These days...

Love them!!

 Horsey Daddy

 Daddy and Juliet

 Baby kisses are the best :)

 I just love my handsome guy!!

 Mommy and Cece

 First Haircut

Before:

 After!!

 Beautiful Juliet :)

 Happy James!

 Love that chub!

 I love this carrier! James on my front, and Cece always wants me to carry her on my back. It's so convenient! 

 I love my kids!!

 He REALLY wanted that sweet potato

 James and Daddy

I can't believe how big my kids are getting! James will be 6 months next week. How has that happened so fast? The girls love holding him and making him laugh, and they can make him laugh more than anyone else. I hope they always feel this way about each other. If I can only get James to wake up once a night instead of twice, then he'd be perfect ;) Lately I've been trying to introduce him into food, mostly just whatever I have on hand. He's not really into bananas, but he looooves sweet potatoes, and likes avocados. James loves to roll over and get on his tummy and I think he'll be crawling soon, but we'll see! I'm not advocating it! Haha. He is just such a happy baby and I think he's been the easiest so far. Maybe it's because I have other kids to deal with he's just learned patience on his own? I don't know, but he sure is the easiest one to deal with these days!

Cece is my sweet, silly girl, but she's also a handful haha. She is dyyyying to potty train and I am so not ready for that. Taking her to the bathroom every 5-10 min is not so easy when you are trying to feed, rock, or change a baby. Or do anything for that matter. Right now I've talked her out of it for the moment, but she still insists on wearing a pull up to bed and peeing in the potty right before bed and after she wakes up. I can handle that. I love watching Cece when she's just playing and dancing and being herself. She cracks me up! She's always saying random things and making hilarious faces.

Juliet is also so sweet, especially to James, but man sometimes I think I have a tween on my hands! She can have a little attitude, but then change it and ask me or Cece if we're ok if we seem sad or something. She's very observant and knows when she needs to share more or help me out more. She's had quite the imagination lately, and while it's usually just something she copies from a TV show or movie, she still plays with a lot of animation in her story lines. It's the best thing to have a quiet house and find the girls playing nicely together and not getting into mischief :) It's happening more and more and I love it!

James' Birth Story

Well since James is 5 months old today I should probably post his birth story! A little back story: at my 32 week appointment I was measuring small so I had to go in and do an ultrasound at 34 weeks. They said his abdomen was measuring small so I needed to go in again in 3 weeks and get another ultrasound. They said I might have to be induced early if it seemed that the placenta wasn't giving the baby the nutrients he needed to grow. I was not a fan of that idea, but when I had that last ultrasound they didn't say anything about being induced early, so I tried not to worry about it too much. My due date came and no baby. Well then I knew my doctor was going to want to induce me. Sure enough, he wanted to induce me on Thursday, November 14. I asked him if we could postpone it until the next Monday but he said no. I was kind of annoyed at him because he didn't seem to care much about what I wanted and I had heard that he was a little C section happy so I was really nervous to go into being induced (since your chances of C section increases with induction). PLUS, I really wanted a natural childbirth and I've heard that pitocin HURTS. BAD. I did everything I could think of to start labor. I even did castor oil, I was THAT desperate to start myself into labor. But nothing :( So Thursday morning I went into the hospital, but I swear I was having light contractions in the shower before we left. Since I was dilated to a 4 my doctor came in and said that we could try to just break my water at first. I said yes, let's try that and see what happens and he was going to come back and check me in an hour. I had some essential oils going in a diffuser that was supposed to help labor get going and I watched TV with Tim and my mom. We just hung out for about an hour while I was having contractions. They were regular at about 4 min apart. After my hour was up he came back and I was STILL at a 4! He said he was going to give me some "Vitamin P" (his jokes really annoyed me) and I said, um, not yet. I could feel my contractions getting stronger so he said he'd give me one more hour and then if I hadn't progressed he would start up the pitocin. Good thing I know my body better than my doctor because 45 min later I was yelling at Tim to get the nurse. And sure enough I was ready to push. Now this is where I really hated my doctor. He was getting the bed dropped down and ready for the baby to come out and he pulls up these stirrups. I literally had my legs up in these straps and it was sooooo uncomfortable! With Juliet and Cecelia Tim and a nurse always held my legs up and I could kind of move around to where I was comfortable. Not this time. I kept saying, I don't want this, I want to get down and squat, anything but this. But he either didn't hear me or he just wanted to get James out because he kept telling me to push. Cece's birth was NOTHING like this. Pushing was easy and she just slid out and it felt good and it was such a great experience. This was hard and painful and it was just like a TV show because I SCREAMED. Like at the top of my lungs. My poor mom probably thought I was dying because I saw her crying as she watched me. I just couldn't get James out because it hurt so bad, so my wonderful (note the sarcasm) doctor got in my face and told me to push as hard as I could. So I screamed and screamed while I pushed. And then James came out :) I almost hate writing this because I want it to sound like I was so happy when it was all over and I just wanted to hold my baby, but I will tell the truth so I can remember what to tell my daughters to possibly expect about childbirth. They handed him to me and I really thought I was going to drop him. I was exhausted and shaky and HOT. I told Tim to take James like 2 seconds after they gave him to me because I felt like I was in shock. Especially since they are telling you to push the placenta out after that and then he had to stitch me up. It took me a good 45 min to an hour before I felt like I could hold him. Tim held him mostly and I made him sit super close to me, but I just couldn't hold him yet. But he was the sweetest, most beautiful baby boy I had ever seen and oh my gosh his hair! I loved his baby hair and he still has fun hair :) We love James and are so happy he is a part of our family. I'm grateful I was able to do a natural childbirth with him because I before I forget, I do have to say my recovery with James was the best by far. I thought recovery after Cece was good, but it was even better this time and I definitely think that has to do with having them drug free. I barely even took Tylenol after I got home from the hospital I felt that good. We love our baby James!!