Blakely 3 Weeks

Can you believe that 3 weeks ago I was still pregnant!  How life gets thrown at you when you have a baby!
There is no easing into it when it comes to a newborn…after the birth you are given a large hospital bill and wished the best of luck!  I would have to say, third time is a charm.  Especially only having had Tate 16 months ago, we had "baby" fresh in our minds.  For the most part we have the laundry situation down…the dishes in tact (especially helpful since we don't have bottles) and the house in general tidiness.  I think the trick to a peaceful and happy home after the 3rd kid, is to simply lower your expectations.  I'm not saying we expect less out of our kids, I'm just saying…when you lower your expectations, you accept the unexpected.  It used to take me 60-90 minutes to leave the house when I first had Riley…with Tate it got under an hour…by now, I get one kid ready at a time and pop them in the van one by one and we are flow ridin' in less than 20 minutes…holla!  If we can't find shoes…I guess we wear mis-matched shoes…if there are stains on a shirt…we turn that sucker in-side-out.  After all 95% of our outings are to Wal-Mart, so why fool ourselves by looking good?

With Riley, we were OBESESSED about getting to each physical and emotional milestone.  We read what to expect for baby's to make sure he was at or above average.  I knew exactly how many pumped ounces of milk and how many dirty diaper he had.
Last week at Blakely's 2 week appointment, the doctor asked me if she could lift her head when on her belly…I laughed embarrassedly and said "ummmm???? I don't know?"    Then he asked me if she turned her head when she hears a noise…again I laughed…"I think so…?"    Finally he asked me how many stools and wet diapers she has in a day"…okay seriously is this a test, I don't even know what day of the week it is!  All I know is, I've thrown away 2 whole garbage bags full of diapers"

So, Ryan and I just go with the flow…trying to keep in mind that somethings are out of our control and that we may not be perfect but we certainly do our best.  So as I sit here and fill up this blog space, I can't think of anything specific to say about Blakely…other than she's so pretty!  I don't know how much she weighs…I don't know how many times she poops…I don't know the last time I fed her…I don't know if she turns her head, all I know is…when she sleeps, I get shit done and when she's awake I feed her and we all LOVE HER SO MUCH!!!!!!

How Can You Resist!?

I was going through past posts and noticed this one was unpublished…from May 2010, Riley is 20 Months Old.  He is doing what he always did at our house in Monticello, looking out the windows at the birds.

A Reason to Celebrate

By now most of you have heard the great news!  Ryan accepted a new job at Polk County, as the Property Description Supervisor.  He starts August 16th and will be commuting to Downtown Des Moines, which is about a 30 minute drive from our house.  So YAY! For Ryan WAY TO GO!

Now, here at the Lafrenz house, we use any excuse to get  celebratory cake and ice cream…and a new job is certainly Cake and Ice Cream worthy!


Riley picked out a Big Bird Cake...

Meet the Browns

This weekend, Blakely met her great grandparents, Grandma and Grandpa Brown.  Ryan always tells stories about the fun he had at the Brown household as a kid and how special his grandparents are to him.  And as you can see from the pictures and video, they are two very special people!  Our boys enjoy going to their house just as much as Ryan did as a boy…what a blessing to have wonderful grand/great grandparents!

It's not normally like this!

 Every time we have visitors…our kids go nuts.  Literally running in circles! And the worst is grandparents…UGH!  We have the BEST grand and great grand parents around…maybe they are TOO good, cuz our kids always want to leave with them…hmmm?????  Last time my mom came to visit she pointed out that I said "it's not normally like this…" about 50 times and that, apparently, I say it every time she comes.  

Ryan and I have discovered in the last couple weeks that the kids act MUCH better when we go to the grandparents house…so we have a no grandparents ban in effect until further notice.

And here's why…

Yesterday, Riley was huffing and puffing around the house…

I asked him "what's the matter bud?"

"I CAN'T FIND MY BAG!!!"he responded angrily 

"Chill Out, which bag do you want?" I asked him

he responded"UGH! Never mind!"  

I thought to myself…whatever, I'm just going to let him be.

A couple minutes later I heard Riley opening the front door and yell to me:

"Bye Mom! See you later!"

I said, "Where do you think you're going!?"

 "To the cabin." He said nonchalantly 

That is when I noticed the Elmo backpack, stuffed and bursting with toys and underwear.  

I responded "no you're not going anywhere and you don't leave without asking"

Riley walked up to me and said "Mom, this is not about you…shhhhhh."

NORMALLY-and only the flies on the wall would know this-the house is quiet.  Even with a newborn in the mix now.  Occasionally, Bear barks at the innocent walking by.  But the boys stay entertained by coloring, playing in the pool or watching movies.

Riley and Tate (and their respective blankets) watching Despicable Me after swimming on a hot day.

Blakely sprawled out, enjoying the thumps of daddy's heart

Tater loves to peek at baby

Tate laughing at Blakely's hiccups!

Blakely 2 Weeks

Hi,

My name is Blakely…I am 2 weeks old today!  I weigh 7 pounds 3 ounces.  I am 19.5 inches long.   I have gained 1 pound and grown 1/2 an inch since I was discharged from the hospital.  I eat every 3-4 hours and sometimes I like to drive my mom nuts and snack!  I poop a little and then just when mommy thinks I'm done…I poop more. HA!  I like to be swaddled at night in my bassinet and during the day I sprawl out in the pack and play and somehow, I sleep during all the chaos. I sleep two 4 hour stretches at night (last night I slept 5 hours!) and I sleep 2-3 hour stretches during the day…I only have about 1 hour stretch where you can see that my eye are BLUE.   I wear newborn diapers and newborn clothes…I look best in teal, yellow and peach.  I hardly ever fuss, unless I'm cold.  I look like my brother Riley when he was a baby…but I'm skinny like my brother Tate.  Here I am in my car seat…next month I will look much bigger.

"Mama's gunna buy you a Honeybird…"

Life has been a pretty fantastic blur here lately, though I am not going to complain about being blessed with 3 kids.  In the last week I have braved a trip to Wal Mart and Target with the kids.  The Walmart trip was a little rough on me physically, but the kids were great.  Riley and Tate entertain each other and Blakely sleeps in the car seat.

I am at the point where I don't know what day it is or if I ate lunch.  The 3am feeding feels like a dream and when 6am rolls around, there's no turning back, I am out of the start blocks for the day.  At 6am I feed baby, put her down, wake up the boys at 7am, feed them,  send them off to play, clean the kitchen, 9am Tate goes down, feed Blakely, put her down, clean some more….you get the picture. 

Blakely sleeps great during the day and night, which gives me time to read tate a million books  spend with the boys.  The only thing I miss at this point is spending time with Ryan…right now we are tag-teamers amongst the children…anarchy could happen at anytime…we are out-numbered now. 

(I really have a new respect for mom's with 4!)

Physically my recovery has been easy peasy! (compared to Riley and Tate)  Which is a blessing considering I still need to pick up a 25-pounder.  I really feel ALMOST back to normal…my belly still giggles like a bowl full of jelly and I am still hanging on to some water retention…my feet are still swollen at the end of the day.  Nursing is like second nature to me by now, I got a 7 month break and didn't miss a beat.  It's actually easier with each kid….10 min. here, 10 min. there... burp and DONE!

I have mastered things like nursing and reading a book to Tate and picking up objects with my toes.  I find myself spreading-{not stretching}- my love to the new baby, the toddler and the little boy…I give kiss after hug after kiss after hug…and I can't forget about Papa Bear…oh yeah and I get a shower and put makeup on once in a while.

Riley still likes…no wait, he says he LOVES her?  He is only interested in her when her eyes are open.      He is very gentle with her and very loving with her…I'm not sure what's gotten into him.  He is still mildly abusive to Tate, so it's not a complete change.  Here is video of Riley singing Blakely some lullabies to calm her hiccups…but he just can't seem to remember the words...

More Blakely

Blakely's billirubin dropped and her weight rose…which is exactly what we wanted to happen!  We do not need to have any more blood drawn.

I keep taking pictures of this little babe…she is just so cute and it helps me stay fresh for when I start work again.

a little bit of LIFE…Blakely 1 week

It's officially been 1 week since we've had miss lady and some things have changed and some things have remained the same.

Things that have changed:
Instead of a 2 hour block to blog while Tate naps, I have 30 minutes from the time I put Tate down until Blakely needs to eat…so TYPE FAST!

Things that have changed:

-I get 1- 3 hour stretch and 1- 2 hour stretch of sleep at night…please don't add those up as a total of 5 hours…cuz it's just not the same.  I wondered why my discharge papers said no driving for the first 2 weeks…?  Well now I know why…sleep deprivation.  I basically am a walking zombie and don't remember most of my day, so I may misplace one of the children if I leave the house.

-I can bend over and sneeze again!  YAY!  you forget all the immobility when you are pregnant.

-Instead of 4-5 diapers…I change 10-12 diapers a day.  But at this point, changing diapers is like second nature, so it's no big deal.  Ryan and I both agreed we could change a diaper blind-folded.

-Riley is in the WAAAAAYYY back of the van in a booster seat and buckles himself in and out.

-We have added  "pumpkin and sweet heart and cutie pie"  to our vocab rather than just "stinker and monkey and monster"



Things that haven't changed:

Life basically is that same for the boys…which was most important to us.   Now that the grandparents are gone…things are back to normal.  My goal was to not let the new baby effect the boys more than it has to.  I try to feed Blakely around the boys, so at 6am (before they are up) then at 9am (when Tate naps) at 12:30pm (when Ryan is home for lunch) then at 3:30pm (when Tate naps)  then at 7pm when Ryan is home and then the rest are after bedtime 11pm-3am and 6am again.  Neither boy has acted like this little girl has turned their wolrd upside-down, both boys are fascinated by her and then move on to play.  Riley tells me when Blakely cries that it's time to feed Blakely from my "belly".  We do bedtime together, we eat supper together…I am rather impressed at how smoothly it all has gone.  I expect to have rough days but  Ryan and I have established our roles in the house, which makes it so much easier.

……………………………...

Like Blakely's labor and delivery…it's fairly easy and laid back.  As parents, when we dont stress about the little things, like bumper pads will KILL YOUR BABY!!!  Ryan and don't think about all the ways to not kill the baby and rather focus on enjoying her…life is much easier.  Blakely already would sleep for 5 hour stretches (I know this because I didn't hear my alarm in the middle of the night)  yes I wake her for feedings…because of the jaundice and to establish that good ole supply and demand.  I would assume, like the boys, she will sleep through the night by 5 or 6 weeks.  She rarely fusses, sleeps on her side in a swaddle sleep sac, like to stretch out to poop, hates being cold, is too small for newborn clothes, smiles a lot, sleep a lot, nurses fantastic and all around is a great baby.  We are currently battling jaundice; she left the hospital at 11, 1 day later it was 11.2 and then yesterday it was up to 13.  So we get blood taken again today.  She still has her dark hair and I love to watch all her facial expressions.   She is so petite and cute…we just LOVE her.

Sleeps so well amongst the noise of the house

7/14

 so tiny in daddy's hands

7/16

I guess even Bear needs to have some fun…she loves the bubble machine!

Outdoor fun on a hot morning

7/17

Full Tummy After Eating

7/17

7/17

Video of the boys first meeting Blakley

7/11

Here's Your Blakely Fix...

Blakely Collins Lafrenz

We're home!  We were discharged this morning and we are glad to be home.  Here's a story board of pictures from our little hospital visit.


Sweating and Nauseous from the HORRIBLE IV DRAMA!  Ice pack to help with the pain from the anti-biotics

Our room…props to the hubs for seeking out a better birthing option

Working that baby down the old fashion way…walking, I am immune to pitocin

Ryan giving me the epidural pep talk...

The Chair and Couch Drama…the nurses felt bad that Ryan was going to have to sleep in the itty bitty recliner…

so they brought him a couch :)

Ice Chip Please...

Before the epidural, I was in quite a bit of pain.  

After the Epidural the pain subsided for a while and then I felt lots of pressure.

Within an hour I went from 6cm-10cm, the nurses told me not to push because the doctor was at the downtown location and it would take her 25 minutes to get to me.  Normally they would have had me do some practice pushes, but because Tate came out so quickly they told me to HOLD HER IN!

It was painful, but I managed to hold her in until Doc got there.  Doc told me "next contraction, I want you to push as hard as you can…"  So I laid there…in the spot light…everyone looking at me, waiting for this amazing contraction.  It seemed like forever………."okay" I said  "here it comes…."  And I pushed as hard  as I could.  "OK STOP PUSHING!!!" said the doc.  That one push crowned the head and everyone got in place to "catch the baby"  Push # 2 was the head and Push #3 was shoulders and body.  And Then all there was was crying.  Beatuiful Blakely was taking in her first breath of air.  She was blue until Ryan leaned over and said "Hi baby!" and her cheeks blushed and she had color.  

Blakely

6lbs. 12 oz

19 inches long

7:42pm

She has DARK hair and it's thick in the back!

***Tater giving hugs***

 Riley JUST LOVES HER!!!!

Ryan Sleeping 

The snoring grizzly the other patients heard

Flowers from Ry...

What a great way to start the week…now the question is: How do we survive bringing her home?