April 23, 2007
A week has gone by because we spent the majority of time last week at St. Ann's. My sister was due for a scheduled c-section at 3:30 pm on Wednesday, but on Monday afternoon, her water broke. She wasn't sure if that was what is was or not, so she decided to wait until her husband Bruce got home that night to get it checked out. At 10:15 my mom called to let me know that she was at the hospital to find out if it was, and at 11:15 she called back to let me know that she would be having the baby that night. Since he was still breech, she got prepped for a c-section, and David Alan came into the world at 12:44 am (Tuesday).  After she had been taken out to get prepped for surgery, so all the rest of us were all sitting out in the waiting room talking, in walked my doctor - Dr. Kelley! I said hello and that my sister was back there getting ready to have a c-section. He told me that's where he was heading, to assist! I thought that was pretty funny. Good thing I really liked Dr. Kelley. (The only male OB/GYN I've ever liked.) Despite all her warnings that the baby was going to be "huge" because of her gestational diabetes, David was born at 8 pounds 2 ounces, and 19 1/2 inches long. Yeah right -- huge! (Ethan was bigger than that, and he was early!) My sister and David are home now, recuperating and trying to get the hang of nursing. She's had a lot of the same issues I had when Natalie was a newborn. I don't envy being back in that position - it's so hard. She's got a lot of support around her, though (Bruce, my mom, me) and I know she'll get it.  I don't forget one iota how hard that first few weeks home with your first baby are, though!

I'm so excited to be an Aunt, though! For the first time, there's a baby in my family and I am not the mom! It sounds really strange to hear "Aunt Debby", though. That's my mom!

Ella had her first "solid" (in a matter of speaking) food yesterday! We gave her bananas. She was more interested in the spoon than in the food, but she got a few tastes in, and she seemed to like it. Most of it ended up on her bib, which made for cute pictures. Phil happily snapped away while I fed her.  I haven't wanted to rush to foods for her, because I really would rather change breastfed diapers only, but she's been hawk-eyeing my food for the last few weeks, so we thought it was time. Hard to believe she's getting so big! She still seemed so tiny, until this past week when compared to little David. She's HUGE compared to him! 

Last night we were driving around, and Natalie was singing in the back seat. (She's almost always either singing or Irish dancing back there.) Then she sang, "Te amo, te amo, te amo Dr. Suess!" Apparently she learned a new song yesterday morning in kids' church, a Spanish song, and Natalie insists that EVERYONE was singing "Dr. Suess". "Even Whitney, mom." (Whitney is one of our pastor's kids, and as a girl a few years older, Natalie wants to be just like her.) We tried to explain to Natalie that everyone was probably NOT singing "Dr. Suess", but "Jesus", which is pronounced "Hey-suess" in Spanish. I'm still not sure she completely believes us. She's so cute.

April 16, 2007
Ella's 5-month picture is posted! I wanted to note one quick thing. I noticed yesterday during church that Ella's top right tooth is coming through. It's not out yet, but I can clearly see the tooth edges starting to pop through. I have a theory about why I've needed a spit bib for Ella but hardly ever used them for the other two. I think since she's younger, she doesn't know how to keep all that extra spit inside her mouth as well. They all had drool, but Ella really gets her clothes soaked. Until this baby I always thought these little cloth bibs were useless -- after all, they certainly don't work for eating solids!

April 14, 2007
Just a few random updates: a couple things I forgot the last time, and a couple things to come in the next week.

First of all, since my sister Nan's website hasn't been up and working for a couple months now, I thought I'd let everyone know that she is scheduled for a c-section this Wednesday, April 18. Little David will be born at about 3:00 pm! David is very securely breech, hence the scheduled C. He's quite comfortable bottom-side down, thankyouverymuch, and he didn't want to go upside down. I'm so excited to become an aunt for the first time! Imagine that - a baby in our family that *I* don't have to be "MOM" to!! Watch this site for the first pictures, since I'll get David's stats and pictures posted as soon as I get home from the hospital. 

Tomorrow is Ella's FIVE MONTH birthday. I just cannot believe it's already gone so fast. Unlike the previous two, where I've said that the days go slowly but the weeks and months like lightning, this time it's all just gone fast. (Especially once I started on the Zoloft and was able to get myself and the three kids out of the house occasionally!) I'll get her fifth month picture posted tomorrow. I might not have another written update, but I'll get a picture up anyway. I forgot to mention the other day that she is not only rolling over everywhere, but she's also playing with her toes, and laughing out loud. Ella's laugh is SO very cute. They always are, but hers is very different from the other two. Hers is more of a throaty belly laugh, and not so much a giggle. She found her toes a couple weeks ago when it was really warm out, so her tootsies were uncovered, but since it got cold again she sort of forgot about them. This week she started finding them again, playing with her toes through her footy clothes. I'm looking forward to a return to warm weather, so she can play with her toes properly again. (I also have a LOT more warm weather clothes in her size!) It's been so cold lately that I moved Ella back to her infant carrier car seat, even though she's technically too long to be in it anymore. We felt bad every time we had to get her out of the car, because we don't have a coat for her. We just wrapped her up as best as we could in her heavy blankets, but she was still whimpering from the cold. And then we had to unwrap her to strap her in the car seat (with the door open and the wind blowing right on her.) So at least with the carrier seat we can cover her up completely, and pop her in and out of the car really quickly with the least exposure to the elements. (It's also really hard to just pop her into a sling or my Moby when I'm wearing a coat, which is what I was doing to carry her around when we were using the convertible seat.) As soon as it turns back to Spring I'll get her back in the car seat that she actually fits in.

Natalie is obviously very proud about being five. Every place, and I do mean EVERYWHERE, without exaggeration, she tells everyone: "Do you know, I'm FIVE?" Then Ethan chimes in, "I'm two-haff!" Most of the time, the cashiers, librarians, etc. play along with her and say "Wow! Really?" but sometimes they either don't hear her, understand what she's saying (VERY rare these days thanks to speech therapy), or just don't want to talk to a five year old, in which case, she keeps repeating her statement/question over and over again until they respond. My gut reaction, after hearing these exchanges day in and day out, is to say "okay, okay, Natalie, enough!" but she really enjoys it, and though I've heard it a gazillion times already, I keep in mind that there's no harm in it, it really is very cute (if you haven't been the one hearing it a gazillion times), and it sure is an improvement over a year or so ago, when she was so shy she wouldn't say a word to anyone she didn't know. (And many she did know.) I definitely wouldn't call her shy anymore. We've even had to have a few talks about being careful around strangers. Couldn't imagine having to talk too much about that a few years ago!

Okay, that's all for now. It's time for our nightly TiVo time. ("Lost" is on tonight's agenda. We're ALMOST caught up in the current season! - To which my sister Sarah says, "YAY!" I'm sure...) My next update will probably be on Wednesday night!

April 12, 2007
I know, I know... I am so far behind on updating! There has been lots going on, but for whatever reason, I just haven't felt like writing. I still don't, honestly, but I at least want to get a few things recorded. I've been keeping busy lately, but mostly I haven't written because most of my "free" time has gone to reading a book that is causing me to do quite a lot of self-evaluation right now. I guess it's probably just been taking most of my extra mental energy (extra being other than the everything else that mentally drains me every day!), which is leaving not much for sitting down to write much more than a quick tag on my photos.

My sister Rachel came out for Nan's baby shower, which was a surprise for Nan. Rachel stayed a couple nights with me, which was really nice. The kids loved spending time with her, and we had some good talks about things, too. I've been taking a lot of photos lately, though, so at least I have that, if not a good written record of the past few weeks. (Now if I can just get better at making prints, and not just the digital images, my kids won't think the last month was nonexistent!)

I have two kids teething right now. Ella got her second tooth just a few days after the first one popped out, so she's been pretty cranky at times. But at least she's still sleeping through the night! It was like a switch was turned on, and she's been sleeping great every night. 

So then, a few days ago Natalie started saying that her front two teeth were hurting. I have to admit, we don't automatically jump to concern when Natalie says something hurts, because something often does -- including any sock and any shoe on her foot, which "tickles" (her word) so much that she routinely kicks off her shoes and throws fits about it. But I digress. A couple days ago I looked in her mouth after brushing her teeth, and I pressed in on her front teeth as I was checking them. They moved! Just as I completely did not expect Ella's first tooth for at least the next month or so, Natalie losing her baby teeth was not at all on my radar yet. I looked up some info about it today, and apparently, while the average age is six, some kids lose teeth at 5 or even 4. Her teeth aren't extremely loose yet, but they definitely wiggle. So I suddenly need to start thinking about the whole tooth fairy thing. I just can't figure out how it will be possible to remove a tooth from under a pillow under a sleeping head without waking her up. I know as a kid I did my best to always put it under the center of my pillow, right where my head was, and Natalie is not the most heavy of sleepers. Losing her teeth is on Natalie's mind a lot, too. Yesterday she told me that the night before, she had a dream that she lost four teeth at church and then came home and lost one more. I told her she probably wouldn't lose more than one and no more than two at a time.

Ella is rolling all over the place now. When I put her down on the floor, she rolls right over onto her tummy, and I can't keep her on a blanket anymore. (We just had our carpet steam cleaned this morning, so I feel a little better about that, except that Ethan has lately EVERY MORNING been dumping his bowl of dry cereal out on the floor, which then gets smashed all over. Not so good for a newly mobile baby.) We have to watch her pretty carefully now. She can push herself all the way up on her arms. All she has to do now is get up on those little legs (which she loves to stand up with when she's on my lap), and she'll be crawling. Then, up will go the gates. I've already been trying to impress on the kids (Ethan especially) that they can't leave little toys (or cereal, or ROUND MAGNETS, which he loves to play with!) around on the floor anymore. Kid number three here is going to have the biggest chance to get something non-child safe into her mouth. With Natalie of course we were all childproofed, and there were no little Barbie shoes or Pollys around. We were pretty vigilant when Ethan was at this stage, but it's much harder to keep up with two older kids' toys! 

I'll try to get back here sooner next time! In the meantime, keep an eye out on my Flickr page. Now that I have a decent Internet connection, I've been doing pretty good at keeping that going!