6 weeks old

Joelle is getting nice and fat. She sleeps really well nowadays-something I DO NOT take for granted. We are all doing really well. ok ok, I did get mastitis and it was really rough going for a while. I'm not going to lie, it was completely miserable. Fortunately i'm past the worst of it and i'm finishing my antibiotics that kick mastitis butt. Joe is totally amazing and took great care of me while i was sick. He even brought me a cool wet cloth for my forehead when my fever made me hot/cold/hot/cold and let me sleep all through the night. I'm sorry ladies, I snagged the very best.

And we make some pretty cute kids

I came so close to catching that smile:

So what do you think? So you think they look alike? This is Noah (i think):

A lot of people ask me "is 1 kid SO MUCH easier than 2 kids?" and my response is that i wouldn't know, because I have 3 kids. But don't worry, i know that you are asking if Joelle is easier than the twins were. Once again, my first snide response is that she is a LOT easier than this:

But to really answer your question, yes she is much easier than this:

My friends comment on how funny it is to see me interact with Joelle. They say that they never saw me oogle over my boys the way I do with Joelle. It's very true. I don't think I had the energy to really appreciate how cute my boys were as babies. But this time around I'm soaking up every second. I love this girl. I love how the boys can get her to smile. I love when Noah whispers to her and gives her kisses. I love when she laughs in her sleep. She is absolutely breathtaking when she laughs, and I'm the only one who's seen it. Its a little sad that Joe hasn't seen it, but it almost feels like a sweet little secret she and I share. I know soon enough she will have big smiles for the whole world to see. They'll look something like this:

Just a little eye candy

Cutest Dr. Evil pose ever:

I'm quickly realizing that Joelle is growing SO FAST and i'm not documenting it properly!

She is almost 4 weeks old (saturday) and so i need to jot down a few facts about her.

She loves:

-being cuddled

-bathtime

-watching her brothers

-sleeping on Dad's side of the bed in the morning

-sucking on Mom or Dad's finger

-sucking down a bottle

-sleeping on grandma (she got to do that a lot during her first 3 weeks)

-watching Mom work from her bouncer that sits on the table

-being nice and warm

She hates:

-needing to poop

-nursing (we're done trying to force that)

-getting dressed

-having hiccups

-being hungry

She has been sleeping really well lately. She usually wakes up to eat 3 times. once before we go to bed, once in the middle of the night, and once right before we need to wake up in the morning. Joe and I feel pretty lucky that we are getting adequate sleep right now. Sometimes Joelle even sleeps during the boys' nap so I get to sleep too!

Pumping has gotten better. My pediatrician recommended a supplement called Fenugreek that has REALLY helped my supply.

The boys have been remarkable! They are so good with Joelle, and really good to play on their own when I can't be right there. Yesterday they woke up and went straight into their train room to play and before I knew it, Joelle and I had gotten a nice hour-long nap together! I realized what a blessing it was that Joe and I waited until the boys were 3 before we started trying to add another monkey to this mess. This has beed a really great age for a newborn to join us. The boys just turned 4 and they are independent enough to give me a little wiggle room with the attention they get.

My 3 Miracles

One
Two

Three

Over the past few days I've realized how lucky I am to have the problems I've had.

I was born into a blessed time when everything with breastfeeding can go wrong, and my sweet baby girl can still eat and get cute and chubby and happy. She will still grow into a healthy beautiful girl.

I have three (wow, that seems so crazy) amazing children who are in perfect condition because of things like breast pumps, and formula, and incubators, and feeding tubes etc. What a miracle it is to have my family.

These pictures are from today. Joelle was sleeping like an angel. the boys had their first experience with building snowmen, and riding a sled. Ethan was eating the snow. Noah was hugging "Frosting the snowman".

Joe's mom told me to weary the Lord, which I have definitely done over the last month. And I think the answer I've recieved is that my life is good. Even when it's frustrating, I still have so much joy to take note of every day. Joelle wasn't a good nurser, but that's okay because she takes a bottle just fine and she's back up to a normal weight. I don't currently have enough milk for her, but thats okay too because I can keep trying, and until then I can give her formula. and if my supply doesn't improve I can switch to all formula and know that I'm still a good mom because I love my kids and I try to do all I can for them.

Things are much better around here, and I thank you all for your prayers and support! How blessed I am to be surrounded by such amazing and loving people!

Breastfeeding is hard!

it's been a struggle. i won't get into all the details, but we've tried EVERYTHING-literally every single thing a person can try we've tried. Right now i nurse Joelle, she gets almost nothing, and i pump while grandma feeds her a bottle of pumped milk. i'm VERY worried that once grandma leaves us I won't have the time to nurse, pump, bottle feed, burp, and lull joelle to sleep every 3 hours by myself.
I've been given priesthood blessings, and said many prayers and received answers, but now i'm enlisting your help. say a quick prayer for us please? i really believe it makes a difference, and i've seen little miracles in these first 2 weeks that Joelle has been home as a result of prayer. but joe's mom had to go home, and my mom leaves on Saturday, and i'm really hoping to have gotten the hang of nursing by the time she leaves. i know that people think i'm strong bc i have twins, but the truth is that i'm a weak woman who needs one more miracle. one quick prayer will do, if you have a second while you read this. Thanks, and i will get more pictures soon!

The Birth Story

Our little Joelle is here and she gets cuter every day. Since I just got home from the hospital last night we decided to celebrate Christmas today so i could be there when the boys wake up. They had a great day and we are all so happy to be together as a family.
Here is the story of how we got our little Christmas Eve baby.
Friday morning i woke up with a little bleeding. I called the Dr and went into Labor and Delivery so they could check me. They hooked me up to a non-stress test and in the 40 min they were monitoring me i had only 3 mild contractions. When the Dr checked me I was only dilated to a "loose 2", so she stripped my membranes and sent me home. About an hour later I noticed some cramping and decided that it was to be expected after having my membrane stripped. Joe had to go into work from 1-5 that day, so i just tried to take a nap and hopefully I'd feel better when i woke up. The cramping started coming in intervals anywhere from 7-20 minutes apart and I couldn't sleep. When Joe got home I had him time the contractions and they started getting pretty regular at about 6 minutes apart. When I called my Dr she said to come in when they are 5 minutes apart or the contractions are too strong to walk or talk through. From 4:30 when Joe got home until about 11 they didn't get any closer together but they did start to get stronger. Finally at midnight we called our amazing lifesaver friend Tawnya Rasmussen to come and stay with the boys so we could go in. I had only had contractions 5 minutes apart for about 20 minutes, but they were getting really strong so i went in. In the 10 minutes time it took to get to the hospital and get hooked back up to the non-stress test my contractions were 2 minutes apart, lasting a minute long, and quite miserable. Very miserable. Every time i had one I thought I was going to throw up, but the nurse said I was only at an "almost 3" and since I wasn't progressing, they weren't going to admit me yet. I didn't think I could handle waiting any longer. I begged the nurse to take me to labor and delivery, and she looked at me and said "this is your first delivery isn't it?" I was devastated that she had decided that I could just deal with the pain because apparently being at a 3 meant that my contractions weren't very painful. About 2 minutes later my water broke and I was SO relieved. I made joe run and tell the nurse and she said i could be admitted. She had me walk to the delivery room and I was really annoyed that they didn't rush me there in a wheelchair, but i was in too much pain to say anything. I had to stop every time i had a contraction. Finally they got the process started and I had my epidural in and working around 2:15. The nurse told me to sleep while my labor progressed so I tried, but I was shaking so violently that I couldn't sleep. I honestly didn't mind the shaking or itching, but after an hour and a half the Dr came in to put in an internal monitor since my shaking was making the contractions hard to see. When she came in I had progressed to an 8! I wanted to rub in in the nurse's face a little that my labor really WAS hard and painful and her lack of urgency was a mistake. But i didn't. She told me to try to take a short nap until I was fully dilated (of course I knew I wouldn't be able to). About 10 minutes later I was feeling a LOT of pressure so i told Joe to inform the nurse. When she came in she said i was ready to push! I still can't believe how quickly my labor progressed. I'm so glad I had that epidural. I pushed for just under a half hour and Joelle Marie Whitehead was born at 5:14 am. She was 7lbs 8 oz and had lots of dark hair.

I love her so much. Its so different having just one. I get to just cuddle her and hold her and smell her head and touch her hair as long as I want without any tubes or wires or nurses or guilt that I'm ignoring anyone else. The boys love her too, and Joe is the most adorable dad ever. He's been so good juggling the boys, and helping me and loving Joelle. Its good to be home.

preggo belly part 2

By popular demand: its the belly Notice the line above my belly button from my maternity pants I was wearing earlier?

Ya, everything i wear is too tight and leaves indents.

Preggo Picture

So this is me at 38 weeks...and one day. Every day counts so I had to add that one in there. Yes I am wearing scrubs that Joe "borrowed" from the University Hospital during his 3rd yr surgery rotation-thanks for asking. They are one of the few pants that aren't uncomfortably tight on me.I also took a couple bare-belly pictures. Personally I wouldn't care if I posted them, but I know it grosses some people out. Including my husband. What is your take? It IS my personal blog and not my facebook. On the other hand, this is not a private blog. Meh, if I get a bunch of requests I'll post it, otherwise i won't worry about it.

This is a true testament to how much my boys love to dress up. On the day we got our Christmas stuff out, Ethan snagged some stockings and a Santa hat to wear around the house. They still wear their Halloween costumes most days, so this was a fun change of pace. As annoying as it can be to help them into their costumes almost every day, its so cute to hear them refer to each other by their character. They run around the house saying "Mario, come play trains!" or "Hey Luigi, chase me!" I absolutely have to play along or I'll get corrected. I'll say "what's wrong? Did Noah hit?" and I'll get the answer "No, Woody hit me." I will, of course, have to call for Woody and send him to timeout. (woody was last year's costume).

Joe has his last day before Christmas break tomorrow. After that, this baby has my official permission to come join us. What do you think my chances are that I'll conveniently be a week and a half early? I'm trying to be positive and proactive. I've been eating spicy food-despite my constant heartburn. I got out the exercise ball to bounce around on. I've tried pressure points. I've tried other things... ya, this blog isn't private so I won't get into it. Anyway, this baby needs to come out soon. I'm hoping sheer willpower and determination on my end will make it happen. You can laugh at me later, but for now, don't mess with the crazy pregnancy thought process. Wish me luck!