35 weeks

 Yep, This is definitely happening. I'm 35 1/2 weeks now and baby girl Hirschi is preparing for birth. Who knows if it'll happen next week, or in late July, all my babies have been born at different times. my average is 37 weeks. For someone who really likes to plan, I wish I could at least narrow it down to a week, rather than an entire month of "maybe". But that's not how birth works and I am patiently waiting for this baby girl to be ready.

 

And just for a healthy dose of reality, this is what I looked like at around 12 weeks. Dang I was thin. But I am thoroughly appreciating the chance I have to be a mom again, and to experience the incredible miracle of pregnancy and birth.

Why I prefer natural childbirth in 4 pictures.

Well, actually 5 pictures, these are in chronological order:

The first two are with Jeremiah. I had an epidural. I don't think there is much explanation needed for these ones. I look TOTALLY with it.

This is with Leah. Obviously post childbirth. but this was my first natural childbirth and I did it solo, I think all the nurses must have been super busy that day, and Greg didn't really know how to assist. All in all, I was feeling pretty good after that!

 

This picture was taken when I was probably dilated to a 7 with Colette. Sometime during the 20 minutes between when I got to the hospital and she was born. :)

 And this is with Annabelle, I think I was dilated to an 8 at this point.

 Enough Said. I'm definitely choosing to birth without any medication (except antibiotics if I'm GBS+ again) I'm super excited about baby #5!

Annabelle

Leah Miester, Miester Leah

One of Leah's many nick names: Leah Miester, Miester Leah. The kids always joke about Er BurgerMiester from the stop motion film Jack Frost. They used to walk around saying "Burger Miester, Miester Burger" ... Which became Leah Miester, Miester Leah.


Basically: Click CLick Click CLick. I love the evolution of her face. She first wanted me to take a photo of her... meditating? I'm not exactly sure. But she couldn't keep a strait face, and I'm a pretty big fan of her smile. 

April

 

This is what 7 pans of cinnamon rolls looks like all rolled out. Conference Morning Cinnamon rolls have become a tradition in our house, and I take them around to all the families that we home teach and visit teach. The night before conference is a busy one for me, but it is SOOOO yummy the next morning.

 

This is.... 24 weeks. I think. Baby girl is growing steadily and moving a lot. 

Updates

Here are a bunch of pictures we've taken lately. I know I'm terrible at updating the blog lately.

I'm making a blessing dress for baby #5. I found fabric and I'm super excited about it.

I'm rounding out through the middle. It's AWESOME!

This is totally happening. 23 weeks I think... I don't keep track anymore. I'm really looking forward to this baby's birth. I've already started practicing my hypnosis/deep relaxation and I love doing that every day. Hypnobirthing is basically retraining your mind to think positively about birth and learning how to deeply relax so that your body can do its work without tension getting in the way. I've never used an actual program before, but Colette's birth was probably the closest thing to it, I practiced relaxation and it was a great experience. With Anna I got lazy or busy, or whatever I want to excuse myself with, but I didn't practice, and my body was a little out of the habit and her birth was longer, and more strenuous. So this time around I'm using hypnobabies program and looking forward to a short and joyful birth again. Greg is busy, and not a believer yet, but he does deep relaxation with me about once a week, I think I'll convert him to relaxation and meditation and he'll be a great birth partner.

All the kids researching tips and tricks for pinewood derby cars. When its done we'll post pictures.

Our handmade valentines this year. We had so much fun finger painting and creating our one of a kind creations.

Hanging out with my little buddy.

Dad hanging out with his little buddy. She is everyones favorite.

Colette stole my phone and started taking pictures.... so many pictures.

she's adorable.

more stolen phone pictures. Anna is my best kitchen helper.

This reminded me of my little brother Aron, who wore camo every day of his childhood and was so creative. He also thought he was smarter than everyone else... this pretty much describes Jeremiah.

Sledding at our favorite hill. Anna and I hung out on the camp chairs and stayed warm while the kids went down over and over. It was all smiles until nearly everyone ended our sledding trip in tears due to cold feet, cold hands, hungry tummies, and the disappointment that we didn't have any hot cocoa mix in the pantry at the time. :) it all worked out in the end and we all ended up taking a nap that day.

Lory State Park

 The weather has been unseasonably warm lately and so we've taken advantage of the time and gone up to the mountains. A few highlights from this particular trip:

Jeremiah practiced his rock climbing

Leah tried to start a fire by collecting wood and rubbing two sticks together.

The kids attempted to construct a shelter... you know... just in case we got stranded up there and had to hunker down for the night.

Jeremiah learned that cacti hurt when you fall on them. :)

Leah collected sticks (some I would consider logs) and desperately wanted to bring them home. She dragged them the entire mile back to the car.

 

On My Mind

Leah is the funnest person to have "pillow talk" with (its when I lay and talk to each of the kids about whatever they want before they go to sleep)

Tonight our conversation was about camping, her normal topic. She always wants to talk about when we can go camping again and what we would do on the camp out, what we should bring, etc.

Tonight was a little different though. She said... "I still want to talk about going on a camp out, but this camp out wouldn't be a normal camp out. I think we should like build stuff out of wood that we collect, like build a house, and be like, like the first people ever on the earth!"

We continued talking about what it would be like, and what we would need to learn, and to do. Then she said "But what would we do if we needed like an oil change?"... not something relevant to her like "what if we needed to go to the library, or the park, or the museum, or even the grocery store... her biggest concern about this imaginary situation would be the potential need for an oil change.

Bahahaha!

I assured her that we would build our little house on the prairie house close enough to town that we could drive into down for an oil change if we needed it. :)

PS. In this plan of hers we wouldn't sleep on mattresses, or in sleeping bags, we would go out and forage for the leaves that we felt like were the softest and make our beds out of those. Use everything from nature instead of buying stuff, she said. ...Um... she had almost sold me on the whole house in the woods life... until she went there... I would need a mattress. For sure.

A bunch of pictures that don't make sense

I finally got around to uploading photos to my computer from my phone and my camera. I really don't have time to edit them so you're getting raw and sometimes blurry photos. :) But I want to catch everyone up on what's going on.

The Girls in the snow. Anna and Leah wanted to eat the snow. Anna used her gloves, Leah, in true Leah fashion, went straight for the snow on the ground. No need to waste precious snow-eating time by using our hands right? PS - this is sometimes how she eats her dinner to her mothers chagrin.

 

 Colette just liked posing for the camera. Such a sass.

 

 

Leah, eating snow with her face.

 

I know it's november already, but back in September Leah had a birthday, she helped decorate her cake. She is quite the culinary artist. 

And the kids all playing with the neighbors. They just moved here in July, but you'd think these kids have known each other for their entire lives. This days agenda: Rob bank (check) Attack the White House, Be Famous (check) Not be discovered. :) They are all too cute.

 And Halloween 2. 

What? Your family doesn't have Halloween 2?

Halloween 1 is the FIRST time my kids get to dress up and collect oodles of candy just for being cute. (Our church halloween party filled this roll) 

Then we have Halloween 2. 

This year it was actually on October 31st when the kids went trick or treating. And, yes, my kids wore all different costumes. I told them they can change their costume as many times as they want as long as we already have all the parts. 

Enter: The skeleton, Princess, Cat, and Ranger (the only encore appearance from Halloween 1)

 This was a few weeks ago playing in the giant pile of sand that had been delivered for a patio installation at the dance studio where the girls take classes. Go home for an hour and then come back? No way! we buried ourselves in the sand.

 Oh, and homeschool.... well, lots of reading, math games, playing with each other and watching documentaries on WWII (tip: always screen war documentaries before letting your kids watch them... always)