need i say more?


he liked the bath part but not the towel part, obviously.


lily's little mother instincts have kicked in- she is more into helping me with him than hannah. she likes to calm him down when he's fussy, help feed him, and help change his diaper. if poop is present she must examine it and announce the exact shade and amount..."alot of yellowish green this time, mommy."

this week i am the horrible mother who uses vacation bible school as her babysitter. yes, instead of helping with it like i used to, i drop off the girls then run home and go to sleep for at least an hour. if i time travis's feeding right, i can sleep for 2 hours!

at our church they serve dinner before bible school too, at 5:30, so i also don't have to worry about feeding them before they go. and it's not over til 8:30.

i will ashamedly admit i have always had lots of judgemental non-Christian thoughts towards those parents who never help with bible school- who only appear to roll the kids out of the car, then again at the end to collect them. there are even some kids at bible school who are only seen during that week, then never appear again at church, even with follow up calls. i never understood how they could just blindly trust random people they don't know, even if they are "church people", with their kids.

not that my situation is exactly the same since my mom, dad, bob, and sue, are all at bible school too, but i can experience the feeling of thinking " a whole week! 3 whole hours every night! hooray! hooray!"

see, before travis arrived, when school was in, hannah and lily used to talk excitedly about how when summer was here and school was out, they could spend the night at mimi and pop's, or bob and sue's, any time they wanted! (during school i only let them stay friday night.) man they were excited! on a daily basis we would have a discussion like this

"when school's out i can spend the night any day? right mom?"
"yes, any day darling."

but now, the tables are turned. they have been attached with super strength anxiety/jealousy superglue to me all day and night and have refused to spend the night anywhere except WITH ME IN MY BED. when i say attached, i mean that for a large portion of the day they are either in my lap or they have their arms wrapped around my legs.

i have not tried to peel them off, even though my nerves are PLUCKED to the max between them, travis, and very little sleep. i don't want to do anything to traumatize them for life, so i have not forced them to go anywhere they don't want to go or spend the night anywhere they don't want to, so they have been with me just about all day every day. they have gone through so much change in the last year and i am sure this phase will pass so i have just been praying a lot and tolerating it. i keep telling myself that they will grow up so fast and i will one day long for the time they wanted to be in my lap or wrapped around my legs.

and finally last night, they asked to spend the night at my mom's. sure, she bribed them with story time at the library this morning, but hey, ya gotta do what ya gotta do. that's how i have time to blog all this- they're still at her house and travis is sleeping. needless to say i haven't had much time to type alot, not that my mind has been able to form multiple coherent sentences.

another thing i have been trying to do to make them feel more secure is to leave travis with my mom or bob and sue for a few hours at a time and give them time with just me- without travis crying or needing to be fed. (in case you don't know my mom lives next door and bob and sue live across the road, so it's not a long distance.)

(scott has been so good through all this, even when there are 2 four year olds in between us kicking him in the head as they toss and turn. ) sound sleepers that they are, they don't even budge when travis wakes up and screams for a feeding.

speaking of scott, you would never be able to tell this is his first kid. he isn't afraid to do anything - even poopy diaper patrol. he's very good with travis AND the girls- very hands on.

______________________________________________

recovery from this c section seems to be taking so much longer and is so much more painful. last time by this far out i was pain free. i am just now starting to see a light at the end of the tunnel. i think it's the combination of being on my feet so much and the "getting my tubes tied" thing. i found out afterwards that the way my doctor does it is cutting a big section of the tubes completely out. yikes.

but are you ready for this one? right when i was feeling so completely unpregnate-able, we found out last week that scott's cousin who has 4 kids and got her tubes tied on her last one, is PREGNANT AGAIN 2 years later!

the travis alarm is going off now so i have to stop. if you made it all the way down here, thanks for reading my whiny long post and i promise i will try for new pix sometime in the next few days!

xok8

as soon as i made this video i dropped my camera and broke it. i have to mail it in to the repair center- so sad- who knows how long it will take to get it back.

all i have to use now is my gross old school digital - i am so bummed. of all times to break my camera with summer here and a new baby. depression.

aaaaaaaaaaaaanyways i wanted to make a video of trav at 2 weeks.

i sound like such an idiot when i listen to this, never have been able to stand the sound of my own voice, plus my googoo baby talk voice sickens even me when i hear it.
but his cuteness makes up for it, and i can't re-record it, so i decided to post it anyway.

little dolly dresses strike again- bob and sue got the girls these pageant dresses in tennessee last summer.


the girls play "baby milk factory" and feed their babies.


lily and her baby- she had to burp it too.


hannah and her baby- this one must be really hungry!


the girls help poppy make ice cream (it was chocolate btw.)



mommy's precious poohbear!


i can't think of alot to tell ya due to the upallnightbabybrainsyndrome. oh yeah the girls went with me to travis's first doctor's appointment on friday. they have been telling everyone how he peed all over

a. the wall
b. the nurse
c. the doctor three times.

they're very proud.


everything was fine and at the end the doctor proclaimed "he's perfect!"
so, you see, it's not just me who thinks that, it's everybody.

my sister stacy had her baby today!

griffin joseph
8 pounds 6 ounces




how cool is it to have a boy cousin who is only one week younger!? welcome baby griff!
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meanwhile, back at the ranch, post pregnancy hormones are in full swing. i feel fat and dumpy and any little thing makes me cry. in combination with no extended period of sleep for 10 days, this is not a good thing.

travis has his one week checkup tomorrow. i really can't wait til i can get out and about again- i'm going stir crazy from cabin fever.

the girls are doing really great considering all the big changes they have gone through in the last 10 months. they have been acting up more than usual and testing boundaries- i think they know i don't have the strength to fight back right now. they are not 100% crazy about their baby brother but the more i let them help do things the better they are becoming.

yesterday hannah asked me something like, "are you having any more babies?"
i told her no, that the doctor fixed it when he took out travis so that i won't have any more babies.

of course she wanted a more specific answer- "how mommy? how did he fix it?"

"um, there's an on/off switch in my tummy and after he took travis out he turned it to off."

"was the switch hooked to the cord?" (they're obsessed with the umbilical cord and have to examine travis's stump every time i change his diapers)

"yes hannah it was hooked to the cord inside and he turned it off so don't worry- no more babies."

"oh, okay."

yes, travis likes to party all night long. actually more like chow all night long down. he sleeps all day and eats minimally, then at night he eats every couple hours like a champ. and like clockwork, each morning 'round 5-6 am he settles down and sleeps til 9 or 10.

it's so hard making sue i'm giving the girls enough attention bc they do have a little jealousy problem, but it's to be expected. they're getting better every day. i'm trying to make sure i do everything possible to make them feel included and loved.

also is the first day my c section incision hasn't been killing me when i get up and down. it's down to a dull throb.

ok, we all know you didn't come here to check on me- here's what you really want...

...aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand CUE cute baby!

Yes, I know I said I would put up some pics last night, but it was a long day and I was too pooped to post. I had a great visit with K8 and Travis. He is a super sweet baby (so far!) and only cries when he's really hungry or gets his diaper changed (I don't think he likes having his boy meat exposed to the air, ha!). Anyway, here are a few more pics of the little guy and the happy family!

And here's one more- Travis and his cousin Griffin who comes out next Thursday!

Kate's sister here, reporting the birth of a new monkey!

Travis was born at 9:30 a.m. and weighed in at a meaty 8 lbs 14 oz. He was 20 inches long. My mom reports that he has nice fat rolls under his neck and on his legs. K8 is doing fine, now that the doc has hooked her up with some good drugs. Daddy Monkey did well and didn't try to escape. The twins were excited to see their new brother and had to be removed when they started trying to poke his eyes out. They haven't quite figured out the whole "real baby" vs "baby doll" thing yet. Here are a few pics that came through the phone. I am going to visit tomorrow and will post more tomorrow night.

it's the night before.
i'm nervous.
but ready to get it over with.

i just want travis to be healthy and in my arms.

unfortunately there will probably not be any travispics for a few days bc my husband doesn't know how to post to my blog and nobody else around here is teachable. so sorry!

i may be able to do a cameraphone picture and send it to my sister then get her to post so ...we'll see what happens.

it'll be about 830am est when he exits so please keep us in your prayers!

xok8

you get one belly shot- finally. here's the little porker at 39 weeks.
click to bigify


the ticker at the top says 8 days left today, but that's til my actual due date. there are really only 2 days left bc i'm having a c-section thursday morning. yikes!

today was my first day off work before he's born. since i function best at the last minute, last night we went and got diapers and today i put together his bassinet. the bassinet is actually the only thing i saved from the girls. looking at it, it seems so strange that they both used to fit in there together with room to spare. believe it or not i had the afternoon free to take a nap bc bob and sue took the girls to swimming lessons but i didn't sleep- i read a book and made bread. this morning was all about cleaning as will be tomorrow bc the house was trashed and i would like it to be semi-decent when we get home since peeps will be coming by to view the freshly hatched young mammal.

as a surprise i got these for scott...of course he had to open one and sample it. he's so funny, getting nervous. a while back he told me he didn't know if he could stand to be in the OR when travis is born. i was like "oh, you WILL be there buddy." last night out of the blue he goes "i don't know if i'll be able to cut the cord. it might gross me out."

we were at his mom and dad's last night and it turns out when his brother was born his dad tried to escape at the last minute and run to the waiting room but the doctor wouldn't let him go. now i see where he gets it from. ha!