7 months

This picture pretty much explains what Lydia is up to now at 7 months. She tries to stand any chance she gets. She wants me to hold her hands so she can stand and gets cranky if I set her down. She took a step holding onto a coffee table yesterday. I am so not ready for this but it is exciting at the same time. I keep wondering what Lydia will add to the mix of playtime with her brother and sister. Brad's grandpa taught her how to clap on cue this week. She has started talking up a storm. She is making mamama and dadadada and bubububub(we think she is trying to say bubba...haha) sounds. Lydia is still our happy little baby girl who always makes us smile and has a special way of calming me down when I am having a stressful day.

6 months

I spotted her first tooth coming in on the bottom 2 nights ago. She is trying to pull herself up already. I want my baby to stay a baby longer:(

I want these

these are so adorable. I have been wanting to buy Lydia these before she was born. 32 dollars is a lot to spend on shoes that will probably fall off at some point and may never be found again :/

5 months

Lydia is 5 months old today. She sat unsupported for the first time for about 15 seconds today to celebrate:) She is still rolling all over the house so I am constantly picking up things and making sure the floor is clean for her. Her older brother and sister never rolled around like this and weren't really mobile until they walked around 10 months(they never really crawled much either). She is very alert, doesn't like to sleep a lot and wants to be on the go all the time. I guess she is trying to keep up with Landon. Her hair is starting to grow back in but it will still be awhile before we will have pigtails. I can't wait! I think Lydia is one of the happiest babies I have ever seen. You just have to look at her and she will smile. I hope she keeps this up because my other two had horrible separation anxiety and wouldn't smile for anyone but me. :)

4 months

Lydia had her 4 month checkup today. She weighed in at 16 lbs 15 ounces(97%perecentile) and is 25 3/4 inches long(90%)We got the go ahead to start solids but the doctor did say that her nutritional needs are obviously already being met so no big rush:)

She is rolling over and LOVES to stand. She tries to sit up when laying down and can almost sit up on her own. She is growing up way too fast..I am not ready!!

growing up

first day of preschool last year first day of pre-K

what a difference one year makes. My little girl is growing up....She is going to be 5 in one week and I want to cry:(

chub chub

She is 3 months old today. Chub Chub is what Brad very lovingly started calling Lydia and it has kind of caught on with me now. Luckily, once she starts walking she will lose her chub chub just like Laila and Landon did. It will be just in time to stop calling her that because I definitely don't want her having issues with her body:) We think she is just the cutest!! Lydia's personality has been developing a lot lately. She is quite the squealer. I do not remember either of my other babies squealing like she does. She smiles all the time without any effort on my part. I was just telling Brad a couple days ago what a great baby she had turned into and how she hardly ever is upset anymore. Well......later that day she started this new "screeching" when she is mad. she has been now a bit more fussy the last couple of days and has been going to town, munching on anything near her mouth. Please not teeth already!!! I feel like I am finally getting the hang of having 3 kids and don't feel like I have to constantly plan everything around her wanting to eat, which seemed like all the time.

I was thinking about something the other day and hopefully this isn't taken wrong but you know how some people like having a really nice car or something flashy to wear to show off to people. This is how I feel about my children. I feel like they are what make me stand out and they are what I feel like showing off to people. Anyone else feel the same??

someday

I want this ring!!!! I have often thought a lot of mommy necklaces, bracelets, etc were kind of cheesy, but I love this. I love that it is one ring but looks like three intertwined.

2 months

Lydia had her 2 month checkup today. She is happy(mostly)and healthy. She weighs 12 lbs 12 ounces (95th percentile) and is 23 inches long(75th percentile) I can't believe how much she is growing and how strong she is. We think she is pretty special. :)

swimming lessons

Laila loved swimming lessons. I was nervous about how she would do because she does not like Brad or I to help her swim but of course she listened better to the teacher. She was mostly smiles through the lesson and said she had a lot of fun. She won't let us talk about it though because she says it is embarrassing:) Maybe because I was the mom sitting there with my camera out the whole time..haha. I was also the mom with the little boy who desperately wanted in too so settled for throwing mom's empty coffee cup in. awww the memories I will have.


oh and that picture of Lydia is just cute!

Strawberries

We took the whole family strawberry picking for the first time Saturday. As I suspected Landon loved picking them and eating them and was a big help most of the time. We left only after he started to pick up handfuls of dirt trying to bury mom's feet. Laila wasn't too impressed with anything. She is in the phase where she is worried about bugs and she was too afraid of what was lurking in the plants. I am hoping this is a short phase because some of my fondest memories growing up were playing outside in the woods of terrace heights and getting dirty.

We had fun. I wish we would have gone a little earlier in season as we did not have a lot to choose from but I did make plenty of jam for my girls pb&j sandwhiches.

Life update and photos

oh how I love my Lydia. She will be 4 weeks old on Wednesday and time could not be going by any faster. She is a champ eater and pooper. I had to take her to the doctor last week at 3 weeks and she weighed 9 lbs 3 ounces. She was born at 7lbs 6 ounces. That is some good growth. She is also a good crier..meaning she likes to cry. She cries when naked; so undressed, changing diaper or taking a bath. She cries when she has gas which is all the time. She cries when she needs to get that burp out which she has trouble with. She also cries(screams?) every night before falling asleep. BUT.....she is a good sleeper at night. She usually eats at 2 am and 6 am which I think is great. I know her crying won't last forever. I cherish those smiles and content moments where everything seems perfect with the world. It's amazing how you marvel at your children and every little thing they do. Even with the third, everything she does is amazing and adorable.
Landon is doing so much better with her now. He ignores her much of the time which I prefer to him trying to push her off my lap or pick her up. He likes to come up in the chair with us when I am holding her and point to her and say "It's cute" with this big grin on his face like he knows he is saying something really sweet and mommy should be so proud of him even if he refers to his sister as "it."
Adjusting to three is a lot like adjusting to two so far. However, when mommy is nursing I have two kids taking advantage of that fact, getting into stuff. I asked Brad what am I supposed to do? Landon doesn't listen when I tell him to go to time out. I have to physically put him there. So I could say, ok Landon in 15 minutes YOU ARE GOING TO TIME OUT! hahaha
Laila is done with preschool for the summer. On to Pre-k next year. This is a picture from the end of the year "show" they put on at Kneeland Park last Thursday. She did sing most of the songs but I could barely hear her because she definitely was not the most excited and outgoing. It was probably one of the cutest and funniest things I have seen in a long time. Oh and the picture only shows part of the class, there are 13 kids.

Junior jog

nervously biting her nails
I like to tease Brad that he was running with the wrong girl
this was how she showed her excitement


This Saturday Laila ran her first race with Brad by her side. It was 1/4 mile starting at the Shelton Inn and finishing at the post office. She did great, stopping only momentarily to wave at her mommy. She seemed so excited and proud of herself when she was done. Each child received a Paul Bunyan book and a medal. Laila wasn't too excited that everyone got a medal. She didn't quite understand that. Anyway, I didn't get the best pics of her running because they started the race 10 minutes early so I wasn't ready and I was on my phone with Brad's mom explaining where I was. Also, my daughter is lightning fast. :)

the only way to relax

Lydia 8 days old
Landon 8 days old
Laila 10 days old

The birth story

We arrived at St. Peters at 7:30 am to be induced. I was checked to see what kind of induction they would try. I was only 2 cm but they were going to try and brake my water and start pitocin. After about a half hour of poking at my bag they were only able to poke a hole in it. Therefore, during labor every time I had a contraction I felt like I was peeing myself:) They started off slow with pitocin and it took about 3 hours for them to get me going with regular contractions so at about 11. They were having a hard time reading my contractions and the baby's heartbeat kept dipping so I had to have a monitor placed on her head and on my uterus to monitor both of those. I had wires everywhere it felt like. I was told that they were very busy that day with c-sections so if I wanted an epidural I would have to wait until after 2. I was a little worried because it seemed that my contractions were constant and I was unsure how I would cope. I was having back labor and Lydia was posterior which meant they were a little concerned she would come out nose first. The nurse told me back labors can take longer which was not encouraging. I progressed pretty slowly until about 2:30 when the anistesiologist came to give me my epi. He was able to do it pretty quickly and they gave me another dose of poticin right away as well. Unortunately, I felt no relief. They kept saying oh just give it 5 more minutes and we will give you some more and see if that helps. When that poticin kicked in things got intense. I was 5 cm dialted about 3:10. I knew things were going fast so I told them to check me a few minutes later and I was 8 cm. About 5 minutes later I said I need to push NOW and they checked again and I was complete but they told me I had to wait. I went from 5 cm to 10 in 15-20 minutes. The anistesiologist actually walked in while they were setting me up for pushing to readminister the epi and he was shoved out the door. Lydia was born at 3:41 so I pushed for 5-10 minutes. My doctor never made it to the hospital. There was a resident doctor and a midwife they called in later that delievered Lydia. I was planning on getting into more details of the pushing stages just because they might make people laugh but I will just say that Brad was in a headlock the entire time and his butt kept cramping:) You can ask him about that!

Lydia was born with her cord tightly wrapped around her neck and body. She was blue and not breathing so she had a bit of a rough start. They took her to the nursery to see the specialist but was quickly brought back to me. She seems perfect to me now:)

This was by far the hardest of labors, but most exciting. It seemed like everything that could go wrong did but I got a beautiful little girl out of it.

Lydia Isabelle

Born May 20th at 3:41pm
7 lbs 6 ounces
19 inches long

waiting......

I had my doctor's appointment yesterday. uh oh Landon just came in the room clapping his hands together saying "I'm making a mess" .....luckily it wasn't too bad. Anyway..yesterday my OB was all ready to strip my membranes for me if I wanted but she coudn't. She could barely fit a finger so we'll see for next week. She did a lot of stretching and making me say ouch! I was crampy alllll night with lots of contractions which made me realllly nervous. I thought I was ready but turns out I am not!! :) I have no real predictions but feel like it could be any time which has driven me to turn into a nut when anything is put out of place or messed up that I had just cleaned. Fun house for the kids right? I feel way more anxious and psychotic with this pregnancy than with the others....not sure why....anyway....hopefully I will be posting pictures of the beautiful Lydia soon.

Interesting

I copied this from my friend Rachel. I am not sure about some of these answers but I had fun asking Laila all of the questions.




1. What is something mom always says to you? No
2. What makes mom happy?getting obeyed to
3. What makes mom sad?when I don't obey
4. How does your mom make you laugh?making faces and telling jokes
5. What did your mom like to do when she was a child?play with dolls and chew on toys(what???)
6. How old is your mom? I don't know 2 or 3 or 5 or 6 or 7
7. How tall is your mom?really tall
8. What is her favorite thing to watch on TV? deal or no deal(we have watched this together just the last couple nights)
9. What does your mom do when you're not around? just lays around(how did she know)
10. What is your mom really good at?playing games
11. What is your mom not very good at?kinda like driving(Brad likes to joke that I am terrible at driving...I have had 1 ticket and no accidents)
12. What does your mom do for her job?watching her children
13. What is your mom's favorite food? fruits and vegetables and healthy stuff to make you strong(that's what she thinks I wanted her to say im sure)
14. What makes you proud of your mom?when she does something right during a game
15. If your mom were a cartoon character, who would she be? a pony(hopefully not my little pony)
16. What do you and your mom do together? sometimes crafts and go shopping and sometimes play games
17. How are you and your mom the same?sometimes we both wear jeans
18. How are you and your mom different? our hairs are not the same on our head(mine used to be like hers)
19. How do you know your mom loves you?Because I was born
20. What does your mom like most about your dad? loving him
21. Where is your mom's favorite place to go?shopping or the shower(so true!)
22. What is one thing you wish you could change about your mom?eating candy for life???
23. What would your mom do with a million dollars?buy me a moving car to drive around the garden or the road
24. What do you wish you could go and do with your mom? go swimming
25. What is one thing you hope never changes about your mom?loving her(short and sweet)

The count down is on

I had my 37 week appointment yesterday. She checked me and I am sad to say nothing is happening...yet. Not that it really means much since some people are dilated for weeks before labor. I was a little surprised though because I have been having lots of contractions and was actually contracting the entire time she was examining me so that she was never able to estimate a size or really get a good idea of her positioning. Head down is all I know which is a good thing:) I predict at 39 weeks when I go in she will strip my membranes and I will be good to go within 12 hours of that. This is how Laila and Landon both arrived. However, I think Lydia might want to mix things up a bit and make it interesting.

Depending on my mood comments about me and my pregnancy can either totally piss me off or just make me laugh. I have had some interesting comments from people mostly about how I look ready to go. Last night was no different but maybe more amusing. I was at Safeway buying a container of pineapple before heading to a friends house. I have heard some people say it helps ripen the cervix so why not. When I was checking out HE held up the container of pineapple and said, " oh is this like your last meal?" All I could say was hopefully...yeah she should be here soon. I think I might miss hearing stupid comments. I guess I will still get people asking me if I curl my children's hair.

where is my baby?

I prepared the best I could...I had no idea how his first haircut might go. The milkshake worked wonders. This is Landon smiling when Brad walked in.
I had no idea Landon liked to look at himself so much. He just smiled and stared at himself most of the time.
His curls are gone for now but I am confident they will be back
Landon's first hawk. I think he looks pretty darn cute
By the very end of the haircut he had enough and was ready to get out
With the loss of hair came a loss of babyness.


I was a little nervous before the haircut because typically Landon does not sit still for anything and is pretty shy about people touching him. However, every so often he blows mommy and daddy away and shows us what a quiet, well behaved, patient, calm, sweet boy he can be. Maybe he was scared stiff but he just sat there and let her do her thing. Everytime she asked him a question he would say, "ohhhh ok" his classic response. He did wince a few times when she was cutting next to his ears. People kept commenting on how well he was doing and I was pretty much speechless...haha:) Oh how I love my Landon.

Broccoli

Is it sad that I was ecstatic that both of my kids ate all of their broccoli for lunch today without tears, bribes, or threats? I have always had problems with my kids eating veggies and fruits since they first tasted candy. I also think it may be sad but also really funny that when I praised both of them for doing so well Laila told me I should take a picture. Apparently she doesn't plan on doing this often?? Anyway, when she told me to take a picture I quickly thought she was right...this must be documented. :)

Big bellies

I went to my cousin's baby shower in Portland on Saturday. We took a few pictures of our prego bellies but this is my favorite. We are both supposed to be having girls. She is Due May 1st, almost 3 weeks before Lydia is due to make her entrance, or should I say exit? 

the first of many

I have been looking forward to being able to be outside more for like....months??:) Brad made a space in one corner of the yard where they are trapped. They can play and I can run inside without them disappearing since the entire yard is not fenced fully. we played outside all morning and had lunch and played some more. The kids are now sleeping peacefully. I hope there will be many more days to come like this.



First we sat around being cute
then we had lunch
then we played with chalk
then we spotted deer in the backyard and stared at them

Never again

Never again will I take Landon with me to a doctor's appointment. He has been tolerable to have around up until today at my OB appointment. For whatever reason it was a nightmare. I HAVE to keep him in a stroller because he does not sit nicely and does NOT listen to his mommy. He threw the biggest fit I have ever seen him throw. He not cried but screamed for the entire hour and half I had to be there. I saw the OB for about 3 minutes. By the end of it mommy and Landon were both in tears. Just so you know Laila was there too and she always does great. I am not sure about this boy. I have never seen him behave so terribly as he did today. I took him out of his stroller even to console him where he proceeded to pull my hair and slap me. I don't remember a time I have felt so helpless. I almost walked out of the office.....

bye bye fa fa

fa fa is what Laila named her pacifier when she was a baby and it stuck with all of us. I made Laila give hers up cold turkey pretty much when she turned 2. Landon is 2 and a half and I did not see an end in sight. He is way attached to it and I have been having anxiety about him not getting to be the baby anymore. I kept telling myself ok today we are taking it away but when he would cry out fa fa! I gave in.

Well, yesterday during nap time I could not find a fa fa anywhere so I put him to bed without and he did just fine. I decided if he could do that he could go to bed at night without one and he did last night. This shall be the end of fa fas for my little boy. I hope I find the lost ones before he does!

what's up?

February has kinda sucked! Everyone in my family but me got the stomach bug immediately followed by colds. Landon had a fever from last Sunday until yesterday evening.....this caused little sleep and most of the days with him attached to me like a koala bear. I took him to the doctor yesterday and she diagnosed him as having bronchitis and gave him some antibiotics. She said they don't usually do that but she thought Landon was more sick than others. yay! I am pretty sure Brad and I have bronchitis too because we have the same exact symptoms.

I guess all of February didn't suck. The couple days in between stomach stuff and colds Brad and I had 3 days to ourselves. This was to celebrate our anniversary. I am so glad we did it when we did because I was sick on my birthday and on our anniversary.

To add to the fun I have had to wear an "event" monitor. Basically any time I start to feel my heart skip beats I have to stick on stickers to my chest and record it on a little machine and then send it to my cardiologist over the phone. It's kind of silly because I feel like I could be sending them messages all day long because pretty much my heart skips on average every 5 beats. At it's worst it is every couple and that is when I start to feel really dizzy and panicky. This could go on for a month, however they are supposed to let me know when they have enough data. I can't believe they haven't called already. I am not really sure what they are looking for that they haven't found.

I cut the back of Landon's hair the other day and then Laila decided she needed a trim too. I got up to go to the bathroom and found a chunk of her hair and scissors sitting on the counter in there. You would think she would try to hide the evidence. Luckily, it was just a small chunk in the front. It could be worse and her curls help hide it. When her hair is up it is actually kind of cute because it is a little tendril that hangs down. Don't tell her it's cute though...she was in big trouble from her mommy.

Brad and I are still pretty much decided on Lydia for baby girl's name but she has no middle name.

I think that is about it! time to go pick up the healthy one from pre school

That's inappropriate!

Laila likes to point out to her mom and dad when things aren't appropriate. Somehow she can tell by facial expressions used and tone at times when I am pretty sure she has no idea what things mean. However, I don't think I give her enough credit sometimes for how smart she is. This morning I asked her to tell me what things are inappropriate. This is just a small list she gave me......

* To talk about people's poopie diapers

* To be at people's houses naked

* To look at people's boobs

* When you draw pictures of people's butts(yeah she did this once and guess what she was told)

Beautiful day

Yesterday was one of the first times the kids have played outside in awhile for more than 20-30 minutes with snow. Our camera had been broken and then I lost the battery for awhile. I have it back now so I took about 90 pictures. :) Here are just a few