Sunday Best Photo Shoot

I had so much fun getting Gwendolyn ready for church last Sunday. Couldn't let the day/outfit pass without a photo shoot. Sorry this post is a week over due, we moved again on Monday, had my Golden Birthday and made a major purchase so its been a bit crazy around here to say the least. It would've been 100 times more awful if Grandma Dixie wasn't here to help out. We've LOVED having her and her delicious cooking at our house and we're sorry to have made her do so much heavy lifting during the move.

She's always sticking her tongue out...... although this is what I get when I ask her to smile:
Clearly she's had enough pictures and just wants to sleep.
Oh and its Grandma Dixie's beautiful quilt in the background. We are so thankful for it and think its so beautiful.

Totally uncalled for

And by uncalled for, I mean unasked, unsuggested, spontaneous, self-started. I was folding clothes, Chris was doing some research and both boys were trying to get our attention and then all of a sudden we look over and find this. (The boys don't realize they are on camera until Charlie goes "Cheese!").

My, how we've grown

For some reason, the first picture is the only one I can find right now of Chris holding newborn Alec.

I have to say that Chris just keeps getting more and more handsome. I am the luckiest.

First Week

We've have Gwendolyn Rose in our family for a whole week now! In some ways it seems much longer than that for me. I already think Gwen is much changed. The boys are still so gentle with her, about 99% of the time. I hope that doesn't change.

It took me a few days to put her in a dress and I'm completely sold.

Gwendolyn is a great sleeper. For 3 out of her first 5 nights at home she let me sleep for 5 hours! I had to wake her up to feed her and it took me an hour to accomplish it.

Gwen gives some of the biggest newborn smiles I've ever seen. Huge, open mouth, crescent eyes smiles. We've yet to get one on camera but my Mom caught this little one yesterday.

Speaking of Mom, its been SO GREAT to have her. She prepares the meals and special treats and entertains the boys during the day and keeps the house clean and buys the boys fun things. Its like Christmas all week.

Charlie LOVES hats. Chris was wearing this in honor of the British Open and Charlie insisted on wearing one like it. He is so cute.

Gwendolyn's first "bath." She didn't like it. She doesn't seem to like being cold or wet, I can start to imagine the usefulness of those wet wipe warmers I used to make fun of.

The weather has been so nice and warm that Gweny has gotten lots of outside time.

She just makes the funniest expressions. Chris commented that there really is no filter. She goes from agonized pains to peaceful sleeping in 1 second. Most of her squirmy faces are noiseless. She really doesn't cry a whole lot yet.

Home, sweet home

I think I will take advantage of the rest of the family being asleep and give some more details of Gwendolyn's arrival and some more pictures. If you are just interested in the pictures, or can't wade through lengthy prose without sneaking a peek first, go right ahead, I can't say that I blame you. I could stare at pictures of these kids all day long.

Without further ado, the story (I will rely on Brittney to improve on those details I either misremember or don't do justice to when she is fully able):

Brittney started having regular contractions at 1 or 2 on friday afternoon. She chatted me at work a little before 4 and said that the contractions were coming regularly and starting to get uncomfortable. I rushed home, and we took a walk as a family, played some, and started to plan for the evening. We really enjoyed not being at the hospital until we had to with Charlie, and tried to follow a similar game plan this time around. We ate dinner and then had a mini-movie night for Alec and Charlie over at their friends' house. When it came time for bedtime we went home, put the kids to bed, and then set out for the hospital. Our neighbors were able to listen for our boys that night, and other wonderful friends helped out for saturday and sunday morning.

When we got to the hospital the contractions were getting more intense, but still not super close together, probably averaging about 5 or 6 minutes apart. Brittney almost felt a little silly giving that as an answer when the nurses asked why we had come in, but since it was our third child, they trusted us that we knew what was going on and let us stay. We got settled in the hospital at around 9 pm. At 9:30 the measured her and Brittney was only at a 3, but fully effaced. I think it was a little depressing for Brittney to only be that far along, but she hung in there.

Within a short while we were just fighting through each contraction and snatching what rest we could in between. By about 10 the contractions seemed as intense as they were when we arrived at the hospital for Charlie, but seemed more spaced out. I was a little worried that we weren't making much progress since there seemed to be so much more space. At around 11:30 the nurse said that they could break Brittney's water to help things along, and in checking her for that, we found out she was at an 8 already. This was very encouraging, and helped moral immensely. The contractions seemed to respond in frequency and intensity immediately to the water being broken, and by 11:50 or so Brittney felt like pushing. Once the midwife had come in, she checked and said that everything looked ready and to go ahead. After 4 trying pushes Gwendolyn was here, right at 12:00 exactly. Brittney said afterward that she wasn't sure if she could have done another push, and so was glad that Gwendolyn had come out when she did.

The immediate aftermath was much harder on Brittney than before, I think she got stitched and pummeled and poked more than she was expecting. The increased after-activity was frightening for both of us, and might end up being the standout memory of the birthing experience.

What an intense evening! Brittney was amazing, and once again blew me away with her depth of strength and willpower. I think it was double hard to go through all this when she normally is just falling asleep.

We stayed the whole night in the labor and delivery room, since they were all full upstairs, which was great because then I could stay the night as well.

The rest of the hospital stay was fairly uneventful, Gwendolyn did great, having a great latch from the beginning and just slept when she wasn't eating. Brittney got a good start on her recovery, and this morning we all came home. It was so much fun to see the boys hold their sister. They were able to come to the hospital saturday afternoon and see her, but not for long, since there is only so long you can keep inquisitive little boys from destroying a fun hospital room with lots of buttons and lights and things on wheels.

Charlie was peeking very cutely into her car seat for most of the ride home, and Alec gave us play-by-plays of all of her cryings and stop-cryings, in case we hadn't heard them from the front seat : ). Once home we had a fun session of holding and kissing the new member of the family, then lunch, and then naps for everyone.

Overall, I think things went wonderfully. We hope the recovery goes smoothly and little Gwendolyn keeps eating and sleeping as well as she has so far. Brittney's mom is due in town tomorrow night so we hope we can stay sane until then. Thanks for all of your prayers and well-wishes, we really appreciate them. And now, the best part, more pictures!

Midnight arrival!

We are so happy to announce the safe arrival of Gwendolyn Rose! She was born at 12:00 midnight on the button. 7 lbs 0 oz, and 19.5 inches long. Brittney and baby are both doing well so far. More details will come in the next few days I am sure. For now here are some pictures and a video!

Killing Time

We're just all hanging in limbo here and trying to keep busy with anything. The boys and I have filled our days with parks, water play, library visits, errands, random activities and walks.

I made my mom's peanut butter balls with a little extra flour so we could play with it like play-dough before eating it. After giving out pretty big balls of the dough to each kid, I realized, I'd have to be prepared for them to eat it all and was able to sneak a bit away from Alec and Charlie without them noticing it.

I don't think I took enough away from Charlie. At a few points, he looked pretty full/sick.

This week we had extra fun killing time with my cousin, Katie. We got to pick up and drop her off at the airport (always a highlight with the boys) for her swim camp here at Stanford. We even ran into her at the pool on Monday. She played with us yesterday when her camp ended and after getting over being shy, Alec and Charlie enjoyed playing soccer with her and building train tracks. In the prayer over breakfast, Alec blessed that "Katie could come to our house for a few days and ride on an airplane." We really loved having Katie here even for such short bits.

The video is probably a bit boring for most of you but as Alec's mom, I just LOVE watching him use his body so athletically and focused for so long. With all the world cup we've been watching and some inter-mural basketball games of Chris' Alec and Charlie have caught on to the guarding/jumpy moves in between kicks/shots. I don't think I caught it obviously on this movie but it is pretty dang cute.

Independance Day Celebrations

We started the festivities off with root beer floats and water play on Saturday. We made these shirts a few days back and the kids were so excited to wear them.

We had a little BBQ on Sunday and stayed up super late to do a few sparklers and "camp out" in our tent on our patio. We fell asleep listening to the fireworks go off. The boys were so nervous of the fireworks. Even though we couldn't see anything from our courtyard we could hear them going off in the distance and upon first pointing out what the noises were, Alec covered his eyes and ears and buried his head in our chest, absolutely refusing to open his eyes. Charlie, ever so loyal, followed suit by squinting his eyes closed and bowing his head.

Charlie fell asleep fairly quickly (it was 9:45pm!) but Alec took a while. Chris and I fell asleep with them, but by 2:00am, I wasn't getting good sleep and decided to head up to my comfortable bed. Chris stayed with them until they woke up at 6:15am. You can bet we're all having long naps today.

This morning we had a ward breakfast and program (Chris is adamant that it should be called brunch since our first experience last year showing up on time and not being able to eat for another hour and half because of the program first and lines for food). Alec sang a few songs with the Primary in the program. He did fantastic!! He sang every word and did every action. I am SO proud of him. Chris and I sang in the adult choir. Here is Alec practicing the Yankee Doodle song a few days before. It was just moments after getting up, so his voice sounds pretty low.