I have not decided what to do yet about a prize, since most days I cannot even remember if I ate breakfast, but it will be valued at $0, and probably made in paint shop pro. Something like a button to advertise your coolness in tagline design.

So, use the comment section, or email me directly at sumnerrain at hotmail dot com with your ideas. Post as many ideas as you want and I will blog about my favorite top 5 and maybe even allow you to pick your favorite by voting.

What started this conversation is that I got a puzzle rack at the consignment store for Matthew, it came with 5 wooden puzzles. Matthew and I were counting and identifying numbers with his number puzzle. Between the 5 new puzzles and the 6 old puzzles, Matthew only has one empty slot left! Spoiled kiddo.

And of course I had to share these pictures of my adorable little boy, Matthew:

Isn’t he a cutie???

Back in 1997 I discovered this when I was watching a movie about Saint Theresa, and how when she died the house she died in filled with roses. He was not paying attention and said “What? Mother Theresa died?” That was September 4th, 1997…. on September 5th, 1997 this world lost a great woman when Mother Theresa died.

He also put a ton of Chinese restaurants out of business when he told me that by us ordering from another place, and this “cheating” on our regular place we were going to put them under. One by one, he put three Chinese restaurants out of business.

There are countless other examples… but the most recent happened on Saturday. I got Bobby a new laptop at Best Buy to replace his four year old one that was dying. On Sunday he comments that we probably need to replace our modem, as it was a couple years old and probably far behind the times and a new one would give us more speed…. so who do you think I wanted to throttle this morning when I woke up and I had no internet?? A 30 minute call to tech-support revealed that my area was fine, Qwest was fine, I just could not connect to my ISP. Since Best Buy carries the Qwest DSL products we need and has a return policy, so I met Bobby at the store and we got a new modem.

We get it home, and the fun continues… we hook it up and encounter one silly problem after another, and when the Internet light fails to light up, I call tech support back. This time I am on the phone for an hour and nothing works. He tells me he has no choice but to send tech support out on Wednesday, but in a last desperate attempt tells me to unplug the modem and plug it in again. He is just about to put me on hold to get the appointment time, when the light comes on and ta-dah, we have internet!

While I was on the phone, our friends brought their 18 month old by. Matthew had a lot of fun playing with his new friend as he called her. At one point, they ran up to each other to hug and it was like the movie cliche of a couple running up to each other to hug, except for his little friend ran harder and knocked him onto his ass and landed right on top of him… where is the video camera when you need one? It was a total AFV moment.

Sophie’s little sheepy came in too, she loved her “soft”… this is a name my niece gave my parents sheep skin that they brought back from New Zealand; all the other grandbabies loved it so much, I wanted one for Sophie. Pictures and more plugs to come in the morning!!

Miss Sophie got to wear the onsie that was passed from Christopher to Matthew to her. This was the very first baby gift I received and [start geekyness] it was given to me by the Sysop of the BBS I had been a member of for 3? 4? maybe even 5? years of my life at that time. [/end geekyness]

Sophie was called a boy at Best Buy today… I told myself after 3 boys, if I ever had a daughter she would never leave doubt in anyone’s mind as to her gender. Oops!

This morning, Sabin was a furry door mat, this is how I found him when I opened my bedroom door:

When I got up, my house was 78 degrees! Why? Because Matthew decided to turn the thermostat up and then move the button over to heat! HOLY HECK it was hot! I think he was trying to prepare my friend Julia for 100 degree heat for her trip back home to Vegas. We were very sad to see her go.

Sophie is 3 weeks old, I cannot believe it.

Make sure you click on the pics to see a larger view!

I am not sure who needed the nap more, Sophie or Daddy.

Don’t let the couch sharing fool you, the kitties hate each other.

I just wanted a full QWERTY keyboard and good reception, so this is what I got: Lookie lookie! Mine is in Maroon though, it’s purty.

However this appointment did not come without drama. See, my old Dr’s office was acting all crabby about seeing me because I left them to have a homebirth, they were so snotty about it that it made me uncomfortable and I did not know what kind of reception I was going to get when I showed up in person. The customer service I received from the front desk and a nurse was so bad I decided it was time for me to find a new office to handle all my annual needs. The most disappointing part of the whole thing is I really wanted to show off my little one to my old midwife, Sharon.

The new office was very nice, and the staff was wonderful. They pretty much kidnapped me when I brought in Sophia, since I do not use an infant car seat and needed someone to hold her for my exam. They just adored her and never once blinked twice that I had an out-of-hospital birth.

After my own appointment, Sophie-Bug had her two week checkup with Jan. Not only is my chunky-monkey up to 7lbs 8oz (a 12oz gain from birth) she also grew a little over half an inch. She is still such a tiny little peanut, but it is reassuring she is getting enough to eat and growing well. Next she had her PKU and that was heartbreaking because her blood clots so well, poor Jan felt awful having to keep sticking her to get the required amount of blood on the test.

After that I went to visit Bobby at work, and as I pulled into the parking lot I look in my rear view mirror and notice an MP has pulled in right behind me, crap! So I was speeding and have a lovely $75 ticket because of my mistake. I did not even realize the speed limit was 30 and not 40 like it used to be, but no excuse, I will suck it up and pay my ticket because it is not worth it to me for Bobby to miss work for me to go to court and have to leave my little Sophie home with daddy and take a bottle for the first time… no way, I am not ready.

The best part of today is that my friend Julia, who moved to Nevada, showed up today and totally surprised me. I knew she was coming into town, but I was thinking she was coming next week. YAY!!

Some more Sophie cuteness for you. This is her in her Maya Wrap, just snoozin’ away.

Since she’s been born, we have been calling her “Baby Gene” or joking that Gene Simmons is her real daddy because this little girl seriously has a giraffe tongue. This is a HUGE change from my other babies, who were tongue tied. Today they had a marathon of the reality show “Gene Simmons’ Family Jewels” so Bobby and I decided to watch it since nothing else was on. Bobby and I both really enjoyed it, but had to laugh when we learned that his own daughter’s name is also Sophie. I guess Sophia *IS* Gene Simmons’ daughter after all, just not *my* Sophie.

Well, my primary care doc closes early on Fridays, and they told me I should see “my OB”, well since I did not have one, I called the practice I used for half my pregnancy, and they also would not see me since “I left them for a home birth“. So we decided to head to Urgent Care…. Well, they thought it could be something more serious than their scope of care, so they sent me to the ER. The ER took blood, urine, and did an ultrasound and could not tell me *why* I had a fever, but gave me antibiotics and told me the OB they consulted with wants to see me next week for my follow-up.

Who is the doctor who wanted to see me next week? The OB’s office who handled half my pregnancy and refused to see me in the first place! Go figure, huh?

Sophie is a week old, oh my goodness the time flies!

She’s in fluff (cloth diapers) now, they are still a bit big, but they don’t leak or anything. The diapers that fit PERFECT were a gift from an online baby shower swap, but I need to get to the diaper store to get some covers ASAP before she outgrows them.

The booties were a gift from my midwife, she brought her two pair, they are equally adorable!

Don’t let the look of decorum fool you, she is so excited she could just poop.

Once I was at ease with my decision I informed my family, who were very uncomfortable with my decision, however they were able to put their own feelings aside to support me. My mom even decided to fly in during my 40th week of pregnancy in hopes of being here for the birth.

My due date, May 30th, came and went without more than Braxton Hicks. The 31st my mom flew in from Washington. On the 1st, my husband, kids and I packed a large picnic and ate it at a local park. That night at 7 pm I started having contractions 8 minutes apart lasting 3 minutes long and needing to be concentrated through. They continued all through the night slowing around 2 am and stopping at 4 am.

I was frustrated and Bobby and I were both exhausted from lack of sleep, so he took the day off from work to stay home with me (June 2nd). Austin and Christopher were acting wild and we were all tired, so I sent them outside to play on their scooter and bike so they would burn off some energy while Bobby and I tried to recover ours. Shortly after leaving, Christopher came in crying, he had fallen off his scooter and we decided it probably needed x-rayed so my mom and I took him to urgent care to get it looked at, sure enough it was broken and he needed to see the orthopedic specialist the next day to see if it needed a cast.

Tuesday morning, I woke up at 7 am no longer able to ignore the contractions that had been waking me in the night. Before he left for work, Bobby told me I had been groaning all night and he would reach over and feel my stomach and it would be hard. I called my midwife Jan and my doula Candace to let them know I may be in pre-labor. The contractions were stronger than the ones on Sunday, but irregular. I took a nap after lunch and they really started to intensify, to the point where I sent my mom and son off to the Ortho with my insurance card and a note because I did not think I would do well at the appointment.

Around 8 pm, on the 3rd, Jan called me to ask how I was doing because she was getting ready for bed and wanted to know if she should expect a call in the night or not, and after talking we decided she would come over just to check on me since I had canceled our appointment earlier that day. When she checked my progress, she said I was 4-5 cm dilated and 95% effaced and wanted to camp out because she felt this was the real deal.

I went ahead and called Candace and she called Kim, who was going to be my second doula, and they arrived around 10 pm. Once everyone got here, my contractions responded and started getting much stronger; however, they were in my back and required a lot of rubbing and counter pressure. Candace and Kim helped me find different positions to labor in and helped me with stair walking activities to make sure my baby was in a good position.

They also rubbed my back with the contractions and my feet and shoulders between them. Around midnight, the pressure was getting more intense so I asked if I could get in the tub, so Jan checked me again and told me I had not made a lot of progress, but she could probably stretch me to 7cm and I was ok to try laboring in the tub.

Once she stretched me, the contractions started coming a lot faster so the water of the birthing tub was heavenly. My contractions slowed and I was able to rest between them, but when they came on they were extremely intense and in my back. I was trying very hard to remain calm, but inside I was starting to feel panicky. Halfway into each of the rushes, I started grunting and pushing a little, but I still was not feeling the urge to push, I just wanted to vocalize and express the sensations I was feeling.

I remember hearing one of my doulas ask Jan if I was complete, she was in the tub with me, and I heard her say “don’t worry; she will push when she is ready”. Hearing these words gave me hope that I may be near the end. The back labor was like nothing I have ever felt before, I did not have the urge to push, yet my body was pushing the baby down and my support team was telling me to push through the sensations and it would feel better. I was feeling frustrated that I was doing all this work and nothing was happening, and the power I was feeling was very intense. I was roaring like a lion with each surge and clinging to my mom and husband for support. Soon I felt the most amazing thing ever as I could feel her coming down into the birth canal, it felt like I had a bowling ball inside of me and I was feeling so powerful, I pushed again and I heard the midwife exclaim the head was out. The rest of her just seemed to slide out and my baby was here! At 1:43 am on Wednesday, June 4th, 2008 my baby girl Sophia Elanna came into this world with open eyes and a very calm demeanor. She also was born with a nuchal hand (hand born next to her head) and I had a tiny “skid mark” which is a tiny abrasion, but not a single tear. I did not need any sort of repair.

The flood of emotions I was feeling was so intense, from trying to process the physical sensations I had felt, to having my baby there in my arms, to just feeling disbelief that I did it. I felt so powerful and even was able to climb out of the tub and onto my bed with little assistance while still holding my baby who had a very short cord. Not long after getting in bed, I delivered the placenta. This was amazing to me since I did not remember that part of my other deliveries, as they wasted no time in my hospital births and pulled it out almost immediately.

Everyone worked on cleaning up while I got a chance to bond and cuddle with my baby girl. She was so calm and wide eyed, and alert. She just took everything in, lifting her head to look around. Jan then did the newborn exam, her APGAR was 9, and she was 6 lbs 10 oz and 18 7/8th inches long.

When the cord stopped pulsating, and was ready to cut, my midwife asked Bobby if he wanted to do it and he declined, so I was about to cut it, but asked my mom to do it, since she was such a key element to my positive birth experience and I felt if anyone deserved the honor, it was her.

Around 3:30 am I took my shower, it was so wonderful, and by a little after 4 am, I was able to go to bed, however I do not think I slept at all until around 7 am when Bobby took her downstairs for a little while to get some cuddle time. Sophie is such a sweet, calm little baby; she is a cuddle bug and nursing like a champion. She does not really have a fussy time, but she does have times where she is active.

This birth, by far, was my most rewarding. Even though I had epidurals to take care of the physical pain in Christopher and Matthew’s hospital births, that could not take away the mental pain of regrets and dissatisfaction with all the interventions. Being in my own home, in my own comfort zone, with an amazing birth & support team, and the amazing techniques I learned from my Hypnobabies home study courses made the entire experience breathtakingly beautiful. I felt so calm, Zen-like during my birthing time, and I was able to handle each contraction as it came, and let it go when it left, and not think about the next one until it was upon me. My head space stayed clean and I never once felt like I could not handle it anymore and needed drugs. I cannot get over the feeling of accomplishment and pride I feel. I did it!

Special thanks to my doulas Candace (above) and Kim (below) who reminded me of my strength through the entire labor and birth, and who’s tireless hands comforted me through each contraction helping me keep my calm. And of course to my calm and collect midwife, Jan, who brought so much wisdom and experience to my birth, and for making it possible for me to fulfill my dream of a homebirth.

And I just had to include this picture, because it shows how tired my poor family is the morning of the birth.

And of course, thank you to my beautiful mother, who flew in to support me during my birth, even though she was uncomfortable with homebirth. She never once wavered in her unconditional love and support. She never once showed fear, even though she told me later she was scared when Sophie was taking a while to clear the mucous from her throat and we let her work it out without suction.