Rural Mama

This week George’s preschool had a field trip to a local u-pick orchard.  We were treated to a hayride out to the pumpkin field and apple orchard where all the children picked out a pumpkin and an apple to eat on the ride back.  As you can see he had a terrific time.  Well, he did, after melt down number one.  For some reason he was very upset when I pointed out he wasn’t following the directions on how to pick the apple.  Of course melt down number two followed asking for him to wash his hands to clean off the cinnamon sugar from his donut and number three followed later in the day when I told him it was time to go home.  I love these little adventures when I’m flying solo.

I’d like to say time has been going by so quickly and that would be a lie.  Gary started out extremely colicky and to top it off I’ve had so many problems nursing it’s almost too much for me to handle.  Handle it, I do.  Yoda would be proud.  I think the worst for all of us is the change in George’s behavior.

Not only did George get a new sibling that shares and yes, sometimes, gets more attention but also he started a special needs preschool program two weeks later.  A lot to handle for a little boy.  To top it all off Geo still works in Illinois during the week and only is home Friday night through Sunday evening.  And George went cold turkey with no naps.  We’re finding some challenging behaviors popping up now and being extremely tired most of the time it’s all so hard to take in.

But then they get all cute on you…

On Monday, Aug. 11, I went in at Noon for a biophysical profile ultrasound at the request of my OB. Although Gary was physically doing well my aminiotic fluid was dangerously low (not sure if I had a leak and didn’t realize it…) and the OB decided I needed to be induced that day. So to L&D I went, crying the whole time because of course Geo had already left late Sunday to go back to Illinois and I didn’t think I could be induced with Pitocin again without his support.

Around 1pm. I was in my room hooked up for Gary’s heart-tones and the antibiotics for my GBS. My OB came in after I had been monitored for an hour and decided that the results would allow me to wait on being induced (giving my crazy driving maniac of a husband time to get back from Illinois). I will admit I was a wreck… I had nothing with me - no husband, no music, nothing that I needed to relax with and my parents were stuck at home because I had driven the mini-van that had the carseat in it for Georgie. FUN!

They started the Pitocin around 5:30pm about 30 minutes before Geo was about to get to the hospital. I tried very hard to visualize my cervix opening and thinning because Pitocin and I do NOT have a great track record, hence the reason I was trying so hard to go naturally. Geo got in about 6pm and then I had my nervous breakdown…lol. After settling down and being checked at 8:30pm the OB on call broke my bag of waters and all heck broke loose. Gary was seriously distressed with heart-tones at 8/9.

Being that I had low fluid, the little I had left was not in the right area conducive to having my bag of waters broken and when the fluid rushed out Gary compressed against his cord and they couldn’t seem to stabalize him with the different positions they had me move to… I was very calm, Geo was not - I think he almost passed out. After six minutes they were finally able to get Gary off his cord and his heart-tones were up to a nice 145/150 and held strong.

I progressed fairly well, better than last time but for some reason the pain wasn’t as bearable and I had a very difficult time focusing and getting through the contractions. I was very discouraged, which as you all know is not a good thing while laboring. So we moved around a lot… probably more than the nurses were happy with because of course I was hooked up to a bunch of monitoring devices and they had to assist every time.

I entered active labor around 6:20am on Wed., Aug. 12, but didn’t realize it because I was in that world of pain that I had turned into the exorcist when dealing with everyone. I was hallucinating too, which is never good. But as Geo relays it to me I was a trooper and pushed 20 mins. to help Gary enter the world screaming his head off…lol.

There was NO shoulder dystocia, which really didn’t surprise us. And of course Gary only weighed 8lbs. 6oz. — not the projected 10 lbs. We are so happy to have him here now with us and Georgie is full of so much love and pride for his little brother. We are loving every minute of it and I can’t get enough of those sweet baby cheeks!

P.S. I’m sorry there are such huge gaps in my story… what happened in between was a lot of stressful interactions with my OB. I also ended up with an uncalled for episiotomy (never asked and never told me until I was being stitched-up). I’m a little angry about it all, which isn’t healthy and so I’m going to just let it go so I can enjoy my newest family member!

Gary Andrew arrived on

Tuesday, August 12 at 6:44 a.m. weighing 8 lbs. 6 oz. and 21.5” long. 

We are in love! 

Proud big brother Georgie says, “I love my brother Gary all much!”

Love always,

Dawn, Geo, Georgie & Gary

My *baby* will be four in eleven days and I want to wrap him back up into this:

I know it is selfish.  I’m a bawling mess every time I think about how our relationship is changing especially since his brother will be on board soon.  I know that we love all our kids in a special/different way and I also know this fear of losing something between us when Gary comes.  It makes my heart ache.

Then I look at George in pictures like this:

And cling to the fact that we will have so many new parts of our relationship to explore.  There is more understanding and commonalities between us.  There are new areas to appreciate and new parts of our lives to share.  George is my *baby* still even when he disagrees and says, “No, I’m Big Boy Georgie.”  How do we have hearts big enough to hold all this love?

I think on the past four years and how in the beginning I could not imagine the changes that would take place in our lives.  All for the better and oh so different then what we planned.  George has taught us to trust our intuition, speak up for those that cannot speak for themselves, love unconditionally, explore and explore some more, find wonder in it all, create fantastic works out of mundane items, ask a billion questions until you are satisfied with the answer, read books over and over again with excitement, know when you have had enough, apologize when you hurt someone, give kisses and hugs freely, and seek out what makes you happiest.

I’m so very fortunate to have George in my life.