A day in my Life part 2

A couple of weeks ago I posted a blog about a typical day in my life. Here is a minute and 24 second video of it in action!

Aidan's photo shoot

A little while back Aidan asked if he could take some pictures and also wanted me to take some pics of him....so we had a little photo shoot in the kitchen. Here was the result.

Nana and Papa's Visit

My parents just left yesterday after a week long visit. It was so nice to have them here. It's very hard having them so far away. They had a great time with the kids and were also a huge help to me. My dad did a lot of work on our house and my mom did some much needed deep cleaning for me. The kids were very sad to see them leave because they had such a great time with them. All three were totally spoiled and i wouldn't have it any other way. We look forward to seeing them again in June.

A Day in My Life!

My life seems very crazy right now and I wanted to document a typical day so that I could look back and remember the craziness of it all. I still don't feel that I have adjusted very well to having three kids but know that it will be better in a few years. Trying to appreciate the blessing of it all so that I don't look back with any regret. I have been praying that it will get easier and that I can have some peace with this new life that God has given me. So here we go....

6:00 A.M. Cliff's alarm goes off and he wakes up to shower and get ready for the day.
6:00 - 6:30 A.M Noah wakes up and Cliff changes him and brings him to me to nurse. While I am nursing Cliff brings me my morning coffee.
6:30- Noah either falls back asleep or I give him over to Cliff so that I can shower and get ready for the day.
7:00-9:00 A.M. Aidan and Ryla wake up. Cliff feeds them and gets them dressed. I make the beds, throw in a load of laundry, and try to do one deep cleaning task.
9:00- Cliff leaves for work.
9:00-9:20- Ryla has a screaming melt down because Cliff has left for work.
9:00-11:00- Noah typically is sleeping. I either take the other two downstairs to play or stay upstairs to do crafts, read books, and make forts....etc.
11:00- Lunch time. Noah is usually up by now but he really doesn't have a schedule yet.
11:30- Aidan watches a 30 minute cartoon while I give Ryla a bottle and rock her to sleep for her nap. Noah is usually on my bed either sleeping or starting to fuss and cry. (this had been hard because I typically have to choose which one is going to cry for a 20 minute period)
12:00- Aidan goes down for his nap.
12:15- I nurse Noah and try to put him down. I also typically think during this time that I don't know what I will do once Noah is out of his sleeping all the time period.
12:30- I do a quick pick up of the house and make myself some lunch.
12:30- 3:00 I eat and use the time to have one on one time with Noah. Switch over the laundry. Plan supper. I can usually watch some TV for about 45 minutes which is a nice break. Aidan and Ryla will wake up any time from 2-3.
3:00 ish- Aidan has the rest of his TV time for the day which typically consists of Mickey Mouse Clubhouse or Jake and the Neverland Pirate. Ryla will watch for a little while then wonders around starting to make messes. Noah is usually wakes up around this time as well.
3:30-5:00- This is the worst time of day for me. Aidan's show will end and he is in desperate need of some one on one attention. Ryla is always extremely crabby during this time and wants to be held all the time but this doesn't really seem to make her stop fussing. Noah is up and either wants to eat or be held as well.
5:00- Cliff gets home and takes the kids to the basement so that I can get dinner ready. This has been really easy the last two weeks because we received 6 gift cards from our small group to different fast food places and I also was able to freeze 14 meals in the month of January. It has been a nice break from cooking and all the dishes. So for right now I use this time to either go get us food or make sides for the frozen meal I have chosen and set the table.
6:00- Kids usually get baths or we go downstairs to play.
6:45-8:00 On Monday nights it is family movie night and we make popcorn and have a relaxing evening. On Wednesdays we go to church. Tuesday nights I go to work at 5:00 and Cliff has the kiddos. On the other nights we are just playing with the kids, cleaning up the house, and every once and awhile running some errands that can't wait for the weekend.
8:00- Bedtime for kids. This is very difficult to do without Cliff. Ryla still is being rocked, Aidan gets singing time, book time, prayers, and "Big Cuddles." Noah needs nursed and rocked to sleep.
8:30- Cliff and I finish putting the house back together and try to spend sometime just catching up on how our day has gone. Currently I am in bed by 9:00 maybe watch a little TV and lights out at 10:00 at the very latest. Cliff tries to squeeze some time in for himself and has been coming to bed around 10:15.
10:15-til morning. Noah wakes every 2-4 hours. Cliff changes his diaper and brings him to me to nurse. Cliff then takes him and puts him down while I, for the time being, have to pump.
6:00 A.M. Alarm goes off!

2 Weeks Old!

My little Noah was two weeks old on Tuesday. People say that it goes fast but it has definitely felt like 2 weeks. We took him in on Monday for his check up. He weighed 8 pounds 12 ounces which is 2 ounces over his birth weight, so he is doing very well. He had also grown a half an inch already. I am about to move him to 0-3 month clothes. Aidan and Ryla didn't move over to those until after they were a month old but Noah's sleepers are already coming over his shoulders because he is so tall.

He is a VERY easy baby. He only cries if he wants to be fed or changed. He has started waking up more on his own to eat at night. He is eating every 2-4 hours and then goes right back to bed. He is an excellent eater!!! Nursing has been a breeze!!!

Aidan has adjusted very well to Noah. If I am on the other side of the house and I can't hear Noah crying he will always come and tell me that I need to go get him. He doesn't seem to be jealous at all. He has become a very independent little guy which is nice and sad for me at the same time.

Ryla has not adjusted so well. She is EXTREMELY jealous. Any time I am holding or nursing Noah she starts to scream and wants to be held. I try to get to her as soon as I can but then when I pick her up she gets mad. So basically she only wants held if I am holding Noah. She is teething right now and has a bad cough so this doesn't make it any easier. Even though she is jealous she also seems to like Noah a lot to. She is constantly trying to shove a pacifier in his mouth and giving him kisses. I can't put Noah in his bouncer because she is always wanting to hug him which means she puts her full weight on him. The swing is a little better but if I turn my head for one second she is pushing the swing really hard. I have resorted to wearing Noah in a moby wrap a lot so that she can't get to him and that way I can hold the two of them at the same time.

Here are some pics of our little guy. I think he has already changed so much from his newborn pics!!!! He looks very different from the other two.

Newborn Pics

Bringing Noah Home!

I can't believe that Noah is already a week old. It has been a LONG week. He didn't sleep too great the first couple of nights but has been amazing since then. We have been having to set an alarm at night for every three hours to feed him because he keeps wanting to sleep through the night already. Our pediatrician like babies to eat every 2 to 3 hours for their first month. He is also eating really well. He started nursing 10 minutes after he was born which was crazy to me because I am so used to having to train my kids how to nurse. He went on lights on Friday night for his jaundice. He was at an 18 and needed to get down to a 13. We took him to the lab on Sunday, after he had been on the lights for 48 hours, and he had already dropped to a 13 which was excellent. Aidan also had jaundice. It is nice that they don't have to go to the hospital to receive treatment. They bring the machine to you. The only thing is that they have to stay on it 24/7 which makes nursing and diaper changing pretty difficult.

Today was my first day having all three of them on my own. Cliff had a week of paternity leave which was such a blessing. The day went pretty well. The only problem we have been having is that Ryla has been super jealous. Every time I pick up Noah she wants to be held. I am trying to give her as much attention as I can but I think it is just going to take some time. I also started back up with seeing my clients tonight. Luckily, I only had to take one week off from seeing them. This meant that Noah had his first bottle from Daddy. Cliff said he did great but that Ryla through a huge 45 minute fit. She still takes a bottle to get to bed at night so she got super jealous that Noah was using one of her bottles.

Tomorrow morning I am taking all three of them out for the first time by myself. Aidan and I both have haircuts at my friend Laura's house. We also have church tomorrow evening so all together a big day for us and Noah. Wish us luck!

I'm hoping to get a family pic soon. Since my kids were sick we didn't have them up at the hospital and haven't had the opportunity to have someone get a pic of all of us since then. Hopefully soon though.

Noah's Birth Story

Noah's baby story can only be described as crazy. Literally 10 minutes after I finished typing the previous blog on Sunday evening the chaos started at our house. I heard Aidan whining in his bed and went to go check on him. He had vomited in his bed. Cliff and I quickly transferred him into the tub and stripped his bed and cleaned him off when Ryla started crying from her crib. I went to check on her to find her laying in her own throw up as well. We put Aidan on the couch and started some TV for him while we dealt with Ryla. Thankfully I was able to clean up Ryla and get her back down for bed pretty quickly. She thankfully slept through the rest of the evening. Aidan continued to get sick 2 or 3 times before we got him in his bed. I suggested to Cliff that he sleep in his bedroom. So we blew up the air mattress and put it in Aidan's room.

About 11 that same night I started feeling sick to my stomach. By one in the morning I had also started throwing up and the wonderful other form of the flu that you typically get. Aidan continued to wake up 2 to 3 times every hour getting sick. By the next morning Cliff and I had each gotten about 2 hours of sleep. Around 9 a.m. Cliff also began throwing up. We were beyond stressed by this point. Ryla seemed okay and Aidan wasn't throwing up for the time being but now Cliff and I felt absolutely HORRIBLE. We had our induction scheduled for the next morning and at this point had no idea if that was even going to be possible. We decided to call our sitters for the hospital to update them on what was going on. We thought that since Ryla was feeling better and hadn't gotten sick in the last 12 hours that they might take her a little early so we could get better a littler easier and also deal with Aidan. However, when we talked with Bethany she offered to take come get Ryla and Aidan as well. I told her that was a very nice offer but that this stomach bug seemed to be very contagious. She said that she didn't mind and that it was more important for us to get better quickly so that we weren't sick when we had the baby. I couldn't believe she was offering to do this. Cliff and I talked it through for a very long time and decided to let her being that I could go into labor at any time and they would have to go eventually and it would be easier if we could get some rest first and hopefully get over whatever it is that we had. It had also been several hours since Aidan had gotten sick so we agreed to it.

After we said our goodbyes to the kiddos Cliff and I literally slept for about 8 hours straight. We both still got sick a few times but mainly we were just really drained from the previous night and had no energy whatsoever. By 5 that evening I was still feeling really bad and called my doctor to let him know what was going on and to tell him that I thought it was best to cancel the induction. He told me that I should hold off canceling it until the next morning because with a stomach bug like this I could feel completely fine by the next morning. He also said that he could not get me into the hospital for another induction for several more days. Cliff and I felt at odds on what to do because in a few days the kids could be even more sick or we could get worse. We thought by keeping the induction at least we have some things planned out. So I decided to wait it out to see how I felt the next morning. Cliff and I prayed before we went to sleep that God would show us what to do tomorrow morning. Cliff was able to sleep all night. Unfortunately I only got 3 hours of sleep because I had slept so much that day.

By the next morning we woke up and found my doctor to be right. We both felt that the virus was pretty much gone except for that fact that we were both still a little tired and had the normal aches you get after having the flu. We decided to proceed. We called Bethany to let her know we were going ahead with the induction and to check on the kids. She said that Aidan had thrown up once but other than that everything was going great. This was a huge relief for Cliff and I.

At the hospital they gave me my IV within the first hour or so. Oddly enough, this was probably the worst part of my labor experience. I have never taken IV's well. I got really light headed and felt very sick to my stomach. Luckily I did not pass out like I did when I got it with Aidan. Next I got my epidural. This took a little longer than expected because they wanted me to get a couple of bags of fluids in me through the IV before since I was so dehydrated from being sick. The epidural was also not a pleasant experience. I don't know if it was because I had been sick or what but it made me very nauseous as well. I actually did pass out during this procedure but only for a couple of seconds.

About an hour later my doctor came to break my water. While trying to do so he stated that he felt Noah's hand which meant that he had it raised up by his head and that he couldn't break my water. This didn't make sense to me. He explained that the birth canal was too small for a head and arm to go through at the same time and if I got fully dilated when he was still in this position that he would have to do a c-section. So he started me on the pitocin in hopes that contractions would make him uncomfortable and he would move his hand away........It worked! A couple of hours later he checked me and was able to break my water.

So for the next few hours we just waited. My friend Amanda was there for the majority of the day which was really nice. We watched about 6 episodes of Friends and You, Me, and Dupree. Cliff and I said later that the labor process was probably the most relaxing time of the whole week!! There was about a 30 minute period when my epidural wore off on one side and I could feel the contractions. I tried not to complain much because these were the only contractions the whole time that I felt. I did feel weird to only have them on one side though. Around 3 I told my nurse that I was starting to feel some pressure and asked her to check me. I was dilated to a 9. We waited another 45 minutes and I was fully dilated and ready to push. They called my doctor down while they had me do a practice push. When the doctor got there we were ready to go. The pushing went about as fast as it did for Ryla. I believe it took about 4 good pushes and our little Noah arrived!!!!!!!

He was perfect!!!! One of the first things I noticed about him was that he had a very good set of lungs. LOL. As soon as the nurse saw him she commented on how big he was. This was funny to me. When he finally got weighed I couldn't believe that he was 8 pounds and 10 ounces. Aidan was only 7'9. I told Cliff that I had a feeling he was going to be our biggest but this I was not expecting. He was 21 inches long. Aidan and Ryla were both 19 and a half inches. Another thing we noticed right away was his dark hair and the fact that he actually had dark hair. All around a totally different baby then the other two. I found this very fitting considering the circumstances of his conception.

Noah did very well in the hospital. We found that he HATES to have his diaper changed and for the first day or so only wanted to sleep if he was being held. Of course this wasn't a problem for us since we couldn't get enough of the little guy!! That evening we each got a couple of hours of sleep again so I was running on about 5 hours for that 2 day period. The nest morning we called to check on Aidan and Ryla and found out that both kids were still pretty sick. We decided to get them into the doctor. Cliff left at 8 that morning. He called later to tell me that our pediatrician wanted to do x-rays on Aidan's belly because he was so swollen. The x-rays were in the same building as the maternity ward so he brought them up to see me. It was really sad. They were both so weak that he had to wheel them around in a wheel chair. He got back around 2 that afternoon. It was different being in the hospital without Cliff there. Just didn't seem right. We asked to get discharged early so we could go be with our kids. Ryla ended up sleeping another night with the sitter but we had Aidan stay with us at home because he was so sick. Noah and I stayed locked up in my bedroom for the next couple of days while Daddy took care of the other two. This was probably one of the most stressful weeks I have ever been through but we have definitely grown as a family because of it. I could not have done it without my amazing church family!!!!! It is Saturday night now......Noah is 4 days old and we still have a sick household but things are getting better.

I had Noah's 3 day check up yesterday and he was down to 8 pounds. He does, however, have jaundice. They delivered the billiblanket to our house last night. So that has not been fun but we are making it through. Aidan continues to throw up so we are hoping that goes away soon. Thankfully Noah is a great sleeper and we usually have to wake him up to do his feedings. It will be nice when we are all well and can be in the same room! God has blessed us by helping us get through this week. I know he will continue to bless us and feel so thankful for my wonderful surprise in Noah! He is such a wonderful addition to our already blessed family!!


39 Weeks and READY!


Watching Friends and waiting!




Proud Daddy!

Smooshed nose Noah

I FINALLY get to hold him!!!!





Amanda (on left) was there the whole day and for the delivery. Laura just missed it coming at 20 minutes after. She was sad!

Cute Toesies!

Semi-Family Pic!

With our amazing doctor!

Heading home. He didn't like going in the car seat but he was instantly silent when the car started!
Finally made it home!