Elizabeth is Two Weeks!

Hello all! I'm going to go out on a limb and officially call week 2 at home with 3 children under the age of 4 a "success." Everyone is still relatively happy most of the time, Elizabeth is so kindly still sleeping for 3-4 hour stretches at night, and then returning quickly to sleep after a feeding, and I still feel like I can function. I am very well-rested compared to what I was expecting, and my house isn't a complete disaster area, despite Cline being at work all week. Of course, I do have to give some most of the credit to the kind relatives and friends who are helping me this week!! Mimi and Pa and LaLa and Katie have been wonderful at entertaining the girls while Elizabeth and I perfect our nursing skills, and we have had a steady supply of meals this week, as well, relieving me of one more thing to figure out! Nonetheless, I have had all 3 kids on my own for a few hours here and there, and while it is very busy and requires some prioritizing, it seems manageable! Here are some pictures from our week!

This is Elizabeth's favorite sleeping position :) (I scooted her up right after taking this picture, and we only do this during the day when I am awake to make sure she is safe). Abby Kate and Christa love to get up there with her, and this particular day, Abby Kate decided it would be fun to run in place on the bed. She is a trip!

Awake and ready for another outing - a trip to the Outlet malls for Spring clothes!

Officially 2 weeks old!


A sweet friend made this blanket for her - you can't see it in this picture, but she included a green shamrock in the corner since Elizabeth was born on St. Patrick's Day. I love that!! Our babysitter's mother made the booties for her, and they are too cute!

Another attempt at getting a good picture of all 3 girls! This is about the best I've done so far :)

Have a great week!

Elizabeth is One Week!

Hello all! Elizabeth is one week old today! In some ways, it seems like the week has flown by, and in other ways, it's hard to remember life without her. Overall, I would say the week has been a huge success. Elizabeth is our easiest newborn, so far. She hasn't taken to nursing quite as easily as Christa did, but we're still working at it with moderate, non-stressful effort. She is a great sleeper, and will sleep in the car seat, her bouncer, the swing, my arms, and in her bassinet..... ON HER BACK!!!! That alone helps me so much - she is the first of my babies to not scream within 5 minutes of me lying her on her back, and I couldn't be more thrilled! The girls are doing very well, also! I had Abby Kate and Elizabeth for a few hours by myself for the first time today, and we did OK. I didn't get much done in the way of straightening or laundry, but we had a good morning together snuggling and reading books. Christa is having some sleeping issues, but I think this has more to do with her refusal to nap more than it does adjusting to the baby. We've been battling this problem off and on for a year, and we're managing. Here are some pictures from our first week together.

Technically, Elizabeth's first outing was through the drive-thru at Chick-Fil-A the day after we got home from the hospital. I am a breakfast biscuit addict, so this is appropriate. But that is kind of a boring first outing. So her second first outing was on Monday - to the doctor's office.... which is also boring. So I'm counting her 3rd first outing as the one for the baby book - we took the girls to the park for a picnic and playtime on Monday afternoon. Had a blast!

Here we are at the park. I had to take Elizabeth to the car to feed her shortly after we got there, but we enjoyed a few minutes of fresh air.

The big girls were having a blast yelling together on the way home from the park!

Here she is today - ON HER BACK!!!.... in her bassinet.... not even crying after she woke up! I love this newborn!

And content in her bouncer after another feeding!

Have a great day!

Life As a Family of Five...

... totally rocks so far!! Everyone is adjusting as well as I could ask, although I realize it's still very early on, and things could get more difficult at any time. But so far, so good. The kids love their newest sister. Christa is so helpful and wants to hold baby Elizabeth, make sure she is warm and comfortable, and is so proud of her two sisters! Abby Kate is doing much better than I feared. She excitedly says, "Beth!" and is anxious to see the baby each morning. She's been a little fussy at times, but it's hard to tell if that's just from being off schedule for a few days with grandparents or if she is dealing with this big change in her life. Regardless, we are trying hard to give each big girl plenty of love and attention right now!
Baby Elizabeth is great and so sweet! The feeding and sleeping is going well, after a few days of working with my awesome lactation consultant! Elizabeth is letting me get the rest I need at night, as long as I'm willing to hold her in bed with me while I do it :) Cline asked me if I was sure I want to establish this pattern already. I told him that if I want to get any sleep at night, my choices are to let her sleep on her stomach or hold her. For now, I'm holding her, although we might try the vibrating bouncy seat tonight now that we got the battery replaced.
Anyway, here are some pictures of the fun we've been having for the last few days:

Coming home from the hospital!! The girls were so excited and waiting in the front yard for us.

I fear my days of getting that great family picture are over for a while. We tried many times, but were unable to get a perfect shot of everyone looking at the camera. I don't think I've even managed to get a great one of just the 3 girls yet!

Welcome home, Baby Elizabeth!

Loving the new sister!

The girls are so sweet and gentle with the baby so far! Hope it lasts :)

How she looks today at 4 days old.

All clean after our first bath at home.

Have a great day!

Our St. Patrick's Day Miracle

Well, after all of the scheduling drama, I am thrilled to report that I got my St. Patrick's Day baby!! My delivery story is not as long this time - since "labor" (can you really call it that when you get your epidural before you start feeling anything??) only lasted about 4 and 1/2 hours. Basically, we checked into the hospital at 8 p.m. on Wed. evening. I was the only patient on the floor, so things moved quickly and we had plenty of attention. The nurses and staff got me registered and settled, and the doctor checked to see how I was progressing. I was dilated to a 4, so he ordered the Pitocin to be started. The nurse arranged for me to have my epidural first (love her), so they started my IV fluids, and the epidural was placed with minimal discomfort by 9:30 or 10 p.m. They got the Pitocin running, and broke my water shortly after that. Things progressed quickly from there. The nurse checked me and told me I was dilated to a 7. She checked me again less than 5 minutes later. I thought she was crazy to do that - how much could I have progressed in 5 minutes??? Oh, 2 more cm, making me a 9. They got the room set up for delivery, and about an hour or so later, they confirmed that I was fully dilated and effaced. They had me do a practice push. When the baby's head started coming out, they told me to stop, yelled for the doctor, instructing him to not take time to don a cap or booties, and asked me to stay as still as possible. Cline heard the doctor coming down the hallway and yelled, "Hey Chris! If you don't get in here right now, I'm getting paid for this delivery!" I laughed, and was told to stop. Our doctor arrived in the room a few seconds later, and Elizabeth Claire was born with very little effort at 2:23 am on March 17 - Saint Patrick's Day!! She weighed in at 9 lbs 3 oz and measured 20 inches long!! No wonder that heartburn was so excruciating those last few days of pregnancy! She is my biggest and hairiest baby by far as well as my easiest pregnancy and delivery! Enjoy some pictures of our special first couple of days together!

Ready to go to the hospital and meet this baby!

Our precious angel! Our doctor made us a gift and designed it and hand-made it himself! It's a surgical cloth from the delivery kit with a shamrock drawn on it!

Elizabeth spit up on the cute onesie that I looked everywhere for and finally ordered on the internet within about an hour of me putting her in it. Needless to say, I did not get the 1000 pictures of her that I'd imagined, but this one turned out pretty cute! None of my newborns have looked like each other. Elizabeth has my hair as a newborn, and looks like what I expected Christa to look like when she was born.

Settled in the post-partum room. Can you tell we'd been up for 30 hours??

Abby Kate meeting Elizabeth for the first time. She pointed and said, "Beth," but wasn't too interested in touching her.

Christa, on the other hand, couldn't hold her enough. She was so proud, and really wanted Elizabeth to come home with us that day.

Ready for pictures!!

Ready to go home and begin life as a family of five!

We are so blessed, and I thank God for all of my girls. I am sooooooo thankful that He decided that our family needed this sweet baby girl right now, and let us keep her after a scary beginning of pregnancy!

The Eventful Delivery That Hasn't Started Yet

Hello all! Thought I'd update this blog one last time (hopefully) before Baby Elizabeth is born. We have not been doing much in the last few weeks - just preparing for Elizabeth's arrival. Cline has done this by working a lot, so that he can be off for a couple of weeks when she is born. I have readied the nursery as much as I can, cleaned out the car (although I think I'm going to have to do that again, now), and packed for the hospital. My sister was in town from Miami last week, so we had a great time seeing her and her husband! We were hoping Elizabeth would make her debut while she was here, but my babies tend to like to stay right where they are until I drug them out via inductions. Apparently, my womb is quite cozy, although it certainly doesn't feel that way to me at the moment!

Although I am in those physically difficult last days of pregnancy, I am not nearly as ready to "hurry up and get this baby out already" as I have been in the past. I think it's a combination of the fact that I am still much more comfortable this time around than the previous 2 times, the fact that I have 2 busy little girls to chase around all day, and the fact that I am well aware of how much work newborns are. I can't wait to meet her, but once she's out, there's no taking a break for a good night's sleep for several months!

At any rate, we have already had some excitement. We have had an induction date set (for multiple reasons) for several weeks. I always feel like I need to justify why I schedule my deliveries because I know many women who feel strongly against it. But the fact is, I have had 2 awesome, painless deliveries this way which gave me 2 healthy girls, and if something works, I believe in sticking with it. Plus, this is a big baby.... with a big head.... and I trust my doctor and want him to do the delivery - not whoever happens to be on call.... and the longer I wait, the bigger my chance of a C-section.... which does not sound fun with 3 kids under the age of 4.

Last Monday, I went in for my weekly appointment. We had one last ultrasound for final measurements, which showed the baby's head in the 87th percentile and her size 1-2 weeks ahead of schedule. None of this was a surprise, but when the doctor checked me, we learned that I was dilated between 3-4 cm. I have never gotten that far without the help of Pitocin before, so I was surprised and excited to learn this. The doctor told me that I could go into labor on my own at any time, and he offered to move my induction date up to this past weekend (yesterday, to be exact). Cline was scheduled to work yesterday and is quite tired after working many shifts in a row as he has done for the last week, so we decided just to stick with the later induction date. If something happened on it's own before then, great, but if we're scheduling it, we'll make it as convenient as possible :)

On Tuesday (the next day) I got a call from my doctor. Something had come up with his schedule, causing him to have to leave town the day before my original induction date. Because of the baby's size and low position, he was very nervous that I would go into labor on my own while he was out of town. He said that he would prefer to try to move the induction date to Sunday (yesterday). He and Cline spoke about the pros and cons of this new plan, and we decided to go with the doctor's suggestion of a Sunday induction. Cline was able to switch his shift around so that he would be off work, and we woke up yesterday morning with hospital bags packed. Our plan was to spend the morning with the girls, go out to lunch, and head over to the hospital around 1 p.m.

Well, yesterday morning turned out to be a crazy one. As we were showering and getting dressed for the day, Cline received a phone call from our doctor's wife letting us know that he was sick in the Emergency Room. He was not contagious, and she thought he would be fine after some mild pain medicine (Motrin), but she wanted to give us a heads up on the situation. We continued with our plan, although with a little less haste to change the sheets for our babysitters. As we were finishing up lunch, our doctor called, sounding very uncomfortable. He and Cline spoke, and they decided that it would be better to hold off on the induction, and see what happens over the next few days. I was relieved! The last thing I wanted was an early induction so that *my* doctor could do the delivery, only to have him become incapacitated and unable to do the important part of actually getting the baby out. This turned out to be a wise decision, and we are hoping our doctor feels better soon!

I am so glad this is my 3rd baby, and I am much more relaxed about all of these changes in plans!! If this were my first, or even my second, I would have been in tears most of the day yesterday! But I really have a go-with-the-flow attitude this time (not like me at all:), and I'm ready for this baby on whatever day she happens to be born. In the meantime, I am appreciating the extra rest, extra time with the girls and Cline, and extra time to install the car seat (which is still sitting in our dining room)!

Well, that's all the news we have for now! Have a great day!

Abby Kate is 18 Months!! (And other pictures :)

Hello all!! Quick post today to share our most recent pictures and activities. We are slowly getting back into our routine after the 2 week illness that invaded our house. I am finishing up last minute chores to prepare for Baby Elizabeth - the last load of baby things is in the washing machine as we speak! After I pack some hospital bags, I think I will be as prepared as I can be! We are very excited, and getting more ready by the day to meet the newest addition to our family :) The above pictures is Cline and Christa at the Beauty and the Beast play. This was right in the middle of the sickness - I thought Christa was better, because she was playful and fever-free for 2 days, but ended up with more fevers and less energy as the week went on. She had a good time with her daddy on this day, though!

This was taken on Abby Kate's 18 month birthday (March 2). The weather has been gorgeous lately, so we enjoyed a few minutes outside before naps!

Happy 18-month birthday, Abby Kate!! You are as cute as can be, and think you're 5 years old!

I'm not a big "pregnant picture" person, but here is a belly shot from this week. In fact, I have very few pictures of myself when I'm pregnant, and no staged, sweet pictures of the girls kissing my belly and other cute things. But here is this one, and I'll try to get one more right before she is born.

Me and my 3 girls!!

At 18 months, Abby Kate is repeating almost any word. Her favorite phrase is, "Help Me," and she loves the book, "Fanc Nanc" (Fancy Nancy). She loves to go over animal noises and body parts, and Cline swears she counted to 5 twice the other day. She likes to talk about letters, and watch movies. She loves Bob and Larry from Veggie Tales, and will often point to the DVD player in the car and say, "movie, movie," like a broken record until we turn one on. She definitely knows how to communicate her wishes and adores her big sister. She lights up when I tell her we can go wake Christa up from a nap, and can navigate the stairs quite well for herself. She loves to run and waves her arms around with a big smile whenever she has a chance to move as fast as she wants. She's becoming a pickier eater, but will still eat some fruits and veggies, which is more than Christa would do at this age! Her sleeping habits have improved greatly over the last few months!! We've been doing a little more of a schedule, and I've been trying to have a consistent naptime and bedtime for the girls. While I'm not rigid about this schedule, I do try to stay in a 30 minute ball-park, and it really seems to be helping. Abby Kate threw up in her bed while she was sick, so I removed all of her bedding, including her bumper pad to wash it. I decided not to put the bumper back in, so that it would be clean for baby Elizabeth, and Abby Kate doesn't really need it anymore. She slept horribly for 2 nights, waking up crazy early, or in the middle of the night for hours, so I replaced the bumper pads just to see if that made a difference. She's been sleeping for 12 hours at night since!! I guess she likes the softness of the bedding!
Well, Christa has been patiently waiting for me to play with her. We're off to play ponies in the nursery for a little while. Have a great day!