Samuel Roscoe

I have been thinking a lot about how my pregnancy went with both Sam and Ally this week.  With my newest nephew and sister-in-law being released from the hospital today, I wanted to write a post about the pregnancy and birth for Sam and Ally.  I have found that since I didn't write it down and I am forgetting a lot of the details and I don't want to lose more memories as the years go on.  So I will start with Sam, since he is our oldest and try to remember as much as I can.  This will be long... just a warning :)

Paul and I found out we were pregnant on April 1st, 2009.  April Fool's Day!  I was so excited.  I actually ended up telling my sister before Paul.  The line was really faint, and I remember calling her and asking her if it has to be a darker line for it to be a positive result, or if any faint line counts.  Paul called me on his way home from work and I just couldn't keep from telling him on the phone.  Looking back I could have done this so many other ways, but there is no way I could have kept it from him for long because I was just so excited.  We were in the happy land that exists with a new pregnancy, and not knowing any better, we told people right away.  Like, two days later we had told immediate family members.

I called my doctor's office the next day to schedule an appointment (not sure what I was thinking looking back on all this, what are they really going to do at barely 4 weeks pregnant...) because I was just so excited.  They actually had me come in the next day.  I don't even think I was officially late yet, and they had me come on in.  It was so early in fact, that the doctor's pregnancy test didn't show me as pregnant and I had to go for a blood test.  Two days later my doctor calls and says that the hcg levels were so low, that I wasn't actually pregnant.  That it was a non-viable pregnancy and that in a couple of days my hcg levels would go back down and we could try again.  So they wanted me to go back in for another blood test.  I went back in, waited another couple of days, and got another call from my doctor's office.  The hcg levels went up, not super high, but enough that they wanted to do an ultrasound to see what was going on. Our ultrasound was on April 17th and we were informed by the nice ultrasound tech that we did indeed have a baby!  She was actually shocked to hear that I was told we didn't have a viable pregnancy just from one blood test.  It was a very stressful few days but after all the news of not being pregnant, to find out we were pregnant, made me realize how happy I was to be expecting a baby.

I ended up switching to a different doctor because of all of this.  I was so relieved after the ultrasound that everything was okay, but that ended after a call from my doctor.  She called and said she was astonished to see that we were actually pregnant.  She did not sound optimistic at all about the pregnancy and actually said that she would suggest we not tell anyone about the pregnancy.  Looking back, I was so emotional at the time, and already had a negative outlook on how she handled things, that she probably did not mean that in the way it came out, but I just couldn't handle how she phrased things.  I switched over to the OBGYN that my sister-in-law (Denise) was using because they were expecting a baby in October.  

On July 22, 2009 we had our big ultrasound to find out the gender (yes I realize that they are checking on the health of the baby, but at the time all I thought of it as was the gender ultrasound).  And... it was inconclusive...  The tech was very nice, and asked us if we wanted to know what we were having.  We of course said yes, so she said when she found out, she would let us know.  She said we were having a boy.  So we asked if she was sure, and she flipped through some different things to check blood flow of cord verses if it was boy parts and some other shots, and she never gave us a really strong answer.  What she said was, she wouldn't paint the nursery on her guess.  So, I went into research mode and went through so many websites of gender ultrasound shots and I had no clue.  So we asked our small group members.  Of the four couples in small group, one couple had a 5/6 month old at the time, and the two other couples were also pregnant (with boys) and both due in October.  Of the ultrasound shot passed around 2 of the 3 said girl, and 1 couple said boy.  Honestly, I think if I hadn't had my mind set on girl, I would have picked up more on the boy clues that were coming my way.  My sister had a baby girl, Emma who was a little over one at the time, and then Paul's brother had two little girls as well.  All I knew was girl, and that was what I really wanted.  So, when she said boy, and then said she wasn't sure, I think in my head I jumped on that and thought we could really still be having a girl.  But, we went with the not knowing, and it really was a lot of fun.  I liked the aspect of being surprised, because Paul and I both left the ultrasound not knowing what we were having.  We ended up having several more ultrasounds as the pregnancy went on, but at that point, we were so far along, that we didn't want to know anymore.

My pregnancy had been pretty average through the first 2 trimesters. I found out I had a thyroid problem and was placed on medicine. I was always so tired and actually never thought it to be anything other then me having to get up so early for work. Turns out my thyroid was not working correctly and we monitored that through the pregnancy. I was extremely nauseous but it wasn't anything that was too out of control. In fact, I was only sick once I believe during the first trimester and then once again around 20 weeks.  Most of the time that I wasn't feeling well I was on my summer break from work so that helped a lot.

Really, up until the end of July I was taking almost everything about my pregnancy for normal. However, on July 30th, my sister-in-law and her husband unexpectedly lost their baby boy Christian.  She was 31 weeks along and was due in October with their first child. We were almost exactly 10 weeks apart and were so excited to be sharing this time together. Not only is she my sister-in-law but she is my best friend. We met through Paul but lived together in college. I have no idea how she handled being around me for the remaining 19 weeks of my pregnancy and through the first year of Sam's life. After July 30th, I never took my pregnancy for granted again.

I have a hard time remembering the last 18 or so weeks of the pregnancy.  I know that they started to monitor my blood pressure because it was slowly starting to rise, and I know that they were concerned at one point because I was measuring smaller then I should have been at that time.  So we got two more ultrasounds, one on October 20, 2009 where we got such a cute photo of Sam's face and another one on November 18, 2009.  At one point they were concerned with club feet, and that they thought his head was measuring small, but both turned out to be non issues.

Right before Thanksgiving Break at school, I was feeling really odd, so I went to get my blood pressure checked by the school nurse.  I don't remember what exactly it was, but it was pretty high and they had me lay on my side at school and actually had a nurse from the middle school come and double check the numbers.  I had to call my doctor's office and go in for an appointment.  At that appointment it was still high and I was told I couldn't return to work and would be on bedrest until the baby was born.  I was to lay on my left side for pretty much the entire day.  You would think this would be great and I would have used this time wisely to rest before having Sam.  Nope.  I don't remember much of what I did, other then watch a lot of tv and search baby center.  I remember being so thankful for my family and all of the help we had at the time.  My sister and mom threw a great baby shower for us.  And we were extremely blessed to receive almost all of the items we needed from family and friends.  My sister helped organize the nursery and I remember sitting in the chair while she went through all of my new items and feeling so over whelmed and not ready to be responsible for a baby.  Here are some really early shots of the nursery before it was really decorated.

I celebrated my 28th birthday at the end of November and by the beginning of December my blood pressure was high enough that my doctor didn't want to wait any longer for delivery.  I was scheduled for an induction at 6:00 pm on Sunday, December 6th.  Paul and I were so ready to meet our baby, but so nervous at the same time.  We didn't even pack a bag for the hospital until that day.

When we arrived at the hospital on December 6th, I remember bringing thank you notes with me, thinking I would have time to write them.  Well... I would have had time to do them, but my blood pressure was pretty crazy.  For the entire time I was at the hospital I was pretty much told to be on my left side.  We were to get there at 6:00 on Sunday so that they could start the Cervadil (spelling might not be right on that...).  Of all the memories of my induction this is the one that I can't ever block out the memory of the pain that went with this.  Let's just say I almost broke Paul's hand from how hard I was squeezing it while this step was done.

After they started the Cervadil, I was basically just left alone that night and the plan was to start the pitocin the next morning at 7.  I can't remember the exact time, but I think it was around 10 or 11 at night, I remember laying in my bed and just having the oddest sensation.  I looked at Paul and was like, I think my water broke.  He didn't believe me, and I don't think the nurse did either when she came in.  She ended up checking and sure enough, my water broke.  We asked if my water broke because of the cervadil, and she said that it wouldn't cause it, that most likely my body would have gone into labor on Sunday night regardless if we were inducing or not.  So, while we were only inducing like 5 days early (I believe my original due date was December 11th or 12th) it made me feel a little bit better and that Sam was ready to come out.

So, I just spent that night in the hospital laying on my left side and waiting until morning.  Of course, the tv, and the chairs for Paul to sit on were on the other side of the room, so it was really hard to talk to him, and just uncomfortable all around.  I was more then ready for the next morning and the start of pitocin.  I don't remember much about this part. They came in around 7 or 8 am to start the pitocin, and it was more of the laying on the left side and just waiting for contractions to start.  I remember feeling contractions but that the machine I was hooked up to didn't register any of them.  For some reason it wasn't showing anytime I had one, so we were basically left to ourselves for a couple of hours.  At some point I realized how much I was hurting and how close together the contractions were coming so we asked for the nurse to check us.  I always had this picture in my head of a nurse coming in every hour or so to see how much progress you were making.  I'm not sure if that just wasn't the case, or if the fact that the monitor wasn't picking up any contractions, but when I finally got a check, I was between 6 to 7 centimeters dilated.  I was asked if I wanted an epidural and I said yes about as fast as I could!  The epidural wasn't as bad as I thought it would be, and the guy was extremely nice who gave it to me.  They said that it was set for a low amount and I would still be able to move my legs.  For a short while the epidural was great.  It took just enough relief from the contractions to be able to rest for a little bit.  By this time my mom had arrived at the hospital and she and Paul were in the room with me.

Once I got to 10 centimeters my nurse said we would do a couple of practice pushes and once we got close, they would call the doctor in for the final few pushes.  She kept saying we'd aim to only have to push for 30 minutes.  I'm not sure if it was the nurse I had, or how Sam was positioned, but I never got the hang of pushing.  With the monitor not working I had no guide on when the peak of the contractions were hitting.  To me it was all just a big amount of pain and had no start or end time to get the contractions going.  The 30 minutes turned in to an hour.  And then the hour turned in to 90 minutes.  I had to have a break and we were making literally no progress and still sitting at 10 centimeters.  I just remember feeling like I wouldn't be able to do this and the pain was so intense from having the epidural basically wear off.  On top of all of this, my blood pressure was still high and I had an arm cuff set to taking my blood pressure every 5 minutes.  I asked to take it off because it was so distracting and kept slipping and going off while I was trying to push.  My nurse got in trouble from the doctor because I asked her to take it off and she said it was okay.  As soon as the doctor came in she made me put it back on and I understand why it needed to be on looking back on it, but at the time I was ready to throw the  machine out the window.  The anesthesiologist came back in to up my epidural after 90 minutes.  It barely had any affect again, and at that point I was ready to just ask for a c-section.  My poor mom and Paul were both still there by my side through every push and I just felt like I couldn't do it.  After two hours of pushing the doctor came back to see how we were doing and basically saw that there was no progress.  Sam's head was just stuck and I needed help.  We had about 45 more minutes of pushing with the doctor in my room.  She actually had to use the vacuum to help get him out.  Which of course meant that there needed to be about an additional 8 people in the delivery room.  Several NICU nurses on hand for any complications that might cause.  And of course, one of those nurses, was someone that I went to high school with.  I have to give my doctor so much credit for how this delivery turned out.  I honestly believe if I had someone else they would have just done a c-section.  She was great in talking me through the pushing so I had a better idea of what needed to be done and getting Sam out.  So after 2 hours and 45 minutes of pushing Sam was finally born at 5:17 pm.  It all happened in such a rush.  I remember the nurse saying here he is.  And my mom saying, wait they didn't know what they were having.  And the doctor saying it's a boy.  Then he was taken right over to be checked out and cleaned up.  I can't remember if he was crying or not when he was born.  I remember clearly thinking how hard this was going to be for Dave and Denise.  Not only did they lose their son, they were now going to be forced to watch our son be a constant reminder of what age Christian should have been.  I also remember thinking if only Sam could have been a girl.  It wasn't that I was still wanting a girl for my earlier reasons, I just thought it might have been a little bit easier for them if he wasn't a boy.  Also, he was born on Denise's birthday...  Just kinda felt like I added insult to injury at that point.  Those were the thoughts going through my head right after he was born.  I wish I could go back, and take note of how he looked, and remember if he cried, things like that, but I also think part of that was from the pure exhaustion of the day.
 
While the doctor was cleaning me up, and taking care of all that fun stuff, I remember all the nurses still looking at Sam.  He was having some problems with his breathing and we were told he would need to go to the NICU to be monitored.  At this point I hadn't even seen him.  I was still on my left side and had to stay that way because my blood pressure was still too high.  As they were getting ready to wheel him out of the room, my mom said, wait she hasn't even seen him yet.  And they brought him over to me so I could look at him.  I got to hold him for all of one second before he was taken back out and sent to the NICU. 

I was going to breastfeed and was hoping to be able to do that right away, however, because of Sam needing the NICU that didn't happen.  Instead, after this quick photo was taken, he was whisked away and Paul started taking all the grandparents into the NICU so they could see him.  I was brought back lots of pictures and everyone else got to see his first bath except for me.  I was still in my hospital room laying on my left side.

Grandparents came and went that day.  I was so physically drained at that point I don't remember much of the next few hours.  I know that my mom and stepmom stayed with me while Paul and his parents grabbed a quick bite to eat at the cafeteria.  And I know that Paul took several people over to go see him during that time.  Everyone headed out around 9 o'clock or so I think.  Looking back on it, I really should have slept that entire time.  Sam left my room at 5:17 and he wasn't returned back to our room until about 11:30.  A nurse brought him in to us at 11:30 pm and it was the first time that he was going to attempt to eat.  It was a disaster.  An absolute disaster.  It was awkward, and he just couldn't get a latch.  There were two nurses in there attempting to get a latch with no luck.  So the poor guy didn't eat.  And at the time I didn't know that he should be eating every 2 to 3 hours so he was taken back to the NICU and I didn't try again until about 4 am when he was brought back to us.  Sam got to stay in our room from 4 am until later that afternoon.  We kept trying to breastfeed all day with absolutely zero luck.  That nurse I recognized from high school... she was in there trying to help me figure out the latch.  If I ever run in to her at a high school reunion, I am just going to pretend like the whole her being there for delivery and trying to help me figure out nursing didn't happen because she has seen way to much of me!

We didn't have any luck nursing until the lactation consultants came to visit later that day.  They were absolutely amazing.  We finally got a latch and he started to eat.  He was the slowest nurser ever and would just sleep so Paul and I had to keep waking him up to finish eating.  We were moved to the recovery floor that afternoon.  So it was now Tuesday and we were hoping that we would be released on Wednesday.  That didn't happen because Sam got jaundice.  He was extremely yellow and when the nurse came in she noticed it right away.  He had to go back to the NICU.  He spent another 48 hours under the bili lights.  I wish we had taken a picture of him in there. He was all glowing blue and just in his little diaper and his special goggles on over his face.  He still wasn't getting a great latch and now I only had 30 minutes every three hours to get to feed him.  That was hard, because in those 30 minutes Paul would want to get the time to hold him as well, but he couldn't because he would use all that time for nursing and have to go back under the lights.  The other difficult part is that everyone that I spoke with had a different opinion on how I should be handling nursing.  I had a meltdown on Wednesday because the nurse said that she gave Sam formula because he just needed to eat.  Which was fine, I was okay that he needed formula, the pediatrician at the hospital said that would help the jaundice go away faster, but what the nurse told me was that basically because I wasn't pumping after each nursing session (how was I suppose to know that I should be pumping without anyone telling me this) he was basically starving (he wasn't btw) and that even though the nurse wrote down only 10 ml's she went ahead and did 20 ml's because he needed it.  Again, fine, I get that he needed it and I would have agreed to what the doctor wanted, but she was yelling at me for something that at the time I had no idea I should be doing.  So for the next 24 hours, I was going into the NICU every 3 hours to feed Sam, then going back into our room to pump for 30 minutes, then getting about an hour of rest.  On top of this, I was still suppose to be laying on my left side.  I should have been released on Wednesday, but the doctor kept me another day for observation because of my blood pressure.  Which helped because Sam was still in the NICU.

Thursday, Sam was finally able to come out from under the bili lights and had to spend the next few hours in our room to get a test of his levels before he could be released.  They wanted to make sure they didn't spike again from not being under the lights constantly.  During that time, my blood pressure was the highest it had been.  It was to the point of almost having to go on magnesium.  I had to lay completely still even while trying to nurse (which was impossible).  While we were waiting to check levels, Sam got his newborn pictures taken.  The poor guy had been circumcised just a few hours before, so Paul was very careful while holding him.  Notice how yellow he still looked in this photo!

By Thursday evening Sam was finally cleared to be released.  We had to bring him back to the hospital every morning for the next few weeks for blood checks, but he didn't have to stay in NICU.  So we were just waiting on me.  They almost weren't going to let me go.  It was 11:57pm when I was finally released on Thursday night.  We had arrived at 6:00 pm that Sunday.  We were ready to go home, and wanted to be home so badly.  I remember Paul telling me to stop moving and just lay still because he wanted my blood pressure as low as it could be for my final check.  It was still high so I had to go in every few days to get it checked and take blood pressure medicine at home.  But we were finally released!

We only live about 5 minutes from the hospital.  But that was definitely a nerve racking drive home with our new baby in the car!  I was terrified we were going to be hit by a crazy driver at any point even though most of our drive is in our neighborhood or the hospital parking lot...

The next week was spent with doctor's appointments galore, for Sam to get his levels checked and for me to get my blood pressure checked.  My blood pressure went back down to normal levels.  And Sam still needed a little bit of extra help with his levels so we were sent a bili blanket home for him.  He was suppose to be on this blanket at all times even while nursing if at all possible.  Basically he spent the first few weeks in the newborn gowns with this blue glow stick up the back of it that lit up his gown blue.  We called him our little glow worm.  That machine had the best white noise and he slept really well while plugged in!

And that sums up his pregnancy and birth.  Sums up probably isn't the best phrase since I am pretty sure I just wrote a novel!  However, since this is my blog, and I highly doubt anyone will read this I am very happy I have it so I can not lose some of these details as time progresses.  It already makes me a little bit sad to think of all the things I might have lost up to this point about the day when Sam came into our lives :)

Samuel Roscoe Rose was born at 5:17 pm weighing in at 6 pounds 15 ounces and he was 19.5 inches long.  He is named after our grandparents.  My mom's dad was Samuel, and Paul's grandfather's name was Roscoe.  We love his name and the people he was named for, and it fits him perfectly.  While at the time all I thought I wanted was a girl, I couldn't imagine it any other way now.  I absolutely love my little boy, and while pregnant with Ally I remember hoping for another boy.  It's so funny how things turn out!

Spring Break!

It is finally spring break!  This is probably the break from work I look forward to the most - well other then summer break of course.  It just hits at such a perfect time to get some down time with the kids.  Most of my coworkers are going on vacations, but I am honestly very happy to be staying at home and spending time with the kids and getting some much needed organization back into our home.

Things have been very busy here as usual.  Before I get into the most exciting news of the week, I wanted to post some pictures just to keep track of things that have been happening.

Denise, Pam, and I went to a wine and canvas event last Saturday.  I had no idea what I was getting in to when Pam let us know about a girl's trip that was using a local Groupon.  I am absolutely terrible with anything involving painting, but figured it would be fun to go hang out with Denise and Pam, and it was at a winery with free tastings, so why not!  I am so glad I went and would definitely go back.  First, the winery we went to was Cedar Creek Winery in Martinsville.  The place is so cute, and I definitely want to go back.  The wine was all delicious and very reasonably priced (10-14 dollars per bottle for most of what they had).  Pam and I split a bottle of a strawberry flavored wine, and a pomegranate wine while painting.  The class was a lot of fun, but surprisingly more stressful then I thought!  The artist we were following obviously knew how to paint, and I think didn't realize how little most of us understood in the class.  But it was three hours of fun with friends, and I now have a  strange painting that I am actually very proud of that does not go with any other decor in my house.  But I don't care, this thing is going on a wall somewhere!

  

Here are a couple other photos that were on my camera from our outside fun this past week with Sam and Ally.  I have found that it is easier to get photos of Ally these days since she smiles at the camera and will hold still just a bit longer then Sam.  Sam is going through a phase where as soon as he sees the camera or my phone, he'll look away.  He is definitely getting in to the stage of wanting to show his independence...

Sam got his first really serious injury this week.  He keeps messing with the cat first of all.  And normal cats run away.  And of our two, Lilo always moves out of his reach, because she is smart.  Stitch however, stands his ground.  It's like he likes Sam when Sam will play with him, but then will get annoyed that Sam doesn't know how to stop playing when Stitch has reached his limit.  We have taught him how to be gentle, and try to keep Sam away from the cat, or put him in time out when he is rough with the cat, but we just can't get to him quick enough all the time.  So, he pulled Stitch's tail a little bit too hard, and stitch scratched him and bit him.  Of course it was right next to his eye.  Yes, Sam deserved it, but Stitch gets in trouble for this as well.  So we get him all cleaned up, and Sam goes in time out for messing with the cat.  Things seem to be going better.  Until it was bedtime.  I needed to nurse Ally before bed and Sam was sitting in the rocker.  So Paul and I said, go look at the airplane flying outside so he'd be happy about switching me seats. Well, he went to go look out the window, and the best view is on the bed in Ally's room.  He completely lost his balance in the small space between the bed and the window, and slipped.  He smacked right over his already scratched up face.  It's opened up one of the marks to bleed and now he has two huge bruises.  

We kept him up for about 45 minutes to make sure everything was okay.  And kept an ice pack on his eye when we could.  But he seemed to want to eat his boo boo pack more then anything else...  I know this is only the first of probably many more black eyes, but I still feel terrible about it!  

Ally learned something new this week.  She is now clapping!  My mom taught her to clap while she watched her on Thursday, and now whenever she is crawling around, she'll stop to look at you and then start clapping.  It is so cute, and she is just so proud of herself.  We have to get it on video soon.  She is also only interested in things that aren't hers.  She wants all of Sam's cars.  Loves the play food (which technically is hers, but she isn't really old enough for everything in there to be child safe), and also wants to get the cats tail.  Stitch of course goes and lays right next to her and we have to keep moving him to a different spot because there is no way we can let him near Ally with how he reacts to Sam some days.  She has graduated to getting her baths in the sink, and she is loving sitting up and splashing around.  Sam is also learning his numbers and the alphabet at a crazy fast speed.  It's so amazing how much babies learn, and how much they can take in and process every day.  He repeats his numbers and the alphabet after us and typically knows what comes next.  By far the cutest thing to hear him say is the 'w' letter.  He clearly can name all the other letters, but that 'w' just throws him every time.  It seriously comes out in like Chinese!

 

 

Now, for our most exciting news of the week.  We have another nephew!  Cameron Michael Koch was born on Wednesday at 3:47 pm and weighed in at 6 pounds 3 oz.  Not bad at all considering he was 3 weeks early!  I am so excited for Dave and Denise, and have a couple of pictures of him, but won't be posting them on here because I hate to post photos of other people's children without them knowing.  And since I haven't told anyone about this blog since I am only using it for the purpose of a journal really, I will only post of my kids.  But he is absolutely adorable and we couldn't be happier for them.  It makes me almost want a third!  They should be released from the hospital on Saturday, so I have a feeling my weekend will involve bugging them quite a bit so I can get my newborn fix and cuddle Cameron!

 

 

Weekend Summary

It's Wednesday, but I thought I would give a summary of our awesome weekend.  The weather here has been absolutely beautiful.  I think of the last 7 days, we have broken the record high temp for the day at five times.  The lows are only in the 60s, and we are usually up to 80 or higher in the evening!  So we have tried to stay outside as much as possible.  Last weekend was very busy, with so many fun things that happened.

On Friday, after the kids went to bed, I went over to Denise and Dave's house for a poker game.  Dave (my brother-in-law) was celebrating an early birthday (his actual birthday is in April but they are due with their third child around his birthday so he wanted to get a celebration in while he was still getting some sleep!) and it was a lot of fun to hang out with friends.  Good friends of ours weren't able to be there, because they were in the hospital after having given birth to their first daughter, Lana, on Thursday!  There are babies everywhere these days it seems!

Saturday was St. Patty's day.  Our family was all in green to celebrate and we actually got a group shot.  Sam did have on a green adidas jacket that day, but as it was 80 degrees outside, it had to go!

Paul's birthday was on Sunday, so on Saturday we had his family over to celebrate.  We made Mongolian Beef for everyone from a food blog I found, and it turned out really well!  The whole day up to dinner was a mad dash to clean up the house.  With working full time, in a city that is 60 miles away from my home, and trying to get as much time in with Sam and Ally as I can once I get home from work, I have found that the housework is put on the back burner.  Our house typically gets a little cluttered as the week goes on, and on the weekends Paul and I will spend a few hours putting it back in order.  So our morning was cleaning, and family dinner at 5.  After the meal, we spent the next few hours outside letting Sam and Ally enjoy the warm weather.  I hope Paul doesn't get use to having a birthday celebration outside, because it isn't typical of our Indiana weather for March!  Sam is loving that his slide turns into a huge car ramp.  He will gather up a few cars in a bucket, put them down the slide one by one, slide down after them, gather them all up, and start it all again.  He would literally do this for hours if we let him.

Sunday was Paul's actual birthday.  My mom came over to watch Sam and Ally so we could go out to lunch.  We were all excited to try Teddy's Burger Joint which a mailing arrived saying it had opened on the 14th... well they weren't open so we ended up at Hot Box Pizza.  It wasn't what we planned on, but you can't go wrong with their pizza!  Once we got home, we ended up going for a very long walk that took about 60 minutes.  Ally was in the stroller, and Sam ended up walking too much and wanted us to carry him part of the way home.  He was so tired after the walk, and Paul and I were still pretty full from our late lunch, that we decided to do a picnic dinner.  Paul had peanut butter and jelly sandwiches outside on a blanket for his birthday dinner!  Sam loved eating outside, and I think the only reason it worked was because he was so exhausted from his walk.  We followed up dinner with some birthday ice cream!  Sam wanted to blow out the candle, and I am pretty sure that he thinks that whenever the happy birthday song is sung, that it is for him.

 

I just can't get over our fast Sam and Ally are growing up.  Sam's vocabulary is exploding.  He talks non stop, but now it's getting to where you can actually understand most of the words he is saying.  His coordination is just becoming more preschooler, and less toddler.  He can hop, jump, and run.  He kicks his soccer ball and we need to get him a little tennis racket to take out to the courts and start playing.

Ally also decided this weekend that she was a big girl.  She turned 8 months old on the 18th and she is doing something new every time I turn around.  She is now officially crawling, and can sit up on her own.  I just can't get past when I look over at her, and know that a minute ago she wasn't sitting, and see her sitting up going through her toys.  Of course, she has decided that her toys aren't what she really wants.  She wants Sam's toys, the cats toys,or pieces of fuzz off the carpet.  

Where to begin?

I have been following a lot of blogs recently and finally decided that I need to start my own.  I just realized I need this place to document important milestones in our lives and with time passing so quickly I am afraid I will never remember all of the awesome things that have been happening.

So... where exactly do I begin?  How do I summarize to get to a starting point for a blog?  I am married to an amazing husband.  We met while I was still in high school, and I followed him to Purdue University.  We graduated in 2004 and were married in 2006.  I am a high school guidance counselor and absolutely love my job.  Our first son was born on December 7, 2009 and we had our daughter on July 18, 2011.  They are the two best days of my life, and nothing makes me happier then watching them grow, learn, and laugh.

I have also realized that I am terrible with taking photos of all of us together.  I need to make that a point, and even just finding a photo with Paul and I in with Sam and Ally are hard to find.  The first photo is from before Ally was born of Sam and Incredibly Pizza Company.  The second is from October at Beasley's Orchard.