are you sick of metta pictures yet??

Metta's first bath looks eerily similar to Ike's first bath. even the same dirty dishes.

Metta had her two week follow up visit today and was a total champ.  She was awake and wide eyed the entire time- with no tears!  and then promptly fell back asleep once we put her in her car seat.
and she's back up to birth weight- now actually three ounces over- 8 pounds 8 ounces.

I'm pretty sure that I have the world's best sleeping newborns.  it can be hard to wake them up to feed- but I'm not going to complain that my babies sleep too much!!

She honestly almost never cries- but if she does- this is what Ike does immediately.  It's the only form of acknowledgement he makes toward her.  He honestly doesn't touch her- or talk to her- or even talk about her.  Kent was holding both of them on his lap last night and their legs touched so Ike quickly retracted his leg so they wouldn't touch anymore.

I'm a little worried these kids are going to have fried brains pretty soon.

This week has been much better- but they are still spending far more time than normal in front of the tv!!  with the warm weather we've been outside more- and spent some time with friends- but they are getting in more than their fair share of lightsaber wii battles and donkey kong.  In fact- first thing Ike says when he wakes up in the morning is: "can I play super mario brothers??".

 

Here's miss metta after her doctor's appointment. Sleeping.

I think she's a lot cuter than our boys were at this age. Is it because she's a girl?  or am I just jaded now?  do I think she's so cute- when in actuality she's really goofy looking?!  maybe it's the bows.

new faces.

 having a new rugrat gives me lots more reasons to take pictures- and that means more blogging.   I think the boys are happy that I have someone else to pester with the camera!

my babies are notorious for getting a bit ugly shortly after birth.  it doesn't last forever- but it's that goofy newborn phase.  I've always been one to think that most newborns are funny looking.  Metta seems to be no different.  Maybe it's just because of the funny faces she makes.
 

she's following the footsteps of Ike and not pooing- which leads to some of the funny faces. We are going on four days of no poo- but I'm not so stressed this time around.  Ike went eight days and I guess it's perfectly fine and normal (so says the in house pediatrician). She has her two week follow up this week and we'll check her weight gain then to make sure she isn't having any growth issues.  do any body elses breastfed babies not poo for days on end at this age?!

 little metta has the longest fingers compared to her brothers at this age!!  her toes are long, too. I'm not sure where they came from!  and I'll be shocked if she's tall.

I'm pretty surprised at how many girl clothes I actually have!  with my preemptive yard sale shopping- and hand me downs from laney- plus gifts from friends- this little girlie is already well dressed and accessorized :)

 she may be drowning in some of her church dresses- but they are cute!

hump day?!

 I don't want to jinx myself- but I think we just made it over the hump. the hump of the hard days.  Those past seven days were torturous. hellish. and exhausting. remind me again why people like newborn babies?!?

My problems were compounded by the fact that Ike's earache included three nights and days of pure agony. several times I was in tears (blame it on the hormones) because I felt so bad for him.  he was in so much pain and there was ABSOLUTELY nothing that I could do.   plus- my help left.  and kent has worked more than 80 hours this week.

but ike is almost better- kent only has three more days left of this atrocious month- and gramps left behind a babysitter of sorts.

do you see what these rugrats are doing?! playing the Wii.   It actually came from Metta and Clair and has been a lifesaver.  THANK-YOU metta and clair!!

this is Zeb's face when gramps opened his bag and showed him the surprise.  He was screaming with excitement.  He's been asking for a wii for at least a year now.  and the two boys LOVE it.  They sit and play and giggle (and sometimes scream at each other) as long as I need them to :)  It may be hard to wean them off once I come back to my senses.

Gramps also left behind some new amazing lightsabers that glow and make crazy lightsaber sounds.  The boys sleep with them and we can hear them going off periodically at night.

Did I already mention that they got crazy spoiled while Gramps was here?!

and even though this little monkey holds most of the blame for the chaos of the last week- she really is the model newborn. I'm not sure why I get so blessed with perfect little babies- but I do.  As far as newborns go anyway. 

I think we started off on the wrong foot having her born so late at night.  Kent was coming off his night shift and I didn't get any sleep that first night so it's taken us this long to catch back up. Getting the first week of feeding down- and Kent being up three nights with Ike- kind of did us in for awhile there.

but she is so good. She eats and sleeps. a lot. and never cries.  She would for sure sleep six hours at night if I let her.  Last night I slept from 9 pm to 830 am- and besides waking myself up to feed her three times- she slept perfectly.

 I love her little round soft face.  It's most certainly going to get zitty and wrinkly so I'll enjoy it now.

 she's sort of got creepy eyes when they're open.  they get all beady and wild.  and they've got some broken broken blood vessels so she looks a bit like a baby zombie!

 luckily I got some head accessories for her this week in the mail (thanks Pat and Laney!) so she's looking a little more girly.  It's going to be so strange to dress a girl!  I'm really hoping she stays bald for at least two years and then I won't have to deal with hair!!

 and don't mind the giant binky in her mouth. I'm kind of a binky nazi and really want her to love them.  Hopefully we can make a switch from the hideous hospital one- but for now it's the one she likes- so it stays.

metta spaghetta

We're getting things back to normal around here- just in time for our spoiler/babysitter/cleaner to leave! My dad leaves tomorrow and the boys are going to be devastated. and terribly bored. 

I'm not sure what I'm going to do when there's nobody to hand off rugrats.

Ike came down with a terrible earache last night and has been MISERABLE ever since. The antibiotics better kick in by the time gramps' flight leaves tomorrow.  Honestly- it is so sad to see him in this much pain. It kills me.  He's on motrin and tylenol and antibiotics and he's still shrieking. He looks pretty happy here- but he's between waves of the pain.

Plus- I'm terrified he has rsv or something causing the earache (he's got a cough, too) and we are all washing/using antibacterial stuff a gazillion times a day. I thought march would be in the clear- but sick season is just peaking here in dayton- and my house is full of disease vectors (two toddlers and a pediatrician!!).  

Zeb is totally healthy- but a little grumpy.  He's been giving a lot angry faces and stomping his feet everywhere.  I think he's just adjusting. It was waaaaaaaaaay worse when Ike was born so I'll take this anyday.

metta spaghetta had a follow up visit yesterday and I had to get labs done to check my platelets.  It turns out she's a little jaundice.  I've never had a jaundice baby- but she isn't too bad. Her eyes were really yellow on Sunday- but she's been pooing a lot so I think she's almost cleared the bili out.

Thus the smiling faces.  she's pretty gassy

 you can almost see the yellow tint to her sclera.

 she really is a great sleeper- and will do to 2 three or four hour chunks at night now.

coming home.

We are so so so lucky that my dad could come into town to take care of the rugrats while baby metta made her entrance.  I have no idea how we would have survived without him.  We spent all day wednesday, thursday, and part of friday at the hospital and it was so nice to not be stressed about the boys at home.  

Gramps brought them to the hospital to visit miss metta thursday morning.  Zeb came in with such curiosity. He looked all around until he saw her and then walked right over .  He was really excited and wanted to hold her immediately.  Ike, on the other hand, was a little apprehensive.  He smiled for this picture but then wanted nothing to do with her.

Check out Zeb's smile.

and this sequence of pictures of Ike is hilarious.  He was not about to be forced into an introduction.

If I look pale and exhausted here- it's because I was.  Dang girl stayed up all night feeding every hour until five- just in time for the parade of doctors and nurses to start coming in for exams/vitals, etc.  I was super grumpy.  This is why I don't like newborns.  DANG hardwork. And as nice as it was to have a 2 day hospital 'break'- I was done getting my abdomen squashed and my blood taken.

Here we go home.   I can't believe this is our third time doing this. I remember going home with Zeb and being terrified about what could be ahead.  Although now that I know what's ahead- it isn't that much less terrifying.

Home has been really pretty nice.

Zeb has been reading to Ike lately and now says he'll let metta listen, too.  Luckily Ike is pretty fast to follow Zeb's example in everything and seems to be accepting metta more and more.

We got home in the afternoon and Kent had to go back to work at seven. I felt so bad for him- he was still so exhausted!!   I was too- but I still have my dad here to help with the boys!

Miss metta did really well her first night. She gave me a four hour stretch (and I had to wake her up at the four hour mark)- and then three more hours here and there. She looks to be a great sleeper like her brothers were.  And Kent finished nights this weekend so he'll be around at night to rock her back to sleep after I feed her.  I'm so glad that he loves babies.

the ever so long and drawn out arrival of miss metta joy miller.

Dang this ragamuffin (I think that's the female version of a rugrat?!)  What a day leap year 2012 turned out to be.  

Due to Kent's current insane schedule and my way too speedy delivery with Ike- one of the base doctors was wonderful enough to grant my wishes of having a leap year baby.  He said I could come in the morning of the 29th- check my progress- and try to help things along.  I got there at a 4 and 60 percent effaced (although no real contractions) so they decided to start pitocin and get me going.

May I just start out by saying that I ABHOR waiting.  And honestly I didn't think I'd really have to wait all day for a baby since I was already progressing and it's my third.  It turned out to be the longest day and wait of my existence thus far on Earth.  seriously.

I got there at six am- and my wonderful husband arrived at eight- coming over straight from his all night shift at Dayton Children's hospital.  They started pitocin after Kent arrived- and then it began. Not labor- just the wait.  and we waited and waited and waited and waited.  I felt some tightening and some moving but nothing remotely painful and nothing intense.  We kept waiting. They kept turning up my pitocin. and I got progressively more anxious as one- two- three- four- and five o'clock passed with NOTHING.  A doc checked my progress at five thirty because I told her I couldn't feel ANYthing. and I was right.  eight hours and I hadn't budged. even at 20 mili somethings (I'll ask kent!) of pitocin a minute.

I was pretty stressed and kent was pretty tired!  I really really did want a leap year baby- but more than that I just wanted something to happen.

There were some tears and at shift change a new doctor came in and told me she would break my water. I was so happy. She also said we would go off pitocin for a bit and start over. I guess sometimes that helps?!  I asked her if we could try breaking my water and letting me go out into the hall with the pitocin 

still attached. She agreed.  Here I am ready to get started- trying my hardest to have positive thoughts.

She broke my water and I went at it. Seriously. full on walking lunges- squats- wall sits- and jogging.  The staff thought I was nuts.  Best thing about delivering on the air force base is that everything is so small and private.  Just one other delivering mom on the whole floor with us so we had the place to ourselves.  Within one hour I was starting to get pretty uncomfortable and asked to be checked for the epidural prep.  And then suddenly I wanted to die and need the epidural IMMEDIATELY.  It was bad.  I describe this pain level to kent as 'impending doom'. I didn't want to be checked- I just wanted DRUGS.  The man showed up and had me all comfortable through about 7 or 8 more horrendous and atrocious contractions- now less than a minute apart and a full minute long.  He told me I had great anatomy. Perfect ligaments and a great spine.  I told him thanks.

There's honestly NOTHING better than an epidural.  I was really hoping to avoid the impending doom pain this time around- but I can't have my cake and eat it too, I guess.  I got my day and the drugs- so the pain was the exchange.

He watched the baby's vitals for a minute and then went on his way.  My obgyn showed up and assured me she'd check my progress- but also assured me I probably still had 4-5 cm to go.  The first thing she said was: "Hello baby. No way." and then continued with:  "You're ready- let's get the warmers- call the pediatricians and techs".  and that's how it went. I was 100 there- with a baby heading out.  My prayers had been answered- literally.  Apparently when I do something- it's ALL or NOTHING. No in between.

Everybody showed up and I had this baby.  I had to push for a full twenty minutes because she was a lot bigger than anticipated.  The delivery was pretty fun.  Kent knows all the staff and works with most of them regularly so they'd been checking on me all day.  Three of the doctors in with us were also pregnant and our age. It felt like we were just hanging out with friends. I LOVED my nurse- and the pediatricians there were the best.  And I was SO SO happy that it was still leap day and that I'd gotten my wish.  My ob still can't believe I got it all done so fast. She was convinced it would come the next morning

 Kent gowned up and delivered miss metta (minus the help he had to get when they saw the cord wrapped around her neck twice!!) and got to check her all out.  Her apgars were 8 and 9.

 Since I had just gotten the epidural- my nurse turned it off as soon as I started to push and the timing was PERFECT.  Right after nursing the baby- I got up and walked to the recovery room.

 At midnight- the night got long because I had some suspected clots in my uterus and we had to do some ultrasounds and uncomfortable pushing and shoving- which continued regularly through the night.  Kent was out dead asleep before all of it even started and he had no idea!  things turned out fine and besides low platelets now - I should be in the clear.  I have to go back in on Sunday to check my levels again to make sure- but besides being tired- I feel great.

I really was excited about the notion of having three boys- but we were totally nameless in the boy department so I guess it's a good thing she turned out to be a girl.   

Marietta Joy Miller.  8 lbs 5 ounces.  

named after her auntie metta and my great aunt metta- both wonderfully fabulous people.  Plus I think she already takes after her aunt metta (my sis) in the stubborn and drama departments.

lots more pictures and stories to come :)