1 Month Already

Everyone starts with that I think. Everyone says it, but it really does go by fast! I almost don't remember what life was like with out her. She has easily slipped into our everyday lives and activites. She has been a major trooper. She hit her first soccer game at 8 days old and hasn't missed one yet. I take her along in the sling and she just snuggles in and falls asleep.

To be honest, I thought going from 2 to 3 kids would be a MAJOR adjustment and I was a little nervous about it. No more tag-teaming the boys with daddy. The kids now outnumber the adults. However, it has been pretty much a breeze. It also helps that she is a super good baby and a really good sleeper. It's been a couple years since we had a little one in our house,but the how-to's came right back.

Nathan and Noah are in love with their baby sister. The adore her more than I ever thought they would. Nathan is so proud and wants to hold her all the time. He thinks he is big enough to carry her around and doesn't want to hold her cradle style, he wants her up over his shoulder so that he can pat her back. Yesterday at his Tuesday school, he wanted to show her to his friends and just reached up and took her from me and wanted to walk around with her all by himself. Noah did pretty good with the adjustment. He was a little extra weepy, but nothing that a little extra rocking and cuddling didn't fix. He cannot stop kissing his baby sister. He loves to give her her paci and likes rubbing the back of her head when I'm feeding her. He's very protective.

Daddy is already has a little soft spot for her. He loves to cuddle with her at night while she's sleeping. He stays up late just rocking her. His comment? "she's a princess, she needs to be spoiled" He's also super awesome about changing diapers for me in the middle of the night, and has never complained once.

Me? I'm having a grand ole time dressing her up and putting bows on her and wrapping her in matching blankets. I put a bow on her everyday whether we are going out or not, even if we just stay home and she stays in a gown all day.

What Anna Kate is up to:

~ She weighs just over 7 pounds.
~ Her eyes have stayed a deep almost navy blue, I love that! All 3 of my kids have
different colored eyes. Nathan's are hazel, and Noah's are chocolate
~ She sleeps long stretches at night. Usually from 10 til 6, then goes back to
sleep til around 9. (told you she was an awesome sleeper)
~ She hates to take a bath, but loves a shower with her mommy. She will roll her
eyes in the back of her head and sigh when I let the water spray her back. She
doesn't care if it sprays in her face, she just closes her eyes.
~ She doesn't like the swing. I'm very sad about this. The swing was a life saver
with the boys. I'm going to keep putting her in it every few days and maybe
she'll get used it
~ She has started smiling a lot and tries really hard to coo.
~ She is getting much better at holding her head up, doing it for a few minutes at
time

Im sure there's lots more things, but that's all I got for now.

Anna Kate

So my sweet little Anna Kate has finally arrived! I just finished giving the sweet pea a bath. Can you smell her? I love the smell of babies just after they've had a bath. I thought i would try to get in a quick post and picture before I go to bed, for when baby sleeps, mama should be sleeping too!

Last week on Tuesday morning a day shy of 37 weeks, I thought for sure that I was in labor, having regular contractions. My mom ditched jury duty picked up my sister and headed over. I spent the morning doing some last minute toilet scrubbing, dishes, and packing my bag. Around lunch time, we headed to the hospital. Turns out I wasn't having regular contractions, just really painful ones. They did some blood work, gave me shot of morphine and phenergan for pain and to help me relax, and would then be heading back home. The results of the blood work showed that i might have had pre-eclampsia (high blood pressure). I would spend the night to get monitored and do some more tests. Those tests showed that my kidneys were in distress from high blood pressure so I was scheduled for an amnio. My liver and kidneys were like a ticking time bomb is what dr. D said. I won't lie, I was freaked out about doing the amnio and barely slept that night. When they did the ultrasound, the doctor found that I had very little amniotic fluid and the placenta was giving out. I was scheduled to be induced the next morning. Friday morning, I headed in to L&D. Pitocin is not a very nice drug. It's really pretty mean. After getting a really great epidural, my boys came in to see me. We gave them each a Nientendo DS that we had been saving for delivery day for months. We wanted them to have something fun to do to while away the hours. However, they were not long gone from the room, before I was in pain again. My nurse decided to see how far along I was and to maybe try pushing. I told her to call the Doctor first. She said, ummmm, ok, I can do that. She came back, asked me to push once, then said. Don't push anymore. I can deliver a baby by myself, but I would prefer your doctor to be in the room. She walked out of the room and said a little more forcefully, "call her dr back and tell her to get here NOW!" I was scared to death she wasn't going to make it. My nurse assured me I would be fine that she had delivered babies by herself more than once. A few minutes later, her heart rate started dropping. She was probably laying on her chord. We were going to have to get her out soon with or without the dr. Just then, Dr. D walked into the room. I started crying; I was so relieved. A minute later she had arrived at 11:27 am on September 18th weighing in at 5lbs 15 oz and 18 1/2 inches long. I had a pretty strong reaction to the epidural after labor. I couldn't get out of bed for about 12 hours. I had no body control. I spent two more nights in the hospital. After 6 total days in the hospital, we were finally able to all be together again. Man, I missed my boys.

heres what we know about Anna Kate so far:
She loves her paci
She loves it when her brothers sing to her. She always quiets down when she hears them.
She likes to be swaddled up tightly.
She doesn't seem to cry about too much except when we undo her to change her diaper.
She likes to cuddle when she sleeps
She doesn't like to burp. She's too much of a lady her daddy says.
She is the most adorable blue eyed brown hair bundle I've ever seen :)

Fast, fast, fast

Life lately, has been, well, running a pretty quick pace! For those of you who didn't already know. On Sunday evening, Noah somehow fell off my bed and broke his arm. Actually, he broke both of the bones in his left arm. It was a clean break on both bones and nothing had to be set. It was very scary for me. I was home with the boys and Thomas was at work. I knew there was no way I could drive, support Noah's arm, and get Nathan there too. I called 911. Course, i was a little panicked too. I was very proud of my Nathan. He did such a good job of finding shoes for all 3 of us, grabbing Noah's favorite blanket, and then standing the front yard and waving down the ambulance. Of course, Nathan wasn't allowed in the back of the ambulance, so I had to let Noah go with the guys by himself while I followed with Nathan in the van. It was VERY hard for me to let Noah go. I asked him if it would be okay if he went all by himself with the guys for a ride to the hospital and that mommy would be right behind. He said, "Umm, yeah, that's ok." Course by the time EMS had arrived, my little tough guy wasn't even crying anymore. He was definitely in shock though, because he was a little weak, very pale, had a low pulse, and they had to give him a little oxygen on the way to the hospital. The EMT gave him a little bear, that Noah named Fireman. But on arrival, this is how he looked. Not scared at all, like it was something he'd done before.

At the hospital they put a soft splint on his arm to allow the swelling to go down before a hard cast was put on. I spent the next couple of days following him around trying to make sure he was staying safe and didn't injure it more. I caught him jumping from my bed, doing a headstand on the couch, running across the couch and jumping to the recliner and then to the floor. The boy wore me out!!





On Wednesday, Noah went to the pediatric orthopedic doctor. I was very nervous for him. I was afraid it would be painful for him. He gave him a good dose of his Tylenol codeine about an hour before hand just in case. He was a little nervous too I think. We had told him that we would be going to the doctor to see how his arm was healing. He told me that morning that, "mama, if somebody messes with me its going to make my arm sting." It was way worse for me than it was for him. At one point, Noah said, "ow,ow,ow." Daddy asked him, what hurts buddy? Noah said, " the doctor is hurting my hair." The doctor had rested his elbow on the side of his head and was pulling his hair. haha!





After that appointment, we attended Governor Rick Perry's grassroots campaign rally an Market Street United. People, we are truly BLESSED to have this man leading our great state of Texas! 1000 people a day are moving into our great state. That's it for my soap box for now. Noah got to have Gov. Perry sign his cast. I know he doesn't understand now, but he will have a cool story to tell when he's older. His picture also made the front page of the Lubbock paper.
http://www.lubbockonline.com/stories/090309/loc_489120724.shtml


On Tuesday, Nathan started Joyful Heart Tuesday school for homeschoolers. They do Geography, Science, Art, Music, PE, and lots of other fun stuff. He goes from 9-3. For his mama, it was a sad day. I had never left Nathan anywhere before other than with a grandparent or at church. He had never attended a PDO or preschool anywhere. He did have a lot of fun. He told me when he got home that he really loved going to Tuesday school better than he loved to play the Wii. haha! that kid is obsessed with video games. He did however have one little mishap at school though. Somehow he ended up going with the wrong group and attended Music class twice and missing out on geography. He told me, "mama, i was an orange that got mixed up with the blues" haha! i think maybe the blue class had more boys in it.

Thursday morning I had a doctors appointment. Anna Kate is still doing good and I am moving along good the Dr. said. I am still so glad that I don't have to worry about having surgery anymore. Dr. D cheered and praised the Lord for answered prayers with me! I feel so blessed to have a Dr. that believes in healing and beseeches the Lord on my behalf!!!! I have about 4 1/2 weeks to go. I am actually crossing my finger though for September 25th. Both boys were born 2 weeks early on a Friday, and that is about 12 days early on Friday. It would just work out best for Thomas's work schedule and for my mom to be able to be free to be in the delivery room with me. So, you hear that little one! September 25th! I am definitely ready for her to be here.

Thursday evening Nathan had his first soccer practice for this season. This year he will be playing with more kids and on a bigger field. And, from what I hear, it starts getting much for competitive between the teams. Poor Noah was set to play his first soccer season this year. He obviously can't participate. Nathan's coach has adores little Noah and says that Noah can help him coach Nathan's team and can work out with the big boys some. Noah thinks he's pretty important. I'm excited to watch Nathan play this year. Hopefully, I won't have to miss too many games due to Anna Kate's arrival. I bought a sling to put her in at the games and I don't plan on letting anyone mess with her or passing her around.

Just 6 more!

I can hardly believe I just typed those words. Just six more weeks until my due date. Both of the boys were born 2 weeks early so if i follow that same pattern, its only 4 more weeks to go. I am SOOOOOOOOOO ready!!

First let me say that I am thanking God for his healing! I had an ultrasound on Tuesday morning to do another check on the cyst on my ovary. The cyst was completely GONE! The tech even said to me, "are you sure its on the right side and not the left? let me check the left." Nope, it was gone! I did not experience any pain at all. That means it probably did not rupture, because the doctors had said that if it did rupture, I would probably be hospitalized to manage the severe pain, and there was no free floating fluid in there as a sign of the rupture. Praise the Lord it was simply healed. Best of all, there will be no surgery post partum. I have been really stressed about pumping milk and practicing a bottle. Now, that is totally off the table! Yeah! Now I can pretty much just concentrate on getting the last of the things ready here at home and preparing for a nice normal delivery!

I have had some swelling this week. I have pregnancy induced carpal tunnel syndrome from water retention in my hands and feet. Sometimes it feels like I'm walking around on twisted ankles. Dr. D is not concerned unless I have high blood pressure. I have a good bp moniter here at home so I've been checking it regularly. whew! this has been a whirlwind pregnancy for sure! there will be NO more babies born at the end of the summer for this mama!

The boys are excited for Anna Kate to get here. Today they went in her room and were playing with all her toys. Nathan thinks everything is "awww, so cute." he says that about everything! Nathan likes looking at how tiny her little socks are. he just holds them and says "aww, so cute." I can't wait for them to meet her.

At the ultrasound they estimated her size to be 5lbs 2oz in the 49th percentile. She's right down the middle. The boys were always in the 90 and 95th. Maybe she'll be a little more on the petite side. I am secretly hoping for a small little girl with her daddy's dark brown eyes and dark hair. We shall see.

Any bets or guesses on the birthday and time? what about the birth weight and legnth?

here's a little help:
My due date is October 7th
Boys were both 2 weeks early exactly
The times were 12:13 pm and 9:13 am
Their weights were 7lbs 1oz and 7lbs 2oz
Their lengths were both 19 inches

Trucking along

We are trucking along. Anna Kate is growing and kicking and grooving! We have 9 weeks left, although I am crossing my fingers for it to be a little more like 7 weeks. I know I've said it 500 times a day sometimes, but its just really HOT. It was a very BAD idea to have a september/ocotber baby. Course it wasn't really a plan, it was more of a "it happens when it happens" kind of thing. If there are more Head babies in the future, I will definitley be planning this a little better.

I had a major pregnancy brain fart moment this weekend. Cherri was gone this weekend to be with tiffany after she had her baby on saturday. Parker Elizabeth is very sweet and I can't wait for Anna Kate to meet her. I was Pastor Cherri and in charge of the nurseries for the weekend services. I knew that Sunday morning after church that i would be really tired and not feel like cooking lunch. Instead of planning to eat out, on saturday evening I cut up carrots and potatoes, got deer roast out of the freezer and put it all in the crock pot bowl and put it in the fridge. Sunday morning just before I walked out the door, I put the bowl in the heater and turned it to high. So easy!!! I invitied my brother adam to come eat with us. When we got home, I was expecting to have the smell of roast hit me when I opened the door. I didn't smell anything. While I had turned the crock pot on, I had failed to plug it into the wall. I was very frustrated to say the least. I sent Thomas to get Pizza, not quite as good, but it worked. we had roast for dinner.

This last week my mom, sister Jamee, and friend Tiffany came and cleaned out Anna Kate's room. They cleaned the floors, vacuumed behind the furniture, hung pictures, did a cool wall rubbing, helped me sort all the clothes my size, and washed all the laundry. I am so thankful for them! I'm not sure i would have been able to get it done on my own. I feel almost completely ready to bring her home. Actually, we couldn't bring her home right now, because we don't have a carseat. I had been planning on using the same one I had with Noah. We got it out of the closet, and Tiffany was washing and wiping it off for me. The rubber grip on the handle was really sticky. The more we rubbed on it, the stickier it got. I tried some oops off on it, and the rubber just started peeling off. I was so disappointed! My sister said her seat did the same thing. Apparently, the rubber just starts breaking down from the oil and dirt on our hands. Once we have a new seat, I plan to try and remember to clean it off regularly with a clorox wipe.

We also went to Super Siblings class at the hospital on Saturday. The boys were so sweet. They were very excited to see where their new baby sister was going to be born. They asked lots of questions and acted so grown up. Some of the other siblings were not quite so well behaved, although most of them were around 2 years old, there was more than one hissy fit on the floor of Labor and Delivery. The tour made it all very real for me. I was fighting tears in my eyes most of the time.

Saturday was a very busy day. We also signed the boys up to play soccer. This will be the start of Nathan 6th season. He has loved playing soccer so much. Noah finally gets to play this year. He has given his due to his brother over the years enduring many soccer practices and games. He was a real trooper through it all. Now, he's finally going to get his turn to play too. We got all signed up, and were headed back to the car when Noah started crying. He thought he was going to get to have a soccer practice and that we were leaving without letting him play. Poor thing, he's just so excitied. He asked me 3 times today how many more days until he gets to go to practice. It will make for a busy couple of months with 3 practices during the week and 2 games on Saturday. Not to mention, baby is coming sometime mid-season. Im just praying there will not be any overlap on practices or games.

10 years ago tonight

10 years ago today, i was sitting inside the County Line party room having dinner with my family and closest friends. It makes me somewhat sad to think that 2 people who were there that night are no longer with us. My grandpa Moe and our friend Mark have gone on to be with Jesus. We were eating Brisket, potato salad, beans, cornbread, and sipping on some ice tea. my little siblings were checking out the peacocks. i don't remember a lot of the conversation that night, but i do remember all the people who were there for me and Thomas. i remember that my 7 year old sister Mackinzie and I had on matching black and white polka dot dresses. i remember that it was pouring rain all day forcing us to eat inside rather than outside on the patio with all the peacocks. we smiled a bunch and I'm sure we laughed a lot too. My youngest sister, Elizabeth, was sitting in a high chair, she was only 9 months old. family members came from Lubbock, sundown, Dallas, Montana, north Dakota and Minnesota. many of them had never eaten barbecue before. i remember not eating much either because although i like brisket, i am not a fan of potato salad or baked beans or even cornbread. i remember getting a really sweet goodnight kiss from Thomas. i didn't sleep most of that night. i was much too excited about becoming Mrs. Thomas Van Dyke Head, Jr. the next day. 10 years ago on July 16th, i married my best friend. 10 years later we have 2 awesome boys and a precious daughter soon to join us. Life hasn't always been easy. theres been ups and downs, but its always been blessed. God has never once let us down. Thank You honey, for 10 wonderful years of wedded bliss. I can't wait to see what God has in store for the next 10 years ahead. I love You!

I was so excitied to get to see another ultrasound of my sweet little girl on Monday. she is growing good and trucking along in about the 54 percentile. my boys were always in the 90's so i'm thinking that maybe she will be a little smaller and more petite than the boys were. Thomas got to go along this time so i was glad for that. the tech gave us some ultrasound pics on a cd. i still don't know how to upload them though. thomas says he will try to put some up on our facebook page. we shall see...

as far as the cyst goes, we had a postitive report. the size is still the same, but the shape of it was different. it used to be an even round shape and now it is more of a pear shape with an uneven border. the tech said she thought that it was losing pressure inside and starting to shrink, similar to that of a helium balloon that was starting to shrivel up. i still have 12 more weeks until my due date and another 6 weeks until my post partum check up for that silly thing to shrivel up all the way and be gone. Not having surgery later would be the best!! i am praying beleiving for it to be gone BEFORE anna kate is born. i would really like to not have to worry about pumping milk ahead of time and praticing a bottle for her to have while i would be in surgery and during recovery.

thanks to all of you who've been praying for me!!