Wow Elias has suddenly leapt into big boy everything it seems. A couple days ago, I asked him if he needed to go potty before bed and we were in the bathroom, he walked over by his potty and said poop. When I checked it, he was right. Then the day after that I asked him if he was pooping and he grinned and nodded when he had been grunting and squatting. That was the day before yesterday and he wanted to sit on the potty at least 3 times that day. One time he even dragged his potty all the way down the hall to the bathroom I was using because he wanted to go too and he peed in it too. Lately he has been napping in the big boy bed and at night sleeping in the crib still but that night when I put him in the crib he started crying and saying big bed  big bed and pointing to it. I couldn't stand it so I swooped him up and put him in it and he snuggled right down and even let me tuck him in and snuggle his teddy in with him. Usually he throws his teddy out of the crib and won't let me tuck him in at all. He also insists on not being in a booster seat at the table either. He's very quickly picking up on the difference between "baby" stuff and whatever his sister has and usually wants what she has if its different.

Alison has been learning new things too. In the morning she has been buckling her seatbelt herself when we go to the bus stop. She has also in just the past week figured out how to turn her fork on its side to cut her egg up herself and peel sections of orange off too. She seems to be understanding so much more and conversing much more than ever. I love that I can ask her things most of the time and she can answer about what is going on or what she needs.

And baby Clara seems to have hit a new high in fussiness. I guess thats textbook ast he handout from the DR office said that "crying may peak at 6 wks". Boy have I noticed that. she seems to want to be held all the time and will wake up when I put her down even if she's tightly wrapped in a blanket or put into her car seat or anything. The other night she cried for a couple of hours. Even if you are still holding her, when she wakes up she screams and screams. She is definitely growing though and last Thursday the DR office said she was 7lbs 3/4 oz. She is solidly in Newborn things and I have been bringing out some of the 0-3 things like gerber onesies and the gowns now. Her arms are seeming longer than ever. I also brought out a couple of warm cardigan type tops too that were 0-3 since it got colder so that I had something to put over her onesie.

Other than that we've been pretty much doing barely anything. Just snuggling up and hanging out. We've been having car troubles again lately and Tim is trying to figure out what parts we needt his time again for the brakes. Tonight we're watching the windows for this blizzard and the snow does seem to be coming down pretty hard and fast. We're wondering what tomorrow will look like and i'm still trying to muster up the gumption to make lasagna. A fussy baby makes it hard to make something more complicated than a one pot meal but maybe tonight will be the night.

Our tree is up too and our decorations out, I think we did that last Thursday so its been a little while that we've been secretly enjoying it and I took some pics of the kids near the tree too but I always have trouble uploading pics to xanga so I usually post them on facebook instead.

So lets see, its been quite a while since I blogged.

Last time I wrote, my next appt was Mon that same week and everything looked pretty good at that point but the ultrasound tech called in so they didn't do it and scheduled me for the next day (Tues) at the main hospital. I was feeling pretty good so I felt that everything would be fine but it turned out that my fluids had dropped again from around 8 to 5.9 this time. That is a pretty big drop and 5 is considered critical so...they sent me upstairs and admitted me to labor and delivery where they kept me on bed rest and lots of fluids and constant monitoring for the next two days. During that time they gave me the steroid shots to help the baby's lungs develop as that was the main concern for a baby at about 36 weeks gestation. 24 hours after the second shot, which was Thurs they began some effort to induce starting with a capsule they inserted to my cervix to start contractions up. I was having quite a few and pretty regular contractions after that so they didn't want to do that a second time so instead they had me do some walking and stripped my membranes. That was around 12 or so I believe in the afternoon. Just after that, my parents arrived and I was surprised and pleased to see them. It worked nicely because my Dad and Tim went and got some food and hung out a bit and I spent time with my Mom. So I walked for a bit and then the contractions started to get stronger and more regular. Finnally around 5 my midwife had to go to a dinner for the march of dimes and she came at 5:30 to say goodbye and Tim and my Dad went downstairs just after 5 too. We knew the baby was coming soon but were still surprised when the guys got back and moments later Clara Louise was born. In fact the midwife on duty didn't have time to get into the room in time so the nurse delivered her. That was 5:51pm

So thats the story, she weighed 4 lbs 10 oz and was 18 inches long. She had dark hair and I like to say she's pretty feisty. She took to nursing right away and will chill and relax unless there's something she wants and then she sure can holler and carry on.

We came home on Saturday and I learned firsthand how different it can be from baby to baby. This one kept me up pretty much the entire night long and I was EXHAUSTED initially. I mean I could not tell what day it was or my own name my eyes were blurry and I wanted to cry all the time. Sometimes thats just what I DID do.

Then the kids got lice and we had to clean the whole house top to bottom. And of course that made me more tired. I was trying to keep a calm demeanor and get it all done but I was feeling pretty wiped out.

And THEN we had Alison's birthday exactly 1 week after the baby was born. I pulled myself up by my bootstraps and did the arrangements to have a party for Alison and she had a pretty good one I think. After that I was more tired BUT we had Halloween. So...again I went out and got the costumes and everything and we did halloween. I was glad to find a church nearby that did the trunk or treat thing and had indoor games and stuff too so that was nice. And after that I was pretty tired but I thought I was doing alright.

So we made it through that next week and then the next weekend Alison went up north to visit family and the kids started getting sick. I was freaking out that the baby was going to get sick and she did get a cold too and then Alison came back with a cold and so we took a few days off from school and slept in and recovered. And now the house is a mess and the dishes have piled up and all that jazz but we're over our colds mostly and we've survived. The baby is now 3 weeks old as of yesterday and I just gave her her first bath today.

Yesterday we butchered our first chicken, a rooster thats been getting aggressive and I cooked him up today. He was a little tough but not too bad. So we'll make some soup or something with him i'm sure and that'll be just dandy.