Traditions.

Scott and I wanted to have family traditions. One of the first that we started was pumpkins in the fall. We did sugar pumpkins first to do pumpkin pie. Then once we had Erin we started carving pumpkins. It wasn't something I did growing up. The traditions give all something to look forward to and things we will remember. Also they bring us together as a family. I didn't have children to help out with chores on the farm. I want to spend time with my children. I want memories. Traditions are one way I ensure memories are made.

Mine.

My angel girl. Now that I have three I sometimes have stop myself in the midst of meeting their needs to lean back and really see my tiny baby. Sure I've done it all before, but she's here and she's mine. I want to soak it in while I can and not just blaze through it because it's old hat. I want to soak you in Olive baby. Imprinting your smell and the feel of your little body in my arms. I want to remember the nights I spend rocking and nursing you. You're my third baby, but your my only Olive.

New Life.

Sure I'm still in the middle of changing diapers and late night feedings.  Nap times, snack times, potty training and rocking babies.  Things are different for me now though.

I have either been gestating or lactating since 2005.  I lost a bunch of weight once I finally weaned Erin.  It was great I was down to my ideal weight of 125 and then got pregnant with Izzy about 2 months later.  Between weaning Izzy and getting pregnant with Olive I had about a month of my body to myself.  But now...NOW, I may still be nursing a pretty baby but I know that we are done having children and once I get back to a weight I can feel good about I don't have to worry about it all going away due to growing another human inside myself.

We have begun the end of the baby years.  I know that I am going to miss it.  I am going to yearn for my babies to be tiny again and snuggle them on my chest.  I am also excited to see where time takes us.  The women these little girls are going to become.  The way our relationships are going to change as their need for me changes.  On the flip side I get to look forward to a new chapter in my life.  I can start to focus more on the things that I want to do in my life, things that I'm passionate about as my babies will begin to be able to more and more for themselves.

Other changes going on around here besides adding a new baby.  The big girls have moved into the same room.  We only have 3 bedrooms so we decided it would make the most sense to have Erin and Izzy share a room.  It has been adventuresome so far.  Last night they were awake at 3:30 am and I went downstairs to find Erin in Izzy's crib...  If Izzy wakes up, then she wakes up Erin and it usually takes them a few hours to fall back to sleep when they were on their own.  Now it can take even longer!!  I would like to think that would mean that they slept in to make up for the lost sleep.  Nope.  Which makes for some crabby girls.  Hopefully it will bet better the longer they share a room.

 

Scott is going to be home another two weeks still.  So he won't be working Halloween!  We are going out trick or treating with some friends that have girls about the same age as our's.  They are going to be so stinking cute in their costumes!

Things...

So far, things are good with three kids at home. Of course Scott is off of work still so we can divide and conquer. That will not be the case when it's just me vs the needs of three adorable and challenging girls! I need to be so much more organized as a person now that I am a mother. I have to figure out what to do when and what works best for everyone. Unfortunately it usually means that someone is unhappy and fussing. That is exactly when I need to remember to breathe.

Olive went 4 hours between feedings last night which was amazing! The big girls seems to be getting up at 7 am these days, which makes me nervous for the time change coming up. We started putting them to bed later since the time change will push the time back. However, they are not sleeping any later! So that 7 am wake up time turns into 6 am soon. Way too early!! Hopefully the extended darkness in the morning will help them sleep longer. Hopefully.

We have been canning machines around here. It started with raspberry preserves from raspberries that we picked at a local pick-your-own farm. Then we moved onto applesauce and apple pie filling from the apple tree in our yard. This is the first year that we have taken advantage of the apples that our trees produce more than just eating a few and making some pie or crisp. Finally we went back to the pick-your-own farm for their concord grape season and picked 31 pounds of grapes and turned it into jam and juice. Our house smelled so good from that! Scott also turned some of the leftover pulp into fruit leather!! Canning makes me feel so virtuous. I love the feeling of preserving something that we grew and being able to use it later.

 In other exciting news, the Meyer Lemon tree that I got for Mother's Day this year has blooms!!! I hope this will mean lemons this winter!

Olive!!!!

Praise Jesus my pregnancy is over!!!! I know there are a lot of women out there that adore pregnancy. I....am not one of those women. I am a crabby, angry pregnant woman and I apologized nearly every day to my little family for being so hard to live with. My body hurt a lot more with this pregnancy so doing anything with the girls was very difficult. I couldn't even go for a walk because my right hip would start doing something weird and send shooting pain down my leg!

Now that baby Olive is here in our arms my body says thank you and I have so much more energy than I did. Even the broken sleep isn't seeming all that bad because I don't have the extra person in my person to carry around.

All my babies arrived during the 36th week of pregnancy. My body must just decide that enough is enough and pushes the eject button. Once again my labor stalled at 5cm and they gave me pitocin. With Izzy it took 4 hours once they started Pitocin, but with Olive an hour and a half and she was here! She was my most painful birth, but it was the fastest.

Erin and Izzy are loving having baby Olive around. They want to see her and hold her all the time. Olive just wants to sleep mostly.

Scott and I are outnumbered now, but our life and routine doesn't seem all that different from having two. Erin is in Kindergarten so that helps give her something else to do and us a break. She has afternoon Kindergarten and Izzy goes for her nap at that time so it is a nice break for us.

Three girls....I never thought I would end up with three girls. However, I do feel very lucky. I have three beautiful, healthy children. I'm excited to see how all our relationships evolve. Also to see the different personalities that each of my baby girls is going to have. It's going to be an interesting ride!