Portrait session

When Anya was 10 days old, we headed to Portrait Innovations to do a photo shoot for the kids to mark the passing of another year. We plan to do more family photos with Aunt Terilee this summer when we see her in Utah, we just wanted to capture this fleeting newborn stage before Anya changes.

Onward and Upward...

Anya had her two week check up this past Monday and she is growing very well. The goal for this check up was to be back to her birth weight of 9 pounds, 7 ounces, well she met that challenge with an additional 4 ounces weighing in at 9 pounds, 11 ounces with a height of 22 inches. We had a team of two nurses that hadn't seen Anya before and they commented on her height about four times, as well as her "never-ending" torso. She is definitely our long green bean. ;-) This two week mark also brought the end of the umbilical cord as the last little string/ artery gave way, so now all she has is a cute little bellybutton.

She is settling into a nice eating and sleeping pattern. I usually put her down for the night around 10 and she will get up around 2am and then again at 6am to eat and goes right back to sleep. She will then wake up again around 8 to eat again and then eats about every 2-3 hours in the morning taking small cat naps throughout the morning. Then around 12:30 she is ready for her loooong nap. She has been taking a 3-4 hour nap most afternoons and then wakes up for an evening of eating and smaller cat naps. This long nap gives me some great time to be with the other kids, take a nap with Soren if Olivia is at school, do housework, etc. She has been such a great addition to our family!

Anya Elizabeth

On May 3 at 2:43 a.m. we welcomed into the world our third child, Anya Elizabeth. She tipped the scale at 9 pounds 7 ounces and measured 21.5 inches long. She is very long and slender with some very kissable cheeks. Her weight is in the 90 percentile and her height places her in the 95 percentile, while her head circumference is in the 35 percentile. Mommy was very glad for the small head size! ;-) She was born after three days of early labor with irregular contractions ranging from 10-20 minutes apart, and about 12 hours of real labor followed by 8 minutes of intense pushing. We were very thankful for our wonderful doula who coached me through every part of the labor and delivery. Anya was a little bit turned, but she turned with the positions the doula suggested, something we wouldn't have thought of by ourselves. Her coaching really kept the pain manageable. A big thank you to my parents who came here to help us celebrate Olivia's and Soren's birthdays as well as be with them while we were at the hospital. That was a huge help!

Big sister Olivia couldn't be more smitten with her little sister. She ADORES her and wants to hold her continually singing her songs and telling her stories. Soren is also in love with his little sister and is learning (we hope!) to be gentle with her. Gentleness doesn't come naturally to him so it is a learning process. :-)

Anya is now a week old and is doing very well. She is sleeping well for the time being which we are all thankful for any rest we can get. I can see how life with three kids is going to be busy yet joyful. We are so thankful to have Naana here with us now. I even got a three hour nap this afternoon, how great is that! This is probably why I am finally posting, thanks Naana! :-)

Still pregnant...

With only five days until my official due date, we are all getting very excited for the arrival of our daughter/sister, as we realize each day brings us one day closer to our union. We have really enjoyed our doctor and his philosophy about pregnancy as he doesn't get too stressed out about much and treats it as a normal, natural part of life. He generally doesn't consider induction until the completion of week 41, which is the same as the doctor we had in Dubai. At my 39 week check-up on Friday, I could see some wheels were turning in his head and he was acting a little bit different than normal. After he measured my uterus, which has expanding beyond my previous pregnancies, and checked for effacement/dilation, he took a look at me and said..."I think we have a large baby on our hands that is very comfortable in there, what do you think?" I had to agree that this is my biggest and most rounded belly of the three pregnancies. He then said that we needed to get a ballpark estimate of the size of the fetus to determine if an earlier induction than 41 weeks would be necessary and ordered an ultrasound for the following day. Saturday morning we went in and the ultrasound tech made measurements of every part of the baby. Everything was measuring 39/40 weeks, except the abdomen, which was measuring quite large. At the end of the measurements the computer puts out an estimated fetal weight, which was...drum roll please....9 pounds 12 ounces. I would be lying if I didn't say it took my breath away for a few seconds as a surge of fear of what labor and delivery could hold rushed over my body. The technician was pretty surprised and said that maybe the abdomen measurement threw things off a bit and reassured us that ultrasounds can have a one pound margin of error. We will just concentrate on the hope that it is off by being on the high side instead of the low. ;-)

Later that afternoon we had our last birthing refresher course with a fabulous doula that we found in Menomonee Falls. After talking with her, a good (well, best as one can at this point) night sleep, and an uplifting church service, I can say that I am replacing that initial fear with a spirit of determination and confidence that I can do this and trust God will be there with us each step of the way. I am also trying not to focus on the size of the baby, but rather all the good news that came from the ultrasound. The placenta is still healthy, there is still adequate amniotic fluid, and best of all, she is in the best position for delivery with her spine on my left front. I can feel her feet kicking me from behind my right rib, just about all the way up under my bra strap. Her rounded shoulder blades are resting on my left hip bone, it really feels like there is no barrier between her and my hip. Without fail when I lay down to go to bed at night she gets the hiccups and sends a little rhymic vibration through that hip, which I find very reassuring because it lets me know that she is still in the optimal position. We continue to pray for her to stay there as I really don't want to repeat Soren's back labor.

My doctor is out of town this Monday and Tuesday. He said he would call me on Wednesday after he gets a chance to review the ultrasound measurements. But from our conversation on Friday, I am pretty sure he will want to induce me ASAP. So the baby will be here soon!

Take my picture!

Ok, so I know that this blog is really out of date, but I have a story to post because I found it so funny and I want to record it somewhere. And perhaps this will jump start some more updates. :-)

Yesterday we made a trip to the local DMV to get our Wisconsin licenses and register our van in Wisconsin. After being there for about an hour waiting and doing paperwork and going to another line to wait some more the lady said, "OK, we will just get your picture now and you can be on your way." Well, apparently Soren thought that meant we all should get our photos. I took mine and then Erik took his and we began walking to the coat rack to begin the bundling up process to go outside. Soren just stared at the camera lady instead of following us and began shouting, "But I want my picture too! I need my picture taken." I got down and talked to him quietly trying to diffuse the situation by letting him know that this is a picture for our driver's license and when he gets older he can get one too. Then he proceeded to through himself on the floor, kicking legs and all demanding he get his picture taken too. By this time we had a rather large audience of onlooker and since Erik was ready he just picked him and took him to the van where we heard more screams of this great injustice.

Fast forward now about seven hours to bed time. Erik was reading a story about this little bird who left the nest to go exploring. After the story he asked Soren, "What do you want to do when you are big?" Erik then offered some suggestions like being a pilot and flying big airplanes, or being a fireman and driving firetrucks to put out fires, etc. Soren's response, "I am going to get my picture taken."

The Nelson Ground Breaking Ceremony

Let the building begin! As many of you know my parents are building a house just north of Decorah out on a farm they bought two years ago. I have so many memories of Mom "walking" me through drawings of various homes that came in the magazine Country Living as well as her numerous doodles of various floor plans on pieces of scrap paper. So, this is truly a lifelong dream come true for her. They are both enjoying the process of tapping into the potential of what this bare land will become some day. This weekend we surprised my parents with an official "Nelson Ground Breaking." They knew that we were coming up for the night, but they weren't aware that Andrew and his family would also make it up for the big event. The ceremony consisted of Dad and Mom being presented with their hard hats and golden shovel. We then made a toast and dug the first hole! Our reception afterwards included a lovely fire made by brother Andrew and the roasting of hot dogs, served along side a fruit salad, broccoli salad, and several delicious condiments for the hot dogs. The meal was topped off with some scrumptious S'mores!

The Golden Shovel Breaks Ground

Builder-Ma & Builder-Pa

"Git R Done!"

Getting them out there wasn't hard, just volunteer to help and you're there! Here I am pushing the bark down out the chute so they could bark the wind break trees to help with weed control.

The grandkids were happy to help!

Cheers!

Olivia picked a lovely bouquet of flowers


We then pulled the actually blueprints out and did a rough draft of staking it out so that they would have a better idea for the real staking on Monday. The real digging is set to start this week!

Mom looking rather official with the blueprints

Taking Measurements

My Waterloo Days

Friday night we decided to head down to the main stage/ carnival area for supper. Erik and I had some amazing gyros while the kids enjoyed a large corn dog. We went down with our family friends, the Robinsons. We decided to go in together to get a ticket package to make the tickets a bit more reasonable. The older two got to choose two rides, while the little ones each picked one. Olivia and Tori went on a little roller coaster. When if first took off it went much faster than either of them was prepared for, their faces were lit up with surprise! Olivia and Soren went on a not-so-tame cars. The cars would go around in an oval and at the turn it would whip them around so fast their heads would kind of do a whiplash like movement. Soren wasn't so sure about this. He looked a bit pale and started saying, "Out, Out." But with our cheering and the help of his big sister he stopped trying to climb out and actually did start to enjoy the ride and even had a smile on his face by the end.

Memorial Day Weekend

We were blessed with some great family time this Memorial Day weekend. Saturday morning we packed up the car and headed north to the Twin Cities to join Erik's extended family and his Dad/ the kids' Grandad to help Papa celebrate his 86th birthday, as well as honor the memory of Nana. Man does Papa ever inspire me! He is an amazing 86 year old and really embodies the term "life long learner." It was so great to also see Randy/Dad/Grandad! He was full of special treats pulling items like chocolate cake and ice cream cones out of seemingly thin air. The kids definitely loved these treats but it was an even bigger treat to get to play Mr. Potato Head and kick the ball around with Grandad.

Papa and Soren kicking the ball around

Papa and his four children with the beautiful bouquet in memory of Nana

On Monday we enjoyed another family bike in a local state park, George Wyth State Park. It was absolutely beautiful biking along the river. It didn't take us long to learn that it was best to keep moving or else we would be lunch for some poor hungry mosquitoes. While we may have starved the mosquitoes, we did not; we enjoyed a nice picnic along the trail.

Sandbox!!!

The sandbox is officially up and running! My Dad built this sandbox during the kids' birthday weekend. I wanted to stain it so that it would match the playset before we filled it with sand. The kids have been not so patiently waiting for the pretreated wood to dry out enough so that I could stain it so that it could be filled. I pulled it out of the garage yesterday, put two coats of stain on it, and then filled it with 30 bags of sand today. I have had a lot of people tell me that I am crazy for wanting this for the kids. All these comments made me a tad bit nervous so we held a sandbox meeting (aka learning sandbox rules) before they played in it. The kids have handled it really well, and the mess hasn't been that bad. They know that we have sandbox time and when they are ALL done we clean up, put the cover back on, wash off at the hose and then wait until we are dry before we go in the house. So far, so good.

Potty Training

Oh the joys of potty training...starts by picking up a large bottle of carpet cleaner and Clorox wipes, a Froggy potty, a pack of underwear, and a lot of patience and persistence! Around the middle of April I had started talking about going to the bathroom, identifying when he was going in his diaper and just sitting on the potty seat to become comfortable with the whole idea of potty training. With Olivia we just picked a week and stayed home and focused on just potty training. One of us would run out for groceries or whatever and the other would stay home and keep doing the potty thing. This time with Erik gone during the week, errands that still had to be done, and an older child with activities, the process was a bit more difficult. I found myself throwing a diaper on him when we went out for the sake of convenience and then putting him in underwear at home. This was fine until he started to rebel against the whole process. So, I finally had to just committ to staying the course, so I started hauling about 3 changes of clothes in my purse along with rewards: sticker for trying, M & M for pee, and sucker for BM. I have quickly learned all the locations of bathrooms in our area. After the committment on my part, his success became more frequent, at least with number 1. Number 2 on the other hand was a whole different story. He looked like a nervous hen sitting on her eggs waiting for them to hatch. He knew he had to go number 2, so he would sit down and go a little and jump up real quick and yell, "Dump it." So, I would dump it into the toilet and then he would go some more, jump up and yell, "Dump it!" This would go on for about 3 more times and he was very emotionally distraught over the whole process. I tried to get him to just sit and relax and not get up until he was finished. Little by little with the help of last summer's leftover parade suckers I was able to get him to sit and finish so that he could earn a sucker. We eventually got it down to two pop ups and then finally he could sit and complete the big job in one sit. Now, we have moved on to the big potty and the froggy potty, M & M's, stickers, and suckers are a thing of the past. He has done remarkable well. His first accident free day was Mother's Day, which made a great gift for me! A few days later he was waking up from naps dry so we went to no diapers for nap and then a few days later he was waking up dry in the morning, so we are completely out of diapers! The next step...pacifier weaning. Lucky for him we have a June flight to California that will involve late night travels and a two hour time change, so for the sake of our sanity and the other passengers this is being postponed until our return.

Pre Potty Training Days...Everything better when done with a friend

Enjoying a sucker after a successful sit

Wearing his Elmo Underwear (and pointing out a plane in the sky...he is his Father's son)