Happy Hallowiener

I LOVE Halloween.  It is one of the best holidays with kids-lots of fun with no gifts to buy or meals to prepare.  Endless candy? yes please.  Now that we have two trick or treaters participating in all the festivities it is seriously double the fun, I cannot imagine once June is old enough to appreciate the festivities.  First up is the annual Grant Park Halloween Parade which is hands down the most popular event that the parent network does in our neighborhood.  There aren't actually any spectators in the parade its just all the kids in costume walking around the park with the high school band and fire truck leading the way followed by dinner picnics in the park.  This year we had a spiderman, a pig, and a pumpkin in the house.  Hank wore his costume 24/7 for about 4 days, Lucy screamed anytime the pig head came near her for a few days, and June just looked at us all like we are crazy folk. 

 I couldn't get it together enough this year to have costumes for Johnny and myself; however we did make it to the Mothball this year, which is another Grant Park tradition-basically think adult prom/costume party with better food and drinks.  This year's theme was Hootenanny, so Johnny and I got ourselves all done up and had a night out on the town with some awesome friends--plenty of fun was had by all!  I'd like to mention that the combo fu manchu/mutton chops hung around way too long until I forced him to shave them off for our family photos this past weekend threatening to shave them in his sleep if he refused.  

Pig down! Probably having a fit about not being allowed to eat non-stop candy.

Back up and on the candy trail! 

Seriously guys? 

Our fav halloween story--not sure if it's because of our household favorite food on the front or the fact that it says the word wiener repeatedly...

See ya next year halloween! This is one holiday I'm actually sad to see go...

June Bug 1 month

How we're stacking up:

height 22.65 inches 98th percentile

weight 9 lbs 10 oz 53rd percentile

Sweet Junie Bug, as I write this you are about to be two months old--your mama apologizes in advance for my tardiness, but as you know our house is in a state of chaos 99.9% of the time.  This does not in any way mean I do not adore you, because you are such a sweet, precious little one that I cannot get enough of!  

My third baby, it is so crazy how your outlook on raising children changes from those first few weeks with your first baby.  With Hank, I remember counting the weeks because everyone kept telling me it would start to get easier around 6-8 weeks.  With him, I felt like I'd been hit by a bus everyday, the days dragged on, I often wondered why in the world did people have children?  6 weeks came and went, and he still fussed, cried, kept me up at night-everyone lied to me clearly.  I hate getting and giving parenting advice, and I find that lots of moms and dads seem to think that simply because I have 3 children, I have a clue what I'm doing so they ask me all sorts of questions.  Believe me, I'm no expert on anything, and what really bugs me is the "mommy wars" we read and see all the time.  I don't get why moms are in constant competition with each other-seriously dude these are the trenches of parenting, it is rough more often than it's sweet.  For every sweet thing one of my children does there are 3 non-desired behaviors that preceded and followed.  Moms and Dads need support-and once you've had a 3rd child, you need A LOT.  

That said, my PSA that I tell new parents it never gets easier, the parenting demands change as your child gets older, but it is always challenging in a new way.  If you want a humbling experience in life, have kids.  Now that I have an almost 4 year old, a 19 month old, and an 8 week old it is abundantly clear that my 8 week old is the easiest and most pleasant of my children.  The days with her are flying by and I wish they would slow down.  I cannot get enough of the sweet, snuggly, sleepy newborn stage and never want it to end (mostly because I know what's coming-lord help me, I have to survive age 3 with 2 more kids).  So, for all the parents who have told me along the way, "it gets easier" (and man there have been a lot)-I disagree strongly, parenting is NEVER easy. 

June is a doll baby.  She's got a head of dark hair and her eyes are certainly darker than the other two were at this point-she might actually be our brown eyed baby, which would be nice since both Johnny and I have brown hair and eyes unlike our other two blonde hair, blue eyed children.  She started smiling at 5 weeks which makes her the earliest of my babies to smile.  Both Hank and Lucy held out until 9 or 10 weeks, so I'm loving this super smiley baby.  She's pretty mellow compared to the other two terrorists I have running around the house, fighting nonstop.  She's been a great sleeper-the best of the 3; however that might be that I've just got this baby thing figured out by now-a paci and a tight swaddle and we're set.  She prefers to sleep on her belly-and I let her during the day so she typically takes a a couple good long naps-i.e. she sleeps a few hours in the morning followed by  3-4 hours every afternoon which is dreamy.  At night, she starts in the pack-n-play and ends up in our bed by morning b/c basically mama's gotta sleep, so she wakes up, I pull her in bed to nurse and we both are asleep till morning.  Most nights she's just up one time around 3:00 to nurse and then we're all up for the day between 7-8. Because of our building permit woes with the city of Atlanta we are still not under construction at our house, meaning June is bunking up with Johnny and I until further notice-I'll save those woes for another blog post :)

 She is starting to spend more time on her activity mat, and I imagine will be rolling over soon given all the time she spends on her belly.  If she's having a fussy day, I pop her in the ergo and all is well.  I love how snuggly this little one is, and how her favorite place is nestled up against me.  I am frequently wearing June, and toting Lucy on my hip-my arms are getting quite the work out these days!  Lucy is having some difficulty adjusting to her new middle child status; thus when I am holding the baby she prefers that I'm holding her as well....ahhh transition. 

June loves to be out and about with us; and being the 3rd baby, she's gotta be good at taking her naps on the go; although she's not a fan of long car rides which she lets us know by wailing at the top of her lungs for the duration.   She's slept through the zoo a few times, some birthday parties, lots of playground trips, pumpkin farm, apple picking etc  She's growing like a champ, doesn't demand much but food and some snuggles, keeps the crying to a minimum, and has a perfectly adorable round head :)-I'd say she's a keeper.  

18 months of Lucy

This little girl is an absolute breath of fresh air in our lives.  She is unbelievably sweet and pleasant 99.9% of the time.  She's absolutely precious, and I swear I love her more and more every single day. When she was a newborn, Johnny and I couldn't believe how easy and sweet she was and have always said "this can't last forever", well she's remained both easy and gets sweeter with time.  We really hit the kid lottery with this one :)  If I could bottle her up at this age and keep her like this forever, I would in a heartbeat.   Lucy has this amazing love for life and just enjoys every new experience with a huge smile on her face.  

She's always up for an adventure and will tell me "go buckle go" meaning she wants to get in the car and go somewhere.  Her vocabulary is exploding and she's using all sorts of adorable phrases now like "I see it", "there it is", "where Hankey go?" "baby crying", and our absolute favorite is "that so funny" that she says while giggling all the time after she does something she thinks is hilarious.  She has also coined her new sister "Baby Doon" which has already become her first nickname.  She had her 18 month check up where she scored way ahead of the game both in motor skills and language-she is super coordinated for her age and is always throwing or kicking something-she seems far more likely to be our family athlete than her brainy bro.  At the grocery store she loves to take the items out of the cart and say "catch!" before tossing them out.  

Lucy still loves to eat-she will eat anything and everything I give her; although she's become very fond of sweets.  She wakes up every morning asking for a cookie--meaning she wants to lick the icing out of an oreo before throwing the cookie part away.  It was not surprising at all when she made a huge jump on the growth charts into the 80th percentiles from her meager start in the less than 3rd percentile.  

She's my super independent child.  She will happily play with blocks, puzzles, coloring books, cars/trains, balls, or her shopping cart all by herself for long periods of time. Despite her independent nature, she loves to snuggle with me, and gives me big hugs and kisses all day long.  She tends to be my little shadow, and will run behind me helping me with laundry or sweeping-all with a huge smile on her face.  Another current favorite is anything Dora-she brings me the ipad requesting "boots", and yes she can already navigate as well as Hank on the ipad and iphones.  She loves music and anytime she hears music, she immediately starts dancing.  Her current favorite song is "I'm Just a Girl" by No Doubt (we don't do kids tunes in our house).  

She adores her brother, and is still slightly skeptical of the new baby.  When we ask her if she wants to say hi to baby June she always yells "NO" very loudly.  I think she's starting to come to terms with the fact that this baby is here to stay.  Although with the arrival of June, Hank and Lucy have certainly gotten closer and are really starting to play together more.  

She will have the occasional meltdown, where she methodically lays herself down on the floor before commencing screaming.  These never last long, as something more interesting usually catches her eye (also because she is completely ignored while flailing on the floor).  Usually, it has something to do with not being able to find her "minky" or "bun buns" her two most prized possessions.  

Oh Lucy, you make our lives so so sweet, please don't ever become a sassy, moody teenager " :)

                                     

Welcome Baby June

One might think that the 3rd time around, some of the excitement of having a new baby has worn off.  If anything, I'd say that it gets more exciting each time as I know what to expect and find myself able to enjoy the moment as opposed to being consumed with anxiety.  Our sweet girl held out until her scheduled c-section on August 23rd, despite almost nonstop contractions in the last weeks of my pregnancy.  When I got hooked up to the moniors at the hospital they couldn't believe the number and intensity of the contractions I was having-go figure.  The scheduled nature of this arrival threw my nesting instincts into an unbelievably high gear-stocking the fridge, laundry baskets empty, emails answered etc.  I couldn't seem to stop preparing to her arrival, it was a relief to check into the hospital knowing I didn't have to spend another day cleaning and organizing.  

We arrived at Northside at 8am, got admitted and taken back to pre-op for my 10am c-section.  I'd venture to say the 5 attempts at getting an IV in me followed by the epidural needle was hands down the worst part of the entire ordeal.  I'm not a huge needle fan; although I've gotten much better over the years but after 5 awful, painful attempts combined with the no eating after midnight thing and I was a woozy mess.  I had a harder time tolerating the epidural this time-my blood pressure was dropping to scary low levels (like at one point it was 70/40) which is a normal effect but certainly makes you feel like you're about to die.  My wonderful nurse was right on top of things and could easily correct the pressures with medication and was very reassuring that I was not in fact dying :)  This was also the first time I was actually being delivered by my doctor (rather than the on-call MD) which helped put me at ease.  

Once you get set up on the table in the OR, it is literally less than 10 minutes before they pull the baby out.  June Elizabeth came screaming into the world at 10:50 am.  She was 7 lbs 12 oz, 21 inches long and with a full head of dark hair just like Lucy.  When Johnny brought her over so I could see her, my first thought was "she looks just like her brother and sister!".  After an hour or so in recovery, I was in my room by lunchtime (although lunch was jello for me...booooo, I was STARVING) and no sooner did I get into my room did Hank and Lucy show up to meet their new sister.  

Hank has been absolutely smitten with June from the first minute he met her.  He is so protective and sweet with her-he makes her things at school and always wants to hold her.  Lucy is still a bit young to understand exactly what is going on, but everytime she walks by the baby she gives a big smile, wave, and "hi baby!".  I was discharged 48 hours after delivery, and this recovery has been very similar to my others, probably the easiest yet.  

June is now a week old, and so far been another super easy baby.  Johnny and I have said all along that there is no way we could get a baby easier than Lucy, so we have been preparing for another needy, fussy baby.  I realize that this will likely come in the next few weeks, but so far she has been alarmingly like Lucy.  She has been my best eater, she took to breastfeeding immediately and never turned back-we were back to birth weight by day 5.  She is still in that sleepy newborn stage, waking every 3-4 hours to eat and so far she's been sleeping at night for a 6-7 hour stretch--what??  I'm just enjoying it while I can, as I cannot imagine one of my children actually being a good sleeper as an infant.  

So with one week under my belt with 3 children, I'm going to have to say that really it hasn't felt any different. I suspect that my transition from 0 to 1 will remain the hardest, as it seems to just get easier each time we have a new baby.  I just don't worry like I did with Hank, I say all the time that my children have mellowed me in a way no medication ever could have!  At this point I know that these precious early days are so short. They become big, dirty, loud, and wild kids so quickly-and stay that way for a loooong time :)  Certainly the days feel like an endurance sport, but luckily Johnny and I have the energy for a challenge!  We were saying that other day that we crossed into the realm of "large families", and while it is scary at times thinking about how we will send these kids to college someday, we have always felt that 2 kids just didn't seem like enough; although 3 did seem to push the limit of too much :)  No turning back now. 

Finally done with the needles, and ready to meet our girl

Welcome Baby June

The Countdown is on

We love a good countdown in our house...Hank and I both love the anticipation of good things to come, so we started our official "countdown to baby" this week. I was also getting tired of the daily question "when is my new baby sister coming out of your belly?".  I'm concerned that he thinks we might be trading in one baby sister for the other...sorry bud, you'll be forever plagued with two baby sisters.  Lucy is pleasantly oblivious; however she's recently started with her first major mommy stage-excellent timing Lucy, she must sense something is about to rock her world.


I have 2 weeks until my scheduled c-section on August 23rd; however due to much discussion about my actual due date it seems quite likely that she will decide on her own to show up earlier (which would actually make life immensely easier since her arrival on the 23rd really cuts into all of Hank's back to school activities).  So I'm hanging out somewhere between 37-38 weeks pregnant depending on who you ask, what calendar you look at, belly measurments, ultrasounds etc (at this point, Lucy had already graced us with her presence in the world).  One would think they could figure due dates with a bit more accuracy at this point, but alas....given that I have been pregnant 3 times now in 3 years I'm fairly certain that I am a bit farther along than initially thought given the amount of timeable contractions I'm having and the amount of pressure this baby is exerting in a downward fashion.  Overall though, I'm feeling pretty good--certainly tired and having a ton of contractions (which it seems happens with subsequent pregnancies and as the doc told me "they are just more of a nuisance than anything").
The Good: No swelling, no back or hip pain this time around (YAY!), my blood pressure was actually the lowest it's been all pregnancy in the past few weeks (totally not normal for me), my weight gain is low as well-only 20 lbs with this babe (after 30 with lucy and 40 with Hank)so now I can say I've made it through 3 pregnancies in 3 years without one stretch mark!

The Bad: heartburn is awful-ultrasound last week showed a full head of hair and possible cause of all this acid indigestion, can't sleep at all because of all the contractions that pick up significantly at about 2am every night, this babe rides so low that she sits right on my bladder causing me to pee all the time.

37 weeks

And since I'm so terrible about keeping up with the blog, I'll give a quick Ritger life update in a greatest hits variety...

1. We bought a car! Say hello to our family friendly 2008 Honda Pilot.  Nicest car we've ever owned, and we're totally overwhelmed by the number of features.  I can't figure out how to work anything, and I always have some new flashing indicator at me b/c I've pressed some button somewhere.  The kids love it and Hank wants to change his seating arrangement everyday.  According to him, the 3rd row is reserved exclusively for boys and/or his friends only.  "no baby sisters can sit in the way back".

2. Our home is still not under construction, but it is super close.  I'm pretty sure we hired the slowest architect and structural engineer in the history of mankind; however they did finally get our construction plans finished last week and they look great!  We got our stamp of approval from the Urban Design Commission and now they are hanging out in the building permit office downtown with the expeditor that we paid $300 extra to move things along quickly.  Our builder says we should have permits in hand in 2-3 weeks with the help of the expeditor (this is compared to 3-6 months without).  Oh City of Atlanta government.....Once the permit is in hand, off the roof goes.  We've already spent somewhere between $6K-$7K for permits and plans alone and so far we've got not a thing to show for it! 

3. Hank heads off to preschool in 3 weeks and it can't get here soon enough for everyone  He's pumped, I'm pumped, I'm pretty sure Lucy is pumped for some time away from her annoying brother.  Of course the school that seems to be the perfect fit for our high maintenance boy is the most unbelievably high maintenance school in terms of parent requirements etc-you'd think we were sending him to Harvard law, not 4 year old preschool.  I have to squeeze in 4 new parent meetings, a home visit, a classroom visit before school starts and before the baby shows up.  There are "no exceptions" according to the director-we miss a meeting he loses his spot unless we pay a $250 fine.  Having a baby is not a good enough excuse :) Anything for our children, right?

4. Lucy is a wild woman who loves Dora, food, and her "minky" (pacifier) equally.  She knows she's adorable, and has already started using that to her advantage.  She will help herself to her snacks and look at me and say "thank you" while she cocks her pigtails to the side and giggles before running off. 

5. Baby #3 still doesn't have a name but we're narrowed down as much as we will narrow before she arrives.  We have about 3-4 names and we just need to decide the combination of first/middle names using those 3-4 names.  Nothing will be revealed until she's arrived and named !

absolute animals....

Yeah, I'm cute

 and it is quite likely that the next time you hear from me we'll be a party of 5!