4 Weeks

Lucy is 4 weeks old today! I hope I don't jinx things but the last 4 nights have been really great- so much better than before. She does her last feeding around 8:30/9:30 & then doesn't wake up until about 12:30/1:30 & then 3:30/4:30 & then she's up officially around 6:30/7:30. So officially she only wakes up about twice in the night.

And the best part of nights now is that when I put her down after feeding her, she sleeps! Before I had to rock her forever to get her to sleep without whining but now as long as she's swaddled really well I can just hold her for a few minutes after nursing her, put her down, and she's out with no tears. So nice and I hope this continues and we don't regress at all. 

During the day Lucy is doing better at the eat-wake-sleep thing. She is never awake long after eating (usually just 30 minutes) but at least she's awake after eating without me having to hassle her too much. However, she tends to be fussy during the wake part which I'm not so happy about. I'm thinking she may have gas issues so that's definitely something I will talk to the dr about if it doesn't improve soon....And like at night, the sleep thing has gotten better. No more rocking, just swaddling and then down in her bed for a nap. Unlike night though, she does fuss sometimes but usually no more than 10 minutes of fussing and she's asleep.

As I said, hopefully I haven't jinxed all the good things that are happening because she really is doing so much better with everything and I would like things to continue that way.

And after a crazy day yesterday ( I took all 3 kids grocery shopping with me- I must be nuts!), I decided we needed to go somewhere that calms me so I took my 3 little ones to see the Mesa Temple Lights. It was such a great idea- Lucy slept the whole time and the boys had so much fun- they kept pointing to different lights and saying "Look!"  I so needed to spend some time with my boys where I was not yelling at them and just enjoying being with them. It was a great night!

Black Friday

I'm posting things a little out of order but let's just blame that on lack of sleep.... 

On the Friday after Thanksgiving, affectionately called Black Friday by some, me & Lucy left the house at 6am to do some shopping. The stores are getting crazier this year and most of them opened on Thanksgiving day for all their crazy sales but I just wasn't up for spending my Thanksgiving day shopping. Thanksgiving is supposed to be my lazy day. Plus I didn't want any electronics or any of the other major door busters so I thought 6am would be the perfect timing to get the things I wanted and avoid crowds. It was!! I got all the deals I wanted and Lucy & I barely spent anytime waiting in live. It was great fun! I am now just about done with my holiday shopping- wahoo!

After my shopping, I picked up Steven & Ben and we met up with my brother Mike & his family at the Riparian Preserve. I thought it would be a fun outing but neither of my boys had napped the previous 2 days and they were very cranky & emotional. It wasn't exactly fun for anyone involved :( But both my boys did take amazing naps afterwards....

This is the duck my children have affectionately named the Poppy duck- I think it has to do with it's crazy "hair"

My boys in a rare calm moment...

 

 Mike's golden child, Oliver

And this picture pretty much defines the afternoon...

Putting Up the Tree

Saturday night me and the boys decorated the tree while daddy & Lucy watched from the couch. I was not too much in the Christmas spirit thanks to a bad news visit from my boss that morning  and a messy house but the boys had fun despite my lousy attitude. And the tree also turned out really nice. The only problem is that the boys seem to think that the unbreakable ornaments are toys and are constantly taking them off. Oh well, boys will be boys...

Below is the best picture we could get of all 3 of us. Note the star and how it looks like it is going to fall on our heads. Thankfully, Tyler was able to fix that. 

Thanksgiving 2012

On Thursday morning we drove up to Flagstaff to celebrate Thanksgiving with the Hatch family. For some reason we were off with all of Tyler's siblings. Besides Jezerea, we were the only ones to go to Flagstaff with his parents. However, his Aunt Cricket & Uncle Doug & his Aunt Jacque & most of his cousin's and their families were there. And it ended up being a nice, laid back Thanksgiving with no craziness and no drama- I absolutely loved it!

Steven had a blast with Tyler's cousin's son, Wyatt. On his Uncle Doug's side things are completely opposite of us. Wyatt is their only grandson (they have 5 granddaughters) and Wyatt had so much fun finally having another boy to play with. They played the whole time without fighting- it was great!

Lucy had fun getting held by everyone and getting to meet some other baby girls. Here she is with Tyler's cousin Sammy. 

Ben had fun hanging out Tyler's cousin's daughter, ShaeLee. ShaeLee did beat up on him some but most of they time they were pretty cute. Here they are hiding out under the pool table.

Steven and Wyatt spent a lot of time at the pool table watching everyone play. They even got to play a bit themselves. And- shock of all shockers- I played too! I actually had fun and with some help from Uncle Doug I was able to get a few balls in and me and AshLee won!

I don't have any pictures of dinner itself but it was yummy. After we finished eating we all shared things we were thankful for and as typical of Tyler's family, there was both laughing and crying involved in all the sharing. It was good stuff :)

When it came time to go, the boys were exhausted. They both crashed at one point on the drive home. I especially loved how Ben fell asleep wearing his cute hat. Lucy slept for the first half of the trip but was pretty fussy for the second half. She is not much for driving anymore. All and all though. it was an excellent Thanksgiving. 

Adjusting

As predicted, this week was a lot harder than the last. I was on my own with my 3 kids a lot more this week and I actually had to cook a few dinners- shocking ;)!

I think out of my 2 boys, Steven is having a lot harder time adjusting to Lucy. He gets emotional a lot more than normal and he has a hard time with loving Lucy softly. Plus he caught a cold this week so he is not loving that I make him keep his germs away from Lucy. He just wants to breathe them all over her. Thankfully I only had one night with Steven up coughing (of course it wasn't when I was already up with Lucy but instead in between feedings) then I was able to stop the night coughing with the breathing machine- oh how I love the breathing machine!

Ben, on the other hand, seems like same old Ben. He still gets whiny over silly things (nothing new) but he is pretty good at showing his love for Lucy gently and he doesn't seem extra emotional. However, they both like to bring out monster mommy at least once a day (typically in the afternoon)- I can't wait until my hormones return to normal!

Trying to do the Baby Wise schedule with Lucy also added stress to this week. She is so hard to wake up after eating and then once I get her up, she is difficult to get back to sleep. I'm not 100% sure that it's worth all the effort...she did sleep better a few nights but there were still a couple nights with her waking up fussy and hard to put back to sleep. It does seem to help her nurse more regularly during the day though. She has stopped snacking completely and is still typically nursing every 2.5-3 hours which is nice. Every once in awhile she wants to nurse after 2 hours but that is ok with me. Benny was every 2 hours ALWAYS so I can take Lucy's every 2 hours sometimes...

I am sad that this will be my last week off from tutoring. I still haven't started pumping or introducing the bottle to Lucy so I just don't feel like I'll be ready to return in a week. Plus I am SO exhausted that I don't know how I am going to be a useful tutor. Hopefully I survive!

1 Week & 4 Days Down

I survived my first week as a mother of 3! Mostly I survived because of great friends and family who fed us and helped out with my boys. I think week 2 might be a little trickier now that I'll actually have to cook again and take care of my boys on my own but I can do this right!?

Lucy Lou has slept away most of her first week. Her nursing was irregular at first- some days & nights she would snack every hour or two, other days she would have full nursing sessions (10 minutes each side) every 3 hours and then some days & nights were a mixture of both. I hated it when she snack fed but she was impossible to wake and she was gaining weight regularly (she was 7 lbs 12 oz when we left the hospital and weighed 8 lbs 6 oz at her doctor's appointment) so I let it be. Thankfully she hasn't snack fed for the past few days and has been doing nice full sessions every 2-3 hours- typically every 3 hours.

Our biggest problem now is that she has her nights and days mixed up. She sleeps most of the day and then wakes up around what should be my bedtime and is impossible to get to sleep. Today I have been trying to get her on the Baby Wise schedule- eat, wake, sleep- but it is SO hard when I have 2 other boys who take my attention away from her when I am trying to wake her up or try to wake her up when she should be sleeping. I am hoping that I can get it down anyhow and that will help her sleep through the night again. Fingers crossed!

When Lucy is awake she tends to be fussy (part of the reason I had been letting her sleep most of the day). She does take a pacifier which helps to soothe her, she likes to be rocked and swaddled and snuggles with Tyler & me help too.

Lucy Lou has some crazy explosive bowel movements so instead of the worries we had with the boys of getting peed on, now we have to worry about getting pooped on. Yes, I have been pooped on and her poop has shot across the room and landed on our bed twice now. I am sure she will be happy when I share this fact with her future boyfriends :)

As challenging as babies are and as sleep deprived as they make me I do love my sweet little girl and am super happy being a mother of 3 silly children!

Recovery

Since my next baby will have to be a c-section, I wanted to make sure I blogged about the recovery part of it all so I can remember what I am in for and compare... 

The first day out of surgery is always the roughest. Transferring into my new bed was the hardest thing ever and all I had to do really was lift my bottom up. After that  I was literally trapped in the bed for the rest of the day. I was attached to an IV & a catheter and I had these lovely things attached to both my calves which were a lot like a blood pressure cuffs- they would tighten & vibrate frequently to prevent blood clots. I didn't mind being trapped when my bottom half was still numb from the spinal tap but once I regained feeling I really wanted to get up and move. I felt like I was molding into the hospital bed. 

Thankfully I had a nice nurse who let me try and walk to the potty that evening. It was SO hard to get out of bed that first time but once I did I was able to not only walk to the potty but I also did a walk around the maternity floor. After that the nurse took off the annoying cuffs that were on my calves and a few hours later (12 hours after surgery) I was able to get the catheter out. I was a little less tied down.

That first night was rough. Nurses were in and out checking on me & Lucy and Lucy was not sleeping well. At one point we sent Lucy to the nursery but then I couldn't sleep because I was worried she might not come back. It was one of those lack of sleep induced paranoias. I also got my blood drawn at 3am & was given a respiratory exercise at that same time. Long, awful night.

The next day (Friday) was full of challenges. 1) Going #1 after having a catheter is a lot harder than I remembered. Especially made harder by the nurses watching you. I did meet that challenge late that morning.  2) Getting up & walking like a normal person. It took until the end of the day to feel like I was a semi-normal person. 3) Passing gas- a requirement that must be met before leaving the hospital & trust me I wanted to meet it. My tummy felt so gassy and yucky that whole day. I finally met that challenge that night after warm lemon & honey water and warm blankets around the tummy. No shame when you are at the hospital...

Also on Friday I got unattached from the IV (24 hours after surgery). It was SO nice to be cordless. That night went so much better and I have to say by Saturday morning I was feeling pretty good and by Saturday night I was thinking we should have got discharged already instead of waiting for Sunday to leave. 

At this point (5 days later) I'm feeling good as long as I take my 1 oxycodone pill every 6 hours (up to this point I had been taking it with Motrin too but have weened off that). I can't walk a lot or I will my incision will start to hurt but walking around the house is just fine (though I try to avoid the stairs as much as possible). Coughing & laughing are also getting less painful. And on one last gross note it took until day 4 for me to have a bowel movement and despite the stool softeners I had been taking- it was not fun. 

So that sums up recovery & such things- and a much less yucky note and much more happier note here are some fun pictures from the last couple of days...

Getting ready to leave the hospital:

Picking up the boys from Grandma Hatch's house:

First full day home with no Tyler (Monday). Poppy was nice enough to get Ben & Steven Angry Bird blankets as a welcome home present and they absolutely love them. My mom and dad were nice enough to come over around lunch time for a few hours to help out. My dad took the boys down to the park while my mom and I put Lucy in a cute dress. Also that night I was given dinner from the Ward. I am so blessed to have such a good Ward and such a great family.

Hatch Babies

 

I have to say that our babies look a lot alike. What do you think? And who do you think Lucy looks the most like?

(Top L-R: Steven, Ben; Bottom: Lucy)

Visitors

We get to spend 3 days in the hospital so we are still here giving me plenty of time to blog and plenty of time to have visitors. 

My mom and Tyler's mom were the first to come. They weren't allowed into the recovery room but as soon as we were placed in the post-postpartum room, they came. Here is Tyler's mom with her very first grand daughter:

Later Mike and Rebecca came with baby Oliver. We got a cute Minnie & Mickey picture of them both:

And then even later Tyler's dad and Jezerea brought Steven & Ben and it was fun to see their reactions. Steven, I think, was more worried about me (my IV freaked him out) and more interested in my food (and it was only chicken broth!)  than Lucy. At one point I asked him if he wanted to go look at Lucy and he said, " I already saw her!" Oh dear. But he did pose well for his picture:

Ben got very quiet but was all smiles with Lucy. He gave her some good kisses and lots of love:

The next day, Friday, my mom & dad came while Tyler was in class. It was nice to have them there to help since I was still having troubles getting around. Then around lunch time, Rebekka Garner came to visit as well. I failed to get pictures of my dad & Lucy and Rebekka & Lucy. I'm so fired!

That evening, Mariah came with the Steven & Ben. Also Keshia & Scott came. Steven was once again more intrigued with the food (daddy had french fries & ketchup). And Benny was a little less shy and seemed very happy to be with his daddy.