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and then they rested

/ Jo Bird / 4 Comments
Our holiday extravaganza culminated today with Miriam’s blessing. For over a week I have had three of my siblings in town with their spouses and children. All were residing at my parent’s house, so until today I had little responsibility as hostess. But today after the blessing we fed 18 adults and 4 children before they loaded up their Christmas loot and hit the highway to return to their respective homes. After everyone had departed this afternoon, the five of us all went to bed, and slept for over two hours.
Christmas-time is both a rewarding and challenging time to birth and care for a newborn. With family in town and holiday traditions I found myself especially sleep deprived. On New Year’s Eve as people joked about being too tired to stay awake until the midnight hour, I commented that we had stayed up past 12:00 every other night, why should this one be different?

In any case, today my baby is one month old. As I reflect on the last month and how quickly it passed I am so grateful to have been able to spend the time with family.

My cup runneth over.

Happy New Year. I am excited to be blogging again.

I’m great, really.

/ Jo Bird / 3 Comments

After a few phone calls from concerned family members I decided I better clarify. I’m not actually experiencing post-partum depression or anything. In fact the only depressing issue around here is that it rained for 24 hours straight and I would have loved for it to be snow. Oh how much snow it would have been! But alas, our white landscape has been washed away by winter rain. Blah.

In any case, check out the song “It Snowed” by Meaghan Smith. I can’t get enough of her voice. You can download a free “holiday sampler” from iTunes with the likes of David Archy and Barry Manilow. Twenty free tunes, including this new favorite of mine. Enjoy!

post-partum blog blues

/ Jo Bird / 2 Comments

It seems that this adjustment is occupying all my brain power and I am left without words for the blog. Or pictures for that matter. And tomorrow Richard goes back to work. Sigh.

Luckily Krista rescued me again from a photo-drought and I’ll post some quality pictures of our little doll soon.

Oh, and then there’s that holiday that is coming up… I hope I can devote some attention there in the near future.

and then there were three

/ Jo Bird / 15 Comments

I don’t consider myself to be the type who is easily overwhelmed. Richard might say otherwise but he doesn’t know some of the people I do. But yesterday the reality of three hit me, and I panicked.

Richard was home, but in the shower and I was feeding Miriam. When Eli was a baby and Cameron needed my attention during a feeding I could usually talk him through it until I was physically available. But yesterday as pandemonium broke out between Cameron and Eli in the bathroom while I was nursing I realized this was a new ball game. I tried shouting into the bathroom but that was useless so I just listened helplessly while the battle unfolded. That was when it hit me. But then it got worse.

The bathroom issue resolved itself and the boys came out into the living room. That is where the scissors come into the story. We have a Christmas countdown chain and I told Cameron he could get his pre-school “safety scissors” out of his backpack for Eli to cut a chain. Thereafter a fight over the scissors ensued, right in front of me. Snip and blood.

“RIIIIII-CHARD!!!!!!!”

Eli cut off the tip of Cameron’s thumb and I have no photo because 1. It was gruesome, and 2. It was always too covered in blood to see anything. Cameron hates blood and he became hysterical. Eli felt terrible and he became hysterical. Miriam’s breakfast was interrupted and she became hysterical. I realized I am now the mother of three needy children and I became hysterical.

I’ll cut out the details of the next four hours. Here is a summary. A lot of wrapping and unwrapping of the wound by various nurses and doctors, and each time the red stuff appeared it was a fit of hysterics by Cameron. On top of Cameron’s medical needs were Miriam’s medical needs and after some blood work of her own it was decided she has jaundice and needs to spend 24/7 with a biliblanket.

It was an exhausting day during an already exhausting time for me. But now that it is behind me I can feel gratitude again for my three children, in spite of the new insensity level parenthood has reached for Richard and me.

for now…

/ Jo Bird / 15 Comments
Here are some pictures of our little jaundiced treasure. More on that, and the other exciting events of today (events that involved a lot of Cameron’s blood), tomorrow. That is assuming I have the energy to laugh and write about it.

make room in the nest

/ Jo Bird / 17 Comments

Our little Miss Miriam was born Thursday December 3rd at 7:26pm. She weighed in at a whopping 6lbs 7oz and we love her. I’ll post pictures when I am home again and blogging from the comfort and familiarity of my own computer.

Thanks everyone for the well wishes.

the dreaded thing

/ Jo Bird / 9 Comments

At 2:00am last night we went to the hospital.

I wasn’t in labor. Disappointing and embarrassing. This is my third child, you would think I would know by now how labor feels…

So we went to Jack in the Box instead.

On our way home Richard said to me “If you were craving JITB you could have just told me and I would have gone.”

I’m glad he has a sense of humor.

more nesting

/ Jo Bird / 6 Comments

Waiting for your body to begin a process that you have no control over and cannot predict is a true test of patience. It is especially difficult when you allowed yourself to have an expectation of when the life changing event would take place and those days came and went.

My solution is nesting of course. Projects. Luckily Richard was home with me all week last week and we were able to accomplish a lot. I am about 90% satisfied with the boys’s room and even Miriam’s room is well on it’s way to being finished. Here is the photo evidence of exhibit A and a sneak peek of exhibit B.



I decided that constantly nagging the boys to clean up their toys was a less effective way of keeping their room clean. So I keep most of their toys up on that high shelf and we rotate them. It is a much more managable supply for them and when they want a different tote of toys they have to have one to replace it.
Yep, it’s orange. Funny story. After painting the boys room a really bright yellow (three years ago), and our living room a more pale yellow (one year ago), Richard had had enough. He said to me “Just as long as you don’t plan on painting anything orange.” Sorry babe, love ya.
I’m still trying to figure out some wall decor, any cute ideas?