Fickle Me

Well, told you I was weird. She (my blog) is back online. For a few hours?
Sweaty Mess

Alana

Hello. It's me. I'm over here.

Abby Matilda Williams

We welcomed our newest family member into the world on Tuesday, March 6th, she weighed 8lbs. 10 oz. and was 20 3/4 inches long. Abby Matilda was born at 2pm, 20 short minutes after I arrived at the hospital. I was already dilated to a 10 and wishing I would have gotten there sooner because it was chaotic and stressful but she made it safe and sound and is healthy and beautiful. The only hiccup was her shoulder got stuck but she came out okay with nothing broken and she was breathing. (When Herbie was born his shoulder got stuck and when he came out he wasn't breathing and he was blue. They had to resuscitate him.) Thank goodness for good friends who push you to do things when you just aren't ready. Of course, she is a clone of our other children.

It was a normal day. I was having sporadic contractions throughout the night and day but nothing consistent. I got my haircut, I did laundry, took Herbie to school, cleaned house, went grocery shopping, ate my favorite Arby's sandwich for lunch. I started timing contractions at 11:30am and planned to time them for an hour. Herb was working in Vancouver and I didn't want to pull him away unless this was the real thing (didn't want to have two false alarms) so I was just making sure. I think I was somewhat in denial that it was even time (10 days early, same as I was with Nora, what are the chances). I even told him to just wait until I got to the hospital and I would call him with the status. My friend Julie came over and drove me to the hospital around 1:15pm and told Herb to leave now and meet us there. It is a good thing because by the time we got half way to the hospital, my contractions were only 3 minutes apart. He would have missed the whole thing and he pulled up at the same time we did. The doctor told me that next time (if there is a next) that I should come in when my contractions are 10 minutes apart since things move so quickly. Again, it was my OB's day off so we are 4 for 4. We have never had my doctor that I have seen throughout the pregnancy deliver any of our children.

I feel great. Recovery is going well (not being sick makes a world of a difference). I came home from the hospital Wednesday evening and the kids are so excited to be able to hold Abby. They are obsessed with watching me change her diaper and feed her. When I got home, they had hung a sign on the fireplace that Sage had made at school that says, "Welcome Abby! Congratulations Williams Family" Aunt Ashley helped the kids make cupcakes and bought a bunch of balloons to welcome us home. Thanks to Aunt Ashley for being there on Wednesday to help Herb with the kids and make dinner. And thanks to our friends Julie, Pete, and Michelle for taking our children during our frantic rush to the hospital on Tuesday.

Why is it that I never took any pics of me in high school wearing plastic, fake fur, and platform shoes.

The fact that I don't have any pics of this event makes me sad.

Williams - Who Knew?

Apparently, it is RARE but POSSIBLE to have two sacks of amniotic fluid. One surrounds the baby and the second one sometimes attaches to the outside of the other one. They call the second one a forebag.

Leave it to me to beat the odds.

On Wednesday night (leap day), my water broke and so we went to the hospital thinking that Abby was going to be born possibly on leap day or the next day. Come to find out after 17 long hours in the hospital (waiting for labor to either start or for the doctor's to determine if it was safe for me to go home) they decided that I must have had a forebag and that is what ruptured instead of the one surrounding the baby. I was dilated to a four so they gave me the option of breaking my water and letting labor begin or they said I could go home and wait. The only risk is that the actual bag could have broken instead of a forebag and the babies head could just be blocking the fluid from leaking and resealed a new bag. Herb and I decided that we would go home and wait until Abby is ready to come.

It is extremely frustrating to know that your water broke and then to be told that "maybe you peed your pants". Seriously, I can tell the difference. It is also a bit disappointing to think that it was all happening and then didn't and then coming home tired and exhausted from no sleep and worrying about what to do has taken its toll. So here I am, two more weeks, just playing the waiting game.

shoot me now

I have strep and have just survived three days of working full time, taking Annie to the hospital, traveling to SLC last weekend, dropping the veggie tray off to new beginnings, 2 doc appointments, and about a million other things. Plus, I taught dance like crazy for two days during the worst of it. I am now, finally, going to bed and no one better wake me up until after 9 am. I don't care how disastrous my house is. I am sleeping in!

Is showering optional when you are this sick and tired?

I am happy to announce that Connie the trailer park chain smoker has made an appearance in my life this year.

Lucky me..........

Fresh Out

Or for those who know restaurant speak... *86* money.

Brandon had to go to the bank tonight and deposit our last two $10 bills so that tomorrow when the life insurance payment is withdrawn there will be enough money in the account. He started scrounging for some change to buy some ice cream while he's out. I took our usual bowl of change to the CoinStar in December. (We call it a CoinStar Christmas.) Where to scrounge up some change?

And then he had a brilliant idea... his metal detecting jar of coins. He was getting quite excited about it..."There are quarters, Alana! We can get blue bunny!"

It was pretty funny. You had to be there. (???)

So the metal detecting finally paid up.

She's proud of the weight I've lost. And really proud of this!

Amazing

I am still amazed by how beautiful the desert is. I can't believe I get to live somewhere this gorgeous.

My Baby

He's 1 today!

Anika's Photography

I love finding photos in my phone that Anika took. Most of them are, of course, cat related. She also draws pictures on the phone and saves them for me to happen upon. It always makes me smile to browse the album and see what she thought was picture-worthy. That bottom photo is Crispin the cat. That's who she has been pretending to be for about a month now.

The cat thing acts as a degree of separation for her, I think. Like how psychiatrists use puppets like on What About Bob. She never lets me comfort her or talk about her feelings. If she gets hurt or upset, she gets angry and wants no one to look at her or talk to her. (She totally got this from me. I still do that to my family.) But if I talk to her in meows, she will pour her heart out. Meow meow meow meeeeoooow... you can totally catch the drift of what she is saying or crying about. We seriously will have 5 minute conversations about feelings all in meows. She plays with virtual cats on the phone that have a happy meter you have to fill up. She lets me snuggle and comfort her now... as long as I ask her if I can help get her happy meter to the top. She accepts much more affection in cat mode. While she's been a cat, what have I been for a month now? A flamingo! Yes, I have to play the part. It's exhausting. But that's another story entirely.

Lately

Anika and Emmet relentlessly draw pictures to hang up in Ben's room. He totally enjoys it and talks about them and points to them very excitedly. As you can tell, Anika is deep into a cat phase.



They have been playing with a giant box for a week straight and I think it's funny. That's Emmet's writing on the box and a blatant slam to Anika because she's actually been a cat for weeks now. They have a one-up, ultra-competitive thing going on. (Scroll down and you'll see 'no real cats allowed'.)

Ben loves to drive Anika's remote controlled car she got for Christmas and she doesn't.

My social life is reduced to the Sister Missionaries, my Survivors of Suicide support group, and... well, can't even think of anything else. So please, let's hang out soon? That's Sister Atchley in the red and she just got transferred after a looong time in our area. We were besties :(

The only toy from Christmas Anika plays with is Boggle Jr. She is very excited still about her reading and writing.

Should I be worried about this cat obsession?

Hey, I 've never shown you Ben's room before. I just had to put up a 'keep calm and carry on' because I thought perhaps I would be needing to deep-breathe my way through Ben's babydom like I did Anika's. Turns out, we did okay and I could have put up something else.

And there you have it. Some random photos uploaded from my phone in random order, depicting my happenings lately. That's all I have energy for.

Williams - 5 more weeks

Enjoying the calm before the storm with 5 more weeks to go before Abby joins our family. I haven't been up to much other than complaining about how uncomfortable I am getting. I am tired, my stomach is tight and itchy, my leg hurts, and my back hurts (that reminds me of the commercial for Snickers. The kids think it is hilarious when the lady says, my back hurts, ow, now my front hurts). I sewed a few things for Abby over the last few weeks: small blanket, pacificer clips, and some swaddling blankets. I am pretty much ready to do this other than I am not looking forward to the lack of sleep.

We also started potty training Nora this weekend. I am doing a 3 day potty training regime (day and night). I am not one for a strict regime but a friend recommended this method and I thought I would give it a try because I don't want two kids in diapers. It has been a long weekend. We started on Saturday and that first morning was long with lots of accidents but it has gradually gotten better and she is doing fantastic. I have to watch her like a hawk and keep reminding her to tell me when she needs to go but I like the method so far. She has stayed dry for naps and actually stayed dry all night Sunday night. I purchased the ebook from the following web site if this style interests you and I have been pleased so far: http://www.3daypottytraining.com/. I was extremely nervous to start and it is a work in progress but I won't go back to diapers. I am so proud of her and the progress she has made.

 small blanket

                      pacifier clips                                                                           swaddling blankets

 Me and my basketball!

Williams - Sage's 2nd Grade Class

This is a video of Sage's school singing performance. There are two different songs so that is why there are two different videos. I am mainly posting it for Herb's parents to see so you don't have to watch if you aren't interested. Sage is wearing a purple shirt in the second row. Sorry about the shaky recording but I have Nora and Herbie hanging on my arms trying to look through the camera.

Williams - Sledding

 snowball fight

 The kids used their sled as shields.

Nora and I staying warm in the back of the car.

Herb 's sister Ashely recently moved in with us. She is staying for a little while until she finds a roommate or her own place. She got up last Saturday morning and was going sledding with some friends and so the kids just thought they had to go too. So we decided to bundle up and take them to a place close by (same place that we go shooting). Not only did we sled (not me since I am prego) but we got to do some shooting too.

Williams - Nora's 2nd Birthday

Nora's 2nd Birthday. We had a celebration with our little family. It was the first time we didn't have any of Herb's family with us. We played pin the horn on the dinosaur and musical chairs. Sage helped me decorate the cake. Nora is obsessed with monkey's right now so we made a monkey face. It is hard to believe that she is already two. And now our fourth is going to be here soon. Can life get any crazier? We love her so much and can't imagine life without her. She is hilarious, loves to smile, talk, and tease.