Miss Pip

Today I got to take my sweet Piper (Miss Pip, Pipey, Pie-Pie, Pippy...) to Walmart without the rest of my crew (super classy outing)... (and yes, you become a "crew" at 3). 

I'm rambling. Already. Anywho, it was just so glorious. One on one time with any of my little people is just so great. I sometimes forget who they are apart from their siblings. Suddenly my (overall) well behaved children turn into monsters deliberately sabotaging my ability to be on time and/or give off the appearance of having a relative amount of control in my life. 

But when they are alone they get a moment to shine. And I kid you not, Piper did not stop talking from the moment we walked out the door until we returned home. ("Mommy look over there! I see the Walmart. I'll point to it so you can see it too. Does Walmart have groceries? What kind of groceries do we need? Don't forget to buy bananas. And cucumbers too mama. I love cucumbers. But mostly I like my vegetables cooked, not raw. Except carrots. I like raw carrots. But I like my broccoli cooked. Do we need broccoli mama? Should I hold your hand when we get out of the van? How about I ride in the cart too. I'll be your helper. See that girl helping her mama? She's carrying something really big! That man has a chair with wheels! I'm in a cart with wheels. Look! Donuts! I LIKE donuts!") 

It was precious. 

She's pretty great. I wish I had taken a picture. But I didn't. So I'll leave you with these two pictures that capture "Piper" right now. The first one is of her chewing on her brand new sensory chew necklace. (Saving my dining room table corners, one necklace at a time...) and the second is Pippy all cozied up to Grayson, holding his hand just because. 

At any given moment...

Sometimes I really think I hear the music. You know, the circus music that accompanies utter chaos, dare devilish acts, or the little monkeys on unicycles doing crazy things at high speeds...

This week I sat down to nurse Grayson for 15 minutes (in the living room people, I was not in a room with a closed door or anything). In that 15 minutes one child found Chapstick and put it all over four of her dolls' feet in attempt to stick them to the table. I heard her creating the scene out loud as she often does, saying something to the effect of "oh no! You walked through goo in the forest and got stuck!" to which I immediately asked, "Emberly, what are you using for goo?" to which she responded, "sorry mama..."

In that same nursing session the other one had taken a roll of toilet paper out of the bathroom and ripped it to shreds and shoved it down the floor vent. #notkidding

That very same day (Jordan's birthday) I left for 25 minutes to go to the chiropractor. We had just eaten tacos for lunch. And guac. And chocolate cake. Jordan sent the girls downstairs to play while he cleaned up lunch. This is not unusual. They started jumping on the trampoline. Suddenly Emberly yelled to Jordan to come quickly. Piper coughed herself into a puking frenzy. On the trampoline. Then Emberly looked and started sympathy puking. Both of them. Entire lunches. All over the trampoline. I came home to them in the bath. Praise the Lord Grayson slept through it all.  Happy Birthday Jordan. 

Read this if you have kids that cough all winter and you want to laugh. This is my life: http://www.momnewsdaily.com/the-five-stages-of-dealing-with-your-childs-winter-cough/

So I just can't take a hint that maybe the day is shot and we went to the library that afternoon. Grayson was supposed to be napping so I figured he'd snooze away in the stroller. WRONG. He fussed and cried and insisted he was hungry even though I fed him immediately before we left. I finally gave up and sat down to nurse him in the kid area Wiggle Room and just as I got comfortable Piper needed to use the bathroom. Those darn little potties at the library and their novelty.  Double stroller, library tote on wheels, nursing baby, mama, and two kids into the bathroom... 

We went home after that. My kids watched more TV than necessary. And we went to bed. 

I'm not gonna lie... It's crazy. But it's also my brand of crazy. And I'm not even trying to wrap the crazy up into a nice little package and stick a fancy little bow on it... but I mean it when I say that I'd have it no other way. :) 

The End. 

The Day Grayson was Born

I felt like it would be "any day" for almost two full weeks leading up to Grayon's birthday. My body had made good progress and I was just super convinced (or maybe just super hopeful) that I would have this baby before my brother's January 2nd wedding so that I wouldn't have to worry about having a Bismarck baby (or I-94 baby for that matter)...

But alas, Grayson Michael was on his own schedule, and I never should have doubted the Lord's perfect timing of it all.

We went to the Bismarck wedding and stayed at a hotel that just so happened to be literally across the street from the hospital, so I had no reason to worry.  The girls were in less than perfect form with some tummy troubles and very little sleep due to our close quarters. Adding a newborn to that mix would have been awful. Seriously awful. 

But we plowed through the weekend. Emberly rocked the flower girl thing. We were able to attend their perfect wedding, and we made it home at all of my 39 weeks and 6 days pregnant. To say I was relieved would be an understatement. 

My 40 week appointment was the next day and my regular doctor (who delivered both of the girls and had seen me every single appointment for both girls and Gray) was on vacation. But I was determined to not wait until he got back to deliver this baby so I asked to have my membranes stripped yet again. 

This time the magic happened and I started to feel like I was going to have this baby for real. When I told Jordan this, he asked me what felt different and I didn't have a clue. I just felt like baby was coming.

Piper was up a gazillion times in the night that night, which is not her usual. The last time I got up with her at 5am, I went to use the bathroom before crawling back into bed, and my water broke. I wish I could say I was all like, "game on" ... but I was actually super tired. I woke up Jordan and we made phone calls and finished packing our things. We both showered and got semi ready for the day, and made it to the hospital around 6am. 

At this point I still wasn't 100% sure my water had broken, so they tested and sent it off to confirm. I was having super mild and very irregular contractions at this point and truthfully felt like that test could come back either way. I sure wasn't feeling miserable by any stretch of the imagination. But the test came back confirming that this was the real deal indeed, and they started the process of admitting me. (I was about 4cm dilated at this point.)

After a gazillion questions and several attempts at getting my IV in (seriously... several. I hate this part.) I started feeling the contractions get a little stronger. It was now about 7:45am. I really wanted to get in the bath because this helped me relax a lot with Piper... so they checked me again and I was about 5.5cm and they reluctantly let me get in. (My nurse joked she had never delivered a bath baby and didn't want to today... but my doctor said she had once or twice, so it was all good.) ;)

By this time it was 8:00am. I was determined to just hang out in the bath for awhile. I was feeling pretty good and I knew I just needed to let my body do its thing and relax. I figured it was late enough in the morning that I could text a few people to let them know I was in labor and baby would arrive sometime today. And then I had a major contraction. And another. And one more. And I decided I needed to get out of the bath and call the nurse. 

By this time it was about 8:20. Jordan called my mom because I wanted her there for delivery. The midwife that was going to deliver sweet baby in place of Dr. Vetter came in. She was a rockstar and a serious blessing. She coached me through about 8 more contractions and then I was ready to push. 5 minutes later, sweet Grayson Michael was here and on my chest. A perfect and even 8 lb. in weight and 21" in length. 

My recovery was crazy awesome (yay third babies and midwives that keep the aftershock to your body to a minimum).  The girls came to meet their new baby brother by 11:30 that day. The doctors and nurses pretty much just let us do our own thing. And we haven't looked back since.

It feels a little surreal to be honest. We are a family of FIVE. Jordan and I sat at dinner tonight and just looked around at our littles and said, "is this real??" 

And it is real! And it is exhausting. And it is wonderful. And it is humbling. And it is just such a gift from our good good Father. 

So we pray that we will cherish each new day going forward. And for grace upon grace in each of our moments. And that these little people entrusted to us will know that the God who knit them together will walk with them in each of their moments and extend to them the greatest gift - Himself - if they would just call upon His name. 

#feelinggrateful 

Gray Gray

Grayson is a whopping 7 days old today and we celebrated with a weight check at the lactation clinic. Little man is a GREAT eater... already back to his birth weight today, rocking a solid 8 lb. and 0.5 oz. 

He's been sleeping well already... usually giving me a solid 4-5 hour stretch from 8pm-12/1am and then every 3 or so hours after that. Not bad, little buddy!

During the day he sleeps and sleeps and graces us with beautiful steely blue eyes for a few sessions in the morning and afternoon. He is as chill as can be and his big sisters LOVE holding him and kissing him and bringing him colored pictures and toys and anything mama needs. 

Piper is just oh-so-gentle and tender and I can tell her heart just hurts whenever she hears Grayson make the tiniest little peep. I usually hear the frantic pitter patter of her feet anytime he cries as she rushes to bring me a pacifier. (Thankfully she hasn't decided that she deserves that little paci again and it's been only for the "little baby.") :) 

Both girls refer to him as Gray or Baby Gray Gray, and it melts me. Emberly is also rocking the big sister thing again, though slightly less interested in all things little man than Piper is. This is old territory to her. :) That being said, she has had a few tough days of adjusting... but we are hoping that is entirely due to a lingering cold and coming down from the holiday crazies and weeks of sickness in our house. Either way, she's been super helpful as well, and seems like such a big kid to me suddenly. 

The days all blur together from this hazy sleep deprived state I've now entered into. I'm not expecting to emerge anytime soon. But I'm feeling just so very thankful to be in it with my rockstar husband and three precious little people. 

 

Baby #3

I am one week from my due date and I definitely feel like a time bomb. I wish I could say that I felt all calm and collected about the "whenever" of having this baby, but this whole brother getting married in Bismarck two days before my due date thing is making it all a little trickier. 

I'm 3+ cm dilated, 90% effaced, and baby's head is at -1. I am only blogging this because I think it is kinda fun to compare to my last bambinos. However, it is becoming quite clear that these numbers pretty much mean nothing. Sweet babes are on their own schedule! 

So I keep ticking. And hoping that this bambino decides to make his grand entrance this week so we can go to the wedding WITH baby in arms instead of in my tummy wondering if he might make his debut along the highway. Ha.

Come on sweet boy! Mama wants to meet you! 

Christmas Memories

I am a total sucker for Christmas traditions. I really just love all things "making memories" and watching my little people get excited.

One of my favorite traditions, carried on from the Wobbema side, is the gifting of Christmas PJs on Christmas Eve. Because who doesn't love cozy Christmas jammies?!

So we started our tradition last year, in Texas, in our cozy little one bedroom hotel room. We added to it by gifting a "Christmas Eve Box," filled with new pjs, a Christmas movie, popcorn, and a few other treats.  And even though we didn't have family around to celebrate with, we did go to Christmas Eve church and had a meal with friends and though it was wonderful, it was all just a little tricky to "fit it all in" on Christmas Eve.

So this year we revamped our plan. We started "Christmas Family Day" - and it just so happened that we could do it on the first Friday of the month based on Jordan's work schedule. (I'm sure it won't always fall so perfectly.)

We had plans to spend the whole day together, playing games, putting together puzzles, playing outside, baking cookies, doing crafts, taking the girls shopping for each other, whatever.

And though it didn't look exactly like I had envisioned it... we did have a lovely family day. We made pizzas together for lunch. We put together puzzles. We watched a Christmas movie. We wore our Christmas jammies. Emberly and I went shopping for Piper. We listened to Christmas music. And we did some just normal everyday stuff. 

It was all kinds of fantastic. And I hope it is a tradition we will carry on forever. (Minus the being very pregnant part.) 

And now my dumplings are tucked into bed... oh-so-exhausted. And I'm just a step behind them. 

I wish I had taken more pictures from today. But that's my only regret.

The end. 

My Thanksgiving Story

So Jordan has been working nights for the past month. It isn't great, but just comes with the territory of his job. 

But I'm burnt out. And today it all kind of came to a head as I wrangled the girls to and through church alone one more time. 

So we survived church and then decided to stop and get groceries on the way home since we literally have no food in our house. I ran through the grocery store so as to avoid any major meltdowns (odds were already stacked against me: kids with colds, didn't eat enough breakfast, went to bed late, just finished playing hard at church...) and we finally make it to the checkout counter. There is an end in sight!

Emberly hops out and insists upon "helping" unload the groceries. Truthfully, this isn't much help. But there's no convincing her otherwise. Piper decides she needs to help too. (She is less help.) 

 

Cashier notices our cheese is moldy. They go searching for more cheese. Piper gets mad because she can't reach the food in the cart herself and throws herself on the floor and cries. Emberly drives the cart over top of her foot accidentally. More tears (none mine yet...)

Cheese is replaced. I'm apologizing to the people behind me. The grocery store is a zoo because everyone in the whole wide world is shopping before Thanksgiving. 

The lady tells me my total. I am holding Piper (who is very against this act of affection in the middle of her tantrum...) and digging through the diaper bag... and it hits me. My wallet is in my purse. At home. Not the diaper bag I threw together before I left for church. 

...

...

So I explain to the cashier how embarrassed I am and truly sorry and ask if I can drive home to get my wallet and come back and get my groceries. She goes to find a manager to find out if this will work...

... and then the gentleman behind me realizes what is going on and just swipes his card and pays for my whole cart of groceries.

My WHOLE cart of groceries. Like all $78 of groceries. And I wasn't crying before, but this just puts me over the edge. Snotty ugly thankful pregnant crying starts as I try to get out the words "thank you" and he just smiles and says "Happy Thanksgiving."

So I carry Piper out of the store who is still having a tantrum, Emberly is skipping along completely unaware of anything going on around her, and I am sobbing. Class A messes.

But so thankful. So so so thankful.

I have a million things to be thankful for... many of which could be misinterpreted above as inconveniences instead of the blessings they really are. Like independent, trying to be helpful kids, and weird work schedules, and being a stay-at-home mama of (almost) three, and a church in which I have friends as real as family and can worship freely the God that orchestrates grocery store check-out line miracles and redeems all of my messes. Not just this one.

And that is my Thanksgiving story.