Caleb the Photographer

Every time Caleb gets his hands on my phone, he takes a picture (and sometimes more than one). There's usually maniacal laughter that accompanies it. It's too funny. Here are some of his latest:

And my personal favorite, a selfie:

Jane: 2 Months

Jane is now 2 months and we are finally settling into a new routine as a family of 6. Which means there is a little less chaos. But still probably more crazy than at your house. :)

New this month: 

-Jane now sleeps longer stretches at night!!!! We can consistently count on 5 hours, sometimes even close to 7.5 or 8 in a row. This is HUGE. I feel less tired now than when I was pregnant. And sometimes I even get stuff done.

-Smiling! Jane smiles more now. Mostly just at me and Steve, but occasionally for siblings or other family members.

-Nap training. Stressing over sleep is my least favorite part of newborns. I've been tracking Jane's sleep the last week, and she is consistently 1-2 hours less than she probably should have, with naps almost always only being 30 minutes with a rare longer nap. Once I have her an opportunity to try to put herself to sleep instead of just rush in with a binky, she has done MUCH better... In fact, she is currently on a nap extension going on 2 hours (at the same time the twins were napping!). I think it probably helps her at night too, but she is all business at night and just nurses herself to sleep. This means we almost never leave the house because she naps best in her bed. I'm getting a little cabin fever but need to remember that it will be worth it.

-Improved head control. She's a lot less wobbly. Next month, we'll work on tummy time.

-Recognition. Jane definitely knows me and Steve, and her siblings. Though focusing and head turning is still hard.

-Weight gain! We go to the Dr. next week, but according to my home scale, Jane is over 10 lbs.!!!! She's definitely thickening up and getting some cute little baby fat rolls. Jane was also blessed at our home ward this month.  It marks the first time one of our children was blessed in our own ward. We had lots of family and friends come and it was a great event.

 

Jane: 1 Month

We've survived the first month with a newborn! It's been a rough month (it always is) but not as bad as I've expected. I don't nearly feel as tired or busy as I thought I would. Now, I wouldn't exactly say it's been "easy", just not the blur of craziness I planned for. Which has been nice.

I think a lot of that has to do with the pre-planning I did. I had about 2-3 months worth of meals in the freezer, a fully-stocked pantry, and a lot of the projects were completed.  We've had lots of friends and neighbors drop by with meals and Grandma Garff has taken the bigger kids for a few outings to help out as well. I've also had low expectations for myself for the first 6 weeks in order to adjust and heal and sleep. I've had to force myself to sit down more regularly (since I'm running around so much with the other kids) so I can be sure to recover, but I'm not a big fan of that. I just want to be back to normal! I'm feeling great now, so hopefully almost there (except for wanting to lose another 25-30lbs, of course).

 When I came home from the hospital, I barely felt like I had given birth, my recovery has been EASY. In fact, I went to sacrament meeting the next day. It was Mother's Day, and I thought there'd be kids singing some cute musical number that I wouldn't want to miss, but no such luck. The hardest part has been my SI joint pain. With Jane being turned all funny, it separated my pelvis, which has STILL not gone back completely. Walking even a block that first week was difficult and painful. I've been going to PT, which has been super helpful, but still not back to normal, yet. I have started running a bit (2 miles, 3x a week), but don't want to increase mileage until I am pain-free. Which hopefully will be soon as I regain my muscle and strength.

Jane has been a mostly pleasant baby. She hardly ever cries when she is being held, doesn't take forever to eat, and is working on sleeping better. It has been a challenge getting her to learn to sleep in the pack'n'play all alone, but she is doing much better. She seems like she will be a very happy and easy baby once we get passed this sleep hurdle.

Jane, 1 Month:

-SMILING!!! Started at 3 weeks; crazy, I know, but it's been often enough we know it is a real smile. She even has a dimple!

-Sleeps for 3-5 hours at a time during the night, usually going right back to bed.

-Kind of a spitty baby, but not nearly as bad as projectile vomiting Caleb.

-Loves to stare with her deep blue eyes and make funny facial expressions.

-Loved by her siblings, who are adjusting as well as can be expected. William often is indifferent, but every so often, I can get him fascinated by her umbilical cord, or funny faces. He doesn't want to hold her, but did try to teach her to crawl. Yesterday, he said that Jane looked like a boy because she has short hair. :) 

The twins fight over holding her and can't get enough baby. Caleb picks most of her outfits and they already have a special bond. He talks to Jane in a high-pitched voice that is just darling. Lily adores having a little sister and always wants to hold her.

My favorite thing is when the kids ask if we are going to keep Baby Jane forever. 

I think we will. 

Preschool Graduation

William graduated from preschool this week. He has loved it. 

The preschool was about a mile from our house, so we often walked or biked when the weather was nice. William insisted on wearing Steve's East High cap, and wanted to wear red to match it. Definitely stood out. 

They sang a few songs and got a diploma and a cd of pictures. William is so EXCITED for kindergarten next year, but will be sad to not be in Mrs. Brown's class anymore.

Sweet Baby Jane

I wrote this post just after Jane was born, but was FINALLY now able to get it to uploaded, now that Jane has turned one. So, sorry for the wait.

TMI Warning: This is a birth story, in mostly all it's glory.  Read at your own risk. If that's not your thing, skip ahead to the pictures.

The morning of May 7th, I was awake a lot of the early morning hours; between my bladder, a few Braxton Hicks contractions, losing my mucus plug, and worry about all the things to get done pre-baby.

We had already completed most of our list: I had a full freezer, months of diapers and non-perishable foods, the baseboards/walls/cabinets had been scrubbed, and the garden planted. We had also squeezed in a quick trip to St. George and a day trip to Antelope Island (during which the whole time I was concerned about being able to make it to the hospital if I were to go into labor). Mother's Day and Father's Day gifts had been purchased. I had a mani/pedi scheduled for that evening and a neighborhood girls' night out the next day. We were pretty much just counting down the days at this point.

I had lost a lot of my mucus plug over the last few days, so I figured we would have a baby before the end of the weekend. As we got the kids breakfast and got ready for the day, I suddenly had a familiar wet feeling---my water had broken again. 3 labors in a row all started with my water breaking, which supposedly happens in only 10% of the population, but 100% for me. I called my nurse since my doctor was out of town, and was advised to come into the office for my already scheduled appointment as soon as I could arrange for childcare. Steven commented that he had woken up and thought that this might be the day...

I sent Steve off to work to wrap things up since I was just having a slow leak and no real contractions. I called Papa Bill and asked if I could drop off the kids.  I got the kitchen cleaned up, skipped my heparin injection, threw my hospital bag and a bag for the kids in the van, and dropped the kids off with Grandpa; warning him that I didn't know if/when I'd be back.

When I got to the doctor's office I had to wait for what seemed like FOREVER. Normally, here is very little wait, but this felt particulary long. I got checked, and was found to be almost completely effaced and dilated to a 2. It was also confirmed that I was leaking water.

Since I still wasn't having any real contractions yet, the doctor allowed me to go home and give the van to the grandparents, feed my kids lunch and give Steve some time to get ready before checking into the hospital for an induction. But she wasn't going to let me make it to my mani/pedi or the 2 wedding receptions I had planned for that night due to the risk of infection with a broken amniotic sac.

Anyway, I cancelled all my plans, called both sets of our parets to let them know what was going on, and told Steve to meet me at home.  We were having a baby!

When I went to pick up the kids, I let them know that their baby sister was on her way and hopefully they would get to meet her after dinner. They didn't really seem to understand what was going on, but I didn't really expect them to.

I got the kids lunch, and Steven packed a few last-minute things for the hospital, then we decided to grab a celebratory lunch at Felman's Deli on our way to the hospital. Both of us were too nervous to really eat, so we just split an awesome meal since we didn't know when we'd get to eat next. When the owner heard we were on our way to have a baby, he came to congratulate us and told us to come back after the baby was born.

We got to the hospital around 1:30 or 2, and I was hooked up to a slow drip of Pitocin to get things going. I had flashbacks to William's 32-hour birth and hoped I wouldn't have to go through that again. We laid out our guesses for the time of birth.  The doctor (not my regular OB, who was out of town), commented that she thought I'd have a baby before the end of the day. My guess was after dinner, but hopefully before bedtime so the other kids could meet her. Steven thought later in the evening.

Contractions started out regularly, but were not very intense for about an hour.  Then, they started picking up and were very quickly difficult to handle so I asked for an epidural.  That was the longest wait in my life (or so it seemed). Steve distracted me by reading to me from the book he was reading and it helped to take my mind of the pain which was pretty much all-consuming at this point.  The pain was getting very difficult to manage due to the nature of my babies (especially this one) being sunny-side up. The back labor was INTENSE.

I got checked and was dilated to a 5. I was disappointed. I was in so much pain by tis point and it just seemed like time was slowing down. After the epidural started working, the nurse said she had a trick to turn babies.  I laid on my right side, put my left leg in the stirrup, and the nurse pushed on the baby's shoulder. Then, I was left to hang out in that position for about 30 minutes. The nurse checked again and I was a 9.5! All I did was lay there and the nurse and baby did the rest.

The doctor was called and checked again, rotating her head slightly to help me dilate the rest of the way. I pushed maybe 5 times and then we had a baby! The epidural wasn't on full blast likeI've done before, and while I didn't feel pain I did feel the sensation of the baby leaving my body, which was kind of neat. Very surreal and I saw her sweet face and she didn't even cry, which is very much her personality so far.

                                      
Introducing the newest member of our family, Jane Marie Garff. 5/7/2015, 4:35 pm, 7 lbs 11 oz, 20.5 inches.

Just over 2 hours of labor was definitely doable! Jane had her cord around her neck a couple of times and had swallowed a fair amount of amniotic fluid (she was spitting it up for days), so the nurses had to work on her for awhile before I got to feed and snuggle her.

It was instant love. I immediately felt possessive of my new treasure. And why wouldn't I? She is an absolute doll!

Grandma and Grandpa Garff brought the kids to meet her and it was sweet to see how much they loved her already.

I found it really interesting to compare her to baby pictures of my other kiddos.

Jane

Caleb and Lily

Jane

William

Jane

Lily

Jane

Caleb

Jane

Lily

Caleb and Lily

Jane

William

I mostly think she looks a lot like Caleb right now.

Jane

Caleb

No matter who she looks like, she definitely looks cute.

Foster Mom

I've been debating about what to do about the pet situation now that Nike is gone. I'm not a fan of having no pet...but I'm also 25 weeks pregnant and have a lot to do before this little girl gets here, so a puppy doesn't really make sense (though it is tempting...). 

The plan right now is to get a baby bunny in the next month or two, and then get a puppy when life calms down after we have this baby. And I'm not dealing with potty-training, big-bed transitioning twins.  

But in the meantime, I've decided to foster dogs with Rescue Rovers. They take dogs out of the shelters and give them a home until they are able to find a new home.

Our first lucky guy was Bulldozer. A Great Dane "puppy" of around 100 lbs and 1 year old. He was a sweet dog, awesome with the kids. Caleb especially misses him. But Dozer has found an awesome new home with a dog brother and four strapping young boys to play with. 

Our current dog is Tater. Tater is a 2-year old Catahoula/border collie mix. He's potty trained and doesn't mind being left alone when we have to run to the store (some things we were working hard with Dozer to fix). But he definitely needs some leash work, so we've been going on lots of walks/runs in an attempt to fix his bad habits and help him find a forever home. 

The first thing Caleb said to Tater was, "I Love you, Tater!" The fostering thing might be hard for my sweet sensitive boy, so we'll see how it goes. But it's fun for now, though I can't wait until we get a dog that is a good fit for us permanently.