In resolving to continue my weekly photography project this year, I also decided to look back on what made it difficult last year and change things up a bit. Often I managed to get portraits of the older kids during nap time, but then never got a good picture of Peter until the week had already passed. Or I'd get the girls but not John Paul. Or Edith would always be sleeping... So this year I think I'll just take what photos I can, but focus more on life in general around here, rather than trying to get an individual picture of each child. We'll see if I stick with it!

My Sunday Best, Vol. 36: IT IS SO COLD!

Happy Epiphany (sort of?)! We actually celebrated on Friday and went to an EF Mass so we got the Epiphany readings on actual Epiphany, so we kind of get double Epiphany? 

Edith's Birth Story

We begin this story on Saturday morning, November 26. I had been pregnant for approximately a million years and was 4 days past my due date. Now, this wouldn't seem so bad considering the latest I'd ever gone before was 5 days late. 

BUT.

When we found out about Edith's lung issues, the MFM specialist said we'd probably induce around 39 weeks. So I was planning on no longer being pregnant by mid-November. Which makes that extra almost-two-weeks unbearably long.

Anyway. Saturday. I started losing my mucus plug and was convinced labor was imminent, despite not being entirely sure how that all had played out with previous children... I WAS SO PREGNANT. CLEARLY I MUST BE DONE!

So I told Andrew that we'd probably be having the baby that day, holed up in the dark bedroom with the labor ball and my kindle, and waited for things to start. Andrew even sent the kids to my mom's house (in our back yard, so not exactly a huge hardship) for a while so that he could be there helping but...

Nothing.

However, Andrew *did* head to 7-11 to procure a giant bag of ice and the biggest cup ever (seriously, it held maybe a gallon of liquid?), which was an immense help when labor actually did begin.

So pizza was ordered for dinner, much grumbling was done by me (it hurt so badly to walk! The baby was looooow and I was soooo uncomfortable!), and we went to bed hoping that things would start up overnight.

Nope.

52/52: New Year's Toast

We made it! A full year of week-by-week photo documentation (mostly - some ended up not exactly aligning with the week when I posted them). The plan was to make photo books of all of these posts as Christmas presents but I haven't figured out how to make that work without a whoooole lot of effort on my part yet. It *has* been a good way to make sure I keep track of time passing, and a fun way to document things so that we can all look back on them. 

Blogging-wise, these have generally been my least popular posts. If my reason for blogging were to be popular, I'm sure I'd be disheartened and reconsider this series. But that's not the point, so I think I'll do it again this year, and maybe this year's series will make it into book form! If not, it'll at least be our "online baby book" because I'm a complete failure at doing hard copy baby books.

My Sunday Best, Vol. 35: Happy New Year!

Happy New Year!!! We celebrated by eating a whole bunch of frozen appetizers and dips and crudites and drinking sparkling apple cider - it's a fun excuse to grab whatever we've been eyeing in the Costco freezer section!