9 Months

Luke is 9 months today. It goes without saying that I can't believe it. And yet, it seems like he's been here forever.

I obviously haven't kept up here with his monthly updates. But him being the third kid in 3.5 years, I say if I keep them all clean, fed, and mostly happy we've had a great day. Either way, I feel bad about not keeping up. I've jotted down notes and thoughts as the days, weeks and months have gone by and I'll do a 'catch up' post eventually. I have some time tonight after a semi-hectic Thanksgiving, and I didn't want to let another month pass me by.

Luke.

Where do I start.

He is the happiest, most smiley, easy going baby -- until its nighttime. He isn't super cranky at night, but he does not like to sleep for long stretches. Its that or he just really, really likes to see me all the time. I'm lucky if hes only up twice each night. But I'm not complaining. He's easy to get back to sleep and I don't mind the sweet cuddles in the still of the night. Or maybe I'm just that sleep deprived that I'm so tired that I think I like them.

But back to his happy. His giggles are infectious. I swear he could get the whole world to laugh with his giggles. He has this big gummy smile that stretches ear to ear and head to toe. When he gets really excited he kicks his feet and shakes his hands and its like his whole body can't handle all his happiness. He has a sly little smile that sweeps all the ladies off their feet, he's been a charmer since day one.

Never having brothers myself and not really understanding the whole 'boy' thing, I am absolutely shocked almost everyday at the 'boy' things he already does and how much of a 'boy' he seems. Now before you go saying I'm boxing him into a boy category, this boy is surrounded by princesses, pink, dresses, my little ponys, etc, etc. If its girly, we have it. And this boy could care less. I figured he'd be interested because his sisters are playing with the stuff - but nope. He's only interested in speed crawling around, finding balls to roll, toilet paper to unravel, laying in the dog bed, finding wheels to spin, inspecting toy cars, and trying to escape up the stairs. Its amazing to me that gender differences could be present so early.

Milestones for this guy have been bittersweet. I'm so excited to see him do more and explore more, but really I want to keep him little as long as possible. Its totally selfish and I need to get over it, but I'm a mom, we linger on this stuff, its what we do. When they're 9 months old they start to turn that corner to toddler-hood and just as I settled in to 3 kids, he's turning it up a notch with all his new activities and exploration. I'm not totally ready for this shift, but its happening so I'm rolling with it. He's been army crawling since around 5-6 months and he's been pretty darn fast. And then this past  month he's progressed to full on speed crawling - oh and standing and walking down couches and pushing toys around the room wherever he wants to go. He's an eager beaver to be with his sisters allll the time.

He got his first haircut this month too. His old man clown hair was pretty patchy and he had two mullet tails in the back that needed to be addressed. So with his not so much hair on top, we took him in when Jordan was getting a cut and trimmed it all up. It looks like he actually has more hair now that its trimmed and neat.

On that same day, he popped through his first tooth. I didn't really appreciate two major milestones in one day and I'm even more sad that as those teeth keep moving in, the big gummy smile will be gone.

We celebrated Luke's first Halloween - he was Harry Potter! He had no idea what was going on, but he was really stinking cute!! Luke got his first taste of Thanksgiving, he gobbled till he wobbled and loved tasting all the yummy food! And to finish off his first 9 months, he met Santa! He didn't really smile, he looked confused (probably because his sisters were screaming and refused to go near Santa), but he sat with Santa for a couple pictures and that was that. 

My hope is that Luke uses his happiness to spread good throughout his community and the world as he grows. He is such a fun baby and I feel incredibly lucky he's ours. We love you Luke! 

Halfway to One

It can't possibly be true that Luke is already 6 months old. I'm in complete denial he is halfway to one already. He has brought so much to our family and while I'm sad to see him grow, I'm excited to watch who he becomes.

We've had a laid back few months this summer with our family of 5 and I wouldn't have it any other way. We had great visits with extended family. Trips to the beach. Fun with friends. We didn't do anything over the top or over-planned. It was the best. And Luke enjoyed all of it. He goes with the flow better than most babies I've encountered. I guess that goes with being a 3rd child. 

 He is the happiest baby, laid back and sweet to the core. I think he thinks he's pretty funny too. He pretty much always has a smile on his face and loves to laugh at his sisters. He's a little charmer and knows how to turn it on. 


He's mastered army crawling, working on hands/knees crawling and loves his jumper. He especially loves crawling over to the fireplace finding the silver keyhole in the carpet, playing with it while his head hits the wall. Or running into the tv stand with his head, he likes that too. Fart sounds are his favorite to make, along with blowing bubbles and making loud noises to be heard in all the girlie commotion in the house. He rocks the receding hair line - may be going blonde?- and also is growing his own brand of double rat tail in the back. 




I love watching him grow and learning about the person is, although I wish he'd do it a whole lot slowly

3 months old!

Luke is 3 months old already! 

3 months old!

In true third child fashion, I totally missed his two month "birthday." I still took the obligatory crib growing pictures, but in the midst of crazy life, I missed sitting down and writing about him. So, hopefully, from now on, no more missing monthly milestones! 

2 months old!

Luke is truly a joy. He is happy, he goes with the flow and he is starting to come into his personality. He likes to giggle at daddy, he's started to roll from belly to back and he's interacting more with the world around him! He loves looking up at his toys, batting at them, and grabbing them. I can tell he is probably going to be another orally fixated kiddo like his big sister Natalie is/was. 

To catch up a little on events happening in his little life, right after he turned a month old we found out he has a dairy and soy intolerance - meaning his gut doesn't like to digest the large proteins found in dairy and soy, which cause inflammation and subsequently blood in his stool. A lot of kiddos who have this sensitivity and intolerance have reflux issues, are very cranky, and may not grow well. Thankfully we don't have to deal with any of the other symptoms, we just have to deal with keeping his inflammation down and the blood out of his stool. So that means I can't have any dairy products or milk protein, along with soy. And I don't know if you realize how much soy is in everyday products! Its quite challenging to navigate this new diet change at times, but I've found my go-to products and its working out okay! Eating out is quite difficult and near impossible minus a couple places, so its a lot of home cooking and 'real food' so its not a bad change at all. I feel the greatest I've ever felt without dairy and soy in my system, and I know Luke feels better without it! 

So our happy little guy is growing faster than his sisters and to us, seems like a chunk! In chunky baby standards, he is far below that, but we love his cheeks and his mini rolls. 

We celebrated his first Easter with my parents in the past two months and his big sister Natalie turned 2! 

He finally met my grandparents who were living in Florida until the beginning of May, and he of course loves meeting everybody and likes to have 'conversations' with all of them. 

He really balances out the crazy of the girls as he just seems to go along with whatever we're doing as a family. He loves to go for walks and runs in the double stroller. He looks back at me in his carseat, he smiles & giggles the whole way. He is our first kiddo to like the car and sleeps in his carseat pretty much all the time whenever we're in the car. 

I'm still often times in shock that we have a boy. I just said the other day, its starting to feel like he's a boy. Up until now he was a baby, and all babies pretty much act the same and its sometimes hard to see past the blur of the demanding newborn phase. Lately I've been thinking of all the things he will do that will bit a bit different than the girls. The things him and Jordan will do as a father/son combo. And how my role of being a boy mom will differ from being a girl mom. 

I'm excited to see where this journey and life with Luke takes us, and I can't wait to watch him grow! 

Until next month.... 

Love you as high as the airplanes fly! 

Natalie turns 2!

My baby girl. My fiesty, slightly challenging and beautiful blue eyed girl. My Natalie Jane. 

TWO! 

Two whole  years have gone since we welcomed her into our family, and so many changes have happened in our lives. Natalie is so full of life and we are so lucky to call her ours. The past year has seen a deployment & a new family member, but the one constant has been Natalie's silly and busy disposition. 

Natalie feels big. Her happiness is big and her sadness is big. And we always know how she's feeling. I honestly don't think I can say it enough, she keeps us on our toes for sure. She finds things to get into that would never cross my  mind as something a child would be interested in. She's that kid that if she's quiet, you know trouble is happening. She still enjoys picking up stray pieces of dog food and munching on them. I'm not sure how that is still appetizing to her! Thankfully, she has stopped putting small toys and other things in her mouth, I guess we'll keep working on the dog food thing, haha. 

She is a rough and tumble girl. She packs a big punch in her little 22lb frame. She is tall for her age, but doesn't have much meat on her bones - probably because shes so busy! She falls down, wipes her knees and gets right back up. Her determination and strong will are quite obvious already. She likes to climb up over the ends of beds and flop down on the mattress. She will climb over the couch, throw the cushions off and jump for hours if we let her. She climbs to the highest tower at the park (just to give me heart attacks) and acts like its no big deal. She is quick and it is hard to predict what her next move will be. If I take my eyes of  her for too long she'll surely do something that she shouldn't. I now understand why they invented backpack leashes for kids. And I've totally thought about getting one, she's the type of kid they make them for, lol! She will follow Evie around and pretty much tackle any physical task Evie is doing and she keeps up with the big kids in the neighborhood and at Evie's preschool. She thinks she is done being 2!

In contrast to her big sister, she couldn't be more different and I absolutely love it. She is funny, witty and knows how to turn on the sweet to get what she wants. Her little voice and vocabulary melt my  heart and I love when she starts saying new words. Lately its "Mama, watch." or "Daddy, watch". She has this quiet little pause in her words that I don't ever want to forget. Luke is "baby Oote" and her favorite phrase "Baby Oote - sad" (she is quite observant!). She's gaining new words and phrases daily and soon will be speaking in full sentences - at which point I'm sure she'll never stop! She loves her baby brother and Evie is her favorite play mate. They typically play pretty well together and for that I am extra grateful. 

I can't go without saying that Natalie has taught me so much about being flexible and pushes my limits of sanity at times. She challenges my type A parenting skills in many ways, and makes me question if I'm doing a good job with her. I've learned that I must learn to parent her the way she needs, not the way *I think* she needs. Techniques used for Evie probably won't work for Natalie -  and those probably won't work for Luke. But to raise thoughtful, kind & productive children I must adapt along the way. And without Natalie, I'm not sure I would have learned that so quickly into this parenting journey. For that I am thankful for her (along with many other reasons). 

Natalie lights up every room she is in and people take notice of her. Her smile & personality can captivate everybody around her. She is our spirited child and so full of life. This world would certainly be more dull without her in it. I can't say what I think she'll do one day, but I know whatever she will breathe life into it, spread joy and excel. 

For all of her silliness and challenges she can bring, when she is sweet its the absolute sweetest. She gives the best snuggles, is the biggest daddy's girl and loves giving hugs and kisses. Her dad, Papa & Grandpa are for sure  her favorite people and literally run and scream for them when she sees them. The little moments when she gives Luke a hug, grabs my hand, gives big kisses are the best moments in my day. Her tender side isn't always on display, but it sure is awesome when it is. 

Happy Birthday my sweet Natalie Jane, I am so proud to be your mommy! 

Luke is 1 month old!

How is this even real? This has been the fastest month of my life - Luke is already 1 month old!!!

He truly completes our family. He is snuggly, sweet & goes with the flow of our crazy house! 

He doesn't sleep very well for me and is up every 2-3 hours, which makes for some long days for me, but somehow we are all surviving. I think because we're *pretty sure* he's our last, I'm trying to savor every little detail of newborn life and soak it all in. Being grumpy doesn't change the fact I'm still not sleeping, so I try and focus on being happy. 

His big sisters adore him - probably more than he likes! They are such big helpers and have really taken well to the fact they have to share mom. At least as well as a 3.5 year old and 1.5 year old would be expected to do. 

He has already made three trips over to the west side of the state - newborn pictures, power outage trip & a wedding in GR. Yeah, about that power outage. We had a pretty serious windstorm when he was just about two weeks old. We lost power for 4 days, in the winter, in Michigan. The first night we stayed in our house hoping it would be a quick fix. We woke up to a 55 degree house and realized it was the biggest power outage in Michigan's history - over 800,000 people in the state didn't have power. We packed up and headed to Kalamazoo to stay at my parents until our power was back on. It was quite an adventure for a 2 week old! 

Luke is simply newborn squish perfection.

He might actually be our first chunky baby - I guess time will tell us that! 

He is starting to smile and he tries to make cooing sounds already. 

Luke Daniel

February 24th, 2017

The day we welcomed our son. A son. I'm still in shock that we have a son! 

We didn't find out if we were having a boy or girl during our pregnancy, and much to our surprise our two girls had a little brother. We were totally expecting to have three little girls based on the family track record of having all the same gender children. 

The end of my pregnancy had a bit of extra drama to it. Mostly because Jordan deployed when I was about 30 weeks pregnant and came home 5 days before our due date. I wasn't really worried about having our baby early, but at the end I was more nervous than I'd like to admit. So, on a Sunday, when I was 39+ weeks pregnant Jordan came home from his deployment! We couldn't be happier! He had quite the adjustment to go through with the time zone changes, and we were so grateful Luke decided to wait a few days after Jordan got home to make his appearance. 

On Thursday morning the 23rd I was in the office for my non-stress test. I was having a few minor contractions here and there. Later that afternoon I realized I was having a few more minor contractions than usual, so I decided to start timing them. They were about 5-7 minutes apart, but didn't hurt. So I just carried on about my day. We had dinner as a family and I decided to take a bath after dinner to see if that would slow down or stop these minor contractions. Boy was I wrong! They not only got more consistent, they started to be more noticeable. 

We decided to call Jordan's parents to head over to our house from across the state to watch the girls for us. By this time, it was time to get the girls in bed - about 8pm. Jordan's parents would be to our house around 10pm, but I wasn't sure we should wait that long for them. The contractions were still just about 4-5 minutes apart, but they were increasing in intensity -- still very managable, but just getting stronger. So we called our awesome neighbor, Michelle, over to hang out at our house while the girls slept. We had a 40 minute drive to the hospital, so Jordan and I got on our way.

After waiting for a triage bed, three IV attempts and sitting on the most uncomfortable bed while  having consistent painful contractions, we finally got over to our birthing center room. Beaumont's Royal Oak hospital has this AMAZING birthing center that is beautiful and perfect for a natural birth experience with the security of a large hospital and all that comes with it. A natural birth wasn't always in my plans, but after two failed epidurals and having quick labors, I decided to go for it. The design and calming atmosphere of the birth center sold me on it to be honest. I figured I'd been stuck in bed with a 'natural' delivery with the girls, so I wanted the freedom to do a natural delivery how I felt it was right. I didn't have any expectations or a plan. I figured my body would know what do to and boy did it ever. I was able to walk around, take a bath, sit with Jordan. Speaking of Jordan, the poor guy was still adjusting to the time zone changes and was completely exhausted by this point.

Anyway, we were back in our room just before midnight. At midnight it was officially my due date. Of course contractions continually got more intense as time wore on. Jordan was completely and utterly amazing through all of this. He said things I needed to hear to focus through contractions, he let me squeeze him, yell in his ears, and he gave me everything I needed in those moments.  By 1:30 I was starting to lose my focus and Jordan and I needed backup. Our wonderful nurse came in (she had been in periodically before this) to be an extra support. Her voice was like speaking from the heavens during a contraction giving me guidance and support through the rough moments that I lost control. I started to feel the pushing urge, so we called the midwife back in and they had to coach me to keep me from pushing for a bit because I wasn't totally dilated and my water hadn't broke at this point.

At this point the contractions SUCK. Like really, really suck. I'm pretty sure some swear words and yelling were happening at this point. I have no concept of time at this point, and I remember getting into a hypnotic type state between contractions and almost sleeping in the short time between. After I was fully dilated and they had broke my water they finally let me push. I felt the terrible "ring of fire" and thought - HECK NO - this sucks, lets get this baby out! So, in one contraction, our baby was born!

Jordan looked down and said "IT'S A FREAKING BOY!!!!!!!!"

Content snuggling with my boy! 

At 2:14am, weighing 7lbs 6oz, our son was born. I couldn't believe it. I asked at least 5 times in the first minute if it was really a boy. They even turned him around at one point for me to see he was indeed a boy! A part of me knew all along he was a boy, I just had a feeling the whole pregnancy.

Jordan and I weren't ready to decide on his name yet, so Jordan fell asleep (he literally passed out on the couch in the middle of the room) and I snuggled with my new, fresh little boy for a couple hours. He made one little squeak when he was born and then settled right in to his mellow-I'm-the-third-kid status.Those first few hours were amazing. No extra visitors, delayed weighing and all the medical business and it was just us. It was great. Natural delivery really only sucked and was hard for the last 45 minutes, and having a supportive husband and a great nurse made it possible. All in all, it was everything I could have imagined or wanted.


After Jordan and I both got some rest, and we could really look at him. Another baby with a full head of thick, dark hair!

We decide to name him Luke Daniel. Our little boy! 

Breaking Radio Silence

Well geez. Its been a while.

So many times my brain wanted to come to this place to be able to sit and write about what is/was happening in our lives. And so many times pure exhaustion and busy-ness got in the way of sitting down to get my thoughts out. Life has been exciting, tiring, busy, a little rough at times & full of love since. Lets catch up some, shall we?

We found out we were expecting baby #3 last June and things got busier and busier as we got closer to our due date. Summer went by in a flash, especially as I headed back to work last August. I am back in the workforce as a NICU nurse at a local hospital in a contingent position that works out so well for our family dynamic. I am so lucky to have landed this job. Its a small, close knit NICU and I work 1-2 days a week depending on the needs of the unit. It was so great to be welcomed so kindly by my new co-workers and its a good "break" for my mental state to be doing something for myself and my career on the days I'm at work. I was also fortunate enough to take a lactation counselor course, and am now a CLC. I hope to be able to continue on to get my IBCLC soon and work in that realm as it relates to NICU families, I'm super excited about it!

Jordan has been hard at work expanding his career and gaining experience. He had the opportunity to apply and interview with Delta, and he got his dream job! He will be starting work with them within the next year, and I'm beyond proud to see him working so hard and achieving his goals for his career. On a stinky note, he had his first deployment with the Air Force for two months over the holidays. It was quite the adjustment for all four of us, but we somehow managed. We made it through colds, teething babes, sleep anxiety, the holidays, me being in my third trimester of pregnancy & Jordan dealing with being alone and away from his family. Thankfully we don't have to face another deployment for some time, but I'm glad the first one went pretty smoothly by all accounts!

Evelyn started preschool last fall and absolutely loves it. She is learning so much and making friends. She's still a little shy and sensitive about certain things, but she is more empathetic than most adults and a joy to be around.

Natalie is our little spitfire still. She keeps us on our toes and has us laughing daily. Its crazy how a 1.5 year old knows when she's being funny and how to get a positive response out of us. She is silly and sweet and she is so much fun to be around.

And some of the biggest news to have happened in our family is that we welcomed  A BOY into our world at the end of February!! We didn't find out gender this time around, so we were all shocked. Jordan returned from his deployment 5 days before we had our son, so it was perfect timing on all accounts! Stay tuned for another post about his arrival & all things pregnancy & baby.

All in all, life has been beautiful. We have our challenging days and our beautiful days. We take each day as it comes and laugh in the chaos that is this season of life. We're adjusting to life as a completed family of five, and we can't be any happier about the journey we all have in front of us!

Adding Another

Preface:: I wrote this the day I found out we were pregnant with baby #3. I love the perspective, the excitement and the newness of it all.

Wow - today June 15th, 2016 -the most amazing, beautiful, random thing happened.

Earlier in the week, coupons for pregnancy tests popped out of the coupon machine at Meijer. I figured its a good idea to have them around the house. So today I went and got two packs of them (they were on sale on top of the coupon!) and I don't know why but I figured I should take one this afternoon. The girls were sleeping and I literally had ZERO inkling of being pregnant. So I took it and there it was. A faint, hardly can see it, are my eyes playing tricks on me line. Serioulsy, SERIOUSLY?!

I called my friend Kate totally FREAKING out. Is this real life? She urged me to take another one and the other box I had picked up happened to be digital tests. It was mid-afternoon, and the line was so faint there was no way the digital (less sensitive test) would be positive. But 3 minutes later, there it was PREGNANT in big real words. Ahhhhh! This is crazy to me.

 I was shaking the rest of the day. I had butterflies the rest of the afternoon and felt like a crazy person. Jordan was of course at work when I took the unsuspecting test and I had to quick think of a way to tell him since the announcement of Natalie's pregnancy was more uncertain with just moving to Oklahoma.

SO off to Pinterest I went. Evie was doing a fun craft project with golf balls for fathers day and it got me thinking. I have some colored golf balls that my father in law had picked up for me a few years back and I dug up two pink ones. I wrote Evelyn and Natalie on each ball. I found a cute note that went something like...Roses are Red, Violets are Blue, I have a surprise and here's the clue.....

I was visibly shaking waiting for him to be home and he walked in I had the video rolling. And he didn't even notice it on the counter for a bit. And then he was confused. Oh so confused. He kept thinking we were going on a golf trip as a family since fathers day is this weekend. I had him open the card which had a heart with Baby S. 3.0 and Feb/Mar written on the inside. Behind the card I had a white golf ball with a ? on it. He was still clueless. At this point I'm laughing, crying and just laughing some more. He looks at me and finally gets it. He was truly just as shocked and surprised as I was.

Its amazing how early pregnancy can change your thinking and change your life in a few short days. By some Godly intervention here I was with random pregnancy tests, totally unsuspecting, finding out we are expected our third baby! Its amazing!

Evelyn and Natalie are 22 months apart, and this little bugger will be 21 months from Natalie. We honestly love, love, love the spacing of our girls and were hoping to get that spacing again, but maybe more like 23-24 months ;) But, here we are. Happy, surprised, excited and anticipating what this third child will bring to our family. Evelyn has brought sweetness, Natalie has brought hilarity, and I can only imagine what this little one will bring :)