Mason Alan

We were so excited when we found out that we were expecting baby #3! We told our parents and siblings very early on in my pregnancy (about 5 weeks). Good thing, because I felt by 6 weeks I was already starting to show! I guess that's what happens when you have three pregnancies in three years! We waited a couple weeks before telling anyone else, and once I had my first ultrasound at about 9 weeks, we shared the good news with all our friends and family. Having two kids so young, and being pregnant with number three, I got a lot of mixed responses to me being pregnant again. It was either pure excitement for this new little blessing, people thinking I was absolutely crazy for doing this again or purely not surprised seeing as how I'd either been pregnant or nursing for basically three years prior! Either way, we were beyond excited for God's miracle and this new little addition to our family.

Thankfully I never experienced nausea during my pregnancy but man was I tired. Some days all I lived for was nap time and bedtime for my kids and myself! I also had horrible back and pelvic pain especially during my first and third trimester. This was by far my most painful and uncomfortable pregnancy, Needless to say, by the time my due date drew near, I was so ready to finally meet this baby. When we found out we were pregnant, we knew from the very beginning that we were not going to find out the gender of this baby. I think that made the arrival of Mason Alan much more special and anticipated.

My due date was June 9th, but I just knew that I wasn't going to carry until then. I had Matthew on my due date and Mollie 10 days early, so I figured that we would meet this little one a tad earlier. On Sunday May 18th, at exactly 37 weeks pregnant, I was up in my room getting ready to go to evening church at 4:00 pm when I thought my water might have broken. I didn't experience the typical gush like I did with Mollie, but I just noticed a slow trickle and some had some intense contractions. After waiting about 20 minutes, I knew for sure that my water had indeed broken and it was time to get things ready. We called my parents, who quickly came over to our house.

(Our last picture as a family of four, just before heading to the hospital)

I scurried around and finished packing bags for Matthew and Mollie to spend the night at Miss Jen's house, one of my dearest friends. This was the first time that Matthew and Mollie had ever spent the night anywhere else but Gabby and Grandpa's house. I knew that Jen would smother them with love and my kids were so excited to have a sleep over with Grace and Faith, that it put my Mommy anxiety to rest. My parents took Matthew and Mollie up to church where Jen took them for the night, and then my parents met us at the hospital.

After my kids were gone, I showered and packed my hospital bag (I know, total third time mom thing to do....wait until the very last minute to pack bags!). I did have a hospital bag already packed for baby. By this time I wasn't having regular contractions, but was still leaking fluid, so Matt and I took a few minutes to pick up the house and stop by the store for some drinks and snacks. On the way to the hospital was also confirmed our baby names for both a boy and a girl, since we weren't completely decided on either!

I arrived at the hospital about 6:30pm, they checked me into my room, hooked me up to the monitor and I changed into a hospital gown. Being my third pregnancy, and the fact that I was dilated to 3cm at my appointment the week before, I was expecting for labor to progress quickly and we would have our baby before midnight. I was so wrong!

For the next few hours I walked the hospital hallways, bounced on the labor ball, and laughed and enjoyed the evening with Matt and my mom and dad.

I had a few irregular contractions, but nothing regular and nothing that was painful. My contractions eventually stopped.all.together. Seriously??? So here it was, almost 11pm, my water was broken, I was not in labor, I was 4cm dilated, baby was high and not engaged in my pelvis. My doctor said I could wait until morning, hoping that labor would start on its own, but by then baby would be at increased risk of infection due to my water being broken, or we could start Pitocin. Initially I was very opposed to using Pitocin. I wanted a natural, drug free labor like I had with my other kids. Thankfully I had an amazing nurse, who answered all my questions and eased at least some of my fears about inducing labor with Pitocin. I finally decided to start Pitocin about midnight.

My contractions started to pick up, and oh my goodness, Pitocin contractions are no joke....they hurt! I've been through a natural labor where my water was not broken, I've been through a natural labor where my water was broken the entire time, and labor augmented with Pitocin is by far the most painful. I was exhausted at this point, but was most comfortable being out of bed, walking the hallways, and bouncing on the labor ball. After 4 hours of hard, painful back labor, I had only progressed half of a centimeter. I was so frustrated and was ready to give up and get an epidural, because at that point I felt like labor was never going to end. My nurse was such an encouragement to me and kept telling me that once we got baby into the right position, she was confident that I would progress fast. We tried different labor positions, in bed, out of bed, walking, bouncing, you name it I tried it!

Thankfully, things started to pick up and a little after 7am I was 9cm. Shift change was starting and I met my new nurse who was coming on. I felt like I finally had to push, so my new nurse checked me and I was still 9cm dilated. I continued to feel the urge to push, but I refused to be checked again and have someone tell me to labor a little longer. So I got out of bed and suffered through a few more contractions, trying to forget about the fact that I felt the need to push. My new nurse was slowly starting to set the room up for delivery. At 7:36am my night nurse walked through the door to check in one last time, with the delivering doctor behind her, and I immediately told her I had to push....like now! She rushed over to the bed and literally as I got into bed, she reached under my gown and caught baby! No pushing, completely self delivered. Nothing was set up, no doctor, nothing! My nurse immediately put baby up on my chest and all I remember is Matt saying "It's a boy!" The excitement of that moment made it 100% worth not finding out the gender of our baby.

Mason Alan Stevens

Born Monday May 19th, 2014 at 7:37am

7 pounds 8 ounces

20 1/4 inches long

I had so many thoughts going through my mind...feeling pure joy that our baby boy had arrived safely, laughter, so thankful that labor was finally over, and utter disbelief that I had just delivered a baby within the blink of an eye! I savored the next hour of baby staying on my chest, nursing and bonding with my new baby boy! Instant love at first sight.

A proud Daddy!

A blessed Grandpa and Gabby! After snuggling baby Mason for a bit, they headed home after a long night to get some sleep before two other little munchkins joined them later in the day!

So quiet and content during his first bath.

Papa meeting Mason!

Happy Grandma!

Mason passed his hearing test and rocked the ear phones

Matt and I enjoyed a quiet, restful morning and early afternoon with Mason.

Later that afternoon, Grandpa and Gabby returned with a big brother and big sissy who were eager to meet their little baby brother! I was blown away with how much they instantly loved Mason and were so interested in holding him and loving on him. Matthew would hold him for a minute or so and then say, "You can hold him now." They both were thrilled about the baby doll, remote control car, books and treat that Mason gave them!

After a wonderful visit from our kiddos, we said goodbye and enjoyed a quiet evening with some visits from our friends and family.

I love the rest and special time I get with my husband and baby while being in the hospital, but by the next morning I was so ready to sleep in my own bed, see my kids and start this new adventure as a family of 5!

"Behold children are a heritage from The Lord" Psalm 127:3

We are so blessed!

 

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Mollie 2 years old

Mollie Lynn you are 2 years old!

Happy Birthday to our sweet and sassy little 2 year old. Mollie Lynn, these past two years seem like they have flown by. I still vividly remember the first time I laid eyes on your big beautiful eyes just after you were born. My heart immediately swelled and I knew the special love a mommy has for her daughter. Although there are days where I feel knee deep into the terrible twos, my love for you grows every day. You bring so much life and spunk into our family and we are so blessed to call you ours!

What have you been up to lately?

Weight: 27 pounds (50th percentile)

Height: 35 inches (88th percentile)

Head circumference: 19.5 inches (91st percentile)

You wear 18 month-2t pants and tops, depending on the fit and brand. You are also wearing some 6-9 month pants as capris. You have a skinny little waist! You wear size 4 diapers.

Sleep hasn't changed all that much, other then the fact that you have been waking up early. You usually sleep from 7:30pm-6 or 6:30am. I'm hoping you will start to sleep in a little later! We've also found that it doesn't matter when we put you to sleep, you are still up early. With an early wake up time you are exhausted by nap time and will take a 2-3 hour afternoon nap. If you skip a nap, you are absolutely exhausted and usually asleep on the couch at 5:30!

You usually wake up in the morning incredibly happy. You grab your baby or whatever toy you took to bed with you, turn off your noise machine and walk out of your room. If we are still sleeping, you immediately walk into our room to wake us up and say "Hi Daddy! Hi Mommy!" Morning snuggles in bed are my favorite.

You are a dairy lover. You would drink milk all day long if you could. You also love yogurt, cheese, ice cream, frozen blueberries and pretzels. Some days you are a great eater, and other days it seems like you don't have much of an appetite and just pick at your food throughout the day.

There are only a very small handful of people that you let see your true personality. You talk ALL.THE.TIME. and in full sentences at home and around a few other people. However, at church and around most people, you are very quiet, barely talk, and just bat your big, beautiful eyes at everyone.

We have been working on first time obedience, so sometimes Mommy will say "Mollie Lynn you need to come here right now." Lately, when you want your milk you will demand, "I want my milk, right now!!" Whoops, maybe I need to work on phrasing my commands a little differently.

You moved up to the 2-3 year old class at church, which is the same one that bro bro is in. You love going to class and are always talking about and naming your friends at church.

We had our first Mommy/Daughter date at the nail salon. We both got our toenails painted and you loved it! You picked out a hot pink color and sat so still while you had your toes done. So fun!!

You love to play with your baby dolls. Your favorite doll right now is my old cabbage patch doll from when I was a little girl! You always want a specific baby blanket for your baby too. You put diapers on the. And change them when they "go poopy". You put them to bed in your new baby bed and you burp them when they cry. You are my little mommy's helper in the making!

You also love to kiss and snuggle real babies. You love your cousin Parker, but you always think that he needs his boo boo, and try to constantly stuff it in his mouth.

You are going to be a big sissy in about a month and a half! You kiss and tickle my big pregnant tummy all the time. I'm going to have to watch you closely though, because I think you are going to love your baby brother or sister just a little too much!

Your favorite song is Wheels on the Bus. You also like to sing the ABC's and Jesus Loves Me.

You count to 15, skipping a couple of numbers along the way.

When asked how old you are, you say "two" and hold up 2 fingers.

You like to play the I-pad. I'm amazed at how well you can navigate through it to find and play your favorite apps. You also love to look at pictures or watch our home videos.

Your favorite TV shows are Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, Ella the Elephant, and Little Einsteins. You are interested in the show for a few minutes, but that's about it!

You are our little helper, most of the time willing to clean up or go get something we need. You LOVE to sit up on the counter while I prepare meals, especially in the morning when we make Daddy's lunch. You are so proud to hand him the finished product!

You love to play Patty Cake, Row Row Row your Boat, and Ring around the Rosie.

You sing the song Old McDonald Had a Farm every time we pass a McDonalds restaurant.

You absolutely LOVE to read books.

We call you our little hoarder and our little bag lady. You are always putting trinkets or money in your pockets. You love to carry around bags, your Minnie backpack or your pink Halloween bucket and put toys, food, or really anything you can find in it. You take an armful of babies, books and blankets with you to bed every night and will not leave your room in the morning until you have everything stuffed back into your arms to carry downstairs.

You love your purple blanket.

You are 100% a Daddy's girl.

You dislike riding in the car or being in your carsest.

Mollie Lynn you have the most beautiful big blue eyes, one of the most infectious smilies around, and a sweet endearing personality. But my, oh my, you are going through the terrible twos early and things can change from sweet to all spice in a matter of seconds. You are Miss Independent and want to do EVERYTHING by yourself, from putting your pants, shoes and socks on, brushing your teeth, wrapping up your baby doll, getting a snack etc. If we say no to that, or are in a hurry and need to do it ourselves, you throw a screaming and crying fit, to which you find yourself in timeout often.

When you get upset, hurt or in a fight with your brother, you get mad and will throw anything that is in your path. We are working on self control!

Happy 2nd Birthday Sissy! We thank God for you every day!

 

 

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Mollie Lynn 21 & 22 months

Mollie Lynn 21 & 22 months old

What have you been up to these past couple of months?

You still wear size 4 diapers. Your clothes are anywhere from 18 months-2T.

Your hair is really starting to grow, especially in the back. You have such beautiful curls! I put your hair in your first ponytail. It didn't stay for long, but it still counts, right??

If you are hungry, you will eat just about anything. You are my dairy girl and would live off of milk, cheese, yogurt and ice cream!

You have the sweetest, happiest, silliest and most endearing personality most of the time. But, oh my goodness when you get upset, you go from 0-100 (like you would even as a baby!), screaming and yelling "NNNOOOOO!" You are most certainly testing our parenting!

You love to hold our hand and hop down the stairs "yike a froggy!"

You love going into the church nursery and playing with all of your friends. You are starting to look really old in there though!

You still love looking at and reading books. You will go up to your room and pull a bunch of books out onto the floor and look at book after book by yourself.

Your favorite songs are Zacchaus, Wheels on the Bus, and ABC's.

You will ask for song after song when we tuck you into bed at night.

You are starting to really take an interest in playing with your baby dolls. I love this!

You celebrated your second Christmas! You loved spending time with all of our family, but really had no idea what was going on. You loved opening your presents, but a minute later you'd get up and walk into the other room to explore something new! Gabby and Grandpa bought you and bro bro a bouncy house for Christmas. You absolutely love to bounce in it!

We've had a couple days of snow and also spent a couple of days over in Leavenworth playing in the snow. Let's just say you like to play in the snow for a few minutes, and maybe go on one sled ride, but then you'd prefer to sit on someone's lap or warm up inside with some hot chocolate.

You are proving to be every independent and have a mind of your own. You don't like to be told what to do, but then again I don't know what toddler really does!

You are a morning girl, waking up happy and ready to play almost every day. (such a nice reprieve to your brother some mornings!)

Mollie Lynn, I cannt believe how fast time has flown by! You are almost 2 years old. We love you so much Sissy and treasure every day we have with you. You are a beautiful little girl and I love watching how God is changing and growing you each day.

 

 

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Matthew Jay 3 years old

Matthew Jay 3 years old

Happy Birthday buddy!

I can barely wrap my mind around the fact that you are 3 years old. It seems like it was just yesterday we were bringing you home from the hospital, and now I feel like I've barely blinked and overnight you've turned into a little boy. Matthew Jay, I am so blessed to be called your Mommy. You have such a big personality that brings so much joy to my life. I couldn't imagine not spending each day being your Mommy. It truly is the best job in the world. Don't ever lose your laughter and the love that you have for your family and others around you. I pray for you each and every day and know that God has such big plans for your life!

What have you been up to these past couple of months??

You wear size 3T clothes. You like to put on your own shoes and socks. Lately, you have been obsessed with wearing your snow or rain boots and wear them about everywhere except church. I secretly think you like them because you know you can stomp in a puddle with them on. All boy. You are starting to get particular and opinionated about what clothes you wear and how they fit.

On December 20th, we got our first 6 inches of snow for the year. You absolutely loved it. You were so excited to look out the window in the morning, you literally slid down the stairs in a mad dash to get a peek outside. We had breakfast, put our snow gear on and were heading out the door by 8am for a morning of snow adventure! You loved building a snow man and getting pulled in a sled by Daddy. Your absolute favorite thing to do was sledding. The faster and higher, the better. At first you wanted Daddy to go with you, but by the end you were all about doing it by yourself. We also went over to Gabby and Grandpa's house and you had a blast going for a sled ride with Grandpa around the block. I thought you might last an hour or so, but we ended up spending about 5 hours outside playing in the snow. You warmed up to hot chocolate and took a nice long nap that day!

You loved celebrating Christmas and New Years Eve. I think more then anything you loved being around so many people all the time! This was the first year at Christmas where you really understood what was going on, and it was so much fun to watch you open all of your presents and get so excited about each and every one of them.

We bought a house and moved the beginning of January! When we moved from our first house in Snohomish to our rental in Lake Stevens you called that house our "new house". Even after living there for months, you would still refer to it as such. So when we were moving, we told you that we were moving to a "new, new house". You love our "new, new house", and transitioned so well from one home to another. One of your favorite things was seeing the big truck on moving day! I can't wait to watch you grow up in this home.

Some of your favorite songs are Old McDonald, Deep and Wide, Father Abraham, Happy and you know it, 10 Little Monkey's, and all the theme songs to your favorite TV shows.

Your favorite TV shows are Mickey, Ella the Elaphant, Doc McStuffins and Little Einsteins. Your favorite movies are Up and The Letter Factory.

From watching The Letter Factory alone, you have learned all of your letter sounds and can visually recognize all of the alphabet.

Your favorite number is 26 (don't ask me why!). You can count to 20.

You love garbage trucks and tractors. You love to build with blocks and like to create rocket ships and ferry boats.

You can spell your name. You are learning how to write your name. Your M and A look good, but the rest still looks like scribbles.

You know all of your shapes and colors, even an octagon.

You love to climb and jump off of things.

You want to be a superhero when you grow up.

You're my outdoor boy, and love to spend time outside. I can't wait for the weather to warm up so we can start spending more time outside, riding bikes and playing at the park.

You are always choosing a different toy to take with you to bed or nap time. Thankfully you like for it to just be in bed with you, and you don't stay awake playing with it, but it changes almost everyday which toy it will be.

You love to go to church and be with your friends.

Your best friend is your cousin Joshie.

You are a mama's boy, but have quite the affinity to your daddy when it comes to sports and snakes. You love your Sissy. Sure you two have your moments, but overall you are very sweet towards her and play very well together. I love hearing you two giggle together. You're always getting into some sort of mischief with Sissy. I'm getting asked more frequently if you two are twins!

One day while driving in the car you were asking me to get you something from the back seat. I was trying to explain to you that I couldn't just turn around and grab it because I was driving and if I took my eyes off the road, I might get in an accident. You said, "You might pee your pants Mommy?". Oh how I love you!

Another day you were sitting on the couch after bath in only a towel. You were playing with your pee pee and I told you to stop. You looked at me and said, "Awww mom, but I was flying it like a spaceship!" Oh dear...

Matthew Jay, you have brought so much joy, laughter, and spunk to our lives. Happy 3rd Birthday Bro Bro!! We love you soooo much!

 

 

 

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Mollie 19 & 20 months

Mollie Lynn 19 & 20 months

What have you been up to these past couple of months? (Again, llllooonnnggg overdue!)

You are wearing size 18 months - 2T clothes. Both you and Matthew are long and lean. You are slowly catching up to him in size. I've been asked a few times lately if you two are twins.

You still wear size 4 diapers.

You were a puppy dog for Halloween. Matthew knew exactly what he wanted to be for Halloween, but I couldn't find a good coordinating costume to his, and I didn't really know what else you should be for the night. So I decided to take you to Target and let you pick out your own costume. I showed you all the girly cheerleaders, princesses and characters, but as soon as you set your eyes on the puppy costume, your mind was made up!

We officially threw away all your boo boos the beginning of November! It was hard at bedtime for a few nights, but you were a trooper and we got through it.

You LOVE puzzles, building blocks and books. I find you walking around the house with an armful of books, determined to carry them all by yourself.

You have been struggling during car rides. Some days it doesn't matter how many snacks you eat, toys you have or songs we sing, there still is a lot of crying and screaming that takes place in the car.

You love your bro bro, and want EVERYTHING that he has. You always want things to be equal and fair. You are quite the aware little girl and you don't tend to let much get by you.

You're my big helper. You are almost always willing to help me pick up or bring something to me.

We've been working on counting for a long time, but as of 20 months old, you can count to 10!

You want to be a puppy when you grow up!

You love to run, but tend to be pretty clumsy. Whenever you walk or run, you swing your arms in the silliest way.

You are my determined and strong willed little girl.

You are talking so much! You will repeat anything and everything. You draw out your yes/no and say "yyeeeaaaah" and "nnnnnnooo".

You are through and through a Daddy's girl. The way you say daddy has changed. It used to be "daayee", and now you say "daaadee!"

You are our cuddle bug, especially when you first wake up and before bed.

You love looking at pictures and photo albumns. When you walk down the stairs at Gabby's house, you love to look at all her pictures, and point out and name people.

You love the church nursery and playing with all of your friends.

We love you Sissy girl!!

 

 

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