St. Patrick's day

I 'might' have made Veda a dress yesterday. I am making Quinn-o one too... but it's not done (there are--after all-- only 24 hours in a day). I used THIS tutorial. super easy and fun and comfy. I'll probably make 5 more :)

and guess what this smile is for? i'm sure you're guessing a tummy full of milk, but nope-- it's because the lump on her head is 100% gone!!! no more squishy lump!!!! hooray!!

Quinn decked out in green for preschool this morning. (she's trying to show her finger nails--which are painted green)

Hendrix-- also showing me his nails (which are NOT painted). don't mind his poor sick face. it's been two weeks, so of course Quinn and Hendrix got sick again. :( boo. Q is much better, so hopefully X will recover quickly. it's no fair.

heh... and no pants for x. i guess i was too busy sewing to put clothes on all my kids :)

Veda's head

thanks to everyone for your sweet words of concern for our sweet veda (and me...). She saw the cranial specialist today-- and it's looking good!! There is still a little blood in there, but hopefully it will go down a little more (some of it is swelling). The rest will probably turn to bone, but it is small enough that it won't make her head look lumpy. So good news!!! I am SO GLAD we didn't have to do the procedure again (which has been my fear over the weekend since it obviously isn't TOTALLY flat).

before:

after: (plus a little smile.. how lucky)

terrible twos

don't worry... the "terrible twos" are alive and well at our house. Just look at that face. Imagine that-- plus a very determined "no." It's a good thing he's so stinking cute-- it helps even out his new-found determination. (and I love that he has a car in EACH hand)

I sewed today!!! It was a miracle. My generous and amazing sister-in-law had Quinn and Hendrix over for a play-date this morning. Not only did I get their birthday shopping done, but I got to lay down, AND sew some car seat strap covers for baby V.
The other side is minky... I'll probably put that on the outside until it gets too hot, then I'll have the cotton side by her neck. (in hindsight-- I should have made them grey or hot pink to match her car seat... I think she'll forgive me)

dave's birthday

we had quite the birthday celebration for davey. see that cake?? whoa


hendrix thought it was AWESOME when dave blew out the candles. hendrix's birthday this year is gonna be awesome.

but it's this cute girl's birthday first. i've mentioned her birthday and that we should have a party for her-- but she seems NOT excited about that. crazy girl.

and we've got a whole year until this girl has a birthday party... maybe i should start planning now :)

sad day...

we had a trumatic day around here yesterday...

I took Veda in for a well baby check yesterday morning and had mentioned that I was concerned that the lump on Veda's head hadn't gone away-- or even seemed to have gotten any better. The doctor seemed just as concerned and said that she was going to call the specialist in town to see what he thought. The specialist wanted to see Veda right away, so I took went straight there after we left her pediatrician.

The specialist said that after about a month, a lump like Veda's could start to turn into bone-- which would either mean a more invasive surgery down the road, or one of those helmets that help the head form correctly.

so our other option was to drain it. that seemed like the best option. the surgeon told me that it was no more invasive than a circumcision. (to make me feel better?!) i'd like to know how many mothers choose to be present during a circumcision. it was AWFUL. the surgeon assured me that the only thing she would feel would be the numbing shots. despite that, she still screamed her head off the whole time. the surgeon first just tried to suck out the blood with a needle. yuck. and it didn't work. AND i watched the whole thing. When he decided that he needed to make an incision, the PA took over holding her down and I got to sit down. I'm grateful I didn't actually WATCH him make a cut in her head. it was awful enough just watching her cry. it wasn't exactly super fast either. then he bandaged up her head and said we had to leave this huge bandage on until tuesday when he sees her again. AND we had to push on her head (where the lump was) every half hour for the rest of the day. (needless to say that it didn't feel good for us to do that... she hated it).

see that big lump on veda's head? (on the right--- but her left)?? that's what got emptied out yesterday. poor, sweet, baby. i hope and pray that today is a better day for her. and I'm SO GLAD I don't have to keep pushing on her head today.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!

My wonderful husband is having a birthday TODAY.

Not only am I the luckiest women on the planet, but we

have three kids who have the best daddy ever.

We love you!!!!

Thanks for bringing us so much joy and laughter

Thanks for being so incredibly HOT

Thanks for the fun dance parties we have after bath time

Thanks for playing 'steam roller' with the kids

Thanks for working so hard to provide for us

Thanks for always making me feel beautiful (even when I've just had a baby)

Happy Birthday Dave!!!

first bath

miss veda had her first bath last night. and wowee... two posts in one day. you'd think i only have two kids :)

she wasn't so sure about the bath. she didn't love it and didn't hate it either. she DID hate getting out though. and geesh, check out the huge lump on her head from the vacuum.

caught ya hendrix!!! he may pretend that he doesn't always want her around... but i know how he really feels :)

not the greatest pic, but i caught a little smile

just playing

just the kiddos having fun

me-- forcing hendrix to be in a picture with me :)

quinn's snake licking veda's head

notice the little red car on her chest?? the kids were sharing their toys

i love babies

More specifically, I love this little baby. She is one week old today. Actually-- at about this moment she was entering this world. I love everything about this little girl. She is so sweet. She smells so good. She sleeps a LOT (thank goodness). She nurses well. And she's a good pooper. What more could I want? The last few times I've woken up in the middle of the night to realize she's done nursing and just asleep-- I'm filled with such happiness to see her cute little body and face fast asleep in my arms. She is perfect and beautiful and all mine.


I happen to really love this two year old too. I'm one lucky mama.

one thing I DON'T love, is this:

Veda: 5 days old

Veda-- 5 days old


The kids are loving having a baby around. Every time I go get Hendrix from his crib he asks where Veda is. And the baby might get a bald spot on her forehead/hairline because that's where Quinn is constantly rubbing her.


my mom left yesterday. We are all adjusting to not having her here. (don't worry, she comes back in 3 weeks-- thank goodness). It was so fun to have her here. She REALLY spoils me.

pictures

our friends, abe and kara, loaned us their nice camera when we had veda. we wanted to make sure we had some good pictures of her birth (since she's probably our last baby, and our camera isn't really awesome). we had lots of fun taking lots of pictures before we gave it back. here are some cute ones:

this was the first time quinn held veda.

hendrix showing daddy his cars

cute lil baby feet

cute lil baby

cute giant hendrix

ha... looks like they are both smiling

my pretty, big girl

i took so many pictures of her with this same eye brow scowl.

we sure love this sweet girl. i hope she stays a baby forever :)

Veda Nicole

thanks for being so patient to see some pictures of the little angel. We feel very blessed to have her here and healthy. birthing a baby is always such an adventure!!!



we checked into the hospital at midnight on Monday. We were worried they would send us home because i hadn't progressed enough, but they admitted me with no questions asked. I must have LOOKED pregnant enough.
They induced using Cytotec. it's a pill they put by your cervix that gives you contractions, but doesn't necessarily give you labor contractions. It softens your cervix and gets your body ready for pitocin. It's usually followed by pitocin, but makes it so you don't need to be on pitocin for so long. in my case, the cytotec put me into heavy labor and i didn't need pitocin. My body produces some crazy intense contractions-- and i wanted to try to get an epidural even though i realize they don't always work for me. thank heavens i eventually worked!! i can tell that the anesthesiologist is aways a little stumped as to why they don't always work. this time it just took 5 times longer to work on me than it does on other people. i'm just grateful it finally worked!! i went pretty fast after the epidural started working, i remember hearing what i thought was the baby kicking the monitor. except it wasn't a kick... it was my water breaking. i was so numb from the epidural (and quite frankly feeling better than i had for weeks) that i didn't realize my water had broken. the nurse came in to check me and saw that my water had broken and that veda was on her way out. she quickly paged my ob... and we waited for her to start pushing.
the cord was around veda's neck, so unfortuunately she needed some help from a vacuum. (but thank heavens we have things like that to help!!).
Out she came!! I could tell that as soon as she came out, all ten people in the room were surprised by her size!!! 8 pounds, 6 ounces. it's really no wonder i have been so uncomfortable and in so much pain.. i was carrying around a big girl :)


not the best picture of me... but kind of expresses how i was feeling... "I did it!!!!"

meeting daddy.

still a little drunk from my epidural. wish i still felt like that :)

grandma and Veda after we got home yesterday

Getting ready to go home from the hospital. I have more pictures to share, but I will do another post one of these days.


If you MUST see more pictures, go to Bella Baby. our password is: 0301vedakeller
my favorites are #5 and #9