Our Sunday Best

Yesterday we went to Point no Point. It was a gorgeous and sunny PNW day and we had to take advantage of it. I brought the camera to take lots of pictures for my Dad's side of the family. They're all in VA beach right now for a family reunion that we weren't able to attend this year. So our plan is to take lots of videos and pics and maybe skype a few times so that we're there in spirit. I pulled the camera out yesterday and (not to my surprise, really) it was dead.

So I charged up the camera, took some photos after church and uploaded them to edit. Guess what I found? A twenty-five minute video from Friday morning. The star? Cooper, in the car while I'm running errands. If you can imagine it, it starts with him playing with the camera (picture his upside down face really close up) then hear me coming to the car and watch him throw the camera down on the center console. It just so happened to film him in his car seat for the twenty minutes we ran around town. I'll spare you the actual video...I am glad to know that I'm actually NOT crazy and that I KNEW the battery was full when we went to the beach on Saturday....

Here are some pictures from after church today. As Jake calls them, our little Dapper Dan Men.

Adele Louise

It was your typical Friday, just another day over my due date and I didn't feel any closer to having this baby than the day before. That night we went to Maggie Coleman's high school graduation BBQ at the Coleman house (which was the house I lived in when I graduated from High School, talk about a wave of nostalgia!) I ate a ton of food (I bet that's what did it right there, pushed that baby right out) and I actually had a coke with hopes of jumpstarting something with a little caffeine. After the bbq we took the kids to the waterfront park and walked around. Then we went home and put them to bed. At about 9pm as we were lounging on the couch watching The First 48 (it's a sweet crime show on A&E) I started having light contractions every 15 minutes. After 45 minutes they started to get closer, down to about 10-12 minutes.

We decided to call Carly to give her a heads up. We all decided that if in an hour I was still having them, I'd go and check in. That way it'd still be early enough for Carly to come to the house and for us to get things going at the hospital. Well, an hour later we were down to about 5-7 minutes. I called the hospital and Carly and Chad came over. As we were getting our stuff ready to go it felt like the contractions were kind of going away. So I actually jogged a couple of laps around our driveway. Yeah right, I didn't want to be the girl checking in and being sent home in front of all my co-workers (I work there, remember?!) We hopped in the car and left. Sure enough when I got to the hospital they were back. (11:45ish PM) My friend Mandi checked me in. The nurse checked where I was at and after talking to Dr. Christen they decided to admit me for delivery. They put us in room 14, the room with the nicest view apparently. My parents called and said they were coming to hang out.

(1:00ish AM)My mom got there and asked me why I didn't order an epidural yet. I told her I was trying to be brave as long as I could. Then she pretty much told me you should just order it, why feel it if you don't have to? Don't you want to enjoy this? So I ordered it and two hours (2:30 or 3:00ish AM) later Dr. Ramirez came to administer the epidural. I got all wimpy and cried, ooooooooh it hurt. But then it was oh so good. SO GOOD that I was numb up to my arm pits. (5:30ish AM)I asked the nurse if that was ok. She said nope, and called Ramirez to find the solution. (Right around this time Kris arrived) He had her come and turn it down/or off, not sure. When she came back to do that I had started to feel a lot of pain in my left hip. Like, LOADS of pain. Every time I had a contraction I thought my hip was going to break. But the funny thing was, my chest was still numb. I had made it to that final 7-10cm stage and Dr. Christen came in right about that time (6:10ish?? I'm starting to forget....) He said I was ready to go and gave me the option to start pushing or to wait til we fixed the hip thing. We gave it a few minutes then went for it.

Dr. Christen told me that once the baby's head was out he'd have me stop so they could pump her stomach, she'd swallowed meconium (also known as poo in the womb). So I pushed once, they had me wait while they sucked poo out of her mouth and tummy. Jake and my mom told me she had A LOT of dark hair. When I was able to push again, it took 1 and a half pushes and she was out. (6:19 AM) She was perfect!!! And not just in a biased way that any mom would say, but she had a perfectly round head. No bumps or humps or bruises or broken blood vessels. Just a perfect girl. I was so clear headed and remember thinking how awesome those two minutes of my life were. I just couldn't stop looking at her. There are a few moments in my life that I remember pure JOY, where time stands still and I am consciously thinking to myself what a wonderful life I have and how much I am blessed, all in .2 milliseconds.... and that was one of them.

There she was. Miss Adele Louise, 8lbs 3oz and 19in long. Long dark hair and beautiful bow lips. The rest of the stay was nice. We ate such good food that day, got lots of naps and let it all set in that our daughter had finally arrived. Jake was a champ and was been and has been a great help ever since. I have felt AMAZING during my recovery. I started exercising two weeks later. Adele sleeps pretty much through the night and nursing is going great. I am loving this stage which has been difficult in the past. We feel so blessed to have her in our home and in our family. The boys have been great with her. Jack was a little difficult for the first couple of weeks, as to be expected, but has since returned back to his normal self.

I am now back at work and missing my baby every second I'm on the clock. I love this girl so much that I just might have another one ;)

Collect call:

weadababyitzagirl.

More on this soon.

Silly boys

My ever comedic sons just keep getting funnier somehow. Jack has recently come up with (or adopted from me, regretfully...) the one liner, "Stop bugging me." He pretty much says it a lot. It's real hard not to laugh at, but he means it when he says it. I'll tell him it's time to go potty. "Stop bugging me." I'll tell him he needs to be nice to his brother. "Stop bugging me." Cooper wants to have a drink out of Jack's water bottle. "Stop bugging me." I hope I haven't created a hermit child...

Cooper's cute moment of the day was this afternoon while watching Monsters Inc. After a while he just started to bawl and sob with giant alligator tears and red rosy cheeks, the whole shebang. He was by himself so Jake went to find out what was wrong and it was right at the end of the movie where Sully (the big blue monster) has to take Boo (the little girl) back to her room and say their goodbyes for what you think is forever at that moment in the movie. Cooper was so torn up that this little best buddy duo had to part never to see each other again. I'm sure he was also a little tired, it WAS that time of the day but he just couldn't be consoled on the matter for a good 30 minutes after the incident. Not sure we're gonna bust that movie out any time soon.

I don't need a hermit AND a child with abandonment/relationship issues from a Pixar movie.

I could but I won't...although I probably will.

Has it really been nearly six months? Do you know how much happens in six months in our lives? Well I could tell you but I won't bore you. In a nutshell, the last post was about going to the pyrex museum in Bremerton. I found out that morning that I was growing a human again. We told people a few weeks later, when the sickness set in. I also was hired at Harrison Medical Center right around that time too. I work in registration in the emergency department and labor and delivery. Jake also started a new job (while still running his businesses) working for Dr. Brad Frandsen as a business developer for Sound Medical Research. I guess the only thing that didn't change was our address....although that's probably changing sometime later this year. After three years here, we will be moving into Jake's grandparents house sometime this fall.

That was about as summarized as I could make it.

Currently, I have about 10 weeks or so left of being pregnant. Don't worry, you didn't miss much other than IT'S A GIRL! Is it weird that I haven't bought her one single outfit yet?! I have however been purchasing some fabrics for some fun girly sewing projects. The boys are very excited. Every time Cooper sees anything baby related he asks me if we're getting that for our baby or if we're getting a baby like that, etc. He is a way funny kid these days. Example: The other day I was reading him a Berenstein Bears book and he said to me (stone cold faced), "Mom, I thought bears couldn't get dressed or talk." Welp, you're absolutely right Cooper. He's seriously hilarious. Jack has all of a sudden become a new person it seems. He's talking all the time, I mean ALL the TIME. I wonder if all that time that he never said anything and just played "the observer" he was actually scheming all these one liners he'd spit out his first couple weeks of talking just to freak us all out!

I've had a strong impression to get back to this blog. It got to the point where I felt like a dweeb for even trying to post something since it had been so long. Well here we go again....I'm going to work hard at keeping this the one constant thing in my life :)

The Pyrex Museum

Yesterday we happened upon the Pyrex Museum downtown in Bremerton. I was in Heaven! I thought it was so adorable. My mom thought I was such a dork but she was cute about it and took a picture of me in all of the Pyrex glory.

Sidenote: When I get ready every day I think my bangs are cute. And then I see a picture of them. Kind of upsetting....oh well.

All a Haze

That's what this summer has been, just a big '0l haze. This year has been so busy for us and this summer did not slow down one bit. Now it's almost (ok pretty much) over! Where did it go?!! So sad to think about....

We normally head over to my parents house for dinner on Sunday nights. They were gone this weekend camping so Jake and I stayed home with the kids and had dinner and just relaxed. We were trying to think of the last time (let alone Sunday) that the four of us just hung out at the house with NOTHING to do, no place to go, no deadline to meet. We couldn't remember the last time, honest. It felt so great. We have been stretched so thin lately and today was just plain therapeutic :)

Yesterday Jake told me to stop scheduling myself for so many things and to slow down a bit. I think I've been doing so much I kinda forgot how to just stop and think. I'm going to practice it this week and just hang at the house and spend time with the kids. Maybe have a couple of play dates and go into town once or twice but that's it for me! I am so thankful for down time and for Sundays especially. With all that's been going on (and life in general) Sundays are always the best day of the week. I don't know how the rest of the world goes 24/7.

24/6 is hard enough. T.G.I.S!!!!!!