Visitors

We had lots of company this weekend, starting with Barry's sister Lisa and her family. They cooked us a great meal on Friday night, and the kids had a blast with each other.
My whole family came up on Saturday to have our Los family Christmas. The kids had fun sledding, swimming and opening presents. It was nice to see everyone again!
A few pictures I "stole" from Auntie Lisa:

Ollie's Birth Story

If you haven't heard by now, Ollie Max was born on Wednesday morning, Dec. 24 at 1:20 a.m. He was 9 lb. 7 oz. and 20.5" long.
I had an appointment at the clinic in Duluth on Tuesday at 3:15 p.m., and I had a feeling the doctor might want to send me to the birthing center, so I brought our hospital bags and Barry with me. My mom was with the kids (thanks mom, and Abby, for all your help!).
While I was in the exam room waiting for Dr. Stank, I heard a pager go off and someone ask, "What should we do with your patients Melissa (or Dr. Stank)?" Apparently she had been called to the OR for a c-section. When she saw my chart and that I was overdue, she quick stopped in to check me and found I was 3-4 cm dilated. She said if I was okay with it, she'd send me upstairs to break my water and get things going.
We checked into the birthing center around 4:30 p.m. and at about 5:30 she came in and broke my water. Since I was admitted I was only allowed clear fluids, so Barry got to eat my hospital tray of food while I ate Jello and drank apple juice. At this point, I was having some contractions, but nothing too strong or close together. I was still talking with Barry, and slowly dilating to 5. Then they decided to start me on a low dose of pitocin.
Around 10 p.m. the nurse started the IV, and shortly after the contractions were very strong and 2-3 minutes apart. Finally after 3 hours of this (around 1 a.m.) I was ready to push. Ollie Max was born after 20 minutes of pushing. Another drug-free VBAC! It was a little longer and harder than I was expecting, especially after Remy's birth was so easy, but it still went well.
Barry went home to sleep, and after the nurse brought me some peanut butter toast and cranberry juice at 3 a.m. (I hadn't eaten since lunch) I rested while Ollie was in the nursery.
Since it was Christmas Eve day, I wanted to go home so I would be home for Christmas, and the doctors agreed to let me go. We got home around 6:30 p.m. and had frozen pizza for supper.
Barry's parents came over around noon on Christmas Day and brought ham and chips for lunch. Not exactly your traditional big Christmas meal, but good enough for me!
Ollie has some nice dark hair--more than any of the other kids had--and chubby cheeks. He's starting to get the hang of nursing, and sleeps a lot. We're very blessed to have him!

Busy Day

We had a busy day away from home today, starting with a doctor's appointment at 9:30 a.m. in Duluth. Everything's looking right on track with the baby; it's about 7 pounds and is head down. I'm even 2-3 cm. dilated, so things are moving in the right direction! While I was at the clinic, Barry took Remy and Raina to a McDonald's play area and the Marine Museum in Canal Park.
When I was done at the clinic, we took a tour of the birthing center. Now we know where to go and what to expect when the time comes.
For lunch we went to Little Angie's Cantina in Canal Park for Mexican food. I'd been hungry for decent Mexican for awhile, and I got to have enchiladas, rice and black beans--very good!
Then Barry had to go to Menards (fun, fun!).
Finally, we made it up to "the hill" where I went to KMart with Remy and Barry went to Best Buy with Raina. We went to Target together, then Barry stopped at Office Max for a couple of things. On the way out of town, we replenished ourselves with McDonalds shakes and french fries.
It's a challenge shopping with kids because 1) it's nearly impossible to keep presents a secret, 2) Remy continually kept taking his shoes and socks off, and he likes to throw things out of the cart, 3) Raina likes to dawdle and look at everything she walks past. We got a good start on our Christmas shopping, but I think the rest will be done online. Target has free shipping until December 6!
So, a busy but productive day.

Pamida Freebies

Last week, Pamida had double coupons up to and including $1.00. I decided to check it out to see what I could get for cheap or free. Here's what I found:
Two 6 packs of Nestle hot cocoa for $1.19 each, $1 coupon doubled to $2.00, $0.19 per box
Suave deoderant for $1.29, $0.75 coupon doubled, "got back" $0.21
Suave shampoo and conditioner (family size) for 2/$3, $1.00 coupon doubled, $0.50 per bottle
Pop Tarts 8 pack for $2.19, $1.00 coupon doubled, $0.19 for the box
No Nonsense black nylons for $1.69, $1.00 coupon doubled, got back $0.31
Life Savers Gummies for $2.09 and $1.79, $1.00 coupon doubled, got back $0.12 for the two bags.
Net total was under $1.00 for all of the above.

Then I went next door to Super One for a few groceries and got:
One pound butter free for buying 5 Pillsbury biscuit/roll products (which were $1.28 each after coupons)
Marshmallows free for buying 2 boxes of Swiss Miss hot cocoa
Cool Whip for $0.55 (on sale for $0.88, plus coupon for $1 off 2 Jell-O pudding and 1 Cool Whip)
Jell-O pudding for $0.59 each (on sale for 4/$2.50, plus above coupon)
Green Giant Steamers free (on sale for $1.00 each, had 2 $1.00 off coupons).

Halloween 2008

Here are the kids dressed in their Halloween clothes:


and in their costumes (Jackson as a MN Wild player, Raina the Vikings cheerleader, Remy the duck or chicken--you decide).


We had mummy dogs and witch fingers with gloppy dip, plus spider cupcakes to eat before we went trick or treating at the AmericInn. Local businesses set up stations in the motel rooms, and the kids just go from room to room collecting candy. It's a nice way to do things, so we don't have to drive around and have the kids outside walking door to door. It seemed like the whole town turned out for the event!


The Halloween candy is dwindling. I'm sure we've all eaten too much this week, but soon all the best stuff will be gone and it will be forgotten.

Baby Update

I had another prenatal check and ultrasound this week. Everything continues to look good. The baby's about 4 lb. 10 oz. and still has a hand up by the face. The ultrasound tech is very good about asking if I know if it's a boy or girl, and since I don't, she tells me when to look away so I don't accidentally see something that would give it away.
I'll go to the clinic in Two Harbors in two weeks, then back to Duluth 2 weeks after that. When I made the Duluth appointment, the date will be December 2nd--just a little over two weeks until the due date! That's coming very quickly.
In case you need some interpretation: you're seeing the side of the baby's face, one eye clearly, and the nose, with the arm/hand in front of the face.

Kiblin

The other night before bed Remy and Raina were playing with the play food and kitchen. I noticed Remy unzip his jammies and put a piece of the play food down the leg of the PJs. I didn't think much of it until I picked him up and felt lumpy legs. I unzipped the pajamas and proceeded to pull out no less than 20 pieces of play food, a crayon, and a fast food bobble head toy. I can't imagine he would have slept well with all that stuff in there.
And Kiblin? That's Raina's second name for Remy.