So I was sitting here trying to catch up on some posts, and I have a munchkin who insists she has something to say. She wrote MUCH more than below, but somehow she was able to highlight and delete a crap-ton of narrative.
Presenting, future blogger Arya!
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Presenting, future blogger Arya!
,jm gh5t3TFDv fvf˜∫ jr66ygfv vuthgjhn 9mom hbjkhgj grsrsrfrfrfrgsesedsd bvv vg gvfgf
vbcbvbvćnhjhyg6o..;lkjl;l556 n5hybn jmu x ≥ b ≥ ≤
Happy Halloween everyone! Especially Arya, since this is her first!
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Alex finishing off Arya's costume with a little black nose |
Yesterday when I had a few minutes of quiet timeI finished making the girls' costumes. Not only were they incredibly adorable, but the costumes were dirt cheap!
We are going to Disney World in a little over a month (YYAAAAYYYYYY!!!), and a few weeks ago I had a local girl make Mickey/Minnie beanies for the kiddos for the trip. Alex and I saw the potential for the cutest costumes, so I made matching tutus with white buttons glued on for polka dots, and that was it!
Aren't they stinkin' precious? Alex is so obsessed with her new sister, so she was very excited to match her
Unfortunately, Lance Jr found himself in a decent bit of trouble and was busy with football practice (his coach actually told the team "screw Halloween," but thats a whole 'nother story), so he did not Trick-or-Treat this year. He did pass out candy wearing his uniform which made him pretty happy. That kid is the easiest person to please!
Me and the Love Bug after Alex dropped her back off at home after a few minutes of Trick-or-Treating (read: showing her off to her friends)
Regardless, she seems to have partied 'til she pooped!
Backtracked
Being an in-home daycare provider, especially one who does infants exclusively, does not really allow me the luxury of a "lunch break." However, once in a blue moon all three babies will be asleep at the same time and I can steal a few minutes away for myself. I usually do daycare clean up, scarf down some semblance of a lunch, or just cry in joy (or despair, depending on the day...), but today I actually did something fun! I'm making something for tomorrow, so stay tuned!
Backtracked
The title says it all
When Alex was a baby, I was obsessed with getting her ears pierced. I was literally counting down the days until she hit two months old, which is when I was told I could get them done. Sure enough, at exactly two months on the dot I was at the mall with my hole-less baby.
For some peculiar reason, I haven't had that urge with Arya. I haven't even really thought about when to do her ears (not that I now object to infant piercing). It just wasn't a priority to me yet. Lance, however, has been the obsessive one this time! He has been asking about once a week about when we can do her ears, lol.
Yesterday Lance Jr had an away football game, and on the way back home is the mall we go to when we leave the island. Since we happened to be in the area, Lance said we might as well eat lunch at the mall *winkwink* *nudgenudge*
As much as he wanted this done, he didn't want to have anything to do with the process. He insisted he couldn't watch her cry and would wait outside, but I coaxed him into being our photographer. As much as this video breaks my heart, its just too cute as well! She cried for maybe a little over a minute - once the initial pain was over, she was all better and all smiles again :)
On a side note, about an hour after this, Arya gave her first "baby kiss"! I went to kiss her, and she opened her mouth wide for me! She does it over and over again so it definitely wasn't a fluke! Baby kisses just make my heart melt... One of my absolute favorite things in life!
On the way home from Lance Jr's football game today, we were talking about the various plays he was in. Big Lance asked him about when he seemed to get hurt:
"I tripped when I was chasing him, and then my winky fell onto his cleat. Now it hurts."
Wow... Dad must be proud! Just make sure he wears his cup next time :P
(While rubbing his drenched, sweaty head after football practice)
Lance Jr: "It feels so good when I do this."
Me: "You're all sweaty, that's gross!"
Lance Jr: "Its not gross, its manly."
My gorgeous baby girl only, deciding to arrive when she was ready! I was due on June 19 (with my induction scheduled for July 1), but Miss Arya finally made her grand entrance on June 29!
See that hair?! That would explain all the vicious acid reflux I had!
Lance was on the way to the airport on Friday to pick up his mother, and I opted to stay home and avoid the long drive and get a few last minute things done. While grocery shopping, I finally felt what seemed to be legitimate contractions (after months and months of Braxton Hicks). I kept leaning on the grocery cart, pretending to check stuff off my list rather than brace myself for the ensuing pain - I wonder if I fooled anyone :P I texted Lance, who was in Friday-evening-rush-hour-stand-still-Seattle-traffic, letting him know that I thought that night would finally be the night, but not to worry as it felt like we had time still. That didn't stop him from freaking his mom out though :P
My timing was pretty spot on; the rest of the family got home several hours later, they ate dinner that I had prepared, and I took what I was anticipating to be my last shower. After trying to nap and gather last minute things, I finally woke Lance up at about 2am and told him we should just go ahead and leave for the hospital.
The entire way there I was terrified that they would turn me back as I wasn't miserable, but luckily they kept me. I officially checked in at 3:15am, and they went ahead and admitted me to a room while they figured out my doctor situation (my main doctor was vacationing in Hawaii, must've been nice!). I was 2cm dilated and the pain was increasing, so they kept me and had the doctor on call examine me.
After increasing pain and further dilating, the drugs came and the doctor let us know that he'd check in on us "in an hour" to see how far along I was and hopefully I could begin pushing. This pattern continued, miserably, until about 11am, when it was finally time!
Unfortunately, the doctor mentioned how big she is and kept talking to the nurse about wanting to get "OP" in for his opinion. After about 20 minutes, the official OB/GYN on call came to our room and he agreed that not only was she large, but they were afraid if I continued pushing that her shoulders may get stuck. Lovely.
I was wheeled off to the Operating Room, and Lance was told to stay behind while they prep me and get me numbed. They were in a big hurry to get the C-Section started, and they told Lance if I couldn't be numbed properly, that they would have to put me under, in which case he could not be there with me. Luckily that wasn't an issue, and a few minutes later Lance was by my side. The entire team was in a big hurry to begin and kept stressing the fact, and I hadn't realized until a few days later that the baby's heart rate was steadily declining, explaining the immediacy and seriousness of the situation. Thank God I didn't know.
Aside from my upper body shaking uncontrollably from the anesthesia, and my major loss of blood (which I didn't realize until afterwards), and the fact that they had to "push her head back in," the C-Section went well! I was very nervous - this was my very first surgery and I hearing the urgency in everyone's voices scared me, but I forced myself to remain calm and brave, thinking that my mindset could make a difference in the outcome. I kept my (very drugged) brave face on, but once I finally heard her cry, I began to try too and let myself drift off to the sleep that I was desperately avoiding.
Lance was amazing the entire time! He too sensed the urgency and was in a better mindset to comprehend what was going on. When he finally was admitted to the Operating Room with me, he sat next to me and I could see the smile in his eyes, being the brave rock that I needed. He saw the massive amount of blood I had lost and he knew that it wasn't normal, but I kid you not, he even gave me a thumbs up during the procedure and kept the bravest face on the entire time. He took pictures of her and was able to cut the cord when offered, and while they finished stitching me up, he was able to spend an entire hour all alone with our newest daughter, rocking her and loving her all to himself.
At this point Lance ran home to get cleaned up and to grab something to eat, and I still hadn't held Arya. I was pretty loopy still and my arms were still shaking, so the nurse propped her up on my chest and shoulder and I was able to be with my baby girl for the first time :)
Recovery wasn't as bad as I had anticipated (I'll take a C-Section over an episiotomy any day!!), but it was still rough. I am choosing to breastfeed for the first time, so dealing with those woes, the incision, and a new baby... just enough frustrations that any new mom can relate to.
The kids are smitten with her! I'll never forget the look on their faces when they first came into my recovery room - the look of awe spread across both their faces, and they both agreed she was just the most beautiful baby.
My mother-in-law Brenda was head-over-heels in love as well, steadily rocking her and staring at her in silence, while the rest of the family visited with me and were chatting up a storm.
It wasn't until a few days after I got home from the hospital and finally made the time to review our pictures that I realized that I don't have any pictures of Daddy with Baby Arya! He was my coach, my cheerleader, and the ringleader of the bunch, and we all were too distracted to catch that. Nothing we can do about it now other than take thousands of pictures of them together, for the rest of our lives :)
Yesterday we finally got home from the hospital, and one of the first things we did was give Arya a good bath! Her first real one! She was still icky with blood in her ears and gunk stuck in her hair, so I didn't hesitate a moment to break out the brand new bath tub, crack open the baby soaps, unfold her unused baby bath towels... oh, the newness of a baby just surrounds me!
Mystressed-out mother-in-law came up to help us out with the baby, so of course I put her to work right away ;) Lance Jr was excited to finally help out in his official "big brother" duties, so he assisted. And Zeus supervised, of course!
My
Its official... we've done all the consults and prep work, and now Alex is starting the process of getting braces! Today she had to get little rubber band spacers put in and she's been achy (but in good spirits... a big worry of mine since she's seemed to develop a phobia of dentists). It looks like we pretty much will be living at the orthodontist for the next xxxxxx years, going pretty much weekly at first.
Its strange to think that my oldest baby is now getting braces, and I'll be buying diapers soon, too!
Time to get a second job :(
Today was our specialized ultrasound appointment. My regular OB-GYN picked up some slightly elevated results on my quad-screening, and he suggested that we get a Level 2 ultrasound at a hospital outside of Seattle.
Good news is - the doctor today was very confident that everything looks just fine and normal! Of course, he couldn't guarantee anything without an amniocentesis, but the risk is just not worth it to Lance and I. The baby is not in any physical danger, and we didn't see the need for any further testing when ultimately, we would do nothing differently with the pregnancy anyhow.
On to the fun stuff! For years when I would daydream about any future babies, I would imagine how much fun it would be to have this next one be a surprise gender. Lance really wanted to know, and truth be told, I'm an extremely impatient person, and I don't think I would have been able to hold out not knowing. So, without further ado, watch this video to find out what we are having!
For the sake of full disclosure, I just have to tell you that Lance is acting the entire time. Towards the end of the video, you can clearly see I'm just at a loss for words and don't even know how to proceed with my "magical reveal" video, and the rest of the night I was mad at him. Thats Lance, though... my little actor. He is truly excited about the gender, I assure you :)
And finally, the below video is what Big Lance took today during the ultrasound. Its über long and I'm posting this mainly for the grandmas on the other side of the country, so there's no obligation to watch the nearly 18 minute video :P
Good news is - the doctor today was very confident that everything looks just fine and normal! Of course, he couldn't guarantee anything without an amniocentesis, but the risk is just not worth it to Lance and I. The baby is not in any physical danger, and we didn't see the need for any further testing when ultimately, we would do nothing differently with the pregnancy anyhow.
On to the fun stuff! For years when I would daydream about any future babies, I would imagine how much fun it would be to have this next one be a surprise gender. Lance really wanted to know, and truth be told, I'm an extremely impatient person, and I don't think I would have been able to hold out not knowing. So, without further ado, watch this video to find out what we are having!
For the sake of full disclosure, I just have to tell you that Lance is acting the entire time. Towards the end of the video, you can clearly see I'm just at a loss for words and don't even know how to proceed with my "magical reveal" video, and the rest of the night I was mad at him. Thats Lance, though... my little actor. He is truly excited about the gender, I assure you :)
And finally, the below video is what Big Lance took today during the ultrasound. Its über long and I'm posting this mainly for the grandmas on the other side of the country, so there's no obligation to watch the nearly 18 minute video :P
Unfortunately, I was not home for the following exchange. Big Lance relayed the conversation to me:
Lance Jr: I'm a Texan.
Alex: No you're not...
Lance Jr: Yes I am!
Alex: You weren't born in Texas, never lived in Texas, or even been to Texas... you're not a Texan.
Lance Jr: But Mom was born in Texas...
Alex: Yeah, but that doesn't make you a Texan.
**Lance Jr ponders this for a few seconds**
Lance Jr: I guess I'm a Virgin then.
**Alex stares**