Mason makes 6!

On Feb 27th 2014 @ 1:04 AM, Mason Joshua Robert made his way into the world. He was our team green baby as we didn't find out what he was before he was born. He is an amazing little guy and so far a good baby.

Birth story: Mason was our second planned home birth. Most things about this birth were completely different from the others. On Wednesday the 26th in the am I started losing my bloody mucus plug. Lost it throughout the day but no real contractions. I spent the day schooling the big kids and cleaning the house in an effort to keep moving. I had texted the midwife in the AM that I was losing my plug as she had asked me to let her know.

I finally laid down to nap as I was tired and nothing was happening and I was a bit excited to get it over with during the day as delivering at night is exhausting. I had a few real contractions while laying down but they were random and scattered. In the evening when Tony got home around 5 contractions were still all over but a few were close and painful. The midwife came by checked my blood pressure and baby's heartbeat and then I had her leave as I wanted to lay down and sleep. However I knew once I nursed Abbie before she went to bed it would force contractions, but I needed to lay down.

Midwife left at about 7:30. We got the kids ready for bed and I laid and nursed Abbie. It did start contractions and they were painful, but I just attempted to sleep through it for an hour. At 8:50 I got up to use the bathroom. When I returned to the bedroom I just stood next to the bed leaning over it with my legs apart to encourage baby to drop down and encourage contractions. However what that caused was my water to break. My water has never broken in it's own other than with Abbie when it broke during pushing. I said to Tony " I either peed myself or my water broke and off I took to thebathroom  where I was able to quickly confirm that it was my water so I had Tony text the midwife that.

I then hopped in the shower while Tony nicely cleaned up the floor next to the bed where I was standing and then the bathroom floor. I then stayed in the shower for the next almost 3 hours. However I didn't move at all until the midwife arrived and checked baby's heartbeat as I was afraid of it compressing (presenting first). For the next 2 hours I prayed a steady prayer of "Please don't let this hurt me,  please make it fast and easy, please keep baby safe." While I never stopped quietly speaking those words while in the shower I did eventually end up sitting and eventually on the floor. I was checking my own cervix and placement of baby. At one point I said to the midwife that the baby was so high because I could hardly feel it so I had her check. She said I was at a 6 but that to her baby wasn't far away and it was my position that made it feel like baby was high to me.

I must add as well that at this point I named the baby even though I didn't know he was a boy. During my praying I said that I would name him Joshua. Not sure why that exactly came to mind but it did.

I was finally talked out of the shower around midnight. Attempted to sit on the toilet or lean over the counter, but that didn't last long as I wanted the water back. Thankfully Tony had turned up the water heater and I was able to get a good half tub of water. From there things went quick but it was all so painful. Every contraction killed. No amount of water or counter pressure could ease any pain. I was still very scared to push as it wasn't going to relieve any pain. I tried hard to hold out but I finally gave in. I pushed through one whole contraction and then on the next one I pushed and pushed until his head was out. I had talked to the midwife before about pulling baby out instead of waiting for next contraction as I remember how horrible it was with Abbie. So at that point I said get it out and the midwife basically leapt in the tub to get behind me to get it out.

She then handed him to me and I pulled him up. After a few breathes I  said what is it and since I was holding baby I knew I could look and I did. I said "it's a boy," I did then double check to make sure those were balls and not swollen girl parts. Lol.

Mason laid on my chest in the tub and whimpered. I just talked to him about how neither of us were comfortable and that it would get better. I was eager to get up and out so after about 14 minutes his
cord stopped pulsing and I had delivered the placenta so Tony held the baby and the midwife held the cord and I cut the cord.

Tony then held the baby while I rinsed off and came to get in the bed. I then nursed my little man. I told Tony I wanted to name him Joshua and he said Mason first and so I said ok. We had talked about Mason before as our boy name so then he was instantly Mason Joshua. I nursed him for a bit and then the midwife checked him and Tony dressed him. He weighed 8lbs 5oz with a 14 inch plus head and a very big chest too. He was 21 1/2 inches long. He checked out amazingly. Shortly after 3 AM the midwife packed up to leave. She had cleaned up the bathroom and Tony had brought me some toast since I was interested in much else.

He whimpered a bit for a while but was breathing fine and his chest and lungs were clear. I finally decided he was just expressing my feelings of pain. I slept for about 2 30 minute periods as I just stared at him. His face was quite bruised from his rapid decent down the birth canal.

Just like every day a little before 7 am in came Zander and Abbie. Abbie popped up over the bed to see Mason nursing and was less than impressed. Zander as well didn't want to see baby so he laid down to cuddle with daddy. Zayden rushed right in excitedly and Zavier shied away. Zachary had been up until about midnight because he was still awake when I announced my water broke so he was tired but came in shortly. All 3 big boys took a turn holding him.

We finally agreed on Robert for his second middle name yesterday so that we could go ahead and get his birth certificate filed.

One semester down.

We survived our first semester homeschooling. It went well other than the every day shock that we were going to do school each day. While some people loosen up when that kind of pressure is on, we did not because having something for them to do each day was better than them having nothing for days.

The nice thing about being in El Paso has been the weather. We have had small boughts of cold weather making it so the kids can't go outside, but for the most part many afternoons are just spent outside playing.

I like having the kids at home and other than a few small complaints I think the children like it better as well. Zachary would like more friends, which has been a struggle between me being sick from being pregnant and co-op being during nap time so that we skipped out on it. He does have the one little neighbor boy that he plays with when he's not grounded (usually for attitude) so he could play more if he kept his attitude in check.

Zayden has proven to be the most difficult, but he was the one I didn't want to homeschool the most. But at the same time feared which course of the path he would follow if continuing in a public school. He's easily persuaded to make bad choices, bully others, and be that trouble maker. He is however learning and we're working through it. He survived the semester as did I so we're getting somewhere. Hopefully he'll catch on about how easy homeschooling will/can be as we continue on. Then he should be able to have more independent studies like Zachary, however I do know he's sneaky so he will have to be more monitored.

Zavier other than being Zavier and in la la land a lot does wonderful at school. If I can devote my mornings about an hour he's usually done and can  more on to other activities for the day. He still usually won't help clean up and is good about slipping out of responsibility, but maybe as he ages that will change a bit.

The ups and downs

Of the lovely pregnancy hormones. It is now affecting my sleep as I can't fall asleep because I worry about the silly things moms usually worry about. Like are my children feeling loved, did I yell at one too much, am I just ruining them? Whatever the thoughts are they keep me up and force me to lose sleep, that is already precious to me. It was also a long weekend with Thanksgiving and Tony spend 24 hours sick so when he napped I had to nap cause I was out of things to do.

The kids are doing fine in school, other than the constant fighting they do with each other. Last week Zachary "accidentally" hit Zavier in the face with a chair which left it super swollen for 2 days and for the last 3 with a bruise from is eye down his face and across one cheek. Getting them to keep their hands and actions in check is still a long work in progress. However I'm not sure it's any different than anywhere else.

Zachary has finally figured out that if he gets the teacher's book reads through the list of assignments and gets them done, he can be done for the day. He will sometimes pass the assignment info onto Zayden, who does most of the same foundational work. He then usually has the most free time to do as he wishes. Zachary is lacking a few hobbies to keep himself busy and out of trouble though so we'll have to work on that.

Zayden is the one I struggle most with. He absolutely flips out when given instructions to do an assignment, even if it is something he's familiar with. We have started a new reward chart so hopefully that will get us somewhere closer to controlling our reactions.

Zavier does well when he can focus on what his tasks are. He does better with things he has to interact with. He really wants to play on the computer so we're going to add that as his reward for completing work in a timely fashion. He also needs to work on keeping his hands to himself.

Zander still just does what he wants. He's been gluten free for several weeks now and that has helped his tummy troubles he was having. I now feel he needs to be milk free as a big glass of milk upsets his belly, but emotionally I'm not sure he can give up his chocolate milk routine in the AM. We have been using Almond milk for a while and he will drink some of that, just not sure he's ready for a whole cup of that.

Abbie is a very busy, naughty toddler. She is always doing something, majority of the time it is stuff I wish she wasn't doing. She is very verbal and is quickly developing new words and phrases. She for the most part won't let me give her a sippy cup, which is fine other than she likes to wander around with an open cup of milk. But she is the light to several of the bigger boys and to her parents as she's so cute when she "practices her naughty skills". She has been a real life changer. :)

Baby #6 is still baking and a very busy little thing. We hit our 3rd trimester this past week so it will be over soon. We still don't know what baby is, but Zavier and Mommy say boy and everyone else says girl. I don't care either way, I just like to give them a hard time so I call it a him and daddy calls it a her. We will see in March.

Waiting on #6.

That's right we are waiting for baby #6 in the spring. We had our anatomy scan on Friday and there is is one healthy little baby swimming around in there. We decided to go team green, which means we don't know if baby is a boy or girl. The ultrasound tech did great at staying away from the sex, while still getting all the measurements.

Tony and I agreed him more reluctantly to not find out what baby is, and he's good with it. However now I can't stop thinking about it. It just feels weird to know I'm going to go in to labor in March and then have to get all the way through it before I know who this baby is. It's just different since we have always known. Zavier is the only one who wants a brother. I keep teasing Tony that I don't think he can handle any more girls though between Abbie and I he has more than enough. :) I honestly don't care either way so it won't matter to me. I'll just have the little bit of girl and boy newborn clothes washed and separated so that the baby can have clothes. I don't like yellow, green or white so that doesn't leave many other color choices that aren't one sex or the other.

Keeping the drama off facebook for today.

Today I'm just mad and annoyed. I don't really feel like I live in a free world. I feel like it's a world full of sheeple. Every one has to do the same thing and just fall in line. Every one is judging everyone over choices that are none of their business. If I only had it in me to have Tony get out of the Army and move to a foreign land to a village with no judgement from outside and no interaction with sheeple.
What exactly is my husband and family fighting and sacrificing for if we're not really free? There are so many things I don't know about what is going on in the world/country right now. And I feel to stupid to figure them all out.
I know that the answer is to turn to Jesus and trust in him but it is so hard with so many outside influences. I probably need to take a nice long break from the internet and just hang with my kids and teach them. I do wonder again what the purpose is in life since I am such a tiny person that I don't really matter in the world. While I know I matter to God, and trust him, it's just hard when you can't see the bigger picture.

So for today I'll just give it all to God and pray for the outcome of Americans and hope that the bigger picture is all worth it.

ICE complaint.

In Dec we had to move to JBLM for a short 6 months. However in Feb we got new neighbors. We are a family of 7 and they are a family of 4. It has been horrible to live next to them as they seem to have expected never hearing neighbors. After he confronted us several times they took it to the housing office which offered us no solution other than to talk with him personally. He is an angry yeller (as we hear through the walls) and we have no interest in confrontation with him. Today he took it to a new level of banging and slamming doors for each sound he heard and then went outside where my husband and kids we playing and started yelling, threatening, and cussing indirectly at my husband. We don't feel safe dealing with him and housing said they wouldn't get involved last time. We have 17 days left and don't feel safe without someone dealing with him. WE WILL NOT CONFRONT HIM.

This is the ice complaint I filed today. While we should have called the cops we didn't thin about it at the time and after the fact seems silly. I will be filing a second ICE compliant about the fact that they put 4 person families in 4 bedrooms but we didn't "qualify" for the 4th bedroom until Abbie made us a family of 7. 

This is also hindering our choices about where to live at ft.bliss. Originally we talked about on-post but kept our options open if something off post seemed more appropriate. However so far on-post housing is the small crappy duplexes and we will not be in a duplex again. We are good neighbors with just a lot of people noise. We're tired of constantly shushing the boys when we want them to feel "at home" at home. We pay just as much to live here as the neighbors do.  We don't party and we don't get in their space or have loud music. Don't smoke and don't bother them other than we walk run prance and jump in and through the house sometimes. Not even daily but occasional we do make noise. We both enjoy playing with our kids. 

I just keep praying that God has the perfect house for us there because after 2 cranky neighbors I can't keep living like this. We'll buy an RV and live in the woods before I deal with another cranky person. 

Allergies

About 6 weeks ago we began seeing a nutritionist for just some healthy food healthy food suggestions and just over some food guidance. Zavier began seeing her for belly pain. He has off and on the last several years complained of belly pain. He was "treated" with a laxative, which did take care of the problem enough for it to go back into hiding for several months. As it started to flair up again I made him an appointment to seen and she said wheat allergy/intolerance. So we cut out wheat and added some supplements to heal his belly and the damage the wheat had done to his belly. He greatly improved to the point that "if" he gets wheat (occasionally by mistake at school) he knows it and his belly will hurt. He is now on a completely wheat free diet and is doing wonderful with it. He has almost cut out all the healing supplements.

Zander went in to see the nutritionist about his umbilical hernia as either it or his belly have been bothering him lately. He had popped up with red cheeks (shortly after Abbie had Fifth's disease) but the N thought it could also be a food allergy, but since it also could be 5ths decided to wait and see. His face did get worse and worse and began have flare ups with things he ate. It wasn't anything particular as sometimes it seemed like it could just irritation from "always" having food on his face. I took him in to the clinic to get an allergy referral because I just didn't know where to eliminate something. We did try wheat for about 10 days and there was no change.  We went down to Portland over spring break and upon returning home his face was cleared up. The next day he got up and had scrambled eggs in coconut oil and his face broke out again. We got a clue that it must be the coconut oil. I stopped making any foods with coconut oil and went to just butter as we've given up most other oils at this point. His face cleared up slightly, but still continued to flare up on occasion but was always red still.

We had our allergy appointment yesterday with the results from his blood draw at the initial dr appointment in early April, and it came back positive for eggs and grass (they don't test for coconut). I was like thank you finally something. However the allergist didn't seem to think I should stop giving him eggs because I have a red face and we're both very light skinned. (Okay side note when involved in a discussion with the spotlight on me I do tend to get a red face and or chest. However it is not always like that). However he hasn't had eggs in 48 hours and when I wiped his face after lunch there was a pale white skinned kid.

I really liked the allergist other than the fact that she told me not to eliminate what was upsetting his face. Zander is a bit more difficult of a child and a picky eater so up until probably Dec he would only occasionally eat eggs (scrambled or fried). When we moved in this house I did make them breakfast more often so he was eating them more and then when we took wheat out of Zavier's diet breakfast has been either cereal or eggs. That is my conclusion as to why it has gotten to the point where his face was like that. Either way I am not going to feed him something that will intentionally upset his body when it is just as easy to NOT feed it to him. She did say baked eggs might not cause the same reaction, so I did put them in my meatloaf we're eating for dinner and we'll just see what happens and go from there.

Zander also started sneezing after they mowed the grass this week so he'll be on the natural allergy meds for the season as Zavier does as well.
So for the allergy record
Zayden-cats
Zavier-cats, dogs, trees, grass (wheat intolerance/allergy)
Zander-eggs and grass