Update on Matthew

I can't believe my little guy is 4 months old already.  Where does the time go?  I took him in for his 4 month well-check yesterday.  He is 26 1/2 inches long (91st percentile) 14 lbs 15 oz (49th percentile) and his head is 17 inches in circumference (75th percentile).  He perfectly healthy.  He's already rolling from his back to his front and we can't keep him on his back anymore.  He is also reaching out and grabbing things.  He had his first solid food yesterday - rice cereal and formula.  He wasn't so sure he liked it. 

I'll update with some pictures soon.

What a week....

So I was expecting the first week of school to be a bit of a madhouse, but nothing like it has turned out to be.  The first day of school Andrew forgot to bring home his good water bottle from school and we have yet to see it again.  The second day of school, he got to ride the bus for the first time and LOVED it!  hen he got off the bus the second day, he had to swim upstream back on to the bus because he forgot his backpack.  When we got home, we discovered his lunch box wasn't in his backpack.  On the third day of school, I get a phone call from the nurse's office telling me that Andrew slipped in the rocks and split his head open and I needed to come and get him.  It wasn't too bad and didn't need a bandaid or anything, but he got some pretty good rock burn on his head, face, arm and leg.  Still no water bottle or lunch pail.  On the fourth day of school, I went to meet his bus about 10 minutes early, only to find the bus had already dropped the kids off.  I hurried down to the bus stop.  No Andrew!  Thinking he has just not gotten off the bus, I called the school who radioed the bus driver.  She said he got off on the right stop.  Awesome!  I thought maybe he had gone the wrong way from the stop and down the wrong street.  I got 2/3 of the way down the street north of us...still no Andrew.  Asked a couple of girls if they had seen him.  No luck.  My friend who was with me happened to look behind us and see a woman and three kids.  It was him.  Thank goodness a mom from a different stop realized that the little boy following her son off the bus wasn't a regular at their stop and decided to help him out.  I'm a bit frustrated with the bus driver who said he got off the right stop when he didn't.  I realize the first week of school is crazy, but the drivers really should be more aware of where the kindergarteners, who have no idea what they are doing, have all their stuff and get off at the correct stop.  On the lighter side, he did bring home his lunch pail so now we are just missing a water bottle and half his sandwich container.  So far, so good today.  I hope we don't have any more excitement!  I don't think this mom to a new school-goer could handle much more!

UPDATE:  So today went just fine.  He even managed to find the water bottle he lost on the first day of school and brought it home. 

Andrew loves his teacher though and has a blast playing with Jacob and Travis, two of his friends from preschool.  He also has made friends with a boy from his class who catches the bus with him in the morning.  Whew!  What a week!

First day of Kindergarten

I can't believe this day is here.  My little boy is now a kindergartener.  He's been so excited to start school for over a year now.  All of his friends from his first year of preschool started school last year.  He has asked probably a thousand times if he was going to kindergarten.  And the day is finally here.

I have to admit, I've been looking forward to this day for a while, too.  Andrew is an incredibly intelligent little boy who needs near constant entertainment and challenge or he gets in a lot of mischief.  And that usually involves making his little brother scream bloody murder.  I walked him to his classroom, we got to the door and he said, "Bye, mom."  He wasn't even going to let me walk him in.  I did anyway.  No tears for either of us.  Of course, we were running crazy.  We had loaded up the car for everyone to go only to find the battery on the mini-van dead.  So I had to move him to the car and take off like a shot.  When we got to the school, we had to part in a dirt lot because the parking lot was overflowing with parents dropping their kids off for the first day.  I was just glad I got him to class on time.

I worried a lot about him starting kindergarten because the kid's really smart.  He's been reading for over a year now.  He picks up things so quickly.  He memorized his Articles of Faith in about 3 months.  I know he knows pretty much everything he's learn in kindergarten.  Do I test him into 1st grade?  He's on the young end since his birthday is in March.  I was afraid he'd be ready intellectually, but not emotionally.  I went to meet the teacher hoping he'd have a good one.  She's new to teaching kindergarten as his school so I knew nothing about her.  I told her about Andrew and she said not to worry.  She'd make sure he's challenged if that means pulling out 1st grade standards and sending home more challenging homework.  I think we got the teacher we needed.

The house is a lot quieter today.  Luke pretty well entertains himself.  Matthew loves spending time in his jumper.  If only I felt better (I've got a little cold) this day would be awesome!  I'm so excited for my little guy. 

Since I'm so far behind, here are some pics of the kiddos!

Andrew and Luke playing swordfighting on the Wii.

Matthew sleeping...So cute!

Andrew passed off all 13 Articles fo Faith.  He got a big chocolate bar and a certificate for it.

Matthew in his jumper.

Luke and Matthew

All my boys. 

Andrew and Matthew.

A little bit of tummy time!

Butt-whooping...followed by some whining and worrying

That's what I feel like I'm in the middle of right now - a butt-whooping.  3 kids is even harder than I thought it would be.  I'm sure a lot of it is because Matthew's lack of any kind of consistent schedule makes it hard for me to get in a shower or a meal or sleep, let alone take care of anything else...including the older two kids.  And they are masters at waiting until I've got my arms full feeding Matthew to start fighting and misbehaving.  I am overwhelmed and can't help but wonder how in the world I'm going to get through summer break when Andrew doesn't even have school a couple of mornings a week to keep him busy and give me a break.

I had an awful Mother's day also.  I know it seems selfish, but the whole day revolved around my mom and mother-in-law.  I didn't get my favorite breakfast (church is too early) or lunch (we just munched on stuff at my mom's) or dinner (SIL made dinner catered to her mom).  I didn't get a card or flowers or even really a thanks for being my mom.  And right now, I feel like that's all I am is mom.  It was hard to read friends blogs and facebook posts about their wonderful Mother's day.  Mine didn't happen this year.  Not that I didn't want to spend time with the moms in our lives, but it would have been nice to have my contributions to my family recognized.  And this is not meant to be a guilt trip for anyone involved.  It's just the way it worked out this year.

And our anniversary and my birthday are pretty well shot, too.  Clayton's work is going into a "no-fly" zone starting next Monday (the day after his birthday) and lasting until the 4th of July.  Intel is moving one of the factories to a new process.  He can't take any time off of work and isn't supposed to go out of town at all in case they need him to come in.  This time also takes up almost all of Andrew's summer vacation.  So much for hoping we could go somewhere or at least have Clayton take a couple of days off.  He is taking this Friday off to take the two older boys on Fathers and Sons campout with his brother's ward since he can't take them to our ward's.

And as if all that weren't enough, my brother has been dealing with severe abdominal pain for the past couple of weeks.  He's had ultrasounds and CT scans and finally had an MRI yesterday.  The doctor called him at 6:30pm...never a good sign.  He's got a spot on his pancreas.  They can't (not sure if it's can't or don't want to wait) to do a biopsy and are hoping to get him into surgery in the next week or two.  The doctor said he doesn't know what it is and won't until surgery, but if it's cancer and has spread at all, gave my brother 3-6 months to live.  I'm trying not to be too pessimistic right now because they don't know what it is or how bad it is, but it's a little scary.  I have a half sister than I rarely speak to and have very little relationship with and since my grandma's death will probably never see again and my brother.  He is, for all intents and purposes, my only sibling.  And to think that he may not live to see his next birthday or even meet his newest nephew ...  Let's just say I'm feeling completely helpless.  He's terrified.  My mom is freaking out.  And I can't even keep my head above water with my own family, let alone feel like I can do anything to help them.

So, I just have to put one foot in front of the other and try to do what I can.  I just feel like it's not good enough and that there just isn't enough of me to go around.  I can't wait for things to mellow out and calm down...  And hopefully turn out for the best.

Introducing....

Okay, so I'm a little slow getting this up.  The adjustment to having three kids is kicking me in the behind right now.

Matthew Thomas Myers

Born April 14, 2011 at 5:05pm

8lbs. 12 oz., 21 1/4 inches long

I went in for induction at 9am on the 14th.  Started at 3cm dialated so I had a good start.  I've always responded well to induction (this is my 3rd).  Got me going and things progressed nicely.  At 4pm, I was at 6cm.  They let my Dr. know it was probably going to be a couple of hours.  At 4:45pm, they decided to check me again and I was fully transitioned and ready to push.  She had me do one small push to help get the baby down since he was still riding high.  Worked great.  The nurse was going to hold off and let my Dr. finish his afternoon appointments.  No big deal here.  I'd hate to be the one with a 4:45pm appointment that had to wait until 6pm to see the Dr. because he ran off to the hospital when he didn't really have to.  Around 5pm, the nurse came in and wanted to have me push once to see where I was.  When my next contraction started, I took a deep breath to push and just when I was going to start pushing, the nurse yelled, "Stop!  Don't push!!"  Uh, okay!?  There she was with only one glove on and the baby's head halfway out.  She was going to hold him in until the Dr. got there, but the baby's heartrate disappeared from the monitor.  She called for help.  Three other nurses came running in.  Kelleigh (my nurse) put on a second glove and let the baby come on out.  Yep, that's right.  He arrived without me doing any real pushing.  Guess he was in a hurry.  Good thing they didn't wait either.  He was just a tad on the blue side when he arrived.  Within 5 minutes, he was perfectly pink and healthy though.  The good Dr. arrived about 10-15 minutes after the baby did...flushed and embarassed that he hadn't gotten there in time.  Not that any of us could have imagined the baby coming on his own like he did.  He was a little embarassed about misjudging the baby's size, too.  He didn't figure Matthew was going to be as big as my other two.  He missed being the biggest by .5 oz. 

From induction start time to delivery was just over 6 1/2 hours.  Not too shabby, I'd say.  Luke was just over 10 hours and Andrew was just over 12 hours. 

The boys are excited for a baby brother, but have been thwarted in their attempts to bond with the baby.  Luke had some kind of respiratory infection and Clayton had to take him to the Dr. while I was still in the hospital.  Then Andrew developed pink eye.  It's probably not a bad thing in the grand scheme of things.  They are both awfully rough and this will give Matthew a little more time to gain some strength before he gets mauled.  :o)

Matthew had been doing his best sleeping during the day and was up most of the night the first week.  Thank goodness Clayton was home to help me out.  But he's been sleeping better at night this week...thank goodness.  He's a pretty happy baby.  He only cries when he's cold, wet, or hungry - of course, he's hungry a LOT!  He LOVES having his hair washed under the faucet.  And he's got a headfull, let me tell you. 

I'll post more pictures...hopefully this weekend while Clayton is home to help wrangle the boys.