Officially a Mom of Three

I am officially a mom of three. Chloe is already two months and any mom with a couple kids can understand why I haven't updated my blog until now- except of course the supermoms, but remember I affectionately call myself a wannabe...it takes me two months.

Chloe is adorable. Let's start with what is most important- she's sleeping well. (In my world, if one can sleep a bit a night, life is doable.) She is cuddly and cute and eats like a champ. She is pretty laid back on one hand, but let me tell you if she has a desire to eat, she goes from 0 to "LOST MY TEMPER" in 2 seconds flat. I am guessing this temper will continue to manifest itself in various ways throughout her life:) It's kind of cute now...but I can see the novelty wearing off when words start accompanying the crying.

The other kids are doing remarkably well! Phin is still pretty much a baby himself, so he is a little needier than he used to be now that my attention is divided, but he hasn't been aggressive or angry at the baby. He adores her, constantly telling us she's cute and making sure EVERYONE knows the minute she starts to cry. He loves to hug and kiss her...he just hasn't gotten gentleness down quite yet, so he sucks her face (I wish I had a picture of this though it would totally gross them out when they get older!) and lays on top of her to give full body hugs. We definitely cannot leave her unattended on the floor;)

Ava is a big helper- most days:) She's definitely had some adjustment too. She started coming to sleep in our room at night and was doing a bit of sleep walking and complaining of belly aches now and then. With a little more "special time" set aside and bribes, she's staying in her room, has started sleeping better and seems over the belly aches. You may criticize the bribing, but let me tell you when you baby is sleeping and your 4 year old wakes you up...you struggle with anger during the middle of the night! I put a mason jar on the counter and cotton balls in a bag. Every night she stays in her room, she gets to put in three cotton balls; when the jar is full we'll take her to the water park. Thank God, the jar is almost full and mommy is much happier!

I do have to admit that the TV is on a bit more than it used to be. If it weren't, there would be many times that I'd be bouncing baby while having two others hanging on me and while I AM adjusting well, I do have my limits. I tend to get easily annoyed, say when I am nursing the baby and two other little heads are also an inch from my bare boob. There are just a few moments when I need a bit of space...so for this season we are using the TV and certain distracting toys. This too shall pass...and hopefully their brain cells will survive.

6/28/10

Chloe Roberta Aneed was born on June 15, 2010. She is beautiful...really a darling little thing. I adore her already, as does every other member of our family.

Phin is constantly concerned about WHERE she is and what she is doing and the concern heightens the level RED if she starts to cry. He runs around like a crazy little chicken saying, "BABY CYING, BABY CYING!" He loves to hug her and though we've had moments that have tested the old wives tale that if you squeeze someone too tightly their head will pop off (I am glad to report this is untrue), he is finally learning to be a bit more gentle with his love.

Ava is a very proud big sister. She is very good at holding and rocking Chloe. She's becoming quite adept at the burping baby thing and she comes up with cute litte made up lullabies that seem to do a great job at soothing our little newbie.

Marc has been amazing both at supporting me and taking care of this kids. He has an especially good SSSSHHHing technique that is like magic with the baby. There have been a few times when he has soothed her so quickly and efficiently that I have wondered if maybe I should start working and have him stay home;)

I am adjusting. Postpartumness has been hard. I had TERRIBLE water retention before birth, as pictured. I was warned it would get worse afterwards, but nothing could have prepared me for the severe case of elephantitis look edema. WOAH! I was SOOO uncomfortable, had some trouble with back pain and breathing, etc. In the end when it started flushing out- lots of water drinking, resting, and tight compression stockings- I lost about 30 lbs. in 4 or 5 days. I felt like I was on Biggest Loser. What a night and day difference in how I felt!!! I got a little life back in my blood! I still struggle with some postpartum blues though I am not crying everytime someone asks me how I am doing anymore;) I also struggle with nights, but they are getting better every day. Chloe is still waking up more frequently than would be ideal, but she is finally not super alert durign the night. She'll go back to sleep relatively quickly and we've gotten a few 3 or 4 hour stretches of sleep.

God has definitely been answering prayers. Change is always kind of hard for me. New babies could not be cuter and there is nothing like hold a teeny one against your chest, but this stage is always a challenge for me. I am a control freak and there is no way to completely predict how a day or night will go since she is not even 2 weeks yet. I find that hard. I guess I kind of feel like I am in a constant free fall...and I have never been one to dream about sky diving! God has been gracious. My in-laws are here until 7/6 and each day gets a little better...so hopefully next Tuesday I won't have a complete meltdown when I am home alone;)

I kind of know that the chances anyone still reads this blog are slim to none:) I've been terrible about blogging since being pregnant and who knows what will happen as we adjust to life with three, but as I remain a supermom wannabe to my very core...blogging will continue to fall down the priority list cuz really...what kind of mom puts blogging over caring for her kiddos and hubby;)

Ready or not, she WILL come;)

Tomorrow is officially the due date for our third child. I remember being pregnant with Ava and being overly anxious for her to arrive. What a different experience this is;) We are heading out in about 1/2 to drive 2 1/2 hours down to Chicago. Tomorrow is Ava's first dance recital. I am just praying the baby stays put;)
Everywhere I go I hear two things: 1) that I am about to have my hands full (if only they knew how full they are already;) and 2) various advice about how to make labor happen sooner. Am I having sex nightly? Eating pinapple? taking long walks? washing my floors? "bearing down"? putting rose hip oil in my vag.? and of course the old syrup of ipecac trick. I just smile and say, "oh at the longest this baby will be in another week or so- we'll make it. I must look incredible uncomfortable for all this unsolicited advice. Sometime is surprises me how forward strangers are? I mean really how often does someone you barely know ask you if you are having sex nightly or even better telling you to put something in your vagina. I have had to really fight not to bust out laughing. I've never been one to mind people touching my stomach- though I understand why people do. It's just something about pregnancy that makes people kind of lose normal social inhibitions!

The truth is- I am VERY swollen. Marc says he has a hard time taking me seriously if he happens to glance at my legs while I am talking and my mother called me yesterday and said, "how's my fat baby, doing?" I assumed she was talking about my son- she wasn't. She started laughing and clarified that she was referring to ME;) (She'd never call me fat normally- by the way, she was just being silly; She's a great mom- no need too get all concerned;) I kind of forget what my feet and legs normally look like. I KNOW I have chicken legs, i just don't remember them. I'll gladly take them back in a week or two, though. (I did have Marc take a picture of my "elephantitis" as he calls it. I think it will be great birth control in the future- in fact, if anyone knows high school sex ed teachers- I'd be happy to pass it along as a "THIS could happen to you." As soon as he downloads his flip camera- I'll post it.)
Aside from the swelling, I am not doing to badly. Oh- I have a bit of trouble sleeping and my back hurts by the end of the day and if I have to carry Phin too much my lower abdomen gets sore, but I am okay. I just look awful, apparently;)

Mentally, I am not quite ready for baby. I have all my stuff in order and my nesting projects are done, but with the recital looming- it would be a bit surreal for the baby to come now. I am praying she comes afterwards. I AM looking forward to her arrival and surprisingly, I am looking forward to going through labor again. This might be our last natural child and I am so looking forward to experiencing the miracle of birth again. With both my other children I had great fear and anxiety; this time I just keep thinking about that moment when you hear that cry and see those teeny fingers and toes. Such hard work pays off in an unforgettable instant- I cannot wait.

Gardening Dummies

We have 2 acres of property at our new home. One of our priciest purchases thusfar is this mega riding mower that Marc has to pull out weekly to keep our lawn under control. We've never had much "lawn and garden" experience so our learning curve has been a bit steep. Poor Marc has wacked his head trying to mow around the Evergreens (no permanent damage, but scratch on the head that lead to more blood than one would think necessary), slipped around in the ditches, mowed down the dogwood trees we planted, and most recently broke the blade on the mower (we've had it less than 2 months;). We've struggled to somehow keep on top of things, but fear we are certainly "those" neighbors with the unkempt lawn. We have more dandelions than one could possible imagine- even after paying through the nose for a landscaping company to come and spray. In the process we learned that it sometimes takes 6 applications to "take care" of the problem....meanwhile everyone around us has golf course lookin' grass. Our other "issue" is the "flower beds"; we have two that were obviously well landscaped at one time. The problem is we had NO idea what was in them until things started to pop up. We've had so much rain, however, that nothing just popped up. Before we knew it everything has begun to run into each other and it is a mess. Was it in pristine condition last year? Or has it been neglected for a while? We don't even know what everything is! (To be honest, we hardly know what ANYTHING IS;)

Today we began to tackle the problem. One thing we DO know for sure- neither of us really enjoys this whole gardening thing. Poor Marc has the majority of the work to do; I am doing what I can but I am 38 weeks pregnant with ankles the size of an elephant. I feel like crap and therefore am pretty useless- though I did my best to help out. I have a little gardening book and after reading NOW know we were suppose to trim back stuff as soon as it made an appearance...or in the fall (which we can't help since we didn't even conceive living here;). We are digging and pulling weeds and trimming back stuff galore and we didn't even finish one of the beds today. Sure- we did make a little progress and I am HAPPY that we have found two gorgeous peonies amongst the mess- but one does have to wonder when and if we'll finish. We have to- we do, but it is a task and a half and next year I am thinking we pay a landscaper to dig it all up and put in sod. Or just pay a landscaping service to take over....

I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE to look out and see our huge lawn and the nature that surrounds us, but boy OH boy are we learning how much work it takes to maintain or gain that beauty. We now know both of us hate this work...not sure what we can do about that, but next summer I won't have the pregnancy excuse, so I have a feeling we'll be doing a whole lot of rock, paper, scissoring to see whose turn it is to weed and mow....or maybe we'll just compromise some convictions and play the lottery- hoping to win enough to hire a gardner. Either way- we need the three day weekend to finish this "project" and then are just keeping our fingers cross that we don't mess up anything to badly. Thank goodness Marc's step dad will be here after the baby and can help direct us further. We're pretty pitiful....

Finally...

Marc was finally able to get some pictures uploaded on the computer. We don't have as many as we'd like to about our adventures over the past month; our precious little boy grabbed the camera recently and tried to run away with it. Marc went after him and Phin threw it- all the while thinking it was a hilarious game!! The lenses shattered. Lovely! The silver lining is the little warranty from Best Buy that we always purchase. For the second time in our marriage- one of these warranties has MORE than paid for itself. PHEW!

Anywho- here are a few pic's of my adorable children.


Phineas is obsessed with the light in the fridge and thusfar has foiled any lock we've tried...He is so cute, but what a booger!

Happily, disobedient....hopefully not a foreshadowing of a lifelong habit.

Our family on Easter.

Ava and Phin on Easter with Marc's mom and step-dad. (We could NOT NOT NOT have done this move without them!)

Our "new" basement ready for the Easter egg hunt..(this part of the house still is quite barren as it is the bottom of our priority list;)

And their off...

Phin thinks this is GREAT and he doesn't even know there is CANDY inside, yet;)

Notice the tool in Phin's hand- he SOO wanted to help Papa assemble the playset.

This has already provided hours of joy and fun.

We have some issues with our new yard. After a good rain, we awoke to "fields of gold". We have been waiting for a landscape company to come spray. In the mean time- every one around us has yard that look like golf courses and we are the neighbors with dandelions EVERYWHERE- Ava is delighted, however;)

Here are a few photos since our move: