5 Months!

This smiley girl is 5 months old!!  She is such a happy and content baby.  She loves to watch her brother and sister and loves to play with toys.  She still loves her swing.  She likes a binky, but can't keep it in her mouth, so she usually ends up sucking her left thumb in the middle of her naps or the night.  She loves chewing on everything and found her toes this month!  She has to make sure they're still there every few minutes.  I'm amazed at the way her hip moves to put her toes in her mouth!  She seriously just folds in half!  She usually doesn't get much of a morning nap (3rd kid probs), so she sleeps all afternoon and is asleep for the night pretty early. It's a late night if she makes it to 7!  So, she also wakes up pretty early.... and it's a treat if she sleeps until 7!  She still wakes up to eat twice in the middle of the night, but mostly goes right back to sleep.  I love the way she smiles when I go in to get her from her nap.  It's such a special little smile and we just love her so much!!

Her stats:

13 lb 9 oz (25th percentile)

23 1/2" (<5th p="" percentile="">

3-6 mo clothes (finally!)

Size 2 diapers

She's my most petite baby... by far!

Awesome Animals!

We went to the zoo this week and maybe it's just the "mom" in me, but it was so sweet to see the Momma Orangutan breastfeeding her little baby.  Her baby is about the same age as Elizabeth and it was so funny to see them interact in the same ways I interact with my babies.  She played with her, she walked her over to a shady corner to sit and nurse, she carried the baby's favorite blanket with her foot when she walked across the enclosure.  When there got to be too many people next to her window, she got up and found a quiet spot for the baby to nap.  She never put the baby down... the little orangutan just gripped onto her hair and held on as they walked around!  It just got me thinking about how special it is to be a momma... whether your a human, orangutan... or a kangaroo....

Notice the one on the right (of the kangaroo pic)?  Look at how big her pouch is!  I am not even kidding when I say she had a teenager in there!  I wasn't fast enough with the camera, but the legs were sticking straight out of her pouch!  Earlier that day, I had a joey that was way too big in my pouch!  Ruthie wanted to ride in the ergobaby.  I don't like to put it on my back because the strap shows off my squishy tummy, so I put her in the front.  This was way harder than it looked!  Her hair was all in my mouth and I couldn't see past her gigantic head!  The last time I had her in the carrier, she was so much smaller!  Where did my baby go??  Even if she's too big for my pouch, I love any time I get cuddles from this crazy girl!

Also, George got a chapter book for Easter and every night we have read a chapter about amazing animal rescues!  So, I'm still crazy hormonal and cry over ridiculous stuff... let's just get that out of the way.  BUT one of the rescue stories made me tear up... maybe because it hit close to home?  A little boy climbed over the rail and fell into the gorilla enclosure where something like 7 gorillas lived!  He was knocked out (which probably helped because he wasn't crying).  A momma gorilla with her own baby on her back protected the little boy from the other gorillas and took the little boy to the zookeeper's door.  She for real carried the unconscious little boy across the enclosure, keeping all the other gorillas away.  They explained that there are a few different theories of why she did that.  One theory is that the zookeepers trained the gorillas to bring anything that fell into the enclosure to the door and they got a treat... that way they didn't try to eat foreign objects.  Another theory (and the one I prefer) is that her maternal instinct kicked in and she wanted to help the little boy.  This particular gorilla had actually been raised by humans... her own mom couldn't make enough milk for her and she was failing to thrive, so she was taken away and raised by zookeepers.  She eventually was old enough to live with gorillas. Because gorillas learn how to be mothers from their moms, the zookeepers were really nervous when she got pregnant.  They gave her a doll and made her carry it everywhere.  When she was carrying it, she got a treat.  If she put it down--no treat!  Finally when it was time to have her baby, she was an awesome mom!  I like to think that it was her maternal instinct that lead her to save that kid!  Anway, ridiculous, I know... but I cried! (And it hit close to home not because G ever climbed into an enclosure, but because he's a wild kid and I am constantly scanning for ways that he could fall in!  But also because G once dropped his binky in with the bears.  Ask him about it sometime... if you have 1/2 hour for the story...!)

It's so special to see other animals have the same love and compassion for their babies that I feel... and it gives me warm fuzzies.

April (So Far)

Here's our April, in pictures (probably out of order):

The EB was tooooo good to us!

Medicines and charts and syringes.... 

We saw the EB at Bass Pro Shop (for free.. and the line was only about 15 minutes)

Ruthie has started requesting bottles lately... which is weird because she never took a bottle as a baby...

Ruthie painting eggs.  She likes to mix colors.

George painting eggs.  He does not like to mix colors.

We had a family date night at Steak n Shake and G was obsessed with this hat!

This was at Bass Pro Shop.  George was driving this little... off road... thing..?

Daddy and Ruthie decorated Elizabeth

Ruthie is a crazy old lady.  Fancy earrings and shawl.. and if you look at her closely, you will see my concealer on her cheeks.

Elizabeth is getting squirmy and I found her sideways and then up-side-down on her play mat!

I hosted a Jamberry Nails party and got lots of free stuff... and some cheap stuff.  My nails are going to look great all year!

I found these pictures on my phone from when George must have had it in the back seat.  It's funny to see a car ride from his perspective.  There were about 50 pictures!

March!

I was going to write about March, but then I realized that I have already written about the fun stuff.  The rest of the month was all doctor's appointments (some planned, some not) and antibiotics.  All 3 kids had ear infections and George even spent a late night in the ER.  Luckily, Steve was home when George woke up with a fever of 105* at 11pm!  Double ear infection... but this actually wasn't diagnosed until we went to the doc the next morning.  By April 1, George was on his 3rd round, Elizabeth was on her 2nd round, and Ruthie was on her 1st round of antibiotics.  I'm not even kidding.  I made a chart to keep it straight!  Here are some pics from the end of the month.  Enjoy!

George-isms

(In a British accent) "Oxi Clean!  Oxi Clean!  Oxi Clean!" (notices me watching)  "Mom!  I'm trying to sound like the Oxi Clean guy!  You know... when he's speaking French!"

He's really into EvanTube on YouTube (gag) and Evan talks about "Minecraft" but George calls it "Minecraps."  I laughed for about 5 minutes straight about this.... he didn't like that.

"I am not understanding girls."

"My circle stuff in my legs hurt!!"  Me:  "Your... knees?"

"I'm going to tell Daddy that you're not taking care of me." (because I made him get a towel to clean up the water he spilled)

"This summer when we swim, you cannot just sit on the swimming pool stairs.  You have to swim."

"Mommy, I wish I had bunk beds in my room.  Then you and me could sleep together."

(The Bachelor was on while I was getting them ready for bed.  There was kissing.)  "Eew!  Kissing!! I HATE kising!"  (then a few seconds later)  "Last day, I saw you and Daddy kissing in the kitchen."

I tried a new recipe and it did not turn out.  I was talking about it with Steve and George came up and sang "Keep trying, you'll get better!" from Daniel Tiger.

And just to be fair... some Ruthie-isms:

On vacation, she woke up more than once yelling "Oh no!  I pooped!  My diapers are at home! I pooped and my diapers are at home, Mom!"

Me:  "You're so funny"  Ruthie:  "And pretty.... and nice.... and smart...."

Me:  "You look so pretty!"  Ruthie:  "I know.  I a pretty girl."

Oh, my funny kids!

Four Months!

My baby is 4 months old already!  Where has the time gone?? She is such a happy little girl!  She has grown a lot this month, but she is still pretty petite.  

12lb 2oz

23 1/4" long

Size 0-3 month clothes

Size 1 diapers (the longest I've ever used size 1!)

She loves to kick and smile.  She even smiles with her eyes!  (Tyra would be so proud)  She is sweet and cuddly, but loves to be put in her swing with her binky to sleep.  Just this week she has decided on a bed time!  Hooray!  She has been going to bed between 7-8, but the bad thing is that she has also been back to waking up for regular feedings. Boo on that!  (She was sleeping 8 hours straight a few weeks ago).  But when she wakes up, she eats and goes right back to sleep-so I can't complain.  She seems to not be as sensitive to what I eat or drink anymore... except for beans.  She has her first ear infection right now and is pretty patient with taking her medicine.  I knew something was wrong when our happy baby woke up screaming like a pterodactyl last week!  She doesn't have much of a day-time schedule because she is baby #3 and I have to do things during the day... and she will fall asleep in the car seat and stay asleep and the others will not.  So she sleeps on the go.  Someday I will regret this, but for now it works for us!

And we have other kids, too!  And they're wonderful!  And crazy!  In fact, here's a little something about the month of February!

Steve stayed pretty busy with his last build-up line and finally got a real line for March!  I stayed busy hauling kids out and about in sub-zero weather.  Seriously-I forgot how cold it can be!  We have spent the last 4 winters in either Texas or Arizona... and while I cursed the weather from April-November, I will take that a MILLION times over January & February in the midwest.  Oh. My. Gosh.  And you still have to do stuff even though it's -4*.  Life doesn't stop.

I stood in line at the preschool building in our school district for about an hour to get George all ready for preschool.  I left him at home.  Then I went back to get him so that he could have a developmental screening.  The teacher said George is very smart, which we already knew.  His biggest strength is problem solving.  She was very impressed with an exercise they did where she showed him a picture and asked him what was wrong and what they could do to fix it.  She said that most kids know what is wrong and what they can do, but can't verbalize it.  Apparently, my Georgie gave her a dissertation about the situation... which involved taking a bug outside so that he can find his "mommy" and then a whole story about this bug family.  So she said he's where he should be.

Ruthie is becoming more obsessed with "Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood" by the day.  Seriously.  One night, I was singing our usual primary songs before bed and she made me sing "Gangel Giger" songs instead.  She's a funny girl.  One day I said, "Ruthie!  You're so pretty!" and she said "...and funny! ...and smart!"  She's a big teaser and loves to say "I tricked you!"

We went to visit Steve's sister Liz and her family in February.  That was fun!  We were supposed to be there for the whole weekend, but Steve's work schedule changed once we got there... so it was a great 28 hours at their house!  As soon as we decided to go, we asked the kids if they wanted to go... Ruthie put on her shoes and sat by the door!  She was so excited... and it took us about 2 more hours to get out the door!  The drive wasn't bad in our mini-van.  We love that car!

The end of February, we went to AZ for our new cousin Lucy's baby blessing.  It was a fun trip!  We got to hang out with my family and see Matt & McKensie and their boys, too!  Mmmmm... and I had Cafe Rio.  (side note: I hated it in college, but I think that's because nobody told me what to order.., pork salad for sure).  We planned on going straight home after the blessing, but we ended up going to UT for McKensie's mom's funeral.  So then we stayed for a long time because one of my best friends from OH got married on March 12th!  What we had planned to be two short trips turned into one long trip!  It was fun to play with cousins and Grandmas and Grandpas, but it felt SOOO good to be home.  In fact, I actually flew by myself with all 3 kids!  It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be.  That's a lie.  The flight from UT to AZ was AWFUL... and that was the short flight!  I decided that on the big flight, I didn't care what I had to do, I was getting Ruthie's car seat on that plane!  For some reason she is totally fine sitting in the car seat for a 3 hour flight... it's just a hassle to lug it around the airport.  So after taking a ridiculous time to get all set up on the plane, all 3 kids SLEPT most of the flight!  It was heavenly!  And I read like 100 pages in a book!  A  REAL BOOK!  Who ever has time for that anymore?? 

So now we're home and trying to get back to real life.  The fact that we have had no schedule for the last 3 weeks is definitely catching up to us.  I've felt like I'm in "The Exorcist" a few times... but it sure does feel nice to just be home!

And some pics from our trip... all out of order!

Three Months!

Little Elizabeth is THREE months old today!! I can hardly believe it!  It feels like she was just born yesterday!  She is the perfect little addition to our family.  She has become quite the easy-going, happy baby!  (We were worried about this for a while because she was never happy to be awake!)  We sure do love this little girl!

At three months, she is humming and cooing and has the cutest, softest little voice!

Elizabeth loves:

-being held

-her swing

-watching her crazy brother and sister

-direct eye contact

-smiling

-nursing

-being swaddled

Elizabeth does not love:

-being in the car seat (especially when the car or shopping cart is not moving)

-sitting by herself

-when Mommy eats beans or has too much Diet Coke

-waiting more than a millisecond to eat (and when she decides to eat, she goes from 0-starving in a heartbeat)
-tummy time (I try, but she will have NONE of it... she used to love it because she would just fall asleep... but now she screams and screams and screams)

My favorites from our make-shift photo shoot this morning!

(Bow is from NewlymadeMama)

December & January

December

George turned FOUR this month!  Where has the time gone??  His preschool ended for the semester with a party and an award ceremony.  George won.... "Best Storyteller."  Well, that's what happens when you talk all day long, I guess!  Should I be nervous about what stories he is telling his teachers?  He loves to hold Elizabeth and fight with Ruthie.  He jumps on the couch all day long... we are really trying to break this habit.

Ruthie has been talking a lot more and loves being a big sister!  She really wants to potty train and is always taking off her diaper and sitting on the toilet.  I'm not ready for this, so I lock the bathroom door.  Seriously... when you potty train a girl, you can't just have her pee on a tree in the parking lot... you have to unload everybody and find a toilet.  No thank you.  Ruthie loves fruit and can eat an entire container of blueberries in one sitting!

Steve got to take some time off of work for FMLA at the beginning of December.  It was nice to have him around once the Grandmas left and stuff started to get real.  He went back to work in the middle of the month, but somehow we were able to have him home for Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, New Year's Eve, and half of New Year's Day!  I don't know how this happened, but I'm not asking questions!  We loved it!  This was only the second time Steve and I have ever spent New Year's Eve together... ever!  He has always had to work!

I was exhausted the whole month and just trying to stay one step ahead of total disaster.  For some reason, Elizabeth just stopped sleeping unless she was being held.  I guess all of my kids did this at some point, but I have blocked this out of my memory.  I got my hair cut in December and it is so cute!  It was nice to get out of the house by myself for a little bit.

It was too cold to go outside and do anything, so we spent some time at Chick-fil-a to play.  I wonder if they ever get sick of me buying a soda and sitting at a table while my kids play for hours??  If they are, they are nice about it!

Steve's sister and her family stopped by on their drive through our town.  We found out that we can sleep 13 people in our apartment!  It was fun and very loud.  Ironically, George kept bugging his cousin Harrison... which is funny because I remember a certain little Harrison at 4 years old.......

Christmas was awesome!  On Christmas Eve, we went to a little "Old Town Main Street" in our county.  The shops were open and they had people dressed up like Santas and elves from all around the world.  They passed out trading cards to the kids and explained traditions in other countries.  It was COLD, but fun!  We had a nice Christmas Eve dinner and put the kids to bed.  Steve and I watched "Home Alone" while we prepped for Christmas!

Christmas morning was so fun!  George woke up and went directly to the living room before he even woke us up!  He ran into our room yelling "SANTA CAME!!!"  We had a good day relaxing as a family.  Uncle Tom had a short layover, so we drove to the airport to say "hi" and deliver some Christmas cookies!

Pop-pop came to visit at the end of the month for a few days.  The kids loved all of the attention and I slept in every day!

January

New Year's Eve, I took my dad home and ran some errands with Elizabeth... I picked up a pizza and some stuff to make dessert and we had a little family party.  Steve decided that we just couldn't be without Rockin' New Year's Eve, so he went out and got an antenna... and now our family has TV!  We get 10 channels!  (And 4 of them are actually worth watching... hehe)  We let George stay up and he hung out with us until about 10:30... and then he fell asleep!  I watched them ring in the New Year in NYC and then I fell asleep.  Yup, I was asleep by the time it turned 12 in the central time zone.  I'm old.

A few days later, my step-mom came to visit.  Then when she left, our nephew Luke came to visit!  Lots of visitors!  The kids loved all the attention!  When Luke was here, we had the warmest weekend we had seen in a while.  On Friday, we went to the zoo!  It was fun, but the breeze was kinda colder than I expected.  We did the loop the opposite of how we usually do and got to see all the stuff we usually don't get to see (kids are tired or the zoo closes, etc).  We even got to see some baby monkeys!  They were so cute!

On Saturday, we left the house in the morning to go to Waffle House.  Well, after that we were like "we should go to Costco."  After that, we were like "let's go test drive the van that we saw two weeks ago."  So we drove it... all the way home!  That's right!  After two months of cramming ourselves into one car or taking two cars, we finally have a car that we can all fit into!  It's wonderful!  George is very sentimental about the Vibe.  In fact, we went back two days later to have another key made and George made me drive past our old car so that he could say, "hi."  And one day, he dropped a toy and wanted me to pick it up while I was driving.  I said, "I can't, bud.  I can't reach it" and he yelled "I want our old car back so you can reach things!!"

We went to the temple one day.  Steve went in first and I took the kids to Walgreen's.  Well, I realized at the register that I didn't have my wallet.  So we had to put everything back... including the candy that I promised the kids if they were good in the store!  So then I had to wrangle two VERY unhappy kids into the car to pick up Steve.  I couldn't go to the temple that day, either... which was a bummer.  We decided to go to the science center and we had a lot of fun!  The kids loved laying on the ground of the bridge that goes over a major highway and watching traffic zoom past through the plexiglass floor!  Don't worry... we went to the temple the next week so that I could go!

I put up a few more decorations in the kids' rooms.  Michael's has a great new line of wooden frames and letters and embellishments and I went kinda crazy... and then I had to get new curtains.... and a new crib sheet... and pillows.  It's been very "If you Give a Mouse a Cookie"-esque.

(the view from the inside of our new ride.  Notice... no one is crying or biting or hitting or yelling or kicking or climbing out of their carseats.  And it's wonderful.)

And now I'm sort-of caught up!  February has been a great month so far... but it's not over and we have a lot coming up... including a trip to AZ to see Grandma & Grandpa and meet our little niece Lucy and be there for her baby blessing!  That should be fun and give us lots to report on!  XOXO

A Baby!

On Thursday, the 20th, I went to bed with an upset stomach.  It hurt all night long.  It felt like I was going to be sick but didn't know which way it was going to come out.

On the morning of the 21st, I finally got sick.  I was laying in bed when all the sudden, I grabbed my barf bucket and ran for the bathroom (thank goodness I had Steve bring me a barf bucket)!  I was so sick!  My wonderful mother-in-law heard it all happening and came in to help.  She helped me get cleaned up and clean up the bathroom.  It's a little humbling to have someone help you get cleaned up after you get totally sick and I'm so lucky to have a great mother-in-law!  

So, I threw up exactly 45 minutes after I took my anti-contracting medicine... and I threw up so violently that my whole body was tightening up.  I was worried, so I called the doctor's office and they told me that I should be fine, but if my contractions started earlier than usual that night, I should take my medicine a little earlier.  I slept the whole rest of the day and only ate animal crackers and drank (sipped) water.

I was starting to get hungry around dinner-time, so I came out and had some chicken & rice soup.  I started having contractions while I was sitting at the table, so I went over to the couch and laid down.  They kept coming, but were irregular still.  I was timing the contractions.  By 7:30, I took my medicine.  By 8:00pm, when my contractions had not slowed down and were under 5 minutes apart and lasting for almost 2 minutes each, I told my mother-in-law that I needed to go to the hospital.  I didn't have time to wait for someone to come sit with the kids... we had to go!  We threw the kids in the car and started our 40 minute drive to the hospital.  The kids cried almost the whole time because they were way tired... and I may or may not have been squishing Ruthie with my seat leaning all the way back.  I couldn't turn around to look.  I talked to Steve and told him to stay at work and meet me at the hospital when he was done (at 11pm... remember this).  He didn't listen to me and drove to the hospital right away.  My mother-in-law dropped me off and a L&D nurse wheeled me upstairs.  Steve got to the hospital right after I did.

I got to my room and changed into the gown and a doctor came in to check my progress.  I was between 4-5 dilated.  I told the nurse that I didn't want an epidural and I suffered through the contractions.  About 30 minutes later, I broke down.  I told Steve "I am so tired.  I am only at a 5.  I need an epidural.  I can't do this.  I need rest."  I told the nurse I was giving up and I wanted the epidural!  She said, "you have done this twice before!  You can do it again!  Let me check you before I call the anesthesiologist."  She checked me and I was at an 8!  No wonder I was in so much pain!  I decided that since I was so far along, I could do without the epidural (not like I had the option at this point anyway).  They called the doctor and she came and broke my water.  She stayed in the room the whole time after that, expecting it to go faster than it did.  The "rim" of my cervix was really holding on for a while... and by a while, I guess I just mean it felt like a while because this whole process went pretty quickly.  I had no idea what I was doing, even though this is my 3rd time around.  The nurse kept asking me questions and giving me options and at one point I said, "I don't know.  Just tell me what to do!"  I know it sounds dumb, but I felt a lot more in control once she was telling me what to do and not giving me a million options!

Elizabeth Anne was born at 10:52pm.  That's about 2 hours after I was wheeled onto L&D!  Boy am I glad Steve didn't listen to me when I told him to stay at work (remember that??)!  I hoped that since I was 35 & 3 that she would avoid the whole NICU situation, but she was breathing pretty heavily and they had to take her back.  After 6 days of the CPAP and oxygen, she was weaned down to room air!  On day 8, they asked if we were ready to take her home!! So that night, we slept at the hospital and Elizabeth came home to two excited siblings on Sunday, 11/30!

She's such a sweet baby... even though she likes to be held ALL. NIGHT. LONG.  The kids love her and we're so lucky that she's ours!

Here are some pictures, out of order...