It's been forever since I have been consistant about writing in here, and that makes me sad.
However, there are many wonderful reasons that I have been too busy to get on here. I can name seven of them right of the top of my head.. hehe... but besides the children, there has been teaching.
Let me just say one thing... I love teaching. The girls I have in my class, 2nd - 5th grade, are so awesome. Although I feel like I am crazy busy, I wouldn't want to do anything else right now. I feel so blessed to get to be apart of all of their little lives.
The experience I am gaining from lesson planning (even if it's only one class) has helped build some confidence for future homeschooling.
The way I see it is, homeschooling will be easier, and harder than what I am doing now. At least I think so. Can't say from experience. The part I'd imagine that would be harder would be lesson planning for every class... and managing many grade levels... and doing it with my own kids might be a tad more difficult than someone elses. Being "stuck in the house" will be a bit challenging, because I seem to fall in that rut when we are all home, I don't get us out like I should. I will have to be organized and have a schedule... eek... and follow it! That will be hard.
The good thing, is the hard part isn't impossible and I feel that through the experience I will gain character, I'll have to! We'll grow as a family. Excited about that.
Now for the easier part.... there's a small little thing called "getting seven children out the door, fully dressed, fed, hair fixed, lunches packed, behavior sheets signed, hats-gloves-scarves (in the winter), shoes, backpacks, jackets... with out tears and earlier in the morning than I want to be rushing out the door" that I don't particularly enjoy. Not having to do that... well, that'd be easier. Before anyone says, you can get most of that stuff ready the night before... I do. It's still stressful. Worth it, but stressful.
Another easier thing. Since I do have smaller children, it would be nice to schedule school around nap and quiet times, or just during parts of the day that would make more sense. We will school year around, so if we don't get everything done in a day (although I will always try) it's ok. And *if* I have another baby, although that is not the plan at this point... then I won't be having to do (see above) with eight children, one being a newborn every morning.. haha... we could take a break for a bit. Also, having them in the classroom with me while I teach can be a tad overwhelming at times. I love having them with me, but the hard part would be that we are on a rigid schedule, I can't just stop teaching to deal with a kid and resume at a better time. I could do that at home.
My children will get a chance to learn about taking care of a home... right now with the hectic schedule there is not much time for them to do chores. Surprisingly, Katie is actually looking forward to that part. Although she does not like chores, she sees the significance of them and wants to make that part of life a habit. Right now it's hard.
The best best best part... family unity. I just feel we need this. As a family. With Steven working so much and I doing a lot of the taking care of the kids by myself it's caused some behavior issues to come up. Sometimes I feel it's the influence of friends, and other things, not just Steven being gone, just a lot of things... but I feel we have a very small window of time to shape their little lives. I can't wait to focus on that 100%.
The icing on the cake is Steven won't have to work so much!!! He can be around more.
We'll miss the church school soooo much and I know I'll miss teaching there, but we'll be around a lot. Who knows, we may only homeschool a couple years. We just know it's right for us right now.
I really do see God's hand in this. A few years ago if you asked me about homeschooling I'd look at you and say "NO WAY! I need a break from my kids, i couldn't handle it!!" Things started transforming in me a couple years ago. It started after I read I book called Family Driven Faith. It totally changed how I thought and did things. We started having family Bible studies together (I need to start doing that again!!!!) and praying together as a family.
My next thought on homeschooling was, that I felt it was one of the best options for our kids, but had no desire whatsoever. I was terrified of the possibility. Then the kids started asking to homeschool. We didn't feel that their reasons for wanting to homeschool were the right reasons and didn't feel it was time to pull them out yet. Steven started feeling the weight of working extra to pay for the school and asked me if I'd ever consider homeschooling. I still didn't want to even though I thought it might be best. I felt really guilty about that. In fact I thought about blogging about how guilty I felt that I didn't want to homeschool... I wanted to want to so bad. I didn't blog about it, though, because I was so ashamed that I couldn't say it.
It was May, this year. Something switched in me. I just said... Okay. We're going to do it. Steven got super excited. He really wants to be a big part of it. Having a high schooler, I'll need him to be a big part! I was still scared, but thought I'd start talking to people that are doing it successfully WITH a large family. I have many friends that are doing it and loving it at this very moment. Friends with 5, 6, and 7 children. If they can do it, and do it well... I can too! That's where it took off. I am now SO excited! I do have some healthy fear though.. haha... it will be a new experience and I know it won't be all sunshine and rainbows. The first year will be the hardest. We'll make mistakes with curriculum... some days things iwll just not work out. Overall though, from what I've heard, it will be very rewarding. Not only that, but a number of my homeschooling friends say they'd never want to (see above) every morning, haha!
It was just like God gave me what I needed when the time was right to be able to make this decision. It is well thought out, we've literally been discussing it for a few years and are not even rushing into it this year. With having Joshua being born in the summer and Steven still having to go to school a ton this year we just didn't feel it was the right time. Luckily the church school is an awesome place for our kids. :)
On a side note.... hat business is going great! It's like the first year, again! Last year was slow. I hardly have time to knit, but I am plugging away, slowly.
I started taking piano lessons with Wendy... I LOVE piano lessons. I really look forward to Fridays. :)
Oh and one more thing... instead of Thoughts on Thursday I am going to do Thankful Thursday, I got the idea from Bri, Shelby's daughter... it's such an awesome thing to do and I am totally doing it! It'll probably only happen like once every couple months, but so worth it!
Well, I better sign off for now... hoping I can get on here more often!
Wednesday, October 24, 2012
Monday, October 1, 2012
Joshua's Birth Story
This has taken me forever to write... but here's the best I can do!
Anyway, So.... on July 5, we went into the hospital for the induction.
I was dilated to 4cm when we got to the hospital. I might have been in early labor already, I was cramping and contracting all day on the 4th it just wasn't too regular. When I got to the hospital I was having some contractions but they weren't real consistant. They were just stronger than before.
The nurse asked me about my birth plan and I told her about the cord clamping thing (I wanted to not clamp the cord for 3 minutes so he could get as much of his cord blood as possible) and that I want the pitocin set real low. She set it on a 2.
It didn't really seem to affect my contractions a whole lot, they were not really more frequent but a little more regular. I probably sat that way for about 2 hours.
Next the anestesiologist (sp?) showed up for my epidural... I so wanted to try it natural, but I was SO worried about doing with pitocin AND I could tell with the little contractions i was having that it was back labor. They weren't real painful at all... just crampy, but my back was hurting pretty bad.
The epi went fine, at first, but then when I laid down my heartrate shot up to 120 and my bp dropped to 80 over something... um scary... and AWFUL. So they had to give me meds to make my bp go up... how ironic. It was awful. Steven and the kids said I lost all the color from my face, I felt nautious... and dizzy.. ick.
Then I felt GUILTY! Like such a wimp for needing the epi that I just put myself and poor Joshua through that! I have never had a reaction like that before.
At the same time my Dr showed up to break my water.. he said I was 5-6cm (with no pain up until that point!). After that the contractions sped up and were on top of each other. Then I was thankful for the epi. I don't know if I could have done it! I mean I know I could have, but they were constant! So they lowered my pit down to a 1 and that slowed them down. They were still pretty close together though... I think it was probably 3 hours before I was a 10... but right about that time Joshua's heartrate dropped down to a 60 which was scary. My Dr wasn't there yet, but I told the nurse that if things didn't change fast I was pushing the baby out!! Luckily she was a nurse experienced with delivering babies. Also, his heartrate went back to normal pretty fast. It just freaked me out for a second there. I felt so helpless!
Then the Dr got there and I pushed through 2 contractions and Joshua came out sunny side up! Little stinker... but it wasn't as hard as pushing Elise out so I was glad. I bet that is why my back was hurting.
The Dr put him on my chest... that was my first experience with that and it's SO wonderful! I can't believe I had 6 babies whisked away from me right after birth and didn't even know what I was missing! :(
He was slimy and gooey, but I didn't care. He screamed and screamed and screamed. He was NOT happy! LOL
He waited over 3 minutes and asked me if I was ready for him to clamp the cord... I felt happy with that (I don't think it was done pulsating at that point though) so I told him it was okay. Then I just held him for the longest time. He SCREAMED! Eventually the nurses took him from me to get him somewhat cleaned up and weighed and then gave him right back! He weighed 7lbs 5oz... same as his bday 7-5! :)
It was overall such a great experience and I felt a lot more in control of it... they asked ME what i wanted before they did everything compared to the past where they just ran the show. All it took was just speaking up and telling them what I wanted.
Also Katie and Danielle were in there the whole time... this is the 3rd sibling they have seen delivered. They did great. Katie had a moment of not feeling very well, but after some rest and food in her tummy she felt better. She was the photographer. Danielle was hilarious, had all kinds of funny stuff to say. Stinker. :)
My regrets of course were having to use the pitocin (probably breaking my water would have been enough) and of course the epi. Don't know what I'll do in the future if there's any more babies.... At this point I still think I'd get the epidural, but who knows, if I actually went into labor on my own mabye I coudl do it.
I really enjoyed the time in hospital, the food -- YUMMY!, the nurses... I just love them.... the time alone with baby, sleeping... It was all great. I miss it, haha!
I think that's it, in a nutshell!
Anyway, So.... on July 5, we went into the hospital for the induction.
I was dilated to 4cm when we got to the hospital. I might have been in early labor already, I was cramping and contracting all day on the 4th it just wasn't too regular. When I got to the hospital I was having some contractions but they weren't real consistant. They were just stronger than before.
The nurse asked me about my birth plan and I told her about the cord clamping thing (I wanted to not clamp the cord for 3 minutes so he could get as much of his cord blood as possible) and that I want the pitocin set real low. She set it on a 2.
It didn't really seem to affect my contractions a whole lot, they were not really more frequent but a little more regular. I probably sat that way for about 2 hours.
Next the anestesiologist (sp?) showed up for my epidural... I so wanted to try it natural, but I was SO worried about doing with pitocin AND I could tell with the little contractions i was having that it was back labor. They weren't real painful at all... just crampy, but my back was hurting pretty bad.
The epi went fine, at first, but then when I laid down my heartrate shot up to 120 and my bp dropped to 80 over something... um scary... and AWFUL. So they had to give me meds to make my bp go up... how ironic. It was awful. Steven and the kids said I lost all the color from my face, I felt nautious... and dizzy.. ick.
Then I felt GUILTY! Like such a wimp for needing the epi that I just put myself and poor Joshua through that! I have never had a reaction like that before.
At the same time my Dr showed up to break my water.. he said I was 5-6cm (with no pain up until that point!). After that the contractions sped up and were on top of each other. Then I was thankful for the epi. I don't know if I could have done it! I mean I know I could have, but they were constant! So they lowered my pit down to a 1 and that slowed them down. They were still pretty close together though... I think it was probably 3 hours before I was a 10... but right about that time Joshua's heartrate dropped down to a 60 which was scary. My Dr wasn't there yet, but I told the nurse that if things didn't change fast I was pushing the baby out!! Luckily she was a nurse experienced with delivering babies. Also, his heartrate went back to normal pretty fast. It just freaked me out for a second there. I felt so helpless!
Then the Dr got there and I pushed through 2 contractions and Joshua came out sunny side up! Little stinker... but it wasn't as hard as pushing Elise out so I was glad. I bet that is why my back was hurting.
The Dr put him on my chest... that was my first experience with that and it's SO wonderful! I can't believe I had 6 babies whisked away from me right after birth and didn't even know what I was missing! :(
He was slimy and gooey, but I didn't care. He screamed and screamed and screamed. He was NOT happy! LOL
He waited over 3 minutes and asked me if I was ready for him to clamp the cord... I felt happy with that (I don't think it was done pulsating at that point though) so I told him it was okay. Then I just held him for the longest time. He SCREAMED! Eventually the nurses took him from me to get him somewhat cleaned up and weighed and then gave him right back! He weighed 7lbs 5oz... same as his bday 7-5! :)
It was overall such a great experience and I felt a lot more in control of it... they asked ME what i wanted before they did everything compared to the past where they just ran the show. All it took was just speaking up and telling them what I wanted.
Also Katie and Danielle were in there the whole time... this is the 3rd sibling they have seen delivered. They did great. Katie had a moment of not feeling very well, but after some rest and food in her tummy she felt better. She was the photographer. Danielle was hilarious, had all kinds of funny stuff to say. Stinker. :)
My regrets of course were having to use the pitocin (probably breaking my water would have been enough) and of course the epi. Don't know what I'll do in the future if there's any more babies.... At this point I still think I'd get the epidural, but who knows, if I actually went into labor on my own mabye I coudl do it.
I really enjoyed the time in hospital, the food -- YUMMY!, the nurses... I just love them.... the time alone with baby, sleeping... It was all great. I miss it, haha!
I think that's it, in a nutshell!
Beautiful Baby!
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