Sunday, May 31, 2009

Simple Sunday

Today turned out to be a simple, relaxing Sunday! I LOVE those :) Normally we would all start the day off with church, but since Emmy is so little, I thought it would be best for her not to be exposed to so many people. So Kevin took Drew and Ellie to church and I headed out to run a couple of errands with Emmy!
Here are Drew and Ellie all dressed up for church (I couldn't pry the army guy out of Drew's hand to take a picture, trust me, I tried)
And I dressed Emmy up to run a few errands (ok, so a few errands turned into one store...you guessed it, MICHAELS... and then we headed home to eat again).


PAUSE THE POST: I have to tell you all what Kevin just came in and told me. I am sitting here blogging and he was in our bedroom/bathroom going through mail, picking up, just piddling (just tried to google how to spell "piddle" and couldn't find it - ya'll know what I mean right?). He came out and said to me "You I have done some pretty stupid things in my life. Do you want to know what I just did?" he asks. I raise one eyebrow and look at him as if I am scared to hear what he is going to tell me, and quite frankly, I am. "Ok...tell me," I say cautiously. Kevin replies, "I just washed my mouth out with rubbing alcohol...I thought it was the hydrogen peroxide."
You see, the rubbing alcohol was out to clean Emmy's umbilical cord and the hydrogen peroxide was out for Kevin to gargle with because he has an ulcer. Nevermind that the bottles look NOTHING alike: the alcohol bottle is clear with clear liquid and the hydrogen peroxide is dark brown. My husband never ceases to amaze me and make me laugh and that is why I love him!

Drew went to the pool with some of his friends today and had a fabulous time. According to them, he started with a death grip, but by the end of the day he was doing great! We hope to get him into swimming lessons next month. Ellie and Emmy hung out with Kevin and me while we finished up some little projects around the house, my sister and her friend came by to see us, and we had dinner brought over from one of our neighbors...it was TERRIFIC!!!
I tried to get some good pictures of Emmy tonight. She has on no clothes because we have had to keep her undressed all weekend and in indirect sunlight to help with her jaundice. So we started on the sofa and this precious face...


quickly turned to this...

and then back to that of an angel when held tightly in Mama's arms, and that is perfectly fine with me:)


Today was our anniversary and I couldn't have asked for a more perfect way to spend it, at home with my family! I feel so blessed and could not ask for anything more in life! Kevin and I have been married six years today. A lot has been accomplished in six short years...two rental homes, two homes that we have owned, about 5 or 6 cars (not smart purchases :( oh well), grad school graduation, a dog that has come and gone (tear, tear), major career changes for both of us, many, many memorable moments spent with family and the best of friends, and three beautiful babies! My how life has been good to us...and after six wonderful years, I still feel like the luckiest girl alive! I love you Kevin!
Hope all is well!
Love to all!

Saturday, May 30, 2009

Fabulous Family Fun!

Today Nanny, Poppy, Jeff, Katie and Sam came down to visit and see our newest addition! We had a great time and Drew and Ellie LOVED playing with their cousin! Jeff and Katie brought presents for everyone!!!


So the day started off with the boys trying to put together the lego contraption that Katie and Jeff had gotten Drew - the boys being Jeff and Kevin with Drew closely observing. Ok, well in this picture he is eyeing Sam's snacks, but he was very "into" what the big boys were doing for the majority of the project - although it did take the big boys quite some time to put together a toy for 6-8 year olds :)


Kevin just "fixing something" while Drew patiently waits...

Jeff and Drew showing off the finished product!

So Katie has recently started sewing and she is digustingly talented...she is REALLY GOOD! She made Ellie and Emmy the most adorable matching outfits that you have ever seen! Here is Ellie modeling hers and the picture just does not do this little outfit justice - it is simply precious! I can not wait dress up my girls in their matching outfits! Katie almost has me wanting to learn to sew! I am sure that I will have all kinds of time on my hands to do that, right? In the mean time, I'll have to bribe her to sew for me :)


Jeff with Ellie and Sam


Drew also got this huge sprinkler waterball thingy from Jeff and Katie! He LOVED it! His favorite thing to do was turn it off and say "Hey Mommy/Nanny/Daddy/Poppy (whoever was most gullible at that very moment) go stand beside the ball, I promise I won't turn it on...(BACKGROUND: devilish little laugh from Drew)"








So last night, Emmy decided to eat every 2 hours instead of her normal (if you can call anything "normal" for a 5 day old) 3 hours! And Miss Ellie decided to wake up at 6:00 AM which she NEVER does! So while the girls napped this afternoon...

the boys played in water on the front porch - it is amazing what entertainment a bucket of water and some cups will provide (guess it is the male gender - doesn't take much)!




Drew decides to hop in Nanny's lap, after he is soaking wet of course!

Drying off with Jeff


Here is Daddy and his girls after they decided that nap time was over (Emmy was not too happy - I think we had decided that naptime was over!)
So, we had a great time visiting with our family! The next time we all get together, Jeff and Katie will have their new little girl (expected to arrive on or before July 17th)! We are still trying to figure out how the family, where there were NO GIRLS for generations on end, has now become full of little girls! Right now, we are all tied up 2 boys, 2 girls. In July the girls will take over. It will be up to Jeff and Katie to tie the score - no more babies on this side of the family...Kevin has informed me that we are FINISHED, and quite frankly after Emmy's dramatically fast entry to the world, I am finally agreeing with him...Three's a plenty!
Here are my favorite pictures from the day (one of each baby).
Drew - I love his curls in this picture:)

Ellie - look at that little grin :)

Sam - couldn't you just eat him up :)

Emmy -life is so good when you get to sleep 22 hours a day :)

Hope all is well!
Love to all!

Friday, May 29, 2009

Happy, Healthy and Home

We are all HOME!!! I am so happy to finally have my whole family under one roof! We are thankful that Emmy was released from the hospital with me on Wednesday and that our other two babies are home too (although they had a really good time with Nanny and Poppy and Gama, Jimbo, and Katie)!

Here is our sweet little angel, sleeping peacefully at home...


Here she is all ready to leave the hospital...


and in her car seat for the first time (you always forget how tiny they are in that huge seat! and how light it is with a 6lb baby instead of a 20lb toddler!)


And here is Emmy at home with her big brother and sister, and let me just say it was "ALL HANDS ON" (that is putting it nicely - there was actually kicking and screaming and fighting over who was going to hold Emmy! and Ellie truly does think she is a doll baby, as in, will try to pick her up by her arm, leg, neck etc.) Both of the older two really do love their baby sister though (even though right now they are a threat to her safety, I am sure that will get better)

So here is Daddy trying to referee...


Drew with his "other baby sister"...


and Ellie finally getting her turn to hold the baby...


So now that we are all home, we are trying to settle into somewhat of a routine (although we all know that I am not the best with routine and schedules!). My sister had called to offer and come down to help me out on Thursday. I of course said you are more that welcome to come, but I am sure I'll be fine! Then my mom called to find out when we needed her on Thursday since Kevin was working! I told her too that we should be fine! I am not the first to have ever had three children you know! I ate my own words!

Kevin left home around 9am so I was able to get Emmy fed and he fed Drew and Ellie. Emmy was sleeping and Drew and Ellie were playing when he left. I thought I should take the opportunity to pick up a bit. I got the upstairs clean, did the dishes, showered and got dressed! So I felt pretty accomplished until Emmy wakes up (to be fed) and Ellie has the sudden urge to be held all the time! Feeding time is very interesting since Ellie wants to hold a baby that is attached to my body! I guess she will get used to it! Anyway, I begin trying to get all three children dressed and have a four year old refusing to wear anything but pajama pants and no shirt, a 19 month old that throws a tantrum when you try to change her diaper and then you have to wrestle (i.e. sit on top of) to put clothes on, only to be tugged at and being told "off" once they are finally on! Emmy was a dream child to dress though! So I call my mom and say "What time are ya'll coming?" They got here around 1:30 and I had to take Emmy to the doctor for a weight check. I was very thankful that I didn't have to take all three of them. Although I am SURE that I could have done it alone with no problems ;) Right.....

All things considered though, it really is not that bad and I am sure that we will all adjust quickly to having another little one! I love life with three and the craziness fits my lifestyle just perfectly! I have not yet ventured out to Michael's with them all yet (although I have a coupon that I am DYING to use!)

I ordered the kids some clothes from Gymboree and they arrived yesterday. Ellie wanted to try on her new bathing suit (Emmy has one too, but I decided that Ellie could model for both of them!)



Then Drew wanted to put on his bathing suit too... (I got him church clothes but he wasn't so interested in modeling them)


So yesterday, with the help of my mom and sister keeping tabs on Ellie and Drew, I got dinner made including a vegetable AND dessert!

Can you guess what I made?

And I made until after 6pm before I had my first glass of wine for the day :)
So today, I am flying solo ALL DAY (wonder what time that first glass of wine will come today?)! And I have to take Emmy back to the doctor for a bilirubin check (and yes I will have to take all three of the kids...will keep you posted on that). So far, so good...I have showered, cleaned, called Canon because my pictures were taking forever to download, and blogged (of course with a few screaming children in the background...just kidding...they were actually playing with the camcorder and crayons. What can I say, it kept them occupied)!
Precious little Emmy sleeping...amidst all the rucus going on around her!


Will keep you posted on all of our daily adventures here! Thank you all for your thoughts and prayers with our newest little one! She appears to be doing very well! Eating well, sleeping well, peeing and pooping well...and that is about all she does right now! We are so grateful that she is doing so well!
Hope all of you are doing well!
Love to all!

Tuesday, May 26, 2009

Emery Caroline has FINALLY arrived!

We are so proud to announce the arrival of Emery Caroline! Emmy arrived on Monday, May 25th at 12:26am. She weighed 6lbs 4oz and was 20 inches long. So here is her "birth story" and the exciting story of how she made her debut and her rough little start in this crazy world:

Sunday afternoon, Joan and Steve (Kevin's parents) stopped by the house. I suckered Steve into helping Kevin hang some cabinets in our laundary room that we had just finished painting, a task that I thought would take about an hour, but ended up taking them around 4 hours! I had no intentions of Steve having to help us for so long and figured the least I could do was cook them a decent dinner. So I got into the kitchen and started rummaging around to see what I could find. I noticed a few "cramping" like feelings but nothing that was very painful. As I prepared Paula Deens famous meatloaf for dinner, my "cramps" started getting a little more frequent, but still nothing very painful. I made meatloaf, green beans and potatoes, squash casserole and a cake all for dinner (maybe this was my pre-labor burst of energy or so called "nesting"). We enjoyed our dinner and still "cramping" feelings but nothing really more intense or very notable as far as "pain level" goes. So after we finished dinner, Joan and I cleaned the kitchen, I told her I thought I may be in the beginning stages of labor, but I wasn't sure! This had been my fear - that I would go into labor with her and not know it (my water broke with both Drew and Ellie, so I had never experienced labor without being induced with pitocin). So we started timing my contractions. I kept telling Joan that I would be SOOOO embarrassed if I drove all the way to the hospital thinking I was in labor and them telling me "you aren't in labor, it must be gas" (that would totally be my luck!). So I kept waiting for the contractions to become a little more painful, but they really didn't but they were coming more regularly at this point. So I decided to give the doctor a call just to see at what point they wanted me to come in. He told me to wait until my contractions were about 5 minutes apart for 30-45 mintues and they were painful enough that I could not talk through them. Ok...seems easy enough. So I go upstairs, Kevin gets in the shower, and I tell Joan about my conversation with the doctor. She said to me "I don't think I want you to be here when you hurt so bad you can't talk through your contractions" and boy was that the best advice I got all night long! I decided she was right and we should go ahead to the hospital. I showered and we leave. All the way to the hospital the contractions were a little closer together but I could definitly talk through them. We got to the hospital (which is about 30 minutes from our house) at 11:40pm. I went to triage so that they could hook me up to the monitors and check me out. To shorten things up a bit, I was monitored, checked (5cm dialated) and admitted. We walked to labor and delivery and I started to hurt. I told the nurse to go ahead and order my epidural, to which she explained that it was going to be about 20 minutes before I would be able to get it - they needed to start my IV, get antibiotics in me, and get me hooked up to the monitors. I had a big contraction and then the nurse started my IV. While she was doing that, I had another big contraction and told her I didn't think I could wait 20 minutes for an epidural. The other nurse asked me to lay down (I was sitting up trying to get through the pain at this point) so that she could check me. When she did, she said "honey you aren't getting an epidural, you are gonna have a baby like right now. Call the doctor, she is ready!" WHATTTTT????? I knew something was hurting BAD but it just happened so fast! So doctor came in, I pushed and Emmy arrived at 12:26am (less than an hour after we arrived at the hospital). No IV antibiotics, no fetal monitors, not oxygen levels, barely an IV and most importantly NO PAIN MEDS (which was not NEARLY as bad as I had anticipated or would have expected)- it was all craziness! But Emmy arrived very quickly. Since she arrived so quickly I was not able to get any antibiotics for Group B strep. For those of you that don't know, this is a naturally occuring bacteria in about 40% of women that is completely harmless to mothers, but if passed on to babies at birth can be very serious. Standard of care is to treat mothers with two rounds of antibiotics before their babies are delivered. I did not have time to get any antibiotics, so the doctors needed to watch Emmy more closely. Emmy also had a cord wrapped tightly around her neck when she was born. This too is common, but never a great thing for babies. She was VERY blue when she was first born. At first Emmy went to the regular nursery, but after the doctors reviewed her history and had the neonatologist look at her, she was admitted to the NICU. The neonatologist came in to talk with us about it and explained that Emmy just didn't look good and given her history (cord around neck, postive GBS mother, very fast delivery) she thought that it would be best for her to be in special care. I asked what the diagnosis was and her reply was "possible sepsis" I lost it - the word sepsis is NEVER a good thing. This is every pregnant woman's worst nightmare and I now know how scary it is to have a sick baby in the NICU. I cried A LOT on Monday. When we walked in the NICU I burst into tears thinking to myself "this isn't how it is supposed to be." Seeing Emmy with all kinds of wires, cords, monitors, and IVs broke my heart. And she just laid there very sick looking. We asked tons of questions and the staff was very informative and compassionate. Unfortunately the only thing we could do was wait. Time would tell what was going on :( Not an easy thing to do. Emmy improved over the day yesterday and today and was just moved out of the NICU into the regular newborn nursery. As of right now, she is still negative for the GBS infection (although they watch the cultures for 5 days). We are hoping she is able to go home with us tomorrow. God is GOOD and all of our prayers have been answered! We are so thankful that she has gotten better and is doing well!

Here are some pictures from the past few days!

Drew in front of Emmy's cart with her stats


Drew playing in the hospital bed. He LOVED it and I swear I thought he was going to break it. The motor didn't stop the whole time he was here. The bed was up and down and up and down...



Emmy - shortly after birth


Drew kissing his baby sister!


He is such a proud big brother!


He loved holding her






I am so glad that Drew was able to come and visit his baby sister! But I am really missing my Elle Bell! It was just too much driving for her and if you have ridden in the car with Ellie over the past few months, you know what I mean! But I sure do miss her and can't wait to see her when I get home! She is going to think Emmy is the best baby doll in the world! I know she will be a great big sister and Mommy's little helper!



So that is probably enough for now! I will post more pictures later this week! I got a new camera and hope to be posting more often now. And I am sure that life at home with a newborn, 19 month old and 4 year old will allow me all the time in the world to do just that, right? ;)
Hope all is well and thank everyone for all of their prayers while our baby girl was in the NICU! God is watching over us!
Love to all!

Thursday, May 21, 2009

Wish I was Posting from the Hospital....But No Luck!

So I am totally bummed out, yet not surprised that my third pregnancy has indeed been the longest. Not only has it seemed like an absolute ETERNITY since I got pregnant, but this little lady has decided to just take her time and come a little closer to her due date than her older brother and sister did! Mommy is NOT too happy about this! But I am coming to peace with the fact that I will probably be pregnant for a couple more weeks (my psycho pregnant, crying, pleading for induction attempt at my doctor's appointment today won't count! --Update - this didn't work!). I know what you all are thinking... "She will come when she is ready" ... blah, blah, blah! You try telling yourself that at 38 weeks pregnant! I guess since this will be the last time I am pregnant, God is wanting me to enjoy every last minute of it, right up until the VERY VERY end! So I am going to try very hard to do just that (but a baby would be nice any day now) :)

A few weeks ago, Drew and I went to a Mother's Day Tea at his school! It was so sweet! The kids had a program and then we ate finger foods (or as Drew called them "hand foods") and had juice and tea! Drew had made a flower pin, a placemat, and some homemade body scrub for me. He was SO proud of the body scrub and couldn't wait for me to try it out. It was a very special day for the two of us. Here we are all ready to go!




Yesterday Drew had his "End of the Year" program at his preschool! He was so excited to sing for everyone. Me, Kevin and Ellie were there (well, Ellie was in and out of the auditorium) and so were Nanny, Gama, Katie and Hunter! Drew had a pretty big audience for his program! The kids sang for us! Here is Drew after the program for a picture (note: the sucker in hand was used as bribery and we couldn't manage to get him to stick it in his pocket just for the picture).




Here he is performing for us...






Ellie and me in the back of the auditorium.




Drew and Ellie outside of the school (I decided to spare you all the 100 attempts at a good picture of the two - you know her getting down, him trying to unwrap his sucker, him grabbing her, her pointing at the bird etc. - it is nearly impossible to get them to both look at the camera at the same time, much less smile) So here is the best we got...


We bribed them with the playground, so here they are playing after the photography session.

Drew loved the swings.



And Ellie loved the slide.



So our most recent project has been to try and paint cabinets for the laundary room. My parents had some left over cabinets from their kitchen remodel and let us have them. Of course, since I want to paint everything that enters my house, I decided that black cabinets would look great in the laundary room (the cabinets were natural colored to begin). So last week I sanded them down one day while Ellie was napping, we went to Lowe's and got a gallon of the cheapest paint they had (it was going on cabinets in my laundary for crying out loud). Kevin and I put the first coat on them last week one night and it looked ok for a first coat and in the half dark garage. Well the next morning when I opened the garage door, I near about fell out! They looked awful and you could see straight through the cheap black paint! So yesterday, Kevin put another couple of coats on them and calls me at work to describe the project as "the biggest disater yet!" Will keep you posted on how they turn out :)


Just a side note: During this entire post Ellie has been on the floor playing with her baby dolls and Drew's army men. So she will turn to me, baby in one hand, pocket book on her arm, and a gun in the other hand and go "bam" like making a shooting noise at me. I have to laugh because she looks so funny!


Hope everyone is doing well!


Love to all!