Back on Track . . . Maybe

Today is Monday of the last full week that I have my mom here.  My dad and Chopper's mom will join us this weekend for William's blessing and then they'll all leave.  And I will be a mom of 3 all on my own -- or at least while Chopper's at work.

I have totally taken advantage of her being here and done A LOT of this:

 (Yes, I know it's a picture of Megan but I'm not nearly as cute looking when I'm sleeping . . .)

and mom has been doing a lot of this:

As well as cooking, cleaning, playing, shopping, etc.

I feel like I should probably start doing more around my own house this week and start to get back on track.  After all, I don't want her absence to be a complete shock to my system.

So I'm starting with blogging about having more motivation and then I'm going to get off my duff and do something -- probably laundry.  Poor William has had a cold and all that congestion has caused him to throw up 3 times yesterday.  All of them on me.  What a lucky mom I am!  So laundry may be the first priority.  Followed by lunch.  And a nap.  

Just kidding.  Maybe.  I mean, I still have a week right?

And then all of this will be mine, all mine!!

 

Porkin' Up

William had a 2-week check today.  His little wrinkles are filling out and his face too and of course he's eating about every 2 hours so I knew he would have put on weight but I was a little surprised . . . 

9 pounds 2 ounces.

With a diaper on.  But still!

He's also grown 3/4 of an inch and his skin is showing it -- dry and chafing.  It won't be long and he will be delightfully roly poly.  But man o man this newborn time is going fast!

Scary Stuff

Chopper's surgery yesterday went well.  But what was supposed to be a 3 hour ordeal turned into a 9 hour ordeal.  Not the surgery itself exactly: the doctor was running late and then the anesthesiologist (I think I spelled that right) so they got a new one that Chopper had to go over everything with and then his after surgery recovery in the hospital took a little more time.

But he's out and he's doing fine although he can't lift anything over 20 pounds for 6 weeks.  So the kids are all on me!!  Of course when he got home he had to show me his battle scars -- 3 small incisions across the abdomen and one in the belly button.  As far as surgeries go, not bad.  But they creep me out because it looks like he was stabbed or something.  And there's no stitches -- just glue.  Ultra strong surgery glue, but it still looks scary, like they might just pop open if you twist wrong or something.

Today a friend of mine took the girls for a play date this morning which was WONDERFUL!  They have pretty desperately needed some time with friends and time out of the house.  And she was sweet enough to take the girls without me -- I dropped them off, came home, fed William, picked them up.

But apparently while they were there, Abby walked out the front door, closed it behind her, and followed the mailman down the street.  My friend found her fairly quickly and thank goodness for decent people -- when she got to Abby, the mailman was on the phone with the police and watching her from his mail truck.  I don't blame my friend in any way, shape, or form.  But it seriously made me think because Abby gets up in the morning before I do.  Right now, she goes and gets Grandma (who also is an early riser), but when Chopper goes back to work I'm going to have him deadbolt the door when he leaves -- not just lock the knob.  Of course I probably need to work on getting up earlier myself as well, but at least I know that Abby can't reach the deadbolt, let alone undo it!  And maybe I need to wander the house again and double-check my child proofing AGAIN.

I think Abby is the reason that I'm getting so many gray hairs . . . 

Our Budding Artist

If you're not already aware, Chopper has artistic talent.  He doesn't use it a whole lot because his hands shake, but he's great at drawing pictures for the girls and of course you've seen the pictures of the tree in Megan's room.

I think that Megan has inherited some of her dad's talent.  

Of course I think that all children enjoy art and she's no exception in that category, but it surprises me how good she is for her age -- I don't say that to brag -- sometimes she's better than I am!

Yesterday Chopper took the girls to our stake Pioneer Day celebration, and the one thing that Megan most was looking forward to was getting her face painted.  Well, I guess the line was horribly long and so it didn't happen.  When they got home, Chopper compensated Megan by painting her face (with an angry bird of course) using my craft paints and then Megan wanted to paint our faces.  So Grandma and I let her.

She is actually incredibly careful and precise but quite the perfectionist because she was not happy about the smearing.  I got a yellow angry bird on one cheek:

And something else on the other -- not sure exactly . . . 

Grandma got the whole face done (hooray for her!).  And a good facial afterwards -- just a note, craft acrylics do come off but take a little bit of scrubbing.

I wanted to take a picture of the angry bird she drew but I can't find it.  Honestly, she draws and paints so much and I don't keep hardly any of it.  Does that make me a bad mom?  I did see an idea for taking pictures of all of your kids artwork and then having a separate file for them so you at least have a record of them.  I'll have to do that I think.

Abby is still obsessed with William and gets very upset if you don't let her "see that baby".  She is very sweet with him but we still have to watch her like a hawk because she's not entirely careful or aware of herself in relation to him.  Of course this is the same girl who walks into doors so I didn't really expect any less.  She is constantly hugging and kissing William and doing who knows what.

Like picking his nose?

But he's a fighter and he's already retaliating!!

Kisses that drown him in her mop of hair.

And a sweet sleepy picture.  We all love this boy!!

Back to the Hospital We Go!

William and I are just fine so you know.  In fact, more than fine really.  It's only been a week of course but he is already my easiest baby so far.  He only fusses for food or clothes (he does not enjoy being naked, unlike my girls) and at night, after he's eaten, HE GOES BACK TO SLEEP!  Can I just tell you what a miracle that is????  Both my girls were night owls for at least a month where they would eat and then just stay awake for an hour or so.  Getting sleep makes such a difference and I hope he continues on this trend!

Anyway.  Chopper was able to schedule his surgery for the 24th (next Tuesday!) to have his gall bladder removed.  The doctor thinks he'll only need to take the rest of the week off of work and then will be fine -- here's keeping our fingers crossed!  I'm glad he could schedule it while my mom is still here to help (I don't know how glad she is though . . . ) and I'm sure it will be fine but it will definitely be recovery crazy around our house!

Some cute things from the girls today: 

Megan and Abby spent a good portion of the morning running around the house with flashlights looking for gall stones.

I'm nursing William right before dinner (which the girls have been very interested in) and Megan comes in to tell me she's hungry.  So I say, "after I'm done feeding William, then I'll feed you".  She gets that surprised Megan look on her face, puts her hand on her chest and says, "you're going to FEED me?"  So apparently the term "feed" is now associated with nursing.

Abby keeps lifting her shirt and leaning over William when he's laying on the floor.  I couldn't figure out why and then she told me she was trying to give him milk.  At least she realizes she can't pick him up!!

Technologically Deficient

All my friends and family already know that I'm fairly technologically deficient.  I don't text, my cell phone still flips open, we don't have cable tv or do Netflicks or any of that -- and yet I had to try my hand at newborn photography.  Just because I can hardly resist this boy!!

Let's just say that anything good about these pictures is all William!  Photography will NOT be my next profession . . . 

 Classic Goodman (that's my mom's family)-- he sleeps with his mouth open pretty frequently.

 All those cute feet shots?  Maybe I'm too close here because they look enormous.  Actually, he does have really long toes!

 I just still cannot get over this hair!!

 Despite my lack of abilities, I continue to take dozens and dozens of pictures and we lay around and watch him quite a bit.  It's still funny to me to have 3 children and already it's taking some maneuvering -- and right now there are 3 adults in the house too!

Now if you want to see some REAL photography, the pictures that were taken at the hospital were done by a professional service and they're much better.  Of course if you want copies -- you pay for them (out the nose) but you can see a few if you go to www.our365.com and search by name and birthdate.  And I have a friend coming over to try her hand so maybe I can get some good tips!!

One thing I've done to help us keep our sanity while we're fairly housebound is to invest in some new fun things to do.  A lot of that means cheap art projects (which we haven't started yet), but today when I took William to the doctor for the first time, I pulled out the Angry Birds board game for the girls.  Megan was introduced to Angry Birds by my brother Mark and his Amazing IPad over Christmas and has never quite been the same.  She was incredibly excited by the game when I pulled it out and my mom says that it did keep her entertained building and just playing with the birds and the pigs.  Then this afternoon I sat down with her to play the way it's supposed to be . . . warning, the game says for ages 5+ and really it should be for ages 15+ . . . 

 You have cards with different point values and pictures of building setups.  The idea is simple -- you build the configuration, knock it over with the specified number of angry birds, and you get the points.  First one to 1000 (they come as 100, 200, 300 point levels) wins.    The configuration above?  300 points (Megan picked it of course) and it took me at least 10 minutes to set it up.  I'm not kidding.

 The red blur?  That's an angry bird flying through the air.  It's harder than it looks to get them on target and knock things over.

But eventually we did!  I guess it's a success in the sense that Megan loves it, it's something we have to do together, and it takes up A LOT of time.  But if you're looking for an easy distraction?  Go out and buy and IPad.

Welcome Home William

Yes, I'm posting on the day we get home from the hospital.  But Grandma's doing the dishes, Chopper's bathing the girls, and William is sleeping!  So I'll take advantage while I have the moment.

So if you're interested in the birth story, feel free to read and enjoy.  And if you're not, just scroll through and look at the pictures and enjoy our baby boy as much as we are!

On Thursday, July 12 I went in for my LAST prenatal appointment and made a point of telling my doctor (whom I love by the way) that she was wrong -- 3rd time was NOT the charm, this baby had not come early.  She wonderfully reminded me that she still had a day or two to not be late . . . 

On my way home from the doctor I stopped at a book store to get some new reading material and on the way home from there, I started having contractions.  I'd been having really random and really mild ones already so I didn't pay much attention until I got home and realized at dinner that they were about 10 minutes apart.  Since that's what happened with Abby, I started paying attention.  Sort've.  After all, ten minutes apart could last for hours!!  Our home teachers arrived shortly after and then my contractions shortened to 6 minutes apart, so they assisted Chopper in giving me a blessing.  Labor was definitely on!

But the thing is -- both Megan and Abby were about 14-16 hour labors and the early part I slept through, so even though my contractions were close together and fairly strong, I was thinking I had some time.  I had already made appointments to see some sisters for Relief Society so I asked Chopper to pack my hospital bag (nope, hadn't done that yet) and I would call him if things got worse.  But seriously, I did not want to spend a lot of time at the hospital laboring because then it's the only thing you have to focus on.  At least at home or out and about I can distract myself with other things!

At about 8:15 my friend and I leave our appointments because I'm pretty sure the contractions are 4 to 5 minutes apart and I call Chopper on the way home that we are going to the hospital as soon as I get home.  We arrive at the hospital about 9 p.m. and William Lloyd Whittacre arrives at 10:42 p.m.

Yup.  About 6 hours total.  It was a little fast.  And it was hard.  Again, I did not get an epidural (although I wanted something about the time that we were getting ready to push of course), but my labor and delivery nurse AND my doctor AND my wonderful husband were wonderful and coached me through what ended up being probably the best labor and delivery of all three of my children so far.  I had a very small amount of tearing (only 1 stitch needed) and compared to my girls have started recovery much better!

So here is our sweet boy!!

7 pounds, 4.9 (or 5 -- whatever) ounces, 20 inches long and beat his due date by a little over an hour!  I guess my doctor wins after all -- he was early!!

We were very surprised by this hair!  This is after his bath and the nurse gave it a great little swoop.  Megan and Abby both had hair as well but dark.  William's already a blond!  The nurses kept telling me that he was the talk of the nursery for that hair -- and his overall good looks.  I quite agree!

 He has some Abby look to him with the round face but I think he has Chopper's ears and my chin (or lack thereof) and definitely the Gasser hairline -- which will only recede further as he gets older!  Eyes, not sure yet and of course they're newborn dark.  It will be fun to see if they stay dark or go more of a lighter blue like Megan's.  But he is totally a boy!  It's amazing to me that right off the bat, he just looks boy!!

 He has been a quiet calm little thing for the most part and is already nursing great!  Today at home, Megan watched me nurse for the first time (I don't think she remembers it from Abby) and I explained to her what was going on.  She looks at me and says (completely seriously by the way), "you're like a big milk machine!" Yes, yes I am.  And I love it at this point -- it's such a sweet, wonderful thing to be able to nurse a baby.

Friday (yesterday), Chopper brought Grandma Gasser and the girls to see the baby and after Megan got over the initial terror of the hospital ("but I don't want shots!" -- Megan you're not here for shots, you're here to see mommy -- "But she (the nurse) has gloves!"), they were simply enamored with their new baby brother!  Even Abby, whom I've been worried about being jealous over the attention given to the new baby just constantly wants to tickle (gently!) and kiss and watch and just keeps asking to see the baby and every time -- "he's so cute!"  I think she'll continue to think that until he starts to take her toys . . .

 

 She has a mouth full of cookie here but Abby LOVED "holding" the baby.

 Seriously, and thankfully, they are both in love with this little man as much as I am.  By the way, Abby also loves getting into all of the baby things so they're all starting to migrate to a higher level.  She also keeps asking me, "where's that baby?"  After circumcision today he's been sleeping quite a bit.  She knows his name is William, I think, but it might be a while before he's no longer just "that baby".

We both came home today -- hooray!  So now I'll have to start getting the pictures of him in adorable outfits with his skinny little limbs.  I've got to document his newness before the rolls come and judging by his eagerness to eat, it will come quick!  Which I love that too . . . 

I can't believe we are FINALLY a family of five!!  I'm soooo glad that he's finally here (and I'm not hot and heavy and waddling anymore!) and the timing just could not have been more perfect -- my mom was here before William was to help with the girls and I still got to have my natural labor and delivery without induction and before my doctor goes on vacation!  We've been tremendously blessed these past few days and I'm looking forward to everything to come!

Grandma's Here!

Well we can have the baby now!  

I have wonderful friends have offered to step up and take the girls should I go into labor, but it's just nice to have mom here and know that we're taken care of at a moment's notice.  Plus the girls are so excited that she's here!  They've already been through her make-up bag, confiscated her flashlight, gone to her for sympathy when they've gotten in trouble, and needed hugs and kisses and tapping.  Yes tapping.  It's energy work that my mom does and started with Megan last time she was here and I have not kept it up -- partly because I ask Megan if she wants to and she says no.  But tonight, first night here, a little voice floats out of Megan's room at bedtime: "Grandma will you do tapping with me?"

Grandma's arrival also means presents -- today it was Hello Kitty outfits with super sparkly skirts!  The girls promptly shed their clothes and wore them the rest of the day.

So now the baby can come!!  We'll see . . . 

In other news, Megan drew this picture of Chopper that she was very proud of.  It's pretty good too.

Then she added monstrous ears and declared it Curious George.  Guess I'm glad it's not still Chopper!

This Is How Ready I Am . . .

See?  I even took down my sewing table and made the spare room into a, well, a spare room!!

I also told my doctor today that I want to induce on the 14th if he's not here yet.  Given that I am STILL 2 centimeters (no change) and he's cuddled up in a ball and hasn't dropped significantly, it looks like that's what will happen.  My babies are way to comfortable in my body.  Chopper says I need to start walking this week but honestly, where?  It's 100 degrees outside and, yes, it might help with the process but I'm not too keen on torturing myself to bring on labor, which will just be more torture.  Where's the sense in that?

When I took Abby's gate down during her nap today and peeked in on her, this is how she was sleeping.  She made me laugh this morning.  Every night and nap time we have to put the gate up or she just gets out of her room, but then I take it down when she's sleeping.  But most nights she still gets up and comes to my room at random times and wants to climb in bed with me.  I'm positive that this is because when she gets up at 6 a.m. I do let her climb in bed with me so I can snooze a little longer.

Anyway, this morning I was a little surprised at 4:45 a.m. to feel tugging and bouncing on the bed and at first I'm thinking that Chopper's just uncomfortable and moving around and then there's a little body pressed right up against my back -- which is Abby's designated spot by the way -- on my pillow, squished up next to me, with her feet kicking my lower back and bum.  I guess she got tired of asking and being told "no" and decided to take matters into her own hands.  She still got taken back to bed though.  I know I should break her of this habit and I'll probably really regret it when the little one is here but then I think that it's only going to be so long before she's too big to get into bed with us.  Ok, actually my motive is more selfish than that -- I just don't want to get up!!

Celebrating Our Independence!!

Today has been a very interesting scramble.  We intended to go to a parade in the next town over but my friend Jenn called this morning to say it had been held on Saturday!  Whoops!  So we found one down in The Colony (yes that's an actual city) and drove there for the festivities.  It wasn't a very big parade but it was shady and breezy and actually very comfortable weather so I was happy.  There was candy throwing involved so the girls were happy.  And Chopper had no pain so he was happy.  What, pain?  I'll get to that in a minute!

Waiting for the parade to get to us.

 I don't know why this one is fuzzy -- Chopper is tickling Megan under the chin to get her to smile.  All it resulted in was a squished face!

 Over this last weekend I pulled the sewing machine out yet again and whipped up some cute red star skirts for the girls.  Seriously easy.  Seriously.  And they turned out really cute.  I couldn't resist.

 I just love Abby's face here.

 And Megan's here.  Pretty typical.

 Filling up on parade candy of course!

 Ok I seriously need makeup.  The sad part is that I am wearing makeup but you can hardly tell.  

A little better picture of the pregnant belly -- almost 39 weeks!!

So the pain thing.  

Last night Chopper started complaining about stomach pains and in all honesty I kind've wrote him off because he had had potluck at work yesterday and he kind've has a sensitive stomach (he doesn't think so but I do).  So he's trying his usual, Pepto Bismol, baths, even Megan's Miralax to get things moving -- finally at 2 a.m. he wakes me up and tells me he's going to Urgent Care because it is NOT getting better and he's starting to think that something's wrong.  Then he calls me at 2:30 a.m. to tell me that urgent care is closed and he's headed to the ER at the hospital.

5 a.m. rolls around and he finally arrives home with a surprise result -- gallstones!  Well, only one but it's 2.1 centimeters which is apparently the biggest the ER doctor has ever seen (I don't know if that's because it's really big or because he doesn't have a lot of experience with gall stones).  Recommendation?  Surgery of course!

So tonight I don't think we'll be doing fireworks.  I don't think Chopper or I can stay up late enough and THEN deal with the girls tomorrow after a late night.

And it changes my thoughts about delivery as well.  If surgery really is going to happen, then we'll probably induce the weekend after my due date (the 14th) so that I have some recovery time before we send him in to surgery and he can have some recovery time before my mom leaves!!  Whew!  July may just end up being the month of the invalid.