Updates on Clifton -
He is so very helpful and has taken on the big brother role so well.  However we have had to set a limit to how many hugs he can give him in a day and a rule that he cannot touch him or talk to him while he is eating.  He just loves Stanley so much.

Updates on McKay -
She is struggling!  I am assuming it is because Stanley has arrived, but she is quite difficult.  She cries all the time and about everything.  And the screaming is back and worse.  Nothing seems to work with disciplining her.  But we are trying hard to teach her to use her words and how to express her emotions appropriately.

Updates on Stanley -
His thrush is completely gone! He spits up a lot and often, I am afraid its acid reflux.  However the doctors says as long as he isn't mad about it he is just a happy spitter.  We will see.  All I know is that it has made for a ton of dirty laundry.

It's crazy how fast they grow.  He is getting big and fast.

I made a big and hard decision this week to be done with watching Evan.  It was such a hard decision because he is pretty much one of my kids and we love him so much.  However I know that simpler is what is best for my family right now.  I am sure I could take it on, but newborns add so much unknown to my day.  I want to be able to provide Evan with quality care.  He will still be in our life of course well because we love him and he is stuck being friends with us!

I got back into working out this week and it has felt so good.  I am obviously not able to give it my 100% yet but it feels so good to sweat.  I am so ready to be back in shape!  But sadly it will be a process, but I am ready to work hard.

The kids and I spent a lot of our days at the Y and taking walks.  Thankfully we had a beautiful week of weather that allowed us to get out and go to the park.

Lots and lots of cuddling this week.  I forget how hard it is to put a newborn down.  We could just cuddle with him all day long.

My three kiddos.

It might be craziness at my house these days trying to figure out how life with three kids works, but man it is so very full of love and blessings.  I love them so much.  Being a mom is hard but the best thing I have ever done with my life.

Back to Reality

Updates on Clifton -
He is still crazy about Stanley, but we are having to talk a lot about personal space.  If he could he would snuggle up to Stanley all day long (so would I).  One of my favorite things is watching him with Stanley when he doesn't know we are watching.  He has cute conversations with him.  Once he was talking to him and Stanley shivered.  Clifton said "oh no Stanley you must be cold" and went and got him another blanket.  I love it!  He is a great big brother.

Updates on McKay -
She is struggling a little.  She doesn't seem to mind having Stanley around but she is crying and screaming a little more often.  Or maybe I am just more tired and have harder time with it.  She refused to go to dance class Thursday which was hard for me because it took a lot for me to get showered and out of the door by 9 just to have her not go.  Hopefully this is just a phase.

Updates on Stanley -
He got circumcised Friday and not too happy about it.  Can't blame the poor boy,  I forget how horrible it is.  He also is still fighting thrush but we were given different medicine so that should help.  But even through all that he is quiet amazing!  It is crazy how much you can love a little thing that can't talk or express love yet, keeps you up all night, and poops a lot.  But MAN do we all love him very much.

Well back to reality.  All the help has gone and its up to me.  Alex went back to work this week.  That is always hard.  But we survived the week.  We got out and about, but the exhaustion has hit and hard.  The first week I was running on adrenaline and now its settling in.  I need to learn how to make it through with little sleep.  I forget how hard it is.  With that being said I have had a lot of time to think about things and have been thinking about the hard times.  My goal this year and from here on out is to never forget.  As a mom I don't want to forget the hard times.  They are just as important as the great times.  I never want to forget how hard this is, how tiring, how emotional, how stressful, etc... I want to remember what it feels like to struggle so that I can be helpful with my words and actions to other moms and to my kids when they have kids someday.  I want to remember this so I can be of use and less judgmental towards others.  I also want to remember what it feels like to have people offering to help (even if I am stubborn and don't take it), remember the words that hurt, and the things that made me feel good in the struggle.  Parenthood is hard with one kid or twenty.  It's hard!  BUT TOTALLY WORTH IT!  Anyway off my soapbox :)

This week in a nutshell... tons of cuddling and oohing and aahing over Baby Stanley.

 His Zoolander face!

Having another kid has been good for my other kids.  They are learning to play with each other more and have grown up a lot over the last two weeks.

Kicking them outside was needed and I was very thankful for the sun shining this week.

Saturday was Stanley's baby shower!  It was so much fun to get together and everyone meet Stanley.

I left feeling so loved.  I am blessed with amazing friends and family in my life.  This whole week I have had many visitors and meals.  I cannot help but feel so grateful.

My sister, her family, and my mom came to town for the baby shower.  So went spent the day together.  My mom is quite amazing and took Clifton and McKay out to play with their cousins and insisted Alex and I go out on a date (Stanley too).

We decided to try a new place... Blazing Onions.  It was super nice to get out together and Stanley slept through the whole thing.

My boys in their Sunday best.

Clifton really wants to match Stanley.  This was pretty close.  I will have to start getting matching outfits.  They are cute!

After church we went to Alex's parents house to celebrate Dec/Jan birthdays and watch the Seahawks game.

The cutest 12th man I know!

All the Seahawks fans until about 7 minutes left in the game :)  Crazy game... good work Seahawks! Super Bowl here we come.

Grandma and Grandpa Peterson with the youngest grandbabies.  Another fun day with family!

Stanley's First Week

Updates with Clifton -
He loves Stanley!  Loves him!  He wants to hold, hug, kiss, and snuggle him all day.  He has also been an amazing helper.  Getting diapers, wipes, throwing diapers in the trash, and so much more.  I sure hope this continues.

Updates with McKay -
She likes Stanley (doing a lot better than I expected).
She sure is defiant though.  NO is her word and is not afraid to yell it.  Alex and I are trying to figure out the best consequence for her because she doesn't seem to care much when we put her in time out.

Updates on Stanley -
He is doing well.  We ended up at the doctors a couple days after his birthday because he was crying a ton and not eating.  He had thrush and things are better now that he is on medicine.  We have also discovered his tummy doesn't like Enfamil, it makes he throw up half of his bottle every time he eats.  So we are sticking with Similac again.  But all is well we are working on figuring him out.  We sure do love him!

This week was a lot of staying at home figuring out Stanley and what it means to be a family of five.  We had a lot of help from my mother and my mother in law, which we are so very thankful for.  Alex also had the week off to help. We are very blessed to have so much help from family and friends around us.

 Stanley's first bath.  He didn't love it.

Look what I caught on camera.  He is our smiley sleeper.  It might just be gas but it is the cutest thing I have ever seen.  I am very happy I got to capture it on camera.

 Love this cute face.

 Just cuddling in bed for scripture and song time.

 Can you tell he is quite loved here?

First church trip and looking mighty cute.

I am feeling pretty good.  Really swollen but it has come down a lot this week.  I am very very happy to have my body back, now to get it in shape again :)  We are all very ready to get back into a routine of things.

Stanley Rex Peterson

This blog is a little different than the others but I wanted whole blog dedicated to our newest... Stanley Rex Peterson.

It all started Friday evening.  That day I got to spend with my best friend and her kiddos and then that evening Alex wanted to take me out on a date.  Alex could tell that I needed to relax and take my mind off of trying to go into labor.  So off we went.  As soon as we sat down for the movie my contractions became consistent and a little painful.  We went to see Interstellar so I was hoping to make it through the whole 3 hour long movie.  And I did!  Even though the movie didn't turn out to be that great:/  After the movie I decided we should head into the doctors.  Good thing I had a hunch to pack the hospital bag and bring it with us.  When we got there I was 5 cm dilated and 100% effaced.  So I thought I would be having my baby on its due date!  But this one decided to take its time, compared to the other two.  9 hours later I was still contracting, at 7.5 cm, and it was close to 3am.  I was so tired and decided to cave and ask for an epidural.  I kind of wish I didn't because about 10 minutes after the epidural I was ready to push.  Ah well. 

Here is where it gets a little crazy.  I waned all the nurses that when I am ready to go, I go fast.  It probably didn't seem like it because I was in labor already a lot longer than my others.  Anyway the nurse decided to have me push before calling the on call doctor to make sure I was ready.  I pushed she then told me to stop and that she will call the doctor.  "The doctor will be here in 15 minutes,"  she said.  So I laid down feeling good and numb and excited to get pushing.  All of the sudden a few nurses run into our room and are messing with the heart monitor on my belly and making me move around.  Then they got out an oxygen mask and threw it on me.  I immediately freaked out!  I couldn't talk with it on so I couldn't ask questions or anything.  they just kept saying to breath nice and slow.  Next the emergency (not on call doctor) came running in.  He was obviously in a rush and frustrated. He started throwing things out of the way, yelling at the nurses to get my legs up and ready, and demanding to know why I was in this condition without a doctor in the room.  Alex stood by my side the whole time holding onto my hand trying to stay calm because I was obviously freaking out.  Finally the doctor yells at me to push and again and again.  Luckily I do come fast and he was out in 5 pushes.  There was a pause which seemed to last forever and no one said a thing.  Until Alex broke the silence and said, "it's a boy!"  All I could say was, "is he breathing?"  Just then he started crying.  I was so happy to hear his little cry and to know he is fine.  I started crying myself out of pure terror that something bad could have happened.

After all the shock came off Alex and I got to talk about what had just happened.  The nurse and doctor came in to talk about it as well.  It seems that when the nurse had me try a push before calling the doctor it had pushed him into the birthing canal where he was getting squished and made his heart rate drop down real low and at times they couldn't even find his heart rate.  So the longer baby was in the canal the more at risk he was.  The emergency doctor did his job real fast and we got baby out in time before anything went drastically wrong.  Thank heavens!  It was all fine at the end but it gave Alex and I one of the biggest scares of our lives.

After the all the checks, room switch, and annoying security issues (his band kept setting off the alarm like 5 times) we were able to get some rest at 8am.  And we were finally feeling the most excitement of our little Stanley's arrival.  We are in love with him and his perfection.

He was born at 3:38 am January 3rd weighing 7lbs and 1oz and 20.5 inches long. My smallest!  He came out super alert and content.  He also came out and first thing he did was put his thumb in his mouth. 

Later that day my mom brought our kids to meet their new brother.

Clifton was over the moon about having a brother.  He knew it!  He kept telling me he knew it was a boy.  It was great to have everyone there, I couldn't help but feeling insanely blessed.

The next couple days at the hospital we were spoiled with visitors.  I have never felt so loved from all the visits, calls, and messages expressing congrats and making sure all was well.

We tried to make the best of the stay.  I really hate hospitals and so the visitors really helped time pass.  

 Bath time!

 Just chilling watching some basketball. Boy time has already started.

 Oh the cuddles!

Sunday we got to go home!

Clifton was so excited for our arrival and really wants to hold and cuddle Stanley all day.  He has been amazing at helping and loves his brother so much.  I hope this continues.  It melts my heart!  McKay isn't nearly as excited as Clifton but she has asked to hold him and help do some things.

2015 the New Year

Updates on Clifton -
He has been super anxious for baby to get here and certain it was a boy.  The other day he grabbed the ultrasound pictures off of the fridge and said the baby has no hair that is why he knows we are having a boy.  I sure love him!

Updates on McKay -
She has been needing naps this week.  Not sure if that means naps are back or she is just extra tired.
Sunday was her first day as a SUNBEAM!  I wasn't able to make it but my mother took them to church and she did great!

Baby Peterson #3 -
Baby Stanley Rex Peterson came on January 3rd at 3:38 pm weighing 7lbs and 1oz and 20.5 inches.  I will write a separate post about him and his delivery.  We love him so much already.

Monday for FHE we talked about the year 2014 and the new year coming up.  It was one of my favorite FHE's.  I printed pictures of our favorite memories from 2014.  I hid them around the room and let the kids find them.  We talked about each picture/memory.  We then talked about which memory was our favorite.  We are super blessed to have so many wonderful memories and traditions.

With my mom in town we have been busy exploring and trying to get my mind off of baby coming.  My mother was so helpful and kept the kids entertained for us.  Wednesday we went bowling and had a lot of fun.

Yep 39 weeks and bowling!  I was hoping it might put me into labor  and for the record pregnant me still got it :)  Yep I beat Alex, my mom killed us all, but I beat Alex!

 Just celebrating a good bowl.

Alex showed Clifton how to bowl all by himself and he loved it and was quite good.  He sure is growing up.

That night we did a small little new years celebration at 8.  This is the first year we have done any celebrating with the kids.

They didn't quite get why we were celebrating but we had a fun night making cookies, making a mess celebrating (Alex was not too happy about the confetti), and eating yummy treats.

The rest of the week we were having baby Stanley and getting use having a little one again.