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Ever since Morgan’s birth I was looking forward to the birth center picnic because I loved it there so much. September 12th was the big day, and it turned out to be such a gorgeous day. We were sweating in the sun but we enjoyed the band playing and watching all the kids run around.

With Abigail, who was there at Morgan’s birth. She’s a student midwife, and she had started her apprenticeship of sorts about a month before Morgan was born. I remember her learning how to feel for the baby by feeling my belly. Hehe. Also, she saved me the day Morgan was born because I thought we were going to get there before the midwives (it was a Saturday, so the birth center wasn’t open), but blessedly Abigail did get there before us so we were able to go right in. She already had the tub going for me and everything, if I remember correctly… which honestly I probably don’t because details are rather hazy but I’ll just choose to remember it that way. I remember walking right in to the room I had wanted and going right back to my hands-and-knees position on the floor next to the tub, then asking for my birth ball back. Haha. Good memories, seriously. Anywho, since Abigail was still somewhat beginning she mostly observed and helped with little stuff, but I do remember her encouraging me and repeatedly saying how great I was doing/did, which of course helped me feel good.

Us with Ali, who was the midwife on call when Morgan was born. She had let Tanya, the other student midwife who was farther along in the apprenticeship (she started I think soon before we started going there) do the majority of it, but of course she was there helping and making sure everything was good. I really wanted a picture with Tanya since she was the one who actually caught Morgan (with Adrian right there too…she just guided her to protect me from damage), but she wasn’t there. They had all been up past 5 am the night before with a birth, and Ali had returned home to her little kids waking up so she hadn’t slept at all. I guess that’s the life of a midwife. Yipes. Ali was great and so calm that anytime before or after Morgan’s birth I always felt reassured that everything was good and normal. She has a great presence.

Okay, for anyone who has made it this far I have another random thing to share about labor that for some reason I keep thinking about. I was afraid of having a back labor because I knew I wouldn’t be likely to handle it if that were the case. Because of that, as soon as I thought I might be in labor I spent all my time on my hands and knees. Gravity takes some pressure off the back, and can help the baby move into an optimal position rather than pushing on the spine, which is what often causes a back labor. So I went on my hands and knees and rocked in circular motions up and down during each contraction, and I am absolutely convinced that the movement and position is what helped me progress so well. I read up before and knew that position helps open the pelvis. The only time they had me go to my back (semi-sitting) was when I was pushing, and that was because they wanted to slow her down and guide her out more–which was probably really good since she had that hand against her head. Anyway, it worked for me, so it may help someone else out there. You never know!

The weather here is pretty kooky. I feel like it goes from super hot to rainy, but that perfect spot in between is hard to find. We’re enjoying the summer routines, though, of evening walks. It stays light here until about 9:30, so we enjoy getting out after dinner.
Nothing too exciting has happened in the past few weeks. I feel like I’m getting back into a better routine, I think. I’m cooking more (or at least enjoying it more). I’ve been sewing a bit and doing some of that. I even had a friend over and we made some coasters. And today I met up with some friends from church for lunch. This is big stuff for me. Hehehe.

I don’t feel like saying a lot, I just know it’s been a long time since I posted anything so I thought I should. Time is flying and I feel a little panicky that Morgan will be five months old tomorrow. Holy moly. She’s a joy, though, and makes me smile and laugh a lot. She’s very chatty and loves to grab and everything and get it into her mouth. Love it.

[I finally started using google reader--yes, eons behind everyone else--and love it. That also means I now see it when this one random blog post of ours keeps "posting"... I have no idea why. Please ignore.]

Adrian did a good job explaining the whole air conditioner situation. My question is: did the owners think there was air conditioning? I am absolutely positive it was in the Craig’s List ad, and I actually even remember talking about it. Now, on the control panel thingy you CAN select “cool”, which one would assume means air conditioning, but there is no unit outside. I even walked around the house to double check just to make sure (I couldn’t remember seeing one, once it occurred to me, but that is one of those things that just gets absorbed into the background normally). As far as I know, you can’t actually have air conditioning without one of those big things outside. Anyway, kind of a bummer, since the AC and the gas stove were two of the big reasons we chose this house. I’m sure we’ll survive, it’s just kind of annoying to be sweating inside your own home… even with the fans going. I was really wondering what was wrong with the AC for it to be so ineffective after running it all day long. Hahaha.

Since I got so many comments from helpful people on the sewing machine deal, here’s a quick update on that, too: I’m going to wait a little while. I’ve realized that in order to make a big enough step up from what I already have, it would be a lot of money. Sewing machines are expensive! It seems silly to buy something that’s just a little nicer or a little heartier than my machine, because if I’m going to spend a good amount of money it might as well be really worth it. So then the question is should get a machine that is about where I’m at now, or one that I would grow into? My ideas are always a little bigger than the realm of possibility (Adrian and I definitely have that in common, though his are about vacations we could take and things like that and mine are about things I’m capable of doing… and in this particular case what my machine can help me do). So do I reach up high enough that it would be capable of everything I envision myself wanting to do? You know, I don’t do a lot of quilting now (I did try… but it was puckered on the back after I tried to quilt it and not so good and I got frustrated… perhaps my own fault for thinking it was a good idea to jump into the world of quilting with one that could fit a full bed?), but I would like to. So do I need a machine big enough for that? Etc. I don’t want to spend tons of money on something that I think I’d then want something else after a little while, even if that little while is five years.

Also, in all my reading and research about machines I’ve realized that mine is actually pretty good, relatively speaking. The things that people complain about in reviews it either doesn’t do at all or only slightly. So for a lower-end machine, it really does do what it needs to do. Also, I figured out that tension issue–not why it’s happening but at least I can feel it while I’m threading the machine now so I can fix it immediately, rather than doing test stitches every time I sew. So that has removed a lot of my headache. Of course, then last weekend we went to this quilt shop and I tried out some of the machines there and they were SO smooth and quiet. It was pretty crazy. I’ll leave it at that before I sound nutso and completely bore anyone who doesn’t sew.

So. That means I’m trying to figure out how to earn some extra money specifically for a sewing machine so that I don’t feel SO wasteful or insane in wanting a really crazy nice one. Well, I still do, but I feel like if I can also prove that I’ll really use it, then it’s more justified. We’ll see how that turns out. Maybe in a few years I’ll get there… by which time, of course, I’ll perhaps have another kiddo and have even less time for my own creative endeavors.

I’ve always lived in a home with an air conditioner.  Granted, I have always lived in places where it was either a) hot, b) humid, c) dry or any combination of a/b or a/c.  b/c just wouldn’t make any sense now, come on.  Well, the greater Seattle area is maybe b.  It sure isn’t hot for most of the year, and with all of the rain, there’s no chance the words “dry” and “Seattle” are ever spoken of in the same sentence.  So being my first foray into the non-warm climatel (I think I just made that word up), I was and still am, a bit surprised to find that most living residences (homes, apartments and condos) do NOT have air conditioning.  As in, it’s not even an option.

When we first moved up here we were living in Kirkland and right on Lake Washington.  The apartment complex they put us up in was really quite nice.  But even still, not a single unit was offered with air conditioning.  You would think that living on a pretty big lake would offer you some gentle breezes though, and it would.  But not when you live with no windows lake-side.  And when you have smokers living downstairs (the entire community was sold as “smoke-free” HA!) and you are on the top floor, you risk opening your windows and being overpowered by the nastiness.  Last summer got pretty hot in Kirkland, even for Rancho Santa Margarita standards.  For most of July and August it would reach 90-something each day.

So, when it was time for us to move out of temporary housing and into something else, we made it a goal to try and find something with air conditioning.  Now, like I said, most places don’t have air conditioning.  Most new homes don’t offer it, and when they do, most people won’t spring the cash to have it installed.  What we kept hearing over and over was “oh, you’d only need it maybe 2 weeks MAX a year, so just turn on a fan and you’ll be fine.”  Nevertheless, we really wanted to have a place with air conditioning.  Emily did a great job of searching for places to rent, and found this really nice home we’re in now.  It’s close to work in Redmond and we really liked the family that owns it.  PLUS, it had air conditioning!  Can you imagine that?  Done deal!  Well, we moved in here the middle of September, and from that point until about 2 weeks ago, we essentially had the heat running and never needed the AC since it was too cold for it.

The past 2 weeks up here have been really beautiful.  The sun has been out I’d say 85% of the time and it’s been nice and warm and clear skies.  It’s been nice to drive with the windows down and not have to use my seat warmers in the morning.   Yesterday however was HOT.  Sticky stuffy HOT.  Emily thought we should finally turn on the AC, so I went downstairs and played with the settings on the electronic unit thingamajig.  Hmmm…not really too powerful.  I felt the floor vents downstairs while I was washing the dishes.  Pretty weak, and not icy cold.  But a nice cool ambient temperature at least.  We never had to worry about the strength of the unit with the heater before, as long as it got hot.  But just to be safe, I thought I’d turn it off so we didn’t wake up freezing cold and have to go all the way downstairs to shut it off.  We did pull out some fans and left those on though.

When I got home from work this evening, Emily mentioned how the AC had hardly done anything to cool things down with it running all day long.  Then I think a lightbulb went off in her head.

Where is the AC unit outside the house?

Yeah…we never really looked for that.  Guess the home owners didn’t either.  Whoops!  Live and learn…and keep your fans running 24/7.