7 months

Our Maggie is already SEVEN months!! I feel like it seriously is flashing before my eyes.  Yosh and I were talking the other night after all the kids were in bed about how we feel like our lives are in fast forward.  Its going by so fast!!

Our girl is starting to show us some personality.  She’s calm, curious and so  happy all the time (other than when she has the flu!)  She’s a great eater, still breast feeding but LOVING every baby food I’m throwing at her. Peas, green beans, carrots, sweet potatoes, rice cereal, oatmeal…whatever.  Shes like a big girl feeding herself puffs and drinking water from a sippy cup!

Always so happy…

Great little baby!

And I LOVE comparing her to my other two…

Note to self: Maggie needs more tummy time (have like no pics of her on her tummy!)

 

These sisters are VERY VERY different from each other!

 

Mama’s Birthday

It wasn’t a big milestone birthday just 34!! And i wasn’t sad about getting older, I’m happy to be alive, healthy and here to age!! I take every year in stride.  But I was feeling a bit down. Not sure why but I was!! An I woke up to a puking husband on my birthday!! I thought the flu was long behind us BUT guess it snuck up on Daddy later! 

So…I had in my mind that it was just going to be like any other day…nothing special! 

But Yosh hand a few surprises up his sleeve and was able to get them done even though he was feeling like crap (he started feeling a bit better as the day went on).

Flowers were delivered to school (5 minutes before the end of the day)

Daddy had the house decorated, bought a cake and a present (iphone lenses) for when I got home from picking all the kids up after work/school!!!
He did good!! I was thoroughly surprised. I was expecting to find him still upstairs in bed!

Got us a FiveFamily picture using the timer on my iphone…just regular normal us…after work and school before leaving for Owen’s game. Nothing fancy. Owen’s lunch box in the way. I love it. I love how its really US on a weeknight.

And we spent the evening at Owen’s game. It was a great birthday.

Happy Birthday to me.

The Flu ruined Owen’s birthday

So Ella started puking on Saturday (April 2nd)…took her to kaiser on Sunday to make sure it was actually the stomach flu and not something else (she had painful urination earlier in the week so I wasn’t sure if that was what was causing the puking). They confirmed no UTI, but she was dehydrated and had the stomach flu.

Poor thing slept most of Sunday…literally we were waking her up to take sips of water.  Monday she did the same thing…slept for most of the day.

Everyone else seemed to be fine….but then Owen started puking Sunday night (April 3rd) at 9pm.  I knew his birthday was going to be ruined. Poor kid was puking and crying because he was going to have to miss school on his birthday. We realized that having the kids sleep on a made-up bed on the floor next to my bed was easier than having them puke everywhere in their own beds.  So he slept next to me…dry heaved or puked ALL night.

He had enough energy to wake and open his presents before I left to work (Daddy stayed home with the sickies while I sent Maggie to Martha’s to keep her germ free…)

So this was how Owen spent his birthday…raggin’ party huh!?!

Then on Monday at noon…I was eating my lunch when Martha texted saying Maggie puked.  Poor Mags. So when Owen stopped puking Maggie started.  And man oh man she had it the worst!! She had a fever of 102.3 and puked for a full 48 hours!! I kept nursing her to try and keep her hydrated and was happy when she wouldn’t puke for 2 hours. 

I held her A LOT…like all the time.  She was SO clingy and it was the saddest thing ever!! To see a little six month old body dry heave and puke all day is the WORST!! Her little body would just start like heaving…and she wouldn’t cry or anything…just puke and puke.  Ugh it broke my heart!

She was so still…you know how little babies bodies never stop moving…either their hands or swinging or feet kicking or SOMETHING is moving?!? Maggie was SO STILL for 2 days…she laying there. I took this pic with my phone…and its sad but I LOVE it. I love seeing her eyes so clearly!

So I stayed home with all 3 kids on Tuesday…I woke and started puking. Yep I was home with 3 sick kids with myself being sick. MAN that was a test of parenthood.  But we all survived. Stayed home on Wednesday as well.  It was a LONG week of sickness!!!  I think we got it  by severity and age…youngest being hit the hardest.

I wrote on my instagram that I had always wanted at least 3 kids.  I always envisioned the extra love and cuddles. Extra handmade cards for my birthday and mothers day. Extra practices and games to attend.  But I didn’t really think about the extra puke, snotty noses, laundry (from puke) and doctors visits!! hahaha But…I love it. Every minute…even when they are puking sick. Being a Mom was what I was meant to be!

Spring Break–Laughlin

Laughlin was our traditional spring break trip back in the day (BC=before children).  But then we started realizing that spring break in Laughlin isn’t always fun. The weather wasn’t always nice and the boat wasn’t always working in our favor.  So we took a few years off from going.  We are currently trying to sell our family boat so we went out this spring break to check on it/have some fun.

It would be Maggie first trip…and possibly her last too!
I forgot how much sh*t you need when traveling with 3 kids! Holy Moly. The truck was PACKED to the brim…all for 3 nights. I thought camping was a pain…realized that with having a trailer camping is EASY compared to this packing.

Also traveling with 3 kids made the trip there take MUCH longer than usual.  We had a few bathroom stops, 2 food stops and 1 additional nursing/diaper stop.  And Maggie is at an annoying stage where she doesn’t want to miss any of the fun and doesn’t like nursing if others are around.  So we’d stop and daddy would take the big kids out for a walk while I tried to get Maggie to focus on eating. ugh. Pain in my butt!

But we finally arrived (ahead of our friends), checked into the hotel and ventured down to the boat (which we haven’t been to since last year!)  Yosh did some cleaning, while I tried to keep the kids entertained.  Boat wouldn’t start but we figured it was the batteries (which IS what it ended being).

But since Daddy had to replace batteries and the wind was pretty bad on the lake the first day, Heather and I decided we’d bring the kids for a walk along the river THEN to the pool for some fun.

I got Ella a mermaid bikini from Target and she was IN LOVE with it. She cracked me up. All day at the pool she was walking around with her tail skirt on singing Ariel songs to herself. I love her.
And Maggie knows how to do Spring Break…she just chilled all afternoon watching the kids swim and just hung out.

My friend Heather took some cute pics for me…

That night Heather and I got to do a Mama’s night out…we did a little bit of gambling (on penny machines…yeah we’re big spenders!!), had some cheap wine and were able to chit chat without kids needing one thing or another. It was nice.

The next day the weather was absolutely perfect!  We stopped at McDonalds for breakfast before running to AutoZone for boat batteries.  Ella started complaining that her belly was hurting…but I thought she was just having some pooping issues. We were back and forth into the restroom…she wouldn’t eat a thing (which is very unlike her).  As we walked out Ella started puking…and it went down hill from there…

For the next 14 hours Ella was either sleeping or puking! She would perk up for very small increments of time and then come crashing down. It was the saddest thing to watch ever! I forgot my good camera in the hotel, which I was SO pissed about because I had some questions to ask Heather about using my camera and needed some practice. I went to Camp Momtog 3 years ago and my picture taking skills SUCK!! BUT I forgot my camera so I used my iphone and Heather took these amazing pictures and sent them to me!

Our traditional kids pic before leaving the dock (with only 2 families…missing lots of our friends this trip!)

I’m so glad that Heather got a good amount of pics of Ella before she laid down for the rest of the day!! By these pics you would think I was lying that she felt so horrible all day!

Ella laid on the front of the boat..and would sit up and puke over the side and then lay back down! Broke my heart. It wasn’t super hot out…but we were giving her tiny sips of water. She seemed to be kinda staying hydrated.

We haven’t had such perfect conditions at the river in forever! Our cove was empty. The water was crystal clear (but really cold).  Not windy. Sunny and perfect! But our Ella…was the only bad part of the day.

Seeing Maggie at the river made me very sentimental. She was in Ella’s old suit. It Owen’s old bouncer. And just being a great baby!!

Had to take some comparison pics of our girl….

And I love that this lifejacket got past down from baby to baby!! I think my niece and nephew might have worn this lifejacket as well!!

I wish I was able to relax on the water that day…but I wasn’t happy seeing Ella so sick.  I wasn’t sure if it was the stomach flu or something else (which it ended up being the flu because the rest of the family got it a few days later! More on that later!)

I’m hoping we might get another trip on the boat before selling…but we’ll see.

I LOVE this picture that Heather got of the big boys…chatting on their way up to the marina to get some ice cream…when did they get so old?? Its so weird and makes me a little sad!

We ended up driving home that night after showering.  I wanted to get Ella home as soon as possible…in case I had to bring her to the ER or Urgent Care the next day. Our poor girl was sick sick sick for another few days…then Owen on his actual birthday, then Maggie, then Mommy, then Daddy!.  It sucked.