Seven

First of all, I love this man: Married him seven years ago today. Best decision of my life.

And here are other going-ons:

Oh, my Maren. She taught Everett to rip books, peed on the kitchen floor, and rubbed lotion into her bedroom carpet. All in the last 24 hours.

Lainey took her first real bath in the bathroom sink.

She's still tiny, but she's growing! At her two week check, she was nearly 7 lbs and had also grown at least an inch since birth. She's almost the size of a 'normal' newborn!

For Family Home Evening, we painted pumpkins.

Little Lainey

Everyone loves photos of newborn babies, right? Well, I do, especially when it is my own. :) Here's some more of our little Lainey:

I found these two photos on my mom's camera, and I thought they were sweet. Everett LOVES his sister. He always wants to see, hug, and touch the baby. The girls love her too. Ellie is a good baby holder and they both are always saying how cute she is. Here's another from the hospital that was so cute, I just had to share. And now she's a week old already. Time flies way too quickly when they are so small.

Oh, and my other kids are cute too.

Are you diggin' Everett's hair? Okay, so maybe he needs a haircut...

Things are going well for this family of six. Yep, SIX! What?! Sometimes I feel like I jumped right from one baby to four. Things are nutsy around here, sure, but we are all pretty happy. Recovery has been going okay. I have good moments where I feel all good and do something crazy like putting the dishes away :) and then bad moments where I moan and groan on the couch. The bad moments are getting fewer though, thankfully. My good husband and my mom have been taking good care of me and my kids. Life doesn't get much better than snuggling a new baby!

Lainey Mae

Lainey Mae

October 11, 1:37 pm

6 lbs 5 oz

19 inches

I've always dreamed of the "perfect birth". After a blissful nine months (ha!) with little morning sickness, I go into labor on my own, a week earlier than my due date, go to the hospital and continue to progress, un-medicated and completely in control, until the baby makes a quick entrance, perfectly healthy. Of course this whole process takes no more than a few hours. Well, it's good to start with an ideal. It's never happened for me, and I doubt it ever will. This birth was far, FAR from what I had hoped for, but in the end, I still got a healthy baby, which is the important thing.

So, Monday morning I had my 39 week doctors visit where we discovered that Lainey had turned into a breech position. He gave me some options - I could wait and see if she'd turn back on her own, but since I was so close to my due date, it was possible I'd go into labor and I'd have to have a c-section. Or, we could attempt to turn the baby and then induce labor right afterwards. We thought this was the best chance to avoid a c-section, so we scheduled an aversion (turning the baby) for the next morning.

That night I went to bed and, surprise surprise, didn't sleep very well. I layed in bed and felt Lainey moving quite a bit and was wondering if perhaps she was changing positions. Well, guess what? We had an ultrasound at our appointment that confirmed that she indeed had moved in the night and was once again head down! Good girl. The doctor there advised us to hurry on over to my scheduled induction before this gymnast decided to flip back around. We got started on pitocin at about 10:30. This is when things got exciting. Now, my babies have all shown signs of distress during labor - their heartrates have all dropped and have scared nurses and doctors. So, I wasn't surprised at all when Lainey started doing it too. However, with the others, I was close to deliver, so we dealt with it and got a healthy baby here (although it's always been tense). This time around, I was no where near delivery - Lainey wasn't moving down into the birth canal and I was only dilated to a 1 when she started showing signs of distress. Labor wasn't progressing well either because every time the pitocin was increased, Lainey's heartrate would drop to scary levels. With one of those scary dips, the doctor and a few nurses rushed in to make a decision - the baby had to get out, and quick. So, I was wheeled into the operating room at 1:28. I heard discussion about whether there was time to do a spinal or not, but my doctor was worried that it would take too long for a spinal to take effect, so while they prepped me, I was given general anesthetic and had myself a nice little nap. Of course I was sad that I didn't get to see my baby right away and hear her cry (the nurses said as soon as they got a head out she was screaming something fierce - that's my girl), but there was something nice about just being put out - and a needle through my IV sounded nicer than a needle in my back. Nick was freaking out just a little as this whole thing just happened so fast. He didn't get to come in and was pacing the hall with worry. My mom was called and was thankfully in the area and able to come quickly to the hospital. She was with me when I came out of anesthetic and sweetly wiped my tears as I came to grips with what had just happened. Lainey was born at 1:37. Nick was able to go with her to the nursery, and feed her a bottle. We were informed that the cord was wrapped around Lainey's shoulder, causing it to get pinched with contractions. I don't think she would have made it without medical intervention. We are grateful for a doctor who made the call and quickly got her here.

Lainey had a hard time maintaining her blood sugar, so the poor little thing was put on an IV and kept in the NICU for two days. The nurses were so nice to bring her to this bed-ridden momma so I could feed her, although it was against policy to do so. Four hours after birth, I finally got to meet the sweet little thing.
Brother and sisters got to come meet her the next day. Everett was all smiles and lots of hugs for "baby new sister" (as Maren would say).

Sisters liked her too.

Yep, we all kind of like her.

I just had to put that photo in because of Ellie's face. She was telling me something that had happened at school with expression. :)

Look at Lainey's head compared to dad's hand! So tiny! She is a good pound lighter than any of my others.

Baby Lainey with all her monitors and such in the NICU:

Finally a "well-baby" and in mom's room for the last few hours of our hospital stay:

So no, I didn't get my "perfect birth", but I guess that's not as important as a "perfect baby", which I DID get. Sweet baby girl.

While Sister is Away

Ellie LOVES kindergarten. She was sick one day and cried when I told her she had to stay home. I thought Maren might miss her sister while she was away, but actually, no. She really likes the time she has the run of the house and no big bossy sister to tell her what to do and how. I've enjoyed the one-on-one time I've gotten with my Missy. We've started doing "school" together.

Oh, my boy. He is just so "cool" right now (as Dad says it). He's lots of fun, and is just a content guy. He's mastering eating all on his own. He decided to forgo the spoon and just stick his tongue in the bowl to get the last of his yogurt.

And baby girl is chillin'. I think she's decided to take up permanent residency. Here I am at 38 weeks. I always hope my babies will come before their due date (Ellie was two weeks early, afterall), but I'm not thinking it's going to happen. She's still riding high and my body doesn't seem serious about childbirth at this point. Oh well. She will come eventually, right?

Picture Day

The other day was picture day at Ellie's school. Man, they really rip you off. We decided to forgo the professional head shot (which I've never really loved anyway) and just snapped some shots of my girl before sending her off to school. So, I didn't really put my heart and soul into taking some great photos, but I did capture how nice and straight her hair was. :) Maren wanted in on the action too, so we posed her right by the gas meter and weeds. She's filthy from climbing on the rocks not long after the sprinklers shut off.

My three kiddos. Maren just cracks me up. Look at that face! She is such a ham.

I have really been a terrible photo taker lately, all in all. I think you've seen all the photos I've taken to document the last few months. Just haven't been feeling it. Perhaps my desire will burn once we have a sweet new baby to take photos of.

Home: The Place Where Your Stuff Is

We have a new place for our stuff! Hurray! We officially moved in 10 days ago, and it's been so nice to have a home of our own once again! I thought I'd take you on a little tour. Here is our kitchen. It came with a brand new glass cooktop range, which unfortunately just had to go. Nick and I are gas cookers, and can't stand cooking on electric, so a new gas range (with double ovens!) was our first purchase. We were hoping to keep the other appliances, but found that both the dishwasher and fridge were missing parts, so we ended up replacing them too. It's not the huge kitchen we were dreaming of, and someday, we may expand, but it'll do for now. Oh, we also are not fans of the granite tile, just in case you were wondering. Our family room. The entire main floor is hardwood flooring, which we are still getting used to. It looks pretty, but isn't very comfy to sit on. These photos were taken with the house as is, by the way. That explains the kid clutter. Oh, and my sweet boy. We love the space! So much bigger, and more functional, than our last home.
Our living room. That ugly grape couch made it's way here too! I'm grateful to have a place to sit, but it'll be nice when we can afford to replace it. I'm in love with the wainscoting.
The entry way/stairs. I love the ironwork and the chandelier, although I dread the day we need to replace lightbulbs!
Master shower and tub. I love having a soaker tub, although this one is a foot or two too long for me! I can't lean back without fully submerging in the water! Just one of the problems of being short.
Our backyard. Like I mentioned before, it isn't as big and spacious as our last home, but it'll do just fine. The kids love having their playset back.
The previous owners had professional landscapers come in, and our property has several rock retaining walls and such. It looks nice, or will when it's been worked on a bit. It's been uncared for for several months, so we have a lot of work to do.
We are loving our neighborhood. Several friendly neighbors have come by with goodies and offering their help. Ellie has friends from school and church who live just around the corner, which she's really loved. We are slowly unpacking (I don't move very fast these days) and are beginning to feel settled. Thank you, thank you to all who have helped us through this transition! We couldn't have done it without you!

My Baby Bird

I'll be the first to admit that I may be a bit of an over-protective parent. I like my babies to stay close by. I homeschooled Ellie for two years of preschool, even though I knew she would have loved the social life that goes along with formal education. I admit it was due to some selfishness on my part. I wasn't ready to let her go just yet. I wanted to hold on to her a little longer, and I loved having my own schedule and all three of my chickies around me all the time. It felt right, I went with it, and I don't regret it. This morning though, I felt kind of like a momma bird that just shoved her baby out of the nest. Perhaps "shove" isn't the right word. It denotes some force was required, but really, no force was needed. This girl dived on out of our comfy little nest without even looking back. She was so confident, so excited, and so ready for this moment.

She asked all of us several times yesterday, "Do you know what's going to happen to me tomorrow? I'm going to school!" She was counting down the days and had her outfit picked out way ahead of time. Dad came with us this morning, and I was grateful to have him there to take her to the door, because I knew I'd break down and cry, and I didn't want my little girl to see her mess of a momma, because I really am happy for her. I'm excited for this new start in her life and all that it will bring. I know that it is right for her.

My baby's gonna fly.

And rewinding just a bit.

We took a little Saturday excursion to Cascade Springs. I hadn't been here since I was in my early teens, and although I do remember it was cool, I had simply forgotten just how beautiful it is. And, Nick and I have discovered that drives on skinny canyon roads with hundred feet drop-offs scare us both just a little. Okay, so maybe more than a little. We are getting to be chickens more and more in our advancing years.

My girls pick out their own clothes, as a disclaimer. And, my Ellie has learned how to put her hair in a ponytail, which is handy, but not necessarily very neat.

The drive was worth it.We should have keys in hand by the end of today if the sellers close as planned.

Oh, to have my own house again.