The Student's Wife..

Life has been crazy and fantastic all at the same time! I must say that life with Aaron in school has been quite the ride. With Aaron busy taking really difficult classes, working, and watching the kids on the weekends while I work he is super busy! Which then means I am super busy and alone with the kids for the majority of the time. We don't get to see much of each other during the week, this morning I saw him for 20 minutes, and he'll be studying til super late tonight at school. Some days I feel like I get a glimpse of being a single mom. Here's a perfect example of our sweet little life, this was my night last night...

I had a YW activity at 7 pm. Around 5 pm I took my bro-in-law to pick up his car from the shop. I got home close to 6 and needed to feed the kids and get to the activity (with church clothes on) by 7pm. Not a big deal you might say right? Well, that's asking a lot sometimes especially when by yourself. You never realize how helpful it is to have another person around just to hold the baby or fill up Taylor's drink. That next hour consists of: trying to feed the kids, I have London still in her car seat on the large island counter, with a bottle propped (I know, don't judge, you have to do it sometimes). I'm trying to make Taylor a bean burrito while she is happily reading. Happily reading turns into throwing the books everywhere, but she's happy so I'm fine with it. Taylor needs to go potty, get her eating dinner, change all of us into church clothes, change London's diaper, finish a project I need to present and get out the door, and I eat the last 5 bites of Taylor's burrito for my dinner. Needless to say we don't leave until 7:10. Terrible leader I know.

Hang in there with me, this is where it starts getting good..

We get to the church by about 7:15, walk in and Taylor needs to go potty. After what seems like an eternity we finish the potty process and walk into the activity. Luckily it was the informal part of the YW in Excellence program so everyone is mingling. I pull sweet London out of the car seat and...seriously poopy diaper! Love it, since I have spent about 1.5 minutes at the activity at this point and I need to change a diaper. We head out and get her changed and get back to the activity.

I spend about 5 minutes chatting with the girls and we all get seated for a short slide show. Another leader is holding London, and Taylor is sitting on my lap. Ahhhh, feels nice to sit down and rest for a second. The slide show begins, everyone is happy and calm, and then, wait, something warm on my legs...something wet on my legs...and Taylor says.."uh oh mommy". Yep! You got it, she is peeing on my lap!!! Fantastic! So, natural instinct I stand up really quick and hold her out in front of me and all but run out of the room. Of course I have to be sitting in the front row, figures. So, we head back to the bathroom and change Taylor's clothes. She asks to keep her pee soaked tights on, of course this is impossible at this point. Although we have to clean her shoes so she can put those back on and luckily I have a change of clothes for her. Awesome!

We get back to the activity and...its over! Sweet, I have officially attended approximately 12 minutes of the activity. What can you do but laugh and enjoy the fact that you have two beautiful girls, right? And, the other good news is...I'm wearing a black skirt so no one can tell I'm cruisin around with a pee soaked skirt. I seriously was just laughing about the whole thing.

I love my beautiful family and this is why:

-London has been sleeping through the night for 1.5 months now.

-The girls have been sleeping in the same room for about a month! And sleeping through the night! I have to say I'm just as proud of myself as I am of them. It was hard work on both of our parts. We did it without any major hitches! And, I'm getting better at somehow doing the whole nighttime routine on my own and getting both girls down.

-London is the sweetest baby in the entire world. I need it because Taylor is what you would call a "spirited" girl. She can be the sweetest girl one minute and then the next minute she is finding every button possible to push. Bless this 2 year old stage!

-And, Aaron is doing great! I am so appreciative of how hard he works with school. He will be applying to P.A. school this fall, and lets pray that he gets in!

-And I am so appreciative of wonderful friends and family, play dates, projects, and story time to keep me busy!

baths and "band-dands"

Taylor fell the other day and insisted she needed one of her princess "band-dands" on her nose. Her nose miraculously instantly felt better and she kept it on for a few hours. Funny lady. She has been a great big sister, and loves to help out with baby London.

We have a belly button!!! Finally! They said since London had the IV lines in her umbilical cord that it would stay on longer than normal. I didn't know that longer than normal meant for 6 weeks! Sponge baths only go so far, so I was pretty excited to give her a real bath. She loved it as you can see, she was super chill the whole time.
Tracie, Troy and the kids came for a visit a few weeks ago. Taylor and Brooke are about 9 months apart and the babies London and Connor are only 5 weeks apart. Can you see a bit of a difference in those two? Little lady.
PLAY DATES. I love our ward, and all the mommas! Seriously, our play dates have gone from the once a week park date, to somehow hanging out sometimes several days in the week. Here are all the babies hanging out. Hudson, Logan, Isabel, and London. All the older babies were rolling all over the place, so it was quite the test to get them all together.
Bought this precious swimsuit for London before she was born, don't know why I was thinking she might actually go in the pool. Oh well, she looks cute in it though!

Our first adventure with the 2 kids at the Denver zoo. Don't worry, one of the crazy bird animals escaped while we were there and they quaranteened us off to one area until it was caught. Crazy. It was close to 100 degrees that day, and we went around noon. We've learned our lesson, but had a great time.
Aaron feeding Taylor to the giraffes...
And for the London happenings at 6 weeks...

-She is a great sleeper for the most part, she'd rather be swaddled and putting herself to sleep in the crib by herself than in the swing or even being held (one benefit to starting life out in the NICU)

-She was 7 pounds 5 ounces at her 4 week appt, so I think she is close to 8 pounds now and plumping up

-She is a great eater, and after only about 4 weeks she was able to fully breastfeed instead of having to breast feed her, bottle feed her since she was too tired to finish, and then pump.

-She has endured the wrath of a 2 year old sibling, it's pretty amazing what the subsequent kids go through with older siblings and survive. Let's just say I can never leave London unsupervised for a second.

-She is starting to get on a good predictable schedule and have actual awake/sleep times throughout the day.

-Overall she is a great, beautiful, and alert baby for her age and prematurity.

-We love her!

Blogging Binge!

Ok, everyone who knows me and ever checks the blog knows I'm terrible at posting. So, I found some time while both girls were sleeping to do a little blogging binge and do the full update on how we're doing. So, check the last 2 posts to find out all about our little London girl. We love her and are so proud of Taylor the big sister!

Life at home as a family of 4!

Our first outing as a family at a beautiful park up the canyon. London snoozed the whole time of course.

The water was really high and scary this time of year with the ice melt, but so fun to watch. Isn't Taylor the cutest?!
4th of July! Taylor and cousin Isabelle. Her face is supposed to be painted like a butterfly in case you're wondering.
Taylor's first sparklers..a bit reluctant at first, but then she was asking to do them. We had dinner with family and then I headed home to feed London and avoid over stimulation and Stewy and Taylor headed to the lake to watch fireworks.

Our first little photo session, it took about an hour to get a few good photos. She's one beautiful girl!

A visit from the Ware's. So fun that Tracie and I met 11 years ago, and now live relatively close by in Colorado and have our kids so close together.

The two happy families! Connor is only 5 weeks older than London but twice as big! Crazy! So fun to see them!

London Avery...our sweet surprise

London Avery

June 17, 2011 4:39 am

5 lbs 7 oz

18.5 inches

So..for the big story...details included...get ready folks.

Thursday night, I had just turned 35 weeks pregnant and had fully began to complain about feeling uncomfortable, although I never really got that big. Still, a pregnant lady is uncomfortable no matter what. I had my visiting teachers over and we were chatting til about 10:30 at night. Come 12 ish, my water broke. Of course it was the same as last time...the little trickle, I was in denial, and Aaron was on the phone calling his parents over to be here when Taylor got up, and getting in contact with the hospital. I was still in denial..kind of. I don't know what it was, I just couldn't believe that it could happen that early, and trying to tell myself and Aaron that maybe I just really had to go to the bathroom and it wouldn't stop coming out. I know...denial. Of course I wasn't ready and some of the first thoughts were..."I can't remember where my nursing bras are, grab my make up, and maybe I should bring some onesies for the baby, and...oh yeah, the car seat!"

So, we headed to the hospital, chatted about what we should name her, and stopped for some snacks at 7-11 since that's the only place open at 1 in the morning (I was starving and knew they wouldn't let me eat for a long time). Still a part of me in denial at this point and feeling stupid if they were to send me back home.

We arrived to the hospital at 1:30 am, and within 15 minutes of questioning the "big flood" occurred and it was fully apparent that my water had in fact broke. Baby was on her way whether we liked it or not. They were preparing us for the worst since she was early. Saying she would be in the NICU for her full stay and may have to be in the hospital up until her due date. That's when I had my first cry, and started to realize that this was really happening and that our sweet little bundle was coming even though she hadn't fully cooked in the oven long enough.

My mom was in Georgia on vacation and I called her at that time...3:30 in the morning their time at that point. Of course it was like turning into a child again and the second I talked to my mom I cried and wanted her to be there. Leave it to the Sherry we all know and love..she arrived in Denver at 10 am that same morning.

Back to the birth story. I was wisked away to the OR, got the spinal tap (which was a million times better than the epidural), and had the c-section. Last time with Taylor I felt quite a bit of pressure and pain with the epidural, but this time I didn't even feel really discomfort at all. It all happened so fast, we couldn't really believe we were having the baby and in the OR, and going to meet her soon. We were really afraid of how tiny she was going to be...but the first words out of everyone's mouth when they pulled her out at 4:39 am was.."wow, she's so big!". She was unexpectedly big for her gestational age...5 lbs 7 oz. A total blessing of course!

First time meeting her for a few seconds.

Going to see her in the NICU after recovery.
She needed to be on the CPAP for about 3-4 days in order to push air into her lungs to help her breath. This was a hard time since she couldn't be held and could barely be touched without her heart rate/respiratory rate dropping. We mostly were just able to look at her. Aaron did get to hold her for the first time on Father's Day.
Taylor meeting her for the first time...she got to touch her toes and held her hands out and asked to "hold her" over and over again.
After a few days she graduated to the high flow nasal cannula for oxygen. Every day we'd go into the NICU she was doing something else amazing.
Sisters...Taylor didn't want to let go. One of my fav pictures!

The proud big sister...first time holding baby sister London.

Our beautiful baby girl...with the nasal cannula and NG feeding tube.

The proud grandma, such a huge help during this whole NICU process. Seriously, she saved our lives while I needed to be at the NICU most of the day, my mom was full time nanny for Taylor, driving me around, cleaning the house, making us dinner, and just being so helpful!

After 13 long days in the NICU, driving back and forth 30 minutes each way, helping London learn how to eat, trying to keep Taylor kind of happy when she was missing mommy, sleepy mommy, and aching for her to come home..London came home to us!

And..she has been growing like a weed ever since.

Came home Wed, June 29th: 5 lbs 8 oz

MD appt Fri, July 1st: 5 lbs 10 oz

appt Tues, July 5th: 6 lbs 1 oz

MD appt Mon, July 11: 6 lbs 10 oz!!!

Can you believe it?! She has been doing so well, has been getting better with learning how to eat, is now breast feeding every other feeding, is sleeping like a champ, and surviving Taylor loving on her!

B.....Wa Wa

What's new in the life of the Powell's?

Aaron has started school/pre reqs to hopefully go to P.A. school. I am still working prn as an OT and am almost 7 months prego with our 2nd little girl! And, Taylor is the cutest (most of the time) 2 year old in the world.

Taylor-isms:

-B...Wa Wa: is her binky and Wa Wa (the name she gave her stuffed Clifford the big red dog).Truly her happy place when she has the duo.

-She loves baby dolls and is really happy about baby sister coming, although there isn't anythingwe've found yet that she's willing to share with her.

-She wants to cover up her invisible boo boos with bandaids, and calls them "band-dans"

-She now says, "No, Taylor do it" a thousand times a day when she wants to do things on her own.

-She has a ton of beautiful blond hair with naturally beautiful curls at the ends.

-She LOVES to play hide and seek, multiple times a day

-Loves going to the park, the tunnel slide and has to do things "2 times"

-She can count to 17 and has known the "AB's" song for several months now.

-She thinks everyone's last name is Powell, including Mickey Mouse and Dora

-She loves to sing and does a great job at improving the words

Her cute Easter dress, thanks to Grandma Sherry

Grandma came for a visit and they had lots of baby play time

One of her favorite places to sit in the kitchen

Her 2nd birthday surprise..getting to see and ride horses

A little park time, and feeding the ducks

The above mentioned...B Wa Wa...now she only gets it while she sleeps

And her favorite monkey pj's...she wants to wear them everyday, all day!