Wowza…..scary, cranky ghost!

Speaking of, maybe it’s experience and/or expectations, but we seem to be doing OK in that department. Suzi is taking the brunt of it, but Quinn feeds two or three times a night, without any fuss or commotion. Not bad.

We also got her home in time for college football! We’ve been looking forward to the season and I think the girls feed off the excitement a little bit. Suzi dressing the girls up in Notre Dame shirts on gameday probably adds to it as well. Check out the pics of Sloane holding a football. Hope everyone is doing well!

So, during this, our third pregnancy, we naturally had some expectations about how things would go and what to make of contractions, etc. We tempered it with a bit of, “well, you never know… just because the first two came early, it doesn’t mean the third will.” And in the end, well, it’s true that you really never know.

Sloane came two weeks early. Reese was induced two weeks early, although she was definitely ready for the party. We expected something similar again, and sure enough, Suzi was a few centimeters dilated about two weeks out. But we crossed over into week 39 with only the occasional contraction. Then, suddenly, her contractions hit pretty hard on Saturday night. She labored a bit that evening, and suddenly felt it was time to get a professional opinion. She dragged me out of bed at midnight and we were off! So much for the casual daytime drive to the hospital like the first two. Thankfully, my Mom decided to come in town a bit early so we were fully prepared for something like this. She’s been a huge help and the girls have l-o-v-e-d having her keep them occupied.

Upon arrival, Suzi already measured 8 cm., crazy! Very different from laboring at home with Sloane for over two days before feeling any urgency. The delivery, however, was the one consistent thread; it went extremely quick. The doc checked on her 30 minutes later and she was 9.5. After 15 minutes, she was nearly 10 and ready to push. After two contractions, we were with baby! Suzi was amazing and Quinn was a trooper. She gave a little squeak on the way out, but is spending her first 24 hours completely racked.

Sloane and Reese have been totally geeked about the prospect of a new baby sister on the way. Sloane has been asking Suzi nearly every day how many weeks until the baby comes. Of course, she doesn’t have a real solid concept of a “week,” but the one week countdown seemed pretty intense for her. They were surprised when Mom wasn’t home on Sunday morning and loved meeting their new sister a few hours later. It’s all in the pics!

We’re looking forward to getting home soon and having all the girls together. We’ll get some homecoming pics up soon.

I have to be honest, I was hesitant to begin potty training with her with it being so close to our delivery date paired with the fact that she hasn’t shown a lot of interest in it. However, a good friend of mine told me about a 3 day potty training method that worked for her and others and I thought it was worth a try. After reading up and finding the suggested age was 22-26 months, I figured it was the prime time to move forward and hopefully give myself one less thing to worry about with no. 3 on the way.

We began Monday by having Reese throw out all of her diapers and put on BIG girl panties! We didn’t leave the house for 3 days and simply stayed focused on going to the bathroom. As difficult as it was for us to stay home and not be one the go, it was more than worth it and really not as much of a challenge as I thought it may be. Reese did a fabulous job and Sloane was an awesome helper during the process.

Since Wednesday we have ventured out quite a bit and haven’t had any trouble. We couldn’t be more thrilled with the outcome and Reese is quite pleased herself (which you can see in the pictures section). She was clearly ready to take this step and I’m so glad we have done it! Just think, in the last month she’s moved to a twin bed, began sharing a room with Sloane and become potty trained. A lot of changes, but what a trooper she’s been!

The next big event in the Anderson house will be the addition of baby no. 3. We are 36 weeks along and the baby is weighing in at about 6lbs (per an ultrasound I had last week) and measuring a week ahead at 37 weeks. We can’t believe how close we are and the girls are very excited to meet her. At least once a day Sloane asks me how much longer it will be until the baby is here. We’re gearing up for the big day and think we are prepared…as prepared as we’ll ever be! I have no doubt there will be some surprises along the way! Can’t wait to share them with everyone in the coming weeks.

The girls and I kept busy all day pretending we were at the beach. We did lots of crafts, made some fun things to eat, had a “bike wash” and played in the sprinkler, and sandbox. We had so much fun that we completely skipped naps.

I’m sure our neighbors think I’m certifiably nuts, but don’t most people pretend to surf in their front yards in the midwest? I mean, it seems completely normal to me!

Enjoy all the silly pictures.

We did a low-key family day; eating cake, opening gifts, playing with new toys (such a lucky girl) and grabbing ice cream at Cold Stone. Despite us telling Reese she’s only 2, she’s convinced that today was her 3rd Birthday. She’ll surely be in for a surprise next year won’t she?

Check out the B-day photos as well as a few extras from the last week when the girls and I made homemade crayons and celebrated National Lollipop Day (seriously)!

The most difficult part was that parents weren’t allowed in the classroom! It was so difficult to sit outside and sneak peaks through a tiny window in the door. However, I did my best not to be “that” parent. On the last day of class the ballet teacher invited all of the parents in to see what everyone had learned. I was so excited because I had been dying to take pictures—it was super cute!

Although Sloane enjoyed the class, she in anxious to get back to swimming! She and Reese will begin swim lessons again next week. Sloane will be in a more independent class (sans parents) which is just crazy, and Reese will be taking a class along with Greg. Both should be interesting and make for some more great photo opportunities and posts! Stay tuned…

With the girls in one room now, we have been able to move forward on the nursery too. I’ve had a lot of fun going through our massive amounts of girls stuff and getting it all organized-again! Lucky for baby #3, she has just about everything she’ll ever need thanks to her big sisters. We’re just about finished and it’ll be more than ready for our new arrival in just about 8 weeks!

We cruised out to Chicago recently on a free museum day and toured the Field Museum. The girls got a kick out of seeing the T-Rex (Sue) and digging for fossils and dinosaur bones. There was a lot to see and do so we made a day of it and had a lot of fun. We have also managed to go blueberry picking, visit the zoo a few times and use our pool.

We hope everyone had a nice Father’s Day and Fourth of July and is enjoying a nice summer!