Temporary

In our family, there are temporary things, and there are lasting things.

Temporary: Honey's and Grandma's visits. 

Lasting: Their love.

Temporary: Papa's beard.

Lasting: A love of Costumes and dressing up.
Peaceful Hero: Darth Vader says "Kohl Pah, WHAT?!"

Temporary: Sleep Depredation

Lasting: Family love.

Temporary: Late night feedings and no sleep. It's been really hard the past week and a half. Hopeful Hero decides it's time to be awake and interacting with Mom from 5 pm, until 11-2am ish. We try all our methods to get her to sleep and it doesn't take. (Last night was A LOT better. She actually slept during that time.) It's nice to know that this will take care of itself within a few months, and that as long as we keep trying, she will get it together as she gets older.

Lasting: Hopeful Hero's smiles. She gives them frequently and they light up our world.

Screen Free

Since Tuesday night--so really, since Wednesday, I've been screen free as long as the boys are up. It's been hard, but after a few days, I really like it. I think we are going to do a lot less screen time, once it's ok to turn on the computer with them around.

Why are we screen free? It was not by my choice. No. Tuesday night---I'm feeding Hopeful Hero upstairs and five minutes later Bug Hero comes home. He gets upset. The tone of his voice is holding-on-to-my-temper-by-the-skin-of-my-teeth. So whatever happened in those five minutes was bad. Very Bad.

Turns out that Peaceful Hero was holding a "smoking gun." He had the white out dispenser  that his Brother, Friendly Hero had given him. Right after FH put white out tape all over the computer monitor. Yeah. We had white out on our computer screen. Sounds like a bad joke.

We got it off, but the boys haven't gotten to watch movies, watch Cello Wars, or Misty Mountains or anything else on the computer. There are still two days left in their sentence.

As a side note, both Peaceful Hero and Friendly Hero have learned the words to Misty Mountains. That song rocks, and is even cooler with a two year old singing it. If we can get them to sing it for the camera, I'll totally share. Because it's precious. 

Then on Wednesday, the two culprits decided to play with Mom's spices while she was nursing downstairs this time. (I don't leave them alone now.) They dumped out four bottles and played with them on the table. They got in trouble for that too.

The one question I have. How do you keep two active, curious little boys out of trouble while you feed a little, hungry sister? 

Hopeful Hero!

Important Update: We are stapleless! It was easy, Peaceful Hero was awesome about it! And now we are back to playing outside at the playground.  And yesterday, when we weighed Hopeful hero--she had gained 7 ounces! Just as she should, and following the family pattern!

And now, on to how adorable my baby is! Because my vanity is in my ability to make adorable babies! These pictures were all taken by my talented friend over at http://www.heidijensenphotography.com/ 

Hopeful Hero loves to smile, usually they are sleepy smiles that follow a great burp, but occasionally they line up when I tell her that I love her.

 A finger sucker! Both of these pictures are in her blessing dress, that her grandmother made for her. We are so lucky to have talented relatives.

The family of supers! I really love Peaceful Hero's face in this one. He just cracks me up!

 We weren't sure if she was crying or yawning.

 And here is one with her hands right by her checks. She loves to put them there--I think she realizes how cute it makes her!

We are grateful she is here and she is healthy and growing. She is littler than her brothers, but I have a feeling she will still be able to keep up with them!

An Update on Heros

 First off: We absolutely loved General Conference this weekend! It was a spiritual feast and a great way to end the week! At this point I don't have a favorite talk, but I loved the spirit and the focus on family and parenting. I also loved hearing the Prophets speak to us. This is one of my favorite weekends of the year.

And the boys are doing better about paying attention. At various moments in the conference, Friendly Hero would pipe up, "He's talking about the resurrection! I hear him talking about Jesus!" And then Peaceful Hero would pipe up, "Who Dat? Dat President Monson?" And when we told him no, "Why?"

We still had toys and snacks and lots of fun. We're not expecting perfection, but it's fun to see them learn and grow in their testimonies. By the way, their Easter outfits are adorable! Thank you Honey!

So speaking of Easter, we dyed eggs, and had a small egg hunt on Saturday. The boys loved it! 

Peaceful Hero keeps asking for more Easter! He then clarifies and asks for another Egg!  Friendly Hero can tell you the story of Easter, but I'm not sure he understands it all. Ever since we started telling him the story, he gets worried that he's going to die and go to Heaven, without us. If we all go together, then he's okay. But in his prayers, he has started asking Heavenly Father to bless Jesus as he is dead so he comes back to life on Easter. I love his testimony and he loves to tell everyone that Jesus comes back!

This week was kind of stressful. And by kind of, I mean medically stuff filled and emotionally draining. First off, we went to the doctor's for a weight check for Hopeful Hero, on Monday. I knew she was still small on Easter. She had just cleared up her jaundice, which for both of the boys, they didn't get back to their birth weight or start thriving until it was cleared up. Friendly Hero's was a lot more severe, and more stressful. But the doctor's here didn't see him. Peaceful Hero didn't cause worry, because he was eight pounds. Hopeful Hero, the nurses started freaking out that she was still 6 lbs 4 ozs. Her birth weight was 6 lbs 14 oz. They started talking about needing a lactation consultation, and other interventions. One nurse even asked in disbelief if my milk was in, or if she was having the correct number of poopy and wet diapers. (Hello! It is!) I was getting the vibe that she didn't trust me when I told her that she was following the pattern of my other children. The doctor wasn't as worried as the nurses, but he was concerned. So we went to a lactation consultation, and everything is fine. I decided that I would squeeze in an extra feeding every day, and wake her up frequently during the day--I refuse to wake her up at night. So instead of feeding her 8 times a day, I've been feeding her 9 times a day. And by Tuesday, she was starting to feel heavier. (Right when I knew she would.) We go back for another weight check tomorrow, but Bug Hero and I both feel that she's close to 7 lbs, if not over it. This week would have seemed busy if that was the only thing, because I'm spending close to 6 or 7 hours during the day feeding a baby.

But she's totally worth it. This is my favorite gown of hers right now. I love the puffed sleeves and the gathering on them. So much fun to have ruffles and puffed sleeves!

Tuesday, we were out at the playground and enjoying the warmer weather and the sun. I am getting the boys ready to go back inside, when the Peaceful Hero starts screaming and all the other parents at the playground start running towards me. The Peaceful Hero, who is also the climbing or adventurous hero, had climbed up the tall slide at the playground, and fell backwards off of it three quarters of the way from the ground. He fell backwards and landed on his back from about 10 feet high. His head was bleeding profusely  For a horrible accident to happen, it really was great timing--because someone took care of Friendly Hero, someone else took my monitor to listen for Hopeful Hero, one dad was home to give Peaceful Hero a blessing, two other people got first aid kits. Once we got down to the scalp, we realized he would need stitches. So another mom came with me to hold pressure on his head. Four hours later, he is the proud owner of three staples in his booboo. He's fine, no lasting harm. He's most upset that I'm not letting him play in the sandbox until it's healed--I don't want to be cleaning sand out of it.

The last person that needs an update: The Bug Hero. He sported facial hair this week, because he had eye surgery last week. He got a pinguicula removed. That's a fancy word for a callus on his eye that caused irritation and redness. So he no longer has a red eye!

Math Hero: I'm keeping up with everyone. I look forward to a less medically busy week next week. We are still having fun and enjoying everyone's company. The next update I will do will have pictures of the Hopeful Hero's newborn photo shoot. I love sharing them with people, and knowing that I make adorable babies.

Hopeful Hero

 We have decided on her name for the blog. She is our Hopeful Hero. Her name comes from Grandpa C. We did not decide on her name right away when she was born, because we had two awesome names, and it was 12:31 am and I had been up since 5:31 am. When you are that tired, you just send out a text message to everyone letting them know she is here, and that a name will be decided later that day.

Grandpa C. got the message, as he was waiting in another hospital. Our extended family is having some trials  of health right now, and he heard she was born--and he started calling her Hope, and the Hope of the Family. When he told me that he was calling her Hope, I knew that it should be her name on the blog. She is our Hope from Heaven.

She sleeps really well, as long as she is swaddled in two layers. She is our coldest baby! I'm not that surprised, since I was freezing cold the whole pregnancy.

But she smiles a lot and is peaceful and calm as long as she is warm and snuggling with someone. We love her to pieces here! The boys love to give her kisses, hugs, and toys. Peaceful Hero keeps trying to give her trains, and hit her in the head with his toys. Which for a two-year old, is pretty accurate of his love.

Baby Girl!

Baby Sister came on Saturday Morning at 12:31am, after flipping into breech twice, and flipping out of it once in the past week. We had a version, which my doctor manually pushed her around and got her head down on Friday at 1. By 2 we started pitocen---we needed to get her out before she decided to flip again. (Right now I'm thinking Gymnast Hero for our blog....but we'll see) She came slowly, and we think she was determined to tell us that she was in charge and we didn't get to decide that her birthday was going to be 3/8/13, she wanted 3/9/13.

She came without much difficulty. She went slowly and we are so happy she is here! She is my best nurser so far---which is impressive because the boys were awesome nursers! We have loved having Aunt My-a (read MyDashA) here. She has been so good with the boys.

Friendly Hero loves holding his sister. He is very pleased that she came out looking like he said she would. He was right about her name!

Peaceful Hero has some really funny faces when asked to smile.

And when he's just holding her. He loves his sister. He loves her even more, because she brought him a basketball hoop, (bak-et-ball hoot) home from the hospital for him.

We came home on Sunday and I feel so good. I am slowly recovering, but it's a miracle how fast I seem to feel better.

Baby Sister

Hasn't arrived. Unfortunately. But I thought I would give a quick update. She can't drop any further without someone catching her. I like to think this is good--but it makes for really painful walking.....sitting.....standing.....lying down.....being alive. I'm not complaining really loudly. Yet. I'm 39 weeks tomorrow, and I've been ready to have her for a week now. I have constant heartburn or nausea. If she doesn't come out with hair, I am going to feel really jipped. But she will be cute when she gets here, because she'll be here!

Two days ago, The Friendly Hero started telling my belly, "Baby Sister! I want to hold you! It's time to come out!" Just about the sweetest thing you can hear. Sunday night, he lifted up my shirt, (to look at my secret fit belly skirt) and told me: "I can't see her eyes." I told him that she's looking at my back. He turned me around (not as easy as it sounds) "I still can't see them!" I told him she had to come out before he could see them. I asked him what color he thought they would be. "Brown, just like Daddy. And she'll look like a Gwendolyn. Not a Alice." These are our two names, that we can't decide between. Friendly Hero has decided. When someone tells him she might look like an Alice, he smiles and says, "But she won't. She's going to come out and look like a Gwendolyn. So I can call her Gwendolyn." P.S. His little voice saying that name--cutest thing next to the Peaceful Hero saying it.

Both boys love to come and give my belly a kiss and tell her she will be loved when she comes out. Peaceful Hero says, "Come out! Mom carry Patree, not you" (How he says his name.) Which could be the reason why she's staying in. They each love to sit on one of my legs and tell me that I'm holding all three kids.

I'm really excited to have her--not just so I'm in a lot more comfort. But to see these boys love their sister so much! Especially since they are finally excited to have a sister. Not another brother. They gave me nightmares that she comes out with a brother (surprise twins............nightmare) and that she's really a he....not so much a nightmare, because we have all the stuff, but we had no names and I would definitely grieve the loss of a daughter for a few days, before I fell totally in love with another son.

I see my doctor tomorrow and I'm really hoping and praying that he takes pity on me and I have a baby this week.