Margot Stelljes

Margot Stelljes was born Tuesday, July 13th 2010 at 9:20am.  She is truly a blessing and one of the truest loves of my life.  After 15 pokes with a spinal needle and  a good 30 minutes, my c-section began.  After a few minutes that felt like a lifetime I heard her little cries.  Good cries, from great healthy lungs, but not quite as loud as her brother and sister's.  Hers were definitely more lady like.  Its amazing the things you remember from the birth of your children.  Their very distinct cries and hearing them for the first time is one of the things I will never forget.  Margot is truly perfect, she had the best coloring and Apgar scores of 9 and 10.  I am so blessed and in love.

Her c-section was pretty scary compared to her brother's and probably on par with Meredith's.  Not that at any time anything was seriously wrong, I just had my blood pressure drop very low twice and it made me feel very sick.  At one point I felt like my chest was caving in.  The first time it happened Josh was there to hold my hand, which didn't make it any less scary.  The second time it happened after they had taken my sweet Margot to the nursery with her daddy, so I was even more scared since I was alone.  Thankfully my anesthesiologist, who was the best, held my hand while closely monitoring my vitals for the rest of the procedure. 

This picture was taken as soon as I met her in recovery.  Our first photo.

I spent a lot longer in the recovery room than anticipated.  I had bleeding that needed to be stopped and a uterus that did not want to contract back down.  After about 4 hours, two bags of pitocin, a shot of something and lots of manual massaging and pain beyond reason, I was finally able to head to my room, where the two oldest tikes met the newest member of our family.  They patiently waited for over 3 hours to meet their baby sister.  That's a lot for a 4 and 2 year old in a hospital with little entertainment.  Thankfully their Nanny, Aunt J, Aunt Lindz and Carrie were there to watch over them, because I wanted my husband and momma with me.

Just like when I saw her for the first time.....it was love at first sight for them too!

The new family photo, which has grown by 2 more feet!  Tears from Meredith bercause she isn't next to her sister, noah is mad because he is not in the bed, Margot is oblivious, Josh is trying to diffuse the situation and I thanking the heavens for my pain pump, pumping pain meds straight into my bloodstream!

After all the chaos company went home that night, Margot took a much needed nap....isn't she gorgeous!

After a few days in the hospital where Margot experienced bouts of chaos and then of peace and quiet, we headed home, where chaos was her new norm!  "Welcome home baby Mar-doe, I am your big bwudda...and you my wittle bwudda!"

That night as we got ready for bed, Meredith was thrilled to be wearing matching pjs with her baby sister!  Thanks to her nanny and Margot's aunt Lei-lei.....it made bedtime a lot easier that night!

The new routine....three tikes...the blog needs a new name....help me!

Margot with her new favorite thing....her paci.  My first baby who may not take a nuk pacifier.  And who knows maybe she won't take one at all, because every time her sister sees it in her mouth she pulls it out, because she knows Margot will fall asleep with it and she wants Margot awake to play! 

Excuse the quality of these photos because they are all from my phone, because my camera card is at the local photography store so we could print the 100s of pictures taken this week.  I'll post more and funny stories this week!

The big day

Well tomorrow is the big day, I will officially have three tikes!  And the caboose will make her appearance.  I'll update when I can....send us good thoughts, wishes and prayers....life is about to change a whole hell of a lot!

It's a bird....It's a plane....It's super-suits!

Our new movie of choice in the homestead is The Incredibles.  Meredith absolutely loves it, and although it isn't Thomas or Cars, Noah likes it too.  We have owned it now about 2 weeks and watched it no less than 25 times.  A few weekends ago Josh took the kids to a superhero birthday party they were invited to.  I didn't realize that some of the kids were in superhero costumes, but my 4 year old let me know immediately that she was one of the kids who was not outfitted in her super gear.  She then asked if we thought her and Noah could get a super suit like the Incredibles in case they had another super hero party to go to, and for Halloween or just for everyday .  You never know when you may need to fight crime out in the country.  So I told her I would talk to the lady in the movie and see what she could do about two extra super suits.  Luckily she had some spare time and was able to whip up two extra suits and drop them off Friday night.  They were all laid out in the living room when the kids awoke Saturday morning.  They were thrilled.  We put Meredith's on immediately.  We had to convince Noah that if he put his on  he would be fast, but the robot from the movie would not show up at his house.  After a little convincing he put his on too.  They haven't taken them off since.

The super-tikes!  Violet and Dash.

Ready to fight crime.

Planning their next attack!  Eyes need to be closed for this!

After a day of fighting crime, all supers need a break with their blankies. 

Meredith chooses to watch herself on tv...

while Noah gets a little Thomas in...

Meredith wanted to know where mine and Josh's super suits were.  I told her they didn't make them for pregnant mommas and that I would have to wait until Margot arrives to get my own.  Come October if they are still in theirs I guess Josh and I will get some too for Halloween and see about a baby suit for Margot! 

Today is day 2 of super suits and after they awoke and ate breakfast, the super suits are back on!

A 4th of July photo-shoot....38 weeks pregnant....1 week to go!

As I looked as these I realized everyone lied....it is in my face....I am so swollen and ready.  I only  have 5 days left until the c-section....thank the Lord.  Happy Belated 4th of July.  It was a great one!

Meredith was ready to leave to see her friends...pictures were not on her agenda.  Noah was all smiles as usual.

After the threat of "Meredith smile or we aren't going", she started shedding tears....those empty threats never work here.  Noah still smiling.

One of me holding baby Margot...and Meredith showing off her baby in her belly....girl baby Tate!  This brought a smile to her face.

38 weeks preggers

Noah deciding if I was going to hold Margot I needed to hold him too.  I have a feeling this may be a rough transition.  Finally a smile from my big girl...I told her this was the last one.

Happy July everyone!

Only Noah

Noah has a love affair with black and white cookies.  Do you know what they are?  Oreos.  Double Stuffed are the best, but any kind will do.  The only way he will eat the entire cookie is with a glass of milk and really can you blame him.  If not he is a big fan of just removing the middle. 

I seriously have to limit the boy's consumption of black and white cookies.  It is nothing to find him in the pantry helping himself.  Or he can come down in the wee hours of the early morning and help himself before he comes to my bedroom to let me know he is awake and wants to play at a very indecent hour. 

Needless to say we always have a pack of black and white cookies in the pantry for a snack or an after dinner treat.  And while we are on the topic of snacking I will say I have a system that works pretty well for us....or at least did.  The kids get two snacks a day.  One in the morning and one in the afternoon.  While one snack must be a healthy snack, the other is a "junk" snack.  By junk snack I mean a few oreos, fudge round, cookies, fruit snacks, gold fish or some other pretty unhealthy processed food that is very appealing in the grocery.  The healthy snack will consist of cheese, fresh fruit, or yogurt. 

And true to my children's personalities, I see where it even affects their snacking habits.  While Meredith, who is my typical type A, first born child, will think this through and really decide at what point she wants the healthy snack and the "junk" snack and over think this decision until she is too worried about it to eat a snack at all, my other typical second child who  has the "I don't give a shit" attitude, doesn't think about it he just eats and when he has already consumed his "junk" snack he goes behind my back and helps himself to anything in the pantry.

I long suspected this and even caught him red-handed a few times.  It's hard to hide all that chocolate on your face when you are two.  But yesterday my suspicions were confirmed and made me realize this happens way more than I think it does.  It was time for the afternoon snack and it was deemed the "junk" snack.  So while Meredith still chose a go-gurt, Noah decided to have a few black and white cookies.  After fetching them from the pantry I opened them to find this....a bunch of  "bwoke" cookies.

So he started digging through the bag and pulling out halves of oreos with the white cream licked off and piling them onto his napkin....

After examining all the cookies and licking the cream off of the one or two he did find still intact, he deemed that they were "bwoke" and he needed new "back and white cookies momma!"

I think I may just have to find a lock for that pantry or place the snacks on the very top shelf....although I am not sure either of those things will stop the cookie monster!