Happy Birthday, Mr. Three!

3 years ago today I was on my way to a routine Dr.'s appointment. It was a Wednesday and the previous weekend had been a little hairy.... Friday morning I went to the hospital after having contractions right on top of each other all night long. I wouldn't let Mark go with me because I insisted that I would be coming back home WITHOUT a baby so there would really be no point to him coming along. I got there and they hooked me up to some machines to monitor the contractions. I remember the nurse coming in at one point to look at the paper spitting out of the machine and having a conversation with her that went something like this:

me: they seem to be a lot more mild now, I knew as soon as I came in things would stop.

Nurse: Well, it's always good to come in if your contractions are between 5-10 minutes apart and are at least a minute long and it looks like you are still contracting at least every 3-5 minutes.

me: Oh...but they're not even CLOSE to a minute long, right?...

Nurse: actually, your last one was 90 seconds.

me: oh. er. so what do we do now?

Nurse: Well, I'm just going to go and call Dr. Nichols and see if he wants you to deliver your baby or try to stop the labor.

me: WHAT?!!! I'm 5 weeks early, isn't that TOO early, isn't it automatic that you would at least TRY to stop my labor?

Nurse: Well, sometimes it's better at this stage to let nature take it's course, but I won't know anything until I see what he wants us to do.

me: Urgh. Okay, but if you think it would help could you please tell him that I really really CAN'T have this baby today!

Nurse: I will let him know.

I really said that, and I really meant it. I was absolutely NOT ready or prepared for this baby to come. We had no car seat for one thing. I'm not quite sure why, as we did have two other children and obviously had a car seat for them, but I think it may have gotten misplaced in our move. Also, it was coming up on Sam's birthday in less than a week and I had not bought a THING for him or made any other birthday-ish preperations. And, let's not forget the fact that my due date was OVER a month away!!! The thought that I could actually be having this baby right away absolutely overwhelmed me. Lucky for me, my wonderful doctor. sided with me and had the nurses give me a shot to try to stop the labor, and it WORKED! Happy HAPPY DAY! They sent me home with strict instructions to go straight home and take it easy. Yeah, right. I rushed home, picked up Sam from the neighbors house and took off to find a car seat, get a hospital bag ready, pick up some birthday presents and help Sam pick out a cake. Then had a yucky weekend of more contractions and a general feeling of total discomfort.

Okay, back to my routine Dr. Appointment on Wednesday - as I said before, it had been a rough week. I was ready to go in and have my doctor announce that all was well and to keep on keeping on. Not so. For starters I had lost weight, which apparently isn't a good thing when you're in your last stage of pregnancy. Then, when he measured me around the belly I was exactly the same as what I had measured two weeks before. I guess this isn't good. He sent me down for an ultrasound, just to make sure the baby was growing okay. It was really great to see him moving and sloshing around on the ultrasound and I was convinced everything was fine. I went back up to the office where Dr. Nichols looked at the baby's measurements and became more concerned. He said his head was measuring at 39 weeks and his little belly was only measuring at 33. This was FAR too big a difference for my doctor to handle and he said he thought I should come in the next day to deliver the baby. His main concern was that my placenta had given up and the baby wasn't getting the proper nutrients to sustain him and what he WAS getting was going to his brain so the rest of his little body was compensating. He said he was a little worried that this could have caused some damage to his brain. His other option was that I may have contracted some sort of virus along the way that didn't affect me but went straight to the baby and this could have caused some potential damage to his brain. "OR, we might deliver him and everything will be just fine, but no matter what I think he's better off out than in at this point", he said. This translated to me like this:

Option 1: Brain Damage
Option 2: Brain Damage
Option 3: Just fine

Those weren't good odds and I was TOTALLY freaked out. The doctor again said that he felt it would be best to deliver the baby the next day. I explained to him that tomorrow was my other child's birthday and is there ANY way we could do it before or after tomorrow. He immediately consented to deliver him that evening. I called Mark in tears and he tried to console me by saying "well, I have a big head...did you tell the doctor that?" I told him I did, but that it didn't matter. He said he'd leave right away. I met him at home to grab the hospital bag and head back. Mark had arranged for a friend of ours to meet us at the house to assist in a priesthood blessing after which I felt MUCH better, but still so, so scared. We called Lisa and asked if the boys could stay there until the next day when we could figure something out (thank you Lisa!) and off we went. My amazing doctor stayed there all day/evening for us and did such a wonderful job. We ended up delivering our little Gabriel via c-section at 10:01 pm and he was 5 pounds 12 oz and 18 1/2 inches long. He was absolutely perfect and so so beautiful. I remember Mark going back and forth between me and the baby and saying to me over and over "he has SO much hair, you should see his hair, he just has SOOOO much hair". He had a little trouble breathing and had to be in the level 2 nursery for a few days. I didn't even get to hold him until about 2pm the next day and they wouldn't let him come into our room until he was eating on his own and breathing without any help from the oxygen. We finally got him in our room 2 days later where we had a big (as big as it could be in a hospital room) birthday bash for little Sam and enjoyed our brand-new baby. As it turns out...he really did just have a big head like his daddy, and boy is it BIG. It's actually the same size if not a teensy bit bigger at three years old than Joshua's and Joshua is 9.

We just LOVE this kid. I can't believe it's been 3 years already. He has been such a joy to raise. I remember when he was about a month old telling Mark almost every day how "good" he had been that day, and then we finally realized that he was just a GOOD good baby. He really was angelic. He hardly ever cried, always smiled and was SO SO smart. He found ways to communicate with us SO early. I remember taking him to the Dr. when he was 10 months old and sitting in the waiting room playing with him and he kept saying "Doctor" over and over. It was surprisingly clear and I was convinced I had a genius on my hands. :) He became two almost overnight and brought all the fun "terrible two" stuff with it, but has always been just so cute and funny and wonderful. We are so lucky to have him in our family. Yesterday when I was frosting the cake for Sam's birthday party he kept saying "wow! Zyou (yes, that z is there on purpose. All his Y's have a z sound in front of them for some reason, he says the y sound...just not until after the z sound)Anyway, he kept saying "zyou do-een a DOOD job MOM!! (you're doing a good job, mom) and then last night as he was getting ready for bed he said "mom, zyou did such a dood job on Sammy's cake today". What a sweetheart. He really owns my heart, he says nearly every day "zyou my best friend mom!" I am so so lucky. And I really can't believe he's 3! We LOVE you Mr. Three!!



And sorry once again, for the novel. I thought I should document the experience since other than in Gabriel's journal, I don't think it's written down. Stay tuned tomorrow for "the story of Sam". :)

Look who's waving Bye-Bye!

Will officially learned to wave Bye-Bye a few weeks ago. We couldn't be more proud. He really tries to mimick everything we do lately which seems to be pretty early if you ask me, I think he's just dying to catch up to his big brothers already! I'm also convinced I've taught him to sign "more" but I know that noone will believe me until I get it on tape, I don't think he has any idea what he's doing, but he puts his hands together just like I do when I sign it! It is so funny! :) He's SO cute and awkward when waving, his whole arm gets in on the act and then his fingers go straight to his mouth. I included a video for your viewing pleasure but I'll warn you, it involves an overkill amount of me saying bye-bye in an annoying sing-song voice (do I REALLY sound like that?!), a telephone interruption, and an underwear clad 2 year old. I couldn't get the baby to wave for ANYTHING the second time around, but at least Gabe provides us with some entertainment at the end!

Hands Down...

my ABSOLUTE FAVORITE picture in 2007. I can't tell if Will's expression is sheer terror or complete shock. Either way, I think it is hilarious and it is priceless to me. :)

My little...Table Potato??

The boys (including Gabe) all got these really cute little video/mp3 players (called the Disney Mix Max) for Christmas in 2006. Yes, Gabe was only 1 and 1/2 but I got them for a great price and I knew that he would want one someday too so I got three. Thanks to my amazing cousin Chantel I have every episode ever made of Mickey Mouse Clubhouse that I can put on his little "ipod". Well, sometime last year there was a great deal on this darling bear that doubles as speakers for an mp3 player. It has incredible sound and lights up and is so cute! Gabe loves it. The other day he decided to have lunch at the kitchen table and watch Mickey Mouse Clubhouse on his "ipod" at the same time. He also loves sneaking his snacks onto the couch when he is watching cartoons so he can watch and eat at the same time. Why do I get the sinking sensation that I'm creating a monster here?! Seriously, this can't be good. :)

***I had to edit this after I looked at the post because I realized how "posessed" the bear looks in the pictures. He really is quite cute, I promise!***

I could watch this all day! :)

Okay, it took forever to upload these last two videos for some reason or I would have added them to the previous post. I know they are all basically the same thing, but all three of them crack me up for different reasons so I thought I'd share them all. :) Man, I love this kid! :)

Are you ready for THIS?

We got our Christmas decorations out this weekend and Gabe has been glued to this Santa ever since. I've heard this song so many times I'm beginning to hear it in my sleep. Isn't he the cutest stinkin' thing you've ever seen? It appears he's got more than just looks in common with Aunt Sharla, he can MOVE like her too!

Okay, last one I PROMISE!

I had Sharla e-mail me a picture from her phone so I could get one of her and Gabe dancing. HAHAHAHAHA!! Okay, I'm really done now, thanks to my playing all day I have a VERRRRRYYYY messy house to clean tomorrow. Ugh. I can't wait to show this to Gabe when he wakes up!

Yeah...we're cool!

Gabe is hilarious. Crazy, busy, Mr. CHAOS, exhausting, cute AND HILARIOUS! He is ALWAYS putting goofy things on and wearing them around the house all day. Lately it's been a santa hat but I have yet to snap a picture of him in it. On Sunday he walked around wearing these sunglasses and thought that "baby Will" needed to wear them too. They looked pretty darn cool, I must admit!! :)

Signing Time!

I got to go on a date with my two "middles" on Monday night! We went to "Signing Time Live!" at Cottonwood High School. I was a little nervous that Sam might be too old but he LOVED it! Especially when Leah came from the stage and handed us a handful of little rubber frogs! When Hopkins (a great big frog) came onto the stage Sam was really confused because on the DVDs he is just a tiny cartoon frog - so I thought for a second, then just went for it and told Sam that it wasn't really Hopkins, it was just a guy in a costume dressed like Hopkins. Well, Sam wouldn't go for it. Mom, I don't think that's a guy in there, because how could he even see? Mom, I think he is not big enough to have a person INSIDE of him.....finally I gave up and said, "Hmmm, maybe Hopkins just grew really big for the show tonight" that settled him because apparently that notion is MUCH easier to believe than the fact that it was just a normal person in there. So much for being truthful, I guess he's not as grown up as I sometimes make him out to be. :) We went with some of our most FAVORITE people and that made it even more fun! We saw more friends when we were there too! I haven't been able to get Gabe to watch Signing Time lately because he's been SO into Mickey Mouse Clubhouse but he LOVED IT and clapped and danced along with the rest of 'em. I've even been able to get him to watch it since. YAY! I'm so glad that Jenna called to see if we wanted tickets too, I didn't even know they were doing a show! I told Sam he was a great date and he said "yep, I'm the best date EVER, we should go on dates ALL THE TIME!" I was really glad I decided to bring him along. :)

My cute boys! We got there early so it looks like nobody is there yet. It filled up later. We had to move 3 TIMES because we kept sitting in the wrong place.

This is "Hopkins" it was his "surprise party" with Lindsay, Sam and Emily. Gabe wouldn't have anything to do with him.

How do I love thee??

Let me count the ways!.... So we're all downstairs getting some things moved around and doing general "house" stuff preparing for the baby when Mark says "I better go check on Gabe" only then did I realize he wasn't playing in the room anymore, and replied "you mean we have a two year old?" The next thing I heard did not sound good...it came from upstairs..."Mel, you better come and see this!"

UGH! This is the great big fat permanent marker, the kind that boasts about how permanent it is right on the package, the kind you NEVER NEVER NEVER want to find on your cabinets, refrigerator or pantry door. Mr. Clean to the RESCUE! Although this little eraser does have it's drawbacks, like don't scrub too hard, or you'll have to repaint... it is what it says it is....MAGIC! Pure WONDERFUL MAGIC - though it took me an ENTIRE square, it DID do it's job and I'm happy to report that my cabinets, appliance and walls are all marker free, no permanent damage done, though Gabe was pretty upset upon getting caught. We had to bribe him to smile here because he was sobbing saying "MOMMA, MOMMA" Poor kid, he knew he screwed up, we didn't even have a chance to discipline him about it. (sorry for the blurry photo, it was the only one I had to choose from) :)

I think I can finally say we're ready for baby Will to get here. His room is complete, clothing washed, house clean - BRING IT ON, I SAY! I am REALLY REALLY ready for him to come, I want to hold him, smell him, snuggle him and SLEEP ON MY STOMACH AGAIN! The boys can tell the time is near and get more excited by the day. The other day Sam told me that when baby Will comes he and Josh will take care of him and me and dad can take care of Gabe. I guess Gabe is already old news, they want some new blood. :)

Nothing else to report really, the boys had a fun night, they played video games for a LOT longer than I usually allow, had Pizza for dinner, jumped on the trampoline with Dad and came inside and played musical chairs with me as the music captain. AAHHH Summertime! Gabe didn't understand the whole "walk around the chairs" part and just chose to rock out to the jammin' music, dancin' away until it stopped and Mark and the boys ran to a chair, then he'd scream "MY SPOT" and attempt to steal a chair or sit on a lap. He's SO the king around here.....for a few more weeks anyway. :)