Merry Christmas from the Mullets!

How is it December?!?!

Wee Nathan is going to be 3 months old this Saturday! How are we celebrating? By flying to Maui of course! Our first trip as a foursome. So excited. My mom and two other couples will be joining us in a FABULOUS home overlooking the Maui coastline for a whole week. I can almost taste the Mai Tais now. It's funny. I can get a Mai Tai down the street at the Casino, but they just taste different in Hawaii, don't they?

Nathan is such a sweetheart. At nearly 3 months old, he's really settling into our lives. He's getting into his routine and he LOVES his big sister. He gives her so many smiles throughout the day. He had his first giggle about a week ago. It really warms my heart. He's up to the 4th percentile for weight, whew! And he's now sleeping about 5-6 hours at night. Last night he went for 9 hours, but the little dude has a stuffy nose so I'm sure that is part of the reason. But man, oh, man! It felt good to get some shut-eye.

Matt and I left the kids with our dear friend, Denise, two Saturdays in the last month to attend various corporate functions. Nathan did awesome (Emily goes without saying). This has given me the confidence to leave his side a bit more so I can spend some time with my main older squeeze, Matthew. 

People have been asking about Jonas. Well, here he is! You think he looks bummed about another kiddo added into the mix? I think not! Because he has a mommy who still takes him out to fetch the ball almost every day of the week. We love our puppy Jonas. Nathan has just gained sight of him in the last week or so, wondering what this furry thing is before his eyes. Jonas gives Nathan lots of kisses, too. 

Happy holidays to all!

In a completely unrelated note...check out these gems I found at Target. The world is definitely coming to an end in 2012 if this is the fashion. People!!! C'mon!

Happy Autumn!

Nathan is all smiles at almost 2 months old!

Heading into month 2 as a family of 4. Wow, time flies! Nathan is starting to smile a lot now. He enjoys floortime exercise after feeds now. The best update? He puts himself to sleep with barely a fuss these days in his bassinet - day and night. Yay! He is sleeping for one 4-hour stretch at night. Oh, the joy of sleep. He's so much more interactive now. It's wonderful to see!

Emily is a tremendous big sister to Nathan. She's so loving as I knew she would be. She makes sure to kiss him goodnight and goodbye every day. When I pick her up from preschool, she skips past me to Nathan and gives him a whopping kiss on his head. We love her so much and we are so very proud of her.

Happy season to all!

Smile

Look Who is One Month Old!

Nathan is now 1 month old! Honestly, it feels like he's been here for 3 months, but that is just my sleep deprivation talking. I feel I've been up for 3 months straight! Ahhh, the wonderfully jetlagged world of a newborn. Up every 2-3 hours at night.

Here is what we know about this lil' dude with lots of hair thus far...

He's looks like Emily, but he's VERY different than Emily. 

To be expected. He's a boy, right? Biggest difference? He LOVES to snuggle with Mama, as in, he'll pretty much only sleep over 3 hours when only snuggled by my side in bed or in a carrier close to my beating heart. Wowza. I am not used to this violation of personal space. Now I understand a man's love of boobs! Emily never wanted much to do about snuggling. She was always fine sleeping away from us, but she was also on bili lights for jaundice for 7 days so she didn't know much else. This little guy is gonna be a tough nut to crack when it comes to that. I never thought in a million years I'd co-sleep with any baby, but now I understand why people choose to do it...to stay SANE and get some sleep!! 

From what I can remember, he generally cries a lot more than Emily did, mostly because he wants to be held. He spits up a lot more than she did. He's medium on the car seat. (Who said boys were less maintenance?!?!?) 

Emily never had an issue with it. Nathan usually squaks for about 15 minutes before settling in and calming down or sleeping. And he usually squaks because I had to wake him up from a cozy slumber to go, go, go...something I never had to do with Emily. We would stay at home until she woke up and was completely fed. This is not an option for little Nate. Feedings and sleep get constantly interrupted. Sorry, dude! Things to do! Poor, poor 2nd kiddo.

He now weighs about 7 lbs. 12 ounces. Birth weight was 7 lbs. 5 oz. He is a very slow weight gainer, which has my pediatrician calling me once a week for a check in. Apparently she's concerned he's not gaining quickly, but I'm not. So we are butting heads a little over this. He'll be a chunk before we know it, or perhaps that's just not his gig? I'm a firm believer in following these babies' leads and not freaking out over small things. He's happy and healthy and alert. That's all that matters to me. We are supplementing with breastmilk (more on that later - very cool story!!) and a wee bit of formula as needed until his weight increases a bit more. Breastfeeding is going well, but my milk took  looooong time to come in, which is part of the issue.

Hmmm, what else? He's starting to half smile. Emily adores him and he adores her. He smiled at her before me! I felt a little robbed over that. But she's the one who entertains him the most, and he loves it. I'm busy zipping around here taking care of anything I can, so I'm glad I have my little helper. She's handled the transition very well thus far. I can tell she is a little sad knowing he gets to sleep with us at night, so I always offer a naptime snuggle if she chooses. Today we all 3 fell asleep together...it was very nice. Otherwise, I play with her as much as I can, including while I nurse Nathan. It seems to keep her happy. She's in preschool, so she's got things to keep her busy anyhow.

Thank you for all your well wishes! We are adjusting very well to having a newbie around. I'm tired as all get out, but it's all worth it. That's what coffee is for anyway, right?

Nathan's First Photos

Welcome Nathan Matthew Mullet!

Nathan Matthew Mullet officially joined our family on September 9, 2012 at 6:13 p.m.

He weighed 7 lbs. 5 oz. and was 21.5" long.

Emily is thrilled to be a big sister. She's so loving and helps a ton! Today, she made her first drawing at preschool of us as a family, Nathan included. I almost teared up a bit. She's been so giving to him and hasn't had any jealousy or acting out (yet). We know this can possibly change later, but for now, we are so proud of her handling this so well!! It helps to have such wonderful support with friends and family.

Nathan is doing well. He's been slow to gain his weight back after losing 1 lb. thanks to Mama's milk lagging, but he's eating well, sleeping well and alert to the world. He's happy and healthy. He loves to snuggle and we certainly love snuggling him. Thank you for all your well wishes! Mama and Papa are doing great too.

My contractions started at 4 a.m. on the 9th. I stayed at home until noon...until the contractions were pretty unbearable. We arrived at the hospital where I had an epidural shortly thereafter. 5 hours, 1 Seahawks win and 2 pushes later, Nathan was here. We still can't believe after all Mullet boys producing girls, we have a BOY. It's incredible!! Little Nathan will be doted on by all Mullet girls, assuring him to be the sweetest, most sensitive and understanding man out there in 20 years.

36-Week Belleh

36 weeks!

The Final Countdown

4 weeks to go!

This pregnancy has definitely been a different beast than the first. It started off fairly smooth, but the last trimester has definitely thrown me some curve balls. I'm ready!

I'm now at near 36 weeks.
I delivered Emily at 37 weeks, so you can sort of guess how anxious I am these days. My plan is to be as 'chill' as possible in order to get this baby to bake a wee bit longer. Making it to 40 weeks would be great, but I'm not quite sure that is realistic.

Emily has been kissing and hugging my belly a lot. She knows baby is on the way and she's thrilled. Finally! A brother or sister for her. She's watched her close friends go through this transition for 2 years.

I'm starting to get a little emotional about it all - knowing this will be the last time it'll just be us 3. Emily has been such a beaming star in our lives, it's almost hard to imagine you can have that kind of love for another child. But I know we will. I found myself having this overwhelming feeling of love for this baby the other day as it was twirling around in my belly. I was wondering what kind of personality it would bring to our bunch. Is it a boy or a girl? THAT is the question.
Will it have the same eye and hair color? Will it be a good sleeper and good eater, no?
All these questions will be answered in a mere week to months. And once he/she is here, we'll no longer wonder. We'll only wonder what our lives were like without this little person.

The swing is out.
The bassinet is in our room.
The car seat is ready.
The hospital bags are packed.
Now we wait!

She's Ready to Be a Big Sis

I was leaving a co-worker at REI a voicemail this morning. 

The conversation was about me finishing up my work contract before baby gets here in a month.

After I hung up, Emily asked me, "Mama, Why do you have to stop working?"

"Because baby will be here soon," I said.

Emily: "Mama, you don't have to stop working. I will take care of the baby."

LOVE this kid. 

Emily has been so loving to babies and young toddlers in the last few months, taking on the secondary 'big sister' role to her friends' siblings.

Although she has no idea what is in store the first few months, she's going to be an incredible big sister to this little person. I'm so happy to have a loving, sweet and funny 4-year-old so eager to help me out!

Emily holding 2-week-old Trevin.
She was so gentle and sweet, and serenaded him with Twinkle Twinkle Little Star.

Boobies, According to Emily

Yesterday we took a trip to Target. 

Let me start by saying I claim Target to be the Bellagio of Washington state. 

As in, it always takes my cash. Always.

I digress.

As we were walking down the aisle perusing various Mossimo shirts I certainly can't fit into right now, Rubbermaid containers and sparkle shoes Emily probably doesn't need, we stumbled across the bra section. 

Emily said in her booming, excited voice, "Ooooooh! Mama! Look at all these boobies!"

Me: "Yes. That's a lot of bras, eh Em?"

She continued to squish and 'feel up' every bra like a tween boy. 

Very exciting.

She reached low and grabbed a fairly large over-the-shoulder boulder holder off the rack. 

"Mama look how BEEEEEG this one is!" 

Yes, because in our size A world, Emily has never seen such a large bra. 

I've only dreamed of owning one that size. Pregnancy can't even grant this wish.

I digress again.

Me: "Yup. That bra holds some pretty massive boobies, eh Em?"

Emily responded (again, in her booming voice for everyone to hear), "Yeah, Mama. You would NEVER wear this one. YOU don't have big boobies. You would wear that teeeeeeny tiny one up there, right?"

Right.

As we leave the bra section with people snickering left and right and my face as red as a fresh-picked apple, Emily noticed a bra with zebra stripes.

"Oooooh, zebra boobies! Mama, do zebras wear bras?"

My life with a 4-year-old. Never a dull moment, especially in Target.

Now, where again is that toothpaste located?

30 Weeks!

Mark. My. Words.

This baby will be more active and less sleepy than Emily. Last night, it moved from 2 p.m. to 9 p.m. Constant! Holy crap. Emily never moved that much. She moved when she was hungry, when I ate and a little throughout the day. That was about it. And when she came out, all she did was sleep for the first year! This little kiddo is already showing signs that it'll be waaay different than its big sister.

I am now 30 weeks, or just a couple months shy of my due date. Yippee! We hired a new doula, Jane, last week. She delivered both kiddos of my good friend, Sasha. Sasha had home births. We will definitely NOT be doing that, but I must say it's nice knowing Jane can deliver if say this kid shoots out before we get to the hospital! She will be in the room with us, helping me and Matt along this crazy journey of childbirth.

It's really hard to believe a little one will be with us in 2 short months. I've started making lists of what I need to replace, contingency plans with grandparents and all the like. Very exciting stuff, but also very anxious to be entering the needy, cuddly newborn world again. Thank you for all your well wishes.

Summer Blockbuster: Bebe Mullet in 3D!

Introducing bebe Mullet at 28 weeks!

This little face was such a welcome sight. Feeling the kicks every day is amazing, but seeing the face that goes with those bumps and jabs is even cooler. Baby looks a lot like Emily did in her 3D ultrasound...I really can't tell much difference! Perhaps the only major difference will be what lies below the belt. :)

So here we are. How in the world did we get here so fast? The first 4 months were soooo slooooowww. Then that belly popped out and BAM! Here we are. :) Month 7. Overall, I'm feeling great. A little bit more anxious about delivery this time. This is the curse of your second pregnancy...you know too much instead of too little. Baby's clothes are out and need to be washed, Doula needs to be booked, baby gear needs to be dusted off. Other than that, I think this house is ready for a little being in it again. For now, I'm just trying to ignore this constant back pain and enjoy every minute of this...my last pregnancy.



Tiny Dancer

After 6 months of practice, Emily had her first recital today. We presented Papa with his handmade gifts and cards this morning and ate a hearty "Dutch Baby" breakfast. After a quick bath/rest for Em, we were off to the stage for dancer's call. 

The main video won't download to the blog because it's too big (BOO!) and the video below is not very good because my memory card was full. What luck! Hope you enjoy the little snippet anyway. I have to say, she was pretty darn cute tonight. The little ones definitely steal the show. She had no problem on stage, followed all the steps and gave me a BIG wave and smile during the finale because she could see me in the front row. "Hi, Mom!!" I was holding back tears. I was actually tearing up at other kids' performances. 

Hey, I'm pregnant. Leave me alone! ;)

10 Years Ago...

...I lost this smile.

Today was the memorial BBQ of Johnnie Hunter, my dear high school friend who died of an asthma attack 10 years ago. 

I've never been as emotional over a death in my life than I have with Johnnie. When I talk about him, I still shed tears like he died just yesterday. He was like my brother. We were incredibly close at the time he passed, and I loved him deeply. He was an amazing person and a wonderful friend. And that smile. It was one in a million.

Emily went with me today. I told her about Johnnie for the first time on our drive down to Federal Way. I wanted her to know why we were at this particular park on this particular day. These were all people she had never met before and people I hadn't seen in 10 years+...I wanted her to know from where they came. I was honest with her, telling her that Mama lost a very dear friend and that I missed him very much. I told her he still watches over us from above and he still visits me in my dreams. I'm so thankful for that.

We had a wonderful afternoon in the sunshine. Emily played happily with new friends on the beach and I talked almost the entire time with one of Johnnie's closest friends, Maurice. We talked about that day, where we were, how we felt and how we still think about him today, and how part of us is still angry this had to happen (Johnnie's inhaler was faulty, which was mostly to blame for his death). I talked to Johnnie's mother and sister and shed a few tears, shared a few hugs. I couldn't believe how composed they both were.

On the way home, Emily was pretty quiet. She was thinking. All of a sudden she said, 'Mama, Johnnie was a nice person, huh? Was he there today looking down from the clouds? I think I can see him up there sometimes. My dream catcher will catch him, too, and maybe I'll dream about him.' Then she asked me, 'Do you miss Johnnie like I miss my friend, Peyton?'
Peyton's parents were divorced this year, and he had to move out of our neighborhood up the street. Emily really misses seeing him a lot. Not exactly the same, but I thought this comparison was sweet because she really does miss him.

And then a few minutes passed...little tears formed in her eyes. She said, 'Mama, a lot of people miss Johnnie, huh?' Her lip started to quiver a little. She said this about 5 times on the way home.

I answered, 'Yes, baby. We do. A lot. But he's always around, so it's okay.'

I know I probably should have kept hush about our reason for visiting the park. No one looks forward to talking about death with a child. But on the other hand, I think it's important for her to know. I want her to understand to love and be grateful for every moment.

Seeing her tear up made my heart leap into my throat. Hearing her say his name so many times did the same, like she had known him for years or knew him when he was alive. Although it was a joyful event today, she really felt my pain. She knew her Mama was a little sad. Emily would have adored Uncle Johnnie. He was the best person I ever met, and I know he would have been the best person she'd ever met. If I could wish anyone back on this Earth, it would be him.

Love you, Johnnie.

24 Weeks!

HAPPY 4TH BIRTHDAY TO EMILY!

Emily was a perfect little hostess on her birthday celebration day at preschool. 

 This year, we hosted a little bowling shindig for Emily. It was the first year she made the decision of who would go, so I stuck to it by just inviting a few close buddies. We had a great time bowling and eating pizza and cake. The kids received gaming tokens at the end, and we finished off the fun with a pinata (the birthday girl's request). It was a great day. Can't believe our sassy, sweet and smiley baby girl is 4!