Nana's house - ready for spring

Lucy stayed the night at nana and papas house last night. Kyle and I have been so fortunate to have Steve and Susan watch Lucy on Tuesdays and Wednesdays for the past 9 months. It saved us a lot of money in daycare costs. But even cooler than money is how close Lucy is to her grandmother. Lucy and Susan have built such a loving bond. I swear, Lucy thinks nana is the most amazing person ever (and she's right). Lucy is sad when it's time to leave (even if she's been there for two days!).

Here are some photos Susan sent me of their time together yesterday. I think Lucy is ready for this snow to go away and to put her shades on outside!

Princess Lucy

This morning Lucy and daddy made a princess crown!

I survived!

My mom (above) had been staying us since before the babies were born.
We gave her a few days off here and there, but I never had to face the reality of three kids by myself for an extended period of time. Until today.
I was a little worried when I had changed my sixth diaper before 8am. But luckily the kiddos took it easy one today. Here's the photo we sent Kyle while he was at work:


Luckily, Kyle called in reinforcements for tomorrow (Susan!).

I love this picture of Susan and Audrey:

Athlete Profile: Lucy Ring

Name:   Lucy T. Ring

Hometown:   Plainfield, IN

Age:   21 mo.

Nickname:  Goose
Sports:  Golf (putting mat in living room),                             Basketball (at Nuna's),
              Track & Field (chasing Frannie and                                Yoshi, or Reggie)

Favorite Letter:   W (dub-da)

Favorite Color:    Purple

Favorite TV Personality:   Elmo

Favorite Toy:   iPad

Favorite Team:    Colts

Favorite Food:    Cheese

Favorite Book(s):    I Wish I Had Duck Feet, Maisy, Elmo, many others…

Favorite Song(s):    Nana Loves Lucy (Nana original), Hush Little Baby,
                                Green Grass, many others…

Editor’s Note:    We love you so much Lucy.  You make us smile every day.

 

Tea anyone?

Who wants to be Alice when you could be the mad hatter! Happy un-birthday to you, and you, and you!

"Lucy, what would you like for breakfast?"

"Ceral (cereal), Ceral, Ceral!"
Hmmm...


"Momma's gotta change Nolan's diaper"

"No-no (Nolan), No-no, No-no (insert self-applause)"
Interesting...

"Lucy, what would you like to play?"

"iPad, iPad, iPad! (Throws hands in air as if celebrating)"
Alright, this is getting weird...

Today I noticed that Lucy seems to be chanting all of her responses to me. I'm thinking this has something to do with kyle's brother, David, and his annual caps tournament. Lucy saw David Saturday morning before he left for one of the biggest, most competitive events of the year.
Before he left, he was working on perfecting her cheerleader skills, and it looks like it worked. Sometimes everything will be quiet and all of a sudden she will bust out in "Day-bid (David), Day-bid, Day-bid"

Well uncle Dabid, we hope you did well and kicked some "Butt, Butt, Butt"

Dear Audrey - 1 month

Dear Audrey,

I can't believe that you're already a month old! I debated asking Nuna to write this post, since you two have already developed quite a bond. At night she usually will take you into her room and you will lay with her while she calls papa or one of her sisters. You can recognize her voice immediately.

You are such an easy baby. Though you usually look a bit scared, you are content just looking around while awake. You love to be held and you hate having a dirty diaper!

Your sister Lucy likes to say your name and rock your cradle. Sometimes we have to remind her not to rock it too hard!

I love to kiss your soft cheeks and wrinkled forehead. You are such a little sweetheart. I love you so much!

I'll always love you anyway,

Your momma

Dear Nolan - 1 month

Dear Nolan (or "No-No" as Lucy likes to say),

You are one interesting little boy. Your dramatic entrance into this world worried your momma and daddy very much!

When you were cleaned up by the nurse in the delivery room, the nurse told us that you were one "chill" baby. You just liked to look around. Well you're still a pretty mellow guy, as long as you are snuggled up next to me.

I am so lucky to be your mother. You make me feel loved. You will be crying so loud until you hear my voice, and then you immediately calm down.

I've nicknamed you my "lazy lion". When you're hungry, you just open up your mouth and hope someone feeds you. You seem to sleep a lot, and usually through dinner.

In the morning, after daddy leaves for work, you snuggle up close to me and then Audrey will snuggle up next to you. One morning I switched things around and Audrey laid next to me and you behind Audrey. When all of a sudden I look over and you're trying to nurse on the back of your sisters head! Oh Nolan, you are one crazy little guy.

I love you so much and love just staring into your eyes as I hold you and Lucy and I sing you songs.

I'll always love you anyway,
Your momma

Another change for Lucy

We told Lucy's daycare as soon as we knew we were pregnant with twins. That way we could make sure to have two spots for when I went back to work. Some how their new director managed to screw things up and when I went to confirm their spaces at 35 weeks pregnant, she said that there wouldn't be room for everyone.

I've always loved Lucy's daycare. The teachers have always been so nice and loving. Monday was Lucy's second to last day of daycare. She carried her own bag out. In this bag were dozens of projects and updates on Lucy throughout her time at Rainbow Child Care. In the bag was homemade picture after picture with her little hand and feet prints. And photos of her chunky face with short hair (I remember thinking it was so long at the time!)

As Lucy showed off her brother and sister, I cried. Her Teachers cried. Kyle said that it really shows how much love Lucy received in their care. But Lucy didn't cry. Like when we put Savannah down, she just doesn't understand what's going on, and she just "goes with it".

I know hiring a nanny is our best option, but part of me feels that Audrey and Nolan are going to be missing out on the great experience that Lucy has had. I wish that when I go back to work on March 5th, that I could drop them off with miss Shelly and miss Julie and know that their older sister was in good hands next door!


Lucy with her teachers...

Audrey and Nolan's Story

There are many interesting facts about delivering a baby...
99% of deliveries occur at a hospital
67% are vaginal births
Only 5% arrive on their due date

There are many interesting facts about TWIN deliveries...
Most arrive at 36 weeks gestation
Most come on their own schedule (not induced)
About 75% are by c-section

Well Nolan and Audrey's delivery was very special. Their scenario only occurs in the 0.09% of deliveries. I had the opportunity to deliver Audrey naturally and then convert to an emergency c-section for Nolan. Pretty lucky, huh?

We had to evict them right at 38 weeks. Doctors do not like twins going past 38 weeks gestation, due to the increased risk of stillbirths. We started the pitocin just after 8am. At 1:30pm the doctor broke my water. Then I had the epidural. Yowsers. It sucked the first time the anesthesiologist shoved that ridiculous needle in my back. Then he said it twisted and had to redo it. Then he took it out AGAIN because it wasn't positioned just right. And I guess for this guy the third time was the charm :/

Around 4:15pm we headed to the O.R. to deliver these babies for an easy peasy vaginal delivery. Well once we got there things took a turn. Audrey had a cord wrapped around neck and the dr read us the laundry list of risks associated with vacuum assisted deliveries. We took a deep breath, agreed, and a few pushes later, I was holding my sweet (healthy) baby girl.

Here is where the story should read "I had a few more contractions and the second baby arrived". Unfortunately, as soon as Audrey was delivered, Nolan's heart rate dropped from 145 to the low 60s. They got us all set for an emergency c-section. Kyle got kicked out of the room and had to wait in the hallway outside the O.R. all by himself. I was put completely under.

The rest I don't remember, but rumor has it, Nolan came out just fine. Audrey and Nolan both avoided NICU stays. Nolan went up there briefly, but was back with us by the time I woke up.

They wrapped up both babies and wheeled us up to post partum (photo below).

Happy birthday Daddy!

Yesterday started with my mom, the kids, and I attempting to make Kyle a birthday card. What I imagined and what we ended up with, turned out to be two very different things. It was like a Pinterest project gone bad (except my idea didn't come off of Pinterest. I really don't think anyone could create the birthday card that I was thinking of). Note to all moms: toddlers, newborns and finger paint don't go together well...

Lucy woke Kyle up and sang "happy birthday". I think we probably sang happy birthday at least 10-15 times yesterday.

We spent the day hanging out as a family and then Kyle and I left my mom with all three kids and went out to dinner.

When we got back, we sang "happy birthday" to Kyle (again) and had some yummy desserts.
Here are some pictures of Kyle with Lucy and Audrey.
*Not a surprise: Nolan slept through most of the celebration...










And a picture of Nuna with Audrey (Nuna is always holding Audrey. Seems to be the easiest way to keep Audrey happy)
















And while I'm at it, here are a few of our sleepy little guy...










Oh, and here's a picture of the birthday card...