first birthdays

Today my youngest baby turned 1. It was an interesting time because it is the last first birthday we will celebrate (until we have grandchildren that is). It also embarks upon a new chapter in parenthood. I am officially the parent of toddlers and school children. no more babies. It is bittersweet in that it will be nice to no longer do all the "baby" responsibilities and finally rid my house of the baby gear but at the same time it is sad that I have moved past child bearing.

I guess I have to focus on child rearing from now on.

Happy Birthday Natalie!

I am laying in my bed this morning with Natalie, feeding her a bottle, when Kamryn comes in, apparently hungry and ready for breakfast, and says, "Get out your bed mom and put the baby away!"

I did. Not sure what "away" meant, but I put Natalie on the floor with some toys.

Poor Kamryn

Kamryn has a broken arm. I know it was just last year that I was blogging about her broken leg. I guess my kids have fragile bones. (Seth broke his arm twice.)

Kam fell down some stairs and broke a bone in her arm and her wrist. She has a cute little pink cast. She picked out the color by herself. She is being really good about it too. I also got a waterproof cast to make my life a little easier.

This too shall pass!

Well, I figure I had better blog about the birth of our new baby girl before she is 12 years old and I can't remember a single detail. I was very preoccupied the last month and a half of my pregnancy. My car accident took up all my energy and elevated my stress level. Needless to say, blogging was the last thing on my mind.

The story begins on June 30th at my 38 week appointment. At this Dr. appointment, Dr. Froerer informed me that I was only dilated to a 1 (and I think he was being generous with that) and only 40% thin, however, he did not see a reason that we needed to wait for natural labor to occur. I agreed since it would be much easier to make arrangements for the other 3 children if we had a set day. He asked me when I wanted to have the baby. I reminded him that the coming weekend was the 4th of July and we both agreed that we did not want to be having a baby then. So, he suggested an induction on the 6th of July. I checked my calendar and let him know that was no good for me since I had a hair appointment that day. He chuckled and said, "Most women at this stage would be shouting to get the baby out but I understand that you have to look good for this event!" So, we scheduled an induction on July 7th.

We arranged for Seth, Ryker, and Kamryn to stay at Aunt Brenda's house while we were at the hospital. I dropped them off on the night of the 6th since we were scheduled first thing in the morning on the 7th. I said goodbye and let them know that the next time they saw me they would have a new baby sister to love.

That night Joe took me out for ice cream which was lovely. We went to Cold Stone and sat out on Rubio's patio in the warm summer night and talked while we ate our ice cream. It suddenly became realized that we were actually going to have a baby the next day and I became nervous and sad at the same time. After all, this was (and still is) to be my last pregnancy.

We were so excited we did not go to bed until 1:00 in the morning even though we had to get up at 6:00 to go to the hospital. We just couldn't stop talking. It was kind of like Christmas.

We arrived at the hospital at 7:00 on the morning of the 7th and were ready to have a baby. That was until the baby's heart beat wasn't in the right place. A quick ultra sound verified that the baby was lying transverse in my uterus. It was like a flashback of Kamryn. They immediately called Dr. Froerer because if we could not get the baby to turn it would mean a c-section. Luckily by the time he had arrived she had moseyed down to a head-down position but was not engaged in my pelvis. So, while I pushed on my left side and the nurse pushed downward on the top of my uterus Dr. Froerer reached in (elbow deep it seemed) to find the baby's head with a scalp lead. He literally shouted, "I got her" like he was catching a fish. The scalp lead was to keep her in place or at least allow us to monitor her position.

The nurse started my pitocin right away and my water broke shortly after this procedure. We were on for a regular delivery. Thank the lord.

Pitocin was started at 9:00 in the morning and Natalie Ann Versluis was born at 3:04 in the afternoon. Six hours is not bad if you ask me. She was out after one push and a chuckle. When I was dilated to a 10 they called the doctor down and he arrived just in time for my first push. So, I pushed once and he asked me to stop because her head was out. Then he said to push again at 40% strength. I reminded him that I had an epidural and had no way to gage my strength level. I asked him about a cough and if that would help. He said, "sure" which made me laugh and at that time the rest of her body was out. So it was literally one push and a chuckle.

She was absolutely beautiful when she was born and was given an apgar score of 9. Pretty good if you ask me. We did skin-to-skin contact right after she was born which was a first for me. I usually have waited until they are all cleaned up and wrapped in a blankie but the new trend is skin to skin right after they are born. They do wipe off a majority of the goo but it was still a little weird. The cool thing was that she wanted to nurse right away so we started that immediately.

Everything went smoothly and it was the best delivery and best recovery I have ever had. So we welcome Natalie Ann Versluis. Weighing in at 6 lbs 8 oz and measuring 19 inches long.

What a blessing!

Car accident

I figure I'd better write about this before I forget about it.

So, exactly a week ago today I was in an auto accident. The worst accident I have ever been involved in. I was broad sided by a 19 year old driver who was texting while driving and ran the red light. Luckily no one was hurt in the crash but there were several "what if's" that could have made a very different outcome.

The kid was driving a small pickup truck so it did not overpower my van. He hit on the passenger side but not exactly at the door where Kamryn was sitting. It still turned her carseat diagonally in the seat. He hit me on the rear portion of the van. This is where Ryker normally sits but I had to move him about a week prior to lay down that part of the seat and just had been to lazy to move him back. This laziness paid off because where it hit, he could have been seriously injured. That part of the van has the innards all exposed on the inside of the van. The airbags deployed which is a really loud and scary noise. I had no idea where they even came from and now I know. Some even blew out of the side of the seats ripping the seams. I didn't know airbags even existed in there.

The force of the wreck spun my van around which was a little surprising. They estimate the other driver was going at least 40 mph.

Also, to my advantage, there were witnesses. One of which was stopped at the red light that the kid drove through who had been driving behind him for quite some time who testified to the texting theory. Another was an off duty police officer at a gas station nearby.

Unfortunately, I am at the mercy of a base model rental van and the other guy's insurance company. It is a week later and we don't even have a prognosis. I have no clue if they are going to fix my van or total it. Actually, the adjuster isn't calling me back.

When do I get my attorney involved?

You can't just turn off super powers

About 20 minutes after we put the boys to bed we hear little feet climbing up the stairs and Ryker appears in the living room. He complains that he can't fall asleep because he can hear the t.v. downstairs and it is keeping him awake. Joe turns down the volume and tells Ryker to go to bed now that the t.v. is turned down. Ryker looks at us like we are idiots and says, "I have super powers you know."

Joe and I both laugh and Joe tells Ryker to turn off his super sonic hearing and just go to sleep. Ryker's response was, "I don't have a switch to turn off my super powers!"

Spring break has come and gone and I did survive. Did my children? That is still to be determined.

Kids are such creatures of habit that having 6 days off of school and their schedules all wrecked up turned them into monsters. After a couple of days Seth became ultra obnoxious and Ryker became pathetic and whiney. They were fighting with each other. Talking back to me. And wrecking up my house. It was snowy and cold all week so I couldn't even send them outside.

I am thankful to be sending them back to their teachers tomorrow. (Sorry teachers.)

Note for next year: Plan a vacation for Spring break.