Tanner Jude

Ok, it is high time that I included our dear Tanner in my blog. Tanner was born Sept 19, 2015 after a relatively short labor. I had some contractions the night before that seemed more consistent, but I wasn't about to be faked out again, as I had a ton of contractions with Tanner, thus leading me to believe this baby was definitely coming early. Well, he was my latest. 1 week late and 8 lbs 9oz, 20.5 inches long to be my heaviest baby yet (by 2 ounces). Blake was just a tad bit smaller, but Tanner has been growing much faster than Blake was due to his ability to keep lots of milk down without spitting it up, and also due to the fact that his Mommy was able to supply a ton of milk, whereas we struggled with that the first time around.

Thankfully, we had a neighbor who was willing to be on call in the middle of the night because naturally the only time we go in in the middle of the night is when we have two other littles sleeping peacefully in their beds. I woke at around 1 or 1:30 and realized my contractions quickly became consistent and fairly close together. I woke Scott (or he woke--geez, I should have written this sooner!) and I told him they were about 5 minutes apart. They hurt, but I could handle them. Well, he thought we should go to the hospital with them so close together and after considering it for a moment, I agreed. Well, the contractions quickly escalated and by the time Beth got to our house (around 3:30), I was bent over trying to control the pain.

I didn't want an epidural, and since I was 8 cm when I arrived at the hospital, I figured he was coming fast. Plus, they said it would take 45 minutes for an epidural and I (and they) figured it was possible he would be born before then. Also, they said they could break my water to speed things up. I agreed b/c, why not?? Well, after they broke the water, the contractions became much more painful, to which they said, "well, now you don't have the water as a cushion." What?! Thanks for telling me that AFTER you broke it!! Well, of course, I wasn't progressing as fast as expected and now my contractions were quite intense. The anesthesiologist was now in the building and since I had been started on the drip just in case, I could have relief in an instant. I thought, why do I make myself go through this? Yes, give it to me. Of course, after that, everyone disappears from our room and we seem to be forgotten about for quite a while. Finally, they decide that yes, let's deliver the baby before the next c-section since she is a healthy 10 cm., which i had probably been for a while. They considered going to do the c-section first, but I am thankful they delivered Tanner b/c unbeknownst to me, he had the cord wrapped around his neck. He came out purple, but quickly took some breaths and his color returned. I had to fight some guilt afterwards for getting the epidural when later I knew he would have delivered probably an hour earlier if I hadn't gotten drugs and may not have been purple. They have assured me he was fine b/c his heartbeat was fine and showed no signs of distress. But honestly, they weren't very good about even keeping that device on me. It was falling off so I had to put it back on. So, knowing I couldn't do anything about it and the experts were telling me he was fine, I had to put it behind me. But, what if there was some damage they don't know about and don't make the connection to that??? A mommy always wonders, but he seems just fine :)

I again had some difficulty pushing since I couldn't feel anything, but thankfully was able to get him out much sooner than Blake (I pushed for 2 hours with him). We had an ultrasound the day before and had a scheduled induction in case Tanner didn't arrive by Tuesday, and at the ultrasound, they guessed him to be about 9 lbs 5 oz. Scott has guessed to the ounce the size of our other babies, but was thrown off by their estimation, so he guessed high. He was a bit disappointed about that, but still didn't quite think he would have been spot on, but he guessed higher than he though due to their guess.

Tanner wasn't named for a while b/c Scott and I couldn't decide on his name, but just before having to give them our SS# paperwork, we had it figured out and he ended up with Tanner Jude Miles, which if he chooses in the future, he can also go with TJ. :)

Here are some photos of our beautiful baby boy! I still love looking at these!

He's here!!! 

All wrapped and cozy

His cute little hat he got at the hospital. Dang we make cute babies :) 

Love from his sister

Love from his brother

With his Grandpa Miles

Grandpa miles came to watch the kids. Beth had dressed Sadie, or let her dress herself. She had her swim top on, pajama pants, no socks and tennis shoes when she arrived at the hospital. It was so cute

Our family of 5 

Snuggles with Mommy

Snuggles with Daddy

With Grandma Spaeth

Arriving home!!!

Tanner Jude is a blessing from God!!

The petting zoo!!

I finally decided to take the kids to the petting zoo in Waterloo. I say finally, but really, it wasn't open when we arrived last September and then didn't reopen until Memorial Day, so there hasn't been all that many opportunities. Turned out to be a beautiful day, so we decided to go. It is quite small, but sometimes that is just really desireable when taking kids somewhere. They are easy to find should they scurry, and there isn't all that much walking. Blake loved it and Sadie was a bit indifferent. I think she was kind of tired. But she did manage a wave to the brand new donkey that was born last night around 8:30 pm! 

Sadie waving to the donkey

Baby donkey and his mommy

 Since I am typically really bad about either remembering to bring my camera or if I do remember it, to actually take some photos, we got a group photo right away.

Me at 27 1/2 weeks pregnant and Blake and Sadie and llama. Hey, we are all wearing the same blue! Blake dressed himself and had on an army green shirt with these shorts, and it was a bit much for me on how badly it mismatched, so I changed him into a yellow shirt :) 

Of course we have to do these shots! 

Sadie was a bit short, but taking a shot from above solved that issue

And Blake took one of me :)

How did this kid get to be so cute??? Blake having a blast holding the kitty

 

I am having a hard time cutting Blake's locks, b/c I think it looks so cute, but I realize he is in need of a summer haircut soon :) Sadie doesn't have that problem--her hair grows so slowly and she has started pulling it out as well. She is a MAJOR hair twirler, so she got a big knot in the back that I had to cut off. She had played with it so much that the knot wasn't holding on by many hairs by the time I cut it. Also, lately, I've been finding hair on her shoulder, which she pulls out while playing with her hair. I've just started trying to break the habit b/c immediately upon picking her up, her hand goes to my hair. I usually pull my hair back, so she just pulls it out of my ponytail. So, on top of this being incredibly annoying, I also want to break a bad habit before it gets too bad, or before she had a bald spot on one part of her head. :)

1 day old baby donkey again :) 

Checking out the mules (or donkeys) or is there a difference?? They weren't good about posting signs as to what the animals were. I mean it is a petting zoo, we are supposed to know what farm animals are, right?? Well, I'm sorry, I don't really know what a hedgehog looks like, and some might not know the difference between a regular pig and a (hideous) potbelly pig. They might just think he is a tad overweight in his sagging belly. :)

The goats were the highlight as you could actually go in their pen and feed them. I was impressed Blake was brave enough to do this, but he really enjoyed it! There were some small baby goats as well, which were sooo cute!! The older ones tried to hog the food though, naturally.

Here is a bad picture of some of the babies who had climbed up their "fort"

 So glad we decided to go. We'll have to make this a regular stop for beautiful days!

And, randomly, another attempt at a great sibling picture :)

Sadie wasn't smiling for me again...until Blake bonked her on the head with his teddy bear. Go figure :) 

Oh, and then they decided to both put their teddy bears behind their heads. 

And this was just cute :) 

Things going as planned...ha!

That's how it works, right? You plan something, it should work...so, I decided to take the kids to a play of the Jungle Book. There was a free showing today at 10:30 at the University of Northern Iowa. It was a free event put on by people with special needs, so I was hoping they'd be a little more understanding about having a toddler there. Blake was ok with going, but said he didn't want to go. I told him we could leave if he didn't like it, so he agreed. Well, we got there just before 10:30 (who shows up early with toddlers anyways, right??). Well, there wasn't any parking spots! I didn't exactly expect that, but thankfully we found one spot as someone was pulling out. This was just before I almost got backed into by a lady so focused on finding a parking spot, she had no idea I was behind her. She was about to leave the parking lot, then stopped abruptly and started to back up. On top of having to break suddenly because she started to turn then changed her mind, thus faking me out, I also had to honk desperately to stop her from backing up into me. It was a close call!

So we finally got our spot, only to find out they were all metered spots in this parking lot, and I had hardly any change. So, we tried to find one in the free spots--nothing. Everywhere else you needed a permit, and even across the street in the residential area, you couldn't park on those streets (you can everywhere else in town)! Blake was obviously all of a sudden very disappointed--I think he started to get excited actually being there, but I had to tell him we couldn't go b/c there was no parking, but we could go get ice cream instead. He readily agreed so, we got Wendy's frosties. Found out Sadie is a disaster trying to eat one, so she reluctantly let me feed her. Then we went to Aldi's for groceries. Found out I didn't have a quarter to get a cart, go figure. First time ever, though, someone saw me walking in the parking lot with two kids (and pregnant) and offered me their cart for free! I told her thank you so much b/c I had just discovered I didn't have a quarter and was so glad to get the cart. It made both of our days.

During Aldi, Sadie opened my fresh mushrooms and Blake opened the green beans so they were both spilling everywhere and a too helpful employee was trying to help me with some tomato cages I was buying. They were tied at the bottom, so I was having trouble trying to get them out. So, she stepped in and pulled out 6 for me. I told here there were a couple that were kind of bent out of shape and wanted a couple different ones, so she put down the four good ones to get 2 better ones to add to them. She then pulled out 4 more, which were ok, but not as nice as the other 4 and added them to the 2 broken/bent ones and said "there we go, here's 6!" I didn't have the heart to tell her she had all the wrong ones and thought I'd exchange them after she left. Oh no, she volunteered to bring them to the front of the store for me so I didn't have to carry them. :) During checkout, I had another clerk go exchange the one that was actually broken and left the others that were bent, haha.

Ah, let's go to Hy-Vee and finish our shopping there, b/c Aldi doesn't have everything I want. They bag your groceries for you, we can get the nice car cart that Blake loves and it will be relaxing comparatively. Maybe we'll even get a slice of pizza...

Shoot. No car carts available. Every time I pick up Sadie, she pulls my hair out of my pony tail. Blake continues to point out every car cart he sees. They are doing a total revamp of the whole store, so employees everywhere crowding the isles. Everything is moved around making it hard to find stuff. Blake points out every chip and candy that he sees and says he wants it. He opens a banana and start to eat it and ends up sitting on the peel, smashing it into the cart. He is smashing the marshmallows inside the bag, so he gets banned from the cart. Sadie keeps trying to stand up. Blake loves to stand on the outside of the cart and be pushed, but steps down while I am pushing and I run into his ankle. At check out, Sadie bites into an avocado of the customer behind us, so they have to go exchange it. There is no employee available to load my groceries (first time ever). My back is starting to hurt from standing so much with this big belly. We didn't get pizza. :)

Driving home some college/high school kids are trying to yell at me from their car. Not sure all that they are saying, but I do hear them ask how my day is going. I give them the thumbs down. They say, "want me to make it better?" I don't look and start to pass them, then I hear them say, "cute kids." I stick my hand out the window and give them a thumbs up for that :)

Finally get home, make lunch. Kids eat so-so. We go to read books before bed and Blake brings some blueberries with him. No big deal, but when they are gone, Sadie goes to get a plate of food that wasn't eaten yet, along with some avocado. She drops it on the carpet and steps on part of it. I have to go clean it up. She then rubs her dirty avocado hands all over my shirt--right over my big belly. Awesome. Finally, they are both in bed. I decide I should document our day for the past 4 hours b/c some days just aren't that fun and such is life with toddlers!

They can be cute though, so here are a few pics of our last few days:

Trying to get a couple of them together. Blake is more than willing to smile for me, haha. 

The smile starts to wane as I am trying to get Sadie to cooperate...

Blake drug in their little outdoor table, so they enjoyed some yogurt together

Cute pic of Sadie today :)

Ok, so what she was really trying to do was chew on Daddy's belt, but still...;)

Bath time! (I love Blake in the background, haha)

Check out that farmer's tan! :) 

Sadie and I. My hair is finally starting to grow long enough for a pony tail, but it doesn't always make it. Plus, Sadie pulls at the hair every chance she gets...not sure which it is here.

Finding a basket of Daddy's stuff...

Ooooh, some jewelry of his from his college days :) She likes trying it on

Not to be outdone, Blake joins in

And this was just cute :)

Another attempt at a good pic together and you've got to be kidding me!! I get a great pic of the two and I cut off their heads!!!

Blake smiling, Sadie concentrating on her book :)

Did it again--cut off heads while holding the camera and trying to make them smile

And, they are getting sick of pictures

And we end up with this.

And last but not least, our little escape artist after he had just crawled out this window. Sigh.

Hope you have a great Wednesday!! I plan to have a great afternoon/evening ;)

Our spring so far

I am so glad it is spring--we've been loving being outside and meeting neighbors and getting some sunshine. Although it is great, my kids seems to think they can go outside whenever they want, for however long they want, and regardless of whether we call them back. We are working on that. Unfortunately, Blake can unlock the door, and Sadie can get the door open when it is unlocked. Fortunately, they tend to leave the door open when they leave, so I usually know when they've escaped.

We've also played indoors on colder days, and now have to find more to do during May since Mom's Morning Out is done for the summer and storytime at the library doesn't happen during the month of May.

Busy with play-doh. He always grabs a bunch of kitchen utensils to assist in his play time

Can't get this girl to stay off the table--this picture made me smile

Sadie does pretty good with play-doh, as you can tell from the video: 

Play-doh pancakes

Blakey helping his Daddy--unfortunately, the little mower wasn't moving well through the grass, so he eventually gave up. Not a good design!!

Sadie loves hats!! 

Blake trying on Daddy's hockey equipment :) 

Having a lunch date with Teddy Bear. The kids love this table and chairs our neighbor gave us and drag it into the house sometimes

Sadie having her own little snack here (Blake was still napping) :) 

She also loves to put on Blake's helmet (and tear out the padding from the inside)

Morning snack with a shopping cart

Break for drink

Break for muffin

And we're off! 

Blake decided to take a nap in our room--which I didn't realize right away after sending him back to his bed after he tried to stay up. Had to take a picture b/c it was so cute :) 

Well, I just tried my hand at another garage sale (my second ever, but first on my own), and we made cookies for Blake and Sadie to sell. I'm serious when I say "we." This is the aftermath...

Things to note from the pictures above and below:
1). Bowl in the upper left hand side of the picture has flour and a spatula that Sadie was playing with.
2). (Semi-)Bare spot is where Sadie was sitting
3). Blue bowl has a bunch of flour where I was trying to sift out the tiny pieces of Swiss cheese that Blake had mixed into the bag of flour. I had already sifted the sugar...
4). Oatmeal that Blake tried to put flour into that I stopped before it happened. The oatmeal did end up in the flour though, but I think I got most of that out before the Swiss cheese was added.
5). Package of Swiss cheese that Blake shredded to add and mix into the flour and sugar.
6). Mess on the floor and on me is not visible in this picture :)
7). Oatmeal raisin cookies still a success! :)
(I even dared make chocolate chip after this)

Sadie after the fact

Blake after the fact :) 

 Turns out Blake is an awesome salesman and at times even placed bags of cookies into people's hands, so they were almost forced to buy from him. He was pretty persistent, so a couple times I told people there was no pressure :)


Turns out both my kids love our neighbors...and their electronic four-wheeler!

Sadie getting a ride. She loves this girl and always gets excited to see her.

This weekend Blake ventured out on his own and we haven't been able to get him off since....nor have the other kids. We are working on him sharing this toy that isn't his!!

He's a little pro!

Happy as can be! 

Blake and Daddy chillin' watching a kid's truck video on the kindle. 

A typical day

Gotta love kids!!!