Wednesday, March 27, 2013

sweet moments with cousins and siblings

We had a fun weekend getting to spend time with family we don't see frequently.

Owen is getting so big! These two got to meet for the first time. At one point they were holding hands...just didn't get that on camera.


My cousin and her family came over for a while and the boys only stopped running long enough to eat dinner. These glasses were apparently a big hit!



Here's sweet baby girl right before bath. Even though she is gaining weight like a champ, she still seems so tiny compared to the other two because she has no chub on her body.




A sweet moment between these two...I love when I find them playing well together and I haven't had to intervene :)


Evangeline wants to color ALL the time. I like to have things to keep her busy when Ari is doing some school activities.



I don't know about you...but we are ready for some warmer weather around here. Kids are ready to play outside and I'm ready to get out all the cute summer dresses and allow Ari to wear his shorts out of the house. Hopefully this snow was the last hoo-rah for winter and we can get on with spring!


She is getting good at smiling for the camera. As soon as I pull it out she poses and says "cheeeeeese!"


She is still very motherly to her baby sister. Here she is taking turns feeding Curious George and Selah (can you see her in there?!) She still assists in diaper changes and doens't let me forget the Desitin. :)


We've missed having cousins over every week!


I have been pretty unorganized this week with his schooling, but hopefully I have been intentional about reflecting the celebration of Easter. We have been doing a few different countdowns and we are looking forward to this special weekend and getting together with family and friends.

Friday, March 22, 2013

it goes fast

It's funny how slow time goes by when you're pregnant. But once they get here it's like time won't slow down  enough to soak up every second of joy they bring.


This little baby is now asking for his picture to be taken with his favorite toys. He rarely slows down for anything, so getting a good picture of him is hard to come by these days. 


These are my new favorite pieces of art. Angry birds anyone?


He decided riding on an angry bird (with his cape) was a much better idea.


How is it that this is a picture of Evangeline? I think this is the only picture where the girls look very similar! (Compare with one below). Selah has seemed to favor Ari's look more than Evangeline's.



Even though this little baby still loves to be cuddled and held, she can't help but to take care of the new baby by getting her paci, bouncing her, and helping with diaper changes. It seems like yesterday that she was the one in the bouncer getting "help" from big brother.


When Selah was first born Ari said "I can't wait until she is 12!" I have no idea what made him say that but I gasped in realization that Ari will be 16 when she is 12! They are already growing up too fast...I'm just trying to savor every moment with them at this age.

Tuesday, March 12, 2013

our first week

Since AJ was off all last week, we were getting pretty spoiled having him around all the time.


But now we are back to reality and back in to our daily routine.



We have all adjusted well and the older ones have been nothing but helpful. There is always an extra set of hands when it comes to burping, changing diapers, or putting her to bed. If I let them, they would just sit and hold her all day long.



The kids got used to having daddy around 24-7 and were able to get outside no matter the weather.



This little one didn't get out in the snow but that didn't keep her from wearing boots around all day.




Selah is a very laid back and content baby. I know she is still in the "sleepy" stage so things could change, but so far she has been easy.





Evangeline seems so big now. She has taken the role of big sister very seriously and wants to help with everything.


Forget playing with baby dolls, she now has her own baby to tend to.


Since we have been cooped up for several weeks now, trying to stay away from any sickness, Ari has had an usual amount of energy. It was nice to have daddy around last week to wrestle and play, but now we are finding our own ways to get that energy out...even if it means being "Super Ari" all day and jumping off the couch.


I was so glad to make it to my friends baby shower on Saturday. She is due April Fool's which happens to be her birthday!


Even though we just had snow the weather got pretty nice over the weekend. The wind still made it chilly but we were glad to get out and run around for a bit.



We are really looking forward to the spring!

Tuesday, March 5, 2013

hall-elujah!


I never thought I'd have a very interesting birth story to tell...but here I am thinking back to a few days ago and just laughing at the circumstances that unfolded.

I was due Thursday Feb. 28th and had woken up early that morning to contractions. My Dr. appointment was later that morning and I was only dilated to a 1. The contractions stayed consistent all day every 15 minutes and by the evening they were 5 to 8 minutes apart for several hours, nothing strong just consistent. We decided to go ahead and go to sleep, anticipating that we would be getting up in the middle of the night to have a baby.

They slowed down considerably and woke up Friday morning very disappointed that we hadn't had a baby. I still had some but they ranged from 10 to 40 minutes apart most of the day so we decided to go ahead with life and go to the Chris Tomlin concert downtown that evening. (We were not about to miss this concert unless we were going to have a baby!) About 9:15 they started to get strong and I had to stop and focus in order to get through them. We decided to go ahead and leave the concert even though they were only 8 to 15 minutes apart, but seeing that we had a few blocks to walk to get to the car we figured we should leave just in case they got any stronger. As we walked they were instantly 4 minutes apart and I felt low pressure so I decided to call the midwife and see if she thought it was necessary to come in yet.

She said things could progress quickly and suggested we come there to check things out. They sent me to triage at 10:00 pm to monitor baby and I was so disappointed when they said I was only dilated to a 4.5. My fear of coming to the hospital too early seemed to be coming true.  After monitoring the baby for a while and getting me registered they set me loose to walk the halls while they got my room ready.

By then my mom, sister, and sister-in-law arrived and walked the halls with us. I'm not sure what time we started walking but each lap brought stronger contractions that I had to stop and lean against the wall. I was getting frustrated that I didn't have a room. When my nurse came to check on me I asked her when I could get a room because I was getting tired of walking and just wanted to be able to sit down. She came back and said it would be another 40 minutes! (Apparently housekeeping was in the process of cleaning the only room with a labor tub-which the nurse who checked me in thought would be good for natural delivery.  She just never asked if that was a preference for me or if I just wanted a regular room.) That conversation with her is a blur so I don’t remember exactly how we figured out what was going on, but she got the gist that I just wanted a room, ANY room.

The nurse left and things seemed to happen all at once. I didn't have an ounce of energy left and asked for AJ to hold me up as I needed to sit down.  I saw a chair out of the corner of my eye and AJ helped me get there. (While I had sat there a man entered the room right next to the chair and AJ joked with him that we'd keep the noise down.) I sat there about 5 minutes leaning on him while he fed me ice chips and upon the next contraction I felt the need to push. I told AJ and my sister and sister-in-law set out to tell a nurse. I pushed on the next contraction and my water broke. The nurses arrived with a wheel chair in order to get me to a room and after I got in the chair the head was already crowning. My midwife had also showed up and after the nurses attempted to push the chair down the hall (and failed after running in to things in the way and part of the chair falling off!) my midwife saw that we weren't going to make it any further. As the midwife struggled to put her gloves on fast enough I pushed once and the head came out, pushed again and the rest of her came out!

From the time I felt the need to push to her being born was only a matter of minutes. People were scrambling for the time and my sister found it first and recorded her time at 12:23 am. It all happened so fast we were in shock as to what just happened. I had a baby in the hallway! After she came out I was instantly a new person. I just felt relieved and so ecstatic that she was here. I never really processed that I was having the baby in the hallway and when I felt her on my chest all I could say was “Praise the Lord!” over and over. They wheeled me to the room and finished everything else up there.


The rest of the night and even the next day we just laughed out loud that I had just birthed a child in the hallway in a wheelchair…which was a first for the hospital and the nursing staff and even the midwife.

Since this all happened unexpectantly, pictures of her birth are few and far between. AJ asked if there were video cameras in the hallway but there weren’t in that location. :)

We are in awe of all the answered prayers we had. From the day we found out we were pregnant, we had been praying for a quick, easy, and painless childbirth. Evangeline’s birth was so ideal we couldn’t imagine it getting any better than that. But God has a sense of humor and never fails to surprise us. Our prayers had definitely come true and holding our healthy baby for the first time in that hallway will always be a favorite memory of praising God for an overwhelming amount of blessings.


(We had to get a picture of the hallway. There's the chair where my water broke. The nurses said there really wasn't that big of a mess to clean up. I actually delivered over the carpet area just a few steps away.)

Saturday, March 2, 2013

Selah Rhea Hillebrand



PRAISE THE LORD!!!!!

Selah Rhea Hillebrand 
Born: March 2, 2013 - 12:23 am
7 lbs 8.5 oz
19 3/4 inches

Angel and Selah are both doing very well!

The Lord Almighty hears our prayers and has certainly answered ours beyond our wildest dreams!

Lord we thank you for this blessing!  Please pray with us that we may raise this beautiful blessing of a daughter unto godliness!

This last 24 hours was truly exciting and we'll look forward to sharing this amazing story with you soon!