the honey home

kransling the eighth (month eight.three)

35 weeks

I had written earlier this week that I was feeling the pull to abandon the to-do list and just maintain things from here on out. But now that I look to link the post, it is gone–I’m not sure what happened there. So I will say it again: the nesting urges diminished considerably this week, and I have just been trying to keep the house reasonably clean while being present with the children as much as possible. I have also been trying to take more pictures.

I did make two more freezer meals this week. And I recovered my boppy pillow. Other than that, there’s been a lot of just existing.

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kransling the eighth (month eight.one-two)

To say things are starting to blur together is something of an understatement. I sat down to write this post and couldn’t remember what week I was in. Am I 33, or 34 weeks? I remember I had told the kids we have roughly four weeks to go. That would make me 34 weeks and some change at this point. Good grief! I am not sure if the fact I can’t remember is a good sign or not.

Four weeks is 28 days. 28 days sounds much sooner than four weeks to me, though. And of course she could always show up later than normal. Or earlier, for that matter. (Oh please, not earlier!) But six out of seven Kranslings have been born in the four days between 37w6d and 38w2d, so that’s what I’m planning for, even if I can’t say for certain.

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contradiction (reflections on pregnancy)

Somewhere in my heart there is a folder of images of the perfect pregnancy. I can see them clearly: bad days are spent cozied in bed with a book and whatever hot beverage comforts without sickening. Mornings after bad nights are calm and relaxed, and we set aside the hurry of a normal day to accommodate the rest this body needs. Good days have boundless energy to accomplish all the tasks that have fallen by the wayside on the bad days. Things are uncluttered and the children are never excessively needy or quarrelsome. I can enjoy the process of pregnancy, take care of my own, and look forward peacefully to the day the new baby joins us.

I can see it all so clearly that it’s unacceptable to believe that the images could be false or impossible. Somewhere, somehow, this glorious tenth pregnancy of mine exists–it must–but I can’t grasp it. Our days are not always easy. I am in physical pain. I am emotionally fragile. The children are human. Things I want to accomplish are left undone, again and again.

When I can’t achieve that ideal good, I blame myself; I get angry and progressively more miserable with my body and my emotions and the fact I can’t make this process match the possibilities in my head. What am I doing? I wonder. Can I ever do it again?

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kransling the eighth (month seven.three-four)

30 weeks

This week I started trying to prepare for a postpartum period that may involve recovering from a c-section. I read articles, asked friends about their experiences, and tried to wrap my head around it all. I still had a lot of time–about eight weeks until when I typically go into labor–but I didn’t want to be caught off guard. Especially since those last three weeks or so before birth I am basically useless.

The clothes I wear in the hospital, the way our room is set up, what activities I can take on after birth and when…a lot of things had to be reconsidered. I wanted to be as prepared as possible.

30 weeks with Flannery (and Beatrice)
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gallimaufry, 2.13.22

It’s Sunday afternoon, the first day of our “work week” since Jeremy’s work schedule changed several weeks ago. We’ve had church, done school, ate breakfast, lunch, and snacks, and Elvie has joined and surpassed me in a bit of cleaning. (She took over each thing I took on, until I had to stand by and direct while she completed everything.)

We read about emperor penguins in Character Sketches today, so we watched an episode of a show on Antarctica that featured them. The virtue they are illustrating in our book is generosity–namely the giving of gifts that require sacrifice. I think about the penguins shuffling with their eggs for months in the dark cold of the antarctic winter, and I feel ashamed for my complaints about the trials of pregnancy. I have something like nine weeks left as of today. Some days I feel like I won’t make it–though this feeling usually passes. Eventually.

Miss Flannery, upside down, with her legs over her head, like she’s not supposed to be.
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kransling the eighth (month six.three-four)

Week 26

Treadmill

Jeremy got a treadmill set up for us in the basement, and I’ve started walking on it daily. I’ve never done any kind of exercise during pregnancy! I shoot for a mile a day, but occasionally half a mile is all I manage before my belly gets sore. It hasn’t helped me be able to get up and down the stairs more easily (that still completely wipes me out) but I do feel better overall throughout the day. My weight gain has leveled out since starting that, too.

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fifteen months (aurick virgil)

I have almost missed this month. It has absolutely flown by. Aurick turned fifteen months on the 7th of January.

moving rooms

Since last month’s update, he’s been moved permanently over to The Boys’ Room. He was not quite as excited about this as the rest of us were. The boys were excited to have him with them; I was excited at being able to say “The Girls’ Room” and “The Boys’ Room” and have it be accurate. Aurick just rolled with the punches and continued his habits and routine in his new location.

I had to move him because–as I mentioned in his last update–he would wake Beatrice up in the mornings, and they would pal around together until I got them up. Unfortunately, she began using this time to put things in his crib that he shouldn’t have, and for his safety I thought it was prudent to move him in with the boys, who are all old enough to know better.

I wasn’t really sure how the move would go, since the boys are not used to having a baby in their room ever and can be rather noisy at bedtime. (Eldore didn’t move in there until he was old enough to sleep in one of the bottom bunks.) We moved our nightly reading out to the living room (one way to make sure Anselm stayed awake for it) then the boys sneak into their room once we’re done reading and Aurick has been asleep for a little while. They can’t manage to be really quiet, but Aurick has proved himself a much heavier sleeper than I ever knew he was. Their noise doesn’t bother him at all.

And thankfully his early wake-ups don’t bother them, either. I still can’t get him to sleep in for anything. by 6 or 6:30 he starts occasionally screeching like a monkey, hoping someone will come get him. I’ve never had a kid that I couldn’t get to sleep later, and I’m still not sure what to do with him on this except wait for March and the time change.

Mobility

Also since last month’s update he has started pulling up and crawling on all fours. What a relief that was to have him finally start that! I have been watching him closely because of his gross motor delay. I couldn’t quite decide if I was worried or not (I wasn’t worried at all until we hit maybe 14 months, since he was so closely following Anselm and Clive’s motor skill curve.) 14 months, however, was the time that they both started pulling up on things, and I was worried that he wouldn’t start and that would mean something was wrong. Thankfully, though, he started up just at the time they did, starting with small boxes and graduating to bigger boxes, then to places like the side of Beadie’s bed.

The all-fours crawling surprised me, though. Because Anselm and Clive never switched over to crawling properly once they had found another mode of getting around, I didn’t really expect Aurick to either, but to just continue to army crawl until he found the courage or strength to start walking. (And I tried–I tried so hard to get Clive to really crawl!) I am very glad that he began, though, as this saves the front of his shirts and sweaters from the large grimy smear that pulling himself around on the floor produces. At the moment he army crawls and properly crawls interchangeably, depending on what he’s doing, what type of surface it is, and how quickly he wants to get there. He is more likely to crawl on all fours when he’s on carpet.

He also started pushing himself up to sitting from belly-scooching. In all, he’s made great leaps in mobility this month, and I am relieved!

attitude

He is a master of scowling. Sometimes he scowls to be funny, and sometimes he scowls because he’s really ticked off with you. Ticked off about what, I often have no idea. He gets mad when he cleary has asked for his water bottle and you tried to give him more oatmeal instead. He also gets mad when Beatrice so much as looks at him sometimes (I don’t quite understand that.) You can tell he’s mad because the scowl is accompanied by a BAH!, uttered in such a growly tone that Scrooge himself would be proud. The madder the Aurick, the longer the BAH.

(Sometimes it’s just AH, as I am reminded because he is currently looking out the glass door making said noise to something outside that is angering him.)

scowling (at Anselm, I think)
just kidding!

He likes to crawl over to the glass door and look at the dog. (Woof, woof! He’ll say.) He’s also started spending more time with Beadie back in her room, listening to music and playing quietly in that way that toddlers do–playing alongside, not with. He still likes to stack blocks; he can make a tower of four or five now. He will sing Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star (the melody, not the words) and likes to sing along and do the motions to One Little Finger (he actually tries the words on that one). He’s gradually beginning to say more things, beyond just his guttural babbling, which he still likes to do.

He also still loves his Johnny Jump-Up. Now when he twists himself up, he knows how to pull his feet up and let himself untwist, round and round and round.

other updates:

ephraim + clive + anselm + eldore + beatrice

pancake breakfast for a large family

I took this picture one morning when I made pancakes. I quadrupled the recipe–typically I triple it, but we’re too big for that now–now I’m making batches four times as large as the original recipe I memorized about six years ago. I don’t know how many pancakes it makes. I’ve never counted, actually. “A lot” is probably an accurate assessment.

This is making pancakes for two adults and seven children. (Eight if you count Flannery, in utero, just visible in the above photograph.) I had three cast irons for the pancakes, one for some sausage, and a pot to warm the syrup. Two twelve-inch pans and two fourteen-inch pans. And the pot. I don’t know how big the pot is. It’s bigger than my smallest pot and smaller than my biggest pot. There you go.

We do have a griddle on the stove top, but it doesn’t quite work properly, so I’ve never used it. I think I can cook the pancakes more quickly on the pans, though, but of course this is only speculation.

It takes a bit of time to get through cooking this many pancakes. I make them small because our kids are still small, but also because in my mind I can make more pancakes more quickly if more fit on the pan. (I realize that’s not quite how it works.) I also think a large stack of small pancakes is more satisfying mentally than one large pancake on your plate.

When they’re finished cooking, the pancakes are transferred to a warm oven to wait until everything is ready. This works great for pancakes, but is terrible for waffles, by the way. Unless you’re fond of soggy waffles. They get soft, sitting together like that in the oven. We like crispy waffles. I haven’t figured out how to make waffles that we can all sit down and eat together without investing in ten more waffle makers. I am open to suggestions.

And I do highly recommend all sitting and eating together. I am not keen on the idea of everyone sitting at the table while mom stands by the oven, makes things to order, and gulps down her own food only when everyone else is done. I don’t think that presents a good example. It is possible to all eat together. It takes some planning, though. I remember when Jeremy and I were in Paris, and the mom of the family we stayed with presented us all (three teenaged kids, her husband, and we two guests) with a several-course dinner every night. And she always sat and ate each course with us. I can’t quite figure out how she did it (I have never tried multiple courses as it seems too daunting) but I have an intense admiration for her skill. I wonder if she would have a solution for serving large amounts of waffles simultaneously while still managing to keep them crispy.

I used to have a lot of trouble with pancakes going cold. I would go through all the trouble to cook them and keep them warm and then once they were on the table, it seemed they all went cold almost immediately. This has been remedied by the pot of warming syrup. It was the syrup that made the pancakes go cold the minute you got them on your plate. Now served in small pitchers around the table, the warmed syrup doesn’t assault the pancakes like the cold syrup did. You live, you learn.

kransling the eighth (month six.one-two)

I don’t have any pictures from this week, except this one of pots on the stove. Enjoy

week 24

Holy braxton-hicks, batman

It’s hard to know, exactly, whether a symptom has suddenly appeared or it has just become frequent enough for me to realize it’s happening. Whatever the case may be, this week Braxton-Hicks contractions seemed to swoop in out of nowhere. And they took over–happening all the time (or so it felt. Not really all the time. It they were happening all the time, I would call my doctor. Or chalk it up to irritable uterus. But they are frequent!)

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