24 days old

Andrea is already 24 days old! It seems like only a week has gone by. Does that mean these first few weeks have been easy and time has gone by so quickly? I'm not sure I agree with that, but time has gone by quickly.

Isn't Andrea the most perfect little baby ever?!! She's extra cute and still so small. She's starting to get little chubbier arms and legs and her diapers almost fit! : ) ...but she's just so teenie tiny. : )

Potty & Italy

Quick update before little people wake up...

- Scott is a potty CHAMP!!! At 3:30am we were going pee-pees in the potty! AND THEN he woke up dry too! He's pretty good at telling us and then running to the potty. He's been wearing his big boy underwear which is a step up from just being naked. We'll do another day of big boy underwear then move onto putting pants on! Then onto the big potty so we can actually go out in public!

A little less exciting than Scotty's pee-pee success is that we just booked tickets to Italy!!! YAY. Sierra got to have her 7th birthday in Paris under the Eiffel Tower so Michaela is going to have her 10th birthday in Italy at the Leaning Tower of Pisa! - Did I mention my birthday last week was held in my kitchen with McDonalds cheeseburgers? So any tips on visiting Italy are welcome. I'm trying to figure out trains, we want to visit Rome and the coast too.

My parents leave the States on Sunday to start the long, long, long journey here to visit us. I told them that if at any point the start to complain about the flights, or layovers, or anything else - to keep in mind that they could be doing the trip with three (or four) children! They'll be here Monday night. We are looking forward to that too!

Pee-Pees in the Potty

Scotty is a Potty SUPERSTAR!

I let the diapers run out in the downstairs cupboard Monday night so Scotty went to bed thinking they were all gone! He woke up and put on his big boy underwear since "diapers all gone". He then proceeded to pee in every single one of his six pairs of big boy underwear. He peed on the kitchen chair, the couch, the game of Life game board, the stairs, and of course the wood floor. Once I even caught that little boy splashing in a pee puddle. -ick- ...and this was all before 11:00am! I had fun following him around the house with Mr. Clean and a towel. (I would like to officially call dibs on the sarcasam font.)

Around noon I started thinking that maybe my three year old wasn't quite ready. At this point he was running around with just a shirt because I was washing every pair of pants he owns. ...then he starts putting his poo-poos in the potty (continuing to put pee-pees on the floor though). I was happy enough not to be cleaning up poo-poos from the floor though. Then he got the idea that pee-pees in the potty get him two peanut M&M's! So then the pee-pees started going in the potty too!!! At one point I thought he may be dumping cups of water in the potty because he started going so often. I cleaned up a few accidents but they were usually done en route to the potty; which, by the way is located in the middle of the living room floor in front of the TV.

So little Scotty did well today, he even got the hang of doing it himself for those times when I was dealing with little Andrea. Right now he is asleep in a big boy pull up and I have zero confidence in him waking up dry... but I'm not too concerned about that!

Oh and swimming for the girls went GREAT! Sierra did inform me prior to the lessons that she would NOT be getting in the water but being the horrible mother I am, I forced them to the side of the pool where I promptly left them in the company of all their Danish friends and next thing I know... Sierra (and Michaela) are jumping into the pool and paddling around in the deep water! (with little floating things around their waists) They both loved it and want to go every day! One point for mommy! Good thing this went better than Volleyball! PHEW.

Sierra's Birthday

The party was fun! I admit that on Saturday I became increasing scared as my house began to fill up with screaching little girls, but it wasn't all that bad. Sierra had a great time with all her friends and I survived with the help of Paul and a couple moms from school (thanks Ingrid and Jill!) Even Andrea cooperated by sleeping through most of it!

The girls decorated pillowcases - I found some fabric markers to use instead of paint. The $50 I spent on them was well worth my sanity and saving the mess that would have resulted in trays of paint and paint brushes. We also made necklaces, ate lots of yummy food, watched a movie and had popcorn, and then giggled until all hours of the night... (until I drew the line, and felt like my own parents when I started talking "sternly" in an attempt to get some sleep myself! :)

In the morning we had pancakes and strawberry smoothies, played with new toys, and I waited for the little giggling monsters to be picked up. I can't say I'd do it again anytime soon, but it was fun... and I know they all had fun.

Scott's birthday was postponed for when my parents arrive next Monday. He did get to open a few presents though. :)

Gotta go - Andrea says so...

My "not-so-smart-plan"

Scotty's birthday is tomorrow! YAY for my little three year old!!! He's extra cute and extra talkative and I love the boy lots. : ) We'll wait for my parents to come for the cake and presents but tomorrow we'll go out to eat to the kids' favorite restaurant for dinner... and open a few presents. :)

It's Sierra's birthday I'm scared of. It all started as a nice simple plan: "Invite Some Friends Over For A Sleepover". This plan was developed as a result of me trying to be a wonderful mom and make my daughter's birthday a fun and special day to remember. I'm guessing I may have been a little hormonal/confused from giving birth, but now that I've come around I fear I've done a bad, bad thing. FOURTEEN girls are showing up and this makes the kid-to-grown-up ratio extremely lopsided.

So what should you do when you accidentally invite 14 kids over to your house? You should involve paint of course. Painting pillowcases would be Dumb Idea #2. (Dumb Idea #1 was the sleepover plan to begin with!) Dumb Idea #3: Cake and Ice Cream before bed. Perhaps I'll spike the frosting with some benadryl. I'm sure the parents will understand.

Kidding of course... I'm sure we'll have a fun time. I'm guessing only four kids will want to call their parents in the middle of the night. I won't deliver any upset children to parents - However I will give them another spoonful of that spiked frosting.

AND - I met lots of more moms from school today! so I have more friends and that makes me happy! ...AND I heard a scary rumor that a family moved here from the states and the wife is expecting a baby in December! AHHHHHH!! I feel it's my responsibility as a good fellow American to tell her to run... run far and fast. Actually, if someone would have told me what it would be like I would have been stressed out for nine months. Maybe it's better not to know. Ignorance is Bliss.

I'm off to bed now. Hilde, my dear Belgian friend, I'm very sorry for not being a good blog writer. I will try to be better. : ) See you at school tomorrow!

My day.

Hi. :) Now that I can't complain about being pregnant I really don't know where to start!

I went shopping today. I had to: get milk (15 liters), find some school supplies (only $30 for three notebooks and two calenders), develop a few pictures (only $1.50 per print!), and return something to the apotek (pharmacy). Scotty and Andrea were the perfect children the whole time!

Some friends came over and brought super cute gifts for Andrea. It makes me happy all my friends are back from their vacations now! :) I was getting bored.

The girls started the afterschool program which means they stay after school for 1-2 hours until 3pm. I was suprisingly happy to have two extra hours with only two kids. I used to happy when I had zero kids... It seems I've adjusted my standards quite quickly.

Swimming was cancelled for a month... something about the water, but they don't tell you until you show up. I was extremely proud of getting four kids on time to swimming lessons. I had planned for it all day, including a frozen back-up lasanga I made a while ago for dinner.

Now I'm going to get my little Scotty to bed at a decent hour because he's been falling asleep while watching his new favorite movie "Robots". First I will get some chocolate milk and eat some more Ibuprofen.

Oh yah - Michaela finished all the Harry Potter books. She read 1-6 in 10 days, but found the 7th one less exciting so she re-read all the others... then read them all again... she would also read a little of the 7th book at a time until she got to the good part. She's finally read them all, but continues to read them - over and over and over and over.

tara

I have ten minutes to type...

I'm a terrible mother. I haven't taken any pictures of Andrea for THREE days! But here's a cute picture of Scotty from a while ago. You can see how well our "taking-the-pacifier-away" plan is going. : ) But it is true that as you increase the number of children the photographs of each one decreases... I don't even have time to find the camera anymore - I should just leave it in my pocket.

I've been sick with a lovely breast infection and after talking to eight different "medical" people I finally convinced one to give me antibiotics. Not liking Denmark very much right about now... but finally feeling better. I finally emerged from the bedroom today after a two day stint in there.

The girls started school on Wednesday, they like it since they have all their friends back and have made some new ones too. Guess I should have taken a picture of that too. They both start swimming lessons on Monday. Sierra is having her birthday party (a sleepover) next weekend. With any luck I'll survive the rest of the month in time for my mom and dad to show up so I can officially go insane.

My pants!

I fit in a different pair of pants!! I've been wearing the same two pairs of pants and one pair of shorts for over a month now and FINALLY I can fit into the pants I wore... when I was six months pregnant. HAHA Not a huge accomplishment, but I'm happy to be out of those other pants and into something new. YAY!

So everyone is doing fine. Scotty still ignores little Andrea. I still think that he thinks she is a friend who is just visiting. : ) He is also a bit bummed that he can't drive his cars over my big belly anymore... Michaela and Sierra are doing great taking care of Scotty when I can't. They are playing with him and coloring and just being great big sisters for the most part. They are also good at cleaning up after him too... so they get big bonus points. Of course they often argue over who held Andrea last and for how long. : )

Andrea is a good baby. She only cries when she's hungry and sleeps for hours at a time. Every day I've even managed to get her and Scotty to sleep at the same time so I've found myself bored today. I made dinner this morning so it would be done and did the four loads of laundry and even played spider solitare to waste some time... :) Four kids - HA Piece of Cake! **yeah right** I know trouble is coming!

Paul's gone to work the last few days, I'd rather have him at home after school starts and I'm alone with Monster Scotty and a little baby. He's great at night to hand off all the kids though. Now that I think about it, four kids isn't that hard because you have that many more kids to help.

I'm feeling fine. I think I've recovered from the horrible hospital experience. It went something like this: ...and I believe this is the most detail I will offer up... unless you ask. :)

12:00 - We arrived at the hospital.
12:30 - They broke my water.
1:00 - We went to McDonalds for ice cream.
1:15 - We sped back to the hospital thinking it was a bad idea to go to McDonalds. (I ate my ice cream in between contractions.)
1:30 - I was in pain. I was promised epidurals and pain relief "in a few minutes".
1:45 - I was in unbelievable pain. Was told a "Few more minutes for the epidural"
2:00 - Walked to the delivery room, in amazing pain... Was told to wait 15 minutes to monitor baby before they called the doctor for the epidural.
2:02 - Realized I wasn't getting an epidural... I'm now yelling at people who probably didn't understand me. (hopefully)
2:10 - Asked for the air conditioner to be turned on and was informed "I was not in America and that they didn't have an air conditioner."
2:15 - Decided I didn't want another baby.
2:20 - Decided I wanted to go home.
2:25 - Asked for any form of pain medicine again... They finally told me "NO" instead of "a few more minutes"
2:29 - Little Andrea saved mommy's life by somehow coming out because her mommy couldn't have endured that for another minute.
4:00 - They gave me two tylenol. (gee, thanks. I wanted to throw them back at them.)
6:30 - We took Andrea home.

So that was it. I didn't have any desire to stay longer. The midwives were nice people... One was very "motherly" and probably prevented my passing out by just talking to me. But I can't decide if I hate her for lying to me about the epidural. Oh well, it's over... there you have it.

Andrea Happy!

I'm still not willing to talk about the experience... : ) ...but look - instead of any pain medicine they gave me toast. A definite close second. :\

Little Miss Happy!

:) Here she is!

I won't spoil these cute and happy pictures by going into any details about the whole process... : )

Changed my mind

I've been walking around with my phone in my hand waiting for the hospital to call all morning but they didn't. So I just called them and they said "sure come on in now". But I'm not so sure I want to go. Yah, I've been in pain all morning and didn't sleep but I'm having second thoughts.

I don't really feel like going... :( I'm not really in the mood.

Okay. She needs to come out. I'll go. In a little bit. I should have some chocolate milk first...

Okay. Bye!! Call you later Mom and mUm!

Nada

Sorry... I've been laying about the house feeling sorry for myself today and I haven't gotten on the computer to confirm that there is no baby yet. At the doctor's appointment this morning they would have broke my water but the maternity ward was "busy" ...so they will call me tomorrow and tell me when to come in. I did get to confirm it was a girl though! She has chubby little feet and legs. : )

Volleyball was a little better than yesterday... Only a short outburst of tears and refusal to play from darling little Sierra. This has turned into a power struggle which I WILL WIN. Once she gets over being embarrassed at not being a perfect volleyball player she admittedly has fun - and I think she's actually quite good! I don't know if I'll make them go tomorrow though. For the first time I really don't feel up to the long bus ride and walk. I don't think I could make it. Driving is just as bad though. I can't sit behind the wheel without my back being in excruciating pain. I'd rather ride the bus than drive... so I think I'll just stay at home and drink chocolate milk.

Ingrid - Thanks for the tip! I will try to avoid to ever having a baby in Sweden! : ) See you guys next week!

Kinda...

My doctor's appointment was more like a parole hearing. I sat in a little room in front of three doctors and stated my case on: "Why I Deserve to be Induced". I won!

BUT let's not get too excited. Winning really isn't winning here in Denmark. It just means I can start the "Inducing" process... which is quite the drawn-out process. I go in tomorrow morning for something to soften the cervix - after this I can go home to see if anything happens (usually doesn't). Then I will go back the next day to break my water and "hang out" in the hospital to see if anything happens... If nothing happens then I will get an IV with the good ole' Pitocin. So there is my baby update. I actually slept last night so I'm in a fairly good mood concerning this today.

As for Volleyball... It was better and Michaela and Sierra both enjoyed it for the most part. I'm not letting this little "giving birth thing" get them out of it though. I'll soften my cervix and then get on bus 18 to get them to Volleyball right on time! : ) **Kidding! I'm sure my lovely husband will stay home from work tomorrow... : )

Sorry Dad.

Happy Birthday Dad. Sorry, no new granddaughter today. I did send a card though. :) Today only has eight more hours so I think you (and me) are out of luck.

Life goes on though. The girls started Volleyball today and it was a bit traumatic. There was some crying, yelling, and pouting... but in the end it was okay... I guess. The teachers weren't too "outgoing" with their English assistance and even I was a bit confused at times. That mixed with the girls' shyness, their lack of volleyball skills, and the mostly boy class made for a fairly painful two hours.

One of the other moms was really, really nice though. She went out and translated for them a bit and that was good because we all know they wouldn't have listened to me. They got the hang of it eventually and I even caught them smiling a few times. I'm a terrible mother - I'm sending them back tomorrow. I think the worst is over though. We'll see... I can't just let them quit; it's a matter of principal now. I'm proud of them for trying to make the best of it.

It's been raining all day and I'm really happy about that because it's cooled things off. I was getting tired of the heat and the open windows.

...Open windows. None of the houses, stores, offices, malls, buses; have air conditioning here. So you have to open windows and hope for a breeze which is usually sufficient... BUT there are no screens! The windows all look very trendy and "Danish-y/European" and all have fun, unique tricks to open them - they go in and out, swing up and down, and open and glide every other whichway... but their "cool" design prevents screens from being used. I've made some sad little screens involving clothespins, magnets, and "screen material" for a few windows; but they are hardly bug-proof. The little bugs that come in die quickly, but I'm vacuuming bugs up every day and needless to say the girls are not impressed. It could be worse I guess, the bugs are just annoying - we haven't seen any mosquitoes! If I had to find a positive side it's sometimes fun when it feels like we are camping with all the fresh air and foresty backyard. : )

Okay, I'm off to make dinner. Pancakes and Eggs. I haven't been too excited about making dinner lately. Although I did make Roastbeef Tenderloin last night... only slightly overdone. :) I also made a tuna casserole big enough to feed our neighborhood the other day too. I think I prefer Tuna Helper with the cute little glove man. (What's his name?) I was impressed that I made my very own cream of mushroom soup with REAL mushrooms! I think it tasted quite good, but I can't say I've honestly tried Campbell's cream of mushroom soup on its own either. It took forever though... and mushrooms even feel gross.

What I want is a cream cheese pie to get me though these final, miserable days of being an awkward and uncomfortable shape.

tara

no baby okay. goodnight.

NO again....

I didn't have a baby - BUT... I did successfully sign the girls up for Volleyball next week! So they will go to volleyball every day next week for a couple hours. WHOO HOOO! I'm not quite sure what Scotty and I will do. :) Sit around and NOT have a baby...

I've also decided that 8-8-08 would be a fun birth date to have! Not that I'd like to wait that long.

I have nothing else to say. Besides I can only sit down for a half hour at a time because my back hurts so much. I am just going to go drink some chocolate milk and open up a box of American cereal to get me through the next week. I eat cereal at 2am every night because the longest I can lay down for until my back hurts is 2 hours. ...and Denmark's idea of "codeine" is a half of an aspirin. So feel free to send any extra vicadin my way guys.

Not yet.

Feel free to send your sympathy.

Next appointment to discuss inducing is Tuesday morning... only a million years away.