More garden fun

Erik and I were left with a dilemma. More strawberries from our garden than we could eat plain, with ice cream or in a pie. What to do? We decided to try our hand at makes preserves. It took us two tries, but the results were scrumptious. Enough to make me go buy more jars and lids to see what else I could can.

Hey, I've got a friend who is growing wheat in her kitchen and another friend who butchers her own meat. I'm just trying to catch up! :)

"Empty Nest"

I had a bit of an empty nest last week for a few days because Erik took the two older kids on a trip to Maine to see his brother graduate from college. I stayed home with my attached-at-the-hip newborn. It was a really nice time just to snuggle and coo at William, a chance that doesn't come along very often with three kids. But I will say that I got very little of my uber long to-do accomplished. I greatly underestimated the amount of time that a nursing child takes, even though his two older siblings are gone!

In order to make myself feel more accomplished, I thought I would post some pictures of our most recent projects. Before William came, we switched around four rooms of our house. It was like moving, but not changing houses! Grace's room turned into the nursery again (its nice to be back in there, since Matthew never had it). The guest bedroom turned into the older kids' room (we took the plunge and put them together). The office/Matthew's room turned into the guest bedroom. And the computer/office moved from our bedroom to the basement.

The old guest bedroom, with a test paint swatch:
The chaos that poor Matthew slept in (used to be the office):
The new guest bedroom (still needing some finishing touches, but much improved!):
Grace and Matthew's new room. Grace took the top bunk, and eventually Matthew will take the bottom. He tried it a few times, but decided he preferred the crib, so we left it in there for now:

Please note that I was able to take the "after" pictures of their room because they weren't home and it actually stayed picked up! :)

Strawberry patch

We started a raised garden last year with all sorts of things- cantaloupe, zucchini, watermelon, tomatoes, rhubarb, jalapenos, bell peppers... and strawberries.

We got one tiny watermelon, a mouse or something ate our one cantaloupe that we waited all summer to grow, we had more zucchini than we could give away, more cherry tomatoes than my kids could eat, and had so many jalapenos we made a spicy jelly out of them for cheese and crackers.

Then there were the strawberries. We didn't get a single one last year. But the plants took off. In fact, they took over where the cantaloupe, zucchini, and watermelon were planted. And I was ok with that.

And here are the rewards so far, after just one evening of picking:
I'd say two thirds of our garden this year are strawberries. In fact, I wouldn't call it a garden, I'd call it a strawberry patch. Which for us, is better than a garden! Don't worry, we'll still have those tomatoes, peppers, and jalapenos, but if you want zucchini, this year it won't be me sneaking it into your car at church!

Six weeks

I can't believe that William is six weeks old today. It really seems impossible (prepare to hear that a lot over the next year!). He has been smiling, especially at his mama. He has been smothered with love by his siblings- even Matthew wants to hold him and wants to pray for him every night! It is hard to believe that if I was a working mother I would be back at the office, a reality that I am blessed not to have to face.

I must say that the transition from one kid to two was a whole lot harder so far than from two to three. Of course, I am still living in la-la land. Meals delivered by sweet friends and only just went to the grocery store myself last night. I did take the kids to get the oil changed in the van, hauled them all to Grace's ballet class, and got Matthew's hair cut, which I saw as a huge accomplishment for the week! :) Mind you, it did take me two trips each time we had to load into the car and out of the car. I did get a look with the baby in the car seat sitting in front of store as I went back for another load of little ones!

Check back here in a couple weeks when I am sure to be pulling out my hair... :) Meanwhile, here is the sweet smiling boy (in an outfit that swallowed him just three weeks ago)!

Month in review

I can't believe William is four weeks old! How many mothers have lamented how quickly time passes?

William has gone from a delicate baby in need of extra care to a normal baby. Two weeks ago he was given the all clear to nurse full time, and he took off with it. No more pumping and bottles. He regained ounces to surpass his birth weight. Basically, they said, "See you at his two month check up!" What a blessing.

A week after the surgery my incision started opening up and developed a hematoma. After removing that, it had to be packed daily with a special gauze until it healed from the inside out. This led to daily nurse visits or trips to the doctor. Apparently this is common for any type of surgery, and with three c-sections, my number was up. It set back my recovery, but this past week has seen much improvement and it was nice to start to feel normal again.

The last month has been full of feeding, snuggles, diapers, bonding, laughter and tears. It has occurred to Erik and I that we are now officially outnumbered. But it sure feels nice! :)

Weeks one and two-

Size of diapers: Premie

Size of clothes: Premie

Number of heel pricks: 10

Number of baby IV sticks: 6

Number of adults needed to run household: at least 3

Number of adoring big sisters: 1

Number of brothers needing some encouragement and extra love: 1

Number of doctor visits after hospital discharge: 4

Official date of Easter: April 4

Our date of Easter: April 10




Weeks three and four-

Size of diapers: Newborn

Size of clothes: Newborn

Number of adults needed to run household: 2-3

Number of adoring siblings: 1 1/2 (unless Grace can count for 3)

Number of real baths: 3

Number of healthy, normal babies: 1

Number of nurse/doctor visits: 13

Number of nightly feedings: 2-3

Moments spent falling in love: countless

The Middle Brother turns two

I know you may want to hear more on how things are going on the baby home front, but I didn't want to let an important milestone slip by un-noticed.

Matthew, ie the Middle Brother, turned two this month on April 18th. You may remember that my due date was his birthday... at least now we know the two boys won't share an actual birth date! (Don't rule out combo parties- I'm thinking this could be a serious advantage to having two boys so close together!)
We did a simple evening at home with the family. Look at the smile on that face. Do you think someone was happy to have some attention, especially in the form of singing, just for him? :)

Matthew is the family comedian and keeps us in stitches constantly. His current favorite phrase is "No way" when he is shocked by something (like every 10 minutes). He is obsessed with cars, hence the "we-o", or car, themed party and just this morning was making his waffle vroom across his plate. He follows his sister everywhere and wants to do anything she is doing. He loves to snuggle, and we spend at least 30 minutes after nap time just sitting together on the sofa. I love his chubby little feet and hands, and the goofy smile he does for the camera.

We love you Matthew and can't imagine our family without you!

Home Sweet Home

We got to bring William home Monday night!

On Sunday they removed the IV to see how he handled his only source of nutrition being from the bottle. He is only a s0-so eater, due to his being early and not having the brain development, and from the jaundice. He has lost weight since then, but it is about 8% today, so not quite the 10% that would require him to be readmitted.

They were hesitant to let him come home, but in the end we think it was miscommunication between the pediatrician and the NICU nurses. The nurse who discharged us said that she felt comfortable sending us home as long as he continued to eat the minimum amount and was seen every day for check ups. So now we just pray that his weight loss plateaus and he learns better how to eat so we can avoid the dreaded re-admission to the hospital.

The kids were thrilled to get to go back and see baby William and do the "one finger touch". Check out the cute shirts that Daddy got for them, Big Sister and Middle Brother.

Oh, how good this home cooked food tasted! And to be back home as a family felt unbelievably joyful! Grace and Nana made a birthday cake for William (the candle was a zero :) ).

Welcome William!

First, some pics, then the story.

Where in the world does that dark, full head of hair come from?!?

Getting to hold William for the first time since he was born, about 24 hours later. What a sweet moment!

Thank you all so much for your prayers!! Yes, we had a little boy yesterday, April 1st. He was 6 lb 2 oz and we decided to call him William Robert (Robert was my beloved grandfather's name, so now each of our boys have a middle name of one of our grandfathers). He was born at the end of a very crazy day a little after 4pm.

My ultrasound on Wednesday afternoon showed that the baby was at the 11th percentile for weight (they guessed 5 lb, 14oz). If he had been at the 10th percentile, they would have put me on complete bed rest and delivered at 38 weeks. But with the extra percentage point, they were willing to put me on modified best rest and twice weekly Non-Stress Tests. I wasn't thrilled, but I wasn't worried either. I just figured we had a little baby since everything else so far looked so good.

I started out with a Non-Stress Test at the hospital in the morning. While I was sitting there I was having a lot of contractions, and the tech was concerned. Secretly, I was hoping she wouldn't notice the contractions because I had no intention of delivering a baby that day! :) She took the results over to our OB's office and they wanted to send me down to triage at the Family Birth Place for more monitoring to see if the contractions would slow down. After several hours, they were still very regular so they decided to move up the c-section to that day. It was the longest we have had to wait in the hospital, (about 5 hours in triage) but God was so good to give us his patience and peace- and time to figure out a name :).

The surgery went well, but William came out with a lot of fluid in his lungs and unable to get enough oxygen on his own, apparently common for a preemie baby (the pediatrician said today that there is a remarkable difference between a 37 week baby and a 38 week baby). He has been in the NICU since delivery, and I am hoping and praying that they will discharge him tomorrow or the next day or so that we can finally hold and feed the little peanut! (They don't want any stimulation- holding, touching- to raise his heart rate and breathing because he is already working so hard.)

His vitals are all good now and today he is breathing on his own without the oxygen tent, but he still has a high respiratory rate which they will have to wait for him to get under control. We have been told that babies at this age have not mastered the tasks of swallowing, breathing and eating, so he has to be on an IV for now.

We covet all prayers. The older kids are doing well with all the sudden changes. We look forward to being able to bring everyone home, and start our new, "normal" life! :)

Full term

It is nice to hit that milestone of "full term", which always seemed a little odd to me at 37 weeks and not 40, but I guess the point is that if the baby came today, their lungs would be ready and hopefully Mommy and Daddy would be ready. :) But that's a post for another day!

I am still measuring small, about three weeks behind, which may account for all of the "you are so tiny" comments. I guess I feel smaller than with Matthew, but honestly, who feels small in their last month of pregnancy?!? At this point the doctors want to check on things and we have had to wait a week for an ultrasound to check on the baby and all that sustains him/her. They will combine that info with the fact that I don't have small babies (hello, Matthew at 9 lb. 7 oz. !), and they may decide to move the c-section date up earlier. We shall see...
Meanwhile we have been keeping ourselves busy with Spring time activities, like a picnic at the park and some good ol' rock throwing into the river.

Anyone remember Grace at this age would not even dream of going down the slide?? And check out that hair. I promptly gave him a hair cut last week after this photo.

Dying Easter eggs... and remembering why a almost-two-year-old should probably not be handling real eggs.

Grace, the artist in the family.

Cathryn at 33 Weeks

We have a date now of April 12th... only 5 1/2 weeks before Baby comes!

Snowy week

We are supposed to get another couple of inches of snow tonight and it reminded me that I wanted to blog about our BIG snow last week. I actually had no idea it was coming until someone mentioned it at church and I said "yeah, yeah... that's what they are always threatening and it never happens." Turns out the weather man was right this time!

We are those weird people who actually enjoy the snow and being out in it. Poor Erik was in Pittsburgh for a few days so he missed the fun. After a couple of days Mommy and kids were ready to get out of the house, but my car couldn't clear the driveway. Probably not the smartest thing to shovel a driveway full of foot-and-a-half snow at 31 weeks pregnant, but lets just say I was highly motivated by the idea of "kids eat free" at our Chick-fil-a on Tuesday nights! You can see how deep the snow was: the part to the left of Matthew was our walkway to our front door that we didn't shovel yet. After a few swipes with the shovel, Grace announced, "I think this must be very hard work" and quit. :)

Dixie was not so keen of having to wade through snow to go outside. And I was not about to shovel the back patio for the dog.

That weekend after Erik got home he and Grace headed out to make a snow fort before the snow melted. With two brothers growing up, this is a specialty of his. And of course the hard work was rewarded with chocolate chip cookies!

My Valentines

Don't you wish you had such fun valentines in your life? :)

What I learned today

It is perfectly acceptable to be a boy playing cars and still wear a crown (at his request). At least we have that manly Dora band aid on to prove how tough we really are!

The dread of getting back into exercising after a 6 week hiatus is worse than actually doing it.

Crayola has awesome free coloring pages and activities.

If you plan carefully, is it fully possible for a mommy to take a bath and a nap during the kids' nap times.

A day at home is a always a lovely thing.

A Very Belated Merry Christmas

So I was joking with a friend that it would probably be February before I got my Christmas pictures up on the blog. That was supposed to be a joke, and yet here I am sneaking them in under the wire. It is not entirely my fault! Really. We have been having some issues with the internet after moving the computer to a wireless connection. And it seems that it hated Blogger the most. And I have better things to do than battle with this contraption, so therefore that is why it took a month to get these pictures up. Enjoy, especially those of you who kindly harassed me for them :).

"Mine" A new favorite word that can mean both Matthew and the truest sense of that evil word, mine.

Our Christmas snow storm and the fabulous Daddy who will go out and play for hours.

This is the safest way that Matthew decided he should touch snow: through the glass or on a plate. He was not keen of having any more to do with it up close and personal.

Grace and "Snowy" that she and Daddy made. Quite creative, I thought (the decorations, not the name).

If only he always kept the crayons on the paper, this would be such a sweet activity... but alas, I have found his artistic evidence on my wall, closet door, the inside of the play kitchen...

On Christmas Eve we sang carols in a room lit only by candles, and read a Christmas book while eating cookies. Is it not clear why this is every kid's favorite holiday? This includes big kids.

One who looks like she is going on twelve. And another who is in the "cheesey smile" phase.

What a way to ring in the New Year

You know, in a way it is encouraging to know that things can only get better in the New Year. We started out the New Year with two sick parents and one sick kid, and one kid who I kind of wished was sick so that he would be zonked out like the rest of us. Turns out Grace had bronchitis, which she shared with me, and at the same time Erik got the flu which turned into a two week ordeal with some breathing complications. I knew he was knocked off his feet when the man who has never taken a sick day from work in his life took five. We were bad enough off that we had to call reinforcements to fly in and help us since the sick adults were greatly outnumbered.

In the meantime, our Christmas decorations stayed up later than they ever had, laundry grew roots on the floor, and the dust was thick enough to be able to be seen from across the room. And our rather nice microwave decided to die, to the tune of $400 in parts alone. Um, instead we'll get a new one for less than that, thank you. I can't tell you how good it has been for all of us to be back to normal this week, getting things done and playing catch up on house work (yes, it was enjoyable to catch up on housework!).

So if you haven't seen us in a while it isn't because we don't like you. :) We are just now returning to the land of the living!