Labor Day 2010 - Josh and Carrie visiting

Dave and I hosted Josh and Carrie and their family this past weekend. Carrie and I had talked about them coming to visit a few times over the summer and we threw out some dates that might work. She called me a couple weeks ago and said "If it works for us to Labor Day weekend then let's do it." We had the weekend open so it was planned. The night they arrived (around 10 pm on Friday night), Dave and I got the house prepared for their visit. They preferred to set up their whole family in the basement, so Dave and I moved the queen size mattress to the basement floor for J&C to sleep on. THAT was a feat! We switched out the square table for a round one that we borrowed from the chapel for the main eating table, blew up two twin air mattresses for Austin (age 5) and Renee (3), and set up a pack and play crib for Wesley (9 months) and put it under the stairs in the storage closet. I didn't tell Violet they were coming until Thursday of last week, because she had a week full of new things: First week of preschool started Monday, and continued Wed and Thurs, and a play date scheduled on Tues at a friend's house. She was very excited when I told her, and knew that her cousins would be at her house when she woke up on Saturday morning. When J&C arrived, V&C were in bed, and their family quickly moved to the basement to get their kids settled into their beds. We talked for a little while and went to bed "early" around 11:00 pm. Everybody was tired. Saturday morning all the kids were awake before the adults - we got ourselves out of bed cuz they were all hungry. They were all happily playing with the train toys downstairs. Dave had gotten a call the night before from his cousin Jeff who informed us he and his wife Denise would be stopping by on their way through town and 8 am. They were going to St. Louis for someone's wedding. So Jeff and Denise joined us for breakfast. I scrambled 18 eggs, cooked a pound of bacon, and served the zucchini bread Carrie brought. It was polished off quickly. We had plans to go swimming in the neighbor's pool. The Patterson family on the north end of Briarwood Drive let us come swim for a couple hours. I had asked them the week before if it would work out to swim after he graciously let all the kids in the neighborhood swim in the pool after the annual Briarwood block party that they host. I took Vanessa with me and made a separate trip to Bethany Bible Chapel to practice my flute music with the rest of those who were practicing for the music on Sunday. I played through my song a few times and made some changes with the piano and all in all, it took about 20 minutes. I went to the neighbor's pool to meet the rest of the family. It was a tad bit chilly but we went ahead with it so we could get out of the house and enjoy the sunshine. The kids had a lot of fun - Carrie and Dave got in with them, Josh and I sat out and held the babies. Violet swam on her own with the life jacket, Austin was tall enough to walk around the shallow end, Calvin wore his life jacket but just sat around the steps and got his feet wet, and Renee wore her floaty swim suit and I think just stayed near the steps. Josh showed Dave some brotherly love by pushing him in the water. :D Everyone swam for about an hour and a half, and then those in the water got pretty cold and we decided to go back home for lunch. We had a sandwich buffet with three different kind of meat, broccoli salad and chips. We all worked to get the kids down for a nap, and Josh and Dave took off for a coffee shop to get some 1-1 relaxing time together. Carrie and I stayed in the kitchen and made chocolate chip cookies and talked. The rest of the day was pretty random. The kids woke up rested and ran around and played. After supper (BBQ chicken made by Dave on the grill, mac and cheese and green beans), we all took a walk and went to "the little playground" and let them run around outside. Bed time couldn't come soon enough! J&C and Dave and I played a couple rounds of Yahtzee then called it a night. We were ALL tired! Sunday morning was a feat - a big effort made to get everyone up early enough, fed (cold cereal for all), and in the vans by 8:45, but we did it. Remembrance meeting went pretty well, all the kids seemed pretty entertained by the activity books and crayons we brought. Austin and Renee were happy to go to Violet's Sunday School class. Josh joined Dave in his classroom (he teaches 4th grade) so Carrie and I got to sit together child-free for the teaching meeting after the music. My flute song went well and was over quick. Our plan was to go out to eat for lunch on Sunday - we ended up at Toad's on Main St. We were hoping that either My Verona or the Soho Sushi and Deli place would be open but they were both closed on Sundays. Toads turned out great, we had a big table by ourselves, and everyone enjoyed their food. Once we all got home and got the kids down the naps, Carrie and I took off for the mall to get some coffee, pedicures and shop for a little bit. Vanessa joined us, since I knew I'd have to feed her at some point when we were out. She fell asleep right as we started our pedis so that was perfect timing. We scrapped our supper plans (grilling burgers) because everyone was so full from our huge lunch and chose to pack the strollers with snacky items, and we all walked over to "the big park" (Southdale Elementary). Austin, Violet and Renee rode trikes, and Calvin, Wesley and Vanessa got pushed in strollers. I brought along Violet's butterfly kite and it turned out to be the perfect day for flying a kite. There is a huge open field there and Dave had the kite flying WAY high in the air - Violet was grinning from ear to ear while holding the handle on the kite. She has been begging me to fly a kite all summer but none of the days she thought of it were anywhere near windy, so it was perfect she got to do it. The kids ended up swarming the stroller and snacking on whatever they could get their hands on - many granola bars got eaten, many bags of chips got devoured, and lots of apple juice was consumed. Not the healthiest of dinners, but oh well. It was relaxing and easy...they can eat broccoli tomorrow. :) We took a more direct path home from the park since it was starting to get cold. The kids were all so dirty, so it was bath time that night. We hurried to get them all bathed and in bed, and by 9:10 pm, the house was quiet. Whew!! Wow....I am really starting to appreciate MY parents so much more now going through the same things they did when we were little! We popped some popcorn and played the New York Cartoon Caption game for a couple hours...and went to bed. Monday morning I got to sleep in til 8:30...although I was awake a couple times dealing with Vanessa in the middle of the night. I made some oatmeal for the kids, Dave made fried eggs and toast for the adults. Carrie did a couple loads of laundry before packing up, I took the older 4 kids to the swing set in the neighbor's yard and occupied them while they got packed up. We took a few family pictures in the house and on the front porch...and then Dave grilled burgers for lunch (it was our dinner plan Sunday night that was scrapped) and finished up leftover broccoli salad and mac and cheese. They had their van packed and ready to go by 2:30 pm - and after many rounds of hugging, they took off. Our kids went to take naps immediately, and they slept hard. Calvin slept from 2:30-5, Violet slept 2:30-6! Vanessa and I fell asleep on the couch too, and I got up at 5 when Calvin woke up. It was so nice to get a nap - I was exhasuted. Even though it seems like a huge effort to get together, it is always worth it. The kids had a GREAT time with their cousins and they all got along pretty well for the most part. We got to catch up with Josh and Carrie and had some time to relax in the evening time.

Tell About Your Day - Violet

This is Dave, reporting in. Violet and I have a thing where I lay next to her after she goes to bed and we 'tell each other about our day.' "The silly version." After I got done telling about my day, Violet launched into her particularly silly account. She said: "I woke up in the morning and I was a kite. I was flying up in the sky and an old girl was holding the string. She was 59 and she was about to die. *in a high pitched voice she says* 'You're going to die on Monday.' Then there was this bird that flew by and his name was Peekis. And then a string was flying in the sky and it wasn't attached to a kite and it got caught on Peekis' foot. The Peekis was flying like a kite. And he said 'woooohooo!! I'm flying! This is fun!' And a boy was holding his string and he was 9 and he wasn't about to die. And then the old lady said, 'What's going on? I have a talking kite.'" And I forget the rest, but I had to share this little snipet from the imagination of a child. I laughed heartily. I love sharing these times with my little girl. Dave

Vanessa - 3 month pictures

I got some tips from a friend of mine who does photography - she told me to prop up the babe in natural light, no flash, on top of a table (I used the coffee table dad made), on top of a boppy pillow covered with a white sheet as the whole backdrop...so I tried it. Dave was behind me getting her to smile, I think they turned out pretty cute. The first one is my favorite.

Quiet moment

Just wanted to write and say that ALL my kids are sleeping at the SAME time right now, even the dog is snoring away. What a quiet house! I wish I could lay down for a nap, but I'm preparing small group treats for tonight and doing 4 loads of laundry!

Fun day for Violet yesterday

Violet's friend Vada had a birthday celebration (she turned 4) yesterday, and Violet and her friend Ivy got to go play at Vada's house most of the day. Kris (Vada's mom) picked Violet up at 9:30 in the morning and brought her back at 4 pm. She had a BLAST! I could tell because she was beaming when Kris picked her up and beaming when she got home. She immediately asked me when she got home if all her friends could stay at our house and eat supper, so when I said no she got pretty upset. Although she didn't get a nap and was extremely crabby the rest of the day, it was probably worth skipping the nap for. She told me she really, really wants to get glasses because her other two friends have them. I heard they played with all sorts of things, changed into many changes of dress up clothes, painted, and drew pictures. I am so glad she has some great friends to play with. Kris said they all got along really well. She didn't protest a bit when we put her to bed at 7:30 pm.

Just for fun...comparison pics

First day of preschool - August 2009 First day of preschool - August 2010 (a couple inches taller!)

Violet's first day of preschool (4-5 yr olds)

This first day of preschool compared to last year's first day was pretty uneventful. She was like a veteran preschooler walking into the building knowing exactly where she was going, and happily said goodbye to me after she got settled into her new classroom. I think she's pretty proud to be part of the "big" class this year, the 4-5 yr olds. She'll be going Mon, Wed and Fri at Orchard Hill Church preschool from 9-11:30. Her teacher told me she did a great job when I picked her up. She said she was helpful and showed the new kids in her class where things were, etc. Some of the kids in her class are attending preschool for the first time. She has a large class, 21 kids I think. Last year there were 15 in her group. She laid out her clothes last night on the floor before going to bed. She picked out her multicolored shorts and yellow top with the birds. There is a new rule about no open toes shoes so after she heard that, she grabbed a pair of socks and put one sock near each leg of her shorts knowing that she had to wear her tennis shoes in the morning. Her most talked about favorite thing is her "silly bandz" bracelets in shapes of princess stuff - she wore 5 or 6 of them to school and was really happy about it. I'm so proud of my little preschooler! I am excited to find out what she will learn this year.

Briarwood block party 2010

Yesterday was the annual block party for those living on Briarwood Drive. The Patterson's at the corner of Orchard Drive and Briarwood host it on the 4th Sunday of August. There was a short "parade" the kids participated in prior to the event which consisted of all the kids who wanted to ride their bikes/trikes from the middle of the street to the Patterson's house. Some decorated their wheels, others didn't. Violet and Calvin rode their trikes at the end of the parade and seemed to enjoy themselves. About 50-60 people came, we all took turns announcing our names, how long we've lived there, etc. Violet drew chalk on the driveway with some other kids, and everybody enjoyed a mexican food buffet. She lost interest in everything else when Curt Patterson stood up and announced that his pool was open for anybody who wanted to swim. She was determined to go home and change into her swim suit as soon as possible. I agreed to let her swim for awhile - so we all went home, Violet changed quickly, and I took her and Vanessa down to the pool. Vanessa and I just sat on a lawn chair by the edge and Violet happily swam (with her life jacket) all on her own, and went down the slide 5 times. She went under the water with no troubles and didn't even complain about not having a towel to dry her eyes off with. It really helped that there were bigger kids swimming all around her. She went off the diving board four times, the first two times she was so scared, she sat down on the edge and turned around on her tummy and slid off (which was a chore considering the life jacket made her get stuck while "sliding" off). The third time she stepped off feet first, and the fourth time, she got a little momentum with the spring of the board (just a tiny bit!) and jumped off. She knew her life jacket would help her float back up to the top and she did great, I was very proud of her. It was a chore getting her OUT of the pool however. I captured some of her slides and jumps on my phone, maybe I'll figure out how to upload a video to my blog later. She was happy to ride her trike home all wet. The "parade": (a few neighbors made the effort to sit outside on the curb and applaud all the kids...it was sweet) Getting ready to line up: They were the only trikers, so they ended up wayy behind the group, but either way they had fun!

Busy Friday - an update on the week

This week flew by, wow! I can't believe 6 days ago we got back from Albia. I feel like I just finished putting laundry away from our trip. Maybe I did...a week later, haha! Life with our dog is beginning to feel like routine now, even though it is still a little crazy. He's much, much better with pottying outside but some times has accidents if he gets too excited or we wait too long to take him out. Usually he will sit by the deck door if he has to go potty outside, so we have to pay attention to his cues. He still has a desire to chew on everything in sight...so we constantly have chew toys for him available and need to distract him when he's chewing on something he shouldn't be chewing on...like Calvin's feet or Violet's arm. Solomon can get a little nippy with the kids - so he is in his cage a lot of the day and especially when we are eating at the table, right where little feet are more available. He's still a 4 month old puppy so he does take many naps a day. I frequently hear him snoring. Today was a very fun, but busy day. We invited over my friend Kelly (who I met through ICAN) and her two kids, Renee (4) and John (8 months). They came over after Renee got done with preschool at 11:25 so I had prepared lunch for them. We had (according to Violet's menu planning) strawberries & bananas to start, macaroni and cheese for lunch, and brownies for dessert. I made that for the kiddos in addition, the adults enjoyed BLTs and chips. I put Calvin down for a nap, and Violet and Renee went outside with Kelly, myself, Vanessa, and John. We got John occupied in the jumperoo and Vanessa snoozed in her bouncy seat, while the girls and Kelly and I played with trikes in the driveway and drew a "whole white (wide) world" (says Violet) with chalk. We drew a house, the store, a restaurant, the library, a museum, a park, a coffee shop, a church, a garden, a mailbox, and little roads to connect all of them. The girls had a lot of fun riding their trikes all over "town" and of course, going as far as they were allowed to ride up and down the sidewalks as fast as they could pedal. It was a VERY sunny day so we all got very hot quickly, had lots of cold water breaks, and then we decided to inside. The girls watched Word World, then decided to have a tea party (with just water!) on the deck and occupied themselves for awhile. They went home around 3. I tried to get Violet to rest for awhile so she could muster up some energy to play hard again the rest of the night, but it didn't go over well. She first started out laying on the couch, but she kept telling Calvin and I to stop whispering so she could sleep. She got up and set up her Dora blanket on my bed but that didn't last long either, she said it was too dark. Oh well. I talked with her at length about her behavior and said if she started whining and crying she wouldn't get to read any books at bed time. Dave had plans to go catfish fishing with his friends (Dennis and Jason) so Trisha (Jason's wife) decided to have all the families over for supper, which was a collaborative effort on all our parts. Jason grilled a ginormous pork loin, I brought mac and cheese and brownies, Selena brought a yummy ramen noodle/cabbage salad, and Trisha baked a broccoli casserole and banana bars. The kids had a really, really fun time playing. Total there were 13 kids present...that includes the babies. Calvin preferred to play inside with the trucks and trains, Violet preferred to kick off her shoes and run around barefoot with the big kids, they did all sorts of things, I don't even know, but I know hide and seek was involved. Violet was extremely happy to be playing independently of her brother for once, and she told me she had a lot of fun on the way home, and she loves her friends. So Dave and his buddies took off for the river and I headed home to get the kids in bed. Praise the Lord, Solomon and Vanessa were both sleeping the entire time I got Violet and Calvin to bed. They took a long time to get calmed down, they were practically bouncing off the walls. They crashed quickly though, after such a fun day. Calvin insists on us leaving on the hallway light so there is light under the crack of his bedroom door. Even an hour after he's gone to bed, if we turn it off, he will notice and scream hysterically. He is scared of the dark, I think we should get him a night light. Once we go to bed though, the light goes off and we hear nothing, so he must be sleeping soundly. Violet, of course, knowing that Calvin likes the light under her door, will insist on having the crack under her door completely blocked off by light so nothing shines through. She prefers a towel over her crack "so she can sleep better". These little phases are so short lived, but at the time, its like life and death to these kids to have their preferences made known and carried out. I just go with it, doesn't really matter much. Vanessa has not been sleeping all that well lately at night. The whole week, almost every single night, she wakes up at 1 am, 4:30 am, and from that point on through the night, she is restless, squirms, and fusses from 5-7 am. I nurse her to get her to relax and zonk out again...but it doesn't last long. She seems to be working on a big poop for those few awake hours and around 7 am it explodes and fills her diaper from corner to corner. Poor kid...just now I realized it might benefit her to use some gas drops before she goes to bed. Maybe the huge serving of broccoli I ate on Thursday night affected her negatively. I'll never really know...I just hope she starts to sleep better because I am feeling the effects. I am dragging myself out of bed in the morning feeling half dead and cranky, not ready to start my day. When mommy is in a bad mood, nothing seems to go right that day. I really need to work on improving my mood in the morning when I see the kids for the first time and not see them as nuisances that prevent me from sleeping. Violet starts her 2nd year of preschool on Monday. She is really looking forward to going back and starting school "in the BIG kid classroom" as she calls it, with the 4-5 yr olds. She will go Mon, Wed and Fri 9-11:30.

Pics from Albia

Visit with Grandpa Loren and Grandma Rowena

We had a really nice time visiting my grandparents this weekend. We made one stop at Smokey Row Coffee shop in Oskaloosa for mochas and potty breaks. The kids barely slept on the way there, I think they were too excited. Vanessa did though. They were both excited to see us when we arrived at their place around 5:30 Friday night. I think we unloaded our gear for 20 minutes. Grandma Rowena was at the top of her game (as usual!) hosting our family and had a little scavenger hunt ready for Violet and Calvin upon our arrival. Violet excitedly ran around their place and asked me to read all the clues. At the end of the hunt were two presents, one for each kid. Calvin got some pipe cleaners, and Violet got a cardboard picture frame with stickers to decorate it. She got right to work on the frame while Mama Row finished getting supper on the table. She served such yummy food. Dinner on Friday night was baked ham, corn, purple cabbage, and peach-pecan pie with ice cream. The kids slept together in the small room. Violet got the twin bed, and Calvin slept in his little portable pop up tent with the blow up mattress that gets inserted under neath it. He was just fine sleeping on the floor. They took awhile to settle down since being there was exciting and new. They eventually fell asleep though. Grandma Row showed me a lot of pictures on her computer that had been converted from slides - many pics were of my family (mom, dad, Rachel, Jay and I) from many years ago...they were fun to see. She is planning on labeling all the pictures with who the people are and some places, and burning some pictures onto CDs for the family. We brought along a pack n play crib for Vanessa and her big swing. We didn't even end up opening the bed for her, as she was happy to sleep in the swing for naps and night. We just set up the swing in our bedroom and she did great. The first night, about 3 am, I heard Violet screaming at the top of her lungs. I asked Dave to go see what in the world was her problem. She said it was too dark, and was scared. I guess she tried to get up in the middle of the night (maybe to use the bathroom? I'm not even sure)...and was just terrified. Her screaming woke up Calvin, so both of them needed calming down before going back to sleep. Saturday morning, the kids woke up shortly after G&G. Grandma had waffles already prepared that she toasted to warm up. When Dave and I got up, the kids were finishing up their waffles and were ready to play. She had planned on taking everyone to the pool that day, but (as in times past, the pool hours were not as she thought they were) the pool didn't open til 1 pm. We killed time by eating an early lunch (leftover ham from the night before in sandwiches and cottage cheese on the side), letting the kids watch some TV, and played at the park before it opened. The pool had a nice set up for little kids, with a large kid area and lots of shallow water to play in. They jumped right in the water with Dave and Grandma Row (I stayed under an umbrella with Vanessa, she slept most of the time). Calvin was overconfident in the water - slipping under a couple times and got scooped up quickly by daddy. But he wasn't scared by it, he just kept on swimming. Violet was brave enough to go under water a few times and wiping her eyes with her hands instead of a towel like she normally insists. She got braver as the day went on just by watching older kids jump in, go under, and come right up out of the water like it was no big deal. Amazing how other kids can boost the confidence of a younger one. She wasn't quite tall enough to go down any of the slides, so we stayed on one end of the pool the whole time. The kids played hard for an hour and a half in the glaring sun, and soon it was obvious that we needed to go and get them down for naps. They were acting tired and whiny...so getting them to sleep wasn't that difficult when we got them tucked into bed by 3 pm. G&G took naps, Dave and I watched some TV, and the kids slept - and when everyone woke up it was time to get supper ready. Grandma made some delicious BBQ ribs, baked beans, and broccoli. Grandma Row got out a wrap-around-the-waist style apron for Violet to put on like a big flowing skirt, and dressed her up with necklaces and flowers in her hair. She danced around the house and sang songs. We hung out in the den area and spent time singing songs, goofing around, and the kids seemed to enjoy all the attention. Getting them to bed was more difficult since they had just taken a late afternoon nap. They fell asleep somewhere between 9:30-10. Dave took the night light from the bathroom and put it in an outlet in the bedroom where the kids were sleeping so we could avoid them being scared by the darkness. I think that plan backfired around 4 am when we heard both kids awake and messing around in the bathroom together. Calvin was on the toilet, and Violet was in there with him. I don't think he did anything on the toilet, I bet she went herself and he was just copying her. Not exactly sure...but Dave did his best to get them back to bed. As soon as they were tucked back in Vanessa woke up to eat at 5 am. We did not feel all that rested Sunday morning, but made the effort to wake up early enough to eat a light breakfast and go to their church with them at 8:30. I brought along dry cereal and two snack cups for the kids to munch on during the message so they would be occupied and it worked pretty well. Their church has a new person doing the teaching message and Dave and I found it to be a very sound message and we're glad my grandparents are in the habit of hearing some decent Biblical teaching on a regular basis. Maybe some day what they are hearing about Jesus will sink in. The kids enjoyed the kid sunday school, and us adults participated in a Bible study after wards. The Bible study was a discussion from scripture (Philippians 4) about purposing in our hearts to have a better attitude about things, life, and circumstances. Definitely an applicable message for me! Grandma Row prepared lunch for us before we left. She made a one-skillet dish with couscous, scallops, pepperoni, peas, and turkey, along with sauteed carrots and parsnips as a side dish, and bread/butter. Calvin ate the food better than Violet did. She tried to avoid eating the carrots but we made her eat them anyway. We packed up our stuff and got our van loaded which took close to an hour. Grandma Rowena let me choose a couple of her paintings to take home with me, along with a couple of stools they had refinished with different fabric on the cushions. I thought we could use them in the kitchen so the kids can stop dragging chairs across the kitchen when they want to "help" me. The museum of history that was down the block was open, so Grandma Row took the kids down to see the trains on display. The trains were a hit - the kids enjoyed walking through the caboose and the engine, pretending to drive the train and toot the (nonworking) whistle. After we left, we only drove a couple blocks when I remembered that I left Violet's swim suit on top of their washing machine. I stopped back to grab it and we were on our way. Somewhere on the way home (I was driving so Dave could get a little work done on his computer), I missed my turn on Hwy 63. I ended up on Hwy 6 heading east, so we intersected with Hwy 21 and went north until we hit Hwy 20. I was really distracted while driving watching a sky diver fall from the sky and hit the ground at one point, I think I missed the sign to tell me to turn while paying more attention to this sky diver than the road. Oops. All 3 kids slept almost the entire way. They were excited to get home. Dave went to pick up Solomon at the vet at 7 pm - and the dog also seemed excited to be home. He didn't potty in the house and was pretty relaxed...a big change from the first time he came to our house two weeks ago. In my next post I'll post pics.

Going to visit great grandparents this weekend

We are packing up our family (except for the dog, he's going to boarding at the vet) and heading to Albia this weekend. I hope Great Grandpa Loren and Great Grandma Rowena know what they're getting into hosting our family. :) I am in the middle of packing right now, and I just can't believe the amount of stuff we are bringing. Each kid needs their special pillow, blanket (or more), clothes, diapers, gear, sleeping stuff, fans, tents, burp rags, pacifiers, swing, the list goes on...wowww.... We hope to leave very early this afternoon, maybe 1 or 1:30 at the latest.

A real giggle from Vanessa, 2.5 months

Vanessa did giggle today, I was talking to her and she was cooing and making cute noises back to me, and I startled her a little. She laughed one little laugh, and went back to smiling. Her smiles are getting so much bigger - her entire face smiles, her eyes light up, and her cheeks lift up super high.

Vanessa rolled over today

Vanessa rolled over from front to back for the first time today. Dave witnessed it, too! She was on her tummy holding her head up really well looking around when WHOOP she was on her back. I think it surprised her. Her head just turned and looked up high up enough that her whole body flipped over with her head turning. I think she might have even chuckled for the first time the other day, too. I was playing with her legs, straightening and tucking them in, and she sort of laughed. Not a real laugh though, maybe she just grunted as she smiled.

That didn't last long (trying to share a room)

The problem wasn't his bed, it was Calvin in the same room as Violet that just didn't work. He was just too tempted to get out of bed, jump around and talk to Violet. Nap time today was the straw that broke the camel's back for me...trying to get them to sleep in the same room for over an hour was beyond frustrating...so I put him back in his crib in his room and he slept just fine. In fact he slept so well he woke up from his nap asking for breakfast! lol So they're split up again. I put his new big airplane bed in his room and he loves it, went to sleep PERFECT tonight with no trouble. And Violet ended up with a rearranged room which she loves. So its a win-win. :) Some times parenting is such a trial and error thing.

Another nap time disaster

Calvin is not getting used to his bed. Even though last night went better, today's nap time was another mess. I had to tell him to lay down four times. Violet was being quiet and a "good example" (in her words) but Calvin was still messing around, so I put him in his crib/tent again. He screamed himself to sleep. I wonder if this will improve.

Vanessa is 2 months old

I'm a little off by a few days, but I am posting now that I have a minute to sit down and type. She is still a sweet little thing. She is still nursing many times a day...who knows...10-12 times? She sleeps three naps a day at various times (her longest is in the morning for a couple hours). She is smiling a lot more and her whole face lights up when I talk to her. She smiles at other people too. Nights are still unpredictable. She wakes up at least one time to eat. She usually sleeps 10 pm to 3 or 4 am. I nurse her and put her back in bed, if she is unsettled and doesn't sleep, she goes in the swing which usually lulls her back to sleep. She will sleep in the swing until 7:30 or 8 am. We used to carry the swing up and down the stairs each night/morning so I could use the swing on both levels but I got a little bouncer seat she lays in instead for the main floor, so the swing is always in our room. She sleeps in the bouncer seat pretty well too. The kids still love to hold her but they don't bed to hold her all the time like when she was 1-4 weeks old. She goes to the pediatrician for her 2 month check up (and her first vaccinations) on Wednesday at noon.

Kids "moved in" together

Violet's room is now "the kids' room". We did this so Calvin's old room can be Vanessa's new place to sleep in a little while...not quite yet, but we are making the transition slow. We haven't made the switch 100% yet with clothes and toys, but Calvin now has a "big boy bed" set up in the same room as Violet now. We got him some airplane bedding and he loves it. The first night was pretty rough. He climbed out a lot, jumped on Violet's bed, and they basically played after we tucked them in. I know it was SO FUN for them so we tried to be nice and they did eventually fall asleep. Nap time was a disaster today. They didn't sleep for an hour after I laid them down and I eventually put Calvin back in his tented crib. He was NOT happy. He screamed bloody murder and got so tired he fell asleep. Tonight went much, much smoother. I asked him over and over if he was going to do better, I asked him if he was going to get out of bed (he said no), I asked him if he was going to talk (he said no), and I asked him if he was going to go to sleep (he said yes). And I only had to correct him one time tonight. They are both sleeping at the moment and I think it only took them in the ball park of 10-15 minutes to both fall asleep. I hope this works, because I want it to become routine. Violet might be done napping, I don't know...on the days she doesn't sleep, she does fine. On the day she does nap, she sleeps for 2 hours and still goes to bed at 8:30 with no trouble. Her preschool schedule might tire her out more once that starts on Aug 30. Calvin is ECSTATIC about his new bed. He was screaming and squealing when we set it up for him. He's really growing up, talking a ton more, and is on the verge of being potty trained (so I think). He tells us about 75% of the time when he has to go poop on the toilet, and gets excited when he get his prize, which is a hershey kiss. We haven't attempted to get him to use the bathroom for pee all the time yet...with the introduction of the dog in the house, its been slightly crazy. And VBS is this week, maybe once Violet is in school I can focus more on him. I think he'll do it just fine.

Solomon update

These first few days with Solomon have been more of a challenge than we anticipated. But its getting smoother each day. We hired the help of a professional dog trainer to give us the right tools to train Solomon. We are getting 6 sessions. She is really good at what she does, and we're already training him with the tools she gave us. She came yesterday for the first session and we hired a babysitter to get the older two kids out of the house so we could concentrate. We have "homework" to do. The best thing anybody (and us as a family) can do who walks in our house for the first time is to completely ignore the dog. That immediately "ranks" the person in the dog's mind as leader of the pack. In a dog's world they're always sizing up people to find out who's the leader and in nature, the leader always returns to their pack and ignores them. So that's a clue to anybody coming to visit - just ignore our "dog in training" and let us tell you how to introduce yourself to him. There's a lot more to it. We have learned to correct him with "ehh ehh" for no and "yes!" for praise instead of saying "no" to him, because we say no to our kids...and the dog needs different words to associate with his behavior. He's in his crate most of the day until he learns to tell us he needs to use the bathroom. We have a routine to help him learn his name, help him focus, help him walk on a leash, learn to sit, lay down, etc. It is all very basic and the homework training sessions we do with him should last 3-4 minutes max or he gets mental overload and too distracted. We really want our dog to be well behaved, this is a step in the right direction. Its hard to think we're making any progress because he's still a 3 month old puppy who still tries to chew on everything, but time will move on, he will grow, and become calmer. This is pretty much what he's doing all day:

Solomon, our new puppy

The dog has a new name: Solomon. He will soon look old, wise, and smart so we thought that would be appropriate. Plus, now Dave can't try convince me to name a kid that some day. :) He came home last night, and it is quite obvious he is not used to his new surroundings. He is having some accidents in the house but we've confined him to the tile floor in the kitchen when he isn't in his crate. The previous owners didn't crate-train him so this crate thing is new to him. He howled a little last night, Dave got up with him in the middle of the night to let him out, but he had already gone in his crate. *sigh* Solomon is absolutely adorable. He's a gentle puppy, playful, but he's not wild. He doesn't lick and doesn't bark much, and his coat is wonderfully soft and cuddly. The plan is to keep him in his crate most of the time so he learns that going outside is best. Our first night/morning with him was a little rough...but we know it is only going to get better as he gets older and gets more comfortable with his surroundings. Here's some pics!

Its time...

...for a new member of the family. The LaMarches are adopting a dog tomorrow! We are getting a male neopolitan mastiff puppy, 12 weeks old, already housebroken, and has been socialized well with children. We pick him up tomorrow evening and bring him home, the kids are REALLY excited! Will post pics soon.

Calvin's potty attempts

Calvin is beginning to process how to control his bowels. He gets excited to poop on the toilet because he knows he'll get a hershey kiss chocolate treat if he goes. Most times he starts to go in his diaper, then tells me he has poop, and if he's not done yet, he'll finish on the toilet. I haven't even officially started potty training him but he's learning. I don't think he even knows the difference between #1 and #2 yet because if left with nothing on, he'll just pee all over the place. Yikes!

I feel like its been awhile - Vanessa - 8 weeks and other life stuff

So maybe I should make a blog entry...seems like this summer is just flying by, one long day at a time. One change for me this week is I started exercising again. I have gotten up with enough time to get the kids all fed and in the van by 8:50 am so I can get to exercise class at 9 am at OHC a few blocks away. During the warm up I felt like I was going to muscles were screaming and I wanted to pass out....my oh my...I felt out of shape. But once that initial "break in" was over, I just felt like the whole time was a bit more effort than I would have liked. But I did it. I went Monday and Wednesday this week, and I'm not nearly as sore as I thought...so that is a good thing. Dave and I are making better eating choices and I just feel overall feel better when I'm exercising...maybe I'll lose enough weight to get out of my maternity pants. :P The child care workers at the church during fitness class are still the same. They immediately recognized me and Violet. They couldn't believe how much Calvin grew up and didn't recognize him at first. They were surprised to see me with a new baby. The kids had a ton of fun in the child care room - Violet's friends were there since Kim and Trisha were also exercising, their kids were there. Vanessa does great there too, I make a point to have nursed her immediately before I drop her off and wearing a clean diaper so they don't really have to do anything but rock her and let her take a short morning snooze. They love holding her so it works out great. Violet is having a great summer, I think. She doesn't talk about preschool much and seems to enjoy the weather. Her favorite things to do are (let's see how many I can come up with): - put on socks and slip across the tile floor - put puzzles together - create houses with Lincoln Logs - make "crowns" with the connecting beads...Calvin and her each take 8 and turn them into little circles they put on their heads - play "bedtime" with Calvin. Both of them get their little sleeping bags all ready and pretend to go to bed in the dark. They take turns playing mommy and baby. - make "cards" for people. She decorates a piece of paper with flowers, hearts, words she knows how to write (mostly her own name, mom, dad, and Calvin), and pictures of animals she knows how to draw. She cuts the pictures out with scissors, folds up the paper, and puts them in envelopes to give to people. She drew a flower for Landry the morning she knew they were coming over for a short time, and today she asked me what to draw for me so I asked her for a purple flower, a pink flower, and lots of hearts. She mentally took note carefully of what I said, and came back to me after 15 minutes with exactly what I asked for. She was very proud of herself. She colored in a butterfly last week and was so proud of how pretty it looked that she ran to get it to show our neighbor when we were standing in the yard talking. The picture ended up taped to the wall in Dave's office. - help me in the kitchen with anything and everything related to food prep. She insists on pouring her own cereal and her own milk (if the gallon is light enough for her satisfaction, if its too heavy she asks for help). - using the blocks to make steps up to the fireplace steps - watching Word World and Curious George - going outside by the pool in the gazebo with plastic cups, scooping up water and watering everything in sight. Calvin is really into...well...pretty much everything Violet is. He is an excellent play mate for her about 75% of the time. He also enjoys almost everything she does and copies everything she says. He likes to play with his dump trucks, his wooden train set, play make-believe games with Violet. He can sing many words to the Star Spangled Banner (thanks to Violet) and sings the entire Twinkle Twinkle Little Star song. He is into "doing everything by MYSELF" stage...and throws royal screaming fits if something is done for him that he wanted to do himself. Its hard to know how to deal with his behavior some times. He also has an extremely soft heart and a sweet side to him. He will randomly say "Mom? I really, really want you." and I can scoop him up and get a huge hug and kiss from him. He also likes it when anybody acts like a lion and roars loudly for him so he can pretend to be scared and go hide under a blanket. That game can never be long enough for him. Vanessa is still a sweet little baby. She is 8 weeks old and has grown two inches in length since birth. I measured her out of my own curiousity the other day...no wonder her little newborn outfits are too small already! I don't know how much she weighs, probably almost 12 pounds. She takes about three naps a day, falls asleep for the night around 9:30 pm and gets up one or two times a night still. She spends most of her time in my arms, in her swing, or propped up in the sitting position on the couch. She has gotten the least "tummy time" of any of the kids...I'm so afraid of her getting trampled and stepped on. That's about all I got for now...gotta get to bed!

Must be a boy thing

I was at Walmart with the kids today. Vanessa was in her car seat in the shopping cart, Calvin was in child seat, and Violet was being my "big helper" with her own shopping list at the store. She even carried her own purple purse on her shoulder and crossed off things as we found them. One of the things on our list was coffee, so we went to that section of the store. Violet picked up a coffee bean from the floor (it had fallen from the self-dispensing beans) and gave it to Calvin...who promptly stuck it up his nose. Yeah...I said stuck it up his nose. Ew. He started freaking out, and couldn't get it out...so of course he shoved his finger up his nose further which got the bean even more stuck. It all happened quicker than I could stop it. I called Dave to see what he thought I should do...since I wasn't really sure whether to laugh and figure it will fall out eventually or go the medical route and have it taken out with tweezers. I told him to blow hard out of his nose, while I plugged one of his nostrils, and amazingly, it worked! I didn't know he could really "blow his nose" with that much power...but the bean went flying out of his nose and onto the floor. Violet was excited to see he had gotten the bean out, and ran over to pick it up. I was really disgusted at the thought so I stopped her before she got to it. Calvin threw a fit because I just left the bean on the floor and pushed the cart away. He wanted the bean back but I said no!

Vanessa's first smiles - 6 weeks

And of course, her dimple:

Vanessa - 6 weeks

My little girl is doing great. She is cracking a few smiles a day, but it takes awhile to squeeze one out of her. She smiled quicker than my other two babies did! I think her first was at 5 weeks, the other two didn't really smile big til 8-9 weeks. Anyway, I had my 6 week PPD check with my midwive here in Cedar Falls, Sandy Lewis. She said my incision look great and baby looks really healthy. I wanted to see how much she weighed, and I was a little surprised to hear she is only 11 lbs 4 oz. That's only a pound of weight gain in 6 weeks. I checked my older two kids' baby books and both Violet and Calvin passed 14 pounds at 2 months, and they all started out with in a few ounces of each other at birth. Vanessa is 2 weeks shy of 2 months and not even close to that. Every baby is so different. She did lose the most weight in the hospital ~ she was 9 lbs 6 oz when we checked out. So I guess that is a two pound gain. When people ask me how old she is or how big she was at birth, I get the same reaction from people: "No way! Really? she doesn't look like a 10 pounder" She must be holding all her weight in her belly and head, because her arms and legs DO look pretty skinny. :)

Pooper shooter

Vanessa must have something against my black capri pants. While in labor, my water broke while wearing those and all her meconium poo saturated them. After being thoroughly washed, I thought they were finally good to wear again. This morning while changing her diaper, I thought I had waited long enough for her to finish her business, but I was wrong. I took off her diaper, began wiping, and she squirted the farthest poop I have ever seen ~ it traveled probably four to five feet through the air. It landed on the towel that was underneath her, on my right leg all over those black pants I had just put on for the day, and all over the floor and it even hit the laundry room door that was open (her "changing station" is on the laundry room counter top). Goodness! I couldn't help but laugh, because just then she started smiling at me...as if she had been planning it. Can I just say...I LOVE my washing machine!!

I'm a genius! (broccoli smell)

Tonight when I was feeding the kids supper (broccoli and chicken nuggets) Violet said to me: "Mom! You're a genius! You put the smell in the broccoli that I really like!" I have no idea what "smell" she was referring to, but it made me laugh. :D

Violet gaining more independence

This morning was a very atypical morning. I had to wake up and feed Vanessa a couple times but the last time I didn't even check my phone to see what time it was. Dave had gotten up to go work out at the rec center, and I woke up when I heard the garage door open. I really thought it was closer to 6:30 when he leaves, but he was coming home and it was 8:30. Violet didn't wake up til 8:45, and its 9:45 as I'm blogging this post and Calvin is STILL in bed! I took a shower when I woke up at 8:30 and when I came downstairs, I found Violet in the kitchen by herself munching on a bowl of cinnamon crunch cereal. She proudly told me she got the bowl out of the cabinet, got the box of cereal out of the cupboard, got the milk out of the fridge and found a spoon, all by herself. She managed to pour the cereal and milk with out spilling much. She finished up a gallon of milk that didn't have much in it, so she had gone out to the garage to bring in another gallon of milk. She got the seal ripped off the lid but couldn't open it herself. I'm so glad she didn't get the full gallon open, it is way too heavy and I'm just sure she would have made a huge mess of milk if she had tried to pour the full gallon herself. I was pretty impressed by her ability to manage all those potentially very messy steps and do it in a very neat manner! So now I gotta get Calvin out of bed so he takes a nap today! It is very overcast and raining, I think that may the reason he's still in bed. The plan is to wait for Rachel to arrive (she's driving here I think around 10:30) and got to Chuck E Cheeses for entertainment, also to meet up with our ladies in Bible Study to discuss what we are going to study this fall.

I think Vanessa tried to smile

I *think* this could be the first smile for Vanessa. I was changing her diaper, she was super focused on my face, so I just kept talking to her and smiling. She opened her mouth really big and I think the sides of her mouth started to go up and lift up those big chubby cheeks. But it really didn't last long, and I couldn't get her to do it again. I don't remember my other two smiling til at least 8-9 weeks, she's only 5 weeks...but I guess anything is possible! Of course I didn't get a picture, I'll have to keep that one in my memory. :)

Chiropractic adjustments

I scheduled a chiro appointment with my Dr. Green, my favorite doctor, this morning. I got myself and Vanessa adjusted. After working with Vanessa for 15 minutes, she told me she relieved a lot of the tightness in her neck from the rough labor experience. My right hip was also giving me a lot of pain so she worked on me for another 15 minutes. She told me I was majorly stuck on my right side with little mobility and it could have been one of the reasons Vanessa didn't settle into the birth canal correctly. Big babies gotta fit just right I guess with not much extra wiggle room. Vanessa fell asleep as soon as I got home, I hope she feels better. I'm going to go back on Thursday for another adjustment.

I got some rare cuddle time with Calvin

On Sunday, we went to a yummy BBQ at BBC to celebrate 4th of July. It was at 1 pm, and I knew that was going to be difficult with the kids' naps. I told Violet she could skip her nap, but we opted to feed Calvin at home before going back for lunch, and put him to bed in a crib at the chapel. I packed his favorite pillow, blankie, and kitty...and when we got there, I told him he was going to take a nap at the church. He screamed and threw a fit initially...but I held him in a rocking chair and he calmed down and snuggled with me for a long time while I rocked. He took a nice long nap while the rest of us ate lunch.

Another positive poopy experience

I guess its inevitable...I'm a stay-at-home-mom...I must blog about poop once in awhile...so don't read if you don't want to hear about poo! Calvin had success last night on the toilet. After dinner he stood up in his chair and passed quite a bit of gas. I said to him, "Hey, Calvin, you want to go poopie in the toilet?" I didn't know what kind of a response I was going to get, so I was surprised when he enthusiastically said "yeah!" so he took his diaper off, climbed up onto the toilet, and sat there. With in two seconds, he said "all done"! and tried to get off, but I said "Just push it all out like a big fart!" like I tried before, and he emptied his bowels. He was fascinated that it fell into the water. He was allowed to flush it himself and I gave him a chocolate treat as a prize. I wonder if he'll be motivated again to do it?

Vanessa - 1 month old

A little clip of my sweet baby girl!

Baby birds

The other day I had the kids in the driveway and Violet was spraying the flowers in our front yard with the hose. I saw a big morning dove bird fly out of the bush right by the front door, and wondered why that big bird was in there. I suspected babies but I wasn't really sure. Sure enough, I peeked through the bush, lifted up many of the branches to look further, and I saw a little nest with two baby morning dove birds in it. They were HUGE babies! I'm guessing they were close to leaving the nest. Today I tried snapping a pic but it really didn't turn out that great. It was hard to hold up the branches and take a pic at the same time. The mama bird on close watch nearby. This explains all the bird poop on the front porch!

Violet sang at BBC today

In honor of the 4th of July, Violet got the opportunity to sing at church this morning. Mark Wooderson asked if she could sing the Star Spangled Banner to kick off some of the songs, so we agreed to it. He knew she could sing that song a couple months ago when she sang it for him at our house during small group. She learned and memorized the song this past winter ago after she heard Dave sing it in the house with his friend Shawn Thompson ~ they were just being goofy and she really liked it, so she determined to learn it. A few weeks later, she had all the words and the tune down. She has listened to it a lot on her kid music CDs over the last few months too. We practiced with her four times before the actual event so she felt comfortable up on stage singing in the big room with a microphone. Wednesday she ran through it twice. She insisted I go up there with her so I was OK with that, as long as she did the singing, not me. She got a little nervous on Sunday when I went up there with her, but I started off with the first note, and she picked it right up. Gerald Anderson was kind enough to video tape for us so I have a clip to share. :) I didn't really realize she was doing this until I watched the video, but she is constantly playing with my red shirt as she sang. Many people came up to her to compliment her on her singing, and she pretty much ignored them or responded with a little smile. She didn't even know how to handle the praise. When we got home, she said "Whew!! I'm glad THAT'S over! I am never doing that again!" I'm sure she said that just to get a reaction out of her parents (just like her daddy does all the time!). But I could tell she was happy and proud of herself, because she asked me if her song was pretty and I told her it was beautiful, she did a great job, and was very brave.

29 on the 29th

Its my "golden birthday" having a birthday the same age as the day of the month! When I was a kid I thought it would be much cooler, but its just the same as any other birthday. :) Vanessa gave me a great birthday gift. She fell asleep around 9:30 pm last night, woke up at 4 am to eat, then fell back asleep til 8 am. I feel rested and it was wonderful to sleep that long!! The other kids slept in too, and I got to shower by myself. We have started bringing up the swing to our bedroom at night. I put her in the swing after nursing her and she goes back to sleep much easier. She really fights going back to sleep after waking up in the middle of the night, so the swing was the trick. We're considering buying a 2nd swing just for the upstairs, its a pain to haul that thing upstairs every night. I should say its a pain for Dave, I haven't done it yet. But its really helping! Dave surprised me with "breakfast in bed"! He made me some scrambled eggs, and had picked up some "birthday cake" donuts and a mocha for me at Starbucks, and also a glass of orange juice. It was a fun morning. The rest of the day was also quite pleasant. A friend of mine (Kelly Fischer, she started the local ICAN chapter in Cedar Falls and also assisted with Vanessa's birth!) offered to watch the kids for me this morning, so Violet and Calvin went to her house at 10 am. They had TONS of fun with her! I went to Kohls and Target to spend some gift card money that was given to me after Vanessa was born, and spent some lazy time perusing the aisles at those stores. Dave and I got to have a little "date" for lunch before we picked up the kids. They slept well for their naps, so all in all, its been a resful, relaxing day for me. Soooooo thankful!! Thank you Lord! Moments to be refreshed and get a break really help me to take a look at the bigger picture, appreciate my kids so much more, and be thankful for all the blessings in my life.

Vanessa is 3 weeks old

It was actually three days ago, but that's ok...I'm feeling quite behind on almost everything lately! Vanessa is still a great little baby and mostly calm if all her needs are met. She loves to be held and snuggled close. She's started the "night time" fussiness, which was typical of all my kids. The hours between 6 and 9 pm she nurses like crazy (cluster feeding) and isn't really happy until she knocks out for bed around 10 pm. Makes for a difficult time getting supper on the table and the older two kids in bed...but if Dave is home and available to help, he is a huge help getting them taken care of. Vanessa is getting much stronger. She is lifting up her head much more and gaining more control, and has more awake time during the day. She still naps a lot but her awake time is longer and she seems to be focusing on faces and objects more. The baby acne that developed around 2 weeks of age is slowly fading and her complexion is clearing up. Violet and Calvin still are interested in everything "baby". They still take turns holding her (Calvin needs constant supervision, I trust Violet more with Vanessa but still not 100%) and snuggling with her. They like to stick their faces right in her face when she's swinging in her swing. She continues to sleep right through the loud chaos the older kids create in the house when she takes naps...I wonder how long that will last. Vanessa's nights are still hit-and-miss with long stretches of sleep. She is awake at least twice during the night time to eat or poop. It is absolutely necessary that she gets burped after each feeding ~ she belches 99.9% of the time after each nursing session. Including night time. What I end up doing is nursing her while laying down, then putting her body across my stomach and patting her back with my hand as I lay down waiting for that burp so I can put her back down to sleep in the middle of the night. The burp always comes, and its always a big one. Not a drop of spit up, just a big ol' burp. I can't imagine leaving such a huge air bubble in her stomach ~ and if I forget to burp her, she definitely lets me know with lots of uncomfortable crying after a feeding!

Calvin's first hair cut

His curls aren't completely gone, but his hair looks very different! Dave and I came to the realization that his crazy hair was totally out of control, even if we tried to wet it down and let it be curly. It stuck out on the sides really far and some pieces were getting way too long in the back. So we squeezed in a hair cut for him in the middle of a few errands this morning. We took him to Jiva on Main St. We brought the whole family in, and Dave focused his attention on keeping Calvin still enough for the lady to do a decent job. He wasn't scared at all, he sat mostly still, but moved around a lot. Violet stood by his chair and said "Calvin, isn't this FUN?" Dave bribed him with a sucker and he seemed to be motivated to sit still enough for one of those sweet treats afterwards! I'm glad we got it done, even though it was hard to see the crazy curls go. He was starting to look Albert Einstein-ish. :P Before: After:

A little scare

Its a good thing God is watching over our kids when we can't keep our eyes on them all the time. A couple days ago I was in the kitchen loading the dishwasher. Dave was reading a story to Violet in the recliner in the living room. Vanessa was on the couch, had started fussing a little, so Calvin thought he would be a big helper. A few moments later, I hear Calvin behind me in the kitchen saying "Here mom!" and I turn around to find him holding Vanessa with all his might. He carried her over to me from the couch in the living room to the kitchen, across the hard tile floor!!! My immediate reaction was to freak out but I tried to shove that reaction far away...and knelt down very quickly and took Vanessa from his grip and let out a huge sigh of relief. I told him thanks for helping, but please do not pick up the baby by yourself!! He hasn't done it since, but wow. If he had dropped her on the way it could have been really bad. Little guy was just trying to help! He brought the fussy baby to her mommy. :) But whoa! Dave was shocked too, he isn't really sure how he missed that whole scene, since it happened right in front of him.

Sleep!

Vanessa slept her longest stretch yet last night, from 10 pm to 6:30 am. I could hardly believe it when I heard her crying. I grabbed my cell phone next to me and looked at the time, and realized Dave was getting up for work at the same time she woke up. That means mommy got eight hours of sleep!!

Pics of Vanessa

One of her first baths at home: Snuggling with daddy: Her first bottle!

Almost 2 weeks

Vanessa will be 2 weeks old tomorrow. I can tell she is already getting much stronger! I find myself picking her up by under the arms and allowing herself to hold her own head up. She does a good job! I put her tummy down on the boppy pillow and last week she just laid there limp, this week she lifted up her head and looked both directions. She is an excellent burper after feedings (usually its a big belch!) and hasn't really developed her own sleeping schedule yet. Each night is different. Some nights she is awake every 1.5 hours to eat or poop, other nights she sleeps a good 4 hour stretch. I hope we gain some predictability soon!

Stump came off

Vanessa now has a real belly button. :) Her stump came off some time this morning when I was carrying her around in the infantino wrap. We took the kids strawberry picking this morning and she slept the whole time. I changed her diaper after wards and found it in the back of her outfit. Same thing happened to Calvin, I think. But hers came off really quick, she's only 12 days old! I think Violet's came off around 3 weeks. The nurses said the "rules" changed recently about babies being able to take baths in water (not just a sponge-off bath) immediately after birth so Vanessa's umbilical stump got soaked a few times in the last 12 days, I think that aided in how quickly it came off.

A first for Vanessa

Today turned out to be a very sleepy day for Vanessa. She slept most of the entire day (from 9 am to 5 pm) with enough awake time to squeeze in three feedings. She slept through her fourth so I pumped 5 oz and Dave gave it to her in a bottle. She took it like a champ!! We used the playtex drop-in liner style bottle and I think I'll stick with it for next time she might need one. This might mean a kid-free date night! Violet and Calvin were NOT fans of the bottles. Maybe we waited too long to introduce them to the other kids, or maybe Vanessa is just my easiest baby yet. :)

Weight check for the other kiddos

As long as I was thinking about Vanessa's weight, I decided to put the older two on the scale to see how much they weighed. Violet was 41.5 lbs and 41" tall (79th percentile for weight and 52nd percentile for height) and Calvin was 32 lbs (between 50 and 75th percentile). I'm not sure exactly how tall Calvin is, maybe I'll measure him when he wakes up from his nap.

Weight check for Vanessa

I had my 1 week PPD check up - and I opted to see the midwife Sandy who had taken care of me during my previous two pregnancies. She was more than happy to do my check for me so I didn't have to drive to IA City. We went over the birth story with her. She was so happy for me that I got to experience almost the full experience of labor and delivery, and knows that she could not have allowed me that opportunity. She removed the steri-strips from my incision, said everything looked really good and is healing well. Dave and all 3 kids came along with me for the appointment so we really packed that little exam room. She asked us what our plans would be for baby #4!! Um...we both really didn't even know what to say. Dave is considering the possibility of trying for a vaginal delivery again IF, and IF we have another baby, but really, neither of us can really think much about it. Dave would LOVE to have another baby, especially if we could have another boy for a brother for Calvin, but I'm not exactly sure I can think that far ahead. I asked the office if I could use their baby scale to weigh Vanessa and check if she had gained in the last week. They said I could use their scale ~ a nurse helped me weigh her and she has successfully passed her birth weight of 10 lbs 3 oz...she is now 10 lbs 11 oz! So that is great. I know she would be doing well...she has been a little eating and pooping machine since my milk fully came in on Sunday. Yay!

Vanessa's first week

The first three days were spent in the hospital, where I was barely successful in getting her to wake up enough to nurse. The last day I got her to latch on really well so that was good. She left the hospital weighing 9 lbs 6 oz. The nurses were so paranoid about her not eating so they had me pump and feed her what I pumped through a syringe. She didn't like it much, choking every time I'd squirt a little near the back of her cheek. She's really turned into a pro nurser though, since waking up more and more. I am not taking vicodin anymore, which makes a difference. I'm still taking 800 mg ibuprofen every 6 hrs for pain so I'm thinking that makes her sleepy, but overall, she's a GREAT baby! She sleeps well, and sleeps at night for me. She knocks out around 10:30 and sleeps til 3:30 am, I feed her, burp her, and put her back to sleep. She then sleeps til about 7:30 for another feeding, and usually a diaper change. I guess I can't complain at all about her. She's a sweet snuggler, loves to be near us, and eats and sleeps well. A new thing for Dave and I: She's sleeping in our bed! It started the first two nights she was home. I tried getting her to sleep in the pack and play in our bedroom, but every time she would get put there, she'd wake up and scream. I could tell she just felt more comfortable really close to people. We got one of those little co-sleeper tiny fold-up cribs that let her sleep safely between our pillows, and she's slept awesome since. It is MUCH easier for me to feed her in bed this way in the middle of the night with out having to get up, since its so painful for me to sit up still. I don't see the co-sleeping thing lasting more than a couple months though...she'll be on her own soon enough! I am still in "recovery mode" so keeping her near me is so much easier.

Violet's reactions to holding Vanessa the first time in the hospital:

"Violet was absolutely enthralled with her new baby sister. She said she knew it was a girl the whole time and told daddy she was right and he was wrong. She held Vanessa for a long time, calmed her down if she fussed, and was very proud that she got her to go to sleep."

Baby Vanessa is here!

I have been procrastinating blogging about Vanessa's birth simply because I don't know what to write. Dave is working on documenting the entire birth story but he using a word document and on page 7 and isn't done yet...so I'm not really sure that is all going to fit on one blog post. Anyway, I felt I should at least update on here some of the latest...and keep the story more condensed. The stats: Vanessa Jo LaMarche was born June 2nd, 2010, at 6:58 pm, weighing 10 lbs, 3 oz, and 22 1/2 in long via c-section delivery. I went into labor on Friday the 28th. I had contractions start about every 15 minutes, they lasted all night and through the night. The next morning on Saturday, they just kept coming, and they got closer and closer together, and the whole day the contractions came about every 8 minutes, and lasted anywhere between 45-60 seconds. I took many walks to encourage labor to continue and increase. Labor continued like that through Sunday and Monday, and didn't really pick up quick enough for me to drop everything and run to the hospital...so it was A VERRRY long three days dealing with horrible sleep from trying to get through a night in early labor. Finally at 2:30 am on Tues morning we headed to the hospital because I was so uncomfortable and sick to death of dealing with contractions at home with the kids running around. My mom was there helping but I felt helpless and couldn't do much other than walk which made me really tired. Anyway, got to the hospital, and kept walking around to try speed things up. When I got there, they checked my cervix and I was dilated to about 3 cm. I was encouraged by the progress, which kept me going! Contractions did pick up, and got going about every 5 minutes, lasting for about a minute. I kept walking the hospital hallways and leaning against the hall or leaned against Dave to get through each one. Got checked, I had dilated to almost 5 cm. I was so encouraged by progress, so I had enough in me to keep going. My water broke in a HUGE gush when I was in the room recovering from a contraction sitting on the couch, and that is when we discovered lots of meconium in the water. I was a little concerned but nobody indicated it could a big problem, so I labored on. I was getting SO exhausted. The pain of the contractions picked up big time when my water broke so it got really tough. I got dilated to about 6 when I asked for an epi so I could get some rest. I was sleeping between contractions, that is how tired I was. So I got the epi, slept in bed for a couple hours, and when I woke up, the nurse checked again and I was dilated to 10 cm! We were all so excited, because I was closer to birthing this baby! The docs/nurses let me "labor down" which means letting the strength of my contractions help bring the baby lower while I rested up to start the pushing phase. A few hours later, I started to push, and I worked HARD pushing the baby down. She was moving down, I was working, and three hours later, we could see the head peeking through. Dave told me the baby had a head full of dark hair! I was getting extremely tired from pushing. The docs were concerned about baby being too big so they refused to even use instruments to deliver the baby, they said you either push this baby out or you need a c-section. I rested for awhile so we could really think this through and make a decision. The doctors felt me pushing and could tell the baby was making progress with each push, but her head slipped right back to where she started after each contraction was over. It was so incredibly frustrating. They got an ultrasound out to determine the position of the baby. and the news was very discouraging. Baby was face up (should have been face down) and her head was tilted crooked in my pelvis, meaning the back flat side of her head was wedged in the birth canal and couldn't budge past my pubic bone. The nurses/docs tried positioning my body in such a way to encourage baby to flip, but after many attempts, baby just didn't budge. Such effort pushing got her head really stuck and she just wouldn't move. Docs determined she was too big to fit the way she was laying (I posted on my FB wall about the position being Asynclitic)....and ultimately a c-section was done to get the baby out. There was a huge swell on the back side of her head that was trying to get pushed out of me, and seeing that was very telling, as I could physically see how her head would not have fit through my pelvis. That's the majority of the story. I had some horrible, awful, and way-too-memorable effects from the drugs they used during the c-section since my epidural had worn off so much. Hallucinations, horrible memories, dreams during the surgery I'll never forget. I refused to see the baby for the first time until I knew I had snapped out of it and would remember seeing her for the first time. At least I was still with it during the time she came out of me and Dave announced "Its a GIRL!" I clapped I was so excited!!! The anesthesiologist gave me the drug because I kept complaining about a severe pain near the top of my abdomen while they were sewing me up. The epidural had worn off, the lidocaine they injected into the epidural was wearing off, and I was really scared. That's why they gave me another drug...and it was the better of two alternatives because the other option was to knock me out under general anesthesia, which I'm glad they didn't do. In the end, I am SO glad I got almost the ENTIRETY of the labor experience and made it to 10 cm and even got to almost push a baby out of me, but it was a huge blow and a big disappointment to get so far and have it not work out. Its going to be a long healing process as many of you know I've wanted a VBAC for so long. Anyway, that's the story!! I hope you enjoyed it. I am just so glad mommy and baby are healthy. And Vanessa was worth it!