3 little Ducks went swimming one day....

3 little Ducks went swimming one day,

Over the river and far away,

Mother Duck said "quack, quack, quack, quack"

4 little Ducks came swimming back!

Life always happens between posts, but this has been an exceptionally exciting 3 weeksish! In the time since my last post Paddle has arrived! We have a new bouncing baby boy and we are all loving him so much. Here's the story of his arrival:

Wednesday, August 18

2:15 a.m. I wake up to a contraction. I went to the bathroom, then started timing. They were about 7 minutes apart. I stayed in bed, watching the clock for an hour. They continued, so I got up to get some water. I was hoping to let Albert sleep as long as possible, I know how intense these things become. When I left to get water, he thought one of the boys were sneaking into our room, so he came to check on me. (We are both very jumpy over contractions since our last two came so quickly.) I told him that I was having contractions every 7 minutes for the last hour. He told me to call my mom and we started getting ready for the hospital. I'm not sure what time we got to the hospital, but everything was starting to settle down. By the time the nurse checked me, I knew I wasn't in "real" labor. We were both a little disappointed. Our last three arrivals have come after little to no sleep, we were so excited to have had almost a full nights rest before labor began! The nurses told us to walk the halls until my mid-wife came to do her rounds. Upon her arrival it was official that I was not in labor and I could cancel my appointment for later that morning. Albert and I squeezed in a quick trip to P@nera for breakfast, then headed home. We enjoyed the hours to just be together, walk and talk, but we were both a little disappointed.

9:00 Albert heads in to work and my mom goes to work, nothing has changed.

Nap time: I have a couple of noticeable contractions.

4:00-5:00 While talking to L on the phone, I have a couple of sharp contractions that I have to stop talking for. Albert called at 5:00 to say he was on his way home. I was wanting him to come home, it was perfect timing. I loaded the littles up and we walked down the street once, then back to the house. I had a few strong contractions while we were walking. Albert got home at 5:30 and instantly knew I was in labor. My mom came over again and by 6:30 we were on our way to the hospital. My contractions were about 5 minutes apart. On the way into the Emergency Room, I stopped to get through a contractions and a lady walking by shouted, "Congratulations" then I heard laughing. I'm still not totally sure what that was about, but it was distracting and I would recommend any readers to do that if they see a woman in labor!

7:00ish I was checked into another labor room. All of the nurses were still there from when we left in the morning. I had a terrible time getting comfortable and this time when I was checked I was 6-7 cm dilated. Much better than the 1 I received earlier that morning. I moved to the labor tub and was able to feel some relief. My nurse was great. She suggested a variety of things to try to relieve pain and just helped me labor. This was a first for me and such a blessing! I stayed in the tub for 30 minutes or so, then started feeling the urge to push. I was complete when I got out. I would guess it was about 8:30 by now.

Once I was out of the tub and checked, I asked J to break my water. My back was killing me. The contractions were manageable, but my back pain was so great. Paddle's head was turned sideways, so with every contraction he was pushing on my tailbone. It felt like I could feel my tailbone going out and in with each push. This is not an incentive to push! At one point I asked "How are we going to get this baby out?" I really just wanted someone to pull him out. I was ready to be done. Praise the Lord, I pushed with two to three contractions and Paddle was born. Albert said, "It's a boy." J said, "Well, he surprised all of us!" J, the baby nurse and I all thought it was a girl. What a blessing to have another little boy!

Paddle weighed in at 7 lbs 3 oz and was 18 3/4 in. long. He swallowed a bit of fluid during birth, but cleared it all out within about 30 minutes.

Widdle, Waddle and Piddle love Paddle very much. They have all adjusted beautifully and I really could not ask for a better adjustment on their part to a new little Duck. Widdle can't stop talking about how cute Paddle is. He and Waddle argue over who gets to hold him. Piddle is often begging for a turn with her baby brother.

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Widdle has also has some excitement in his life as he turned 4 on the 19th. In some ways I cannot believe he is 4 years old and in other ways he seems to be so grown up. He just looks like a little boy these days. His birth story is quite different from his baby brother's, but a miracle guided by the Lord nonetheless. It is just amazing to me how the birth of each child has revealed so much to me about the character and provision of the Lord. It is so easy to get caught up in the daily craziness of having many littles and forget what a gift and miracle each of their lives are.

I feel so much love for my littles these days. I hope to remember each snuggle, each hug, each kiss, each beg for holding their brother, every little thing. I know this time will go by quickly and my arms will long to hold them, so for now we are treasuring the moments and trying to slow them down.

Nick Name

I just told Widdle that I was going through all of the old post and changing his name to a nick name. He whimpered and said, "I don't want my name to be Nick, I want it to be 'Widdle'." Ha, that boy keeps me laughing!

The gang's all here

While I was cooking dinner and talking on the phone tonight, Widdle entertained himself. I am still in shock. He and Waddle usually stand within 3 inches of me every moment that I am in the kitchen. When dinner was just about done, Widdle came in and asked Waddle to come and see what he made. To my surprise he built this "house".The green pillow and the one underneath is are tool boxes and the smaller pillow on the right is the door to the house. On the left side of the toolbox is the back yard. He was very proud of this creation and I was quite impressed myself!
After all of the birthday pics I had to try a picture of my trio. I haven't tried one in a while and none of my previous attempts turned out very well. I got this picture in one shot! Maybe they each need a little something to play with in order for them to look at the camera, but I am glad all of their eyes are looking in the right direction. Don't they look like fun? I sure do love these little ones.

Someone turned 3 around here

Having a three year old in the house is a little crazy. I can hardly believe that it was nearly four years ago that I found out I was pregnant. While I was changing Widdle's age ticker over I nearly cried at the idea of him being on his way to four, so I decided that I just think of him as just turning 3 for as long as I can!

Widdle is such a sweet boy and brings so much love, joy and laughter to our home. He always has a song to sing and rarely knows all of the words. (just like his mama) Some of his favorite things these days are jumping on the bed, eating lollipops, riding his bike or tricycle, wrestling his daddy, playing peek-a-boo with Piddle, tickling Waddle and Piddle, helping me cook.

Upon turning three, Widdle has picked up some new responsibilities around the house. He now puts all of the utensils away, brings me and helps empty the small trash cans, sets the table, wipes off the table, puts his clothes away, "makes" his bed and sounds the "poop" alarm in the back yard. He is working hard and playing hard. Just the way a boy should be!

I'll have to tell you about this cake another time. Ugh!

Eye Surgery

Widdle had Strabismus surgery yesterday. (I finally learned the word!) We have noticed his eyes alternating drifting out for a while. I have taken him to several doctor's appointments, we patched his eyes for a couple of months and the drifting and heavy blinking picked up greatly over the last several weeks. With the move coming up and Widdle getting older, we felt we should go ahead with the surgery. Albert's mom came in to watch the littles and Albert and I took Widdle to the surgery. I don't know what we would have done without Granny being her. She is such a huge blessing. When we first got to the surgery center everyone was pretty relaxed. Widdle was excited to see Dr. T. He always gets to play a lot of games with him. He had no idea what was really coming. We talked to him about the surgery a little, but he is too young to understand "they are going to cut the muscle off of your eye and move it back a little. This will help your eyes." While we did tell him that, he just couldn't be expected to really get it, so he was happy to be there. There was another little boy in the waiting room waiting for his brother. This gave Widdle a little playmate while we waited. When his name was called, Widdle chased the nurse back to the pre-op room. He was a great sport through all of the pre-op procedures. The nurse told him that his temperature and heart rate were perfect. He enjoyed wearing the silly gown and the grippy socks. He sat in Albert's lap for all of the little tests and my stomach twisted. I just didn't really know what was coming. Dr. T came in and gave us an idea of what to expect and how to care for him after the surgery. The anesthesiologist came in and briefly told us what would happen. Then a sweet nurse let Widdle ride in a wagon and off he went.

I said "I love you" about ten times and teared up. I am still thankful that I did not break down into tears as they pulled him away...... that came later. The whole time we were sitting in pre-op I questioned if it was too late to cancel the surgery. Was this really what he needed? Along with every other question imaginable flooded my mind. As soon as they took him back we went out to the waiting room. Albert went to get breakfast and I read a bit. I felt OK. Once Albert got back I checked the time and started getting anxious. About 15 or 20 min. later the nurse called us into the consultation room and we waited for the doctor. Dr. T came in and said Widdle did great. He hoped right up on the table and played all of their games, got a little nervous as he drifted off to sleep, but it went well. Everything looked as he expected and our little guy should be waking up soon. Now, he might be angry and if he is they will call you back quickly.

They called us back quick. I was certain that our little guy would be laid back and groggy. Boy was I wrong! This was the beginning of the worst part for me. I did not have a clear picture of what "angry" looked like on my little boy until I saw the nurse restraining his arms and him screaming his desire to rub his eyes. Even we could not settle him. Albert held him and held one arm down while I held the other arm and tried to sooth him. I felt terribly helpless. Widdle screamed and cried and begged me to let him rub his eyes. He didn't want anything to touch him and he really only wanted his daddy. He held his eyes shut tight. I cried, he cried, we were a mess. After two doses of morphine Widdle calmed down a bit. Just enough that the nurse felt that getting him home was our best option. She took the IV out....... that was bad, then took us over to another area. I offered Widdle some apple juice and crackers. He held one cracker for a couple of hours and ate another cracker. Once he calmed down enough to drink the apple juice, he sucked it down. By now it was about 11:00 a.m. He had not had anything to drink or eat since 8:00 p.m. the night before. After 5 or 10 minutes we left. Albert rode in the back to keep Widdle from rubbing his eyes. He only tried to open his eyes a couple of times. This seemed to only frustrate him more. He rested to rest of the day and had a couple of fits of discomfort. Albert went to T@rget to pick up a couple of things. We gave Widdle acetaminophen and ibuprofen all afternoon and evening. It seemed we were able to keep the pain and discomfort under control. Widdle slept on the couch and Albert slept on the floor beside the couch.

This morning we had a different child in our home. He woke up happy and was able to see a lot better. He was not so sensitive to the light. He ate breakfast and wanted to play. My heart took a deep breath and we enjoyed the morning. We all went to the post-op appointment and Dr. T said our little man looked great. He has a slight over correction, but hopefully this will even out over the next 4 weeks. We have another appointment then and hopefully we will only need re-checks every 6 months or so after that.

I am so thankful that my God knows how things will go long before they happen. He knew long before Widdle was born that he would undergo this surgery. He also knew long, long ago, way before I was a mother, that I would question every decision I made for my children. He gave me the greatest gift of my Savior, Jesus Christ and the peace and comfort that can only comes from Him. God has also blessed me with an amazing husband who has learned how to take the reins when I need help the most. What an amazing God we serve.