Trophy Time

Well, Dylan finished up his first ever soccer season.  I only missed one game, which I'm pretty proud of.  It was the one that happened to be the day his baby sister was born.  I couldn't help it!;)  I was so proud of him getting out there and playing.  There were a few games where he just wasn't feeling it.  He was a little spoiled by scoring a goal in the first game, then one in the game that I missed, so he thought he got to score every game , which is obviously not the case.  I've played soccer for a long time, and I think i can count goals I've scored on one hand! Anyway, we wrapped up the end of his season with a very large cheering section from his family.  His Great Grandparents, his Grandparents, Adam's Aunt and Uncle, and of course, Graham, Adam, Tessa and me.  We cheered, he ran up and down, he wanted to know what was for the after game snack.  You know, typical 4 year old soccer.

Since it was the last game and I, they got their trophies.  Now, the trophy that I was picturing isn't what he got, but he loves it none the less and he and graham play with it almost on a a daily basis.  So I guess he liked it.  I thought he'd be a little more pumped though!




I'm glad that he got to play, but I'm thinking next year we are going to move him back into the Wylie league since he will be old enough.  It's much closer, like a 5 min drive instead of a 35 min drive!  He is already asking when his baseball games start, so I guess I should look into a baseball team soon!

Hip Hop

I'm running a little behind on the ol' blog, but I'm going to try to post a few posts throughout the weekend!

This Easter was a great one.  The boys were old enough to both get into the egg hunts, which was good because they had lots of them!  Dylan had been asking me for weeks to not forget the carrots to set out for the bunny.  Which of course I did.  It wasn't until about the Thursday before Easter that the boys wouldn't even be waking up at our house on Sunday, so I lucked out.  Especially because I was going to have to hide eggs in our yard like the bunny does.

Adam and I had a social function for his work, so the boys were spending the night with Grandma and Papa.  Tessa isn't sleeping enough that they wanted to keep her as well, so we swung by on our way home to get her.  Lucky for me, she couldn't have cared any less about the Easter Bunny, or what eggs he did or didn't bring.

We met up with the boys and Adam's parents at Church that morning, after the service the church always hosts an egg hunt for the kiddos' and brunch for the adults ( and kids too I guess, if they MUST eat!)  It was a toss up of letting Dylan move up to the bigger kids hunt, instead of being one of the oldest in the little kids, but we decided to keep them together. Dylan grabbed tons of eggs, of course.  I was a little surprised at Graham.  He was far too interested in opening the three that he grabbed right off the bat then picking up any more.  They shared, it's what brothers do.  I'm pretty sure Graham didn't eat anything but Sunbursts and Now and Laters that day.  He figured out how to open them himself, so he would just dig through the bucket and find something he wanted and open it himself.  Thinking about it now, I should have taken the bucket away sooner than I did!

After eating and feeding Tessa, the boys were more than ready to get home to see what the bunny had brought them on his stop at home.  This year, I didn't do much fun stuff for them, just kind of things that I had been wanting to get them.  Honestly, I thought the Spider-Man hats would have been a bigger hit than they were, neither are interested in them much.  Oh well.

We had a great Easter, and Dylan tells me every time that he sees a whole where a bunny can fit in our fence that that is where the Easter Bunny got in.  He has already started talking about how Santa fits down the chimney, so I'm sure that will be fun to explain in December!

Tessa {One Month}

 

Welp, we made it.  Tessa is officially over a month old now.  It's crazy how time flies so quickly when you have kids and a new baby at home.  Overall, I would say this month was a success.  I mean, we did survive didn't we?

Tessa is a pretty easy going baby so far.  So easy going that we of course had trouble with her weight, and nursing.  I won't blame all of that on her, of course, but her sleepiness didn't really help my lack of supply at all.  At her two week appointment, even though she was already on formula, she was still under her birth weight.  So more formula it was, and a weight check at three weeks.  Lucky for her, with her full diaper, she made it back to eight pounds and two ounces. 

To say that she is a great sleeper is a little bit of an understatement.  I don't mean to brag ( ok, kind of)  all of my kids have been great sleepers.  Granted, they sleep in the swing for the first couple of months, whatever it takes though is fine by me.  After getting Tessa close to her birth weight, I just let her sleep.  She started giving us 5-6 hour stretches around 3 weeks.  At 4 weeks it was probably 6-7 hours.  I would say that by a month, she was giving us consistently 7 hours.  We of course have had a few nights where that isn't the case, but I'll take it.  One problem with her sleeping so well, is getting in her minimum of 24 ounces of formula.  It's hard when she sleeps so much, but I'm not supposed to give big bottles because her tummy is still so small.  She kind of loads up at night by cluster feeding, which I think is one reason she sleeps so well.

Her brothers, of course love her.  It took Graham a few weeks to care anything about her, but with Dylan constantly checking on her, and loving on her, he has quickly followed suit.  Poor baby girl, the second her eyes open, one of them is in her face.  She is going to have issues with personal space when she gets older, I can feel it.  They are huge helpers though, love to feed her, make sure she has her paci and everything.

Speaking of paci, you certainly love it.  It's nice to give to you after you eat and are still rooting around.  The second anything, your hand, shirt, swaddle blanket touches your cheek you think you are starving.  So the paci is nice. 

As of today ( 5.4 weeks old ) she still weights less than 9 pounds(super close though), wears newborn clothes and newborn diapers.  She has such a sweet personality and goes with the flow so well already.  I started taking her out on outings pretty early.  I've had several people comment about how I was " Brave"  I just tell them, with the two boys at home, she has no choice but to go with it.  I would go insane if I kept them home all the time.  So I guess what they say about that third child just " fitting in " is true, but because they don't really have a choice!:)

I can't wait until Tessa starts smiling, and "doing" more.  I want to see what type of personality she has.  She favors Dylan so much in the looks department, I want to see who's personality she favors, or if she brings a whole new one to the table.  So here is to another month of having a family of five!

Tessa's Story- Part Two

I'm picking up after taking the Ambien to get some rest.  The nurse told me that I might get some contractions after the cervidil was put in, but I would say within 20 min I was having pretty good " menstrual cramp" type contractions.  With Dylan, they were full body cramps, this time, just really low.  Those went on for a while, and at about 6am, I was pretty uncomfortable and asked for my epidural.  They tried to sway me from doing it so early as I was only 4 cm at the time, but I went for it.  Right after my epidural, I rolled over and I felt like my water had broken. I called the nurse, and she came to check to see if it had, and it hadn't, just some other good giving birth stuff.  But she checked me again, and while doing so, broke my water on accident, and I was already at a 6. My Dr. came to see me at 8 Am, and had a coffee, book and his computer, he plopped down on the couch and chatted about how the evening went and everything.  He was about to go upstairs to eat breakfast, but decided to check me again just one last time to get a time frame on when she would actually be making her arrival.  When he checked me he said " Oh man Lindsay, you are ready to have a baby!" 

Nothing was set up, they had to find nurses and nursery personnel to come in.  I told them I didn't need to do a test push seeing as I had done only like half of one with Graham and he was " Right there" well, they had me do one with her, and of course, she was "right there" After waiting for about 30 min for them to set everything up, and my doctor to get all of his scrubs on and stuff, I pushed for one ten count and her head was out, then another 10 count and she was out.  Basically how all of the others have come. I really wanted to know what she weighed, and of course see who she looked like. My Dr. was more impressed that she had a true knot in her umbilical cord, and he insisted that Adam take a picture of it.  True knots are actually pretty rare, and all it means is that she was a very active little one in my belly and managed to twist herself all up!  Luckily hers didn't cause any problems like heart decels during labor!


When Adam came back and told me she was eight pounds two ounces, I thought he was kidding.  How could my girl, who was a week early have been my biggest baby yet?  Either way, we quickly decided that she looked just like Dylan.  The nurses loved her lip quiver, that she still gets if you let her get ticked off enough. 

I had to wait in the labor and delivery room for a while because I had gotten my epidural and had a baby probably within two hours so I was still very numb and they had to let it wear off before they could send me to my recovery room.  Even then, my right leg was still pretty numb so I needed assistance to and from the bathroom! 

We are so happy to have completed our family, with our baby girl.  She has so far fit right into the circus, and we can tell she is going to be an easy going baby.  She kind of has to just learn to go with the flow, because , well her big brothers demand a lot more attention from me than she currently does!:)

Tessa's Story

Well, I'm finally getting around to writing out how Tessa entered the world.  This is mostly for my own personal benefit, so I don't forget!  Luckily I have a string of text messages to give me a good time frame.

My last belly picture.  EVER:(

Starting at about 37 weeks, my blood pressure, as it had with the boys started to climb.  It had been 120/70 up until this point.  It was 130/80 at my 37 week appointment, which warranted me having to come in twice a week for blood pressure checks.  It just kept raising.  At my 39 week appointment on Thursday March 6, it was really high.  150/100. My Dr. knows a lot of it was my anxiety, so he wasn't too worried, seeing as I was having no signs or symptoms of pre eclampsia or even the high blood pressure itself.  He quickly started talk induction, but I was thinking it would be for 40 weeks, just like Graham.  He started talking about it happening Saturday, but they had to see what the hospital had available.  They had to call and I was told I would get a call from them in the next couple of hours.  I didn't get a call.


Adam takes really flattering photos

Friday morning, I got a call at about 9 Am, saying that they couldn't get me in on Saturday ( which I had requested because Adam had a big project due Friday evening at work.)  The nurses exact words were ' Well they can't get you in on Saturday so they want you there tonight"  I was NOT expecting that.  Not that it made much of a difference, but I worried about Adam. They wanted us to be at the hospital at 10 Pm.  He came into the door at 9;15 that night, after working for 14 hours!:)  Needless to say, he didn't have time to really think about having a baby that day!

So we get to the, somewhat empty, hospital and they were all ready for us.  Got me all hooked up to the IV, and everything, and had to monitor me before starting the induction process.  But of course, my heart rate was ridiculously high, and so it was making Tessa's high as well.  It took longer to get the process started than they thought, I didn't get the cervidal put in until about midnight.  Then I took an Ambien to try to get some sleep. 

Tessa Paige

Tessa Paige

3-8-2014

8 lbs 1.6oz

20 Inches

 

Bunch Ball

First practice

Ever since Adam and I started playing soccer again, Dylan has been asking to.  He was not old enough of course, but this year was the year.  He could have started in the Fall, but Adam and I had plans out of town that would put us missing his first game EVER.  I couldn't do that to him, or myself, so we held off until the Spring.  He knew as soon as he turned four that he got to play, so basically since December 2, he has been asking if it's time for his soccer games yet.  Mid February, we finally got to tell him "Yes." 



Fist pump

He was put on a team called the Smurfs, which worked out well because he loves the color blue and actually had asked to be on a blue team.  He also gets to be on a team with his friend Caden.  Double lucky.His first practice was held two days before the game, and well, it was a mess.  Kids weren't listening, or following instructions, we were late, because we couldn't find them, a mess.  Dylan and Caden still had a blast though, and were sad when it was over. 

Two days later it was game time.  I knew he was excited, but honestly, I figured that he was going to go out there and stand around and not know what to do. Much to my surprise, it was bunch ball like I figured it would be.  4 Vs 4.  Every kid for themselves.  All chase the ball, and hope that the right team kicks it into the correct goal.  Sidenote: Although I've played lots of soccer in my life, I didn't start playing until I was in the 4th grade, so bunch ball is a new and kinda hilarious thing for me. 

So proud of himself.  I was proud too!

Dylan and Caden did awesome, and Dylan even stole the ball away from Caden, to get is very first ( and currently only) goal of the season.  Seeing the joy on his face, really made the season.  He might not ever score again, but between Casey and I , we both have some GREAT pictures of the first goal of Dylan's, hopefully not short, soccer career.

We have really lucked out with the weather for this soccer season too, it's been at least 65 every day that we've had a game, while the day before or the day after might not have been so nice.  So fingers crossed it stays like that so that Tessa and I will be able to head out to some of his games here in the next few weeks.