One Month Already

I can't believe this little angel is a month old already. Time is going to fast.

two and a half weeks old

Abbi is such a sweet baby.

She is so content the majority of the time, which is good considering that her brother and sister are both very needy all the time.

She sleeps best during the day when there is tons of noise. At night when everything is quiet she thinks she should be awake.

She eats really well and thinks that whenever she is awake she should be eating.

At her 2 week well check she weighed 7 pounds 7 ounces and was  20 1/4 inches long.
At birth she was 6 lbs 13 ozs and 19 1/4 inches long.

She is definitely a Mama's girl.

We sure love this sweet little girl!

Madie is 3!

I can't believe that my baby is 3 years old already...

ok I am a bit behind, her birthday was actually on October 3.

It seems like just yesterday she was born and I was holding her in my arms, now she is so big and so capable of doing things for herself.

A few things about Madie...

• She loves to color.
• She is starting to get into dress up. Grandma got her some princess dress up shoes, she wears them all the time and calls them her 'tappy shoes'.
• Every morning before anything else she asks for her 'chocolate chip' (chocolate milk).
• She thinks her sister is very cute but is not at all interested in helping with her. She refuses to put Abbi's paci back in her mouth and gets really annoyed with Abbi when she cries. She does however run to get me when she thinks that Abbi needs me.
• She hates to wear cloths. At home her normal wardrobe is a shirt, a diaper and her tappy shoes.
• She loves to sit on the toilet and play with toilet paper. She will sometimes sit there for 45 minutes singing and folding one square of toilet paper.
• She still hates to sleep in her own bed and insists to sleep with Mom and Dad.
• She eats just about anything that we put in front of her.
• She wants to do everything herself.
• She is starting to like Barbies.
• She loves to ride the rocking horse that her Grandpa built.
• She misses her Daddy terribly when he is gone to work and loves to talk to him on the phone.
• She is a screamer! It is loud and high pitched. She has apparently been doing it long enough though that Abbi recognized from inside my belly, she is not even phased but it.
• She has no volume control. All through church she talks at a normal volume no matter how many times she is asked to be quiet.  

We sure love our little Lous.

Happy Birthday Sweet pea!

  

Introducing...

Abbigail Julie Barrett

September 27, 2011

8:37 pm

6 lbs 13 ozs

19 1/4 inches

 

Abbi's Birth Story

We had been scheduled to be induced on Thursday September 29th. When we went to our doctor appointment Tuesday morning I was dilated to 5 cm. Our midwife asked if we just wanted to have this little girl today instead of waiting two more days.

Um... YES!

She sent us over to Mountain View Hospital and they got my IV going. We made some phone calls and Courtney came for Slade and Laura came for Madie. I had to have some antibiotics for a couple hours before anything else could be done to get labor going so we just sat and waited. At 2:30 our midwife came in and broke my water. And then the contractions started. By about 7:30 I was dilated to a 9 and shortly after started pushing. I pushed for about 40 minutes and then at 8:37 she was born.

This birth went so much better then Madie's did. By having a midwife this time I was able to do it without an epidural. Some might think that I am crazy but I am so happy that I was able to do it without drugs. The birth went so much better and I was able to listen to my body instead of the doctor or nurses telling me what I had to do. Because of that there I didn't need any stitches and and recovering much better than I did with Madie.

We are so grateful that Abbi waited to come until Ben was able to be home and we are so happy that she is finally here.

Abbi has the sweetest little personality. So far she is really mellow and loves to sleep... except at night. She is a great little eater now that she has figured out nursing.

Our Family of Five 

Madie is absolutely obsessed with Abbi. She calls her "Her Baby" and is constantly telling us how cute her baby is. She has done surprisingly well sharing her Mommy. Madie loves to help with everything Abbi. She runs to get me diapers, wipes, or whatever I need.

Slade is still mad that she is not a brother but he still thinks that she is cute.

Both kids love to give help with her pacifier and Abbi gets it shoved into her mouth whether or not she wants it. 

And just because everyone likes to look at a cute baby

How are we doing?

People keep asking me how things are going with Ben gone.

Answer: We are surviving. When he left we knew that this would be the hardest one. Being that it is the first time he is leaving and that I am having a baby any day. I keep telling myself that if I can make it through these two weeks I can make it through anything else that is thrown our way with this new job. So we have made it to the end, he is on his way home. In just a couple hours he will be here.

WE DID IT!

We are all so excited. Last night none of us slept. We were all just to excited. Yesterday the kids and I made Dad a welcome home sign and both kids made him a card.

So what did dad miss?

Not much of anything. THANK GOODNESS! For the most part we did a lot of sitting around. I have been to scared to do much of anything for fear of going into labor. But I did some organizing and a little sewing too.

Other than that we had one day that i was deathly ill. I could do very little that day but we survived. My kids are amazing! Slade totally took can of his sister and me. Talk about a big job for a 5 year old. He got her milk in her sippy and fed them both (cereal) for breakfast and lunch. He would check back with me about every half hour to see if I needed anything and kept bringing me glasses of water and rinsing my washcloth with cold water for my forehead. i felt so bad letting him take care of us like that but he kept telling me that he really liked taking care of me because I always take care of him... what a good kid. Madie kept sitting by me and rubbing my back and telling me "Mommy, I take care of you" seriously so sweet! That night Grandma came and picked the kids up, fed and bathed them and then brought them home to go to bed. I am so grateful for great kids and great in laws that help me out so much.

So now we will have our Daddy back for 2 weeks. And is this ever going to be an exciting two weeks. We can't wait to meet our new little girl!

Security

I always thought that most kids had a security item. You know something that they had to take everywhere with them or at least sleep with.

Me, I had a bunny. Not a stuffed animal, but more of a small blanket type thing with a bunny head on it. I still have it. It is now one big long ratty string attached to a bunny head. I took it everywhere as a kid. My brother had a blanky.

My kids, not so much...

Slade has never had anything that he insists on having and Madie... well I am pretty sure that I am her security item. I can not get her to go to sleep unless she is snuggled up tight against me with her arms tightly holding my arm.

Last night as I was lying in bed thinking about how weird it was to not have Ben there (last night was his first night gone) I started to think about the little almost 3 year old that was wrapped around my right arm. I thought about how I was her security item. Sure she will sleep without me there but she sleeps much better holding on to me. This made me start to think about how much my sweet husband has become my security item.

I used to be totally self sufficient. I never asked for help. Well who am I kidding... aside from Ben I still never ask anyone for help. Now I have found myself in a situation where I am going to have a baby any day and my Security is gone. I feel pretty lost without him. I have had tons of people beg me to let them help me and Ben also asked some people to check in on me and help me while he is gone even if I don't ask.

I am so grateful for him and all that he does for us and is willing to do for us. I know that leaving us was really hard, especially right now. But I also know that this is what he has felt is best for our family. I know that I have yet to come to this conclusion but I think that my own desire to have it easy and have him home every night is slightly over shadowing any feelings of rightness that might be trying to get through.

So now what? Perhaps I need to find security in myself again. Or maybe I need to just adjust the role my Security plays in my life.

I know that him leaving for work is not the worst thing in this world. I know that there are many people that have it far harder than I do. But for today, I miss my husband.

I love you Ben!

A big adjustment

There are lots of things changing around our home.

If you notice our baby countdown you will see that in about 35 days our little lady will be joining us.

Our great big 5 year old is starting kindergarten tomorrow.

And now...

Our Daddy is starting a new job...

In North Dakota...

Next week...

Ben is going to North Dakota to work in the oil fields. He will be driving a gravel truck. He will be gone for two weeks and then home for two weeks. We are very excited to have him all to ourselves for two full weeks every month, but none of us are looking forward to him being gone for two full weeks either.

I am very nervous!

Besides the obvious that our baby is coming pretty much any time now and fearing a reenactment of our late night run to the ER last week, I am a bit on edge. I keep looking around at our half acre plot of land and it is looking more like 10 acres to me. Our cute little house is looking like a mansion. I keep making mental notes of everything that Ben does that is now on me. Even the easy things that should be no big deal are feeling a bit overwhelming, like rolling the garbage down to the road every Friday.

This is certainly going to be a big adjustment for all of us.

We talked with our Dr and she said that she would induce me the week before I am due so that Ben can be here for the delivery and still have some time with little Baby A before he has to leave again. So we are praying that she cooperates and decides to hold off until he is back home. To be on the safe side Ben has officially put me on light duty until she comes.

Anyway, wish us luck.

And if you see me at the grocery store and I look like I should be committed to some sort of mental hospital, please just smile and tell me I look pretty or some sort of lie.

A Scary night!

Last night was one of those nights that you hope will never happen. The evening itself was totally normal. We all went to bed and then about midnight I woke up in excruciating pain in my belly. For about 15 minutes I tried to adjust my position to relieve the pain - no luck. I finally woke Ben up and told him what was going, he tried rubbing my back, my belly, anything that we could think of to alleviate the pain. By this point I was in so much pain I could barely roll over.

So Ben called Mountain View Hospital. The nurse told him that I should try a warm bath and that we should call EIRMC because they couldn't handle a baby at 34 weeks there. Then I started to freak out. I think that it hit me how early it was and just the thought that we might need to go in and get her checked out.

I got in the bath while Ben called EIRMC. The nurse there told Ben that he needed to bring me in. I got dressed again and Ben called Tyson and Laura and got the kids up. We dropped the kids off at Tyson and Laura's house and Ben drove something like 90 mph to Idaho Falls. Oh yeah - don't worry, our gas light came on as we were leaving Tyson and Laura's - perfect!

We got to the hospital and within 5 minutes they had me changed and in a bed. They put the fetal heartbeat monitor on me and there she was loud and clear - WHAT A RELIEF! They told me that I was dialated to 1cm but was not in labor, however I was contracted... not contracting, but one constant contraction. They ran a bunch of tests and found that I was a bit dehydrated and that there was some protein in my urine. Then they ran some more tests and found nothing wrong.

They gave me a shot to help relax my uterus and hopefully get rid of the contraction. This made me super sick so they gave me another shot to help with the nausea. Both seemed to help but the pain never completely went away. They had me rest for a while  and the pain started to return. The doctor came in, felt my belly, and then said we could go home.

WHAT? I still could not get out of bed on my own and could not stand up to save my life. The doctor said that it was braxton hicks and that I was dehydrated. They said that if it became excruciating again to come back ...again? ....I just told you that it was returning. Hmmm. Ben and I both told them that we were still concerned. They told us that basically the baby is fine (phew) and that I needed to just go home and deal with it.

We came home and I went to bed. Around 1 o'clock this afternoon the contraction actually went away and I can move again. But boy o boy that was a long 13 hours.

We are so grateful for all of our amazing friends and family that helped us with our kids, letting our puppy out, meeting the carpet cleaners this morning. But most of all I am grateful to my Heavenly Father for keeping our little lady safe and for giving me a husband that took such good care of me.  

So while everything turned out alright I am sure hoping that I don't have to do that again. That being said I realized how unprepared I am. So now I will be spending my time getting things packed and ready for little baby A.