Ephraim's Birth Story

Ephraim Charles Affleck

February 5, 2017

8 lbs 1 oz

20 inches

Brief recap of the last  2.5 years since Henry's birth. I've gotten birth fever. Bad. Not that I was super eager to have another baby right away, but my first (accidentally unassisted) home birth impacted me a lot, and I realized that my life needed rearranging. One night as I was putting little Henry to sleep, I had the most distinct impression that I should become a doula. So distinct that I said it out loud, and thoroughly shocked myself. 

And then the rug was pulled out from under us and we moved across the country from North Carolina back to Utah (land of snow and unbreathable air and a culture I've never been able to fit myself into) and I did the whole thing kicking and screaming. I started looking for a reason to like this place and came across a local doula training that looked promising. I chatted with one of the refreshingly genuine trainers (hi Saph!) and signed up. At the doula training I found a room full of fantastically non-Utah-standard ladies who didn't look at me like I had three heads if I said I encapsulated my placenta. Thank you, God for finding me some people!

What I didn't know was that I was a teeny tiny bit pregnant the weekend of the training. Actually, I guessed because I couldn't stay out of the bathroom. The other thing I didn't know was that 3 other doulas in this fantastic little group were also a teeny tiny bit pregnant. One thing led to another, we all chose the same over-worked and so, so awesome midwife (hi Dee!), and had 4 perfect home births within a few weeks of each other. I couldn't be more grateful for such a for such great support. 

All of our boys had been born a few days before their due date, which was great. This time, everything kind of fell apart the week before baby was due. The boys got sick. James got sick and missed 3 days of work. Henry flushed a washcloth and magnet down one toilet, and a toy leopard down the other one. Our car broke down, and then broke down again (in a big way). The list goes on. I absolutely willed this baby to stay in, at least until we had a toilet and the family was healthy. He did! My due date came and went uneventfully. James and the boys got better. James took apart the toilet and got that leopard out with the help of a blowtorch. All was well, except the car which was undergoing major surgery at the mechanic's, so we just prayed not to have to transfer to a hospital and made due.

Saturday night, at 40 weeks 3 days, I went grocery shopping. James joked before I left that this ought to put me into labor by the next morning. 3 stores later, I was super uncomfortable. I actually pulled into the gas station, sat there a minute, and decided 1/4 tank was more than enough, and drove away. The last thing we talked about before going to sleep was how on earth we were going to get the 5 of us to church in the morning in James's tiny little commuter car. 

I woke up at 6:30 in the morning knowing that I wouldn't be going to church that day. Thanks baby, for solving the transportation problem. I was having mild contractions that felt real but not painful. We called my parents to come take the boys, and texted Dee and Sariah, our midwife and doula, to give them the heads up. My mom ran around packing everything that the kids could possibly need for a couple of hours. I mean, everything. Mattresses, comforters, high chairs, cups and bowls. She's so funny when she's excited and nervous. They left, and I tried to sleep. James watched me and tried to time contractions, but it was so annoying that I made him stop. Poor guy gets yelled at with every baby for trying to do his job.

James was nervous that this would be a repeat of Henry's birth, where the midwife arrives after the baby, so he made sure our birth team got here early. They arrived sometime in the early afternoon. I was feeling like I had to use the bathroom during every contraction, and I did actually go every time. It was weird, but pretty comfortable. 

Sariah and Dee were diligent about counterpressure and massage, when I didn't have myself shut in the bathroom. It helped a lot, but for some reason I had to be moving quite a bit or things slowed down. I took a shower and did laps around the family room, squatting or leaning on things during contractions. 

At a certain point I went into our bedroom and knew I wouldn't be coming out without a baby. Contractions got more intense, but not necessarily painful. (I attribute the difference to the herbs I took this time around.) I vocalized through them because it helped me focus and relax, but I never had that transition feeling of wanting to be out of my skin and feeling like I couldn't do it. My waters didn't burst, but trickled a little. I spent some time in the tiny bathroom squatting and holding onto the sink during contractions and standing and swaying between them. I started to feel a little pushy and decided to move into the bedroom where there was more space for James to catch the baby. I knelt on the floor, leaning my upper body on an inflatable birth stool. Sariah stayed at my head, keeping me supplied with drinks and a cold rag and reminding me to relax my face. I'm not too sure who did what behind me, but James and Dee were on the counterpressure game, and it was amazing. Mollee (Dee's assistant) took some incredible pictures of him being born (and wedged her knee against mine so I wouldn't fall over during each contraction). Best birth team ever!

I never had the uncontrollable urge to push, probably because my waters were still largely intact. I pushed anyway and it felt good, but controlled. I could feel baby's head getting low and thought he was crowning, but it was actually just the bulging bag of waters coming out. It would fill up between contractions and trickle out, then refill. I guess the sack did eventually break, but I didn't feel it. I had Dee check to make sure there wasn't a cervical lip. There wasn't, but baby's head was stuck behind my pubic bone. She had me assume the "Captain Moroni stance" with one foot flat to change the dynamic of my pelvis. It worked, and I felt downward motion within a couple of contractions. I was feeling pressure on my sacrum, so I put that knee back down and leaned forward. Baby's head came down slowly and I was grateful for a less freight-train-like pushing experience so I could take it slowly and stretch. There was a cord that needed to be pushed aside, and then the shoulders were born easily. James caught him, and dropped him, but whatever because he was about an inch from the floor. 

Baby had a little trouble getting started, but after a little rub and a few breaths with the bag he breathed and cried and pinked right up. I was kind of relieved to find that he was a boy! I can do boys, and I don't have to shop for clothes!

The placenta came almost immediately. It was right there when I turned over. I pushed it right out comfortably since nothing had time to shrink back down. James delivered it. (He also cleaned, dried and encapsulated it before 24 hours had passed. If that's not love, what is?) 

The ladies helped me shower while James did skin to skin with our son and got him adequately covered in chest hair. Dee checked me out. No tears! And I got to go to bed with my sweet baby. There's nothing better! 

Henry's Birth Story

I was just sitting down to write Ephraim's birth story and realized that this blog hasn't been updated in 4.5 years. We've been a little busy. So first I want to write about Henry's birth before he turns 3.

We were living in North Carolina when I got pregnant with Henry. I love almost everything about that place; everything but the laws about home birth midwifery and raw milk. We really wanted to avoid a hospital birth, partly because of the price tag that comes without insurance, and partly because it's just not my cup of tea. There is a birth center in Chapel Hill, but that was out of our budget as well, seemed very medical, and then there's the whole 45 minute drive in labor thing. My visiting teachers were over when I was about 12 weeks along, and I told them we were expecting and looking for a midwife. Turns out Robin, one of those sweet ladies was also expecting, with a due date 2 weeks after mine. She had been searching for home birth midwives too and helped me have some options! Hallelujah!

Robin and I both settled on the same midwife. She is a very experienced lady who is unfortunately not able to be licensed in NC because she is not a CNM. We felt good about hiring her anyway and received excellent care. Robin and I were able to piggy back appointments at the midwife's house and switch off childcare during our prenatal visits.

The pregnancy was uneventful. My parents moved from Utah to live with us just a few weeks before my September 1 due date. The Saturday before baby was due, I wanted to take the boys to the zoo as sort of a last hurrah with just the two of them. I got up early and went to the two farmers' markets (I had quite the trade agreement with several farmers where they would give us loads of beautiful fresh produce in exchange for homemade bread, yogurt and fermented veggies). My mom and James were at home with the boys, getting everything ready for the trip to the zoo, two hours away. As I was leaving the first market, I felt what I guess was the first "real" contraction. It was so mild that I really wondered if it was in my head. I went ahead to the second market and noticed a few more of the same sensations, especially as I lugged my giant cooler full of jars. I realized that this might be my last solo trip for quite awhile, so I lingered a bit and walked around the market and forest before heading home.

At home, I told my mom that I wasn't sure, but there was a small chance I could be in labor. I still wanted to go to the zoo. All that walking would move things along if it was the real deal, right? She talked me out of it, reminding me that 2 hours in the car in active labor wouldn't be all that fun. I thought the boys would be heartbroken, but they were just excited.

Contractions were picking up a bit and I was sure that this was actually early labor. James and I went back to bed for a nap, and labor slowed waaaaaay down. I slept for about 2 hours. When I woke up, contractions were 20 minutes apart. I started to feel bad for calling off the zoo trip since this didn't seem to be going anywhere.

We decided to run some errands. There was a baby carrier on craigslist that I wanted to get, and we stopped at the grocery store to get a treat for the boys. In the car, my contractions picked right back up again, and I was SO glad to be a mile from home, not 2 hours away! Joey asked incessant questions during every contraction, and I was no longer able to talk through them so he got really frustrated. We came home and gave the boys ice cream for a little birthday party for their new baby. I took the opportunity to walk around the living room in peace while they ate. It felt best to lunge during contractions, so I leaned hard into the couch and hoped my water wouldn't break right then.

My mom offered to take the boys on a walk so I could have some peace and quiet. YES PLEASE!!! I didn't realize how important quiet was for my ability to relax and focus. I'm not sure I'll ever be able to have my kids present at a birth unless they're much older. They left for the park, and I got in the shower. At that point I started vocalizing through my contractions. It helped me so much, but kind of scared James I think. He kept checking on me and asking if we should call the midwife. I was sure that this labor was taking a long time, so I had him call but tell her not to hurry. She said she'd eat dinner and head over.

I got out of the shower and lingered in the bathroom, squatting through contractions while holding onto the sink. James jumped in doing what had helped so much the previous two births. He would slowly rub me between contractions, and put a firm hand on my shoulder during, reminding me to relax and open. Nothing has ever annoyed me more in my life!!! I kicked him out of the bathroom, telling him I'd call him if I needed him. (I don't normally yell at my husband, but my labor brain has other plans. With Joey, I yelled at him to stop telling me about the "stupid horses" that he was trying to get me to look at outside. With Dibby, I yelled at him to get away from me with his dragon breath after he ate some chips. It was par for the course by baby #3 and I hope he wasn't too offended.)

The midwife and James were texting and she was about to leave home and drive the 30 minutes to our house. I suddenly had a break between contractions and wanted to get up on the bed. NOW I know what that break was! I called James to put some chux pads on the bed and floor. He spread them out and I hopped up on the bed on my hands and knees. I was wearing a short cotton dress, and for some reason I flipped the skirt up off my bum. James's eyes got real big and he said, "It's not time for that yet, is it?" I thought better of it and said, "No, not yet" and put my dress down. Mind over matter...for a minute. I asked James to fill up the big tub, where I planned to deliver. He made it about halfway into the bathroom when my water broke and I had the sudden urge to push. I called him back in. "Never mind! Come back here and catch the baby!" At that moment my mom and the boys got home. James called my mom upstairs because I really wanted her to do counterpressure on my hips to avoid another broken tailbone (same tailbone, rebroken, just to be clear). She was trying to pass the boys off to Bapa, who was very very slowly changing his shirt and getting ready to take them. It was kind of funny for me to hear her panicking and trying to tell him to hurry up, the baby is coming NOW!

The midwife had given us a sheet with some basic birth info to follow if the baby were to arrive before she did. My mom asked James if he had read it and he said he had skimmed it. Oh well, no time for leisure reading now. I had read it, so between pushes and pants I walked him through the process. I felt so calm throughout the whole birth, which was surprising because my two surprised attendants were totally not calm. I was able to pause and breathe as he crowned, tell James to catch the head, wait for the next contraction, check for a cord, let the body turn, and ease the shoulders out one at a time. Two contractions and he was born!

The midwife arrived before I could even turn over to hold my baby. She heard him cry as she walked in, but couldn't find our stairs for a minute to come up. Actually, I think the whole neighborhood heard him cry. That baby had some seriously healthy lungs. The midwife made her way upstairs, helped me deliver the placenta and get cleaned up. Henry looked like an adorable little mayan with a flat nose and black hair. We were all shocked that he was a boy! The pregnancy was so different that we were convinced otherwise, but we wouldn't have it any other way. I got all tucked into bed after I passed the midwife's inspection (no tears!) and nursed my sweet baby. At that point felt like I already wanted to have another one! Such a good experience for me. James was a little shell shocked, but happy too.

Welcome earthside, Henry James! We sure love you!!!

Happy (Belated) Birthday David

Sahra's labor started at like 2 AM (lucky her), and many-an-hour later her still hadn't broken, so I went to work to finish up a project I was working on.  I ended up handing everything off to a co-worker to take over and we went home for a while.  Since Sahra had already had a baby we were pros at this and knew whso at to expect.  With Joey we had the baby in a hospital and had a fairly good experience there, but we wanted something a little more comfortable away from the whole hospital scene, so we went with a birth center that was like 5 blocks from our house.

The difference between the two was HUGE.  At the hospital it doesn't seem like they generally mistreat you, but it does feel like with a lot of the staff you're just another patient/number.  And it seemed like they have their preferred way of doing things or standard procedure, and they don't really tell you what all of your options are unless you've done your homework first and created a birth plan, and speak up they will go ahead and do those even if it's not in you or your baby's best interest.

Sahra laboring in the slow dance position.

In the birthing center on the other hand it seemed like their standard procedure is to do things that give the mom the most freedom and are in your best interest.  After we arrived, and the midwife and student did a test or two on Sahra to see how far along she was, they checked us in and Sahra got to go spend some time relaxing in the bath tub.  After realizing this was actually slowing the pressure waves (hypnobabies lingo for contractions) down, and was prolonging labor they told her that she'd probably want to get out, but they left the choice up to her.  She then lied down on the bed and had a few more pressure waves, and I did my best to help her relax through the whole process, and it seemed to drag on a bit.  So they allowed her to stand up, and walk around and have me support her and we did a slow dance position (her arms around my head) swaying from side to side (felt like I was 14 again at a stake dance), then we tried a few other positions and it seemed like nothing was really working to get her labor to progress.

One thing that really helped out was Sahra chose to hire the services of a doula (seen in above picture), who throughout the process offered lots of suggestions on how to help get the labor progressing faster and things that would help alleivate a lot of the pressure and pain during the pressure waves. I think we'd both use a doula again in a heatbeat.

The midwife and students then began encouraging us to let them break Sahra's water for her, and it was kind of funny because after some serious deliberation we finally said ok because Sahra was getting more and more wiped out as the clock ticked on.  The student and midwife then went to get the stuff to do that procedure then whoosh Sahra's water finally broke and within about 15 minutes the baby was finally there, and was born at 7:52 pm.

After upwards of 18 hours of labor we had our little bundle of joy in our hands, and they didn't even whisk him away to do all of the obnoxious measurements like weighing and measuring his height and huge head size like they do in a hospital, they just let Sahra and me stay with the baby for like 45 minutes and bond with him before doing any of those things.

Another nice thing was the fact that we got to the hospital at like 5 pm (if my memory serves me) Sahra's labor progressed somewhat slowly, but we didn't have to deal with a doctor saying lets get this labor progressing, time to shoot you up with pitosin (which goes through both the mother and baby's system).  Sahra was able to let nature run it's course and she made it through all of labor and delivery without an epidural (we've learned about the health risks they don't really tell you about with those), and she did a great job, and we got a handsome little baby as a reward for it all.

Now for everything you've been waiting for:  pictures of little Dibdib as Joey briefly called him (click pictures to super-size them):

The midwife and student smiling at a job well done.

Sahra holding little David's hand.

Mommy and son.

Smiling daddy, mommy and son.

Proud daddy with his big-headed son.

Baby Dibdib

Cute family picture.

Cuter family pic.

New Casa, Heladerador y Davidcito

As you can probably guess from this post's title which means new house, ice cream maker and little David to the Spanglish impaired, a lot has happened in our family lately.  First off we finally moved into our home ardnd will have lived there 3 weeks as of tomorrow.  We've owned the place (or the mortgage anyway) since January, but Joey was allergic to it so we had to put on our Bob the Builder hard hats and go to work remodeling.

For our remodel job we installed hardwood flooring in the upstairs bedrooms and office, and since we had just bought a house, our piggy bank just had enough to buy the materials, but not pay someone to install them.  A family friend helped us install the flooring, and it looks awesome.  We also painted, put in new baseboards in said bedrooms and updated the lighting in the kitchen.  The finished product looks pretty good too.  Franky Lloyd Wright eat your heart out.

We would have finished and moved in sooner but there was a big complication. Joey was allergic to the glue under the carpet in those bedrooms and by allergic I mean extremely.  I think somehow his body could detect if you had one single molecule of carpet glue dust on you, and if you did he would go crazy, would quickly get aggressive, would get a rash on his cheeks, and would be up at least 2 hours during the night screaming (on 2 nights he actually stayed up the entire night).  So there were a number of times where we had to take 2-3 showers a day and Joey couldn't be anywhere our house or us until we had taken a shower if we had been working at the house or he'd have a reaction, and the next day we'd be the exhausted walking dead (like in the movie night of the living dead, but more attractive than the old zombies).We discovered his particular allergy through a process called muscle testing.

Here's what we've found on muscle testing.  Basically your body (subconscious mind, or spirit, etc) knows a lot more than your conscious mind.  It knows what's good for you and what's bad for you.  Your body reacts to stimuli that are good for it by muscles being strong, and it reacts to negative stimuli by every muscle in the body going weak.  You can also ask questions and your body will give you a nearly immediate response of yes (strong muslce) or no (weak muscle) to what's asked.  I know it sounds a little foreign to what most people have grown up with, are used to, and understand..  But we've tried it and that's how we discovered what the allergen in the house was that Joey had problems with (the carpet glue).  Once we ripped out all the carpet, scraped off all the glue, put floor sealant over those spots, painted and then put the flooring down (along with having a professional carpet cleaner come in) Joey didn't have any problems. You can't argue with results.  Click for more info on the history of muscle testing, and how to do it.   A lot of chriopractors actually use muscle testing to determine which vertebrae is out of alignment too

We've also been able to diagnose Joey's allergies with this method.  Asking if he is allergic to something in particular, or were able to discover the cause of an allergic reaction using this method.  Since Joey has had nigh unto 100 allergies (and would even become allergic to eating the same foods too frequently) muscle testing has been a real lifesaver for us.  We are able to identify and through other natural medicine techniques eliminate many of his allergies, and we're happy to report he's getting a lot better and can live in our new house.

2 Days After we moved into our  new house 'twas our anniversary and Sahra got me a homemade ice cream maker (thanks babe!).  The next day we made some ice cream, and it was delicious. Then the next day was the big day.  It was David's birthday!

Count Your Blessings

The other day I wrote a seriously long and detailed post entitled "Whining and Complaining". For some reason it seemed like a good idea to let everyone in Ciberville know why it's been a ridiculously hard year for us. And then, luckily before I posted it, I got a swift divine kick in the pants showing me how all this garbage was actually getting ready to turn into a massive heap of blessings. How does He do that?

First of all, I was complaining about how, because of little Joey's allergic reaction to the carpet cleaning chemicals our ex-landlord used, we had to hurry and move into the living room of my parents' apartment...temporarily...for 10 months. I forgot about what a huge blessing it is that my parents moved to Utah, out of the blue, 4 years ago. Where would we have gone if they were in a different state? Who would have babysat for free while we looked for/bought/remodeled a house? Living in cramped quarters with my mom has actually been great, because she's so determined to find a solution to Joey's health problems--and she's taught us a whole lot. We're not there yet, but we'd be miles behind if we hadn't had this time together. It's been a really humbling experience, not knowing how to help our baby. We've been blessed with some really great (and sometimes crazy-sounding) inspiration. I'm sure we're supposed to share all this knowledge with someone else someday, and help another kid or two not have an awful restricted life. That would make it worth it to me.

Speaking of Joey, I had some whining to do about this long, drawn-out allergy issue he's had. The poor little kid is allergic to just about everything. We can't take him anywhere he might get into things like cleaning chemicals or perfume...like church...or Walmart. He is on a 4-day rotation diet of all organic food, since he's allergic to pesticides. Good thing we just happened to buy a house with fully fertilized garden plot (years of work to get soil that good in that area) and two established fruit trees, and good thing my mother-in-law just happened to visit and spent a week getting the ground ready so all we had to do plant seeds, water, and harvest all the fresh, organic produce we can use. I'm not sure how the church allergy is going to turn into a blessing yet, but we've definitely learned to appreciate going to our meetings when we have to coordinate our church attendance shifts around my Primary class and baby care at home. I'll never complain about a "boring" meeting again. I've also learned to really appreciate getting to sit with my family in church. It's hard to go alone all the time! All you people who go faithfully for years without your families' support--kudos.

Could he be any cuter?  We'd do anything for this little guy.

James and the massive cherry harvest

Our garden: tomatoes, squash, green beans, peas, corn, lettuce, arugula, spinach, beets, chard, kale, and an herb garden!

Heirloom brandywine tomatoes--I can't wait!

So we bought a house in January, and have been working on it ever since to get all the toxic-to-Joey things out and (usually very expensive) not-toxic-to-Joey materials in. It's been a big process. He still can't go in the house, but we're getting there. It turns out we bought a lot of house for a little family. Great, because we're growing into it, but a lot of work. One day I heard (probably not so out of the blue) from one of my mission companions and she told me she and her new hubby were moving to Utah and looking for an apartment. I jokingly told her we had a basement they could rent, but it didn't have a kitchen, and was covered in hideous bright red carpet. They came and looked at it, decided the price was right, and moved in. Insta-help-with-expenses/nice neighbors/1/3 of the house we don't have to worry about.

Oh and then the basement flooded. Three times. In one week. (Two sewage floods and one faulty sprinkler dumping 50 gallons of water through the window.) Not such a great week for our friends who had just gotten settled down there, but if they hadn't been there we might not have noticed the problem for several days. So they had to move all their stuff back out again while we got the home owners' insurance run-around. Seriously so frustrating. First the plumbing company said we had to replace the whole sewage pipe, we hired another company to do this to our foundation:

Then, it turns out the first plumbing company lied about our pipe being collapsed, so the whole procedure was not necessary. (The blessing is that we had it in writing from them, so insurance had to cover it.) They also said we had to dig up half the yard (not covered by insurance) which turned out not to be the case. Always get a second opinion from someone you know!!!

The sheetrock in the walls  was saturated with water (soon to be mold), so they also cut those out about 2 feet from the floor. Not-so-drywall if you will:

 We were having a hard time figuring out how all this could actually be a blessing in disguise, especially since work on the rest of the house came to a screeching halt while we were trying to get this solved. It turns out, for the $1000 insurance deductible we got new sheetrock for the bottoms of the walls (which was suspiciously moldy looking when we moved in), new paint on the walls, new baseboards, new carpet and padding in the entire basement (a special kind that Joey is not allergic to by some miracle and beige, not fire engine red), a (freaking nice) hotel for our friends to stay in while the remodeling was being done, and all the labor. No way could we have done all that for that price, even doing all the work ourselves. Yes, it was frustrating trying to coordinate the eleventy billion companies who all needed to be there (apparently construction companies aren't big on returning phone calls or showing up when they say they will), and find products that wouldn't kill Joey, but it's all done now and looking great!

We're far from done, but it's really coming together now. Good thing too, since we'll have another baby in a month! We're so grateful to friends who have spent their precious free time helping us paint and fix things and move heavy things up and down stairs. My parents' home teacher has installed almost all of the hardwood floor (to replace the non Joey friendly carpet in all the bedrooms) and saved us thousands of dollars, dozens of hours, and made it look really nice. All that's left to do is finish the house projects, and get this little boy to stop reacting to EVERYTHING!

That's 4:00am people. No, he hadn't been asleep yet. No, it's not his fault. Poor baby has a lot to deal with, but he's such a good sport. Just no one stop praying that we'll survive a newborn on top of this!

He's totally worth it.

Puelto Lico

Hi everybody, remember us? I've taken a big break from blogging since life has gotten more hectic than I ever imagined possible. Just thinking about it makes me tired, so I'll save that for another rant.

At the beginning of May we got to take a week-long vacation to Puerto Rico with our friends the Orgills. It was definitely a different kind of vacation with two babies calling the shots (on completely different schedules) but we had a nice relaxing time. It was so fun to to get back together with my high school/college/Mexico buddy and watch our kiddos play. The guys did alright too. They stayed up late every night hashing out plans to save the world.

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I'm really going out on a limb here trying to write something cohesive while Joey's awake. This post started out with him in a kitchen sink bath, playing happily with magnets and blowing bubbles with a straw while I sat next to him...and then he got a hold of a baked yam and squeezed the whole thing into unrecognizable floaties which, of course, stuck to his whole body and made him mad...but not as mad as he got when I washed them off and combed them out of his hair. Now he's clean, dry, and happily playing with his (up until recently my) Russian nesting dolls which should keep him occupied for at least 5 minutes, as long as he doesn't manage to shove the littlest one up his nose like he's been trying lately. Take two.

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Three hours later, here I am again. Little Man is sleeping and all is well.

This is a picture of when Jaina and Joey were first getting acquainted. Of course, we've arranged their futures together. What an adorable future daughter-in-law I have!

 We traveled all day on my birthday, but James made a grocery store run late at night to get me a cake...sort of...It was a pie or something before he dropped it. It tasted good though! He was so upset that the feliz cumpleaños candles only gave him one L, but he artfully made it work for both words.

 Jaina and Joey chasing birds. Those pigeons are seriously disgustingly tame. If you feed them they'll land all over you. No thanks.

 We rented an apartment in Old San Juan, which turned out to be a really good move, since it was close to everything and easy to get back for naps. Also, it rained every day we were there, which turned out to be a good thing because it wasn't too hot in the afternoons. We're wusses when it comes to humid heat.

 Here we are outside a really old Spanish fort. Joey's on the lookout for dogs, cats and airplanes, as usual.

 We escaped the rain one day in a frozen yogurt shop. Good stuff! They had delicious tropical flavors, fresh fruit, and way too much air conditioning even for preggers here.

 Colorful buildings in Old San Juan

 Joey HATED the ocean! He's such a fan of the bath that it completely shocked me. He was scared to death and screaming and hanging onto me for dear life with both arms and legs. Maybe the waves scared him. Who knows. He did calm down eventually and dig in the sand, but only if he was touching me and at a safe distance from the water.

 This is a walk we took one night around a really pretty part of town. I seriously could've spent months there. We did quite a few late night outings since Joey was still on Mountain Time and Jaina went to bed about 4 hours before he even thought about dinner. Those clouds around the lights are humongous swarms of moths. Sick.

We didn't end up taking very many pictures. For some reason we've been struggling with that lately. We rented a car the last 2 days and went to a bioluminescent bay with these awesome glowing bacteria that light up when you agitate the water. Tiffany and I were probably the worst kayak navigators (besides the drunk people). We got into about 50 wrecks with other boats and the mangrove trees. We managed not to tip over though, so it was a success.

Consider yourselves updated.

A Little Update

It's been quite awhile since I've made any attempt to update this bad boy. Here goes.

Joey: He's a toddling machine. He walks backwards, sideways, in circles, and is learning to run and (oh no) climb. He had a recent growth spurt and now he can reach all of the kitchen drawers. We tried to childproof them, but we still have mashed fingers every day. He's been talking a lot more too. He can say Mama, Dada, Nanna, Bapa (Grandpa), Jojo, apple, onion, up, down, la-la-la (light), lur-lur (blender), aaaah-da (please...don't know where he got that one), ball, dog, duck, cat, truck (with their accompanying sounds), ak (sock), booger... just to name a few. He knows the signs for please, thank you, more, again, shoes, where, eat, poop (courtesy of James), all done, goodbye, and he made up his own signs for brushing his teeth, blender, music, dancing, drink, and a few others that we haven't quite identified yet but he sure does them a lot. His biggest news of all is that, after seven toothless months, he cut three new teeth today! We were pretty sure he'd have 8 teeth for the rest of his life.
He's had more than his fair share of trouble in his little life. We've got him on a very limited diet (much to his dismay) and a four-day food rotation to help his intestines heal and to keep his allergies under control. We have been trying for months to get the carpet adhesive that he is deathly allergic to out of our new house so that we can finally move in! If he's exposed to even one molecule it seems like he is up screaming in pain all night long. Poor little guy. I'm not sure what it's like to have a baby who sleeps though the night...or half the night...or doesn't insist on being held all night...but he really doesn't do it for any reason besides he just doesn't feel good.
So we've got Joey quarantined for now and it's helping. We've been switching off going to 2 different wards so he can stay home (away from church building chemicals and perfumes) and we can both go to church. Our doctor says that every time he has a reaction, he goes backwards, so the best way to help him actually heal and not just cover the symptoms is to keep him away from everything he's sensitive to. That means looking crazy while muscle testing everything he's going to eat/drink/wear/touch/breath shared air with, and basically not taking him into public for a few months (no spur of the moment grocery store runs without a sitter). No easy task, my friends. We're doing our best though. Just do us a favor and scrub up with unscented soap before visiting. He's SO worth it!

James: He's branched out from computers and become quite the jack of all trades. He's spent so many hours over at our new house ripping off wall paper, removing carpet, scraping and scraping and sanding and scraping some more at that glue on the sub-floor. His parents have been here this week to help us and it's been really really nice. We were making slow work since James could only be there after work in the evenings, and I could only come when my mom was free to tend Joey. James and his dad have been figuring out the ancient wiring, putting light switches in the right rooms (seriously, the switch that turned on the light over the sink was 20 feet away in the dining room), ripping out chunks of the ceiling, etc. etc. It's never ending. He's such a good sport though and doesn't complain even though he's pulling double shifts every day and getting nowhere near enough sleep at night. I definitely married up.

Sahra: I'm "blossoming" as my father-in-law kindly put it yesterday. 21 weeks pregnant and it's no secret. It's nice to look pregnant instead of just chubby. James and I have an agreement to not find out the gender until birth and it's especially hard right now because I know I could know! It'll be such a fun surprise though, and the anticipation alone will probably get me through labor. My only concern is that big brother Joey will still insist on sleeping draped over my stomach and chest when baby #2 makes a debut.
Other than that, I spend my time trying to keep an adorable toddler happy and alive. My parents have been a godsend in helping with him so that I can run errands and work on that house! We're aiming to move in next month!

That's about it. If you ever get the insatiable urge to clean or fix or weed or sand or paint something, by all means we're here to help!