5 Months

Hello! This is Julianna writing my very first blog on mommy's blogsite. Today is my 5 month birthday and I am growing so fast! Here's a few stats on me:

• I can sit up on my own for a few seconds
• I am crawling, rolling, you name it. Whatever I need to do to catch up with my big brother and sister
• I love to eat butternut squash and bananas (baby food, of course)
• My doggie Ginger makes me laugh
• My favorite thing to do is be on the floor and playing with toys or my brother and sister

My bib brother is so awesome. He loves to play with me and is showing me lots of new things. He is so thoughtful and is always trying to protect me. He brings me cars to play with and shares all his toys with me. I can't wait to be big enough to play with him all the time.

Mommy tried to take our picture together this morning....it didn't work out too well. Jenna was "all done" and walked off. When she got her back and was ready to take our picture, Joshie decided he was too tired and just laid down. We all fell back on him and laughed. I guess mommy needs to take us to get our picture done soon.

I love being a part of this family and am excited to be growing up. There's such a great world around me that God made, and I can't wait to start exploring it!

One down...

Julianna the day we brought her home.
Joshie loves her...

One week down...That might not sound like a long time to you, but consider that in that short week of seven days, there's 168 hours, which is also 10,080 minutes. And sometimes one minute can seem like a lifetime. Transitioning from two to three kids hasn't been the challenge I thought it would. It is challenging - but in a different sort of way. Julianna is the most content baby I've ever had, so I am not used to a baby that just "is" right now. Both our other kids had reflux and were very "colicy" from that until 3-6 months of age. It seems weird, but so sweet, to have a child who doesn't spit up all over everywhere! I thought that the new baby would be the challenge, but instead it was the "terror twins" that would try our patience to no end. I couldn't believe some of the anticts those two would come up with!

Here are some snapshots of our week - both the chaos and the blessings:

Leaving the hospital on Friday, we stopped by to see our friends, Dave and Michelle who had their 2nd little boy on Thursday. His name is Clay and he is on the left side.

Joshua really missed Jason. He and Jenna were both very clingy and wanted a lot of attention. Here Josh and Jason are watching Veggie Tales together.

The terror twins strike again! They would "tag team" and climb into the bookshelf even though they KNOW not to be climbing in there!

I peaked in on Jenna during church and took this hilarious video of her. My mom says it reminds her of how I was when I was little...

We went out to eat Sunday after church with some friends and the kids had their first ice cream cone. It was hilarious to watch them eat it! Of course Joshie stayed clean...

But Jenna was a different story...she was covered in chocolate ice cream...

We started to reward the kids for their good behavior and one of the things they can earn is to play outside with the bubble maker. They earned this privelege on Tuesday...
And here's a video of the kids playing outside:



I even got brave enough to give the kids a hair cut!

And finally Julianna is a week old. Here's a picture of her, and then one of her and Jason

She's here!

Julianna Faith was born this afternoon at 12:11 pm after a little more than 24 hours of being in labor. After having an epidural at 1:00am and then having to be induced at 5:00 am, Julianna came out so fast that Jason almost delivered her! One minute I was an 8, the next thing we were trying to "hold her in" so that Dr. Reed would make it down from a surgery. Needless to say - she didn't make it. Another doctor had to "quickly" step in and as soon as she got her gown on over her scrubs, she caught Julianna and welcomed her into this world...No foolin'!

Julianna Faith was born April 1, 2009 at 37 weeks and 5 days. She weighed 7 pounds 3 ounces and is 19 3/4 inches long.

All in all the delivery went well and we will hopefully be going home on Friday. Look for some more pictures to come tomorrow... :) By the way, She looks almost IDENTICAL to what Joshua looked like, I will post a picture later

Julianna Update

It's 10:45 pm here....I am 37 and a half weeks along....God know's Julianna's perfect birthday....and it will be tomorrow, April 1st.....

Kinda funny because I remember telling people that the "one day" that I didn't want her to be born was April 1st just because it is April Fools. When you play sports, you tend to be a little suspicious about things...especially when you are dealing with numbers all the time. Anyways, I think God has a funny sense of humor....Because it looks like tomorrow will be Julianna's birthday.

I had my routine doctor's appointment today at 11am and it was also our annual "Race for Education" run for school. My friend Kim and I decided to walk around until I had to leave for my appt. She pushed the kids and we made a total of 4 laps. At my appt. I actually had dilated a little more than I was last week. I was now a solid 2, almost a 3. My doctor could tell that its getting a little tough with the two kids at home, and so she stripped my membranes.

I guess it worked!! We started having solid contractions and they were about a minute apart for 3 hours before I agreed to go to Labor and Delivery. The reason I didn't want to go is becuase it seems I just don't dilate much and it doesn't matter how close those pesky contractions are....

So, what do you do?? Pray!!! I prayed that somehow there would be a change in dilation from this morning, or that the contractions would be strong so that we would stay. At first check, I was still a solid 2. I though for sure we were going home and that I would just have to "deal" with the contractions until my water broke. God heard my prayers!!! An hour later she checked again because she could see that I was getting strong contractions every minute and was hoping that I had changed. She checked, and I changed to a 3!!!!!

We were admitted tonight at about 9:30pm, so hopefully in a few hours we will have a new baby in our family!!! Well, I am going to go back to working on these contractions

Sneak Peek..

We had our second attempt at seeing baby Julianna with the 3D ultrasound this morning. Our first try was last month (January 24, 2009) but she had her face covered with her hands. We had it done at Peek-a-Baby by the Willowbrook mall, which is also where we got to sneak a peek at Joshie and Jenna before they were born.

Since there weren't many good pictures of her, we were able to reschedule and come back for free. So - that brings us to today..... Still no luck though. She had her hand covering most of her face and then she got the hiccups. The funny part was that she was moving, just not for us to see her cute face. Eventually she did move....she turned around and had her back to us! Little stinker!

The cool thing though was that we were able to tell that it is DEFINATELY a girl and we also got to keep the few pictures of her that they were able to snap, plus get a $50 refund. They offered for us to be able to come back one last time in place of the $50, but it will be too close to her due date and if its already cramped in there the only things that will happen is that she will have even less room and move around less then. I think she's pretty comfy in her little head down, hands in front of her face position for now. It will be interesting to see how she "acts" once she is born!

Here are some of the "good" pictures from our two sessions:

January 24th - Julianna looking at us

January 24th - profile view

February 28 - profile view (hands and arms are on the left)

T-minus 10 Weeks

The end is near.....we are not only finally in our third trimester with baby Julianna, but are now only 10 weeks away. The whole time I really haven't "felt pregnant" and as you can see from the picture above, don't really look pregnant either - from the front....

All in all, I have to say that its been a pretty decent pregnancy. A little tiring with having a one and a two year old, but that's normal. I think I would be tired even if we weren't having another baby! Its hard to believe though that its almost over. April will soon be here and so will our newest little member to the family.

Wow - I am going to have three kids!!! Good thing I'm not as crazy as some other people and know my limits though. There'll be no octuplets or 20 kids over here! LOL....

Well, we're having one last ultrasound on the 24th of February (she had her hands in front of her face three weeks ago so we had to reschedule) and I'll post some of the pictures! I can't wait to hold her though!!