2 Weeks of Levi

We've taken lots of pictures of Levi over the past 2 weeks, but I can't seem to get any time to sit down and make a blog post.  Whenever Levi is content to sleep without being held, I have to run to either take a shower, clean something, or make myself something to eat or drink before he needs me again.  It's been very intense!  Nights are rough...he'll sleep about 2 hours then eat and stay awake for about 1-2 hours before he goes back to sleep for about 2 more hours.  I've been pretty exhausted...it's not unexpected or surprising, but still pretty challenging. 

We've been receiving so many kindnesses and gifts the last couple of weeks.  Landon comes home everyday with gifts from kids in his class or co-workers.  We had a great baby shower at Kennedy and received lots of cute outfits, diapers, and odds and ends.  We've had amazing dinners from Jenny and Erin, Jenn Jones, and the ladies in my stake YW presidency.  (I was finally released!  Yay!)  Landon has been working early mornings with driver's ed, plus driving after school.  He's as tired as I am and luckily we aren't the type of couple to compete to see who is more tired and who deserves more sympathy.  We both just complain about being really tired. 

It's harvest break this week, so the girls are home and I've already been able to hand the baby over and take about an hour nap, here and there.  It's awesome.  The girls are such a blessing!  They just want to hold Levi as much as possible.  They're willing to change diapers, but we haven't really pushed that on them as he's been healing from his circumcision.  That was traumatic, by the way.  He did fine and has healed well, but I never want to experience that again.  Lauren saw his little wiener (that's what we call it) a few days later and said, "Oh!  It's so pretty now!  It looks like a glide-on lip gloss!"  It is a lot prettier, I have to say. 

This video has Levi's first bath at home, and then a slideshow of some of the pictures we've taken.  There are just too many to describe each one.  Enjoy.

Levi Landon LeFevre is here!

Wednesday the 12th, we arrived at the hospital at 6:30 a.m. to be induced.

The girls went to school Wednesday, but stopped by after school with Grammy to see how we were progressing.  Emma got some homework help from her dad.

Lauren was sooo tired of waiting.  We were continually disappointed when I wasn't dilating very quickly.  I eventually got to a 4 and didn't progress past that even after 4 more hours with the Pitocin pump turned up all the way.  Meanwhile, the baby's heartrate started to slow down a little bit with each contraction.

We decided at 9:00 p.m. to go ahead with a C-section.  I think it would have been inevitable, and we preferred do it sooner rather than later when we were all (including the baby) even more exhausted.

Levi was born at 10:00 p.m. via C-section.  He was 8 lbs, 6 ounces, 21 inches long.  The doctor had to use some suction to get his head loose, so he had a bit of a conehead for several hours.  His apgar scores were still 8 and 9.  We didn't get to see his first bath because I was getting stitched up and Landon was in the recovery room waiting for me. 

Landon watched every minute of the blood/guts portion of the C-section.  I was able to see his face above me and knew when he saw the baby because his eyes started watering.  When the baby was out and we could see him for brief seconds, both Landon and I were crying.  The anesthesiologist (who was in our ward!) continually wiped my eyes in addition to monitoring all the tubes and drips for me. 

Why did we wait so long to do this again?? 

Lauren was all business when she walked into the room to meet her baby brother for the first time.  Her arms were outstretched and she wanted to hold him immediately. 

Emmy was our more sensitive little girl.  She was crying and couldn't speak.  It was such a sweet few minutes.  Landon captured it on video.  Maybe later I can post it.

Of course, Grammy has been here to help us just as she always is when we really need her.  She took such good care of the girls while we were at the hospital.  She is the next best thing to having their mom with them.  Even at their ages, they need that security.

Besides for me looking pretty beastly, this is a great first family picture of the FIVE of us!

Just can't get enough!!

The dad with his SON! 
You can see where Levi's little head had some trauma when he was pulled out.  Looks kind of like a receding hairline.

Trying to catch Levi with his eyes open.

This is pretty revealing, but just avert your eyes if you can't handle it.  I just thought Levi was so cute all curled up around his favorite body part.

Dr. Thomas Jones
I LOVE this man!  He is our entire family's doctor.  He is the best doctor I've ever had.  He helped us get pregnant quickly and has been very sweet and encouraging all along the way.  He even gave me a churchy pep talk one day, which is one reason I enjoy living in Rexburg.  We lucked out finding him.

Labor Day Weekend

For the most part Labor Day weekend we stayed pretty close to home.  Saturday we went for a drive out to Victor, then headed over the mountains to Swan Valley, then through Ririe and back home.  We packed a picnic and just enjoyed the scenery.  While we were driving over the mountains west of Victor, we were caught in a huge rain/hail storm that was actually kind of scary!  The hail was hitting our car so hard that I thought our windshield was going to break.  It was intense.  We made it to Swan Valley and found a church with a covered pavilion so we could have our picnic. 



This is Lauren enjoying her lunch in our own personal pavilion.



We enjoyed chicken salad sandwiches on croissants, chips, cookies and apples.  Yum!

Of course by the time we were done eating the rain/hail had cleared up.



The baby and I were there, too.

 

Everyone knows if you go to Swan Valley, you have to stop for their world-famous square ice cream cones.

Lauren opted for lime-rickey flavor.

This Post Might Make You Gag

I love my husband so much!!!  Marrying him so young and inexperienced was risky, but WOW!  Big risks equal big rewards.  He may like to tease mercilessly, pass gas indiscriminately, use his "outside voice" when getting the girls to do something, and refuse to touch the laundry or make beds with fresh sheets (solely my jobs), but he more than makes up for it by taking such good care of me and our girls!  He recently took an interest in Emma's skin.  She's been getting acne lately, so he took the acne face wash, scrubbed the crap out of her forehead, popped a few zits and sent her on her way.  He often fixes a tray of snacks or a meal and brings it out to me while I'm sitting in the recliner watching TV!  Who does that??  He also likes to cuddle with Lauren and give her all the loves she needs and talks baby talk with her...which she adores and I forbid anywhere around me...drives me CRAZY.  He's the best dad/husband ever and I can't get enough of him.

Look at how he makes dinner.  To soften the blow of us going on a date and ditching the girls, he will make them a meal that makes them happy enough to stay home and not complain about us leaving.



He whipped this up in about 5 minutes.  He made little log cabins out of a cucumber, plus ham and cheese wraps! 



Emma is usually his "right-hand girl."  She loves to help her dad in the kitchen.  This is what he came up with for dinner just last night.  (Sunday dinner was pork chops, mashed potatoes and corn with lemon bars for dessert...another Emma/Dad production)



Baguette, cream cheese, cucumber slices, roast beef, tomato, and avocado with salt and pepper.  We've been eating this kind of dinner at least once a week.  Landon made up a plate for each of us, so we didn't even have to make it ourselves!  He's amazing!!

New Gerbils

Brownie and Marshmallow died the week before school started, so Landon bought 2 new gerbils with a $100 classroom pet grant that he applied for!  These guys are both males, and probably a couple months old.  Lauren named them Chevy and Moose, but the 3rd graders named them something else.  (I forgot, though.)  Landon prefers calling the dark one "Nig," but that's only between the two of us. 

The $100 grant allowed Landon to buy some fancy stuff like this gerbil playpen and some other toys for the gerbil tank.

If you like rodents, this is probably cute to you.

Ballroom

The girls started ballroom last week!  This is Emma's 4th year and Lauren's 2nd year.  Lauren's first day didn't go very well, and when I picked her up she started crying and said she wanted to quit.  Apparently none of her friends are on her team and one of the boys she had to dance with was excessively creepy.  This boy had muddy, sticky hands and then started bleeding out of his head.  We later found out that he had gotten a bloody nose, but all Lauren knew was that he was bleeding and not doing anything to stop it.  Lauren insisted he was gay and had Asperger's.  (She wasn't trying to be funny, she seriously diagnosed him.)  When we got home I emailed Janie Fisher (the IBA owner) and asked her to switch Lauren to the other Pre-teen team.  Long story short, Janie re-did both team lists and now Lauren at least has one friend on her team and we're crossing fingers this week goes better.
Emma is on one of the two Junior teams and practices 2 hours a week.  She came home really happy and excited about this year.  She has gotten to know the kids on her team over the years and has formed good friendships.  The drawback to Emma's participation this year is the out-of-control fees!  In addition to monthly tuition, competition fees, and costume fees, she has to buy a team jacket, new shoes, make-up kit, fake eyelashes/glue, fishnets, etc. etc.  For Lauren, we just have to buy the regular stuff (shoes, team t-shirt, competition skirt/shirt). 
We're really grateful for Landon's family who pays the tuition every year!  We have the girls pay half the cost of their shoes, so they can minimally appreciate what it takes for our family to allow them this extra-curricular activity. 
IBA has created a new website in case anyone is interested to see a fuller scope of what the girls are involved with:

Idaho Ballroom Academy