Welcome Baby Sister Addisen Elizabeth!

Much to our surprise Addisen entered the world about 3 weeks early!

Last Thursday night is when our lives began to change! I was up all night with just a feeling - not sure what it was (but fearing that I was actually coming down with the stomach flu that Brody had earlier in the week). On the way to drop Brody off to daycare I started to think that I might really be in labor (I had thought this numerous times in the last few days). I started to talk to Brody about Bobo picking him up if mommy had to go to the doctor for the baby. At 9:30am that morning I went to the doctor for a scheduled ultrasound. While waiting for them to confirm that the baby was head down and the estimated weight, I really started to believe I was in labor. Jim met me for the doctor's appointment and I decided that I should ask for her to check to see if I had progressed from the previous week (I was dilated to 3cm at 35 weeks). Sure enough I was almost at 5cm! Jim and I were on our way to the hospital! My contractions were nothing like they were with Brody, so we really weren't sure what exactly was happening. They monitored me for about 4 hours and the nurse thought that I was pretty much staying the same. I was SO afraid they were going to send me home! Luckily my doctor was able to come over and see me around 2pm and said that she believed that I had progressed and said "Let's have a baby!". So she broke my water and then labor really started! At 5pm my doctor was back over to see me and I was at 10cm and ready to push. At first it seemed that things were not going to go well because the baby's head was not positioned correctly, but after about 10 pushes her head moved in to place! After about 11 minutes of pushing, Addisen Elizabeth was born in to the world at 5:26pm.

Since I was about 2 days shy of 37 weeks, Addisen was considered a "premature" baby. Because of this we were a little worried about her development and if she would have to stay longer in the hospital. But to our amazement our daughter was born at 7lbs 13oz and 19.5in long! She was bigger than her brother! Everything checked out fine and I was so thankful that she didn't go full term and weigh in closer to 10lbs!

Jim was great in the delivery room and even cut the cord with no problems! I had a few complications following birth, so he was able to bond with his little girl for quite a while!

Brody is an AWESOME big brother! He came to visit us on Saturday and brought a balloon and stuffed monkey for his little sister. His first question was "why is she so small?". He had expected her to come out able to play with him. Since then he is always watching out for her, soothing her when she cries and holding her hand. My favorite thing he has said so far was "Addisen is my sister, she is a boy!". When I told him that she was a girl, he said "no, I want my sister to be a boy like me".

Jim is already talking about not letting his little girl date until after she is 21 - oh the poor boy who decides that he wants to date her someday!

There is nothing better in this world then looking at your family! I really didn't know what it would be like to have another child, I wondered how I could love another one as much as I love Brody. But I have found out that your love just multiples and they are both just so special! I am so lucky to have this family!

I'm not the only one to think that we are pretty lucky to have Addisen become a part of our family!
Uncle Neal and his niece - I know she will love him just as much as Brody does!
Bobo and Addisen (it is going to be a long time before he gets rid of that name!)

Our family has been very blessed this holiday season! I hope that everyone has a safe and Merry Christmas! I will do my best to post pictures from our 1st Christmas with Addisen quickly! But you will have to bare with me - things are a little more difficult to get done when you have a 3 year old and a 4 day old (the task of raising these kids looks a bit daunting to me right now!)

Brody, What Do You Want To Be When You Grow Up?

Christmas Is Near!

Since the last time I posted we have been pretty busy. We had my family over for Thanksgiving this year because we are trying to stay close to home until the baby comes. Brody has been having a lot of fun being a BOY! He wrestles with Jim and loves to be destructive! He had a great time on Thanksgiving wrestling with Bobo (my dad), Uncle Neal and Jim! It was fun to watch and imagine what the new baby is going to bring to this family!

These pictures are from the beginning of November, but thought it gave a good idea of how I have been growing! It's been about 4 weeks - so you can imagine the belly is even bigger! At work each day I get comments on how much lower the baby seems...so maybe this one will be a little early too! I am at 35 weeks today and have a doctor's appt on Tuesday - so we will hear if things are progressing! I sure hope that the baby isn't ready, because Jim is taking his last business trip this week.

Yesterday we ventured out to find our perfect Christmas Tree. When I told Brody he would need to help daddy cut down the tree he headed down to the basement to get his "cutter". It was so cute to see him walking around the tree farm with his little saw too!

Brody picked out our tree this year (with a little bit of input from mom and dad). If we would have let him go with his first choice it would have only been about 1 foot tall!

He was so helpful with putting on the lights and ornaments this year. Take a look to his right - all of his ornaments made it on the same branch! He was so happy to help though!

He is really in to Rudolph this year - I taped the movie from TV this year and we have probably watched it 20 times, and just last night he found the Rudolph he had gotten a few years ago.

Rudolph HAD to be in our Christmas Tree picture!

Halloween

Brody had a great time enjoying Halloween this year! He especially liked using our carving tool on his pumpkin and then pounding in the light pegs.

My mom made him the cutest Elephant costume. It turned out to be a great night for trick or treating around the neighborhood. I was surprised at how willing Brody was to ring the door bells and say Trick or Treat!

Baby Raguckas Update: We are to week 30! Only 10 more weeks before the arrival of our newest addition! I was at the doctor today and this one gives me hope that they will be laid back and hopefully sleep more than Brody did as a newborn! The heart rate was 130 and the baby was positioned head down. I measured at 31 weeks - so hopefully this one will come a little early like Brody did.

Portraits, Party and Marathon!

Last week we took advantage of one of our last nice fall days to get some 3 year pictures of Brody. He had fun running around while I tried to snap a few good portraits for the wall! It ended up being a great night.

Last Saturday we celebrated Brody's birthday with my family and some of our friends. It was a relatively nice day, so Brody was able to try out his new baseball trainer from Uncle Neal. I successfully created his cake again this year - Buzz Lightyear! I wasn't sure how it would turn out, but have to admit that I was pretty proud of the end product.

On Sunday Jim ran in his first marathon. My parents were able to go with Brody and I to watch Jim around the 17 mile mark and again at the finish line. What an experience! We are so proud of our daddy! It was so neat to see all of the people cheering on the runners and watching the participants reach their accomplishment at the end!

Baby Raguckas Update: I went in for my 28 week ultrasound yesterday. What a great day! It was so fun to get to see our little baby as they continue to grow. I was able to see it's little face pretty clearly and watch them move their fingers around. The baby's estimated weight is about 3lbs (right at the 50th percentile) and luckily my placenta has moved so we are on track for a normal delivery. Only 12 more weeks! I can't believe how fast it is coming!

The Big THREE!

It's hard to believe that it has been three years since our little man entered our life! It's been a little different this year remembering all of the feelings I had three years ago since I am pregnant with another baby now. It was an emotional day today!

He is becoming such a big boy. Often insistent to do things all on his own - because he is a big boy now. It is definitely hard for mom and dad to adjust to letting their baby boy do things all on his own!

Brody was so excited that it was his birthday this morning. We had to go to the ear doctor this morning and he was so excited to tell everyone there that it was his birthday, he was now 3 years old and he had on a new Buzz Lightyear shirt! He had a day full of treats today! He took cupcakes into daycare for everyone to celebrate with him and we had a cake after dinner tonight. We will have another party on Saturday with some family and friends.

After dinner we opened some presents. He had some more from us and also from Nanny, Poppy, Aunt Kathy and Uncle Brian. He was so excited to open them all to find so many cool Toy Story, Cars and Spiderman things! He ended up going to bed tonight in his new Buzz Lightyear Pajamas (thanks Aunt Kathy and Uncle Brian) with his new Bullseye, Jessie, Woody and Buzz Lightyear toys. He had to move some of his current stuffed animals out of bed to make room for the new ones!

After opening presents Brody requested going to feed the ducks. So off we went - luckily we have been having really nice weather here so the ducks were still here!

It's hard for me to believe that I could ever love this little guy more than I already do. But sure enough every birthday that comes around proves to me that I can love him just a little more!

Fall Time Fun

We had a family outing on Jim and my 5th Anniversary this year. We went to downtown Rockford to eat at our favorite Mexican restaurant, then to feed the ducks and finally to finish off the evening with an ice cream clown!

Brody is becoming quite a techie! We recently decided to try out the wireless headsets that came with our trailblazer for the DVD player. Up until now he has contently watched all of his DVDs without sound (Jim and I prefer to listen to the radio rather than Shrek EVERYDAY!).

Brody has been saving up all of his money from using the potty! So Jim took him last Friday to buy a backpack with is money. He was so excited to get his Buzz Lightyear Backpack! (Nanny will be proud - it was on clearance for $5 at Kmart!). He had enough money left over that we went back to Kmart on Sunday to buy a Sponge Bob Backpack (even better deal at $2.50!).

He has been doing SO well with the potty. Typically he only has 1 accident a day if any and has even pooped on the potty 2 times out of the last 3 days! We are so proud of our big boy!

Last Sunday we took our annual trip to the Klackle Orchard located not too far from us. It has a lot of fun things for the kids to enjoy! We were to go for a wagon ride to pick apples (Brody even got to sit on the tractor!), an enchanted Pumpkin ride to see the pumpkin patch (Brody didn't want to get off to pick any pumpkins) and play in the HUGE sandbox with all of the trucks (his favorite)!

Today Jim took us on an adventure down the road to pick out our pumpkins. Brody was excited to find the surprise at the end of our walk. He even picked out a pumpkin for the baby (and tried to give it to my belly!).

He's becoming a big boy!

A couple weeks ago we put most of the final touches on the basement and it allowed us to move the guest bedroom downstairs. That meant Brody finally got his big boy room! I was a little nervous to move him over, but he LOVED it! He hasn't had a problem at all with adjusting to the new room. He even calls his old room his "baby brother's room". I'm not sure what we are going to do if this baby ends up being a girl - he is determined it is a brother!

Last weekend we were able to take Brody to the Binder Park Zoo in Battle Creek. Jim and I had been wanting to take Brody this summer because he is really interested in giraffes right now and this zoo allows you to feed them. At first Brody was too nervous to feed the giraffe but once Jim told him he could get a stuffed giraffe toy if he fed them, he was right up there giving them the "salad"! After he fed them he threw his arms in the air and yelled "I get a toy!"

Everything is going well with the baby. We had our 20 week ultrasound 2 weeks ago and everything looked great with the baby. I had thought that they were going to tell me that I was further along then we thought because it seems like I feel this baby move so much. But instead she said everything is right on track and the baby is in the 60th percentile for weight. I will have to go back for another ultrasound in about 6 more weeks because of a condition called placenta previa (the placenta is partially covering the cervix right now). The doctor seemed confident it would correct itself over time, but if not it means a c-section. So I am hoping that it makes it move in the coming weeks! The baby's heart rate during the ultrasound was 156.

Fun in the Sun

While Jim was gone for work a few weeks ago Brody and I had a photo shoot while he was playing outside. It seems like forever since I have just taken pictures of him being himself - it was a lot of fun to see the results.

We lucked out that night and the ice cream truck came by our house before bedtime. It was so much fun to take Brody up and let him pick out whatever he wanted. He was EXCITED to see that they had Shrek ice cream!

When Jim got home we took Brody to downtown Rockford to feed the ducks. We hadn't been yet this year and ended up going twice in one week! Brody had so much fun tossing the bread and watching the ducks race to get it.

Baby Raguckas Update: I had my 18 week appointment today and the baby's heart rate was 146. So I am making my official prediction that we are having another baby boy. When we were in the hospital to have Brody the doctor asked me if we knew what we were having - After I said that we didn't know, he looked at the monitor and the heart rate was 146 - he then predicted a boy and was right! We will have to wait another 20+ weeks to see if I'm right this time!

Goodbye Great Grandma!

My grandmother passed away on Monday, July 5th at the age of 97! She had a great life and I am so grateful that she had the opportunity to get to know Brody. He loved to visit her and go and see the fish at her facility. I am also thankful that she got to know about the baby that we are expecting in January. We know that she is in a better place now and is happy to be spending some long awaited time with my Grandpa again!

Over the 4th of July we camped with my good friend from home, Barb and her family. She has two little girls, Skylar (5) and Sydney (2). Brody had so much fun playing with them, especially his "girlfriend" Sydney. This was the first year he made it late enough to watch the fireworks and he seemed to like them for about the first 5 minutes. We also went to a parade, but he wasn't as interested in collecting the candy as the girls (only the tootsie rolls).

The next weekend we went camping at the Yogi Bear Campground in Fremont, Indiana. Brody once again had a lot of fun playing with the other kids and swimming in the pool. It was a hot weekend with a little rain, but we still had a great time!

We were at my parents for the majority of the week following my Grandmother's passing. During that time Brody was able to swim in their pool and even jump off the diving board! He has made a lot of progress since last year and seems to love the water.

Baby Raguckas Update: Everything is going well. We are at 15 weeks and the heartbeat was 152 at the last appointment. It will be another 5-7 weeks before we have the ultrasound where we can see the little peanut. I am starting to feel better but still have some bad days. Brody says that we are either going to name the baby Joe Pa (thanks to Jim) or Beckham (mom's favorite) - but of course that would only work if it was another boy!