My Childrens Birth Stats

And finally all in one place, here are my childrens birth stats. Of interesting note: Sierra and Piper share the same day of birth, Odin is only one day off. Ivy and Persephone share the same birth weight, and Sierra and Piper share the same length. Record holders for weight, Piper! Sierra was the smallest. Piper took the award in length as well! Persephone took the award for shortest baby. Odin was the only baby born during the morning hours, and Persephone was the closest to midnight without going over! (why did I just hear the Price is Right theme song?)

Sierra Morgan 6-12-98 9:53pm York Hospital, York Maine
7lbs 4.5 oz 20 inches long
born 3 days past her due date (6/9/98)

Ivy Keriana 7-30-03 6:03pm Southern Maine Medical Center, Biddeford Maine
8lbs 11oz 20.5 inches long
born on her due date

Piper Anastasia 1-12-06 10:37pm Mercy Hospital, Portland Maine
9lbs 1.8oz 20 3/4 inches long
born on her due date

Odin Christopher 2-11-08 8:49am crowned on I295, Mercy Hospital, Portland Maine
8lbs 10oz 20 inches long
born on his due date

Persephone Jade 10-27-09 11:48pm Mercy Hospital, Portland Maine
8lbs 11oz 19.5 inches long
induced at 39 weeks (a week before her due date of 11/3/09)

My Baby Shower. Sort Of.

I considered writing this post a few times, and even did it once having omitted names. However I feel this is my blog and my blog has my feelings. I don't link to this thing anywhere, so no one should have it or know it. If they snoop for it, oh well. Their fault.

I didn't want a baby shower, but I got one anyway. Shannon insisted I have one. I told her no one would come. She insisted they would. No one that I invited came. Only family showed up. (not my family, Chris's family) I do believe I told her that would happen.

There are a lot of things that went wrong, starting with who didn't show up.. but I held it all in. Smiled through my teeth and willed the next few hours to pass quickly. Luckily they did. The only redeeming value was that Dave got us a pack of diapers, and the cake looked pretty. It didn't taste too great, but hey.. I took pictures of it so we can remember how PRETTY it was, not how it tasted. LOL

I was given a lot of used stuff by Shannon, which would have been fine if it had been in good condition. But it smelled like cigarette smoke and mildew. Two things I just can't have my newborn stuff smelling like. I tried to wash and fabreeze things but it didn't do any good. When Tonya let me know that Shannons dog had peed all over everything, and she kept it a secret and just wrapped it all up anyway.... well, eventually I just threw it all away because it was depressing me to look at it in my living room. To give someone used things is one thing. To give them used things that your dog peed on is another. It was like a slap in the face, but hey.. who am I to ask for clean usable things? Thats above me. I'm the poor little orphan girl that no one wants, I can make due right?

So I still need to get a bassinet, but it will have to wait until after the baby is born because we don't have the money to buy it now.

After the so called baby shower, I lapsed into a bit of a funk. Of course, having it rubbed in my face basically that I don't have any family or friends by insisting I invite people I KNOW will never come to my shower... its not surprising that I got depressed. I was sad. I still am.

Though there are only 3 more days and a bowl of cheerios until we meet this little one, so its understandable why my emotions might be a bit on the surface.

More later..

Its October..

Time really flies doesn't it? I know I haven't updated, and I'm trying really hard to feel guilty about that but I just can't muster it up. I blog when I can yanno? Some of us have a life. And four kids to parent on top of it! (really thats my only life, who am I kidding? LOL)

So we'll be meeting baby #5 in three weeks. I'll be induced sometime around the 27th I believe. They don't want me laboring on my own since it takes about 5 minutes. Apparently they were not impressed with my last baby being practically born on 295. Honestly I thought it was pretty cool.

So we found out it was a girl. Not sure if I mentioned it last time or not. Her name will be Persephone Jade. I think Persephone is a wonderful addition.

Sierra Morgan, Ivy Keriana, Piper Anastasia, Odin Christopher, and Persephone Jade. Beautiful names. My only hope is that my children turn out to be just as beautiful on the inside when they're adults as their names are right now.

Its odd going back and reading this blog. Its been five years since I started it. Five years is a long time for anything, but especially long for raising kids. So many changes. So many things are different now. I mean, I have nearly 3 more children than I did then. Sierra is back and living with me and has been for two years now. We've moved. We've gotten married. .... so many changes that its mindboggling really.

And now I'm looking at another change. Adding our 5th and quite possibly last child to our family. This baby wasn't planned. Not unwanted, but not planned. And feelings are so different with a surprise pregnancy I've found. I haven't felt emotionally the same feelings as I did the others. A lot of ambivalence this time around. A lot of confusion. I want to be happy. I really do! And I am. But I think this pregnancy just came so close to Odins birth that I have the BTDT feeling. Nothing is new or exciting. And it should be. Every child should be special even before they're born. I feel like I'm already not treating her right. Guilt comes in big doses when you're a mother...

I washed the infant clothes yesterday and folded them. I'm trying to get into the mood. Less than a month from now I'll be pushing her our, so I'd better comes to terms with this addition. The kids are more used to the idea of having another baby than I am!

Chris has been great. He really has. The other pregnancies he wasn't there for me much, but this time... I owe a lot to Ritalin. No really. LOL Since he started taking it, he's been a new person. He's helpful and does everything around the house. Hell he does more than I do! (I tell him he's got 7 years to make it up to me LOL)

I have a lot of pictures to add. Hopefully I'll get to in the next few days. If not.. just remember... I've got a life yo.

Happy Fathers Day! and a rather large update

Oh yes, I've been worse than horrible about updating. What can I say? I have four kids. Cut me some slack.

As you can see, that is baby #5 right there on the left. We had our 20 week ultrasound a few weeks ago. Today I'm 20 weeks and 5 days along. And technically its baby #7, since I had two miscarriages in between the girls.

We decided to find out the gender this time. The result? Baby number 5 is another girl to add to our estrogen filled home! Daddy is thrilled beyond belief and I'm happy keeping Odin the only little man in my life for now. =)

All the testing came back good, and the 20 week scan looks great. My thyroid levels are off though, so I'm back on synthroid again. I was on it for Sierra and Ivy too.

My OB doesn't want me going until my due date, which is officially November 3rd 2009. Instead they want to induce me the last week of October, or sooner depending on how much I dilate. I'm alright with that, since usually after ROM I go quickly.

Lets see... Ivy graduated Kindergarten the other day. I'm so proud of her. She really has learned so much this past year. As weird as her teacher was at times, she was a good teacher for Ivy. She even returned the communication notebook to me at the end of the year. I'm impressed. Ivy retained her IEP for next year, though it was by the skin of her teeth. We advocated for her based on her below average pragmatic skills test scores, and her need for sensory breaks an other accommodations. So she'll be in the social skills group with the SLP next year in 1st grade. Her evaluation by the school psychologist was a joke. Well, reevaluation. It was 5 minutes of observation and 10 minutes of "conversation." He concluded her pragmatic language was excellent and she had no issues at all. So he was not going to diagnose her officially with Asperger's at all. ..... at the IEP meeting I called attention to the discrepancy in his report versus the speech and language pathologists report that looked at her pragmatics. She scored below average, enough to qualify her for special education for another year. And yet he said it was excellent?? He asked her questions again about things, and she gave fictional answers. But since I wasn't there, he had no reference. He took it all at face value and claimed there was nothing wrong there. I was livid to say the least. In the end though I had to back off a bit. They were willing to give me an IEP for another year and THAT was the goal of that day. I can get her a medical diagnosis on the autism spectrum another day by a real professional. LOL The schools job is to help me help her. And I believe they did. It was a successful IEP meeting, albiet my first stressful one.

Piper still has a whole year and 1/2 left before she goes to preschool. I can't believe that. She's such a big girl and SO ready. Of course she has that 3 year old attitude. LOL She also took the scissors to her hair the other day. Gone was that hard to make decision about whether I should cut off all her hair to give her bangs or not. No, she made the decision easy! Most of her hair was cut off to make it even after her barber job, and she's now sporting a very cute bob. I have to admit, she didn't do a bad job on the side she cut. And just like her mom, she hid the hair under the bed. (RIP Aunt Alice)

Sierra has run the gamut of things she's willing to do for popularity and/or friends. Her first serious "relationship" with a 13 year old boy ended badly recently. She refused to kiss him because she wasn't ready for her first kiss, and after a month of waiting he was too embarrassed that his girlfriend wouldn't kiss him that he dumped her. Now she's willing to do anything to get him back, including sacrifice her own self worth. I can't think of anything I hate more. Watching my daughter give up everything for a boy that I know is playing her. Being used. And not being able to stop it. As a parent I'm pretty powerless to these social things. Being an aspie parent I'm even more powerless because I don't get it in the first place. I find it hard to understand why she NEEDS these horrible friends that treat her like crap. Or why she MUST do things/say things when they're around. I simply do not get it.

I count my blessings that I believe her trying smoking has ceased. She tried it twice. (first time because she wanted to try it. Second time because others heard she had tried it and dared her to again.. *insert eye rolling smilie here*)

smoking.. boys... kissing....

I'm not going to like the next 7 years.
Yes, she turned 11 finally. It seems she's been stuck at 10 doing much older things for awhile now. I'll be glad when my pre-teen acting like a teen finally IS a teen. Then it will seem age appropriate at least. Ahh what a period at 9 will do to you... hormones really are the devil.

Odin my little man is not so little anymore. He's 16 months old now and just as snuggly as ever. I think everything he's doing is age appropriate and on target. (though I said that about Ivy as well and looking back... well.. I was a little bit of an idiot.)
He says "key eee" for kitty
"baww" for ball
"I did it" for I did it.
"dada" for dada
(no mama at all. *sigh*)
"up"
"yes"
"no"
"nope"
"ahh yes"
"ahh no" when thinking LOL
"step" when he wants help getting up or down the stairs or steps
"I said stop!"
"stop!"
"stop it!" (can you tell he has siblings?)

He says some variation of thank you, though I can't think of what is is right now. It sounds nothing like thank you, but he says it everytime you give him something so I'm assuming thats what it is.

He blows kisses with both hands. He gives kisses and hugs.
He pulls hair still. A LOT.
He hits faces.
He doesn't bite much. Not as much as the girls did.
He loves to play with his trucks and play outside.
He plays by himself a lot better than the girls did.

He nightweaned himself a few months ago. He takes a sippy with diluted milk to bed. (we're weaning down to water) He nurses once a day. Occasionally twice a day, but no more than that. He just doesn't want it like the girls did. Odd huh?
He hates shoes and refuses to wear anything but Robeez. He'll walk in those but everything else causes him to fall on the floor screaming and howling pitifully.
He still sleeps in my bed... and I'm unsure how to transition him to his own bed so soon..with the new baby on his heels.

He's the most snuggly baby I've ever had and I love him so much.



(Picture of the girls taken at the Old Port Festival in Portland.) I went to see Thriving Ivory perform and I enjoyed every minute of it! (I also have a video of it on YouTube.)


In conclusion... heres to you Chris! My wonderful loving husband. I'm so glad I married you. (seriously!) I'm so glad I chose you to have a family with. You're an awesome father to my oldest, even if she's not yours by blood.. and you're a great dad to our children we made together. I love you so much! Happy Fathers day darling.. and thanks for the waffles and bacon. ;-)


<3 Peace.

I'm Shocked.

I peed on this February 26th, 2009. Exactly 5 days ago.

Really, do I need to add words here? I am absolutly still in shock. In fact, I'm not quite convinced honestly. We literally DTD only a few times in the past YEAR. I know I know, you can get pregnant from doing it once... but still! What are the odds? I'm nursing on top of it, my cycle is irregular, and we have infrequent sex. I guess this baby really wanted to be here! O_O And thats the first time I've made reference to "the baby." Gosh, Odin just turned a year old! I wasn't ready for this so soon. I was really enjoying his babyhood!
No symptoms of anything so far. I'm not even sure when my last period was except it was sometime in the beginning of January. Ya I know, that would put me close to two months along already. Its a good thing I don't drink, drug or smoke huh?!

Looks like an October baby. I always wanted an October baby. Did I say yet that I wasn't ready? Whew...

I'm gonna take another HPT to be sure before I make appointments. Though I'm not sure why. This HPT had two lines before the test was even finished going across. LOL I really thought it would be negative too. A surprise pregnancy! Baby #5, pregnancy #7.

I don't believe it yet.
Gosh this makes getting a van a SUPER priority now! Yikes.

*breathe* It will be okay. You always wanted a large family....
I know BUT..
I'm not telling anyone anyway. I told Tabitha and thats it. I mean, honestly? No one cares and everyone else would be so against us having ANY children let alone #5. LOL I gave up getting their love and support a long time ago.

Okay rant off... this wasn't supposed to be that kind of blog day.
I just wanted to share that our family size looks like its increasing!