Random Stuff ...

So, we all got baths today. You know life is busy when this is a very exciting accomplishment! But you gotta take pleasure in what you can :)

Autumn is doing very well. She is starting to sleep a little bit more and stuff. She gets up every morning at about 7 - 8 AM and coos a little and looks out my bedroom window at the trees for a long time. She is starting to really hold her head up too.

Also, I want to post a link to this neat Creation/Evolution article from ICR. I find this kind of stuff very interesting ... Mutations: The Raw Material for Evolution?

Lastly, I just wanted to post a congratulations to my Aunt Linda .. who is now Doctor Linda. She had her defense for her doctorate thesis on Monday and apparently passed with flying colors as we knew she would. I think that is too cool. After watching Jace work on his master's I cannot even fathom the amount of work and dedication that goes into a doctorate. I can guarantee that is something I will never do ... I cannot even get myself to sign up for English 2, yuck! Congrats Doctor Linda, we are so proud!

I'll post some pictures of the kiddos soon ...

Three Weeks ...

Beware! Another really long post (Jace hates these) ...

So, yesterday Baby Autumn was officially 3 weeks old. I cannot believe that time has gone by so quickly! Anyway, while she is a good baby over all she is definitely a little more high maintenance than Ashy and Noah were (although not the payback I expected after having had two angels). That, coupled with my slower than expected recovery have made this a trying few weeks. So, here is the Files Family low down:

Baby Autumn:

Baby Autumn started out sleeping very well and I had some freedom to get my house back in order but shortly after returning home she developed thrush, a yeast infection of the mouth. She had these little white spots all over her mouth and while "they" say it does not hurt, it sure looked painful to me.

Well, of course crises come in packs around here and she developed this thrush while I had no car. Jace's car was not working properly so he was taking mine to work (thankfully it was just in need of new tires and not a major repair which I completely expected since we are expecting to be car payment free next month). So, we were unable to go to the doctor. She was nursing funny and it hurt me when she would nurse. Anyway, after some research I found out that an herb called gentian violet gets rid of thrush. I was able to locate some and it was only $3. So, I was sure it would not work. However, it worked great it completely got rid of the white patches after only one dose ... yay! Only thing is it turns your mouth and everything it touches a bright purple! It is like ink ... hence the picture.

Now we are finally rid of the nasty thrush and she has a gassy tummy and wants to be held constantly. My baby swing is broken and I had not purchased a bouncy seat yet since I thought I had a swing. This makes it very hard for me to type and do various household chores but I cannot complain because at least something keeps her happy. I have a heartfelt sympathy for parents who have colicky babies. I cannot stand a poor helpless baby crying. Jace gave her some Mylicon drops to help her out and we got a pretty goods night sleep last night. Ashy and Noah lived on Mylicon for the first couple of months. So, hopefully this will resolve everything and we can get back to a somewhat normal life.

Autumn is getting more aware and has a few waking moments during the day. Ashlyn is very happy about this. She cannot stand it that Autumn sleeps and nurses all day long. I think Ashy was expecting a playmate straight out of the womb :) Autumn looks exactly like Ashlyn as a baby, just a little darker. If you look at the baby pictures of Ashlyn you would thing that it was Autumn. She even has the same skinny little arms, chicken legs, habits and facial expressions. Oh, Autumn is also starting to hold her little head up. I love when they start this because when they get tired or want to nurse it looks like a chicken pecking on your shoulder :)

Autumn's cord fell out last week and we gave her her first real bath. This was a very exciting occasion for Ashy and Noah and you can tell Autumn really enjoyed it! Ashlyn was the photographer and boy did she take her role seriously. She took like a 100 pictures. After Autumn's bath was done Ashy ran off with my camera and took some strange pictures of all kinds of miscellaneous useless things around the house.

So, other than sleeping, eating and making an ungodly amount of dirty diapers (Autumn and Noah are dutifully filling up landfills everywhere, when can you start potty training?) that is about all that is going on with Autumn.

Big Baby Noah (He calls himself my "Big Baby"):

Noah is doing great adjusting. I was really worried that he would not understand everything going on. But he is doing wonderfully. When Autumn will cry he will say, "Oh, baby Autumn wants me!" and go running to her. Then he will say, "It's otay Baby Autumn I here." It is so cute!

Noah is learning about Noah's Ark in Sunday School right now. So, it is really cute when I pick him up he will say, "Mama, mama I built a boat!" Then he proceeds to talk about all the animals he put in there; namely tigers, kangaroos and sheep. His teacher said when she talks about Noah, my Noah will say, "Thata Me!" Noah is also really into fish right now. He likes to be a Dolphin or a Whale. He is starting to like sharks too and picked out a shark shirt with an Old Navy gift card his Auntie Noelle sent him for his birthday a while back. He draws "whales" a lot on his Aqua Doodle.

Lastly, Noah hit a sad milestone yesterday. He told me his first lie :( I had some gummy bears in my desk that I was saving for him and Ashy on a special occasion. Now, Noah is a treat fiend. He will find candy anywhere and can hear the candy jar open from across the house. Life is about treats for him. Anyway, he found these gummy bears in my desk and brought them to me to see if he could eat them. I told him no he had to wait and to go put them back in my desk. He always obeys me so I assumed he had done what I asked of him.

Apparently not, Ashy brought me the empty container later on. She was all upset that I would let Noah eat all of the treats without her. When I asked Noah what happened to the gummy bears and why the container was empty, I kid you not, he told me the dog ate them! I said' " The dog ate them! She is outside, that is not true." His reply: "Yeah Mama, Annie ate a snack!" I cannot believe he would tell me such a thing he is only 2! So, I would like anyone who says we are not born sinful to tell me who teaches 2 year olds how to come up with such inventive lies! I sure did not teach him :)

Ashy-Cat:

Ashy is doing well. She is such a wonderful helper, a perfect first child. I don't know what I would do without her :) She holds the baby for me, comforts her when crying and fetches things when I need them. Before Autumn was born we came up with a list of ways she could help me, her idea, all by herself without my assistance. She has sure stuck with it, even when Autumn is crying. She relishes her role as big sister and, as I said before, when she is holding the baby she has a big cat grin from ear to ear.

Ashlyn's latest thing is that she likes to color. She colors all the time, all day long. It is neat that she has developed this interest after we completed her art home school book. I guess it gave her the confidence she needed. She is very careful and particular when working. She colors colorings books, draws her own pictures and makes "cards" for everyone who comes over :)

Jace and I:

Jace and I are holding up quiet well considering. Jace has been very helpful to me running errands and doing all the grocery shopping, playing with the kiddos and taking them to the park. This is probably why they seem to have adjusted so well. They love playing with Daddy. This way I don't feel so guilty about them watching too much TV during the day and when we have to skip school because I can't handle it :) Luckily, Ashy and I started her school year in May and went through the summer so as to get a head start and allowing us to take it easy, somewhat, when the baby arrived. But, I still worry sometimes :) It is hard to let go ...

I am still real tired and I am terrified to leave the house with 3 kids! I assumed I would bounce right back since I did after Ashlyn and Noah but it has been slow going. God is teaching me patience, compassion and thankfulness. I think my expectations where a bit high so this "having to rest" business is kicking me in the pants. I thought everything would be back to normal by now. Definitley not, I am very thankful for all the people who have brought us meals and come over to play with the kids and let me nap.

My parents have been great too. I go to their house and sit and do nothing quite often :) The kids love the change of scenery and it helps me. Other than church this is the only place I have gone since Autumn has been born. Except I made one trip to Lowe's, where else, with the big kids once and had to take a nap afterwards.

Anyway, when I feel overwhelmed and stressed I like to go read about the quintuplets and it helps me feel a bit better :) They said they have like 60 diapers a day and have to make about 45 bottles a day. That is crazy! Makes my life seem so much easier ...

Our Family:

As for the family, my Mother-in-law got out of the hospital pretty quick and is back home. She was admitted in the same hospital as I was the day after she came to visit Autumn. Long story short, she has some stomach problems and will be having surgery for it at the end of the month. Also, Kenny, my youngest brother, decided to get a tattoo. My parents were ecstatic about this :) For better or for worse, everyone else is pretty much the same ...

Our House:

Our home repairs have gone on without missing a beat so I figured I would give them their own little section. Our house changes as much as our kids! As part of my nesting a friend and I scraped the popcorn off the dining room ceiling and removed the rest of the stairs wallpaper. Then, Jace and I opened up a doorway to the kitchen, removed another structural wall between the breakfast room and kitchen, built a support beam, and started removing some soffits in the kitchen. This really opened up the whole area. Anyway, nesting consisted mainly of demolition. Passive aggression or hormones?

After Autumn came home we had cement poured to raise up the floor where we took out the tile. This was a lot of fun. We had no access to the downstairs bedrooms, garage, or kitchen for a couple days. Jace had to make a "bridge" to get to the stairs so we could sleep in our room where we had a family "sleepover". The kids absolutely loved this. Ashlyn told Jace she did not need any help across the bridge because she has "excellent balancing skills". They were very sad to see the bridge go. Now we are going to attempt to tile that whole area.

So, I guess this about wraps it up. It only took me 2 days to complete this post ... not too bad :)

Until next time ....

Baby Autumn is Here!

So, I finally got some pictures up. One week later, but better late than never :) It has been an unbelievably busy week for us (baby, remodeling work on the house, family in the ER and a visit from the cousins) and my recovery has been a bit on the slow side.

Baby Autumn Elizabeth finally made her appearance on her due date date (8/28) of all days. She sent us to the hospital at 3 am! While the spontaneous thing was interesting, I like getting sleep much more :) She was born at 11:42 am and weighed 8lbs 7oz and was 20 1/4 in long. When she was born she didn't even make a peep. The nurses took off of her APGAR scores because they could not get her to cry. At home, however, she protests profusely when having her diaper changed. She did not take very long to develop those lungs!

Anyway, all in all she is doing great and Ashlyn and Noah seem to be handling things very well. Ashlyn loves to hold Autumn and she has a big cat grin from ear to ear the entire time she holds the baby. Noah insists that everyone call her BABY Autumn, you cannot just say Autumn, and he must know where she is at all times. When he hears her crying he will come running from wherever he happens to be and pat her head and say, "It's Otay Baby Autumn!"

Unfortunately, this is going to have to be a brief post because it is difficult to type while nursing. And we are always nursing! More details to come ....