monet's eye view

Monet has a different perspective in life, and it is quite amusing at times.

For awhile she was always talking about what her Grandma would say. She would tell me stories about the world or people, and say that Grandma had told her. At first I thought she was referring to her "Stirling Grandma," the wife of our home teacher who is pretty awesome. But then I realized that she wasn't. Turns out Monet has a make believe Grandma, Grandma Flimp, who tells her all sorts of interesting "facts" about life and science and food and church. She refers to her often when telling me stories.
Then there is Alla. Not Ella, Alla. Her friend who has 29 brothers and sisters, and a house with 29 bathrooms, and has done many cool things and been to many cool places. She has lived with bears, hiked across wheat fields, stayed up really really really late at night, and taken care of many babies. Monet's friend always has experience in whatever field we are talking about, and can always share insight into any conversation through Monet.
I am amazed at how Monet can come up on the spot with stories about these two characters. It really cracks me up and I am impressed with her imagination. I have heard that kids who can make up stuff are really smart; here's hoping.

the baby

We have a new arrival, and he is so darling and precious!

It all started last last Sunday. Cinco de Mayo. Josh and I went in early to be induced to have our baby. Around 9 o'clock they gave me the drip and the contractions started right up. I immediately asked for an epidural, knowing that I never got a chance the last 2 times going through this because I always asked for it too late. By noon I was in a LOT of pain, and still waiting for that stinking epidural. I hate having contractions when you are tied up to all those machines/heart monitors etc. Around 12:30, the anesthesiologist finally arrived to do his work. As he was inserting a needle into my back, between and among contractions, I heard him say, "I went too far, I'll explain what that means in a minute." At this point I really didn't care and let him poke my spine all over again, waiting for that blessed relief. Relief came, and about a minute later I was pushing the baby out. 2 pushes later, I had a 9 lb, 14oz, baby in my arms! A baby boy! A huge baby boy! Too big for newborn diapers baby boy. Now it is no secret that I was hoping for a little girl so Monet could have a sister, but seeing my baby, I really didn't care and was so happy to finally meet the new addition to our family. The only problem was we had a girl name and not a boy name, so Baby Stone it was to be for a while.
In the meantime, we learned what the Doc was talking about when he said "I went too far." Apparently his little needle went too far into my spine, leaving the epidural space and going into my spinal space (proper medical term not applied). That meant that my spinal column was now leaking minute amounts of spinal fluid, leading to the pressure in my brain area dropping, which produces the WORST headache imaginable. At first I wasn't sure about the headache, of it was bad enough or not. My doctor thought it might be related to all the blood loss. But as the second day wore on, I realized I could no longer stand up or even sit up. The only way to get away from the headache, which didn't respond at all to drugs, was to lay down. (Laying down returned my brain pressure back to normal, and made everything better (or mostly)). We went home Monday night, and that night it went from bad to worse, and by Tuesday morning I found myself back at the hospital, waiting to get what is called an epidural blood patch. That is when they go back in and do another epidural, only this time they flush your epidural space with your own blood to patch up the tiny hole in the spine with a blood clot. This worked for me for a day. Wednesday was great, but by Thursday I was all pain and headaches again. Back to ER. I was told to wait it out and consume lots of caffeine. Luckily, it worked, and by Friday I was finally starting to feel like myself.
Throughout all this, our poor little baby was nameless. It is sort of hard to pick someone's name for life with your head feeling like an axe is slicing through it every time you have to go to the bathroom or change a diaper. Thursday night, when I was starting to feel better, Josh and I were finally able to come up with a name. He was leaving the next day for a coaching clinic in Vegas, and we knew we needed a name before he left. I wanted Ezra, and he wanted.....not sure what. We both agreed on Ezekiel. Which is weird cause its a name that neither of us had ever really considered before. But we love all the nicknames that can come with it. Josh likes E-z (easy). I like Zeke. And it suits him. And so, after almost a week, we had a name for our not so little Ezekiel Joshua Stone.
With my other children I never had a ton of help. My MIL stayed for a few days when Monet was born, but thats it. This time around I told my mom I just needed her there for a day or two after I got back from the hospital. And its a good thing! My mom came with 2 of my nieces and they took care of me and my kids for the entire week until I could get back on my feet and stay there. So grateful for the help of family, and also for the all the help I have been getting from people around town. Feeling blessed to have a new little one in our family. Love him to pieces.