Chase James

Chase James Thurik 24 hours old

Chase decided it was time to come out on his own terms on Saturday the 8th (day after my Bday!!)  my water broke at about 2:30am.  He was born via csection at  8:28 am. He weighed 7lbs 10oz and is 21in long.  My Dr. just happened to be the weekend on call Dr. which was such a blessing. Her being there brought my nerves about the surgery down a lot. This csection experience compared to that I had with the twins has been like night and day. The recovery has been so much faster and easier this time. I was even up and out of bed walking around the same day as my surgery.  I am just feeling so thankful for the experience we have had so far.  We are home now adjusting to the craziness of our life but it is so so so wonderful to be home with little Chase & the twinnies. He has already fit in just perfectly.  He seems to be a very easy going baby, eats & sleeps well. Plus it is just so much different and less stressful just having one baby. I have been quite the baby hog because all I want to do is hold him.  Lots more to come but here is a peak. 

off to school we go

Going to school! 

It has been so nice having somewhere we have to be by 9am almost every morning. We all get up together and get dressed and have breakfast (most mornings) with Jerame before he goes to work.  We have fallen into a nice little routine since the start of preschool and the kids seem to be adjusting very well and I have to say I am liking having a little bit more structure to our days. You can only go to so many parks and playdates before it gets a little boring.  They were so ready for some extra stimulation to because lets face it I can only be so much fun day after day.
Nothing else really new to report on the baby home front which is good because since I am having a scheduled csection I think I would rather it happen when it's planned for rather than my water breaking at 2am or something.  But that happening is still possible so I am trying to be as ready as I can for anything in the next week. I am feeling really ready and just so excited to meet this little person that I have been hanging out with for the past 9 months.  I am also really excited to finally be able to share him with Carter and Chloe. Although I know it will be an adjustment I think they are going to be really good with him.  I just can't help but think how lucky he will be to have them as his older siblings they are pretty special little peeps.

37 wks

Today marks 37 weeks. I am feeling pretty good other than the fact that I have terrible insomnia...like not sleeping at all during the night. It's so annoying because I know once the baby is here sleep is out the window for a while so I would like to be able to enjoy it while I can.  I feel huge and am at the point where most of my maternity clothes are getting to small. After chatting with my Dr. last week it was decided that we will go a head with the csection. Unfortunately vbac's are not very highly encouraged in the United States due to malpractice law suites. Because there is a risk (although very small) most Dr.'s like to take the easy way out and schedule the birth as it fits into their schedule.  In fact attempted vbac's only account  for 3% of the births per year at Evergreen (whereas repeat csections account for 30%). Needless to say I am ok with it at this point and will do the best I can to prepare for the recovery by lining up the help I will need with the twins. From what I have heard repeat csections are not as painful as the first. Plus this time I will only have 1 newborn to take care of instead of two. So we have been given the time slot of 10/13 @12:15pm.  When I had the twins the Dr.'s office actually gave me a appointment reminder call (as if we would forget).  It seems so unnatural to have an 'appointment' to have a baby but sadly it seems to be becoming more the norm than anything else. So the countdown is officially on. 17 more days at the most! 

Taken by me today in my car.  Huge! 

taken at 35 wks I think

I am not a fan of posting bare belly pics at this point but I think it's a pretty cute shot. I  think I was around 33wks here. 

so long summer

Seems as though fall is officially upon us. It even smells like fall this morning. Normally this would make me kind of sad but this year I am thrilled! Because that means our little guy will be here very very soon. I am 35wks 5days today and let me tell you I  am feeling  every bit of those weeks at this point. I have been having a little trouble sleeping over the past week or so.  I am feeling pretty uncomfortable & tiered these days but still have to say it is nothing compared to how I felt with the twins at this point. I love being able to carry on my normal life even though I am very pregnant. This wasn't something I was 'allowed' to do during my twins pregnancy. It is nice to have gotten to have this experience. Both twinnies are in preschool now and it has been so nice to have some time in the mornings to go to the store or run errands by myself. Yesterday all I did was come home fold laundry & pick up my house  and it was so relaxing to do it in a quiet house. They are both really loving school and I am so happy we made the decision to start them this year. They were ready.  The nursery is almost all set up we just need to put the crib back up and touch up the paint on the walls. We took the crib/toddler bed down when we moved Carter into his big boy bed because we had to say bye to his baby bed. I didn't  do much to the nursery because it was already pretty gender neutral from when it was the the twinnies room. C & C are back together in one room and I have to say they really are adjusting well and their sleep has actually improved now that they are back together. It may be because I put blackout curtains up or the fact that they like being together....or maybe a combo of both. Who knows but I am so happy it is working out thus far. I was pretty nervous about how they would do. 

Starting next week I will be going to the Dr. weekly. I have been thinking more about talking to my Dr. about the option of doing a vbac instead of a scheduled c-section. I am starting to worry about how taking care of the twins will be after having another section.  You really are not supposed to lift anything heavier than your baby for 6 weeks following the surgery. Not that I am lifting them all that often anymore but I still need to be able to do things like get them in the car, change Carter's pants (yes we are still in the throws of potty training) and things like that.  I really just don't know how that is going to work unless I have someone with me round the clock. We will see what she says. Neither delivery option seems particularly pleasant to me but this baby has got to come out somehow. Since I never went into labor with the twins and was actually considered 1 week overdue for twins (full term is 37wks) I have doubts that  I will go into labor on my own before 40 weeks with this baby. I know that the they will not do a vbac if labor has to be induced with drugs. Lots to consider but I will most certainly decide based on what is the safest option for both of us. 

Here are some random pictures from the last few weeks. We had such a dreary summer but it ended with about two weeks of sunshine so at least us Seattllites feel like we didn't get totally cheated on summer. We actually had to leave our AC on for several consecutive days which we hadn't had to do all summer long! 

Twinnies at the THREE year well-check both kiddos are healthy and TALL. Chloe is taller than Carter by a bit right now but I am sure they will even out. Chloe is still little little for weight (10th percentile) and Carter is average at 50%. They were both little hooligans at the appointment climbing all over Jerame. Such is our life ;) 

Carter riding his 'motorcycle'  (hot wheels) at my Mom & Jerry's house. They got these for the Grand kids to keep at their house and Carter especially loves it. 

Big girl first day of preschool (I got a pic on my other camera of Carter that I will post)

A random fun park visit with me & the kiddos

Chloe LOVES  the swing. I have to negotiate with her before we get to the park on how many pushes she is going to get or else she would want me to stand there and push her the entire time. 

A rainy August day  & visit to Redmond Town Center

Chloe & some of her BFF's enjoying a little dinner together at the princess table

Pool time with cousins at Nanny & Papa's house

We went to several of the Kirkland Thursday evening concerts in the park 

Dancing at the concert 

out to Mexican our fav

One of my best friends Erica came to stay for a week in Aug. Love how Chlo has her finger in her nose :) 

3

If you are wondering what is going on in these pictures...its just your average 3-year-old tantrum at it's finniest. Not rare by any means in fact this is something we are dealing with often these days. I took these pictures on my phone to send to Jerame when I needed a little moral support  the other day. Am I going to survive the 3's???? I find myself asking that a lot these days. Maybe it's because I am 9 months pregnant and about to pop....but  I feel like my patience are low these days (Jerame also reminds me of this often as well :) . People have warned us that 3 is way worse than 2. Why do they call it the terrible two's then?  They both can act like the biggest kids ever and then other times they seem to have out of body experience that make them do the below. Adding a newborn to this mix will be interesting! 

 

teeth brushing

Brushing teeth should not be this hard....every. single. time. It's torture I tell ya.

 I am going to make sure to remind him of this when he is older :)

3 year olds!

Carter & Chloe turned 3 a few weekends back.  Wow. It really is hard for me to believe they are 3. This birthday was the best one yet because they sort of understood that it was their bday and were more interested in present opening and all the attention they were getting. Although they sort of got over the presents after a while...we ended up opening up the 2nd half of their gifts about 3 days after their bday because they sort of got overloaded.  Lets face it these kids have more toys than they even know what to do with!

I told myself all along that I wasn't going to do a big party for them this year because we have so much other stuff going on but when it came down to it I just couldn't not do one. So a party we had. We had about 20 kids plus their parents at a little farm/park very near where we live. They had lots of animals there for the kids to pet and look at. Each child also got a turn riding on a pony. This I thought was going to be the highlight of the party but as it turned out it was VERY hard for our two little munchkins to get off the pony's when their turn was over. They got to go 1st because they were the bday boy/girl but I guess we didn't explain well enough that everyone else was going to get a turn as well because they both proceeded to throw gigantic tantrums for about 30 mins each at the exact same time when their turns were over. Lovely.   Both Jerame & I were sweating trying all the tricks in the book to distract them so they could continue to enjoy what was left of the party. All the while we were both asking ourselves, now why did we do this again? Oh the joys of being a parent of two 3 year olds. But after the tantrums were over all was well and they continued to have a blast.  

We sang the kids happy bday in the morning and let them  choose  a treat to have with their breakfast, Carter chose watermelon

Chloe chose ice cream 

pony rides

love this face, so excited about getting presents

during the melt down :) 

Happy Birthday our sweet sweet kiddos