Pumpkin smiles

I left the room for 1 minute to change a poopy Titus diaper and I came back to this face....

David told me he got bored while I was gone so he gave himself and Max matching smiles like pumpkins (jack-o-lanterns) have. And that's a permanent marker. Yay.

Yuuuuuuup!

Dave and I love this show. And no small amount either. It's like "haven't-watched-another-show-since-we-discovered-this-one" type love. We just have to watch an episode or two (or four) before going to bed every night. That can't last for long considering they only have 2 seasons so far. But right now it's just so addicting that we can't stop! We love trying to guess how much a storage locker will sell for and who will make the most money. And the fights! I love when they get into bidding fights and they bid each other up to make someone else pay more when they have no intention of buying it themselves. Good stuff.

Anyone else out there watch it? Have you even heard of it? If you hadn't before, you do now. You're welcome.

Titus' first cloth diaper!

You know how I'm a little obsessed with cloth diapers? Yeah, I've been waiting not-so-patiently for Titus' cord stump and circumsion to heal so I could switch him to cloth diapers during the day. Finally, everything looked good yesterday and I swapped them out. We've had a couple near leaks, but so far I've found them to be better at holding everything in than the disposables I was using. I love that!!! AND he's super cute to boot!

And are you seeing that big belly he's sporting now? Today's check up had him weighing in at 10lbs 13oz now (95% for his age) and measuring 22" long (also 95% for his age). 

Bouncy seat time

Titus is big enough now to sit up in a bouncy seat without too much slumping over and falling out which means I can start showering again! Just kidding (sort of)...I was showering all along, but it's soooo much easier when he's happily sitting in a bouncy seat and not screaming the whole time. Gotta love those bouncy seats! 

And David is big enough to start "babysitting" and watching Titus while I bravely leave them all alone so I can shower. :) It's not like he has the best judgment in the world and I can't trust him fully, but he can pop a pacifier in, wipe up spit up and tell me when Titus is losing his cool and crying. I'll take what I can get!

Brothers

*sigh*

I am seriously in love with these boys.

*sigh*

David and Max LOVE holding Titus. Love it. Often holding him ends in arguments and tears because one will think the other got a longer turn than he did. Sort of annoying when we go through this every day, but so super sweet too. They just love him SO much!

All 3 of my babies (and a Dog and a Monkey)

Now can I take a minute to be obnoxious and brag about myself? Yay! Thank you. A mere 10 days after giving birth and I've lost 20 of the 28 pounds I gained while pregnant AND I can wear my pre-pregnancy clothes. Yay me!

Meet Titus

Finally! A post about Titus. I was beginning to think I'd never have time. Juggling 3 wee ones is a challenge. I don't think I'm quite there yet, but we are adjusting well. Things just have to get smoother from here on out, right? Right.

The first 8 hours of labor were laughably painless. I was talking, joking, watching TV and hanging out on facebook through contractions like they were nothing. And really, it was nothing. It didn't feel any worse than the Braxton Hicks contractions I'd been feeling for months. It wasn't until an hour after the pitocin had been turned up all the way and my water had been broken that things picked up to an uncomfortable level. The next hour after that progressed quickly and painfully and had me asking for an epidural. My oh my! How I love that epidural! Thirty minutes after the anesthesiologist left, I was blissfully numb from my belly down and David and I were settling in for some rest. I got about an hour of sleep until the nurse starting bugging me too much to sleep anymore. Epidurals require that they check on you often - mostly for vitals and baby's heartbeat and such. David slept nearly an hour and a half. We woke up at 6:30, started feeling an urge to push at 6:45 which was undeniable by 7pm and I was holding my baby boy at 7:06pm.

Best.Labor.Ever.

Minutes after birth

10lbs 5oz of PERFECTION! :)

......And then. Then I had trouble. Everything from labor shakes to nausea, fevers to excessive bleeding, low blood pressure to nearly passing out in front of my visiting big boys hit me over the next 4 hours. It took the next several hours to get everything under control. I pretty much felt like I got hit by a truck. I sort felt like I looked here:

In the midst of it all, I was too sick to nurse Titus at his second feeding so we got some donor milk from the milk bank at the hospital. Titus and Daddy got lots of snuggle time while I recovered.  

Many of my problems were behind me by the next day and the rest of our hospital stay was relatively uneventful. Signing paperwork, yummy meconium diapers, baby blood work, pictures, pediatricians, vitals every four hours, blah, blah, blah.

We were very happy to be released last Wednesday afternoon and get home to our big boys. They had missed us terribly and were very anxious for us to get back to them. In all honesty, while it was nice to be away for a while, we missed them too. :) Monga took them shopping before we got home and let them pick out flowers for Mama. David told me he picked the big red ones and Max picked the smaller pink ones.

Now, 10 days later, we are pretty well adjusted to the idea of three kids. We're still learning how to juggle everything, but it's going well. I'm back on my feet now and feeling MUCH better than when we arrived home a week ago. Titus is settling into the family quite nicely and the boys are learning to love him. David took to him right away, but Max needed some convincing.

After having our little peanut for a week and a half, we are learning SO much about him! First, he has to be warm. If he's cold, his world falls apart. He gets fussy and squeaky. He refuses to eat, sleep or be comforted. He just needs to be wrapped up tight with a hat on his head and get cuddles. That's more than ok with me. ;)

All snuggled in for the night.

I've learned the hard (and painful!) way that Titus is a lazy latcher and has a very powerful suck when it comes to nursing. It made the first 9 days or so kinda frustrating, but yesterday he turned a corner and now seems to "get" it. We've corrected his latch issues and things are going much better now.

Over the last week, he's lengthened his nights from waking every 2 hours to nurse to waking every 6 hours. I had nearly forgotten how blissful sleep can be! I feed him now before I go to bed then just once during the night. He's usually up again to eat around the time the bigs are waking up for the day. He'll nurse really well then settle in for another big nap giving me the chance to make breakfast, have coffee and start the day with the other boys.  

A couple of days ago he started have awake periods during the day. I LOVE IT! It gives me the chance to get all sorts of goofy faced pictures like these...  Hehe.

I don't know about this picture...it doesn't really look like him.

I'm in love. *sigh*

38 weeks!

38 weeks today! I was sort of hoping I wouldn't see this day, but here we are. Titus has yet to make his grand entrance into this world so it's time for another super professional-looking bathroom picture of me. Yay!

See? Still very much pregnant. I had a prenatal appointment today. I've gained 30 pounds up to this point. But it looks good on me, right? Right?? (a good friend would lie right now) I have an ultrasound set for Friday morning to determine Titus's weight and size. We may have to induce at the beginning of next week if he looks as large as his brothers were.