Remember These Little Guys?

It's been so long since I've shared pics of the babies, I'm afraid you may have forgotten what they look like! So to refresh your memory


Rowan


Joey


Elijah (in Daddy's hat, welding jacket, and boots. He insisted on wearing them.)



Eli and Rowan playing in a box together. :)



Eli and Rowan giving kisses


Eli and Rowan cheesin' it. :)


Joe Joe man wanted some camera time too, so he snuck into the shot.



They're still just as cute as ever. And ornery. Did I mention ornery?

Pregnancy Week 19

If the past few weeks had slowed down, this week certainly made up for it. This one flew by. Thinking it had something to do with it being Kadence's first week of school, and adjusting to a new schedule with the little ones.


Facts and Symptoms

- I went to the doctor a week earlier than I was scheduled because I was feeling some pain and pressure. After an ultrasound and a talk with the doctor, he thought it could be my c-section scar stretching causing the pain. But baby looked great, and my cervix is holding strong at 3.75cm. Yay!

- I must feel the baby kick at least 30 times a day now. I can tell when he's awake and when he's asleep. He's VERY active when he's awake. His favorite thing to do is bounce on my cervix. I think he thinks it's a trampoline.

- I feel the biggest kicks on my upper right side and towards the middle. Not sure if it's his feet or his hands. I think he still has lots of wiggle room in there, so maybe he's doing flips. :)

- A week ago after I posted my 18 week update, I felt a kick from the outside of my belly with my hand. I LOVE when they get that big! So far Davey's mom is the only other person who has felt it, but it won't be long and he'll be kicking that strongly all the time.

- He weighed 8oz. in the ultrasound on Tuesday. He will double his weight by week 22. Can you say growing pains for mommy? :)



And here is the lastest pictures of our little man.

Isn't he adorable?? This was the first time we've seen his profile. What a handsome little guy!




And for those who doubted that those were actually boy parts in the last u/s, this one should clear things up. :) Our sons are never modest in the womb. Our daughters were both extremely modest. Boys...

Pregnancy week 18

I'm closing in on the 20-week mark, can't believe it!


Week 18 Facts and Symptoms


- By week 18, the baby is measuring around 5.6 inches long, and weighs almost 7 oz. You're getting big little guy! (so crazy for me to think that Joey and Rowan weighed just 29 oz. at birth...)

- I can feel the baby kicking quite a bit now! At the beginning of this week I only felt him 1 time the first day, 2 times the next day. Now I probably feel him kick 6-12 times a day. The kicks are increasing with each passing day, and I get a huge smile on my face with every single kick I feel. :) He's also been dancing on my bladder, which doesn't make me smile much.



- I started to get more worried this week about things. Premature labor is always in the back of my mind- that's something we never want to experience again. I give the baby little pep talks and say, "Ok buddy, I want you to be chubby and healthy, at least 5 pounds when you are born." I'm hoping that helps. ;o) My biggest concern right now isn't preterm labor though, it's rupturing. With the way my c-section was done with the triplets (vertically) it weakens my uterus for this current pregnancy. I haven't had a chance to have my questions answered yet as my appt with the Peri isn't until September 14th. I'm hoping he can give me some answers when I see him, and get a gameplan of when I'm going to deliver. My OB suggested delivering at 38 weeks, but I'm not sure I should even go that far. Another mom that I spoke with online who also has the vertical c-section scar said that her peri recommended delivering at 35 weeks. So I'm curious to see what the specialist will say.

- Been feeling great other than the worrying! Belly is definitely growing, and you can tell that I'm pregnant now for sure. I'm really enjoying this, as this will be the last time I'll ever get to have this cute little belly. ^_^ Also why I'm savoring each little kick. (except for the ones on my bladder)

Prayers for Annaleigh

A couple of months ago, I heard about a fellow triplet mom that delivered her babies at just 25 weeks. I have been following their blog since the babies were born.

My heart just ached for them as I watched the parents struggle to adjusting to life in the nicu, and their babies struggling for their lives. It brought back a flood of memories...

The babies have done amazingly well, up until lastnight. Their precious baby girl Annaleigh was diagnosed with NEC yesterday. (if you remember Rowan had NEC while in the NICU too, a very deadly bowel infection for preemies) When the surgeon went in to take a look at how bad it was, he found that her entire bowel was dead. And Annaleigh will not make it through the weekend.

Being a former NICU Mom, I can't imagine what a blow this was for her parents. At the beginning, with babies so tiny, you prepare yourself for these things. You have your guard up.(though losing a baby would be devastating at any time, absolutely no doubt about that) But 2 months into your NICU stay...Annaleigh was off of all breathing assistance, was wearing clothes, and just doing fantastic. And then to find out in one afternoon that your little girl who you thought was on her way to coming home, wasn't going to make it through the weekend.

This absolutely breaks my heart. Please pray for this family as they deal with the loss of their baby. I think of their room all set up at home for bringing home 3 babies...when instead they'll be bringing home 2. :( So very sad. :(

If you would like to follow Brooke's story, click here.

My Little Kindergartener

Well, I survived my first day of Kindergarten. Er, Kadence's first day of Kindergarten I should say. I actually did remarkably well, especially for an already emotional pregnant mommy. The night before I cannot say the same, as I cried like a little baby. I read her The Kissing Hand, and cried all the way through it. (though I hid it from her, didn't want to upset her) Then I tucked her in, went in the living room, and cried some more.

So I didn't do so well the night before, but I only teared up a little bit when I pulled away from the school the morning of. (ok, so I teared up a lot, but I didn't full out cry)


And today, I did fantastic! I think I just needed to get past the first day, and I'll be ok from here on out.

She had a blast yesterday, by the way. :) She couldn't wait to go back. She told me that they played in the gym, and had a cookie for a snack, and that her teacher was really funny because she pretended that the mouse from If You Give a Mouse a Cookie had stolen all of the cookies. And she made 2 new friends, she proudly announced. Though she couldn't remember their names. (she gets that from her mother)




One of the first things she said to me when I picked her up yesterday was, "I hardly even missed you Mom!!" :) I told her, "See! I told you that you wouldn't even have time to miss me!" She was awfully worried about missing me, and her Daddy and her brothes and sister and her kitties while she was at school. :)

Today was her first full day, yesterday she only went for 2 hours. So I can't wait to see what adventures she had today. ^_^

Escape Artist

Guess who has learned to climb out of his crib this week? Over and over and over again?

Eli.

I am awaken every morning with giggles coming from the hallway. He gets out of bed, then plays peek-a-boo with Joey (who is still stuck in his crib) until I get out of bed and come and get him. Sigh. I'm not ready to move him to a toddler bed yet, because I KNOW he won't stay laid down in it. Right now I can lay him in his crib and tell him not to climb out of it, and he usually listens (until he wakes up, then he's at the door again). He must have learned how to shimmy down the side, because he doesn't make a sound when he climbs out.

Crib tents won't work for him either. He's one destructive little dude. He'd have those things tore up in one nap.

The boys are also waking up at 7:15 a.m. now, at least an hour earlier than they were before he started climbing out of his bed. This will make getting Kadence ready for school and down to the bus stop interesting...

Pregnancy Week 17

17 weeks along now! I think the weeks (as far as the pregnancy goes) are slowing down a bit. Which is both a good thing and a bad thing. Good because it was flying by before, which scared me a bit, and bad because I also don't want the pregnancy to seem like it's crawling for the remaining 21 weeks. Can't we find a happy medium? :)


Week 17 Facts and Symptoms


- The big news this week is that I am feeling REAL kicks now!! In fact, I felt my first one yesterday! Up until yesterday all I had felt was fluttering every now and then. But the little guy is big enough now to give his Mommy a good kick every now and again. ;o) This is the time in the pregnancy when it starts getting fun!

- I had a contraction today. Nothing to worry about, just a really strange feeling to feel again after not being pregnant for 2 years! It was the only one I had, so no worries.

- My appt. with the Perinatologist (maternal-fetal specialist) has been set up for September 14th (if I remember correctly). He won't see patients until they are 20 weeks, I remember that from my triplet pregnancy. Which I'm totally cool with this time. I have absolutely no worries of anything going wrong between now and then.

- I had to pull out my maternity clothes today as my shirts just keep getting shorter as the weeks go on, and my shorts tighter. To my disappointment, my old maternity clothes are all HUGE on me after losing all of this weight over the past year. Which kinda stinks, because I really hate buying maternity clothes when this will be my last pregnancy. Ah well.

- This little guy should be around 5oz. this week, but he's an over-achiever and weighed 5oz. two weeks ago. ;o) He should also be 5in. from crown to rump.

- Joey adores the baby. (did I tell you this already?) He will walk up to me and ask to see the baby, and he'll just giggle, and make the sweetest noises, and give my belly kisses and hugs. It is the sweetest thing ever. ^_^

Back from Galena

Ok, so actually we made it back on Sunday. But I'm just now getting a chance to blog about it! We brought my niece Logan home with us, and between taking care of all of the kids and editing wedding photos, I haven't had much of a chance to do anything else!

The wedding was beautiful. I wish that I could share some photos with you, but I must wait until the bride and groom get home from their honeymoon! They get to see them first. ;o) I've still got quite a bit of editing to do, but I'll make sure and post some of my favs as soon as I can!


On Thursday evening my sister Mindy and I took the kids and walked a bit in downtown Galena. And today's your lucky day, because I can share those photos with you!



(My niece Morgan, Kadence, my nephew Josh, and my niece Logan)
We found this really cool old door- which the kids thought was sooo freaky. An (admittedly kind of scary looking) man was walking down the sidewalk at the time and overheard them....




...and as he walked by said, "Booooooo!" Scared the bajeezus out of them! It was hilarous!!!



We walked on down a little further, and came across the Galena Fire Department. We were standing there ooh-ing and ahh-ing over it when a fireman pulled up in his SUV and told us we were welcome to come take a look around. The kids were psyched!




They even got to go inside of the firetruck!




And Kay Kay was kind enough to let her Mommy snap this cute pic of her sitting on the front of the firetruck. And pose oh-so-adorably-cute. Thanks Kay Kay. ;o)



And a little sneak-peek at our little flower girl. :)




Everything is going well as far as the pregnancy goes, I know I didn't do a weekly update last week, but I'll be doing one this week. Not much going on but more growing! Which is a good thing!

A Face, a Foot, and some Boy Parts :)

Here is a face shot of our little buddy. :) Good lookin' skull little guy!




And here's a little bitty foot- which the u/s tech told us was not quite an inch long. :)




And proof that he is indeed a little boy. :) You're looking at his little butt cheeks and thighs here, and right in the middle there you'll see his "goods".




And his name? Well, that's a bit tricky. You see, I am absolutely, 100% in love with this name. The moment I came up with it, I knew that that's who this little guy was. Remember last week when I said I was 99.9% sure he was a boy? That's because last week I was going through baby names again, and came that name again. And it just got stuck in my head- I couldn't think of any other boy names, and girl names were completely off the table. I just knew.

Davey, on the other hand, doesn't have quite as strong feelings towards the name as I do. He likes the name. He says it's a good name. He's just not attached to it like I am. I'm hoping he comes around. ;o)

The name I love, is Benjamin. ^_^

Kadence loves it too. She adores it, actually. One of the first things she said as we were leaving the doctor's office was, "Mommy! Now we can name him Benjamin!" She will randomly walk up to me several times a day and kiss my belly and say, "I love you Ben." ^_^ And the triplets (especially Rowan) will point at my belly and say, "Ben!" So at this point I really don't know how the heck we could ever change it. Perhaps Davey will grow to love it as much as we all do. :)



On a serious note, some of you were curious as to why I had my ultrasound a month early. Good question! When I first started seeing this OB, he assured me this would be a normal, run-of-the-mill pregnancy. Then yesterday he tells me that he's concerned about how early I delivered the triplets, and the reasoning behind it. 26 weeks is extremely early even for triplets (the average being 32 weeks). So he ordered an u/s and cervical length check on me yesterday, and is sending me back to Springfield to a specialist to get his opinion. I requested the same Perinatologist I had when I was going through my triplet pregnancy. I figured he knew my case better than anyone, and might be able to give me an idea of how concerned/unconcerned I should be.

I'm not panicking by any means. Just being precautious. I'm actually very glad that the doctors will be following me more closely now- it will put my mind at ease knowing that everything is going ok. Oh, I also am now restricted to carrying 20-pounds, so I can no longer pick up the triplets. Makes things a bit tricky around here, but we're figuring out how to manage. This is more due to my risk of uterine rupture from my previous c-section scar than his worry about me delivering early, though that has a bit to do with it too.


I leave in the morning for Galena, Illinois for my nephews wedding! I'm photographing it, and Kadence is the flower girl. How sweet will she be??

Gaga is coming over to watch the trio while we're gone. Gaga is a Godsend! With me photographing the wedding, and not being able to pick them up, and Davey not getting there until Friday afternoon, there was just no way I could bring them. I'll miss them a whole bunch, but I know they'll be totally spoiled by Gaga while I'm gone. They're in good hands. ;o)


Be back Saturday sometime! Have a good weekend!

We Found Out That We Are Having A....

After a surprise ultrasound yesterday (wasn't expecting one for four weeks!), we were able to find out what we're having!!!

I am so thankful that I decided to run back in and grab my camera before I left the house, because I was able to record Kadence's reaction as the u/s tech told us what we were having! (and my reaction too!) Davey wasn't there (was at home watching the trio) but he didn't mind that the u/s tech didn't tell him what we were having- me and Kadence came up with a super cute way to tell him when we got home. :)

So I got to experience this awesome moment with my Kay Kay- and it was one of the most precious, most awesome moments we've ever shared together. ^_^


So do you want to know what we're having?

Then turn your speakers up and watch this little video! It will be like you were right there in the u/s room with us when we found out. ;o) Kadence is so adorable, she was so excited she couldn't sit still!!