100th Post

Well, todays my 100th post here. I wanted to do something amazing and awesome for it, butt couldn’t think of anything particularly flashy, so I’m going to go through 100 highlights from my posts. Yesterday involved some drama, Leilani spilled a cup of water on me, Natalia, the floor and the computer. I didn't have any computer for the second half of the day. Fortunately, my hubby managed to fix it and I still have a computer!

Here's my list:

1. Natalia was born, a nice, healthy, eight and a half pounds.

2. I had a lovely home water birth

3. Leilani got to help catch Natalia

4. We went vegan

5. Princess “Camp” and all the crafts we did with it

6. The girls dressed up as mermaids during “camp”

7. I started cross-stitching Natalia’s birth record

8. We got to watch the helos land downtown for Marine Week

9. We stayed in a nice hotel for Marine Week

10. Because of my hubby’s position for Marine Week, we got to do all kinds of cool things – go out on the tarmac, go on the baseball field, drive places instead of having to walk there, and see the airshow from the air conditioned vehicle

11. Leilani enjoyed climbing through all the big equipment at Marine Week

12. Leilani got to play with some Marine bomb-sniffing dogs and met a police dog

13. The wreath laying ceremony at the Traveling Vietnam Wall, it was incredibly moving

14. All the new, fun foods we’ve been trying since becoming vegan

15. The fact I can go through and remember all the things I’ve been thankful for over the past months

16. That I have a record of a lot of the funny things Leilani has said

17. Seeing the fun we had on our stay-cation – Leilani loved the lake waterpark

18. Having the memories written down by the pictures, so they’re not just pictures and I don’t have to wonder what was going on there

19. We went through the submarine downtown, Natalia slept the whole time while in the Moby

20. Getting to visit Grandma Olalah.

21. The goofy rhymes Jeremy told his grandma

22. Showing off my vast book collection

23. Making dresses for Leilani and me

24. Making barefoot sandals for Natalia

25. Leilani playing in the rain and gathering flowers for us all

26. Watching Leilani at the parade on the 4th of July

27. Watching Leilani and Natalia both enjoy the fireworks that night

28. Leilani and Natalia cuddling, always super cute

29. Sharing some favorite movies with Leilani

30. Natalia starting to seriously suck her thumb.

31. Watching Food Inc

32. VBS and watching Leilani become more independent

33. Skyping with family

34. Getting loads of new diaper covers

35. Getting to take walks during VBS

36. Natalia liking her swing

37. Leilani learning so much on starfall

38. Natalia playing on her playmat

39. A Day in Pictures

40. Reviewing some thoughts from my previous blog and realizing how much I still don’t know

41. Doing loads of school with Leilani while she enjoyed it

42. Arts and Crafts with my girls

43. Making Leilanis’ sensory jar

44. Playing with my girls

45. Co-sleeping with them

46. Picking all the flowers before going to Florida

47. Dad helping us drive down to Florida

48. Getting to Florida and seeing all the family

49. Meeting cousin L for the first time

50. Watching the cousins all play together

51. Leilani learning to swim

52. Getting to spend the day with Uncle Jeff and family before he deployed

53. Natalia getting to meet Grammy Mandy

54. Cousin cuddles

55. Getting to dress all the girl cousins in matching outfits

56. Photo shoot with some of the cousins in shirts our cousin gave them

57. Sophie guest blogging

58. The cousins getting to bathe together

59. Introducing Gracie to some of Leilani’s favorite movies

60. Natalia got to try her cousins’ bassinet and Jenny Jump-up

61. Exploring new vegan foods with Sophie

62. All the baby cousins getting held by their aunties and uncles and PawPaw

63. Trying to do a Shrek marathon

64. Makin vegan Oreo truffles

65. Playing on the beach

66. Natalia’s beach blow-out…got me, the moby, and my swim suit

67. Accidentally eating some of a different blow-out. Definitely memorable

68. Leilani and Natalia watching movies together

69. Making myself use up all the food stuffs I already have so as to not waste
money

70. Being able to share my heart

71. The realtor’s visit – ugh

72. Going down to Columbus to see Uncle Dorr and family

73. Officially starting school

74. The new curriculum finally arriving

75. Natalia starting to grab everything

76. Walking and exploring

77. Finding things to help with PPD

78. Randomness

79. Leilani learning to type her name

80. Getting to read lots to both girls

81. Making cloud dough

82. Getting to dress Natalia in Leilani’s baby clothes

83. Natalia’s sensory play

84. The Yummiest Art Lesson

85. Natalia eating real foods

86. Experimenting with our school – one benefit of homeschooling

87. Leilani “reading” to Natalia

88. Finding my lesson plan book

89. Getting new running shoes and a new diaper bag

90. Going for a jog on Labor Day and Natalia loving it

91. Trying to teach Leilani to ride a bike

92. Finding out Natalia loves avocados

93. Getting to document funny things, like in this post

94. Leilani is a Sparky!

95. Using Leilani’s floppy seat for Natalia

96. Leilani writing her name by herself

97. Getting to see how much we’ve all grown

98. Leilani making a bread sculpture

99. Orders being finalized! We're heading west.

100. Getting better from our head colds - hurray for orange juice and pinterest (I found and made "vicks" diy shower discs, and they worked great!)

My Birth Story

My beautiful new daughter was born on May 3rd, 2012 at 11:32 am. I woke up around 5:30am to contractions after barely sleeping all night due to hip pain. By six o'clock I started thinking "This just MIGHT be the day" so I started timing my contractions. Every time one hit, despite the fact that it hurt my hips, lower back and lower abdomen, I kept thinking "nah, that really didn't last a full minute. There was more than 6 minutes between this one and the last one. It really didnt hurt as badly as I'm thinking it did." I did decide to play it safe and turned the water heater all the way up. Walking, changing positions, curling up, nothing was making them ease up or stop, so at 6:50 I called my midwife, who asked if I thought she would have time to get her kids to school. I said yes, and she said she'd be at my house around nine.

After that, I went to wake my husband to let him know that today was the day and he probably shouldn't go to work *grins*. My daughter was awake by this time and running to find PawPaw. By this point I was having to keep moving because the contractions were becoming more intense. At about 8:10 I lost my mucus plug, but other than that things seemed to be staying about the same. The midwife arrived at around nine and brought the birthing pool with her. For what seemed like the next hour, the midwife, her assistant, my husband and dad played with the water temperature to get it to a perfect 98-100 degrees. They hooked a hose up to the hot water spigot and drained the hot water heater, then started boiling water on the stove, then filled the pool some more with coldwater and kept repeating the process until the tub was full and 100 degrees. By this point I was 8 cm and my contractions were coming right on top of each other. After I got in the tub, it wasn't that long before I felt the urge to push.

My 5yo jumped into the pool with me since she wanted to help catch her baby when she came out. She had fun for a while, playing in the water, until my contractions were so painful I told her she needed to be absolutely still. She got out for a while after that, but soon got back in. She really did fantastic, listening and obeying. My water broke at about 11:15/11:20, after I'd been pushing for a few minutes. Pretty soon after the water broke, her head was ready to immerge into the world. I had a nice rest between her head and the final push, which I milked for all it was worth *smiles*. At 11:32, I gave the final push and my 5yo and I reached down and brought the baby up to my chest. We cuddled in the pool for a few minutes, my two daughters and me, then we got out and went to the couch to deliver the placenta. My husband and daughter got to cut the umbilical cord together. After that, we cuddled, nursed and all got to know our newest little family member *smiles* I did tear a bit and got a few stitches, but it wasn't too big a deal :). My new little angel weighed 8 lbs 8 oz and was 22 1/2 inches long.

God has truly blessed us! We had a beautiful birth the whole family was involved in, beautiful family cuddles, and a gorgeous precious baby girl! God is truly amazing!