You’d think that sleeping less would mean you’d have more hours in the day to, well.. do more? And maybe it’s true, but all those things you want to do, you need to figure out a way to do them without your hands. Occasionally it works - I read an entire book the other day. But most of the time I’m struggling to accomplish one thing that needs to get done that day.
Smile With the Rising Sun
Everyone knows that having a newborn means you’re not getting a ton of sleep, but you do spend a lot of time watching someone who is. I guess I could get jealous of all that quality sleep the baby is getting, but instead my mind wandered to another spot - how amazing it is to be a baby that gets to feel so secure and safe at all times. Due to both of us being home on leave right now, this baby spends almost 24 hours a day in direct contact with one of us. Assuming you believe that a newborn can smell their parents, what an awesome gift we’re able to give to let her know we’re always there.
Minute by Minute
So how is life with three kids?
Honestly it depends when you ask me. Every day we’ll have the sweetest, calmest moments where everything seems great. We’ll be making pancakes, sitting around the table together, and all happy. The baby will start to cry and one of the older kids will run over and cheer her up. There will be cuddles and sharing of toys and cooperative cleaning of the house. And we’ll think, yeah we’ve got this. This is amazing.
How Do You Like Them Apples?
Because we’re apparently experts now, we managaed our second outing as a family of five (I’m not tired of saying that yet) in our first month. It’s officially fall here, so we went apple picking!
Apple picking isn’t something I did growing up, and to be honest isn’t my first choice in activity now. If I want apples, I’m fine getting them from the grocery store. However, it’s not all about the apples.
One Month
A whole month. A month of cuddles and smelling your head, and staring into your eyes. It’s a different experience, knowing you’re my last baby. It makes every cuddle just a little more precious, and makes me wish to get through these rough days less. Actually, they’re really not that rough.
There’s definitely some benefits to being the third child. You definitely have more relaxed parents than your siblings had. E had nervous new parents and G had parents who were figuring out how to parent more than one child. You have parents who have been there, done that, and so not much makes us nervous, which means not much upsets you. You are the calmest baby we’ve had. The vacuum can be running, your siblings can be screaming, and you can be sleeping.
Truck Day
We can’t drive anywhere without a constant commentary from the backseats - “GIANT excavator! Skid steer! ‘Ment mixer!” I’m certain I never knew how many different types of trucks and construction equipment existed before these two came along. It’s incredibly impressive how many of them they can identify, and how quickly they can spot them as we drive down a street.
So it’s not an understatement to say that “Touch-a-Truck” events are literal dreams come true around here. Unfortunately the last time the big one near us happened was in 2018. At the time, we had gone to church with no idea it was happening. As we were heading home afterwards, we stumbled on a field full of every kind of truck you could imagine. It was too good to pass up, so we went even though we were past nap time and without sunscreen or snacks. It was so much fun that we couldn’t wait until the next year when we planned to take full advantage of it. Except there wasn’t one that year, and then the pandemic ensured there wasn’t one the year after that either.
In the Moment
You ever have a disconnect between your eyes and your brain? My brain understands that I was pregnant for 9 months, my body grew a baby, and that she’s here now. My eyes however, see this baby and are still just shocked and can’t understand where she came from. Just a tiny miracle lying in my arms. Am I really lucky enough to be experiencing this for the third time?
Birth Story Part III - Everything Else
So this is normally the part of my birth story where I talk about all the complications and how badly I hemorrhaged afterwards. Except this time I had a doctor that actually listened when I told her my history and it was a game changer. I think I lost less blood than I did with E. It was amazing to not only feel okay minutes after delivery, but to have a calm delivery room. No one rushed the baby away, no extra help rushing in, just a quiet room.
My Third Baby
I never expect to bring home a baby just because I’m pregnant. I know too much, have seen too much that it’s not always the case. I always hope for a successful outcome, but I know it’s not guaranteed. Which is maybe why I’m always left is such shock when a baby is placed on my chest. It’s the best possible surprise and shock, and even two weeks later I’m still just amazed that she’s here. I can’t believe I’m lucky enough to have another beautiful baby.
I’m not sure if it’s the fact that my hormones are less messed up (since there was no massive blood loss this time) or if it’s the peace of knowing this is my last baby and I can focus on enjoying everything instead of stressing over it, but I am definitely in a happy baby zone. I might be tired, but I have this head to smell and it’s intoxicating.
Birth Story Part II - Active Labor/Birth
Despite willing it to be true, I didn’t have a baby by morning. Both E & G were born on a Sunday at 2am, but this baby decided to be different. I also didn’t get a ton of sleep either. I wasn’t feeling painful contractions, but lying down was uncomfortable. Unless I was sitting up or walking around, I’d get a little crampy, just enough that I couldn’t fall asleep. I think I managed to sleep from 11:30 - 1 am and again from 3:45 - 4:30 am when contractions slowed down a bit. Because they slowed down, I got a second dose of medication at that time.
I was feeling a bit frustrated and impatient (as was everyone who knew I was at the hospital waiting for updates!) but I managed to eat a granola bar and some apple juice and started to get my mind around the fact I might be here for a while.
Birth Story Part I - Early Labor
I was rereading G’s birth story, and laughed that I said the labor went too fast. I guess I had it coming then. Third babies have a reputation for being tricky. First babies take a while, second babies are quick, and third babies do what they want. They’ve got extra room and can flip all over, and apparently are in no rush to be born. This one wasn’t, anyway. Just absolutely did not want to be born. Usually leading up to your due date there will be some sign that labor is approaching, but not with this one. Usually at some point during labor the nurses will let you know that the baby isn’t happy and we either need to move positions or work towards a quicker delivery. Not this one - every time they checked her she was perfectly happy.
Welcome to the World
To complete our little section of the alphabet, please welcome baby F! She arrived just in time to ensure our children will be spaced out every 2 years in school, and thoughtfully saving us a year of daycare expenses.
We’re home trying to figure out how to be a family of 5, so while I will definitely write up our birth story, it may be a few days.
For now, we’re super happy, tired, and embracing the chaos.
Not Quite Perfect Storm
We had a rare hurricane headed our way recently, which caused a small bit of worry. Hurricanes aren’t a normal thing around here, and we mostly just worry about flooding and power outages (neither of which are really a problem at our house fortunately), but with the added stress of being pregnant, we worried slightly more. Or got excited - there was a bit of joking that the hurricane might send me into labor. Not that it would have been ideal, but when you get towards the end any thought of it being over can be exciting.
It didn’t happen though, and mostly the hurricane was nothing. Hardly any rain and it wasn’t really windy except for ONE single gust that caused some damage to our patio.
Almost There
Summer’s coming to an end, which also means so is our time as a family of four. Both things that make me think about last minute things we should cross off our bucket list.
One last trip to get ice cream, for example. So on a recent weekend I thought we’d go to an easy place down the road with a large parking lot and plenty of seating. However, the kids found out where we were going, and both objected - they may be little, but they’ve got opinions. They’ll apparently only go to ice cream shops that offer chocolate dip. To be fair, I agree with them, so we headed off to a further ice cream shop (that happens to have the most annoying parking situation) to get our black raspberry soft serve with chocolate dip on the top!
Bits and Pieces
Just a quick update of some random phrases that have been said recently and I want to remember.
Recently I was playing with E and his Legos, when I noticed one of the little Lego dogs was in the car he was driving around. “Is that dog driving a car?! Dogs can’t drive!” I told him. Except he had a great comeback and told me, “It’s okay, she’s 16, so she can!”
Belly Art
A few years and pregnancies ago, a friend gifted me a copy of The Belly Art Project book - signed and personalized, no less! It’s full of super cool pictures of women with their pregnant bellies painted with all sorts of creative ideas. It’s super cute, and something I always wanted to do, but a few things were holding me back.
First, I wasn’t sure who would do it. Could I paint my own belly? Talk a friend into it? And then if I did, I wasn’t sure what I should paint. So many of the ones in the book are either super personalized or very clever, and I was having a hard time coming up with something that wouldn’t be completely random.
Water Water
So I’ve always felt a little bad about how poor my swimming skills are. To be fair, I’ve never really enjoyed the water, I don’t want to get my face or hair wet, and so I don’t mind that I can’t swim very well. But it’s still a bit embarrassing (especially since my best friend, husband and both parents are life guard level swimmers). Now that I have children, though, it’s come to the forefront again.
One, because I don’t feel like I can swim strong enough to save a drowning child, which means they need to learn how to swim ASAP. And two, because watching my children has made me realize that children really may just be born predisposed to loving water or not. And it makes me feel better about myself - because maybe it’s not all my fault.
Someone's Not Behaving
Apparently this baby was listening when I mentioned that I was feeling pretty good this pregnancy, and again when I jokingly called this baby my favorite and easiest child. I should have learned from E & G by now, because they love to prove me wrong, and apparently baby does too.
At my last appointment I mentioned two things to the midwife which made her pause and make a face - I was feeling extremely nauseous again, and baby’s movements had changed. I think she actually said “uh oh” before seeing if her hunch was right.
The End is (Not so) Near
So the good news is that I’m recovered from my cold and feeling much better. Iron has kicked in, so I’m not living in a fog anymore either. The bad news is that I’m just done. I never understood needing to go on maternity leave early, but I think I might need to this time. I’m big and slow, yes, but mentally I’m just at the end of what I’m able to do. My feet have also reached that point - I can’t stand for very long before they start hurting either.
A Few Firsts
So these probably aren’t the normal first that we usually celebrate, but we’ll mention them here just the same. They’re still a part of life, and worth documenting.
Starting with, a first for our eldest tiny human - E’s first bee sting! For some a childhood rite of passage, while others reach adulthood without ever getting stung. Oddly enough I had just been talking to my best friend about how her daughter (and one of E’s best friends) had stepped on a bee two days earlier and gotten stung. I never imagined that he’d be following right behind her!