Life Must Go On

The kids were full of pent-up energy yesterday.  There's rain on the forecast for tomorrow.  And Todd had to attend a work meeting this morning.  It was up to me to wrangle with the wild things.

I snuggled Gemma up in the Baby Bjorn and took everyone outside.

 

Jack and Hazel rode their bikes over to the tire swing park (the park in our complex) and we played for an hour.  Jack did fast and furious laps on his bike around the park non-stop for the first ten minutes.  He really needed to get out!

I was proud of myself for daring to venture out.  I'm thankful this post is one of celebration, and not a "this will be funny someday" story of how badly things went.

Welcome Gemma!

Gemma Ellen Bonner made her appearance Monday, January 14th, at 1:12 pm.

 She weighed 8 lbs 14 oz (exactly the same as Hazel!) and was 21 inches long (just like Jack).

We are all in love with her already. 

We went to the hospital Sunday night so I could get induced.  I was 41 weeks to the day, and nowhere near being in labor.  Only dilated to a one, hardly effaced, and feeling only about four painless contractions a day.  Gemma hadn't even dropped yet.  Todd and I wondered if the induction would even be successful, or if we'd be sent home, still pregnant, the next day.

Thankfully, things did kick into gear, and by 6:00 am Monday morning I was having contractions 3-5 minutes apart that I couldn't sleep through.  I was dilated to a four.  I was in active labor! Two showers, one dose of Fetinol, forty-five minutes of Sherlock Holmes, a few laps around the labor and delivery ward, and one epidural later, my water broke and I was a ten. 

Gemma still had not dropped and was not quite turned where we wanted her.   My nurse Sue put me in a "magic position" to get the baby to rotate a bit, and it worked. She never did drop, but I pushed her out anyway.  Only took seven minutes, through two contractions.  Piece of cake, comparatively speaking.  

Hazel met Gemma at the hospital Monday night and didn't want to leave.  She was completely enamored with her new little sister.  Her eyes and her smile just glowed with excitement and joy.  

Jack met Gemma Tuesday night when everyone came together to bring us home.  He lovingly pointed out her mouth, her nose, her eyes, her ears, her chin... He leaned forward and gave her a sweet, sweet kiss without any prompting.  Since we've been home, he's the one that keeps asking to hold Baby Gemma.

I am healing well, much, much more quickly than with either of my other two pregnancies.  In every way, this labor, delivery, and recovery are easier.  I am on a serious high!  (For those who will understand what this means, Todd has told me I am enthusiastically loving everything much like my sister Emily.  Ha ha!)  

 

Hazel is dealing remarkably well with the transition so far, which is stunning when I remember how much she freaked out when Jack was born.  She's been sweet and happy and patient and her normal self for the most part.  

Jack is loving Gemma, but searching for security as he's been ousted from his place as the youngest in the family.  He is causing trouble to get attention, although (so far) not nearly as badly as Hazel did.  We are trying hard to shower him with affection and positive attention so he won't act out to get us to react to him.  

I invited him to do post-labor exercises with me, and was surprised when he sat through it for the whole ten minutes.  He just wants to be with me.

Gemma has been a delight so far.  She's so fun to cuddle and smell, she's eating well and sleeping almost all the time.  The last two nights, she's even slept all night long (besides feedings) as long as one of us was holding her.  What a good girl!

She looks very much like Hazel did her first week of life.  Looking back at pictures, Jack looks completely different from these two, but I am thinking I might have to figure out which baby girl is which by which house we are in at the time.

Deployment Number Two

I have started and deleted this post too many times to count.  We'll see if it makes it to "publish" tonight.  Todd is deploying to Afghanistan again.  He starts training in California February 1.  He'll come back home the last week of February to help me and the kids move out to Utah.  We are going to live near my parents for the year Todd is gone.  Todd will have training in Texas in March and April, then fly over to Afghanistan the start of May.  He should be back March 2014. 

I have been surviving by trying not to think about it too much.  Now that it is January, it is staring me in the face.  Every day that ends brings his departure too much closer.  I hate the calendar. 

Suddenly I am not doing well anticipating this.  I don't know how I'm going to pull this year off with three kids and come out on top.  I have been absolutely failing at positive parenting with two kids for the past week and am hoping I'll do a better job as a sleep-deprived mother-of-three than I have been as an end-of-pregnancy mom with two.  The personal breakdowns have begun. 

Jack's Second Birthday

 Today my little Jay Bird turned two.  I am thankful that I didn't have the baby today, so they can each have their own special day.

Jack is losing all his baby-ness and totally turning into a little boy.  He's a ridiculously picky eater (eats practically nothing but breakfast and treats) and is stretching out into a long and skinny little thing instead of the squishy chubba he used to be.  Don't be alarmed, though.  He might be losing his squish, but he still cuddles just as much as ever.  (Perhaps my very favorite thing about him...)

He's a bit of a mischief maker.  He's not "naughty" or disobedient, but he is always on the patrol for something he can investigate that just happens to be off-limits and trouble-making.  Like climbing where he shouldn't and falling.  Or bringing me matches and wood glue he found in the back of a drawer.  Or applying my makeup if I leave my bag within reach.  Or never staying in bed unless we have a duct-taped child lock on the doorknob. 

Jack is starting to jabber, but a lot of what he says is still incoherent.  He's definitely moving beyond parroting words, though, and is trying to string together his own short sentences.  He loves to dance (twirl in circles) when music is on, and still loves to sing.  In fact, for the past week or so, Hazel and Jack have joined in with me when I sing their bedtime songs, and it's turning into a shout-out competition.  Hazel sings loudly to try to drown out Jack, and Jack shouts out the words because he thinks its a great game.  He loves to do anything that frustrates Hazel.  He's all about getting a reaction. 

He loves dogs, has for ages, so this year I made him a puppy cake.  I stole my inspiration from this picture.  All day he was bringing his little chair over to the counter to stare at it and steal little nibbles off of it.  I'm actually quite surprised it made it intact to the evening. 

He got Legos and a toy tool box, as well as his very own Ariel figurine (he is obsessed with her!). 

 Being that I'm only a couple days away from my due date and Todd had work today, I didn't have a lot of oomph to go and do much.  We did pick up lunch from Wendy's and eat it at the train transit center so Jack could watch the trains come and go.  There wasn't as much action as I was hoping for.  We probably should have gone earlier in the morning.  I bet the trains run much more frequently during commuting hours.  Then we went to a park for a bit and headed home for much-needed naps (and quiet time for Hazel). 

We had breakfast for dinner, because I couldn't think of anything else that I could confidently say Jack would eat.  So he had pancakes and sausage for breakfast, chicken nuggets, apples and fries for lunch, and cranberry muffins and strawberry shakes for dinner.  After dinner, we sang to him and brought out the puppy cake.  After he blew out the candles, he kept giving the puppy a hug over and over again, and picking off bites to eat in between.  It was pretty tricky getting the whole cake away from him and leaving him with just a slice! 

The kids played with their new mermaid dolls in the bath tonight, and we put them to bed bright and early.  Jack is still singing at the top of his lungs in bed 45 minutes later. 

Happy birthday, sweet guy!  We love you!