April 28, 2012

our day

we mailed off eleanor's birth announcements
and hit up a few garage sales
 took some pictures of michael in his cap and gown
he graduates next saturday!!
 we went to the science center for reptile day
noah was so stoked to be there
 he's way in to reptiles lately
 i, on the other hand, am not fond of reptiles
especially snakes
so i kept my distance
 hazel doesn't like snakes either
but she's ok with turtles
 then we came home to work on these dressers 
we bought at the wsu surplus for $20 each
 the kids enjoyed the spring weather outside
 and even played a game of thomas uno with their friend 
 then after the kids went to bed michael and i watched the latest psych
between working on the dressers
and now he's working on his very last paper
for his undergrad
yay!

April 27, 2012

yikes

laundry for a family of six is no joke!

April 25, 2012

three weeks

isn't it funny with newborns
how it feels like time flies super fast
but at the same time really slow?
 our darling eleanor is three weeks old today
she woke up this morning with the brightest eyes
i think she's going to be our first blue eyed child
she doesn't really look like anyone else yet
except maybe her dad
which isn't such a bad thing
if you ask me

April 23, 2012

we're going to miss this place

today we went out to the playground
and all the kids thought it would be extra fun 
to play in the garden plots that are full of mud
they played for quite some time
and then we came back to our house to hose them off
literally
it was a fun little preview of summer
and it's getting a little sad to realize we'll be leaving pullman soon
i love our little backyard
and all of the memories we've made here
(these girls preferred being dry)

April 21, 2012

success

our super scaredy cat kids finally like rides
so we took them to spokane to have a fun filled day yesterday
we also shopped and went out to lunch
noah loved being sung to for his birthday at red robin
eleanor was a dream the whole day
and we only lost olive once for a brief time at target
all in all a pretty successful day out with four kids

April 19, 2012

this is my life now



i am tired
husband is gone all day
toys and pillows are everywhere
olive is eating popcorn in eleanor's carseat
eleanor refuses naps anywhere other than near us
and sleeps best on me
hazel is begging to hold eleanor
but i'm not letting her because it will wake her
noah is watching tv, eating popcorn
and while it's a little crazy
it's pretty great

April 18, 2012

two weeks

 some things to record about our two week old eleanor
first of all
we think she's swell-eanor
the kids still ask to hold her
every chance they get
eleanor has slept in bed with us since we got home from the hospital
we've never had a baby in our bed before
but it's definitely her preference
we'll see how long it lasts
she also prefers napping in the living room
in either her car seat or swing
i think she likes the noise
she is really easy going
noah has called her ella since she was just a couple days old
michael and i decided if we nicknamed her, it would be ella
but we aren't really nickname sorts of people
so we've stuck with eleanor
and noah calls her ella himself
which i think is pretty darling
hazel noticed, "that baby sure likes breast milk"
and is happy to be my helper holding her, getting a diaper, etc.
olive is kind of a maniac lately
which is attributed to the fact that she's nearly two
and also she just doesn't get 
the whole soft, gentle, quiet thing around eleanor
but luckily she's not jealous so that's good
now that noah is six we no longer have 4 kids 5 and under
we currently have kids ages 6, 3, 1, and 2 weeks
michael and i agree we feel like we have one extra ball
in our juggling act as parents
i feel a little overwhelmed unless 
olive is napping or noah is at school
three i can handle, four is a little much 
our sweet friends and family have taken care of dinner so far
today's my first day of making our dinner
and it's already in the crockpot
slowly but surely i'll get the hang of this thing
called motherhood
of four

April 15, 2012

look who turned six yesterday...

noah did!!!
 michael had to take one last picture of noah as a five year old (sleeping)
 happily opening presents 
ninjago related gifts were definitely his favorite
hartly, olive, bailey, hazel and noah
at the vet school open house
 noah about to blow out the trick candles on his angry birds cake
 olive chewing on an angry birds ring
 lots of blowing
 noah and hazel took turns
hitting the angry birds pig pinata
 grandma and grandpa kelly were here for the weekend
seeing eleanor
and helping celebrate noah's birthday
hazel fell asleep on grandpa
grandma reading to olive

happy birthday, noah!

April 12, 2012

newborn pictures

eleanor got her newborn pictures taken yesterday
at a week old
i wanted to make sure she didn't get any bigger before
they were taken
here are a few of the sneak peaks



April 11, 2012

eleanor's birth story

8 days past my due date
my water broke at 12:20am when i got up to go to the bathroom
i was so excited because water breaking means i'll have my baby
within the next day
and it had never happened to me before
plus my doctor told me it's all that it would take for the baby to engage
michael and i chatted for an hour or so
then he went back to bed
and i went and read a book in the living room for a few hours
i figured if labor wasn't going too strong
i could be at home until the morning
when we could get the kids up, dressed
and over to our neighbor charlene's without waking everyone up in the night
so i fell back asleep until just before 7:00am
and we got the kids ready
and took them over
then went to the hospital
 the nurses were not very happy that i'd waited at home so long
but it was fine and they got me all hooked up and monitored
including an iv in each arm, per v-bac regulations
and told me i was at a 1.5 and then eventually a 2.5
(side note: after this month our hospital won't be offering v-bacs 
so i felt extra lucky that i was getting to try)
i spent all day having contractions about 5-6 minutes apart
that grew in strength
my doctor was out of town but would be around by the evening
so i spent hours before i got checked again
and around 7:30pm (12 hours after i got to the hospital)
i finally saw my doctor and she told me i was dilated to a 4
which was good news
but although my water broke at home
it mended itself and was still a full bag of waters
so she decided she'd break my water in an hour

 by this point i was hooked up to fluid and antibiotics to help to decrease
the chance of infection since my water broke so long ago
when she re-broke my water there was a RIVER inside of me still
it soaked everything, and surprised all of us how much fluid there was
no wonder i was measuring so big
(well that and my giant baby)
so we assumed labor would just hurry right along
but instead my contractions kept getting stronger
and i didn't ever dilate more than 4.5
i was in terrible pain and by 12:30-1 i was pretty sure she wasn't coming
they figured she was sunny side up
so they had be get in different positions to try to move her
but it didn't help
(this picture was definitely from earlier in the day, i wasn't so happy at this point)
 finally i wanted to be put out of my misery
so they put some morphine in my iv
and i immediately fell asleep
out of exhaustion, it took the edge off but i could still feel the pain of the contractions
after that i felt like i wanted to die
when i woke up the doctor and i decided that i needed a c-section
so the OR team got me all prepped
 i could hardly keep my eyes open and felt like i needed to vomit
i was surprised they never gave me a drug to stop my contractions
 i had painful contractions all the way until my spinal was given to me on the operating table
so after 26 hours of labor
nine days overdue
i finally had my eleanor mae
via c-section
i feel like i gave it my absolute all
her head was apparently not sunny side up
but just plain sideways
and cock-eyed
so she was not coming out vaginally, ever
not to mention she was 9 lbs 5 oz
which is possibly just a little too big for my 
barely 5'1" body to handle
the birth was absolutely not what i was planning
at the end, before and during my c-section
i felt like i was having the worst experience of my life
my body was so tired, no progress was being made
my eyes wanted to shut, i started vomiting...
i just assumed it would've been different
i thought it would be quick and the result would be a successful v-bac
but that was not how it was supposed to be
and i don't have any regrets
i now know that i will have c-sections from now on
my doctor told me my uterus is super strong
and i hardly have any scar tissue
so i'm not worried about our family size being stunted by
the amount of c-sections i can or cannot have
 eleanor was of course worth every second of my labor
all 41+ weeks of pregnancy
and the c-section recovery i was hoping to avoid
 michael and i love being parents
there is no greater joy in life
i love how close it makes me feel to michael
every time we have another child
and how i feel the love in our family grow
 eleanor is so loved
everyone is adjusting well to her
and her siblings are just as in love with her
as we are

April 10, 2012

just a day at the park

it finally feels like spring around here
so we decided to take our first family-of-six outing to the park
for a picnic lunch
 if it looks like everyone is looking at my stomach, they are
a ladybug landed on me
 then it hopped on to noah's hand
 i think eleanor liked the park
 mmmm
 silly girl
 olive was eating potato salad two spoonfuls at a time
 olive kept calling the dinosaur an animal
hey look, i'm not pregnant anymore!

sadly we left the park pretty quickly after our picnic because some numb-nut
thought it was a good idea to let their unleashed dog attack hazel
they're just lucky it's hard for me to get up
or my hormones may have got the best of me
this mama bear was mad