Welcome Baby Girl!

It's a good thing I got those snippets in when I did, because our lives were turned upside down last weekend, when Nugget decided it was time to join the outside world.

Molly Rebecca DeRousie was born on August 28 at 11:33 pm. She weighed 6 lbs, 14.5 oz and measured 19 inches long. (so much for the 7 lb 11 oz estimate from an ultrasound 4 days earlier.)
Though she came 4 weeks early, she's healthy and doing well, as long as we can keep her awake to eat. More pictures and the birth story to follow.

Molly's Birth Story

Just as we were starting our official "get ready for baby" phase, our plans went out the window when Nugget decided to make an early appearance. I blame Hurricane Irene and her barometric pressure drop (and the nurses and our doula from PA did too!), general stress levels and a yummy but ill-timed homemade eggplant Parmesan dish for breaking my water sometime Friday (8/26) afternoon. Not the infamous gush, just a trickle. It took me till Saturday morning to call the doctor and tell them I suspected my water broke and they told me to come in to OB triage at the hospital. Once I'd been checked in and checked out, I received the word that "you are not leaving the hospital without your baby." that's on the outside, not the inside.

And so we quickly reviewed our tentative plans for how we wanted the birth to go and tried to make the best of the situation. Unfortunately even though my water broke, my body wasn't quite ready to give up the baby. No active labor, no progressing contractions. Luckily Nugget was happy as a clam according to the monitors and so we waited. And tried everything we could think of to get labor started. But by Sunday late afternoon (yep over 24 hours at the hospital, with an IV in the whole time so I could get intermittent doses of penicillin for GBS), our patience had diminished. The OB and nurses were wonderfully supportive of having us do what we wanted to do and I am so appreciative of that. They even tried a fairly unusual action of trying to break my water for the gush, but that didn't work very well and still didn't bring on serious contractions.

There's a baby in there that has to come out!
I think you can tell by my eyes how I feel about that.

So by about 6 o clock in the evening, at only 4 cm dilated and not at all effaced, we decided it might take a bit of pitocin to get things going, even as I still intended to avoid any pain medication. Given shift changes and everything, it wasn't until 9:15 pm that I got my first bit of pitocin at the lowest level possible. Contractions started but were manageable. And they weren't coming fast enough so after about 45 minutes or so, they upped the dose of pitocin to the 2nd lowest level. Boom! My body reacted and I had the most intense hour of labor. I barely managed to hang on to my sanity and the shred that remained was entirely due to Jason's amazing assistance in keeping me on breathing patterns. The contractions were huge, very close together and ridiculously painful. At 10:53, I was checked (no idea how I managed to let that happen), and I was only at 6 cm, more effaced. By 11, I literally begged the nurse to turn off the pitocin and was shaking uncontrollably (can you say transition?). Against regular protocol, the nurse did turn off the pitocin and I think that action saved my delivery. The contractions remained intense but did spread out some, and I quickly started saying I was feeling the need to push. The doc came back in, checked me around 11:15 and sure enough I was ready to go. (yes I transitioned from 6 cm to 10 cm in 20 minutes or so! ouch!) I pushed thru about four contractions and at 11:33 pm, Molly Rebecca DeRousie made her entrance into the world! (no immediate pictures of the birth, we were all a little busy.)

Given that she was 4 weeks early, my water had been broken for a while and there was meconium in the water, she was immediately whisked to a corner of the room by the pediatric team and thoroughly checked out. After getting wiped down, they brought her back to me and I got to snuggle her.

so many hands for one little baby!

a happy, relieved Mommy and little Molly get acquainted

We even tried nursing and she latched on well. But then she started sounding a little funny and the nurse thought she was having a little trouble breathing, as late preterm babies often do, and so she was taken away for more evaluation and to get the usual bath, foot-printing and the like. She was perfectly fine and I used her time away to begin recovery from the delivery. I even got a nap in. When she came back a couple hours later, we reconnected just fine.

such tiny feet you have!

the one time I don't have a big baby, the diapers are huge! But you can tell she's mine cuz she's all pink!

More pictures from our hospital stay to follow...

Summer Snippets

Somehow we've been staying busy this summer but not really taking very many pictures. Part of that may have been that I broke the camera temporarily, but I think we've just been doing so many regular old things (as opposed to wild and crazy momentous events) that I just haven't dragged out the camera. But in uploading pictures today, there are a few cute ones that just kind of capture our life this summer, and give you an idea of what we've been up to.

First off, I've been growing Nugget. Not so easy in the heat but Nugget doesn't seem to mind and is getting nice and big. Can't you tell? :) (pic is at 30 weeks so I'm even bigger now. yay.)

Then there's Eliza, our crazy goofy girl. She is so silly; it's great! She loves to run around and be crazy - often carrying various supplies - like bunny ears, or bags of "stuff" (her words), or baby dolls she stole from Hayden. And she likes to put together interesting outfits.

(She also a more willing subject as I play with settings on the camera.)

Also, she has recently discovered puzzles and concentrates very hard on them. We have one puzzle where the pieces are all the same - the front end of vehicles. I have watched her dump out the pieces and very carefully put all the pieces back into the puzzle - with no regard to whether the piece matches with the back end of the vehicle. (i.e. if the red front goes with the red back). But then on the last piece, she kind of goes "oh!" to herself, and proceeds to move all the pieces around to their correct places. Then she goes thru the whole process again! I don't know why she didn't just match them up the first time!


Hayden has loved that we have been slowly working our way thru various kid movies this summer. They don't watch much TV, so one movie will often take us 4-5 days to get thru as they get to watch 15-20 minutes before bed. Most recently we watched Pinnochio because we had read the story in a book, and How to Train a Dragon, because we'd almost gone to see it at the theater but decided it might be too much. We did rate HTD a "little scary" but Hayden said she really liked it, had lots of questions and wants to see it again. Movie snuggle time on the couch is great.

Occasionally I try to do fun activities (the heat and pregnancy is sapping my creative juices unfortunately). But Hayden really likes the story of the paper bag princess so I decided we'd paint paper bags and then we could make them into dresses. They liked painting the bags.
And then we made lemonade after the painting, because Eliza was in love with the (diluted) lemonade she was allowed at a friend's house recently. She was not happy that she didn't get to stir it as much as she wanted, or drink as much as she wanted. She tends to call it yemonade which often comes out yummy-ade and makes me laugh.


The next day, when we were going to make the bags into dresses, we made crowns first. Hayden went CRAZY decorating her crown with the foam stickers we had. I should have chosen stronger paper because it didn't hold up well. And when I wanted to make the bags into dresses, Hayden balked at wearing a paper bag and decided she needed to put on her fancy princess dress. So they spent most of the day dressed up as princesses!


Finally, this one is just from yesterday. They ended up in matching outfits for the whole day (Hayden didn't wear her ice cream dress or her 'fancy' red dress. bonus!) and agreed to let me take a picture of them. Aren't they cute?!

Ball games and cracker jack

We've tried to make music a big part of our kids' lives. We listen to the radio all the time in the car. I sing them lullabies most nights. I even made each of them a lullaby CD when they were born. We took music classes (which we loved in State College, slightly less so in Durham but that's all about the teacher.) We sing all the time. Silly songs, made up songs, theme songs, etc. We have dance parties. (Michael Franti's Say Hey I Love You is great! ) We look up kid music videos (love those Sesame Street takes on popular songs, especially this one and this one.) We have parades with our musical instruments.

Hayden has always loved singing and music and is making up things herself now; sometimes to tunes we recognize, sometimes to her own tune. And now, even Eliza is starting to be more interested in music. Eliza dances a bit more than Hayden did when she hears a good beat which is cute to see her shake her hips back and forth. And she has requested me to sing a few times lately - "Mommy, sing, sheep" (baa, baa, black sheep).

Luckily, even at summer camp, Hayden got to have "music" a couple times and learned some camp songs, including Take Me Out to the Ball Game. Jason helped her completely master it and now she can sing the whole thing. Now, she hasn't been to a ball game (what's a ball game Mama? "baseball" why do they call it just a ball game?), but she really liked this song and has made it her own. And we even found some Cracker Jack at the store to taste, since the first time I heard her sing it, she went "buy me some peanuts and cracker jack, I don't know what the cracker jack is." I just had to help her out with her Americana knowledge!

So anyway, here's Hayden singing take me out to the ball game. Then there's some running in circles which has been happening a lot around here lately. Then a tackle. (also common). And then Eliza makes an attempt at singing, which Hayden takes over (again, also a frequent occurrence.) Enjoy! Eat some cracker jack!

Black and Blue

No, this post is not about bruises. (Thank goodness!) It's about berries! Last weekend, we went on a blueberry and blackberry picking adventure to the farm where we get our CSA from. It's about an hour away from us, and we weren't quite sure what to expect. Turns out it was a great place to visit! A nice big covered porch with tables, a porch swing, and ceiling fans. A cute little market shop with various fresh produce and local goodies (think jam, honey and the like). Lots of kid stuff to play on, including a pirate ship! And the berry bushes were just a short walk from the main building and were "easy pickings" as long as you weren't too jumpy about Japanese beetles buzzing at you amongst the blackberries.

Is that a scale Hayden is sitting on? Why is that, you may ask?

....Because this is what the sign says!

If we lived closer, I could see this being a really cute thing to do every year to see how the kids grow!

Along the blackberry row. We started with blackberries first.

Yummy!

Then we moved on to blueberry picking. Hayden jumped right in, because she is a professional berry picker by now. She encouraged Poppop to pick with her, because "this is the best bush, with the best berries."

Even Jason worked hard at picking blueberries.

More yummy!

Eliza thought it was a bit too hot for berry picking. She's holding onto my legs and I am taunting her by taking her picture instead of picking her up.

But don't worry about Eliza.
Jason took her back to the shaded porch and they had a great time on the swing.

Poppop and Hayden show off their blueberry haul. (Eliza loaned Poppop her bucket.)

After we were done picking, we hung out back at the building for a while. Both girls loved the swing. We ate a little bit of lunch, checked out the market place ('seconds' cantaloupes were onl a $1 each!), and paid for our berries. The berries were QUITE expensive, even if they were certified organic. I mean, we picked them after all! But the best part of the day was....

ICE CREAM!!! Homemade, inexpensive ice cream served in HOMEMADE waffle cones. Waffle cones that were made fresh that morning. DELICIOUS!
Don't you just love how Hayden's eyes are lit up in this picture?! They even had her favorite flavor - mint chocolate chip. (We also sampled cookies-n-cream and peach. Yum.)

All in all, it was a great excursion to Vollmer Farm. Supposedly they have quite the setup for pumpkins in October, but I'm just not sure we'll be making the trip again this year, unless Nugget makes a special request. But we did have fun picking blacks and blues!

Me and my berry-picking protegee.

Puddle Jumping

Last week we had absolutely miserable summer weather. So hot, so humid. The only redeeming thing about this nasty weather was the creation of some lovely summer thunderstorms, especially since the kids still managed to sleep through them! At one point last week, after an especially heavy downpour during a storm, I decided it was time to brave the heat and humidity and go outside. The dog needs to get walked occasionally after all. So we went for a puddle walk!

I encouraged them to put on grubby play clothes that could get wet - and Hayden reluctantly agreed to change out of her dress, once she had established that she could put her dress back on when we came back inside. And though I told them crocs would be great splashing shoes, they both wanted to put on boots instead.

They may have looked silly but they had a great time walking thru all the puddles and mini-rivers. Even Blizz got in on the action, walking in the water and tasting it. The pictures aren't that great (my camera lens was all fogged up) but you can get a feel for the fun of the jumping, and the wetness of the day!

Humidity Hair!

Birthday Celebration

Hayden turned four today and we tried to give her an extra special fun day. Of course, the motto of the day was still "you can be the queen, but you can't be mean" to keep her bossy, tantrum-y, dictatorial style in check, but she did fine and had a fun day.

First off, she's in summer camp this week at her preschool, so she got to take in cupcakes for snack. I wanted to make sure she got to take in a special snack for her birthday at school, since I don't see her getting a lot of opportunity to do that in the future with a July birthday! She and Grandma made cupcakes yesterday afternoon, while Nugget and I tried a prenatal yoga class. And then I frosted them in pink with sprinkles last night. All 15 cupcakes I sent to school did not return, so I think they went over well.

When she woke up in the morning today, Hayden came down to this...
Streamers everywhere! Balloons and birthday banners too. Eliza said "wow" when she first saw it. And Hayden got this silly smile and said "guys, what's this?" in this super cheesy, really cute way she has. (The streamers in the doorway were quite the attraction for both girls. To my surprise, none of them got ripped off until AFTER cake in the evening. Even then, it was only one, and Eliza -the culprit - went "oh no, oh no!")

The dining room was decorated too, with a pink tablecloth, star sprinkles, extra balloons and a pile of presents. We discovered that it's never too early to play with balloons!

The next order of business for perfect Hayden birthday celebration was to bake and decorate a pink castle cake. I had asked for cake decorating supplies for my birthday, and along with tips and frosting bags, had gotten a book on basic cake decorating with several pictures of cakes. Hayden loved looking thru it and immediately focused in on the castle cake. So back in March, she had already picked out her birthday cake, and didn't waver this whole time! Since I'm always up for a baking adventure, I said sure, we can do that and made my best attempt at it.

my model (sorry it's sidewise, but I think you get the idea.)

it started with two cakes and a HUGE batch of pink frosting. If anyone has tips on getting cakes out of pans in one piece, please share! I have failed in almost all my recent attempts, including today as you can see here. It all worked out okay, but the cake was shorter than intended.

Despite the mangled cakes, somehow I managed to frost it nice and smooth (for the most part) with all that pink icing. There is a TON of icing on that sucker! When Hayden was allowed up from quiet time, she was quite pleased with the color. And gave me a thumbs up on the taste taste too. (What kind is this Mommy? Butter cream. This is my favorite!)

Then it was decoration time. It took too much concentration to assemble the ice cream cones correctly to get any intermediary pictures. Plus I was having trouble getting a good photo, even when Hayden got to start helping. She was quite excited to add the candies to the cake. Both E and H liked tasting them too.

The finished product! Looks pretty good, don't you think? Mostly like the picture?

Eliza had a good time observing the process, especially when she was allowed to taste things. :)

For dinner, we went out to Chik-fil-a, because it was kids' night. We were going to go at lunch, but at this particular one Tuesdays are kids night where kids eat free with an adult meal and there is a craft. We'd talked about going, but never had, so this seemed the perfect opportunity. It was packed! Grandma and Poppop met us there to experience the chaos. Hayden was wired and didn't eat much beyond one chicken nugget and a couple fries. Eliza had her beloved milk and a couple bites of nugget and fries. They tried the playground but it was full of screaming kids so they didn't last too long. The craft was cute, but fairly easy. (I do have pics but they were on the other camera and not uploaded yet. maybe tomorrow). We ate, played and crafted along with half of southwest Durham families and then we headed back home for presents and cake!


She got tons of presents and this one from Grandma and Poppop was one of her favorites - as she said as she opened it. The story of the Wizard of Oz. After some presents, we did cake.
After dinner, we finished up presents. We saved our special present for last. We had found a cabbage patch kid with the name Ruth Hayden, and just had to get it, even though it wasn't specifically something we were planning on. Hayden was a bit perplexed by the fancy snap-on-hair version, but I think she liked the special name!
Then we let her pick one toy to play with before heading up to bath and bed. I have to admit I felt a little bit of parental pride when she picked one of the things we had picked out - a little cinderella dress up doll. Eliza had a good time playing with some of the other toys, even in their packaging.
And that was her special birthday day. Happy Birthday Hayden! We hope you enjoyed your pink princess birthday. We love you!

PS Thank you to everyone for her wonderful presents and cards. Even though they may not be featured here, she loves everything.