Three Children?!! Ahh!!!!

Wow, three children, all under 6. Not too bad, but boy does it keep us on our toes! And they all keep us guessing! Alex is such a sweet baby and doing very good. Jo and Adie are both adjusting. It's a little harder for Jo than Adie right now I think. To Adie we have a baby that we can both take care of and she has fun with it most of the time. Jo, on the other hand, is definitely seeing the changes it has made to our family and the time that Daddy and Mommy can spend. Our days are full of feeding - quite litterally! Alex gets us started eating at 3:30-4:30 or 5:30-6:00 in the mornings, depending on when we fed him the night before. After getting him back to bed, it's time to feed the cat (oh yeah, we got a cat a couple months ago and we love her!). Then, unload the dishwasher, fix breakfast for the rest of us and then Jo is up around 6, ready to start his day. Adie gets up at about 7:30 and then Jo and Daddy are off to school and work. At about 7:30-8:30, it's time to feed the baby again. Did I add that nursing didn't go quite as well as we had hoped, but my supply of milk is very good, so I'm pumping to feed him and so we fit that into our schedule, right before time to feed the baby (usually). He eats every 3 hours so that is helpful for planning the day out. In between all the feedings and getting that boy down for naps, I try to read to or play with Adie. It's all trial and error for now. Trying to get a good handle on the routines with all we have sure is interesting! I feed Alex about three times before it's time to go pick up Jo from school and then it's not long until Jeff gets home from work! So, my days go very quickly. Keeping up with the laundry has become quite a daunting task. Our living room is in a constant state of looking as though a tornado whipped through (it feels that way to me), but I have been able to keep the dishes done! I think that I have had about 6 showers since coming home from the hospital - isn't that wonderful! Several days, I have cried. Wondering, how in the world will we ever have time again?
Some people think that having three children is insane. "You're out numbered," they say. True, that is very true. But so many times in the last month (Alex will be one month on Saturday - 4 weeks on Thursday!), I have noticed both Jeff and I mentioning how blessed we are. Three children, our cup runneth over! We have an amazing nearly 6-year-old, a bright bubbly 3-year-old, and a sweet precious one-month-old. Everytime we think about our future with what God has blessed us with, our hearts have become so warm and we can't help but smile and thank God. In the midst of all the craziness, we have found extreme happiness. Jeff and I started saying something when we first got engaged that completely fits now - we are "extremely, extaticly happy!" There are no words to describe having three children, it is something so amazing and I'm so glad they are here.
I said that I would come back to try and write about things that I could remember about our time in the hospital. Well, I'm going to give that a whirl now. We are in the midst of an ice storm today and the post was closed today, so Jeff is at home! I actually have a little bit of time to myself and don't feel completely exhausted.
We got to the hospital at 5:30am and eventually were able to make our way up to the birth place. A couple days before going in, they called and asked me a bunch of questions so that we wouldn't have to go through that process during check in. Well, guess what, even though I answered all those questions over the phone, the nurse still asked them during check in! We told her that we had answered all of them, and were told that we wouldn't have to at that time. When she was done and left the room another nurse came in and saw that I wasn't hooked up to all the wires and IVs and such yet. Time for surgery was coming very quick and so things got pretty frantic. I had completely forgotten how everything felt since having Adie and this was not pleasant - and adding the fact that they were now rushing was not pleasant! But it was all going to be worth it - we were about to bring a baby into the world!
...Alex was born at 7:55 and it was wonderful. My surgery lasted about an hour and as soon as they finished, I asked how long it would be until I could see my baby. They told me that I would be seeing him right away! That surprised me because with the other two, it wasn't that way. So, as soon as I got to the room, I was with Jeff and our new addition! They did the recovery procedures right there in the room and it was so nice to not be in a room that was so cold and lonely. For a few hours, things were going just fine, but then I began to feel some pain. I complained about it, but they told me that my epidural and the small amount of pain meds they were putting into the IV was all they could do. Jeff took off around lunch time to go get Jo and Adie to bring them back and during that time, a friend from church came to visit. By this time, my pain was pretty bad, but I didn't want to keep complaining, so I kept it to myself. Cindy, however could tell that I wasn't a happy camper. She advised me that I should tell them that things weren't great. I was also getting hungry! They wouldn't give me any food right away, but I did convince them that I could handle a few sips of water. When Jeff and the kids came in, the first thing I remember hearing was from Adie. She saw Alex and said, "He looks like a girl!" We all had to laugh. They were pretty scared to come close to me in the bed, but by the second time they came, it was much better. However, before I get too far ahead of myself, I want to continue on with the first day. I began to notice that the tape on my back - holding in the epidural - was rolled up slightly. I notified the nurse and they had me roll over (very PAINFUL!) and discovered that my epidural was slipping! Okay, now that could possibly explain the bad pain I was keeping to myself. At that time, I did tell them that my pain was at times excrusiating. They told me that they would have to get an anestesiologist to come take a look at it. Our friend left after being there for about an hour or so and Jeff and the kids left at dinner time. My hunger pains were getting louder and I hadn't been sick to my stomach all day, so they did bring me some broth that evening for dinner and even let me have seconds! That felt good. Then, finally at 9pm (probably around 5 hours after discovering the slipped epidural), the anestesiologist came in and, after looking at it, said that it had been doing nothing for my pain for several hours. I would say that it probably fell out before lunch. Surviving on minimal pain meds that first day was extremely tough, but I made it and I think it made me stronger!
The second day went much better, I began to get out of bed and as tough as it was by the end of the day I was moving around very good. They were giving me great pain meds now and so I felt great. Our friend offered to keep Adie while Jo was at school so that Jeff could come and spend Friday with us in the hospital. It was so nice and pleasant. We had a great time and really enjoyed getting to know our little Alex. Saturday was another great day. Jeff brought the kids as early as he could get them ready, and except for lunch, they spent the whole day with Alex and me. It was so nice for all five of us to be together. Sunday, Jeff came down and we were out of there by lunch.
Now, here we are, nearly one month later and I can't believe how quickly time has passed. I've written as fast as I can so that I could get all of this written down without having to stop and I still have 20 minutes until it's time to get ready to feed the baby! I think I will get off now and start thinking about dinner too. I'll try to post more pictures soon.
Love to you all.

Oh, hopefully soon, we can get pictures of the kids and send cards out to everyone. It may end up being a New Year greeting!

~S