All things Baby E***** (including his name hehe)

Oh man...the last time I wrote about Baby Stowaway, we didn't know that he was a "he". Poor little guy, his twin siblings are keeping me so busy and tired, I hardly have the energy to keep up with what is going on in this pregnancy. Well, Baby Boy decided to take matters into his own hands and demand my attention....but more on that later.

First, back up to June. My dad flew up to help me drive down to NC for my 3 week sanity vacation. So I scheduled the "big" ultrasound that afternoon so he would be here to watch twins for us. I'm still considered high risk due to my problems with infertility in the past so we were sent to a specialist to make sure everything looked ok. At this point I was still unsettled about the pregnancy, hoping everything would be ok and trying not to get 100% of my hopes in a basket. The specialist was at the hospital I will deliver at so it was nice to get a mini tour of the place too. Can we say free valet??? hello! and thanks.

We love the find-out-later-in-an-envelope method of finding out what the baby is so we opted for that this time too. We were AMAZED at what you can see when there is only one baby in there! Everything was so clear and we could tell what was what! The tech checked everything out then sent the doctor in....this is where I was a little nervous. He told us a bunch of things they were looking at, what this picture was, blah, blah, blah then he said....and I quote...."this baby is perfect." ahhh exhale. Thank God!

We came home and got the twins fed and ready for bed for my Dad to take over, then my husband and I went on our first date all year! We went to a delicious steak/seafood place and had so much fun talking, actually eating our food, being quiet if we wanted to and discussing names. Yep, we still had not decided on a boy name for sure. Midway through dinner, I decided we were wasting conversation time...I KNEW it was a girl so we were set : Jordin Elise Little! After dinner, we went to a park with a little water park thing...it was so nice outside that we just sat and enjoyed being outside! Then...enough was enough...it was time!

So here I am opening the folder and finding out. SHOCKED.

And then Ryan's turn...

 

We spent the rest of the time looking at the paper over and over again (me) and talking about what it will be like with two boys in the house (Ryan). The boys will be almost the exact age difference as Ryan and his older brother so he was telling me all sorts of stories of what it will be like!

Oh boy...this means we need to pick out a name now! I had a name I was 90% sure on and Ryan had a name he liked alot. We didn't like the names together as first/middle name so it took us a few more days / weeks to fully confirm on the name. But, alas we came together and I must say, I think Baby Boys name is perfect. Baby Stowaway's official name is:

Easton Jude Little

 

Now to the why..... Easton is a town/shopping district/area of Columbus that is right down the road from us. It is a nice part of Columbus and we find ourselves there very frequently so we say it alot. One day it just sounded different and I loved it. Then, the more we talked about it, the more we loved the fact that one day we can tell him the significance of why we chose this name for him....how God gave him to us in this very unexpected, crazy time in our lives up here in Ohio and all the lessons we are learning while up here. The name and now the child will always remind us of these things!

 

Ryan chose the middle name Jude. As soon as he said it, I loved it. We picked it for what it means..."God be praised." I can't remember which "version" that is...Hebrew, Latin, etc... but that is certainly what we want to do with our lives and how we want to respond in all situations God places us in (moving far from home, unexpected pregnancy anyone? :) )

 

So that is the story of Baby Stowaway. He has already earned this nickname as well as Baby Trey (somehow my Dad and Sister got that from me calling him Tres...as in the number 3...???)

 

Many people are asking me if this pregnancy is easier than the twins...yes and no. I dont feel like I'm carrying one baby...i'm so big and this little guy is SO.VERY.ENERGETIC. The twins didn't have room to jab and kick...they just rolled and made big, slow movements. Easton kicks the tar out of my ribs. He takes my breath away and stops me in walking tracks quite frequently. My doctor tells me I'm just really big from the twins, but that Easton is perfectly fine...he just has ALOT more room / fluid than a normal singleton so I guess he is enjoying his freedom :) He comes alive every night at 8:00 pm and makes it very difficult to relax and go to sleep. An interesting fact to me is that he has not changed position...he is still head down with his legs on my right side (my poor, bruised, right side). Caden, who had much less room, was in a different position every appointment! At this point with the twins, I was on couch rest so my days were very slow and easy. You mama's of more than one child can understand that I am exhausted chasing the twins all day so I feel much more worn out at night, my back screams from picking up the twins and I'm so very much out of breath!

 

So here is a comparison with my pregnancy with the twins(2010) and Easton (2012). I'm one week further along this time than with the twins. I'm huge folks.

 

 

2010 (19 weeks)

 

 

2012 (20 weeks)

 

 

I must wrap it up for now, but coming soon, the reason I have been a blog ghost the past two weeks...my exciting hospital stay and recovery after! 



Ohio State Fair

So the Ohio State Fair is in JULY!? What in the world? Seems an absolute foreign concept that the fair should be any other time of year than the fall, in October! We were lucky that the fair is 20 minutes down the road from us in Columbus! The State Fair has special meaning in this household...it was me and Ryans first date! So we have always made it a point to clear our schedules and go. The only exception being the year I was busting at all seams pregnant with the twins. I went for lunch one day to walk the babies out...it worked :)

Anyway, we loaded up and went to experience the fair. Overall the comparison is such: Ohio fair is a super long straight midway/line...not spread out like NC. Ohio had much, much fewer rides which was fine by us, we are not in that stage of life right now :) Ohio was much more expensive to get in and ride the rides! And...Ohio had a booth that specifically sold "SOUTHERN" style sweet tea. :)

We had a good time walking around looking at sights and showing the kids animals and demonstrations. We let them go in the Petting Zoo but NOT feed any animals or pet any of them :) Call me what you want....we dont need a case of Ecoli with a 6 month preggo and no family or friends up here to help. :) Jenna started out timid like she does with big animals, but warmed up quickly when Caden walked around without being held.



We decided that the twins might like the Ferris Wheel. So we bought our tickets to go ride. When we asked the ticket guy if the twins needed tickets (since they would be in our laps!) he looked at them in the stroller and said "the smaller one can ride free, you need a ticket for the bigger one!" ahhhhh! Hilarious! He let them both ride free when we told him they were twins. Ok Caden....let that be motivation for you to EAT!

Our idea on the Ferris Wheel was an epic fail. Caden did NOT. LIKE. IT!  Not one bit! I finally had to smoother him on my shoulder and cover his ears - he didn't like it at the bottom when you went through all of the wheels and gears. Jenna did great and wanted to see everything and study it. 

All in all, another memory for our Adventures in Ohio! 

To the South....and back North again.

Our third week home was full of chill days and resting, eating dinner with friends, going back out on the boat and having Daddy home a little more! He flew in o dark early on Friday so he could have the weekend in Raleigh to catch up with folks. It was wonderful being back together in Raleigh!

We went back to Nana and Papa's some this week and saw our cousins Lauryn and Evan! The twins had so much fun playing with them and wrestling with Evan.

And this is Jenna Girls new headband.... a flamingo! Love it.

My awesome friend Rachel is letting me borrow some of her baby stuff since we sent a ton of our stuff down to Ryan's brother and his wife after they had twins in March. The twins were VERY interested in all of the baby gear....will be interesting to see how they react when a baby is inside!

 Oh Jenna.....

Twirling in Papa T's office chair....fun for everyone....even Aunt Robin apparently! :)



Then we went back out on the boat with Nana, Papa and Daddy. You know my kids are tired when Jenna falls asleep!

I enjoyed some more time with friends...these are the ones I managed to get pictures of! There were many many other lunches, coffee and dinner dates!

And then it came time to come home. I had finished crying by the time we got to Virginia line which is vast improvement over what I was expecting! :) Me being pregnant and remembering the trip down here...I convinced Ryan to stop halfway in West Virginia and let us spend the night in a hotel and break the trip up. Totally the way to go!!!!! The twins loved their first night in a hotel...we found a nice one with indoor pool, allowed pets in certain rooms, and was right in the middle of our trip.

 Jenna found a new way to hold her cup!

And that left this to clean up: took days and days, but we got it done. It was totally worth it!

To the South=To the Beach!!...week 2!

Our second week in NC was just as lovely as the first....maybe even more because it included: THE BEACH! This is going to be like the 2nd summer of.my.life. that I have been to the beach once. The other was the summer I was pregnant with the twins. Anyway, we had an incredible time. But first, back at Papa T and Gigi's we worked on our balance on Papa T and Uncle Brad. As you can see, Caden preferred the surfer approach (which we were very surprised considering the troubles his ankles have given him!) and Jenna preferred the ride-the-horse approach. 

I also got to see a group of girlfriends I love dearly! We went to one of our favorite summer activities: Beach Music at North Hills. And...because there always has to be a story...who cards a huge pregnant girl and makes her wear a BudLight bracelet so she can go up to the Booze tent? I thought about going up and asking for one to see if that guy from "What would YOU do" popped out from behind the tent, but settled for a picture and some scissors :)

And then off to the beach for a week!!!!We were supposed to come down in shifts over Monday and Tuesday, but a horrible storm hit Ohio and knocked out all of the power in our town up here over that weekend. So Ryan went Fri - Sun with no power (not a happy camper!) then found out his work site was a mess and was going to be without power for Mon & Tues too so he hopped on an early plane and joined us early! yea!!!!! The kids and mommy were so happy to see him! Jenna didn't want to let go of his hand......precious! (and yes, Ryan is jammed in back of the pilot with all of our luggage - maybe this is why he is so pro-minivan? wink wink)



We were getting ready for our activities and fun at the beach when Caden fell ill with the stomach bug. ewwwww. I know he was sick b/c he NEVER sits still longer than 10 or so minutes and certainly does NOT sleep on anyone's shoulder. Caden is the kind that wants his bed when its time to nap! Poor baby...he was pitiful.

And of course, this kid would rather cuddle with a ball than a binkie, blanket or paci. This boy loves a ball!!!!

So, while we were keeping Caden comforted, that meant Jenna got some fun one-on-one time with everyone else. She went to the park and mastered the slide, had fun gym aerobics with Aunt Robin and got to see the giant turtle on the side of the road! She was not a fan of sitting on him. :)

After 24 hours, we were all mostly on the mend and ready to hit the beach! I can't tell you how happy it made this mama's heart to see her kids love the beach! They were not afraid of the sand, sound etc... They LOVED playing in the sand and just running free! It took a few minutes of sitting in mom and dad's lap in the water, then they enjoyed "kicking" and "jumping" over the waves.

The twins loved their big boy and girl chairs and I loved looking at them in their little coordinating swimsuits! Heart melted!

We enjoyed the beach some more then it was 4th of July! There is ONE place I want to be on the entire earth on July 4th - Southport! We took the twins to eat and run and play then my parents took them home for bed before the fireworks...maybe in a year or two we can watch fireworks as a family...oh wait, we will have another little one by next summer...maybe not. ha!

Loved watching those little red,white and blue twins run around! Papa T, Robin, Brad and Ryan took run around duty so I could sit down!

LOOOVE this little boy!



One of my favorite pics of Jenna Girl!

Papa T teaching Caden to appreciate the old tree's. Caden obviously very interested expressing: "whoaaaa!"

Gotta love what NC humidity does to Caden's curly hair!

Then we awoke to the next victim of the stomach bug....sweet Jenna girl. If you think Caden doesn't snuggle or sleep while holding him....Jenna is 10 times worse. I haven't seen Jenna like this since she had Roseola..and that was the middle of the night so for her to be like this during the day was heart breaking! 



We filled the rest of the week with videos with Papa T, more beach time, playing in the park for 30 minutes and getting DRENCHED in sweat, eating watermelon and getting spoiled rotten!

Quick side note about our time on the beach....I am in love with my new beach bag from Saltwater Canvas...its appropriately called the "Whale Bag" and I got the suggestion from my fellow mom of twins, Tara. It holds anything you need folks! Yes, it's big...but it's ONE bag! Yes please with two, soon to be three Little's.


Ahhh the beach. I miss you!