baby girl

Three weeks!!!  Three weeks of our lives have gone!  That is amazing, and that is all it takes to forget how much pregnancy sucks!  It wasn’t all that bad!  She was more than worth whatever I was complaining about…wait, what was I complaining about?

We spend some of our time doing this!  But, don’t let that face fool you, she is still quiet and squeaky.  It is sad how much she is smiled at and told she is “so cute” or “very cute” while she is doing just this, she still has some work to do if she wants us to believe her.

But most of her time is spent sleeping, she likes to sleep.  The boys like that because then they can hold her, I like it because she is so darn cute and poke and squeeze when she is sleeping…and her sleep smiles just might kill me!!!

Someone told me that I would get over my fear of “girly”, that person was 1/4 of the way correct!  There are some of the boys clothes that I LOVE to see her in.  There are little frills and dresses that I LOVE!!  But, oh goodness, when I walk by the big girl clothes at the store I am still very close to full on panic attack.  Baby steps, I need baby steps

This little man, oh goodness!!  He has become much much more of himself over the last three weeks!  He talks nonstop!  NO, seriously, I swear, this kid can talk.  And he is so darn polite!  When we go to the store he ALWAYS says thank you to anyone who helps us, and he says goodbye to everyone.  He is a booger, a handful, he cannot be trusted, I am not about to let him walk without a stroller any time soon.  He is strong willed and hilarious.  He makes us smile seconds after making us angry.  This one is trouble with a capital T!  But…I love the this but…I wouldn’t change anything!  HONESTLY, I promise, I wouldn’t change it for nothin

Big brother, he was born a big brother, everything about him.  He is going to be 4 this summer but might as well be six!  He is so helpful, and loving, he was ment to be a big brother.  He is trying to completely skip his mid day nap/quiet time…and it is bad.  He isn’t ready, but he is ready to speak his mind.  The struggle is tough, and we often forget the importance of this little man getting his sleep…the result is him in full emotional breakdown.  Oh the joys of being a parent

Life in our house is wonderful!  It is complete chaos (we knew that was coming)!  I did seven loads of laundry today and put it all away! Eric baked mini pies and home made cheese its!  He is currently teaching himself to use my sewing machine.  It isn’t a place I would invite people to, it is littered with our life!  But it is perfect, and we are all enjoying it.

 

ONE WEEK!!!

Can you believe it has been one whole week!!  Can you???  Did your week disappear as quickly as mine??  I don’t know what it is with babies and their inability to take their time growing…but seriously! Knock it off already!Miss Anna has fairly smoothly made her home here!!  She has won over her brothers hearts and completely made mush of Eric and mine.  Henry is doing better than expected, although he is surely having a hard time finding his place, but he is smitten with her as much as the rest of us!  He hasn’t tried to kill her yet!  And that is a huge plus if you ask me  He runs when she cries and says “my baby is crying!!”, and when he wakes up he says “where is my baby”  If I am not holding her it is the same question ” where is my baby” He is always wondering where HIS baby is!  It is about the cutest thing ever!!  Both the boys smother her with kisses and tickles and tell me how cute she is.  It isn’t easy, and our house is crazy right now, but it is amazingly beautiful to watch your kids love on their sibling!!

We have had some fantastic sunny days here!!  I am pretty sure that is why Anna came to meet us, she knew that the weather would be fantastic!  Cole and I seem to get to enjoy them the most as he and I don’t sleep as much as the littles.  But Anna has had her fair share, she has a bit of the jaundice so the vitamin D is highly recommended, so we listen.

She is growing, she is eating like a champ and she poops more than I remembering the boys ever pooping!!  They say in the first few weeks that you don’t see much poop, that regularity is not something to worry about…well HOME GIRL! she poops a ton!  Hahaha, at least we know she is getting enough of mamma’s milk  And she is quiet, she is sweet, she is a cuddler, and she is beginning to spend way more time awake!  Did I mention that she poops…A LOT!

We are trying to keep busy, trying to make sure that the boys are getting good run around time!

Today we are going on a picnic, yesterday the zoo!  The boys got to run around at the kidz bounce this last week and we took Anna on her first walk to the coffee shop!!  She has been a dream thru all of it!

Miss Anna Muriel Yates

On Thursday Anna and I headed out to one of our many weekly Doctor visits!  She was looking quite fantastic and I had noticed my blood pressure creeping up!  After chatting with the doctor we decided that to avoid a MAG birth we would induce me that night!  WHAT!  That ment at 4pm I was rushing home to get everything ready, get the kids off to Nana’s, take care of the animals, jump in the shower, feed Eric and I and get back to the hospital for a 7:30pm induction!

The glory of a third child, a third child who is induced!, is that you know what you are getting yourself into!  And your medical history lets the doctors know what your “normal” is!  I do not progress as fast as they would usually like, but they are ok with that when they see MY pattern!  So, we started with two doses of Miso and then we added a folly ball…then at 1pm Friday I was finally to 3-4 cm!!  I wasn’t kidding about it taking a long time!  It wasn’t until about 4:30 that I began having good contractions!  That I was breathing thru them, holding onto my husband!  Anna and I spent some time in the tub, some time on the ball and we paced!  I had a milk shake…but really just was quite nauseous, and very not hungry!  We needed to turn up the PIT so we checked me and I was at 6cm…still not in enough pain!!!  So, they came and gave me my spinal block but on the lightest setting!  I wanted to feel everything but I wanted to take the edge off the PIT…and he was amazing!  He did just that!  I rested and we let my body work.

I wanted to have Anna on the 6th!  I liked that day, I liked the symbolism of having her the same weekend we lost baby number 2!  I liked the evenness of 4-6-12 and it was a full moon!  but at 10 I was still at 8cm.  At just before 11 the contractions got real!  She finally decided to drop in and engage, she had been floating above my cervix and hadn’t descended and although they kept telling me that third babies come all at once I had a hard time believing them!  Quickly I moved about to help her move herself, she needed to get over…she seemed to be hitting my right hip!  And soon (well 40 minutes later) I was pushing.  It wasn’t on purpose, it wasn’t as if I was grunting and holding my breath…but MY body decided to push!  And well, I was ready.  Susan our nurse told me to breath, to just stay comfortable.  So, I did…I just let my body do what it wanted.  And then the Doctor came in.  She asked me to give a push and then 7 minutes after she came in…Anna was here!

I reached down, and I delivered my baby!  I pulled her to my chest and we all fell in love!  Oh goodness, we all fell in love!  I have a glorious picture of Susan our nurse and Eric and I and the doctor all smiling at the wonder of Miss Anna meeting us!  It was fantastic!  She cuddled for a bit and then they asked if they could cut the cord.  Miss Jenna was able to do that!!  And then we nursed and kept falling deeper in love!!!

The new Miss!

Daddy and his new little girl!!

The glory of labor being over!!

I haven’t know her for very long, I am not sure who she is yet!  But there are a few things I do know…First, she is sweet!!!  Second, she cries different then her brothers did (and she should work on that, her little lady cry isn’t going to get her what she wants around here!) Third…her brothers are madly in love with her!

Welcome to the world Miss Anna Muriel Yates!

Placate…

I was being placated.  I didn’t realize it, and usually I do!  Usually, I am not fooled so easily!  Maybe it is because I so wanted the information to be true, maybe my hopes took over and covered my eyes!  Maybe, just maybe I was missing the clues!  Who knows, but I was placated.  Most likely to just get me off their back…I am sure they are sick of me after three tries at a natural childbirth!!  ”just tell her what she wants to hear, and then take care of it while she is gone”.  One thing I do know, is that this game is played by their rules, and if you don’t play by their rules then things get very uncomfortable very fast.  It is hard, I feel stuck, I don’t feel like my opinion matters or that my body or my baby matter…but, no matter how dumb it sounds!, the end result really is the same goal for all of us!  We all want a healthy babe, we all NEED a healthy babe in the end!  So, although my desires may not be what they think is ok..in the end we all want her here safe and healthy..and I guess that kinda makes it ok.

Oh, placated!  Haha, last Thursday I was told that we could wait till next Thursday (the 12th) to decide how she is doing…to possibly wait almost a full week to induce if need be, or to induce right away if need be…maybe to allow me to go into labor on my own!  But, that was where I was placated  ”oh ya, sure, we can wait and see”!  and me being so excited at the idea!!  It being ok to wait a possible three weeks to meet her!  Finally getting the birth that I want!  But then yesterday I got a call from one of the nurses at the office!  She was so sweet and so happy to inform me that we had our induction scheduled!  WAIT! WHAT!?  I didn’t know we were doing that.  Oh, she was so caught off guard, she was so excited to tell me and then trying to figure out what went wrong. Haha, poor thing.  I guess the dr told me one thing and then left notes that were so very different.  The date is set, Friday the 13th at like 6:30am!  Maybe I will go into labor earlier..and maybe I won’t…we will see!  I am doing all I can!  Three Chiropractor appointments this week and two next!  Two acupuncture appointments and all the walking I can possibly do!  But, as we all know, babies come when they are good and ready or when a Doctor hooks you up to PIT and they have no choice!  We will see!  Either way…we will be meeting Miss Anna one week from Friday or Saturday!!!!

Cook baby Cook!  And we can’t wait to see you!  You are welcome to join us on the other side whenever you like!!!!  (today would be great actually!!)

Today we went to the doctor…again…like we are always doing!  And she is doing great!  She is chubby! chubby! chubby! but she is doing great!  And so am I!!!  My sugars are back under control and my BP is better than EVER!  And thanks to my mom for these amazing birthing hips that don’t make them too afraid of her size!  Sadly, this does not help my cause haha.  I just want to hold her!  But, it is such an amazing thing to be told you and your babe are so healthy that they just might let you go into labor on your own!!!!  YIPPEEE!!!!  No meds, no crazy pit, no health fears!!!  YAY!!!!  So, now we wait (like normal pregnant people do) to go into labor!  And we hope it is soon, because being pregnant stinks!  I am so so happy for her, and so so sad for me  I have wanted a natural childbirth, completely drug free, for each of my kids.  With Henry we thought it was going to happen and then at the last minute it was the opposite!  With Cole we knew they weren’t going for it…and I let them know that I was not a happy camper!  What a rad thing to even get to think that this little lady just might come on her own!!  YIPPEEEE!!!  So, for now we wait…and we hope she comes on her own before I hit 40 weeks (they won’t let me go that far, too many issues with diabetic babes late in pregnancy)!  Maybe, just maybe, she might come on Friday the 13th!!!!  A very lucky happy day in our book!  Eric and my anniversary is on a Friday the 13th  I love when dates collide!!

I just hope I can get some sleep in sometime in the next few weeks!!  I was very much so looking forward to having my very own body back to myself (well, as to my self as a newborn allows).

Stuff…

Yesterday we went to the doctor, they just monitor Anna on this early week appointment.  They hook me up to a machine and I chat and knit while they make sure that she is moving and her little heart is going fast and slow.  These little monitor sessions should take about 15 minutes..in that time they want to see her heart have three up/down movements.  Hahaha, mine usually take WAY longer!  With Cole it was the same way.  We do this twice a week and they take between 45 minutes and an hour and sometimes they never get the information they are looking for.  They seem to get worried some times but I keep telling them…she is fine  They do this little buzzer/noise maker thingie if she won’t wake up and it always makes me laugh.  As if her two big brothers running around and climbing on me all the time hasn’t already taught her how to sleep thru anything  Needless to say, that little machine never helps their cause!!  Monday’s monitor session went fantastic!  It was just before lunch time and she was awake and moving just like they like to see, that helps my goal of one more week!

I knit her another sweater this week…but it was a total fail!  Haha, maybe my first fail in sweaters for her ;(  Super cute black yarn, very simple, little button holes, nothing fancy.  But alas, small!  When I asked Eric if he thought it might fit he asked me if it was for a human baby.  It is small!  Haha, maybe one of the NINE babies due between here and August will be super crazy tiny!  And I will be ready

I am trying to think of things to stock the freezer with!  If you have any suggestions pass them my way!  When asked if I am ready…I say…Yes!  Hurry up already!!  But what I think I mean is that I am fully completely prepared for complete CHAOS!  I am not in any way thinking that this little lady is going to smoothly transition from womb to hands, there will be struggles and my boys will have needs that I could never begin to know yet!  But, I think that accepting this now, before it happens, might lessen the blow (I HOPE!!!)

Cole is super excited!!!!!  He is excited to go to the hospital to meet her, excited to see her after her bath of course! And was pretty much in tears yesterday when I informed him that she would not be sleeping in the crib in his room right away  Oh goodness, the kiddo was so sad.  But I told him it wouldn’t be too long!  That soon she would be sleeping in there with them.  I don’t think I have fully realized what his expectations are, but we will figure it out as we go  He is going to be a fantastic Big big brother…although he insists he is still too small to be a big big brother and cannot take on the job until he turns FOUR in July!  I am trying to tell him he is ready now, silly monkey.

Incase you were wondering…I am huge!  LIKE GIANT!  I might be able to win some sort of contest.  And I am thankful that this is almost over!  Haha.  With Henry I got one little stretch mark right under my belly button two days before he was born..and thankfully it went away when he was born!  With Cole, my young supple skin avoided them all together!  But, oh joy, Miss Anna has given me like six!  Right where Henry’s were.  I am hoping they go away like they did with Henry but it is just par for the course!  Another issue that I am having with this big ol belly is my insulin pump.  So, I always have a little catheter in my tummy somewhere, I change the needle every three days.  It goes from Left side to Right and up and down around my tummy.  But, my space is very limited right now.  It needs a little chub to work, and there just isn’t any left!  And in three days I am growing so the catheter isn’t staying in correctly!  We have moved to the muffin top but it still is limited!  Hahaha, overall, I am thankful that she is coming soon and I get my body back!!!!!

Here is a picture, it is horrible!  I am in my jambones! I am making a crazy face, it is dark, my room is not in tip top shape…but you can see how HUGE I am

saturday!!!

Anna has been given the ok to cook a little longer:)  But, we need to be ready!  I was told on Tuesday that she would have to come out next Thursday!  And then on Thursday that she could cook till the following Thursday, putting her in April!  Oh the joys of a big huge practice where you don’t see the same person…ever!  I have two appointments this week, one on Monday and one on Thursday, and we will see how they go.  The Doctor put me on a medication that I have not taken for years and years.  The med makes me so sick that when they tried putting me on it when I was first diagnosed with diabetes I only took it for about a month.  I hate it!  But my body isn’t processing the HEAPS of insulin I am pumping into it, and if I can get control for just four days before I have her than the chances of her staying out of the NICU are much much better…so I will just have to be sick!

Eric is pretty sad, he was super excited to meet her next week and is terribly sad to have to wait another week.  I told him there is still a chance…but I want her to cook if we can.  And I hate to complain about a week when she will be two weeks early either way…some people go two weeks PAST their due date!  YUCK hahaha.

Sleep is gone, there is no more sleep!  During the day a nap is doable if they boys let me, but at night…no sleep at all.  It is sad, and frustrating, and makes me grouchy.

I am excited to meet her…soon so so soon!

Anna…

Want to see another picture of Anna??  I have this on my fridge and I LOVE it!  Although, I reckon that these ultrasound pictures just aren’t as amazing to other people  

When I go to the doctor, Cole always asks “mom, are you going to the doctor with the big computer and the black and silver pictures of Anna??” He has only gone to one ultrasound this time around but he is still fascinated.  He makes this whole pregnancy thing a bit more fun!  It is hilarious to hear the things that he thinks about Anna and what is going on in my belly!  The other day he tried to look thru my bellybutton to see her and he is still stuck on what color her eyes will be!  The other day he was switching between black, blue, purple or red!  Lets just hope that he is a little off

A friend asked yesterday if we have a date yet, and I am hoping to get that all figured out on Thursday…she then said that the 29th is SIXTEEN days away!!  Sixteen days till we get to meet MISS ANNA!!!  This may be stressful, it may not be how I want her to be born, it may not be my ideal birthing situation…but sixteen days sounds AWESOME!!!  Yay!!!!  I can’t wait!!!!!  I seriously can not wait to meet her!!!!!

March!!!!

Holy Hanna!!!  Did you know that it is already the 6th of MARCH!!!  That is just crazy!

In the last few weeks we celebrated a second birthday!

This little man makes us smile so much, he is the craziest child ever!  His ears are almost always broken, but he makes up for it with his personality!!  He is way too much fun and enough energy to keep Cole entertained all day!  Those boys sure do love each other!!!

We also started having more and more doctors appointments!  Anna and I now go two times a week, we do ultrasounds once a week and have to lay down and do NST (non stress tests) twice a week.  Our little lady looks as healthy as we can hope, she is big…huge!  With both boys I thought they were crazy when they said this, but I can tell this little lady is quite big!  They tell me she has hair…lots of it already!  and that there is just too much fluid in there with her!  My diabetes has been rapidly spinning out of control for the last three to four weeks and we can’t seem to get a handle on it  (part of the reason she is getting big as well as why she has so much fluid keeping her afloat).  As for now, we are just watching the little lady and making sure she is still doing ok (which she is!!!) and deciding what will be best for both of us!

The new plan is to have her a little earlier.  My motherly intuition is ok with this, which says a lot considering how much I fought for both boys to cook longer!  I do feel that she might be better off outside of my body.  These issues are not things that we had to deal with when pregnant with either of the boys, and thankfully we didn’t have to deal with during the beginning of this pregnancy!  Looks like miss Anna will be meeting us this month!!!!  I will know more specific dates on the 22nd when we do another big ultrasound…but for now I am assuming we will meet her the last weekend of the month.

While all of this craziness with the little lady is going on…and I am trying my hardest to make her little living space as healthy as possible…these two munchkins keep me smiling!  They seriously are amazing!  They have so much energy, way more than any two humans should probably have, but boy oh boy do they keep it interesting.  Currently, Cole is quite fixated on seasons and what happens in each season…from the color of the leaves to the amount of sun and what holidays and birthdays fit in between.  Henry is obsessed with planes, batman and thomas the train.

Cole is ready to meet Anna, as long as she is big enough.  He is ready to go stay with Nana and Papa and have them take him to the hospital to visit us.  He is terribly concerned about how dirty she will be when she is born and insists that she has a bath before he meets her.  He wants to know what color her eyes are and whether her fingers will be all wrinkly from being in mommys water for so long.  He is pretty much just fascinated.  His newest thought is that a family just isn’t a family unless there are FOUR kids!!  Let me just tell you, there will NOT be four kids in this family so he will just have to get over that one

 

life…

I know, I know…I have been a bit MIA!  But alas, all is going well here!  No exciting news, no big reason why I haven’t been writing…just life.

Our days are spent somewhere between complete laziness and overwhelming running about.  The anticipation of a new life coming to our home is effecting all of us!  We are all in a different state of anticipation…me mostly horribly overwhelmingly excited, Eric just ready, Cole very excited to meet her and see what color her eyes are, and Henry…poor poor Henry…he senses that his life is in for a big change!

Henry really seems to be my only worry about her arrival.  I think we are all set for baby goods, all set up for adding her little body to our house! But poor Henry, I fear that he may have a hard time sharing his cuddles when she is born.  He is quite the cuddler!  Ever since he was born I have known that the kid didn’t realize he wasn’t an only child!  He likes what he likes when he likes it!  haha, maybe this little lady will know that she is not an only child! Haha.

As for what is really going on over the next few months….lots of Doctors appointments..moving from once every two weeks to weekly/twice a week.  They will very (too much so if you ask me) closely be tracking her growth and my health.  As for now they say she is 2.2lbs and in the 60th percentile.  With both boys they thought they would be HUGE!  Like well over 10lbs and I will assume that they will think the same for her..although they were  not that big:)  The plan is to be induced on April 6th.  Hoping that she will be here by Sunday!!

I am a bit excited about this timing…we lost our second pregnancy on Easter Sunday and it would be a bit redeeming to have her the same time!  But, we will see!

Between now and then…I finish working my one day a week, have a few showers to attend, a wedding, a little man I know will be turning TWO!, a anniversary to celebrate, and a lot of preparing to do!