Sunday, August 19, 2012

Our Sweet Little Baby

A couple weeks ago we welcomed our third child (still cannot believe it!) into the world.

She came 12 days early.  I do think I was a little further along though, since my due date was a little uncertain.  We named her after my Grandma Belnap's side of the family.  I love my grandmother so much and she is such an inspiration to me and Robert.

She had some breathing problems in the beginning and so she was sent to the NICU.  She got a little sick.  They then put her on an antibiotic which she had to take through an IV for seven days.  I ended up getting a fever as well and was put on antibiotics too.  They believe I got sick right before I had her, but didn't know it yet.  I ended up staying in the hospital for a couple extra days.  And so did the baby.  I ended up going home three days before she did.  That was really hard.  It was so hard to have to leave the hospital with her still there.  She was in the NICU the whole time, and wasn't allowed to come in my room.  I was allowed to visit her all I wanted, but it was still hard because our other two children could only see her a couple times and other visitors had to go with Robert or me.  Since she was early, we didn't have a lot of things ready for when she came home, so at least we were able to get that done before she came home.  It was still hard, but thankfully the kids understood and our baby was safe.  I am so grateful for the doctors at the University of Utah Hospital.  It means everything when you have doctors and nurses that you can trust and feel very comfortable with!

Oh and yes we do now have a red head child, blonde child, and brown haired child.  :-)

Here are a bunch of pictures of our little sweetheart and our family:




In the NICU at first...the IV's stay better when in a baby's scalp... but so sad! 


The traditional newborn hair do by Daddy :-)




She lost some hair when the scalp IV's came out :-( 


LOVE the baby's expression!





They are all such good helpers! 




Newest family picture!



My Dad


She kept smiling and I tried for about 10 minutes to get a good shot!  But this is all I got! Still cute :-)



No more IV's!!!


Doing her car seat test... they had to make sure she'd be ok driving home... standard NICU "baby's being discharged" test


Getting her heart and oxygen sensors off!


All ready to go home!





He thought she needed a hat :-) 







Robert had to hold them still... they were so excited to go Seven Peaks!


So beautiful!

I am horrible remembering to write in my journal or update this blog.  I WANT to update it at least every week but I always forget or something else comes up to distract me from doing it.

A couple months ago we had a lesson in church about the importance of keeping a journal.  Someone made a comment that even if you do it once a year, the things you write down then are precious and will be treasured by future generations.  I know that I would love to read some of my great grandparent's journal entries.  And that even if they only wrote a little but I would love hearing about their life.  I didn't get to know them and so it would mean a lot to me.  I love talking with my grandparents and learning about their life.  So I will continue to try to write more.  But as much as I will try, if I don't do it consistently, at least I am doing SOMETHING.  

Here is a quick update on our life the last few months:

Robert finished his semester a couple weeks early.  We planned it that way so that he could help me with getting things ready for the baby.  He would come home from work, eat, work on school, and go to bed.  He did this for a couple weeks.  No it was not fun.  It was really hard on the kids and myself but we would take time to do fun things and made the time we had with Daddy count.  It definitely makes you appreciate the time you have together!  Robert also did a 5k for our son's new school.  It was a fun fundraiser the school did and turned out really good for the first year of them doing it!  I was really impressed and am really excited for our son to be involved in a school that puts a lot of time and energy into making fundraising fun and not just a boring or usual fundraiser.  Robert continues to run, at least once a week.  

I was busy taking care of two little children and being pregnant with a third.  I still cannot believe that we have three children.  I joked with Robert that I finally felt like a "real" mom when we bought a van and it had a sunglasses holder up top.  (I don't know why but for some reason having that was a turning point.)  I have been making and selling various items (bibs, burp cloths, car seat covers, cloth towel rolls, kitchen towels, etc) and it has been fun.  I enjoy it a lot.  It is a nice "me time" activity that I do.  I love everything having to do with business and so it is a fun hobby that my husband has been so sweet to encourage me in.  I have also been taking organ lessons from my Grandpa Belnap.  He is an AMAZING organist that taught at BYU for many years.  And did a million other things too... let's just say many of the Mormon Tabernacle Organists were taught by him.

Which reminds me:  We were at my grandparents house one day for my lesson.  Robert comes and watches the kids while I do my lesson and gets to talk with my grandma and learn all about her life and stories of her (yes I get a little jealous). :-)  Their fridge has many pictures of family and friends.  My grandma was pointing to the pictures and my son was telling her who they were.  Then he randomly said, "And that's Brooklyn!"  Long story short, my grandparent's are friends with someone who's daughter and granddaughter was in my son's preschool class.  Brooklyn's grandparents lived back east and came out for my parent's wedding.  They ended up moving here to Utah because of my grandparents. Crazy.  My grandparent's know everyone.  Not kidding.  

Our son finished up preschool.  Yes I cried the last morning I dropped him off.  I could not believe how fast the year went by.  Then I started thinking about how fast the next years of school would go and that pretty soon he'd be graduating high school.  Time just goes by so fast.  My Grandma Belnap is always telling me that it goes by so fast and to enjoy the moment.  It is definitely hard sometimes, but I am learning to appreciate the messes and the bazillion questions and everything else a little more.  I keep looking at our son and thinking how big he is getting.  He did just have a growth spurt and is looking more and more like a young boy, not a young toddler.  He is so smart and I am so incredibly proud of him!   When he isn't tackling people he is the sweetest little boy.  I am so glad he is mine!

Our daughter is becoming more and more independent.  She wants to do everything on her own and on her time table.  She is definitely strong willed!  But like her brother, she is the sweetest little child.  She will give me a hug if I'm feeling sad and say "It's ok sweetie.  It's ok."  So precious.  She also wants to go to school.  She keeps asking to go to her school.  I think we will end up putting her in a 3 year old program.  She is very eager to learn!  

I am so incredibly blessed to have them as my children.

As for our third child, I'll leave that for the next post. :-) 


Absolutely LOVE the smile on my daughter's face!
(Don't mind the boxes or large roll of carpet- we were reorganizing the basement and I had bought some new carpet at a yard sale for the unfinished basement.)




Our son's birthday cake.  I think he really liked it because he requested it for next year's birthday as well :-)