Fun Story

Bridget and I with our little ones.

I have a good friend, Bridget, that lives in Woodbridge where my family lived for 5 years. We have kept in touch even though we now live 30 min. - 4 hours apart (depending on traffic ;)

We both wound up being pregnant at the same time, due 2 weeks apart with baby girls. This was my 4th child and Bridget's 5th. We've had fun throughout the pregnancy. I was thinking about her one day and thinking that it was about time she had her baby, so I texted her and looking outside seeing the beautiful weather, said, "It's a good day to have a baby!" She texted back, "My water broke and I'm headed to the hospital!" I was flabbergasted! When does that happen? I totally called it! She had a beautiful baby girl 3 hours later.

Three weeks later, I'm counting contractions and in labor and who happens to text me, Bridget! She texted, "Tomorrow is a good day to have a baby!" I think she was second guessing her intuition because I was in fact in labor. We'll give her props for texting at the exact time even though it said "tomorrow". :) These two little girls must've been keeping in touch before they came down to earth and letting their mamas know.

Bridget and her hubby and sweet little Anna came to visit us when Lillian was 1 week old. Here they are together. Anna was a lot smaller when she was born (5-6 lbs??) than Lillian (8 lbs 12 oz), they are 2 weeks apart, but Lillian is still a little bigger.

Anna and Lillian. If you notice the glowing abdomen, Lillian has her biliblanket on.

I have a feeling these two are going to be good friends...

National Cherry Blossoms

Here they are, at peak bloom! Yes, we actually lucked out and saw the Cherry Blossoms at their peak bloom this year. We went on Monday, 3 days before I had the baby. As I look at the Cherry blossoms I can't help but think of the song I learned at a child called "Popcorn popping on the apricot tree". The Cherry Blossoms looks like trees full of popcorn!

For those of you who don't know, each year DC celebrates the National Cherry Blossom Festival. This year was is the 100 year anniversary. Japan gave the U.S. a bunch of Cherry Blossom trees, which we planted around the tidal basin. Each spring they bloom and attraction a ton of tourists and photographers who try to capture the beauty.

Usually people walk around the tidal basin. This year, being 9 months pregnant, we took a short walk from the parking lot to the Lincoln memorial. We brought the boys scooters and they had a blast riding them around.

Sweet Alyvia.

The kids have so much fun with Daddy!

Checking out the blossoms, but we don't touch them. It's illegal, or something like that...

Our attempt at a family photo. Everett looks like he's scared to death. Not sure why...

Sitting by the Jefferson Memorial, Everett, always in constant, happy motion.

Me and my bud in front of the Lincoln Memorial.

The girls! Lillian's there too, you just can't see her yet!

My handsome boys!

We sat by the tidal basin and even saw a large fish jump out of the water. It was a fun little adventure to have before our little girl arrived. Yeah for Cherry Blossoms!

Here she is!

Lillian Elise Ferrel was born on March 22nd. I started counting my contractions at 9 am. By 11 I had called Dave to tell him to come home. At 2, my doula arrived. I had been counting contractions at home, cleaning and even found time to paint my toenails. By the time she arrived I was sick of walking around my house and wanted a change of scenery,so Dave found a trail close to the hospital that we could walk down. At about 3 we arrived at the trail. It was nice getting outside and into the sunshine. It was such a beautiful day! We walked down a beautiful path with wild flowers, a stream and lot of fresh air. Each time I had a contraction I would lean on David and tried to relax. It wasn't that bad and I even wondered if I really was in labor.

Just a little background for anyone who didn't know, I was determined not to have an epidural this time around. I had had too many side effects with my other epidurals and I didn't want to have that again. So, to get through the contractions I used a tens unit and my Hypnobabies techniques. They worked wonderfully.

After the walk, the doula said that my contractions were 2 minutes apart. I was surprised! I didn't realize they had been that close. At that point I decided that we should call the Dr. and go to the hospital.

We checked into the hospital at 4 pm and even saw some friends while we were getting checked in. Here we are in labor and delivery. I look like I'm about ready to pop! The doctor arrived at 5:30 pm and decided to see how far along I was, he checked me and I was 7-8 cm dilated! The nurses were surprised because I didn't look or act like I was that far along. I attribute this to the hypnobabies. I just tried to relax as much as I could through each contraction and it really made the pain so much less.

At 6:18 I told the nurses that the baby was coming and they went to get the Dr. He checked me at 6:30 and said I was fully dilated and ready to push. At this point it was more painful and I did make some more noise. :) But it is always painful at this point, even with an epidural. I knew she was almost there and I put all my effort into getting her out. At 6:41 Lillian was born! At 8lbs 11.5 oz, she was our biggest baby. Alyvia was 8lbs 5 oz, Berkeley was 8 lbs 4 oz and Everett was 6 lbs 12 oz.

Dave was a huge help and support. While I was pushing the Dr. wanted me to move to my side. At that point in the game I could not move, the baby was about 1 min. from coming out. Dave was wonderful and I could hear him encouraging me and telling me that she was almost here, which gave me the energy to keep pushing. He was just what I needed at that point. What a great husband and partner! About an hour after I had her Shana brought the children over to meet their new sister!

Here is a picture of the whole family! All six of us! Everett fell asleep on the way there and we couldn't wake him up! Don't worry, Shana brought him over the next day and he was soo excited!

Alyvia and Berkeley were so excited to meet and hold their new baby sister!!

Here is a picture of my doula Jenn. She was great and really helped me remember my hypnobabies stuff. She also provided the tens unit and lots and lots of information as I prepared for the birth. I highly recommend her jenndoula.com. Click her link for her take on my labor.

Here is Lillian on her way home from the hospital. She looks so tiny in her car seat and her hair bow looks so huge on her head! :)

Home from the hospital and snuggling in to my side, Lillian has proven to be a sweetheart! We battled jaundice the first week. 3 Dr. visits, 4 lab tests and 1 biliblanket later she is well and not quite as yellow as before. Now I'm ready to stay home and not go anywhere and just enjoy my baby.

Here is a picture of her with the biliblanket on. We call it the "glow worm". It's such a nice alternative to phototherapy at the hospital.

Yes, she does open her eyes! Apparently all the pictures I chose up until now are with her eyes closed, so here is one with her awake. Usually during her awake times she just sits quietly and looks around at this new world she is in as we all sit around and stare at this new little person in our world.

Lillian is a doll and we are so happy to have her in our family! Oh, and I am so happy everything went well with the natural birth. I would definitely do it again. I know everyone experiences pain differently, but for me, it was worth it! My back feels great, I didn't have to battle a spinal headache and my recovery has also been a lot faster. Definitely my favorite birth experience.

Thanksgiving 2011

This year, we went to Georgia to spend Thanksgiving with Grandma and Grandpa Ferrel, Renee Ward-Blume and family and the Miller family. We had a blast! Some highlights of our trip included:

1. A trip to the Georgia Aquarium (see pic above) The kids LOVED it!

2. Awesome dinner at the Miller's house. So many good flavors!

3. Playing Settlers of Catan!

4. Dance party with Just Dance 2 on the Wii.

5. Grandma and Grandpa's back yard tree swing!

The only downer was that Everett got the stomach flu the night before Thanksgiving. I stayed up in his room with him, hoping to stop the spread of germs and watched movies and slept a lot. Everett was too wiped out to move around a lot, so we just hung out. It was nice to just chill with my little buddy and sleep. He was a happy camper for not feeling very well. Poor kid.

Unfortunately we had so much fun that we failed to get any pics of the family... We're going to have to repent and do better next time. All in all we had a blast!

The Power of a Smart Phone

Dave has been in a futsal league for a few months now and loving it. Futsal is an indoor soccer league. This last Tues. the stars aligned and I was able to go watch him play for the first time. The team's normal goalie was going to be late, so Dave agreed to fill in. As the game started they were doing great, then Dave reached out to block a shot and successfully blocked it, but his shoulder dislocated. This is the 5th time it has dislocated and I have been there for 3 out of the 5 times. Every other time, he grabs his shoulder and shoves it back into place himself. This time it was not working. He went over and sat on the bench and kept working on it. I went over and was really worried and wondered/prayed about what to do. I told him if it wasn't going to go in in a few minutes that we were taking him to the ER. Then, the idea popped into my head to google how to put in a dislocated shoulder, and, thanks for my Iphone, I did. There on my Iphone was a YouTube video on exactly how to do it. I showed the video to Dave to see if that was something he wanted to do and he told me that he wanted me to do it. I was pretty nervous and didn't want to hurt him, but also knew that having his shoulder out was really painful, so I agreed. I very carefully put his arm in the position like the video and slowly and gently started to lift it up. About halfway up his shoulder popped back in. He looked so relieved and I was super surprised that it worked! He was really surprised that I was able to stay calm and do it. I think it helped that I've seen him dislocate it before. Now as I watch the video again with more sound I didn't really do exactly what it said because I couldn't hear it in the loud gym, I just put his arm at a 90 degree angle and slowly lifted it up. Thankfully it still worked. He is feeling a lot better now, still sore, but better. He is scheduled to get surgery on May 1st, so this won't continue to happen in the future. Poor guy. Here are some pics from that game before the dislocation happened.

Pregnancy update- 37 weeks

I'm 37 weeks and counting. Everett was born right at 37 weeks, so this baby girl is planning to stick around a little longer. Berkeley was born at 39 weeks and Alyvia was born at 41 weeks. The doctor measures the baby at each OB visit and she is measuring a week bigger, so she's measuring at 38 weeks. I think she'll be born in the next week or so. I am still able to get around, clean and do everything I used to do, just less of it and I take more breaks. So I can't complain. I can even say I haven't had a calf cramp yet! I've had a few of those with every pregnancy, so maybe the extra bananas and yogurt are helping. All in all it has been a healthy, happy pregnancy. We're hoping the birth will follow suit. I'm still planning to give birth without an epidural. I just feel uneasy about it given my last two complicated epidurals. But, I have prepared myself by reading a lot of books, getting a doula who is proactive about pain management and I have talked to other women who had given birth naturally and found out what helped them through it. I'm hoping all or some of it will be helpful.

I am also getting excited to meet our baby girl. She moves all the time and seems like she'll have a lot of energy and activity when she's here. We still have no guess as to what she'll look like, or a name picked out. I think all of that will come together at the hospital. Alyvia's rooting for brown hair. Alyvia also wants the baby to sleep in her room. I convinced her to wait until the baby is sleeping better at night, although Alyvia sleeps like a rock, so the crying baby probably wouldn't even phase her. Alyvia also wants to name the baby Leona (Lee Aw Na). Not sure where she came up with that. Coincidentally my two grandmothers names are Leona (Lee Oh Na) and Lawana. In the end Dave and I will decide, but it's cute to see her so excited about it.

Lego Club, summer 2011

If there is one play thing that most of Berkeley's friends have in common, it's legos. Ok and the Wii too, but let's think more constructive play things. Last summer we formed a lego club with a bunch of Berkeley's friends. Each week the kids would all meet at one of their friends houses. Whoever's house it was got to pick the theme. They could add in crafts and a snack if they wanted. I can't remember how long it was.. maybe 2 hours. Anyways, it was a BIG hit. So much so that Berkeley, even now, keeps asking me when we can do lego club again.

I think we will have to do it again this summer.

The boys really got into it and got really creative. Mostly they tried to destroy or battle one another, but some made mechanical devices. Needless to say, I was impressed.

Thank you Lego for providing boys with a toy that is not only creative, constructive and fun, but that can also keep 10 boys quite for hours. I'll just forget about how bad Legos hurt when you step on them and focus on the positive. Thank you Lego!