CareBear is four weeks old!

Caroline, I can't believe you are already 4 weeks old. Time is going by much too fast. Before I forget, I wanted to write your birth story down. A couple of things for you to remember. First, two weeks before you were born Mommy thought she was in labor. I was not. I had to do the walk of shame out of Northside and tell everyone that even though you were my third baby, I could not distinguish between real and false labor. Daddy flew down to Orlando on October 20th (Mommy was 37 weeks pregnant) and was scheduled to fly down again on October 27th. He needed to be down there for a huge project. Here we go........

On Friday October 24th Nate calls home to tell me he has to fly to Orlando on Monday again. When he went on the previous Monday I knew that we would be fine and I encouraged him to go. This time I wasn't so sure. On Saturday we had a fun day hanging out with friends watching football. My contractions really started to pick up and get painful on Saturday night, so I went to bed early in the hopes they would either break my water or go away. I woke up Sunday feeling pretty bad, but I tried to ignore it. We went to Target to get snack for Ben's class for the week (he was Star Student) and then came home and I went straight to bed. Around 4 o'clock I looked in my "What to Expect When You are Expecting" book and realized I had every symptom of the first stage of labor. I knew how important this trip was to Nate so I attempted to downplay everything. I couldn't eat dinner because I felt so naseous. I went to bed early but was up every hour or so with contractions. Around 4 am I woke up to go to the bathroom and then laid down. I knew Nate had to be up at 5 so after what I thought was an hour, I woke him up and asked him to rub my back before his alarm went off. He asked about my contractions and I told him I woke up at 4 and probably have had 7 in the last hour. He looked at the clock and said "Lis it is not even 4:30 yet, if you have already had 7 then they are coming every 4 minutes." I was still embarassed from the false alarm from two weeks ago and I really wanted him to be able to get to Orlando so I told Nate I was fine. He didn't believe me and told me to not look at the clock, just text him everytime I had a contraction. He got in the shower and my contractions continued to be four minutes apart. I still thought that I could hold out until he got back that night. Nate disagreed and told me to call the doctor. Dr. Urlich was on call and called me back promptly. Here is how our conversation went:
Dr.: So you think you are in labor? What is going on?
Me: Well I am having some contrac *pause because I can't talk through the contraction* some contractions.
Dr: How close together are they?
Me: Well about every four minutes.
Dr.: Have you dialated at all?
Me: I was 3 cm dialated at my appointment on Thursday.
Dr.: Is this your first child?
Me: Um, no it's my third.
Dr: Um, yeah I need you to get to Northside as soon as possible.
Me: Ok, I need to get my kids ready and we should be there in two hours.
Dr.: Mrs. Sanders you are in active labor, you need to get here as soon as possible.
Me: Gotcha. We will leave ASAP.
As soon as I hung up, I called Bonnie to come and watch the kids. She had a smartaleck comment along the lines of "Are you sure this time Sanders?". Nate and I headed to Northside. We told no one. I wanted to make sure this was the real deal. We got to Northside right before shift change, around 6:30. They hooked me up to the monitors and started to fill out the paperwork. I was having a particularly painful contraction and had my eyes shut when all of the sudden I hear what I think is singing. I opened one eye and looked at Nate and asked, "Is she singing to me?" She was not. She was just reading the list of belongings I brought to the hospital. Everyone got a good laugh at that. She checked me and I was 5 cm dialated and my contractions were every four minutes lasting a minute. She went to call Ginny and when she came back she said I could get the epidural and Ginny was on her way in to break my water. YEAH! I called my parents, emailed the neighbors, texted friends, and changed my facebook status. My blackberry was fantastic to have during labor. I was able to update everyone at the same time and it really took my mind off the contractions. The epi guy was fantastic. He had a great bedside mannor and made me laugh which was not an easy task. However the epi didn't work. It took forever to take and when it did I still had a hot spot. He was very apologetic and offered to take it out and redo it, but since I was already at 8 cm I opted to just wait it out. It was tough, but luckily things were progressing quickly. Nate kept looking at the monitor and said that there was no break between contractions anymore. I politely informed him that I was aware of that. Since they had maxed out my epidural I could not feel my legs at all. When it was time to push, there was nothing I could do since I could not feel a darn thing from the waist down. Luckily she had a small head and my contractions were strong enough to kind of just push her out on her own. She was born at 11:39 am. She entered the world sunny side up looking at me which was amazing. She came out so alert with her eyes wide open. The first thing I said was, "She's so tiny". I was honestly expecting at least a 9 pound baby based on how big Jack and Ben were. My midwife also pointed out that she did not look to be 12 pounds like I had predicted in her office on Thursday. She ended up being 7 pounds 12 ounces. She scored 9 and 9 on her APGARs and nursed for 30 minutes after her bath.

And that is the story of your birth Caroline. You are such a wonderful baby. You sleep from 10:30 until 4 already. You love to snuggle with Mommy and Daddy. You still sleep with us at night, but you are getting really good at taking naps in your room. Your favorite toy is the mobile. Your brothers think you are the coolest and are so happy that you are more alert during the day. For only being 4 weeks old, you have already seen so much. You have been to football games, a Georgia Florida party, trick or treating, the park, Gymboree, Kroger, birthday party, and a Thanksgiving feast at preschool! We love you!

Updates from this week

We have been super busy around here, but I wanted to post some funny happenings before I forget!
*Ben and I were in the car and he was telling me about the planets. He was describing how the green planet was the closest to God. (Not sure which planet he was refering to or where he got his information but I was going with it)Then he busts out, "So we have to take care of the green planet and God or else we are going to have to deal with the Holy Spirit" I almost drove off the road.

* Jack lost a tooth and his lame-o parents forgot the tooth fairy. Nightmare. As you all know, I am going to be absolutely devastated the day my kids stop believing in tooth fairy, Santa, Easter Bunny, etc... So I enlisted the help of my awesome neighbors. Jackie put together a very authentic news story and emailed it to me. Also my neighbor Michelle passed along a power point presentation from the tooth fairy apologizing for not getting to all of the houses last night. Fingers crossed he bought it.

* Knock on wood, Caroline has been sleeping awesome this week. I nurse her around 8 or 9 and then Nate gives her a formula bottle before he goes to bed and she sleeps until about 4. This also means that she is awake more during the day, which the boys love.

* So far she is a really good baby. She hardly ever fusses, so when she does Ben gets very concerned. The other night Nate was giving her a bath and she started to cry. Ben got out of the tub and said, "Mommy come get Caroline, she is fussy." Then he looks at Nate and says, "Maybe she doesn't like you?".

* Jack's football season ended last weekend, so this is the first week since July that we have had family dinner every night. Nate and I have loved it. The kids however are ready to go back to mac'n'cheese and spaghetti-os.

* We went for ice cream afterschool yesterday because the boys both brought home AWESOME progress reports this week.

* Apparently the playmats are becoming popular with older brothers these days. (See the Harrison Family blog). This is how I found Ben the other morning:


* Bath time has been an adventure recently! But the end result is so worth it:

Ben's Pirate Birthday Bash!

Ben had a great two day birthday celebration. He woke up bright and early on November 13th(his actual birthday). Since Mommy and Caroline were already up, we let Ben open one of his presents from Grams and Rab. He got a Spiderman scooter and was so excited. Ben has preschool on Thursdays, so Caroline and I brought cake and celebrated with his friends at school. His class is hilarious and full of personality. There is one girl Grace who Ben talks about all of the time. As we were leaving she said, "Ben you are my best friend. Come here and let me give you your birthday hug." It was too cute. Grandma and Grandpa came up for dinner and more cake. Friday morning started early with Ben in our room before 6. He was ready for his party! We had the party at Pirates Cove and the kids had a blast. It is similar to Monkey Joe's, but in addition to inflatables it has a ginormous pirate ship in the middle of the room and a huge sandbox. Ben told me it was the "most awesomest place he has ever seen!"

Happy Birthday Bens!

Four years ago you entered the world wailing! I still remember lying in the hospital and the nurse bringing you to me in the middle of the night because you wouldn't stop crying. As soon as I held you, you immediately stopped and just stared at me. The nurse told me that I had " a baby who needs his Mommy". You are the most strong willed child who has a heart of gold. You make me laugh everyday. I love you bunches! Happy Fourth Birthday!
(Pictures will follow tomorrow after his party)

Jack's first book report

Jack has to turn in hs first ever book report this week. Since it will be my first week alone with the kids during the day, I wanted to finish the report this weekend. In the directions it mentions several times how important it is for the children to complete the project independently with as little help as possible from the parents. You had three different choices of projects and you could pick your own book. The goal of the project is to teach the kids about settings of stories. Jack wanted to do a diorama on the setting of The Cat in the Hat Comes Back. My Mom and I both tried to steer him in different directions, but he really had his heart set on that book. So we sat down to put the project together today and I was so amazed at how well he did. He wanted to use cotton balls for the snow and then he drew the characters. He came up with the idea to use q-tips to prop the characters in the snow. As you can tell from the picture, he is very proud of his work!

"Don't leave me with the babies!"

Happy due date Caroline! We are so glad you made your appearance early. (knock on wood)She is the best baby. She slept last night from 10 to 1, got up to eat, and then went right back to bed and slept until 6. We are really hoping that was not a fluke. (knock on wood). I don't know if it is a gender thing or if the boys were just similar, but things are different with her. She truly is a little bean. She lost a pound from her birth weight to her 48 hour check, so we had to go back to the doctor on Monday. She gained 3 ounces so we are moving in the right direction, but we still have to go back in a couple of days to see if she has gotten back up to her birth weight. Since she is so alert and laid back, the doctor just thinks she is going to be petite. For those of you who remember Jack and Ben as babies, petite would not be a word you would use to describe them . :)


My Mom was here all this week which was absolutely heavenly. She did laundry, made dinner, played basketball with the kids, and the list goes on. I was able to run some errands and get things ready for Ben's birthday party next week which was great. We are going to miss her so much! Thankfully she is only an hour away.

Trick or Treat 2008

I am so glad I was able to be home for Halloween. When we set my induction date, that was my biggest concern that I would miss seeing the boys all dressed up. This year our theme was "Old School Halloween". Jack was a skeleton, Ben was a bat and Caroline was a pumpkin (under all of her blankets :)). We ate dinner with the cul-de-sac crew and then the kids were off. If you notice in the pictures, we had to explain to Ben that even though it is faster, it is not nice to cut through people's yards. Jack had really talked Halloween up to Ben this year so it was difficult to get a picture of them looking at the camera. Please excuse the bags under my eyes. ;)

Ben's Halloween Party

Nate took off work last week and his Mom was in town as well, so I got to go to Ben's Halloween Party at his preschool. He has done great with Caroline, but you could tell it made his whole day to have me to himself for an hour. Nate and his Mom dropped me off at the party and then ran up the street to grab some lunch for us. His class is adorable and the room moms did a great job with the party. Ben was a bat for Halloween this year.