Having a baby tomorrow!

This planned c-section thing is strange.... I will post photos sometime tomorrow.... Goodnight!

Update

So I have about three weeks to go until our fourth little baby is born. Where has the time gone? My c-section is scheduled for January 27th. So since this is most likely my last pregnancy (although I'm not getting "fixed" till I'm 35 in case I change my...Brian's...mind) I wanted to write a bit about it. First off it is way more awesome to be pregnant with one baby than with three. I highly recommend it:) Its so cool to feel the kicking of one huge baby, my stomach rolls day and night. While its freaky as well, its also such an amazing feeling, one that I will miss. While I'm certainly tired and would not live without my mom, Brian's dad and Michele's help, this pregnancy has been overall, dare I say, easy. I'm not in any pain, unlike the triplet pregnancy where I was always sore. Most nights I sleep like a rock and really am comfortable. All in all I can say I really enjoy it and think it would have been cool to spread it out a bit. But I suppose having 4 kids in 18 months is just one other way to do it.

As for the triplets, they are doing so great. I'm really starting to enjoy each of their personalities and their differences. Now they are starting to test limits as well and really enjoy hitting each other. We are working on this though. Claire is hilarious. She runs from me constantly looking back with a smile as if I'm always chasing her even though I may just be typing on the computer. She is happy 90% of the time and smiles such a big smile. Slade is turning into such a boy. He is finally walking although he still prefers to crawl about 60% of the time. He loves to be tickled and loves to do the opposite of whatever I say. Ella is my strong but sweet little lady. She understands everything and yesterday even went into the bedroom and got Slade's pants when I asked her to. She loves shoes and begs to have them on all the time.

All in all, life is good, albeit a bit hectic. I'm still terrified about having a new baby at home but with the help of family and friends I think we will survive. I hope we will survive.

Photos

Professional photo

My attempt at a good christmas photo

Ella Excited

Claire loves her daddy

Looking at me outside

Christmas dinner with the cousins

Ella excited again...

Slade & Daddy

Preemie Photo Contest

Hi! So I've entered the babies into a Preemie contest where they can win a ton of great prizes just for being so spectacular! If you would please take a moment and vote for them, I'd be very appreciative. You can vote once per day and it ends on Nov. 11th. Thank you so much!

http://wildfireapp.com/website/6/contests/65899/voteable_entries/9896705?ogn=website&order=recency

It's a girl!

Sugar and spice and everything nice? Well maybe not to Mr. Slade:) But we are so excited to welcome another frilly fancy princess into our family! She is in perfect health and measuring right on track!

Surprise!

Well, life has gotten busy so I haven't gotten to post those birthday pics yet...one day! Brian ran to get supper so I only have a few minutes for an update. Over the last two months when I didn't post we've had quite a few milestones. Slade can now crawl and pull to standing, Ella can walk, and as of yesterday Claire took about 8 steps alone as well. Its weird having three babies at all different stages but its neat to watch the progression as well. In addition, Claire can blow kisses, point to her nose and dance...or what we like to call dancing anyways. When given a pen, Ella immediately bends down to "draw" which is a big step being that her siblings suck on it immediately instead. Slade blows bubbles on everything and has turned into a fabulous eater so hopefully he'll catch up in weight to his sisters too. Finally all three are now turning the pages of board books and really enjoy the kinds with different textures. OK, so for most people reading this I'm sure this is super boring. However, I haven't updated the baby books in awhile so this is to serve as my bookmark of events. Ella has 5 teeth, Claire 3 and Slade 2. Boring I know.

So the fun part...the surprise. Well it turns out I'm pregnant. I'm actually teetering on being 18 weeks pregnant. This was a surprise however we did plan on having more kids so we like to think of it as early gift. My c-section will be late January although it will be scheduled 3 weeks early due to the amount of scarring I have due to the trio. Being pregnant with one it turns out though is awfully easy...compared to three that is. I had no idea how hard I had it the first time around. I can still almost sleep on my stomach where at this time with the trio I was already on bed rest and measuring around 30 weeks. However, nausea still comes and go's which is a pain. We were definitely shocked to find out the news as I'm sure many of you are as well, but with the help of our wonderful family and friends I'm sure we'll survive. We are excited and can't wait to see what this new little one looks and acts like!

So with that being said, we were quite nervous about our recent trip to Seattle with the babies and me pregnant. But it went so well. They did great on the plane as well as on the train, bus and ferry. We went hiking, took a ferry through the San Juan Islands, ate fresh crab, and got to play in the grass with no fire ants or bugs! One day I'll post those pics as well!!!

Ok Brian's home, I'll try and not wait so long between posts but no promises!

Happy Birthday Babies!!!

On July 19th our tiny little babies turned 1 year old. Its so amazing how far they've come from their under 2lb little bodies. They are crawling, pulling up, babbling, and eating toast for breakfast. We are just so thankful for the doctors and nurses who helped our little trio grow and thrive into the perfect little creatures they are today. Each weekend of the month, we took and individual baby out to lunch for a little alone birthday celebration with mom and dad (and grandpa's). Thank you to Heather, Dustin, Holly, Matt and Darcy for watching the other two so we could make this possible. Each baby enjoyed their alone time and we had fun getting to go out as well! Their birthday was just a small celebration as they will get to have a big party next weekend. The only downside was it was the only time for the babies to have their 1 year checkup, so they had to start their new year with vaccinations. However they handled it well and now all three are on the charts for their weights! What a great year it has been, although its been absolutely ridiculously hard, I still believe that its all been worth it! Pictures to come...

1 year weights
Ella - 18lbs 11oz (13 percentile)
Claire - 16lbs 9oz (1 percentile)
Slade - 16lbs (.05 percentile)