john with his great pepe and great grandmother brasseur

we went to easter at grammy and pepe brasseur's in irasburg. it was the first time they had seen john. as you can tell, it was love at first sight : )

horse and carriage ride ... with the easter bunny!

abbie, madison, john, and i went for a picnic in williston and while we were eating the girls noticed a horse and carriage going around the green. as it got closer they noticed who was sitting in the carriage - the easter bunny! when we finished eating we went over to find out more about it - turns out they were giving free rides with the easter bunny : )

no, i didn't let the kids go on the carriage ride by themselves - i just had to take a photo first : ) i have to admit, it was a pretty awesome day - it was almost 80 out and having a picnic with the kids in april ... plus a horse and carrige ride with the easter bunny - hard to top that!

i was told by madison - "you know mom, that isn't the real easter bunny."

maybe he is dreaming about the easter bunny ...

three generations of stewarts

we had easter with my family a day early and finally had all three generations of stewarts together - my father, my grandfather, and john.

as most of you know, we named john after my father, stewart. we actually chose our boy's name back in november. i wanted a name with 7 letters - we all have 7 letters in our names: melanie, derrick, abigail, and madison ... so one day derrick and i decided that we wanted to incorporate our father's names in our boy's name and came up with stewart (which had 7 letters) john (derrick's father's middle name).

* on a side note, stewart was my paternal great grandmother's maiden name.

my new swing, a life saver : )

derricks mom picked up a new swing for john on saturday at once upon a child and he just loves it! its great cuz now i have somewhere to put him down while he is awake and i need to get some stuff done around the house. i used to just lay him down in his cradle or bassinet, but he definitely enjoys the rocking much better : )

he gained how much?!!?

so yesterday john started getting very congested and he did not sleep well at all last night. we ended up sleeping in the chair in his room so he could sleep upright and it seemed to help a little. but the poor kid had snot coming out his nose every time he ate! he was so cute ... he would eat for a few minutes then pick his head up and take a few deep breaths and start eating again cuz he couldnt breathe out his nose : )

we went to the doctors on this afternoon and thankfully his ears and lungs sounded great ... he just had a cold. but the biggest shock came when they weighed him ... he weighed 7 lbs 5.5 oz! he had gained just over 1 lb in 11 days!

derrick has mentioned the last couple of days that his face is changing - filling out more - but i dont see any of it. he looks the same to me. i remember with the girls the same thing happening - i am with them 24/7 so i dont notice it at all. im definitely not complaining one bit - i am so thankful to spend all my time with them. i cant imagine being anywhere else. life is great.

fancy nancy tea party

madison had her "day with my mommy" today : ) she and i went to the daisys fancy nancy tea party in south burlington. she had so much fun making fancy plates and wands. she even made her little brother his own fancy nancy name tag! i really loved spending time with my little girl.

mad boy

i know, i am the first to not let john cry, but he was just so darn cute i had to take photos!! : )

green milk

madison, derrick, my dad and brother, as well as tina shapiro and her son luca, and i all went to mccarthys on st patricks day for lunch. this is a photo tina took just before madison threw up all over the table! the leprachans had turned abbie and madisons milk green that morning, so the table was covered in green throw up! she then threw up on the floor, on derrick, and in the bathroom ... and kept throwing up for the next couple of days.

john with his great grandmother lemnah

he's growing!

we went to the doctors today for john's 2 week check up. he now weighs 6 lbs 5 oz, so we are heading in the right direction! he has also grown an inch, too - he is 20 inches long.

our doctor, clea, said the we will look back at john's photos from the first month and he will be yellow - his blood type is A positive (or as i called it, A plus) and mine is O positive, so because our blood types are different, it causes jaundice.

as it turns out, the jaundice causes john to sleep a lot, and that is why it takes us 15 minutes (literally) to wake him up to eat ... and then he falls asleep about a minute after he starts eating! clea says that we need to be prepared that he might not sleep this well once the jaundice goes away - NOOOOO!!! : )

i, on the other hand, seem to be going backwards a little. my shoulder is horrible and my right arm is still numb. i was on steroids for 6 days, which ended yesterday, and it hadn't gotten any better. i am now on 800 mg of ibuprofen and percocet (as needed) and will be starting physical therapy as well. thankfully my feet are no longer swollen, my boobs aren't engorged, and my hemoroids have gone away : )

snowboarding

abbie snowboarding during the friday program : )

you can't see me

john loves to sleep with his hands over his face or beside his face.

madison pointed out that it is exactly what he used to do when he was in my tummy - the last 3d ultrasound we had at fletcher allen, we had trouble getting a good profile shot of him cuz he was constantly having his hands over his face!

9 days old

1 week check up

john had his 1 week check up today and has gained some of his weight back.

when we left the hospital on thursday, he weighed 5 lbs 13 oz, and today he was back up to 6 lbs 1 oz. he just needs to be back to his birth weight by 2 weeks, so we are almost there.

he still has jaundice, but that was expected. so everything looks great for him ...
we are just so lucky!

together as a family, finally!

big sister, madison, holding john for the first time!!

biggest sister, abbie, holding john for the first time!!

abbie and madison are finally home!! this is the first time they had seen john, since they were with their dad for february vacation.

i called them minutes after john was born, so they were the first to know about their new baby brother ... but we missed them not being home to meet him until now.

we are finally together as a family ... i missed them sooo much!

sleepy boys : )

my two boys ...

2 days old

my grammie and i

1 day old ... that's it?!!?

he is here!!

stewart john lemnah was born at 4:34 pm. he weighs 6 lbs 4 oz and is 19 inches long.

more to come : )

1 week (hopefully) and counting : )

so last night i was using the bathroom and when i went to flush, i looked in the toilet and said to myself - what the heck is that?!!?

so after a little research, discovered that i had lost my mucus plug!

according to the american pregnancy association website:

"passing a mucus plug is a sign that your cervix is dilating and your body is starting to prepare for birth. labor could be hours, days, or even weeks away as the cervix gradually opens over time."

come on labor! well, not now, but next week would be great : )

ultrasound at fletcher allen

today we headed off to fletcher allen for another ultrasound. our doctors requested this ultrasound because i was measuring about 4 cm larger than i should have been, and they wanted to make sure that there was not excess fluid in there.

turns out everything is fine on that front. the baby, however, is measuring above the 80th percentile for weight!! with projections, going full-term could mean about a 9lb baby ... um, NO thanks!

everything looked great with the ultrasound. the baby was playing peek-a-boo with abbie and madison, and kept putting "his" arm over "his" face, making it difficult for the technician to take a good 3d photo.

we finally were able to get a pretty decent one (which i will upload soon).

all we are asking for is a healthy baby - so far so good : )

i passed!

I just found out that I passed with flying colors! Thankfully no gestational diabetes for me.

Our fourth ultrasound is on Monday at Fletcher Allen, so look for some new photos of Baby Lemnah!!

3 hour glucose test ... enough said!

Wednesday we had our 32 week check up and the baby sounds great, my blood pressure is perfect ... and I am measuring at 34 centimeters!! (Shawnna you can't complain about being 28 cm!)

Because I am measuring 3 cm larger than I should (2 cm if you use the due date I am using of March 11th - either way, it means i am HUGE) we are going to have another ultrasound at Fletcher Allen to see how big this baby is!

Because my first glucose test (okay, can I just say how DISGUSTING that orange drink is!! I think if I actually liked orange soda, it wouldn't be so bad, but YUCK!!) a couple of weeks ago was so borderline (my level was 124 and the cutoff for having gestational diabetes is 125!), Katie decided that I needed to do the 3 hour glucose test.

For those of you who have not experienced this - LUCKY! But it meant I had to fast starting at midnight and my appointment for my first blood drawing was at 8:45 am. Then I had to drink another bottle of the orange stuff and wait an hour to have my blood drawn again.

The girls were both sick, and had an appointment at 9:30. Turns out, they both have strep! Then at 10 I had my blood drawn again and headed to my parents' house so the girls could rest, as I had to return to the doctors at 11 and again at 12 for more blood work. Did I mention I couldn't eat this whole time?!!?

I ended up getting out of the doctor's late, which meant I still had to take a shower and get the girls ready before leaving to go get Derrick, so I decided I would try and wait to eat (to make up for lost time).

Well, going that long without eating did a number on me, as I almost fainted. The sweat was dripping off my face and my shirt was so soaked that I had to dry it in the dryer. Fun times.

We dropped the girls off and then headed to Montreal for the Stars vs Canadiens game. Long day, but well worth it. Though Dallas lost, I got to see my favorite player - Mike Modano - play one last time ... and he scored his 550th goal!!

I am nervous about the results of the blood work from yesterday ... I never had gestational diabetes with either of the girls ...