Spring Break Happenings

On the nicest day of Spring Break we traveled to Portland with Grandma Mimi and Uncle Patch to go to the zoo. Apparently everyone else in the state had the same idea because there were tons of people there. We had to park in the overflow parking lot and wait in line for 1 hour to get on a bus to take us to the zoo. Once we were there we were able to see all of the animals and the kids did a great job despite the wait and a lot of walking. For most of the time this is the view we had of the kids.

We took baby boy too, but I just realized that we don't have any pictures to document that he was there. It was a little difficult to get a lot of pictures because we were trying to keep four kids happy.

The most amusing person to watch was Little Miss because she was so excited by the animals. Here she is inches away from a big cat and was so excited. She kept asking to pet him. She wanted us to catch him.

On the way back we picked up a new hamster for Midge. His name is Humphrey.

He is a golden bear hamster. He is 3 months old.

Puppet Show & Visitors

This past week Little Miss has been expressing her independence by insisting she dress herself. I love this phase because it helps to have her help dressing herself. Yet, I know that she will start going through a lot of clothing. Plus in the beginning it will take more time to get her dressed. At the same time she is growing up and I enjoy watching her grow up.

I gave our little munchkin a bath and the kids helped me style his hair.

They were going for a mohawk style.

Ken's mom, Susan, came for a visit to hold her 7th grandchild.

It was funny how the two eyed each other.

Susan was also able to see Midge's puppet show when she came this past weekend.

Our oldest has always been very dramatic. When we heard about a puppet workshop at the local library we decided we needed to sign her up for it. Through the class she made the two puppets above. When I say made I mean every part of them. The first class was making the heads out of plaster. The second class she painted them. The third class they had a table full of material scraps and attachments and they could dig through it and design their wardrobe. They would take the material to seamstresses around the room and tell them how they wanted the outfit to look and the women would sew it for them. Throughout these classes they rehearsed a play written by the director. On the fourth class they had the dress rehearsal and then the next day they performed it for a live audience.

Midge backstage during the performance.

This is Ms. Rose. She is the one who wrote the script and was in charge of nearly a dozen 8-12 year olds in putting on a performance. She has been doing this for 17 years.

The audience members who were wanting to see Midge's performance.

As you can tell baby boy was very impressed. We were excited to get front row seats.

All Hamsters Go To Heaven

For the past two weeks our little family pet has been going down hill. On Thursday he passed away. Midge has had 4 hamsters (Hammie, Panda, Snoopy and Snuggles). All of the hamsters Midge has trained herself. Our last hamster Snugs was a great hamster. He never bit anyone, once Midge trained him. I especially liked him because he didn't chew through clothing like Panda. Midge is amazing with animals. I haven't quite seen a person of her age that has such a deep perception of what animals need. She takes really good care of her hamsters too. She helps clean out the cages, feeds them, and makes obstacle courses for them. I have also noticed that she is getting better at dealing with their deaths. Part of having animals is the likelihood of dealing with their passing. Midge took Hammie and Panda's deaths very hard, but with Snuggles she was able to deal with it with an amazing sense of maturity.

Grey Hair

Ken pulled a Grey hair today (actually he found 5). I have to say that he took way too much pleasure in showing these to me. Aren't I too young for this!

A week and some change

Our baby boy is a week and 2 days old today. He is such a good boy. Last night he slept for a 4 hour stretch. Ah heaven. I keep trying to soak up this time because they grow so fast.

I really wanted him to close his eyes for this picture, but he refused to cooperate. He just insisted on watching the world.

Little Miss is hanging out at my mom's for a couple of days. We keep forgetting she isn't here and keep starting to go up to her room to wake her. It sure is a lot quieter around here. Plus everything is a lot cleaner. Who knew a 2 year old could make such a mess. Despite this we miss our goofy little girl. She is so funny, and is usually my little shadow.

More photos and updates

I had so much fun taking these photos. He peed all over the blankets when I took them.

The way this blanket looks I think it makes him look like he has angel wings.

Little Miss is cracking us up. She has always wanted swim goggles. When Midge had her swim meet they ended up having to purchase another set. Now Little Miss has a hand me down set. She insists on wearing them whenever she brushes her teeth at night.

Midge has been so helpful in taking care of baby boy. She is like a little mother. Everyone needs to get a helpful 8 year old.

Updates and the Birth Story

Our little guy has been such a good baby. It all started on Wednesday March 3rd. Earlier that morning I had an appointment with the OB to strip my membranes. In the past this has always thrown me into labor within 24 hours. We weren't going to do this but the OB was concerned because in the past my babies have had broader shoulders and Little Miss got stuck when coming out. As a result she wanted to ensure that this didn't happen this time. Our OB had scheduled an induction for Friday morning, but I knew I would prefer to have my membranes stripped over having medicine to induce me. After the appointment I felt well enough to go into work and wrap up some projects there. On the drive home I felt my first contraction. I came in and laid on the couch and Ken took care of everything. Ken had a meeting that night and was debating if he was going to go in or not. I was timing my contractions and for 2 hours they were all over from 10 minutes to 5 minutes apart. I called my OB and because I always go fast in labors she suggested I just go to the hospital and get checked out.

Our OB doctor ended up leaving without clamping the umbilical cord. The nurse decided to do it on her own. I watched her place the clamp and then saw her get ready to cut. I remember thinking why is she cutting beneath the clamp, but before I could say anything she had made the cut. Our little guy started bleeding quickly and nurses rushed over. Her cut had been so close to his belly button that there was little cord left to clamp. They ended up calling in 3 nurses to help and called back our OB doctor. Eventually with the four of them working they were able to clamp it off. During the entire procedure our little guy didn’t even fuss. He has the most amazing disposition.

This easy going nature has been great, but it has also caused some concern regarding his feeding. For the first few days he was very sleepy and it was difficult to get him to wake up to nurse. Nearly every time he would awaken take a few swallows and go back to sleep. On the first night back from the hospital I tried unsuccessfully for 2 hours to get him to nurse and he just wouldn’t stay awake. I finally decided to pump and gave him the milk in a bottle. He gulped it down. I realized he was hungry he was just too easy going to put in the work to nurse. From that time on we started supplementing with formula. He was still lethargic in the morning so we took him into the doctor and they ran some tests on him. There was some concern because of the loss of blood during the umbilical cord clamping. In order to do the tests they needed to draw some blood. They tried to get veins in both of his arms but couldn’t find anything. Instead they decided to draw it from his foot. They made a small cut in his foot and they squeezed the blood out drop by drop. It was torture holding him and watch them squeeze out the drops of blood. After she had squeezed for 10 minutes and filled the vial half way she was going to cap it and test it and then she realized that the blood had clotted and she had to throw it away and start all over. At that point the lack of sleep and worry combined and I knew I was starting to lose it. I called Ken over and had him hold him and I went into the parking lot and cried. With each of our children I have had our moment of hitting the wall. I have learned to embrace these moments rather than trying to put them off – which just makes them worse. For some reason my emotional state needs a good break down after big events. I anticipate these moments now, allow myself to release everything and then I come out stronger and better able to take care of myself, and my family. There is something important for me about acknowledging this situation is difficult and you have no control over it except for how you are going to react to it, so cry for now and then get on with what you need to do.

Eventually I went back inside and they had successfully drawn two vials. We got the test results back later that day and he was not anemic, but he was dehydrated and his hemoglobin count was down. We were given the charge to try and keep his weight up. We took him in the next day and he had gained an ounce so we knew we were on the right path. On Monday we had to take him into the doctor again because his umbilical cord was starting to get infected – something we knew was going to be a possibility. His weight was up 3 more ounces so we know that the feeding issue is getting better.

Overall things are going very well. Although it is funny that it has taken me 6 days to write this all down. Transitioning to four has been great, but largely because of the support of Ken, my mom, and friends. Leo has shown the most difficulty out of all the kids with getting used to another little one. We have tried to have one-on-one time with him in the afternoon when he comes home early from kindgergarten. Midge is a second mom doing everything from feeding him to giving out free back massages. Little Miss has done much better than we thought and is also very mothering. She gets very concerned when he cries and likes to help.

Visitors

Our baby boy has had a lot of visitors lately. Here he is with his Papa.

He also got to hang out with Uncle Patch.

Grandma Mimi has been staying with us and has been a big help. He loves cuddling with her.

The Swim Meet

On Friday night Midge had her first swim meet. She competed in 7 Events and placed in all of them. Her most impressive events were the 25 Backstroke and 50 Backstroke where she placed 1st place. Backstroke is definately her race. We are so proud of her. Ken, Papa, and Patch were all able to go and cheer her on.

The following are her times and events:

25 Free style 27.62

25 Backstoke 26.12

25 Breaststroke 43.84

25 Butterfly 44.12

50 Freestyle 1:04.87

50 Backstroke 1:00.87

100 IM 3:21.56

Our latest addition

Our latest baby boy:

6 lb. 11 oz.

19 inches

Born on March 3, 2010 at 10:08 PM

Mom and baby are doing fine, and such a great baby.