more pictures of Grant...

Baby Grant

Grant Daniel Osborne was born Monday October 26, 2009 at 1:27pm. He weighs 7lbs 5oz and is 19 1/2 inches long.

He is such a good baby, he sleeps all the time and rarely cries. It's funny how huge Joshua seems now. Joshua doesn't have a clue what the baby is and doesn't care to go near him. Ethan is excited to have a baby brother and is taking it really well. This birth experience was so different from the first two. If you don't like birth stories- stop reading now...

I decided to be induced on my due date because I was already a 3 the week before and ready to have this baby and Anthony's parents were in town and I not only wanted them to see the baby but wanted them to stay with the boys while we were in the hospital. I had decided months before if I had back labor for the third time this would be my last baby. I was not going to experience that again. A week before my due date I started panicking realizing that I was about to have this baby and dreading the back labor that I knew was impending. I decided this time I would be open to medical intervention and started doing research on epidurals. I had my previous two babies naturally- I feared the procedure of an epidural and felt the drugs weren't good for the baby, and my first midwife said the epidural might not help back labor.

Anyway, we got to the hospital and they started me on pitocin around 9am, I was already at a 4 and had back labor for a good hour before I decided I've already tried it that way twice, might as well try something different this time. So after hounding the poor nurse about how bad the needle really would be and promising it would not slow my labor down, I finally decided to try the epidural.

There were a few scary moments when my blood pressure dropped, but aside from that it was much better than I anticipated. It was the funniest feeling I've ever had and I couldn't stop laughing at my legs, they were like jello and it felt so weird to touch them, it was like when you go to the dentist and have a fat lip or tongue. I was still only half expecting it to help back labor, so I was pretty surprised when I went completely numb and couldn't feel a thing. I couldn't even feel any of my contractions and two hours later they said I was complete and ready to push. It was the most relaxing day I've had in years and I couldn't believe I gave birth, I spent the whole time sleeping.

He was born at 1:27, so 4 1/2 hours from start to finish, just like the last two, only this time I was 100% pain free (aside from the first hour of back labor). It was a bit dissapointing at the end because it was so anti-climatic. I didn't have the adrenaline rush and overwhelming emotions that come from natural childbirth and the satisfaction that you just birthed a baby. Because I have such fast labors the epidural didn't have any time to wear off so it was still in full effect when he was born and I couldn't believe I'd just had a baby. If it were my first birth, I'd have been really dissapointed, but I've already had that twice, it was nice to have a relaxing experience this time. Plus it may make the difference as to whether we have another baby in the future.

Anyway, we're glad to have the little guy here, he's so sweet and so far such a good baby. It was really fun for Ethan & Joshua to spend so much time with their grandparents, they got totally spoiled and really miss them now that they're gone. I'll be posting lots more pictures later!

Food storage analyzer

Last winter when we had the huge ice storm it was a wake up call for us to get our food storage and preparedness gear in order. We have most of our long term storage and 90-day supply but we always wonder if it's enough, especially since most food storage calculators are based on adults rather than children. We don't want to have overkill but we want to make sure we've got enough to meet our family's needs. I just found out about Emergency Essentials new analyzer that helps with that. You plug in what you already have and what you anticipate buying in the near future and it lets you know how long your food storage will last your family (based on age and gender) and what nutritional value your food will give you so you can see what gaps need to be filled in. Check it out http://foodstorageanalyzer.com now is the perfect time to re-evaluate your storage options before the winter storms hit.

Three years old

A little late, but Ethan had his 3rd birthday on the 14th. It's hard to believe he's so grown up already! Anthony had Columbus Day off so we celebrated his birthday a few days early. His main gift was a bike and he had lots of fun helping put it together. Then we spent the afternoon at the park riding around and playing. Joshua loves to ride too. Anthony's parents came in town for a visit and the boys have had so much fun getting spoiled by them. They'll be back again this weekend and we hope to have a new baby by then...

Happy Fall!

I love fall, it's my favorite time of year. I love crisp coolness in the air and the leaves as they change. I love making fall desserts like apple crisp, pumpkin bars and sugar cookies. I really miss New Hampshire this time of year for the beautiful colors and the apple orchards. We don't have any apple orchards but we do have a few pumpkin patches and we took the boys to pick their own pumpkins. They had so much fun running through the hay maze and playing on the pumpkin carts. Anthony found these mr potato head type eyes, nose & ears for halloween and the boys had fun decorating their pumpkins.

We spent the week in Columbus, OH and got to visit our good friends on the way home, the Toronto's, who just moved a few hours from us. It was so fun to catch up with them and their 3 boys. It's going to be a blast getting together with all 6 boys.

Our zoo has a Halloween party and since I'm not sure if I'll be out of comission on Halloween or not (baby's due on the 26th), we took the boys up to go trick-or-treating. As soon as they got into costume they started running around like wild things and were bouncing off the walls. I was surprised how much attention we got though, people kept stopping us all night long to say how cute they were and would yell and wave at thing 1 & 2 (of course I thought they were cute, but didn't think we'd cause such a commotion). They had so much fun and Joshua actually kept his hat on the entire time. Kind of fun to celebrate Halloween all month long.

My angel...

I've always called him my angel because he never cried as a baby, slept through the night the first week and was just so easy to take care of. He turned into a whiner after he got teeth, but now he's settling down and is a little angel again. This is absolutely my favorite stage. Although he's really clingy and follows me around all day long like a little puppy, Joshua is so sweet and cuddly. He's started carrying his blanket around the house and loves to just sit on my lap and cuddle. Ethan never liked to cuddle much, so I'm really enjoying this and constantly think about how I'll miss him when he grows up...