Mother's day 2019

We had a nice quiet Mother's Day here. Lincoln was sick, sick, sick, so after church (Austin stayed home with Lincoln) we just lazed around and spent time together. I took some pictures with the kids, Levi gave me a card, Austin made the meals and also cleaned the kitchen, Cecil gave me a hug and said, "Happy Mother's Day!" and Lincoln gave me the best snuggles all day long (too bad it was because he's sick!).

We had some really nice family time on the couch. Levi has recently finished reading the first Harry Potter book (!!) and watched the movie, so he made a wand for himself and was casting spells on all of us. We took turns being petrified and levitated. Austin joined in and was pretty successful at sabotaging Levi's spells by either blocking them with his hands or saying words almost the same as the ones for the spell, but not quite. When Levi and Cecil working together were finally able to keep him from using his hands to block the spells at the same time Levi was able to say the petrification spell without being messed up, Austin fell down and the boys laughed with joy, and Lincoln even cracked a smile and let out a tiny laugh despite feeling so bad.

Cecil got out our baby doll and Austin had him hold it like a new baby. Cecil was very gentle and careful; it was so cute! Then he wrapped the baby in a blanket and carried it around for a while, placing it on the couch and re-wrapping it at intervals. At one point, he asked for a diaper, which I coached him on putting on the doll but he mostly did it himself. I told him that he was getting good practice in for one day when he's a daddy, and that seemed to make him feel extra special. 

I also mentioned that when the new baby is born, Cecil won't be big enough to change his diaper, but Levi probably could! Levi seemed pretty taken with that idea and wanted to get some practice in immediately, and changed Lincoln's diaper! He even thought to give Lincoln a toy to hold without me saying anything. I was pretty impressed! I don't think Lincoln will cooperate so well in the future, but this time he seemed so taken with the novelty of Levi changing his diaper that he just watched and listened in fascination.

Cecil was pretending the hat was Cappy from Mario Odyssey. That means you can control
whoever's wearing it, even if it's a bad guy!

Poor sick Lincoln showing the camera his nose (I'm not sure why...)

Levi wanted a silly picture! He did smile normally for later pictures, but for some reason my camera had stopped working, so you don't get to see those!

The Big(ger) Boys

Here are some fun pictures of the older boys from February!

"My googly eyes are looking at you!"

The aquarium at the Columbia zoo (and a fish face!)

Even though the lighting was terrible, I couldn't pass up the photo op.
I remember having my picture taken in the very same place when I was a kid!

We didn't expect it to be so cold the week we visited, so we had to borrow heavy coats
from the girl cousins (and they were just the right size!)

At the penguin exhibit. The brochure next to his hand is the map, which both
he and Cecil were enamored with and referenced often.

The weinermobile was at our grocery store! We stopped for a quick tour and photo-op.
We have a toy version that Levi went bananas over when he was little, so it was extra exciting to see it in person!

When he finally came out. When I told him it was time to go, he said, "But what about the ride?!"
It was very spacious inside. I counted 7 seats, but there was room for a lot of other stuff if need be.

Cecil took this picture for us! 

Levi has had a bit more practice with pictures, haha

Choo-choo!

Lincoln repeated everyone and chimed in with his own "choo-choo!" It was pretty adorable, what can I say?  :D

 

I came downstairs to get everyone ready for church one Sunday and there they were, dressed all by themselves! They know that they get a free screen time on Sunday mornings if they get themselves ready for church (including breakfast). It had been harder for them to do it ever since we started meeting at 9 am at the beginning of the year, but there they were!

Pregnancy

Last time I was pregnant, I compared my two pregnancies. I realized I haven't done that yet for this one, so I thought I'd do so.

This pregnancy has been kind of a combination of the other two. I experienced morning sickness (with throwing up) for the first two trimesters, but not constantly. Now in the 3rd trimester, I still feel nauseous in the mornings but not to the extreme that I felt previously. I've had heartburn, but it's not constant. Austin doesn't have to make breakfast for me.

This kid kicks about as much as Cecil did.

I don't have as much energy to walk and exercise, but I have much more stamina than I did the first time around. I can walk at least 2 miles without getting too tired as long as the pace isn't too fast :). I still need extra sleep.


UPDATE: More new things, 3rd trimester:
Braxton Hicks contractions. I get them daily now, and they are kind of annoying.
Baby kicking and actually causing pain (mild pain, but still...) instead of discomfort.
Sporadic itching on palms and feet. Evidently this is because of all the extra estrogen in my system.

How to help a new mother

One Thanksgiving break about a year before I graduated from college, one of my sisters gave birth to a little boy, and I went to her home to help her with her other kids and anything else she may need during her recovery from the birth. It was my first time doing something like that, and I was excited to help my sister.

While I was there, I helped with laundry, cooking, cleaning, and the older kids, but my sister still looked and acted frazzled. I felt like there was a lot more that I could have done, but I didn't know what.
______

Fast forward a few years, and with the birth of my second child, I'm reminded again of the things that I wish I'd known that first time that I tried to help a new mother. Hopefully, the things that I share can help someone preparing to help a new mother. And just to make everything clear--the people who helped me were amazing and so helpful! I wouldn't have been able to recover so quickly without them.

So, what is the best way to help out a new mom? Here are three things that I think are the most helpful to a new mother, in order of importance.

1. Make her SLEEP! Every new mom is sleep-deprived and should be taking naps throughout the day to make up for the time spent awake during nighttime feedings. As her helper, you should remind her to sleep and make sure she knows she has no responsibility to entertain you or visit with you during your stay. It seems like that should go without saying, but you do need to say it.

There are different ways to encourage naps depending on the mom. However, it's pretty obvious that if things need to get done around the house, the mom will get them done instead of sleeping. Therefore, it's great to have help with other kids or the household responsibilities. That leads to the next two points.

2. Help with household chores. I personally love it when people clean up for me, especially in the kitchen. I like to cook, so that's not so much of a big deal as long as I don't have to clean up afterward :). However, I know other women that enjoy cleaning and dislike cooking, so for those women it would be the opposite--help with cooking takes priority over  help with cleaning. Find out which household duties are the least and most enjoyable for the mom and go from there.

Remember the less-thought-of responsibilities of a mother, such as laundry, cleaning the bathrooms, and bathing the older kids. 

3. Help with the kids. Make sure they're fed, diapers are changed if they need it, that they have help going to the bathroom or washing their hands, and that they're well hydrated. Read books to them and/or play with them. Make sure the mom has time to spend with her older kids, too. I guarantee that if she doesn't have time or energy to spend with her older kids, she will miss them. It doesn't matter how difficult they may or may not be.

__________

That's it, folks! Again, encourage the mom to get extra sleep and not to feel guilty about sleeping all day if she needs to. That's the most important thing.

Kicking it

I am so awed and thankful to be preparing to welcome another child into my family in just a few months. Life really is a miracle.

One of the things I've been doing during this pregnancy that I didn't do (but should have done) when I was pregnant with Levi is counting kicks. The baby is supposed to move at least 10 times in an hour (after you're far enough along), so you pick a time and count the movements. This baby (let's call him Stevi for now, since we don't have a name for him yet) usually gets the 10 kicks in five minutes or less, and keeps kicking after I've counted 10 kicks. Granted, I do wait to start counting until I feel him moving first. I remember Levi kicking, but I don't remember the frequency or the quantity of kicks. I'm glad I'm doing counting and that I've written about it here. So at 30 weeks, little Stevi likes to move!

One thing that happened yesterday is that Stevi pushed on me with his hand (or foot, but I think it was his hand), so much so that I was able to push back and feel the knob of his little hand under my skin. It was like he gave me a high five! It was pretty sweet.

Other things that are different this time around are: 1) I've experienced heartburn (blech!), 2) I've experienced a lot more physical discomfort, and 3) people ask me how far along I am before I mention that I'm pregnant (I'm not sure if this is a location thing or if it's because I'm showing more this time).

Morning sickness

So, today is the second day in a ROW that I haven't experienced any morning sickness at ALL! You have no idea how giddy this makes me, so let me tell you a little about when I was pregnant with Levi and compare it to this pregnancy. I also want to be able to remember my first pregnancy, even though it was so rough, so this is also for posterity.

I remember when I started to experience morning sickness the first time being pregnant. I had been playing Portal with Austin, and got nauseous from the movement of the screen. I had played it before without getting nauseous, so I was a little confused. I remained a little bit nauseous that night and then it never truly went away until Levi was born. Thankfully, my nausea was mostly limited to the morning, but it could last into late morning and was very intense. Pretty quickly, I had to start waking Austin up to make me breakfast so I wouldn't have to get out of bed, because moving or walking around before eating made me feel worse, and I was almost sure to throw up. The food that would make my nausea better and not make me throw up changed about once a week, though, so I'd have to wait until I could think of something that didn't make me nauseous just thinking about it before I woke Austin up. Then one day was much worse than the others before it. I had done my normal morning routine and caught a ride to work. About an hour or two into work, I knew I'd be useless for the rest of the day, so I called in those wonderful home teachers of mine. They found someone to drive the 30 minutes to my work and take me home again. (Side note: my visiting teachers would have been just as happy to help, but both of them worked). I am so thankful for home and visiting teachers!

Anyway, I was pretty bad the next day, too. I called in sick again and stayed in bed all day, sleeping most of the time. Even reading a book made me nauseous! I was doing much better on the third day and was able to go into work again.

We didn't have a car, so I caught rides to work and Austin and I took the bus or walked where we needed to go around town. Sometimes the walks were too much for me. Even though just months before I'd been in college regularly walking 0.8 - 1 miles speed walking uphill from the engineering buildings to my math class or Spanish class in 15 minutes or less, at the time I was pregnant I was having problems walking more than a quarter mile at a very slow pace and stopping to rest every little while.

I experienced more car sickness while I was pregnant than I was used to before, as well. It probably didn't help that I was getting a ride and wasn't able to drive myself either. I never threw up while in the car, but there were a few times that I thought I would. Sometimes we'd get to work and I'd go straight to the bathroom. Yes, I threw up at work. The thing that saved me was a bag of peppermints that my sister gave me. When I started feeling nauseous at my desk, I'd suck on a peppermint for a few minutes and then I'd feel better. I was a chain peppermint sucker. Food also helped; hungry pregnant Katie was not a pretty sight.

This lasted pretty much the whole pregnancy. I had a morning routine where I'd throw up, then eat breakfast and finish getting ready because I knew I was going to throw up anyway. I figured that I might as well get it over with before I ate anything. I also couldn't eat cereal made with milk that was more than a few days out of the store, because I almost always lost my breakfast if it was made with milk that was even a little bit old. A week away from the expiration date, and my body couldn't take it.

In the last month or so before Levi was born, I stopped barfing as much, but I still experienced nausea pretty much every day and the thought of eating certain foods still made me feel gross. After he was born, I almost cried because I was so happy about being able to enjoy food again. Anyone that knows me really well knows how important food is to me and how much I love eating good food. While I was pregnant, that whole part of me went missing. It was kind of like being a missionary and not being able to read novels to relax on P-day.


Anyway. Let me tell you about my current pregnancy up to this point. I have always been able to get around and do things. Austin hasn't had to get up to make breakfast for me once. I have always been able to take care of Levi (maybe not as quickly as he'd like, though). I've been really tired, but taking time away from doing other things to sleep is nothing compared to being sick all day every day for months on end. This pregnancy, if I get (*got? hehe :) enough sleep the night or day before, my nausea the next day isn't as bad. And, and, AND I've had TWO DAYS in a ROW without ANY nausea! Hallelujah! Also, I haven't really noticed any car sickness very much more than usual, which is also fantastic.

I know that I'm experiencing much less stress than I did when I was pregnant before, so that's probably a factor. I'm just happy that I'm feeling so much better this time around.


*I said "got" because hopefully my morning sickness is staying in the first trimester!