Besides Eating Yesterday, We:

Napped.

Woke up to cameras being stuck in our face.

Snuggled. Safely, of course. Safety first.

Took a walk/rode bikes with (not shown here:)

silky polka dotted scarves and macaroni necklaces.

Decided we were through walking halfway through the walk:

Enjoyed some pretty sunlight.

Stayed warm.

Enjoyed some more pretty sunlight.

Believed we could fly.

Were cute.

Thought about pie.

Thought about pie some more.

Happy Spanksgiving

This Thanksgiving is weird. For the first time, and for the last time, I am making a full Thanksgiving feast. I have never made it all myself before because usually we spend it with our med school buddies and I only have to make a third of it. I'll never have to make a full feast again because after this year, we'll be living in Vegas and will switch off between spending it with either the Reynolds or the Garlocks.
Making a full Thanksgiving meal right after I've had a baby isn't the easiest, in fact friends have suggested I not do it at all, suggest we just order a pizza or just go to the hospital cafeteria and eat the free and surprisingly not horrible Thanksgiving meal they provide, but I think I have such a desire to have my life back to "normal", that I'm willing to try the seemingly impossible: make a giant Thanksgiving meal whilst taking care for a cluster-feeding and often colicky newborn. Also, there are gluten issues to work around of course, so both of those suggestions are out anyway. I had also considered trying to potty train Olive this week but I smartly put that off until next week.
So how does one prepare a feast with a Juniper Betty? You stretch your work over three days and you strap that baby on with your new Ergo baby carrier your MIL gifted you with. You also tell yourself it's ok to take short cuts, like using premade dough for the apple pie, Rhodes frozen dough for the rolls, a purchased Costco pumpkin pie and drop the gluteny and/or baby-gas causing non-essentials off the menu, like dressing, corn bread, corn, green beans, and basically any other vegetable, which is sort of appalling, having no vegetables at dinner but thats the way we are rolling this year. Dont judge. So what is on the menu? Pre-Thanksgiving hors devours: lil smokies, artichoke dip, olive/pickle/cheese platter, veggie/fruit platter. Then for the main meal: turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, rolls, pretzel-jello salad, plain jello for Ruby, sweet potato casserole for Go, orange-cranberry sauce from fresh cranberries, cranberry sauce from the can, apple pie made with locally grown Gala apples, Costco pumpkin pie, gluten free pumpkin cheesecake with a gingersnap crust, and Martinelli's to drink. Everything is already done except for the turkey, potatoes, gravy and artichoke dip.
It's been a lot of work but it's been good for my soul to have a little sense of normalcy and to be cooking again, even if it is with an infant strapped to my front. It's probably fitting though, as she is my number one reason for thanks-giving this year. I am so grateful for my sweet Juniper sister-baby.

Good Morning!

Juniper: Week 4

She started smiling 2 days ago! And eating! But not sleeping. Two steps forward, one step back. That's the life with a newborn, I guess.

The Whitest Shade of Pale

Ready

Today is Juni's first day with only her Mom to take care of her and her sisters. Wish her luck.

Look Who's Feeling Good This Morning

Juniper: Week Three

I spoke too soon. Zantac worked for like two days. Filling a script for Prilosec next week, which in the mean time will feel like a life time. When she's not acidy or gassy, she's a sweetie. Unfortunately, she's acidy and gassy most of the time she's awake, which is problematic for nursing and sleeping and really hard to deal with in general. I'm also cutting even more out of my diet in hopes to alleviate some of the gas. Hopefully we'll get some positive results with these changes and get her figured out soon. I have faith we will--we better because I'm pretty determined to keep nursing. Here she is in a sweet moment.

My Interest in Pinterest

I don't understand all these people I hear saying (or read posting on Facebook or on blogs) "What's the big deal about Pinterest? I don't get it." What's there to get? You see something you like on the internet and you pin it. I think some people pin for different reasons, but for me, I think of it as an easy filing system of good ideas. Beats having a million bookmarks or having to write the whole stinking URL into a Moleskine book.

According to the stats on my account, I've pinned 580 items. I love the internet! So many great ideas. Most of those things I've pinned are gift ideas or for the future when our bank account is different or my time is a little more free or items or recipes for special occasions or non special occasions, but I have actually managed to make/do a a handful of things that I have pinned:

I've read/obtained these books:

Rocked these looks:

Made these recipes:

Sewed these things:

Implemented this tradition:

I love Pinterest.

Two Good Byes

I've always had a hard time with goodbyes. I hate them and try to avoid them by sneaking out, leaving before people are awake or while they are out. Monday I said goodbye to my mom, who had been here for 3 weeks quite literally slaving away for me and my family. I knew how this particular goodbye would go--full of tears and reassurance to each other that Christmas is right around the corner with me not being able to adequately express my gratitude for everything she had done for us over the past 3 weeks. This is my least favorite goodbye I have to take part in and I had been dreading it since I picked her up at the airport and was still pregnant.

I said another goodbye today as well, one that I didn't think I would be that emotional about: Go's 1998 little red Subaru Impreza. It's been a good car and has treated us well over the years. It was the first car Go bought himself, right off the lot in 1999. It was the car he drove around Provo in college, the car he picked me up in for our first date, blasting Neil Diamond and quite off key-ly singing "Girl, You'll Be a Woman Soon"; the car I would lean out my apartment door and squint my eyes, and try to peer down the Colony street, checking to see if he was home from school yet; the car he would pick me up from my job at the Game Center and after class in the evenings. He was driving that car when he picked me up after I had failed a New Testament test; I sat waiting for him, feeling quite losery and saw his little red car approaching. He had something white on his head; was it a hat? No...just my sports bra from a load of laundry I stuck in with his before I had gone to take the test. We had held hands and kissed in that car, we had laughed and cried in that car; he told me he would not wait for me if I went on a mission in that car; I made the decision not to go on a mission in that car. He drove me to his cabin near Zions to meet his family in that car. That car is where he blasted Counting Crows from the speakers at the bottom of a desert hill in Vegas while he proposed to me on top of the hill. He drove me to the BYU Health Center when I was sick in that car; he drove a car load of our friends to the cabin with my wedding dress in the back promising death to anyone who spilled anything on it. He'd drive to CA while we were engaged over the summer to visit me in that car. In that car, we drove late to our wedding reception after taking a detour down to the temple cafeteria, I in my wedding dress, he in his tux. We drove away to our honeymoon as a married couple in that car, moved to Salt Lake, then to Vegas, then to Iowa, then to Pennsylvania in that car. He took me to an empty WalMart parking lot after a snow storm to teach me how to drive in the snow in that car; he scared me to death doing donuts in said parking lot after said driving lesson in that car. That car was the car we drove to the hospital to have our babies, the car we took our babies home in. We've taken many a roadtrip in that car, gotten lost, bickered and made up in that car. We've driven to dates, to church, to school, to work, and everywhere we've wanted to go without any issues or problems. It's been a faithful car, full of memories and the symbol of small and big things during our life together. Chalk it up to hormones but this particular goodbye was emotional and hard as well. Good bye little red Subaru. You were honest, faithful and true.

I'd Like to Bear My Testimony That I Know Zantac is True

I've had a rough couple of weeks, mainly because my baby had been having a rough couple of weeks. It was a wrestling match getting her to latch on and stay latched on even though I knew I was prepping her for perfect latching, she wasn't tongue-tied, etc. She was really gassy, so I cut out dairy, chocolate, spicy-ness, onions and garlic (all of my favorite things...boo) but nothing really improved. I was a wreck--so tired and emotionally drained and worried. It had been 2 weeks and she was still several ounces under her birth weight. She wasn't sleeping well and was never content like my other babies had been. I've been really lucky to have great, easy babies (with the exception of trying to get Ruby to nurse, which is a whole different blog post.)

She had a hard time eating, sleeping, and just...existing, it seemed. Like I said, I thought it was gas until a couple of days ago, when suddenly it hit me: "Duh. Acid reflux." She's only my third child to have it, you think I would be more cognisant of the symptoms. Anyway, I got her into the doc last night, took a late trip to the pharmacy, got her to ingest the nasty medicine and she's like a new baby. She's suddenly like her sisters as babies: sweet and good and easy. I know it's only been like 15 hours but I finally feel like she's mine, whereas a couple of days ago, I was looking down at this skinny, undernourished (because she won't eat), screaming, shrieking, clawing, red faced tiny baby and thinking "Did they switch her in the hospital with my real baby? Does this little person even belong to me?" It sounds horrible to say but even though I knew I loved her, I wasn't sure I was "liking" her enough and I was ridden with guilt. I just had never experienced a baby as challenging as this and was really having a hard time with it. But last night I gave her some Zantac and she ate and ate and ate, and went right to sleep, slept good chunks at night, ate really good at night (which was always our worst time) and has been a sweety AND smiled at me this morning and napping and calm and observant and sleepy and awake and not a peep have I heard from her. *deep breath* I can breathe again.

Juniper: Week Two

Not the clearest pic but my girl's squirmy with gas today.