Oh, hey September.

...awkward...

Sorry for the extreme delay. Let's just get us all caught up, shall we? How about a little synopsis on everyone in our sweet little family with a few pictures of the last few months:

Sean: This guy. Sheesh. Just a few weeks after Charlie was born Sean started his summer internship at Snell & Wilmer, Los Angeles. The hope with these highly competitive summer internships is that they will turn into your job when you graduate law school. Well, we just found out Sean got offered the job for when he graduates! We are ecstatic. We really like the people at Snell-Sean especially. This means we'll be in Los Angeles for the foreseeable future. He just started his LAST FIRST day of school ever! So proud of this hard-working hunk of burnin' love. He's the best.

{September 1st, 2013}

Oliver: My little sweetie. Oliver is in pre-k! It's 2.5 hours every.day.of.the.week. I've had a difficult time with this. It's crazy to me that I send my 3-year old away for so long for so many days! It's made easier only because how much he loves it. The poor sweetie is nearly a head taller than everyone in his class. Wanna know the crazy part? He technically missed the cut-off to get in this year! They let him in via a friend's strong pull at the school (I'm convinced she showed them her goodies...JK!) and the fact that he is SO big. His 5T shirts are almost belly shirts-"Mommy? My belly skin is showing"-and he wears size 1 shoes. He is so smart and such a good big brother. His favorite toy right now is Buzz because, "he's the coolest toy EVER." His favorite foods are (according to him): "uh, chicken nuggets, cheese sandwich, peanut butter jelly time, banana bars (granola bars), milk, water, green swords (green beans)." 

{May 1st, 2013--they look so different from each other!} 

{brothers--Charlie @ 2-months, Oliver 3.5 yrs}

{my sweet boys}

{most recent picture! September 1st, 2013}

Ruby: Sassy pants! Baby doll turned 2 at the end of June with very little fanfare-why do I suck so bad?! My mom was in town so we threw her an impromptu party the morning of her birthday. She twirled around in her prettiest pink dress and new fancy shoes. She loves playing with Oliver, yet is perfectly content doing her own thing. I frequently find her and Oliver "mouskersizing" together throughout the house. She recognizes most letters and loves to read books. Like, an annoying amount of books. So many books! it.never.ends. She loves taking care of "CharChar" and feeding him "maulk." She is feisty and sweet, all rolled into her deliciously rotund little body. At her 2-year appointment she was 36 inches and 35 pounds, both well over the 100th percentile. SHE'S THE BIGGEST 2-YEAR OLD EVER. Just kidding. But she is really big. 

{little 2-year old!}

{birthday girl}

Charlie: My tiny! Oh, Charlie. We've sort of got him figured out. He is BY FAR our smallest babe. He just had his 4-month appointment and was only 14 lbs 12 oz and 25 inches long! 50th percentile for both (Oliver was 17 lbs 2 oz and 27.5 inches and Rubes was 15 lbs 8 oz and 26 inches). We love how little he is! He still comfortably wears 3-month clothes. In fact, he is wearing all of Oliver's 3-month clothes that he wore for about a month before he hulked his way out of them. He is so sweet and tender-hearted (like Oliver in that regard). He had SERIOUS dairy reactions when I was nursing that barely dissipated after excluding dairy. It was a little bit better when I switched to a milk-based formula but he still screamed.and screamed.and screamed. and screamed nearly every hour of the day. It went like this every day until right at 3-months when this horrible mom realized he probably had a bad milk allergy and switched him to soy. He is a completely different baby and is such a joy. He has a piglet-like squeal and a heart-shaped birthmark. He looks mostly like Oliver, but has Ruby's eyes. He pukes all day, everyday (just like Oliver did). And he pretty much sleeps through the night...so, yeah. 

{2-weeks}

{brand new}

{2.5 months}

{4-months!}

{4-month appt}

Me? I'm alive and sort of keeping it all together, though my ever-growing pile of laundry that needs to be folded is constantly staring, begging, pleading to be put away. It's a constant reminder of my efforts that lack execution. I try to go to the gym 5-days a week because my body forgot how to lose baby weight with Charlie and now I actually have to work to lose the weight. Which I did over the last 2.5 months of HARD WORKING OUT. And I can brag about it now because it was and is really hard to lose weight and take care of a home, a husband, and 3 tiny humans who need me for every basic human function. And my shows. So many shows. But life is good. We are all healthy and happy-can't really complain about that! Don't you love how horrible my blog posts have become?

(***JENNIE K--help me learn the new ways of blogger! Clearly I can't figure out how to format pictures correctly...)

EDD 5/6/13--ha!

Hey, all! I had a baby!

Introducing:: Charlie Richard Mosman

Born April 27th @ 3:41 AM

7 lbs 15 oz--20.5 inches

::charlie was my heaviest and shortest babe:: 

::30 minutes or so after he was born:: 

::sweetest little dimple chin:: 

::oh, hey there:: 

::an hour after delivery, moving to recovery::

This is long and pretty graphic. Don't say I didn't warn you.

All along I have been telling people, "Everyone, I know I'm going to go early with this one. I can feel it. Be ready." Of course this is what every mom says when she's pregnant. Or at least they really hope and pray for it. I wasn't particularly uncomfortable--at least not anymore than a 38-week pregnant person should be (plus, my vag varicose veins had subsided around week 34 (don't you love how I just talked about my vag veins?)). I had virtually no swelling and my belly was totally normal sized. 

On to the good stuff.

I was having absolutely no painful contractions approaching week 38. I was a tad discouraged because with Ruby I was having painful, irregular contractions from week 36 on. My doctor's office refuses to do cervical checks unless you are bleeding or contracting regularly which totally annoyed me. I decided at 37 weeks 5 days I was going to reeaalllyyy try and do all I could (walking, sexcapades, spicy food, evening primrose oil, castor oil, WHATEVERICOULDGETMYHANDSON) to help speed the process along. We went for a really long walk along Venice beach the morning of the 20th and all it did was make my back hurt.

At 37 w 6 d, the 'bloody show' began. For the next 5 days. Come ON! So gross. But, I knew that meant baby was coming and I felt really strongly he was coming that weekend. Everything was packed and I was ready to go. On Wednesday (24th, 38 w 2 d) I decided to take castor oil. Just for fun. I took 2 tablespoons with juice and sat down to watch The Voice from the previous night. Contractions started about 2 hours later and increased in length, consistency, and pain level over the next 8 hours and then slowly died off (*also, I had no explosive diarrhea like everyone claims you get. I know you were wondering...). The next day I decided to not do castor oil and just walk.. When I woke up Friday I knew that would be the last morning I would wake up pregnant. I told everyone I came in contact with that day I was having that baby within 24 hours. I just knew! So that evening we decided to eat at Pei Wei to celebrate my hunch. We got home at 7:15 and immediately put the kids in the bath. This is where it started...

I was washing the kid's hair when I felt the first gush. I thought, "Welp, here we go again!" So I finished washing their hair, whilst leaking all over myself, before I called Sean in and told him my water broke. And then it came like a faucet. Ugh. Having your water break is really such a gross feeling. My contractions were picking up all day Friday (oh, I took a teaspoon of castor oil at 5...) and as soon as my water broke I was feeling it. Oh was I feeling it. We called a couple of my good friends to assist with the kids and off Sean and I went!

We got to the hospital around 810, got checked in, and found out I was dilated to a 3. I requested the midwife who was on call. She came (and was awesome) and asked what my pain medication plans were. I, very unconvincingly said, "uh...no pain meds?" (*note* I was planning on doing it natural because my epi with Ruby was so horrific). She said, "great! I will help you as much as possible."

Side-note: You know all those people who do it natural because their water broke and they progressed so fast and there was just no time and ahhhhhhh! I assumed that's what would happen to me. My contractions were regular, so painful, and my water had already broke. 

Then 11:45 hit, and I was dying. Oh my, so so painful. I told Sean there was no way I could do this. No way. I said, "If they check me and I'm less than a 7 I'm getting an epidural." They come in and check me--a 6. Oh, COME ON. I tell Sean I'm dying over and over again, "you have no idea how bad this hurts!" And variations of those things. With lots of bad words. Classy lady, here. Anyway, at 1 I was feeling so terrible. My contractions were 2 minutes apart and it literally took everything in me to make it through each one (water broke, remember?? several hours earlier??). They came in and checked me and she said, you are at a 9.5! Just a tiny bit of cervix left to go! Oh, HALLELUJAH. She said (the dirty liar) you'll have this baby by 130! She suggested we try and manually move the last part of the cervix over. This consisted of her reaching in and pulling my cervix over WHILE I push. With NO pain meds. 

Kill me.

It didn't work. It wouldn't budge. FOR ALMOST 3 HOURS I WAS STUCK AT A 9.5. Oh, oh, it was so painful. I don't know why anyone would choose to do that. Oh wait, if you have one hour labors after your water breaks I could probably do it. But EIGHT HOURS?! Oh, never again. I was so physically and emotionally exhausted. I just couldn't do it anymore. And then...then my midwife suggested some drug to help 'relax' my uterus in the hopes that my cervix would move over. I pleaded, "WILL THIS TAKE AWAY ANY PAIN??" She said, "Well for some people maybe..." (lies, again) Not this person. But, the weirdest thing happened. After about 4 minutes my body did this crazy crazy things where it involuntarily pushed. Like, it felt like if you were in a semi-truck that was downshifting...THAT'S what it felt like. And then everyone in the room was said, "IT'S TIME!" And it was. I started pushing at 3:38 and he was born at 3:41. 

I DID IT. 

AND I DIDN'T TEAR! 

(I had a 3rd degree tear with Ruby)

I had no pain meds, no pitocin, nothing. 

I am woman. Hear me roar!

But let's be honest, I will never voluntarily do that again. It was so painful. Sure, the recovery has been absolutely amazing. I mean, remarkable. So freaking awesome. Those 8 hours--specifically the last 3--were so difficult. I have a really high pain tolerance and I just knew that if I went any longer I was going to pass out. Or die. Or just scream the F word over and over again at everyone until they pulled him out because I was NOT about to push a baby out on top of all of this.

Charlie's apgars were 9 and 9 (Ruby's were 5 and 7!) and he just laid there on my squishy belly for twenty minutes while they cleaned everything up. Bliss. 

Phew. That's the birth story. I'll do another post tomorrow about the last 8 days as a family of 5.

5!

We are crazy...

...crazy in love with our sweet little family.

oh, hey there!

...testing....testing...

I'm so embarrassed. Let's just not talk about the last time I blogged, mmmkay? Let us catch up instead, all together!

I'm 37 weeks pregnant. WHAT? I know. This was BY FAR the fastest pregnancy ever. I even took a selfie in the bathroom mirror! Here:

I have gained 38 pounds. I know. I'm mortified, too. I gained about 45 with Oliver but my legs looked like actual tree trunks. I'm not kidding. It was so horrible and so painful. I was mostly water weight with him. I gained 24 with Ruby. This little guy is mostly just me eating 1700 bags of cadbury mini eggs and drinking Sunkist (not diet). Champion pregnancy eater? I think so. My swelling isn't bad at ALL. But my legs and humongous backside are bearing the greatest weight. And my boobs. It's all just a blubbery mess.

Here are some notables about this pregnancy since I'm nearing the end:

*physically, probably the worst. The consensus among my friends is their 3rd pregnancy was also the toughest. My varicose veins (the vag kind--sorry if that's TMI but not really) reared their ugly heads around 18 weeks and were just awful until about 2 weeks ago. Which is weird because they should still be awful since I gained NINE POUNDS between weeks 33-35.
*it's a boy. You people knew that, right?
*hmm, ruby thinks the birth marks/freckles on my belly are the baby.
*I found 2 stretch marks on the underside of my belly. I cried for an hour (i'm not exaggerating. Ask Sean. It was devastating). It's mostly really annoying because I had zero from the other two. C'est la vie.
*we have a name we are pretty certain on but I won't post it here. But I will probably tell you if I see you in person or you text me.

I think that's it. I"m feeling quite good, actually. It's sort of sad because I have had zero painful/irregular contractions to date. Plenty of angry braxton hicks but nothing to get worked up about. I was contracted for several weeks with Rubes. I'm not in a hurry to be done...so yeah. I just finished his car seat canopy! Here's proof:

(awesome phone quality picture)

oh, and here's my diaper bag. yes, those are birds:

(another awesome picture)

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A little about my current babies. Man, I just love being a SAHM. They drive me completely insane but are so funny and (mostly) sweet together it makes it all worth it. Oliver is 3 and loves telling us stories and talking about Jesus. He knows all of his letters and can write his name. He is still our tender-hearted humongo. He's incredibly sensitive and sweet (most of the time). Ruby is so sassy and has SO MUCH PERSONALITY. That girl. She'll be 2 at the end of June. She sings her ABC's and can count to 20, though 15-20 are a bit sketchy. We feel like she gets sarcasm. It's the weirdest thing. Sometimes it's like talking to an adult. She is just the exact opposite of Oliver. Maybe that's why they are BFF?

That's all for now. This blog doesn't make any sense and it has crappy quality pictures. I am reeaallllyyy going to try and update this a couple times a week from here on out. You guys--hold me to this!!! Send me threatening text messages and what not.