Aaaaand We're Back

The last time I posted was way back in October and I had plans to try and post at least once a month, but as usually happens, life got crazy.

Turns out quitting my job was a good things. That inability to be on my feet for 4-6 hours at a time was something I should have taken a little more seriously. On November 17 I went in for a routine prenatal appointment. I had felt a little crampy but I wasn't concerned. I should have been. I was only 34 weeks along and already dilated 3 cm. My midwife sent me straight to the hospital for monitoring.This was not good. Two hours later I was at 5 cm, despite shots and meds designed to stop labor. My midwife and the nurses were prepping me for the reality that if my baby arrived (and it looked like should would) she would spend at least three days in NICU.

While all this was going on, my older two kids were at home with Papa and a massive windstorm was devastating the area. A power line went down in our front yard and burnt the grass. Johnny tells me it was very scary.

Thankfully labor stopped on its own but I spent another two nights in the hospital. Partly to make sure it stayed stopped, and partly because we had no power and therefore no heat at home. When I did get home, we still had no power and I was on strict bedrest for 2 weeks.

The night I went home, my grandfather landed in the ER and was transferred to the ICU with meningitis. It was bad. My aunt drove through the night from Seattle and my sister was on the next available flight from Denver. He pulled through, though he is still in a rehab facility getting his strength back.

Long story short, life has been super crazy.

Evelyn Gayle very wisely stayed put for another 4 weeks and arrived only 10 days early on Dec 15 weighing 7 lbs 2 oz and measuring 20 inches in length. She was perfect and spent no time in the NICU.

Evelyn at just over 2 months old.

After Christmas, Lily turned 6 in January and the Seahawks didn't quite make it to the Super Bowl (there is always next year).

I had my tubes tied over Valentine's Day weekend to prevent this kind of chaos from happening again. Three kids is enough for me and I am exhausted.

Life is just now beginning to settle down, or maybe it just feels that way because Evelyn is learning to sleep through the night and so I am feeling a little less tired. That said, she is asleep, and this being the third time around, I know the wisdom of sleeping when she does.

Saturday in Redneckville: Football Fever

You would more or less have to live under a rock to not realize that it is football season in the USA. I mean the kind with a brown oval ball and big black men in pads and helmets, not the one with the round ball and men in shorts running around. I happen to be a pretty decent football fan. Wait, I am a Seahawks fan, not really football in general. I watch games in which my team plays but I don't take time out of my Monday and Thursday to watch teams whose merchandise I don't buy.

I am not going to give you a run down of the Seattle/Denver game. We won and that's all the matters. The fact that it was in overtime just means that my heart rate and blood pressure were very likely temporarily at unhealthy rates.

 I brought up football because, I learned this weekend that my husband could take it or leave it when it comes to watching football, but I might have a conniption if I miss a game. If the fact that I kicked my husband out while the game was on (the Seahawks play better when he listens on the radio at his brothers) wasn't weird enough, I "watched" the game with my sister via Facebook messenger.  She recently moved to Denver. (I should maybe call her and make sure her Seahawk loyalties didn't get her killed or maimed today.) While we aren't, and never were, very close, she, like me, lettered in football in high school, so we do sort of bond over football. And it's no fun to watch by yourself.

Also, these amazing  pictures of my kids amusing themselves while I screamed at the sweaty young men on my television.

Johnny made himself "overalls" out of a plastic shopping bag while on time out.

I have no idea what Lily was doing here. She was just sitting there making this face.

P.S. I guess I better clarify the lettering in football. Neither my sister or I actually played football. She did get tackled once though. We were the statisticians.  We ran up and down the sidelines during the game keeping track of yards run and yards passed, interceptions, fumbles, and all that wonderful stuff. Our duties included traveling with the team to all away games. For anyone who thinks keeping stats for two years in a row doesn't really qualify you for a letter, try taking hour plus bus rides home with a team of football players. Most of them shower, but their pads still reek. I paid my dues.