Late summer lately

It has been a fantastic summer around here!  Here's what we've been up to this past month...

Lots of garden work - this one is my parents' garden in Zebulon.  They took a trip to Maine for a week in July, so we went out to check on the garden and the dogs.  And picked all.the.tomatoes...

Which magically got turned into tomato sauce!

Our own deck tomato plant was out of control... Jack and the Beanstalk pictured above.  This particular plant was the hugest plant with the highest yield this year, even above the ones planted in the rich soil in the raised beds.  I think the deck just gets SO much sun in the afternoon, that this plant couldn't help but be happy!

Our new church had a picnic at the farm owned by some of the members.  The boys had a blast!  James and Stuart explored the cool treehouse/play structure above.

It was SO HOT, so Sam spent all of his time in the pool.  Smart boy.

Before we left, the farmer took some kids over to feed the cows (bread?  I never knew cows liked to eat bread, but these ladies sure did!)

And the goats

And play with some leftover building materials for a barn that she (the farmer) is restoring.  We had such a blast!

It has been unbearable hot for the last few weeks, so one of the few times we spent outside was at our favorite Museum of Life and Science in the Hideaway Woods exhibit... in the creek!

Hot weather = lots more indoor activities.  Watercolors are the current favorite.

This photo demonstrates how hot and sweaty, but also how sweet, these brothers have been.

Several farmer's market breakfast picnics, of course.

Carrot harvest from our own garden - this is a compact variety of Danvers that grew really well this year.  They were big and fat, but most of them were not very long.  About the size of 3 or 4 baby carrots, so just the perfect size for James to eat.

The last Sunday in July was an all-age service at All Saints Church, so the children (except nursery) sat in the service - thankfully crayons were provided for spiritual entertainment!

The little boys spent the night with Mema in Zebulon while I worked one day, and we met to exchange the kiddos at Goodberry's.  YUM.

James took his tricycle on a walk to our playground and was able to ride it the whole way!  There and back is about 1.5 miles, so I am really impressed he was able to do it (though there was some complaining on the last little stretch of trail before home)!

We have implemented no screen time during the week to give us plenty of time to enjoy summer activities (and to just give our brains and spirits a rest), but that means when the weekend comes, there is movie night!  Above, the boys are lounging while watching Robinhood.

And more farmer's market breakfast picnics...

And homemade popsicles!

Indoor play (in the air conditioning)

And watching musicians at the farmer's market (can you see a pattern here?)

We took the boys bowling with my family (my parents, sister, brother and his kids).  It was a blast, and a little stressful.  Turns out there are lots of dangers that could hurt little fingers at a bowling alley!  But look at those little bowling shoes!

Lunch date at Foster's Market

We drove to Greensboro last week to meet my Aunt Val and her kids to play at the Children's Museum.  My people had so much fun!  It was hard to get good photos, because they were always on the move.

This picture doesn't look very exciting, but James set up this little house with those magnet tiles and played with his toy animals for AN HOUR.  He just narrated to himself what was going on, and I just thought it was so lovely to listen to him play.  Things like this I want to remember.

Stuart is comfortably settling into his role as a fellow... Here he is using the coffee mug that belongs to the division director, Dr. Paola Gehrig!

And most recently, this past Sunday at All Saints during communion with Casey (who is due with baby Pax in 6 days!) and our favorite friend, Ezra.

Birth story: Samuel Smith

In honor of Samuel's birthday approaching, I wanted to (finally) write down his birth story.  So, disclaimer:  This post is about birth and all that it entails.  If you're not interested in such things, skip this one!

It was a Saturday evening, 4 days past Sam's due date (8/19/14), and we had just finished dinner with the Reagans at our house (I remember that Stuart grilled burgers, and Wen said they were so good that we could sell them at a restaurant for $10 a piece, ha).  It was around 8pm and we had just tucked James into bed when we realized my water had broken.  It wasn't a huge gush, so thankfully Stuart had brought home the pH paper to test for amniotic fluid, which was positive!  I was GBS+ this time around, so Stuart called Labor & Delivery and we learned that our favorite midwife, Meg (who delivered James), was on call that night.  I was not having any contractions yet, but because of the GBS status, she wanted us to go ahead and come in.  I panicked.  I was so afraid that they would end up having to induce me and I was just SURE I would have to have a C-section.

My parents magically arrived from Zebulon 20 minutes later (it's usually about an hour drive), and Stuart handed me a glass of wine to make me chill out while he gathered all of our things into the car (including installing the infant carseat... things are definitely different the second time around).  I remember feeling so relieved that James was already in bed - making sure that someone was immediately available to take care of him once labor started was what I was most worried about!

I had butterflies the whole drive to the hospital, but no contractions yet, so it certainly was more comfortable than the drive to the hospital in James' labor (I was in transition and that was... uncomfortable).

Stuart parked in the employee deck, which is down the block from the hospital, and made me walk all the way in, hoping to kick things into gear.  No such luck.  We got checked in, an IV started and our first dose of antibiotics for GBS around 10pm.  We walked the hallway for a bit, but everyone there knew us and it was a little awkward, so we hung in our room after that.  I bounced on the birthing ball and chatted with Meg about what to do next.  She suggested that we had two good options: she could give me something to sleep and see what happened overnight, or she could check me and pursue "natural" induction techniques.  We opted to go ahead and check (I was 6cm!), and she also said that the inner membrane was still in tact, which is why I was only leaking a little without any huge gushes.  She was pretty sure if we broke that, then labor would start.  We went for it, and she was right!  The first contraction was around 11pm.

Within 5 minutes, I suddenly had hard, heavy contractions.  I immediately begged to get in the labor tub (a jacuzzi-type jet tub), and it felt like an eternity for them to get it filled.  From there, labor is largely a blur (I remember thinking this right after delivery, too, so I don't think it's just two years time that makes this part a little fuzzy!).  I remember having hard, long contractions back to back without any relief in between, and that made me feel really scared (later, I heard Stuart call this "coupling," so I guess that's a thing that happens sometimes).  I remember Stuart was playing music, but I couldn't tell you what it was.  My labor was all back labor and shot down into my thighs, which was far more intense than ANY of the contractions I had with James.  I was still in the tub when I started feeling my body trying to push, so everyone got me out and up onto the bed.  Meg checked and I was not quite complete, so she asked me to try to breathe through those pushing contractions and not push with them.  THAT WAS THE HARDEST THING I HAVE EVER DONE.  What a mental game!

After what seemed like an eternity (which Stuart said was only a few contractions), I told her that I couldn't not push anymore, so she told me to go for it.  Because of the back labor, the only position that was somewhat comfortable was hands and knees (just like James' delivery), and after 10 minutes of pushing, Samuel was out, though not without a little excitement.  I remember really focusing and trying to take my time crowning, because during James' birth, I felt really scared during that part and wanted it to be over fast, so I pushed hard to pop his head out and I tore a bit.  So, that part went really well this time around and I was feeling really good about being in the game at this point, when Meg pauses and then somewhat urgently tells me to flip to my back and pull my knees back to my ears.  I knew he was stuck, so I flew over to my back!  The nurse laughed and said that was the fastest she has ever seen a woman with a baby's head between her legs move. It only took one push with my knees pulled way back for Sam to pop his shoulder out, and then he was here!  1:09am on 8/24/14.  Only 2 hours of (very intense) labor!  And we were able to have another natural, unmedicated birth (with only slight interventions to get things going and to protect baby from GBS sepsis).

He was HUGE!  He came to my chest and nursed within the first 15-20 minutes or so, and lactation came to check in on us.  He also pooped and peed on me at this time (two checky boxes the peds nurse has to check off, so I guess that's good...).  Meanwhile, Meg noticed that I was bleeding pretty heavily after delivering the placenta (which was also humongous), so she gave me some IV Pitocin to clamp down on that.  After Meg finished getting me cleaned up, the nursing staff weighed and measured Sam.  When he weighed in at 9lbs 10 oz, they actually got another scale to check and make sure that was accurate, because that is a big baby! (For comparison,  James was 6lbs 15 oz at birth).

He was so big, in fact, that Samuel Smith got a little cupcake sticker added to his bassinet, as he was placed on the "cupcake protocol" for blood sugar monitoring.  Thankfully, he passed all of those with flying colors.  However, we missed the window for antibiotic coverage for GBS (remember that from the beginning?)!  Guidelines say that you ought to have 2 doses of antibiotics, 4 hours apart, before delivery to provide sufficient protection from sepsis for the baby.  Sam was born only 3 hours from the first dose, and we never got a second dose in.  So, protocol calls for mom and baby to stay in the hospital for 72 hours to monitor baby for sepsis.  Thankfully, he passed all those assessments with flying colors, too.  No problem at all, and we realized that it was a small blessing to stay in the hospital for an extra bit... No one else to take care of for THREE WHOLE DAYS.  It was a nice way to say hello to Sam, and by the time we were discharged, we definitely felt ready and rested and excited to get home to little (big brother) James.

*Note on photos: Our hard drive crashed, so we lost all photos from January 2014 forward :(  We know there are lots of photos of brand new Sam floating around out there that we either sent to others, or were taken by others.  If you have those, we would LOVE for you to email them to us!  The above photo was taken about an hour and a half after he was born, after nursing and being weighed and checked out by a nurse.

Swagger

James, 3 1/2 years. Dressed self completely for the first time, shirt and shorts on backwards, shirt inside out, super hero cape and high tops.  He's my favorite (besides Sam. And Stuart. They're all my favorites).