Kerith's First Couple of Days

Well, Monday and Tuesday, Eric's parents kept MJ and EM to give us a little break and some time alone with Kerith. So Wednesday was our first full day with all three little munchkins. It went well--I think we were very ready just to see them again and have them back home. And then today was my first day with all three by myself. Overall, not too bad. MJ and EM played most of the day, and I got a nap with Kerith when EM took his nap. I think Elijah is adjusting pretty well. He still tries to get me to pick him up, but he's kind of starting to get used to me telling him to hold my hand and walk with me :) I'll have help tomorrow though, and Eric will be here for the weekend, so I am thankful for that.

Here are some pictures of Kerith's first few days here. She has been the typical newborn so far--eats, sleeps, pees and poops :) I tried to get her to stay awake some today b/c she decided to wake pretty often last night--we'll see if it helps out any tonight :) I had her in the swing earlier, and Mikaela and Elijah were both sitting on the floor next to her trying to swing her way too hard and get her to talk to them :) Elijah's still not sure what to think. He did get pretty concerned yesterday when Jackie came over to prick Kerith's heel. She was crying pretty decently, and he came over to "see what he could do." :)

So where did the name Kerith come from? Well, in I Kings 17, the Lord commands Elijah to proclaim a drought and then tells him to hide by the Brook Cherith, and the ravens fed Elijah there. So we just changed the Ch to a K :)

Introducing...

Another sweet baby girl, Kerith Love Axelson! (pronounced care'-ith). This little sweetie decided she wanted to stay in Mommy 2 weeks longer than her sister and brother. So she was born today, March 23 at 7:56 am (her actual due date!). She came in at 8 lbs. 5 oz!! and was 20.5 inches long--so definitely my biggest baby thus far :)

So here's the story:
Kerith has actually been teasing me somewhat for about a month now. But around 3 this morning, I started having some fairly strong contractions anywhere from 7-10 minutes apart. I was somewhat monitoring them for about 2 hours--still trying not to get my hopes up b/c I'd been teased so many times already. Finally around 5, I was thinking these really could be the real thing, so I told Eric I was going to take a shower to see if they (the contractions) hung around or not. They did, so I decided to clean the bathroom just to make sure they were still coming. They did! So around 5:45, we called our midwife, Jackie. I had really strong, hard close-together contractions from around 6-7:30. Jackie arrived a couple of minutes after 7. Around 7:40 or so, I had a very strong contraction that broke my water, and it was all pushing from there! I had to push really hard off and on for 15-20 minutes, and my little munchkin finally popped out at 7:56! She was much harder to get out than her brother was, but I guess that's what happens when you weigh a solid pound and a half more! We'd prepared Mikaela for a few weeks now and asked if she wanted to watch the baby come out. So it was cool for her to have a front-row seat getting to watch her much longed-for sister come out. She wasn't really a fan of the mess or Mommy's grunting during pushing, and she asked where the baby's clothes were :) but overall, she was super excited to have the baby come today and that it was a sister.

My thoughts this time around:
1) I'm sooo thankful the Lord gave us another wonderful birth without any complications and a nice, pink healthy baby to go along with it.
2) Five-hour laboring HURTS as compared to the gradual day and a half laboring with EM. But this was good for me, as it helps to humble me. I would definitely still do it again, but I think I have a lot more compassion now for people who labor hard for a much longer period of time. I'm very grateful right now for only an hour and a half of really hard laboring.

Overall, it was a wonderful experience, but I'm very glad it's over and Kerith is out :) Sorry for the phone pics, but that's all I could muster up for today--I'm sure there will be many more within the next few days!

My Little Jumping Beans

Taking the cushions off the couch and jumping has become one of Mikaela's and Elijah's favorite pasttimes. I think Eric got more of a kick out of this one than anybody though :) Sorry--it's a little on the long side!

Monkey See, Monkey Do

So my little man sees Mikaela putting on some sort of shoes all the time--why can't he do the same? :)

Pet Food

So for the past few weeks, Mikaela has slowly pulled all the maroon trim from around this basket, torn it into small pieces and puts it in little containers as in these pics or into my muffin pan. Didn't you know it makes great food for all her "amimals?" :) I'm curious to see what their food will be in a day or two when all the maroon trim is gone :)