The Armstrong 5

It's wild that just one week ago, this little doll was all curled up inside of me. New life is truly amazing - and weird. The fact that new humans grow inside of females, coming from microscopic pieces of one woman & one man... that is just mind boggling.

Everything has gone pretty smoothly. A few small bumps such as a difficult few days nursing & some challenging days with my recovery, but overall, it has been a great delivery & recovery. It was hectic at the hospital the morning of my c-section (I was one of 4 women delivering that day) so my c-section was record pace (said the Dr's). Everything went perfect & baby was perfect!

Jovi was 8lbs, 2oz & 19" long. Her head is tiny at 13.5", compared to her brothers who were 14.5" & 15"! We had her first Dr's appt yesterday & she is already back to gaining weight from when she left the hospital. Her jaundice looked good enough that they didn't even test her bilirubin levels!

Nursing is going well - we had a few rough days, but we are both learning & getting used to it :)

Well, not much else to share except a bunch of cute photos! Here are just a few...

Yeah, can't say I've been the best blogger ever. A lot has happened in the last nine months... including this...


And guess what? It's a girl!!

The boys are pretty excited & I know they will be great big brothers! Asher already is, & Cole seems to be looking forward to it too :)

So, my actual due date is June 13th but I go in for my 3rd C-section (joy) on June 6th. Yep, that's in 3 days. My goal was to blog about this before having our little girl, so at least I'm meeting that goal! Her name is Jovi Lyne. We picked the name Jovi from the movie Elf, but also b/c it's sweet, unique & has nice meaning - jovial or delight. Lyne is my best friend Chelsi's middle name - sounds just like Lynn, just spelled slightly differently.

In other news, I started a jewelry business & named it after our little girl. It's called The Jovi Lyne Collection. You can go to my etsy shop here or check out my jewelry blog here. Other news with me... I was diagnosed with gestational diabetes & that has been a bummer. Well, it's been good for my weight gain & appearance, but it's been challenging to say the least. I haven't had candy in almost 9 weeks!! I'm so excited to eat a donut again! But, it's been really good too. Opening my eyes to how poorly I was actually eating before. By the way, having gestational diabetes has nothing to do with what you are eating - it's 100% hormonal, but it can usually be controlled by eating certain foods & staying active after eating foods that raise your blood sugar (basically, hormones are blocking my insulin from working AT ALL so I have to rely on activity to rid of glucose in my bloodstream). I'm going to try & stick with a lot of the habits though... really toning down how many carbs I consume & eating more vegetables. It has been good, but it was crazy at first trying to adjust.

Things have been crazy in life for all of us... getting ready for the new baby, raising these boys, getting Asher reading & ready for Kindergarten next year (which we are still not 100% settled on the where).

Mark joined in the craziness & was recruited for a Lead Developer position at Nike. It's been quite the adjustment! Whenever he starts a new job he is SO tired the first month or two. Add in that he's a contract employee until the end of summer & working almost 50 hrs a week & he has been a zombie on & off ;) But, he's come out of the cloud just in time to have the baby! Ha! I'm so proud of him & the skills he's learned to be able to have a career in a field that is growing at a massive rate & where the job market is flourishing. He's really worked his tail off & God continues to bless his efforts wherever he goes.

I'm not sure what else to update about. It's been a while - sorry.

Asher can ready pretty well & the things he remembers & observes always impress me. Cole's grammar has improved SO much the last few months - you can actually understand most of what he says!! He still speaks totally out of context, very randomly, which can make understanding him difficult, but he's doing great. Cole has such a funny little personality. Asher is so attentive & serious - he gets in a funk when things don't go his way. Cole is just easy going. He's pretty content with most situations (unless you force him to go potty before nap). They are so opposite, but for the most part, they really enjoy being together. It'll be so interesting to see what Jovi is like. And what she looks like!

So, that's really all I'm going to say for now. Stay tuned - I'm hoping to do a few more random updates, especially once we have some cute pics of our newest little one. I guess I'll need to change our blog title to have the number 5 instead of the number 4! I really miss writing here but with 2 kids & being pregnant, I often lack the brain power to put together my "deep thoughts" at the precise moments I am available to sit. Sometimes I wish I could blog straight from my car, as I'm driving... that's when my thoughts are most clear... especially while listening to music while the kids are being quiet ;) Hopefully I will still get at least a few moments like that once Jovi is here!

Anyway, here are a few random pics of the family over the last few months. Don't forsake my blog forever, please! Come back, I am SURE I won't let 9 months go by before blogging again... I cannot promise, but I will do my best to be back soon!