Happy 3rd Birthday to Eily!!

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Shhh. Do you hear that?

It's silence.

Mom took the three older girls to her house to stay the night tonight so it's just me and Baby here. She's sacked out on a mattress on the floor in the living room and in a few minutes I'm going to do the same on the couch. There's nothing like a nap at five in the afternoon.

We are repainting bedrooms (thus the mattress on the floor) and the chaos of furniture and toys everywhere is getting to me just a little bit. That and the fact that Jason has been gone for fifteen days. I'm just weary of all the change and I'm sure the girls are too. Going to Nanny's house will be a nice little break from the topsy-turvyness of their home.

As for Nora, she's doing great and is the cutest thing you'll ever see. She looks nothing like her picture on the side of the page but my camera broke and Jason has the good camera with him. I know! What a terrible time to not be able to take pictures but I will try to get a replacement photo posted as soon as I can. Nora had her two week check up this week and she's grown two inches and gained a pound. She already can't wear newborn diapers and some of her newborn-sized clothing. I hate that Jason missed her super tiny stage. He loves that stage so much.
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But he's finally coming home and we only have one room left to paint and everything will become normal once again just like it always does. And then I'll want to have another baby. HA! Just kidding. As happy as I am every time I have a baby, I know that I am done. And it feels nice to have closure on that part of life. I'm excited to just concentrate on the the raising and nurturing aspect of parenting.

Eily turns three tomorrow. Be looking for her birthday montage.

This is how we labor in the 21st century.

I love

And of course we can't forget to post this beauty

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What April has held for us so far...

 Nana's 88th birthday party,

Preparing for Nora's birth,

and actually meeting Nora.

This was a painting that Jason did for the hospital where I had Nora. We snapped a photo as we were leaving.

Miss Nora

We did it, we two.  It was excruciatingly painful and now I'm very sleepy, but we did it.

I'm too tired to type much so here are some stats:

Nora James
7lbs 11oz
19 inches long
Blondie
GREAT nurser
Loud squaller
Has her Daddy's nose
Needs to work on her burping skills

Birth:
Natural
Lasted about 6.5 hours
Would totally do it again if I had to but don't ever plan on it
Elaina was allowed to watch her sister be born. It was special. She did great.
Baby didn't breathe right away. They had to use the balloon pump to get her yelling. It was a little tense. Thank the Lord that she's fine and it wasn't more serious.

We love her. All of us. Even Pee Wee hasn't been jealous. Yet.

First glimpses

 Claire described her to her Bebe as a very tight blanket with a hat.

Nora James made her debut at 2:35 yesterday afternoon. Pictures will be posted before too long.

Baby's a comin'!

Heading off to the hospital soon. I'll let you know what we get out of all this. :)

Little Baby Jack went to Heaven this afternoon. Please keep his family in your prayers.

Prayer Request

First off, let me just tell you to ignore that whiny hiney post below. I have never been more thankful to have my baby tucked safe inside my belly.

Shortly after I wrote the previous post I received another phone call. Baby Jack was fine for four hours. He was alert, attentive, a great nurser and just an all around ok baby. Then he had what they believe was a stroke. He stopped breathing and he is now at a hospital doing a cooling treatment to try and stop brain damage. He still has yet to breathe on his own. They are going to keep cooling his brain for 3 days and after that, if he still hasn't responded, they will take him off life support. They have no idea what caused this because the doctors have only seen babies have strokes after high trauma births and his birth was the exact opposite of that.
I cannot imagine what Susanna and her husband are going through. Please pray for a miracle for little Jack and for comfort for his parents and the extended family.

Just being honest

My friend, Susanna, and I have had a fun time these past nine months watching the differences between our two pregnancies and enjoying the fact that we had picked out the same boy name and talking about how funny it will be if we go into labor on the same day.
It's been interesting (and maybe a tad depressing for me) to watch the difference in how our bodies were *ahem* handling the pregnancy. This is me at 9 months:

I know you are thinking to yourself, "Well, you don't look that big. You look fine. Cankles? What cankles?"  Well, let me show you Susanna and maybe you can see where I am coming from.

Susanna at nine months:

And now you are saying, "Oh. I see." And yes, this is her first baby and this is my fourth. And yes, she has been running marathons her entire pregnancy and I have been running around town trying to locate the best Dr. Pepper or Mr. Pibb and ice combination. (Steffey's Pizza wins, by the way.) But still, it doesn't exactly make me feel like a cutsie little petite pregnant woman.  Especially when I really am supporting some nice cankles. (On a side note, while they are very unappealing and unattractive, they are exceptionally easy to shave. No ankle bone to work around.)

Saturday night I was up for 6 hours with what I call Level 2 contractions. Level 1 are your normal braxton hick contractions. They might make you stop and wince a little but they aren't really going to slow you down. Level 2 contractions are the ones that you endure when you are really in labor and are being monitored as you sweat it out at the hospital. They are the ones that you have to close your eyes and breathe through. Level 3 contractions are the ones you have after your water breaks. I won't describe those. 

So anyways, I was up all night with Level 2 contractions. I have never had contractions that painful before while still at home. They were some serious ouchie. I finally started timing them early in the morning and they were always two or three minutes apart. Around 8am I decided to call the doctor and see what she thought about everything. When she called me back, I got up to go talk in my room to diminish the background noise and the contractions just stopped. Cold turkey.  So I went to church and then went to my parents for lunch and took a long walk in the afternoon. And I did everything in my mental power to get those contractions back up and running. Guess what? My mental power level is apparently zero. I mean nothing was going on. And it was depressing and I have tried since then not to let it get me to the point of crying but I can feel the tears waiting for the tiniest excuse to come on down.

And then I got a phone call this morning. 

Susanna had her baby. Three weeks early. Her water broke and four and a half hours later she was holding her baby boy. 

I'm so excited for Susanna, Aaron and their new little Jack. I can't wait to see pictures and listen to her tell the story of his birth. 

But maybe, just maybe, I'm a little depressed today. 

We have nice weather today.

 

It's a day full of sunshine. Just what this Mommy ordered. The girls have had fun playing outside in the mud and picking Spring Beauties and Buttercups.

When playing outside one must make sure that one wears plenty of hair accessories and extensions.

If it is exceptionally sunny, one must secure a willing umbrella holder. This will prove to be an easy task if one takes the time to find a very obliging sister.

 

 One must also take care not to soak up too much sun so that one's super duper cute face stays super duper soft and kissable.

One's mother must go into labor soon or said mother just might go crazy.