1 Month

Honestly,month 1 with a newborn and three other kids has not been as bad as I thought. I had much anxiety over this birth because I felt as though I was stretched thin to begin with. Elias is not the easiest baby (wants to be held, carried,and hates the car) but he is not overly difficult either (he is easily comforted if he gets what he wants).
The kids are good with him. Reeve has learned not to jump on him or throw anything at him but he still needs close supervision.
Trinity is a great help as is Everett. Everett however pays the least amount of attention to him. Reeve is the most affectionate and Trinity is the best "mommy" to him.
I am feeling good and have taking running back up again to get the baby pounds off and to feel like a normal person again. I cannot wait until the 6 week clearance...the treadmill is calling my name. It gives me the energy I need to get through the long nights. Elias is waking up about every 3 hours like any normal newborn. I long for a good night's sleep. In the meantime, he cuteness keeps me going and he is on the cusp of smiling. :)

Snowbunnies

Enjoying the first snow of the year. It's about time. And...I am over it already. Spring???

Winter Wonderland

I was so happy that Navy Pier extended this event an extra week this year. The kids have been asking to go but I knew we couldn't go right before Christmas or too soon after the baby was born. They have been amazing and patient since Elias came into this world so we thought no better way to give them a thank you then with the event they look forward to all year.
On the way downtown with 4 kids in the car, our transmission fried. We managed to drive, very slowly, to my aunt's house and switch the kids into her expedition. I drove that car behind Eddie straight to the Volvo dealership in our luxury lemon and demanded a new transmission. Looks like we might get one on the house but we are still waiting to hear. In the meantime, I have a new xc90 to drive, courtesy of them. anyway...I digress.

Eddie and Trinity waiting over an hour to ride the ferris wheel. I sat on the floor with 3 boys exhausted...waiting...

They wanted to charge me $20 for this same picture. really?

The kids kept saying, "thank you for bringing us here, thank you!"

that made it worth it, broke down car and all.

First Tub Time

2011 in Review

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Gingerbread

We never got around to this before Christmas. It ended up being a nice post holiday treat and activity.

It's Way too loud in here.

Better get used to it...

Christmas 2011

I am so happy I made it home in time to not miss a single moment of this day. It was relaxing and cozy and much different that any other Christmas we have had. We never left of jammies (except Trinity - she had to get her party dress on), not even sure we showered. It was quite nice.

It's Not a girl!

I thought Trinity would be upset about that. She has been aching for a baby sister, or an older sister, any kind of sister. I was a little scared to tell her she had another brother. Although her first reaction was "ooohhhhhh" she quickly warmed up to the idea. I emailed her a picture from the hospital and from then on, she called or emailed every 5 minutes demanding I bring him home.
She has been a great helper and quite pleased at her special girl status of the house. Can't say I blame her.
The boys has adjusted amazingly well. The hardest part is trying to keep Reeve from jumping on him. He is by far the most affectionate with him. Everett is as cool as a cucumber as always.
I am excited about life with 3 boys. They better marry women I like and know how to be good "sisters" to Trinity.

Elias Jasper

This baby really threw me for a loop. I had no idea if he was a girl or a boy, I never had an intuition. And, I thought for sure he would arrive early. I did think he would be a bit smaller than my other kids, I was right about that. Weighing in at 8lbs. 1oz,he was our smallest (Everett was 8.3, Trinity 8.13 and Reeve 9). He was a quarter inch taller than Everett though.
I went to the hospital on December 16th thinking for sure he was coming. My contractions were 5 minutes apart for 5 hours. By the time I got to the hospital my contractions were 8 minutes apart and then disappeared all together. I went home thinking I wold go into labor over the weekend but...no. It wasn't until six days later...
I swear I was in labor for 3 weeks. There were many "this is it" moments. But the moment didn't come until late at night on the 21st. We arrived at the hospital at 1:30 am on the 22nd. I was checked in and dilated to 2.5 cm (disappointed).
Labor didn't start getting uncomfortable until 5 or 6am. I then quickly asked for my epidural. Anesthesia was busy. *sigh*. I waited an hour, ouch!
With my first working epidural, I relaxed. About 9am I was at 5cm and cozy. I had time to check FB, update my friends and family, catch the morning news.
At 11:40 my doctor came in to say hi and check me. I was feeling a *lot* of pressure mixed with pain. It could have been that Elias was about to be born in 2 minutes. She confirmed that when she checked me. I had a minor meltdown. I was emotionally overwhelmed. I expected her to say I was at 7 or 8 cm but no, he was all but crowning. Two pushes in two minutes and he was born, pink, crying and perfect.
Born at 11:42am, weighing 8lb. 1 oz and 20 inches long. He is for sure a blondie with deep blue eyes.
We made it home on Dec. 24th, just in time for Santa.
What's in a name?
If he were a girl the name would have been Gwyneth Eden. It is weird saying that out loud. I have been holding onto that name since pregnant with Trinity. Trinity became Trinity, it fit her well. I thought I would use it for my next girl. Three boys were almost named Gwyneth, ha.
We have such a hard time with boy names. I knew we were in trouble if this one were a boy. It was the first time I gave birth and had no name for our baby. I love the name Jasper. I really wanted it for a first name but we decided it wasn't manly enough. :) Also, it is the name of a vampire in the Twilight series. Since that next installment of the movie just came out, it was too close for comfort. But, after researching Christmas names, I came across the names of the wisemen, one of being Gasper, or Jasper. I thought it was the perfect Christmas name. In addition, it is a precious stone or a precious gem and that is *always* what I call my kids, my precious gems. I thought no better name for the very last given name we will be handing out.
Eddie came up with the name Elias while I was in labor the night before. It was on the "list" when we were thinking of E names for Everett. We hadn't brought it up since then. We are big into baby name meanings so when we looked it up and saw it means "Lord is my God" we thought it was perfect...once we saw him. It is also Eddie's favorite character in the movie Platoon...very manly. :)
Other names we considered were Eduardo III, Adler (this would have won if it flowed better with Jasper), Elliot, Atticus and Marcos.
Life with 4 kids is not much different than 3. There is another layer of complexity involved but once you get the juggling of three down then four is doable. The sleepless nights makes for less patience with the other ones but I am working on it.
I feel as though my life and universe is complete. My dream of being a mom of 4 is fulfilled. I am excited for this next chapter of raising my kids instead of bearing them...or am I???

Trinity Christmas Program

December was filled with Christmas musicals between church and school. I was getting confused of who had to be where, practice what and when. I thought I would have a baby by the time it was musical time so in addition to trying to coordinate schedules, I also had to come up with back-up carpool plans to get my kids everywhere. Fortunately, Elias was late and I was able to see every performance.
Trinity had her big debut in our church musical "Christmas Mythbusters." She was in the choir and had quite the rehearsal schedule on top of three performances. By the end, she never wanted to sing another song. I don't blame her.

Here she is on night one, still looking lively and fresh!

The musical was super cute. It addressed questions like 1) Jesus wasn't really born on Dec. 25th, 2) we really don't know if there were 3, 4 or 5 wise men and 3) angels are not in scripture "singing" but saying "Glory!" The point of all this doesn't really matter does it? Our salvation doesn't rest on the facts of Christmas, right?!?! It was a ...good message!