Hello! ...and welcome to May!!
I can't believe it's already May! My calendar is getting dizzy from flipping pages so fast! So, I feel it is my duty to update my blog, and therefore all of my readers on what's been going on in the lives of the Lines Fam. :) (Lucky you, right?)
As many of you know, we are due with baby number five May 4th, and that is THIS Friday!!!! I am so excited, and impatient, and antsy, and...uncomfortable! hahaha Anyone who's had a baby or is currently this far along knows exactly what I mean. Heck, anyone who has had to live with a woman this far along knows what I mean! Freezer meals are made and stored away, baby's clothes are washed, folded, and stacked neatly on the nursery shelves, and all the birth center bags are packed and waiting in the van alongside baby's car seat- don't ask me how this has made grocery shopping the last two weeks, or the other four kids that have had to ride the forty five minute drive home from town with gallons of milk in their laps for that matter! I think we are ALL waiting for the tell tale signs of labor to show up! Which isn't easy when you're body is so ready and prepped for having babies having done it many times before that it is almost always in some state of prodromal labor the last four weeks. I keep telling my husband that this would be so much more tolerable if I could just go into hard labor and have the baby, or quit with all of these teasing symptoms so that I could get rest and be pleasantly surprised when I finally went into labor. Ha! The laws of nature say otherwise. Baby needs to be in the right position, milk has to be just on the brink of production and full operation, muscles, tendons, joints need to all be loosened in preparation for delivery, and last but definitely not least when you're calculating biggest discomforts, cervix has to be at it's prime for a smooth delivery. I suppose some women can glide on through this stage of their pregnancy, ignoring all these signs and symptoms knowing they'll recognize the true blue labor contractions when they arrive. Some women I've talked to have the same onset signs before labor, or deliver (like my sister) exactly one week before their due date each pregnancy. I truly envy these women! I delivered my first baby in four hours two weeks early after an induction due to low fluids, then came my twins four weeks early after multiple stays in the hospital to stop preterm labor previous to that with an eight hour labor that was stopped and restarted in the middle, then my first home birth baby who is currently twenty months old arrived one day overdue after two hours of total labor, but only thirty minutes of active labor! None of these labors or their symptoms had much commonality. The biggest issue with this pregnancy is timing- my husband works forty five minutes away from home, the midwife lives twenty five minutes away from us, and we have four small children to contend with at home. So needless to say we do a lot of praying that baby will choose to arrive in the late evening or middle of the night so that at least my husband can be home to catch!
With the worry about when baby will choose to arrive, comes connected the overreaction to each little symptom: "Ooo, that was a stronger than normal braxton hick, start timing them!" "My lower back is feeling crampy and I've been more moody than normal, maybe it's the hormonal surge before labor!"
My poor midwife has probably gotten more irritating phone calls from me in the last two weeks than she's ever gotten from her average soon to be mother of five. Although she's a great sport, and since she was the catcher at my last birth she knows that there isn't room to be too skeptical about me having a baby quickly when it finally happens!
Speaking of other babies, I've been doing a little bit of worrying about how Griffin will react to a new baby. This is the closest together we've ever had babies and each previous time the older siblings were more at an age of reason and understanding, and definitely at least out of the crib! Griffin is still very much the babe of the family- still sleeps in his crib, sits in the highchair, takes nice long naps and early bed times, and is just now starting to really do any talking other than saying Mommy and Daddy. We've just now gotten him to start patting my belly and saying "baby", but we do that for our own amusement, he has no clue what's about to happen. The twins were simple when Griffin was born, they were born with company so they didn't feel any displacement! They even handed over their pacifiers to him and never stuck them back in their mouths! I pray that things are that smooth this time around. Griff is our cuddle bean, our little snuggle love, and he is not happy when Mommy or Daddy's laps are even occupied by a book, much less another baby! Usually after we have a new addition to the family I move in to the master bedroom for the first postpartum week to work on getting a good breastfeeding/sleeping pattern going and to bond with the new baby(s). My wonderful husband takes a week off of work and brings me food, drink, and entertainment, and brings the other kids in to say hello to the baby and I for a quick little minute and to receive bedtime hugs, kisses, and prayers, and then scoots them on back out. This time around I think I'll have to have Griffin live in the bedroom with new baby and I for larger parts of the day to avoid major emotional calamity and possible hostility toward the new guy. It's so important to me that Griffin not feel replaced or forgotten, he's such a lover I think I'd be pretty wounded if he shifted his affections elsewhere too.
So! This is the end of my family update for today (mostly because I'm ready for a nap before the kids wake up) but you can count on another update soon!! With new baby pictures!! Woohoo, wish us luck!
