Week one with Molly

As you can see the girls are loving having Molly around. It wasn't all perfect when we brought Molly home, Bridgette would get scared and need to be held whenever she would cry.  However, day by day B is getting better and now she can stand holding Molly even if she cries.  Ella on the other hand is my little mother hen.  She gets very excited when Molly's eyes are open and loves singing her made up songs to her. You can tell she is a proud big sister.  Just today she told one of the neighbor kids that, "we have a new addition to our family."  As of Friday, Molly is back up to her birth weight of 7lbs 11oz and growing big and strong.

Baby Menard #3 Has Arrived!!!

After waiting 9 mos for baby Menard #3 we had to schedule an induction because things were not happening in a timely manner for us.  That and I just wanted to be done being pregnant.  The first picture here is Tues. night, the night before my induction.
We had to be at the hospital for an early check in of 5:15 am.  In the past pregnancies, the nurses have had trouble getting an IV into my arm.  This one was no different.  I was poked 3 times and ended up with one blown out vien before they called the anesthesiologist to do it right.  I guess I have viens that roll around.  Thank god, that will be the the last time I have to go through that.  We started the pitosin at around 7:30am.  The doctor broke my water at around 10:00am and the contractions ramped up from there.  Luckily, I am kind of a wimp and ordered the epidural almost immediately after (at 10:20am) because things went very fast.  I was dialated to 3cm when the doctor broke my water, then about 45 minutes later I was at a 7 - 8 cm.  The next thing we new I was fully dialated and ready to deliver shortly after 11:00am.  The nurse was racing to get the doctor into the room and when he arrived, he was rushing to get his gown on and glove up.  By then, Jake says the head was already out and the doctor was frantically telling the nurses to keep me from pushing until he was ready.  Once the doctor was ready, about a 1/2 push and miss Molly was out!  Jake had the honor of announcing the sex and he was in so much shock that is was another girl, it took him a while to announce it.  He claims the chord was in between her legs and he just wanted to make sure, but I think it was because he was so sure it was a boy and couldn't believe it. 

Molly Catherine was born at 11:25 am and weighed in at 7 lb. 11 oz.  She has a full head of curly dark hair and is absolutely beautiful.  She looks just like her big sisters did.  Looking at the pics from Ella and Bridgette's birth and they all three look so much alike.  We got home yesterday and everyone is doing great and adjusting to life at home with out family of 5.  Hope you enjoy the photos!

4th of July 2012

 We had a wonderful 4th of July.  I was thinking that I might have had the baby by then but it was a no go.  We started the morning watching the kids parade followed up by the big parade in our new little community of Bothell.  We couldn't have asked for a more beautiful day.  We watched the parade with our old neighborhood friends who have a daughter (Rowan) who is 5yrs old.  After the parade our friends came back to our house for dinner and fireworks.  Oh my gosh, the fireworks in our new development were amazing.  People really went all out.   We aren't just talking about little fireworks, these were the kind you would find in a professional show.   Even the other neighborhoods surrounding us had an awesome display of fireworks.  The girls still like to talk about all the different colors they saw in the sky.  Only down fall of having legal fireworks is that most people were still lighting them off until midnight.  Thankfully, the girls were so tired that they didn't have a problem going to bed that night.
The next blog post you read will have pictures of our new baby! 

Ella's first ballet recital

 Ella had her first dance recital back in June.  She was so excited to wear her costume.  I had to hide it in our coat closet for weeks before so that she wouldn't be tempted to wear it for dress up.  I wasn't sure how Ella was going to do up on stage but she of course amazed me.  No fear, she looked good and even managed to remember to do a few of the steps of her dance.

Ella and her friend Mila



Ella's ballet class