Cilantro-Lime Vinaigrette

Thanks to the editor's of Cook's Illustrated for this yummy taco salad dressing, which almost caused Dan and me to die of yumminess when we tasted it this weekend:

5 T fresh lime juice
1 shallot, peeled (I omitted this)
1 jalepeno chile, stemmed and seeded (I also omitted this)
1 small garlic clove, peeled
1 t sugar
1/2 t ground cumin
salt
1/2 c fresh cilantro
3/4 c extra-virgin olive oil

Process lime juice, shallot, jalapeno, garlic, sugar, cumin, and 1/2 t salt in blender until shallot and garlic are finely chopped, about 15 seconds. With blender running, add cilantro, then oil, and continue to process until smooth and emulsified, about 15 seconds.

Little Brother

Some friends of ours moved from Michigan back to Utah this past weekend and needed a family to care for their dog until they could have it shipped to them. That is how Little Brother, the Beagle, came to be living with us. He arrived at our home on Saturday afternoon, and if the weather is warm enough, will be flying home to his family on Friday. Little Brother (or "Brody" as I've been calling him) has been teaching me a lot about what life is like with a dog.

I bought Brody a bone at Kroger today because I've noticed that he wants to chew on something, and we don't really have anything that seems like a good candidate for that honor. I handed it to him right before our afternoon walk. He reluctantly left it by the front door, and then picked it back up when we got home. At that point he started whining and asking to be let out. I've never seen him do this after a walk before, and thought maybe he had to go to the bathroom. I let him out and he took his bone and went right to the back yard with it. He found a pile of dead leaves under a saw horse and began digging. He dug and dug and dug, buried his bone, and then diligently covered it back up. What a cutie! It just melted my heart to see him do that with his brand new bone.

I have never lived with a dog before. I've been begging Dan for a dog ever since we bought our house four and a half years ago. The main reason I have wanted a dog is so that I can have a walking companion. Since Brody arrived, I have been out walking several times a day, in spite of the single digit temperatures. I can assure you that without a dog, taking a walk would not have crossed my mind this week. But in spite of learning first hand what good exercise motivators dogs can be, I also discovered that having four children, including one baby, and then adding a dog to the mix, is a bit more than I want to deal with right now. So when we say goodbye to Brody, I think I will also be ready to say goodbye to my dream of having four small children and a dog.

Seven Weeks

Naomi is seven weeks old today. That means seven weeks since I became the mother of 4. As I write to you, I am eating from a bag of Lindt dark chocolate truffle balls for lunch. I am surrounded by the post-apocalyptic mess which is my living room. I've got one baby falling asleep for her nap and one just waking up. We are running out of clean clothes and clean dishes. The bathroom...I would advise that you use your own before visiting. I read this statement in the Enisgn (church magazine) this morning:

"Have you received a recent calling and feel overwhelmed? Remember how easy it sounded when someone described how to play a piano or to swim? Then when you tried to do that, or any other challenging task, how complicated it seemed. Remember how as you persisted it became more comfortable and much easier to manage? As you diligently serve, the Lord will help you in like manner with your new calling."

This struck me as being quite applicable to my own situation. On days like today, after a night of being awakened by Naomi twice and Esther four times, I feel like I am wandering aimlessly in a fog. I have time to do what needs to be done, but I can't seem to get myself together enough to use that time. Esther had school this morning, and I squandered those three hours on a trip to the grocery store, a few KenKen puzzles, and iTunes. On other days I do much better.

The one thing that I am most happy about is the fact that I've been making good dinners each night so that we can sit together as a family and enjoy our meal at the end of the day. And of course the baby is well-fed and growing. The one thing that I think is most bothering me is that I haven't yet figured out how to make exercise a part of this new life. I was walking nearly an hour a day most days until the morning of the birth, and since that day, nothing. Last night I was trying to solve this dilemma with a list of times that I could exercise. After studying the list, the best option seemed to be 5:30 a.m. at the YMCA. So I set my alarm last night. No good. I got up for the seventh and final time at 7:30, barely in time to get the boys to school.

I think one of the reasons that I'm not posting to my blog very often is that I feel like a post should include pictures, but pictures take FOREVER to upload to my blog, so I always put it off. If I let go of the requirement to include photos, like I am doing now, it is easy and even therapeutic to post something. I think there must be a way to upload smaller versions of my photos. If the files were smaller, I imagine it would go much faster.

Well, I'm headed to bed. At times like this, being awake doesn't seem to do much good. The baby I thought was waking up is still asleep, so I'd better jump on this chance. Bye!

More Pictures of the Birth Day

Disclaimer: Dan and I have never managed to have a camera with us for the birth of our children. So, this was our first birth with a working camera, and we tried to make up for past births by taking pictures of every thing and every body. Feel free to skip this post if the content is too boring :)

Here I am shortly after arriving at the Family Birth Center reception area. This was between contractions. I wanted to document my belly at its biggest:



Here I am in the triage room. They had just measured my cervix and told me I was an 8. Dan told me to put up 8 fingers and took this shot. I don't know why I look so happy...this must have been between contractions, too:



This is my anaesthesiologist (i.e. favorite person in the whole world). We waited for this shot until the epidural kicked in:



This is the doctor that delivered my baby. I had never met her before, but I liked her a lot. Dan had promised the boys a picture of the crochet hook they use to break my water, so here it is, moments before being put to work:



Thanks to the exquisite timing of Naomi's birth, Bug was able to be with us for the big event. The whole thing happened while all three of my older children were at school:



Here is Naomi's first photo op with her papa. She has been cleaned up and properly swaddled.



This is my labor & delivery nurse, Michele. She was the best:

Naomi's Birth: The Narrative

Eli, Adam, and Esther were all born well before their due dates. Eli was due June 21, born May 24; Adam was due November 11, born October 19; Esther was due May 31, born May 13. So Naomi was due December 6, but starting in the first week of November, I was wondering if she could be born any day. We made it through the time Eli would have been born, Adam would have been born, and then we got to November 18, the day Esther would have been born. On that day, it seemed to me that the baby dropped, but I thought my mind might be playing tricks on me since I knew it was the day Esther would have been born if she had had Naomi's due date. When Eli dropped (the day before he was born), I felt a distinct change from not being able to breathe well (before), to having to pee all the time (after). But throughout the pregnancy with Naomi she felt low, like most of the pressure was down under, not up in my ribs. On the 18th, however, the pressure down low seemed to increase noticeably. Could this be a sign that she is coming? I thought to myself all that day.

In the night, I was awakened a few times by contractions, but went right back to sleep.

At 5:50 a.m. on Wednesday, November 19, my cell phone alarm went off. I got out of bed to take my morning walk with Janie & Elizabeth. I always have some contractions while we are walking, but this time it seemed like I had more. After our walk, as we were standing outside of Janie's house chatting, I continued to feel some contractions. When I walked in my door at 7:15 a.m., I said to Dan & Bug that today might be the day I give birth. Bug was especially excited, but I quickly warned that I could be wrong. Dan asked if he should go into work or not, and I didn't know what to tell him. He was about to take Bug to the mechanic to have her car fixed, so I told him to come back and check in before leaving for Detroit.

When I went to the bathroom, I saw some bloody show (too much information!), which I have only ever seen on the day I give birth. That made me feel a bit more certain that the baby would be born. I did the usual things one does to prepare for a birth: I shaved my legs and washed my hair. Contractions continued, but they did not hurt much at all. I folded laundry. I told Dan to stay at least an hour or so to see what happened. I didn't feel like eating, especially since I have always thrown up right before giving birth. Around 8 or 8:15, while trying to get the kids off for school, we started timing contractions. They were 4-5 minutes apart, and lasting 30-60 seconds. We called the doctor's office and told them we were heading to the hospital.

My contractions still weren't hurting very much, so it seemed strange to be driving to the hospital, but I've learned from past experience that I go fast. I was really hoping to get my epidural before I got to an 8 or 9. We checked in at 9:15 and while waiting in the reception area the contractions started hurting more and more. By the time I got to the triage room, I was begging for my epidural, and when they checked me I was an 8 already. That was good because it got the triage people to take me a little more seriously and hurry things along. I'd been telling them that this was my 4th baby and that I go fast, but I don't think they were paying too much attention until I was an 8.

My labor and delivery nurse, Michele, came to get me and we made our way painfully to the room where I would give birth. I was in so much pain I just stood by the computer station holding onto the desk for support. FINALLY my anaesthesiologist arrived and I had my epidural by 10 a.m. I guess that is pretty fast, but it didn't seem like it at the time. My OB broke my water at 10:30 and I started pushing around 11. It usually only takes me 10-15 minutes to push a baby out, but I pushed this little girl for a good 45 minutes. I was getting worried and it was really hurting, but when her head emerged she was face up, which explained why it was so much harder to birth her than my others. When they put her up on my chest she seemed much tinier than I remember the others being. Later they weighed her and she was my smallest...6 pounds 14.1 ounces and 19.5 inches long. The others were all over 7 pounds and 21 inches. I thought she would be my biggest because she was born the latest (well, just one day closer to her due date than Esther), so she surprised me with her relative tininess.

First set of photos

I got home from the hospital today at about 4:30 p.m. It is wild to be home with four kids...taking care of a newborn is much easier at the hospital. Tonight I will just post a few choice shots of the babe so you can get an idea of what she looks like. More details and photos to come.

In this photo, Naomi has just been born and her umbilical cord cut. She has not yet been cleaned off.



Here she is having some formula to get her blood sugar up. Who is that sexy mama with her?



A few hours after her birth:



The day after her birth:



Here she is all cute and naked with a big ole pacifier in her mouth:



That's all for today, I need to prepare myself for tonight's onslaught.

Tater Tot

Hello, DTR here, spouse of Potato Girl. She delivered a healthy baby girl this morning (Wednesday, November 19) at 11:37 a.m. The baby was our smallest yet: 6 lb 14 oz, 19.5 inches long. Mom and baby are great. Lots of pictures were taken, but they're all still on the camera, which is at the hospital (St. Joe's). I imagine PG will write a post with lots of photos and all the details you'd care to know. If there's anything specific you want to know, just leave a comment here. Thanks to everybody who helped us out today, and over the whole pregnancy.