Check-in

So I'm working on that birth story. And by working on it, I mean I haven't started it but think about starting it all the time!

Oof. I have been busy, the days just fly by and all of a sudden it's 8:00 pm and the boys are in bed and Olive is sleeping peacefully in the Rock-n-Play and I have little energy for more than folding laundry or tidying up the kitchen or watching TV. Lame I know. 

And today I'm kind of stuck wasting time sitting at my parents' house while the cleaning lady is busy scrubbing my grimy bathroom and mopping the disgusting kitchen floor. (Really forgot how messy and gross spring can be. Especially if you have a DOG. Our backyard a week ago was truly disgusting.)  

I know. Rough life I live. Kids are at daycare, Dan is busy at work bringing home the bacon, there's a nice lady cleaning my house, and I am sitting on the couch at my parents' house, trapped under a sleeping almost 3-week old baby, coffee and cinnamon roll by my side, watching a drunk Kathie Lee talk about nonsense on the 7th hour (sounds about right) of the Today show. 

No complaints here. Though I really should have grabbed my laptop this morning. I broke down and finally downloaded the Blogger App on my phone, so maybe you'll be treated to more of these stream of consciousness/I'm trapped under a baby posts in the future!

My lap while I type away on my phone. 

Maternity leave is awesome. And I have loved the time I've gotten to spend with just Olive when the boys are at daycare Tuesdays through Thursdays. Our mornings are pretty hectic though, with getting the boys to either daycare or preschool every weekday, so I still most definitely look forward to weekends and the slowness of those mornings. 

Olive is not always loving being carted around every morning either. Poor thing. 9 am is just about when she would like to nurse again and go back to sleep for the rest of the morning but instead she is buckled in the car seat and forced to accompany her chauffeur mommy all over town.  This week there have been a lot of tears as we try to get out of the house. The boys though are so sweet and helpful and just hate when she's upset. Gus has become a very reliable pacifier holder/retriever while we drive. 

And since I'm out every morning it's easy to make the decision to just run errands and meet up with friends and then inevitably we girls come home in the afternoon and both crash from exhaustion. 

Yesterday I had another one of those giant parenting fails. I signed up to celebrate Gus's half birthday at preschool before Olive was born, but somehow I put it on my calendar wrong and thought it was next Wednesday. Nope. It was yesterday. So as I was dropping off Gus his teacher mentioned it and I had the HOLY SHIT moment and started to scramble. Moms and dads are supposed to spend the school day with the birthday kid. We bring a special treat and baby pictures to share and of course I had none of that. Including the dad. Oh yeah, and I had Louie because I had planned on dropping him at daycare after Gus at preschool. Ughhhhhhhh. 

So I raced Louie out of there. Promised Gus I'd be right back (he was so excited, why didn't he tell ME this was happening? He was fully aware and his teacher said he had been talking about it on Monday!) And then started making the panicked calls. Dan wouldn't answer his phone. My mom wouldn't answer her phone. My sister-in-law wouldn't answer her phone. I needed someone to go get the ice cream that Gus had requested. I was sobbing and feeling like the worst mother. I didn't have the Moby to put the baby in during class. 

Groan. Just. The. Worst. 

Oh but it worked out okay. Gus had no baby pictures to share, but he got to show off his real live baby sister. And Dan couldn't make it because he had meetings all morning, but my mom came through with the ice cream. Still. I hate that it was all so half-assed and felt the guilt. Oh yes, major guilt. 

So I promised Gus we would go out to dinner somewhere fun after daycare as a family. This decision lead to an extremely exhausting and somewhat stressful evening because poor Olive freaked out in the car on the way to and from the "restaurant". Let's just say we were reminded why you don't take a 3 week old baby out during the witching hour. 

We tried this new place in Minnetonka, Play and Learn Cafe. It was fun, but INSANE and you could tell the staff was overwhelmed. We were told that they have actually been closing early in the evenings as of late because they were so dead, but I guess word is starting to get out. Because last night it was crazy busy. The kids of course LOVED it, but I was a bit less than impressed by the food. It looked beautiful, but for example, the kids meals were just not enough food for my kids. Louie ate his little slider burger and yogurt and fruit and then asked for another hamburger. Uhhhh. Sorry dude. 

My food was fine, just cold, which I'm guessing was a result of the unexpected dinner rush. I'm willing to give it a second try at some point. 

Gus's grilled cheese kids meal. Pretty and healthy, for sure! Just... not enough of it. I guess maybe my kids eat a lot compared to others? 

The play area was very fun and the kids had a blast running around, I might just go in the afternoon next time, while the families with toddlers are all home napping, and get some coffee and treats or something instead of a meal. I don't know. Fun place though, and loved the concept. 

What more should I say before my phone dies? 

Maybe just a few more pictures. 

Laura you are right!! (I don't know how to link on this app!) These Zutano booties are THE BEST. Actually stay on! Olive wears them everyday and I plan on buying them in every size as she grows out of them. :)

All the kids at my nephew Graham's 2nd birthday party this past weekend. You better believe I was a mere hop away ready to catch my baby girl who appears to be just teetering on her brother's lap. Ha. Oh and poor Louie is sobbing because I guess he wanted to hold Olive for the picture. 

I humored him for this photo and he felt better. 

They still love her!

I went to Southdale in search of spring jackets for the boys on Tuesday after meeting some work friends for lunch. Such a treat, I never actually go shopping at a mall anymore. Of course there was a parking lot nursing session involved on this outing. 

That's that for now. Heading home to my clean house!

Olive Sylvia

Well, she's here!  Our sweet little Olive, perfect and precious in every way, she is finally here.

Our baby girl was born in the late afternoon, a week after her due date, on Friday, February 27th.  She's our smallest baby, but not by much, and at birth was 8 lbs, 13 ounces and 21 inches long. So we were able to squeeze her into some of those newborn clothes I had "just in case" for at least a few days.

The circumstances of her birth were definitely not what I had anticipated, but when it came down to it, she was born very quickly after an extremely short period of "active labor".  Full birth story will of course be coming, but I don't have the energy to tackle that tonight, since we all know that the tiny stupid details are the best parts of birth stories.  Expect that post to be wordy and full of too much information.

The hospital stay was an enjoyable, sweet blur.  That first night at about 8:00 PM we had a billion visitors arrive at the same time, all clamoring to see this child we've been waiting patiently for.  (Some of us more patient than others.  Ahem.)  They all brought sweets that perfectly complimented the Pizza from Pizza Luce that Dan and I had ordered before they arrived.  We ate like kings for days, sweets and dessert with breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and still continue to do so as our daycare provider orchestrated a meal delivery schedule with all the other parents for the entire first week we were home.

This baby, oh my this baby... she really has enchanted us.  I have so thoroughly enjoyed these first 10 days of her life, I can't really describe it.  Apparently, everything is sweeter the third time around, and I am consciously trying to soak it all in since I anticipate she will be the bookend to our little family.  (Never say never, but yeah... never again.)  There are so many lovely newborn things that I forgot about.  I forgot how wonderful and slow and long and sleepy these first days are.  On multiple occasions I have felt overwhelmed with love for this precious, innocent little person that less than two weeks ago was still growing inside of me.  Her squishy little milk-drunk face on my shoulder after nursing has been the cause of a few weepy moments of gratitude.  We are so lucky to have this girl, so lucky to be able to bring her home into this happy household full of family members so ready to shower her with love.

Her brothers are smitten.  They spent a lovely few hours on Saturday morning at the hospital with us, watching cartoons, eating cookies, and snuggling day old baby Olive and me in my hospital bed.  They had time to decompress a little with us after a very exciting, confusing day in which they woke up to find grandma in their home with news that mom and dad had gone to the hospital and their baby was coming!  Louie was really upset when they had to leave the hospital and he broke my heart a little.  Of course it was all pretty overwhelming, and he just kept begging us to let him stay with us, or to go home to his house rather than back to grandma and grandpa's.  He left, tearfully giving me kisses and telling me he loved me, and I just... ugh so much love for that sweetheart.

Still, when we came home from the hospital Saturday night, just a little over 24 hours after her birth, we decided to have my Dad wait to bring them home until Sunday morning.  We were able to ourselves come home to a quiet, calm home.  And then the next morning were able to provide the boys with a quiet, calm house to come home to as well.  We spent all of Sunday just having as normal a day as possible at home, and it was like night and day from how things went (super chaotic and stressful) when we brought Louie home 3 years ago.

The boys marvel over and dote on her daily.  Gus in particular has been a dream with her.  She is the first thing he thinks about every morning when he wakes up, he comes into our room looking for his baby Olive, ready to bid her a good morning and babble nonsense in a ridiculously high-pitched voice.  He couldn't wait to show people his new baby, especially his friends at preschool and daycare.  Both boys want to hold her all the time, and that hasn't even gotten annoying yet, because I swear I am so much calmer this time around.  I have somehow let go of any agenda.  And certainly I am able to roll with things so much more than I have been over the last 9 months.

Oh, and this baby girl is not phased at all by this family's wildness.  The dog barking frantically, mom losing her temper (it happens), insane screeching and running and stomping, tantrums, hyper Star Wars play happening literally a foot from where she's laying.  Nothing seems to bother newborn Olive.  It will be interesting to see how that changes or evolves as she moves out of the lumpy, sleepy, newborn stage... but I swear, the craziness calms her.  I can tell that she is used to it.  She knows us.  We're her people.