Awards Ceremonies

School is almost out for the year and what a year it has been. Mostly crazy at the end, except for the Room Mom drama from Bear's class but that is a whole different blog post, maybe. Both of the kids did great, Bear in Kinder and Isabelle in Second grade. They both loved their teachers and learned so much. Isabelle really improved her reading level and Bear is a little stud at Math. I hope they can keep up their mad skills during the summer.

Isabelle found out that her teacher is moving up to teach fourth grade math, and she hopes that she will get her as her teacher again. She really enjoyed learning from her. I hope it all works out.

Kindergarten Graduation

Now I'm not personally a fan of the execution of Kindergarten graduation, after all they still have TWELVE (12) more years of school to complete before they can be released into the wild and unknown of life. Or at least that is the hope for parents everywhere. Of course they then have the option of college, which could be anywhere from 3-8 years if pursuing post graduate studies, so it really seems unnecessary in life to have a graduation for Kindergarten. Hopefully some of the kids have gone to pre-school as well so it's not their true first experience in a classroom, I know not everyone has that opportunity but still. So do we really need a graduation to celebrate the end of Kindergarten, almost a full week before school gets out? There are so many more bigger accomplishments that will happen in my child's life that I think we could let this one go. I was going to skip, but as the Room Mom I had to go.

Anyway, that is my little, shortened rant of Kindergarten graduation. We went, we watched, and we clapped. Quintten was about three hours old, ok not really, but he was about four (4) days old. You just can't stop to smell the roses or the baby powder when you give birth to number five and school is still in session. (As a side note I did make Ben take the kids to school for a week, it was nice).

As expected Kindergarten graduation lived up to it's uneventful expectations, names were read and kids walked across the stage. I'm not sure how Bear felt about the whole thing, I'm sure he could gone without it but hey, we were there to support our child. Then of course afterwards there was cake and punch. Good times were had by all I'm sure. I guess I understand that Kindergarten can be a trying experience for some kids, the separation from Mom and Dad for a prolonged period of time, learning new things and meeting new friends. The dynamic change of being a class room full of strangers and having to work together to follow the rules and learn at the same time could be a challenge but do we really have to celebrate the "successful completion" of the year in a graduation format, I'm not so sure.

Either way here are a few snapshots I was able to gather, while setting up the cake table, nursing a baby and trying hard not to fall asleep from my lack of sleep. At least I was not quite as big as a cow for this day. Plus Bear does look pretty cute in his little graduation hat.

Welcome Quintten Fisher

Well what seems like at long last, we are welcoming our little surprise into the world. After a very unsettled discovery of his impending birth, we have made it to the pregnancy finish line. So here is his birth story. After much continuous debate over little man's due date, the doctor and midwife decided they would take the "medically" acceptable route and use the due date based on the sonogram. Never mind listening to mom about this one, she might not have any idea of her own body. Oh wait, I digress. They decided that his due date would be May 9th, instead of May 15th. He made his debut on May 16th. We can look at it that he was a week late or one day late. I'll let you decide for yourself.

I was very busy all day out promoting a photography campaign and walking around, getting in and out of the car, and just being busy overall. Which was good in that I was moving and it probably helped to bring him into the world, all the constant movement. Needless to say I was having some contractions throughout the day, but was leery of letting the midwife know because I had a false alarm earlier in the week. We did not want a repeat of that one. Finally by about 4:30pm I made the decision to call in team Oma and let the Midwife know we were going to be heading up to the birth center. After we picked up the kids from school and had them deposited at the house with Oma, we grabbed the bag and food, and we're on our way. Now by the time we got there it was about 5:30pm and a sub midwife checked me out and said ". . . No I don't think you are in labor, just go to the movies, have dinner or go home and maybe we'll see you in the morning." She's pretty lucky I've grown so much otherwise I think I would have made her cry. She had no clue! I know when I'm in labor, as a general rule. I was in LABOR.

Well we decided to stick around and go to dinner. So when I say we went to dinner, I was there just to occupy a seat while Ben ate and I had contractions. I'm pretty sure the pregnant lady and her friend at a table across from us thought I was crazy. As I sat there and breathed through my contractions and tried hard not to breath in the smell of the pizza I did not eat, yuck. I really wanted that pizza too. So of course Ben has to go to the bathroom as we are leaving, and I'm pretty sure I had at least two contractions while I was waiting on him. I bet the people coming in to eat dinner were not expecting to see a laboring woman before their meal. Oh well the gift of life, right. Ben FINALLY is finished and we make our way to the car. I have a contraction right in the middle of the road, which I have to stop for, therefore holding up a car coming into park. Good times, just in case you did not figure this out, but I'm in labor.

We make it to the car, and call the midwife again to just make sure she is on her way. We can't get into the birth center without her. All I want to do is lie down. I'm so tired, from walking around all day and maybe from being 9 months (10) pregnant. We beat the midwife to the birth center, since we were about five minutes away and I think she was about 15. We waited in the car, for her to arrive. By now it's after 7pm. She gets there and we can finally get started.

I'm sure there was checking, potty breaks and lots of other good stuff. But most of that is just a memory blur. I did have to get some IV antibiotics which was fun, and we were only able to do one bag, since he came so "fast." When we would take bathroom trips, it was a "long" walk down the hallway. But we had the whole place to ourselves, since the tub in the room we were in was not working right so we had to go to the other room. At one point she shook my belly to help him move down further in the birth canal since I guess he was either up to far or turned a little bit, not quite ready to make his way down. I would have to ask Ben to make sure. Anyway that was pretty fun, and felt a little funny but over all it was pretty good. We did not labor in the birthing tub since I don't like to take baths so we waited until the very end to make our way into the tub.

I think it was about 10:20pm when I said I was finally ready to get in the tub. One more bathroom break. A quick check to see how far along I was dilated, about an eight and half (8.5) and she finally broke my water. I had been asking for that once I got there. One contraction on the way to the tub which was not far just off the bed and into the tub. I climbed in, let my body float, which was pretty cool. And a GIANT contraction and he was on his way out. No one had time to prepare to catch this baby, no gloves were on so Ben had to help him make his way out. But wait there's more. He got a little stuck so they had me turn around, and by the time I did that it helped him move and I was able to push him out right in the water. Ben got a chance to help catch him while the midwife put her gloves on. It was by far the best birthing experience yet. I told her I would let her know when he was coming but I guess once that water bag was released it took no time at all for him to arrive. Eight (8) minutes from water breaking to baby in my arms. That's all it took. So I made a point to say that we could have done that earlier and we could have all been sleeping sooner, ha, ha.

I had really low iron for a long period during my pregnancy so they were very cautions when he was birthed to get me out of the tub quickly. So I'm a little sad I don't have any tub pictures. But it's better to be safe than dead. My iron levels finally came up enough so that they felt comfortable with me birthing at the center, so it was all good. We did get mineral bath pictures, it's a special bath baby and mom get to take after delivery. It helps with the healing process, and smells a little funny but hey.

So Quintten Fisher Thesing made his debut on May 16, 2013 at 10:38 pm weighting in at 9 pounds, 2 ounces and he was 21 1/4 inches long. He beat Cooper in the height but they matched for weight. His birth was awesome, I totally should have switched to a midwife when we came back to Texas but was too lazy. I loved it! I'm pretty sure Ben agrees, except for the fact that they kicked us out of the birth center at about 3am. I had to wake Ben up so we could go home. Then I had the chance to recover at home and enjoy my new bundle of joy.

First Communion

At long last, or so it seems, Isabelle is celebrating her First Communion. A special right of passage for 8 year olds or older in the Catholic faith. She could hardly wait until it was her turn. After celebrating with Gabby two years ago. She was able to share her special occasion with her grand parents and Aunt Penny, plus her crazy brothers. After four months of planning and learning her day had finally arrived and she was ready. All her preparation was well used when the day finally came and she was able to have communion for the first time. She was pretty excited about this right of passage, and could hardly wait.