Hanging Out to Dry

When we first moved into our house, there was a clothes line across the better part of the backyard.  It was right in the way of the main open area, and it was ugly.  We took it down, and the first summer we lived here I kept trying to figure out a place to hang up a line.  I never could figure out something that Kevin would agree to.

The second summer, I got enough guts to ask our elderly next door neighbor lady if I could use her clothes line that ends right by our garage.  I had observed that she never used it the summer before, and she's a nice lady (the kind that randomly brings over some cookies or brownies just because), so I thought my odds of her saying yes were pretty good.  Sure enough she said to go ahead because she never uses it.  Well, that was great, but I didn't have any clothes pins.  So, I only hung Evelyn's cloth diapers out there because I could fasten the snaps around the line so they wouldn't fall off.

This third summer I found some clothes pins at a thrift sale for fifty cents.  I guess it's just quicker and easier to throw the clothes into the dryer, because last week, I hung a load of clothes out on the line to dry for the first time.  It was so FUN!  It was extra fun because it was the girls' clothes and seeing all of their cute pink clothes waving in the breeze just made me grin.

Gardening

There's just something about sitting down to a meal of produce that you grew in your garden.  It gives me (at least) a feeling of satisfaction and accomplishment that my hard work is literally putting food on our table.  Not only that, but the healthiest and freshest vegetables around.  This year with a new baby, a small yard with no room to plant, and barely enough time to wash dishes and get laundry done, gardening was put to the wayside.

Back this winter as I thought forward about not being able to garden, I got disappointed about it.  I know that Kevin loves fresh vegetables, and I could really help our grocery bill by growing it myself.  After sharing my disappointment with Kevin, he encouraged me by reminding me that it'll only be a couple more years that we live in this house, and a couple more years until Evelyn can help me more, and a couple more years that we run our lawn care business, and until then the farmer's market is close by.  As he put it, "It's not worth killing yourself for some carrots and lettuce when they're only a couple bucks at the farmer's market."  This really helped me because I truly want to please my husband in all that I do, and it was reassuring to know that by not attempting to garden I was not disappointing or letting him down.

Someday I will have a garden that produces enough to put away food for the whole year.  It will be a family affair with all the children helping.  I'm sure they will all whine about having to weed the garden, but years down the road they will look back and count it a blessing that they know what carrot plants look like, and what weeds look like.  Kind of like how it was for us growing up.

Until then I will have to settle for a few tomato and pepper plants in pots alongside the garage and whatever others give me out of the abundance of their own gardens.  But oh how my tomato and pepper plants are flourishing in their little pots of dirt and compost.

Here's a tiny peek into my "garden".

The first little green tomato.

 

The first little hot pepper.

 The first of the blossoms on my regular pepper plants.

I didn't do anything special to them, but all of my plants are doing very well.  On one pepper plant I counted 16 little blossoms.  And that's just one plant!  It looks like we will have a bountiful harvest even if it is only peppers and tomatoes.

Look Alike Contest

The second question everybody always asks is, "So, who do you think she looks like?"  Like they say, "A picture is worth a thousand words" so I'll save myself the thousand words and let you decide who you think she looks like.

All of the pictures of Elsie are on the left.

Elsie vs. Evelyn

 

Elsie vs. Anna

Elsie vs. Kevin

 

We think she looks a lot like Evelyn's baby pictures (as you probably saw).  The two have the same hairline, eyes, nose and mouth.  She has more of my head shape and definitely my toes, where Evelyn has Kevin's.

So, who do you think she looks like? 

Baby Button

Today I am thankful that Elsie's belly button has completely healed up.  The cord part fell off when she was about 1 1/2 weeks old, but there was a little part that wasn't healed up yet that kept oozing. Today it is no longer oozing and that last little part is all healed up.

And what a cute little button it is!

Now this sight of oozy onesies to be sprayed can disappear from our bathroom. Yay!

Hospital vs. Home

An acquaintance asked me the other day, "So, did you like the hospital birth or the home birth better?"  When I told her the home birth, her response was, "Everyone I've talked to that has done both likes the home birth better!"  After my experiences, I don't doubt that.

It's not to say that you can't have an awesome birth experience in a hospital, but after having two non-medicated, no complication births, I would pick a home birth over the hospital any day.  Here are some of the differences (from my two experiences):

Labor starts.
     *Hospital: Make sure all of your things are packed, get someone to come over to watch your other child, wait for contractions to get strong enough to go in.
     *Home: Eat dinner, put other child to bed, call midwife to let her know what's happening, relax.

Contractions get stronger.
     *Hospital: Get in the car, travel to the hospital while still having strong contractions (very uncomfortable by the way), check in, get hooked up to a monitor to see how the baby is responding to the contractions.  See which midwife is on call, and meet 4 different nurses.
     *Home: Midwife arrives, explain how things have been going, go back downstairs and continue relaxing and breathing through contractions.  After a while, get in the tub.

Baby is ready to be born.
     *Hospital: Turn on bright lights, pull out all the instruments, and push, push, push.  Everyone just standing there watching it all happen.
     *Home: Turn off all the lights, light candles, and relax letting my body work the baby out by itself.  Midwife and assistant coaching me through contractions and instructing me on better ways to breath and relax.

Baby is born.
     *Hospital: Put her up on my stomach, after a while cut cord, put goop in her eyes, give her a bath, weigh and measure her, then dress her in a hospital onesie.  Meanwhile, I get stitches, take a shower and eat a hospital sandwich.  Then get moved to another room to sleep on an uncomfortable bed.
     *Home: Put her on my stomach, let me hold her as long as I want.  Then cut cord and give her to Kevin.  We don't give her a bath because vernix is great lotion.  Weigh her and dress her in our own clothes.  I take a bath, no stitches necessary, and go lay on my own bed. Then snack on fresh fruit, cheese and crackers.

The next two days.
     *Hospital: Nurses in every hour to check baby's temperature and my blood pressure.  Baby gets her foot pricked to run blood tests, has hearing screening and vision testing.  Nurse shifts change every 8 hours, so we have a total of 6-7 different nurses taking care of us.  Continue to eat hospital food, regulated visiting hours limit who can come and when they can come. On-call pediatrician comes in a few times to squeeze the baby's belly and pester us about not giving her vaccinations.
     *Home: Family watches other child, family and friends bring home cooked meals, sleeping in my own bed with 1-2 caretakers (husband and sister-in-law).  Friends and family can visit whenever it is convenient for us, and there are no tests and no pediatricians.

Going home.
     *Hospital: Make sure the baby has passed all of her tests before we can leave.  Get the nurse to check us out and take off the security bracelet.
     *Home:  What?  We're already at home!

Overall, birthing at home was so much more laid back, less invasive, and just more comfortable.  If and when the Lord chooses to bless us with more children, if everything is going well, I will definitely do another home birth.

Evelyn and Elsie

One of everyone's first questions when they first meet Elsie is, "So how does Evelyn like her?"  If you had asked me that question a week ago I would have given you a different answer than I would today.

Evelyn has always been interested in babies.  Whenever we see one in the store or at church, she is quick to say, "baby".  So at first she was excited to see a baby every day.  She would give her kisses and gently touch her.  Then she began to realize, "Wait a minute - what is MY mommy doing holding that baby all the time?"  After the first few days, she got tired of having her mommy preoccupied with this other child and started to avoid us.  When she would wake up from her nap, she would come to our bedroom door and if I was holding Elsie, she would make a face, make a little 'humph' sound, and keep walking down the hallway.  Normally she would run into our room and climb up on the bed beside me.  She looked at me like I was a stranger when I would try to play with her.  She rarely asked me to pick her up, and if Daddy was around, she hands down chose him over me every time.

After a few days of this, I was starting to feel like I had lost my little girl.  She seemed so distant and disconnected.  It was probably just post-pregnancy hormones, but I just felt like she didn't like me anymore.  (which of course is silly because I'm her mother and she's only 17 months old).  I wasn't really sure what to do.  I had to feed and hold Elsie, and I was making special efforts to play with Evelyn and include her in everything I was doing so that she wouldn't feel neglected.  Nothing seemed to change her attitude towards me.

Then all of a sudden a couple of days ago, it was like a switch flipped.  Now when I'm holding Elsie, she climbs up next to me to see what she's doing.  If I lay Elsie down on the couch, Evelyn climbs up next to her and lays down beside her.  When I'm burping Elsie after she eats, Evelyn will come over, move my hand, and pat Elsie on the  back.  When Elsie is sitting in her car seat waiting to go somewhere, Evelyn will come up and start rocking her. When I gave Elsie her first bath, Evelyn was right next to me helping pour water over her.  When I need to change Elsie's diaper, Evelyn will pull a wipe out of the container and hand it to me.





So, needless to say, despite our 'rocky' start, Evelyn is becoming a great big sister and a great little helper for mommy.

Elsie Kay Misner

There were days I didn't think it would ever happen, but it finally did.  Almost a month after her original 'due date' Elsie Kay Misner is finally here.  She was born at home on June 1st at 2:00am.  Weighing in at 7# 7oz and 19 inches long.  She is a darling little girl with little dimples who keeps us cooing over her every day.

So, why the name Elsie Kay?  Well, there are several reasons we chose that name.
1. We just plain like the name.
2. It's very feminine sounding.
3. It's old fashioned.
4. Neither of us know anyone by that name (it's unique).
5. It's a family name. (My mother's father's mother's name)

And Kay is Kevin's Mother's middle name, so she is named after her.

And no, at this point we're not planning on naming all of our children 'E' names.  They just so happen to both start with E.