Saturday, August 30, 2014

A boy being a boy

Shepherd loves to play with his Transformer toy that Mamm and Pap got him back in July. I love to eaves drop on his play time to hear the dialogue he creates as he is playing. I have no idea where he comes up with this stuff, but here is what I overheard this morning: 

Deep Voice: I'm a big bad scary man and I will never love you. I will eat you.
High Voice: No, don't eat me. I'm a good little man.
Deep Voice: No. I'm a robot and I will eat you.

Thursday, August 28, 2014

The Hair Issue

Sometime in the past week, Violet acquired a tiny mohawk. I'm not sure when it happened, but I'm in love with the Kewpie-doll look on her.



I'm hoping that this mohawk portends to a repeat of Lydia's hair during her 3-9 months-old phase.


That hair was just way to awesome not to repeat.

Shepherd is also spiked these days, but that is because big boys who go to school spike their hair. Obviously.


And since I have an up-to-date picture of Violet and Shepherd on this post, here is a picture of my beautiful Lydia after being told she can't play with the camera. She's pretty even when she's sad.

Monday, August 25, 2014

Thoughts at Two Weeks

1. Two weeks ago today at 12:25 in the morning, Violet Beverly Gensic joined our family. She weighed 6 pounds 13 ounces and was 19.5 inches long.


2. My labor with Violet was the longest and hardest of my three children. My theory is that this is because my water broke much earlier this time. I was in labor off and on for 30 hours. It would ramp up, and I would be positive I was moving into transition only to have it completely stall out. We went to the hospital 3 times in the 30 hour period. The second time, after watching the labor stall out at 4 centimeters, I requested that the nurse take out the IV and let me go home because I was hungry and sitting in that hospital was just stupid. I wasn't in the cheeriest mood after loosing a whole night's sleep and having no baby to show for it. The nurse obliged, I went home, got dressed, and went to church where I had extremely painful contraction about every ten minutes. I think it is safe to say that it will go down as one of the more memorable church services of my life. At 10:45 that night, we headed to the hospital for the third time. As with both Shepherd and Lydia, Violet arrived an hour and 40 minutes after our arrival at the hospital via an all natural delivery. Despite the exhausting longevity of the labor, the end went perfectly.

3. This was the only delivery in which I actually ordered an epidural. I was terrified the labor would stall out again, and I knew I didn't have the physical stamina to face a second night in labor. Fortunately, as soon as the order was placed, my labor cranked up. Violet was there 20 minutes later, so I didn't have to worry about the needle in my back (one of my worst fears!).

4. Violet looks like mine and BJ's kid. We are nothing if not consistent.

Shepherd

Lydia

Violet
 
3. We finalized Violet's name five days before her arrival. Violet is after my mother's mom, and Beverly is for BJ's dad's mom. They are pretty outstanding women to be named after.

5. Violet is a pig. As soon as she was born, she nursed for an entire hour. We didn't get to our hospital room until well after 2:00 in the morning because she ate for so long.

6. Violet was borderline jaundiced the first week, so for two days she had to be wrapped in a plastic lamp/blanket. It was sort of awful. Imagine nursing a taco. And on top of that, I had to wear sunglasses to hold her.


7. Lydia has never been a particularly happy child. Since the arrival of Violet, Lydia has been happy. She is happy everyday, all day. Violet was what we needed.


8. Shepherd thinks Violet is cute. He tells Violet she is cute about 20 times a day. He's right. Violet is really cute.


9. While I was pregnant, all the ladies at church told me that oops babies are the best kind. They're right. Violet is the best baby ever. I've always had pretty high-octane babies, but Violet is totally chill. It is not unusual at all for her to be awake and not crying simultaneously.

10. I've had two weeks to assess the situation and I can now make an important declaration with absolute certainty: I'm so deeply grateful and overjoyed that me and BJ botched the whole birth control thing last November. 

Wednesday, August 06, 2014

A few points of interest...

1. A pictorial definition for the phrase, "About to pop."


2. I know it is just the hormone cocktail I have going right now, but I definitely cried when I walked in the living room and saw my babies cuddled up like this watching a movie.


3. I am officially aching to hold my third baby, but I suspect that all of the bouncing, nudging, and screaming Shepherd and Lydia have done around my belly these past 9 months have her cowering deep within my uterus. Who can blame the pool girl?

Friday, August 01, 2014

Nesting, Third-Child Style

Nesting is very different this time around. With both Shepherd and Lydia, I thoroughly enjoyed creating a space for them. For baby number 3, though, there is no space in which to carve out a space. We are sardines in our little matchbox house. So here is what nesting is looking like with #3.

1. As with Shepherd and Lydia, I painted her a painting for her room. I had to do something that would look right in Lydia's room since they will likely be sharing for the next 18 years or so. I was pretty pleased with how it came out.



2. Next, I made t-shirts for Shepherd and Lydia to wear to the hospital. Last time, Shepherd was a little freaked out by the whole hospital experience, so I wanted to try and build it up as a fun experience that come with its very own wardrobe!  So far, Shepherd is excited about wearing his new shirt to meet his new little sister. He has also informed that he will wear his Big Bro shirt on his birthday. He likes to plan ahead.


3. The biggest nesting project has been cooking, cooking, and more cooking. By the third baby, one is pretty realistic about what they are going to get done the first three months. My expectations for home-cooking and a clean house are pretty low. So I decided to make a list of freezer meals that could be made ahead of time:


Then, BJ's mom came down to stay with us for two weeks while BJ was at Lipscomb for school, and we cooked until our little freezer chest was full of over 30 dinners and 15 breakfasts.


Other than these major projects, I've just been doing the small stuff: washing and folding clothes, packing the hospital bag, trying to keep the house tidy enough that I won't feel horrible leaving it when I do go into labor, and most importantly, spending as much time playing with these two crazy kids before our world gets turned upside down again (in a good way, of course.)