10 Days

Adrian

It's been 10 days since little man joined us here on the outside, and we love him more every day. The girls come into our room every morning and look for him and give him kisses every night before bed. It's gotten easier to get them to leave the park, or other places because I tell them that Adrian has to go home because he's getting hungry. Claire didn't like seeing his umbilical cord and kept asking if it was gone, then when it finally was she had to see if he had a normal belly button. I saw his first smile this morning before we had church and my heart melted, but unfortunately, I didn't have my phone ready and went back to his wiggly curious face. He is usually very calm if he's sitting in my lap, he hates his diaper being changed and doesn't like the swing for very long. I can usually get a little chore done before he gets too mad especially since his binky doesn't calm him for long. We had our first day at church, a new ward where we were meeting a lot of new people, and of course, everyone was impressed to see him.

Claire

When she went back to school on Tuesday she told me her teacher wanted a picture of her new brother to show off to the class. She was so happy she got to share what I emailed the next day and said everyone thought he was so small! She doesn't ask to hold him as much as the first few days because they have to sit still and he's not very exciting I guess.  They did ask when he would play with them and I had to explain he needs to grow up a little before he gets playful. I tried to explain that we would play baby games first and they would have to help him learn to crawl and then walk. They also like to ask if things used to be theirs when they were a baby like the nursing covers I still have, the few baby toys I have for him, and other little things. 

Shay

She is asking almost every day if her birthday is tomorrow and I will be so excited this Thursday to be able to say yes! We got to meet new church friends and invited a few to her party, and then we have family coming into town so I hope she feels extra-extremely special. She also has the longest list of things she wants for her birthday that I have to keep saying, "Didn't you want..." and she will go, "Oh yeah, maybe I can have it for my next birthday." I hope she is happy with what we get her and doesn't think about all she's not getting, I doubt she will remember all of the things she sees at the store and wants! This weekend we made a trip to DI which is really exciting for the girls because they can spend their own money. Then we had lunch at Chick-fil-A and it was busy, but the girls are good listeners now.

It Finally Happened!

 Adrian

Here it is! I now have a reason to have 3 paragraphs every time I write this blog because we have 3 children now! Labor started late on Valentine's Day after the girls had gone to bed so they were surprised to wake up and have a baby brother on the 15th. The biggest surprise was waking up to babysitters because I was in the hospital for a D&C and Chris was watching over Adrian while I was indisposed. Adrian was born at 4:42am weighing 8lbs 4oz and measuring 20in. I got to enjoy about an hour of skin-to-skin and relief of it being over before my midwife made the call that the placenta wasn't going to come out and I was bleeding too much. She called the ambulance and when I tried to sit up into their chair to get me outside I blacked out. I was aware of myself when I was conscious and when people were talking to me through the next 8 hours, but a lot of what was going on around me was lost. I wasn't aware of what time it was until 2pm after I had done a lot of sleeping after my D&C. 

I'm now aware of how hard it was on Chris to worry about me, be all alone with a newborn, and try to explain to the girls where mommy is. It was a little too scary being told how much blood I lost, but now being home and recovering I can look back and be grateful for how things turned out especially that we had help when Chris could finally come see me at the hospital. It was super hard to wait for Chris to join me because I was finally awake but I didn't know how Adrian was doing. Luckily he was much healthier than me! He is a perfect little baby and I've made up for that first 8 hours by being with him every second I can now that we are home. He is constantly hungry and hates to sleep in his own bed even though I can reach over and touch him while he is there. We made our first walk yesterday when there was a little sunshine out and he slept in the sling while I walked a little and got the mail. Chris's parents came for a night to help out with cleaning the house, spending time with Claire and Shay, and of course meeting Adrian! My parents are flying in from Alabama next week to do the same and I'm looking forward to time together.

Claire

Early week was normal with school and being excited about her Valentine's party at school. She came home on Wednesday excited to show off all of her Valentines from classmates and share her candy with Shay and even some with me and Daddy. I'm glad we have a sweet girl who is willing to share with her sister. Because of the excitement of Adrian's birth, she missed school on Thursday, and she didn't have school on Friday anyway so I feel lucky to not have to had to worry about how to get her there! Presidents Day is tomorrow so I have yet another day to not worry about getting her to school while juggling a newborn in the morning. Hopefully, life will return to normal and she can share her big news with her teacher and friends on Tuesday.

Shay

In preparation for Valentine's Day, we made some rice crispy treats and put colorful chocolate on top then cut them out in heart shapes to share with Claire and Daddy. She was very excited to help through the whole process and have a special mommy cooking date and it was enough that she didn't ask to also make cookies so that was nice. I feel very grateful to have a quiet and clean 4-year-old at home with me because she doesn't usually make a mess during the day I have to worry about. Being around Claire is causing the destruction in the house to levels I'm not normally comfortable with but they listen and clean when I tell them. 

A Beautiful Week

 Claire

We got a list of her classmates this past week so she could write all her Valentines and Shay wanted to help by folding them in half and giving Claire the ones she wanted. It was a fun project to work on and it got them excited for Valentine's Day which of course Claire will enjoy because they have a party, but I'm looking for ways to make it good for Shay. Claire's snack one day was goldfish so she became a cat so she could eat it off the floor, Shay copied her too and I just laughed at them. Their games are so silly sometimes! I love how they like to teach the scriptures and this week we had to teach them how to take turns because they are getting bad at sharing. I look at the picture of them in their PJs and see them not covering as much of their legs as they used to! These girls are getting taller, even though things still fit them, they are creeping up their legs.

Shay

I'm glad we had some good weather this week because we got to go to the park, I don't have to shovel snow while this pregnant, and it is beautiful. Shay made a very cute little friend at the park that started following her around smiling and Shay kept trying to give her things. I did some meal prep and bought regular-size carrots instead of baby carrots and both girls like to eat a whole one and act like bunnies. Carrots are Shay's favorite veggies and really the only kind she will eat without bribing her and this is a way she will eat even more, even asking for it as a snack! Our bedtime routine has become pretty fun because the girls can get in their PJs all by themselves, they usually brush their teeth on their own (and make a mess), we do scriptures and pray then either they want to race or get carried by daddy to bed. I walk behind them so I can tuck them in and let them kiss my baby bump and me before saying good night. I hope we can keep up with it when I'm distracted with the baby and taking care of him. 

Fabulous February

 Claire

We are starting February with a lot of rain this past week and Claire gets to take her umbrella to school and I'm glad they have rain boots. She even woke up one morning and wanted to go play out in the rain first thing in the morning! Before even getting breakfast, she got her boots on and took her umbrella out to play which I think is crazy, but I'm glad she's having fun. She does keep asking when her baby brother will finally come out and I have to keep saying, "when he's ready." She accepts it, but I can tell she is getting impatient. I asked her if she was going to help me change his dirty diapers when he is here and she said "eww" but she said she wants to help him get dressed and I gave her ideas of others things they can help with. She refused to get out of her dress after church and wanted even more makeup because she wanted to be fancy today. Maybe she likes this dress more than others, and she was the one to choose purple as our color we wore today. Claire drew and asked for donuts this week, specifically pink with sprinkles so I did some of those air fryer biscuit donuts as a desert.

Shay

She loves doing her homework now and I love that she is excited every day for it because I see how smart she is and how she is working out what sounds she hears in words. I officially started sight words and I hope to see some progress with her remembering them soon because I think Claire struggled with them so much because I didn't start before she began Kindergarden. I'm glad I have some of the resourses that I got from Claire's time in school to use with Shay so I know what to expect she might need to know. She is getting better at not asking for new toys when we went to the store this week and liked the owl down the isle of the outdoor stuff we went down this week. It was close to the toys and she asked if we could go look but not buy anything. She did get this weird notion in her head that she is getting a new bike for her birthday...I don't know why she thinks that, but she wants an Elsa bike pretty bad.

Chris

He is getting just as anxious about meeting baby as everyone else and since it could happen any day now he has become more concerned with making sure he can be here with me. He has a lot of built up PTO and has planned some official half days around baby's due date but might make them full days off if there isn't anything going on at the clinic. It is growing pretty fast though and this past week was very busy, luckily there are some nurses who want extra hours right now and can cover when he needs to be here with me. Since we are having a home birth with a midwife I'm more unsure of timing and only fear that I'll be all alone when labor starts. Both Claire and Shay were induced so I don't know how to tell if it is starting and I don't want to be alone, but I think I'm just too worried and things should be pretty normal.