Guess it’s about time to update you on our lives since my last post. (the last post I wrote Mar 3 not 4th like it say’s).

March 4th 2am I woke up with contractions and we were headed to the hospital by 4am. We arrived and I was already 8cm with a bulging bag of waters. Due to my quick delivery with Olivia everyone assumed that baby would arrive 30minutes after my water broke. The Dr arrived right away (we were all shocked) and broke my water. He had to jump out of the way as my water shot out at him ~ Orlund said it was like a fire hose! lol.  My labour was going great and I was able to talk and joke between contractions and just breath through them when they hit. The nurse and Dr commented on how this was exactly the kind of labour they wouldn’t want teenagers to see (they’d think it easy). Eventually I laid down on my side to see if baby would be able to drop lower without catching on any cervix that was left. I asked for the laughing gas as I knew contractions are worse laying down. That stuff is crazy! The nurse mentioned that she’d never seen it work before, right as I took my first breath of it… Now she’s seen it work. She asked if I take much medication, which I don’t, so she figures that’s why it works for me. Orlund again had a wonderful time laughing at me and the nurse joined in as well. My pinky fingers would go numb and so did my face. It was weird, and so me being ‘high’ and trying to feel my face made for many laughs by all. Sometime around 7am they had me kneel on the bed leaning over the back of it (raised like a chair). That kick started the real pain! It felt like an eternity and I was exhausted. Shift change happened and my Dr also came in. Finally I’d had enough and jumped around and announced “I’m done! I’m pushing!”. Luckily baby dropped that exact same time so I really was ready to push. His head was already crowning with the first push. 12minutes of pushing, small episiotomy and baby arrived!

Jacob Hugh Norstrom
8lbs 7oz 20″long
March 4, 2012 @ 7:50am

He had the cord wrapped around his neck 3 times so he came out a very dark purple. However once the cord was unwrapped he let out a hearty cry which was followed by a big sigh from all the nurses/Dr. Apparently Jacob’s heart rate had also dropped to 50bpm so they were all figuring he’d need some assistance upon delivery. He didn’t. He was perfect!

We were discharged the following evening, I pretty much told the Dr to get me out of there.
Life has been crazy since. and I’ve learned so much ~ for example ~ boys can get yeast infections, and I learned how to treat that. How to change a diaper without getting peed on. That just because your last two didn’t spit up or need burping doesn’t mean your 3rd wont!

People always ask me if he’s a good baby. I always say yes. He cry’s most the day, spits up often, doesn’t let me put him down during the day and doesn’t sleep longer than the odd 5 hours at night ~ but he’s not ‘bad’, not like he’s doing it on purpose. Orlund tells me that’s not what people mean, they mean is he easy. But I just can’t bring myself to say he’s not good. If they want to know if he’s an easy baby I’d say “not really” but he’s not bad.

The girls? Well. They are adjusting. It’s been hard on them, to outsiders you’d think they’ve adjusted well. However at home they act like hormonal teenagers going through PMS. Lots of sass and attitude. But we are working together and trying to get more one on one time so they don’t feel like mommy is all about the baby.

I’ve found having #3 to be the most difficult adjustment. Just that the delivery wasn’t as easy as I’d figured it would be, and the recovery also took longer. I’m getting older and I could sure tell this time. Orlund say’s it’s been the easiest for him, however I do everything for Jacob (mostly) and he’s a very needy baby which just wears me down. I love him and wouldn’t change the fact we had him, just being honest. I find it more difficult this time sitting and nursing him when I see all that needs to be done. I’d gotten so good at keeping the house clean before he arrived that now it drives me nuts that I can’t get it all done, and I just sit nursing and see all that needs to be done, which is frustrating at times. It’s a lot different this time. Orlund is great and I honestly couldn’t do it without him.

Well there’s been a lot more that’s happened since he’s arrived. Many good things too. But this is all the time I have to write as the kids are loosing it. I’ll leave you with another picture of my adorable little man (just a few days ago).

I would prefer to be leaping in joy over the arrival of my little monkey…. but that is yet to happen.

One of my friends just delivered her second daughter this past Friday. I am arranging meals for her, I called her yesterday to review just when she wanted the meals brought to her. She’s having a bit of a rough time. Baby is cluster feeding and not letting her put her down at night. There is a lot more but basically it reminded me of just what I’m headed into! Babies are babies for such a very short time you really do forget about all that goes with having a newborn.

Still no real signs of labour and the Dr said even though baby is engaged he’s still really high so he doesn’t expect much to be happening soon. I have another apt booked for Monday and at that appointment we’ll talk about when to schedule the induction…. I’m not planning on being induced! No thank you… gotta get this show on the road. Orlund’s brother is heading to Las Vegas today for 5 days. my goal is to have this baby before he’s back! Come on baby!

I really want to just walk walk walk. But it’s snowing outside so I need to just walk inside. It’s do-able, just hard to get motivated to do it. I’m feeling so sluggish and slow I’m having a hard time getting going… I’m also watching my daycare boy today and tomorrow. My mom and Orlund think I’m nuts to be watching him… maybe I am, but heck I haven’t had the baby yet so it does help me get off my butt and do at least something around here!

I keep counting the sleeps that are left until Grams (my mom) comes home on my fingers with Joy. She has fun as she’s learning to count and loves my mom.
Sunday morning during Breakfast Joy started counting down on her fingers (random numbers as she can’t count down yet), then she got to 1 and held up her one finger and said “One sleep and Grams home. Yup”. Orlund and I had a good little giggle over her seriousness. I told her she was right we were getting closer, and that NEXT Sunday was when Grams would be home. Orlund’s eyes went as big as an owls and said “REALLY? already?”. I asked him about it to find out that my mom coming makes it so much more real that baby is coming soon too. That’s right, baby is coming.
I’ve noticed that my body is getting ready for baby’s arrival with the ‘increase’ in aches and pains that are only experienced at the end of a pregnancy. Fun. but exciting all the same.

I decided that I needed more room in the baby’s room so sorted through all the girls outgrown boxes and was able to get rid of just over half of the amount of boxes. Yes there are still many boxes but a whole lot less than there was. I also started to sort through all the stuff that has just been shoved into his room to be organized. It looked like an explosion had gone off. When Orlund first saw in the room he said “I sure hope the girls didn’t do that”. Nope, just me. After he found out that baby is indeed coming soon he asked me to hurry and get the room set up. I told him it would take me 30minutes to do. Today I put myself to the test and sorted through the remainder of stuff, set up the change table and just finished the room off. It took me 30minutes + a quick vacuum. I think that’s pretty impressive. so now all I need to do is fold some receiving blankets that I just finished washing and put them away (spot all ready), and change the bedding on the crib, I didn’t change it as the girls were playing in the crib and I figured might as well leave it so it’ll stay fresh.

Today once Olivia goes for her nap I’m going to tackle Orlund and my room. I figure it should only take me 30minutes as well to get all my piles off the floor (laundry and some stuff to run downstairs, as well as clearing off my dresser/vanity and night stand). Once that is done I will either take a little nap too or finish packing my hospital bag (baby stuff is in there, just nothing for me).

For those of you without Facebook I am doing a ‘poll’ to guess when baby arrives. He is due Feb 28/29, he’s already head down but not ‘engaged’. Joy was born 10days late at 8lbs 6oz and Olivia was born 7days late at 8lbs. If you’d like a chance to win a little gift give a guess at his birth date and birth weight (actually I’ll allow you to make 2 guesses).  You can make your guesses up until my due date or I go into labour.

Another ‘thing’. My Daycare boy’s dad asked me when dropping him off last time if Sol hits a lot while here. I said no. he went on to tell me about a trip the family had just taken. I guess whenever Sol was with other kids he was hitting them and hitting his parents/brother. They had to get a room in the back corner of the hotel because he was so noisy, and they even had people complain because of his noise. I guess he was also jumping off the beds, getting into everything (coffee etc) and unrolling all the toilet paper. And both the boys wake up so early (5am) that their mom took them and drove around trying to find somewhere to buy a cup of coffee. That’s just crazy to me. His dad said he wished he could see what he’s like when he’s here.  Got me to thinking. They must not have strict rules at home, or at least don’t enforce them. I have set rules, they don’t change. No jumping on/off furniture. It’s our rule at home, at friends and pretty much anywhere. I know the boys are allowed to do that at home, so why wouldn’t they when out? makes me realize just how important having the same rules when at home and when out are to have. Our kids always know what’s expected of them, it never changes (of course it adapts to different situations). They try to stretch the limits, test us and are just kids, but they know when not to push and when to stop it. When we go to a hotel, go out of town, we want to relax. I can’t imagine that Sol’s dad or mom got much relaxing in (especially not together).  Sol knows my rules and honestly behaves just like one of my kids would. Sure sometimes he doesn’t like the rule so will ask for his mom/dad or to go home, but all daycare kids do that once in a while. He plays with them without hitting or hurting the girls (of course the occasional scrap arises but that’s to be expected). I honestly think his dad would be beyond shocked to see how calm, rule abiding he is when he’s here. And honestly it’s not like I did anything special, I was just always consistent. If I told him/reminded him of the rules and he chose to break them again (within a reasonable time frame) I’d put him in time out or if he hurt someone I might give his hand a smack. But really it was usually just a matter of reminding him of the rules and making sure I stuck to the same ones I always have. And the rules are the same for all the kids.

Well that’s my update for now. Oh and also Orlund told me to stop making/freezing meals because we don’t have enough room in the freezer anymore Never thought that day would come. LOL. Well I’d better get Livi down for her nap.

Olivia calls her blanket “Ning Ning”. Just a few minutes ago she came up to me and said “Ning Ning”
“you want your blanket, where is it?”
“I dunno”
“It’s downstairs in your bed, you want to go get it?”
“uh huh”
“okay well the gate is open, go down and get it”
“No, Daddy”
“Daddy’s at work”
“Oh, Doy”
“Joy do you want to get Olivia’s blanket for her?”
“no”
“Olivia, Joy doesn’t want to go get it”
“Mommy”
“No, you go get it”
“Okay”…….
A few minutes later Olivia came back upstairs with her blanket, we clapped and cheered that she went and got it. She then told me “Ning Ning Happy”
“Your blanket is happy? Because you went and got it?”
“uh huh”.

Olivia with her "Ning Ning"

Okay it’s official my kids melt my heart. And light up my life.
I think God gives us children to teach us. Teach us of His love He has for us (His Children), Teach us about true Faith and purity. Teach us to pray with all our hearts for another. And to teach us that we really do need to rely on Him.

My last post was a downer, but even now rereading it the post didn’t even capture the essence of what I was feeling. Thank you to those that read and commented. It really did help to know that I’m not alone in my frustrations.

I finally was able to talk to Orlund and we were both able to discuss our frustrations and clear the air some. Since then he’s been awesome. He tells me to ask him when I need help (I’m bad at that), especially when I’m doing something I shouldn’t be doing in my pregnant state. And I feel like we are moving forward and that makes me much happier. We are even wanting to go to bed early just to lay there and talk for hours, something we haven’t done in a long time. This year is starting to look up.

I honestly can’t remember what all I’ve blogged about or not. Sorry if I’m repeating myself (I’m to lazy to look back). Orlund finished building a part wall that has a built in desk on the other side (MY desk). We cleared out the old ‘tv room’ and it’s been transformed into our new office. We spent the last week after Christmas before Orlund started his new job busting our butts to try and get the office ready to move all our crap stuff in. Orlund bought some shelving units and put them together, as well as dismantling his desk, moving it then reassembling it. We only have a few remaining odds and ends in the old office (as well as the closet that is full of my material and sewing stuff). I hope to move all the remainder of my stuff over tomorrow (although I may need more boxes). After Orlund finishes moving the last few things of his over then the old office is ready for it’s make over. It’s going to be the girls new bedroom. They are very excited about it. Especially since they will both be getting ‘new’ beds! I’m very excited to set up their new room and finally move them downstairs (although it’d be nice if they slept through the night on a regular basis!).

My mom gave me a hand and we were able to get the toy room finally organized and cleaned up. It felt so good to get it decluttered and organized. I don’t know if you’ll understand this, but to me, whenever an area that hasn’t been cleaned in a while is finally cleaned and cleared out it’s so quiet. Like the clutter and mess were noise to my eyes.

Well I think that’s all I have to share at the moment
Hope you all have a wonderful week! Oh and if any of you have any recipes that are good for freezing I would greatly appreciate them… trying to stock up, unfortunately I don’t have many ideas…Thanks in advance

I’ve been ‘patiently’ waiting to hear from the Dr’s office if they knew where we would be going for our next Ultrasound (Vancouver or Kelowna). I gave them a week. Today I called, the receptionist said she would look into it and get back to me. By lunch I figured perhaps she knew the answer but hadn’t had a chance to call me. So I called her again. I found out some interesting information I hadn’t thought about… First we are going to go to Vancouver for the ultrasound. She knew that. I guess she called them, and they are usually quick at responding so I should know by the end of the day (thank goodness that’s 4pm!). However the things I learned ~ Apparently this is an ALL day affair! We also don’t get to pick which day it’ll be, Vancouver picks that. The appointment is usually from around 9am to 2pm. First we will meet with some Doctors, then have the detailed ultrasound (hope we get to watch, or at least see some), then we meet with the doctors again (with some counselors) and go over the results right then and there!! Which is nice because we’ll have answers quickly and not have to wait to come home and find out. She will call me sometime today and let me know what day it is that we will need to go. Also they will have a package of information for us to pick up at the office. Makes it sound scary, but I have faith in our God. Heck my little believer Joy prayed for baby to be okay, how can it not be? (I’ll blog about that next).

Here's our baby #3

However…. This means that we will have to leave our girls somewhere over night!! First time EVER! (Joy stayed at our house with my mom when Olivia was born but that’s the ONLY time). Sure we have family in Vancouver, that I’m sure I could ask to watch them for the day, however, Orlund’s Aunt has some beds for the girls that we need to bring home (and in order to fit them into the van we need all the seats out). Orlund had been planning a trip with his mom to go down and get the beds, however now since we will be going we can just pick them up. The receptionist told me that usually people go down the night before due to how early these appointments are (and you wouldn’t want to miss it!). So that is probably what we will be doing. I think this will be hard on me! Leaving my baby girls… I know they will be fine, it’s probably harder on me than anyone else. Guess we just wait for the phone call with the times and then see who is available for babysitting the cutest girls around

See ~ such cuties!

Our next stop was in Brandon.

On our 7hour trip there we stopped in Regina at a McDonald’s to let the girls play for around an hour. They loved it, and it was a nice break for us too.
In Brandon I have an Uncle Richard (whom we stayed with), Cousin Dan (wife Becky, and their two kids) and Orlund has his Baba, as well as an Uncle Nathaniel (wife Thaisa and cousin Danessa). So we had many family members to visit with. The day we arrived at Uncle Richard’s house we were introduced to his Girlfriend Nancy, she was very nice to meet. I haven’t seen my Uncle Richard since our last trip out that way (actually we haven’t seen anyone from Brandon since then) and it was nice to see him. He and my Dad were very close growing up and they look quite similar. We were off to bed at a ‘reasonable’ time that night.
The next day we spent the morning visiting with Richard (he was on holidays) and making plans with the rest of the families. Shortly after dinner we headed out to see Baba. She was over the moon with excitement in getting to meet our girls. They took to her as well. Lots of hugs and loves, and of course in tradition to her Ukrainian nationality she stuffed us with even more food! After our visit with her Joy had many heart felt (tired) tears and kept crying out for Baba. She fell asleep on our way to Orlund’s Aunt and Uncles house and continued with a little snooze while we were there. Olivia didn’t mind soaking up all the attention! It was a wonderful visit. Then after returning to Uncle Richards and getting the girls down we continued our tradition of staying up much to late. (of course really it may have been midnight there but that’s only 10pm our time! lol).
The second day there Orlund went to spend some time alone with his Baba while I stayed at Richards with the girls. Nancy and one of her daughter’s (Jenna) came for brunch. It was nice to visit with Nancy again and to meet her daughter. After brunch we just hung around (played in a playground) and then headed over to Orlund’s Aunt and Uncle’s house for visiting, dinner and well more visiting. We enjoyed a bit of a cooler day (finally) and in the evening even enjoyed a fire in their back yard (in a portable fire pit). It was wonderful and we didn’t want to head home but the girls needed to go to bed.

The next day we headed to Winnipeg. (but don’t worry Brandon isn’t done yet…we come back .)

(sorry I haven’t been blogging!) Back to our trip~

We drove to Saskatoon and the girls did fabulous again! This was only a 7hour trip and that seemed like just long/short enough that we didn’t kill one another Funny enough but I wrote out all the directions off Google. Orlund never looked at the map. To be completely honest the only time I felt stress on this wonderful trip was giving him the directions. If he sees a map at least once, he’s okay to boss around….if he doesn’t see that map, lets just say it makes it interesting. We arrived at my Auntie Pat and Uncle Rob’s house in time to enjoy a wonderful dinner, my cousin Stacey was there and cousin Chris, wife Ivy and baby girl Summer (11months) came over for a wonderful visit. It was my first time meeting both Ivy and Summer. Love them both. Auntie Pat is my mom’s little sister. Pat is very similar to both my mom and myself. I found myself watching her, enjoying her company and making me realize just how much she is like my mom. Made me miss mom even more, but at the same time made me feel like she was there with us too.
The next day we mostly hung around at the house, thought we’d go to the zoo. Unfortunately by the time we got there it would close in 2hours. We figured we would go in anyway as our Zoo passes should get us in there too. They said it didn’t. So instead we took the girls to a pet store (they had to see some animals). Did a little shopping and had ice cream. Headed back to the house to enjoy all the family for dinner again. Every night we stayed up much to late visiting with Pat and Rob. We get a long fabulously with them, and the girls went to bed easily.
The following day we decided to go to the zoo earlier in the day. First however we went out for lunch with Chris on his break. It was nice to get to visit with him (we had been close when he and I lived in Thailand). Then we headed over to the zoo. Again they said we had to pay, so we did. It was super hot, but a nice zoo none the less. We had a wonderful time, unfortunately the train wasn’t working (luckily it’s out of sight so Joy didn’t notice! phew!). After that we headed back to the house where I took a nap with Olivia. I had forgotten to take my night diclectin the night before so was feeling a bit queezy.  Again the whole family was there for another delicious dinner. We all just hung around visiting after and enjoyed watching the kids play. And of course once everyone had gone home and the girls were in bed we stayed up past all reasonable bedtimes visiting.
The next morning we loaded up and headed to Brandon.
Thank you Auntie Pat and Uncle Rob for letting us stay with you, we had a fabulous time

ps~ Joy’s eye slowly returned to normal during our Saskatoon visit.
pss~ Once we returned home I sent an email to our Zoo informing them that we were unable to get into the Saskatoon zoo. turns out we should have been able to and our Zoo is willing to reimburse us of the admission! And they are informing their staff at the Saskatoon Zoo to be better aware.

Sept 3rd we finally set off on our family trip. I’d been planning for most of the summer. I’d packed a week early and was happy to leave my house in good standing (clean!), and feel that we had everything we’d need. We sure did! Brought back at least 1/2 of the snacks we’d taken! lol.
It was nice to have all the room in the van. I was able to keep a large bag between Orlund and I which contained our directions, my camera, snacks, drinks, my neck pillow and a blanket for myself. Then just behind the bag was a bin containing the girls toys, a bag next to that contained their DVD player and movies. On the other side of the toy bin was Orlund’s camera. Everything nice and handy!
Just before we headed out on the highway we stopped to gas up. While Orlund ran inside to buy breakfast and coffee (A&W) a truck pulling a horse trailer pulled up. Joy pointed the horses out to me. The trailer pulled out before we did, and for the remainder of our trip, every 20minutes or so, Joy would ask “Daddy where horses? More horses?”. It was cute, and since they can see out the van windows we were able to point out the horses, cows and trains.
The girls did AMAZING traveling. Olivia slept on an off (more off than on), and whenever I could I’d take a nap as well. Whenever I’d finally get into a comfortable position (weird complaint but too much room in the van for easy napping), Joy would ask “mommy nap? Why mommy nap?”. lol. We stopped in Jasper for a quick lunch and stretch of the legs. The girls napped for the rest of Jasper and so did I. Well it’s a 10hour trip to Wetaskiwin, and the girls were getting tired! So we put a movie on for them, they watched it, however once it was over there was many fits had because they wanted to watch another! This was the only movie then ended up watching in the van the entire rest of the trip!

We arrived safe and sound and had a wonderful visit with Auntie Darla and Grandma Norstrom. Their house was as comforting and familiar as it was the last time, this time however with a pretty new floor We settled in quickly and got to visiting. One thing about Orlund’s Grandma that you’d realize after a short 15minute talk with her is she has a memory like I wish I had! She remembers everyone’s name, their spouse’s name, their kids names etc etc. I wish I could remember names like that!! We love listening to her tell us stories of her life, growing up, meeting/dating Grandpa (whom I never got the pleasure of meeting) and all the wonderful things she experienced. It was beautiful weather and we took advantage of it, playing outside in their gorgeous backyard, and going to the park by the lake. Auntie Darla helped show us around and was a great hostess. She also makes the most beautiful bead jewelry! She showed me some of the bare foot sandals she made and some anklets. She even let me choose an anklet to keep! I wore it every single day for our entire trip, and would still be wearing it unfortunately it broke the day we got home. (I told Orlund I guess I’ll have to get into beading now . lol). I have all the beads so it wont be too difficult to fix (I hope, or else Auntie Darla will be getting a special package in the mail…). The day we went to the park dusk set in and so did the mosquito’s. Olivia received about 3 bites on her face, they swelled a little but nothing major. Joy got a bite on her right eyebrow, the next morning it was swollen. We didn’t let her sore eye slow us as we went to the Reynold’s museum (old cars/airplanes). That evening Orlund’s Uncle Dallas and Auntie Fay came for dinner. Joy’s eye didn’t seem to be getting better and she was rubbing it (were giving her Benadryl). So Darla, myself and Joy loaded up to head to the hospital. We waiting 2 hours, Joy is such a good girl!! The doctor finally called our name and rushed us through a bunch of hallways, stopping at the end of one (it had a corner cubby with stock). “Sorry, but this is our privacy” he said as he picked Joy up and put her on a metal tray with wheels. He examined her eye told me to put eye drops in and keep giving the Benadryl, and sent us home.
After such a wonderful visit, and learning that our girls aren’t shy and like meeting new family members, it was time to go. Sept 6th time to head to Saskatoon! Joy’s eye was now swollen completely shut (poor girl). Thank you Auntie Darla and Grandma Norstrom for  your hospitality, and wonderful stories. God Bless you both! Hope we can come see you again sometime soon.

I have been (just slightly) stressing over our upcoming holiday. Trying to figure out what to pack, and trying to make it as light of a load as possible! I thought I would wait until Thursday to pack, however strongly feel I need to pack NOW. Don’t know if it’s the pregnancy, or God whispering, but I’m going to listen either way! So tomorrow, I’m going to pack most my clothes that I plan to take (other than the clothes I still need for this week), along with kids toys, movies and some of their clothes. I may have the boys for a few extra hours, or an entire extra day this week that is completely unexpected so perhaps I do need to pack now and stay on top of this just in case!
My belly is growing at a very quick rate! I can’t believe it!! Orlund took some pictures of me standing (ones that were later deleted, so I didn’t stand pretty) and WOW talk about looking pregnant already! I’m hoping Wednesday at my Doctors apt I’ll get to hear the little heart beat! (14weeks!).Well, during all this stressing, We did take some time out to have some fun! Check out Orlund’s latest blog entry for one picture. And here is another (not the best quality, but still fun to take!).

Hovering over Mommy! OH What fun!!