Lily isms 15

"That happens if I'm not careful, I get colors on my feet!"
- she was coloring with markers and drew on herself.

"Emma, do you want to be a party pooper? Here, wear this party pooper hat. Mom! We're gonna be a party pooper."

"Momma, I don't think Kaylee is hungry, maybe she needs a snack?"

"Momma! I think Kaylee wants to play! Can she walk?"

Lily was playing with Zeke and had him by his collar.
"I got him, I got him!"
At which point, Zeke reached up with his paw and pushed her in the stomach, knocking her over.
"Whoooooa!!! HE GOT ME!!!!"

Lily was holding Kaylee up on her shoulder (as best she could):
"Momma! I made a burp come out of her!"

Me: Lily, would you like some grapes?
Lily: yes, but leave them on the tree stump!

Jesse: Emma, did you poop?
Lily: that happens. Sometimes, babies poop!

Lily was looking at animals on an app on my phone.
Lily: look, Daddy, this goat has a beak just like you did!
Jesse: ...a beard?
Lily: yes!

Me: Lily! Do not hit Emma!!!
Lily: I didn't hit her, I just punched her!

We got wings for dinner, and the girls and I were waiting in the car for Jesse.
"Here comes Daddy with our chicken flappers!!"

first week (ish) at home

Shortly after delivery, once the emotional level had decreased slightly, Jesse and I agreed we are capable of having one sort of child: female, chunky, and little replicas of baby Jesse.

While I don't think Lily and Emma look as much alike anymore, I do think they look similar and you can tell they're sisters.  Even the nurses at the hospital commented how much they all looked alike when my mom brought Lily and Emma to visit.

And now, without more rambling, newborn pictures of all three girls.  Which I know everyone has been waiting for..

Lily

Emma. and Grandpa.

Kaylee

Lily

Emma

Kaylee

Lily. and Jesse

Emma

Kaylee

As far as the rest of life is concerned, we are all adjusting fairly smoothly still.  Again, I know it's still early to be announcing that, but so far so good and all that.  We took our first as a family of 5 trip on Wesnesday and the girls and I dropped Jesse off at work.  Super exciting.  And the really good news is that three car seats DO fit in the back of my car.  That's been the plan but kind of a relief to see that they actually all do fit.  The girls and I also had our first ventures out together, as we had to go to an appointment for Kaylee, the grocery, the hospital and then to pick Jesse up from work.  And there were minimal tears shed, and none by me, so success!

Kaylee was still fighting jaundice, so her appointment Wednesday was to check her out for that.  The doctor was still a little concerned with her coloring, so she sent orders to the hospital for a quick bilirubin check.  I did NOT want to go do that alone, but timing wise, it just didn't work out to get Jesse first for help, so the three girls and I braved that without him.  The reason I didn't want to solo parent that was because it involved Kaylee having a quick heel poke to draw blood.  No problem for me, but my poor, tender hearted Lily absolutely melted down when she saw them do that before we were discharged.  She started sobbing to see Kaylee in such distress and was afraid that she was next.  So I had to explain why we were going back to the "hospidial" and that Kaylee would be ok, etc.  Poor thing started tearing up on the drive there.

Anyway, her levels were still a smidge high on Wednesday, so we went back to our doctor's yesterday to see how her coloring looked a few days later.  And her coloring looks good!  However, annoyingly, someone messed up her discharge PKU test and we had to have a repeat stick.  Ugh.  So we had to go back to the hospital AGAIN and now I'm just done.  They can't make me go back.  My poor baby has been stuck enough!

In between the appointment and hospital, we ran to Walmart to pick up a prescription for Lily- just a persistent rash, nothing major.  I was texting my sister, Erin, and basically just complaining: I was tired from all my running, Lily and Emma had both missed naps and were tired, and there was (worst of all) a long line at the Pharmecy.  I had gotten Emma in the front seat of a shopping cart, Kaylee in her infant career in the main basket, and then Lily also wanted in so she got the teeny corner left.  After all this, I then complained to Erin that of all things, one of the wheels was seized up, making the cart basically unsteerable and that after I got my prescription, I'd need to unload everyone to a new cart.

first bum cart

As I was standing in line compaining, a nice man in front of me was talking to Lily and chuckling as I explained to her that the wheel wasn't working and that we'd need a new cart, causing Lily much concern over the broken wheel.  He went for his turn, I went for mine and when I was done, I looked up and he was bringing me one of those gigantic, limo shopping carts that is plenty big for three people.  He helped me get the girls moved and told Lily that this was the "Cadillac of shopping carts" before leaving.  What a mood changer.  I was so blown away by that and grateful for his help.  So thank you, Random Walmart Guy, for the unexpected blessing.

Emma didn't want to hold still

All in all, we're doing well.  Since Kaylee actually sleeps- a new thing for my babies!- I have continued to have plenty of quality time with Lily and Emma, so we haven't had too much jealousy.  Physically, I'm feelong pretty good and like I've bounced back well.  There are still things I don't think I'm up to doing, like grocery shopping.  But I really feel good and am enjoying being able to actually move around again.

And I should just wrap this post up, as I've been working on it since Wednesday..

Kaylee Hilen

Bear with me, I'm still processing having thee children.  Three daughters.  Whoa.

If you've followed my blog awhile, you're probably expecting an emotional and (sorry) all-too detailed account of my labor and delivery.  And this will be it.  Really, this is for me in the future and it really helps process things for me to put them down here.

I thought labor was coming any moment from Wednesday, 1/29 until when I actually realized I was finally in labor.  I had my weekly scheduled appointment on Tuesday and the doctor said I was already 3cm dialated, and stripped my membranes for me.  Wednesday, I felt I was starting to show signs of early labor, so I panicked and got my mom on the road to WV and put everyone on alert.  Like I'd never done this before.  Sorry everyone, thanks for keeping me sane.  Needless to say, everyone showed up except a baby.  So we waited.

playing in the snow, waiting for a new sibling!

see the snow in her hand?  she was on her way to throw it at me.

The weekend brought some weather and bad roads, and as my due date was Monday, my family and I waited anxiously, and I admit to being crabby.  I had an appointment scheduled for Monday, and with how bad the roads were, the doctor who saw me told me if I had dialated to 4, he'd admit me to the hospital and break my water for me,which was music to my ears, since I was already there and that way we wouldn't have to venture back out and potentially get stuck on our way to the hospital in labor.  However, I was still only 3 cm.  Jesse and I discussed options and the doctor said he would still do that, as the roads were really that bad, but Jesse and I declined.  I was disappointed, and everyone who talked to me knew it, but we hated the idea of forcing the labor process before baby was really ready and facing the potential of needing pitocin to move things along or taking too long and needing a c section, JUST because we prematurely broke my water.  We are fine with those things if they are needed, but not if we try and force labor.  So home we went.

Tuesday came and I was a miserable person to be around, I'm sure.  Mom was a huge help during the last week because she swooped the girls off to play which I didn't have energy for, and let me relax.  Betsy came at some point and encouraged me that I wasn't that far away from labor, made me some red raspberry leaf tea, and around dinner, I started having noticeably bigger contractions.  We all got our acts together, as we hoped/assumed I'd be needing to go to the hospital in the middle of the night, and we all went to bed early to try and get rest.  My contractions stalled out in the night, so we actually slept.  With how I was feeling and that contractions started again when I got up a and moving around, we all were confident that Wednesday was the day.  Now, just to wait for it.  After talking to Betsy again, who said my body was progressing through labor in THE best way possible, in a very natural way as my body was doing things as needed and at it's own pace, and once my water was broken, we'd have a baby quickly.  Around lunch, my contractions stopped stalling out and were increasing in time and intensity, so we sent the girls off to the neighbors and Mom helped me (basically) crawl around the house and gather last minute things.  I'm glad we sent the girls off when we did, as Lily was starting to get upset by my pain.  She did come ask if she could bring me milk for my tummy ache.  What a little cutie.

I don't know how my mom felt about our adventerous drive to the hospital, but I was not a fan of the roads: icy and full of potholes (that Mom avoided!  Except for a few that were hidden) until we got to the highway.  We found one pothole in particular that brought on a strong contraction and lots of pressure which kind of made me nervous.  Regardless, we made it to the hospital where Jesse met us and off we went.  I heard in triage I was up to 6 cm which wasn't what I wanted because I knew I still had 4 to go, and that could still take awhile.  Through the barrage of questions, I heard "do you want an epidural?" to which I automatically said no.  And then paused for a second because I didn't really feel like doing the whole labor/delivery thing and being that much pain again at that time, so I thought, "Jesse is checking me in..he'll never know.." and then the moment was passed us and I turned them down.  With no regrets.

So I eventually made it to my room where they began trying to put an IV in, which really bothered me, since I had been told I wouldn't be required to have one.  However, as I tested positive for GBS and needed an antibiotic, that wasn't an option and an IV was necessary.  Ok, fine.  However, the nurse couldn't get the needle in and had to try several times.  I'm blaming dehydration because I have never, and I really do mean NEVER had a problem AT ALL with people being able to get a vein immediately.  The poor nurse was obviously flustered, because apparently she is "the best" and the one other nurses call to get IVs done properly, and here she can't get one in me.  I was floored, and Jesse later said he was shocked, too, because he knows I have no trouble, but that he did see what they were talking about that my veins were rolling.  They eventually got my IV in and antibiotic going, so I tried to sit back and relax as much as I could while labor progressed.

I should have been encouraged by the fact that the entire nursing team and my midwife stayed the entire time, but I thought we still had awhile.  Through a bazillion more questions- which I began ignoring, because really, I'm a little busy: you can wait a bit to find out how tall I am and how much I weigh (to which I replied "a lot")- I asked my midwife if she would please just break my water so I could get things going and she said as soon as my antibiotic was in, she absolutely would.  I tried to wait patiently, and I'm not sure at what point Betsy showed up and helped explain to me what was going on, but maybe I was progressing so fast they didn't think there was time for me to finish the antibiotic, because the next thing I knew, Betsy was telling me they were pushing the antibiotic so the midwife could break my water.  And sure enough, I looked over and the nurse looked like she was squeezing the bag to make it drip faster.  And for the medical community out there that may just be shaking their head at my uneducated view of things, please remember I was labor, pain was a 20 on a scale of 1-10 and I barely could keep my eyes open.

Anyway, my water finally was broken and then things just flew.  Because of how my cervix was dilating, I was helped onto my side to labor a little differently and hope things opened up better and I suddenly knew what women meant when I've heard them say they just "knew" it was time to push.  I hadn't been aware of that with the other two, but all of a sudden my brain said "NOW" and I exhaled and barely whispered (I may have been yelling, it seemed quiet to me), "I'm pushing!!!" and I heard "not yet!!" hah yeah right.

I asked how long I'd been pushing when all was said and done, and asked, "was I even pushing 5 minutes?" and my midwife had a kind of surprised look and said "maybe two contractions?"  So when I tell people that this baby came fast, I really mean it.  I pushed, pushed again and then yelled "SHUT UP WAS THAT IT!?" (or so I'm told)  But I do know I was in disbelief that I had already delivered a baby, but next thing I knew, I had a brand spankin' new baby on my chest and nurses were working on getting everything taken care of.  I don't know who announced that it was "another girl!" but it didn't matter because she was finally here, weighing in at 9 lbs, 13 oz, and 22 inches long.  I may be wrong, but I think some were as curious about how much this baby would weigh as whether it was a boy or girl.

A few people have asked where her name came from: 

one day I said, "hey Jesse, what do you think of the name Kaylee?"  

And he responded with, "sure, spelled how?"  

With that, we ceremoniously moved that to a possible name on our list of girl names and about a week out from having her, he said "hey, which of our girl names are we going with?"  

And I said, "well, I think I like Kaylee..."

And he said, "Ok!"

Absolutely true.  We did put a little effort into finding a name we liked that was 4 letters long (Jesse's choice, not mine) and while we found a few we liked, we were kind of indifferent on actually making that a thing.

As for her middle name, Hilen was the name of Jesse's (I think) great-aunt who passed away semi-recently.  We had the joy of spending a little time with her when we lived in Arizona and would visit family in California, and I even got to do a few Scottish dances for her at one point.  Uncle Bob was Scottish and I guess they used to go to some of the Scottish games in CA.

Kaylee is a trooper so far, but as a third child, I'm not sure she gets a choice.  Lily LOVES her so much, and alternates between referring to her as "the new baby" and remembering her name.  Emma is trying to say it, but it comes out more "Keekee" or maybe she's trying for "baby," but either way, I'll take it.  Emma isn't as enamored by Kaylee as Lily has been, but I think Emma is still a big fan because she swoops for kisses and loves to rock her in the swing every chance she gets. And Emma gets very excited to hear and see Kaylee when either of them have been napping.

Other than that...we all seem to be adjusting.  But, let's keep in mind she isn't quite a week old and we have lots of adjusting to do.  But here are some (more) pictures until next time!

Grandma and Grandpa Hildebrand came to see us on Saturday, and I don't have any pictures of them because I was so tired and just sat on the couch the entire time.  but they did take some of us, so thank you!!

proud biggest sister.