myself when I realized that, yet again, I had sabotaged myself from going to a birthing group I've been meaning to attend for about three months but keep getting mixed up about or otherwise can't go to. Tonight, my problem was that I thought it started later than it actually did. Maybe I'll make it in January...

I was very crabby while I was making dinner because I had really been looking forward to this meeting, but then after dinner, Kent asked to put his hand on my belly so he could feel Dean. I've tried to get him to do it in the past, but he's been completely uninterested or has pulled his hand away immediately, so I was kind of surprised that he even brought it up tonight. Kent stuck his hand right on the front of my belly, and within a few seconds, his baby brother nudged him right in the hand, almost like a bro high five. Kent got a huge smile and started laughing. He tried again a few minutes later and felt another little movement. I thought, "Okay, this is a big plus, and if I had to miss that meeting for this to happen, that's alright."

Labels: belly, Dean, Freude, Kent, photography

• posted by erica 12/14/2009 08:54:00 PM
•  1 comments

Yesterday marked our first family trip to a tree farm to pick out and cut down our own tree. Based on the size and type of tree we were able to get for the money, I think this is not going to be a family tradition. The Stupid American in me would rather get a prettier, larger tree at Lowe's than a tiny cedar that injures us when we try to decorate it. But this was really fun to do once. Maybe someday, we'll live somewhere with nicer native species, like Fraser Firs, and we'll know someone who'll let us just come cut down a tree for free? I just can't bring myself to go artificial.

We got a cute set of straw ornaments (hearts, stars, and rams) at IKEA this year so that we wouldn't need to worry about what was breakable, knowing that Kent would want to touch everything. I want to set up safe ways for him to explore when I can, and this was easy enough. I don't get too upset about not being able to put all my favorite ornaments on the tree every year, even though there are some that mean a lot to me. I was thinking a few days ago that when the boys are old enough to (1) help, and (2) care, it would be fun to have a year where we decorated with things like popcorn, cranberries, and pine cones, and maybe do a year just with origami ornaments. For now, the straw ornaments are doing alright by us, and since it's IKEA, we got a box of ornaments big enough to cover the tree and spent about $4. I believe someone commented recently that she loves Swedish Christmas. I'm there.



Here's Kent, trimming the tree. He decided he preferred hanging the ornaments on the light strand instead of on the branches, and since they're light and we're not using metal hooks, we indulged him this year. He'll get a safety lesson in the future.



Jack took some photos without flash to show the effect of how the tree looks, though I realize it's kind of dark and blurry. If you look closely, you may also notice a pregnant belly.

Labels: belly, holidays, IKEA, Kent, photography

• posted by erica 12/14/2009 11:13:00 AM
•  1 comments

I really have some catching up to do. I'm finally not sick, so today is the day.

I had some kind of weird illness I have no name for. It included exhaustion, all-over body aches, headache (and Tylenol, the only thing I can take right now, doesn't do a thing for my headaches), slight nausea/queasiness, low appetite, and other minor digestive issues. No fever, no congestion, and not food-related that I can tell. I got it Wednesday evening and had it for about three days (and I'm still not completely up to par today, but it'll do). Kent, being the resilient two-year-old that he is, had it for exactly one day, from sun-up to sundown on Friday. So this is how he and I spent our Friday:



Sleeping, watching movies, sleeping some more, snuggling, falling asleep yet again... he basically fell asleep everywhere I put him: at the table, on the sofa, on the floor, even on the bathmat during my shower. And he is *not* a child who normally falls asleep just anywhere. This photo is of him sleeping on the living room floor during Monsters, Inc.. Friday was a pretty easy day, and I was glad that Kent and I wanted to go about the same speed. Slowly, or not at all. That's what I'm talking about.

Friday night brought this hilarious exchange between the two of us.

Kent (to me): You are sick.
Me: You are, too.
Kent: I want you to be sick by yourself.

Nice, kid. Nice. I laughed at the time, but he got his wish the next morning.

It's hard to be sick while Very Pregnant. First trimester is one thing, with its own set of drawn-out challenges and horrible moments, but being in the third trimester adds other complications. For example, when I'm sick, I usually want to relax and lie very still in a dark room, and I find it difficult to be still or to relax with an alarmingly active, growing fetus tumbling around inside me. I've decided that Dean wants out, and he's attempting to make that happen by testing my abdominal wall for weak spots. He's much more active than I ever remember Kent being, which could partly be faulty memory/romanticization of first pregnancy, but I honestly don't remember ever feeling pain when Kent was moving around, and I'm definitely getting that this time. Supposedly it'll be over soon. I'm sort of hoping he'll be a healthy January baby instead of waiting until my due date or afterward to appear. Some people have said about his arrival, "Oh, maybe he'll wait until Jack's birthday!" (6 days after my due date) and I think, "No, please no!!"

Labels: belly, Dean, Kent, photography, under the weather

• posted by erica 12/13/2009 07:57:00 PM
•  3 comments

This is pretty much all you need to know about my day. Pregnant belly, cup of tea.

Finis

Labels: belly, photography

• posted by erica 12/10/2009 07:47:00 PM
•  3 comments

December began with a great 30-week prenatal visit, Kent's first visit to the midwife since the beginning of my pregnancy. He did a wonderful job of watching what was going on without grabbing things, listening to and then imitating Dean's heartbeat, and helping my midwife measure my belly (30 cm, right on track). He was sort of all over the place the first time he came to an appointment over the summer, but this time I was prepared with books and toys and had talked to him a lot about what to expect. He even called my midwife by name when she walked into the room. I think he'll be coming to a lot of my appointments from here on out, because they're generally short and also because I don't have much notice to get a sitter — though now that I know how well he did today, I'm not worried at all about bringing him back.

Tonight, we had an amazing dinner of Vietnamese spring rolls, edamame, crispy noodles, cream cheese wontons, and the perfect cup of hot tea. It didn't take me as much time or effort to get it all together as I had feared, and I somehow managed to do a delicate dance with two saucepans (one hot water, one oil) alternating on the same burner to get everything cooked. It wasn't out of necessity, it was just the one good burner that heats up really quickly, and it was nice to just leave it hot and cook things one at a time: rice noodles in water, then crispy noodles in oil, then fried tofu in oil, then edamame in water, then wontons in oil. Whew.

Sounds crazy, but I think I'm starting to perfect the spring roll dinner routine. My least favorite part is grating carrots (one of the things we stuff inside them), so I had Jack do that when he got home. Grating carrots really annoys me, probably because I grate my fingers pretty often, and because little bits of carrot go flying around the kitchen. I'm happy to marinate and fry the tofu, cook noodles, chop up all the other veggies and herbs, mix up a sauce, and make sides, but somehow, that carrot business is too much for me to handle. I'm eternally grateful to Nikki for introducing us to spring rolls and placing within my reach the ability to recreate them.

We opened the Advent calendar after dinner (Kent gets all the chocolate to himself, while Jack and I will eat better chocolate), hung up a few decorations including last year's cinnamon ornaments, and put in one of the Winter's Solstice albums from Windham Hill. It's low-key, mellow Christmas music, mostly instrumental, and yet Kent somehow managed to get revved up and ran furiously up and down the hall wearing a Santa hat while we listened to it. Now, he's a little quieter and is reading a stack of books with Jack so he can wind down before bedtime. We hope.

The highs and lows of Kent's energy level are astounding to me. He shifts from running and yelling to completely still quiet in about five minutes. The running and yelling is hilarious, but the completely still quiet is certainly easier to appreciate after a long day.

Labels: belly, Kent, kitchen adventures

• posted by erica 12/01/2009 07:45:00 PM
•  3 comments

I love the window into language development that Kent is giving me. Lately, I've been noticing the hilariously cute way he puts words together as he's starting to express more complex thoughts and comparisons. He's using "because" more. He still says "you" when he means "I" or "me," except in a few phrases like "Mommy I'm coming Mommy!" Note the repeated "Mommy." Very sweet. He also repeats "please" at the beginning and end of a request when we ask him to ask for something in a nice way, so he'll say, "Please Daddy I can have some more milk, please." His preposition usage is all over the place and makes me smile every day; yesterday, when he was up in his bed and I was sitting on the floor, he said, "K is high from Mommy!" and then crouched down and said, "K is LOOOWWWWWW from Mommy." When he's walking around with a shirt but no pants (usually after he runs out of the bathroom after using the potty), he remarks that he is "nakey of a bottom." I'm not sure if he means his actual bottom or just his bottom half, but he says it with a smile in a very amused voice, as if he knows exactly how funny he is without pants on. Nakedness in general makes him smile, no matter who's naked. When we were in North Carolina a few weeks ago and he went to help wake up my uncle one morning, he saw that my uncle wasn't wearing a shirt and said with a giggle, "Gruncle Mark is a little bit nakey!"

We're going to try out a free music class at Gymboree this morning, a class that's geared toward kids his age and older. I'm in a position right now where there are so many activities I think he'd be interested in, and so many different kinds of new toys I want to get him, that I really have to prioritize because we can't afford everything. Nor do I want to smother him with toys and keep him running from one activity to the next all week. But I have thought about how much he'd enjoy a tumbling class, or a swimming class... and of course music is fun for any kid, though I feel like music is the one thing I'm capable of teaching him myself, so a music class might get cut from the list.

Nesting for me is having a happy consequence for Kent: my renewed sense of artistic creativity. We're going to try fabric crayons today on a onesie and a bib for Dean — Kent will use the crayons to draw on a piece of regular paper, and then I'll iron the paper onto the fabric to leave the design behind. I'm excited to see how it turns out. The only problem is that I could only find Crayola fabric crayons, which don't work on 100% cotton, so I had to get a synthetic blend for my little babe. Poo. Luckily, the dollar store was happy to help me out.

I'm also feeling fall-y, wanting to bake some pumpkin bread with the pumpkin I cooked a couple of Sundays ago, and we need some decorations in our house besides the little gourds that I placed on top of some Halloween fabric on our dining room table. I've been thinking that it would be fun to try crayon shavings on wax paper to make stained "glass," and I realized last night that we could just use fall colors, then cut out leaf shapes from the wax paper after I iron it. I'll post pictures if any of these activities turn out well.

It's becoming more and more essential for me to figure out ways for Kent to help with things around the house, because I've noticed that he pushes his boundaries much harder if I'm occupied, and I in turn react with not-nice words and voice if I feel like he's interrupting something I'm trying to accomplish. It's a little bit him and a little bit me, exacerbated by pregnancy hormones. Even just letting him help for a minute makes a huge difference. Last night, he was restless and bored before dinner, so I asked him to count out three ears of corn from a bag and put them into the pot. Well, he thought he was hot stuff. He splashed water everywhere, but it so did not matter. He even told Jack when he got home that he had put the corn in the pot, like the old Shake 'n' Bake commercial where the little girl says, "It's Shake 'n' Bake, and I helped!!" I've tried getting him to help me sort the laundry, like asking him to find all the socks, but he usually ends up tossing stuff all over the floor or waving things around like flags. That's okay.

Dean is accumulating quite a little pile of clothes already, thanks to my mom, who loves to shop for tiny things. I think we actually have enough newborn-sized stuff now, and after a couple of months, it'll be warm enough here that Dean can wear the short-sleeved stuff Kent lived in for the beginning of his life. I might knit a couple more pairs of booties, a hat, etc., but I'm feeling less urgent about that stuff now that we have a stack in our "nest room" (formerly the guest room). We'll still need to get a couple of other things, like an extra base for the infant carseat; we didn't need one when Kent was a baby because Jack's car had no A/C and I wasn't going to put Kent in there, but now we actually have two comfortable cars. Radical concept.

I will now amaze myself and take a shower before 10 a.m. so that we can get our music on. Look at me go.

Labels: belly, craftiness, Kent, language, nesting

• posted by erica 10/15/2009 09:51:00 AM
•  3 comments

I made this wonderful pasta with roasted red pepper sauce the other night after coming home with a gorgeous basket of sweet peppers from the farmer's market. This photo is from the blog of the woman who wrote out the recipe, The Pioneer Woman, not from me — I actually didn't end up taking any pictures of my food this time! Her blog is really cool, and I love her high-res step-by-step photos of the dishes she makes. Visually inspiring, and her writing style is funny, sharp, and informative.

Jack and I loved the sauce, which has the bright orange hue of pimiento cheese (perfect for fall!) and tastes a bit sweet but complex. It's not something I'd want to eat every day or even every week, but it was a wonderful new recipe to add to our favorites. Our blender is pretty weak, so it didn't chop up the pine nuts very well and we ended up with crunchy bits in our sauce. I think I'll chop the nuts next time before adding them to the blender, because pine nuts in pasta can be really good, but this dish seems to warrant a smoother sauce.

I'd highly recommend trying this pasta with kids, and there are tons of fun shapes of pasta out there to experiment with. (That's another thing I loved about this blogger; she readily admits a weakness for cool shapes of pasta.) Kent only likes pasta with tomato sauce — he's the only kid I know who won't touch mac and cheese — so he wasn't a big fan, but I think there are a lot of kids who'd like it. I think that the next time we get a bunch of peppers from the market, I'll make a recipe of this sauce and just freeze it before adding in the cream. That way, I'll have some ready to defrost and add cream to whenever we want it, since we can't get fresh peppers year-round. The Louisiana growing season is long, but it's not THAT long.

In crafting news, the Dean sweater is almost done. All the pieces are completed, so they just need to be sewn together, and from thence the sweater shall eagerly await its host body. Okay, that sounds like some sort of symbiotic alien relationship or something. It's going to be a cute sweater, though.

Dean has been very insistent on making his presence known lately, so Jack got to feel his kicks for the first time this morning. He was going nuts in there. As soon as Jack felt him, he spontaneously let out this high-pitched, "DEEEEAN!!!" in appreciation. Such a sweet daddy. Soon, he'll be able to watch my belly move from across the room like we did with Kent.

My allergies are about the same. I took Claritin for two days but opted out of it this morning, and I feel roughly the same today as I did on Monday and Tuesday. Pharmaceuticals don't fix everything. Kent has been clingy, irritable, and rather coughy today, so I'm wondering if he's afflicted with the same allergies, but I'm not sure there's much of a way to tell whether a two-year-old has seasonal allergies. I'm wiped out and don't have much of an appetite, which seems weird for the second trimester, but I think I'll be better soon, and I'm hoping to shake this annoying cough soon, too. Bleh.

Labels: belly, craftiness, Dean, kitchen adventures, under the weather

• posted by erica 9/30/2009 05:19:00 PM
•  4 comments

It's a BOY!!!

Kent's guess was right! I think he would have been happy either way, since he doesn't really understand the implications of little brothers OR little sisters, but I know they're going to be thick as thieves in a couple of years. We're all really excited. Yes, I was hoping for a little girl as most of you know, but it's hard to be disappointed with anything but a perfectly healthy, active baby, which is exactly what we have. Colleen, our midwife, has two grown sons, and she talked to me a little about how at first she thought it was horribly unfair that she didn't have girls but how she learned to love it and knows that she was meant to have boys.

I told Kent in the car that he's the entire reason I'm excited to have another boy. When we found out Kent was a boy, I knew absolutely nothing about little boys and was pretty apprehensive about the whole thing. Now, I feel like we have the most amazing, loving, brilliant, and fun first child we ever could have hoped for, and I can't wait to see what his younger brother will be like.

His name is Dean Isaac, going by Dean. No funny middle name stuff this time, like we did with Kent... hehehe. Dean was giving us a goofy thumbs-up during the ultrasound, so I know he'll fit right in with our quirky little famiily, and we can't wait to meet him in February.

Kent has just learned to sit through an entire church service by whispering everything he needs and wants, from crayons to potty, so he was the model of good behavior and whispered the entire time we were in the ultrasound room too. He would just point at the screen from Jack's lap and whisper, "That's the BABY!" So cute, and so funny.

My friend Erin, who has a boy and is about to have a girl next month, believes very strongly that it's just as important for intelligent, strong women to have boys as it is for them to have girls — we could have given birth to a girl who'd run for president someday, but she'd also need a world full of men who are secure and sensitive enough to get her. I think Dean is the perfect addition to our growing family, perfect for us and perfect for Kent, and I'm trusting that we'll be the perfect parents for him as well.

And now, the photos...


Proof that he's a boy


A Dean foot


Here's his goofy thumbs-up, letting us know that everything is A-OK.


And here's a picture Jack took of me last night to show off my growing belly. My, how it's growing already.

Labels: belly, Dean, Kent, photography

• posted by erica 9/22/2009 02:54:00 PM
•  10 comments

I just read Anilia's post about Gratitude Friday and thought, "Hey, I need to do one of those, too!"

Today, I'm grateful for...

• the Lunch Fairy: going out to lunch with wonderful older women from my church who just adore Kent, then having one of those friends unexpectedly pay for my delicious shrimp poboy
• the Maternity Clothes Fairy: having a friend who surprised me with a large box of maternity clothes for me to borrow, including dresses, which I previously had none of
• the Federal Holiday Fairy: getting to spend three whole days with Jack at home before our trip
• the Fertility Fairy: feeling so happy to be pregnant again and so blessed to have an easy time getting pregnant when I want to
• the Craft Fairy: coming up with a random idea for a craft project with Kent and having it actually work out (see below)

I took apart some tissue boxes, and then Kent and I painted the "wrong" sides. After the paint dried, I glued them back together inside-out so that the painted side is on the outside, and now we have fun little boxes to hold some of Kent's treasures.


Kent seems to need two brushes to paint really effectively.


Aerial action shot of the artist at work


The finished boxes: Kent's on the left, and mine on the right. His focus was on getting as many huge globs of paint on the box as possible, even if they were right on top of each other, whereas my focus was on covering as much of the plain brown box as I could. I think I like his better, now that they're done. Lesson for today (which I sort of already knew but needed to be reminded of): let your kid paint the way he wants to, not the way you think he should, and he may actually teach you something. I'm grateful for that, too.

Labels: belly, craftiness, friends, Kent, photography

• posted by erica 9/04/2009 02:55:00 PM
•  4 comments

This afternoon's cravings: potato chips and pickles. Figuring out a dinner that went with those things was trickier than you might think, because I don't like deli meat right now and I really didn't think I was up for a hamburger or a hot dog. The winning solution turned out to be vegetarian chili and a baguette, plus a couple of potato chips on the side and a pickle for each of us. I haven't made chili in months, but it used to be a staple around here, so it came together really easily. A few cans of beans (including chili beans in sauce), a can of diced tomatoes, a cup of water, some cumin, chili powder, oregano, and s & p, and a cup of frozen CSA corn, all simmered for half an hour and then it was ready to be devoured. Cheese and sour cream necessarily sat atop the concoction. It reminded me of an evening when I was about 8 months pregnant with Kent and was using my belly as a chili shelf, resting the bowl on an unborn Kent while I ate dinner on the sofa.



It's odd to see pictures of myself so very pregnant, younger, and without glasses. I look funny.

I've started to feel the first Beta movements in the last week, and though Jack has tried, he can't really feel them yet. It's very faint, but unmistakable the second time around. I was probably feeling movements like this with Kent when he was 13 weeks along, but I wasn't sure what I was feeling until he was about 16 weeks and there was suddenly a really obvious jab.

I'm continuing to feel better, though I'm still taking Zofran every couple of days when the nausea hits. It's nothing like it was a few weeks ago, as you can tell from the fact that I'm cooking and somewhat excited about food again, and the fact that I'm blogging more often than once a month. I have "evening sickness" most days; I start to hit the wall around 4 p.m., and I often barely make it through dinner without feeling like I just need to lie down. The days when I actually buy groceries and then cook them are still somewhat rare. And there are still a lot of movies being shown in our house. I honestly never thought I'd show my two-year-old a movie almost every day, or let him eat french fries more than once in a great while, but oppressive heat that prevents one from going to the playground, coupled with general yuckola and lack of forethought with meals, have forced me to relax my standards somewhat. At least he's not drinking soda yet.

I am now going to finish off the last of the Cherry Garcia ice cream that Jack very lovingly bought for me earlier in the week. Good weekend to all.

Labels: belly, Beta, Dean, Kent, kitchen adventures, SAHM

• posted by erica 7/31/2009 08:15:00 PM
•  3 comments

1. A fun playdate with Noah today and some much-needed relief for his mom Sunny, who's dealing with many frustrating aspects of her husband's care and legal situation after he was hit on his bicycle by a Suburban two weeks ago.
2. The fact that I slept 12 hours last night; I fell asleep right after dinner and completely slept through Kent's bedtime routine, including the two books that Jack read to him in the bed right next to me.
3. How good it feels to cook breakfast again: bacon, eggs, and cheese on a croissant will be gracing my tummy several times this week.
4. The reinstitution of the nightly Dessert and TV ritual after Kent goes to bed, which had taken a few months off when I either didn't want dessert or just didn't want to stay up.
5. The red bootie on my knitting needles, which is the first thing I've sat down to make for Beta.
6. Lost. Jack has been geeking out, following everything that happened at Comic-Con, and can't keep himself from telling me all about it so that I will be as geeky as he is.
7. The Office. I can't wait for it to come back in September so that Pam and I can be pregnant together.
8. The way Kent looked today with watermelon juice dripping all over him. He doesn't like to be messy (e.g., he always wants to wash his hands after he colors with markers), so he insisted on taking off his shirt after it started to get wet, then wanted a bib so the juice didn't keep running down his little Buddha belly. Slurping watermelon, wearing nothing but a bright yellow diaper and a plastic bib. That kid just gets cuter and cuter.
9. Missing peaceful solitude a little bit. I might be starting prenatal yoga this weekend.
10. The fact that I never made it down to Florida to meet Jerry, Jack's step-grandfather, who passed away tonight, and the fact that his kids (not Jack's dad, but Jerry's birth kids) don't seem to care too much.
11. Love, compassion, forgiveness, hugs, and sharing. All the good stuff we need more of.

Labels: belly, Beta, Dean, family, Kent, what to watch

• posted by erica 7/27/2009 09:07:00 PM
•  2 comments

I needed to go visit my OB's office today to pick up a copy of my latest Pap smear report for the midwife, so Kent got to visit the hospital where he was born for a little while. We didn't see the doc because her nurse had everything ready for me to pick up, but I did show Kent pictures of her delivering other babies on their bulletin board and told him that the day he was born was just like that. Pretty fun, since we've been talking a lot about babies lately and what it's going to be like when our baby is born in February.

Most of the OBs in that practice are on the 5th floor, and we were riding the elevator with several other people going to various appointments. The elevator stopped on the 4th floor to let someone off, and then the lights flickered and the elevator shut down. The power was out. I can't express how happy I was that (1) we weren't stuck between floors, and (2) we had made it all the way to the 4th floor before the power shut off instead of me having to carry my two-year-old (who's not very fast with stairs yet) up four flights of stairs in my current state. Most of the lights came back on quickly, and we got to the nurse's office to pick up my paperwork, but the elevator was still out of service when we were done. That was fine for me — carrying Kent down four flights was easy enough — but I felt really sorry for all the people we met on the stairs who had just arrived for their appointments. Discomfort = being 7 or 8 months pregnant and trucking up four flights of stairs with your family for a prenatal appointment, or having just given birth and carrying your infant up four flights of stairs in your just-given-birth exhausted body for a postnatal follow-up.

I'm really excited about the midwives at the new office we've chosen for this pregnancy, but I still felt a pang of nostalgia at seeing my OB's nurse again and remembering all my prenatal appointments with them. It's funny to me that I feel guilty for switching primary care providers, when it's a decision that's totally up to me and shouldn't offend my OB, but I still haven't told her that I'm pregnant but not coming to see her this time. Coward.

Labels: belly, observations

• posted by erica 7/22/2009 12:23:00 PM
•  0 comments

Uncle Mark reminded me that I had been remiss in posting pics from Kent's birthday party, so here's the Picasa album of photos that my friend Mary took at the party. We didn't have our camera, so it was all her responsibility! Sorry it took me so long to post these, but they're here now for you to enjoy.

Reading email and doing online banking are my priorities during my very short computer time each day, before my stomach starts doing flip-flops, so I don't always get around to doing much else like blogging, photo downloading, facebook perusing, or even responding to all those emails. There are many emails that I haven't responded to yet; if you're one of the souls who has sent me an email that needs a reply (like Zack's email from a month ago — I'm sorry!!), and I haven't replied, it's because I'm pregnant, not because I don't like you. I'm so ready to be out of this stage. I had a fairly good weekend and even wanted to go eat Indian food for lunch yesterday, but I'm back to feeling funky today. I'm at 11.5 weeks right now, so I hope the sickies will be over soon. Lots of hope.

Labels: belly, Kent, photography

• posted by erica 7/20/2009 09:58:00 AM
•  2 comments

I'm missing my son's first fireworks because I'm sick and because it's stupidly hot outside. It's 8:45 p.m., and it's 93 degrees outside with a heat index of 99. What the #$%@? I've felt lousy all evening, so I'm at home with a bowl of Crispix, watching the episode of When Weather Changed History about the Challenger explosion. Interesting show, especially since I was only 5 years old when it happened and didn't really get the details at the time, but I'd much rather be watching Kent spazz out on the levee while watching the fireworks.

It was important to me that Kent still get to do it now that he's old enough to watch them, even if his preggo mom didn't feel up to it, so Jack took him a little while ago, and now I'm feeling sad and lonely. I wondered after they left whether there was a place we could have watched from the comfort of our car, but it's not really possible to get close enough to see and still escape the hoards of traffic, and it'll be way more fun for Kent to be out on the levee with his fun daddy anyway. And there will be more fireworks in years to come. I'm just bummed that I'm missing this. Oh well. Beta will get his/her first fireworks later, and at least I should be around for that, unless I lose my mind and decide to get pregnant again. Hey, future Erica, when you're reading this and reminiscing about pregnancy and tiny babies, remember that the first trimester is MISERABLE. SERIOUSLY. And you're older than I am now, so if you find yourself wanting a third child, you should probably adopt.

We got some disappointing news at the pharmacy today. I've been taking the generic version of Zofran, the best defense for most women against pregnancy nausea, for the last week and a half. It doesn't keep me from feeling queasy, but it does keep me from throwing up. I got my first round of 12 pills for less than $8, but I took my last one this morning, so I was ready for a refill. We went to pick them up this afternoon, and the pharmacist informed us that our insurance would only cover 12 pills every 23 days, and not enough time had passed yet, so we'd have to pay out of pocket. $120 for another 12 pills, I kid you not. How we go from $8 to $120 is a mystery to me, but it's completely frustrating. I didn't buy them. I figured I'd just deal with it until the middle of the month when I can get another refill, and Jack is going to call our insurance company to make sure that it's all true and to try to figure out if there's anything we can do besides lodge a serious complaint. I've not ever really felt like the victim of a stupid insurance policy before, but now, I'm upset. Are they thinking that I might only be sick on alternating days?? I'll probably only be sick for another month or so anyway; could I just get an advance on my future allowance? I know they wouldn't do that. Dumb, all of it. This is nothing compared to what Nicole has gone through for her insulin pump and supplies, or what people with expensive and very serious diseases like cancer have to endure, but I'm still questioning the wisdom of this policy, especially as it affects my ability to parent Kent and to feel like I'm maintaining my own health while I carry a baby.

So, uh, Happy 4th of July. I should just go to bed.

Labels: belly, holidays, Kent, what to watch

• posted by erica 7/04/2009 09:41:00 PM
•  1 comments