Baby time!!

I called in Thursday morning (the 13th) to see if they had room for me, and they said they'd call back. I was SO worried they wouldn't fit me in, but they called back later and said be there at nine.  I was shaking on the way to the hospital, reality had set in. They hustled me back and checked me (still at a 4), and then broke my water at 10:00. I nearly passed out when I got my IV - the vein apparently rolled, and she had to wiggle the needle to get it in. Ouch!  With Lily my epidural didn't kick in very quick, so I went ahead and got this one before it was too late. Then I sat back and we watched HGTV for about 40 minutes. At 11:30 - ish my nurse came in to check me and said I was so close, and that if I pushed once her head would probably move down and I'd be ready!  So I did and BAM, I was ready to deliver. Dr. McCulloch came up and with one contraction she was out!  The cord had wrapped around her neck twice, but it hadn't affected her luckily. My first impressions of my baby girl - wow, she's purple!  And oh she's so tiny!  Lily was over 8 lbs. so I thought I'd have another big baby, but this little girl surprised us by weighing 6 lbs. 11 oz. and being 19 in. long, born at 11:59. Oh I loved her so quick!  Her hair was probably the biggest surprise - nearly blonde!  She cried, and cried! What a set of lungs! Soon she was in my arms, and I was in heaven.

Pregnancy selfies

These were all taken the last couple months of pregnancy - my last pregnancy probably, and so I savored every minutes. until the end, ha!  Here are a few facts about this last pregnancy:

- the first trimester - AWFUL! Nauseous, fatigue, just feeling yuck. I didn't remember how bad it was and then I told Joe he could say I told you so.

-the second trimester - HEAVEN!  I loved my little bump, and starting to feel her move. I felt great and had all sorts of energy. At my 20 week appointment we found out her umbilical cord was only a 2-vessel cord which made me nervous, but I didn't need to worry :)

-the third trimester - GREAT, until about 33 weeks and then the heat came and I was pretty miserable.  Little girl was probably the most active of all my kids, and would squirm every night from about 9-11. She had the hiccups  a lot, and was head down from pretty early on. I measured right on track, and things looked great!  I stopped gaining wait the last month, and dilated pretty quick (3 cm at 36 weeks). Lots of braxton hicks. Dr. McCulloch stripped my membranes at 38 weeks and I contracted ALL DAY, and then the stopped. Stubborn girl!  Her head had dropped, and I felt miserable so I elected to be induced at 39 weeks.

Sriracha

We made scrambled eggs for dinner one night, and Joe & I put sriracha on ours and Grayson wanted to try some. He actually didn't think it was too bad. At first, ha!

Happy 4th!!

The night before the fourth we headed up to watch the stadium fireworks with some neighbors.  It was pretty fun - the kids ran around on the soccer field before the show started, and then we watched the show. The next day we hosted a water party in the backyard - 4 pools!, some water balloons and squirt guns. I sat in the pool, which felt VERY nice being 9 months pregnant. Later that evening we had a bbq and then we all pitched in and had a nice firework show out front which the kids LOVED! A very fun holiday!

smoothie!!

We had some frozen pineapple so I decided to make a smoothie with it and banana, yogurt and apple juice. To say it was a hit would be an understatement!

swimming lessons

We signed up for swimming lessons at the end of the June - and it was PERFECT! Perfect weather, and perfect friends to take lessons with!  Every day we'd swim outside until 1, and the kids (and me) were in heaven! Abigail was very proud to be able to do a back float, and loved swimming under water. Grayson loved doing belly flops off the side, and swim with his nose plugged. Lily loved lessons, but was often too cold to swim in the pool and we'd cuddle on a chair.