Thursday, June 26, 2008


Miriam has been walking for over a month now--I guess I just never got around to posting anything about it. I love that she is walking! And she loves it, too. All she wants to do is walk and walk and walk...and try to escape. Luckily, I am still faster than her.

In other big news, yesterday marks Miriam's first official "temper-tantrum," complete with crying and throwing herself dramatically down on the floor while waving her arms and kicking her feet. Now whenever I take anything away from her that she wants (like my cell phone), she throws herself to the floor and starts kicking. I do my best to ignore it and not laugh. So far no tantrum has lasted longer than about 30 seconds.

These pictures are from about two months ago when we visited an iris farm in Boulder with my grandparents. The first picture is my favorite of my grandpa.








Thursday, June 12, 2008

The Story of Miriam's Birth

I finally wrote out Miriam's birth story (I know, I know...it's been 13 months!). Don't worry, you don't have to read it all...I just needed a place to post it. Related to this is a post on my other blog that I (finally) updated.

My Miriam,
Your due date was Monday, May 7. You had measured small for weeks inside of me and my doctor didn’t want to wait too long to get you out. She decided that she would induce me the Wednesday after my due date. I didn’t want to be induced—I had read a few natural childbirth books, I had scheduled a doula to be there to help me through labor and birth, I didn’t want to use any drugs—so I thought that I should try to get labor started on my own.

On Saturday, May 5, I worked out in the yard pulling weeds off of the fence for several hours. I remember talking to your Grandpa Rob on the phone while I was sweating outside in the Saint Louis summer heat. After a while I just couldn’t take the humidity anymore, so I went inside and walked up and down the stairs to the basement about twenty times. I had been drinking red raspberry leaf tea and cumin seed tea and taking evening primrose oil for days. Around two that afternoon, the contractions began. Your dad and I went on a walk that evening—I had to stop walking every five minutes or so as the contractions became more and more intense. I felt kind of silly stopping and having a contraction along a busy road! Your dad and I tried to go to bed that night, but neither of us slept as the contractions became longer and longer, but less regular. After being five minutes apart for hours, they began spacing out—sometimes as long as eight minutes apart—but they were a minute and a half long. Around one in the morning on May 6, my whole body began shaking and trembling all over and all I could do was cry through my contractions.

We finally decided to head for the hospital at about 2:50 that morning after calling my doula, Sarah. I felt so unsure regarding this decision—I wanted to stay home as long as possible, but I also felt that something was just not right. Your dad called your grandma Kathleen on the way to the hospital and your grandma still tells people how your dad told her, “Daisy isn’t looking very happy.”

It seemed to take forever to get me checked into a room at the hospital. I just sat in a chair in the waiting room with your dad and Sarah feeling absolutely miserable. A nurse finally got me into a triage room so that she could make sure I was really in labor. After being in labor so long already, I felt such a sense of despair when the nurse told me that I was 50 to 60 percent effaced and only one centimeter dilated. She even mentioned that she might have to send me home. I felt like crying—I was in so much pain I could hardly move and the thought of being sent home was completely overwhelming. However, the fetal monitor showed that weren’t moving very much, so the nurse decided to keep me on the monitor for awhile to make sure you were doing ok. The nurse gave me some orange juice and left the room.

By 5:00, you had started to move more, but there was some variability in your heart rate so I was instructed to stay on the monitor, which meant no walking. I felt too miserable to move anyway.

Because your heart rate never improved, my nurse, Barbara, checked me into a labor room at 7:00 that morning. I was so hungry, but Barbara told me I couldn’t eat or drink. I think Sarah snuck me a granola bar after Barbara left the room. By 7:50, my cervix was 90 percent effaced and three centimeters dilated. I couldn’t believe it—after nearly 18 hours of labor I was only 3 centimeters dilated. I think this is when I lost my resolve to this labor without drugs. My doula, Sarah, wrote this about this time (I do not remember it): “Your dad was so sweet to your mother and came and kissed her and told her he loved her and that love takes time.”

I tried sitting on a birthing ball for awhile, but I was just as miserable there as in bed, so I decided to curl back up in bed. I was so incredibly exhausted that I began to sleep between contractions. It doesn’t make sense that you can sleep between sessions of the most painful experience of your life, but I couldn’t help it—all my body wanted was sleep—and an epidural.

By 8:30, I decided that I couldn’t do it anymore and I asked for an epidural. And I waited…and waited. At 9:45, the anesthesiologist entered. The one thing worse than experiencing an incredibly slow and painful labor is experiencing an incredibly slow and painful labor while waiting for the anesthesiologist for an hour and fifteen minutes, measuring the time contraction by painful contraction.

It was the best feeling of my life: the epidural was sweet heaven for me. I was able to sleep, I was able to smile for the first time in hours. However, I was still only three centimeters dilated by 10:15. Twenty hours, three lousy centimeters. So much for all the natural labor books I had read. Your daddy and I both went to sleep.

At 1:00 in the afternoon, Dr. Super came to check on us. Your heart rate was still not great and I was still only at three centimeters (Twenty-three hours: three centimeters). Dr. Super wanted to put an internal monitor on you so he broke my water at 1:10 (which is a very funny feeling). It was full of meconium, which meant you might be in distress and not tolerating my contractions very well. He had the nurse give me oxygen to see if that would help. After about five minutes, your heart rate dropped dramatically and the doctor said something about my uterus not reacting very well, either. He told me he was going to do a c-section. I started crying and the nurses began to prepare me for the surgery. They gave me a shot that makes labor stop, but it also makes your body shake all over uncontrollably. It is not very pleasant. At 1:20 I was wheeled in my bed out of my room, down the hall, and into an operating room. This all happened so fast, that I don’t remember many details at all. Your dad was not there yet and I was so scared. Because of the extra drugs I was given for the surgery, I could not feel myself breathing, which was terrifying. I remember saying over and over, “I can’t breath, I can’t breath.” The doctor (Dr. Super?) let me know that if I was talking, I was breathing. Plus, I had an oxygen mask on. Another doctor stood on my right and told me that I could hold his hand. I think I must have dug my nails into his hand because he told me to be a bit nicer. Finally your dad arrived and I held his hand, too, all the way through the surgery.

The surgery was the strangest experience. I could feel Dr. Super cutting and pulling on my skin, but I could not feel any pain. My head was uncontrollably turning right and left because of the drugs. It was horribly uncomfortable and really quite scary.

At 1:38 you were born! I didn’t get to see you after Dr. Super pulled you out of me, but I could certainly hear you crying! You cried the whole time the doctors were sewing me up. Your dad left me and went to the other side of the room where you were getting weighed, getting a bath, and being wrapped up. If I looked backward over my left shoulder, I could just see you. You were 6 pounds, 4 ounces, and you had lots of dark hair. Your apgar scores were 7 and 9 at 1 and 5 minutes after birth. A nurse gave you to me as I was being wheeled back to our delivery room at about 2:15. My arms were so numb from the epidural that I thought I was going to drop you. You were so little and your face was swollen and bruised. At first your dad and I wondered if you were really ours since you looked so funny. I loved you the minute I saw you, though…the most beautiful baby on earth even if you were swollen and funny looking.

Sarah, my doula, helped you to nurse for the first time at 2:50. You latched on so well and nursed for 25 minutes. I still couldn’t feel my arms, so she held you up to me. I was still shaking all over, but by 3:30 I was doing better.

We stayed in the hospital for four days to give me time to recover from the surgery. During that time you changed from funny-looking to just plain adorable.

Tuesday, May 13, 2008

Year-Old Baby





Miriam turned one on May 6! I can't believe I have a one-year-old. She is so precious--I had no idea how wonderful it is to be a mother! Andrew and I are finishing up our year in Colorado. We will return to Saint Louis in August for his final year of seminary. It has definitely been a good year, but I am a bit concerned still about being a "pastor's wife." People make associations with that role, and I don't seem to fit any of them. However, I am excited to make my own place the church in the future--one that doesn't include being the church pianist or children's ministry coordinator!
I am excited to return to Saint Louis. It definitely seems like home now--especially because our house and all our furniture are there! The year will be challenging, however, as I attempt to find a job that I can do without leaving Miriam and as we will try to sell our house in what is looking like it will continue to be a depressed market. For now, I'm just enjoying our final few months of Denver weather and free grandparent babysitters!

Monday, April 7, 2008

Miriam is 11 Months!











We've been without an internet connection for several weeks--but it's back now, yea! Miriam turned 11 months yesterday and commemorated the event by learning to say "daddy" (a step up from "da-da"). Here are my favorite 11-month photos.

Wednesday, March 19, 2008

Miriam and Elanor





Kathleen, my roommate for two years in college and super wonderful friend came for a visit last week from Seattle with her two-month-old, Elanor. Elanor and Miriam were practically the same size! We had so much fun!



Thursday, March 13, 2008

Boulder!








On Tuesday Miriam and I, along with my roommate from college, Kathleen, who was visiting from Seattle with her baby, Elanor, drove up to Boulder to meet Andrew, who was there for a church conference, for a little stroll down Pearl Street (now please diagram that sentence). Here are a few pictures of Miriam with her daddy. Pictures of Elanor will be posted soon!

Monday, March 3, 2008

Miriam is taking a nap, so I started a new blog!

Ok all you blog readers...I have taken the plunge and started a new blog! I have felt creatively hindered by my baby blog so I created a creative writing based blog (how many times can I use "create" in one sentence?). So, send me a poem and I'll put it up. Or email me a cool picture you've taken or drawn and I'll post that. Or just visit it from time to time if you care to learn some of my thoughts on life. Click here for the blog or click on the link on the left.
I just finished two more changing pads. My mom is buying them from me to use as baby gifts for friends. My first customer! She actually bought another one from me awhile ago. It was so cool--brown corduroy--but I forgot to take a picture of it.

I'm working on a blanket and a bib now. I'll post pictures soon!








Thursday, February 21, 2008

sleep success!


We fixed our computer and I can do pictures again! My mom, Miriam, and I just got back on Monday from a trip to Kansas where we visited my grandmother and grandfather (Miriam's middle name, Grayce, is my grandmother's name). I was sick, so my mom got up with Miriam at night--which meant no nursing at night! Well our night weaning endeavor was a success. Miraim finally goes all night without nursing (about 11 hours) and has only been waking up once at night. I feel functional again! She has also started taking longer naps! We are finally getting somewhere with this sleep problem of hers.

Tuesday, February 12, 2008

i've been tagged!

I have been tagged for the following survey by my friend Laura @ Valley Housewife

A.The rules of the game are posted at the beginning.
B. Each player answers the questions about themselves.
C. At the end of the post, the player then tags 5 people and posts their names, then goes to their blogs and leaves them a comment, letting them know that they have been tagged and asking them to read your blog.

What I was doing 10 Years Ago:
I was in high school causing my poor mother all sorts of grief.

5 Things on my to-do list today:
1. go to the fabric store
2. finish cleaning the bathroom
3. back up pictures on my computer
4. do some sewing
5. call the City of Saint Louis to ask about property taxes--I can't wait!! (Andrew told me I have to do this, but I keep putting it off)

Snacks I enjoy:
ice cream!

Things I would do if I were a billionaire:
Oh my, that is a lot of money. I would feel completely overwhelmed. I guess I would invest, give lots and lots away, and set up wedding and college funds for my future children. And I would buy a new car to replace my 1987 Subaru!

3 of my bad habits:
1. freaking out when the apartment gets too messy and causing Andrew to say, "Daisy, don't be obsessed."
2. leaving poopy cloth diapers laying around instead of dealing with them right away (I know, I know, that is really gross--I'll work on this one!)
3. not making phone calls in a timely manner (sorry to all of you I need to call! I will do it soon, I promise!)

5 places I have lived:
1. Colorado (Centennial, Arvada, Boulder, and Colorado Springs)
2. Seattle, Washington (Queen Anne, Ballard, and Capitol Hill)
3. Baku, Azerbaijan
4. Port Orchard, Washington
5. Saint Louis, Missouri

5 jobs I have had (of many):
1. Writer/Editor/Accountant at Caleb Project (non-profit missionary curriculum provider) (I didn't actually get paid for this job, but it was lots of fun)
2. Barista at Starbucks
3. Head Custodian at Macky Auditorium at the University of Colorado, Boulder
4. Child Study report writer at Boulder County Department of Social Services
5. ESL teacher in Seattle and Baku

5 things people don't know about me:
1. I eat ice cream every night. When I stop nursing I am in big trouble!
2. I have decided to go "no 'poo," or, decided to stop using shampoo. Instead I use baking soda and vinegar. Click here to read more if you think I'm crazy. I am definitely going through the "icky hair" phase as my hair adjusts, but if this works, I'm going to save tons of money!
3. While watching a few minutes of the Grammys a few nights ago, I realized that I missed my true calling of being a back-up dancer for Beyonce (just kidding--but it did look like fun!).
4. My cat of 20 years (I got her when I was 7!) will probably have to be put down in a few days. She lives with my parents, so it won't be as hard, but I am definitely going to miss my Smokey.
5. I love to read (well-written, quality) novels. From August through October I think I read something like 17 novels. I have slowed down quite a bit since then because Miriam won't let me read while she nurses anymore.

I would like to tag:
Lisa - Nora Noelle
Lindsay the Honns
Amanda - Swick Family
Lisa H. - Life is always a journey with Lisa
Maria - My Hearts Moments

Friday, February 8, 2008

Grow, baby, grow!!


Once again I can't upload pictures to this blog from my computer. That's why these pictures are not the greatest quality (they are copied from another site). We can't seem to get rid of whatever is afflicting our computer. I am about ready to throw it out the window. Miriam, too. Just kidding. She got three shots two days ago and had a fever all day yesterday. Last night she would only sleep laying down if she was snuggled right next to me in bed. Sweet, yes, but it meant a sleepless night for me. She seems perfectly fine now, though. Miriam got weighed at the pediatrician's and the poor little thing only weighs 16 pounds (she's 9 months). She is in the 5th percentile for her weight and about that for her height. Her doctor says she's never going to be tall. Well, I could have guessed that! She is happy, laughs all the time, and crawls like mad, so I guess she is just small! And on a positive note, she rarely outgrows her clothes.

Tuesday, January 22, 2008



Yeah! Our internet connection is working again! These are from about two weeks ago when Miriam first started standing in her crib. Now she is pulling up on everything in our apartment.