Relief

Since having Amaryllis, Billy really hasn't had any "time off". He was with me off and on in the hospital, but left every day we were there for work meetings. I wasn't exactly thrilled with that, and there may have been a little bit of whining involved. But I think that's understandable. ;)

I've had family in and out here and there to help, and we've had people bring us dinners which has been awesome, but I have felt kind of "on my own" since he's been gone so much. Its probably mostly just me being exhausted and emotional. All this to say I'm really, really, really glad that it's Friday. I'll be glad to have him around at least for a couple days. He might be wanting to go back to work by the time Sunday rolls around with all the crazy around here.

(I think she misses daddy too.)

It really hasn't been too crazy with 4 kids, honestly. Granted we haven't done much at this point. I'm still trying to take it easy at not-even-2-weeks postpartum. This is probably the hardest thing for me...me and "take it easy" don't do so well together. I'm trying, though. Well sort of. I guess if I admit I wrote this entire post one-handed while feeding the baby with the giant 2 year old sitting on us both I incriminate myself. Or at least I have a good excuse or any typos.

Blog Shmog

So the blog is usually the first thing to fall behind when I get busy. And it's definitely the case right now. But I'm sure you guys can forgive me, right? I mean, I do have 4 kids now. I think that makes me some kind of crazy if I'm correct.

So since at any given point of my day there may be 1) a screaming baby, 2) fighting children, 3) someone climbing something they shouldn't, 4) someone who will surely never forgive me if I don't get them a drink or their 471st snack of the day, my time here is very limited. I think for now I'll just post a few pics of said children, so you can see the evidence and/or cause of said insanity.

This was my first attempt at taking pictures of all 4 kiddos. It went pretty well honestly. It's extremely hard to make sure all of the kids (minus Amaryllis, who is off the hook for now since she can't control where her head goes) are actually looking at the camera, and while doing so do not look 1) angry, 2) depressed, or the most common 3) constipated. It seems like once you get one person's face fixed into something that looks like a genuine smile, you realize a few pictures later another kid has fallen victim to one of the above smile issues and you have to start all over.

I'm hoping it doesn't take too long for us to get settled into a good routine. So far it hasn't been too crazy taking care of 4 hooligans. Amaryllis has been fairly easy on me...but I have had enough babies to know they can lull you into a false sense of security and then whip out the big guns and turn into tiny terrors. But I'm sure she'd never do that...please, Jesus? ;) And the older hooligans are actually pretty helpful if you don't mind spilled juice and people standing on counters and clothes that don't match. Which at this point in my life, where all you want to do is sleep for 8 hours straight, matching clothes seem pretty unnecessary.

Amaryllis, bloom.

Our little Lady A finally decided to make July 8th her birthday. She arrived pretty fast and furious, in true Barron baby fashion about 2 weeks early. Thankfully this time around I had a little bit more warning that I was actually about to have a baby. 

Billy came home Monday night, bringing dinner and some relief from the hooligan shenanigans. I was kinda starting to feel some pains around dinner time. I have tons of false labor during my pregnancies so I figured it was just something I should ignore and go about my business. We piddled around, went for a walk, watched American Ninja Warrior with the kids, etc. Contractions kind of came and went, but were regularly about 3 minutes apart when they decided to stick around later that night at about 11pm or so.

 I was still not hurting too bad, so decided I'd take a bath and go to bed. We texted my mom and let her know she was "on call", but we didnt think we'd be going to the hospital. Went to bed, husband passed out (typical), but I couldnt sleep. I was starting to be in a lot of pain, which is saying something for me. I have a pretty high pain threshold...so I think when Billy got up around 1:30 and I was saying, "...maybe we should go in just to be safe." while doubled over in the bedroom floor, he was thinking he better hit the road or start googling 'how to deliver a baby'.

 My mom got to our house around 2:30am. We got to the hospital around 3am. (What IS it with babies and the middle of the night? They love it.) For those of you who like gory details, the nurse checked and I was about 5cm dilated. I was pretty surprised it was just that for as bad as I was hurting. I needed to get some antibiotics during labor, so they hooked me up and stuck me in the bed by about 3:45am. I was thinking it was going to be a long night/morning...but the nurse checked again about an hour and a half later, and mostly ran out the door to get the doctor, saying the baby wasn't planning to wait much longer.

 The doctor hurried in, set up all her stuff and sat down, broke my water, and said "ok, push". We did that one time and Amaryllis was here. I am pretty sure she would have been born whether I did anything or not. Just awesome. So at 5:28am we first got to look at her precious face. She weighed 7lbs2ozs (she was about 6lbs10ozs when we left the hospital) and is 19 3/4in long. She has a lot of dark hair just like Jericho did, but thankfully is 2 whole pounds lighter. ;) Jericho continues to be the only "big ol baby" in this family.

We are absolutely thrilled that she is here and safe. We also think she's one of the most adorable things that's ever happened, and cannot get enough of her new baby smell and soft skin. Amaryllis, we love you so, sweet baby girl, and are honored that we get to be the ones to help you grow.

Fire and Water

Hope everyone had a great holiday weekend! I was secretly, or not so secretly, hoping a certain baby would make use of Billy's 3 day weekend. That was not the case. I was telling Billy yesterday the end of pregnancy is so hard, obviously physically, but also emotionally. You feel stuck...waiting for something you know will put the brakes on the normal everyday routine, but at the same time you can't just sit around, especially with 3 other kids. I hate to get too involved in anything when I'm literally walking around like a time bomb for reasons I will spare you the details, and sometimes I just don't even feel like putting on real clothes. But staying in the house waiting to go into labor is probably worse than labor itself. Hence the "stuck". So I'm just trying to keep up our usual routine, mostly to distract myself, and hope it gets interrupted any minute.

So, we spent a lot of time at my parents' "farm" this weekend. It was my niece's 1st birthday as well as 4th of July. Another sister also returned from a 3 week long trip to Alaska to visit her husbands family. We went swimming yesterday and just kind of relaxed. Just trying to enjoy the last few days (weeks? but please no) of just me and the 3 big kiddos...no diapers or round the clock feedings or never really getting any sleep quite yet. Although Jericho does eat a lot...at least he sleeps all night. Mostly.

Speaking of Jericho, he wasn't so much a fan of the "holiday" part of the weekend. Fireworks, we learned, are not his thing. I think he was convinced that his PawPaw was setting the world on fire from the backyard. So he spent the evening inside asleep on Mamoo. Poor big guy. He's much better with the pool. 

So, speaking of routines, I'm off the clean the daily milk spill on aisle 5. I guess when you have 3 kids it's inevitable that someone spilling something is going to be part of the routine for a long time.

Baby Fever

The weekend before last I did my last session, a newborn session, before our newborn is here. Newborn sessions are always some of my favorites...who doesn't love a yummy new baby? And this was one adorable little kiddo. It made me so excited for when our bambino is here, and thrilled for this sweet family as they welcomed this precious little lady.

I've been photographing this family since this baby's older sister was just a baby herself...and now she's grown up into a gorgeous girl who is a doting big sister. It was fun to watch her kissing on her little sister, and hovering nearby while we took pictures, making sure little sister was doing ok.

This baby has been born into such a great family...one I've loved getting to know so far. I look forward to watching her grow just like her big sister!