Birth story plus some happenings at home

She's here! Yay! Katherine Cobb Schneider made her grand debut at 9:18 Tuesday morning. She weighed 7 pounds, 9 ounces, and was 20 inches long.

It was a short but eventful labor. I checked in to the hospital at 3 a.m. By 4, they had started the pitocin and I started to have some very small contractions. Every half an hour or so, the nurse came in and increased the dosage. But at some point, the contractions actually started getting further apart. So when the doctor on for the day came in, she decided to break my water to see if that would help any. They did that around 8:15. Well that just kicked everything into gear. I was trying not to have an epidural (because I'm stupid and with Cooper it didn't work on one side and with Semmes it made me really sick from the blood pressure drops). But after about 45 minutes, I was already nauseous and just done. So I asked the nurse for an epidural. I had progressed from 4 cm to 6-7 cm, so I was able to have one. The anesthesia guy was there in no time and 4-5 contractions later, it was in. But as soon as he laid me down I felt an urge to push. So the nurse checked me again, and the baby was already in the birth canal. Lovely. The doctor came running, and after one push, the baby was born at 9:18 a.m. So the epidural was useless (it kicked in in time for me to not feel the one stitch I needed). Natural childbirth is no joke.

We were home the next day in time for Brad to pick up Cooper from kindergarten. Semmes decided that Tuesday afternoon would be a great time to get a fever plus a cold and throw up at school. So Wednesday he was home sick with my parents (thank goodness they were there!). He was waiting on the front porch when we got home. He gave us both big hugs, told us he "never" wanted to meet Katherine Cobb, took one look at my stomach, and asked if I was growing ANOTHER baby. Geez, thanks kid. 

Cooper got home with Brad and just laughed and laughed when he saw me. So that was great. He makes my heart happy. Then we showed him the baby. He promptly pushed her away. And every time she gets near him, he pushes and hits her. I'm sure he's thinking, "You already got me one of those and he's a terror. Whey would you get another one?"

Semmes went back to school on Thursday plus had karate. So he was TIRED last night. He wanted both Brad and I to go upstairs with him to put him to bed. We got into his tiny, twin-sized bed on either side of him, read him a Ranger Rick magazine, then just hugged on him. Just us and him. He told us that Katherine Cobb "hurts his feelings." I really hope that he warms up to her soon. It's just so sad. 

Anyway, things are going pretty good, other than all of that. She's super sweet, is eating well, sleeps all the time still, and is just the cutest. So enjoy the rest of these pictures!! (And yes, I'm wearing pajamas with owls on them; don't judge.)

The In-between

The baby girl, if I don't go into labor before then, will be born Tuesday (I have to be there at 3 AM; 3 AM!). I'm currently at that stage where I am so ready to not be pregnant. So, so ready. But she's currently extremely low maintenance. I'm a little terrified to have three kids. Three kids is a lot, especially when one has special needs, one is a "threenager," and one is a newborn that eats constantly and sleeps at weird times. I get that I can't have it both ways: I can't not be pregnant and not have a newborn. And really, only the first few months will be super hard. At least, that's what I keep telling myself...

In odd pregnancy news, my stomach has been measuring a few weeks behind ever since I started getting measured when I moved to Memphis. Plus, I haven't gained any weight in the last three weeks. So, Thursday I got an ultrasound to see if she was undersized or I didn't have enough fluid. If so, I might've had her that day. I was 38 weeks, 3 days and she was measuring exactly 38 weeks, 3 days. My stomach is closer to 35 week size. So basically, I have a normal-sized baby crammed into a small space. Based on the terrible heartburn I've been having, I get this.

Anyway, I guess the next time that I post, I will have three kids and we will be a family of five! If you're awake really early Tuesday morning, please keep me in your thoughts and prayers!

6!

Ok people, I'm writing a blog post. And you know what has gotten me out of my blog dry spell? Cooper is turning 6 tomorrow. 6! And he's in kindergarten. Kindergarten! I can't even process this.

School is going great. His teacher is AMAZING. The two aides in his class are AMAZING.  He is happy to be there in the morning and happy when we pick him up. It's great. Tomorrow, on his birthday of course, is his first day in the pool. I hope he has a good time! He'll start going every Thursday. And he does PE on Tuesdays (how cute is that?). Anyway, enjoy some Cooper pictures!

I blogged (and wrote about Coke)

So my New Year's resolution was going to be to start writing on the blog again. But then I found this:



And this amazing challenge became my New Year's resolution. But then two things happened: one Lent. Being pregnant I have already given up plenty of things, so I thought I'd take up more blogging. Two: I was asked to be a social ambassador to the Clinton Center. Yes, I was as surprised by this as you all are. The woman that asked me said that the social ambassadors were chosen because we had influence amongst our peers; it was all I could do to keep a straight face at that one.

Anyway, a couple of weeks ago I went to a really cool event at the Clinton Center. It was a Coca Cola Collectors' Convention. Basically, it was Antique's Roadshow for Coke memorabilia. Let me be the first to say that I was skeptical. How much Coca Cola memorabilia is out there? Would anything actually be worth anything? The answers to those questions are: yes, tons and yes, a lot.

First, we got a chance to look in at the Coca Cola exhibit that is currently in its last days. (Next up is an exhibit on the history of the Olympics that is going to be super cool.) Did you know of the 6 original Andy Warhol illustrations, Coca Cola only owns 3? One of them was bought by Coke in the 1970's after some guy realized it had been hanging above the mantle in his parent's house for years. Anyway, here are two of them:





Next: on to the main event! The very first item that was shown was this old, red "airline cooler." The lady that brought it in had had it in her garage forever. It was in great condition. And was estimated to be worth $300-500 at auction. Man, home run!


 

Next was a man that had a bunch of old bottles (apparently I didn't take a picture). Coke bottles got their now-classic curvy appearance in 1915. Bottles before that were just regular "straight-sided" bottles. Those bottles, the pre-1915 ones, can be worth $200-300 each. For a glass bottle. Crazy stuff.

The same guy pulled this bowl out last. It was a silver "pretzel bowl" (I'll let you figure out why). Anyway, this innocuous looking little bowl that stands on three silver coke bottles is worth, I'm so not kidding, $600-850 at auction. What!?
 

Last two items worth mentioning: this guy had something that not even the Coca Cola archives had in it. He had a painted wall bulletin and and advertising booklet. Painted walls were all the rage for advertising back in the day. The bulletin was given out so that all the walls were standardized, no matter who painted them. It had specifications for how big all the words were, what the text should look like, the specific colors to use, etc. The advertising booklet was pretty similar but for print ads. Coca Cola has some in their archives, but not the ones he owns. The Coke people couldn't even give him an estimate (but they did give him their cards so they might just end up in their archives).
 

Last, was a grocery/gas sign in pristine condition. These used to sit at the end of grocery store aisles or on top of gas pumps and served as advertisements. This one still spun and everything. It was estimated to get $600-1,000 at auction. Can you imagine having something like that laying around your garage?



There were many other things, but these I thought were the most interesting/unique. The Clinton Center has some surprisingly cool things going on. It's easy to forget that it's over there, being a the edge and almost separate from downtown, but kids under 5 are free and it's a great rainy/cold day destination. The Olympic exhibit will be there all summer, and I'm super pumped to check it out. The summer Olympics are seriously my favorite thing ever.

Coke archive on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CokeArchives/?fref=ts

Coke archive on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/explore/locations/5367132/

Clinton Center on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/clintoncenter/

Listen to Your Mother (the video)

A couple of months ago, I was honored to participate in Little Rock's Listen to Your Mother show. It was an amazing show, an amazing experience, and featured a lot of really amazing people. Well, the videos are now up! Here is the link to the YouTube channel featuring the whole cast: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL5oPQWgVdsDk2FBvDL5xLJPW0nIy6I9PD

If you have some time, you should definitely check all of them out!

Here is a link just to my story:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rZ9xx3i57gE&list=PL5oPQWgVdsDk2FBvDL5xLJPW0nIy6I9PD&index=10

If you notice, I only look in one direction. All of my family and friends were sitting on one side of the auditorium. I knew if I looked in that direction, I'd lose it even more than I did. So i just kept looking away from them.

Also, here are some pictures from the evening. Thanks Jabob Slaton (http://www.jacobslaton.com) for the amazing photography!

I am terrible at pictures like this.

Power posing. Obviously. 

The cast! 

Actually giving the talk.

The big finish! 

These are my people. So happy they were there to support me! I couldn't do life without them.

Kid's Menus Make Me Want to Punch Someone in the Throat

Have you looked at a kid's menu lately? You know what's on 90% of those menus? Fried food, rice, and macaroni and cheese. My kid LIKES vegetables. So do most kids, until they get exposure to kid's menus. It's 2015. Parents want to feed their kids vegetables, fruit, grilled food, etc. I want Semmes to continue to explore food, to continue to try new things, to continue to be interested in healthy food.

This is the kid's menu from P.F. Chang's. Yes, there is a vegetable option, but look at the Kid's Chicken Fried Rice. They actually seem proud of themselves for taking the vegetables OUT of the fried rice! Honestly...

I have a friend who has two elementary-aged children. They eat mostly fried food, french fries, etc. And she thinks a large reason for this is that whenever they went out to eat, that was what was available to them. Kids are people too. They want variety. They want to be challenged. They want to eat real food! Let them!!

Acts of Kindness

Honestly, I've been pretty lucky as a special needs mom: no real confrontations with assholes, not too much "advice," etc. Some of this I chalk up to dumb luck, but I think a lot of it is who I choose to surround myself with. My friends, the people I have chosen to grow close to me and our children, are awesome. A couple of things that have happened in the last couple of weeks have made me realize just how lucky I am.

We went to a friend's daughter's first birthday party last weekend. It was a great party and both boys had a great time. My friend's dad, who had never met me or either of my children, made a point of going over to Cooper, sitting next to him, and then had a little conversation with him. It was amazing to watch. And I realized just why Rachael and I are such good friends: she comes from good people.

Last Sunday, Brad was working nights. So I took both boys to church by myself. Semmes loves communion; he wants to "eat the bread." So I always go get him from the nursery before communion. It's hard to keep Semmes quiet and occupied in church and sit with Cooper. My friend Sydney and her mom have just made themselves the bonus moms of my children on Sundays when Brad is on nights. They go to the nursery with me, they hold Cooper, they let Semmes play with their son/grandson's toys and read his books, they walk Cooper to communion while I walk with Semmes, and after church they help me get everything to my car. They are everything church is supposed to be: warm, welcoming, supportive, helpful...I'm so thankful for them every week.

So, my friends, thank you for being you. And being awesome. And for never making me feel different or that there is anything wrong. You people rock, and I'm so thankful for you!