We're Officially Outnumbered Now...

We knew we'd be welcoming baby number three to our family over the weekend... we just didn't think it was going to be on Saturday!  I was schedule to be induced on Sunday, but our baby boy decided he couldn't wait another day and decided to surprise us a day early!

His name is Sawyer James... and we all love him like crazy!

I woke up with mildly painful contractions on Saturday morning and by about 2 pm in the afternoon I called labour/delivery to see what I should do-- felt totally fine to stay at home still, but due to some of my risk factors (previous c-section and placental abruption) wasn't sure if I was supposed to stay home. They recommended coming in so the baby's heart rate could be monitored a bit before making any decisions, so Doug and I made our way over to the hospital.  Everything looked good and I still felt pretty fine as the contractions were pretty inconsistent, so I figured I'd be going home for a while.  But, when they checked me I was already 4-5 cm dilated... and we were all pretty shocked.  So, I stayed.  By 6 pm there wasn't any real change, so the doctor decided to break my water.  An hour later the contractions were coming fast and furious, my nurse was calling the doctor every few minutes telling him to get his butt back to the hospital asap, and I knew this baby was coming... like right now.  The doctor walked in the door and after 2 minutes of pushing little Sawyer was born.  A little 8 lb 5 ounce bundle of cuteness that shrieks and squeals louder than any little baby I've every heard.  

I was shocked.  After having two complicated and somewhat dramatic deliveries with my first two kids this quick (but still painful :) and uncomplicated delivery went better than I could have ever imagined.  We  have been praising the Lord for his goodness and protection throughout this experience.  Every baby feels like a miracle-- but Sawyer's safe delivery seems so much more miraculous after the drama of my other two kid's births.

And now we're home.

Life with three kids feels pretty crazy-- but pretty great too.

But I've gotta tell you-- it feels good to be home!

In the end, I'd like to acknowledge the following things for making the first few days at home so great...

1.  My Mom for entertaining our other two kids, starting to potty train Eme, and for doing my laundry (and all of Eme's potty training laundry!)

2.  The epidural free delivery that has kept my legs and ankles from swelling up like crazy

3.  My gestational diabetes for allowing me to slip right back into my pre-pregnancy jeans this morning.   Never in a million years did I think that was gonna happen :)

4.  My new Keurig machine that provides me with hot coffee at the push of a button at all hours of the day.  Not having to wash another coffee pot or clean up messy cold coffee grounds is SO worth it these days.  And let's be honest-- when you're awake at all hours of the night with a squeaking, squawking (but still very cute and snuggly) 3 day old baby you need caffeine-- instantly.

And now Doug and I are outnumbered... and loving it :)

Call me Crazy

Yesterday I commissioned Doug to put up some shelves in the baby's room above the change table.

The shelves were sitting around not being used, so I thought they'd be useful in here!

After they were up Doug came to me and said:

"Well, they're up and they're not going anywhere... at least until you decide to paint this room... again."

When my sister in law sent me the link to this blog later on last night I laughed and laughed.

When I sat down to read it I had just finished reorganizing the drawers in the baby's room, scrubbed the kitchen top to bottom, vacuumed the entire house (top and bottom floors), washed the kitchen floor on my hands and knees, listed and sold household items on craigslist, and finished up three loads of laundry all the while having a minor panic attack over what to wear, what to put back into my closet, and what to pack in the hospital bag.

Kelle Hampton... I get it.

Extreme nesting.  They could turn it into a successful TLC reality show.

I feel like a pregnant ticking time bomb

37 weeks down...  it's looking like 2ish more to go.

I'll be honest-- I've been tempted to drive to the nearby hospital a few times and just beg them to take this child out right now.  After having two "memorable" deliveries with my other 2 kiddos and several potential complications associated with this pregnancy I started to get a little nervous when the doctor started talking about sending me for extra ultrasounds and non-stress tests this week...

But I've just got to sit tight and wait for my mom to get here first!

And by the way... during my ultrasound this morning the tech asked if I knew what I was having.  It was SO tempting to find out-- but I stayed strong!  Hopefully the promise of a surprise will keep me going for a little while longer :)

Wondering...

I dug out my baby boys clothes and my baby girls clothes... a few small items of each have been washed and are now ready to go.  I totally love the suspense of not knowing if it will be a boy or a girl... and I honestly can say that I have no gender prediction!  I NEVER have a "feeling" one way or the other-- about my own pregnancies or anyone else's.  Only the Lord knows... and maybe the ultrasound tech :)

Anyone want to take a guess?

This Morning

I woke up this morning thinking about newborn diapers and nursing bras... and the fact that I had neither.  Had a tiny little panic attack.  35 weeks and very much unprepared...

I ALSO woke up thinking that children who wake their parents up at 5:15 am on a Saturday should be charged with cruelty to parents or something like that.  Grrr.... sure doesn't help that I'm flying solo with the kids this weekend!  Time for more coffee... and time to sit down a write a list of the things I need to do in the next few weeks!

Today

We're gearing up for the beginning of the third trimester... to celebrate, I purchased the one thing at American Eagle that actually fit me.  It's warm, cozy, kinda like wearing a blanket instead of a sweater, kinda awesome.  And it was also in the clearance section AND an additional 40% off today.

And another super exciting thing about today... more of my kitchen is ready to be installed!!  

The excitement is starting to get to me... nerdy things like "booyah!"  and "woot woot!"  keep coming out of my mouth :)  Can ya blame me?

Happy Weekend everyone!!

Personality and other Things

I have been spending a whole lot of one on one time with this little lady.  

Let me tell you... she's got personality.  She's a talker-- and a loud talker when it's just the two of us.  High pitched, shrill, loud... "MOM!!!!!" is her favourite word to shriek.

When she wants to come out of her crib from her nap she starts by calmly calling out "Hi Mom!"  If I don't come, it turns to "LOVE YOU MAMA!"  Trying to butter me up.  Then, if I still don't come she has started to call out: "LISA!  COME!"  Since when am I on a first name basis with my 2 year old?

Every morning when we head out to school to drop Caleb off Eme's got all her accessories ready to go-- a bracelet of some sort (today it was my neon yellow wrist band from the most recent Coldplay concert), a tiny purple purse she got along with a McDonald's happy meals months ago swinging on her arm, inside the purse is always a hot pink bouncy ball that she got from Castle Fun Park, and she never leaves the house without her purple ray bans.  And they are usually on up side down.

`

Man, do I love this girly.

While we're on the topic of kids...

This week I had the routine mid-pregnancy ultrasound for our still-in-womb child.  I think it was my favourite ultrasound so far.  As I watched that squirming baby on the screen, all I could think about was how that baby was going to grow up into another Caleb... another Eme... another child with personality.  Can't wait!

And the gender is a surprise-- as was the case with our other children.  Doug and I can't do it-- we can't find out-- being surprised is just way too fun!

While I'm on the topic of ultrasounds...

I have had many ultrasounds over the years and I have never, ever been able to figure out how much is the acceptable/necessary amount of water to drink.  Last time it was too little too late.  This time it was WAY too much.  I had to drive into Langley for this appointment (Abby's ultrasound tech quit so a bunch of people's appointments got cancelled) and I have NEVER been that uncomfortable before.  I was desperately praying that I wouldn't have to sneeze or cough.  It would have been game over-- instantly.  I decided on the drive that I'd never drink anything ever again.  I determined that having to pee that badly was worse than childbirth.  I pulled off the fasted parallel park job ever-- I needed to move-- quick.  As I was walking towards the clinic Doug called for directions.  I told him he was on his own-- I couldn't talk-- was concentrating too hard on not peeing my pants.  I got to the front desk and told them that I needed direction to the washroom-- right now-- I didn't care if I was allowed or not.  Honestly, I'll never be able to figure out how much and when.  The ultrasound tech kept sending me back to the washroom to keep emptying... oh well.  It's all a part of the process of growing a baby!

And while I'm on the topic of being pregnant...

My maternity pants crisis has been solved.  Made a quick trip to H&M this morning and found a pair of  fantastic emerald green jeans for an unbeatable price.  It was a tough choice-- emerald, red, or mint... but the green just felt fall-ish to me... even though this week still feels like summer!

By the Way...

I've been working on another little project lately...

It's been in the works for about 4 months now... and should hopefully be completed sometime around the middle of February.

Wow, do I ever not enjoy taking preggo pictures... so awkward and unflattering.  Almost as awkward as telling people you're pregnant... Oh well.

Just thought I should officially let the cat out of the bag.  Some of you local people may have been wondering about me lately-- yes, I've been gaining weight... but it's for a good reason :)

I already had an ultrasound at around 10 weeks as I'm not so good at remembering dates and such.  It was fun to get a sneak peek at the little babe... and when we eventually told the kids about Baby #3 we showed them this picture and said that the baby was waving at them saying "hi guys!!".

They totally bought it.  They loved it.

Anyhow.  Onto other things... like fun relaxing weekends!

We did pretty much nothing.  Sat around, played street hockey with the kids next door (they all think Doug's their new bff), had a lot of BBQ's and yummy food, and finished Sunday night off with a hayride at the farm.  I chose to stay off the hay wagon and take pictures.  A ride through the field-- can anyone say hay fever and allergies?  No thanks.

And 1-2-3 everybody look away... Except for Eme-- who's staring at the dogs coming out of the barn in terror.

Gorgeous nights... I love September on the west coast.  One of my favourite times of the year.

And after a day of eating outside, running around in the dirt, and picking blackberries... I had two dirty kids to bathe and put to bed.

But dirty kids are happy kids :)

I'm back!

As you can imagine, life has been a bit busier than usual around here... Hence the week long break from this blog.

Where do I start?  I know that some of you are die hard labor story fans... without sharing all the gory details (this is a blog for people of all ages and genders) I'll give you a brief summary...

The day after my due date I woke up with contractions-- had them off and on for most of the day but didn't pay too much attention to them as I figured it could easily be false labor.  Went to bed that night... water broke at midnight-- started to have more intense contractions.  Doug called the hospital at around 1:00 am and they wanted me to come in immediately since this birth was going to be a vbac (if you don't know what that means, you probably won't be interested in the rest of this paragraph so feel free to scroll down) and they needed to monitor me and the baby closely.  Went in, even though contractions were irregular at times they still admitted me so that everything could be carefully monitored.  And then we spent the rest of the night and morning making it through one contraction at a time-- not fun.  By the time the morning rolled around, I was tired (didn't get a wink of sleep that night) and not enjoying contractions  so my nurse offered me the gas-- I accepted.  As I start puffing away, Doug asks the nurse if she's ever seen the gas make a woman in labor start laughing-- only once before, she says.  Now she can say she's seen two...  I sucked that gas back like my life depended on it, and at times broke out into uncontrollable fits of laughter during contractions. Doug quite enjoyed this part.  By noon, I wasn't laughing anymore.  Labor sucks.  I had been in labor for 12 hours but wasn't making any progress.  So, even though it can be risky for a vbac, my doctor decided to give me oxytocin to try and speed things up.  As she was telling me about the oxytocin, my doctor suggested an epidural, as the oxytocin at that stage in the game was going to make things pretty intense, and they didn't know how long the day was going to be.  I told them to call the anesthesiologist.  They started the oxytocin drip, things got intense as promised, anesthesiologist arrived an hour later (he was stuck in another procedure).  At that point I was mad at him-- couldn't understand why it was taking so darn long to get it started... worst part of the entire day... having to sit still while they started the epidural.  And 10 minutes after it was in place, I was at 10 cm's and ready to start pushing.  An hour later... Emerson was born.  There were a few crazy moments at the end when they discovered that I'd had a placental abruption (placenta separates from the uterus... blood can't get to the baby, is fatal for the baby if it's not caught in time).  I won't go into the details of what happened as a result of the abruption, but let's just say that it's a good thing Doug has a strong stomach... and that I couldn't see what was happening.  The nurses all told me that it was good that I had gone into labor that day so that it was caught while I was in the hospital.

And that's it!  Within the hour I was up and out of bed, took a shower, and felt amazing!  Again, I will say that labor sucks... but Emerson's birth was definitely much easier than last time around.  When Caleb was born three years ago, I was still in the hospital at this point in the game.  While I still have the usual aches and pains, I can't believe how fast the recovery has been.  I would take this over a c section any day!

Now... let me fill you in on the first week at home with 2 kids!!  For the most part, it was great!  Thankfully my parents were around (my mom is still here until the end of this week) and they were able to give Caleb lots of much needed attention.

I think my Dad took Caleb out to Tim Hortons most mornings.  Caleb wanted to get there at the crack of dawn to make sure he got the "white" donuts (strawberry filled timbits covered in powdered sugar) before the other children took them all.

And here's my parents with their two grandchildren.  Caleb sure loves Papa and Nana... and I'm sure Emerson will too!

Emerson has enjoyed her beautiful room.  She's sure loving her sleep... I can't seem to get that girl to stay awake!  Doug went to put Emerson to bed the first night and totally cracked up when he saw how small she was in her crib.  He decided to take a picture to document the moment...  

Emerson has spent many mornings and afternoons sleeping in the bassinet we keep in the living room... every once and a while she decides to wake up and entertain us.

Caleb has had a pretty interesting week adjusting to life with his new baby sister.  He doesn't seem to mind having Emerson around (even though he was disappointed that he didn't get the baby brother he was hoping for), but is noticing that he doesn't get the same amount of attention.  This has resulted in the occasional temper tantrum.  So, Doug and I have made an effort to get him out of the house with either one or both of us apart from Emerson when we have a few minutes and someone to watch our baby girl.  We've gone for slurpees, to the spray park, out to Tim Hortons... it's seemed to help.  We've also noticed that Caleb seems to more readily enjoy getting attention from strangers when he's in a public setting-- he's become quite the entertainer.  The other day Doug took him along on a trip to Safeway.  Caleb went on to sing the song "Hi... my name is Joe..." over and over again at the top of his lungs-- down the aisles, in the checkout line-- to the amusement of everyone else in the store.

And on occasion, I catch him enjoying his role as big brother.  The other day I walked into the living room to find him "playing" with Emerson-- which means that he was loading her bassinet up with toys.

We managed to get out of the house a few times throughout the week.  My mom took off for a few days to the island... so on Friday night we decided to go on a family adventure.  We made a trip to Ikea (I needed to pick up a few items for my next project... don't worry, I'll show you what I'm up to soon!) and stopped at the mall on the way home.  Emerson got to wear "real" clothes for her first big adventure out of the house.

In the car on the way there, Caleb was quite annoyed with the sun in his eyes.  I finally gave him Doug's hat to wear so that he could cover his eyes.  Amazingly, he sat in his seat with the hat covering his face like this for probably half an hour-- didn't make a peep.

And on Monday I had quite the mommy success... during Caleb's morning snack I managed to convince him that dried apricots (he calls them africots) were an really special treat.  He ate tons of them like candy.  Later on that night, I told him we could have a special picnic snack because he had been such a big help cleaning up the living room.  I gave him three snack options... one-- dried apricots and crackers, two-- ice cream (that's what I was hoping for) or three-- a cookie.  He chose the dried apricots :)

Here we are having a picnic snack in the living room.

Well, that's it for today!  More pictures to come soon...

DUE DATE!!!

Today is my due date... and I am still as pregnant as ever :)  I saw the doctor today (a new one-- mine is on vacation for the next week or two) and he's pretty confident I will see him next at my scheduled appointment in a week.  My mom agrees... apparently I don't look or act uncomfortable enough to go into labour any time soon.  I'm not too surprised and not really all that disappointed.  In the end, being overdue is a much better problem than having a baby 6.5 weeks early...

So!  Over the next week I will have to come up with a few new projects to stay busy...  If anything changes, I'll keep you posted!

3 good things about yesterday...

1.  My parents arrived... so we had our first full day together!
2.  Decided to declare yesterday Deep Fried Monday-- 2 out of the 3 meals I ate were completely deep fried-- lunch... watermelon and roll kuchen... dinner... fish & chips :)  Not only that, but I decided to spend the afternoon in the pool and successfully deep fried myself.
3.  It was warm enough to... once again... head to White Rock for the evening (obviously that explains number 2-- can't pass up Moby Dick's!!)

Here are a few pictures from our White Rock adventure!

It was a beautiful, warm, sunny evening at the beach.  After chowing down on fish and chips, we decided to cool off in the water for a bit.

Family of three-- Caleb acting like a clown.  Nothing new.  Last night he proved that getting a three year old to stand still and look at a camera is impossible.

Me and my Mom.

Caleb also proved another thing to us that night-- keeping a three year old out of the water is also impossible.  Luckily, I thought to bring a second change of clothes.  Call it a mother's intuition.

And now he's screaming from the water for Papa to come out and play-- really, he just wants to splash anyone and everyone possible.

Preggo Paparazzi strikes again.  I can't go anywhere these days without someone (Doug) snapping my picture or strangers staring.  I did discover something last night though-- if you want to remain inconspicuous, you just need hang around people who draw more attention than you.  While eating my ice cream, we sat next to a wedding party having their pictures taken.  This forced passing strangers into a dilemma-- stare at the fat pregnant lady eating ice cream, or the silly looking wedding party-- most chose the wedding party.

2 days till' Due Date!  I'm guessing that I won't be heading to the hospital any time soon-- bring on more summer adventures!

Guess where we went today...

Anytime I go to a public place or event, I seem to see a lot of pregnant women.  Maybe it's because I go to places that are generally preggo-friendly... or maybe I'm just noticing them more often.  Today I went to a place where pregnant ladies were noticeably absent-- the Abbotsford International Airshow.  I was there for 5 hours, among huge crowds of people, and only saw one other suspiciously pregnant woman.  They all stayed home for good reasons-- it was 35 degrees celsius outside today-- much hotter on the asphalt tarmac (our car read 46 degrees when we crawled back in to head home), there was no shade, no seating, one of the main activities was crawling up ladders into small cockpits, it was super loud... and did I mention it was extremely hot?  Now you're all probably thinking I was dragged there by the boys of this household-- but I actually suggested that we go.  It's our last day to hang out as a family of three (as my family arrives tomorrow and will be staying until the baby arrives) so I thought it would be a great activity for us to do to celebrate this milestone!  And I also knew the boys would love every minute of it :)  So this morning we packed up our cooler, threw our lawn chairs into the car, made a quick stop at Starbucks, and took off for the air show!  Needless to say, Caleb was beside himself with excitement (we only informed him of the plan this morning)-- there was yelling, squealing, pointing, and car seat dancing when we pulled into the grounds.  We parked our car and spent the morning taking in the ground exhibits.

We spent a good part of the morning looking at the Canadian and US Air Force military transport planes.  Most of them were open to the public to tour-- Caleb had quite an awesome time inspecting those planes and meeting the pilots.

If you felt super adventurous, you could wait in an extremely long, hot line and crawl up into the cockpit of these planes.  Were we feeling adventurous?  You bet!  We roasted in those lines... all for a chance to crawl up  steep narrow ladders into tight, even hotter spaces.  Today I decided to forget about the fact that I am 39 and a half weeks pregnant and lugged my pregnant self up the ladders to see those cockpits for myself!  At first I wasn't going to do it, but when I witnessed a fairly large woman (not pregnant) manage to make it to the top I figured, why not?

And if I did happen to go into labour right there on the tarmac, I would have probably been alright.  The place was crawling with military personnel equipped with first aid training (and I did see an ambulance display when we first drove into the grounds)-- I'd be fine.

Look at those boys-- they had so much fun.  Here they were looking slightly warm...  Even in the heat, Caleb did great.  We didn't bring a stroller for him, he spent the day walking around by himself and didn't complain once.  We all did our best to stay hydrated (consuming many bottles of water and multiple juice boxes) and even though we were sweating profusely, we all felt pretty positive about the experience.

We packed a picnic lunch and headed to the main grounds to see the planes in action!!  It was incredibly hot at this point of the day... and dusty, and loud.  Thankfully we thought to bring an umbrella for Caleb to sit under while he ate his lunch.  I did my best to not complain about the heat-- it was my idea to go after all.  We thankfully discovered some misting sprinklers that we could stand under and cool off a bit. In the end, we didn't make it through the whole afternoon-- Caleb asked to go home and was looking so tired that we decided to call it a day.  After a quick dip in the pool and some long naps, we've recovered from our outing.  All in all, it was a fun family adventure!

On the agenda tonight?  Find a place with air conditioning :)

An exercise in positive thinking...

As the weeks go by and my due date approaches, being pregnant becomes less appealing.  Don't get be wrong, I'm not desperate to be done with this stage yet-- I'm still enjoying my time off and have yet to pack my hospital bag.  However, there are moments when I begin to consider what life will be like on the "other" side.  People have told me that I tend to be an optimistic person-- so in an effort to remain positive I've decided to compose a list of the perks of being 38 weeks pregnant.  Here we go:

1.  I do not suffer from indecision when it comes to selecting my outfit for the day-- because I have so few options.  I pretty much wear the same thing every day... a super long, super stretchy white tank top with one of the few maternity purchase I made this time around-- my maternity jean cut offs!!  Best $25 I've spent in a while.

2.  I have a portable shelf (aka my big belly) that comes with me wherever I go-- I can rest books on it, the TV remote, my snacks... oh the possibilities are endless.

3.  My belly button is remarkably easy to clean at this stage in the game-- because it's flat and stretched out beyond recognition.  This is particularly wonderful to me-- as not many people know that I am really grossed out by belly buttons-- even my own-- and feel a bit squeamish at the thought of cleaning it.  The stretched out belly button makes my life more enjoyable at this moment.

4.  I have enjoyed making use of front row parking stalls for expectant mothers at Walmart, Superstore, and the mall.  Whoever came up with that concept deserves a pat on the back.  I did have one terrible incident in one of these parking stalls last week though... I pulled in, opened the door of my car, stepped out... right into a McDonald's container of half eaten pancakes.  Sticky pancake syrup all over my sandal and foot.  I was quite disgusted... even more disgusted to realize that I couldn't bend over far enough to properly clean off my sandal and foot.  Oh well, I decided not to let it get me down-- so I tracked sticky syrup footprints throughout Superstore and left my sandal outside my front door when I arrived home.  It's still there... waiting to be cleaned.

5.  More about feet-- can't reach them... so keeping them groomed is not my responsibility.  The responsibility now rests with the Wild Orange Spa and the European Day Spa  until I reach the "other" side.  Now there's a perk we all could appreciate!

6.  For some reason-- seeing someone as pregnant as I am is entertainment for random strangers.  The occasional brave soul will make a comment or come talk to me- most just stop and stare.  It's great that I can provide entertainment for others-- but what these strangers don't realize is that they are actually entertaining me with their strange behaviour.  At Ikea the other day Doug saw a woman abandon her shopping and watch me from across the store three separate times-- then she walked ahead of me and stood in the aisle watching as I walked by.  Awesome.

7.  I have a few more weeks to eat whatever I want-- without feeling guilty or enduring the strange looks of others.  Some of my favorite moments in ordering food this pregnancy-- "Can I have a side of fries and a coke with my salad?"  and... "I'll have the grilled cheese-- I'd like the fake cheese please, not the real cheese."

That's all I've got for now.  We'll see if week 39 has as many perks as 38...

And just because he's cute... some pictures of Caleb!!  On occasion, our family has pajama parties-- Caleb gets to pick out a kids movie, we make some popcorn and chocolate milk and he gets to have a picnic in the living room while we watch the movie together-- Last night we watched Mighty Machines. Here's a few pictures from our pajama party!

For some reason-- all of Caleb's PJ's with feet have holes in the toes.  Ever since he was a baby, the toes would always wear out first.  It would drive me absolutely crazy to have 2 of my toes peeking out-- but Caleb seems to love it.  It cracks him up every time...

Have a good week everyone!

just 3 more weeks...

Oh how time sneaks up on you...  Went for the hospital tour today... No turning back now...