Happy Kids

Still Here

Yes, I am still alive! I haven't been eaten by boxes... barely. Our home is wonderful! Beautiful! And starting to feel like ours! The kids are loving it. No problems at all adjusting to the house or having a room of their own! I am so proud of them. On top of this all I've been working 40-50 hours a week!!!!! Hence the lack of up dates. But rest assured all is wonderful...crazy and wonderful!!!!!!

Home Owners!!!!!

We've done it! It's official! We are once again home owners! We got the keys Friday May 30th at 6:15 pm! It was wonderful to walk into that house knowing it was now OUR!
Since then, we have eaten 2 family dinners there (on blankets, picnic style), changed our mailing address, painted trim, painted an accent wall, put up one fan (in the master bedroom), put down contact paper in the kitchen and seal ALL the grout in the entire house. Plus we have made one run to the storage unit already! I think that we should be in there permanently in about a week and a half/ two weeks! Not that we are excited to leave mom and dads home... because it truly has been WONDERFUL here, but we are looking forward to once again having our little family unit... and to live for the first time together as a family of FIVE!

Back At Work

I started back at work yesterday! It felt great to be back doing what I love...but boy did I miss my kids!!!! Matthew brought them by to say hi and so I could nurse Darren instead of pumping (again). What a fun treat it was to see then all. Wesley wanted to show off his new big brother status by holding Darren. Everyone got a kick out of it...everyone but Darren!

2 Months Old

This sweet little man is already 2 months old! I can hardly believe it! He had his 2 month dr visit today...this boy is growing like a weed. He is now 11 pounds 8 oz (27%), 24 inches long (88%), and his little peanut head is 14.5 inches (3%)! Thats right i said %3!!!!! Tiny!!!
He is such a sweet guy (as long as he is being held)...man loves to be held! He is pretty seriouse, but is starting to grace us with his sweet smiles daily. He has a quite little voice (now) when he coo's and is always wiggling  and moving. Oh and he LOVES being naked and hates being hot. He is wonderful is every way!!!

Catch Up

I have been so wrapped up in motherhood and house-buying paperwork/inspections (all of which are going well) that I haven't had a ton-o blogging time. So here are some photos to bring you all up to speed.

Darren's baby photo shoot: Love, Love, LOVE these pictures. If anyone needs a sweet, wonderful and very talented photographer give Michelle a call! AMAZING!!!!!

Easter: So much fun.

 

Cute Baby: As I was holding Darren and signing MORE house paperwork he found his thumb for the first time... looks like was may have another thumb sucker on our hands.

Mothers Day: Lovely day! Just about perfect. Great family time, beautiful new necklace (love it) and snake porn (that's right I said snake porn.... boom-chick-a-wooow-wooow!). Who could ask for more?!?!?!

Happy Mothers Day

Crickets

The night before last Mallory came shuffling into our room at 3 am, her blankets and stuffed animals trailing behind her. I was actually on my way to feed Darren, so we all-but collided with each other in the dark. I turned her around and took her back into her room to tuck her in. She told me that she couldn't sleep because the crickets were too loud. (Those darn country crickets!). Well I am happy to say that she wont have to worry about it for much longer because............................................................................................... wait for it.....
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Our offer was excepted!!!!! We got the house!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Why Leave?

We are still waiting to hear about the house…. Hopefully tomorrow! Not that we are in a hurry. Living with my folks has been a cake walk. They aren’t really doing anything that would make us want to leave… check out the perks of living here;

Free rent, help with cleaning and cooking, once a week my parents have literally kicked Matthew and I out so we can go on a date while they watch the kids (for free), the kids have a huge yard to play in, they just built a beautiful huge play structure (otherwise known as the ice castle… thank you Disney), we have 2/3 of a beautiful house all to ourselves and there is always someone to hold a crying baby! Maybe we would be silly to move!

Love This Boy!

P.S. We put an offer in on a house tiday! Yikes/yippee!

JANIE!

 

I had wanted to do a big, long blog about the Chapman visit… but now that it’s almost been 3 weeks I’m realizing that I just need to post some pictures and do a little blog about it.

Janie and her beautiful family came to visit for 4 days (in reality I only saw her for 2 ¼)… and I’m sure if she could stay for a month it wouldn’t be long enough, so you can imagine how short 4 days seemed! It was a beautiful weekend (shockingly hot) so we spent most of the time outside, chatting, watching the kids play (Frozen… The movie, what else?!?), going on walks, nursing our babies and just loving being in each other’s company! It was such a joy to meet their newest little addition Charlotte (aka Lottie). She is Beautiful! And so mellow! Oh, and with the most adorable husky little cry I’ve ever heard. Janie looks stunning (as always) and I sat in ‘ah’ as I watched her juggle parenting 4 kids…while traveling!!!!! Very impressive! She also was able to help me a ton with the G.F. eating! It was so wonderful to see them all, but it felt like heaven to spend so much time with Janie! It’s like my entire childhood/adolescence and adulthood comes back and converges all in one person! Janie is truly that person where our friendship standstill and flourishes all at the same time. She has always been there, even if it’s in a different state (though I do keep trying to get her back here) especially since our kids get along sooooooo well!!!!! I even offered her to opportunity to move in with us… here, at my parents! They wouldn’t mind another 6 people!

Any way, it was a wonderful visit. Practically magical! Thank you all for making the long trip out! I love you each!

High Hopes

No pressure kid, but momma has HIGH hopes for you too! ;)

Home Stretch

Well I think we are over the worst of it! Wesley is feeling better and is not nearly as such a grouch. Thank goodness! The blisters
are clearing up and he's eating again! So far dDarren hasn't skipped a beat...so fingers crossed we're in the clear! He is really getting big! According to my scale hes just over 10 pounds now!!!! He's going to be a tank!!!!! Also he rolled from his tummy to his back today...while i wasnt looking (i had him next to me while i was changing Wesleys stinky diaper.) The next thing i know hes on his back. It's killing me how quickly he's growing up!

Freak Out

Oh my goodness! I had a HECK of a scare yesterday! I mean one that I still get all jittery about even 14 hours after it happened!!!!
Yesterday my dad and Matthew were putting together a beautiful HUGE play structure for the kids. You know one of those beautiful wooden ones from Costco (except they got it off craigslist). So there is wooden beams, screws, bits and power tools all over the place, Matthew and dad are hard at work, they bigger kids are playing in the sand (and underfoot occasionally), Darren is in his swing in the shade and mom and I are moving patio-bricks.
Next thing I know, Mallory is screaming! I look up and see her running to Matthew, the DeWalt power drill sticking out of her HEAD!!!!!!!! Matthew is screaming at her to stop! Stop! STOP! As he reaches her the sound of the drill stops and that when I realize that she has been holding down the trigger that entire time! I rushed to my baby girl fully expecting to be dealing with blood, a fractured scull and potential brain trauma! As I reached her I saw that Matthew was supporting the drill and there was NO blood! (first thought was that the drill bit was just occluding the blood supply... so do I leave it in and risk potential intracranial hemorrhage or remove it and risk extracranial hemorrhage?)
Turns out neither!!!!!!!!!!
As my hand went to her head I was relieved to feel there was NO DRILL BIT! She had picked up the drill and turned it on and her hair had become entangled in it... the more she pressed the trigger the tighter it wound... which was why she was screaming. It was literally pulling her hair, not drilling into her scull!!!! THANK GOD!
I yelled for mom to grab the scissors, but somehow my dad was already half ways across the yard on his way.
Moments later he was back with them, and a thick 'snip' of hair later she was free!!!!!
As I pressed her to my chest I had to suppress my urge to cry and vomit all at once!
That fear was horrible. The potential was horrible. I have since thanked God countless times for keeping her safe and just letting it be hair that we were having to cut!
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On a lighter note, but still sad (an highly annoying) Wesley has Hand, Foot and Mouth disease! He's over the body rash/fever stage, and now we are at the painful oral blister and very cranky stage! We are cleaning everything continuously and practically quarantining Darren to keep him from getting it too!

G.F.

Literally from the day that Darren was born he was stinky! I don’t just mean sour… I mean nose hair singeing rotten-like sour! I jokingly told him that if this is how the next 18 years are going to be then he is going to be living in a tent outside! Seriously! Rotten! I figured that, like with my other 2 it was something I was eating… probably dairy (like the others). And as a side note I wasn’t smelling like roses either (gag!). So I removed all dairy. Nope, we both were still rotten. I tried the BRAT diet (bananas, rice, apple sauce and toast) for 48 hours… still rotten. Then I thought (horrors of horrors) maybe it’s due to the bread/pastas (aka the gluten). Now for the past 8 days I have removed gluten and dairy and I am doing great, Darren is doing better. Still gassier then either of the other 2 kids ever were, but no longer painful/uncomfortable and not nearly as rotten. Sigh! I am hoping that as both of our hormone levels level out we’ll be able to get back on gluten and that Darren isn’t always going to need a special diet… but we’ll see. As of now I am learning how to eat gluten free… it’s not as bad as I thought, but still not super fun. If anything, I figure it’s a great (forced) diet!  

Short & Sweet

I have so many things that I want to talk about… Darren’s birthmark, diet changes, Matthews injury, Mallory’s sickness, Krush’s injury/sickness and our visitors! But seeing as how I am typing one handed because God-forbid I actually put Darren down without him screaming bloody murder (who’s sick of it?!?!?!) I’ll keep it short and sweet.

Darren has a birthmark (I have yet to find one on Wesley and Mallory has two). Anyway, Darren’s is on the top of his head, just left of midline. It’s a small Port-wine stain oval mark. When I found it a few weeks ago I thought that maybe it was a little boo-boo, but then I realized it wasn’t going away or getting worse/better. So there you have it.

And Matthew got a nice shiner at his rugby game this past weekend, thanks to a nasty gash under his eye from a team mate (which his brother closed with super glue at the field so he could continue playing). Crazy man! It would have needed stitches, but it was SOOOOO sealed over with super glue that it was doing to job just fine… just might have a little bigger scar then if I would have closed it. Oh well, scars are sexy!

2 Week Check-up

This past Wednesday Darren had his 2 week old doctor appointment. Everything was great, (besides the fact that we didn't get to see our normal doctor). He has exceeded his birth weight and now weighs 7 pounds 6 ounces which puts him in the 16th percentile for weight, he is now 20 and a half inches long putting him in the 58th percentile for length and his head is 13.4 inches putting him in the 7th percentile for head circumference... got to love our little peanut headed children!!!!

Great Kids

I hahaven't really had the chance to talk about it yet, but Mallory and Wesley have been AMAZING! I mean there has been no jealousy just pure and sweet love from them both of them towards Darren. It has been incredible! Mallory is always wanting to hold him and is singing sweet little songs for him. Being a little momma. Wesley wants to hold him some but really wants to be there to pet his head, supervise diaper changes and would love nothing more then if we would let Darren sleep with him during nap time! It has been such a blessing to have such good helpers!
Today i loaded up the kids and went to the outlets (mom came to). It was a little bit  of a production to get out the door...but all-in-all went really well! Which is good since thats what we have instore for the next 18 years!

Sigh!

I can’t believe that it has been a week already! Time is going so quickly. I am trying to soak in each and every little newborn moment… since this probably is our last baby. The last shriveled umbilical stump, the last of those sweet little newborn cries, those scrunchy old-man-newborn faces he makes, the way he has that little booty-tooch when you pick him up then melts into your chest, the way milk dribbles out his mouth as he slips into a milk-comma… just thinking about how sweet and precious newborns are makes me want another one… for a split second. Because then I remember they turn into tantrum throwing toddlers and know-it all three year olds. So I will just soak up him. His sweet honey-like smell, so different from the earthy/musty Mallory smell, or the soft/cotton-like Wesley smell. His little squeaks and sortie/stuffily breathing.  

Sigh!

I love this little man!  

Darren Matthew's Birth Story

This is a LOOOOOOOOOONG post... so grab some ice cream and settle in...

This birth was different from the previous 2. It seems a little strange to me that as the same person and overall ending in the same result can have the middle be so different each time! I had been feeling so big, so uncomfortable and so ready to deliver for SO many days that on Wednesday March 12, mom thought that she would go ahead had check me (I didn’t have a doctor’s appointment for another week and was sure I wasn’t going to make it until then).  I LOVE the benefit of having an L&D nurse for a mom! How cool is that?!?! She did her exam and I was only 3 cm and about 70-75% effaced… so not a whole lot had changed in a week, despite how ‘ripe’ I was feeling. I spent the day walking, contracting, playing with the kids, contracting, napping, contracting, going to the park, contracting… did I mention I was contracting?! Because of this I contacted my midwife who said she would come over to my house that night and check me. So at 5:30 she showed up and I was now a stretchy 4 and 80%... so some progress. She did a little membrane sweep and said that IF the baby is ready to come, BK3 will come. If it’s not, then we just keep waiting. The BIG thing was that we wanted to have a little wiggle room/prior knowledge because of the need for IV antibiotic 4 hours PRIOR to delivery. So if things progress she recommended I call her and head in to the hospital.

The boys finished BBQing chicken and we ate dinner at 6:30. (Let me tell you from personal experience BBQed chicken is NOT the taste you want in your mouth during delivery.) Anyway. I had downloaded this contraction tracker app. On my phone (thanks mom) and it was evident that the contractions were getting closer together… like ever 5-7 minutes… but still only 20-30 seconds long. Per mom, they don’t really get excited until they are about 40 seconds long. Regardless, we thought we should head in. So we did. Mom, Matthew and myself. The entire drive over mom and I were thinking ‘I hope we aren’t jumping the gun’.

we arrived it was 7:15 and were taken to room 7 (the fancy suite-like room). In each room there are monitors up that show the tracing of all the ladies that are currently in labor(so the nurses can see everyone at all times). The second I walked in the room I said quietly to all the other ladies tracings “Race ya’!” (We know how I love a little healthy competition!) I was ‘checked’ by the midwife that was on that evening (MY midwife hadn’t arrived yet but was coming in special JUST for me!) How sweet is she?!?!?! Anyway, I was STILL a 4! Boo! I wasn’t what they really consider in labor… but they admitted me anyway (even though 5 is the magic number) since they wanted me to get my meds. So the IV antibiotics were started at 7:30, ALLLLLLLL the admitting questions were asked, then I was allowed to get up and walk around. So Matthew and I went for a little walk through the hallways. Stopping and leaning on Matthew with some contractions and walking through others.  

At 9:30 I started feeling like things were getting more intense, so my midwife checked me and now I was a 7 and 100% effaced and my water bag was bulging! Sweet! No one was really thinking that I was going to have progressed that much in 2 hours especially since I hadn’t been in ‘labor’. So everyone started bustling about getting things into the room, moving other things out. Contractions continued to increase in frequency and intensity and at 9:58 my desire to push started…but when they checked me I was only an 8. I was instructed to TRY not to push and to really just work through the contractions to buy us a little more time since at this point we had only been there 2 hours total… and we really needed 2 MORE hours for the meds to work)… but we all knew that wasn’t going to happen anymore… but still I was supposed to try. So try I did! Since arriving I had started to have back labor so I couldn’t really lay down, so I was standing and hanging on Matthew (my arms draped around his neck),  pushing my forehead into his chest, while I moaned, rocked, ‘fuffffed’ and tried really really hard not to push. I thought for sure that I was going to crack his sternum with how hard I would press into him (but he said that really I was barely pushing… then again he has huge rugby guys running into him 2-3 times a week, so I guess to him it was nothing).

At 10:13 a HUGE contraction rocked my world and I while I was trying (unsuccessfully) not to push my water broke. Ahhhhhh! Sweet relief! That feeling was heavenly. The burning  pressure diminished (momentarily) and the finish line was now insight. While that huge contraction was still underway I was gently and slowly guided back to the bed… while hands/drapes were slid between my legs (incase the baby came out while I was standing).  Now that I was back on the bed and before another contraction hit my midwife checked me again… but I was only a 9 (not the 10 we were all expecting). So she really didn’t want me to push yet (I guess if you push while a 9 it can actually cause trauma/inflammation which sets you back again because of the swelling). Lord knows I didn’t want that so I gave myself a little pep-talk and during the next contraction ended up grunting/chanting “Don’t push! Don’t push! Don’t push! Don’t push! Don’t push! Don’t push! Don’t puuuuuuuuuuuuuush!” Yep that last one was a push. We all know what that means and there’s really no stopping it! So my midwife asked if I wanted her to help stretch me to a 10… HECK yeah! So she did. And thankfully she did because right then at 10:18 BK3’s heart rate really dropped and they actually couldn’t find it! So the midwife said that I would need to push that baby out, regardless if I was having a contraction or not! So Push I did! I had a mirror and was touching and watching this beautiful head of dark hair getting bigger and bigger with each push I gave. Matthew was great, reminding me to breath and holding one of my legs so that I cold bear down with more force. Moments later I could see a blue head fully emerge and one push later at 10:25 I was pulling this beautiful blue/pink, vernix covered baby out and up onto my chest! (I have amazing pictures if you guys want to see! They are increasable).

The nurses were rubbing his body, to stimulate a cry, sucking his airways and I was kissing this sweet wet head. Matthew was desperately trying to see if we had a new little boy or girl, but my arm was apparently in the way. When I moved it, his face lit up and he said “It’s a boy! We have another little boy!” (Which is what he was wanting, but had been convinced it would be a girl). Very quickly they got the cord clamped and Matthew was rushed over to cut it, then our little man was taken over to the warming station (feet away from me) and assessed and treated more thoroughly.  A minute later he was crying and back on my chest. He quickly pinked-up (aside from the facial bruising due to the quick delivery).  I had a slight tear, so after that was repaired the three of us got to spend a quiet hour bonding together and getting some skin-on-skin time with our newest family member. All the grandparents came after that to visit for a few moments (and watched Matthew give him his first bath) and get weighed and measured. Then it was off to post-partum… for the next 48 hours since I didn’t get the meds in soon enough.

I figured this would be pretty anticlimactic, but there was a little adventure on this wing as well. After getting our son and me all settled in for the night Matthew headed home. Around 4 am I went to get up to pee and noticed that there was what looked to be a large about of blood pooling around me. I paged my nurse who was also a little surprised by this (and her shock grew as we found more and more layer to it). Not to mention that I had virtually no bleeding prior to 4 am. There was enough blood that the nurse actually gathered up all the sheets/blankets/gown/pad and weighted them to determine how much I had lost. 45 minutes later the same thing happened. At this point I was put on some meds and my little man was brought in for nursing/to stimulated contractions/tightening up my uterus. The combo worked well and the bleeding became normalized over the next 6 hours. Whew!

So that was Darren’s birth story. Labor for 2 hours and pushing for 6 minutes and a healthy baby boy at the end of it!

P.S. Yes that is a black eye that Matthew has… and No, I did not give it to him. ;)