Happy 2nd Birthday Nora

Happy 2nd Birthday to my sweet Nora. Having had Wyatt a little more than a week before we planned on having a small family get together for Nora, I was grateful for the small crowd and all the help I got that weekend. Nora was the sweetest birthday girl ever. She was so excited about the cake and balloons that appeared while she was napping. Ever since Christmas every hat (including an elf hat) has been designated a birthday hat by Nora. She's also been really into singing Happy Birthday to anyone and everyone. All healthy members of the family were present and we had a great time, and thank God the weather ended up much better than originally expected. Nora loves all things cats so her cake, baloons and several gifts thoroughly delighed her. We love you Nora - Happy 2nd Birthday!


Our silly girl the night before her party. She was literally jumping up and down going in and out of our room and through the living room. So much energy!

Funny faces

Wyatt was sound asleep when Chris and the girls came home today. I asked him to snap a photo or two of peaceful little Wyatt and here are a few of the results. His little chin is irritated looking but we had a Dr. appointment today and she said to do nothing for now - just newborn skin. Wyatt was born at 8 lb 4 oz and went home from the hospital at 7 lb 10.7 oz on Sunday. Today he has already GAINED and is at 8 lb 1 oz - the doctor laughed because you expect them to continue to drop weight the first week but not this baby!!

We had only a semi-sleepless night last night so progress is being made. Keeping our fingers crossed for tonight. Thankfully Chris' mom was here last night and tonight so she was such a help with running errands and around the house today. Especially helpful to me is the fact that she can keep an eye on Wyatt while I catch up on a little sleep during the day - family is such a blessing. I feel bad that Chris doesn't have the same napping opportunities.

We're Home!

Some alone time with Mom and Dad in the hospital!

Lots more to come later. Wyatt was born at 7:12 pm on Thursday, January 20, 2011. He was 8 lbs 4 oz (this is 9 days b/f his due date - yikes) and 20 1/4 inches long. He has the blondest hair ever - I love it!! We came home from the hospital on Sunday, January 23rd around lunch time. The girls were super thrilled and we're adjusting to having a new born around again. Thanks to my mom for staying through today - we certainly couldn't have made it without her, today especially for me since Wyatt kept Chris and I up almost all night last night (for the first time ever). Chris has been mom and dad to the girls and has been there to meet every one of my needs since going into the hospital. I love him so much and am especially grateful for his patience and understanding through all of this. Our stay in the hospital was a little longer than expected and my recovery will be a little lengthier than anticipated and he's taking this all in stride while still showing up for work! Super Dad/Husband! Thank you all for your thoughts and prayers. I hope to share more about our new little guy in the coming weeks. I'm going to go snuggle with my guys for now:-)

Days

Unfortunately, I am clearly in the "days" category. I have my regular appointment tomorrow morning and hope to have some good news of some sort at that point. On Friday evening I never thought I'd make it to my Tuesday appointment. Now, I'm convinced that this child will not come on his own and must be induced at some point. Lazy little toot!

Not that I didn't already know this, but frequent abdominal crunches (whether 5-7 minutes apart for 2.5 days or 6-12 minutes apart for about a day) of varying degrees of intensity STINK!!

It Don't Mean A Thing if You Ain't Got That PAIN!!!

So - kid No. 3. By the time you've given birth twice, surely the third time will fly by and be a cinch. As I'm sitting here I've been having contractions that are regular for the past 28 hours. These contractions have been between 5-8 minutes apart for the past 19 hours. How it is that this kid is not here is beyond me. I am totally baffled as to why they aren't increasing in intensity and dialating me. At around 8:30 last night, after two hours of 5-7 minute apart contractions, we decided to head to the hospital (as the nurse at my Dr's office had told me that I should go to the hospital when the contractions were 5-7 minutes apart for at least an hour). The contractions were tolerable but frequent, so off we went. We got to the hospital and the nurse checked me and I wasn't any more dialated than I had been at my last appointment but I was "80% on my way to 90% efface." I guessed they were going to send me home and she said it was likely since these contractions didn't seem to be dialating me. She went to call my doctor (who was on call that evening)and strapped me up to the monitors before she left. She came back to discharge me and verified that I was having frequent contractions, 7, 3, 6, 5 minutes apart - the only problem is this is not the type of contraction that will get our little boy here. Of course, the nurse said that this type of contraction could last for a few more hours or another day or two - WHAT!!! WHAT!!! SERIOUSLY - MY THIRD CHILD IS GOING TO BE MY LONGEST "LABOR" - I say "LABOR" because until it's active labor (dialated 4 cm with PAINFUL contractions is what I'm waiting for at this point according to the night nurse) it isn't really labor - just pre-labor, which isn't painful but is inconvenient and slightly uncomfortable (as in uncomfortable enough to wake me up several time during the night) on a REGULAR basis. SO - the moral of this story, when it comes to contractions IT DON'T MEAN A THING IF YOU AIN'T GOT THAT PAIN!!! I'm actually hoping for pain at this point - odd, never thought I'd say that. Please say a prayer that this picks up in frequency and intensity so that I don't go crazy (or crazier - depending on who you ask).

Poor Middle Child!

Our poor Nora, no matter how hard her mommy tries to not "middle child" her, it just seems to happen. Over the New Year weekend I decided to take a stab at the 3 day potty training thing in hopes that I could have her out of diapers before Wyatt gets here. She had expressed interest in flushing the potty and had even gone a few times randomly, but since she wasn't even two and with all the changes going around in the household I wasn't going to be disappointed if it didn't work. On Friday after the third pair of panties were soaked, Chris was convinced I was pushing things and that she wasn't ready. Saturday was a different story - one accident in the morning and then everything "clicked" that afternoon. Other than several false alarms due to her difficulty/inability to tell the difference between the need to toot and the need to go number 2, she's been an absolute CHAMP!! I was nervous about her continued success at school. No need to worry though - there's only been one accident at school and her main teacher is convinced that the ladies in the afternoon just weren't paying attention to her when she expressed the need to go. Nora is VERY clear when she needs to go. Her eyes get big, she grabs her crotch and starts walking like a bow legged cowboy and announces "T T Potty" or "Poo Poo Potty." She's also really good at holding it if we are in the car! I'm hopeful that she doesn't backslide when the baby is born. They are transitioning her to the next class room at school and she hasn't missed a beat so I'm taking that as a good sign. She's such a sweet, loving, patient, smart little girl. I don't think she could ever possibly get lost or overlooked in the mix but I'm going to have to make sure that she always gets the praise she deserves:-)

Merry Christmas!

Our Christmas started off at my parent's house on Dec. 17th and all the kids had a blast staying up late and plyaing with each other. Microphones, baby Stella and the nightgowns from grandma were the hit of the night! Imagine 7 little voices (some much higher than others) singing 7 different songs all at one time - throwing in a few dance moves along the way. Saturday we celebrated Luke's birthday and Chris and I celebrated our anniversary by lounging on my parents couch and falling asleep to some random movie - Men Who Stare at Goats or something like that. I did actually see the part where the secret agent guy killed the goat just by staring at it - no context at all as to what surrounded that event but I felt like I got the most important part of the movie anyway.



6 years of being married to my best friend - on the one hand it doesn't seem like it's been that long, on the other hand we have two girls and one boy on the way in less than a month - WHAT??

Santa came a little early to our house and the girls got new "pets" that we don't have to feed or clean up after - perfect!! The next morning the girls exchanged gifts with Great Grandma Dornak while Grandma and Grandpa watched them so Mommy and Daddy could go to work.





Our Christmas trip to Fredericksburg was delayed by a day because Nora had a sick tummy on Thursday morning and the rest of Chris' family was going to Mexico on Monday and didn't want to risk possibly catching anything. It was nice to spend one more night in our own beds before heading out for one more Christmas.

The girls had a blast opening a ton of toys but I think the highlights of the weekend were watching the Children's Christmas Mass at St. Marys (thanks daddy for holding them where they could see everything) and then the live lamb that made an appearance at the end of the service at Bethany. We also were able to spend a few hours visiting with Michael John Swanzy - home from Germany for a brief amount of time.

We had wonderful Christmas celebrations and can't wait for the arrival of Wyatt! (less than a month to go - I have a feeling he'll be here before the 29th, especially since my OBGYN has no problem inducing if I want her to:-)