Ember Elise

Ember Elise Blaine!! After all that work she is here, March 2nd, 2012. 1:30 am.

8lbs 10oz, 19 1/2 inches

Where to begin :) I have been having regular contractions since they sent me home from the hospital 2 weeks prior to this night, so contractions were not a big thing for me. Thursday the 1st I had a dr appt at like 3ish in the afternoon. I had the dr check me again, I was 37 weeks and 5 days along. I had been at a 4 since i left the hospital, and was still the same at a 4 last week. So i expected much of the same. When he checked me this time I was at a 4, almost 5, and he said that my bag of water was "bulging", he asked me "are you having contractions right now? do you think your in labor? to which i replied that i am always having contractions, but today they were in my back, then he said that the baby was facing the wrong way and that her back was against my back which was causing all of the back contractions, he said he thought if i could get some contractions going that i would go in to labor soon. he was surprised that my water hadnt broken already, so he told me to go home, crawl around on my hands and knees to get baby into position and that once she could get further down that i would probably go into labor, oooooor that maybe I could sit like that for 2 more weeks and have to be induced anyways....

He kept looking at me with this so sad "i feel so bad for you" face. said that if it was up to him he would send me in and break my water, but if i wasnt having regular contractions that they would just send me home, hes like "ill be on call on friday, if u can get some contractions going come in, and ill see what i can do"

well I then went to the gap to walk around a bit and get nick some birthdaay presents since his bday was saturday, and it was thursday, then headed home to roll around on my excersize ball lol.

I was really nervous at the word "bulging" I have really fast labors so if my water were to break i would have to book it to get to the hospital. for real... So in discussion with nick we decided to just go in to the hospital after we got the kids in bed for the night. I was real nervous the whole drive because i wasnt having regular contractions. we get there at about 915 and i skip/hop all the way inside... jumped up and down in the elevator and paced the halls while i waited for them to get me into a room. Once in triage and i was all hooked up i started having awesome contractions, like every 3 mins, and they checked me and i was at a 6!!!!! they were like "lets get you in and break ur water"!!!!! i told the nurse i was so excited i could kiss her on the mouth, she didnt think that was necessary :(

soooo at about 1030 im in a labor room, hooked up to monitors, having awesome contractions every few minutes, dr comes in to break my water and was like "if you want an epidural you should get one now, before we break ur water and it goes too fast for you to get one" So I agreed and after the epi, prolly a little after 11 they broke my water and had me lay on my side, they were coming hard and strong, i tried to sleep ... lol, then about an hour later i couldnt handle it anymore. about 12, they had me sit up, then all of the sudden the contractions were right on top of eachother, like not even a minute to breathe in between them, they checked me again at that point and were like here comes baby, then then nurse sat here with me, they called the dr in and everything was a whooooosh after that. 2 contractions and 3 pushes later she was here!!!!

March 2nd, on my sister's bday (happy bday rachel i gave you a neice, now i dont feel so bad about not sending a card)

she was pretty calm for a while afterward, and they let me keep her like this for a nice long time :)

8lbs 10 oz, chunky face and legs and arm rolls, she is totally perfect

Because she was so heavy for her gestational age (which i think was off, because coop was 38 1/2 weeks and weighed 8lbs 6oz, wil was 39 weeks and was 8lbs 9oz, they were all pretty much the same, also note to self, her labor was faster than coop's which i thought was really fast we got to the hospital at about the same time with coop and he was born at 215am, she was 130 am lol)

But because she was so big for 37 weeks 5 days they tested her blood sugar every 3 hours. right before feedings. her first one was low, so they needed 12 hours of good ones, and her lungs were fine but she weezed "singing" as the nurses called it. they had me give her a little formula after feedings to keep her blood sugar up. but she didnt get jaundice like my others and was really healthy otherwise. She is an awesome eater, and sleeper, wakes up about every 3hours at night to eat, then goes right back to sleep, isnt awake too much during the day just yet, we get maybe one or two hours of alertness lol she is awesome.

The boys just love her. Wil wants to hold her all the time. and usually does, coop just kind of yells in her face "baby baby baby" and "i got yours toes! i got yours toes!" but they are great helpers and are adjusting okay for now lol. everyone is a little extra whiney, and having a harder time listening, but hopefully we can get into the swing of life again now that grandma o went home. :) I am feeling a little more confident today that i can do this than yesterday when my mom left.... it was a little overwhelming, but last night i got 3 kids bathed and ready for bed by 8...... it was an amazing feeling, even cut finger nails....

I can do this, it is amazing to have Ember finally here!!! It has been a long long year of trying to get her here safe and sound. I am so greatful for her, also for all of the help i have had this last month, it has been amazing the people who came to sit with me at the hospital, throw me a shower, bring me meals, i am just so overwhelmed with the kindness of the people i my life.

Stinkin Baby

So, lets start this story off with where I am writting from!!! The stinkin hospital on bed rest!!! whoohoooo. Baby girl is causin us problems, she thinks she is ready to make her grand enterance into this world, but we are doing everything in our power to keep her tucked in the oven to cook for a while longer.

The problems started monday night, I was up all night with contractions, not super regular or hurty but enough that i was concerned. I had to talk myself into being better safe than sorry and headed on the hour drive to ann arbor to the LAbor and delivery wing. So tuesday morn they had me on the monitors there and sure enough i was contracting every 2 minutes, and they were getting worse. like they kept hurting more. They checked everything out and I was not dialated at all, and everything looked fine except the contractions werent stopping, so they sent me home, thinking that they would stop on their own since they were not progressing labor and I have a history of fast labors. about 4 hours later I decided that we were going back, Its and hour drive, I didnt want to sit up all night long again, not sleep and freak out about what was happening, it wasnt normal for me. usually if i get some contractions i can drink some water and they go away, easy peasy. These, even after they pumped me with 2 bags of fluid, did not go away.

So back in the triage, they hooked me back up and checked me again and i was dialated to about a 1-2, thats when they decided to admit me to try to get the contractions to stop. I didnt get a first dose of medicine to stop the contractions for a little while after that and it wasnt a very strong dose. so it didnt do anything, a couple hours later they checked again and I was at a 4, at about 2am, they gave me another dose. That night at about 3 we had the NICU dr come in and talk to us about what to expect from a 33 week baby. oh also they gave me steroid shots, 2 rounds, to help baby's lungs develope faster in case she did come. Then we sat and waitied and tried to sleep and freaked out and didnt sleep and didnt know what to do. The next morning we were still at a 4, my dr came in a had them give me a big fat dose of the contraction stopping medicine, she sad she wasnt worried about if i could handle it and that she wanted these contractions to stop, she said my blood pressure would be fine, that i ws healthy and could take it. The dose made me feel really light headed and a little sick but it slowed down the contractions. Now im taking this medicine every 6 hours. about an hour before i get the next dose my contractions start again. then once the medicine starts working they slow and go away. I havent been checked since wednesday morning, but they dont want to mess with anything down there unless im in so much pain and the baby is litterally coming out lol

Spent 2 weeks in the hospital, they finally let me go home at 35 weeks, still at a 4 and contracting, stayed on bed rest at home with my mom there still helping till 36 weeks. She went home for a whole week and a half lol, almost 2 weeks i guess she was home.

I had soooo many visitors in the hospital, it was amazing, there was someone there almost every day, i really didnt have time to get too lonely, course i missed my kids like crazy, but my mom brought them up at least every other day, and they stayed and hung out for a long time. it was really great, made the miserableness of the whole thing better.

Christmas

Merry Christmas!!! It was an awesome christmas thats for sure :) Santa came and boy did he not disappoint!!!

Wil got his Skylanders game!!! It is really fun to play with him, he loves the guys and know all their names and elements, we have to get a couple more for sure, but google them if you don't know what they are, they are going to be a big deal

This is Wil and his starter Skylanders, its a game for the PS3, or really it think it comes on all the systems. He loves it.

Cooper got his Buzz! Its all he asked for, not all he got but for sure the biggest deal gift from daddy, I didn't want to get him one.... he has one, its not my fault that its a hand me down from grandma and its 15 years old so now it doesn't work..... he still has one lol... He kept asking for one that worked and talked and had a working laser, So daddy and amazon pulled through last minute and Coop got his favorite gift :)

Rachel and Grandma O came a few days after Christmas and stayed a while, We made a gingerbread train with Rachel.... she got more frosting on the kids , and in their tummies, than on the train....

Coop was literally running in circles for a good 45 minutes after she just poured frosting down their throats.. lol, someday, when she has kids, she will get some payback..... laugh it up now chuckles

Wil and Cooper have been saving money in their piggy bank for months, if not even a whole year of more... actually prolly more than a year, well Wil decided that he wanted to cash in his coins and see if he had enough money for them to go to Build-a-bear workshop. So Yesterday we went to kroger, and sure enough these two kids saved $75!!!!!! holy cow, i was floored..... Sooo off to Build-a-bear we went today :) Daddy gave Wil his very own wallet to keep his money safe in. That is what they are holding in the picture.

They picked some cute ones. Got the bears some awesome outfits, Coop's got a Buzz lightyear suit, and Wil's is a Jedi, with a light saber and all :)

Worth every penny, they loved it :) we will never be able to take 3 kids to build-a-bear..... wow what a money pit.... but boy are they happy, and that makes it worth it. I am proud of them that they were able to work so hard and save and save and save up for over a year. There were times when Wil wanted to take a couple "moneys" out and get candy at the store, but always changed his mind and left it there so he could have enough for a bear.

Remember

I just wanted to write this down so i can look back and remember. I was talking to my mom about how much harder this pregnancy has been, that my feet are so swollen at the end of the day even though i have to wear compression stockings all day everyday since like 14 weeks lol, but apparently she remembers going shopping with me while i was pregnant with Wil and i was falling apart by the 3rd store cuz my feet were swollen and was walking too much and sore. also my ring is getting nice and tight and leaving a mark on my finger, i can almost not get it off anymore, might have to take it off for the last few months, although i dont remember if i did that last time or not, cuz i didnt write anything like that down.

December

We have had an exciting month! Its almost christmas and there has been a lot of stuff happening! I should mention that for thanksgiving we took a trip to Iowa to see my mom and dads new digs.... I did not take one picture..... not one...... lol It was a quick trip but still a lot of fun and Nick was able to come with us! which made the 8 hour car ride better! I have been having serious issues with my legs this pregnancy so it was awesomely awesome for him to be able to drive and me to be able to sit with my feet up and watch movies with the kids :)

We made a gingerbread house one night, it took us about 30 mins to put all the candy on it, the immediatley they wanted to eat it..... so i let them eat a bit of it..... it took 2 days then it looked like

this

We went out to the mall in Novi to see santa! waaay better than the okemos santa, which is where we usually go, they had an awesome polar bear exibit to look at while we were in the line.

Then just before we saw santa they had an awesome room that looked like a snow globe and had snow falling from the ceiling, it was sooooo cool, and the kids loooved to play in it. but the tiny little plastic pieces of snow got super stuck in the boys gelled hair, so when they saw santa they both had a ton of "snow" that we couldnt get off of them lol

It lasted aaaaalllll day long lol, Wil was helpin pick it outta coopers hair, like a monkey

I have decided that i am going to take pictures of all of the craft projects the kids do and pictures they draw so i dont have to keep all of the,, though this project will be a baby book keeper cuz i love it, but every time they draw something I have just been taking a picture of it. Some of them get to be stuck on the wall for a while, but after a week or so they come down and get thrown away.... i can keep them all, and i didnt just want to forget about them all, so I will probably have at least 50gigs of memory saved just for pictures of thier art but its smaller than a gigantic box lol

This picture cracked me up, Coop fell on something and busted his lip open, then Wil drew this of Cooper who is sad, with a little bit of red blood comin outta his lip lol his sad eyes and tears, lol i love it, i love the stage my kids are at, i want to remember it forever!!!!

We made christmas cookies, this is the kids unwrapping reeses cup to stick in the peanut butter cookies when they come outta the oven..... for every one coop opened he ate one.... lol, He has haad the grossest poop for the last few days, we should prolly eat some more salads!

I was getting them dressed for church and thought we could try to get a good picture of the two of them, they looked so hansome. of course they forget how to smile normally when i ask them to, When they actually have to think about smiling they cant seem to give me a normal smile, they make me crazy!!!

This is our santa picture this year! they did smile really good for this one. :)

halloween, halloween and more halloween!!!

We had soooo many halloween parties this year it made this holiday last forever!!!! I really was great though, we got our moneys worth out of our costumes!! I was going to make the boys' ninja costumes, but the fabric just sat on the table for a week or two, after i started it it wasnt looking as awesome as i wanted them to look but it would have worked just fine, Nick stopped at the halloween store one afternoon after class and called me and was like "These ninja costumes are the perfect colors.... they look really awesome" So im like "so your saying that my costumes suck and we should just buy them so the kids look cool??" lol

So i didnt end up making them at all, which is fine cuz they really liked the ones daddy got them, and the swords dad got them. Hes cooler than me and im okay with it!!!

Oue first activity was trunk or treat at church!! we played awesome games like making me a mummy as seen in the above picture, and trick or treated inside door to door since it was raining :) I got to debut my awesome skeleton shirt :) i bought the iron on decal online and put it on a t-shirt :) i kinda melted some of it, and prolly could of made one with freezer paper, but again my motivation for being crafty seems to be lacking since the baby ate my brain.

The next morning was our playgroup halloween party!!! which is always a big hit!!! they played more awesome games! like push the pumpkin races, and pumpkin bowling,

donuts on a string, cooper missed this one because he ws throwing a fit in the hallway,

Then the next day we went trick or treating at Bill's office down in detroit! Where they got sooooo much candy they both filled their pumpkins and were working on filling a walmart bag by the time we were done!! it was awesome, we will be eating candy forever.... My sister-in-law announced to her parents that she was expecting with a preggy skele shirt like mine, we were twinsies!!! Her mom was and is so stinking excited!!! This is Heather's 5th kid! and noone was expecting her to have anymore cuz her youngest is 8! so we are all awesomely excited!!!!! Its going to be awesome to have so many babies around :)

Then Monday started out with a preschool party! They had a parade through the kindergarten and first grade class rooms and Wil was just beaming through the whole parade, it was adorable!

Then that night, after some much needed afternoon naps we hit the road! Wil ran house to house, but coop had a hard time walking/seeing in his mask and was a little slower and fell an awful lot!! i think next year we will be able to just stay in the street while the boys run house to house :) prolly with a little butterfly or something equally adorable and girly in the stroller :D

Our favorite stop!! the donut house!!!! fresh homemade donuts and cider served out of the garage, perfect half way point :)

when we got home we dumped out all of the candy from the whole week. Coopers first instinct was to throw it up in the air like you do with leaves.... or money.... lol he wanted to roll in it also, then we ate and ate and ate as much as we could in 5 minutes )

I forgot to get pumpkins........ big deal, big stinkin deal, Nick is so busy and we always try to go to the pumpkin patch together to pick our pumpkins, he never really had time, then the saturday before i was grocery shopping and there was a mad rush at the front of the store for pumpkins, and my thought was "i should prolly grab some, theres no way they will run out though right?" oooooo so wrong!!! sunday on our way home we thought we would stop at kroger and grab some.... all gone, meijer, gone walmart, gone, patch on the cornor, gone. I was so emotional about not having pumpkins. I still am sad about it :(

then i thought that wil wouldnt remember, we hadnt talked to much about, but the whole time we were trick or treating he was telling everyone that we were going to go home and carve our pumpkins and that his will look just as awesome as all the pumpkins we saw at everyone's houses LOL sigh

epic parenting fail

we had a couple little pumpkins that we got a few weeks ago at our field trip to the patch, so we let the boys carve those. Wil kept asking where mommy and daddy's big pumpkins were :(
I dont think i have missed a halloween of carving pumpkins in my whole life.... my whole life... sigh

note to self: next year buy pumpkins the Week before halloween at least.... not the day before lol

live and learn

Baby Girl!

Here she is!!! the most beautiful baby girl in the whole world!!!!! I had a hard time believing the ultrasound lady, i really did. but she called her a girl from the beginning, i think she took a look before she told us about it at the end lol, Jan ( the ultrasound lady) said that baby was full of drama, her poses made her look dramatic! lol

She was looking for the gender for a while and baby had her legs crossed, so Jan was like "im thinking its deff a girl, but i cant get a good picture. sometimes you can catch just what you need to and get a picture of it" Then she dug around for a little bit to get a better shot, i was like "maybe isnt really good enough today" lol, then jan was like "oh there it is!! yupp its a girl"

I started crying, in disbelief really, i had myself all prepped to have another boy, i really did, also i would have been okay with anything as long as baby was healthy and growing and everything looked great in there, its really nerve racking, your staring making sure you see all the fingers and limbs and pretty little face, its amazing, and totally a miracle, every time i look at the pictures its hard to believe theres a little person in my tummy, I love it!!!

Wil and Cooper are super excited to have a "sister baby" before we knew what she was we were discussing names for the baby, and My three boys decided we would name the baby Ninja.... So when i asked what we should name the baby now that its a sister baby Wil looked at me all confused "i thought we were naming it Ninja?" his face was all like, duh mom.... lol, i dont think that will be okay with me though.

I went out the next day and got 3 outfits for her!! lol

I was standing in the baby dept at kohl's pretty much in tears lol, i never let myself get to excited about little girl things, i just didnt want to be disappointed to find out i was having a boy and then feel guilty about being disappointed, because a healthy baby is really the end goal here, and boy or girl if its healthy im happy, so it was just too much fun to let myself get excited and emotional in the middle of kohl's!!!