Nora is 2 months

Nora is 2 months old!

 Nora had her 2 month well visit this Wednesday.  She is now 11 lb 12.5 oz and 22.25 inches. She is very responsive to facial expressions and has become very social after she has eaten.  She likes to coo and smile and is really just a very easy-going baby. It's fun to see that she stops crying as I approach her or from the sound of my voice before I pick her up.

Kids Playing

       Riley has really been enjoying going to preschool and now knows the names of all of the children in her classroom.  She got to go on a field trip to Hy-Vee to meet a chef and learn about what they do. In the classroom they made pizzas and made chef hats.

     After dropping her off in the morning it's nice to have some more one-on-one time with August. It's fun to see him growing and what his interests are.  Sometimes it's hard to tell what is him because he picks up a lot from Riley.

Riley is getting really elaborate in storytelling and very creative at building. I have seen her come up with some very interesting designs. They are generally pretty good at playing together but they also know each other well and how to push each other's buttons

Kids are hard. It's a fine line of discipline and hurting them emotionally.  I have to keep myself in check pretty often when multiple kids are crying so I have to leave myself little reminder post-its around on how to be always try to be a better parent and a good and loving example, because honestly I get tired and need those reminders. They are people who want to be heard and my being tired is not an excuse. I need to teach them how to problem solve and how to react to each other with kindness and patience. It may be hard to teach with more yelling.

Involving them in anything I am doing is the best. Everyone is happy to be together and to be useful and it is also teaching them a skill. The only drawback is, I don't always get a lot done with all that help.

 I love them all so much! They are often really silly, really stubborn and just really sweet kids with good hearts.

Looking Forward to Christmas

Today it is snowing and Riley is really excited for Christmas!

Thanksgiving 2016

 Nora is one month

 At 3 weeks Nora was awake for longer stretches of time.  She was also really looking around at anything she could see. Most nights she sleeps pretty well as long as she doesn't wiggle out of her swaddle which she has been known to do.

Nora is getting really strong and doesn't seem to mind tummy time. She is always entertained by her siblings who surround her with love most of the time.

At 6 weeks she started smiling a lot and getting much more social during her awake time.  She is really analyzing faces and starting to make little noises like she is trying to talk to me.  When she is lonely she cries, but sometimes instead of crying she makes a noise like she is calling out and asking where everybody is, which is new.

August wanted his picture taken too!

Thanksgiving in Ottumwa

All of the kids got to decorate gingerbread houses. I helped August but he enjoyed trying to eat the candy, of course.

         It was a fun gathering, lots of great food and everyone got to meet Nora.  The kids all got along and had so much fun running around and playing.  It was especially fun to see August and Liam playing so well despite the age difference,  it was sweet.  August was just too little last year.
          Olivia wanted to hold Nora the entire time. I double checked the car seat before we left to make sure she was still in it.  Riley and Liv seem to have a special language as they ran around both giggling and being silly.  We will just say that everyone was very sleepy on the way back to Ames.

Everybody piled on Daddy the next morning!

Thankful To Be Busy

Preschool

Riley is 4 years old now and started preschool this fall.  It is all she talked about for a long time because she was so excited!  She is our outgoing, friendly and smart girl.  She likes all of her teachers and talks about them frequently and has been getting really good about asking for and remembering the other students' names.  

It's fun to hear about all of the things that she is learning and to see how it has changed her behavior at home.  She has always loved to dance but I could never get her to sing along with me before, and now she comes home singing almost daily! She likes to play teacher and often teaches August all of the things that she is learning; he doesn't seem to mind.  We love her so much!

 This is Riley ready for her first day of school!   



 















August Pictures

 These pictures were taken August 31.  I love this silly little guy!  It is amazing and a little sad for me to see how much he has grown.  He is talking a lot and all over the place. He wants to do whatever his big sister is doing.  I like to watch him dance and read himself the little blue truck book in his chair (his favorite right now).  I love to snuggle him, he has always been a really cuddly boy. 

Snuggling At Home

 I love these pictures, the kids love Daddy time on the weekends and in the evening when Keenan gets home.  They love to just crawl all over him and be crazy.  Stealing Daddy's slippers is also a cherished pastime.

 Falling Leaves and Pumpkins!
 
 This year Riley picked out a pumpkin and drew a face on it and I carved it out for her.  She did not enjoy pulling out all the pumpkin guts like she did last year.  She said it made her hands all dirty. Haha, must be the Keenan in her.  She made her pumpkin happy then named it Rory as I had been watching Gilmore Girls recently (it is fall, after all!).

This fall has been a long one and it has been enjoyable to take the kids outside to play and listen to them crunch everywhere they go.  By the way I think I am a kid too sometimes because I find that amusing. 

            two short days later...

It's a Girl!

We went to the hospital to be induced on October 21 and got to meet Nora later that day.  It was a fast and crazy labor.  My cervix was completely closed this time so they ordered something called Cervidil. They told me that it was to open my cervix and that it typically takes 12 hours.   The midwife did not intend to check me for a long time and said that if she came in and saw progress that she could break my water and start some Pitocin, but if she didn't see any change that we could always go home and come back on Monday.  It sounded like a long process (very different from August) so I thought that the pain that I was feeling must be normal and was very unhappy that it could be 12 hours of this before any actual labor starts.  Turns out that it was in fact not normal and that I was 7 or 8 cm dilated (little fuzzy on the facts [Keenan's note: it was 7cm]) and that I was dilating a cm a contraction and that this baby would be born very soon. Shortly after that I can't stand the pain, there are a thousand people in the room (check with Keenan I am sure that number is accurate [Keenan's note: give or take 993-ish]), I am throwing up because it is happening too fast and I am trying to push her out as quickly as I can because her heart rate has dropped and the many nurses are worried.  From the time they took the Cervidil out to the time Nora was born, only 14 minutes passed. Keenan did a wonderful job helping with everything, by the way.  He tried to keep me focused, took care of vomit (not his thing [Keenan's note: not even remotely my thing]) and tried to keep me cooled off (I felt like I had a fever). All while managing to get some pictures.

I learned that it is just as hard on the baby to have such a fast labor.  It puts a lot of stress on them.  Luckily our midwife knows how to keep her cool (thank you, Susan) and everything turned out okay. Scary for a bit there.

We are so in love with our newest addition! She passed all of her tests in the hospital and started nursing right away (less than a minute after being born). It never gets old to see this tiny person that I have been feeling for so long for the first time. It's amazing. Wow! She is a whole person and I couldn't wait to take her home and watch her grow.

Nursing is going really well; she has already gained so much more than expected by her 2 week check up with the pediatrician.  She went from 6 lb 12 oz at birth to 8 lb 6 oz at 2 weeks of age.  No more chicken legs in this house!
     

Our happy family with one more to love!

 


















  Bringing Nora Home

 The nurses at Mary Greeley are always really helpful and amazing, but nothing compares to home.  Getting to take our new family member home from the hospital is always really exciting.  The entire process of giving birth and taking care of this new person is so exhausting that being home is comforting. It's nice to be with our other kids and develop our new routine.

Getting to know Nora has been great! The kids both adore her and love to take turns holding her. Riley and August are both so sweet and nurturing; it's cute to watch August talk to her and kiss the top of her tiny head. She is perfect, I feel so grateful and lucky and, well, tired. She is a pretty easy baby and doesn't fuss all the time. Newborns are pretty demanding with feedings around the clock but that just comes with the job.  Nora looks a lot like her siblings right now.  She likes her car seat and will sleep on her back, so that is as far as it goes right now.



 

On October 28 I took the kids trick or treating on Main Street and they had so much fun.  A lot of the shops participated and it was a beautiful warm day.  There were so many other families out and it was fun for the kids and I to see all of the costumes! I love Halloween - ahem - I mean, it was for the kids! Next year I would love to take them again and stay longer. Nora was only 1 week old so I couldn't be out long and August had an appointment later [Keenan's note: and I may or may not have been cursing the broken pipe and hole in our bathroom wall].

At 3 weeks, Nora has been more alert and looking around which is fun.  It's nice to try to bond with her even more. Soon we should be able to start developing a better sleep-wake-eat-play-sleep routine, which would be nice.  I think that would help her sleep longer at night. We have been trying to make sure she stays out with us during the day so she can make the adjustment. 

The Munsons visited at 3 weeks, which was a lot of fun for all the cousins to get to play together and to meet Nora.  They spoiled us and planned all of the meals so all we had to do was enjoy a fun day together!  Thank you!