In Arizona, this IS a necessity!

When thinking about what constitutes a “need” and what fills in the gap as a “want”, I’ve made up my mind.

I need this.

And so does my son. And my husband. That’s all.

Here’s the setup process:

Go get loads of sand from the local wash.

Level (I mean REALLY level) out the ground.

Put down a tarp.

Wait in vain for two days for the package to be delivered.

Get the package.

Open it at 9:30 at night.

Set it up the next day – in the wind and sprinkly weather.

If there's enough water to splash in, there's enough to swim in!

Pester the parents about putting the legs up.

Say a prayer for the clouds to let a “leetle” sun through.

Having a blast already!

Then wait for it to fill.

Look! Now there's TWO inches!

And wait for it to fill.

If I kick this, will the pool fill faster?

“You know, Momma, it’s called a fil-ter because it helps fill up the pool faster. I’ll just kick it to get it started.”

(just like on the movies!)

Look! It worked! But now it's raining...what are the chances of that?

Really. The day we set up the pool it rained all afternoon. It was a wonderful, pleasant surprise. The earth smelled amazing, the wind was cool, but ther was one little boy who was a little sad about it all – for the first time ever, we were hoping the rain would stop! But by evening, Mr. B was so pooped from playing in the pool as it was filling that he had no desire to swim in it once it was full! Today was a beautiful day, so we took full advantage of the sun and spashed away, now all we have to do is invite friends over to swim and our pool will be complete!

Silly Dancing Boy

Sorry that this is such a poor quality, but it was taken with Gila Man’s phone, so it’s fuzzy. You also can’t hear the music much because it’s coming out of the tv, but I just wanted to show you what we do for entertainment ’round here.

Yup. We’re pretty desperate for fun.

Just An Update

Thought ya might like some pictures of the new one, I know I can’t get enough of looking at him (funny how that is). I realize that I’m not very good at functioning or thinking rationaly when I don’t get enough sleep – I’m a little selfish that way. Mr. B is the BEST big brother! He helps with the diaper changing (and is a REALLY good sport about getting peed on), helps put things away, and is quiet when he needs to be. He might be a little bit on the over-protective side though, he is NOT afraid to ask people if they have washed their hands when they reach out to touch Baby O, and he will very quickly pull down the shade on the car seat if he doesn’t like the look of a particular stranger.

There are times that he needs a little extra love or attention and he’ll come up to me, put his head on my shoulder or arm and say, “Momma, I need you right now.” Then I head off into his room for a story or a game of memory or a lego building session. And I have to admit that Mr. B has been a weeeee bit smart-aleky with Daddy lately. Like yesterday, Mr. B had watched a movie where one friend had told anther to shut his mouth. So when Gila Man and Mr. B were sitting on the sofa and looking at a toy motorcycle (imagine that) and Gila Man tried to ask me what we were having for lunch, Mr. B covered his mouth and said, “Shut your mouth, Daddy!”. At which point Daddy very firmly explained to Mr. B that you don’t tell people to shut their mouths, it’s VERY rude. So when Gila Man tried to talk to me again, Mr. B said, “Daddy, shut…um…shut that thing on your face that’s making noise, please.” Brief hesitation, then, “See, Daddy? I didn’t tell you to shut your mouth!”

Overall, it’s going well. I mean, except for that whole “lack of sleep” part. That part sucks. But that’ just me, getting my whine on. Here’s the part you actually want to see…

Brothers In The Morning

Bubble Bath!!!

Baby Bath

Playing With His Tongue

Smiling For Momma

Another Smile For Momma

Wait a second, who's this guy with the little silver flashy thing?

A Baby Story

Chillin In The Boppy 3 Days Old

Ok, so this blog entry has been about 3 weeks in the making. Every chance I get, I sit down and try to get this story out, but as soon as I get a sentence or two written, something ALWAYS calls me away from the computer. Needless to say, the story might have a few grammatical errors, but you’ll get the point. Now we’re on our way to the Big City so I have no distractions (except for Mr. B’s constant chatter in the back seat) and I will actually get this posted!

Here are a few more pics of Baby “O” – he is doing really well and is up every 3 hours at night, which is to be expected. Mr. B is adjusting very well also, though we have had a few crying jags when things just aren’t going his way. He broke down yesterday morning because “Daddy didn’t rub his hands together with the gel before he put it on my hair!” he said when he came to tell me what was going on (he was actually tattling on Daddy!). He really likes order in his little life and having Daddy taking over these daily tasks has given the guy a shake. It will probably be hard on him when Daddy goes back to work and I start doing everything again, but we will adjust, it’s part of life, not just part of having a new baby around the house.

Chillin' in the swing, but he wasn't very happy about it! (3 Days Old)

So about the birth…

I went into St. Joseph’s on Monday at 10:30 am after my doctor made sure that I was ready to be induced – he told me to go in early because it would probably take them two hours just to say “hello”, and since my appointment was at noon, we went ahead an drove up to the Big City. We got there and went to sign in, but had to go to triage instead, where they told me that even though they had scheduled me to be induced, there were 3 women in front of me who were in active labor which left no extra nurses to care for me because they had had a bunch of babies the day before and they were short nurses for that shift. This threw me for a loop because, hello? My parents were on their way up, my brother had Mr. B, my hubby was there with all our “baby baggage”, and they were telling me to take a number and wait in line? What the heck? Needless to say, I was flustered.

The triage nurse told me that we could probably be “worked in” around 2 or 3, so she told us to go out and eat a “huge lunch, like Applebee’s or something” and maybe see a movie, then come back and they see if I could be induced that day. So what did we do? We went out to eat a HUGE lunch at Taco Tote, one of my very favorite resturants, just like the nice nurse told us too.

My parents called and said that they were going to meet my brother Michael at Chuckie Cheese so we went there next to hang out with all the family while we waited for the hospital to call. One of the MOST annoying places in the entire whole wide world is Chuckie Cheese’s, especially when you’re on pins and needles over whether or not you’re going to give birth that day or not.

Sittin', Waitin', Wishin'

So when I called the hospital at 3:00, they told me to come in and we would get started, I was SOOO excited! We went in to labor and delivery and got set up with the IV, past history, and all the other formalities that go along with having a baby. By 4:30 I was in active labor, but only dialated to a 3, though I was 50% effaced (how in the heck to I spell that?). FAST FORWARD to 7:30, when the back labor hit and I asked for my epidural. Everybody had to leave because The Man With The Big Needle had to have complete silence in order to do his magic. This is a pivital moment, folks. The one that I will look back on and say, “What the freakin’ heck was I thinkin’ ?” kind of moments. Even though I had no idea what severe consequenses I would be facing from the simple choice to get my nether-regions numbed, I should have learned a little lesson from the FIRST time I played with heavy narcotics….

That lesson should have been learned when I gave birth to Mr. B, and couldn’t stop thowing up afterwards. At the hospital where I gave birth to Mr. B, they didn’t have a full-time anethesiologist, so they didn’t offer epidurals, only intrathecally administered drugs. I was told before it was administered to me that, “SOME women feel SLIGHTLY nauseated after the birth of the child. Most women feel no side effects whatsoever.”. Riiiiiiight. I started puking the moment they placed that baby in my arms and didn’t stop until the nurse knocked me out 20 minutes later. That was 4 1/2 years ago, and I thought for sure that this time would be different. Not so…

Back at St. Joseph’s, I was introduced to the narcotic fentanyl, a drug that The Guy With The Big Needle uses to help set up the epidural. He shot it into my IV and said that I MIGHT feel a little dizzy (that should have been a red flag). By the time my family got back into the room, I was laying down and feeling like I was in the middle of the ocean in a dingy during a hurricane. The nurse kept telling me that the nausea would pass any minute, but it just wasn’t happening. Around 11:30, I was finally dialated to a 7, but I couldn’t sit up because I was sooooo sick!

Super Sickie

The nursed called up for an anti-nausea drug and they gave me the highest dose possible of the most potent anti-nausea drug they had, and all I did was PUKE. I HATE PUKE. I hate puking. And I hate PUKE more. And here’s the bad thing…the nurse was thinking that I hadn’t eaten lunch because they are supposed to tell women who are going into labor to eat a very light meal, if they eat a meal at all. I, however, ate a GINORMOUS meal at Taco Tote because the rotten nice nurse told me to, so I blew that little rule right out of the water. There was my sweet nurse (her name was Jane and she was from England, it was VERY fun to listen to her talk), holding this little towel next to me in case I threw up a little, and up came the PUKE. It was very sad. One minute, I was laying in bed, feeling sick with a washcloth on my face, and the next minute everything was covered in PUKE – the nurse, my bed, my sheets, the nurse, my pillow, my hair, the floor, and my nurse. I felt AWFUL! And I couldn’t stop puking. Then, because I had my epidural, I couldn’t move, so I had to be rolled over to get the yucky sheets out from under me, then rolled back to put the fresh ones on. Oh, and add to the puking an irrepressible urge to scratch my entire upper body. I felt like I was covered in itching powder! I now know that I am alergic to narcotic painkillers…

Midnight rolled around and my water broke. I was at a 9 and 100% efaced, so they called my doctor who was sleeping in one of the rooms down the hall. He came in at about 12:30 and checked me and was shocked that my epidural was at a twelve and I couldn’t feel a single thing from my belly-button down. “You are having a baby,” he said, “This isn’t brain surgery!” So they turned it down to an 8. The biggest problem is that every time I sat up to push, I would PUKE. Then when I ran out of goods to PUKE, I had to drink water so I would stop dry heaving. When I could finally feel a little tingly sensation in my legs, I had to sit up and push while turning my head to the side and puking into the pretty pink basin my husband was holding. This went on for about 20 more minutes until my doctor ordered more of the anti-nausea drug and I drank water while we waited for it. They pumped it into my IV and 30 seconds later, all the water came back up and into the basin. It was almost fun…almost. For the next 20 minutes, I pushed and puked through as many contractions as I could before I fell back on the bed and nearly passed out from exhaustion.

Finally, my doctor looked at me and said, “Sarah, I can sit here and watch you struggle to have this baby, or I can get the suction gun and help you get this baby out. I just can’t stand to see you struggle like this.”

I looked at my mom and she said that I should really try to avoid using the suction thing, so I told my doc that I would try one more series of pushes before I asked for help. So I pushed. And I puked. Then I pushed. And I puked. Then the contractions passed and I said, “Bring on the suction gun!”

After that, things went by very quickly. 4 more nurses came in, all sorts of equipment was rolled in, and the room that seemed large at the beginning of my labor seemed to dwindle in size in a very short amount of time. 4 pushes (and one VERY stinky burp) later, at 1:51 am on May 5th, our baby boy was born. The cord was wrapped around his neck once, and he was bruised from head to toe (literally!). But other than that, he was a very healthy baby! 7 pounds 15.7 ounces (yes, they should have just rounded that up to and was 20 1/2 inches long.

A Baby Boy!

Goopy Eyed Boy

Momma and Baby

After all that, my doctor wrote out my prescriptions and left. Then the extra nurses left. Then my mom and aunt went home to get some rest and my brother took off because he had to work in 4 hours. I had to stay in the delivery room for over an hour so the epidural could wear off and I could walk to the restroom and get into my wheelchair. It was right around 3 am when the itchiness returned. Then I started shaking – like I was cold but I wasn’t cold. I was chattering so badly that my teeth started to ache. Yet another side effect of the fentanyl. Nice.

Momma and Baby Again

Baby Again

I was finally, FINALLY wheeled to my room where I was able to rest and drink water that stayed in my stomach. My recovery wasn’t too bad and the nurses were wonderful and the food was even good. Sorry it took so long to get this out to you, hope you all hang around to see the antics one baby boy can add to a household, it’s sure to be fun!!!

Big Brother Visits The Baby

He’s Here!!!!

Momma and Baby

Well, after a long and rather nasty labor, Oliver Ray was born on May 5th, at 1:51 a.m. My brother Michael called it at LONG time ago, he said the Baby O would be a Cinco De Mayo baby, and it happened. At least it’s an easy date to remember.

Dad and Baby

I’ll have to post about the labor next, because it is a LONG and yucky story, but we are all doing well and are so happy and blessed to add such a sweet baby into our home.

Big Brother

There were some GREAT people there to help me during my labor:

Uncle Mikey and Baby

Nana and Baby (and Gila Man's Finger)

Aunt Dee Dee and Baby

Papa and Baby

Ok, well, Papa wasn’t THERE while I was having the baby (it was a very scary “Placenta meets Papa” episode last time), but I couldn’t post anything without saying a very, very, huge and GINORMOUS “Thank you” to my dad and my brother for watching Mr. B while I was waiting to get induced AND while I was in labor. And then my parents watched Mr. B for the week until we got to come home, so there’s more gratitude there.

Three of Us

All in all, things went well and we are home, so that means more pictures soon and more updates…I hope.

Tomorrow’s The Day!!

Well, tomorrow is the date set for my induction, and I have to tell you that I am SOOOOOO excited about it!! It is a little hard to see people’s faces when I tell them that I’m getting induced, because EVERYONE has an opinion about it and very few of them have been positive. It’s funny because I say, “I’m going to have my baby on Monday.” and the general response is a loving touch to my abdomin and with a small grimace and they say, “Oh, you’re going to have a c-section?” with a sympathetic smile and a tsk, tsk on their tongue.

When I reply that my doctor is going out of town and doesn’t think I’ll make it to my due date so I’m going to be induced *gasp* one week early, the response changes dramatically, the hand is whisked back, and the nice thoughts and comments cease to flow. The advice comments swiftly follow and I am bombarded with the “You know what this or that causes” advice. Funny how everyone I’ve talked to has attended medical school just like my doctor!!! Ok, ok…so I appreciate the concern. It’s nice to know that people want what’s best for me and my baby, and it’s actually kind of sweet, right? Speaking of babies…

Here are a few of the names we have narrowed it down to:

*Aston Martin

*Oliver Finn

*Oliver Ray

*Samson

We do have a little concern about the “ton” part of Aston being dropped during this boy’s stint in middle school, and Samson, well, if you know our last name, you know that that one is just a really big, funny joke. Hee, hee! We are still looking for an old fashioned, nice, normal name for a boy, but it can’t be Luke, Gila Man already said no. *pout*

So, wish us luck for the big day and we will keep you updated with the newest news!

Homies and Hotties – Quote of The Day #9

Back on this post, we learned about homies. Coming in from playing out front and riding bicycles (I was cleaning out the garage), Mr. B said, “I’m hot.”
“Phsew! Me too.” I replied.
“I’m hot, and you’re hot…we are HOTTIES, Momma!!!”

Aw, just what I needed to hear when 9 months pregnant!!!

Smiley Bentley Boy (without his glasses)

A Baby Shower!!

Well, this past week has been INCREDIBLY busy, and last week I had company, so I have had a hard time sitting down and posting anything lately. I also have very slow internet which makes dowloading pictures and doing anything fun with my blog a little, well, LESS fun. Since I’m here now, I’ll give you a little update.

Here's Holly, Calling Up The Sacks

Last week, my Mom and Grammie came on Friday morning to visit me, spend the night and go to a baby shower that my friend Holly threw for me. Not only does Holly have three kids and a husband going through EMT training all week, she is pregnant and has been very, VERY sick. But honestly, you would never know it by the freakin’ fantastic par-TAY we had at her place on Saturday morning. Callie helped plan and Van helped clean, so there was a great group effort on the part of my homies, yo.  There was great food, a chocolate fountain, some yummy munchies and, oh…A CHOCOLATE FOUNTAIN. Really. Like a fountain you would see with water flowing down over pretty polished stones in the base, but this was a fountain of CHOCOLATE flowing down from it. I’ve never seen one in real life and am NOT a big fan of chocolate – especially while I’m pregnant. But folks, this was amazing! Perhaps I am easily entertained. Perhaps. But it was still awesome!

The Fountain with Goodies to

So after enjoying the yummy lunch and snacking on a few munchies soaked in chocolatey goodness….

Trying to get in a decent bite to eat before diggin' into the goodies and the CHOCOLATE FOUNTAIN!

And more snacks…It was time to play some games….

What kind of games, you ask? Oh, FUN ones, like, “Guess which candy bar is gooey and melted in the diaper and makes you want to HURL just looking at it?” game. That’s always a popular one! Wait…I’ve never heard of it. Lets’ see if pictures can adequately describe it.

Diaper Challenge

See that up there? That’s a diaper filled with a mushed up, melted candy bar and you have you stick your nose in it and figure out what KIND of shmushy melted candy bar it is. And the are TWELVE different kinds, people. I got 7 and I felt pretty good about it, until Jeanette got 9. So she was the winner and she doesn’t even eat sweets!

Taking A BIG Whiff...

There was a cheater among us and I know what you’re thinking, “How can you cheat at a game like this?”, right? But Grammie just reached right in and TOOK A BITE of the candy so she could guess it. YES!! She stuck her face in the diaper and sneaked a little taste, instead of squeazing and sniffing like the rest of us! The nerve…

Taking A Bite!

Then we had to play a game involving our math skills called “The Price Is Right”, which I failed dismally. But I wasn’t bitter because next, I got to open my gifts, and THAT was fun! People shopped and got me things off of my registry, which didn’t happen last time, so it was really fun to open gifts that I NEEDED!

Ok, ok, I didn't NEED these, but are they freakin' C.U.T.E or what?

Nice gift, but saw the poopy diaper again...

It was really nice that my family and friends would travel so far to celebrate the baby shower with me. It meant so much and was just a really sweet gesture – I appreciate it so much, and, *sniff* I was really feeling *choke* loved that day and *sob* to know that you are all as excited as I am about this new little boy coming into the *sniff* world just means *cough* so much, so thank you very, very, much. *running to get a tissue*

Grammie, Cousin Cori, & Aunt Debbie, waiting for the festivities to start...

Easter Weekend

Different holidays offer different traditions in our home and one that we have been working on perfecting is Easter. Last year we had it on Sunday morning, and we had to rush around and get ready for church while Mr. B sat and wanted to munch on his (very sparse supply) of sugar-coated cereal and check out what the Easter Bunny brought him, all while talking about the egg hunt we were going to go on after church. This was NOT my idea of keeping the Sabbath Day holy or remembering what Easter was really about. I was dissappointed and a little sad because I want my kid to have fun and be silly, but I also want him to learn about the things that I KNOW are important in our lives. This led me into some deep, thoughtful moments this year about how we were going to celebrate different holidays as a family this year and the years to come.

Easter is one of those holidays that I think has been completely commercialized. Really. I mean, colored eggs? Purple peeps? Easter Bunnies delivering goodies just because he can? What does ANY of this have to do with Jesus Christ, or even religion in general?

“But Sarah,” I hear you say, “what about Christmas?”

Oh, I’ll admit, Christmas has been made over as well, but as least there is a grain (albeit a miniscule grain) of tradition stuck in there – with the Wise Men bringing a gift to the Little Savior, then St. Nick bringing a gift to good little girls and boys, it’s not too bad. But Easter, where has it’s meaning gone? So, with that in mind, I tried something different this year and feel much better about it.

"Hi, Momma!"

Wednesday before Easter, Mr. B’s school put on an Easter Play about Jesus living, dying, and living again. It was very short and sweet and we had fun just watching the little guys up on the stage singing their lungs out. Thursday Mr. B got to have an egg hunt and a party at his school. This consisted of silly games, funny prizes, an egg hunt out on the playground, and a yummy junk-food lunch followed by ice cream sandwiches. He had a great time and got to have lots of fun with his friends and teachers (and me, because I volunteered to help hide the eggs). Friday, we talked about the Passover and Jesus Christ and what people were celebrating that day.

Up On Stage, Look At Me!!

Saturday morning, the Easter Bunny came and delivered a basket (ok, ok. It was my white plastic kitchen colander, but I could NOT find the freakin’ Easter bucket from last year!) full of fun things for him to do. I don’t know how he did it, but the Easter Bunny found SPACE stuff for Mr. B!!!! There were 2 mini coloring posters, a spaceship puzzle, a rocket shaped bottle full of bubbles, glow-in-the-dark planet shapes, magic towels that were all tiny and smushed up but turned into awesome fact-filled washclothes when you soaked them in the water, and a few other odds and ends that the bunny found while on his shopping rounds. There was not one single sweet thing in the “basket” and Mr. B didn’t even bring it up.

Space Stuff!!!!

We had a wonderful Saturday morning together. There was no rushing, no sugar high, no whining about having to go to church without his new toys, and no fighting about what he could or could not eat. We did end up going to a small birthday party and looking for eggs there, but it was still part of the Saturday events and just added to the fun.

A Quiet Coloring Boy

Sunday morning was spent quietly at the table in between breakfast and coloring and getting dressed. We talked about Sunday stuff – Jesus Christ, how he was born. What he did while he lived, how he died, how he came back to life. How important He is in our lives. Church went well, again, no calming the sugar high. It was a nice morning. It was something that we will be doing in the future.

Now I didn’t write this to start a debate or tell you that the way you are celebrating the traditions of your families is wrong, I just felt the need to share how WE have celebrated and how WE are making changes. In fact, I would love to hear from you about what kinds of things you do with your families on different holidays – what you do or don’t do, what you’ve done and what works for you. I’m always curious about what everyone figures out before me….

So, this was a lesson learned and a tradition to be kept. I wish I could learn other things so quickly and put them into practice…

Infinity Words – Quote of The Day #7

While looking at videos of space and planets on You Tube and listening to popular space jargen like “light years, galaxies, universes, and black holes”, Mr. B turns to me after hearing that there are “infinity” stars in the universe and beyond.
“How much is infinity, Momma?”
“Well, can you count to ten?”
“Yesth.”
“Can you count to 100?”
“Yesth.”
“Well, infinity is like counting, but you never, ever stop. Infinity keeps going and going without an end, ever!”

Thinking quietly for a moment and then looking excitedly up at me, Mr. B says, “Oh, like ME, right Momma?”
“Um, how like you, sweetie?”
“Like I have infinity words! I can talk and talk and talk and I can go on FOREVER!”

Yes, I’m thinking that infinity is EXACTLY like that!!!

Mr. B and the Bird