Nora

On Thursday February 16, 2017 we welcomed a new member into our family. Nora Kay Mendenhall was born at 1:54 PM. She was 7 lbs. 3 oz. and 19 in. long. I was due on the 18th, but the doctor told me that I could be induced up to a week before my due date. Rusty and I decided that Thursday would be good because then Rusty could take that day and Friday off, and he got the following Monday off since it was President's Day. It was kind of weird picking the date we wanted our child to be born on. We had her at the Orem Community Hospital. I hadn't been there before except for when Lily needed to have the bilirubin test after she was born, but we thought it was a great hospital. It was nice and small, and the staff were all very friendly. We checked into the hospital at 7:00 in the morning. After a little while they broke my water and put me on pitocin. A little while after that I got my epidural. About a half hour after that I got very sleepy. It turns out my epidural made me very tired. That didn't happen when I had Claire and Lily. After Nora was born I felt so tired to even hold her, but I did hold her. a half hour after they took the epidural out I felt much more energized. I was kind of slow to dilate. The nurse came in, and I was at a 3. Then she came back a while later and I was only at a 4 or so. But after that I felt a lot of pressure and was getting quite uncomfortable, and the next time the nurse checked me I was ready to go. It happened fast. The doctor was actually at his Provo office and we had to wait for him to get to the hospital. I could have had the baby earlier if we didn't have to wait. I think I pushed four times, and then she was here! It was a nice delivery for me. My cousin Heather goes to the same doctor, and she said at her appointment after I had Nora that the doctor said I made having a baby look easy. I didn't even break a sweat. I thought that was funny. 

Me in the morning before we left for the hospital.

Proud daddy.

Rusty was excited that she was sucking her fingers since I did that as a child, but she actually hasn't done this since her first day of life.

My mom and Nora.

My dad and Nora.

The night before Nora was born we took Claire and Lily to my parent's house to sleep over. Makenna came and slept over too, and they were so excited. My parents were very kind and took care of the girls for us while we were at the hospital. They brought them down that evening to meet their new baby sister. They were interested in her a little bit, but I don't think she was very exciting to them. They liked exploring the hospital room more. That night my parents took Claire and Lily to Cara's house where they slept over. They were so excited for all these sleepovers. Kristen came over to Cara's the next day and helped Cara take care of all the kids. We were very grateful that they did this. It was very nice not having to worry about our girls.

Our first attempt at a family photo with the five of us was not very successful.

Lily loves holding, kissing, and hugging Nora.

Our three girls

Alex, Malia, and Jenn came to visit us.

Nora and Rusty's mom.

Rusty's dad and Nora.

Dallen and Nora.

Kristen, Cara, Nora, and Makenna

We were planning on staying two nights because that's what we did when I had Claire and Lily, but the day after I delivered her my doctor and the pediatrician said that I could leave that day. We thought about it for a while and decided I might as well leave then. It took a while to get everything ready for me to be discharged, but it was good for Claire and Lily to be home after all their adventures. That first night home Nora woke up a lot. It made me wish I could send her to the nursery and the nurses could take care of her like they did the first night. But the second night we were home she did much better. I had to take Nora two times to get a bilirubin test for her jaundice, but after the second test they said she was no longer a concern. She lost her orange color pretty fast after that.

Lily loves to try and hold Nora's hand.

Skinny naked baby.

Lily, Rusty, Claire, and Nora

Today is actually Nora's one month birthday. I have been slow to write about her birth. Nora has been a great baby. She is still pretty sleepy, but she is getting more alert. I usually have to wake her up to eat. The day before she turned three weeks I decided to see if I could feed her one time instead of twice, and she did great with it. The next morning I felt so much more refreshed only having to wake up once. I feel like Nora is very similar to how Claire and Lily were as babies. They all lost weight after birth and were slow to gain it back, but they did eventually. It was nice this time because I've been though that two times before so I wasn't as stressed when she was slow to gain weight.

On March 16th Nora turned 1 month old.

Once in a while she will give a little smile.

Nora, Claire, and Lily

The three sisters!

We love having Nora in our family. She is a very mellow baby. Claire and Lily have adjusted quite well to having a new baby in our family, and that makes me very happy. It entertaining watching Nora's funny facial expressions or seeing her jerky body movements. She has the same poofy hair that our other girls had. We are very blessed to be her parents!

Winter

We have had a fun winter. Claire and Lily have been really good while we've been inside while it is cold. We love playing together!

Claire and Lily like to play "beauty parlor." They are really great at doing my hair.

We got a new dishwasher in January. Claire made a little house for her kitty out of the box.

On January 14th we decided it was time to move Lily into the toddler bed and move Claire to a twin bed. They now share a room so the baby can have Lily's old room. I was dreading this for a while and putting it off, but they have done surprisingly well together. They even still take afternoon naps most days, although they are much shorter naps now. It's kind of fun having them in the same room because they will talk a little to each other at night.

Claire in her new twin bed.

Lily in the toddler bed.

We were able to fit their beds, dresser, and bookshelf in their new shared room.

Lily recently learned how to sit crisscross. She is very proud of herself.

Rusty's birthday was January 20th. We celebrated that evening by going to one of his favorite places to eat, Greek Souvlaki. There was some extra wrapping paper when we wrapped his presents, so Claire found a few extra things around the house to wrap and the presents surprised Rusty.

We had to light the candles three times. The first one Lily blew out fast before Rusty did. Then Claire needed a turn. Then finally Rusty was able to blow out his own candles on his birthday brownie.

Lily is a "bridge."

Claire and Rusty making goofy faces.

I was 36 weeks on January 21st.

We celebrated Rusty and Jenn's birthday a few days after.

Claire thought she was so funny because she put three skirts on her body.

Lily and Claire love bath time. They like to stand and pretend paint the wall with the jellyfish that we have.

My mom made Claire a little dishcloth so she can use it in our play kitchen, but she often wants to have it with her. One night I found her asleep with it, and the next morning she said, "I slept with my dishcloth and you didn't even know about it."

Lily really likes doing this USA puzzle. She often says, "Will you get down the Americas?" That means she wants the puzzle. She actually knows most of the states' names.

Claire and Lily like to play on this little guitar that we have.