Our little surprise!

I'm finally getting around to posting Madison's birth story! Here it is:

My OB had me get another ultrasound at 34 weeks to check on the size of the baby and we found out she was breech. I was told that a vaginal birth wouldn't be an option unless she turned. The decision was made to wait until 37 weeks and if she hadn't turned on her own my OB would try turning her. The only risk in waiting until 37 weeks was if my water broke before then there would no longer be the option to turn her.

Sunday night, November 21, my lower back was killing me and I joked that I just wanted the baby out already. I was only 36 weeks, so I doubted that would really happen. Little did I know I was about to get what I wanted! The next day I was sitting with the boys eating lunch and when I stood up to get Tyler something my pants were suddenly soaked. I went and sat in the bathroom. At that point I wasn't sure if my water had broke or I'd just peed my pants. As I sat there more liquid started trickling out and I was sure I wasn't peeing. I called my doctor's office and they told me to go straight to labor and delivery. We didn't exactly rush to the hospital, I was hoping most of my amniotic fluid would come out before we left so I took a shower and spent a lot of time sitting on the toilet! Having your water break is actually kind of annoying. It was interesting trying to get a hospital bag together while also trying not to make a mess everywhere! We finally left the house an hour later. I had put a heavy flow pad on before leaving and it was full before I got in the car. By the time we got to labor and delivery my shorts were soaked and I was leaving a trail on the floor. When I told the nurse at the check in desk I was pretty sure my water had broke she told me I'd have to go back down to triage on the first floor and get checked out before they could admit me. So Matt and I got back in the elevator and went down to the first floor. As I filled in some paper work a nurse was called to do the exam. I asked if I could get a towel just as the nurse walked up, and after taking one look at my soaked shorts she rolled her eyes and told the girl behind the desk that she was skipping the exam since it was pretty obvious my water had broke! After I was admitted an ultrasound machine was brought in, and despite my crossed fingers, she was still breech. My c-section was scheduled for 8:00. Madison Elizabeth Boyce was born at 8:13. She weighed 5 lbs 8 oz and was 17 1/2 inches long. We spent 3 days in the hospital and were released on Thanksgiving. Recovery this time around has been a lot harder! I told Matt that I'd rather give birth naturally with no epidural than have another c-section!

Madison is now almost 2 weeks old and she is such a good baby! She is tiny and we had to borrow some preemie clothes from a friend just so she'd have clothes that fit! Her brothers can't get enough of her. Tyler especially is so excited to have a baby sister. Riley loves holding her. Neither of them likes it when she cries, and Riley will immediately ask me to feed the baby. We have been blessed with lots of help from both our moms, so the transition from 2 kids to 3 has been pretty easy so far.

In case you haven't heard...

...Madison decided to come early! I guess she didn't want her birthday lumped in with Christmas! I'm in desperate need of a nap so I'll post the full story later. Really quick though, her stats were 5 lbs 8 oz, 17 1/2 in. not bad for being 4 weeks early. Click on the link below to see pictures!

www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=331956&id=793659847&l=20599bdc21

Haircuts!

I thought it would be cute for the boys to be Thing 1 and Thing 2 for Halloween, so we were growing their hair out for the costume. Tyler had other ideas though, he had his heart set on being Batman. I decided it wasn't worth trying to convince him my costume would be 'cool' too, so he won and is going as Batman this year. Since we changed costume ideas the boys no longer needed long hair, and the other night they both got a trim. I made Matt promise not to shave their heads this time!

Before: Showing off the tattoos they got from the air show.

After: I think Riley looks so much older now!

This is what you get when you ask Riley to say cheese!

He speaks!

What a difference a couple of months makes! When Riley turned two he literally only said five words. Tyler started school at the end of August and since then Riley's vocabulary has exploded! I started keeping a list of the words he was saying, but after 30 I lost track of which where new! Sometimes his pronunciation isn't perfect and I (or Tyler) have to 'translate' for him, but most of his words come out really clear. There are times when I wish he wasn't so chatty though. It turns out Riley is the worst back seat driver ever! If we are stopped at a red light, or we're waiting to turn all I hear from the back seat is "Go go (short pause) go go! Go go, (even shorter pause and louder this time) go go!" He also likes to tell me to stop whenever he feels like it, especially when it's a completely inappropriate time to stop. His three favorite phrases are: "Oh right" (I love this one! It's his response to being told almost anything.) "Come on" (Said while either pulling your hand, or motioning with his hand.) "All done" (Said when he's eating something and sees something he thinks looks better.) He has the cutest little voice! I need to video tape him talking so I don't forget how he sounds now!

A pregnancy post.

This pregnancy has gone by pretty fast. We decided not to tell people until we knew the sex, and it seems like people are still just finding out I'm pregnant! I guess it doesn't help that I show late. It's been an uneventful pregnancy until recently. I had a regular check-up when I was 27 weeks and my doctor commented on how small I looked. Then he measured my uterus and found out I didn't just look small, I measured small. He explained that at 20 weeks they expect the top of the uterus to be at the belly button, which was where mine was at. The following week I went in for an ultrasound to make sure everything was ok. We got nothing but good news, the baby measured average for her gestational age, everything looked normal and my amniotic fluid wasn't low. After the tech finished getting all the measurements she needed she switched to 3D. It was really cool to see the baby in more detail and we got some great pictures. We didn't find out why I'm measuring so small, but we found out nothing is wrong. One reason I'm small could be because my little girl is literally folded in half. On the ultrasound you could see her arm wrapped around her legs, with her feet above her head! Since then I have gotten a little bigger and at my last appointment I only measured 2 weeks behind. My doctor is being cautious and I'm going in for another ultrasound at 34 weeks to check on the size of the baby. I feel great though! Tyler thinks I'm huge and every other week he will look at me and exclaim, "Look my baby sister is getting bigger!" I doubt Riley really gets the whole pregnancy thing, but if you ask him where the baby is he will point to my stomach. He even gives his sister kisses! Hopefully the next 9 weeks go by as fast as the first 31 have!

Here I am at 30 weeks.

All caught up!

I finished all the posts for September so I'm finally caught up. It feels good! Now I just have to work on blogging more regularly so I don't have to do a bunch of posts at once again!

Coming soon...

...some posts! Here is a sneak preview of things to come: Riley's 2nd birthday and latest check-up, Tyler's first dentist appointment and first day of preschool, Riley's attempt to get child services to investigate us, and some belly shots! Since I plan on making a book out of my blog as a family scrap book I'm going to date the posts when they took place, so they won't show up as recent on your blog lists. Just keep checking in!

Riley's shiner.

Yesterday morning Riley was carrying one of the toddler chairs we have when he tripped. I didn't actually see it happen because he was on the other side of the island, but I heard the chair hit the floor followed by crying. I'm guessing when he fell his face landed on one of the legs. When I first examined him it didn't look very bad, I saw a scrape and lots of redness around his eye. It didn't take long for the swelling to start. The above picture is later that night.

This is what he looked like before he went to bed.

It was a little swollen the next morning.

Day 2 the bruise really started to set in. I was getting looks at the store from strangers! Then we went to the library and there was a social worker in the play room supervising a couple with their child. I was hoping Riley wouldn't look directly at her, but he had to be his friendly self and say hi! His eye looked even worse than this a couple of days later when the bruise was at it's darkest and went all the way around his eye. I never got any pictures of that though. Luckily this happened the day after we had family pictures taken!

A visit with friends.

Vanessa was in town watching her siblings while her parents were in Brazil, so we got to play! We got together severl times during the week, but I only remembered my camera the last night we hung out! Every time I see a picture of the boys together I can't believe how grown up they are.

Future couple? I think they have potential!

This is how we spent our summer!

Look who's a student now!

Yesterday Tyler had a 30 minute meet and greet with his new preschool teacher, Ms. Allison. That morning at breakfast I told him he needed to hurry and eat because we were going to his school to meet his teacher. He asked if I would be at school with him, and when I said no he got really sad. He kept telling me how much he was going to miss me and wanted to hug every 5 seconds. I told him school was going to be just like Primary, we drop him off and then pick him up when it's over. I hoped that reminding him how much he liked primary would cheer him up. His response was, "I only like Primary because you're still at church." I dropped him off at his classroom and spent the 30 minutes outside filling out the remainder of the paper work the school needed. The meet and greet with Ms. Allison made Tyler forget all about missing mommy while he was in school. When I went back to get him he didn't want to leave. Ms. Allison told him he could stay longer the next day and he was so excited! He couldn't wait to go to school the next morning. I dropped him off without a problem, and when I picked him up he asked why I was back so soon. He said he really liked his first day. Our conversation in the car went like this:

Me: What did you do in school?

Tyler: We did lots of stuff!

Me: Oh yeah, like what?

Tyler: I can't remember.

Me: You can't think of one thing you did?

Tyler: We did so much stuff I can't even remember one thing.

Eventually he told me they listened to music and danced. I'm sure they did more than that! The most important thing is he loves going to school!

Tyler's first dentist appointment!

I waited until Tyler was a little older to take him to the dentist for the first time because all my friends who took their kids at 3 had bad experiences. I still wasn't sure how the appointment would go, so I crossed my fingers and said a little prayer before we left. I could tell Tyler was nervous as we left the house because he was silent (which almost never happens these days). I asked him if he was scared and he said yes. His biggest concern? That the dentist's toothbrush would be too big for his mouth. He was still apprehensive when they called his name and we were walking back to the room. The dental assistant was an older lady and she was great with Tyler. She showed him how the chair moved before having him climb into it and then she showed him all the instruments the dentist would be using and let him touch them while she explained what they were for. He was so excited to see how small the toothbrush head was! By the time the dentist came in Tyler was much more relaxed. I was still a little nervous about how the exam would go, but Tyler proved I had nothing to worry about. He let the dentist count his teeth and thoroughly check out the inside of his mouth. Then she told him she was going to clean his teeth. He lifted his head up and asked, "Do you have a sink for me to spit into?" He laid back down when she reminded him what the suction tube was for (which they named Mr. Thirsty). He laid perfectly still and kept his mouth open through the entire cleaning. No tears, no complaints. As soon as he could talk again he couldn't wait to tell the dentist how Mr. Thirsty had tickled the inside of his mouth. He thought it was so funny! The dentist gave him high praise for how good he was. He even sat through the floride treatment like it was nothing. I know we aren't suppose to be prideful, but I have to admit I was one proud mama by the end of his appointment! He loved the prize box and spent a good five minutes checking out it's contents before settling on a monster truck. (The prizes you get at the dentist have drastically improved since I was a kid!) He showed me a princess puzzle that he was picking for his baby sister and then told me he needed to find something for Riley. He was pretty dissapointed when I told him he could only take one thing, but I was proud of him for thinking of his siblings. Unfortunately in our rush to leave the house on time I forgot to grab my camera, so I have no pictures. I'll have to remember it next time! Instead I've included a picture of Tyler's first tattoo!

What is Riley like now that he's two?

Turning two means another trip to the doctor. Riley didn't mind the check-up until it was time for shots. Luckily he only had to get one. He must have sensed what was coming because he started fighting to get off my lap as soon as the nurse got the alcohol wipe out. He is one strong kid! I had to hold him down and the nurse had to hold his leg to keep him still enough to administer the shot. After a few minutes of hysterical crying he finally decided he wasn't dying anymore! He now has a year to forget the experience before he has to go back! His stats from this appointment: 24 1/2 lbs. 31 in. tall, and a clean bill of health! But what really makes Riley, Riley? Well...

- Two words that perfectly describe him: stubborn and independent. His Granny will tell you he gets it from me! He insists on doing quite a few things on his own - buckles (carseat, stroller, high chair, shopping carts), going up and down the stairs, eating (until he gets tired of doing it himself, then he hands us his fork or spoon), 'riding' his bike (he will not let us teach him how to push the pedals, he insists on pushing the bike with his feet) and cleaning his teeth (he loses this battle each night and ends up crying while we clean his teeth.).

- He is a man of few words, very few words! He says mama, dada, hi, bye and no. No is actually his favorite word, it's his answer for everything! Even when he means yes, he still says no. I think his lack of a vocabulary is the result of two things: 1. He has an older brother who talks for him, and Riley is completely happy with the arrangement. If anyone asks Riley a question and Tyler is within ear shot he will immediately answer it. Then Riley looks at the question asker with a look that says, "There you go, that's the answer." 2. Personality. Riley is very much an observer. At the park his favorite thing to do is swing while he watches the other kids run around. In a large group setting he'll find a toy to hold then sit and watch what everyone else is doing. I'm not worried about it because I know he understands what we say to him and he follows directions very well. I don't think he feels the need to talk yet. Once he decides he wants to talk I'm sure he just will.

-He is good as gold when I trim his finger nails, but if I even try to touch his toes or feet he freaks out. The only time your allowed to touch his feet is when you put his shoes on, otherwise they are off limits.

- He loves to color and he actually holds crayons the right way.

- He is still in love with the tag on his blanket. In fact I have to sew the tag back on one of them because it's about to fall off! He will not go to sleep until you hand him the tag.

- He is a BIG eater. No matter how big his breakfast is, 30 minutes later he'll be back in the kitchen looking for a snack. He hasn't met a fruit he doesn't like.

- He idiolizes Tyler! If Tyler is doing something he has to do the same. This can cause some frustration, especially when he's not physically big enough to what Tyler is doing.

- He has two smiles: 1. His happy, "I'm the cutest boy you've ever seen." 2. His mischevious, "I know what I'm about to do/currently doing I shouldn't so I'll distract you with my cute smile."

"What are you doing Tyler?"

"Hi mom!"

"I know this is how Tyler does it."

I can't believe it's true, but my little man is two!

Riley turned two on Wednesday! On his birthday he got ballons and his first cookie at Publix. A couple of days later we got together with a few friends to celebrate. It was hard to tell what he was thinking while we sang to him, but he loved blowing out the candle! He wasn't too sure about the cake at first, so we got him some help to show him how it was done. Thanks Stephanie! Overall I think he had a great birthday. Thanks to everyone who helped us celebrate!

I know you can't tell from this picture, but he was so excited about his balloons!

Naked boys are easier to clean than clothes!

This brown stuff isn't too bad!

This is how you eat cake Riley.

Now he's got it!

Don't they make a cute pair?

Sometimes boys can wear pink!

We wrapped things up in West Virginia.

After our fabulous time in New York, we got to spend the remaining 4 days of our vacation in West Virginia. We had a blast white water rafting, boating, touring a glass factory and just hanging out with everyone.

Grandpa and Tyler checking out some glass at the factory.

Getting ready to watch a glass blowing demo at Blinko Glass Factory. Tyler loved it!

Tyler got stuck in the baby swing after I told him not to get in it!

Love that face!

Matt finally got to wakeboard, and he couldn't have been happier!