Beach Trip

We took a family trip to the beach today. Rich is almost done with his vacation, and we decided to do something out of the house today. (We also checked out local campgrounds to find one suitable for our family to hang out at if we want to go camping this summer..) The weather was cool, but not unpleasant. The kids had a blast, and Rich took them on a nature walk showing them crabs, sea anemones, and starfish in the tide pools, while I nursed Maeve on the picnic blanket.

Maeve's first beach outing...

Daddy building sandcastles with the kids.

It was all fun and games until Brynn's $1 shovel broke.

Cannon enjoying playing in the sand and dirtiness.

Looking pretty funny in her beanie cap and jammies at the beach.

2 Weeks Old

This is when you love them the most right????

Clean after a sponge bath...

Sleeping on Daddy's chest. He loves this part!

The Big Kids

He wants to fix things just like Daddy....

Proud Big Sister wants to hold Maeve whenever she can!



Remember the days when you could do this????

Cannon and the BIG Yellow Tractor

My son is obsessed with miniature cars, motorcycles, and tractors. He enjoys driving them around the coffee table, the walls, the floor, my legs, whatever he can find. He especially loves the Mini John Deere Tractor that my folks gave him for Easter. He hitches it up, and drives it around the house, complete with the "vvvroooomm" sounds.
For his birthday, my parents got him a larger tractor that he can sit on, and pedal around. It comes with a trailer that he can fill with treasures. Rich and I are over it. He can't turn the thing around, he can barely reach the pedals, and he sometimes insists on parking it next to his bed when he goes to sleep at night. This thing is HUGE!!!!

I think this might be considered a fire hazard....

Mistaken Identity

Its hard to find a second to sit down even to write just a short blog entry. Baby Maeve is content in her swing, and Cannon is waiting for me to read him a story on the carpet in the living room. So here goes:
Our nighttime routine (if you can call it that) consists of Maeve sleeping in the pack n play at the foot of our bed. She will cry, Rich will go and change her diaper, and bring her back to me to nurse. This way, we both get the most sleep possible, since the little one has no desire to get on any type of schedule.
A few nights ago, toward dawn, baby Maeve decided it was time to eat. Rich got up, changed her and brought her back to me. All of a sudden he lets out a strange yelp, and starts to laugh. Apparently she had tried to latch on to his exposed nipple, and succeeded. I don't know how she managed to think his hairy nipple was mine, but it was definitely a case of mistaken identity. Rich continued to laugh about it for a few minutes. Someone asked him later how she even managed to find his nipple. He said, "Well, it was kinda cold in the room..."

First Week

Its been almost a full week of being a mommy to 3. Its going relatively well, considering Rich is off work for 2 weeks, and I haven't had to be alone with all three yet for more than a few hours. I am curious to see how its going to be once he goes back, but I am sure that my sleep deprived mind will let all the time just slip away and I won't remember it being too horrible. We are still trying to figure out our newest little one. She isn't easily consoled, and tends to work herself up pretty quickly. I am trying to get her to take a pacifier, but she absolutely refuses, and its a bit of a bummer. She is getting used to her swing which helps free me up to give some physical attention to the other two. She isn't a fan of the sling, and that is something that I have no clue how to address.
Cannon loves to come up and "pat" her on the head. Other than that, he is pretty much over having another person in the house. Thanks goodness for his obliviousness.
Brynn is another story. I don't know if its for attention, or real, but she can't remember what the Maeve's name is. We ask her all day, every day, and each time, she claims that she can't remember, and asks us to help her out. Its irritating, but I don't know if its for real or not.
Rich is sleeping well at night....enough said.
I am trying to nurse every 3-4 hours, but sometimes that just doesn't work either. I can't wait to get a schedule established. (I know, I know, she's only a week old...but I am still looking forward to a bit more sleep.)
Maeve is squalking. Gotta go feed!

Sweet baby Maeve when she is sleeping.

Its a .....

GIRL!!!
Wow. I can't believe that the wait is over. 42 long weeks, and our little girl has finally arrived. Not that she came willingly, but she came.
The induction on Friday didn't work quite as well as planned, but ultimately brought us our baby early Saturday morning. We checked into the hospital around 9am. I expected things to get going soon after, but like most things, paperwork, processing and a very busy Labor and Delivery ward slowed things down. By11 am, I had an IV access, and one dose of a cervical ripening pill. When they checked me at 3:30pm, I was dilated to 2 cm, and only 30% effaced. My second dose of the cervical pill started soon after, and I had some mild cramping and contractions, but nothing too serious. At 8pm, they checked again, and I had dilated to 3cm, and was 50% effaced. At this point, the midwife came in to tell me that they wanted to let me rest, take a shower, eat a good dinner, sleep through the night, and they would attempt to start again at 4am. I was pretty discouraged. We sent home my sister in law, called everyone to let them know that we were still sans baby, and prepared to go to bed. By the time we ate, got ready for spending the night in the hospital, and I took a shower it was 10pm. At this point I had started having contractions that were not so mild, and not easy to deal with. They gave me morphine and an anti-nausea medicine to help me sleep.
At 1am I called for a nurse, because it was impossible for me to deal with the pain of the contractions. I had already thrown up from the morphine, had the worst case heartburn in my life, and dealt with an iv that burned so badly I had to wrap my hand in ice. Apparently my contractions had not been showing up on the nurse station monitor, so they thought that I was sleeping and enjoying my time in bed. The nurse checked me again, found out I had dilated to 4 and was now 60% effaced. She called for the anesthesiologist and ordered the much anticipated epidural. They pumped a bag of fluid in me, gave me a round of antibiotics, and got the epidural started all in a matter of 15 minutes.
The relief from the epidural was amazing - on the right side of my body. My left was completely unaffected, so we called the doc back in to fix it. He made some minor adjustments in the placement of the epidural, while I barfed some more, and added few extra doses of medicine to help with the pain. When all that was working as it should, relief from the contractions and the nausea were totally effective. I was able to sleep for the first time since Thursday night for a few hours. I woke up to the sound of my water breaking at about 4am. (That was kinda cool, since it had never happened before...)
3 contractions later, I felt an extreme amount of pressure, as if the baby was on its way out. I called for the nurse again, and she checked me to find out that I was completely dilated, effaced and ready to deliver. She wanted me to try out pushing, but I asked to wait, since Elissa wasn't there yet, and I knew that it might be a really fast delivery like Cannon's. We called Elissa, my sister, and mom, and told them to hurry if they wanted to come and see the baby be delivered. Mom declined, said that she would rather wait outside. Sister had to get to work, and thought she wouldn't be able to make it (she ended up coming and being able to help out anyways), and sister in law threw on some wrinkled clothes and sped to the hospital. At 4:45 am I was given the go ahead to "give it a little push" and did. I was then told to "Stop, we have to call the midwife", and a flurry of activity followed. The baby kinda just wiggled out, without much help from me, and the nurse ended up doing the delivery while the midwife threw on some gloves. 2 minutes later, at 4:47 am Maeve Leanne was out and laying on my chest. It was awesome. I actually got to help pull her out, and I was the one who got to see whether she was a girl or a boy. Such an amazing experience. She was not quite the small baby that everyone predicted, but still our smallest. She weighed in at 8 lbs, 4 oz, and 20.5 inches long. Her hair is dark, although I assume, like the others it will be blond later. She looks like Brynn, and I am still blown away to have another little girl in my life. Two daughters. Who would have thought it?
Thanks for the prayer and support. I am so glad that this part is over, and now I get to move on to learning about my new little child.

After a day of induction...No baby yet. 9pm, discouraged, but still managed a smile for the camera.

The 3 girls...Saturday morning


Maeve Leanne

Friday News

Well, its Friday morning, and I am supposed to already be checked into the hospital getting this whole ordeal on. We called at 5am and they have asked us to wait to come in. We will be heading to the hospital at around 8am. I have had a few contractions this morning, but like the last two weeks, nothing too painful, and nothing with any sort of timing or regularity. Just enough to make me pause and wonder if something is actually going to happen.
I am nervous, but God blessed me with a great night sleep, despite the heat of our house (it was 88 inside when we finally went to bed at 11pm). I was exhausted from a hot day, the kids were tired, and we all enjoyed a good nights sleep. Thanks God!!!!

Here is how you can pray for us today.
1. Pray for peace and calmness for this "new" procedure for me.
2. Pray that Rich can support me in any way possible
3. Pray that we only have great progress and forward progression in this day. (They don't send me home after hours of failed attempts)
4. Pray that this baby is healthy and willing to come out.
5. Pray that the doctors, nurses and staff are all in great moods, and are enjoying their workday...

Thanks friends. Hope to have great news for you all in a day or two!!!

A little bit "o" news...

So, it was officially my last doc appt today. Got good news and bad. Lets go with the bad first, so that we can finish with the good!

Bad News: I have apparently gone from a 2cm to a 1.5 cm dilation. Don't really know how that happens, but that is where we are at. Slightly disheartening, but I have always been slow at this part. Cervix is still really thick (no effacement), and haven't had any other signs of labor starting soon.

Good News: Baby #3 head is way down. Has come down to rest nicely on the top of my still thick cervix. My induction is scheduled for Friday, 8am. There is an end in sight. I was also given a non-stress test, which includes laying down on a bed, listening to the babies heartbeat (perfectly happy child inside of me), monitoring for contractions (none), and checking via ultrasound for pockets of fluid to keep this kid well marinated (plenty for now). While I was in the Labor and Delivery, I was trying to convince the baby that there is a lot of really good stuff here on the outside, and it should really consider giving it a try to see if its worth it. Baby didn't really respond to my pep talk, but maybe some of my worldly wisdom sank in...

I am still hoping to do all this on my bodies time, but at this point its nice to see the finish line, even if I don't know when I am going to get there. I did get to meet the midwife who will probably take my case while I was there, and she was pretty nice so that is comforting.

Anyways, my first prayer is that this happens sooner than Friday. My second is that if I have to wait longer, it will go smoothly and quickly, and the induction will be a great experience.
Hopefully my next post will involve pics of our long awaited arrival!

Mothers Day

I give up. I obviously cannot predict worth beans when this baby is coming. Therefore, I quit. I am done. I submit to the fact that I won't know more than anyone else on this issue, and I have to just go with the flow....

That said, we went to church this morning and I was reminded of one of my favorite examples of a woman from the bible. The Proverbs 31 woman is what the pastor shared on this morning. Fitting for Mothers Day for sure, but more of a personal reminder to me on what is worth striving for, and what isn't.

The Proverbs 31 Woman :
10An excellent wife, who can find? For her worth is far above jewels. rare, precious 11The heart of her husband trusts in her, And he will have no lack of gain. trustworthy 12She does him good and not evil All the days of her life. kind	Her Character as a Wife
13She looks for wool and flax And works with her hands in delight. works joyfully 14She is like merchant ships; She brings her food from afar. goes extra mile to get choicest goods 15She rises also while it is still night And gives food to her household And portions to her maidens. disciplined 16She considers a field and buys it; From her earnings she plants a vineyard. enterprising, prudent with money 17She girds herself with strength And makes her arms strong. energetic 18She senses that her gain is good; Her lamp does not go out at night. good steward 19She stretches out her hands to the distaff, And her hands grasp the spindle. diligent	Her Devotion as a Homemaker
20She extends her hand to the poor, And she stretches out her hands to the needy. compassionate, generous	Her Generosity as a Neighbor
21She is not afraid of the snow for her household, For all her household are clothed with scarlet. provident 22She makes coverings for herself; Her clothing is fine linen and purple. elegant 23Her husband is known in the gates, When he sits among the elders of the land. influential 24She makes linen garments and sells them, And supplies belts to the tradesmen. industrious	Her Devotion as a Homemaker
25Strength and dignity are her clothing, And she smiles at the future. poised 26She opens her mouth in wisdom, And the teaching of kindness is on her tongue. wise	Her Influence as a Teacher
27She looks well to the ways of her household, And does not eat the bread of idleness. manages her home 28Her children rise up and bless her; Her husband also, and he praises her, saying: praiseworthy 29"Many daughters have done nobly, But you excel them all." distinguished	Her Effectiveness as a Mother
30Charm is deceitful and beauty is vain, But a woman who fears the LORD, she shall be praised. God-fearing 31Give her the product of her hands, And let her works praise her in the gates. honored	Her Excellence as a Person
~ Proverbs 31:10-31

Happy Mothers Day!!!

Downward Spiral

So, its the 9th. I don't think its going to happen today, unless God blesses me with one of those amazingly quick labors. No sign of anything yet. I guess technically we still have 16 hours left of the day...
I am now officially the last one of all the people I knew who were pregnant and due at the same time as me to have a baby. I think my sense of humor is slipping away on this one. Oh well. No one stays pregnant forever right?
By the way, thanks for all the encouraging comments, emails, text messages and phone calls. I have amazing friends who are as anxious for all this to be over as I am, and actually the distraction of conversation and emails keep me chugging away throughout the day. I haven't turned off the phone or the answering machine yet, so my mental status is still positive.
Here is my schedule for today:
Drink a ton of coffee (maybe the caffeine will jolt the baby out!)
Eat breakfast of spicy sausage (that can only help right?)
Blast my music and work up a sweat cleaning the house - once again
Eat a lunch that consists of more spicy food
Finish the rest of my book, and watch all my recorded shows while the kids are napping
Eat a spicy dinner (by now my digestive system will be totally rebelling against me)
Convince Rich to watch the kids while I go for a nice long walk by myself (key words - by myself)
Fall into bed, pray for a good nights sleep, or a baby depending on my mood

I will keep you all updated!

Doc Appt

Had my 40 week doc appt this morning. She was relieved to see that I was so relaxed about being overdue. Apparently since this whole overdue business is old hat to me, I am handling it well. The baby is happilyy residing in my womb still, and has made no real move to join us outside. She checked for any progress in dilation, and could force me to the 2cm mark. While she was maneuvering the cervix, she commented that she was massaging the baby's head a bit. That was weird.
I had to employ some deep breathing to get through the check, but it wasn't horrible. Now I am home, waiting to see what happens next. So far, nothing. We set up another appointment for Monday, but she is pretty sure that she won't see me. Wouldn't it be just my luck to have this baby on Mothers Day? I don't know if that would make it special, or a bummer. It would mean that I would share the birthday every 7 or so years with a day set aside for moms, but I can handle that.
My prediction is still Friday the 9th. Rich is more and more excited (translate - anxious) for me to get this part over with. I am just dealing with each extra day of this pregnancy with thankfulness and appreciation for a good nights sleep and the ease of care of the baby inside (it only gets harder when they come out right?). A few more days, and my thankfulness might just run out though.

The due date came and went...

Still Here, still pregnant!

Yes, I am still pregnant...
Nope, no baby yet...
Yes, I feel fine...
No, I don't know when I am going to have this baby...

All answers to questions that are being fired at me yesterday and today!

On a happier note - Cannon's birthday was wonderful yesterday.

Originally, I had planned to do nothing, seeing as how I didn't know where I was going to be, or what I was going to be doing. As last week ended I got motivated and I threw together a little party for last night with the grandparents, uncles and aunts and cousins. We had a fire engine theme, and it was great. I even ran into someone at the party store, while getting a balloon for Cannon, who had just done a firetruck party, and she gave me a bunch of her leftover supplies. Made the whole evening just a bit more special for my little 2 year old.

We had delicious take and bake pizza, salad and cake to celebrate the night.


(Lucky me - I got to keep the left over cake, and it is going to be gone by tonight!!! Who knows how long I have left to binge on sweet treats with the excuse of pregnancy...)

Doc Appt

Here's the latest:
nothing is going on...
dilated to "just barely 1cm"

She tried a little maneuvering to get me past 1, but it wasn't happening. Baby #3 head is still high up, cervix is not effaced, and that is that. I am not disappointed, since I was expecting as much. She does assure me that this one will not be 10 lbs. Now if I can get that in writing....