Leif Alexander Pedersen is here! (Two weeks ago)

Well I didn't make it to an April post for a very good reason - Leif decided to make his appearance! I had a long, long, long early labor (a week and a half of steadily-increasing contractions and two false alarm trips to the hospital). Ended up in the hospital for the real thing on his due date, April 17. Then another 12 hours of hard labor overnight in the hospital and progressed still only to 5cm. The doctor broke my water at 7am, by 7:55am I was pushing. Whoa! Two hours of pushing later and out came my VBAC baby Leif, 8lbs 3oz, full head of dark hair. April 18, 2014 at 10am on the dot. Yay! I've been slowly recovering and feeling pretty good. Leif and I have gotten pretty much through mastitis that started in earnest a week ago. And this morning I took a twenty minute walk. And all three kids (and daddy) are still sleeping. We have been blessed with a wonderful sleeper in Leif. Knock on wood it continues because just keeping up with three is tiring :-) Wish me luck in my first week alone with the three of them this week. May have to call in reinforcements, but I did make a large art supply purchase yesterday and the weather is looking much better for outside play so I might just survive :-)

Pictures!

 Relaxing after the girls go to sleep

 A baby, a salad, what more do you need?

 Signe loves being a big sister

 Soooo big/small

 Art project with our buddy Diana who has been helping me out occasionally with this craziness

 I can finally snuggle and read with the girls again after my belly and general uncomfortableness prevented me for months!

 Freya didn't want to snuggle Leif but she did want a picture of her flapping

 Rare sunny day!

 First bath at home. Sleeping. Typical sweet Leif :-)

 When he was still in his basket for daytime naps/safe deposit area. He outgrew it pretty quick and we were lucky enough to be able to borrow the bassinet you see in other pictures

March; Baby brother 37 weeks

Trying to get a quick post up so I don't skip out on all of March! It doesn't help that the girls stole the left shift key off my computer so to capitalize letters on the left side I have to press the teeny tiny little button instead of the key. Toddlers...

Baby is on my vena cava, meaning I'm dizzy a lot of the time. particularly when sitting which is my other excuse for not blogging. he's moving, growing, etc. great. Hoping he stays in there for another week or two yet to get big and strong, although it's hard not to also hope he comes asap so we can meet him and I can be done being pregnant :-) These last weeks of pregnancy sure move slow

More indoor fun; baby brother 33 weeks

Baby brother is doing great. Moving like a crazy person. I am actually feeling pretty good! Obviously slowed way down, but my pelvis is doing pretty well. I've been careful to wear my brace almost all the time, I'm doing my gentle swim class once a week, and chiro every other week. Oh also, I'm not carrying twins :-) Looking forward to meeting him - my guess is only 4 weeks or so until the big day!

I've been doing the nesting thing, one clue it isn't much longer. Two days ago I cleaned out two cabinets in the kitchen from top to bottom. Yesterday I created an "art studio" in the living room for the girls (really just moved some furniture around, put their art stuff there, and taped down an old tablecloth).

The girls are great, well, we're all stir-crazy along with everyone else in, I guess most of the country east of the Rockies. Signe has been cracking us up lately because she calls me, Kurt, and Freya "honey". Particularly when she wants something. "Honey, I want cream of wheat" "I want to sit on your lap honey" It sounds SO FUNNY coming back at you.

 Same cuddle, including same sweatshirt, he used on newborn Signe :-)

 Signe REALLY wanted to see the hail and rain, so I let her stand on the porch with the door open a crack

 31 weeks or so

 They are pretty much goofballs

 Daddy cuddles are the best

 Daddy's one-weekend mustache. The girls are very happy he shaved his beard and mustache. It's been weeks but they still talk about how they didn't like it and are glad he shaved it off. It was scratchy you see.

 With their towers. This was one of MANY pictures that came about by request "mama take a picture"

 The high-waisted look

 Signe doing Kerry's hair, Imani fixing her wardrobe

 The pictures uploaded out of order and I don't have time/patience to re-order them. This is a bunch of pictures of when the Wilson's (Alanah, Imani, and Montego) came to visit. The closet was a popular hiding spot. Not sure if all 5 kids ever got in it at once but it was close.

 Tech conference

 Kerry reading to all the girls. She's pretty talented.

 Out-of-order "calm burritos". Kurt came up with it, it's a great solution for crazy toddlers.

 Ok another sign of my laziness, just noticed now Freya digging for treasures in this picture. But everything else is so cute! I refuse to take it down. Imani was the one who started Signe on the hair-doing.

 Alanah reading stories to Signe and Freya on top of the couch

 Dinner time with 5 kiddos

 Silly face time. Mostly Alanah making a silly face and everyone looking at her. And then there's Tego :-)

 Kerry cuddles

 All the play dough came out in one piece, thankfully

 They enjoyed the BBQ sauce. Also, drawing on themselves.

 Their new "art studio"