Two little girls, one baby, and a Determined mama

I just want to say that I am proud of myself and feel a little liberated for taking a two year old, a three year old, and a new baby all by myself to see the Zoo lights. I really wanted to take the girls to see them but I was afraid I could not handle all of them at night, in the dark, on my own. Yet, Kent was working late last night, and it was the last night I could go with my free coupon. So, even though I was nervous about it, I decided I would do it. I took them all yesterday evening, the fussy time for the baby, and it actually was not so bad; I am happy to say I did it. Two little girls, one baby, and a determined mama.  Maybe now I can convince myself to go grocery shopping with all them. :)

The First 6 Weeks- and Juggling Three

Our sweet baby has reached that 6 week mark. We love her so much and are glad she is a part of our family. It has been a challenging 6 weeks, as they always are for me; waking up all night, very little sleep, fussiness, painful breasts, and all this while trying to take care of two other little ones who need extra attention and don’t let me take naps. But, I am happy to tell you all that we survived and made it to six weeks! Things are a bit easier now.

After the baby was born, Anna and Elise had somewhat of hard time adjusting to their mama having less time for them. Elise would cry, “hold me, hold me” a lot, and Anna was more clingy. But never once did they blame it on the baby; they always have a smile and hug for her. However, me having less time to always play with them has brought a change in those two older girls. In the last 6 weeks they have really started playing together a lot, I mean all day long, they don’t stop playing together. They play make believe this and that, talking back and forth, going to the pretend bank and the the pretend doctors office, “OK, now I am the doctor,” making pretend dinners, and they make sure the bless their pretend food. It is amazing how they play now. They have really bonded even more so.

They also take really good care of their little sister. One day after Grace fell asleep, I put her down in the pack n play and got in the shower. After I got out of the shower, I peeked in on her and found a doll pillow under her head, and pacifier in her mouth, and a bracelet on her face. She must have woken up and the girls got her all situated and helped her fall back asleep.

The girls wanted to put all their baby dolls together on the floor and Grace was included as one of their babies. So Elise’s baby doll’s is name is Rose. Elise has had a hard time remembering what Grace’s name is because I call Grace all sorts of nicknames like “pumpkin,” “baby,” and “cutie pie with a cherry on top.” One day Elise said, “where is my baby?” and I said, “I don’t know where Rose is.” The she said, “No, my other baby.” and I was trying to think of what other doll she was talking about and I asked, “Which baby?” and she said, “the Pumpkin with the Cherry on top!” We’ve had to work on teaching Elise what her sister’s name is. I don’t know if she quite has it yet, but she is getting close.

Anna loves loves loves helping with the baby. Right when Grace was born when I would change her’s diapers, Anna liked to get a clean diaper and wipe for me, and throw away the dirty diaper. She also liked to get the burp cloth and wipe Grace’s mouth when she was done nursing. In fact she liked to help so much that she would take the diapers, the wipes, and burp cloths and hide them or put them across the room so that I couldn’t get to them to guarantee that she would be the only one to be able to do it. Lovely!

It is also so cute. What ever I say to the baby Anna repeats exactly in the same tone and manner. I think she does not know what to say to the baby, but wants to interact with Grace, so she just copies me.

It seemed like those first six weeks I had to hold her a lot, because she was so fussy, I got nothing done. I fell asleep nursing her on the couch at night. The girls were extra needy, I was extra tired. It was hard, I am not going to lie. I missed one week of church and was back with the baby because the demands of my calling, but I really could not do too much anyway with two girls and a newborn; at least I tried. I always wondered why people brought dinner to people with newborns because I didn’t think it was that hard to cook after having a baby but now I know. I just couldn’t do it.

It is still challenging but Grace is less fussy; I can actually put her down for more then 30 seconds and I think I have learned to juggle more, plan better, and do things quicker, and hold three crying girls all at once.

Grace started smiling. When she smiles it is all worth it.

Franny B. Kranny, There’s a Bird in Your Hair

I found this really fun book at the library. It is about a girl who ends up with a bird finding a home in her hair and she loves it. After reading it over and over to the girls about 20 times I had a bright idea. I stopped by the dollar store and bought a fake bird, then without the girls knowing I arranged my hair like Franny B. Kranny’s with the bird in it, came out into the living room and said, “girls let’s read Franny B. Kranny.” They came running in and as they were about to sit on the couch by me they noticed my hair with a bird in it. They had shocked expressions at first, thinking it was a real bird, then they started laughing. We read the book and I acted out parts of it with the bird on my head. And of course afterword's they both wanted birds on their heads; that’s why I bought two.

Anna B. Kranny, there’s a bird in your hair!

Elise B. Kranny, there’s a bird in your hair!

Perceptions of a 3 year old, and Subtle Influences of the World.

Me: “Anna, why are you turning your head like that? Put your head straight so I can get a nice picture of you in your princess costume.”
Anna: “No, like this.”

Me: “Anna, smile and put your head straight.” “Why are you putting your head like that?”
Anna: “Because.”

Me: “Ok, Anna, come over here and stand nicely.”

Me: “Why do you keep turning your head like that?”
Anna: “Because.”
Later that day: Disney Princess posters, puzzles, chair, coloring books around the house pop out at me. Why are there heads all turned? Why are they all turning their heads like that?


If my 3 year old daughter notices the subtle way that the Disney Princesses stand and turn their heads and tries to imitate them as “how she is suppose to stand if she is a princess,” what else does she pick up on?
If she is only 3 years old now and being influenced, what is going to influence her as she grows and becomes a teen? What images in magazines and TV shows are going to effect the way she thinks of herself, stands, dresses, acts? And much of it without her ever knowing she is being influenced.

It is interesting to see this. It is innocent princess posing right now but what will it be in the future? How can we help her know who she is as a daughter of God and not who the world tells her she should be? Things to ponder. It starts now though at three years old.

Halloween

Two princesses and a pumpkin.

They thought it was so fun to dig out the “eewey eewey pumpkin gooey.” Ok, I let them use knives, but they were really into it.

Anna woke up on Halloween saying, “It is Halloween today! I am so excited.” We went over to Nana and Papa’s house for Halloween night. The funny thing is when we took the girls trick or treating and Anna refused to go up to the houses to do it. She would wait for us on the sidewalk while we took Elise. Elise thought it was the greatest thing. Silly Anna.

I wanted Anna to have a good experience so I asked her later that evening if she wanted to try it again and go trick or treating. She said, “Only if Elise holds my hand.” Elise, the younger sister took her big sisters hand and helped her trick or treat. After one or two houses Anna got so excited about it that she said, “Let’s go to lots of houses and get lots and lots of candy!”  The girls even got brave enough to go to the scary witch house on the corner and came back and told me she was really a nice witch.

Grace Teresa Slack

After a long wait and a difficult labor, our sweet girl finally arrived just as pure and perfect as can be. We feel so blessed to have this little angel in our family.

A brief overview of my Birth Story: Wednesday evening I went into labor on my own and labored at home for several hours, When contractions were getting really intense Kent and I headed to the hospital and my mom stayed with the girls. I labored with Kent at the hospital for another 5 hours with really strong contractions coming every 3 minutes, trying to avoid the epidural for as long as possible. At around 5:30 in the morning, exhausted, spent, and dilated to a 7.5 I opted for the epidural to give me some rest.

Then it happened as it always does, but worse this time; my blood pressure plummeted. It felt like death; there was ringing in my ears, dizziness, nausea, I couldn’t breath, I cried out for help. They gave me oxygen and ran to get some kind of blood pressure medicine. The blood pressure was 60’s/30’s, but finally came up and I started vomiting. The baby’s heart rate was dropping at that point into the 60’s and would not come up. All the nurses ran in trying to turn me and get her heart rate back up, ready for an emergency C-section if not. After a minute or two her heart rate finally started coming back up again. This scenario happened several times and was really scary. It was awful! I know that there were a lot of prayers said for me and the baby, and I know there was power in those prayers, that Heavenly Father was protecting us and helped us through. I felt there were angels in the room comforting us too, through those scary moments. Kent was also such a great support for me through it all, there at my side the whole night encouraging and supporting.

At around 12:30, after 7 hours, and only 1/2 cm of progress, they started the Pitocin. The next thing I knew, I felt a lot of pressure and the urge to push. They called the doctor and it took him 2 mins 43 secs to get from his clinic to the room, as he promised us earlier that morning. After only about 5 mins of pushing she was born at 1:12pm. I could not hold her right away as there was meconium in the amniotic fluid, and they had the team waiting to suction her out right away. She weighed 7 lbs even and was 20 inches long.

She was fine and healthy and they finally let us hold her. She was beautiful, but had darker features then I had imagined she would, different then my other two, which I love.

We decided to name her Grace after two amazing women in our lives. Grace is the name of my paternal grandmother who I adore and admire so much, and Grace is also the name of Kent’s paternal grandmother who we both respect and admire as well. For her middle name we used Teresa, for Kent’s mother, an angel in his life. I heard Kent whisper to her, “we will give you the middle name Teresa after your grandmother who is one of the most hard working, selfless, loving and giving people I know.” One of my most dearest amazing aunts also has the name Teresa so it all just seemed right. So there you have it Grace Teresa Slack.

Nana and Papa brought the girls to meet there new little sister. They loved coming. Anna was fascinated and entranced by her new little sister. She would not leave her side and constantly wanted to hold her and look at her. On the other hand, Elise was a typical 2 year old. She was interested for 3 seconds, looked at her, patted her head and was off, more interested in all the neat things in the hospital room.

Nana and Papa were also pretty excited to meet their 4th grandbaby.

The Every-day Things

One thing nice about Kent starting work at 9:00am is that we always get the mornings together. The other day, Elise woke up saying that she wanted to go on a hike, so we took the morning and did a short hike on south mountain which was so nice.

It was Papa’s birthday last month, so we had the girls make birthday cards for him. I told them to choose the stickers for the card that they thought he might like, hinting at the wild animal stickers, etc; however, they were sure papa wanted princess, fairy, and ballerina stickers on his card.

Saturday afternoon I was so tired I just fell asleep on the couch. Kent took the girls outside for a while so they wouldn’t disturb me. Anna drew pictures of me all over the sidewalk sleeping on the couch with a pillow under my head and a baby belly.

The girls and I decided that because it was fall we were going to make pumpkin chocolate chip cookies. Anna was really excited and kept telling me how she loved pumpkin cookies, though I don’t think she has ever tried them. Well, I don’t know what she thought pumpkin cookies were made out of, but as soon as I put the pumpkin puree in the bowl for her to mix, she started crying that she did not want that pumpkin in her cookies.

It was quite comical because as soon as she tasted the cookie dough she stopped crying and insisted that we make pumpkin cookies again, which we did.