Susan and I joined forces for semiprivate swimming lessons with Tracy Zundel this summer. We had a heck of a time coordinating our schedules to squeeze in 10 lessons before Baby 3 was born, but we did it. Ever and Luc had their lessons first, and then they entertained themselves in the pool while Wrenzy and Amelie had theirs. It was nice to see Ever swimming again, and now she's comfortable enough that she'll even swim in other pools (unlike last summer, when she lost her nerve everywhere besides the Zundels'). Toward the end, she and Luc started working on keeping their faces in the water and breathing to the side, although that's going to take a lot more practice.
When Tracy suggested joint lessons with Amelie and Wren, she didn't realize that Wren couldn't even walk yet. Also Amelie screamed the entire time until the last lesson or two. After a few attempts at joint lessons, Tracy suggested that we split them up and just do 15-minute private lessons with each little. That worked much better. Wren was amazing. She LOVES the water and cried when her lessons ended. I couldn't believe that right off the bat, Tracy had her jumping in and going under water and even sort of swimming (assisted, of course) to the steps. She got so that the second Tracy sat her on the side or put her on the steps, she would throw her arms up over her head and try to jump back in immediately, whether or not Tracy was ready. A couple of Wrenzy videos from an early lesson:
Both girls after one of their last lessons:
Mamo and Pod got back from Peru on Saturday, June 18. They rented a car and headed up to Ventura. I went up with the girls to see everybody and drop Ever for some cousin time. I spent the night and drove back with Wren on Sunday. Saturday night we got to see Mamo and Pod's pictures from Peru. What an incredible trip they had! The only bummer - and it was a big one - was that Mamo hurt her back (compression fracture) during a fall on a big natural rock slide on the penultimate day of their trip. She was in really bad shape. I can't imagine being in that sort of pain. She is a trooper, though. Dee or Shan took this phote while we were there:
I went back up on Tuesday night and brought Ever back to Oceanside on Wednesday morning. Pod flew home Tuesday, and Tutu was going to stay with the Deetrixes until we needed her for Baby 3. On Wednesday night (June 22), however, we had a scare. Jim and I were up until after midnight. Then about 1:30 A.M., I got a call from Trisha. "I think it's time!" She had been having contractions 6-8 minutes apart for a couple hours, so they were heading to the hospital. I told her we'd get somebody to come stay with Ever and Wren and would meet them there. When I hung up, I got emotional ("Oh, my gosh. This is happening!") and started freaking out ("We are not ready!"). We were not prepared in any way. I'd been spending a lot of time on work and hadn't managed to wrap things up yet. Stacey Sullivan (mentor/partner at work) was in Europe for two weeks, and I was trying to move a deal along as much as possible while she was gone so they'd be ready to close shortly after she returned. I hadn't finished everything I wanted to do. We hadn't installed the car seat, packed anything for the hospital, etc. Nanny had offered to come over any time, day or night, to stay with Ever and Wren when we went to the hospital. We had just exchanged texts on Tuesday, and I asked her if she had been sleeping with her phone on. She said, "No, but I will." So I called her as soon as I got off with Trish, and she didn't answer. I called a few times. We tried Carl's phone, too. No answer. We texted Jeremy asking if his parents had a landline. Jeremy didn't think so. I was in a frenzy thinking we needed to get to the hospital immediately, or we might miss the birth. Jim called Karen Bunnell. She answered on the second ring. When he explained that we needed to go to the hospital, she just said, "I'll be right down." She was here in a flash. I was whirling around trying to think of what we needed to take or do. I hadn't been grocery shopping for a while, and we were even out of bread. I didn't know what to tell Karen to feed Ever and Wren the next day. She just said, so calmly, "This is not my first rodeo. Just go. Go have a baby. We're good." She's a comforting person to have around during a crisis. I felt bad because she called out of work the next day, too, so she could rescue us. When she arrived, I said I hoped she didn't have to work the next day (she's a neonatal nurse), and she said, "It's already taken care of." So incredibly nice.
We met Jeremy and Trish at the hospital. Trish hadn't dilated any further than at her last OB appointment (1 cm), but the nurse gave her the option of a) walking a bit and getting checked again in an hour or b) going home. Trish didn't want to go home and then have to turn around and come back in morning traffic, so we all hung out as she paced slowly around the room. The nurse checked her again, and no progress. Trish had expected a fast labor and delivery and had never had a false alarm like that, so she was surprised. Jeremy said he'd known all along it was a false alarm; he thought Trish was just trying to will it to happen. In any case, we all headed home thinking we'd be back in the next couple days.
I became very alarmed at our lack of preparedness. I talked to Mamo Thursday morning and asked her to come down. The middle-of-the-night, no-back-up-plan-when-Nanny-didn't-answer thing was really not ideal. It seemed so much less stressful if Mamo could just be here for the birth. Plus she could help me get ready with whatever time we had left. Mamo was sad she hadn't gotten more time with Dee and Shan and family, but she kindly obliged and took the train down that afternoon.
Then the baby didn't come, didn't come, and didn't come. Trish was so ready and even tried castor oil, but nada. It was still lovely to have Mamo here, and I got to do lots of things I always want to do (especially before a baby comes) but never have time to. We cleaned and organized various trouble spots in the house, got rid of stuff, etc. I loved it. We also got handpacked quarts of Mississippi Mud from Baskin Robbins, which we enjoyed on sugar cones every night while watching a show or movie. It was amazing. One night I went to get ice cream and was devastated to find one million people in matching blue shirts:
Of course it was a gigantic Mormon family reunion. Aside from a very few, they all got their ice cream and stayed inside, thereby making entering and ordering nigh unto impossible. I was so annoyed. I persevered, however, and one of the ladies let me cut so I didn't have to wait for the entire group to finish ordering.
Ever received a bunch of hand-me-downs from a friend who moved away. They included a few pairs of biker shorts. Ever tried them on and loved them. She says they're soooo comfortable - the same argument Coco gave for wearing them for years. I had to take a picture for Coco. Ever, keeping Coco's legacy alive:
Wren was a terrible eater for the longest time. I think she was just delayed and had a hard time chewing and getting the food down. Then finally she could eat food and feed herself like a normal child, and I was so excited. Just in time before New Baby.
One day she had her head down and looked up at me like a possessed child. It was really funny. It became a thing she does. I do it once to prompt her, and then she does it over and over and laughs. She's turned into quite a card. This day I took a million pictures of her:
Wren practiced walking by pushing a stool around - an endeavor fraught with danger:
Wrenzy likes playing outside. One day I watched her climb in and out of the little car over and over and over. She couldn't walk, but she sure could enter and exit a vehicle.
We didn't do much on the 4th of July. Waffles with Nutella were enjoyed for breakfast:
Go Fish and similar games were played:
(It should be noted that Mamo played lots of games with Ever while she was here - Go Fish, Old Maid, Crazy Eights, etc. They also crafted and did other projects. Ever was in heaven.)
We sang "Happy Birthday" to America, and Ever blew out the candle on the country's behalf:
Wrenzoza gave Jim lots of love:
Mamo stayed home that night with sleeping Wren while Jim, Ever and I went up to Bunnells' to watch fireworks from their backyard while Roy played patriotic music. I loved it.
After the show, Ever and Fox Bunnell did sparklers:
Baby 3 totally pulled a Kringel and refused to come out absent an induction. Poor Trish. Induction was scheduled for July 8. The evening of July 7, Jim requested a last-hurrah dinner at The Soup Plantation. (That used to be one of his favorite places. I think he may now be willing to admit it's not very good, although he'd still opt for that over cooking any day.) Again, Mamo stayed home with sleeping Wren (it's really hard when they go to sleep at 6:00 P.M.), and Jim, Ever, and I hit up the buffet.
When I said goodnight to Mamo that night, she asked if I were scared. I said no, not really; Trish had always felt good about doing this and had been confident things were going to go OK, so I took comfort in that. Mamo got emotional and said, "Just because of what happened to you, I'll be glad when it's over." That made me cry. (It's still crazy to think about Wren's birth. Once in a while Jim and I still get teary over it.) I also got nervous about the next day. It would have been so awful if Trish had volunteered to do this for us and something awful had happened. Childbirth is such an insane, scary thing.
Anyway, Jim and I were up really late that night making final preparations for the baby. I insisted that he install baby gates so I could let Wren out of my sight and not worry about her on the stairs. He tried to install the gate I purchased when Ever was a baby, but it has to go between two walls, which we don't have at the top or bottom of our stairs. So he made two gates out of PVC pipe that night. We ended up going to sleep around 1:30 A.M. So much for being well-rested when the baby arrived!
