my mj girls

it didn't take me long to dress jillian in some matilda jane :)

helen uses the boppy

there is nothing more peaceful than a sleeping baby

...you R the best....

graham brought this letter home from school last week for ross...i'm not exactly sure why graham is referring to his dad as "ross" - but it's still a cute letter

not only is he the best ross in the world - but he's the best husband and father too. he's been helping out with the kids and keeping the house clean over the past 2 weeks since jillian was born... without his help - i couldn't have done it!!!

you R the best Ross in the world!!!

"private seat, please"

as helen was going into the bathroom the other day, she said to me "private seat, please" ....she meant to say "privacy, please"

i gave birth in my running shoes!

.....well, almost gave birth in my running shoes....the doctor told me i shoud probably take them off just before she was born (so my shoes wouldn't get dirty!)

that's basically how fast the entire birth process went ...

i had contractions throughout the day on monday (february 15) and i woke up at about midnight with some contractions (i grabbed my iphone - i had downloaded a contraction timer application that timed the contractions and averaged the time in between the contractions). at this point the contractions were about 7-8 minutes apart. this continued until about 3am when the contractions got to be about 6-7 minutes apart. around 6am the contractions were still about 6 minutes apart. i got in the shower about 7am and ross prepared the kids for school that day...got them breakfast and dropped jayden and graham off at school around 8am. helen stayed with me while i finished getting ready and i got her dressed - by then the contractions had moved to about 5-6 minutes apart. the iphone application was so handy!! - i didn't have to think about the timing.... i just hit 'contraction start' - 'contraction end'! my friend, trisha stopped by to pick up helen for the day. i made some oatmeal for breakfast and drank some apple juice. by this time ross arrived home from dropping jayden and graham off at school. i told him my contractions were consistantly about 4:30-5 minutes apart - he might want to get in the shower and get ready - i thought we should get to the hospital soon.!

we headed for the hospital around 10am - ross dropped me off at the front door of the hospital and i waited on a wooden bench for him to park the car. can you believe someone actually asked me if i knew anything about valet parking for the day while i was sitting there - did i look like i worked at the hospital?!? we walked to the elevator (only had to stop once for a contraction!) and rode it to the 4th floor (good thing ross knew right where we were going!).

we arrived at the labor and delivery floor - they checked me and i was 6cm dialated! yippie!! it was about 10:45am or so... i know this because "The View" was on the TV when we walked in the labor room! after being routinely monitored for about 30 minutes and some routine questions and blood draws - i labored for about an hour or so. my doctor came in to check me and i was already 9cm! no turning back now - i was going through this labor without an epidural!!! yikes!!! (my plan was to have this baby naturally - but after 3 epidural births - this was uncharted territory for me!!) 9cm! wow! almost to 10cm! i couldn't believe it! at this point i remember feeling like i had to push her out, but the nurse kept saying your're not 10cm if you push now your cervix will swell and it will be hard to get her out. i entrepreted this as labor will be longer and i did NOT want that. so i kneeled at the back of the bed and the next thing i knew, i was 10cm!! i gave about 5 pushes and she was born!!! ross thought it should have been only 3 pushes - but for me pushing was the most painful part of the whole labor process - i wanted to give up!!

i briefly held her and then they took her to be weighed - 8 pounds 12 ounces and 20.25 inches long!! jillian jayne was born at 12:52 pm on february 16, 2010. throughout this entire process, ross was the best coach!!

on wednesday, exactly 24 hours after birth - jillian met her siblings at home!

"hey mom... the tooth fairy forgot to....

come to my room last night"

graham came into our room on sunday morning and said the tooth fairy forgot about him.... ross and i both looked at eachother and had that sudden feeling of "oh, no!" luckily ross was able to distract him, i ran downstairs and found $1 and tucked it between the wall and his bed. then i came back to get him and we went in his room together. i told him to look everywhere because sometimes the money might not be right under the pillow.

let's just say - i felt horrible that i forgot to put something under his pillow the night before!!! he found the dollar and didn't think anything of it.... he said he was going to use the dollar to buy a lolipop at school on monday.

happy valentines day!

my 2 front teeth

it's hard to believe that graham lost a front tooth last night. over the last week or so, we've been telling him that he looks like Mater from the disney movie Cars.

i must admit that the missing tooth changes his overall look so much!

he was so proud of himself last night - pulling and twisting out his own tooth! i wouldn't be surprised if i have a picture of him in a few days with BOTH top teeth gone!

my baby boy is growing up so fast!!

mr larry

today, i'm 39 weeks along.... wondering when i will actually go into labor :)

on friday, i went to the grocery store and ran into my old supervisor from my engineering days. what's so ironic about this encounter is the last time i ran into my old supervisor - i was in early labor with helen.... almost 2.5 years ago!! i ran into him on a friday at the grocery store as well and i ended up having helen the following tuesday!! stay tuned!

the 100-day project

next wednesday marks the 100th day that graham has been in kindergarten! now, don't go thinking i've been counting the days since he's been in school - hahaha! i guess it's a really big celebration in kindergarten. the students are required to come up with 100 objects and bring them into school for their celebration.

graham decided to use 100 marshmallows for his project. so we borrowed some glue from a friend (yep! you guessed it - the glue is on it's way to the nethelands!) and ross and the kids sat down to brainstorm the project. it took a few tries before the final masterpiece was complete. (the brainstorming even included an engineering design by ross!) they came up with a drawing of the school logo and name outlined in marshmallows. as you can see from the pictures, everyone had fun creating the masterpiece.

a big girl bed.....not so fast!

with the baby due to arrive in less than 2 weeks we decided that we should start transitioning helen to her "temporary" big girl bed. i say "temporary" because we sent helen's toddler bed with our sea shipment to the netherlands a few weeks ago. the furniture rental company would not rent us a crib for legal reasons and i thought "no problem" helen would love to be in a twin size bed just like her big brothers. well, i was WRONG! we put helen in her twin size bed and told her it was time to go to sleep. as we turned out the lights - helen promptly said "no big girl bed, mommy!". hmmmmm....now what are we going to do... we have to use the crib for the baby and the toddler bed is on a slow boat to the netherlands!

thankfully ross was able to locate a crib that we can rent from a company in chicago until we leave! the crib arrived today and we will try to put her in the crib with her bedding that she's used to tomorrow night for bed. keeping our fingers crossed!

dig-it

tonight graham was trying to read the words on his math homework. he came to the word "digit" and he sounded it out like "dig it". ross and i couldn't help but laugh a little :) he was trying so hard to sound out the word!