We Have A Baby Girl!!!!

Thursday morning Dave and I headed to the hospital to meet our little one. Here's one last shot of Momma and baby.

The day went a little different than planned. My OB office is two doctors who share all the patients. They were both at the hospital that day and the one that was supposed to be taking care of me kept getting called away into surgeries and other patients' rooms. So even though I arrived at the hospital at 7:30, the doctor didn't come to break my water until 1:30. They were much nicer this time about letting me try to go into labor  on my own afterwards and not having to get Pitocin this time. They said I only had about a 20% chance of it working though. The nurse I had was awesome and she got me an exercise ball and showed me how I could lean against it on the wall and sway back and forth to bring on the contractions. I did this for almost 2 hours and all of a sudden I was having pretty strong contractions on a regular basis. A little while later they got so strong that I couldn't walk around anymore and so I climbed into bed. With Dave's awesome support I got through the contractions as they got stronger and stronger without an epidural and after only about 3 hours of regular (but crazy strong) contractions our baby was born!!! God blessed us with another little girl and we are so happy! Her name is Eva Corinne and she was born at 6:24 pm and weighed 8 pounds 7 ounces and was 20 inches long. She gave us quite the scare as they couldn't get her heartbeat on the monitor anymore right before she came out. The doctor called for them to get a vacuum so they could get her out quicker, but I was in a lot of pain so I just kept pushing and she came before they could get the vacuum. They put her on my stomach but she wasn't breathing. So they took her and after a few seconds had her breathing and crying. I told Eva that she wasn't allowed to scare me again after that for a long time. I'm so thankful that she's okay and that she is here! Here we are with Dr. Albers who delivered our sweet girl.

Our first hug!

We were both so very excited to be meeting our daughter!

The hospital does an hour of skin-to-skin with baby and mom after the baby is born and Dave was so happy afterwards when it was his turn to cuddle his little girl for the first time.

Time to get cleaned and measured.

Our adorable newborn!

I love the joy in Dave's eyes as he holds our new baby's hand for the first time!

Baby feet!

8 pounds and 7 ounces.....

Ahhh, this warmer feels so good!

She hated the bath, even the part most babies like (having their hair washed off) she was not a fan of.

Dave and I were so excited for this moment! Benjamin, Anna, and Collin came to meet their new baby and learn that they have a baby sister!

The tech gave them big brother/sister bands to match the ones Eva, Dave, and I had.

Eva's first outfit.

Our first family picture. We are so very, very blessed!

My girls!

Then it was time to call in the grandparents and Benjamin and Anna announced they had a baby girl and what her name is.

Collin loves her so much. He has been waiting a long time for this moment!

My biggest and littlest snuggling for the first time.

Then it was time for some grandparent snuggles.

We all had a lot of fun showing off our new bundle of joy!

After everyone left it was time to quiet down for our first night together.

Bedtime cuddles with my sweet, sweet Eva.

Peter Pan & Hiking

I'm going to be induced on Thursday unless things decide to happen on their own (my due date is Tuesday). So this was our last weekend before the baby and we filled it up! Friday evening we took the kids to their first play, Peter Pan. It was a super magical evening! Especially for Anna who is very much in love with the story of Peter Pan and has been for quite some time (she even pretends that John and Micheal are her children). They didn't allow photography during the play, but we snapped a few shots before with the beautiful decorations they had out in the lobby like this tree house for the lost boys.

Pretending to swim after they were made to walk the plank.

Excited for the show to begin. It was a big hit!!!

Then on Saturday we took advantage of the cooler temperatures and went for a hike around one of the lakes at Brown County. It was cooler, but the humidity made up for any decrease in heat! We still had a wonderful time.

We had a grand time pretending. There were plenty of little bridges to cross, so we of course had to look out for trolls. The trail was around a lake but sometimes we went deeper into the woods, so that meant we had to watch for witches. Lastly, there is a beaver that clearly lives here as there are trees either partially bitten into or completely broken off around the lake. The kids enjoyed looking out for Billy the Beaver as we came to call him.

Daddy really got into posing all of us.

Check out those muscles!

We all thought these trees were cool.

The boys! (Wonder if there will be another one soon?)

Daddy and his girl! I LOVE this picture!!!!

It immediately reminded me of this picture from not too long ago.

After our hike we headed over to the nature center to enjoy a raptor program. This little guy is called a kestrel and was one of the prettiest birds I've ever seen. The picture doesn't do it justice.

This little owl fell out of his nest as a baby and has a condition similar to down syndrome and keeps the characteristics of a baby owl even though it's an adult now.

They also had two hawks to share with us.

Great weekend! Now we're all excited to meet our baby!!!!!!

County Fair 2012

We braved the heat and had a fun evening at our county fair. It was still above 90 degrees, so that was a little rough when you're 39 weeks pregnant. But it was still so much fun! We started off seeing all the animals in the barn. Benjamin found a baby cow!

Lots of big cows too. Collin wasn't interested in petting any of the animals and wanted to be held the whole time (he gets scared around animals). But at least he let us take him in the barns.

Goats!

Here are my little duckies quacking with the ducks who were playing in a kiddie pool.

Collin wasn't afraid of the birds. He was actually really interested and tickled by them.

Pony rides!

One of the horse owners was nice enough to pull her horse out for the kids to see and pet. Our little cowgirl LOVED that!

The horse loved Benjamin though and turned to give him a surprise kiss. He was quite shocked but was super tickled afterwards that the horse picked him.

Collin's favorite part....getting to play in a school bus. Dave pretty much had to drag him out of here when it was time to move on. He LOVED it!!

Dave and I got to sit for a nice long break and listen to some bag pipes while the kids played in a cornbox. I had never seen this done before, but it was a huge hit with the kids. Some of their friends even showed up and played too.

Collin was so in love with this hot air balloon. He watched it until he could find it no longer and then kept asking, "Where's my balloon?" and telling me, "But I really liked that balloon!"

The kids had lots of fun playing on all the tractors and posed for some cool pictures.

The wheel that the boys posed in above belong to this monster. Someone left the ladder in the back out and Dave and I were shocked that parents were letting their kids climb and play on the top. It made us so nervous as they were SO high in the air and it would have been a straight drop down if they fell. We both breathed a huge sigh of relief when someone who sells a different brand of tractors came by and saw what they were doing. He made them all get down and put the ladder away. It was really so dangerous!

We ended our evening by going through the little kid barn where they have some baby animals. I loved these little guys. I don't think I've ever seen such little baby goats before and immediately fell in love! : )

Collin found baby cows!

The momma cow was close by and let out a big moo when the boys were looking at her. Collin's new favorite thing is to tell us a fact by asking "Do you know that ....". It started when Benjamin taught him that cats can see in the dark. So he now tells us at least a few times a day "Do know that cats can see under the dark?" It's really cute. So after the coo mooed for them, he came running to tell each of us "Do you know that the cow said MOO! to me?" Here he is telling Benjamin (check out how sweet of a big brother Benjamin is by listening so intently to something he'd already heard).

All together now......MOO!

(Collin came by while I was working on this and saw this picture and said super enthusiastically, "Momma! Did you know that the cow said MOOOO! to me?")

More Randomness

Collin is really keeping us on our toes here lately. He fights going to sleep for quite a while and then when we are all asleep he wakes up randomly through the night. He either comes in our room and I wake up and see him or I stumble across him in all kinds of different places in the middle of the night either awake or asleep (on the floor next to our bed, in the hallway, across Dave's legs, etc.) This is where we found him when we woke up from our family nap on Sunday. It's stressing us out just a bit!

Benjamin got these glasses at a carnival a month or so ago and they continue to keep us all laughing!

Anna insisted I take a picture of her too since she was wearing her favorite dress. She's such a girly girl!!

Can't wait until there's a fourth little one that I can post pictures of!

This & That

Grandma bought this for Anna and it was so cute that we had to take a picture. She made me smile all day as she fluttered around in her dress and hat.

Collin has been doing really well with going to the bathroom and I even switched him to underwear this week. He loves his pull-ups though and has been doing this a lot lately. He refers to himself as "pull-up boy". They are pretty obsessed with super heroes these days!

Pepper stays hidden away for the most part during the day when the kids are awake. But when Collin first wakes up sometimes he happens upon her on the back of the couch and sneaks up and grabs her onto his lap. Few things make him happier (or more still) than getting to cuddle with Pepper. He even calls her his baby and princess sometimes. He's quite obsessed with cats! He has a lot of fun with Max too because Max will actually sit and let him pet him and play without running away. I think he's more into Pepper though since she plays hard to get. ; )

I had to get a picture of Benjamin to capture his smile as it is before it changes forever (sniff, sniff). We discovered his first loose tooth and can't hardly believe he's old enough for this!

I was about to give the boys haircuts and Dave wanted to take a picture of Collin's hair first. He has developed two-toned hair as you can see below (it's like that in the back too) which we are pretty tickled by.

Benjamin showing off his loose tooth.

Got her again! (He requests that I take their picture together.)