38 weeks

Please, please excuse the streaks on the mirror. I didn't realize that some boy of mine had gotten stuff on the mirror when they were brushing their teeth until I was looking at this pic on the computer, and I'm really tired to go take more :)

Anyway, I am officially 38 weeks, with 14 days to go. I KNOW that she dropped more last night, other then that, I'll have a better idea of any progress that I have made after my appointment tomorrow. I'm tired and achy and all of those other things, but am happy to have such a beautiful, growing family. I'll update tomorrow if I find out anything uber exciting at my appointment!

Kaleb's Christmas Concert!

Kaleb's Christmas concert was last night! Shiloh was having a monumentally bad night, and Gabe wasn't having a great one, either, so I stayed home with them and Tyrone and Kaleb went and had special Daddy time! Tyrone took lots of videos for me, and the kids did so well!!! It was hard to pick a favorite, but this song was soooo cute! :) Good job, K!

congrats, sheena and hun!

**Blogger is adding underlines again....sorry!**

On November 27, our friends Sheena and Hun welcomed their beautiful little girl, Stormie Gail, into the world. Sheena had a long 41 week pregnancy, and did it like a champ! Congrats, guys! We can't wait to meet her in person and get the babies together here in a few weeks or so!

deployment

Tyrone's brigade was originally scheduled for a January deployment to Iraq. That was canceled as the Iraq troop draw down continues. We were grateful, but knew that it wouldn't be the end of deployment for us. Following President Obama's speech 2 weeks ago, we received orders that Tyrone's brigade would be deploying to Afghanistan. Some units are going as early as January, and that includes some dear friends of ours.

Tyrone's unit will be leaving in March, or there abouts, but we do not have a date. We will be staying in New York this time. I am apprehensive, but I know that we can do it. I know that Tyrone is a capable and accomplished soldier, as are those around him, and I know that the Lord loves us dearly and will protect my best friend, my husband. I ask that you pray for peace and safety for all of us as we embark on this journey again. It came very fast, I do not feel ready to let go again. But I know that we can do this, we have before, and we are a strong family with lots of love.

We plan to fully enjoy our time as a complete family, with less rushing around then we had before last deployment. Tyrone has a couple weeks of leave, starting next week, and will also get 10 days when the baby is born. We will make the most of this time, and try to prepare the kids as well as we can for what is coming. Thank you all for the love and support that you have given and will give, it helps more than you know.

kaleb's birthday celebration

We had cake and presents after lunch for our very own 8 year old!

Lots of playing around....



Cake eating....



Singing happy birthday

Reading Grandmother and Grandfather's birthday card

Laughing hysterically at Grandma's singing card

Daddy teasing K w/ the singing card

Kaleb realizing that he had gotten the air hogs zero gravity car he wanted from Grandma and Mr. William

sigh....Daddy got ahold of the camera...

Kaleb, with his present from Mommy and Daddy...his very own MP3 player! He is over the moon, he feels like a very big boy!

Driving the air hogs car on the wall, super cool!

kaleb's birth story

As I have done this year each time one of my childrens' birthdays rolled around, I am writing out Kaleb's birth story.

I had an appointment on the 11th with my wonderful midwife, and she told me she's "help him along", but not to tell the OB :) I was 39 weeks, 1 day. Sure enough, that night, I began having contractions that I could time, and they got fairly close together. I called Mom, and she came and picked me up and we went to the hospital. They confirmed early labor, but suggested I would be more comfortable at home. I went back to Mom's house (much closer to the hospital) and spent a fitful night on the couch.

By the morning, I was having to breathe to get through the contractions, and we headed in to my OB's office. He checked me out, and then we met him in his office. He said "Looks like we're having a baby today!" I started crying, and he told me not to be scared, and Mom told him I wasn't scared, I was excited, which was the truth!

We walked over to the hospital, and it was game time! After being hydrated, my contractions slowed down some and we had to do pitocin. We also tried the epidural, but it was so painful to have the keep trying and never hit the right spot due to the hardware in my back, I declared enough, and that was the beginning of me having an epidural free birth! I did get Demerol, threw up on my mom (more then once, I think, mom?) and was able to get a little sleep. Things progressed well, although I'm hazy on some details, between the Demerol and it having been 8 years...

Kaleb was born quickly when the time came. He was born at 8:05pm, 21 inches long, 8lb 3oz. He was a long little guy! I can honestly say I was in awe. He was mine? How had something so beautiful come from me? When we were settled, Mom went home, and it was just my boy and I. I made lots of promises to him in whispers through tears when we were alone in the hospital room.

And that was the beginning of my life as a mommy! We love you, Kaleb!

37 weeks (and 1 day)

Ok, I'm officially huge! I'm not sure how I could get much bigger!!!

**I had an appt. on Monday with my midwife and she was estimating this little girl to be at about 6 1/2 lbs then, which would put her close to 7 by now. I'm measuring 2 weeks ahead, and all of that makes lots of sense, since I have big babies!

**The biggest news, of course, is that she is officially full term as of yesterday, with only 20 days left until her due date!

**Our hospital has recently started a new visitor's policy, b/c of H1N1, that no one under the age of 18 is allowed in to L&D. So from the time I go in until the time princess and I are released, they kids and I won't see each other. Shiloh and Gabe especially are not going to do well with this, I know. Now I am hoping even harder that we are not in the hospital on Christmas, I can't imagine not seeing all of my babies on Christmas!

Time will tell how much longer until this little girl decides to join our family...