On the Verge...

The last belly photo. I wanted to begin to try and record Simon's birth story, knowing that it may take me awhile to actually complete one post (I think I started this a week ago). Three kids is just about as hard as I imagined it would be, even with a very helpful husband staying at home. While Quinn was in the shower the other day, we had an incident where I was holding Simon and Selah found a partially opened container of almonds on Daddy's night stand, which she proceeded to spill everywhere. I set a wailing Simon down on the bed for a few minutes while I helped the kids pick up the almonds and watched Abram bite the end off of one and then spit it (along with a lot of saliva) back into the box. So Selah started putting them in her mouth and then putting them in the box. And it was all so absurd to me. Thankfully, in the moment, I was able to smile about it instead of crying (which I have already done my fair share of). But I know there will be m...

At least we know that Simon is taking after his brother and sister in making us believe he is coming soon and then settling comfortably back in my abdomen and making us wait a bit longer. He will be full term based on LMP tomorrow (based on our dates, he hit that milestone four days ago). I was dilated to a 1 last week and soft. And yesterday was almost a 2. He has dropped, but is in front of the opening, which makes labor maybe less eminent and exams a lot more traumatic for me. We've had lots of instances of regular, uncomfortable contractions that eventually taper off after a few hours. Last night was pretty bad. They were the most cramp like and painful, but I chalked it up to the exam. They eventually went away and I had a pretty decent night of sleep, praise God.  I've been wondering all yesterday and this morning if any of the spotting I was experiencing from the exam was the actually the plug. And then this morning, it definitively made it's appearance. So,...

Up until recently, Abram has really been a dictator in his and Selah's relationship. When we get out two cups, plates, bowls, spoons, whatever, he decides what color he wants and gives her the other. When they are playing with toys and she has one he wants, he takes it and she would usually just go and find something else. I probably should not have let this go on, even though she really didn't care at the time, for many reasons. But the main reason being that now she has found her voice. Her literal voice and her opinions. And she's not a push over any more. Now, when a toy is taken from her, she hits. Not the best response, but I can understand the frustration of having things wrenched from you hands all the time. So we are working on that. She is also learning colors and new words and phrases every day and now when the cups, plates, bowls, spoons, whatever come out, she wants to have a say in which one she gets. Purple is her favorite right now, so if either are pu...

Some friends of ours brilliantly and graciously offered to organize an exercise time for our 3-5 year old kids each week. At first I wasn't sure that it was something else I wanted to add to my list of things I had to try and do each week, while feeling less and less like I could really go anywhere.  But then they offered to come and do it at our house. So we readily agreed. Today was the first day and Randall (our Crossfit expert, cool uncle housemate) and Ken (our athletic, swimmer friend) supervised a short Crossfit kids workout for Siena (5.5), Luca (4) Augie (3.5), and Abram (3). George and Selah (almost 2) were there and tried to do some of the exercises, but for the most part we just tried to keep them out of the way of the other kids. It was a big success! The kids attention spans are obviously pretty short, so it's not like a real Crossfit workout at all, but I think it will really help their coordination and instruction following abilities as we continue. Stre...

Since the beginning, we knew that Simon's due date might be off.  It is being calculated the traditional way, assuming the timing of everything the first month was pretty standard.  But we knew that it wasn't.  That's how we accidentally (yet excitedly) ended up with him to begin with.  Based on the actual  timing, he would be almost one week older than the predicted due date would indicate.  But no one (me or my doctor) have been quick to change the due date because a) he was measuring almost exactly with his due date up until this point and b) we didn't want to get my hopes up for an earlier delivery and then be disappointed if he went later. Then, this last "32 week" ultrasound was measuring him at 33 wks 4 days - abdomen, 33 weeks - head, and 32 weeks - femur.  So he was averaging out to around 33 weeks and the ultrasound tech thought I was farther along than predicted.  But my doctor said she still didn't want to change my date, just to be...

Poor Simon Smith. His big brother and sister have had so much written here about them, both outside and inside my body, and I am able to look back and compare and reminisce whenever I want. But I have barely posted anything in the last few months, especially about him. I attribute this to: 1. A lack of time. Having two kids under three and living in a different country which requires me to cook more, clean more, and overall DO more than I had to while I was pregnant with either of the other two leaves little time to blog. Or shower.  2. Feeling huge. I haven't been anxious to take and share pictures of myself with this dude because I've felt waaay bigger at any given point this time around than with the others. That makes sense, though. Everything has already been stretched to 38 week baby size, so why wouldn't it get there faster this time?  3. Being exhausted. It's the having more to do, but it's also that I've been more tired this time around and end up needi...

It's 5:30am. Let me do a quick recap of our day today: 8:00am - Abram, Quinn and I wake up 9:00am - Selah wakes up 10:00am - leave for Dubai with Quinn's dad and his suitcase 11:30-7:30 - Do lots of walking around malls in Dubai, looking at stuff, no one sleeping even one wink of a nap, changing blowout poopy diapers with freshly purchased diapers because I have my child's regular pooping figured out, but did not plan for anything out of the ordinary, heave myself into car with frequent, strong, and regular Braxton Hicks contractions wondering if we will be taking a trip to the hospital after the airport.  7:30-8:30 - Stuck in Dubai traffic, Abram falls asleep, Selah squealing and crying because she is so over tired, mcontractions slowing down.  8:30 - Drop Quinn's dad off at airport 3.5 hours early for his flight (poor guy). 8:30-10:30 - Drive home. 9:00 - Selah finally falls asleep.   10:30 - Seamlessly transfer sleeping kids into bed. 11:00 - Fall asleep.  1:30 - ...