Chocolate Chip Pancakes

  L discovering the pancakes he helped make this morning. 

 Obviously the best part being the chocolate chips.

Hudson's birth

Week 1:

I am so determined to stay up on my blogging this time around.  I feel that I have lost a lot of my memories of the boys in the last few years.  So I would love, love, to retain something of this next year of watching Hudson grow!  Here is my effort to keep on top of things!!

C-section and Delivery:  The c-section.  The event I had been dreading, praying, and sweating over.  It finally came.  An early delivery (7am) meant an early arrival time (5am), which was fine with me because I never sleep all that well the night before.  And I didn't.  With Noah and Luke I entered the hospital under the premise of trying to deliver the baby naturally (or quite unnaturally in my cases), but this time around surgery was all planned and booked.  We just had to arrive!  Everything went so smoothly, the IV was placed, (even in the small things a virtually painless IV was such a huge blessing), drugs were administered (no yucky drink!), I took about 20 trips to the bathroom (nervous) and we were ready to go!  But in the end as we were about to enter the OR an emergency c-section sent us into the recovery room to wait.

Pre delivery!

Our time came and I will be totally honest, I was pretty freaked out at this point.  But God so graciously provided comfort; my very kind OB held my arm while I was getting my spinal done.  No hubbies allowed anymore at this point!  And a very kind anesthesiologist who not only comforted and talked me through much of it; he also told me at one point, it's ok you can hold my hand, I guess I was grasping for something to hold onto!  You know what song kept running through my head at this point?  Rock of ages cleft for me, let me hide myself in Thee.  There is such a sweetness to this song.   And such a sweetness to call God my rock in the midst of a surgery.

There are so many little snippets I can recall, first was hearing Hudson cry and then nothing!  I can remember saying, is he okay?  Why isn't he crying?  He was fine and once he was out, he demonstrated just how okay his lungs were, for about two hours!!  Yikes.  The delivery was a bit rough.  Thanks to a combo of scar tissue and big baby.

Another thing I can recall is overhearing a nurse talking about 'his coloring looked very bad'.  Mommy ears for sure!  I am not sure how I heard this but before I had a moment to ask a question I then overheard, we should probably get him some juice.  What? Juice?... Someone must have seen my confusion and cleared it all up for me.  The poor male student who was observing his first c-section had passed out!  He was a great sport about it all and even came back to thank me for allowing him to observe the surgery.  Yes, you are very welcome for causing you to feel faint and woozy!  Anytime.

Soon I was out of surgery.  Ready to hold and cuddle our sweet little, still at this point, screaming baby boy!  Such a joy to be out!  Such a joy to be done!

Thanks for reading,
Heidi

(obviously a bit behind in my posting but still wanted to share this!)

July 4th

Peddling backwards a little these days!

We spent the holiday, which happened to fall mid week this year, at the Saylor's house.  They are wonderful hosts, we had a great time, and the highlight of the whole evening was the sparkler's followed by the sprinklers turning on.  My boy's went home happy with burnt fingers (Noah couldn't quite get the concept as to why he kept burning his fingers on the sparklers), wet bodies and tired, but happy, faces.

Thanks for reading!
Heidi

Noah Bob

A little post on Noah.

In the last month I have witnessed Noah mature.

It has been a very long, very emotional road, getting from there to here.  I have failed more often than succeeded at being patient and loving to him through his struggles.  I have spent many days pleading with him to sit, play, focus...and to no avail.  He was, and still is, our busy boy.

Yet for the past few weeks he has slowed down, he will sit for periods of more than five minutes, and just plays!  Wonderful play.

My heart rejoices each time I witness him: enjoying his toys, primarily his trains, putting objects in the caboose, making sounds and laughing.  This may sound elementary for a four year old.  But he is our four year old that never quite could do this seemingly effortless task.  And now I see it, I am thankful for it, and I see God's grace in the midst of it.

For I have struggled greatly in not having a child that reached developmental milestones at the 'right time', I have struggled in comparing him to other's, and I have struggled with being humbled in the midst of it all.  So we praise God for this and for Noah continuing to enjoy his time of playing.

Thanks for reading,
Heidi

One Month in....

I have a one month old (plus a few weeks).  Time is truly passing us by.  I have been trying to hold on tightly to each little phase that Hudson is going through but some of them pass too quickly.  It seemed that in one instant I could still squeeze a size Newborn diaper around him and then the next it was impossible.  I have already packed up all newborn clothing, but let's be honest when you are born at 8.14 and lost basically none of it, that isn't a big surprise.  And I am already thinking size three month is looking a little tight length wise.

Slow down little one!

In one month our little Hudson has hit some milestones.

He smiled at about one month.  A big, gorgeous grin, with his mouth wide open.  He is simply irresistible smiling at me like that.  Sweet thing.

He finally got his first shot at his one month visit.  Yes we are those parent's.  Not the non vaccinating kind but the kind that can't remember anything, and the kind that kept forgeting the important vaccine card that you are supposed to take to EVERY visit.  We forgot whether we had him vaccinated with his Hep B in the hospital, and forgot whether we had it done in the doctor's office at his first visit, and so on...proud parenting moment. We finally remembered to bring it and he finally got his shot!  Yay for him.  He screamed, I cried, same old shot routine...

He was picked up, sat upon, poked at, kissed, licked, all by his very loving two older brothers.  The picking up thing is pretty disastrous.  I made it worse by not reacting correctly the first time Luke did it, all I could do was say, oh thank you Lukey, thank you, thank you.  I was on the phone at the time and my dear friend kept saying, STOP thanking him and pick up the baby!!  Hello.  Unfortunately now, Luke picks him up (and yes he can undo the safety belts as well), walks to me over the TILE floor, hands him to me and says, Your welcome Mama.  Pray that sweet Hudson survives his brothers.

His belly button fell off.  And basically I did everything wrong during the process, are you starting to worry about how Hudson will survive our parenting?  I found out that putting a bandaid over the belly button is not what you should do.  Which, it turns out, makes belly button's worse if they aren't exposed to air, but I did, I covered it with a bandaid, then realized the whole thing was oozy and bloody and stinky.  And I will be honest I was a bit embarrassed that I had no idea how to care for an infant's belly button.  So I made Kelly take him into our pediatrician.  A shining moment for me making my hubby do the dirty work; thankfully they fixed it up with no comments about, isn't this your third?  But I think I learnt my lesson about sending my husband in because Kelly tells our dog, LOVING, doctor (I know this because she put it on her profile) how much he can't stand certain dogs.  And the dogs he can't stand are the one's she owns.  Classic Kelly.

I always enjoy putting the boys stats in my posts.  So here are Hudson's!
Weight 10.14 (75%)
Height 22.5 " (75%)

Thanks for reading!
Heidi

Nap time and Radio Campesina

Nap time.

If you are like our household naps are more like 'rest' time with no sleep.  Or rather, Mommy sitting by the door furiously crocheting or knitting, praying that someone will eventually drop from sheer exhaustion time.

Sometime's they do but more often than not they do not.

We have spent a few weeks shuffling them around the house trying to figure out the optimal napping situation.  And with three of them all needing a place to lay down, and now knowing that if the two older ones are together it mostly turns into a party or a bitting fest, we are becoming a bit creative.

So when I went into check on Lukey the other day there was just something truly entertaining about what I saw, and heard.

Loving the little years...

I had this book, Loving the Little Years, suggested to me right before Hudson (H) was born.  The book is 17 short chapters on loving your littles, even in the midst of chaos!  The author should know since she herself has five (going on 6!) children all under the age of 5 or 6 years. (Though whichever phase I have been in with one, two or three there are always opportunities for chaos)  And yes she had time to write a book with that many little ones.  I should take note of that since I just got out of my pj's and it is 2 in the afternoon!

I have a feeling it will be one of those books that I will reread, over and over, to get the sweet blessings that she shares on caring for your babies.  But this is one of her ideas, concepts, blessings, that she writes about and it has been being put into practice in our lives...

Picture this lovely scenario.  H eating, N playing quietly on the big red chair, and L climbing on the back of the same chair.  Sounds pretty nice and serene?  I should mention that I had just dealt with a whole lot of potty accidents but I would rather give you a scenario of peace and quiet and poop free.    Sadly at this point L falls off the back of the red chair, hits his head on the window ledge and cracks open the exact same spot as before.  Bye bye glue, hello blood spurting forth.  Craziness then ensued, L running around screaming (he is a tad bit dramatic, totally Kelly's side of the family) with blood dripping everywhere, H crying because he has been ripped from his sweet meal, and then N decides that now would be a great time to open the freezer and help himself to some ice cream.   I was trying to calm L with a very sweet, STOP SCREAMING!  While cleaning his head up and the blood on the floor, so what does a frantic mother do?  She decides to call my dear hubby hoping by some miracle he would drop what he was doing and come running to help.  Ok, maybe not, rather he laughed and thought that whole thing was hilarious!  Which to top it all off I turn around to find L had picked up H, because he does that a lot and I mistakenly told him, good job, the first time he did it and now he thinks he is doing a good job by picking up his three week old brother and carrying him around the house over TILE flooring!  Goodness help that poor sweet boy.  Enter whichever one necessary.

So why this story you say?  How does the book tie into your craziness?  Because the author writes about her own moments of crazy chaos, where everything seems to be falling to pieces, and you begin to question why you have so many children?  Or maybe that last bit is just me.  Here is what she writes:

"Instead of spending time telling yourselves stories in which you are given too much to do, come up with some simple coping tactics.  In that same early and intense phase with the twins, I developed the twenty minute rule.  If things started seeming really out of control, I would look at the clock and note the time.  Then, I would tell myself that in twenty minutes this would be over.

If I just kept my head down and did the work, twenty minutes was all I needed....the storm would have passed in twenty minutes if I was cheerfully getting things done....

A moment.  It passes.  But when it passes, you will be very glad off all you did was work right through it.  No self pity, no tears, no getting worked into a dither. "  Rachel Jankovic, Loving the Little Years.

And this is what ran through my head today.  You see I am prone to tears, tantrums, shouting, maybe all of the above, in the midst of these moments.  Yet her advice, her words, rang in my mind as I was in the midst of this time.  20 minutes and it will be done.  20 minutes to get the wound cleaned up, the ice cream put away, a child disciplined, a baby fed, a crying boy settled.  No grumbling, no complaining, no phoning my husband (oops), but head down doing the work cheerfully.

May I be faithful in loving my littles...

Heidi

Hudson Andrew

Sweet Hudson is here!

Such a sweet, sweet joy it was to finally hear his little cry, well actually his BIG cry, after months of anticipation.  He arrived, he was weighed, and he came in at a whopping 8.14 pounds.   Believe me I felt every ounce of that baby in the end...he is a gorgeous baby with a bit of dark hair on his little head. Which by the way is a lovely head, courtesy of a c-section delivery; he has long fingers, long toes and we are totally in love with him.

But let me share some photo's of him...

Just moments after birth....

Showing us his vocal skills!

And it's true...weighing in at a whopping 8 lbs., 14 oz!!

First moment together.  I pretty much cried the whole time...

Those are some long feet!  

We were so thrilled to have this sweet boy join our now family of three (well actually four) boys!  

Heidi

And here we go...

With less than 24 hours to go I have been contemplating the joys, the trials and the puffiness of pregnancy.  We are quite sure (?) that this will be our final pregnancy.  That any other child joining our family will either need to be brought to us by a stork or happily donated.  Our conversations about this topic usually land between, just tie those puppies up to what if in say two years we want another?  To no way will I ever, ever want to have another c-section again (which I do recall saying after number 2) to I could totally see myself having four boys.  Because let's be honest here...

So in my final few hours of feeling this sweet boy moving and kicking on the inside, which is my favorite part of being pregnant, I have put together a few memories of the past 10 months.  Because I know all clear memories will be voided out in the next few days.

1) Compression Stockings: I will be having a burn my compression stockings ceremony (invitations to follow).  They are the one thing that I must wear during pregnancy or else my feet, ankles and legs start to take an unnatural form.  Especially during those hot Arizona summer months.  Which seems a bit cruel since when I wear them I also wear long pants to hide them.  I should rename them my humble stockings.  It is hard to think of yourself looking amazing when you are wearing them.  And kudos to my sweet husband.  Because every night, in my compression stocking glory, I make the poor man take them off.  That's right they are tight and awful and ugly and he never once makes any comment about their ugliness.  I am thinking that marriage vows should start to include, I, enter name, will be gracious and kind each night as I peel those ugly, compression stockings off of your swollen pregnant legs because you can no longer reach them yourself.  So I am assuming we will both be glad to see them go....

2) OB appointments: who doesn't feel like their OB is their best friend by the end of your pregnancy?  They know your name, have heard your most intimate details, and are probably just as excited as you to meet this baby (though possibly for different reasons).

3) Maternity wear:  Ah the stretchy pant.  Good thing you will still be my close companion for a few more weeks, ahem months.

4) Ultrasounds: A small insight into who your child is.  Do they like to hold their hands over their face?  Do they suck their thumb?  Are they so busy the tech has a hard time?  Do they have big hands?  All of these are a yes when it came to watching baby Hudson.  He was busy, he rarely showed us his face, and one time the whole screen was just a hand!  Looking forward to finally meeting him.

5) Tests, labs, blood drawn, diabetes check, needles, more blood drawn, heck why not one more blood drawn just for fun? and peeing in a cup....all things you never miss but are extremely thankful for in the midst of your pregnancy.

6) Craving and Aversions:  so what did I hate and love with this pregnancy?  Oregano's.  Yuck.  So sad, but it always seems to happen, the one place I go to in the early months of pregnancy I have to avoid for about a year or so after.  Seems that also the movie, Winnie the Pooh, conjures up nauseousness?  Possibly because that was THE movie my kids loved in my first trimester. (other's were coffee and diet coke...poor me caffeine free:0) And what did I love?  Sadly enough, it was mostly everything else.  Though I will say that I could eat blueberries, strawberries, watermelon, peaches as fast as Kelly brought them home.  Sweets were definitely my top pick.  That and a glass of wine.  Which I never had but sure craved....

So soon we are off (actually we are already back but I wanted to finish this post) and I will no longer be pregnant but will have the joy of meeting sweet Hudson.

Heidi

Noah's 4th Birthday!

This was the year that Noah was excited about celebrating his birthday.  He has never quite gotten into the spirit of things like he did this year.  We talked about his blue cake, and his shark shorts, and him swimming with his friends for weeks prior (my fault for bringing it up:0).  But it was so fun.  Fun to plan together and have him telling everyone from his Grandma to some random person at the grocery store about his blue cake...

Here are some pictures of the day.

I really didn't take many!  Thankfully other's did...

Each year our number one pick for Noah's birthday is at Grandpa's and Grandma's house.  It might just be what we do each year seeing that he is born in the middle of May!  We had our usual swim party, friends and families over to swim and cake!  Happy fourth Birthday!

Other celebrations:

Preschool: Noah is known for his love of chocolate pudding.  So while trying to think of a good snack for him to share with his preschool friends the subject of chocolate pudding came up.  Perfect!!  I sent him with chocolate pudding, worms and crushed cookies.  He came home with a chocolate mouth, a happy smile and a birthday hat!  Lucky boy.

May 18th:  Birthday's around here start with a favorite breakfast.  For Noah that is whipped cream!  And a blueberry pancake.  We also hosted play group this day; what a fun way to spend our day.  We had so much fun having friends over, playing outside and eating popsicles.  Thank you friends for sharing this day with us!  As for the remainder of the day we had a few presents after his favorite dinner, hamburgers, and early to bed.

And for Dad and Mom?  Amazing to think we now are parent's to a four year old boy.

He sure has grown lately, he looks so tall and big boy to me these days.  He is hovering around the 90 percentile for both height and weight.  His check up went well this year, minus the four shots at the end (so cruel), but he did great with them.  Me?  I cried while watching.   We still have many reasons to continue speech, OT, and possibly PT with him.  He is taking a while to catch up developmentally. I have struggled watching him falter, Noah has not struggled at all, he is happy, content and adaptive.  I have much to learn from our sweet Noah!

Happy Birthday buddy!

Mom

 

Less than two weeks....

You know things are getting serious when your OB says to you; only one more visit....oh yikes.  That is right, we have less than two weeks until c-section date.  Two weeks for me to gear myself up for surgery, meeting Hudson, and entering again into newborn hood.  I am excited, and nervous, and so looking forward to being on the other side of surgery.  Have I mentioned it freaks me out?

Today I got to spill my fears to my OB.  I wish I had some form of restraint in this area, but she did ask, and so I told her.  First I asked her what type of drug I should be asking for that will make me not freak out and yell at the nurse.  Seriously I yelled at the nurse last time.  I also told her how much I disliked the nurse because while I was yelling that I COULD NOT BREATHE, she calmly told me, actually you can breathe it just doesn't feel like you can.  Point taken, and then things got fuzzy (enter drug induced stage by said nurse I yelled at).  So I said to my OB why not put me in that drug induced stage like right now? I am sure by that time in my dramatic retelling of my c-section that she was ready to give me something...even if it was a tic tac masked as a calming drug.  She, thankfully refraining from rolling her eyes, proceeded to tell me that most drugs that are for anxiety like that are not good for your baby.  That they can give me something after baby is born but seriously I am way past sanity by that point, there would be no use giving me anything.  So basically she says, you can look at the monitor and watch your oxygen level so you know you are fine...and quite honestly it's going to happen whether you want it to or not.   Great.

So two weeks left.  Two weeks to gain some sort of sanity.

On the flip side, only two weeks until we meet our sweet little one.  Remind me of that when I am recounting my crazy fears.  Because it is all worth the craziness to meet our sweet boy....

Heidi

Lukey

Lukey.  

He is over two now.  Makes him seem so big when I say that.  I just finished his first year photo album; I had such a great time reminiscing over those precious 12 months...time sure went quickly.  

Now he is over two.  And independent.  Except for when he get's an owie.  Then he reverts back to needing a lot of hugs, kisses (usually on the spot that hurts), and just a lot of loving.  No complaints here!!

He is our chatterbox.  He loves to talk.  And says yes with the cutest little lisp at the end.  He also says no, a lot, but it's still cute as well because he doesn't say just a no, he says nope.  Do you want some yogurt Luke?  Nope.  Do you want some cheese?  Nope.  This can go on for a long, long time, I should just start with cookies.  He also loves to talk about trains, cars, fire trucks (any red vehicle he sees is a fire truck), and sometimes he will just talk on and on about who knows what because we don't understand a word of it.  He also has started to sing.  That is something so sweet to listen to.  Our current overplayed CD is one from Sovereign Grace, "God loves a generous heart, a generous heart, for it's a heart like His own heart, a heart like (and this is where Luke sings loudly) His Own!  

Luke adores babies.  I am so excited for Luke to meet our new baby boy, Micah, Hudson, Daniel?...poor guy we have still not chosen his name.  Anyhoo Luke does like babies.  He, I must admit, is a bit on the rougher side of loving, come's maybe from being over 30 pounds and having an older brother?, but he is a lover.  He will ask first, Hug?, then absolutely lay himself over the carseat, with baby in it, to give them a hug.  He also retrieves toys and paci's and shoves them in the baby's face or hand.  As I write this I am seeing some work needs to be done on what gentle is.  But I love that he does have that interest and care for little one's.  

Luke is our child that love's to play off by himself.  He get's a short break when Noah is at preschool three times a week and that is when I see him relax and just play.  Usually he is on the defense making sure no toys are taken from him.  But with Noah gone he will line up his trains and play (I think I am always a bit shocked by this since our Noah is the polar opposite when it comes to playing).  

At the same time it is also nice for him to have Noah to play with.  I mean there are those moments where I can hear myself saying, please, please, please just play together without snatching, wrestling and biting!!  Biting has become their weapon of choice these days. The worst was when I took Luke's diaper off (potty training is beginning) and saw on his sweet little behind a nice set of teeth marks.  Ouch.  But on the other hand there are moments of sweet playtime together.  Or moments where they think one another is the funniest thing ever!  I am grateful for more of these moments...

So that is our Lukey in a little nutshell.  

More to come....

Baby 3...

31 weeks along!!

I am looking forward to meeting our sweet baby boy.  This pregnancy has been full of many wonderful moments...minus my feet swelling and heart burn, I have truly enjoyed this pregnancy.  And knowing that baby's are a lot easier to care for inside than out!  But that being said I also look forward to finally holding this one AND being on the other side of a c-section...

So c-sections.  I have been having numerous dreams about c-sections.  Hey I have been having crazy dreams all along...this is the pregnancy for dreaming I guess.  Last two pregnancies I don't remember one dream I had?  This time I have had surgeries everywhere (and I don't exaggerate; I am not sure if having a baby at Starbucks would be considered a sterile environment but then again I could always order a frappucino afterwards, very convenient!!)  I have even had a surgery where half way through I decided I didn't like the hospital so we packed up and headed to a different one!  That was a super elaborate dream that I woke up from thinking...oh my.  I am for sure asking for calming drugs beforehand!  As for my other dreams...well I did get a coffee date with Matt Damon.  Which was quite a nice break from my crazy c-section dreams.  Kelly asked me why he wasn't invited.  Sorry but it's Matt Damon.  And quite honestly I can't remember much from that dream except a lot of people came up to ask for autographs.  Which became very annoying since it was MY coffee date dream.

But our delivery date is officially set for this baby.  If all goes according to plan we will be having another sweet boy on June 18th, a Monday morning, at 7am!  My doctor was thrilled, she likes getting Monday morning slots, and said, hey by noon you can even have some lunch!  I should have mentioned the Starbucks dream, maybe that could include a fru fru coffee drink as well!!

Heidi



 

Photo Book

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A time to share...

the big move....again.

I may have posted about this last year?  I can't quite remember but we moved our boys in together sometime last year and rather quickly moved them back to their own rooms.  I was not pregnant at the time so there seemed to be nothing pressing having them in the same room.  We just thought it would be cute.  But cute it was not, more like a nightmare that lasted for a month until we ended it.  And then we all started sleeping through the night again...

But there is something pressing this time.  So alas we try it again.

So far we are into night four and things are fantastic!!  Fantastic that is if you are Luke and Noah who every night get to party it up by yelling and jumping on their beds.  Then wake up at a nice early hour just to resume the party!  In the midst of it though, as Kelly pointed out, there is a sweetness to it.  Usually it start's with Luke shouting, NOAH, and then we hear Noah answer, Yes Yuke?  And then Luke will jabber on, and then they both laugh hysterically. It is fun to hear them enjoy one another.  But it is too bad we have plan's to squash the party atmosphere.  For now we listen and enjoy their newfound joy in yelling each other's names all night.