Next Year Everyone Is Getting Gift Cards

On Day 3 of our snowed-in icepocalypse, I decided to work on our presents for the wonderful teachers in our kids' lives. In the past we've done a gift card to somewhere like Starbucks or a favorite ice cream place- somewhere a small denomination will actually get you something. But even at only $10 each, those cards add up when each kid has multiple teachers, so this year, in the spirit of having more time than money on my partially unpaid leave, I turned to the internet.

Oh, the internet. Filled with lies about prep time and impossibly perfect pictures of food I can't recreate, but I googled a few things like "homemade teacher gifts" and found this Santa Hat Party Mix. It looked so cute and doable and actually tasty and fun to eat. And sure it involved candy discs, something I've never used before, and maybe even I could tell those bugle hats were going to be more of a pain in the ass than the blog post implied, but I had a whole afternoon and my car was iced in place in my driveway- let's do this!

 

Four hours later, I decided I should have spent the $50 on gift cards. Red melting chocolate was smeared on my fingers, my back hurt, and the Frank Sinatra holiday station that had been cheerfully bursting forth from my Pandora app was starting to get on my nerves. The base of the mix was pretty easy, but the red bugles (the whole damn point of the mix) were my nemesis.

 

First I had to sort through 2 bags of them to find a sufficient number that were whole and sufficiently santa-hat-shaped. Then they had to be dipped in the melted chocolate, then dried, then I cut off any extraneous strings or flat chunks of dried chocolate that interfered with my precious hat shape. Then the chocolate had to be re-melted and everything re-dipped to ring the bottom in white non-pereils. Then dried. Then the chocolate had to be melted AGAIN and the tops of the hats re-dipped to attach the little marshmallow.

 

But they are cute. I put the mix in pint-sized Mason Jars (such a cliche at this point, but I thought they worked well here) and added m&m's and a carefully counted out number of precious hats.

 

I cut out some Christmas paper to put on the top, tied a ribbon around the neck, and (later) added a tag to each with the teacher's name on it.

 

I made 6 and had some leftover that is currently in the freezer waiting to wow the masses at our family reunion/gathering happening at the lake house on the 23rd. It might hurt me to watch them be eaten, but I can only encase them in plastic and admire them for so long.

While I made chocolate art (and Claire helped, kind of), the boys were working very hard on the Christmas lights.

Cora wore fleece and took a long nap.

 

After I finished and had cleaned all the bowls we own for the fifth time, I had to make dinner- even if I'd been tempted to break our scheduled menu and eat out (and oh, I WAS), I sadly re-remembered that we were iced in and couldn't go anywhere. So I made this Spasagna and it was fantastic. It also unfortunately involved using another large mixing bowl I had to clean, but it was worth it- very tasty and even better for lunch the next day. It'll be added to our regular rotation.

As long as we're talking about food, our menu for the week:

Sunday: Crockpot pulled BBQ chicken sandwiches, homestyle mac and cheese, cold broccoli sadad.
Monday: OUT! The ice finally melted enough to drive a car and we headed to Gloria's for chips and queso and a margarita for mama (and other more substantive food too, but it was mostly about queso and my margarita).
Tuesday: Out again (oops). Claire had a dance recital at 5 and we stopped for half-price burgers at our favorite University place on the way home.
Wednesday: BBQ Chicken Quinoa Salad- a family favorite, quinoa topped with chopped grilled chicken, black beans, corn, tomato, avocado, cheddar cheese, and dressing (BBQ sauce and Ranch for the Ranch lovers in my house; BBQ sauce and a bit of Italian dressing for me).
Thursday: Chili (mom's recipe), cornbread.
Friday: Pasta with tomato cream sauce.
Saturday: We're doing sugar cookies that day, so I'm sure we'll be ordering pizza at the end of that extravaganza and then it's all homemade food till Christmas.

Frozen

We remain surrounded by several inches of snow topped by several inches of ice. Everything is so white and eerily quiet- everyone is locked down and we haven't seen a car on the road since Thursday. A few inches of snow and ice isn't much of a big deal up north, but in a city without snow plows or salt trucks, it's pretty much immobilizing. And with temps forecasted to remain in the 20's for the next 3-4 days, I'm not sure when we'll be able to get out!

 

So far in our snowy adventures Landon and Claire have let out many thousand cubic feet of expensively heated air by going out and in and out and in (and out and in) wearing a mixmash of fleece pjs, last year's winter coats, next year's ski gear, and my consignment ski boot finds from last month (so glad I started bargain shopping for next year's ski trip early!), but at least they're going out. Cora and I just wore fleece and stayed inside and snuggled all day. JP and Landon walked to our local grocery store for a few staples. It's only a little over a half mile away, but oh their cheeks were bright pink by the time they got back! JP also strung up the Christmas lights, coming inside every 30 minutes or so to warm up, while the kids pretended to be penguins in the driveway.

 

I made this "Ultimate Party Mix" on Friday, which was a huge mistake, because as it turns out, sitting around the whole all day in old fleece swim gear makes you REALLY hungry. I was only 5 lbs. off my pre-baby weight before the snowpocalypse, but I think I've now taken several steps in the wrong direction. Because do you know what else goes great with ice days? Red wine. Lots of it.

 

I've ordered my Christmas cards, but they aren't here yet, so I can't spend my time productively working on them. I'd come up with my idea for homemade teacher gifts, but half the required ingredients are still on their shelves at Target. We need to decorate our Christmas tree, but we have to leave the house to buy it first. And I'd already wrapped all my presents, finished the kids' photo books, packed up my maternity clothes, and organized my closet, so there's literally nothing I can do except re-read all the books on my kindle and snuggle Cora.

Done.

The kids have been pretty good. We did ground them from each other for a little while yesterday because of a whining/crying/tattling triumvirate of bad sibling behavior. Separating them from each other is basically the worst thing we can do because Landon desperately hates being alone and Claire desperately needs someone to boss around.

 

While it's been fun being all cozy and making hot chocolate and taking on and off ski boots and mittens every 10 minutes (actually, it has been fun), I am deeply DEEPLY concerned that schools will still be closed tomorrow. Landon needs school and more social interaction than we can provide, and Cora and I need to spend at least five hours a day watching HGTV and old West Wing episodes. Having the big kids around is really interfering with our bonding.

 

After not turning on the TV for the kids all day yesterday (due to a poorly chosen "no TV today" initial response to their infighting; clearly we're rookies at this "snowed in parenting" thing), they're currently on hour 3 of cartoons and Christmas movies. As soon as Cora wakes up from the nap she's taking on my chest while I type, everyone will get lunch, the kids will be kicked outside to test the thickness of the ice and play penguins again, and then we'll replay all the board games we played yesterday and pray we can back a car out of the driveway tomorrow!

Fall, Summer, Winter, Snow

I took classic fall pictures on Sunday, it was in the 80's on Tuesday and Wednesday (Cora and I walked to school to pick up Landon and I almost got sweaty), it dropped 50 degrees yesterday to close out the day at 28 and sleeting, and this morning we woke up to a winter wonderland.

The big kids were THRILLED when they ran into our room at 7 (10 minutes after I finally fell back asleep after Cora's 6 a.m. feeding). They assembled a mismatch of fleece pj's, gloves, last year's ski coat, this year's ski coat, and my consignment store snow boot finds and headed out into the snowy depths.

 

Tex was a mix of extra frisky confusion as he bounced around in the snow. He didn't know what was going on, but he was excited to be part of it!

 

The playset was an ice slick, but Landon managed to climb up and "slide" down anyway. Claire refused to go out onto the grass, certain that she would sink "so deep" into the snow. I tried to explain that the ground was still underneath the snow, just as firm as it always was, but she was unconvinced.

 

Landon dove down for a snow angel. I'm not even sure how he knows what a snow angel is... friends? Curious George's Snowy Day?

 

We moved to the front yard where Claire got brave enough to run around a bit. We got Cora suited up in her pink fuzzy snow suit (thanks LEO!).

 

She seemed happy in her cozy suit, but was largely unimpressed by the snow.

 

Other than her 10 second introduction to snow Cora has spent the day snuggled with one family member or another. The big kids have been kicked outside on multiple occasions to get some energy out and JP spent about 20 minutes chopping big blocks of ice off our pool cover, just like a farmer breaking through his animals' water troughs, except more suburban and he got to sleep in. I've promised hot chocolate and the roasting of marshmallows as an afternoon snack, and I have this Bubble Up Lasagna queued up for dinner, with a glass or three of red wine depending on the indoor behavior of the children. But for now, everyone is on the couch, still in pj's, watching a movie and admiring the bright white light bouncing off the snow outside our big windows. I love our little Texas tastes of real winter, especially when they come around the holidays!

Three Kids and One Million Leaves

We bought this house in part because of the gorgeous 100+ year old red oak in the front yard. The house was built around it in 1947 and I fell hard for it and all the giant trees that surround our home and neighborhood. Unfortunately, we bought the house in spring when everything is green and gorgeous, never thinking about all the leaves that would be falling out of those trees come fall. I still adore them, but I respect the fact that JP and Landon, our champion rakers, have slightly more conflicted feelings about the trees and all their leaves, though they do manage to have fun with their nemesis once and a while.

Diving in (literally):

 

Where's Landon?

 

Dunking Landon, while Claire cries because her tummy is covered/missing/hiding and she wants JP to get it out (just her tummy, interestingly):

 

The pile grew even bigger and the kids asked if Cora could come play.

 

She was game.

 

They are going to have such adventures together when she gets bigger! And maybe she'll pitch in with the raking too.

 

Tiny Turkey

Now that we've hung the (five!) stockings and gone on an evening drive to look at Christmas lights, Thanksgiving seems too long ago to write about, but it was excellent and Cora's first holiday needs to be memorialized. Mostly because there was a turkey hat.

We drove to the lake on Wednesday morning. Not as early as we planned- packing is more involved when one of your passengers is a newborn, and then that passenger decided she needed to eat again before left and then, 45 minutes of Claire walking around the house wearing her backpack and saying "I'm ready to go to PapaGigi's house now!" over and over and OVER again later, we were on our way. Three kids in a tight straight line across the middle of the car, and me in the front with the little cooler of PBJs, fruit, and pretzels. Coldspring, TX or Bust, baby.

Stubbornly Sleeping

We arrived at 1:30 after 3.5 complication-free hours. The kids colored in their new holiday coloring books (thank you Target dollar spot) and Cora slept the entire time. In fact, she slept so well on the car ride, she basically refused to wake up for the rest of three day visit. We dreaded the evenings, but it went pretty well. Life at the lake is so much better now that my parents are in a house with extra bedrooms.

Sous Chef

Cora helped my mom cook Thanksgiving dinner. Mostly in her sleep. The fresh lake air she didn't get to feel because it was too cold outside really wore her out.

Fishermen

Landon hung out with the boys- helping, running in circles, asking ten million questions- basically having the time of his life. Like any good faux-Texan, he caught some fish, rode on a tractor, rode in the back of a pickup truck, rode in a boat being pulled by a pickup truck, shot at a target with a pellet gun, and watched his uncle assemble his crossbow. It was all quite an education, an education his mom did her best to largely ignore.

Landon legitimately thought he was steering the boat home

Claire flitted between the two worlds- indoors with the coloring, cooking, and snacks, and outside with the big trucks and tractor. She really liked the old green truck. I remember playing endless games of house in the back of my grandpa's tan pickup while it sat in the driveway, so it's nice to see new truck bed memories being made by the next generation.

They insisted on taking this picture before we left on Saturday

Cora woke up for 5 seconds at one point on Thursday, so I seized the opportunity to dress her in her Turkey Day finest.

Turkey Hat! Turkey Butt! Baby Turkey!

Our dinner was delicious- my mom did a fabulous job as always, and I loved getting to sip wine and hold my turkey-hat-wearing baby throughout the afternoon.

Tryptophan

On Friday my mom and I drove out to civilization in search of some discount shopping. We found everything we desired at a TJ Maxx outside Conroe- my Christmas presents (no opening till Christmas), some Christmas decor for my house (silver and sparkly!), and a sparkly sweater I want to host a holiday party just to wear. We finished so quickly (1 store, so many great sweater dresses) we stopped at a Mexican place for some appetizers and my first margarita in 9 months. It was everything I dreamed it would be over a long, hot margaritaless summer.

Bedtime stories, by Landon

That night, Landon read everyone bedtime stories. Because we are awesome parents, we only recently discovered that Landon can read. We'd been reading him chapter books at night, then my aunt sent him some early reader books as a "big brother" present to "read" to Cora and he opened them up and just... read them. With no help. JP and my jaws dropped and he proceeded to read every book in the stack of six with minimal input. So now he reads bedtime stories to Claire and Cora and JP and I listen and smile and continue to wonder how long he's been able to do that.

Cora, today, helping me upload pictures

And that's our Thanksgiving- great fun at the lake, moderate amounts of sleeping by everyone (except Cora, who slept all the time, except between 1-2 and 4-5 a.m.), delicious food, this Pumpkin Carrot cake (make it, it's amazing), a margarita, some sweater dresses I can't open until Christmas, the most fabulous of turkey hats, and reading. It was a lovely holiday and three weeks from today, we'll be back for Christmas!

C-Sections and Recovery: 2 Weeks Out

I had my 2 week check-up today with my OB. It's amazing that we only met Cora two weeks ago- she's so loved and such an elemental part of our life and routine already, and the hospital portion of it all seems so far away. But two weeks ago it was! Everything went great- I'm 10 lbs. off my pre-pregnancy weight (maybe a little extra fluid still, but probably mostly extra cookies), my incision looks great, and the check-in nurse verified twice that it wasn't my 6 week check-up. While I was at the OB, JP took Cora across the street for her 2-week newborn screening. I left my doctor in a great mood, but Cora is still pissed about the heel prick. She's frowning in her sleep on JP's chest right now and I think she's having flashbacks.

pre-heel prick; braced for the arctic DFW temps

One of my closest co-workers is pregnant with her first child and was asking me and our other co-worker friend about our experiences with delivery and recovery. I've written each kid's birth story: Landon's (vaginal) is here (recovery post here); Claire's (scheduled c-section due to birth trauma to a preemie Landon from my narrow pelvis) is here (2 weeks out post here); and Cora's (also scheduled c-section) is here. I felt like each was a really good experience. Landon's delivery went very well (for me). While I feel confident that a c-section was the right way for me to go post-Landon, that was to protect the baby, not because I didn't want another vaginal delivery. I'm glad I got to have that experience- the length of it, the intimacy, the feeling of JP and I being in it together in our darkened room overnight, waiting for the contractions to get stronger and our son to be born. A c-section, while still both good experiences for me, is definitely more clinical. It's so quick, in a bright sterile room, and you're physically totally cut off from what's happening below your chest. If the anesthesiologist hadn't told me Cora was about to be born, I would have had no idea. It's fine- c-sections serve an important purpose, and JP (and this time my mom too!) was still right there with me, but it's all a bit surreal. Lay down, go numb, here's your baby! I never gave a lot of thought to how my babies would be born while I was pregnant- it seemed largely out of my control and useless to worry over, and then Landon arrived a month before I might have started to worry about it despite myself, so I didn't have much emotional attachment to one method over the other. While I would have opted for another vaginal delivery after Landon, I didn't mind when it was clear afterward that it would be better that future babies be born by c-section. The c-sections were good experiences too, just very different ones.

As for recovery- at two weeks out, I've found the recovery to be exactly the same. I'm me- I've been off any pain pills for a week, I can move, bend, and generally live the way I normally do. I'm in normal clothes (leggings and a sweater dress- I'm loving fall postpartum), and I feel great. My scar is a little numb, but it's thin and pale and there's no pain or itching or anything else. I still can't exercise, have sex, or lift anything "too heavy" (left to my discretion to decide what that is... Cora and her car seat are not, Claire probably is), but all those restrictions are similar to a vaginal delivery and will go away in another month. The difference for me was the early days- I felt good pretty much immediately after Landon's vaginal delivery, while the c-section sends you a bit deeper down the recovery valley at first. You've had abdominal surgery, the gas pain is worse than the incision pain, you need help getting out of bed- transitioning from sitting to standing is hard and a bit overwhelming, and the nurse's directive to start walking within 24 hours of surgery seems even more so. But I knew from Claire, and I learned again with Cora, everything gets better if you get up and move around. At least once you have the right pain medicine. Once I got off the hydrocodone and on Percocet about 24 hours after surgery, I was back up the upward trajectory (insider tip: you should not feel awful after your epidural or IV is taken out, pain pills can be very effective- if you're dizzy, faint, and in extreme pain when you try to stand up, you're on the wrong medicine; I don't think I would have realized that if I hadn't remembered how much better I felt after having Claire). With the pain pill thing settled, I went home pretty much exactly 48 hours after surgery and felt really good. I moved around slowly and got out of bed and out of chairs even slower (and JP had to help me put on socks, I remember that because my feet were freezing until I tracked him down in the kitchen to do it our first morning home), but I didn't hurt. I could hold and care for Cora, as long as someone was around to pass her to when I needed to transition from standing up or sitting down. That's another thing with a c-section- you're going to need more help. Or even if you don't need it, asking for and using any help offered will help your recovery immensely. I found the recovery slope to rise swiftly- each day was a huge improvement from the one before. My parents left 4 days after Cora was born and while that seemed too soon on day 2 and even day 3 post-surgery, it turned out to be fine. By day 5 I was moving around well (clearly, I ran 3 errands and went out to lunch with my mom that morning) and of course, I still had JP (who was particularly helpful in doing 100% of the care for the bigger children and holding Cora and my hand every time I needed to get out of a chair). Also, coughing, sneezing, or laughing for the first 10 days or so after a c-section is terrifying (sort of like going to the bathroom after a vaginal delivery), but rest assured, none of those things will actually cause your stitches to burst. So, deeper valley (not that vaginal delivery recovery wasn't still a valley; I remember wincing every time I sat down, so kind of the opposite of the post-c-section slow transition to standing up, but other than some tenderness, the way I felt 48 hours post-Landon probably took me 7 or so days to reach post-Claire or Cora), but noticeable improvement every day.

One other thing my co-worker asked about was packing for the hospital. With Landon's surprise birth, I only had what was in my purse and the few electronic items (camera!) I sent JP home to fetch after my water broke downtown. With Claire, I got to plan, but wasn't sure what I'd want to wear post-c-section. So with Cora, I should have been all set, but I couldn't really remember what I felt like immediately post-Claire (thus the memorializing of this post, not that it will help me again) and still wasn't sure what to pack so I threw a bunch of things in a bag to figure out there. Here's what worked for me:

A small bag (we used a backpack) with camera, phone chargers, chap stick, and JP's Economist magazines for him to bring in to the hospital for the surgery, and then a larger bag for all the clothes and toiletries to stay in the car until we were in our real room. In the bigger bag:
- fuzzy socks: preferably with grippers, or a pair of slippers; as mentioned above, you'll be walking around as part of your recovery
- nursing tanks: I like the $15 ones from Target, but there's a whole array of fancier ones to choose from too. I liked wearing these in lieu of a bra because they're soft and comfortable, provided some support for my tummy, and I liked the coverage when unsnapping my gown or sleep shirt to nurse or have my incision checked. Even if I had no intention of breastfeeding, I'd want a few tanks in my bag
- wrap top open sweater, or other cozy thing that is easy to take off and on when cold while sitting
- loose pants: I didn't even wear pants until day 2- the blankets in bed covered my legs just fine and I wore my hospital gown on my first walk (a robe might be nice, but I only own a giant bright red terry cloth one and that was decidedly not coming to the hospital). For pants, I found a lower waist band that was fairly loose and just rested on my bandaging worked well- at first, a higher waist seemed like the answer, but I found with Claire that I didn't like anything pressing on my stomach, and the incision area was actually too numb to be tender, so it worked best for me to have something that lightly rested right about there.
- PJ set: this was a gift to myself this time around and I loved it- loose pants, a nursing tank, and a short robe-like wrap top- perfect to wear while sitting. I got my set from Motherhood (like this, but my set was navy blue and I got another one that was light grey with a polka dotted tank). This is basically all I wore in the hospital and it's what I ended up wearing home too
- chap stick!: my lips get so dry in the hospital, this was the first thing I asked JP to dig out of the backpack and put on my hospital tray table
- face wipes : I loved having these for the first night when I wasn't ready to take a shower but wanted to feel like I did)
- toiletries: toothbrush, toothpaste, lotion, etc. basically whatever you'd pack for a weekend away (and everyone is different, but I loved having my blow dryer, straightener, light makeup etc.- maybe you won't want to mess with it, but I did and it made me feel 300% more human to do so)
- baby clothes: maybe the most important thing, if your baby isn't in the NICU, you get to change their clothes! (We didn't know that until we had Claire.)
- electronics: I loved having my laptop with me, it connected me to the outside world on my own terms (sharing pictures, sending emails, etc.) and I loved being able to go through my pictures right away. I brought my kindle but never touched it- we were in the hospital for such a short amount of time that pictures and a few blog posts were as much entertainment as I needed. You'll also want all your chargers, etc.
- snacks: I've had friends say they were starving right after having a baby. I wasn't with any of the three- actually, my appetite pretty much disappeared for 48 hours with each, but if we'd had snacks, it might have been nice to give the kids when they came to visit after school (they ate my jello instead). Oh, and with Cora they had me on a "light/mostly liquids" diet for the first 12 hours or so. They didn't do that with Claire, but it didn't really matter since I wasn't hungry anyway (just an FYI for other people who might want to smuggle in some crackers or something).

That's about it- really, it's just a weekend away. I never bothered with my own pillow or blankets (or underwear- embrace the mesh!), but if you're in the hospital for 3-5 days as you could be for a c-section, you may want them. This time around I basically wore the matching PJ set (top only for day 1, different top with pants on day 2, and then we were home), fuzzy socks, and chap stick. I played with my camera and laptop and held Cora. It was a pretty brief stay.

That's all I can think of on c-sections. Before I had Cora I went back and read all my June 2010 archives to try to remember what my recovery was like with Claire, but all I remembered was the wonder and joy of Claire and I worried I was glossing over the actual experience. But here I am 2 weeks out with Cora and I'm already mostly only remembering the wonder and joy of Cora. I do very clearly remember taking that first walk on the hydrocodone and feeling like I was going to faint and the ONLY things keeping me upright were my death grip on JP's arm and the knowledge that falling down and being caught by him would hurt my abdomen so badly that I refused to do it. But that was due to bad pain medicine, not the c-section, so I'm not sure it's fair to focus on. I took a walk 3 hours later on Percocet and made a whole loop around the nursery and nurse's station (slooooowly, but not painfully). Pain control is everything- take the drugs, beep your nurse for your next pill 5-10 minutes before you're due for it, and ask every nurse you have for advice on controlling the gas pains (it's hard to describe the gas pain if you haven't had abdominal surgery, it was far more pressing than anything from the incision and it can hurt all the way from the tips of your shoulder blades on down; it is bizarre and as important to control as any other pain). Each nurse had a different suggestion and I found them all helpful (a combo of milk of magnesia and Maalox was particularly helpful the second night).

Cora's birth is probably my happiest birth experience- it was the most clinical (for whatever reason the OR in Austin seemed warmer), but I got to have Cora on me, skin-to-skin, moments after she was born and she stayed there, cozied up on me for hours afterward. I have a hard time putting what that meant to me into words, to have here there, feeling her breathing up and down on my chest, and being able to look at her tiny face, but it was purely and incandescently wonderful. I couldn't stop smiling. I can't stop when I think about it now- it didn't matter that I didn't know the OB, that I was in a sterile OR, or that my body was being stitched back together a few inches south of Cora's warm body. My baby was with me and everything was wonderful. Vaginal or cesarean was irrelevant- that was the experience I wanted to have and I'm so thankful I finally got to have it the third time around.

Housebound

Hi there. I have 5 minutes before I need to pull the chicken from the oven, so let's see where this goes.

 

We've been hunkered down, riding out a cold front that blew through on Friday. The picture above is from our lovely walk on Thursday, pretty much the last time Cora or I left the house- it went from 75 degrees to 30 degrees in the course of an evening and now Cora wears hats indoors and my skin is drying out from the heat blasting all the time.

 

Other than modeling the finest in knit hate couture, Cora has spent the vast majority of her time being held by the various members of her family. Like pretty much all her time. It's the benefit of being #3.

 

 

It's been cozy, having everyone buttoned in together. There's been board games (I adore board games; our bursting board game closet is one of my last lines of defense in staving off any and all electronic entertainment for my children, something Kindergarten is probably going to ruin for me soon- the other day Landon asked me what an iPad was and wanted to know why we didn't have one). There's been reading (Landon's new favorite thing is to read his beginner books to Cora; in fact, he won't read unless she is able to listen too. I've assured him she can hear in her sleep). There's been cooking and baking (braised pork ragu! pumpkin bread!). Napping, coloring, tickling. A few timeouts for Claire and one mandatory "I don't care if you actually fall asleep but you're going to lay in your bed for 90 minutes" for Landon sprinkled in the mix. Cora's behavior has been perfect- sometimes I think that with Landon's infancy we survived, with Claire we learned to enjoy, and with Cora we're simply savoring. Even at 4:45 this morning, while I rocked her back to sleep after eating, her tiny little hand gripped my fingers and I kept kissing her fuzzy head and I just savored. I think we all are.

 

I'm now drinking a glass of wine while dinner cooks and I wait for JP and Claire to come home from the pool/school (oh! just saw the lights come up the driveway). Landon is setting up Monopoly Jr. to play after dinner. I packed up my maternity clothes to be given away yesterday, which was a little sad, but as I sip my wine and watch Cora sleep in her papasan chair and listen to Landon explain the concept of Monopoly Jr jail to Claire ("No Yandon, I am not in jail, I am still playing this game!") and know that JP is cleaning bottles and dealing with the chicken, I just feel peaceful. Despite our constant (constant) debating, dismissing, and then always circling back to the idea of a #3, I didn't know how much we wanted her until her possibility became a reality. I worried so much about expense and our resources of time and attention and going back to diapers and bottles and midnight feedings, and yet, here she is, and it's fine and perfect and lovely. And it'll be hard too, and expensive (daycare round 3 begins in February!), and I'm sure we'll have some resource issues, but she's here and now that we've met her, all of that stuff seems so incidental. I knew, of course, that I would love any child we had, but I didn't quite realize that I would spend about 12 hours a day holding our new baby and thinking over and over again, "I'm so happy you're here."

Thursday Thursday

This is how Cora and I spend a good portion of our time:

quick baby selfie

It is delightful. In between long bouts of snuggling and a lot of watching of The West Wing, HGTV, and the Food Network, we've managed to do a few other things as well. On Monday, we had family and newborn portraits!

 

The kids mostly cooperated, and I put the mesh panties behind me and embraced skinny (maternity) jeans and a silk top- for a few hours anyway. Cora was quite the model- wide eyed and alert for the family pictures and then milk drunk and curled into a little ball for the rest. I can't wait to see the proofs.

On Tuesday all five of us piled in the Highlander for the first time. All three kids fit across the middle row, so it was a relief to know it was still possible to transport them if we needed to have something like Thanksgiving luggage in the back. Sure they were all touching, but they get along well and Cora was in the middle to mediate if needed. We dropped the kids off at school and then took Cora to her second weight check appointment at the pediatrician.

 

And we're proud to say this little peanut is up to 7 lbs. 8 oz. and a whole 20.5" long! Gold stars all around. We then took her on her first trip to Target (we needed a storage bin for my maternity clothes and I couldn't trust JP to that kind of decision on his own- I have strong feelings about storage and organization). Later Claire came home and we ladies went on a walk around the neighborhood. Or two streets of it anyway. Claire brought her baby and purse along for the stroll.

 

Then we had some stretch time. Cora spends an amazing amount of time wide awake and stretched out. She particularly likes to exercise when she's color-coordinated.

 

I made dinner (well, reheated the lasagna my mom made while she was here) with the kids and then JP came home just as I got everything served and we ate a meal with all five of us at the table, though for now, Cora hangs out in a lap rather than her own big chair.

 

Then there were bedtime stories and snuggles.

 

Yesterday involved PJ pants all day, a visit from some of my favorite coworkers for lunch, and quite a lot more snuggling. JP had a late lesson, so I had my first 3 kid, baby hungry, dinner making extravaganza! I stuck Cora in her car seat and occasionally kicked it to make it rock while I steamed veggies and cooked frozen fish fillets. Landon was his usual helpful self- feeding Tex, bringing in the trash cans from the street, etc. Claire was technically willing to be helpful, but needed too much direction to bother. It was a taste of the chaos to come, but I got to direct it while sipping white wine and at 7:05 we all sat down to dinner together. Then there were more stories and snuggles and bedtimes.

 

It's funny, when we had one kid, it seemed like JP and I would never eat dinner together again. Then he got older and we managed. Then we had Claire and she just fit right in to the routine where dinner together was an unquestioned part of the evening, and now we're scooping Cora in to a pattern that would have seemed impossible with just a Landon. Of course it helps that the older kids get older and easier and more helpful, and it helps even more when a Trader Joe's with all its tasty frozen entrees opens up down the street.

 

All in all, I'd say things are quite lovely. I feel great- my dressing is removed, my incision scar looks thin and pale and I have to constantly remind myself not to pick up heavy objects because it's only been 8 days. JP does all the nighttime feedings, because he is awesome and it helps me heal, and then I do all the Cora care during the day while the kids are in school and he is coaching. He sent me flowers yesterday, because I adore them and I gave him a baby.

 

Cora's tiny hand is resting under her tiny cheek on my chest as I type. Things are really quite lovely.