Brotherly Love

Well hello, blogging audience. It's been approximately forever. Especially in the amount of stuff that has happened since I last blogged.

First, since I know this is the only reason any of you are still checking my blog, I got something new.

It's a baby.




Meet Andrew William! So here's the story. As many of you know, I was scheduled for a C-section on Oct 9 if nothing happened before that (Ha! Can you imagine?). The week before, on the evening of October 1, I bathed my hooligans.

The 3 Musketeers . . . a few hours before they were disbanded.

Mike and I put everybody to bed, then went downstairs to watch a movie or whatever we did that night. I don't even remember. I started getting a whole lot of contractions while sitting on the couch, but I'd been getting contractions every night when I was tired, so I was like, NBD.

Then we went to bed, and they didn't stop. They kept going. I was like, "Mike, it's not real. It's just faking me out again." And he was like, "You're not going to tell me you're in labor until the baby's crowning, are you?" But I convinced him to go to sleep. So he did. And started snoring. And I kept on getting contractions. It was great fun.

Finally, around 4:00 am, I was totally crying with every contraction and they were coming about every 3 minutes. So I sucked it up and woke up Mike, who was like, "I'm going to go shower and shave." It's okay. I put on clothes and called our sweet friend Cindy and we got the bag ready to go. And then we took off to the hospital.

We got there, and they were like, "Whoa, you're totally in labor." And I got all IV'd, and got denied anything but ice chips. And around 7:30 or so, I finally got an epidural (way better than the one I got with Katie, long story), and Mike and I promptly went to sleep. Seriously. I am so much a fan of modern medicine. I slept most of the morning, and Mike took a couple of naps, and things were going well. At one point I had to threaten Mike rather severely to convince him to go get some real lunch. I was not having a sleep-deprived AND low-blood-sugared husband when I had a baby.

So then, around 2:30ish, I was still hanging out, things were starting to feel serious, and the doctor came in to check me out. I was totally at a 7, but everything just STOPPED. Like, my body was not even trying to push this baby out. I was getting contractions for no reason at all. Grrrr.

Because of that and the fact that there was meconium going on, we decided to just go get it all done with. Hello, repeat C-section!

Mike in all his surgical glory.

So we went in, and they got me prepped, and eventually they invited Mike, and then . . . there was a baby! I had no idea what was going on because I forgot to change into contacts and I wasn't allowed to wear glasses in surgery. But after they pulled Andy out, Mike went around to the baby station to watch. And then they announced his weight . . .

9 pounds, 14 ounces!!!!!!!

How many kids do you know who are born with neck rolls?

I am not even kidding. He was ENORMOUS. There was a collective sound of surprise and shock from the entire operating room. I grew me a huge 'ole baby.

They came and laid him on the little bit of me that wasn't being SURGERY'd. And he immediately began rooting. Little lunch mouth. We snuggled. And I marveled that I actually grew a baby with fat rolls. Seriously.

ALSO, he was 22" long. That's beating Josh's height by 2 inches, and beating Katie's weight by TWO POUNDS!!!!!!! This kid is not messing around.

So then, when I was finally sewn up and Mike and I were done marveling at our gargantuan baby, we all went back to the delivery room to do our recovery. The nurses who were there for Andy were actually NICU nurses, so they were really funny taking care of Mr. the Hulk. And then when we tried breastfeeding and he latched right away, both of their jaws almost dropped to the floor. They're used to tiny little preemie babies who are tiny and don't eat normally or scream. And boy, can Andy do both of those things.

So things turned out pretty well. Yes, I really wanted to try for a VBAC, but honestly? I don't think having a VBAC with a TEN POUND BABY would have been very fun. I'm super cool with how things turned out. No disappointment at all here. Also, this face.

Oh hello, gas bubbles.

Since Andy wasn't born until 4:20 in the afternoon, and there's all that post-op recovery junk, we didn't get settled down in the maternity ward until night. So the hooligans went to bed before Mike even got home. But he went home that night and Andy and I got to just snuggle and sleep. And it was amazing. I was quite pleased that they only woke me up to give me pain meds.

Then, the next morning, the hooligans were SUPER anxious to come see me in the hospital. So Mike got them all in clothes and brought them over as soon as Andy and I were awake and they were dressed. And it was ADORABLE.

Joshy had been marching around and poking my belly and demanding that "Baby Andy, you get out of there!" So he was immensely excited to meet his new brother. And, as you can guess, Katie has been very anxious to be the little Mommy. But Peter may have had some jealousy issues. While Katie and Josh were fighting over whose turn it was to hold the baby, Peter was sitting with me on the hospital bed, talking a mile a minute. Non-stop. The whole time they were there. I think he missed me.

Joshy with his new brother

Peter wouldn't hold the baby yet.

 So Andy and I had a couple of glorious, quiet days in the hospital together, while Mike and the hooligans partied at home. And it was amazing.

Since I was healing so well, and I may have been just a little bit missing my hooligans, we decided we could go home Sunday afternoon. So our friend watched the kids again and Mike came and got us. It was kind of weird and surreal. But . . . a success?

Little Miss Mini-Mama

Joshy sure loves to be with his brother.

Things have gone pretty smoothly, I think. Andy's super healthy and fat, and super adorable, and a good sleeper, and pretty happy unless he thinks it's time to eat something, in which case he thinks the world is ending. But mostly he's happy and sweet.

Peter had some jealousy issues initially. But after a day and a half or so, I had him convinced that Andy wasn't there just to replace him. So he decided he liked the brother after all. I think it helped that Peter discovered that if Andy was crying, he could put his binky in and it would make him happy. Now he gets the "Oh Petey, you're such a good brother!" And everybody is happy.

See? Love.

And that's the story. Andy is huge and healthy and the kids love him. And Grandma is here, so life is fantastic.

OH! And I totally took newborn pictures. Because I am awesome.

Awake!

Yeah . . . the hooligans refused to wear clothes at first.

So now we're just having a grand 'ole time hanging out with Grandma, trying to frantically get something ready for Halloween, and keeping me from doing anything to inhibit my recovery. It's driving me crazy.

Popeye the Andy Man!

Andy's first outing*

*So, a few days after my mom was here, we decided to get crazy and go out for a walk. Peter and Andy were in the stroller, and Josh refused to let anyone else push. It was adorable. For the record, this was a bad idea for me.

Truer words were never put on a T-shirt.

This is here for blackmail purposes.

This is how brothers snuggle . . . apparently.

If I post again before Halloween, it'll be a miracle. We can all just admit it. But hopefully there's enough Andy here to keep you all happy until next time. Peace.

Abuelo Party! Abuelo Party!

Last week, a major event happened at our house. And by a major event, I mean My DAD!!!!! There was much rejoicing.

Dunkin is the primary reason why he came.

His flight came in late that Friday night, so I told the hooligans they couldn't go with me to get him. But I did tell them he was going to be here, so early the next morning . . .

Yep. Not a hooligan on this earth can resist the urge to play with Abuelo.

We had been talking about going to the beach that day, but we decided to just hang out. We did end up going to see Shaun the Sheep, which was fun. Josh climbed up on Abuelo and snuggled in, and Abuelo got a nice nap.

Several things happened during the week he was here: lots of playing outside, lots of Dunkin Donuts, lots of stories and snuggles, lots of shenanigans, and NO SLEEP. He'd stay up talking to me and Mike, then get woken at the crack of dawn by a pile of hooligans.

He's probably glad to be home. At least there everyone knows how to get their own breakfast.

One of the biggest adventures that came about was when Abuelo took Mike and Katie to a Cubs game! It was quite exciting. Katie even got to stay up late to go, because the only game they could go to started at 7. They packed snacks, got their hats and shirts on, and set off!





They got nachos and what they thought were hot dogs (actually sausages, not even Polish sausages). They even found a place where you got a cool "First Cubs Game" certificate with a picture of the Wrigley Field sign. Katie even made it all the way to the 6th inning before she decided she was too tired! No meltdowns or anything! She's such a trooper.

Meanwhile, the hooligans and I watched "the Puppy movie" (101 Dalmatians), ate yogurt and animal crackers, and wore awesome hats (well, at least they did).

Then the hooligans went to bed and I lay on the couch feeling super chill and not worrying about anything except my baby girl getting mugged or murdered in that scary place downtown full of super drunk Cubs fans. You know, no big deal.

Then, at 10:30 or so, my dad and Mike carried Katie's unconscious carcass upstairs to her room and then came down and proceeded to geek out about how much fun they had. And tell me secretly that next time they won't bring Katie.


Of course, Abuelo also came bearing gifts and such. He kept joking about my mom trying to stuff jams and jellies into his suitcase. But he did bring some pretty awesome stuff for the kids. I didn't get a picture of Katie's awesome CTR necklace (with a red stone for January, her birth month). But I did get pictures of my boys. "Mom! We're missionaries!"

No pictures of them together, of course. That would be way too much to ask. (And since you probably can't read them, they say "Missionaries in Training")

The hooligans sure knocked 'em dead at church that Sunday. And I may have gotten a little bit emotional thinking about my hooligans being missionaries.

Continuing the tradition

In the couple of weeks before my dad came, Katie made an actual list of things to do with Abuelo (she lost it before he got here). But the only thing we didn't get done while he was here was go to the beach.

This is from one of our other trips.

One of the primary activities on her list was to go outside with Abuelo and play baseball! (She knows her Abuelo very well.)

See that form? Abuelo taught her how to actually throw, and I think she actually hit the ball (with an adult sized bat, by the way) 3 or 4 times! I think they both had a great time. If it hadn't been so humid outside, they would have played all day.

Of course, they couldn't ONLY play Abuelo's favorite game. They had to play Katie's too. Oh hello there, Pretty Pretty Princess.

Look how lovely!

Of course, it didn't take very long for Abuelo to acquire new members of his super-fan club. I think it really started when he showed Joshy the "Shipoopi" from The Music Man. Yeah, Josh is still singing it.

"Shipoopy poopy!"

There was a lot of this all week.

The only other big outing that week was to the zoo. Because, duh. There were a lot of jokes about making sure we got the kids safely out of the monkey house because my hooligans could easily be mistaken for Chimps.

See what I'm saying?

We had a great time taking Abuelo to the zoo. And he spent most of the week taking pictures of everyone and everything. And I won't embarrass him by telling the story about how he tried to email all the pictures from Sunday and Monday to my mom and then delete them off his phone, but ended up deleting them before he found out that none of the emails went through. I would never tell that to everyone.

On Friday afternoon when it was pretty warm, we got out a pretty decent water balloon making thing that was quite efficient and rather messy, and got into a huge water fight in the driveway. When we ran out of water balloons, we broke out the squirt guns.

"Hey Katie, wanna play catch?" *Insert maniacal laugh*

Peter figured out how to squirt people by just squishing the balloons.

In case you're ever in a fight with him: Josh is RELENTLESS.

I should really just learn my lesson and put them in swimsuits no matter how much or little water there's going to be. And of course, when I turned off the hose and told them to just run around and play, Josh decided it was high time he learned to ride a bike.

I think he totally could have done it if his legs were slightly longer.

It was a pretty awesome time. Everybody got soaked (even me, even though I was sitting in the corner in a camp chair holding all the cameras). 

The thing my dad got all excited about was doing all these little home improvement projects we needed, like fixing the door to the garage that had just broken before he came. He had a whole list of things he wanted to do that didn't get done because he was always covered in hooligans. (He did fix the door, but I think that was it.)

He did, however, get to cleaning out and helping me organize my pantry, including moving a bunch of stuff downstairs that was supposed to be food storage (something I have been wanting to do for about three hundred years). The boys took it upon themselves to be in charge of getting canned things out of the closet.

It was pretty hilarious. They lined the cans all the way across the kitchen, then building them up in a few places. They told me they were building a castle.

The rest of the week was basically just living life like a boss, with an Abuelo to make it way more exciting and fun. He came to watch Katie's swimming lessons, made awesome pancakes, and totally bought our groceries at Costco. What more could we have asked?

Stealin' Abuelo's super cool sunglasses.

Abuelo made her a super cool friendship bracelet at Girls' Camp.

My little fishy princess

Yogurt-covered hooligans Skyping Grandma (with Abuelo taking pictures behind the laptop).

Getting Dunkin to take home to the pitiful uncles and aunties.

Right after we dropped Abuelo at the airport.

When we dropped Abuelo off on Saturday afternoon, there were many tears. I don't know if Katie will ever forgive either of us. As a distraction, Mike and I decided to take the hooligans a few more miles down 294 to see the temple!

The temple was actually closed all of last week for cleaning, but we decided to just go walk around and show the kids. We talked about what we do in the temple, what the Angel Moroni statue is for, and how much we love the temple. The boys were like, "Whatever." But Katie took it in pretty well.

Although I think she might have been the most excited when we went into the distribution store to get a couple more maternity garment tops and Katie saw the long white temple dresses.

Touching the temple

They were all enraptured by the fountain.

It was a pretty fantastic week. We were all a little strung out, and I think Abuelo went home and slept for 48 hours straight to catch up, but it was so much fun. Today at lunch, we heard a plane going over our house, and Josh said, "Abuelo is coming back on an airplane!" I had to tell him no, Abuelo was staying home for a while, and there was a lot of pouting. But they're okay.

Now here are a few more pictures of the hooligans that I just loved.

See the two little bums? There was a huge thunderstorm last night, and they wanted to watch the rain instead of get ready for bed.

Look at those Joshy lashes!

The real Peter face. You know I'm right.

Phew! I finished the post! This one has actually taken me a few days to write because I keep getting distracted. But here you go!

Also, seven weeks until my "if you don't go into labor by then we'll do a C-section". Do you think I can last seven more weeks? I don't know either.