Introducing....

He's finally here. I am now happy to introduce William Joseph to the blogging world. He had his own plans for what day he wanted to arrive and he decided to spring those plans on me at 3:45 in the morning on the 18th. My water broke, waking me from the last night of restful sleep that I will have for a while. I had my very generous cousin come over to stay at the house while KC and I headed to the hospital.

They eventually got me started on pitocin to get my contractions going and after a while I decided an epidural was in order. I had felt enough labor pains for this one, or so I thought. After the epidural I found that I could still feel all the pain on one side of my body. So they injected me with more anesthesia which helped, but my legs soon felt like they were the size of elephants. That dose wore off and I was again feeling the contractions on that side. The pain was dulled, but still painful. We were getting to the end though, and I figured when it was all over I'd want to walk sometime in the next day so I didn't ask for another large dose of anesthesia. Feeling the contractions a bit proved helpful as I eventually had to call in the nurses to inform them that William didn't want to wait much longer. So the doctor was called back in and after a couple pushes he was out. It turns out that the cord was wrapped around William's neck. This explained why his heart rate would go down quite a bit during each contraction. Despite expectations for a larger baby, like Andrew and Isaac were, William surprised us by being just 7 lbs 8 oz and 19.5 inches long. In the end though he was healthy and looked great. That's the exent of the gory details I am wishing to share.. aren't you glad?

Here are some photos from the last few days.
Look at that head of hair.
We thought we'd be able to go home after 24hrs, but Williams PKU test showed high levels of Bilirubin so he had to do some fake baking during the next day. He levels went down quickly and we were able to go home without having to take home any extra equipment.
Finally able to go home.

His brothers think he is the cutest and can't wait for him to crawl and be able to play with them.

The Safe Side

I wouldn't really describe myself as an over-protective parent. I am intrigued and sorta like the idea of Free Range Kids. But if I plan on giving my kids some freedom in the future, I need to make sure they have the right information and tools to deal with the real world.

So, for a recent Family Home Evening lesson, KC and I wanted to discuss stranger safety with the boys. I found some free amateurish videos on youtube.com but wasn't satisfied completely with the messages. I didn't want to scare my boys from ever talking to people. I didn't want them to run screaming "STRANGER, STRANGER" if an adult tried to talk to them. So I kept on looking. I found on youtube a preview of the Safe Side video called Stranger Safety. It is made by Julie Clark of Baby Einstein fame and John Walsh of America's Most Wanted. It looked sorta fun and interesting, so I picked it up from the library and we showed it to the boys. Not only was it educational, but the boys really enjoyed watching it. We had it for a week and Andrew must have watched it at least 8 times.

Inside there is a pamphlet with an article from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, by Nancy McBride. As a mother of two small kids I was surprised to learn for example that they don't actually support the "stranger-danger" message. The article also says:

When we tell children to “never talk to strangers,” we have effectively eliminated a key source of help for them if they are in trouble. If they’re lost they may be surrounded by many “strangers” who could conceivably help them if they would only ask for it.

This is why I liked the Safe Side video. Instead of teaching the kids to be afraid of everyone it tells them what to watch out for. It's awesome too that the video teaches about "Kinda knows." Statistically children are most often harmed/taken by someone they know. The video teaches how although the child may kinda know someone they shouldn't completely trust them unless they check with their "safe-side adults."

Mostly I like that it's not boring or scary, which is important in helping the kids to actually learn. Check out the whole article, it's not long, and if you want, check out the video. It might be a good idea to talk about this now in the spring before our kids start heading out to the playgrounds. I think I'll make it a yearly spring tradition in our family.

Almost There

After nine months of waiting, the time is near where I start another phase of life. I will be the mother of 3 boys. I will have more boys than I have hands. When I am paired with my better half, we will still be out numbered.

We are prepared as much as we can be. The baby clothes are out and sorted. The poor kid will be using 2 and 3 times used hand me downs, but he won't care, and he still will look cute. The minivan has been acquired. The boys already love having it. Diapers have been purchased. They are so small. And a name has been chosen, though Andrew doesn't like it. He still thinks Whitey House is a great name. He's also leaning towards Andrew2 or Zachy.

Unless little Will has other plans, he will come on Saturday the 21st. I really hope he doesn't have other plans. I am 45 minutes from the hospital I am going to and I do not want to drive that long having painful contractions. No thankyou. So of course all last night I kept on dreaming that I would go into labor this week sometime. I kept on worrying that it would be today because today is the only day this week that KC is not working from home. Preparation is the best insurance that something won't happen so I made sure he was prepared and sent the cell phone with him, just in case.

Wish me luck.

Effects of Nostalgia

Don't we all get nostalgic now and then for our younger years, our years of innocence, our childhood and all that came with it? We remember our friends, our favorite toys, or favorite places to play, and of course our favorite TV cartoons. Now, thanks to the wonderfulness of the internet you can find almost anything online, especially on Youtube.

Periodically KC and I will spend a few minutes looking up our favorite cartoons and watching the opening credits or some clips from the shows. They are never what you remember them to be. I can't believe I actually enjoyed some of them. I think some shows though are classic. They still inspire the imagination and delight in a little boy or girl.

One of those shows I guess is He-Man. I never really watched it as a kid, though I think I watched She-ra a bit. KC says He-Man was his favorite cartoon when he was about 5 or so. So it's no suprise when the other day KC pulled up the opening credits to He-Man on youtube to show the boys. He was hoping to find an episode to show them, but didn't have any luck. For some reason I remembered seeing that Fancast.com had old cartoons on it and sure enough they have a bunch of He-Man episodes available to watch. So we all gathered around the computer screen and watched it.

Now it's no wonder then, that the night before last I had a certain song in my head all night and the next day, and I had certain phrases run through my head willy nilly. Why? Andrew and Isaac have been watching episodes of He-Man on the computer every chance they get. Isaac has been pointing his play sword in the air and trying to repeat the phrase "By the power of Grayskull!" He only get's out the skull part though. It's cute. They've really been into swords lately and since He-Man uses a Magic Sword, well it's a no brainer they they are drawn to it.

I have to leave the room when they watch it. It annoys the heck outtta me. Why to do they care so much to protect or conquer a land that has no plants and is filled with craggy rocks and mud? Why do they live like they are in stone age/medieval times but they have flying vehicles and computer guidance/targeting systems. Why is the cat/tiger so afraid? Why is Skeletor's voice so high pitched and annoying? What is the deal with those circle shapes on the women's outfits? If you've seen it, you know what I mean. I could go on, but I won't.

There is one redeeming thing about the show. At the end of each episode they have a short moral or uplifting message about something that happened in the show. That is something that a lot of the cartoons out there should have. Still, I'm hoping that this phase blows over soon and I can enjoy more episodes of Wow, Wow Wubbzy and The Backyardigans again. I get those songs stuck in my head too, but they don't annoy me as much.