Potty Training

I've been procrastinating potty training Hannah since June or July.  I wasn't ready and I figured she would regress once Kate was born.  And then I had a newborn...there was always something I could blame.  :)  But I finally just sucked it up and started on Monday.  She's been running around with only a shirt on and maybe panties, and she's only had 3 accidents:  1 was my fault for not taking her when I should have, 1 was a poop, and 1 was a teeny tiny bit.  She runs to the potty when she has to go and gets so excited when she pees.  She wipes herself and loves flushing the potty.  I haven't got her to poop yet...but from what I remember, it took Lily a few days as well.  We'll get there, I'm sure.

And the best part today was that we went to the grocery store today for about 45 minutes to an hour and she didn't have an accident!  We were almost done and she started doing "the dance," so I took her to the bathroom and she went...a lot!  Very exciting!

It's funny how us parents get so excited about something like this. :)

Lily is...

Stubborn.
Strong-willed.
Independent.
Three.
Learning.
Incredibly smart for her own good.
Curious.
Stealthy like a ninja.
Mischievous.

This causes mommy to be:

Extremely frustrated.
Crazy.
Stumped.

Tonight, as it goes most nights, Jonny put Lily to bed. She came out of her room, as normal, and Jonny put her back. We didn't hear anything for a while so we assumed she was asleep. Until we heard Hannah crying...and it wasn't on the monitor. She was standing on the stairs. Lily had decided that it would be a good idea to go into hannah's and Kate's room, wake Hannah up, and get her out of bed. Why? No reason. Just because. The more I try to bring order and discipline to our lives, the more she retaliates. I give her positive attention - nothing. I limit the choices she gets to make - she fights back and does whatever she wants anyway. I give her time outs and nose to the wall - worse. I ignore the "bad" things she does - even worse!

It. Just. Doesn't. Work.

Some kids are just more prone to be the trouble-makers. In our family, this is Lily. I hope she's not worse in 10 years.

Family Pictures!

After 6 years and 3 kids, we FINALLY took family pictures!  My cousin (Hands Full Photos) did an amazing job with everything - especially wrangling the girls.  We got few pictures of Lily's genuine smile and Kate was quite the crabby baby instead of her smiley self...but Hannah smiled wonderfully on cue, as usual!  Here are my favorites:

I love my husband and our 3 beautiful girls!  Thanks Christina!!!

I should have seen it coming

Friday was an awesome day!  All 3 girls were amazing.  Kate was perfectly on schedule.  I was actually getting back into a routine with keeping the house clean.  We were finally getting on top of things.  Jonny's job was going absolutely wonderfully.  And then he came home from work.  His company was closing their office, which obviously meant that everyone was out of a job. Yep.  Wonderful.  Now he's unemployed - again.  

There are some possibilities in the works, but nothing definite, and nothing immediate.  Hopefully things pan out quickly.

2 months!

I took Kate in for her 2 month appointment today. Can you believe it's already been 2 whole months?! She's growing so well - she weighs 11 lbs and is 23" long! She weighs the most out of our three girls at this age and is in the middle for length.

She started smiling when she was 4 weeks old, and she is quite the happy baby! She sleeps pretty well during the day and does wonderfully at night - normally waking up around 5am or sleeps until 7-8am...it goes back and forth. Her sisters love her and are very helpful and understanding when I need to take care of her.

Kate had shots today (something I was debating not doing, but decided to go ahead with them) and she was fine this afternoon but when I fed her at 4 she was just crying nonstop. I touched her thighs where her shots were and she freaked out. So they're obviously hurting her. I gave her some Tylenol and she fell asleep in my arms. Every time I move a lot she cries in pain. :( so here's a picture of her sleeping. I'll get one later when she's awake!

And her name is...

Kathryn Grace Terry!  

After 41 weeks, 5 days, and about 8 hours of labor, she FINALLY graced (no pun intended) us with her presence at 2:46am on September 3, 2010!  She was 7 lbs, 8 oz and 19.5" long.  She looks like Lily and has Hannah's long fingers and toes.  We are so glad to finally meet her, and Lily and Hannah absolutely adore her!  Both Lorna and Kathryn are doing wonderfully.

 

 

Just in case you were wondering...

Yes, I'm still pregnant.  I am currently 41 weeks 4 days - 11 days past my "due date."  I never expected to be pregnant this long, but I guess this little one just needs to bake a little longer.  I had an appointment today - blood pressure was great (135/77) and baby sounds good.  We talked about how things would go on Sunday if I didn't deliver by then.  Jessica (who is on call on Sunday), is very pro non-intervention and she hates using Pitocin if she can avoid it.  She said that she thinks I'm a good candidate to break my water and see if that starts labor (which she thinks it would), instead of jumping straight to Pitocin.  And then, if we need to use Pitocin, we can do a low-dose and then gradually turn it down and off once my body kicks in.  I can also refuse induction and go into labor on my own after that.  I know, that presents other risks...but so does induction.  I'm just hoping I don't have to make that decision.

She stripped my membranes today (which didn't hurt one bit, by the way - and she looked like she was being extremely rough).  Hopefully that will kick start something later today or tomorrow!  Keep your fingers crossed!

47 days!

The "official" count to the "official" due date is 47 days.  Yikes!  I'll probably go longer than that, but...still...yikes!  For some reason, 7 weeks sounds a lot longer than 47 days.  I have so much to do!  Luckily, we already have everything (unless the baby comes out a boy!), so it's not a matter of getting stuff, but there are just a lot of things I have to do.  The Hypnobabies class that I'm observing starts tonight and lasts 6 weeks, plus I have to finish a breastfeeding class (for my doula certification).  Then on top of that we have to move Hannah into Lily's room (and all the craziness that goes with that), clean and organize the house, and...oh, there's just a lot...trust me. :)

So anyway, the next two months will be crazy, but it'll all be worth it in the end!

I wouldn't be surprised

I wouldn't be one bit surprised if this baby turned out to be a boy.  Seriously.  This pregnancy has been so incredibly different than with Lily and Hannah, that I was expecting them to tell us at the ultrasound that it was a boy.  I even told Jonny that I would be shocked if it was a girl.

Things that are different:

• I was WAY more sick at the beginning this time.  Normally I'm just a little nauseous and throw up once (I know, I have it pretty easy), and it goes away by 12 weeks.  This time, it seemed like every single day I felt like throwing up, and usually ended up doing just that a little bit.  That lasted until about 15 weeks.
• I noticed last week that my leg hair hasn't been growing very quickly.  I know, it's an old wives' tale that leg hair growth changes (actually the myth is that it speeds up if you're having a boy), but in any case, it's different.
• Usually my allergies slow down or stop altogether, and this time they're out of control.  I've also gotten two sinus infections in the past 2 or 3 months (I'm getting over one right now and I can't remember exactly when the last one was).  I have never got a sinus infection EVER in my life!
• My migraines stopped completely when I was pregnant with Lily, and I had one with Hannah a little less than a month before she was born.  I have had more migraines this pregnancy than I've had in the past 5 years!

So a lot of these are usually attributed to increased hormones, so it would be logical to say that I'm having a girl.  But the fact is, is that they're different symptoms...and honestly, it kinda freaks me out a little.  I would seriously go get another ultrasound if I could afford it!  Our ultrasound tech was pretty positive it was a girl.  I still need to upload those pictures.....

28 Week Appt

I had my 28 week appointment last week...the oh-so-fun glucose test!  It went well...besides the fact that I gagged down the glucose drink (fruit punch instead of orange this time!), did my best to keep from throwing it up, then went way too long without anything but an absurd amount of sugar in my body.  I haven't received a call back, so I'm assuming that I passed...thank goodness!

However, I did get a letter from my midwives in the mail telling me my hematocrit levels were a little low, which makes me slightly anemic.  To be honest, I haven't been as good with my prenatals as I should, which, when combined with the increased about of blood produced, naturally makes my iron levels lower.  So, I need to increase my iron by actually taking prenatals and eating food with iron.  Yippee!

Other than that, things are great!  Baby's heart sounded great, she was head down (though I'm not sure she still is), and I'm measuring right on (yay!!).  Next appointment is 6/22.

Hannah's new smile

Hannah loves to smile!

Hannah is 15 months!

Hannah's 15 month appointment was this month.  She gained a whole 7 ounces in 3 months, bringing her total weight to 16 lbs 8 oz!  She's in the "less than the 3rd percentile," but the pediatrician wasn't worried one single bit because she jumped from the 25th %ile for her height to the 45th %ile! (30.5")  So she's just skinny!

Everything else was quite uneventful.  I was hesitant to get the chicken pox and MMR vaccinations because of things I've heard, but we decided to do it for a couple different reasons.  So that didn't make her a very happy camper.

She's also started to talk a LOT more.  It's been a huge struggle to get her to even say "mama" or "dada" so any other words are pretty much out of the question!  She does say "up" every now and then, and she signs a lot.  But not much babbling.  For almost a week she said "mamamamama"....then, nothing!  But NOW!  Now she said "hi dada" (usually when she has a phone on her ear), "uncle" "ha chhh" (hi Charlotte)" "I did it" "thank you" "boo!" - of course, most of those are all things that you wouldn't understand unless you've been around her for a while, but she repeats them over and over the exact same way...she's totally saying them.  She also tells us what the doggy says, and is learning body parts (she knows what a nose and belly button is).  She enjoys playing with Lily, even though Lily can be mean to her!  But they're pretty good buddies.  I can't believe how quickly they grow up! 

It's a...

...little late of a post, but it's a GIRL!  We had our ultrasound on March 29, and after a few quick pokes around, the ultrasound tech got an unmistakable view that it's a girl!  (Baby conveniently had her legs crossed, too!)  Everything else looked great - she has 10 fingers, 10 toes, all the parts that make her a human!  She was measuring about a week behind, but no one seemed worried about it and they're not changing my due date.  She's just little! :)  

My most recent appointment was April 26 (I was 23 weeks).  Everything still looks great!  Pretty uneventful.

I've got a couple of pictures that I need to scan in...I'll do that when I can :)

Next appointment is June 1, at 28 weeks...Glucose test...yippee! *gag*

Becoming a DouLorna

For a while I've thought about getting my birth doula certification, and I recently decided to do it!  But instead of taking up space and your time on our family blog, I've decided to start my own blog that will follow my process and will be a place for me to post thoughts and opinions.  Feel free to head on over there, and check in from time to time!  I'm just getting started, but hopefully it will be a place that I remember to visit often!

http://doulorna.blogspot.com/

By the way, a doula is someone who provides support to a woman before, during and after childbirth.  So doula + Lorna = douLorna :D

Lily's First Haircut

I finally did it. I cut Lily's hair! It has been pretty scraggly for a loooooong time, but I just couldn't bring myself to cut it. But I decided to do it and just did it. I didn't take a before picture with my phone so we just have the after pics.






It was pretty long! Lily had a minor breakdown before I cut it - she wanted her hair long. Haha, like mother like daughter. :)

Another ultrasound

I had another appointment at the end of last month. They were running WAY behind so the new midwife started to see patients. She was pretty cool. But when she went to find the heartbeat with the Doppler, she couldn't find it. She was looking too high on my belly, but I was too chicken to tell her that. Anyway, they ended up bringing in the ultrasound machine and we got a little glimpse at the baby! They took a picture, but it wasn't that great because that wasn't their purpose.




The head is on the right and the abdomen is on the left. Its hand is up by its head. See it? eh, that's ok - most people can't!

Things are going well! I scheduled our 'big' ultrasound for March 29. I can't wait!

A Beatiful Flicker

Jonny and I went to the midwife's office yesterday and she showed us that THIS is growing in my belly!  hehe!  We saw the beautiful flicker of the heartbeat - the abdomen is on the left, the head is on the right, and the little circles in between are the arms.  

 

Have questions?

Here are your answers:  EDD 8/22/2010!  Baby is measuring exactly on schedule - I'm just over 10 weeks along.  

I feel fine, mainly tired.  I don't enjoy eating, but I get nauseous if I don't eat.  The girls usually keep my mind off of being pregnant.  

Yes, we will find out the sex - probably the first week of April.  I don't have any inclination as to a boy or a girl.  I hope it's a girl, but Jonny would like a boy.

And no, we don't have any names yet...we won't do that until after the ultrasound...and none of you will find out the name until the baby is born!  haha!  We've just decided to keep our thoughts to ourselves this time.  

I'm still in my normal clothes - not bloated or growing or anything.  It's nice that way! 

Hannah and this baby will be close to 19 months apart.  We'll have 3 kids, 3 and under!

I think that about answers the normal questions.  Let me know if I missed any!  Oh, and we are very excited!!  :D