What a week!

Last week was crazy!  Let me start with Wednesday...

Baby Jedi (my nickname for Lucas) turned 5 weeks old.  Crazy.  Nuts. 

Adam likes to take pics of out babies sitting up.  Even if they can't. :)

On this day, Cami had her Christmas program at her preschool.  This was Cami's first "performance" ever, so she was very excited and we couldn't wait to see it.  My plan is to go early with Luke to get a good seat.  What really happens?  I put Luke in the car, start it and get out to scrape the windows.  BUT, I must have ALSO locked the car doors as I got out of the car, because when I was done scraping, I couldn't get back IN. 

A quick note: Katie = Best. Mom. Ever.  I'm now 3 for 3 in locking my kids in somewhere I am not.

• Alaina: also in the car, when she was 2, on a Friday at 11:30 am, in the middle of downtown Indy, rescued by the fire department with sirens and lights ablazing
• Cameran: in the house, when she was about 6 weeks old, rescued by a neighbor breaking into a second story window with a ladder.

Thankfully, one of our neighbors was home (the same one who rescued Cami I might add) so I used his phone to call Adam to come unlock the car.

We walked in to Cami's program RIGHT before it started.  Phew.  Cami would never know.  (See her on the top row in green.)

Alaina had Nutcracker rehearsal each night last week, leading up to performances on Friday night and Saturday and Sunday afternoons.  This is Alaina's third Nutcracker, though the first with her new ballet school and the first she had to actually audition for!  Needless to say, this little Nutcracker Soldier was beyond excited!  And she did a great job!

I am thankful the week is over.  Though tomorrow Baby Jedi will be 6 weeks old already.  And Christmas (!!!!) is on Saturday.  Where does the time go?!?!

One month

Today, Luke is one month old.  It's so crazy thinking that 4 weeks ago today we brought him home from the hospital.  He has grown to 8 lbs. 7 oz. and 21 in.  This puts him in the 15th percentile for weight and about the 25th for length. 

I can see changes already in him beyond the physical growth.  He is so close to smiling at me - his face is starting to light up when he sees one of us and I work daily on getting him to smile at me.  (I want him to smile at me first!)  He is making lots of little noises and is intently looking at objects now.

One month.  Already.  Soon he's going to be 8 years old. :)

The girls are really enjoying Lucas, though they are pretty busy on their own these days!  Cami is in preschool 3 mornings a week.  She's doing a great job learning her letters and numbers and is starting to write much better.  She will be in her first Christmas program next Wednesday and is singing her songs all the time to practice!  At home, she LOVES to help out right now - she cleans the bathroom sink several times a week, helps me make dinner, etc. 

Alaina is doing well in school.  She is working on a mammal project right now - she was assigned the mouse.  She really wanted the otter, but unfortunately wasn't given her first choice.  She had to research the mouse in three different books and is now putting together a binder about its characteristics.  She'll be missing her Christmas concert at school this year due to Nutcracker rehearsals.  She's in the Indianapolis School of Ballet's production this year (her ballet school as well) and she's a soldier.  She's VERY excited.  She heard a commercial on Radio Disney for it the other day and was SO excited she was jumping up and down as she was telling me "I'm going to be famous!!" :)

I am getting into my new work schedule slowly.  Working from home with a 1 month old is harder than I thought - Luke is a good baby,  but it seems like every time I want to sit down and work he wakes up from a nap or is extremely fussy and needs held.  So I'm trying to work through that and figure it all out.

And the winter weather doesn't help me at all.  Winter is always a hard time of the year for me - I really hate the cold and snow, so I struggle to get through those months.  And being stuck inside with a newborn is going to add to that I'm sure.  So I'll probably be writing more often to get out my SAD feelings so I don't take them out on my family. :)

Today I told Luke that I was so thankful he was here and that we chose to have him.  I hope you are thankful for your blessings too.

Lucas Adam White

We have now been living with little Luke for 3 1/2 weeks. It's been a great transition - the girls are totally in love with their baby brother and things are really going well with us learning to be a family of five. Of course there are struggles, but that's to be expected right?! :)

I wanted to write about Luke's birth story right away, but have been a bit occupied with getting accustomed to living life with a newborn again! I'll start at the beginning...

It took 10 months for me to get pregnant this go 'round, so I was very ready for Luke to arrive way before he was due. And he tricked me several times, giving me hours of contractions that ended in false labor. So when my contractions started again around 5:30 Tuesday evening (Nov. 9th) I assumed they'd stop in a few hours like all the times before. By about 10:30 pm I was pretty sure this was the real deal and called my mom first (to give her a heads up) and then my doctor. My doctor told me to go to the hospital and if it truly was real labor, then I'd be admitted and they'd let her know.

I was still pretty calm at this point and felt very in control of the contractions and the situation. I called my friend and neighbor to come stay with the girls until my dad arrived to relieve her. About 11:15 pm Adam and I headed to the hospital while my mom and dad were driving in from Ft. Wayne and my brother from Purdue!

Once I was in triage, they checked me and I was 5 centimeters dialated! This was great news since I was still waiting for them to tell me it was false labor and to go home. :) I was so happy and ready to meet this little guy that the midwife said "Are you having an epidural? Because you seem pretty happy for being 5 centimeters along!"

We got to the labor and delivery room around midnight. My mom arrived around 1:30 am and I was still feeling pretty in control, much more than with either of the girls' labors. I had each of them naturally, as I was planning on doing with Lucas as well, but they were both posterior, meaning they were face up, rather than the normal face down. This causes a ton of back pain during labor. I'm sure this is the reason I felt more comfortable during my labor to this point.

About 3:30 am, my water still had not broken and my contractions were getting much stronger and closer together. The nurse called my doctor and she said to check my progress again and if I was far enough along she'd come in and break my water. I was 8 centimeters dialated, so around 4:00 am my water was broken.

My water broke naturally with both of the girls, so I didn't know what to expect. The actual breaking of the bag wasn't painful, but the amount of pressure that I immediately started to feel was nuts. I think that with the girls I wasn't as dialated when my water broke, so my body had more time to transition. Well, not with Luke. I felt like I was ready to push almost instantly, but I wasn't dialated enough and my darn doctor wouldn't let me push. :) This was one of the hardest parts of my labor - not pushing...

Around 4:30 my doctor finally gave me the go ahead to push. (My mom made a quick call to my dad to get the girls up and bring them to the hospital at this time.) Up to this point my contractions were so close together that I was getting so little rest between them that I was completely worn out. Plus, I was so tired from being up for almost 24 hours that I felt too physically tired to do so. This is the point where I see God stepping in to help me. After my first round of pushing, I started having longer breaks between contractions. At one point I joked that I thought my labor was stopping because of the time between my contractions! It probably was only a minute or so, but it felt like forever, which provided me with some great rest time between contractions and pushing.

At 4:52 am, little Lucas was born. I thought he was going to be my biggest baby (he sure felt big when he was inside!) by he weighed in at 7 lbs. 3 oz. and 20 in. long which was 3 oz. and 1/2 in. less than Cami (but a whole 1 lb. 2 oz. and 1/2 in. more than Alaina!!).

The girls rushed in (still in PJ's) to be the first ones to meet him. Alaina instantly was in love. Cami just acted like it was any other day. :)

Unfortunately, because of my gestational diabetes and required insulin, they had to take him to NICU very shortly after he was born to monitor his blood sugars. This was really hard - I only got to hold him for about 2 minutes before they took him and Adam didn't even get to hold him. They did allow Adam to go with Lucas to NICU 30 minutes later, so that was nice at least for Adam to be able to sit with him there. We also were able to spend some time with him there when I was being taken to my post-partum room, but that wasn't until about 7:15 am.

Luke was in NICU until 9:45 am and then he was cleared to leave NICU and to stay with us. Thankfully his blood sugars were stable and they didn't need to do anything to him during his stay in NICU. Mine were also stable right away without insulin, so I'm quite thankful for that.

It seems so long ago already. Luke is already changing - being purposefully alert and making sounds. He knows our voices and intently studies our faces. The girls are so great with him - they hold him and care for him when he cries. Cami likes to sing a song she made up for him called "You're fussy" which he actually really likes. :) Alaina is wonderful at holding Luke and really wants responsibiliy with him more and more. It's nice to see her so in love with him, since it was really hard for her when Cami was born.

I can't wait for all of you to meet him. Here's a glimpse of what I see when I look down at my little man...

Isn't he perfect?

Christmas card sneak peak!

I am always excited about the Christmas season because it means we get tons of Christmas cards from friends and family showing current pictures of their families! I'm equally excited about making our own card each year. While taking our annual card picture is often a hair-pulling experience, I love picking out the perfect one and comparing how the girls have changed in just one short year.

This year, our card will be different. First, it will include a little BOY! And second, it will double as a birth announcement. I just couldn't fathom sending out birth announcements and turning around a week later to send Christmas cards! So I'm combining them this year.

And I'm doing it on Shutterfly. Here's a sneak peak of one of my favorite cards (and hopefully ours!):

Did you really think I'd include the pictures? :) You'll have to wait for those...

You can find this Christmas Photo Card at http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery/christmas-photo-cards. You can also find other Christmas card options at http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery/christmas-cards.

And for those of you still looking for the perfect gift for the grandparents? Create your own calendar at http://www.shutterfly.com/calendars. They are always a hit in our family!

You know what else? I just might have Shutterfly address, stamp and mail our cards for us. Ahhh, wouldn't that be amazing?! :)

Really, I tried (written partially in October, and partially on 11/4)

I'm not loving Blogger right now. I can't seem to get pics uploaded in any sort of realistic timeframe. I'm trying one more time. Right. Now.
And look at that. Finally, it worked. But this is the only one you get tonight. I'm not tempting fate.

Today I am 38 weeks pregnant with little man. No, he still doesn't have a name (it's totally overrated in my opinion) which totally shouldn't surprise you. I am discouraged that after a week of regular, increasing in intensity contractions, I have progressed no further than at last week's appointment. Doesn't seem fair to have all these contractions for naught. But I do have 2 weeks left and the doctor today said "At this rate, I'm sure I'll see you at next week's appointment and we'll talk about good dates for induction." She knows just what to say to an uncomfortable, emotional 38 week pregnant woman, huh? :)

I guess we'll use this weekend to buy the remaining little items we need to be fully "boy" stocked, at least for the next few months. I'd rather spend it holding my new little man, but I guess it'll happen all too soon anyways...

Hopefully I'll be able to update before this time next week with bigger and better news about a little guy out in the workd, and his name...

Yeah, yeah (this was written in September!)

I know, it's been a LONG time. The summer went by so quickly and we've been busily anticipating this new arrival, that I just don't remember to post! And then there's Facebook, which allows me to quickly upload pics for all to see so easily.


Here is suppposed to be a few pics of the girls' birthdays. (except that I can't get Blogger to actually upload them, so you're not getting any...)



Cami started a new preschool this month. She is in the Turtles class and really enjoys it there. She goes MWF from 9-11:30 and then 2 days each week stays until 3pm and then the other day goes to a friend's house to play for the afternoon. She'll keep up this routine until little man's born and then will just go for the 3 mornings each week. I'll be working very little (and from home) so I'm looking forward to spending more time with her before she heads off to Kindergarten next year. (I know, unbelievable!! And Alaina's in THIRD grade!)

Signs of Spring

Less than a month ago, we were city sledding. Or ghetto sledding. Whatever you decide to call it - it's sledding down the interstate embankment. :)

Now, we have the trampoline back up and have taken the first of many "hair-raising" pictures of backyard fun.
Like Alaina's hair cut? Isn't it cute?! :)

Kiera Photo

A friend of ours took some pics of the girls last week. Here's a link to a sneak peek of the pics:

http://www.kieradubach.blogspot.com/

We love them so far and can't wait to see the rest!!!

2010 already

I can't believe it's 2010 already. I remember when it turned 1999 like it was yesterday, dancing in our friend's apartment to Prince and having no responsibilities except for finishing college.

Now I have a little girl with newly pierced ears and another little girl who sleeps in a big-girl bed without railings. Is it real?! Am I ready for them to grow up?!

The answer is no. Plain and simple.

They are funny though. They decided to sleep together in Cami's bed last night (she has a full-size bed now). They were like two little girls having a sleep-over for the first time. It was fun to see them so excited and giggly together, since they normally just fight. :)

Another funny thing is the conversations they have. Here's the funniest I've heard in a long time (it happened yesterday in the car). First, let me give you some background: I hate, HATE, light up shoes (as well as character clothing, like Princess pants, Dora shirts, Barbie shoes, etc...). Sorry if you like them, I'm not judging, but I just can't stand them. :) This was never a real issue with Alaina, but to Cami, it's just horrid. We've also had two deaths in our family recently (one being our dog Boomer). So here it is:

Cami: Jordan (a girl at her school) thinks my shoes are light up shoes.
Me: Well, Jordan's wrong.
Alaina: Yeah Cami, mommy doesn't like light up shoes and won't buy them for us.
Cami: Well, when mommy dies, I'm getting a pair of light up shoes.

I seriously laugh out loud every time I think about this conversation. To think that a 3 1/2 year old can put all that together is amazing. I asked Adam tonight at dinner what he thought Alaina would get if I died... :)

Happy New Year loved ones.