Marlowe: 18 Months

She escaped from the church nursery last week, and when they found her, she had already gotten up two flights of stairs and down a hallway.

She gets called "stinker" more than "Marlowe" around here.

She still likes to play in the toilet.

She can often be found on top of the counter-height dining room table (and has the fat lip to prove it today).

She weighs 25 lbs (75th percentile), which makes her within 8 lbs of her sisters.

She's quick ... surprisingly so ... I think people assume she's too fat to move quickly.  :)

She has at least SIX teeth coming in right now.

She loves an audience and makes friends everywhere we go.

She's a Mommy's Girl and is usually in my lap (facing in, hugging) or tugging on my leg when she's not getting into trouble.

She loves to go on walks in the backpack carrier with Daddy.

She calls both of the twins "La-la" (Leila, though I haven't really tested her).

She loves the outdoors and is usually wet and muddy when she's done playing.

She finds all the dolls in the house, calls them "baby", and gives them sloppy kisses.

She's gonna be a great big sister.

(Thoughts and pictures in no particular order.)

Baby 4: It's a ...

... GIRL!

I'm really hoping that nobody has been waiting for this belated post with great anticipation.  We've posted a picture on Facebook, and I hope that any of our loved ones who don't have Facebook have heard it from us personally. But please forgive me if that's not the case.  :)

So, four girls!  We are "over the moon" excited.  Even Tony, the lone boy.  He's such a good papa; his princesses just adore him (including me!).  And, of course, he's giving me grief because he knew all along that it was a girl, and he says I should have just trusted him.  :)

The ultrasound itself was great.  Physically, all is well with the baby.  As you can see in the picture, Baby Girl was sucking her thumb the whole time.  The ultrasound tech kept jiggling her around so that she would move her hand for nose/mouth measurements (checking for cleft palate, I believe?), and she refused.  :)  Same thing with her legs: she had them literally crossed at the knee, and it took her a while to let us have a peek at her gender.

(On Tony's side of the family, there will be 8 granddaughters and only 1 grandson.  I know they were hoping for another little boy, but I also know that they'll love the new little lady just as much!)

I haven't posted publicly that I've switched my obstetrical care to a midwife this time around, and I'll be having a drug-free labor in the hospital.  I'll write an entire post about it sometime, but for now, let's just say that I've been reading ... and reading ... and reading about drug-free labor.  It gets a little overwhelming.  And having given birth three times (or is is just twice?  I'll let you think about that one...) let's just say that some books are full of nonsense with no research to back them up.  :)

But, if all goes as planned, I will have literally given birth four ways: 1) A vaginal birth with an epidural; 2) An emergency c-section; 3) A VBAC with an epidural; 4) A drug-free VBAC.  Aren't you proud to say that you know me?  ;)

Baby 4: 20 Weeks

The bun in my oven is halfway done baking!

Halfway along means ... the big ultrasound is coming up!  Tuesday morning, to be exact.  Last time around, we let you vote on whether we would find out the gender or not.  (The results are here.  Don't believe the actual poll -- something has happened to it over time.)  This time, we're not being so generous.  Yes, we will be finding out!

People keep asking us if we're hoping for a boy.  The short answer is, we will be happy with whatever God has given us!  The long answer, for me, is that I'm suddenly scared to death of having a boy.  I didn't even realize it until a few nights ago, when my whole night of sleep was a mess of restless dreams about which gender the baby will be.  The closer we get to Tuesday, the more nervous I am.  And of course I can't change anything, so I'm trying to hand my restless spirit over to God.  Tony believes that it is a girl (based on the heart rate at our early ultrasound) and will hold onto that belief until proven otherwise.

Either way, I haven't decided how we'll reveal the big news to the world, so if I don't update the blog right away on Tuesday, just know that something good is coming. :)

I'll sign off with pictures of the three big sisters from before church this morning.  Have a wonderful week!

Easter 2013

He is risen, indeed!

We enjoyed a lovely weekend with my family at my parents' house.  If I haven't said it before, I LOVE three-year-olds (almost four!).  Everything is so new and exciting for them!  We participated in a community Easter egg hunt, and Hadley and Leila did such a good job.  They understood the concept ... and loved the results, of course!

Here they are, all ready to hunt.  My niece Trinity is on the right.  She's a little mommy.  I couldn't believe how much she carried Marlowe around ... Marlowe is not a light load to carry!  :)

On Sunday, we celebrated Jesus's Resurrection at my parents' country church.  I love country churches, don't you?  The church service was beautiful.  Here's the girls in their Easter dresses, which will double as princess dresses for something this summer.  They love them.

Funny story about these bunnies that Hadley and Leila are holding: if you found a golden egg at the Easter egg hunt, you could exchange the egg for a stuffed animal.  Leila found a golden egg right away, and she exchanged it for the purple bunny (maybe it's Lavender's mom?).  About 20 minutes later, a friend of our family "hid" a golden egg for Hadley to find.  Hadley and I walked over to the prize table and handed the worker the golden egg. She said, "Oh, I'm so sorry, but each child can only have one stuffed animal."  I replied, "Yes, I know, she doesn't have one."  The lady was obviously confused, and I couldn't figure out why, until *light bulb!*  I said, "Oh!  Her identical twin already got a stuffed animal!"  I'm sure she was thinking, yeah, right, likely story...  but she let Hadley pick out the brown rabbit anyway.  :)

Baby 4: 16 Weeks

Somehow, with the morning sickness and the raising of three other children, I haven't taken a belly shot for 6 weeks.  So, here we are.  16 weeks. I feel like my size is not too shocking ... if it is, don't tell me.  :)

The morning sickness ... ugh.  I haven't been able to shake it totally.  My energy is back, but every day or two, I suddenly have to run to the bathroom.  And I'm still eating like I just got rescued from being lost in the wilderness.  :)  It lasted until 16 weeks with the twins, and about 13 with Marlowe, so hopefully it's almost done.

Isn't this the cutest thing in the world?  Hadley saw me pose for the picture, and wanted to pose like me.  Complete with nap time hair and silky pajama bottoms.  These are the moments I want to remember.

Two Thumbs Up

We've reached a milestone here at The VanHorn House.  Nothing earth shattering, but I'm pretty happy, so I thought I'd share.

You saw it when it started (and again in Part 2), when we moved the twins into big girl beds, and when Lavender's story was told.

It started at the beginning of their lives ...

... and continued through the toddler years ...

I wasn't in any hurry to stop the thumb sucking.  It had naturally tapered off to bedtime only, so it wasn't a big deal.  My only half-hearted concern was that both of the girls have eczema, and their thumbs would get really dry and flaky, especially in wintertime.

However, two things happened at almost the same time, about a month ago.  Hadley started purposefully sucking her thumb during the day, making sure that we were watching, and making big slurping noises for show.  She was starting to know better.  :)  Then, at Hadley's first trip to the dentist, the doctor showed me the roof of her mouth.  You could see how it was conforming to the shape of her thumb -- long and narrow and deep.  He wasn't concerned, but said if it continued for several more years, it would have to be corrected with an appliance.  When I weighed those two things together, it seemed like the timing was right to attempt an end.  Poor Leila just had to be along for the ride.  :)

I decided to start simply and work up if we needed to.  I purchased Mavala Stop, a clear bitter nail polish.  And then, we built it up.  We made a huge deal.  For several days, we talked about how we were going to paint our nails in a few days!  What color of nail polish do you want?  Your nails are going to be SO pretty!  But ... *dramatic pause* ... when you paint your nails, you can't put your thumb in your mouth.  You have to be all done with your thumb.  And the twins agreed to the plan.  :)

That's exactly what we did.  Picked out some of Mommy's polish, painted nails, with a coat of Mavala on top.  I saw each of them put their thumbs in their mouth exactly once after that.  Leila yelled, "I need a drink!"  Hadley just made a bitter face and moved on.

And that, seriously, was the end of that.  I reapplied the Mavala a couple of times, but I really didn't need to.  Nobody cried, nobody woke up in the night, and nobody has returned to the thumb.  Another win for Team VanHorn.

Goodbye, thumb sucking.  You were cute while you were with us.  And you're still cute on Marlowe.

Belly Flop

Let's take a moment to mourn the loss of my stomach muscles, shall we?

Here we are, baby and I, at 10 weeks.

And, just for fun, let's take a look at my other two pregnancies.  Not great photos, but they'll do.

And I actually weighed less at the beginning of this pregnancy than I did with either of the other ones.  I guess carrying 10.5 lbs of twins in 2009, then 9 lbs of one baby in 2011, then getting pregnant again in 2013 *might* take a toll on one's body.  Out of pride, I almost nixed the idea of posting belly pictures this time.  But, I figured, my belly reaches nearly unbelievable proportions anyway ... so let's see how ridiculously huge I can get this time.  It'll be like a game.  :)

By the way, since it's Valentine's Day, I'll brag on my hubby a little bit.  He surprised me by arranging for babysitting and taking a long lunch break.  When we got in the car, he told me that he wanted to drive to Denver so that I could eat at Spicy Pickle -- a huge pregnancy craving of mine and one of my favorite restaurants.  I didn't think my morning sickness could handle the drive, so we settled on a local Mexican restaurant and a trip to the grocery store for Oreos.  :)  Ah, true love.  He's the best.

And, if you need a chuckle, here's the other two pictures I took tonight.  :)