Golden ticket of happiness.

Saturday night was just what I needed.

President Dieter F. Uchtdorf spoke to the women of our church. I felt like I was sitting in my living room having a conversation with him. His message was exactly what I needed to hear.

I loved the entire talk, but needed to be reminded to "forget not to be happy now" the most.

The past few weeks have been rough and I've found myself thinking after my eye is better or once Livvy is better then I'll be happy again. If I can make through this week then I can handle it.

I've realized after listening to the talk how many things I am blessed with every day.

"Don't close your eyes and hearts to the simple and elegant beauties of each day's ordinary moments that make up a rich well-lived life."

My ordinary moments over the past few days have been:

-Jude smiling at me and trying to "talk" to me

-Livvy walking around in her "beautiful pink dress" (a poofy princess dress)

-Jude looking over to Livvy when she talks

-Seeing Livvy's eyes light up when I tell her we're going to Grandma's

-Livvy's guilty smile after she ate the pasta off of my plate when I went to go get Jude

I hope that I can recognize these moments each day and remember that while much of being a mom is sacrifice there are a thousand tiny moments that make it all worth it.

I spoke to soon.

Livvy has herpangina (similar to hand foot and mouth just sores are in the mouth and throat) and Jude is a sniffling mess. We are in seclusion yet again. Man I can't wait for us all to be healthy again!

Some happiness.

The past week has been a little rough. Eye infection came, went, and then another came. Thankfully, I'm on the tail end of it.

Today we had a good day. Livvy walked around the house playing with ice cream scoopers (a mommy and a baby ice cream scooper that she put down for a nap). And Jude enjoyed some tummy time with his big sis. This week is looking a little brighter than last.

Nice thought.

So Lincoln called me at 4 pm yesterday and blew my socks off saying he was on his way home (thank you September 15th deadline).

After I picking him up from BART, Livvy insisted we hit the park. Lincoln thought that sounded great and I thought ok lets try spontaneous. However, Livvy needed to use the facilities and Jude would probably need to nurse soon. But ok, lets do a 10 minute park outing.

While enroute to the park we drove through the farmer's market. Genius! Lets do dinner and the market! By this point its 5:45 and Jude is SCREAMING. So I suggest lets just run home and get ready and then go to the market.

Such a nice thought.

We get home and after bribing Livvy with candy convince her to get out of the car, she starts crying. We finally make it inside and the smallest task of getting a jacket on Livvy sets her off again. Lincoln's dealing with a kicking, crying 2 year old and I'm trying to change a screaming newborn.

We surrender and stay home.

...we flip on "Ice Age" and soon the chaos is over and we have happy kids again.

So are we spontaneous? Nope. Do we run the show? No. No, we don't. But drinking hot chocolate and watching a movie together with happy kids made me realize that sometimes our simple, predictable life is a good one.

And maybe the next time we want to do something spontaneous we just need to plan it.

1 month

The Jude Dude turned one month (last) Tuesday. We had his doctor's appointment yesterday and found out he currently weighs 9 lbs 12 ounces! 3 weeks ago we was only 7 lbs 5 ounces! He jumped from the 25th percentile to the 50th.

He is already looking very different to me from how he looked when he was born. He usually a very chill baby and only cries when he needs something. And apparently he needed to not have his mom taking pictures of him...I'll try to get some happy pictures soon.

He loves looking at Livvy and Livvy loves talking to him. This is what she says:

"Hi, buddy! Good morning!" "You have your blanket? You nice and warm?"

So sweet.

On a not so fun note, the eye infection from you know where came back today. Remember when I had it for like 3 months after Livvy was born? Um...yeah it's back.

Thankfully though, I can still nurse and hopefully we caught it early enough it will be gone a lot sooner than last time. Without my mom I would have curled up in a ball and died today, but she was out here in a flash and made me feel like I can handle this again. There's nothing like having your mom there when you're sick.

The Fleming 4.

The past three weeks have gone by so fast! I'm getting used to life with two kids and thankfully most days Jude is super chill. Night time is another story. He has had a few rough ones. I don't think you ever get used to not really sleeping.

Second time around though with a baby has been 210398120983 times less stressful than the first. I'm pretty sure we didn't let Livvy cry for more than 2 seconds for the first three weeks of her life. Now with Jude I know he can cry for a minute and be fine. Usually he has to deal for a bit because I'm helping Livvy in the bathroom or getting her breakfast or something.

Sometimes Livvy has to deal without her every need being fullfilled "RIGHT NOW" (a phrase she has picked up) because I'm nursing or changing Jude.

She is doing ok considering the huge change her life has undergone. She is a bit emotional and sometimes clingy to me or Lincoln, but overall she is a great big sister. She loves to throw away Jude's diapers and always is so excited to see him awake.

Every morning she asks to hold Jude and says in a high pitch voice "He's sooooo cuuuute!" She loves to give him kisses and always asks if she can "go look at Jude".

Lincoln's busy season has been pretty mellow so far, and I have been SO blessed with wonderful family and friends that have helped me so much! I would die without my mom and sisters to play with Livvy and hold Jude so I can sleep during the day.

Overall, life is good and I'm loving my "little buddy". Jude is already looking older and starting to hold his head up. He's a sweet boy and we love having him around. =)

The arrival.

Jude Lincoln Fleming was born August 9th at 11:10 PM. His 12 day debut was quite the surprise to Lincoln and me.

The morning of the 9th I went in for my 38 week check up. My doctor about made me pass out when he told me I was already dilated to a 4 and that the baby was super low. So low in fact that he told me to not call him at home when I went into labor but to be driving to the hospital, so I wouldn't have the baby in the car.

Welp, that freaked me out! Only 5 days earlier I had been 1.5 cm! Livvy and I had a whole day of shopping and park-going planned, but we dodged the errands and started timing contractions. I was having good contractions, but nothing super consistent. Lincoln came home and I went walking at the mall with a friend to get the contractions to come more steadily.

Not wanting to go to bed without knowing how much progress I'd made, we headed to the hospital at about 6 pm.

My doctor came and saw that I had made progress and was almost a 5. He broke my water around 7:30 pm and then the glorious process began.

My contractions were coming, but every time I sat down they would spread out by more and more time. I had to constantly walk the halls and try to get them to come more frequently. Around 9 pm my doctor said I was at 8 cm and he wanted to get me on Pitocin to speed the process up and help my contractions stay consistent.

I was SO nervous for the added pain and less breaks that the Pitocin would cause, but we turned it on. Oh my intense. At first not so much, but the doctor kept upping the dosage and it soon became out of control crazy pain. And I became out of control crazy Vindie.

The last hour from 10-11pm, I thought I was going to die, but at 11 PM I finally felt the need to push so I hopped into bed and with three big pushes Jude came.

I was so relieved to see his little face and bald head! The labor went so much faster and better this time around (minus the added Pitocin pain). I didn't think I was going to do it naturally again, but my doctor was super supportive and having Lincoln and my mom to coach me made a world of a difference.

So far Jude is a chill baby. He looks nothing like is sister and everything like a Rosdahl baby. We love him so much and feel incredibly blessed to have him in our lives now.