Update

On the dog front, the mom called me, and she was super nice, so no flaming poo for them. She was very apologetic and said her older kids had gotten into the habit of just letting all the dogs to run free. In the past week, they've been chained or on the deck, yay. I still think the daughter is a complete twit for not answering the door, but hey, whatever.

In other news, I'm completely loving the fall weather, it is so beautiful outside. We went apple picking a couple weekends ago with a large group, it was such fun. I baked a couple of yummy apple pies with the loot. I'm so excited for Halloween, it's one of my fav holidays. I did as much decorating as I could and the kids are all set. The boys are going to be batman and robin. I found this black sleeper that has a tail and a matching hat with little ears for Gert, so she'll be a mini cat woman. Now, if I can just restrain myself from devouring all the candy...

Gertie is doing very well, she is a major chow hound and weighs right around 11lbs at three wks. She sleeps well at night, going about three hours at a stretch, and is generally happy throughout the day. Honestly, I am just enjoying the heck out of having a little girl.

Free Time

Yeah, I'll take some of that. I don't have a lot, thus the neglected blog. But I will share a particularly annoying thing that's been happening with a neighbor.

Last week, the boys and I were playing outside on the patio. Uncle J and Fiji were out there too and Miss Gertie was napping. Our back yard backs up to the neighbors on the intersecting street's backyards and at the bottom of the hill close to the property line is our new playscape. I notice the neighbor's (loud barking obnoxious) dog is free and sniffing around our yard. Fiji notices this too and runs down the hill barking. Ok, Fiji is a 7lb toy poodle, the neighbors dog is some sort of shepherd I think. Well, their dog doesn't run back into it's yard and Fiji thinking she's way more ferocious than she is runs up to the dog. (I'm yelling for her this whole time by the way) Well, the stupid dog goes after her, and though she back under the bench, managed to bite her. She yelped, but really was probably less hurt than surprised. But me, I was pissed. I walk towards to dog and yell at it to shoo, and it growls at me. MmmKay, I never thought this dog was dangerous. The dog stood it's ground, I yelled up to the neighbor's house to come get their dog (no one came out), so I spied a giant plastic baseball bat on the ground and picked it up. This dog was leaving my yard one way or another. Dog weren't dumb, it hightailed it back to it's own yard.

Now, I'm rather annoyed and walked around my neighbor's house to the front and knocked on the door. No answer. Weird, there was a car in the driveway and how did the dog get out if no one was home? I linger for a while and peep in the window, nothing. So I went back home and started playing with the boys again. I happen to glance up and low and behold there is someone looking out the window of the neighbor's house. Chicken. She knew I saw her, because I waved and she moved quickly out of view.

Fast fwd to today. My brother in law was out for a run and found the dog in our yard again and chased it home. I went outside and saw the same girl that was in the window come out on the deck. I yell excuse me! and the little twit runs back into the house! Now this is a college aged girl, not some 8 yr old. I walk over to the house and ring the bell/knock on the door again. She would not answer. I even yell that I know she's home, and ring some more, but nothing.

I had brought a note with my name/number and to call about the dogs. So I threw it in the mailbox and we'll see if the mother is any more responsible than the daughter. If we don't get a call then the BWB and I will head over and nicely point out that we do not want our dog/kids at risk and in the future we'll call animal control. Normally, I would be much nicer about it having been through a similar situation where MY DOG bit a neighbor's dog, but this whole avoidance bullshit has me super pissed off.

So, that's about the most interesting thing that is going on in my life outside nursing, diaper changes and sleep deprivation. :)

Just a wee bit insane.

OK, anyone who ever told me that it was harder to go from 1 to 2 kids than 2 to 3 kids, was deluded. Now, maybe that's because I have the orneriest cuss of a (now) middle child or I jsut don't know what the hell I'm doing, but man, hard.

That said, Miss Gert is an awesome baby. She's quite mild mannered, a great eater and sleeps decently at night. Aside from GB, we're all quite taken with her. At her follow up appointment, she'd already surpassed her birthweight and I have no doubt that she is still gaining rather quickly.

Personally I'm doing ok, going through some mood swings, but nothing severe. I'm down to about 10lbs above my prepreg weight, and I swear half of that is boobage. And speaking of, they are still quite sore from nursing, but it's getting better. The toe curling pain only lasts for 15 seconds rather than the minute it did a few days ago. The most frustrating this is my utter lack of usable wardrobe. I make do with a couple pairs of below the belly maternity pants, some yoga pants and whatever shirts I find that aren't absolute crop tops thanks to the rack. Even the 70 billion nursing bras I seem to have don't fit right. Sigh. Ah well, who needs to leave home when you have three kids anyway, right?

Because I Suck

I neglected to blog that YESTERDAY was our five year anniversary. Sort of anticlimatic after the birth of our baby girl, but still worth recognizing.

It has been an, um, productive five years to say the least. :) I couldn't be happier though, I'm a very lucky woman to be married to such a supportive and loving man. And even though we bicker rather frequently and are on opposite planes of thought 75% of the time, I couldn't imagine being with anyone else. We are far stronger as a couple than individuals, we are the balance in each other's lives.

I love you honey, Happy Anniversary.

The Story...

The date of the dreaded induction had arrived, I was not thrilled with the idea. This feeling didn't fade, and there was definitely a part of me that was ready to call and cancel. But, I guess there was a bigger part of me that was ready to meet this child, so off we went Friday morning to the hospital. The drive to the hospital was quiet and strange, but my nerves started to settle down once we arrived and I checked in.

I immediately liked my LDR nurse, she was hoot and Dr. Fred showed up right away and had me laughing. We did all the registration paperwork and got me hooked up to the monitors. I must be cursed when it comes to IVs because she stuck my one wrist, got some blood, but couldn't get things going and had to stick my other wrist(ugh). A check revealed I was still only 1cm and maybe 50% effaced. I figured that meant a long afternoon of pitocin and slow progress--boy was I mistaken. They started the drip around 9am, and fairly quickly I started having contractions. They were quite mild and even when they showed 80-100 on the monitor I would have rated my pain about a 3/10. We watched Heartbreak Ridge and waited for things to get going.

About noon, they checked me again and I was a three, Dr. Fred went ahead and broke my water. The very next contraction I had was about a 6/10 on my pain scale, OUCH. Apparently, that water is a nice cushion. I asked for an epidural shortly thereafter and the anesthesiologist (the same little Bolivian doc that did my previous two) walked in about an hour later. Boy was I happy to see him. We got all set up, and BWB was holding my shoulders and the dr was pushing on my back to find the right spot. They started in with the local and CRIPES it hurt. I let out a couple of little yells and that's when I noticed BWB's posture and breathing change. Then the doc and nurse asked if he was ok, he said he was feeling light headed but was fine. Um, yeah, you so aren't fine I thought and told him to sit down NOW. He complied and they got the epidural in the first try this time, YAY! It was now around 1:20pm and the nurse checked me and said I was about a four and 80% effaced.

I started feeling really really sleepy almost immediately, and dozed in and out while BWB ran down and got some lunch. I started feeling like I had to pass gas but was really stressed out that I might poop instead :P The sensation only got worse but I thought there was no way it could be baby pressure, I mean I was just checked and only a four, and the contractions were 4 minutes apart and barely registering 40 on the monitor. BWB came back, I was feeling even more pressure with each contraction and decided to call the nurse. She came and I told her I was feeling quite a bit of pressure in my bottom. She checks me and says oh, that's because your complete. What?! This was only 30 or so minutes after I was a four. So, she rushed about, called my OB, set up the room and we got ready to have a baby.

I was feeling much much pressure by now and contractions were pretty painful. I had to resist the urge to push--which was new for me. When everything was ready, Dr. Fred said ok, push with the next contraction. I started pushing and immediate relief but also increase in pressure. He had me stop when the head was partway out to stretch things a little and damn, ouch, it about killed me not to keep pushing. The next contraction I got the head out, they suctioned and then I continued to push out the body. Damn that felt good, to get her out I mean.

I specifically looked to make sure it really was a girl and was very relieved to see that it was. They put her on my chest and I was just so happy to finally meet her. The nurse took her to clean her off and get her weighed, I was actually surprised that I birthed an almost 9lb baby. They said she was bruised up from such a rapid decent, but otherwise perfect. She never needed oxygen, her apgars were 8 & 9 and she nursed like a champ from the getgo.
Doc sewed me up, I had a second degree tear, worst of the three, but since this was so fast, I was not surprised. I felt almost as good as I did after GB's birth, just a little more shaky.

LG is great, I'm so in love with her, as is DB. GB, not so much. He's a shrieky beast as I expected. Mostly I'm just happy to be home with my newly enlarged family. :)

FINALLY!

I get to show you much cuter pictures than those of my belly.

Miss Gertie arrived Friday 10/7 at 2:29pm weighing 8lbs 15ozs and measuring 20.5 ins. Aside from a little jaundice (which both boys had as well) she is perfect. We are home and currently adjusting to life with three children. I'll have a birth story soon, but first and more importantly, pictures!

This says it all

41wks 2 days

Why yes

I'm still pregnant. I have an appt tomorrow, we'll see if there is anything new to report.