Annalee's Birth

May 11, 2011, Wednesday
My mom arrived Monday afternoon, because I though I was in labor. She had just gotten home from her mission on Friday, unpacked, had a family dinner, and then got on a plane to fly to Montana for me.
I had already had a false alarm the week before and Joy had flown up to spend a few days with me...no labor came, we had a marvelous time though, she helped encourage me, and helped keep my mind off of why I was not in labor. Since all of my other babies (except Sam) had been early, It was really wierd for me to go to my due date (May12) and I was a little nervous as to why I wasn't going into labor.
The Plan:
was that I would have a midwife come to my house and help me deliver this sweet new baby that I had been anxiously awaiting. But the best laid plans often find a way of going awry. So it was in this case. Saturday after Joy went home, Ryan took me out to dinner at Chili's. I got a phone call that the midwife would not be able to attend my birth. So...I was on my own. I have all the equiptment that most homebirth midwives have, oxygen, pitocin, resuscitation equiptment ect. Ryan was a little nervous, but I was determined to stay in control and have a nice, easy birth. One I was in control of, with no one telling me I was doing it wrong, or "encouraging" me to do what my body wasn't telling me to do. I got my wish. I had the most perfect birth. I listened to my body. I learned how strong my instincts are. I felt just what they baby needed me to do and felt like I could tell the baby what to do. It was so amazing! Ryan felt calm and was such a strength to me the entire time. It was the greatest experience we have ever had. I hesitated to share it, because I think you needed to be there to understand just how simple and natural and calming it was to give birth to Annalee. She has truly changed our family. And the experience of having her has made me a calmer, stronger, more settled woman.
I was woken with contractions in the middle of the night after I had gone on a really long walk the night before. I was able to go back to sleep though, and since I had thought that I was in labor a couple of times before, and it panned out to nothing, I didn't get too excited. By 6:00 am when Ryan got up though, the contractions were every 10 minutes, and they were real. I got up and figured they would go away as I got the kids ready for school, but they didn't. Ryan went to work to get his crew off and I got my crew onto the bus. Except Sam. He really wanted to stay home. That proved to be a good decision. My house was spotless and it felt so good to be where I was so comfortable, when I had those contractions that lasted a good full 2 minutes. Inbetween contractions I was able to laugh, joke, walk, and be normal, but during those 2 minutes, I had to rock , sway, and focus completely.

I tried jumping on the trampoline with Emma, but that was no good, it hurt too bad. I did play with the girls outside, and laughed at them trying to catch the ducks.

It was intense, but I had good breaks inbetween. The contractions only came every 10 minutes. Good, and bad. I knew they had to get closer in order for me to have a baby, but I hated the thought of them coming closer.

Finally, I decided that I really needed to have them come closer and just end this. I went inside after a 30 minute nap in the sunshine, to get my shoes, and the contractions hit me full force. I rocked on the green couch and tried a little back pressure from my mom and Ryan. It helped a little, my water broke here, but I decided that the tub is what I needed. So in I went.

In the tub, It was easier to deal with the contractions. Mara and Ryan poured water over my back the whole time, and it helped greatly. Sam took Emma downstairs to watch Strawberry Shortcake, she was asking a lot of questions and I needed to focus, I was glad he was there to do it. I was only in thetub about 15 minutes and I felt like I needed to push with the contractions. I checked, and I wasn't quite complete yet, I still had an anterior lip. With Emma, they made me push with an anterior lip, and it took 45 minutes of pushing, laying down in bed. This time with Annalee, I sat on the toilet and had three contractions, checked and I was complete. There was a bulging bag of water that broke on the toilet, and felt her head at my pubic bone. It needed a little help to get through, so I stood up and pushed with the contraction just until the head was passed my pubic bone, then I waited. I told Ryan she was coming, he got a towel, and with the next contraction I let her just gently come on her own without pushing. The next contraction, her body came, her daddy caught her and handed her to me.

I suctioned her out, and sat down. I asked for towels, to dry and stimulate her, and then I asked for the stethoscope to make sure her heart and lungs were good. She was amazing. I was shocked at how small she was. I thought for sure that going to her due date would make her as big as Sam(8lbs 2 oz) But she was so long and skinny. I couldn't believe it was a girl. I was so glad!

Mara was the best helper ever. She got so excited when she saw the baby that she ran down to tell Sam and Emma to come! Emma was traumatized about the cutting of the umbilical cord, so we had much explaining to do. I forgot in all my educating of her that she might find that scary, she was sure we were cutting the baby. We got it all squared away though, and she eventually understood that it was okay to cut the cord.

After the placenta, I got to bed while Ryan cleaned up the baby a little. She was so perfect.

We put her in the sling...

And weighed her...5lbs 14 oz

Then we measured her....19 inches

Couldn't have done it without the calm strength of my great husband and daughter, and the gentle encouragement of my mother and Becky.

{First Bath}

One, only one of the perks of homebirth is how involved the kids get to be. When it was time to wash Annalee's hair for the first time, Mara and Emma did it! It was so fun! We made a little mohawk on the top of her head and Emma was so excited. Annalee does have quite a bit of hair, and it is really long in the back. We couldn't find the "glue" for her bow, so that will have to wait for tomorrow, but she will get one tomorrow.

Look at all my girls!!

Who woulda thought?

Sister love!

Annalee Joy Arkoudas

Here she is!

Annalee Joy Arkoudas

May 11, 2011

1:34 pm

5# 10 oz

19 inches long

Everyone is as pleased as punch with her!

We love her mucher!

Newest Attraction on the Farm...Ducks!

Just because...Noah's class had these two ducks as class pets. Noah has wanted ducks for a long time and when he asked his teacher what she was going to do with them, she said he could have them...Thanks! Just what we need. She is so thoughtful.( I am being sarcastic) Ducks are like the dog. They really have no purpose, except they are really stinking cute waddling around and it makes my heart all warm when I see the girls out chasing them around the yard trying to catch them. The kids asked if they could fill up the pool with water for them and when I went to see how the ducks liked it, I found all the kids sopping wet with them. Oh! Life on a farm. I don't know why it brings me such joy, it just does!

"Their so fluffy!" (Despicable Me)

Pheasant Anyone?

Last night I woke up because the baby was moving so much. Then I started to have contractions. Don't get too excited, they stopped completely. Still no baby. But while I was laying there, I heard sounds like the kids were opening their closet doors. It was a loud rumble and it happened more that once. I was a little scared to get out of bed to investigate, but really didn't want to wake up Ryan so I went in search. The closet doors were just as they had been when we went to bed and there were no intruders. Wierd, but I had a lot of other things on my mind, like am I in labor or is this going to stop, and e-mails that I needed to send... you know all those things that consume your mind. Then in the morning as I was fixing Sam's breakfast I heard it really loud again. (Ryan of course had left for work already) It was coming from the fireplace. It was so loud and so big I knew for sure it couldn't be a squirrel or a bird. I was pretty sure it was a cougar! It was that loud. Sam opened th fireplace to see if he could look up and see something stuck. I could just see some cat, or racoon or skunk jumping out at him. I promptly made him close the doors and just call his dad.
After all the kids had left for school, I saw in the fireplace this sight.....

Really a phesant. Are you kidding me. What am I supposed to do with that? At the moment he is trying to get out and making ashes fly all over my living room. Seriously! If I was a true pioneer I would totally see this as a blessing from heaven and cook it up for dinner tonight. But since I am really just a city girl who loves to pretend to farm, I just called Ryan and told him to come home and take care of it. I am getting week in my last stages of pregnancy...What can I say?

Update. I got tired of the phesant kicking ashes all over my living room, and at 10:00am Ryan still had not been able to come home. So I took matters into my own hands. Mara opened the front door. I dorned heavy leather gloves, opened the fireplace and after much grabbing and wrestling and spraying of ashes finally got hold of that little man and out the door he went. Emma said " And don't come down our chimney again!" If you happen to see a phesant with a few less tail feathers, that'd be the one that had a rondevous in our fireplace.

{National Junior Honor Society}

Last night Sam got inducted into the national junior honor society!

Way to go Sam! Receiving his card and certificate.

Swearing in.

"Divide and conquer" seems to be the theme of our lives lately
Max had a baseball game that Ryan had to coach, so I took the girls and Noah to Sam's induction.
Love that Sam of mine!
So proud of him!
And we can ask now! Will the baby ever come?

A "Suvvy" Girl One

Emma still has all of us calling soft, fluffy things "suvvy". click here So when I made the boy blanket with "suvvy" material on the back, everyone thought it was better than the girl one, so I had to make a girl "suvvy" one to be fair. I love the monkeys and so now the boy blanket and girl blankets are equally "suvvy" and there is no discrimination. Now to just get that baby here so we can see which one to use.

Really!

Things like this happen so often to me that I think they are common to all. I am just now starting to think that maybe it is just me.

I had to get pig food. They were completely out and Ryan is so so busy at work and the feed store where we get the food is only open until 5:00p.m. So yesterday I set out in my parents farm truck to get 1,000 lbs of pig food. After purchasing the food and having it loaded, I got in the truck to head for home. Only except the truck wouldn't start. Oh! Goody for me! It has this problem from time to time, and it can easily be fixed if you just crawl under the truck and bang on the starter. Easy enough if you are not more pregnant that you have ever been! I have to admit, I attempted. I got down on my knees and contemplated how I could shimmy on my back with a big ol' belly. Then I got a mental image of me stuck under the truck and unable to get back out! Really! It made me laugh. Then in desperation, I saw a man waiting for his animal food to be loaded. I walked over and with a tiny 1/2 inch cresent wrench (that's all I had) politely asked if he would crawl under my truck and bang on my starter! He looked at the wrench and laughed. Went to the back of his truck pulled out a massive monkey wrench and crawled under my truck to bang on the starter. She started right up. I think he was thinking "there is no way this is going to work" because the look of surprise on his face when it actually started was priceless.
I should also mention that his belly was not much smaller than mine, so maybe he was thinking "what the heck! why don't you just do it?"

Like I said...I am pretty sure these things only happen to me...I hope you laughed! Because I am still laughing about it!

To Baby...

Okay little one. The laundry is washed, folded and put away. The floors are swept and mopped. The bathrooms are all clean. The house completely vaccumed. The closets all cleaned and drawers all organized. The diapers are washed and folded awaiting your arrival. The blanket is made. The new outfit found. The kitchen is spotless, all countertops cleaned off and organized. Meals are made and put in the freezer. The chicken coop is cleaned. The barn is cleaned. The garden is planted with all that can be put in. The yard is raked and the patio table set up. Under the sunroom is all cleaned out and the winter dirt swept away. The pigs have food. The sun is shining. Please come before I have to redo all that work again!

Boy or Girl???

Just waiting to see if it is a boy or a girl!

The kids all think the boy blanket is cuter, so the baby should be a boy. I must admit I like the boy one better, but we will see! Soon!