For those of you not among my Facebook friends...

You may have been wondering if I had a baby about a month ago. I did! I'm going to plagiarize myself and copy-paste the birth story I put on Facebook, and then add a smattering of pictures to catch y'all up! Sound good? Good. Okay.

Elise Rachel Norton (AKA: "Baby Ellie") was born June 7, at 7:20 PM; 7 lbs 6 oz, 20 inches... but not without a leeeettle bit of drama. I was on the schedule for an induction for that day, but we were actually able to go in the night before at about 10pm because there was space available. We took the chance when we could, because the hospital where I was to deliver is in the process of closing down all their inpatient beds, to be moved to the Army hospital. Long story... not relevant except to say that we took the space when we could!

In the process of getting things going, it was discovered that the little girl was breach! This was surprising, because the NP I'd been seeing kept telling me at all my exams, "Oh, yes... she's head down..." But it wasn't shocking to me, because frankly, I didn't feel the same with this pregnancy as I did with Megan and Robby, and I could have sworn that weird bump in my ribs was a head. That's cuz it was. An ultrasound at about 34 weeks showed her breach, and it is my belief that she had been there that way ever since!

Long story short, we had several options, and I opted for attempting to perform a version (the docs manually manipulate the baby through my belly to spin her head down). If that was unsuccessful, I would have a c-section. Versions are successful about 50 percent of the time, and though circumstances were favorable that it would work for us, the odds were still about 50/50. So we waited until the morning when the hospital was fully staffed with personnel, including a maternal fetal medicine specialist who sorta specializes in breach deliveries and versions. They took me back to the OR, administered a spinal/epidural combo thingy, and tried to turn Elise... the spinal hadn't even fully taken effect before she just PLOP! Flipped around after literally less than 15 seconds of effort on the doctor's part. It was a big relief to everybody present, me especially! Everyone was laughing about how easy it was.

After that, it took a while (i.e. AAAAAALL DAY!) for things to get going because her head wasn't really engaged in my pelvis, and we needed to make sure that the cord wouldn't be wrapped up around her wrong or blocking her passage out, etc. Once it was clear she was head down well engaged in my pelvis, they broke my water and a little less than two hours later she was ready to come out!I don't remember how long I pushed; it was longer than with Robby and shorter than with Megan, then there she was! She came out healthy and perfect as can be (with the added bonus of a very nicely shaped head from having been breach!) She surprised the doctors and nurses with her chubby little body, because they were all betting she'd be about 6 lbs... but I wasn't surprised! She was just as big as I thought she would be, and we are so glad she's here!

How much longer...

Will I look like this?

My friend told me she thought of me as she prepared a lesson on the second coming of Christ, and it being as a woman in travail... so true! There are signs of the times, but no man knoweth the hour of her coming! Shouldn't be too much longer, and it may even be tomorrow if the hospital has room for me to come in and have my water broken!

More Robby...

"I heard a *THUNK*, and it was me, pooping in my pants." (For the record: there was no pooping of the pants that preceded, or followed, this statement)

"Is Tramp going to kill Ladies' owners now?"

"Uncle Christian, do you REALLY have a trunk?"

"We don't have a Rooster so Abby Lu woke me up with her meow-doodle-doos."

Megan: "Mom, will you help me ___?"
Robby: "If you want to follow your dreams, you have to do it yourself."

CD player playing 'Book of Mormon Stories' song: "Giv'n this land, if they lived--"
Robby: "Na-ked-LY!"

"Don't give me cold lemonade, because I'M NOT A PENGUIN!"

The girl still says funny things, too.

"You have to help because you're the only person in this house right now who knows more than me!!"

Freedom!

Freedom for me, and those chubs! I bought the kids these swimmy deals that are like lifejackets/arm floaties that allow them to swim around with a lot more buoyancy and less physical restriction. Since it is even warmer than usual this week (94 this afternoon!) we hit the pool, only the pool is still ice cold this time of year, since the evenings still cool down. (In the summer we don't have that problem, since it NEVER cools down!) Mommy doesn't want to get in and swim when there is a solid breeze and freezing water temperatures, and the kids always tell me that, "we aren't babies!" when I try to get them to just play in the baby pool.

So, enter in these floatie bad boys, and you have the perfect answer! They swam around in that ice water for probably about 90 minutes, and they roam aaaaall over the big pool with no problems... I couldn't believe how they didn't tire of it! Finally megan wanted to leave, but I had to bribe Robby to get him out.

If you were wondering, yes, Robby does currently have an un-styled mohawk. I left it half-buzzed to be a funny surprise for Daddy when he got home from work last week... and we just haven't trimmed the rest since!

Crocs in the foreground, Chubs waaaay in the background.

They stopped swimming only for strawberry & brownie breaks.

Look ma! No grass!

Mike spent his afternoon tilling up the backyard, which has to be comprised almost entirely of dried clay, I swear! We're re-seeding and hoping for the best! It has to be better than what we had before, which was a yard suffering from male pattern baldness and extremely hard ground!

We spent the majority of the day working outside, leaving the kids to their own devices, and they were superstars! There was very little fighting, and the house was actually not messy at all! Robby did leave this evidence that he was feeding himself when hungry, however:

Robby Compendium

Here are some Robby quotes I have been compiling over the last few months... it's probably well enough stocked now for me to post!

My VT to Robby: "That is an iceberg." Robby: "Ooh! My Steeler's shirt says 'iceberg' on it!!" Me: "Not iceberg, Robby. PITTSburgh."

"Can you find my dump-truck? I had it last year and I brought it with us to stupid ranch." A mis-pronunciation of our subdivison... steubing ranch.

Robby: (very rudely) I WANT ICE CREAM!!
me: No way, you are being sassy and you need to eat breakfast.
Robby: (still very rudely) I'M GOING TO STOP BEING SASSY NOW!!
**pause**
(now very sweetly) Okay, I'm not sassy anymore! NOW can I have ice cream?

A Robby knock-knock joke:
"Knock-knock" (who's there?) "Orange Banana." (Orange banana who?) "I'm glad I didn't say banana banana! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"

"When I was a human, I ate sushi!"

"There is a man growing inside my tummy."

Tucking Robby in, I asked him what he hoped to see at the zoo tomorrow. His answer? "Garbage cans. Dey will have lots of garbage cans dere."

Robby offered Megan one of the sour patch kids he had found (a green one) and said, "Here! It's lettuce flavor!"

This one requires a little background info. Robby has had a morbid fascination with thunderstorms ever since a very loud one happened directly overhead several months ago. Now he mentions them in every prayer, mealtime or otherwise. He is afraid of them, but loves to see pictures of lightning on the computer, and anything else containing a lightning bolt. The local members of our church put on a production of the play "The Savior of the World," which depicts events from the life and resurrection of Jesus Christ. During the scene showing the storms and things that struck immediately following the death of Christ, there was a lightning storm effect done with stage lights.

Robby couldn't stop talking about it, and kept asking when there would be more thunderstorms. I kept trying to shush him, but he persisted, so finally I said, "The thunderstorm happened because Jesus died." Robby considered this for a moment then asked, sounding a little too hopeful, "Can Jesus die again?" My answer was, "No. That's the whole point!"

Megan: "I got my water noodle from the dollar store!"

Robby: "I got my water noodle in New York City!"