First Full Day of Three Kids

Sleep is precious. Hence this will be very short. 

Highlights of our first full day as a family of five together.

Eerika's first question of the morning was "Can I hold Little Ninja".

Saku's last request of the day was to hold Little Ninja so he held his brother while I told them a bed time story. Troy was closely watching, but Saku did a great job holding him close and Little Ninja was so content. Actually, Saku's last request was "can I hold him in the middle of the night".

Little Ninja is a great eater. Today he slept a bunch and barely cried. Tomorrow he might cry a bunch. You just never know.

Barb was here so she picked up Saku from school and took the kids to their swimming lessons and I stayed home with Little Ninja for three hours by myself. I held him the whole time and caught those first "sleepy smiles" and rolling eyes as newborns are falling asleep.

Our deal for tonight is that I sleep until midnight and then Troy gets to sleep until 5 am and I get one more hour before 6 am. We did it last night and it worked. I think I slept about 4-5 hours. But I can't really be sure. Little Ninja liked being held a lot.

Troy is enjoying the calm nature of Little Ninja. I think it has helped him a bit with the anxiety of having three kids. 

Both of the kids have been amazing with this transition so far. I feel so much love and peace in our home.  This little boy is such a gift and watching Saku and Eerika with him just reinforces how special they are as well. 

Quotable comments

Troy and I were talking about the talents that Saku has. Then I made a comment about what talents Eerika has and I asked her what her "super powers" were. She proudly told me that "sneaking into your room in the middle of the night" was her super power.

It's a rough life in the Grossarth house.

"That is my worse fear" Saku referring to apple sauce and cottage cheese getting mixed on his dinner plate.

"The iPod dying is my worst fear". Saku and Eerika listen to music via my 7 year old iPod at bed time. 

This is the realization that I came to yesterday. I don't really mind if Little Ninja doesn't come until his due date or even after his due date IF I could just stay home and mind my own business. However, because of school pick up, swimming lessons and the necessary errands that I need to take care of each week, I am bombarded by questions and comments about my pregnant body.

"Sweetie, when are you due?" "Oh two weeks or so" "Oh I was going to say that you look ready". Random lady at school. Old people and pregnant people get the "sweetie" nickname from strangers. 

"You look like you are having that baby today" a man in his fifties informed me while I was buying some nursing bras at Target.

"You have tripled in size" Saku's class mate's mom referring to my size after 3 week break. 

First of all, I would like to point out to her that I would be about 120 inches around if I had tripled in size in the last three weeks. That would be a waist to comment about...though it still would not be appropriate in any way.

Since I "only" have about two weeks to go, I am less bothered by people's comments about my size. It really bothered me at 33 weeks but now I just let it be. I almost want to tell people that the baby isn't due until Christmas or something crazy to really give them something to be shocked about.

Little Ninja continues to be active. My belly is very full of baby. Troy painted my toe nails last week. Yesterday I walked 45 minutes on the treadmill and I thought I wouldn't be able to walk today so my body is definitely feeling the weight of the belly. 

Of course, there are those who know to say the kind things as well "you look perfect with just a ball as a belly" as Saku's other classmate's mom told me and Troy told me that my belly looks fake because it is so much like a basketball stuffed under my shirt. 

Now it is the waiting game. Realistically, life is easier while Little Ninja stays in the belly. I can still get my 8 hours of sleep, I can focus on Saku and Eerika and have energy to be a nice and accommodating wife.

Volunteering in the class room

Yesterday I went to volunteer in Saku's class room for the first time. It was so nice. My contribution to the classroom included stapling their journals together and filing papers for the teacher. I had expected to just do my thing and be ignored, but Mrs. Bohnsack would come time to time and chat with me and explain what the kids were doing and why they are doing it. 

The morning was in Chinese and yes, it was all in Chinese. They learned about their numbers, they had story time and talk about maps and different parts of the map. Chinese is a crazy language. It actually makes me feel a bit sad to think that unless some miracle happens, or a bunch of hard work, Troy and I won't know this language while Saku and possibly Eerika will know it. If it was Spanish or French or German, I feel like it would be more doable to learn it as well. 

Saku responded well to the fact that I was in the class room. He was obviously happy to have me there, but he kept working on his worksheets and wasn't distracted by my presence. 

Sleep over

"I am doing service for Saku" Eerika informed me as she brought his night underwear downstairs one morning "and he said I could sleep in his bed with him tonight".

We emphasize the need to keep promises, so that night the kids went to bed together. And for the next hour, I could hear all kind of noise upstairs and I let it be. It was fall break after all and memories are rarely made in silence. Saku actually ended up falling asleep just fine with Eerika in the bed with him but she ended up back in her own bed. She still likes her space when she sleeps.

Daily Scriptures

This week Saku asked me if he could have his own Book of Mormon. Then Eerika wanted hers, but we only had a Bible upstairs for her. Then Saku liked the maps in the Bible so he traded with her. However, he has started to read his scriptures every day. He took it to the swimming lessons with him.  He even brought them over to Grandma's house. 

The other night he helped Eerika read her Book of Mormon. He would whisper a line in her ear and she would repeat it.

Last night he prayed that "we would remember to read our scriptures and pray".

I have a little spiritual giant in my house.

36 weeks pregnant

First of all, after few rough weeks of sleeping and not feeling that great, I feel fabulous right now.  I don't know if it is the extra sleep from fall break, the fact that Troy is home again and I am not "on my own", or the change in my pillows at night so I actually sleep well, but I am feeling physically and emotionally very good right now. A while ago, I felt more anxious about being done with the pregnancy than having my little man here. Now I feel like it has shifted, and I am sure it will shift again, but now I am just excited to have Little Ninja here and of course, the benefit of that is the fact that then I will be done with pregnancy. 

Now that there is only four weeks to go, the questions of "how much longer" doesn't bother me anymore. I continue to walk every day. Sometimes it is just a mile on the treadmill and other days it is closer to 3 miles. 

I have even packed a hospital bag with most of the essentials things. Eerika has folded his clothes many times and tested out baby toys. We can't find the screws for his crib, so no crib or changing table but the bassinet is out and ready. Eerika continues to tell us and everyone else on a daily basis how excited she is and how much she loves Little Ninja. 

And we have settled on a name for him. 

Belly at 33 weeks