Snuggles Turns 1!

Just over a month ago, Genevieve turned 1. As with everything she does, it was bittersweet for me. My last baby isn't much of a baby any more. :(

We were in Virginia for Jake's wedding. We were able to spend brunch together with the family (Grandma and Grandpa Obert, Grandma and Grandpa Roy, Uncle Jake, very-soon-to-be Aunt Katie, Auntie Krys and Uncle Pranob and Cousin Asher) to celebrate. The place I picked (forgot the name already) was good, but... it took forever! I felt bad for Snuggles because she was getting so tired and cranky. She didn't really enjoy her meal at all. She just wanted to nap! Poor baby.

She is 21 pounds and 31 inches. She can say "yes", "hi", and something that resembles Adelyn. She adores her big sister and brother. She will nod her head for yes, and shake for no. She has 2 teeth, but working on the uppers. She still loves to snuggle. She can almost sleep through the night. As long as mommy is near by, she is a happy baby.

We love you Snuggles!

Six Months Old

And just like that, Genevieve is 6 months old. Where in the world did the time go?? Since we're in Utah, she didn't have her 6 month well check. I wanted to try and find a place to get her shots so her schedule didn't get out of whack, but I wasn't able to find a place. That also means that I don't really know how much she weighs or how tall she is. But, she did move up to size 3 diapers and size 9 month clothes, so I guess she's growing.

We started feeding her food a few weeks before 6 months. So far she has tried bananas, avocados and sweet potatoes. From my observation, I think she likes avocados the best.

Somewhere along the lines she learned how to roll from stomach to back. She is now a rolling, pivoting scooting backwards little wiggle worm! She will be crawling soon. She gets up on all 4 and rocks back and forth. No teeth yet. And she is still the happiest little thing. Love her to pieces!!

Evie Monster is 4 Months Old!

Genevieve is 4 months! I can't believe she's that old already. She is becoming quite the fun baby. She is happy and curious. Right before she turned 4 months, she learned how to roll onto her tummy. Now she spends a fair amount of time on her tummy. She loves it. She also loves stuffing blankets in her mouth. Mm, tasty!

She had her well-check last week. She's 26 inches long; 95 percentile (same as Adelyn was at 4 months). But only over 14 pounds; 50 percentile (she hasn't doubled her weight yet). That basically means she tall and skinny. 

Doctor said we can start introducing cereal to her. But I think we will wait until she's a bit older and go straight to fruits and veggies.

Also last week, Uncle Jake was in town for a visit. One say G and I were sitting on the couch. Jake walked in and I swear that G said, "hi." 

22,000 Steps

For a few months we have been talking to Adelyn and Odin about the "Big Surprise." Ben has occasionally given clues to them,for instance, we need to take a plane there. Well, on December 13 the Big Surprise was revealed - Disney World! It was funny... when we got to the property to check into our hotel, we told the kids where we were. We had 2 blank stares. They had no idea what Disney World was. But they quickly found out! We checked into our hotel and went off to the Magic Kingdom.

We spent the most time at the Magic Kingdom, but we also went to Animal Kingdom and Hollywood Studios and Epcot Center. We did all the rides and shows that Adelyn and Odin would like. I was surprised as to how many rides Genevieve could go on with us. That was a nice surprise.

Our typical day was to sleep in, grab breakfast at our hotel, head to a park, go back to the hotel for naps, wake up for night time park fun. The kids did very well on this schedule. It was nice too, because at night the lines to the kiddie rides were very short. Didn't even need Fast Passes!

One day I decided to use the pedometer feature on my phone. By the end of the day I had more than 22,000 steps! The next day was pretty much the same. The amazing part - Adeyln and Odin walked most of those with us. Our last night we had the stroller for Odin, otherwise Genevieve was in it. I am so impressed with the amount of walking they did.

I could write a super long post, but instead I'll just list some highlights.

- Princess lunch with Belle and the other princesses
- Breakfast with Chip and Dale and Goofy
- Lunch with Winnie, Tigger, Piglet and Eeyore
- Breakfast in Cinderella's castle
- Random invite to skip the line to see Anna and Elsa
- Everest roller coaster
- Animal safari
- Countless smiles and shrieks of delights

October Fun

Yikes! I am way behind on this. I thought about skipping October and going straight to November, but there are some things I wanted to document, so here I am. In no particular order...

Oktoberfest - One thing I like about other countries is their culture. Being in America, I feel like we have a lack of culture. A while back I decided that perhaps we can do things as a family that is a reflection of our heritage. If nothing else, it's a fun family thing to look forward to. For our Oktoberfest I wanted to have a German breakfast. For us, that means brotchen. I looked up a few recipes and was all set to make it when I thought about the logistics. Quickly I decided that I didn't want to wake up in the middle of the night to make it. Fortunately, I found a German bakery. The kids and I headed over there in the morning. We picked up the brotchen along with kinder chocolate and real German gummies. We had a yummy breakfast with brotchen, salami, and cheese. For lunch we had Nuremberg brats from Trader Joe's. They are Ben's favorite from his time in Germany. After lunch I taught the kids how to polka. We finished our fest with the Chicken Dance. We were going to make pretzels, but ran out of time. Next year!

Halloween - This year we once again headed over to the Lantz's for Halloween. We headed over there in the afternoon for some play time. Then we went to their club house for an early dinner. Dinner was good, but service was slow! After that it was time to change. Adelyn was Rapunzel again (she liked the pink and purple costume the best), Odin was Thomas the Train and Genevieve was Cinderella. We had a lot of fun. The kids got a lot of candy. We actually still have most of it left! The kids were more interested in playing with it than eating it.

Genevieve - Genevieve had her 2 month well check. She did great during the ridiculously long appointment. The appointment was at 11:30 and we got out of there after 1. We are switching doctors for sure! She weighed in at 11 pounds 4 oz and was 22 inches long.

Vegetables - The kids and I headed over to Gilcrease Orchards to pick some veggies. We ended up there the week before Halloween. It was packed! Everyone was busy getting their pumpkins. We picked beets, zucchini, sweet potatoes and a pumpkin. With two little helpers, it was a kind of pathetic haul, but it was fun. For a treat we had some of their apple donuts. Those were pretty amazing. I will definitely go back,but next time I will bring Ben and the baby carrier for G.

Firsts

Even though Genevieve is our third child, we still had some firsts with her.

She was the first to have formula. Before leaving the hospital, they checked her bilirubin. It was elevated. Ben and I weren't concerned since both other kids had this and everything was fine. But for some reason they freak out about that here. So, our choices were one more night in the hospital while they put her under lights in the nursery, or supplement her feedings with 20 ml of formula for 24 hours. We would rather be home. So we agreed to formula. Her bilirubin dropped drastically by the next day when we brought her in again. No more formula!

She went to her first buffet at about 36 hours. We had both sets of grandparents in town. I felt great. So, Sunday morning we all went out to brunch. The hostess was a little appalled that we took our newborn out. To a casino. Where there are germs. Someone else thought that we had the baby and then flew to Vegas. But one thing is for sure, the Bacchanal Buffet is AMAZING! The food was terrific. And you should see the dessert counter. I would pay just for that! Genevieve did great.

She was the the first to co-sleep with us. Honestly, this was due mainly to the fact that I was so completely tired. I would just snuggle up with her to feed her and fall asleep. When she fussed, we would roll over and she would eat some more and I would go back to sleep. As I got caught up on sleep, or my body got used to the lack of sleep, I started to get paranoid that she would suffocate - she really liked to snuggle into me. So, gradually we transitioned her to her crib. I miss my snuggle bug, but I think it's the best for both of us to get a good night's sleep.

She is the first to like tummy time. Just a few times I've put her on her tummy. Absolutely no complaints! Adelyn and Odin would basically scream bloody murder until we moved them back to their backs, or they figured out how to roll. Genevieve does not mind one bit. In fact, I think she likes it. I'm trying to take advantage of that.

Genevieve Marie

At 9:30 pm on August 22, 2014, we welcomed Genevieve Marie into our lives.

She was 8 pounds, 1 oz and 20.5 inches long. Ten fingers. Ten toes. And absolutely perfect!

On August 21 I had my weekly doctor's appointment. I was dilated to a 2. I figured that our little girl would be making her appearance soon. My mom had flown in on the 16, so we had child care for Adelyn and Odin all set, so really, the baby could come whenever she wanted to. That night I had contractions on a fairly regular intervals (every 6 minutes). But they weren't painful yet. Before heading to bed, Ben and I made sure our bag for the hospital was all set and ready to go.

We made it until morning with nothing much happening. We had breakfast and tried to have a normal day. I played with A and O. I worked a bit. Contractions were coming more frequently. And they were starting to hurt. Ben started to get concerned that we were going to have the baby on the freeway on the way to the hospital, so after we fed the kids (well, everyone but me) we packed up in the cars and went to the hospital.

They checked me out and I was at 4 cm with a bulging bag, so they weren't going to let me go anywhere without having the baby first. Once I got into a room, we said goodbye to Adelyn, Odin and Grandma.

The nurse,Janice, was having technical difficulties with our room. She couldn't get the computer up. That meant she couldn't monitor remotely my contractions or the baby. That meant she had to stay in our room. That was fine, just annoying for her because she had to keep calling other nurses in to do things. We all thought baby was going to come quickly, so Janice was working quickly to get everything set. I made it to 6 cm. and had just got an epidural when the decision was made to move me to a room with working technology. I think Janice thought the baby was going to be delivered in the hallway. She kept informing everyone helping to move me (had to move the bed because of the epidural) that I was at 6 and this was my third. We made it without incident to the new room.

Then things slowed down. I think my body was too comfortable. Contractions slowed way down and my progress slowed down too. At this point they wanted to give me to pitocin. We asked if we could wait an hour. The doctor agreed. So, we tried to make me uncomfortable. Instead of relaxing in a reclined position, I sat up more to get gravity to help more. I moved from side to side every 10-15 minutes to get the baby to move on her own. It worked! I was back to making process.

At some point during all this, my doctor made the call that he wasn't going to deliver for me. He technically had the day off and had already been at the hospital most of the day with others. Janice assured me that the doctor on call was excellent and one of her favorites.

Nurse change! We said goodbye to Janice and said hello to Keisha. She was very nice too. My pain level was going up. We talked about getting more drugs. We had some more administered. The next time I was checked, she asked me to do a practice push to make sure I could push. She said the baby's head was "right there." So I gave a little push. Keisha started to yell at me to stop. She told me to not even sneeze until the doctor came in.

Our room got a little busy with the baby nurse getting everything ready and Dr. Juarez getting ready. He asked if I was ready to push. Sure! Let's get this over with. :) With the next contraction he had me push. He told me to stop basically mid-push... she was born! Seriously, less than one push and she was out. No tears even.