Mommy Wars

I'm sure by now you've all seen the Time cover.  I haven't read the article, nor do I particularly care to.  I just don't see the need to argue over who is doing the best job.  All 3 of my children will be breastfed until they are a year.  I cloth diaper.  I stay at home.  Does that make me superior to other moms?  Heck, that doesn't even make me a good mom.  I hope that I am, but there are days when I sure don't feel like it.  My husband always asks why I take such long showers.  In all honesty, it's because when I'm in the shower no one (usually) needs me, touches me, or cries at me.  At least, not that I can hear.  When I'm in the shower I can have a think a thought all the way through.  Most of my blog posts are written in the shower, but until they invent water proof computers, most of them will never actually make it to the computer.

So what makes a good mom? In my opinion, you can't parent every child the same way.  There is no foolproof method to raising a child.  There's no one book you can read or blog you can follow.  I don't even parent my own kids the same. Sometimes I wonder how 2 boys so different can have the same parents.  I know I'm not the same mom to Cole as I am to Tate.  Cole was never allowed to do some of the things that Tate does, simply because he is/was not independent enough to do them.  I'm sure I'll be a different parent to Shelby too.  The ultimate goal of every parent is to raise a responsible child that contributes to society.  So, does it really matter how they get there?

Baby Face

I love the faces babies make, especially my baby.  She's started smiling and cooing a little bit in the last couple of days.  I don't think there is anything cuter...

Mother's Day

I'm not big on Hallmark holidays.  Typically Mother's Day is just another day for me.  I get to spend the day alone with my children while my husband is busy planting.  It happens every year.  Part of being a farmer's wife.  This year is a little different.  As a mother, I've gained a child, but as a child, I'm losing my mother.  Maybe it's the fact that I now have a daughter and I look at her and hope I can be the kind of mother I wish I had.  Don't get me wrong, I love my mom.  She was great, but while she's physically present, the dimentia has taken a big part of her away.  My mom was never an outgoing person.  She had a few close friends, but she was more of a behind the scenes, getting it done, type of person.  She claimed to hate to cook, but she was really good at it.  I think she just hated planning meals, like me.  She always left the last piece of pie, cake, whatever, for Dad.  Always.  She liked to take us girls shopping.  She liked to bike around town or go for a walk.  She was a great listener.  You could always count on her to call just to see how you were doing.  I miss my mom.

Hired Help

A few days before Shelby was born, our herdsman of 4 years, put in his 2 week notice.  We didn't know it was coming, but it wasn't entirely unexpected either.  Randy was a good milker, but his attitude had gone drastically down hill.  It's not easy to work with the same person 7 days a week, 365 days a year, so we knew it wouldn't last forever.  At any rate, we were left with trying to find a replacement, and quickly since I was going to be laid up and unable to help.  Needless to say, the timing wasn't great, but it was time for Randy to move on.

Pat started the job search with an ad on craigslist.  He got a few phone calls in the first few days, but it turned out his parents ran into a fellow dairyman and neighbor the day Randy quit.  He suggested a local guy and Pat called around to his former employer to get his phone number.  Everyone who knew him said J was a good worker, had a nice family, etc.  Pat's parents met him that week (we were in the hospital having a baby that day) and seemed impressed.  He seemed like a nice guy, good worker, and better yet, he'd never milked cows.  Now, most jobs would like you to have experience, but dairy farmers prefer you don't.  Every farm has a different routine for milking cows and if you are set in one routine, it's hard to switch to another, that's why no experience is sometimes best.  That way we can teach you the way we want you to milk cows.  It may seem like a silly thing that doesn't matter, but it's huge in the land of milking.  One simple step can drastically change the somatic cell count of your milk.  A lower SCC means a higher milk price for us.

I digress.  J was to start on Randy's last day.  Only thing, he didn't show up in the morning.  Pat tried to call him, but couldn't get through.  He came Monday night and said he had been helping move some furniture and couldn't get out of bed Monday morning.  His cell was out of minutes, yada, yada, yada.  Tuesday morning he called in sick, but he kept showing up in the evenings.  I think he showed up a couple of mornings the first week but then was gone for the weekend.  This obviously wasn't going to work.  We tried for another week to give him the benefit of the doubt, but he never came through for us.  So we called another local guy that had called while we were trying to work with J.  He's showed up every morning and evening so far.  We also have a high school kid that started that wants all the hours he can get.  Hopefully things are straightened out now.

Milking cows is not a glamorous job.  You don't get weekends off.  You have to start early in the morning and go later in the evening (but you get a really long lunch break :).  It's dirty.  It's smelly. Even with all of the cons, we truly enjoy what we do and take a lot of pride in the product we produce.  We just hope our employees do the same.

Pig Farmers

Every summer we raise some kind of bird.  Pat claims it's for the boys, but I'm the one that does the daily chores.  The last couple of years we've been late getting birds so they don't have them readily available and I have to order them.  Ordering means you have to get a minimum of 25 birds.  We don't go through that many chickens in a year, even between us and Pat's parents we don't use up 25 chickens.  This year I said that if we had to order chickens we weren't doing birds.  At first Pat wasn't in agreement.  The next morning, however, he was very agreeable.  He walked in the door and told me it was ok if we didn't do birds.  I looked at him and said "so what are we doing?"  It would be way too easy to not do anything.  So what are we doing?  Pigs...

 We started out with the idea of 4 pigs, one for each family.  Well, if you get 4 pigs you may as well get 10. We could probably get rid of 10.  Well if you do 10, you may as well do 20.  So Pat set out looking for someone to sell us 20 baby pigs.  The problem?  They come in groups and no one wants to sell less than 50.  So we ended up with 55 pigs and sold 5 to a neighbor.  We'll butcher some for ourselves  and some family and friends, and the rest will go to the sale barn when they are finished.  The boys think it's great.  Granted, they are pretty cute, for a while anyway.  Pat even gave their hog farm a name: COTA KASH farms.  COle, TAte, KAra (Pat's neice), and SHelby.  The money from the pigs will be split among the kids.  If nothing else, it's a great way to get a start on college tuition!

I also broke down and got some birds.  Just 10.  I picked them up today.  Hopefully they survive Tate's handling.  He's not afraid to pick them up this year, but he doesn't quite understand not to squeeze or grab them by the wing.

Queen of the Castle

I realize it's been a while.  We've been busy.  First, my days and nights are ruled by this little creature...

She really is a good baby.  She sleeps through most of her brothers' noise and goes 3-4 hours at night.  She has this thing about being held, but I don't complain too much about having to snuggle with her :)  I mean, who could resist that face!  Shelby is doing well.  At her 2 week check she was up to 6 lb 7 oz, which means she's been gaining about half of a pound a week.  She eats, sleeps, and poops, which is what babies do best!

Our other big event was this...

Notice anything missing?  Cole lost his first tooth sometime last night, we think.  We can't find it, but he doesn't seem too upset about it.  He's got bigger things to worry about like planting corn.

 Stay tuned, I've got a farm post in the making and as long as baby stays sleeping, I should be able to pound it out for tomorrow.

Meet Shelby

Ok, gush away! Sorry I don't have any pictures of just our little girl, they are all on my phone. So instead you get to admire pictures of the very excited big brothers.

Shelby Kay was born Thursday evening at 7:20PM. She weighed in at 5lb 7 oz and 19" long. She is perfect in every way. She even has a head full of red hair! So you want to read a good birth story? Well, read away...

I had my routine appointment Thursday morning. They've been a bit concerned about her growth, so I've been doing weekly ultrasounds for about the last 3-4 weeks. There were a few things that in and of themselves weren't concerning, but together my doctor decided it was better for her to be out than in. I was happy to oblige. So after my appointment I headed upstairs where they monitored me and baby for a while to make sure everything was ok. At about 2 they started me on pitocin. The contractions were getting stronger, but nothing unbearable. However, Shelby wasn't tolerating the meds very well. Her heart rate would periodically drop and we couldn't find a position for me that would keep it where it should be. So they stopped pitocin at about 4. My doctor came in at 5:30 and broke my water, then they started pitocin at the lower dose. The contractions were getting much stronger and more frequent this time around. They still weren't unbearable, but I knew they needed time for the epidural, so I rang for the nurse. When she came in, my contractions were right on top of each other and Shelby's heart rate was dropping again. So I ended up with 3 nurses in my room trying to situate me in such a way that was good for Shelby, but we weren't having much luck. At that point they decided to call in an OR team just in case. The plan was to take me down to the operating room and let me labor there but be ready just in case a c-section was needed. Shortly after 7 we made it down to the OR. The anesthesiologist started trying to get the epidural in, but it was too late. She got the catheter in, but when they flipped me over to my back, I was already pushing. We were in the OR for less than 10 minutes before our little girl made her appearance. She's small, but healthy. Pat finally got to cut the cord for one of our kids. He did really well through it all. The worst part for him was when they were trying to put the catheter in for the epidural. It certainly didn't go as planned, but it's over and she's here! I promise I'll post more pictures once I get home and settled.