For Laughs

For Mother's Day we went to Village Inn for breakfast on the Saturday before. That's a tradition we had growing up with my mom, so this year I thought it would be fun if we started that tradition as well.

We sat down for breakfast and Audra pointed to the man sitting in the booth right next to us and said as loudly as she could (don't you LOVE it when they do that?), "look dad- you have more hair than that daddy!"

Nice. Well, she doesn't get to say that very often, so I guess she felt the need to mention it.

Then on the day I went into labor with Camille, Claire and I were at the park playing. She found a worm and was fascinated. She kept picking it up and dumping it in the water so the worm could drink. I think she killed it, but I'm not sure. Finally I told her that she should put the worm in the grass because worms like to dig holes. Without missing a beat she said,

"but them don't have hands."

I got a good chuckle out of that.

Lastly, today the older girls got obsessed with these popsicle sticks. I walked over to Camille and saw this:

 
So cute! I did have to take the stick away, however, because I remember when Audra was a little baby I gave her a pen and she immediately poked herself in the eye. Oops! Lesson learned from the first baby...

The 66 Percent

While most of my time has been consumed by a certain 12 day old:

 there are two other children in our household with LOTS of energy and LOTS of needs who have also needed attention:

 Thankfully, they have this guy:

Unfortunately, Ben goes back to work on Tuesday. I am very sad about this. Ben is very excited about this. He has been working harder while on "vacation" these past couple of weeks than when he is working. We are so lucky to have him. So are the dishes, the laundry, the yard, and the house in general.

But starting Tuesday, it's just me, the baby, and the older girls. What will we do???

First Bath

 We finally gave Camille her first bath. At 10 days old, it was time.

Of course, this led to tears (some of the only tears we have ever heard her cry. Seriously, she almost never cries. Perhaps 10 minutes total in her 10 days of life):

 But after the torture, we made her feel snug as a bug and she was happy again:

 Audra brushed Camille's hair to make her look pretty. She spent about 10 very cautious minutes doing this- she was super gentle and it was really cute:

 And here is the finished product:

 A friend from church crocheted her booties and headband- aren't they precious? I love them! And, the one eyed open look? That's her favorite look when she is not fully awake. Which is most of the time.

Snapshots

Here are a few snapshots I have taken the last few days. Most of you saw the BEAUTIFUL pictures my friend Jenn took of Camille that she posted on Facebook, and I will post them here when I get them, as well as advertise for her- I am so excited for her! She's starting her own photography business, and as you can see- she is REALLY good! So I'll talk more about her and her fantastic photos in a later post.

So these ones are not as good. Just life at home.

Here's daddy with his baby girl:

 How can this be comfortable?

I tried to get some good shots of Camille with some flowers my mom sent me in the hospital. Really I wanted a picture of the flowers- aren't they gorgeous?

 Then here are some comparison shots.

This is Audra as a newborn:

And Claire:

 And Camille:

Who do you think she looks like?

Happenings

As mentioned before, today was Audra's dance recital. I almost had to miss it due to a check-up scheduled for Camille (more on that in a minute), but was thankfully able to change that so we could go. I would have been really sad to miss her recital! As it was, it took all of my energy and necessitated a nap upon return, but it was great to be able to watch her perform.

Here's our little ballerina in action:

It was our first time taking Camille out, so we had to stock the diaper bag for a newborn (a feat in and of itself), but thankfully she slept the entire time- not a peep came from her. It was wonderful! And, Claire was also fantastic. She danced in the aisle for the first little bit, then played Angry Birds the rest of the time. She was in Heaven.

And, here is a little update on Camille.

Just like our other two kiddos, Camille is having a hard time gaining weight. This is nothing new for us. My milk takes awhile to come in, so for the first few days Camille wasn't getting enough to eat. Our insurance does this awesome thing where they send nurses to your house to make sure the baby is doing OK, so per usual the nurse came over and weighed Camille and she had dropped weight. She got as low as 5 lb. 11.5 oz. And another visit was scheduled- for today right during the recital. Luckily, the nurse was accommodating and switched the time so I could go to the recital. Even better, my milk came in last night/this morning and Camille started gaining weight. She was up to 5 lbs. 14 oz. this morning, and is now doing really well. She is eating great. She still mostly just sleeps and sleeps. Except at 3:30 am. That is her "party time"- oh, lucky me. Nights have been hard- but what is new about that? Newborns are always tough, there's no way around that. Hopefully now that she is eating better she will start sleeping better at night.

Which brings me to Ben. Thank goodness for him! He has been so great- he does EVERYTHING. Dishes, laundry, playing with the kids- even taking Camille at 6:30 in the morning when I can't handle being up anymore. I am so lucky to have him- he is the greatest. He has one more week off, and then I have to step up. I am not looking forward to it.

 I'm not doing too great. This recovery has been harder than Claire's. Audra's recovery was terrible, but I didn't have older kids to take care of so that helped. This time around I feel nauseous, light-headed, tired, and in a lot of pain. Plus with the milk coming in- well, that hasn't been great. Again, thank goodness for Ben- I seriously lucked out with him.  But, once again, this all begs the question: why do we women do this to ourselves? This SUCKS! But, I guess in the end you end up with something pretty great, which makes it worth it:

The Best Laid Plans

This week was supposed to be all about Audra. Wednesday was her pre-school graduation. Today is her Birthday. Tomorrow is her dance recital.

Then Camille came early and things no longer became about Audra.

I suppose this is just the beginning of the siblings vying for their parents attention.

Ben got to go to Audra's pre-school graduation. I got to see the video. Audra wasn't too traumatized that I missed it.

Then today I missed out on the circus with the girls, Ben, and grandma and grandpa. I bought the tickets a month ago for us all to go to celebrate Audra's Birthday. I had to miss it, but I'm pretty sure they all had a great time. We did have cake here and opened presents so I saw that.

Here she is at graduation- doesn't she look so excited?

 And at the circus:

 She picked out her Birthday cake- she liked the purple.

 She got this doctor outfit:

 And both girls had to be doctor to Camille:

 This doll quickly became a favorite for both girls:

Happy Birthday Audra!

Meeting the Baby Sister

So far the girls seem to really love their baby sister. Neither one of them can remember her name, so it's always just "baby" but they are really good at being gentle and they keep wanting to touch her.

Camille and I came home from the hospital today. I wasn't planning on coming home until tomorrow, but this morning one of the doctors came in and I told him that I was hoping to be discharged Thursday morning. He said, "that sounds great. There are some crazy women who want to leave after only a day." I thought, "well, I'm kind-of crazy. Maybe I should go home early." I was feeling pretty good, and I realized that I could be uncomfortable and on meds at the hospital or uncomfortable and on meds at home. I might as well be home. So, we came home.

I feel like it is surreal that we now have a third child. I've  had 9 months to prepare, but it still feels weird. But, I am super excited to get to know this little one and to have her in our family!

New Arrival

We got a surprise early visit from our new little one early this morning!

I'll start with the fun stuff and then tell you the nitty-gritty.

Name: Camille Marie
How did we decide on the name? This was actually a really tough decision. We have a list of about 20 names, but none really stood out to both of us. But, Ben really likes Camille, and he got to have the bigger say in the name because I chose Audra, and we both chose Claire- it was his turn to get the most say. I am the one who came up with the name, and I really do like it- I'm glad Ben  chose that one, and not Elaine like he really wanted.

Plus, Camille fits into a family "theme" in two ways:

1. It's French, as are Audra (a variant of Audrey) and Claire.
2. It starts with a "C" so it fits into our names of all being A, B, or C names.

Weight: 6 lb 7 oz (the dr. thought she was going to be an 8 lb. baby, but when you decide to come 3 weeks early, you don't get to get all nice and fat. Now she is our smallest baby we've had.)

Height: 19.5 inches

Hair color: black.

Looks like: She definitely has my nose (poor thing), my ears, and Claire's face shape. She actually looks a lot like Claire did as a baby. She has Ben's long toes and fingers.

Eye color: We think blue, but she rarely opens her eyes, she just sleeps and sleeps so we're not totally sure.

 Look at that hair! And I had ZERO heartburn my whole pregnancy, so I really thought she would be bald.

Now for the story:

Last night Ben and I were having a really sweet moment putting Claire to bed. Instead of yelling, "NO! I don't want to go to bed!" or "Leave me alone!" or "Don't hug me!" she was saying sweet things like, "Mommy, I want a hug. And a kiss. And a tickle." I bent down to give her a hug and my water broke.

We didn't even have our hospital bags packed. We did at least get all the baby stuff down from the attic on Saturday and got the carseat installed, so that was good.

We called Ben's parents and they came and picked up the girls (who I have NEVER seen so excited- they were so happy to be able to spend the night at their house).

We got our bags packed and headed to the hospital. They checked us in.

Since we wanted a c-section and I had just eaten a large dinner- not knowing I was going to go into labor- we had to wait 8 hours before they could do the surgery. We were planning on the surgery being at 5 AM. But Camille had other plans. Why do my girls always have to do things their way instead of following basic instructions- like staying in the womb until the scheduled time.

At midnight I started having contractions, and by 12:45 AM they were prepping me for surgery.

At 1:49 AM she was born. And she didn't make a sound- she is the quietest little baby. Which is good- we have earned an easy baby! Hopefully she remains this way. Today she spent most of the day sleeping and learning to nurse- which she figured out immediately. She is a great eater! And when she cries, it is only for a minute until I change her position.

The c-section went well, even though Ben couldn't be there at the  beginning while they got me all drugged up. I hated not having Ben there- it was a little scary at first, but everything went well.

Today, we are now just exhausted from a long night! But, Camille is perfect in every way. The big sisters will be here in just a few minutes to meet their new sister.

I love having a newborn to hold! I'll post more pics and info later.

Just Clowning Around

 Audra made this little "outfit" at pre-school and the girls have had lots of fun being a clown.

 Claire put this creepy bunny outfit on the other day and was so proud of it- she insisted 

on me taking a picture of her.

Summer Fun

After a super long and cold winter (with only very little moisture), it looks like we are now headed for a super long and HOT summer. It was 89 degrees yesterday, and it felt like it was over 100 degrees. With Ben working super long hours, I decided to take the girls to a local park that has a little river and some sprinklers. They had a blast. It was fun watching them, but I definitely felt VERY pregnant and VERY hot! This baby can come any time now- I would not mind at all.