Introducing.....

Lainey Abigail

August 3, 2011

3:07am

7lbs 110z

19 1/2 inches

I'm embarrassed that its taken me over a week to introduce our newest family member, but I have been one busy Mama! We are totally in love with how cute her little fingers and toes are and they way she fits so perfectly into our family! Things have been pretty crazy trying to adjust to have three kids under the age of three but we are doing it and couldn't be happier! <3

If you care to have a full birth story, let me know and Ill let you in on it but Ill spare the world from hearing all the gory details of how this precious one made her grand entrance!

Tick, tock.

Here I am enjoying the last few days of having baby all to myself....

(go easy on me, Im 39 weeks pregnant!)

Anyways, just checking in... off to indulge myself in more pineapple :P

Still here... & pregnant!

In case anyone has been checking here for baby related updates, Im here and pregnant!

Today I am 39 weeks pregnant. Im starting to feel like Ill be pregnant forever but surely that cant happen, right?!... right?! Things are moving along but Im sure baby girl is just extremely happy in there. She hears what goes on outside the womb on a daily basis and is not interested in being a part of the mad chaos! :)

When I was pregnant with Ava, I got spoiled, she was 10 days early! Feels practically unheard of for your first pregnancy. Gianna stayed in a while longer and baked until 5 days before my due date. This time... well, shes got 7 days to come before big brother and big sister start reallyyyyy wondering whats taking her so long. Ben asks me now multiple times a day if Im having any contractions (must be hearing everyone else ask). Hes really worried that the baby isnt going to come out of my belly until after he goes home. That would be a total bummer! The kids are always making guesses if she will have hair, look like Ava or Gianna. Most importantly they are wondering when they can spend a couple nights at Grandma and Papas! Haha!

Thats all of my update for today!

Baby #3 Update

Ok, ok, so Im doing alittle catch up!

We have a little girl and boy over here that are anxiously awaiting the arrival of their new baby sister. Ben must ask me 20 times a day how the baby is doing, if shes moving alot or if I'm getting any of those pains that will help her come out (contractions). Ava of course is only interested in a couple of things. She wants to know when baby sister is going to come out of Mama's belly so she can hold her and "Will you take a picture of us Mama, with your camera??". *melt* Gianna I am sure would be excited if she knew what was going on but when baby arrives I'm sure shes going to demand her time with the baby too. It will probably consist of trying to grab her face... in a loving way, I'm sure :P


I am now 35.5 weeks pregnant (31 days to go!!!) and baby and I are doing wonderfully. Things are very uneventful over here which is a good thing. Just busy preparing for the newest little lady to arrive in between caring for the other kiddos. The last 9ish months have gone by quick! Daddy is starting with the "Honey, I'm ready for her to be born" comments. Even though the last 9 months have gone by quick its still a really, really long time to wait for such an incredible blessing! We are not patient people by any means so this wait is really pushing our limits. :)

Your probably wondering why this baby keeps being referred to as baby #3, baby girl #3, her, she, little lady. Well, because her name still remains a surprise. This being baby #3, we decided to do something alittle bit differently. We wanted to keep her name a secret until she was born and have everyone find out after holding that sweet little thing in our/their arms. I promise her name is nothing "weird". In fact, for future babies, we will continue to keep the same secret :)

....FUTURE BABIES?!?! That seems to be peoples reactions lately. I get these comments alot, usually from complete strangers:

"This is your last baby, right?!" Uhhh, no.

"How do you feel about this being your last pregnancy?" Whattttt, who said this was the last pregnancy???

"Its too bad that you never got a brother for Ben" Its not too late - but, we would be perfectly content with all girls, too! We feel blessed regardless of the gender and have never had any of that gender disappointment.

"I feel sorry for you to have had all 3 of of your babies so close together" I don't ever have anything to say to that other than my heart breaking alittle. I have never felt so content with my family the way I do now. I honestly believe the best gift you could ever give your child is a sibling, someone to share their life with. If you saw my girls kissing yesterday, you would totally get what I mean! For the record, only because I feel the need to share this, this baby was NOT an accident, or even surprise. We have already started leaving our family in Gods hands and He made His plan very obvious to us!

When I tell people that this isn't our last baby, and that I do hope that God has a plan for adding another little member to our family someday, I see the look in their eyes. Its a scared look. Even from our closest family members, we tend to get an eye roll. As you can imagine, family planning is really high on our discussion list as a wife/husband, mother/father, but a very private one for Rick and I, okay, mostly Rick since you wont ever have him get gushy with you. Then.... a good friend of mine posted this blog, http://a-little-bit-of-us.blogspot.com/2011/06/why-we-dont-prevent-pregnancy.html and after Rick and I reading it, it spelt out our hearts desire and explained how we feel perfectly, so I'm stealing it to share with all of you!

Needless to say, we cant wait to see what God has in store for us and our family!!! <3

Happy Birthday Gianna!

Ive seemed to of really neglected this blog once again. I wont promise Ill post here often, but for those of you that still check in here is alittle update.

Our baby turned 1 on Saturday!!! I cant even believe that my 8lb 14oz "little" girl is now 1 year old. Shes growing up fast! She is now walking just as much as crawling. She has quite the personality. Loves the praises of her brother and sister. She has truly been such a blessing to our family!!!

1 year ago:

Yesterday:

I have so much more I could say but Ill just end with, it was a perfect day for a wonderful little girl! She has been such a joy in our lives since the day she was born and continues to make us smile numerous times a day :)

Pure Love

This is what makes my heart happy. Maybe you would of had to be here when this picture was taken, but the girls were laughing so hard! Ava still loves to hold Gianna but Gianna is no longer a baby *sniff* and doesn't exactly sit still for her. So, instead it gets turned into a game. The game of Ava holding on as tight as she can while Gianna so happily tries to escape her sister. The belly laughs they were giving each other were priceless. The truly love one another and am so happy they have each other.

I cannot wait to have another little girl to add to this!

Reasons Why

There are many reasons why I love being a Mom but nowadays, I think this is number 1:

"Mama, I love you veryyyyyyy much" *my heart melts*

or

"Mama, I missed you veryyyyyy much" as she wakes from her nap.

Ava is at a stage right now where when she loves, she loves. Buttt, when she hates, she hates and you better watch out!! Somedays I get overwhelmed with how high maintenance, stubborn, and independent she is. But, above all, how much she acts like...me (which explains why Daddy is able to get through to her way more than me). I'm just praying we all find a way to cope with her ever developing personality. I often feel like I am drowning when it comes to this "How to parent a 2 year old" but I have hope that we will all make it through...alive.

And then, we have this cute little 10 month old that gives me a sense of relief and lets me know that everything with be just fine and like everything else, big sister is just going through another one of those pesky phases that will hopefully be short lived.

S.P.R.I.N.G.

Ive been dying for spring to hit lately. The girls and I have had enough of being cooped up in the house all winter. A couple weeks back, we had 2 nice days followed by lots of coldness, wind, rain and even a bit of snow. The past couple of days, we have had some beautiful weather and we are hoping it sticks around longer this time. Both girls have loved getting out and enjoying the sunshine.

Ava and I enjoyed some alone time and went outside to swing. My little girl explained to me that she likes the big girl swing now and Gianna can have the baby one. *sniff* I was hoping to just have 2 baby swings :P

Today, I had to take both girls to the doctor with me for a baby check-up. Ive been lucky enough to either have a really early morning appointment and Rick would stay home with them or my Dad has came over to watch them. Ava and I talked alot about todays appointment. I promised her that if she was a good girl for this appointment that we would go to the park after. When we pulled into the park parking lot, that little girl starting kicking her legs and waving her arms, yelling "Mama, PARKKKKKKKKKKKKK!". She was so excited!

This is really the first year that Ava is big enough to do half the things at the park. Of course, this is the first thing she wanted to do. I tried helping her, but was told, "No, Mama, I do it". Again, *sniff*. Gianna didn't want to miss out on any of the fun either. She enjoyed trying very hard to climb up the slide. Silly girl!

9 months!

3 more months until my happy baby girl turns 1 year old. Does this mean I should start on the party planning and her 1 year baby book? Probably. But, in the meantime, I'm going to remember the last 9 months and how much happiness and joy she has brought to our family. Here is my crawling, adventurous 9 month old:

19lbs. 10oz.

28" long

Ava is totally loving on her sister lately. Always wanting to hold her and feed her. I am introducing you to Ava's extremely excited smile. It cracks me up every time!!:

Firsts

When I was pregnant with Gianna I had this panic feeling of, "How could I ever love another baby as much as I love Ava". If anyone ever tells you they never had that feeling, I think they would be lying. As a first time mom, you go through every thing for the first time and it embeds a special bond with a mom and first born - first time experiencing labor and delivery, first time nursing, first time giving your baby a bath, first smile, first tooth, ok.. you get the point. I can remember so vividly the first time our eyes met. The minute Ava was born, laying on my belly, our eyes met. Her big blue eyes looked straight at me like "your my mommy". I remember feeling so proud and accomplished. It was truly love at first sight.

Fast forward to 21 months later when we welcomed our second baby girl. I can honestly say, I felt the exact same love the second time around. I felt even prouder that I just brought a second beautiful baby girl into the world. I was able to give the girls a best friend forever. I think that a first born will always have that special place in your heart but by no means do I love Gianna any less because of it. She is so special to me that I have a hard time putting into words just how happy and fulfilled she makes me. Yesterday was one of those happy mama days. All my worries about Gianna not being the first for anything and me not feeling the same about those firsts all went out the window. Gianna crawled across the living room for the very first time. My heart filled with joy, happiness, excitement, and a touch of tears. My baby girl is growing up so fast. She is officially mobile! Ekkkk!

(sorry for them being the wrong way.. cant figure out how to flip it)

Ive came to the conclusion no matter how many kids I have, the firsts will always be that special! :)

Have a good weekend!

How we spend our days...

Gianna playing in the laundry basket (sister must of been busy or else she would of thrown a fit if she saw this.. apparently, the laundry basket is her babys new bed and nobody else can touch it...):

Ava being told over & over & over again to "put the cat down right now Ava Josephine" (I usually wouldn't ever take a picture of my kids doing something naughty because really that gives them the impression that its ok and they think you like it, but this particular time Daddy told her she could hold Penny):

Gianna checking out all the cool things that the ottoman is storing (this is the first time she ever really pulled herself up!):

Playing baby dolls (one of the many reasons I love my girls!). We change, play, soothe and put to sleep these babys a million times a day:

We also spend alot of time feeding our babys. Usually though, its with a pretend bottle. It must of been Ava's lucky day that she found a bottle Gianna didn't suck dry and was able to give her baby something alittle better. This baby was brought to me with Ava saying, "Oh man Mama, the baby is dirty" (Thank you Dora for teaching my daughter 'oh, man', it really is adorable!):This toy has become the #1 argument between Ava and I. She thinks this is only her toy. I hate to break it to her, but it really is Gianna's toy. We are making some good progress though in the sharing department:We also do alot of "art projects". Coloring and stickering (I'm not sure that's a word, but you get the point). This kept her busy for a l.o.n.g. time today! Which was really needed in order for me to get alittle cleaning done:
Yesterday, we even made a cake together. Baking (or just cooking in general) with her has become really fun. She loves pouring things out of the measuring cups, breaking eggs (shes really good at it, too!), and of course, she really loves eating the leftover frosting (what kind of Mom would I be if I didnt let her do this?! & lets be honest, if it wasn't her that did it, it would of been me!):

Happy Birthday Daddy!!!! (Poor guy really thought he was a year younger than he really is! I was the one who had to break the news to him on his real age!) ;) :

Jazzy

When I was 6 months pregnant with Gianna, Rick got this great idea to get a dog. Ive never been opposed to getting a dog but being 6 months pregnant, in March where there was still snow on the ground & trying to potty train an 8 week old puppy wasn't exactly my idea of fun. In fact, for months I made the joke he was trying to get me admitted into the loony bin.... a 17 month old, 6 months pregnant, and a puppy. Yikes. Needless to say, I was the one who found this farm with 9 female Golden Retrievers. We ventured out on the late afternoon of March 8th (Happy Birthday Daddy!) to *look* at the puppies. Seriously though, who could say no to that sweet little face. Surely, not a woman who was 6 months pregnant. We came home with a puppy and named her Jasmine. Ava wasn't able to say Jasmine so we nicknamed her Jazzy and haven't called her anything different since.

Moving on.... she did great adjusting until her first vet visit when I was told she had heart worms and to be careful (humans can get them, too.. ewwwwwwwwwwwwwww!) I cried. Me being the crazy pregnant woman that I am, called the pediatrician asking how I would know if my 17 month old had worms then followed by a call to the OB asking if a pregnant woman got worms what could happen. That was just the start of my downward twirl. She was treated at the vet for worms but it wasn't until Rick was out that evening that everything came crashing down. She was pooping worms all over! At first I didn't realize what it was but then as I got my rubber gloves on and paper towel ready, the poop, aka worms, were wiggling all over. O.M.G. I about died.. I didn't stop crying for a couple of days! I had to get up multiple times a night to let her out and to stand outside (IN MARCH) for her to do her business and pick it up right away due to the already mentioned worms. It was seriously awful. I had this hyper, worm pooping, chewing on everything puppy that I resented. We were this "-" close to getting rid of her.. just giving her back to the owner and not asking for a refund. I kept thinking in my head, "Everyone warned us not to do this, what were we thinking?!"

Now, a year later, I'm so glad we didn't give her back. I couldn't imagine our life.. my girls life, without this important member of our family. Sure, she still knows how to get under my skin with the occasional eating of random crayons found (btw, what is it with her loving to eat crayons?!) and the crazy amount of excitement she gives when we have visitors but this right here, is why I love her:

She puts up with my crazy 2 year old and not so nice 8 month old baby. She doesn't even mind when Gianna practically pulls her ears off and pulls each whiskers one by one. Gianna loves Jazzy licking her feet. Its actually the cutest thing to watch. Gianna puts her foot by her mouth, Jazzy licks it, Gianna quickly pulls away laughing hysterically and repeat. The other morning Ava woke up at an hour I really dislike seeing the clock say and I told her she could go quietly play until the rest of us had to get up. Not long after, Rick had to get up for work where he found Ava laying on the floor with Jazzy petting her in front of Gianna's closed bedroom door. Apparently, they were both patiently waiting for Gianna to wake!

To all those who swore adding this puppy to our family was a "really bad idea", I am proving you wrong! She loves us and we love her. I will admit the timing of getting her probably wasn't the best but really is their ever a perfect time for anything? Nahhh.

8 months!

Another month has gone by. My baby is now already 8 months old. I really think I sound like a broken record, but seriously people, these girls bring me so much joy, laughter, and love. On a daily basis I'm pretty sure that at any given moment my heart could just burst with love, even in the midst of yelling at big sister for hitting her sister in the head with a baby stroller or hoarding all the toys or for purposely jumping through the house the *moment* Gianna lays down for a nap.

Well, here it is. Gianna's 8 month picture with little giraffe. It turns out that last months picture taking was a piece of cake compared to today. By the way, this is not a "normal" smile. This is her half snorting/half smiling/half showing off her teeth.

Speaking of teeth... in the last week, Gianna has had 3 teeth pop through on the top. She is currently resembling a hillbilly (no offense to any toothless hillbillies that might be reading this) with only one of her top teeth clearly sticking out. The other two have just alittle corner saying hello for now. I must say she takes teething like the champ she is! At 3 am this morning she woke up with some discomfort and of course a bottle makes everything better.... 10 ozs. (!!!) later she was back to sleep and even slept in for me!


Gianna is sure growing up.. she is rolling, trying to crawl/scoot/catch up with sister but is having such a hard time getting her belly off the ground. She is still our very happy, content baby. She loves Cheerios.. in fact, the minute the box comes out she gets some major "happy feet" as Ava calls it. She is still so content with just sitting and playing. Its hard for me to accept that at 8 months old Gianna isn't mobile. Ava was walking at 9.5 months so having a slow mover is new but her and Ava's personalities are totally different so I shouldn't be surprised. I'm still very much enjoying the stationary baby phase. She does lunge forward from a sitting position to get her toy of choice, rolls around with it and scoots mainly backward but then she cries like a beached whale when she realizes she cant get anywhere. She loves her own voice.. she loves calling out for Mama. Mainly when shes hungry she says, "Mama" about a million times. Its really cute... but, Daddy doesnt think so :) Ava is her main source of entertainment these day. She even thinks its hilarious when Ava throws a temper tantrum, no joke, she belly laughs throughout the entire thing which makes it 100 times harder to stay stern with Ava.


I can already tell these two are going to be total opposites but best friends forever!..... They absolutely adore each other. I catch Ava all the time telling Gianna that she loves her, asking her if she wants to play, asking what toy she wants, if Ava accidently bumps Gianna, Ava kisses her and say "you okay Gianna? Im sorry". It makes me one proud Mama having these two girls that are all mine!

Im sure this little one will fit in just perfectly!.......

(p.s. I was totally secretly hoping for another girl. Rick and I couldnt be more thrilled to have another little lady around this house!)

Sneak Peak

Here is a sneak peak of our little bean... We did get a clear in between the leg shot but are waiting a couple more weeks to officially announce! :)
Looks alittle scary but baby was yawning looking right at us :).....
Baby holding its head up with its arm....

Hand? Foot? Oh, heck, they all look the same....

Waving to Mom...

Profile...

Big Girl Bath

Another step to being such a big girl. Gianna was thrilled to be able to join her sister tonight in the bath tub! She started out in her baby bath but after Daddy saw her legs practically hanging out of it and not having much room to play, he insisted that she go in with Ava. I cant even describe with words how excited she was. She kicked her legs so fast and scooted all around the bathtub to keep up with sister. She didnt take her eyes off all the cool things Ava was doing. Gianna was so excited that there were so many toys in the bath to play with and like her brother and sister, she also loved chewing on the foam letters! They both had alot of fun with each other in the tub tonight! No matter how hard we tried, neither of them would smile for the camera :)

1st Haircut

At just over 27 months old, I finally got my baby her haircut. I wont lie, I had to hold back tears. It took an entire bag of M&M's to get her to sit on Daddy's lap while Miss. Jen cut her hair. She was really "scared" as she put it but once it got started she was good to go. We officially cut off all the baby hair *sniff* Oh, & if anyone is trying to find the key to my daughters heart, its definitely M&M's. She will love you forever!

Happy 7 months baby girl!

Has it seriously already been a month since I made my last "birthday" post for Miss. Gianna?? Geesh!

Every month that goes by Gianna gets alittle more difficult to take pictures of. She cant seem to sit still for the couple of seconds that it takes for me to snap a picture. This month was definitely a challenge. It was the first time she actually wanted off the chair and wasn't going to stop trying until she accomplished her goal. This was also the first time that she noticed there was a giraffe sitting next to her, she even thought it was pretty funny. I think she mistaken the giraffe for a teething toy though!

Here is my happy, content, precious, snuggly, active, food loving, ears pierced, 2 teethed little 7 month old:

I thought Id include a couple other pics just for giggles:Determined to get ahold of my camera strap

This giraffes foot is yummy and she thinks its hilarious

Please can I get off of this chair??

The answer to the above question was, "No". So she started yelling at me. The End.

Heartbeat

Today I had my regular OB check up on the baby. Rick came home from work to stay with the girls so I didnt have to take them out in the cold and rain. Even though Daddy was home I decided I would give Ava the option of staying home with Daddy or coming with Mommy to "check on the baby". Its not very often that Ava and I get time together by ourselves. Its important to me that all our kids always get alone time with us even if its just a quick trip to the store or doctors. They love (& deserve) that one-on-one time so much!

Anyways, appointment was great! Lost a total of 5lbs so far and babys heartrate was in the 160's! Any guesses on what the gender is?? If I remember correctly, I think the girls were always in the mid-low 130's. The old wives tale would say higher heartrate, girl and lower, boy.

We are all looking forward to the "big" ultrasound!

A few months back a friend of mine introduced me to this blog, http://www.kellehampton.com/, when she sent me the link of an amazing birth story (because really, what Mom doesn't love reading birth stories??). Kelle Hampton's daughter was unexpectedly born with Down Syndrome (you can read her story here, http://www.kellehampton.com/2010/01/nella-cordelia-birth-story.html).
I cant tell you how many tears I cried while reading her birth story.. they were not all sad tears. Many of them were tears because I was able to relate on some level.
When I was pregnant with Gianna, we chose to have the NT Scan performed. We had the same test done when I was pregnant with Ava. Ill be honest, the only reason I agreed to the test was so I could have another ultrasound. At 12/13 weeks pregnant the baby looks so much like a... baby. Its really exciting to see the miracle of life at that stage, arms and legs developed, fingers forming, eyes, nose, all the baby features are starting to come to the surface, the ones you spend months daydreaming about. With Ava we got back perfect results. Which I assumed, why wouldn't we? I was only 21 years old, in all seriousness what are the chances of me having a baby with DS given my age.
When it came to Gianna's test results, I didn't give it a second thought. In fact, I didn't even call the office to see if my results were in, I wasn't worried about it. It wasn't until my next OB appointment that my doctor told me our chances for our baby having Down Syndrome were 1 in 5. I was shocked. I didn't have any idea what to think or say, so I just cried. It was an emotional couple of days of doctors calling me and wanting to know how Id like to "proceed". I always told myself that regardless of what any of these tests said Id never get an amnio. The way I looked at it is, the results wouldn't change my mind (I must say though after being told my chances like that I knew I needed to know for sure!). Just to be clear though, Id never abort my baby. Sure, a baby with Down Syndrome has never been in my plan but I do have faith that God has a much bigger plan for me than I have for myself so I have to trust in Him. Rick and I decided that we would opt for a procedure called CVS. The CVS was very similar to an Amnio yet very different and because I was still within the time frame I was more comfortable with this procedure than an Amnio. After days of crying tears of sadness, fear, nervousness, uncertainty, hurt, any feeling you can think, I probably had it at one point or another. I finally got over my pity party, went as far as looking for support groups with children that had Down Syndrome, reading about these amazing children, I was finally able to feel that if this is what God had planned for me I was totally ok with it and would feel blessed that God chose me to be a Mother to one of these children that have so much life in them and would bring so much happiness.
On Christmas Eve 2009, we got the phone call from the Genetic Counselor at University of Michigan Hospital letting us know that our baby only had 2 sets of 23 chromosomes and did not have Down Syndrome and had two X chromosomes (ITS A GIRL!).
Ok.. totally getting off track.. Nellas mom has set up a "Nella's ONEder Fund" with the National Down Syndrome Society to help raise money and awareness for the cause in honor of her little Nellas first birthday that is approaching. Please take a moment to watch the video on her latest blog post.. it truly is touching!

What I love about being pregnant....

I love....

Not having to change the kitty litter.

The select stores that have close parking spots for Expectant Mothers.

Being able to take a nap with the girls and not feeling guility for getting nothing accomplished.

Hearing the heartbeat. Thats one sound I cant help but to smile at every.single.time.

The questions I get from my 2 year old about the "baby is Mamas belly". Shes so curious this time around and insists on looking at pictures of my "big belly" when she and Gianna were in it.

The anticipation of going into labor and giving birth. I have been blessed to have 2 amazing births so far and I cannot wait to do it again!

Being kept up all hours of the night because of a baby that is playing inside my belly.

Ava rubbing my belly, looking at me and smiling and with the sweetest voice, saying "Baby in Mamas belly".

I even love all the bathroom trips I have to take day and night. It forces me to always be reminded of how blessed I am!

Always having a reason for some type of wierd late night craving and Rick always willing to go get it. Hes also never mad that by the time he gets home it, it no longer sounds good! :P


What do you love about being pregnant??

Nothing better

There are few things nowadays that dont make me want to cry. But my hormones arent to blame for this. See, from the moment we found out we were going to be expecting our second little girl back on Chirstmas Eve 2009 at just 12 weeks pregnant I had this feeling inside of me that I cant even put into words. I secretly wanted another girl (even though Rick and Ben are begging for a boy to share their woes with) and having two girls is better than I could of ever imgained. I often find myself daydreaming about them getting older and giggling in their room through the wee hours of the night, waking up in the morning to find them in one bed or both laying on the floor passed out. They will always have each other and my one hope for them is to be the best of friends and appreciate how lucky they are to have one another. I watch them play on a daily basis. Like, literally play together. Neither one of them like to share with each other, Gianna loves when Ava "reads" her books.. well actually Gianna really loves when Ava stops "reading" so she can chew on the book, there favorite thing to do together lately though is play on the activity mat together. Ava can get Gianna laughing like nobody else. Ava likes to boss her sister around. Likes to tell her all the things she can and cannot do. If Im right about Giannas personality the bossing around shouldnt be too big of an issue. Ava is the strong willed, determined stubborn big sister and even as a baby she was like this. Gianna on the other hand just loves to be loved on, smiled at, talked to and just played with.