Nathan Turns 5 and Operation Baby Eviction Commences

Dear Nathan and Hannah,

We thought that surely by Nathan's birthday, your baby sister will be here...but she has not made her entrance. And so we wait.

Nathan, 5 years ago we brought you home and our lives have been forever changed since then. You grew from being a helpless infant, to a thoughtful, justice-focused young kid. 

I remember thinking, one day you will be able to do more things than our dog, Teddy. And here you are, commanding Teddy to do his tricks. 

 You love your little sister so much. Always thinking of her, saving things for her and forgiving her time after time after she takes your toys away from you.

At 5 years old, we are working on how not to be a sore loser. You have always been ok with losing, but lately even the smallest loss seems earth-shattering.

Hannah, you love your big brother too and you constantly seek his approval. You too are very concerned with following the rules and doing the right thing. Sometimes your pre-frontal cortex takes over and you act impulsively, we can always easily talk to you and once you process things, you will end up doing the right thing.

You are also so expressive Hannah. I think in the next few days, I'm going to try to capture all of those different expressions that you have.

So, last night, we celebrated Nathan's 5th birthday. We all had yummy chocolate cake, opened presents and spent time talking to family on Skype.

 We also went through your old clothing and you wanted me to get rid of anything that doesn't say 5T. You are pretty much convinced that since you are now 5, you have suddenly grown a lot bigger and the 4T clothing just won't fit you anymore. (Did you know you were wearing 3T shorts just last week?

Approaching 41 weeks and still no baby.
Last week I had an appointment with the midwife. After an examination, I was 4 cm dilated and 80% effaced. Everything looked ripe and ready for labor to start soon. I also got my membranes swept and cervix positioned forwards (which I didn't know was even a thing). I pretty much expected to go into labor within 24 hours. Well, a week later, still no baby.
I've been doing lots of research and trying a bunch of crazy things to start the labor process"

1. Eating spicy food. I've been eating meals with Siracha and putting cajun hot sauce when I see it out. If you know me, I'm usually a wimp when it comes to spicy foods, so you know how desperate I am at this point.

2. Eating bromelain-rich fruits. Mangos, pineapples and papayas. I've made smoothies, pina coladas and fought over the last bite of mango with the kids.

3. Walking. We've walked every other night, until my hips started to hurt. Steve hates to walk, but we walked.

4. Exercise ball bouncing, rolling. In an attempt to get baby girl positioned lower in my pelvis, I've been trying various birthing ball exercises.

5. Dancing. When I think about pelvic thrusts, the king of pop immediately comes to mind. So this morning, Hannah and I tried dancing like Michael Jackson in the Wii's version of Michael Jackson, the experience.

So after doing all of these things, I realized, maybe we don't want the baby to arrive just yet..
1. My mom had caught some sort of virus on the airplane and is still recovering.
2. Hannah has now caught something too and when she gets sick, she ends up with a croupy cough.
3. Hannah's coughing made it tough for her to sleep last night so Steve went up and slept with her in a tiny bed. This morning, he discovered that he has hurt his back and is pretty much debilitated.
4. The mentoring program that I've been working on for the past few months starts this Friday. It would be cool if I could actually be there to see it occur in person.

Here are the reasons why I want the baby to come soon.
1. My mom told me that she feels like she's wasted her time here and she hopes the baby comes soon.
2.  Actually, that is the only thing that's stressing me out.

At this point, I don't know what I want. But I know the Lord has a plan. I just need to remind myself to relax and let God take control.

Hopefully next week I'll be able to post a birth story. Or maybe not.

Until next week,
Love,
Mommy