Juggling Act

Jack is a week old. It makes me laugh to think of myself as a new mom with one child. One seems so easy now. When I had Kennedy I stressed over everything. I called the nurse advice line at least once a week for several months. I remember calling one time about her sucking her thumb and she had a sore on her thumb from the sucking. Who calls about things like that? A crazy, stressed-out first time mom, that's who.

Two was ok to manage and it got pretty easy as Tristan got older. It was nice for them to start playing together. It would have been easier these past few months had I not been pregnant. How funny I must have looked at 8 months pregnant running down the street after my toddler who could outrun me by a mile.

So far having three is like a juggling act. One is always up in the air. . .at all times at least one of my kids needs something right now. I wonder how I will manage when my mom leaves. . .

So far though, Jack has been a heavy sleeper. I have to force him awake sometimes just to eat. He was gaining weight really well at first but the past few days he has slept almost the whole day. And, in spite of a rough first night home from the hospital, he has done really well at night. I feed him before I go to bed and he wakes up half-way through the night and then again in the morning when it's time to get up. I take him for a weight check tomorrow to find out how he's growing.

Jack

It's kind of a strange experience having a c-section. We checked in at 8:30 and several things had to happen before Jack was actually delivered. Labs were drawn, consent forms signed, monitors placed, etc. We waited around for several hours then all of a sudden I was wheeled down the hall, prepped and draped and they started cutting away. Even though I was numb I could feel them cutting at my innards. It was so strange to feel that but not feel the pain. All at once here came Jack up over the curtain so we could be (almost) the first ones to know his gender.
I think we were a highlight of the morning for the staff. They were all so excited when I told them we didn't know the baby's gender. Bets were placed left and right.
Jack is a beautiful baby. He surprised us with his blonde hair. He looks more like the Lowe side of the family right now. We'll have to see if he keeps the blonde hair. I think he will. He's been sleeping almost constantly since he was born 24 hours ago. I'm sure that will change soon.
Welcome to the world, little Jack.

The Day Before I Have A Baby

I can't remember what I did the day before I had Tristan but the day before I had Kennedy we watched "Finding Nemo". I remember because we had a similar experience bringing Kennedy into the world as Marlin did bringing Nemo into the world. Kennedy even had a lucky fin.

Today, the day before I have baby #3, I ran last-minute errands all morning and took my kids to the mall to have their pictures taken. My mom flew in last night and the kids have been hanging all over her today. Tristan has fallen in love with Grandma Mary and has nicknamed her "Grammy". I am glad she is here too. I was able to leave my kids with my mom this afternoon and pick up my minivan from the body shop--glad to have that fixed!

Whew! It is still really hard for me to believe that I will be giving birth tomorrow. Life is busy and I think things aren't going to slow down. I am a little nervous about having three kids but I have always felt that way about the unknown. I'm sure in time we will adjust and it will all become comfortable. One thing is for sure. . .the day before I have this baby I feel ready to have this baby out!

Harvest

We've been eating peas for several weeks now. I say we but I really mean the kids. Tristan just helps himself to any pea on the vine, ripe or not. He loves them so much he puts the whole pod in his mouth. I was getting upset with him at first but then I figured that he would be eating the peas when they were ripe anyway so I might as well let him enjoy it. I will give the ripe ones to Kennedy.

Today after church the kids and I went to check on the garden to see if it needs watering tomorrow. I pulled some carrots out of the ground, picked some beans and a small crown of broccoli. This is what I came up with. . .

Enough for one person. Since the kids have eaten most of the peas I helped myself. They were delicious!

Dance Recital

Practicing before dress rehearsal. . .That Sam I AM

Today was Kennedy's dance recital. Her class performed two dances, both numbers were to songs from the Dr. Seuss musical. She has been going to dance once a week since September. She had a really cute teacher and met lots of fun friends in her class. She really enjoyed it and wants to do it again next year.

Dancing on stage. . .

We had a dress rehearsal two days ago. As she performed her first dance I noticed Kennedy was looking at her friend to remember the steps. After I changed her costume I had her sit with me for a few minutes so I could show her what some of the other dancers look like. I pointed out how the "good" dancers were smiling and looking out toward the audience. I didn't want to put any pressure on her by telling her she needed to do that, but she picked up on it and for the next dance she did much better. She really did a good job.
Oh the thinks you can think! The class receiving trophies at the end of the recital.
At home showing mom her trophy and flower (from mom).

"It was an accident!"

That is a direct quote from one of our kids' favorite books, "David Gets in Trouble."
Tuesday nights Chris takes Kennedy to her soccer practice. I usually stay home with Tristan. This week, however, we decided to go as a family. Tristan had a late nap and needed to get some running in before bedtime. That being the case we all loaded up in the van as opposed to the Corolla. We headed down the main road. Suddenly a vehicle in front of us slowed down. Chris quickly pressed on the brakes and we stopped just in time. The vehicle behind us, however, didn't . . . .
The good news is that none of us were hurt. The bad news is that the van was.
We pulled over and used a phone from the business across the street to call the police. We waited for an hour before a state trooper came to inspect the accident. Luckily I had a few pieces of candy in the van and a few camp songs in my head to entertain the kids. They were pretty good waiting that long strapped in their car seats alongside a busy road. We were so glad to be done with the exchange that we went to McDonald's for an ice cream sundae.
I've had so many "what ifs" floating in my mind: what if we had left earlier, what if I had not decided to go, etc. But the fact is, we are all ok and I need to get the van fixed quickly. Like I need one more thing to do in the next week and a half!

Last Hurrah!

This weekend is our official "last hurrah" before the baby comes. Next weekend Chris will be in Tennessee taking his final board exams and the weekend after that is when Mom comes to town.
So what did we do? We took the kids camping. This was Tristan's first time camping and with his latest sleep issues (waking up at 5:30 AM) I wasn't sure how fun it would be.
We picked up Chris from work early Friday afternoon and headed to Falls Lake where we hoped there would be a camping spot left for us on this holiday weekend. Fortunately, there was. As soon as we opened the van doors the kids were ready to start exploring. Tristan, especially, was excited, jumping up and down and shouting "hurray!" I was glad to hear such shouts of jubilee because all week long I had been trying to prep him for the trip by telling him we were going camping and we were going to sleep in a tent. The reply was always, "NO camp!, NO tent!"
One problem we encountered was buying some wood for our campfire. Our grocery store had bundles all winter long but now, when I needed it most, it was gone. I tried a woodcutting business down the road but they didn't have any split wood and the person who owned the business wasn't there. His mother was nice enough to give me some rotten wood for free but we couldn't get it to burn. When we got to our campsite there was a list of local vendors who sell firewood so I went to the closest one and not only had the name of the company changed but they no longer had firewood either. Bad luck. Chris ended up going to Food Lion for charcoal briquettes. Finally at about 8:30 we were ready to eat. Tinfoil dinners. Yum!
We kept the kids up way to late--until almost 10 p.m. but we all went to bed together and all fell asleep pretty quickly--even Tristan. As campgrounds go, though, I was awakened shortly after midnight by another camp's crying child, talking children, barking dog, you name it. It was a pretty happening place for midnight. I meant to take some earplugs because I knew things like that would keep me awake. Between campground noises, the noises in our tent (Tristan woke up a few times and I had to comfort him), getting up to go to the bathroom and the rain I got a grand total of three hours. Tristan woke up with the birds at 5:30 AGAIN. The rest of my family, however, slept pretty much all night. We were pretty tired today though.
After breakfast we had a little rest in the tent while it sprinkled outside (what's camping without a little rain?). Then we went to the beach and let the kids play on the playground. We decided we had better pack up so we could get home in time for naps. It was a short camping trip and I'm sure I/we put in more hours preparing and cleaning up than we actually camped but it was so much fun and I'm glad we did it.
(This is the position he usually assumes at home while playing with cars. Notice he is using a pine cone, driving it back and forth.)