My baby shower

My friends from church threw me a baby shower yesterday. I felt a bit spoiled being the guest of honor since it was my 3rd boy. It was a lot of fun and I got spoiled. I'm thankful for good friends!!! Here are all the gifts, unwrapped....

Little baby on a big bed

I'm having way too much fun with this!

My little cutie!

Sick baby:(

Poor little Cooper has a cold. So do the rest of us, but I feel the worst for him. He is struggling to breath normally. I took him to the Dr. twice this week. The second time they gave him a nebulizer to help his breathing. It's kind of helping, I guess. At this point I am giving him a breathing treatment every 4-6 hours. I can't wait until he is feeling better.

Visitors!

My sister and niece are here visiting. Just look how cute my niece is! It's been a laid back visit. We haven't done too much because of the weather and the baby. But it's been fun. Here are a few pics from the week so far....

Avery loves Cooper and gets concerned when he cries. It's really cute!

Cutest picture of Avery going down the slide! Pure joy!

We buzzed Jonah's hair. I like it a little longer than this though.

Smiles

The other night Rich and I were sitting on the couch and Rich was giving Cooper a leg massage, like he likes. It was really cute because Cooper was so relaxed, just enjoying it. So I got out the camera and right when I took the picture I got this huge smile out of Cooper. It was so cute and we both gasped as it was so funny how he smiled just on time for the picture. But what got us going even more was when I clicked back on my camera to see how the picture turned out, and we saw Rich's face! Can you tell he was surprised at Cooper's smile? So funny!No, that's not food in Rich's mouth, just a glare.

3 Weeks!

I should have cleaned the goop out of his eyes before I took these, but they are still cute. I know these all pretty much look the same, but I love them all. Thanks for letting Mommy do a little photo shoot, Cooper!

Little Update

He was 2 wks old here. These pictures crack me up because of the way Cooper is laying. He does this thing where he straightens his legs and we rub his little chicken legs. It's so cute. He loves it and gets this look on his face like he is in heaven.

I have been slacking on taking pictures lately. He hasn't changed too much, although his clothes are starting to fit a little better, so he must be growing. I love this little guy so much. If there is a thing called an easy baby, he is it. I still don't think newborns are easy because they require constant care, but he is so content and that makes him easier. He only cries if he is really hungry or cold as I change him. And his cry is not very loud. Compared to how Julien and Jonah were as babies, he is super mellow. He sleeps so much. I know newborns are supposed to sleep a lot, but Cooper sleeps almost constantly. That might sound great, like "wow how hard could that be," but it has it's downside. He is SO hard to keep awake while nursing. I'm pretty sure it takes the average baby 20-30 min to nurse... not my babies! Each of my kids have taken a whole hour to nurse, sometimes more. They just fall asleep the whole time and I constantly have to tap their chin, tickle their feet, change their diaper (oh all the tricks) just to keep them awake to get their full feeding. It's a bit frustrating because once I finish feeding him, and change him, I already have to feed him again in an hour and a half. And when you are so behind on house work, have two other kids to pay attention to, or want to sleep, that hour and a half goes by super fast! And because he is so sleepy while nursing, he has a weak suck, which caused my milk supply to go down. That's my only complaint:). However, I can't even tell you how much I enjoy HIM. I'm having a hard time wanting to do anything else though. It is getting a little easier each day as I am sleeping a little more and we are all adjusting. But I am far from feeling like I got this 3 kids thing down! I clearly remember feeling overwhelmed about having 2 kids, and then one day I realized "this is really manageable, I can do this." It just clicked one day. I'm really looking forward to that day! It just might take a little longer to get there this time. I'm just so glad I was blessed with a sweet, content, patient baby (at least so far; lets not jinx myself here)! I still believe sleep is the biggest help of all. If I have slept a little better, the day isn't so hard, and my kids tell me nice things. If I haven't slept much, I cry, my house looks like a tornado hit it, I look like i did when i woke up-all day, and worst of all, my kids say mean things to me. Today was a good day. That's because last night I slept 4 hours IN A ROW. It was like heaven. Anyway, that's how life is at this point. And no matter how many times people say, "it's okay, you just had a baby," it is still a bit discouraging how chaotic things are. These are my real feelings and even with all that said, I still feel so blessed to have my sweet Cooper and I would do it all again to have him; he is so worth it; as are all my kids!

Christmas/Adjusting to baby

Well, like I said, we got to go home on Christmas Eve. As much as I had prepared to have someone else play Santa while I was gone, I still wanted to do it so bad. We got home and my dad and his girlfriend had made us an awesome Christmas dinner! We were so thankful for that! They also gave us a breakfast casserole for the next morning. So awesome! We ate dinner and later that night the kids opened up their traditional gifts, ornaments and p.j.s. Rich's mom got them the pjs and she did a great job picking them out. They looked so cute and comfy! Each year they get a new ornament. I try to make it somehow represent something in their life from the current year, whether it's something they like, are good at or something new they've done. It is so hard to find good kid ornaments though! I looked everywhere this year. I finally got some at Kohl's. I got Julien an artist one, since he loves coloring and does it daily. I wanted to find him something that represented starting school, but couldn't find anything. Jonah got a Grinch ornament cause I couldn't find squat for him, but he still liked it cause he likes that movie.

hanging up their ornaments

Santa came! The kids were spoiled. I barely bought them anything because we had several packages from family and friends. We feel so blessed by the sacrifices and generosity of others.

I didn't get many pictures from Christmas morning. I was so tired! This year just didn't feel the same because I had just had the baby and was so sleep deprived and out of it. But I could tell the boys enjoyed it so that's all that matters!





















Later that night my dad and Carolyn and her mom came over and brought us dinner again! We are spoiled! The kids got some fun gifts from them; walkie-talkies which they are so cute with; Julien got new boxing gloves since his old one were thrashed; and Jonah got the blown up guy that they punch and he talks. Total boys stuff and they love it!

Adjusting to baby
I can't believe it's already been a week since Cooper was born. I can not even express how happy I am to have this baby! He is so precious and I can't get enough of him. The kids are adjusting well to him. They have been busy with Christmas toys and Daddy was home for a few days, and the past two days they've been at a friend's house. But they love their baby brother and are both very good with him. I'm sure they are frustrated with me that I am a lot busier with the baby around, but they seem to be quite happy about the baby. Julien loves holding him and Cooper is usually really content in Julien's arms. I caught Julien talking to Cooper while holding him the other day, and he was saying the cutest stuff to him. Too bad I can't remember what he said, but I remember melting over it. Rich and I are adjusting pretty well too. Rich gets a lot more sleep than I do (lucky!), but he is still tired because he has picked up a lot of slack for me, which I SO appreciate. He loves Cooper so much and I love seeing him with a baby again. As for me, I'm doing pretty good if I've been able to sleep. At night my hormones go insane on me. I guess I have postpartum depression because I read up on it, and I have some of the symptoms. I'm not depressed about the baby whatsoever. I'm quite obsessed with him! I just have moments of being so overwhelmed and emotional. I have a really hard time asking people for help, even though I'm trying to get over that. My friend Carol has been awesome and has helped me so much when Rich isn't around. I also have a lot of guilt right now because I feel like I can't be as good of a mom to the older boys (at least for right now). I know it will get better and easier as we all adjust and most of all as I get more sleep! I know my hormones are to blame so I'm trying not to beat myself up too much. I just can't wait until I feel more normal. I'm just so tired. And I'm frustrated because I'm still having pain from my epidural and wishing I never got it. I guess I expected my body to heal faster than it has. BUT I love this little angel I've been given and I know pretty soon I will start to feel better and be able to take on these new challenges easier. I am trying to cherish every little moment though and even though it's hard at this phase, I'm in no rush to get out of it because I love tiny little newborns! I'm so amazed every time I look at Cooper and realize I finally have my baby and he is just so precious. Anyway, I'm fine, nothing to worry about. Once we get on a better sleep schedule and my body heals I will be great!

Here are a bunch of pictures from the past week...

Love my family!