Bonnie Lucille

Meet Bonnie. Isn't she just about the prettiest little thing you've ever seen? 

She was born at 6:04 a.m. on Thursday, April 19th.  She was 6lbs 8oz and 19in long. 

She came out screaming and in picture perfect health. 

If you don't want a really long story of how my labor and delivery went you can go ahead and skip this part.  I just wanted to write this out for my own sake so I could remember all of the details!

My labor and delivery were quite a bit different than with Rudy.  I had sort of expected to go into labor a little bit earlier since she was my second, but that definitely didn't happen.  The end of this pregnancy was quite a bit more difficult than with Rudy as well; I was much more worn out and sore.  So every minute that passed I was wishing that I would go into labor.  On Wednesday morning I had an appointment with one of the midwives.  It was actually with the one that delivered Rudy, and it was the first time I had seen him this entire pregnancy.  I had progressed quite a bit since the week before so I decided that I would go ahead and get my membranes stripped.  (Yowzas!  Not pleasant.)  He jokingly predicted that I would be at the hospital by midnight in labor.   I started having irregular contractions throughout the day.  Painful.  But not regular or frequent enough to time.  That night we went on a walk around 8pm to see if we could get things going a little more regularly, but it didn't really seem to help.  We layed down for bed around 10:30, but by 11:00 I had decided that there was no way I could sleep.  My contractions were around every fifteen minutes apart, but way too painful to sleep through.  Plus, the anticipation of waiting for another one to come had me a little amped up.  Around 11:15 I decided to take a bath and during that time my contractions sped up to about every 6 minutes.  I woke Josh up around 12:30 and told him I was going to call labor and delivery and see if it was okay if we headed in.  They gave us the thumbs up, so I called my mom to come over and watch Rudy and we headed to the hospital.  By the time my mom got here my contractions were every 2-3 minutes apart and we were practically running out the door.  On the ride over to the hospital my contractions slowed back down to about every 7 minutes and I started getting a little nervous that I would get sent home.  When we got to the hospital we had to go in through the emergency room since it was after hours.  Normally, if your water hasn't broken they make a nurse come and assess you to make sure you are really in labor before they send you up to labor and delivery.  But, I knew the ER nurse from high school and she let me bypass that step since she knew that I worked at the hospital.  We walked all the way to the labor and delivery ward and another girl I knew from highschool checked me into my room.  Haha.  They got me on a fetal monitor to make sure Miss Bonnie was looking good and checked to see how far along I was.  I was almost six centimeters, and I was surprisingly disappointed because I was hoping to be at least 8.  I was also expecting my labor to be twice as fast last time (6 and a half hours) since that is the normal trend with pregnancies.  But, I was out of luck there.  So, once everything looked okay they moved me to another floor around 2:30.  It's a fairly new floor where you labor, deliver, recover, and have the rest of your postpartum stay in the same room.  The midwives like to use the floor with their patients and it is alot more like a birthing center than being at the hospital.  They had asked me several times throughout my prenatal visits if I'd be interested in delivering there and I said yes.  Honestly, I really didn't expect to deliver there though.  Since I work at the hospital, I knew that they rarely staff the unit and usually only do about one delivery there a month.  However, someone had already delivered there during the day so the unit was open.  The room was so nice and had a huge whirlpool and birthing ball and all of that good stuff in it! 

I never really wrote out a birth plan for either of my labors.  I sort of just wanted to see how things went and go with the flow, which is not really a very good strategy for a natural birth.  After my delivery with Rudy I was scared that I wouldn't have time for an epidural with my next labor and tried to mentally prepare myself for that reality.  I had one with Rudy and loved it, even though it only really worked on the right side of my body. 

This time they kept asking me what I wanted to do for pain management.  I had plenty of time for an epidural, but for some reason I didn't get it.  My contractions were really painful, but they were spaced far enough apart that I was able to handle them pretty well.  Even an hour after I arrived to the hospital they were still five minutes apart, but they were lasting anywhere from 90 seconds to a minute long.  I wanted to wait as long as I could for the epidural because my blood pressure dropped pretty low with Rudy and then his heart rate dropped quite a bit.  So around 3:00 I got in the whirlpool and the midwife said that she would come back around 5:00 to check me and if my contractions hadn't picked up by then we would talk about breaking my water.  Those two hours passed SO slowly.  My contractions continued to be 5-6 minutes apart from 3:00 to 4:00.  At that point I decided that I would try to get out of the tub and walk around for a bit to try and get them to go a little faster.  Immediately they picked up to every 3 minutes.  Around 4:45 the nurse wanted to get a 20 minute strip on the fetal monitor before she checked me and called the midwife.  As soon as I sat down my contractions slowed down again to about every five minutes.  She checked me and said that I was 8cm and that Bonnie's head had come down quite a bit so she called the midwife to come.  As soon as the midwife arrived I told her she could go ahead and break my water so we could get this show on the road.  They gave me one last chance for an epidural and I didn't do it.  Most people with natural deliveries that I had talked to said that pushing was a relief and it was so much easier than the labor itself.  (I 100% disagree with them though)   I figured if I had made it that far I could go the rest of the way.  The midwife checked me before she broke my water and said that I was completely dilated.  At about 5:30 she broke my water and within a couple of contractions I was feeling the need to push.  I pushed and screamed and cried (I hadn't cried up until that point) my way through about four contractions and our beautiful baby girl arrived into this world.  I got to hold her on my chest for a long time and was immediately able to nurse her, something I wasn't able to do with Rudy since he had to be taken to the NICU.   Josh got to cut the cord and everything was perfect. 

We left the hospital the next morning around 11:00 and have been slowly adjusting to life at home.  We are definitely sleep deprived, but we feel so blessed to have this little love in our lives now. 

For all the haters..

Haha, I just wanted to say that because I really don't love taking pictures of myself with an extra thousand pounds on.  But this is for all of you ladies that have been begging. 

You're welcome. 

The Most Pregnant I've Ever Been

I'm 39 weeks + 3 days pregnant today, and I'm officially more pregnant than I've ever been.  I've been hoping to go a little bit early so that I'm not wasting my maternity leave, but starting last night around 9 pm I started hoping that I would go all the way to my due date.

Last Thursday Rudy started getting a runny nose and being particularly fussy.  I attributed it to teething, but I'm pretty sure that's not what it was now.  Last night I started getting a sore throat and have been pretty much miserable since then.  I really don't want to go through labor with a cold, and I REALLY, REALLY don't want to give a newborn a cold.  So, I'm hoping to hold off until this thing starts to subside. 

Bahaha.  I'll probably go into labor tonight.  That's just my style.

Here are a few cute Rudy pictures, just because....

Maternity Leave

Well, I'm finally on maternity leave!! Technically I am on vacation for 2 weeks, and then my maternity leave starts, but however you look at it, I'm not going back to work for a long time.  Woohoo!   I have slept better over the last few nights than I have in months and I am finally starting to feel less like a zombie and more like a human!  I've been able to cook, clean, hang out, and do some fun projects around the house.  My blog is one of my projects I've been hoping to put some time back into, especially with this little girl on the way.  I love having all of the posts from Rudy's first year because it's basically like a baby book for him!  Here are a few fun pics from the last few days/weeks since I know that's what everyone really wants! 

Rudy really likes wearing hats these days.  He doesn't really like to smile for pictures, but I told him I'd give him some candy if he smiled.  He REALLY likes candy. 

Look at this little stud in his Easter best. 

Rudy loves "Melmo."  And he loves this shirt.  And he loves this picture.  And when he looks at it he loves to say, "Melmo on the shirt."

One of my recent projects, bow making.  Definitely need a little bit of practice, but I'm starting to get the hang of it! 

And here's a little video for you.  I really don't know what prompted Rudy to do this.  But he decided that he needed to go to the corner and wipe his booty.  I think it's hilarious. 

Happy December!

From the bad blogger!

I will start with my excuses for not keeping you all up to date on our lives.  Really it's only one excuse all tangled up into one long explanation, but the short of it is that I am utterly exhausted.....all of the time.  Working the night shift has something to do with it, and I think being pregnant has another little something to do with it.  I haven't been sleeping well when I have nights off.  I either wake up between 3 and 4 in the morning (and stay up) or I can't fall asleep until 7 in the morning.  Once I finally do get to sleep I wake up within an hour because I have to pee and then I can't fall back asleep because I can't breathe.  Rhinitis of pregnancy (yes, it's a real thing, Google it.)  has hit me full force.  I didn't have it when I was pregnant with Rudy so I definitely didn't expect it this time around.  It has made my nights quite miserable!   The good news is that I am feeling much better on the morning sickness front.  My nausea/vomitting hung around until I was about 17 weeks along this time, an entire month longer than with Rudy.  About 2-3 weeks ago it let up considerably.  I still have the occasional episode, but it's usually only if I let myself go entirely too long without eating. 

So, to catch you up on things.  We had a great Halloween.  Rudy was Elmo, and he was the cutest thing I've ever seen. 

Josh and I have Bert and Ernie t-shirts that we bought a few Halloweens ago.  We wore those to match Rudy, but it was too cold to go without a jacket.  We did get one picture, but it's on Josh's camera, not mine. 

We hung around Oakwood for Thanksgiving.  We had originally thought about heading out to PA, but neither of us could take any time off of work so we would have had to make a 2 day trip. Rudy isn't the keenest on long car rides these days, so we went over to my mom's house and had a nice low key holiday.  I had over a week off of work because of the way I scheduled myself so I have been hanging around the house getting it decorated for Christmas, doing some cleaning, and even a little bit of baking. 

Rudy is quite the little booger these days.  He is into everything and never slows down.  He is starting to show us that he has quite the attitude with little tantrums when he doesn't get his way.  Luckily he is still quite distractable, and it's fairly easy to get him to change his tune right now.  He is also the funniest little guy.  He LOVES to dance.  As soon as music comes on, whether it's from Pandora or a commercial on TV, all of his best moves come out.  I have tried several times to catch it on video, but he gets pretty camera shy.  He still isn't saying too many distinct words, but he babbles all of the time.  The words he can say include: Daddy, Mommy, uh-oh, doggy, puppy, woof, and belly button.  He is a pretty good eater and likes a wide variety of foods.  We are having a hard time getting him to drink regular milk though, any suggestions from you experienced moms??  I have been trying to explain to him that there is a baby in my belly and that he is going to be a big brother soon, but he honestly doesn't understand or care in the slightest bit.  He pretty much ignores me whenever I talk about it, but I think that's to be expected. 

Disclaimer: I got this picture off of etsy, it's not mine.

Over the past two days I've been trying to get him to say sissy with no luck.  But last night I asked him where sissy was and he lifted up my shirt and pointed to my stomach, so maybe he gets it a little bit.

And if you didn't get it by now, IT'S A GIRL!!

We had our anatomy scan on Tuesday and were a little surprised to see a little girl in there!  And we are thrilled.  I can already tell she is going to be a sassy little thing because she would not stop moving long enough for the ultrasound tech to get good measurements (it was probably the sugar high from the donut holes I ate right befor the appt, haha).  We have to go back in about 2 weeks for another one just to make sure everything looks okay. 

And that's pretty much everything that has happened around here for the last 2 months.  I'm going to leave you with some cute videos of Rudy, because I know you all can't get enough of him!

Happy Birthday, Babe!

Today is Josh's birthday.  He's getting close to 30, and I actually think he's pretty happy about that.  Men take that sort of thing so much better than women do. 

Photo creds: MaKenzie Dykstra

It definitely wasn't his best birthday.  Rudy and I were sick and not up for much of anything, so we had a lazy day around the house.  Then we went to Grandmas for a nice steak dinner.  Josh stuffed himself silly.  Then we went to Bible study and came home.  I keep apologizing that his birthday was kind of a drag this year and he keeps telling me that it was a great birthday.  He's the best. 

Rudy and I are definitely lucky to have him as a husband and a dad.  We love you!

Dogsitting

Rudy's been trying to save up a little extra money for some new toys so we thought we would let him dog sit Murphy for awhile.  He isn't quite old enough to babysit other kids yet, but if you need a dogsitter, let us know! 

Happy Birthday, Dad/Grandpa!

Happy Birthday to one of our very favorite guys!  We love you and miss you.  Can't wait to see you in the spring!

This is an old pic, but I don't think I've posted it on here yet. 

My dad left for Afghanistan  with the Army Corps of Engineers about a week and a half ago for a six month tour.  We haven't gotten to talk to him yet, so we're hoping he can check this while he's over there.  (Dad, I tried calling the number Becca gave me about 10 times, but can't get it to work.)

We have been doing well.  We went out to Maryland for a wedding last weekend and have been feeling a little under the weather since.  We thought Rudy was starting to hit his terrible twos a little early as he was throwing tantrum after tantrum for about 3 days straight.  Then two teeth popped through and we realized what the problem was!  He is working on two more teeth right now and is running a bit of a fever so we are cuddling and laying low for the time being!

Miss Me?

I know, I know.  It's been forever.  I've thought about blogging, but just haven't felt like doing it for a long time.  Here is what we've been up to for the last month.  (Okay, maybe month and a half.)

 Josh went on a mission trip with the youth group, and Rudy and I headed out to PA to hang with the inlaws.  While we were out there we went to a water park, got ice cream a few times (Rudy even got to hold his own cone), went to Chuck-E-Cheese for the first time, and Rudy got to ride a horse.  Of course we did lots of other things, but those are the highlights.  It was also Rudy's first time on a plane, and he was a champ. 

We came back for a little less than a week and then headed out to Myrtle Beach with my Dad's side of the fam for our annual vacation.  We hung out by the pool, shopped, played cards, went down to the ocean a couple of times, ate, and got lots of ice cream.  We had tons of fun with the family and were definitely not ready to come home. 

We were home for about two weeks.  During that time I came off of orientation at work.  I'm officially a nurse on my own now, just a little scary!  I also started working the night shift, bleh.  It hasn't been as bad as I thought it would be, but I am definitely tired all of the time.  I have no problem falling asleep when I get home from work, but I wake up after 4 or 5 hours and can't fall back asleep.  So Rudy and I have been taking lots of naps together! 

Last week we headed out to Cleveland for Josh's mom's surgery.  She has been battling with Ulcerative Colitis for about 8 years now and recently decided to proceed with surgery to get her colon removed (the only cure for the disease.)  This surgery was the first of three that she will have over the course of the next year.  She was pretty nervous about it, but the surgery went great and so far she has been recovering remarkably. 

We just got home yesterday from Ohio and I am enjoying a day off before I head back to work tomorrow. 

I have tons of pictures from all of these vacations and trips, but I don't have them uploaded onto my computer yet.  I will make sure to post them in the next few posts!

Sorry about the long absence.  Now that we are planning to be home for awhile, I am hoping to get back into the swing of things. 

Birthday Bash

Monday was my birthday and I am officially on the wrong side of 20 now, AKA: older than dirt.  Last year my birthday was kind of a stink as I had mastitis, a fever of 104, had to make a trip to the ER, and then had to stay up the entire night with a screaming newborn.  We decided this year that we were going to do something a little more fun, so we packed up the car and headed over to Indy for the day.  We were going to go to the zoo, but it was 106 degrees outside so we got a hotel room and hung out there for part of the day.  We also ate at McCallisters for lunch, had Gigi's cupcakes for an afternoon snack, walked around the fashion mall for awhile, and went to the Cheesecake Factory for dinner.  I gained three pounds.  Literally.  It was awesome.  I don't have any pictures of us, but I do have some pictures of all of our treats!

I take that back, I got this one of Rudy tangling himself up in the phone cord. 

Josh left today for Kentucky with a group from the church for a mission trip called the Appalachian Service Project.  Rudy and I are pretty bummed that he won't be home until next Saturday, so we went to the Farmer's market and Target for a little food and retail therapy this morning.  I have to work the next three days too, so be sure to say a few prayers for us this week. 

The Fourth (And a Sicky)

We had a great Fourth of July.  First we went to Oakwood's parade.  It starts right by our house, so we walked up a block or so and got a good spot to get lots of candy. Rudy wasn't quite sure what to think of the loud cars, but he loved the candy. 

Then we came home so the Dude could take a nap.  As soon as he woke up we headed up to my mom's house for a little bit of swimming.  They just got a new pool and it was finally warm enough to swim.  I wasn't feeling good, so I just watched Rudy in the kiddy pool. 

After that we went up to the Oakwood park for the Fourth of July celebration.  They had lots of games and food.  They haven't had one in a long time, but there was a great turn out.  We watched fireworks and had a great time.  Rudy definitely didn't know what to think about the fireworks.  At first he seemed upset, but he sat through the entire show.  Unfortunately, he started to get a fever during the middle of the fireworks show.  He ran a fever all day Tuesday as well, so we took him to convenient care that night and they diagnosed him with a double ear infection.  BOO.  The prescribed him Amoxicillin and his fever finally broke Thursday morning.  Then Friday night he broke out in a rash from head to toe.  Apparently it is common for kids to get a non-allergic rash from Amoxicillin, but the poor guy is miserable and has been a bear to deal with for the last few days.  Hopefully, we are on the upswing! 

A wHaLe oF a GoOd TiMe

Rudy's birthday party was last Saturday.  We rented one of the pavilions at the State park and had it there.  It was nice not to worry about having it at the house, but BOY, OH BOY, it was a scorcher!  I'm pretty sure the heat index was about 115.  We decided just to invite family this year and had a "whale" theme.  I was trying to wait to write the post until I had all of the pictures people took for me, but I'm not sure when I will get them, so I'll just use some of the ones I got on my camera. 

Rudy had lots of family come to celebrate him.  He got lots of great gifts and it was an overall great time.  Lots of my family helped me make the food and it was delish... Pulled pork, Italian beef, chips n dip, fruit salad, pasta salad, taco salad, and cupcakes. 
Here are a few pics I took:

A little sign-age action.

Banner I made with my Silhouette SD.  It took about a month to put together.  Haha.

 

Martha stewart poms.  Homemade party hats.  Food table in the back.

  

Rudy's month by month pictures were also framed and put on the tables, but they hadn't arrived yet when I started snapping pictures. 



Josh's mom sent us that big blow up whale.  The kids loved it, and so did I!



Rudy just wanted to stand on top of his presents instead of opening them. 



Rudy and all of his cousins taking a dip in the whale pool. 

He loves the water!

He dug right in. 

Yay, Rudy!  Clapping for himself. 

Smurf.

Still can't believe my little boy is 1. 

Catching Up

 We have had a whirlwind of a week.  Rudy turned one, we had a big party for him, had lots of company, and celebrated the fourth.  And now my poor Rudy boy is sick as a dog. 

I'll give you the play by play in the next few posts. 

RUDY'S BIRTHDAY:

Last Thursday, June 30th, was Rudy's first birthday.  We woke up around 9 o'clock and had a delicious breakfast of Casey's donuts.  I really wanted to make something special for breakfast for his first birthday, but I just didn't have it in me after three days in a row of 12 hour shifts.  Then we let Rudy open his presents!  He got a bike trailer and helmet, a popper, and one of those plastic birthday cakes that sing to you.  It was the first time we had ever bought him any toys (he has lots of grandparents and people at church that load him up on them) so it was really fun to watch him with the stuff that we got him.  We immediately put the bike trailer together and took him for a test spin.  He LOVED it!  Then we got cleaned up, took his 12 month pictures, and packed up and headed for the water park.  Rudy had never been in anything but the baby pool in the backyard.  He loved the zero depth pool and couldn't get enough of the little slide.  I wish I would have gotten some pictures of it!  We also took a few trips around the lazy river.  After about two and a half hours the boy was tuckered out.  We headed for home and Rudy was asleep within seconds of getting the car started.  As soon as we got home we skyped with his Grandma and Grandpa Hunsberger.  Then we took the bikes for a spin up to Subway and came home for some more visitors. 

Here are a few pics from our morning:

Oh, Rudy.

Our boy is turning 1 tomorrow!  Can you believe it?  His momma sure can't.  In the meantime, we have a little watermelon thief on our hands. 

At least he's a generous watermelon thief. 

He's a Movin'

Life has been flying by.  We took the youth to Kentucky for Ichthus, celebrated our five year anniversary, and in a week our little Dude is going to be 1 year old!  I've had to work this week and have been trying to get a few last minute things together for Rudy's party since I have to work Saturday, Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday coming up.  So, that's why you haven't heard from me.  Here is a little video to show you the progress Rudy has made since the last video. 

That's My Boy

He's a walkin....

Kind of.

Josh took this one of the boys the other day.  Arent they sweet?

Motorcycle Man

Rudy is Grandpa's little motorcycle man.  He didn't get to go for a ride, but he enjoyed his sit on the bike.

  Other Breaking News:  Rudy is taking some steps.  It won't be long before he is full out walking.  About 4 days ago he started trying to take a few steps without holding onto anything, but would basically just fling his body forward.  Today he took 3 or 4 very controlled steps in a row several times.  I will try and get a video to post some time this week. 

My little boy is growing up.