Comfortable

Henry is the best baby ever. He hardly fuses or cries. He’s just so content and happy all the time! My daddy asked if my other babies were this good and I said Olivia was. James and Audrey were not but I firmly believe thats only because they were always having to wait on the other, haha!! Henry hardly ever has to wait and if he does, he certainly doesn’t have to wait long! His brother and sisters are always so concerned if he makes the slightest the noise that could signal him getting upset. 'Mama, he’s upset! Mama, Henry’s is crying! Mama, where is his pacifier? Who ever invented pacifiers is a genius.’ Yes, yes they are!

Someone made a comment about it being hard on me with the new baby and everything else and I had to be honest and tell them that it’s really not. I’m not stressed out all day. The twins were, well, we all know what the twins were! Olivia was a great baby but I had two 4 year olds at home all day. I was stressed and tired. With Henry, I’m just tired and that is such a blessing for all involved! And since Henry is such a good baby, its super hard to come up with any interesting material to talk about! But, I am constantly making the kids laugh at me lately because I seem to be saying all the wrong words and it will take me two or three tries to say the right one sometimes!

Getin52

My first attempt at the getin52 project!!! Its not the best but it will do!!!

Two Months

John Henry turned two months old on the 28th of January which was 5 days ago. Better late than never is my motto these days. Well, ok, for my life basically.

Its amazing how it seems like a light switch was flipped on as soon as he hit that mark. Actually it was a few days before that but who’s counting. I am, I guess.

 I got his baby einstein play mat out last week and set it up and he just fell in love. He loves to look at him self and he especially loves this big yellow fish that is almost as large he is! He will lay on the mat and kick and coo and laugh and its really, REALLY hard to do any thing other than just sit and listen/watch him.

About 2 weeks ago he started consistently sleeping from between 9/9:30 to 2:30/3 each night which is giving me about 4 hours of straight sleep which has given me the gift of functioning in a less zombified state. I will take it. 2 hours at a time is absolutely BRUTAL.

In essence, the postpartum fog as been lifted around here for the most part. I’m back to getting up and getting the kids off to school. Well, ready for school. Dear Daddy is still taking them to school but I pick them up every afternoon now and its nice to be back in our basic routine. I’m 100% recovered from the surgery physically and have almost adjusted to being a nursing mom but that’s a post all in itself.

 A few years ago I participated in a project365 and while it really pushed me to think and learn a lot, it was a huge challenge to do it every day. I really want to do another one but, remember, I said I am setting the bar low for my self so I won’t get overwhelmed and discouraged and quit so I decided a once a week project would be good so I’m going to do the bethadillychallenge52. And I really want to focus on getting in the frame with my kids more this year so I also want to do the getin52 project. I spend a lot of time at night drooling over the Instagram feeds of some really amazing photographers and I desperately want to connect with some of them. My desire to learn and grow and start being creative again has returned to my life, even if it is still half asleep most days. Wish me luck!!

It’s so rare....

Its no secret that my oldest son and youngest daughter don’t exactly get along all the time. (Please read that as they hardly ever get along. Like once a month maybe they aren’t arguing . Or once a blue moon do they find themselves actually enjoying one another’s company.) So, in the rare moments they do get a long and are enjoying each other, I try to take a picture of it. Or 10 pictures because who knows when the next time will be! On this particular occasion they were having the best time with James pushing Olivia off the foot stool multiple times. Olivia tried pushing James but her legs were too short so they talked Audrey into joining in the fun!

And speaking of rare moments of getting along, I witnessed another rare moment in its own category. One night over the weekend Olivia was giving me a little push back about eating one of her meals. James had already finished and he challenged Olivia to a contest (which she cannot refuse) and said “Hey Olivia if you don’t eat that it means I beat you. If you eat then you will tie with me. Do you want to tie with me or have me beat you?” She didn't even answer first instead she quickly ate what ever it was and with a mouth full said “tie with you.” I think it took me an hour to pick my jaw up off the floor. In fact, I’m still not believing that it happened. But with wide eyes I thanked James for thinking so creatively and helping to get her to eat. He WINKED at me and said “Your welcome, Mom.” These are the moments I live for as a mother. They may be few and far between but when they happen its the sweetest fruits I could get.

Did you know?

The first 5 1/2 weeks of his life were a little hectic to say the least! When we left the hospital two days after he was born his bilirubin levels were elevated. And when we went to the pediatrician for his day after check up (a Thursday) his levels were a little higher. The Dr wanted him to get a heel prick the next day to get an accurate reading so we went back to Tallahassee on Friday morning. Then we had to go back to the Dr’s office for the results directly after that. His levels were up to 13 so we were told to supplement every 2-3 feeds with formula to help get his liver working quicker so the jaundice would skedattle. The lactation nurse who was working with me almost had a hissy fit right then and there. Those breastfeeding people don’t play around. Ok, technically at the time I was (and still am) one of those breastfeeding people but I did raise three perfectly healthy children on formula so I was down with it. 

Any who, we supplemented as told and and went back to Tallahassee on Saturday (to the hospital lab this time) this time with all 4 children in tow and had his heel pricked again. We went straight home and had to call the on call nurse this time for the results and the levels were at 15 this time (not stressful at all) and were told to supplement every other feed with formula and to go back on Sunday for another count. Sunday morning posed a little problem for us since I couldn’t drive so I had to call on a dear friend to help out and she gladly drove Henry and I back to Tallahassee for the 4th straight day. This time his count was down enough that they didn't want him to have his heel pricked again but wanted him to see the doctor the next day. It was his one week check up by that time and our surrogate grandmother drove us then since daddy had to go back to work.

This is where it starts to get hazy. I know we went back to the Pediatrician 2 more times after that in a weeks time because another good friend of mine had to drive us. But I cannot for the life of me remember why. But I do know it got old quickly having to go back and forth so much with him right after he was born while I was still struggling with the after affects of major abdominal surgery, being a first time breast feeding mom and worrying about my other 3 children and husband. But its what they call Mom Life, right?!

 9 days after Christmas Henry came down with RSV. Where did he get you ask? Well we won’t really ever know I suppose but we have some good guesses. The week before school got out for Christmas, Jon came down with a nasty crud and two days after Christmas I came down with some nasty crud and 6 days after Christmas the girls came down with some nasty crud that came with horrible coughs. Take your pick. While we were in the hospital, the nurses told us this year has been the worst for RSV that they have seen in a long time. Of course it would be! But, Henry was blessed to only be afflicted with a mild case of it, even though it did earn him an over night stay in the hospital for observation and 2 weeks later there are no signs of that nasty cough or terrible snotty nose he had to suffer through. Praise the Lord.

I told him I was sorry

When I found out I was pregnant with bebe numero quatro it was a little bit of a shocker to say the least. To say the least. I may or may not have cried about having to start all over again. And then I may or may not have cried about crying. It was an emotional rollercoaster around here for the first few weeks.

I had such a rough time emotionally when I was pregnant with Olivia and for the first few months after she was born, that it scared me to death thinking about putting my family through that again. And with older kids this time who don’t forget things any more. And all the time I was going to miss out in Olivia’s kindergarten class. Not to mention the “plans” I had for myself once I got all the kids in school. Lets see, don’t they say ‘We make plans and God laughs?’ And lets not forget having to go through another spinal tap with major surgery. I shed lots of tears. And then one day in the shower I was boohooing and begging the Lord to please send me some peace and He did. It came into my mind that I had two choices: 1. I could fold like a deck of cards and give into all my fears and all the hormonal changes and let it control our lives OR 2. I could put on my big girl panties (literally a few months later hahaha) and do everything I possibly could to make this a fun and happy time for us. The Lord blessed me beyond measure with choice #2 and taught me so many lessons over the course of the last 10 months of my life.

The first night after Henry was born and he was laying on my chest in the middle of the night, I looked down at him and started crying because I just couldn’t believe he was here and he was mine and he was perfectly healthy. And it was so strange to me to think about how scared and worried I was in the beginning and I whispered to him “I’m so sorry I was so scared to have you.”

9 months later....

John Henry Mizell
Born November 28th, 2016 at 8:04 a.m.
Weighed 8lbs, 11oz and was 20 1/4th inches long.

Stay tuned, I plan on blogging again. Hahahaha, yeah I know! Really though, I cannot let this little guy grow up with out the same attention to documentation that his older siblings received. AND I take WAY better pictures now than I did 5 years ago not to mention 9 years ago when I started this blog :) so I have to get back into it. I really lost the desire to take pictures much with my big camera while I was pregnant with him. And I really lost ALL desire and then some to sit at the computer for any length of time. 

i’m setting the bar very low this time and plan on blogging just once a week to start with. I honestly have NO IDEA how I blogged as much as I did when the twins were newborn. Newborns are exhausting and so time consuming. But oh my goodness the joy that they bring to a family surpasses any thing else.