Slacker

I am such a slacker when it comes to this blog. I think since I post so many pictures on facebook I just feel like everyone knows what's going on because of that and then writing on the blog just seems like another chore I don't want to take time to do...BUT..the 2 older kids are at school and Kayla is sleeping, so instead of cleaning the house( which I REALLY should be doing) I am on the computer once again..
Kayla recently turned 9 months old and had her well visit on Wednesday. She weighed in at 19.5lbs and was 27 3/4 inches tall which put her in the 75% for both. Just to compare, Aubrey was 22lbs and 28.25 inches..thank goodness for baby books, otherwise I would never remember what the other kids were like.
Kayla pulls herself up on EVERYTHING! Yesterday I caught her after she had climbed up one of the stairs and was going for the next one. Time for the stair baby gates! She is very curious, puts anything and everything in her mouth, and is VERY independent. Development wise her doctor said she's doing everything she's supposed to be doing, which is a relief! For a long time she wasn't saying mama, so I got a little concerned but then last week as she was crawling towards me she said " mom". So I then knew she was fine.:)
The other 2 still adore her and we all have a fun time watching what she will do next.

This year Braden is in 1st grade and overall loves school. One thing he's not too fond of is the homework everyday, but he's getting more cooperative with that as long as we do it soon after school ( before he gets too tired). He loves it when they have their "specials", loves getting hot lunch and of course loves having 2 recesses ( typical boy).

Somedays I feel like Aubrey and Braden have switched roles. Typically Aubrey was the more difficult child, but lately I feel like she's been easier then him. She LOVES school this year and asks if she can go everyday. She only goes monday, wednesday, and friday, which I think is good because those days she doesn't get a nap and is usually pretty tired at night so tuesday and thursday are catch up on sleep days. She takes ballet on tuesdays (which I totally forgot about this week, whoops!) which she loves, but I did not sign her up for the nutcracker this year. It's right on Kayla's birthday and just too close to all of the Christmas chaos..so we are skipping it. Aubrey was disappointed,but she will get over it.

As for Jason and I, we are glad that the madness of the spring/summer is over. Fall really slows down for us, which we LOVE. I am taking a cookie decorating class on saturday from my good friend who makes the kids birthday cakes every year and I am organizing a neighborhood garage sale..Jason thinks I'm crazy, but it's really not that much work and I am dying to get rid of all of our JUNK!!! Other then that I am looking forward to apple picking, picking out pumpkins, Halloween, and all things fall! It is my favorite time of year and I just love the coolness outside (at least for today anyway:))

Typical Aubrey..

Our bathing beauty

                                                            Alex and Emily's wedding

 

Dad and Aubrey playing Barbies

 

                                        Our visit to the Detroit Zoo..the kids love this zoo!

Crawling through furniture at Grandma's

                                                                 One of 3 beach days!

I decided to include some pictures that people haven't seen on facebook from the summer.:)

I feel like celebrating!

Maybe it's because it's 67 degrees out and sunny and I'm in a good mood..
or maybe it's because I was able to wear non-maternity jeans today for the 1st time ( not in the size I want, but I'm working on it..)..
but really it's because of this guy....

Today I had my last IEP meeting for Braden..
 Since before Braden was 3 he had been receiving private speech therapy at home as well as speech therapy at school (in preschool) as well as had a resource teacher to help him with whatever he needed at the time. He then started OT when he was 4 ( at home) to address fine motor concerns, coordination, sensory integration..etc..As his OT said, he was a "funky" kid. Braden worked HARD with both therapists and when something was hard he got REALLY frustrated and it was often a struggle for all of us. Dealing with overstimulating environments ( ie. disneyworld) has been a CHALLENGE for all of us..Braden just couldn't process it all and would melt down. But..after all the hard work( and a lot of money), his speech therapist discharged him last summer and his occupational therapist discharged him in january. The last component was school...
 I was nervous about this meeting because I had no clue what they were going to say.. At school he has speech therapy, a resource teacher that goes over academics and social work. At the meeting today, not only did Braden score above average on most of his tests for speech and social work ( his social worker said he's the star of their group)...but on the academic scale he is WELL above average on every test. These tests are given to all of the kids and they showed me where they expect the kids to be at the end of the year and where Braden was..his skills exceed their end of the year targets...I was shocked. I knew Braden was smart, but I didn't realize he was that smart. I am so proud of the boy he has become. He tries so hard, he is so kind, smart, a good friend and such a nice big brother. I just can't put into words how much I love him and how proud I am of him. It's a huge accomplishment.

I had to include this picture because Braden LOVES taking pictures with Kayla :)

It's been a while..

So I've been pretty lazy about the blog lately..I like reading other's posts, but was just too lazy to write my own..
Too many things have happened in the past few months, so I'll just write about our little Kayla.
Yesterday was her 2 month well visit.

She weighed in at 11 lbs, 2oz. ( just to compare, Aubrey was 13lbs, 1oz)
and was 22 inches long ( aubrey was also 22 inches long)

Her pediatrician said that she looked fantastic and you would never know she came out early!
We go back at 4 months and will start talking solids. Hard to believe she will start eating cereal in 2 months!
Kayla is such a sweet baby! She smiles, coo's and laughs all day long. She only gets a little fussy at night, but otherwise is just so happy. I could sit on the couch and snuggle with her all day long.
She only gets up once a night and the time varies depending on what time she goes to bed. She is a tummy sleeper and has a hard time if we are in and out of the car all day because she doesn't get a good nap in the car seat. If all babies turned out like her, I would love to have another..unfortunately there are no guarantees and there is NO WAY Jason would ever want another one.

The older 2 and I have been struggling with colds the past month..it seems like we all get one cold after another..this one has a tremendous amount of dry coughing and then gets mucousy later..fun, fun..I guess it could be worse:)
Otherwise nothing too exciting...we are just happy to be a family of 5!! :)

3 years old!

Today is Aubrey's 3rd birthday! It's hard to believe she is so grown up!

Such an Aubrey look..full of attitude

Opening presents at the family birthday party last weekend

big girl bike!

Trying so hard to get that last candle out

We don't have any party planned for Aubrey, which I completely feel guilty about. Mostly because all of the kids she is friends with are older or younger. So we decided that starting next year ( once she has all her preschool friends) we will start doing kid parties for her as well. Today Aubrey gets to decide what we do, what we eat, and open presents and eat her cupcake. I have a special birthday outfit for her, but she's not in it yet since the kids are playing outside getting dirty. I hope she has a fun birthday even without the party!

No longer a baby..

Today is Braden's 5th birthday and while I am excited, I am also sad he's growing so big..I found myself tearing up last night MULTIPLE times at just the thought of his birthday today..I blame pregnancy hormones, definately makes me more weepy..
I am very proud of all he has accomplished and look forward to watching him grow up. I would be lying if a part of me didn't wish he was still my little baby..

Still in the hospital

1 month old

Silly smiles

Our lil' pumpkin

Our big 5 year old!

The Birthday Bash

Of course I should be cleaning the house right now to get ready for the family birthday party on saturday, but instead I am procrastinating and decided to update the blog..
Braden's 5th birthday party was on Saturday and he had decided that he wanted to invite all of the kids from his preschool, plus the neighborhood kids. All together there were 22 kids invited and from the 22 there were 18 kids ( including mine) that came to the party. It was dinosaur themed but there were things for both boys and girls to do. I had 2 nests full of  "eggs" that were made from coffee grounds and other things around the house. They all had either a dino or a safari animal inside. The kids thought they were really cool. We had 2 tables of crafts. The boy table was dinosaur paddle balls that they could color and the girls had pencil boxes that they could decorate that had a chalk board on top. A friend of mine did both face painting and tatoos for both the boys and girls. We had our sandbox filled with dino's and squinkees so they could do a dino/prize dig. Finally, we had a volcano that oozed out lava and 2 pinata's. When all that fun stuff was done it was time to go inside for pizza, cake, ice cream, and presents.
All of the kids seemed to have a good time and most importantly Braden had a great time. He was just floating on cloud 9 that so many of his friends were able to come to his party, especially his girlfriend Lily..haha
His actual birthday is tomorrow and while we don't have anything too exciting planned ( mostly because he has t-ball), he will get to pick his birthday dinner, get to open up gifts from us, and get to eat a special birthday cupcake. My parents are coming tomorrow so they can keep the kids out of my hair friday so I can get things ready for the party saturday. Saturday's party will be much less exciting, but the kids will be happy to eat cake and ice cream again and this time Aubrey will be excited since she will also get to open up gifts!

Opening the eggs

Crafts

Lily and Braden :)

Face Painting

The Volcano!

Pinata time

The Birthday Crew

The yummy cake!

Little did I realize that I had bought "trick" candles, Braden thought it was hilarious and enjoyed blowing them out numerous times!

The Birthday Boy!

#3

The 3rd and final baby for us....
Historically we've never had a problem getting pregnant and this time was no different..sort of..
We started trying in January and sure enough got pregnant right away, however, quickly after I learned I was pregnant I also had a lot of cramping and some bleeding and was pretty suspicious that i was going to have a miscarriage..Sure enough, the cramping got so painful one night that I was thinking the pregnancy was over and it was. It was early enough that I didn't have to have a DNC, my body got rid of it naturally,but it took a while..So, needless to say my body was a bit messed up for a few months. The first month that things got back on track we got pregnant again. I was very hesitant to tell people and in fact we didn't tell our family until I had an ultrasound at almost 8 weeks and I could hear and see the heart beat ( ultrasounds between 6 and 8 weeks are standard practice at our dr's office). I really didn't get excited until that point, because in the back of my mind I was always thinking I could miscarry again. Since I will be 12 weeks on Saturday and I heard the heart beat again yesterday, I'm a bit more confident that this one is here to stay. Now I am worried that there is something wrong with the baby..I have no evidence to back up this worry, I think again, it's the miscarriage messing with my confidence. However, I don't have enough confidence in all the special tests they do at this point that could alleviate this worry to even get them done. I guess all I can do is trust that this one will be as healthy as the other two..
This pregnancy so far has been different from both my others..I thought for sure I would know what I'm having depending on whether or not I had morning sickness..( no morning sickness with Braden, morning sickness from about 7-8 weeks on with Aubrey). Nope, I did have some morning sickness, but it wasn't everyday and somedays I had it all day, otherdays I only had it in the afternoon and/or evening. The only constant was that when I woke up in the morning I felt good, what happened after that was anyones guess. My morning sickness wasn't too horrible and usually if I would eat some cheese I would feel better. My food aversions and cravings varied from day to day, again unpredictable. I have been more tired, especially the days I work out, but I feel like that's just normal pregnancy. I've had heartburn a few times already, which I only had with Braden in the 3rd trimester when I was BIG. So that's weird...so my guess as to what I'm having changes from week to week..sometimes I think boy, sometimes I think girl. I really have no clue. Jason thinks boy only because he will have to paint 3 different rooms ( we are re-doing Braden's room) but if we have a girl, he will only have to paint 2..haha.. We will find out what we are having probably the week after labor day. We need to wait until 21 weeks because I guess they need to be able to see if the placenta is attached to my scarring..which apparently will create a whole other set of issues when delivery time comes. The great thing about c-sections is that they are planned..the bad thing about c-sections is the more you have the more possiblity for complications due to all the scarring that's involved. So again, all I can do is hope for the best.
Technically my due date is January 14th, but since that is a saturday, my c-section will be sometime the week of January 9th, depending on when my Dr. wants to do it.
So that's the scoop for now..hopefully the rest of this pregnancy will be uneventful and I can just sit back and enjoy it since it will be the last one!