the long way home.

i had to take a nap today. 3.5 hours of sleep at night makes for one super grumpy piece of crap mom. sigh.
woke up, decided to go to the grocery store....alone.
went to fresh n easy, picked up some salmon, corn, linguica, asparagus, walked up every isle slowly taking in my alone time.
then i got in the car, turned my pandora station to adele and played "someone like you" super loud and sang super loud while I took a completely out of the way route home. next came on "gravity"by sara bareilles.love.that.song. sang it loud.
sometimes when you are sleep deprived and feeling a little burnt out, it's ok to waste some gas and listen to music loud and take the long way home.


ps. dinner was amazing and then i turned around and saw rowan covered in milk, salmon and corn.

2 days from now.

my daughter betsey jane will be 4 months old.
insane.
my daughter london just turned 4 ( i know i didn't blog about it, i have been on 4 child syndrome hiatus)
mason started first grade.
rowan became social.
the above sentence is almost more spectacular than the others combined, because that boy has been a social snob since day one, but now he has "fwends".
i almost just wrote "i have done nothing spectacular or awesome in this past month or so"
but that's a lie.
i have a 6 year old a 4 year old a 2 year old and a almost 4 month old, its spectacular just typin' it out.
i have a good marriage <------super spectacular.
i had betsey in her moby today while doing some homeschooling with London and Rowan and she fell asleep and i really had to pee, so i peed while "wearing" her......I think that's some pretty spectacular multi-tasking I mean isn't that what the moby is for so you can be "hands free"
maybe not.......

my husband

started a blog.
totally surprised by this, completely.

check it out here

xoxo
Nichole

Still alive.

I will blog regularly again.
Just not right now.
Life is good, it is super sweet actually.
My kids are growing, learning tons and enjoying this super mild summer weather.
My friend of 15+ years, Jen, came to visit from Virginia. She got to meet Betsey for the first time, I got to see her adorable 8 1/2 month preggo belly with her third!
Betsey smiles now.
I'm missin my lovie Mason while he spends this week with his dad but Sunday isn't too far away.
VBS is on going this week and my daughter is expanding her knowledge of God and his love for her.
I am being super blessed by fellowship with awesome moms in the morning drinking good coffee and having some delicious berry smoothies and Rowan is making new friends that are his age and totally coming out of his shell.
I was speaking the truth, it's super sweet.
I mean seriously, what more could you ask for?
here's a look, via instagram:

Betsey!

my sweet friend Melodie, the smoothie maker

Jen!

sisters

London Rose

my Rowan is so handsome

it feels good fitting into pre pregnancy clothes

a home for us.

Basically I have incredibly generous in laws who are allowing us to build on their property out in the country. And...basically, Joe and I can not decide on what type of house to build to save our lives. Joe loves modern homes, 50's post modern style. I like all of that too, but we are moving on to property in the middle of an orchard, and part of me wants a farm house with a porch that I can fill will all of my old treasures but I like modern homes and ranch styles too. It's down to these 3 houses, each incorporate a interior plan that works perfectly with what we need for our family, its the exterior we can't decide on. I can honestly envision us living in any of these homes. Wanna chime in and give your opinions? come on, I know most of you are women and allllllllllllll women have opinions....and they are wanted this time around!

* all of the extra stuff in the plans more than likely wont be included on the houses, we are just looking at the basic idea of it not into the fancy shmancy fountains and stuff :)

this is the spot:

                                                                        1. Modern

2. Ranch

3. Country

Please note that I we would change some things about this house, we would paint it possibly grey with a the red door and black shutters or white shutters....not a fan of it looking like the "white house" but I think it has a lot of potential!

5 weeks.

5 weeks has flown by with my new little Betsey Jane, and I have completely forgotten about blogs and blogging because I have been BUSY. Let me tell you, 4 kids under 6 is a full time job like no ones business. Between the constant breastfeeding, laundry, dishes and 2 toddlers and 1 first grader I haven't quite gotten the blogging fit into my schedule yet.....I haven't gotten the laundry fitted either!
Betsey is 8lbs 4oz and 19 1/2 inches long. She went down to about 6'14 from 7'10 which was normal.

 I have started all kinds of "bad" habits. I hold her all the time. I just can't get enough of her. She is our last baby and I am cherishing all of it. She is just so perfect and cuddly I can't help it. I love LOVE seeing her big sister and big brothers dote on her. They think she is just about it. London brings her baby, "Baby Elsie" with her everywhere in our house following me, copying me, changing her diaper, nursing her doll...its so cute and so hilarious. She maintains that she wants to be a mommy and a cowgirl when she grows up and I am all for it. Mason is 6 1/2 so he is such a huge help. He can hold the baby while sitting down which gives me a break to load the dish washer etc. He takes out the trash, makes beds, entertains his siblings, total God send. Rowan is so so so good with the baby, something that completely shocks me because he is the hot head of our family. But when it comes to his baby sister, he is a total gentle guy.

Breastfeeding is finally getting better, it was a struggle. She nursed all the time and it was painful and then by the time my ta ta's would heal, she would go through another cluster feeding period and the issues would start all over again but now it is all good. She is having some gas problems so i am eliminating dairy from my diet and giving her a rotation of gas drops, gripe water and chamomile tea which seems to be giving her some relief. I am praying this doesn't mean colic is on its way because the thought of that with my three other children gives me major anxiety. She isn't sleeping through the night, I honestly have no idea how many times she wakes up because its such a blur still. I am trying to get her to sleep in her pack n play because we had a huge scare with her rolling onto her face the other night while sleeping with us, so I am super paranoid. She hates it. Literally, hates it. But she has to get used to sleeping in her own bed, its the safest. I am hanging in there, readjusting my expectations of how my days should go, letting myself relax, and trying to enjoy my kids. I am loving life right now and I am hoping that it continues that way and that I breeze through this postpartum phase without a glitch.

next post wont be a month away, promise.

xoxo

Nichole

Betsey's first week....

Today is Sunday, and a week ago from today I went into labor with our little girl.
You would think that having 4 kids would make you a pro at parenting, but omg I totally forgot how to do everything. Also since this was my 4th cesarean, it hurt so much more than the others and recovery is totally kicking my butt. It took a few days for my milk to come in, and because of that Betsey has jaundice. When we left of wednesday her bilirubin was at a 12.5, we brought her in on Friday and it went up to 18.3. We were told to nurse like crazy, give her some sunshine and bring her back on Saturday to do another blood test. We thought she was looking so much better, she wasn't as orange, she was staying awake longer, nursing really well, and having lots a poopy diapers. However, after a 6 hour stay in the ER waiting for results we found out that her count went up to 21.7! We were transported to the other hospital in town, the one where she was born and admitted and started the bili lights last night. We will be here till tomorrow morning and hopefully we wont have to stay any longer than that. She loves the little "tanning bed" and nurses then goes back in with her cool shades on and falls right asleep. We were hoping at this point for our lives to start returning to normal, our other kids are extremely missed and believe it or not, don't want to stay at grandmas house anymore and want to come home and we are ready for them too.