Getting to Know Violet

I can hardly believe our little Violet is one month old already!  It is still sinking in that we have been blessed with three healthy baby girls.  Here are my three girls below sharing sister love.

Will is an old pro at snuggling baby girls by now, and even wears the tell-tale signs of seasoned fatherhood on his shoulder (baby spit up - upper right hand picture below) with confidence.  

That's not to say that we haven't had our ups and downs these past couple of weeks while adjusting to our new family dynamics.  Will and I have alternated exchanging looks over the tops of three screaming girls heads of "What were we thinking" and "We should have had twins."

Three is more than a handful, however Lucy and Emma have found a new thing to fight over - their beloved baby sister - and at times I think it would be easier if I had brought two babies home from the hospital.  To my friends with twins - I know this is crazy talk.  And to my friends with two girls - you know what I mean!  Violet usually gives the fighting older sisters the below look...

And when peace descends upon us, Violet will reward us with a beautiful smile and soft little coos.  Here she is below just starting a smile.  I have yet to catch the full smile with my camera, as the smiles are still so new that I am too busy basking in the beauty of her face shining up at me.

Violet's big sisters love to participate in any activity involving Violet's care.  Diaper changes and baths are the highlights, although they also love to fight over who gets the pacifier, burp cloth, socks, pick out her outfit, etc.  Here are Lucy and Emma below, helping Violet get her first real bath.

Violet has met a lot of family and friends during her first month of life.  I tried my best to get a picture of every person that met her for the first time, however missed several people.  Below is a sampling of all the love that Violet has been received with.  My side of the family…

Will's side of the family which feels like my side of the family too…

Some of our friends that are like family to us…

And some of our friends kids, which feel like family too…

We have definitely been blessed by lots of love and support this past month to help us ease into life with a newborn again.  We are also blessed by the fact that Violet is a good sleeper so far.  I say so far, because we are still scarred from Violet's older two sisters sleep habits and we know that there is no guarantee of a good night sleep.  Here Violet is below getting cuddled by me before bedtime.

Violet doesn't require swaddling to sleep like her older sisters, nor walks around the block or crazy rocking, however does enjoy the aspects of socially imitated sleep.  Here she is below not only sharing a nap, but also the same sleep position of the person lucky enough to catch some zzz's with her.

Here she is below, sleeping solo.

Violet also enjoys sleeping in a baby wrap that I wear.  This has been very useful, not just around the house when I don't have time to put her down for a nap or she is being fussy as well as when we are out and about.  This is one of my absolute favorite parts of having a newborn.  I love the feel of her warmth, cuddled up on me and the top of her head right under my chin, ready to be kissed any time I want.  The below picture was taken at her very first outing - the Farmer's Market.

Her second outing was to the local pottery studio where we have had each of our children's foot prints painted onto a tile.  I now have all four sets of foot prints hanging in our bedroom and they are some of my most treasured possessions.

Another treasured possession is the below growth chart Will made when Lucy was a baby.  Here are all four of my babies birth lengths recorded at the bottom.  Both the above and below items are extra special to me because it is one of the few ways I can have all four of my children's names together.

The last significant outing of Violet's first month of life was a trip to the cemetery.  After each of our girls were born, we have taken them to visit Luke's grave and put their tiny feet onto Luke's foot prints we have engraved on his head stone.  This is yet another way that I am able to see my four babies together on earth.

It was a beautiful day when we went to the cemetery so we were able to plant flowers for the season as well as enjoy a nice picnic lunch.

This month has flown by as we have gotten to know Violet.  So far she is a good sleeper and is generally a very laid back little girl.  When she is hungry however, she will go from a sound sleep or a sweet smile to a full out, heart breaking, nerve shattering scream-cry in a second flat.  As long as Violet is fed, burped and in a clean diaper though, she is content and happy.  Violet looks so much like Lucy and Emma when they were babies it is amazing.  Of course Lucy and Emma like to fight over who she looks like more but the truth is all three look strikingly similar.  It will be interesting to see how her features change and grow as time goes on, but she already is setting herself apart from her older sisters by her size.  She weighed at least a full pound more at birth and is in the 90th percentile for length.  Lucy and Emma were between the 20th and 50th percentile for their length.  Violet completed her first month of life at 10 pounds and grew an inch and a half already.  We are so glad she is finally here and a member of our family!

Welcome to the World Violet Rose Timmerman!

On the day Lucy was born, the tulips in our yard began blooming.  On the day Emma was born, the daffodils had just started blooming.  On April 12 this past month, Lucy discovered the violets in our yard were in bloom.  As this was still a ways from Violet's due date, we still took the appearance of Violet's flowers as a good sign.  

On May 3 the violets were still blooming and my bees arrived.  Will installed them for me, as I tried to stifle my jealousy and let go of my need for control.  Will did a great job with me dictating to him from the dining room window.

We also visited the Farmer's Market opening day and I talked with many fellow suburban farmers about the new laws regarding the Michigan Right to Farm Act that no longer protected us.  I was pretty fired up all day about the fact that Michigan took such a backwards step in sustainability.  Here I am below with not much physical energy left, but plenty of passion about my God given rights to produce my own food on my own property.

On Saturday night, I finished tucking the girls in and sat down in the rocking chair outside their bedroom door to ensure a speedy road to sleep while Will went to pick up a movie at our local Red Box.  Will had finished his college class the night before and everything else on our To Do List was finally complete with the installation of the bees that morning.  We finally had time for a relaxing evening together and were going to celebrate with a movie.  I logged on to Facebook on my phone and started chatting with my friend and fellow chicken owner while I waited for Emma and Lucy to fall asleep.  She wisely advised me to focus on the little human growing inside of me and put trips to city hall and conversations with state representatives aside for now.  

Just as I realized she was right, and that part of my fired up anger was probably due to hormones, I dropped my phone.  As I leaned down to pick it up I felt a gush of hot water and realized that my water broke!  The bathroom was literally four steps away so I rushed to the toilet and was amazed at all of the water coming out of me.  I yelled for Lucy who was still awake and she came running, but stopped short when she saw the water all over the bathroom floor.  I had her grab my cell phone - still on the floor - and pass it gingerly over the puddles to me.  I called Will, who later told me that he thought I was going to tell him to pick up something to eat, and told him to forget the movie and come home!  I called my doctor and my sister who was going to stay with the girls and then spent the next couple of minutes trying to calm down Lucy's excitement and deal with the water still flowing out of me.  

For the next two hours, Emma slept soundly while our house became a bustle of activity.  Will set up the air mattress in Violet's room for my sister, did a load of laundry and cleaned up the house.  Lucy bounced back and forth between Will and I, barely able to contain herself from the excitement of being a part of grown up things.  I finally convinced her to lay down with me as I waited for the contractions to start.  About a half hour after Lucy finally fell asleep, my contractions started and my sister arrived from Bowling Green.  Things were unfolding very nicely.  Here I am below, before we headed for the hospital.  My water continued to leak in big spurts and I had gone through all of the pants I had owned, leaving me to go to the hospital in a pair of pajama bottoms that didn't cover my belly completely.  I wasn't in so much pain yet that I was still self-conscious about my belly hanging out.  

I left a trail of water from the check in desk, into the elevator, through double doors into triage and then down a long hallway to my hospital room.  My water has never broken at home before, and I continued to be amazed and honestly, alarmed at the mess of it all.  It was after midnight by the time we were settled into our room and the contractions were becoming steady, with no breaks in between.  I listened to the song "A Thousand Years" on my iPhone on repeat the entire night while bouncing on the birthing ball and inhaling essential oils in the diffuser I brought from home.  The lights were out in the room and Will slept on and off as I alternated between bouncing and waddling to and from the bathroom to pee.  By seven in the morning I was exhausted and starting to get discouraged and Will was joking with the nurses that we had heard the song "A Thousand Years" at least a thousand times by now.  My doctor decided that I wasn't having true contractions because there were no breaks in between them and prescribed pitocin to get things going.  I reluctantly agreed, but asked for an epidural first.  I've done pitocin before with both Luke and Emma, and in my opinion, at that point the natural birth wagon has left the building.  Will mentioned from a reclined position on the fold out bed that since the nurse was here with the petocin to just let her get it started so that we didn't "waste any more time" waiting for the epidural.  If looks could kill, his estimated time of death would have been 7:05 a.m.  I calmly told him that since he wasn't the one in pain, he could continue to waste time on the fold out bed and that I would be waiting patiently for my epidural before a drop of pitocin went into my veins, thank you very much.  Needless to say, I got my epidural and they started the pitocin and a little over three and a half hours later our beautiful daughter arrived!

Weighing in at 8 pounds, 10 ounces she was my biggest baby by almost a pound, and at 21 inches long she was almost an inch longer than Lucy and Emma were too.  Will and I kept exclaiming how chubby she was and couldn't believe that she was finally here!

Her hair had tiny ringlets in it and we can't help but wonder if this is a sign of curly hair to come!  Only time will tell and if she follows in her big sisters footsteps, we may have to wait at least two years before there is enough hair to tell.

Violet enjoyed her first bath and when the nurse rinsed her hair under the faucet, Violet got a look of such contentment on her face that you could almost hear her sigh.  This is definitely a switch from her big sisters, who screamed through their first baths and still scream when we rinse their hair.

Later that afternoon, my sister brought the girls to meet Violet.  They woke up at their usual sunny seven in the morning and had been begging my sister to bring them to the hospital to meet Violet ever since.  Since Violet hadn't even been born yet, Lucy, Emma (and poor Aunt Jane!) definitely had a lesson in patience May 4th!  The wait was worth it though and the girls were immediately in love.

They have also been arguing over whose turn it is to hold Violet ever since!

Our family of five on earth, together at last!  I missed my older girls so much, and it was heaven on earth to have all three of them snuggled on me.

It was especially emotional to kiss and hug Emma who is now my middle child.  So far she seems to be taking the transition smoothly and is very proud of her big sister status.

The girls hung out with Aunt Jane in our hospital room for a while as we all got used to the new dynamics of another addition to our family.  I like the bottom right hand picture below, featuring the newest set of chubby cheeks, with her older sister's still chubby cheeks in the background.

The next morning at the hospital I took a nap while Will went to spend time with Lucy and Emma at home.  I have to admit that I was in and out of sleep for most of the morning, and when hospital staff came in to deal with Violet's birth certificate, newborn pictures, hearing test, heart test, etc. I didn't make a move and they let me be.  This was huge for me, after being up for all of Saturday night and most of Sunday night.  When I finally woke up for good, all of the different staff came back at the same time and very efficiently took care of what they needed to.  This should be standard procedure in my opinion, as there are so many interruptions it makes it impossible to sleep.  With that being said, I still wanted to go home on the early side, and with my doctor's blessing all we needed was for Violet to be over 24 hours old so that she could do her Newborn Screening test, and we could then go home.  She finished her last test like a pro and then the girls came to join in the Newborn photo shoot and to take us home.  Here is Violet below, with some of the pictures from her photo shoot.  I especially like the bottom left hand picture, of Lucy and Emma holding Violet's feet.

The blanket was made by a dear friend of mine while I was pregnant with Luke, and has ever since been called "Luke's blanket".  It has come to the hospital to help welcome each of Luke's three baby sisters and at this point is a treasured family heirloom.  Here Violet is below, snuggling Will in Luke's blanket after the hard work of posing for her portrait.

With several hospital delays, we were eventually given the green light to go home.  Here we are below dressing Violet in her going home outfit, and then the view of our backseat finally being filled with all three of my girls.  Bringing our baby home from the hospital is very emotional for Will and I, as we will never forget what it was like on the drive home after our first baby was born and we had to leave him behind.  With each of his sisters since, the first car ride home is always full of gratitude and emotion and we make a point for all of our earth side children to be a part of it.

We arrived home around dinner time, exhausted but elated to be in our own home, together as our new little family of five on earth.

At almost a week old, Violet is a sweet, cuddly little girl who seems to know each of her family member's voices already.  She enjoys having her diaper changed, eating and sleeping and really doesn't have time for annoying things like burping.  Violet, we are so glad you are here!

April Transitions

So many things have changed this past month from the weather to the ages of my daughters, and even the layout of our house.  We began the month by moving Lucy and Emma into the same bedroom together.  It was quite an undertaking but we are very pleased with the results.  Will made the girls each their own matching headboard that coordinates with the bookcase that we made for Lucy when we were preparing for Emma's arrival three years ago.  My job was to tackle the mountain of outgrown clothes in Lucy's walk in closet, as the dresser that the girls now share had to be moved into the closet to make way for another bed in the room.  In the below left hand picture you can see the sheer volume of clothes - organized and put away to be handed down to the next sister. 

I had fun ordering a couple of things from Etsy to make the girls room special and unique, and Will had fun indulging me.  Will and I had an ongoing disagreement as to the design of the headboards - he wanted what I equate to masculine looking headboards, and I wanted girly looking ones.  He eventually made the headboards how I wanted them, with the caveat that I tell everyone who sees them that it is my design and not his.  Deal.  I think everything turned out really nice and the girls have adjusted relatively fast to being roommates.  At bedtime we have had to play "prison warden" and sit in a rocking chair outside their room to expedite the sleeping process, but we are hoping to gradually give them the keys to their own freedom, and in return, our freedom too.

I finally feel like our dream of filling our cozy three bedroom bungalow with our future children is finally about to come true.  I can't tell you how excited I am to have Violet to kiss goodnight in Emma's old room, and Lucy and Emma to kiss goodnight in their new room.  My house and happiness runneth over!

With winter finally transitioning into spring we still spent a lot of time indoors.  The girls both got drawing books from the library this month and have enjoyed learning how to draw animals.  They have also sufficiently proven that they only bounce off the walls when they are inside, and the tease of spring weather every couple of days has made it harder than ever to be stuck inside.

Lucy also became interested in making balloon animals this past month, inspired by a Max & Ruby episode as well as a balloon animal kit she spotted at the local craft store.  She hounded us until we took her back to the store with her own money to buy the kit, and then we headed to the library and got a DVD and a book to learn how to make the balloon creations.  Will's uncle who is a professional clown also gave Will and Lucy a tutorial on Easter.  Will's progress has been impressive, as has Lucy's ability to blow up the balloons for him with her little hand pump.

Below are the girls standing in front of the last of our winter snow.  It is amazing the transition the weather has made over this past month.

Spring has sprung and we have definitely taken advantage of every minute of good weather it has brought.  In the below left hand picture, the girls are using a magnifying glass to examine a bumble bee that landed on a bouquet of daffodils Lucy had picked that morning.

Emma, now that she is three, is allowed to have nail polish on her finger nails.  We painted them for the first time this past month outside.  It was Lucy's first time having nail polish on her finger nails too, as after about four years of habitual nail biting, she finally broke the habit and has nails long enough to paint.

We went directly from snow banks to planting our garden, which was a little strange to adjust our minds to.  The girls were able to help for most of it, and in the bottom left hand picture, Emma's chubby little finger is pointing at the first signs of our asparagus coming back after being buried for months under several feet of snow.  In the top right hand picture below you will see that spring fever has hit our chickens as well, and they are laying eggs like crazy.  Will also transplanted our rhubarb out of the fenced portion of our garden and into a nice hedge in front of the garden as we discovered the local deer do not eat it.  So far we are able to maximize the unfenced portions of our yard with food the deer won't eat - asparagus, rhubarb and soon a potato bed that Will is hoping to put in this coming month.  I have a feeling they would stay away from our garlic and onions too, but I will try out some test plants this year first before transplanting anything.

Charlie has caught spring fever it seems as well, and has been on the prowl.  Multiple mice and even a squirrel tail have all been presented to us since the weather has become more mild.  Below is the squirrel tail before Will picked it up with a stick and put it in the trash.

And if the squirrel tail isn't enough to turn your stomach, let me tell you about the latest stomach bug that hit our family.  Fortunately this time it only hit the kids and I was able to stay healthy, being nine months pregnant!  I also counted my blessings that this time Lucy and Emma were hit with the bug at the exact same time, so we didn't have prolonged sickness - especially since they were throwing up for well over 48 hours.  In the top picture below, I took a panoramic shot of my spot camped out on the couch with the barf bucket and a hand on each sick kiddos head.  There were times where I didn't even get a chance to clean out the barf bucket and the other kid needed it.  I have never cleaned up so much vomit in my life.  I'm sure there will be stomach bugs in the future to trump this one, but for now, it was the worst one I have ever had to play nurse for.  The girls were still recovering on Emma's birthday and friends of ours in the middle right hand picture did a drive by birthday gift drop off so as not to catch the germs we had.  We visited in the driveway with car glass between us for a nice amount of time, and Emma even opened up her birthday present from them right there on the driveway.  In the below bottom right hand picture we were all healthy enough to do birthday snuggles with our same friends on Lucy's birthday.  

The kids became stricken with head colds when I was exactly at the point in my pregnancy with Violet that we lost Luke.  I was feeling very isolated and alone, at home with two cranky girls and a head cold myself as well.  A friend of mine called me up unexpectedly and said she was in the area and could she stop by.  I told her we were under quarantine, and she asked if I needed anything at the store instead.  She stopped by a bit later and dropped off a beautiful bouquet of flowers, a pack of my favorite hot chocolate and the movie Frozen for the girls to watch while they were recovering.  I can't tell you how this thoughtfulness changed my perspective on the day, and made me instantly go from what could have been a bad day, to an actually happy, hopeful day.  Amazing that I could find joy in a day filled with snot and cranky, sick kids.  To ice the cake of my day, proving that I have the most loving supporters, my cousin called and told me she was thinking about me and Violet, and she just knew everything was going to be okay.  I told her about the significance of the day, and she was certain that Luke put it on hers and my other friend's heart to reach out to me that day.  Needless to say, I felt so loved that all worry about Violet dissipated into gratitude. 

Despite head colds and the stomach flu, we were still able to visit with friends this past month.  The top two pictures below are of the girls playing with friends of ours, and the bottom two pictures are of the girls at our friend's daughter's 5th birthday tea party.  In both cases, Will and I were in the background, equally enjoying our time spent with their parents.

This past Sunday we had our immediate family over to celebrate Lucy and Emma's birthdays.  We tried to make it as low key as possible for the sake of my swelling feet and exhaustion.  We ordered pizza from our favorite local pizza joint, and while Will tidied up the house I made and decorated their birthday cake.  Despite my lack of energy, I wanted their party to be special.  The girls chose a rainbow butterfly theme and as luck would have it, inspiration struck and we were able to pull it off with little to no advanced planning.  Lucy picked daffodils from our yard to decorate the tables with, and we bought a butterfly paper punch and made rainbow butterfly confetti for the tables and the cake.

My parents, Will's parents, and all of our siblings except for two that both reside in Ohio were able to make it to the party.  Will's brother and my sister are saving the trip from Ohio for Violet's birth, which we are hoping will be soon!  As you can see in the picture below, the grandmas enjoyed posing for pictures and the grandpas are nowhere to be seen.

The girls enjoyed opening their gifts and a popular theme was clothes, games and books.  All welcome items at our house!

Here are the April birthday sisters below, posing with the cake.  Lucy picked fresh violets from the yard to decorate the top of the cake with too, so in a way, all three of my girls are represented below.

Will Violet arrive before this month is officially over?  With just over 24 hours left in the busiest month of the year for us, only time will tell!  Either way, how many people can say that the last month of their pregnancy just flew by?  Fortunately, I can!