William Harold

So the drama all started at my 40 wk check up on Tuesday.  My midwife again asked if I would like to have an ultrasound to check the baby’s size.  I agreed since she said they could do it right then and I wouldn’t have to come back.  I expressed my skepticism at the technician being able to accurately predict the size of the baby since when I was at the hospital to have Henry they checked him and the guy said my dates must be wrong as he was only measuring at about 38 wks.  He then came out just over ten pounds.  The midwife and technician lady assured me that they are much better at this then whoever that guy was and that Eddie, the technician, is usually accurate to within half a pound.  So I went to get the ultrasound.  Almost immediately Eddie asks if I am trying to set some kind of record…the head is measuring off the charts…she can’t even get the whole abdomen on the screen, etc…  So she finally says that the baby is definitely over ten pounds and she’s thinking more like 11 lbs +/- 9 oz.  So I go back to the midwife and everyone starts freaking out.  The midwife calls in the other midwife to consult.  She then has to check my cervix and measure me herself to give an opinion.  They tell me about all of the horrible things that can happen to me and the baby since he is measuring so big.  Shoulder dystocia (getting caught on my pubic bone possibly resulting in nerve damage and paralysis), getting stuck in the birth canal and dying, my uterus hemorrhaging from the uterine distension caused by carrying such a big baby, etc.    They then tell me that I can get a cesarean at this point if I want.  I politely decline.  The 2^nd mw says that at this point she almost wishes they didn’t know how big it was since now they are medically obligated to tell me all of these things.  They ask how much longer I’m going to grow this thing as it is already so big.  I know they want me to bring up being induced, but I don’t want to.  I say that I would like to wait until at least after Thursday (my actual due date) to give him a chance to come on his own.  They immediately agree and ask if I could come in Thursday night to be induced so that they can both be there Friday when I have the baby.  This would be convenient for them as the 2^nd midwife  is going on vacation Saturday.  I ask why she has to be there as she’s not my midwife and they explain that in these situations it’s better to have two of them there in case something happens.  So I agree.  

   I am annoyed at this point because I’m pretty sure that the baby will come out just fine and not get stuck or anything and I think they’re freaking out for no good reason as it’s all based on assuming the ultrasound is accurate.   But I make plans for the sitter to come Thursday night and in the mean time do all I can to try and induce labor on my own.  In retrospect I think I was having contractions off and on for the next three days and the baby would have come on his own by that weekend…which I would have preferred as I was kind of hoping for a 20^th or 23^rd birthday so he would match the other kids.  Anyway, Thursday rolls around and I am making preparations for the sitter to come (ie; I had just changed the sheets on our bed) when the nurse from the clinic calls and asks if it would be okay for me to come in Friday morning at 6am instead as there were some scheduling conflicts at the hospital.  I am more annoyed at this since I had just changed the sheets (and because that would mean getting up at like 4:30 to drive into Denton), but I agree.  I was also a little concerned as I was having some spotting that day, which had never happened before.  The nurse assured me it was normal and not to worry.   So I call the sitter and Patrick and rearrange everything.  This was at about 9:30am.  Around noon the midwife herself calls me.  She wanted to let me know that the OB that oversees them (I think) was VERY concerned about me trying to deliver this baby vaginally and wanted to make sure that I knew she STRONGLY recommended that I have a cesarean.  She then again went over all of the bad stuff that could happen and asked what I wanted to do.  I expressed again that I would at least like to TRY to have the baby myself before resorting to such measures.  She agreed and then said that they really felt I needed to have the baby sooner rather than later and that she had talked to the hospital and they had managed to rearrange things so that I could go in that night again.  So we were back on for the night.  This was again annoying as I had just rearranged everything and Patrick and I were talking about maybe going to a  movie and out to eat in Denton and then staying in a hotel overnight so we wouldn’t have to get up so early to drive in the next morning.  So those plans were out the window….which actually I was fine with since I was having contractions and the whole spotting thing so I really didn’t want to be in labor in a hotel somewhere.   I looked up an article about shoulder dystocia and big babies and it convinced me yet again that the doctor was over reacting and that the baby would probably be fine, but whatever.

     So that night the sitter comes and we head in.  We were late, but I don’t think it matters.  The nurse then took FOREVER to get me started.  It turns out they wanted to insert something called Cervidil (?)  to ripen my cervix overnight and then get me started on pitocin around 6am the next morning.  I had to be hooked up to an iv and on the monitor the whole time.  This annoyed me as I had specifically discussed this with my midwife and she had assured me that I didn’t need to do this since I was planning on natural childbirth.  So I ended up arguing with the nurses about it and they went and woke up the other midwife who was on call to ask her about it.  She agreed to delay the pitocin until after my mw had come and had a chance to discuss it with me.  I have never been in labor at the hospital w/o pitocin and I really wanted to try it this time.  The nurse also agreed to fudge the charts a little if I really wanted to get up and walk for twenty minutes or so every hour.  This was nice, though aside from using the restroom once an hour I didn’t really feel like doing this as it was nighttime and I was sleeping…mostly.   By 5:30/6 I was having contractions for real.  By the time my mw came she said I was in labor on my own and didn’t need the pitocin.  The cervidil and fallen out at some point too so I wasn’t really on any labor inducing meds.    Shortly thereafter the ob came in to talk to me.  She AGAIN explained all of the risks I was taking in trying to do this vaginally and how it could be dangerous for me and the baby and did I understand this?  Yes, I did.  She then asked what I had against having a c-section.  Seriously?  Why would I NOT want to have unnecessary surgery that would then influence my doctors decisions about my birthing capabilities for the rest of my pregnancies?  I said something about the recovery time and having three other kids at home to look after and how it would mean I’d have to have cesareans from then on.  She made some noise about how no I wouldn’t, but I know the policy at Denton Regional is once a cesarean always a cesarean so I politely (or as politely as can be done since we were having this conversation in between contractions) declined.  She then seemed to wash her hands of the situation and left.

     So I labored “for reals” ;) from about 5:30/6 until around 10 am.  My mw broke my water around 8 I think so then I had to sit on a towel wherever I was so as not to leak.  The mw’s were both very nice and helped me with different positions, pressure points, warm towels etc.   I tried sitting in the rocking chair, which was nice, but the whole moving my hips/bellydancing thing I was going to try did not work.  If I tried moving my hips during a contraction it seemed to make it much worse, so I stopped.  Soon my muscles all felt really weak and shaky and I didn’t trust myself to stand/pace/lean like we had discussed as I felt I really needed the support of the bed or chair or I would fall over.  So it wasn’t too bad until I started puking on the downside of every other contraction.  That really, really sucked.  I also think the doctor completely freaked me out with her discussion of how if the baby did get stuck she would have to stick her entire hand up my stuff and try to dislodge him manually.  So I was thinking about how the contractions really, really, really hurt and how much more it was going to hurt when I had to push such a HUGE baby out and then they had to stick their hands up there to turn it.  I think this psyched me out as much as if not more than the reality of how painful labor is.  So around 10am I gave in and asked for an epidural.  I had been mentioning it off and on all morning, since I knew the last two times the anesthesiologist had taken an hour and a half to get to the room and I was concerned he wouldn’t get there in time if I waited too long.  The midwives kept telling me I was doing a good job and I had good instincts and all this…I think they were a little disappointed in me for getting an epidural but at that point I really didn’t care.  I decided that my reasons for trying natural childbirth were apparently not strong enough in the moment as I had by this point convinced myself that going natural just for curiosities sake was dumb.  So they nurse turned up my I.V. (apparently they need to pump you full of fluid before an epidural?) and sent in the order.  We had to wait until I had enough fluid…the waiting sucked.  I kept telling Patrick that “they better hurry.”   I don’t know if I was concerned with the baby coming out before he got there or if it was just the knowledge that relief was coming that made the intervening contractions so much worse.  So he finally got there around 10:20.  They sent Patrick out, even though he specifically asked if he could stay this time, and the guy got to work.  I think it started kicking in around 10:45.  I still felt a lot of pressure with each contraction, but I was able to start to relax my overtaxed and shaking muscles.  Patrick put on my nice music I had brought and I think I slept for a little while.  The second midwife came and checked me sometime during the 11^th hour and I think I was at a 7.  She said the other midwife (mine) would be back at lunch as she didn’t want to miss this.  Around noon I began to be concerned as the pressure with the contractions was mounting and I couldn’t really ignore it anymore.  I kept asking Patrick to watch the contractions on the paper to see if they were getting bigger and closer together as that’s what it felt like.  He said they looked bigger, but were still about 2.5 minutes apart.  I finally called the nurse to come check me as I was beginning to worry that the baby would plop out on his own and everyone would miss it.  Patrick and I thought this might be hilarious as they were all so worried.  So the nurse checks me and says I’m at an 8 and calls the mw.  The 2^nd mw comes and checks and says that my cervix is like butter and that it was at a 8/9 when she was done.  She then goes to call the other mw…I think.   So they finally come in around one and start setting up.  The 2 mw’s and a 3^rd mw in training are there to hold my legs/catch.  Patrick didn’t have to do that this time, although I think he did end up doing it anyway when one got distracted.  The mw checks me and the other says she should probably suit up or whatever…she then tells me to try and breathe down during my next contraction.  I do…but then it sounded like she meant push when she said breathe so after a few more breaths I asked if she meant I should push or breathe down?  She said both.  I was embarrassed then as I hadn’t been really pushing at all.  So I gave a few pushes, which wasn’t fun.   The 2^nd mw asked if they should call in the ob, and the first said….hmmm, let’s wait.  Which was good as the OB was a little too freaked out I think.  So I pushed through like 4-5 contractions and then plop!  Out comes the baby.  This surprised me as I usually push way longer than that and from the mw’s attitude I wasn’t even really aware that we were “really” trying to push it out just yet.  Usually the doctor has me do some pushes and such almost as if to warm up to the “real” pushing.  So the baby comes out…Patrick said its cord was around its neck, but loosely and she just pulled it off.    I told the nurse I didn’t want him on my stomach and Patrick said she then gave me either an annoyed or confused look.  So I guess she was holding him or something and they asked Patrick if he wanted to cut the cord.  I was a little annoyed at this point because the nurse was purposefully holding up the blanket so I couldn’t see.  I didn’t say I didn’t want to SEE the baby, I just didn’t want to touch it when it was yucky.  So I missed all of that.  They took him over to be weighed and he was only 9 lbs, 12.6 oz.   Stupidheads.  I had read a study that the sonographer is only accurate to within 1.1 lbs 48% of the time that late in pregnancy.  So all of that fuss and rushing me to the hospital and all was because they all overreacted to an inaccurate ultrasound.  So I now know to never ever get an ultrasound that late in pregnancy as they will all overreact.   Bah.    Anyway.  So the baby came out and a few minutes later the placenta came out too.  I had asked the midwife if I could see the placenta and she said yes.  So she showed me all the parts and it was pretty cool.  Probably funny to the nurses that I didn’t want to touch the baby but I wanted to see the placenta.  So I had a small 1-2 degree tear in the back and a 1 degree to the front which was much less then I had torn for my other kids.  The 2^nd midwife measured the babies head/torso (or saw the measurements anyway) and told me that I could probably safely deliver a baby a pound larger without any problems.  I was like, “oh really?   See?  I told you they just come out.”  I had told them how Henry just came out and they all seemed skeptical that I didn’t have any trouble pushing out a ten pounder.  They now believed me.

     So Patrick stayed with me at the hospital for the whole day, which has never happened before.  It was nice.  He stayed the night and we watched Ghostbusters on the laptop…or parts of it anyway, I think I kept falling asleep.  The next day our pediatrician randomly showed up and said she had come for another one of her patients to do the circumcision and saw our name there so she came to see if we wanted our son done as well.  I thought that was nice as I was worried about calling her or having to do it at the office later that week.  So we were supposed to go home that afternoon, and the sitter was bringing the kids to drop off and see the baby and then we were going to take them home.  So before this can happen they tell us that the baby has a heart murmur and elevated bilirubin so we may have to stay another night depending on what the echo they’re ordering for his heart says.  So I’m worried about that and we agree that Patrick will take the kids home and I’ll stay if we need to.   Then they come say he’s fine and it’s an innocent  murmur with a normal hole that is in the process of closing and that’s why it was so loud (I think how if they hadn’t made me come in early it probably wouldn’t have been there).  The nurse then says she can rush the jaundice test thing and we can leave by 6:30 if we want.  So when the kids arrive that is the plan…right up until Patrick leaves me alone with all of them in that small room to go get the carseat.  He was only gone fifteen minutes but it was enough to completely stress me out.  So after they left to go eat I started thinking how I really wanted to stay another night.  I asked the nurse if it would be okay and she said they could just cancel the orders and have me go home the next day.  So when Patrick comes back I ask if it’s okay if I stay and he agrees.   I had a nice peaceful evening, and the nurse brought me some snacks around 10 when I got hungry (they serve dinner at 5:30, you would be hungry too).  The next day Patrick came with the kids and we ended up having to wait around for everyone to come check us out.  Luckily the hospital had wifi and we could put on a Netflix show for the kids.  I guess the hospital had like three babies born all at once (11 total that weekend) which was insane for them.  This was the first time I had ever seen more than one baby in the nursery, I guess Denton is having a baby boom.  My pediatrician blames those cold weeks of winter we had this year…that doesn’t line up for our conception, but it’s an idea.  

    So now I’m home.   Patrick surprised me by taking Monday off of work.   I had to take the baby to the doctor so that was nice.  When I got home I was exhausted and he further surprised me by taking Tuesday off as well.  He’s really nice.   Wednesday my visiting teacher took the kids to the McDonalds in Sherman for like 5 hours, yesterday my other vt came and watched them for a couple of hours so I could sleep and today she took them all to her house for the day.  So I haven’t really had to watch my kids all week.  It’s been nice, though it’s getting kind of weird now…so I guess it will be good to be able to get back to a routine.   It always seems kind of anticlimactic to me to bring the baby home.  It’s like you’re building up and planning for the birth for nearly a year, and then it’s only a couple of nights at the hospital and it’s over.  I always feel lost afterwards like what am I supposed to do now?  Take care of the kids, Patrick says.  That’s depressing to think that’s all I’m going to be doing forever.  But I’m feeling better today and starting to look forward to the art history class I’m going to take this fall in pursuit of my second bachelor’s in art history.  I was supposed to start working on my second masters in Library Science as well, but they have a two day long 8 +hours a day orientation I’m supposed to go to for that.  I can’t leave the baby that long yet so I’ve put that off until spring semester.     Anyway, here’s the baby:

William Harold Thaden

Born 7/22/11, 1:14pm, 9 lbs, 13 oz, 19 ½ inches (which is short for our babies).

His hair, eyebrows and lashes seem to be lighter then the other kids and I think his eyes still look blue (though I must admit they seem to be getting darker and will probably end up brown like everyone else)...so maybe he'll look a little different.  He has a sloping forehead and no neck so he looks kind of like a garden gnome, but he's pretty cute. ;)  He can already hold his head up and look around just like our other big babies.  

Big babies...

40 wks

So I went to the midwife for my 40 wk (two days early) appt.  Everything is fine, the baby is still in there, my cervix is still closed, I'm still measuring right on even though I tell her I have big babies.  So after she checks me she asks again if I want to get a sono to check the baby.  I ask if I would have to make an appt and come back or if we could do it right then.  She says they could fit me in right away.  So I say fine.  The sonographer takes me back and I tell her again the story of the sonographer at the hospital last time who thought my dates were wrong as it seemed the baby was "only measuring at 38 wks."  A few hours later he came out and was 10 lbs.  So I wasn't sure how accurate these measurements were.  She assured me that they are usually pretty accurate within half a pound or so.  So she starts...then exclaims; "Girl!  Are you trying to set a record?!"  I say, no and had she heard of that woman from Texas who had the 16lb baby?  She said "yes that woman was not taking care of herself."  (?)  Anyway, she said that the head was measuring off the charts...she couldn't even fit the whole abdomen on the screen...in conclusion she thought it was definitely over ten pounds and she was going to estimate that it was about 11 lbs +/- 9 oz.  She started saying how if it was that big I may need to have a cesarean....that wasn't funny.   So then I go back to the midwife and she brings in the other midwife to consult.  That midwife wants to check and measure me herself, so she does and manages to reach my cervix, which after her exam she states is now definitely a solid one. Then they both start talking to me about all of the problems that can happen if my baby is that big; shoulder dislocation, difficult birth, possibly getting stuck in the birth canal and die etc...  The 2nd midwife then says how she almost wishes at this point that they didn't know how big it was since they were now medically obligated to tell me all of this.  They ask how long I wanted to grow this baby given how big he already is.  I was kind of annoyed at this.  They're midwives; aren't they supposed to be all about natural childbirth and how the body is capable of birthing the babies it grows and waiting until the baby is ready, etc...?  Bah.
   They said that I had reason to schedule a c-section if I wanted, to which I immediately replied no.  So they discussed the various methods of induction; a pill I could take or pitocin, etc...  This also made me annoyed as I have always been put on pitocin as soon as I get to the hospital and I have never experienced birth and the difference in contractions without it.  So they ask me how long I want to wait.  I said at least until after Thursday (my due date) to give him a chance to come on his own.  They quickly agree and say I should come in Thursday night and be induced so that I could deliver Friday when they would both be there.  The 2nd midwife was going on vacation Saturday so Friday would work better for her.  I'm wondering why she needs to be there since she's not my midwife and they say that if they run into any problems then two heads are better than one.  So I guess I'm supposed to go in Thursday night...that's dumb.  I don't think that's enough time for the baby to come on his own before then.  Plus if I have to pick a date I'd rather he'd be born on the 23rd or 20th since those are the other kids birthdays and would be easier to remember.  But they seemed adamant that I'm going to have all of these problems because the baby is so big and that we really need to get him out soon.  Again, I thought they were supposed to be midwives...stupidheads.  So I guess we'll see what happens.  

Natchitoches, LA. Part Two

Staircase brought over from France in 1856

The second day in Natchitoches we spent in town wandering up and down the shops on Front Street.  They had some cool stuff including the oldest business in Louisiana the Kaffie Frederick General Mercantile that had been open since the 1800's I think.  It had a ton of stuff in it and we ended up getting presents for the kids there.  They had a bunch of boutique type stores with outrageously overpriced items that I would only be mildly tempted to purchase if they had been at a reasonable price.

Me waiting across the street while Patrick talked to the Carriage lady

We tried to go on a carriage tour of the city but the carriage they had out sat six people and the lady driving refused to take us if we didn't have a larger group.  We watched her sitting there throughout the day turning away people that came up in 2's and 3's.  Patrick even tried to go over and get in a with a group of three but she still didn't want to go out.  So instead she sat there playing on her laptop all day with no fares.  She was dumb.  We decided to try and go with the group of school teachers from our B&B the next day as that would make six of us (more on that later).

We had lunch as Lasyone's Meat Pie Restaurant as Natchitoches is famous for it's meat pies and the people we asked said this was the place to go.   It was very crowded and kind of hot, but nice to sit down anyway.  We waited about ten minutes for a table.  I got a meat pie and Patrick ordered red beans and rice with sausage.  The meat pie was pretty good, though I honestly didn't see what all of the fuss was about.  After that we decided to catch a movie.  We went to the matinee showing of X-men First Class.  I was thinking it would be nice to sit in the air conditioned theater for a couple of hours...but it started getting hot around the middle of the movie and I was fanning myself by the end.  The movie itself was pretty good.  I was distracted by the guy playing Magneto/ Erik Lensher as he looked alot like the guy playing Eric Northman in True Blood.  By the end I couldn't tell them apart.  Wolverines cameo was funny...  The movie theater people came in and flipped the lights on before the credits were even halfway done which I found annoying.  The guy told us there was nothing after the credits so we left, but it was still annoying.  After that we made a run to Walmart where I got two little outfits for the baby (and a copy of Steel Magnolias to watch...the innkeeper said every time they stock it it gets stolen) and Patrick got some tums and manilla folders (exciting I know).   We made it back to the B&B around 4 to discover that the a/c on the first floor had stopped working.  Patrick seemed very nonchalant about this and wanted to ignore it and take a nap.  I was freaking out because it was so hot and kept trying to convince him to call the people in charge since if we waited even an hour businesses would be closed and then no one could fix it and we'd die.  He finally agreed.  It had tripped a circuit breaker, which ours does at home all the time, and the guy came over and showed Patrick which one to fix should it happen again.  Patrick then took a nap and I watched Terminator 2 on tv...it took nearly three hours for the first floor to cool off again.  After Patrick woke up we went out to eat at the Pioneer Pub and Restaurant because our guide book said it would have live music.  It didn't, but that was okay.  I had a chicken/ziti pasta dish that was the special and Patrick had a Philly Sandwich.  The food was pretty good for the price even though the place was really more bar then restaurant.  Afterwards we got ice cream from Dairy Queen and tried to watch The Skeleton Key on netflix, since it's placed in Louisiana.  Unfortunately our internet went to crap and that didn't really work out too well.  I think we ended up watching some random show on tv...I think it was White Collar.  It wasn't as entertaining as I had hoped.

The next day we asked the ladies about joining for a tour and they readily agreed.  We met up with the one in charge at the Visitor's Center where she attempted to contact the carriage lady.  She actually answered her phone, which was a step up from our three unanswered calls/msgs the day before.  She said the driver was going to start late today for personal reasons but that she would call her back when she had a time for us.  The teacher lady also gave her an earful about the unprofessionalism of the driver the day before.  We waited around a bit to see if she'd call "right back."  She didn't.  While we were waiting another woman came in and overheard our conversation.  She handed out cards and explained that she did personal tours of the city or Steel Magnolias sites or plantations in your car for $30/group/hr.  After some discussion we decided this was a better deal and planned for all of us to go in our 7 passenger (at the moment anyway) van at 1pm.  This left us time to clean out the cereal from the seats and buy the kids some presents we had picked out the day before.  We also had time to visit the historic Fort St. Jean Baptiste.  We forgot to take pics, so I don't have any to show you.  It was a to scale reproduction of the original fort the town started from.  It was very small...and hot...and humid...inside the officer's quarters some birds had built a nest in the chimney and it had fallen.  The babies were still at the bottom and would start screaming if anyone came in.  The guy there said the mom still comes and takes care of them even though the nest had fallen and broken.  Two of them looked like they weren't going to make it, even though the guy said they were fine.  Patrick told them how he did ironwork.  They were very impressed.  After that it was nearly one o'clock so we all met up for our tour.  It started out as an historic Natchitoches tour, but we soon turned it into a Steel Magnolias tour.  The entire story in that movie is real and we were able to see both the filming sites as well as the actual sites where the story took place.  It was a very interesting experience.

Truvy's (Lizzy's) actual "salon;" an enclosed carport

Truvy's from Steel Magnolias

M'Lynn's house from Steel Magnolias (now a B&B)

Me...and sign

Afterwards Patrick and I had a sandwich and ice cream in a music store/sandwich/ice cream shop.   It was weird, they had instruments, music and then a counter and two little tables.  They had a big screen tv and were playing Prince of Persia.  It was near the beginning and we sat and watched it while we ate.  It was nice and quiet and a/c'd in there.  Afterwards we took our ice cream and drove over to get a closer look at the cemetery we had seen on our tour.  It was the one from the movie and had several old graves and cool ironwork.  There were a lot of kids graves too which made me sad so when we got back to the hotel I called our kids to make sure they weren't dead.  We went out to eat at Mama's Oyster House because they also had live entertainment.  It was pretty cool.  I had a catfish po-boy and Patrick ordered fried frog legs 'cuz I wanted to try them.  We got to keep the plastic cups our drinks came in so that was cool too.  That night we rented The Skeleton Key from blockbuster and watched it....I then watched Steel Magnolias after so I wouldn't be scared. ;)

Patrick on Front Street

Gazebo at our B&B

Freak'n huge 12 foot tall sunflowers...they're actually a ways behind him

The last day there we had a nice breakfast of fruit 'n yogurt parfait and french toast with strawberries and whipped cream.  We made one stop in town to get fudge (and some earrings I wanted) and then headed to the Alligator Park.  It was hot.  There were alligators...I took some pics.  There was a bus full of blind kids that came about the time we did.  I'm not sure how much they were able to get out of the park.

Me holding an alligator for a $7 polaroid

We found Gollum at last!

Patrick 'n the gators

Feeding time

The donkey was hungry too...

On the drive to and from we read from one of the Sookie Stackhouse books (we've been reading these on road trips since we started watching True Blood).  About 15 minutes from home I suddenly got car sick and we had to pull over so I could puke on the side of the road.  That was fun.  I guess no visit to Louisiana is complete without Kiera puking in the street. (I inexplicably got sick in the street when we went to New Orleans 8 years ago too).   So that's our trip.  Aren't you jealous?

Natchitoches, LA. Part One

Patrick and I just got back from a little "babymoon" my friends Margie and Josh were so nice to make possible for us.  Margie agreed to watch our kids for a few days so we could get away for awhile.  Now Patrick has been away on business trips and such several times over the years but I have not been without kids since Isabelle was born five and a half years ago.  We considered several different areas to go to, including New Orleans, Galveston and Eureka Springs, AK, but settled on Natchitoches, LA.  Nagadoches you say?  No, Natchitoches....the first is in Texas and pronounced "Nack -a-doch-es" and the second is in Louisiana and pronounced "Nak-a-d(t)ish".  Both were named after a Native American tribe in the area, the difference being that the TX one was the Spanish interpretation of an Indian word and the Louisiana one was a French interpretation.  Anyway, Natchitoches was the filming site of the movie Steel Magnolias.  I watched this again back in March and realized how close it was to where we live (only five hours or so).  I immediately called Patrick (he was away at the time) and told him we should plan a weekend or something there.  So when Margie volunteered to watch our kids we were able to get away for four nights and five days.

   We stayed at a lovely B&B called "The Queen Anne".  We stayed in the Library Room, which I think was the best looking room.  The only drawback being it was located right off the parlor, directly across from the front door and had two 10' pocket doors rather than a regular door.   There was a plaque outside the room simply stating "Library" ('cuz that was the name of the room).  Unfortunately, everyone who came thought this meant there was a library in there and were constantly trying to open our doors...there was also a crack you could see through on the bottom half of where the doors joined, so I wasn't comfortable changing or anything in the bedroom as someone could be trying to peer through the doors to see.  Other than this, the room was awesome;

Cool Setee and bookshelves..."library room" get it?

Really big bed...

Pretty armoir with the tv and deceptively comfy couch. 

The first night we arrived we were the only guests there and had our run of the place.  They had a huge bowl of those yummy mints that crush when you bite them in the parlor.  Needless to say we made a serious dent in the bowl before we left. ;)  That first night we went into all of the other rooms (all of which were on the second floor) and decided that even though some of them had two person jacuzzi's and ours was only a single, the size and decor still made ours the best.  We ate at Chili's that night where I ordered a "thick and frosty chocolate shake."  Never ever order this.  There is no ice cream and I sincerely doubt there is any milk in it either.  It looks more like those powder mixes you can blend with crushed ice to make a "shake."  Yuck.

 

They say the gate stays white because John Wayne touched it..

 The next day after breakfast we decided to try and tour the plantations in the area before I got too tired from walking.  This was a good idea, if we had tried it later in the week I may have died.  The first plantation we saw was Oakland.  It had been privately owned until very recently and the family still visited on occasion and even gave tours now and then.  It was pretty cool to see the outbuildings and such.  The main house was interesting and had been decorated in a 1950's style to portray how it had looked while the family had been there.  Very interesting...

Trundle bed in the kids room

The next plantation we saw was the Magnolia plantation.  It was cool because it had belonged to the black mistress of the son from the Oakland plantation (Therese Coin-Coin...or something).  They had ten children together and he built her this place to live.  Later it became better known as an artist colony in the early 1900's.  Many famous people stayed here including Earnest Hemingway and Steinbeck, though they were only there for a week or two.  Apparently the woman who ran the place, who was widowed very young, would let anyone with "talent" stay there for free, but she would ask everyday what they had accomplished and if they hadn't done anything in three days they were invited to leave.   It was more traditionally decorated, which was cool.  It was also home to Clementine Hunter,  a former slave painter who is known for her "primitive" art.

 

Magnolia Plantation

African House...ignore the 2x4's holding up the sides

Forge in Blacksmiths shop at Melrose

The last one we saw was the Melrose plantation.  This one only had the grounds open as the home was still a private residence.  There were some archaeology people from UT Houston there doing a dig and after I casually mentioned that I had studied anthropology and taken an archaeology field school class, they became our best friends and showed/told us all sorts of cool stuff involving Hoodoo deposits they had found in an old midwifes quarters as well as the blacksmiths forge.  It was cool.   It was also very hot...and humid, that part sucked.
 

Had to stop...

That night we came back to the b&b to find that four ladies had arrived.  They were all kindergarten teachers who met up every four years or so to travel together.  They were very nice and reminded me of my mom...but this meant we kept a little more to our room then we had the previous night.  After we showered (cuz it was so muggy you were dripping sweat all day...many were concerned that I was going to get dehydrated since I was so pregnant), I decided we should dress up for dinner...'cuz we had brought the clothes.  So we went to The Landing Restaurant on historic Front Street.  It wasn't really a "have to dress up" kind of place, but it was fun to be fancy anyway.  Shortly after we arrived a band started playing, which was cool.  We had fried alligator for an appetizer...it tasted kind of like chicken.  Of course it was breaded and fried and dipped in ranch, so I guess the natural flavor was probably covered up pretty well.  We got the waitress to take a pic of us...Patrick had a hard time understanding her accent, which I thought was funny since I hardly heard one.  That was an interesting side note.  We really didn't hear many thick or obvious accents at all.  I wondered if it was because of the naturalization brought about by television and such obscuring local accents...Patrick thought it was more likely that we had lived in the south so long that we didn't hear it anymore.  I think he was right as we were both speaking with an accent by the time we left...

Aaw, aren't we cute? ;)

After dinner we went back to the hotel and managed to watch an episode of Psych on the computer using their free wifi.  This was the only night this worked.  I think our laptop had a virus or something and didn't work too well after that for more then just checking email and such.  I don't know why the pics are so blurry...I blame our cheap crappy camera.  Sometimes it decides to focus, other times it can't be bothered.  Stay tuned for Part Two of our trip. ;)

PS: Sorry about the random pic placement, blogger is being stupid.

Bellies and Painting

So I thought I would give you some updated belly shots since I know you're all dying to know how big I am... ;)  

28 wks

32 wks

 Okay I don't know why our new camera won't ever focus correctly...stupid camera.  So it seems my "nesting" instinct tends to manifest itself by decorating when I'm pregnant.  You may all recall the various before and after photos of our house as I repainted nearly the entire interior last pregnancy.  Well after looking at our ugly kitchen for over two years inspiration finally struck and I picked a color to paint it...then I bought the paint and painted it all by myself.   I can't find any good before pics to show you which is annoying since it was really ugly...here's one that kind of shows the wallpaper...ignore my underwear showing:

Ugly wall paper....

Okay so now picture that ugly dingy wallpaper around the entire room...it was dark and dirty looking...anyway here's the after:

So, I think it looks much better.  I plan to get more of the blue plates to hang as well as something to go over the big space looking into the computer room, but it still looks better than it did...we also plan to change the backsplash and the counter and the floor and lighten the cabinets...  What do you think?