Isaac's First Trip in Europe!

Wine Country


It was only for the day though. We went to Bern-Kastel Kues first because we got bad intelligence that there was a wine festival there. Then we headed to Winningen, the Oldest wine fest in Germany, which turned out to be smaller than we expected. The kids had a great time eating ice cream, playing in the water fountain, and sword fighting with balloon swords. We went with our good friends and got our usual stares and glares from the locals since between the two of us we have seven kids. They usually only have one kid per household here and are shocked to see people with more than two especially since ours are all so young (5 years and under). When I was very discreetly nursing Isaac, I got points, whispers, and stares. They are not a modest crowd here, so I am not sure what the big deal is. I was sitting on the ground against a wall with three strollers all around me and a blanket over me, and I kid you not, people would be walking by and stop right in front of me and just stare at me. It was interesting.

Here's the fountain fun!

This is Hannah and Quinn, one of her best friends. They are so cute together. Quinn drew her a picture and brought it to her. He said, "I have a special gift for you." They are both a lot alike, very sensitive and little perfectionists. (I had video of the sword fight between all four of the oldest kids, but I am having trouble with it right now...I'll post it later.)

Hannah didn't have a drip on her after the ice cream, but Genna made up for it in the "messy department."

The guys even made a new friend...

All in all it was a good day. We got home a little later than we hoped, and Isaac did cry most of the way home (to his credit, he hadn't made a peep the rest of the day), but in the end we all got a pretty good night sleep which is all I wanted. In fact, Isaac must have really worn himself out because he slept almost 8 hours last night! It was like an early Christmas for Mommy! Hannah and Daddy camped out in the backyard last night too. I thought that was brave of him and fully expected to find Hannah in her own bed this morning, but she made it! Daddy said it was hard to get her to stop talking and go to sleep at first, but that's to be expected from a chatterbox like herself! I just still think it is so funny that the two of us had such talkative children. When we first got married I would talk to him a lot when he was trying to sleep at night, and Brian used to tell me, "Kelle, this is not a sleepover." What's funny is I don't talk half as much as either of the girls do! :)

Football Buddies

Daddy's home, and he watched his very first football game with his son this morning! He has successfully brainwashed the girls into thinking they love to watch football. Genna kept telling him all morning that she loves football, but she rarely even glanced at the TV while it was on. He also got to walk Hannah to German school.

What a tank! Isaac smiled for the first time today too! He waited all this time until his Daddy was home, but sadly Daddy still missed it because he was walking Hannah to school. I am very excited about this milestone, because he seems so serious all the time with his wrinkled brow.

"Hooray! Hooray!"

That's what the girls said when I told them Daddy comes home today. That's how I feel too! I really could use the help at bath time and bed time especially! It seems like there are so many more tears at bed time than when Dad's here to help.

The Tick

This may be weird, but after he's finished eating Isaac reminds me of a full tick. He's all chubby cheeked, red-faced, and his body is limp. He's cuter than a tick though!

2 Week Check-up

Isaac had his 2 week check up today! He is 10lbs 14 ozs now! He is healthy as a horse! We were at the hospital forever because he had his hearing screening before lunch and then his check-up after lunch. The girls did great up until the last 10 minutes when they were feeling the effects of their missed nap since it was 3:30 before we were loaded back in the van. It was time to nurse Isaac again, but he was asleep so I thought he could make it the 15 minute drive home. I was wrong. About 5 minutes into the drive he started screaming. He screamed until we were up the street from our house and the girls still fell asleep in the car despite the hysterical baby.

"Look, Mom, my hands are on my lips!"

This is Genna's new stance. I've been saying things like, "Oh, you've got your hands on your hips. How cute!" when I catch her doing it. I guess she thought I said lips, because yesterday she said, "Look, Mom, my hands are on my lips!" How funny!

Sleepyhead

He only wore this outfit for an hour before he peed out of his diaper all over it.

He likes to take cat naps on his belly.

He's supposed to be awake in this picture below. He's about to be rudely awaken for his bath before bedtime.

Although he had a fussy day yesterday, he still sleeps a whole lot which is a huge blessing because it gives me more time with the girls. When he is awake, he is not the happiest of all babies, but not the fussiest either. It's a pretty fair deal for mom at this point. Maybe he sleeps so well because he feels guilty for causing me such pain during childbirth. :)

Two year old tantrums

Genna threw a big one today in front of lots of people! She has only thrown this kind of fit once before (at Ikea a couple months before she turned two.) I couldn't calm her down, so we just had to high tail it to the car turning heads all the way. I had promised the girls that they could "ride" the helicopter if they were good, so as we passed it on the way out and Genna realized she wasn't getting to "ride" it she screamed even louder all the way to the car...and the whole time I am unloading gear and buckling up children. Whew! That was embarrassing! As people stared at me, I tried hard to convince myself that each of them had been in the same situation before. It doesn't really work though, I still feel like a bad mom when those things happen.

Other news, more pleasant than that, is that Isaac's cord fell off finally. He's not quite ready for a real bath though because there's still some goo in there. I was thinking of saving that "first" for when Daddy is home since he'll miss so many of Isaac's "firsts."

This morning I had my first Moms and Little Catholics meeting that I am leading with a friend of mine. I did a craft for the kids (I got the idea from a friend back in the states). The kids colored 12 stars and a moon and a picture of Mary (since it is the feast of the Queenship of Mary today) while the moms did a lesson from the book Courageous Love.

Hannah made me happy today at Mass when she immediately started paying attention during the consecration and then turned to ask why there was no "jingle." She meant the bell ring that happens during Sunday Mass. I was just pleased as punch that she was attempting to pay attention during the most important part and that she noticed what was different about the daily Mass (which we only get to do a few times a month.) I was also happy that we made it through our first Mass with Isaac in the mix but without Daddy to help...and on the 4th row at that!

Tonight some of our good friends are coming over to bring dinner and keep us company! What a blessing!

I guess what they say isn't true...

I think I still take as many pictures of Isaac as I did the girls! Maybe I am just camera crazy!

Wake up sleepy head!

He's hanging out in the car seat looking out the window.

Asleep in his big bed with his Belgian knitted duck for a quick snooze while Mommy grabs a shower.

First sponge bath: He really wasn't a fan of it!

Recovering from his first sponge bath.

He's really a good baby! He's easier than Hannah was which is always my hope, since she was so difficult to get to sleep on her own. I had to hold her 24/7 for the first 2 months. At first, I thought he was going to be a little harder than Genna, but now I am not sure. He is not quite as content to just lay around in the middle of the chaos as my Genevieve. He would typically prefer to lay around in his room alone so far. Maybe the girls just overstimulate him right now. We shall see!

One more week without Daddy here! We can't wait to see him!

Hannah's School Update

Whenever I come pick Hannah up and ask her what they were doing (if they are in a circle or something,) she shrugs her shoulders and says, "I don't know." How sad to not have a clue what anyone's saying or doing! She'll catch on soon enough, I guess. Yesterday they were just starting their song time and so I sat and watched it. The teacher even let Genna join in. Hannah had to be encouraged to participate at first, but by the end she was trying her best to do the hand motions and sing the parts she knew. Good thing she's a quick study! She learned a lot of her body parts in German through the song.

Who does he look like?

Here are the hospital pictures for all the kids. Any opinions?

Hannah

Genevieve

Isaac
I'm going to say he favors Genna more, but it's hard to tell. I'll do this again once he's a bit older and see who he favors then.

Loving Siblings

I can't believe I got them all with their eyes open and facing the camera!

Genna wants to hold him forever!

Hannah's usually bored in just a couple of minutes!

Little boys are very different from little girls.

I mentioned that I was peed on 3 times in one day on Saturday. Technically it hasn't actually gotten on me, but it goes all over the place while I am trying to clean him up during a diaper change. Today we went to the doctor to get his circumcision site checked on because I was afraid it was infected. (What do I know? I've only had girls!) It turns out it is fine, but while I was getting him undressed to be weighed he peed again. This time it went in his face! Although I'm sure it happens, I've never heard of this before. Kind of funny though!

Yesterday

Today: Look at the wrinkled brow!

By the way, he's already returned to his birth weight at only 9 days old! What a champ!

News on the girls too...

Hannah was being a bit of a pill this week, acting out I am sure to get attention since Genna and Isaac were sucking the life out of me. She went to kindergarten all week in the mornings and did pretty well. Her big event of the week was getting her hair cut. It took me the whole 3 week trip of Brian's mom being here to convince Brian to let his mom cut her hair to the shoulders. It was very hard for him, but her hair was in bad shape with major split ends and broken hair and I just don't have the time right now to mess with it everyday. So here are the during and after pics:

Hannah was being a stinker during the hair cut. It is a miracle Nanna could cut it straight. Daddy was trying to cheer her up here.

Even Daddy agrees, she looks adorable with her new hairdo.

Genna is just now feeling better! She was very sick with high temps all week. She was adding to the lack of sleep in this house, waking up when the meds wore off in the middle of the night. Today is the first day she hasn't had a fever, but she is still snotty. Yesterday, in the car she was holding a rosary and prayed a Hail Mary. Then she said, "Please, help me to feel better, amen." What a sweet prayer! Poor thing would start shaking every time the meds wore off. She was on round the clock Motrin and Tylenol to keep her fever below 102. I am so glad she is on the mend just in time for Brian to leave on his trip. I am a little nervous about these 10 days, but hopefully I can manage by taking it one day at a time! I suppose I always do.

The rest of the first week...

Monday: Well, the first night didn't go well at all. Isaac slept pretty well in the hospital at night, but the nurses did help out for one 2 or 3 hour chunk a night so I could sleep better. The first night home, he didn't want to stay asleep once I laid him down. So, around 3am, Daddy took a shift so I could sleep for 3 hours or so.

Tuesday: That night, he had another night where he would not sleep longer than 30 minutes in his Moses basket. So my mother-in-law (God bless her!) stayed up with him all night bringing him to me to nurse. That was a huge help to my sanity, because Genna was very sick all this time and VERY needy of my attention during the day.

Wednesday: He had his doctor's appointment. He had to have another jaundice test (there was not an elevation of his levels so they didn't readmit him to the hospital) and get weighed. He had lost a whole pound and weighed 9lbs 4ozs, which I thought was fine since my milk was just starting to come in. But the doc wanted me to bring him in the next day to make sure he would gain some back now that the milk was in. He slept a lot during the day, but I tried to keep him up here and there so he'd sleep better at night. Which (Praise God!) he did sleep better that night. In fact, I had to wake him up to nurse him every 4 hours, which is not easy to do. After all, we did have an impending weight check to make the next day!This is Brian's maternal grandmother (Great Nanna to the kids) who was one of our many visitors in these past weeks.

Thursday: At the weight check, he had to be weighed and then reweighed because the doctors and nurses did not believe it was possible for him to have gained 8ozs over night. They ended up concluding that there had been a mistake in the weight the day before. I, however, was there and don't believe this. I think I am going to have a big big boy! That night, I had some hope that my milk coming in solved the problem, but alas he had another bad night.
We also had our first big spit up that day and had to change clothes. He's not too bad of a spitter, compared to the girls. But if I don't get a good burp, it does happen.


Friday: Our company all left for the airport early and Daddy took the girls with him so Isaac and Mommy could try to rest. My cleaning lady came in the morning and, by noon the house looked great! Then Isaac and I rested in the afternoon. We then went to the evening Mass to celebrate the Assumption of Mary. That night Isaac slept great, going 6 hours between feedings at one point because I didn't wake up at the 4 hour mark! I must have thanked God like a million times that next day.

Saturday: This was our last day with Daddy before his big work trip. We went to a baby flea market, and everyone oohed and aahed over the newborn. One mom told her infant, "You were never that small." I said, "Oh, I bet he was. Isaac is 10lbs." She said, "Oh, then you were even smaller than that! Wow!"

Then we met friends for lunch at Taco Bell with their newborn too. Their little boy is 1 week and a half older than Isaac, and Isaac outweighs him still. Here's a picture (Isaac's in the back, in case you can't tell):
Then we took quick naps and went to the vigil Mass. Last night Isaac slept great again, with me waking him every 4 hours to nurse. Praise the Lord! With Brian gone the next 10 days, I need as many good nights as I can get!

This was also the day I had been expecting all week. The day I got peed on for the first time! I heard this about boys, and I was waiting for it to finally happen. Well, it did! Three times in one day, actually, while I was checking out his circumcision site. I am very bad at cleaning up boys so far. If anyone has any tips, feel free to share. :)

Coming home!

We almost had to stay another day because he was jaundice, but he slid just under the mark and the levels were not on the rise. Monday afternoon when all the tests had been done repeatedly, they let us go home. Unfortunately, that was the day Genna woke up with the high fever. So, just as Hannah could finally hold her brother, Genna now couldn't. And she didn't quite understand why.

Here's my cutie pie!

Here's the proud father with his firstborn son!

In the car seat and ready to head home!

We're ready to go!

Sleeping the day away, but not the night!

Sick Genna making her silly faces for her brother since she can't touch him.

Hannah finally gets to hold him and Genna can't stop making the silly faces!

The Birth Story

Well, my contractions started at 7 minutes apart at about 1pm on Friday afternoon. We left for the hospital at 11:00pm on Friday because the contractions were coming every 4 minutes, and we were afraid the third baby would come faster. Well, I was barely 5 cms. The nurse took one look at my contractions on the monitor and said, "These contractions just aren't going to do the job, so let's get some Pitocin in you." That was not what I wanted to hear. We told her that I would rather go back home. After talking to the doctor, she said we could try walking around the hospital if we wanted to see if it got the contractions going a little more. They didn't want me to go home, so I figured we'd give that a shot. I walked for two hours around the hospital until about 2:30am. I was getting tired and my contractions picked up to every 2 minutes and were getting harder. After all that, the nurse checked me again and my cervix became posterior and my contractions spread out and got easier. I was dilated another cm, but that was it. So, again we asked to go home and they said they would rather us stay. I told the nurse that if she wanted me to stay, I didn't want to be bothered or hooked up to anything so that I could try to rest through the easier contractions since it was 3am and I was tired. So that's what we did. I rested on and off until the shift change around 7am. The contractions were just not consistent enough and I was getting frustrated. I had been having decent contractions for a month and it was getting old. However, I was scheduled for and induction on that Monday anyways. So they offered to break my water, but I wanted to try to walk some more to avoid that as long as I was progressing. So, off to walking the halls again! We walked until about 1pm. I was starving at this point, but so nauseated that I could not eat anything. I just drank juices.

So, at this point (24 hours into labor) Brian and I decide if I had not progressed and my cervix was still posterior that we would agree to have my water broken. The doctor was pretty sure that we would have a baby in a few hours if we did, but there were no guarantees. Well, I hadn't progressed and I could tell the contractions just weren't doing the job no matter how much I walked. So moments after breaking my water, I was in some serious labor with contractions about 2 1/2 minutes apart which soon progressed to 2 minutes apart. They lasted 1 1/2 minutes and so I only had 30 seconds in between. 1 hour and 30 minutes after my water was broken, I needed to push and I needed to push right then! Finally! So, I pushed 4 or 5 times I think and that BIG boy was finally out! If I am anything, I am an effective pusher! Brian was an excellent coach and really got me through it all! I couldn't have done it without pain medicine if he hadn't been there to encourage me. Plus, the day nurse was very encouraging of our choice to be as natural as possible and praised my relaxation. It always helps when you have people who think you can do it!

Isaac created quite the stir among all the nurses and doctors once he was weighed and measured. His APGAR score was 8.9, and the poor thing was stuck so many times to test his blood sugar since he was so big. People keep asking me if I had a C-section and if I had gestational diabetes, but the answer is "No." The doctors had no idea he would be that big, but I had a feeling. After all, I was convinced there was a hidden twin in there for a while.

After we were settled, Brian went and got the girls to come meet their baby brother. Poor Hannah was still a bit sick and so she couldn't hold him. I felt bad because I had been promising her for months that she could hold him in the hospital. Genna fell instantly in love with him! Hannah's affections for him have developed since being home and able to hold him. Here is the video of a redo of her song to her brother. Sorry it is so dark, but at least you can hear it.

I am feeling a bit better, but running on not much sleep. Genna is still very sick, but she should be getting better soon if it's like Hannah's illness in duration. Today, Brian has the girls and Isaac and I are just hanging out so I thought I'd try to start catching up on the blog. There's much more to come!

Blogging Break

I am going to take a mini blogging break because we are all sick (well, at the present moment just Genna and I are, but it is making the rounds through the family,) and it has really knocked us off our feet. Please, pray for us to get well and most especially for Isaac to stay healthy because he would not fare well with these high fevers. Hopefully, God, his guardian angel, and breastfeeding will protect him! Isaac is jaundiced too, so pray for that as well! We go in for another test tomorrow.

I have so many adorable pictures and so much to write, but it will have to wait until we get back on our feet here at the Smith house! God willing it won't be too long!

After just over a 26 hour labor...

Isaac Thomas has finally arrived! He was born at 3:20pm on Saturday August 9th, 2008. He shocked and amazed the whole maternity ward with his hefty 10lbs 4oz and 22 inches in length! I was hoping he wasn't going to cross the 10lb mark, but I was not surprised even though I gained less weight this pregnancy by 5lbs. He was quite late! He is so cute! He has blue eyes and not much hair, but what he has is light brown so far. He looks at least a month old, but the nurses keep saying he looks like a 3 month old. He is a good eater/strong sucker, but his tiny chin is making it hard for me to get his mouth to open wide enough.

The girls are thrilled! Genna seems to be a bit more enamored with him than Hannah at the moment. She sang him a sweet song while she held him entitled I Love My Baby Brother. Hannah seems to be on the mend from her illness just in time. They did have a hard time leaving Mommy at the hospital this morning because I had thought I would only stay one night and now it seems I'll be staying until Monday morning due to Isaac's circumcision late this afternoon and his size putting him in a "high risk" category. Don't worry though, all his tests have been fine, even his blood sugar. He's healthy! Praise God!

I'm posting this from the hospital, so Brian is going to add pictures from home sometime today. Bless his heart! He's very busy being Mr. Mom and visiting with our guests at home.

More details to come about the longest labor I've ever had soon, but I need to get this big boy fed and changed right now!