Miss Pyper-- One, Two, Three months!

I wrote a post about Pyper when she was a month old but never posted it... and life is crazy with 3 tinies and I never wrote about her when she was two months old and now she's already three months old!  So that's crazy... anyway, here's her 1-month post and now a 3-month post!

It's a little wild that a month has already passed since this little girl came into our lives!  I can't imagine life without her.  She hasn't hit any big milestones yet, so there's not too much to report. 

- She's still nice and chubby-- but really only in her cheeks.  Her legs and arms are spindly like the other girls' were.
- She's still wearing newborn clothes and diapers. 
- Her head also must be smaller than the other girls', because the majority of our little headbands still don't fit her. 
- She is getting better at sleeping at night.  She usually sleeps between 3.5-4.5 hours for the first stretch of the night, and then goes another 2.5-3.5 before eating again.  During the day she usually eats every 2-3 hours and generally sleeps when she's not eating.  She's awake for between 3-4 hours a day I think.  She's by FAR my sleepiest baby! 

One month old:

Two months old:

Three months old:

At her 2-month well check, Miss Pyper weighed 11 pounds (65%) and was 23 inches tall (61%).  She is by far my chubbiest baby, and I love it so much!

At three months old, here's what Pyper is up to:

- She is getting close to rolling from back to front, but hasn't gotten it yet.
- Her core strength is getting better, and she can sit in her Bumbo.
- She loves her jumper!  She hasn't actually been able to jump yet but she pushes herself around in circles.
- She doesn't have a set schedule during the day, but usually is only awake for 1-2 hours at a time and then sleeps for 1-2 hours.  She goes to bed between 7-8pm and sleeps til between 12-1am, then eats and goes back to sleep til around 5am, eats again and goes to sleep til between 8-9am.
- She loves to suck on her fists.  She hasn't found a favorite finger or thumb, which I'm grateful for.  But she does soothe herself with her fist.
- Her thighs are getting chubbier, and I'm obsessed!
- She is so so happy!  She loves to smile and laugh.
- Pyper loves Pat-a-Cake and Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes.
- She loves Lexsi SO much!  Whenever Lex is around, Pyper is cooing and smiling at her.  She's a little afraid of Mia (for good reason).  Mia loves Pyper so so much, she just isn't the most gentle person around.  Ha!
- She isn't really a total mama's girl OR daddy's girl.  She likes us both a whole lot.  She obviously prefers me when she's tired, cause she wants to nurse.  But generally she doesn't prefer one of us to the other.
- She's pretty spoiled because I hold her almost the whole day.  She'll sit in her Bumbo, swing, bouncer or jumper, but she really likes to be held the best.  And that's totally okay with me!  I have 2 other tiny girls that need my attention too, but I don't want to miss this time with Pyper while she's an infant.  I know how fast these girlies grow up and gain independence, so I'm happy to haul her around as long as she'll let me!
- Her hair is just getting long enough that it stands up straight when she gets out of a bath.  It's looking like it'll turn brown,
- Her eyes are still blue. I'm convinced she'll have blue or hazel eyes.  My mom thinks they're for sure turning brown.  We shall see!

Lex and Pyper playing:

Lex made Pyper play dress up with her.  Haha!

The big girls got bored and stickered Pyper up:

My sweet smiley girl:

With a huge apple!

Cutest smiley girl!

Concussed

A few weeks ago we went down to Provo for DJ's birthday, General Conference and Mia's birthday party.  One of the days we were there my mom and I took the girls to the BYU Bookstore to get DJ a birthday present.  Pyper was grumpy so I took her out of the stroller and put Mia in.  It had the car seat attached to it at the time.  Mia stood up in it and I told her to sit down, and so did my mom.  She didn't listen and ended up falling out of the car seat inside the stroller and landing straight on her head on the hard floor.  She screamed for about 30 minutes straight, and was super super pale.  When we would put her on the floor she was really unstable.  She wanted to be held and was laying on my shoulder.  She was really not herself at all.  I was really worried about her.  I looked up signs of a concussion and was confident that she had one.  Within about an hour she seemed more like herself and even ate some dinner so I wasn't overly concerned.  I just kept checking on her once she went to sleep to make sure she was doing okay.

Around 1am she woke up crying and I went in to find she had thrown up all over herself and her bed.  I woke up my mom to help me get her cleaned up while I cleaned the bed.  While my mom had her in the bath she threw up again (and apparently it choked her, which scared them both a ton.  I'm glad I didn't witness that!), and I decided I needed to take her into the Emergency Room, cause the concussion might be worse than I originally thought.  I called DJ and told him he needed to come down.  I'm sure the drive from Brigham to Provo at 1:30am to come to the Emergency Room and meet your tiny child there was probably 0% fun!

My dad came with me to the ER, and on the way Mia threw up again.  We went up to Timpanogos hospital in Orem (because I love Mountainstar the best) but it turned out their CT scan was down.  So then we went to Orem Community Hospital.  Poor Mia threw up several more times and kept falling asleep on my shoulder only to wake up and barf again.  Right before she threw up every time she'd say, "I don't want to barf!!!" and then she'd cry while she was throwing up-- it totally broke my heart!  They gave her some Zofran, which helped her not to barf for a few hours.

While we were at the hospital, she was pretty much in panic mode and did not let any nurses touch her, even just to get her oxygen levels.  Luckily she fell asleep before the doctor came to do the CT scan, so she was pretty out of it when they actually did it.  Otherwise I know she would have fought it and it would have been awful.  After the CT scan was done DJ made it to the hospital and my dad went back home.  I'm really grateful he came with me so that I wasn't alone driving her around town in the middle of the night and sitting in the ER for hours!  The doctor came in not too long after DJ got there and told us that everything looked okay-- her brain and skull were looking healthy.  That was such a relief!

We got back home a little before 5am, and Mia and I showered because we were both covered in barf by that time.  DJ took her to bed and slept with her while I went into the other room and slept with Lex and Pyper.  by about 7am everyone was awake already-- so miserable!  All that morning Mia just wanted to be cuddled.  I kind of loved that!  She kept taking naps on my chest.  In the afternoon I laid her down for a good nap in her bed and she seemed a lot better after that.

I am so very grateful that my sweet girl is okay!  She is such a monkey that it was pretty much inevitable that she'd get injured at some point.  Head injuries are just particularly scary!  I'm just so grateful it wasn't more serious.

This is the one picture I got of this whole ordeal-- the day after, while she was in recovery mode and kept falling asleep on me!

Miss Mia is TWO!

In some ways, it seems like Mia has been two for a long time.  She's so smart and her vocabulary is incredibly advanced, so she often seems older than she really is.  I know it seems like I brag about her vocabulary a lot-- but it's really just so incredible to me!  The thing is, I know I'm not just an overly-proud mama, cause practically everyone she meets expresses their surprise in her language skills.  I felt particularly justified in my sense of pride over her skills after Keesha told me back in August that she was so impressed with Mia's ability to talk, especially because she also speaks Spanish.  Keesh teaches at a daycare and spends every day with a whole group of 2-year-olds, so she definitely knows what she's talking about when it comes to that age group!  Mia is just a super smart kid!

In addition to her impressive vocabulary, Mia is learning the alphabet!  She can point out nearly any letter and tell you what it is.  She's really good with capital letters, but I don't know about lower case ones.  I haven't really ever asked her about those!  I'm currently teaching her how to spell her name using Mega Blocks that I wrote on.

Mia is such a good eater!  She's so willing to try new things, which is a HUGE deal to me, considering I have another child who is extremely picky.  She especially loves fruit and vegetables.  She loves to pick cherry tomatoes out of the garden and eat them!  She usually eats an apple and an ear of corn every day.  She's just a great little eater!

She has been such a good sleeper, and it's awesome!  She usually goes to bed between 6:30-7pm and sleeps between 12.5-13 hours straight.  It's super nice.  The past few nights she's woken up around midnight, but that's unusual.  She has essentially stopped napping {already!  UGH!} but that makes it so she falls right asleep when she goes to bed so it's mostly okay.  I still usually make the girls have quiet time every day, so we all get alone time and it's good for everyone.

We started going back to our English ward, and Mia loves Nursery!  There are 3 little boys her same age and then Lexsi in the nursery class.  When Lex goes to Primary in January hopefully Mia still does well-- I think she will!  She's a pretty social kid.

Mia is a great little singer, and knows lots of Primary songs.  She listens to the Children's Songbook songs in Spanish every night as she goes to sleep, so she's really good at singing them in Spanish.  Cutest thing ever!

She is such a sensitive little girl.  If her feelings get hurt she'll start crying and saying, "It broke my heart!" So. cute.

Mia is still obsessed with cats.  She sleeps with about 5 stuffed cats and she just loves them all so much!  Our neighbor has a cat that comes to visit us sometimes and it just makes Mia's whole life!

Miss Mia is a total sass... she has so much personality wrapped up in her little body and I LOVE it!

This girl is a big time climber.  She just can't seem to keep herself from monkeying around!  One day we were outside and I was holding Pyper on the porch swing while the big girls played on the playset.  I couldn't see Mia anymore and asked Lex where she was.  Lex kept saying, "She's right up there!" but I still couldn't see her-- when I came over I realized she had climbed out ON TOP of the monkey bars over the swings.  She's just absolutely fearless.

For her birthday this year, we decided to do a fairy party.  Her cousins Kennedy and Addi came to my mom's house for the party and they got to dress up as fairies, pop bubbles with their fairy wands, go on a fairy hunt, play balloon games, and eat fairy cake!  This party was by far my least organized, but considering we were all recovering from the ordeal of Mia's concussion it wasn't a super high priority!

She thinks she's super hilarious, and I do too!

 Fairy Birthday Party girls:

Popping bubbles:

Fairy Cake:

Mia's new bicycle from her Aunties:

She loves her kitties!

Birthday Pictures:

Picking "bendgetables."  She loves those tomatoes!

Pyper Rose

On Sunday, July 12 DJ and I left Lexsi and Mia at my mom's in Provo and came back up to Brigham so I could have Pyper the following morning.  On the morning of the 13th, we slept in and headed to the hospital in the late morning.  DJ gave me a blessing before we left, and in it he said that Pyper was going to be a good example and be strong in sharing the Gospel.  It made me so excited to meet this valiant little spirit!  

The Brigham City hospital is SO SMALL!  I had never been in it before, and it was kind of hilarious how small it really is.  We got checked in super fast, I changed into my hospital gown and settled in bed to wait for an hour or so before the surgery was actually scheduled.  I did my best to focus on the book I was reading as I anxiously waited for the time to pass!  DJ got to get suited up in his OR gear once again, and when my doctor got to the hospital we all went to the Operating Room.  They rolled my bed in there this time, unlike with Mia, where I walked in on my own.  DJ waited outside the OR while they gave me the spinal tap and prepped me for surgery.

 I started to get a little nervous right before they did the spinal tap, just cause it's never fun to get poked in the spine.  Also, the OR was freezing.  So I was shaking a tiny bit when they did the spinal tap.  The anesthesiologist was so so awesome!  He was my best one yet.  The first time he did the tap, though, I felt pain shoot down the right side of my back, like by my kidney.  He saw me flinch, asked where it hurt, and readjusted it.  My anesthesia was WAY better this time than it was with Mia.  When I had Mia, the surgery hurt a LOT.  This time, I was completely numb from the chest down.  DJ came in once I was all prepped and they got started.  It was weird, cause my chest was numb and I couldn't feel myself breathing, but I obviously still was.  It's weird how your body just knows what to do!  After a few minutes, I was starting to feel really nauseous from the anesthesia.  I told the anesthesiologist, and he calmly just told me to turn my head to the right and throw up.  I hadn't eaten in over 12 hours so it was only stomach acid, and he had stuck a suction thing in my mouth like they have at the dentist so it was all taken care of.  It pretty much freaked me out, cause I knew the surgery was underway, and that my abdomen was definitely cut open and some of my insides were outside... so the thought of throwing up kinda seemed like it would be a big deal.  But everyone was so calm that it seemed like it wasn't such a problem in the end.  DJ didn't actually see Pyper being born because I was throwing up and he was more worried about me.  She was born at 12:50pm and came with a strong set of lungs!  She was wailing the whole time she was in the OR.  Then DJ brought her over to me and we got a quick picture of the three of us before DJ and Pyper went to the nursery.  When she was born she weighed 7 pounds 12 ounces (Lex was 7lb 13oz and Mia was 7lb 11oz, so Pyper was right on par with my kiddos).  She was measured at 19.25 inches long, but DJ said the nurse didn't really stretch her out so she was definitely taller than that.

I stayed in the OR for nearly an hour after Pyper was born, just getting put back together and sewn up.  I chatted with the doctors and nurses, which is always funny to me, considering what my body is going through.  My doctor told me that I had almost no fat in my stomach, which made me pretty happy!  Obviously I have some, plus I'm still in recovery mode, but it's pretty awesome to hear your doctor tell you when your abdomen is cut open that you have very little fat.  After leaving the OR I had to go wait in a little recovery booth for like 20 minutes or something.  When I finally made it back to my room, DJ was waiting there with Pyper.  I held her and nursed her and started snuggling her!  She's such a sweet, mellow baby.

I had to stay in the hospital for 4 days, and I have to say, this was my best hospital experience yet.  I haven't had any bad experiences, but I've delivered all 3 girls in different hospitals and this one has been my favorite.  The food was super good, the nurses were all fantastic, and after the first day I was the only person in the maternity ward.  It was pretty awesome!

On Wednesday, my mom brought the girls back up to Brigham and they got to meet their sister!  I expected Lexsi to be obsessed with her, which she totally was.  I kind of expected Mia to have a harder time, cause Lex did when Mia was born.  But she surprised me, and wanted to hold and love on Pyper as soon as she came to the hospital!  I can already tell these three are going to be best of friends!

   

My recovery has gone pretty smoothly.  I took Percocet while I was at the hospital and for one day after I came home.  The nurses all told me that I had a high pain tolerance, and were surprised I didn't take more medicine.  After one day at home I switched to only Ibuprofen for several days, slowly weaning myself off.  I haven't taken any drugs in several days now.  I pretty much hate the feeling of being on drugs, so I wean myself as quickly as possible.

The doctor told me that about a week after surgery, I could take my bandage off my incision.  This time they had done stitches, and both other times I had staples and then sucher tape, so this was all new to me.  After almost 2 weeks I finally broke down and took the bandage off-- that kind of thing totally freaks me out.  It was a pretty gross.  I hated seeing my incision before it was completely healed.  I've never looked at an incision before until there was nothing left but a scar!  But I feel like once the bandage was off I healed quicker.  At my 2-week check up the doctor told me my incision looked amazing and that I heal super fast.  I've already known that, but it's good to hear again!  I'm pretty proud of my body for going through three pregnancies and three c-sections in less than three and a half years and still recovering so well!  Also, my doctor told me the day that I had Pyper that I was cleared to have more kids.  So that's great news as well!

 Since we've been home, Pyper has been getting lots of love from her sisters!  She's such a sweet-natured baby.  She sleeps the majority of her life-- literally around 20 hours a day.  She only cries when she's getting her clothes changed because she HATES being naked, when she bathes (cause again, she hates being naked), or if I don't feed her as fast as she thinks I should.  She has pretty much decided that if she's awake she should be eating.  She's a total chub!  At her 2-week check up she weighed 8 pounds 8 ounces.  They only expect newborns to get back to their birth weight at that point, and she obviously has gained way more than that.  So that's super funny to me.

The craziest thing to me is how BALD this baby is!  Her hair is dark, but it's super short.  I'm used to crazy hairy girls, so this was kind of a shocker to me.  I've convinced myself that she's going to turn blonde.  Also her eyes are blue!  They're dark blue, but I've also convinced myself that they're going to stay light.  I just have to believe I'll have one child with some of my features!

As far as her nicknames, I usually call her Miss Pyper or Pyper Rose.  DJ usually calls her Pypes.  The girls almost always call her Baby Pyper.

We love our Pyper girl SO much!  It's only been 3 weeks but I have no idea what we'd do without this incredible little girl in our home!


To follow tradition, I'll be taking monthly pictures of Pyper in a white onesie with a stuffed animal to measure her growth.  Here is her first picture, at one week old:

Child of Mine

So, I've mentioned before that Mia likes to sleep under Lexsi's bed.  It's a weird pattern.  Tonight, Lex was crying at the door a little while after we put the girls to bed, so we came upstairs to investigate.  It turns out that Mia crawled under Lexsi's bed, then laid on her back and used her feet to lift Lexsi's mattress up and down while Lex was on it.  I asked Mia why she was doing that, and she responded, "Bad choice!" I told her that, yes, it WAS a bad choice, and she needed to stay in her own bed.

After getting them back to bed I shook my head and laughed, wondering where this little punky child came from!  All of a sudden I had a memory come to mind that I had completely forgotten about--- of myself as a child, when I shared bunk beds with Meggin.  She had the top bunk and I had the bottom, and I distinctly remember laying on my back and using my feet to lift the mattress on her top bunk bed while she tried to go to sleep.  She never appreciated it, and I thought I was hilarious.  When I remembered this, I burst out laughing, and have been amused by it ever since.  Mia is me.  Completely.  We both have learned how to rile up our older sisters, and we both think we're hilarious.  I'd like to believe I don't bug my sister as much now as I did when I was a kid, but who knows?  I can fully admit that I tend to say and do punky things and then think I'm hilarious for them!

So, yeah... I've definitely had my moments where I've questioned where Mia came from-- she is a handful!  And now I have my absolute answer... she's me.  A mini version of me.  So I deserve to deal with any antics she sends my way 100%.  She is hilarious and punky and I adore her!

Projects

If you know me at all, you know I love projects.  One of the reasons I was excited about the house we bought a little over a year ago was because I saw the potential it had.  It takes time to get things done the way you like them, but it's definitely worth it in the end!  In the past couple months we've gotten some projects done around here (some big, some small), and it's been pretty awesome!

I always knew I wanted the back wall of my master bedroom to be painted with some sort of design, but I wasn't sure what I wanted to do.  One day I decided to just go for it, which is typical for me!  I bought some painter's tape, taped off a design, and painted it with paint I had on hand!  As usual, I didn't consult DJ first, and as usual he was very complimentary of my design decision.  I'm blessed to have him around-- he's super tolerant!  So here are the before and afters: 

In the spring, I decided I really wanted another rocking chair before Pyper was born.  We have a big recliner/rocking chair in our upstairs living room which is super comfortable, but we only have a couch and loveseat in our basement living room, and I really wanted a rocking chair since DJ and I spend our time down there in the evenings once the girls are in bed and inevitably I'm going to want to rock Pyper down there some times.  I wanted a little rocker, and didn't really want a glider.  I had a glider with Lexsi and it broke really fast.  Well lucky me, I found this rocking chair online for only $5 from someone here in Brigham!  It's a whole lot like a rocking chair my mom had when I was a kid, which I kind of loved.  I took the back and seat off and brought them down to my mom's house, and she recovered them for me!  I paid about $25 for the fabric and new padding, so in total I only paid $30 for this super cute rocking chair!  I love it!

This last and most recent project was by far the biggest and most time consuming of our recent projects, and I feel super gushy about it!  When I moved into my house, the upstairs living room was carpeted, the walls were all beige and the railing and hand railing to the stairs were honey oak... not my fave:

Before we moved in, we painted all the upstairs walls except the two going downstairs, because we didn't have an extension ladder to be able to reach all the way to the top.  If you know me at all, you can imagine how much it drove me crazy to see those two walls the ugly beige for over a year when everything else was a nice dark grey!  Yuck.  Last summer or fall some time, I decided to get to work on the railing.  I painted all the spindles white, and it was a good start:

Shortly after, DJ stained the top and end post of the railing to match our kitchen counters, and it looked even better!  Then he ripped up the carpet and installed new flooring, so things were moving right along:

Unfortunately, with DJ being the head coach of three different sports, he doesn't get a lot of time during the school year to do home improvement projects.  I have told him numerous times that the reason he doesn't work in the summers is so he can work for me, and he's such a good sport about that!  As I already mentioned, he's super tolerant of my ideas, and is happy to jump in and help make them happen!  I decided at some point during the past year that I really wanted the wall going downstairs to be planked.  I figured it would make a good focal wall, and fits in well with the overall design feeling in our home.  So a couple weeks ago, we went to Lowe's and bought a whole bunch of plywood (8 sheets I believe, but I think we only ended up needing around 5?).  We brought it home and DJ cut the planks into the size I requested.  I spent a couple afternoons white washing all the planks.  I also decided that, for variety's sake, I'd "blue wash" some of the planks using the blue paint we have on our big wall in our living and dining room.  I'm SO glad I did!  I think it adds serious visual interest.  After the planks were all painted DJ installed them.  We had to buy an air compressor and nail gun for this project, and totally blessed out when we found what we were looking for on sale for only $50!  We also had to get an extension ladder.  The cost of the tools we purchased ended up being more than that cost of the wood to do the wall, but that's totally okay cause now we have the tools for other projects.  That's just part of owning a home-- accumulating tools and supplies for home improvement!  In the end, the wall turned out just how I wanted it to... I'm obsessed!  It's so awesome to have the space finished, and see my ideas become realities!

 This is the bottom of the stairs:

One day I want to refinish the stairs so that the step is wood, stained the same dark brown as the railing, and the rise is painted white.  For now, though, with toddlers and another baby on the way, carpet is just a safer finish so we're sticking with that!  I love this space so much!