Waving "hello" to all her fans.

Pretty in pink

Napping, napping, napping...

I can't believe it! Kyle, Easton, and Avery are all taking a nap right now. Easton asked for Avery to be moved to his room into her crib, and then her jumped in his "big boy" bed and went fast asleep. I jumped on email and am going to go take a shower in a moment, and Kyle decided the kids had the right idea and jumped in bed too. Can it really go this smoothly? Am I really getting some time to myself on day 5? I do realize the bottom will drop out when Kyle returns to work, but for now I am taking it all in. And my Mom comes a week from tomorrow!

I'm not sure I could be happier! What a perfect day.

A rare moment- Avery has her pretty eyes open. She is so cute today, all dressed up and girly.

What a week!

I guess it's a good sign that I even have time to write anything. But I won't be saying much because I'm hormonal and will sit here and cry as I type. We have definitely had some ups and downs since Avery was born on Wednesday, but it's all smoothing out at this point and today has been great. We had a little scare at the hospital where her blood sugar got too low and they had to force formula into her to get it back up quickly, she didn't take the formula well and started vomiting pretty bad, where they discussed transferring her to the NICU and rolled in an X-ray. I was terrified. She was so lethargic and had no interest in crying, eating, or pooping. All thing the hospital likes to see. After that they ran a whole bunch more tests and I started pumping breast milk around the clock, each feeding turned into a huge ordeal with 2 or 3 people involved and a tube taped to my breast, after that I still had to supplement with Soy formula which she tolerated more, but not great. All the tests turned out great and she started keeping things down. Since we have been home I haven't had to give her formula and last night she actually nursed. We also questioned bringing her home when we did, when approximately 3 hours after coming home she spit up and it clogged her airways. I didn't even know what terrified was! Thank God both Kyle and I were there and he ran to find a bulb syringe and I started wiping everything I could away. Needless to say pretty quickly we were able to get everything out and she started crying. The sweetest cry I have ever heard. So now every time she makes any noise resembling spit up I run to make sure she's fine. It so crazy that after all this, and the shots (which are still not done), and labor, I would do it again. I also had another pretty good labor and delivery. It's nice to know I will never be one of those mothers with a 20+ hour labor story. A lot of mothers told me it's so much easier the second time because you don't stress so much. Just more B.S. feed to mother from mothers. I'm not sure I will ever stress about my kids. If my Mom is any indication, I won't. I'm not sure this pregnancy wasn't harder on her, than us. So anyway now I have written more than I planned. Today is a day that I have dreamt about for a long time. I have everything I ever could have hoped for and more. Kyle, Easton, and Avery are all just the most wonderful people and I truly feel blessed. As you can see from the photos I posted today we are having a blast. This house is filled with love.

Thanks for all the wonderful comments, emails, flowers, gifts, and phone calls. And thanks for dinner last night Brenda, it was perfect. I have pretty great family and friends too.

I just can't get enough of her. Beautiful.

Grandpa and Grandma Schueller sent a T-ball set. I sure wish it wasn't raining outside! And more eggs!

Easton being the best big brother anyone could ask for.

The house is full of eggs and I'm quickly emptying every last one of them.

Grandpa Shep and Mummi sent a chocolate bunny for Easter! Woo hoo

Back at home

Well, we are finally back at home! 3 days in the hospital was 2 too many. After a slight scare with Avery (low blood sugar and just too sleepy to eat), everyone is doing great. Tina and I are trying to adjust to the new routine as well as Easton. Speaking of Easton, he has been super so far. He is a proud big brother and is "helping" in any way he can. Tina was amazing in the hospital and continues to be a wonderful mom. We keep telling each other how so very lucky we are to have such a beautiful, healthy family!

sleeping contently.

The new family

Just hanging out with sis.

sleeping soundly

A rare occasion... eyes open!

6 pounds 14 ounces. 19.5 inches long. Beautiful in every way.

Beautiful Avery Ray.

Avery enters the world!

a very happy mom.

full body shot

not real happy.

look at that hair!

The proud dad.

so sleepy

Avery with her Uncle John

With her proud momma

Nervous pregnant woman rambles

So I am realizing that I should have one blog for family and friends to read about our family, and another blog that no one knows about that is just therapy. I could of gotten up out of bed last night as I was tossing and turning and had a little session with myself. At first I thought knowing the date of the delivery was bad because I put myself on such a schedule to complete things, but now that they have taken that away again I am having a lot of anxiety about not knowing when it's going to happen. It's a real possibility that it will be tomorrow. So I'm a little stressed today and a little sad. It's weird to think that this is the last day where it's just Easton and I. I am also realizing just how much time I have had the last 22 months to do things for me. Thank goodness. I'm so exciting for the baby to arrive and I know we are all going to enjoy having one more member of our family, but I had so quickly forgotten so many things. We hauled out all the baby things this weekend and realized how much they take over the house and just looking at the breast pump while Easton was running around made me realize just how insane things are going to get. I actually had to return a library book the other day that I didn't finish. And it was a book that I was enjoying and that I have wanted to read for some time. I would go to bed and start reading and after about 4 pages I would fall asleep. I know my mother is happy to hear that, but I've never just crashed like this before. We are also stressed because there is also a real possibility that we could be getting another house this week. Kyle says were going to get it just because that's our luck. We finally would be getting what we always wanted, the boy, the girl, the nice house in the right neighborhood with the bedrooms we wanted, just absolutely horrible timing. If we get the house it needs an incredible amount of work. Which at another time would be very exciting to be able to make it what we want, I would actually get to design my kitchen, it's just I can't imagine taking it on in a month. Yikes. Anyway I have lots to take care of yet today and I'm just rambling. Hopefully next time we post it will be photos of our beautiful daughter. It's crazy to realize that I'm finally going to get the pay-off for all the doctor appointments and shots, and test that we have had for the last 37 weeks. To put it in Kyle terms, we are going "all in" knowing we are winning the big jackpot after playing at the table for a long time not knowing if we would go out. God that feels good!

He's a Shepard- chocolate makes him happy. I think we are spoiling him a bit with baby #2 on the way.

The weather has been so nice we have been to the park the last 5 days.

I just love this picture. It's all Easton.

Sleepy head in his big boy bed!

The clock is ticking...

I haven't even had time to write because I have been frantically checking things off of my list. I definitely don't have the personality to know when I'm to deliver the baby. I have a check list and schedule for myself everyday in order to get everything done by the 24th. I know this doesn't surprise anyone! At least I know and admit I'm a spaz.

Everything is going great. Easton is sleeping in his bed for both naps and through the night, the baby is doing great, and we are wrapping up all our freelance projects... just in time. It's getting very exciting at our house, and feels really good. Easton is going to be a great big brother. He is already being so helpful.

I should probably get back to my list though. I have been having a few Braxton hicks contractions, and I'm 3 centimeters dilated already so we are a little nervous about having the baby before the induction date of the 24th. And NO this is not on my schedule! Hopefully she will just sit still for 9 more days, but stay tuned.

She's on her way!

Well, Tina and I finally broke down and found out the sex of the baby... it's a girl!
On Tina's last visit to the OB, many staff members were calling the baby "she" and "her" and mentioning painting "her toenails". We didn't know if they were just happening to default to a girl or if the "knew something!" Tina called our doctor and pleaded with her to let us know if she really did know the sex... she said she didn't, but now we had it in our heads that we were having a girl. The last thing we wanted to do was to give birth to a beautiful boy and be disappointed since we expected a girl... so that's why we decided to find out. So when we went to Tina's last OB visit (in which everything is going fine and our little girl is growing normal) they hooked her up to the ultrasound and they announced... "it's a girl!" We both were just fine with a healthy baby of either sex, but once we found out we were having a girl, we were VERY excited!
So bring on the PINK! (not really everybody, that's just a joke!)

The freedom

So we said we would keep you posted on the big boy bed... Our extremely independent son has gotten a taste of the freedom of the crib and isn't falling asleep so easy anymore. Yesterday I put him down for a nap and went upstairs to work. About 10 minutes later I heard him downstairs and went to check on him as he was exiting the kitchen with a cinnamon graham cracker, very proud of himself and on his way back to his bedroom. I certainly didn't think he could reach them at the back of the kitchen counter. I put him back down and then decided to stay in my room to see how it went. He went back down for about 3 minutes and then got up turned his CD player on started to dance, and then shut his door for a little privacy. I went back in and he said he wanted to take a nap, but he wanted the door shut. No way! So he went up and down about 4 more times each one ending in music on and dancing, or toys until I finally transferred all the stuffed animals back to his crib, where he took a 3 hour nap. No hassle. So the good thing is he doesn't fight with us for one bed or the other, but just can't resist the temptation of the freedom. I'm not sure how he became such a little busy body. It must be his father!