Abigail's 1 month & Toddlers

Abigail- 1 month old

-SUCH an easy baby!  This girl sleeps well, eats well, and is hugely content most of the time.
-Sleep- she started out sleeping 6 hours at a time (beautifully easy nights for mama!) and now sleeps spurts of anywhere from 2.5-8 hours at a time.  I'm not complaining!  She tends to get the long stints if she cat naps in the evenings which is usually because supper time is so busy that i don't hold her long and the abrupt lack of warmth probably wakes her.  What's funny is those longer stints also happen only if she goes down somewhere between 7:30 and 9.  Much later than that and she will wake earlier.  She also can self-soothe? Several times I've put her down while drowsy but either not asleep or not deep sleep yet and she snorts, wakes up, looks around, and goes back to sleep.  The first time she did fuss for about 5 minutes but never cried!
-Noisy: This girl loves to coo and make noises! She purrs to stay asleep, snorts as she's waking, and is quite a noisy eater! (GULP GULP)   Between our chatterbox Katelyn and our LOUD singing Lucas and now miss Abigail, we are going to have a noisy household!  Even now when Tyler and I are trying to have a conversation at supper or any time other than after kids are in bed, it's just not possible to hear each other.  We often have to resort to wait to talking about our days or really anything until kids are conked out!  Add that up with a mama who goes to bed pretty early (usually an hour or hour and a half after kids are down), and Tyler and I don't get much time to connect and find out what's going on in each other's life.  Can anyone say date night?! (Cooing video at the very bottom of post)
-Doesn't nurse to sleep? Nursing is always my fixer for everything with newborns as it calms them, helps them sleep, feeds them, basically any need they have, nursing fixes.  However, this little lady has naturally fallen into a sleep, eat, "awake time" schedule without me even trying!  To sleep, she loves having her arms tucked in (swaddled) and she'll lose it within minutes.  Sometimes she needs something in her mouth for a minute which nursing can help, but often I stick my pinky knuckle in her mouth and she doesn't necessarily suck, she just likes something to be there as she drifts to sleep.
-snuggles: I guess I call it snuggling because she so easily falls asleep in your arms but those moments when she's just looking up at you before her eyes start to lose it... it's this magical moment where all is right in the world.
-Car Seat: She seems to not so much like her car seat.  She cries often in it.  It often is as she's tired and you'd think the drive would knock her out, but it doesn't and I wonder if she's looking for human warmth to fall asleep?  I certainly bundle her up so it's not that she's cold but maybe not as warm from someone else as much as she wants. 

Mama: I have to say that I am sleeping and feeling better than I did all pregnancy!  I am SOO SOOO happy to no longer be pregnant! I rarely need naps (although given the opportunity I'll certainly take it!), feel energized, and truly am enjoying this newborn stage!  I had the easiest/quickest recovery out of all the births (how is that so with a 10 1/4 pounder? I don't know!) I've always said I hate the first 3 months because I'm in a "fog" of being unable to have normal cognitive function in pure exhaustion and babies aren't interactive yet.  However, this time I'm loving every minute and SO VERY aware of how fast this is going to go!  AND this very well could be our last one.  Add it all together and I am one happy woman!
Going from 2 to 3 kids: People ask me what was harder, going from 1-2 or 2-3 kids.  For me, it was definitely the 1-2 transition.  I had some serious learning to do about expectations.  Also, because of our busy lives and Tyler being in ministry, that whole "outnumbered" thing people talk about with 3 kids happened to me with 2 as we're often at ministry events and Tyler helps with kiddos during those times when he can, but at the same time, he's working and has commitments to hold to so I learned how to be outnumbered with 2. (To clarify- I could ask Tyler to do more than he does- and he would drop everything to help us, but he has a heart for people, passion for ministry, and a work ethic of excellence and there isn't an inkling of doubt in my mind he has been called to the life of ministry.  I see it as my taking care of the kids IS my ministry by freeing up Tyler to do his ministry.  We are a team and for now, this is how it works for us and the kids still get daddy time when he is home. So I think because of our lifestyle in ministry, the transition from 1 to 2 was harder for me).  It definitely takes forever to get everyone ready and out the door, but toddlers take a looooooong time to do things so I kinda make that work in my benefit and ask them to start doing the things that will take a while while I'm nursing Abigail.  It's really only stressful when we're in a rush which I'm learning to start way early to avoid the rush so I have patience with the kids and I won't snap at them out of frustration.

Katelyn

-School: Has started "preschool" (daycare at the church is called preschool) two days a week.  We did that to help out grandma for when I got back to work, but I know Kate will also enjoy it and it'll be good for her as well.  I enjoyed some extra special time with Luke on Monday when she was gone.
-Tremendous Threes....: She's hit what I certainly hope is rock bottom in behavior lately BUT I have noticed that I think some of it is me not having patience and snapping too quickly.  I really listened to myself the other day since a friend of mine (Maria) and I are becoming accountability partners in patience with our kiddos lately (our kids are all within months of each other and she just had her third) and it made me realize that when I get frustrated with her, I no longer escalate, I just jump to level 10 of frustration.  Yesterday and today I've been asking God for more patience and it's amazing how Kate is responding!  It's not all perfect and in fact she threw a huge screaming fit over naps today but finally for once I was able to stay calm through the discipline and it made it not so stressful on my end and makes it easier for her to settle down eventually too.
-Nurturing: Although we've hit times like above, she also can be that sweetheart that she's always been and honestly, most of the time she is.  She loves taking care of her brother and helps out with sister.  When I ask for favors, she does them as she loves to help others.  She certainly has her daddy's servant heart!
-Goofy: This girl has a new phrase- Stinky stonka.  Not sure where it came from but she thinks it's hillarious?
-sensitive nose: We often hear her say "I smell something" and its hard for her to get off it.  Sometimes its Luke or Abigail's diaper but often it's someone's breath or even just me in general since nursing mamas tend to have a new scent to them...

Lucas

-Talking: In full sentences.  Something we hear often: "me turn, me turn"
-Counting: Sometimes he counts (2, 3, 5, 7) when he's counting off to sing (instead of a-one, a-two, a one two three four...).  But when he counts for hide and seek, the kid can count from 1 all the way to 13 without missing numbers (usually.  Sometimes he skips 4).
-Sleep: Still wakes up at the buttcrack of dawn (6:30ish) but he turns on the light in his room and plays until we all get up a quarter after 7.  But then he CRASHES come nap times (and anytime you are in the car from 9:00am-1:00pm, he'll be out in minutes)



Cooing video: