Spring loves

Longest winter ever. We've made up for it by being at a park every morning this week. It's a huge triumph to me if I can get us all dressed and there :) Not gonna lie, 2 out of 4 days this week I've been there in my pjs, milk stains on my shirt, with my glasses on. 3/4ths of us dressed ain't bad!
Soaking up the sunshine with these three(!) makes my heart happy.

Some of the firsts...

First time meeting family. (Wish I'd gotten pics of everyone!)

















First sponge bath. Not a fan.


First "tubby" bath. I bathe her every night before bed as her signal that it's bedtime. My mom gave us that advice when we had Fin and its worked really well for all of our babies. Bathe, nurse wrapped in a cozy blanket to warm up, get all swaddled up, out for the night :)


First time wearing a dress. We all swooned at the cuteness :)





First holiday...Easter. She was 10 days old!


First time in a stroller.


First time laying outside.


First trip to Sonic. This is sacred stuff.


First time at Nanny's house. You call her Nanny, I call her my "angel of mercy" during postpartum times. Such a help and encourager to me as I sift through the baby blues.


First time making friends with the living room lamp :)


Third baby and every first is still just as precious.

And then there were 5...

As soon as I had Lilah, I was dying to see the boys and have them meet her. Finley had been so SO excited about meeting her and he would always describe it to me as, "I can't wait to come to the hospital, crawl in bed with you and you'll show me Lilah and I'll be so happy and hold her".
A few of my sisters had the boys that day and they brought them to the hospital as soon as I texted them that she was here. Here's our lovefest for Lilah as the boys meet her for the first time...












It may look like I'm upset here but I was actually saying to Fin, "How did you learn how to hold her so well??". He was so proud.




Squishy baby face
















Getting their big brother gifts. Puzzle for Cole and legos for Fin.




Look at those big old baby feet. Daddy's little girl.
















They're in love...








In case you were wondering how Pat's bonded with his first daughter...I'll let the pics speak for themselves...
















So yea, they're pretty smitten with each other.
As have the boys been with their new sister since she's been home...




Fin would hold her all day and all night if we let him...and would lay on top of her...and smother her in kisses. Suffice to say the child would get loved to death by him if we let him. He is giddy in love with her and told me she was his "favorite person in the world" on the second day after she came home. I love the love he has for her.
Watching America's Funniest Home Videos with her.








Cole has shown NO jealousy of Lilah since she came home which I'm very grateful for. He doesn't ask to hold her much but he brings her ALL (and I mean all) of her blankies at once, or lays a bunny on her, or pulls up a chair to talk to her...




Here I caught him on the porch talking to her, "Hey Baby Yidah, what you doing? Talk to me...TALK! Why aren't you talking??". Then he rocked her carseat aggressively to show her love until I stepped in :o) Those two don't really get any "alone time" together and probably won't until Lilah can send out SOS signals.
While there have been a lot of chaotic moments of having 3 kids ages 4 and under, I'm so grateful that the transition of having Lilah in our family has not ben stressful or upsetting to the boys. It's just been one big lovefest in that regard.

Ps- thank you to my sister Nicole for the hospital pics. I treasure them.

The story of Lilah Jane

I really feel that Lilah's birth story starts a month before she was born. Unlike with my other 2 pregnancies, I felt like I was in a full month of early labor before she was actually born. I was walking around 3-4 cm dilated from 35 weeks on and had constant hard contractions day and night. We even had one false alarm in the hospital at 38 weeks where I had contractions every 2 minutes for 12 hours, but it didn't progress into anything.
When I went past due, I was trying to hold it together but I really felt like I was headed towards the funny farm. I was so, SO tired from the contractions and I felt huge and just didn't see an end in sight. My doctor encouraged us to induce at 40 weeks, 5 days because she said my body was ready and we didn't want the baby getting too big since I'm only 5'2". I was extremely emotional about an induction, as I just wanted things to happen naturally, but Pat encouraged me that there was only so much I could take and that we knew from the ultrasound that she was fully developed and ready.
So we set the date for Friday, March 22nd and I prepared all day Wednesday by grocery shopping with the boys, cleaning the house, and walking to get icecream with friends that night. It was a sweet night of family time. All that was left to do Thursday was soak in the boys and do laundry. That night my back hurt so bad I couldn't even sit on the couch so I relaxed in bed with 39808 pillows and read 'Little Women'.
Thursday morning I woke up at 4am feeling like a truck hit me. I wasn't having contractions but I just ached everywhere and I was convinced my appendix ruptured. Because you know, that's the only reason I would be hurting at 9+ months pregnant :o) I got up and sat on the couch and read blogs in the silence. Around 6 I started to get contractions that hurt badly but were just 6 min apart. I was positive they were just there to torture me as per usual and do nothing. Soonish though I woke up Pat to see if he needed to do some work in case we were headed to the hospital. I got in the shower to shave my legs and had a lot more contractions while standing up. I was in denial for awhile but then finally came around to the fact that this might be "it". Pat was great at keeping the boys occupied but I think they could sense something was up b/c Cole kept coming to me asking me to "Hold him" and Fin just wanted to cuddle. I love my boys but when laboring, I don't so much want anyone touching me :o) Even though contractions were still manageable, I called my sisters Sarah and Nicole to come watch the boys so we could head in. This was mainly bc I was just having a hard time laboring at home and keeping a "happy face" on for the kids sake. We told Fin that Lilah was coming today and he was over the moon excited. It was so so cute.
When Nicole got there, we headed out and my neighbor Merideth guessed where we were going and screamed excitement out of her window while she held her newborn. It's a pretty funny memory for me :o)
We got there at 9, checked in, and I was 5cm and 80% effaced. Still wasn't in terrible pain but my labors tend to progress at a pretty decent pace and so I told the nurse to keep the epidural in the back of her head :o)
I sent the boys a pic of my contraction face...


and watched some Gilmore Girls while Pat ate a delicious smelling chicken wrap. All I kept saying, even as the contractions got worse and more intense was, "I am so hungry. All I want is chikfila".


Around 12, I was 7 cm and 90% effaced and decided to get my epidural to make sure I had enough time. The contractions hurt but I could still breathe through them, but I was just very conscious that I did not want to push without an epidural.
My doctor, who I love love love, came in around 1 and broke my water. A little before 2 , I felt a lot of pressure and let my nurse know. Homegirl was struggling with basic computer skills and I just kept sitting there thinking, "I do not CARE if you just erased all the info you inputed...I need to push!". Of course I was being sweet as pie to her, but when her back was turned to me I kept mouthing to Pat, "DO SOMETHING". lol poor Pat.
Finally she said I was complete and could push and called my doc who appeared like 3 min later, bless her. I texted my sisters and mom that I was getting ready to push and then 5 minutes later...She was here!


The nurses and doctor commented that she was a "good size" and "look how long her hands are". I seriously just couldn't believe a baby came out of me. I was convinced she was a myth, we had just waited so long for her. They laid her on my chest and she immediately started smacking her lips and rooting around. Immediately she latched perfectly and nursed both sides all snuggled to me.


The nurse then weighed her and said she was 9lbs 1oz and 21 1/4 inches long! We were all shocked. She was perfect though.


I alternated between saying, "She's sooo cute" and "I'm so happy I'm not pregnant anymore!".








God was so gracious to give me the strength to labor and merciful to give me another easy labor and delivery. I have had such great births and I treasure each story of them in my heart. And now Lilah has her own story and we are so grateful that she is here.