three months ago already....

So for all of you who follow our blog you haven't had much to follow the past two months ;) Things have been so busy and crazy that I am just not organized enough to keep it going. However, I am hoping to bring you all up to speed a little bit and get back on top of it, b/c as good as it is for you it is also so good for me. It causes me to be reflective and gets me thinking about the days and capturing the things that happen throughout them that I don't want to lose track of...those moments you write on your heart.

So thought I would just start off with this...found this draft in my posts folder...must have uploaded the pics and just never finished it from there. Since they were already in there thought I would post them seeing as it has already been three months since Addy's birth...wow! I can hardly think of our family without her in it! What a blessing and a joy she is to us and hopefully you will get to see that throughout the posts to come...Gracie holding Addyson when she was just a day oldIt was hard word and she worked up an appetite ;)Good thing Addy is too little to be jealous ;) It was a cookie party!Look mom...no hands!Cousin Leah takes a turn with AddysonThen the nurse came in to give her a good going over and just make sure all was good. The girls loved watching this!Daddy actually gets a turn, while Karys gets excited to have Addyson grab her fingerQuite the crowd for the diaper change...hope he is doing it right ;)SO BLESSED! to have my friends Rachel and Ang drive all the way up to Sioux Falls to see me! Look at all those babies....we went from three bellies to three babies ;)
Meg Mulder gets to spend sometime with all three little ladies

Addyson Grace Arrives!

Addyson made her way into the world at 7:29 pm on May 28th...originally I was hoping for the 29th b/c then she and Rob would be the 29th, Karys and I the 4th of the month...but Addyson has done things on her own time frame in an original way throughout this entire pregnancy! I wonder if this trend will be part of her personality as she grows!?! So for lack of time in life these days I am just posting these with captions...sorry not enough hours in the day lately to dialogue more about this...maybe in the future, but no promises ;)

Addyson Grace within her first few minutes in the world! She was pretty quiet just like the other girls. None of them have cried much after birth, usually don't hear it until they get their first shot ;) Look at those long fingers! She was quite a cheesy baby ;)Proud Daddy overseeing the nurse as Addy gets all checked outQuite the pouty face! Look at that lipYou have an AMAZING Daddy Addyson! Love this moment in the delivery room...LOVE IT!Sarah did a great job of journaling and keeping a log of the events of the day. Super nice to be able to look back and try to grasp time, when you are in it you have no concept of it at all!Proud Auntie Megan...Megan did great! She told me afterward, "Erin, I actually watched this time!" I love you Meg...thanks for being a cheerleader and encourager for me!The phone calls begin!Proud Auntie Sarah...You are BEAUTIFUL my dear (both of you ;) You have found a field that you are AMAZING at! I loved having you at my side More content now...what a precious little girl! She did look like she got in a fight a little bit...she had a broken blood vessel in her right eye, bruises on her cheek bones, and little broken blood vessels all over her face. Poor girl was more beat up than I was!Mommy and Daddy with our newest addition! After this I have now heard Rob tell me multiple times, "Babe, you were made to have babies!" Umm yeah, we do good work...but it is all too fresh to even think about another on right now!yay! Grandma Sally was there to eagerly welcome you into the world! Quite the thing to have her right there in the room...specialYou know there had to be a crazy picture of my crazy husband! He did a great job of keeping things light when I was ready to quit. This is a birthing chair I was maybe going to try, no time for that though...barely made it to the bedThe girls have arrived! Leah leads the charge to go meet baby AddysonThe girls were excited, although at the last minute Gracie was pretty tentative to go into the roomBoth of the girls meeting Addyson for the first timeHere, Baby...wanna play with my bear?Papa holding Gracie and supporting her a little til she warmed up to mom in a bed still and the baby in Daddy's armsOne of the first things that Karys asked was "Can I hold her?"It didn't take Gracie long until she wanted to have a turn too!What a proud big sister!Papa gets his own turn...another little girl to hold

A legacy of love...Papa and Grandma with all their girls...another little one will join them in October though and HE will be a blessing to our family as well ;)I finally stopped shaking enough to have my turn...oh sweet girl, what a journey we have been on already and it has only just begun!I am so blessed with three beautiful little ladies...thank you, God for entrusting me with them--and yeah, HELP me and HOLD my hand!I LOVE THEM!!! All of the girls together...it was an act of congress to get a picture that was even remotely good ;) gotta love all our forced smiles that say, "Plz just take the picture...don't look away just keep smiling!"

First picture as a family of 5!Mommy with all her girls

Fun at Grandma and Grandpa's House

I am so thankful for my parents willingness to watch the girls while Rob and I were in the hospital with Addyson. I have just been thinking about it more in the days since we have been home and yeah words just can't even be used to describe what it means to me. They totally not only gave of their time, but just really spent that time loving on my girls so well during this big transition time for them. The day after Addyson was born I was talking to my mom on the phone that morning and I heard her ask the girls if they wanted to get ready and come visit. "Well, maybe after we are done playing play-doh" That was just it...they loved everything that Grandma Sally did with them (and Papa and the zoo the day before). One of their favorite things was the morning they got to play outside in their jammies and Grandma and Grandpa found our old horse out in the shed for them to ride...Kenneth-oh the memories I have with my sisters of Kenneth. The girls loved it, they spent so much time riding together and taking their own turns! Thanks mom and dad for entertaining, caring for and loving my girls so well this past weekend! They had a BLAST!Both of the girls all smiles as they pose for a pic atop KennethGiddy up horsey! Grandma he goes REALLY fast!Bouncing down the trail...all smiles....hair blowing in the wind!
This picture is PRICELESS! Facial expressions and all remind me of Sarah and I back in the day not just on Kenneth but riding together on real horses....

Waiting for Addyson...

We headed over to Lennox on Wednesday night b/c I had an appt to see my midwife on Thursday morning. There was talk that I may be induced on Friday morning, so we packed the van tight with all the necessities and then some ;) I had talked to my sister on Wed and thought that there may be a slight chance that my water was leaking...I really thought there was no chance b/c my body just doesn't do those things on its own ;) But sure enough when I went into the midwife on Thursday morning my water did have a high leak and therefore I was not going anywhere except over to L&D to be induced. CRAZY! Things were just happening so fast that I really didn't know what to and it just wasn't even on my radar that I could possibly deliver that day.

So I headed over to L&D, Rob calling family etc on the way over trying to figure out what we were going to do with the girls etc. They checked me all in and I was in bed, hooked up to pitocin, eating lunch by 1-1:30 ;) At 2:15 my midwife came in to check me...I was still only dilated to 3cm but she wanted to break my water and see what would happen. However, Addyson's head was floating and there wasn't enough pressure on the bag for her to be able to break it. So from 2:30-6:30 I spent time in multiple different positions and walked the hallways endlessly trying to get her head to drop. My midwife couldn't come back until after 6 b/c she had a class she was teaching from 4-6...yeah, unfortunately we were on her time table ;)

At 6:21 she made it back to the room and was able to break my water this time! I felt the change in the next contraction it was so crazy! To save you all the details I think I will just over view the rest ;) I was 3cm when she brake my bag, 6cm @ 7:04pm when I got in the tub...decided to ask for an epidural at this point...yeah that wasn't happening ;) Got out of the tub @ 7:20...barely made it to bed, pushed 2x and Addyson Grace was born at 7:29pm!!! 7lbs 14 oz 20 1/4 inches long! She just seemed so tiny!
Eating my lunch all smiles...I was pretty much all smiles til they broke my water.Megan and the girls hiding from Papa JeffBOO! You found us!The man with the phone...he did all the calling, updating, etc. It was so nice not to have to worry about it in all honesty!YES, Lunch! I wanted to eat right away b/c I hadn't had much for breakfast and by 1 I was really hungry, however, I didn't want it to come back up either later on ;)The rooms were such nice size. Everyone was just hanging out watching movies and laughing. there were a couple times I just felt like an egg with an audience, waiting for me to hatch ;)One of our many laps around the L&D unit. I saw another lady and her husband later and she remembered me as the one lapping her around the track. I obviously was not feeling bad enoughOne last picture as a family of four before the girls headed off with Papa to the zoo. What a guy! He took all three granddaughters to the zoo on his own with no stroller. The girls love Papa though and I am sure were good ;) Oh sweet Addyson, do you really know what craziness you are in for with this bunch! =D Karys wanted to know what every tube and bracelet was for...she is my curious one and if you ask her her favorite TV show she will say "Doctor shows"
The stickers that the girls and any visitor got every time they came in and out, provided quite the entertainment when need be ;) Goodbye kisses from my Kar-BearRocking in the chair biding my time...it was almost too much time to think and wait. found myself getting anxious at some points and just had way too much time to think and question and create hypothetical situations in my head!I was so glad that Rob had the computer in the room and was able to spin me some tunes to try to help me relax and focus as things got more intense...earlier, during the uneventful part of the afternoon, he was able to try to finish up those last final things for school...we both kind of thought he would have one more night to work on things, but luckily got an extension on his big paper that was due Sat night until Wed. My BEAUTIFUL sister who got the day off work to come hang out...straight from the pool in her swimsuit ;) Not even truly summer yet and this girl has such a glow to her! Love her!All the nurses trying to get everything set up for the delivery while I was in the tub...I had GREAT nurses who were so easy to be around...one of which was my off-duty nurse, Sarah ;)