It's a . . . . . . .

*****GIRL*****

Illyria Karmen Mason

Born on Nov 14, 2012

7lb 2oz, 20"

The name Karmen is in honor of my big sister whom I have never met.  She was born still after her full term labor (cord prolapse).  She would have been 2 years older than me.

She is by far my smallest baby, a pound or more smaller than most of my others.  And a good inch shorter than my shortest, and maybe that is why her birth was one of the easiest.  I am working on the birth story and should have it posted here before too long.
ETA:  Birth story posted HERE

I am pretty excited to have another girl, and so are the kids.  My last (and previously only) girl was born 10 yrs ago!!  When my older daughter was born I wasn't so much into the pink and girly stuff, but I will admit that after 5 boys total , and 4 boys in a row I am happy to bring out the pink!!  WooHoo!!

Right now though we are just enjoying her.  And I am enjoying my babymoon and having a newborn again.  Despite this being the 7th time I have done this, I am telling you it is like the first!  I don't think it could ever get old.  Love it!!

One of the many benefits of charting your cycles

I know it has been a long time since I have blogged. Lets just say I have been preoccupied this pregnancy . . . with things like contractions, shingles, kids with chicken pox etc. Ya, great fun!! Basically the bottom line is . . . having been pregnant 7 times in 11 yrs, and nursing non-stop for over 12 yrs (tandem non stop for over 10) . . . my body is saying . . . “hello, pay attention to ME!!!” And with all these little ones, I so forget to do that!

It’s all good though, I’m feeling much better now ;0)

Me on my EDD with baby #7 (11-12-12)

 But to the topic at hand. Today is my estimated due date! (EDD) Or wait, maybe I am 12 days post dates?  (I'll get to that later).

 I have had 2 babies come before and 4 after my EDD . . . usually within a week either way. With all but my first I charted my cycles, including taking my temp each morning, so I knew exactly when I ovulated each time (with my first I was only charting fertile fluid, so I could only make a good guess at ovulation, which I suspected to be a bit late).

Besides knowing exactly when you ovulate . . . when to "try" to get pregnant or when to "avoid" if you don't want to get pregnant . . .  there are many other benefits to charting your cycles some of which can be found HERE.

One benefit is that if you are pregnant, you will know exactly when you ovulated, and thus can base your EDD on ovulation (which can help prevent intervention or invasive procedures). When a newly pregnant woman goes in to her midwife or OB one of the first questions asked is “what was the date of your last period?”  Your estimated due date is calculated based on the fact that most women ovulate on day 14 of their cycle (your cycle beginning on the first day of your period). They use this nifty little wheel and calculate when they believe you ovulated/conceived, and when you are due, based on the first day of your last period.

But guess what . . . women are all different (wow really?)  Each cycle is different. Even a woman who normally has very regular cycles can have a funky cycle where ovulation is delayed for one reason or another. So sometimes this ‘educated guess’ on EDD can be way off.

So what is the harm in that? Baby is going to come when they are ready right? Ya, of course they will!! And if we were all laid back and just trusted babies to come when they were ready, then knowing your EDD wouldn’t even really matter period. But in our society today, there are problems that can arise if your EDD is way off.

Early in your pregnancy it can cause unnecessary ultrasound to try to date your pregnancy more accurately (especially if you are unsure of when your period was or if your cycles are especially long or irregular). Some of us like to avoid ultrasound if possible. Or if you have a routine ultrasound in early pregnancy anyway (which some do) you could be told that the baby is not growing right, or that you have a blight ovum or whatever (when in reality you are simply not as far along as previously thought).  And that has caused not only undue stress and sorrow, but even unfortunately, unnecessary D&C of a perfectly viable pregnancy.

Of course many places don’t do early ultrasound and many moms choose not to have one. So for those moms, later in pregnancy it could mean that you are exposed to unnecessary worry or intervention. If you are thought to be past your due date, you may have more monitoring or be induced for ‘post dates’, or if you have a baby born early it could be more premature than expected.

From my own personal experience, for most of my pregnancies, I ovulated between days 12-17. Considering they usually base ovulation on day 14, my due date calculated by the "pregnancy wheel" was only a few days off from my real, accurate due date. However with my 2nd pregnancy, I didn’t ovulate till day 22, which means that my real due date was a full WEEK after what would have been estimated for me. I don’t do early ultrasound, and was planning a homebirth anyway. That baby (my girl) was born at around 41 wks. Had we not had an accurate EDD, we would have thought I was a full week further along than I really was, which would have made the waiting hard for me! And were I giving birth in the hospital, it may have meant that I was induced for going too far past my EDD (it all depends on your Dr, but many don't like to see mom go more than a few days post dates before they start talking induction).

Fast forward to this pregnancy, #7. For this baby I didn’t ovulate till day 26 of my cycle!! Ya, no kidding, it was that late!! It happens and it actually isn't super uncommon. Can you imagine? So if I didn’t chart my cycles, take my temp etc. and know the exact day of conception, then instead of coming on here and writing “hey, todays my EDD” I would likely be bemoaning “woe is me, I am 12 days post dates, when is this baby going to come?”

Lets just say I am pretty happy that God designed our bodies in a way that we have these obvious clues to how things work, so that we know what is going on.  And thankfully He gave us the knowledge to figure it out and use it to our advantage!!

UPDATE - Baby #7 was born 2 days after my EDD based on ovulation.  So a full 2 weeks after the pregnancy wheel would have said was my EDD.  So, again, had I not known when I ovulated I would have thought I had a pretty small (7.2, by far my smallest baby) baby for being born 2 wks after my EDD.  For what it's worth, when my midwife friend checked her out she said that she didn't look early or late, all signs showed she was right on time . . . . EXACTLY!!! 

There is a ton of info online about charting your cycles. But for starters, check out www.tcoyf.com (the book Taking Charge of Your Fertility is an amazing resource and I recommend every woman read it . . . it is actually good for men too).

Keepin It Real ... Pile O' Trash

There are 8 of us (soon to be 9) in a 1750 sq ft house.  Mess, I feel like I live in constant mess (despite the fact that the older kids help clean A LOT).  I know y'all can relate.  And I go through periods ... like 6mo of being stressed like I can't keep up with everything (which is me right now, being pregnant doesn't help) and then 6mo later it is all good . . . I still feel like I am constantly cleaning but things don't feel out of my control.  It usually corresponds with the developmental stages of the little kids.  Once the baby turns into a toddler and can climb on the counter and decides it is fun to empty drawers, dump food on the floor, pull everything off the shelves, carrying shoes and clothes all over the house . . . that is when it gets crazy, HA!!  Of course once they grow out of it I usually have another little one coming into it!  

Yes, I could make things easier on myself if I dressed everyone in the same clothes, got rid of the pets, kept the toys locked away only pulling out one at a time, outlawed sand, legos, markers, glue, scissors, playdough, rice and spaghetti (those last 2 make SUCH a huge mess at dinner) oh and I made all kids drink out of sippy cups because it is not unusual to have 4 cups of water spill during a meal.

BUT . . . I refuse to limit creative freedom and fun (and family size ;0) in order to keep my all of sanity! (I'd like to keep some of it, but I'll gladly sacrifice some as well).  Well, some things I will compromise on if I really feel it is getting out of control, but I would rather they have more freedom to have a wide range of experiences (like hatching baby chicks out of eggs, owning pets, painting and playing with play dough and building giant cities which mix about 10 different baskets of toys, oh and did I mention playing with sand (I say because Dagyn just came up to me with hands, head and . . .well, his whole body covered with sand).  It may add more stress and work for me but as long as I don't let that impact how I react to or treat them (and I can occasionally let off steam) it is worth it and at the end of the day, it's all good!!

So, with all that said, I am sharing with y'all the trash pile I swept up the other day (believe it or not, this is not unusual).  This is what is left on the floor after I have had the kids pick up the bigger toys.  Notice the legos, bowls, papers, food, random other items etc.

I can either call it . . . "what accumulates on the floor when you have 6 kids at home all day" . . . or . . . "what accumulates on the floor by the end of the day if I don’t stay on top of the sweeping" (because in all honesty, the floors should be swept multiple times a day to prevent the mess from getting this bad).

Either way, I’m just keepin it real!!

And now, since we are heading to the store soon, I have to go hunt for some missing shoes that Dagyn decided to carry off to who knows where

Keepin It Real

Perception is 9/10ths of reality

I am sure you have heard that statement before, and it is particularly true when it comes to the internet and people on the internet.

Why?  Because perception is often not necessarily truth.  I read peoples blogs, or I look at their facebook pictures and I get this idea in my head of what they must be like or what their life or family is like, but I have to remind myself that it isn’t always accurate (actually when I start feeling inferior I remind myself that a few pictures don't show the whole picture).  

 I try very hard to represent myself in an accurate way, in fact I tend to write too much in an effort to fully explain myself, to leave nothing out, to be as honest as I can and so that I am not misunderstood. I share my thoughts, feelings, opinions etc. because I like to help to educate, empower, enlighten, support and maybe sometimes because I have things on my chest that we want to vent about or things I just  feel compelled to share.  Many times the things about which I ‘wax eloquent’ are for myself as much as for anyone else reading (especially when it comes to parenting).  I often don’t share or talk about negative, because usually, that doesn’t accomplish the goal.  I mean why would I want to write a whole post venting about how my bathroom hasn’t been cleaned in a month! (and geez, who wants to read it?)  Or why would I feel compelled to write about how, the last 6mo, we've been buying the store brand mac-n-cheese instead of the Annies we used to buy.  Is that something I really want to share with the world or think that the world wants to know?  

But despite the fact that these ‘imperfections’ about our life (or my perceived imperfections, or areas that I may ideally like to improve on) may not make for great reading, they are in fact, part of life!!

I may write a blog post where I share some really cool craft we made, and info on how we made it.  What I don’t share is how many times I had clean glue off the baby, how many times I lost my patience with the toddler or that the mess made by the craft, stayed on the kitchen table for 3 days!!  The point isn’t to share the negative (oh woe is me what a mess) the point is to share some cool things we do!!  

I cannot tell you how many cool pictures I’d love to share on the blog or on facebook but I don’t because either there is a huge mess in the background, food on the wall, or a naked kid!!  In fact when trying to get video of Dagyn walking, I had to specifically put pants on him (because he is often naked) and clean the room so that the video would be one I could share, LOL!!  Sad I know, but I’m sure many of y'all can relate.   I mean who wants to share pictures and video where the house looks like it was hit by a hurricane?

And lets not even mention the times we lose our cool with the kids, or we realize that they have been watching TV for hours, or playing video games since they woke up, or are wearing the same clothes for 3 days in a row, or . . .  low and behold . . .  are drinking SODA!!

As I said, this is life!! (the good, bad and embarrassing)  And if I am so concerned with giving an accurate representation of myself and family then I would share some of this stuff too.  And because, I know that sometimes reading about others ‘failures’, imperfections or areas in which they would like to improve, just reaffirms that they are human and . . . “hey, maybe we are not so different after all”.

I mean, none of us is perfect, as much as we wish we were.  When it comes to “natural living” I have certain things I am absolutely steadfast on, where I don’t like to budge at all!!  But there are some things where I will compromise, and others where I fall off the wagon completely, and that is OK.  I say I am on a journey and I will NEVER EVER find an end to that.  We do the best we can with where we are in life, if we can do better we will, if not . . . well, it's not the end of the world (which is something I keep having to reminding myself ;0).

So in an effort to 'Keep it Real', from time to time (when I feel lead) I am going to share some things that I wouldn’t normally think or be inclined to share (be it a messy house, or the TV in the bedroom or the fact I eat ice cream every evening) so that anyone who may have a perception of perfection here, or who may think I am the 'queen of all things natural' can see that we are just like everyone else, a normal family doing the best we can!

I’ll start with somethings about me that I have mentioned before (and is no biggy to those who know me).  Not that these are bad things, but sometimes people get a perception of "natural" gals like me, looking a certain way (stereotypical, peace, love, hippy) . . . . . so for those who haven’t met me or seen many pictures . . . 

Yes, I DO  wear make up (and I won’t be caught dead in public without it, though I am finally starting to experiment with making my own) I say my vanity is a benefit to those who have to look at me! ;0)

Yes, I DO shave my legs (even my thighs . . . even in the winter!!) and of course I shave my pits too!

No, I don’t wear flowy skirts all the time (though I love them and do wear them to church). I like my Jeans the best!  Though in my defense, I do stick with mostly cotton clothes.  And I only own 1 pair of Birkenstocks but I like never wear them (so that stereotype is out the window with me).

And when you see a picture of me and I have one of those bandanas or a scarf on my head (which is OFTEN).  It is NOT because I am trying to look cool or something (though I do like how it looks) it is “usually” because I haven’t washed my hair in several weeks and it looks like crap!!

Just Keepin it Real

A not so great picture of me . . . with dirty hair!! (but lets just focus on the sweet baby I am wearing ;0)