The big debate....

I was having this big debate with myself trying to decided if I was done blogging or should I continue. Well as you can see I have decided to keep going. I really enjoy looking back on the past years and the older post to see the kids when they were little and some of the things that we have gone through and done over the years. Plus I didn't think it would be fair to Brooke if I quit. I don't want her to see this and noticed how it stopped after she came. So I will be knuckling down and trying to post on a weekly basis. (I hope)

So this post has the pictures that we had taken at the beginning of the summer. I love the lady I found and she did a great job. I got over 400 pictures on CD's to have....which is what I wanted but it is a blessing and a curse. I have always wanted to be able to get all the pictures taken during our photo shoots because there could be pictures that I like but the photographer didn't so I never get to see them. Well now that I got them all it takes a lot of time to go through them and sort the ones I do like. We are really pleased with what we got and now I just have to get them up in my house.....a project for another day. Enjoy!!!

So this is our finished backyard!! It is nothing special but it is done. We did the basic grass and rock but next year we are going to work on an outdoor living space.

This is proof that Paul and I (plus a couple of friends) actually did yard work we hate doing it so that is why our yard is simple and easy to maintain.

This is the before pictures except we already did the rock two weekends before. So overall it took 3 days to transform our yard. 2 days for the rock and 1 day for the grass. I am thankful for our friends that helped and I am glad it is over.

My sleeping baby

Brooke is such a good sleeper she can fall asleep anywhere unfortunately she like to take a lot of 15 min cat naps. This week I have increased how much I am feeding Brooke at each feeding and it seems to help a little. She is finally starting to take longer naps in the afternoon. That means I have a little of free time to clean the house.....or go shopping....that is a tough choice.

Easter

Grandpa got to spend some quality time with Brooke while we did the Easter egg hunt. She loves to talk with anyone who will take the time to talk to her. It takes her a min to warm up but then she will talk forever.

I love how I don't have to put the girls in sweaters with their Easter dresses. It is warm enough that it is an option but I don't have to.

Natalie was a little irritated that I made her wear a dress. As you can see she tried do the best she could in it. After the egg hunt she asked if she could take it off.

Grandpa and Sherry came over for Easter and Amos and Michelle came later for the meal. So it was a small get together that we didn't actually plan on and we just threw it together the day before but it turned out well.

These are the finished egg. We went simple but the girls loved the glitter they got to coat them in.

Yes that is my family all in their pj's. We were really busy that week and everything kind of got pushed to the last min. We woke up Easter morning and before their shower we quickly decorated eggs. Easter was fun and very low key which is good for me because time seems to be flying by lately and I am doing so many things last min.

My sweet babies

Natalie and Katelyn are true sisters through and through. The play really way together one min and the next someone is crying and they refuse to play together for a whole 2 mins. Then they forget what they were fighting about and are playing again. They make me laugh! Katelyn is enjoying her own time with Brooke when Natalie is at school. The new car smell so to speak is starting to wear off Brooke and the girls don't feel then need to be in her face all the time. This is a great weight off my shoulders because there for a little while Nat and Kate were doing all kinds of things to Brooke just to see what would happen or her reaction. It was hard for me to even take a shower and leave the girls in the same room with Brooke and not worry they were going to hurt her on accident. Now Nat and Kate have turned into quite the little helpers. We still have a few moments of bad judgment calls on the girl's part but they are definitely getting better.

My sweet baby is growing like a weed. She loves to lay on her back. She will lay on the floor for hours if someone is just sitting next to her. Her favorite toy right now is her floor mat. She loves the mirror and the music on it. She also enjoys being naked and taking baths. After her bath when I am getting her dressed she screams like no one's business. It even takes us a few mins to actually calm her down. She smiles a lot and really is a content baby most of the time.

Brooke's hair is out of control! A lot of people said that I should be ready for that hair to fall out but so far it isn't going anywhere. After a bath it has a little curl to it and then it turns pin straight when it dries. She is such a cute little nugget...well not so little. I got to hold a 5 pound baby the other night and she was about a month old. She felt like air compared to Brooke. Brooke is almost 13 pounds now at two months so no surprise that we are off the charts again. I think they need to make new charts. (haha)

Isn't she beautiful......

Who do I look like?

My cousin Emily posted on her blog pictures of her babies about the same age and it is almost hard to tell them apart. Even though they are a girl and a boy they really do look a lot a like. So I was curious about my kids and what they look like. Well I have posted the following pictures and they aren't the same age because unfortunately we lost a lot of pictures from a computer crash so Natalie and Kate are six to eight months old. I think you can tell they are sisters but they have their own look about them. I can't wait to see what they look like when they get older.

Minds of their own

We were walking through Target looking for some summer shoes and Natalie and I had the following conversation: Me: Oh Nat look at these shoes they are really cute. Natalie: No mom I don't want those. Me: but they will be really cute with your clothes Natalie: MOM...I won't wear them. At least I have one that I can still dress the way that I want and I mean Brooke. Katelyn didn't want the shoes I picked out for her either. Nat ended up with sparkly blue flip flops and Kate got rainbow sparkly flip flops. Not my first choice but they got to pick out what they wanted. This year I get to go school shopping with Natalie and Katelyn.....I wonder how that is going to go. Natalie already informed me that she currently doesn't have any cute clothes and Kate told me yesterday that she doesn't want to wear any of Natalie's old clothes. Kate saw that Nat has holes in some of her jeans from playing in them and I had to reassure her that I wouldn't make her wear clothes with holes in them and we will buy her new jeans. My kids are growing up way to fast.

Girl time

The girls love their sister so much that it drives me crazy on a daily basis. I have been trying to get across to Natalie and Kate that they need to leave Brooke alone sometimes and don't touch her face so much. This has turned out to be an everyday conversation that I have to have with them. Granted they are great helpers and they think Brooke is so cute but sometimes it is overwhelming for me. One of the benefits of having Natalie and Kate close together in age was that Natalie could have cared less about Kate being around.

This is Brooke at 5 weeks. She is going up so fast and she doesn't even look like she did in the hospital in my opinion. She will have blue eyes or maybe a hazel. Natalie has ice blue and Katelyn has brown so I think it is great that all of my kids will have different color eyes. I thought for sure with Paul and I both having brown eyes that all of our kids would have brown but I guess you never know. So far the feedback that I have gotten is that Brooke looks like Paul's sisters. So Natalie looks like me, Kate looks like Paul and Brooke looks like the Martin women. I say we will see.....looks can change from when they are so little.

Katelyn was all in our business when I was trying to get Brooke to sleep so I gave her the camera and this one didn't turn out that bad. I love how pale I look I think this was a week after my last blood transfusion so I was still trying to replenish my blood supply.

With the girls needing some attention I have let them take a few extra bubble baths in my bath and played princess music for them to listen and sing to. Now it is all the ask for when I say it is time to take a shower.

Brooke loves to smile and has done so since the she was about a week old. The only thing she has to be sleeping or just waking up. She just started smiling last week when I talk to her. What a cutie pie. I am so lucky to have three beautiful girls and be able to watch them grow up.

This is the girls helping again. About two seconds later they were in the grass then the girls ran off and left Brooke there. I can tell that it is going to be a hard couple of years for Brooke.

Overall Brooke is an easy baby. She is a good sleeper and will do 7 to 8 hour straight most nights. The only drawback from that is that she won't take a long nap during the day so my house has pretty much taken a backseat. Unless I can get it done in 15 mins it doesn't get done until the weekend when Paul can watch the girls. Brooke is starting to coo and try and talk with me which I love. I know that this is a stupid thing to forget but after not having a baby for awhile I forgot how much of your time is spent holding them when they are this little. I am really enjoying staying home and watching all three of my kids grow.

This is just one of the many funny conversations I have on a daily basis: (I was changing Brooke's clothes)

Kate: Whoa Brooke is fat!

Me: Hey your fat (just kidding and laughing as I say it so I didn't say it to be mean)

Kate: Not as fat as Brooke!

little miss

I was going through old pictures and came across the ones from last summer. I just have to say that is miss this little nugget!! I love how when I talk to her mom on the phone at any random moment I hear her yelling hi in the background and won't stop until I say hi. I can't wait until Brody will talk to me on the phone.

Meet Brooke Jenna Martin

Brooke is such a mellow baby. She is already sleeping 6 hrs straight some nights.

I just love her!!! She is also starting to just get fat. I love plump babies and I know she was big to start but the rolls just keep coming now.

Brooke with Grandpa and Grandma Sherry. We have had a lot of family to come and see her....now that we live close.

Emily took this picture and I love it. Of course it took 15 pictures to get one picture of all of them looking the same way. We are also working on understanding that Brooke needs some space sometimes. They just love her some much.

Brooke shortly after she was born on 2/23/11.

Birth Story

This is my third kid and my birth story is nothing like the other two. We moved during the middle of my pregnancy and I found a doctor but after the first couple of visit I knew that he was not going to be my doctor after this pregnancy. It started with my doctor telling me that I was to be induced on Sunday night but the hospital was running behind and it may not be till Monday morning. I was hoping for Monday morning because my cousin Emily was to fly in on Sunday night and I wanted everything to go smoothly and not have to worry that I might be in the hospital when she got in. Well the hospital was a little further behind then we thought so I didn't get induced until Tuesday night. My husband went home that night to get some sleep knowing the next day was going to be a long one so Emily came to the hospital and walked the halls with me. When the contractions got bad enough I got my epidural and tried to get some sleep. The next morning I was only dilated to a 4 so things were going really slow. Everything was progressing but just really slowly. At about a quarter to 5 pm I started pushing and everything was still normal until the baby got stuck. The next thing I know there are 7 nurses in the room now and three of them are jumping up on the bed with me and pushing on my stomach. After a few tense moments the baby came loose and was out but she wasn't crying. They needed to get the baby to the nurses fast so Paul was unable to cut the cord. It was probably a few mins before I heard Brooke's first cries and I felt a sense of relief. After they were done cleaning her up they weighed her and she was 11 lbs 0.5 oz. I knew she was big but I didn't think that big. Believe me when I say there was talk that night among the nurses about the big baby. After the delivery I was OK for about an hour and then the 23 hours of labor started to affect me. I hadn't eaten or got much sleep in the last 24 hours so I started almost having delusions. I was saying odd random things and not really aware of what was going on around me. So I got some food and a couple hours of sleep and I was myself again. my cousin Emily and husband Paul have some good stories of the stupid things I was saying. After I was normal again Emily took my kids home and Paul and I just hung out at the hospital. I told Paul to go home and get some sleep and Emily came back to the hospital to sit with me for awhile and hold Brooke. When Emily got to the hospital I had about a good hour and then I started having pain in my stomach and back. I was given oxycodone which is pretty normal after having a kid and told I could only have them every four hours. I waited about 15 mins and the pain was getting worse and the medicine did nothing to help. I tried to suck it up and just get through it because I thought it was because Brooke was so big. A little while later I couldn't take the pain and I told the nurse. She called the doctor and he agreed to give me a narcotic to help with the pain. Now from here on out I will tell the story the best I can because I don't remember everything but people have told me stories of what happened. The nurse said that with the narcotic I shouldn't feel pain for about 3 hours. I was so high that when another nurse came in to take xrays of Brooke to make sure she didn't hurt her shoulder when she got stuck that I couldn't understand her. She had a accent and was explaining to me what they were going to do with Brooke and I turned to Emily and gave her a look of what the hell is she talking about. Another time I was looking at Emily and I said to her I know I am staring at you but I can't stop. I was really wasted. haha Then things took a turn for the worse the pain started coming back really strong and it wasn't time for pain meds yet but it was getting really bad that I started to cry. If you know me I am not a crier but the pain was so strong. The nurse called the doctor again and gave me another shot of the narcotic but that only took away the pain for about 30 mins and I was back to crying in pain again. My cousin started to get stressed out because we all had the feeling that something wasn't right but the nurses and doctor weren't talking to her and letting her know what was going on. She called Paul and told him that something is wrong and he needed to come back and she drove home to stay with the other kids. When Paul got to the hospital he came and checked on me and saw how much pain I was in. He then went to go find my nurse and find out what was going on. She told him that I was having a lot of pain but they didn't know why. Paul got mad and said OK well we have had two kids already and this is not normal so what are you going to do about it. The nurse didn't have any answers but said I can get the doctor if you want me too. Paul said yes get him down here. By this time it was 1 in the morning. When the doctor got there Paul confronted him and he really wasn't willing to do anything but give me more pain meds. Paul told him that is not working and you need to do something else. So the doctor said well I guess I can check for blood clots. Paul said well at least that is something so lets do it. The first blood clot he pulled out of me abdomen was a little smaller but about the size of a soccer ball. This blood clot was so big that it was blocking the other blood clots from getting out so they didn't know I was hemorrhaging. He continued to pull more blood clots out and doing this was extremely painful that by now I was screaming in pain. At that point the decision was made that I needed a D&C and I was off to the operating room. I got out of the operating room around 4 in the morning and by 6 am I was so weak that I could barely move. They determined at that point due to the amount of blood lose I needed blood transfusions. I received 2 units and I was starting to feel better. I was restricted to my bed so they could monitor my blood lose. The next morning they thought I was on the mend so I was able to get up and go to the bathroom. I made it to the toilet right before I passed out and had to be revived with smelling salt. That was one of the weirdest things I have gone through. It is hard to explain but the smelling salt is like a slap in the face. So I was confined to my bed again and they decided that I needed to more units of blood. When you get blood they give you a drug to help just in case you have a reaction to the blood but the medicine also makes you high. That early evening the bleeding had slowed so they thought I was healing and the hemorrhaging had stopped. Sometime during the middle of the night I started hemorrhaging again and the next morning I was back in the operating room. This time they scrapped my uterus and put a balloon in my uterus that would force it to start healing. I had to stay in the hospital for another 24 hours. I was FREE to leave the hospital on the fifth day. During my stay Emily and Paul traded off who was at the hospital and who was staying home with the kids and getting sleep. I can't say enough how much I appreciate having Emily help out with the kids and keep me company at the hospital. Paul was amazing at taking charge when I needed someone and couldn't speak for myself. I was high or unable to care for Brooke almost the whole time I was at the hospital and I think over the 5 days I got to hold her for about an hour. The nurses had her at their station a lot and the all loved on her so I didn't feel to bad. They all made sure to stop in and say how cute my baby was and how they got to play with her. My sister-in-law came the last day I was in the hospital and she is a nurse so she was able to ask questions that I didn't even know to ask. She found out that my blood levels had dipped below critical level and I was really close to bleeding to death. She also said that when I was released from the hospital my blood levels were at the critical level still. When I got home Emily had to go back home so my sister-in-law came to stay for a week. I was not able to do much of anything because I was to weak. I ended up going back into the hospital for two more units of blood while she was here. I started feeling better towards the end of her visit but I still needed to nap during the day or I couldn't make it so my other sister-in-law came for a couple of days to help. After that visit I was ready to take it on myself. I have been warned that it will take a couple of months to get my full energy back and to replenish the blood in my system. This was a lot of stress and not how I saw this birth going but you never know when things can take a turn. I love and appreciate my husband and my kids so much more now. Paul told his sister that he wouldn't know what to do without me and how scared he was there for a little while. I am grateful that I don't remember everything. I don't really know why I just am. I can't thank everyone enough for the help.