My Family
Yup, I'll claim him.
I have a beautiful family of five with three children and a wonderfully interesting husband. Tristan and I were married August 7,1999 after dating for 3 years in high school. To give a little taste of how fun my husband is, we decided to have the guys in homemade kilts and Bass sandals (the closest thing we could find to fit into the outfit), with socks up to the knee and a knife called a Dube in it, and a homemade Sporrin with his vows. Don’t get me wrong, it looked great, it’s just funny to look back at the pictures and remember how we had to shop like mad to find the outfits and piece it all together like that in one month’s time. Tristan also decided to get his lifelong furry friend Wriggly, a Saint-Bernard Collie mix, to bring the rings down the aisle in a leather pouch that he made. It was supposed to come off Wriggly’s collar easily when he pulled on it, but of course it didn’t, so Tristan whipped out his knife and cut it right off, much to everyone’s delight. Great memories.
My children. Where do I begin?? I got pregnant with our first boy 2 months after we got married in ’99, the same weekend Tristan decided to break his collarbone by getting squished sideways in a Rugby match. Good times. Newlyweds, both not working, freshly pregnant, two new puppies, just moved into our own rental house which we could no longer pay for…not the best start. But we made do with lots of help from family and friends. Liam was welcomed into the world at Skagit Valley Hospital on July 17, 2000 at 8lbs 8oz, 21 inches long at 10:15pm after being in labor since 6am. What an amazing day! Great labor, great family time, being the first grandchild on both sides of the family.
Big brother Liam holding Leif, May 2009
One of Liam's finer moments, 4 years old
After having Liam, I went through a time where I was too thankful for a beautiful baby boy and too tired from the lack of sleep associated with having a new baby to be overly concerned with my weight. Besides, I thought in my head, there was no way I wouldn’t lose the weight, because I had always been in shape and active. There’s a major flaw in that thinking, though. Past activity doesn’t really count for much except for what you know you are capable of, and what you wish you were back to already. Oh, sure, I was eating whatever I wanted, and not losing any baby belly, but it would eventually be fine. So pass me that bacon, huh? Procrastination has always been my strong suit…I guess I am pretty consistent.
When 2002 rolled around, we decided it would be the perfect time to have another little one. I had a pretty normal pregnancy, except that I was absolutely ginormous by the time I was due with Lusana. I had another 50 lb pregnancy, but had started heavier to begin with, too. Labor was much harder, because I was induced in the hospital, but it was also faster.& Lusana Brynn was born on July 16, 2003 at 9lbs 6oz, and 21 inches long. Liam’s birthday, the 17th, was spent with Daddy at the movies while Lu and I recovered in the hospital. He didn’t mind too much, though, he thought Lusana was pretty neat, and if it meant he got to spend a day with Daddy at the movies, it worked out pretty well in his book.
With such an angelic face, you'd never know what mischief she was in...
At this point, we were financially and mentally where we thought we were done having kids. So, after Lu was done nursing, I went through a couple phases of weight loss, like the South Beach, the Blood Type, and all sorts of modified versions of them. I had some success with both, but in the end, I always went back to old habits that killed any of that success and landed me in a funk of “woe is me, I can’t do anything!” In the midst of this bleak time for me, I started working at Riverside Health Club, in the Kids’ Club, where I could bring my kids with me to work. What a blessing this was! We got to go swimming, work out, socialize with women in similar walks of life, and the kids had a great time doing it. After starting to work at Riverside, I tried swimming, classes, a personal trainer, and working out by myself sporadically, and fluctuated between wanting to be healthy and not really caring much. Usually the caring coincided with not being happy about how I felt in clothes, or out of clothes for that matter. So when I really did care, it wasn’t necessarily about choosing to be an overall healthy, it was simply unhappiness with my outward appearance. I think that’s why I never stuck with anything long enough to have any results or to make a big enough change to get the right results. I also didn’t have enough of the facts of what is healthy/beneficial for the whole family and why I should be championing it for them. I was more into time management, getting through the day with two small children, then two older children and work, then two older children, work, and a large house to manage. There is always going to be something immediate to take your attention off of what needs to be done eventually, so the immediate takes over the eventually, and the eventually becomes never. In order for me to make a major decision about eating healthy, I first needed to sift through all the information I have accrued and decide what I believe strongly in, so I could then jump into it, with my husband’s approval. That turned out to be no problem at all, as he had always wanted us to be basically vegetarian(apparently)!
What was so funny was that I had started to work out with serious intent to get into shape the summer of 2008, when I discovered that we were again going to be proud parents of baby number three at the same exact time as my sister was having baby number one for them. We had the same due date! Unfortunately, that threw all those serious intentions of “healthy” out the window as I dealt with back issues and foot problems from extra weight going up and down three flights of aggregate stairs (drat that neverending laundry!) and having a long house to walk back and forth in. Also, being pregnant apparently gives anyone permission to eat enough for a linebacker, without raising any eyebrows. Oops. Not that I am making excuses, here, I know very well at this point that all you need is to make up your mind to do something, put it into practice, and it should work for you. But I am telling the story here, so stop shaking your head and get excited for the cute baby pictures coming up.
Because we had always wanted to do it and we had plenty of room in a remodeled barn, we decided to have Leif at home in a birthing tub. Plus, it is a heck of a lot cheaper! I thought I would be so much earlier with this baby than with the other two being a day or two late, but as the date rolled closer, I just knew I would be pregnant forever. My due date arrived with a phone call that my sister was in labor, and my mom had driven overnight to try to make it in time, through two states! Luckily, she did make it hours before handsome little JR was born. Of course, I cried all day not only because I couldn’t be there with her, but that I was still very pregnant with fat feet and now my mom was gone, which meant I wasn’t allowed to go into labor until she got back. From that day on, I basically woke up crying because I wasn’t in labor yet. My mom returned 6 days later, told me I could now have my baby, and so the next evening, my midwife decided to get things going by breaking my water. I have never been so excited to put myself through physical pain before! Wait, that’s kind of how I feel now every Monday and Wednesday in the RX room! I went into labor 8 days overdue, huge, at 9pm, and I swear the pain didn’t not give up for the entire four hours of labor. However, I do need to say right now that I would do it all a hundred times over for any of my babies. And every one of those hundred times would be at home with my wonderful midwife in that amazing tub! What a great experience to have in our own home! I walk through the same room 15 times a day where I birthed my baby! I had Leif Brennan at 1:15am on April 27th. He was 10lbs 8oz, and 22 3/4 inches long!! Kinda large, I know.
Leif showed his personality early, 1 month old
