Baby E Is Here!

I guess on her 1 week birthday I should get around to blogging that baby Eloise is here!

It's amazing how in 24 hours this big ol' belly goes from this...

 

To this cute little face!

 



 

 

I have no exciting birth story to share. I was having no contractions or anything going on up until 39 weeks. 39 weeks 0 days was my scheduled C-section. Tom and I woke up, said bye to the kiddos and went to the hospital. The C-section was pretty uneventful and after a few hours, Eloise came into this world, bright pink, kicking and screaming! She weighed 8lbs 10oz, almost 2lbs bigger than Ben! and over double the twins weights...combined. Big girl!

 

She received nothing but top reports from everyone who saw her, and luckily, I did too and we were home 2 days later!

 

The bigs LOVE their baby sister.

 

and she has been such a good baby! A little slow to gain her weight back and jaundice, just like Ben (my milk is a little slow to come in), but she passed her most recent check up, gained enough weight and bilirubin went down enough that we're done with check ups until her 2 week. Which amazingly, is already next week. I feel like she was just born! She is 1 week old today! Crazy!

 

My mom is here helping me out for another week. She is mostly in charge of the bigs while I recover from the C-section. They are having a lot of fun having her around. Baby and I are settling in well and it's so fun to snuggle with a newborn again! Ben grew up too quickly on me ;) Eloise better be a good girl and stay little for awhile!

 

Thanks for all the messages and congrats and all of our local friends who have been such great helps! It's made the transition for the bigs a lot easier :)



Benny Boo Turns 2!

I can't believe my baby boy turned 2 already! Wasn't he just born?

Our little B was lucky enough to get not 1, but 2 birthday parties this year!

First birthday party we celebrated was in Pennsylvania after New Years.

And when we got home, we threw him a low key party at our house with a few friends!

The twins helped decorate, clearly.

and I may have reused some decorations from the twins' 2nd birthday...whoops?

He hasn't changed much since his first birthday and still loves him some cake! Let's compare, shall we?

Atleast he listens better now when I tell him to not touch.

Sweet little 2 year old :) 

I didn't get any group shots at his birthday but I did manage to capture a fun video!

Happy Birthday Benny Boy! You are a wild and crazy little guy and we couldn't possibly love you more<3 

The twins turn 3!

I posted that the twins had turned 3 last month, but I never got to share what we did for their birthday!

 Since it was in the middle of our move, we couldn't throw a big birthday party, like we've done in the past. It was at the end of our road trip though so we were lucky to be able to celebrate their birthday and my mom's birthday with all of our family at my parent's house.

Amelia has been telling me for MONTHS that for her birthday, her cake will be a Cinderella cake. I asked her if Jackson would have a Cinderella cake too and she told me that they couldn't have the same cake. Jack would have a Lightening McQueen cake. Isn't someone opinionated for a 2 year old? A few days before her birthday, after much pinterest searching and deliberating, we started the great scheme of their cakes.

Oh, another fun detail, Amelia's cake had to be chocolate.

Ready to see a pinterest fail? Yea, I don't see the picture making it into the pinterest world ever.

Don't judge me. It took me 2 days to make this masterpiece!

Jack's train worked out a bit better with the help of a train cake pan. I know it's not Lightening McQueen, but I thought Jack would like this one better and Amelia can't always have everything she thinks everyone else wants ;)

That's a lot of cake!

And to make things even cakier(?), my mom also wanted her own cake so we had 3 birthday cakes for 1 party.

I was a little nervous she wouldn't be so impressed with my sagging castle cake, but luckily, she loved it. The expression tells it all!

 All the birthday kids and their cakes!

 We had a great celebration with the entire family.

Someone else was super excited about all the cake. This boy never misses a chance to eat ;)

It was a nice quiet birthday but it was nice that this was their first birthday they could celebrate surrounded by lots of family. I think we'll like this living closer to family business ;)

And how are the twins doing for their 3rd birthdays?

Amelia weighs 27lbs and is 38" tall. Jackson is 31lbs and almost 40" tall. Jackson is going to have a 2nd opinion from a neurologist and an ENT to figure out what to do about his developmental delays and hearing. I'm hoping we'll be able to get some clear answers and be able to get him on the right path to "catching up" soon. Amelia had a follow-up with a cardiologist who says her heart murmur is very innocent and she's cleared to do all activity. We will start therapies and things soon and we'll get back in our normal routine. They're overall healthy and you'd have no idea what a crazy birth they had.

Amelia's favorites: All princesses, playing dress up and tea parties, doing things "I do myself". She likes to fill her own water bottles, make her own food, and go to the bathroom by herself now. Luckily, she still asks for help if she really needs it, but we've had a lot of messes to deal with from her next step of independence. She can dress herself and put on her shoes and socks so that's been really helpful in getting the gang ready for the day! She loves to help me change Ben's diaper and "feed the baby", even though he doesn't really need help being fed. She controls who eats and when and will distribute the gold fish to make sure everyone gets a fair amount. As long as she's in charge, she's happy. Luckily, the boys are happy to fall in line.

Jackson's favorites: Robots, legos, and trains. He has really gotten into legos and robots lately. He loves to watch them on netflix (usually old school transformers, I blame Tom) and play with the different lego things him and Tom have built. He is definitely a little engineer. He loves to play in water and has really enjoyed all the splash pads around Ohio. He still has some fine motor issues and obviously is much stronger on his right side than his left. Being left handed, he struggles to hold things and write/color. He is still very active and always into exploring things. He won't sit still if he can help it. He's just a busy busy kid who needs to keep his little mind busy 24/7. He's also my sweet boy though, and loves to cuddle and tell his mommy how much he loves her.

Happy happy birthday to my darling little twins! We love you and all of your crazy antics!