an eventful week!

In anticipation of a new arrival, we bought a fancy new camera and have been playing around with it a good bit lately. I thought I would post a few photos of me and the twins in our last few days of there being just three girls in the house. Here is Hannah being Hannah. She loves to be with me and do whatever I am doing so I am introducing her to the salad spinner. They became fast friends.

Again, playing with the camera ... but I figured Cooper has not had a day in the spotlight in a while ... so, here he is!
Here are the three of us gals the day before our family of 4 became a family of 5.
Here is Meredith being silly and wanting to play in the baby's chair. Silly girl.
So, onto our biggest news. As most know, I was scheduled for a repeat C-Section on Tuesday the 26th but didn't quite make it in time. I ended up going into labor on Friday night and went to the hospital Saturday the 23rd and had the baby by C-Section that night at 7:49 PM. Needless to say, it was a very long day!! The reason for the C-Section was only because I had one with the girls and was too chicken to try for a VBAC. However, she was lodged way down in my pelvis and sideways (at incision, the first thing they saw was her ear) so the OB said I would likely have had a really hard time pushing her out anyway. I am glad I went with the planned C-Section. The hours of labor pains I had were not fun and I have lots of respect for people who do natural childbirth! Since I did go through the contractions and she was way down in the pelvis, she came into the world quite bruised and swollen. In the past few days she has just looked better and better. She is jaundiced, however, so has not been able to stay in the room with us. She has been allowed out of her "tanning bed" only for breastfeeding then back to the lights! It is hard for me to give her back but I know that the longer she is under the lights, the sooner she can go home! We are both still in the hospital at this point, but anticipate discharge tomorrow (Tuesday the 26th.) We named her Caroline Avery. She will go by Caroline. She was 7 pounds and 5 ounces and 19 inches long. So basically she looks like the girls did when they were like 3 months old =) I am feeling pretty good as long as I take my meds on time. I'm sure in a few weeks, I will be as good as new! Thanks for all the thoughts and prayers I'm sure you have been sending my way and I can't wait to have more pictures and stories to share. Here is our first meeting ...
The girls came up to see us yesterday and did fairly well. Meredith was a little freaked out and didn't really know what to think of Mommy in the hospital bed and the new little being that I just happened to be nursing when they got there. Hannah was more interested in touching her and looking at her (as you can see here) but was still a bit jealous when Mommy's lap was not hers and hers alone. She had a tough time leaving but my Mom and Dad and Alan say she is doing pretty well at home and knows that Mommy will be home when her "big boo boo" is better.
Here is our first family photo! I think I will always have quite a full lap which is actually pretty great!
As you can see here, Caroline has very dark hair. The girls didn't have much hair when they were born and what they had was a light brown. You can see what happened with theirs and I wonder if Caroline will favor me a little more and have the dark hair. Time will tell!
Here is a close-up of her dark hair ... the photo may be a little PG-13 but at least no parts are showing! I felt it was pretty safe =) She is a good breastfeeder though a little sleepy. I'm sure she will get more efficient with time! Feeding her is night and day from what it was like to feed two preemies at the same time! Now I just have to figure out how to feed her and entertain two 2.5 year olds at the same time!
peek-a-boo ... she has had some wide-eyed moments of late but she is still usually newborn sleepy. Her eyes are the same murky blue that the girls had so I suspect hazel or brown eyes for her.
She still has some bruising and swelling between her eyes and her little nose is still a little puffy but everyday it diminishes a little ... this was yesterday. I love the squishy cheeks!
This is from this morning and she is making faces at her Dad ...
... and at her Granddadddy
My parents are here helping with the girls and they and Alan have been switching off so that I always have company and the girls are always taken care of.
Here is little Miss in her tanning bed. This is where she has spent all her time since birth minus her feedings. It is a little lonely in my room without her and I am hoping she is too little and unaware to feel the same way.

Christmas and such ...

I hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! We had a great time with family. I'm sad to say that I am not, however, very good at taking photos when I have the opportunity. I think I get too caught up in taking care of the girls and making sure everything is just how I want it (can anyone say "control freak"??) and then the holiday is over and I have no photos to show from it. I did get a few of the girls and a few of some of the things we did around the holidays. The girls seemed to enjoy Christmas but maybe they are still a bit young to be able to handle all the excitement. They enjoyed opening a few gifts but then were "done" so the 3 day present opening extraveganza was a lot for them to handle. They are doing well now, though, and have really enjoyed all of the gifts. They went back to school today and yep, cried and cried. After I picked them up, they kept saying "we should cry at home, not at school" ... hmmm ... wonder who tells them to cry at home? Thanks a lot ;) ! I guess when you deal with kids like mine who have pretty tough separation issues you try anything. Hopefully in a few weeks they will get back into the swing of things and only cry when I drop them off. I have learned not to expect them not to cry at all. New kid is doing fine. I have an appointment tomorrow and hopefully all will be well and we will still be set for C-Section on 1/27. In preparation for her, we got a new car and we have unearthed the infant carseat. Her room is ready except for a few things that need to come in the mail. I will post pictures of it soon. My bag is half-packed ... and I'm sure there are a ton of other things that I need to do but I am feeling like we are getting there as far as being ready for the chaos that being post-op with a new baby and 2 two-year olds will bring. Well, I will get on with the pictures as I posted a bunch ...

This was before Christmas ... do you think we were in need of some new toys? They actually still love to play with the spices. They are absolutely OBSESSED with playing with a bunch of the same thing ... they love little balls of PlayDoh, to play with their snacks such as GoldFish or Cheerios, the letters off of their art easel they got from Grammy, their pretend food they got from Grandmama ... they will empty and fill all of the possible containers they can find or fashion from something with a different intended purpose ... what is with that? Here, they were putting all the spices in a line and telling them to stay there until they call their name ... something they got from school, no doubt ... oh, and they did have dresses over their little outfits here ... this was post-nap and the dresses never got put back on. They remind me of myself when I was little and doing ballet and always running around in tights and leotards.

Here, they were putting all the little "baby spices" (the little ones, you know what I mean?) behind the "safety bar" (ie rolling pin) so they would be safe. Then they were covering them with their blankies and telling them it was time to "go night, night." Where do they get this stuff from?
These are a little out of order but I tried to be domestic this year and made cookies for my neighbors and I let the girls each decorate one. Here, they are painting on the icing.

... do I see sprinkles?!?!?

... who needs the cookie? ... this is Meredith ... she literally ate the whole bowl of frosting with her spoon.

all done!

... you want me to wait so you can take a picture of my cookie? Are you kidding me, Mom?!

getting started ...

... half-way there ...

mine were a little less psychedelic that my two little sous chefs' cookies were ... hope they were good! The last thing I wanted to do after a 4 day cookie-making-spree (I made and frosted 80 of them) was eat one!

The girls got Alan a desk organizer for his office that has 3 little frames in it ... and I was trying to get some photos for it ... when I asked Hannah to look at the camera and smile this is what I got ...

... shortly after this one, she started crying! She has gotten pretty shy. She has always been clingy but once you get her to open up she is pretty social. When I got them up from a nap and they could hear a lot of people downstairs (we were having a little get-together with my Mom's extended family) she said to me "I hear people downstairs, I am going to be shy."

When I asked my generally more introverted child to smile for the camera ... this is what I got ...

... then this ... go figure?!

Here is Christmas morning ... what do you know ... Santa came!

a child after my own heart ... goes straight for the chocolate!

Meredith on her tricycle

Hannah on her tricycle

Santa also brought them these princess PJs which they HAD to put on RIGHT THEN ... after a few Santa gifts ... they needed a break and wanted to watch a show on Mommy's computer ... so we let them have a little break.

After a Clifford episode, we got back to gifts. Mommy and Daddy got them this dollhouse (it is a dollhouse that houses little critters instead of dolls ... bunnies, cats and the like ...) At this point, they mostly like to get all the little baby critters and put them in a cup, then move them into the baby pool, then put them on the window sill ... etc ... I'm telling you ... obsessed ... obsessed with the sorting and organizing!! Meredith, however, does enjoy playing with the house how it is intended sometimes. She will put all the beds in one room and put all the babies night, night ... Hannah mostly just likes to take all the little drawers of the dressers and kitchen furniture out then put them back in ... out, in, out, in ... As a side note ... their PJs were way too big (Santa really thought by 2.5 maybe they could actually wear a 2T ... not so much) and I had to roll up the pants because they kept getting super ticked and saying that their pants were "driving them crazy!!!" ... again, it is me ... my own words coming out of their mouths! Everything "drives them crazy" these days ... too funny! Even funnier is when (especially Hannah) will pretend that one of us (me or Alan) is upset and say "what is wrong? you have to use your words, tell me what is wrong? There is no reason to fuss ..." or when I really AM upset at them or the dog or something and Meredith will say that "Mommy needs to calm down, she is acting crazy!" ... love it, love it ... the things that come out of their mouths! At least it lets me know that they are, at least, listening to us!