Ruth Kathryn Livingston

I'd like to write this story for anyone who likes to read birth stories but more so that I don't forget it. I usually tell the kids their birth story on their birthday each year and there is a good chance I won't remember Ruth's if I don't write it down. The details are already fuzzy.
Please excuse all errors and run on sentences. I had four hours of sleep last night and the kids don't seem to understand this means they sit quietly playing cards or reading books all day with no arguing.  ;)
At 33 weeks along I started to have very minor contractions and feel generally uncomfortable and so I decided that this must be the beginning of my "last four weeks" which have always been pretty uncomfortable for me. What no one mentioned is that the more pregnancies you have the more preterm labor you have. Would have been nice to know.
Anyhow, Sunday May 11th at 38 weeks and 5 days I woke up at 4:30am having contractions, though not painful yet, with the achy feeling that have indicated labor to me in the past. So I lay awake for the next 2 hours waiting and timing things. They were 10-15 minutes apart and getting closer. At 6am they weren't much closer but we're getting more painful. Still plenty doable but I knew it was the real deal. Perfect, I thought, a Mothers Day baby. Somewhere around 8:30 I told John and he called the appropriate people at church to cover his duties. Then, once we had told his mom the kids would be coming over soon and informed my mom what was going on... Everything stopped. I was still plenty uncomfortable and had a general achy feeling that didn't leave but contractions were 20 minutes apart and nothing that I hadn't been having for the last 6 weeks.
So, John took the opportunity to mow the lawn and Hope and I took a walk down our street. Niiiiice and sloooooow. One of our neighbors joked from his lawn tractor, "are you going to be a mommy again on Mothers Day?" I gave him a thumbs up and thought,"I'm trying!"
By the time I got back, John had finished mowing (that's how long it took me to walk 1/2 a mile) and the rest of the family was watching This Old House. I decided to take a nap and brood. After sitting for about 20 minutes things started up again and much more painful. After a bit I called his mom and we loaded everyone up. We dropped the kids off with Noni around 2 and drove to the hospital. Along
the way things eased up again. Grrrrrrr. I was still contracting but unlike the previous hour whe I was having to stop talking,  now I could laugh through them. I was super annoyed. The midwives had said  specifically, "don't wait to long! You're 35 minutes from the hospital and moms having their 5th we good at delivering in the car." That was.not.happening.to.me! I've never wanted a home birth. I've never wanted to labor at home and get there in transition. I like settling. I like epidurals. I have told each anesthesiologist I've had that I love them. And I meant it.
So, here we are. It's around three and the midwife checks me to find I'm 2centimeters dilated. Now, when they asked me to write a birth plan the only thing I wrote was this. "It takes me a few hours to go from 2cm to 5cm and then I'll deliver in 45 minutes." Then I told her when I handed to her at my 38 week appointment,"Please believe me that I'm actually in labor when I come in." I like to settle people!! But no, I was told to walk the halls for an hour and then they'd see. At least Kate had called ahead of me so the nurses knew I was her sister and they were VERY kind.
I knew things hadn't progressed much after an hour but I still bought I was in labor. So we go back to the examining room and right before the midwife came in to check me I had two or three contraction.  Juju about 2 minutes apart and much more painful. But alas, when she checked I'm still about 2cm. So she tells me I can go home and nap or take a walk in a park etc. I didn't want to go anywhere because I knew I felt like I could just get started into way more intense labor at any moment and have I mentioned I like the epidural? John said I looked like I was going to cry. That's exactly how I felt. Kate's wonderful nurse friend Michelle offered to let me lay right there in the exam room for awhile. I liked that idea the best.  Anyway, as I'm laying there I have a painful contraction and something like a rubber and snapping inside of me happened and I said (probably a little dramatically to everyone who didn't feel it) "what was that!?!" The midwife said maybe my water broke to which I replied, "I think it did!" It turns out it did but her head was too low down for anything to I prove it. Grrrrrrrr. So we're back to square one. They offer to leave the room and let John and I discuss what to do. In the next 15 minutes I yelled OUCH! through 5 or so contractions and she finally came back in and I was 3cm. In 20 minutes I had finally dialated and I could tell it was moving fast. They asked me if I could walk and I said, "I have to move!?" Again, wonderful Michelle offered to wheel the bed I was in down to a delivery room. All I could say was, "when can I get the epidural." :) I'm not kidding around here!!
So in the next 30 minutes they started an I.V. wheeled me to a room, found the blessed anesthesiologist and rechecked me. I was 6cm. Poor John. I was melting down and at that point I really just want the person in charge to keep telling me to breath. I literally would hold my breath through the entire contraction and pass out if someone wasn't right in my face (as in-her forehead against mine saying "Breath. Breath." So for the next few minutes I acted like a crazed billy goat head butting my midwife and trying to sit still for the epidural.
I assume the epidural slowed things down because it took 2 more hours and two pushes later for Ruth Kathryn to be born. All 7 pounds and 6 ounces of her.
Her name was chosen in those 2 hours. John picked Ruth and I picked Kathryn. Then I told him it didn't matter because I was sure she was a boy. 😃

spring

Lately we've been in a more relaxed mode of home schooling. We are finished with our core curriculum and we're wrapping up math and phonics.

I've learned that education isn't the hard part about teaching at home. Loving each other 24 hours a day is. Putting down what we're doing and addressing a heart issue with patience is MUCH harder than memorizing times tables.

My ladies Bible study is doing an overview of the bible right now and I am soaking it up. We're still in the beginning and talking about God's covenant of grace with Abraham. I'm amazed by all of the ways Jesus is pictured and promised as the coming Messiah and how even then, Abraham knew that God would make a way for all people, not just the Jews. It makes me so hopeful for my future and my children's future the more I see God's faithfulness (despite the Israelite's weaknesses) to so many details in the Old Testament.

 John Patrick is almost 8. Will I always be in shock of kids growing up? He has a crazy ability to understand math to the point that it's almost silly to take more than 1 minute to explain a concept because he just gets bored and starts playing drums on the table with his fingers. BUT getting his understanding out onto the page carefully is another matter. I've started implementing (thanks to a seasoned mom's experience with this same thing) "understanding and challenge". If I ask him a math problem orally he can say it immediately most of the time. So we go through a bunch of those and that shows his "understanding". Now we can move on to the challenge. (with a lot less stress on me because I know he already has the facts mastered) the challenge is if he can concentrate long enough to get what he knows onto paper before he's drawing army men crawling all over the paper. :-)

Watch out! You never know who may be spying on you through the centerpiece doily!

things I don't want to forget

• Anella calls cupcakes "pupcakes"
• Hope called her cup for the longest time "mine da bup"
• They all say "hooked on" when describing being very intent on anything. "Mommy, I can't stop coloring, I'm just hooked on this new coloring book"
• Hope called baby's "wawa's" until the last few months (this is why you may hear any of my sisters call your baby a wawa at some point.
• Grammy is "mimi" to Hope
• John Patrick told me he knew how to do "boy signs" with his fingers. I was immediately concered about what signs he was describing. He held up two fingers and showed me a peace sign. I said, "oh yeah, that one. cool." and he said, "I don't know what in the heck it means though." 

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Families

A sweet family friend I took pictures for last week.

Come to find out Krohn's Conservatory now charges six dollars per adult to get in and seventy five for a photographer to use the set up! The park across the street is still free.

Five wonderful generations of Livingston ladies. John's...Grandma Dora, Aunt Gale, cousin Pam, second cousin Kelly and last but not least third cousin Piper Jane. What a blessing to see this with my own eyes! 

This is a picture we took for John's parents Christmas gift.

And yes, Anella looks more like John's brother and his wife than us.

Great News!

It was the annual date at the Nutcracker ballet and I'm happy to announce that wonder upon wonders, the Arabian dancing women had more clothes on this year! 

They had made lots of changes it seemed like to me. The Nutcracker himself was changed into a prince in an entirely different way. It shows me not to be so critical the first year because apparently there are lots of kinks to work out when a new ballet first makes an appearance.

 

 Lily came with us this year. She wore her ballerina costume, then a Christmas dress, and then finally a coat.

 We had a the great surprise to be sitting right next to two more friends! So much fun!

 Holding hands with Grammy as we walk to lunch. And then a little skip/twirling with Elly.

 Dora and I both LOVE the Nutcracker and you probably won't be shocked to know we twirl around our house for days and days afterward. Okay, we do that all year round but especially right afterward.
Next year Anella and Annie will have their first turn. I'm sure it will be a hit. THANKS GRAMMY!!!!