A Race Against Time

Here we are, 4 weeks into being a family of five. And I have to say, things are still going pretty great. Or maybe what I should say is that things could be a heck of a lot worse! Every morning when I wake up, I feel like I am in a race. This morning was no different. Leo decided to wake up every 2 hours or so to eat starting at about 1:30, which isn't horrible considering he goes back to sleep right away. And it helped that Tom fed him at 5:30 and just left for work right after. The bigger boys decided to sleep in until 7:30 today too, which was awesome and threw me for a loop when I looked at the clock. But then the race began. I thought to myself I need to make breakfast for the boys right now because Leo is going to be up to eat again really soon. I need to shower and get dressed because Kathryn is going to be here in an hour. I made breakfast quick, hopped in the shower, and came out to pure chaos. But that's how it goes. All three kids were fed by 8:30 when Kathryn arrived and Leo and I were off to the grocery store. But the race continues all day long. How much stuff can I get done before Leo needs me to hold him or feed him. Leo is sleeping - quick, put the older ones down for naps. Leo is sleeping, quick make something for dinner. He's a good baby yes, but all babies this age prefer to be held 24/7, and sometimes that is just not possible. Especially with other kids in the house. Most of the time the days go by extremely fast. I think back to when I had Finn as a newborn and when Tom was coaching hockey and didn't get home until 6:30/7. I am not really sure how I survived that season of my life. Seriously.

Today I had my four week post-partum check up. I'm so anxious to get rid of my hernia! I'm calling tomorrow to set up a consult with a general surgeon. But everything with my recovery is going swell. Although I wasn't too pleased with my weight - BLAH! I don't usually care about my weight, I never have before but for some reason I do right now. Not to mention a lot of my clothes still don't fit me which is uber depressing.

I signed Jack and Finn up for swimming lessons this fall. I think Jack can also start hockey this fall too - mini-mites here the Starkeys come. And I'm getting ready to sign him up for Sunday school this year too. We need to start going to church again and I think this is the best way to force us back into the habit. I need church back in my life. It will be nice just having two kids during mass instead of three. I can't believe I'm saying that. HA. We just got our new insurance cards in the mail and with all of our names on it, it looks like we are such a big family. I love it. I love this family of five. I think three kids is so wonderful. It's a three ring circus around this joint, no doubt. But it's crazy fun and awesome too. The days are long, but the years are short.

Cabin pictures and Leo's one month post coming later this week! Happy Monday.

3 Weeks

Today my little Leo is three weeks old. As always with newborns, time seems to go fast and slow at the same time. I'm trying not to wish these newborn days away, but sometimes it's hard. I feel like I've got the whole 3 kid thing under control, it's the newborn-ness that is taking it's toll on me. I keep telling myself that it won't be like this forever and soon this will be a distant memory, but in the moments of frustration that doesn't really do any good.

Leo is still proving to be a very good baby, which I am beyond thankful for - I would lose it if he was a Finn baby. Not kidding. He got a horrible diaper rash a few days ago and I want to cry for him every time I change his diaper. Thankfully I still have some medicated cream (poop goop) from when Finn had a nasty rash that I'm using on him. This cream is seriously miracle cream. It's already looking a million times better. Poor little boy, but he sure is a great popper :-)

Nights are still the same. Waking up 2-3 times to eat. Although I think it's more of a sleeping/pooping issue that is waking him up at night because he's not downing his bottles like he is starving. Then again he's waking up in shorter intervals than I would like too. We are still in the trial/error stage too, which can be extremely frustrating as well. The GOOD news is that he's sleeping in his crib on his back since Saturday. This makes me SO happy.

Tom was out of town this past weekend for a wedding, which I opted not to attend. I just didn't think a 6 hour car ride to Chicago with a 3 week old would be that much fun. Thankfully my mom came and stayed the weekend with us. It was SO wonderful to have her here. She played with the boys, rocked Leo back to sleep every once in a while, did a few middle of the night feedings, it was just so nice not having to be solo for the entire weekend and having some extra hands.

We are heading up to the cabin later on this week. I'm nervous about the car ride up there, because Leo doesn't exactly love his carseat. But Jack and Finn are SO excited about the cabin and I really don't want to stay back here with just Leo. It's going to be a packed car ride up there, especially with Bailey! We are going to let the boys watch a DVD on the way up there too - I think we will tell them we only watch DVDs when we go up to the cabin.

It's proving to be hard to whip out my camera as much as I'd like. I also think that Leo is going to start smiling soon. I just have a hunch, and I seriously cannot WAIT. It's like you put all of this time and energy into caring for this human being and getting a smile feels like a big fat thank you - which I feel like I deserve. ha.

Enjoy these pics. Gotta fly, Leo is waking up.

Leo is 2 Weeks Old

Two weeks today! I can't believe it. Leo has just been a huge blessing to our family these past few weeks. He is just the sweetest thing ever.

He is eating 3 ounces every 2-3 hours. He has made one 4 hour stretch one night, but we are typically waking up at 12, 3, and 5 for nighttime feedings. I can't really complain though because he zonks right back to sleep after he eats. We are huge swaddlers, and if he gets out of his swaddle - he will wake up and want to be re-swaddled. I bought a new sound machine, hoping that will help stretch out our feeding sessions. He is still sleeping in his bouncy, but we put it in his crib so he is out of our room now. Not sure when I will officially put him in his crib, it will just be trial and error.

Leo doesn't mind his carseat, as long as you put him in there with a full belly. He won't stay napping in there for very long either - so running errands with him isn't the easiest thing in the world.

He is the most alert and awake after his morning bottle, like around 8 AM. He will just lay on the floor and take it all in. But after about 15 min he wants to be swaddled and drift off to dreamland again.

The boys are still loving him a ton. They want to help feed him, get diapers, etc. But sometimes they are just way too up in his face and I lose my cool.

As great as things are going, I do still feel like I am in survival mode. Rightfully so, I mean he is only 2 weeks! I just love that I'm not so overwhelmed the way I was when Finn was born. I realize that my house isn't going to be sparkling clean (not like it was before Leo came into our lives, but I tried harder than I'm trying right now). I try to set a few goals for myself each day. Today since Kathryn came over I wanted to get our laundry done, sheets washed, and dust our bedroom. The laundry is done, not folded - and I need to throw our sheets in, and I got the dusting done. Baby steps. I forgot how hard it is to eat when you have a newborn. Seriously! I'm way far away from my pre-pregnancy weight, but at the rate I'm eating hopefully I'll get there soon. ha. I'm kidding - but not kidding about having to shove my face full of whatever I can just so I have enough strength to stand up. ha.

I look forward to when we can interact with Leo more and when his personality starts to show. But at the same time, I don't want my baby to grow up. This is my LAST baby. And I'm soaking it in as much as possible. I could use a full night's sleep, don't get me wrong. And you all know how much I thrive on routine. These hard first few weeks/months may sometimes seem like an eternity, but in reality they go by in a blink of an eye. And I think 3 children later I can finally relax and enjoy this newborn/baby stage. I use the world relax loosely. ha, we all know I have a difficult time relaxing.

So my sweet Leo, take your time growing up. But feel free to sleep longer stretches at night :-)

Leo's First Bath and life with 3 kids

Leo's belly button cord fell off around 5 days. I kind of feel like those first day sponge baths are pointless and basically torture for the baby, so I like to wait until the cord falls off so you can put their whole bodies in the water. I remember we gave Jack a sponge bath, and it was torture. I don't think we gave one to Finn. Anyway, Leo cried during a lot of it, but he also enjoyed some parts too. It was a quick little bath and the boys loved watching.

When we first dunked him in he didn't really know what to think

This feels funny

Yeah I'm not really that comfortable, mom

Happy Helpers

So itty bitty

Almost Done

Snug as a bug in a rug

This week has gone pretty dang good if you ask me. It helps that it's been a slow transition for me, with Tom home all of last week, a "half day" on Monday. Then we had Kathryn over Tuesday morning to entertain the boys, etc. And we've also had some visitors in the afternoon to help pass the time. I have to say that so far the transition from 2-3 kids vs 1-2 kids has been SO much smoother for me. It's probably because I'm used to multitasking, I'm used to getting up early, etc. I have yet to fly solo with all three kids out and about yet and I think I'm going to take my sweet time with that. No need to rush that one. This morning my mom came with me to Jack's t-ball. That will definitely be a challenge for me alone, but we only have two weeks left and the other moms there will totally step in and help chase Finn - they are awesome. 

Leo has been a pretty chill baby still (KNOCK ON WOOD). We had a huge breakthrough last night too. He slept in his bouncy in-between his bottles! This is huge, my back was getting so sore from holding him. I really really want to transition him into the crib soon - I think I might give it one more week. I really wish my sound machine didn't break with Finn. I might go out and buy another one of those for when we make the transition. So anyway, last night he ate at 12:30, 2:30, 5:15, and 7:15 - which looks horrendous, but when he's sleeping solo in-between each feeding with no fussiness really isn't horrible! I'll take it for 9 days old. But in the world of newborns - every night is a complete crapshoot. These moments are so short in comparison to everything else, but it's hard sometimes to remember that when it's 3 AM and all you want to do is sleep!

The boys continue to love on their little brother and sometimes want to be involved too much. I'd much rather have that problem than them being resentful of him, or showing aggression. We are so lucky and so blessed. I love my family of five. 

Leo's First Week

I can't believe that it has been one week since Leo entered our lives. It was so nice to have him born during the holiday week because Tom was able to stay at home ALL week with us. This is practically unheard of for him, so it was wonderful! He spent the majority of the days entertaining the older two, while I was with Leo.

Leo seems to be a very relaxing, calm baby thus far. Knock on wood. He eats every two hours, seriously not one minute later. I'm definitely feeling the lack of sleep, but again Tom has been able to help out so much at nights when I've had like zero sleep and it's 3 AM.

I tried my hardest to make nursing work. I mean of course I could have pushed myself more, but the pain was excruciating. I literally cried every time he latched on to my right side. And in the middle of the night, I had to scream into the pillow to not wake anyone up. So on to the formula we go. I don't have any major guilt issues about it, both of my other kids didn't nurse for very long and they are just fine. And if people are going to judge me for it, well then that's their own problem! Leo is doing great with formula, and my fingers are crossed he won't be a spitter upper like Finn was - holy moly that kid was out of control!

Leo despises sleeping anywhere but on me or Tom in the middle of the night. We are slowly working on this. Last night he made it two hours in his bouncy, ha. I'm trying to put him in his bouncy more today and not be holding him constantly. I know it will get better with time. But I'd really like to sleep solo soon. Here that, Leo?

Both the older boys LOVE baby Leo. They always want to be helping, holding his hands, kissing and hugging him. It's so cute. When I was nursing Leo - they were SO confused. Jack was like, um mom - why are you pretending to be Leo's food? HAHA. I laughed so hard, well through my tears of crying from nursing. ha. Finn thought I was feeding Leo through my belly. HAHA. Probably because my boobs were practically the size of my belly. Not kidding.







On Saturday I went over to a family friend's house and we took some pictures of Leo. These haven't been edited at all, and JJ took the majority of the pictures, so I am anxiously awaiting her copies.










Here is Leo at the doctor today for his one week weight check. He's back up to 8 lbs 6.6 oz! Woop woop.

Leo's Story

He's here! He's here! Leo Patrick Starkey was born on Monday, July 2, 2012 at 1:55 p.m. He weighed in at 8 lbs 9 oz, 21 inches long and a 15 inch head.




I was scheduled for an induction on this day, but my hopes weren't high since I wasn't able to get in with Finn on my first try. But to our surprise when I called the hospital on Monday at 6 AM, they said come on in at 7:30 AM! Everything started to sink in. Oh my gosh, we are having our THIRD baby today! So my mom came over and we were out the door at 7:15. Maple Grove Hospital is fricken amazing. The birthing rooms are HUGE! It was like our own palace. My doctor was on call that day, so he broke my water at 8 AM. At that time I was about 4 cm dilated. It was so weird though, when he broke my water, I didn't feel the gush that I'd felt before. I was kind of freaked out. But the more I walked around the more I started to leak - a lot! So I got hooked up to pitocin right away too. Tom and I did a few laps trying to get the baby to drop and get things going. Nothing was really happening though. Then by about 9:45 AM, I started getting pretty consistent, painful contractions. I asked for my epidural shortly after and it was the best epidural EVER! I could still move my legs when they needed to check me, and I could still feel the tightening of the contractions, but not the pain. Tom and I ordered a movie. Because Maple Grove Hospital has free movies for you to watch. ha! We ordered that ridiculous Arthur movie with Russel Brand. I rested my eyes off and on. I think at about 12:15 I was checked and I was an 8. Then at 1:30, my awesome nurse said let's wait until 2 to check you and hopefully you will be complete and can get baby out! But my doctor came over at 1:45 and he checked me. He had me push a little bit while he was checking and he's like ok great - you are complete, let's do this! So they whipped out all of the fancy equipment, the huge light, I gave one ginormous push and his head was OUT! But his shoulders were stuck. It was pretty alarming and I could tell by the tone of the doctor's voice that he meant business, so I pushed again as they pushed on me and out he came. The biggest boy of my boys! Had I waited to go naturally, who knows what would have happened with his shoulders. Scary stuff. Since he came out so fast, his face was super bruised - but it's healed up. He still has blood shot eyes, but those will go away with time too. I would never ever in a million years thought I would use the word relaxing to describe my birthing experience with Leo, but that is exactly what it was. I was so happy when he came out. I was so happy to just not be pregnant again. I was happy he was healthy. And most of all I was happy that our family is completely complete now! Me and my boys!

Holy roots. I need my hair done asap!