9 months

This baby duckling is already 9 months!  She is so busy!  She finally learned to crawl just this week (on my birthday to be exact) and she loves to explore.  She's so cute because each move she makes is so careful and wobbly.  She is gaining confidence daily though and I know it won't be long before she will be in to everything.  She is very curious and loves to grab things and taste everything. 

She's been working on tooth number 7 and 8 (her two top front teeth).  They are really hurting her.  Poor thing.  She keeps her fist in her mouth and drools and wakes up in the night.  I give her Motrin and chewy toys and lots of love.  Her sisters are great at helping to keep her happy and distracted. 

We are really enjoying having this cute baby around.  Today Addie told me that she didn't want Althea to turn into a little kid.  She wants her to stay just like she is.  I remember thinking the same thing about all my babies but they have sure turned out to be super kids so I know the same will be true for Althea. 

She loves to jabber as usual.  She says "Adoo" a lot.  Other things we hear her say often "baba, dada and gaga"  We are still trying to get her to understand that dada is her dad but that will be awhile I'm sure.

She loves meal time.  She sits in her highchair next to the table.  Lately she's been able to have tiny little  bits of table food which she really likes.  I'll also put fruit inside a little meshy thing that she can suck on.  She loves the watermelon and plums.   She eats baby food pretty well.  There are a few foods that she hasn't liked (peaches and green beans).   She makes a mess and definitely needs a bath daily.  She loves her bath time.

She loves to get outside.  She loves going out to visit the chickens.  She also LOVES going for walks and hikes in the Baby Bjorn.  Loves it!

Life is good with this baby around.  Love her!

Eight Month Update

This baby is so darn cute and lovable! I feel so blessed every single day to have her.  She has three new teeth this month for a total of 4 on the bottom and 2 on top (her incisors).  Thank goodness.  She had been working on those for the last month and finally they broke through!  She is still waking up multiple times in the night but I know it won't last forever.  She takes 2 naps per day and has been doing pretty good the past few days.  We are in MA right now and she is adjusting to a new bedroom and house pretty well all things considered.  She likes to be held a lot which has made it hard to unpack and get settled but we are getting there. She's been waking up at 5:30am every day since we've been here but the last few days I've been able to nurse her and get her to go back to sleep until 7:30.  About half the time I've been able to go back to sleep as well.

She eats one meal per day of solids.  She loves to eat puffs in her high chair.  She still is an awesome nurser. She is so sweet when she is nursing. She'll usually pat my arm rhythmically or stroke my arm with her buttery soft fingers.  Sometimes she'll scratch or pinch.  Also sometimes she'll play with her hair or ear.

She is sitting pretty well unassisted.  About once a day she'll fall backwards.  She can pivot pretty well on her bottom.  She also is still working on her crawling.  She can get on all 4s and is working on trying to move.  She is super wiggly when you hold her so I know she just wants to move.

Her hair still stands straight up.  She has one little tuft on top in the back that is an inch or so longer than the rest of her hair. It's like a little Indian feather or something. Very cute.  I'd call her a blond but there is definitely some red going on. Strawberry blond I guess.  Her eyebrows and lashes have the same strawberry blond coloring.

She is a little chatter box and jabbers a lot.  She likes to say DA DA DA a lot.  We try to teach her that Kermit is Dada but she's not getting  it yet.   She likes to sing and hum as well which about melts me.
She loves to bang on the piano, take baths, splash in water, visit the chickens, take walks outside, be held and played with.  A couple of days ago at church a mom sat down next to us with her 12 month old.  Oh my! Althea just loved it! She was so excited to see another baby. It was hilarious! The 12 month old was a crawler so the mom ended up taking him out because he was just too busy to contain. Sorry Althea. Maybe next time.

Love that baby!

 Loves to be outside.  Loves her exersaucer too.

 Her first selfie.

 Helps with the laundry.

 Loves the bath.

Sisters dressed her up in the beret. Loves the puffs.

Seven Months

LOVE this baby!  Seven months she has been in our lives and our whole family has been smiling ear to ear and in love with this bundle of joy.  I don't think I've ever known a happier baby than Althea.  She has a smile for all that she meets.  Her blue eyes and long lashes melt me.  That smile just puts me in the best mood.  That hair, that hair!  She gets a lot of attention for that all naturally happy hair!  Those chubby legs…who can resist?!  Her fat little fingers and toes!  We all love every single thing about her. 

The picture in the swing above was taken on her 7th month birthday.  It happened to be a hot one.  Below in the stroller was just 4 days later and it was near freezing.  That's been this spring for you.  Every morning and afternoon Althea and I walk big sisters to and from school in the stroller.  For the most part she enjoys the walks and being out.

We were at the park last week and sisters wanted to stop and take pictures of our "Dandelion Fuzz Head Baby" in the patch of dandelions.  A little out of focus. We'll have to try that one again.

I like to call her my little baby duck.

Althea is loving her exersaucer.  She loves her toys and being able to see the world while she plays. We still try to give her plenty of tummy time so that she can practice getting up on all fours and hopefully learn to crawl soon.  Although with 3 big sisters who want to hold her 24 / 7, who needs to crawl?

She is eating solids and really liking them.  She gets one meal of solids a day, usually at dinner time.  She's my Gerber Baby. She still is an excellent nurser.  She is so funny as she nurses.  She no longer has her fingers in my mouth but rather bangs her arm up and down on my arm rhythmically, or she will scratch my arm with her little fingers that are sometimes very sharp. She also often will inhale loudly and hold her breath for several seconds at a time and make a sound like she is hyperventilating or something….but she's not.  I think she just does it because it sounds cool.  Or she will hum while she drinks.  She's just nonstop fun even in these quiet little moments.

A few weeks ago on her 7th month bday she had just her bottom two teeth.  Last week she got another bottom tooth.  It's very cute. She won't ever let me put my fingers in her mouth to show anybody her little teeth.  In fact she always pushes my hands away as soon as I try getting close to her face.  Oh well. Trust me, they are there and they are adorable. She's working on that fourth bottom tooth now and has made for some rough nights lately.  It must be so painful for her.  She literally whimpers in her sleep as she is teething.  Poor baby girl.

She is rolling all over the place forwards and back.  She can pivot around on her belly too.  She loves finding her way to where she is half way under a bed or rocking chair with a skirt or blanket hanging low that she can play with.  It's so cute to see her get excited.

There we have it.  All the latest for this little darling! You're up to date!

Six Months!

by Alison with help from Annaliese, Adeline and Avrie

Here we are 6 months already!  Time is flying!  We graduated from her helmet (hooray)! She could use a few more weeks in it but she has outgrown it so that means we are done.  I love having her head free to snuggle and kiss.  Her hair is just fantastic! It sticks up in all directions.  We call her a dandelion or fuzz ball.  I love her blue eyes and long lashes.  Her gummy smile gets me every time.  She is one of the happiest babies I've ever seen.  

So she just had her six month check up.  She is in the 90th percentile for height.  50-75% for weight and 90% for her head circumference (not including her hair)! She checked out perfect!  We fed her just the other day her first taste of baby food.  Rice cereal.  She wasn't sure if she liked it too much.  She much prefers milk we think. (What a sourpuss says her big sisters!)

 

Look at that hair! It's all natural.  She has some really long hairs that we debate cutting to make it more uniform.  Probably not yet.

She has gotten really good at her tummy time though she still doesn't prefer it.  She can roll both ways from her tummy to back and back to tummy.  She just started to realize that she can roll to get to where she wants to go. She will almost always roll off tummy time as soon as I put her down on her tummy.

She has her two bottom teeth poking through.  Her sleeping still isn't the best but I think her teething has been painful for her.  I'm hoping we can get her sleeping through the night when we get back home. (Right now we are in St. George for part of our spring break.)

She is still a champion at nursing.  She is easily distracted though.  It cracks me up when she takes a couple of gulps then pulls away and arches her head and back to make goo goo eyes at me or her sisters.  She'll do that over and over. She'll get laughing so hard that we just have to stop feeding and find a dark quiet room to finish up her meal.  She just loves her family.

When Kermit takes her hand and has her touch his scratchy face she laughs so hard!  It's adorable!

Sitting…coming along.  She does it but I wouldn't leave her unassisted yet.

There we have it!

5 Months

She couldn't be cuter or more loved! Little girl has won all of our hearts for sure!  She isn't sleeping through the night anymore but how can I be upset at that sweet face.  We'll figure it out before long.  She is rolling from her tummy to back by herself.  She can roll back to tummy with help.  She's working on her sitting.  She loves her bath time and splashes and smiles and laughs the whole time. She loves all the attention she gets from her big sisters. She loves being talked to and read to and played with. 

Just yesterday we were at the doctor for Adeline.  While we waited for the doctor we put Althea on the exam table and she was thrilled with the crinkling paper that she laid on. She kicked and flapped non stop and was just delighted hearing the paper crinkle all around her. She made Addie and I laugh, she was so in to it.

She likes to make noises when she breathes.  Just because she can.  Especially when I'm feeding her.  Also when I'm nursing her she will almost always grab my mouth.  Kind of funny.  So I kiss her fingers or nibble on them while she eats.  After she eats she will usually smack her lips for a few minutes just to hear the cool sound it makes.  She cracks me up!

When I go to change her clothes or diaper as soon as her pants come off her feet go into her mouth!  She loves chewing on those toes!

She is wearing a helmet these days.  She has (had) tortecolis and favored turning her head to the left when she would sleep.  As a result her head started going flat on that side.  (This is exactly what happened to Annaliese ten years ago!)  We knew the sooner we intervened the less time it would take to round out her head.  So she has physical therapy once a week to work on her neck muscles and she wears the darn helmet 23 hours a day.  She does great though.  If tolerates it very well and is an excellent sport about it.  She's had it about three weeks and I think she'll only need to wear it three more.  Just like that!

Love this girl!  I still can't believe that she is ours.  I am one lucky mom.

4 months

This girl is beautiful beyond words! Every day I shake my head in amazement.  She is perfect!  Today she is 4 months.  She had her check up today and did great.  Stars all across.  She is probably on track though to get a helmet for her lopsided head.  She favors looking to the left and in fact her neck muscles are so tight it is hard for her to turn her head to the right.  She has started physical therapy to help with this but her head shape still needs to get fixed....so she will follow in Annaliese's path and get a helmet.

As you can see this girl is loving her tummy time.  She has really improved this month.  The girls love to get down on the floor and play with her.  She actually just tolerates the tummy time but loves the attention from her big sisters. 

Also just this last week she has found her voice.  She is experimenting with different volumes and tones and making different sounds.  She is also starting to laugh a lot more.  She likes to be tickled.  She always has a smile ready for you.  If you just go up to her and talk she will always give you a smile back.  She is just a happy girl.  Love her!  Happy 4 months Baby Girl!

3 months!

Today marks 3 months since this little girl came into our lives!  Happy 3 month birthday Althea! She is getting good at holding her head up, but she is still a bit wobbly.  She loves to kick and she kicks a lot when she gets excited.  She bats at her toys.  She can even grab them and shake them. She has found her fingers and likes to suck on them. She takes a binky if she must.  She takes a bottle only when it is super warm and not being offered by mom.  She is an awesome eater! When she wants to nurse she nuzzles her face into my chest. Funny girl!  She even sleeps through the night!  She is amazing!  I love talking with her and listening to her coo and goo.  She has been arching her back and trying to roll.  She's not a huge fan of tummy time but she is getting quite good at it.  Her sisters adore her and love playing with her.  They sing to her and make her toys dance and put on little shows for her.  If she is crying in her crib they will run up and talk to her and calm her down and play with her until I can get up to take care of her.  Althea is such a blessing to our family and Althea has been blessed with 3 incredibly loving sisters.    A happy three months it has been indeed!

Althea on her 3 month bday

Christmas 2013

The most wonderful time of the year!  Christmas 2013 was a success!  I was a bit nervous and wondered if we'd pull it off.  I had everything timed out perfectly but my plans came to a halt when Adeline and Avrie came down with the stomach flu on the Thursday before Christmas and had to miss their school party on Friday and didn't recover until Monday. Fortunately nobody else in the family got sick but I did have to just let some things go this year.  Like cards for example....our Christmas cards have become New Years cards....and I'm mailing them out tomorrow, January 13th. Oh well.   They turned out super cute though! I'm excited for them anyway.

The favorite gift this year were the nutcrackers you see in this picture.  I have to say that they really love their bath robes and their ice skates as well.  We are working on ice skating.  If you look carefully in the picture Avrie has a splint on her left wrist because she fell while ice skating.  She's fine now thankfully.  Next time we'll be sure to wear wrist guards under our gloves.

I think one of my favorite memories this year will be when our family went Christmas Caroling. We visited our neighbors and some older single women from our ward.  Kermit played the guitar and we sang "Good King Wenceslas" and "Away in a Manger."  Both were very cool arrangements and the girls sounded so good!  Hearing their voices never got old and almost made me cry every time!  I loved it! I definitely want to do that again next year. 

Over the break we visited a few museums and watched movies but many days were spent home in our pajamas enjoying whatever each person felt like. Some of our traditions didn't happen this year but we have the good excuse of having a new baby.  I think the thing I really want to concentrate on and set as a personal goal for 2014 is to have the shopping done by October 1st. Fall is such a busy time for our family with birthdays and holidays so I would love to unwind and focus more on service to others in December rather than worrying about if I'm ready with gifts for my own family.  I better get started! =)

Oh,and I have to mention that the girls were in HEAVEN when we got hit with a massive winter storm that dumped tons of snow and left us with crazy low temperatures.  Like  40 below!  It was heaven because school was cancelled for two days and then a third day because the pipes froze at school.  It was the vacation that kept on giving!  Thank you Chicago for the three extra days of Christmas vacation!

"Baby"

For Christmas one of the gifts that Annaliese gave to me was a booklet with writings from all her classmates.  Her class had gone on a writers workshop field trip.  Here is Annaliese's entry.  I think hers was the best. It is so interesting to me to get her perspective on the day she came to the hospital to meet her new sister.  And I have to say the details she remembers are right on. 

BABY by Annaliese

Annaliese, Avrie, Adeline...another baby was coming to our family.  Those names were hard to come up with.  One day, about a week ago, Dad, my sisters and I went to the hospital.  When I entered the hospital room where my mom was, the first thing I saw was an ivory curtain with leaf patterns on it.  Then I saw her. Just a burrito with a diaper, a onesie and a hat.  Her eyes were closed, but she had a peculiar nose.  I hugged my mom.  I stared a the TV screen with boring, soothing nature videos.  Music played quietly to soothe the patient.  "Look at the city!" said one of my 7-year-old twin sisters.  I stared at the lights illuminating the skyscrapers, the cars, the people.  A hazy purple sky spread over Chicago.  "I want to live in a skyscraper!"  I cried.  My baby sister winked at me as I held her.  Her nickname is Winkie.  Now she is home.  She is one-and-a-half weeks old.  Althea is truly the best.

A Weekend in December

This little girl had her 2 month check up.  She's perfect and healthy!  What a blessing!  She is in the 95th percentile for height (24.5 inches) and 75 percentile for weight (12 lbs).  She's growing so fast.   All her 0-3 month and some of her 3-6 month clothing went next door to our neighbor who has a baby just a few weeks younger and much smaller.   She started smiling and cooing a few weeks ago and we are loving it!  She has started to prefer keeping her head turned to the left so we are constantly trying to get her to turn right so that she doesn't end up in a helmet like Annaliese did.  She also got shots at this appointment.  She did not like that at all.   Last time she was pretty mellow.  Not so this time.  I finally got her settled down afterwards and she slept for 3 hours but when she woke up....wow! Never have I heard her scream like she did that day.  Thank goodness for Tylenol! I felt so bad.  She was miserable.  Tylenol took the edge off and before long we had our sweet happy baby back.

This weekend we got some awesome snow.  "Sledding Hill" at Oz was full of neighborhood kids- ours included.  Althea and I stayed in the car and watched.  The girls are getting pretty good. I even saw some surf board type sledding from them.  Good times!  Afterwards we went to Avrie's favorite restaurant...Noodles and Co.  Here they are still in their snow clothes waiting for our food. 

And...What would we do if we didn't go see the Joffrey Nutcracker?  Three years in a row now we've taken the girls so that means it is definitely a tradition.  It never seems to get old and we all love it.  Also for the third year in a row we drove through the drive thru at Protillo's for dinner.  Then like every year we had to speed through town to try to get there before we were late.  And for the third year in a row we sat in our seats just as the lights dimmed and the show began.  We've got it down!  Maybe next year I'll get us an early dinner reservation somewhere nice and mix things up a bit! 

We decided the best dances are the Arabian Dancers and the Russian Dancers. Also the girls loved the little ginger bread boy.  We have a couple of different storybooks of the Nutcracker that we read every year.  The girls don't know this but I'm pretty sure that Santa will have 4 giant Nutcrackers for them this year on Christmas morning. I hope they'll love them.  

 On a side note....This year Adeline announced that she would like to take ballet lessons.  She just doesn't want to perform ever and she doesn't want anyone to be in her class.  Hmmm.  Will work on that but I am glad that she is interested in lessons because I think she could be good at it.  Actually I bet all three could be awesome.  Dance lessons are a good thing I think.

And finally, Kermit has been working on a new song/video for Christmas.  Good King Wenceslas.  My girls have the sweetest voices.  It melts me when I hear them sing.

Busy weekend I'd say.  More crazy but fun days ahead as we count down to Christmas.

Blessing Day

Althea Elsie age 6 weeks

November 24, 2013 was a special day. This beautiful baby had her blessing day at church.  My parents came in from St. George for the occasion as did Kermit's brother Kimmel from Massachusetts.  Our ward meets in a CPS school not far from our house so she was blessed in the school auditorium during our 9am sacrament service.  We got there in time but I didn't have her dressed yet so I ran to a classroom to get her ready her with my parents. It was literally a freezing cold morning so taking her out of her cozy footie jammies was a bit of a shock.  She was a good sport about it though as I changed her into her beautiful but rather tight fitting short sleeved dress.  She barely fit in it but we got it buttoned.  We finally had her set just a few minutes before she had to go up.  I was worried she would start to cry during her blessing but she did pretty well.  I gave Kermit a muslin blanket to wrap around her and she did great. Just a little fussy toward the end but not a big deal at all.  Kermit gave her a beautiful blessing and I actually recorded it on my phone. I will type it out and print it for her baby box. No doubt she is a special girl.  She is an angel from heaven.  Proof is right there in the picture above.

Baby Girl is Here!

No time like the present to take up the blog again.

Baby Girl is here!  She is just over 4 weeks and what a wonderful 4 weeks it's been.  I can't even believe it and still shake my head in disbelief.  I truly thought that we could not have another child.  That is a post for another day.  She truly is a miracle baby.  I feel so blessed to have her!

6 days before her due date we decided to schedule to be induced.  The pregnancy was harder than my other 2 by far....even more difficult than with the twins.  The thing that made it so hard was that I could NOT sleep...ever. It was driving me crazy physically and mentally.  My feet would throb in the night.  My legs were restless.  I was huge and would toss and turn never able to find a comfortable position.  I don't know if it was my age that made the difference this time or what.  All I knew is that my past pregnancies were awesome and this one was so hard on me.  October could not come soon enough.

On the Friday before I was due I was scheduled to go in at 5:30am to at last be induced.  My mom came into town a few days before so the older girls were taken care of. They also had no school that day so they could hang out at home and wait for the call to be able to come down to the hospital to meet their baby sister.  I went into their dark bedroom at 5am to kiss them goodbye and told them we'd see them in a few hours after the baby was born.  They were so sweet.  Hugs and kisses and excitement.  The whole family was just so excited that the day was finally here.  The girls went back to sleep and Kermit and I took our 10 minute drive downtown and pulled up to the valet.  I walked right in and immediately got up to my room where they started getting me ready to go.  Dr. Lisa came in at 8:30 and broke my water and started the pitocin.  We waited...waited some more.  Started getting some good contractions by about 11:30am and they gave me my epidural.  We waited, and waited more.  Nothing was happening.  The good thing was that it allowed me to get some sleep. I didn't get any sleep the night before as usual and I was exhausted. By evening, still nothing! The only action we had was me throwing up.  I think I dilated to a 4 (from a 2 which is where I was when we arrived). Kermit and I were starting to wonder if we made the right decision to induce.  We were told that because this was my 3rd delivery that this would go very fast.  In fact we were encouraged to induce because 3rd babies usually do come fast and it isn't uncommon for women not to make it to the hospital once their labor starts.  We didn't want any surprises so we chose to induce but this was not at all what we were expecting.  We had told the girls that we would see them in the afternoon with a new baby to show.  Long labor waiting and waiting and waiting..thank goodness for epidurals!  The night came and we watched the clock pass midnight.  It was now Saturday morning and we were still waiting.  Finally at 1:30am Dr. Lisa came in to check and we were ready to go!  At last!  Kermit was asleep on the couch and had to jump up ready for action.  He was dizzy and a bit disoriented as he woke up.  He jumped right in and I was ready to push immediately.  Again, I was expecting for the baby to come fast.  3 pushes is what I was told to expect.  Nope.  30 minutes of pushing.  But that's not that bad.  Everything went fine and no complications. I couldn't ask for more.  Just the amount of time wasn't what we were expecting BUT this delivery was almost exactly like both of my previous.  Long day of labor and 30 minutes of pushing.  Annaliese born at 9:40pm after being there all day.  Twins at 5am after being there since 11am the day before.  So it made sense that Althea came just as her sisters had.

I said in the beginning that I didn't believe that we were having another baby.  And that was true up until the moment she came out.  Once I finally saw her I believed it.  She was perfect!  8lbs 2 oz.  and so beautiful!  Kermit cut the cord the nurses cleaned her up and brought her to me.  Oh my! I haven't stopped thinking about her since.  I am addicted to her.  It's so strange that I couldn't picture her and couldn't even picture myself being a mom again really until that very moment.  A switch went off in me.  I am in love with that baby. I seriously cannot imagine not having her now.  Just the minute before she was born I couldn't imagine having her!  She is the perfect baby.  I love her love her love her!

I don't remember all the details after she was born but we were transferred to post partum floor where we rested.  Later that day Kermit went and got the girls and my mom and it was awesome.  They loved her from the beginning.  They have loved her ever since.  They want to love her and hold her all the time.  And they do. 

I am so blessed.