Everyday Life

While my mom was here she took a million pictures which tends to drive me bonkers, but I have to say that I love that she captured our everyday life that I never think to take pictures of.  So here is a blog of our boring everyday life!....

Whitney loving on Tucker. Both Whitney & Tommy love to get in his face & can't stand that he sleeps so much so they are constantly trying to wake him up.

 Tommy getting jealous of Tummy time & a wrestling match starting.  These two LOVE to play together, but 90% of the time it ends in fighting.

 Tommy, the helper. He insists you don't help so it makes it hard to get things done some times... especially vacuuming.

Whitney wants to be close by & since we spend a lot of time in the kitchen then she has made a playhouse out of this cupboard.  They both like to get in there, but Whitney will shut herself in there & sit in silence for quite awhile!

 Tucker likes to hang out on the couch & look like a stud :) 

 Jack, the friend Tommy talks about all the time.

 We go on walks almost daily so nice to have a picture of our favorite place to walk to.

Trees growing out of the water, something we aren't used to seeing in Idaho!

 Whitney on ice!

Tommy spends 90% of his play time with trains... and seeing a pile of crashed trains is very common.  It made me smile when I saw this picture so I'm sure I'll treasure it down the road when he no longer plays with trains.

  Lastly.... giving loves.  Lots of sitting on the couch holding & adoring our baby (and the jealous big babies too!)

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Here we are in our St. Patrick's Day church attire.  I wish I would have gotten a better picture of Tommy. He looked like the cutest little leprechaun & even had a button saying he was! 

Tucker enjoyed his first holiday!

 ...and if Tucker is ever getting a picture, then Tommy needs to be in it too. 

 This is my favorite view of babies, when you are looking down at them in your lap.

 My mom is here & she made us green spinach alfredo with green jigglers for dessert.

It's a good thing I had a treasure hunt planned as we had to bribe the kids to eat their green food so they could go find some leprechaun treasure.  Tommy loved it & it was easy to do so I need to remember to do them more often. 

 And as a final lucky note for the day, Whitney has decided she wants to potty train so she can get treats.  This girl can go 5 or 6 times a day & still manage to have really wet diapers so it may be a long haul, but I guess it is a start & much earlier than Tommy!  ...Which if you remember from a few posts ago I said he went backward for a few weeks & I was so ready to put him back in diapers, but the very next day he decided to have 0 accidents for 5 days straight.  I'm really excited for this step & pray it continues!

Tucker's Newborn Pictures

I am really slow getting these up because my company just left this morning, but here is Tucker's newborn pictures!

Our little gift from God:

 Vic really wanted the baseball stuff!

 My 3 cuties: Tucker, Whitney, & Tommy's toes

Snow Day

We finally got a decent amount of snow here in Indiana.  This is the biggest storm we've had since we lived here & I LOVED it!  They canceled snow, but I sure wish it had snowed even more so they would have canceled Vic's work as well :)

I shoveled the driveway 3 different times & always had my little helpers on my heals.  Here is Tommy "helping" shovel the driveway!

My mom arrived this week.  Tommy sure loves having a buddy. 

Hopefully that will help with his attention deprivation!

 Sliding down the driveway.

 The neighbor guy built a huge pile of snow & let his kids dig a tunnel/house through it & Tommy begged me to make him a "big hill with a cave".  The snow was really wet & heavy so this tiny hill is all I got before I gave up.  When Vic got home from work Tommy talked him into making a tunnel in it. 

 Both times they we went outside Whitney sat around the whole time eating snow.  I think it's cute because that is all Tommy wanted to do last year too. 

 We finally had enough snow to make Tommy's "snow Mickey"!  Sadly it doesn't look much like Mickey, but Tommy was happy with it :)

Tommy thought the snow on the trees was cool so he wanted a picture by it.  It was really pretty before it melted so much, but it still looks cool with the ice drops.

Adjusting to life with Tucker

Tucker is 3 weeks old today.  I can't believe how fast the time has flown!  I am happy to have most of the healing behind me.  Thanks to wonderful friends, neighbors, & Vic I didn't have to spend much time in the kitchen... which was good because 3 kids has completely thrown me off my happy schedule & I think we would have otherwise been eating toast every night!  Now that Vic is back at work it is crazy how fast the day flies by. I find it hard to keep up with the basics of cleaning, cooking, nursing, & play time so I can't wait until I find my rhythm & have a schedule that I feel like they are all getting the attention, meals, & love they need... and myself getting some "me time" so I feel sane as well!

Here is my sweet baby at 4 days old.  I really think he looks like Tommy, but he looks a lot like Vic's baby pictures too.

Whitney is constantly sneaking my camera out of the drawer, but never really does anything with it.  I didn't know she new how to turn it on, but I walked in on her attempting to take pictures of Tucker!

And since she thought he was cute enough for the day... here is a 5 day picture update. He spends a lot of time in this little chair!

 I also found little miss Whitney piling trains on top of Tucker & reading him a book.  Tommy is in the picture because he saw me sneaking up on Whitney to take a picture & he jumped in it to say "cheese".

The kids have had fun opening packages for Tucker, but they were extra thrilled when one of them had a present for them too so we took a picture to show their excitement!   

The kids love laying with Tucker during his toy time & it is pretty hilarious to watch them copy him during tummy time.  They look like a couple of fish out of water bobbing around.

 Poor Tommy is really feeling attention deprived & is constantly begging us to play trains with him or take his picture.  He has really started to be naughty to get attention which was working until I realized we were completely ignoring Whitney by trying to give him more attention.  Also, he has decided to reverse his potty training so it has been frustrating to start over when I know he knows how.

 I was taking Tucker's newborn pictures & poor Tommy was so jealous that he set up his own picture set & asked me to take his pictures.  He put the baby bed on his bed with some random blankets thrown around & then pretended to be sleeping (since we were trying to get sleeping pictures of Tucker).  Here is his beautiful set up/pose!

 ...and here is where I feel like I spend my life.  Tucker eats a lot more often than my other kids did so I constantly feel stuck to the couch.  The other day my brain was in auto mode & I caught myself asking Vic to get my phone for me.  He had a funny pause before he grabbed it & it took me a minute to realize that I wasn't nursing & that I could get up & get it myself!  

One last picture of how full my lap often is!

Baby Tucker is here!

Tucker Jackson Sutherland

2.15.13

9 pounds 1/2 oz
21 3/4 inches long

All this little guy has done for the last 24 hours is sleep!  Add that to the fact that we have both been really stressed getting over the delivery & this is the 1st picture Tucker got by himself!  The picture below shows off his huge cheeks.  We think he looks almost exactly like Tommy did as a newborn.

Here is Whitney & Tommy meeting Tucker.  Tommy LOVES him & Whitney isn't so sure about us calling someone else the baby.  Tonight she told me "WeeWee the baby". (She calls herself "WeeWee")  I figured she'd have a hard time with it so we'll she how she does this next week!

Here's one to show he has a lot of hair in back.

Tommy, the tickled pink big brother. He is constantly asking to hold him although he really only wants to for about 3 seconds before he drops him to run off & play.

 I just realized this is the only picture I have of Vic & Tucker so far!  [His workers threw him a surprise baby shower.  It was so sweet & thoughtful!! :)]

And now for the labor story that TRAUMATIZED me (us)!....

I was past my due date so the doctor let me be induced.

7:10am: Doctor broke my water & I started walking laps around the halls to bring on the contractions happily looking forward to another easy labor & delivery like Whitney's.

10:30am: Doctor told me my platelet count came back from the lab & that I would not be able to have an epidural.  I panicked & said I couldn't do it without an epidural so since I was so close to the cut off she had my blood drawn again & requested it be manually counted as that usually increases it quite a bit.  I had total faith it would be fine & kept on with my walking.

11:30am Lab work came back & it was even lower so I for sure couldn't have an epidural.  I was so shocked & freaked out.  The doctor & nurse kept asking me what the game plan was going to be... did I want to start pitocin, keep walking, do a water birth, ball in the shower, ball by the bed, etc.... WELL... I had NO CLUE! I have never in my life even considered for a second that I would do a natural birth nor have I ever had the desire to brave one.  I was so freaked that I couldn't think or make a decision.  All I wanted to do was run away & come back another day when my platelets were high enough for an epidural.  The contractions started coming every 3 minutes & had to do the heavy breathing thing to get through them.

12:30pm:  I finally called my sister-in-law that is a Douala to ask her for natural birthing advice & that definitely helped calm me down a little & brave me up (slightly).  Thankfully she was there for my first labor & was able to remind me of all the things we did to coach through & suppress the pain.

1:00pm:  Contractions became too hard to stand through & I started laboring on a ball which was helpful, but crappy because they were so hard that I would cry after getting through each one & stress more of what was about to come & wonder how I was going to do it.

1:30pm:  The doctor came in to check me & I was at a 7 1/2 so it was too late for the IV pain killer that they can give you because I guess its too hard on the baby if its too close to delivery.  She gave me a little pain killer though, but right after that the contractions intensified 10 fold & I kept bawling & telling Victor I couldn't do it.  The next hour became one giant BLUR of pain.  They hurt so bad that I couldn't even tell the nurse I was ready to push.  I just started screaming like I've never screamed before & the doctor heard me down the hall & came running in & told me to get up on the bed.  She could already see the head so nurses frantically started spilling in the room & setting up.  Lucky for me they were all so busy setting up that no one was rushing me to push.... because I wasn't about to inflict more pain on myself.  I was in so much pain that I couldn't open my eyes or even think straight.  I just screamed at the top of my lungs!  The only thing I remember is two different nurses kept getting right in my face & telling me to breath so the baby could get air & then seeing Vic standing there frozen & crying.  Another lucky thing... mother nature took over my body & forced the baby out on its own.  It was still fast like my last 2 deliveries, but not quite as fast so it gave me time to stretch & I didn't tear near as bad this time. (The only good news of all of this!)

2:27pm: Baby Tucker arrived!  Poor thing didn't get immediate love as Vic was in shock & I started shaking with the chills like crazy & couldn't calm down for an hour afterwards.

We both have talked it through several times today & we both are still pretty traumatized by it all.  Poor Vic was wondering if I was going to die since I'm usually really tough about pain.  Thank goodness this was our last one as I don't think I could deal with the stress of thinking about doing that again!

Now that Tucker is here we are so delighted.  He is super soft, sweet, & tiny.  We love him to death! :)

Princess Whitney & Vday

I started an activity chart for Tommy at the beginning of the year where I've tried to have a structured daily schedule & in that is an art project every morning & a lesson on numbers, shapes, letters, etc. in the afternoon.  Tommy has been loving the attention & learning new things.  It made me realize that my little princess needs special attention of her own so I started to let her get ready with me & instead of scolding her when she got near my make up I let her put a little on & she was delighted!  It really looked like a bunch of bruises to me, but she thought she was beautiful & that's what matters.  She is definitely all girl :)

Speaking of princess, I LOVE Whitney's room after we got the bead board up & painted it, but I just barely took the time to take a picture!  I kept thinking I'd do something cute & clever with her name above her bed, but that will just have to wait until we have a permanent house & I know the wall size.

 Whitney was so happy about make up that I decided to finally paint her toes for the first time.  She is pretty obsessed with them & every time she doesn't have socks on wants to point out how pretty each foot is.

 For 3 days in a row I had the kids work on a Valentine box & cards for a church Valentine party.  They really loved it.  Tommy loves the concept of friends & giving presents to them. Lately he has been pretty passionate about making me happy & asking me all the time if he makes me happy.  He's a sweetie!

These two LOVE presents so I got them a few little treats & toys for Valentines Day so they didn't feel left out that Mom & Dad got a gift.