oh how time flies

It seems like yesterday that I had Austin. Almost 7 weeks has gone by and I am loving every single minute of it. He is growing like crazy, although most people comment on how "small" he is, until they pick him up! He had the newborn look for a nanosecond and now looks like a little man, bald spots and all!
He has started to hold his head up more and have control of it. He has started laughing,smiling,and cooing. Our nieces, Emily and Katelyn are completely enamored with him, it's so very sweet. Katelyn, my little helper, has taken to him as her own. She has even named her baby doll, Baby Austin.
Elizabeth is doing well... as well as a 4 year old with sass can adjust. Yesterday was her last day of school and once I get my scanner out I will scan some pictures. Chris has been off work for almost 2 weeks so that has helped. Right now we are gearing up for Austin's Baptism. My brother will be home so we have a short amount of time to plan it. Hopefully the weather cooperates as my FIL is unable to get the party tent that he partly owns. So we won't have a tent or the tables and chairs. So now I am in a pickle with seating for 60 people!!! Hopefully something comes through for us as our budget is kind of tight. We are having 2 inflatable bouncers, one for the "big" kids and one for the little ones. It should be fun! If it does rain I will just have to deal with wall to wall people in my 1200sq foot house! UGH!!! NIGHTMARE!!!

Austin Phillip has made his debut

In the wee hours of the morning on April 17th, Chris and I made our way to Morris hospital. We checked in at 530a.m. The time flew by and by 730a.m. I was walking my way to the O.R. I was a bit nervous to have the spinal, but it went in with out a hitch. It was such a bizarre feeling. My butt went numb before my legs did... it was weird! By the time Chris made his way into the O.R. the doctors had already started the C-section. Next thing I knew the 2 doctors were "violently" pushing on my upper abdomen in effort to get Austin's head out! It was an odd feeling to not feel but know that my entire body was being shook around. I laughed so hard I cried when they did this. I didn't know any other way to express my emotion... So I laughed! Dr. E and T said that was a first! Next thing you know, here came Austin. He came out screaming, my reaction..." OH HE IS PISSED!" the doctors then replied ... " YES HE IS PISSING!" such a great visual I suppose. His apgar was 8 and 9. I am not sure how much time had passed before a nurse came in to tell me how much he weighed.... 9 LBS 7 OZ and was 20 inches long. If I could have felt my legs I would have fallen off the table! I was still having my tubes tied when they came in.

He is such a good baby and my recovery has been great! This time they did not use staples or any stitches on the outside of the incision. So I did not have that discomfort. Well he is starting to stir. I will leave you with one more picture of my beautiful baby boy. Thanks to Jan to made his great hat. I will have to post the link to her Etsy site when I have more time.

what a great baby sprinkle

Today my dear friends Kelly and Ryan threw me a baby sprinkle. I was quite excited about seeing some friends I had not seen in some time. I got ready and out the door Elizabeth and I went. We get to Ryan's and I try to do a 3 pt. turn to back into a parking spot. To my surprise ( and baby brain) the field that I was attempting to do my 3 Pt. turn was very mushy to say the least and my van started to sink... I was STUCK! I called Ryan and her brother came out to see if he could get it out. NO LUCK! If anything he got it stuck worse. I ended up calling a tow truck! Anyway... aside from that the day was great! I am so blessed to have great friends and great family!

We started out by eating, my favorite thing to do these days although eating does not agree with me most days. Followed by the guess the candy in the diaper game. This was hilarious!!! The candy was still warm and mushy and just added to the gross factor! The only request I made when the girls started planning games was no "guess the size of Andrea" game... Guess what, they did it! It was not nearly as bad as I anticipated. The winner of that game.... Elizabeth! But paybacks are a witch! I will post pictures once I get them emailed to me.

It was now time to open gifts! Again I am blessed to have such generous friends and family! Austin is set with summer clothes! YEAH! We now have over 540 size 1 diapers and about 100 Newborn diapers. And my favorite baby item... super soft blankets!!! I also got 2 umbrella strollers. I have a few items that are a need more than a want to purchase, but they are small items. I think it is safe to say that if Austin were born tomorrow we would be prepared. Sure his room is still a mess, the crib is still in the garage, spackle still on the walls, and crap everywhere. But he is rooming in with us until I heal from my section, so I guess it would be ok.

Elizabeth seems to be getting excited about Austin's arrival. She is now interacting with my belly and talking to him. But it could be she saw all the lovely ladies talking to my belly today too...
We are now counting the days til we meet our son. We are very excited and truely blessed.

Sleeping beauty!

What a beautiful day to spend with family! We started out the day with homemade pancakes,a shower, and a little bit of cuddling. We finally got our act together and got out the door. We took 2 cars because Chris wanted to take his truck to get new tires, and instead of waiting he figured we could go out to Menards to get the ceiling fan and blinds for Austin's room. Well... we got to sears and got that all set up and walked around the mall for a bit. I was feeling up to walking around and hell at this point it can't hurt much other than my back! Any how... We came up to the Disney Store, Elizabeth went NUTS! Good thing they had rockin sale! So daddy felt like spoiling her a little bit... she got new Arial flip flops,sunglasses, and a Hannah Montana stationary type kit. It came with all of Elizabeth's favorites, markers, colored pencils,a pad of paper, ruler,pen and pencil sharpener. She was on cloud 9. We then set out to find the Easter Bunny... we finally found him in front of Macy's. There was No line, no kids, no nothing around the darn bunny. We get up there and she says to me..." I don't think I want to sit on it's lap..." so we tried to get her in there to take a picture, no way! I really don't blame her either. He is kind of scary looking. By the time we made it back to Sears the truck was done.Needless to say we never made it to Menards... We then went to his mom's house. Everyone was there, which was nice. All the kids were able to play together and they even were able to go to the park. I stayed back to help with diner. By 6pm, my pant leg was getting tight! holy hell are my legs and feet swollen! It looks like I have elephantitis! We got home around 8 pm and got Elizabeth into bed. I just went in to check on her and could not resist snapping this pic. Don't mind the "rug burn" looking scab on her head. She took a tumble over her handle bars a few days ago....


On that note, I am going to bed as well.

a quick update

I had my 35 week appt today... Had my GBS test done and an internal check as I have been experiencing some not so pleasant aches and pains lately. I am not dilated at all... I do have a lot of edema and lots of sugar in my urine. GO figure! I would have 4 weeks left and now I have to really watch my sugar/carb intake. They want me to go to physical theropy for the sciatica and pelvis pain. That's all well and fine and I am sure it would do wonders, however it's finding the time to be able to go without Elizabeth.Chris is working double shifts and not home much maybe 2 hours at the most. Crazy! I figure if I have dealt with the pain and popping for this long I can surely handle 4 more weeks. Austin is still breach/transverse and still measuring 2 weeks a head. I sure wish I was 37 weeks at this point! There is more, but I am very tired and going to bed. Will update more later.

Taking advantage of the beautiful weather!

This morning Elizabeth got up super early and was ready to go and conquer the world! We laid in my bed for about an hour, I was NOT ready to get up at 6 a.m. Anyway.. So we got out of bed and waited for the first kid to arrive. Abbey got here about 8 am. They played for a bit and both got baths. I started a load of bed linens so I could hang them on the line. Oh how I love the smell of line dried linens. That is one of my favorite things about spring! We decided to go outside and play for a bit. Chris has yet to get the outside toys out of the shed, so they made due with Elizabeth's bike and the kitchen set that needs to go in the shed. Our mid morning outing didn't last long as Elizabeth dumped her bike and hit her head pretty hard on the deck. I got her calmed down and promised her bubble gum. Here is the reaction to that bribe!





I brought the girls in and fed them lunch. Now we are waiting for the boys and Emi B to get here so we can go back outside and enjoy this beautiful day!

random ramblings of our weekend

Friday was such a beautiful day...too bad we were stuck in the house with the guys from Perma Seal... But I was able to open all the windows again and enjoy the breeze!

Saturday we had a wedding to attend. Elizabeth was so excited that she was able to wear her Easter dress early..


She was very well behaved at the wedding. Except when they were doing closing prayer and the whole church was quiet... the claps of thunder and flashes of lightning started , scared all the kids! I don't know about you but I think that might be a bad omen... So we then dropped Elizabeth off at her grandma Karen's and Papa Lens' so she could spend a fun filled night with her grandparents... that didn't work out so well. Chris and I were able to go to the reception and have diner when Chris realized he missed a call. It was his mom. Elizabeth had pooped 10 times in about an hour and half... anyone that knows' us knows that we have had nothing but issues with Elizabeth and her bowel movements since she was born, so for her to have the runs was very out of the ordinary.She was willing to keep Elizabeth over night but wanted to know if there was anything she could do. I told her we would come and pick her up, so we left. Once we got there, Elizabeth comes running..." My butt hurts momma!" and away she went again! Thankfully grandma still had some diapers in the house, cause there was no way Elizabeth was making it to the toliet every time. So we think all is ok and pack her up and leave. Foolishly I give her a couple sips of gaterade.. Mind you gaterade makes her poop, but I figured if she had gone that much she need the electrolytes. Wrong!!! We made it Lorenzo Rd and she was screaming. Poor kid! Get her home and change her, a dose of pepto and off to bed she went. She did wake up one time from the storm, so I gave her another dose of pepto and she fell back a sleep! I wish I could say the same. It was very bizzare to watch the clock jump an hour! Anyway... We got up this morning around 10 a.m. She comes in our room and says.. "mommy GET UP! I want mini corn dogs,french fries and cheese! (polkadot)" Of course it wasn't open yet so she settled for a peice of toast and some stale Sierra Mist. I did end up getting her some polkadot as she wanted to eat! She hadn't eaten since Saturday morning.

All day I had been so occupied with her,laundry, cleaning,organizing Austin's clothes that I rarely paid any attention to the lake we had in our yard... It had subsided by the time I was able to get some pics but none the less it is flooded.



And by the looks of it, this week we should be able to invite people over to ice skate.... only in Illinois!