Allie Coming Home

We brought Allie home from the hospital yesterday.  It was nice to come back home and get things settled.  It always seems like you come home with so much stuff after the hospital.  It is definitely a good thing.  We were given a bag of formula and things like diapers, wipes, binky's (the tech gave us like 4 extra ones), and girly things for me...plus all the snacks they kept giving us and that we kept taking...we love free stuff.

We decided to have Allie stay in the nursery the last night so that we could get some sleep.  They said she did really good and was one of the more chill babies.
She slept most of the time we were in the hospital and was very good.  We planned on staying until after lunch.  The pediatrician came and checked out Allie again.  She said that her jaundice level was a little high so we will need to take her in on Monday to get her checked again.   Besides that she said that she looked great and signed the discharge papers.
Then it was my turn.  The midwife came and checked me out and said that I looked pretty good and to make sure I took things easy.  She did say my iron levels were a little low so to keep taking my prenatals.  Then she did my discharge papers.  So we got all ready ready to go and then had to wait 45 minutes for our nurse to come and complete the discharge process.  They were really busy the whole time we were there.  Lots of people wanted their babies born before September first, like me.
Allie has done really good at home.  She has mostly been sleeping and pooping, just like she should.  We had a couple visitors after we got home.  Our neighbors, the Baumann's, came and brought gifts for the kids and a cute blanket for Allie.  They are such awesome friends and neighbors.  Then my brother and his wife stopped by for a visit.  My sweet friend, Marissa, arranged dinner for us.  She was sick so her husband brought it over for us.  It was really good and so nice of them to help us out.  Uncle Max stopped by and Allie just snuggled right in to him while he held her.  They are already good friends. 
After Tony picked up my prescriptions he went and picked up Megan from grandma's house.  She was so excited to come home and see baby sister.  She wanted to hold Allie off and on all evening.  We even snuggled together all three of us girls in the chair watching Dora.
Allie slept pretty good last night. We fed and put her to bed around ten and then she woke up only two times (about 2:30 and 5:30) and then we ended up waking her up at 9:30 to feed her this morning.  Then she went right back to sleep.  She is one tired little girl.  Tony put her on the floor and Megan is just playing with toys around her.  The boys are up at the cabin with my parents and will be back tomorrow.  So far things have been pretty good.  We are so blessed to have such a great family!

Visits From Family

Josh was the first to hold Allie.  He was so happy she was finally here.  He kept calling her Adam.  I guess that's our fault for not picking a name before she was born.

I think Megan was the most excited to hold baby sister.  She really wanted to come the night we had her. 

Grandma loves baby Allie.  I think Grandma really wanted to come the night we had her too.

Daddy and his girls.  Boy is he in trouble.

Our 3 youngest kids.  Tyler was at school when they first visited.  Josh and Meagan had a great time visiting at the hospital, seeing Allie, and eating treats.  What a fun time.

Papa G with Allie.  He's teaching her the thumbs up early.

Grandma Kim and Allie.  I think they are good buddies now.

I thought she looked so cute holding on to her binkey.  What a cutie we have.

Tony picked up Tyler from school and took him to see the dermatologist for his warts.  After his appointment they came to the hospital and Tyler was super excited to finally hold his baby sister.  He said that she was even cuter then Megan.  He likes being the big brother to 3 siblings now.

Daddy, Tyler, and Allie hanging out at the hospital.  A good looking group.

Our 4 kids - Can't believe we have 4 now.  Allie has a lot of people who love her lots. 

Megan, Mom, Josh, and Allie.  They LOVE their baby sister.  Maybe a little too much...nah.

Last night on their second visit Josh and Megan could not get enough of Allie.  It really does warm my heart so much that the kids love Allie so much, I am such a lucky mama.

Mom and her girls.  We are so awesome!!!

Allie Michelle Steenblik

Baby Allie was born last night.  It was a very long day that didn't turn out like we thought it would at all.  The day started with us calling the hospital at 6:00 am to see when we could come in for our scheduled induction.  They told us they were busy so to call back at 7:30 am and see if they had slowed down.  I called then and they said they had three ladies come in so I needed to wait a couple more hours.  They said probably around at 10:00 am but to call in at 9:00 am.  They ended up calling me about 8:30 am telling me to come in at 10:00 am.
Tony and I decided to go and walk around the new Costco that opened just that morning.  Lucky for us they opened early so that really helped the time go by much faster as we waited to go to the hospital.  There were a lot of people there and plenty of free samples.  They nurse said I could eat but to stay away from protein and dairy.  So I was able to enjoy about half the samples, so I was glad about that.
We got to the hospital and got checked in and given our room.  I changed into the lovely gown and waiting to get the process started.  Lucky for us we got a "new to this hospital" nurse and she took a long time to do most things.  She couldn't get my IV in so she asked for another nurse to try.  They were all busy so I had to wait.  The second nurse couldn't get it either, so then she suggested getting the anesthesiologist to do it.  A third nurse thought she could do it and came and poked me two more times before getting the anesthesiologist.  He came in and took a look at my veins (which are terrible) and then brought it a machine that shows your veins.  It was pretty cool.  He was able to get the iv in my hand and then, over an hour later, I was able to start the induction process started.
They started me on the pitocin and Julie checked me.  I was about a 3 and still 70% effaced.  So I still had a long way to go.  It was about noon at this time, so we sat back and waited for the contractions to start.  They started fairly quickly but not too strong or too close together.
I waited about two hours and then decided the pain from the contractions was getting pretty intense so I asked for the epidural.  The nurse did check me before the epidural and I hadn't progressed very much, so that was really hard to hear.  I was pretty sure the anesthesiologist was missing me, so we had to bring him back in.    He did a good job getting the epidural in.  It didn't hurt too bad and I didn't have any funny reactions.  It started working pretty fast and I was very happy to have the pain gone.

Then we waited and waited and waited.  We let the drugs do their job and waited for Julie (my midwife) to come and check me.  She came about 6:00 pm and I was at about a 6 and a negative one station.  We were hoping to be further progressed, but what can you do?
After about a half an hour or so I started feeling the pain of the contraction on my right side.  Then I noticed that I was able to move my right leg pretty easily, so I moved to my other side to try and get the meds to work again.  After about a half an hour and it wasn't getting better we had the anesthesiologist come back in (he was missing me again).  He gave me a shot of some more drugs and that helped with the pain.  While this was happening I noticed I was have a lot of pressure with the contractions.  I wasn't sure if it was because it was time to push or just because me moving around.  But then the pressure got more and more intense and I was getting very excited hoping that it was going to be time soon.
Julie came in and checked me and I was ready to go.  Fully dilated and the baby was right there waiting to come out.  Julie got ready to deliver and it took only a few pushes to get our baby girl out.  She had her little hand close to her face which caused me to tear and she scratched her little face.  Besides that she was perfect.  Super purple when she came out but quickly pinked right up.  They cleaned her up and took her measurements and then gave her back to me for some skin on skin time. The best time ever.

After Julie cleaned and stitched me up I was able to just enjoy snuggling with Allie.  She was born at 8:15 pm and weighed in at 7 lbs 2 oz and was 19 inches long.  She was smacking her lips so I nursed her on one side and she seemed to do pretty good.  We swaddled her up and Tony held her while I changed beds to get moved to our next room.  It was about 9:45 pm when we finally got to our recovery room.  The nurses did more vitals on me and then I was finally able to eat a sandwich before trying to nurse Allie again.  She sort of tried but wasn't too interested in nursing.  So we sent her to the nursery and tried to get some sleep about 11:30 pm.

I would love to say that I slept great last night, but I didn't.  It was hard to get comfortable and to sleep.  They had to check me every 4 hours.  Whatever, I will sleep some day.  They did bring Allie in at 3:00 after her bath and I tried to nurse her again.  She still wasn't interested so I waited with her until 4:00 to see if she would change her mind, but she didn't.  So I said they could just give her a bottle in the nursery.
They came in at 6:00 am this morning to take my blood, so we have been up since.  They just brought her back into us and said she ate about an ounce and slept pretty good in the nursery.  Tony is snuggling with her now.
We thought we would have had her a lot earlier yesterday, but I am just glad that she is now here and is healthy and strong.  We love her so much already and can't wait for her to meet the rest of the family.  We are so blessed

Tomorrow Is The Big Day

There were days that I thought this day would never come.  At my last appointment on Friday I was dilated to a two and 70% effaced.  I have been having contractions nightly, so I am hoping that they have been productive and I am even further along now.
The hospital called tonight and told us to call tomorrow morning at 6:00 and then they will let us know when to come in for my induction.  I am hoping that they will tell me to come in within the hour, I guess we will find out tomorrow morning.  I know that I am not going to sleep very well tonight so the earlier we can get things started the better.
The kids (and Koda) are all with Margie and Lloyd now.  They were so excited to be able to spend three whole nights at Grandma's house.  Everything is going to change when they come back home.  I hope they are ready for it...I'm not really sure I am.  But ready or not that time has come to have this baby join our family.  I am excited for this next stage in our life.  I know it will be crazy at times, but it'll all be worth it.  Our family will finally be complete tomorrow.  Can't believe it!

Tyler's First Day of 2nd Grade

 School has started again.  Tyler was really excited to go back to school.  We met his teacher last week at Back-to-school night.  She seems like a nice teacher and I hope that Tyler as a good school year.
We walked him to school and it was fun to see him get so excited when he saw friends from last year show up at school.  It seemed like he had four or five friends from last year in his class, so that is very good.
Tony gave us all blessings yesterday after church for the start of the school year.  It was a neat experience to have each kid sit on the chair and to hear Tony relay such sweet blessings from heaven.  Tyler's blessing had a lot to do with learning and enjoying learning.  Josh's blessing was probably more for me to hear.  It was about him having his tong loose and being able to speak more clearly that others may understand him better.  It brought tears to my eyes.  Megan's was short and sweet.  She sat there so preciously, I wish I could have taken a picture.  Then Tony gave me a blessing.  He said so many nice things about the labor/delivery and that the baby would be healthy and strong.  It brought such peace and comfort to me.  It is such a blessing have a husband who is a worthy priesthood holder.  This should be a great school year!

More Summer Swimming

While filling up the pools in the back yard Josh decided to try out the water.  I told him he could get his shorts wet, but he preferred to swim in his underwear. 

I put Megan in her swimsuit.  She liked shooting the new squirt guns we had hidden in the garage.

Josh was drying off on the tricycle.  Such a funny kid.

Later in the afternoon the kids went back outside to play some more.  This time Tyler and Josh wore their swimsuit instead of just their underwear. 

Tyler squirting his siblings with two squirt guns.  Too much fun.

It didn't take Megan long to figure out how to work the squirter. Josh loves to make a splash and was making some good waves when he would jump into the pool.

"Cheese" - Megan is just too cute, even with messy hair.

Tyler and Josh were having a splashing contest.  I think Josh is the bigger splasher, but when they do it at the same time, they make a great big splash.

...and they have splash down.

Family Update

Another season of green beans has come and gone.  It lasted about three weeks this year and Tony worked the morning shift of 5:00 am - 5:00 pm.  So with the long drive he was gone from 4:00 am to 6:00 pm.  He tried to get to sleep by around 8:30 pm so that he could wake up at 3:30 am without too much trouble.  He worked this schedule 6 days a week for the 3 weeks of beans.  He was totally wore out by the time they were over.
We did go up and see him one Saturday after his shift and we got to see all the equipment and beans.  After we all went to lunch and then on our drive home Tony's car broke down on the freeway.  Luckily I was in the van right behind him so we were able to pull over together.  We couldn't get it started again so we had to wait for a tow truck.  It was a hot day but we were all pretty content in the van with the air conditioning and the movie on for the kids.  I keep a supply of treats in the car that came in handy too.  We waited for probably an hour or so, but we got his car into the shop and they were able to fix it the next Monday.  It was a pricey fix of $700, but now it's back to running good and we hope his car lasts us another year or so without too much problems.
Last week Megan got pretty sick with a stomach bug.  It started off as throwing up for the first day and then a good four days of diarrhea.  It was hard on Megan and me.  Her poor tummy hurt her so bad.  She pretty much just wanted to sit on my lap and watch her shows.  I would rub her tummy and try to get her to drink or eat.  A couple days after Megan got sick, Tyler said his tummy was hurting him.  He mostly just had a tummy ache and diarrhea, but he did throw up one time when we took him to the Steenblik's for family dinner.  After he did that he was banished to the office, where he was able to have the computer all to himself the whole evening.  We told all the other kids to stay out of there so they wouldn't get sick.
I thought we were out of the woods with this horrible stomach bug until Tuesday night when I went to bed feeling sick.  I thought it was just pregnancy stuff, but quickly learned the next morning that it was oh so much more then that.  I am very thankful that I am now feeling better and pray that no one else will get it.
Tyler starts school in one week from Monday.  Can't believe how fast the summer went by.  We have Back to School Night on Wednesday and we will meet his teacher then.  We will meet with Josh's teacher during the first week of school for a little meet and greet session and then he will officially start on Sept 2nd.  Josh gets to go to preschool 4 days a week from 9-12.  Pretty exciting stuff.  Megan talks about school and plays pretend school a lot.  She is so smart and funny.  She has such a great imagination and it is so fun to watch her.  She talks about loving her baby sister and I hope that she continues feeling that way when the baby comes.
I think that we have been having some good times here.  We try to spend a lot of time as a family playing and hanging out.  I know we haven't done tons of extra things this summer, but I think that the kids have had a good summer.  We sure do love our little family and are super excited to greet this new little one into our madness. 

Pregnancy Update - 37 Weeks

I can't believe I am already at 37 weeks.  My induction date is set for August 28th, so really I only have two weeks left.  I had an appointment yesterday with my midwife.  The baby sounds really good on the monitor.  She has a good strong heart beat.  I have defiantly dropped and my measurements prove it.  I have felt like I have been a little lower over the past week, but then yesterday morning I could tell I had dropped quite a bit.  So that is exciting.
I didn't have her check me yesterday to see my progression because I was recovering from the stomach flu and really didn't want her pushing down on my stomach...and it kind of hurts and is really uncomfortable, so I opted to wait until next week.  I did have her check me last week and I was about 1 centimeter dilated and 60% effaced.  So there has been something going on with all the contractions I have been having.
When I got sick with the stomach bug I was in a lot of pain.  Lots of cramping and lots of contractions.  I was worried for a little while that I was going to go into labor, but after a good 12 hours of tortuous pain, I started to get a little better.  Really after a blessing, some tummy meds, and some sleep I woke up feeling so much better.  I still had a sensitive stomach, but a million times better then the day before.  I even asked Tony to come home early from work to help me.  I don't think that I have ever done that before, even when I went through the miscarriage.  I was really glad that he was able to come home and help me and he even took the next day off and was able to take me to my midwife appointment.  It was nice having him there and helping me with everything.
We think we are about ready for this baby to come.  I still need to wash some clothes, blankets, and the car seat cover.  I need to pack the bag for the hospital and the kids overnight bags to go to grandma's.  I don't want to be ready too soon, but then I don't want to not be prepared when it's time to go.  If I go to my induction date, then I know that I will be plenty prepared, but if I go earlier...that's another story.
We still don't have an official name yet.  I don't know why we've had such a hard time with this one.  We have known all the other kids names pretty much in the beginning.  I think we just keep thinking we have more time and don't really think about, but time is definitely running out.  I guess we'll see what we decide when she comes. 

Pin Wheel Fun

 I have the best neighbors ever!  This morning a cute older couple who lives two doors down from us, the Baumann's, dropped off some drinks and some pin wheels for my kids. Sister Baumann reminds me a lot of my grandma Clark.  She is super sassy and fun, I just love them both so much.  They have really filled the grandparent void for me, especially the grandma role. 

These two have many grandchildren and even great grandchildren, yet they are so thoughtful and pick up little things for my kids randomly.  They have already given us pop cycles and otter pops this summer.  I really hope that I can be more like them and have a generous and giving heart.  Love them!

The kids loved the pin wheel.  We were actually in the back yard and I though that I heard the door bell, but didn't go check until Koda started running in and out of the house barking. So I checked the door and sweet Brother Baumann was there will two bags of goodies.  Three pin wheels, blue, green, and purple, and three Sunny Delight drinks in different flavors. 

I gave each kid a pin wheel and then put the drinks in the fridge before the kids even saw them.  They were so excited to make their pin wheels spin in the wind.
 We didn't have much wind so I told them to run around and make them spin.  They liked that idea and had a wonderful time running around the back yard seeing how fast they could get their pin wheels spinning.

The hard part was getting them to stop so I could take a picture of all of them with their pin wheels.  It is pretty sad when the two year old is the only one that cooperates for a pictures and the older boys are just silly.  Such is my life. It's sometimes crazy, but it's a good life.

It may look like I never dress my children...pretty much because I don't.  Tyler just happened to put on a shirt before he went out, other wise he is generally shirtless these days.  Josh loves to go without a shirt in the hot summer heat (I wont lie, I am a little jealous that I can't do that sometimes).  When we are home both Tyler and Josh usually are without a shirt.

Megan has no pants on because we are in the process of potty training.  It is just easier to get to the toilet without shorts or pants.  Nothing cuter then little kids running around in their new little underwear.  She stuck her pin wheel in the side of her underwear like she has seen Josh do with his sword in his shorts.  It was pretty funny.  She picks up so much from her brothers.  I love our sweet neighbors for thinking about my kids and making them, and me, feel special.

Ward Swim Party