Photo Shoot

So, Victoria is a whopping 10 days old today so I thought we would celebrate with some new pictures of her. It's amazing how fast babies change! I feel like I've missed a phase of her development if I don't take a picture of her every day. Don't worry, I won't burden you with pictures of her every single day, but here's a few cute ones from tonight.

Tyler and Nicole have such amazingly dark brown eyes, is there any way at all that this little one could have blue eyes? Please say yes.

She really doesn't like the flash, but she loves the blankets so I think she forgave me for taking the pictures. :-)

No time

When I'm not nursing or pumping I'm running around trying to get stuff done before it's time to pump or nurse again! I have pretty much decided that I would like to get another set of arms. Does anyone know a good doctor? Trying to make lunch, bounce a baby, and get a little boy ready for preschool is no easy task. I haven't even been able to get on the computer for 3 days! I decided to multi-task today and pump while checking everyone's blogs. I'm sure this was only possible because Tyler's at preschool and Nicole and Tori are asleep. Thank heaven for small favors. I have to get ready for my massage appointment (yay for me! thanks mom!) but here's a few pictures from this last week.

Tyler's photography skills.

My baby is a pirate.

And she likes to eat her hand.

The kids have matching beds now and they love it!

Resisting the Urge

I have this nasty habit of chopping off all my hair either just prior to having a baby or just after. I regretted it both times. When you're a new mom, the ponytail can be your best friend. I pretty much live in a ponytail. I see women with short hair and I think to myself, "what is the point of having long hair if I keep it back all the time? I should just chop it off." It makes sense at the time. Then after cutting it, I realize that with short hair (especially when it's curly like mine) you actually have to DO your hair every single day. That is why a ponytail rocks. So please, if I mention to you that I'm feeling the urge to cut my hair, remind me that I'm a complete idiot and I should just leave it alone.
ps. I have lost 18 lbs in the last 6 days. That makes up for being so uncomfortable for the last several months!!

I laughed hard at this one.

Okay, this has nothing to do with anything, but for those of you who may have seen this video at some point, need to see the response to it made by TNT last night. Watch Kobe's first....

Fake, but cool nonetheless. Now watch the response to it. A tiny bit of backstory; the TNT guys were interviewing Kobe Bryant after the game, and told him that while they thought his jumping over an Aston Martin in Kobe's new shoes was neat, Kenny Smith made a video with Kenny's new shoes.

Well, I thought it was funny at least. Maybe it's because I watched it at 1:00 am. Who knows.

Baby Serenade

I thought this was the sweetest thing I'd ever seen, so I quickly grabbed the camera and caught him on the second go-round. He calls the ukelele a "uka lady" which makes it even cuter. The kids love their new baby sister and it's nice for me because I can get them to do anything (put away toys, eat dinner, stop fighting) and their reward is to hold the baby! Way better than sugary snacks.

Introducing

Victoria Ann Davis

Our little bundle of joy arrived this morning at 6:07 am. She weighed 9 pounds and 2 ounces and is 21 inches long. I guess Kristi knew what she was talking about when she said this baby was a lot bigger than Tyler or Nicole. If you want to hear the story, then read below. Otherwise, feel free to scan the pictures and go back to doing something else.

Last night/afternoon (Saturday) Kristi started to have more frequent and more intense contractions. At about 8 or 9 o'clock, she announced that she was going to take a bath and go to bed instead of playing Wii with me. I was actually quite relieved, because I had played basketball from 6:00 am - 10:00 am, then came home and worked on some landscaping/masonry stuff in our yard from 12:30 until 5:30 pm. Needless to say, I was physically exhausted and ready to get some good sleep. So imagine my surprise when at about 10:30 I went in to go to bed (early, I know!) and Kristi is laying in bed, awake, looking miserable. She told me that she was having more and more painful contractions, and was looking less than thrilled.

Finally at about 11:15 I convinced her to let me take her to the hospital and we could just find out what was going on. I called my friends to come and stay with the sleeping children and off we went. We got to the hospital at about midnight-ish, and lo and behold, she was still dilated at a 2 and 80% effaced. In other words, still the exact same as the last 2 dr. visits she'd had. We were quite bummed and figured that we would be going home soon and would come back later. They kept us there, and at about 1:00 they told us to take the '1 hour walk' and then they would tell us whether or not to go home.

So an hour passed, along with even more painful contractions, but Kristi was convinced that she was still not dilating any more. Finally, at 3:00 am, the nurse examined her again, announced that she was dilated to a 4, and that we would be admitted. We were so happy, nobody more than Kristi who was very ready to get this child out of her. Epidural happened at about 4:00, and then Kristi was able to take something of a cat nap, as was I. Well, I sat in the rocking chair and did the whole sleep while you get whiplash because your head keeps bobbing thing. I imagine it was pretty funny to see.

We thought that the baby would be born at about 7:30, because they needed to wait 4 hours after Kristi got anti-biotics to deliver. But at 6:00 on the nose, the Doctor walked in and said that she had some other things scheduled, so lets have a baby now. About 1 and a half pushes later we had a baby girl at 6:07 am. Kristi is by far the fastest laborer I think to ever push a baby out. All 3 of our kids have come out very fast. At least I thought it was fast.

So here we are, brand new baby, and the doctor announces, "It's a girl!" We were shocked. We had both kind of thought it was a boy, and we have been arguing for weeks about a name for a girl. We had decided on Connor for a boy, but she kept vetoing every girl name I came up with, and vice versa. We had finally come to an arrangement, which was that we would just have a boy so we wouldn't have to worry about a girl name, but just in case, we would go with LaFawnduh if it happened to be a girl.

So there we were. 2 happy parents 2 grandparents, and a baby LaFawnduh. We quickly decided that we needed to do something about the name. We both re offered our favorites again, and the other vetoed them yet again. Finally, I mentioned Victoria (Tori for short) as we had mention this several times before, and neither of us had rejected it. Kristi looked at me and smiled and said that she thought it would be a great name. And so it was. We named her middle name Ann as that is Kristi's middle name also. I then proceeded to curl up on the little couch and get some sleep for the first time in 25 hours.

She is a beautiful little girl, and there have been absolutely no complications with either mom or baby. This is good, after we had problems with Tyler, then problems with Kristi during Nicole's birth. And this one no problems with either. As it turns out, I like it this way much better. The kids adore her, and love to hold her. We are happy to have our little family add another (last?) member. Thanks for all your support and love! We'll post more pictures when we bring her home tomorrow.

D-Day

I have been waiting for April 18th, 2008 for a very long time. It seems like forever, in fact. Now it's here and it's just another Friday. I got up, made breakfast for the kids, had to bribe them to eat it, did dishes, settled a few domestic disputes, and took a shower. It's a little disappointing. I didn't really expect to wake up and all of a sudden be in labor, but I guess I expected to feel a little different or something, because I'm very disappointed that I don't. Tyler told me today that it's day 18 and that means the baby will come out. I'd hate for him to be disappointed too. So hope and pray and cross your fingers that this baby will come out!! Nicole says she doesn't want to go to the hospital today, she just wants to stay home and play with her fishing pole. Maybe she's jinxing the whole thing. Maybe it's David who wants me to wait until he gets home to have the baby. Whoever is hoping I don't have the baby today STOP IT!! I'll let you all know when things start happening. Wish me luck!

What if I don't want to?

Just wanted to share a funny story really quick. Ben told the kids he was going to take them to a basketball game. They were very excited. Then Nicole asked me if I was going to go. The idea of sitting in an uncomfortable chair in the Rose Garden for hours on end when I could be taking a nap or watching a movie or something wonderful like that makes it a pretty easy decision. I told her I was going to stay home. Keep in mind that she is 2 1/2 and doesn't always think before she speaks, but always speaks her mind. She then says to me, "Yeah, Mommy, you stay home and clean the kitchen." What the heck! But how can you resist that face...

Tyler's Birthday

Okay, so his birthday isn't until tomorrow, but his friends have preschool on Monday, so we had his birthday party yesterday. Since I'm due in just 5 days, I'm not really feeling up to having a house full of 4 year olds, but I figured I could handle a few. So I told Tyler to pick his 2 favorite friends and we would have a little party. So Justin and Tanner came over and Nicole had to have Dallin (she LOVES him) so there were only 5 kids here including my own. Not too bad. (if there had been a couple more, I probably would have gone into labor, because that would be the most inconvenient timing.) The best thing about the day was the weather. It was almost 80 degrees and the kids played outside almost the whole time. It was fantastic. Ben mowed the lawn and I had every single window open trying to get the stale, winter air out of here! Anyway, Tyler had fun, I made him an alligator cake which he loved, and he was sad when they left. I'm going to sit down for a few minutes and try to not go into labor quite yet. Here's a few pictures of him opening presents and eating cake with friends.
hi. my name is tyler. i am 4.

Pregnancy Paranoia

I think it's funny the different things that women worry about before going into labor. Some women have to get pedicures so their toes will be cute in the stirrups. Other women shave their legs every day, just in case. I know people who do their hair before going to bed so that if they have to get up and go to the hospital in the middle of the night, they will be presentable. The same hold true for make up (I still think it's strange to put lipstick on before going to bed.) I won't tell you which of these I am obsessed with, but I just want you all to know, that I already got a pedicure with my mom on Saturday, so don't worry about my toes. :-)
My sweet little boy is turning 4 on Monday! I can't believe it! Ben said, "wow, that's like an actual child!" I thought that was a strange thing to say so he clarified by saying that he's not a baby or toddler anymore, he's an actual kid. There was a time when Ben wanted our children to be born 3 or 4 years old so that they would be big enough to play with him. I think if you asked him now, he wouldn't trade the last 4 years for anything in the world.
After his birthday, I'm going to do everything I can to make myself go into labor. I'll try the spicy food and long walks. I tried some weird tea with Tyler that was horribly disgusting and didn't do a dang thing. I hear that castor oil does nasty things, so I don't really want to do that one. But if anyone has any other great ideas to make me go into labor without being induced at the hospital, please let me know!
I'm due Friday April 18, so it's time to start all of this fun stuff. Thank you all for being so supportive during this pregnancy. I'm sorry I complained so much and I'm sorry (Ben, Mom, Dad) that you guys couldn't eat garlic for the past 9 months. I'll make it up to you. :-)

Funny Story...I Think

Normally, things that happen in regard to the children don't necessarily strike me as blog-worthy, meaning I usually don't feel the need to take a break and write about it immediately. However, there is always an exception to the rule.


Just a couple of minutes ago, I was standing in the hall, when I see a red blur streaking towards me. I looked down in time to see Tyler wind up and punch me in the man parts (also see: cojones, package, region, junk or area) as hard as he can! Tyler is not a hitter, so I was doubly surprised.

I sent him straight to timeout and tried not to let Nicole see me in pain, because, well, actually I have no good reason for that. After a couple minutes I sat down with Tyler to discuss the incident. I knelt down next to him at the time out chair and asked him why he hit me. Now, just so you know, Tyler is very big on saying, "I don't know." whenever you ask him anything. What he's doing, why he did something, what he drew, what he wants to eat, basically any question you could ever ask the boy, his favorite response is, "I don't know." So I have threatened him with licking his whole face every time he says, "I don't know" or if he says "I can't" (another one of his favorite responses). It actually is pretty funny to execute this strategy, as he just looks mortified and disgusted after being licked by yours truly. FYI, I'd be grossed out too if I was licked by me, but that's a whole other set of issues, for another day/blog post. Anyhow, this strategy seems to work, because now he'll usually respond by saying, " I don....." (pauses to think of an answer) and then comes up with one he thinks will satisfy me enough to avoid a licking. So I ask him why he hit me, and he starts by nearly saying 'I don't know', thinks better of it, looks at me with his puppy dog eyes, and says in this very apologetic voice, "I just wanted to see you Daddy."

So this is just great. I am starting to think that I am the worst Dad in the whole world. A few months ago, I was going to play my basketball game, and Tyler sees me leaving in my basketball clothes and says, "Oh, you're going to your basketball game Daddy? I wish you could stay here with me." Needless to say, he has this way of making me feel about the size of something really, really, infinitesimally small. In my defense, today he and I have watched a basketball game, took a nap together on the couch, made and ate ice cream together, played football for half an hour and played 'walk on daddy', which involves me laying on my stomach and Tyler practicing his chiropractic skills via doing knee drops and cannonballs on my back. So I really don't think he has felt too neglected today.

So anyway, I explained why we don't hit, blah blah blah, and if he ever hits his mother then the world would end, etc. and then had him take a picture of me so we could write about it on the blog. So that's what we did. And now Tyler would like to type something. So without further ado, here is Tyler's virgin run at blogging:

hi. my namme is tyler davis, i like to hit my dad in the balls

Pregnancy Update

I went to the doctor yesterday. I actually had to bring the kids with me and I was nervous because sometimes they like to run around and pretend they can't hear me. They liked to listen to the baby's heartbeat. Tyler says it sounds like a train. They were very well behaved and we had no problems (probably because Daddy was there to help). The doctor says I'm just barely starting to dilate. Not even 1 cm, but it's a start! I actually feel pretty good right now, so I'm okay with being pregnant just a little bit longer. Of course, I always feel pretty good in the morning so I'll probably feel differently tonight. Actually, I'm going to be really upset if I go into labor today. Ben and I are going to see Rascal Flatts tonight. While I'm very excited to have this baby, I would love to have a night out with my hottie husband one more time before life gets too crazy.
Speaking of my hottie husband, he's trying to weigh less than me! I've gained more weight with this pregnancy than ever before and I'm only a few pounds away from Ben. No girl ever wants to weigh more than her husband! If you see him, please feed him cookies or something really heavy so that I don't have to go through that. :-) I'm going to start slathering his food in shortening and sticking lead weights in his shoes. The truth is, I'm really proud of him. He has been working really hard. He lost a ton of weight and now he's toning up. He was lifting weights at midnight last night. That's dedication! I get pretty jealous when I see his six pack forming when the only lines on my stomach are stretch marks! But pretty soon I'll be able to start exercising and while I'm pretty sure I'll never have a six pack, at least I'll be able to see my feet again.
Funny side note, I talked to the kids about holding the baby. Nicole put her arms around my stomach and tried to lift it. There was a lot of grunting involved. Then she said, "Your baby is too heavy, I don't want it to sit on my lap." I thought it was cute. :-)