Catching Up---Yet Again

I just keep taking too much time away. That's what I get for my husband being on leave, I guess. I hear G-ma is ready for J to get back to work so I can stick with my more regularly scheduled blogging. :)

But anyway, if you'll remember, Miss Autumn turned 1 month on Thursday and I hadn't uploaded any picture of her at the time I blogged. But we'd taken some:






We took more at her bath time that night too. Still loving the hair washing, of course:


When you just towel dry she looks all curly wurly:




And what's this? Still getting sponge baths? Yes, baby girl still has her cord...see:


We smoothed her hair back down for this one:


So yeah...still has the cord. Even today at five weeks old. Normally this falls off before 2 weeks-ish. Dalton had his for nearly 3 and apparently that was long.

Autumn went to the doctor Friday for her 1 month well baby visit.

(Easton was at school.)

Anyway, Dr. Groovy (who has crazy sideburns and was dubbed this by a young patient) said that he thinks it's okay. It's not completely unheard of to have the stump for this long. Even at her 2.5 week check he said it still had a ways to go because her cord was just so thick. Also, this last time he pointed out how her belly button is kind of deep and so the underside of the cord is not being exposed to much air at all...we put alcohol on it because the doctors and the hospital tell us to (I know many people don't do this anymore). She's just got a little pocket keeping the cord from being able to get super dry. Dr. Groovy says it's close, though.

Little Missy weighed in at 10 pounds 2 ounces. And yes, I figured out what that is per day and she's up to nearly 1.75 ounces per day from her last visit (where she was gaining 1.25/day). Yay milk!

We couldn't go back home after her appointment...my mom treated our gimpy selves to her cleaning lady for the day! With the bedrest, C-section and now vasectomy recovery we sure could use it. The clutter has been better but not the stuff requiring much elbow grease. :)

So I forget what we did till it was time to get E at school. But once we got him we drove down to the outlet mall. We had pizza in the food court and did a little shopping and returning capped off with a trip on the carousel. We still couldn't head home so we drove over to visit Gramoo at school:




Here is Gramoo returning from a trip around the school showing off her new granddaughter:


Then we went to hang at Gramoo's house for a bit. Easton and Lauren strung Halloween candy necklaces:




Lauren gave the one she made to Dalton:


It was Autumn's first time at Gramoo's but she was rather unimpressed:


We all ordered our traditional Jason's Deli dinner and then headed home. Autumn was starting to get cranky. She'd gotten her first immunization that morning and was not having the most fun with it. :(


When we finally realized that's what was up we dosed her with some Tylenol and she was much better and had an okay night.

She did sleep in the next morning and I'd decided it would be the day to start getting her used to taking a bottle. I adore my children but do not want to have to be tethered to them at all times. I certainly enjoy the occasional night out with the gals or my hubby. Heck, we even went to Vegas while Dalton was still nursing. I just want to have that little bit of freedom that comes with a child willing to take a bottle. It's important to us, even if it's not for everyone. Anyway, I pumped (because exclusively giving breast milk is also important to us) and Jason gave her her second bottle (she had that one force fed to her in the hospital):




Each of the boys also wanted to help a bit too:




Then after we did that and got ready, it was time for one of our favorite annual events: The Dairy Harvest Fest!!!





(Yes, he made the leap to the other side.)

The barrel train:


It was sad thinking that Easton is starting to get too old for it. :(


But they both had fun:


The bounce house is more up E's alley:


Dalton didn't think it was too shabby either:


I like me peeking in at them:


Some time spent playing and climbing:




Waiting in line for corn:


J also got catfish and we got the boys a funnel cake. Easton ate lots of corn and catfish and, of course, funnel cake. Dalton wouldn't touch any of it. He kept saying he wanted to go home. But we hadn't gone to the pumpkin pile yet. We saw some goats on the way:




Then it was on to the pumpkins:




Trying to show Autumn in there:


Fall-ish backdrop despite J's shorts:


Clearly they are not interested in posing for this one:


But this one was E's idea and he looks great:


Finally Dalton got to go home after that--we let each boy pick out a little pumpkin. Then we came home for naps (I got one too!) and E and J watched football and had quiet time.

I've got more from today and yesterday but that'll have to wait. The Alabamaws are in town!

One Month Today!

My goodness how time flies. Going faster and faster with each kid. Ack! I cannot believe Miss A has been here for a month already! I haven't uploaded any pictures of her from today so we'll take another look at some from the other day. My online pal "Other Kristin" photoshopped a few for me:



(Compare this one to the one from the blog post the other day and it's so much improved!)

Then there's this one which is totally, like, my new favorite picture when I see it all fancy like this:


Oh, and before I go too much further...does my blog look like this when viewed on your computer?


Anyway...here are some shots of Autumn and her doting brothers from the other day:










And here she is before doughnuts on Tuesday morning:

For those of you who have known me most of my life (mom...Jessica...Kelli...Tonya...) that hat is from Raleigh. :)

Tuesday was a monumental day here. It was the day "Autumn Began" and the day our fertile years ended. Here is my nervous husband pre-procedure:


And after:


Seeing as how Autumn is just a month old today, we certainly didn't waste any time, did we? Actually, whether or not we've had time to decide if we're really "done" isn't the issue...pretty much I shouldn't get pregnant ever again. Preeclampsia 2 out of 3 times isn't great odds. Sure, I made it to term with Autumn (and avoided HELLP) but they started seeing the proteinuria at 29 weeks with her. And while everything turned out okay this time, pre-e is not something you can take lightly. Plus then there's the whole "I've already had 3 C-sections" business and well, when they were in there they remarked at how very thin my uterus is where all the surgeries have been. Like they almost sounded surprised I didn't rupture or something. So, another pregnancy is certainly not advisable for me and we've taken care of that after spending a few days praying about it specifically. Still it's bittersweet. The end of an era. Anyway...

Jason is doing well today. Still taking it easy and all and is thankful he's already on leave.

Okay, so a few more pictures before I go...I bought Easton a cute shirt at the Just Between Friends sale (well, 3 cute shirts) but here is one of them:


I put it on him for school yesterday and Jason called it his "Freddy Krueger shirt" and then I realized...yup...

It's the exact same! What was Old Navy thinking?!?! :)

We think it looks nice on him all the same:

I walked into the kitchen with the boys whispering "Let's surprise Mommy" and posing like that. :)

And then young Freddy put on jammies and made himself what he called a banana split. He worked very hard on it and ate it even though he's not big on bananas.

It was banana, whipped cream, chocolate syrup and a cherry because we didn't have a strawberry that he thought should go on the top. Cutie. You really had to be here for the cuteness of it all.

So Dalton isn't napping yet again today and I should go be with the rest of the family, just wanted to check in since I hadn't blogged in a few with the vasectomy on Tuesday and E and I going to Wal-Mart yesterday while the two littlest ones napped. It was awesome. Easton insisted on holding my hand the whole time and he literally skipped (actually, it was more of a gallop) through the store. Nice to get some 1 on 1 time even if it is grocery shopping.

That's all for now... Toodles!