Wow, I’m really getting into the whole “updating the blog every two and half months” thing…let me say it out loud, in case anyone was wondering…our lives are insane!

I’ve been working completely crazy hours (as has Peter) between trying to get everything done for work, keeping the house in relatively good order, and keeping up with the girls.  Peter’s been an amazing green thumb and has a veritable produce section started in the studio-turned-greenhouse, some of which is now in the ground, growing happily.  Pete’s mom and dad visited last weekend, brought us the family piano (which Amzie is SUPER psyched about), and helped finish off the set up of the gardens.   Together we all managed to get about 70 more bulbs in the ground, finishing moving about a ton of dirt and constructing the garden box in the front yard!

Amzie is doing great as well, having just received another report card of all 4.0 and “O” ratings.

Mina’s now two months old and has already been to NYC and PA.  We had great fun with her at Christmas, as is documented here.

She’s been mostly sleeping through the night since she was about one month old, something that we are eternally grateful for – I think it is the only thing keeping us sane.  She goes down around 11pm and fusses a little bit anywhere around 4.30-6am but usually doesn’t ask to get up to feed until at least 6, then goes right back to sleep until around 10.  YAY.

She started smiling at us, seemingly on purpose, about a week ago…then a few nights ago, we actually caught her first laugh on video.  She LOVES her musical diaper changer distracter thing and stares at it when we change her, and tries to eat the animals on it CONSTANTLY.  It’s hilarious.

She went to the pediatrician yesterday, and is 12 pounds, 9 ounces now (95% for weight).  I didn’t catch what her height was, but it was in the 95%.  What an overachiever!  She had her first vaccination, a combo of DTaP, Polio and HiB all in one – so that was the only one we opted for at this trip.  She slept well, ran a tiny fever, was a little more fussy than normal – then threw up   Afterwards since then she’s been fine, slept through the night and seems very happy this morning.

Amzie is doing awesome – just got a 4.0 on her report card and is adjusting beautifully to being a big sister.  She’s been great at keeping Mina distracted by reading to her and singing to her.  She’s gotten to spend some time with friends our house, at babysitting co-op and the inauguration party we went to, and she’s been having a blast.

More news as it breaks!

This Thanksgiving was very peaceful, and we were super thankful to have Peter’s mom and dad here!  They rocked the house by doing all kinds of awesome yard work and cooking a feast for a small army…which we’ve been eating ever since (and are very thankful for not having to cook!!!). We even managed to deep fry a turkey this year, which freed up the oven for the rest of the food.  Once we figured out how to set the thing up (no instructions were included), things went pretty quickly.  And oooh, was it good.

Amzie spent the morning in her fort with Tibby, watching the Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade and the dog show, and telling us how bored she was, while Mina learned all about stuffed teddy bears.  Amzie’s been a great help in the cuddle department with her sister, even if Mina’s cord stump totally grossed her out (“Mom, it looks like a raisin.  It’s disgusting!”).

As with any baby, she changes every day – here are some photos of her from the last few days.

Since Mina hadn’t come as of the 24th, when Pete and I went in for the weekly check up with the midwives, we met with Maureen (the director).  She did another exam, told me that I could stop taking the EPO since my cervix was completely ripe and asked if I wanted to have my membranes swept. Although it sounds a bit extreme, it was actually a really gentle procedure – at least in the hands of Maureen.  I only felt a little discomfort, and I’m a really big wimp!

We went home, and starting that night my contractions started to get more regular.  I went to bed at 11.30, thinking that maybe I’d go into labor the next day.  Once again, I was wrong.

I was woken up by contractions about every half an hour.  Around 1.30 I felt the need to get up and walk around.  Around 2.30  I woke Peter up because I  needed company.  I called the midwives and told Jewell (the midwife on call) that my contractions were pretty strong and about 6-7 minutes apart.  I confirmed with her that I should call back when they were about 3-4 minutes apart for an hour.  By 3am my contractions were there: about 4 minutes apart and sometimes less.  Peter called Jewell back and she told us to leave for the birth center in about twenty minutes.  He woke up Amzie (she was TOTALLY excited) and took her over to the next door neighbors.  Fortunately for us, the Maynors are awesome and agreed ahead of time to make up a little bed for Amzie and put her on the bus in the morning if I went into labor in the middle of night…

So off we go to the birth center.  Peter had the presence of mind to finish packing the car with the cake that Sarena had made for us, as well as to take the path to the birth center that DIDN’T include the speed bumps in our neighborhood – goodness knows I hate those even when I’m not in labor!

We arrived at the birth center sometime close to four and went inside.   The contractions were coming on stronger and I did my best to walk around as much as I could.  Jewell and Peter did an awesome job of coaching me through the contractions when I’d start to breathe too quickly or too shallowly.  A lot of things at this point are kind of a blur for me…I know that I was in the tub for a little bit, but I hated having parts of my body out of the water since it made me cold and the cold made me shiver and the shivering made the contractions stronger.  I remember being asked if the water should be warmer, but I was so hot that I wanted luke warm water in the tub – I only wanted my whole body to be submerged.  I also remember being pretty nonverbal most of this entire time…the most I remember saying was “No” to a couple of things and moaning through some of the stronger contractions.

At some point, Jewell was trying to get me to eat something, which I REALLY didn’t want to do – but managed to get down three or four pretzel sticks and a piece of a Cliff bar.  Jewell kept asking if we brought any fruit or could make a smoothie and I was really confused by these questions.  I packed pretzels, sesame snacks, Cliff bars…you know, things that wouldn’t spoil because I had packed them WEEKS ago.  I also remember really hating fruit punch  Gatorade, and the smell of 80% cacao chocolate on Peter’s breath (his energy booster for labor).

Around 7.30 or 8 (I think, my timing’s probably a little off here), the contractions were just about unbearable and I thought, “I must be in transition labor.”  I think I even managed to mumble that to Peter.  He went out to the midwife station and Maureen had just come on shift (yay!).  She came in and managed to check my dilation while I was standing up (what a pro) and said, “Um, yeah!  Why don’t you get in bed?  You can start pushing soon.”  Better words were never said!

I climbed into bed and vaguely remember being surrounded by Peter at my head, and A LOT of women.  Maureen was checking on Mina’s progress and assessing what was going on with the amniotic sac (yes, my water still hadn’t broken).  Her niece, who is studying to be a midwife, was (thankfully!) massaging my right hip and leg (I was lying on my left side).  There was also Cheryl, the nurse and Jane, a student nurse from UNC and maybe one other person…I can’t remember and frankly, my eyes were closed most of the time.  Once I was settled in and breathing well through the contractions, Maureen told me that I could start pushing.

The first order of business was to push out the sac, since Mina was literally right behind it.  From what Peter said, everyone standing around me was cowering with towels like they had front seats at a SeaWorld show… Fortunately, I did manage to push hard enough that the sac broke without the waterworks explosion that everyone was expecting.  Once the happened I could feel Mina’s head coming immediately afterwards, and I had one thought:  this baby is big.  I did manage to push her out in about 20 minutes, with some great help from Maureen et al, as well as Peter’s awesome coaching.   She was born without complication, other than the expected mild tearing that comes with a ten pound baby that comes out fast and furiously.  When she was placed on my chest, Peter and I looked at her and looked at each other.  My first thought was, “Holy cow, I just delivered a three month old!”  She was born at 9.24am.

The rest of the morning and afternoon are also something of a blur – there was some paperwork to complete, medical things that needed to be done for Mina and I.  Peter ran out and got some food for us sometime after noon.  And we slept.  All three of us slept a really good sleep in the bed that I gave birth to her in.  It was awesome.

We left the birth center around 4.30pm and came home.  Amzie went to stay at her friend Zack’s house for the night, and Peter’s mom and dad just *happened* to come down on the same day.  They arrived about 10 minutes after we got home, and stayed with us for a week, which was really cool.

Welcome home, Mina!

Mina was expected anytime between the 8th and 22nd – the large range was due to whether or not my timing could be trusted, or the ultrasound technician’s estimate was more accurate.  Clearly, technology won.

I went out on maternity leave on the 3rd, thinking “Hey, this will be great.  I’ll have at least a few days to get some things in order around the house, relax a bit, focus on the baby…and then she’ll be here.  Awesome.”  Well, the week of the 3rd came and went – and we did get a number of things done around the house, but no Mina.

The week of the 10th, we went in for the weekly checkup with the midwives and got some great news.  I had been having very consistent Braxton-Hicks contractions all morning (anywhere from 5-15 minutes apart) and when I was examined I was told, “You’re effaced and about 2cm dilated.”  WOOHOO!  We were so excited and thought that she would be here with us in the next 24-48 hours.  We called our families, our friend Caili who is going to assist with the birth, Amzie’s school and our friends Jan and Keith who would be watching Amzie while all of this is gong on.  We had a great Indian lunch, did some shopping, packed the car, dropped off Amzie’s get-away bag…and waited.  I kept having steady contractions all day Monday – they stopped after I went to bed.  Then I had them all day Tuesday…and Wednesday.  It seemed like this would be taking a while, so we picked up Amzie after school with our apologies to Jan and Keith.  Then the contractions started to get stronger on Thursday and Friday…then they stopped altogether.  Still no Mina.

Saturday afternoon we went back to the birthing center for another quick checkup.  Nothing had changed.  All of those contractions all week long and NOTHING had changed.  UGH.  I give up.

Monday the 17th we went in for another checkup to see if anything had happened in the last two days.  A little something had:  I was effaced more and maybe another cm dliated, but that’s about it.  Our midwife suggested a few things to help move labor along:  swimming and evening primrose oil.  I started the EPO that night, and went swimming on Tuesday and Wednesday at the YMCA.  Swimming feels unbelievably strange when you’re 40 weeks pregnant.  There’s something floating in you while you’re floating.  I used a kickboard for about 40 minutes each day and did laps using my legs only to stretch out my ligaments and my back.  It felt good for a while, then I started to get all crampy.  Naturally I thought – oh boy, maybe I’ll go into labor!  But no.  No Mina.

I’ve been doing the EPO for four nights to no avail, along with the swimming, so I’m going to back to walking and raking the yard and see where that gets us.  The good news is that we’ve gotten a TON of stuff done around the house: we’ve mostly finished renovating the Mina’s room, set up the new Cisco ECT router and network for the house, had new windows installed in Mina’s and Amzie’s rooms, organized the attic, created a new filing system for our personal paperwork, uploaded five year’s worth of photos of Amzie to Flickr, been catching up on my blogging (clearly), making jewelry for a Holiday market, raking the yard, trimming the hedges, going swimming, finished the scrapbook from our wedding and started Mina’s book, had maids do a thorough cleaning of the house (I won a gift certificate from work!), installed car seats, set up the playyard…what else do you want, Mina???  People are BEGGING for you to come out already!!!

I have an appointment on Monday the 24th to have my membranes “swept” if she doesn’t come this weekend.  It’s not an induction, but it encourages labor to start.  Here’s hoping it doesn’t come to that, but if all of the bribing in the world hasn’t encouraged her enough yet…maybe that will.

Thanks to everyone for their thoughts and prayers while we’re waiting.  I swear she just wants to be fashionably late and make sure EVERYONE is paying attention!

That’s A LOT of candy.

We all had fun dressing up – Amzie went as Hermione after taking the PolyJuice potion – complete with cat mask, potion & broomstick.  Peter went as Arthur Dimmesdale and I went as Hester Prynne.  How else could I pull off being LARGELY pregnant at Halloween??  Pete and Amzie visited the Harry Potter house in the neighborhood, and Amzie got to meet Dumbledore and Professor McGonagal – she also was “sorted” into the Ravenclaw house!

Amz and Pete went on a few rides too (unfortunately, I was grounded this year ) – the Sea Dragon, the Gravitron, the fun house and the prerequisite Carousel ride.  All seemed to quell Amzie’s need for adventure and danger – yet didn’t make Peter too green around the gills.  Good combo.  We let Amz play a game or two – so she only brought home ONE more stuffed animal…

We marveled at the number of political supporters that we out at the fair – as well as the variety of freaks to be seen.  Then again, we ARE at the crossroads of Yankee and Southern awesomeness down here, so one never knows what one will see where thousands are gathered.  Unless, you’re seeing thousands in Cary, of course.

Looking forward to the deep fried PB&J next year, and getting back on the rides!

The rest of the afternoon we spent walking around Asheville, going into shops like Beads & Beyond (yes, Amzie and I both found some awesome things in there for making jewelry) and Malaprops bookstore.  We finished the day with a great dinner at the Laughing Seed Cafe (I HIGHLY recommend it!) and headed back to the hotel.

Sunday morning we went on a lovely driving tour of the Blue Ridge Parkway (yes, these are the same Blue Ridge Mountains that run through your backyards in PA).  It was fairly chilly, but we had a lovely drive.  On the way back into Asheville, we stopped at the Folk Art Center and spent some time looking at all of the folkiness.  Some of the furniture that they had on display was beyond description – really innovative and cool.  We headed back into Asheville for lunch at the Lauching Seed (yes, dinner the night before was THAT good), then went over to Pack Place for Amzie to see some the exhibits there.  After the museums, we headed back to Durham for some well-needed rest!  Check out some of our pics from the trip here.