Home Alone!

Today was Jon's first day back at work. Surprisingly it went really well. I was a little nervous about being here with all three kids, but it wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it would be. The boys were really good, and didn't mess with Charley. The boys got me up a little before 7, which is when Charley needed to eat. They watched cartoons while I nursed and then they had a little breakfast. The boys went down for a nap at 11:15 and then I fed Charley and she took a nap as well. I was able to get a few things done while they all took a nap. The boys woke up around 2 and we spent the afternoon playing, reading, and watching a little TV. It's refreshing to know that handling 3 children is easier than I expected.

Things are still going really well with Charley. She has been spending a little more time awake during the day. She is doing great over night as well. She sleeps in 3-4 hour blocks, which I'm very thankful for. I'm still attempting to nurse, and trying to get my milk supply up. I am borrowing a pump from a friend and hoping that will help me get there. It's kind of a pain right now because I am having to nurse or pump almost every hour, but I know getting my milk supply up will be worth it. Hopefully within the next few days I will notice a difference in my supply.

Not much is new...I posted a couple of pictures. The boys love talking to Charley...they think she can understand : ). They are pretty sweet with her.

Life with 3 children...I'll admit it's a little crazy right now. I guess it's just an adjustment. I had such a routine before Charley arrived, and now I am having to figure out a new schedule. I'm sure I will get into the swing of things though. I'm depending a lot on Jonathan right now because he is home. He's been awesome with the boys and helping around the house. It should be interesting when he goes back to work.

Anyways...Charley is a great baby! She is pretty content most of the time. Breastfeeding is going okay. I have a really low milk supply though. I'm going to call the lactation consultant at Anderson in the morning and see what she suggests. I have a feeling it will be to pump after I get done nursing. I had the same issue when I tried to breastfeed Justus. Charley and I had to go back to the hospital for a follow-up appointment yesterday morning. She had lost a full pound (down from 7 lbs. 12 oz. to 6 lbs. 12 oz.) so the nurse and our doctor's office said I needed to start supplementing. I think this has made Charley a lazy eater, which isn't helping the low milk supply. Charley goes back to the doctor tomorrow, so hopefully she is gaining weight. I'm hoping that I will be able to nurse, but it's hard to say if I will be able to or not.

The boys are doing good. They both really love Charley and are pretty good with her. Matthias wants to touch her all the time and give her kisses. Matthias isn't so good at being gentle all the time, so we have to be careful of that.

Justus is doing really well. He is continuing to develop his speech. He uses short sentences and asks little questions all the time. He is really into letting us read to him lately also. Before recently he hated when we would read to him. He would get mad and take the book away from us, but now he will climb up and let us read to him. It's kind of nice. He also likes it when we sing the alphabet to him now. He knows when "w" is coming up and "y z".

Matthias is still throwing lots of fits, but I guess that's to be expected at his age. He is doing really well other than that though. He has actually done really well to adjusting to not being the baby. I thought he would be really jealous of Charley, but he hasn't been at all. Hopefully that will continue once Jonathan goes back to work.

Hopefully I will get some pictures posted of our first few days at home.

Happy Birthday Charley!!

Well...today isn't Charley's birthday...Tuesday was. I ended up being induced Tuesday morning. We had actually known for a couple weeks that we would be induced, but decided to tell as few people as possible so that we could surprise everyone.

Anyways, Jon and I headed out to the hospital at about 5:30 a.m. on Tuesday. Our induction was scheduled for 6 a.m. When we got there to check in I joked with the nurse as she was taking us to our room that I was scared they were going to call us early and tell us we couldn't come in because they were too busy...she then told us that they were really close to doing so. I was thankful they didn't to say the least. Anyways we got settled into the room and the nurse came back and told us to relax for a little while because they were going to wait until the morning shift arrived at 7 a.m. to start my induction. Our doctor had also had a couple deliveries in the middle of the night, so he hadn't arrived back at the hospital yet. So, we ended up hanging out for about an hour watching TV and enjoying our final moments before labor and delivery.

At 7:15 my doctor and our nurse arrived and the doctor broke my water. At that point I was between 3 1/2-4 cm dilated and 75% effaced. My nurse then gave me my I.V. of fluids, but we had to wait to get petocin from the pharmacy because the OB dept. was out...how is that even possible? Contractions at that point were very slight and about 7-8 minutes apart. I finally got the petocin around 8...it started to kick in and about 20 minutes later the contractions were stronger and about 3-4 minutes apart. At about 9 o'clock I called our nurse into the room because I was starting to get uncomfortable and was ready to start the process of the epidural...you have to have a full bag of fluid in you before they will call the anesthesiologist. She checked me and I was 6-7 cm dilated at that point. I finally had a full bag of fluid drained about 20 minutes later and the epidural guy was there within a few minutes of that. So it's now about 9:30, I'm sitting on the edge of the bed, waiting for the anesthesiologist to get everything together so he can give me the epidural. He is seeming to take forever and I am starting to get really uncomfortable. I looked at Jon at that point and told him I didn't think I was going to make it 45 minutes before delivering. The anesthesiologist finally was ready after about 15 minutes and it took him just a few minutes to get the epidural in. The nurse then laid me back down and I was given my test dose of the epidural medicine. After a few minutes the nurse asked if I was noticing a difference in my contractions and I said, "No, they are still REALLY uncomfortable." She asked if I was feeling pressure and I answered yes and then she asked if I was feeling rectal pressure, again I answered yes. She then said she had better check to see how far progressed I was...sure enough I was complete and +2. The next few minutes were pretty crazy with all the nurses and my doctor scrambling in...not to mention my pretty painful contractions. They weren't prepared for me to deliver so quickly so they hadn't brought in any of the equipment or anything. I hadn't even been hooked up to my epidural drip...I had just been given that initial syringe full. So I pushed through 1 1/2 contractions and Charley was born at 10:17 a.m. Delivery was pretty uncomfortable, but the doctor said the epidural probably took the edge off a little...I'm not convinced of that though! I had minimal blood loss and no stitches. Charley was a healthy baby girl with a head full of brown curly hair. She weighed 7 lbs. 12 oz. and was 19 inches long. After the delivery the doctor joked with us that we were going to be disappointed when we got the bill because we definitely didn't get our money's worth.

Originally we didn't know if we were going to give Charley a middle name. I don't have a middle name, so we were leaning towards not giving her one. I was kind of having second thoughts about that though and had mentioned it to Jon a few weeks ago. We discussed it and decided on a middle name if we chose to give her one when the time came. We decided officially at the hospital to name her Charley Grace.

Anyways, we are all home now adjusting to life as a family of 5. Jon won't go back to work until the middle of next week, which is nice. I'm feeling really good and breastfeeding is going great. Charley is a pretty content baby and doesn't fuss too much. Her brother both love her. Surprisingly Matthias is more interested in Charley than Justus is. Matthias loves giving her kisses and touching her head. It is pretty cute. I'm not going to post pictures on here because there are a lot of them...but here is a link to our facebook album.

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=265297&id=566475544&l=a7289e7162

I had my 38 week appointment yesterday. No changes really. I'm dilated 1.5 cm now. I'm okay with that though. I'm hoping that means I will make it until next week when my doctor will be back in the office. The pregnancy is continuing to go well, but I'm feeling a little overwhelmed with all the little things we still need to do. I'm sure it's just the whole nesting thing, but still. I wanted to have Charley's room painted before her arrival, but right now her room is a mess holding things that can't fit into the shed...such as our twin sized bed and other smaller items. We still have to put the clear coat on the crib as well. We also have a few things to buy: diapers, changing pad cover, pacifiers, and some new nipples for our bottles. I'm going to attempt breast feeding, so we may also have to purchase a pump at some point. I know it will all get done though.

The boys are doing well. We have discovered that Matthias has learned bad habits from his older brother. He is a pusher and he tells kids that are younger than him "no" if they touch toys that are within a foot of him....all things his brother did to him. He is starting to hit that "terrible 2" phase as well. He is throwing more fits when he doesn't get his way and tells us no all the time. Justus on the other hand seems to be growing out of that phase, which I guess is kind of nice that we won't have to deal with both boys going through it at the same time. Other than that not too much is going on. I finally uploaded a few pictures...so enjoy!

Enjoying an apple.

I just thought this was cute. They sat like this for a really long time.

Justus and Matthias sharing some cake at Grandpa's 60th birthday party.

Aunt Sarah sprinkling Matthias. He loved it!

They are both pretty timid around the water, so I bought this little pool hoping it will get them used to swimming. They really like playing in it, but they won't sit down.

Last night was the boys' first night sleeping in the same room. It didn't go so well. So today I took out all toys and books, and am hoping that it goes a little better this evening. On the plus side, the boys took an amazing nap today...probably because they got very little sleep last night. I guess we'll see how this evening goes.

I'm 37 weeks today!! I'm officially full term...bring on labor!! I actually don't think I'm ready for labor yet, but at the same time I'm looking forward to holding our little girl. Things are continuing to go well with the pregnancy. I have started my weekly visits. Nothing really to report. I'm only dilated 1cm, so nothing too exciting there. My doctor will be out of town next week, so I am seeing the other doctor in the practice. I won't see our doctor until I'm 39 weeks. I'm hoping Charley can wait until he gets back to be born : ). We still have a few things to take care of before Charley's arrival. We need to paint her room and put a clear coat on the crib. Those are the two big things that need to be done. Of course she probably won't move into her room for at least a couple weeks after she is born, so we will have time even if we don't get it done before we have her. Other than that we are pretty set. We only need a few small things, but nothing that we can't survive without. I have started packing our hospital bag...most of the things that still need to be packed are things that we use on a daily basis. I made a list so that we are sure to grab everything though. I have also posted the boys' schedule on the fridge, so that whoever is watching them will have an idea of when they get up and what they can eat and things like that. I'm a little nervous about going into labor naturally since I've been induced in the past, but I'm sure I will be okay.

Justus is continuing to do well. He is starting to talk more and more in short sentences. His favorite is "I get it" or "Here it is". He is beginning to be a good listener as well, which is a huge improvement over a month ago. He is getting so big too. He was upset the other day and wanted me to carry him, and I could hardly walk and carry him at the same time...I'm hoping it's just because I am pregnant, but Jon has even admitted that he is getting pretty heavy. He is getting tall also. We are planning on hitting up some garage sales this weekend to look for some 3T clothes for him for the winter...and maybe even a few t-shirts for the summer. Some of his 2T shirts are pretty short on him.

Matthias is doing great as well also. He's had a bit of a runny nose the past couple of days, but seems to be getting better. I'm wondering if he maybe has allergies or something because it seems as though his nose is either stuffy or runny all the time. I guess I might bring it up at his next doctor's appointment. Other than that he's been doing really well. He is getting bigger, but still seems like my little baby. I guess that might change when the baby arrives. I'm always comparing his size to Justus', which makes him seem small, but comparing him to a newborn will make him seem huge!

Other than that not a whole lot is going on. We have decided that if our house doesn't sell by the time our contract with the realtor's is up (which is July 30th) we are going to take it off the market for a while....possibly for up to a couple years until we can afford to buy and we are close to finishing our Total Money Makeover. When we thought we were going to be able to rent for a while it made more sense to move over to Missouri since we could save quite a bit of money and be within 15 minutes of Jon's work, but now with the addition of another baby renting is really not an option since we would have to rent a 3 bedroom apartment and those are a lot more expensive. It suddenly just makes more sense to stay put for a while, which Jon and I are both okay with.

Anyways, hopefully I will get some pictures posted soon.