Baby Benjamin's Birth or Bouncing with Bowling Balls

Today (according to my midwife) is my due date. I am happy to say that this time I already have a baby instead of having three days left of pregnancy like I did with Claire. Last Wednesday, May 30th, I went bowling with the young women in my ward. It was M&M bowling, so you choose an M&M and then bowl in a silly way that was chosen for that color, i.e. granny style, sitting, or hopping. Yes, I hopped down to the line with a bowling ball 12 days before my due date. I had it in my mind that I went bowling with Claire a week before she was born and nothing happened, so nothing would happen this time. I was wrong. I woke up in the morning with a bloody show. All my kids have always been born with in 24 hours of a bloody show.

I let my mom, midwife, mother-in-law and sister know that the baby was going to be coming pretty soon. My mom and sister came and helped me prepare for the inevitable. Mom did the dishes, Zilpha mopped the floor, I rested and got a chiropractic adjustment. Zilpha took Audrey for a sleepover and Nathan went with my mom. At 5:00pm nothing had started and Claire was upset that everyone left her, so I took her on a walk, which helped get the contractions coming regularly.

5:30 Curtis got home from work, the contractions were mild enough, he mowed the lawn while I sat with Claire and watched. We ate dinner and started watching a movie. I wanted to rest. I was convinced they weren't strong enough to be labor and if I rested they would stop and I'd get a good night's sleep before we met our boy.
9:30 We had been timing the contractions with an app for the past several hours and called the midwife to let her know they were 30 seconds long and 3-5 minutes apart. She offered to come over and get things started with essential oils or breaking my waters, but I chose to rest. She said to call her when the contractions were a minute long. I went to bed, still thinking that maybe they would stop and I could sleep all night. =)
11:15 I was feeling restless and timed the contractions at one minute each. I knew my resting was done and called the midwife, stating I wasn't sure if this was it, but I couldn't talk through the contractions very easily so she started on her way and said I could get in the water.
11:30 Mom arrived with Nathan, who went straight to bed.
11:45 The midwives arrived and I was in the tub, comfortable, but the contractions seem to be coming on top of each other, still not so strong. I still wasn't convince I was going to have the baby very soon.
11:53 My water broke.
12:00 Two pushes (one for his head, one for his body) and he was out!

 Benjamin William Gibby

7lbs 19.5 inches long

June 1st 2012 12:00pm

The midwives had never seen so much vernix. It was like someone had frosted him like a cupcake.

Claire woke up not long after because of the commotion. She loved seeing her baby brother and giggled when she saw him nursing. It seemed so funny to her that he would suck on me.

 

What a sweety he has been. We have all enjoyed him so much. Claire has been very understanding of me needing to hold and feed him all the time. Audrey and Nathan have been great helpers, but get a little stir crazy. It has been nice when they can go play with cousins or friends.

The Gibby ABCs

I made an ABC book with family members and other fun things. I had it printed and am anxiously waiting for it to arrive. Here are a preview of some of the pages:

Luckily we have some names that start with the hard letters! =)

The quick album I used was called "In the Groove" from ShabbyPrincess.com. It made it a lot easier.

Happy Birthday Freebies

Curtis is the king of freebies and since both of our birthdays are in May, we have had our fill of freebies already this month!
Here is a list of some of our favorite birthday freebies:

Tucanos! Their birthday club gives you a free meal during the month of your birthday, which is a great deal since a meal usually costs over $20. All the tasty meat and fresh salad bar you can eat! They will send you a coupon in the mail, so sign up now, don't wait until your birthday month.


Denny's! Free Grans Slam on your birthday. You don't need a coupon, just go in and you'll sign saying it really is your b-day. (Only good on your birthday.)


Boondock's: They give you a free Unlimited Fun Pass and 20 tokens. You sign up your whole family and they will send an email with a coupon. (Only good on your birthday.)


Baskin Robbins: You get a free single scoop of ice cream. The emailed coupon is usable about a week around your birthday.


Red Robin: They will send you a coupon for a free burger and fries during your birthday month. The emailed coupon only allows you to view it twice so you need to be ready to print it. I loved that I could substitute the fries for a side salad and get a whole grain bun instead of white.

Cold Stone: They email you a buy one get one free coupon to be used during the week of your birthday, which is perfect for us because Curtis's work usually gives him a Cold Stone gift certificate for his birthday. We paid $0.05 for two Gotta Have It creations!
 

 I hope you all have a wonderful free birthday...next time! =)

Claire's "18 Month" Photos

Technically, Claire is almost 20 months, but it took a little time to get a coupon in the mail and to actually bring her in to get the pictures taken. I think she is such a doll.  

Claire is talking a lot more now, most words are not pronounced properly but she gets her point across. She is very good at communicating. She has figured out how to do a somersault all by herself and loves to swing whenever she can. She loves to point at everyone and say their names, though she has not attempted to say Nathan, she just kind of grunts at him. She points to my tummy and says, "Baby!", then gives my tummy a kiss. She loves to sing and tackle her brother. I think she will be a very sweet big sister, but will have a hard time understanding why I can't give her my full attention once baby brother arrives.

A Little Advice?

My heart is hurting a little today. This morning Audrey told me that most of her classmates don't like her, they say that she is not their friend. It brings back my own memories of the mean things kids said and did to me when I was in elementary school. I don't want her to experience that. I responded by saying that the important thing is that she is kind to everyone and that it is their loss if they choose not to be her friend because she is so fun and nice. But how does that make it better?

She didn't mention this problem before, but I think kids in kindergarten weren't in the "cliquey" mode yet, but why does it need to ever start, why can't all play with all? Why does there have to be friend separation? Twice now a neighbor girl has told Audrey that she wasn't allowed to play with her and another friend who Audrey knows well. She came home crying and the second time I was able to go out and talk to this girl. Her mom told her she wasn't allowed to play with kids that her parents didn't know their parents. I explained who we were and that we do know her parents, then she played. But I wondered why the other friend didn't stick up for her, and why are parents teaching their kids to exclude others? I know it's a safety thing, but it seems like the girl was using it as an excuse to exclude another girl she didn't know as well.

I probably am making a bigger deal out of this than it is, or am I? What can I do to help Audrey feel included? Why are kids telling her they aren't her friend? It makes me sad.

Other Projects...

I have had some other projects I've been doing, but haven't had time to share them. Here are a few:

Our cabinets have suffered from water damage. After some research, I determined I could re-vanish them myself.

A little "sanding" and vanishing later and I have like new cabinets!


My sisters silently complained about my messy utility drawer, so I looked at separators at Ikea, but thought they were a little pricey.

So I bought a sheet of foam board at Hobby Lobby for less than $2
and used some white duct tape and vua-la!

I have been looking at blogs that have done the fake wainscoting or board and baton for a long time. I finally got up the courage to mention it to Curtis in conjunction with a way to keep the kids coats off the floor and he said yes!

I got to use a neighbors electric nail gun! It was so fun and easy! I only did this corner for now. Eventually I want to bring it up the stairs.

Today I felt like being crafty so I made some bibs. I have three friends on the street who are all due around the same time as me, but they are all having girls. I can't make just one, that wouldn't be fair!

Bathroom Remodel

Long ago, well not SO long ago, it was since Claire has been around, I told Curtis that the next time he got me pregnant he needs to remodel the bathroom with a nice big tub for me. Well, he held true to his promise. We used our tax return to rip out the old dinky tub and install a separate tub and shower.

Before

During

After

We hired the work to be done by Steve at Creative Tile Works. It was so nice to not have to do the whole project like usual and he did it all: ripping out, plumbing, framing, tiling, electrical and drywall. It has been a couple of weeks and things aren't quite done. Steve took longer than he thought to finish and he had to do a job out of town for a week. He thought the shower was usable, but that same day this happened:

A leak!
That's in our ceiling in the family room downstairs, under our bathroom. Steve knows exactly what happened and will be back on Monday to fix it and to finish up the drywall work and caulking. In the mean time, the bath has been calling my name, yet it sits empty, waiting.