Baby Hazel and the Start of 2026
This year is likely to bring some new changes. First and foremost being that we are now a family of seven! Hazel Rose was born on January 15th at 3:06 in the afternoon. She weighed 7lbs 7oz (my biggest baby yet), and was 18.5" long. She had dark hair like Rylee and has delicate features just like her biggest sister. However, her mouth is very Mena, and she has Will's hair-line. It would also appear that she inherited Will and Mena's milk sensitivity. It's been two weeks, and she is finally starting to have belly cramps and a rash has showed up on her diaper areas. I'm beginning the process of cutting milk back out of my diet--definitely the worst part of breastfeeding half of my crew. How the dear Lord thinks I can survive (and not murder children) without having chocolate on the daily is beyond me.
Hazel required me to take a step back from a lot during my pregnancy. I was tired and achy all the time, and easily exhausted by any sort of physical labor. So poor Sam has been the sole responsible party for the farm chores the whole time. The good news is, stepping away from the animals has helped me to put them in perspective.
We came to the decision that right now is not the season for pigs anymore. After the barn burned down last year, we've had non-stop problems with escaping and fences not working. Luckily, we separated the boys into their own, inescapable pen almost straight away (so this is the first time without accidental pregnancies!). But no one wants to purchase our pigs as adults, we have very limited interest in them as piglets unless we sell them for normal pig prices. And the slow growth rate and little litter rates of Kune Kunes mean that we have to have a higher price in order to justify them. And the interest is just not there.
Sam says Kune Kunes were a fad. I LOVE them for their temperament and how they "won't eat my kids". Seriously. I love how they are efficient at growing on pasture and we don't have to feed them full time. But it seems most people only care about the amount of meat they are getting. Not the quality of life of their animals. They don't care if they live on concrete and are fed corn 100% of the time if they are getting a 400lb hog by the end of the year. We grow our Kune Kunes for 11-16 months, and they top out at about 200 lbs. And unfortunately, feed cost too much for us to justify our own philosophies on meat right now.
So we are getting out of pigs.
We are hoping this gives us more time for other things. We've thought about doing a small garden this year and building two raised beds in the front yard. I told Sam that another thing I figured out last year was that if something is not on our way or visible every single day, we won't do it. We won't walk up to the garden. To water, weed, or pick. We have so much going on that if it seems like too much effort, our brains say no or forget about it. So raised beds in the front yard is probably the best set up for us. And not 8 like our Athens house. Not 6. Not even 4. I want to start out with 2. Or even 1. Something small that will allow us to grow some peppers and tomatoes without getting overwhelmed like we always do.
After we decided no animals, we debated on building a shop or part of a shop for several months. But finally, we realized that we could use the basement for now. Or if we use the personal funds we were going to use for the shop and put it toward the extension Sam wants on the house, we can use the expanded basement as the shop. The shop is needed mostly for the carpentry we are going to be doing in the house and for part storage--drywall, tile, flooring, etc.
(please, excuse my double chin)
We spent the last bit of my pregnancy and the early part of Hazel's birth organizing the basement. Sam would say I sort of forced him into organizing the basement a little sooner than perhaps he wanted. But a few months ago we inherited a lot of things from his grandfather's warehouse. It filled up two trailers--a tiny one and the dump trailer. When we got the trailers back home, we knew we wouldn't have space in the garage or the basement, so we tarped them and focused our attention on other farm needs. Right before Hazel, we noticed the tarps were starting to break down. And with the winter storm coming, I felt it was important to empty the trailers before the ice. It was close. We finished Saturday at 12:00, and the snow started at 1:00, but Sam did it! So for the first time in a long time, Sam will know where his tools are when we start a renovation project, haha.
As of right now, it is unclear if we are going to move forward with shelters for Sam's equipment, a shop, or replace the roof so we can start putting in central AC. We will keep listening to the Holy Spirit and trying to figure out the best way to proceed with house/farm renovations.
Maple Syrup is still up in the air. Not only because of the weather pushing the tapping season back but also because we don't have the evaporator built yet. Our wonderful Uncle Shawn is going to build us an evaporator to put in the front barn, but it's unknown if he's going to be able to finish for this season or not. Secretly, I'm hoping not just because my mental space is crowded with new baby right now. But I also promised people a drawing for a pint of free maple syrup during the craft fairs this year. Luckily, we have a jar left over from last year, so I will be using that!
Mena's birth went fairly well. She refused to come out. She was due Jan 17, and I scheduled an induction for Jan 15. For the past three pregnancies, I have refused Pitocin because my body is a pro at contractions, and I really don't need the extra help. But even after we broke my water (and it took 3 attempts because apparently the sack was so strong), the contractions would not get going. So I had to go on Pitocin. I didn't want to get an epidural too early because it would slow down the labor, so I tried to wait until the contractions started to get pretty strong. However, I forgot how my body goes from 0 to 100 super fast. So by the time the anesthesiologist got there, I was 9 cm dilated! We almost had that baby without an epidural...just like William.
Finally got the epidural in and unfortunately, Hazel's head was pressing on a nerve. So my right leg did not numb, and I could still feel the contractions on that side. Also, I'm guessing because of the nerve issue, every time I had a contraction, it felt like someone was ripping the top inch of my skin off of my thigh. I swear, it was so painful! The leg pain finally went away when she crowned. Aaaand the epidural kicked in on that side AFTER she was born. So it was like 3 hours of my right leg SUPER numb because they had given me a heavy dose trying to get rid of that leg pain.
Another couple neat things about her birth. I gave a copy of the Baby Caterpillar to both our nurse (she was expecting in 5-6 more weeks) and to the midwife who delivered Mena. The next day, Rachel's (my sil) neighbor was our nurse, and my cousin was Hazel's nurse. Big thank you to Kylie for being so great! It was really fun spending our limited time together!
Daddy was amazing and held tradition, so I got a cookie-dough blizzard after...and for the next three days, haha. The hospital just changed pediatricians, and they only require the baby to be there 24 hours. So we came in Thursday morning to have the baby, and we went home from the hospital Friday. Nonni was here keeping Mena while we were in the hospital, so we really only had her that night. We waited until Saturday before bringing the other three home.
And then we had Hazel baptized Sunday morning! She was two and a half days old! Younger than Mena who was 3 days old at the time. I managed to make her a baptism gown really quick. It was MUCH too big but in my defense, I modeled it off of my own baptism gown. Only I used buttons instead of ribbons to tie, so I couldn't cinch it as tight as mine could. It was still super cute, though, and I used lace I inherited from Granny and a bedsheet I inherited from Sam's grandma.
The kids have been great with her. William WILL NOT stop touching her, but then he's always been obsessed with babies. Rylee is big enough to pick her up and hold her and carry her to me. She's been a BIG help already. Mena is also obsessed with her. We cannot leave her in the same room as Hazel because she tries to drag her or pick her up. Every time she she's the baby she runs over and says "baby". And she now calls boobs "bo bos" so that's hilarious. The other funny thing she does is that she likes to help when the baby is in the bouncer. Only her method of bouncing the baby is to push the bouncer to the ground...and release. It's like she's trying to trebuchet the baby across the room! Luckily, I have caught it every time so far, so no baby Hazel's hurt!
Hazel has been sleeping okay. She usually wakes up between 2-4 and grunts until I get up in the morning. She is showing some of the same signs as Mena and Will with milk intolerance, but it's not consistent with timing. And not as bad as Mena and Will. They were inconsolable when their stomach hurt. Hazel doesn't appear to be that bad. But I'm on week 2 of giving up dairy.
Luke and Mena both had a bit of regressions with Hazel's birth. Luke's was behavioral. He became even more whiny (hard to do for a 3 year old), and started using his words even less. So it's been a lot of crying/screaming and a lot of resistance. I swear, I've tried everything with that boy. Positive nor negative motivation does not work with him. Bribing nor threatening. The only thing that works for me is to stick him on the porch in the cold for thirty seconds, haha. That seems to reset his brain and snap him out of his stinkyness.
Mena's regression was a sleep regression. Her whole life, we've been able to set her in the bed and she goes to sleep on her own for nap and for night. We just had to give her a book or a stuffed animal and a drink. Easy peasy. We came back from the hospital, and now she cries every time I take her up to bed and every time I leave the room. So I either have to sit in her bed until she falls asleep, or put her in our bed and carry her to hers once she falls asleep.
So it's been a bit of an adjustment here at the Burns house. If you were a fly on the wall, you would see lots of cuteness but hear lots of yelling, haha. Momma's hormones have been CRAZY, so I've been super grumpy. But it's getting better, and I always do better with a routine. Sam went back to work today (February 11), and it's been nice having him home for almost 4 weeks. I wish he worked from home permanently, but I think he's probably happy to get a day away from the craziness, haha.
We are getting back into school, and the kids are doing great! Luke is learning his letters, Mena is learning her colors, Will is just starting to read, and Rylee is doing great with reading and math! Honestly, juggling Mena is the hardest right now. She wants to do work like the kids, BUT she wants to use markers and then she either 1) colors herself, 2) colors the table, 3) colors a wall, random piece of furniture/the toilet lid, or 4) loses the lid. I'm trying to get back into a routine of cleaning but I'm also trying to give myself some grace and time to adjust.
Pray for us! And thanks for all your love and support. Here are the rest of the pictures!
(the snow melt after the big winter storm that lasted FOREVER).
(not the best picture, but it will do for now. Baby girl had the hiccups, and she has the WORST baby acne right now. She, Mena and Will definitely have had it the worst.) Please, enjoy these three cookie recipes!
CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES
Ingredients:
2 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
½ tsp salt
¾-1 bag chocolate chips
¾ cup brown sugar
¾ cup white sugar
1 cup butter (softened)
1 tsp vanilla
1 egg
Directions:
0. If you forgot to leave your butter out to soften, don’t feel bad. I never remember. Put the two sticks of butter (1 cup) in a bowl in the microwave and heat just until the middle of both of the sticks is runny (about 15 secs first time, 5 secs at a time after if still needed). Try and get the sweet spot so you don’t melt too much. Preheat oven to 350o. If you accidentally melt all of the butter, you will need to add more flour.
1. Mix the sugar and softened butter together in a medium sized bowl. Add the egg and the vanilla.
2. In a separate bowl, mix together the flour, baking soda and salt.
3. Add the flour to the sugar mixture a little bit at a time until all the flour is mixed in.
4. Add the chocolate chips until you get your desired ratio of chocolate to dough.
5. Form small dough balls (about 1 ½ inches in diameter) and place onto baking pans.
6. Bake for 10-13 minutes, depending on your oven. You want the edges of the cookies to be pulling away from the pan, but the cookies will not look done when you take them out. The cookies will set as they cool. Cover them as soon as you can after they cool to keep cookies fresh and soft.
SUGAR COOKIES
Ingredients:
2 1/4 cups flour
1 1/2 cups of sugar
1 egg
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
Directions:
1. If you forgot to leave your butter out to soften, don’t feel bad. I never remember. Put the two sticks of butter (1 cup) in a bowl in the microwave and heat just until the middle of both of the sticks is runny (about 15 secs first time, 5 secs at a time after if still needed). Try and get the sweet spot so you don’t melt too much. Preheat oven to 350o. If you accidentally melt all of the butter, you will need to add more flour.
2. Cream the sugar into the butter and stir until light in color and fluffy. Add the egg and stir until all mixed in.
3. Sprinkle the salt and baking powder onto the butter mixture BEFORE you add the flour.
4. Stir until just incorporated. If you over stir, your cookies will be flat. But I kind of like flat sugar cookies, so stir really well!
5. Bake for 9-12 minutes, depending on your oven. You want the edges of the cookies to be pulling away from the pan, but the cookies will not look done when you take them out. The cookies will set as they cool. Cover them as soon as you can after they cool to keep cookies fresh and soft.
OATMEAL COOKIES
5
Ingredients:
3 cups oats
1 cup flour
3/4 cup of CRISCO (don't use off brand...it tastes gross)
1 cup brown sugar
1 egg
1/2 cups of sugar
1/4 cup water
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
1. Cream the sugar into the CRISCO. It will take some effort, but stir until everything is mixed evenly and everything is kind of fluffy. Add the egg and water and stir until smooth.
2. Sprinkle the baking soda and salt BEFORE adding the oats and the flour.
3. Stir until incorporated. Bake on 350 for 9-12 minutes, depending on your oven. You want the edges of the cookies to be pulling away from the pan, but the cookies will not look done when you take them out. The cookies will set as they cool. Cover them as soon as you can after they cool to keep cookies fresh and soft.
-optional: add some dried cranberries to taste
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