Moonlighting

So I haven't posted anything about the moonlighting that Chris is able to do. He set it up with a small group of Urologists in La Crosse, WI, which is just over an hour away from Rochester. One weekend a month he takes back up call from Friday evening to Sunday evening. We all get to come with him, and they put us up in the Grand Stay Suites. We stay in a two bedroom/living room suite with a kitchenette. We bring food up for some of our meals, but they have a continental breakfast at the hotel, and we usually go out to eat one of the nights. There's a church a few miles away, so we go there Sunday mornings. We go swimming, walk along the river (the hotel is right next to the Mississippi), play outside, watch movies, play games, and we just got a membership at the Children's museum. We have a great time! Most weekends so far Chris has just had to take a few calls, and once in awhile he's had to go into the hospital for an hour or two.

In December there was a big snowstorm starting as we were driving out to La Crosse. The next day Chris and the kids played out in the snow (I stayed in with Sylvie).





They had a huge Christmas light display right on the river by our hotel, so we walked around there and also got to visit Santa and his reindeer.

Sylvie at 1 month

It's definitely been the easiest adjustment after Sylvie. Not because she never cries, but because Annie and Noah are so helpful. I feel okay with leaving her alone in a room with either one of them. They are also able to make meals which we can actually eat!

The hardest part of our family's adjustment has been Brigham and Hudson. They both love Sylvie, and have been very sweet with her, but it's everything else in life that they have not been able to handle. I know it's just a phase, but I sure hope this phase ends quickly!

Like I said earlier, Sylvie has been our best sleeper. She's also a champion burper. At first she didn't spit up very much, and I was hopeful. But after a few weeks, she started spitting up quite a bit . . . and it comes out her nose as well as her mouth. Poor girl, that can't feel good.

Sylvie hates tummy time, but she's content as long as someone is holding her. She doesn't last a terribly long time laying down on her own, so we're usually holding her when she's awake.

Thanksgiving

Since Sylvie was due in November, I wasn't sure what was going to happen for Thanksgiving. All I knew was that I was not going to cook a turkey! I was hoping that someone would take pity on us with a new baby, and invite us over. Either that, or we'd be eating turkey sandwiches from the local deli. We talked about it a couple of weeks before Sylvie was born, and I mentioned again that I was not planning on cooking. Chris and Annie then decided that they could do Thanksgiving dinner. Annie got so excited about doing Thanksgiving with just our family (we've always been with extended family or with friends), and she said, "So if anyone invites us over, you'll say no, right Mom?"
I was surprised with how good I was feeling by Thanksgiving. Annie and Chris made the pies (apple, pumpkin, and banana cream), and on Thanksgiving morning Chris and I were busy little bees in the kitchen (I even helped with the turkey). With just a few mishaps (way-too-salty gravy, and rolls that ended up as biscuits, sort of, because they didn't get enough yeast), we had a feast!

I had to add that last picture; it's Brigham's plate before he started eating. He really went overboard and we had to reign him in :)

After we ate and cleaned up, we played some games, then watched My Fair Lady. It was a great day!

We love Sylvie!

So, Sylvie is definitely the most popular one in the family right now. She doesn't get much peace with Brigham and Hudson in her face all the time. But she's pretty patient, and she has quickly learned to sleep through everything!

I think I have a picture of Chris asleep like this with all our kids. I love it.

Sylvie has definitely been our best sleeper right from the get-go. A good chunk of the time when I can tell that she's getting tired, I lay her down with her binky, and she goes to sleep on her own. Also, right from the beginning, she was going three or four hours at night, then going right back to sleep after she ate. There have only been a handful of bad nights. Before you get all envious, I have to say, I think we deserve it. None of our other kids slept this well for months.

Sylvie's first bath

I gave Sylvie her first bath a few days after she came home. I remember giving Annie a bath on her first night home from the hospital, and pretty much every night after that. But the more kids we have, the more days they go in between baths. After bathing a toddler covered in dirt, spaghettios, and sticky sucker, I realized that a newborn really doesn't get all that dirty.

All clean with fuzzy hair! Oh, I love a baby just out of the bath!

Sylvie's Here!

Oh boy, where does the time go?? Oh, right . . . it's gone away in a blur of bleary-eyed nighttime feedings, in 3,000 diaper changes (for the newborn and the 2 year old), and in just trying to keep afloat running a family of seven. I've decided that I love 9:00 a.m. church (we just switched) because now there are wide open Sunday afternoons, during which I really really hope to catch up on blogging. Yeah, right, you're thinking, I've heard that story before. Oh well, better late than never, right???

So, my due date was Nov. 15th, and I was really nervous because Mayo does not believe in inducing labor early unless there is a medical reason. I've been induced with my last two labors because I dilated to a 6 with Brigham (with no contractions) a week early, and to a 4 with Hudson a week early. Both doctors induced me so that I didn't go into labor on my own and have the baby on the living room floor. I figured that should be medical enough reason for Mayo, but not so.
Three weeks before I was due, I was dilated to a 1, then the next week I was dilated to almost a 5. My mom got here on Nov. 6th, our fridge and freezer were stocked, baby clothes were washed, bags were packed. We were ready. On Monday night, Nov. 8th, I felt completely trashed. I remember crying to Chris, telling him I was so tired of being pregnant, and I was so nervous about going into labor on my own and not having time to get an epidural (I know, I know, I really like those drugs!). We went to bed, and I had a dream about trying to do my math homework but I couldn't because my stomach hurt. It woke me up at 1:00 a.m. and I had three more contractions in 20 minutes, so I woke up Chris. We got things together and left for the hospital at around 2:00 a.m. Luckily it only takes about 5 minutes to get downtown. Chris stopped at a stoplight, and that was the closest I got to yelling when I told him to "Go!"
I so wanted an epidural, and that was the first thing I asked about when I got in my hospital bed. I got the worst of both worlds, because as everyone knows, it's no fun to get a giant needle in your spine. Having to stay still while feeling contractions in the front and a needle jabbing me in the back was not so easy! They gave me a spinal/epidural combo, because a spinal kicks in faster. But in this case, it was not fast enough. My worst fears were coming true! The spinal did take the edge off a few contractions, but I felt everything when I was pushing. I'm not going to lie - it was awful!
But then she was here, and although all that pain was not forgotten, it was definitely worth it. Sylvie Saundra was born on Tuesday, November 9th at 3:41 a.m.

Hats Hats and More Hats

So I haven't posted anything about knitting since I started over a year ago. I'm a wee bit obsessed with knitting little hats. Here are some pictures of a few of the hats I've made:

Annie's winter hat

I made these for my neices' birthdays

Hudson's winter hat

Hudson's modeling one of the hats I made for my twin nephews' birthdays - the other one is just like it, but it's tan instead of brown

This one is for Sylvie - I hope it fits her when she comes!

Boston

So at the end of residency, Chris was given a "traveling fellowship" where he was given $ from Cleveland Clinic to go to any hospital, learn something, then report back to the Clinic. It was enough $ that I could go with him! He asked me where I wanted to go, so I chose Boston. Chris' parents flew in to watch the kids (THANK YOU!!!!!), and we flew out on Saturday, Sept. 18th. Because our plane out of Minneapolis was delayed, we missed our connection in Milwaukee, so we got to hang out in the airport for 6 hours. We finally got to Boston, then drove to Cape Cod where we booked a Bed and Breakfast called The Night Heron. I wish we had more time to enjoy it because it was darling, but by the time we settled in, then ate dinner (at a place called Land Ho! - awesome clam chowder), we were exhausted (we'd been up since 3:00 am), so we went to bed early.

The Night Heron. I can't imagine anything better than a B&B in Cape Cod!

The next morning, we ate the best breakfast! Homemade granola and yogurt, pumpkin bread, fresh fruit, and hot chocolate. The owner, Lorraine, sat and talked with us while we ate.

Our room - The Green Tea Room. It was exactly the kind of room I imagined should be in a Cape Cod B&B.

We reluctantly checked out and we headed out to Brewster for church at a tiny branch.

We noticed that a majority of buildings on the Cape have these faded wooden shingles, even the church. Does anyone know; is it called clapboard?


Check out our sweet ride. Since we got to the car rental place late in the day they offered the convertible at the same price as a regular car - we took it!

After we left church, we walked around Chattam Beach.

Chattam Lighthouse

We'd heard that we needed to eat at a place called Nickerson's. We learned that the name changed to Chattam Pier Fish Market. We walked all over, trying to find the restaurant, but we finally found out that it was in this building where people came to buy fresh fish by the pound. We ordered our lunch and sat by the ocean on a bench. It was definitely the most expensive meal we've eaten that has come out of a styrofoam box!

Although lunch was good, probably because it was so fresh (caught that morning), but what we really loved was the lobster bisque that we bought there. We warmed it in the microwave in our hotel room that night for dinner. Y.U.M.

We checked into our hotel outside of Boston, in Peabody, late that afternoon, rested up, then set out to find Walden Pond. Chris and I are reading Walden together, and let me tell you, that is a chore! There are a lot of great nuggets of wisdom, but I'm not sure we'll ever get through it. But we've read enough to appreciate what Thoureau did. We mapquested directions, but still had a devil of a time trying to find the pond. We kept thinking, "Why isn't this place better labeled??" We finally found the pond, and then took these pics (the book in the pictures is Walden, in case you couldn't guess)


It was getting dark and the mosquitoes were coming out in droves, so we left soon after. Once we got back to our hotel, Chris looked a few things up on the computer and was reminded that there are two Walden Ponds near Boston . . . we went to the wrong one!

The next day, Monday, Chris was scheduled to be scrubbed into a couple of cases at one of the hospitals there, so I had the day to myself. He had the car, so I couldn't drive anywhere, but I don't think I would have dared by myself. We were quickly learning that the streets in Boston are very hard to get around in, and they are not labeled very well! So, I spent the day exercising, reading, writing, knitting, and sleeping. It was awesome!! Chris made it back around 4:30, and we took off for the North End of Boston.


We barely made it into the Old North Church before they closed, but we did get to browse the cute gift shop.


Paul Revere's house.

We ate dinner on the patio of an Irish Pub called Goody Anne's. It was great food!! The North End is also full of Italian restaurants and shops. We were told that Gelateria had a great gelato, and that we had to try something at Mike's Pastries. So we ate gelato for dessert (YUM), then got some pastries for later. We missed our exit to our hotel, then wandered around for quite awhile in a not-so-nice-neck of Boston. We made sure the top was up on the convertible!

Chris didn't have anything scheduled for Tuesday, so we got up for an early session in the Boston Temple.


It was beautiful! It's been a long time since we've been to a session together (we usually switch off watching kids), so it was wonderful to sit in the Celestial Room after the session for as long as we wanted.




We found out that the real Walden Pond was in Concord, just a few miles away from the temple, so after our session, we walked around the pond. It was much better labeled, and it was beautiful.


A mile or two away from the pond was Louisa May Alcott's house, which we toured. It was so fun! We learned that Emerson's house was just down the road, and Nathaniel Hawthorne's house was down the road in the opposite direction.

We walked around Sleepy Hollow graveyard, trying to find the graves of all these literary folks, but we couldn't find any of them.



But check out how close this house is to the gravestones!

We walked around this shop lined street and ate lunch at the cutest restaurant called Market Street cafe. Great italian sodas! We loved Concord!

Afterwards we drove up to Salem to tour the Salem Witch Museum - weird, but very interesting.


These are the names of the people condemned for being a witch.


We stopped for some Brigham's Ice Cream, which we ate after dinner. Although we couldn't bring any of it home, like our Brigham wanted, we did promise to take a picture.

I left the next day so Chris could have the next two days in the hospital. What a great trip!! Thanks, Chris, for the good times, and thank you, Mom and Dad Weight, for taking such great care of the kids.