Who Needs Sleep?

Apparently not me. It seems that Kimberly has joined the ranks of family members who think I need little or no sleep at night.

When she came home from the hospital we had 1 or 2 rough nights. And by "rough" I mean she woke up 3 times. For the past week or so, I've been so happy about her only waking up once during the night. Okay, sometimes twice.

Now her days and nights are switched, and I'm not too pleased about it. I'm sure Makayla and Ellie aren't too thrilled to have a crabby mother, either. What can I say--lack of sleep makes me very, very cranky. (That whole stay-up-until-midnight-to-ring-in-the-new-year thing is definitely not for me.)

I'm so glad that tomorrow is the beginning of Kasey's week off. Now at least if I don't get any sleep at night I'll be able to take a nap during the day without waking up to the remains of Hurricanes Makayla and Ellie. Which is exactly what happened when I attempted to take a nap this morning.

*sigh* I hope that it doesn't take too long for Kimberly to figure out that light equals awake and dark equals asleep.

Because I'm Weird. And I Remember Stuff Like That.

This is the first baby outfit I ever bought. It was on the clearance rack, and I thought it was so cute.

I bought it before I got married. The day before I got my wedding dress, in fact.

No, I was not pregnant at the time.

Yes, it completely freaked out my husband-to-be.

I have my hands so full right now that I keep forgetting to take pictures. My mom came and stayed with us for a little while, and she recently posted some super cute pictures of my girls on her blog. Click here to see them, and hopefully I'll get my own pictures taken and uploaded soon.

One Week Down, Many More to Go

Well, we successfully made it through Kimberly's first week of life. I think last Friday she may have been having an off day, because she has turned into a little angel. She wakes up once, maybe twice, a night to eat and is happy and smiley during the day when she is awake. We are so happy to have her in our family!
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As much as Makayla and Ellie love having a new baby sister, it has been a little bit of a difficult transition at times. Ellie definitely knows that she no longer fills the "baby" slot in the family. She's been acting out and having quite a few meltdowns. And Makayla is dead set on testing the boundaries every. single. day. It's a little exhausting, but I'm sure we'll get through it.
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An example of an Ellie meltdown that actually made me laugh:

A few nights ago I was trying to get her to go to bed. She wouldn't stay in bed. About the 4th time going in her room to put her back in bed, I told her that if she didn't lay down and go to sleep, she would have to sit in a time-out. I closed the door and a few seconds later heard her screaming, "This is not my idea of fun!" As angry as I was about her not staying in bed, I couldn't help but laugh. Pretty soon I heard her shouting, "You are making me so frustrated! I will not stay on mine bed!"

I'm hoping that we quickly settle into a routine, and we all get used to this new family dynamic.

More Kimberly

I know this picture is a little blurry, but I love that it shows Kimberly's skinny little legs. Makayla and Ellie were both chubby with chunky thighs. Also, the snowman onesie is even cuter than I imagined it would be.
Kimberly takes after Makayla in more ways than just her looks. For those of you who knew Makayla as a baby, you know that does not bode well for me. She has a temper. And honestly, I'm a little scared.

But sometimes she does flash me a little half smile, which completely melts my heart.

And then there are moments like these that make all the hard moments completely worth it.

Labor & Delivery

Okay so here's how it happened.

5:30am
Drove to the hospital for my scheduled induction.

6:45am
Checked in, got settled in my labor room, was hooked up to all sorts of machinery, nurse started the Pitocin drip.

8:30am
Doctor broke my water

The nurse came in every 20 minutes after that to turn up the Pitocin. Each time, she asked if I wanted my epidural. Of course I did. However, considering that my epidural wore off right as I was ready to deliver Ellie, I put it off as long as I could this time. I figured it would be better to be numb during the delivery than during the early stages of labor.

10:30am
Wimped out and asked for the drugs after hearing the screaming woman delivering her baby in the next room.

11:15am
Anesthesiologist finished doing his thing, and I was a very happy patient.

11:35am
Nurse checked me and asked if I was ready to have a baby. What!? I definitely was not expecting it to happen so soon, even though I was hoping to have her by 1pm. She left to get the delivery room set up and call the doctor.

We hung out in the labor room while the baby "labored down a little." The nurse said there was no need to waste energy pushing if the baby would come down on her own. And I wasn't feeling any pain, so what the heck, right? (I really loved my nurse, by the way. She was amazing! Coincidentally, she was the same nurse that I had when I had Ellie.)

12:15pm (or so)
Wheeled into the delivery room. Pushed through first contraction. The doctor walked in. Nurse said the baby was crowning. What!? Second contraction her head was out. Third contraction baby was born! I was only in the delivery room for 9 minutes before she was born.

It was so fast! But most importantly my epidural worked fabulously. I couldn't feel anything, which is pretty much the point. It was kind of crazy to be laughing and joking with the doctor and nurses during the delivery and shortly afterwards.

All around, a very good experience with minimal damage.

Feeling Like a Movie Star

Why is that you ask? Because my baby is less than 2 days old and I slipped comfortably into my pre-pregnancy jeans this morning. Wahoo!!! They don't look good, but they are on and buttoned up.

*Labor story coming soon for those who asked.

Welcome Baby

Kimberly Paige

7 lbs 12 oz

17 1/2 inches

of absolute perfection!

Not Long Now

As the time for giving birth draws nearer, I have but one thought on my mind.

Please. Oh Please! Let the epidural work this time!

The One Where the Babysitter Does My Job Better Than Me

Kasey and I decided to get in one last date before the baby comes, and we are stuck at home for months. My babysitter canceled on us last minute so I was frantically calling my friends asking for some sitter suggestions.

Several different people all suggested the same girl. She's responsible. She's great with kids. You will come home to a clean house. These are the comments I got. So I called her without any hope of her being available in an hour's time on Friday night. To my astonishment and delight, she didn't have any plans for tonight. She came over. I gave her the rundown. Then Kasey and I left.

One thing that I told her was that since Ellie is still kind of getting used to her twin-size bed, she may not go to sleep for her--no big deal.

As Kasey and I were driving home, I asked him if he would please get the girls in bed while I took the babysitter home. We walked in the door, and it was quiet. Both girls were in bed ASLEEP.

I couldn't believe it. I asked the babysitter if they put up a fuss. She simply said, "No. I asked them if they wanted to go to bed. They said 'yes' and went to their beds." I looked at Kasey and said, "What are we doing wrong?"

I have obviously not mastered putting my own children to bed. But one thing is for sure--we are definitely calling this girl again.

Oh yeah, and I did come home to a clean house.

A Future in Hair Commercials?

Yet again, I am wishing that we had a video camera. Tonight Ellie stood next to me running her fingers through her hair and tossing it over her shoulders a la a Pantine Pro-V hair commercial. It took me a minute to understand what she was saying. But when I did, I cracked up.

I love mine hair. I loooove mine hair.

Where does she get this stuff?!? It's not like we have cable.

Friends

Ellie and I have the following conversation about 15 times a day.

E: You know mine friend?

L: Who is your friend?

E: Uh. . . her name is Rhiannon.

L: Yes, I do know Rhiannon. She's mommy's friend.

E: No! She has toys at her house. She's mine friend.

Or sometimes it varies like this.

E: You know mine friend?

L: Yes, what is her name?

E: Mallery. Her mom your friend?

L: Yes, Michele is my friend.

E: She have toys at her house?

L: Yes, they do.

E: Oh. Michele is mine friend, too.

I love that Ellie's requirement for friendship is whether or not you have toys at your house. Want to be her friend? Now you know what you have to do.

Brand New Year, Same Old Resolutions

I wasn't planning on making any resolutions this year. But after reading so many posts on other blogs about resolutions, I decided that I will. Maybe writing them down will actually make me work a little harder toward achieving them.

1. Read more. My current to-read list has 47 books on it. I would like to read at least 30 of them this year. In addition, I would like to read to my children more than I do.

2. Join Weight Watchers and not get pregnant. Again. Quick back story about this one. I joined a gym in 2003. Two months later, I found out I was pregnant with Makayla. In 2006, I signed up for Weight Watchers. I dropped 10 pounds in 6 weeks, and then found out I was pregnant with Ellie. I tried Weight Watchers again in February 2008. I lost 17 pounds before I, you guessed it, found out I was pregnant. This seems to be a trend with me. So the goal for this year is to lose the weight without getting pregnant. (I feel like I'm taking a big risk with this one. So wish me luck. I don't think I could handle 2 babies in the same year.)

3. Continue paying off debts. The goal is to have my student loan paid off by Christmas. It will take some sacrificing, but I'm sure we can do it.

4. I'm also going to continue making shorter-term goals on a monthly, weekly, and daily basis. That seemed to work well for me in 2008, so it's something I definitely want to keep doing.

Good luck with all your New Year resolutions, goals, or what have you.

A Little Preparation Goes a Long Way

A friend of mine had her 5th child last year. When little Syd was born, I offered to bring my friend a meal, but she said that she had everything covered. I was a little skeptical, and thought she just didn't want to put anyone out. (She's kind of like that.)

But apparently, she had spent the weeks leading up to her baby's birth preparing extra meals and freezing them. Then all she had to do was pull something out and pop it in the oven. Genius!

One afternoon in December, she and I got together to brainstorm some meals that I could prepare in advance. It's a little bit tricky for me as I only have the small freezer on top of my fridge. I don't have the luxury of a big deep freezer like she has.

Over the past week or so, I've been getting some meals ready so that when the new baby comes, I'll still be able to get a somewhat decent dinner on the table when Kasey gets home from work. Hopefully I'll have enough prep work done to last me until I've figured out how to juggle three children.

This is what I have so far:
1 pan beef & bean enchiladas
1 bag hamburger soup
sauce for Shepherd's pie (I wasn't sure how instant potatoes would freeze, but I figure I can toss some of those together pretty quickly when I need them.)
1 pan funeral potatoes
1 pan lasagna
Homemade meatballs--enough for 3 meals
Cooked, diced chicken for 2 meals
browned hamburger for 2 meals

Tomorrow I'm going to make a batch of homemade chili and freeze half. Then I'll dice some ham to be used in casseroles or soups.

In addition to those, I'll also have some old standbys on hand:
biscuits and gravy
cold cereal
egg rolls
hot pockets
Domino's

You know, for those days when I can barely manage to get myself and 3 little girls dressed, let alone cook a meal.

It sure feels good to be prepared!