Merry Christmas!

I know my post is a little late, but I have been a busy girl this holiday season. In addition to having a newborn to care for, we had all our family in town! It was great fun and we really had a great Christmas. A couple days before Christmas Ian's parents and Grandma Bowles arrived. The next day the boys (except Dav) went to a BYU basketball game. Weston was so excited. He made signs and waved pom poms. Plus, the cougs won, so that's always fun!
On Christmas Eve I actually ended up at the mall. Yikes! I wasn't really shopping though so it was ok. Denny and I got pedicures. Talia snoozed the whole time, so that was nice of her. When we got home we started cooking our traditional chicken scampi dinner. Ian and Papa took the boys swimming while we cooked and made it back just in time to eat. It was delicious, of course.

After dinner the kids opened their Christmas Eve jammies. Davin was super excited to have matching 2 piece jammies like his big brother. Talia didn't get matching jammies, but hers were new too. :)
Ian's parents called it a night pretty early since they were going to come over at 7am to be there for presents in the morning. Ian and I had fun finishing up the wrapping and setting out Christmas while we watched It's A Wonderful Life. Cliche, I know, but it was lovely. I love going to bed with everything all ready for the morning.
Both of the boys woke up and knocked on their door to come out (yes, we locked them in so we could be up when they went in and saw the presents) at 4am. I told them it was the middle of the night and they needed to go back to sleep. They settled back in and didn't wake up again until 7:45. That worked out pretty well since grandparents were already here and Ian and I were up. Talia slept in until we were done opening presents, which was also convenient. Christmas was just magical for the boys this year.

They got all the things they asked for and some fun things that the didn't. Weston is a huge fan of his new double sided lightsaber. I am grateful that it can be turned off and that it can split into two lightsabers so both boys can play. Davin loves his Toy Story 3 racers and his big Woody doll. The boys are wearing their matching Superman shirts again today, so I think they are a hit too.

I got a fancy new red microwave! I know that sounds kind of lame, but I love it! Ian picked it out somehow knowing how much I wanted a new one (we've obviously been married for awhile) and I was completely surprised. I also got the gift of shopping, but Ian folded all the bills into fun clothes shapes like shirts, boots (very impressive), and a gift box that slid open and had a dollar bill ring inside. My husband is the best!
Talia didn't care much about her presents, but she got a sweet doll from my parents and some baby stuff (burp cloths, binkis, and headbands) in her stocking. I was more excited about it than she was. :) She sure was adorable in her baby's first Christmas outfit though.
We played with toys all afternoon and started cooking. My parents and sister, Jules flew in just in time for Christmas dinner, so we had a full table for dinner. It was really yummy. I did a ham, cheesy potatoes, and grated baked carrots. Mmm. Denny made pumpkin pies and real whipped cream for dessert. After dinner we opened more presents, which was great because while I was feeding Talia in the afternoon Davin came in and said "Open more presents Mom?" I told him we would open more later when Grandma B and Grandpa Bob got there.
My dad and Auntie Jules got to meet Talia for the first time.

I am so glad we were able to have all our family come to us for Christmas. It made it just so special. The boys loved having lots of people to play with, and I loved having lots of people to help me with the big ham dinner and the dishes! Just kidding, sort of. I hope you all had a very Merry Christmas with family!

Home Alone

Well, not really alone, but by myself with 3 kids. Yikes! I had a test run yesterday morning, but today I am on my own all day. So far, so good. I haven't attempted to leave the house though. Lucky for me Talia is proving to be a champion sleeper! I have only been up with her once each night since Friday night. The secret sleeping weapon is that I let her sleep in the boppy. I know the tag says "not for sleeping," but she likes being all cuddled and propped up. Last night I fed her at 9:30pm and put her in her crib in the boppy. She slept until I woke her up to eat at 3am. She then settled right back down in the boppy in the crib and slept until I woke her up again at 8:30am. I wonder how long she would sleep if I didn't wake her up. She also took a 2 hour nap this morning in her crib in the boppy. Sheesh. I wish I could sleep like that.

Anyway, that is pretty much saving my life right now. Davin is reacting to having a new baby in the house by being the biggest 2 year old whiner on the planet. His only response to me these days is "no." It doesn't matter what I ask him to do the answer is always "no." He has been spending a lot of time in the corner in the kitchen (where he does time-outs). I have been trying to play with him and snuggle with him to watch movies when Talia is sleeping.

Weston seems to be adjusting to a new sibling just fine. He still loves to hold Talia. He likes to sit in the glider with the boppy in his lap and just hold and rock her for 15-20 minutes at a time. That is also pretty helpful because when she is awake she likes being held.

We are getting all set for Christmas and company here. I planned out the week's meals this morning. I need to do some grocery shopping. We are having Talia's blessing on Sunday when all our family will be here, so I am planning for that luncheon too. It will be mostly all from Sam's Club since there's no way I'm cooking for a big group the day after Christmas.

Today it is snowing so we are staying home. I am doing laundry, cleaning out my closet (my pre-pregnancy jeans are already fitting, hooray!), going through the toy bins and gathering stuff to donate to DI, and doing a little foam craft with Weston. All of this is in between feeding everyone and changing diapers. :) I hope that I can find a time in the next evening or two to sneak away and finish up my last minute shopping and errands without 3 kids in tow. We shall see. Ian is pretty swamped with last minute projects at work. I doubt we'll see much of him until Thursday. Here's my positivity list for this snowy Monday:

Things that are making me HAPPY:
1. Not being pregnant anymore!
2. Talia sleeping so well at night.
3. Losing 20 pounds in a week.
4. Having the option to wear regular, buttoning jeans.
5. Having the option to stay in my sweats all day.
6. Packages! They just keep coming.
7. Listening to John Denver and the Muppets practically non-stop.
8. Not having to cook. Thanks Janelle!
9. My new diaper bag. It's seriously so great.
10. $10 off $20 Kohl's coupons.

And on that happy note, I got Talia's name put on her stocking yesterday. Here's a photo of our little Christmas gift.

Being Home

Being home is definitely harder than being in the hospital. Talia doesn't get taken to the nursery for the night. Ian snores. The kids wake up early. Everyone needs something. Luckily I have the best mom ever. She hopped a plane to be here Monday morning and has stayed all week. I will be so sad when she leaves tomorrow. She takes Talia at night when she won't settle back in after feedings. She has cooked dinner and done the dishes every night this week. Yummy comfort dinners too, like meatloaf and baked potatoes. She also baked and decorated sugar cookies with the kids (which were also delish). She ran errands with me. She vacuumed my house. She helped me wrap all the Santa presents and stocking stuffers. And by "help" I mean she did most of it. She did lots of dishes and laundry. She snuggles Talia all day. She even did Talia's first bath at home. I don't love bathing newborns, so I appreciated that. Anyway, we are getting adjusted slowly. I will have a few days on my own before more family comes into town, so we'll see how I do with 3 kids by myself. :) Anyway, I thought I'd put some new pictures up of the little lady. We sure love her cute face around here!

Talia is not a fan of baths so far. She also doesn't like diaper changes. Really anything that requires her to be undressed and cold.
She looked all sweet and clean after her bath though. She was a purple bundle on Thursday. All her clothes are huge. This entire outfit is newborn size and she was still swimming in it.
My babies hanging out and watching The Grinch.
My boys snuggling their babies. Good thing we had a doll kicking around the house.
Weston loves to hold Talia. He will just sit in the rocker and hold her for 20 minutes at a time. I think he loves his new baby sister.
My mom bought this adorable newborn outfit for Talia. It's got a little cupcake on it and actually fits! I just can't stop looking at her sweet face.
Tomorrow Mom goes home, but luckily I will have Ian home with me for the weekend and I'll really only have Monday and Tuesday of next week on my own before Ian's parents fly in for Christmas! I can't believe it's going to be Christmas next week! I am going to make Talia's stocking this weekend and then we'll be all set. Thanks for all the congratulations and love sent our way this last week. We're doing great!

Happy Birth Day!

Well, as I'm sure you can all imagine, I am so excited to get to tell the birth story of Miss Talia Christine Bowles. It all started Saturday night. We went to the Verite Christmas party at Christopher's Steak and Seafood Restaurant downtown. It was a fun night. We always enjoy getting dressed up and having a nice dinner with Ian's co-workers, and this year was no exception. The room the dinner party was held in was upstairs, so I made it my mission to go up and down the stairs as many times as possible. That was aided by the fact that the bathroom was downstairs. :) We had a nice time, but I was still not very hopeful that anything was going to happen baby-wise that weekend.

When we got home I was so tired, but I couldn't sleep well. I went and layed down on the couch, but still wasn't really sleeping. Then I started having contractions every 15 minutes or so. This was around 3am. I decided to get up and walk around the house to see if I could keep the contractions going. It helped. They were consistently 7-10 minutes apart and were feeling more uncomfortable/more like the real thing. I walked around the house tidying up all the toys, papers, dishes, etc for about an hour. Finally I sat down and opened a magazine. I read for a bit then realized I hadn't had a contraction for about 12 minutes. Boo. I decided since it looked like they weren't moving along I may as well try to get some sleep. I went back to bed, but got woken up with a few more random contractions.

When I woke up for the morning I took a shower and the contractions started back up again every 10ish minutes. Since I was in labor for so long with Weston I decided I probably had awhile, so headed out to the youth meeting of our stake conference where Elder Scott was speaking. It was a good meeting and I'm glad that I went. We stayed for the general session of stake conference too. I had contractions every 10-12 minutes the entire time. They were painful, but not painful enough for me to think we needed to go to the hospital. After my afternoon nap we decided to go on a walk. Luckily it was a really nice day. Sunny and 55 degrees! We walked towards our neighbor's house to pick up Weston's sunglasses then kept going to another neighbor's house to visit and see their newly re-done wood floors. While I was walking my contractions picked up to about every 5 minutes or so and they were hurting.

As soon as I sat down in the Wilson's living room though the contractions slowed down to 10 minutes again. Sigh. I was so not prepared for this to go on forever. The Wilson's invited us to stay for dinner, so Ian and I were going to walk home and get the van and then come back, but as soon as we started walking my contractions started coming right on top of each other and I could hardly walk. When we got home we decided to pack our hospital bag since it looked like we would be going there at some point that night. My contractions didn't stop and were really hurting, so I decided it was time to go to the hospital and see if I was dilating at all or not. We left the boys at the Wilson's and drove to St. Marks. They checked us right in when we got there at 6:15pm and I was dilated to a 4! Woohoo! I was in a lot of pain and having contractions pretty close together, which made getting the IV and blood draw, etc. even more painful.

Since I was Group B Strep positive I was supposed to have 2 doses of antibiotic through IV before giving birth, but things were moving along quickly. They got me hooked up to my first dose, but it was running too fast and was burning my arm in the IV, so they slowed it down. I got my epidural, which was by far the most painful epidural insertion I've had, but the actual epidural was fabulous! It was a different chemical that numbed my contractions, but I could still move my legs and body. Very cool. My water never broke, even though the nurse was sure it would.. Every time she checked me I was further along. At about 8pm I was at an 8 and the nurse went and called the on call doctor. He said he would be there in about half an hour. We waited. And waited. Finally he got there at 9:30ish. I was completely dilated and was just waiting for him to break my water. As soon as he did we were ready! Talia was by far the easiest baby to deliver. She was just right there and was so small I hardly had to push, which was kind of nice. She was born officially on 12/12/10 at 10:13pm. She was 6 pounds 14 ounces and was 20 inches long.

Unfortunately I had only gotten one dose of the antibiotic in before she was born. Also, there was meconium in the amniotic fluid, which is bad for babies to breathe. Then the cord was wrapped around her neck when she was being delivered. The doctor got the cord cut quickly and she was fine, just kind of purple at first. The NICU nurses were there to start suctioning the meconium fluid out of her lungs right away. She wasn't breathing as well as she should either and ended up having to go to the NICU before I could hold her. That was a bummer. Ian went with her though while the doctor finished up with me. I rested and ate a little while I waited for news. Talia still wasn't breathing as well as she should, had a little bit of a temperature, and an elevated respiratory rate. None of these things were really life threatening or anything, but she needed to be under observation in the NICU and the nurses were busy running other tests on her checking for signs of infection from the GBS.

Finally around 1am Ian decided to head home and get some sleep. The hospital was understaffed in the maternity unit, so they kept me in my labor and delivery room for the night. At 2am I got to see Talia! The NICU nurse brought her to me to eat, but she was very apathetic and I couldn't get her to latch at all. She kept gagging too. The nurse needed to keep observing her, so she couldn't stay with me, which was fine because I was tired. I tried feeding her again in the morning without much luck.

I got moved up to a maternity room around 9am the next morning, which was nice. It was quieter and I felt like I could settle my stuff there. Talia still wasn't nursing well. She had her stomach suctioned again and when they got all the gunk out they put about an ounce of formula right into her tummy, so she wasn't too hungry. I got a shower and then Ian came. It was nice to finally get to be with Talia together. Ian hadn't gotten much of a chance to hold her the night before either. My mom had flown in that morning and took the boys to lunch then brought them over to visit too. It was so fun to introduce Weston and Davin to their baby sister. I love their reactions to her. Davin's attention span for baby sister ran out pretty quickly and then he was just playing in my room. They didn't stay too much longer after that. Ian stayed with me though. That night Ian went home and my mom came back to hang with me. It was nice. Also she brought my pump and that really helped with nursing. We haven't had a problem since.

I slept great that night and just got up twice to feed Talia. Seriously, it was way better than last night at home. I kept waiting to hear her cry and I didn't have things set up quite as nicely for middle of the night feedings as I did in the hospital. Hopefully it will get easier. So my first day home has been more busy than I was really bargaining for, but it felt amazing to have a real shower and sleep in my bed. I think I am going to go take a quick nap while Davin is sleeping.

In labor, but post epidural, hence the smile. :)
Ian doing Talia's first bath in the NICU.
Weston, the experienced big brother, with his new baby sister!
Davin and Talia. Gotta love that Davin face.
First daddy daughter photo.
Our new family of five!
Siblings.
The beautiful little princess.
I love her hair! It's so dark and soft like feathers.
Getting ready to come home from the hospital.
All bundled up and ready for her first glimpse of the outside world. Unfortunately it was dark, so she didn't see much.

Meet Talia Christine

She arrived Sunday night in a hurry (full story coming later).

6lbs 14oz, 20 inches long.

Shannon and Baby are doing well, and should be coming home this evening.

Happy Elves

Today was a quiet, rainy day. We had a fun visit from my Aunt Barbara and Uncle Terry this morning. They brought me soup and yummy bread and adorable knit Christmas booties and a hat for baby girl. Hooray for not having to cook! Plus it's definitely a soup kind of day. After lunch I took the kids to see Despicable Me at the dollar theater. We have seen it, but the boys enjoyed watching it again. We've spent the rest of the afternoon playing with JibJab. Enjoy our holiday greeting. We unanimously (except Ian) decided this song and dance was our favorite. The best is Davin at the end. That kid's face just cracks me up.

Another Day

So, just a quick update. I went to the doctor first thing on Tuesday morning, after being up since 2am. I had been having contractions every 10 minutes or so from 2 until about 5am. I couldn't get back to sleep after that, so I was just up. Anyway, the doctor checked me and I wasn't dilated and only about 50% effaced. That was depressing. Then came the really unfortunate news. When I asked about induction my doctor said he wouldn't induce me unless I was dilated to a 2 AND 80% effaced or 41 weeks, which according to him wouldn't be until the 23rd of December. Are you kidding me? Yeah I broke down the second he left the room and didn't stop crying for most of the morning.

I never should have switched to a doctor (as opposed to a midwife like I had with my other 2 babies) or a man (who apparently has zero understanding or empathy for a 9+ months pregnant woman). He was almost rude about my asking about induction and seemed determined to not say or do anything encouraging or helpful. Since I'm pretty sure I might slap him if I see him again, I have not made another appointment for next week. If I haven't gone into labor on my own before next Tuesday or Wednesday then I will call his office and see if he will schedule an induction date for me without seeing me. If he insists on seeing me before doing that then I will go in, but I won't be happy about it. At this point I almost hope that he is unavailable when the baby is born so that the on call doctor will deliver me and not him. Sigh. If you think I'm being childish about this whole thing, you may be right, but please do not tell me. I have mostly been trying to avoid people so I won't have to answer the same questions and hear the same "looks like you're still pregnant!" comments. I promise that I (or Ian) will update the blog as soon as we have any news/are at the hospital. Thanks for your love and support, and send me good "go into labor" vibes!

The Best Laid Plans

I was really hoping for some baby action this weekend, but alas I was disappointed. I was having contractions Saturday afternoon for a couple hours, but then they stopped. Bummer. We still had a really fun Saturday. We slept in and relaxed in the morning. I took Weston to his friend's princess birthday party at noon, then went and got a fabulous pedicure while he played swords and ate cake and had a blast. I walked the mall a little after my pedicure, but it was kind of counteracting the leg massage, so I left. :)

Ian and Davin did a little shopping at Kohl's and went out to lunch together while Weston and I were gone. Ian finally got some new church shoes. They had been a long time coming. He was still wearing his mission shoes that were looking a lot worse for the wear. My neighbor is friends with someone who works for Kohl's advertising department, so she got a big stack of Kohl's mailer coupons. She gave me 10 of the $10 off $20 coupons. They are such a great deal, so we have been using those to pick up some things we need for the season.

Later that afternoon we all went to see Tangled! We had heard lots of good things, so we were excited to see it. It was definitely a cute movie. I loved the music and thought the story was pretty sweet too. By the time the movie was over it was bedtime. Davin actually fell asleep in the car on the way home. Poor kid. After the boys were in bed Ian and I curled up to watch Four Christmases, which I had rented from the library. It was awful. Seriously, one of the worst movies I've seen in a long time. I was highly disappointed that both Reese Witherspoon and Kristin Chenoweth were in it and it was so bad. And I wasn't in labor, so my Saturday evening felt a like a bust.

Sunday morning I was just grouchy that I hadn't had/was unlikely to have a baby this weekend. I went back to bed around 8:30 and decided I would just stay there all day. I'm such a lame-o. Finally around 10am after catching a little more sleep and feeling sorry for myself I dragged myself out of bed and barely got showered and ready in time for 12:30 church. It was still annoying having to hear everyone's comments about how I was still pregnant (yes, thank you I am aware), but I'm glad that I went to church. Testimony meeting was one of the best I've ever heard in our ward. Ian was conducting, so he got to bear his testimony and then Weston had to have a turn, of course. It was very sweet. Plus we got to sing Christmas songs! Albeit we sang the slowest rendition of Angels We Have Heard on High ever, but that's just part of living in a ward where the average age is 82. :)

Today I have been doing laundry and a little housework. After I picked up Weston from preschool we went and saw Ian's newly painted office. It looks very nice. Ian came with us to have lunch and then to the mall. We went to the mall that has had the crazy eye Santa in the past, but this year they had a new Santa. He was very cute. There was no line, so after the kids who were already there finished up, the boys both hopped up on his lap and told him what they wanted for Christmas. Weston stuck with his two sided lightsaber request. Davin was mostly unintelligible. I think he said something about his belly or a battleship, but I'm not really sure. This mall is much kinder about letting you take your own pictures with Santa, but I forgot the camera, so Ian snapped a couple pics with his phone. They actually turned out pretty cute.
We hit up the See's right next to Santa and bought our Christmas pound plus a couple chocolate Santas for the boys. Then we walked a lap around the mall while Ian and I discussed gift options for the last people left on our list to buy for. It is so much work to even walk these days. I have very little hope that my mall walk will put me into labor, but it was worth a shot and we got to have Daddy with us, so it was still fun.

Miraculously both boys are napping at the moment. I am going to make a batch (probably my only batch) of chocolate bread and fold laundry. We are having friends over tonight for a sing along FHE. Should be fun. Tomorrow morning is my next doctor's appointment. If baby girl is looking ready to go/healthy then I am going to request a Wednesday induction. Ian's schedule is fairly light and he would probably be able to take the rest of the week off then my mom can come during her district's teacher's strike to visit and help out. We'll see what my doctor thinks of that plan. I'll keep you all posted!

Magic Fireplace

Tonight we put together our magical Christmas fireplace. I love doing this! It's such a fun way to hang our stockings. It makes it seem more plausible that Santa can come visit us too if we have a fireplace, even a pretend one. This year Davin kept calling it a "fire station." It was adorable. The orange sparks in the fire were Weston's idea. Ian did most of the legwork though. We will be adding a 5th stocking to the "mantle" soon, but I haven't put baby's name on her stocking yet and we didn't want to pound nails into the wall since the boys were already asleep when we got it finished and put up.
Also, just for fun, here are a couple not-so-great shots of the nursery coming along. You can see the pink valence that my MIL made. There will be light blocking chocolate brown panel curtains hanging under the valence when we are done. You can also see the cute changing pad cover that I love and the teensy weensy lamp that I'm not sure I love. It's still wrapped up because I keep thinking I'll have time to go browse Ross to look for a lamp I like better. We'll see if I ever make it there or if I just end up using the tiny lamp because it's there.
Finally, I have a massive grocery shopping list that I really need to take care of tomorrow, but I also have both kids home all day tomorrow. Still not sure what I'm going to do about that. Sigh. I might have to suck it up and go in the evening so I can focus and not forget too much stuff. Hope everyone has a great weekend!

Tick Tock

That's how I feel. A sitting time bomb. Just waiting waiting. I've been plenty busy but behind everything I do, I'm really thinking "Maybe this will put me into labor." "Maybe tonight is the night!" I do apologize for the somewhat broken record posts. It's hard to think about anything besides the impending arrival of this baby.

Yesterday I babysat my neighbor's girls all morning. After I picked up Weston from school we went back to Xpedx to do our returns, then picked up Ian and went out to lunch at Chick Fil A. We also ran across the parking lot into Target to pick up some more affordable and adorable stationery.

On a normal day, that would have done me in. Not yesterday. I was a machine. The boys wouldn't nap, so I turned on The Grinch for them then went and cleaned the bathroom. Like really cleaned it top to bottom. Scrubbed out the tub and shower. Mopped the floor. Cleaned the shower curtain rod, hung the new shower curtain and rings. Soaked the bathtub stopper in bleach, and washed out the toothbrush cup. It looks so pretty.

I cooked a real dinner. Not a hard one, but a real one. We had spaghetti and meatballs. I set the table and we ate together. I'm sad to admit that we hadn't done that this whole week. Ian took Weston to get a haircut. Davin and I vacuumed the front of the house, then swept the kitchen and I mopped it.

It felt so good to curl up and watch a Community after the kids were in bed. My back was killing me, but I had figured as long as it was already hurting after the bathroom I may as well keep cleaning and then not have to do any cleaning today! Plus I got to bask in the glow of a clean house for an hour or two before going to bed.

I did hope that all that hard work would make me go into labor, but no such luck. I guess I've sort of given up because I have plans for the weekend. In the meantime I am going to try to take it a little easier and just get smaller things done, like making our Christmas fireplace, finishing Key Lime Pie (my book), writing baby thank you's, and doing laundry.