Double Double Toil and Trouble

 We had our annual visit to the Gardner Village Witches this week and it made me think about the famous phrase of those spell casters created by Shakespeare-double double toil and trouble.  They may have been discussing my house at this time!  Someone is constantly trouble.  And, more often than not, it isn't one of these cute boys:  

 Chances are, its one of these girls:

Its common in the world of moms to know trouble is abounding when the house is silent.  While the quiet is welcome, its a sign of bad things happening!  I frequently call out Brenna's name when this happens and lately, her response is: "Don't see me."  Hmmm....she doesn't want to be seen.  Truthfully, sometimes, if I can tell it is neither life threatening or permanently damaging, I just turn around and pretend like nothing is going on.  When she walks around with her pants below her little bum and I ask her to pull her pants up, she says, "Sorry mom, I can't.  Its just so funny!"

 Brenna is a constant bully to Katelee. Ok, who am I kidding, Grant is too.  Katelee would describe herself as the most tortured in the family.  She has buckets of tears to prove her point.  My little pretties are sometimes little witches themselves!  While there are good witches and nice girls, there are mean ones as well, and Brenna has told me she is not nice...she likes to be mean.  She really likes to try out her wicked ways on this cute dude:

 Here he is hitting his two month mark this week.  We took him to the pediatrician today and he weighs 12 lbs 4 oz, 23 1/2 inches long, both these stats are in the 75% percentile.  His head, following suit of his siblings, is in the 25%.  So, our kids have small noggins but they are still brilliant!  He is also patterning his sleeping habits after his siblings.  This means they are atrocious.  I get little sleep which gives me more than double the toil and trouble because I am stinking tired and have to deal with cute fat boy and three others!  Brenna likes to twist his toes hard and then tell me, "Mom, I'm not going to do this anymore.  Watch, watch, I need to show you what I'm not going to do."  Then, she repeatedly does it...or sticks her finger in his eyes or nose.  Little sweetie.  I have had some serious conversations with Harrison about working on this and he just looks at me like he has no part in this sleep deprivation.  See...

We are loving his constant smiles and he has starting having conversations with us too!  While I miss my sleep, I know this too shall pass and then maybe my toil and trouble will go away...ok, it won't, but maybe it won't feel like double. 

On Top of the World

 There are times in your life that you feel like you are on top of the world- things couldn't be better and you are close to heaven!  That was how we felt this weekend...also the kids and Dave went on top of the mountain at Snowbird, so they literally seemed to be on top of the world! 

This weekend we had lots of visitors for the little man's blessing at our church.



Grandma and Grandpa McArthur came a week early and slept in the guest room in our basement hotel!  Because they were here, they got to accompany us to our annual pumpkin patch evening.



We found the perfect pumpkins, got lost in the corn maze...okay, the kids just ran through it as fast as they could.  The current record is 29 seconds, beat that if you can!



The evening was capped off with a tractor ride and treats at the gas station.  Good times for everyone!



More family came in town about a week ago to meet little Harry and be here for the big event.  My brother, Brad, and his family drove in from Colorado, Aunt Amy recently moved here, Aunt Anna flew in as well as Uncle Brian, all on Dave's side.  The Saturday before the blessing, the visiting McArthur clan, as well as Dave and our big kids made their way up the mountain to Snowbird. 

There were German festivies abounding at the Oktoberfest.  Because I wasn't there, the chicken dance was not participated in.  Apparently, Dave didn't make it to the dancing tent on purpose!!  I am shocked!  Harrison and I opted out of the fun because it seemed too cold for wee babykins. 

Sunday, we had all my siblings, parents and Dave's visiting family members come to our church and Dave gave sweet Harrison a beautiful blessing.  Dave got teary and I got choked up as he blessed our baby and let him know how we all adore him.  I don't know that I will remember everything that happened that day, but I will always remember how I felt.

I felt, and still do, feel extremely blessed.

 

First Month

Someone is one month old today!!  And I feel like letting out a big sigh.  Lets all do it together...sigh...That is a sigh of relief, a sigh of 'we are gonna make it!' and a sigh of 'please let me always remember how this feels.'  I can't believe how fast time flies after your little bundle arrives, definitely not so much in the months before!  I never want to forget how peaceful and heavenly it is to hold a little snugly newborn.  The last 31 days have been filled with firsts:  Harrison's first bath:

He was pretty indifferent.  I take that as a good sign.  We had a our first squirt across the room during diaper change, which happened to be aimed right at Brenna.  She freaked, we laughed.  Harrison has his first little smiles, and they melt my heart! 

 Alright, that is a faux smile.  The beard is deceiving.  Shannon made this for Harry and he doesn't appreciate facial hair at this time.  We thought we were giving him a head start on the other fellas.  He wants to hold off on his first shave, though.  So funny!  I had my first hormonal cry and there may have been more following!  I had my first outing without the baby.  He had his first bottle, and we both survived.  We are all trying to figure out where we fit in with this new family of 6 we have.  It is taking some transition time and we are working on finding our groove.  It has definitely  hit each member of the crew in a different way.  Other fun firsts:  Brenna's first day of preschool!


She has loved every minute of it...once I get her out the door.  I don't get much of a report from her, but I do know she enjoys walking up the stairs like an airplane when it is time to go home.  So, I guess things are going well on the academic side for her.  She also started her first dance class.  Katelee started dance as well and the other night apparently decided to try her first night sleeping in a giant tupperware container.  That's normal, right?  Well, it is for her.  I found her head hanging upside down off the bed the night before. 

Grant also had his first season of baseball, which he loved.  Harrison and I caught the last game and could tell he was enjoying it.  Life and activities didn't stop or wait for us to get our bearings when we brought home another little person.  I surely don't get a lot of 'things' done right now, and I am totally cool with that!  I just want to soak up every minute.  The things that have to happen, do and somehow we all manage.  I just know that if I blink this time will be over and I will miss it.  That is, if I dare blink.  Right now, I think closing my eyes may be dangerous.  My sleep deprived body may not get my eyes back open again!  So, for now, we snuggle and play!!! 

Meet Harrison Carl...

 

 

 This little guy arrived on August 23.  We are so happy he is here!!  Because of how quick my labor went with Brenna, and hoping to avoid a vehicular delivery by Daddy Dave, we opted for an induction.  The problem was, the night before we were scheduled, a crazy storm blew in.  We had lightning, thunder, power outages...which resulted in freaked out kids sleeping in the same room with flashlights.  I have heard storms bring on labor (the whole change in pressure effect), so I was hoping that may work for me-not so.  However, it did work for lots of other ladies and we were unable to even get ahold of anyone to give me the ok to come in.  Dave did some sweet talking and we were getting the ball going around noon.  I received my first dose of pitocin, antibiotics and had a visit from my doc an hour later to break my water.  Three and half hours later, I was feeling spent.  Those pitocin contractions are no bueno and I had been having intense contractions every 2 min for an hour and a half.  I was certain I was close to pushing, so I had my nurse check me and she smiled and said I was a good 5!  That was unacceptable to me for the pain level.  So, I told the dear nurses to summon the anesthesiologist.  I was told he would be there in 5-7 min, but those minutes came and went and I told Dave to go find him because it was hurtful!  In walks the drug doc, ready to pump me with numbing meds, but I look at him and tell him that I am going to push.  The nurse in training, Dave and anesthesiologist look at each other, all bewildered.  The doctor asks the nurse when I was checked last and she told him it had been 15 min and I was at a 5, but sure enough, he parted my legs open and there was a head crowning.  The orienting nurse called her trainer in, told her I was pushing and it was deja vu of Brenna's birth.  I wasn't waiting for anyone...when you gotta push, the people asking you to hold on are certifiably insane.  So, with one glove on, and nurses scrambling in the background, my ansesthesiologist pretty much delivered the baby.  My ob walked in later with his hands in the air and said he was just told that he owed the drug doc big time!  Here is a pic of our new guy...weighing in as our smallest babe at 7lbs 11oz, 20 inches.  (Two weeks later, he is already 9lbs).

 Because the baby was shot through my pelvic region like a rocket, he did some bouncing around against bone and he looked like he had been in a pretty bad brawl.  We took some pics to document how bruised he was. Poor little red head,

 all sorts of blood vessels broken in skin and eyes.  He looked battered.  Katelee had told me before I went in that she wanted me to get medicine because she 'didn't want me to scream when the baby came out.'  I was confused and asked her why she thought I would scream and she reported to me that she saw a movie where a baby was coming and the mom was yelling so loud.  Fortunately, there was no screaming involved!  The absolute best part of the hospital was seeing the kids meet their new brother.  My adorable pic of that won't load, but each of them fell immediately in love with Harrison, just like Dave and I did. 

We came home two days later, to anxious siblings waiting to shower baby Harry with attention and love. 

 

We noticed Harrison was jaundiced and his bilirubin levels were high, so we tried to just put him in the window to catch some sun, but he just got worse and worse.  He ended up getting his own tanning bed:

which he initially hated and cried and cried...which made me cry and cry.  Even though it is a minor complication to your newborn's first few days of life, it is tough to not get to hold them when all you want to do is cuddle.  After two days under the lights, the yellow hue was dimming and he was released from his ultraviolet prison. 

 He went from purple to yellow and now he is just slightly pink.  Little Harrison is a busy boy.  He is always eating or working on filling his diapers or hanging out with his sisters and brother. 

 It is so enriching and humbling to have a new baby.  While exhausting, there is nothing more rewarding to have such overwhelming love for a new person.  He is just two weeks old, but I can't imagine our family with out Harrison.  I feel like it must be because we knew him before and he was just biding his time to get to us (and make sure the coast was clear and somewhat safe after Brenna). 

He couldn't be more loved.

Sidenote...yes, you can call him Harry, Prince Harry, Harrison Potter, but not Indiana Jones!

Here We Go...

First day of school today!!  Hooray!  Grant told me that this summer was WAY too short!  I think it was plenty long! 

 

Here he is prior to starting the big 3rd grade.  And Katelee is below, ready to start 1st grade.  Dave offered to take them to school, but I wanted to show Katelee where to line up and make sure she was comfortable. 

 We parked the car, I walked as quickly as I could, but honestly, that is as slow as tar.  In my mind, my body is speed walking Olympic style, but my swollen legs and belly waddle at the speed of a stuffed snail.  Grant raced ahead of me, didn't even say goodbye, but luckily all the kids line up in the gym, so he couldn't ditch me so fast.  I walked Katelee to her line and in an effort to avoid the tears, I kept my mouth closed.  That, however, resulted in a horrible snort/choke sound.  So, I just did a quick dab/wipe when I started leaking.  There were another couple people teary...okay, one was a first grader, but why compare ages?  Katelee walked off, with me waving and she didn't even see it.  I am so glad she was excited.  I walked by Grant's line and at least got a wave out of him. 

 

I'm definitely going to miss them during the day.  We have had lots of fun this summer.  As soon as they got home, the teasing ensued and it was reassuring that there will be 8 hours a day less of that! 

 My goal was to make it through the first day of school, and we did!  So, bring on baby #4!  This picture, for posterity sake was taken a little over a week ago.  I'm fairly certain I am a good 20 lbs bigger than this!  Okay, not so, but it feels like it.  Dave took one look at my cankled feet last night and said he felt like taking a pin and popping them-they look like they are just filled with water...which they probably are.  I am looking forward to being able to bend my toes, roll over, cease vomiting and mostly hold my baby!!!