So apparently I am supposed to keep Steph's birthday a secret...or maybe just a secret from restaurants who may or may not sing and give you cake.
And I am not supposed to embarrass her with a big, long, emotional blog post about how kind and sweet and loving and smart she is.
However, I could not let this day pass by without taking the opportunity to say Happy Birthday to the best sister-in-law a woman could possibly have. She is truly my best friend (outside of my husband of course) and I feel so blessed to have her in my life.
My BABY turns two today...how did that happen? It seems like just yesterday I was trying to force him into nursing just a little while longer, and now look at him--he's up and beating up his older siblings!
In honor of his 2nd birthday, I think I will post Samuel's birth story on here...after all, I didn't start blogging until he was almost 6 months old and his birth story is quite fun. Now some of you have heard this story dozens of times and so you may wonder why I am bothering writing this on here now...well, it's MY blog and I feel like remembering it today, so there!
Hmmm...where to begin.
Let's see... in October of 2006, I took the kids to their weekly visit with their birth mom. As was our routine, Honor and I ate lunch with Grandma. I mentioned to her that I was feeling a bit queasy, but it could possibly be because I hadn't eaten anything that day. Her immediate response, "maybe you're pregnant." Until she said that, I honestly hadn't thought about that--after all, I wasn't even late yet. But the thought had been implanted and so I figured, I might as well take a test.
Now you must understand that with Honor, I took 3 tests at home, and a test at the doctor's office before a blood test came back as questionable. The next test finally came back positive--I was 8 weeks pregnant. So I was sure I was being premature with taking a home pregnancy test, but I've always been a woman of action.
Lo and behold, a FAINT line appeared. I barely saw it. I was sure I wasn't pregnant, but the box said if there was ANY line at all, then I was pregnant. I called First Response. They assured me that if there was a faint line, I was pregnant. Huh. This was truly an unexpected blessing. We were in between insurances at the time...
I called up Daddy at work and shared the good news. His reaction was similar to mine. Huh. Well, we'll have to figure out something for insurance than.
Unlike with Honor, Daddy wasn't able to go to all of Samuel's OB appointments. I usually scheduled them for visit days and took Honor with me. She liked to listen to his heartbeat. When it came time for the ultrasound, we were ecstatic to learn we were having a boy. Finally we could use the other name we had been saving for two years "Samuel Ai"--Samuel: Asked of God. Ai: My dad and brother's middle name, Biblically: heap of ruin (yeah, I know...), Japanese: LOVE (we go with the Japanese meaning...).
However, there was a problem. He was REALLY big. They told me that thought he was macrosomic. They were actually surprised that I did not have gestational diabetes. They decided that I needed to have an ultrasound at every appointment to keep track of his growth. They told me if he went past a certain size they would need to schedule a C-Section. I even got a 3-D ultrasound--how fun! And fairly accurate too!
Other than that, my pregnancy was textbook perfect--until the last month. Just like with Honor, I got pregnancy-induced high blood pressure with Samuel. Honor's was worse--with her, I had every single symptom for pre-eclampsia except protein in the urine (which is why I wasn't diagnosed with it). With Samuel, I simply got dizzy a lot and my blood pressure was never at normal. The lowest it got was barely acceptable (140/80 at resting). My regular readings were 165/110 (after resting).
However, although my symptoms weren't AS bad for Samuel as they were for Honor, I was more worried--what if I passed out at home with three toddlers running around? Where as for Honor, we were less than 15 minutes from the nearest hospital, the nearest hospital to us here was 45 minutes away. I started begging to be induced. After all, they said he was big anyway--why risk my health? My OBs did not want to induce. Finally a week before my due date, they agreed to "hurry things along". I went into the hospital on Friday night fully anticipating staying. They were going to give me cervix softening gel and that should induce labor. It didn't. We stayed there from 7 pm until 11 pm with no noticeable change. I was contracting, but the contractions weren't doing anything. They sent me home with an Ambian (sleeping pill) and told me I wouldn't wake up for at least 6 hours. I was ecstatic--Samuel had spent most of his time inside dancing on my bladder and I had been waking up every 2 hours for a while.
They scheduled me for a full induction at 10 pm on Saturday night. I was looking forward to an entire day laying in bed upstairs being waited on hand and foot. We got home at midnight and at 3 in the morning, I woke up and had to use the restroom. I was really mad because I was "promised" 6 hours of no-pee sleep. I was having contractions, but the contractions at the hospital weren't doing anything so I figured these were nothing also. I took a bath to try to get them to stop, but they didn't. At this point I was getting really mad because the Ambian wasn't working!
I went back to bed and asked Daddy to give me a glass of ice water because I thought maybe I was dehydrated and that's why they weren't stopping. He noticed that I looked like I was in pain and asked me how far apart the contractions were. I told him I hadn't been timing them because they weren't doing anything so it was pointless. Well he started timing them based off my facial expressions and they were 2 minutes apart. I went and took another bath. At 4:30 Daddy called the hospital and asked them if we should come in. They asked how far apart the contractions were and if they were getting increasingly painful. He said, "well, she's crying in the bathroom". So they told him to bring me in. Neither he or I thought I was in active labor (we were induced with Honor and they had given me an epidural early on due to my BP so we didn't know what to expect. Plus we had been having contractions at the hospital and they didn't do anything!). We thought when we got back there we would be maybe at a 4 or 5 cm and they would try sending us home again. Luckily my mother-in-law had spent the night!
We left at 5:00 am and I was in a lot of pain...I was acting just like in the movies: "Don't touch me! Don't look at me! Stop the truck I want to get out and walk!" etc. (No cursing though...and I didn't blame him--although I did tell him he was going over WAY too many bumps.) Unfortunately, we weren't prepared and Daddy had to stop for gas. I yelled at him the entire time that he was taking too long. I began taking my seat belt off every time there was a contraction and then quickly rebuckling it. I made him run the last two lights (it was 5 am on a Saturday--no one was awake!). I put my feet up on the dashboard--it felt more comfortable that way...what I didn't realize until later was that I was preparing to push!
It got worse when we got to the hospital. We arrived at 5:40 am. I got out of the truck and walked into the ER while he went to park the truck. I was literally screaming at the registration people to get me up to a room. They asked my name and I yelled my name, my social security number and my birthdate (thankfully there was only one elderly woman in the waiting area who was looking at me like I was crazy). I began lying down on the floor--rolling around like a beached whale whenever a contraction hit. Daddy was thoroughly embarrassed, but I did NOT care.
It took about 10 minutes for the wheelchair from upstairs to get downstairs while I yelled at them that I needed pain medication NOW. The nurses upstairs were thinking I was maybe at a 6 or 7. I got to the room at 6:00 and I was 10 +2! They actually had to make me wait 15 minutes while they tried to get an IV in me because I was Strep B positive and they wanted at least one dose of antibiotics to the baby. They also put a short-term epidural in really quick to get my BP down because they didn't know how long I would push and they were scared I might have a stroke. Well 3 pushes later he was out. He was bruised from being pushed out the birth canal so fast, but otherwise he was beautiful and very healthy.
Official time of birth: Saturday, June 23, 2007 at 6:17 am. He was 9lbs 3oz and 22in.
They kept us in the hospital for 48 hours to make sure that he didn't have any effects from the strep which was nice since I got to spend a lot of one-on-one time with him. The hospital was VERY nice and quiet which I NEVER get at home. And THAT is the story of Samuel's birth... And since he looks so much different now...here are a few pictures :-D.
So, I was lying on my back on the floor when my girls decided they wanted to "wash" my belly. They proceeded to lift up my shirt, exposing my belly button and the bottom part of my stomach, which I keep hidden as a general rule.
"Mommy! Why do you have all those scratches on your belly???" they asked, horrified.
I smiled. "Well, Honor, those marks on my belly came when you were born."
"Oh." Honor said very seriously. "Our nails are very sharp. We need to get them cut!"
Since Connor got his "Jedi sword" (or light saber as the rest of the English speaking world calls it), his "old" sword got passed down to Samuel. Samuel calls this sword his "ching" because of the sound swords make when they hit each other (the sword has a button on it that makes that "ching! ching!" sound). Samuel is quite the little sword fighter. He always manages to disarm Connor--and injure any other poor, unsuspecting child in the vicinity.
This evening, Honor wanted a sword too.
"Okay" I said and I went to our stockpile of newspapers. I rolled one up, duct taped it and told her it was a "Darth Maul" sword since it was exceptionally long and the only real way to hold it was in the middle. She thought this was really cool...for about 30 seconds. Then she did battle with the boys. The Darth Maul sword did about as well as a paper sword can do against a plastic sword. Honor got frustrated.
"I want a sword!"
"You have a sword. Mommy made you a nice sword." Daddy answered in a mocking voice (since the kids don't understand sarcasm yet). Daddy called me a "cheapskate" for my ingenuity...can you believe that???
"It's not a sword! It's paper!"
Hmmm...so no one plays pretend anymore, huh?
"Well, play with it anyway...that's the sword you were given." Thanks for the encouragement Daddy.
The kids played for a few more minutes. Then Honor started talking about how wonderful her sword was.
"I've got a Darth Maul sword! My sword's the best!"
A few moments later, I heard Honor being "kind".
"Here Connor. Do you want to trade? I'll let you play with my Darth Maul sword if you want..."
Connor takes after his Mommy. We are both a bit gullible... (I once traded my brother a fifty cent piece because he convinced me that a penny was made out of gold and so it was worth more...)
A few more "quiet" minutes went by. Then Samuel started panicking, "My ching! My ching!"
"What is going on??!!" Daddy asked...he doesn't like to hear Samuel upset--he's his baby after all...
It was clear what had happened. Connor had tried to "trade" with Samuel. Samuel did not want to trade. The "Darth Maul sword" was left pitifully alone on the floor by the couch while the two boys wrestled over the "ching". Daddy took Samuel's side.
"Connor, you made the trade with Honor fair and square. Samuel doesn't understand trading. You give him back that sword and play with the paper sword."
Connor cried and gave Samuel back the "ching". Samuel promptly hit him on the head. Connor cried some more, thus ended the evening of swordplay.
When I tuck my kids in, I like to play with them 1:1 for a few minutes. Connor is always fun. Today, as I was tucking him in for his nap, I began pretending to nibble on his arm.
Mommy: "mmmm...yummy! Corn!"
Connor (laughing hysterically): "That's not corn! That's my arm!"
Mommy: "Are you sure? It sure looks like a piece of corn to me..." and I continued nibbling up and down from wrist to elbow and back.
Connor: "No! (insert more giggles) That's not a piece of corn! It's a piece of...junk!"
So...we did it. We took Honor and Connor to Disneyland. We had been planning the trip for almost 6 months so it was almost over too soon. Daddy and I had been wanting to take the kids to DL when they turned five, so when one of my good friends that I never get to see (she lives in Florida) told me (back in Nov.) that she was going to be in CA this week for a wedding. Not wanting to pass up a chance to meet up with her when she was only 1/2 a day's drive away, I said, "Hmmm...Daddy and I have been wanting to take the kids to DL...maybe we could all meet up there together???" And thus our plans began.
Had we been going just for our family, of course we would have waited until August 17th and saved ourselves $120, but we were going to see "Aunt" Cindy (she was one of my bridesmaids afterall...she's earned the right to be referred to as "Aunt"). So we made the trip during my husband's busiest time at work (he's self-employed)...and boy I am glad we did. We had a wonderful time!
We decided to allow Ariana and Samuel to spend a couple of nights at Grandma's house...no need for them to know that they were missing out on anything--Grandma's house is a blast! We had debated taking Ariana since she is REALLY into princesses right now, but we decided that a. she would tire out and may not make it a full day, b. she probably wouldn't remember the trip, and c. it is safer to have one child per adult. In the end, I did offer her the choice to come: "Would you like to go to Grandma's house or Disneyland?"..."Grandma's house!" (and just to be on the safe side...) "Would you like to go to Disneyland or Grandma's house?"..."Grandma's house!" So you see, in the end, she preferred Grandma's house anyway!
So, after dropping Jasmine off at Aunt Steph's house (THANK YOU AGAIN STEPH!), and watching Grandma drive away with Ariana and Samuel (Honor was in the driveway with me when they left. Before they had even made it to the neighbor's driveway, Honor announced in a very dramatic little voice, "I miss Ariana."), we began our journey to DL. It took about 7 hours...that included stopping for dinner. Not bad. The kids were fantastic! The car as very quiet with two missing children!
The kids were almost as excited about sleeping in a hotel as they were for DL. Daddy tried to persuade them that this was their final destination, but they refused to be fooled. Oh well.
Our hotel was within walking distance of the park. We met up with Aunt Cindy and her parents and walked for a short 15 minutes to the park gates. Once inside, my child-friendly friends decided we should immediately head over to Fantasyland to try to catch the "kid" rides before the lines got too long.
We walked through Sleeping Beauty's castle (and took a picture) and headed for the Pinocchio ride. Pinocchio. The kids love Pinocchio. This should be a great "practice" ride...right? WRONG! This was a sweet little inside train ride that took you past all the scariest scenes in the movie...complete with the "donkey" scene where they yelled "you are such a donkey" but with the much less "kid-friendly" wording that they use in the movie. Couldn't they have left that one little phrase out? Anyway...suffice it to say, Conor said he wasn't scared, but I have pictures to prove otherwise. And Honor...well Honor screamed and cried the entire ride and it was VERY difficult to get her to agree to go on anything else for a while.
Next we went on Dumbo...Honor screamed the whole time that she didn't want to ride on the elephants. However, towards the end of the ride I could tell she was enjoying herself despite her best efforts. To placate her, we then took her on the carousel. She enjoyed that immensely and the rides after that weren't too bad.
And then we went on the most infamous ride at DL: "It's a Small World" Not surprisingly, the kids LOVED it. Honor especially loved all the dancing dollies. She was funny though. This is how she chose to ride the ride:
We rode on quite a few rides--there were only two that we rode that the kids were too small for--"Indiana Jones" and "Space Mountain". Thankfully Aunt Cindy didn't want to ride those either so she and her mom and dad took them to shows/Alice in Wonderland ride to allow us our "adult" rides. We were very grateful to them for that!
The kids really liked "Pirates of the Caribbean" which was Daddy's favorite ride when he was little. But their favorites were the "Star Tours" ride and the "Buzz Lightyear" ride. Surprisingly enough, these were the only two that Connor cried out of fear. He LOVES anything related to Star Wars or Buzz Lightyear, but seeing them on tv and seeing them in real life are two different things. He walked into both of these rides and started panicking. Daddy and I were able to calm him down by calling C-3PO a "robot" and then everywhere he looked he saw "Wall-Es".
The Star Tours ride was cute. We got on this little "rocket" and then the screen opened and a robot told us that we were going on a space tour to Endor. Of course, there was a malfunction and we ended up getting attacked by storm troupers, etc. before finding our way "back" to the space landing. When we got out of the rocket, Honor looked at me wide-eyed and asked, "Where are we now, Mommy?"
Buzz Lightyear was also fun. Honor out-scored Connor by 1000 points, besides acting scared the entire ride. Daddy WAY outscored Mommy... oh well.
At lunch time, we ate at the Jedi Training site. It was really cute! I wish we would have known about it earlier...we would definitely have tried to get Connor up there!
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Around dinner time, we stood in line for almost an hour waiting to see the "Disney Princesses". It ended up being worth the time to get cute pictures of the kids with "Belle", "Pocahontas" and "Ariel", but it was a LONG wait. We didn't know it, but apparently they change up the princesses every few hours and you never know which ones you are going to get. The poor woman (and little girl) in line in front of us had been there a whole week and hadn't seen Aurora or Cinderella...and she missed them again! Apparently they won't tell you ahead of time so there was no way to know without waiting in line...of course, you would think she could have just asked someone coming out of the exhibit??? The funniest part though was the poor little boy in line behind us. They waited in line for a full hour before finding out that the line was NOT for a ride, but just to see the princesses...you should have seen their faces!
We got the kids "mouse hats" with their names on it (Honor's was pink of course), and Aunt Cindy got them a couple of souveniers while we rode Space Mountain (she spoils them so!)...Honor has yet to put down her Minnie Mouse doll and Connor constantly wants to use his "light saber". He and Samuel have had some "epic" battles since we've been home...
While we were riding our last ride: "Autopia", the fireworks began. The kids enjoyed them, even though they didn't have a clear view of them. We will definitely have to go somewhere for Independence Day this year!
At about 9:15 (when the park closed), we walked the LONG , EXCRUCIATING 15 minute walk back to our hotel. The kids were asleep almost before they could put their pajamas on. We weren't far behind.
The ride home was just as nice as the ride there.
We had a wonderful time and can't wait to try again when Samuel turns five.
. Honor decided to look at the Sunday Toys R Us ad from our newspaper.
"Mommy I would like the pink camera, the pink car and the Cinderella doll and the Sleeping Beauty doll." (Yes, we have explained "Thou shalt not covet" to her...she doesn't get it...)
"Honor, you won't be getting the car. It is much too expensive. However, we might get you one of the other things when it is your birthday."
Quiet for a minute.
"Mommy. I think tomorrow should be my birthday."
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Driving home after eating lunch at Aunt Steph's house (as we pass BK):
Ariana: "Mommy. I want Burger King."
Mommy: "Ariana! We just had lunch at Aunt Steph's!"
Ariana: "But I'm hungry!"
Mommy: "No you are not. You just ate lunch and we are NOT stopping at Burger King."
Honor: "That wasn't lunch, Mommy. That was our second breakfast."
Last night we were playing outside and Honor found a few pieces of wood that she was "building" with.
"Mommy, I think the bricks gave me an owie" (bricks= wood)
"Oh no! Did you get a splinter?"
"Yeah."
"Let me see...I might need to get the tweezers out if it's bad."
"No...you don't need to get the tweezers! I just need a band-aid!"
"Do you have a splinter?"
"No!"
"Honor, just let me look at it."
She jerked her hand away.
"HONOR. Let. me. look. at. your. hand!"
She tentatively handed it to me.
"Where is your owie...is this it?" I asked, pointing to the red area between her thumb and pointer finger.
"No. That's not it. It's right... here." she said, pointing about a quarter of the way up her arm...completely void of any and all owies.
That's one way to get out of having tweezers used on you...
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About 2 minutes from our house, Honor decided to take her seat belt off. That is not allowed for obvious reasons.
"Honor, you are going to get a spank bottom when we get into the house. You do NOT take your seat belt off. That is VERY dangerous. If Mommy got into an accident, you would DIE. "
"Okay, but not a big spank bottom."
"Oh. Yes. A BIG spank bottom. Why do you do things you know you are not supposed to do? I don't like having to give you spank bottoms!"
We entered the house and I went to turn off the alarm. I came back into the living room to find Honor contorted, trying to reach behind her.
"Honor, what are you doing?"
"I was trying to give myself a spank bottom so you don't have to...but I can't give myself a BIG spank bottom."
FYI...she got her big spank bottom moments later, after I stopped laughing....
There is no better sound than the sound of my child's laugh. I can't get enough of it. Especially Samuel's. Samuel has the cute laugh of a toddler and Daddy and I go out of our way to make him laugh. We also go out of our way to hear him say "I luvooo!"
Well, today I realized that Samuel thinks the sound of my laugh is the best sound ever. I had been chasing him around saying, "Samuel, I love you!" over and over. Finally, he turned around and replied, "I luvoo!" and I giggled. He smiled back. "I love you, Samuel!" "I luvoooooooooo!" and I giggled and he giggled. And we repeated over and over again.
Until Honor came into the room to tell me that Ariana had stolen Connor's Power Ranger mask again....
