My Fam

Ok, so she's not THAT big...

Can you believe that we got Ellena's birth weight wrong? By "we" I mean me and the hospital. Not Pops. He was convinced that they wrote her weight down wrong, but we didn't believe him. But, he has video and photographical evidence to show us the error of our ways. :)

So, instead of weighing in at 7 pounds 8 ounces, Ellena was born weighing 7 pounds 0.8 ounces! So not as gigantic as we first thought, but more along the lines of what we were expecting her to weigh.

We were discharged this afternoon and Big Brother Evan is loving his little sister. Whenever she cries out, he runs over to give her cheek a caress. It is so cute to watch. Then he goes back to playing.

Baby Girl

We are all doing well and surprisingly, semi-rested!

Pops posted the pic of the three of us last night, but to give her an official introduction:

Please meet our little baby girl, Ellena. She is the sweetest little thing. She doesn't cry, so much as whimper and so far is a pretty good eater and sleeper. In some ways, she looks like Evan, when he was a newborn. But I can also see my Grandma in her - it must be those cheeks! The stats: born July 26, 6:31 PM, a whopping 7 lbs. 8 oz. (a whole pound more than Evan!!) and 19.75 inches long.

Evan brought Grandma and Grandpa to visit us last night. He was so interested in his baby sister, he barely gave me a second look. After that, he started charming the nurses - what a guy! He had a hard time saying goodbye, but he may visit again today and we will hopefully be discharged later this afternoon.

Wish us luck!

At the hospital

Hello everyone, here is the update from Overlake (from Poppa's point of view)

Here is the pic from this morning with Evan:

5:45am Called into Overlake and were told to come in at 7:15 AM
6:50am Left the house and gave last hugs to Evan
7:20am Checked into Childbirth Center (Is she really pregnant?)

8:05am Hooked up to Potocin (sp?)
9:15am Dr. Haines manually broke "the water" (lovely)
10:00am Checking up on the contractions and more blood pressure tests
10:55am Still checking on contractions and blood pressure. Dr. Shiah has been notified for the epidural...woohoo!
12:16pm Contractions are getting painful and trying to hunt down the epidural doc now, blood pressure is good, and lil' babe is doing great!
1:05pm Epidural is in place...really fast, but then again I was not the one with the 5 inch needle going into my back. lil' babe is still doing well.

3:50pm No updates yet...still having contractions and just waiting to dilate more.
5:15pm 8 cm dilated...only 2 more to go...home stretch, I hope!
6:00pm First pushes...here we go!
6:50pm SHE'S HERE!

Tomorrow's the Big Day

Can't believe tomorrow is the big day. We are anxious, excited, nervous... basically feeling everything under the sun. I had a vivid dream about giving birth last night and could not go back to sleep for two hours. Am guessing tonight will be just as rocky. Prep for the months ahead, I guess. I also made a mental list of the five things I had to get done today and when I woke up this morning, can only recall four. That's going to bug me...

My OB's nurse called this morning. She started off by asking if we could come in on Monday instead. My heart just dropped - I'm thinking, NO! I'm set on tomorrow! But she went on to explain that Monday is wide open instead of TUESDAY - ohhhh, she's talking about my 40-week check up, that we kept on the calendar 'just in case.' I told her hopefully we wouldn't need next week's appointment with tomorrow's induction! We had a good laugh and I can now breathe again. Phew!

So today's agenda: Check off the four things I need to do; try to remember the fifth; take it easy. Evan has school and soccer this morning and his grandparents are shuttling him around. So I basically have the entire morning open. Whoa! I had big plans on washing the car, but I think I'm going to pass. I have a hard enough time reaching the roof without the preggo belly in the way. We'll see though.

So nice having Internet at the hospital. We'll try and get a picture uploaded of Lil' Babe in the next couple days.

The Sass

This morning Pops and I were getting breakfast together. Evan asked to watch a Mickey Mouse clip on YouTube. I told him he could watch one. I set it up and went back to making breakfast. After the clip was over, Evan asked for more. I told him no. He started playing with the mouse and figured out how to get them to play more. I'm thinking, Uh oh!! I said, "Evan, Momma said one." Evan replied, "But Evan said TWO!" And he continued to click the mouse and watch YouTube. So much for setting limits!

Shades of Big Brother-ness

Today Evan said something that really showed me how grown up he's getting and hopefully it's a glimpse at what a great big brother he'll be.

We usually keep the door to the laundry room closed to keep the cats out. Evan opened it and of course, Poki snuck in. Evan said, "Momma, Poki went in the laundry room!" I started calling for her to come out. A few minutes later, Evan came over and said, "Momma, Poki came out. You don't have to worry about her anymore. She's ok. Poki, you're a naughty girl!"

July 21 Evanisms

Evan has started noticing differences in the limits we each set (what he can and cannot do.) And he's started calling us out on this, which can be pretty funny at times. Some examples:

* When Evan wanted a temporary tattoo, he wanted to get his scissors and cut the tattoo out himself. On separate occasions, both Pops and I refused to let him cut it and told him we would cut it out for him. He replied, "But Uncle Stu lets Evan cut it out..."

* Today Evan was going down the stairs and said that he wanted to jump down. I told him no and that it wasn't safe to jump on the stairs. He said, "Poppa lets Evan jump on the stairs." I think he meant only on the last step, but still!

* I can't remember the other incident (preggo brain) but he basically told Pops, "When you are at work, Momma lets me do it."

The other night we were reading a story together. It's pretty long, so we tend to skip around to make it shorter. I happened to choose one caption at naptime and Pops chose a different caption to read at bedtime. Evan was expecting to hear what I read to him earlier in the day and he said, "Momma, you read it. Poppa doesn't know how!" Ouch!

Loose Ends

It's our last weekend before Lil' Babe gets here and we are busy tying up loose ends. This morning we went to Babies R Us to pick up a swing. A few days ago we brought out all of Evan's old gear that was stored in our closet. Come to find out, his swings weren't too swing-y. They moved, but just barely. So we checked out our options at the baby store and found 2 that were clearanced out. One was stationary and one was portable. We picked up both and found out that our old portable swing still works quite well - you just have to give it a little nudge to get it going. :) So our plan is to keep the old portable and new portable (one for upstairs and one for downstairs). We'll then return the new stationary swing when we have a free moment - ha!

We also tried out some double strollers. Evan got a kick out of these test drives. He started pretending he was at the bus station and that Pops was driving the bus to pick him up. They would do laps around the aisle. Very cute. We're going to hold off on purchasing the stroller for now and see if we really need it. Especially with Evan in school in the mornings, I'm not sure if we really need a two-seater. Who knows, I could be running back to the store next week!

Big plans this week: Pedicure, last OB appointment, pack my hospital bag, cook some meals to freeze, get some extra snuggles from the whole fam (including kitties!), finish a couple sewing projects and then pack away the machines for a year!, and sneak in some naps if I can manage it. Oh, and hopefully make a stop at Nordstrom to pick up Evan's Anniversary Sale shoes - and I may need to get a pair for myself. Like the last pregnancy, it feels like my feet grew another half size! Very exciting for me - so I guess I just need to have three more kids and I'll finally have normal-sized feet! Yeah right!

Reflecting

As time continues to fly by (countdown: 9 days - single digits, baby!), I started reflecting on what I will miss about being pregnant and what I won't miss at all.

What I Will Miss:

I have been pretty lucky to have some relatively "easy" pregnancies. I love being pregnant. I'm relatively comfortable, the babes seem healthy and there are some nice things about just being pregnant. Here's what I'll miss...

* Feeling the baby move inside is always comforting. Maybe not in the middle of the night when I'm just trying to get some sleep, but otherwise it's really soothing, knowing my little one is kicking around in there.

* Having control over my schedule. Lil' Babe eats, sleeps, etc. without my knowing and I'm not a slave to her demands... yet.

* Alone time with Evan. Lil' Babe will no doubt turn our world upside down. I'll miss having our quiet snuggle times, reading endless books, or just chatting about anything and everything that goes on in that enormous brain of his.

* Some super powers. This time around, not so super, just semi-super. With Evan, my lactose intolerance was totally conquered. Crazy, huh. But it's still milder now than when I'm not pregnant.

What I Won't Miss:

* Sleeping on my side. Packing away the snoogle pillow and just being comfortable sleeping on my back!

* The back aches. I've been using a back support which has helped, but it's still there at the end of the day. Ouch!

* The hot flashes. I am so hot this time around.

* Not fitting into my clothes. I've already outgrown some maternity clothes, for heaven's sake. I basically have two choices for shorts right now.

* And thought I'd throw this in: What Poppa won't miss: my snoring at night! :)

Evan's Games

I'm not sure if Evan is learning this from school or soccer, but today Evan started making up games to play. The first one was called "Pots and Pans." He brought a bag of balls in the kitchen and told me in order to play Pots and Pans, you have to throw the balls and get hit on the head. I told him I didn't want to play that game.

The other game he invented was "Jump Buster." He said that you have to "jump, jump, jump and then disappear into the air. That's all you have to do. That's the good deal!" It just cracks me up to hear him come up with the games and the rules that go along with it.

Sleep & School

Last night we had a pretty good night. Evan went to bed when we tucked him in and did not play any stalling games, which makes it two nights and counting. He did wake up at 3ish but went right back to sleep. I figure he's just helping us prepare for our middle of the night feedings with Lil' Babe or something. :)

School was interesting. Evan again did NOT want to go to school. He was quite the mess at drop-off. I called in after a half an hour and got a very positive report. Evan was working on a painting project with two other boys and there were no tears. He stayed busy throughout the morning and his head teacher said that today was better than last time. So hopefully things are getting better for him at school. :)

Sleep!

Evan's been having a hard time with sleep the last week or so. Hard time falling asleep, hard time staying asleep and a hard time sleeping through to a decent hour in the morning. Which means, a hard time for me and Pops!

I found an interesting article on Baby Center and one tip really stood out to me. It was about "losing the crutch."

"Come bedtime, many kids this age still have trouble falling asleep without the comfort of a pacifier, a stuffed animal, a special lullaby tape, or you. The problem: If that sleep aid isn't available when your child wakes, she may have trouble dozing off again. The solution: Gradually and gently phase out any sleep aids that your child can't turn to by herself during the night. "When you put your child to sleep, leave her bedroom exactly as it will be in the middle of the night," Mindell says. If you plan to turn the hall light off when you retire, turn it off now. White noise or soft music is fine — provided it plays all night. And whatever bedtime routine you follow, it's imperative that you leave the room before your child falls asleep so she doesn't wake up wondering why you're no longer there. Just remember that this may be a long, hard process. Success won't come overnight, so be patient."

Evan's birdies became a crutch and whenever he awoke, he would insist that I come and turn it back on for him. So what we tried last night was NO birdies (cold turkey!) and instead I set up a radio that played music all night long. That way, if/when he awoke at night, he would still hear music and could go back to sleep on his own. We put him down last night and he did not leave his room once (previously, it was 3-5 times). He slept all the way through to 5ish, when he came out because his blanket fell off his bed. Yes, he would rather walk down the hall and get me, rather than reach down and pick up his blanket off the floor himself. Go figure. Tonight - same thing. No birdies, just the radio playing all night. Again, he did not leave his room after being tucked in. We shall see what happens overnight. I'd really like to get him back on track with his sleep before the little one comes and throws us all off!

Our Last Busy Weekend - With Just the 3 of Us

So as I reflect back on our weekend, I guess I could call it our last busy weekend, with just the three of us. We've got NOTHING planned for next weekend, except doing some last minute stuff to prepare for Lil' Babe's arrival. But really, no where we have to be.

Here's a quick recap with some pics:

Thursday: My dear friend, Jeff, came by for dinner. Evan had lots of fun with Uncle Jeff!

Friday: Evan skipped school and soccer and Pops took him to see Thomas the Train. Pops hates crowds and preferred to take the day off from work in hopes of encountering less people on a work day. Lots of male bonding. Some of Evan's highlights: riding the bus, meeting Sir Topham Hatt, riding Thomas, getting a Thomas tatoo (and Pops got a matching one, too!), getting kettle corn, playing with all the toy trains, building with Legos, and getting a good deal on a train set at the store. Probably one of the few lowlights was discovering that the lady who was working the store forgot to put a pair of goggles that were paid for into their shopping bag. It's so hard to explain to an almost three year old that people make mistakes and accidents happen. He was pretty bummed about that. But a very fun time! We talked about maybe going next year, the FOUR of us! What a crazy thought!

Saturday: My Aunty and cousin from CA are in town for a soccer tournament. We met up for breakfast at Hector's in Kirkland. A very lovely time - always so nice to be with family!

Sunday: Our friends threw us a shower at their neighborhood beach park. An amazing location with lots of friends, fun and laughter. Fun times!

Full Term, At Last!

Today marks the day that Lil' Babe is considered 'full term'! Her lungs are developed and if she were born now, she would be pretty healthy. Hooray!

This morning was our follow-up 37 week ultrasound. Good news: She is still growing at a comfortable rate and is approximately 5 lbs. 14 oz. She may not gain a full half pound each week, but that will still amount to a good sized babe when we go in on the 26th (countdown: 15 days!). The ultrasound shows a full head of hair and some fat building up around her abdomen, which is a very encouraging sign of a healthy baby! All in all, very good news about the little one. I breathed a sigh of relief - don't get me wrong. We are anxious to meet her, but just not this soon. :)

The Honeymoon is OVER!

No, I'm not talking about me and Pops. This is the phrase that Evan's school is using to describe his change in behavior. I'd say the first three weeks went by blissfully. Evan was excited about going to school and barely looked back when I dropped him off. Suddenly, he is very sad at school and asks for me throughout the morning. This morning he kept insisting he didn't want to go to school. He was ok in the car, but as soon as we pulled into the drive, he got very upset. It was the first rocky drop-off to date. Poor little dude. I did use the director's suggestion of having a picture of the three of us that he could bring out when he got sad. I think it helped a little, but did not stop the tears. We just have to stick with it and hope that this phase will pass quickly. The school staff have been very supportive and give Evan the attention he needs. They said it's a very common phase and once over it, he'll not want to LEAVE school!

New Pics

Haven't been taking as many pics lately, but got some good ones today.

We checked out the new water park at Crossroads Int'l Park in Bellevue. Kids had a fun time splashing!

Evan received some fireman clothes from his Aunty Kay and Uncle Bob. Couldn't wait to put it on (with fire hat and riding his fire truck, no less.)

Pretty Good Night

So I thought we were in the clear last night, but I was mistaken. Evan woke up once - right when we were heading to bed. I'm not sure exactly what happened, but this is my guess: He woke up after snoozing for a couple hours. He tweaked his knee, had a growing pain, or something as he was walking out of his room. He ended up CRAWLING the rest of the way to our room. OMG! He stayed in his room the rest of the night and came into my room at 6:30 in the morning. He brought his teddy and blanket to snuggle. He even remembered to close his door on his way out, so that Poki wouldn't have access to his friends. I told him it was too early and we walked back to his room together. He went back to sleep for a little while longer. So all in all, a pretty painless night for all of us. Hopefully it will only get better! Oh, and my goodness... there was such a noticeable difference in his temperament today after getting a better night's sleep. He was his usual happy self and did not whine once today. So nice!

A Fluke?

After such a rough night last night, we were determined to change Evan's ways tonight. Here are some of the "brilliant" things we did:

* We talked about why he had a hard time last night. Evan said it was because his birdies turned off (it goes off automatically). I told him he can walk over and turn them back on by himself. He countered that he couldn't put his blanket back on by himself. I told him he could and that he's been practicing.

* I didn't push for an 8:30 bedtime. It was closer to 9 when we first tried to tuck him in. Maybe he just doesn't get tired at 8:30 anymore? We shall see what a little later bedtime does for the little man.

* Throughout the day, every chance I got, I snuggled with Evan. Hopefully that extra snuggling would make him less clingy when it was time to sleep.

* I changed his bedtime routine a smidge. I added in extra snuggle time. Pops and I made an "Evan sandwich" and we just held each other and gave oodles of kisses to the little man.

* Pops had a little pep talk with Evan. Don't know what was discussed.

* I stayed strong. Evan tried to use some stall tactics, but I put my foot down and told him to "GO TO SLEEP! And I love you!"

He did not come out of his room tonight and we shall see if he gets a good night sleep. So, was tonight a fluke? Or was last night the fluke??? I guess we'll see how tomorrow night goes! Never a dull moment here! I know, my life is so hard.

Rough Night = Rough Day

As I mentioned, last night was pretty rough on all of us. Evan finally fell asleep pretty late and was up semi-early (6:30). He was a little whiny in the morning and ended up rubbing sunscreen in his eyes right before we left for school. He was not in the best shape.

When I went to pick him up from school today, his teacher mentioned he cried a bit today (I haven't heard this feedback before, so I'm guessing it's one of the first times.) When he arrived in class this morning, he had a meltdown and kept asking for me. Throughout the morning he was hot and cold, but she did mention Evan perked up during snacktime. My little eater. :)

When we got home, Evan said, "Evan was sad today. I don't want to go back to school cause I was sad." At least he was honest with me. And I think he picked up a new word: delicious. He kept asking me for "something delicious to eat." Not just any old snack, but something delicious. This boy cracks me up! Hopefully we all have a better night and he enjoys school once again. Even through all the crying today, he still managed to bring home a ton of art projects!! :)

It Has Begun...

Since moving from the crib to the toddler bed, we were just waiting for Evan to get out of bed on his own and visit us. It hadn't happened until this weekend. That must be a world record somehow. He used to sit up in bed, call out, "Momma, where are you?" and wait for us to check on him. Now, he doesn't even call out. He just jumps out of bed, opens his door and goes looking for us. We've started locking the gate at the top of the stairs to prevent any mishaps.

I am guessing this has some correlation with Lil' Babe coming, but Evan has been having a really hard time falling asleep at night. He just can't settle down and has been asking me to stay with him. He basically wants me to watch him fall asleep. No thanks. So he pulls out all of his tricks - potty, restart his birdies, etc. I keep trying to get him to do it all on his own, but he's just set in his ways. Last night, we tucked him in at 8:30 - his usual bedtime. He kept coming out of his room until 10:15. By that time, we were going to bed ourselves! Then, in the morning, he wakes up and wants to crawl into bed with me. We're going to have to break him of this soon. Although I love the snuggles, it's tiring to keep up the night time fight.

A Quiet Morning

This morning Poppa and Evan gave Grandma and Grandpa a ride to the airport. That meant I got to have a quiet morning. Here are all the things Evan told us as they were getting ready to leave.

Evan: "Evan wants to play fireworks for the holiday."

Poppa: "Did you ask Momma?"

Evan: "Poppa, I'll ask Momma. Evan's a big boy."

As they were loading up in the car, Evan called out to me, "Bye Momma! Have a sweet dream! I'll come back! Don't be grouchy!"

July 2nd Evanisms

* Evan saw a picture of a snail and called it a worm. I told him it looked like a worm, but it's a snail because it had a shell on his back. The shell was his home and he carries it on his back. Evan then said, "He's a muscle man! He carries wipes around too." What does he do with the wipes? "It's to wipe his butthole when he poops... on the ground... and in the toilet!"

* I asked Evan what he had for snack today at school. He said, "party mix, goldfish and Cheerios." Then he went on to tell me a story about snack time. "The boy told Evan 'no more.' Because Evan took too much. But not everyone like the party mix. I liked it."

* We have confirmation - there is a boy in Evan's class named Joshua. He's about 5 years old. Evan said Joshua "is a big boy and that he goes to five schools." When I asked how he goes to five schools, he gave me this total "duh, mom" look and said, "His mom picks him up and takes him to the other schools!"

* Today Evan got an ouchy at school. It was quite traumatic. I think he got it from the pushpin. There was blood on his finger and tears in his eyes when I picked him up. Turns out, he refused to let the teachers help him put a bandaid on. He insisted only his momma could do that. So we had to have a little chat that the teachers are there to help him. I'm not sure if it really sunk in for him, but hopefully he'll be ok the next time.

The Water Man

Evan loves to pretend and he gets his inspiration from everywhere, but especially people who come and visit the house. Example: roofer man, yard man, TV guy (he still remembers the guy's name was Chris and this was at least 4 months ago), cable man, electrician (he goes down the hole - crawlspace - and Evan made sure Poki didn't wander in after him), etc. So yesterday we had a new guy come over. The water man.

The night before our water was running yellow. Kinda gross. Thankfully, it was through all of the pipes, so it pointed toward a main line issue, rather than one specific pipe in our house. I called the water company and they confirmed it was a main line issue and they would have a team out to check on it. The water man came over last night to assure us that all was well, the water was safe and that we just need to flush it out.

This morning, Evan insisted on wearing a vest like the water man. And as we were leaving for school, he said, "Evan's the water man. After I come home from school, Evan will check our water."

Tough Life

After school on Monday, Evan came home really tired. School just takes it out of him. When he got in the car, I asked him if he wanted to go to the Post Office to mail a package (which is usually pretty appealing to him) and then go home for lunch or just go straight home for lunch. Mr. Smarty Pants said, "Evan wants to go to Post Office and then eat lunch at the restaurant." Uh, that was not an option, sir. So after repeating his choices, he decided to go straight home for lunch. He was pretty tuckered out while he ate. I made a comment like, "Wow, Evan, school is hard work, huh?!" And Evan replied, "Evan doesn't want to ever go back to school. It makes Evan too tired."