First Week of Life

The first week home was fun filled with our trip back to the hospital for my crazy blood pressure. Other than that of course we really enjoyed some time as a family of five. Daddy was off work all week which was awesome. The twins go back and forth on liking and not liking their baby brother. He is really a good baby so far. He sleeps a lot, we forgot how much newborns sleep.

First bath at home. He pretty much hated it. He was much happier when he got cuddled up in his big fluffy towel.

We took lots of picture of the first bath but only one was super cute, in all the others he was crying. He was happier when I washed his hair and held him up off of the wet blanket under him. As soon as his umbilical cord falls off he will get real baths and I am sure that he will like that much better.

One of the first days home, I was very sore still from the c-section, so I was in bed a lot away from the hyper twins that like to jump all over everyone. I missed them a great deal since our hospital stay was the first time that I had been away from them for more than a shift at work. Calla, the calm one, came to see me in bed. To keep her from crawling all over me I gave her the forbidden things that she loves. She played with the remote, my phone, and the baby monitor. She sticks her tongue out when she is concentrating on something. She had that tongue way out trying to figure out what all those buttons do. Its funny how I always thought she was so little, but since Cedar came home, she seems so big. It kind of makes me sad!

Day one, Carter wants to touch his new brother immediately. His touch is not very soft so we are working on soft and gentle. It is getting better. Calla appreciates it too I am sure. Carter is all boy and can be a little rough at times.

Calla meeting Cedar for the first time. She was in awe, not sure what to think. She kept looking at him and then looking at us. She likes to touch him. Either she goes for his eyes, since that is one of the body parts she knows, or she goes for his paci. (And for anyone who notices, it did not occur to me that there are trees on that receiving blanket, and even so, they are not cedar trees) Thanks mom and Aunt Shelley for pointing that out!

Birthday Continued

I am sure that there is a way to get this picture not to be sideways but who has time to figure it out. :-) These are a few more pics from Cedar's birthday. He stayed in the room with us at the hospital the whole time. He got a bonus trip back to the hospital when I went due to the fact that I am breast feeding. So he has had his fill of the hospital, as have the rest of us. It was so great to actually have the baby in the room with us after he was born. I loved that we got that experience with him.

Aunt Shelley came to meet him the evening that he was born. He just slept right through his visitors. It was a busy day for him, being born and all.
Daddy holding his sweet baby boy on his birthday. I think they like each other! :-) Sweet!

And mommy (me) holding our sweet baby for the first time. I couldn't believe how different this experience was than with the twins. It is nice to see what things are supposed to be like. I loved him right away and didn't want to give him to anyone else to hold. I was surprised that he was so little and had so much hair. I was also glad that unlike a dream I had, he was super cute!

Feb 19, 2010

Feb 19th, 2010. Cedar Brett came into this world and into our hearts! He is so sweet and we are so blessed to have him. Carter and Calla have decided that they love him, sometimes too much. After struggling the first week with post-partum preeclampsia (worse than with the twins, maybe), and a second admission to the hospital for the crazy scary high blood pressure, things are starting to look up slowly but surely. Cedar has been great. He was born at 6lb 14oz and went back down to 6lb 8oz before discharge at the hospital, then down to 6lb 5oz at the Dr on Tues last week. With all the stress of the preeclampsia, breast feeding was not going as planned. All is better now in that regard and he had already gotten back up to his birth wt by the end of his first week. Here are a few of his birthday pics.

Already wrapped around daddys finger!

Almost a smile, I think he was happy they were done shoving things up his nose and down his throat. No wonder they scream so much!

Cedar's Room

OK, so I am going to back track a little. We were complete and total slackers when it came to getting Cedars room ready for him. We were still putting the final touches on it the week he was born. So here are a few pics. The green worked out much better than I though it would and I really like his room now. I can only imagine that green will not be his favorite color one day after living with so much of it from the start. He can pick the next color.

Yes of course those are empty picture frames, I will fill them when I get time. :-)

The E and the A have little monkeys on them, not as cute as I pictured it because of the light color but its growing on me.

Cedar Brett Bowling

He is here! Cedar Brett Bowling, 6lb 14 oz, and perfect! About 2 to 3 weeks ago my blood pressure started to rise. We kept a close eye on it due to the fact that I had preeclampsia with the twin pregnancy and got very sick very quick. This time it was a slow but steady rise but no preeclampsia, just pregnancy induced hypertension. Due to this my Dr decided bed rest and then to deliver a week early. So on Friday we had a scheduled c-section, which was sooooo much better than the last one. The spinal block worked and worked well! I did not feel anything and I also did not puke the entire time. Jamey got to sit by my head and hold my hand and it was all just so perfect. He cried like a real full term (or close) baby should cry and it was amazing. I got to see him right after he was born. He was back in our room 2 hours later, at the most, and it was great. It is amazing that I have two children and this was as if it were the first time. Sat was not as great due to my blood pressure still being a huge problem, they had to put me on my least favorite medication, mag sulfate. I will say that it is not near as bad post partum, the dose is lower so the side effects aren't as bad. We are at home now, blood pressure is still an issue and I feel very sick a lot of the time. Cedar is amazing and doing very well! If you are reading this and want to visit us, please call first to see how things are going, it has been a challenge so far. It appears as though bringing home a new baby brother and Mommy that cant hold you is like taking all the good out of the world to 13 month olds. They are a little better today and having fun with daddy. Cedar and I are staying out of sight, out of mind. We all just need a little adjustment and healing. Will get more pics up as soon as feeling better. He has already changed so much since this picture was taken on his birthday. Thanks to all for the prayers and well wishes! We are blessed in so many ways!

Feb 7th, 2010 Baby Dedication

Feb 7Th was a special day for our family. Carter and Calla were dedicated at church. My family was with us, but due to timing of it all the Bowling were unable to make it, which we completely understand. Here is the link to the video of the event so it will be as if you all were there! (It was too long for the blog to download) Carter was clearly bored with the whole thing. He tugs at Calla's dress and then kicks off his shoe and neither one of them could stay still during the long prayer. They gave us this great book of character traits for us to pray for our children to have. We got to share this special day with our friends Eric and Michelle and their daughter Hannah, so it was even more special! It is very important to us to raise our kids in a christian home and that they grow up with as strong of faith as we have. (Please ignore how enormous I look, pretty pregnant that is for sure!)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b-J172kFFvQ Someone let me know if this link doesn't work.

More cute pics

Holly gave calla this little ballerina outfit for her birthday. She had yet to wear it so we finally put it on and she loved it. She walks on her toes a lot anyway, but the tutu made it so cute!

Blu dog loves the kids. She lays her head on the ottoman like this and waits for them to come and pet her. She is really good with them. Tusk on the other hand we wont talk about, at least we have one kid friendly doggie!

Jan 24th, 2010 Cedar's Shower

I am blessed to have such good friends! It is not often that people have friends in their lives for as long as I have and I am so happy for that. Holly and Jenny threw a baby shower for Cedar and all of my closest friends came. It was so nice! The food was amazing, all sweets, who could ask for better. The gifts were great and all will be used often when our newest family member arrives! Thanks again girls, we love you!

January Random Pics

Carter had to get a big boy car seat way back in July due to his hefty weight. Calla at one year is just now big enough to get her big girl car seat. Daddy was fitting it to her and she really likes it!
Carter gets his first hair cut. He did really well to my surprise. He really liked the shaver, he giggled the whole time she was shaving his neck. We now realize that this should have been done much earlier than it was, but believe it or not it was daddy who was not ready to admit that our little baby boy was growing up and getting shaggy! He now looks like a little boy and not a baby, too cute! (and a little sad at the same time)

Cedar's room was being painted, it took us forever due to our lack of free time. I really did not want it to be so bright but once we got started didn't really want to start over. So bright green it is!

We had Michelle, Eric, and Hannah over for dinner one night and the kids had a great time playing. Of course I never get the cute things on camera but they played really well together. We are so lucky to have such good friends as neighbors right across the street. Our kids will get to grow up together and play often. They are off to a good start.

Our sweet little one year olds! It is SOOOOOO hard to get these pics these days with both of them looking AT the camera AND smiling! Almost impossible!

Carter and Calla's First Birthday!

Carter and Calla had an amazing first birthday! We had a party at our house (cant say we will do that again) and invited all of their friends. The Bowling family were still here from Christmas which was nice that they all got to take part in the celebration. Our house was filled with all the people we love and it was such an amazing day. The babies did great, they roamed from person to person and got more attention than they have ever had. The gifts were all amazing, thanks so much to everyone who helped make the day great! We will always remember it. We still cant believe that it has been a whole year since we were blessed with them into our lives and cant imagine our lives without them! Thanks to all of you who love them too!

This was their first true taste of pure sugar and they were little energizer bunnies for the rest of the afternoon and when nap time came, they crashed hard. Carter did not like the chocolate cake but liked the white enough that it even ended up in his ear somehow. They did have to take a small break from the party to take a quick bath after this sugar feast.

Carter and his grand mommy. Yes now looking back I realize that he REALLY needed his first haircut BEFORE this day!

Calla and her daddy at the birthday party.

A New Friend

Jenny and Blake came to visit one day. I was very interested to see how the babies would act, since they have a new baby brother on the way. Carter was very interested and wanted to touch him. Calla enjoyed just looking at him. They seemed to really like their new friend and we were glad to see them.

Christmas Day 2009

The good dog (Blu) and the bad dog (Tusk) enjoying their Christmas bones. They enjoyed all of the extra people around the house I am sure. They got a few extra scraps of food and lots of Christmas treats. All of the new baby toys keep them on their toes too. Carter and Calla enjoy sharing their toys with the dogs. It is unfortunate that the dogs don't play with them as gently as the babies do, there have been many casualties. :-( I am not sure how to explain to the dogs what they can and cant chew on, any advise???

It was so fun to wake up to a white Christmas. So since it was their first Christmas and it was snowy we HAD to take the babies outside. It took forever to get them all bundled up and our trip outside lasted only a few minutes. They have now experienced snow. Calla just looked around and touched it with her hand. Carter (below) thought it was the greatest thing in the world until a little snow got under his shirt and then this is the response he gave us. This ended out snow adventure.

I decided sometime around Christmas that Calla looks a bit like a who from the Grinch movie. This picture shows this even more. :-) Of course we think she would be the cutest who in the world!

It was amazing to us how long they actually would leave these antlers on. Calla acted as if they weren't even there. Carter was a little more interested.

We all enjoyed our time that we got to spend with the Bowling family at our Christmas number two. We all had a great time, great food, and enjoyed each others company!

In between Christmas #1 and #2

Carter and Calla both took their first steps in December. Carter first and then Calla a few weeks later. Calla took a bit longer to get the hang of it but now they both are almost running. We still have a lot of tumbles but they love to be on the go! Of course every time I tried to get it on the video camera they would sit down and crawl. After Christmas our house was filled with new toys and new noises to get used to for mommy and daddy. It is unbelievable to me how many noises can come from a single toy. And the battery makers must make a fortune!

Carter through their new barn door toy. He loves to play peek a boo with whoever is on the other side.

An oldie but a goodie! I think every kid should play with an empty wrapping paper tube at least once in their life! They loved it and got very upset any time one of the uncles tried to take them away!

This is what happens when the wet wipes are left in reach of children with no supervision. I left the room to do laundry or some other fun task and returned to find the wipes being eaten. No one got sick so all is well. It of course hasn't been the last time either. :-)

Sweet Calla and her horsey.

Now, here we are with yet another animal butt in Carters mouth. Do I sense a pattern???