The Stevie Times

Tuesday, February 18, 2014

Siblings Meeting Emily

Abby Meeting Emily.

To say she was excited is definitely an understatement. She was by far the most excited to be having a little sister join the family. I see many dress up play and tea parties in the future for these two.

As long as I can keep her from smothering her before then. ;)

Sarah didn't act too excited while I was pregnant, but she made sure to let us know that she wanted her fair share of time to hold Emily.

In fact, she was to make sure everyone knew that she was a new big sister and wanted to even wear her "I'm a Big Sister" shirt everyday.

Me and my Beautiful Girls!

*Tangent: I want my girls to aspire to be whatever they want to be. But I hope that I can be a good example of motherhood and can instill the importance and beauty that lies in motherhood. It truly is a special gift and blessing from Heavenly Father. I think this crazy world really underplays the importance in motherhood and what an important and full-time job it is. Okay... stepping of my soapbox.

Zak... really, not too interested to meet Emily.

But he was really excited about his toy. Can't win them all!

Our First Family picture!

Their Big Sibling Shirts.

Finally... a picture of Ryan snuggling his new baby girl!!

(I've been a bit of a hog!)

Consensus is... WE LOVE BABY EMILY!!

So lucky and blessed to have such a sweet baby in our family.

Meet Emily

Little yawns are my favorite.

Chubby arms, silky black hair.

*swoon*

This is one of my favorites.

Emily's Birth Story

It always is a surreal feeling going in for an induction. At this point, I think going into labor would be quite shocking, but knowing that you're driving to the hospital to have a baby is so weird. This one felt more so as it was so unexpected to have it start that night!

My sweet friend Collette made arrangements to stay the night with our kids and we got to the hospital a little after 7pm. I was so excited and nervous. I never thought I would have my baby that night. We got all hooked up and moving by 9pm and I was sure that I would have the baby between midnight and 1am. Zak took about 5 hours of laboring before he came, so I thought it would be that long or shorter with this one.

Well... midnight came and went and so did 1 o'clock... I was really uncomfortable but didn't want to get an epidural again if delivery was close (with Zak I got my epidural and still felt everything down yonder). Luckily my sweet, sweet husband talked me into getting an epidural. I am so glad I did. I won't lie. It was SOOOO painful getting the epidural, but I am SO glad I did! I was able to take a little bit of a nap before it was time to push, and lets face it. I went into this induction already exhausted from a long day of working around the house. I think I cleaned and vacuumed out our van that morning. haha!

Well, around 4 am I felt it was go time, and I was right. It was another smooth and easy delivery. I think I only pushed through two contractions.

Meet

Emily Suzanne

January 7th, 2014

4:32am

10lbs. 1oz.

21 inches

I measured small this entire pregnancy, even had one of my doctors say that he thought she would be my smallest baby. So I was quite shocked when they told me her weight.

Another TEN pound baby!!

No wonder I suffered with such horrible back pain this pregnancy! Totally felt justified for all the times I whined about an achey back.

She was worth every uncomfortable moment thought.

Pure joy!

Looking through my pictures I feel guilty we didn't take more.

I don't even have a picture with Ryan snuggling her all new and slimy.

And that is Emily's Story.

Pre: Emily's Birth Story

These are some of the posts that I enjoy looking back on and reading years down the road... so I'm going to start with Emily's Birth Story (before I forget everything!)

I actually am going to start quite a bit before her actually delievery...

I found out that I was pregnant with lil' Miss Emily on Mother's day. I thought it was kind of fitting, comical really. We knew we wanted to have one more baby before we moved, but we were thinking maybe an April or May baby would be nice... well, things happen when they are supposed to I guess. Ryan hadn't the slightest clue, we were trying yet afterall. So I decided it would be fun to keep it a secret until Father's day and share the news with him then.

Good intentions... but never happened. I was far too sick with this pregnancy to hide it for that long. After a couple of nauseating migraines and several days of accomplishing nothing around the house, I gave in and told him. We thought it would be fun to keep it a secret until we knew the gender and then share the news. It is really easy keeping stuff like this a secret from your family when you live 2000+ miles away. Ha!

Well, our plans were foiled slightly in August when I had to have an emergency appendectomy. Yup... my lil' appendix decided it needed to go. August 10th to be exact. It was kind of an odd experience, being pregnant, with no one knowing. I felt like such a wimp... any help I got I felt like I had to explain myself... so slowly the secret started to come out then. I of course told my mom. You don't let your mom find out weeks later that you were 18 weeks pregnant when you underwent surgery. I do have to say that I feel so blessed. Obviously, I wouldn't want to have surgery, but the timing and circumstances surrounding the situation were so aligned, I can't help but be grateful! The pain hit on a Friday and Ryan was off that evening and the following Saturday and Sunday, so he was able to help out. My friend who took the kids had a light weekend, so it wasn't super stressful to watch our kids. Being in my second trimester was the lowest risk period for needing surgery, so the risk of miscarriage was reduced. Really, any aspect I think about during the situation was taken care of. It still was terrifying and one of the most painful experiences of my life, but I felt so blessed, loved and watched over by my Heavenly Father.

Okay... skipping forward...

For some reason, my body doesn't know how to evict its tenants. I think I would still be pregnant with Sarah if medical intervention never occurred. I know this fact, and I shared it with my doctors and was hopeful of an early delivery. Or at least one on my due date. I saw a group of doctors, so I didn't always see the same one each time. One doctor, Dr. Elizabeth Krans that I saw at my 37 week appointment told me that she saw no reason to keep me pregnant past 39 weeks. I was elated by the news... but much to my excitement, the other doctors in the group didn't agree. They told me it would be better and safer if we waited for my body to progress farther. *hmphff* So we waited. It was especially stressful with Ryan going out of town frequently for Residency interviews. My due date was January 6th, and Ryan was driving to an interview in South Carolina January 2-4.... I really didn't want the one time I did go on my own to be while he was out of town. But never you fear... I didn't. I never. do.

Finally I had my 40 week appointment on my due date. I was excited because surely they would set up my induction appointment for later that week. I arranged last minute for my friend Collette to take my kiddos so Ryan could come to my appointment. I joked with the nurse taking my blood pressure about secretly wanting it to be high so they would have to induce me. I think my laughter did affect it, because I did have slightly elevated blood pressure (and I run on the low side with BP during pregnancy). Dr. Krans is who I had my appointment with, and first thing she said when she walked in was, "Why are you still pregnant?!!" She used my slightly elevated blood pressure for grounds to be admitted that night for induction! We were both shocked. So we ran home, finalized arrangements for our other three kiddos and went back to the hospital to welcome sweet little Emily into the world.

Preparing for Baby

Just wanted to remember some of the silly things we did to prepare for the new baby to come.

Shirts for the new big sisters and big brother.

Bribery for my nurses...

We did some small little presents for Emily to give to her new siblings at the hospital. Just to give them a reason to be happy that they came, and to distract them while they were hanging out at the hospital.

January 3rd

Here is the last pregnant selfie I took... okay it was one of a handful I took the whole pregnancy.

Here are the others... just for fun!

December 24th (38 weeks)

December 8th (36 weeks)

November 4th (31 weeks)

I look at these and think it is funny that people didn't know I was pregnant.

Three days before I delivered I was talking to my neighbor outside and she asked if I was pregnant. She was shocked when I told her I was due that week. Ha!
I think there were people that didn't even know until they saw me carrying Emily around. So funny.

Fresh Start

I've been feeling overwhelmed lately with blogging. I kind of get anxious thinking about it sometimes. Which really is silly, completely not the purpose behind blogging. It is supposed to be sharing and preserving family memories, and in the process being therapeutic. The main reason I stress is because I am so far behind!!

Well... I'm resolved to be over that anxiety. I am starting anew and if I even find time to catch up on a past memory here of there, then so be it. I love going back and reading posts, the short random ones are my favorite. So I need to not stress about the posts I've missed. Just start up today, and keep it up so I can stay on top of these wonderful memories we are creating as a family.

So... fresh start?

Friday, May 10, 2013

Cherry Blossoms in DC

In April Ryan presented his Research at AACR (is that right?)

Anyway. It was on a Wednesday morning... so I wasn't planning on going with him because it was the middle of the week and didn't want the kids to miss school.

But a couple of days before I got online and discovered that it would the the peak blossom time for the cherry trees in DC! I have a soft spot for those beautiful trees, so we decided to tag along last minute.

School, schmeull...they could miss a day!

We got in LATE Tuesday night to the hotel... but of course the kids woke up bright and early ready to swim! So while Ryan presented his poster that morning, I headed to the pool with all three kiddos.

(easier than it sounds)

It was even more fun that we had the whole pool to ourselves!

(which should have surprised me, the water was freezing!!)

I usually don't let the kids in the hot tub... but since we were the only ones there...

Ryan got done around noon so we packed up the car and headed off to DC.

HOT. DC.

There was a freak heat wave and it was in the 90s that day!

So... the kids were hot and tired... and not very cooperative... for pictures at least.

My screen isn't the greatest on my camera... and so I was really struggling with my setting my camera right. Should have just put it in auto, i guess. Oh well.

Zak especially had a hard time.

I think he was just too hot, tired and thirsty... so he screamed a good portion of the day.

Even when this was the view he was looking up at!!

I really wanted to pretend I was this amazing photographer that day...

Not so much.

(don't kill me Ryan... this just makes me smile. Crazy-eyed Joe!)

I love the little sprouts growing all over... even they have blossoms.

We sat in the shade for a long while, right by Tidal Basin.

*Sigh*
Beautiful Right?

Well the kids preferred this.

Drawing in the dirt with sticks... getting filthy!

Zak being a trooper in the stroller!

Look Sarah... the Jefferson Memorial is right behind you... right behind you!!
Right be... oh I give up!

Even Ryan threw in the towel... it was hot.

Don't remember who was making him smile, but it was cute!

Playing with daddy!

Loved this big tree!

The girls favorite part (aside from drawing in the dirt) was playing "people" in the giant bushes.

We really didn't get to stroll around and enjoy the beautiful trees this time.

We sat in the shade and just let the kids run around.

Zak was the happiest when he got to do that too.

I would have loved to walk around and take more pictures of these beauties!

It was lovely... and even more lovely when we got back to our air conditioned car.

Actually, on the way back to our car it was starting to cool off and be quite pleasant weather... but we already were going to be getting home past midnight, so we had to head off.

Too short of a trip.

On the way back home we got lost...

and at one point got turned around and back to DC. In rush hour traffic.

Not so awesome.

Did I mention our GPS died in our car?
Really could have used it then.

BUT! The Sun was just starting to set and we ended up right by the DC Temple exit and decided to make one last stop there before hitting the road (for real).

Sarah taking a picture of us.