cry baby

why do babies look so cute even when they are crying? here is a little sequence that occurred during our recent birth announcement shoot. while josh and i both felt a little guilty while he was shooting away, i am so glad he captured this. and, she was immediately picked up and consoled . . . no baby was harmed in the taking of this photograph. 

you may find it here, too.

I had plans . . . a birth story

(written february 27th)

I had plans today. not big plans, but plans of laundry, plans of finding a home for this and sewing the last of that. plans of finding and cleaning coordinating outfits for my children to wear when they met their new sister. but, someone had other plans. bigger plans.

last night, after going to a consignment sale, I started having contractions. they weren't big contractions, but they were real contractions. since I was induced with the first three, I know what contractions feel like, but my body has never been the one to get things started. I told josh that this might be the real deal, so we decided to get some rest.

at 2 am I woke up to go to the bathroom. it was then that I lost my mucus plug. (i know, too much information.) once again, it was the first time, so after a google search, we determined this was further validation that we might be on our way. we googled other things including how to time contractions. (seriously. because we have never had a reason to know before.) I had asked my doctor for a refresher, but since we were scheduled to be induced on Wednesday, she was kind of vague and i was kind of skeptical. so, we went back to sleep. by the time our children began to wake up for school, we seemed to be on a regular path so I started timing the contractions on my phone. miller informed us at breakfast he was going to tell his class that his sister was coming. we hadn't told them I was having contractions because we weren't sure ourselves what was going on.

by the time josh arrived home from drop off, they were a consistent 7-8 minutes apart. I called my parents so they could head over at some point, started packing a bag and jumped in the shower. josh thought I was crazy for thinking shaving my legs and painting my toenails were priorities. um, hello? everyone is going to see them. (and, someone even commented on my painted toes when they placed my leg in the stirrup.)

my parents arrived promptly as my mother was afraid my water would break. we spent the next three hours talking and doing last minute things as we timed my contractions. by 11:30 am, my contractions were 5-6 minutes apart sitting, but 2-3 minutes apart if I was moving around. after much discussion, we decided to go ahead and go to the hospital as we weren't sure what to expect. since the hospital is only minutes away, we arrived just before noon. after getting checked in and taken back to a room, they started monitoring my contractions and the baby and checked me. I was at 5 cm and almost fully effaced. I tried to fill in the nurse on my past pregnancies so she would understand that I needed a doctor to check on me soon. my doctor was not at my hospital today. the nurse went to find out who at my practice would be responsible for delivery while several different nurses came in to do a variety of medical things before they settled on who would be my nurse for the remainder of the shift. we filled in the new nurse who really didn't seem to believe us that I would probably deliver before the end of her shift. I convinced her to check me again at 1:45 pm. she informed me they usually only check patients every 2 hours and surely the doctor would arrive soon, but she checked me anyway. I was at 8 cm with a bulging bag of water. she said she could feel the baby's head right on the other side. with a mild look of shock, she hurried out of the room to find out what was keeping the doctor. it turned out, the doctor to deliver was the only doctor in the practice I had seen during my pregnancy other than my normal doctor. he had been communicating with my doctor and came in well aware of my past deliveries. at 2 pm, after verifying i was positive i didn't want an epidural, he broke my water and waited two minutes for the nurse to check my status. I was at 9 cm so he ran upstairs to do a circumscion, but took most of his garb to put on in the elevator just in case. he said if he was taking too long to text him and he would run down. as expected, my contractions became stronger. we were literally waiting for him to return to deliver as they were sure I would be ready by then. the nurses switched off for the next shift. our new nurse had requested us because josh had photographed her wedding a few years earlier. at this point, I was ready. I thought this had to be the longest circumscion in history. I convinced her to check me so she would know i was complete and would let the doctor know so we could get this baby out. she saw my pain and texted him. the doctor literally sprinted off the elevator, finished dressing and stood waiting for me to be finished being prepped. after being put in the typical labor position, I began pushing. each time i forget how unnatural that position feels until i am in it again. and, it really doesn't help when you are trying to push through crazy pain. burning pain. pain that makes you want to quit or hurry up and get it done.  it took three rounds of pushing in which they kept telling me how large her head looked (not helping). the doctor guestimated her weight at 8 and a half pounds based on her head. i felt like i was getting no where until they pointed out her head and i could see it. after the third set of pushes, they laid her on my chest. while we were getting cleaned up, josh was reminded to take pictures thanks to our nurse. (already our fourth child-she'll be lucky if there is any photographic evidence of her childhood!)

we stayed at the hospital until the baby was 24 hours old so they could perform her pku test. and, then, we headed home to adjust to our new normal as a family of six.

introducing

her arrival

meeting her brother and sisters

miss harper lillian . . .

arrived in her own timing on february 27th

(and not on leap day when the induction was scheduled)

at 3:20 p.m.

weighing 7 pounds and 13 ounces

and measuring 21 inches long

she has meshed right into our family and it just seems like she has always been here. she is adored by all. 

she said

spencer making her silly face in january

so, we are sitting at the table eating dinner and spencer is talking about the snapdragons in the bouquet my dad brought me. miller begins to touch them repeatedly. spencer says, "those are snap dragons. they're mean and if you touch them, they'll snap you into the face!"

moments later, she finishes her milk and slams it on the table inferring she wants more. josh looks at her disapprovingly and requests that she ask politely? spencer replies in a very sweet voice, "may I have some more?" "more what?" asks josh, expecting her to say please. "milk." states spencer.

what a mess!

shock and awkwardness

i've been behind on blogging ever since my lap top broke (last february) and I have to use either the kids' computer or Josh's computer. it isn't convenient so I forget and let things go. sometimes, i let things go past the point of purpose, so i back date them because this is our family journal, right?

I read a blog post recently where the writer said there are times that you wait too long to tell people something and then it just seems really awkward when you finally tell them. where am I going with this, you ask?

instagram picture my boss janie took of my friend kris and me (in the polka dots)

here it is: we had a baby last week!

see, it's a little weird. especially, if you don't see me on a regular (or reggery, as spencer says) basis. I'm not one to share such news on Facebook either. if you don't see me after I start showing, then suddenly I have a secret that I didn't know I was keeping.

it all began last summer. when scheduling my yearly checkup, I realized I was late. 3 days late. the test was positive. we were shocked. shocked. shocked. I really don't think I can emphasize to you how shocked. we went to the doctor, the pregnancy was confirmed, we had an ultrasound because I was measuring small, but the baby looked perfectly six weeks. and we still couldn't believe it. i'm not sure why we were so thrown with this baby except that we never expected it. we feel like she is a gift from God that he knew we needed even when we didn't.

as many of you know, we wait forever to tell anyway. we usually tell as we enter the second trimester. and, this being my fifth pregnancy (fourth baby), I started to show immediately. but, reality was slow to sink in, so we waited. with spencer, I posted about my pregnancy after twenty weeks, so that was my plan. but, then, it was Halloween, then thanksgiving and then our trip to disney world. I felt like I was always planning the next thing. then there was Christmas, Spencer's birthday, my birthday, our just ducky trunk show, valentine's day and before I knew it, we had a baby!

I planned to post all my past posts and be caught up in time for my induction, but baby had other plans. obviously, I'm still behind on blogging, but I've started writing posts on my phone during middle-of-the-night feedings do I should be caught up in no time!

heigh ho, heigh ho

once upon a time, there was a little girl who had an intense love for all things snow white . . .

and, said girl also had an insane way of getting what she wanted with just a single look.

so, as this little girl's third birthday approached, she let known her desire to celebrate as only the fair princess could.

she selected a small group of friends (similar to the seven dwarfs) to join in her celebration. her older brother selected the role of happy and came dressed accordingly.

her mother and father made sure all the story's details were present . . .

the magic mirror hanging on the wall . . .

forest eyes greeting guests upon their arrival . . .

and, of course, poisonous apples to eat.

most guests made a beard . . .

a dwarf . . .

 and excavated jewels from the mine . . .

it's hard to believe our little princess is already three! her spunky little personality makes us laugh every day! 

happy birthday, sweet girl!

christmas at disney day 7

our last day at disney is almost becoming a tradition. as we did on our last trip, we spent our last day as a repeat day at the magic kingdom. we squeeze in all our favorite things one last time while not feeling rushed or worried we haven't gotten to do something. it always seems like the perfect end to a perfect trip.

disney day 7: saturday, the magic kingdom

 we headed out early and took the ferry to the park again. we planned to take the monorail, but it was not working. hmmm . . . .

our first stop was the town square theater to visit mickey & minnie. last year, we visited them in the toon town part of fantasyland, so it was nice to see their new digs.

we even decided to take a family picture. i thought we needed photographic evidence that josh was indeed at disney with us. 

when we arrived at the park, my mom headed straight to wait in line for rapunzel while we visited with mickey. we wanted to finish up these last few must see characters and after a full week in disney, we were old pros at how to get things done. so, we let the kids take a minute or two in the store as we exited the character spot and spencer found this cinderella hat.

while we waited in fairy tale garden for our time with rapunzel, josh took miller to tomorrowland speedway. one good thing about being the only boy is that people make special arrangements for you when you have to wait on your sisters all the time.

soon, it was our turn with rapunzel. and, once again, she did not disappoint. we were the first ones in the next group and she made it feel so personal.

she danced and danced with the girls.

they were really mesmerized, especially carter as she is carter's favorite princess. a few minutes later, the boys were back and ready to go, so we headed over to fantasyland. we went on peter pan's flight and mad tea party, again.

then, we headed to prince charming regal carousel, again.

 and, somehow spencer convinced her siblings for one last ride on snow white's scary adventure. then, we decided to head to cosmic ray's starlight cafe for lunch. we had fast passes at buzz lightyear's space ranger spin. in route, we decided to stop and take another chance at a christmas card picture. success!

after lunch and another run at zurg, we headed back to the many adventures of winnie the pooh and dumbo the flying elephant.

spencer loved this ride every time and squealed with delight. in fact, all the adults loved to ride with her, so we had to make sure everyone got a turn.

we still had a few character requests from carter. she wanted to see ariel and tinkerbell so we headed to adventureland veranda where both characters were located. josh sweetly waited with the girls in the long line behind some very interesting people and through a very generous character break.

meanwhile, our experience and exhaustion told us to take advantage of all the adults we had hanging around so my mom and miller waited in line for tinkerbell. miller was unaware of how helpful he was being as my mom bought him a drink and gave him a snack and since there was a movie to watch while you waited, miller thought he got the best deal. the girls arrived just in time to go back. miller agreed to have his picture taken with this guy at the time, but didn't want evidence to remain in his autograph book once we arrived home! haha!

poor guy . . . i don't think this is the favored character request at disney. but, tinkerbell was just like you imagined. she was spunky and chatty and the girls loved her.

of course, miller was able to choose a ride of his liking to make up for his extreme patience during the photo ops. so, we headed back to the pirates of the caribbean for one last ride with jack. then, we wandered through a few stores until miller found the perfect gift for his teacher. and, josh ran back to pick up carter's last souvenir while the rest of us rode walt disney world railroad. we had a full day and walked out knowing we had done everything on our trip we could have ever imagined. we were exhausted and ready to head back to reality . . .  and christmas!

favorites for the day:
carter: meeting rapunzel
miller: driving the race car
spencer: flying in the purple elephant