The last 9 weeks of my life

9 weeks! Has it really been 9 weeks since this baby has been out of my belly? And also it feels a lot like "has it ONLY been 9 weeks? hasn't he just always been here?" I can honestly say the past weeks have been a blur, or a fog, basically something that I'm sure in the future will be blocked out from my memory completely because seriously? 3 kids is NUTS! Don't get me wrong, I wouldn't trade Landon for anything. He fits in our family like he's always just been here. After only 2 months I really can't imagine life without him. But man am I tired! It hasn't helped that he was born at the prime time peak of summer fun season. In his short little life he has been to 2 parades,  2 family reunions, the county fair, and gotten one nasty sunburn.

Lets start off with him being born. His birthing was completely uneventful, other than it resulted in the cutest lil baby boy that is!

It was a rainy day in June...

view out of our delivery room window

Friday, June 27th We got to the hospital at 7:00AM to check in. (As we all know I was scheduled to be induced at 39 weeks in hopes of not developing pre-eclampsia) The Lady at the check in desk looked up my name and said "Oh, you're scheduled for tomorrow" excuse me? umm...pretty sure that's wrong. I had just had my last OB apt the day before and my doc said "see ya tomorrow!" I had checked and double checked everything, they even sent me a letter in the mail with that date on it which I immediately took out and showed to them. Tomorrow my butootie! The head nurse, who obviously had just gotten off of an all night shift, either that or was just a bad word I don't say, said "I guess we can accommodate you" gee thanks lady. Turns out there was another patient named MaryAnne who was originally scheduled for today but needed it changed for tomorrow but in the computer they changed me instead of her. Awesome.

After they took me back to my "accommodations" I got all ready and about an hour after I got there they started to Pitocin. Me and Rusty just sort of hung out. watched the rain. stuff like that. Not so long story even shorter they started the meds around 8:00. 9:00 I got my lovely epidural. A little after 10 The nurse had told me she would be back to check me at 11. By 10:20 I was feeling (slightly since the epidural takes all the edge off) the urge to push and I was pretty sure Rusty would be delivering a baby by himself if we waited till 11 for the nurse to come back and check. I called her and she checked and said "Oh my, well lets call the doctor! We're having a baby now!"I Doc came around 10:45. The nurse said jokingly "we might have this before 11!" Yeah right. 15 min.? ha! and the doc still had to do some prep! But since Little Landon was so corporative and only needed 2 pushes, the first for his head and the second for everything else, he came at exactly 11:00 on the dot. good boy!   just to help with the math that's a 3 hour labor. A personal best above Sophie's 4 hour one! I'll take it!

He was 5lb 10.5 oz, 19 inches long and perfect! (the exact size of Conner, just FYI) I couldn't believe how tiny he was. They handed him to me right away and asked Rusty if he wanted to cut the cord. Funny husband never remembers if wants to or not which is a good thing because he's done it every time after every time he says "That's so weird! I'm never doing that again!" Must be his form of the amnesia I guess. So he cut the cord and I got to cuddle with my new little lovey for a few minutes before they took him to get all checked out and cleaned off. While Rusty was cutting the cord the doc commented on how small the cord was (remember he had a single artery umbilical cord so we knew it would be smaller. apparently it was small even for that) and Scary/weird thing, when I was delivering the placenta the umbilical cord just, like, detached and so doc had to get all up in my business to get it out and the placenta was coming out in pieces. Not so normal. It's scary to think that the cord came off so easily. If we hadn't delivered when we did...it problaby would have been fine. but it maybe have not... but it DID turn out just fine so we won't dwell on anything!

 

A few hours after he was born they did an ultrasound on his kidneys (remember, in his ultrasounds in my belly they were slightly dilated) and they were still a little bigger than they should be. So when he's 3 months we will do an ultrasound again and see how things are going and if we need to go to primary Children's for further testing. As for now he's on an itty bitty daily dose of amoxicillin. 

 

Meeting the sibs

My parents were awesome enough to watch Conner and Sophie for us and brought them later that day to meet their new little bro.

Soph was a little obsessed with his nose

And with making sure everyone was quiet. She kept shussing everyone and saying "baby"



 

Here are the big kids al ready for church while we were in the hospital! So cute!

 

I don't know if it was just because it was #3 and we are non-stress crazy parent pros, or the fact that everything went so well and we didn't have to go to lockdown prison rooms (remember Conner's birth story? Sheesh!) or what but this hospital stay was so much more relaxing and awesome. We just hung out and rested and had no cares whatsoever while there.  Anyway, On Saturday, the next day, Rusty and I "celebrated" (as much as you can celebrate in the hospital) our 8th wedding anniversary! Go us! Who'da thunk 8 years ago exactly we'd be in the hospital with #3? crazy! we didn't do much. I slept through most of it, and Rusty watched movies. Pretty awesome! Later Rusty's fam came to visit which was pretty trooper of them because they had all just gotten back from Trek like 3 hours before and where falling over tired. Thanks for coming guys!!

 

 On Sunday we were able to go home! yay! Although that meant real life would begin. Bring it!

 

First 4th of July

Exactly one week after Landon was born was the 4th of july, AKA his due date! We were brave and went up to Oakley for the parade and day o' fun with Rusty's fam. Later that night Rusty took the kiddos to the Rodeo. As much fun as it sounded to sit on a hard stadium bench for 3 hours one week after giving birth I had to respectfully decline.

Landon's first parade!

Not planned at all but look at it compared to last year's 4th pic. Crazy! Before Landon was even a twinkle in our eyes...



C's suuuper excited about his parade loot.

Soph just chillin' eating her sucker

For the 24th of july we went to a family reunion for my side of the family at my uncles yurt ( a round tent/cabin thing) up by Heber. The kiddos had a blast!

Conner helping great grandma make ice-cream old school!

grandma cuddles

 The Sibs
These kiddos love their little brother. They have both adjusted so well! And Landon tolerates them as best as can be expected...

Sophie's such a little mommy to him. She's always putting blankets, even when it's 100 degrees out, and shushing everyone, even when he's not sleeping. She just really loves him. Conner is just excited for him to be big and play trucks with him. He keeps asking me if Landon's big enough to do stuff yet. Nope bud, not yet.

 

When Landon was 2 weeks old (well 2 weeks and 2 days) I woke up with a 104.6 degree fever. Whaaat? It was crazy! I've never had anything like that so we ended up going to insta care (since it was a Sunday) and nobody could figure out what was wrong. It was assumed that I had some sort of infection...somewhere. The doc said it was most likely a urinary tract infection, but from what I've heard I think I would probably know if it was that. And I didn't know so... anyway, the doc put me on antibiotics and since baby things are not his specialty and he wasn't for sure what was infected and since I had just had a baby he put me on super duper strong antibiotics just to make sure it got anything that might be causing the fever and long story short I couldn't nurse while on it! lame! Landon HATES binkys so I knew this was going to be fun. So after an $80 trip to the store to get bottles, formula, and binkys we went home for a fun week of making bottles in the middle of the night and pumping and dumping to keep up the supply for when there was a demand. At first he was like "what the crap is this crap!?" but as the week went on he got used to it and by the end he almost liked his binky! awesome!

sleeping with the bink...notice how it's still not actually in his mouth? that's because like 3 days after he started nursing again it was bye bye bink. And once again he hates it :(

 During this fun week of no nursing was Lamb Day! (Rusty's annual family reunion in Fountain Green.) Let me tell ya though that camping (well, me and Landon didn't really camp) and going to an all day carnival thing at a park while having to pump is so not a fun thing. I'm so glad that this was just a week thing and not forever! My hat goes off to people who do it full time. Anyway, Landon went to his second parade during there but I got absolutely no pictures of the event dang it! but I do have an after pic of the nice little sunburn poor little baby got. First official  mommy fail for this one.



 

Here's a preview of his newborn pictures. Can't show them all before his announcement comes out! What would be the point of an announcement? but here's a taste (it will be soon. infact it's done! I just need to get it printed. Cut me some slack, I'm lucky if my children get dressed for the day most days...oh wait...)

 

Since the world hasnt' stopped for the two bigger kiddos we've been entertaining them a lot with some backyard pooling. One thing I've learned about having more than one kid, and it gets more true the more you have, is that they they force you back into society so much faster. I personally would be ok vegetating and sleeping for the first 4 months but noooo. These kids think they want to have fun. weird.

Landon got a new swing so he can have fun (mostly sleep) while I help the big kids have fun!

way photogenic kids

awesome.

Here are some of Landon's second month pictures. awe...

Nothing like the perfect shot being photo bombed by a 4 year old eating gogurt. sigh...

Landon's new crib
At about 6 weeks Landon got a new room. Those who see my posts on facebook know that his new space is my closet. I've actually weirdly had a lot of people very interested in this and wonder how it works. so tada! here you go...

After a few weeks of this closet thing going so well I decided to make things a little more permanent and last week I hung curtains! Cute! Now we can go to the bathroom in the middle of the night and not worry about waking babe up!

 

Speaking of bathrooms, Sophie is thinking this is a good idea. ugggg. I so don't want to do this with a newborn again. Just wait a little longer sis. I don't mind changing you I promise! Luckily she's  just playing with the idea and not full fledged into it yet. Probably because I'm not being all that supportive.

about 2 weeks ago (when L was 7 weeks)  the county fair was in town! and it was Rusty's probably last weekend of not working until Sept 15 and it was lots of fun! They had an elephant show that we went to and the kids loved it! Even though we were cheap and didn't let them go on a $8 2 minute ride. Rude parents.

Petting zoo. Not a great pic. C really did have fun!

Sophie loved her giant snowcone!

Soph was not corporative.

"'sup"

They had this tent with these vacuum tubes that kids could put balls in and it carried them all along the roof. Conner serisusuly played in here for an hour. and then he cried an cried when we told him it was time to go home. "But I have too much energy to go home!" he cried.



Proof that I was there!

 

Remember Sophie's little pink blanket that she loves so much? I decided to be Martha Stewart and make Landon one yesterday! He didn't really seem to care so I think I won't really give it to him until he's out of the spit up phase

So there you have it, that has been our whirlwind last 9 weeks. This last week had it's own fun of everyone getting sick with the cold and the water heater going out. Always an adventure around these parts!
My house almost always looks like Toy's R Us and a laundry mat threw up all over it and I'm about 60% tired, 50% cranky (sorry kiddos!) and obviously so brain dead that I can't do simple math. But slowly things are getting back to normal, or at least we're finding our new normal. Landon has been sleeping awesome since he moved into the closet and that has helped a TON! He only wakes up twice to eat. Unless you consider 5:30 an acceptable time to start your day (which I sure as heck don't) then it's only once.  But I love seeing all the kids playing together, well Landon laying there and not being stepped on by the other kids playing together. Sometimes (ahem, most times) it's hard and there have been moments where all four of us are all crying at the same time, but I'm really trying to enjoy every little moment because I know they won't be little for long and I'm supposedly going to look back and miss it all. And really, knowing me, I probably will!

Goodbye Stinkin Rollercoaster!

last preggo pic!

Well all, TOMORROW is the big day! B-DAY if you will, bright and early at 7:00am. My dad just picked up the kiddos and Rusty's not home from work yet so I shall blog! (because really there's not much else I could be doing the night before I'm going to have a baby right?)

I've been thinking, usually I love to be pregnant and I have mix feelings about not being pregnant anymore. Like I'm SO out of room for a baby, but I love the whole idea of pregnancy, and feeling the baby, and the anticipation, and honestly even the bump! I think pregnant women are just lovely lovey most of the time. BUT this pregnancy is different. It has been nothing but a crazy up and down rollercoaster ride that I am none to sad to hop off. As I sit here and think about this pregnancy, we have been worried about Down's Syndrome, growth due to a crazy umbilical cord, cysts in his brain! But on the up side tests that we have done say that all is well in all of those aspects :) yay! But I still worry until I can hold him in my arms and see that all is well.

Then there are my crazy awesome veins that have troubled me for the past 4 months. I honestly have never been so excited to not be pregnant just so I won't have to hurt every day! I don't like to whine and complain, but DANG! These things suck big time!

Then there is the pre-eclampsia looming in the background. I'm always worried that it will rear its ugly head. Last week (thurs) I had protein in my urine at my doc apt. This is a HUGE PE red flag and I was honestly freaking out a little. I did the lovely 24 hour pee test AGAIN (3rd times the charm!) and long story short after a giant bout of drama trying to make sure my pee made it to the right place and lots of me bugging the hospital to make sure it wasn't lost (how hard is it to keep track of a giant orange container of pee anyway?) I found out that the results were normal. Then I was SO sick Sunday night (like throw up sick) and I remember I got so so SO sick with Conner and was freaking out a little on Monday so I called the doc's office and went in for testing. All checked out. My doc didn't think I HAD pre-E but that I was developing it. Shouldn't that mean "let's have a baby now so you don't get it!"? But no. She said that the head honcho guy at the hospital gave the OK for me to be induced early if I wanted though because of my history. But I chose not to. not sure why...because I would have a baby right now if I did!...Anyway, at my apt today there was magically no protein in the urine. Crazy! So here I sit. Waiting. I think I said it with Soph, and I'll say it with this one, I'm not sure how I feel about KNOWING that the next morning I will have a baby. It's nice in the planning aspect of things but it's also crazy just knowing! It's like knowing when your going to die. Well...not really that but you get what I mean.

So this rollercoaster pregnancy is almost over! Let's just hope that it ends on a high note! I'm so glad that I have to chance to be pregnant and be a mom to these awesome kids, but I think maybe next summer instead of having a baby I'll just go to Lagoon.

And here's our last fam pic before little guy joins us! (taken last weekend)

The most romantic weekend EVER!!!

Well it's official! I have my induction date set for Friday, June 27!! So no matter what I only have 2 weeks and 1 day left at the longest! The only little hiccup is that Me and Rusty's 8th wedding anniversary is Saturday the 28th. The next day!! So if I make it to my induction date then we'll for sure be spending our anniversary in the hospital. But thinking about it it might not be too bad. Here's a list reasons it might be pretty awesome!

1. Judging from the price, it's obvious that we will be staying in a place with 5 star accommodations.

2. We will already have an overnight babysitter for the kiddos. Both already existing and new babe.

3. Room service! Let's just not think about the fact that Rusty's portion of room service dinner will be my "leftovers" because I "accidentally" ordered too much food.

4. Don't forget about the massages. You know, the uterine massage? Nothing says relax like that one! Maybe if we're lucky we can get someone to do an equally relaxing massage for Rusty. Like a 200 lb lady named Olga jumping up and down on his back and pulling out his hair and call it a couples massage :)

5. Don't forget about the complimentary lingerie the hospital provides. What, I ask, is sexier for an anniversary weekend getaway than fishnets? Nothing! Rusty's a lucky guy ;)

Probably obvious, but I must put it out there that this is not me.

I had my 37 week doc apt today and I'm already dilated to a 3 and 90% effaced and honestly, it feels like his head is as low as it can possible be without actually being out. So I'm not too sure if I'll even make it two more weeks. But at least I know that if I do our anniversary will be a memorable weekend of some....very unique romance.

No Boys Allowed!

Conner and Rusty went camping with Rusty's fam this weekend. (hence me having time to do TWO blog posts in TWO days. unheard of!) As much fun as it sounded to go and sleep on the ground in the cold and then ride around on a bumpy wagon pulled by a mule all the next day while being 8+ months pregnant, I kindly had to opt out. There was no way that I would send both of the kiddos with Rusty. I'm not THAT mean! I don't think that I would even be brave enough to go camping by myself with both of them and I'm a professional mama! So Sophie and I have had a fun girls weekend just the two of us. And let me tell ya, it has been AWESOME! I have never in all of Sophie's life had so much one on one Sophie time and it's been a blast to not have to worry about anyone but her. Plus only one kid is so easy! Why did nobody tell me that one kid was such a breeze when I had only one kid? seriously! I'm sure I'll be saying the same thing about 2 pretty shortly though. Today after her nap we painted the town red! or actually pink.

First we went to the duck pond/lake thing by our house. This proves that I love her. Because ducks kind of freak me out. The last time we went to this park I was probably about the same point in my pregnancy with Sophie and it was just me and Rusty and Conner and out of nowhere all of these crazy geese started chasing me. Not Rusty. Not Conner. ME. Like it seriously was 7 or 8 of them honking and running and I was waddling away as fast as I could screaming but they just kept chasing me until I got to the parking lot. Then they magically stopped. hummm. My only guess is that they saw a fellow waddler and wanted to be friends? Maybe? That or they knew that  I was slow so they could eat me easier. I don't know but it was pretty darn scary.  But I decided to give it a go with Soph and she had so much fun! "Duck" was her first word after "mom" and "dad" so she kind of really likes them.

She got really excited about this fish sign. We had to look at it for like 5 minutes.

She liked the white ones best.



watching the ducks eat her bread she threw.

it was kind of more of a seagull pond than a duck pond today. There were tons!

 

Saw this big pelican thing flying over us. Pretty cool! (especially since it didn't dive bomb my head. I was kind of worried.)
 

 So anyway, it was really fun! Sophie had a blast seeing the ducks and feeding them bread (well, feeding them whatever didn't make it into her own mouth) and we didn't get attacked by any feathered friends so I call it a success!!

When we got home we each got matching pedicures and manicures. Sophie's first nail painting experience and now I know why I waited for so long. Because I knew it would be crazy!! But mostly it was so crazy because she was so excited and couldn't contain it. Her toes look ok but her fingers.... not so much. We'll practice that one.

I have seriously loved getting to spend some good quality time with my little miss before life gets even more crazy. Such a great weekend!!! Hope the boys are having just as much fun with their male bonding as we are!

hallelujah I can see the light!!

 

 

 

Well there ya have it. I used to be skinny! And I used to wear shoes. None of which describe me as of late, but that's ok! because The End Is In Sight. I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. The eagle is leaving the nest. Because while technically I have 4 weeks left, really guys, I only have 3 WEEKS LEFT! Well,  really 3 weeks and one day. And that also depends on if the hospital can get me in exactly on my 39 week, um, birthday? I don't know what you would call it. Probably not birthday. Probably 39 week mark. That sounds better. Anyway, had a doc apt today and Doc says that because of my preeclampsia history and  this lil dude's umbilical cord problem she highly recommends going early. And I HIGHLY agree with her. So she said she would call the hospital and they should call me sometime to let me know what's going on! Plus I'm pretty darn sure I've already dropped. Feels like this little guy's sitting in my lap now. So sorry for all you peoples who were excited for me to have a very patriotic baby, it's just not gonna happen. But at least now I don't feel like I need to be pressured to name him something like Jefferson. or Justice. or George. or Eagle.

 

 

All Things Baby! 32/33 weeks

32 Weeks!

 We've made it to 32 weeks! Well actually today I'm 33 weeks but this picture was taken last week. Pregnancy is still going pretty good. Although I will say this is probably my very very least fav of the 3.  I'm OK baby wise. While I am getting into the suuuuper tired phase of 3rd trimester I'm not too uncomfortable yet, can still breathe, still sleeping sort of ok, but it's these dang varicose vein things that I'm not too happy with. uggg! I was diagnosed with varicose veins pretty much everywhere from the waist down.

 (possible TMI. it depends on your TMI tolerance. You've been warned!)I have them pretty bad on my legs, mostly my right (pretty picture huh?) but the worst part is I have one in my right round ligament (the ligaments that hold up the baby belly) which makes it SOOOO hard to walk because it makes for a giant painful lump right where my leg meets my body. At first by the look of it my doc thought I might have a hernia. yay! But then she said it didn't feel like one and with my legs it seemed like the best diagnosis. I also have general vulvar varicose veins (umm...that means everywhere "down there") Honestly, maybe it's because I'm hyped up on pain meds during recovery, but it hurts worse than getting over HAVING a baby. every day. for the last month and a half (and for the next month and a half) and I have a pretty darn high pain tolerance too! Poor C doesn't understand. He just wants me to play with him and run around like I used to but all I can really do is sit. Running is not even close to an option. So cross your fingers for me that they release me form my nursery calling sometime soon (yes I have talked to them, like over a month ago) I totally get that they are  busy and have a million callings to worry about because our primary is HUGE, but this combined with my giant tiredness=I don't really want to go to church to babysit anymore. Plus I'm pretty useless there anyway since I can't move. Ok end of my complaining. I know there are way worse things that you can have during pregnancy. But this is the worst I personally have had. And it makes me really ready to be DONE. Plus I'm getting excited to meet his little dude!

But in other happier baby news, I had a follow up ultrasound from our crazy 20 week ultrasound. "What crazy ultrasound?" you ask. If you missed it you can catch up here. Everything looked GREAT. His cyst in his brain has disappeared, his kidney is still slightly enlarged. (It's down to 1cm (I think that's the measurement unit....) and they like it to be down to .8 or something by now so they'll just do an ultrasound on him a few days after he's born to see what's going on. And his umbilical cord is not hindering blood flow or growth. He was measuring about 10 days behind but with my last 2 pregnancies I was ALWAYS like 2 weeks behind. because we are small. and I don't make giant amazon babies. so nobody is worried and he's still in the 20%ile.

And last but not least we bought a MINIVAN! It's a 2005 ford Freestar if that means anything to you and we found it on KSL. Conner was really worried that we were getting a "Mini"van because we aren't mini people (little does he know! haha!) but then he saw how big it is and got WAY excited. The kids played in it for like 45 min when we brought it home. I haven't driven it a ton since it's not even registered to us and insured yet it's so new but I'm sure I'll love it. I hear that once you go van you won't go back with kids. Glad I'm not too cool to drive one of these because if something can make my life easier I'm all over it!

and that's all!