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.