The Kavanaugh Report

I'm trying to make this as detailed as possible because I always regret not doing that with Henry. So, if you're not into birth story details, skip this post. Everything started early Tuesday morning (June 17). I got up early, as usual, for no apparent reason so I decided to fold some laundry. As I was folding, I noticed I felt a little wet. Was it pee, pregnancy mystery fluid or had my water broke? I decided to lay down for a bit to see what would happen if I stood up. Sure enough when I stood up (right around 8:00 a.m.), I had a huge gush of fluid. I knew right away it was my water breaking. As we finished packing some last minute stuff we tried to take one last picture with Henry. He was so excited to go to the neighbors that he flashed a smile for one second and got super squirmy. When we asked him for a nice smile he said "no, I already smiled!" So we settled for grumpy and headed to the hospital. When we got to the hospital (around 9:1...

On Wednesday, June 18, Morgan, Henry and I welcomed Nora Marjorie into the world after 18 hours of labor. I'll write a full birth soon, but everything was perfect and Nora and I are doing great. We are finally home and getting to know each other! Things will be a little quiet around here as we adjust to our little rainbow, but I hope to be back soon! If you want baby pictures (because really who doesn't!?) make sure to follow me on Instagram for daily (and sometimes hourly) updates. 

One week until my due date. One week. Please let me be snuggling my baby in one week.  This past week can be described as the week of contractions and nesting. It's been a vicious cycle. I can't stand any mess -- clean frantically, get a ton of contractions, they stop as soon as I think it might be real. At one point, the contractions were down 1.5 minutes apart and lasting 50 seconds -- talk about labor. But, they weren't getting stronger and I was reluctant to call it. Sure enough, they slowly started to spread out before eventually going away completely.  It has been frustrating and exhausting. All of this hope-dashing has made me super crabby. I'm sick of trying to figure out if every little pain means something or not. On top of that I'm swollen, sore and so tired. With Henry I could nap all day at this point, and I pretty much did. Now, I'm running after a 3-year-old and I think that has really upped the aches and pains. The good news is my house ...

So, I've maybe been impatiently complaining about being super pregnant for awhile now. I can feel myself getting crabbier about the situation, but I'm pretty powerless to stop those feelings. But, with those complaints, not a second has gone by where I have forgotten what a miracle this pregnancy is. And as every day comes to a close, I wonder if it will be my last day that I ever get to be pregnant again.  Morgan and I have avoided talking about whether or not we will try for a third baby after this pregnancy is over. We both know that plans don't really matter, and that it very well might not be an option for us. After four miscarriages in 13 months, we are done planning, done thinking we have any control. When people have asked me if this is our last baby, I stumble over my words and answer with a quick "I don't know" before changing the subject. But, the truth really is, "I don't know." Tomorrow I could wake up and never get to be ...

Another week down...days to go, a month to go -- who knows. I hate the waiting game. I've been waiting for 2.5 years, I really just want my baby.  This week I'm just feeling larger, crabbier, sorer, and just so over pregnancy. Nothing much has changed with me over the last week. I've had tons of steady contractions but no cervical change. But, I haven't really had any other new symptoms develop. Nora is doing well, kicking away -- heartbeat at 140.  I did find out that I'm GBS (group B strep) positive. It's really not a huge deal, and a pretty common pregnancy complication. It just changes my birth plan a bit since I need to go to the hospital sooner than expected to get IV antibiotics. It also means that we need to stay in the hospital longer so Nora can be monitored. I'm not really happy about either of these things, but it is what it is. I'll try to make the best of it.  I know that the longer I'm in the hospital, the more aggres...

Letter L tot school was our first week in our new Montessori inspired homeschool classroom ! It was a huge hit and gave us some extra motivation to spend time at tot school.  The first tray was a log exploration tray. We recently had to cut down a dying Ash Tree in our back yard and have an over abundance of wood. I brought in a small log, provided a magnifying glass, some paper and colored pencils. Henry and the co-op children were then free to explore the log through touch, smell, sight. Then, they could draw their experience.  This post contains affiliate links at no cost to you.  Henry, who generally refuses anything artistic, even participated with this tray. But, he was very literal and would draw something to closely represent the log (top right). Overall, I thought the work they came up with was amazing!  The second tray was a lock and key set . In letter K week, we explored keys by themselves. This time we took it one step further to disc...