January Update

Besides having a baby, January was crazy.  Clint had a huge proposal due that he worked on morning, noon, and night.  The boys and I did not really leave the house after Paul was born.  The boys handled it suprisingly well.  Beau is too young to care and Sawyer loved the slower paced life.  They both thrived.  Now mom had a hard time with the house arrest.

Paul and I went to bed early most of January (Clint did not sleep most of January because he had so much work to do).  Paul refused to sleep in the bassinet.  Clint took this picture of us.  I never would have co-slept with the first.  I slept a little with the second.  I gave up on the bassinet quickly with the third.

We had a 50s themed birthday party for Grammy.  I won't reveal her age, but she is officially now a senior citizen.

My mom came to help get ready for Paul the week before he was born.  We made him a mobile.  I have finally learned that an interesting, shiny mobile does work (especially if it can spin).

Clint and I went on a quest to replicate a Johnny's burger.  We did a pretty good job, but we did cheat because we used their sauce instead of trying to make our own.

The boys enjoyed their burgers, but even more the chocolate milkshakes to go with them.

 My personal New Year's resolution was to get dressed, do my hair and makeup everyday.  This boy got a hold of my lipstick one morning.

Grammy came over a few afternoons to distract the boys.

Family Pictures

The first picture was taken the Sunday before Paul was born.

The second picture was taken exactly two weeks later.

Paul Tiverton Aichele - Part Three

While we were in the hospital, Sawyer and Beau went to stay with my parents.  My sister Julie helped out best she could.  The kids had fun, but we didn't realize at that point that Beau had a blazing ear infection.  After three days of taking care of the two boys, my mother decided to swing by Whole Foods in Tulsa on her way back to Stillwater.  I have done this several times with the boys on my way to Arkansas and it is exhausting, but doable.  Well at Whole Foods Beau lost it like never before.  My mom said she had to take him outside and let him have a 30 minute temper tantrum on the patio.  It was so bad that a man came over and prayed over him (I am sure he looked like he was possessed by demons).  An employee took my mother's shopping list and finished her shopping.  Then my poor mom had to drive the rest of the way to Stillwater in sleet.

The boys were happy to be home and didn't even seem to care at all that the baby was here.  When Beau was born, Sawyer had a hard time with the amount of nursing initially required.  This time the boys didn't even notice because they spend so much of their day playing together.  The first few days they wanted to hold Paul a lot, but Sawyer quickly lost interest.  Beau never has lost interest in holding "Baby Tall".  My mother, who was still recovering from her battle with cancer, worked like a dog cooking, cleaning, more cooking, organizing, laundry, laundry and more cooking and then some laundry for three days straight. She really is superwoman. My house has never been cleaner and my husband happier (cooking and organizing are the way to his heart).

Grammy carted the boys to and from school the first few weeks and brought meals.  Many friends around Stillwater also brought meals.  In all honesty the transition to having three was barely noticeable for me (just a reminder though that the first three months with Beau was very challenging and 2012 was such a horrible year that life was overall just getting easier.)

Paul Tiverton Aichele - Part Two

Clint and I wanted a quiet 2 night stay at the hospital.  We didn't have any visitors and treated it like a mini vacation.  I felt enormously better the second day.  Clint made trips to all kinds of restaurants in the area to get us delicious food and drinks.  We listened to Pandora or Spotify while Clint worked and I snuggled my new baby.  We hardly even turned on the TV.  It was nice to just hang out a little.  By Friday (day 3) I felt great and we were discharged first thing in the morning.  We didn't leave until the afternoon, because Clint was frantically working and I enjoyed just sitting around.

Dr. Nilson, our doctor.

We did not decide on Paul's name until we were walking out of the hospital and had to drop the form off at the birth certificate lady's office.  We chose Paul because we wanted a strong name with good character.  Because he is the baby of three boys we didn't want to do something cutesy.  Also he was born looking like a Paul (Joel was our second choice).  We chose Tiverton because of our cabin.  Our cabin sits on the Exeter claim but that sounded a little harsh.  Tiverton is the name of the claim right next to our cabin.  

Paul did not like to lay in the hospital bassinet on his back at all.  He was a good sleeper, eater, and cuddler.  He actually didn't open his eyes hardly at all at first and only cried when he was in the bassinet.  We kept him close to us the whole time and hardly let them take him to the nursery.  We were a little paranoid about the flu and wanted to minimize the people with whom he came into contact.

Most of the time we had the same nurse we did when we delivered Beau.  Also the hospital pediatrician was very kind and came by several times.  Overall is was a pleasant experience but nothing felt better than getting home and climbing into my own bed with my husband finally beside me (he had been camping out in the basement due to my snoring).

 

Paul Tiverton Aichele - Part One

We went to Tulsa on January 8th and stayed at the Doubletree across the street from the hospital.  My parents met us there with Shepherd and we had a little hotel party complete with toys, swimming, and a great dinner.  We slept surprisingly well, but my mom and Shepherd didn't have that experience in the room next door.

On January 9th, 2013 we had a calm morning.  My sister drove over from Tulsa.  Our surgery was scheduled for noon so Clint and I headed across the street to St. Francis.  Everything went smoothly.

Right on time I was wheeled into surgery.  Paul was quickly cut out and our shining white baby was perfect.  He was a beautiful 9 lbs 2 oz and 21.5" long.  Clint, being quite experienced at this point, stayed with Paul.  He had a very old, kind gentle nurse and she and Clint were very thorough with baby Paul.  My first impression of this sweet baby was that he looked nothing like his brothers.

I had a sinus infection and I remember not enjoying Beau's birth day, so I requested as much drugs as possible.  I always remember very vividly what the doctors were talking about during my 3 c-sections.  With Paul, the creepy anesthesiologist kept talking about Deliverance, The Shining and other horrible movies.  I finally snapped in the middle of my surgery and asked them to pick a different conversation topic.  I think my doctor, Dr. Nelson was relieved (he was getting annoyed also).  The subject was changed to sports which is what they talked about during Beau's delivery and seems appropriate for these boys.  I was pretty miserable during the surgery.  Looking back, I think I was having an anxiety attack.  I was wheeled into the recovery room and left there alone for a long time.  Clint was with Paul and my family was just getting to the hospital.  I was thankful for some time alone. 

Then the circus began.  Paul was brought to me about the time Sawyer, Beau, and my family arrived.  Paul nursed well immediately and snuggled in to go to sleep.  He stayed there for the next three days and nights, just snuggled into his mommy.  The details of the rest of the day were pretty blurry, like I said I took a lot of benadryl and pain relievers the first day. 

This Pregnancy

I can just say one thing,  I GOT HUGE.  I gained over 50 lbs!  A bunch of different things contributed to this, but needless to say, most of my pregnancy complaints were over the excessive weight gain.  I had quite a bit of fatigue initially and a little bit of nausea.  I had minor acid reflux, and minor back pain.  My biggest complaint was trying to be comfortable while I slept.  Clint biggest complaint was my snoring.  He ended up moving to the basement for the end of my pregnancy.  It was that bad.  I was pretty grumpy over the holidays, because it was exhausting to try to pull of Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Years at the end of my pregnancy.  Horrible timing on having a baby.  I got the linea nigra, but did not get the facial mustaches.  Surprisingly I had no stretch marks after getting so big.  I was overall pretty miserable.  Clint gained some sympathy weight, but not as much as he gained with Beau.

New Years 2013

"A Year That's Fair and Bright"

Our quote this year was a little optimistic.  We chose the children's form of Big Rock Candy Mountain (sung by Lisa Loeb) as our song of the year and one of the lines in the song is "A land that's fair and bright".  So hence our theme of the year. 

We woke up on New Year's day to a beautiful, fair and bright dusting of snow.  It didn't stick around for long, but we were able to enjoy our coffee while looking at the scenic view.  This is part of the view from my chair.  The chair I live in, reading, rocking, sipping, cuddling . . . The boys and I have loved watching the birds all winter, bluebirds, blue jays, cardinals, hawks, owls, red-bellied woodpeckers, pileated woodpeckers, chickadees, sparrows, finches and many more.  Clint and I used to make fun of birders, but now I am one.  We also enjoy the tree top antics of the squirrels. 

We made it on our annul hike this year.  It was cold so we just enjoyed a quick walk at the farm.  I made a traditional New Years dinner with ham, beans and greens with a nice '80s throwback Kahlua truffle for dessert.  Grammy and Grandpa came for dinner and right after dinner our friend Josh Blomquist showed up.  He stayed for two days and it was great to visit.  It was around New Years though that I realized I had become not a nice person.  I was getting super grouchy.  Being huge was definitely wearing on me.