Posts

Mary Margaret is here!

Image
 At 7:30am on Sunday morning September 12, 2021, Mary Margaret Knoll joined the family!  Less than 12 hours after the previous post, where I finally gave up feigned control and anxiety about when, when, when, Dylan and I called Fran back to New Orleans after having left that afternoon. Upon her arrival around 9pm, I shrugged and smiled, and she chuckled about its being Groundhog Day. Dylan and I got in the car with a Let's-Do-This attitude and headed to Ochsner, where my Dr. Baur was coincidentally on-call in Labor&Delivery. But I wasn't in labor. My contractions had plateaued at that same shortish, manageable, seldom level, but I was leaking amniotic fluid. When I texted Dr. Baur, she said definitely come in. I was pretty anxious about that for a minute, upset even, because of a strong desire to stay away from a pitocin induction (like had happened with Jack bc of the water breaking), but in we went. Thankfully I wasn't laboring hard because the hospital was full ! (A...
Post a Comment
Read more

Home Safe ... almost to 40?

Image
Well! It's been a bit of an anxiety-ridden week, though here we are on Saturday and everything's going just fine. No baby yet, though. We were ticking along in evacuation-mode nicely, and Dylan got word that our power had turned back on late, late Monday night, to which news I started having contractions. So then the what-ifs and what-do-we-dos started swirling. Tuesday morning, we decided that if things stay slow, we'd pack up to leave Wednesday morning. We gassed and stocked up at Costco, and I had regular, sparse, short contractions most of the day, but they picked up that evening. Our final decision was we'd go if I could sleep through the night and stay if things picked up. Wednesday rolled around, Dylan packed up every little thing while I did nothing, and I felt nothing ... until the car. The first 2-3 hours had 1-2 contractions each, and then the closer we got, the more relaxed I was by avoiding a "roadie baby" that they completed stopped. It was bitte...
Post a Comment
Read more

39 wks, still evacuated

Image
First, a hurricane update. Many New Orleans residents still do not have power; most, in fact, but it is starting to trickle in. Those evacuated are still encouraged to stay away until power is restored. Further south and west, however, there's awful destruction (like in the Thibodaux where we grew up before moving to TX), and any sense or normalcy will take weeks+months.  Our family has not been hurting, praise God! Ginny & Ryan are being so gracious about having us here and letting us all invade their space. They're even both working from home, so they really have almost no respite from the busyness and noise of 4 kids, poor things. We have, however, certainly kept busy and tried to get the kids out of the house at least once everyday, keeping Covid in mind, too. (Gosh, evacuation, Covid, baby-waiting; so many things!) And post-naps are spent in their blow-up pool or watching TV or movies that they only get at family's <3. So, to our week! After that NASA adventure...
Post a Comment
Read more

38 weeks + Hurricane Ida

Image
Thurs the 26th: Welp, we're evacuating for a potential hurricane this weekend. It's Thursday night as I type, but we aren't planning on leaving until the wee hours of Saturday with a potential landfall of Sunday. It does seem like it'll be a larger storm - a category 3 - but mostly we want to leave because of power outages and pressure changes that might induce labor. We're looking at a 5hr drive - with a 9mo bump, ick - but hopefully everything will all pass smoothly with no major damages or loss of life, God willing. The week's been a mostly smooth one with school work ticking along, Paul taking some of his to the library on occasion, which he enjoys. Ada's writing little narrative stories about whatever's currently happening and also wanting to take pictures (see below). Jack wants to do school all the time ... except when he wants to color; which is sometimes during school, and then he does not want to do non-coloring schoolwork, ha. And Pip is impr...
Post a Comment
Read more

Jump to 37 ... weeks and years

Image
This week marked the start of weekly checkups til birth, and - bam - all of a sudden this baby is big and measuring a week ahead of (our) schedule, moving a due date from the 19th to the 12th. That's only about 3 weeks til 40 weeks , so we're looking at sooner than 3 weeks from today. If I sound a little in disbelief, it's because I am. Somehow, it's going to happen soon! And I have to do it! I've experienced giving birth 4 separate, miraculous times, and somehow, this time, I don't feel quite ready. I bought the Catholic mom's guide to birth Made for This with the hope of settling nerves and re-realizing the beauty and sanctity that accompanies birth; I know it's there - I've seen it! I think there's just so little down time with the chaos of 4 kids and all the joy and life and spark and stress that they bring to really get a chance to focus inward on the imminent arrival of their newest sibling. So. All that being said and put behind us, I had...
Post a Comment
Read more

35 & Honeydew-sized

Image
Jack keeps telling me our weekly baby updates must say "watermelon-sized" this Sunday because my belly is huuuge , but, to his disappointment, I remind him they compare only the baby's size to fruits and vegetables, not my whole belly. Had a 35-week checkup on Friday - first one since that inconvenient mixup last time with "number of people accompanying" me (my minor children) due to Covid. I have to admit how nice it was to go on my own, though. All is well and ticking along fine, and next week, doc would like to get one more scan in because just sitting on the table with the measuring tape, this baby "might be a beast!" Measuring a little ahead of schedule / bigger than 35. We shall see! School ticked along well this week! Paul's motivation will pick up a smidge once we get in a full, regular routine (and then break it with baby's arrival...), Ada's work ethic is phenomenal, but I can't say enough about how great a little student Jac...
Post a Comment
Read more

34

Image
Cinco's been moving lots and lots, and I hope what I feel up nearer my ribs is a little tush and not a head, which I'd confused with Ada back in '14. I kept thinking I was poking her hips; nope, it was her little noggin, poor dear. My posting time has gotten off somehow, so while I'm at 34wks already, I didn't magically skip 33. So here we are. This week, working up to 34 wks strong, was very, very full. We baked, the boys finally got to wear something matching - Jack's request last time the girls got matching dresses from Nana & Pappy - we started school , we celebrated the Transfiguration of Jesus both with a field trip Mass with Ada's Little Flowers group to saint-of-the-month Angela Merici parish and sunshine cookies, got snoballs again at Sal's to introduce friends to this beloved stand, Dylan's been working practically full-time on our massive built-in bookshelf project to make it school ready (so close!)... and Mom & Dad have tested po...
Post a Comment
Read more