First Holiday with Three Kids

Maternity leave is still great, wonderful in fact.  This baby of ours is growing like a weed... at her one month doctor's appointment she was already 11 lbs on the dot.  Oh and tall... baby girl is tall, in the 97th percentile for height.  So the milk-makers are working and doing what they're supposed to do, which is always nice to have proof of.  Not that there was really ever any doubt, considering the delicious rolls she is sporting.

Said rolls have actually been giving us trouble, in particular the neck rolls.  Oh my poor little baby. So Olive came down with just the most terrible baby acne at about 3.5 weeks old. It was truly hideous and made me sad every time I looked at her, but I knew that was all it was. Classic baby acne. Ugly, but not really a bother. Best to do nothing. It will go away within a few weeks or months and life will go on, with a few less pictures to document than would normally be taken. ;)

But then last Thursday all of a sudden her neck was just lookin... Not right. It was no longer just the acne that covered it, it was red and wet and swollen and smelly, and definitely painful. No doubt about that part. 

The girl has endless rolls for a neck, and said rolls had clearly become infected. So I tried a few things, hydrocortisone, aquaphor, and 24 hours later it was WAY worse.  Assuming it was yeast, we attempted some Nystatin cream we had lying around from back when I had thrush with Gus, as well as Nystatin powder from my mom, but that didn't seem to be doing much either so I went on a mad Googling spree and confirmed what my mother-in-law had suggested the day before.  A Lotrimin and Desitin concoction on a completely dried area, the Lotrimin to kill the yeast and the Desitin to sooth and provide a drying barrier.  And it really did work miracles, even though it was a horrible process at first because the application was clearly really painful for Olive.  :(  Except for the part where I blow dry (on cool) her neck rolls after her bath.  That part she actually LOVED (go figure) and continues to love because now my life is all about keeping those little neck rolls dry at all times, which apparently is key.,

Huge digression, because none of that has anything to do with Easter other than the fact that I am embarrassingly vain and was SUPER sad that my baby girl was going to have not only terrible baby acne but also a red, swollen, flaky white (from the thrice daily jock itch and diaper cream application) neck on her first Easter.  Yup.  I'm ridiculous.

So Easter.  Man, I love Easter.  It is just such a low-key holiday... jelly beans and baskets of trinkets and pastels and cute fluffy baby farm animals and egg hunts and ham and cheesy potatoes.  Of course, Jesus, that too of course.

The Easter festivities for me kicked off on Friday when Lisa and I had a shopping date and I got to pick out my first and most likely last size 3 month Easter dress.  Oh and a tiny itty-bitty white cardigan because we live in Minnesota, of course, and for the record, that tiny itty-bitty white cardigan was one of my most favorite purchases ever.  It was like some sort of milestone as a mom of a little girl and it made me irrationally happy.

I also picked up a few little things for the boys' Easter baskets and frankly, just had a wonderful time shopping for baby stuff and hoofing it around the mall with my best friend and her baby.

This year we were to spend Easter with Dan's family, so Saturday afternoon we went to my parents' house to dye eggs, and for the first time the boys were both super engaged and excited about the endeavor.  They absolutely loved it, and only a few eggs were cracked during the process.









On Easter morning the boys slept until 6:30 am, and for those whom don't live in this house and thus don't realize, this is TRULY amazing because they both like to rise by 6:00 and I specifically remember at least one of them being up before 5:30 last year.

I went too crazy last year with Easter baskets, like bought a bunch of real and big toys, and I didn't want to continue with that precendence.  I don't know what I was thinking last year, but no.  That was not going to be how we do Easter.  Lucky for me, the kids are both little enough to not really remember these things super clearly.  So this year we did candy, beach towels, sticker books, a few Target dollar section trinkets, and one little special, yet cheap, toy for each of them.  Everyone was happy with this route and I think we'll stick with it.  The boys were excited, but not greedy, and the sticker books and tiny toys came in handy in church.

We are sort of in the market for a new church, but have not been very dedicated to making any permanent decisions, especially considering the fact that we haven't been wonderful about attending church regularly over the last few years.  So when my mom suggested joining them at a new church just down the street from us, I figured it was as good a chance as any to test a church out.

I liked it.  Still don't know.  We will see.  But we do have a kid that needs to be baptized at some point.  ;)



After church we drove out to Dan's aunt's house, who does a lovely job of hosting Easter each year.  The boys LOVE going to aunt Pam's house, and had been talking about it for the last week. All of their cousins plus Aunt Pam's incredible collection of awesome toys plus an egg hunt AND a Pinata and an unending supply of candy all day... it makes sense that they were looking forward to it.  

I can't believe how tall and mature this kid is looking... my little ALMOST kindergartner!

Dan was saying and doing silly things to get some non fake cheese smiles.

And the Pinata!  An Easter tradition.

Unfortunately it lasted through a few very minimal beatings from just three little kids, and then just dumped open.  Target should be ashamed of itself, very poor cupcake pinata construction.

Somehow despite the fact that it lasted all of 3 minutes, tears were avoided.  So I'd declare that still a win.

My baby girl, cooing and smirking at her aunt Kirsten.

I just CAN'T.

Conveniently her neck had healed quite a bit and a lot of her acne had cleared up, just in time to show off how perfect she is in every way.

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.        

Overdue

 So this has been a fun week!

It hasn't been that bad.  Really, truly, I'm hanging in there.  I've been working from home all week, watching a lot of Gilmore Girls, eating a lot of candy and ice cream, and going to bed at 9:30 every night.  If mentally being overdue wasn't so insanity-inducing, I'd say I've been having a mighty fine time. 

But yeah, the whole mental thing.  It is just so impossible to go about normal life with this big "thing" hanging over our heads, and every time I think about it too much I get either nervous about the conditions and logistics of how it will all go down, or I start thinking about the pain of labor, and grossness of it, and how it certainly won't be super duper fun.  And then I feel bizarrely relieved that I'm not doing it yet, and can continue to just sit and watch TV and eat candy and live in limbo la la land for a little bit longer.  And then 5 minutes later I am PISSED and praying for the pain to just start already and I'm so agitated by the fact that I just want to meet this baby girl and make sure she is healthy and everything is okay but she just won't listen and come out already and what the hell is she waiting for?! I want to tell people what her name is and find out if she really does have lots of hair after a long pregnancy riddled with heartburn.  And I want to smell her.  And kiss her.  She has been my little companion every day for the last 9 months and now I am ready to wrap her in soft blankets and inspect her little toes and hang out with her in a way that does not involve her kicking my bladder or seemingly clawing at my cervix to get out. But then not.  Getting out.

My dad had to unexpectedly travel this week for work, he left yesterday and will be back tomorrow, and this is somewhat unfortunate because he was our guy.  Our backup that could leave work or home or anywhere at the drop of a hat, car seats to haul away our children loaded in his Jeep, the skinny on where they should be or should go or will need to be picked up at on any given day at any given time.

And really, it's not that big of a deal, we have so many people in our lives that are ready and willing and able to help.  This little girl has aunts and uncles up the wazoo chomping at the bit to help us in our time of need.  But still, our main backup being gone meant we just had to think through logistics quite a bit this week.  We had to have a different plan for each day, to account for who would watch the kids and bring them to school or their stuff.  It meant we had to think about it every night before bed.  Plan and prepare and inform and decide. 

And it's just annoying that it's all been for nothing.  I have this little "cheat sheet" with important information about each kid and their "stuff" and "schedules".  At the bottom it has little notes with dates next to them about tiny stupid things that would actually be important to the kids so I don't want them to go forgotten.  Like swimsuits and towels and $6 to go to the pool with daycare on 2/25 (Louie) and 2/26 (Gus).  Or how 2/23 was "hat day" at preschool, and 2/25 sweatsuit day.  And before that?  There was pajama day on 2/18, and soccer on 2/21, and yeah, the freaking Valentines day parties at daycare and school on 2/12 and 2/13.

I get that a lot of this is fluff, but for a 5 year old, pajama day has the potential to feel a little bit like the best day of your life.  At least that's what I gather.  I know how stressful and how huge of a transition this will be for both boys, and for Dan and me as well, so anything I can do to make things more "normal", provide them with the comfort of some routine in all the crazy... well it's important to me.

My point is this.  You should see that damn list.  The stupid "cheat sheet".  TONS of stuff crossed off as irrelevant, since those days have all passed.  And still no baby.  All that careful planning and thinking ahead.  For nothing.  Now looking at that stupid list makes me IRRITATED.

This morning I had my appointment with one of the midwives.  According to me and my due date, which is based on conception, I am 40 weeks, 6 days.  According to my charts, I am 40 weeks, 3 days.  So I'm not considered 41 weeks until this next Monday, at which point they would do an ultrasound and a non-stress test and make sure they're still okay with where I'm at.  Induction would be at 42 weeks.  God almighty, please no.

Anyway, this morning I had them check me for the first time.  I didn't want them to do it last week, since I knew it would just cause cramping and probably more mind-games, but today I said hell yes.  Also, sweep those membranes.

Well I'm already at 5 cm.  Walking around freaking half-way there, no wonder it feels like she's about to fall out of me!  (Sorry.)

With my history of pretty quick labors, the midwife I met with was like, "How long will it take you to get to the hospital?" and "please call us right away, as soon as you start having any contractions" and "I really doubt you'll make it to next Monday, but let's schedule that non-stress test and ultrasound just in case, and if you STILL haven't gone into labor tomorrow morning, you're welcome to come back and I can sweep your membranes again." 

Ugh.  Sounds super fun!  It's a date!

So I of course left somewhat excited, crampy, uncomfortable, and nervous.  And then got bizarrely emotional and started crying while talking to Dan on the phone, insisting that he come home and work remotely because it just makes me nervous being alone when I'm dang 5 cm dilated. 

And yet, here we sit.  I'm extremely uncomfortable and having lots of cramping and "signs" but no real contractions at all, still, 5 hours later.  And the boys will need to be picked up from daycare within the hour.  Damn.  So much for getting this thing going while it would be convenient.  (It's not going to happen when it's convenient is it?)

39 weeks, 5 days

Alternate title: Sooooo Crabby.

So let's get this out of the way.  No, I haven't hit my due date yet.  I am not (yet) overdue, and I realize that I really should be digging deep down to find a way to embrace that fact and remain all hippie zen about these last days of pregnancy.  Find a way to focus on the good.

I just cannot seem to do it.  I am so sick of being pregnant.  I am so sick of waking up every 1.5 hours each night to flip over because my hip has gone numb.  Oh, and might as well go to the bathroom while I'm up.  I can't believe how long each night feels.  I look at the clock with dread, just hoping it's time to get up, even though I'm still SO EXHAUSTED every single morning.

I am sick of the mind games.  I am sick of being in limbo.

Not to mention (wait, I'm mentioning it) the heartburn seems to have come back.  And the intense pelvic pain.  And some GI issues.

Yay!  Everyone's favorite thing, to hear a pregnant lady complain about her symptoms.

Sorry.

Let's just move on from the obvious, that I would like to get this baby on the outside.  And it should also go without saying that I am anxious to meet her and get to know her and have her in my arms and introduce her to her brothers and attempt to ease into (or more likely barrel into) our new normal as a family of five.  We are all just so excited.  And so ready.

We have been staying relatively busy, which helps.  And I'm pretty good about being upbeat about life until the early evening rolls around, and then I'm just done.  It never fails, dinner/bedtime and you can cue the hysterics and crazy pregnant lady whining.  (A-la above.)

 The kids are both on antibiotics after testing positive for strep last week.  Thankfully, neither of them ever really exhibited any terrible symptoms, but we decided to get Gus tested while we were at the pediatrician for pink eye, since he had been exposed to it at both daycare and preschool.  And that set off the whole thing.  Gus ended up missing school all week long, and then Monday of course was President's Day so he had off.  And the Friday before last was some sort of teacher's conference day, so he hasn't been to school in 2 weeks.  We are very much off our routine, and then there's the impending baby thing, so life has just been weird.

There's a big bright side in all of that sick kid drama, though, which is that it happened LAST week.  And both kids are now busy getting healthy, are not contagious, and are able to go to school/daycare.  Also Dan and I both tested negative and the sore throat that I've had for a week has finally subsided.  Now let's have this baby before anyone else gets sick!

Last weekend was my nephew Lucas's birthday, and thank goodness we were healthy for it because Gus in particular would have been DEVASTATED to miss the big party.  Such a fun day at John and Dannell's house, and I got to squeeze 3 week-old baby Liela quite a bit, who I hadn't seen since visiting her in the hospital the night she was born.  It was good to just relish in her newborn-ness, take in that delicious scent and remember what it feels like to hold and comfort and love such a tiny, innocent little person.  Such a gift. 

You can tell the party was on Valentines day, all of these cute cousins dressed by their mothers in appropriately festive red and pink. 

I love watching little kids hold babies.  It's clear that they've watched and learned how they're supposed to do it from grown-ups.  Abby had her turn with her newest cousin and didn't stop gently adjusting Liela's blanket, glancing down at her and quietly and carefully marveling over her little feet and hands.  I could tell she knew what a privilege this little moment was, and I could see that she was proud.  It was very sweet.   

 

I think I saw them fill up that bowl of cheese balls something like 3 times.  Before lunch.  So gross, but such a rare treat and I am too pregnant to care.

 

The kids went to bed quite early after the big birthday party so Dan and I actually got to have a nice little Valentines date at home.  We held hands and snuggled on the couch, watched a really lovely movie (Begin Again), and I had my 2nd glass of red wine this pregnancy.  Savored every. single. sip.  

Sunday was a low key day at home and it was welcome after our busy Saturday.  I even took a nap, and then we had dinner at my parents' house which meant a good home cooked meal that I did not have to cook and a welcome distraction from still being pregnant. I was really hoping Sunday... or even Monday, would be the day.  But alas.  Here we are. 

Still pregnant.  

I'll tell you, if I remain pregnant into next week I will be working from home, I think I'm making people uncomfortable in the office.  They don't actually know what to say to me, but are still so curious, so a lot of inappropriate things end up being said.  And it's just... awkward.  One lady called me yesterday just to see if I was still answering my phone.  Ha!  Absurd, but sweet.    

See you on the other side...

The Pink Curtains

We're ready baby girl! 

 Because we all know that it's the pink curtains that indicate readiness for a child, right?

For real though, the countdown is definitely on.  I know it could still be two weeks (or more) before this baby is born, but we're to that point where I make "tentative" plans, assuming the baby is still on the inside. Still feeling relatively chill about the whole thing, because while dude, I am SO READY to not be pregnant, I'd also really like at least one more week at work because last week was insane trying to wrap things up and pass things off and train my backups.  

Yeah, I could really use one more week.  

And as chill as I may claim to be, I'm still of course nervous about how it will all go down, the timing of when I'll go into labor, where the boys will be or go, and how quickly or not quickly everything will happen this time.

There really is nothing like the unknown of giving birth.  Nothing else in life quite like it, and I almost feel like it's better to try to not think about it.  (Impossible.)

The nursery looks like a nursery though, a little girl's nursery at that, and THAT feels really good. When Louie was born a week and a half before his due date, this same room was a disaster area.  Baby clothes spilling out of blue tubs all over the room, everything in disarray, the new bassinet we had purchased still in its box, and a completely unorganized dresser.

So if the baby came tomorrow, we'd be okay.  Just knowing I wouldn't be coming home from the hospital to a disaster (not to mention a mouse on steroids taken to defecating on our bed) is a huge relief.

Ice cream right out of the gallon bucket is a clear sign of a pregnant lady who is totally over it. 

 I give up.

The big brothers are ready.  Gus informed me the other day that he plans on feeding the baby mushed bananas when she's hungry, and picking her up when she cries, and that he can't wait to hold her all the time.  There will definitely need to be some ground rules set but his heart is clearly in the right place.  ;)  

Louie will be a bit of a wild card during this transition, I'm thinking.  Currently he basically wants his mother to do everything for him all the time, and as difficult as that can be being THIS pregnant, it's certainly not going to be easier with a newborn.  But we will manage.  I'm anticipating some high highs, and some low lows.  

Cannot wait to meet this girl.  We have a name, and she sounds like the sister of Gus and Louie.  She sounds like our daughter. We have a plethora of ruffly leggings folded in the dresser.  We have little pink hats adorned with birds and bows.  We have a few new pacifiers in case this one actually decides to take a pacifier.  

And now we wait, and try not to go crazy, and do regular life stuff like help the boys with getting their valentines ready for parties next week at daycare and preschool.  

We will find things to do to burn off excess energy.

We will snuggle the babies that have already arrived.

And we will remain patient.  No matter how uncomfortable "we" might be.  :)