My boy

I feel it isn't fair to blog after a few months and only complain. Most of you have already seen this picture on facebook, but look at my adorable kid. No one told him to pose like this. He did it all on his own. Love him!

My soapbox

I have some things I want to get off my chest. Here goes: When you are buying a house, be respectful of the people whose houses you are looking at. Do not spend an hour at their house doing who knows what. My house is not your playplace. Pick up after your child when you leave. It may be called a playroom but that does not mean it doesn't need to be clean. It is my house, I have things to do there. If you and your realtor need to talk, do it at his office. NOT MY HOUSE.
I am guilty of this one, but when you schedule an appointment to see a house, realize what you are asking of these people. Many have children and 15 minutes of your day to look at their house costs them at least 2 hours of stress and/or preparation. Do not go to look at a house just cuz you can. Be serious about it. And be on time if you can. If you can't, text or call. Yes, we are glad that you are interested in your house, but that doesn't mean you should be a jerk about it.

On a second note, you may have guesssed from the above post, but our house is for sale. We have a starter home and are not the first in the neighborhood to sell recently. All of the others were successful for sale by owner within a month. So we went that route. 7 weeks later, we decided to go with a realtor. Can I tell you when people come to look at my house and can't even say anything nice about it, it hurts? Our house is fairly plain. We don't have the right color paint or carpet or fancy furniture. For a while there we didn't have the money to do those things. Now that we do, there are so many other things that I would like to spend my money on. My house works just fine the way it is. And most days I don't get too depressed when I see how cute my neighbors' houses are. But when I have 8 people come to the house and not one of them likes it enough to even talk to us about buying it (or want to buy it, but change everything about it) it hurts my feelings. It just does. What is so wrong with my house that no one wants it? I've never been the most fashionable or put together person and most days it is not a big deal. But, when for 7 weeks I have people come and they won't even consider buying my house, it wears on me. Yes, that probably means I have low self esteem. But this is my house and it is where my children are safe and happy and loved, and it's sad that no one likes it. So that's what we've been up to lately and I HATE HATE HATE having to nag my kids 24/7 for 8 weeks to keep the house clean. I'm so done. Somebody remind me that this is for my good and this too shall pass......

Life since baby

I gotta tell you, 4 has been my hardest. It's not that she's a bad baby or that my kids have become awful kids. There's just not enough time in the day to do all the things I need to do to be a good mom. I just have oodles of mommy guilt. The guilt then leads to stress, which leads to me being not as nice as I should be, which leads to more guilt. It's a vicious cycle. That being said, oh is she a joy. She is so happy. I always get comments about how smiley she is. Ok, baby up so just gonna post!

Ok, so I might be a bit behind on my blogging. Ben had a birthday. In January. He is now 4. My how I love this kid. He is the sweetest boy. He is so kind to the baby and just gives her loves and makes her laugh and will run as fast as he can to find her pacifier. He is very emotional and gets the most excited for anything we do. He also loves candy so he's really easy to make happy. For his birthday he got a spiderman cupcake cake. Can I tell you that's the way to go? It's more frosting and less cake, just the way my family likes it. Sadly, my family isn't so fond of many things I like to bake. And not cuz they're gross (I hope) but cuz they're like my husband and they don't like flaky pastries or cakes or muffins. Anyway, the more frosting the better. For his birthday they went to the local jumphouse.




My husband has been quite the champ since Genevieve was born. Having a winter baby has its' perks and drawbacks. Being stuck at home for four months is one of the latter.

On a side note, I am having a hard time typing on something other than my phone. Blogger doesn't automatically capitalize for me, or add periods at the end of sentences or add in apostrophes as needed. I have become spoiled!

The birth story

I was supposed to be induced on Friday but I changed my mind and moved the induction day back, hoping that somehow I'd go into labor on my own. But after my appt on Thursday and being told I'd only progressed not even a full centimeter in two weeks, I started to freak out that my baby would be born too close to Christmas. I tried to move the induction date to the 21st, but they were full. The nurse was very kind and gave me ideas on how to induce labor on your own. Then she called back and said the midwife would be willing to strip my membranes if I came in right then. I rushed right in, only to wait at the office for 45 minutes. When she checked me I was 4+. The stripping didn't hurt at all and the cramping started soon thereafter. I laid down to rest with Anna, and the cramps weren't doing much. By three, they were coming every 3 minutes, but not at all painful. Doug got pulled away from seeing the movie he was so excited for at the last minute. We headed down to the hospital where I was sure we were going to get turned away and sent home because they contractions were no longer 3 minutes apart. When she checked me around 4:30 I was at a 5+. Can I tell you how much I hate the + they have decided to add to my measurements all the time? They started me on the antibiotics. Then, when they were done Doug and I started walking the halls. The contractions were very manageable which would have been great if I hadn't been expecting another Anna labor. When they checked me around 6:30, I was 6cm. Which I had been hours ago. I started to get impatient...But as long as I walked during the contractions and didn't have anyone talking to me, the contractions almost didn't even hurt. The midwife came back and talked me into breaking my waters after the second dose of antibiotics. Well, actually, she said she'd do it 15 minutes before but she lied. She told me that to try and get me to keep going. By that time I'd been walking the halls for 4 hours and I almost asked for an epidural because I was tired of walking. But if I sat down the contractions were worse. Anyway, I got the second dose of antibiotics and she checked me. I was at an 8. At 9pm she broke my water.Two contractions later I was feeling pushy and found to be 9 1/2 cm with an anterior lip. So I pushed through the lip and I think I pushed 6 times and she was there. She was as big as we were expecting. She was mad for a while, though I can't imagine being out was very nice. The kids love her and my MIL has helped me be able to spend some wonderful one on one time with her. I love her sleeping with the eyes open that all my kids have done. I love their hands, how they have no control over them and seem to be amazed when they move. I love the noises that they make when they realize they're finally getting food. I love how they smell and I love how small she is.

Genevieve

Born December 17th at 9:17 pm weighing 8lbs 5 oz, 20 1/2 inches.

Sick

Two of my kids have come down with the stomach flu so turns out it's a good thing I'm not getting induced tomorrow