Plastic Free?

After watching a the documentary Frozen Planet by the BBC, I was saddened to see a Polar bear hunt and when the bear's stomachs were examined, they were full of plastic bags... because they'd been foraging at the dump.

I think when God asked Adam and Eve to be stewards of the earth, he meant for them to be better than what we are doing now. When Ryan and I recently got back from Germany I was really impressed with how they sort their garbage and compost so much... but here in the states, you almost default to the cheapest 'easiest' thing. I took a tour of the dump with the girls last summer, and they don't even recycle a lot of the things that it says you can, because there is no real facility to handle it. That was disheartening. I recycle anything that can be, but to find out that it was actually just going to the landfill anyways after they pulled out a few bits and bobs, made me think that I need to do something even better than that.

It's easy sometimes to say "I can't do that -- it'd be to hard" or "I have kids, I don't have time to" but ultimately if I want to have a better future for my posterity, I need to do my share not to muck it up.

So some resolves I have for the following few months:
    Make some reusable baggies for Amy's lunch
 
    Make some bags for shopping

    Try to figure out what I can compost and get a better container so I do that

In the meantime, I can read up some ideas from this blog:
    http://myplasticfreelife.com

Jill and Esther

 Esther dislikes bows and clippys and me generally doing her hair, so I cut her bangs on an impulse one night, and they ended up being a little shorter than anticipated. It reminded me, and my Mom, of this picture of my Mom when she was Esther's age. :)

 Mom always called this photo "Jill the Pill". :) I guess if Mom's hair was that blonde when she was young, Esther might yet be a brunette.

I love my little Esther, even when she is a pill.

Learning to be the Mother of Four

So I'm not very good at blogging... I'm busy being a mother FULL TIME to these dear girls, and a wife to my best friend. Sometimes it's hard... there are days when I feel like I am totally unqualified, and overwhelmed. But yet, even though my house is nearly always a mess, and we eat like foragers, there are moments (many moments) when I feel so blessed. I look at Monta's little smiles, hear Lena say "I wuv you Mommeee", Esther bouncing all around and telling me crazy stories, Amy telling me what type of mother she's going to be, and I just feel SO blessed. I am grateful for my girls, and for my wonderful husband.

Monta Maxine's birth

God knows best. I should know this from countless experiences I've had (worrying about whether or not I'd get married if I served a mission = came home and Ryan was waiting for me and was so much better for me than anyone I'd ever dated or hung out with); (We made 4 offers on different homes that were accepted, and then at the last minute they'd fall through = God plopped this house right in our lap essentially, and it's better for our family and the activities we do than any of the others) and a slew of other examples where God's plan has been better than anything I could've chosen for myself.

This pregnancy was yet another lesson in this. At the beginning when we had the subchronic hemotoma or hemmorage I wondered if we'd even have a full term baby. Throughout this pregnancy, I felt like God was saying "Why don't you trust me?" I wanted to trust, but it was hard. I worried about the cost (being due after the new year after the first ultrasound). I worried about having another shoulder dystocia baby. I was worried about giving birth in the hospital (when we prayed about it this time, that's where we felt we should do it, and that was hard for me to accept after our great experience at home with Lena). I had a lot of anxiety about tearing or being barked at to push, since my previous 2 hospital experiences left me with more than half of my tissue down there scarred and vulvodynia.

Proverbs 3:5-6 "Trust in the Lord with all thine heart and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him [this to me after studying means be grateful to him, or be humble to his will] and he shall direct thy paths." This scriptures, along with "Let us cheerfully do all that lies within our power and then may we stand still with the utmost assurance to see the salvation of God and for his arm to be revealed." -Doctrine and Covenants 123:17. I wrote these scriptures up to try to help me have more faith, but I still struggled a lot with anxiety over this birth. But... as with so many things, God's timing was best and things turned out so much better than I could've imagined.

I had latent labor off and on through the weekend prior to Monta's birth. Monday night contractions began to be consistently 10 minutes apart and quite strong... but I was waiting at home for them to get closer together. Finally at 2pm on Tuesday, they suddenly went to 3 minutes apart. Ryan and I decided to go in. I was so worried that I'd only be a 5, but when my Doctor checked me I was a 7 or 8 and almost 100% effaced. Since she was -2 station, my Dr. suggested breaking my water so that she'd descend. My spirits were really high from being farther along than I'd thought, and we laughed in between contractions about how it felt I was peeing my pants over and over and over again (I apparently had a very large bag of water).

Ryan helped me so much this time. He'd breathe slowly and consistently, and during a contraction I'd just hug him and try to match his breathing. I'd also hired a doula, Treana Hunt, this time to help me with the hospital, and she did a great job, fanning me when I got hot and putting a wet cloth on my head. Near the end, when things got very intense I couldn't figure what position to push in -- the squat bar is apparently not built for women my size and I found that awkward. I had Ryan get behind me (poor man, he was pretty much doing the straddles over that wide hospital bed) and support me. I'd asked for mother-directed pushing, and my Dr. and the hospital staff was so good about respecting that this time. I found it was less painful to try pushing when a contraction wasn't going, so I tried doing that. Near the end, the pain is always so intense I wonder if I can take anymore, but it always amazes me how instantaneously my body goes from agony to utter relief when the baby's body releases. Though the pushing is painful, when I'm allowed to do it on my own initiative, I think it helps to open me slowly so there's less damage.

Which is exactly what happened: I feel amazing!! No tearing, no stitches, no hemmorhoids, no damage to me. No shoulder dystocia. And she came the day before our deductible resets itself, so the bulk of the financial stress is taken care of. She came exactly when she needed to -- if she'd come on the 10th, she'd likely have been to big. Our Dr. was great. It's the first time I've been delivered by a man, and I was really pleased that for being another man in the room, he does a great job of not drawing attention to himself. It felt as if it were only me and Ryan, the rest of the staff were so quiet and patient. She was 8.6 and 20.5 inches long. She's perfect! And we are so grateful for her safe arrival, and I am so grateful to feel so good. Not having stitches makes a massive difference in my recovery. Ryan says he's never seen me recover so quickly.

So I am very very grateful, and hope I can trust in the Lord more.

And now pictures, since I'm sure that's what you really want to see:

Crawly Underneathy

So, we started a little fun tradition of bedtime stories about a little person named (by the girls) "Crawly Underneathy". He has adventures all over our house, like scaling our oven to and trying to figure out how to peel mandarin oranges that are twice as big as he is. Amy and Esther love these stories, and it's been really fun to see how much they take to these type of bedtime stories. I am usually one who just likes to tell factual stories, or funny ones from my childhood, and Ryan is the one who's imaginative and tells them about dragons, and princesses and castles. But this was my first night on my own telling them a 'Crawly Underneathy' adventure, and I was surprised by how easy and fun it was.

Other news in the Weight household: RYAN GRADUATED!!! He's amazing!! I cannot even express how proud I am of how hard he's worked to accomplish this. He did all of this schooling, while being a full time provider, husband, and father. I am amazed by him, and very grateful for him to have a hiatus for a bit. It's been nice to just relax in the evenings with him and talk.

Also, Little Miss Monta is getting very close to making her debut. It just dawned on me today that actually we're getting quite close. Crazy!! It makes me realize I don't feel very prepared. I feel like I need to get more things in order, but I've been busy just taking care of the other girls, so I haven't had as much time to devote to prepping myself for her arrival. Health wise, I'm doing well. I'm starting to feel big, and like there's not much space left, but on the whole, I hobble around alright and take care of the girls' needs without issue. I guess today I just realized that there's not going to be much left "calm". Once she gets here, there will be sleepless nights and readjusting. I hope I can do so quickly. I am excited to meet her, and hope she might be a little red head, then we'll have one kid of each color. :) Ryan has enough red in his beard it's possible.

The rest of the girls are growing up so fast... it's hard to believe how much they've grown and progressed this past year. Amy is my great little helper -- I can hardly imagine how I'd manage without her. She's like a little mother, and though sometimes it's odd when she's bossy and too motherly, I love her desire to be helpful. She always tells me randomly throughout the day things like "Mommy, I love you" "Mommy, I want to be your helper". She's really sweet. She's so bright too -- she's been doing this great online preschool program and is getting so good at spelling and is so close to learning how to read. I'm really excited for her. Esther keeps us on our toes, but we love her giggles and craziness. She is "mis-cheesious" as she once said, and we have to stay on our guard, but she's also very funny and affectionate. She makes me laugh more often than she makes me frustrated, which is good. She is a delightful child, even if the house is feeling the effects of her exhuberant spirit. Lena's starting to walk, and is learning words at an amazing rate. It's been really fun to see her personality blossom more over the past few months. She is such a snuggly sweetheart. I am grateful she still has squishable cheeks, and I'm glad she's become more interested in babies and baby-dolls recently, and hope that she really loves Little Miss Monta and is not jealous of all her mommy time.

So that's the update here. Hope you are all well. :)

Update on Baby#4

SO..........


       I had an ultrasound last month which showed that all the bleeding on the first ultrasound had completely resolved itself, and my placenta is in a perfect place and all looks great with the baby. Still, we've felt this time we should have this baby in the hospital -- we don't know why, and it's hard going back after such a wonderful homebirth with Lena, but we're going to and trying to take steps to make it as good of an experience for us as we can. We'll have a doula this time which I hope will help. I have my own anxieties with the hospital that I'll have to deal with, but whatever... that's not what this post is about -- THIS post is to let the cat out of the bag. Initially, we were going to be surprised again this time, but then I wanted to find out and then Ryan didn't and then we compromised and decided we'd find out but not tell anyone, but I'm having a hard time keeping a straight face when people ask my point blank if I have found out, so we'll just announce it:

We will be welcoming our fourth baby girl into the Weight household (hopefully before the year is out). We are very excited because we love our girls and think we make pretty stinkin' cute ones. We will be naming her Monta Maxine Weight after two very wonderful women that we admire and respect... Monta Benson, our wonderful 82 year old neighbor/friend who has been such an amazing help to me since we bought our home -- she reads stories to the girls, babysits for us to attend the Temple, has taught me how to can pickles, beets, jam, make delicious rolls, make amazing pie, and many other things too... but more than that, she is an amazing example of service. She is like the good fairy always going around blessing other peoples lives. I would be honored if I myself could be like her, and like the idea of naming a daughter after her as someone to learn about. Maxine is Ryan's amazing paternal grandmother -- she has taught me a lot about mother-hood. She had 13 children herself but somehow manages to keep track of all 75 + of her grandchildren AND their spouses, AND their kids. I feel such love from her whenever I see her and I love her stalwart example of faith and sacrifice in motherhood. She is also very handy at gardening, canning, etc and I've learned a lot from her.

So, we hope you'll be happy to be put out of your suspense and be excited with us. And Monta is pronounced pretty much how it's spelled -- like Montana kind of: "M ah NT uh".

More updates with our summer

 We took the girls to the Sandy Aquarium and it was a really fun trip. They loved the jellyfish, sea horses, huge clam, sea turtle, petting the rays, the starfish, and penguins. A pretty neat use of what looks like it used to be a grocery store -- it was neat to think that they made something so fun and educational. Lena oohed and aahhed over my shoulder in the back pack carrier.

 These girls love these grey skirts my Mom sewed for them. They often go running around like twinners. I love that they play well together for the most part.

 Esther sitting atop a giant frog and rather pleased with herself...

 Our beehive in the back yard. It seems to be a very strong colony -- last year we had two hives, but one didn't survive the cold cold winter so we put the extra boxes onto the strong surviving hive and we are really excited about harvesting it soon... my one apprehension is the below photo:

 Ryan has recently been having "large local reactions" to bee stings. He's been stung in the past without incident, but the last two times he's been stung, he's had big big reactions (He was stung in his bicep and his arm swelled nearly twice as large where you couldn't even see any elbow or anything. This above picture was taken after he was stung on the lip and IMMEDIATELY took 2 Benadryl and 4 IBprofin.... and this photo doesn't even do it justice because this was only about 30 minutes after it happened, but the other picture is less flattering). I think he's learned now to wear his beesuit and I just really hope he's safe while we extract the honey.

 We took the girls to Bear Lake for an idealic day on the beach in June and it was a lot of fun. Here's Lena flying the big squid kite. We've had on the whole a very lovely summer.

 And here is our 50$ piano!! :) LOVE it and it really looks made for our home, doesn't it? We had it tuned and the tuner said he'd have sold it for at least 400$ maybe more. Nothing like that to make you value your steal of a deal even more. It's been wonderful to have a piano to play again.

Amy bamey hanging out in a hammock when we checked out the Summerfest. We've enjoyed all the little local things to do and enjoy ourselves a lot as a family.