Life with 3 under 1

A huge question we have been getting is how are things going with having 3 under 1 year old. Well, lets just say the word chaos is used often by David and I.

The most beautiful, perfect, sometimes pull your hair out and brew another cup of coffee with the hopes the Keurig magically has a kahlua shot dispenser, amazing chaos.

In all honesty though, it’s going really good! The twins go to daycare 4 of the 5 days of the week to keep them on a schedule, give me a break to focus on recovery, nursing, rest, and Evan snuggles. I had a hard time coming to terms with this because I got cut short on my maternity leave with Aria and Myles and wanted to make up for it this time around but after Wednesdays pass, I am thankful for our amazing daycare provider and all of the love and fun she provides for Aria and Myles. It truly makes me a better mom and I can not wait until 5:00 rolls around each day, feeling rested and ready! Wednesdays my mom has been coming over to help so I can spend one extra day with them during the week. This week has gone much better than last (both Wednesday and the weekends) as we all figure this family of 5 out, together.

Myles started to crawl this past weekend and has quickly picked up speed. He’s such a strong boy (and with just finishing another round of antibiotics and a steroid for wheezing lungs…) he’s more spunky and full of force than ever. He’s also taken up a new nickname by his Aunt Sue that we’ve been using on a daily basis now – BamBam. That kid is going to do amazing things! Which surely will include reaching my back-of-the-cupboard-up-too-high spice cabinet and moving furniture for his mom, probably all by the time he’s 5! 

Myles and Bentley are crazy good friends. Bentley brings Myles his toys and they play tug of war, Myles belly laughs til we cry, and now with Myles moving, he chases Bentley as well. It wears the puppy out of him and it’s so fun to see the two of them love on each other! I promise you someday our bed will be traded for Myles’.

Aria is the best big sister ever. If Evan makes even the smallest noise, she’s right there to check on him. Unfortunately the hardest part right now with 3 under 1 is that the twins don’t understand the phrase “be gentle” or “be nice”. We are working on it but keeping Evan away and safe can be a full time job sometimes! Whenever I am holding Evan, Aria comes over, pulls herself up, and gives him a big open mouthed kiss on the top of the head while his hair tickles her cheek and she laughs. It’s the sweetest.

We got lucky, times 3, with yet another great baby! Evan came down with a decently high fever for how tiny he is, tons of congestion, and goopy eyes which led us into the Dr. this past Monday for tests, an X-ray (terrified mama: go ahead, Google baby x-ray – the gizmo they perform these with looks like a mix of a drive-up bank canister tube and a blender with a 2 week old shoved into it), and more tests. He has parainfluenza which is a fancy word for a really bad cold. It was pretty inevitable with how this winter has been for our family…praying next winter is a breeze around here!

Lastly, I’m pretty sure we have a personalized pile at the landfill for the mounds of diapers we produce daily. Mounds.

Evan Lawrence

We welcomed our third little miracle into this world on January 11th.

Meet Evan Lawrence…

He is perfect in every way with his full head of brown hair and his itty bitty features. Evan means the Lord is gracious – and he most definitely is! Aria and Myles adapted seamlessly to Evan becoming part of our family and they sleep right through his little baby squeals when I change his diaper and Aria is always there to check on him (and pull his hair…). Myles isn’t mobile yet but he glances at him once and a while to make sure he’s still here. We sure are blessed.

My pregnancy was amazing. I had no complaints during those months that seemed to fly right by as we watched the twins grow so fast over the last 9 months. As my due date came and passed, I did everything I could to soak in the special little movements and company that Evan provided me as a reminder of the love and joy to soon come. I enjoyed being pregnant and will never forget all of the feelings that came with it.

January 10th, David and I went in to the hospital to get baby checked. I thought I was leaking amniotic fluid that Saturday but noticed it had stopped on Sunday but wanted to make sure baby was ok and rule out any problems. Everything checked out ok and we were sent home…well to Applebees to enjoy one last date just the two of us for a while. My sister in law was watching the twins who were napping so we took advantage of a meal out together!

That night I had some cramping that wasn’t the normal braxton hicks contractions I was so use to. In hopeful fear of what the night would bring, I went to bed early only to wake up a few hours later (9:45 pm) to what was definitely contractions that were 6-7 minutes apart. Enough where I could walk/talk through them but not quite sleep comfortably through them. As I got up and moved around, they went to about 3-4 minutes apart and were getting stronger. About 2 hours later, the nurse told us to come in to the hospital.

At about midnight we arrived, got checked in, and went to the labor and delivery floor to be monitored. I was dilated still only to 3 cm (where I was at my appointment earlier that week) and 90% effaced. Though I was having contractions, the nurse and doctor didn’t feel they were regular or strong enough to keep me so they sent us home…I have never been so scared in my life when I heard those words. I was pretty uncomfortable and my contractions were 1-5 minutes apart and I couldn’t walk through them but could talk through them. I was nervous at how much worse they had to get before coming back and didn’t want to go back and get sent home again. Frustrated, we came home to try and get some sleep.

Shortly after getting home at 2 a.m., my contractions picked up (about 3 a.m.)…fast and painfully I tried to sleep but ended up in screaming pain which landed me in the bathtub to hopefully find some relief. I had yet to wake David to let him know what was going on but my sister in law in the next room woke to my screams and woke David up. He called in and they said to come back in. About 4 AM, contractions 2-3 minutes apart and the can’t talk, can’t think, can’t hardly breathe contractions were a type and degree of pain I have never felt before. The ER rushed me up to labor and delivery again and I had progressed to 5 cm and almost 100% effaced. About an hour of contractions and I had an IV in and an epidural being administered through 3 sets of contractions…I was a different person once that was in and though I could still feel the tightness and pressure of each contraction, I was at least able to calmly breathe through them and keep my sanity…

I went fairly fast from 5 cm to 9 cm and the nurse when checking me unintentionally broke my water. My mom was also there shortly after being admitted, I was so happy she could be there, especially as the day progressed.

Unfortunately, my body would have a group of contractions one after another and last for about 5 minutes at a time. Those same bundles of contractions would send baby Evan’s heart rate down to a scary level. A level that sent both the Dr and nurses in to try and reposition me, put me on oxygen to breathe more deeply to the baby, and give me a series of shots to slow the labor process to hopefully calm the baby down. After about 4 hours of not progressing to 10 cm and baby’s heart rate continuing to become stressed through my close contractions – the Dr. booked the OR for a C-section after having a long talk with David and I about what was going on and what could happen if we kept putting baby through the stress. That was my biggest fear coming true. I knew a C-section would limit my abilities as a mom to the twins and I knew how hard that would be for them, David, and myself. But I wasn’t just a mom to the twins anymore, I was the mom to Evan too – and he was at risk and as a mom, sacrifices are a part of the journey. After my C-section, the Dr told me that there was no amniotic fluid left around Evan and with the way he was positioned in there,  it was a good decision to go the route we did.

I have to give a shout out, standing ovation really, to David. There really is nothing as deep as the love you have for your spouse when you have children. I felt it with our adoption of Aria and Myles, I feel it every day when I see David interact with the twins and love on them with everything he has, and I saw it that day as he rubbed my hand, calmly talking me through each minute our sweet baby’s heart decelerated and as I looked in his eyes when we heard Evan’s first cry. Those are moments that I have engraved into my brain and my heart and I will forever look at David and see that I picked my one and only and am so lucky to have him by my side every day.

January 11, at 1:12 PM to be exact (I asked what time it was at 1:11 PM and mentioned how cool that would be for Evan to be born at 1:11 on 1/11 to the anesthesiologist – he yelled to the Dr she had 9 seconds to deliver the baby…we missed the mark but I will always remember that minute!), was the day our beautiful 7 lb 14 oz, 20 1/2 inches long baby boy was born. All good things come in threes and we are forever grateful for our three. I wish I could relive these moments over and over again…