Athena Portraits

At 1 and a half weeks old I did a portrait shoot of Athena. Luke was at school and Sterling at work but Tiberias helped me with the shoot. 

Ty pushed the button to snap the shot when I was in the pictures. He loved doing that.

 

My Parents' Visit

Click on the youtube link below to view a video of my parents' visit. It's so big I could not upload it straight to facebook or the blog.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wl7vFNRZ5K8&feature=youtu.be

Video

A video my mom took while my parents were in South Dakota visiting us.

Note; our house did not have much as far as furniture and organization. We are working on that.

7 Days old

Athena turned one week old this afternoon. She has gone to the hospital (BlackHills Pediatrics or the base hospital) every single day of her life so far to be poked in the heel and blood taken. Her jaundice level has been high and continued to rise since she was born. Despite our efforts to bring her level down; vitamin drops, sunbathing, and lots of stinky diapers (which she is very good at). 

At one week old she sleeps most of the day. Tummy Time is hard to do because when she is awake she has just eaten and so we don't want to put her on her stomach. 
She sleeps a ton; which is nice because then I can still give the boys attention and get things done. Then in the evening we try to keep her awake. She likes to stay up until almost midnight. Then she sleeps well through the night (waking to eat and get a diaper change) and sometimes sleeps in in the morning.

Last night she woke to eat only once. When I tried waking her to feed her later she refused to wake up. So basically she wanted to sleep through the night. That could be good for me.

She is such a good baby! When Athena was born and just a couple minutes old my mom (Roslyn) said "She is going to be a good baby!" Mom was right!

She does have an upset tummy and gas when I eat chocolate. So I cannot eat it. I had that issue when I breastfed Tiberias as well so I knew it was going to be the case.

Tiberias loves holding her. He is 3 and 1/2 so he doesn't understand holding her head. I have to hold her head and let her lay on his lap, pretty much. He thinks she's cute and will say so. Lachoneus is not as verbal a person about his thoughts and feelings.

 Ty is a little hazardous around the baby. Ty loves to jump and flip pretending he is a power ranger being shot at by villains. He is all over the place with his movements; from the floor onto the couches, running into people...just everywhere.  Twice so far he has scared us practically jumping onto the baby. She is fine.

Now I have someone to be grouped with...we are "the girls" in the house. For so long I've been the lone female while the rest of the family were called "the boys." I already love having a daughter and she's only a week old.

Athena Rose Roundy

January 15, 2014

Labor Induction day 

It was three days before Athena's due date. We planned it so Athena would be born early and not get too big. We could not have her come sooner than that because of the craziness of buying the house, getting all our stuff, putting Luke into Kindergarten halfway through the school year and Sterling's work schedule.
We also had the induction because my parents wanted to come help us with the delivery and we needed them to. So we planned the delivery to make sure they would not miss it.

The day before Athena was born it snowed! Lots of snow.
Dad and I went to Lowe's that morning. Mom and I went shopping that afternoon. Tiberias had woken with a kinked neck so he was immobile and sick all day. Poor kid! He watched tv and was held by one adult or another all morning. Cried a lot and didn't eat much.
Sterling was at work and Lachoneus was at school.  It snowed hard most of the morning. In the afternoon it was sunny but windy and the ground was high with snow.
Mom and I shopped for throw pillows for the living room couches we have coming on Monday. We also shopped for lamps for the living room. We bought six awesome pillows for $100. Pillows are expensive and we got bigger sized ones.

That evening Tiberias was feeling better but still had the kink in his neck so he kept his head tilted to one side.
We dragged him out of the house. We all went to dinner for some fun before the baby's arrival.
Mom and Dad had never been to the Texas Road House whereas Sterling and I discovered how awesome it is just this year. So we all went to the Texas Road House for a large yummy dinner.
Poor Tiberias was our temporarily handicapped child. He wanted to be held. He could not lift his head. And he wanted to be fed and helped to drink.
Other than that we had a great time.

Then we stopped for a little shopping on the way home. Mom, Sterling and I went into Hobby Lobby. My dad took the little boys next door to Toys R Us...which they've been begging to go into every time they've spotted that store.
While mom loved browsing the whole store of Hobby Lobby Sterling and I focused on things we need for the house. We looked at the floor lamps and side tables. We decided to get the set of lamps we saw at Lowe's. We did buy a wall key holder that night though.
And while we did that Luke and Ty were having a blast looking at the toys. It turns out that store was the medicine Ty needed to get his head up straight and a little bit of his bounce back. Usually he jumps around and pretends to be a power ranger. All day he had not been able to do that. But my dad said Ty had jumped once or twice in the store.  :)

When we got home that night Ty was feeling so much better he did play like a power ranger for a few minutes. But then he went back to tilting his head.


The morning of the induction I got up at 4am because I was suppose to call the hospital then. Sterling and I left around 5am for the hospital. Everyone in our house was still asleep.
Outside was actually not too cold! Obviously it was going to turn out to be a nice, fairly warm day.

We got into our hospital room around 5:30am.  I told the nurses not to start me on the Pit until they were able to get me the Epidural. I was worried about being in a ton of pain for too long before the Epidural was ready. My experiences in the past have been that I want the epidural as soon as can be and it usually takes a long time to get it. But this labor was very different from my first two because this one I didn't go into the hospital with labor pains. I had a few contractions but Athena was not going to come on her own that morning.

It was close to 7am when the nurse asked if she could start the Pit, on a low level, about half an hour before the Epidural was ready. I agreed. And for that time I felt no pain or contractions on the Pit.
It was really weird to get the Epidural without being in any pain. My legs went numb.

So all morning I was numb and that was not comfortable. Laying in bed with numb legs, tossing and turning trying to get comfortable. Not fun! But I wasn't in pain...atleast for a while. Around noon I started feeling more and more pain. For an hour I was in a ton of pain! It turned out that my epidural was leaking and not really getting to me for some time. They got that fixed and things got better.

We called my mom to come down for the delivery at maybe 1:30ish. She got to the hospital just in time. So did the doctor. lol. 
I was not sure who was going to be my doctor because the doctor, Dr Diehl, I had been seeing for the last month was suppose to be having his day off today. But he did tell me that he has a hard time not delivering for his patients on his day off. He tends to come in and do the deliveries.

Dr Diehl was eating his lunch when they called him to let him know I was probably about ready to deliver. He scarfed down his food and came to the hospital.
At that point I could feel some pain but my lower half was completely numb...I could not move my right leg or foot at all!  So my breathing I had to focus on because of the pain but I could not feel what was going on even if I were to push.

The doctor told me to push. Half push. Then push. And it was done. She was out!
Quickest delivery! I thought Ty had been a speedy delivery at 15 minutes of pushing! But Athena was less than one minute!!

She was born at 1:37 pm.  Weighing 8 lbs 7 oz. 21 inches long. 

The nurses did not wash her up right away. I was excited to hold her. Mom and Sterling were also eager to have their turns. They cleaned her off a little but didn't give her a bath until a bit later. She went to perfectly breast feeding. No problem at all. Later that evening she started getting lazy though. So I have to work with her on that.

We have a daughter!!!  I don't think she looks like Lachoneus or Tiberias as a newborn. I wonder if she will look like her brothers at all or have her own look entirely. Lachoneus and Tiberias don't look alike.

After Luke got out of school my dad took the boys to Main Street's ice skating outdoors. It's close to the hospital. Luke had been wanting so much to go ice skating since we got to Rapid City. He had never been ice skating before.
The school sent home a flyer advertising free ice skating for the students and the day happened to be our baby delivery day. My dad took the boys and mom joined them, after her visit with Athena.

Apparently they had a blast ice skating. Luke did most of the skating but Ty took a turn as well. Then they all came to see Athena. The boys were able to meet and hold Athena. They were just as excited to play with the balloon my mom brought for Athena as they were about holding their new sister.

My parents took the boys to eat at Mcdonald's then to our house. Sterling stayed with Athena and I. I had sent him out earlier that afternoon to get me a Frosty from Wendy's. He came back with a little tin vase of red roses, the Frosty and Twizzlers for me! He's so wonderful! Sterling and I laid on the bed together...I took a nap while he watched a movie. Athena stayed with me more than I had either of my boys after they were born. Usually the baby gets taken to the nursery. This time they didn't take the baby. That was nice.

I sent Sterling home early that night to say goodnight to our little boys. Make sure they feel secure and happy going to bed that night.
Athena and I had a nice little night alone at the hospital. The nurses did not come in pushing my stomach as much as I expected...as was done after both my boys were born. So it was a nice night. Athena didn't like sleeping alone in the bassinet by my hospital bed. She was only happy when in my arms or laying on my chest.

My right leg was numb from the epidural until late that night. I could not even stand. It was weird being so numb for so long. Then trying to get use to my leg again once the numbness was waring off.

Athena has to stay 24 hours at the hospital before she can go home for the first time. Sterling came and spent time with us this morning. He enjoyed holding our new little bundle. Then we enjoyed a movie together on the hospital bed.  Then I sent him off to get stuff done until it's time for checkout.

I'm recovering nicely and Athena is very healthy. My mother however got sick last night and had a horrible night. Sterling said that Tiberias' kinked neck is much better today. He is holding his head straight and playing like normal.

Kindergarten, Furniture, Closing On The House and More

We finally closed on our house! It did not take very long for purchasing a house but we were planning on it being a little sooner. We were going to close on the 6th but because of the holidays it got pushed to the 10th.
After we closed on the house we celebrated by going to dinner at Denny's. We love going out to eat together. It's really fun. And we love Denny's. Unfortunately our Denny's here has bad service and runs out of food ingredients too often.

That week was a bit crazy. On Tuesday the movers brought our belongings from Italy! All week I worked on unpacking boxes and trying to start getting the house organized.  I ended up working more than I should have at the end of my pregnancy but I did not feel any danger in doing so. I just replaced my workouts with constantly being busy.

So we started some stability for Tiberias. Being in a house we told him was our new home was not enough for him. He would say "This isn't our house. We don't live here!" I knew that getting our furniture and his books, toys, etc back would be the start of him settling in this house.
He had trouble sleeping and would wake us up every night...being in the bedroom next to ours. When our stuff came we moved Lachoneus and Ty downstairs to live in the bedroom just at the bottom of the stairs. Ty started sleeping so much better! Maybe it's because the house isn't empty anymore.
So Sterling and I were able to sleep better...except for my being big and pregnant and having to take a restroom break 7 times a night.

Let me backtrack some more...Lachoneus started school! Friday the 3rd of January. All day kindergarten. He has a really nice teacher and a huge class (25 students). I like the school so far. It's a elementary, middle and high school in one building but separated by parts of the school and play grounds.  Unfortunately school playgrounds are almost all there are in and around Rapid City. There is tons of shopping but it lacks parks for kids! Very unfortunate!
Parks and libraries...that is what I love to do with my kids. There is a library on base that has a tiny kid section but it has a jungle room (a fun play room for young kids).
Then there's a library in a college near our house...small kid section. And a library in downtown Rapid City with an amazing kid selection and lounge! Unfortunately you have to meter park to go to the library! No free parking. The longer you stay the more you pay.  :(

There is, of course, a library in Luke's school. So atleast he gets to go to the library and check out books to bring home. He is a beginning reader so it's fun that he gets to bring home books for practicing.

Adjusting to school there are a few things Luke wasn't doing so well with at first; rough housing and staying in your "center" to play. We pretty much encourage rough housing with Sterling in our home so it being "bad" at school is an adjustment.
And even though Lachoneus did two years of preschool where you were given a center to play in and told to stay there until it was time to switch centers...he doesn't like being told where and what to play with.

Adjusting to Luke going to school for me:
It is quieter at home without Luke. He is a five year old and so he talks quite a bit. But I am enjoying having it be quieter during the day. And Tiberias takes naps many days so I get almost two hours of "me" time...or atleast until the baby comes.
I have to adjust to Luke coming home with homework, packing him lunches (he prefers home lunches over cafeteria lunches), taking him to school and picking him up. He does not take the bus because we live so close to the school. The school, Valley View Elementary, is like four blocks over and another four up...something like that. If the weather was warm I'd walk it but so far we drive.

Luke being in school will give me the opportunity to really focus on educating Tiberias on his Alphabet. So far I've been too busy to really do it. Then Luke comes home and I'm working with him on homework from school and homework from me...to make sure he's caught up to where his teacher is teaching. Right now the focus is him writing his real first name and his last name, and learning sight words.

So Luke started school then our stuff was finally delivered to our house. We closed on the house! Then Saturday evening my parents arrived. They came to help with the house, the boys and the delivery of the baby.

 Sunday we all went to church together. Tiberias finally had his first day in Sunbeams. Primary, yay! His teacher had way too many Sunbeams and Sterling ended up helping in the class for third hour. I'm a little worried now about Ty being happy in that class. He hated nursery for like a year now so I was really hopeful that Sunbeams would  make him happy. But now I worry that it won't be organized enough to make him happy. The crying kids and un-organization is what I think Ty doesn't like about nursery.

Sterling made crock pot roast, carrots, onion and potatoes for Sunday's dinner.

Monday Sterling went to work. Luke went to school. My parents helped me clean/organize and set up the babies bedroom/storage room that is next to mine and Ster's bedroom. My dad put together the crib. It's so nice to finally get the babies stuff set up. The bassinet is set up by my bed. I do want to find a changing table with drawers for her clothes. My parents gave me the crib we now have. Mom bought it used in Mesquite and brought it up for us...it's really cute and looks great in that room.
My parents also brought up our china cabinet that they have been using while we lived in Italy.
Now it's in our living room and we're figuring out what we want in it...to show our travels.

Our couch from Italy was going to be in the basement in the entertainment room but the movers couldn't get it down there. So it's in the living room right now. We are going to get rid of it though. We bought two couches for the living room and a big sectional for the entertainment room. They will be delivered on Monday the 20th. That's the day my parents leave though. So they miss out on being here when we have a furnished house. However, they are planning to come back in the Summer...see Mount Rushmore and do some other fun stuff. There is actually a lot of fun things to do around here in the summer.

Monday afternoon Sterling and I went on a date. We went to sign a paper at the home insurance place then we went to an early dinner at Applebys. It was yummy but we were in a little hurry to get to the movie. The theater turned out to be extremely close to the restaurant. 
We saw the Hobit Desolation of Smaug. It's the 2nd Hobit movie. I enjoyed the first one a lot more. This one dragged on a bit to me. But the whole time I was trying to figure out where I know the female elf actor from. I never figured it out. I just looked it up online...it's the female actor from the tv show LOST ( Evangeline Lily).
Athena would not hold still for the first half of the movie then was moving off and on the rest of the movie.

Ster and I had a great time being together without the kids. We were going to go for dessert after the movie but it was raining...had been all afternoon and evening.   We stopped at Office Max to buy printer paper then Walmart for ice cream. Since it was raining and kind of cold we thought being home, making dessert ourselves and watching tv in our jammies sounded more fun than eating dessert at a restaurant. I didn't realize that going home would really be the end of our alone time though. We went home and Sterling started a project while I made dessert.I made Ster's mom's hot pudding cake but it didnt turn out right.
 Luke and Ty were awake over an hour after we got home. We got them to bed then we finally had a good time....dessert while watching The Middle.

Today, Tuesday, Tiberias is not feeling well. His neck hurts and he may be sick.   Plus, it's snowing like crazy. There's already a few inches of snow on the ground whereas yesterday there was no snow.  Mom and I are going to go shopping for couch throw pillows and lamps for the living room.  I'm not sure what time we will go...we are waiting for the snow fall to die down.

I need to cut Ty's hair today...it's too long.  I need to finish packing for the hospital. I need to pick which camera to take, pack my computer and snacks for me. We'll need to pack some food for Sterling too...I'm not sure about their hospital cafeteria.

Tomorrow morning I have to call the hospital by 4:30a to let them know I am coming and see if they have a room ready for me. I can go in as early as 5:30a if they have a room. We'll induce the labor. My parents will be home with the kids...Luke will go to school. Then mom will come to the hospital for the delivery. Dad or Sterling will pick up Luke from school at 2:55pm. I am hoping Athena will be born early afternoon at latest.

The kids and my dad will get to come meet the baby that afternoon at the hospital. We'll stay one night in the hospital, Athena and I, if all goes smooth.

We're planning on taking my parents out to the Texas Road House for lunch on Friday. Luke has no school Friday or next Monday...a long weekend.
Maybe Ster will take my parents to see Mount Rushmore this week or weekend. None of us have seen it yet. It's less than an hour away, I hear.

I am so excited that tomorrow Athena comes into our family! I can hardly wait to hold her in my arms!!

Gotta Love Change

The pregnancy is going great. It is harder to get a workout in every day. If I don't do it in the first hours of the morning then I won't have the energy or feel good enough to do it.

Athena is big...I can really feel her feet etc when she leans against my stomach walls. She is not as big as Lachoneus or Tiberias were at this stage though. I'm excited ...hoping she will be born smaller than my boys were.

Lachoneus started school today. Then Sunday Tiberias will start Sunbeams! He should enjoy that more than Nursery. He has hated nursery all year.
Next week we close on our house! And Tuesday all of our stuff from Italy should arrive at our new house! We have been in a mostly empty house for about three weeks. We are so ready to have furniture and start getting organized with all our stuff! We have really missed our kitchen stuff along with other things.

My parents are coming next weekend to help out with Athena's arrival. Our house will probably be crazy with furnishings for some rooms and not others. With things around that don't have an organized place to belong.

Next week and the week after are going to be exciting and crazy. I can hardly wait though!  :)

First day of Kindergarten!

Today, Friday the 3rd, was the big day...first day of school!  Tiberias woke up extra early (I'm not sure why).
Lachoneus was ready for his big day. At the school yesterday, registering him, he was a bit shy and nervous. But when it was time to leave the school he did not want to...he asked if he could go to his class.  So this morning we were all excited.

School starts at 8am so we were there a little early. We turned in some papers to the office and then went to Luke's classroom. I talked to his teacher a few minutes before she went out to the playground to bring in her class.

Starting on Monday I will drive to the playground and drop Luke off there before school starts. His teacher wants him to learn how to write his real first name and then his last name. So we will work on that at home to help him. Nine characters in his first name alone, poor kid.
I've tried to get Luke up past where I thought he'd need to be in his education. It seems he's about right where he should be though...practicing writing and reading. The class is up to the letter T in the alphabet for writing. So I'm planning on having Luke practice A-T at home. Have him write a story of his own and continue encouraging him to practice reading. Just to make sure he is not behind at all.

At home Tiberias is still learning his ABC's. He is also learning about Stranger Danger and to not answer the front door without mom or dad.

Without Luke at home, this first day, it has been a big change. I only have one child to keep busy and keep an eye on. I cleaned the house, worked out and did some school with Tiberias. Lunch time, nap time, mommy time. School gets out at 2:55pm.

Ty tickling Luke

 Star Wars lunch box

Happy New Year

Every year as New Year's Eve approaches I decide I'd really like to have a party. To do something, anything, fun to celebrate. Every year we end up not really doing anything.  This year our kids were old enough to try to celebrate with them.  So we planned our own little family party.

New Year's Eve day our neighbor across the street, whom we met at church, invited us to their party that evening. The couple have six kids but can't be much older than we are.
 They had one other family over...a family from the ward (the Jones').
There was Little Caesar's pizza and tons of snacks! We brought apple juice and chips with dip but our chips were not needed.
Between our three families there were tons of children playing, chattering and moving around the house!

From 6 to like 7:30pm we were there and it was a bunch of fun. It was freezing outside! Walking just from our house across the street in our coats was so cold! When we left the party there was a light snow fall coming down. 

For our own party we moved the three little mattresses we sleep on into the living room making one big bed. We got into our pjs and pulled out the snacks. We watched Monster Vs Aliens together. Ty fell asleep not too long after his bedtime. Sterling and I fell asleep maybe just after 11pm. And Luke was awake past midnight watching movies. We are all so predictable.

I woke up shortly after midnight and made Luke go to bed. He complained...wanting to stay up watching tv until dawn (probably).

It was a ton of fun! The next day, New Year's day started out fun. I cleaned the house and we had a family from the ward come over for a play date. The whole family came; mom, dad, two little boys and a new baby boy. They left around lunch time. Sterling had been working on cleaning the fireplace in preparation for painting it so we can reinstall it into our downstairs. We're not sure if it was the cleaning or something he ate the night before...by lunch time he was sick. The whole rest of the day he was so sick!!! Poor guy.  I could not do much for him.

January 2 turned out to be the first day of school after the Winter Break. Odd that it started on a Thursday. The school is in our neighborhood not far from our house. If the weather is nice it's a good walk. While Sterling was at work I took my little boys to the school to register Luke.

Valley View Elementary...It seems like a nice school. When I was in the office registering Lachoneus the principle came out and offered to give me a tour of the school. After the paperwork was filled out the boys and I went with the principle to the library, gym, cafeteria, music room and then Luke's kindergarten room. Everyone was so friendly and the principle kept interrupting everyone where we went, introducing Luke to them.

In the Kindergarten room of Ms Richards there were a lot of kids! They all gave Luke a united happy welcome encouraged by his teacher. I am really happy with the school and people so far.

He did not start school that day. We went home for a snack then to the mall to meet up with some friends. My friend Brenda brought her two sons and we hung out at the kid play area of the mall. We get together about once a week to catch up and let our boys play together. They are first friends we made here and the boys all love playing together.

We ate lunch at the court yard, potty break and then said goodbye. 

I took the boys with me shopping even though I was tired. We don't live by the shopping areas so I wanted to get all our errands done in one trip.
We went to Michael's craft and then walmart. I had a lot of fun but the boys, so hyper as usual, made it kind of difficult.

Sterling was getting over being sick but did go to work that day. He was home and had some alone time before we came home that afternoon.
Then we all went out for a trip to Cabela's to use that gift card we got for Christmas from Sterling's brother Jon. We bought the Wii game Big Game Hunting and flashlights for all of us. The little boys got Cars themed head lights. Ster and I got some awesome little lights...mine for my keychain so I can always have a flashlight with me when I'm in the car.

Sterling was feeling much better. We relaxed and watched a show while the boys played with their new head lights. 


We have scheduled Athena's induction for January 15. I wanted it to be the 14th but Sterling has an all day work meeting that day.

2013 was a crazy year. Moving from Italy in July. Being separated from Sterling August-December. Not having a home or most of our belongings while staying with family. Moving to South Dakota. Finding a house to buy. Preparing for the birth of Athena. Christmas without decorations or furniture.
We loved living in Italy. We loved coming back to America to visit our families! And so far we really like the area of South Dakota we are in. We really like our house and are excited to close on it.

2014 should be a year of getting settled down. Luke starting Kindergarten... all day Kindergarten! Athena joining the world. Ty learning to be a big brother and helpful to mommy. Settling in our new home, making friends, setting a routine and schedule for ourselves.  It should be an amazing year.