I'm also more than in love with this video where Eleanor says the thing she's most excited about doing with her baby sister is "letting her play with her own stuff."
And we didn't know it would be my last day before the baby arrived but we spent a cozy day together watching shows and cuddling.
And making cookies.
This is so very much the relationship between the boys right now.
We have a new rule about how all rough housing has to be in the basement. The boys spend a LOT of time in the basement now.
I didn't count this as wrestling, it was mostly adorable.
Eleanor playing Gigamons, her favorite game, with Grandma.
My last evening bowl of cereal before baby. No hands necessary thanks to baby belly!
The morning of Friday the 1st I felt a little off and sent a reluctant Nathan off to work because I had a doctor appointment already scheduled for later that morning and I could let him know if the doctor thought I was close to having a baby.
The kitties may have sensed something was up ...
Sure enough, I went to the doctor and she tried to make me stay at the hospital and have the baby right away but I wanted to run some errands and was hoping to make Bradley's optometrist appointment that afternoon so I said no thanks. After going to Costco and loading up my entire cart, which included a giant bag of kitty litter, I loaded it into the car, brought it home and put everything away, and then labor started! Nathan came home and lectured me a bit and then I called my doctor who laughed at me and said to come in anytime. Patrick helped me hang out on a giant bouncy ball while we waited for grandparents to come get him.
The kids were off to grandparents so it was happy and nice to go to the hospital without worrying about the older three. And no big deal, but it was in the mid fifties in February when Juliet decided it was time to be born. Such a good little girl!
And here she is! She is tied with Eleanor for being my easiest labor - actually, maybe Juliet was the easiest. It was close either way. So nice to push a grand total of three times and my OB let me pull Juliet out. Happy baby, happy Mommy! (And Daddy - I think Nathan was more upset than I was about Patrick's tough delivery).
Juliet had fantastic apgar scores despite being born 11 days early. And I'm four for four for kids being born in the 7-8 lb range. Bradley was 7 lbs 4.5 oz, Eleanor was 7 lbs 11 oz, Patrick was 7 lbs 14 oz, and Juliet was 7 lbs 9 oz. She certainly would have broken the 8 lb mark if she had made it a little closer to her due date, but she is healthy and growing and I'm so glad I didn't have to wait another week or two to meet her!
I'm afraid to say anything about temperament too soon but she was cozy and sweet the entire time we were at the hospital and has pretty much been a dream baby so far.
She loved her first bath and the warmer afterwards.
And yes, check out that head of hair! I joked that we should have named her Rapunzel instead of Juliet.
We did discover that she only liked to sleep in the tender embrace of a loving parent while at the hospital.
And then the rest of the family visited! There was great excitement and the hospital was not very quiet for a while. Here is a longish video showing all the excitement.
Patrick had a lot of questions for me.
And my plans to have Bradley raise this baby for me are off to a good start, it was love at first sight for this sweet boy.
Eleanor on the other hand, was mostly excited about the milk shakes they were promised after this visit and spent a lot of time looking out the window and exclaiming that she could see Deanna Rose (she couldn't) and a lot of other sights (none were actually within view).
There were a lot of questions about whether or not Juliet had eyes and what they could do with her.
Cute family pic!
It's amazing we got any family pics, Eleanor was making silly faces for most of the time and Patrick was very distracted by the baby.
And with my wonderful parents, who helped make this so much less stressful by taking care of the big kids while we were in the hospital and even took them for one extra night after we took Juliet home.
And then we finally got Eleanor over by Juliet and it was adorable. Lots of giggles although Eleanor was definitely a little worried about what on earth she was supposed to do around this baby.
The hospital staff acted like we were crazy people to want to leave after just 24 hours but I'm pretty sure we wanted to leave as soon as possible after each baby. Who wants to hang out at a hospital for fun?
Juliet agreed with us. Let's go home!
So tiny in her car seat!
Home and time to meet the kitties. Sookie was so worried when Juliet cried a bit.
The kids came back the next morning and there was great joy and only a few fights over who would get to hold Juliet.
Eleanor has been really into practicing reading lately which has come in handy with a new baby sister around to read to.
And then we booted everyone outside for a bit because it was 65 degrees in February! Juliet was born between ice storms and snow storms and managed to hit the best weekend all winter, we're very impressed with her timing.
My parents came over for Super Bowl Sunday and Eleanor was a better half time show than Maroon 5 because she discovered how fun it was to tie up her shirt so her tummy showed and she then pranced around admiring her reflection in the windows. I adore this girl, the other day I asked her if she wanted me to help her unroll her sleeves and as she busily went about doing it herself she said "Easy compass lemon drumpess."
How Nathan prefers to watch football.
Like father like son.
Seriously, it's a little silly we even have a crib for this girl. There are enough people around here to take shifts holding her around the clock.
These were Juliet's stats at her first doctor appointment. 7th percentile for length. Hilarious.
Cuddles with her big sister!
Saying goodnight to big brothers and sister!
My friend Lindsay brought over a ridiculous tutu and some cute bows for Juliet. I think we're fans!
Juliet's view when the kids get home from school.
Eleanor joined Juliet for her first bath. One girl enjoyed the bath more than the other.
Kitty pillow!
Patrick loves talking to Juliet and telling her how cute she is.
One might think game time would take a hit with a new baby around. One would be wrong. Take a look at the cute little baby hanging out on Bradley's lap while he plays Qwixx with Nathan.
Juliet playing memory with Nathan and Patrick.
Post game nap.
It's been very cold and we've had a few snow/ice days since Juliet was born so the fire has been going a bunch. Have I mentioned how proud I am of this girl for choosing such a nice weekend to be born?
Alert baby!
Eleanor has gotten more and more comfortable holding Juliet and they're cuddle buddies a lot these days.
Juliet showing off how strong she is - this was at 5 or 6 days old.
Patrick has been really excited about drawing pictures lately and when I admired his latest piece of art he told me "It's something you can read too. Just sound out the words!" Between Bradley and Eleanor we've really been emphasizing reading lately and I guess Patrick has picked up on it.
Eleanor lost her first tooth last week! It had been loose for ages and this was a rather momentous occasion.
Bonus points for her doing it the evening after we did family pictures with Juliet, although I guess it would have been pretty cute for her to have this smile for pictures.
When you've recently lost a tooth you are happy to stop and pose for smiley pictures whenever asked.
Here's a picture of Juliet in her rock n play, just to show how little she is.
Bedtime with Juliet and big kids who are showing off their missing teeth.
Shows are even better when Juliet cuddles are involved.
My spot in Juliet's room. We spend a lot of quality time here. Here's a snapshot of new baby life - I woke up and nursed the baby, who Nathan had taken down to get to sleep in the basement when she decided to be wide awake at 4am. Nathan is cuddling Eleanor in our bed and listening to her count by two. Meanwhile, Bradley and Patrick are on the main floor playing with a sticky toy they just opened and cackling as they throw it against a window. Pretty great, all in all.
My mom got to hold a cuddly baby when she came over to babysit the kids one morning. Not ALL the kids, we aren't that cruel. Juliet went on the brunch date with us.
Sweet tired girl!
A video of an alert and cute baby!
Patrick loves my grandma's Teddy Bear quilt and keeps getting it out for baby Juliet and then singing the Teddy Bear song.
You can barely see a Juliet smile if you look closely here.
Patrick is my big helper and have I mentioned how happy he is to be a big brother now? Although he did scream at Eleanor as we were leaving church this past week because she called him a little brother and he knew that was wrong wrong wrong. In an act of good parenting, I told him he was both a big brother and a little brother and Eleanor was in fact both a big sister and a little sister so he could call her a little sister if she called him a little brother again. Parent of the year.
Patrick has a new habit since we brought the baby home of demanding to know what we're doing after his bedtime as Nathan or I tuck him in. No answer is good enough for him, if you tell him you're going to read he'll say "And then what?" and you can say "and then I'll go to bed" and he'll say "And then what?" and so on and so forth. Nathan and I generally tuck him in and tell him that we love him and then flee from his room as he shouts questions at us.
He's making Nathan tell him words that he can make rhymes to here. Patrick is such a sweetie, he's proud to show off and he's so busy keeping up with the older two.
Endless rhymes.
Reading to Juliet.
Evening Daddy and Juliet cuddles. already a nightly tradition.
Patrick singing songs to Eleanor. He mostly sings original songs about how cute she is.
I'm a little in love with this series of sister snuggle pictures.
Especially this one.
The end result.
Meanwhile, Bradley and his shadow look through a Captain Underpants book together. Whenever Patrick goes to the library he tries to check out books he knows will please his big brother and sister. Mission accomplished with Captain Underpants.
Sometimes Juliet gets a little tired from all the non stop attention she receives.
Patrick is still taking naps, so far I've still been able to read him to sleep because Juliet has cooperated with napping at the same time as him.
And then I use her to help Patrick wake up.
Patrick is always happy to cuddle the baby, even when he's still rather sleepy.
However, sometimes she is of no help at all and she just falls back to sleep when I put her near Patrick.
Big kids getting their turn at loves.
Bradley and Eleanor had their Valentine's Day parties at school last week. They have to make Valentine's Day boxes and Nathan helped them this year.
I didn't think I would be able to manage bringing both candy fanatic Patrick and a new baby to their parties but at the last minute decided to go and I'm so glad it worked out.
Both kids were very excited to see me and to have the opportunity to show off their new baby sister to classmates. Juliet remained asleep in her carrier the entire time because I may be crazy enough to go to class parties in February with a newborn but I wasn't going to let any of the germy elementary school kids touch her in the middle of cold and flu season.
I gave Patrick many lectures about showing restraint about candy if he ever wanted to go to one of these parties again and this is what I got. I'll take it. And I only lost him once when he decided to go back to his food in Eleanor's class while I was visiting Bradley's class.
The next day was 55 degrees and we had a picnic lunch on the deck.
And the day after this it dropped 40 degrees and dumped about 5-6 inches of snow. Hurray Midwest!
And I'm really happy that all of my children have at least started out with perfect hearing, because who knows how things will be by the end of their childhood. For instance, here is Patrick "whistling." Only occasionally are noises like this made right by delicate little baby ears.
Actually, I think Juliet slept through this. She's already quite the impressive little girl!
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